Gabriel staggered across the cracked stone, ignoring the searing pain in his chest as he dropped to one knee beside Eleanor. He pressed two fingers to her neck, felt the faint but steady pulse of her heartbeat, and let out a ragged sigh of relief.
Quickly, he feeds her a healing pill, tilting her head so she would swallow it, then crushed another between his own teeth. Bitter medicinal energy flooded his body, slowing the worst of the bleeding even as the battle erupted around them.
The moment Commander Elias finished speaking, the chamber and the ruined mountainside exploded into chaos.
World Alliance cultivators and Outer God zealots slammed into each other with lethal force. Blades of pure qi, roaring fire dragons, spears of condensed shadow, and razor-edged weapon arts tore through the air. Entire swaths of the surrounding forest were obliterated in seconds—trees reduced to splinters, earth carved into deep furrows, and the night sky lit by clashing explosions of light and darkness.
Above it all, Commander Elias raised his right hand. A long, silver-blue sword materialized in his grip, humming with restrained power. At the same time, Mo Lihai flicked both wrists. A pair of curved twin daggers, black as the void and edged with baleful purple light, appeared in his hands.
Both men vanished.
Blue and purple streaks of spiritual light—disembodied afterimages of the Light Evasion Form—ripped upward at mach speed, colliding again and again in midair. Each clash sent thunderous shockwaves rolling across the broken mountain, shattering remaining stone and hurling debris in every direction. Sparks of opposing energies cascaded like falling stars.
They met one final time high above the battlefield.
The impact was catastrophic. A blinding flare of blue and purple light erupted, and both fighters were hurled backward nearly two football fields apart, skidding through the air before catching themselves.
Commander Elias wasted no time. His hands blurred through a series of precise seals as he barked the technique's name.
"Garuda's Descent!"
A colossal Garuda of pure spiritual energy manifested above him—wings spanning dozens of meters, eyes blazing with golden light, talons sharp enough to tear through mountains. With a single powerful beat of its wings, it dove toward Mo Lihai, shrieking like a divine predator.
Mo Lihai only smiled wider. He dragged one dagger across his open palm. Dark blood welled up, instantly corrupted by the baleful qi pouring from his body. The blood and energy twisted together into writhing purple-and-red tendrils that shot outward like living spears.
"Death's Bloody Pull!"
The tendrils surged forward to meet the diving Garuda, hungry and venomous, as the two devastating techniques collided high above the ruined peak.
The massive spiritual Garuda dove down with a piercing cry, its golden talons outstretched and wings trailing streams of pure energy. At the same time, the purple-and-red tendrils of Death's Bloody Pull surged upward like a swarm of living serpents, each one dripping with baleful corruption and hungering for the divine construct.
The two forces met in midair.
A violent, grinding collision erupted as golden light and corrupted purple-red energy locked together in a fierce power struggle. The Garuda's talons shredded through several tendrils, only for more to coil around its legs and wings, trying to drag it down and devour its spiritual essence. The tendrils pulsed and thickened, while the Garuda screeched and flared brighter, its energy burning away the corruption in flashes of searing blinding light.
Shockwaves blasted outward in every direction.
The air itself tore. Thin, jagged cracks of distorted space flickered into existence, hairline fractures that spider-webbed through the sky, leaking brief glimpses of howling void and unstable spatial energy.
The ground far below heaved. The remaining trees were flattened. Loose stones and debris were flung hundreds of meters away as the two opposing powers continued to oppose each other, neither willing to yield.
While the sky above them tore itself apart under the clash of Garuda's Descent and Death's Bloody Pull, Gabriel adjusted Eleanor's unconscious form more securely across his back. Her breathing remained shallow but steady against his shoulder.
Wren and Ivan limped over through the debris, both still pale and bloodied, but the healing pills they had taken earlier were already knitting the worst of their wounds. The deep gash across Gabriel's chest had slowed its bleeding, and Ivan's midsection no longer threatened to fold him with every step. Wren wiped blood from her swollen lip and scanned the chaos.
Mad Viper was locked in brutal combat against several World Alliance cultivators farther down the slope, his axe carving arcs of dark energy through the air. Mo Lihai remained high above, fully occupied with Commander Elias and the massive spiritual Garuda. Neither had eyes for the four battered survivors.
Gabriel met Wren's and Ivan's gazes. No words were needed. The same conclusion settled over all three of them at once.
"We leave," Gabriel rasped, voice low and urgent. "Now. While they're distracted. If we stay, we're still dead the moment either of them remembers us."
Wren gave a sharp nod, already shifting into a low, ready stance despite her injuries. Ivan clenched his jaw and forced himself upright, one arm still pressed protectively against his ribs.
Without another word, the three of them—Gabriel carrying Eleanor—turned away from the epicenter of the battle and began moving as quickly as their damaged bodies would allow, slipping into the shattered treeline and the thick smoke that now blanketed the lower slopes of the ruined mountain. Behind them, space continued to crack under the weight of two overwhelming forces.
Their escape route was a desperate, winding path through pure devastation.
Gabriel led the way with Eleanor strapped across his back, boots slipping on loose scree and shattered stone as they descended the lower slopes. To their left, the forest that once covered the mountainside had been reduced to blackened stumps and burning timber; entire sections still smoldered from stray blasts of qi and weapon arts. Thick smoke rolled between the broken trunks, providing the only real cover they had.
They kept to a narrow, half-collapsed animal trail that hugged the edge of a steep ravine. The ground here was uneven and treacherous—loose rocks, exposed roots, and sudden drops that forced them to move in a low, careful scramble. Every few dozen meters, they had to pause and listen as distant shockwaves from the aerial battle above shook the slope, sending small landslides of dirt and pebbles falling past them.
Farther down, the trail cut through a shallow ditch choked with fallen trees and the remains of what had once been the bandit base. The structures were little more than splintered wood and scorched canvas now, but the debris offered brief moments of concealment whenever Alliance or cultist techniques lit up the sky behind them.
Beyond the narrow valley, the path opened onto a wider ridge that overlooked a dense, still-intact stretch of forest at the mountain's base. They reached that tree line without being spotted; the thicker canopy and uneven terrain gave them a real chance. From there, the path led them west toward a river valley—roughly three kilometres of hard travel.
As Gabriel and his team made it several miles away from the brutal battle, at the now ruined bandit stronghold, the wind became fierce, heaven and earth started changing colour, dark clouds gathered above, then from below a massive pillar of thick baleful energy shot up to the heavens.
Commander Elias's and Mo lihai's battle stopped along with the surrounding fights because of the disturbance of the pillar of baleful energy.
Mo lihai turned towards the pillar of light, laughing in pure delight.
"Our Lord God has descended to pass judgment on the blasphemous swine who takes thy name in vain."
After Mo lihai spoke, he and all zealots prostrated wholeheartedly towards the pillar in obsessive reverence.
ROAR!