Gabriel and his team have been running for what felt like hours. All three had fear written on their faces from looking at the monster that just emerged from the ruined bandit base.
"What the fuck," muttered Gabriel.
The towering monstrosity still loomed in the far distance, its multi-eyed form visible even through the smoke and broken canopy. Those eyes held an immense amount of intelligence; it was in no way a mindless beast. Thanks to all of the offerings that were given to it through the seeds, it can now move onto devouring this world and its inhabitants.
A deep, wet, unsettling sound rolled across the landscape coming from the beast as dozens of dark apertures opened across its massive body. From those openings, came swarms of demonic aberrations that were the stuff of nightmares.
They were twisted, multi-limbed creatures of blackened flesh and jagged bone, each one wreathed in the same baleful energy that had erupted from the mountain. They hit the ground with loud thuds, running over one another, letting loose shrieking roars that scraped against the eardrums, making those who heard cover their ears in discomfort and fear.
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Minutes after the release of those aberrations.
Gabriel was carrying Eleanor across his back, her unconscious weight a constant reminder of how close they had come to dying. Wren and Ivan stayed close on either side, weapons drawn, healing pills only barely keeping them on their feet.
"They're getting faster," Wren panted, cutting down a lunging aberration whose body was little more than a mass of teeth and writhing tendrils. "We can't keep this pace."
Ivan smashed another aside with a heavy kick, blood still seeping through the bandages on his midsection. "No choice. If we stop, we're finished."
Gabriel said nothing. His own chest wound burned with every breath, and the healing pill he had taken earlier was already losing its effect. Still, he pushed forward, eyes scanning for any break in the trees that might offer a path out of the forest.
They continued to fight with no room to breathe for miles.
Aberrations chased after the group in overwhelming numbers. Some crawled on too many limbs. Others floated, trailing ribbons of purple-black qi. A few were almost humanoid, their faces locked in silent screams. Gabriel, Wren, and Ivan cut them down one after another, but the numbers never truly lessened. For every creature they killed, two more seemed to take its place.
Before they knew what had happened, those sickening horrors were surrounding them.
The forest around them suddenly filled with the wet sound of tearing earth and shifting flesh. Aberrations rose from the undergrowth on every side—dozens, then scores—forming a tightening ring. There was no path left open.
Gabriel's heart sank.
He carefully lowered Eleanor to the ground in the centre of their small group, then dropped to one knee, formed his hand seals, and then slammed both palms against the dirt. "Formation, activate!"
Wren and Ivan immediately took positions around her, weapons raised. Gabriel poured the last of his remaining qi into the strongest defensive array he knew, the Celestial Haven's "Four Directions Ward." Golden runes flared to life in a wide circle, forming a translucent barrier that shimmered under the moonlight.
The aberrations slammed into it almost at once.
The barrier held for the first wave. Then the second. By the third, cracks of light began to spider across its surface. Gabriel gritted his teeth, forcing more qi into the formation even as his vision blurred.
"It's not going to last!" Wren shouted, cutting down a creature that managed to push a claw through a weak point.
Ivan's voice was grim. "We're out of time."
The barrier shattered with a sound like breaking glass.
Aberrations poured in.
Gabriel fought like a madman who is already half-dead. His sword moved in desperate arcs, each swing slower than the last. Blood ran freely down his side. His knees threatened to buckle. One particularly large aberration slammed into him, driving him to the ground and pinning him beneath its weight. Claws scraped against his armor, seeking flesh.
He was at the brink, he was losing hope.
In that moment—when death felt certain—something deep inside him stirred.
A place he had never known existed.
A dormant power, vast and ancient, that had slept within him since who knows when fiercely erupted. Under the extreme pressure of near-death, a portion of its infinite energy finally bled through his meridians.
Power flooded Gabriel's body like a tidal wave. His cultivation surged in an instant—past Core Formation, past early Nascent Soul, stabilizing at the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm. His wounds stopped bleeding. His exhausted meridians roared with new life. A majestic celestial aura erupted around him, pushing the nearest aberrations back and vaporizing them in the process.
Gabriel rose and stood on air as if it were flat ground. His eyes glowed with faint cosmic light. He raised and swung his sword, the blade carried the weight of a realm he had never touched before. Entire groups of aberrations were cut apart in single strokes. Others were erased by bursts of pure celestial energy that left nothing but fading black smoke.
Within moments, the surrounding area was cleared.
The sudden surge faded almost as quickly as it had come. Whatever power that was sealed itself once more, leaving Gabriel swaying on his feet. The temporary power vanished, and the full cost crashed down on him. His vision darkened. His body felt hollow, drained beyond anything he had ever experienced.
His knees buckled.
Wren caught him under one arm before he could hit the ground. "Gabriel!"
Ivan grabbed the other side, grunting under the combined weight. "Stay with us. You just wiped out half a forest's worth of those things—don't quit now."
Gabriel's breathing was shallow and uneven. Sweat and blood mixed on his face. He forced his eyes open, though the world swam in and out of focus.
"Eleanor…" he rasped.
"She's still breathing," Wren said quickly, glancing at the unconscious woman they had laid against a tree root. "You got us out. We're clear of the worst of it… for now."
Gabriel tried to nod, but even that small motion sent a fresh wave of dizziness through him.
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Far away, streaking across the sky at extreme speed, Elder Alana suddenly halted mid-flight.
Her divine sense, stretched to its limit, had just brushed against a familiar yet strangely elevated aura—Gabriel's. It had flared with impossible strength for only a few breaths before vanishing, replaced by a dangerously weak and unstable presence.
Alana's eyes sharpened.
"Change of course," she ordered the response group behind her. "I've found him."
Without waiting for a reply, she accelerated, white-gold light trailing behind her as she raced toward her disciple's fading aura.
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The cosmic power that had flooded Gabriels meridians was gone, leaving only emptiness and a deep, bone-deep ache, as if something vast inside him had briefly opened its eyes and then gone back to sleep.
Ivan scanned the dark trees around them, sword still raised. "We need to keep moving. That thing back there might send more."
"I can't…" Gabriel's voice was barely audible. "Not yet."
Wren's expression tightened with worry. She pressed another healing pill against his lips. "Take it. Even if it only helps a little."
Before Gabriel could answer, a brilliant streak of white-gold light cut through the canopy above them. The air hummed with a familiar, powerful aura.
A moment later Elder Alana descended, her robes still stirring from the speed of her flight. Behind her, the rest of the response group touched down in disciplined formation, weapons ready.
Alana's sharp gaze swept the clearing, then locked onto Gabriel. In two strides she was at his side, one hand already glowing with diagnostic light as she checked his condition.
"You reckless child," she said, voice low and tight with both relief and anger. "What did you do to yourself?"
Gabriel managed a weak, blood-streaked smile.
"But it bought us time… Master."
With that Gabriel passed out in relief.