Black God Solanky planted his axe behind him and deliberately unleashed his life aura, a calculated warning to deter any troublesome elites who might consider attacking him later. The instant his aura rippled outward, every surrounding elite felt their hearts tremble, their bodies turning away from him as if by instinct. It was a reflex as old as nature itself — predators recognizing a predator far above their own rank had wandered back into their territory. Only this one stood at the apex, a level even they had learned to fear.
The burly devil fiend man, a being of rare and specialized lineage, was quick to grasp the truth: this revered elder of the forsaken realm belonged to a legendary class of lifeform that few ever achieved. Within the beyond realm, knowledge of source-defying lifeforms remained hidden from anyone beneath the true peak-turns level — most ancestors didn't dare even speak of such existence, having never verified a being of that caliber for themselves. Calamitous lifeforms, after all, stood at the very summit of power and presence within the realm.
The devil fiend man finally understood why he'd lost so badly. The aura radiating from Solanky marked him as a calamitous lifeform wielding 700 billion times the power of an ISG — a full 200 billion units beyond his own, a gap as vast as heaven and earth. Yet the other elites, sensing this, weren't trembling because of Solanky. They trembled because of Goldie, whose power was rumored to reach a staggering 730 billion times that of an ISG.
Solanky walked toward Elisa and Goldie in the distance, signaling them to approach the second pyramid and begin unraveling its mysteries. The harvester — first on the elite rankings — appeared to have already deduced the secret of the second clue while Solanky's group searched nearby. She made her way to the river winding through the ruins and, without hesitation, dove straight to the riverbed. The moment she touched bottom, glowing engravings burst free and rose to the surface, their intricacy far beyond the comprehension of any elite lacking a true peak-turns spiritual body.
Among those who possessed such bodies, distinctions still existed — early, mid, and late stages — each a quality leap above the one before. For beings whose physical forms hadn't yet reached the ancestor (true peak-turns) level, a spiritual body of this caliber offered a real chance at ascension, even without the backing or vouching of an ancestor-level being.
The harvester rose from the river and settled on its banks to study the engravings. As the foremost name on the elite rankings, her spiritual body and awareness sat at the mid-stage of the first peak-turn — far above the rest of the competition. It was this gap that had let her reign as the strongest for so long. But now, that throne felt unsteady beneath her; she could sense that Elisa, Goldie, and Solanky all matched — or surpassed — her in spiritual awareness. The realization gnawed at her. Billions of years at the top had bred an arrogance in her, a casual contempt for anyone beneath the true peak-turns level, and she could not stomach watching that hierarchy crumble.
Solanky studied the engravings from a distance and settled down to work, instructing Elisa and Goldie to stand guard while he unraveled their secrets. He opened the third eye upon his forehead, closing his other two, and sank into deep concentration. The other elites with true peak-turns spiritual awareness, watching him, followed suit, settling in to attempt the same.
Within the forsaken realm, Solanky's true body — aided by the realm's accelerated flow of time — had already deciphered 3,105 of the 9,000 secret engravings, still laboring over the riddle of the fifth golden statue. The harvester, having unlocked 4,000 secrets, allowed herself a flicker of satisfaction; she alone seemed to have noticed the hidden message buried within that four-thousandth engraving, certain it gave her a comfortable lead.
Decades passed. The harvester remained at the top with 4,101 secrets deciphered out of 9,000. Close behind her, the burly devil fiend man had overtaken Solanky by a mere two engravings, reaching 3,902.
When Solanky realized the fifth golden statue demanded a breakthrough in spiritual awareness he hadn't yet achieved, he abandoned it and turned his focus to the engravings suspended above the river. He pressed onward, and upon reaching the 4,000th secret, a message bloomed within his consciousness:
"You are the second to reach this threshold. This second clue, tied to the second pyramid, marks the resting place of all my ancestor-level treasures. Within the final pyramid lie ordinary weapons suited for guardian-level beings — accessible only to those who present the token earned here, in the second pyramid. I believe only one such token is needed... and you'll need to eliminate your opponent to claim it."
Solanky froze. He knew instantly who that "opponent" referred to — the harvester. Pouring the focus of both his bodies into the engravings, his progress surged ahead of everyone else's. He deciphered 6,050 secrets, a leap of 2,050 beyond his previous total, while the harvester had only reached 5,200.
The moment both of them crossed the 5,000-secret threshold, they were teleported into the second pyramid.
Inside, the pyramid unfolded across seven distinct floors, each housing treasures and artifacts of the true peak-turn level. The first floor held first-turn peak-turn treasures; the second, treasures suited to the second-turn. Each ascending floor carried weapons and treasures of increasingly higher grade and quality.
Solanky and the harvester stood facing one another as a voice echoed through the pyramid's vast interior: "You must each select a weapon and forge three new techniques at the true peak-turn level — techniques that differ entirely from those you already possess. I know every one of your old ones."
Solanky wandered off in search of a weapon and soon came upon a heavy hammer, its weight compressed from more than three million Infinite Source Worlds into a single tool — a weapon demanding a true peak-turns being merely to wield, let alone unleash its full might. Nearby, the harvester claimed a whip-like treasure of her own. The two of them ascended to the second floor by separate staircases, climbing in opposite directions.
But the second floor held no treasures of the second-turn true peak-turns level as expected — only raw materials, meant to elevate the grade of the weapons they'd already claimed. Solanky felt a flicker of disappointment; his true body, after all, excelled above nearly all others in refining and crafting, thanks to the source-defying flames at his command.
He extended his spiritual sense across the floor, searching for the finest materials to carry him through to the third floor — where treasures and maps charting the entirety of the beyond realm and its secret regions awaited. The second floor stretched for tens of kilometers, materials scattered everywhere across its expanse, with five massive cauldrons standing at its center. Each bore an engraving denoting an element tied to crafting and refinement. The voice echoed once more, instructing them each to choose a cauldron.
The harvester selected one etched with the image of a flame. Solanky chose a cauldron of charred black, stepping closer to wipe away the soot and reveal its hidden marking — a bolt of lightning, etched deep into its surface.