The ground above shook like thunder, reverberations tearing through the cavern walls. Even at the bottom of the pond I could feel the Hill Monster stirring, its titanic bulk shifting as the combined assaults of the gathered prodigies rained down on its outer shell. Through the pressure of the Battle Essence Pond, I felt it all—
Elyahna's frozen spears detonating against the monster's hide, webbing its stone-flesh with cracks of glacial light. Dimitri's flaming eye of psychic fire boring into its flank, devouring vitality at the cost of his own blood. Nara's spirit-threads coiling like silver snakes, attempting to bind joints and ligaments that were thicker than mountains.
And through the chaos, Vaylan's shadow folding light dancing along the monster's ridges, cutting seams in the dark like surgical incisions. But I knew the truth. None of it would be enough. The Hill Monster was waking, not dying. Somewhere outside, I could almost hear their frustration:
"Why isn't this thing falling?!"
"We've already ignited twelve beacons—this should be enough!"
"…And where is the Sovereign-Slayer? Why isn't Ash here?"
Their voices were faint echoes in my spirit sense. I almost smirked in the drowning dark. I wasn't missing the battle. I was the battle. While the others threw everything at its stone hide, I was in the belly of the beast, the shimmering pond of essence linking me directly to its inner qi. My new crystal skeleton thrummed in resonance with the monster, the pond serving as the perfect medium.
All I had to do was reach deeper. I pressed my palms together, circulating the Tempest Breath, unleashing my King Level Intent! The pond answered, the Hill Monster's very essence flowing into me—like veins feeding straight from its heart. "Your qi is mine," I whispered, sinking into the resonance.
Outside in the Stone Valley the sky was a hurricane of dust and shrapnel as the Hill Monster finally tore itself from the earth, towering like a mountain come alive. Each movement was a cataclysm—its stone arms gouging trenches, its roar splitting clouds. The gathered prodigies, seventy-five strong, scattered across the broken terrain in a chaotic ballet of survival and retaliation.
But in the chaos, five figures stood out, their strikes relentless and coordinated. Elyahna's hands moved in fluid arcs, each motion birthing shards of living frost. With a cry of "Frozen Heart, Shatter fall!" she unleashed a storm of diamond-like ice spears that lanced across the monster's hide, cracking and webbing its outer armor. Beside her, Dimitri's third eye blazed open—red flame spiraling with psychic force. "Vitality Burn!" The flames poured into the Hill Monster's wounds, searing vitality straight out of its veins even as his own blood ran from his nose and mouth.
Nara's spirit-thread whips spread wide, latching into crevices across the monster's joints. She hissed through clenched teeth as she forced her puppeteer's will outward, trying to bind ligaments thicker than temple walls. "Hold—damn—you—still!" And from the shadows, Vaylan Dusk Spire moved like liquid dusk—Umbral light condensing into blades that cut along the monster's seams. He was the surgeon to Yogrek's brute force, carving weak points for others to strike.
For a moment, it looked like their combined efforts might turn the tide. The monster shuddered under the rain of blows, cracks blooming like spiderwebs across its body.
Then—
The Hill Monster jerked forward violently, clutching at its chest as if struck from within. Its massive hands dug deep into its own torso, a bellow of confusion and pain tearing free. The prodigies froze mid-attack. Elyahna's eyes narrowed, icy breath curling. "What was that?" Dimitri staggered, coughing blood, his third eye blazing in disbelief. "That… wasn't us." Vaylan's shadow-form flickered, his gaze cutting toward the monster's heart. A rare grin touched his lips. "Interesting…" At the same time,
The pond exploded.
A column of silver-blue qi erupted upward, splitting the earth and hurling torrents of luminous water into the sky. From its heart, I rose—wreathed in liquid light, every vein blazing like molten crystal. The Hill Monster's inner essence clung to me, threads of its lifeblood qi still unraveling into my own.
"Thousand Lords—Spirit Palm!"
I thrust both hands forward. A halo of phantom arms flared to life behind me—ten, fifty, a hundred, a thousand—each one woven from pure profound qi. The air howled under the pressure. Then they struck as one.
The volley hit the Hill Monster's chest like a meteor storm. Each spectral palm landed with a thunderclap, cratering the stone flesh, cracking the core beneath. Shockwaves rippled across the valley, tearing the ground into molten fissures.
But I wasn't done.
The energy gathered, coiling inward around my arms like twin dragons of azure flame. The very air began to twist under the gravity of it.
"Spirit Palm—NOVA!"
It wasn't just a technique—it was an eruption.
A fusion of the Claw Arc Nova's rotational violence and the Spirit Palm's penetrating might, amplified by Profound Qi and the burning radiance of King Level Intent.
When I struck, the world broke.
The explosion wasn't sound—it was revelation.
A sun of spiritual light detonated point-blank against the Hill Monster's core. Stone shattered like glass. It's vital rock-geode organs—massive crystalline nodes of life-force—ripped free, flung across the battlefield in a torrent of glowing fragments. The shockwave swept outward in concentric rings, flattening the terrain, scattering rubble and cultivators alike.
The monster convulsed, a final bellow of disbelief echoing through the valley—then collapsed, its mountainous frame dissolving into drifting motes of golden dust.
Silence followed. The echoes took a long time to die.
Elyahna stood frozen, her frost armor half-melted, eyes wide. "He… destroyed its core from inside."
Dimitri swayed on his feet, blood streaking down his chin. "That power… that was King Level Intent. From a human?!"
Vaylan's expression, usually composed as marble, cracked into something like awe—and envy. "Spirit Palm Nova…" he whispered. "He forged a new technique in the midst of battle."
As the dust cleared, I descended slowly, landing amid the ruin. The remnants of the pond still shimmered beneath me, reflecting the fading light of the beacon that now burned high above the dead monster's corpse.
A storm of tokens spiraled from the sky, each one glowing like a fragment of divinity. They gathered around me, merging with the eighty-six that already circled my aura—forming a radiant constellation that pulsed in rhythm with my heartbeat.
I drew a slow breath, smoke and qi curling from my shoulders.
"Now that," I said, voice low, "was worth the wait."
Vaylan chuckled softly from the shadows, the faintest note of admiration in his tone. "Remind me, Sovereign-Slayer… to never underestimate you again."