I stood near the Eternal Firefly King's glow, fingers brushing the edge of my storage ring, eyes alert. The plaza was a storm of descending inheritances, flashes of power, and prodigies racing for resources, yet I felt another presence approaching—subtle, deliberate, and measured.
I turned slightly. Vaylan Dusk Spire emerged from a shadow, the faint shimmer of umbral light rippling across his cloak. Even from a distance, his presence was unmistakable: cool, predatory, and precise.
"Ash," Vaylan called, voice low and smooth, carrying across the plaza without drawing too much attention. "We meet again. I hope the Sovereign-Slayer is ready for what's coming."
My amber and crystal blue eye narrowed. The fireflies along my arms flickered nervously. "I'm always ready," I replied, tone clipped, keeping a hand near my Barnacle-Eyed Compass. "But I'm on guard around you, Dusk Spire. You've already shown your tricks." Vaylan's lips curled in a thin smile. His twin aura streams—light and shadow—fluxuated around him in a particle wave. "Tricks?" Vaylan's laugh was soft, almost teasing. "I prefer to think of it as… foresight. But perhaps you're right. Perhaps caution is wise."
He stepped closer, eyes glinting. There was no hostility in his posture, only a coiled intensity. "Look," Vaylan continued, voice dropping to a near whisper, "the Inheritance that comes for me soon… it is not something to be taken lightly. And when it descends, all paths will shift. I suggest you watch carefully, Ash. Your path may cross mine in ways neither of us expect."
My fireflies twitched at the subtle threat, but I didn't flinch. My gaze was steady, calculating. "I'll keep my eyes open," I replied evenly. "But don't think I'll hold back if our paths collide." Vaylan inclined his head, a gesture both polite and unreadable.
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
Then, with the grace of a shadow dissolving into the crowd, he stepped back, blending into the mass of prodigies waiting for the next inheritance. His aura lingered like a whisper of night, just enough to remind me that this was far from over. Moments later, a pillar of shadowed light began to descend from the heavens—Vaylan's inheritance had arrived. The plaza held its collective breath. From the heavens above, a pillar of inky darkness pierced the air.
Unlike the brilliant blizzards of Elyahna or the black fire of Dimitris Evil Eye inheritance, this inheritance swallowed light, casting a widening shadow across the plaza.
The air trembled as the Void God Emperor's Inheritance descended, its gravity distorting the surroundings, drawing loose debris and even faint traces of qi toward its center. Prodigies near the edge stumbled against the invisible pull. Vaylan Dusk Spire stepped forward, calm and unshaken, twin streams of shadow and light flowing along his cloak. His eyes glinted, reflecting the black void above. "The outer darkness awaits" he murmured, voice like silk over steel. "A test of precision… patience… and survival."
Only those with Sixty tokens could enter—a barrier few could overcome.
Vaylan had them.
With a measured step, he walked into the descending black vortex, a silver thread of Umbral Light tracing behind him like a tether to reality. The crowd murmured, a mixture of awe and fear:
"The Black Hole Sun… even from here, its gravity bends the air!"
"Vaylan Dusk Spire… he dares to walk into a void of death itself."
"This is not an inheritance… this is a trap for the unwary!"
The interior was a kaleidoscope of collapsing stars and swirling shadows, a place where gravity shifted unpredictably and light itself bent and vanished. Any misstep could send a prodigy careening into a gravitational well, dropping them to earlier levels—or worse, out of the inheritance entirely. Shadows here moved independently, forming tentacles, blades, and illusions, forcing entrants to think tactically and move with precision.
However, the resource potential was far greater. Dark energy nodes hung like dying stars, amplifying qi if absorbed correctly, especially for shadow-based or light-manipulating cultivators. Mismanagement could collapse them catastrophically. Vaylan's aura harmonized with the inheritance immediately.
His umbral light flows allowed him to manipulate both gravity and shadows, giving him perfect balance and foresight in the shifting void. Every step he took, the black sun pulsed, acknowledging his resonance with the domain. This was more than power… this was control over inevitability itself. Outside, I watched, my fireflies buzzing nervously.
The Void God Inheritance seemed almost alive, warping even my Kingly Intent.
It was a reminder.
Vaylan was not just another rival—he was a prodigy whose path could bend the very rules of destiny. The plaza held its breath as the vortex fully settled, Vaylan vanishing into the swirling void, leaving only whispers of shadow and the faint, unsettling pull of gravity lingering across the stone. The instant Vaylan crossed the threshold, the air thickened with shifting gravity, light bending into strange angles.
The floor beneath him seemed fractured, floating slabs of blackened stone rotating slowly around an invisible axis. He stepped lightly, twin streams of Umbral Light flowing along his cloak, anchoring him to reality. Every movement required calculation, as a single misstep could hurl him into a gravitational well or off a floating platform entirely.
This would be about observation and adaptation, Vaylan thought, eyes scanning the shifting void. Speed alone would not suffice. Patience, strategy, and perception would. The First floor was the Hall of Collapsing Stars. An environment of Floating platforms over bottomless darkness, fractured light reflecting from shards of collapsed stars. Gravity pulled unevenly, sometimes sideways, sometimes in a crushing vertical surge. Vaylan had to navigate moving platforms while avoiding shadow constructs—semi-intelligent forms of darkness that would strike or push entrants into hazards.
Hanging Dark Qi Nodes glimmered faintly, offering immediate power boosts if absorbed without destabilizing the gravity field. Misjudgment could collapse a platform, losing the node and creating dangerous debris. Vaylan's Umbral Light flowed through him like a tether, letting him bend both light and shadow to stabilize his movement, counteracting the pull of the gravity wells. Each node he absorbed hummed, filling the first token of resonance. The Shadow Constructs tested Cognition. The black forms moved unpredictably. Some mimicked him, some multiplied to create decoys, and some formed blades and tendrils that sliced the air with precision.
"Dangerous, yet predictable" Vaylan mused.
He extended a thread of shadow from his left hand, wrapping a construct's arm and gently slinging it into a gravitational pit. His movements were less about raw combat and more about manipulation. Each construct neutralized without direct confrontation awarded him fractional tokens, the inheritance rewarding clever problem-solving.
Unlike Ash, who resonated through affinity and instinct… or Elyahna, whose Veiled Queen favored calm mastery and Stillness.
''I must bend the arena itself to my will'' Vaylan thought, a faint smile crossing his lips.
It was a gravity puzzle. Clusters of floating dark qi nodes appeared at the far side of the room, perched atop rotating gravity platforms. Attempting to leap directly would destabilize the floor, risking collapse and loss of multiple nodes. Vaylan paused. Using his Umbral Light, he shifted the gravity vector in localized zones, creating temporary walkways and rerouting the pull of the platforms. Carefully, methodically, he collected three more nodes, each pulse marking another token earned.
The inheritance seemed to respond to his ingenuity—gravity rippled subtly around him, shadow constructs held back just enough, and the floor stabilized beneath his feet. By the time he reached the end of the first floor, four more nodes had been claimed, and the entrance to floor two shimmered into existence—an archway of bending light and dark, pulsing like the eye of the Black Hole Sun itself. Vaylan paused, looking back over the hall of floating shards and shadows, and whispered to himself:
"The inheritance tests control, cunning, and patience… unlike the others, I do not simply dominate, I calculate."
With a single step forward, he disappeared into the second floor, the gravity shifting behind him in a perfect, silent spiral.