I sprinted down the mountain slope.
No hesitation.
No wasted movement.
Whatever was coming next—there wouldn't be time to think once it began.
I cut across jagged rock faces, letting gravity pull me forward, sliding over the more treacherous surfaces to conserve time and energy. Every movement was calculated, every step pushing me further away from the rift—
And straight into what it had unleashed.
My senses flared.
One by one… then in clusters…
Masses of asura energy began to appear.
All of them—
Heading toward me.
My mind raced, tearing through possibilities, searching for any path—any strategy that could get me out of this alive.
Nothing.
No clever escape.
No hidden advantage.
Just me—
And what was coming.
"…So this is how it is."
A bitter realization settled in.
Luck had run out.
Completely.
And honestly—
I couldn't even complain.
I slowed.
Forced my breathing steady.
Running blindly wouldn't work anymore.
If I was going to survive—
I needed terrain.
Something I could use.
That was when I heard it.
A distant roar.
Water.
Heavy.
Relentless.
Without hesitation, I shifted direction and moved toward the sound.
The ground dropped sharply.
And then—
I stopped.
At the edge.
Before me, a massive waterfall plunged from the mountain's height, a roaring torrent crashing into the depths below, feeding a raging river that carved through the land.
The scale of it was overwhelming.
Violent.
Unforgiving.
The sheer force of the water near the fall churned the air itself. Even with my current strength, stepping too close would mean being dragged in—powerless.
Swept away.
Crushed.
I stared at it for a moment.
Then exhaled.
"…This will have to do."
A double-edged sword.
From here, they could only come from one direction.
A choke point.
If I played it right—
I could push them over.
Reduce their numbers.
Control the flow of the fight.
But—
If they didn't stop coming…
There would be no retreat.
Nowhere to run.
The river below wasn't an option either. Anything I threw down there would still be alive—and fighting in that current?
Suicide.
I checked my senses again.
Minutes.
At best.
Before they arrived.
Absorption wouldn't be enough this time.
Too many.
Too fast.
I needed something else.
Something new.
The asura energy inside me burned rapidly to my atma, but instead of strengthening me, it was starting to strain my body.
Too much.
Too volatile.
Then—
A thought.
Why keep it all contained?
The asura energy resisted me.
But my atma…
That was mine.
Completely.
If I couldn't control what I absorbed—
Then I would control what I already had.
I focused.
And let it go.
The excess atma energy surged outward, escaping my body in a controlled release.
For a split second—
Nothing happened.
Then—
Everything changed.
The moment my atma touched the world around me…
It responded.
The air shifted.
The ground beneath my feet felt… different.
Alive.
The boundary between myself and the environment blurred, as if something deeper had been acknowledged—recognized.
Not rejected.
Accepted.
The rushing water, the jagged stone, the whisper of the wind—
All of it became clearer.
Sharper.
Connected.
I wasn't just standing in the world anymore.
I was… part of it.
And in return—
I obtained a new way to sense the earth.