Akash's blood boiled. Using Meera as a pawn was the one thing he wouldn't tolerate. The Level 8 assassin in front of him saw the opening and lunged, his toxic daggers aiming for Akash's ribs.
"Get out of my way!" Akash roared.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: SOVEREIGN STEP - BURST]
[WARNING: HIGH STRAIN ON LEGS]
Instead of dodging, Akash moved straight through the assassin's path. His speed was so immense that he left behind an afterimage. The Level 8 leader's daggers sliced through thin air, and before he could turn around, Akash's elbow slammed into his neck with the weight of a falling star.
CRACK!
The assassin's mask shattered, and he was sent sprawling into the mud, coughing blood. Akash didn't even stop to finish him. He was already sprinting toward the third red pillar of light.
"Meera! Look out!"
Twenty meters away, Meera was surrounded by three stone puppets. She was holding them off gracefully, but she was completely unaware of the shadow creeping up behind her. The third assassin, a Level 9 expert, was holding a black crescent blade, ready to strike her unprotected back.
"Die, Cloud-Sword Princess!" the assassin hissed, swinging his blade.
"Sovereign Shield: Absolute Domain!"
Akash threw the Broken Sovereign Blade like a spear. It didn't hit the assassin; instead, it landed in the ground between him and Meera. A dome of golden Qi exploded outward, stopping the black crescent blade just inches from Meera's neck.
The shockwave pushed everyone back. Meera gasped, turning around to see the terrifying Level 9 expert and the glowing, broken sword vibrating in the ground.
"Akash?" she whispered, her eyes wide.
"Focus, Meera!" Akash landed beside the sword, ripping it from the ground. His aura was no longer just golden; it was tinged with a dangerous, dark edge. "This one is mine."
The Level 9 assassin laughed, his voice cold. "A Level 4 brat thinks he can stop a Shadow-Blade Master? That shield took the last of your energy, didn't it?"
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: QI RESERVES AT 15%]
[SITUATION: EXTREME DANGER]
[DO YOU WISH TO UNSEAL THE BLADE? Y/N]
[WARNING: UNSEALING WILL CONSUME 50% OF HOST'S LIFE FORCE]
Akash looked at the assassin, then at Meera, who was still recovering from the shock. He didn't come to this world to be a victim.
"System... if I'm a Sovereign, then I don't follow your rules," Akash thought. "Use the 100 Spirit Stones from the Elite Pack. Force the unseal with energy, not my life!"
[CALCULATING...]
[LOGIC OVERRIDE ACCEPTED]
[CONSUMING 100 MEDIUM-GRADE SPIRIT STONES...]
[BROKEN SOVEREIGN BLADE: UNSEALED (LEVEL 2)]
The jagged, half-broken blade in Akash's hand began to glow with a violet-gold fire. The missing half of the sword didn't appear as light anymore—it appeared as a void, a black hole that sucked in the surrounding mist.
"What is that weapon?!" the Level 9 assassin screamed, feeling a primal fear he hadn't felt in years.
"This," Akash said, his voice sounding like two people speaking at once, "is your end."
"Sovereign Art: Second Strike - World Eater!"
Akash swung the sword. He didn't target the assassin's body; he targeted the very air in front of him. The void-blade tore a hole in reality, and a wave of pure destruction swept forward.The moment the World Eater strike was unleashed, the valley fell into a terrifying silence. It wasn't an explosion of sound, but an explosion of absence. The golden-violet energy didn't just hit the Level 9 assassin; it began to swallow the very space around him.
[WARNING: VOID ENERGY UNLEASHED]
[SYSTEM STABILITY: 60%]
"No! This can't be! You're just a Level 4—"
The assassin's scream was cut short. His black crescent blade touched the void and disintegrated into fine dust. Before he could even try to use a life-saving escape talisman, the wave of destruction washed over him.
Voom—
When the light faded, the Level 9 expert was gone. No body, no blood, not even a scrap of his clothing remained. In his place was a deep, scorched trench in the earth that stretched for fifty meters, ending right at the base of a mountain.
Meera stood frozen, her sword hand trembling. She had seen the Sect Master fight before, but this... this felt different. This felt like a power that belonged to a higher world.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: TARGET ANNIHILATED]
[EXPERIENCE POINTS GAINED: 1000]
[LEVEL UP! LEVEL 4 -> LEVEL 5]
[LEVEL UP! LEVEL 5 -> LEVEL 6]
Akash felt his body burning. The forced unsealing using spirit stones had worked, but the feedback was brutal. He leaned heavily on the Broken Sovereign Blade, which had returned to its dull, jagged state.
"Akash!" Meera rushed to him, catching him just as his knees gave out. "What was that? That power... it will draw every Elder in the Sect to this spot!"
"I... I know," Akash coughed, a thin trail of gold-tinted blood running down his chin. "But they were going to kill you, Meera. I couldn't let that happen."
Suddenly, the mist above them swirled violently. Four powerful auras descended from the sky like falling stars. It was the Cloud-Sword Council—the four most powerful Elders under the Sect Leader.
"What happened here?" the leader of the council, Grand Elder Qin, demanded. He looked at the fifty-meter trench and his eyes narrowed. "Where is the intruder? We sensed a Level 9 energy signature vanish instantly."
Akash looked up, his Sovereign's Eye still active. He saw the shock and suspicion on their faces. He knew that if he told them he did it with a Level 6 cultivation, they would either kill him to take his sword or experiment on his body.
[SYSTEM ALERT: DECEPTION PROTOCOL SUGGESTED]
[USE 'HIDDEN KARMA' TO MASK THE BLADE'S AURA?]
"Elder," Akash gasped, acting more exhausted than he was. "A man in black... he attacked us. But just as he was about to strike, a flash of light came from the mountain. It hit him and... he just disappeared."
He pointed toward the ancient Forbidden Cave at the end of the trench.
Meera looked at Akash, her eyes flickering with confusion, but she didn't say a word. She chose to protect him. "It's true, Elder. The attack was too fast for us to see. It felt like a hidden protector of the Sect intervened."
Grand Elder Qin looked at the Forbidden Cave. It was a place where their ancestors meditated. It was possible a lingering soul had protected the disciples.
"We will investigate the cave," Qin said, his voice grave. "But you two... to survive a Level 9 assassin is a miracle. Meera, take him to the Inner Sanctum. He is no longer just an Elite. He is a 'Key Candidate' for the Sect Leader's personal disciple."
As they were being led away, Akash felt a cold gaze on his back. High on a distant cliff, a figure in white robes stood watching.
[SYSTEM WARNING: UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED]
[THREAT LEVEL: ???]
"The real game hasn't even started," Akash thought, clutching the broken handle in his sleeve.