NOVPUBDiana waited patiently before the black stone gate of Tartarus, built into the back of the Ashfallen Trading Company’s headquarters in Ashfallen City. The gate had been further improved since Vincent Nightrose had been led inside. It now featured defensive runic formations inlaid into its surface, which pulsed with a faint silver light like a heartbeat.
“Thank you for accompanying me, Grand Elder Diana.”
Diana glanced at Evelyn standing beside her.
“No problem,” Diana smiled. “It’s been a while since you’ve seen your sister, right?”
Evelyn winced.
“Still reacting like that, huh?”
“Yeah… I’ve forgiven her as much as I can. But I was still tormented and used as Albis Lunarshade’s plaything for way too long because of her.” Evelyn shuddered, “It’s behind me now, and my life has improved significantly, but I still have nightmares.” She paused and gazed at the gate with a determined look, “I can’t keep running from her forever. If I want to advance my cultivation and reach the Nascent Soul Realm, I need to train outside of Mystic Realms, and there’s no better place for shadow cultivators to cultivate than my sister’s domain… Tartarus.
Diana hummed in agreement as she sized up the two towering lunar affinity ents that stood like statues on either side of the gate to Tartarus. They served as both guardians of the gate and a constant reminder of what had happened to the Lunarshade family, who suffered Ashlock’s wrath.
A man clad in black, with liquid shadows enveloping his form, partially emerged from the darkness of the portal. “Grand Elder Diana and Grand Elder Evelyn,” He said as he looked between them, “please follow me," he stepped back into the darkness without another word.
“Relax,” Diana reassured Evelyn, noticing how tense she was.
Evelyn gave a resolute nod before they stepped through the portal and emerged on the first level of Tartarus. Immediately, Diana noticed that, while the ambient Qi here was much thicker than outside, it was confined to the first stage of the Soul Fire Realm.
To mortals, this thick Soul Fire Realm ambient Qi would be like a constant weight pressing down on their shoulders, but to powerful cultivators like Diana and Evelyn, it was as if the oxygen in the air was thin. It was uncomfortable but not quite suffocating.
“Nox has been alerted to your arrival, but it may take her some time to wake up.” The Duskwalker cultivator that had led them inside explained. “I believe it would be best to head to the 20th level to seek an audience if you are in a hurry.”
“She always overslept like this,” Evelyn clicked her tongue as she summoned a flying sword.
Diana chuckled as large, demonic wings of black feathers erupted from her shoulders, fanning out with eerie grace. “If she had a habit of oversleeping, it’s only going to get worse now that she’s a spirit tree. They are always like this.” She leaped into the air and began to soar above a small town built on the first level. It was designed to be a place for challengers of the staircase to rest and trade. There were also town squares and tree-lined streets with glowing mushrooms growing from them, providing dim lighting to the shadowy pocket dimension.
“What did he mean by heading to the 20th level?” Evelyn inquired as she flew beside Diana on a flying sword.
Diana gestured toward the giant staircase of runically enchanted stone, flanked by demonic trees that seemed to ascend through a series of shadow rifts. “Tartarus was designed as a challenge realm for the members of the All-Seeing Eye. Do you see that staircase that appears as if twenty alternate realities have lined up in ascending order, pierced through the middle by a staircase?”
“It’s hard not to notice it,” Evelyn said. “Is Nox at the top of that?”
“Yes,” Diana nodded. “Now get ready! The journey to the top will be rough.”
“Rough?” Evelyn looked confused.
“Of course,” Diana grinned, “it’s a challenge realm, after all. So stick close and try to keep up. The spiritual pressure is going to increase with each subsequent level.” Beating her wings, she felt the rush as she soared up the steps. They blurred beneath her, and with every shadowy portal she passed through, the spiritual pressure weighing on her back intensified. For the first ten levels, it was more of a relief than a challenge as the ambient Qi reached a comfortable stage. But after that, the thick shadow Qi began to feel oppressive.
To Diana’s surprise, Evelyn could keep up despite the gap in their cultivation. It must be because this place is full of shadow Qi.
“What are those?” Evelyn asked, pointing to the small clusters of trees that lined the sides of each staircase.
“The reward for the challenge,” Diana explained without looking down, “Each of those trees produces fruits that are typically processed to create the pills sold at the pavilion. There are also treasure chests that are spatially linked to a storage room and are refilled daily. The idea is that the rewards will be beneficial for those who struggle to reach that level but less valuable for those who can attain higher ones. Ashlock believed this was an appropriate method to distribute resources to his sect members without directly selling them.”
“That’s all very interesting, but I was talking about the shadow monsters.”
“Shadow monsters?” Diana looked down in confusion. “There shouldn’t be any monsters in here yet… huh?”
Sure enough, roaming the staircase and among the trees were monsters formed from shadows. They appeared as tortured and twisted versions of their former selves. They moved with an eerie silence, observing as they flew overhead.
“There was a plan to add monsters in here, since just resisting spiritual pressure is too easy, but any Ents Ashlock has created recently have been used to battle the beast tide. Did Nox make these from her Qi?” Diana was in disbelief.
I thought only Ashlock had the power to create life forms, but perhaps Nox has reached that level as well. Diana’s gaze swept up the staircase—only five more shadow rifts remained until the peak. I guess the only way to find out is to ask the overlord of this place.
Two more rifts passed, and the pressure was now quite intense. Her Star Core hummed in her chest as demonic mist shrouded her form, reacting violently with the ambient shadow Qi pressure that seemed hell-bent on dragging her down from the skies.
“Ah!” Evelyn suddenly shouted.
Diana glanced behind and saw Evelyn’s flying sword struggling to stay airborne. The pressure was too intense, and no matter how hard Evelyn strained her Star Core, she began to plummet toward the staircase below like a meteor. Hopping off her sword and grabbing it midair, Evelyn landed with a thud, slicing a shadow monster in half in the process. It let out a strange cry, like air escaping, before it faded.
“What?!” Evelyn shouted in disbelief as she looked at her hands.
Finding her reaction somewhat strange, Diana hovered overhead, flapping her wings. “Did something happen?”
“I absorbed its Qi?” Evelyn muttered, continuing to examine her arms as if they belonged to an alien.
“You did what?” Diana landed beside her and folded her wings against her back.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
“It’s impossible to explain,” Evelyn said. “Just kill one yourself.”
That wasn’t going to be a hard task, as they were quickly getting surrounded by the shadow beings. Diana did as suggested by leaping toward the nearest one, and with her claws wreathed in raw Qi, she tore it apart. A foreign and unsettling feeling crept up her arms after the monster died and settled in her Star Core.
“No way,” Diana whispered, wide-eyed. Killing these things provided not just Qi. It was as if the soul had already been stripped to its purest form and fed directly into her.
“I need to talk to Nox about this right away,” Diana spread her wings and launched into the air. “Will you be okay here?”
“Probably,” Evelyn responded as she banished her sword at the horde of shadow beings encircling her. “I can always retreat to a lower level if needed.”
Diana nodded—that was true. This wasn’t supposed to be a place that incited life-and-death situations after all. It was a challenge realm aimed at allowing the sect members and devoted believers of the All-Seeing Eye to climb the staircase, further their cultivation, and seek great rewards.
Heading through one more portal to the 19th level, where the soul pressure transcended the peak of the Star Core Realm and reached the Nascent Soul Realm, Diana finally succumbed to the soul pressure and was forced to the ground. Hard. Compared to the lower level, which had been infested with shadow monsters, there were only a few up here.
But they were strong.
As they shifted toward her with unsettling silence, a familiar pressure washed over her like an unstoppable flood. It threatened to steal her breath should she relax for even a moment. It was just as, if not more, oppressive than what she had felt when the Redclaw Grand Elder had stepped out of the Mystic Realm. It was the presence of multiple Nascent Soul Realm beings.
While these monsters have quite the presence, I doubt they have the capabilities to match it up which means they will serve as the perfect punching bags. Diana smirked as she cracked her neck and rolled her shoulders. A perfect warmup for my duel with Stella. After all, I was dragged down to hell and had to claw my way out.That old bastard saw it as his divine duty to drill the lost techniques of the Ravena bloodline into me.
I’m not the same demoness as before. Diana’s black feathered wings unfurled with eerie grace. Being thrice her size, they were already imposing. However, with her new mastery over demonic mist the wings continued to extend in size with condensed demonic mist gathering at it’s edges and along their forms. As a monster got a little too close, she flapped her wings, engulfing the monster in a storm of corrosive demonic mist. The monster screamed as it was effectively boiled alive by corrupted demonic energies.
Reaching out her hand, Diana recalled the demonic mist in a surge to her fingers and condensed it into a sphere that she then absorbed. The technique typically only returned the demonic mist Qi, making her techniques incredibly efficient despite the vast area they could cover. However, the strange composition of these shadow monsters also gave her a slight boost to her overall Qi reserves.
“If I weren’t in a bit of a hurry to meet with Nox, I’d stick around and play with you guys,” Diana said to the twisted shadow abominations, “But playtime will have to wait.” Releasing the accumulated demonic mist, she created perfect copies of herself with it.
This was the special technique she had gone through hell to learn: the forgotten technique of the Ravena clan, Phantom Shadow Style. It was the ultimate combination of movement and illusions to disorient and defeat foes.
As her demonic mist flowed from her wings and blanketed the surroundings, her clones became increasingly indistinguishable from her true self. Most importantly, she could swap positions with any of her clones while navigating through the mist like a phantom—hence the name Phantom Shadow Style.
The foolish shadow monsters walked right into her corrupted and disorienting demonic mist and chased after her clones without a second thought. Diana frowned, finding the allure of using an illusion technique a bit lost on these guys.
Not as good of a test I had hoped. Diana shrugged and decided to test her new power. Her bloodline granted her the body of a demon, bestowing immense raw power. If these shadow monsters were going to present their undefended backs to her while chasing her clones like dogs, she wasn’t going to hold back.
A slaughter followed, leaving Diana slightly confused. Yes, she had grown in strength, but there was no way it was to the point of one-shotting Nascent Soul Realm monsters, no matter how brainless they were.
“This isn’t quite how I expected to be woken from my nap, Grand Elder Diana.”
Every shadow monster froze in place, and Diana was pulled out of her battle rhythm by the familiar voice.
Standing on the borderline of a rift that hadn’t existed moments earlier was a shadow dryad. She was conjured from nothing but shadows, yet she was breathtakingly beautiful and carried herself with the grace Diana expected from a being with absolute control over her surroundings. After all, Tartarus was a pocket realm that was practically an extension of Nox.
“Sorry about that Nox, I got a bit carried away.” Diana retracted her wings before gesturing to the nearest shadow abomination that had been about to try and devour her, “Though I have a burning question if you would care to humor me. Since when were there monsters in Tartarus?”
“Long time no see to you too, Grand Elder Diana.” Nox dismissed her question, “Please follow me.”
“Ah, I came here with Evelyn too—”
“I know,” Nox said over her shoulder, “She can speak with me once she reaches this level.”
“You know she can’t reach this level.” Diana’s eyes narrowed, “Hold on, you just don’t want to speak to her.”
Nox turned to meet her gaze, “You’re the one who said it, not me. Anyway, please follow me! We have lots to discuss, I assume? Else, why would you waste the time to visit me.”
“Why do you sound like an abandoned kitten?” Diana shook her head as she followed the dryad through the rift and stepped into Nox’s personal area of the pocket realm. Diana barely managed to hold back a gasp of amazement. Nox’s canopy seemed to spread out infinitely in all directions, while the overwhelming oppressive feeling similar to Ashlock pressed down on her from every side.
The rift snapped closed behind her, and Nox lay down in the field of softly glowing white flowers that served as the only source of light in this plane of absolute and all-encompassing darkness.
“Now, to answer your questions,” Nox began, curling her hair behind her ear and tilting her head as she looked at her, “Those shadow monsters populating Tartarus are Nyxalia’s doing and started to appear a few days ago.”
“Nyxalia?!” Diana said with surprise as she sat down cross-legged beside Nox in the field of flowers, “I actually came here to ask you about her.”
“Everyone does,” Nox replied sourly, “I’m craving some human interaction too, you know? Living as a spirit tree is already torture, and now I’m trapped in a pocket realm like some prisoner.”
Diana gave her a blank stare. “Your sister came here to visit you.”
Nox paused and decided to change the subject. “Anyway, what did you want to know about Nyxalia? Ashlock has already paid several visits to inquire about her whereabouts and such.”
“Stella was just sent by Ashlock to meet her—alone. It’s a decision I questioned, but Ashlock seemed convinced it would be fine. I’m not very familiar with Nyxalia, but isn’t she a soul-devouring and possibly reality-ending mythical creature?”
Nox nodded. “Something like that.”
“Isn’t she... you?”
Nox took a moment to contemplate before ultimately shaking her head. “Yes and no. As you will come to learn, once you reach the Nascent Soul Realm, your infant soul is a part of you but can also become a separate entity. This is particularly true in my case, as my infant soul was implanted in an egoless monster and, in the process, became warped. While I still maintain a familiar connection to Nyxalia, she is rapidly evolving into her own being.”
“So what are you doing about creating another infant soul?” Diana asked. If Nyxalia had gone off to become her own being, that left Nox alone without an infant soul to rely on. Not that she really needed one anymore to escape the clutches of mortality, as she was now an ageless spirit tree.
Nox grinned as she patted the ground, “Tartarus will serve as my second soul.”
“That sounds… powerful.” Diana felt somewhat speechless. She was just one step below the Nascent Soul Realm, yet when she looked at Nox and her infinite canopy, she couldn’t shake the feeling that more than just a simple cultivation realm set them apart. Like Ashlock, Nox felt more like a divine being than a cultivator.
Nox hummed in agreement, a strange smile on their face. “I actually got the idea from Mars, one of Maple’s siblings. Are you two acquainted?”
“We’ve met before,” Diana mused. “Wait, that’s beside the point. You said these shadow monsters came from Nyxalia? Does that mean she is more under control?”
Nox nodded, “Something like that. I serve as her mental rock, and she guides tortured souls she doesn’t wish to consume to my domain. I then shelter these souls in shadows and allow them to roam."
Diana tilted her head, “Nyxalia managed to find souls from the Nascent Soul Realm monsters out there?”
“No, the monsters you fought were in the Star Core Realm. I just empower them with my soul pressure to help them put up more of a fight,” Nox explained.
“Oh… that makes a lot more sense. I was one-shotting them,” Diana said as she flexed her hand. “It’s a relief to hear Nyxalia is more in control now, though—I was worried for Stella’s sake.”
Nox titled her head, “I said Nyxalia was doing much better but never said anything about her being in control. She is still a mythical soul-eating monster. If I were Ashlock, I wouldn’t send anyone near her.”
Diana shot up from sitting. “I will return to discuss the future of Tartarus and these monsters soon, but first, I need to talk to Ashlock."
“Don’t bother,” Nox said, gazing into the distance as if she were looking through reality itself at something beyond Diana’s perception. “Stella has already encountered Nyxalia.”
“How do you know?” Diana asked apprehensively as if fearing the answer.
Nox looked back at Diana, “Because Nyxalia has taken a break from her feast, but I can feel her hunger growing.”
