The party left Tartarus after paying the Merchant Queen a quick visit so that Arkanon could replace his spatial artifact. After that, it was merely a quick trip via Tartarus token to reappear in the newly reunified Greater Circle of Sloth.

  As soon as reality returned around Jonathan, he found himself standing on top of a massive tree, festooned with what looked like hanging, rotting heads. Standing on the branch next to him were his allies, and of those whose faces could be seen, they were universally disgusted.

  “I didn’t think it would be this obvious,” Edgar said as he gazed out at the changed realm around him. Little remained of Cessation, if indeed, they still were in that realm, replaced by a mishmash of various regions and locales, arranged in such a way that they were even more disturbing together than apart. A river of blood draining into a bottomless pit, entire groves of trees much like the one Jonathan stood upon now. The sights were varied, and all horrific.

  A distant shape crawled across the land, about five thousand miles away. It looked like a centipede, with the head of a giant, flesh warped and torn to fit around its insectoid frame. It was easily twenty or thirty miles in length, and had mandibles large enough to slice through a mountain. Above its head was a rapidly spinning halo of Earth elemental energy, orbiting an orb of darkness. As Jonathan focused on it, he felt a sharp and immediate pressure bear down upon him, like he were staring at a god. His lip twitching, Jonathan scanned the creature.

  Continent-Chewer Centipede

  Level 854

  Health: 5849586/5849586

  Jonathan paled slightly as he took in the results of his analysis. “Tier 9? What the fuck...”

  “It’s Tier 9?” Edgar shouted. “We need to get out of here before it senses us!”

  Jonathan turned slightly. “How would it sense us? We’re like ants to it. It’s thousands of miles away.” Before Edgar could respond, the pressure that Jonathan had felt suddenly exploded in power, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the colossal centipede turn its head towards him, the spinning disk of elemental earth above its head speeding up. With a dull, distant roar, an entire mountain shot out of the center of the halo, streaking through the air like a comet. A titanic sonic boom rang out as the gargantuan chunk of rock forced the air out of the way. Jonathan immediately sprang into motion, grabbing onto Arkanon’s hand.

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  “Get us the hell out of here!” Jonathan shouted. Without a word, the Uthraki warlord triggered his new artifact, a pendant of dull gold with a large chunk of obsidian lodged into it. The metal glowed brightly, and a wave of spatial energy shot out in all directions, swallowing up the party. As reality faded away, Jonathan felt a deep shudder ring through his entire body as the mountain slammed home, blasting apart the tree he had been standing on, and the land for a dozen miles in every direction.

  When the world stopped whirling, Jonathan and the others stood in an abandoned village, the very village where Jonathan had reached Tier 4. It was devastated, buildings in ruins and the ground itself shattered asunder. In the distance, a towering figure lurched across the grey sands, a colossal skeleton scorched black in many places. One arm was missing. Jonathan recognized it. It was the Bone Titan that he had escaped in the underrealm of Cessation. He had thought it dead, killed by the detonation of the facsimile sun, but it was still around. He smiled. At least this, he could deal with.

  With a grin, Jonathan cracked his knuckles. “One sec. I’ve got something that I need to deal with.” Before the others could do anything, Jonathan used Wrath of the Void, his upgraded Smite ability, and channeled vast amounts of his energy reserves into it. Flexing every point of his newfound Strength and Dexterity, he streaked across the desert so fast that he stood beside the Titan before it even noticed his presence.

  “Remember me?” Jonathan called out as he leaped straight upwards, his fist blazing with his new Minor Endfire skill. Flames of Void-touched Divinity crackled across his knuckles, an ethereal purple glow casting his features in an ominous light. The Titan looked down, only to take Jonathan’s punch straight to the chin.

  A ripple of force crushed the bone to splinters, the Titan’s entire head shattering as Jonathan punched. The rest of the body stumbled backwards, only for Jonathan to fly down towards its elemental core and smash it with another punch. The skeleton came apart in its entirety, flaking away to ash as the supernatural durability of the System’s blessing evaporated.

  Jonathan landed a few seconds later, and blew off his still smoking fist. His smile widened. At least something good had come of the last few weeks.