Five days east of Qianye City, the world died. The memory of the Sacred Tree, the High Priestess’s

  words—they were ghosts from another life. Here, the forest’s lifeblood had been bled into the soil,

  leaving a graveyard of petrified bone. Each tree was a sculpture of agony, twisted white limbs

  clawing at a bruised and swollen sky. Silence pressed down, heavy as a burial shroud.

  “The heart of the withered zone,” Naya’s voice was a blade of ice in the dead air. “Can you feel

  it? The rot?”

  He could. It was a pressure in his skull, a coiling dread in his gut. The air was a physical weight on his

  chest. Krupp’s feathers stood on end, a bristling black ruff. Its two heads swiveled, scanning the

  desolation, its four eyes burning like embers. Ke Munan’s knuckles were stone against the Crystal

  Staff's cold.

  “There.” Naya pointed. A patch of shadow gaped ahead, so absolute that even the skeletal trees

  recoiled from its edge. It was a hole in the world.

  From that hole, a storm of black tentacles erupted. They lashed through the air, impossibly fast. A

  figure bled out of the shadows—a silhouette of pure black smoke, faceless but for two malevolent

  red coals burning where eyes should be.

  “Shadow Demons!” Naya’s voice cracked. “They have no physical form!”

  The Demon Clan. The world ignited.

  The demons shattered into a thousand blade-like wisps. A hurricane of afterimages tore toward

  them.

  Ke Munan’s Crystal Staff roared to life. A net of platinum light exploded outwards, searing the air.

  Shadow Demons shrieked as they struck the light, their forms dissolving like ash on the wind. Beside

  him, Luo Han’s longsword was a conduit for his rage. A phoenix of raw flame burst from the steel,

  swallowing a wave of demons whole. Their silent screams were incinerated with them.

  “Their core is unstable!” Jin Luo’s shout was sharp, analytical even in the chaos.

  Jin Gan needed no more. His Mechanical Arm whirred, a silver blur carving through the demonic

  tide. The brothers were a single storm of intellect and force.

  Overhead, Huang Xiaohu was a golden comet, scattering showers of luminous fire with every beat of

  his wings. He dove, a lightning strike that ripped the darkness. In the eye of their storm, Ya Mei

  stood, a calm anchor. A soft, water-blue light pulsed from her, and any demon that touched its edge

  thinned to transparency and vanished. Alanka’s palms struck the blighted earth. Stone fists erupted

  from the ground, seizing the smoky things. The soil turned to a sucking mire, dragging them into its

  depths.

  Minutes. The last demon hissed into nothing.

  The battle left a fresh scar on the dead land. Ke Munan’s knees hit the earth, robes caked in mud,

  breath tearing at his throat. Krupp landed beside him, feathers ruffled.

  “Our teamwork… it’s better,” Jin Gan panted, his excitement a sharp crack in the silence. “After

  that dream, it’s like I know what he’s thinking before he does.”

  Before Ke Munan could answer, a searing heat pulsed through him. The Five Elements Power in his

  veins leaped, a hooked fish pulled by an unseen line. His head snapped toward the void.

  A shadow darker than night writhed there.

  “That’s—” Luo Han started, but a wave of putrid air—the stench of a thousand open

  graves—washed over them, choking the word.

  “The Dark Formation!” Jin Luo’s face was a mask of stone. “It’s feeding on something!”

  Ke Munan was already moving, sprinting. “Now!”

  They crested a small rise and froze. Horror clawed up his throat.

  A massive black formation was carved into the earth, a pulsating wound in the dead forest. Countless

  black tentacles writhed from its center, sucking the last dregs of life from the land. Trees caught in

  their grasp crumbled to dust. The ground around it was scorched and cracked like sun-baked clay.

  “Don’t get closer!” Jin Luo grabbed Luo Han’s arm, his eyes darting across the twisting runes,

  sweat beading on his brow.

  Naya was white as bone. “Impossible. I’ve never seen a Dark Formation of this scale.”

  Jin Luo’s academic focus shattered into raw alarm. “This formation… it’s wrong.”

  “What is it?” Ke Munan’s guard was a wall of ice.

  “It’s not just absorbing.” Jin Luo’s voice trembled. He pushed his glasses up his nose. “It’s a

  conduit. The energy is being sent somewhere else!”

  “Where?” Ke Munan spun to face him.

  Jin Luo fumbled in his coat, pulling out a notebook and several tracking talismans. He slapped them

  to the ground at the formation's edge. They flared, lines of spiritual power tracing an invisible

  current.

  “There…” Jin Luo stared at the glowing path. “East… The energy is being funneled east…” His

  fingers were a blur, flipping through pages. “The destination is a massive, scorching energy source,

  sacred… but…” He looked up, his face cracking with shock. “The dark energy… it’s trying to

  corrupt it! It’s a parasite, feeding on a holy place!”

  Alanka gasped. Her hands shook as she unfurled an ancient map. Her finger traced a path to the

  eastern edge of the Forest Nation, landing on a place marked Forbidden Land.

  “The east… a sacred source…” she murmured, her voice a ghost. “The legends… The ancient texts

  say the forbidden land was once the mortal residence of the Sun God—the Sun God Temple!

  Destroyed in the God-Demon Great War…”

  “The Sun God Temple?!”

  The name hung in the air, a weight of impossible myth.

  “What are they doing?” Huang Xiaohu demanded.

  “They intend to seize the residual power of the Sun God,” Ke Munan said, the words tasting like

  ash.

  As he spoke, the black tentacles convulsed, their absorption accelerating with violent greed. The

  remaining trees withered, a wave of gray dust spreading before their eyes.

  “It’s speeding up!” Jin Luo cried out.

  Ke Munan stared at the frantic formation. The power inside him screamed. No more time.

  He ripped the Crystal Staff into the air. Platinum light shattered from its tip, a blade of pure sunfire.

  “Destroy it!”

  The light sword tore through the air and struck the formation’s core.

  BOOM!

  The earth roared. The Dark Formation splintered.

  As the formation cracked, a black shadow rose from its center. A demon general, robed in night, his

  face a void beneath a deep hood. Only a pair of glowing red eyes were visible.

  He surveyed their stunned faces. A flicker of amusement. The silence stretched, taut as a bowstring.

  His voice was a low chuckle that grated like stone on stone. “No need for alarm. He am merely a

  phantom. His true self is… elsewhere.”

  His gaze locked onto Ke Munan. A cold smirk twisted the shadows of his hood. “I thought you

  merely a troublesome little mage. I never expected…”

  The ground trembled. The fractured formation did not die. It pulsed, a frantic, accelerated heartbeat.

  From the far east, a sacred, impossibly vast golden energy reversed its course, roaring back through

  the demonic conduit.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  BOOM—!

  Golden light and black energy collided. The shockwave was a physical fist that threw them from their

  feet.

  The Black Robe Demon General’s phantom flickered violently. He stared at the golden torrent, his

  shock melting into ecstatic, hysterical laughter. “Haha… HAHAHAHA! So that’s it! It was you!” His

  blood-red eyes burned with an insane greed. “The ‘key’ to the temple we have sought for

  centuries… delivered right to our doorstep!”

  His burning gaze drilled into Ke Munan. “Thank you, ‘Great Sun God Reincarnation’.” The words

  dripped with venom. “The resonance between your power and this formation has opened the gate

  for us!”

  The general spread his arms in mock reverence. His voice slithered through the dead forest. “And

  now, you will bear witness. Watch as we claim your temple. Watch as we seize your inheritance.”

  Sun God Reincarnation.

  The words struck him. A hammer of ice shattering his bones. The world dissolved into a meaningless

  roar. The staff in his hand was a mountain. The ground pitched beneath his feet.

  No. It can’t be.

  He stood frozen, a statue of flesh and bone.

  The hum of Jin Gan’s Mechanical Arm died. The silence was a scream. “What… what did he say?”

  Jin Gan rasped.

  Through a haze, Ke Munan saw Jin Luo’s notebook tumble from nerveless fingers, scattering

  formulae across the blighted earth. He saw Ya Mei’s hand fly to her mouth, her violet eyes stark

  with disbelief. He saw Luo Han, their rock, turn the color of ash. Huang Xiaohu’s golden pupils were

  pinpricks in a storm of conflict.

  Naya was carved from fear.

  Only Krupp, perched on his shoulder, was still. Its heads were turned east, its eyes like black water.

  “The gates of the temple are thrown open for us!” the demon’s voice grew shrill with crazed joy.

  “How ironic! The guardian becomes the destroyer! The savior becomes our greatest benefactor!”

  His form began to dissipate, leaving one last curse hanging in the air.

  “Remember this moment.” Each word was a nail driven into Ke Munan's heart. “It was you who

  personally buried the last hope of this world. When the Demon Lord reigns, all will remember—it

  was the great Sun God Reincarnation who opened the path to our victory!”

  The maniacal laughter echoed long after the phantom vanished, its malice a razor against their souls.

  The black robe faded. The Dark Formation flared with a final burst of golden light and dissolved into

  black dust.

  Silence.

  Then, from the scorched earth, a soft light bloomed. A golden beam rose, piercing the gloom.

  Within the light, a figure materialized—golden armor, a silhouette blurred by power, radiating a

  brilliance that was impossible to look at directly. The light did not blind; it pressed down, heavy as

  the midday sun.

  With a thud, Luo Han fell to his knees. He leaned on his heavy sword, head bowed.

  “Sun God…” he breathed, his voice trembling with awe.

  Jin Gan and Jin Luo exchanged a look, then knelt. Ya Mei sank down, and Alanka prostrated herself

  fully. Huang Xiaohu folded his wings, lowering himself to one knee. Naya lay flat, her body shaking.

  Only Ke Munan remained standing. His limbs were locked, stone and ice. His body refused to obey.

  The Sun God’s gaze fell upon him. Not warm. Just the weight of ages. It felt like concern. It felt like

  judgment.

  There is not much time.

  The voice was not a sound. It was a vibration in his skull, an irresistible authority.

  The barrier is broken. They are heading for the temple.

  An image flooded his mind: a ruined temple, stark and defiant against a black-purple sky.

  They mean to seize his inheritance and defile it. The Sun God’s form grew transparent. You must

  get there before them.

  Ke Munan’s mouth opened. No sound came out. How? What am he? He did this. This is his fault. The

  questions screamed inside him, but he was a prisoner in his own body.

  The Sun God seemed to read the storm in his soul.

  Child, do not be afraid. The voice softened, an echo of its former power. When you reach the temple,

  you will know what to do.

  The light began to fade.

  Believe in yourself.

  He was gone. A faint golden imprint on the ravaged earth was all that remained.

  The silence that followed was a crushing weight.

  Krupp leaped from Ke Munan’s shoulder, landing on Jin Gan’s silent Mechanical Arm. Its heads

  swayed, as if it, too, were trying to make sense of the impossible.

  “So…” Jin Gan glanced at the raven, his voice dry. “Is he… really…?”

  No one answered.

  Ke Munan stared at his own hands. The hands that had held the staff. The hands that had struck the

  formation. The power inside him—the key. The resonance that had unlocked the path for the Demon

  Clan.

  His legs were water. The ground rushed up, a bed of stone and ash. The weight of it—his

  fault—crushed the air from his lungs.

  “My fault,” he breathed, the words a ragged whisper. “It was me…”

  “Then the formation would have drained this entire forest dry,” Luo Han’s voice was a low

  rumble of granite. “You did nothing wrong.”

  “But—”

  “The Sun God told you to believe in yourself,” Luo Han cut him off, his tone unyielding. “He did

  not blame you.”

  Ke Munan looked up, meeting his friend’s steady gaze.

  “Where is the temple?” Huang Xiaohu flexed his golden wings, patience worn to a razor’s edge.

  “He showed us an image, but no path.”

  “I’ll contact the High Priestess,” Naya said, a sliver of composure returning to her voice. She

  grasped a leaf-shaped amulet at her waist and closed her eyes.

  A moment later, the leaf glowed with a verdant light. The High Priestess’s face materialized within

  it.

  “Naya,” her voice was grave. “The entire forest felt the tremor when the temple’s barrier

  shattered.”

  “High Priestess, we must get to the Sun God Temple, but we don’t know the way—”

  “I know.” She interrupted, her gaze sweeping over them before settling on Ke Munan. “Child,

  stand.”

  The command was a steel rod down his spine. Slowly, shakily, Ke Munan pushed himself to his feet.

  “The temple lies in the forbidden land to the far east.” The High Priestess spoke quickly, a map of

  light appearing beside her. “Naya, memorize this route, then return to Qianye City at once.”

  “But—”

  “That is an order,” she said, her tone leaving no room for argument. “The path ahead is one only

  they can walk.”

  Naya bowed her head. “…As you command.”

  “May the forest protect you.”

  The light vanished.

  Naya sketched the map onto a piece of bark from her pouch.

  “Go around the left side of Crescent Moon Peak and follow the dry riverbed for two days,” she

  explained, pressing the map into Ke Munan’s hand. The bark was rough against his skin. “Do not

  stray from this path.”

  She untied a small cloth pouch from her belt and gave it to Alanka. “Herbs for healing.”

  “Thank you,” Alanka said softly.

  Naya looked at them all, her mouth opening, then closing. With a final, worried glance at Ke Munan,

  she turned and melted into the dead woods.

  East. The word was a compass needle lodged in his chest. They moved. No words. Only the crunch of

  blighted earth, the rasp of breath. The forest grew stranger, the trees more deformed, the air thick

  with the stench of ancient decay.

  “Less than three miles,” Jin Luo announced, his eyes fixed on the map.

  Ahead, the space warped. A massive, translucent curtain shimmered into view, a wound in reality

  stretching from the ground to the bruised sky. Golden light and purple-black energy warred across

  its surface, a piercing screech tearing the air with every violent clash.

  “A hole in the barrier!” Jin Gan pointed to a chaotic breach in the light. “The demons must have

  gone through there!”

  “Then so will we.”

  Ke Munan strode forward. As he neared the barrier, the Five Elements Power inside him surged, a

  tidal wave answering the call of the storm. He raised his Crystal Staff. A beam of platinum light shot

  forth, forcing the breach wider. The passage writhed, its edges contracting.

  “Quick!”

  They scrambled through.

  The moment he crossed the threshold, an ancient weight crashed down, nearly suffocating him. A

  low hum vibrated in his bones, the echo of war drums from a thousand years past. He staggered,

  then found his footing.

  The sight stole his breath.

  The sky was a sickly black-purple, lit by several waning moons. The ground was a graveyard of

  colossal stone blocks—the bones of fallen buildings. And in the distance, atop a jagged mountain,

  stood the half-ruined temple.

  Luo Han’s hand tightened on his sword hilt. “So this is the Sun God Temple…”

  “Something’s in the ground!” Jin Luo shouted.

  The earth cracked open. From the fissures crawled countless Skeleton Soldiers. Tattered golden

  armor, rusted weapons, and in their empty eye sockets, black-purple flames burned.

  “Prepare for battle!” Ke Munan commanded, staff raised.

  They swarmed, a tide of bone and corrupted steel. They were fearless. Shattered forms reassembled

  to fight again.

  “Normal attacks are useless!” Jin Luo yelled over the din.

  More and more clawed their way from the ground, an endless legion. Ke Munan’s gaze swept past

  the chaos to the distant temple. He felt it. A dark pulse. A heartbeat.

  “They’re puppets!” he shouted. “The source is in the temple! Purify them and push through!”

  Their tactics shifted. Luo Han and Huang Xiaohu carved a path, fire and golden light scouring the

  dark energy. Jin Luo and Jin Gan held the flanks. Ke Munan, Ya Mei, and Alanka focused their power,

  weaving beams of purifying spiritual light through the melee.

  As the light washed over them, the black fire in the skeletons’ eyes began to fade.

  The lead skeleton, a hulking figure in captain’s armor, froze. The black fire in its sockets vanished,

  replaced by a faint glimmer of gold. It slowly lowered its rusted sword, knelt, and laid the blade

  across its chest as its body began to dissolve.

  Just before it turned to dust, Luo Han saw the insignia on its breastplate. His face went white.

  The sigil of a captain of the Sun God’s own guard. The highest honor.

  “They were his guardians,” Alanka whispered, her voice trembling. “The Sun God’s elite… I’ve

  only seen the sigil in the oldest texts.”

  Luo Han drove his heavy sword into the cracked earth. He leaned on the hilt, head sinking to his

  chest.

  “Your watch is over,” he said, his voice raw with grief and reverence. “Rest now. We will take it

  from here.”

  One by one, the skeletons stopped. They knelt, empty sockets fixed on the temple, and dissipated

  into golden dust that drifted on the dead air. No screams. No struggles. Only peace.

  They reached the temple gates. A carving of the Sun God was etched upon the stone. From the

  corners of his stone eyes, dark stains ran down like tears.

  “Let’s go,” Ke Munan said, and pushed the great doors open.

  In the center of the main hall, a black-robed figure stood with its back to them. It turned slowly, the

  red glow under its hood burning with mockery.

  It was the Black Robe Demon General.

  The moment the doors swung open, a riptide of warring power—sacred and profane—rushed out to

  meet them.

  In the heart of the hall, the true form of the Black Robe Demon General levitated above a massive

  altar. His hands were pressed against a colossal crystal at its core. A ceaseless torrent of black-purple

  demonic energy poured from his palms, frantically corrupting the pure golden light still flickering

  within. The runes on the hall’s stone walls pulsed, humming under the strain.

  Are we too late… The thought was a shard of ice in his heart.

  “Welcome to your tomb.” The demon general’s pale face held no surprise, only a cruel

  satisfaction. He licked his lips, his blood-red eyes glinting. “I was just in need of a sacrifice to

  complete the final ritual.”

  “Cut the crap!” Huang Xiaohu lunged. The pendant on his chest trembled, the Golden Swallow

  eager for battle, but the evil in the hall was too thick. With a beat of his wings, he unleashed a

  thousand swords of light that rained down on the altar.

  The Black Robe Demon General did not move. The shadow behind him swelled into a giant claw and

  swatted the light swords away like flies. “Don’t be in such a hurry,” he sneered. “The show is just

  beginning.”

  The altar erupted with dark energy. A massive sacrificial formation blazed to life, enveloping the hall.

  A crushing weight descended. The light-based powers they wielded were ruthlessly suppressed,

  siphoned away.

  “Damn it!” Luo Han fought against the pressure, but the sacred flames that burst from his sword

  were smothered.

  “What’s wrong? Feeling hopeless?” The general's tone was laced with the taunting pleasure of a

  cat with its prey. “The power of this temple will soon belong to my lord.”

  Ke Munan gritted his teeth, his body straining. He could feel the Five Elements Power being drained

  from him, drawn into the demonic ritual. But through the haze of pain, he saw it. The demon

  general’s hands never left the crystal. The taunts were a distraction.

  He’s stalling. He can’t move. The ritual is all that matters.

  The Sun God’s last words echoed. Believe in yourself.

  “The crystal is the key!” Ke Munan looked up, his eyes blazing with desperate resolve. “Ignore

  him! Cover him!”

  Jin Luo understood instantly. “Got it!”

  Luo Han asked no questions, his grip tightening on his sword.

  Huang Xiaohu spread his wings. “Leave it to us!”

  Ya Mei nodded, Jade Flute already at her lips.

  “Don’t even think about it!” the demon general roared. Diverting a fraction of his focus, he

  commanded the formation. Countless shadow tentacles erupted from the floor, snaking toward Ke

  Munan.

  “Your opponent is us!” Luo Han bellowed, charging. Flames erupted from his body, a defiant fury

  that incinerated the tentacles to ash. Huang Xiaohu, Jin Luo, Jin Gan, Ya Mei, and Alanka attacked as

  one, a living wall around Ke Munan.

  The temple trembled with the shockwaves of their battle.

  A desperate clarity cut through Ke Munan’s pain. He stopped fighting the formation’s pull. He

  yielded to it, letting the torrent of dark energy guide him toward the altar’s core. Closing his eyes,

  he relinquished control, unleashing the Five Elements Power raging within him in a raw, untamed

  flood. He would not fight the current; he would become a greater one.

  “You’re wrong,” Ke Munan said, his eyes snapping open. His pupils were no longer black, but

  pure, brilliant gold. “This is my home turf!”

  “No!” the Black Robe Demon General shrieked in terror. The dark energy he poured into the

  crystal was being devoured, consumed by a purer, more domineering power of light.

  Ke Munan’s body became a vortex, madly drawing the residual sacred power of the temple into

  himself. A tug-of-war between light and dark raged on the altar. The immense energy tore at him.

  Blood trickled from his eyes, his ears, his mouth. His consciousness frayed, but his mind held to a

  single thought: Take it back. Take it all back.

  “No! Impossible!” The demon general desperately tried to stabilize the ritual. It was too late. The

  corrupted energy in the crystal reversed its flow, lashing back into his body.

  “Argh—!” A spray of dark green demonic blood erupted from his lips, sizzling as it corroded the

  ancient stone. His form flickered. Cracks spiderwebbed across his black robes.

  He staggered back, defeated. A ragged laugh escaped his throat.

  “You win this round,” he rasped, his body dissolving into black smoke. “But the temple’s seal

  has been shaken… The door at the bottom of the lake can finally be opened.”

  He let out one last, gurgling laugh. “The Primordial Pearl… we’ve found it…”