Chapter 36: The Wrong Direction

The hum of the condo was quiet, save for the low thrum of the washer in the laundry room. Orson stood in front of the machine, shoving a bundle of clothes inside. He reached out to swing the washer door shut.

Then he saw it.

Reflected in the glass and lurking directly behind the swinging door was a towering, pitch-black shadow.

What—? I didn’t even sense anything!

Orson’s mind raced in sheer shock. Before he could process the thought, the shadow moved with terrifying, unnatural speed, its arm shooting out like a whip toward Orson’s throat.

Even with his honed instincts as a Qi cultivator, Orson was completely helpless. His reactions felt frozen in slow motion as the shadow’s hand clamped hard around his neck, its fingers tightening with bone-crushing force as it began to twist.

The washer door was still hovering mid-close. Trapped in the grip, Orson acted on raw survival instinct. He seized the handle of the metal door and slammed it backward with everything he had, trying to crush the attacker’s head.

CLANG!

The door slammed into empty air. The shadow had already launched itself into the sky, effortlessly dodging the counter-attack. While still airborne, the entity’s hand shifted from Orson’s neck to his shoulder, its grip locking down like a vice.

With terrifying leverage, the shadow yanked him forward. Orson felt his body go completely weightless for a split second before the entity hurled him across the laundry room.

CRASH!

Orson went airborne, smashing straight through the reinforced glass wall separating the laundry room from the living quarters.

Shards of glass rained down around him as he skidded violently across the floor, slamming onto the heavy wooden table in the living room.

The impact splintered the table into a dozen jagged pieces, sending him tumbling onto the rug in a heap of debris.

His head throbbed violently, his vision swimming as warm blood began pouring down his forehead, seeping into his eyes. Everything felt fuzzy, but through the crimson haze, he never lost sight of his attacker.

The shadow was already moving.

It didn’t glide; it vanished and reappeared directly above him, its heavy boot coming down in a brutal arc aimed squarely at Orson’s stomach.

Orson’s instinct screamed at him to throw his arms up to shield his abdomen, but he was a bit too slow.

BOOM!

The kick connected with sickening force. The air exploded out of Orson’s lungs as the kinetic wave launched him across the main floor, sending him crashing heavily against the far living room wall.

He hit the drywall hard enough to leave spiderweb cracks, sliding down to the floor like a ragdoll.

Every bone in his torso shrieked in agony, feeling as though it were on the absolute verge of snapping. Blood dripped into his left eye, staining his vision red as he panted heavily against the cold floor.

The shadow stood a few feet away, silent, motionless, and completely unbothered.

Trembling, Orson forced his blood-slicked fingers toward his hand. He was still wearing the spatial ring Lenora had given him.

With a desperate flick of his spirit, a cold, sharp blade materialized into his palm. Dragging his battered body upward against the shattered wall, Orson raised the sword with shaking hands, his red-stained eyes locked onto the nightmare standing in his living room.

Meanwhile, Rain’s mind reeled as her Lightning Gaze pierced through the barrier at the end of the energy pathway.

What she saw beyond the wall completely shattered her understanding of the entire Eternal Breach.

She saw a sky. It was a vibrant, pristine blue, illuminated by five blinding suns hanging in the open air.

Rain tracked the translucent conduits of energy flowing from the ocean—each of those five subterranean suns was directly tethered to the five cores imprisoning the Titan below.

The cores aren’t just holding the Titan, Rain realized, her heart hammering against her ribs. They are powering the suns of the realm above.

Then, the true horror—and absurd irony—of the situation hit her.

She had fallen into the deepest, most terrifying ocean in the Golden Sun Realm. Everyone in the real world, every contractor and guild that had ever entered this Eternal Breach, believed the key to clearing it lay at the very top—climbing higher and higher through the stacked Infinity Islands.

Countless Awakened had lost their lives trying to scale the heavens, desperate to reach the highest point to destroy the Breach core.

They were all looking in the wrong direction.

The top of the realm wasn’t above the sky. It was here, buried beneath the very ocean everyone feared to touch. The deadly, soul-rotting sea that had claimed millions of lives was actually the gateway to ending the disaster.

The answer to closing one of the deadliest Breaches in human history had been sitting at the bottom of the sea all along, waiting for someone brave—or insane—enough to dive in.

Rain hadn’t come here out of bravery; she had been hurled off a floating island by an Azure Ravager. Yet here she was, helplessly plummeting toward the absolute secret of the entire realm.

A dark, bitter humor flickered through her mind as she continued her agonizingly slow descent. She was sinking toward the true objective, but her paralyzed body was moving far too slowly.

Long before her boots could ever touch the barrier beneath the sea, the radiant, boiling flames of the chained Titan would incinerate her into ash.