Jared nodded once, slow and grave. “All the more reason to dig out the truth before the rot spreads past us and infects every realm below level four.”

The farther they traveled, the thicker the vapor grew, twisting into ghostly tendrils that throttled sight and strangled spiritual sense.

A sudden scuff of boots on damp stone drifted through the fog ahead. Shapes emerged-first a hulking figure whose aura pulsed at the fourth tier of the Earthly Immortal Realm, then a squad of hardened fighters bristling with identical ferocity.

Behind the tree, Jared and Flaxseed scarcely dared exhale. Just then the giant halted, nostrils flaring. He pivoted toward the cedar.

“Who’s there? Show yourself!”

Jared’s and Flaxseed‘s hearts lurched, they had been found. Jared’s gaze sharpened into steel. He had been moments from staking his life on one desperate blow when the ground convulsed beneath his boots. in the distance a serrated peak ripped free and toppled with a scream of stone.

The whole of Fallen immortal Valley shuddered like a living beast. Dormant runes, older than any scripture, flared awake, sending spears of light raking into the storm-black sky.