Nil only got a four-minute respite before the gates opened. The second opponent took him far longer than the first to defeat. He raced through the next leg of the chase, covering it far faster than he had the previous two sections. Yet, he failed to get to the next gate first. No one picked to fight him, and he ended up taking on a monster that reminded him of his match against Pietro and Shervon Grey.

  The Cursed One wasn’t the most giant Nil had ever faced, but it had the densest energy signature Nil he had ever faced. It had eight limbs. Four functioned like that of a centaur. Then, there was the almost human pair that carried a spear and shield. The final set grew out of its torso midway between shoulders and waist and ended in crab claws. Its eyes suggest near-human intelligence.

  The creature didn’t roar or charge when Nil entered the craggy dueling ring. It fell into a defensive position and observed him. When he circled, the Cursed One watched, eyes following Nil. It also moved with him, keeping the shield between itself and Nil. Feints, taunts, and little lunges did nothing to shake the beast’s steadiness. He threw Meatball, and the shield blocked her. Attacks on the black-carapace-covered lower body did nothing. She didn't have enough power and failed to get close to the upper body.

  Then Nil struck, and it was over in less than five seconds. Meatball barely distracted the monster from its true enemy, but it was enough time to create a tennis-ball-sized Source Sphere. Balance coated the violent maelstrom of Chaos. He exploded first, darting forward with energy weaves covering his feet. A well-timed block pushed the thrusting spear aside, and a quick hand blast helped him avoid the following shield strike. Then, Nil drove the crimson sphere into the beast’s midriff, where the human half met the insectoid body and released it.

  The contained energy spun free as it interacted with the Cursed One. Whatever mass didn’t disintegrate was ripped to shreds. Two of the beast’s three hearts were destroyed almost instantly. Then Nil blew the thrashing upper half apart with an Expend blast. He got a full fifteen minutes of rest. The next gate opened once only eight competitors remained.

  Nil made it to the next gate first and chose to fight a Cursed One again. The results weren’t too different. His break lasted twenty minutes. It seemed the others’ gate fights were starting to take longer. Nil had no idea what any of the other competitors were like, but he imagined they were taking longer to cover each subsequent stretch.

  As the Chase continued, Nil also discovered a new, unexpected function of Energy Purification. The upgrade’s description suggested it was perfect for breaking down and purging Cursed Energy. It also had the lesser ability to break down and expel toxins. Nil hadn’t thought about how it combined with cultivation. Circulating and absorbing the cleaned energy also seemed to help Nil’s tiredness. Tiredness still hadn’t kicked in two hours into the match. There was a dip in the third as the stretches between gates got longer. However, as Nil purified Cursed Energy and absorbed the filtered energy, the fatigue left him, and he was ready to keep speeding onward.

  Nil reached the next gate before the competition. Only four competitors remained, and the arena construct didn’t give him any options. He had to fight a fellow competitor next, but the arena also contained a giant wolf-like Cursed Ones and several smaller canine Cursed Beasts. Nil knew nothing about his opponent—a female Summoner barely older than Emily. She rode a giant frog and commanded three others that hopped around her. They spat giant luminous globules, which acted as adhesives or exploded on contact.

  The Cursed One killed one of her pets, and Nil destroyed another. Both ballooned violently before exploding. The woman’s mount leaped high onto the wall, putting her out of reach, and she swiftly returned the number of frogs in the field to four. Instead of returning to the ground, the Summoner’s minions rained explosive sludge from above, laying waste to the Cursed Ones. Nil erected an Order construct to shield himself.

  The temperature in the football-field-sized clearing rapidly increased as the rain of explosions continued. The hard, frozen ground underneath turned to slush and Nil felt movement on his back and abdomen. There were tiny frogs, no bigger than a thumbnail, hopping up his body. They exploded in quick succession before Nil could react. Using the Source in its Order form demanded Nil channel Absorb, so the concussive force didn’t bother him. The chemical burns were an entirely different story.

  The frogs’ bodily fluids burned through Nil’s shirt and ate into his skin. The Silver energy only locked Nil in place, but it didn’t stop him from moving altogether, and he aggressively wiped himself, trying to get rid of the corrosive sludge. Nil’s abdomen survived with nothing but irritated skin, but things were considerably worse on his back. Blood wept from charred and cracked tissue. Nil couldn’t see the injury but was sure it was an ugly mess.

  Meatball came to the rescue. While Nil defended against the overhead barrage, she had climbed the icy rockface. Her four-fingered paws had an opposing digit and claws, making them perfect for climbing. Her woody tentacles and the spikes growing out of them also made the job easier. Once above the summoner, she sent Nil a little empathic spike. Even though there were no words, images, or any other form of communication besides the little sting, he understood the gist of it.

  I’m ready.

  The whelp let go of the cliff face and dropped, coiling into a tight sphere as she fell. Meatball struck the woman’s head, unraveled, and wrapped woody tentacles around it and the neck. The barrage stopped within seconds. Nil released the barrier, switched to Expend, and launched off the ground with all the strength he could muster. When he reached the apex of his leap, simultaneous blasts from his hands and feet propelled him even higher. He just about reached the woman. Nil grabbed her by the shoulder and ripped her off her mount.

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  A flaming hot tongue lashed against Nil’s chest. It failed to find traction, and Nil activated Absorb on his way down. His opponent landed face-first in a pool of the frogs’ sticky adhesive fluid. He pulled the back of her shirt down, exposing the tattoo where her torso and neck met. When he ran his fingers through the alien symbols, she disappeared in a flash, and all the flags disappeared. Nothing but burnt and eviscerated monster corpses remained, and the gate opened straight away. Nil continued, burnt, bloody, and sore with no rest.

  Only one other challenger remained now.

  The next leg of the Chase was the longest yet. The ravine crawled with monsters. Rocks and giant blocks of ice rained from above. Nil ignored them and sped along the walls with his feet wrapped in Anti-Friction Lattice. Nil switched between Absorb and Expend. The former let him take rubble to the face without issue and topped up Brutal Battery’s stores, pushing it to capacity. The latter helped him stay high above the ground and the lumbering monsters below. Flame breath, arcane attacks, and thrown projectiles almost reached Nil, but no swipes or lunges got close.

  Progression got more challenging with every passing minute. Nil didn’t want to have to worry about Meatball and returned her to his core. She wasn’t happy about it but didn’t fight him on it. Nil emptied his water skin and snacked on a couple of his compressed cubes. The salty meat filled his stomach, and the sticky fruit cube gave him the boost he needed. Around halfway through his progress, a Cursed One got close, and Nil ended it with a solitary Expend blast. Purifying and absorbing the energy moderately refreshed him and helped block out the pain.

  You can do this. You have to do this.

  Absorb has progressed to Bronze 8!

  Brutal battery has progressed to Bronze 8!

  Several creatures below gave off a bright pink aura, and Nil reinforced his psychic fortitude. When the masses below thinned and fell behind, he leaped from the wall and took out a pair of small Cursed specimens. Their energy helped clear his head and left his body feeling lighter. Localized Expend uses had sealed his wounds, ceasing the blood loss. Nothing he did helped with the burns, other injuries, or the pain that accompanied them.

  When Nil finally reached the gate, he wasn’t surprised to discover that his opponent had already beaten him there. She stood in the largest fighting ring he had seen yet, sitting on a ledge and swinging her legs wildly. The young woman smiled and waved. She was the Wilson Ludus fighter Lily had warned him about.

  Nil knew the woman. They had met before, and for the longest time, he had referred to her as the ‘Nameless Knight.’ She always wore a full plate of armor and kept her face hidden until after the qualifiers where he learned that her name was Lucy.

  Golden Aegis’ other residents knew next to nothing about Lucy. There were several rumors surrounding her. Everyone was of the consensus that she was related to someone powerful and famous and kept her identity hidden to avoid preferential treatment.

  “Hi, Nil Roy!” She called cheerfully, dropping from the ledge. Despite the sleek metallic armor covering her lower half and arms, she floated down to ground level as if she were lighter than a feather. The monstrously oversized hammer she carried didn’t seem to add to her weight in the slightest. “Lily said I might run into you.”

  “It’s nice to run into you again, Lucy,” Nil said.

  Nil had access to recordings dating back to her training videos in the Golden Aegis. He had watched it all. None had told him anything about her ability beyond weight control. It looked like super strength at first. Then she swapped between floating through the air and coming down like a meteor. Her landing and hammer swing had created craters before the wind carried her away.

  “So, how should we do this?” Lucy asked. She appeared unmarred. There wasn’t a drop of blood, any dirt, or a blemish on her. She didn’t appear tired, either. “Do you want to drag this out, get hurt, and then lose? Or would you like to save all of us some trouble and surrender now?”

  Energy Instinct gave Nil no information regarding the woman’s power. However, he detected the energy flowing through her. It flowed around her body at a steady pace and gathered just under her novel, swirling and pulsing.

  Of course, she’s a cultivator. Secret, powerful, summoned parents. Wilson Luduses. Her knowledge and resources must be near endless.

  “I’m sorry, Lucy. As much as I’d like to go home, lick my wounds, eat, bathe, and sleep, I really need that ticket.” Nil stretched, rolled his shoulders, and cracked his neck. “How about we make this quick? No talking. No messing around. GO at it with our full strength and call it a day?”

  “Are you sure about that?” Lucy raised an eyebrow.

  As soon as Nil nodded, an invisible force pushed down on him. Absorb didn’t help. His knees failed him, and he dropped to them. Breathing became laborious, and he had to rely on his hands to support himself.

  “You’re outclassed. You’ve always been.” The monstrous hammer struck Nil’s side, pushing Brutal Battery to near capacity. “Huh. Do you really want to play it like that? I really didn’t want to hurt you.”

  The force pressing down on Nil multiplied. Wrists and ankles cracked. Supercharging strength and toughness simultaneously did nothing to help. He fell flat on his face. Nil tried to speak, but he couldn’t breathe. The weight threatened to crush his ribcage.

  Gravity. Lucy controls gravity. How the fuck do you deal with gravity?

  You have placed second in the Chase!

  You have earned 500 Schema Credits, Quicksilver Fruit for your spirit companion, and soul weapon materials.

  Nil lost out on another Cleansing ticket. The rewards and information barely compensated for the knowledge he gained. A canyon lay between his and Lucy’s power levels. He didn’t foresee catching up to her without a significant breakthrough.