Arden slipped the communication crystal back into one of the robe’s pockets as the light dimmed. He was cut off from the network after hearing the message that all of Nocturne's troops heard. Arden didn’t know why Nocturne allowed him to listen to the speech. Perhaps he just wanted to scare Arden.

  “If that was the case, then mission accomplished.”

  He wasn’t too worried about being heard right now, as the howling wind racing through the trees made it almost impossible to hear Arden. He could barely hear himself when he said it.

  Things had turned decidedly bad. The entire assassin troupe knew his approximate location and were about to descend with the wrath of a war god. Arden had a small head start, but he wondered just how much it would amount to when faced with the well-trained death squad.

  Arden stuffed his pessimism into his dead body. If he was going to spend time lamenting, he would do it only after he was captured. But now, he had to keep running.

  Since touching the Godstone, Arden had a destination in mind. The same destination that Nux Valtorin had. Starlight Grove. If Arden could get there, absorb the Godstone, and bathe in the Pool of Starlight, he would have enough power to survive the rest of this hell.

  Nux Valtorin wanted to save the world. He might be a self-righteous noble with no qualms about killing people who he believes are evil, but his desire to save the world was real. That was something that was burned into Arden as he suffered.

  Arden, on the other hand, wanted to survive. This world wasn’t real. It was just a scene, and he was the actor. This world had taken a lot from him. He would make sure to take a lot from the world in return.

  That was something he learned in the slums. To always pay back what you received.

  Arden pressed forward.

  Stamina was no longer a problem. Speed was, though.

  The mountain trail Arden found himself on didn't seem to lead to the Grove, but the weathered path offered something else: Footing. Stable footing which was necessary to maintain his speed. It was clear that many other people had walked this path before for various other reasons. If Arden had to guess, he would have said that it was the path through the mountain.

  On the right of the trail was a wall of stone reaching several meters up, while on the left were unforgiving white slopes covered in trees and snow. Arden was reluctant to stay on the obvious trail, but he was also reluctant to stray from its safety. On the path, he was in control. If he tried to traverse the slopes, he'd be handing over control of his body to the gods of gravity and brain damage.

  Trees on both ends stuck up from the ground and reached high into the sky. Their limbs outstretched in every direction, like the dreadful hands of death reaching out to claim Arden once and for all. He ignored the imagery and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Every few steps caused him to brush by the long overgrown branches, slowing him down. He hoped that he wasn't making a mistake by sticking to the trail.

  The cold wind was as refreshing as it was a hindrance to Arden. The threat of freezing quickly reappeared, having gone without any source of heat for a while now. The only heat could provide himself was frictional as he ran.

  He pushed himself forward with one hand on Bellum's sword. Any second he could be attacked, so he needed to be ready.

  As he ran, Arden’s mind was on fire. He was trying to get in the right frame of mind. He recognized that the only way to come out of this alive was to make several risky plays.

  Shortly after fighting Frozhe, Vera warned Arden of his dangerous but efficient fighting style. He moved like he wasn't afraid of death or injury. He fought without care about the consequences to his body because his body was able to regenerate.

  Now, his body couldn't. His spirit was immortal, but his body was mortal. Worse than that, it was already dead. It was a skin puppet.

  Arden didn't want to cause any more damage to it that could prevent him from completing the trial. Having only one hand was detrimental enough.

  But Arden didn't think he had a choice. To survive, he needed to return to how he was. He needed to live on the razor's edge to survive.

  He focused on the pictures of Sya and Vera he had in his head. Everything he did here was so that he could return to that.

  He exhaled and he looked up through the trees and saw countless stars in the sky, all of which were shining a faintly gold color.

  ‘Huh. Have they always been that bright?’

  Arden hadn't been able to spare a thought since he escaped the magicarriage. Seeing the stars float through space gave him a temporary calm. Even though he was being chased through the woods on a dark mountain by assassins, he couldn't help but smile.

  ***

  A little more time had passed, and so far no hooded assassin regime had swarmed Arden like a platoon of flying monkeys with an assortment of very sharp weapons.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  Arden continued to run through the night. At some point the foot trail that had led him this far had disappeared. It wasn't that it had been buried in snow or hidden from sight in another way. It just stopped.

  Arden looked down at the end of it. He took the time to catch his breath as he thought of his next move. After weighing his options, Arden made a weird noise somewhere In between a sigh and a groan and pressed onwards.

  Hesitating for any longer was likely even more dangerous than heading off trail.

  Arden stuck his hand into the pouch to feel around for the Godstone. After a few failed attempts grabbing gemstones instead, a white spire of light appeared somewhere beyond Arden. He still had a while to go.

  When he released the Godstone, the beacon vanished.

  The terrain became progressively more rough the further he ran. The dirt stamped down through repeated travel had turned to harsh gray stone. The trees that were parted along the path to give it shape were now scattered everywhere. There was no rhyme or reason to the organization of the trees because they were no longer affected by people. Arden wondered how the trees were able to grow on the stone, especially when the trees had trunks thicker than him, but quickly pushed the idea out of his head when he saw something blocking his path.

  It was humanoid, but roughly twice the size of an adult human in every way. Twice as tall, twice as thick, and most likely at least twice as sturdy, given that it was entirely made of stone.

  Arden’s instinct warned him that this creature in front of him was a threat. And it was his instinct that threw him towards the beast before it could react. Both of his hands, even the broken one firmly grasped the hilt of Bellum's sword. He would need the extra power. Pain raced through left hand when he did, but it only encouraged Arden more. He raised the sword above his head and brought it down like he had trained to do.

  ‘Dominate!’

  The sword cut through the air with a whistle, and cut into the monster's shoulder.

  Arden was surprised that the blade actually managed to pierce the monster's stoneflesh. But just because the monster's flesh was pierced didn't mean that it took any real damage. Arden pulled the sword out and prepared to strike again when the beast counter attacked.

  With a speed unbecoming of its hulking form, it launched its fist forward. Arden gritted his teeth and held his sword in front of him to block the attack. He had believed that the sword of a crownguard was strong enough to tank a hit from a big rock.

  While that proved to be the case, the same could not be said about Arden himself. The power behind the beast’s attack was like being hit by a truck. It smashed into the sword and knocked Arden back into a massive tree behind him.

  The tree shook with the force, but did not appear to be damaged. Arden gasped for air at the impact, but managed to come out of the attack without any spinal damage. Husk or no, he wouldn't be able to control his body if the spine was shattered.

  Arden’s blurry vision refocused and with a tinge of panic in his mind, he saw that the stone creature was right in front of him with its hands upraised.

  The creature brought its fists down like a terrible hammer of judgement, aiming to reduce Arden to crimson paste on the ground.

  Arden threw himself out of the way just as the creature's hand struck where he just was. This time, the tree did not withstand the impact. Cracking sounds resonated from the tree trunk and it began to fall over.

  Arden’s mind raced as he saw the tree slowly begin to fall. He would have to move fast to get his plan to work.

  He ducked behind the falling tree as it began to tip over in his direction.

  The stone creature bellowed a roar and lunged to Arden. It swiped at him trying to bat him away.

  Arden’s sword blocked what it could, but it was abundantly clear that Arden himself would not be able to resist the creature’s might. Arden was sent flying a meter into the sky and landed gracelessly in the snow.

  As he landed, a smile crossed Arden’s face as the massive tree landed directly on the creature. Both the pained roar of the creature and the thunderous crashing of the tree rang out into the night.

  The snow on the ground scattered like a cloud of white smoke when the two forces of nature met. Arden covered his eyes as the snow flurry pelted him.

  When the snow settled, Arden pushed himself back to his feet with a grunt. Thankfully, he had only superficial injuries. He approached the creature that was pinned to the ground below the enormous tree. Red cracks ran through its sturdy hide in several places as pebbles and small chunks of rock continued to fall off of its body. It gave a weak rumbling moan that let Arden know it was close to death.

  Arden plunged his sword into one of the creature’s glowing spots. Immediately, the red light dimmed, and the creature fell apart into normal stones. Two red star cores fell to the ground out of the creature's broken body, which Arden hastily picked up.

  You have slain a red-tier Main Sequence Celestial, Spawn of the Stonelord.

  The sound of glass shattering rang out in the air just above Arden’s felled prey, and was quickly followed by the sound of something similar to an earthquake. It was the same sound that Arden heard earlier when he first touched the Godstone. This time however, the roar of this titan was filled with grief-filled malice.

  Like its child had just been killed.

  Arden quickly realized his folly and was about to start running as fast as he could, when a pair of hooded assassins appeared right in front of him. Both of them brandished wicked curved swords.

  Arden held his sword out in front of him and slowly started backing up.

  “You guys don’t want to do this right now,” he cautioned. “Things are about to get really, really bad.

  One of the assassins pulled out a communications crystal and injected it with their brand of magic.

  “This is squad four. We are just south of the ridge. Currently engaging target.”

  A second roar resounded from the peak. Arden’s eyes moved to look towards the source and he gasped.

  The peak was a ways away, but Arden could still see the behemoth. Silhouetted against the starlight was another humanoid thing. Unlike the spawn that Arden had just killed, this one was incredibly thin and lanky. And tall. It sat in a crouched position with its knees coming above its own misshapen head and its hands rested in between its legs. It gave off the air of a cat stalking its prey, getting ready to pounce.

  Its head turned skyward and gave one more howl before it leapt off the peak in Arden’s direction.

  The Stonelord was coming.