"Who are you really, Barnet?"
Ery’s voice cut through the still air like a blade.
Across from him sat Grand Magus Barnet — wrists and ankles bound, shoulders slumped, yet his eyes still carried the glint of defiance. His aura flickered weakly under the seal’s constant drain. Even so, there was arrogance in the way he held his chin.
Ery waited, but the man gave no response.
"It’s easy to tell that you were the Brotherhood’s biggest client," Ery’s tone flat, asured, "Even without reading these."
With a flick of his fingers, a set of papers floated into the air, suspended by strands of spirit energy. They circled above Barnet’s head; each docunt was stamped with the crimson sigil of the Midnight Brotherhood.
Job orders. Mission records. Paynt ledgers.
These docunts were among the things Annara had recovered from the Midnight Brotherhood’s lairs—proof of their cris, enough to expose their hidden patrons.
Still, Barnet sat in silence, his restrained form unmoving.
Ery’s voice broke the stillness, calm yet edged with contempt. "Kidnapping... extortion... murder..." He let each word hang in the air like a sentence. "These are all the proof of your cris. No one can help you now."
For a mont, the Grand Magus didn’t react. Then, slowly, his lips twisted into a smirk. A deep, humorless chuckle rumbled from his throat."Hahaha... I doubt that," he sneered. His gaze, burning with quiet fury, t Ery’s. "You don’t know what you’re dealing with. I suggest you release now... before you regret it."
Ery studied him for a long mont, seeing not defiance, but fear carefully hidden beneath arrogance. Whatever confidence this man had ca not from his own strength, but from whoever stood behind him.
"I see," Ery said softly, exhaling as his expression hardened. "You’ve chosen the hard way then."
Soul light flared in Ery’s eyes as he invoked his spirit technique [Soul walk]. In an instant, his consciousness surged outward, piercing through Barnet’s defenses like a blade of divine will. The world around him shifted—his body fading from the physical realm as his mind entered the landscape of the Grand Magus’s spirit domain.
He found himself standing amidst a mountain blanketed in pale mist. The air was thick and cold, laced with the faint echo of whispers. This was the first layer of Barnet’s ntal defense—a labyrinth ant to disorient intruders. A lesser soul would have wandered endlessly here, consud by illusion and confusion.
But Ery was not a lesser soul.
His divine sense pulsed outward, a tide of starlight scattering the mist. The fog parted, revealing his target—a stone castle perched atop a jagged hill. Its walls were black and heavy with soul energy, runes crawling like veins across its surface.
That was where Barnet’s true self was hiding.
With a breath, Ery leapt skyward, his spiritual body flickering like light through the void. When he landed before the castle, the gates lood like mountains. He could feel the imnse resistance radiating from them. It was the kind of fortress only a Grand Magus with a deep ntal cultivation could forge.
However, it was not enough to stop Ery.
"Break!"
Ery gathered his soul power, and soon the castle walls began to shatter like glass. He entered the courtyard, only to be halted again by the massive main hall doors.
This ti, the resistance was far stronger—unusually so. To break through, he needed to unleash his full strength. Behind him, the five-storey rainbow pagoda manifested, its radiant tiers spinning as waves of spirit energy surged forward. The massive doors began to crack under the pressure.
It took Ery hours of relentless effort before faint gaps appeared along the fractures. Through them, he finally caught sight of a young man—Barnet—his vulnerable, terrified self cowering as the door continued to crumble apart.
Ery’s divine sense flared once more. In that instant, he detected it—a seal embedded deep within Barnet’s soul, a powerful one crafted to shield the mind from intrusion. "A spirit seal," Ery muttered to himself. "And a strong one... must be the work of a Spirit Champion."
This revelation only confird what Ery suspected—Barnet was hiding sothing vital.
Taking control of the man’s mind was impossible under such protection, but Ery refused to stop there. He drew upon his Dao of Heaven and Earth, summoning a higher resonance of his soul power. Another layer of the rainbow pagoda took shape behind him, glowing with serene authority.
Minutes stretched into an hour before he began to see progress. The seal still held firm, but cracks appeared elsewhere—echoes of mories slipping through the edges of Barnet’s mind. Ery glimpsed flashes: a gathering of Grand Magus cloaked in secrecy, discussing plans to seize control of the entire sector.
"What purpose drives this?" Ery demanded, his voice echoing through the fragnted vision. "It can’t be just for land and wealth. What is your true goal?"
But the mont the question left his lips, the seal flared violently once again. The entire ntal realm convulsed, hurling Ery backward. Barnet scread, clutching his head in agony as the power protecting his mind reacted.
Ery quickly tried to pull back his spirit probes, fearing the seal might backfire onto him. But to his alarm, the seal’s power did not retreat—it spread instead, surging violently through Barnet’s soul.
It’s killing him!
Ery imdiately channeled his soul energy to halt the seal’s advance, but it was too late—the entire spirit realm began to collapse. The misty castle shook apart, walls cracking and dissolving into light.
Barnet scread in unbearable agony, clutching his head as his consciousness unraveled. His voice broke through the chaos, desperate, "Please—help !"
"I can’t help you," Ery shouted back, struggling to hold the fragnting space together. "But if you want revenge on whoever did this to you, then tell what you know!"
The castle continued to crumble, chunks of its structure disintegrating into motes of light. Just as he prepared to withdraw, a sudden flash of mory burst from Barnet’s fading mind—fragnts of faces, and voices whispering in the dark.
Before Ery could piece them together, the seal detonated completely. The soul realm shattered like glass, and Ery was thrown back into his body.
He gasped and opened his eyes to a horrifying sight—Barnet lay motionless, blood seeping from his eyes, nose, and ears. His soul was gone.
Ery himself staggered, blood spilling from his lips. If his spiritual defenses had been any weaker—or his reaction a second slower—he would have shared the sa fate.
"Such a cruel thod..." he muttered through clenched teeth.
It didn’t take a genius to see the seal’s true nature. It wasn’t just a barrier—it was a trap, a spiritual landmine designed to annihilate both the target and any intruder who dared to probe it.
Ery exhaled heavily, trying to steady himself. He had managed to recover sothing—fragnts of crucial information—but Barnet’s death now made everything more complicated. Beyond his illicit dealings, the man had been a respected Grand Magus instructor from a reputable faction.
If Ery didn’t handle this carefully, the fallout could turn against him and his allies.
Ery left the chamber and made his way down the corridor to another compartnt of the ship, where the rescued prisoners were being tended. Inside, the atmosphere was far gentler—a contrast to the chaos that had filled their escape.
Shinta stood at the center, her hands glowing with soft erald light as she nded wounds and soothed broken minds. Her calm voice guided the flow of healing energy, while Vic assisted her by distributing potions and stabilizing the injured.
On the other side of the chamber, Kayelin and Feyanor were busy handling the captive Khadeth and his centipede creature, conducting tests connected to Annara’s situation. With her deep knowledge of exotic beasts and fey alchemy, she was undoubtedly the qualified person to deal with the poison situation—maybe not less than Ery.
Seeing that none of the rescued prisoners were in imdiate danger, Ery turned his attention to their next move. Given the sensitive nature of their situation, returning to either Centauri or Utopia was risky for now.
After a mont of thought, he commanded Varrek to alter their course.
"Where are we going?" Shinta asked, her brow furrowed in concern.
Ery’s voice was steady as he replied, "We did claim to be working for the Insectoid race... so let’s pay a visit to their howorld."
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