Lance and Zake sit hidden among the dense branches of a tree, their presence cloaked, eyes locked on the battle unfolding below.
A group of martial artists surround the three-horned rhino, slowly closing in, beginning the hunt.
Zake glances ahead—another tree, just past the perimeter guarded by the martial artists. There, two demon priests sit silently on a branch, just like them, watching.
Time crawls. The rhino roars. Dust rises. Energy clashes.
Zake shifts, restless. The demon priests haven't moved once.
He murmurs, more to himself than Lance, "What's their goal?"
There's no answer. He doesn't expect one.
Zake's eyes narrow. The battle is clearly tipping in the martial artist's favour—the rhino's energy is being steadily drained. If the demon priests came to interfere, now would be the time. But they sit still, unfazed, almost indifferent.
It doesn't make sense.
Unless…
Zake's gaze lingers on the towering beast—sixteen feet of thick hide and muscle, a monster built for destruction. The martial artists at its feet look like children swarming a tank.
"What if it's not the people they're after…" he mutters, "but the rhino?"
It doesn't add up. Three-horn rhinos aren't rare enough to justify this kind of interest. As far as Zake knows, only the horns are valuable, used to make supercharged batteries. The rest of the body isn't much different from any other giant rhino species.
He frowns. "Is there any part of a three-horn rhino, other than the horns, that could be valuable?"
Lance, still focused—his magic power blanketing the forest like a net—tilts his head slightly, caught off guard by the question.
"The horns," he replies absently.
"I know that," Zake mutters.
Then the battlefield shifts.
Two more colossal rhinos crash through the forest with roaring fury, and the situation spirals.
The ten Unification Realm martial artists brace, their bodies slammed and battered—but they hold.
The same can't be said for the lower realm martial artists.
Many fall. Some die instantly, torn apart in the chaos, though they never directly joined the fight.
Lance's and Zake's bodies tense in unison.
They want to leap down, to join the fight the moment the second and third rhinos charged in—but they hold back. They have to. The Demon Priests' goal is still unknown, and if they move too early, they might never uncover it.
Zake's jaw clenches. The martial artists below are struggling, tired, and wounded, and their earlier strategy is falling apart.
Against the first rhino, ten of them fought together at full strength. Now, split into two teams and running on fumes, they're barely holding the line.
Zake watches blood fly and people fall, and finally growls, "Enough. Let's stop guessing what they want and just kill them. Then we help the martial artists."
But Lance raises a hand, firm. "Wait."
His voice is calm, but his eyes are locked on something only he can sense. His magic threads through the soil, the air, the blood.
He feels it.
A pattern.
A formation.
And when the first rhino finally dies—its massive body crashing into the ground—the blood that pours from it doesn't stop. It flows unnaturally, soaking deep into the earth.
Lance's pupils narrow.
The blood vanishes into the soil… and triggers something hidden.
A pulse.
A buried formation hums to life, drawing in the blood like a sacrifice, and Lance knows that pattern.
He's seen it before.
A blood-powered formation designed to tear open a rift between worlds—a portal to a small demon dimension.
His breath tightens.
"I found their goal," Lance says, voice low. "They're not after the rhinos or the people."
"They're using the blood to open a portal to another dimension."
Zake's eyes stay on the battlefield below, watching one young martial artist unleash a burst of ice and fire, the twin forces crashing into the rhino's shield and finally cracking through. Blood splatters. The beast staggers.
Zake exhales, tension in his chest easing—at least for now. With that hit, the tide is turning. Unless the demon priests interfere… or more rhinos appear, the martial artists might just win this.
Then he hears Lance speak again, confirming what he feared.
"They're opening a portal to a dimension."
Zake's gaze snaps back to Lance.
His hand moves to the hilt of his blade, eyes sharp. "We have to stop them. Now."
But Lance shakes his head. "I know the dimension—they're opening the Bone Demon Dimension. The strongest demon there would be on par with me. I can hold it off—at least until King Kong Realm martial artists from Green View Town and around sense the energy spike and arrive."
Zake's expression tightens. "Still too risky. If the demons spill into the region, we're the ones who'll be blamed."
Lance doesn't flinch. "We can stop it before the portal fully forms."
He explains quickly—when a dimension connects, it doesn't immediately open a gateway. First, a shared space forms a battleground between both sides. Only the victor can breach through.
"The Bone Demon Dimension is minor. Their strength is low. Their only advantage is numbers," Lance says, eyes flicking toward the battlefield. "But with the unification-realm martial artists here, and the high-powered weapons in the trucks, we can win."
His voice drops, calm but decisive. "We end it there—before it spreads."
Zake narrows his eyes. "Then tell me—why do you want to enter the Bone Demon Dimension?"
Lance watches as the second rhino collapses, its last breath stirring dust into the air. He answers without looking away, "The Bone Essence Pool. I want to bathe in it."
Zake stiffens. He remembers.
The Bone Essence Pool—a rare spiritual treasure. Its waters forge bone into iron, tempering the body beyond normal limits. A treasure of monstrous value to both martial artists and demon hunters.
He recalls the hierarchy of Bone Demons in that dimension.
The white bone demons—equal to the lower three realms of martial artists and the Demon hunter realms.
The grey bone demons match the Unification realm and the Demon Conjurer's strength.
Those clad in grey armour stand on par with the King Kong realm and the Demon Exorcists. And then there are the Iron Bone Demons—equal to Demon Weaver cultivators.
Lance turns his gaze toward him. "You might even find your next spiritual object there," he says. "All bone-type—just what you need for your Demon Heart."
Zake's eyes flicker with sharp light. He had forgotten—Bone Demon spiritual remains are always bone. If fate favours him, this might be where he gathers everything he needs.
A loud thud shakes the air. The third rhino falls dead.
Zake's expression tightens as he watches the battlefield—but the ground doesn't rumble, no crack forms, no vortex of mist. The formation isn't activating.
He glances at Lance. "It's not starting. Did something go wrong?"
Lance narrows his eyes, sensing the magic still building underground. "The blood sacrifice isn't enough," he mutters. "Then I'll help them."
In one fluid motion, Lance conjures two orbs of black demon flame and hurls them toward the unsuspecting backs of the demon priests.
At the same moment, Merin—seated on a floating stone, breathing steadily to recover—senses a strange fluctuation from Jamie.
His eyes snap toward him.
Jamie's pupils dilate. Veins crawl across his face. Before Merin can even rise, Jamie's body convulses—then explodes in a spray of blood and flesh.
Merin reels back, shielding his eyes. Before he can even process it, two more thunderous explosions shake the air.
Bodies crash through the trees and slam into the ground near the rhino corpses—the demon priests, scorched and broken.
The entire team stares in stunned silence.
And then the ground breathes.
A thick purple mist surges upward from the blood-soaked earth, swallowing the clearing in seconds. Merin's vision is instantly devoured. He can't see his hands, can't hear his team. The world becomes silent and foggy.
Then—light.
His vision returns.
But he's no longer in the forest.
He stands alone on a barren plain, the sky overhead sickly and violet, a twisted purple moon hanging low like a bleeding wound. All around him, dry wind howls through heaps of shattered bones and broken weapons.
He barely mutters, "Where… am I?"
And then, he hears it—the clicking of bone against bone.
The skeletons rise.
One by one, they pull themselves from the earth, empty sockets glowing faint red. Bone swords, axes, and jagged spears clatter in their hands.
In moments, he's surrounded—dozens of them, maybe hundreds.
Merin grits his teeth and mutters, "I thought I was in a scientific martial arts world. Why the hell am I in a fantasy nightmare?"
He plants his feet, fists blazing with True Energy.
As the skeletons charge, Merin braces himself, fire and ice coursing through his veins, ready to meet death with clenched fists.
---
A few hours earlier, a sleek convoy of black cars glides into Greenview Town and halts outside a modest villa near the town's martial district.
Security guards in black suits are the first to step out, scanning the surroundings with sharp eyes before opening the doors for Evelyn, her younger brother, and several of their cousins.
Evelyn steps out, adjusting the hem of her elegant coat, eyes calmly sweeping across the quiet street. After we meet the teacher, she thinks, I'll go see Adam.
Their grandfather had originally planned to invite Adam to dinner, but when they learned he would remain in Greenview Martial Town for a while before leaving for Nova Super City, the family decided to wait.
They would invite him during the week-long celebration marking 250 years since the Manford family first settled in Teerilyn City.
The villa gate creaks open as a woman in the green-and-black uniform of Greenview Martial Arts Academy steps out. She gives them a quick, professional glance and says, "Only the students. No bodyguards beyond this point."
The guards exchange glances, and Evelyn looks toward her younger brother.
He nods silently.
Together, Evelyn and her cousins step forward, leaving the guards behind as they follow the woman inside. The path leads through a peaceful courtyard and into a quiet hall where their teacher, Seluci Cian, waits.
Seluci, thirty years old and standing at the edge of the Upper Unification Realm, sips tea in silence as they enter. Her eyes are calm but carry the weight of someone whose path has stalled.
She had agreed to become their instructor not out of obligation, but because she needed resources only the Manford family could provide.
She was stuck, one step away from the King Kong Realm.
Teaching the Manford heirs was the price Seluci had to pay to advance—and she intended to collect what she was owed.
She set her teacup down and said, "I've spoken with your grandfather. Training will take place here, in my home. You'll come once a week. Your first session begins tomorrow—at dawn."
Evelyn's younger brother frowned. "Why not today?"
"I have work," Seluci replied. "Training begins at dawn, not a minute later."
He scowled. "Couldn't it be a few hours after dawn? No one wants to wake up that early."
Seluci's voice remained cool. "That's only a problem if you plan to return home tonight. Book a cottage here in town, get some rest."
The cousins exchanged glances, then stepped aside to call their parents.
After receiving permission, her brother went to arrange the lodging.
Meanwhile, Evelyn and her cousin sister—escorted by their bodyguards—walked to Adam's cottage. They found it locked.
On the way back, they returned to the rented cottage where her brother was waiting. Near the entrance, Evelyn spotted a man wearing the uniform of Greenview Martial Academy. She approached and asked if he knew Adam's whereabouts.
The man told her Adam had gone hunting near Floating Stone Forest—about two hours from town, in a convoy.
Time passed slowly inside the cottage.
Boredom crept in. In Terrilyn, they'd be out shopping, gaming, or at some rooftop party. But here, surrounded by martial artists strong enough to kill with a glance, they hesitated to step outside.
Evelyn finally broke the silence.
"Let's visit the Floating Stone Forest," she said. "There's a part of it where the stones actually float in the air—it's only a couple of hours away. We'll take the car."
Her brother hesitated, then agreed after consulting with the bodyguards.
Their security team included three Unification Realm martial artists, and the rest were trained in the three lower realms. Between them, they had enough firepower to seriously injure even a Titanic Realm beast.
Confident in their safety, the group loaded into their vehicles and set out.
But as they neared the edge of the Floating Stone Forest, a strange purple mist drifted across the road, sweeping toward them fast.
The moment it touched the car, Evelyn's vision went black.