The chain was an iron monstrosity.
Each link was the size of a carriage, cold and slick with the moisture of the clouds above. It stretched upward into the grey mist, vanishing like a black snake trying to strangle the sky.
At the base, a crowd had gathered. In the Dreg Sector, entertainment was scarce, and watching two idiots commit suicide was prime viewing.
"They're actually doing it," a ragged cultivator muttered, chewing on a dried root. "Does he know about the shredder?"
"Let him climb," another sneered. "I want his boots when he falls."
Kaelen ignored the peanut gallery. He stood at the anchor point, a massive block of concrete buried deep in the island's foundation. He looked up. The wind was already howling, but his senses—sharpened by the Thunder King's core—picked up something sharper underneath the gale.
Razor-edged Qi.
"Viper," Kaelen said, not looking back. "Hold on tight."
"To what?" Viper asked, eyeing the sheer metal surface.
"To me."
Before she could protest, Kaelen grabbed her by the back of her assassin gear and slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
"Hey! Put me do—"
*BOOM.*
Kaelen jumped.
He didn't grab the first link. He cleared the first ten. His legs, powered by the explosive force of the Storm-Demon foundation, acted like pistons. He landed on the eleventh link, his boots digging into the iron, sparking blue electricity to magnetize his grip.
He started to run.
He wasn't climbing hand-over-hand. He was sprinting up the forty-five-degree angle of the chain.
The wind whipped past them. At five hundred feet, the Dreg Sector looked like a scattering of pebbles. At a thousand feet, the air grew thin.
Then, the humming started.
*Zzzzzzzt.*
It sounded like a million angry hornets.
"Kaelen!" Viper screamed over the wind. "The Array! It's activating!"
The runes etched into the giant chain links flared green. The ambient wind didn't just blow anymore; it solidified.
Transparent blades of compressed air, three feet long, materialized out of thin air.
**The Wind-Blade Array.**
It was designed to mince anyone trying to sneak into the Inner Sector.
"Duck!" Viper yelled.
Kaelen didn't duck. He sped up.
A wind blade slashed at his face. Kaelen headbutted it.
*CLINK.*
The blade shattered against his forehead. His skin didn't even redden. **Mythic Flesh** was tough, but combined with the latent **Titan Plating** in his chest, casual attacks were insults.
"Weak," Kaelen scoffed.
The Array seemed to take offense.
The humming intensified. The air around them turned into a blender. Hundreds of wind blades swirled, creating a vortex of cutting force.
Viper squeezed her eyes shut, activating her own Qi barrier, but she knew it wouldn't hold. This was a formation meant to kill Foundation Establishment experts.
Kaelen stopped running. He stood on a link, halfway between the mud below and the paradise above.
The wind blades struck him from every angle.
*Slash. Slash. Slash.*
His black robes turned to confetti. Cuts appeared on his arms and legs—shallow, stinging wounds that healed almost as fast as they opened.
"Annoying," Kaelen grunted. "It's like being bitten by mosquitoes."
He looked at the glowing green runes on the iron beneath his feet.
"System," he growled. "Can I eat the wind?"
> **[Analysis]**
> **Energy Type: Elemental Wind Qi.**
> **Purity: High.**
> **Method: Inhale.**
Kaelen grinned. A savage expression that made Viper shiver more than the cold.
He opened his mouth. He didn't just breathe; he expanded his lungs with the force of a vacuum pump.
**Heaven-Devouring Scripture: Aero-phagia.**
The vortex of wind blades swirling around him faltered. The suction from his mouth dragged the energy in. The blades warped, stretching like taffy, before being pulled down his throat.
He swallowed the storm.
Inside his stomach, the wind blades tried to cut him apart. But his insides were reinforced with **Thunder** and **Demon Blood**. The wind was crushed, broken down, and assimilated.
> **[Wind Resistance +5%]**
> **[Agility +2]**
"Spicy," Kaelen laughed. "More."
He started running again, mouth open, literally eating the path upward. Every time the Array tried to form a blade, Kaelen consumed the Qi before it could solidify.
To an observer from below, it looked impossible. A man running up a chain, surrounded by a black void that swallowed the sky.
***
**Ten Minutes Later.**
They breached the cloud layer.
The grey mist fell away, replaced by blinding sunlight.
The **Middle Islands** were lush. Waterfalls flowed off floating mountains, white marble pavilions dotted the landscape, and giant cranes flew lazily in the distance. The Qi density here was five times thicker than in the Dreg Sector.
Kaelen vaulted off the final link of the chain. He landed on a pristine white stone platform.
He dropped Viper. She stumbled, looking green, checking her limbs to make sure they were still attached.
"We... we're alive?" she whispered.
Kaelen dusted off his shoulders. His robes were tatters, revealing the golden-hued skin over his ribs and the tribal lightning tattoos on his arms.
"We're not just alive," Kaelen said, looking at the sprawling campus of the Inner Sect.
A group of disciples in blue robes—**Inner Disciples**—were staring at them. They had been drinking tea by the platform, enjoying the view, when a half-naked demon dropped out of the sky.
"Who are you?" one disciple demanded, hand on his sword. "Where is your flight token?"
Kaelen cracked his neck. The sound was like a gunshot in the serene silence.
"I lost it," Kaelen lied smoothly.
He walked past them. The pressure of his aura—heavy, bloody, and electric—made the disciples instinctively step back.
"Viper, find the library," Kaelen ordered, eyes scanning the floating peaks for the highest concentration of treasure. "I need to know where they keep the good stuff."
"And you?" Viper asked, adjusting her veil.
Kaelen pointed to a massive arena in the distance, where the roar of a crowd could be heard.
"I need points," Kaelen smirked. "And I hear the Academy pays well for violence."