I stepped out of the room and looked around at everyone.
"We have to land here," I said calmly. "We can't go any further. There's an invisible barrier surrounding the Soul Towers."
I sat down on a nearby chair. All the clan masters nodded in agreement and began preparing for the landing. Soon, the aircraft descended into a vast, dark forest.
"Well… this place isn't beautiful at all," Kuto muttered as he stepped out of the aircraft.
I followed him and replied quietly, "Just because something doesn't match your perspective doesn't mean it isn't beautiful."
Lan Xia rolled her eyes and glanced at me. "You're always so confusing to me," she said before walking straight into the dark forest.
Moments later, the entire army gathered before a dense wall of towering trees.
"Why did we stop?" several cultivators asked, looking at each other in confusion.
I stepped forward and extended my hand, touching the air in front of us. A powerful force pushed back against my palm.
"See?" I said. "This is the invisible barrier."
With a single tap of my finger, the barrier shattered silently, like fragile glass.
The cultivators froze, staring at me in shock and awe.
"This man is incredible…" someone whispered.
I looked ahead at the distant towers rising beyond the forest. "Since we already killed some of the tower commanders, these are the ones left," I said, then turned back toward the army.
I teleported back into the aircraft and sat down again.
"Let's start the battle," Miss Yin shouted.
She charged forward with the entire army, and chaos erupted instantly. Powerful cultivators of the Soul Towers were slaughtered as cosmic energies clashed violently.
I remained seated, watching everything unfold, then slowly turned my gaze toward the fourth wall.
"Hey… this is getting messy," I muttered, sighing heavily.
Suddenly, Bharat stepped out from the wall itself and looked at me. "So," he asked, "what did you decide?"
I smiled calmly. "Maybe you can handle the writing better than I can."
Bharat nodded and sat across from me. "I already knew that," he said with a teasing smile. "So… are you ready to become a fictional character?"
I leaned back in my chair, still smiling. "You can't prove me fictional," I replied calmly. "Like I said before—you're not writing fiction. You're writing a biography of my life. A life that exists outside your reality, functioning in its own."
Bharat stood up slowly. "I understand. Then I'll do my job as a biographer properly."
With that, he disappeared.
Rien Kinohutsu smiled faintly. "Everyone is so different," he said, his expression calm and gentle.
On the battlefield, Lan Xia unleashed her soul beast, tearing through the cultivators of the Soul Towers. Clan cultivators clashed fiercely against their enemies, cosmic energies exploding across the land.
"This fight won't be easy," Kuto said.
Black flames erupted from his body, incinerating everything around him. Miss Yin summoned her dragon, which roared across the sky and obliterated both land and enemies alike.
Suddenly, massive waves of pressure surged from the Soul Towers. A powerful man appeared in the sky, his presence overwhelming.
"You dare step into the territory of the Soul Organization?" he roared.
Thousands of swords formed in the air and rained down toward the army.
Kuto instantly formed a black flame barrier around the clan masters and cultivators. Then he vanished—reappearing directly in front of the man.
"You dare touch my friends?" Kuto said coldly.
The Asura Dragon Core activated. Red and black flames wrapped around his body, forming a grotesque yet majestic armor of flesh and energy.
"Shall we begin the fun?" Kuto said, releasing his cosmic energy.
The man attacked, but Kuto caught the sword mid-air—then crushed it into pieces with his bare hand. He kicked the man's stomach with terrifying speed, breaking bone after bone in a storm of relentless strikes.
"You can't defeat the Soul Organization!" the man screamed.
Kuto didn't let him breathe.
"AHHH—!"
Blood spilled from the man's mouth as Kuto smashed him into the ground. Exhausted, Kuto's cosmic energy dropped sharply, and he fell to one knee.
"Kuto!" Lan Xia rushed over, worry clear in her eyes. "Are you okay?"
He stood up weakly. "Yes… I just used too much cosmic energy—and pushed my body too far."
Miss Yin looked at him seriously. "We don't have much time. The commanders of the first four Soul Towers—and the chief of the Soul Organization—will arrive soon. Kill as many enemies as possible, conserve your energy, and remember… we still have Rien as our backup."
Kuto nodded and tried to steady his breathing.
The battlefield was drenched in blood. Corpses littered the ground. Screams of pain echoed endlessly as explosions tore through the forest.
Then—
A massive portal opened in the sky.
Zie Lian stepped out, followed by seven other figures.
"So," Zie Lian said with a grin, "the top ten clans and the Ren Senior Academy together. How fascinating."
Rien appeared in the sky before them. "I've been waiting for you," he said calmly.
One man among them, radiating terrifying cosmic pressure, spoke coldly. "You dare interfere with the Soul Organization? Do you know what that means?"
Rien snapped his fingers.
Two of them vanished instantly—erased from existence.
"Now there are six," Rien said calmly. "We can begin."
His cosmic energy shifted at the most fundamental level, altering quarks themselves, effortlessly nullifying their power.
Elsewhere, that woman from the Omni Organisation stepped forward before the four masters of the Eleventh Universe.
"I'll handle all of you," she said with excitement.
One of the masters smirked. "And what's your name, beauty?"
She smiled. "Zera Haster. And I'm here to kill every one of you."
The masters laughed as their cosmic energies erupted.
"Let's see what happens," they said together.
Zera smiled slowly as she released an overwhelming surge of cosmic energy. The space around them trembled violently, the air itself warping under the sheer pressure.
"Here," she said calmly, her voice carrying quiet menace, "we can fight more openly."
She stepped forward toward them, each movement deliberate. A dangerous glint shone in her eyes—cold, confident, and utterly fearless—as her presence alone crushed the space between them.