Pandora Unchained - a Cultivation Progression Fantasy

Benjamin Riss was anything but an armchair general. Immediately after issuing Sorin's orders, the gold-armored spear-wielder led his personal retinue to pierce a hole in the enemy's defensive formation, forcing a series of adjustments across the battlefield.

The Agent of Strife tried his best to control the militant flamekin, but with André Phoenix nipping at his heels, the agent could only patch over his disrupted battle lines, salvaging troops to reinforce core groups, thereby leaving a glaring hole that Sorin and company bravely jumped into.

Heat—deadly, searing heat. The air smelled of ash and dust, and every breath was painfully slow.

Sorin, Lawrence, and Gareth were in the eye of the storm. An enemy general and his personal guard were halfway to joining with one of their detachments. Realizing his predicament, the general retreated to minimize the distance Sorin and his companions gained. Meanwhile, the God of War killed his way through the flamekin army, further fueling the resentment that was gathering overhead.

Individually, the flamekin were nothing impressive, but thanks to their homogeneity, they were ideal troops to command and arrange into war arrays. Benjamin and André focused on mobility and empowerment. The flamekin, on the other hand, equipped their troops with one-size-fits-all formations that filled their surroundings with fire that burned away life force and mana.

Even Sorin felt uncomfortable in the hostile environment. His poisonous aura had shrunk considerably, making it impossible to poison the retreating general and his personal guard in advance.

Fortunately, Sorin's experiments on the flamekin had focused on eliminating these flames. He gathered up a cluster of five clashing poisons that exploded into his surroundings. The nearest three hundred or so flamekin were doused in potent poisons, which Sorin immediately transformed into Flame Dousing Poison via Autogenesis.

Chains of mana dug deep into flamekin flesh, both suppressing their flame-controlling abilities and preventing the activation of skills. The temperature of their surroundings plummeted, reducing the pressure on Sorin and, most importantly, his allies, Gareth and Lawrence.

Having lost their support, the flamekin instinctively retreated, widening the gap between the general and the nearest army. Gareth further cut off the general's retreat with a volley of poisoned arrows. The situation only worsened for the flamekin general when Lawrence appeared in this shadow and stabbed a long knife through the armored plates on his burning back.

Flamekin anatomy was, unfortunately, very different from human anatomy. They lacked critical organs and bone structures that would have made such a strike lethal. That said, Lawrence was skilled and had indeed struck a critical point. The blow stunned the general long enough for Lawrence to fill the area with a web of shadow strings, locking down their target and the four members of his personal guard.

Flamekin General anatomy successfully scanned. Comparing to database. Deviation from common flamekin and captain flamekin templates identified. Mutations or purposeful evolution? Recalculating poisons. Using Autogenesis to conduct standard flamekin battery tests. Analyzing weaknesses.

Sorin pushed these thoughts to his subconscious and body forward. Despite the poisons filling the battlefield, the general and his retinue were too powerful to fully disable. Sorin's temporary answer to this problem was brute force.

Runic lights lit up as the flamekin captain successfully blocked Sorin's poison-filled attack and even counterattacked with a burning spear. The two exchanged blows, with Sorin's spear cutting a shallow wound on the general's cheek and the general's spear kissing Sorin's leather armor, burning a shallow hole into his side and infusing his rib cage with deadly energies.

The general's retinue joined in on the attack. Sorin's body contorted through their spears and summoned a large python to slap the weaker warriors away. He launched himself at the general and plunged two scalpel-thin daggers into his heart, increasing the poison concentration in his target and accelerating the progress of his experimental trials.

Test battery 50 percent complete. General weaknesses identified. Strong purification force resting further tests. Unable to proceed past general weaknesses given the general's resilient constitution.

This wasn't the first time Sorin had encountered abnormally resistant entities. Typically, the cause was either excess vitality or a specific organ responsible for said benefit. In this case, it was the Flamekin General's Heart Kiln, an organ that burned energy crystals to produce the vast amounts of energy required to sustain his war form.

The general's Heart Kiln has purification powers that exceed my current ability. Only by destroying the Heart Kiln will I be able to take him down, but to do that, I need to pierce through the heart protector powered by the Heart Kiln.

If it were a month ago, Sorin would have been helpless to continue his assault. This was no longer the case. The world turned black and white as Sorin used Nemesis to Excise the problem.

Sorin's spear pierced through the heart protector like it didn't exist. Because, according to his ability, it didn't exist. The armor wasn't the enemy, only the Heart Kiln.

A huge payload of poison and corruption poured into the Heart Kiln, blasting a hole in the solid container. Though this small amount of damage was accomplished at the cost of 25 percent of Sorin's mana, it was well worth the price. The Flamekin General's internal temperature rose dramatically as a result of the breach, lessening the effects of Sorin's poisons but greatly decreasing the stability of the general's body.

Sorin slapped a palm against the general's flickering armor, injecting a smaller but targeted dose of heat-resistant poisons using Hand of the Twisted Physician. The skill went on cooldown, meaning that Sorin wouldn't be able to use it for the next hour save to apply passive doses of poison.

Though the dosage was small, it was properly targeted. The Flamekin General's body entered a downward spiral. His flames died out as his elemental body experienced the equivalent of organ failure.

Most humans, when faced with such a situation, would wallow under the crushing despair, but Sorin soon realized there was no such word in Flamekin's vocabulary. Having realized the futility of their situation, both the enemy general and his four captains burned with an even brighter flame empowered by their very life force.

Five deadly spikes appeared overhead and channeled the resentment that had accumulated over the battlefield. The strife-filled spikes pierced down on Sorin's poison at a speed that exceeded Sorin's.

Luckily, Lawrence was prepared for such eventualities. Strings of shadow pulled Sorin away at the last second, and a barrage of arrows pushed back the army, closing in on their flank.

Those spikes, thought Sorin as they retreated. Just what are those Flamekin up to? By reading the web of karma, Sorin could tell that these spikes weren't a last-ditch measure and hadn't even been intended for him in the first place. The location they'd pierced down on was their intended target. Strife poured into the wounded land with seemingly no end in sight.

"This place is a mess," warned Gareth as they retreated towards Benjamin Riss. The spear-wielding God Seed was ankles-deep in flamekin blood but pushing forward despite terrible gashes on his armor. André Phoenix was close in, and Celine's small group of elites joined them, cutting deep gashes into the retreating enemy's battle formation.

The Agent of Strife pulled the army backward as predicted. When the Pandoran army made to chase, a hundred troops infused with Hatred peeled off and exploded, halting the smaller army in its tracks.

"Allow them to retreat but continue harassing them," called out Benjamin. "We're a long way away from the enemy encampment, but we only have two days to chase them back. More importantly, we've gained some important hints as to their goals."

"These spikes," said Celine, inspecting the objects piercing out of the stony ground. "I can't touch them."

"I doubt even a demigod could," said André. "They positively reek of danger."

"Using strife as a conduit for power," muttered Benjamin. "And a cloud of resentment to cover their intentions. I have no idea what they're doing, but I know one thing for certain: we can't allow them to succeed."

Sorin agreed with that assessment. Those spikes screamed of danger, and the karmic web echoed his concerns. Whatever these spikes were, they were a conduit to something far more powerful. Something that demigods and deities on both sides were trying their best to claim.

But how does this relate to the Mausoleum? The spikes aren't anywhere near it. What's more, the karmic web isn't focused on the Mausoleum but the land itself. It just doesn't make sense.

What's more, they'd yet to see Ratten Hyde. The mysterious clan's scion had somehow breached the shield protecting the Mausoleum and had holed himself up from the beginning. Judging by Ratten and Aaron's exchange, the Hyde Clan wasn't normally allowed on such expeditions and had to use a certain allotment to enter it in the first place. Just what was Ratten after, and how did it relate to the Flamekin and the Agent of Strife's plan.

"Since we can't touch these spikes and interrupting their placement is impossible, our goal will instead be to force the Agent of Strife to place them improperly and in the wrong order," said Benjamin. "Whatever they're trying to accomplish here, it's surely important. Let's make sure they go back emptyhanded."

"I'll need a moment to retrieve my poisons," said Sorin. "I also sense that our heroes and basic cultivators have accumulated abnormal amounts of corruption. I wish to rectify this before we continue."

"Our battlefield medics will be arriving shortly," added Michael. "They'll need some time to stitch up our wounds."

Benjamin nodded in agreement. "I estimate it'll take three hours to bring everyone back to fighting shape. The Agent of Strife's tactics are sacrificial in nature. I don't dare push us forward without taking precautions."