Damien climbed up a hill, face calm and mind serene. He hadn't felt this calm in months, and still didn't understand how it came about. Maybe it was the dreamscape or something else, he didn't know. What he did know was his next choice. And his mind was already made up.

  It was time to stop holding back.

  For the past few days now, he'd been heading west, at least what he assumed was west given the topography and constantly warping geography of the proto space.

  Emotionless, he'd trampled through groups of centipedes, ants, spiders, and even scorpions, which, in Damien's opinion, had been the deadliest of the four, seeing as their sting—though from a mid-tier one— had been enough to down him for more than a day.

  Damien had had to lay his back on the surface of a rock while he continuously channeled destruction essence all through his veins to combat the dreadful venom, all the while he was plagued by neverending bouts of hallucinations. After that experience, he'd taken the Scorpions extremely seriously.

  But while the scorpions were the deadliest of the four, in Damien's opinion, he still feared the Spiders far more.

  Cresting the top of the hill, which ended at a pointy tip jutting out into the air. Damien looked on into the vast landscape before him, which stretched endlessly, blocked only by the presence of three heaven reaching mountains which stretched literally into the heavens.

  For some reason, the presence of the mist here wasn't as heavy as where he was coming from, which made it refreshing and, at the same time, worrying. Who knew what lay beyond those mountains?

  What he did know, though, was who was before him. A many whom.

  Damien didn't have to wait long before he felt their attention land on him. Three beings, at least that was what he was able to piece out. They crawled out of the mountain caps, a landslide preceding them.

  One, an ant, huge with an onyx black carapace of interlocking plates that shifted around it in indeterminable patterns. Its wings, two like the common ants, were a deep crimson instead of the colorless of its lessers. And even from more than a mile away, Damien could still make out the milky white orbs-for-eyes that took him in, while the stinger jutting out from the end of its abdomen throbbed unceasingly.

  What Damien found extremely uncharacteristic was that the monster stood on its farthest hind legs, a thin black thing which resembled a stick.

  Idly, Damien idly wondered how a limb that small was able to hold such a large body.

  Below the seventy foot tall monster, swarms of insects poured out of the mountain cap like... well... insects, soon covering the entire thing in moving black.

  He looked towards the next mountain peak, where a giant centipede had just crawled out of, its many limbs sticking into the side of the mountain like nails. Soon, it was entirely curled around the mountain peak, and that was when its spawns made their appearance.

  Smaller centipedes, all radiating the auras of mid-tier Spirit lords, crawled out of the hole in the mountain. Damien felt his body crawl as those things swarmed down the mountain toward the base, chittering and clacking all the way.

  And finally, the third mountain peak busted open, torn through by a monstrously large stinger. The stinger pulled back, and then equally giant pincers came forth, digging deep furrows into the mountain peak as they clamped down. The scorpion pulled itself out a second later, its red orbs-for-eyes locking down on him with unsettling intensity.

  Damien stared back, un-intimidated.

  Like the others before it, its spawns also poured down the side of the mountain, giant mid-tier creatures in the hundreds.

  Damien cracked his knuckles, rolled his neck, and then with mental ease as simple as channeling a technique, he triggered his tier up.

  Keilan slashed, tearing through the metal hard carapace of the scorpion before him. Not waiting for the monster to die, he moved on towards another, punching hard on the thick pincer trying to clamp down on him. His wind-thickened fist met the metallic-like appendage, and the pincer gave out, shattering like glass into a dozen pieces.

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  While he fought from one monster to the other, he cursed himself for willingly stepping into this mess. He wasn't a newb when it came to Proto space expeditions; he should have known that getting deeper into the realm would see him encountering more of the high-tiered monsters, and in greater numbers too. And still, he'd gone.

  Sure, he could blame it on the wolf pack he'd met the other day, and their giant alpha, but Keilan wasn't a child. Blaming his current predicament on outside influence would only make him look more incompetent.

  He fought through the dozens of different monsters arrayed against him, tearing through their ranks with wild abandon, and still, they kept coming. Gods, were these things infinite?

  They shouldn't be, Keilan reasoned. That would just be plain unfair. So he kept fighting, but the thought never left his mind.

  A centipede crashed into him, and Keilan slid backward, his wind-encased feet dragging deep furrows into the earth. Though he was largely uninjured, he still grimaced at the sharp pain that lanced through his brain. His will was flagging, fast.

  Keilan stretched forth his right hand and watched as the guilty centipede suddenly froze, encased in a cocoon of wind. At first, the thing tried to struggle, squirming violently in an attempt to escape his invisible cage. That didn't last long.

  Keilan's open palm crushed into a fist, and with a loud crack and a squelch, the monster landed on the ground in a mix of shattered body parts and black fluids.

  He paid for the price with another mental lash, and his intent-constructed armor dimmed a little.

  Filing that as a warning to get things done before he became a defenseless buffet for the hungry and angry creatures surrounding him, Keilan dove back in.

  He slid to the side, dodging the lunging stinger of a scorpion by a hair's breadth. Barely stopping, he grabbed hold of one of the scorpion's legs and pulled. The extremity yielded to his powerful strength, and with a crack, he tore it out.

  Keilan didn't stop, bringing the sharpened end of the foot down on the eyes of the centipede behind it, piercing deep into the head of the monster till the whole appendage was lost.

  With a twitch, the monster curled up into a perfectly round shape. Dead.

  Keilan continued on, moving from one monster to the next, his spear slashing and stabbing with blurring speed. He came up behind a scorpion with such speed that the monster failed to register his appearance. He took out its tail, depriving it of its primary weapon, and—

  Keilan jumped to the side, pelted by dust and rocks, as an ant crashed down onto the earth. He whipped up his spear with the intent to plunge it into the abdomen of the creature but had to pull back as another scorpion stabbed its tail at him.

  Slowly, he felt the noose around his metaphorical neck tighten. He got pushed back, took more hits, and saw less opportunity to one shot his opponents. His makeshift armor cracked and lost its power, slowly releasing the compacted air into the atmosphere. This pushed Keilan fully into the defensive, as he tried to fight against a literal swarm of insects.

  He dodged more and stabbed less. Took more hits and dealt less. His head was continuously lanced with bouts of pain, like a knife had been taken to his brain. At this point, his once thickened armor, which had previously made him look intimidating with its size, was now reduced to a simple thin layer of energy, like a silk cloth.

  Keilan tried not to panic, but the thought of being eaten by these things didn't fill him with much calm. He took a direct hit from a centipede and was flunged through the air, out of the circle, which surprisingly, had already reduced, to land with a grunt onto the earth. Keilan got back up instan—

  The sudden silence was the only warning he got, and with instant speed, uncaring of the backlash it would bring, Keilan released his mental hold on the remaining wind encasing him. He channeled it into an explosion, aimed completely downward, like a drill.

  No sooner had he plunged himself into the deep hole beneath him did the explosion hit.

  A blinding explosion lit up the sky, followed by an earthquake that shook the earth. Keilan hunkered down, hands over his head to protect against any unruly rocks.

  When the explosion finally died down, he picked himself out of the hole, heaving mightily as he did so.

  Sharply, his heaving cut off as his eyes landed on the sky. The ambient mist had all but disappeared, dimming so considerably that his eyesight lengthened, expanding into a considerable distance.

  Of the insects that swarmed the place, there was none. Even the corpses were nowhere to be found. He was the only living thing in the area... Well, sort of.

  The only evidence of the presence of another being was the distant explosion that rocked the air, lesser in power but with a considerable enough intensity that Keilan felt the air tremble.

  Against his better judgment, he began making his way toward the sounds of explosion, cursing himself for his bad sense of preservation.

  Slowly, as he moved closer, he took notice of the heaviness in the air, like a weight had just been dropped onto his shoulders.

  When he reached about seven miles from the explosion, Keilan felt the aura, and Instantly, he took off into a run, pushing against the heavy sense of tiredness he was feeling.

  The pressure increased gradually as he moved closer, but Keilan pushed through it. He did take notice of how he seemed to slow, though, like he was moving through quick sand.

  A mile or so from the explosion, and Keilan saw him: Damien, hovering over a vast crater that stretched beyond what Keilan could see. Behind him was his astral image, giant and radiating so much power the misty heaven roiled.

  But that wasn't what made Keilan's jaw drop.

  Ever since they began their unofficial competition, Keilan had always known Damien would eventually come out the stronger. Now, he watched, with a deep sense of awe, as Damien battled not one, not two, but three peak-tier monster lords, exchanging powerful techniques that lit up the air and sent the land rumbling.

  Keilan smiled at the aura that radiated of off his brother. Damien had just climbed up into the peak tier.