All divine beasts shared a single quality, regardless of what powers they had or shapes they took. They were all arrogant, self-conceited bastards. Zelamir was no exception to that rule. If anything, he was even more full of himself than usual.

“Oh, excellent. I already have a baseline for your human form, which I’m sure you consider to be your real shape right now. Given the circumstances of your creation, I can’t blame you for feeling that way. A century or two will correct that deficiency,” Zelamir announced, his mocking voice echoing from every direction and nowhere at the same time.

Is he hiding behind an illusion or projecting his voice from somewhere else? Velik scoured the garden with his eyes, looking for evidence of the divine beast’s position. He had to assume he’d fully broken free of the illusion the black flowers had trapped him in with his transformation. The mere act of assuming a form that weighed ten times as much and was so much larger had shed the rest of the plants’ hold on him.

And if it hadn’t, then he was completely screwed. So he decided to proceed under the assumption that he could trust his senses, even if his eyes were telling him there was nothing there. Zelamir’s scent was strong, if nothing else. He might have fled, but he had been in the garden recently, which meant he probably wasn’t far away.

“Now that we have a baseline for your human shape, let’s see how you do as a wolf,” Zelamir said.

Velik ignored the taunting words. They were meaningless except maybe as a warning to expect another attack of some kind, though they did reveal a fundamental misunderstanding. Zelamir thought he was stronger in his divine beast form, but Velik’s strength was the same either way. The only reason he’d shifted was for the physical size increase to counteract toxins, and that had been for convenience, not out of necessity.

More monsters were appearing across the fields, and as far as Velik could tell, they were every bit as real as the last batch had been. He tore into them eagerly and was gratified to see that [Sun Eater] was ripping the mana in them free, though he still wasn’t getting any essence. That could just be because they were some sort of animated spell of Zelamir’s, though.

It was that or the monster was still messing with his head, but he didn’t think so. The fact that he was taking mana from what he killed didn’t feel like something that could be replicated, and there didn’t seem to be any compulsions trying to steer him away from noticing an inconsistency.

He couldn’t possibly be so stupid as to show me his real specialty in his dream world, could he?

Once again, Velik thought about how arrogant divine beasts were. Zelamir not bothering to hide what he could do because he was so assured of his own superiority was perfectly reasonable in that context. It was a mistake, but he probably didn’t think it mattered.

The constructed monsters were also a mistake, because unlike in the narcotic-induced dream world, here, Velik could follow the mana flows. Zelamir was masking them, but it was an imperfect thing, flawed precisely because there were so many monsters appearing at once. No, Velik couldn’t follow them back to their source, but by process of elimination, he could disregard every spot they were appearing to come from and narrow down the possibilities.

And the one place no magic ever came from was a small burrow nestled into some tree roots a quarter mile away. Velik didn’t stare at it, didn’t even glance in its direction. He panned his gaze wildly about, affecting to be searching for Zelamir still, never showing that the game was ended. The burrow looked empty. Attacking there could be a mistake. But he was sure he was right.

Unless it’s a trap and he’s occasionally casting out a spell from where he’s actually hiding, just hoping I’ll notice the gap in coverage.

That kind of thinking would get him nowhere. He’d just run circular logic round and round while he fended off a magically appearing horde of monsters, some of which had to be roughly level 150 and actually hit quite hard. Even the weaker ones were probably level 70 at minimum, and more than a few had various poisons they tried to hit him with, usually in liquid or inhalant form.

Those were significantly less effective when he was so huge, a fact that he was actually still adjusting to. His wolf form hadn’t been nearly this big last time he’d used it, but that was before he’d switched over to the LPS, never mind whatever had happened to the skill when it had been folded into [Sun Eater].

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Regardless of the reason, all he needed was the right opening to attack, which was to say getting himself lined up with the hole by using an approaching monster as an excuse. That opportunity never came on its own, but it was easy enough to manufacture by letting a trio of screaming bipedal creatures with pick axes for hands drive him back a step, then spinning in place to kill all of them by slapping them with his tail. That lined him up for the next monster, which he crushed in his teeth.

Then he leaped forward, covering the distance in a single jump, and fell out of his transformation. Velik slid into the burrow, a black spear leading, and snarled in satisfaction when he felt the tip bite into something soft and fleshy. Unfortunately, instead of slamming Zelamir into the back of the burrow—which was far bigger than he’d expected—he just tore off a scrap of flesh as he passed by the divine beast.

Blood spurted from thin air and Zelamir became briefly visible. He had a thunderous scowl stamped across his face and was clutching at his wounded shoulder, but there was nothing in his posture that suggested he was anything other than upset. “Stupid boy,” he hissed. All traces of laughter were gone from his voice. “Fine, I suppose that’s my fault for underestimating a divine beast, even one that’s only a few years old.”

Velik didn’t wait for him to finish speaking. He rebounded off the burrow’s back wall and dashed back at Zelamir. It was only after a second that he realized space was twisting around him, that the burrow had stretched out from an already impressive ten feet wide to several hundred. Worse, the distortion wasn’t linear. Force pulled at his torso, trying to twist him sideways in opposition to the rest of his body.

He weathered the spatial magic, and when it failed to take hold on him, he snapped the spell. Everything rebounded back into place, startling Zelamir and throwing him off balance long enough for Velik to drive a spear through the divine beast’s stomach.

[Dread Lance] sparked and exploded inside the monster. That wasn’t enough to kill him, but Velik wasn’t surprised. Even the weakest of their group was too strong to be brought down in a single hit. What the skill did do was dislodge the tree over the burrow, sending it listing to the side and letting light in.

Zelamir stood there, one hand grabbing the smooth shaft of Velik’s spear and straining to keep it from going any deeper in, or maybe to block more energy from surging down the weapon. Scorch marks painted the walls black, and black blood dribbled from between the monster’s fingers.

Wait, black—

With a savage snarl, Zelamir exploded. Velik was driven six feet into the wall, blasting through thick roots and cracking buried stones. The tree overhead caught on fire and groaned dangerously as it tilted. Slowly, it tore itself out of the ground and toppled over, revealing Velik pulling himself out of the ground.

His clothes were smoking tatters, but his skin wasn’t even singed. He brushed off some crusted dirt, then jumped straight out of the hole. “Is that the best you’ve got? Tricks and weak attacks? This is pathetic.”

Soft, mocking laughter floated through the garden. “You’re just like Tesir. If it’s not a stand up, knockdown fight where you just take turns punching each other as hard as you can, you whine that it’s not fair. This isn’t a tournament, boy. I’m not here to display my skills. You’re trying to kill me. Why would you think I’d fight fair?”

Velik didn’t disagree with that. The truth was that he’d just hoped Zelamir was proud enough to let himself be goaded into stepping out into the open. He hadn’t expected anything, but it also hadn’t cost him anything to try.

“Not that you can,” the divine beast added. “But please, do keep trying. It’s both entertaining and enlightening watching you struggle.”

I can’t keep playing this game by his rules. Every time I think I’ve found him, it’s just another layer. If I peel them back one at a time, I’ll never reach the end. I need a way to cut through them in one move. If I can’t find him…

Velik summoned a new spear from the mana and held it overhead like a torch. Zelamir just laughed and said, “Nice dramatic posing. You look very heroic standing there wearing badly stitched animal hides that are practically falling off you.”

[Dread Lance] started arcing up Velik’s spear, but he didn’t discharge it like normal. A second arc joined the first. Then a third climbed the length of the weapon. For ten seconds, he stood there, building up power. Zelamir said nothing this time, but more monsters appeared to attack him. He ignored them, and they bounced off his body. Their attacks did nothing to cut through [Seal of the Relentless].

Power flashed out of the spear in every direction, a miniature sun that annihilated everything it touched for a mile. Velik wasn’t immune to it himself, but he knew how much damage he could weather and how long it would take to recover. If this was what it took to flush Zelamir out, it was a price worth paying.

When the light faded, there was no garden, just burnt strips of land where bolts of power had flashed across the ground, crisscrossing each other until they’d scorched everything in sight. The flowers were gone. The trees were hollowed out husks where they stood at all. All that was left standing was Velik himself.

Velik, and one extremely pissed off looking six-foot-tall copper-colored fox. He didn’t waste a moment, just lunged forward and grabbed the fox by the throat.

“That will be quite enough of that,” a new voice rumbled, and the black-haired man from the entry hall appeared between them, one hand clamped on Velik’s arm with unbelievable strength. Slowly, it pried that arm back.