The battle was over but the stench of purple ichor and death hung heavy in the air. The survivors slumped to the monastery's stone courtyard, their bodies wracked with exhaustion and their minds numb. The adrenaline of the desperate fighting had faded and now left behind the grim reality of this war..

Four of their numbers were gone. Healers from both factions moved quickly among the wounded, offering pills and applying salves. The human and demon dead were being respectfully separated for last rites.

Amidst the panting, bleeding and exhausted warriors, one figure stood apart.

Li Yu stood on the monastery's outer wall, his white robes somehow still pristine. His back was straight as he looked out to make sure there was nothing coming their way. His aura was churning powerfully, his cultivation base solidified and compressed the massive influx of purified Xylarri energy settling within his Ocean of Qi.

He felt... stronger. The mental fatigue of the constant large-scale slaughter was there however. A dull ache behind his eyes but his body and spirit were overflowing with power.

"Brother Little Crab!" Jian Xuan’s voice was hoarse with exertion. Jian Xuan was slumped against a wall, his own white robes stained with purple ichor and torn from his duel with the Praetorian and his face slightly pale.

He had been a hurricane of death and then had to fight a Praetorian on his own for a while. His Soul Formation cultivation gave him vast reserves but the non-stop high-intensity battle had clearly taxed him mentally and physically. He had been going all out from the start to ease the burden of the others. If he had fought more conservatively he wouldn’t be in this state.

Beside him, Lord Zaltar was in a similar state. His four arms were hanging limply and his demonic Qi fluctuated as he recovered. Grand Elder Corvus was injured but he was also the most busy. His face was a mask of grief and stress as he coordinated the recovery of the dead and the set up for arrays and formations.

"You... you don't even look tired," Jian Xuan observed Li Yu, his voice a mix of awe and understanding. He knew Li Yu's secret but seeing it in action on this scale was still staggering. The other two Soul Formation leaders, however, did not know about his ability to absorb so Li Yu looked even more like a freak to them.

"He's right," Zaltar rumbled, his burning eyes fixed on Li Yu with disbelief. "You are not depleted. You fought harder than any of us. How?"

"My energy is... replenished," Li Yu stated simply, offering no further explanation. He looked at the wounded, at the dead, then back at the eastern horizon. "I will scout the immediate perimeter. Ensure no other swarms are converging on this position. We must know if we are truly safe here."

Before the exhausted leaders could protest, he leaped from the wall, a white streak vanishing into the desolate landscape. Zaltar and Corvus looked at each other and laughed lightly, this has been Li Yu from the time they met him. He would say something and be long gone before anyone could answer him.

They were supposed to be the elders here, yet this young boy operated on his own terms. Though they had no problems with what he was doing, if anything he was doing way more than what was expected or asked of him.

Jian Xuan just stared after Li Yu, a complex smile on his face. "That... is my Brother Little Crab."

Zaltar let out a low, pained grunt, forcing himself to his feet. "He is a monster. But he is our monster it seems. A fortunate thing." He turned his burning gaze to Corvus. "Elder! Your people are wounded. My own are weary. We must fortify this position before he returns."

Corvus nodded, pushing aside his own injuries. "He's right. Everyone, to your posts! Healers tend to the wounded. Everyone else that is not an array expert establish a hard perimeter! Formation masters with me! We must assess the monastery's arrays!"

Corvus, along with a team of Skyfire disciples and a few demons who specialized in rune-carving, rushed to the monastery's central hall. The main array core was here, a massive complex circle of stone and crystal.

"The Xylarri were... thorough," Corvus muttered, his face grim as he inspected the damage. "They didn't just break the array; they fed on it. The main power conduits are drained, the surface runes shattered. But..." He placed his hand on the central core. It was intact. "The foundation is still here. They destroyed what they could see but they didn't understand the underlying principles."

His expertise as a high-level formation master, the true reason Theron had assigned him this support role became apparent. "It's repairable," he announced, a note of hope in his voice. "The damage is extensive but not fundamental. With my team and... and Zaltar's people… we can have the basic perimeter defenses restored in a day. A full restoration... maybe two."

Zaltar, who had followed him nodded. "My people can assist you. This mountain will be our fortress."

A sense of purpose settled over the survivors. They had a foothold relatively deep in enemy territory. They had to build a strong defense as it will be the difference between them surviving and all being killed.

Hours later, as the first defensive runes began to glow with restored power Li Yu returned. He landed silently on the wall near the three Soul Formation leaders who were overseeing the repairs.

"It's clear," he reported. "The swarm we destroyed was the main occupying force for this immediate region. I scouted a large radius. There are scattered drones but no organized armies like before are moving this way. They seem to be consolidating somewhere else, probably closer to the rifts."

"Glorious!" Jian Xuan managed, looking slightly recovered after consuming a high-grade pill. "A true victory!"

"That is... the best news I've heard all day," Corvus said, wiping soot from his brow. He looked at Li Yu, at his steady aura and his complete lack of fatigue. "Commander Li Yu, you... you are not weary at all? You've been fighting or scouting this entire time.."

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"I am fine," Li Yu said. "I will rest for a few hours then resume patrols. We must maintain a perimeter."

This caused the two other leaders to stop.

"Human," Zaltar said, his voice a low growl of concern. "You fought harder than any of us. You cleared the path here and then went in first here as well. Even a demon lord must rest. You drain yourself and you will become a liability when the true battle begins."

"Lord Zaltar is right," Corvus added. "You cannot maintain that pace, Commander. Your... 'blessing'... is one of our single greatest assets against these swarms. We cannot afford to lose you to exhaustion. We are all on edge. Please, be cautious. Take care of yourself. Morale would drop drastically if something were to happen to you." He was speaking out of concern for Li Yu but also concern for the overall state of the war.

Li Yu was silent for a long moment. His gaze was distant, looking out over the grey Xylarri-consumed plains. He finally turned his head and his expression was unreadable. After a long while as he looked to be composing his thoughts, he addressed the three powerful experts.

"Grand Elder. Lord Zaltar. Jian Xuan." He began quietly as though still thinking about his very words. "I appreciate the concern. You must understand... my nature... it is screaming at me right now."

The two leaders stared at him confused. Even Jian Xuan looked curious about what he would say.

"My every instinct," Li Yu continued, his voice quiet but intense, "is telling me to run. To find the deepest, darkest cave on this continent and seal myself inside until this... plague... has passed. My nature is not that of a warrior who seeks glory or that of a righteous person looking to help the world. It is to be cautious, to protect myself above all else."

He clenched his fist, his knuckles white. "But I have this. This blessing. This... ability. This strength. I can help fight these things. I can weaken them. Every fight I take and every life that I kill means there will be less people dying behind me." He looked back at the ruined monastery courtyard where the bodies of Marcus, Volk, and the twins were being prepared for rites.

"I see the bodies. I see the dust. I know what will happen if this tide isn't stopped. I... I have a responsibility. I can make a difference. I can save lives. And because I can," his voice hardened, "I must."

He let out a slow breath. "This is a burden, one that each of you also carry. But it is one I must carry as well. So I will rest. But then I will hunt. Because I am able to, I must."

He gave them a short stiff nod and walked away, finding a secluded ruined bell tower to rest. He had been fighting his nature this entire trip and as the dangers increased, the more his nature screamed out to him. He sat down, pushing those thoughts aside and began to process the massive influx of Qi and that strange new purple energy being siphoned off by the unknown thing in his Ocean of Qi.

The three Soul Formation leaders watched him go, stunned into silence by the raw unexpected honesty and the glimpse into the internal conflict within the young man. They can’t say they didn’t know how he felt.

"He's... forcing himself to do this?" Corvus whispered, his mind reeling. "Against his very nature?"

"He has the physical strength of my strongest brutes, the abilities of a Void-Walker and the soul of...?" Zaltar rumbled, completely baffled. "A contradiction. Commander Jian Xuan... what is he? Where did your cult find such a being?"

Jian Xuan looked in the direction Li Yu had gone. His usual manic grin was completely gone, replaced by a complex almost melancholy expression. He let out a long sigh, his own stained white robes a testament to the battle he, too, had endured.

"Find him? Hah." Jian Xuan shook his head. "When I first met Brother Little Crab... he wasn't a commander. He wasn't a hero. He wasn't even an adventurer."

He paused, a small nostalgic smile touching his lips. "He was raising fish."

Corvus and Zaltar just stared. "What?" "Fish?"

"Aquatic beasts," Jian Xuan clarified, his voice laced with a strange fondness. "Raising them in his own place that he and a few others, pretty much mortals, started. Selling them to make a living and grow. He is, at his absolute core, one of the most cautious, risk-averse and... and lazy... man I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Even though he is like that, he’s had to step up many times to do what is ‘right’ and to protect his own peace."

The two Soul Formation leaders were utterly speechless.

"His instinct is always to hide," Jian Xuan continued, his voice quieter now. "To avoid trouble, to protect his own small, peaceful world. He came to this continent with me to see the wider world, yes, and to grow. But one event after the other and now this... this war, this plague, this... responsibility... he is fighting against his entire being every single time he steps onto that battlefield. Every Xylarri he kills is a victory over his own nature."

He sighed again, looking at his own hands. "I sometimes... I wonder if bringing him here was a good thing or a bad one. He's gaining power, yes, but he's being forced to become something he never wanted to be."

Corvus and Zaltar were silent for a long, long time, processing this revelation.

"...From... from a fish farmer... to that?" Corvus finally stammered. "The man who just faced down thousands of Xylarri... who has that kind of strength and fighting ability?"

"A fish farmer," Zaltar repeated, his mind struggling to reconcile the image with the white-robed monster of physical power he had sparred against. "A fish farmer who has the strength of a demon line-breaker and a soul that can knock out a brute with a tap."

"Oh, make no mistake," Jian Xuan corrected them firmly, his pride in his friend surfacing. "He was always strong. Impossibly, ridiculously strong. He just preferred to be a fish farmer. That's the difference."

Zaltar was silent for another long moment. Then, a deep, rumbling sound started in his chest. It was a laugh. A genuine, harsh and appreciative laugh.

"Hah. Hahaha! A fish farmer! By the Ashen Depths, I like him. He is... an honest contradiction. A truly respectable warrior." He clapped Jian Xuan on the shoulder with one of his four heavy arms.

"Very well. Once this is over and the Demons have their new territory, we will be the first to establish a formal trade route with Commander Little Crab's fish farm. My people would pay handsomely for such... potent... food."

Jian Xuan's grin returned, bright and wide. "Hah! I'll hold you to that, Demon Lord! Now, since the work is handled... let us find some of that Xul'Thar liquor you were hiding. We have earned a drink."

"Indeed," Zaltar agreed. The two Soul Formation "commanders," one a white-robed human fanatic and the other a four-armed demon lord, walked off to find a quiet place to drink. Their new alliance cemented by battle and a shared absurd piece of news.

Grand Elder Corvus was left alone in the courtyard. He watched them go, his mind reeling from the absurdity of it all. He looked at the human and demon disciples working together side-by-side to repair the monastery's arrays. He looked in the direction Li Yu had gone to rest.

"A fish farmer... fighting his own nature... due to a sense of responsibility." He thought of Jarek Volkov, his own prized disciple who had died for that same sense of duty. A new respect for the strange white-robed "cultist" settled in his heart.

He shook his head, clearing his thoughts. "Back to work." He turned and began directing the complex and meticulous reconstruction of the monastery's primary defense formation.