By the time the sky dimmed into evening once more, none of them had moved an inch all day, and even Ethan had to admit the sight was humbling in a way he hadn’t expected. Micah and Ryan were completely absorbed in their routines, as if the passage of time meant nothing to them. From sunrise to dusk, they hadn’t so much as stretched.

In the morning, both of them sat cross-legged in deep meditation, their breathing slow and even, their expressions calm to the point of detachment. By the afternoon, they had shifted seamlessly into studying formations, speaking in low, focused tones as they debated theory and refined their understanding. Ethan, sitting off to the side, felt like a dog watching television, aware that something important was happening but completely unable to grasp any of it.

Still, he didn’t waste the time. His Soul Sense spread outward in a steady, controlled radius, while his eyes remained fixed on the homeless man lying nearby. The man’s breathing was steady, perfectly normal, giving no indication that anything was unusual.

Except for one thing.

Every so often, there would be a faint twitch beneath the man’s skin, so subtle that it was almost imperceptible. Ethan narrowed his focus, trying to catch it clearly, but the movements were fleeting and easy to miss.

Over the course of the entire day, it only happened three times.

On the third twitch, Ethan finally caught it cleanly, and what he noticed made his eyes narrow slightly. Each time the man’s muscles twitched, his energy signature rose ever so slightly, a tiny increase that would have gone unnoticed if Ethan hadn’t been watching so closely. It was faint enough that Ethan couldn’t properly measure it with just his senses, and even with Soul Sense fully active, the man himself remained completely invisible to it, as if he existed outside its range entirely.

It was like looking at someone wrapped in permanent concealment.

Then night fell completely, and just as the last traces of light vanished from the sky, the homeless man’s eyes snapped open.

Ethan flinched despite himself. He had been staring directly at the man when it happened, and for a split second, what he saw made his heart skip. The man’s eyes were pitch black, with no whites and no pupils, like two empty voids staring back at him.

The moment lasted no longer than a blink. The man blinked, and everything returned to normal as if nothing had happened.

"Who the hell are you?" the man demanded, his voice sharp with alarm as he jerked upright. "What are you doing in my house?"

Ethan glanced down at himself, then at the broken stool he had dragged right up to the bedside for a better view, and smiled as if nothing were out of place.

"Your house?" he repeated lightly, then gestured around them. "We’re just passing through. Saw the place and figured it looked comfortable enough to rest for a bit."

The man frowned, clearly confused, and glanced around the shabby building that barely qualified as shelter. It might have been livable in summer, but in winter it would have been a death trap.

Ethan watched his reaction closely, studying every subtle movement. The man behaved completely normally, with none of the stiffness or repetition Ethan had expected. It threw him off slightly. Up until now, he had assumed the people here were little more than puppets, following predetermined patterns, but this felt different. This felt like a real person.

"Alright," Ethan said after a moment, standing up casually. "We’ll head out."

"Wait," the man said quickly.

Ethan turned back, raising an eyebrow. He had already been planning to leave some money behind out of habit, but the interruption caught him off guard.

"You said this place was prime real estate," the man continued, his tone shifting. "Then I’ve got something you might be interested in."

He leaned down and reached under his bed, rummaging around for a moment. Ethan almost told him not to bother, already assuming it would be junk, but the words died in his throat the moment the man pulled something out.

Ethan froze.

He recognized it instantly.

"This thing fell from the sky yesterday," the man said, pointing vaguely toward the distance. "Right over there. See that crater? Scared the hell out of me. If it had landed any closer, it would’ve taken my head off. I tried selling it to a scrap yard, but the guy said it looked like some kind of Buddhist artifact and wouldn’t touch it. You seem like you know what it is, so you can take it."

The man kept talking, but Ethan barely heard him. His gaze was locked on the object in the man’s hand, his thoughts racing.

How far had this thing traveled?

It was Vasuki’s vajra scepter, the very same one that had been thrown at him before. Ethan had knocked it away using the Twilight War Spear, deflecting it with that strange Buddha-Demon resonance effect. He had assumed it had been sent flying into the upper atmosphere.

Instead, it had crossed hundreds of miles and nearly killed a random man.

Ethan glanced toward the crater the man had mentioned. It sat about ten yards away, wide and deep enough to prove the story true. Then he looked back at the scepter, his expression unreadable. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

When he reached out to take it, the man didn’t let go.

Ethan paused, then withdrew his hand without complaint. Instead, he reached into his jacket, pretending to pull something out while actually drawing from his spatial storage. A thick stack of cash appeared in his hand, crisp hundred-dollar bills bound together.

He handed it over without hesitation.

The man’s eyes widened, lighting up with disbelief as he stared at the money, then at Ethan. Without another word, he shoved the scepter into Ethan’s hands and clutched the cash tightly.

"All of this... for me?" he asked, almost unable to process it.

"Yeah," Ethan said simply, lifting the scepter slightly. "It’s worth it."

The man burst into laughter, genuine and unrestrained, his earlier suspicion gone in an instant. Ethan shook his head faintly and turned away, already walking off.

Objectively speaking, the vajra scepter was on the same level as the Twilight War Spear. It lacked sentience, but in terms of raw value, it was a priceless artifact. Ten thousand dollars for something like this was practically theft.

If anything, it might have been too much.

Ethan had chosen that amount deliberately. For someone in the man’s position, sudden wealth could be dangerous. Ten thousand was enough to change his life if he used it wisely, perhaps to start something small and stable, but not so much that it would immediately attract the worst kind of attention.

What he did with it from here on out was his own choice.

When Ethan rejoined Micah and Ryan, the three of them left the abandoned park together.

"Let’s check the chess scene again," Ethan said.

They made their way back to the spot from the previous night, and sure enough, the same crowd had gathered, the same energy lingering in the air. The only difference was the players themselves. The old men at the board were different, though Ethan quickly recognized them as the same pair who had been arguing the night before.

Now, instead of arguing, they were playing.

Ethan frowned slightly as he watched. At first, it seemed like things weren’t repeating after all, but then the pattern became clear.

It wasn’t that the loop had broken. It was that each day had its own sequence, its own "scene," and those scenes repeated on a daily cycle.

As he observed, Ethan also noticed that the homeless man from earlier was nowhere to be seen near the trash bins. That made sense. The man was probably still somewhere counting his money.

"The parasites inside them are causing this," Micah said quietly.

Ethan nodded. "Yeah. That much is obvious."

After a few more minutes, he straightened slightly. "Alright. We’ve seen enough."

Their next destination was the city center, but Ethan had already decided to adjust his approach. Charging in blindly wasn’t his style. He wanted information first, even if it meant moving slower.

Micah and Ryan agreed without hesitation, and they were just about to move when a sudden streak of light tore across the sky.

It was a milky white glow, moving at incredible speed before coming to an abrupt stop directly above the city center. A moment later, another figure rose from the ground to meet it.

All around them, the crowd reacted instantly. Conversations died, heads tilted upward, and then, as if responding to an unseen command, everyone dropped to their knees and bowed toward the city center.

"What the hell...?" Micah muttered, spinning in place as he took in the scene.

The three of them were the only ones still standing, sticking out like sore thumbs.

"Who are they bowing to?" Ryan asked, squinting upward. "One of those two? Wait... is that guy growing wings?"

Micah pointed.

Ethan narrowed his eyes but didn’t dare extend his Soul Sense. He had no idea if either of those figures could detect it, and this wasn’t the time to take risks.

Still, even with just his vision, he could make out enough.

"An angel," Ethan said quietly. "Four wings."

The second figure, the one rising from the ground, was even more familiar. Ethan couldn’t confirm it without his senses, but he recognized the silhouette immediately.

It was the Temple Lord who had escaped before.

"A big one," Ethan muttered under his breath.

Then his expression changed sharply. Without warning, he dropped low and pulled Micah and Ryan down with him.

Both figures in the sky had turned.

They were looking directly in their direction, from miles away, as if they had felt the weight of being watched.

"They’re strong," Micah whispered, keeping his head down.

"Quiet," Ryan hissed back.

Ethan could feel their gazes sweeping across the area, passing over the crowd again and again. Once, the attention lingered briefly on their position, and for a moment, the tension became suffocating.

But they were face down like everyone else.

Eventually, the pressure lifted.

Ryan let out a slow breath, and the three of them rose carefully. By then, the figures in the sky had already disappeared.

"Now what?" Ryan asked, wiping sweat from his forehead.

Micah, despite being stronger, looked just as tense, his skin prickling with unease.

"You two stay here, or pull back," Ethan said after a moment. "I’m going in alone."

He had already made up his mind. This was dangerous territory, and both Micah and Ryan would only be liabilities at this level.

"Alright," Micah said without argument. "We’ll pull back. Want me to contact Uncle Jed?"

"Tell them to speed things up," Ethan replied, his gaze still fixed on the distant city center. "Hit as many strongholds as they can. That angel meeting with the Temple... I think it’s about us."

His expression darkened slightly. The energy coming from that four-winged angel had been overwhelming, far beyond anything he had expected to find here. If it joined the battlefield, Uncle Jed’s group would be in serious trouble.

Angels... they were tied to the Void Realm as well, perhaps even more closely than the Divine Sea Temple.

Ethan’s mind flickered back to that strange space, to the ancient monkey-like powerhouse he had seen, and the four-winged angels who had lashed it with lightning designed not to kill, but to torture.

That kind of power didn’t belong here.

"Got it. We’re leaving," Micah said.

Neither of them dared to fly. They turned and ran instead, quickly disappearing into the distance.

"Be careful, boss," Ryan added, handing Ethan a stack of talismans along with several pieces of carved jade. "These are void-breaking talismans. And the jade ones... crush them, and they’ll teleport you about two thousand feet. Might save your life."

Ethan smiled faintly and clapped him on the shoulder. "Relax. If I can’t win, I can still run."

With that, he turned and headed toward the city center.

He kept his pace casual, blending in as much as possible as he moved through the residential streets. His plan was simple: clear the quieter areas first, then find transportation.

Taxis were everywhere, but strangely, every single one of them was empty.

He flagged one down and gave the driver an address.

The man stared at him like he had just said something insane.

"No. No. No," the driver muttered, shaking his head violently before slamming his foot on the gas and speeding off.

Ethan blinked in disbelief. Refusing a fare? Under normal circumstances, he would have reported the guy on the spot.

But this wasn’t normal.

Using his true speed wasn’t an option either, so he glanced around and quickly spotted an alternative.

A motorcycle sat parked at the curb, its engine still running. The rider, along with a girl in a leather jacket, had just stepped into a nearby convenience store.

"Sorry," Ethan muttered under his breath.

In a single smooth motion, he was on the bike. He kicked the stand up, shifted into gear, and twisted the throttle.

The engine roared to life with a deafening blast, the modified exhaust far louder than anything he was used to. Ethan winced slightly as the sound hit his ears, but the grin that spread across his face didn’t fade.

"HEY!"

The shout came from behind him, but Ethan only glanced back long enough to flash a bright, unapologetic smile before releasing the clutch.

The motorcycle shot forward with a sharp screech, accelerating like a bullet.

The rider tried to give chase, but it was hopeless. He hurled his helmet in frustration, missing by a wide margin as it bounced uselessly off the pavement.

Ethan didn’t look back again.

Wind tore past his ears as the speed climbed higher and higher, the roar of the engine fading beneath the rush of air. Buildings blurred into streaks of color, and even though the speed was nothing compared to what he could achieve on his own, the raw sensation of it was intoxicating.

He twisted the throttle further.

The first speedometer maxed out almost instantly, and then the second one took over, climbing rapidly past three hundred, then three fifty, then four hundred.

For a normal person, this kind of speed would have been lethal.

For Ethan, it barely registered.

And yet, weaving through traffic, cutting between cars with precision and control, the experience was completely different from flying. It was grounded, immediate, and far more thrilling than he expected.

People heard a rush of air but saw nothing as he passed.

Ethan laughed under his breath, fully enjoying himself as he pushed the machine to its limits, already making a mental note to have Fragment build him something like this later.

As far as he was concerned, this was far more fun than piloting a mech.