Defiance of the Fall

The unyielding brutality of Zac's Evolutionary Dao couldn't so much as break the palm's skin. Instead, it was Zac who was flung back dozens of meters by the recoil. Around him, hundreds of trees collapsed without warning. For an outsider, it might have looked like the jungle crumbled on its own. The reality was much scarier.

Zac got back to his feet with a solemn expression. The golden scar on Insik's forehead had expanded to the width of a hand, and it continued all the way to his groin. The suspected Technocrat looked like a costume being zipped open, an impression that was greatly reinforced when another person stepped out of the tear.

The scene, together with Insik's clothes, made Zac think of Leandra's appearance the day she took Kenzie away. His mother's enormous mechanical form created a portal with her hands, from which her fleshy body emerged. Zac later learned from Sendor that ability was part of Kayar-Elu's unique inheritance from the Technocrat Codex.

While similar, it was clear that Insik wasn't part of his mother's faction. For one, the man emerging from the golden curtain was a separate entity—one much stronger than Insik. The golden scar also wasn't created through the Dao of Technology. It was made from intense Imperial Faith, a blessing that extended to the mysterious newcomer.

It was a layer of impermeable Faith that had kept [Verun's Bite] from digging into flesh. Breaking through had felt as impossible as cleaving the Left Imperial Expanse. Worse, what the newcomer had done went beyond calling upon the boundless faith gathered in the continent. He'd displayed a shocking level of control for a Late Hegemon. He'd somehow taken Zac's energy and scattered it with an invisible wind. It was Zac's own attack that had damaged [Apex Jungle].

This man was the real deal.

Zac prepared for a tough fight while trying to get a read on his opponent. The olive-skinned man was human like Insik, though his robes were quite different. More than anything, the exquisite green robes resembled the style of the ancient cultivators of the Left Imperial Expanse. Zac hadn't encountered any true noblemen in the memories so far, but he expected this was what they'd look like.

The stranger wasn't even a pugilist. He was a swordsman, and he'd already drawn a thin rapier. His relaxed stance made Zac's mind scream of danger. The Imperial Qi that Yselio used in their fight felt like a poor copy of the great faith instilled in the edge. Zac might have a small attribute advantage, but he feared it wouldn't account for much when they came to blows.

It almost felt like Insik had gotten his hands on a protective charm from one of the lanterns, one capable of summoning a clone of some ancestor. However, the vague outline of a Skybreaker seal on the man's hand confirmed that he was another trialtaker. Could they be part of the mysterious faction mentioned in Iz's docket, the Pesvati Rift in the Eternal Storm? It would explain Insik's clothes.