“No.” Sect Master of the Verdant Snow Sect, Tundra Fox held the eldritch creature’s corpse in his hand. He trembled. The residual energies that remained were so familiar. He watched the eldritch creature’s flesh slowly decay and slip apart to reveal a face he recognised. “No- Jason?”

Jason was his great-grandson. He vanished about seven hundred years ago, and Tundra Fox had never been able to find him ever since. Jason’s face, only half of it remained. The other half, consumed by the overwhelming corruption of the Zuja. 

It was Zuja that warped him into the 10th realm Eldritch Dragonbeast that destroyed cities. 

The face smiled, coughing. “-grandfather. I’m- I’m sorry.”

Tundra’s blood boiled. The Zuja epidemic started 15,000 years ago, and at first, Tundra ignored them as nothing more than a demonic cult, like many other demonic cults. But the Zuja had proven themselves far more potent and powerful than any other demonic cult. “Jason- what- what happened?”

The creature that held what’s left of Jason’s body and soul decayed. Jason wouldn’t last more than fifteen minutes. “-The Murian Swamps- It- it was infested with the Zuja’s Worms.”

Tundra’s eyes turned red. His body struggled to contain his anger. This wasn’t the first time Zuja claimed one of his family. Zuja Worms was one of the vectors of the Zuja infestation, it would eventually possess a cultivator and eventually turn them into a thrall of the Zuja. 

“Great-grandfather. Zuja is real. The God from Beyond is real.” Jason said, his voice fading. “-be- be careful. It’s very powerful.”

Tundra Fox didn’t know whether to cry or smile. He knew the invading God from Beyond was real. Already, the sects across the realms united to face it. Foolishly. “Why- why didn’t you find me back then? I could- I could’ve cured your Zuja Worm.”

“I- I was stupid, great-grandfather. I was too afraid that you would be angry. You were always too busy, always occupied with something else. I’m- I’m- I’m sorry.” His great-grandson’s words were weak. 

But he knew the true reason. It wasn’t the first time. He was never there as a father or grandfather. He was too busy with sect things. Naturally, his children and descendants never got close to him. 

Tundra felt his heart twist. Was he so unapproachable as a great grandfather? How had he been as a Sect Master to drive his family to this? “Jason. Don’t say that. I- I was always proud of all my children and grandchildren. I would not be angry if you came to me to seek help.”

Jason smiled weakly. “-I wish I knew. We wish we knew. But it’s too late now, great-grandfather. I- We were all afraid. We are just the little ones looking up at the high mountain.”

Tundra’s fingers trembled. This was his fault. “I’m sorry, Jason.”

“Me too-” Jason closed his remaining uncorrupted eye, and his body faded away. Tundra’s blood burned.

He roared. “ZUJA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Though his lips blamed Zuja, his heart knew he had to shoulder the blame. Guilt and shame flooded his mind. 

But at this point, if he couldn’t save his family, he’d at least try to save the realm.

***

But for the entirety of the realms, it was much too late. Zuja’s Cult had grown far too powerful.

“This is our last chance. The Zuja cultists will be summoning Zuja itself to our realm.” The sects of the entire realm, or what’s left of the orthodox sects, came together for a final strike. “The rumors claim Zuja itself is a primordial god-realm master. We- we wouldn’t stand a chance.” 

Tundra nodded. It didn’t matter. He looked at what’s left of his Verdant Snow Sect. The entirety of his sect’s fighting force was here. Not a single one was left behind. “It doesn't matter. Zuja seeks to corrupt us into its spawn. There is no other choice.” 

“It is rare that I ever agree with Patriarch Fox, but I agree.” A woman that Tundra hated spoke up. 

Mortal enemies. But right now, at this very moment, all those ancient grievances between their two sects felt small. Pathetic. 

Matriarch of the Flaming Phoenix, Ember Longflame, nodded. “There is no choice, and this time, every single one of my people is here.”

Tundra noticed the force the Matriarch gathered. Her best soldiers were all here. Many faces were familiar. Elders. Core Disciples. Special Elders. Ancestors. Everyone she could muster came. 

It was a rowdy crowd, but his men, despite their old hatreds and enmities with the Flaming Phoenix, were too tired to fight. Not now.  

Ten Sect Masters, and all in, about three thousand men. A shame it wasn’t more. 

Many others had chosen to defect for the promised salvation by Zuja, but Tundra could see the corruption was far stronger than they expected. 

Tundra Fox nodded at the ancient woman. She ascended to be sect master a few decades earlier than he did, and they were widely considered from the same generation. He was always ranked behind her and so, he always felt a deep sense of rivalry. 

Yet, as they prepared for their final assault, Tundra Fox looked at the woman who still regarded him warily. They were going to die, and for once, he felt like enough was enough. There was no need to take the enmities to the grave. “Though our rivalries are long, and our enmities deep, I am thankful that you stand here with us today.”

Ember Longflame’s slender fingers trembled. Her eyes widened in shock. She did not expect the Patriarch Fox to ever utter those words. He was always so competitive, aggressive, proud, stubborn and thinks highly of himself. It was indeed a rare olive branch, and Ember Longflame seized it. “It is a shame that our clans have hurt each other so much, but ultimately, we both stand for what is right.”

Tundra nodded. There was no need for further elaboration of all the crimes they traded. Both their sects were heavily stained with the blood of the other. “Indeed.” Another Sect Master saluted them. Tundra clasped his hand. “I see you’ve come to join our deathwish, Patriarch Whitedragon.”

“Patriarch Fox, Matriarch Longflame.” The great Patriarch of the Snow Dragon Temple, Patriarch Hunt Whitedragon nodded. “Indeed. This is an illustrious company. To die alongside the great alchemist and the queen of flames would be an honor.” 

Tundra had always found Hunt an arrogant, foolish man. He was obsessed with power in a strange way, but there was no denying that he was the strongest man here. The only one at the peak of the 10th realm. 

Matriarch Longflame frowned. “You speak as if we are going to die.”

Hunt Whitedragon laughed. He turned at his men, and roared. “Are we ready to die today?”

They roared back. “Yes, patriarch! We will drag the Zuja to hell with us!”

Hunt Whitedragon turned back to face his fellow Sect Masters. “We face the great ten avatars of Zuja. Each of them is in the tenth realm, and I hear the Great Voice of Zuja is in the legendary eleventh realm. This is a fool’s attempt, but there is no delaying it. We must face the inevitable.”

The Zuja Temple was the summoning grounds of Zuja, and they could already feel the unusual rifts in the land. Reality was slowly breaking apart, the merger with Zuja’s home prison would soon be complete. 

And yet, Patriarch Whitedragon had his own questions. “Patriarch Fox- will you be alright?” Hunt Whitedragon asked. 

“-why?” Tundra looked at his fellow sect master, curious.

“I hear your wife is one of the ten.” Patriarch Fox frowned, and sighed. The few elders reported back seeing a familiar face. 

“She- she vanished nine thousand years ago.” Back then, he hadn’t been able to cure the Zuja’s Worm. It was a secret almost no one knew, but Celestia Gale was his dao companion and one of his wives. 

But back then, they were still in the 6th realm, and she was just in the 4th realm, and he didn’t have the knowledge of how to cure the Zuja Worm. Celestia vanished a few decades after the Zuja Worm possessed her body, despite her best attempts to resist its corruption. Her disappearance set Tundra Fox, the alchemy master of the Verdant Snow Sect, on a furious path to discover the cure for the Zuja Worm Infestation. 

He did. He discovered how to cure it somewhere around a thousand years ago, but by then it was too late. Thousands, if not tens of thousands had fallen to the Zuja Worm. Even as he spread the knowledge everywhere, it could not undo the loss over the millennia and centuries. 

The world was weakened far too much.

It was a foul twist of fate to know that Celestia was one of those who would summon the eldritch god of beyond. 

“I will be fine. We must do what we must. What stands in that temple there, is not my wife, but a shadow of it.”

Patriarch Whitedragon nodded. His aged hands tapped Tundra on the shoulder. “Good. I know you mean it.”

A rugged looking man came over. “Patriarchs, we must begin the assault soon. Time is running out.” 

Tundra nodded at the man, and noticed he was in the ninth realm. For a rogue cultivator, it was exceptional. Behind him were many others, the rogue cultivators who joined their cause. Even among the free roamers, there were those who did not want to submit to the Zuja cult. 

“Yes. Let’s get ready.”

***

The Zuja Temple had a large empty square that was now covered in strange formations and words written in blood. Sacrifices have been prepared by the hundreds, all loyalists brainwashed into believing in salvation.

Zuja. 

The God from Beyond. 

It preyed on the weak, and offered them strength.

Those denied the path of cultivation. Those who lost their cultivation. Zuja favored them, found it easy to convert them. It was a creature of corruption. Or assimilation. It twisted cultivators, beasts and mortals alike into a strange blend of living being and monster. 

In the early days, when Tundra first ascended to be the 15th Sect Master of the Verdant Snow, everyone treated the Zuja issue as an irritation. They were seen as weaker than the demonic cultivators, but now, he knew they were all wrong.

Zuja’s Cult had merely been biding it’s time, accumulating its war resources over millennia for this day. 

Patriarch Whitedragon roared, and the cultivators attacked. The Zuja cult knew they were there, and yet did nothing.

Arrogance.

The battle was furious, but the Cult had not unleashed its trump cards. Its avatars and great avatars. Those possessed by a larger chunk of Zuja itself. 

At first, the battle went well. The force slaughtered the lesser cultists easily-

Then the entirety of the Zuja temple vibrated, as the aura of ten avatars in the tenth realm descended upon the battlefield. Tundra fought fiercely, his twin swords flying and chopping off the heads of the lesser cultists, but his blade was then blocked by a woman with burning red hair.

Tundra’s aura flared, but it was met with a flaming aura that was clearly his equal, and some. 

He stared momentarily, unable to believe the person he faced. How long as the Zuja worked it’s influence?!

“Matriarch Longflame.” Tundra spoke. It was something she needed to see.

She turned, and saw. Her eyes widened. Ember Longflame trembled as she saw a face she thought she would never see again. “HOW?!”

Tundra Fox recognised that face too. The 18th Sect Master of the Flaming Phoenix, and Ember Longflame’s master. Fury Blackfurnace, the legendary fire of darkness. 

In her years alive, Tundra remembered that she was only at the peak of the ninth realm, never the tenth. And yet, the creature resembling that woman was clearly in the stronger half of the tenth realm.

The voice that came from it was ethereal, otherworldly. And her words echoed. “Ember, my disciple. Come, it is not too late to join us. Zuja will welcome you too.” 

Ember Longflame’s two arms burned, glowed. Her entire arm manifested the will of the Flaming Phoenix. Her fingers resembled claws. “Zuja. To think you’ve could fall even further. Desecrate the dead?!?!”

“I was never dead, disciple. I merely attempted to assimilate Zuja’s power, and in doing so, entered a state of death-like hibernation.” Lady Blackfurnace grinned wickedly. “And look at me now! Tenth realm! A barrier I struggled my entire life to break, broken so easily.”

“-you look like her, you talk like her. But no, you are not her.” Ember Longflame’s body exploded in golden flames as she charged at her corrupted master. “Master Fox, let’s trade places.”

Tundra nodded. “Sure.”

But the one Tundra faced was also a familiar face. No. It was more than familiar. 

“Celestia.” His fingers curled up into a fist. He reached for a special pill in his pouch, and swallowed it.

“Tundra. My dear.” Celestia Gale stood as if she was still alive, but strange tentacles emerged from her back and her feet. “I heard you’ve been resisting the servants I sent to you.”

“They are nothing more than assassins.” Tundra said, coldly. He said he would be fine, but now, face to face with this cruel corrupted version of his lover, he still felt his blood burn. “Let her go, Zuja.”

“No. Zuja is not here. It’s really me, Celestia. Tundra my love, it’s not too late for us to be together again. United under Zuja’s rule. Join us, please, I beg you.” Celestia’s eyes glowed faintly in shades of dark green. 

Fury. Anger. Frustration. Tundra briefly wondered where he went wrong in the past. 

The pill’s effects kicked in, and Tundra’s energy fists smashed into Celestia’s face. “No. You’re not her. Not anymore. Die.”

Celestia’s frown and sadness almost made him skip a beat. “A pity, my love. I will have to kill you, and have Zuja rebuild your corpse, then we will reunite once more under our great Lord’s watch.”

Tundra traded fists and kicks, but Celestia was also in the tenth realm. Her tentacles and limbs protected her and blocked his strikes. He felt Celestia’s eldritch tentacles leave cuts and wounds across his body. Wounds that would take a while to heal, as his body worked furiously to burn off the corruption. 

In the distance, he faintly felt Ember Longflame burn her True Essence. 

He looked back at Celestia, and frowned. What a foul corruption of his wife. “I shouldn’t hold back, either.” 

He took out a pill he never ate. But it was meant for moments like this.

[The Burning Eternity Pill]. 

He felt his True Essence erupt, and his body trembled with power. It struggled to contain the incredible energies he had, and his fists landed in Celestia’s body. The energies of his fist exploded, and her body exploded with it.

“Nooooooooooo~~~” Celestia roared, but her head remained. 

Tundra’s body squirmed. It was still unreal to see his lover’s head flopping on the ground, tentacles emerging from her neck. He stepped in, and smashed the head to pieces. He would not allow the Zuja to desecrate his lover further. 

Both Tundra Fox and Ember Longflame emerged victorious against their own Zuja Avatar enemies. But they were both scarred. Across the Zuja Temple grounds, many other patriarchs won their own battles, as the victors came to the aid of those struggling.

But it was not over.

“And here I thought all of you would’ve accepted your fate and embraced your new ruler.” A man appeared out of nowhere, flanked by four others. Tundra didn’t recognise the man, but he could hear him in his head. The creature’s voice echoed. He was in the 11th realm, as were the four others around him.

The Great Avatar of Zuja raised his hands, and a beam of incredible energy slammed into them. Or would have.

A gigantic wall of earth and sand held the beam back. 

“My shield would only hold momentarily.” Sect Master Eshen of the Great Desert Clan’s massive shield of sand struggled, and he coughed as his immortal blood was sacrificed to support the shield.

The energy blast was relentless. The wall would not last much longer. 

Ember Longflame nodded, as her body burned. “There was no return from today, after all. [Heavenly Burning Phoenix].” 

The entirety of her True Essence ignited, her soul palace would be destroyed, and she would be crippled if she survived. But for a moment, for this battle, she would be able to go toe-to-toe with someone in the 11th realm. 

But Tundra Fox looked at his old rival and enemy, the glowing, shiny Ember Longflame. She was not the aged matriarch anymore, because momentarily, she was once again the Goddess of Flames. 

Their old feuds were so deep. Their hatred. Her family and her clan killed a few of his sons, and in return, they killed a few of her favored personal disciples. He hated her. She was a slaughterer of his kin. Her hands took the life of his disciples. They contested brutal wars over cities and territories, even though they were both supposedly righteous sects. 

For what?

“I may be outnumbered.” Matriarch Longflame roared. “But I will take a few of them down with me.”

They both hated each other. They always thought the other was arrogant, haughty, simple minded and foolish. Bloodthirsty, and power hungry. No Sect Master liked each other. All ten of them had feuds over the years. 

But at this moment, Tundra Fox took out three [The Burning Eternity Pill]. “Matriarch Longflame, fear not. I will not let a hero like you fight alone today. Let us kill all that we can, together.” 

Tundra consumed the three pills, and he too, sacrificed his lifespan and True Essence. His body coursed with energy, and he too, for a moment, entered into the semi-divine 11th realm. 

She looked at him, and instead of her usual hateful, proud look, her eyes were soft and gentle. Between them, there was no need for words now.

All they needed to do was to kill. 

Her fingers glowed. 

“Master Eshen, spare your True essence. Let us face them.” 

The wall vanished, and both masters charged at the Great Avatar of Zuja. She was a phoenix in the living realms, her flames burned with the strength of her soul. The five 11th realm Great Avatars blocked with a wall of tentacles so large that the sky was blotted out.

But Matriarch Longflame shone like a candle in the dark, her fire burned the tentacles, and pierced through the wall. Tundra followed closely behind as his fists slammed into one of the Great Avatars. 

The One of the Five Great Avatars choked, as it’s lower half exploded into smithereens. 

The Lead Great avatar frowned. “To think the living realms could still muster this sort of strength. It is admirable, but you two are not enough.” 

The Great Avatars descended on the two, and they both took hits to their bodies. They both coughed out blood, and were bleeding all over. Parts of their chest have been crushed as they traded blows with the Five Great Avatars.

“-and who says it is just two?” 

Two more stood to join them. Patriarch Whitedragon and the Rogue Cultivator. 

The Rogue Cultivator’s blade shone with divine light, and incredibly, he ascended two major realms into the 11th realm. Patriarch Whitedragon similarly had a trump card of his own, as he withdrew an ancient egg, and swallowed it. 

He ascended into the peak of the 11th realm momentarily, as he manifested the powers of the White Dragon. 

The Lead Great Avatar couldn’t believe it. “Impressive! But this is not enough!”

The four cultivators fought furiously, but outnumbered, they were not leading. Throughout the temples, the other cultivators were overwhelmed, as somehow, more Zuja Avatars emerged.

Tundra couldn’t believe his eyes. The Zuja must have prepared for eons for this. There were at least fifty tenth realm Avatars In the entire realm, before the whole Zuja invasion, there were only about thirty tenth realm cultivators, half of them killed during the great attacks of Zuja, and of the survivors, seven of them were here, fighting against the Zuja Avatars. He could feel the rest of his fellow patriarchs and sect masters fall in battle, overwhelmed.

The four righteous cultivators struggled, and momentarily, all four of them were bunched together.

“I do not fear death, my fellow cultivators.” Patriarch White Dragon said, his body burning True essence to sustain the draconic form. “It is an honor, despite all our grievances, to die by your side.”

Tundra’s heart pounded. Heroes. His fellow Sect Masters were truly heroes to the end. When it mattered, they stood for what was right. He wanted to cry, but no. Now was not the time for that. They would drag a few of the Great Avatars down with it. 

“Even if we die, let us burn brightly, and make Zuja remember.” Tundra declared.

Matriarch Longflame was the weakest of the four. Not because she lacked strength, but because she took the most attacks. Her charge into the wall of tentacles weakened her significantly. 

She coughed blood. Her body was bleeding. But for once, she looked at Tundra. “I still hate you, but you’re not a bad man, Tundra Fox.” 

The Great Avatars attacked. 

Tundra looked at the injured Ember Longflame, and nodded. Even in all her injuries and blood, she was radiant and for once, incredibly powerful and beautiful. 

She merely smiled back, as they countered the Great Avatars attacks.

But it was too late. 

The dark skies above the Temple of Zuja cracked as if the sky was made of glass. A tentacle punched through the glass sky. 

A child floated up. Then, Zuja’s Divine Energies merged with what seemed to be a child. 

A host.

The child transformed immediately, and they immediately knew this was the end.

Zuja’s power was so immense that all of them froze. 

Only Patriarch Whitedragon roared. “Zuja!!!!!! You will not take me alive!”

The child’s finger pointed, and instantly, Tundra saw an attack so powerful that there was no hope of avoiding it. Patriarch Whitedragon died instantly. 

The Rogue Cultivator’s sword shone. “Zuja. I, Edwin of Greyhall, will not let you pass.”

“Big words. I’ve killed many others like you.” The child said, his voice echoed in their mind like a divine imprint. “Die!”

Edwin Greyhall’s sword vibrated, and then shattered. 

Tundra Fox and Ember Longflame were the two remaining cultivators. He looked at Ember Longflame, and sighed. Tundra knew there was no escaping death today. “See you in our next life.”

He took all the pills he had, and leaped into the sky. Everything in a single shot.

Ember Longflame smiled, as what’s left of her body melted into golden fire. She burned everything for this moment, as her flames surged into the heavens. 

The child merely laughed. “Fools.” 

In a swish of power, both of them died. 

****

The Rivers of Time

Tundra Fox knew he died, but the fact that he knew he died puzzled him. 

Where was he? He was in a narrow tunnel. It was dark all over, but there was a path of light. He followed it, and suddenly, he arrived in a small room with a golden ring. 

He recognised it, of course. It was one of the strange artifacts they found a long time ago, back when he was a freshly minted Sect Master of the Verdant Snow Sect. The last he recalled, it was somewhere in his storage pouch, as their sect grounds were destroyed.

The Verdant Snow Sect was a mid-tier sect when he first became sect master. If it wasn’t for the Zuja, Tundra Fox felt he would have been remembered as one of the great Sect masters of all time, because he uplifted his mid tier sect into one of the great sects of the world. 

He stood in that dark room, where the golden ring’s faint glow was the only other source of light. The path of lights already vanished. 

“Where-”

At that moment, the golden ring revealed inscriptions he had never seen before. He read it.

“Immortal Time Reversal by Hedron Warp.” 

It was a rumor from the ancient times that there was once a time lord that created items that could reverse time. But it was always just a rumor, because such an incredible item had never been found.

He didn’t know why, but every part of Tundra Fox’s being compelled him to touch the ring. He resisted. He didn’t like this sort of compulsion. 

“No. What’s happening here? Why?” 

Hedron Warp. It was a rumor, but if such a lord of time existed, he had never seen him or found evidence of his existence. The reason for that was simple. His creations floated in the rivers of time, and would vanish after they were used. 

There was nothing else to do in the room but to touch the ring. 

Tundra Fox kept trying to figure out where he was, and slowly felt himself fading. 

At this point, he realized he couldn’t avoid it. He touched it, and instantly understood what was going to happen. His soul would be sent back in time, and he would return to that time, 10,000 years ago.