The interior contrasts the modest exteriors, being flamboyant with colours of all sorts, and its air lay heavy with the scent of aged wood and iron.

Beyond the interesting view, Ezra couldn’t help but feel anticipation.

But it would be a lie to say he didn’t feel a bit anxious.

Room by room, Ezra searched, his senses on high alert.

Yet as he reaches what appears to be Khasavar’s personal quarters, his expression instantly crumples.

The room lay empty.

A simple desk sat in the corner, covered with nothing but dust.

A faintly glowing blade rested against the wall, but there was no sign of Khasavar himself.

Without wasting another moment, Ezra placed a small gatemark in the room.

Ezra’s scans the room for clues, his frustration mounting.

But finds nothing of substance.

So he quickly heads out, scouting other places before ending up in a room much more expansive than others.

A step closer reveals a higher level of energy concentrated within than anywhere else.

But the entrance is guarded by a thin film of unknown material, leaving Ezra to simply snoop around and stare to make out its interior.

To this, he uncovers it to be a cultivation room of sorts with no occupant at the moment.

As such. Ezra concludes that Khasavar wasn’t within this building.

He retreats from the Exalom territory, his mind already racing with plans to track Khasavar’s movements further.

As Ezra emerged into the Sovereign Universe once more, the barren expanse around him seemed to echo his thoughts.

Khasavar had slipped through his fingers today, but Ezra had gained valuable intel.

He now understood more about the Exalom House and its structure.

Sitting cross-legged on the cold ground, Ezra closed his eyes and let his breathing steady.

The barren expanse around him seemed to mock his frustration.

Khasavar wasn’t in the residence, and the hours spent sneaking through Exalom territory had yielded little more than confirmation of his absence.

Yet, Ezra was not one to give up so easily.

He had come too far and invested too much to leave empty-handed.

Hours later, his reserves replenished, Ezra reopens the gateway to the Exalom territory.

This time, he approaches with a sharper focus.

His movements are precise, utilizing <Universal Concealment> to its fullest.

He slips back into the sprawling compound and makes his way directly to the room where Khasavar is most likely to be.

As a repeat of the previous attempt, it lay empty.

Ezra clenches his fists, the air around him rippling faintly as his frustration threatens to break through his calm exterior.

He couldn’t afford to be reckless.

Placing another gatemark for good measure, he retreats to observe the residence from a safe distance, hoping for any sign of activity.

The hour dragon, and Ezra finds himself retreating once more to the Sovereign Universe as his concealment threatens to falter.

Intentionally or unintentionally, Khasavar isn’t making this easy.

The following day, Ezra returned with renewed determination. His patience was finally rewarded when he spotted two figures entering the previously empty cultivation room. He concealed himself in the shadows, watching closely.

The first figure was unfamiliar, a tall man with an air of authority and a faint aura of Nascent rank.

The other, however, immediately catches Ezra’s attention.

Lay bare in front was the entity he had been searching for.

Khasavar was finally within his sights.

The two appeared to be engaged in a mentoring session.

The older man corrects Khasavar’s stances and movements with a practiced hand, occasionally demonstrating techniques with fluid precision.

Ezra’s eyes narrowed as recognition dawned upon him.

The older man is Millowan, a third-generation ancestor of the Exalom House.

Ezra had taken notice of him during the window in which Sidal sold him an Astral Elixir a while ago, a transaction neither had realized tied their fates together.

That elixir, unbeknownst to Ezra, had allowed Millowan to break through to the Nascent rank after being stuck at the Transcendent level for years.

This in turn, boosted his waning influence, bringing him back into an area of relevance within the Exalom household.

Throughout the whole charade with Khasavar, it was the only thing to have worked out in his favour.

As such, he had bought more astral elixirs from AlphaNova, paying triple their original prices to create a sturdy foundation for himself.

After all, what use is money if not to increase one’s strength? And Millowan certainly has a lot of it.

Best yet, unlike other times, his own siblings couldn’t stop because they hadn’t known of it.

Now, after many years, he had stepped into nascent rank and could begin building his influence once more.

Back to Ezra’s side of the story; he felt the weight of the situation pressing on him.

Millowan’s presence complicated matters significantly.

He couldn’t risk an open confrontation with a Nascent rank warrior, especially not in their home base and jeopardize the whole mission.

So Ezra bids his time, watching the two interact.

His heart sank as the session stretched on with no sign of them separating.

As his energy reserves dipped dangerously low, Ezra is forced to retreat once more.

The vibration caused by his sudden departure caught Millowan’s attention.

The elder’s eyes narrow, and his aura flared as he scans the room for any sign of intruders.

Finding nothing, he dismisses the disturbance as coincidence, though his wariness linger.

Ezra cursed his luck. He could sense the window of opportunity slipping away. Yet, he wasn’t ready to give up.

Ezra waited just long enough to recover half his energy before returning to the Exalom compound in haste. He couldn’t risk waiting too long and losing track of Khasavar. This time, his approach was more cautious than ever. Every step was measured, every movement calculated to avoid detection.

Back in the cultivation room, Ezra observed the two figures again.

Millowan’s teaching was anything but meticulous, his corrections more physical than they were words as he struck the part of Khasavar’s body that didn’t hold proper form.

Khasavar follows such instructions diligently, his movements a mix of raw talent and clumsy, unrefined skill.

Ezra’s patience is stretched to its limits as he waits for a moment when the two might part ways.

His sharp eyes track every subtle shift in their behavior.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the moment came.

Millowan claps Khasavar on the shoulder, giving him a few final words before leaving the room.

Khasavar lingers, seemingly lost in thought as he practises a sequence of movements on his own.

Ezra’s heart pounds in excitement as he seizes the opportunity, slipping into the room like a shadow.

Khasavar, completely unaware of the danger, continued his practice.

Without any preamble, Ezra sprints towards Khasavar and leaps, his body blocking the light for a moment.

But before Khasavar can respond to the change, Ezra hands latch onto his head and immediately activates <Gatekeeper>, sucking both of them into the sovereign universe.

From Khasavar’s perspective, the room dissolves into a swirl of light as they vanish, reappearing somewhere else in the same instant.

Shaking his head, Khasavar looks around, only to discover himself floating in place.

Thinking that the attacker had only teleported him a distance away from the Exalom floating base, Khasavar promptly screams.

But just as the scream ends, Khasavar begins to reckon that something is wrong.

While wondering, a chilling whisper slips into his ears.

"Why are you shouting?"

With his gaze turned elsewhere, Khasavar is unable to capture the speaker’s visage, giving way to panic.

"Who’s there?"

His reply?

BAM!

Ezra delivers a brutal kick to his midsection.

"You thought you could slaughter, massacre and just walk away?" Ezra continues, his voice cold as ice.

Khasavar coughed, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. "I—I don’t know what you’re talking about!" he stammers, his voice shaky.

"You will. Very soon"

BAM!

Khasavar’s protests are silenced by another strike, this time a deadly punch to his face, leaving him gasping for air.

Two minutes later, Ezra takes a step back, breathing heavily as he calms himself.

Beating Khasavar to death here wouldn’t serve his purpose, and that wouldn’t do, that wouldn’t do at all.

With <sovereign’s movement>, he reappears on a barren planet, with Khasavar in tow and the Transcendents lined up in front of him.

"Ezra, is anything the matter?" Frederick questions upon seeing him.

Utilizing <Mind Cloud>, Ezra had contacted the Transcendents the moment he arrived with Khasavar and simply told them to gather.

Ezra points to Khasavar who had temporarily blacked out. "He’s responsible for the massacre in Quartez"

Hearing this, the expressions of all the Transcendents in varying degrees, each one conveying some form of ’Are you talking about what I think you’re talking about?’

Ezra nods in response, "The dungeons and the monsters, he’s responsible for all of it"

Their expressions shifting from surprise to grim understanding as they took in the scene.

Vanessa stepped forward, her gaze hard as she looked at Khasavar. "This is the one?"

As this time, Khasavar had begun to regain consciousness.

"N-No wait" he yells with a groan, groggy from Ezra’s two minute bodywork.

Khasavar’s voice cracked as he struggled to sit up, his body trembling from the force of Ezra’s blows.

Blood dripped from his split lip, and his left eye was already swollen shut.

Yet, despite his disheveled state, panic flickered in his eyes as he took in the gathering of Transcendents before him.

"I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!" he stammered, trying to scramble to his feet. "Quartez?! What is that?"

The panic in the young master’s voice betrayed his inner turmoil.

"I’ll show you" Ezra said, his voice low and filled with menace.

With a wave of his hand, he places a gatemark on the space in front of him and activates it.

To which the space then pulls apart to reveal a swirling portal before them.

Without hesitation, Ezra steps through, dragging the groggy Khasavar behind him.

The Transcendents exchanged glances before following suit.

The scene that greeted them on the other side is a grim but familiar sight.

Beyond the tiny of land in which the mana dome encompasses, the land of rest Quartez stretches out in every direction, barren and lifeless.

The once-thriving cities now reduced to craters lay in sight, but the air heavy with the lingering stench of ash and decay is no more because the Transcendents had done a mass burial.

Instead, what lay is a cacophony of graves that seems to stretch on forever

Khasavar stumbles as he took in the devastation, his expression shifting from confusion to dawning horror.

"W-Where am I?" he mutters, his voice barely audible.

While being the mastermind, he hadn’t once seen the exact landscape of where the dungeons fell into, only the recognizing the planets full visage.

Perhaps his assistant had, but that is doubtful as the dungeons and equipment were of low quality.

Understanding this, Ezra doesn’t reply.

Instead, he grabs Khasavar by the collar and with a burst of energy, he teleports them both into a pocket of space just a distance from Orion, bringing the planet into full view.

"Look," Ezra commands, his voice leaving no room for disobedience.

Khasavar hesitates, but the unyielding grip forces him to obey.

His eyes widened as he gazes upon the planet from orbit, the full scope of the devastation crashing over him like a tidal wave.

"Oh "

His knees buckle, and his spirit begins to fall into despair.

"This place..." he whispers, his voice hollow as turns to face Ezra. "You’re from this planet?"

Ezra leans in to stare back at Khasavar, his gaze unnaturally cold, even eerie.

"Oh? So now you understand...? Good" he responds softly, though his words carried a razor-sharp edge. "You’re going to answer for what you’ve done"

Like that, he returns to Quartez and tosses Khasavar forward like a piece of cloth into sandy soil, causing a small tremor.

Ezra’s voice rings loud and clear as this happens.

"You will receive full retribution for the destruction you caused"