The battlefield was dead silent.

Ten thousand elite guards of the Blackwood faction had been reduced to a sprawling carpet of ash and shattered armor.

Morwenna yawned and flicked a drop of blood from her abyssal claws. Sylvia casually froze the remaining severed limbs to stop the bleeding.

Arthur stood in the center of the carnage. He looked down at the bisected corpse of the commanding general. The man had been in charge of protecting Kaelen’s private extraction point.

Hovering just a few hundred feet above the slaughtered army was a magnificent ship.

It was Kaelen’s personal VIP Apex Cruiser. It was meant to evacuate the noble heir if the battle went poorly. But Kaelen was already dead and his vanguard was completely exterminated.

Arthur reached into his pocket and pulled out the glowing ID badge he had looted from Kaelen earlier.

He raised the badge and pushed a small surge of mana into it. A master control signal shot up toward the hovering vessel.

The ship chirped happily. It slowly descended to the bloody clearing and the boarding ramp lowered with a hiss of pressurized air.

"Look at this absolute waste of budget," Arthur noted as he walked up the ramp.

"Let us see what kind of severance package Kaelen left us. Sylvia. Bring us up.

It is time to visit the CEO."

"I call the captain’s chair," Morwenna purred and followed closely behind him.

The stolen Apex Cruiser sliced through the iridescent clouds of the Prismatic Domain like a dark shark gliding through a neon sea.

The ship was a marvel of high tech magical engineering, its hull forged from polished starlight metal and powered by the captured essence of a dying star.

Yet to Arthur Sterling, it was just another company car.

He stood on the bridge with his hands casually tucked into the pockets of his dark coat. He watched the sprawling floating continent of the Blackwood family draw closer on the main viewing screen.

Beside him, Sylvia Thorne was expertly navigating the complex runic consoles of the ship.

Her pristine silver hair cascaded down her back and her glacial eyes reflected the holographic data streams.

"Their outer planetary defense arrays are scanning us," Sylvia reported crisply.

"They require a localized mana signature to verify the clearance codes."

"Give them Kaelen’s," Arthur said smoothly. "We liquidated his assets. Might as well use his ID badge."

Sylvia’s fingers danced across the glowing runes.

A heavy and tense silence filled the bridge.

Then the massive geometric energy shields enveloping the floating island shimmered and parted to create a massive entry corridor.

"Clearance accepted," Sylvia said with a rare predatory smirk touching her lips.

"We are through the front door."

"Look at this place," Morwenna purred.

The Demon Empress was lounging in the captain’s chair with her long pale legs draped over the armrest.

Her dark crimson gown contrasted violently with the sterile white light of the bridge while her black tattoos pulsed with eager abyssal energy.

"It reeks of stolen wealth. So much pure unadulterated cosmic mana. The cowardly little gods truly know how to build a fortress."

Arthur looked out the viewport.

The Blackwood Estate was not just a mansion.It was a sprawling celestial city built on a floating continent.

Towering spires of crystal and gold pierced the sky. They were surrounded by lush gravity defying gardens and rivers of liquid mana that flowed uphill.

"It is not a fortress," Arthur corrected in a low rumble. "It is a bank vault.

And we are here to make a withdrawal."

He bypassed the designated landing zones entirely. He directed Sylvia to crash the cruiser directly into the central courtyard of the primary palace.

"Brace yourselves," Arthur ordered.

"CRASH!"

The heavy cruiser slammed into the pristine gold laced marble of the courtyard.

It carved a massive trench through manicured celestial gardens and shattered a dozen statues of ancient Blackwood patriarchs.

The ship groaned and hissed as it came to a violent halt with smoke and sparks billowing from its engines.

The instant the boarding ramp lowered, the internal automated defenses of the estate triggered.

"ROOOAAAR!"

From the surrounding archways, a pack of massive celestial beasts bounded into the courtyard.

They were Star Eater Hounds. They were hulking four armed gorillas covered in interlocking plates of natural diamond armor. Their jaws dripped with corrosive starlight.

"Pets," Morwenna sneered with her eyes flashing with liquid gold.

She stepped forward and her abyssal claws elongated. "Allow me, Arthur."

"Stand down," Arthur said as he stepped past her. "I think i need to test the new hardware."

Arthur did not run. He did not enter a martial stance.

He simply walked down the ramp with his heavy boots crunching against the shattered crystal of the courtyard.

The lead Star Eater Hound was a beast the size of a siege tank. It lunged at him with its four massive arms raised to crush him into a red paste.

Arthur rested his right hand casually on the hilt of the Ebonheart Sword at his hip.

He drew the blade in a single fluid motion. This unleashed the absolute peak of his Domain Level Sword Intent which was now heavily augmented by his pseudo ascended core.

"Slash."

A pitch black crescent of compressed kinetic force and abyssal energy erupted from the blade.

It expanded into a massive horizontal wave of sheer destruction that swept across the courtyard faster than the speed of sound.

As the motion completed, the crisp sound of the system chimed in his mind.

[Ding!]

[Practice of ’Domain Level Sword Intent’ detected.]

[Random multiplier activated: 10,000x!]

[Target ’Star Eater Hounds’ perfectly countered.]

"Squelch! Squelch! Squelch!"

The black wave passed directly through the twelve charging beasts.

For a fraction of a second, their momentum carried them forward. Then their diamond armor simply unraveled.

The horrific celestial beasts dissolved into a fine bloody mist. Their physical and conceptual forms were entirely shredded by the absurdly amplified sword intent.

"Beautiful," Arthur murmured as he flicked the blood off his blade.

He did not pause to admire the carnage.

His eyes locked onto the center of the courtyard. A massive glowing crystal pillar pulsed there with the rhythmic heartbeat of the entire continent.

The Stellar Leyline Core!

"This entire island is powered by a central grid," Arthur said as he walked toward the towering pillar.

"The Apex Realm relies on these leylines for their localized gravity, their shields, and their ambient cultivation. It is an incredibly inefficient power grid."

Sylvia stepped up beside him and her Arch Mage senses scanned the massive crystal.

"The sheer volume of mana inside this core is staggering. If you shatter it, the island will fall out of the sky."

"I am not going to shatter it," Arthur smiled like a cold corporate shark looking at a vulnerable asset. "I am going to drain it."

Arthur stepped up to the massive glowing pillar. He placed his bare calloused hand flat against the thrumming crystal.

"System. Initiate maximum siphon."

[Ding!]

[Target Identified: Stellar Leyline Core]

[Initiating absolute extraction protocols.]

[10,000x ROI Multiplier Activated!]

"Fvck!" Arthur grunted.

His knees buckled slightly as the sheer cataclysmic weight of an entire celestial continent energy grid slammed into his soul.

It was like trying to swallow an ocean!

The blinding iridescent light of the pillar began to rapidly dim. The pure cosmic energy violently funneled into Arthur’s hand and traveled up his arm before crashing into his core.

His Dimensional Breaker Physique hummed like a jet engine pushed to the point of catastrophic failure.

His muscles bulged and tore his coat at the seams as his body forcibly adapted to house the apocalyptic volume of power.

[Warning! Host internal energy has breached the Master Tier.]

[Host has breached the Grandmaster Tier.]

[Host has achieved ’Divine Foundation’.]

The ground beneath his feet spider webbed. It was completely unable to handle the gravitational density of his new existence.

The entire floating island groaned. The ambient lights flickered and died as Arthur literally starved the continent of its lifeblood.

When he finally pulled his hand away, the massive crystal pillar was completely black. It was a dead useless rock.

Arthur stood up straight with his breath coming in slow heavy pants.

His eyes glowed with a terrifying ethereal light before he forcefully suppressed the aura back beneath his skin.

He rolled his shoulders and felt the raw world ending power coursing through his veins.

Divine Foundation! He was a walking nuke!

"Let’s move," Arthur commanded with his voice vibrating with newfound authority.

"The main vault is just ahead."

They navigated the darkened and silent halls of the Blackwood palace.

Without the leyline, the automated defenses were dead.

Arthur kicked open the towering rune carved doors of the ancestral vault. He expected to find the cowering Patriarch.

Instead, the massive gold lined chamber was half empty.

A young woman in sleek dark leather armor stood in the center of the room. She was holding a glowing prismatic orb that radiated intense spatial energy.

She froze with her hand halfway into a spatial pouch. Her wide violet eyes locked onto Arthur.

Arthur tilted his head and a dark smirk spread across his face.

"Well, well. It seems someone is trying to embezzle from my company."