Chapter 514: The Beginning of...(6), Tenebria of the Shadow Bamboo Sanctuary

While Aria was preparing to become the head of this Realm House and create her avatar so she could meet up with Erix and others, the said gang was on their way to the Grand Dimensional Auction.

But the incident that happened at the feast brought its reaction here.

The one who wanted to make Erix kneel forcefully but couldn’t and got insulted in return.

Black Sun Houndez—Leader of the Black Sun House.

The Grand Dimensional Auction was held on a space continent that was situated at the center of the four Super Worlds.

Adriax Super World and the other three, all vying for resources and power boosts for the Axis Realm that would be four months later.

But on their way to the auction, Tenebria’s ship was intercepted by Black Sun Houndez’s ship.

"That bastard made a move as expected," Tenebria narrowed her eyes.

"Are we going to fight?" Erix smiled as he cracked his knuckles.

"We’ve tirelessly trained for four months, so we don’t mind letting ourselves loose here," Rin grinned.

Lilith, Isabella, Lily, Sameira, and Kenshin shared the same thoughts.

"Well, we wouldn’t mind fighting after what we’ve gone through," Nira grinned.

Korin nodded his hand on his sword’s sheath.

"No," Tenebria shook her head.

She turned around to look at the big screen showing a fleet of three big ships blocking their way.

The stars and a nebula-like phenomenon far away highlighted them.

"I’ll deal with them. You all need to conserve your power to perform in the Auction."

Tenebria vanished from her spaceship and appeared outside in the space.

A second later, a huge, ethereal black-purple avatar manifested, even towering over the giant spaceships.

The avatar’s eyes opened, two slivers of pale violet light that pierced the void.

It was Tenebria, but not as she usually appeared.

Her hair flowed like rivers of ink down her back, suspended in the vacuum as if she stood in still water. Her robe was the same plain black, yet stretched across the scale of a small moon, every fold rippling with bamboo-leaf shadows that danced without wind. The ethereal silhouette of a single bamboo stalk rose behind her, taller than the nebula itself, its segments glowing with soft jade light.

The three Black Sun fleet ships looked like toys before her.

Inside Tenebria’s spaceship, Erix and the others watched the screen with bated breath.

’This is the first time I’ve seen her go all out,’ Lilith muttered, her arms crossed and her crimson eyes shining. ’Even back in the Sanctuary, she never showed this form.’

’Her aura...it’s suffocating even through the screen,’ Isabella said while clenching her fists.

Kenshin gulped.

"This is the real thing," Rin’s eyes glinted, her expression a mix of awe and ambition.

Korin remained silent, his hand still on his sword’s sheath, but his knuckles had turned white. "Yeah, she isn’t going to go easy on them this time. There’s no need for Master Tenebria to stay quiet from now on."

Outside, the Black Sun fleet’s flagship—a colossal obsidian vessel shaped like a crouching wolf with three burning red eyes—pulsed with malevolent energy.

Black Sun Houndez stood on its bow, his bestial form towering at fifteen meters. His face was a hybrid between a hound and a man, his fur a deep void-black with sparks of crimson plasma constantly crackling between his teeth.

Beside him stood thirteen other figures, all Reverend-order, all radiating dangerous auras.

"Heh, Tenebria of the Shadow Bamboo Sanctuary," Houndez sneered, his voice booming through the void via spatial transmission. "Came out yourself, did you? Saves us the trouble of dragging you out."

His three red eyes locked onto the avatar, mockery dripping from every word.

"You know, when that brat of yours insulted me at the feast, I let it slide. I’m a generous ruler. I told myself, ’Houndez, she’s just a Reverend who hides in her little bamboo forest. Don’t bother.’"

Several of the Reverend-orders beside him chuckled.

"But then I heard you’re heading to the Grand Dimensional Auction. With your little pack."

His grin widened, fangs glinting.

"Now, I can’t have that. The Ascension Anchors are mine. The Time Crystal slates are mine. Adriax Super World will rise under MY name. So here’s the deal—"

Houndez raised one massive clawed hand and pointed at Tenebria’s spaceship.

"Hand over the brats. Especially the one who calls himself Supreme Throne. I’ll grind his bones for what he said. Do that, turn your ship around, and I’ll let you crawl back to your bamboo grove. Today only. Generous, no?"

The thirteen Reverend-orders behind him grinned, releasing their auras to add pressure.

Tenebria’s giant avatar remained still.

Her eyes drifted past Houndez, past the thirteen others, sweeping across the three flagships with a quiet, almost bored interest.

Then she spoke.

Her voice was soft. It carried not through space but through everyone’s very mind, vibrating in their souls.

"Houndez. Do you know why I never bothered you?"

The Black Sun lord frowned.

"Because you weren’t worth my time. None of you were."

"You hounds of Adriax bark loudly because there’s no one above you who cares to silence you. The peak Reverends of the other three Super Worlds laugh at you behind your back. You know this. Yet you puff yourselves up because here, in this small corner, you’re ’the third strongest.’"

Her violet eyes finally focused on Houndez.

"My disciple Nira called you a flea once. I corrected her."

A pause.

"A flea bites. You only yap."

The thirteen Reverends behind Houndez snarled. One of them—a wiry, scaled humanoid with a serpent’s lower body—spat, "This bitch wants to die fancy!"

Houndez’s three eyes flared crimson.

"Tenebria. You—"

"Be quiet."

The two words were not loud. They were not violent. They simply...arrived.

And every soul on the three flagships felt their tongues lock.

Houndez’s jaw moved, but no sound emerged. He tried to bark, to roar, to invoke his own Rule Power.

Nothing.

His three burning eyes widened, finally—finally—registering something other than arrogance.

Fear.

Inside the ship, Lilith’s eyes widened a fraction.

’She used a Rule.’

’A Rule?’ Erix glanced at her.

’Reverends operate with Rules. Self-Rule and Empowering-Rule. They cost Penalties to invoke,’ Lilith explained quickly. ’What she just did—silencing fourteen Reverend-orders simultaneously across kilometers of space—that’s not a Self-Rule. That’s an Empowering-Rule projected outward with massive territorial scope.’ 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

’The Penalty for something like that should be enormous.’

’But she did it like she was swatting a fly,’ Rin muttered.

’Yes,’ Lilith nodded slowly. ’That’s the difference between a Reverend who scraped into the realm and one who has mastered it.’

Outside, Tenebria raised her hand.

The space around the three Black Sun flagships warped.

Soft green light bloomed in the void—and from that light, bamboo stalks grew. Not real bamboo, but something else, something woven from Aethir and Rule Power, each stalk impossibly thin yet impossibly solid.

Within seconds, a forest of ethereal bamboo had formed around all three ships, encasing them in a luminescent grove that stretched a thousand kilometers in every direction.

[Rule of the Bamboo Sanctuary: Within this territory, only my will moves.]

The announcement rang through every soul present.

Houndez tried to move.

He couldn’t.

Not his claws. Not his tongue. Not even his eyes—though he could still see, still feel, still think.

The wiry serpent-Reverend—the one who’d insulted Tenebria—strained against the rule. His scaled body shook. His Rule Power erupted from within him, attempting to overwrite Tenebria’s territory.

For a moment, his own Rule flickered into existence around him, a corrosive green miasma.

Tenebria’s violet eyes turned toward him.

"You spoke first."

She raised one finger.

The bamboo around the serpent-Reverend bent inward. A single stalk extended, slow, almost gentle—and pierced through his chest.

There was no blood in the void. Only a soft snap as his core shattered, his Rule collapsed, and his body broke apart into Aethir motes that drifted into the bamboo forest, absorbed.

The other twelve Reverends watched, frozen.

Houndez’s three eyes were now wide with raw terror.

Tenebria turned to him.

"You bark at my disciples. You stand in my path. You demand my child."

A soft, almost sad smile touched the corner of her mouth.

"Houndez. Do you know what my Rule Penalty is?"

She didn’t wait for an answer he couldn’t give.

"For every Reverend I bind with the Bamboo Sanctuary, I lose one year of my remaining lifespan."

The bamboo around Houndez tightened, individual stalks pressing against his enormous frame, lifting him from the bow of his flagship like a child plucking a toy.

"I have...quite a few years left."

The bamboo squeezed.

Houndez’s body—fifteen meters of muscle, void-fur, and crimson plasma—creaked. Then crunched. Then folded inward as the bamboo applied Rule Power directly, bypassing physical defense entirely.

His final expression was not the snarling mockery from a moment before.

It was the face of a beast that had finally, in its last instant, understood the size of the predator it had provoked.

His core exploded. His soul scattered. The Black Sun lord of Adriax was no more.

Inside Tenebria’s spaceship, complete silence.

Erix slowly exhaled.

"...Note to self. Do not piss off Tenebria."

Rin smacked his shoulder, but her grin was wide. "She’s amazing."

Nira’s eyes were misty with pride. "Master is the strongest."

Korin finally let go of his sword. "I think...we’ll be fine on this trip."

Outside, Tenebria’s avatar turned to the twelve remaining Reverends, who hung suspended in the bamboo, sweating, trembling, some weeping openly.

"You twelve. Listen carefully."

Her voice was calm again. Soft. The voice of someone discussing the weather.

"I am going to release you. You will return to Adriax. You will tell every Reverend who would listen what happened here."

"You will tell them that Tenebria of the Shadow Bamboo Sanctuary is escorting her disciples to the Grand Dimensional Auction."

"You will tell them that any who interfere with her, her disciples, her ship, her business, or her path—will be added to the Bamboo Sanctuary. Permanently."

She paused.

"And you will tell them my Penalty is not a deterrent. It is a price I am willing to pay. Many, many times."

The bamboo unfurled. The twelve Reverends were ejected back toward their flagships—two of which were now leaderless, drifting in the void.

Not one of them attempted to look back at her.

Tenebria’s avatar slowly dissolved, the bamboo grove receding like a tide pulling back from the shore.

The space lane to the Grand Dimensional Auction opened, clear and undisturbed.

Inside the spaceship, Tenebria reappeared in her chair, sipping her tea as if nothing had happened.

"Where were we?" she asked mildly.

Everyone stared.

Erix burst out laughing. "Master Tenebria. I take back every joke I made about your bamboo aesthetic."

Tenebria smiled faintly. "I noticed those, by the way."

"...sorry."

Rin elbowed him.

Lilith leaned back in her chair, her crimson eyes thoughtful. "Tenebria. The Penalty you mentioned—one year of lifespan per bound Reverend. Was that the real cost, or was that for their ears?"

Tenebria’s smile didn’t fade, but her eyes flickered.

"The real Penalty is worse, Lilith. But they don’t need to know that."

She set her teacup down.

"My Rule Penalties are...notorious. That’s why I rarely engage. Houndez assumed I wouldn’t pay them for a petty dispute. He was correct in his assumption—if this had been about anything other than my disciples."

She looked at Erix, Rin, and the others one by one.

"But it wasn’t about anything else."

The room fell quiet.

Sameira, of all people, was the one who broke it. She stood, walked over to Tenebria, and bowed deeply.

"Thank you. For protecting our children."

Tenebria looked surprised for a brief moment—and then her smile softened, becoming something far more human than the void-spanning avatar from minutes before.

"They protect themselves. I just opened the road."

Several hours later, the spaceship slipped into the auction continent’s docking field without incident.

News of the encounter had already spread. The other three Super Worlds’ representatives gave Tenebria’s vessel a wide berth as it landed.

Erix and the others stepped out onto the auction continent’s grand plaza, a vast expanse of polished obsidian stretching kilometers in every direction, lit by floating crystal lanterns shaped like every imaginable celestial body.

"So this is the Grand Dimensional Auction," Lilith murmured, her eyes already cataloging exits, threat presences, and the layouts of the major auction houses lining the plaza.

"The Ascension Anchors should be the headline lot," Tenebria said as she walked at the front of the group. "But before then, there will be the customary three games. The Anchors are the prize for the games’ overall winner—or, if no one qualifies, they go to public bid."

"Games?" Rin’s eyes lit up.

"Three of them. Combat, Comprehension, and Wit. Each tests something different. Winners across all three earn the Anchor outright. Single-game winners earn auction credits and lots from a separate prize pool."

Erix cracked his knuckles. "I’m in for all three."

"Of course you are," Lilith said dryly.

"Expect dirty plays," Tenebria added, her violet eyes scanning the plaza. "Houndez was loud, but he was not alone. The other Super Worlds have their own predators. And the Carnal Nex Pledger House from the 4th Dimension Realm has sent representatives."

Everyone’s expression sharpened at that name.

"They’ll know about Aria by now," Isabella said quietly.

"They will," Tenebria nodded. "Be ready."

The group moved deeper into the plaza, toward the spire that housed the auction’s central hall. Behind them, the docked ships of a hundred factions glittered like a second sky.