Arc III: “Return of Darkness”
Chapter III: “Fading Darkness / Tales Untold”
Episode IV: “Battle on Mars!”
“Tap into your new power, Lian!” Zane shouted.
He’s right. I haven’t used the power that our master bestowed upon me. But… am I able to draw it out?
The Warden traced a circle through the air with his staff.
Orange lantern-orbs ignited one by one until they formed a ring around him—perfect spacing, perfect rhythm.
“Dancing Lanterns.”
He spun, and the orbs began to orbit like they were chained to his movements. He pointed his staff at Lian, and all the orbs launched towards him.
Lian jumped backwards. “This technique is dangerous!”
Lian fired aether blasts into the swarm.
The lanterns didn’t even flinch, just pushed through the impacts and kept hunting.
“Damn, what about this! Dazzling Spiral Lash!”
His whip collided with a couple of the orbs, destroying them. However, there were still six more orbs hunting him down.
“Hmph.” The Warden continued his dance, spinning his staff around elegantly.
Through his dance, he created two new orbs that hunted down Lian.
His lips curled into a thin smile. “These lanterns will not be extinguished until the dance is over.”
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I can’t outshoot them, Lian realized. They’re being fed by his “dance.”
He tightened his grip, then loosened it again.
No… I don’t need more power. I need better control.
“Lian…”
The voice wasn’t loud—it was inside the seam where the old Guardian’s essence now rested.
“Stop clawing at it,” the voice warned. “Let it settle. Resonate… don’t wrestle.”
Lian closed his eyes as the lantern orbs surrounded him.
“You’re finished! I’ll make sure to take good care of your friend after this, too!”
Lian’s eyes snapped open—calm, not frantic.
His aura bloomed outward in a controlled pulse that didn’t explode randomly—but pushed everything away with authority.
“Neo Spirit Combustion.”
The shock burst erased the lanterns in an instant—each orb snuffed like a candle in a storm.
The Warden put his arm up to guard his face, the pressure from the blast forcing him back. “What?! Where’d he get this strength from?”
“Yeah! Let’s go, Lian!” Zane cheered.
Lian looked at the palms of his hands.
Is this really… my strength?
“Dammit! It’s not over!” The Warden continued his dance, creating another set of eight orbs.
“No… this battle is over.” Lian gripped his hands, then moved them down to his sides.
The lantern orbs flew straight towards Lian, but he didn’t flinch.
What is he doing? Zane and the Warden both thought.
Right before impact, Lian Aether-Skipped—air cracking as his presence slipped out of the lanterns’ path.
“How’d he get up there!?” the Warden grunted, adjusting his dance and aiming his staff upwards.
The orbs followed, recalibrating toward Lian.
Lian raised a single finger. No wasted motion.
“Neo Flash Spiral: Spiral Verdict.”
A violet-white helix fired—not a simple beam, but a spiraling drill-thread that corrected its own path mid-flight, weaving between the lanterns and shredding them as it advanced.
The helix tore through the lantern ring, then slammed into the Warden’s torso—gorging straight through. The remaining half of his body collapsed into drifting ash and broken light.
“ARGH!” he shouted as he collapsed to the ground and dropped the staff.
Lian landed in front of him, breathing hard, the staff now in his grip.
“You don’t belong out here,” Lian said, voice steady. “You belong with the master.”
He extended his hand. Elandarian runes flared faintly along his forearm—the Conjoining technique in full effect.
The Warden tried to laugh, but it came out as a cough.
“Do it,” he rasped. “And see what you break.”
Lian’s aura tightened like a knot. Then he pulled—
And the Warden’s essence was dragged into him in a violent, unwilling merge.
The moment the merger was completed, the Martian dust shifted.
Somewhere beyond the dunes, something buried deep under red stone answered with a faint, ugly pulse—scarlet aether, off-key, alive.
Zane’s Exosuit alarmed in his ear:
ABERRANT AETHER SPIKE — SOURCE UNKNOWN.
Lian turned his head slowly, a chill creeping up his spine…
“…Zane,” he murmured, “do you feel that?”
[Next Time on Lyte of Utopia]: “The New Prodigy”
[Yield Levels]:
Zane: 50 – 4z
- Exosuit: 50 – 6z
Lian: 12 - 5z
- Fiendish Form: 12 – 7z
- Old Guardian’s Boost (New Base): 12 – 7z
- OGB + Aether Resurgence: (Blossom): 12 – 8z
- OGB + AR: (B) + FF: 12 - 10z
- Flash Spiral: Dazzling Spiral Lash: x100
- Flash Spiral: Super Spiral Lance: x1z
- Neo Spirit Combustion: x2z
- Neo Flash Spiral: Spiral Verdict: x3z
The Warden: 5z
- Divine Pressure + Environmental Aether Boost: (Level 1) + Celestial Form: 10z
- Dying: 5
- Dancing Lanterns: x2z