The Locus Tree was swiftly left behind, and the surface of Vallenar stretched out below, a sight that was becoming all too familiar to Sam. Sentinel Tree after Sentinel Tree flickered by, until they eventually reached the much diminished boundary line between the Voidrot's territory, and the uncorrupted lands. Whereas before, the Voidot had spread across half of the world, now it only covered about a quarter. It was still an unacceptable amount, but it was far better than before.

The familiar morass of sickly purple swamplands soon covered the horizon and the corrupted Sentinel Trees stood guard, like the tombstones of a forgotten civilization. As filth dripped from their boughs, Sam felt his companions tense in anger. They could do nothing for the trees now though, and they simply continued. If they succeeded here, then Vallenar would be free. If they failed, then they would all be dead.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the heartlands of the Voidrot's domain. The ground was a uniform black, and it seemed to reflect the dark heavens above. In the very center of the horizon was a circle of towering mountains, with a beam of darkness extending from its central peak. Far above, a tendril of nebulous energy the length of a solar system extended, stretching around the sun and towards Vallenar. It met the beam a few thousand miles above the planet's surface, funneling power to it. For the first time, Sam saw the Voidrot itself, if only a shred of its true power. Just that tiny fraction of it was so immense that Sam could barely take it all in, even with his E Rank perception.

It slid in between the stars, and as Sam followed its trail with his eyes, he saw something so breathtaking that he let out a gasp. An entire quadrant of the sky was covered in a dark bruise of purple and black. Pallid stars twinkled dimly among it, flickering in and out of shades of lank white. The entire thing almost seemed to take the shape of a skull, but that was just Sam's mind ascribing meaning to something far beyond his understanding. It was impossibly large, but there it was. The Voidrot itself, in all its glory.

"That's the thing you're fighting?" Sam asked, his face going pale.

"It is. But not in the way you think. The Voidrot is less intelligent than a living being. It is more of a construct, formed from the Dao and out of elemental energy. It cannot register anything save for its own size," Bronvar explained.

Sam nodded."So it's like a virus?"

"In essence, yes. Its only directive is to grow."

Silence ensued as the group took in the Voidrot. Even for beings who had already seen it, it was a terrifying sight. It looked like the harbinger of the apocalypse, and for countless planets, it already had been. It was a clever play on the part of the System, creating a sense of scale, while preserving the level of fairness that the Tower was supposed to uphold. Rather than fighting the Voidrot itself, Sam only had to defeat its servants.

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Within a minute, they hovered before the entrance to the Astral Pit, an archway in the side of a mountain that extended into pure darkness. It was hundreds of feet wide, a borehole like no other. Sam gave the others a single nod and teleported down to the entrance, summoning an orb of Dao energy to his right hand. Then he shot it down the passageway. It illuminated a slick tunnel of rot speckled stone, the granite of the mountain itself infected.

The energy traveled further, and eventually detonated, sending a tremor through the mountain. Sam heard a secondary rumbling, and watched with his advanced perception as a troupe of Voidrot Guardians trooped down its length, responding to the disturbance. There were dozens of the creatures, too many even for Sam to defeat. Instead, he waited until they spotted him and teleported a few hundred feet back, starting to lead them away.

The monsters fell for the bait and thundered out of the tunnel, their massive feet sending echoes across the nearby land. They towered over Sam, and the mountains towered over them in turn. Far above, the tentacle of the Voidrot dwarfed everything else.

A dozen beams of Dao energy shot towards the Guardians as Sam let his power loose. Bark crisped, the rot burning away and holes forming in the monsters' flesh. However, they healed in a matter of moments as the Voidrot coursed into them.

Sam gritted his teeth and teleported again, toeing the line between danger and losing the interest of his pursuers.The monochrome ground stretched out below as he flashed through the sky. The Forest Folk were nowhere to be seen, which was just as well. Sam smiled slightly at this, and quickly widened the gap, leading the monsters on a wild chase across Vallenar. Miles passed in moments, his E Rank foes able to move quite rapidly, despite their cumbersome bulk.

He had no way of knowing if his allies had made it into the Astral Pit, but going by what he had heard of Bronvar's plan, it would be very obvious. A multi-mile high tree extending out of the center of a mountain range would be visible to a mortal, let alone Sam.

About fifty miles from the mountain range, when it had started to curve around the horizon, Sam stopped. His body erupted with the flames of his Dao, and his hammer burned just as brightly. A faint haze gathered in the air as he used his meager domain. In the coming battle, he wanted to train his new ability to a degree where it would actually be useful to him. Or at least, until the System even recognized it. Considering that it notified him of things as weak as Common rarity skills, that meant that his domain was immensely pathetic.

Sam clenched his fists. "Right. Which one of you ugly bastards is first?"

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