This means war

"Oh?" Xandria seemed surprised. "Are you all blessed by lady luck? This is an Imperium source, a rather weak one, but compared to the ones where you all come from. It is the difference between heaven and earth."

"What do we do?" Liza inquired cautiously. She did not believe such good things existed in this world. How could a place such as this fall into their laps a little over a week into their journey, with no strings attached?

"Well, this is our outpost. If I'm not wrong, this place has the highest concentration of Imperium for millions of miles. There might only be two or three places like this in all of Ethos."

"But this place is so big, it's bigger than all of Stardust Province. Shouldn't you say this should be our new headquarters?" Liza queried. "This place can't be ownerless, can it?"

"You call this place big? This entire place was only a fraction of my estate back then. And mine was not even the biggest in our sect. Did you not come here to search for resources? Why are you asking foolish questions about ownership now?" Xandria said disdainfully.

Xasha looked at Ari and asked, "do we have time to annex this place? I mean, what is the situation with Tulip and the others?"

"Well, I couldn't say, but it's not like I know where she is. I just calculated the time and place. I'm sure as long as we have faith we will meet them on our journey." She sounded confident, so Xasha was no longer worried.

"Alright, have everyone stop their advance and gather here. Tell them to activate the last tower and set up a defensive line before entering this basin to investigate. Also, contact the Army and let them know to be on standby, otherwise keep going as planned. Another thing, let them know to build mana pools and lots of them. We may need them if we need to defend this place."

Liza nodded and went off to relay the messages. Ari turned to Xasha. "What now? Do we set up camp and wait for the others to arrive?"

"No, call Alexi. Our groups will set up camp while we three go inside and investigate with a small team."

"Okay, we will take our strike teams with us. But, we will go exploring in the morning. Everyone is still adjusting to the new environment and may not be in the best fighting condition."

"We'll do as you say," Xasha replied casually. Ari smiled brightly and turned away, heading towards where the Raid ship was.

"Ari," she heard her father call out.

"Yes?"

"You're doing an excellent job. I'm proud of you, honey," Xasha's voice softened as he praised his daughter.

"Thanks, Dad, but we haven't done anything much." Though she said that. In her heart, she was happy to hear those words from her father.

Her entire life, she looked up to him. She wanted to get stronger, prove herself to him, and gain his respect. It seemed she was off to a good start this time. The way here was not especially difficult. There were no organizations here, just unorganized Fantasma roaming the empty lands. Just like the mapmakers reported.

They had covered the entire area mapped out by them over the years, and everything rang true. They passed that region and kept going. Their aim was never to cover that area and call it a day.

They wanted the entire abandoned region. A day after leaving the mapped territory, they happened upon this place.

After setting up the Magic towers nearby, it began absorbing the mana from the basin and pushing it towards Stardust Province. The towers picked up an unusually high concentration of Imperium, and Xasha came to investigate with the Gold Raiders.

In no time, there was a small city beside the basin, encompassed by four towers. These were defensive towers that also pull Imperium directly from the basin. Everyone inside the city except for a few guards was in deep meditation, breathing techniques activated and absorbing Imperium endlessly into their bodies.

Everyone there was already at the peak of Thorium Realm, so there was not much change to their cultivation. But their bodies were getting much stronger.

Xasha stood at the top of a tower, looking into the basin pointlessly. He did not need meditation as he mastered his breathing technique so thoroughly it was active permanently. Through his breathing technique was the only way his body now knew how to breathe.

Others among the crowd also achieved this, but the number was small. He had the seductive Mylyn floating beside him. "How come at the Thorium Realm, or rather 6th crystal, we may absorb an endless amount of Imperium, but it doesn't help it our transcending that realm at all?"

Mylyn glanced down at him. "Oh that, I can't believe I forgot to tell you. The amount of Imperium you absorb before becoming a Lava Sage dictates the size of the flame and how powerful you are. At least until your next flame where the same rules apply."

She looked into the basin one last time then commented, "this place is rather interesting."

Xasha looked up with expectant eyes, "have you noticed anything?"

"No."

"Oh, I see," he turned away, disappointed and pouting like a child.

The next morning, what looked like 15 specks of dust fell from the cliff and down into the basin. They all got on their bikes and slowly descended while in a heightened state of alert. They were on their own. Communication was impossible with this cloud of Imperium hanging above the basin.

As they dove through the cloud of Imperium, thanks to their bodysuits, highly concentrated Imperium gushed into their bodies. With their breathing techniques permanently activated, they circulated the Imperium throughout their bodies and Valdis endlessly.

They descended like that for a few hours until they noticed the fog getting thin. However, instead of the concentration of Imperium getting weaker, it got a lot stronger as they descended. When the fog got thin enough for them to look around, they grew wrinkles on their foreheads. After passing through the fog and in the open air, they could finally see what's below them.

Darkness. Nothing but unending darkness from miles. This was not strange as the thick fog above them completely blocked out all lights from reaching inside. The bottom of the basin was nowhere to be found, even after descending for an entire day.

Footsteps echoed off the stone floors in a large room. A young man covered in sweat, panting and gasping for air. "Woah." The young man slipped, fell to the ground, and slid across the floor. He disregarded his embarrassment, hopped back up, and continued running at his fastest speed.

He burst through a pair of wooden doors, "Shaman Ulock, Shamon Ulock, trouble."

"Trouble? Speak boy, what kind of trouble." The room was large and black. The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once.

"Someone has broken the agreement and entered the Cloudsky basin." The young man hurriedly blurted out before returning to gasping for air. He had been running for hundreds of miles to get here.

"Those damn bastards, who was it? Do you know?" The voice echoed off the walls.

"We don't know. It was a small team. They were moving pretty fast and the Impurity of the Imperium didn't hinder them from moving nonstop. They may have already reached the floor of the basin. I think they are going after the crystal."

The sound of something crashing filled the room. "I'm going to kill them. I'm going to kill every last one of them, no matter the cost. Call the Assault Core, we are going after them, and send a message to those two snakes Mulan and Livell," the voice roared in anger. "This means war."