The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

Oscar's deer anima charged into the mass of ants. Its metal antlers rang clear against the ants' hard carapaces, but with a forceful grunt, the deer anima forced the ants away with sheer power. The ants gave way, and Oscar trampled his way over to his friends.

He stabbed many with his silver lance, leaving gaping holes in many of the ants' bodies, and swung his bulwark with all the might of his current self. With the boost in his Adamasreis from 85 percent to 88 percent, his arms held more physical power, not comparable to Orden's incredible strength with weight boost, but still formidable.

Many ants helplessly flew into the air with battered and cracked armor. Oscar's and the deer anima's fierce powers combined overwhelmed the ants, but they were unyielding. True to their nature as insects, they continued moving despite their injuries, following their instinct to harvest their prey.

"Grab on!" Oscar shouted, shifting his position closer to his deer anima's head. Frederick and Emily settled their respective enemies and jumped onto his deer anima. In order, Oscar, Frederick, and Emily rode together.

"Sorry, my friend." Oscar patted his deer anima, and his eyes gleamed clearly. "But you're our way out of this."

With a deep breath, his Ein flowed and spiked all over his deer anima, speeding up as more ants dug out of the sands. But they could not catch even the tail of his deer anima as his spell, Silver Burst, increased its speed further. All the while, Oscar, Frederick, and Emily fought off the ones that managed to close in.

After a fierce run and struggle, the deer anima swung its antlers a final time, knocking away the skittering ants. Oscar and the others rode upon a fresh part of the desert, and the ants no longer gave chase. Looking behind him, Oscar saw the ants burrowing back into the sands.

"We must have gotten far enough away for them to give up," Oscar sighed in relief. "Thank goodness. We've been running for tens of miles, but they never gave up."

The ants could chase many long distances away from their hive, but even that had a limit, or else they'd be out of their queen's range of influence and lose track of their surroundings and movements.

"Thank goodness you found us," Frederick coughed. "Those ants never stopped for an hour, and we tried to run, but we didn't have an anima like yours to help out."

"Considering it took us ten minutes at full force to get away, trying to do that on foot is near impossible." Oscar felt his Ein draining fast and stopped his deer anima. He got off and helped the others down gently.

"Hehe," Emily chuckled.

"What is it?" Frederick asked.

"It's been quite a while since the three of us had been together like this. These days, we usually mingle with the larger group." Emily smiled and undid her ponytail to let the hair flow freely with the breeze, her eyes showing her satisfaction.

"Blame this guy over here," Frederick pointed at Oscar. "Too busy with his insane training to even spare us some time."

"That sounds unreasonable, Fred." Oscar unsummoned his deer anima and pointed back at his friend. "But you are right, Emily. It has been a while."

"What a touching reunion!" Gol-4 said from Oscar's chest.

"What the–!" Frederick exclaimed. He did not notice Gol-4's head tied to Oscar's chest earlier due to all the ants and chasing that happened.

Oscar took off Gol-4 and let the golem levitate over to Emily and Frederick's astonished gazes.

"This is Gol-4, right?" Emily couldn't get up, but her eyes followed the floating head.

"You know him?" Oscar asked, then he realized. "Austin and Erik must have told you. Well, then, there's not much in terms of introductions. This torn head is Gol-4."

"Pleased to meet you all. I am Gol-4, a golem of the treasury and currently serving Oscar Terr." Gol-4 came close to Frederick and Emily.

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"Nice to meet you, Gol-4, is what I want to say, but I heard about how troublesome you can be." Frederick scoffed and flicked Gol-4's head.

"It seems I have made a bad impression on many. My intentions were purely for the benefit of the group." Gol-4 shook his head.

"Too rude, Fred." Emily still had the strength to pinch Frederick's ear, inducing cries of pain. She turned to Gol-4 with a smile. "It's good to have you onboard, Gol-4."

Her smile was welcoming at first, but then it turned cold, and her eyes narrowed. "But if you ever do something to harm Oscar, I'll rip you apart."

"How intimidating. Quite the terrifying lady." Gol-4 flew back to Oscar.

Oscar sighed and caught Gol-4. "He's too hard. I don't think it's possible unless we're Knight Exalts or higher."

He reached into his space pocket, took out some wrapped-up meat, and gave them to Emily and Frederick. "These are raw meats from the Great Sharakas that I fought. It's cool and refreshing and soothes the throat with its clean oils. Most importantly, it's delicious."

Emily and Frederick's eyes shone as they gulped, wiping the saliva from their lips in identical motions. They ate with great enthusiasm, letting out satisfied moans from the fresh taste.

Oscar smiled and watched their surroundings while his friends enjoyed their tasty morsels. He used this time as well to recover his Ein using his ataerstone. His friends did the same after finishing their meals.

In an hour, Oscar stretched out his back. "We should head out."

"First, I'm jealous that you have a fabricator uniform to help you with the heat," Frederick grumbled. "Second, where do we head off to? There's nothing but sand all around us."

"That's where you're wrong," Oscar pointed at the ground. "It's hard to make out because it's all ruined and scattered beneath the sands and an illusion, but there's a path."

"Really?" Emily started kicking over the sand but couldn't find the path he mentioned. Finally, her foot was caught, and she could not budge past a certain spot. Her orange eyes glinted and flickered as she exerted more strength, but her foot refused to move across a patch of ordinary golden sand.

"See? It looks and feels like normal sand, but you can't move it. Very easy to miss." Oscar tapped his bulwark on the rubble, letting the clear sound reach Frederick and Emily.

"Where does it lead?" Emily whipped her head around with high expectations.

"No idea, miss. That's why we're following it." Gol-4 said while in Oscar's arms.

"Wait, how certain are you that this is the right way?" Frederick asked.

It was a good point, and Oscar had thought of the same when he first set foot on the path. For all he knew, he could be going to the start rather than the end destination, typically the place with the most intrigue. But there was just as much value in either place right now, according to Gol-4.

"Even if we go all the way to the entrance, it wouldn't hurt to use the two days in this desert to explore, no? Also, there may be clues at the entrance." Gol-4 spoke the same reasoning Oscar heard earlier. In this large place with nothing but sand and monsters, following a pathway to wherever seemed interesting.

"So that's that," Oscar clapped his hands together after tying Gol-4 back up. "There's nothing noteworthy here except for the Exalt Beasts that roam around, but even they seem a bit scarce and spread out that hunting them is a waste of Ein and time."

"True. Time would be better spent going on a mysterious path. Who knows what we'll find?" Emily hummed and started to walk on the path, and then realized she couldn't see it. She turned embarrassingly at Oscar. "Could you lead the way?"

"Hop on!" Oscar summoned his deer anima, and Emily and Frederick got on. The delighted trio continued their journey across the desert wastes. With his spare Ein, thanks to his uniform providing some comfort, Oscar enveloped Emily and Frederick in his Ein shroud to diminish the heat and lessen their burden.

"Can't we cancel the camouflage illusion on the pathways?" Frederick asked after an hour of trotting through the desert.

"I'm afraid that's not possible. I couldn't find any nodes, and Gol-4 suspects it's a camouflage illusion that encompasses the entire realm." Oscar responded, keeping his Eliren Breaker working to decipher the pathways.

"What else can keep these pathways hidden and drive away the sands to prevent them from being completely buried?" Gol-4 spoke and stared around. "What's more alarming is the fact this realm is so quiet. No sandstorms or clouds. This place is stagnant except for those beasts and us."

Suddenly, Oscar stopped the deer anima, making everyone lean forward tightly together.

"Ouch!" Emily had banged her head on Frederick's. "What happened, Oscar?"

"You'll see," Oscar rode a few steps closer, and the air began to distort around him. To Frederick and Emily, it appeared like Oscar was disappearing into thin air along with the head of his deer anima. It continued until they were fully through the strange distortion, which reminded Oscar of the stone gates in True Sword Peak.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Oscar said. He saw it with his Eliren Breaker from the start.

It was a large rocky hill, a rare sight in this golden desert. On its sides were two pillars engraved with drawings of scrolls and a large throne upon which sat a stone figure. Oscar and the others were only tall as the knees of this strange sculpture, a body of bronze armor like a knight with the head of a monkey with a fierce, angry expression, baring its teeth.

"What is this?" Oscar whispered to Gol-4.

"It can't be…." Gol-4 remarked.

Then, out of nowhere, the rocky hill trembled as rocks, rubble, and sand fell from its edges and down its slopes. Following the sound of a loud crack, the bronze statue rose from its throne, brandishing a large polearm of iron. The Ein from the statue made Oscar and the others wince as it was fierce and hostile.

"Fight and prove yourself worthy or die now!" The statue spoke. Its polearm tore through the air with lightning coursing through its blade.

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