Thousands of miles away from the undersea battle, the mouth of a semi-active volcano glowing with red light had been thrown into chaos. The expected source of that chaos, volcanic activity, was not present. Instead, the rumbling of earth and magma was caused by a single person.

Inside the caldera of the volcano, outside the view of anyone that wasn’t flying over top of the volcano, was a sharply rectangular fortress crafted out of a shiny black glass. This obsidian castle was surrounded by a glowing red barrier which at this time was facing the assault of a metallic man. This metal person was punching rapidly, smashing their fists against the red energy and causing the stone of this large volcano to rumble. With each strike their feet smashed into the rocky ground and that immense energy was transferred into the earth, causing the loud rumbling.

Within the obsidian castle, the Leaders of this branch of the Yi Yang Group were cursing and checking on the control plates of their defensive arrays. Compared to the other two hidden bases, this one was in a much more precarious position and needed a more powerful barrier to prevent any mishaps when the volcano underwent any minor events. They also had other Formation Arrays specifically calibrated to track the volcano’s activity. It was especially stressful to them because at this very moment not only was their defensive array struggling to hold on, the massive impacts were also causing changes in the mountain. If this kept up, they would be due for at least a minor eruption.

A door high up on the fortress slid open and a group of troops rushed out onto a narrow catwalk. They marched out through the barrier and leapt down onto the bridge behind where the metal man was. They started to form up to attack him from behind, but before they could finish organizing they found themselves targeted by a rain of silver needles. Three foot long spears were launched at them with immense force from multiple angles. The troop of a hundred guards were turned into pincushions by over a thousand of these heavy arrows. They quickly used some scouting Magical Tools to figure out what was going on and found out the sky was filled with large flying vehicles. They looked like bloated fish with wooden baskets strapped to their bellies, and those ‘baskets’ were filled with soldiers standing behind armless ballistae. At least that was their assumption given the glittery metal points poking out of the end of the large devices. A pair of caped soldiers were loading more spears into the weapons while a third was belted to it and in charge of firing.

The Yi Yang Group didn’t recognize the Airships, the Six by Six Cannons, or the Dragoons that manned them. They only realized they were in deep trouble at this point. They couldn’t attack the metal man from the back because of the air cover and if they tried to attack from the front the narrow path was almost completely blocked by the metal man. A Formation Array could allow friendlies through it, but that was the Cultivator carrying a special identity token. A person with the right token could walk through unharmed, but that didn’t mean their attacks could pass through. They would have to carefully create an opening in the barrier to allow an attack to be launched outwards. Creating an opening to allow things to leave also meant things could enter. If they dared to open the door to ‘shoot’ at the metal man they would also be opening the door to let him inside.

This was why the more advanced Formation Arrays usually had multiple layers so they could lower the outer shell to attack without leaving themselves completely vulnerable. Then, after the attacks they could put the outer wall back up and even lower the inner wall to deal with anyone who tried to sneak inside. It was a sort of mystical version of an airlock or many layers of castle walls. Unfortunately, just like the other bases the Yi Yang Group only intended this to be a fallback point and not an invincible fortress. The Yue Clan didn’t care that much about them to invest in a dozen Sect protecting arrays. Why cut into their profits to strengthen their minions? Not only would they be losing money they’d be making it easier for them to rebel.

The Lang Clan had scouted the Yi Yang Group intensely and so it was no surprise they could strike with such precision. At this time those in the base could only march out to face the metal man’s fists head on or try to survive the rain of spears from the many airships. What made things even worse was that in these bases filled with hundreds of Cultivators only a few dozen had free will. The rest were like drones. While they had the memories and looks of their former selves the helmets they wore made them into obedient drones that could act just like their old selves yet without any agency. They could perform simple and complex tasks, and even engage in long conversations just like they used to, but they had no creativity or ambition to speak of. They were like shadows of their former selves, robbed of their dreams and free will. Even their will to live was overshadowed by their loyalty to their controllers.

Arguments broke out among the few free willed leaders as they tried to come up with a solution to the siege. It all turned out to be for naught when the barrier suddenly shattered. They looked down at the Formation Core and saw that the Spirit Stones hadn’t been expended, instead the formation itself had been rattled so hard that parts of it had cracked. They looked at each other with astonishment. Has anyone ever broken a formation through brute force like this?

Their astonishment multiplied when they looked outside and saw the metallic man turning around and running away. The Sword of Damocles hanging above their heads left just like that. They were sure that certain doom was upon them. The power of those attacks had terrified them all, especially after the attacks didn’t slow down. A Core Formation Cultivator was said to have limitless energy, but that was only when using less than their own energy regeneration rate. What terrified them all was that those terrible attacks seemed to be the ‘minimum’ that the metal man was capable of. They were suddenly at a loss. The nightmare on their doorstep suddenly decided to leave. The fox dug a tunnel into the henhouse, took a look around and then left without touching even a feather.

What happened?

The twenty leaders all gathered together to celebrate and take stock of their current situation. The formation was damaged and they’d lost quite a few men to those spears from the sky, but the base was not harmed to its core.

“We need to figure out who those people were and report this immediately. They will get what’s coming to them for this insult!”

“I’ve collected some of the strange arrows and we’ve prepared some Memory Spheres of tonight's events.”

“Good, now we just need to…”

The man in charge was suddenly interrupted by a terrified shout, “Noo!”

“What are you on about? You dare interrupt me?”

“We’re doomed.”

Before the ‘rude’ person could even explain what was going on the whole base shook. The motion was so violently powerful that even these high rank Cultivators were driven to their knees. Their eyes opened wide and in unison they all looked over to the damaged Formation Core. At that moment they all realized what the true purpose of the defensive formation was. They also remembered their earlier concerns during the battle, concerns that had been forgotten when they thought they received a new lease on life.

Maybe if they’d realized what was going on at that time and fled with the metal man they’d have a chance but it was already too late. The path out of the volcano’s caldera was long and winding, it was already too late for them to escape. They fell to their knees and one of them even pulled out a long knife, stabbing it into his own abdomen to shatter his core and end his suffering in advance. The others were not so brave, facing their doom with tear stained eyes.

Boom!

In the sky the Airships had already pulled back a dozen miles. The largest of them had a man with metallic skin standing on its stern deck, admiring his handiwork. A glorious show was taking place in front of him. It wasn’t everyday that one got to see a volcano erupt from close range. The Airships were moving away from the volcano at their top speed, not wanting to get caught up in the rain of ash and rock that would follow. All of that molten material was being violently expelled into the sky and it had to come back down again afterwards. The Yi Yang Groups obsidian fortress was doomed the moment its barrier fell. That formation was specially built to protect it from eruptions like this, deflecting the heat and debris away from them. Without that special protection they were doomed.