I awoke slowly to the fading hue of twilight.

It took me a moment to stir at first, but when I recalled my last unearthly vision of the giant woman and the frightful beast that she had become, my eyes popped wide open. I found myself still in the wild and it was nearly night. My heart jumped with alarm as I sat upright. I immediately winced from the action, a stabbing pain shooting through my side and arm. Glancing down, I found my torso wrapped tightly in green bandages that seemed to be producing a heat of their own. At the same time my left arm was cradled in a makeshift sling made of the same material.

As my thoughts coalesced, I glanced about in another panic. Mu Lin!

To my instant relief I found her lying asleep on the grass next to me, her leg and head dressed in the same green bandages.

“You’re awake.”

I turned to the voice that called from behind me and saw the tall silhouette of the berserker woman leaning against the stone wall of the city’s protective barrier. She had transformed back to her normal self again, it seemed. No more horns or red skin.

We were now several miles from where we were and I nearly asked how we got here, but that was a stupid question. A couple of lightweights like Mu Lin and I would have been no problem for someone like her to carry.

I instead did something else that I would have considered quite stupid just a few hours ago. Over my twelve years of forced integration into the Yee Dynasty, I had learned the customs and practices of the cultivator empire. The concept of face, of showing respect and I despised every bit of it. But for once in my life, I truly understood what it meant to show respect towards someone you truly considered worthy of it.

I huffed out a groan as I repositioned myself on my knees and performed a painful one-armed kowtow before the giant woman, touching my forehead to the grass.

“Honored warrior,” I said with the highest order of tonal respect I could utter. “I beseech you to become my master. Take me with you now. I am ready to face whatever is out there. I want to gain your strength. To become what you are. Please teach me. Train me to become a berserker.”

A low chuckle was all I heard in response.

“Arise,” she finally said. “There is no need to honor me so.” She then stepped forward and crouched before me, bring herself closer to my eye level. “I will not become your master and I no longer need for you to come with me.”

I looked up at her confused and more than a little concerned. Had I already missed my chance to accept her offer? The thought caused my blood to pound in my ears with the fear of loss and regret. “Please, I just need—”

“You’ve already achieved a breakthrough on your own,” she said cutting me off. “And besides. You most certainly would have died if you came with me.”

Now, I was really confused. “I don’t understand…”

“Perhaps this will help…” she said. Then, reaching down she offered something to me in her large hand. “You seemed to have dropped it.”

There in her palm was the metal orb again, but it appeared to be glowing now and on its surface were thousands of tiny characters, etched in the finest print.

“It changed,” I said cautiously taking it from her. I resisted the urge to try and read what was written there. It had to be several books worth of text.

“No. It hasn’t changed. You have. I but stirred the embers of your Frenzied Flame in what I spoke to you, but you managed to kindle it all on your own by mastering the first step of the [Death Mastery] Technique. You have gained mastery over the fear of uncertain death. Congratulations.”

“Wait, what?”

“When you fought those Sect members, your fury overcame your fear and death no longer mattered to you. And I must say, you put up a good fight, considering.”

“You were watching me?”

She nodded. “You took the first step of [Death Mastery] all on you own. Also, I cannot train you to become a berserker. No one can. To become a berserker one must master this first step. Thus, you are one already now.”

My head suddenly felt light with euphoria and disbelief.

Was I really already a berserker somehow?

I didn’t think of it consciously at the time, but I suppose she was right. I glanced at Mu Lin. I was really only trying to save her, but I knew deep down I couldn’t, but still I wasn’t going to let that stop me. Not anything. Not even death, apparently.

“When I invited you to join me, in truth, that was all I was intending to do. To help you reach this first step of enlightenment.”

“How was that supposed to work? Didn’t you just say that I would have died if I went with you?”

“Indeed you would have. And thus I wouldn’t have taken you if you had agreed to go.”

“Huh?”

“If your conviction would have driven you to say yes then you would have broken through and kindled your frenzied flame, the same as you have now. But I see your destiny has perhaps an even greater path laid ahead of you. Your ascension came through struggle and pain and on your own terms. You are well on the way to following your own Dao already.”

“Damn,” I said. “And pardon my language, but…you really said all that cryptic crap just to try and help me?”

She smiled. “I did. But clearly, I failed. As well I should have, perhaps. The Path of the Frenzied Flame is a solitary one, after all. One can only advance according to their own effort and struggle.”

I shook my head with a little laugh. “Yeah, I’ve got to be honest with you. Trying to encourage me like that did kind of the opposite. I thought you were crazy. Maybe if you had hacked a tree down in one blow or turned into that demon goddess or whatever, I would have believed you.”

She chuckled, her deep laugh lines creasing her face in a matronly way. “It wouldn’t have worked then. I was intentionally vague for that reason. If you knew my true strength, you’d have no reason to fear death. And that was my spectral form you saw by the way.” She then paused, her eyes squinting and shifting to the side in thought. “Or perhaps it was a step too far. Perhaps in your mind it was not uncertain death, but certain?”

I thought about it as well. “I think you’re right. I’ve never seen any cultivator survive a night out here. But seeing your spectral form…I don’t know. I’m starting to think you could be the first.”

“Perhaps,” she said with a laugh. “I hope you are right. I hope also you see now why I would make a most terrible teacher for you.”

I laughed along with her. This close, I could see now that what I first though were ritual scar or tattoos, were in fact real scars of battle, the three fresh slashes across her cheek no exception.

“So, you’re saying all this to say that you won’t become my master…got it.”

“Not just won’t. Can’t. A berserker has no master, we have no sect. Even the manual I have given you, is but a guide. Rage, pain and struggle are our only true teachers.”

“I see...” I said nodding. To be honest, I kind of liked the idea. “Better than joining a Sect, in my opinion. I would have despised the idea of having to do that to learn how to cultivate.”

“And they will despise you equally. Qi Cultivators look down upon Dao cultivators such as we. Berserkers especially.”

I nodded again, liking how she kept using the word ‘we’ but…was I really a cultivator already? I mean, I hadn’t even learned anything yet. “How do I know if I can really cultivate? I never could before.”

“Well, you can sense it, can’t you? The power of rage, pain and fear?”

I thought back to when I was watching her fight the sect members, the intense rage I felt exuding from her. “Yeah, I think so.”

“What you felt, that is our form of Qi. The essence that we use to refine into our own frenzied energy. In time and with diligence you will learn to cultivate your own Frenzy and use it strengthen yourself.”

“I see.”

“But keep your flame well hidden, kindled one. As I said, berserkers are hated and feared amongst all Sects. Reveal your strength only when necessary or when you can be assured there will be no witnesses thereafter.”

The way she said it made me think of how quickly and definitively she had dispatched those three sect members. “I understand.”

“But they fear us with good reason. It is a narrow path we tread…” She then stood from her crouched position, rising to her full height again. “Many who travel the path grow addicted to the power of the Frenzy and are eventually consumed by their own Flame, becoming demons. It is why there are so few of us. Your Frenzy must always be tempered with Struggle. This is the core of our Dao. As an elder practitioner, the best advice I can give you is this: trust and follow the path of Frenzied Flame, but ensure the Struggler wrestles always with the Demon. Without struggle there can be no true growth, only descension into madness.”

I shallowed a little when she said that, wondering if I had just joined a pathway straight to hell.

“But fear not,” she said, perhaps noticing the look on my face. “I would not have shared this path with you had I thought you apt to fail. It is why I asked first, what it is you would do with this power. And I believe that you shall find struggle in great abundance in the path you have chosen. To exact retribution against the Dynasty and free your world from its control, will bring you many hardships indeed.”

I chuckled a bit nervously. It was easy to spout lofty goals when you were fired up, but in truth I didn’t know where to even start or if it was even realistic at all. I would commit myself to thinking more on it later, I decided. Gaining power was one thing, but I would still need a plan. Even if it was as simple as being able to protect Mu Lin and Yu Li as a start. Perhaps yanking the pagodas right out of the sky was a bit ambitious for now…but hell, I watched an old man swallow a nuke with his bare hands.

Anything was possible with cultivation…given enough time.

“And what is your struggle?” I asked and then added quickly. “If I may ask…that is.”

She looked up slowly at the darkening sky. “I seek to slay a god.”

I nodded slowly with a low whistle. “Yeah, that sounds a hell of a lot more bad ass than mine.”

She suddenly laughed out loud and the sheer volume of it frightened me. “I do enjoy your humor and company, kindled one. It is not often I can speak so freely. Oh… and speaking of your struggle I have something else that may aide you.”

She reached again into her pack and handed me something wrapped in a rune covered cloth. When I opened it, a crude blue gemstone illuminated my palm with miniature crackles of lighting bouncing within its crystalline surface.

My chest tightened. “Is this what I think it is?”

“A lightning core,” she said. “I found it within one of the Fire Bird member’s possession. I assume it came from the monk who was with them.”

An image of the dying old man flashed through my mind and I said a short, mental prayer for his passage. “Poor old guy. But really… I can’t take this thing. The enforcers will detect it a mile away. That’s like, instant execution, I’m pretty sure.”

She chuckled. “Perhaps you are not ready for that level of struggle as yet, but fear not, the cloth that it is wrapped in, will mask it from the Qi Cultivators.”

Okay, that was good to know. “Fine, but still, what am I supposed to do with it? I can’t use it right?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea, but yes, you have no use for it in a traditional sense. As neither do I. As Dao Cultivators our energy comes from the adherence to our path not Qi. But it is valuable to many, especially to those who seek the power of concentrated Qi for breakthroughs to higher realms of cultivation.”

“Yeah, I’m sure those Fire Bird dickheads had the same idea.”

She laughed loudly again. “You use such strange and colorful language, kindled one. Still, you’ll need to decide what is best to do with it. Overthrowing a 14,000 year old dynasty sounds like a big task, though. I just thought some extra resources might be helpful.”

It was my turn to laugh now. “Well, thank you. I guess.”

I wrapped the core tightly in the cloth and stuffed it into my sling. It still felt like I was holding a bag of cocaine in a customs line, but I guess I’d have to deal with it later.

“Thank you also for bandaging me,” I said as I stood shakily to my feet. “You did a good job.”

“You can thank your friend there.” She nodded towards Mu Lin. “She came well prepared. These bandages are expensive. Hopefully you will both mend quickly.” She then looked back to the sky, where the stars were now almost formed. “You should both return to the gate now. It is not far from here.”

I nodded. “Are you still going to stay out here and wait for the Bloodmoon to rise?”

“Yes,” she said. “The [Death Mastery] technique I mentioned earlier is one of our core tenets. You cannot break through into higher realms of cultivation without advancing it. Your next advancement will be to gain mastery over the fear certain death. At higher tiers you will fear no death at all. The last step is known as the Wish for Death.”

I chuckled. “Death wish. Makes sense.”

She smiled. “It’s why I came here. Like you, I must achieve a breakthrough on my own. I must go well beyond facing certain death if I am to advance.”

“What stage are you at now, if I may ask?”

“I’m within the 9th tier of the Lesser Deity Realm.”

My eyes bulged and I nearly choked on my own spit. “What? Are you serious! You’re a god?”

She chuckled. “Demi god,” she corrected. “But by morning, who knows? I’ll either be ascended into the next realm of the heavens or dead.”

My mind was still whirling. That glimpse of her in spectral form was perhaps just the tiniest fraction of her true strength. Suddenly I had the urge to still go with her, if not just to see what she was in her true unbridled state.

“Perhaps my destiny leading me here to find you is a good sign. It’s no small coincidence that I meet an unkindled flame on a newly cultivated world, right before my final attempt at ascension. It’s confirmation, I believe, that I will be leaving this world shortly … one way or the other.”

I still didn’t really know this woman at all, but the way she said that caused a sadness to fill my heart. I suddenly had a million questions to ask her. How long did it take her to reach this stage? What was this spectral form and the inner world those cultivators spoke of? Where was her homeworld even? But there wasn’t time for any of it. Still there was perhaps something more important that I could ask her.

“Please. What do I call you? I don’t even know your name.”

She smiled. “My name is Threja. But you may call me simply sister, or big sister if you like. We are brethren now. Fellow cultivators of the Frenzied Flame. And you little brother? What shall I call you?”

“My name is Chu… my name is Max,” I said.

“Max.” She nodded as if committing it to memory. She then cupped her hand over her fist and performed a mid-tier bow, signifying us as equals. “I wish you well on your path, Brother Max. I will look forward to if destiny shall ever see fit to make our paths cross again.”

“As do I, big sister.” I performed the same bow but couldn’t help but do so ever so slightly lower than her own. “I pray for your ascension.”

“Thank you,” she said. She found her sword and hefted it onto her shoulder, but as she turned to walk away, she paused briefly again. “Oh, and congratulations once more.”

“On what?” I asked.

“On your own ascension.”

“Huh?”

“You’ve broken through to the First Tier of next realm. You are now a Foundation level cultivator.”