I stood surrounded by snow, white stretching in every direction and turning to grey at the horizon to become the sky. It was cold, I knew that, but I did not feel it. A noise, strangely familiar came behind me and turning, I saw a transport shuttle rapidly lifting into the air before vanishing into the clouds.

Turning back to look around, I saw a curious sight; an old man sat in the snow, staring at me. Or, perhaps I should say there I sat, staring at myself.

“Well, here we are again, Alex. Great job.” The voice of the old me spoke with contempt dripping from every word and I felt a trill of shock at hearing it again, frail and quavering. “Given all the helping hands a person could hope for, and you waste it. A man hands you a perfect path to progression on a plate, and you can’t even take it. Didn’t even use your sword.”

I heard a series of cracks and the sound of sloughing snow around me and I turned once more to see spindly figures digging their way out of the snow, their bodies covered by hides and bits of bone. I recognised them; I would always recognise them because it was hard to forget being eaten alive. The Devourers stagged to their feet in the freshly packed snow, staring at me.

“Why didn’t you ask for the Grand Harvest Body Refining Pill? The quest was to stop them making more, Ro would have given it to you for saving Tang, and even if you couldn’t take it at the time, you could have been where you are now weeks ago. Walker said you needed a Focus and you had that within days, idiot!”

Black chains formed from my own shadow stretched about my limbs and around my body and with a blink, I saw both Voran and the Shadow Faced Guy appear to either side of my aged self.

“Why haven’t you spent your Bonus Point yet? Maybe you could have bought some extra speed, or strength; there were millions of options! Maybe you could have defeated the ape if you hadn’t been so complacent. We never liked ourself much, Alex, but you’ve not done a lot to change our mind, have you?”

I felt the chains pulling tighter about me and could see the Devourers about us creeping closer, deathly silent where once they had sung. Maddening, dead laughter bounced off the ground around us and reached for the heavens, but it was at about that time I had had enough.

“Screw you, Me. I lost a fight, big deal; it’s not the first, it won’t be the last but unlike you – the old me – I'll keep trying. I’ll get stronger, and even without my Exemplar being handed to me on a platter, I’ll find something that suits me. And I didn’t use my sword because you’re supposed to defeat your opponent, not kill them, and I’m not that good yet. Dick.”

The laughter stopped and I found myself free of the black chains once more, the dull heat of anger stoking within me.

“I didn’t ask for the pill, because Walker said it would kill me, and he seemed to know what he was talking about. If he thought it would have benefitted me after forming my Focus, he would have said. You have to trust your friend, dick. Also, given that just the Pineapple nearly burst me like a balloon, I’m pretty sure a pill people were willing to go to war over would have killed me fifteen times over.”

Around me, the Devourers stopped and as I spoke, they faded to shite and blew away with a gust of wind, mere snow once more.

“You were an asshole, old man. You wasted every opportunity ever given you, passed on every chance. But I understand, you were sick. I was sick. But I’m not anymore, and I’m past your bullshit. I’ve made mistakes, but who the fuck hasn’t? I’m going to get my arm back and them I’m going to stuff it down that dickhead’s throat. And I’m going to get my own Exemplar, and choose my own abilities, damnit! With blackjack, and hookers...”

*

***

*

“Oow...” I groaned as I woke, a dull pain radiating through me as I blinked my eyes open. I could see Darina, Reff and Riffa above me again, looks of concern evident on their faces.

“You’re awake, good. That was a lot of damage... if you didn’t heal so fast, I’m not sure I could have saved you.” The last was said as Darina turned to glare behind her.

“In concise assessment, you tried to punch with your missing arm, Hunter. That, in general, will not work.”

“... Thanks, Reff. I wondered where I went wrong.”

“With wry humour, you are welcome, Hunter.” I stared up at my large friend; it must have been bad if he was making jokes.

“Did you just make a joke? You didn’t state it at the start, you’re shaking my world view, Big Guy.”

“With sheepish embarrassment, it is not required, Hunter. It is not a part of us. It is done by tradition, and because it helps to clarify our intentions. I do this only with outsiders, and rarely, so as not to confuse.”

With a sniff, Riffa looked over at her brother, a frown on her face as the spoke.

“With warranted scolding, you do it too much, brother. People will begin to doubt our words if you abuse our traditions as often as this.”

“But, this is the first time he’s ever done it, Riffa.”

I tried to defend him, but she turned her frown on me next, and I tried to raise my hands in defence, but only ended up groaning in pain. Once the pain had passed, she went on.

“With pointed displeasure, you have only known him for a little over a month; he does this often, though not as often as he loses his temper.”

I shook my head gently as I tried to process what she had said; Reff had mentioned his temper before, though I had barely seen it. I guessed though, that in a family that measured generations in centuries, time scales may vary slightly from what I was used to. It made me think about Earth; would all the immortals I had left behind begin to see things the same way?

“You lost. Url was not happy, I’m going to have to find her another human now.”

Rainmaker’s booming voice rang out as he stepped into my view, his boulder-like fists resting on his hips.

“Sorry about that, uh, Elder. To be fair, I’m not sure most Core stage cultivators are going to beat her. I might have missed that last punch, but I don’t think I was doing much damage before then.”

“Bah, you did fine enough. Could’ve won if you’d kept dancing around like you had been. And since you did try, I won’t hold it against you. Or smash you.”

“Awesome, thanks. Means a lot to me, I like living. Or I will, once I heal. Ow...”

“You have a... what you call a Core now, so you should be able stand being near the peacock when they’re in a huff. I think you would have just exploded, before. We’ll stuff you all full of Blazing Mangos and away you go.”

“He’ll need to rest, but with pills and my help, he should be on his feet by in a couple of hours, Honoured Elder Rainmaker.”

“Much easier if you just don’t get injured, Puny. Try that next time.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Elder. It does seem like a pretty effective strategy; it should have occurred to me sooner.” Okay, it was not particularly smart mouthing off to an Apex level beast-lord, even if I was only joking, but I was in a lot of pain and I had had a really weird dream.

The Elder looked down at me with his storm cloud eyes and twitched one snow-white eyebrow, his lips twitching slightly before he walked off, shouting for somebody to bring him fruit.

“Well, this nice. Where am I, by the way? I can’t see any nests, or apes.”

“With pained sympathy, Url punched you out of the village, Hunter.”

“Well, that would explain the pain. Rainmaker was totally right; I should try to avoid getting injured. It happens a lot, and I’m not a fan of it.”

*

***

*

By the time the sun was setting, I was back on my feet, though there were a few aches and pains left over. The four of us had made our way back into the village, where Rainmaker – with prompting from Borr, admittedly – had offered to let us sleep for the night.

We accepted his offer and bedded down in a nest that was not being used at that time, deferring our practice, given the events of the day. Finally settled in and relatively safe, the four of us decided to speak about our encounter with The Shadow Faced Guy and his strangely still companion. Darina started the conversation, seemingly more focused on the companion than the man I had met twice now, and regretted both times.

“He moved without telegraphing his actions; one moment he was perfectly still and the next he was in motion with no transition. It was strange; I have seen insects move like that, but never a person.”

“I’ve seen lots of people move faster than I could see, it’s not that strange is it? Not like his arms, those were weird. Unless, you know, that’s normal somewhere...”

“It was not that he moved too fast for me to see, I could follow his movements, though only just; it was as if he was moving with something other than muscles. And no, those arms weren’t ‘normal’, but the world is wide and time is deep; perhaps they were a recent arrival, or an older, singular arrival. Maybe it was their talent.”

“With uncomfortable consideration, Darina is right; he did not appear to be of any race I know of, and I have met every major race on this world. His movements were unnatural, for a person with normal musculature. But as Darina suggests, it may have been a function of his Focus.”

Riffa tapped her chin as she spoke, sapphire-on-black eyes catching the fading light like deep blue sparks.

“In deep calculation, I do not think that this alone was a function of his Focus; while hiding your movements would certainly provide a great advantage in the absence of other Foci, that is not the world we occupy, or the system we follow. If it is his Focus, it is a poor one, though it is possible that the strange method of moving is a side effect...”

Reff’s tone was slightly absent minded by the time he trailed off, obviously going over the possible power sets that could cause such a distinctive feature.

I let the silence stretch out for a few minutes as I ran through the options in my own head; it was possible that he had an insect Focus, as that was the direct comparison made by Darina. My own somewhat unique background also filled my head with images of machines; robots or cyborgs, moved by wire, gears and servos. Maybe he was an Agent, like I was, and had taken some form of technology as his Focus, bending the magic of cultivation to the cold steel reality of home, or binding it to copper and silicon. That did not really provide an answer to their freakishly long arms, however.

“How did he fight? The creepy, still guy? I couldn’t really see; the other guys had me a little tied up.”

I heard Darina snort at the pun, though the siblings showed no sign of reaction, or even of realising I had made a joke.

“With clear recollection, he did not fear pain; he struck my molten armour many times, seemingly with no protection, as the armour of his gauntlets seemed to melt, and the underneath flesh burned down to bone.”

“Yes, I remember that, it smelled awful. I tried to restrain an arm, and while he did not seem strong enough to pull free, the bones in his arm broke and I lost leverage. It didn’t seem to slow him down.”

“Maybe he’s a healer, like you are? No, doesn’t explain the movements. Maybe he took something weird as his Exemplar? Remade himself? Is that a thing?”

“With unexpected agreeance, that is a possibility; I have never heard of a being wholly reconstructing themselves, other than Elders, but it is a possibility...”

This time, it was Riffa’s turn to trail off, but I sensed that we were all considering the possibilities. Base physicality made less off a difference the further you progressed, usually. If you were twice as strong as another person before forming your Focus, by the Peak of the Core stage, you were only a fraction stronger, as the additional strength came from the energy in your system, not your muscles. My own super-human body had allowed me to barely survive at my arrival, but that was more due to the quality of my opponents and luck, than anything else. But this was not universally true – a beast generally had their natural abilities magnified; a thundering ape was – apparently – really, really strong, for example. I wondered if it was possible to remould your flesh so that you grew exponentially, rather than linearly. I asked the question of the group, and got an interesting answer.

“In partial confirmation, a beast generally does increase its strengths non-linearly with cultivation, but this is not due to their physiology, but rather because their cultivation is fundamentally different. It has been studied before, and the closest cultivators have come, to the best of my knowledge is to become a beast cultivator, like the man we have fought, or the Apex of the Crystal Drake. They do not remould their flesh, but rather shape their cultivation. But even so, it does not do precisely what you suggest, and as you saw, such a Focus is obvious.”

“... What about the Apex of the Unfettered Frame? Walker said he was at least six times stronger than a normal Peak Pinnacle cultivator?”

“He is unique; nobody knows how he did it, and he refuses to share the knowledge. The last cultivator to try to press him did not survive the experience, or so my Master told me.”

“With true confirmation, we have met Bo Ai’rong before, and he says it is too dangerous to be common knowledge. He said that while he trusts himself with the power to break worlds, he would trust no others.”

I looked at Riffa in the dark, barely able to see her as a shadow and the almost impenetrable dim of the jungle, her words sounding out of context from my experience; I had been told the Apex – or their equivalent - was the limit to which a person could ascend, on any world. I had seen Walker destroy hundreds of thousands of people in a few moments, but I did not think him capable of mustering the power to destroy the world itself.

“Break the world? He has to be exaggerating, right? Right?”

“My Master told me that it is his responsibility to seek out those who attain the Apex and judge whether they are a danger to the world. Should they prove to be unsafe, it is his responsibility to crush them. He is physically powerful enough to be trusted to kill any Apex that might emerge, so I do not put it past his ability.”

That was a sobering thought; an Apex whose job it was to kill other Apexes. I tried to imagine an individual powerful enough to kill Walker by purely physical means and ended up picturing Superman. I made a mental note to be on the lookout for a mild-mannered man in glasses upon our return to the Citadel...