Back up toward the top of the mountain, Puren Ning watched the confrontation from relative safety. If any powerful attacks ended up being used, her life was forfeit. For some reason, it looked like they were fighting at low levels of strength. Why that would be the case, she had no idea. It was still far beyond her, but at least she could see the broad strokes of ‘Cultivator attacks, Beast withstands’. From the moment the man had flung the creature into the air, and the beast had no reaction whatsoever, Puren Ning knew which way this would go. She couldn’t see any reinforcements coming to assist though, so the flurry of sword blows seemed futile, until the moon rose.

If there was anything that was dangerous no matter how powerful you managed to get, it was the tribulation lightning from the moon.

She probably shouldn’t have been surprised when, after being blasted into the sky, the beast absorbed a portion of the heavenly beam of light and used it as a weapon. Somehow she was still surprised when the giant ball of energy ended up ultimately colliding with the beast who created it, and buried it deep into the mountain.

When the cultivator fell over unconscious after the fight, Puren Ning decided it was safe to go down and investigate.

Surprisingly little damage, as other than a couple of punctures into the ground most of the attacks had been directed either upward or into the giant glowing hole in the mountain. Deep within that cavern, the massive ball of electric wind was still burrowing through the stone. A shining, crackling light, burning through rock and leaving a smooth tunnel in its wake. The beast was probably behind that.

“This servant asks the master whether he needs assistance.”

“The situation is well in hand. Everything is going perfectly according to plan. My flesh is melting at a sustainable rate.”

“That doesn’t sound well in hand at all!”

“Move from the opening, or die. This passivity bores me, and I will unleash my full power.”

Scurrying away quickly, Puren Ning makes sure to be away from the mouth of the new cave, and in fact beyond where the plane of the horizon crosses the entrance. Unless directed, energy blasts wouldn’t typically turn around to hit things behind where they were fired. Even if what was about to happen resulted in some sort of wide explosion from the cavern, behind the mountain a fair distance would be relatively safe.

This time she wasn’t surprised to see the massive energy ball blast out into the distance. As the light crosses the land, it illuminates the monsters that spawn in the darkness. Any of them would be able to kill a commoner who hasn’t even managed to reach the innate realm. Falling into that category herself, Puren Ning was more than inclined to stay away from the outdoors during the night. When the sun rises in the morning it burns away the monsters, and the monsters that spawn at night stay where they sprout up unless they are disturbed.

“Ahahahaahaha! Once again, I am free!”

From the crater, the beast’s voice rips through the silence of the mountain, with a slightly different cadence to her ears. He walks out of the tunnel, and turns toward Puren Ning as she walks back around to that side of the mountain. She falls over backward, the exposed skull and half-way skeletal arms shocking her sensibilities.

The beast looks down at his arms with the pits of darkness where eyeballs should be, and states calmly “This is the price of my freedom. This flesh will remain lost until I relinquish my strength.”

“Honorable master, this one did not mean to give offense. Please forgive your humble servant.”

“When did I give you the privilege of being my servant?”

She flips over, and places her head on the ground in front of him. “Once again this one begs the master’s forgiveness. What little ability this one is able to offer the great beast, this one offers freely, with no requirements.”

“You neglect to answer my question. It does not matter. What is your name, child?”

“This one is titled Puren Ning, great beast.”

“A fitting name for your means of address,” the beast mocks, “but if you are to follow my illustrious self there must be a name attached that strikes fear into the unworthy. Kepa Ying, you’ll grow to match my power through the tribulation that is to come.”

Puren Ning, or Kepa Ying as she was now going to have to introduce herself, pales and presses her head into the ground. There wasn’t actually any physical contact between her skin and the ground, and her expression is hidden completely behind the helmet, but the solidity of the smooth rock is comforting when the beast is continuously making world-shattering statements.

“As you command master, this one obeys.”

The beast pauses at that. A few sparks shoot from his bone fingers into the ground next to her, but she stills her impulses to move.

“Rise.”

Carefully, Kepa Ying rises to her feet, being sure not to tremble from the dark gaze she can feel upon herself. The exposed fangs running down the bare skull in front of her made everything seem even more ominous than usual.

“Stay still,” the beast commands, placing it’s hand on her helmet. Lightning blasts into her head, and everything goes dark. Instead of a projection of the outside world, she sees the complete darkness she’s truly been contained within this whole time. Black metal fills her vision, blocks her face from the air, and keeps all sound from reaching her ears. Something was certainly happening, and it was probably for the best that she couldn’t see or hear any of it.

Without sight, or sound, or any way to tell where she was, it was disorienting to try and stand still. It was like her sense of self was tied somehow to her actual physical senses, and without the ability to judge where she was in space all relation to physical distance was suddenly eluding her. Whether she was standing firmly on the ground or floating through the sky, she had no way of knowing.

At least until the screens turned back on.

“There, I purged the system of the entire idiom database, which should stop the translator from determining everything is the most evil possible synonym for the thought in question. It’s the ‘cabin in the woods’ versus ‘cottage in the forest’ conundrum, but a more literal interpretation should result in a clearer expression of intent. Helmet Voice Command: Utilize excess energy to activate local temporal restore point. Administration access, codephrase Vanatis. Repeat confirmation in ten seconds. Nice meeting you, hope you don’t die.”

With that, the beast’s confident presence fades, and he shakes his head as though coming out of a fugue.

“Oh good, I’m not dead,” he says, looking around.

“Utilizing excess energy to activate local temporal restore point,” the helmet repeats as ordered.

“Gah!” exclaims the beast as he jumps backward, apparently extremely surprised by this eventuality. When nothing happens after a few seconds, it sighs. “Well I guess that means you don’t die. I’m forced to assume that the entire armor set is configured for you now. Congratulations on being drafted, let’s go get the rest of your gear.”

“Hold on, what?” asks Puren Ning, extremely confused by everything that happened in the last five minutes.

“I saw a town over that way, by the active volcano. At the very least, it probably has people I can make a better first impression on. Here, I’m two for three on ‘trying to kill me’.”

Still confused, and rather less than enthused on the prospect of trying to be more assertive toward the beast that just demolished a Chosen of Heaven without even resorting to any massive attacks of his own, Puren Ning just follows as the creature starts walking down the mountain.

Less quickly, since he immediately trips and rolls down the entire hill.