Chapter 14:

3 Days After Winter’s Ending

259 Days After The Ra’tok Attack Amia Village

Traezar Empire, Millwallow Village

Brass Ram Inn & Tavern

I gasp in a breath of cold and and sit bolt upright. My head whips around, my body in gear for a fight.

When my eyes focus, I let out a surprised gasp.

I stand in the center of a pit, surrounded on all sides by rubble. And I can only assume it is what is left of the Brass Ram Inn, because I can see then sign, but it is split in half.

“W-what the hells happened…?” I mutter.

My pack is at my feet, I open it. It’s contents are neatly ordered. It looks as pristine as the day my father gave it to me.

Blinking, I run my hands over my body. Rolling up my shirt, I look at my abdomen. I can see a large, shiny scar where my stomach had been opened. I check my arms and legs, I have a new set of scars to go over my old ones.

“I’m healed? Did my katra do it?” I think back to how slowly it was healing my insides, and I hadn’t sent any of it to my other wounds. I start to get disjointed flashes of the fight, then I remember. The skeleton put me to sleep.

Looking up, I can see that it is already noon.

Shaking my head, I close my backpack and throw it over my shoulders.

I feel perfectly fine. No aches, no bruises, and no pain. I would even dare to say I haven’t felt this good since before the Jungle of The Gods.

I start climbing my way out of the ribble, pulling myself over the lip of the pit. Standing up slowly and carefully, I look at what remains of Millwallow. Wind whips my hair in my eyes, and I brush it away.

There are piles of what used to be shops and houses of the village, the well in the center of the plaza caved in on itself. Debris of what used to be houses litter the town square.

I look for any sign of life, but I can’t find anyone moving in the wreckage.

Climbing down the side of the rubble, I carefully inspect to see if I can find any survivors. Wandering between the mounds, I call out, looking for anyone.

There is no answer.

Where did all the villagers go?

Eventually, I give up. Making my way out of the village, I spot the road leading further onwards. Where do I go from here?

Deciding to just see where the road will take me, I start following it.

I think back to what happened. The weird green skinned man, and Cereus. The fight that destroyed buildings and how it ended.

I try to figure out why the inn was destroyed, it wasn’t touched during the battle.

The skeleton said something about cleaning up? Could he be the one who got rid of all the villagers and destroyed the buildings?

I am unsure of the answer.

What was that strange power the creature was using?

I had felt a pressure in the air as it moved objects and sent them flying. Could it have been using some kind of earth or air controlling katra?

That doesn’t make sense. Katra takes on aspects of things, but doesn’t allow for them to be controlled.

I scratch my head in thought. Well… can it control things?

I am unsure. After seeing the impressive amount of power both of the combats had displayed, I had many question. I have never heard of a katra aspect that is black flame, or one that can control objects.

My thoughts wander back to the creature. Cereus has called it a Gith, whatever that was. It had clearly been trying to kill me, and it seemed to have wanted my artifact.

I bring up my right arm, and look at the black cloth, the silver runes glinting dully. Flexing my hand, I inspect it closely.

I still don’t understand what it is.

Whatever this artifact is, it must be something powerful for a the Gith to come after me. I consider the weird space inside it, and whatever the source was. It must be what the Gith wanted, whatever is is.

I walk for hours, the past days events weighing heavily on my psyche.

I come out of my thoughts when the sun is starting to set. The horizon is tinged orange and pink, and I can’t help but stare at it.

My eyes are drawn to a thin trail of smoke rising and drifting in the wind.

Could that be people?

The prospect of finding other people is appealing to me. I have to find some way to get to a city, and leave Traezar. If what Vicar said is true, then this is the place I want to be least.

But I am also hesitant to leave. I will only be getting farther away from where I know Karla’s murderer is. And if what Vicar said is true, I could help the Empire.

I can’t avenge Amia or save The Empire without strength. I have to be strong, to both fight off those who wish to control me, and those who wish to kill me.

Taking a deep breath, I start towards the smoke.

It takes me about an hour to get near the smoke. I move off the road and into the lush forest.

Pushing my way through the foliage, I peek through a bush and at the fire. The flame is in a small pit, throwing shadows on the surrounding trees and the faces of the creatures around it. And the cage.

There are 2 wagons, one with a large cage. Inside the cage are a group of bloodied people. They all huddle together, staring at monster around the fire light.

One of the demons lets out a griddle laugh into the night air. It takes a bite out of some kind of red meat, while thumping its tail on the ground.

Tulnar.

I feel anger and loathing hatred boil up inside me.

Around the fire pit are four large lizardmen. They each are colored in varying shades of green, brown and blue. Their clawed fingers glint in the light, and their yellow reptilian eyes glow.

One makes rough, throaty sounds. It points at the cage and laughs.

I’ve got to save those people.

My hand reaches for my spear, that I would have normally laid on the ground next to me, but only gets air. I don’t have a spear anymore.

Quietly moving back from the edge of the small clearing, I hide myself in the shadows of a tree.

This means that the Tulnar have now started to push up, all the while Tarna was distracted with the chimera’s. This group of lizardmen seems small, so it might be a raid or scout group. A raid group would explain the captives.

Could those be people from Millwallow?

No. Cereus said clean up, and I don’t think a good way of that is to give some people to the Tulnar. It would be more likely he… he did something else with them.

I need to help the captives.

What do I have?

I have my scripted knife, so that it is more durable and always sharp. I several of the chimera cores. And I have a quill and paper.

None of which would help me kill a Tulnar.

My mind wanders to my katra. I made some fire imprinted katra while meditating, and I still have a boatload of the life aspect katra. My core is nearly full, and I am in great condition.

My best chance is to draw the lizard’s away and then quickly free the prisoners.

I look around inside my pack, trying to think of a way to draw the lizards off. I look at one of the fused together beast cores, its bumpy and multicolored surface glowing faintly.

A thought comes unbidden to my mind. What if the Controller was using these to help construct it’s monsters?

I close my eyes, focusing inwards and onto the core.

Sensing the Life imprinted gray katra, I try to push it out of the core. That doesn’t work, so I send some of my own into the core, trying to send it out. The katra doesn’t want to form.

In frustration, I try wrenching all of it and pushing it outside of the core.

Heat blooms in the palm of my and, and I open my eyes. Squinting, I look at the core. It is glowing brightly, and the heat keeps getting hotter, the light brighter.

That… doesn’t look good.

I have the sudden urgency to chuck it as far away from myself as possible.

GIving into the sense, I pull back my arm, sending Gray katra into my body to empower the throw. The malformed core sails between the leaves of the trees, and only seconds later, a brilliant burst of light illuminates the night, a ear splitting boom following shortly after.

Shutting my eyes, I cover my face. When my ears stop ringing, I blink my eyes.

What in the hells was that?!

Loud noise fills the night, angry roars bouncing off the trees. I guess I have my distraction.

Grabbing my pack, I stalk into the forest. I make sure to do a wide loop around where I assume the Tulnar are rushing towards the explosion.

Moving quietly, but swiftly, I reach the camp a few minutes later.

One Tulnar has stayed behind. He sits at the fire, digging into a uncooked human arm. I want to vomit at the sight, but gulp back down my bile.

His eyesight will be ruined due to the fire. If I can hit him in the neck, than I can bring him down.

Unsheathing my dagger, I stalk forward slowly. I pay attention to where I step, carefully avoiding anything on the forest floor that might alert the lizardman.

Sweat beads on my forehead and back as I grip the dagger in my right hand tighter. 4 feet…

I step over a twig, carefully laying my foot on a bed of rotting leaves.

3 feet…

Shifting my weight, I set myself up to approach the lizardman.

2 feet…

I prep my dagger, bringing it up to strike. The lizardman stops chewing on the arm, sniffing the air.

1…

It growls and starts to look over its shoulder.

NOW!

I lunge forward, throwing my weight on the Tulnar’s back. My dagger flashes in the fire light, plunging into the soft scales of the lizardman’s neck.

I grit my teeth, cutting the dagger through the monster’s neck, slicing it open. The Tulnar lets out a gurgling roar, twisting around. I cling to it’s shoulders, dragging my knife out of its scaly flesh.

I nearly fly off, but I plunge my dagger into the lizardman’s shoulder, twisting it to maximize pain. I put my left arm around the monster’s neck, gripping tightly.

Sending Gray katra to my right arm, the bandages shift and slither off. They wrap around the Tulnar’s snout and neck, fastening me to it.

The Tulnar flails desperately, trying to dislodge me. It lets out periodic gurgly roars, blood spewing from it’s open throat.

It’s struggles soon become weaker, and it soon collapses on it’s knees. It tries to claw me from it’s back, but I twist around it’s raking fingers.

Leaning on the beast, I push it’s body to the ground. I stick my knee in the crook of it’s back, digging it in.

With a wet squelch, I pull my dagger out of the Tulnar’s shoulder and shove it between the vertebrae of it’s scaly back. I have to push hard to penetrate it’s thick hide, but my dagger slides in, severing nerves.

The Tulnar lets out a dying whimper, and falls silent, no longer thrashing. I pull my dagger out of the monster’s neck, the cloth tenticeles dislodging and slithering back up my arm, and stumble off it’s corpse. A vicious grin spreads on my face. I killed one! I killed a Tulnar!

Somewhere in the back of my mind, the lizardmen had become something akin to demons. Powerful, angry, savage and near unkillable creatures. Now though, I could see with my own eyes that they were killable.

It must have also been low ranked.

Whispers and whimpers draw me from my stupor. I look over to the cage, the people inside now pressing their hopeful faces to the bars.

I quickly move over, says, “We don’t have much time before the other one’s get back. I need you to run as soon as I get the cage open.”

Closing in on the cages, there is lots of chatter from the excited people inside. Now that I can get a better look at them, I can tell they have been abused. Their clothes are ripped, and bloodied, and their eyes are haunted.

I look at the lock on the cage, it is a simple iron one. How do I open this?

Glancing back to the dead lizardman, I can see the only clothing he is a loincloth. So he doesn’t have the keys.

Looking at the lock, I glare at it as I start wracking my brain for ideas on how to open it. My enhanced strength and fire might do it.

I gather up some fire imprinted katra, sending it to my hands. I also send plain Gray katra to my arms and back, reinforcing and strengthening them.

My hands burst into Gray Fire, and I slip my fingers around the lock. I start pulling it apart, the flame heating up the metal. It soon starts to glow, but I don’t feel any heat like from my own flames. The metal becomes brittle with the heat, and the lock falls apart under the strain.

I pull open the cage door, urgently motioning the prisoners to escape.

Scanning the surrounding forest for any sign of the other Tulnar, I help women and children climb out of the cart. I point them in the general direction the main road heads to, telling them to run through the forest as fast as they can, and that Coskana was in that direction.

I help an older man out of the cart, looking into it to see he is the last person. He looks me in the eyes, unflinching at what I imagine is my Gray glowing pupils. “What is your name, son?”

“Kardin Amia, now you need to get going,” I urge him to follow the other people into the forest.

The old man nods, “May the gods bless your soul, Kardin Amia.” He quickly moves off and vanishes into the dark trees.

I look around the camp, scanning one last time. I have to figure out a way to draw the Tulnar away from the prisoners.

Sorting my thoughts, I try to come up with a way to draw the monsters away from where the prisoners are escaping.

A roar fills the night and I watch in horror as three Tulnar tear their way through the brush and run into the camp. They stop, looking at me, then the empty cage, and finally their dead comrade.

They all roar in rage and I watch as they charge me. Oh gods!

I duck and roll out of the way, a spear plunking into the wooden boards othe the cart and where my head would have been.

I guess this is one way to draw them off!

I scramble to my feet, sprinting into the forest with the creatures hot on my tail.

I push my way through the bushes, nearly tripping on tree roots obscured by the night. I don’t dare glance over my shoulder, but I can hear the heavy breathing and growling of the Tulnar.

Don’t want them to lose interest.

I periodically slow down a bit, letting the monsters catch up enough to chase after me with renewed vigor. This is reminiscent of the jungle!

Unable to help compare this to my time spent running from predators and hiding from them, I start thinking of ways to escape their chase. I should be a good distance away from the captives by now.

Jumping over a fallen log, I start pushing flame imprinted katra out of my hands, igniting them on fire. The Gray Flame lights up my surrounding dimly, and as I pass a tree, I run my hand along it’s trunk.

Lets hope this works.

I set fire to the trees that I pass, also th patches of dried leaves. But the problem is that the rain from yesterday has soaked almost everything, and my flames don’t spread how I had hoped. I need something else.

Turning to my right swiftly, I start sprinting as fast as I can, empowering my legs.

I struggle with my backpack, but get it over my shoulder. Untying it is tricky, but I get it open. Reaching down into the bag, I pull out a small, nearly fully drained chimera core. Gods please let this work!

I wrench and twist the katra inside the core. It starts heating up in the palm of my hand, the light shifting and growing brighter.

Glancing over my shoulder, I can see the lumbering shapes of the lizardmen. They blow through the foliage, ignoring just about everything. I weave between trees, hoping to confuse them.

When I can start to feel the heat become scalding, I run in a straight line.

Opening my hand, I let the core rolls of my fingers and onto the ground. I put on a boost of speed, sprinting faster than I have ever before. Narrowly dodging around a tree, I keep running.

There is a boom from behind me, and a flash of light that kills any shadows around me. Then it is quickly over, but I don’t turn back.

Running on, I strain my ears for any sound of pursuit.

There is none.

Risking a glance over my shoulder, I don’t see any sign of the Tulnar. I lost them.

Not slowing my pace, I run through the night shrouded forest, all the while hoping the prisoners escaped.

Eventually I stop running, breathing heavily. Leaning on my knees, I glance around at my surroundings. The forest is now calm, moonlight trickling in from between branches.

Leaning against a tree, I look up. I can catch glimpses of the moon between the leaves of the canopy. Sitting down, I rest the back of my head on the bark of the tree.

Closing my eyes, I focus inwards on my core. It is about two thirds full, most of it being used to bolster my endurance and body for running.

I start taking hands fuls of my unimprinted Gray katra and empressing my will on it. It quickly is imprinted with fire, and I store it in the crust around my core.

When I deem I have an acceptable amount of the flame imprinted katra, I stop. Let’s see if I can imprint something else.

Taking another lump of the katra in hand, I conjure up images of water, waves crashing on rocks, heavy rainfall, rivers slowly eroding and cutting through stone.

It takes a bit, but the katra in my hand starts glowing a dim, grayish blue, turning clear. The Gray katra liquifies a bit, but I don’t let any of it escape my mental grasp.

Okay, now what can I use it for?

I take a bit of my fire imprinted katra and mix the two together.

There is a small fizzing sound, and I watch as the water seemingly destroys the fire imprinted katra. But a vapor of steam floats up.

I grab the vapor in my mind, finding it as easy to control as any of my other imprinted Gray katra’s.

So, this proves I can make other types of imprinted katra without the need to do it manually… I hope.

A problem I have noticed is that I am running low on imprinted katra. I just don’t have enough of it to do anything useful with. If I can somehow automate the creation of it, like with cycling. Then I think I may eventually build up enough of it to use on a grander scale.

Thoughts of being able to cover my body in a cloak of Gray Fire fill my head, along with other ideas for imprinted Gray katra’s.

I start making more of the water katra, holding it in my mental grasp. Eventually there is so much that I start to struggle to hold it in my imaginary hands.

Glancing at the rugged surface of my core, I dump the water onto its surface. The Gray Water katra starts slipping into the various crags and ravines of the outer layer of my core, dispersing quickly.

I need some place to hold it all to make it easier to get ahold of.

Looking across the surface of my core, it’s irregular protrusions, I wonder if I can hold the water in the crust.

I try to push it in, but it resists, only slowly soaking down through it. This isn’t going to work.

Can… I shape the outside of my core?

Impressing my will on a small section of the protective layer, I wil it to smooth out.

A grinding fills my ears, and I watch as something akin to a miniature earthquake racks the area I focused on. But thats all that happens, and I eventually stop.

That's not working.i

I meditate on it a bit, and while thinking, I start up my cycling technique. Vital arua is pulled from my surroundings, and converted into Pure katra, then being absorbed by the Gray katra.

That's it!

I grab a handful of the remaining plain Gray katra in my core. Then I spread it out on the area I wanted to flatten.

It fell to the surface as something akin to a mist. I focused and projected my mind onto the crust, hoping to get a better view of what I’m about to do.

The mist settles in a low layer of the irregular protrusions, and I will it to seep into the gray earthy crust.

Now… flatten.

The ground quakes, and I have to remind myself that I’m not really there, so there is no need to brace myself.

I watch in fascination as the large spikes and protrusions seemingly crumble, falling apart. Soon, the entire place is rubble, but not exactly flat. This is closer to what I had in mind.

I draw more gray katra from my core, bringing it up through the crust and into my imaginary, specter like hand. It pools there, and I let it boil of my hand and onto the crust of my core.

It takes the form a of a low, ground clinging fog.

Willing it to move, I cover the entire area that has been reduced to rubble. Then I let it seep into the chunks of gray crust.

When I am sure that most of it is now infused with my Gray katra, I will it again. Smooth.

The ground trembles, and I watch in fascination as the rust seemingly starts to liquify. The fragments smoothing out and connecting with other bits.

I have to strain my mind, willing it to happen. A headache starts forming behind my eyes.

After what feels like an eternity, I run out of the Gray katra. Burning the clump I took from my core in the manipulation of the crust, I inspect my work.

There is now a large basin, more of a indent in the outer layer of my core. Let’s hope this works.

I draw up as much of the water katra as I can and when I am straining at the seams to hold it all, I dump is into the basin.

I watch from the surface, as a heavy rain floods over the basin. It starts pouring and soon, the entire area is filled with water. It looks kinda like a lake, or an ocean.

I inspect my work. There are still small streams branching off the giant lake, but they all end up filling in large crags in the surface of the crust, forming smaller lakes of water imprinted katra.

Satisfied with my work, I draw myself back up from the surface. What other imprints can I make, besides water, fire and steam?

I start trying to imprint different images onto my katra. Before I know it, my exhaustion catches up with me, and I am forced into sleep.

***

A furry hand reaches down and holds up a chunk of wood. Dull bronze paint glints in the rising sun.

There is a snort of air, and a growl.

The furry fist tightens, the wood creaking, then fracturing under the strain. Splinters fly everywhere, but don’t penetrate the thick, black skin of the creature.

A roar of sorrow and rage fills the air, echoing off the polzired piles of what used to be village houses.

***

Cereus scowled, twisting his blade in his right hand. He looked up at the wispy clouds that were highlighted by the bright blue sky.

He was back in his old skin, eyes glowing yellow, his unnaturally pale flesh and pitch dark hair. The win whipped at his black cloak, the cold snow twirling in the air.

Cereus glanced down the mountain that he stood on. There is a massive crag in the side of it, it led into darkness not even his eyes could see through.

“It’s too sunny of a day for this,” He said, lifting his left hand. He swiped it, pulling up a small blue screen. A mass of numbers flash across it, then they resolve into a map.

A blue dot pings every few second on the map, standing on a mountain. The side of the mountain on the map looks normal, not giant gash.

“How in the hell did we miss this?!” He yells in exasperation. Muttering, he swipes the screen to the side and dissolves it, “I’m going to have to have a word with management and security about this.”

He pulls up another screen, this one with various icons on it. Tapping one with the shape of a world, the screen ripples and a list of names comes up. Scrolling down, he passes through sections grouped into letters. Tapping on the K one, he pulls up 840K.

Designation: Exe.840K

Status: Healthy

Sleeping

Location: Traezar Empire, Millwallow Village(Ruins)

Duration Since Integration: 253 Days

Time Till Source Completion: 71 Days, 17 Hours, 21 Mins

Advanced Report? Y/N

Cereus clicks no and scratches his cheek. He looks back down at the giant gash in the mountain, “Going to have to accelerate the plan, this world has already come under scrutiny. It’s not safe to house anymore experiments here, we’ll have to relocate.”

The mountain shutters and small stones start clatter on the ground around Cereus’s feet. The darkness deep within the gash seems to expand then retract, white lightning crackling along its surface.

“You've almost already breached through the dimensional wall, huh? God damnit,” Cereus sheaths his sword on his back, holding up both hands with his palms towards the gash.

Balls of darkness form in his hands, his skin flaking and cracking where the touch. Cereus then slowly brings them together, combining the balls. They slowly meld into each other, creating a bigger orb.

Grunting, he grips the ball tightly, digging his fingers into the surface. The skin of his fingers cracks and flakes away completely, leaving white bone. Then he starts pulling, spreading the ball and shaping it.

When he is done, he has a long spear made of darkness, the light seemingly being sucked in.

Taking in a deep breath, he hurls the spear into the gash. The spear vanishes into the darkness, and a few moments later, a shock wave hits.

The force behind the invisible wave tears the snow from the mountain, uprooting trees and shrubs and sending them hurling through the sky. Cereus digs his heels into the ground, bracing himself against the shock wave, his cloak whipping out behind him.

Then everything falls silent as the shock wave dissipates.

Cereus takes in a lung full of air, standing up straight. “Urrrghh,” He stretches his back, the vertebrae audibly popping. He flexes his bony fingers, the muscles reforming and skin growing back over it.

Looking down the mountain, Cereus laughs. The gash is now covered by a mass of rubble, black shadow writing across the surface of the rocks. White light tries to pierce through, stretching the membrane of darkness, but it is unable.

“That ought to hold you back for a while! At least till I can get reinforcements,” Cereus flicks his wrist and pulls up the menu screen. He tpas on the icon of a phone, and scrolls down a list till he reaches a name labeled [Edo]. Tapping on it, a ringing fills the air.

There is a ding and a tired voice says, “What do you need?”

“Boss! Sorry to wake you, but it’s kind of important.” Cereus says cheerfully, cracking his knuckles. “I need you to loan me some Psion Killers.”

“Cereus?” Edo sounds confused, “Why do you need Psion Killers?”

“Somehow a group of Githyanki found out about our current test site, and are planning a raid. I ran into one of their scouts, and banished him to P89.”

There is silence from the other end of the call, and a minute later, edo ask, “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. A full raid,” Cereus says grimly. He pauses for a second and speaks again, “I’m expecting them to bring Cerebriliths, and probably psionic specialists. I need a full unit of Psion Killers.”

There is a long sigh, and then Edo speaks again, “Do you need any other forces?”

Cereus shakes his head and says, “No, I’ll be able to provide the troops. I have blocked their breach temporarily and delayed them by a bit. I fear that if I completely block it off, they will open another one where I can’t find it.”

“I understand. I’ll see what I can do about the Psion Killers.” Edo sounds concerned. “What is your prognosis on when K batch will be ready?”

Cereus furrows his brow, looking out over the edge of the mountain top and down at the massive expanse of forest and plains. “It’s still on track, but we may have to accelerate due to the raid. If any information about what we are doing on this world gets out, then we’ll have to move testing sites.”

Edo makes a sound of understanding, “Alright. I’m going to go fill out the necessary paperwork.”

There’s a loud beep, and the call is closed. Cereus swipes the screen to the side, dissolving it.

He glares off into the distance, “God damnit. Just when everything was going smoothly too. Let’s just hope they are ready.”

Cereus slashes his sword, tearing a hole in reality. Then he stretches out his left arm, runes flying around it. They move off his arm and stabilize the portal.

Cereus pulls up another screen, this one a map. “Gotta find a grave yard…”

Then he steps through the portal, it folds back inside itself as he vanishes.