Da Shan tumbled through the forest at breakneck speed, his eyes wild and his movements erratic. He stumbled over every root, hit every branch and charged through every bush. Keeping his iron active gave him a pounding migraine, but the iron wrapped around his busted hand helped him ignore the bones jutting from his hand.

I will not die! Life is the most important metric… without life… without life.

Da Shan didn’t know if he believed in the Green Hills, he didn’t know if he believed in anything beyond the Infinite Black… the nothingness that all cultivators feared would come and claim them on their quest for immortality. He still remembered a time hundreds of years ago, he and McCarthy had wiped out pacified a bizarre sect. They had these strange pills that they took in their religious ceremonies. Da Shan, being a curious soul ate one of these pills. In the midst of siezures, frothings and convulsions he had seen the fabled Infinite Black and it frightened him, it frightened him deeply. So he doubly burned the sect.

I will not die!

His legs pumped rapidly and he tore through the forest with abandon, ignoring the pain he felt and the weariness that oppressed him. Every step was like running under water, ever breath like a that of a drowning man and his body ached like it was on fire.

If I stop I will die… I will not fall… I will not die!

I will not die!

I will not die!

He chanted this mantra in his mind over and over, it was his only source of strength, his only source of hope. Life for the sake of life, nothing could be more illogical, but nothing could be as powerful. So primal. So basic. So instinctual. And so he ran, beyond what his legs could run, he thought with a mind incapable of thinking and he charged in a direction he was unsure of. Each second was as an hour to him. But, his persistence was rewarded. He saw the rope bridge in the distance. His heart lifted and he managed to squeeze a bit more juice out of his legs and ran even faster. He was so close, he could hear the babbling brook. His eyes could see the threads on the ropes. The dingy bridge. His foot stepped on the wood. He leapt down. But his heart felt like it was about to explode in his chest.

Eh? Why aren’t I falling?

Why can’t I fall?

An upward blowing wind was preventing him from slipping into the hole. The warm upward draft brought him anything but comfort.

What is this?

“Ed must have broken your mind old friend, you still don’t recognize my power.”

Da Shan tried to turn around, but found he couldn’t scoop the wind in his hands to turn his body. The wind danced and evaded around his body, as if there was no wind, wherever he swiped there was a vacuum, preventing him from gaining traction.

“Come now, turn around and let me see your face.”

Da Shan’s throat burned, his lips were cracked, his only source of hydration the blood staining his clothes. He tried to speak, but the crusted blood from his cracked lips had glued his mouth shut.

“Sorry, I forgot, sometimes I’m too powerful for my own good.” With a wry grin McCarthy snapped his fingers and the wind pushed Da Shan round, his wild eyes looked McCarthy in the face. McCarthy’s wry grin became a small chortle as he laughed, “You look like crap.”

Da Shan squeezed out a scratchy voice as he tore his scabbed lips open, “You look like what you are.”

“Oh, and what’s that?”

“A dick.”

“…”

Da Shan stared defiantly at his friend. McCarthy’s face contorted into a frown, he lightly tugged on his jacket before saying, “Of all the comments that would make me speechless… you got me there.”

“You still have much to learn.”

“Shut up old man, let’s drop this charade. You lost, I won, now come. It’s not yet midnight and I have a cryo-stasis tube waiting for you.”

“Joseph, I will not be put in cryo!”

“Ha! So you’d rather kill yourself with this insane cultivation method?”

“I won’t die I’ve —”

“Save it Da Shan. I imagine you either have a ton of blood clotting pills or a third energy source, but neither can fix your problem. Friend, just sleep for awhile, when you wake up all —”

“You don’t have the right to take —”

“I HAVE EVERY RIGHT!”

The shout knocked Da Shan back, the upward draft vanishing from beneath him. As he flew back he tumbled down the rope bridge and on top of Ed’s psychic barrier. Da Shan’s eyes glinted and with a flash of steel the barrier collapsed, and he slid down landing on his broken hand with a scream. He floundered in the dark as the water poured down the hole, submerging him in liquid. He tried to swim but was too weak. McCarthy calmly observed Da Shan’s floundering before parting the water and gently floating down into the streambed and then down the hole. He grabbed Da Shan by the scruff of his neck and summoned a wind to funnel the fallen water back up into the stream. With a wave of his hand a steady current of wind prevented anymore water from falling down the hole. He waved again and the stone door concealing Da Shan’s room was blown back by a fierce gale — tumbling into the room and shattering the shelves. He stepped in and casually tossed Da Shan into the room. Da Shan drained of energy, laid on the cold stone floor mumbling to himself. McCarthy’s eyes spotted the old raggedy tome it was in the center of the room, on a pedastal, like some holy text. He snorted to himself and walked up to it, his eyes traced the cover: Tome of Rebirth and Rejuvenation: How to Be a New You After 200 Years! He laughed in derision and opened it. He read the tome while Da Shan pulled himself to the center of the room with his free hand.

“Hmmm, I was wondering why you needed to return here for this plan… so you need to do this on a solstice… provided you began on a solstice… and you must do the procedure in the exact same place you summoned your element — which presumably was here.” McCarthy looked up, noting Da Shan’s dishevelled form moving across the floor to the center of the room. He casually strode to the center of the room and with a kick sent Da Shan back towards the doorway. He pulled out his glasses. Put them on. And continued reading the tome.

Da Shan groaned in pain and his mind screamed. I will not die! I will not die! I will not die! Dammit! I won’t be frozen… I will not be frozen. He looked up, his heart was in pain seeing McCarthy read his treasured volume. He gasped out some words in a pained voice, “Putting me in stasis will kill me!”

“It might kill you… but it probably won’t. It has a higher chance of succeeding than… this.”

“It’s my life’s work!”

McCarthy closed the book and levelled his gaze at Da Shan, “I’ve come to believe that you’ve gone senile.”

“No… no… Joseph…”

“Don’t worry Da Shan… I have some pills that will sedate you.”

“You can’t do this to me… I am a human… You can’t just freeze me… I have a choice!”

“Da Shan… the insane cannot make a choice and I think you’re insane.” A worried expression wrinkled McCarthy’s face as he regarded Da Shan with a look of pity. "It happens sometimes, if we wait too long before a breakthrough, Alzheimer's can occur. It's not unheard off... it would explain a lot..."

“This is so… wrong…” Da Shan felt tears spring to his eyes, he clutched his chest in pain and hissed to McCarthy, “Joseph, what have you become? I thought we weren’t going be a devil sect?”

McCarthy’s voice went quiet and dangerous, “You dare accuse me of being a devil sect and I will gut you like a pig.”

“Yes! Threats of murder! Oh that definitely proves your righteousness, please go on! Tell me more about how not-devilish you are Joseph!”

“Careful old friend…”

“I won’t be Joseph! I won’t be! You’re no better than the witches who killed Katherine and May you’re just as —”

McCarthy kicked Da Shan’s head, with a yelp Da Shan felt his neck creak and groan in a way that it was never meant to. He couldn’t feel his legs at all.

“Don’t you dare mention them to me, you filthy animal. Let me tell you something Da Shan.” McCarthy turned his back to Da Shan and faced the piles of books, papers and pills — kicking at an errant pill bottle he began, “All that has meaning in the world is power! Do the weak have rights? Perhaps, but if you can’t protect them, they might as well not exist. Power gives meaning. I make meaning with my power. There is nothing but power! With power I will avenge May! And with power I will make the world as I want it! I’ll do it all and when you awake from your sleep, you can thank me for it.” His eyes turned to regard the broken and battered form of his father-in-law, he stepped toward him. Got down on one knee, lifted Da Shan’s chin and stared him straight in the eye. McCarthy’s blue eyes burned with an all-consuming fire, a shining blue flame in the night. His voice dropped to a whisper, “You will thank me for it.”

“No… please… my son… don’t talk like this… can’t we discuss this like reasonable men?”

“Da Shan, reason is for the sane.”

“I’m not insane!”

“Anyone who disagrees with me is insane.”

“How… How can you say that with a straight face?!”

“It’s true.”

“McCarthy… what happened to you?”

“What happened to me? What happened to —

“Ferrum veni!” With a weak shout the cloud of iron swarmed from Da Shan’s broken hand and pummeled McCarthy in the face. McCarthy stepped back with a laugh and casually blew the cloud away.

Bang!

With a crack and a puff of smoke a gunshot went off in the cold room, the sound echoed for a brief moment, but when the smoke cleared the smell of blood and sulfur hung in the air. McCarthy’s eyes were wide and a stream of blood trickled from his forehead, shock was smattered across his face. He swayed unsteadily.

“Where did you get that?” McCarthy’s voice croaked as he slunk to his knees.

“Not telling.”

McCarthy swayed on his knees, about to fall over.

Da Shan continued, “I know this won’t kill you old friend… but consider us no longer connected. I will walk my path. You walk yours. If they ever intersect, I will kill you.”

“Ha. Good one.” McCarthy tumbled to the ground on his face and lay in a slowly forming pool of blood.

Da Shan felt a wind beginning to form, he clenched his jaw and using one arm dragged himself forward to the center of the room. He looked back. The wind had turned McCarthy’s body over —suspending it in the air — and the blood floated from the ground and began to flow back into his body. A small lump of metal rolled out from his skull. Da Shan reached the center of the room, his arm burning in pain. He forcibly dragged himself into a sitting position, using both his good hand and broken hand to prop himself up. He didn't have a lot of time.

Damn, I think my legs are paralyzed.

Da Shan ripped a few more teeth from his mouth, his screams rather muted — he was getting used to this — and tossed the three pills in his mouth and waited. His eyes wandered to McCarthy’s body, the blood had — as if guided by a sentient hand — entered McCarthy’s head again. He felt his heartbeat quicken.

Faster! Faster!

A few seconds passed then Da Shan felt the vigour, the iron and some strange force swirling in his body. The atmospheric energy… thank you solstice! The third pill he took had started dulling the pain, his reaction time had slowed down. He raised a hand staring at it — it seemed to be detached from his body. Man… no wonder people get addicted to these pills. The book told him that it was necessary to stay awake for the process, but the pain would be so great that it would make him black out. According to his research, a few very illegal drugs were recommended to remedy the situation. Da Shan’s heart was filled with gratitude towards the black-market channels that brought him the drugs. Thank you Tiny Tim for all you do! He breathed deeply and smelled victory, he had beat McCarthy. Dilapidated feelings of gratitude began springing up in his chest.

Thank you so much Paul for giving Greg the gun. When I come back I will find a way to pay you back… Greg… My opinion of you has risen, consider that all the thanks you get. Thanks Ed for nothing! Thanks to Joseph for being… ugh… for being… being…

His mind was getting muddled. But he could still feel the elemental energy and the vigour rampaging through his body — directed by the mysterious atmospheric energy (an energy Wizards referred to as Mana). He looked down and his blurry mind sharpened into focus. Blood oozing from the pores of his body at an alarming rate and then cursed himself in his mind. It was too late, the process had begun, he couldn't move untill it was complete.

Crap! Crap! Dammit! Dammit! All pricking hell! I didn’t grab any blood clotting pills!

Da Shan’s eyes went wide and frantic at the large quantities of blood leaking out of his body as his skin seemed to shrivel and peel off — exposing the muscle underneath. His flesh wriggled and pulsed as if some creature was swimming under his skin. But the pain was far and distant, his mind slow and dull. He wanted to drag himself off to grab pills, but he couldn’t move. He wanted to scream and cry out. But his voice was someone else’s. Not in his control.

It’s okay… it might not kill me… it might not! Stay positive. I am a seed! Grow Da Shan cultivate like a garden and — eh? What’s this!

Da Shan’s alarm grew even more, the atmospheric energy was leaving his body, floated out of his exposed skin and faded into the air. Unable to handle the rampaging vigour and steel his arm with the broken hand exploded in a sea of blood and bone. With no atmospheric energy to direct its formation, it collapsed in a sea of hurt — the destruction rippling up his arm to his torso. Soon there was no arm left, only pain. Waves of pain cascaded his body and pricked the edge of his consciousness. But nothing could startle him out of his stupor, even though the stump that was his shoulder gushed blood. His inebriated mind whirred.

Frig! Don’t tell me I didn’t start cultivating this on the solstice?! PRICK ME! FRIGGIN’ UNIVERSE! YOU’RE DETERMINED TO KILL ME! No Da Shan… think positive. Positive! Tiddly-do and tiddly dum! Tweedle dee and tweedled dum! Jub jub birds and broom trees! I feel great! Hehehe! I will live! I will — eh? Who’s that? Why are his eyes yellow… Rather skinny fellow. He looks mad… Oh! He’s coming this way. Hullo sir —

Da Shan’s drug induced mind was unable to process the incoming danger. He saw the throbbing veins in Lee’s forehead. He saw the sadistic and wolfish grin. He saw the sharpened fingernails and the snarling face. He felt the rush of air as Lee swiped with his clawed hand. He felt the confusion as his eyes saw his own body upside down. He felt his thoughts slow. He saw the encroaching black. An inexplicable sadness clouded his cheerful mind.

Why is it getting dark? My eyes are still open! Hullo! Hullo! Oh… everything is spinning and shrinking… spinning and shrinking.

Da Shan’s head rolled across the floor, stopping a few feet from his body next to where the tome lay open on the ground. The book was flat on its back, open to the last page of the volume. Its tattered pages stained with blood and its brown leather spine dyed black by the red fluid. His eyes moved — instinctually and perhaps in defiance — to the last line on the page before the absent appendix. The last words he saw before all was black. The last thing in his mind. The last thing his eyes would ever see.

Insipiens! Tu quod seminas non vivificatur nisi prius moriatur.

He never understood that line.

Ah, I don’t understand that line.

I don’t understand…

I don’t…

I…

I…

I…

…

Da Shan's head watched the blood spurting from his body.

The blood stopped gushing.

His eyes closed.

Da Shan died.