The man was broken and completely dominated by her. There was no form of submission that could match what she had subjected him to, and she knew, that his subservience was final. Tichaona’s thoughts lingered from thoughts of resistance to thoughts of total capitulation. Like a drone, her commands were followed, with poisoning as a deterrent. They would train together and he would endure more suffering. Regardless of the fact that he had come to realize that she was immortality incarnate, he had a belief that one day, he would unshackle himself from her bounds. If impaling her would not do the job, burning the bitch whole would do it!

The dark figure left Tichaona alone in their sparring room, to endure more of her poison dosage. She was lost in thought as she thought about the progress she was making with Tichaona and how it correlated with her plans to destroy her brother. When she wasn’t drilling the young man, she would be attending to domestic activities as well as her own training. The dark figure, an alien woman with alien customs, glinted with joy at how things were progressing in her favour. She gathered up unicorn carcasses that were hunted by her pet wolves and feed her dragon Mercinia, as well as Tichaona’s pet wolf. After giving them their meals, she would go into the thicket of the woods to meditate. Wisps of fog would slowly circumvent around her body, summoned by her brooding aura of vengeance.

The air around her would slowly turn violent in her position of repose and she would be calm as she took on the full brunt of the self-contained miniature whirlwind. In this state, nothing could cross into her personal space without being completely being ravaged by the turbulent force. After a while, she would experience muscle spasms, with each flinching sound echoing in the woods, like a dynamo that was working on autopilot. His muscles would bulge in that meditated state and she would become extremely veiny, losing all signs of femininity as she evolved into a hulking mass.

Her energy also began to produce heat that either melted or burnt the surrounding objects around her as she yelped and roared. Her clothes were drenched with pungent sweat and after a while she would break out of the meditation and all the magical elements that accompanied the spectacle would dissipate into nothingness. Upon stopping it, she would pant as she bent over, clutching her knees in a tight grip. After a couple of moments of respiratory functions, she would stand erect as she toughened up to the pain she had subjected herself to, as her muscles throbbed. She would then say to herself, “It’s not enough. This body must pass this limit.”

After subjecting herself to 6 more sets of this obligatory self-improvement session, she dashed off to the ship to shower off her bodily grime and became one with her soaps. Unlike what the movies depicted about women, slowly showering, elegantly as if the water was a silhouette that was caressing their figure, the dark figure was very precise when it came to bathing. An accompanying blade that acted as a scrapping tool was used as an aid to remove all the dirt that accumulated on her body. Any hairs she grew were removed and she even used the same blade to wax.

As soon as her personal hygiene was tended to, she would go to room on the ship that Tichaona hadn’t seen before. The room had state of the art Quendalion tech, primarily for the purpose of therapeutic use. There she would recline on the muscle massager which helped her feel less fatigued. Despite her cogent healing abilities, her regeneration was never quite the same after she would do the intense meditation which used her own energy as a conditioner. After that was done she would check on Tichaona to see how he was coping with the poison. If he was barely moving, she would leave him to recuperate, but if he was highly animate, she would increase the dose. Tichaona also thought that it would be in his best interests to play dead rather than muster the machismo to prove that he had resisted her venom. Upon seeing him in a weak state she would move on to other things. On that particular day, she wanted to fixate her mind on the next component to her plan, the next member to join her ranks.

The dark figure was in the gem stone garden where the souls of the deceased would wane and howl as they discontented to their existence as magical accessories. The souls that were plucked out of the legion of subdued souls were now reduced to merely magical items that occasionally needed a mana refill upon use. She was monitoring their evolution and mana levels, at times, even marveling at how beautiful the gems looked. Her Eagle Eye, Emerald gem, which not only acted as an external eye that peered at an unsuspecting individual from above, but also provided teleportation towards the subject of interest. She also had the garnet stone which was her memory stone. It could trace back and give a holographic detailing of the actions that said person did in their past. Definitely a useful tool in solving mysteries. A plethora of gems like the jade, aquamarine, topaz, amethyst, onyx, ruby, citrine and moonstone, were all in the garden with different mana refilling requirements.

The dark figure was interested in eventually arming Tichaona with one, but still felt as if his attempts on her life would be excited by her offering him gifts that could potentially destroy her. Their toxic relationship which made it hard for her to trust him, due to the unsavoury conditions she set up for herself, were going to result any several back stabbing situations. She wanted to eventually tone down the cruelty of her methods and hoped that she would be able to sway him in with other methods. As these thoughts engulfed her mind, she got a hold of the Emerald gem which had a bracelet attachment and cuffed her right wrist. In a matter of moments, the gem glowed and the space in front of her distorted. It was like looking through a telescope and through the distorted lense she could see her target who was being accompanied by her friend. The dark figure even activated the custom goal tracker and the distance that was pointed out was over 600km away.

The tall slender but athletic Venezuelan girl who appeared through the distorted scope was rocking hefty black hiker boots, a black lululemon, a black tank top and a cap. Her hair was pulled back and she had a pony tail. She was wielding military grade fire arms, all assorted on the gun belt with buckles that had a special leather. In addition, she had a bow and arrow mounted on her back by a rope. She was being accompanied by a girl who was slightly shorter than her by a few inches. The girl looked younger and was a Brazilian who was wearing stylish clothes that didn’t seem possible to be able to exist in Goshem, unless the girl had an ability to create clothes from nowhere. She had an ice cream cone and what seemed like a box of pizza in her free hand. This seemed rather odd to the dark figure, because unlike the usual survivors, whose clothes looked withered and old due to being from their past lives as well as succumbing to the harsh conditions of Goshem, their clothes looked brand new.

The Harajuku mixed with pastel goth looking girl, hopped around as she licked her ice cream, nonchalantly humming gibberish. She wasn’t the dark figure’s target, but she had a feeling that her abilities would be useful. The tall one who was leading this estranged 2 woman team had an intense gaze. As her companion acted carelessly, she was super alert and always checking for any possible hostiles. The fact that she seemed ready for action meant that the humans were probably engaging in internal conflict with each.

Her current level was 3 and the accomplice was at level 2. The dark figure wanted to get a hold of the Venezuelan girl, but didn’t want to disturb the progression of her training. She then opted to send Tichaona to retrieve the girls. After 10minutes of observing, she eventually got bored by the lack of activity between the two survivors and thus deactivated the emerald gem. As soon as that was over, she trotted towards where she had a mana plant plantation and picked up several of them and carried them as she headed back to where Tichaona was. There she dropped the mana plants in front of him and began to discuss with him the next stage in her plans.

“I believe we should move your training to the next step. You’re almost close to the desired mithridatism level, but for now I want to focus on you training your special ability.” she said, as she looked down at him.

“You are giving me mana?” he asked, almost surprised that she would give him something he would happily use to slaughter her.

“Yes. I am going to stop the poison training and we are going to focus more on you being more creative with the use of your powers. From the encounters I have seen you have with that man who defeated you and that time your injured my hand, you have only reduced your power to just forceful bursts of abrasion. This is not the full potential of Barrier to Entry and I can tell that you haven’t thought about what exactly this ability means and what you could with it.” she said, now squatting as she drew closer to him. Tichaona wondered where she was going with this, but he decided to stop feigning gauntness since she had stated that the poison dosing was over, for now.

“What exactly are you talking about, goddess?”

“A special ability is a manifestation of emotional convictions one holds dear or wishes he or she could resolve if they had the chance. For me, it was a desire to put my people in a toxic environment so that their true selves would show. The guise of propriety and the repression that came from people hiding their natures was an insufferable aspect that I detested with a passion. As a warrior, I could be a brute, a woman driven by blood lust, but the civilized lifestyle had many hide their true natures. It was a dichotomy that one such as myself could not take.

So this disdain manifested into my poison ability. When an organism is poisoned or attacked by viral infections, the body is tested for its worth. Essentially, if you’re never inoculated or better yet, in a figurative sense, put in a toxic circumstance, your body will never grow an immunity against these diseases. Even a benign version could kill you. Our bodies are therefore living a lie, complacent and not being what they are supposed to be. The definition physical marvels. This logic may seem skewed to the side of madness, but the fact that I have made you endure this pain of poison and training had made a lot stronger in a short space of time. A poison exists to cultivate the immune system to reach its full potential. Without ever dealing with sickness, we wouldn’t be able to build an immunity towards those things that maim the body.” she said, sternly as she got lost in her speech.

“Hmm, is that so? Well, if tapping into more of what I can do is something psychological then will this training have more psychological aspects?” he asked, really hoping for a reprieve from anything draconian.

“Well, I am not very good at that kind of emotional discussion, however I can aid in helping you reach your full potential.” she said, feigning a sympathetic facial expression. Tichaona looked surprised and then slowly took a bite from the mana plant. The dark figure watched him closely, just making sure he wouldn’t foolishly attempt to attack her again. Tichaona had learnt his lesson and was only willing to do anything if it literally meant an instant kill.

He noticed his mana bar reach the max bar on his peripheral vision and he then rose from the ground and stood erect with his amazing physique. The dark figure was slightly impressed that he didn’t try anything foolish and then told him, “So very soon, you won’t be training alone. There is a woman who also has a special ability that will be useful in killing my brother. She is the last piece to the puzzle before we set off to kill him. Once you have widened the horizons of your ability, I will send you on a mission to get her. She is a lower level, so I don’t think you will struggle much with subduing her. Once you’re at a point where you are doing useful things with that power. We will be including her into our team.”

“Another person… And I have to get her?” he asked, almost bewildered by her announcement. She simply nodded and they began to work on the training of his ability. Tichaona felt uncomfortable about the idea of being her henchman who kidnaps individuals and didn’t wish his current fate upon another survivor. They soon began the rigorous training, which surprisingly ended up being an interesting experience in which he learned things that he didn’t think were possible with his ability. As soon as the training started, the count down for his departure to get the Venezuelan woman had started.

##############################################################################################

Hi guys, Bastino here. Sorrow for taking way too long to post. It’s not because of any writer’s block or laziness, but rather a plethora of inconveniences that have impeded me from writing. So lately I haven’t had a device to type on because my old computer got bust and I didn’t have access to anything to type. So I apologize for my own personal failings that have hindered the continuity of this book. So for now, until I have a laptop/mobile device of my own, I won’t be able to post frequently, but best believe I haven’t given up on the story. In the mean time I have been working on my manga which I am drawing and writing for publication on a web manga platform known as Medibang. I will also work on a webtoon about goths and stuff. Anyways, don’t give up on me and show your support. Consider keeping up with me on twitter @BastinoMhika or on facebook on the great bastion facebook page. Life as an artistic inclined individual can be tough, but there are my predecessors who have navigated their way to success, regardless of the hardships. So thank you for voting and reading. Current reads is 38k, hmm, I think we can do better. Thanks!