Chapter 184

Brenna

The Impact

Traveling through the dark continent was interesting to say the least. The lands and vegetation looked much the same, but also different. The was just something about the level of ambient qi that was around that seemed to be invigorating, at least at first. Of course, when three new qi users with high levels of cultivation came through, the levels of ambient qi quickly dropped. There was after all only so much energy that could be consumed by all.

Lykan of course took to the air, Pentra took to the rivers and waterways, while Brenna had them all beat. Brenna just chose to consume the energy from the very earth itself. Slowly the trio made their way inland. This caused Pentra no measure of problems, but she hid her discomfort well. Instead of complaining, she busied herself with other worldly tasks. Her first course of action was to beach our boat well inland, so that when we needed to make our return journey it would be ready to leave.

“I once had a friend from here.” Lykan said one night. That was the other thing too. Every morning the group would choose a landmark far off in the distance as a place to travel to, then go there. How they got there was not important, only that they got there by nightfall so they could all spend time together.

“Oh, what happened to her?” Brenna asked.

“We first conquered her capital, then spent three months rebuilding it.” Lykan offered.

At that Brenna just nodded. It was clear that quite a few people from Sidhertha knew Lykan and remembered him. Brenna thought about asking him more, but seeing how his expression changed to a more contemplative one, she held off on further questions.

With the majority of conversation over with for the night, the trio took to doing what had become a pastime of much the world at this point. They looked up at the stars and saw the red flare slowly come closer.

“Tomorrow?” Pentra asked, her use of the common tongue coming along rather well from her months of travel.

Lykan nodded, “tomorrow.”

“Where do you think it will land?” Brenna found herself asking.

As she asked, a contemplative look crossed Lykan’s face, as the wind began to pick up at his merest thoughts. Looking around, Lykan surveyed the countryside, then looking at a wide open area to the far east, he pointed and said “somewhere over there.”

That was all that was needed for the trio. An object hurtling through space, striking a spinning orb, something that should be nearly impossible to predict with normal mental problem-solving abilities. But to Lykan it was simple deduction. After being told the answer Pentra and Brenna both did the mental math and found that they too came to the same conclusion.

Once again Brenna found herself marveling at the benefits of having her attributes increased as drastically as they currently were. Before such a math problem would have been beyond her, but now she could almost feel the equations formulating in her head. She could feel the speed of the heavenly vessel and almost instantly knew its speed from watching it for so many nights. Then there was the rotation of the planet, which she knew intimately at this point. Then finally, there was the subtle, but unavoidable surface tension and friction that a heavenly body would face when entering the planet’s atmosphere. All of these points went into her mental equation, and all of them were easily calculated by her brain.

Taking a moment like this to contemplate just how she was able to understand such large concepts was something she was glad to do. This she thought was part of Lykan’s ultimate plan and why he insisted that they all meet up during the night. During the day they could all choose a direction to cultivate, so long as they all ended up at the same end location.

This of course suited Brenna perfectly, as it meant that she would always get to spend some time with Lykan. For while they ate together as a trio, the couple always found time to be together as a duo.

Of course, with their relationship blessed by the Gods the two took a few more liberties than normal, and now Brenna was feeling the joys of such liberties growing inside her.

It was still early, far too early to tell for certain, but she could already feel a tiny ball of qi forming within her. A tiny ball that seemed to already have its own designs on qi cultivation and storage. Brenna thought about bringing up the topic with Lykan but ultimately decided against such a notion. If he knew about this, then it might distract him from the true opponent.

No, for now she would let this remain a happy little secret. One to share after the advents of tomorrow.

The next morning, the plan was simple.

“We go out to different points and wait. Then when the impact occurs we all race to the center and engage with the enemy.” Lykan said, pointing to the long flat land where he was now certain the ship would land. A ship that was now invisible given the rotation of the planet. Still all three knew that would be the place where the alien ship would land.

“I will be waiting by the large river.” Pentra said, pointing to a river that was starting to form from pooling streams of water that poured down from a mountain range to the north.

“I will stay her, on this mountain range and go in after the impact.” Brenna said.

Lykan gave a long look at Brenna, before nodding.

“Then I will go to the far end to the south east,” Lykan said as he pointed off to a long flat stretch of land that seemed to roll on for miles.

With their plans for the day set and their location to meet up for the night well known to all the trio departed.

As she watched, Brenna couldn’t help but feel that this was a monumental day. This would be a day that would shape the entire course of history for the planet. Would they succeed and be able to repel this monster, one of whom was apparently more than enough to subjugate all of Pentra’s people. Or would they be able to succeed.

By now a lot had happened, the world had not one, but three cultivators. While Brenna had no doubt that if Lykan fell during combat, Pentra wouldn’t hesitate to turn on her and the rest of the world’s inhabitants, she knew that for the moment Pentra was on their side.

For the moment the three of them could all unite to fend off an alien invader that no one wanted gaining traction on their planet.

With that common goal in mind, Brenna set about cultivating. The long slow process of forcing her body to do something that was now as simple as breathing was calming. This was good, as it helped her focus on the tasks at hand.

Logically she knew that her first priority should be to the second growing life form within her, but she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if anything happened to Lykan and she was capable of stopping it. So, on the top of the random mountain range on a continent she had only heard about through vague rumors, she made a mental promise to herself. One that when the time came, she would be ready and react.

There far above the ground below, she promised herself that she would hold nothing back. That she would give everything she had to this fight and more, even if it meant complications later.

Rather than dwelling on the idea of complications, she focused her mind on the things she could change. She forced her mind and body to move along in cultivation, she wanted to once again push her personal limitations to be well beyond where she currently was. This of course meant she had to have a deeper understanding of not just the element of earth, but she also needed to understand her personal truths that she gained from earth.

To her, this was a lot larger of a concept than she felt ready to actually conceive of, which was why this was the perfect problem for her mind to try to solve at the moment. Feeling her mind give doubts about her ability to comprehend the universal truths of earth, she reminded herself about the trajectory of the falling master. The way she knew exactly where the doom bringer of the apocalypse would come, the first of likely many to come. She knew where this one would land, as clearly as she knew there would be more that would soon follow in its wake.

With her own acknowledgment that her mind and ability to grasp larger concepts reaffirmed, she set about focusing on improving her own understanding of qi and manipulating the elements around her.

Pulse.

A clear thrum of energy could be felt coming from the south east. Brenna found herself opening her eyes, as she saw a bright floating flash in the sky.

Instantly her mind put together what had happened. Lykan had once again entered the second stage of cultivation, but this time as an omni-cultivator, a process that was made even more impressive given how much more powerful he was than before. The Leviathan was an example of how much he had grown. Before the giant serpent was nearly his end, but this time he was able to handle the beast easily, forcing the beast to run off in fear.

Seeing Lykan’s success filled her both with a sense of hope, but also a determination to push her own body and self beyond her current limitations.

Woosh.

Clouds began to first form over the valley below, a sign that a great storm was about to appear. With the gathering of the storm’s energy, Brenna herself could feel the energy of the very planet itself giving warning sings to all creatures who would dare to listen.

Fluttering wings, thundering hooves.

The sounds of animals running and trying to get away as quickly as possible could be heard for miles to Brenna’s incredible hearing. She felt the vibrations of warning coming from the planet. The planet it seemed was just as good at math and trajectories as she and the others were, as the planet sent pulses of warnings for everything to get away.

Then the sky grew darker, as all the clouds first seemed to be drawn to the west. Then a spiraling spear of heat began to twist on its way down. The object was slightly unbalanced, as it came into contact with a fleeing flock of birds.

The birds made a worthy sacrifice for the descending pod, as it began spiraling out of control to the ground. Brenna watched as the object began a wide looping spiral to the ground. Not the change in trajectory was not enough to destroy the object, not even enough to really cause any major problems for the trajectory. In fact, the impact would only be off by a few miles from their original calculations, still well within the range of the valley they had all chosen to converge upon for the fight.

Whoom!

The spiraling burning ball pierced the clouds and burnt a hole in the gathering storm clouds. Then Brenna watched as the pod made its final descent, upside down. Never having seen the object before, Brenna wasn’t quite certain how she knew which side was up and which side was down. But she was relatively certain that the object was well and truly upside down as it made its last spiraling descent towards the ground. Then, it happened, the event that had taken the last few months to prepare for was upon them.

BOOM!

A nova burst of heat, light, and energy crashed into the planet. From the impact alone, Brenna could feel rings of condensed qi flying off the pod in waves. In an instant she understood this to be the excess of what a truly qi dense planet could produce. Just feeling the energy filled her with a warm glow. One that she wished to bask in as long as possible.

Clang.

The sound was as obvious as it was unexpected. Instantly upon hearing the sound, Brenna knew that Lykan had not hesitated for a moment. Knowing him, he was likely on the move even as the ship began making its final descent.

Looking down Brenna saw the flashes of light and power as two high level qi cultivators squared off against each other.

Rising to her feet, Brenna pulled the great battle axe off of her back and resolutely decided to go forward to help. There was of course just one problem. Just as she made to move forward, her stomach began to convulse with pain that was so intense that she had to double over and catch herself lest she fall to the ground.

Finally, after a long second she paused and waited, as the pains in her stomach finally stopped. Then realizing the worst was over, she made to move forward again, but was once again stopped as another fit of pain coursed through her body.

Instantly she knew this sudden force of pain came from her unborn child that was even now circulating qi within her.

“Stop. I need to go.” Brenna said, to her stomach as she was doubled over in pain.

Rumble.

More pain.

This time the pain was so intense that it dropped her to her knees. “Fine. I will wait, until I see your father needs help.”

With that, a sort of uneasy truce had been made as the pain in Brenna’s stomach lessened for a moment, allowing her to relax slightly.

Letting out a sigh of relief, she looked down at the valley below and could only watch on as Lykan fought a monster that sent shivers down her spine.