Chapter 230: Karmic Reprise


    Virs eyes struggled open as if waking from a thousand years of dreamless sleep.


    Staring up, he found an unfamiliar ceiling. The ash-darkened skies Vir had grown ustomed to were nowhere to be found, and the same went for the ever-present lightning. Theyd been reced by Vir couldnt tell. It looked almost like night, though there were no stars. Nor, of course, was there any moon. Vir had only seen <em>that </em>in the vision Ashani had shown him once.


    Vir brought a hand to his face, expecting it to be ckened by soot, but to his surprise, they were clean.


    <em>Where in all the realms am I?</em>


    Sitting up, he found a grassy knoll, unblemished by even a speck of ash.


    Vir simply stared at the beautiful green grass as it swayed gently in the light breeze. How long had it been since hed seen flora like this?


    His fingers brushed the thin reeds, just to make sure it was real. It <em>was. </em>It reminded him of the hill hed once lounged on together with Maiya at Balindam, watching the sun rise.


    Looking up, Vir stared at the pitch-ck sky for a long moment before he realized he wasnt looking at a sky at all, but a cavern. Distant cavern walls curved slowly up to the roof. One so enormous, he could scarcely even see the ceilingonly its dim prana signature gave it away.


    And yet, thend wasnt dark. It was lit as though it were a cloudy day outside, with soft shadows ying over the hills nearby despite theck of any visible light source.


    <em>Is this really the Ashen Realm? What happened?</em>


    Massaging his head, Vir struggled to recall the events leading up to this moment.


    <em>We were fleeing from the Ash Beasts. Running. To the beacon. Thats right, the beacon!</em>


    Deep underground, Vir had seen abyrinth of tunnels. Hed headed to the position where they came closest to the surface. And then


    <em>Nothing.</em>


    Everything after that was a nk. Had he somehow been captured and transported here? If so, why would they leave him such freedom?


    Vir stood up shakily and took stock of his situation. He was alone. Or at least, Cirayus and Shan werent anywhere nearby. He did have his katar and chakrams, though, and he wasnt in any immediate danger.


    Cirayus had been carrying their supplies, including their food and water, so Vir made it his top priority to locate them.


    <em>Guess Id better get ay of thend, then.</em>


    The soft shadows made <em>Dance of the Shadow Demon </em>difficult to use, so Vir <em>Leaped </em>away.


    Immediately, he noticed the rtiveck of Ash Prana in the ground. The <em>Leap </em>that shouldve taken him a hundred paces only took him thirty, forcing him to triple the time he spent charging the ability.


    The prana density surprised him; while still higher than anything in the Human Realm, it was far lower than hed ever seen in the Ash.


    <em>I suppose I should prepare myself for the worst But still, where </em>is <em>this ce?</em>


    Vir <em>Leaped </em>again, this time activating <em>Prana Current </em>and sparing a full second to allow it to charge before sting off.


    <em>Current </em>not only helped attract the surrounding prana, it also prevented his bodys ultra-dense prana from leaking back out to the low-density atmosphere.


    He sailed through the air and sailed right off of a cliff.


    <em>No. Not a cliff, </em>Vir realized in horror as he plummeted.


    The ground hed been on hadnt been the earth at all. <em>Itd been a floating ind. </em>One of many, and hed just jumped off.


    <em>No wonder there wasnt much prana avable </em>There simply wasnt much ground to pull <em>from. </em>It didnt exin why the air was nearly devoid of it, though.


    Wind rushed against his face, faster and faster. Vir had fallen many times, but never <em>quite </em>this far. The ground was so very distant it didnt feel real.


    It was.


    His stomach lurched and fear began to overtake him as the jagged, rocky magmandscape neared. The ground below was as far from the floating ind as could be. Volcanoes belched rivers of molten hotva that flowed across thend, forming pools where they met.


    <em>Lets just hope I dontnd in one, </em>Vir thought.


    Leveraging the prana in his body, he activated <em>Light Step, </em>softening hisnding.


    He crashed hard. Obsidian rock split under his boots. He <em>hadnt </em>crashed into a magma pool, though it almost didnt matter, because the searing heat would cook him in just minutes if he didnt do something.


    Vir reeled from the impact. His bones shuddered, but his prana-strengthened body absorbed the impact.


    <em>Would be really nice if I could fly, </em>he thought, eyeing the rocky bottoms of the inds that floated high above. There were over a dozen, though even the lowest of them was far too high to <em>Leap </em>to.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Vir quickly located the nearest area devoid of magma and <em>Leaped, </em>hoping to find some reprieve from the oven he was currently in. He noted that though the prana density was greater down on the surface, it was still far lower than normal for deep within the Ash.


    Either hed been transported out of the Ashen Realm entirely, or he was at the periphery.


    It was when he reached the apex of his arc that he sensed a shadowy blur in his peripheral vision. There was gracefulness about the way the figure moved that felt immediately familiar to him.


    <em>Cirayus?</em>


    Vir <em>Leaped </em>again the moment he touched the ground, chasing after the shadowy blur, but he soon lost sight of the figure.


    <em>Prana Vision wouldve lit Cirayus up, though. Especially in a low-density region like this</em>.


    Confused, Vir arrived at where hedst spotted the shadow, only to find an empty rock field that led to the foot of a volcanic peak. This mountain had no magma flowing out of it, however, allowing Vir to draw closer.


    As he approached, the scree grewrger, until he was <em>Leaping </em>over tall boulders. For most, the rock field wouldve been unnavigable, with plenty of opportunity to break or sprain ones foot. Vir wasnt most people, howeverthe rocks barely even slowed him.


    <em>Is that a cave?</em>


    Vir spotted an opening in the distance. He hadnt known what caused him to head in this particr direction, but itd paid off. The narrow passage led into the mountain, and Vir felt cool air flow from within.


    Pausing at the entrance, he considered his options. If he entered, itd make him impossible to find. If Cirayus and Shan had been transported nearby, that would have been the worst possible decision.


    And yet, as he looked up at this vast underground world, he wondered what the chances of that really were. He <em>had </em>fallen off a floating ind to end up here, after all. He doubted either of them would do the same.


    Meanwhile, he was sweating bullets, and without an immediately obvious water source, Vir decided that preserving whatever he had left took priority.


    <em>Besides, maybe that shadow went in there.</em>


    With his weapons drawn, Vir cautiously entered the cave, though he was forced to stow both katar and chakram only a handful of paces in, as the tight passage forced him onto all fours to navigate.


    It was very obviously a natural cave, though that wasnt what caught Virs eye. It was the marks on the ground. Marks that looked distinctly like <em>boots</em>. And fresh, if he was right.


    <em>Theyre in here. Whoever they are.</em>


    Cirayus wouldnt have fit within the narrow confines of the tunnel, which meant this was someoneor some<em>thing</em>else entirely.


    Were this a year ago, Vir wouldve shied away in fear. But it wasnt, and he hadnt battled Ash Beasts day in, day out for nothing. Here, within these caverns, he could strike with impunity.


    <em>I can take them. And maybe theyll have some answers for me.</em>


    <em>Dance of the Shadow Demon </em>activated, and Vir looked out at the world from the realm of darkness.


    Hed expected pitch-ck terrain simr to the Imperium vault tower, but bioluminescent moss covered many of the halls and cavern rooms, affording a low level of green-yellow light, softening the hard rocky surroundings.


    Vir took his time, methodically using both his eyesight and <em>Prana Vision </em>to search for the shadowy entity.


    To his chagrin, he found no trace of them.


    When his ten counts were up, Vir reappeared in one of therger caverns. With a ceiling twenty paces in height and a hundred across, it afforded more than enough room to move around.


    Vir was about to sink back into the shadows when he whirled. It was far, but hed caught the direction the sudden sound came from. It almost sounded like metal on metal. Like a <em>ng.</em>


    Vir proceeded cautiously down a tunnel that connected to the cavern on high alert.


    Then he heard it again.


    <em>Thats a voice?</em>


    It was very far, echoing through the tunnels. Sinking into the shadows again, Vir once again found nothing; he wasnt close enough. With both weapons in hand, he crept through the tunnel, correcting his course every time he heard the sounds.


    The voice was speaking as if they were having a conversation, but Vir couldnt hear any other voices. He was still too far to make out the words.


    Alternating between <em>Dance </em>and walking, Vir steadily homed in on their position. It was a womans voice. She sounded panicked. Afraid.


    Back! . What on?


    Vir hastened his pace, swimming through the shadows and <em>Blinking </em>when he surfaced.


    Not Real!


    Her voice grew increasingly frantic. A knot formed in the pit of Virs stomach.


    <em>That voice</em>


    Vir finally found the room, sinking into the shadow.


    But the scene before him was not what hed expected.


    There <em>was </em>an entity in the room. Full of Ash prana. With gangly limbs, Vir recognized the form immediatelyan Iksana ghael.


    <em>Whats one doing all the way out here?</em>


    The ghael brandished a katar menacingly, its attention focused on the <em>other </em>being.


    Vir had almost missed her. Her prana signature was nonexistentit was as though she didnt exist at all.


    But there was another reason his eyes hadnt noticed her earlier. In the darkness, hed seen her and hed seen right <em>through </em>her.


    <em>Shes translucent?</em>


    As though her body wasnt fully there. Incorporeal.


    Then she turned, and the light shifted in just the right way that Vir finally saw her face and the color of her hair.


    <em>Maiya!?</em>


    Vir didnt think. He didnt need to. Maiya was here. He didnt know how, and at that moment, he didnt care. She was in danger. And anyone who threatened her was an enemy.


    Exploding from the shadow, Vir surged for the ghael. <em>Chakram Launch </em>ripped out at the same time as Vir hurled the disk, sending a double wave of destruction at the gangly enemy.


    Vir followed up with a <em>Katar Launch </em>and ced himself between Maiya and the demon.


    The demon didnt retreat, opting instead to block the attacks, to Virs great relief. Few enemies could defend his full-powered attacks. Especially not when one of them was an Imperium Artifact chakram.


    His magic flew to the demon and mmed into his outstretched palm.


    Vir steeled himself for the gruesome spectacle that was about toe. He only wished Maiya didnt have to see it.


    But there was no spectacle. Virs prana simply vanished upon contact with the ghael, and, unbelievably, the enemy plucked his chakram right out of the air. The weapon immediately shut down, and the demon grinned savagely.


    <em>How?</em>


    <em>Nobody </em>should be able to touch those des and live. Not even Cirayus could manage such a feat. It was the only weapon that evened the odds in their duels.


    It wasnt only the ghaels impossible feat that surprised him, though. Vir had never seen such pure malice coalesced so perfectly into a facial expression. He didnt think it possible for someone to bear that much hatred.


    Vir? Maiya said, confused. W-whats going on? Where am I? How!?


    Its alright, Maiya. Im here now. Nothings going to happen to you.


    Would you like to bet on that? the demon asked.


    What? Vir spat, giving the demon a disgusted look.


    How about we make a wager? If you protect her, I shall concede.


    Just who do you think you are to make demands of me? Vir rasped.


    And if you fail well, Ill <em>consume </em>her.


    A chill of dread trickled down Virs spine.


    Whats that supposed to


    To teach you. To force you to learn. Because you never have.


    Vir froze. Who <em>are </em>you?


    Me? The ghael said, brushing his gangly fingers against the V-shaped neckline of the ck robe that covered his chest.


    Vir stared, transfixed, as a brilliant white tattoo slowly came into view. He didnt need to wait for the demon to fully unveil it, for he knew <em>exactly </em>what it was. Hed seen it countless times, after all.


    The world once called me the Reaper, for the thousands of lives I took. Reaper <em>Ekanai.</em>


    With those words, Ekanai began to fade into the shadows.


    Do not hate me. You, and only you, are to me for what is toe.


    Virs eyes remained glued to the spot where the demon disappeared. His hands were shaking.