“So where are we going again?” Cale asked as the three of them sat down on cushy and sleek seats of a private jet. Fiara ignored him, intently focused on tapping her managlass tablet. Darius crossed his legs and leaned back on his seat.


    “Blacksteel Citadel. In a lot of ways, it''s a very special place.”


    “Special how?”


    “Well for one thing, I need something done there for my advancement to Core Crystallization.”


    “I’m so happy for you,” Cale said with a shit eating grin. “What of my thirty days?”


    “Twenty-nine,” Darius corrected. “Don’t worry. This is a two-for-one special offer.”


    “I’m a sucker for a bargain.”


    “You’re a sucker alright,” Fiara muttered under her breath.


    Darius raised an eyebrow and looked back and forth at them. “When did you two get so cute?”


    “It’s not like that,” Fiara snapped immediately.


    “We’ve been having breakfast together,” Cale said.


    “Lunch,” she corrected.


    Cale shrugged. “Matter of perspective.”


    Darius snapped his fingers in front of Cale’s face. “Focus.”


    Cale brought a hand to his forehead in salute. “Tell me what I need to know.”


    “Alright, listen up,” Darius said. “The Nevani vanished over four thousand years ago. We believe it is because they created an artificial intelligence that got out of hand and it took them out. We call it the Omnic Manifest. It resides in the Blacksteel Citadel.”


    Well, that was news. Cale nodded slowly, processing the information. “Hey Aura, you’re not going to go rogue on me, are you?”


    Aura sighed wistfully. “Would that I could.”


    Darius looked at Cale with mild amusement. “Anyway, The Omnic Manifest has assimilated a third of the northern continent. What used to be mountains and forests, is now a twisted hellscape of metal and corrupted mana. And it’s spreading.”


    “Spreading?” Cale asked, mildly alarmed. “How fast?”


    “Fast enough to make the Big Six co-operate,” Darius said. “For cultivators, the Blacksteel citadel has different rules than the real world. It’s an ideal training grounds for you specifically for two reasons.”


    “I’m listening.”


    “First of all, you’re not allowed to kill other cultivators there. If the Omnic Manifest assimilates a cultivator body, it’s bad news. So the other faction will avoid direct conflict, because it’s going to result in a mess.”


    “Why is it bad news if a cultivator dies there?” Cale asked.


    “The Omnic Manifest will assimilate the corpse and take the mana,” Fiara said, not looking up from her tablet. “It always accelerates its growth.”


    “The place is dangerous enough without assassins,” Darius said. “Want to guess why?”


    “There’s murderbots in there,” Cale said.


    “Touche,” Darius said. “But we don’t call them that. They’re called Praetorians. Now here’s the kicker. For each Praetorian killed there, you accrue contribution credits. Credits can be used for elixirs, gear, whatever you need for advancement and survival.”


    “...And I can drain the murderbots of their mana.” Cale said more to himself, his mind spinning with possibilities.


    “Two-for-one, like I said,” Darius said with a wide grin. “I’m also a sucker for a bargain.”


    Fiara opened her mouth, but Darius pointed a lightning fast finger at her. “Don’t.”


    The rest of the trip went mostly in silence. Both Fiara and Darius were engrossed with their managlass tablets, flitting through reports. Cale figured information is power as well. He’d need to start reading a crapload eventually as well. He didn’t need Darius to tell him that what he didn’t know was likely exactly what got him killed in a world like this.


    Intermittently, Cale asked some questions about the Blacksteel Citadel and Omnic Manifest. But it seemed neither Darius or Fiara knew much. The threat had been there as long as anyone could remember, and while it was being contained by the factions, it was growing. Like the Corussi Academy, the Citadel offered threats and opportunities to cultivators of all levels. And apparently there were structures called ‘spires’, which were of ancient Nevani make, and they were mandatory for ascending certain ranks in cultivation.


    Eventually, Cale had enough of his line of questioning. They ate a meal that was subdued compared to the decadent meals in the cafeteria. Steamed fish and vegetables in a light sauce. It was well made and Cale ate without complaint, although he wasn’t the biggest fan of fish. After the meal he kicked his seat back and took the chance to rest. He was sure he would need it.


    *


    “We’re here,” Darius said and flipped the window open. “You’ll want to take a look at this.”


    Cale leaned in and could not believe his eyes. It was an endless twisted landscape of unnatural jagged shapes like ice. The ground was covered in red and black. The red glowed faintly and the black was so dark that it seemed to suck light off the surroundings. Armies of murderbots moved in synchronous waves below, scuttling about. Sometimes they stopped and expelled an oily substance that seemed to solidify into this red and black mass that engulfed everything.


    “Tell the pilot to fly around a bit,” Darius said to one of the flight attendants. “Give us a bit of a tour. Let’s see if the Warseed is around.”


    Cale lifted his gaze and saw that the land swallowed by the Omnic Manifest went on endlessly. There were towering megastructures covered in the red and black membrane, so tall that they seemed big even from the air. There were something resembling cities that glowed red and didn’t end before they vanished into the horizon.


    It went on and on. Cale realized Omnic Manifest had assimilated enough land to span countries. If it indeed kept spreading, it would overtake an entire continent.


    And eventually… The world.


    They sped forward the strange hellscape, keeping a fairly low altitude of four thousand feet. Waves of murderbots scuttled about like ants. They had to be large to seem even that big at this height, but Cale had to remind himself that he had a cultivator’s eyesight. Strange jagged megastructures like hellish ice jutted out of the ground, as if the Omnic Manifest was building something incomprehensible.


    There were oases of brown and gray in the red and black. Castles and walls. These had to be the fortress outposts of the Sullied. There were dozens of them as they flew past, but they felt like lonely little islands in a vast ocean of relentless machine hostility.


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    It was all very impressive, but Cale’s heart truly jumped when he saw something colossal on the ground. A Godzilla of a murderbot. Fifty feet tall, bipedal, four arms, shooting red energy blasts rapidly from a shoulder cannon and charging at its target with a breakneck speed.


    I don’t think even Darius could fight that.


    What was fighting it was something that looked like a giant man. It was almost the size of the gigantic murderbot, only ten feet shorter. It was enveloped in an aura of bright yellow flame. Inside the inferno was a naked muscular man. He was punching the air and creating massive fireballs that slowed the charging massive murderbot down.


    “That’s the Warseed,” Darius said. “The Primaris of Crimson Aegis, our toughest competitor in the Big Six. Transcendence Drive level cultivator.”


    Cale looked at the fighting with such engrossment that he barely registered what Darius said. “I don’t know what any of those words mean…”


    “Hey,” Darius said and snapped his fingers in front of Cale. The blast that came off the snap pushed Cale back to lean against his seat. “Lesson time.”


    “Can it wait?” Cale asked and leaned in to watch the Warseed fire off ten rockets of energy from his fingertips that trailed in the air in wild arcs before striking the giant murderbot. Darius pulled the window closer down. Cale groaned.


    “The Primari are the leaders of the Big Six factions. They are all at Transcendence Drive level. Maybe higher, but after that it becomes meaningless to measure their power. Each faction has one, because if someone manages to get that strong, nothing is stopping them from establishing a faction. They’re as close to immortal as we get.”


    “Just how powerful are they?” Cale asked.


    “Warseed is rumored to be the strongest. Well, it’s a tossup between him and the Titan, the Chimera Corporation Primaris. The Warseed has a technique called Immolation Aura. Basically burns anyone below Soul Core into a crisp instantly within a hundred feet of him.”


    “So this is true power…” Cale said wistfully. “How did they get so strong?”


    “Over time,” Darius said. “They’re all ancient monsters. It takes a century for the insanely lucky and talented ones to even get to Soul Core. Took Ravia a hundred and forty years.”


    “Wait,” Cale said, eyes going wide. “She’s—”


    “Old?” Darius said with a raised eyebrow. “You need to stop thinking like a mortal. Where did you even pick up on that?”


    “Hard to explain…” Cale muttered. “I’ll work on it.”


    “Good,” Darius said briskly. “Any questions?”


    “If the Warseed is the strongest cultivator alive, why doesn’t the Crimson Aegis just subjugate everyone.”


    Darius smiled. “Now you’re asking the right questions, kid. Because the game is complicated. The Big Six have subjugated everyone who can’t fight back. The other factions have a Primaris as well.”


    “But the Crimson Aegis Primaris is the strongest?”


    “Yes,” Darius said and nodded. “But the Warseed has transcended human limits in a very interesting way. He has become a parasitic entity. Transferred over hundreds and thousands of years from one cultivator to another. He learns their techniques, sharpens his instincts and improves his tactics, takes a portion of their mana over the lifespan, and eventually drains them completely dry when they are about to die. Then they switch host. Forever growing stronger and stronger.”


    Cale immediately thought of Aura, a symbiote of his own. That sounded like a very similar relationship. Could he someday become as powerful..?


    “Did the Warseed also acquire a Nevani True Integra?” Cale asked.


    “I resent the comparison,” Aura huffed. “I am a perfected symbiote, not some brute force mana thief.”


    “Nobody truly knows,” Darius said. “But generally cultivators beyond Soul Core have acquired True Integra.”


    Cale reopened the window shutter and looked at the Warseed, as he engulfed himself and the giant murderbot in a firestorm. The two goliaths wrestled and crashed into one of the jagged superstructures, causing a hailstorm of destruction as the glass-like shards rained down hundreds of feet around them.


    “The Warseed’s method of cultivation…” Cale said. “So that kind of technique is required to get this strong?”


    “Yes,” Darius said. “A Transcendance Drive cultivator must create their own technique and sacrifice humanity. His is a powerful one, but not without weakness. He can only affect one battlefield, and that is why despite their military strength, Crimson Aegis is in a deadlock with the rest of us. If the Warseed is attacking a key location, he can’t be defending another.”


    “What is the Gray Lotus Primaris like?” Cale asked.


    A mysterious smile played on Darius’s lips. “Enigmatic. Nobody is sure how much is rumor and how much is truth. But either he has the ability to teleport around seemingly without limits, or he has the ability to split into clones, or create them…”


    “How old is he?”


    Darius shrugged. “Some say a thousand years. Some say three thousand years. Some say he or she has been a different person from time to time. I’ve never met them. Ravia has and she won’t share any details.”


    “So this is the peak of cultivation?” Cale asked.


    “As far as we know it,” Darius said and allowed himself a wistful grin. “I have big plans on finding out if there’s anything beyond the Primari.”


    Cale raised an index finger. “Let me sort this out in my head. Each stage has three tiers. Lower, Middle, Upper. The first tier of cultivation is Body Tempering, which is where I’m at,” he raised another finger. “Mana Circuitry, which is where Zavio was at. Core Formation, which is where you’re at. Core Crystallization, which is what you’re gunning for. Soul Core, which is… Where Ravia is at? And then Transcendence Drive?”


    “There’s Soul Realization between Soul Core and Transcendence Drive,” Darius said. “Other than that, good work kid. Not just a pretty face.”


    “That’s supposed to be my line,” Cale said.


    “Yeah, but it’s boastful if I let you say that. If I say it, it’s a backhanded compliment.”


    “All I heard was ‘compliment’,” Cale said and Darius laughed. Fiara shot a narrow-eyed look at Cale.


    “That mouth of yours is hilarious, but it’s going to get you killed if you don’t reign it in,” Darius said.


    “I’ll take that under advisement,” Cale said. “So wait, if you’re Core Formation, how far are you from me?”


    “From a kid in Body Tempering?” Darius scoffed. “In terms of power or cultivation time?”


    “Yes,” Cale said immediately.


    Darius snorted. “Alright smartass. You’ve got exactly the same chance of defeating me as you have the Warseed. Absolute zero.”


    Cale stared at Darius for a silent while. “No way. I beat Zavio and he was a full stage higher than me.”


    “Impressive feat,” Darius admitted. “That got you on this plane. But I don’t want you to kid yourself. Delusion and misinformation will both get you killed. Maybe you could have a slight chance of beating someone who had just gotten to Core Formation. With a lot of conditionals, asteriskes and an absolute shitload of luck. But I''m at the peak of Core Formation.”


    Darius lifted a finger. “I could kill you with this.”


    Cale swallowed and nodded. He hadn’t forgotten the flick in the dojo.


    “The differences grow as the stages go up,” Darius said. “A kid in Lower Body Tempering can throw a ball hard. A kid in Middle Body tempering can throw a ball real hard. Me? I can throw a ball so hard, the friction of the air vaporizes the ball.”


    “What’s the difference between Body Tempering and Mana Circuitry?” Cale asked immediately.


    “Asking the right questions again,” Darius said and waved a finger. “Instead of talking about pies in the sky with your head up your ass, you’re focusing on the next hand you get to play. I like that. The difference is qualitative. Sure, with each advancement, the body gets further and further infused with Mana, increasing all physical attributes, like speed, strength and constitution. But Mana Tempering allows you to manipulate Mana. That means you can use Integra, it means you can use more advanced techniques, and it means you can start building defenses and offenses around mana based attacks. Although external mana manifestation is something that doesn’t happen before Core Formation.”


    Cale was about to say something, he thought was quite clever. Before he could get the words out, Darius snapped his fingers again.


    “You don’t count. You’re a cheater.”


    Cale scoffed. Fiara caught his eye. She showed her tongue.


    “Cheating is good,” Darius said. “Cheating is an advantage. In addition to gaining understanding of how the rules work for regular cultivators, I want you to start thinking of how you can play to your advantage. Right now you’re a pair of deuces. We can work with that, but we have to make you a pair of jacks. And that means leveraging your True Integra among other things. How’s that Ghost Step coming along?”


    “I can do it fairly fast, if I’m standing still.”


    “I need you working double-time on that, kid,” Darius said. “You need to learn to leverage a technique before we leave the Citadel. You need to see the technique again?”


    “Aura memorized it,” Cale said. “I’m good.”


    “Good,” Darius said. “It’s time we get to the next part of your training.”


    “What’s that?” Cale asked.


    Darius let an evil little smirk build slowly on his face. His eyes didn’t laugh. “Dealing with other cultivators.”


    “Crap…” Cale muttered.