《Reincarnating Through The Apocalypse [Serial Reincarnation w/ Meta-Progression]》


 Chapter 1 – Life 0 – Year 0 – The Apocalypse

    Chapter 1 ¨C Life 0 ¨C Year 0 ¨C The Apocalypse


    The end of the world came with a simple announcement: NASA satellites had detected an unusual comet that had approached the sun very closely without burning up. Most people had just long enough to read that announcement and forget about it before the sun unleashed a solar flare like none seen before, headed straight towards Earth.


    The force of the flare caused auroras to be visible in skies all over the world. Not that many were paying attention, as the more important effect was the total short outs of all electronic devices. Cell phones? Gone. All the satellites? Dead in orbit. Even high-tech shielded server rooms were reduced to expensive bricks, all data was lost.


    Then came the earthquakes. Basically, every continental faultline massively shifted at once, and rumor had it, even a few new cracks in the crust were created right there and then. I heard tell of places experiencing their first real earthquake in recorded history, and even those were no small thing. Many of the coastlines also flooded from undersea earthquakes, new lakes even formed.


    I heard all of this second-hand of course. We were still pretending things could go back to the way they were back then, so we tried to keep informed of how the rest of the world was handling things. Communication across continents was nearly impossible save for a few small courier planes (old ones, with no electronic autopilot). Print newspapers, which were a dying artform, had to come back in a major way. At first, people tried to keep things positive, highlighting acts of bravery from the military and public services to keep people alive.


    Then, as time went on, things got a little stranger. People started reporting that even brand-new electronic components, made after the solar flare hit, were still complete non-starters. Fires and explosions started popping up, even from simple things that had never been controlled by computers or electricity. Guns started to misfire frequently. Scientists said with what little testing they could accomplish, it seemed flammable chemicals like gas or gunpowder were becoming¡­ more flammable than usual.


    Then things got even *weirder*. People with home telescopes were reporting there were fewer stars in the sky, with new ones disappearing every couple nights or so. Plants and animals of unusual size were being discovered all over, especially sea creatures washing up on beaches. A picture of an angler fish the size of a small whale was re-printed many times, with special focus on the massive bite wound that must have killed it.


    With farming becoming more difficult, both due to unusually tough plants and the dangers of wildlife, starvation was increasingly common. Modern society relied on a massive amount of food to be created every day, more than could be accomplished by a small army of people without technology. Many turned to hunting the strange animals for food.


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    The star situation got worse and worse. Eventually, the cause was partially discovered. A telescope-camera designed to take many pictures a second caught a single frame of a perfectly circular object moving into position to block a large star¡¯s light. People started to recall the comet reported before the solar flare and wondered (not for the first time) if that was what caused it. They were correct.


    11 months after the flare, in the light of the sun, moon, and literally nothing else, 6 massive objects appeared in the sky. They were about 3-quarters the size of the moon, and each one was a solid color. Blue, Yellow, Brown, Red, White, Green. They were all positioned in an orbit that made at least 2 of them visible anywhere on Earth, every night. People who looked at them closely reported some sort of mental effect over time. The blue one made people melancholic, the yellow one made them tired, the brown made them arrogant, the red made them angry, the white made them anxious, and the green made them calm. None of these happened instantly, but the effects were confirmed as best as they could be. This was all on top of the awe people felt just from having all known celestial bodies save the Sun and Moon replaced with 6 new ones.


    We were all very scared these days, not just the ones who looked at the white mini-moon. So much had happened, so many had died, and no one was sure if they would be next, or if things would get worse somehow. They did. Get worse, that is.


    Exactly one year after the flare hit, giant crystals descended from the 6 orbs. They fell without any kind of aerodynamics or re-entry heating, according to those who knew such things. They hit the ground at somewhat regular intervals, there was typically one every 10 square miles or so, though with some variation. Each crystal was colored the same as the orb they came from.


    And from the crystals came¡­ monsters. They came out of the crystals like they had been sleeping inside. If we had thought the mutated animals were bad enough, these things had zero percent self-preservation instinct and one hundred percent ¡°attack humans on sight¡± instinct. In the days that followed, it was discovered they attacked anything that moved, not just humans. They even attacked monsters of different types if they could. They were killing machines, plain and simple.


    You might have noticed that while I¡¯m telling a lot of the story of the world, I¡¯m not mentioning much about myself. Well, that¡¯s because I don¡¯t really remember much about myself. Amnesia, you may wonder? Yeah, something like that. You see, I vaguely remember being some sort of scientist. I vaguely remember being one of the first people to discover that comet, before the solar flare hit. And I vaguely remember living in a secure compound while everything around us went to hell.


    And¡­ I *distinctly* remember that compound being breached by giant deer-like monsters. And that as I tried to run away¡­ one of them sped up to impossible speeds and gored me with its antlers. And then it stabbed my body, again and again, until it was sure I was dead¡­


    I was dead¡­ wasn¡¯t I?


    But then¡­ how am I putting these words into thoughts? Is this¡­ my life, flashing before my eyes? But then how-


    And then, a message appeared in my mind¡¯s eye.


    Choose your next Focus: Yin or Yang


    ¡­what?

 Chapter 2 – Life 1 – Year 50 – The Trade

    Chapter 2 ¨C Life 1 ¨C Year 50 ¨C The Trade


    Who are you? What¡¯s going on?


    Choose your next Focus: Yin or Yang


    Aren¡¯t I dead? Are these my last hallucinations?


    Choose your next Focus: Yin or Yang


    ¡­Are you supposed to be the thing in charge, then? The one responsible for the flare, for the orbs, for the monsters? It all felt so random, yet so intentional¡­


    Choose your next Focus: Yin or Yang


    *Sigh* Will I hallucinate anything different if I say ¡°Yang¡±?


    Focus Chosen. Reincarnating¡­


    Hey, wait, what¡¯s that supposed to mea-


    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


    Reincarnation. That was the word that popped into my head this morning. Honestly, I hadn¡¯t really put much stock into the concept. You die, but a person somewhere else is born with¡­ some connection to you? Was I supposed to believe there were babies that knew a whole person¡¯s life and just pretended like they didn¡¯t?


    And yet, when I woke up, I felt like I had had a REALLY long dream¡­ longer than I thought possible. One where I lived before the Collapse. I could somehow remember what the stars looked like, even though I had only seen pictures. Was I going crazy? That wasn¡¯t good, I was supposed to be out there killing monsters, I didn¡¯t have TIME to be crazy!


    It was 50 years since the Collapse, and our community was barely holding on. We were formed out of a bunker that some bill-e-on-air had made out of fears that something was going to happen. Well, he was right, but the elders say he had been on some trip to a tropical island when the flare hit. I guess he wasn¡¯t as prepared as he thought. Still, his supply of food and water has kept us going for far longer than most communities we know about. But it was all finally running out.


    The hunters have been using scrap metal to make things they called ¡°bear traps¡±. Trapping a bear seemed like a terrible idea to me, but apparently, they worked wonders on the smaller monsters. The trick was to take a running leap over the trap, in a way that looked like you stumbled a bit. The monster would see that as an opening and run at you. The trap would spring shut thanks to a clever mechanism, hopefully around the monster¡¯s leg. Then, you would beat it to death with the clubs made by our resident crafters. They often talk about things called ¡®guns¡¯ that would do the trick a lot better, but apparently the Collapse made them all stop working. They kept warning me, if I ever found a gun left behind by someone, never EVER try to use it, or it would explode and kill me.


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    There was, however, some use in explosives. Apparently, the elders were trying to organize a trade for more food, in exchange for our supply of guns. I didn¡¯t know why some other community wanted guns if they were so dangerous, but what do I know. That¡¯s how I ended up sleeping in the forest, under the light of the moon and the orbs, when the guard on watch woke me up. It was my turn to stand guard. Unfortunately, all I could think of was how weird the dream I had was. So vivid in some places, and so¡­ vague, in others. A word came to mind. Yin-Yank? No¡­ Yin YanG. One of the elders said that was one of his many old-world religious symbols he collected. But I feel like the dream ended with, not the whole symbol, but¡­ part of it? The Yang part. Not sure how I knew which part was the Yin and which the Yang, but I knew. Not sure I knew what the hell it MEANT though. Something to do with a choice I made¡­ or was it some other person, who is now part of me? Ugh, why is this dream so confus-


    Movement. A white-colored stag, in the distance, horns gleaming. I felt an instinctive shudder at the sight of it¡­ wait, but had I seen one of these before? I didn¡¯t remember any of the elders talking about this kind of monster¡­ but that pure coloration meant it had to be, right? Wait, I feel like I remember something about this monster. Where did I¡­ the dream? Yeah, in the dream there was one of these that moved really fa-


    I *barely* dodged out of the way as the stag crossed the distance in a fraction of a second. I slashed out with my sword, but it barely managed to shear off a couple bits of antler before getting stuck in a much larger part. The stag quickly shook its head, making me lose my grip on my sword. Damn it, what is this thing?


    I drew out my dagger from its sheath while yelling for the other guards to wake up. Then I heard screaming. Yeah, they were up. And so were the deer. I made to grab for my sword, but the dear reacted more quickly, and impaled my arm. GAHHHHH!


    They say pain can give you clarity. I think that¡¯s bullshit. But I did RETAIN enough clarity to hack at the stag with my dagger. It reacted by swiftly pulling its antler out of my arm. Jesus FUCK that hurts. Not sure how I¡¯m still awake, to be honest.


    Actually, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be awake for long. Blood was pouring out of my arm. I think it hit an artery. I collapsed to the ground. The stag looks at me in what can only be a gloating manner. But I noticed something. Right next to where I collapsed is our mission¡¯s ¡®cargo¡¯. I use my good arm to reach nice and slow into the bag. The stag doesn¡¯t seem to think I can do anything else against it. I¡¯m going to give it the biggest lesson of both of our lives. I find what I think is a trigger, hope the ¡®safety¡¯ isn¡¯t on, and gently squeeeez-


    *BOOOM*


    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


    You have died as a Rank 0 Unaligned Warrior (Yang).


    You have killed 1 Air Demon in this life.


    Calculating¡­.


    Your connection to the Air is improved by 50% for the next life.


    You have killed your first Demon.


    Calculating¡­


    You permanently progress through the first Rank 10% faster.

 Chapter 3 – Life 2 – Year 72 – The Hunt

    Chapter 3 ¨C Life 2 ¨C Year 72 ¨C The Hunt


    What the hell was all that? I have all these new memories¡­ a young man, living decades after the flare¡­ I knew the rumors that gunpowder was getting more flammable but for a single shot to create such an explosion was¡­


    But wait! That doesn¡¯t matter! What matters is, I blacked out and¡­ was? Someone else. Someone who kind of remembered¡­ being me? But now I AM me again¡­ right? Wait, what was my name, again? ¡­okay, what was that KID¡¯S name? ¡­nothing? God, this memory stuff is killing me! ¡­Not as much as the stags, though, they¡¯re the bane of my existence in both of my lives.


    ¡­Uh, hey, now that that¡¯s over with, can I get a bit of explanation as to, you know, what the actual FUCK is going on here?


    Choose your next Focus: Yin or Yang


    Oh for¡­ not again! Give me some answers this time, please?


    Choose your next Focus: Yin or Yang


    Okay, okay, whatever¡­ not like I have anything better to do. I am still a scientist at heart, so I need a good sample size of one variable before changing it. Yang Focus!


    ¡­Hello? Is something going to ha-


    Focus Chosen. Reincarnating¡­


    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


    I woke up feeling strangely groggy. That won¡¯t do. I need to be in top performance to win this competition.


    The swordsman who lives in the temple says that he has killed dozens of monsters without a scratch on him, and everyone seems to believe him. If I am to avenge my mother, I need to learn how he did it. I need to become strong¡­ so that no-one else has to go through what I did.


    I¡¯m no fool, I know that the world has been in a state of Collapse and decline for the past 7 decades, but I am a believer in the human spirit. So long as we take breath, we have the power to master our fates! We have done it before, and we shall do it again!


    The swordsman says that he will only take on 1 disciple, and so people have gathered around from across the island of Nihon to show that they deserve to be that disciple. I have done well so far, winning the first 3 rounds with ease despite the blunted training weapons we must work with.


    But the final round is much more challenging. I had expected a free-for-all or something of that nature, but the swordsman is devious. To prove ourselves to him, we must find and kill a beast. No-one says that it hast to be a true monster, but should you bring back a carcass that is lesser than the other competitors¡­ no, there is no room for laziness.


    It is somewhat strange, to have to kill a monster before learning how to easily kill monsters, but I suppose the swordsman just wants to make sure we are not wasting his time. There are three monsters common to this region. The first is a kind of burrowing worm, which is attracted to loud sounds. Sadly, a single human scream is typically enough to attract 10 or more of them. I don¡¯t think I should attempt them.


    The second is a kind of sea bird, allegedly able to fly across oceans in a day. I don¡¯t know how anyone living after the Collapse could learn such a thing, but that¡¯s what they say. The speed is impressive, but they can be hard to find.


    The third is a strange thing called the Tengu, whose large nose and similarity to a flightless bird got it named after some mythical being. I suspect most of my competitors will think of going after one as it is the most challenging to fight. Their noses aren¡¯t just for show, they can hunt those who think they are hunting them for miles. I suspect the swordsman expects us to know our limits, and bringing back a dead sea bird will be superior to being wounded in a Tengu ambush and bringing back nothing at all.


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    As the sun rises, I focus on my breathing exercises. Something about the sunrise makes me feel more in tune with myself. I wake up every day as early as possible as a result. And today, I am rewarded. After my morning routine, I hear, at surprisingly close distance, a distinctive bird call. I carefully nock an arrow before catching sight of the bird, and when I do see it, perched on a branch, I take deep breaths before finally¡­ I let loose the arrow! But would it hit? If I missed, the bird could be halfway to the continent by the time I ready a second attack! I *willed* the arrow to stay on target¡­ and I felt strangely tired, all of a sudden. But then I hear a *THOCK*.


    In a single strike, the bird is dead! But as I approach it, something feels¡­ strange. Not in a bad way, though. In fact, it feels similar to how I feel just at the crack of dawn. I¡¯m uncertain why I would feel this good twice in one day¡­ is it just because this is my first time killing a monster? Regardless, I collect my kill and return to the campsite set below the temple of the swordsman.


    Upon my return, all I see are many competitors who look very bedraggled, cut up by worm teeth or Tengu claws. But just as dusk arrives, signaling the end of the competition, an arrogant young man shows up¡­ holding the corpse of a Tengu in his arms!


    On closer look, the Tengu appears quite chewed by worms, as does the man. Clearly, he took advantage of a fight between the two species. This requires more luck than skill, but the swordsman could just as easily say luck is skill on its own. I am suddenly very uncertain how his decision will go¡­


    At sunset, the swordsman descended his temple on the hill. He was dressed in all white, a strange choice, and had a magnificent sword strapped to his side. He was always searching the skies with his eyes, searching for what I could not say.


    He looks around at the collection of competitors. ¡°Five months ago, I declared I would take on a disciple¡­ so long as a worthy competitor can be found. You have fought not only each other, but you have also fought the monsters that have seen fit to devour us. But does mere fighting make you worthy of the power I possess? Let me look at you, all of you¡­¡±


    The competitors gradually formed a line, in which the enigmatic man looked at each person for only a few seconds before swiftly rejecting them. Many burst out into tears at such a dismissal. Likely, they had struggled to travel here. Finally, the swordsman looked at the two of us: me, and the young man with the Tengu. The young man grinned in satisfaction. I sighed.


    The swordsman concentrated on us both for a long time, far longer than any of the others. He didn¡¯t even seem to look too hard at our kills. Then, he spoke. ¡°The boy with the Tengu¡­ has shown creativity and cleverness.¡± The Tengu-killer grinned even more. ¡°BUT! What are clever tricks in the face of true power? What are clever tricks when faced with a Tengu who is not beset by burrowers? What strength is there¡­ in being told to kill a monster, and finding a monster that is already dead, then simply slashing wounds in it after the fact?¡± The young man¡¯s face fell. I looked closer at the sword strikes of the Tengu and realized that no blood had leaked out of them, only the spots where the worms had attacked. The Tengu¡¯s corpse had likely been sitting there for days before the man found it. It was as the swordsman said.


    This young lady, on the other hand, shows great promise! This sea bird only has a single arrow wound, and her quiver is only one arrow lighter than when she left.¡± He¡­ was keeping track of me? Before the finale started? ¡°I select her as my disciple!¡±


    The young man dropped the Tengu corpse unceremoniously, walking away. I went over to the swordsman. ¡°Sir, I thank you for your consideration. I may have won the round with a bow and arrow, but I assure you I can just as easily wield a swor-¡° He shook his head.


    ¡°Now, now. Your choice of weapon matters little for what I am about to teach you. Sword, arrow, whip, and so-on, I will show you that speed and accuracy are key for all. What is truly important, however¡­ is that I sense you have the potential to learn the mysteries of the Air Moon.¡±


    I blinked. Everyone knew the Watchers had strange effects if you stared at them for too long, but I hadn¡¯t known the swordsman had done so. That was how he obtained his power? ¡­or was he simply mad, and I had made a big mistake? Everyone knew the Air Moon, called that because all of its creations were either fast, flying, or both, made one paranoid and anxious.


    The swordsman gave me a sly look. ¡°I can guess fairly easily what you are thinking. No, I have not stared at the Air Moon to the point of madness and called it wise. No, I have found a genuine path to power. Just as the monsters can use strange and powerful abilities to devour we humans¡­ I have found we can take those powers for ourselves!¡±

 Chapter 4 – Life 2 – The Air

    Chapter 4 ¨C Life 2 ¨C The Air


    The swordsman¡¯s teachings were both strange and effective. We traveled across Nihon, killing monsters and liberating camps and villages. It was amazing to see my master in action, swirling through crowds of monsters, dealing their doom in every motion. He explained that every time one kills a monster, one should focus on the feeling one gets when looking at the Air Moon.


    The Air Moon, he said, may make one anxious, but it stems from the total awareness of the space around you, and the desire to move through it. He trained me to look at the Air Moon for longer and longer without feeling discomfort, although he also insisted, I never give more than a passing glance to any of the other harbinger Moons.


    While I learned his fighting style, I focused on hunting animals while he hunted monsters. Sadly, killing animals didn¡¯t give the same feeling that killing monsters gave, but it was good practice. I found that while I could fight with the sword decently, my archery was where I really shined. My master encouraged me to go down that route, and soon began to weaken monsters to a point that I could shoot them and get the final kill.


    According to my master, the difficulty in which you faced to kill a monster mattered in how much power you got from it. Still, monsters were in no short supply. I found myself getting faster in my movements and more able to tell where creatures were nearby. Once, while my master weakened a large boar, I felt movement in the distance. Without even thinking, I spun around and shot an arrow at the Tengu behind me. It attempted to dodge, but somehow my arrow¡¯s path bent around towards it, striking it in the eye. Its shriek alerted my master, who quickly finished the boar off himself and came to help.


    After the fight, I explained that it felt like the air itself bent to give my arrow its true path. My master nodded. ¡°I have felt something similar with my sword strikes, the gusts of wind pushing me in the right direction. It is the true power of the Air Moon.¡±


    With this knowledge in mind, I soon started to hunt monsters with impunity. I became almost as famous as my master after saving a village in the ruins of the city Kyoto from a pack of 9 long-fingered humanoids that could pierce the toughest of armor. They called me Silver Arrow, as my hair had turned an unnatural white. The effects of age, stress, or of the Air Moon? Who could say?


    My master grew older and started instructing other disciples instead of fighting. None of them had as much success with the powers of the Air Moon as I. They were fearful of me, and of the monsters around them. But I knew that in time, they could do well, if they just had faith in themselves, and the strange power humanity had been given.


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    Eventually, I received summons from a large camp in the north. An unnatural fog had settled, and people were disappearing in the night. I travelled there and found the fog to be strange. No matter how much I called upon the forces of the Air, draining myself of energy day and night, the fog refused to part. I considered telling everyone to leave, but apparently the camp had many valuable supplies. I eventually agreed to work as part of an expedition into the fog. This was a mistake.


    3 of our number disappeared in the first hour. 7 more the second. We were down to just me and 2 others, and we were very lost. I kept trying to rely on the air around me to warn me of monsters, but it didn¡¯t seem to matter. Not until the very end. One of the other warriors stumbled and fell onto a wall, only for his torch to reveal that the wall was¡­ scaled? Then we heard a thunderous *ROAR* and realized just how outmatched we were. The fog gave way to a gigantic lizard, only for it to breathe out more fog from its gullet. One of the remaining warriors tried to run, only for a smaller lizard to fall from who-knows-where right onto his head, and it began to gnaw on him fiercely. The man screamed, but I wasn¡¯t in a position to shoot the thing off of him.


    Instead, I took a look at the giant monster¡¯s open mouth and formed a plan. I nocked an arrow and concentrated on a gust of wind not to guide its path, but to push it forward, giving it more power. The thing didn¡¯t even seem to notice what I was doing until the arrow was launched, hitting the roof of its fog-spewing mouth. The *ROAR* it gave was even louder than before, but it was far from dead. I realized my remaining companion had fled. Honestly, I was glad that someone might make it out of this alive. I loosed arrow after arrow at the beast until it closed its mouth, then I started aiming for its eyes. I got one eye, but it began to thrash around at the thing that was hurting it so. I tried to call on the Air to push me out of the way, but my energy was drained and weak. The thing knocked into me with one of its claws, then turned its one good eye to face me. I spat.


    ¡°You may kill the Silver Arrow, but more will come! More will learn of the power of the Air Moon, and then the other moons as well! Humanity will never-¡°


    *CRUSH*


    Mother, I hope I made you proud¡­


    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


    You have died as a Rank 1 Wind Archer (Yang).


    You have killed 18 Water Demons in this life.


    You have killed 23 Earth Demons in this life.


    You have killed 9 Metal Demons in this life.


    You have killed 47 Air Demons in this life.


    Calculating¡­


    Your connection to the Water, Earth, and Air will be improved by 100% for the next life.


    Your connection to Metal will be improved by 50% for the next life.


    You have killed over 50 Demons in one life.


    You have wounded your first Rank 2 Demon.


    Calculating¡­


    Your affinity with all Rank 1 elements is increased by 25%


    Your chances of forming a Rank 2 Element are permanently increased by 10%.

 Chapter 5 – Life 3 – Year 89 – The Monkey

    Chapter 5 ¨C Life 3 ¨C Year 89 ¨C The Monkey


    Okay, wow, that was intense. Let¡¯s break that down. For one, that life lasted a lot longer than the kid who blew himself up. For another, she had a completely different personality. Oh, and that was another thing! I had been a girl that time! The memories of the young man violently rebelled at the thought, but the memories of the scientist seemed¡­ relatively ambivalent. I couldn¡¯t even remember if the scientist was a man or woman, actually. So many faded memories¡­


    Well, there was one thing that definitely hadn¡¯t faded. The messages in my mind¡¯s eye had mentioned my next life would have increased ¡®affinity to the Air¡¯ and that Silver Arrow girl certainly took that and ran with it. She had magic powers! It upended all known physics, but she could focus on the air currents and guide them with her mind alone. Yes, it took some sort of energy that took a while to recharge, but that just raised further questions! What was the energy received from killing monsters? Or, as the messages called them, Demons? What were the 6 new moons, and how did they relate to these powers?


    And that fog lizard¡­ it didn¡¯t seem to follow the rules. The 6 moons represented Earth, Water, Air, Metal, probably Fire, and maybe¡­ Life? But that lizard had clearly specialized into Fog, which no monster I had heard of in any of my lives had done before. Then again, the message said Silver Arrow had wounded a ¡°Rank 2¡± Demon, that had to be the fog lizard because it didn¡¯t mention her killing it. It also mentioned ¡°Rank 2 Elements¡± as something, so Fog was probably that. How one would get such an element without a specific moon to focus on was a mystery, though.


    There was also the mystery of what a Yin or Yang focus meant. I vaguely recalled that Yang was sometimes considered masculine, but it clearly didn¡¯t control the sex of my next life, so that wasn¡¯t it¡­ if I wanted to learn more, I think it was time to choose a-


    Choose your next Focus: Yin or Yang


    I was JUST GETTING TO THAT! But yes, Yin focus. I wonder wha-


    Focus Chosen. Reincarnating¡­


    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


    -t a Yin¡­ Yin¡­ what was I thinking of, again? I can¡¯t remember¡­


    I got out of my aging bed, sighing. I didn¡¯t usually remember my dreams, but this one had felt important somehow¡­ I vaguely recall it being something to do with the Watchers, which made it seem even MORE important, but the more I concentrated, the more it faded. I sighed.


    Over the past few years, there had been rumors across the desert that the Watching Moons were not only the harbingers of monsters, but also the source of great power. As the daughter of The Inferno, the greatest warrior of our tribe, I was supposed to be destined for greatness. But try as I might, I couldn¡¯t replicate my father¡¯s abilities. Every time he went into battle, he entered what he called ¡°the Haze¡±, where he not only felt less pain, but also delt burning damage with every strike of his spear. He said he owed it all to the Red Watcher. He spent hours every night looking at the red moon, using the anger it gave him to fuel his crusade against the monsters.


    I worried for him. He threw himself at monsters with wild abandon, often times not giving himself enough time to heal from one encounter before going straight to the next. I was told that had been the case ever since I was born, and I suspected that was true in large part due to the death of my mother in childbirth.


    Long ago, they say, the ruins we live in were a massive city called ¡®Dubai¡¯, where people were wealthy and dying in childbirth was almost unthinkable. Now, we are running low on supplies, medicine, and fresh water. We are living in the bones of a civilization that could do almost unthinkable things. They say the structure we live in was once the tallest building ever built, but now it is reduced to metal and rubble.


    Sometimes people pack up and make to leave, somewhere across the desert, to places with strange names like Europe or Asia. We never hear from them again, and it is unclear if that is because they died in the process, or the simple fact that no-one wishes to travel here. Of those willing to eke out an existence here, all were born to those who did the same.


    I break out of my thoughts when a young servant girl arrives to see me. ¡°Miss, your father is going on another expedition to the Rock Tiger¡¯s Crystal. For this expedition¡­ he wishes for you to join him.¡± I sighed. I suppose this had been inevitable. My father longed deeply to destroy the tall crystal structures that dotted the landscape, named only by whatever monster was regularly spawned from whatever depths they had. People tended to agree that if the crystals could ¡®run out¡¯ of monsters, they would have done so by now. Destroying them seemed the only way to stop the monsters, but even large explosions had left not a single crack.


    Even worse, the monsters gathered around their crystal, as if they were guarding it. It made the areas around the crystals good training grounds, at least according to my father. He regularly organized expeditions with the crew of warriors that longed to be as powerful as he. Some had actually seen some success, like Amir, who could throw out daggers of metal with impossible cutting power, or Fatima, who could dash forward and cut a monster in half with a single strike. There were times, apparently, where for a woman like Fatima to fight would have been considered blasphemy. Now, in the new era, all who could fight did so. It was the only way to survive.


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    Then there were others, who had not obtained any special power, regardless of how long we stared at the damnable Watchers. Others like me. My father assured me time and again that someday I would obtain power ¡®soon¡¯, and that then I would go with him on his crystal hunting expeditions. Now, it seemed, he had given up his patience, and wanted to see what I could do. I didn¡¯t want to disappoint him, but neither did I want to die.


    The expedition followed the coast, where we could vaguely see the remains of the ¡®islands¡¯ created in times long gone. The large spiders and lizards we killed were still considered ¡®regular animals¡¯, though the older ones among us said there was nothing ¡®regular¡¯ about them. Still, at least they weren¡¯t monsters, and fled when sufficiently startled.


    Then, yelling. A Flame Monkey had been discovered by the scouts. My father, naturally, went to see it. He had a particular problem with the monsters that used Fire element, as if he alone had domain over the flame. He called himself the Inferno for a reason, after all.


    It was then that father did something I hadn¡¯t expected. He wore the monkey down, made it too tired to spit out more flames, but didn¡¯t kill it. Instead, he captured it and brought it back. With Amir guarding it, in a makeshift cage, my father explained his reasoning. ¡°My daughter, it has become clear to me that you need further¡­ incentive, to reach the kinds of power we need to survive out here. The expedition will leave in two hours. At that time, you are to kill the Flame Monkey. None of us will help you. If you fail, the monkey will surely slay you. I do this not out of hatred, but out of love. I simply love you too much to let your potential be squandered. I know you will succeed, and soon you will know it too. I would wish you luck, but no daughter of mine NEEDS luck to win.¡±


    He refused all my pleas for mercy, my promises that I would dedicate myself to my training, everything. The other members of the expedition similarly ignored me. He had clearly warned them of this plot beforehand. I considered walking home, but we were too far for me to survive the trip without supplies. My father, for all his faults, was quite clever.


    I eventually accepted my fate. I would die unless I could master the arts of flame, like my father. I had always gravitated more towards the other Watchers; the Blue Watcher that governed the water, the Yellow that controlled the Earth, the White that guided the air. Even the Brown, to some extent, promised power over the vast structures of metal and artifice we made our camp in. Even if I had failed to access these powers, I had at least felt some sort of resonance. The Red Watcher, along with the mysterious Green Watcher, though, were almost silent to me. And the only other thing in the sky, besides the punishing, hated sun, was¡­


    The Moon. The True Watcher, as it was sometimes known. One of the few common points that we had with our ancestors was that we could always look up and see the gray orb, larger than the Watchers and dotted with strange divots and lighter patches. No-one said they felt anything when looking at the Moon, not like it was with the Watchers, but I had always preferred it. The Watchers were solid colors, completely featureless. The Moon, in contrast, felt more¡­ real, more natural.


    I took strength from the fact that my destined fight with the monkey was going to be as the sun set and the moon rose. The warriors among us considered this an inopportune time, but I always thought the desert at night was beautiful. Plus, more practically, the flames of the monkey would likely be more visible at night.


    I readied for the fight. Amir had sometimes spoken of a core of energy he could feel within himself, growing over time. I had never felt anything like that, but I *needed* to. I knew my father was too convinced I would find his strength through adversity; I knew he was willing to put me in a true life-or-death situation to ¡®prove myself¡¯. I strongly suspected that I was going to die here.


    I looked at the monkey, whose flame had returned to near perfect strength. What did it have that I didn¡¯t? Why did it have abilities with flame, stronger than anything my father could do, from birth? Was it even truly ¡®born¡¯, or was it just a construct of one of those damn crystals? If I had that kind of power, my father would be following me into battle, rather than commanding me to fight to the death.


    The world was unfair, I knew that. Even before the Apocalypse it was unfair, and now it was simply brutal. But I couldn¡¯t stop thinking about how specifically unfair it was that the Watchers, the monsters, and my father¡¯s warriors all had these strange abilities, and I was left with¡­ well, NOTHING!


    I screamed at the Red Watcher overhead, both internally and possibly out loud. Finally, I was feeling the anger that my father delt with every day! I screamed at my father, at his guards, at their mothers, anything I could think of. In the end, that backfired a little bit, as one of the guards chose that time to let the monkey loose from its cage.


    It looked at me with its bloodshot eyes and let out a howl. It ran towards me at full speed, and I had to use my spear to keep it from approaching. After a few minutes of being stymied, it howled again, much louder this time, and let out a gout of flame. Oh, this was it, I was going to burn to death!


    ¡­any minute now¡­


    Wait, why wasn¡¯t I hurt? Why wasn¡¯t my skin blackening and singing, as many of the monsters my father fought were? The monkey looked as confused as I was. Even my father would have dodged out of the way and attacked in kind by now!


    I began to feel in some way similar to how Amir described being full of energy. The monkey kept pouring out its flames, and that was all that I felt? How? Why? But most importantly¡­. Could I use that energy?


    As the monkey poured out more and more flames, it got more and more tired. Meanwhile, I felt energized like never before! I pointed my spear at the horrible thing¡­ and a gout of blue flame launched out! The stream lasted for far less time than the monkey¡¯s own, but it seemed to be far more powerful, judging by the horrible screams of the thing. I took the initiative to stab my opponent with my spear. That did it, it was dead. I didn¡¯t feel the same rush of energy that the warriors described when killing a monster, but I was ecstatic.


    I lifted my spear, with the monkey still attached, and pointed it skywards. I gave out a wordless yell. Soon, my father joined me. Then, the rest of the warriors.


    I was different than the rest of them¡­ but I had finally found my path to power.

 Chapter 6 – Life 3 – The Mutant

    Chapter 6 ¨C Life 3 ¨C The Mutant


    As time went on, we learned the strengths and weaknesses of my strange power. It worked very differently compared to my father¡¯s, or any of the other warriors¡¯, for that matter. For one thing, the fire I absorbed didn¡¯t need to be magical in nature. I could stand in a man-made bonfire just as easily as I could take my father¡¯s burning spear. The wounds from the spear would still exist, of course, but the burning effect that gave my father his name, The Inferno, was completely absent.


    As a downside, my energy was limited, unlike the warriors, whose energy came back over time naturally. There were also limits to how much energy I could hold at once. I once stayed an entire day in a large fire, and while I felt like perhaps my energy had gone past its limits, there were serious¡­ what was it Amir called them? Diminishing returns.


    Amir had told me in secret that he disagreed with my father¡¯s order to set up my possible demise. He was also my greatest supporter in finding out how my ability worked. Eventually we began to live together, using my flames and his metal to carve a home out of the wreckage of the old-world city. He was only a bit older than me and was often complementing me on how I felt ¡®wise beyond my years¡¯. I didn¡¯t really feel wise, but he continued to be my best friend¡­ and eventually, something more.


    My father wholeheartedly supported the marriage. He considered Amir his most powerful warrior, save perhaps for me, and our working together had killed many monsters. Our main strategy, where Amir would use a metal fire-starter to ¡®charge¡¯ my abilities had let us literally melt through quite a few monsters. Our main problem was finding enough flammable material to keep fires going, as well as making sure I didn¡¯t completely ruin the hides and meat of my kills.


    I eventually bore him a child, a young boy. Nasir, we called him. My father¡¯s name, before he took on the name Inferno. Nasir was endlessly curious about everything, which made him endearing to us and perhaps a bit of a nuisance to everyone else. Amir made him many metal toys to play with, but he was always losing them. It wasn¡¯t until we saw one disappear before our eyes that we realized what was happening.


    He had inherited the metal side of things from his father, but my side of things in how the power worked. I was just glad that we could find that out without subjecting him to a highly dangerous monster fight. Nasir was eventually put to work as a blacksmith. While he could only create metal after absorbing some from the ruins, he could create it with both faster speed and higher quality than Amir could manage.


    Others were also found who had similar absorption powers. Chief among them was Fatima¡¯s husband, who spent his time absorbing the air currents she made and then releasing them in sudden bursts. There was also the Water-Maker, an older man who could take large amounts of sea water and absorb it, leaving behind a vat of salt, then create drinkable water as the result. It was far more efficient than the few people we had who could make water from nothing. It was with his help, alongside a young girl who could create fertile soil, that our farming efforts began to work in earnest. No longer did we have to rely on the dwindling resources left behind by the old world.


    One day, our warriors sent word of strange lights dotting the desert, only visible at night. They didn¡¯t know what to make of them. The lights were the color of fire but would disappear whenever someone got close. My father wished to investigate immediately, but while he had grown in power, he was also getting older. I managed to convince him that Amir and I would go in his stead, but he insisted that I stand in a fire for many hours beforehand. A strange method of ensuring safety, to be sure. We also brought a large collection of daggers, swords, and spears, all made by Nasir.


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    The lights were near Flame Monkey territory, which was interesting. One¡¯s first assumption would be that the lights were from them, but their disappearance when looked for made no sense. Monsters had never been known to run from humans.


    We got to the area at night, and sure enough, there were orange flickers atop many sand dunes. We marched as fast as we could, but the flickers would never stay in one place. We did encounter a few Flame Monkeys, of course, but they were just as simple to kill as the first, if not easier. We made sure to give the final strikes to Amir, since he could gain power from the death of monsters.


    With less resistance than expected, we made our way closer to the Flame Monkeys¡¯ crystal. The wind had kicked up, scattering sand around. I wished we had brought Fatima and her husband, for they were an effective counter to high winds. We heard a commotion behind one sand dune in particular. It was strange, like many monkeys chattering at once¡­ and one overshadowing the rest by far. The dune also had many flickers of white light, but these ones didn¡¯t disappear as we got closer.


    Eventually, we crested the dune. There were at least 20 Flame Monkeys scattered below, along with one that was deeply strange. Not only was it massive compared to the others, but it also had a thicker coat of white fur mixed with the standard red. Was this some sort of¡­ higher form of monkey? Monsters colored white typically had a connection to the White Watcher, but this one still had some red coloration¡­ surely it couldn¡¯t have a connection to two Watchers at once? Anyone who had tried to split their training between two elements at once found themselves failures at best and slowly going mad at worst.


    But despite all my hopes, the wind swirled around the larger monkey as easily as the flame¡­ and there was something else, too. Every so often, the flames would cut out, the wind would halt, and a formless white light would appear in mid-air. Sometimes one of the lights would disappear when new ones were made, but each newer one would hurt to look at just a bit more than the last.


    This had gone on long enough. I nodded with Amir, then sent a burst of my hottest blue flame at the large monkey. The reaction from the others was immediate, but the one that was actually hit only cried out in anger, rather than the cries of pain I was used to. Amir began to throw his daggers at the surrounding monkeys, killing several. But the central monkey just looked at me with intense anger in its eyes.


    Suddenly, bright lights began to appear all around me. Not only did they hurt to look at, but when I stumbled into one, it burned! I hadn¡¯t felt the sensation of burning in years! I ran away, but the lights started to move through the air, following me. I needed to end this, now. I brought out my spear and made for the central monkey. Several times I had to dodge the burning lights, but as I got closer the monkey howled and began to clutch its head. All the lights vanished at once. I took the chance to run it through with my spear. Several of the other monkeys were furious with me, but they were too busy being picked off by Amir¡¯s daggers to attack. With my help, we soon finished off the crowd of monkeys.


    We returned home with the information about what we found. My father was angry with himself that he didn¡¯t come and help. He was also angry that the monsters could, apparently, gain abilities beyond what their species normally had. I didn¡¯t feel the need to bring up that, by all accounts, humans didn¡¯t used to be able to wield the elements like we do today.


    After retiring to my and Amir¡¯s home, I began to wonder. That monkey had harnessed the power of two elements to make something¡­ more, than what the two were alone. The lights could move in a way that fire couldn¡¯t but burn in a way that wind couldn¡¯t. Not to mention it could also burn me, the girl who was immune to flame.


    Could I achieve such strength?

 Chapter 7 – Life 3 – The Moonlight

    Chapter 7 ¨C Life 3 ¨C The Moonlight


    As time passed, we culled the Flame Monkeys more thoroughly, to make sure there weren¡¯t any more mutants that popped up. I went on a great many of these hunts, and seemingly, we succeeded. During the off times, I also focused on the White Watcher, trying to absorb wind in the same way I absorbed fire.


    I attempted many things. I focused on getting my fire to curve or stay in one place. It didn¡¯t work, for fire always took the path of least resistance. I tried breathing in fire instead of standing inside it. It worked, but I didn¡¯t really notice a difference. I tried training alongside our two greatest air-based warriors, Fatima and her husband. I learned that my fire could be redirected or even extinguished by strong enough winds. This made me even more dedicated to learning how to make light.


    At one point, a trio of worms began terrorizing the village. They could emerge from the sand in an instant, swallow a person whole, and go back into the sand like it wasn¡¯t even there. Fatima was swallowed by one, but her quick thinking let her cut her own way out with blades of wind. The second, who had been terrorizing the farmers, was taken out by a trick. A pool of mud, created by the Water-Maker and the Earth Child. It got stuck, literally out of its element, and was roasted to death by me.


    The third went into hiding for some time. We thought it had died, until it returned to harass our furthest warriors. It was wary of us, the smartest monster we had yet seen. After losing a powerful Metal wielder (thank the Watchers, not of my family), my father had had enough. Without telling anyone, simply leaving a note behind, he travelled into the desert alone. Following his trail the moment his note was discovered, we found numerous dead monsters¡­ and at the end, was a worm burnt to unrecognizability¡­ along with a human corpse in similar condition.


    We were in a state of mourning for many weeks. The Inferno, my father, had died. Despite his increasing age and harsh methods, was still the greatest warrior among us. The knowledge that he could intervene in any truly serious situation had held us all together. Now that he was gone, the fractures started to appear.


    Some tried to proclaim me his natural successor. Others mentioned Amir, saying a woman could not lead. Eventually, though, a coalition of people formed who wanted to leave the city altogether. The sandworms, they insisted, could not follow them where there was no sand. I tried to tell people that surely there would be other monsters, ones we might not be able to defeat. Eventually, though, the Water-Maker and his young assistant were convinced to leave. With no-one else with their set of abilities, we had no way to farm without them. So, other than a few holdouts, we all made to leave.


    As we had no way of crossing what the old maps called ¡°The Persian Gulf¡±, we made for the north-west, along the coastline. The goal, apparently, was to stick to the coast, then to the scattered lakes the old maps showed, until we reached the land of Turkiye. I wasn¡¯t sure what we would find there, and it seemed that neither was anyone else, but somehow it had been latched onto as ¡°better than here¡±, and that¡¯s all anyone really wanted.


    We first had to pass through the territory of my old nemeses, the Flame Monkeys. That was when the trouble started. It was Nasir who first saw the lights in the night; he knew to tell me right away. Amir and I prepared as much as we could, told the camp to hold tight, and went on a hunt.


    This time there was not a single mutant monkey, but 3. Two of them, including the largest, had the same white streaks running through their fur. The third, the smallest, had brown streaks instead. I briefly hoped it was simply an unfortunate lack of hygiene but then chided myself. No-one had seen these monsters leave waste behind, no matter how much they ate. That meant that this monkey was likely enhanced with the powers of the Brown Watcher. Metal. I had no idea what that meant and didn¡¯t particularly want to find out.


    I soon did, anyway. Amir and I coordinated to throw daggers at the two larger monkeys first, fearing their power over the smaller one¡¯s uncertainties. The smaller Light Monkey was hit in the skull, taking it out surprisingly quickly. Amir had perfected his powerful dagger throws since the last encounter. Sadly, that didn¡¯t stop the larger one from quickly realizing what was going on and summoning one of its trademark lights, burning my dagger to ashes.


    The metal-infused monkey looked around until the larger Light Monkey pointed at us and howled. Then the brown one looked at us as well. Monsters coordinating like this was mostly unheard of, often they just competed for the kill. Were these mutants smarter as well as stronger?


    To my growing horror, the metal monkey concentrated, and suddenly its fur hardened into a gray metal. I had worked with Nasir enough to know what it was: solid steel. On top of that, the Light monkey summoned 5 floating bursts of light. They didn¡¯t move quite as quickly as the ones we had encountered previously, but they were just as unstoppable.


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    With silent agreement, Amir went after the Steel Monkey while I went after the Light one. After all, I would have no hope getting through metal armor, and he would likely be burned far worse than I in the light.


    For a while, I dodged around the lights while stabbing and slashing and spitting fire at the Light Monkey. That actually seemed to be doing something, until two of the lights suddenly disappeared. I thought for a moment that meant I had won, only to discover the remaining three were moving far faster. Matching their speeds was tricky, but I still got in a good wound on the monkey¡¯s leg. But before I could finish it, the three lights merged into one, far larger and faster than its parts. I was forced to go purely on the defensive.


    If I slipped up for even a moment, I knew the light would burn me to a crisp. I needed a finishing move, and I needed it now. I briefly tried to use the Steel Monkey, who was doing a number on Amir, as a shield. Sadly, the light was deft enough to split around the monkey¡¯s ally and reform on the other side. Still, that gave Amir some time to breathe.


    During the fight, I glanced up and noticed the White Watcher was just cresting into the sky, replacing the Yellow. If there was any time to learn its secrets¡­ it would be now or never. I split my focus between the deadly light chasing me and the white orb that was, in theory, the source of its power.


    I tried, as many times before, to consider what exactly it was I wanted. I wanted power over light, like this monkey had. But wasn¡¯t my power different than that of monsters? Mine was that of absorption and recreation, not that of raw power. This ape could only create lights in the air, but shouldn¡¯t I be able¡­


    Shouldn¡¯t I be able to absorb all the light around me, then shine it out in one spot? That¡¯s what I did with fire, after all, and I could do it better than these two monkeys. Wait. There was one piece of the puzzle that I had been missing. What was it?


    The Steel Monkey. It hadn¡¯t used its fire abilities at all. Surely it wasn¡¯t a separate species? It looked so similar to every other flame monkey, it just had brown streaks! But it focused on pummeling Amir with its metal-covered fists, doing nothing with the flames that gave the monkeys their name. Come to think of it, the Light Monkey hadn¡¯t been summoning flames either¡­ I had thought it was simply a matter of the ¡°higher¡± elements being more powerful than the ¡°base¡± ones, but¡­


    What if you had to give up your current element to combine it with another?


    Instantly, I focused my will, not on gaining an ability, but replacing my current one. In all my attempts prior, I had focused on augmenting my fire with additional wind abilities, hoping that it would somehow become light. But now¡­ I released all my stored fire in a single burst outwards. It startled the monkeys a little bit but didn¡¯t do any damage to them. Amir looked a little confused as well.


    I was empty of fire for the first time in Watchers knew how long. Thankfully, the monkeys didn¡¯t realize that; they didn¡¯t press their advantage. They gave me enough time to focus on absorbing something else entirely. Not flame, not wind. Not even whatever feelings the Red or White Watchers gave me. No, I focused on the Moon, the light it gave off. It didn¡¯t truly make light, it redirected it from the sun, or so said the old books.


    I stood there, feeling like a fool, until I felt¡­ something. Something bending within me until it *snapped*. Suddenly I felt as though I was holding a flame to my hand, absorbing a small amount of power. But there was no such flame. The Light Monkey, coming out of its confusion, sent its light over to me. To burn me.


    And it did burn. Oh, how it burned. I was entombed in an endless white void. But my skin remained uncharred, only my blood burned. I wasn¡¯t fully able to absorb this power, not like I could with fire. But I could still wield it. And if there was one thing I had learned in my study of light, is that it didn¡¯t work like the monkeys thought it did. They used light as if it was a slowly moving, ever burning fire. But light wasn¡¯t slowly moving. Light was *fast*. I reached out the palm of my hand, and in an instant, a beam of light sprung from it and into the monkey¡¯s eyes. It howled in agony, the light burning me disappearing instantly.


    Before the Steel Monkey could strike Amir again, I did the same to it. It covered its eyes in pain, but it was no use. I had blinded it. Spots of light appeared and disappeared as the Light Monkey tried to get ahold of itself. Previously, I could have used fire to end it there and then, but I had renounced fire, and regardless I had no need of it anymore. I concentrated on the stored light I had left and walked casually up to the Light Monkey. It seemed to hear me, and thrashed around, but with its wounded leg it could not escape. I held out my index finger and a single beam of white shot out, leaving a thin hole through the monkey¡¯s skull. With the last of its light, I had killed it.


    Amir, now facing a blinded opponent, whittled it down over time. That, I was not concerned with. What was more concerning was that, while I could sense the light falling on his face, on his weapons, shining off the monkey¡¯s armor¡­ I could not see any of these things as one would normally.


    The monkey¡¯s light had given me power, but it had also blinded me just as I had blinded them. Permanently, I suspected.


    Amir, after finishing his work, turned to me and looked at my eyes in shock. They were pure, unblemished white, he told me. That was the price of power, I supposed. Most of those who went blind in the desert would swiftly die, so I was lucky in the sense that I could still sense the world around me, even if it wasn¡¯t traditional ¡®sight¡¯.


    We returned to camp and told them of what we had done. Some people said that Amir must be the hero of the day¡­ but a far greater portion agreed that it was I who had saved them. It was then that I had been given a name like my father before me, something I had long resisted.


    But no longer was I Nadya, the delicate daughter of the Inferno. Now I was Hakim Aldaw'', the Sage of Light, protector of my family and my people.

 Chapter 8 – Life 3 – The Sight

    Chapter 8 ¨C Life 3 ¨C The Sight


    We traveled for some time, first along the coast and then from lake to lake. People proclaimed me the wise-woman, the hero, the leader, but in truth we would have perished long before without the help of the Water-Maker. Thankfully, one of the children born on the long journey had an inquisitive mind and a fascination with the Blue Watcher; he was soon discovered to have similar abilities. While separating salt from saltwater was not easy, according to the Water-Maker, he was relieved to have someone to teach his ways. He knew his importance just as well as any of us, and it had clearly been weighing on him.


    There were many monsters, of course. One day we had to contend with sharks that could swim in a flying bubble of their own water, able to drown the unprotected. The next, there were a pack of Rhinoceroses whose horns were made of solid metal. It was Nasir who had to put himself on the line that day, needing to absorb their horns without being trampled.


    All the while I remained in the center of the camp as it moved. No longer did I risk leaving my family unprotected. Instead, I used my strange sense that had replaced my eyes to find anything the light touched for a large distance. It wasn¡¯t omnipresent, as we discovered with another sandworm, but as I practiced, I found myself noticing monsters from further and further away.


    While I still longed to see, truly see, the faces of my husband and son once more, I knew that without my new powers our community would long since have been ground into desert sand. Such was the way of the world.


    We eventually made it to a large city, once known as Baghdad. Some people from our group settled down there, tired of the endless travel. However, we gained more than we lost, thanks to the fact that the Water-Maker and his apprentice wished to keep traveling until we hit the Sea.


    We kept traveling. There were bats with oversized wings that could blast us back with wind. There were lions whose shining manes were almost impenetrable. There were imps that hid in every crevice and blasted fire when you least expected.


    But that said nothing of the mutants. They were far rarer, but far more dangerous. On a mountain, a golem that could throw balls of superheated magma. Near a lake, a siren that could summon a thunderstorm with a single cry of her voice. Worst of all was something we only saw at a distance, an ox the size of a large building, bursting with muscles and charging forward at speeds we could barely imagine. Had we been in its way¡­ I¡¯m not sure any of us would have survived.


    We heard fragments of stories from other travelers while on the way. A city in the frozen north that used a volcano to stay warm. A fortress that traveled the oceans, searching for people with powerful magic. A cruel man in the east who styled himself Emperor, forcing people to hunt monsters in exchange for shelter. The truth of these stories was sometimes unclear. Some had tales of working technology from the old world, but details were scarce. Some had claims of monsters they couldn¡¯t possibly have survived, even with a hundred warriors. Some promised paradisical lands that had no monsters or hardship whatsoever. These, I doubted most of all.


    This world was a cruel place. Those who promised kindness only hid their anger and despair. We once passed a village that had been *very* interested in the Water-Maker and his power. He was over 75 years old at this point, but they didn¡¯t care. He kindly, then forcefully, told them he wished to continue his journey. Three days of travel later, warriors from the village who had been following us came to capture him in the night.


    My light-sense noticed their movements, but not their intentions. I had difficulty telling one face from another, and assumed these were merely stragglers from our own group. We had grown significantly, after all.


    When their desires were made clear, I immediately sent out a beam of light to illuminate the area and warn my people. Amir recognized the action and ran to help. But as he struggled to keep up with a Wind warrior who could dodge his daggers, and Fatima tried to control a man who spewed fire from his mouth, there was a third man who held a dagger to the Water-Maker¡¯s throat. He yelled, and when we all saw what he was doing, the battle ceased. He mocked us and our group, and eventually asked ¡°Where is your precious Light Sage now?¡± Apparently, word of my presence preceded me.


    Nasir, so clever, had an idea. I got up on his shoulders, so that I had a clearer line of ¡®sight¡¯ to the faraway man. I launched a beam of light at the man¡¯s arm, burning through it in an instant. Fortune was with us; he dropped his dagger rather than killing the Water-Maker. Soon, beams of light disabled the other two warriors as well. The three were beaten to death in short order. I don¡¯t think I could have stopped the crowd even if I had truly wanted to.


    The experience had shaken the Water-Maker, and others. We had been doing well against monsters but hadn¡¯t considered the threat of human desperation. If we wanted safety, it was time to make our own.


    After several years of travelling, we made it to what many called our final destination. The great city Istanbul, ancient even to the old-world. The Apocalypse had been going on for over a hundred years, but Istanbul had lasted for over a thousand. Not perfectly intact, no, but once we showed our worth, a group came out and welcomed us. Istanbul was situated on a river between two seas, so water was plentiful. We were all thoroughly tired of sand and brown rock, so the great city¡¯s greens and blues were things of beauty.


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    A burgeoning civilization had formed near a massive temple that was more intact than expected, the Hagia Sophia. The people had passed down stories of how the temple had survived earthquakes and hostile invaders before, and likely could even again if needed. Istanbul was no paradise, like everywhere else they had monster attacks to worry about¡­ but without the punishing heat and sandstorms, it felt perfect.


    I took the time to dictate to Amir my thoughts and experiences with my abilities. The fact that I could not generate elements but could absorb them instead. My affinity for the Moon, rather than many warriors who claimed to be stronger in the sunlight. Finally, the fight that showed me how to abandon my first element and claim my second, more powerful one.


    Nasir, bless him, had several metal tablets made with my story carved into them, in as many languages as he could learn. He encouraged others to try and replicate my feats, including his father. Amir said he was fine just perfecting his daggers, and Nasir eventually relented.


    As I grew older, my sight grew further. In the day I could see for miles, and for the night, tens of miles. Focusing on specific areas gave me a headache, but I was valued for knowing when waves of monsters were coming from any direction. I tried to teach my abilities to others, but few showed aptitude. Until finally, a young man who could absorb the wind was delivered to me unceremoniously. I didn¡¯t even know if it was possible to come at the Light element from the opposite direction, but the young man, Badr, was an orphan, and willing to try almost anything.


    Those who could absorb elements had limits, just as those who could make them did. Rather than by killing monsters, those limits were raised with practice absorbing, almost like a muscle. Sadly, it seemed this exercise was needed before getting a new element. The young man released all of his stored wind while looking at the Red Watcher many times over 5 years, and never got the Light Element. He then spent another 5 doing nothing but collect more and more wind at once.


    Then, one day, when he decided he was not progressing any further, we took him out into the wilderness at a time when the Red Watcher was high, and he released all the wind at once. It was somewhat terrifying, almost like being in the eye of one of the great storms some told stories of. But then, all around us the night air was infused with a strange glow, beyond that of the moon.


    Badr cried out in pain. He said his head was splitting at the seams. He quickly closed his eyes and found that he had a sight similar to my own. But when combined with ¡®regular¡¯ sight, which happened every time he opened his eyes, it proved too much for his mind to handle. We eventually went back to the city and fashioned him a blindfold. It seemed that those who learned the power of Light could no longer see with their mortal eyes.


    Still, over time, Badr learned my ways. His range wasn¡¯t as good as my own, but he could focus on an area as easily as I could, if not faster. Nasir also learned something new, at one point. I had not known this, but before we left our home city, he absorbed a substantial amount of metal from the fallen tower. Everything he had made, up to this point, was only a small fraction of what he held in whatever strange place absorbed elements went. And he had kept it that way for as long as possible.


    But one day, he went to the edge of the city and ran at top speed, making a sturdy wall in his tracks. This went on for miles, I have no idea where he got that much metal. But in the end, his core was empty. And just at that carefully planned moment, the Red Watcher rose in the sky. He had been inspired by the Steel Monkey I fought the day I was blinded, as well as a metal lion that seemed to have the same affinity for Metal and Fire. His new ability was surprisingly quite similar to his old one, at least much closer to Metal than Light was to Wind or Fire.


    Any metal he had made previously could be of several types, but now it was a sturdy steel that could take an incredible amount of heat from our fire warriors before even drooping an inch. In addition, we found armor made from it was much more resistant to manipulation, tested with a certain area filled with gray ogres who tended to distort armor with every punch. On the negative side of things, he needed to absorb much more metal to make his creations, and certain objects, like copper pipes, couldn¡¯t be absorbed at all. Overall, though, he was happy with his new ability.


    Amir passed before I did. Many assumed he would die in battle, but the doctors said he simply had a heart condition. Nasir and Badr mourned, of course. I had suspected this had been coming for some time. That is not to say I did not mourn with them, but I simply did not feel the depths of pain that they did.


    One day, a few years later, I realized something. Nasir had finished carving my stories into his sturdy steel plates, which he left inside and around the temples. Fatima¡¯s twin sons, both with the wind affinity, had come back with the meat of a large boar. Badr had just detected a group of monsters before I did, and there were already warriors on their way to intercept them. That was the day I realized.


    The city was in good hands, even without the old woman named Light Sage¡¯s guidance.


    And so, I stepped out into the moonlight and did something I had never done and had told Badr to never do. I stretched my senses out far beyond what I could normally see. It hurt, oh how it hurt, but I pushed through the pain. Because it was beautiful. The lands, the seas, the skies, the cities and villages. Even the monsters and the crystals that made them, in their own way. I had read stories of times when people thought the Apocalypse had come. All of them paled in comparison to the ¡°true¡± Apocalypse, but even then, humanity persisted. It was my hope that we would come out of this stronger.


    I stretched my senses further, denying through the burning pain in my head and blood and bones. I saw ice capped mountains, jungles with creatures who had never met a human in their lives, even my desert home, now abandoned but beautiful even in its rest. I hoped people could return there one day. I hoped my legacy would benefit humanity. I hoped Nasir and Badr would live good lives. The pain was actually getting less, now. I could see the sun peaking over the horizon, an ocean away. Such vast beauty, I could see such impossible things! I hoped-


    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


    You have died as a Rank 2 Light Seer (Yin).

 Chapter 9 – Life 3.5 – Year ??? – The Green

    Chapter 9 ¨C Life 3.5 ¨C Year ??? ¨C The Green


    You have died as a Rank 2 Light Seer (Yin).


    You have killed 58 Water Demons in this life.


    You have killed 173 Earth Demons in this life.


    You have killed 147 Metal Demons in this life.


    You have killed 204 Fire Demons in this life.


    You have killed 105 Air Demons in this life.


    Calculating¡­


    Your connection to Earth, Metal, Fire, and Air will be improved by 150% in the next life.


    Your connection to Water will be improved by 100% in the next life.


    You have killed 2 Light Demons in this life.


    You have killed 3 Sand Demons in this life.


    You have killed 1 Magma Demon in this life.


    You have killed 2 Steel Demons in this life.


    You have killed 1 Storm Demon in this life.


    Calculating¡­


    Your ability to form a Rank 2 Element containing Fire will be increased by 10% permanently.


    Your ability to form a Rank 2 Element containing Air will be increased by 10% permanently.


    You have killed over 100 Demons in total.


    You have fought 10 Rank 2 Demons in total.


    You have killed over 500 Demons in a single life.


    Calculating¡­


    You permanently progress through the first Rank 25% faster.


    You permanently progress through the second Rank 5% faster.


    For each life, you may select one Rank 1 Element to increase affinity by 100% for the duration of that life.


    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    *Sigh*. On the one hand, the benefits given to me by the Light Sage were almost immeasurable compared to the other two. On the other hand, I hated judging these lives solely by the benefits they gave their¡­ parent? Original? ¡­Creator? I wasn¡¯t sure what ¡®I¡¯ was to these people, just that I could remember their lives almost, but not quite, as if I had experienced them myself.


    Another thing that bothered me was why all lives were measured exclusively in terms of how many Demons they had killed. Was whatever force behind this against the demons? But then who made the crystals that summoned them? Or were they the same force, pitting us against each other for some reason?


    Questions upon questions. I suppose I was still a scientist at heart, even if I was now also a young hothead, an idealistic archer, and an old wise woman. I did share some of the hopes that the Light Sage died with. The messages I was getting all but confirmed that the combined elements were much more important than single ones, so her story reaching other people was very important for the future of humanity. I wondered if anyone else had approached the same discovery¡­ but I couldn¡¯t say either way. Without electricity and satellites, the world was much larger, almost insurmountably large.


    The Light Sage¡¯s final act, perceiving as much as she could, had given me some beautiful glimpses of it. But with that much perspective, human camps, villages, and cities were almost nothing. Still, perhaps in time that would change. The Demons outnumbered us, but there was little intelligence among even the higher ranked ones. The Silver Arrow¡¯s idealism was creeping in a bit here, but I felt like she was right, human ingenuity would bring us through the Apocalypse faster than the words ¡°Demon Invasion¡± would have someone believe. And if I could speed along the process, I would.


    To that end, I thought of an interesting fact I had noticed, reviewing the memories of my past (or was it future?) lives. Not all the new moons had an equal presence on the planet. Yellow and Blue? Sure, all over. Red and White? A decent amount. Brown? Not as much, but some places had more than others. But then¡­ then there was Green. What the hell was up with Green? Not only had nobody gained any powers by focusing on it, but green crystals were basically non-existent. I could drag up exactly one memory from the Light Sage, of a bedraggled man who spoke of creatures made of green flesh that could heal any injury. Zombies of some sort? Did that make the green moon¡­ Death?


    No, that didn¡¯t really make sense. All the other elements had colors at least tangentially related to their actual existence. Plus, green flesh didn¡¯t necessarily mean ¡®undead¡¯. After all, water creatures were often blue, but that didn¡¯t mean they were choking!


    So, what did green mean then? Perhaps¡­ Life? That would explain the healing factor. Plus, it would be the sort of opposite of metal, the way fire had water and earth had air. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. Earth and Metal were two very similar elements, some would even say they should be the same thing, but if Life was involved everything got a bit clearer. 6 elements made of 3 equal and opposite pairs.


    Except they weren¡¯t equal, were they? Metal crystals and powers were relatively uncommon, but at least they EXISTED. People had HEARD of them. What happened to make Life the odd element out? Honestly, if its related power was to heal people, that made it debatably the most important element of the whole lot! Or at least, the most important for humanity. Think of all that could be done if warriors like Silver Arrow or the Inferno weren¡¯t always one bad fight away from death!


    Choose your next Focus: Yin or Yang.


    Oh, hi there, buddy. Almost forgot you were here. Well, I¡¯ve had 2 Yang lives and 1 Yin life, so another Yin life sounds good to me.


    Focus Chosen. Choose a Rank 1 Element to enhance by 100%.


    Nice, the reward wasn¡¯t bluffing. You know what kind of IS a bluff, though? Not listing the Rank 1 elements I can choose! I¡¯ve seen messages about 5 of the 6 elements, but you¡¯ve literally never mentioned Life. But I¡¯m onto you, buddy. Enhance Life by 100%!


    ¡­Wait a second. Wait. Shit. SHIT. If Yin means you absorb your element¡­ and Life means you can heal¡­ wouldn¡¯t this next life be someone who absorbs health? That¡¯s the literal opposite of a healer!


    Don¡¯t do it kid! I don¡¯t care if you remember anything about me or your past lives, but don¡¯t go vampire on me. Do NOT suck people¡¯s blood! DO NOT-


    Element Chosen. Reincarnating¡­


    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


    -suck¡­ people¡¯s¡­ blood? Woah, why did I wake up thinking THAT? What the hell was I dreaming?


    ¡­


    Eh, probably nothing to worry about. Shouldn¡¯t affect my Affinity Testing, right?

 Chapter 10 – Life 4 – Year 112 – The Harmonium

    Chapter 10 ¨C Life 4 ¨C Year 112 ¨C The Harmonium


    At 16 years old, all children of the Harmonium needed to have their Affinities tested. We had limited space (a decent amount, but finite), so we were forced to kick off anyone who didn¡¯t have a strong one. We were at the forefront of scientific study, and everyone who joined us had to acknowledge that it was a privilege, not a right.


    Most people in the outside world didn¡¯t even know that people could have multiple possible Affinities, or that they could have different strengths. Sometimes people didn¡¯t even wield their strongest one, a terrible loss of potential. Not to mention the inefficiency of people breeding together willy-nilly, when Affinities were fucking hereditary! Not 100% of the time, no. Sometimes things went off-kilter in whatever magical way they did, but if you married a high-Affinity Water Generator with an equivalent Absorber, you would be hard-pressed to get a kid WITHOUT Water Affinity.


    The details of what separated Generators from Absorbers, or why the children of two Generators or two Absorbers would be found *incredibly* lacking in power, were unknown. Studies were ongoing, my parents told me. They had been for decades, and only recently had they been refined to the point we have now. Science was a process, that was more-or-less the motto of Harmonium. Well, the *official* motto was about the harmony of the 6 elements, but only kiss-asses said the whole thing.


    I had to deal with a lot of kiss-asses, being the son of the two highest Water Affinities recorded. Both of them were themselves children of the Harmonium¡¯s water purification mages, so naturally they were paired together by the Caretaker. Even better, they got along well, as opposite-Alignment individuals tended to. But since I learned to speak, I was told by damn near everyone how I was destined for good things. Water was obviously an important part of a floating city, after all.


    They say in the early days the Harmonium was some big leisure vessel meant for a constant rotating cast of hapless tourists. Then the Apocalypse came and someone with a spyglass made the notable discovery that none of the crystals fell into the ocean. Coastlines, yes, but deep water had no monsters besides those that decided to migrate. Which wasn¡¯t nothing, and the aquatic mutants were no slouches either, but those poor wretches stuck on land had it much worse than we did by all accounts.


    That was only true if we made sure to travel, though. Staying in one place for too long had invited trouble from nearby coastlines so often, it was eventually declared that we needed to stay in motion at all times. Our fleet of secondary vessels, both the official ones and the ones that just leech off our safe zone, got us any supplies we needed from the shores. Which was increasingly little, we were truly on our way to becoming self-sufficient.


    Water Generators to make mostly-potable water, Water Absorbers to get it fully fit for human consumption. Earth Generators for fresh farmland, Earth Absorbers to keep the land fertilized. Fire Affinitied to keep the boilers, and therefore propellors, working at full speed. Metal Affinitied to build and repair our fleet. Air Affinitied to run the submersible hunter-killer division and their pneumatically fired missiles. Everyone was working in harmony, just as the Founders had laid out. And today was the day I would officially become part of it.


    Testing me wasn¡¯t *just* a formality, there was always the chance that I had a random, super-high affinity in something like Air. That was just how things worked, sometimes. But I had been trained in the motions of water processing from a young age, I highly doubted I would go into anything but that.


    Affinity Testing was a relatively simple process, pioneered around a decade ago by the Caretaker at the time. Simply put, she wondered how the electrical components built in the last age were completely nonfunctional, but our minds¡¯ electric signals still functioned perfectly. That question led her down some very fruitful paths of discovery.


    The infamous Apocalypse changed more than the night sky, even more than our technology. It changed our very nature. Carefully trained Metal Affinitied did experiments that showed that even simple experiments, like rotating magnets around a copper coil, did not generate proper electricity. Our minds, of course, used a more complex electroCHEMICAL process, but later experiments proved that even these chemicals reacted differently than recorded, if at all.


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    The results of her work were controversial, but her methodology was sound and reproduced by even her detractors. Science was a process, and that process had led to some strange places. The leading theory was that everything, every object, all energies, every *atom* had been replaced by its Affinity counterpart. The theory mostly explained why some, more complicated physical processes failed, while others, like combustion, now worked exceptionally well.


    It did, of course, beg some questions. Our vessel¡¯s steam power, for example, should not work, seeing as no Water Affinitied had shown power over steam. Eldfjallaborg, the volcanic city in the place once known as Iceland, had allowed us to do some experiments proving that neither Fire Affinitied NOR Earth Affinitied could directly control the magma they redirected for warmth. Only the deep earthen channels they dug kept their city from burning. Possibly more than that, but they were a little hesitant to share all their secrets, according to the report.


    There were rumors, or at least rumors of rumors, that combined Affinities were possible. That would solve the theory¡¯s main problem neatly. I hadn¡¯t heard of any studies in that field, which only told me that the Harmonium¡¯s most trusted researchers were keeping their results private for now. The sad truth, my parents had taught me, was that knowledge was power, and power given out indiscriminately was dangerous. Combined Affinities would be confirmed or denied in due course.


    Where the Affinity-Conversion theory held strong was that human minds and bodies had been altered to function on Affinity-based principles. What principles, exactly? Still being figured out. But an early success was the experiment of creating an amount of a pure element, granting it direct skin contact with a young test subject, and measuring their heart rate with a simple stethoscope. Why human hearts were required to beat if we were all made of some mystical essence was, again, still being figured out.


    But almost without fail, if a person currently unaligned to an element picked the element that made their heart beat the fastest, they could successfully use it. This replaced the far, far weaker test of having the subject look at the Moons and self-report their mental state.


    To test for Absorption, the test-ee simply had to try and absorb the element through their skin. If that failed, then they were sent on one of the support ships to kill monsters at the first opportunity. The lack of capable Generators was one of the main things holding us back from true self-sufficiency right now. We hadn¡¯t found any way to increase their power without a monster dying within a few meters of their person.


    The way the test was measured was quite simple. First, the subject relaxed for 10 minutes while their average heartbeats-per-minute was recorded. Then, a Generator handed them a newly made Earth clump, Metal bar, a bowl of Water, a light breeze of Wind, and finally¡­ well, Fire was a little different, an aquatic snake had been bred to produce numbing venom, such that the Fire wouldn¡¯t actually hurt the subject.


    The beats-per-minute above the average was considered the Affinity Grade of the subject. 7 was the minimum to actually use the element. 12 in your chosen element was the minimum to remain on the Harmonium. My father was a Generator with Water-16, and my mother was an Absorber with a record-breaking Water-18! The only person currently onboard the Harmonium with Water-17 was a man who was also an Absorber, so she was paired with my father instead. That¡¯s why I figured my Water level was at least-


    ¡°Water ELEVEN?¡± I said incredulously to the tester, an older woman who had probably tested my parents in the same way. She nodded slowly. ¡°I¡¯m afraid so, young man. I double-checked myself, considering who your bloodline came from. I suppose¡­ sometimes the Affinities can be unpredictable¡­¡±


    This didn¡¯t make sense! ¡°How about the other Affinities, then? Air? Earth? Metal? ¡­Fire?¡± ¡°Thirteen across the board, it seems, pretty rare. Enough to remain on the Harmonium, so don¡¯t worry about that. It¡¯s a respectable amount, no matter what they say.¡± No, this couldn¡¯t be happening. Every Grade was increasingly hard to get, but it also determined your ranking on the fleet. 13 in everything but Water meant that I could, technically, choose my vocation, something many didn¡¯t get the chance to do. But the thirteens were only allowed on the lower decks at best, only slightly better than the twelves, who had to stay on the subordinate fleet.


    My parents worked exclusively on the higher decks. I would likely never see them again. I¡­ why was it happening this way? They did everything right, I did everything right! It¡­ it wasn¡¯t fair! My mother came into the testing room. Just my mother. My father had probably already left. The look of pity on her face made me ache inside. She went to give me a hug, but I was having none of it. I had been raised for great things! I had been PROMISED great things! Why the fuck did the Affinities betray me now?! Everyone was looking at me and I hated it! I just wanted them to GO AWAY!


    That¡¯s when I felt something *twist* inside me. Then something felt¡­ strangely good. Better than I had ever felt, honestly. Had I absorbed one of the testing elements by accident? I hadn¡¯t heard it felt this good¡­ perhaps my affinity was higher than they thought? That could-


    Then I realized people were screaming. Screaming and running away. What had happened? Then I saw a shriveled corpse on the ground. One that wore my mother¡¯s clothing.

 Chapter 11 – Life 4 – The Research

    Chapter 11 ¨C Life 4 ¨C The Research


    I was studied, of course. The Harmonium was dedicated to scientific understanding, and I was now high on the list of things that needed to be understood. No amount of Water Affinity recorded had been known to suck someone dry like that, not even my mother has¡­ had, that power. Not to mention, Water was shown to be my lowest Affinity out of all of them, so it couldn¡¯t be that.


    I was poked and prodded and examined again and again, kept somewhere on the lower decks I hadn¡¯t known existed. Part laboratory, part prison. A place where criminals with high Affinities were kept. Eventually, something new happened. The researchers brought in a man on a gurney, his slow breaths and nothing else indicating he was alive. One of the researchers explained.


    ¡°This man is a Lieutenant from a subordinate ship. He was accused of high crimes and was found guilty. He is only sedated currently but has been marked for death. Whatever you do or do not do to him, this man will die. But if you can repeat the¡­ incident, from before, it may further our understanding of what happened. The Caretaker considers your case very important.¡±


    I felt sick. I had done¡­ whatever I did to my mother by sheer accident. Now they wanted me to do it on purpose. I looked at the man, watching the slow rise and fall of his chest. ¡°What¡­ what did he do? What were these High Crimes?¡± The researcher raised an eyebrow, then looked at some paperwork on his clipboard. ¡°Apparently, he was pressuring women to sleep with him, using his Fire Affinity to threaten them if they didn¡¯t. One of the women managed to get him to do it in a place where a Sergeant could overhear. Both those threats, and the fight he caused to attempt escape, carry the death penalty. The Harmonium must be kept civilized.¡±


    I felt¡­ a bit better, about being told to kill this man. He clearly wasn¡¯t safe to keep on the Harmonium, and who would want to take him in, were he exiled? It was an entirely different situation from my own. I had to keep telling myself that.


    I placed my hands on the man¡¯s arm and¡­ I wasn¡¯t quite sure what to do. I focused on sucking the water out of him. Nothing. With some trepidation, I considered if it had been blood that I drained, perhaps the dream I had was correct? But no, the man remained normal. I tried some breathing exercises that were supposed to help Absorbers. I worried what would happen if my power wasn¡¯t repeatable. Would the Harmonium have any use for me, in that case?


    My mother¡¯s specific cause of death hadn¡¯t been given to me. I wasn¡¯t sure why. The researcher looked at me expectantly. Gripping the still-sleeping man¡¯s arm, I started to become worried. Was I just as useless as I had been told? Was my mother killed by something else? Was I going to live the rest of my life on the lower decks? No. I did what I did, and I needed to accept that. And I needed to accept¡­ that I was going to do it again.


    I began to feel the surging sensation I had felt that fateful day. The man on the gurney began to spasm. I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that the researcher had left the room. The man¡¯s flesh began to writhe, then all at once he stopped moving, stopped breathing. A husk of his former self. I had done it; I had killed again.


    I overheard some people from behind the room¡¯s one-way mirror. ¡°-confirmed then? Just as the-¡° ¡°-believe so, it matches the-¡° ¡°-vital essence-¡° ¡°-green Affinity-¡°.


    The realization hit me like a hull breach. Of course, the forgotten Affinity, that of the Green Moon! With reports of green crystals being *astonishingly* rare and unreliable, no-one was sure what the Green Affinity actually was, or if it even existed. Some said, based on the color alone, it should be some sort of Nature Affinity. Others thought it was the source of some mythical All-In-One Affinity that no-one could possess. But some theories said¡­


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    That since it orbited opposite the Brown Moon, the Metal Moon, that it should be something opposite Metal. And I think that¡¯s exactly what was going on. The opposite of Metal was living things, and since I was an Absorber, I was Absorbing the very life out of people. The scientific possibilities were immense. If I could absorb life, could I also redirect it, like other Absorbers? Could I equalize a healthy and injured person to both be lightly injured? And what about monsters? If I could kill them just with a touch, I could be very useful to people who went out and hunted them¡­


    The researchers agreed with that last thought. A few days later, they brought in two caged Burrowing Rats, some small monster from a distant land. With no Earth to burrow through, they were unable to escape. One of the researchers, an Absorber, talked to me for a bit about how she could gather Fire energy through one hand and reproduce it with the other. I was to attempt to do the same.


    The first rat I absorbed even as it attempted to bite me. I was getting better at doing that, although sadly I did still need to get quite near the thing. But as the sensation of life essence entering my body hit me, I quickly tried to focus that feeling onto a single hand, and then onto leaving my body entirely. After a couple of seconds, the still-living rat squeaked, then its skin began to bubble. It grew in size, grew in musculature. It began to rattle around the cage incessantly. The researchers took away its cage.


    Another few days, and another experiment. A third Burrowing Rat and a small dog. The dog was not monstrous, it had no elemental abilities. I took life from the rat and gave it to the dog. The dog didn¡¯t grow in size as noticeably as the earlier rat, but it did grow somewhat more muscular. I also noticed its face narrow slightly, as if becoming more rat-like. The researchers took it away.


    For the next week or so, I only saw the servants who brought me food, none of the researchers. Then, many of them came at once, alongside two women on gurneys, one of whom was covered in wounds. Uncharacteristically, the researchers explained exactly what was going on. ¡°One of our best Air Affinitied suffered a loss of pressure in the submersible she captained. A swarm of monstrous piranhas, we barely got her out of there alive. She has been in a coma for three days, and her life signs aren¡¯t looking good.¡±


    I blinked. They wanted me to be a healer, I would do that. I considered asking what the other woman had done, the healthy one, to deserve being a test subject. But I figured that the Harmonium had marked her for death for whatever reason, same as the man from earlier. There was no time to waste with hesitation. I sucked energy from the healthy woman and pumped it into the injured one. It felt a little harder, this time, but eventually the injured woman¡¯s bite marks went away, and soon after she groaned awake. She was quickly brought out of the room. The other woman was, as usual, a shriveled husk. The corpse was removed as well.


    I was given nicer accommodations after that. Perhaps the woman I saved pulled some strings, or perhaps they were simply seeing me as having more worth.


    Experiments were done, first with monsters and then with people, to see if I could remove health from something without killing it entirely. The results were mixed. I could do it, but even my most tentative uses gave the subject nearly a week of being tired and hungry before they regained full strength. I mentioned that my powers would be better used if I could drain from monsters and give to humans. The Caretaker seemingly agreed.


    The next day, I had myself my first voluntary test subject. A man from the subordinate fleet whose arm was cleanly sliced off by a monster with swords for hands 3 years ago. Alongside him was an ape-like monster that was elaborately chained up. I guessed that the researchers wanted to find a monster that was as close to a human as possible.


    After the ape was drained, the man first reported that his stump was, quote, ¡®itching like FUCK¡¯, and then over the course of about 5 minutes the arm genuinely grew back. First it was a pinkish ugly thing ending in 5 miniscule digits, but then it filled out to the right size at the base, then the wrist, and then the fingers. The man clapped, then hugged me and thanked me profusely. I wasn¡¯t quite sure how to react to a stranger giving me more affection than any of my family, but I told him was grateful for his contribution to the cause of science.


    What he didn¡¯t notice, but what the researchers and I most certainly did, was that the arm had grown back much hairier than his other one. Almost like the hair of an ape¡­

 Chapter 12 – Life 4 – The Condemned

    Chapter 12 ¨C Life 4 ¨C The Condemned


    The man who regrew his arm, as far as I was aware, was allowed to say that his arm HAD been regrown (since it would be rather hard to hide), but not allowed to say HOW. Still, we had several more volunteers who had been injured in the past.


    One day, I was shown a woman who was missing a hand and was given three long-clawed cat monsters as regrowth material. I was confused, as thus far we had stuck to primate-like monsters. The researchers assured me that I should go ahead, so I did. The process of regrowing her hand took longer than entire arms usually took, but in the end, her fingers ended in sharp claws. I hadn¡¯t been expecting that, and apparently neither was the woman. She was rather confused, then a bit angry, but the researchers took her away while explaining something. I never saw her again.


    At the end of the latest five-year period, a new Caretaker took over. As usual, their identity was kept anonymous. But this one was clearly interested in pushing me to my limits. I was given a cage filled with rats and told to merge all their lifeforce into a single, remaining rat. 7 rats in, the ¡°lucky¡± rat was able to chew through its metal bindings and escape somewhere into the ship. Sometime later, I was told it was found gorging itself on food stores meant to feed an entire support ship for 2 weeks.


    My next task built on that in an interesting way. I was shown to an aging Water-Affinitied man who I knew mentored my parents, alongside not one but two sedated men on gurneys. I was getting numb, at this point, to those subjects marked for death-by-experiment. I knew the Harmonium had marked them all as dead the moment they went into the testing chambers, for one or more of assorted crimes. Harmony had to be maintained.


    Draining two people and feeding the energy into one had an interesting result. After the first, the old mentor reported any injuries he had suffered over the years had been fixed, which we already figured would happen. But when he took the life from the SECOND one¡­ his wrinkles started to recede, his thin gray hair grew new strands of black, and if I wasn¡¯t mistaken, he stood up a few inches taller than before.


    A flurry of experiments replicating this process followed. We called the effect ¡®overhealth¡¯, though I wasn¡¯t sure who named it that. It seemed when someone or something was given life force beyond what was needed to fix injuries, it then went towards fixing defects or age. And if even more was added? Some said they felt stronger than ever before.


    I spent quite a long time doing nothing but overhealth experiments. I became somewhat concerned at the number of criminals flowing through my chambers. Had the Harmonium attempted to grow, did it invite more people? The Caretakers before had usually professed quality over quantity being important, but who knew how the new one had changed things. I hadn¡¯t left my rooms in years; mostly by choice, although the fact that I could only leave under heavy guard played a good part in that as well.


    Some subjects went back for additional overhealth after the first session. Apparently, while their Affinities were not changed via the process (wouldn¡¯t THAT have been something?), it helped people spend more time focusing on either absorbing their element or killing monsters. I grew a rapport with some of the returnees, though they often got tight-lipped when I asked about the current state of the Harmonium. They much preferred to talk about their adventures off-ship, and how they were getting stronger than almost anyone could dream of.


    Even my father was there for treatments. He often said how proud of me he was, that my work was some of the most important done on the Harmonium. He didn¡¯t even seem to care about my mother¡¯s death, since it furthered the cause of science. I tried to ask him how HIS work went, but he would only hint that it was quite complex. I wondered how complex the work of a Water Generator could get, especially since I had been trained in the same practices as a child. He would only say, ¡°The Harmonium is changing, hell the world is changing, son. We¡¯re going to have a bright future, but we¡¯re going to have to fight for it. I know you will be a crucial part of that fight¡­¡± He left me to puzzle over what that all meant.


    One day, the Earth Generator named Thomas arrived for his overhealth session. But there was something different about it. Something concerning. ¡°Why is Oscar on the gurney?¡± Oscar was a Fire Generator, one of the best, and also one of the most interesting people I knew. For each injury he came in with, he regaled me with tales of how he got it in combat. Some of the monsters he described were probably smaller in real life, but I loved humoring him.


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    Thomas gave me a hard look. ¡°This man was found guilty of treason, I¡¯m afraid.¡± I blinked. ¡°Oscar? Treason? I- no! What did he even do?¡± Thomas shook his head. ¡°Not sure of the specifics. But I know he had been questioning the Caretaker, even spreading dangerous rumors.¡± His face softened. ¡°I know you knew him. But remember, he¡¯s been marked for death, just like all the others. Even if you refuse, and I assure you that¡¯s a bad idea, he will die regardless.¡±


    I tried to get more information out of Thomas, but after his brief concession to my feelings he went hard as the rocks he was known for. If Oscar had truly committed treason, there was nothing I could do for him but feel sorry. I drained him into a husk, wiping off a single tear. When I gave Thomas his overhealth, unlike most times, I held a little back. It was stupid and unscientific, but I liked the thought that some of Oscar¡¯s memory would live on in me.


    I hoped the next Caretaker would be more lenient than the previous, but after the following changeover, I was busier than ever. The same people who got overhealth two days ago would come in, covered in injuries. I asked why, in all sorts of different ways, but they seemed almost terrified to tell me.


    My rotating group of patients grew smaller, as many either stopped coming in or arrived on gurneys rather than on foot. My father was never one of them, thankfully. He kept coming in, somehow never getting incredibly muscular like the other patients. In fact, he almost looked worse than before; gaunt, like he had barely eaten, and pale, like he saw the sun as infrequently as I did. He started answering my questions ever more cryptically, and eventually stopped answering questions at all.


    One day I heard a strange sound, almost like an explosion, then a lot of yelling. Had one of the engines failed? I went to leave my chambers only to be blocked by the door guard. ¡°Sorry sir, it¡¯s a state of emergency, I can¡¯t let you leave.¡± I was confused. ¡°What¡¯s going on, then?¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing to worry about, sir, just go back to your chambers.¡± I raised an eyebrow at the contradiction of a state of emergency that was nothing to worry about.


    I considered my options. The guard was clearly ordered to keep me safe, but I might be needed to heal injuries caused by whatever that explosion was! I ordered the man to let me past. He started to look rather concerned. ¡°Please, sir, it¡¯s not safe for you to leave your chambers.¡± I made to push past the man, but he grabbed my hand rather forcefully. I realized I vaguely remembered him as one of my earlier overhealth patients.


    I looked back at the guard in anger only to see that he was *terrified*. Was I really that scarry? ¡°P-please sir¡­ I¡¯ll end up on one of those gurneys if they see I let you leave¡­¡± Something was decidedly wrong here. Letting me leave my chambers was a crime? One that carried the death penalty? I needed to investigate. I swallowed and said, ¡°if anyone asks, I opened the door and did this immediately.¡± The man gulped. ¡°D-did wha-¡° I touched my hand to his neck and drained *just* enough life force that he fell unconscious. He would recover over time. I took a ring of keys from his belt.


    I made my way in the direction of the yelling. I heard what sounded like a second explosion. Why were no alarms going off? Surely this, whatever it was, warranted a red alert? I tried to make my way to the higher decks, but all the doors upwards were locked, and none of the many keys were labeled. As I went through the halls, two more guards tried to stop me. They had been given overhealth as well, I was sure of it. It took longer to drain them, something I had to keep in mind, but I still pushed them to the point of unconsciousness and no further. I hoped. Then I went into the room they were guarding and found¡­ a nightmare.


    If my power drained people of life over time, these bodies had it ripped from them violently. Intestines and other organs draped the floor, all coming from people and monsters that looked like they had exploded from the inside. Strangely, not a single drop of blood was there to be found, it was like the room had been scrubbed clean in an incredibly selective way.


    I barely avoided emptying my stomach, but I needed to know what sort of depraved experiments had been going on here. I made my way around the corner and found¡­ the strangest monster I had ever seen. A red thing in the shape of a person was standing there, at least 7 feet tall. Despite standing upright, the thing was clearly made of liquid. And then it reached out for me with a 6-fingered hand.


    I quickly, on instinct, went to drain it of life. But nothing happened. What made this monster different from all the others? Why the hell was something like this on the ship, anyway? As I struggled to free myself from its grasp, a man in a black cloak came out from somewhere and rasped ¡°Stop¡±. The monster put its hand down. Someone was controlling a monster with vocal commands?! Wait, that voice sounded familiar¡­


    The man stood up and dropped his cloak showing off his gaunt form and pale skin, shocking me to the core. ¡°Can¡¯t have you hurting the boy who made this all possible, now could we?¡±, said my father.

 Chapter 13 – Life 4 – The Madness

    Chapter 13 ¨C Life 4 ¨C The Madness


    ¡°What the hell is going on?¡± I asked my father, as his tamed blood-monster released me. ¡°My boy, we are entering a great battle for our bright future. History will be written today¡­ in blood.¡± As if to punctuate his statement, another explosion could be heard in the distance.


    ¡°Father¡­ so many people have died right here, in this room! Surely, they couldn¡¯t all have been criminals, so why?!¡± My father shook his head. ¡°They WERE all criminals, boy. They committed the crimes of being shortsighted, disloyal, and above all else¡­ WEAK. In death, they served the Harmonium more greatly than in life. And even that, is only thanks to me¡­ and the lovely creatures like the one you see before you.¡±


    I backed away from him and the creature. ¡°Is- is that thing made from their blood?¡± ¡°Yes¡­ blood. A wonderful thing, blood. It flows like water yet is so very much greater. The stuff of life flows in our veins, pumped by a heart that would mean your death if it stopped! Yet most people only truly appreciate it¡­ when it¡¯s gone¡­¡±


    My father had gone mad, it was the only explanation. I had to keep him talking while I plotted my escape. ¡°H-how did you make such a creature, Father? I thought the Water Affinitied couldn¡¯t control blood?¡± My father leaned back his head and gave an uncharacteristic laugh. ¡°Oh my boy, I haven¡¯t used mere WATER in years! I suppose our fair Caretaker has seen that you are rather too busy to keep up on current events, hmm?¡±


    He nodded to himself. ¡°Very well, I¡¯ll fill you in. Some time ago, the Caretaker instructed me to take on a rather important role. Our agents had confirmed the great Volcano City had determined how to control the magma that gives them life. Not through Earth, not through Fire, but through their combination of both. The Caretaker took that knowledge and refined it, and made a small task force of Combined-Affinity Warriors. Very secret, you understand, I¡¯ve told you what happens when power is given too freely to the masses. The trick lies in gaining as much power over your element as possible¡­ and then rejecting it, all at once! A very enlightening act, let me assure you.¡±


    ¡°So, once I killed hundreds of monsters, thanks in no small part to your help healing my injuries and enhancing my muscles, I rejected the element of Water, and invited the element¡­ of Life. Oh, don¡¯t look so shocked, my boy! Did you really think you were the only one in the world with Life Affinity? I gave birth to you, of course I have some of my own! The Caretaker was wise enough to suspect that, that¡¯s why I became her trusted ally!¡± I barely noticed my father talking like he knew the Caretaker personally. Ever since the Caretaker of 30 years ago was assassinated, no Caretaker was allowed to reveal their identity to anyone, no matter how trustworthy they seemed. Case in point, my father turned out to be a madman.


    He continued ranting. ¡°Blood Affinity is an amazing thing, you know that, boy? Unlike your equal exchanges of vitality, I can CREATE! LIFE! ITSELF! Under my command, taking any shape, and able to regenerate when given new blood! And if there¡¯s one thing humans are good at¡­ it¡¯s making more blood than they know how to use, ahaha! Granted I did go through a few test subjects to perfect things¡­ I suppose you know how that goes, right bo-¡°


    It was at this point that I punched my father in the face. I tried to drain him, but it was like draining juice from a stone. He pushed me back.


    ¡°WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT BOY?!¡± I growled. ¡°Those lives were not yours to take.¡± He looked genuinely confused. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t they be? They couldn¡¯t defend themselves. In this world, this Apocalypse, that¡¯s deserving of death where they stand.¡± I shook my head. ¡°No, it¡¯s DESERVING of being HELPED. Of being shown HOW to defend themselves¡­ so that they can stand up to men like you!¡± I tried to punch him again, but the blood golem engulfed my hand first. It lifted me into the air.


    ¡°Boy, the Caretaker said you were valuable, but soft¡­ that¡¯s why she stuck you in a room where you could do your work, while the rest of us did ours. I always said you could handle the truth¡­ but clearly, I was wrong. And you know what else? We found another Life Affinity brat. A kid who can do just the same things as you, if trained properly. And we¡¯ve been training him for *years*. All that adds up to you being fucking expendable. Is that what you want, boy? To have your blood end up mixed with the blood of our enemies?¡±


    I had an idea, but I needed to keep him talking. ¡°Science doesn¡¯t have enemies, Dad, only opportunities. That¡¯s what mom always said¡­¡± ¡°Your mother had some fool ideas, then. Knowledge is power, and there will always be those who wish to seize power for themselves, and only themselves¡­¡± A third arm reached from the blood golem¡¯s chest and wrapped around me. I struggled. ¡°Volcano City tried to keep the knowledge of combined Affinities from us, you know? They would kill to keep it a secret, and they aren¡¯t the only ones. The Caretaker foresaw a future where it wasn¡¯t the monsters that killed us, but human infighting. Not unless someone stood up and took charge. Someone to guide the strong and cull the weak. She will be that leader, and I will give her an ocean of blood to drown anyone who wishes to stop her! Can you feel it, boy? Can you feel the bright future ahead?¡±


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    My plan was almost complete. Thankfully, my father was too mad to notice the strain I was putting my power under, or what was going on around him. ¡°I don¡¯t know much about what the future holds, Father¡­ but I know one thing. I know that if I let you leave this room, you¡¯ll be just as much of an Apocalypse as the one outside our doors.¡± He raised an eyebrow. ¡°If you LET me, eh? And who are you to stop me, hmm?¡±


    ¡°Someone who realized hundreds of bodies drained of blood is still a pretty fucking decent amount of life essence.¡± My father¡¯s eyes widened, looking around at the room of his ¡®test subjects¡¯ as if for the first time. They had all dried and desiccated far beyond what they were just a few minutes ago. I mentally flipped the switch to apply all that life essence to the one place I had never been allowed to put it. My own body. I cried out in agony; no-one had ever been given this much overhealth before. Were there side effects? Long term effects?


    Heh, look at me, wanting to do actual research. I guess this not-so-Harmonious place taught me something decent after all.


    With a surprisingly small amount of effort, I broke through the blood golem¡¯s arms that had been holding me back. I tried to stand up, only to find my head hitting the ceiling. My father was shouting commands at his golem, trying to get it to kill me, but I barely felt the thing. I reached out with a single overgrown fist and *punched*. My father¡¯s head dented inwards. His blood golem collapsed back into the liquid it truly was.


    I made my way back out of the room full of corpses and towards the door to the upper decks. I used my enhanced strength to break the lock off instantly. Repeating the process a few times, I found myself standing in the sun for the first time in nearly two decades. We were off the coast of a large city covered in snow, with a large volcano visible in the distance. Several areas of the ship were on fire, and I could see a few Water Generators trying to put it out. It was no use though, since balls of liquid fire kept launching from the city and hitting the sides of the ship. I guess my father was telling the truth at one point, at least: there was a Magma Affinitied somewhere in the city.


    I wandered around the surface deck of the ship, not really sure how best to proceed. Should I try to commandeer the ship from the Caretaker? Or should I just try to swim to land? I had no idea where the ship was controlled from, but I also would probably be attacked as an enemy if I went to Volcano City.


    The choice was put on hold when a woman in a black cloak approached me. ¡°ELIAS! What is- no, you aren¡¯t Elias¡­ of course, his son. Do I have you to thank for the loss of our blood golem soldiers?¡± Elias was my father, so this had to be the Caretaker. I grunted. ¡°The Caretaker, I presume.¡± The woman chuckled, undoing her hood. It revealed a surprisingly beautiful woman with long black hair. She smirked and said, ¡°The one and only.¡±


    I realized she was the spitting image of the Caretaker who had been assassinated. Of course, she faked her death and ran the ship from the shadows. Was ANYTHING in this damn place not a lie? ¡°You seem to have had quite the upgrade, young man. Overhealth does have diminishing returns, so I can¡¯t say I ever tried to push it that far. Perhaps that will be something new to try¡­ once we get the requisite ¡®donors¡¯ of course¡­¡±


    She was just as mad as my father. If I wanted the Harmonium¡¯s reign of terror to end, I needed to kill this woman as well. Without giving her more time to prepare, I ran towards her and prepared to punch her to death. She simply smirked once more and made some strange hand gestures. A wave of pure darkness, almost like a cloud of ink, emerged from out of nowhere.


    I was blinded by it, but still tried to attack in the direction I thought she was in. I just heard her terrible laugh. ¡°I suppose this means you won¡¯t be replacing your father any time soon. A shame, but now that we know how to test for Life Affinity, replacing you both shouldn¡¯t prove too troublesome. Still, you could NOT have picked a worse time to kill Elias, we were in the middle of our first large-scale test of his blood warriors, you know? I suppose you at least taught me their biggest weakness, the fragility of their summoner, so that will be something to remember in the future¡­¡±


    Walking though the darkness was like walking through deep water. The stuff stuck to me with my every movement, making it harder and harder to push through, even with my enhanced muscles. I hoped she couldn¡¯t keep this up indefinitely; if I recalled correctly, she was supposed to be a Generator, not an Absorber. ¡°How are you liking my Darkness Affinity?¡±, she said, mockingly. ¡°I hadn¡¯t expected that to be the combination of Earth and Water, but in the end, it all made sense. The darkness of the deep water¡­ and the darkness of being buried alive.¡±


    All of a sudden, the darkness thickened even further. It began to flow into my ears, nose, and throat. I struggled, but that made it go in even further. This¡­ this was the end, wasn¡¯t it? I had lived a life of scientific discovery, only to learn that all the knowledge I had wanted to gain for humanity had instead gone to this evil woman and her mad desires. At least I had slowed her down by taking out her blood army, but she likely already had plans on how to make another one.


    Should I have stopped doing my experiments? Should I have questioned further where all the bodies came from? Should I have simply run away on that first day when I drained my mother by accident?


    ¡­I¡¯m sorry, mom. This place¡­ these people¡­ you deserved better from everyone, especially me. The Harmonium used us all up, along with who knows how many others.


    Caretaker! May your efforts turn to ash! May your empire be engulfed in flame! May you rot in your darkness, never to learn the true secrets of the Apocalypse! May you¡­ may you¡­


    *Gak*


    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


    You have died as a Rank 1 Life Stealer (Yin)

 Chapter 14 – Life 4.5 – Year ??? – The Connection

    Chapter 14 ¨C Life 4.5 ¨C Year ??? ¨C The Connection


    You have died as a Rank 1 Life Stealer


    You have killed 78 Earth Demons in this life.


    You have killed 42 Metal Demons in this life.


    Calculating¡­


    Your connection to Earth and Metal will be improved by 100% in the next life.


    You have killed a Rank 2 Blood Commander (Yang)


    Calculating¡­


    Your ability to survive blood loss is permanently improved by 10%.


    Your Total Rank has risen to 5 (Rank 1x3, Rank 2x1)


    Calculating¡­


    Each life gains some memories and experiences from the previous life.


    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


    *Sigh*.


    So, it seems my worries were correct, Yin Focus plus Life Affinity equals A Bad Time.


    What really surprised me, though, was that it turned out to be the kid¡¯s DAD who was the vampire, not the kid himself. Still, literally absorbing the life out of people is a lot more traumatic than the kid gave it credit for, even if the memories are second-hand. Just thinking about some of those desiccated husks makes me want to vomit, and I don¡¯t even have a stomach!


    At least the kid wasn¡¯t evil in the end. I¡¯m not sure how I would feel if one of ¡®my¡¯ lives was like the vampire dad¡­ or hell, that freakishly strong Caretaker lady! What the hell is up with the Darkness element, she can just choke people to death at a distance? *Guh* the sensation of inky nothingness going inside all of my orifices is my worst memory to date, even worse than the impalement that killed my original self!


    I deeply hope that those ¡®Harmonium¡¯ fucks get knocked down a peg by someone. They had the chutzpah to attack the same city they stole the knowledge of how to get to Rank 2 from, so maybe overconfidence will be their downfall? Their nightmare cruise ship seemed to be getting pretty beat up by whoever was striking them with Magma¡­


    But even if the big ship sank, I had no doubt the Caretaker had a plan to get out of there with whoever else she had trained up as her little army. She might lose the battle, especially with the loss of her blood golem soldiers, but you don¡¯t secretly lead a bunch of mad scientists for 30 years without having a ¡®Plan B¡¯. I seem to recall them having a bunch of submarines led by Air Affinity captains, so she could probably hide out almost indefinitely if need be.


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    Plus, she mentioned having someone else with the Life Affinity, and the ability to somehow test more people for it. She could probably use that ¡®overhealth¡¯ effect to stay young for ages. No, the only way this woman was going down was if someone specifically went out to kill her.


    Was there a way to ensure my next life would be in a position to kill her? Probably not, my location at birth seemed to be entirely random. America, Japan, the Middle East, and then on a big ship that travelled all over the place. According to that most recent message, my next life MIGHT remember something about the Harmonium, but it wasn¡¯t like they could just book an airplane and go there.


    It was interesting to see that killing Elias the Vampire Dad had a reward attached, even if it wasn¡¯t a terribly good one. Light Sage had killed a few human bandits in her time, but no rewards came out of that. I guess they needed to be at least Rank 2 before the messages cared about them. I wonder what kind of reward would come from killing the Caretaker¡­ better night vision, maybe? Hopefully something better than that, but I suppose ridding the world of a genuine supervillain would be its own reward.


    So, if killing the Caretaker was a goal to keep in the background, what kinds of goals should I keep in the foreground, so to speak? Well, for one thing, I think it¡¯s time to choose a-


    Choose your next Focus: Yin or Yang.


    -yeah. That. As I was SAYING, a Yang focus would be good for this next time, I think. My Yin lives were powerful, it was true, but Yang lives gained power by killing Demons. As it so happens, that was the source of power for future lives as well. Life Stealer didn¡¯t do much Demon killing, and it hurt the next life down the line. If only there were bonuses for absorbing and using an element, then we would be in pretty good shape¡­


    So yeah, I guess my goal for this next life would be for them to reach a decent Rank 2 element and fight lots of Demons. Maybe kill any evil Rank 2¡¯s they come across for bonus points. After that¡­ well, I guess I would be interested to see how powerful a Rank 2 can get. Are there ranks above 2? Combinations of 3 or more elements? What would those even look like? Was there a super-element formed by combining all 6 regular ones?


    ¡­I was getting ahead of myself. Form a decent Rank 2 element, and then the rest will follow. Let¡¯s see, after choosing the Yang focus, I guess I have to give this next life a-


    Focus Chosen. Choose a Rank 1 Element to enhance by 100%.


    -god DAMN do you have to pop up at the worst moments? But let¡¯s see¡­


    Life Stealer didn¡¯t kill many Demons, only the Earth and Metal ones the Harmonium considered ¡°safe¡± to bring on board. So, rather than giving Life Affinity again (because we all know how that went), I think I¡¯ll pick one of those two for a better bonus. Let¡¯s do¡­ Metal.


    Be good this time, kiddo. Be better than your past life! Sure, kill monsters, get stronger, but above all else, b-


    Element Chosen. Reincarnating¡­


    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


    -e good? Hmm. A strange dream. But better than the nightmares I usually have. The child who sucks people dry of life. The father who turns people¡¯s blood against them. The metal vessel commanded by a shadowy figure¡­ and above all else, the beautiful mother who the child drained against his will.


    Sometimes I wonder if my parents were like that. Did I have a terrible father, a beautiful mother? The other men in the camp say I was sent here as an orphan, same as all the others. So, I suppose I¡¯ll never know¡­


    So why do these visions plague me so frequently? I feel a connection to these people, yet I am sure I never met them!


    Well, I suppose I would not be the first broken man to serve under the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor. So long as I can kill monsters, I will have a home here¡­ pitiful as it is compared to the sailing palace of my dreams...

 Chapter 15 – Life 5 – Year 150 – The Camp

    Chapter 15 ¨C Life 5 ¨C Year 150 ¨C The Camp


    The rules of the camp were simple, if somewhat cruel. Every single person, young and old alike, had to go out and kill monsters. If they didn¡¯t, they would be tossed out to fend for themselves. If they were injured, they would be given 7 days to recover, with no extra provisions given beyond the standard rations. If they didn¡¯t recover by then, they would be exiled from the camp. Anyone who caused trouble, would be, as usual, tossed out.


    Some had questioned these methods, which fell under the mark of ¡°causing trouble¡±. The tossing out was enforced by the Camp Master and his Disciples, the people he directly instructed in combat. They seemed to have extremely good memories about who had been exiled and who hadn¡¯t, as shown when the exiled tried to sneak back in. Though, I suppose no-one would question the Disciples even if they pushed someone out on false accusations.


    It wasn¡¯t all bad at the camp, though. So long as you were capable of combat, you could earn a respectable amount of food and clean water, which was hardly true of the exiled. 3 of the 9 Disciples were Metal-Makers, and they supplied swords, spears, and daggers to the rest of us. The plains were home to a fast-growing yellow grass that burned easily, so the Fire-Maker Disciples kept us in a decent amount of warmth. The rule of the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor, carried out by his Masters and Grandmasters, was best described as ¡®tough but fair¡¯.


    They say the previous Emperors were far crueler. They say the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor got his position by killing the 2<sup>nd</sup>, along with his brother, the expected taker of the throne. They say the Empire grew stronger with his leadership, though it¡¯s not like I was alive during the previous Emperors to know the difference. There were whispers that the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor had a strange connection to the Green Moon, that he could keep himself young indefinitely. Most scoffed at these whispers, either out of true distrust or out of fear that this talk would be cracked down upon.


    When I heard these stories, strange memories would come, unbidden. Memories from my nightmares. Of the child who also had a connection to the Green Moon. There was something called¡­ oh-var-helth that let people stay young. This was the only indication I had that my nightmares had some connection to the real world.


    Thankfully, I myself had no connection to the Green Moon, no special feelings beyond the normal when I looked at it. Instead, I felt a rather strong connection to the Brown Moon. That likely meant I had 2 paths ahead of me. The first was if I was a Metal-Molder. That would take me to the Old City, Bei Jing. There, the Emperor had all available Metal-Molders remaking the city, turning the scraps of the old into the fortress he commanded.


    The other possible path was if I was a Metal-Maker. This was considered the second strongest path for combat, after Fire-Makers. And this, I was rather convinced, was my path. The ability to make any weapon my heart desired¡­ it called to me. Not to mention, when killing monsters with the others, I felt what some Makers described as ¡®Qi¡¯ entering my body.


    And sure enough, one day when a Rock Scorpion chipped my blade with its claws, I repaired it mid-battle. Energy surged through my body and left it as a quickly drying liquid metal that filled the cracks. When we got back to camp, I proved my ability by making a small block of metal from nothing. It drained me, but the Metal-Maker Disciple I showed it to said that was natural.


    ¡°Making solid metal is difficult for those with little Qi in their bodies. It¡¯s not like making something insubstantial, like Fire or Air.¡±, she explained. ¡°Even this amount, at your age, shows a decent degree of talent.¡± From then on, I found myself under her tutelage. Each Disciple of the Camp Master was allowed to take on 9 Initiates of their own, I found out. Typically, of their same element type, though not always. My new teacher, for example, had 5 Metal-Maker Initiates but also a Fire-Maker and Fire-Molder pair that helped her melt down old tools into new ones. ¡°A Metal-Molder would have made things easier¡±, she said, ¡°but they don¡¯t stay in simple camps like these.¡±


    As time went on, I got used to a new rhythm of working. In the mornings, I spent as much Qi as possible on making a new weapon. My teacher would decide who it went to but let me choose what kind of weapon I would make. I started with spears, supposedly one of the better weapons out there, but my heart kept calling me to make¡­ swords. Eventually, every day I would make exclusively swords, much to the bemusement of my teacher.


    Then, while we regenerated our Qi, we would march to our designated battle zone. It was mostly in Rock Scorpion territory, but every so often, large beetles who could take to the air emerged. My teacher always got a little angry when this happened, and I heard her mutter at times about one of the other Disciples ¡°not pulling his weight enough¡±.


    In combat, each of us, save the Fire-Molder, would take turns being the designated ¡°final killer¡±. It had been shown, apparently, that while every Maker who was near a dying monster got some amount of Qi from it, those who did not attack it got very little, and those who struck the killing blow got quite a bit.


    Closing the distance was complicated, a bit, by the Rock Scorpions¡¯ tails, which were surprisingly flexible. Thankfully they were not poisonous, but they could shoot out a stream of dust that could irritate the eyes and mouth quite severely. We had taken to wearing scraps of cloth turned into masks to at least prevent us from inhaling the dust.


    After killing all the scorpions we could find, we marched back to camp with a sack of rocky tail-tips. The scorpions weren¡¯t edible like some monsters, but they would still overrun us if they weren¡¯t kept in check. It was important for the Camp Master to know that we were doing our jobs.


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    In the evenings, we were given free reign to do as we wished, unless one of the night watch guards spotted an incursion. Then we would have to take up arms as a group to fight them off. Sometimes the Camp Master would punish someone for not fighting enough monsters, but other times it was just agreed that the group had formed outside our scouts¡¯ perimeters.


    While Molders gained proficiency through absorbing and redirecting their element, Makers needed to engage in combat. Therefore, most of our free time was spent sparring with each other, along with occasional contests with the Initiates of other Disciples. I was a fairly respected combatant, as I could create metal both more quickly and for longer periods than most others. This was mostly attributed to talent, but I also quite enjoyed sparring, and threw myself into it a bit more as a result.


    Every night, unknown to everyone else, I tried an experiment. I had one particular sword that I found to be my finest creation, which I secreted away one day. I kept it under my straw bed, disguised as a simple lump. Every night, in the dark, I would infuse it with as much Metal as possible. Not with the intent of making it larger, but with the intent of strengthening it. I got the idea from the ¡®oh-var-helth¡¯ of my nightmares, I figured that if people and monsters could be infused with life, then weapons could be infused with metal.


    What was interesting was that, while sometimes my power would fail to do anything, other times¡­ I would feel energy leaving me, and the sword would get shinier and heavier. Not by an incredible amount, but incrementally. I wondered if the other elements could do this. Could a Fire-Maker push enough fire into one place to make an ever-burning flame? What would it even look like if a Wind-Maker concentrated wind into a single point?


    But I kept these ideas to myself. For one, I didn¡¯t want to have to explain my nightmares to others. Not only to avoid others thinking I had gone mad¡­ but keeping them to myself seemed to make them less¡­ real.


    Besides, the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor and his men had the attitude that one should only give out something if they had earned it. I killed monsters and earned a place in the camp. I was talented with Metal-Making and so I had earned a teacher. But had my teacher done anything beyond what I had earned, so that she could earn something from me? Had the Camp Master? Had the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor?


    These thoughts were dangerous at best and worthy of my death at worst, so these, too, were kept to myself. As for my sword, I practiced with it only when I was sure no-one else was around. It was difficult, for it was quite heavy, but the makeshift targets of rock that the Earth-Makers made showed that the blade was beautifully sharp. Were I to use this on a monster, the results would be devastating. And if I were to use it on a person¡­ well, I doubt they could survive.


    One day, a new report came in. The other Disciple in charge of keeping back the Rock Scorpions told of a new, much larger scorpion, with armor that was almost impossible to break. This kind of thing happened from time to time, elite monsters with powers beyond their normal kin. This was the kind of event Camp Masters were there for. They were the one part of the camp that didn¡¯t have to fight normal monsters unless they wished to, but when it came to elite monsters, they were required to attack as soon as possible.


    Rumor had it, if one elite monster was allowed to live for too long, other elites would start to pop up as well. Some of the warriors had stories of a group of 4 islands that were once home to some of the greatest cities in the world but were now completely abandoned. Supposedly, a species of large lizards had all gained the ability to make a fog that enshrouded the land day and night. The fog induced madness, or made people disappear, or turned them into more lizards. I think some of those stories were made up to make people feel more indebted to the Camp Master, but then again¡­


    The figure in my nightmares, the terrifying woman who could choke people to death with darkness in broad daylight¡­ well, it made some of the stories seem more likely.


    All three of the Metal-Maker Disciples, along with an Earth-Maker and a Fire-Maker, ventured out to the elite scorpion alongside the Camp Master. As one of my teacher¡¯s top three Initiates, I was allowed to come as well. I brought my special sword, kept in a crude monster-leather sheath.


    The scorpion was strange. Larger than its brethren, that was to be expected. But it was covered in bluish-gray metal armor. It was quite different than the metal that I and all other Metal-Makers produced. For one thing, no-one with the Metal element could even sense it. Elements controlled by monsters couldn¡¯t be wielded against them, but those with the same element (particularly Molders) should at least be able to detect it. Earth wielders, for example, could easily predict the location of Rock Scorpions normally, even if they hid below ground.


    The metal was also tough. Attacks from the Fire-Makers could partially melt it in places, but the effects were too small to weaken the scorpion much. Earth-Molders attempted to trap the thing by digging holes in the ground or creating spears of rock, but it shrugged off those attempts easily. And Metal-Makers such as I¡­ saw their weapons chip and shatter against the more powerful metal armor.


    Eventually, the Camp Master decided he had seen enough. He warned us all to go away from the scorpion as far as possible. He then did something I had not thought possible. A wave of sand appeared from seemingly nowhere and battered the elite monster. I had heard tales that the Master was once a talented Earth-Maker, but I hadn¡¯t heard of any amount of talent in Earth that could do this!


    The wave went on for a solid minute before the Master gave up and told us to attack once more. When we arrived back at the scorpion, its armor was chipped and worn away in many places. Truly, the Master was powerful! By focusing our efforts on the gaps in the metal, we eventually hurt it enough that it tried to escape underground. Elite monsters tended to be smarter as well as stronger. If they could live to fight another day, they would occasionally attempt to flee, unlike their base equivalent.


    Thankfully, the Earth-Molders had expected this, and had subtly hardened the rock in the area. A normal Rock Scorpion would probably be able to get through it quickly, but this metal-focused one had more difficulty. I hadn¡¯t realized that elite monsters had some weaknesses that the normal ones didn¡¯t.


    Suddenly, a memory flashed through my mind. One of my nightmares. A man covered in self-inflicted wounds, who once commanded an army of solid blood.


    ¡°The trick lies in gaining as much power over your element as possible¡­ and then rejecting it, all at once! A very enlightening act, let me assure you.¡±


    I blinked. Was that nightmare¡­ true? Was that how these elite monsters gained their power? Was that how the Camp Master gained his?


    ¡­could I do the same?

 Chapter 16 – Life 5 – The Blue Metal

    Chapter 16 ¨C Life 5 ¨C The Blue Metal


    After a long battle of attrition, the Blue-Metal Scorpion was down. My special sword definitely helped the battle, but the final kill went to the Camp Master, as was traditional. But while I was happy with the amount of Qi I still got, my thoughts were elsewhere.


    Was the promise of potential power, stemming from a memory of a dream (or was it a dream of a memory?) worth giving up my comfortable Metal-Maker life? I knew I was talented, even compared to my peers with the same powers. In a few years, I would probably graduate from being an Initiate and be moved to a different camp, where I could be a Disciple myself. That was what my power promised me in the Empire.


    But didn¡¯t I want¡­ more? I felt a strange feeling driving me towards getting a combined element of some sort. I had heard tell of elite monsters and their powers, not to mention the apparent power that a Camp Master wields¡­ everyone said that something (or someone) with a combined element had power beyond what simply wielding two elements would allow. The Camp Master, for example, conjured a sandstorm that I doubted even 10 Earth-Molders and 10 Air-Makers could accomplish. Not to mention that the sand actually hurt the strange metal scorpion in a way that none of our other attacks could.


    Now that I thought about it¡­ the scorpion¡¯s strange blue metal was likely the combination of the normal Rock Scorpion¡¯s Earth element with a Metal element, wasn¡¯t it? Didn¡¯t that mean that I could learn such a thing as well? That wouldn¡¯t be so bad¡­ trading my current Metal-Making for a more powerful type of metal wasn¡¯t a huge sacrifice. I hoped.


    I threw myself into training. I practiced with both normal swords, swords I made myself, and of course my specially made sword I let no-one else see. I made bets on my own sparring sessions with my fellow Initiates. The thing being bet was, of course, the right to make a final strike on a monster. My dream/memory clearly said that I needed as much power as possible to make the exchange upwards. This made sense; what good was trading something away if you had little of it to begin with?


    Improving my blade became more and more difficult. At first, getting the final blow on 5 monsters was enough to give me power to improve it further. But as it got heavier and heavier, I found it soon requiring 10, then 20, then 50. Eventually, my muscles strained to even lift it, so I convinced an Earth-Maker to make me some stone weights for strength training. It also became incredibly sharp, to the point that I had to discard the now cut-up leather sheath I had made for it. Perhaps the leather of a stronger monster would work, but it would likely need to be an elite.


    Eventually I got to the point where I couldn¡¯t improve the sword any further, even when I had killed 100 more monsters than the last time. I was known at this point as being something of a battle maniac, some would even trade me their final kill rights in exchange for doing all the work for them. This was somewhat frowned upon by the Disciples, but I did good work; the same number of monsters were getting killed, so they had nothing to complain about.


    The sword was a thing of beauty at this point, able to cut through damn near anything. I even put it to the test against another elite, a flying beetle that could conjure ear-shaking thunderstorms. I got such a good slice, the Camp Master had to drag me away so that he could ensure he got the final kill.


    And yet, my sword had yet to turn into the blue color I knew from the scorpion. I decided it was time. I went out in the middle of the night to a rocky part of the camp and formed a large block of metal in my hand. I then proceeded to strengthen it further, just like my sword. I pushed harder and harder, draining all of my Qi, until I instinctively knew it would be several hours before I could make the tiniest bit of metal once more.


    I was thankful the Yellow Moon, the governor of Earth, was high in the sky at that time. I looked up at it and tried to feel its power. Before becoming a Metal-Maker, I had always felt a slight connection to the Yellow Moon alongside the Brown. This was simply my natural path. I stabbed my sword into the ground, where it cut a hole for itself effortlessly. I focused on making it take on the properties of the ground around it. I wasn¡¯t quite sure what I was doing, but it felt¡­ right, for some reason.


    I waited there for at least an hour, trying to maintain my concentration as much as possible. And just as I began to fear I was going down the wrong path¡­ I felt a sudden wave of weakness pass through my body. Weakness¡­ followed by *strength*. It felt like my bones were being reforged with solid steel¡­ if not something stronger. I wasn¡¯t sure if that was an imagined feeling, or if that was literally what happened when you attained a combined element, and at this point I didn¡¯t care.


    It was painful, of course, quite painful. But I was used to pain, as any monster fighter would be. And this pain¡­ was a good pain. Invigorating, even. And in the end, I pulled my sword out of the ground and found that the cutting edge had turned a distinctive blue. It had also grown even heavier than before, but thanks to my constant strength training I was still able to carry it back to my dwelling with relative ease.


    When I awoke the next morning, I was expected to, as usual, make a weapon for the camp. That was a bit of a problem, since while a good night¡¯s sleep was supposed to allow one to fully regenerate their Qi¡­ I felt like only a fraction of mine had returned. Had my capacity for Qi had gone up? Or did I simply regenerate it more slowly now?


    The answer turned out to be¡­ both. The blue metal came from me slowly and tentatively, like my very first time making metal. Not only did my internal energy return at a trickle, but it took quite a bit out of me to make this new metal. I supposed I would need to kill monsters to get used to my new power. To hide my new element for now, I simply gave an old dagger I had made on the side and kept as a spare. My teacher raised an eyebrow that I was giving such a small product as my contribution but said nothing in the end.


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    The battle against the monsters was the real challenge of the day. A particularly fast scorpion came from underground before our Earth-Molder scout could notice it, and wounded one of the Initiates, a Metal-Maker like me. Out of consideration for his talent, he was escorted back to the camp, but it meant we were down two people.


    Naturally, I volunteered to take the Initiate¡¯s place in getting the final kills. Most of the other Initiates were used to my thirst for power, as well as the fact that I could take on almost any of them in a fight, so they granted my request. With my reinforced sword at hand, I could take on most of the Rock Scorpions without even using my new element. Then, the trouble started.


    The scout proclaimed that the earth was trembling more than usual, and that this was why he missed the first scorpion. We thought at first that he was just trying to avoid being punished for failure, but some small part of me could tell that he was telling the truth. I guessed that meant I had a limited amount of Earth-Sense now, just like any other wielder of the Earth. Still, I couldn¡¯t mention that I felt anything, for as far as everyone knew, I was still only a Metal-Maker.


    Eventually, though, we all started feeling the trembling. There were stories of the earth-shaking that preceded the Apocalypse, so some started to worry it was a relapse of that. But in the end, it was something debatably worse. An elite scorpion that had marked us as its prey. But this one wasn¡¯t like the Blue-Metal Scorpion from before, that one we could have simply run from.


    This one *melted* the ground out from under us. It had clearly combined the power of Earth with the power of Fire. I heard my teacher mention something about the word ¡°Magma¡±, though I didn¡¯t quite know what it meant. I was too busy trying to stay alive.


    Giant bursts of superheated rock emerged from the ground, from which the scorpion came. It was massive, albeit not as large as the Blue-Metal one, and it gave off heat mirages in the air around it. It was covered in red veins that moved around the rocks it was normally made of. Fire was one of the best elements for combat, so we all knew that facing this elite without the Camp Master at our side would prove deadly.


    Sadly, it seemed to recognize our attempts to escape, and literally ran in circles around us. With its ability to melt rock, we were surrounded by a ring of molten stone. It continued to circle us, looking for an opening. The Earth-Molder scout panicked and ran, quickly trying to make a bridge of rock over the molten ring to escape. The scorpion shot a burst of superheated steam out of its tail, and the man was scalded to death, screaming all the while.


    The Fire-Molder Initiate tried to absorb the heat of the rock, but it didn¡¯t seem to have much effect. Our teacher eventually brought her back, warning her against trying further. Working with combined elements when you didn¡¯t have one yourself seemed quite difficult.


    The teacher eventually led the four remaining Metal-Makers, alongside herself, to start making a metal shield with which to try and ford the molten ring, which was getting ever wider. She yelled at me for not contributing to the shield, but there was no time to explain that my abilities were temporarily weakened.


    Eventually, the shield was up, almost like a hollow metal ball big enough for us to pick up and fit inside. We marched it over to the ring, but I could tell the shield was already starting to glow and melt. We were all sweating, and I knew that if something didn¡¯t change, we wouldn¡¯t survive. I really only had one option.


    I tried to focus all the energy I had left and did something similar to when I reinforced my sword. Only this time, I pictured the entire shield, particularly the bottom parts, getting reinforced as evenly as possible. It was incredibly draining, but as I pumped out more and more power, the shield eventually stopped glowing, and started showing off a very light tinge of blue. The inside was still sweltering, but it seemed the metal was doing a better job of absorbing the heat than before.


    All of a sudden, we were jostled immensely. The scorpion must have decided to stop playing around. I was weak, almost at the point of passing out, but I held on to my fellow Initiates. Eventually, the teacher closed off the entire bottom ¡®floor¡¯ of the shield-ball, encasing us completely in metal. We were battered around for some time, with many Initiates breaking bones in the process. But the scorpion seemed unable to cut through our shield, and even more crucially, seemed unable to melt through it either.


    Eventually the violent motion stopped. We waited there for an hour. Two. Three. But nothing more came. We used my sword, which I had carefully kept from cutting into anyone or anything, to make a gap in the wall. As best as we could tell, it was now night, and the scorpion had left us alone. The landscape had many scars of cooling molten rock, but the actual scorpion was nowhere to be seen.


    We had lived through an elite monster attack, something many thought impossible. We were all relieved and began to slowly make our way back to the camp. The teacher and I were mostly uninjured, so we were responsible for taking down any random smaller scorpions that came our way.


    It was after one of these battles that we began to talk. ¡°I really didn¡¯t think we would make it out of there¡±, I said. She nodded. ¡°Yes, once the metal began to glow, I, too, knew we were dead. And yet, the metal reversed its course, as if it became stronger¡­¡± I didn¡¯t know what to say. ¡°Ah, well, that sounds a little-¡° ¡°Stronger, in waves. Each wave radiating off from a single point. The point where you were in contact with the shield. I could tell with my Metal-Sense, you see. I suspect the others still have no idea.¡±


    I backed up. ¡°I- I don¡¯t know what you-¡° She shook her head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not one to blackmail the person who saved my life, especially one who is also one of my own Initiates. But I do have to ask¡­ How did you do it? I¡¯ve been training for years longer than you! My Master always says, ¡®You¡¯re not ready yet¡¯, but you figured it out all on your own!¡±


    I considered my teacher¡¯s words. She claimed to owe me her life, but truly, if she hadn¡¯t formed that first metal shield, I doubt I would have had the energy to save myself, much less the rest of us. She had saved me as much as I had saved her. Plus, she had taught me the ways of Metal-Making, so that I could prove myself in combat. I knew that having powerful Initiates was one of the requirements for graduating from Disciple to Camp Master, so she wasn¡¯t entirely altruistic, but¡­


    As far as I was concerned, she had earned some of my knowledge. ¡°It all came to me in a dream. When the right Moon is high, you must exhaust your power as much as possible, then push further¡­¡±


    We talked into the night.

 Chapter 17 – Life 5 – The Old City

    Chapter 17 ¨C Life 5 ¨C The Old City


    At the end of that night, my teacher recommended that I tell the Camp Master that I had acquired a combined element. I had initially feared being found out, but she assured me that the Empire valued powerful warriors more than just about anything, and it was well known that I was a force to be reckoned with when it came to battle. In fact, she said, the Master was likely mentioned my name as a candidate to present back to his own Grandmaster at some point.


    When I was brought before the man, I changed my story a little bit. ¡°You see, esteemed sir, we were all fighting a Magma Scorpion, and I exhausted all of my metal. When I reached for more, and found nothing, well¡­ I don¡¯t know why my head turned to the Yellow Moon up ahead, but¡­¡±


    The man stopped me there. ¡°What you have done is kept somewhat secret. I understand you have killed many monsters before you achieved a combined element, yes? If word got out, every Initiate and Disciple would jealously guard their ¡®final strike¡¯ rights, even if they have a weak talent. For you to do this shows you have a fair amount of talent.¡±


    He continued, ¡°The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor decreed some time ago that any Disciple who reaches a combined element should be next in line to become a Camp Master somewhere else. However, you are an Initiate, which shows even greater talent¡­ I will put in a good word for you.¡± I bowed. ¡°Thank you, Camp Master.¡± He chuckled. ¡°For such a talent to have emerged under my watch¡­ perhaps I will be granted the Grandmaster rank sooner than I thought¡­¡±


    I continued to practice my abilities for 2 months, before an old, bald man walked into the camp. I was unsure why he sought me out until I saw the Camp Master with him¡­ and being deferent to him. When the bald man was directed to me, I unconsciously gulped. The man guided me to a secluded part of the camp before speaking much to me, but when he did¡­ he was different than I expected.


    ¡°So, you¡¯re the Initiate who figured out combined elements MID-COMBAT, are you?¡± I grinned sheepishly. ¡°Ah, yes, it was a fight with a Magma Scorpion that triggered the combination¡­¡± The bald man squinted at me. ¡°Ah, a Magma element monster¡­ very tricky, those ones¡­ very tricky to think on your feet while being pelted with molten rock¡­¡± I resisted the urge to shrink away from him. He likely suspected that I gained the knowledge of how to combine elements from someone. But how could I tell him that it was from someone in a dream?


    He eventually let up on his gaze. ¡°Anyway, I belong to a special force in the Empire. We have been trained to reach combined elements as quickly and efficiently as possible. Our orders are threefold. First, defend the 3<sup>rd </sup>Emperor. Second, defend his Empire. Third, defeat as many elite monsters as possible.¡±


    I blinked at his last assertion. ¡°As many elites as possible? Is that so we grow in power?¡± He raised an eyebrow. ¡°Well, it is true that elites give quite a bit more Qi¡­ but that is secondary. The true reason is that elites who gain enough power can inspire others of their kind.¡± I blinked. ¡°Inspire? What is that supposed to mean?¡±


    ¡°It means exactly what it sounds like, once one elite of an element is allowed to grow, others of the same species will follow its path. That Magma Scorpion you fought? A powerful element like that is very inspirational to the monsters. If it hadn¡¯t been quickly tracked down and defeated by your Camp Master, then in a few months, there would likely be another. In another few months? 3, perhaps 5 more. More and more, each month, until every Rock Scorpion that spawned would swiftly find the power of Magma. You have heard of the Fog Islands, yes?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I- I thought those were just stories¡­¡± The bald man smirked. ¡°Some of the stories are probably just that¡­ but those lands are deadly in their entirety, make no mistake. There are other such lands as well. One in particular, one the Empire borders, has a very dangerous monster indeed¡­ but we can discuss that later.¡±


    He gestured away from the camp. ¡°For now, we must take our leave.¡± I was startled a little bit. ¡°Leave? As in, right now?¡± He looked back at me with a confused look. ¡°I don¡¯t think you had anywhere else to be, yes?¡± I thought back to my teacher, who had helped me¡­ but in the end, I suppose we all had our own paths to follow. Aside from her, everyone else I knew at the camp were essentially acquaintances. I learned their names, and their fighting styles, but not really much else.


    As for my possessions, I really only had the clothes on my back, my small clay hut, and my sword. And of those, only the last was really anything worth waiting for. I asked the man to allow me time to get it. ¡°Oh?¡±, he said, ¡°A Metal-Maker who needs to stop and retrieve a weapon? I suppose stranger things have happened¡­¡±


    Interesting, it seemed my strategy of reinforcing the same item over and over again hadn¡¯t been discovered, even by the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor¡¯s top men. Still, the bald man humored me, and soon I had my most prized possession back in my hands. He gave the sword a brief glance-over, nodded once in approval, and then motioned for us to be off.


    We walked along the remains of a black road, which was surprisingly smooth in some places. The bald man said was made of a strange form of stone known only to the old world. He said there were many such forgotten wonders where we were going. I asked where that was, and he looked at me like I was a fool. ¡°The Old City, of course. Bei Jing. The home of the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor.¡±


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    Despite the good condition of the road, there were still monsters in places. The bald man let me do the vast majority of the fighting, watching and making recommendations about my stances all the while. At least my sword¡¯s impeccably sharp blade made the fighting quick and easy, not to mention the fact that the man let me get every strike on all of them.


    The one exception to this was when we came across elites. At one point, there was a pair of giant horned toads that could belch out blobs of pure darkness. Fearing something like the figure from my nightmares, I tried to dispatch them as quickly as possible, but the bald man¡¯s help was required.


    His element was quite interesting. He was also a Metal-Maker, which is why he had been sent to retrieve me. But instead of combining Metal with Earth, he combined it with Water. His metal was a silvery liquid that he could harden in an instant. It flowed around the beasts and then trapped them, and he formed a liquid spear to stab them to death while they struggled.


    I asked him once to test how my metal faired against his. He simply chuckled, saying that there would be plenty of time for sparring once we reached the Old City. And so, we continued down the road.


    There were other camps that we came across. One had a master who was a boisterous man, who invited us to taste some of his homemade alcohol. The drink was terrible, but the company was good. Another time we stayed in the guest hall of a reserved woman who seemed to inspire quite a bit of fear in her Disciples. A few days later, we stayed with a man with two wives, one a Fire Maker and one a Water Maker. I didn¡¯t ask how they got along, as the answer was clearly ¡®terribly¡¯.


    At one point, I thought we had made it to the old city, as it was a ruin of glass and metal. But the bald man informed me that it was actually Tian Jin, widely considered a cursed city as 3 monster crystals had landed within what was then its most populated areas. The Flame-Maned Horses and Slicing Eagles were problem enough, but the Tunneling Ants required regular extermination at their nest to make sure no elite queens would form.


    A few short days later, we made it to the true Old City. What I saw blew past my expectations. Giant walls of stone, which the bald man assured me were reinforced by metal, encircled a massive area. The bald man told me that, once upon a time, an even larger wall was constructed by the ancients, but it took significantly more time and hardship.


    But what really took my breath away were the buildings. Giant pillars that seemed to scrape against the sky itself. The man laughed when I told him that, and said the ancients thought along the same lines. For these were the same buildings that the ancients had built, painstakingly restored by the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor¡¯s Metal and Earth Molders. Even the glass panes the ancients seemed so fond of had been restored.


    I wondered at the practicality of this, but the bald man said, ¡°Remember, boy, that while Makers like you and I gain power by fighting monsters, Molders gain power by working with their element. Only by honing their abilities can they rise to a combined element. I would say¡­ there are 18 Master Molders in the city who have a combined element. Some of them, like the fool who changed his element to Magma, are really only useful against Magma-based elites. Others, like the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor¡¯s head scout, have powers beyond what you think possible¡­¡±


    As if to prove the bald man¡¯s words about the scout, a group of people wearing Master colors came to meet us at the gate. As far as I could tell from their quick discussion, this mysterious head scout informed them that we were here¡­ but I hadn¡¯t noticed anyone approaching us for miles! Could this scout hide from people¡¯s sight?


    As we marched through the city, we went through an actual marketplace, like I had only heard of in stories. People were selling weapons, clothing, armor, monster materials, even specialty cooked foods. The bald man was amused at my gawking but warned me not to buy anything. ¡°To survive as a merchant in this era, you have to be willing and able to take everything a person has. There are people here who would exchange your prized sword for a pittance of noodles and make you think you got a good deal.¡± I clutched my sword a bit closer when he said that. He noticed and laughed.


    We eventually made it to a tall tower, which the bald man informed me was the tallest. Strangely, it narrowed in the center, then widened out again at the top. I wasn¡¯t sure if that was somehow needed, or if it was just an extravagance afforded to the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor. After all, this was his palace.


    At first, I feared that we would actually be *meeting* the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor, but the bald man assured me that we would only be meeting the leader of the elite fighters instead. Interestingly, he told me, she also worked with the combination of Metal and Earth, though she had started as an Earth-Maker. I realized that was likely part of why I had been invited to this group.


    After waiting in an opulent room for at least an hour, I suddenly felt a strange feeling in the back of my neck. I instinctively brought out my sword and blocked the sudden attack that came from behind. To my surprise, I realized it was a woman with a sword similar to mine, except entirely colored blue. She laughed.


    ¡°So, it seems you have ventured on the path of Titanium as well, boy?¡± I blinked. Had that attack been¡­ a test? Ah, I had sensed her blade behind me before it hit. But it really felt like I would have been wounded if I hadn¡¯t blocked¡­ I had to be careful with these people. ¡°Ah, I have the combined element of Metal and Earth, but what is¡­ Titanium?¡± She nodded. ¡°A shorthand for what we call the Blue Metal. It¡¯s not quite what the ancients called the same name, but close enough. A powerful metal, unbending and unrelenting. It was a good choice, boy. You have good instincts. I accept you as my Disciple.¡±


    I blinked. I hadn¡¯t even asked to become her Disciple, she just ¡®accepted¡¯ me all of a sudden. Plus, weren¡¯t people with combined elements supposed to be Masters? But¡­ I didn¡¯t particularly want to complain. Staying on the good side of this woman was probably important. Plus¡­ she had the same powers as me, but with presumably years of experience. She could likely teach me things I never would have figured out on my own.


    I bowed to her, as a student would to a teacher. She grinned. ¡°Welcome to the Elite Strike Force, kid. The best job you can have in this fucked-up world.¡±

 Chapter 18 – Life 5 – The Strike Force

    Chapter 18 ¨C Life 5 ¨C The Strike Force


    My new teacher¡¯s training methods were¡­ unorthodox. Every day, at some random point, she would attack me with a random weapon made of Titanium. Sometimes it would be a sword, sometimes a spear, sometimes a thickly coiled wire used as a whip. The one that gave me the most trouble was a recursive bow whose arrow-tips were the only things I could sense. Sometimes she would even attack me in my sleep, much to my chagrin.


    I also trained with the other members of the Elite Strike Force, as we were called. In an open field, I would train with a man whose sandstorms seemed far more powerful than the Camp Master I had known before. In a building in the cursed city Tian Jin, a woman who never spoke hounded me with fog. Along the Old City¡¯s walls, a Light-Maker who could project copies of himself, convincing illusions. When I went for the wrong ones, I would have surely tumbled to my doom were it not for some Titanium climbing hooks I made.


    The most difficult opponent, though, turned out to be the bald man who brought me here. As he had promised, there was plenty of time to spar now that we had arrived. What he hadn¡¯t mentioned was that he was one of the first members of the Elite Strike Force, and as such had gotten the final strike on dozens of elites. His liquid metal reserves seemed almost inexhaustible and could harden around almost any weapon I could bring to bear. Thankfully, at least, in solid form the Silver seemed to be weaker to damage than my own Titanium.


    I finally beat the bald man using a bit of trickery. I made a temporary copy of my prized sword, keeping the real one in its sheath. When the copy was stuck inside a blunt cube of Silver, as usual, I brought out the real one and held it around the bald man¡¯s neck. He paused for a few seconds, then chuckled. ¡°It seems you are ready to participate in true elite combat, then.¡±


    Despite my teacher being the leader of the Elite Strike Force, it turned out it was the bald man, as the one who brought me here, who had final say of when I was ready. That day I met the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor¡¯s head scout. I truly thought it was a joke at first, being told a blind man was the one who had found me that day, but apparently Light-Molders could see without eyes. I asked how far he could actually see, and he told me, ¡°That, my friend¡­ is considered a very crucial ¡®state secret¡¯, hmm?¡±


    He then explained our mission. ¡°A new camp had been holding their own against Flying Pythons, until a trio of them came from the desert, summoning sandstorms. The Camp Master killed two of them, but the third retreated back into the desert. He believed it should have died of its wounds, but just recently 4 more appeared, alongside one that is much larger and has scars running down its body. The Master made the decision to evacuate his Disciples and Initiates.¡±


    I did certainly notice that there was no mention of the Master evacuating the *rest* of the camp but didn¡¯t say anything. In this world, protection had to be earned, and clearly the Master felt those people had not earned his.


    It was decided that 5 members of the Elite Strike Force would be enough to face this threat. Snakes used smell more than sight to detect prey, so the illusion master and the silent fog woman were out. Instead, it was my current teacher, the bald man, a Magma-Maker who typically stayed outside the Old City, and a lanky Sand-Molder who I had only briefly talked to before today. And to top it all off¡­ me. Titanium was the only material that could shield from Sand elites, so we needed all that we could get.


    We met with the Magma-Maker in a small camp outside the cursed city. Apparently, he was considered too dangerous to stay near civilians, so he was in charge of controlling the Tian Jin monster population. He gave the job, temporarily, to his top Disciple, who seemed used to such events.


    As we marched onward, I was told to make as much Titanium armor as possible. Which wasn¡¯t too much, as I hadn¡¯t been fighting monsters all that much lately, but it was enough to make simple breastplates and helmets for the 5 of us.


    The Sand-Molder was a quiet fellow, but I could tell he was friends with the bald man. Apparently, he was the last person the bald man brought into the group. That gave us something to talk about. He had once been an Air-Molder with good talent, able to suck enemies towards him and then blow them away to confuse them. His camp had been overrun by a never-before-seen elite with the power of Corrosion.


    It was believed to be the combination of Metal and Air, a duo few people felt connected to. The gigantic wolf was surrounded, at all times, by a sickly brown cloud of dust. While it didn¡¯t have the range of a sandstorm, the dust not only rusted metal over time, but also caused horrible pain and festering rashes on people¡¯s skin. To top it off, like most combined elements, those who only had a single element couldn¡¯t affect the dust very much. While it moved alongside the wolf, attempts to blow it away were met with failure.


    When the bald man was sent to kill it, even he had problems. The metal he made, in its liquid form, would evaporate in the face of the Corrosion, taking away his biggest strength. When solidified, his Silver wouldn¡¯t evaporate as quickly, but his spears would still be pitted and weak by the time they made it to the wolf. Most people had run away from the camp during their fight. The then-Air-Molder was not one of them, however.


    He came up to the bald man as other warriors struggled with the wolf and explained that he could send the wolf flying at least once, likely taking its Corrosion with it. The bald man considered this and agreed. He made a large pool of metal that he then solidified into dozens of spikes, facing at an upwards angle. The young man was told to stand behind these spikes and suck the wolf towards him. When he did so, while the wolf¡¯s corrosion was indeed sucked backwards along with it, it only had contact with the Silver spikes for a split second before the wolf was grievously impaled, dissipating its Corrosion forever.


    The bald man had apparently encouraged those who saw the wolf to specialize into Corrosion themselves, as fighting an elite was known to help people gain the elite¡¯s element. However, the twin connection between Metal and Air was truly rare, and the only one to achieve it was a Molder, who languished without the ability to find any of his element to absorb.


    The young Sand-Molder, on the other hand, didn¡¯t have that problem. In fact, despite his quiet nature, he was actually quite excited about this mission. Surely, 5 Sand Pythons would give him more material to work with than ever before.


    We knew we were getting close to the abandoned camp when we saw the plains give way to sand dunes. The bald man made us poles of metal that we could use as walking sticks. My teacher also took the time to make a large shield for me, explaining that I would need it not just for the snakes, but to protect myself from the Magma-Maker as well.


    As four of the five of us had a combined element with a connection to Earth, we felt the rumbling in the distance to some degree or another. A perpetual sandstorm surrounded the ruins of a camp that looked fairly similar to my own home. The clay dwellings were in the worst shape, but even the constructions of logs, like the Master¡¯s home and the camp¡¯s armory, were broken open and abandoned. We walked forward in a line with the Sand-Molder at the front. He seemed quite happy to fill his reserves, though we knew he wouldn¡¯t be much help in attacking the snakes.


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    As we rounded a corner, the Sand-Molder let out a shout and rolled away. The sand was now much fiercer, but I could still make out the shape of a python launching towards us. My teacher was the next in line, and with expert precision she summoned a sword in her hands. The snake was caught unprepared, attempting to bite down on the sword only to impale the roof of its mouth. The sandstorm got weaker almost immediately.


    The Sand-Molder took the opportunity to make a ring around us for some limited amount of protection. Absorbing one¡¯s element wasn¡¯t enough for a Molder to get stronger, they had to use it as well. The three Metal-Makers, me included, used the time to make fortifications around us. They likely wouldn¡¯t hold against concentrated sand attacks, but they wouldn¡¯t buckle immediately, either.


    I was surprised at how much waiting was involved in this fight, and I think my teacher felt the same way. She eventually told the Magma-Maker something I couldn¡¯t quite make out over the wind, and he proceeded to climb to the top of one of our fortifications and shoot out blobs of liquid fire. I was pretty sure he was turning down the heat for our sake, but even still it was suddenly sweltering in our little ring. It was surely worse wherever the blobs hit.


    Eventually, the sandstorm intensified once more, to a greater degree than I had ever felt. Our ring of sand fell apart, leaving behind only our metal constructions, and even those started to be worn away. I was very glad for my Titanium armor at this point, and I think the others were feeling the same way. One of the snakes burrowed right near the Sand-Molder, possibly sensing his manipulation of their element. The bald man quickly launched a blob of liquid metal inside the thing¡¯s mouth, where I assume it wreaked havoc.


    Another snake popped out of the ground right near me, and it was only thanks to my long training with my teacher that I reacted in time. I blocked it with the flat of my sword blade, then as it was stunned, I cut it to pieces. Something was bothering me about these elites. Weren¡¯t they¡­ rather easy to fight?


    With no more snakes obviously incoming, my teacher concurred. She yelled over the wind, ¡°Elites are typically known to be far smarter than this. These ones just throw themselves at us to their deaths, like normal monsters. They are hopefully just recently mutated¡­ if not, then something rather strange is going on here.¡±


    I pointed out something as well: ¡°Why hasn¡¯t the sandstorm weakened, yet? We killed those two snakes, are there more around here?¡± We waited for further battles while the Sand-Molder stretched his elemental senses, but we couldn¡¯t find any snakes. He did find something, though. ¡°I think they may be somewhere over in that direction! The sandstorm gets even stronger there!¡±, he yelled while pointing off into the distance.


    I expected my teacher to take the time to repair our weapons and armor, but she surprised me. ¡°We need to stop this, whatever it is, as soon as possible. We march!¡± It was a hard trek. The sand was whipping in all directions, changing where it was seemingly coming from at random times. Since the Sand-Molder couldn¡¯t cover all of us at once, we had to huddle behind my shield as I pumped metal back into any holes that formed.


    Eventually, we got to a point where the Sand-Molder stopped moving forward. We asked him what was wrong as loudly as we dared, knowing any louder might attract snakes. He only said, ¡°It¡¯s- it¡¯s beautiful! So beautiful! BEAUTIFUL!¡± My teacher slapped him to get him back to his senses, but his head seemed to lock on to a particular spot in the middle of the sandstorm. The Magma-Maker yelled, ¡°Get ahold of yourself, man!¡±. The Sand-Molder only kept yelling about beauty. The bald man tried a different tactic. ¡°What is it you see, boy?¡± The Sand-Molder actually heard that question.


    ¡°All my work has been nothing but a child making castles in the sand. But this¡­ this is a TRUE WORK OF ART! THIS IS PERFECTION! I MUST SEE IT! I MUST HAVE IT!¡± He then broke ranks and ran straight towards the middle of the sandstorm, screaming all the way. We tried to stop him, but there was a rumbling in the ground. A snake far larger than any we had seen before came out of the ground mouth-first and swallowed the Sand-Molder whole.


    We cried out in shock. Not only had a man just died, but he was our best protection in this land, and he had just died to some sort of madness. The Magma-Maker was the first out of his shock, and immediately sent blazing balls of fire after the snake. The *SSSS* was deafening, but I could see he cut a decent scar into the snake¡¯s belly. I almost wondered if there was time to save the Sand-Molder, but the snake dived back underground.


    I didn¡¯t know what to do. Should we turn back, and bring more of the Elite Strike Force with us? The Magma-Maker was clearly having the same thoughts, I could see them on his face. But the other two remaining members of our party had none of it. ¡°Whatever these snakes are doing, it¡¯s not going to get any easier to stop. We have a duty to the Empire. We have to end this, now!¡±, said my teacher. We all nodded, and ran, shield first, towards where the Sand-Molder had been going.


    There was a rumbling from underneath us once more, but unlike the Sand-Molder, we were prepared. My teacher and I collaborated on making four particularly long spears, which the four of us held out down and to the sides. When the giant snake emerged to consume us, the spears immediately punctured the insides of its mouth. I then proceeded to hack at it further with my sword, as the rest of the team threw their respective attacks down the snake¡¯s gullet. The snake¡¯s mouth began to close, so my teacher and the bald man used their spears to hold the mouth open. I cut off the thing¡¯s tongue, which was as thick as my arm, for good measure.


    As we emerged, we saw something disconcerting. Rather than the sandstorm weakening, it was stronger than ever. The shield needed ever more repairs, and any part of our armor that was left exposed to the elements was quickly warn away. But somehow, after what felt like hours but were more likely minutes, we managed to make it to the eye of the storm. All around us, the sand was so thick we couldn¡¯t see our way out. But instead of battering us like before¡­ it was all being sucked above our heads into the direct center.


    At the center of the storm was curled a snake that was even larger than the one before. But instead of staying underground, its full, scarred body was on display. This must have been the one to battle a Camp Master and escape with its life intact. But what was it doing? While my Metal sense was detecting only our weapons, my Earth sense was showing something very unusual in the center of the storm. Not the snake, but what it was curled around. It felt like¡­ it felt like within the snake¡¯s coils was a vast desert, dunes of sand that went on for miles. But the snake wasn¡¯t miles long, that was plain to see¡­ what was going on?


    This strange distortion of senses must be what drove the Sand-Molder mad. If my sense was picking this up despite being a different combined element entirely, I can only imagine what his Sand sense had picked up.


    The bald man was the first one to strike, perhaps because he only had Metal and Water senses. A veritable *waterfall* of liquid Silver shot out from his hands, attempting to wrap around the snake. It hardened into thousands of spikes, blades, and other such weapons just seconds before it hit. The *HSSSSS* the thing let out felt like it came close to deafening me. Sand began to surge faster and faster into the center of its coils. Whatever it was trying to do with all that sand, I was sure it wouldn¡¯t be good for us.


    The rest of us sprung into action as well. The Magma-Maker ran around the side, trying to hit it with maximum-heat liquid fire without the rest of us getting hurt. My teacher made a large pole, which she ran and used to vault on top of the snake. I began to hack at the thing¡¯s old scars, hoping the shattered scales were a weakness to exploit.


    In the end, it almost wasn¡¯t enough. The area inside the snake¡¯s coils impossibly started to feel like an entire ocean of sand, like there was more sand inside than the entire desert around us. Was it¡­ was it doing the same thing I had been doing with my sword? Was it condensing its elemental energy into a single place? What would happen if it reached maximum saturation?


    I didn¡¯t want to find out, but that gave me an idea. I filled my Titanium shield, now battered nearly beyond repair, and filled in its gaps with as much power as I could manage. Just as I started to run out entirely, I focused not on repairing the gaps, but on strengthening the metal itself. I needed as much of my energy to get into this object as possible. I would have asked my teacher to help as well, but she was too far away for me to ask. So instead, I whirled around and *threw* the shield, not at the snake itself, but at one of the winds carrying sand towards the center of the storm.


    Terrifyingly, the snake turned its massive head to look straight at me, the first time it had truly reacted to our actions at all. But then, the shield was blown into the center of the storm. My Earth-sense went haywire for a second, the snake let out a cry like I had never heard before, and then¡­


    *BOOOOM*


    My whole world was turned to sand, sand, sand.

 Chapter 19 – Life 5 – The Audience

    Chapter 19 ¨C Life 5 ¨C The Audience


    Digging my way out proved difficult. I had to keep my mouth and eyes closed, and my ears and nose were greatly irritated. Still, using Titanium to create gaps in the sand, I was able to avoid being buried to death. Thankfully, this wasn¡¯t Qi-infused sand, the death of the snake took all of its resistance to metal out of it. I was the second to emerge, with my teacher being the first and the bald man taking a bit longer. The Magma-Maker we had to find and rescue, which wasn¡¯t terribly hard once we found the spot of sand that was rapidly fusing together into glass and stone. Magma might be more powerful than metal in combat but wasn¡¯t as versatile in strange situations like this.


    We had now confirmed we had all survived, other than the maddened Sand-Molder, and that the great sandstorm had stopped. I was extremely glad we didn¡¯t have to deal with another snake, which would have inevitably been even *bigger*. We were standing atop the biggest sand dune I had ever seen, bigger than I thought possible. The snake must have been making it constantly, for months on end¡­ but why? What made the snake want to condense so much sand into a single place?


    The Magma-Maker spat out a mouthful of sand. ¡°Well, after this I¡¯ll be happy to never see another grain of sand again.¡± We all gave a brief chuckle. My teacher looked at me. ¡°Disciple, I believe you were the one who killed the snake?¡± I hesitated, then nodded. ¡°How did you manage such a thing? I saw you throw your shield away¡­ did you perhaps find a weak point somewhere?¡± I considered my words carefully, not wanting to admit that my knowledge came to me in nightmares. ¡°It was sort of on a hunch¡­ you sensed what was happening inside the coils of the snake, right?¡± My teacher said, ¡°Yes, though I didn¡¯t understand it. It felt like the snake was far larger than it looked...¡± I nodded, ¡°Well, I think it was somehow absorbing sand into its body, and when I threw my shield into the center of the storm, that process was interrupted.¡±


    ¡°What made you think to do that? Without a shield, you would have been completely unprotected.¡± ¡°Simply put, teacher, we weren¡¯t going to survive much longer with or without our shields. I took a risk to end the fight early, and it paid off.¡± She frowned. ¡°Yes¡­ that snake was strangely powerful, even for an Elite. An Elite among Elites¡­ I¡¯ve only heard of one other creature like this." I was surprised. ¡°What creature would that be, teacher?¡± She looked grim. ¡°The source of our Empire¡¯s greatest enemy. Now that you have proven yourself, you will likely be reassigned to fight them.¡±


    As we made the trip back to the Old City, I tried to get my teacher (or any of the others) to explain what this enemy was. All I could get from them was that they were to the north, in a land that was very cold, and that the vast majority of the members of the Elite Strike Force were actually expected to stay there and guard the border. When trying to get any information about the enemy themselves, the other three members of the team had little to say. When we approached the outpost where the Magma-Maker lived, in lieu of a goodbye he told me, ¡°When you get to the border, don¡¯t be a hero, kid. I¡¯m glad you saved us back there, don¡¯t get me wrong, but that kind of risky maneuver won¡¯t work on the S- on what you¡¯ll be facing.¡±


    When we arrived back at the Strike Force¡¯s headquarters, we were met by not only the blind scout, but also a man in strange robes who looked about my age, or perhaps a bit older. Unexpectedly, my entire group bowed, and I quickly did the same. Was this man somehow the leader of our group? I was proven righter than expected: my teacher said, ¡°We greet the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor, Long May He Rule¡±, followed by the bald man and then the Magma-Maker. I thankfully got over my shock fast enough to say the same words at the appropriate time.


    After a few seconds, the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor declared, in a voice that seemed much older than he appeared, ¡°Rise, my subjects. We have much to discuss. I notice you are one member short from when you departed¡­¡± I gulped but returned to standing along with the others. My teacher hesitated, then began to speak once the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor gave a gesture of ¡®go on¡¯. ¡°My Lord, we encountered an unusually strong group of monsters, and only defeated them with great difficulty. Our fifth member unexpectedly went mad, and broke formation against my orders, yelling nonsense all the while. Despite this, we believe the threat has been neutralized.¡±


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    The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor¡¯s gaze turned hard. ¡°Mad, you say? Mad? I do not enjoy learning that members of my Elite Strike Force are prone to madness.¡± He turned to the bald man. ¡°You recruited him, did you not?¡± The bald man was shaking. ¡°Y-yes My Lord.¡± The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor nodded. ¡°Well, then, an appropriate punishment will have to be delivered¡­¡±


    ¡°If I may¡­¡±, I said, surprising even myself. Everyone in the room turned to look at me, even the blind man. The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor in particular was looking at me like an insect that had walked over his food. Why had I spoken up? Because the bald man had recruited me, too? Was I worried about getting punished myself? Well, the chances of that had just gotten a lot higher now, hadn¡¯t they? I spoke quickly. ¡°I-I-I don¡¯t believe the madness was truly a flaw of the Sand-Molder¡¯s, but a power of the monster we faced. The Sand Python was condensing a, well, core of sand within, er, its body, and it is my belief that this core somehow, well, affects those who wield the element of Sand themselves. ¡­My Lord.¡±


    The other three members of my team were looking at me in horror. The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor squinted at me. No one said anything for quite some time, one could probably hear a pin drop. Eventually the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor raised up his hand and said, ¡°All of you, leave us. All of you¡­ except you¡±, pointing at me. My other teammates gave me a pitying look, but quickly left the room. After a few beats, the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor declared, ¡°That means you too, Head Scout.¡± The blind man looked startled, but didn¡¯t question the man, almost running out of the room in response. I was now alone in a room with the most powerful man in the Empire.


    ¡°I do not take insolence lightly, young man.¡±, said the man who did not appear to be much older than me. ¡°You have spoken out of turn.¡± I swallowed. ¡°I have executed those in higher positions than yours for less.¡± Why did I speak out? I should have just let the bald man be punished, now I was going to be- ¡°But you seem to have important information to share with me. Information, not about mortal concerns, but about something far more important. The nature of this world, and the Apocalypse we find ourselves in.¡±


    ¡­what? I almost questioned what he was talking about but figured that that would *definitely* get me executed. I instead waited for him to continue. ¡°There was a time¡±, the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor said, ¡°when there were no Elites. Human or Monster. Just those with a connection to one of the moons, fighting those with the same. But some of the monsters grew stronger. They combined their elements. My father, the 2<sup>nd</sup> Emperor, did not care about this. He grew fat and happy while all across the land, the monsters grew more and more powerful. Then, there was my brother. He knew the true danger of these Elites, so he gathered resources out from under my father and organized an Elite Force of our own. The force you are now part of¡­¡±


    The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor began to pace. ¡°And he was not just its founder, he was its best weapon! For he had combined his abilities with Earth with¡­ the ability granted by the Forbidden Moon. The Life Moon, the IMPERIAL Moon! The Green Moon. He gained the ability to call on the very *bones* of his enemies, and make them into¡­ things, constructions, creatures¡­ soldiers. But at the height of his power, we learned of a monster with the very same ability, to the north. Skeletons of other monsters, rising from the earth to attack our men once more. And so, my brother, the fated inheritor of the Empire, went to match it. And he won.¡±


    I gulped, almost seeing where this was going, but not wanting to believe it. ¡°But during his victory, his men say, he saw something. Something in that battle changed him forever. He began to speak of his power as an end, rather than a means TO an end. An Empire of nothing but skeletons¡­ this is what he began to desire. He turned on his men, his own Elite Force, infusing their bones into a singular construct of terrible power. We only know this story from those who fled to survival. Naturally, I didn¡¯t believe them. I didn¡¯t WANT to believe them. But when my brother¡¯s constructs began to threaten the land, I was forced to admit the truth. Yes, as the rumors say, I slew my father. He was weak, he hadn¡¯t even combined an element of his own. But my brother¡­ yet lives, in a land of ice, slowly forming it into a land of bone.¡±


    I was shaking, knowing that this knowledge was extremely dangerous. The man turned his piercing gaze back on me and confirmed it: ¡°I have ensured any word of the true nature of these happenings has been silenced. There is no way anyone should be aware that the so-called Skeleton Emperor was once a human, was once my mad brother. And now you speak of a madness quite similar in nature to his¡­ and claim to know its cause. So, tell me, Disciple of Titanium¡­ what is it, exactly, that you know?¡±

 Chapter 20 – Life 5 – The Outcast

    Chapter 20 ¨C Life 5 ¨C The Outcast


    I told him everything, of course. I feared that having semi-prophetic nightmares would make ME seem mad, but I feared for my life more if I didn¡¯t explain myself. So, it all spilled out. The nightmares of the Life-Stealer, the Blood monsters, the woman shrouded in darkness. The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor stayed silent while I spoke. I spoke of my sword, how I infused it with as much Metal energy as possible, until it became more than just another weapon. Of how I suspected the snake was doing the same thing with its core of sand, infusing an element into one spot. I told the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor exactly what the ill-fated Sand Molder said when he went mad. The man gave me a hard look but said nothing.


    I even put words to my most secret thought: that this process of¡­ elemental infusion? Would perhaps be as powerful as combining two elements together. And to infuse a combined element¡­ well, clearly something very important, but highly madness-inducing, would occur. When I finished, the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor asked a simple question: ¡°Who else have you told these thoughts to?¡± I gulped.


    I thought of the bald man, my teacher, and a few people back at my old camp. These people all knew that I had a single sword I used above all else, unlike most Makers who honed their skills by re-creating their weapons each time. If I mentioned this, would the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor imprison them? Kill them? Kill me? I decided to tell the simplest truth I could. ¡°I have not mentioned these thoughts to anyone but you, My Lord.¡± He nodded. ¡°Good, good¡­ that will continue going forward, tell no-one of this.¡±


    He continued, ¡°You are now removed from the Elite Strike Force, and from your position as Disciple.¡± I trembled. Those people were the closest things I had to friends in this world. Still, I had already spoken out of turn once, I didn¡¯t want to do so again. ¡°Instead¡­ you will receive a posting at Tian Jin. You will be given an outpost, in which you will be the sole defender. This is similar to the Magma Maker whom you are acquainted with. But instead of your abilities being dangerous to the public, it is your mind. You are to have no contact with the outside world. I will assign to you someone to bring you food, but you are never to speak with them.¡±


    I trembled. This punishment was worse than I could have imagined. ¡°This will allow you to work without distraction.¡± Wait, what? ¡°You have 3 years to prove your theories. Use this time to infuse your sword with as much Titanium energy as you can muster. Afterward, you will be given the chance to prove the blade¡¯s worth. If you succeed, you will be restored to your previous position. If you fail, or go mad like the others, you will be executed.¡±


    This was a horrifying proposition. I had only given voice to my thoughts to explain myself, but now I was forced to prove them correct or die! Still, I knew that if I went against the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor¡¯s wishes, he would simply move my date of execution up to *today*. So, I simply groveled on the floor until the man who condemned me walked out of the room. Eventually, a woman walked in. I remembered her, the woman from the Strike Force who used the Fog element. I asked if she had been told the situation, and she nodded. Then, she put her finger to her lips. Right, I was not to speak to her. I sighed.


    The woman surrounded me in a cloud of Fog that prevented me from seeing anything but her. She led me forward, and I could only follow. We walked for hours, and I could only make out vague sounds in the distance. Eventually, she dropped the veil, and I found myself in the heart of Tian Jin, the Cursed City. My lodgings were simple, presumably created by Earth Molders somewhat recently. There was a single doorway, a bed with a simple straw mattress, and a table extruded outward from the wall. I used the table to get to work.


    Every day, I brought my sword out from under my mattress (just like old times) and then proceeded to infuse it with Titanium. The process was quite difficult, much more so than when it was just the undefined metal that all Metal Makers had in common. The blue metal was powerful, but difficult to work with. More than once, I created strange lumps on the sword that had to be removed with a small chisel I made.


    Food came to me in clouds of fog. I supposed that the fog woman had also been reassigned from the Elite Strike Force in order to be my jailer. I felt a little bad for her, but at least she would probably be assigned back at the end of the 3 years.


    As time passed, I found myself more and more unable to force any more energy into the sword. I had to chisel off lumps 10 days in a row. But while the sword could carve chunks away from the ruined buildings that surrounded my dwelling, surely it couldn¡¯t cause madness just by looking at it. I pondered what to do for some time, until I realized. As a Maker, I needed to fight monsters to be able to make more material in a day. What if¡­ that effect also extended to how much energy I could compress? It was a weak theory, but there was only one way to find out.


    The rules of my imprisonment said that I had to be alone, but the Cursed City was large, and mostly uninhabited. Only the perimeter was kept clear of monsters, along with occasional expeditions to ensure no Elites formed. The bulk of the city¡­ was mine to explore. I swiftly got used to listening to the sounds of the city. The *caw* of the Slicing Eagles, the galloping of the Flame-Maned Horses. And most of all¡­ the sound of dirt, stone, and rubble being pushed aside by the giant Tunneling Ants.


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    My training in the Elite Strike Force was put to good use. I carved up the eagles that dropped down onto me, I cut off the legs of the horses, and I stabbed through the exoskeletons of the ants. I did sometimes bring materials from the monsters back to my lodging. The horse hide was naturally thick, and through much trial and error I eventually made rudimentary leather armor. The eagle meat I found was actually quite delicious when cooked by a horse¡¯s flames. Thankfully, monsters of different species attacked each other just as often as they attacked humans. The ants I had less use for, but I did figure out that they were attracted to the corpses of their brethren, making them more predictable.


    Each and every time I killed a monster, I felt my Qi get just a tiny bit stronger. I restricted myself to only working on my sword after I had killed 10 more monsters than the previous time. It got sharper and sharper, stronger and stronger. Still, while compression got easier, that just meant I could get further before hitting a wall where I couldn¡¯t go any further. By some point, the sword stopped being a simple blue-gray and started being a sort of purple. I could feel¡­ something, when I looked at it, almost like it was a miniature version of the moons that always hovered overhead. Unlike the moons, though, the feeling was much less defined. Still, while I was getting closer, the compressions were taking longer.


    I eventually had to switch to killing 20 monsters at a time, then 30, then 50. Compression sessions also started taking hours, during which I could take no breaks, lest the session fail and form lumps of uncompressed metal instead. I knew my sword inside and out, I could feel it like it was a part of myself. The sessions that created lumps almost hurt me, though my simple metal chisel I used to remove them had no chance of damaging the actual sword.


    Occasionally, I heard teams of hunters go into the city. They were looking for Elites. However, at this point, I knew the areas where monsters liked to congregate better than any other hunter, and so I got the chance to kill a few Elites myself. These were fresh, nothing that could compare to the giant Sand Pythons, but they still gave a rush of Qi like no other. Eventually, the hunters stopped coming to areas in my vicinity. I suppose I was leaving nothing for them.


    One day, my food was delivered in a smaller cloud of fog than normal. I caught a brief glimpse of a young girl, who quickly noticed the direction of my stare and gave out a bit of an *eep*. Curious, I supposed the original woman had left for more exciting work. It was a shame I couldn¡¯t ask anyone. Regardless, I started to make a game of guessing where this new girl was within her cloud of Fog. The little sounds she made when I guessed right were rather cute, giving me something to pass the time with.


    One morning, I had a particularly productive battle. A colony of ants had taken up residence in a large area filled with rusted vehicles of the ancients. In the center was a queen covered in a shroud of darkness. I still had vivid nightmares of such creatures, and so risked many injuries to take it down fast. The darkness attempted to invade me, to stab at me, but my sword cut through it like paper. The rest of the colony soon either fell to my blade or fled. I estimated that I had killed at least 100 ants. When I arrived at my lodging, I immediately started my compressions. And this time¡­ things were different.


    It took hours longer than usual, long into the night, but I felt something was unusual about this particular session. Several times, I felt my concentration slip, but I fell into a sort of meditation where there was nothing in the world but me, the sword, and my Qi. Every time the Qi tried to veer away from the center, I gently guided it back, and then firmly pressed it back into the core of the sword. And then when the sun began to rise¡­


    The sword had never shifted in color all at once, it had always been gradual. But now, it had gone from its light purple to a deep indigo. An incredible sense of sharpness and invincibility radiated off of it. As if in a trance, I pressed it up close to my chest. A flash of light blinded me, and I was thrown backwards. I laid unconscious for who knows how many days.


    I woke up being dragged off by a Tunneling Ant. Keeping them out of my home had long been a struggle of mine. As I came to consciousness I reached for my sword and-


    My sword! Where was my sword? Shit, had I left it in the dwelling? I battered at the ant with my fists for a while, but the drone didn¡¯t even seem to notice. I begrudgingly went to create another blade, a simpler blade, as blasphemous as that felt. But to my surprise, something *snapped* inside me, and all of a sudden, I was holding my sword. Not a new one, but MY sword. Indigo, perfectly balanced, incredibly sharp. I cut the ant drone to pieces in no time at all.


    Something felt¡­ off. *Very* off, in fact. Where had my sword come from? I had only tried to create a simple, new sword, but somehow found my personal, perfected one instead? After a while of thinking, I tried to force myself to create more Titanium, a simple ingot of the stuff. Instead, the sword I was holding in one hand suddenly crumbled to dust, but before I could be properly horrified at such an event, a brand-new version of it appeared right in front of me. I understood. The sword, and only the sword, was the source of my power. And now my power¡­ was the sword. And ONLY the sword. But while others may bemoan the loss of flexibility, I was happy. For now, I could never lose my sword, never worry about it becoming lost or broken. For the first time in a very long time, I smiled. Grinned, even.


    Three months later, a young girl emerged from a cloud of fog and simply said: ¡°The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor requests your presence.¡± I nodded. It was time to demonstrate what I had learned.

 Chapter 21 - Life 5 - The Swords

    Chapter 21 ¨C Life 5 ¨C The Swords


    The Fog-Maker girl, likely a Disciple of the silent woman I knew before, lead me away from my dwelling, outside the Cursed City, and into the Old City. I hadn¡¯t been anywhere near here in 3 years. Strangely, it seemed less full of people than before¡­ but things also seemed louder, more frantic. Was that a change in the city, or a change in how I perceived it? 3 years of isolation could affect the mind, of that I was sure¡­


    The building that served as the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor¡¯s palace was still there, but it seemed to have been enlarged in some way. Combined, almost, with the other surrounding buildings. I supposed it was a symbol of power, that the Empire could devote that many Metal-Molders to the task. Though, it also seemed to be somewhat practical, as my Metal-Sense told me that the additions were quite structurally sound, that they would serve as good fortifications. I didn¡¯t want to live to see the day that such fortifications were required, though. The Old City was the heart of the empire; if monsters threatened it, it would be the end.


    We had to go through several sets of guards to reach the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor. It seemed he had warned them that I may be dangerous, as they examined me quite closely and kept me in a room under observation for some time. Eventually, though, the guards sent me to a large room and left. Then, a young man, really a child, walked through the door on the other side. Who on Earth was this? But then, as the child got closer, I recognized his features. I stumbled into a kneel. ¡°M-my Lord!¡±


    In a voice that would normally belong to a 12-year-old child, but still somehow was hardened with age, he said ¡°You may rise.¡± I stood up but couldn¡¯t wipe the look of confusion off my face. I had heard the man had the power to keep himself young, but¡­ why THIS young? The child-Emperor grimaced. ¡°Yes, yes, I know what you¡¯re thinking. This youthful form seems off-putting for a man of my 72 years of age. Unfortunately, while combining my Life Qi with another element, the careful balance of energy within my body became impossible to manage. It was either this, or return to my ¡®true¡¯ form, something I have no desire to do. Laugh at your peril.¡±


    I gulped. ¡°I- I would never, My Lord!¡± The child nodded. ¡°Good. Now, it seems you have not gone mad. Either you have failed in your task or succeeded beyond my expectations. Tell me truthfully, which one is it? Lying will make your execution far more painful, I assure you.¡± My legs went unsteady for a bit, as this child-man was talking about my death so casually. Still, I knew the lessons I had learned over the past three months were more than enough to keep me alive. ¡°My Lord, I have, in fact, succeeded. I infused my sword with Titanium energy until I blacked out, and my abilities underwent extreme changes.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, yes, I noticed that you lack the trademark sword which, to my knowledge, you preferred to keep on your person at all times. Could it be it was destroyed in the process you described?¡± I shook my head. ¡°No, my lord, not destroyed. Evolved. It has become part of me, and I can summon it at will. In fact, I can do nothing else.¡± The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor raised an eyebrow. ¡°So, your obsession with keeping your weapon on you has, in fact, limited your abilities?¡± I smiled grimly. ¡°Perhaps some would think that. But while I cannot create, say, a blank ingot of ¡®ordinary¡¯ Titanium, I can do something far more important. If you will allow me, My Lord.¡±


    The child waved his hand in a ¡®go on¡¯ symbol. I focused on my right hand, and as all times before it, my perfect, beautiful, indigo sword appeared. Then¡­ I focused on my left hand. I focused on the technique that I had been working on for the past 3 months. The first time I tried this, I passed out. The second time, my nose bled profusely, and I had to lie down. But by now, I was able to do it well. A *second* perfect, beautiful sword appeared in my hands, identical in every way to the first. The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor raised his eyebrows in surprise. ¡°I see¡­ and I assume the color change is not just for show?¡± I nodded. ¡°My Lord, a sword made in this fashion could cut through any material I could find in a near instant. When I summon the second, it is ever so slightly weaker, but still at least 3 times stronger than anything I made before my isolation.¡±


    It was somewhat disconcerting, seeing a child look with such intensity. ¡°How many can you make?¡± I hesitated only briefly, for I hadn¡¯t expected that question to be asked. ¡°I once made three at once, my Lord, but have not tried beyond that. Each time I make a new one, I have to focus more and more intently on each previous blade, to prevent them from being turned to dust.¡± ¡°Do you believe this is a hard limit?¡± I wasn¡¯t sure where the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor was going with this line of questioning, surely no-one could use that many swords at once? Still, I answered confidently, ¡°I do not believe in hard limits for anything when it comes to Qi, my lord.¡± He chuckled. ¡°A good answer, I suppose.¡±


    Then, his gaze hardened. ¡°The so-called Skeleton Emperor is becoming bolder and bolder, sending out undead monster troops at an increasing rate. Most fighters, not just the Elite Strike Force, have been called out simply to hold the line.¡± My eyes widened. So *that* was why the city felt less crowded! ¡°Therefore¡±, said the child Emperor, ¡°I am putting together an expedition. The finest members of the Strike Force, plus a number of promising single-element Disciples, alongside¡­ myself. And now you. I wish for a vanguard to hold your swords in battle. You will have to make 10 of them, at least.¡±


    My mouth dropped. All those months in isolation, I hadn¡¯t even *considered* that others could wield my swords! It felt¡­ a little wrong, almost, for others to wield my hard work, my pride and joy. But, if it meant saving the Empire, I could deal with it. ¡°My Lord, I cannot promise I can make 10 at a time¡­ but I DO promise that I will make as many as possible, until I lie bleeding on the ground.¡± The grim child simply said, ¡°That will have to be enough. We march north in 6 weeks.¡±


    The next 6 weeks were a blur. I met my former Master, the Titanium-Maker who led the Elite Strike Force, who had been recalled from the war-front. I sparred with her a bit, and we found that even her best armor would at least be dented by my swords. Proof that I had gained power beyond her, though the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor forbade me from telling her how they were made. Still, I gave her one of the swords, and she thanked me profusely. The second sword went to the Fog girl, who was apparently the daughter of the silent woman that remained on the battlefield as we spoke. She would be a real menace, being able to shroud herself from view while cutting down her enemies.


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    The third was given, on the Emperor¡¯s orders, to a towering Metal-Molder who was covered in armor. The second he saw it, he praised it for ages, almost to the point I feared he had gone mad like the Sand-Molder. But, he recovered, and accepted it with grace. We confirmed that he could not absorb it in any way, though he swore that he would become a Titanium-Molder, the first in the Empire, if it meant ¡®keeping a hold on the masterpiece before him¡¯. He did say that he was not properly balanced for this sword (an interesting turn of phrase, usually one would say the SWORD was not balanced for THEM). Still, he refused to use his own metal to make any adjustments to it, declaring that would do more harm than good.


    Finally, I was set to make a sword for myself. When I did, I could feel lines of connection spiraling outwards from my body and going off into the distance. I wouldn¡¯t have known what they were, except one of them went towards a building I *knew* my former Master resided in. These feelings were the swords I had made before. I knew that I could, if I so desired, turn them into dust at any time. A useful fact, I thought, in case anyone wanted to betray me with them. I focused on keeping all the swords in existence while still making one of my own. It was strenuous, almost as strenuous as making the sword in the first place, but the sword finally formed in my hand. A quick check around the city proved that all of the other three were still around.


    The expedition caravan was large, surrounded by guards, with many supplies pulled either by hand-cart or by the few tamed non-monstrous horses the Old City had. I walked together with my former Master and another Titanium-Maker, her next Disciple. The dark-skinned man was barely older than I was when I first joined the Strike Force and was practically drooling over our swords. He tried to make one himself, and even guessed a bit on the theory behind how to make one, which I had to deflect with ¡°you must build your Qi more before even trying to create something like this.¡± Still, I was glad that he wasn¡¯t going mad like the Sand-Molder from so long ago. I theorized that it was witnessing the process of infusion that was the problem¡­ for whatever reason. I supposed that going unconscious at the time might have been a blessing in disguise, even if it did almost make me ant-food.


    The caravan passed through several near-abandoned camps, in which only token forces of warriors remained. They all seemed very much on edge, due to the threat of the skeleton armies at their doorsteps. Several areas had been abandoned entirely, requiring our caravan to fight back some monster groups that had taken up residence. We made sure to give the kills to our less powerful Makers, as a last-ditch attempt to give them more Qi to work with. Only once did I have to intervene, with a trio of bees who could summon icy storms. Only once, that was, until we encountered the first skeletons.


    They were, in all honesty, pitiful things. Their bones were a dull gray rather than the white I had expected, and they shambled forward quite slowly. The bones themselves were strong, but they had a weak point. Even our ordinary warriors could defeat them by focusing on the green-colored joints between their bones. By blocking this connection, the bones would separate, and anything not connected to the skull of the creatures fell back into a proper, unmoving state. There was only one problem: the things came at all hours, day and night, until each of our warriors, including me, had killed at least a dozen. The things were also immune to any pain and would attempt to attack no matter how many bones were severed until their actual skulls were destroyed, typically by Metal-Makers or one of my own swords.


    Still, these seemed a little weak to be threatening the Empire. I brought this up with my former Master, and she explained a bit more. ¡°These ones are the weak ones, the ones we allow through the front lines. Trying to get every last one of them does more harm than good, and the little ones don¡¯t give any Qi to our Makers.¡± I blinked at that. ¡°So, the larger ones you mention¡­ they DO give Qi?¡± She nodded. ¡°Yes, though typically a very small amount, compared to the monsters they are made from. Somehow the more dangerous ones give more, but we aren¡¯t sure if that¡¯s part of their creation, or if fighting and killing actually gives them more Qi just like a Maker. It¡¯s not like whatever foul beast or crystal that summons these skeletons will tell us.¡±


    I almost questioned her last statement before remembering that the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor had forbidden any mention of his brother, the former crown prince, being behind this army of the undead. It seemed that even my teacher, who was the nominal leader of the Strike Force, hadn¡¯t been told. The picture of the powerful, uncompromising 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor in my head, even if that man was now a child, stopped any thought of informing her. I instead briefly confirmed that the larger skeletal monsters, which were likely made of more than one dead monster at a time, were much more resilient, even at the joints. We agreed that we looked forward to seeing what my swords could do. I tried making one more sword, to come closer to fulfilling the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor¡¯s request, but wound up waking up in a cart several hours later, dried blood on my face. A later talk with others showed that while none of the other swords had turned to dust, they had turned slightly lighter in color. It seemed 4 swords were my limit, at least at my current power. Still, I had promised I would try as hard as possible to make more, so I spent the next 4 weeks struggling with my powers, alternating between killing monsters and pushing myself into unconsciousness.


    Eventually, I succeeded in making a 5<sup>th</sup> sword, and then a 6<sup>th</sup>, but they were somewhat weak, only a little better than my teacher¡¯s swords. With permission from those they were given to, I absorbed all 6 swords and then recreated them one at a time. Curiously, the one I had given to my former Master resisted being turned back into dust for a few minutes. I wasn¡¯t sure what that meant, perhaps having a different wielder than myself changed it, somehow? Regardless, I was able to make 5 new swords over the next few days that were all of commendable strength, followed by a lighter 6<sup>th</sup> one that was moderately powerful. I wielded that one myself, for it was a reminder of how far I had left to go.


    Eventually, we made it to a landmark, the first in some time. An ancient city, far to the north of the Empire¡¯s boundaries, its name forgotten by anyone I cared to ask. It only had one crystal, which summoned relatively harmless (albeit large) fish into the river nearby. It was also, now, surrounded by a colossal wall of stone and metal. The sounds of battle could be heard in the distance. This was the base camp from which the Empire made its stand against its greatest foe.


    And this was where, Ancestors willing, we would defeat him.

 Chapter 22 – Life 5 – The Skeleton Emperor

    Chapter 22 ¨C Life 5 ¨C The Skeleton Emperor


    A few days ago, I asked my former Master how such weak skeleton monsters had threatened the Empire. She had given me a look of, well, pity, and explained that not *all* skeletons were weak. I understood that pitying look, now. Getting behind the front lines was easy enough, the local Metal-Molders had rebuilt the city with precisely that in mind. Getting into the front lines was also relatively simple, we just had to arrange it with the local Master in charge of that day¡¯s shift. When he called to halt, all the sounds of wind, cracking rock, and roaring flames ceased with clockwork precision. In its place, the sound of crunching steps on icy ground and the creaking of bones unnaturally set in motion.


    Getting *through* the front lines, that was another story entirely. With the halt in attacks from this area, whatever minds were contained in the skeletons¡¯ thick skulls were clever enough to change direction. Skeletal cattle, horses, birds, snakes, lizards, and some species that I couldn¡¯t even recognize, all came for us. Naturally, we responded. My teacher had given some of us shields that we could use to charge forward. A few bones crunched in that charge, but not nearly as many as I would have liked. Then, we were in the thick of it. My skills in combat were quite good at this point, but I was only one man. At one point, I had to break off an attack so that I could rescue an Earth-Maker who had used his Qi too quickly. At another point, three boney oxen charged at me at once, and I had to be saved by the armored Metal-Molder I had given one of my swords to.


    My swords were, indeed, quite powerful. They were not massive, two-handed swords that could sweep through multiple enemies at once, but wherever they *did* hit, they would slice at least halfway into a bone, if not all the way through. Truly, their sharpness was unmatched. But 6 perfect swords could only do so much against an army. Eventually, we picked up our shields and charged once again, this time in a temporary retreat. This had been only a test of our expedition¡¯s abilities. My former Master and a few others went deep into the camp, no doubt going off to judge our performance in front of the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor.


    I hadn¡¯t seen much of the Child-Emperor during our travels. I knew he was there, but he almost exclusively stayed inside a heavily guarded carriage pulled by his most trusted servants. I had, for a time, thought to ask him what his combined element was. He said that he had become young when he combined his Life element, granted by the imperial bloodline, with something else. However, he did not say what that ¡®something else¡¯ was.


    Had he used Earth to become a Bone-Maker? To fight against the Skeleton Emperor with his own power? Or had he used Water, like I had seen in my nightmares of a Blood-Maker? I hoped it wasn¡¯t that, as the blood required to make enough soldiers to contend with the skeleton army would ruin the Empire as much as the army itself. Or perhaps he had combined it with another element? Metal? What would that look like? Would it make some hardy substance that could heal itself from injury? Now wouldn¡¯t THAT be a sight! In the end, though, I was too wary of the man behind the child¡¯s face to ask his element. If he had wanted me to know, he would have told me, and that was that.


    I eventually was called in to report my progress with the swords. While I was able to make a 6<sup>th</sup> sword that was finally as powerful as the first 5, it seemed I could go no further. I blacked out almost instantly the moment I tried. Perhaps 6 was an important number in matters of Qi? There were 6 moons, after all, 6 uncombined elements. I explained these thoughts to the child who ruled the Empire, and he nodded. ¡°That will have to be enough. I don¡¯t think I need to tell you that this expedition is of the utmost importance. Should we fail, the Empire may soon crumble to dust. And that is why¡­ when we venture out tomorrow, I will be going with you.¡± I was shocked. ¡°M-my Lord! Surely you don¡¯t- I mean, to risk yourself- the Empire would-¡° He held a palm up. ¡°Silence. My decision is final, a good leader does not only risk his subordinates. Besides¡­ there is a plan in place to kill the beast in my brother¡¯s skin once and for all, and I am a necessary part of it.¡±


    We left at first light, and true to his word the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor was a part of our battle group. The group also contained everyone I had given swords to, as well as several Metal-Makers and -Molders, assorted combined element Makers, and strangely, a man dressed in black who carried a similarly black box. I had no idea what was in the box, and he didn¡¯t seem inclined to tell anyone. Regardless, we left under the cover of the young Fog-Maker girl¡¯s ability. The skeletons, thankfully, did not seem to have the ability to smell, so Fog was a useful element to block whatever rudimentary sight they had. We did still come across shapes in the fog, some seemingly the size of houses, but the girl was an expert at guiding us around them before they could clatter and raise the alarm.


    It was somewhat mind-numbing, walking through the icy ground surrounded by a cloud of endless white, but eventually a new figure emerged, one that surprised me. The Fog girl dropped all pretense and ran towards this new presence, saying, ¡°Mother! I¡¯m so happy you¡¯re alright!¡± Ah, this woman dressed in all black was the silent one I had met earlier. I could barely see in all the fog, but it seemed to avoid covering up the woman, and I noticed the cut in her throat that likely prevented her from speaking. She hugged her daughter gratefully, then realized that the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor was also there. She seemed briefly confused by his child-like status, but quickly corrected herself and gave a deep bow. The child-Emperor paused for a second, then nodded, and simply said, ¡°report.¡±


    Another person from my past emerged from the fog, this time the Magma-Maker I had been with on the Sand Python mission. He seemed quite a bit wearier than when I had seen him before. ¡°We currently hold 8 crystals, though the furthest one north hasn¡¯t reported in for 3 days. We lost the tunneling rat one to the enemy but gained one with some beetles. Though, I don¡¯t know if beetles even have bones for the Skeletal E- enemy to work with. More and more of them have the joint armor that makes it harder to split them up. And¡­ well, one of the men says he took one down with two skulls. Needed to destroy both of them before the thing stopped moving, he says. Official word is that it was just one bastard that picked up another, but that¡¯s just to keep morale up. They¡¯re getting smarter, alongside stronger, My Lord.¡±


    The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor nodded. ¡°It seems we have come at a good time, then. This ¡®Skeleton Emperor¡¯ may have a new trick, but so do we. Your new orders are to follow our group, guarding this man with your life.¡± he said, pointing to¡­ me. I blinked, and so did the Magma-Maker. ¡°Him, My Lord?¡± ¡°Yes, he has supplied us with swords created with a¡­ unique ability. There is reason to believe that, should he perish, so too would these swords. They are necessary for the plan to come to fruition. Do not fail me.¡± He then went off into the fog-enshrouded camp. ¡°Well, guess we¡¯re stuck together, kid.¡±, said my new bodyguard.


    The man took his job seriously, not even letting me shit out of his sight. He explained that skeleton patrols, or worse, one of the ¡®big ones¡¯, would travel into foggy areas to seek out their makers. That was another example of the skeletons getting smarter. Ideally, each camp within the wilderness would be protected by TWO Fog-Makers, but that was rarely possible. This camp, deep inside enemy lines, only had the silent woman, who apparently was the strongest Fog-Maker in the Empire. Her area of effect allowed over 100 men to stay here in this dreary place and have a bit of room to spare.


    We did spar a bit, agreeing to not use his Magma or my swords. Interestingly, I still won quite handily. At first I thought this was my bodyguard being gentle with me, but I told him so and he just laughed. ¡°Kid, I only did that for the first match or two. The rest has all been you. You¡¯re a monster, even without one of your fancy dark swords, you know that?¡± Interesting, the man was nearly twice my size and yet I was still pushing him to the brink. I had, back in the Old City, noticed that I could exercise with more Metal-Maker-created weights than before¡­ but I hadn¡¯t realized it was to this extent. Had my years of isolation left me so strong? Curious.


    We picked up many members from the enshrouded camp and left a few behind to help manage the crystal it controlled. Among those left behind was the young Fog girl, who seemed more than a little dismayed that her mother was coming with us. The sword I had given her was also passed to her mother, though my Master gave her a new, regular one of her own making. It seemed she still was not allowed to know the secret of my swords. The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor must be very worried about the madness that the process induces. Which, to some degree, I understood. Unpredictability was the last thing we needed right now.


    The group had several battles with skeletal monstrosities the size of buildings, but by the Emperor¡¯s orders, the Magma-Maker and I avoided them. In one instance, several people had to be pried out of the grasp of a giant hand that one construct had in place of a face. In another, 2 Air-Makers were crushed under 2 of the 6 feet of a colossal lizard-like skeleton. It was difficult, to say the least, to watch people fight, become injured, and even die when I could have prevented it. But the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor¡¯s word was law, and his word was that I was too important to risk before the final conflict. For what reason, that was unclear.


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    Finally, we heard it. It was unnerving, it was relentless. It almost pulled me towards it at the same time it made me want to run away. ¡°Heh heh heh heh HAH heh heh HAHA heh heh¡­¡± It was the sound of the mad would-be emperor¡¯s laughter. And it pulled on our bones.


    The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor motioned for the silent Fog-Maker to stop walking. He made some hand signals, which I barely caught a glimpse of, to some other members of the group, including the man with the black box. He then walked out of the fog and announced himself. ¡°I¡­ am the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor of the Immortal Empire! And I have come to talk with the man who seeks to threaten that rule!¡± I could tell many of the group were worried about what he had just said. Yes, a man, not a monster, not a crystal. But it was not a man who walked towards us through the forest. It was a beast.


    The ground shook with its every step. A being made of gleaming white lines, all interwoven and connected in strange, organic patterns walked from behind a group of trees. It was at least twice as tall as the tallest man I had ever seen, and atop its head was a crown of bones and skulls. The thing rumbled. ¡°Heh heh HAHAHA heh heh¡­ so. My, my, my, brother. Brother in the womb, brother in blood¡­ brother in bone. Younger flesh, it seems, but still my brother. Brother in betrayal! But now, it seems, you have seen the truth? Do you bring me¡­ atonement? Do you bring me¡­ tribute? Perhaps I could accept this¡­ for now, hahaha, for now! Still covered in filth, of course, still covered in FLESH, but their true selves could shine brightly through¡­¡±


    Many of the group with weaker wills were struggling to stay put, shocked at these revelations. I stood my ground, and so did others, but we all wanted to hear what the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor would say to this madness. ¡°My brother¡­ was a proud man, yes. An arrogant man, even. But he was proud of his people. He was proud of the Empire he would inherit. But one day, while fighting to protect that Empire¡­ he changed. He fought a hard battle, and won, but it changed him. He started to think strange thoughts and do strange things. Things that hurt those around him. But he was still offered forgiveness¡­ and he denied it. Does the man who stands before me remember this?¡±


    The battle group began to mumble in surprise, until the fog thickened around us. I could still make out the strange sounds of the bone-man, though. ¡°HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yes, oh brother, I remember. My mind is not as addled as you think! I note, for example, that you speak of ¡®your brother¡¯ in the past tense! But my time is not in the past, rather the future! All filth-creatures give their bones to the earth, no matter how long it takes, and so I shall gladly accept their gifts as my birthright!¡±


    A collection of skeletons that resembled no living thing, not even from my nightmares, began to circle us. Whatever the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor had planned, he had better do it quickly¡­ But he simply spoke, with a waver to his child-like voice. ¡°What is it you saw, then, you thing that calls itself my brother? What caused you to become like this? The brother I knew had honor, even if he didn¡¯t always show it! Have you now simply gone mad with power? You could be the most powerful warrior on the planet, you could bring prosperity to the Empire¡­ but instead you call our subjects FILTH? Why do you seek to bring darkness to our already ruined world?¡±


    ¡°Heh. Heh. HAHA. Heh. Heh. Hmm. An interesting question. You say the world is ruined, and once upon a time I would have agreed. We live in the shadows of the Ancestors, the ruins of their supposed paradise. But do you ever wonder¡­ what casts those shadows? Do you ever look to the sky, so very different to what the Ancestors saw, and wonder¡­ what changed? And what caused that change? I found the answers, you know. The Bone Spider we fought long ago¡­ it had achieved power like none other. It could speak to me; did you know that? In its death throes it spoke to me. Spoke in a language not of words, but of vibrations, deep within my bones. It took me the whole battle to realize it, and years afterward to understand it. But I do, now, understand. The changed world we call home is one small part of a grander picture. The powers we call upon, the ¡®monsters¡¯ we do battle with¡­ they are one and the same! ONE AND THE SAME!¡±


    The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor looked startled at this. This conversation clearly wasn¡¯t going where he had thought it would. ¡°And¡­ what power is this, then? What power took my brother from me?¡± ¡°HAHA heh heh heh. I wouldn¡¯t claim to have the whole picture. I know no name for it, for there is power in names, and I am not yet powerful enough to hear them.  Any name worthy of these forces would rend mountains, split oceans. Fracture bones, even! Haha, THE BONES OF THE WORLD! But these powers are not our enemies, no no, we have received a gift. The energies you call ¡®Qi¡¯? A gift! The energies you call ¡®monsters¡¯? ALSO a gift! A lesson from our betters, and those who perish from it were those who failed to learn!¡±


    The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor heard the ramblings of the bone-man that once was his brother and sighed. ¡°It seems you have been given profound knowledge, then, ¡®brother¡¯. Knowledge that seeped into your bone marrow, where it will never be removed.¡± ¡°AHAHAHAH yes, you see, you see!¡± ¡°And that is why I also, have a gift for you. A ¡®lesson from your betters¡¯, if you will.¡± ¡°Hah! Brother, if you think-¡° The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor then screamed, ¡°NOW!¡±


    The fog flowing in and around our group suddenly ceased, as if it was never there. And it revealed a large metal construct, made of all the armor of all the Metal-Molders in the group. At its base was the black box I had seen being lugged around. At its top, the 5 swords I had given out, pointing outwards. And the thing was facing towards the chest of the mad skeleton man. Before the construct of bone could react, a thunderous *BOOM* rang out, and I quickly had to raise my shield as the shrapnel from the explosion hit me. When I came back from out behind it, I saw what was practically a crater, but before I could figure out what happened, I heard a mocking laugh. ¡°Heh. Heh. Heh. Toothpicks? You thought Blue-Metal TOOTHPICKS could hurt my most supreme creation?! There¡¯s a reason creatures have bones, not metal, in their bodies. Bones are BETTER. STRONGER. They can HEAL. You may have tickled me a little with your whatever-that-was, but I can-¡°


    The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor thrust his hand towards the skeleton man, who had 5 of my finest swords embedded in his chest. And from the child¡¯s hand came a stream of light so beautiful it hurt to see. ¡°GAHHHHH!¡±, screamed the Skeleton Emperor, as the light entered the swords. The child Emperor continued to pour more and more energy into the thing, even as he spoke to his lost brother. ¡°For all our talk of knowledge. For all our talk of power. For all our talk of armies, leaders, and Empires. I remembered one thing. An Empire may be immortal. But humans¡­ no human is immortal. Any human can die, at any time, even the emperors of the world. And you, you may no longer be any family of mine¡­ but you! Are! Still! HUMAN!¡±


    The twisted bones that made up the colossal being began to char, then crumble. First an arm, and the man tried to steady himself. Then the other arm, and he tried to turn around. Then a leg, and he fell, then tried to crawl, almost like one of his own skeletal puppets. The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor was having none of it. The furious light ¨C Lightning, that¡¯s what it was ¨C came pouring out of the man, until he was spent. And the Skeleton Emperor¡­ was now simply a giant skull, twisted and misshapen. All the bone creatures around us collapsed, as if they were puppets with their strings cut. The 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor was panting, uncharacteristically out of breath. No-one said anything for a long time. Until I spoke up.


    ¡°You can come out, now.¡±


    A voice responded from the massive skull. ¡°Heh. Heh. Clever, so clever, who are you who is so clever?¡± The skull dissolved, revealing a man with a long beard and ragged clothes. He had been living inside the skull this whole time. As for how I knew he was still alive? He had picked up one of my swords. He pointed the sword right at me and looked me in the eyes. ¡°Clever, clever¡­ of course, it had to be you. The Bone Spider knew things, you know? Felt things, in the bones of the world. It told me of a certain kind of person. An upset in the natural order. An extra piece in the puzzle. Some would call you ¡®special¡¯. Me, I call you cancer in the marrow. You stick around, very sticky, very hard to get rid of.¡± The man was talking nonsense, and yet somehow it was nonsense that resonated with me. Did he¡­ know about my nightmares, somehow?


    No-one was willing to approach him. We had no idea if he could control the bones in other people¡¯s bodies, but who would be willing to find out? We needed to keep him talking until the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor¡¯s Lightning was restored. ¡°A monster¡­ told you about me?¡± ¡°You and others like you, yes. A rare breed, filth cursed to defy the laws of the world. I should have known one of you would find me. The Bone Spider even gave me a message for such an occasion, hmm?¡± I couldn¡¯t help myself. ¡°And what message would that be?¡±


    ¡°Heh. Two words, that¡¯s it.¡± I was wary. ¡°And¡­ what would those two words be?¡± ¡°Heh. HAHA. Go. Faster. Go faster. GO FASTER!¡±  Then he burst into motion. I dusted the sword he carried, but he looked barely surprised when he grabbed his own right arm and pulled it off with a sickening *pop*. Then he threw it at me, and though I tried to dodge, and my Magma-Maker bodyguard tried to catch it, it grew strange protrusions that let it change direction mid-air. I tried to slice it with my sword, but even cut in two it still came towards me. It stabbed into me, burrowing into my chest, and suddenly all I felt was pain.


    My legs dislocated as if I had fallen from a great height. Then my arms. Then my ribcage ballooned outward. I screamed so loudly my throat went raw. Quickly, the Skeleton Emperor was killed, a mass of fire, magma, and even Lighting colliding with him all at once. But while I could feel the changes slowly undoing themselves, I was coughing up blood. The damage to my insides had been done. A crowd of people tried to gather around me, to help me. They said things to me, I¡¯m sure. But all I could hear was the haggard voice of the madman.


    ¡°Go Faster¡±. It echoed in my mind. It almost felt like the message wasn¡¯t meant for me¡­ but someone else? But then why-


    You have died as a Low Rank 3 Titanium Swordsman (Yang)

 Chapter 23 – Life 5.5 – Year ??? – The Message

    Chapter 23 ¨C Life 5.5 ¨C Year ??? ¨C The Message


    You have died as a Low Rank 3 Titanium Swordsman (Yang).


    You have killed 362 Water Demons in this life.


    You have killed 513 Earth Demons in this life.


    You have killed 439 Metal Demons in this life.


    You have killed 265 Fire Demons in this life.


    You have killed 322 Air Demons in this life.


    Calculating¡­


    Your connection to Earth will be improved by 200% in the next life.


    Your connection to Water, Metal, Fire, and Air will be improved by 150% in the next life.


    You have killed 1 Titanium Demon in this life.


    You have killed 2 Magma Demons in this life.


    You have killed 5 Darkness Demons in this life.


    You have killed 5 Sand Demons in this life.


    You have killed 3 Storm Demons in this life.


    Calculating¡­


    Your ability to form a Rank 2 Element containing Earth will be increased by 20% permanently.


    Your ability to form a Rank 2 Element containing Air will be increased by 10% permanently.


    You have wounded a Low Rank 3 Bone Crafter (Yin).


    You have killed 15 Rank 2 Bone Golems.


    Calculating¡­


    Your ability to heal from broken bones is permanently improved by 50%.


    Your connection to Life will be improved by 100% in the next life.


    You have killed over 1000 Demons in total.


    You have killed over 25 Rank 2 Demons in total.


    You have killed over 1000 Demons in this life.


    Calculating¡­


    You permanently progress through the first Rank 50% faster.


    You permanently progress through the second Rank 10% faster.


    For each life, you may select two Rank 1 Elements to increase affinity by 100% for the duration of that life.


    You have formed your first Core.


    You have formed a Titanium Core.


    You have prevented a Demon from forming a Sand Core.


    Calculating¡­


    You can permanently form Cores 10% more easily.


    Your next Metal or Earth based Core can form 25% more easily.


    Your abilities permanently do 100% more damage to Sand Demons.


    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    *GAHH!* I have to- I can¡¯t- I- I¡­


    Right. Right. I was the Titanium Swordsman, but he was not me. He was killed, but I persist. Right. Okay.


    These people with the Life element¡­ they¡¯re pretty fucked up, right? First all that shit on the Harmonium, both with normal Rank 1 Life affinity and then especially that kid¡¯s dad and his Blood affinity¡­ and now this Skeleton Emperor and his Bone affinity. I suppose there was the 3<sup>rd</sup> Emperor, he combined Life with¡­ was it Fire or Air? Fire made more thematic sense, but I think it might have been Air¡­ anyway, he combined it with something to make Lightning, and he was only *somewhat* awful. He went out in person to protect his empire, so for that I have to commend him, at any rate. Not to mention coming up with that insane cannon thing using a tiny amount of remaining gunpowder, that was smart.


    Interestingly, the scientist seems to think that true Titanium shouldn¡¯t conduct electricity like that, it¡¯s a nonmagnetic metal. But I guess true Titanium isn¡¯t blue, either, the Empire just called it that because it¡¯s the name for a super-strong metal. Though, the strange words that show up between lives seem to call it that too¡­ do they only speak in words I already know? Hmm, but then it mentions things about Cores, which must mean the special swords made in the Rank 3 process¡­ and I had never called them that, and neither had anyone else. Curious.


    But that was beside the point! What the actual hell was that skeletal freak talking about before he killed the Swordsman? I wanted to discard them as the ravings of a madman¡­ but he clearly signaled me out as a reincarnator. Did some monster he fought really tell him about me? He said he received a message in the vibrations of his bones¡­ which was insane and terrifying in equal measure. Not to mention a terrible way to send a message to someone.


    And then there was the message itself. ¡°Two words: Go Faster¡±. The fuck? Was someone really not only keeping track of me, but also thinking that I wasn¡¯t working fast enough? Fast enough for what? I think it was plenty fast for me to go from a nobody who dies in the woods as my first death, to one of the most powerful people on the continent in my fifth. I doubted there were many people going out there and forming Cores, the process was just too strange and risky¡­ though, the words still said the Swordsman was ¡°Low¡± Rank 3. There hadn¡¯t been qualifications like that on the other Ranks, so that was new. It says the Skeleton Emperor was a ¡°Low¡± Rank 3 as well, implying some of those bones (maybe the ones in his arm?) were compressed just like the Swordsman¡¯s special swords.


    But how does one move beyond ¡°Low¡±? The Swordsman had compressed his energy as far as it would go, killing hundreds of Demons, and he couldn¡¯t make more than those 6 swords¡­ to reach ¡°High¡±, wouldn¡¯t that take ages? Or was there just something I was missing? Ugh, how was I supposed to ¡®go faster¡¯ when the path forward was always so unclear? Not to mention, my best way of getting stronger required dying and starting all over again!


    Okay. If I needed to ¡®go faster¡¯, then I needed a life that was powerful. Powerful enough to not get killed off by some psycho, even if they had somehow reached the 3<sup>rd</sup> Rank. I also think that I wanted the next life to still be a Yang focus. Yin focus people could get stronger with practice with their element, and their defenses were great against others of the same element, but they were often isolated, kept away from true combat. That sounded great, but combat wasn¡¯t something that could be avoided for long in this world. At least in the case of Yang people, combat directly made them stronger.


    Plus, at higher tiers, I think Yin people had a bit of a weakness. If they couldn¡¯t find some of their elements to absorb, they were significantly weaker. It wasn¡¯t a problem at Rank 1, since things like Water or Earth weren¡¯t exactly uncommon, but their absorption rates got significantly worse when they combined elements. A Magma Yin, for example, could only absorb the Fire or Earth they were used to at extraordinarily low efficiency. But finding their actual element¡­ well, their options would be to be friends with a Magma Yang, have a captive Magma Demon, or, in this specific case, live in that one Volcano City place that the Harmonium was at war with.


    That unfortunate Sand-Molder who went on a mission with the Swordsman¡­ he told a story of a Yin who took the rare element of Corrosion¡­ so rare, that he knew no Yangs who had it, and the one demon who had it was killed. Though, I did have to wonder¡­ did he try absorbing rusted metal? That would be Metal that has taken on Air and Corroded, so maybe that would have been a good source¡­ but regardless, Rank 2 Yins had to find their element with special tricks, while Yangs just had to kill Demons and wait.


    Choose your next Focus: Yin or Yang.


    Good timing. I choose Yang.


    Focus Chosen. Choose two Rank 1 Elements to enhance by 100%.


    Now this was a bit trickier¡­ but, I think I have the beginnings of an idea. I¡¯ve done the math, and there are 15 possible pairs to make with 6 elements. Fog, Light, Blood, Darkness, Titanium, Silver, Steel, Magma, Sand, Storm, Corrosion, Lightning¡­ and of course, Bone. That was 13. The remaining 2 were both parts of the Life aspect, the one that I worried made people insane. But if that strange message really was telling me to ¡®go faster¡¯¡­ I needed an edge. I needed an element that no-one had ever heard of before. So, the first element I chose would be Life. The second¡­ hmm. What would it make with Fire? A living flame could be dangerous¡­ but it would be dangerous both to enemies and to friends. In contrast, living metal could be pretty interesting. The scientist had memories of some old moving picture story, where a man from the future would turn into liquid metal, slip through the bars of a jail cell, then turn back into a person. I doubted that such an ability was in the cards, but surely SOMETHING interesting had to be available¡­


    I choose Life and Metal!


    Elements Chosen. Reincarnating¡­


    Alright, kid. Something¡¯s going on here, and I¡¯m not sure what it is, but something thinks we need to move faster. That means getting stronger. Kill lots of demons, all that you can! Condense a Core, as fast as you can! You gotta-


    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


    -go¡­ fast? Hmm. That sounded somewhat familiar, but I didn¡¯t know from where¡­ maybe one of those weird Ministry of History people said it?


    Oh yes, now I remember. It was the motto of an ancient character, the blue spiky creature who ran around collecting rings. Onic the Hedgehog! Not sure why I remembered that, of all things¡­ perhaps those History people and their love of random facts about the Pre-Apocalypse were rubbing off on me¡­


    Still, better than that time all their talk of ¡®Xianxia¡¯ stories made me dream of a Chinese empire and a warrior with a blue sword for weeks on end¡­

 Chapter 24 – Life 6 – Year 195 – The Ministry

    Chapter 24 ¨C Life 6 ¨C Year 195 ¨C The Ministry


    The Ministry of History was always going on about how we should learn from the people of the Pre-Apocalypse to shape our current society. But honestly, some of the stuff they ¡®learned¡¯ about the past seemed to just be completely made up. Moving pictures, sure, Light Casters could do that easily enough. And supposedly they had some kind of thing called ¡®electricity¡¯, sort of like Mom¡¯s powers but more controlled, that could make things happen auto-matically. I suppose those little black bricks the Ministry calls smart phones might have actually done what they say.


    But then they go on and on about ¡°airplains¡± that were used to travel the *entire* world in a matter of days? Ridiculous! Even our best Air Casters took weeks to go around the Five States, not to mention down to the tropical territories down south. And that was one person, imbued with magic! Those heaps of metal the History people parade around are supposed to have sent hundreds of people flying around without any magic at all? One historian tried to tell me that it was powered by a special fuel, but he had told me just a few weeks ago that all the ancients¡¯ fuel was LESS explosive than it is today! Something about Fire Essence changing it, I dunno the specifics. But when I told him that, it was beautiful seeing him stumble around. His face even turned red!


    Honestly, while the Pre-Apocalypse people didn¡¯t have to fight monsters all the time (supposedly), they don¡¯t sound so great. Clearly, they were *bored* if nothing else. They had to invent all these stories about wizards and ro-bots and yeah, even big monsters that destroyed cities! Why spend all that time IMAGINING things happening unless nothing interesting was actually happening? I mean, they even had stories of Apocalypses happening! Not quite like the one that actually happened, usually they were about some kind of weapon that could cause explosions that were¡­ poisoned or something, not that that makes sense. But still, imagine living before the Apocalypse and deciding to use all those fancy ancient gadgets to make believe an Apocalypse happened anyway! You wouldn¡¯t do that unless you were very, very bored.


    To clear my head from that weird dream I had, and not wanting to talk to my mom¡¯s servants, I decided to go to the marketplace. They traded in not only history stuff, but also monster parts. Most of them were from York, since they had a lot of Metal monsters that were valuable to Metal Folders. But there was stuff from DeeCee, GreatLake, and Ohi too. Ohi in particular was doing very well for themselves right now. Some enterprising group of people had figured out how to kill their Combustion Ants without actually detonating their Fire-Powder sacs. That stuff was quite interesting, it turned out that Fire Folders could absorb it like it was actually on fire, and it give them quite the boost. I heard one girl say that drawing in the stuff felt like she stood in one of the fire pits for several hours, but this powder could be absorbed all at once.


    Sadly, even though I thought I was being pretty low-key while going to the market¡­ ¡°Oh, hey! You¡¯re High Caster Martina¡¯s daughter, right?¡± I sighed. Sadly, Mom was pretty famous for combining her Air Essence with Life Essence, making the never-before-seen Lightning Essence. I was happy for her to be sure, but she was always busy fighting monsters, and that left me and the servants she hired to take the brunt of people wanting to speak with her. I decided to try and be polite, but firm. ¡°Yes, I am. Unfortunately, I¡¯m pretty busy at the moment, so if you¡¯ll excuse me¡­¡±


    Sadly, the glimmer in the man¡¯s eyes grew. ¡°You are?! That¡¯s great! You see, I¡¯m with the Ministry of History and-¡° I tuned him out after that. I knew exactly what he was going to say, I had heard it a hundred times by now. Yes, Mom¡¯s powers were *superficially* similar to Pre-Apocalypse electricity. But no, she could not use those powers AS electricity. We had tried a few experiments to collect her powers in some kind of ¡®battery¡¯, but the damn things always exploded every time. Still, that didn¡¯t stop half the Ministry from asking around, sure that there was some clever trick that would let them turn on a bunch of nearly 200-year-old technology. I decided to be a little less polite. ¡°Look, man, I¡¯m sure whatever new test you¡¯ve came up with is very clever, but I am *NOT* the gal to ask about this. If you¡¯re really, really sure about this, you have to go through the official channels. Asking me in the street isn¡¯t going to get you anywhere, just like I told the last 5 guys who tried this. Bye.¡± I speed-walked away while the man was left stammering.


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    As I was walking towards the exit of the market, though, something caught my eye. A shiny blue carapace on display in front of a stall. The line was a tad long, but I decided to wait in it. I wasn¡¯t sure why, but something about that blue coloring reminded me of something¡­ I eventually got to the front of the line, and the stall owner blinked a few times looking at me, clearly having recognized me from the pictures of my mother before realizing I was too young to be her. ¡°Aaand what can I do for you, young lady?¡± I pointed at the big blue thing behind him. ¡°What is that?¡±, I asked, somewhat bluntly. He turned around and then chuckled in recognition. ¡°I see you have a good eye. That, my friend, is the carefully preserved armoring of an Evolved beetle. These beetles come from the coast of GreatLake, typically specializing in Earth, but this one combined it with Metal. It makes a rather special type of metal, known for its durability and blue color, that we call-¡° ¡°T¨¤i¡±, I said in recognition. The man blinked. ¡°Er, actually, we call it ¡®Mithril¡¯. Some people call it ¡®Titanium¡¯, too, but that made the history folks mad because it¡¯s ¡®inaccurate¡¯ or something. Where did you hear¡­ ¡®Tie¡¯, was it?¡± I was only half listening to him.


    T¨¤i. îÑ. It was a word I had only heard and seen in my dreams, but it came to me so suddenly, so easily¡­ Now I realized why the carapace looked so familiar. It was exactly the same as the metal that the swordsman I had been dreaming of used. It wasn¡¯t until just now that I realized that, while I clearly understood every word of those dreams (those I remembered, at any rate), they were all in a completely foreign language. Was that¡­ normal? For someone¡¯s mind to come up with a completely self-consistent dream language¡­ no, I don¡¯t think that was normal. Not to mention, I had never bothered to look for this blue metal before, but the dream had shown it perfectly. I suppose I could have seen it out of the corner of my eye¡­ but no, the more I thought on these dreams, the more they crystalized in my head, and the more I realized the truth. There was something magical going on, and it wasn¡¯t the Six-Essence kind of magic.


    I rushed home, briefly assured Mom¡¯s servants that I was okay, and proceeded to look for something in particular. A ¡®pencil¡¯, something that the ancients used to write, somehow still able to make markings on paper with ease. On top of that, a book from the Pre-Apocalypse that I had picked up on a whim. It was mostly faded. In something that the Ministry would have yelled at me for, I began to write all that I could remember from these dreams.


    An Empire that separated people into camps. A young man with a sword. He was a Metal Caster, though they called it something else. The secrets of High Casting were kept from him, but somehow, he figured it out anyway. He kept his abilities secret, but he was still noticed, and brought to a beautiful city that rivaled even York City. Then, something with an evolved snake that could use sand, something¡­ scary. But he also learned something from it. Exile to a different city, one in ruins. Isolation. Fighting, lots of fighting. A single sword, one he put his whole life into. Why would he do that, wasn¡¯t he a Metal Caster? But then the sword turned a deeper blue, almost purple. And then, a fight. Two Emperors¡­ no, one Emperor, one villain who made an army of skeletal creatures. He said something that chilled the swordsman¡­ and then killed him in a single last-ditch attack.


    I tried to convey all this in writing, but the dreams (memories?) flowed faster than I could write. By the time I wrote one scene, I would have remembered and forgotten 3 more. What the hell WAS this? I read stories like this on occasion, but this one was totally real! I could completely see this happening, in real life, just somewhere far away! I hadn¡¯t heard of anyone having this power, except maybe a Light Folder, but even they surely couldn¡¯t spy on one person across the ocean for decades¡­


    There was something else, too. Vague impressions that the swordsman was ALSO plagued by realistic dreams. I couldn¡¯t remember these dreams, but I could remember him speaking of them to his Emperor. If this swordsman was real¡­ did he, too, have this power? Who did he dream of? Did that person dream, too? Where did it end? This was giving me a headache. After deciding I couldn¡¯t remember anything more to write down, I decided to try one more thing. Something in the early memories of the swordsman, when he was just a Metal Caster, had a bit of resonance with me¡­ and after a bit of practice, I had a small metal sword in my hands. I was a Metal Caster, too.

 Chapter 25 – Life 6 – The Arena

    Chapter 25 ¨C Life 6 ¨C The Arena


    Awakening my Metal Casting wasn¡¯t considered terribly impressive. I was actually a little later than most people to figure out my element. I think people also might have been a little disappointed that I wasn¡¯t following in my mother¡¯s footsteps to fight with Lightning Essence. I¡¯ve never seen her truly fight, but I have been in a few crowds where she showed off a bit. I agree that it is quite impressive, seeing her send streams of glowing death up into the sky. Certain Ministry of History people say that ¡®real¡¯ lighting is actually much faster and harder to see than what my mother makes, but honestly, who cares?


    Something that did set me apart from others, though, was the way I quickly took to combat against my peers. The strange memories of the Imperial Swordsman seemed to extend to *muscle* memory as well. The only problem was, the Swordsman was shorter than me, as well as a bit sturdier. I was comparatively lanky, and whenever I tried certain tricks with my own momentum during sparring with others I would wind up on my ass. I had acquired several good habits for combat, but also many habits that quite simply didn¡¯t work for me.


    I decided to start trying other styles of fighting. Those who used spears were considered quite useful in keeping monsters off other Casters¡¯ backs. Metal Casters were also considered good at making large shields, called ¡®tower¡¯ shields because¡­ they¡¯re tall, like a tower? Something like that, I suppose. I eventually found my calling, though, with daggers. Throwing them at range, then stabbing up close, with strength and precision in equal measure. I didn¡¯t have too many memories of the Swordsman using similar tactics, but I had to keep reminding myself that *I* was not *him*. Still, I followed the memories¡¯ lessons by making a set of two daggers, larger and sharper than the rest, into which I pumped as much Essence as I could bear. Unlike my other daggers, they weren¡¯t disposable, so I wouldn''t use them without a pressing need.


    Before too long, I reached the limit of what a decent Caster could do without actually fighting monsters. And so, I was sent off to the Arena. A massive circular building that was surprisingly intact, at least on the outside, left behind by the Pre-Apocalypse. Its roof was open to the sky, and most of its floor was a grass-like green, though now scarred and pockmarked after numerous battles. A monster crystal had fallen right in the center, ironically trapping most of the Red Manti in a contained environment.


    A more powerful monster species would have likely destroyed the building by now. However, Essence-wise, the Manti were actually quite weak: their attacks would singe the things or people they cut, but they would be no match for most other Fire Essence monsters. As such, most Casters and even some Folders could just attack them at range, not letting their bladed arms even come close. When the burgeoning community that would later become the Five States found this area, they quickly realized it was a perfect training ground for new warriors.


    A series of earthen walls had been built around the immovable, indestructible crystal to funnel the Manti around. Without prey in sight, they would typically just wander around in patterns that were rather simple, even by monster standards. The whole Arena was watched over inside a series of metal towers fused onto its sides. My ¡®class¡¯ of 5 people, including myself, was brought inside one of these towers.


    Each class was split into two ¡®attack¡¯ members, two ¡®defense¡¯, and one ¡®control¡¯. Defenders were usually Earth and Water users, since they could form earthen barricades or watery globes that monsters would have to work to get through. Fire and Metal Essence users were usually attackers. Controllers were a rather special category, typically meant for those who had a non-standard fighting style that was mostly intended for supporting their team-mates and controlling the battlefield. The majority of controllers were Air users, though just about anyone could in theory be one. Like me.


    Metal users were typically attackers, and sometimes defenders if they focused on shields, but very rarely controllers. However, there were stories of a Metal Folder out by GreatLake, who was known for running around the battlefield and throwing his absorbed metal at monsters at just the right moment to distract them. He was a big inspiration for my dagger-throwing strategy. He later on combined his element with fire to become a High Folder, which is why he¡¯s well-known. They¡¯re a pretty rare breed, since they need to find very specific resources to progress, like metals with high melting temperatures in his case. I was glad I wouldn¡¯t have that problem.


    With me as the controller, my class also consisted of twin brothers, one a Fire Caster and the other a Fire Folder, as the attackers. On the defending side, we had a girl who was an Earth Folder, and a young man who was also a Metal Caster. He wasn¡¯t terribly good at Casting mid-battle, so he had painstakingly created a suit of armor for himself over the course of the training. Other classes sometimes mocked us for having a defender who only defended himself, but he promised to make us all armor once he had some more monster essence. He had us all agree to let him test out the attacks of the Manti before trying to destroy them.


    Atop the tower, we met with the lord of the arena, Byron, a powerful High Caster with the element of Storm. People liked to ask me if he was in a relationship with my mother, since Storm and Lightning were conceptually similar. His thunderstorms could hail down ice on his enemies but were unable to create any actual lightning. Of course, the truth was the two couldn¡¯t stand each other. As I understood it, he resented the fact that she could go out and protect the trading caravans while he had to shepherd around the junior generation of warriors.


    His rough voice rang out across the room, where my team and several others were gathered. ¡°Aright! Today we¡¯re doing an Arena run, lucky you. There¡¯s 3 rounds to a run, and you WILL do all of them! First round, the Field. Just you in an empty area with a couple ¡®o Mantis. Yer attackers attack, yer defenders defend, controllers¡­ are probably not necessary.¡± I legitimately wasn¡¯t sure if that was an intentional dig at me or not.


    He continued, ¡°Second round, the Corridors. Mimics the condition of the ruined cities, or somesuch nonsense. Long story short, you gotta fight in cramped conditions. Earth Folders, you ARE allowed to mess with the walls, but don¡¯t come crying to me if you collapse something and have to do ¡®community service¡¯ repairing it.¡± I knew that wasn¡¯t an idle threat, Arena repair duty was always on the table as a punishment.


    ¡°Third Round, the Pit. That¡¯s where ya keep fighting Mantises till you can¡¯t take it no more. Do NOT think that you can make us ¡®run out¡¯ or some crap. We got damn plenty, and the crystal¡¯s always making more. When you run out of steam, yell out, and someone will take you back out. I am ¡®required¡¯ to remind you that, unless you cry uncle, you should NOT expect us to protect you from ANYTHING. The Mantises, collapsing walls, each other, nothing. But if you do quit, well, Arena records are available to anyone who wants ¡®em. That means that if you tell some caravan that they should hire you as protection, they¡¯re gonna check to see if you¡¯re worth it. So don¡¯t. Screw. Up.¡±


    And with that friendly note out of the way, a group of Air Folders helped us down the tower and into the Arena. We landed at an area with some faded symbols on the floor, along with a much more freshly drawn ¡°Team 4¡±, and some arrows pointing us towards a certain direction. There, there were a trio of Red Mantises just waiting around. They hadn¡¯t noticed us yet. We got into position, with Sylvie the Earth Folder setting up a barricade that the twin Fire users crouched on either side of. I clambered up to a position on the top, where I had a good seat to watch Lambert, the armored Metal Caster, charge ahead towards the enemy.


    ¡°Hey, you big fucking bugs! Ever seen a man made of metal, before? Cause I guarantee you won¡¯t live to see another!¡± The four of us he left behind shook our heads in disbelief. I think his troubles with proper Casting gave him a bit of a complex. One of the Red Mantises looked at him in what seemed like bug-eyed disbelief, even though that was just how their faces looked normally. It casually raised a bladed arm and swiped downwards at Lambert¡¯s head. Thankfully, he had armored his neck as well as everything else, and it held true. He laughed maniacally and began to punch the thing to death using the spikes he put on his gloves. The thing went down without even using its Fire Essence.


    The twins took the next one. Knowing that their Fire attacks wouldn¡¯t hurt a Fire Essence creature as much, they instead bombarded the ground beneath it first. When it tripped, I made a dagger that I threw right at one of its eyes. The *pop* was rather sickening, but when the thing died under the combined fire of the twins, the Essence that came into me felt *amazing*. If this was how Casters always felt when killing monsters, I could see why so many of them threw themselves into battle.


    The third one came to a bit of a realization and began to run right at the barricade. Sylvie was on it, reinforcing the area it was going towards at the cost of the material around it. To its credit, the Mantis actually dodged our attacks pretty well, but it didn¡¯t expect Lambert to run up behind it and begin to punch its thorax. As the thing began to turn, I took a cartwheel from atop the barricade and wound up right underneath it. With a stab from one of my ¡®good¡¯ daggers, the thing fell almost instantly. I did miscalculate how heavy the monster would be, but the Essence rush made me too giddy to care.


    Knowing that the time it took to go through the next trial was a factor in our score, we quickly continued on. The earthen walls of the Corridors were surrounded by a tougher metal, the dual-element mix making it harder for any one accident to collapse them. Within the claustrophobic hallways, only 2 people could stand side-by-side. We let the fire twins go up front, with Silvie in the middle, and Lambert and I formed the rear guard. Having an Earth Folder proved valuable; Silvie had a decent sense of where we were supposed to go, and even noticed a couple of dead ends before we went down them.


    As we went deeper in, the holes poked in the ceiling to allow sunlight through became few and far between. The twins were prepared, grabbing small torches made of cloth and wood and setting them alight. Eventually, we heard the sounds of fighting, and went to investigate. We found a rather large mantis that was scraping the walls in a futile attempt to get rid of the thin layer of water surrounding its thorax. Whoever did this must have done their research beforehand; mantises breathed through their bodies, not their heads.


    Silvie knelt down and proceeded to make two spikes of Earth come out from the walls, pinning the Mantis¡¯s legs in place. It thrashed its upper body around even more, but the Fire twins backed us up out of its range. It eventually perished, allowing us to climb over it to reveal another team. We had trained with them a few times, and I had a ¡®friendly¡¯ rivalry with their Air Folder controller. Sure enough, I heard his voice. ¡°We had that one covered, you know.¡±


    I was about to respond, but Silvie beat me to the punch. ¡°Really? Because it looked like you were putting yourselves at risk just to kill it in a fancy way.¡± In the light of our torches, I could barely make out a Water Caster girl blush. The Air Folder paused a bit, before saying, ¡°Creativity can be as important as efficiency when fighting. We have to train all the options in our arsenal; never know when we might need them, later down the line.¡± I was somewhat in agreement, but couldn¡¯t help but mention, ¡°think you¡¯re ¡®creative¡¯ enough to beat us to the Pit?¡±


    He laughed. ¡°Guess we¡¯ll have to see¡­ Martha?¡± A well-muscled girl who I remembered as a Metal Folder formed a large brick of the stuff and *slammed* against the wall, right where Silvie had absorbed some material to make her spikes. We made to run, but we were pushed back by a wall of air that also further destabilized the room. I heard some mocking laughter before being buried in rubble. Bastard was willing to get repair duty just to look good in his scores.


    Silvie took care of our situation eventually, but it took a while. Thankfully, only the Fire Folder was knocked unconscious, and rose relatively easily with our help. Still, that was an annoying setback. We continued at a bit more of a hurried pace, ignoring any sounds of fighting that weren¡¯t immediately in our way. At one point, we had to walk up steep earthen ramps while being chased by mantises. At another point, Silvie made us a thin bridge across a gap, to act as a shortcut. Lambert was the last one across, and the bridge crumbled under the weight of his armor after he jumped off.


    In places with intersections, there would occasionally be markings carved into the walls. This was a code invented by the Five States to mark ruins for future explorers. The makers of the Arena must have put some of these markings down, as a further test of the competitors. Thankfully, none of the other teams seemed willing or able to fake these markings, so they steered us true.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Finally, we made it to a corridor with sunlight, something we hadn¡¯t seen in hours. It was the exit. Walking outside, we saw 2 other teams that had made it out: the one that had betrayed us and one other. There were 6 teams competing, so that wasn¡¯t too bad a score. An enterprising Earth Caster made us some seating, which we stayed on for a while as we waited for the other teams to emerge. Two of them did just that, the latter of whom looked pretty scratched up and was carrying an unconscious member. We got their story that fighting must have weakened the floor beneath one of the corridors, causing them to fall to the floor below. I wondered if someone had set them up just as we had but couldn¡¯t be sure. Besides, dealing with human treachery was part of the gig for those who wanted to explore the ruins.


    After a bit more time, we heard that Team 6 ran into more trouble than expected and had to break through the ceiling of the Corridors, an automatic disqualification. So, there were 5 teams, including us, who were going to the Pit.


    The Pit was a surprisingly simple area at the center of the Arena. The fiery red crystal hovered above a deep trench that allowed Mantises to fall from the moment they were ¡®born¡¯ until they landed atop one of the brethren. Arena runs were timed so that the Mantis would never pile up so high they could escape the Pit. If no-one culled them enough during those, a special detail of warriors would finish the job. Some Casters considered that a cushy gig, getting to kill large quantities of monsters in a controlled environment. Others swore it gave less Essence than killing monsters out in the wild.


    The actual fighting was done in a trench neighboring the ¡®true¡¯ Pit. A pair of Earth Folders would open a stone door between the two areas for some amount of time, allow Mantises to come in, and then close it up. Then they would Fold *themselves* into the walls along the sides, allowing them to evade the notice of the bugs.


    The first team to fight was the first team to emerge, which happened to be the team that betrayed us. They were pretty well equipped, with their Metal Folder having at some point given them all one-handed shields. Their controller did a good job of pushing the bugs into each other as they tried to attack, causing the smell of burned mantis flesh to rise through the air. It smelled surprisingly tasty; all things considered. They killed 33 mantises over the course of 7 waves before calling it quits. Then the next team fought, and only got through a total of 27 mantises. Then it was our turn.


    Lambert took out the first few all on his own. Honestly not the greatest strategy, since we needed to keep the whole team killing as many as possible, but we couldn¡¯t talk him out of it. I guess he felt a little useless after the Corridors. After he got his frustrations out, we fell into more of a routine. Behind some of Silvie¡¯s barriers, we went Fire-Dagger-Fire-Earth Spike. We timed our attacks so that when one of us needed to take a break, Lambert was there to pick up the slack. Our power was about the same as the other teams, but our coordination was notably better, if I do say so myself. 20¡­ 30¡­ 40¡­ 50 Mantises went down. My powers were feeling ever more refined. At that point, Byron the Storm Caster halted things, then came down and nodded approvingly. ¡°Well, it seems you¡¯ve gotten good enough at killing these things to receive some high marks. We are nowhere close to the record, but I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if you could kill another 50 like that. So, I¡¯ll give you lot a choice. On the one hand, you could do exactly what you have been doing ¡®til the sun goes down. On the other hand¡­ you could fight your first High Monster.¡±


    We all looked at him in surprise. We hadn¡¯t heard of any Mantises getting a combined Essence in years. Byron continued, ¡°Yeah, we just got one. Noticed it while you all were in the Corridors, in fact. Redsteel, the combo of Fire and Metal. Now, I hear fighting a High Monster as just a regular old Caster is quite a tasty treat. Plus, I¡¯ll give you the same Arena score as if you killed 100 regular mantises. But don¡¯t get me wrong, it¡¯s not gonna be easy¡­¡±


    The other 4 members of the team looked at me. Controllers were typically the captains of their teams, but I liked to think that my team would respect me even if I was an attacker. I pointed out the obvious: ¡°Two of our team are Folders. They won¡¯t get anything from this fight other than the Arena score. If we win, set the score to 200 instead.¡±


    Byron looked at me. ¡°Girlie, 200 would be the highest score this Arena has ever seen. Can¡¯t do it. 150¡¯s the most I¡¯ll go, unless you want to deal with that many Mantises yerself.¡± I looked around my team and saw no complaints on their faces. ¡°Deal.¡±, I said. Byron then yelled out. ¡°Aright, bring ¡®er out!¡±


    A team of Air Folders rose into the sky, alongside a reddish-gray creature they were suspending in mid-air. It was much larger than any Mantis I had seen or heard of. Byron corralled the other teams away with the force of his personality alone. Their fights in the Pit seemed to have been forgotten. I wondered if Byron¡¯s feud with my mother was influencing his call that we deserved a special challenge. I also wondered if we should have just killed a bunch more of the regular Mantises. But then, the Redsteel Mantis dropped to the ground with a *thud*, and a distant Byron yelled out, ¡°Begin!¡±


    Lambert took point, as usual. He tried to maneuver himself towards one of the thing¡¯s legs, to cut off what little mobility a Mantis would have. Turns out, that was a mistake. The bug noticed him immediately, likely because its combined element let it sense the metal in his armor. It batted at him with a clawed arm that looked much sharper than its Low Monster equivalents. To his credit, Lambert swiveled around and dodged with speed much greater than most could while wearing that armor. Still, one of his arms got sliced into, and began to hang limply at his waist.


    We needed to win this. With an Arena score of 150, basically top marks, we should be able to attract someone with a dedicated Healer. If we lost, Byron would pull us out before we perished, but Lambert would have to wait on the long, long list for a public Healing. I threw a disposable dagger, hoping to get one of its eyes popped, but it was reactive enough to duck below the arc of the knife. The thing was faster than its brethren, despite being larger.


    Then the giant bug did something unexpected. It began to rub its arms together at incredible speeds. Was it trying to make noise? ¡­no, that was crickets that did that, I remembered vaguely. But as it continued, I realized what was going on. Its arms were metal, and not just any metal, but the strange Redsteel that could heat up to incredible temperatures without melting. The Mantis¡¯s arms were now glowing red from the friction heat.


    I made to yell to Silvie, but she was already on it. She pulled on all her reserves to make a circular earthen wall taller than two men stacked atop one another. We were all inside it, hoping the Mantis would exhaust at least a little of its energy trying to get through. Sure enough, some of the walls started glowing red from the heat. I was glad, at this moment, that we weren¡¯t facing a Magma monster. As it was, this thing could probably escape the Arena if it wanted to.


    Still, for all that it was a High Monster, it was still a bug that had less intelligence than the average monster.  Our Fire Folder had the bright idea to begin to absorb the heat coming through the wall. Ordinarily, a High Monster¡¯s element would be too powerful for a single Folder to absorb. But dulled by Silvie¡¯s powerful handywork, along with the fact that the Red Mantises as a species weren¡¯t that powerful, it was enough to fight it to a stalemate.


    That was, of course, until the young man¡¯s reserves started to fill up. He had trained his Folding abilities a little bit before the Arena, but he was still a relatively new Folder. As one of our teachers once put it, there was only so much a Folder could ¡®eat¡¯ at once before they needed to stop and ¡®digest¡¯. Our encircled area began to get hotter and hotter. I began to fear that we might lose, here. We needed a plan.


    ¡°He can¡¯t take much more of this!¡±, said the Fire Caster twin. They always seemed pretty in sync, though in this case it was pretty easy to tell that the Folder was struggling. Suddenly, I remembered something. ¡°Lambert, you still have a full buffer of Metal, don¡¯t you?¡± He gave me a pained look. ¡°Yo- you know wh- what I¡¯m like! Mid-battle casting¡­ and my arm¡­¡±


    I *shush*ed him. ¡°Close your eyes. The Mantis isn¡¯t there anymore, we defeated it¡­¡± He looked at me like I was crazy, then slowly realized what I was trying to do. I continued. ¡°The heat is from a nice summer day¡­ The noise is from the crowd cheering us for our victory¡­¡± He started to nod along to my very slapdash relaxation techniques. ¡°Now, you raise your left hand and from it you Cast! You make a ring of metal 3 feet across, with no gaps or imperfections! This¡­ is your trophy! Your trophy for defeating the Mantis!¡±


    He gave a little sigh but raised his good arm like I said. After a decidedly worrying amount of time, a small amount of Metal began to form at his palm. Slowly, but surely, a ring just like I had described began to form. I didn¡¯t care about any trophies, but I did very much need that ring. With him doing that, I turned to Silvie, and whispered to her. ¡°When he finishes that, I need you to open a gap at the top of the wall. Right where the mantis is. Can you do that?¡±


    She looked at me like I was crazy (I had been getting a lot of that, recently), but didn¡¯t question her team captain. Instead, she wearily nodded. ¡°I-I can. But I¡¯ll probably faint afterwords¡­¡± I nodded. ¡°That¡¯s fine, just make sure it¡¯s big enough for the bug¡¯s head to fit through.¡±


    Lambert began to struggle to hold onto the giant ring I had him make, especially with just one hand. I grabbed it on one side and had the Fire Caster twin hold the other. We held it up and watched as it took form. I hoped this wouldn¡¯t be in vain¡­


    The Fire Folder screamed and collapsed, after which the heat of the area soared. It was now or never. ¡°Silvie, now!¡±, I shouted. She pinpointed where the Mantis was and held onto the wall, screaming in pain from the heat. But, sure enough, a gap the size of the monster¡¯s head appeared at the top, right above the collapsed Silvie. The thing peered in to look at its prey, and that was when I struck. With all my strength, I grabbed the ring and threw it right at the thing¡¯s head. To my delight, my aim was true, and the ring landed like one of those ¡®horse-shoe¡¯ things around the head¡­ and settled heavily on the neck.


    With an insectoid *SHREEK* the thing struggled to get the ring off. One of its arms even got stuck in the wall in the process. It was the best opportunity I could have made for myself. I had the Fire Caster boost me up so I could grab onto the Mantis¡¯s head. That was a bit of a mistake. The thing¡¯s carapace was also made of Redsteel, and in the process of fighting us it had gotten quite hot indeed. I quickly made some sort of metal glove to cover one hand, knowing that they wouldn¡¯t last long in the heat either.


    With my other hand, I made a dagger. I stabbed it into the mantis¡¯s armor, over and over. And when it dulled from all the metal-on-metal striking, I made another. And another, and another¡­ The Redsteel Mantis struggled to get me off, but my metal glove was spiked, to keep me on like a sea urchin from the coast. Lambert showed me the design, once, and I was glad he did.


    Speaking of Lambert, he had been busy. Surprisingly, he made a pole of sorts to vault up to where I was and keep the metal ring around the bug¡¯s neck stable. It swiped at him several times, but its reach was limited when it came to attacking its own neck. I thanked him mentally and continued my work.


    Eventually, I grabbed my two ¡®best¡¯ daggers. They were a poor imitation of the Swordsman¡¯s 6 prized swords, but they were made on the same principles. Just to add to that, I pushed all the metal I could Cast into the daggers further, focusing on making them ever sharper and more durable. I put my all into them, there was nothing left. It was this or failure.


    I struck down at the top of the Mantis¡¯s head, over and over, again and again. I yelled a wordless shout. And soon enough, I must have hit something important inside the Mantis¡¯s armored head, because it collapsed downward. But while I was falling about 8 feet down, I didn¡¯t care. Because I was experiencing the greatest rush of essence I had ever felt. It made all the other monster kills seem like an appetizer¡­ no, a crumb on the plate from the previous meal! I laughed, perhaps somewhat maniacally.


    But then, I felt something unusual. A strange feeling that normally told me I had Cast too much metal. That wasn¡¯t unusual by itself, but the feeling was growing, and growing¡­ At some point, Byron and his Air Folders picked up me and my team, but I was too distracted by what I was feeling. It was like some mechanical switch had been thrown, and instead of feeling bloated with essence, it was like I had none left at all. Then, it hit me. It couldn¡¯t be, right? Surely no-one has that happen from just one fight?


    But it lined up perfectly with what my mother had told me. I was becoming¡­ a High Caster. Quickly, I threw my gaze up to the Moons. Fire was up there, and I did definitely consider getting Redsteel, like the fearsome foe I had just fought. Air was up there, too, though, and I wondered what kind of element *that* was. I had heard stories of a monster with a Rust element, but had never heard of a human gaining that power¡­


    But the third moon up in the sky was the Green Moon. Life. Healing. The pure opposite of sharp, cutting metal. Few people ever said that they had an affinity for that moon, which was a shame given the ever-present need for Healers. Even in the Swordsman¡¯s memories, only the imperial family had any kind of access to its powers. And yet¡­ my mother had felt something, something that called her to the Green Moon when she advanced her Air element. It gave her Lightning, an element that made her famous across all Five States. But surely that was a fluke, right? Surely, I wouldn¡¯t¡­


    I wouldn¡¯t¡­


    But I needed to. I needed to advance, I needed to accomplish something. I don¡¯t know what drove me forward, if it was the Swordsman or¡­ something else, but I *needed* this element. I needed something that no-one had ever seen before. I needed to forge a path forward¡­ and I needed to do it now.


    I focused my gaze on the Green Moon. At first, I felt nothing. Then, I felt a building desire to look away, to pick something easier. But the need I had didn¡¯t go away easily, so I kept looking, barely even blinking. People asked me what was wrong, but I ignored them. The feeling of being empty of metal almost consumed me. Perhaps I wasn¡¯t becoming a High Caster after all? Perhaps something was actually quite wrong, here? These doubts and many more were pushed aside by a will that came from deep inside me. And, just as the Green Moon started to go over the horizon¡­


    Something in me *snapped*. I¡­ I had done it? I was a High Caster? So, then what would happen if I-


    I passed out, having exerted myself for hours after the hardest and longest battle of my life. The strange will inside me wanted to see what I could do, now¡­ but acknowledged that it could wait a little longer.

 Chapter 26 - Life 6 - The New Power

    Chapter 26 ¨C Life 6 ¨C The New Power


    If I thought I was ¡®famous¡¯ before, when it was just my mother who was a High Caster of a rare element, it was nothing compared to now. Post-combat epiphanies were known to *sometimes* occur, but never from one¡¯s very first Arena run. Byron, the old Storm Caster, was actually quite angry. According to him, he would now have to deal with ¡®a buncha Low Caster newbies getting themselves killed tryin¡¯ ¡®ta recreate your one inna million power up.¡¯


    My team-mates were thrilled. Not only did we all get out of the Arena alive, with the best score it¡¯s had in years, but some of my fame was rubbing off on them. Lambert even got his arm fixed from a Healer with nothing but a promise to speak highly of the work he did in any interviews.


    And interviews there were. The Ministry of History people, in their quest to make things like the way they were, had been trying to resurrect the Pre-Apocalypse art of ¡®journalism¡¯ for years. For this story, ¡®The Miracle of Class 4¡¯, they got more than they bargained for. Newspapers were selling out faster than they could write.


    They were forced to think ¡®outside the box¡¯, as they liked to say, and started selling metal tablets with finely Folded letters carved out. Some weren¡¯t happy about that, since this was nothing like the newspapers of old. Others claimed that it was the closest thing we had to the Pre-Apocalypse wonder machines called ¡®eye-pads¡¯. But most¡­ were just happy about all the money coming in. Plus, it was good practice for a bunch of Metal Folders. I even heard talk of one of these ¡®journalists¡¯ who worked hard enough to become a High Folder, specifically for Rust. Which, in turn, deserved a chunk of stories written by new Metal Folders. Good work if you can get it, I guess.


    Still, across the Five States, there was one question on everyone¡¯s minds: what does Metal and Life combine to make? People speculated endlessly. Common knowledge held that each element had an opposite: Fire and Water, Earth and Air, and of course Metal and Life. When opposites combined, you got the rather interesting elements of Fog and Sand. Sand¡¯s utility was well-known: a good sandstorm was considered the best way to shred a monster¡¯s defenses. Fog was a little more obtuse: its attack power was basically nil, but it seemed to addle the mind of any foe its wielder wished, monster or human.


    With those two in mind, attack and support, people suspected that my power would be something defensive. Perhaps a type of metal that could harden or liquify on the Caster¡¯s will? But then, someone pointed out, there was precedent for that already being the ability of Metal and Water, as shown by a High Caster who was briefly observed serving as a warlord in the tropical south.


    The Ministry of History people had record of people¡¯s blood containing trace amounts of metal, and so believed that I would have command over that. This, in turn, turned much of the anticipation of my abilities into fear. Apparently, there was a large wave of immigrants some decades back that was caused by something they only referred to as bl¨®en¨®tt, which apparently translated to ¡°The Night of Blood¡±. From what I could gather, their city was attacked by ¡®blood-men¡¯ who could absorb the blood they spilled to strengthen themselves. Some said that the attack ended as suddenly as it began, but the damage was done. All of this caused a vague feeling of¡­ familiarity¡­ like I had heard this story before. I wasn¡¯t sure from where, though.


    Regardless, it could easily be said that all eyes within the Five States were on me. And after weeks of testing, I did figure out one thing about my ability¡­


    It was very hard to use.


    Apparently, there were drawbacks to ascending to High Caster as quickly as I had. Most people spent years or even decades as a Low Caster before intentionally combining their elements. Sure, some daredevils out there would fight a High Monster to speed up this process¡­ but conventional wisdom said it still should have taken me several years to accomplish what I had.


    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    My powers were¡­ sluggish. I tried going back to the Arena, getting preferential treatment to kill as many mantises as I wanted, but the rush of essence that I so enjoyed before was now barely noticeable.


    As for my Metal Casting¡­ unlike before, when I could make a set of daggers over the course of a few minutes, now it took me hours. The only difference that I could tell was that the brown-ish generic metal that all Metal Casters made was now more orange. That was it! As far as I could tell, it weighed the same, was equally as sharp, and could take exactly the same amount of damage before being destroyed. It was just¡­ harder to make.


    My mother actually left her post to try and come teach me, but even she couldn¡¯t figure out what was wrong. As far as she was concerned, when she attempted to cast a normal Air burst, it came out as lightning every time. It shouldn¡¯t just be unlikely that I would make the same metal as before¡­ it should be down-right impossible.


    As the months went on, the better news-tablets forgot me, and the worst ones actually tried to draw attention to my failure. The lesson everyone took from me, really, was that it was dangerous to ascend to High Caster too quickly. Dangerous to your career, at least, since no one wanted to hire someone who took several times as long to do the same Casting as everyone else. I was now a cautionary tale. My mother eventually had to return to the endless battle against monsters. She made it clear that she still loved me¡­ but that unless I regained the ability to hold my own in combat, I would be in danger by being next to her. It was a subtle disownment, but a disownment just the same.


    The shame of it all ate at me. Had I really ruined my abilities just on some gut feeling? I felt like I *had* to get stronger but had only ended up weaker. The Swordsman in my dreams never had this problem¡­ should I have followed his path more closely? Sometimes I spent ages Casting little statues of the man, hoping to appease his spirit. Remembering that other life was painful, knowing that he had accomplished so much, and I, so little.


    That¡¯s when I started to notice something odd. I began to see objects made of the same orange metal that I could Cast, but which I had no memory of making. Crude little knobs, at first, then shapes that reminded me of arrowheads, then there were even little daggers. I began to fear I was going mad. Eventually, I woke up and saw a series of 6 little swords, barely the size of my finger, all arranged in a circle around¡­ one of the figurines I had made.


    Was I Casting in my sleep? Were my memories of the Swordsman so powerful they were taking over my mind? As I examined the swords more closely, I saw movement in the corner of my eye. I looked back up. Nothing seemed to have changed¡­


    I looked at the figurine closely, held it for a while. I didn¡¯t notice anything off about it¡­ but then, I looked around for my other figurines. They were¡­ missing! Or, in the case of one, half-missing. The lower half was still there, but at the chest was a strange cut where the upper half was taken. What the hell was going on?


    The next day, as I tried to get back to sleep, I heard odd, metalic noises. I opened my eyes and tried to look around as subtly as possible. What I saw shocked me. The remaining ¡®whole¡¯ figurine was covered in green veins that shifted around as it¡­ moved? Yes, the little metal man, only a few inches tall, was moving around on its own, as if it were human. Not just that, but it was wielding a pair of the little swords I had found around it. As I stared at it, I began to recognize its movements. This was a training exercise that the Swordsman often did, in his years of exile.


    I tried to sit up further, but the bed creaked. It was a quiet sound, but it felt like a cacophony at this moment. Sure enough, the green veins on the little figurine instantly faded, and the thing stopped moving. I got up and looked all around it, but while it was frozen in a position in the middle of training, it didn¡¯t move an inch.


    ¡°Hey there¡­ little guy? It¡¯s okay¡­ I won¡¯t hurt you¡­¡±, I said, unsure of what I was doing. There could be any number of reasons that the figure stopped moving. Maybe it could only do work while I was asleep? Maybe it had run out of power?


    But then, the green veins appeared again, this time around the figure¡¯s neck. It looked up at me¡­ and gave a salute that I recognized from the Swordsman¡¯s Empire. I gulped. I think I had an idea of what my power was, now¡­ Metal, given Life itself!

 Chapter 27 – Life 6 – The Armor

    Chapter 27 ¨C Life 6 ¨C The Armor


    The time I had spent bemoaning my lack of power was quickly forgotten now that I learned its true nature. I quickly began experimenting to learn how it worked. I soon learned the weapons and shields that the vast majority of Metal Casters make were not going to be my focus. My daggers, even when imbued with as much energy as I could stand, would barely twitch with a hint of green before laying back down. Shields were similar.


    Figurines, on the other hand, worked excellently, especially those of the Swordsman. I had no idea why until, one night, I made a figurine of *myself* instead. It moved faster and more elegantly than any two figures of the Swordsman put together. When I had ¡®her¡¯ fight one of the Swordman figures, ¡®she¡¯ even brought out a selection of miniature daggers and fought just like I would have!


    That was what made me figure it out. These constructs were using my memories to learn how to move. I had no idea how to be a dagger or a shield¡­ but I had a lifetime¡¯s worth of memories of being myself, and a significant set of memories of being the Swordsman.


    I was roughly able to make 1 figurine a day, maybe 2 if I could push it. After a couple of weeks, I learned that, while I was no Folder, the figures themselves could cut off pieces of each other to Fold into new weapons. Though, it always seemed to be weapons I was familiar with: daggers, swords, and in a couple of notable instances, metal rings like the one I threw around the Redsteel Mantis¡¯s neck.


    I invited the members of my Arena run team over, figuring they should be the first to know. The fire twins were quietly supportive, though I knew they didn¡¯t see the point of anything besides overwhelming firepower. Silvie was a bit more intrigued by how the figures could Fold their own material, even in a limited manner. Lambert, though, was beyond ecstatic.


    ¡°Those toy soldiers¡­ c-can you make them hollow? Would they still work like that?¡± I blinked. ¡°Yes, I did do that a couple of times. It saves material, sure, but they don¡¯t fight as well as the others¡­¡± Lambert grinned. ¡°The fact that they can fight at all is amazing! Don¡¯t you see? You can make a suit of armor for yourself! A living suit of armor that copies and amplifies all your moves¡­ the Ministry of History folks were talking about legends of those sorts of things! Th-there was even one story about metal men dozens of feet tall, who could beat back the strongest monsters! And they were controlled by 2 people who lived in their heads! We could¡­ we could¡­¡±


    I laughed a bit. ¡°Slow down there, armor man. You¡¯re right, it will take a while, but I *should* make some armor for myself, to test. I wouldn¡¯t put too much stock into what the Ministry says, though. They¡¯ve unearthed all kinds of crazy legends, and a bunch of them contradict each other. Like, what kinds of monsters were these metal men fighting, if the Pre-Apocalypse had no monsters?¡±


    Lambert laughed a bit. ¡°Y-yeah, those were probably just stories¡­ b-but we can make them come true, now! Y-you can! I know you can! Just like you¡­ well¡­ I believe in you, is all.¡± Silvie rolled her eyes a bit at this.


    Uh oh. I started to form a picture of what was going on. I helped Lambert figure out a way past his mental block against mid-combat casting. I was also a big part of why he got his arm fixed so quickly. And now, I had a power that no-one else in the Five States possessed¡­


    He had a crush on me, didn¡¯t he?


    I looked him over. Out of his armor he wasn¡¯t¡­ *un*-attractive¡­ and if he was right, his knowledge of armor-making could be vital to pushing my power to its full potential. Also, and this was a big plus, he was probably one of the few people who didn¡¯t even care about my mother being a High Caster.


    I smiled. ¡°Well, let¡¯s see what we can do, shall we?¡± Silvie raised an eyebrow, likely suspecting something was up. Well, it¡¯s not like I hadn¡¯t seen her with one of the twins a couple of times¡­ wait, it was just *one* of the twins, right?


    Over the coming months, Lambert and I experimented with my orange metal. I learned from one of the less-insufferable History folks that the metal resembled an ancient one known as bronze. I decided to henceforth call my element ¡®Living Bronze¡¯. It was two words, unlike most of the agreed upon names for the elements, but it wasn¡¯t unprecedented. Redsteel was basically two words smooshed together, anyway, and no-one could agree what to call the Metal-Earth combination that the Swordsman used. He called it a word meaning ¡®Titanium¡¯; here, people called it Mithril, Bluesteel, even stupid things like ¡®Super Metal¡¯. If someone wanted to rename Living Bronze, I figured they would have to learn to use it, first.


    It took a long time just to make a simple gauntlet. The first one was too small for my hand, and the second one was so thin that it dented when I dropped it. Lambert was kind enough to say that these kinds of things happened to him when he was first learning armor-crafting. What he didn¡¯t say, of course, was that he could Cast much faster as a beginner than I could Cast as a High Caster.


    Eventually, though, we did get a good proof-of-concept. A gauntlet that I could wear just like a normal one, but one that could keep my grip on a weapon even when I wasn¡¯t focusing on it. There was one interesting ¡®incident¡¯ that occurred, though. Lambert took one look at me using the gauntlet and pointed out that it was ¡®a good start¡¯ but that we needed to make more armor pieces as soon as possible. Without my prompting, the gauntlet raised its middle finger, forcing me to do the same in the process. I had known that the Bronze had something of its own personality from the figurines, but a glove with an attitude wasn¡¯t something I had anticipated.


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    Still, Lambert was correct. We kept going on the armor project, regardless of the gauntlet¡¯s hurt feelings. We eventually managed to make the whole upper half (minus the helmet, which Lambert made for me) and that was when the armor really started to show its utility. After punching targets enough times, the armor was able to adapt to punch by itself. Its technique was just as good as my own, but it didn¡¯t get tired like I would if I was throwing the punches myself.


    It was at this point that some of the Ministry people started to catch wind that my ¡®failed¡¯ power wasn¡¯t so much of a failure. I wanted to play it down, but Lambert loved the attention. I eventually started taking interviews just so the journalists would stop trying to give him all the credit.


    ¡°This¡­ living armor, that you are making. Could it be given to others?¡±, one asked. I thought for a bit. ¡°In theory, yes. One problem with that, though, is that it needs to be thick enough to move by itself, yet thin enough to not impede the movement of the person inside. It would probably need to be a custom work each time.¡± The journalist grinned and gestured for her Metal Folder assistant to write that down. ¡°Well, I¡¯m sure people will be lining up to get theirs done, then!¡±


    After nearly a year, my armor was done. With the press I had generated, it was simple enough to get someone to give me permission to do a shortened Arena run. It was, in a word, *glorious*. I would walk up to a Mantis and the armor would know just what I wanted to do. It was like an extension of myself, and it was *strong*, too. I was able to kill mantis after mantis in no time. When my daggers started to dull, I eventually switched to just going unarmed, crushing legs and eyes and heads with my armored hands alone. When the rush of mantises started to increase (did they open the pit wider, or something?), I adapted with ease.


    I had become something more than the sum of my parts. A person? A suit of armor? I was both and neither. I started to suspect that the armor was getting something out of the monster-killing just as I would, just as a Caster would. It was getting even stronger, even faster. I was the brains, and it was the brawn, and we were *perfect*.


    But alas, all good things come to an end. Unlike the armor, I was still human. I still needed to eat, to drink, to sleep. As it stood, I had fought for what was probably several hours straight, and I needed some rest. I fell back. Eventually, after a time longer than I expected, the Earth Folders closed the gateway that led to the mantis pit. But when I went up the tower that controlled access to the Arena¡­


    ¡°Byron? Lambert? Silvie? ¡­Mom? Wh-*cough*-what are you doing here?¡± I was confused. I was hungry. My throat was strangely sore. What-


    ¡°Sweetie¡­ why did you push yourself so hard? *How* did you even manage that? We were worried¡­ we were worried that armor had done something to you¡­¡±


    I blinked. ¡°How are you even here, mom? I thought you were at least a few days away¡­ were you just stopping in town?¡±


    My mother frowned. ¡°Sweetie¡­ you¡¯ve been fighting non-stop for 11 days. We didn¡¯t know how to stop you, you pulled away or attacked every time we tried! We¡¯ve never even heard of someone fighting that long!¡±


    I laughed a little bit, thinking this was a joke. A pretty good one, too. But then I realized no-one else was laughing. ¡°¡­Seriously? Ele- *cough* eleven *days*?¡±, I eventually sputtered out. I realized I was actually very, very thirsty. Why hadn¡¯t it registered until now?


    Byron, the Storm Caster in charge of the Arena, nodded. ¡°We needed to cancel all the Arena fights for over a week, lass. Even when our Air Folders tried to pull ya¡¯ away, ya¡¯ either escaped or hurt ¡®em pretty badly. Hell, girl, we thought you were becoming a monster yerself!¡±


    Lambert, bless him, brought me a jug of water that I chugged down like it was nothing. As I did so, he explained his thoughts to the group. ¡°I think¡­ the armor can heal its wearer. It¡¯s Metal and Life, right? That¡¯s why she didn¡¯t get thirsty or exhausted for so long¡­ if it were made better, she probably could have gone for even longer¡­¡±


    I raised an eyebrow at that. ¡°¡¯Better¡¯? I¡¯m not sure fighting for weeks or months on end is considered ¡®better¡¯. Don¡¯t the Summoning Crystals get more powerful if you kill too many of their monsters at once?¡±


    Silvie spoke up. ¡°That¡¯s right. They call it ¡®Hardcore Mode¡¯, after some ancient Pre-Apocalypse term. The monsters stop being summoned every few minutes and start appearing every few seconds. You killed so many, that happened only a day into your fight.¡±


    I blinked, then started to laugh. ¡°I guess I *was* a pretty unstoppable killing machine back there, huh? Probably set another Arena record, didn¡¯t I? I¡¯m surprised the Crystal didn¡¯t just give up!¡± I thought that would get a laugh, but instead I was met with silence. ¡°What¡­ is there something wrong?¡±


    My mother was the first to speak. ¡°Sweetie¡­ something unexpected happened, we think as a result of your fighting. Something that could change everything. You see, we had brought in all sorts of people to try and get you to stop fighting, or at least cut off the flow of monsters, even though there were just too many¡­ but that¡¯s the only reason we noticed it.¡±


    I tilted my head. ¡°Noticed¡­ what?¡±


    Byron picked up where my mother left off. ¡°Couple-o Air Folders noticed somethin around the crystal. No-one, no element or combo o¡¯ elements has ever affected a Summoning Crystal before¡­ but they can tell when somethin¡¯s amiss. The longer you fought on ¡®Har¡¯core Mode¡¯, o¡¯er the course of days and days¡­ the crystal fuckin *shrank*.¡±


    I was stunned. ¡°It¡­ shrank?¡±


    My mother continued, ¡°All crystals are the same exact size, we¡¯ve measured them. This one was no exception. But now¡­ it lost about a third of its height. It might have even dimmed a bit, too, but we¡¯re not sure on that.¡±


    My mind was racing with the implications. I had just been joking about the crystal giving up, but if this was true, if these crystals actually had a limited amount of energy¡­


    Was this armor the key? Could we do what that story of Lambert¡¯s said, and¡­


    Cancel the Apocalypse?

 Chapter 28 – Life 6 – The Idiot

    Chapter 28 ¨C Life 6 ¨C The Idiot


    I snapped my helmet shut. The armor, working as an extension of my will, moved the locking mechanism into place, to ensure that the face-piece wouldn¡¯t come undone during the battle. ¡°Ready?¡±, I asked my team-mates.


    Silvie raised her hand, clad in more of my living armor, and gave the ancient sign of a ¡®thumbs-up¡¯. The twins gave a simultaneous nod, the pair appearing striking with the red highlights that the Caster¡¯s new Redsteel abilities helped add. Lambert, ever enthusiastic, pointed his greatsword up at the sky. The thing was too big for him to handle outside of the strength-enhancing armor, but currently he wielded it like a champion.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s go.¡±, I declared. With practiced ease, Silvie shaped the earthen platform beneath us into a slope. Our boots shaped themselves to have spikes on the bottom, to help us climb down the slope without fear of slipping. Below us was a team of warriors that had been commissioned to contain the problem until we got to it. They appeared beleaguered and did something in between retreating and collapsing when they saw help had arrived. ¡°Armor, mark these people as friendly!¡±, I shouted. I felt some internals shift and heard the slight, grinding sound of ¡®grrrr-yesssss-grrrr¡¯ in my ear. Figuring out how to translate human speech into a pattern of metal was an ongoing process.


    Then, I heard something else. Something that I had been sort of expecting, but still wasn¡¯t used to after years of monster-fighting. Laughter. *Human* laughter.


    ¡°HAHAHA! WOO! I guess those fuckers finally decided to bring in the cav¡­ calv¡­ backup! What the fuck are you, anyway? Some kind of Knights of the¡­ of that fucking, Table, thing? You think a bunch of metal will stop me from tearing you all to itty bitty pieces?!  I¡¯m an unstoppable force of nature! I¡¯m an invincible guy with¡­ invincibility! I can¡¯t lose, is what I¡¯m saying!¡±


    I sighed. ¡®*This* is the guy?¡¯, I thought. They said he wasn¡¯t the sharpest knife in the armory, but this was just painful to listen to. If it wasn¡¯t for his record of death and destruction ¨C not to mention the unheard-of power he supposedly wielded- I would have happily turned around and left this asshole alone.


    ¡°Okay¡­ Brendon, was it? You¡¯ve been causing a lot of problems, lately¡­ and the nice people of DeeCee have asked us to bring you in for questioning. We think you might actually be in quite a bit of dange-¡°


    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re a chick? Why didn¡¯t you say so? You sound hot, too. Listen, how about you take of all that armor and you and me can get out of here¡­ I promise you, I¡¯m the best catch you¡¯ll meet in your lifetime!¡±


    I tried to give a withering look to the 9-foot-tall pile of muscles, until I remembered he couldn¡¯t see my face. This day was getting worse by the minute. ¡°Not happening, big guy. All we want to know is what turned you into this. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.¡±


    A face filled with veins gave a sickening grin. ¡°Oh, I am all *about* the ¡®hard way¡¯, sweetheart! If you wanna know about my incredible powers, then let me *show* you!¡±


    At that point, he rose up to an even taller height ¨C apparently, he had been slouching ¨C and charged right at us. Silvie, ever quick to react, summoned an earthen wall in front of the man-thing at just the right height to trip him up. To his credit, he was able to use his momentum to switch to a cartwheel and was quickly back on his feet. The Redsteel Caster twin shot out a dagger, just like I had taught him, but somehow the mountain of a man¡¯s bulging skin was barely cut. It did grab his attention, though, so he proceeded to lumber over to my red-armored team-mates.


    Lambert took this opportunity to run forward. He had recently figured out how to use the living armor to enhance his leg movements to their peak, allowing him to move at speeds that only particularly quick monsters would have. He swung his greatsword out at the misshapen arm that was about to attack our teammates. But¡­ Brendon had a few more tricks up his nonexistent sleeves.


    A gout of fire came out of his hands, in a blue color that only very powerful Fire Casters could manage. At the same time ¨C impossibly - a burst of fierce wind moved the fire around Lambert, allowing it to dance around his armor, allowing it to melt parts all over. The melting was superficial, thanks to the inner shell of Redsteel, but it still showed how this giant man became so important.


    While I had been making sets of armor for my friends, there had been strange rumors plaguing the territories on the edge of the Five States. Rumors of people with *multiple* Low Elements under their command. I didn¡¯t put too much stock into it until the mayor of Bayou, a decently sized town in a swamp down south, was killed by one of these people¡­ who happened to also be said mayor¡¯s own brother.


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    The killer became a self-styled warlord, which wasn¡¯t completely unknown in the less stable territories, except this warlord announced he could use Earth and Water at the same time. Completely unheard of, since it was common knowledge that those elements should have merged into the Darkness element. Oh, and he was also physically massive, in the way that only a rare, illegal type of Healer could manage. That meant access to *three* elements.


    If that wasn¡¯t strange enough, the story didn¡¯t end there. This new warlord fell as inexplicably as he rose. No-one was entirely sure how he died, only that there was a large cloud of Fog element that settled over Bayou for some time. In fact, any place that was said to have one of these impossible multi-element Casters was soon rumored to be covered in a mind-addling Fog for days on end. When the clouds were gone, so too were these people of interest. It seemed a powerful Fog wielder was hiding what, exactly, was going on.


    And that was why, after I finished my team¡¯s armor, we were asked to travel to DeeCee, the first of the Five States proper to see one of these people. Several of the suburbs around the Old Capital were wrecked by this man, Brendon, and everyone wanted to know what was happening. Ideally before a burst of Fog obscured everything.


    We struggled against Brendon for some time, needing to contend with two elements at once. Still, we weren¡¯t considered one of the better teams in the Five States for nothing. Silvie eventually got him trapped in an earthen pit, which she then tried to fill as much as possible. As he struggled to get out, shouting obscenities all the while, it gave Lambert time to make some decently solid metal shackles. We weren¡¯t used to capturing our combatants instead of killing them, but I think we were making a good showing of it.


    ¡°You fuckers¡­ you haven¡¯t seen *nothing* yet! The warm-up¡¯s over! Time to show you what makes me *really* unstoppable! GAHHHHHH!¡±


    The grotesque man became covered in a dome of swirling flames, blasting away the earthen trap keeping him in place. On top of that, I could hear strange sounds, like bones cracking. It brought me back some bad memories of the creature that killed the Swordsman. We threw everything we had at the center of this fiery storm, but nothing seemed to take. The sounds grew louder, and more¡­ inhuman.


    Eventually, something shot out of the flames. It was the same size as Brendon¡­ but it was covered in black¡­ armor? No¡­ scales, like a lizard. And from his back, emerged two giant bat-like wings. He flew up into the air with a burst of wind. What the hell *was* this guy?


    ¡°A-HAH, HAHAHA! You see now?! I¡¯m a fucking dragon! No, a fucking GOD! Someone who¡¯s gonna rule this fucked up world! And now, I¡¯m gonna¡­ gonna¡­ urgh¡­¡±


    I could barely make it out in the distance, but it seemed like the scales on Brendon¡¯s skin were¡­ in motion. They kept churning around, sometimes layering on top of one another, sometimes revealing the veiny skin below. He began to shrink back down to a smaller size. His wings changed and morphed in ways that couldn¡¯t possibly support flight. He came crashing to the ground.


    In a distorted voice, he yelled, ¡°Wha¡­ why¡¯s it HURT?! Those fucking¡­ guys, they didn¡¯t say it would HURT¡­ I¡¯m gonna kill them! I¡¯m gonna kill allllll of them! Guh, why¡¯s it¡­ why¡¯s it¡­ gotta¡­ hurt¡­ so bad¡­ GUHHHHH!¡±


    The self-declared ¡®god¡¯ then proceeded to vomit up a massive puddle of blood. His scales and wings were long-gone, and his veins began to recede into his body. I didn¡¯t have the slightest idea what was going on.


    It was at that point that a cloud began to block the sunlight. The area all around us was plunged into shadow. The air began to thicken. No, not a cloud¡­ Fog. A group of silhouettes began to form in the distance. The fog thickened further and further, until I couldn¡¯t even see my team-mates anymore, just these shadowy figures. Where¡­ who¡­


    A whispering voice emerged, seeming to come from all of the figures at once, or perhaps none of them. ¡°Another failed experiment¡­ ideally the last one to make it this far¡­¡±. I gulped. ¡°Who are you? Why did you¡­ do this to him?¡±


    I felt the sensation of countless eyes watching me at once. ¡°You remain aware? Interesting¡­ No, Armorer, we did not ¡®do¡¯ anything to this misguided soul. His maker is a cruel man, one who seeks an alternative path to power. One that requires the death of many for the mere possibility of success for a few. He has made an¡­ agreement, to keep his distasteful work contained within his territory. An agreement that he will have to be¡­ reminded of¡­¡±


    I was shaking. The shadowy figures began to change and alter. At some point, the body of Brendon (Alive? Dead? Who could say?) faded out of view. I was alone in the world, save for my armor. I pointed a dagger at one of these figures, not that I thought it would do me much good. ¡°W-who are you people?¡±


    Amusement could be heard in the voice. ¡°There are many secrets in this world. The man we speak of is one. We are another. Perhaps you will learn some secrets of your own, someday. Perhaps not. Continue your work, Armorer of Living Bronze. When unbound from distractions such as this¡­ Brendon¡­ your work is of interest. We eagerly await what you may uncover¡­¡±


    After some amount of time, which could have been days or minutes, the Fog receded. I was laying on the ground, though I didn¡¯t remember why. Getting up, I could see my groaning teammates, who were similarly laid flat. There was only one thing I didn¡¯t see.


    All traces of Brendon, including the pool of blood he vomited up, were completely gone.

 Chapter 29 - Life 6 - The Trance

    Chapter 29 ¨C Life 6 ¨C The Trance


    As soon as I stepped out of my home, I was greeted with questions.


    ¡°Who¡¯s next up to receive one of your armors?¡±


    ¡°Any comments on the incident near DeeCee?¡±


    ¡°Is it true they blocked off the Arena just for your team to practice?¡±


    And many more. I was getting tired of these ¡®journalists¡¯ prying into my life, but I would grant them that I had made for a few popular stories over the past few years.


    Even when I was just the daughter of the Five States¡¯ one and only Lightning Caster, everyone asked after me, wondering what my mom¡¯s secret was. Then I awakened from Caster to High Caster in record time, after only killing a single Evolved monster. Not only that, I had managed to combine my Metal with Life, creating a heretofore unknown element that I called ¡®Living Bronze¡¯.


    For a while, Living Bronze seemed less powerful than either of the elements that made it up. But after several years of experimenting, I had a process figured out pretty well for making armor that amplified a person¡¯s movements. My best work went to me and my team, of course, but I managed to fit in time for several dozen custom commissions over the past year. Even better, I was getting faster.


    Like all Casters, I got more powerful by killing monsters. Of course, regular monsters were barely a snack at this point, it was the Evolved ones that I really needed. Still, after a brief trip down the coast, I had killed 11 Evolved Monsters (along with a certain bizarre human idiot that the higher-ups, including my mother, had sworn me to secrecy about).


    After that, my Bronze output had increased significantly, to the point where I could make around an armor per week. The individual armors were also improving, with the ones I put the most work into being able to fold ordinary metal themselves.


    It helped that I had designated 4 ¡®archetypes¡¯ of armor that I could fall back on. There was the base model, which just tried to alleviate the strain of any motions you made. There were also Amplifiers that not only mimicked your movements but improved upon them, increasing the force and balancing out the weight. Then there were Automatics, which tried to predict when you needed to move quickly and did it for you. Finally, there were the Survivors, the hardest of the ¡®standard¡¯ archetypes, which tapped into the powers of Life to heal the person wearing the armor over time.


    Naturally, my own armor and that of my 4 teammates could do all this and more. I had spent enough time with them that I could personalize the armors¡¯ move-sets and make them better able to predict when those movements were necessary. The twin Redsteel Essence wielders relied more on movement during combat, while Silvie had adopted a new strategy of covering herself with Earth and hiding underground.


    Then there was Lambert, who thought he was approaching High Caster status but wasn¡¯t there yet. As always, he enjoyed rushing forward with wild abandon, alongside his own personal greatsword. While no-one knew about the dreams I had of my past life as a swordsman, I did mention to him the theory of infusing massive amounts of Metal Essence into a single object. Lambert was unconvinced at first, but once a certain tipping point was hit, his sword was able to cut through anything besides Evolved materials in a single slice. He was thrilled.


    As for the Arena being blocked off¡­ that one journalist was closer to the truth than he realized. The ancient sports coliseum was considered the perfect place for new warriors to train¡­ but I had pulled some strings to train up some ¡®warriors¡¯ of my own.


    I pushed through the crowd of journalists and fell into formation with the group of government bodyguards who were waiting for me. We didn¡¯t think that the strange Fog Essence users who came and found me in DeeCee were planning for an attack¡­ but we couldn¡¯t be sure about anything, when it came to them. Just as their leader had said, there were many secrets in the world.


    We eventually got to the Arena and were given passage once I opened my helmet and confirmed my identity. Inside, I was greeted with the fruits of my last few months of labor.


    Most of the Arena had been recently restructured by Earth Folders. It was now devoid of the tunnels that many new warriors knew as the Corridors. Instead, it was made into something of a maze without an exit, with pathways leading into many closed-off rooms. And in each room¡­ was a suit of bronze armor that had no wearer.


    My latest experiment with my powers had been to automate the very process of monster-killing. We were keeping it secret for the moment, since many Casters would likely revolt. After all, if they couldn¡¯t kill monsters for Essence, wouldn¡¯t they fall behind their Folder brethren?


    That didn¡¯t really concern me, though. People were¡­ messy. Unpredictable. My armor-men, on the other hand, were simple and reliable. The only thing that got them down was situations they weren¡¯t prepared for, and I was getting better and better at filling their metal minds with the relevant information.


    What really helped, I found, was using my armor while fighting the monsters, then transferring a small bit of metal from my armor to that of the others. Some part of my memories, my instincts, got imbued into the metal¡­ a very interesting and unusual effect.


    I began to walk more quickly towards the center of the Arena, and my armor kicked in and began to run at inhuman speeds. Even normal Amplifier armor couldn¡¯t reach these speeds, not without seriously hurting the wearer. My armor, though, was good enough at healing the damage as it happened.


    In short order, I reached the walls above the central holding area that all the Red Mantises were funneled into. The red, pulsing crystal that summoned a mantis every few minutes was in full view. I went up to one of my observer units, essentially a helmet with spider-like legs and a voice box. ¡°Observer, report on the status of the Crystal.¡±, I said.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    ¡°Reee-zero point three five percent shrinkage since previous report-reee.¡± Making the armor speak was still a work in progress, but it was significantly more understandable than it was a year prior. I even noticed certain, long-lived armors developing individual voice patterns.


    As for the more important point¡­ the crystal was shrinking. Killing each and every mantis the thing produced over a short enough timescale seemed to diminish its power. At first, it reacted with the colloquial ¡®Hardcore Mode¡¯, spitting out monsters faster than any normal crystal. Working through that point, though¡­ the production rate was now slowing down, if anything.


    ¡°Observer, report the size of the crystal compared to other crystals.¡±


    ¡°Reee-Size is thirty two point nine two percent of reported data on similar crystal volumes-reee.¡±


    So, we had gotten it down to under a third of its original size. That was really something worth noting. As far as anyone else had heard, at least in our discreet enquiries, there were no other indications that anyone else had discovered this. I supposed they were all too afraid of Hardcore Mode to try. Or, perhaps, they just weren¡¯t as reliable at killing as my armor-men.


    I looked at the crystal more closely. Something about it¡­ disgusted me. Not just the red light that pulsed through it at different frequencies¡­ but what it represented. These things had wrecked our world. Caused the Apocalypse. It had been over two centuries since they fell from the moons, and they still caused trouble. We were only just now coming back on our feet, and we didn¡¯t even know where they came from in the first place. Why can¡¯t they. Just. Go. Away?


    Before I knew it, I joined my armor-men in fighting the mantises. The armors seemed to understand my intentions and left their isolated rooms to join in the larger fight. No longer were the mantises given time to find their way to the instruments of their destruction. No, we brought the fight right to them. They were summoned through whatever cosmic force brought them here¡­ and were summarily dispatched minutes if not seconds later.


    I fought for some time. The logical part of me figured that my armor had enough data on these simple monsters. The emotional part of me wanted the crystal shrunk to the minimum as soon as possible. All parts of me agreed: this thing had to go.


    I had fought like this once before, the combat-trance that first let us understand that the crystal was shrinking. But now, my armor was better at healing me. I didn¡¯t hunger. I didn¡¯t thirst. I only fought.


    I was a little more aware than before. I didn¡¯t fight off any humans who tried to come near me. I only pulled them aside, briefly explained, and then went back into the throes of combat.


    Eventually, I noticed some armor-men who fought better than the rest. No, not armor men. Armor. My teammates were here! Good, we can fight together. The crystal shrunk ever more.


    Later on, many others joined in. Martina, my mother. Byron, the Storm Caster. Others whose names I didn¡¯t know, or at least didn¡¯t remember. We all focused our abilities on one thing: killing monsters.


    There were some instances of human attacks hitting other humans. Inefficient. I diverted some of my armor-men to position them such that all of us were only hitting mantises.


    There were noises, many noises. I ordered my helmet to tune them out. I did notice a few Casters who started using Combined elements. I supposed all this fighting was good for them. Even a few Fire Folders evolved, having absorbed the pitiful abilities of the mantises themselves.


    There were, every now and then, Evolved mantises. Redsteel. Light. Bluesteel. Fog. Even a strange greenish flame that we extinguished before allowing it to do anything. Strange thing, that.


    Finally, of course, Magma. That one was the hardest to combat, since my armor-men didn¡¯t have the high melting points that Redsteel did. Something to consider for the future. The Storm Caster helped with that, freezing the thing in its tracks. I should really get him an armor when this is all over.


    Noises, from all directions. Ones that I couldn¡¯t block out, not with my current armor. I looked around. The Arena seating had been repaired and was now filled with a crowd. Some people I barely recognized, many others I didn¡¯t. Light Casters were projecting close-ups of our fight to all of them. A crowd¡­ cheering us on? Here to see our victory?


    Good.


    We kept going. Some fighters fell away, others came forward. A cycle, kept in perfect harmony thanks to my armor-men. We¡­ we were doing this. The crystal shrank to the size of a table, then a chair, then a fist. I expected more. A second Hardcore Mode. But¡­ nothing. The crystal shrank to nothing. The final batch of mantises were dispatched, and then¡­ there was silence.


    I told my helmet to stop covering sounds, just in case. Still, silence. And then, an eruption of sound. The crowd. It was hard to take, but I managed. The sounds grew and grew. Light folders made a light show reminiscent of Pre-Apocalypse ¡®fire-works¡¯. It was¡­ impressive. Beautiful, I supposed, as I came out of my combat trance.


    Then, the sounds got louder. And louder. The lightshow grew and grew. Wasn¡¯t this¡­ too much?


    Then I saw the screaming. The running. What was-


    The moons. All six were in the sky at once. That¡¯s¡­ impossible.


    Unless-


    A piercing screech. A shape in the sky¡­ no, two of them. This couldn¡¯t be happening, right?


    A red crystal dropped down and found its place, right where the old one had been. But just as I had time to take that in, a yellow one hovered right above it. What the-


    The crystals dissolved into some form of liquid. The two pools merged into a toxic-looking orange color. Then, a new crystal formed, larger than any I had seen before.


    An Evolved Mantis was the first thing summoned. Magma, I noticed. I attempted to find Byron, knowing that he was helpful whenever these ones showed up. Okay. Okay. We can do this. Our battle group reformed. So, what if this crystal was bigger? We could destroy it, just the same. And its ¡®double¡¯ nature? Maybe it could summon, what, enemies of two different types? That wouldn¡¯t be so-


    Oh.


    Oh no.


    Another Magma Mantis appeared. Only a minute later, another. Byron struggled.


    No, no, no.


    This crystal¡­


    Another Magma Mantis. Byron was unable to catch it in time. It ran at speeds unlike its un-evolved versions and began to burn the walls of the Arena.


    It summons an Evolved monster. Every time.


    My armors tried to help Byron. They began to melt into puddles of liquid. The Magma Mantises that had escaped grew in number. They were almost through the walls that had, for two centuries, held the mantises in. Byron tried to corner one of them with the help of one of the Fire twins. It feinted left, then went straight through the opening the move created.


    They were smarter than normal, too.


    They were through the walls. I saw flickers of flames in the distance. The screams, so many screams. There were people who lived right outside the Arena. I had seen them as I had gone in, every day.


    What were we going to do? A wave of some of the most destructive monsters known to man, coming again and again and again¡­


    And what about the myths of Greater Evolved monsters? Supposedly, if a lucky Evolved monster was left alone too long, it would achieve even greater power¡­


    The Islands of Japan had been lost to one, long ago. The thing that did it may even still be alive today. But now, right in the middle of the Five States¡­ there might be another. How long before it happened? A year? A month? ¡­a week?


    Had I¡­ was this my fault? This¡­ it was too much for one person to bear.


    An Air Folder came down from the sky, said everyone was trying to regroup in GreatLake. Said she could take me there. I weakly nodded my agreement.


    As we flew away, the city burned.

 Chapter 30 - Life 6 - The Two Councils

    Chapter 30 ¨C Life 6 ¨C The Two Councils


    ¡°This is *not* my daughter¡¯s fault!¡±, declared my mother.


    The man she was speaking to was angry. ¡°Who else could it be, then? No, there is one person responsible for this, and it¡¯s the freak girl who led the charge to destroy that crystal.¡±


    The room had been hastily commandeered from the GreatLake Hunter¡¯s Guild. It had been several days of nonstop discussions, so many of the people arranged had dark circles around their eyes. The rest of my team was either sleeping or injured, but these talks were important... or so I had assumed at the beginning.


    A woman I recognized as a respected High Caster from York City spoke up. ¡°She may share some of the blame, but not total responsibility. By all accounts, she wouldn¡¯t have managed this alone. When news was leaked of what she was doing, maybe a few tried to stop her, but most were completely willing to cheer her on, if not help out themselves.¡±


    My mother nodded along. ¡°Exactly, don¡¯t try and act like she was working alone. There were people selling *tickets*, for fuck¡¯s sake! ¡®The biggest event since High Casting was discovered¡¯, they called it!¡±


    A large, muscular man intervened. ¡°There is a time and place to assign blame, and this is not it. As we quibble here, our fighters on the ground fight and die.¡±


    Most of the people in the room, including myself, agreed with his words. I would atone for my actions once people were back to safety.


    A man with glasses pulled out a map. ¡°The Arena is bordered by what was once called the Ohi O-River on one side, which curls northward in both directions. Our best Light Folders have indicated that the monsters have been avoiding the river for now. So, they will likely spread north until they hit the much larger body of water here. That *should* keep them contained¡­¡±


    The muscular man interrupted, ¡°No, it will not. After they reach that lake, they will start evaporating the rivers and escape into the wider Five States. I reckon we¡¯ll reach complete infestation in a couple years, five on the outside.¡±


    Everyone looked at him, and he elaborated. ¡°Evolved monsters aren¡¯t just a stronger version of their brethren. They are smarter, too. I once hunted a trio of Evolveds up north. Set a trap for them. They not only knew to avoid it, but they also somehow communicated it to the rest of the pack. They know when they¡¯ve been cornered, and *will* find a way out.¡±


    Someone I didn¡¯t recognize spoke up: ¡°Can we put a stop to new monsters from being summoned? Like¡­ entomb the crystal in solid metal, or something?¡±


    The woman from York City shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s been tried before, on the lesser crystals. With both Earth and Metal. Not only does it trigger ¡®hardcore mode¡¯ immediately, it also doesn¡¯t work. The crystal doesn¡¯t need line of sight to summon a monster, and they have a much larger area of effect than you might think.¡±


    The same person spoke up again: ¡°Well, what if we walled off the area? Surely that would-¡°


    My mother finished for him: ¡°It would be impossible, is what it would be. Every Redsteel Caster and Folder across the Five States put together wouldn¡¯t be able to wall off an area of that size. And regular metal won¡¯t cut it, we know that from what they did to the walls of the Arena¡­¡±


    ¡°Well then, what are we supposed to do? We¡¯re out of options here!¡±


    I spoke up for the first time in the whole meeting. ¡°There is one more option. We ask for help.¡±


    The muscular man scoffed. ¡°Who from, girl?¡±


    I turned around to a corner of the room that I noticed everyone had been avoiding. ¡°From them.¡±


    A figure shrouded in a cloak that looked like it was made of pure darkness stood up. Many people were startled, as if they hadn¡¯t known they were even there. Which was probably the case.


    The figure tilted its head and spoke with a bemused, feminine voice. ¡°I see someone has learned to pay attention. Whether such knowledge will serve her, remains to be seen¡­¡±


    I growled. ¡°Enough games. You could put an end to this, couldn¡¯t you?¡±


    Her chuckle had a slight echo to it. ¡°You think quite highly of us. Perhaps that is wise, for forces beyond your control. Perhaps not.¡±


    ¡°That wasn¡¯t a ¡®no¡¯.¡±


    The figure sighed. ¡°In truth, these events caught us by surprise as well. There have certainly been previous attempts to erase a crystal, but yours was the first to succeed. All others have been put on hold, of course.¡±


    My mother spoke up with an unusual amount of timidness in her voice. ¡°Y-you¡¯re the ones my daughter spoke of. The ones who showed up after she found that man with-¡°


    The cloaked woman sighed and shook her head. ¡°Yes, yes, we don¡¯t need to bring up that whole business. Steps have been taken to ensure such eyesores are kept in their cage. That is unrelated to the matter at hand, though.¡± She turned back to face me. ¡°You asked for help. What are you willing, then, to give in exchange for assistance?¡±


    I had been thinking about this from the moment I first noticed the cloaked figure. ¡°You said I was the first to succeed in destroying a crystal. That means you don¡¯t have anyone with Living Bronze on your side, do you?¡±


    Another echoing chuckle. ¡°We do, actually. A father and son who make self-propelled vehicles for us on occasion. Your point is made, though. Those two couldn¡¯t make a set of armor to save their lives, much less one that acts as a soldier independently. Do you wish to give us an army then? I¡¯ve seen your work. It¡¯s good. It¡¯s also highly liquified at this point in time. Everything but the proverbial clothes on your back, so to speak. Do you *really* think that¡¯s enough?¡±


    I gulped. This would be a gamble, but it was a necessary one to save my home. ¡°I don¡¯t offer an army. I offer a squad. Six soldiers, no more, no less. All made with the entirety of my Essence output over the next several years. I think you know what that would mean.¡±


    The eyes of everyone else in the room glazed over in a highly disturbing fashion. They didn¡¯t blink, didn¡¯t move a muscle. Meanwhile, the cloaked woman moved forward in a way that seemed almost inhuman.


    ¡°And how. Pray tell. Did you learn of such things? The beginnings of Artificing, yes, some have independently mimicked. But to so willingly throw yourself on that path, knowing that it would entice us¡­ who told you? The overbearing watcher? That self-styled Emperor? Surely not the other two, and Mistress would never¡­¡±


    I gulped, not realizing that the Swordsman¡¯s achievements were considered so valuable. I had to tread lightly. ¡°I have¡­ heard rumors, nothing more. That, alongside experiments in my own time, led me to draw some conclusions. Six is clearly an important number, right? So-¡°


    A sigh that caried a terrible weight. ¡°Spare me your excuses. I don¡¯t know how you came about this information, but you have, for better or worse, intrigued me. Certain interested parties were already on their way to examine the new crystal, but I will leave a message for them to examine you as well. Assuming you survive their gaze, an exchange of favors may be possible. You have 2 hours. Do not leak what you know any further, or you will envy the fates of your melted constructs.¡±


    The cloaked woman then held out a strange object, barely visible, that seemed to cast shadows on all available surfaces. The shadows grew, and grew, until the entire room was filled with swirling darker-than-dark tendrils. And then, all at once, the tendrils, the shadows, the woman in the cloak, they were all gone. After a brief, terrible moment of silence, everyone in the room inhaled simultaneously and seemed to wake from a long slumber.


    ¡°Well then, what are we supposed to do? We¡¯re out of options here!¡±


    The same man spoke up, with the same precise tone of voice he used to say that sentence the first time. No-one seemed to notice anything was amiss. As I marveled at the quite frankly terrifying power the cloaked woman had wielded, the argument continued from exactly where it had left off, only without my interjection.


    Very little was accomplished during the meeting, only an agreement to give great favors to any Storm or Redsteel wielders who agreed to help stem the flow of Magma. I quietly excused myself, and my mother seemed quietly relieved that I was allowed to leave without incident.


    I found a small, unoccupied workshop in the Guild building and decided to spend the next two hours infusing all the Essence I could spare into my armor. There was no time to make an entirely new soldier, but I could at least try and prepare myself as best I could.


    Eventually, I heard a commotion outside. Precise timekeeping was difficult for the people of the Five States, but I had a sneaking suspicion that it had been two hours to the minute since the woman gave her ultimatum. I carefully ventured into the courtyard, which now seemed to be filled with people of all sorts. There was only one common thread among these people: I could somehow tell that they were no doubt powerful masters of whichever element they wielded.


    Above all of them, though, standing high above the courtyard, was a metal construct covered in some of the most finely filigreed details I had ever seen. I would never have believed that it had arrived so suddenly if I hadn¡¯t seen the Metal Folders constantly refining their work before my eyes.


    Atop the platform stood 4 people, and they couldn¡¯t have been more different. One was a cloaked figure, indistinguishable from the woman I had spoken to before. One was a frightfully tall dark-skinned man whose bulging, veiny muscles were completely on display thanks to his lack of shirt or other upper clothing. The third was an older woman dressed in the finest red robes I could have ever imagined. Her appearance was of a style I associated with the memories of the Swordsman.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Finally, there was a man who appeared completely ordinary. His light brown skin, average height, and unremarkable clothing wouldn¡¯t be considered notable in any neighborhood, rich or poor, in the Five States¡­ it was only the fact that the other 3 seemed to avoid his gaze that lent him any hint of power.


    It was the ordinary man who spoke up first. He looked right at me and said, ¡°This is the girl we have arrived here for.¡± There was not any question in his voice, only pure, even certainty.


    As the 4 walked towards me, the Metal Folders in the area rapidly restructured the platform to slope down under their feet. The result was that the 4 kept perfectly even footing even as they loomed over me, taking a closer look.


    The robed woman scoffed and spoke in a highly stilted accent, clearly not speaking her home language. ¡°I must thank you, girl. Some in our Empire want all crystal go away. Stupid. Crystal help us be strong. Now you show truth. Crystal *never* go away. Just get stronger. People have to get stronger, too. Good reminder, girl.¡±


    The muscled man spoke up in a voice that sounded like it was just shy of being a yell. ¡°Easy for you to say! Your people live an oceano away from this disaster! Not to mention all the plans this wrecked! Do you know how many resources we¡¯re going to have to push at these super-crystals to keep os monstros under control?¡±


    The cloaked figure gave the impression of looking askance, and spoke up with what was, surprisingly, a male voice this time. ¡°I don¡¯t believe you have any interests left this far north¡­ something you want to share with the class?¡±


    The unassuming man shook his head slightly. ¡°The incident was repeated in Bogota. The local Metal-Fist Gorillas now inflict Rust with their every action.¡±


    The muscled man looked back in shock. ¡°WHAT? Your suprimo agreed he would keep his all-seeing bullshit out of our borders!¡±


    The unassuming man raised a single eyebrow. ¡°Similarly, yours agreed to curtail his ¡®harvesting¡¯ operations until we learned more about the risks. They were then promptly increased to triple speed.¡±


    The muscled man sputtered. ¡°Wh-pff-that-you wouldn¡¯t even KNOW if you hadn¡¯t-GAHHH! Fine! Sim, we destroyed another crystal, and *sim*, another one fell from the sky. And it¡¯s MERDA! Those gorillas evolved into those Azul Metal ones twice as often as anything else put together, but nooo, the new crystal makes ¡®em maldito RUST gorillas. Now, not only we¡¯ve gotta fight against more Rust monsters than anyone has ever seen put together, but we¡¯re out one of our best supplies of Azul Metal, too!¡±


    The cloaked man sighed. ¡°As entertaining as this all is, I would be remiss if I didn¡¯t mention the reas on we¡¯re all here. The girl wants our help, and she made an offer she *really* shouldn¡¯t have known how to make. Her entire set of Core Artifacts.¡±


    The robed woman grimaced. ¡°That right. Girlie, what you doing saying thing like that? You want attention, you got, but it *bad* attention.¡±


    With all their focus returned to me, I tried to keep calm. ¡°I was¡­ not fully aware of the significance of my offer. Still aren¡¯t, actually. Perhaps these ¡®secrets¡¯ you speak of are easier to discover independently than you give them credi-¡°


    The cloaked man laughed in a way that echoed far more than his female counterpart¡¯s. ¡°Ohhhh you really think that¡¯s going to work? Fine, since you are oh-so-ignorant, let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, in a land far-far-away, there was a set of swords. Swords that were made of Bluesteel, but not just any ordinary Bluesteel. Because these things could cut damn near anything¡­ *including Bluesteel armor*. They are, to this day, the most powerful treasures in the Immortal Empire save for their very Emperor himself!¡±


    The robed woman looked like she wanted to refute this, but ultimately refrained from saying anything.


    The cloaked man continued. ¡°So, everyone wondered, how were these swords made? What was more Bluesteel than Bluesteel? Were they forged and reforged by some master blacksmith? Were they fashioned from the armor of some impossibly powerful monster? Or maybe, just maybe¡­¡± The man gestured to me, and I realized that he was expecting some audience participation.


    ¡°Maybe there was more Essence infused into the swords than normal?¡± I ventured a ¡®guess¡¯.


    The 3 with visible faces grimaced, while the cloaked man just gave an unhinged laugh. ¡°YES! ¡®Maybe¡¯ indeed! It¡¯s not the first thing people think of, and often not even the third or fourth¡­ but for everyone who hears about these swords, and the other Artifacts like them, there¡¯s always somebody who wonders ¡®oh, maybe *that¡¯s* how they did it! So, they try it for themselves! And you know what happens then?¡±


    I hesitated for a long while. What was he implying? When the Swordsman did exactly this to make his final swords, and had anything... bad happened? I mean, he blacked out for a little while, but there¡­ wasn¡¯t anything else¡­ I didn¡¯t want to say anything until the muscled man, out of some sort of pity, gave me a hint. He moved his hands in an outward fashion while his lips made a little ¡®o¡¯.


    I blinked. ¡°They¡­ died?¡±


    The man cackled with unearthly glee. ¡°¡¯They died¡¯ she says. Oh yeah, they died. But not just them. They take everybody nearby with them!¡±


    I was aghast. ¡°The Artifacts explode?¡±


    ¡°Ohh no, no no no, that would be far too simple! No, when an Artifact fails to form, every person within earshot just¡­ drops. Dead as a doornail. Poof. Even when the Artifact *succeeds*, there are risks.¡±


    I stammered: ¡°B-but that¡¯s¡­ impossible! How does that even work?!¡±


    The unassuming man looked at me with pity in his eyes, and said, ¡°Some truths are unknowable. Others are very knowable, yet equally dangerous.¡±


    I had a horrifying realization. ¡°You aren¡¯t keeping these secrets for power¡­ you¡¯re keeping them to¡­ protect people?¡±


    The muscled man gave a low chuckle. ¡°Bit o¡¯ both, girl. See, the Core Artifacts that *do* form are some real good shit. Everyone wants ¡®em, especially if they aren¡¯t-¡°


    The other three, including the unassuming man, glared at him furiously. He grimaced. ¡°Ah, yeah, forget that part. Point is, if it weren¡¯t for the dangers, we would be pumping these things out left and right. Hells, even if it was just the Artificer at risk, we would still try. But when desperate people could empty out whole cities if this info got out¡­ yeah, we keep it locked down tight.


    The robed woman frowned at that. ¡°Which beg question about¡­ where you learn this, girl? Who tell you Artifact come in set, but not ¡®bad ones kill people¡¯ part?¡±


    The muscled man nodded. ¡°Yeah, I was kinda wondering that, too. Seriously, this shit is like those old stories of ¡®nuclear bombas¡¯. The more people who know, the worse off we are.¡±


    The cloaked man nodded as well. ¡°That¡¯s what I was saying! It¡¯s even worse than I thought, too. I figured the girl was just overconfident in her chances for some reason, but to actually *not know* about the death radius is just flat out irresponsible.¡±


    I gulped. I was starting to realize what had happened. The Swordsman had created his final swords while exiled in a nearly empty city. Any problems that would have been caused would probably just be attributed to wild monsters. I¡­ I had no idea! If I had done my experiments in a different order¡­ could I have killed everyone back home more surely than the Magma Mantises? And Lambert¡­ I had told him a bit about infusion, too! Were they going to kill him? Were they going to kill me? Were they going to kill *everyone I had ever met*?!


    The four were staring at me. I had to come clean, explain that this was all a misunderstanding, that no-one I knew wasn¡¯t a font of impossibly dangerous knowledge.


    ¡°T-the truth is-¡°


    ¡°Unnecessary at this juncture.¡±, finished the unassuming man.


    The other three looked at him in shock. He silently refused to elaborate.


    The robed woman broke into a string of strange words that I vaguely recognized as terrible curses the Swordsman knew. The other two reacted about as well.


    The cloaked man recovered first. ¡°FFF-fine. Alright. Very well. Does the All-Seer claim this girl, then?¡±


    The unassuming man gave me a long look, before finally speaking up. ¡°He does not. Her truth is her own, but any deals with her will be made, or unmade, without further intervention.¡±


    The muscled man muttered something along the lines of ¡®idiotas act like they¡¯re doin¡¯ ya a maldito favor even enquanto eles te ferram¡­¡¯, slipping into what I assumed was his home language at the end.


    I didn¡¯t know why the man was helping me, but I wouldn¡¯t question it, lest he rescind his protection. I also thought about what I had learned.


    ¡°So, this¡­ effect, this, ¡®death radius¡¯¡­ how big is it? And¡­ does it kill monsters?¡±


    The cloaked man sadly shook his head. ¡°Great idea. Fantastic, even. It¡¯s been tried on multiple occasions. Got some good Artifacts out of it, but no effect on the monsters. Well, it does have the tendency to attract and enrage any monsters that have formed their own Artifacts¡­¡±


    I considered that last bit. ¡°Doesn¡¯t that make Artifact creation a good weapon against those incredibly powerful monsters?¡±


    The muscled man spoke up. ¡°Second best, after the Artifacts themselves. But convincing someone to focus on all that crafting and meditation and shit just so the Fog Devourer or Swarm Queen or what have you starts breathing down their necks is what we in the business call a ¡®hard sell¡¯. The part I think you care about, though, is that there ain¡¯t no way to make a death radius that kills all those Magma monstros. Maldito shame, I know.¡±


    I sighed in defeat. ¡°So, you didn¡¯t really come here to help. You came here to figure out why I know what I know, and now even that has been¡­ blocked off, I guess? You¡¯re all just going to let the Five States melt into molten slag, then?¡±


    The cloaked man *hmm*ed. ¡°Well¡­ not quite. You see, while it is true we came here to isolate any leaked knowledge¡­ well, I for one can¡¯t quite say that a full set of Core Artifacts from a quite rare element isn¡¯t¡­ attractive.¡±


    The robed woman looked up at him. ¡°OHHH no. No no, you no get full set! She not one of you!¡±


    I got the vibe the cloaked man was smiling, even though I couldn¡¯t see his face. ¡°Well, I mean, she did offer them without having met any of you, so really-¡°


    The muscled man shut him down hard. ¡°Not happening there, babaca. You like rules so much, now you gotta follow them. *Each* faction gets one, and she keeps the last one.¡±


    A small glimmer of hope appeared in my chest. If they were talking about Artifacts I hadn¡¯t even created yet¡­ were they actually accepting the deal? And they were even talking about letting me keep one, which seemed to imply they were being honorable about it¡­ but wait¡­


    ¡°Isn¡¯t the set of 6? If you four get one, and I keep one¡­ who gets the last one? And where would I even go to make the set safely?¡±


    Chuckles all around, even, I thought, from the unassuming man. The cloaked man spoke up first. ¡°Funny thing, both those questions have basically the same answer. You see, there¡¯s really only one man we all trust to keep the secrets of Core Artifacts safe while still making them for us. Thanks in no small part to the fact that he never leaves his home.  And that¡¯s where you¡¯re headed.¡±


    I frowned at the sudden turn-around of my situation. ¡°You¡¯re just sending me to live in this guy¡¯s home? Where¡­ where even is it?¡±


    The muscled man smiled a grin with yellow teeth. ¡°Ah¡­ South¡±.


    ¡°The tropical territories?¡±


    ¡°You wish. Muy South.¡±


    ¡°¡­The jungle continent? I thought that¡¯s where you-¡°


    ¡°More south than that.¡±


    ¡°Australia? I heard that place is-¡°


    ¡°Better than where you going. South again.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing on the maps south of Australia!¡±


    ¡°Ohhh yes there is. You know that little white bit on the bottom of every map and globe?¡±


    ¡°¡­No. You can¡¯t be serious. No, I¡¯ll find another way to save-¡°


    ¡°We weren¡¯t asking. It¡¯s either this or shadowfucker over there has to wipe your memory of any dangerous info. Which we *will* be doing to your little boy-toy, by the way. It won¡¯t hurt him. Much. But for you, we have a sneaking suspicion that it would do a lot more than hurt. So, trust me, this really is your only option¡­¡±


    I looked back at the other three. The unassuming man was looking off into the middle distance, like he couldn¡¯t even see me. The robed woman saw me but couldn¡¯t care less. And the cloaked man¡­ he shrugged.


    ¡°He¡¯s right, for once. From the moment you played your hand, this was the outcome. But hey, a deal¡¯s a deal. So long as you knuckle down and make those Artifacts on your end, we¡¯ll corral those Magma Mantises on ours. Just, uh, try and stay warm, alright? It¡¯s pretty damn cold in Antarctica¡­¡±


    I tried to run, but at some point, a large batch of liquid metal had gathered near my feet. It pooled upward and trapped me at the simple, nonverbal commands of the unassuming man. He had the grace to look ever-so-slightly apologetic.


    Then the cloaked man brought out that strange shadowy object that must be some sort of Artifact. If I could just break free of this quicksilver! If I could just make it back to Penn and find some other way to save my home! If I could just convince-


    Darkness.

 Chapter 31 - Life 6 - The Squad

    Chapter 31 ¨C Life 6 ¨C The Squad


    There was a snowstorm on the horizon.


    Snowstorms rarely happened here by accident. I had learned that, over the past 2 years. Despite the area being filled with ice, actual weather events were pretty rare. This place was cold ¨C damn cold ¨C to be sure. Windy, too. But what I had never expected before being shipped off here was how *dry* it was. Snow happened so infrequently, I could only imagine how long it took for this whole place to be covered in ice.


    But there were more important things to think about. Like what was causing this particular snowstorm. It was too obvious for it to be natural, and I had been following it for what must have been days. A monster, then.


    Despite what one might think, Antarctica was not *only* home to monsters with Water, Air, and their combination of Storm. There were crystals of all 6 types to be found, if one looked hard enough. The trick was that, for those unfortunate Fire monsters, they needed to be strong enough to survive the cold wind. It led to a number of monsters dying to environmental conditions before they ever met a single person.


    Air monsters in particular, though, could thrive here. They were able to evolve into their Greater versions at rates that almost made me think someone destroyed a crystal here, though I had been assured that was not the case.


    I picked up my already quick pace as I thought I saw a glimpse of movement. I ordered my Squad to do the same.


    Ranger was at the lead, as usual. I had modified her legs to be better able to run at high speeds. After her was Striker, who kept his spear at the ready. Next to me was Guard, scanning the area for any potential threats as usual.


    Heavy Red and Heavy Blue trailed behind, as the metal alloys used in their construction slowed them down a bit. Finally, taking up the rear, was the most recent member of the Squad, Quartermaster.


    I had based her design off an old story about something called a ¡®cen-taur¡¯. Four legs on a monster-like body, which smoothly transitioned to a human torso on top. It had been difficult to get her legs working in sync, but the result was that she could carry an exceptional amount of spare metal weapons and other supplies with ease. She was in the back for now but could easily overtake the Heavies if I commanded her to push herself.


    Eventually, the monster causing the snowstorm came into view. A large bird flying in the center of the storm. From its appearance, I suspected that it had evolved from a Gust Vulture, as opposed to a Hydro Gull. The difference mattered, since anyone who fought enough Evolved monsters knew that while their element would be the same, their fighting style would be dependent on whichever one they started with.


    In this case, I knew that the Vultures depended more on physical strikes, as opposed to the Gulls that preferred ranged attacks. I silently commanded Striker and Ranger to take the first shots, while the Vulture hadn¡¯t noticed we were tracking it.


    They worked in perfect synchronicity. Ranger fired an arrow from her custom-made recursive bow, while Striker threw his spear with inhuman strength. The Vulture was aware enough of its surroundings to dodge the arrow¡­ but hitting it hadn¡¯t been the goal. The dodge took it directly into the path of Striker¡¯s spear. The Vulture *squawk*ed in indignity as the spear dug into its wing. It fell from the sky.


    Out of its preferred battleground, the fight against the Vulture was rather simple. It did, to its credit, condense the storm to a small but fierce area around itself. Many humans would die from attempting to step foot there. But Heavy Red was built with this kind of thing in mind. Contrary to popular belief, Redsteel was not just resistant against heat, but cold as well. Bluesteel, despite being the stronger metal normally, would become brittle when facing Essence-empowered cold.


    Heavy Red retrieved its large war-hammer from Quartermaster and systematically crushed the Vulture¡¯s feet and wings. It wouldn¡¯t be going anywhere. The storm ebbed as its life faded. Finally, before the thing died entirely, I used a dagger to its eyes to achieve the actual kill. The rules of how much Essence a Caster got from killing a monster were¡­ unclear. That said, the rush I got was noticeably more than if I had just let the non-living Squad do all the work for me.


    I thought that had gone rather well¡­ until Guard suddenly jumped in the air to deflect a strange, red projectile with her shield. I had been worried about something like this. I ordered the Squad to form up around me, infusing my Essence into Guard to give her as much of a boost as possible. Infusion had become more difficult as of late, which carried implications, but there was no time to consider that.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Red projectiles started to assault us, with my Squad taking the hits. I knew that if even a single one came in contact with me, there would be little that could save me. Eventually, Ranger confirmed the direction the projectiles were coming from and began to rapidly fire arrows. One of them eventually hit, as an inhuman *screech* rang out.


    Taking that as a cue, Striker retrieved his spear from the corpse of the Vulture and ran off into the distance, hoping to hit the monster before it recovered. I almost thought we had gotten it in time until the discarded projectiles began to writhe and liquify. That was a ¡®no¡¯, then.


    Guard and I quickly grabbed onto handles that I had formed on Quartermaster¡¯s back for precisely this purpose. She ran at top speed away from the red liquid, but it almost wasn¡¯t enough. A new projectile shot forth, directly towards me. Guard was narrowly able to do a summersault over Quartermaster¡¯s back and deflect it, dropping to the ground in the process.


    I was about to command Quartermaster to begin evasive movements when another *screech* rang out, shockingly close. The icy ground erupted right before us, and a red monster the length of a building emerged, angrily.


    The sight of it confirmed my worries. Ordinary Wurms were bad enough, carrying the highly rare Life Essence. They were able to heal themselves from many injuries, up to and including being split in two. They could also burrow underground to some degree, even without any access to Earth Essence. This one, though, was far larger and clearly Evolved. A Blood Wurm.


    Striker soon arrived and began stabbing the thing repeatedly. Unfortunately for him, the injuries healed almost as soon as the spear had left the Wurm¡¯s body. Heavy Red¡¯s war-hammer did even less, and while Heavy Blue¡¯s great-sword dug a bit deeper, it wasn¡¯t enough.


    Even worse, the injuries they could cause leaked blood that the Wurm could control. The Wurm had a simple mind, but it began to figure out how to use the red liquid to restrain my metal soldiers, even though it couldn¡¯t kill them. If this went on, I would be doomed.


    I ordered Quartermaster to flee, but it was no use. Just as I had hunted the Storm Vulture, the Blood Wurm was hunting me. The icy wasteland had no features I could use to hide, and Antarctica¡¯s sole true settlement, was at least a week away. I considered altering my armor, trying to make sure there were no gaps that the blood could get inside and touch bare skin, but that would leave me completely immobile.


    Instead, I decided to strengthen Guard. She had been the Squad¡¯s first member, modelled after a combination of myself and my long-lost teammate Silvie. Guard traditionally wielded a shield and short sword, but I had tried to put in skills for all sorts of weapons, including the ones wielded by the other Squad members.


    As we ran, I tried to think of anything I could to strengthen Guard. Necessity was the mother of invention, after all. I changed her musculature, made her faster, stronger. I had already incorporated something like a skeleton of harder metal, but now I pushed more and more Essence into it. But I couldn¡¯t think of anything that would put the Wurm down.


    It was difficult to think while constantly dodging blood projectiles. If it weren¡¯t for my armor¡¯s healing capabilities, I would have long since passed out from exhaustion. Then, just as I began to despair, I noticed something. The green veins that ran down Guard¡¯s body¡­ started to become deeper and darker in hue.


    The Swordsman¡¯s memories surged inside me. This was it! I focused on adding more Essence, not to the metal, but inside the veins themselves. I sank deep into thought, some faint part of me hoping that Quartermaster could keep the projectiles off me by herself. I needed my full concentration.


    Life¡­ and Metal. Metal given Life. Two opposites, one opportunity. The natural (or even supernatural?) meeting human artifice.


    But for what purpose? What did I hope to gain from this? Well¡­


    The answer came to me all at once. I didn¡¯t need to *gain* anything. I just wanted to retain what I had lost. My home. My friends and family. My life in the Five States.


    I didn¡¯t fight to gain honor, or glory, or power. I didn¡¯t make my soldiers to conquer, like the cruel rulers I had met.


    I only wanted¡­


    to *protect*.


    A flash of green light almost blinded me, and I almost fell off of the still-retreating Quartermaster. Then, I saw a fantastical sight. Guard had grown, from her ordinary height of a little under 6 feet to at least 9 feet tall. Her veins were a dark, emerald green, and they ran through her newly resized sword and shield as well.


    Guard began to pummel the Wurm, and with every strike, its bloody wounds seemed to heal more and more slowly. Then, I remembered something else about the Swordsman¡¯s powers. He didn¡¯t just have one sword. He had 6.


    I had Quartermaster bring me around to come in contact with Lancer, and in short order he disappeared into dust. My consciousness wavered, and a headache slammed forth. Then, before I could worry that I had done something incorrectly, Lancer reformed, this time in a form just as tall as Guard, along with a pair of giant spears.


    The two together were finally enough. Guard, after slashing many times, finally cut the Wurm in half. Before the two halves could reconnect, Lancer stabbed one with a spear and hurled it into the distance. The blood that had pooled all around the battlefield lost its liquid quality, soon becoming frozen in the cold wind.


    I was completely exhausted, even with my armor healing me at maximum speed. But, as I lost consciousness, my final thought¡­


    Was that I was in good hands, now.

 Chapter 32 - Life 6 - The Dome

    Chapter 32 ¨C Life 6 ¨C The Dome


    When I awoke, I was surrounded by ice-covered mountains. I was a little annoyed with myself, despite it all, that I could actually recognize where we were. When I first arrived here in this frozen hell, I had thought I would just find some place to hunker down, make my Artifacts, and leave. The strange town built into the ice, known as Dome Argus, held no interest to me. That was, unfortunately, na?ve of me.


    When I had started to leave the town for the first time, I was given a ¡®friendly warning¡¯ that the Antarctic ¡®day season¡¯ was about to end. For reasons I didn¡¯t fully understand, the day in Antarctica was 6 months long¡­ and so was the night. When I first heard that, I didn¡¯t believe it, but was allowed to go on without further warning. Then, after what must have been a few weeks, a long sunset occurred. I realized there may be some truth to what I was told and hurried back to the city. I managed to get back in view of their lights just as the darkness truly took hold.


    The town¡¯s rules were a little strange, but absolute. The laws against fighting or causing other unwanted disturbances, I could understand. What surprised me was how well everyone who had been exiled here followed them to the letter. This was, for all intents and purposes, a prison colony away from civilization¡­ I had been expecting a state of total lawlessness.


    That was, until I witnessed someone get a little too drunk on the limited supply of alcohol, and a little too violent. A town guard, dressed in an impressive Redsteel suit of armor, had given him a single warning. When he refused to listen¡­ well, it took me a second to figure out what happened. Where there stood a man in one second, stood an ice sculpture of that same man in another. And after a few seconds where nobody moved a muscle¡­ the frozen man shattered.


    I eventually learned that the rules were set by a man who took the name of the town as his own, Argus. The Artifact Master.


    There were rules beyond basic decency, of course. There were rules regarding trade, curfews, the rotation of who fought monsters¡­ and, of course, the making of Artifacts.


    Everyone here knew about Artifacts and the horrifying price paid when they failed to form. Making an Artifact anywhere close to the city, even if you succeeded, was punishable by death. To escape this punishment, one had to agree to go on long journeys out into the wilderness, carefully planned out to not come close to a single soul. That was where I had been when I hunted the Vulture and was in turn hunted by the Wurm. And now, I had succeeded.


    Guard and Lancer were watching over me as I awoke, gentle giants who must have been the ones who carried me here. Surprisingly, they didn¡¯t blindly bring me into the city, which would have itself implied a bit of pathfinding on their part. Instead, they took me to the outskirts, near enough that I could tell where I was, but far enough that I was left alone. It¡¯s what I would have asked them to do, had I been awake to ask for it. Curious.


    I spent some time experimenting with my new powers. I could make Guard and Lancer disappear and reappear in an instant, though it was a bit draining. I could still order them around, as normal¡­ but they seemed a touch more responsive to my mental commands, and showed a bit more¡­ initiative, perhaps? When I asked them to practice a combat move, they would not only do it, but fluidly go through the next several moves in the set. Some moves, even I wasn¡¯t sure I could pull off, and I wasn¡¯t 9 feet tall.


    Speaking of their height, I soon found that, with some effort on their part, my two giant Squad members could reduce their stature back to their original human sizes. I was glad, since they would get enough attention as it was on the streets of Dome Argus.


    Satisfied with the performance of my new Artifacts, there was one important thing to do. Among the rules of Dome Argus that seemed a little specific, one of them was that anyone who successfully formed an Artifact was to report directly to Argus himself.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    We marched towards the city. The first thing I noticed, as always, was the wind. One moment, it was as fierce as ever in the Antarctic cold, and the next, there was nothing but silence. I was certain this was the effect of some manner of Storm Artifact.


    After a while of walking in stilled air, the city was visible. It was small, compared to the reclaimed cities of the Five States, but it was *dense*. There were tall buildings in the center that were connected with walkways and platforms, and the end result was an almost dome-like shape. I had lived here, off and on, for a little over 2 years. Even made a few friends. It would never be home, though.


    A shape appeared in the distance. A cloud of dust? No¡­ I knew what this was. My welcoming party. The Sand cloud hovered right over me and the Squad, then dropped down right in front of us. It took the shape of 6 individuals dressed in identical tan robes. I grimaced, having never enjoyed talking to these people. Or rather¡­ this person.


    ¡°Welcome-ome back-ack, Armorer-er¡­¡± They intoned in the same monotone voice. ¡°You-ou have-ve returned-ned early-ly. Perhaps-s you-ou have-ve succeeded-ded in-n your-r work-k?¡±


    I sighed, having to put some extra mental work into understanding what was essentially 6 mouths all speaking the same words at slightly different times. ¡°Yes, I returned early. As for whether I succeeded in making an Artifact¡­ I don¡¯t think the law requires me to tell *you* that, does it?¡±


    ¡°Hmm-mm. An-n answer-r all-l on-n its-s own-n, we-e suppose-se. Enter-er then-en¡±


    The Sandstorm¡¯s 6 bodies proceeded to all do the same ¡®go on, then¡¯ motion. They were one of the many oddities of this place, a group of people who took part in an experimental Artifact creation by¡­ well, I didn¡¯t know who. One of their bodies¡¯ original inhabitants, I supposed. The strange thing was, the Artifact they created was still considered a ¡®success¡¯ in that it didn¡¯t kill anybody¡­ it just warped their minds beyond recognition.


    I once heard it explained that, just as sand dunes were all temporary shapes, these 6 bodies were just expressions of one mind that got all jumbled-up whenever they turned into Sand. Whatever the case, they freaked me the hell out. I hoped there was nobody looking to repeat the experiment.


    I was ushered into Dome Argus proper, and for the first time in many weeks I was able to take my helmet off. The cool air instantly chapped my lips, but considering this was once the coldest place in the world, it was surprisingly comfortable. Caused by yet another Artifact, I assumed.


    I was then unexpectedly tackle-hugged. ¡°Sister, you¡¯ve returned!¡±, said a dark-skinned girl who looked absolutely nothing like me. I chuckled as I hugged back. Neela came from a large extended family in Africa, and apparently now considered all the Metal-Users of Dome Argus as part of that.


    Another girl, tall and blonde, came up a bit more quietly. ¡°Early, huh? Hit something you and those soldiers couldn¡¯t fight? They all look fine¡­ how¡¯s Mr. Blue holding up?¡± Velka had been the one to supply the Bluesteel that Heavy Blue was made of, while Neela was similarly helpful with Heavy Red.


    ¡°They¡¯re all fine¡­ I did hit a bit of a rough patch, though. An Evolved Wurm, with Blood Essence.¡±


    Neela and Velka both winced. Neela spoke up first: ¡°That sounds *rough*! I¡¯m glad I¡¯m not a Caster, forced to go out there and fight those things¡­ but, it sounds like you pulled through, yes?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°It wasn¡¯t easy, but the Essence I got out of it was¡­ considerable, let¡¯s say.¡±


    Velka¡¯s eyes shined with anticipation. ¡°Then does that mean¡­ you did it?¡±


    I dragged the moment out a bit. ¡°Well¡­¡­ yes.¡±


    Neela was excited beyond belief. ¡°Oh, oh! Incredible! Which one was it, then? The Lancer? He feels a little¡­ different, I would say.¡±


    I shook my head. ¡°Actually, it was Guard. But you¡¯re right, Lancer was up next.¡±


    Velka looked concerned. ¡°You already did two of them? I thought that took longer¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fine, Velka, really. You don¡¯t have to worry about me.¡±


    Neela suddenly looked saddened. ¡°Oh, but this means¡­ you will be leaving soon, won¡¯t you? Back to your States, to help fight?¡±


    I nodded solemnly. ¡°I will be leaving soon, yes. I made some promises, and I intend to keep them.¡±


    Neela sighed. ¡°Well¡­ at least come say goodbye to some of the others, then! I¡¯m sure they will want to see the first-ever Greensteel Artifacts¡­¡±


    I scoffed. ¡°I told you, we aren¡¯t calling it that! It¡¯s bronze, not steel!¡±


    ¡°But it just fits the other two so well!¡±


    ¡°What do you call Quicksilver, then? ¡®Graysteel¡¯? ¡®Wetsteel¡¯?¡±


    ¡°Bah, what do you know?¡±, said Neela between her chuckles.


    I sighed. ¡°I won¡¯t miss much about this place¡­ but I will miss you two.¡±


    The three of us shared a hug, a real one this time.


    *Ahem* ¡°If you girls are about done¡­ I think it¡¯s time I had a chat with our little Armorer¡­¡±


    I looked up to see a statue of a man dressed in what looked like a Pre-Apocalypse suit and tie¡­ but entirely made out of blue ice.


    I frowned. ¡°Argus, I presume?¡±


    The ice-man shrugged, making a faint sound of glaciers cracking. ¡°Indeed. And, much as I hate to break up a hearty ¡®goodbye¡¯¡­ there really are things we need to discuss...¡±