by Rick Scott
“Right.”
He didn’t like the sounds of that either. “What exactly is it?”
“The primordial realms of ascension are coveted because of the Qi they produce. All Qi in the divine universe spawns from them. Powerful beings from other realms are always seeking to invade, trying to claim the realms as their own.”
“Invade?”
“Like those giant demons you saw in your visions… the Ozoku, as they are known. They are a powerful and ancient race that spawn from one of the dark realms. The places we call the nine hells.”
“So are there nine realms of ascension as well?” Shinoto asked.
Olja grinned. “You’re a quick one, Shinoto. Yes, the celestial realms are balanced with the realms of darkness. And the darkness constantly vie for control over the light. Or so the ancient texts say.”
“I’d very much like to read some of these ancient texts for myself,” Kenji said. “We have no legends or stories like that here.”
“Being a part of the empire, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Olja said. “Things such as this are the reason the Tsu and even the Xjian kingdom have fought the empire over the years. For the empire to exist, the emperor must remain all-powerful and supreme. Things such as what I’m telling you now must remain only as superstition and legend. They call us barbarians as a result, but to us, it’s the Holy Truth. And you can read as many of the holy texts as you want once we reach my homeland. But we need to get there first.”
Kenji pondered that a moment. What she said was true. The empire controlled everything. From what the mystic schools taught to what the gray robes were allowed to take or not. “To think, there’s a whole other world and philosophy living just beyond the wall. And we know very little about it.”
“And it’s also a thousand miles away, right?” Shinoto said with a deadpan face.
Olja shrugged. “Give or take a mile or two.”
Kenji let that thought sink in as the boat continued along the river. He’d only planned as far as escaping from Amatsu Village and reaching Kurogane, but now his final destination might be much further away than that. It was a lot to consider. As he looked back the way they’d come, he saw the sky to the north had darkened considerably with the threat of rain and the clouds looked to soon block the afternoon sun.
The sight reminded him of something.
“What was that city I saw?” Kenji asked. “In the celestial realm. It was filled with lights, and flying creatures. I saw our friend Waru escape to there, across a dark body of water, fleeing from those giant demons.”
“Xanadu perhaps. The city of restful souls. That place too is constantly under attack by great ones seeking to plunder its power.”
“And that place is above this one, right?” Shinoto asked. “In the celestial heavens?”
“Yes.”
“And there nine more heavens as well?”
“Yes,” Olja said. “And nine lower planes of darkness also, where the truly abominable reside. Great beings, powerful like that Bakunawa, dwell in such places. But there are other realms outside of all of this—many more countless mundane realms that are neither ascension nor darkness. Even those need defending from the dark forces, but they are not so drawn to them, unless some great artifact or relic is found. The primordial realms of ascension, like this one, however, is what they truly seek. For the dark ones to invade a primordial realm of ascension is like a snake finding a clutch of eggs. They would gorge to no end and if left unchecked would spread to other realms as well. That’s why a Holy Templar must exist to defend each one.”
“And that’s what I’m supposed to become?” Kenji said. “Some 100th-Dan mystic warrior that fights giant demons and Bakunawa?”
“Yes,” Olja said with a laugh. “Although reaching 100th Dan would be just the beginning.”
Shinoto blinked. “What?”
“Upon reaching 100th Dan, you’d need to ascend further to become a 1st Sen.”
“A 1st Sen…” Kenji recalled the brief conversation he’d had with the Bloody Duke when he mentioned that tier. “I remember seeing someone like that now. She was amazing. Like a celestial angel. She killed one of those giant demons single-handedly with just a few strokes of her blade.”
“A low-tier celestial defender perhaps,” Olja said. “Templars are normally 10th Sen or higher. I believe the Templar of the fourth realm is a 23rd Sen.”
Kenji’s heart leapt. “23rd? That would be 2300 Dans, correct?”
“More or less,” Olja said with a shrug.
His mind spun. “How do you even reach such levels of advancement?”
“Things grow more powerful the closer you are to the primal realms. I believe the Templar of the 1st Realm is a 2nd Ulm or something…the equivalent of a 200th-level Sen.”
Kenji’s chest heaved as if with fright. The sheer magnitude of such thoughts was overwhelming. He looked to Shinoto and could see the same perplexed wonder on her face. But then a devastating reality hit him.
If this was the path laid out for him…then where would that leave her?
“Why me?” he asked, suddenly feeling trapped. “Why me and not someone else? What if I don’t want that kind of future for me?”
Olja frowned. “Perhaps that’s a question only the Holy Seer can answer for you. All I know is that you are gifted, or perhaps…Li Wan Fu was. And now that you are him…” She simply shrugged again.
Kenji’s stomach soured at the thought. “So I’ve been chosen for this path because he was chosen?”
“No, Kenji,” Olja said. “Li Wan Fu was not just chosen; he already accepted and was on this path, but he stumbled. The Holy Seer sent me to find you, because she foresaw another chance for him…or you rather…to climb the path of ascension once again.”
Saying it like that made his stomach tense with unease. “Do I even have a choice?”
Olja frowned. “I don’t know. I suppose. But it might be a bit harder to reject the path of ascension now. You’ve already summoned a Bakunawa and Li Wan Fu himself seeks you for his body as well. You will need to progress as a means of survival more than anything else, Kenji. Li Wan Fu is more driven than anyone you can imagine. He will not stop until he achieves his aim.”
“What happened to him?” Shinoto asked. “How did he stumble?”
A faint clap of thunder rumbled in the distance.
“It all happened before my time,” Olja said. “But he became too obsessed with his gaining of power, I think. I never knew him, but the Seer told me of his stories. He grew impatient and wanted to ascend far too quickly. So he turned to the dark arts, drawing power from the dark realms and those he killed. In the end, he lost his way. He then became consumed with the affairs of mortal men—worldly power and carnal pleasures. I don’t know for certain, but at some point, I believe his goal changed from ascending to the next plane to defend the realm, to simply remaining here as a 100th Dan and ruling over it.”
Kenji swallowed the lump in his throat. “That doesn’t sound like someone you can reason with. How did the emperor even defeat him? How did they sunder his soul and create me?”
Olja shook her head. “That I do not know. All I know was that some 40 years ago, Li Wan Fu left for the Zhou kingdom to the south and was somehow defeated there 20 years later. I had no idea of the sundering or rebirthing until I found you.”
“How did you even find out about any of this then?” Kenji asked. “About me?”
“From what the Holy Seer told me,” she said. “Soon after we learned of Li Wan Fu’s defeat, I was sent south on a mission to prepare for his return. But I had no idea that it would be in the form of you.”
Kenji’s skin chilled at the thought. “Who is this Holy Seer exactly? She sees the future, I assume. Is she an ascended cultivator as well?”
“To some extent,” Olja said. “She is now a celestial being who oversees this realm and selects its guardian Templar. I don’t know much more about her other than that. But I do believe she was mortal once.”
“How do you have contact with her?” Shinoto asked.
“It’s something that runs in my family, we’re oathbound to serve her as the mortal retainers of her duty to protect the 8th realm.” She then paused. “…Also it has something to do with my family being from one of these other realms as well.”
Shinoto gasped. “So you’re a celestial being too, then?”
Olja laughed. “Hardly. More the opposite, in fact. There are ways to cross between the realms. Our people settled here, on Bangōr many years ago, coming from one of the mundane realms. Or so our history is told.”
“So is that why you’re so different than us?” Kenji asked. “The Xjian people?”
Olja shrugged. “I suppose, but not all Xjian are like me. It’s only my immediate family who serve the Seer and who know about her existence and all of this crap.” She then frowned. “It’s a real pain in the ass sometimes.”
Shinoto chuckled. “You certainly have a strange way with words.”
“So,” Kenji said, smiling at Olja. “This sounds as much about your destiny as it is mine.”
“I suppose so,” Olja said with a mirthless laugh. “It’s my duty to keep you on the path of righteousness this time around. But I don’t think even the Holy Seer realizes just how powerful you might become now. The balance of power is a serious thing. Attracting beings like that Bakunawa might only be the beginning. If you ascend and remain upon this realm as the equivalent of a 100-plus Dan, I don’t know what that would mean.”
Kenji swallowed. Running from that spider-demon was bad enough, but now he might have a future filled with defeating giant demons and monsters his entire life?
“How am I to become this Templar then?” he said, but then quickly added, “if I choose to, that is.”
“Well, you must progress through the cultivation tiers as normal of course,” Olja said. “But then you’ll also need to face certain trials along the way.”
“What kinds of trials?”
Olja shook her head. “I don’t know. Only the Seer would be able to tell you that. That’s why we need to go north. Celestial beings as powerful as her are only permitted to cross the barriers between realms at certain points in time and space. We can only commune with her within our holy temple.”
Kenji looked to Shinoto. “What do you make of all this?”
The little girl shrugged. “I always wanted to see the world, but this seems to be taking it a bit far.”
“Look,” Olja said with a sigh. “I know this might seem overwhelming and a bit forced upon you, Kenji… but the truth is you’re needed. Li Wan Fu was picked by the Holy Seer centuries ago because he was some kind of great prodigy. But he failed and now we are defenseless. But by him being reborn as you, this entire realm has been given a second chance.”
Instantly Kenji recalled both the second chance his father had given him and also what old Waru had said to him before. He chuckled. “My friend Waru claimed that I was the karmic balancing of Li Wan Fu’s sins, the penance for his crimes against the heavens.”
“Perhaps so,” Olja said with a smile. “But before you decide anything, know that there will be some things you’ll have no choice but to face, Kenji. Starting with that Bakunawa and eventually Li Wan Fu. But eventually, beings like the Ozoku will threaten us all and the few 1st Sens that stand now in their path defending us will one day become overwhelmed.”
Kenji recalled that scene from the black beach, where that sole 1st-Sen warrior ventured into that darkness after slaying that demon, performing her duty to defend against that attacking horde alone.
“With strength comes responsibility, Kenji. And you, as a reborn Li Wan Fu, have a chance to rewrite the mistakes of his past. You have the ability to ascend quickly enough to take your place within the breach, before something powerful enough manifests itself from the dark realms and lays waste to this one. And when that happens, not only will this world be destroyed, but the balance of power will forever shift and place the remaining eight primordial realms in jeopardy as well.”
His head swam as his stomach fluttered.
The task sounded monumental when put like that. He had no idea what he expected to learn from Olja, but he had no idea it would come to something as fundamentally critical as this.
“But more importantly,” she said. “Or perhaps more urgently. Li Wan Fu will not give up. And your failure will mean his victory. The potential you have to become twice as powerful exists for him also, should he reclaim that body of yours. If that happens, we won’t need to wait to be invaded by a greater god from the nine hells. We’d already have one right here on Bangōr.”
That thought made his heart jump a little.
The thunder came again and Kenji looked to the north and the quickly darkening sky.
“Well, whatever the case,” Kenji said. “I won’t be able to ascend or face any kind of threat until I fix my doma. That’s the first order of business for me.”
“That goes double for me,” Shinoto said. “None of this will matter if he dies from Qi sickness tomorrow, right?”
Kenji grinned at her. “Tomorrow? Are you trying to rush me to an early grave?”
Shinoto laughed and brought much-needed relief to the heaviness of the conversation.
Olja finally smiled and nodded. “Fine. Kurogane first, wherever the hells that is. And then it’s home to Xjian Province right away. Deal?”
Olja extended her large hand and they both shook it as one.
Kenji smiled. “Deal.”
The air chilled with a swift wind and a drizzle of rain came with it. The boat began to rock to and fro as the water suddenly stirred with a light chop. The waves grew stronger, sending Shinoto falling into the middle of the boat.
“What’s going on?” she said, as she corrected her footing with Qinggong.
A thunderhead surged across the sky, lightning flashing. Trees bent and snapped as a typhoon-like wind whipped the river waters into white froth. A sickness entered Kenji’s stomach as hard rain began to pelt down from the turbulent sky. A powerful sense of Dark Qi consumed him, mixed with something else. Something familiar.
This was no normal storm…
Olja rose to her feet, deftly balancing her long legs against both sides of the boat with Qinggong. She squinted, peering at the approaching thunderhead and then her eyes grew wide with alarm. “Arm yourselves! Now!”
There atop the cloud were four figures, barely visible against the wind-whipped rain. Kenji could vaguely make out the forms of the three sellblades and the general, but there was something different about him now. Five glowing jian blades surrounded his head like a celestial crown and his eyes glowed red like a demon.
Kenji’s heartbeat sped as the resonance within his doma increased.
This was no longer the general…
“You don’t have time to fix your doma, Kenji!” Olja brandished her gauntlets, surging with lightning-charged Qi. “You’ll need to use it to fight for your life right now!”
Chapter 46 - Survival
Lightning flashed with a tremendous boom, hitting the surface of the river just a few feet from the boat. The water exploded and the world turned upside down as the small boat was thrown end over end towards the shore. Kenji reached for Shinoto as they tumbled through the air, grabbing the small girl by her arm. The boat flipped over, not even touching the water, before slamming hard into the riverbank and dashing them onto the packed, wet sand.
Kenji rolled, disorientated for a moment and then looked to Shinoto who had managed to land on her feet with Qinggong.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
Kenji nodded and stood. “We need to prepare!”
But how…?
As Kenji turned to face the river, Olja clambered to her feet and did the same. The giant woman pushed herself in front of them as the thundercloud descended to the ground. As the wind abated, Amikazu drifted out of the sky. His robes billowed, the five swords hovering just off his back, joined by a long uchigat
ana blade that slowly materialized in his hand.
“Ah, there you are…” he said, his eyes fixing immediately on Kenji. “So good to see you in the mortal realm, little brother.”
Kenji tensed. He knew it was no longer General Amikazu within that body, but he didn’t expect for him to speak with the exact voice of the Bloody Duke as well. The sound of it was haunting and reinforced the threat they now faced.
This was Li Wan Fu, the legendary 80th-Dan mystic warrior known as the Bloody Duke…his former self. Kenji tried to summon the Qi within his doma, to see if he could cripple him as he had before, but he no longer felt that same resonance now. A stabbing pain was the result instead and he immediately ceased, fearing more damage to his already-ravished doma.
On either side of the Duke, two sellblades landed lightly with Qinggong: the barrel-chested man with the claws followed by the witch with her fiery Dark Qi. The third, however, fell to the ground like a stone, hitting the sand unmoving after landing hard on his neck.
Kenji winced at the sight. Was he dead? Then to his horror, the form moved and righted itself with a life that didn’t seem its own. The sounds of popping joints and breaking bones made his skin prickle as the thing stood to face them with milky-white eyes.
Heavens have mercy…Dark Qi exuded from it, filling Kenji’s stomach with sickness.
“What is that thing?” Shinoto said with fear in her voice. “Is he… is he already dead?”
“Your time has come to an end, Li Wan Fu!” Olja said boldly as she brandished her gauntlets. “You have failed in your duty. You’ve been judged by the heavens and relegated to whatever you are now. Kenji will succeed you in becoming the Holy Templar of this realm.”
The Duke cocked his head at her quizzically. “Ah, I recognize that face…but you are not Sonja, are you?”
“No, I’m not,” she said with a scowl. “Not that that should make any difference to you. Your journey of ascension ends today.”
The Duke’s eyes then grew wide with recognition. “Ah! You’re little Olja, aren’t you? By the heavens, how you’ve grown. You were but a child when I saw you last.”
