by Nick Harrow
“I can’t believe you think that’s how this is going to go down,” I said with a shake of my head. I forced myself to straighten and pulled my shoulders square, despite the fact that I couldn’t feel my left arm at all. “I’m here to unravel all the damage you’ve done. I want to put the world back the way it was.”
“The way it was,” the Emperor mused. “Ripe for plunder at the hands of the hungry spirits. Ready to be raped by the hordes of the Frozen Hells. That’s what this world was before I remade it.”
“Oh, now you’re responsible for all this,” I said. “And here I thought my people had done it. You can’t have it both ways, asshole.”
“Clever boy,” the Emperor said, his voice as silky smooth as a freshly sharpened blade. “It doesn’t matter what I say here, the people know the truth. And they know their only hope is to let me continue the work I’ve begun. To fashion this world into something stronger, something more powerful than it was before.”
“Oh, wait, I think I know this one,” I said, raising one finger as I advanced toward the Emperor. My spirit sight showed me the blazing darkness of his core. My stomach tightened into a knot, and I realized I was looking at the highest possible level of sacred energy advancement. The Emperor had transcended to the voidbound core, a mythical state so far above other practitioners he might as well have been a god. I pick the worst fights. “The world will only be perfect when you’re in charge. Am I close?”
“Don’t be a fool,” the Midnight Emperor scoffed. “Of course this world needs a ruler. Someone must control the senjin, to keep it from running wild and attracting enemies from beyond the realms of mortals. I am the one to harness its power. I can protect everyone. Just submit to me, and the world becomes a place of peace and prosperity.”
Everything made sense now. The Emperor had used the invasion to trick my people into poisoning the dream meridians. That horrible mistake had driven the demons out, and it had destroyed most of the sacred energy practitioners. Only those who had prepared and shielded themselves from the danger, like the Emperor, or who hadn’t been around, like me, had survived. The rest had been wiped out in the blink of an eye.
While I’d been gone, this asshole had been bending the world to his will. If he had his way, he wouldn’t be like a god. This world would be his, and he would be its god. He would become the unstoppable master of corrupted senjin.
That corruption would choke the life out of the great spirits like the crimson bear. It would kill off the lesser spirits, too. Ayo and Aja would die without sacred energy to sustain them. The world would become a dead place, its inhabitants slaves to the Midnight Emperor.
“No,” I said. “I don’t think so.”
For all its faults, the world I’d left behind was a better place than this one. I had a chance to save its inhabitants from becoming slaves, to show them how to live free again. I could heal the corruption, and bring the sacred practitioners back into this world.
All I had to do was kill the most powerful motherfucker in the world.
“Then you must die,” the Midnight Emperor howled. His mortal mask peeled away to reveal the ugliness beneath. Purple malignancy bubbled through his skin, shredding his flesh as it sprouted into its true form. Beams of hellish radiance poured from its body like spears hurled at me. Even as it changed, it attacked, tentacles lashing at me, spines thrusting.
I dodged, jumped, twisted around the attacks, wishing I had more than one node of rin left to push into my legs. I avoided every assault, but only by the skin of my teeth. I didn’t have enough sacred energy left in my core to continue, and the two nodes he’d infected were fighting against me. I was just about out of the power I needed to have any chance of beating this piece of shit.
There was more power, though. A source so potent it called to every fiber of my being. Sure, it was corrupted all to hell, and taking it in would almost certainly kill me. The question was: Would it kill me before I killed the Midnight Emperor?
If I dealt with this piece of shit fast enough, the connection between us would be broken before I died. I’d wake up back in the nexus, with Ayo and Aja right there with me. Together we could purify the stain on my core. I could do this.
I am not strong enough.
Mielyssi’s words came to me as I ducked under a rain of obsidian splinters and rolled to temporary safety behind a dune of ashes. When I realized what she meant, I winced at my stupidity.
The corruption had nearly killed her during her short time in this world. And every time I’d taken more of it into me, she’d felt it through her bond. Every time I’d been poisoned, she’d also been poisoned. And now she was at the end of her rope.
A man chooses the world he lives in.
Mielyssi’s voice repeating my grandfather’s words gave them a different meaning. I’d assumed the old man had meant that the choices I made would shape the world as I moved through it. But that hadn’t been what he meant.
I had to make a choice between two futures.
I could choose to wait on the slim chance the witch would finish her ritual, purify the nexus, and fill me with awesome power before the Midnight Emperor killed me.
Or I could sever my connection to Mielyssi, fill myself with corrupted power, and hope I had the strength to slaughter the Emperor before he did the same to me.
Heal the world.
Return to the crimson bear.
That’s what I’d thought the deal was.
I’d never expected saving the world meant leaving Mielyssi. The only way I could pull more corrupted energy into my core was to sever my ties to her. Otherwise, it would kill her.
If I broke our sacred bond, there was no guarantee I’d find her again to rebuild it. I yearned for the crimson bear to speak to me again and give me the advice I needed to move ahead.
Silence.
This was more shaman shit I had to figure out on my own, no matter how much it hurt.
There wasn’t time to think about it. There wasn’t time to consider all the options and weigh the pros and cons. The Midnight Emperor’s assault was relentless. His attacks ripped lava-filled furloughs in the earth under my feet, cast shards of obsidian at me, and rained bolts of lightning from the sky. If I didn’t do something, right that second, I was a dead man.
My heart shattered.
I made my choice.
“Goodbye,” I moaned.
It took more effort to say those two syllables than it did to break a connection I’d thought would last my lifetime.
Before grief could overcome me, I reached out for the power that roared within the heart of the nexus.
Corrupted senjin poured through me in a burning tide. My core screamed as the dark forces filled me with their horrifying essences.
The Midnight Emperor’s attack slammed into my body at the same instant, powerful purple blasts that searched for a foothold inside my core. But the corrupted senjin I’d sucked in had filled me to overflowing, and there was no room for the Emperor’s weaker force. His power spilled away from me, as harmless as water, and his eyes widened in horror.
“You’ll die,” he spat. “That energy will destroy you, like it destroyed all the others.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But not before I destroy you.”
I flew at him like a storm. My feet barely touched the earth as the power inside hurled me across the plane. We slammed together with a thunderclap that sent a shock wave racing away from us in all directions. The obsidian ground shattered and chunks of glossy black flew into the sky, then crashed down to earth with a hellish racket.
I landed on my feet.
The Midnight Emperor landed on his ass.
He stared up at me, his nose broken, teeth missing, blood running from his ears.
“Impossible,” he spat. “I am a god.”
“Not today.” I seized one of the stone pillars and snapped it loose from its base. My muscles burned, my body was on fire. Black lightning jumped out of my skin and stabbed at the bellies of the clouds overh
ead. I raised my ponderous weapon over my head and swung it down at the Emperor with all my strength. As my makeshift weapon descended toward my enemy, I took more and more power into my core. It flowed through me and into my muscles, filling me with an unholy strength that threatened to burn my body to ash.
The stone pillar slammed into the ground. It shattered into gray powder and shards of stinging shrapnel on impact. The Midnight Emperor screamed in rage and pain. Purple blood sprayed in a mist, and something bitter and reeking of corruption surged around me.
I stayed on my feet long enough to kick away the rubble I’d created.
There was nothing beneath it.
The Midnight Emperor was gone.
For the moment.
But he’d be back.
And I’d be ready.
Chapter Thirty-One
IF, OF COURSE, I DIDN’T die in the next handful of seconds.
The corrupted senjin I’d gulped down so greedily had blasted the lesser evil of the Midnight Emperor’s influence out of my nodes and replaced it with a corrosive force that chewed at my core like a pack of rabid weasels.
The connection the Midnight Emperor had forged between us dissolved, and the world it had shown me melted into oblivion. I was back in the nexus chamber, shaking and shivering, convulsions racking my body as my core tried, and failed, to process the power I’d stolen from the badly corrupted dream meridians.
The senjin’s potency was the only reason I was still alive. As fast as the corruption could tear me down, the senjin repaired the damage. The pain was unbelievable, but my gamble had paid off. I wasn’t dead.
Yet.
“Aja,” I croaked. “Ayo.”
The spirits jumped to their feet and bolted toward me. They were so close I could almost feel their bodies when a scaled tail looped around them and barred their path.
“Don’t touch him,” the serpent woman snapped. “He is beyond your help.”
“Get out of their way, you snaky bitch,” Yata screeched. “He’s going to fucking die if they don’t do something.”
“I said he is beyond their help,” she said with a smile. “Not that he is beyond all help.”
She slithered around the spirits and lowered her face to mine, her eyes glowing a brilliant magenta. She was beautiful, in a stark, ethereal way, despite her slit pupils and the tips of the fangs that peeked over lips that matched her eyes. Her breath smelled faintly sweet when the tip of her forked tongue traced the outline of my lips.
“Be gentle,” she whispered. “Until it is time to be fierce.”
Our first kiss was tentative and awkward. My muscles were too wracked with tremors from the dark power I’d ingested for me to do much, and she was so out of practice or inexperienced she wasn’t sure which way to tilt her head to keep our noses from bumping together. Despite that, the touch of her soft lips on mine was enough to ignite a connection between us. It wasn’t much, just enough for the first thread of tainted senjin to flow out of my core and into her.
But it was a start.
“Oh,” she gasped. “I’ve never felt anything quite like that.”
“More,” I groaned. The kiss had relieved the pressure before it could kill me, but I was far from out of the woods. The corruption was still killing me, and until we’d purified the senjin, very bad things could still happen to either of us.
“Yes,” she said, and laid down next to me. She brushed her hair aside, revealing the golden globes of her breasts and the dark circles of her violet nipples. She pressed her body against mine, her flesh warm on my side and chest. Her tail was cool and sleek where it touched the outside of my thigh. It was a strange sensation, but not an unpleasant one.
I had enough control over my body to turn my head and kiss her again. This time, I teased her lips with my tongue, then probed past her teeth with a quick, darting motion. Her teeth bit down, lightly, as I penetrated her mouth. Her kisses weren’t subtle, but her passion increased with every one. What she lacked in skill, the witch made up for in enthusiasm.
We kissed for long minutes, slow and fast, hard and easy, teasing and urgent. My partner savored each moment, absorbing the experience, experimenting with her responses. Her tail wrapped around my left leg, its coils squeezing around me in an undulating motion that was both terrifying and exhilarating. She shoved her tongue into my mouth, then pulled back, a smile on her lips, before doing it again. She bared her neck for me to kiss and groaned when I sucked hard enough to leave a mark above the heat of her pulse.
“Perhaps I shouldn’t have waited so long to do this,” she whispered.
My thumb, which had been circling her nipple in slow, teasing strokes, froze.
“Waited so long since the last time?” I asked.
“For the first time,” she said with a throaty chuckle. “Don’t stop. You’ll die. Or I’ll kill you.”
She grinned at me, eyes wide, pupils dilated into deep ovals of darkness, and nipped my lip with her fangs.
“I didn’t know.” I hesitated. “Your first time shouldn’t be with a virtual stranger. It should because you want to, not because you have to.”
“I don’t have to do anything,” the witch said, her voice low and dangerous. The pulsating rhythm of her tail around my leg quickened, her breath suddenly shallow and rapid. “I want this. I want you. Hurry, before I lose my mind and we both regret what happens.”
“You sure know how to sweet-talk a guy,” I said with a grin of my own.
I lowered my head and rolled her nipple between my lips, grazing its smooth edges with the tips of my teeth. She arched her back, pushing herself into my mouth, and I sucked until she cried out and her tail spasmed around my leg.
She groaned and rolled onto her back, one hand toying with my hair, the other moving hesitantly over my loincloth. She clutched my shaft through the fabric, and her breath hitched in her lungs. Her hips swiveled next to me, eager for the next step.
It occurred to me I had no idea how to move on to more intimate contact. I stroked the taut, golden skin of her stomach with my fingers, then trailed my hand down past where her navel would have been until I found the line where her skin gave way to a layer of fine scales. Lower still, the scales were sleeker and thicker, like overlapping armored plates.
“Lower,” she moaned, and her tail unlashed from around my leg. She squeezed my cock so hard I gasped, and pulled my head close to her. “Almost. Almost. There.”
Her scales parted under my fingers, revealing a soft, wet opening that twitched and spasmed at my touch. Her tail slapped the stone floor violently as my finger slid inside her, and her breath gushed into my ear in eager pants. Her pulse hammered against my fingers, impossibly fast.
I couldn’t wait any longer. I rolled over, braced myself on my elbows, and eased into the witch.
Or tried to.
I wasn’t more than an inch deep when she wrapped her tail around my waist and pulled herself onto me with a single, smooth motion. Her muscles clamped around me, pulling and relaxing with the motion of my hips. It was a strange and exhilarating feeling, and the witch seemed to agree.
Aja and Ayo moaned nearby. I spotted them sitting a few yards away, their arms hooked over their knees, their eyes closed, rocking slowly. With a start, I felt them with me, their minds enraptured by their mistress’s experience.
“All one,” the witch gasped. Her sharp teeth pierced the skin on my chest, just hard enough to draw blood.
The unexpected jolt of pain heightened the moment. I pushed deeper into her, pressing her back to the floor, grinding our bodies together. The sweet pressure of her sex combined with my memories of Ayo and Aja, and they added their voices to our gasps and groans. We really were all one, our bodies and minds wrapped together as our cores joined to share every intimate sensation.
“I never knew,” the witch moaned under me. Her tail was hooked around my hips and coiled around my left leg. She writhed around me as if trying to make sure every inch of her touched every inch of me. “It�
�s so much more than I ever imagined.”
She was right. This experience was more profound than I’d believed possible. The pleasure was insane, but the intimate connection between all of us was beyond even that. I slowed my pace, wanting this to last forever, pushing into her with long, slow strokes that left her gasping.
Just before I reached the point of no return, I reached out to the nexus. I wanted more. More power. More of this experience.
Tainted senjin poured into me in a rush that knocked the wind out of my lungs and ignited a spasm of lust and fear inside me. The witch and her spirits shouted and arched their backs, thrusting up to meet me, groaning together.
“What are you doing to me?” the witch gasped in a breathy voice, chest heaving against mine, head tossing from side to side as pleasure gushed through her. “It’s too much, Kyr. Too much.”
“No,” I groaned. “Never.”
The four of us raced toward a new height, lights in our minds flashing in time with our pulse, our breaths cycling in and out of our bodies in time with the steady thrust of my prick into the witch’s tight, wet depths. The spirits had fallen onto their backs, legs spread wide, muscles trembling as they rode the waves with their mistress.
Finally, it was too much for me to bear. I came in blinding pulses, thrusting deeper into the witch, riding her as she erupted with me, again and again. The cries of the spirits rose over their mistress’s groans, and the sound pushed me over the edge again. I never wanted it to end, and I kept at it until we were both sticky and our muscles quivered uncontrollably.
I collapsed on top of the witch, her arms around my shoulders, her tail looped loosely around my hips.
“Kyr,” she whispered. “It’s happening.”
Before I could ask the witch what the hell she was talking about, it happened.
An endless wave of pleasure tore through me. My body went stiff, and the witch cried out as I thrust into her a final time. The world burned with a brilliant silver radiance that obliterated every thought in my head.
