“Good bye, Mike!” Zen bade him, crying a little. Mike laughed.
“We’ll meet again!”
And with that, Mike disappeared into the muddled horde, quickly pushing himself onto his next ship, which left the port even before Zen could figure out which direction to walk.
***
Lex lay on the top bunk of the pitch-black room, having a good meal with Lash, who amused Lex as she tried vainly to eat normally in the thick darkness. As Lex spent more and more time with the Zagans, being shrouded by darkness felt increasingly natural, and any form of light would bother him to the point of frustration. He could now see perfectly in the darkness, and the slightest light would now make his vision at least a little hazy. For a good while, the two chatted and ate and laughed, and for the moment, Lex didn’t feel the heavy imminence of the war that was to come. He didn’t stress so much about missing Clover or Zen or Kyle.
“We should reach Dreed in a few weeks,” Lash said. “The last announcement said that we were fifty miles from the Black Sea Archipelago. Ships to Iceland, I hear, are very scarce, so we might have to stay at Dreed a while.”
“Well, a little break from travelling won’t kill us, will it?”
Lash giggled, surprised that Lex now sounded so carefree.
***
“Hmm. This girl annoys me,” Kizer said, looking down at Lex and Lash through one of the crystal balls. “She is swaying the boy’s mind from his training, but she will be of good use now. Oga.”
“I assume you want me to go and kill her?” he asked, still paying full mind to the scrolls he was reading through.
“Not personally of course. Do not harm the boy – not too much at least, but have the girl slaughtered badly before his eyes. This will harden him and hasten his becoming of a powerful opponent.”
“I agree.”
“Also, I want you to have him shifted directly to Iceland. Enough time has been spent idly.”
“Since killing the boy is not the mission, the same woman I used before should suffice,” Oga said.
“Whatever, just get it done quickly.”
Oga hissed and disappeared.
***
“Where are we going?” Kyle asked impatiently. Lyoko had carried him quite a few miles from the cabin.
“Nowhere but here,” the man said as they finished a little hill. Kyle looked down at an out-of-place scene. He had followed Lyoko through high bush and scratching thorns only to now look down the steep hill at a beautiful green cave. A steady river ran out through the mouth of the grotto. Kyle rushed down to the river quickly and quickly began gulping down as much as the crystal-cool water as he could. He washed his face and sighed in relief. The sun’s fierceness suddenly didn’t bother him anymore. Lyoko slowly made his way down and sat at the riverside, putting his feet in the shallow water.
“There is a strange feeling about this place,” Kyle said, looking around. The place looked well-kept, so that he assumed that Lyoko tended to this place even more than his cabin. The grass on the other side of the river looked well-groomed and stretched for acres before woodlands bordered again. Inside the cave though was quite dim, like sunlight was wary of it.
“Who do you think is the strongest swordsman who ever lived?” Lyoko asked.
“Heh. Either Blade or Zakashi!” Kyle answered quickly.
Lyoko laughed. “Blade is getting even much stronger as we sit here, as he is now training in the Cave of Zakashi.”
“Yeah, he did mention something like that,” Kyle recalled, but Lyoko saw clearly how sceptical Kyle was of the possibility of a cave making a man stronger.
“There are men of old who cannot truly die,” Lyoko said. Kyle rolled his eyes, already scoffing at whatever nonsense Lyoko was coming with. “There were those whose bond with nature was so strong that death could not truly entrap them,” the elder continued. “Zakashi’s spirit, to this day, lurks in the place where he used to meditate daily. Do understand, there is no genuine distinction between man and nature. Those men who truly understood this blended their existence with nature itself, and have essentially attained immortality.”
“Did you carry me all the way out here to babble this nonsense?” Kyle hissed, already quite annoyed.
“It will do you well to heed all my words, young one, for I am wise,” Lyoko said proudly.
Kyle sighed.
“As Blade now trains and meditates in the place where Zakashi’s spirit dwells, he will slowly absorb Zakashi’s strength, Zakashi’s knowledge, and if he continues long enough, Zakashi’s will.”
Kyle hissed on hearing this.
“Young Kyle, let me share with you a strength and truth unknown even to Blade.”
Kyle looked up at him with interest now.
“Have you ever considered who Zakashi’s master was?” Lyoko saw on his face how intrigued he was by this thought. “Now first, let me tell you a little about Zakashi, the one hailed as the Sword Sage. As you well know, he was a son of Kizer. Unlike his bothers, nature did not obey his commands, and his father threatened to kill him, considering him a failure.”
Kyle listened keenly, having never heard of this dimension to the old tale.
“Zakashi, as a young boy, pled for his life, and promised his father that he would journey out and find his strength and return as an equal to his brothers. Kizer let him leave, probably certain that he was a worthless boy. Still, Kizer must have hoped for the boy to return a strong fighter, as he was gathering power to topple Oga’s empire.
“Zakashi journeyed out to a foreign land that appeared uninhabited. There were no buildings, only a small paradise, a meadow with a small cave and a river that streamed through it. The boy didn’t see this place on his map, and considered himself lost. Tired from his journeying in search of some inspiration or divine intervention, he slept in the cave for a few days. When he awoke, he thought he was in a dream. He crawled to the mouth of the cave and watched something he thought only one of his elder brothers or one of the Ogal Empire could dream of doing. He was utterly intrigued.”
Kyle looked almost as intrigued as Zakashi was.
“There was an elderly man outside, ‘fighting the air’. This man was practicing techniques he had created. Zakashi described the old man as running on air and water, breaking boulders with the touch of his fingers, and waving about a strange metal object with sharp edges.”
“You mean a sword?” Kyle asked with knitted brows.
“That word was not yet even created. This old man, whose name was Loki, was the inventor of the sword. The first swordsman. The single master of Zakashi--”
“The progenitor…” Kyle said on remembering Lyoko’s earlier words.
“Yes. This man, Loki the Beginning, is the strongest swordsman ever to live, and the true Sword Sage.”
“Then why has Zakashi been getting all the glory?!”
“You see, truth and history hardly coincide,” Lyoko said, then continued the story. “Loki took Zakashi under his wing, not even knowing that he was a son of a man who would later be called a god. There, he shared with Zakashi all the arts, techniques and truths that he had spent nine hundred years unlocking. As Zakashi was of Kizer’s bloodline, his body was strong enough to accomplish much more than Loki had anticipated. After years of training with Loki, Zakashi felt he had learnt all there was, and his talents and bloodline would have him become far stronger on his own. Zakashi killed Loki in his sleep and journeyed back to his father. After he sparred evenly with his brothers who could control natural elements using the techniques he had learnt and Loki’s sword, he was welcomed by Kizer and accepted by his brothers. It wasn’t very long after that Zakashi’s prowess was displayed in the War of Gods. Zakashi has served as an idol and inspiration to swordsmen since that time, as he stood an equal amongst the children of gods.”
“How the hell could you know all this? Zakashi sure as hell wouldn’t write this down, and Loki died in his sleep.”
“I have been meditating and training in
the Cave of Beginning for many years. Loki’s knowledge and strength have to a small degree been infused into me.”
Kyle looked at the old man with frightened eyes, trying now to gage this man’s level of strength based on the fact that technically he and Zakashi could be considered classmates. He gasped and stood and fell back. Loki laughed, realizing that the boy saw that where he was was the same place that Loki’s spirit dwelled.
“This cave…”
***
Hilda shivered out of her sleep as a stifling presence filled her room and woke the air. “My lord…” she said stutteringly.
“You have served me poorly, weak witch,” she heard a voice in the night breeze. “I was wrong to believe that you could stand against the man named Viknor.”
“N—no, please, my god, another chance.”
“Indeed I am a merciful god,” Oga said, and appeared before her as a body of white mana vaguely forming his figure. “So I have provided you another chance to please me and prove your worth.”
“Anything, my lord.”
***
Kyle and Lyoko entered Loki’s cave by jumping on the big river stones. The space that was to each side of the flowing river was bigger than Kyle had anticipated. The river was about four meters wide, and about the same width of hard land was there on each side. The cave was quite long, and bent snakily with the shape of the river. Kyle felt like he was in a different world. He wasn’t sure that it was Loki’s spirit, but the boy felt a definite presence in the place, and it somehow felt welcoming.
“Now while you train here in this cave, your mind and body will be vastly accelerated far beyond normality. This change has started since you first stepped foot inside here. Right now, because of Loki’s presence, the speed of your thinking and your muscles have already spiked. In that, time will essentially move slower in here.”
“W—What?”
“For what will appear to be a day in here, an hour will pass outside. You will see for yourself how long it will be before the set of sun. With this apparent slow of time, we will get more training done than it appears possible.”
“That’s incredible,” Kyle mused in a whisper, already seeing just how advantageous this time irregularity could prove.
Lyoko frighteningly slammed his palms against the wall of cave. “First off, I will begin with the first rule of force. In your lessons, I will familiarize you with the laws of nature that Loki has taught me.”
Kyle nodded.
“When I hit the wall just now, in essence, the wall hit me back with the same amount of power.”
“…Huh?”
“Hence I felt pain. For each action dealt, an equal but opposite reaction is immediately meted out.”
“I think I understand.”
“Now, this is a relevant truth, as it enables this…” The man made a step into the air and ended up running toward Kyle for a few meters, crossing over the river, being a few feet off the ground and water the whole time. He made a kick at Kyle’s chest as he reached the boy, the force flinging him to crash painfully in the hard wall. By the time Kyle reached to his feet, Lyoko was already on the other side of the river again, leaning against the wall, his staff in his hand.
Kyle stuttered in a struggle to ask what on earth he had just seen.
“Yes, child. You just witnessed a man run on air, and such a thing is one of the basic principles that you will learn in your training – manipulation of force and particles.”
“—Whhaaat?!”
“Now the theory of this is much easier than the practical part. If you press your foot down on the air forcefully enough, the air itself will push back up in reaction, but you must quickly make a step with the other foot, as the floor of air particles will not hold for long, and this goes on and on for the entire run. You will also have to master weight distribution techniques and expert balance techniques. Huh?” Kyle jumped off with a wild step onto the river, falling in and struggling to get out, gasping as he clung to a river stone. Lyoko laughed until he fell. Kyle ended up laughing too as he scurried out of the river on Lyoko’s side.
***
There was sudden excitement as the woman in the black dress pattered with skulls appeared in a flurry of purple mana.
“A witch!”
“Get her!”
“Notherland is attacking!”
In only seconds, tens were murdered, and those who survived the witch’s appearance ran and locked themselves in their cabins. Hilda could sense the pungently wretched darkness that stretched from Lex’s room easily. It was almost stifling.
“Lex, wake up! You hear that?!” Lash alarmed. She too had fallen asleep on Lex’s bed but the screaming and explosions woke her quickly. She shook the dozed boy fiercely, but he wouldn’t wake.
“That darkness…” Hilda whispered to herself, standing before Lex’s cabin door. “I only need to kill the girl so I won’t go in there unless I must,” she decided. “Kazuku Khaton!” she commanded, and slammed her palms together. A pulse of purple mana spread across the ship, and the eyes of those who were not killed by her before took on a purple glow. In bursts of purple mana, swords of red mana appeared in the hands of each of them, and they took off toward Lex’s cabin.
Lash gasped and stood on Lex’s bed as the door was banged open. Standing behind the horde of possessed was Hilda, who looked at Lex with caution, maybe even fear, although he was asleep. She could feel a power oozing from inside him that her magic was no match for.
“Lex Leo…” she whispered. Her mind went back to when she had first seen him some years ago, when he had come to her to have a dream of his interpreted. She remembered vividly the four companions that he was travelling with, especially that young witch. That Clover Bengushi… I wonder how strong she has become… and her brother, and his master… and that Ionide kid… Quite an odd and mighty group of kids I met that night. She was snapped out of her daze as she saw what was becoming of her little army.
With all their efforts, none of the purple-eyed fighters could get near to Lash or the sleeping Lex. With precision that was not fitting for her age, Lash, about eight per second, drew needles from her waist and flashed them at her enemies skilfully. Windpipes and hearts and lungs were punctured and severed by the small bits of iron, until a pile of corpses was left in the room.
Hilda hissed, seeing the girl was not quite the simpleton at combat. “I should finish this quickly,” the woman said. She shifted up to Lash, summoning a purple sword instantly, already having it reach up to the girl’s throat. As she gasped to scream, a cloak of darkness formed around Lex and from it sprung two massive, shadowy hands that went around Lash and grabbed both the witch and her sword, extending quickly to push her up through the cabin roof.
Lex jumped off the bed quickly, grabbing Lash who hugged him in a sporadic shiver. The darkness disappeared from his eyes. He looked around at the many bodies there.
“I had to kill them! They came to kill us!” she cried.
“It’s okay,” he hushed her. Hilda appeared before them. It was raining, and the pouring water made the rubble of bleeding bodies an even more horrible sight. “You…” Lex said, recognizing Hilda instantly by her black dress. “What are you about? You know well who I am!”
“Do you know her, Lex?” Lash asked, feeling safer in his arms.
“I never imagined having to cross paths with you like this,” Hilda said, “but it is God who sent me here.”
“You are working with Kizer and Oga?” So they are active again! Lex feared.
“Only Oga is God,” Hilda said. “He has ordered me to kill the girl and transport you to Iceland to hasten your becoming.”
“What? How does the girl relate to any of this?” Lex asked, confused.
“You should have known, Lex, that being who you are, picking up companions like this is a bad idea. Hand me the girl quietly so we won’t have to fight.”
“Are you mad? You actually think you are a match for me?” Lex asked proudly.
&
nbsp; In a split second, he reached over to where the woman was, making a strike at her with icicles that he had materialized to grip amongst his knuckles. Hilda shifted back quickly, gripping in her hands two purple swords. Lex stretched a hand back at Lash, still looking out at the enemy. In an instant, a thick black sphere encased the girl. “You will be safe here,” she heard Lex’s voice come through the shield. Invisible, intangible chords of darkness connected the sphere to Lex.
Indeed, I was foolish to have involved Lash in all this. Now so many have been killed on my hands, Lex thought. “Woman, you have been a stepping stone for me; you consoled and encouraged me when I was confused. Do not force me to kill you.”
“I must carry out the will of God,” Hilda answered, then rushed off toward Lex.
***
Kyle tried the air-run again for about the fiftieth time, but he only managed to look ridiculous again. Lyoko sat on the cave floor, looking to be bored of him. “Look, Kyle. This simple technique is the foundation for many moves I want to teach you, so--”
“It’s impossible, old man!” Kyle yielded. “The force the air pushes up on my foot is cancelled out by the force my foot pushes down, so where the hell should that extra force come from to push me up?!”
Lyoko looked like he himself was giving thought to what Kyle was saying. “Ah, I missed something, didn’t I?” Lyoko realized.
Kyle sighed in frustration and relief.
“You must trick the air.”
“What?!”
“You see, you must see nature not as an automatic occurrence, but as a being that is as alive as you and I, a being that is the swiftest, most accurate, and wisest creature.” Lyoko saw how frustrated those words were making the boy. Blade was always well intrigued when Lyoko told him such things, but Kyle couldn’t stand hearing it.
The Ancients Page 16
