Divine Madness

by Harmon Cooper

  Way of the Immortals

  Divine Madness

  (Book Two)

  By Harmon Cooper

  Copyright © 2019 by Harmon Cooper

  Copyright © 2019 Boycott Books

  Edited by Adam Luopa

  Audiobook narrated by Neil Hellegers

  www.harmoncooper.com

  writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com

  Twitter: @_HarmonCooper

  All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Book One Recap

  Warning: Contains Spoilers

  Here’s the link to book one if you missed it: https://geni.us/Way-of-the-Immortals

  Way of the Immortals, Book One, begins with Nick giving a toast at his friend Tom’s bachelor party. A portal opens up in the center of the living room, transporting Nick and his buddies to the Kingdom of Lhasa. Assuming that Hugo, Tom, and Evan have died, Nick and Bobby head to the shores, only for Bobby to be captured by Madame Mabel’s men.

  Nick escapes into the forest, where he is attacked by a spirit and then a tree. He is later captured by a family of bandits, who plan to sell him as a slave to Madame Mabel’s lotus plantation.

  Along the way to the city of Nagchu, Nick and the bandits encounter Evan, who pretends he doesn’t know Nick, betraying him. It is at the slave auction that Nick meets Sona, the head of Madame Mabel’s elite guard. After he becomes a slave, Nick befriends Altan, who is the first to tell him about the Way of the Immortals.

  A new power has emerged in Nick, one that he can’t control, a power that allows him to slow down time, albeit briefly. He makes plans to escape the plantation, and an opportunity presents itself. He encounters his guardian angel, also known as his dakini, Dema, during his escape, and is told to go to a monastery.

  Along the way to the monastery he meets a tropical bird named Roger, and at the monastery Nick becomes friends with a monk named Lhandon. Unfortunately, the head of the monastery, known as the Exonerated One, decides that Nick needs to better cultivate his meditation practice by being in an isolation chamber. While he is in there, the monastery is attacked by treasure hunters, and Lhandon frees Nick from the meditation chamber.

  Lhandon explains that the treasure hunters were seeking information regarding a relic known as the Flaming Thunderbolt of Wisdom, and only he knows its true location.

  Along the way to locate the relic, the two meet a snow lioness named Saruul. Lhandon also captures an ice spirit, and they are given further instruction by a hermit known as Baatar, who concludes that Nick is likely the Golden One.

  Nick and Lhandon encounter the treasure hunters, who have captured Sona, the head of Madame Mabel’s elite guard. Nick fights the treasure hunters, and he is rescued at the last minute by Roger, who stabs the treasure hunter with a knife. Nick acquires the Fist of Force ring, which enhances his strike ability, and he later gets the Flaming Thunderbolt of Wisdom. Roger also brings news that an outsider has appeared on the Island Kingdom of Jonang, which according to Lhandon is one of the potential places where the Exonerated One has reincarnated.

  On the way back from the quest, Nick decides to go back to Nagchu with Sona, especially after he hears that Bobby is alive and working for Madame Mabel. Nick finally meets up with Bobby, only to find that Bobby is under the spell of a strong narcotic. Not wanting to join Madame Mabel’s elite guard on a quest to deliver lotus to a warring region, Nick uses his weapon to burn the cargo, as well as parts of the lotus fields. He then escapes with the slave known as Altan to the mountains, back to the monastery.

  Assuming that Sona and her elite guard are coming, Nick, Altan, Lhandon, and Roger prepare for war. Lhandon asks Nick to ring a bell that will call any hermit in the area back to the monastery to help with the fight, and along his journey to the bell, Nick encounters a fire spirit named Tashi. Tashi joins their cause, and on the way back down from the mountain Nick comes up with the idea of bringing the fight to Madame Mabel preemptively.

  Tashi, a former treasure hunter, knows a secret way to get back to the plantations. Under the cover of night, Nick and his group attack the plantations, where they encounter Madame Mabel, who is actually a demon, and manage to slay her. They also encounter Evan, who shoots Roger with a crossbow.

  Nick, Lhandon, Tashi, and Altan escape, vowing to find both Roger and the Exonerated One’s reincarnations.

  Stages of the Path of the Divine

  Chapter One: Safe Haven

  The hit came out of nowhere.

  Lhandon cried out just as he was struck in the throat, the portly monk stumbling forward and ultimately falling. Altan stepped to the side, his ankle twisting into an awkward position as the former slave plummeted to the ground.

  A man stood on one foot before us, and for a brief moment, my brain scrambled to recognize him. He wore robes that seemed to reflect everything around him, his eyes filled with light, the ends of his mustache floating in the air.

  A plume of fire cut through the trees as Tashi flew at him, the fire spirit leaving an inferno in his wake, blue flames licking off his body.

  He caught Tashi’s punch, none of the spirit’s fire spreading up the man’s arm.

  Our attacker used his momentum to flip Tashi over his shoulder, a trail of flame kicking up on the forest floor, adding light to the cave entrance behind us.

  And to think we had just made it through the underground system from Nagchu, practically running through the caverns in the grueling, overnight journey.

  We were in the home stretch. And now this?

  I dropped my hand to my Flaming Thunderbolt of Wisdom, unsheathing the blade.

  Pressing off the balls of my feet, I lunged for the man, a sword made of white light appearing in his hand at the very last moment.

  He parried my attack, and kicked me in the gut, sending me stumbling away.

  I fell backward over Lhandon’s body, the monk out cold.

  I could hear Altan whimpering about his ankle, trying to get back to his feet, Tashi already on the attack again.

  “I’ve got him, Nick!” the fire spirit shouted as he twisted forward.

  Our attacker brought his sword back and sliced right through Tashi’s fiery body. Split in two, Tashi’s form crashed into a couple trees, fire spreading up their trunks.

  Whoever this guy was, he wasn’t human, not with the ability to cut through Tashi.

  And with Lhandon passed out, Altan down, and Tashi slowly piecing himself back together, it was up to me to save the group.

  The man turned to me, his eyes blazing, a sinister smile on his face.

  “Goh-Mo,” I whispered, closing my eyes as I cast the Rune of Distortion that Lhandon had taught me. Starting from the bottom, I quickly made a vertical line with a curl and an angled box.

  I didn’t know if it would work, but I knew if we were going to get out of here alive, distorting the man’s perception may be our only way forward.

  I let the rune settle and blinked my eyes open, the man still standing before me, a crooked smile on his face.

  No effect.

  “Shit,” I said under my breath, bringing my sword to the ready.

  And just at that moment, just as the man and I were about to meet, a panther tore out of the fire, smashing into him. His form vanished into a cloud of mist.

  The panther turned to me and sat on its haunches. The big cat brought its paw to its mouth, licking its nails while it observed me.

  “Thank you,” I told the creature, remembering my first hour in the Kingdom of Lhasa, how the boar had saved me and later…

  It was the same man who had attacked me back then.

  The thought struck just about the time the panther’s
eyes twitched, the huge feline hunching forward, growling and hissing at me.

  The panther started to sniff, looking around as if there was a firefly dancing over its head. It turned and ran straight into a tree, and from there, straight into the fire that was now spreading.

  “Come on,” I told Lhandon, nudging him with my foot as I sheathed my blade.

  When that didn’t work I looked to Altan, who was limping over toward me, wincing with every step.

  “I’ll carry him.” I took a deep breath in, trying to figure out how I was going to deadlift the heavy monk.

  My stamina and strength were heightened here in Lhasa, but I didn’t know if I was going to be able to lift a three-hundred-pound man over my shoulders.

  Grunting, I kneeled before him and dragged one of his arms over my shoulder, putting my other hand over his thigh.

  I started to right myself, the muscles on the side of my body tensing as I finally got him up, where I was able to shift him over my shoulder.

  And not a moment too soon.

  A tree fell where Lhandon had just been laying, sending embers into the air, Altan barely making it around the tree.

  “This way, Nick,” Altan said, limping over to Tashi. The fire spirit was nearly stitched back up. He sat on the ground, his hand on his forehead.

  “Are you okay?” I asked him.

  “I think.” The fire spirit bowed his head in shame. “Nothing like that has ever happened to me before.”

  “Let’s discuss it later, we have to keep moving.”

  “How did you defeat him?” Tashi asked, looking to me, white flames lifting off his eyebrows.

  “I’m not quite sure just yet, but I’ve got a pretty good hunch.”

  We hadn’t made it very far from the fire when a root tore from the soil, going for Altan’s good foot. The former slave smacked face-first into the dirt, his mouth agape as he rolled to the side just in time to avoid another limb.

  “I’ll handle this!” Tashi pressed behind us, wings of fire lifting from his form as he created a protective barrier.

  “Of course the trees are trying to attack us,” I said, a bit haggard now from carrying Lhandon.

  I sucked in a deep breath and continued forward, my focus on the spot just a few feet in front of me to avoid any more roots lifting from the soil.

  It made sense that the forest wasn’t happy about our little fire episode, and while I hadn’t encountered aggressive foliage since my first night in Lhasa, I knew it was par for the course.

  I glanced over my shoulder to see that Altan was slowly lifting from the ground.

  He looked up at me and started to give me the thumbs up.

  Another root shot out of the fire, grabbed me by the knee and pulled me down.

  I would have received a face full of hardened soil had it not been for the cushioning provided by Lhandon’s body, the poor monk taking the brunt of the hit.

  He let out a grunt; Tashi came forward with a fiery chop that cut through the root.

  “Not much further,” the fire spirit said, raising even more flames around us.

  Another group of limbs shot through the fire at us; Tashi spun over our heads, chopping through the roots before they could reach us.

  I could feel the heat of the flames, the early morning sky above now blotted out by smoke. My robes were drenched, Lhandon’s weight heavy on my shoulder as we continued forward.

  My only hope was that Sona wasn’t waiting for us at the monastery.

  I gulped, pressing forward, suddenly missing Roger in that moment, whom we could have sent ahead to make sure no one was waiting for us.

  To see him die like that, shot out of the sky…

  The muscles in my legs shrieked, my calves knotting up.

  I took an even deeper breath in, mentally pushing the breath down to my feet, imagining my veins expanding as the blood circulated through my system.

  The periphery was a blur of red and orange, the path before me unknown, above me only smoke. Regardless, I kept my focus on my breath, a running meditation of sorts.

  My body still hurt, but I was less attached to the pain than I had been moments ago.

  No, I was somewhere else entirely, in Western Massachusetts now, a morning jog at the foothills of the Berkshires, the air cold and wet rather than dry and scorching, blue mountains on the horizon.

  I saw Roger flying next to me, the tropical bird twisting up and dipping back down onto the path, giving me a point to follow as I continued forward.

  I was a child running over to Bobby’s house to play video games.

  I was an adult, on a train moving through the Swiss Alps.

  I was in Worcester, walking downtown with a bag of donuts past vagabonds with opioid eyes.

  Trees started to collapse all around me, thoughts spinning around my head as I focused on reaching the monastery, on following my Roger hallucination.

  It was only when I broke out of the forest that I realized how far I’d come, Altan a good hundred feet back, Tashi still conducting the inferno. I didn’t recognize where we were, only that it was a field of high grass, easily up to my chest.

  Altan finally reached me, the man practically dragging his injured ankle.

  “Did we take a wrong turn?” I looked around, still noticing the mountains in the distance, not able to judge how far away from them we were.

  “Your fire spirit is clever,” he said, sucking in deep breaths of air.

  “Why do you say that?”

  He wiped the sweat off his forehead with his arm. “If anyone sees the blackened path caused by the fire, they will come here rather than our true location. The monastery is just over that ridge, but it is hidden by the tall grass. In fact, you wouldn’t see it unless you climbed up to the ridge and made your way through a rocky pass. Lhandon showed it to me; the monks use this area to gather straw for baskets and other items.”

  “So we’re almost there?” I asked, my vision blurring momentarily.

  “Almost. Just follow me.”

  Tashi caught up to us as we made our way up the ridge, my muscles straining under Lhandon’s added weight until I remembered to focus on my breath.

  The fire spirit sailed over us.

  He moved down the mountain pass and toward the monastery, making sure it was secure.

  Even though I was breathing deeply, each step forward felt heavier than the last, every fiber in my body straining as I continued forward.

  We made it around a bend, my muscles screaming, my vision darkening. I saw the entrance to the monastery, the long row of steps, the blue flags acting as railings.

  I reached the first stone step and took a knee.

  Everything went black.

  Chapter Two: Hermits and Ice Spirits

  Run.

  A force moved toward me, ruffling the foliage.

  A mist sat over the ground, obscuring my feet, preventing me from seeing where I was going.

  Lightning struck a tree to my left, a branch igniting, a terrible roar behind me.

  I tripped and fell, crying out as I hit the ground.

  I turned just in time to see the panther emerge from the mist, the beast slowly moving toward me, its shoulders going up and down as its form began to morph…

  “I knew it was you,” I said, smiling at the woman who stood before me. She had flowing white hair, elven ears, and gray robes that draped over her hands, the ends dragging on the ground.

  She reached out to me, her fingers grazing my cheek...

  Dema.

  I awoke with a cough.

  With a deep exhale I rolled to the side, trying to get my bearings, trying to understand where I was.

  The room was dark, a candle in the hallway providing light.

  It felt so familiar, it felt like…

  “Hello?” I called out, wincing as I finally sat up.

  It took me a moment, but I traced up the rune for Healing Hand, whispering the word Lha-Mo as I did so. For this rune, I started at the top and formed a squar
e, followed by a curved line, a leg jutting off that line, and finally the two slash marks to the right of the curl, the top one passing through the line.

  A rejuvenating energy moved through me.

  I instantly felt better, refreshed.

  “Hello?” I called out again, now recognizing my surroundings. I was in my room in the monastery, the same place where I’d had my first conversation with Lhandon.

  “Nick?” I heard Altan call from the hallway.

  He was accompanied by a scraping noise, the man dragging his foot on the ground as he came to me.

  “Let me heal that,” I said as I met him at the door.

  “Yes, please,” he said with a bow.

  I ran my hands over his ankle. Altan let out a sigh of relief accompanied by a popping sound as his wound mended. It was then that I realized that I was only wearing a pair of shorts, my robes completely removed.

  “Sorry, I just woke up,” I started to tell him.

  “Nonsense. Get dressed, and meet me downstairs. I will warm up the soup we had for dinner.”

  “You don’t have to trouble yourself.”

  “It is good to get something in your stomach. You’ve been out for almost a day.”

  “Almost a day?”

  He nodded. “I’ll tell Lhandon you are awake. He is in the library below.”

  “And Tashi?”

  “Last I saw, he was outside hanging with the ice spirit.”

  “I never did get the ice spirit’s name,” I said, recalling the spirit Lhandon had tricked with his Rune of Inquiry.

  “Gansukh.”

  “Good to know.”

  Once I was in a set of freshly pressed robes, I made my way downstairs to find a clay bowl of soup waiting for me, along with a piece of flatbread.

  “I’m so glad to see that you are okay,” Lhandon said, already seated at the table, eyeing my food.

  “Would you like some as well?” I asked him.

  “No, no, I’m fine. I’ve had my fair share,” he said, clearing his throat.