Edge of Eons: A Cultivation Novel (The Adept Archives: Book 1)

by Darren Hultberg Jr

  The creature let out another screech as one of its clawed hands sheered the barbed wires, freeing it from the steady stream of pain. Then, before Roy could react, it unleashed an attack of its own. The beast launched itself forward, digging its blade-like fingertips into Roy’s shoulder, tearing through his uniform and ripping away at his flesh…

  And dammit all did it ever hurt!

  Roy had been punched and kicked in the face at least a hundred times. In training he’d felt the sting of pepper spray and the shock of a stun gun, but never in his life had he felt a pain like this. Dark aura seeped into his wound as the creature’s claws dug deeper into his shoulder. It felt like a thousand needles were pressing into every inch of his body, pushing his pain receptors to the very brink. This wasn’t just a wound… It was pain incarnate.

  The young officer tried to squirm away, but the creature used its claws like a hook to pull him close and hoist him into the air. Blood began to pour from his wound as his feet left the ground, and those eyes, those damned black eyes filled with madness locked onto him once more!

  A second clawed hand rose into the air. This was it. For the second time that day Roy was certain he would die. So certain...

  “No!” Roy fought through the pain as he reached for his belt, producing a small canister of mace that he frantically sprayed into the beast’s eyes. The creature let out a howl of pain as it flung him to the ground, gripping at its face as the mace stung at its tiny black orbs.

  The beast was relentless in its effort to rub the pain out of its eyes. It wanted so badly to ease the burn, but the bone mask prevented it from doing so.

  “You bastard!” Roy howled in anger as he produced his final weapon, a metal baton that extended to arm’s length. The dark aura festering around Roy’s wound had all but dissipated, but a second cloak of energy began to envelop the rest of him, an aura the color of brilliant violet.

  Roy charged at the creature, ducking low and slamming his baton into the side of its knee, forcing Its muscles to quiver before the beast finally toppled under its own weight. Violet aura continued to swirl around Roy as he went to work, slamming the baton into the creature’s mask over and over.

  The nightmare beast tried to fight back, but Roy knocked its arms away with his baton. He knew the pain that those dagger-like claws would cause, and he would not be feeling it again.

  The mask cracked and splintered as Roy continued his assault, violet energy continuing to envelop the officer like a cloak. Steel smashed into bone until finally the mask gave, but Roy continued swinging until nothing was left but an unsightly pool of gore.

  The night fell silent once more as the creature slumped over, its unmoving corpse now laying soundly at his feet. Roy breathed heavy, maintaining a death grip on his baton as bits of blood and gore dripped from his weapon.

  . Soon the officer’s adrenaline began to fade and the pain of battle became all too real. His arms ached, his head buzzed, and the pain from his wound seemed to elevate tenfold. He needed to find help, or at the very least something to stop his shoulder from bleeding him out.

  He needed to move.

  As Roy began to step away from the creature’s corpse a strange glow began to emanate from its body. The light was similar in color to the creature’s dark aura, though it twisted through the air on its own rather than clinging to the beast’s flesh.

  Roy shuddered as the energy closed in on him, drawing closer with each passing breath. It was as if the beast’s soul had left its body and was moving of its own accord.

  Roy tried to back away. He tried to put distance between himself and the strange, dark energy, but in an instant the dark aura plunged into his chest, absorbing into his body and disappearing from view.

  Instinctively, Roy clenched his jaw waiting for a wave of pain to wash over him. Instead, he felt an odd sensation of fullness resonating within his body… No, not his body but within his very soul. It was an odd, almost indescribable feeling, as if his soul had just eaten a hearty meal. The feeling resonated through every fiber of his being, a warmth that eased into his flesh as the pain in his wound began to fade.

  Suddenly, an unfamiliar notification appeared in his sentry scan interface.

  //////////

  Error…

  Unknown entity encountered…

  Compiling data…

  Data analysis complete:

  Lesser Soul Essence obtained

  //////////

  “What... is this?” Roy muttered, staring at his own hands in disbelief. From what he could tell, it looked like he had absorbed that creature’s very soul. What else could a “soul essence” be? And furthermore, what had it done to him to ease his pain?

  Curious the officer glanced over to his wound and found himself amazed. What should have been a gruesome gash was now just a thin line of red spanning the length of his shoulder. Sure, the wound was still there, and a dull pain still echoed through his upper body, but it was nothing like what he’d suffered just moments ago.

  Questions swirled in Roy’s mind as he tried to gain a grip on this strange reality. He needed to ground himself, to find something familiar to latch onto. And if that wall of fog had produced the creature that had attacked him, well… he needed to get far away from that. Frustrated, Roy gathered himself and headed out.

  Chapter 3

  Nightmarish Ambush

  Pre-dawn, Eon

  Twilight had begun to wane as Roy continued to trudge down the river bank, that unnatural fog still licking at his heels. He’d walked for nearly a half hour and was certain that he hadn’t seen a single thing he would consider recognizable. The trees, the grass, even the sky looked so different than what he was accustomed to. He was stranded and alone in an apparent world of monsters, and that more than anything unsettled him to his core.

  After several more moments of walking, the river began to bend northward, turning directly into the looming wall of fog and mist. He sighed. This was it then... if he wanted to proceed any further, he’d have to venture into that ominous cloud.

  But wait... was that a light he spotted in the distance? Yes, he was sure of it. Beyond the wall of fog was a light shining like a beacon in the sky... a light guiding him out of the darkness. He used his sentry interface to scan the area, though he expected little to come of it.

  //////////

  Apparition unknown

  //////////

  As he thought. Nevertheless, Roy steeled his nerves and with a final breath, walked into the fog, heading directly for the light.

  He moved quickly, nearly running through the chilling miasma as he headed towards his destination. His eyes remained focused on the beacon ahead, refusing to wander in any direction but forward.

  Roy knew how easily the darkness could play tricks on the mind, but he would not be deterred by the strange secrets hiding just beyond his sight. He was going to make it. He was going to reach that light, his only hope for salvation and-

  The shrieks of nightmare beasts filled his ears once more.

  The officer visibly shuddered as a trio of creatures appeared in his presence, bone masks covering all but those beady black eyes. His eyes darted back and forth, searching for an escape, but the wall of fog had left him nearly blind.

  “Oh, damn you all.”

  Eager for blood, one of the creatures lunged forward, swiping at his neck. Roy widened his stance and leaned back, narrowly dodging the strike as the claws sliced through the air. Before he could right himself, another beast lurched in, though this one landed true. Dagger-like claws pierced Roy’s stomach, sending waves of pain through his wounded body and lines of blood seeping into the ever-soft grass.

  The third of the hellish trio moved in, stepping beside Roy before raking its claws across his back and sheering the top of his uniform nearly off. The officer dropped to his knees as pain flooded his senses and the creature’s dark auras encapsulated his vision. These were his final moments. There would be no prevailing against another one of these beasts, mu
ch less three. He would die here, cradled in darkness and comforted by nothing more than this unnatural fog.

  “Come on then you bastards!” Roy screamed, leaping back to his feet as he swung his fists at the creatures. He went at the beasts like a wild animal, punching, kicking, and even sinking his teeth into an arm of grayish flesh. Rage consumed Roy as he slammed into knuckles into one of the beasts over and over. For a second, he even thought he might fight his way out of this nightmare…

  Then a spiny tail swept his ankles and he plummeted back to the ground.

  The creatures descended on Roy, kicking and slashing at him, knocking him around mercilessly as they toyed with their prey. Through it all, the man managed to keep his eyes on that strange light in the distance. It was something to focus on as his body began to break, something to reach for as he longed for it the free him from the pain.

  Suddenly, something happened in the sky as another claw raked across his arm. The beacon of light became distorted as an unfamiliar shape took to the skies, obstructing the light’s path. Was... was that a man flying towards him?

  Roy curled into a defensive ball, covering his most vulnerable spots as he locked eyes on the man plummeting towards the ground. Still, the creatures either didn’t notice or didn’t care as another foot kicked at his stomach and a dagger-like claw stabbed into his side.

  With renewed desperation, the officer kicked at the creatures as he tried to scramble away. He was certain that death was mere moments away, but if there was any chance at survival than he had to fight for it. He let out a primal roar as the beasts pursued, his very soul refusing to back down…

  Then the man landed.

  A ring of dust and dirt launched into the air as the newcomer slammed into the ground, forcing the world itself to tremble under the profound strength of his impact. The creatures screeched as an immense pressure forced them to their knees, pressing them into the ground as if the force of gravity itself had strengthened.

  Roy felt it too. He felt as though an invisible boulder had been laid across his back, pressing both his body and spirit into the dirt until he could barely breathe. Even so, the young officer strained against the invisible weight and forced his face out of the dirt to catch a glimpse.

  He was left in awe.

  The man now standing before him looked like a creature born of the night. He wore a fine silken tunic that was blacker than midnight and an oversized azure sash that hugged almost too tightly at his waist. He wore tall boots fastened with a pair of gleaming silver buckles, and his long, flowing hair shimmered like fresh ink as it brushed against the pale skin of his cheeks.

  As Roy struggled to study the man, his vision once again began to change. Black-violet aura surrounded the stranger’s body, but unlike the untamed energy of the creatures, the man’s energy appeared controlled. The auras of the nightmare beasts were wild, uncontrollable things with tendrils that writhed in the air like whips. But his aura was sharp and refined as if the power of a thousand storms were being contained in the stranger’s slender form.

  The man’s gaze fell on Roy for the briefest of seconds, his eyes the color of pure crimson. Then they shifted, eyeing one of the creatures that had suddenly begun to rise. In a movement both swift and precise, the man raised a hand and placed it next to the creature’s head. His fingertips hovered in the air, no more than an inch away from the beast’s strange bone mask. Suddenly, violet light began to pool around the creature’s head as the man’s thumb and middle finger pressed together...

  Then he snapped his fingers and the creature’s head exploded.

  Blood and bone sprayed into the air, covering Roy but noticeably avoiding the dark-haired man as if he was protected by an invisible barrier. The officer couldn’t help but let out an audible gasp. This strangers’ power was immense. Hell, he could feel it in his soul. It was as if this man was a living weapon of war, destroying the monster with a mere twitch of his fingers.

  And he wasn’t finished yet.

  Before Roy could move a muscle, the stranger moved his attention to the other two beasts. With a quick and simple hand motion, the man drew more of the energy into his palm, sculpting it into the form of a dozen finger-length spikes.

  Again, the man twitched his fingers and the spikes ripped into the second creature, piercing its torso, its neck. The third creature seemed to grow frightened as it watched its second companion fall and began to slither away through the grass, fighting against the spiritual pressure as its claws dug through the dirt. It hardly made it more than a foot before a glowing violet lance of energy pierced the back of its skull.

  A silence fell over the area once more as only Roy and the stranger remained, the pair surrounded by a trio of mutilated corpses. He grimaced as the man’s eyes shifted back to him. Would he be next to fall to this one’s awesome power?

  “Very interesting,” the man said after studying Roy in silence. His gaze was intrusive as if he were staring past Roy’s flesh and directly into his soul. “Very interesting indeed... perhaps the old dragon was right. Maybe you outrealmers really are something special.”

  As the stranger spoke, thin clouds of swirling essence began to rise from the bodies of the dead creatures, similar to when Roy had slain his own beast. The swirling clouds of essence weaved their way through the air as they closed in on the man, but with a wave of his hand, he managed to turn them away.

  Roy attempted to rise from the ground, to confront this man who’d prolonged his life, but his wounds had left him debilitated. Every forced movement left him feeling like he’d tried to move a mountain, every inch a debt paid in his own blood. Awareness became fleeting as Roy rolled over onto his back, as blackness began to creep into the edges of his vision. He could feel his grip on reality beginning to fade...

  Then came relief.

  The three remaining clouds of essence attached themselves to Roy, swirling into his mouth, nose, and chest. His spirit suddenly thrummed with violent energy and his eyes went wide as the soul essence of the creatures coursed through his veins. Wounds once grievous began to mend themselves as a feeling of fullness began to settle in his chest.

  //////////

  3 Lesser Spirit Essence obtained

  //////////

  Roy peered down at his once ravaged body. His open gashes were much less severe and some of his smaller cuts were nearly gone. The pain had even dulled somewhat! Once again, his wounds, while not completely healed were manageable for the time being.

  It can’t be possible, he thought as a newfound surge of energy allowed him to rise. Had the souls of these creatures healed him?

  “I’d say you needed that soul essence a bit more than I did,” the stranger said, grabbing Roy’s attention as his crimson eyes gave Roy a quick scan. “That spirit of yours is quite a gift you know. The speed with which it harnesses essence is truly remarkable.”

  Roy furrowed his brow, rightfully confused by the man’s odd demeanor and even stranger statements. “Who… who the hell are you?” he blurted out, growing tired of living in a constant state of confusion.

  “Me?” the man asked, his voice cavalier. “Why, I’m a celestial emissary… for your new god.”

  Chapter 4

  Emissary of the Dragon-god

  Pre-dawn, Eon

  Despite all of the strange circumstances surrounding his current existence, Roy couldn’t help but frown. Really? Had he really been summoned here on the whims of some damned god? He’d never asked a god for anything in his whole damned life and now this?

  “You are a very unique soul…” the stranger continued as he leaned down and unapologetically studied Roy’s head. “Your spirit seems to be in disarray, as if some sort of foreign device is disrupting its flow. Where did you say you were from again?”

  “Phoenix City,” Roy responded, eyeing the man with suspicion. “Now, where in the hell-”

  “Ah, yes, very well,” the man interrupted. “Must be one of those outlying cities beyond Shadowreach. Mostly savages, if I
recall. Well, regardless, I think I can solve the issues plaguing that spirit of yours.”

  “I don’t think you understand,” Roy reiterated forcefully. “I’m not from this damn place.”

  The stranger sighed as he narrowed his eyes at Roy. “It was a joke…” Suddenly, his tone grew quite serious. “I know where you’re from. You’re a man who came from beyond the stars, a speck of light that emerged from a cloud of infinite darkness…”

  Carefully, the stranger placed two fingers on either of Roy’s temples, his once playful nature quickly dissipating. Roy’s body stiffened but he couldn’t fight it…. really, what could he do against a power like this?

  Suddenly, the officer felt a warmth building under the man’s touch. “Now, I’m going to send a surge of my own spirit energy through you… a fraction of my spirit aura, if you will. That should be more than enough to cleanse your spirit channels and fix whatever that device in your head has done to you… now, please try to ease up on the hostility. By the gods, this realm already has enough of that.”

  Roy opened his mouth to protest but a sudden surge of energy pulsed into his head. He screamed as the spirit energy traveled through his veins like lightning, resonating in every fiber of his being, cleansing him like a purifying fire.

  As he wailed, the interface from his sentry implant began to brighten, growing in intensity until his vision was nothing more than blinding light…

  And then it was over.

  Roy breathed heavily as the stranger removed his hands from his temples. Still, he could feel his presence, the constant pressure from the man’s spirit weighing down on him. Roy was uncertain, almost fearful of what this man had done to him. It felt as if the man had ignited the flames of his very soul… and once Roy opened his eyes, he was certain of it.

  Surrounding the officer like a cloak was a smooth black-violet aura.