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

by Darren Hultberg Jr

  A cry of pain drew Roy’s gaze outward where Remley and Quinn were busy facing off against Headmaster Zion. Well… it wasn’t really facing off so much as barely surviving. Quinn stood just a few feet away from the headmaster, his body locked in place by a lightning technique that had his tunic smoking.

  Remley, on the other hand, had seemed even worse for wear. Crouched on one knee, the fire adept had his blade up defensively in one hand as the other clutched at a nasty scorch mark across his leg. The headmaster had both separated and immobilized the pair without moving from his position. They weren’t just doing battle with the head of the academy… they were facing off against a tactician.

  Zion raised an open palm and began drawing lightning aura into his grasp, readying a technique that felt like it would turn Remley to ash. Roy immediately leaped into action, drawing in spirit energy of his own as an aura bullet formed at his fingertip. If he could land a single technique, then perhaps he could give Remley an opening to flee.

  Roy took aim, gripping his wrist as he pointed his finger at the headmaster and fired… Then came the unexpected.

  As if he were anticipating the attack, Zion turned his gaze towards Roy and unleashed the technique in his direction. A thick blast of lightning left Zion’s hand, meeting Roy’s aura bullet in mid-flight and swallowing it whole.

  Roy tried to summon a void spiral to block the incoming barrage, but the blast reached him far too fast. Lightning energy smashed into his shoulder, searing his flesh and sending painful waves of electricity through each one of his channels.

  //////////

  Lightning Skill: Paralysis Wave

  //////////

  Roy expected his body would collapse, that it would crumble under the force of Zion’s blow. Then a far worse realization came to light.

  He couldn’t move a muscle.

  It was suddenly clear to him that the technique wasn’t meant to kill him… it was meant to immobilize him, to hold him in place. The void adept growled in anger as tiny sparks of lightning energy flickered in the air around him, constantly circulating the technique through his channels and keeping his body rigid and unresponsive.

  Immediately Roy’ mind began to race as he tried to come up with a way to escape, a way to break the technique. Then his eyes went wide as the headmaster launched a follow-up blast and his vision was filled with blinding light.

  Chapter 22

  Last Stand

  Atherune, City’s Edge

  On earth, there was an old saying that lightning never struck the same place twice... unfortunately Roy was quite certain that saying was false.

  Heat burned at his cheeks, blinding light filled his vision and the smell of ozone filled his nostrils as the headmaster’s technique closed in.

  Roy shut his eyes as the blast encompasses his vision, but not before something peculiar happened. A screen of data from his spirit scan flickered to life, displaying a chunk of data followed by some sort of seal or runic marking...

  Then the blast slammed into his chest and the pain arrived.

  Roy’s body slammed into the ground beneath the strength of the blow, his tunic now nothing more than scorched rags and his torso a tapestry of fresh burns. He writhed in the dirt as waves of pain followed immediately after, washing over him as if his body had been plunged into a bed of embers. Hell, he was surprised that he wasn’t outright dead!

  Roy tried to orient himself, to find something, anything to shield his body from another blow but his ears were ringing, and his sight was little more than a bright blur. “Damn you!” he growled, rolling to his side and expecting a third lightning bolt to come in and finish the job. He didn’t want to go out this way... picked off by some pompous headmaster and his cronies.

  Then Remley’s voice echoed through the clearing.

  “Ya know, it really is quite rude to attack a man in his own home,” he said, almost as a challenge to Zion.

  The headmaster scoffed. “As if I’d be swayed by the words of a thief!” a second later the crackle of lightning echoed through the clearing, signaling the use of one of Zion’s techniques.

  Roy blinked away the pain in his eyes until his vision finally returned. But instead of seeing a battle of adepts unfold, he had a large, blue screen glowing in his face.

  //////////

  Lightning energy partially rerouted into compatible device...

  Damage mitigated...

  Device integrity unstable...

  Configuring...

  Rune activated!

  Police Taser upgraded to Unstable Arc Launcher

  //////////

  What in the hell? Roy had considered his spirit scan mostly a tool for data consumption and exploration, but it was clear that his scan had potential he had yet to consider.

  Roy dismissed the screen of info and quickly peered down at his belt. There, strapped to his side was his taser glowing like a lightning rod. Without wasting time, he scooped the weapon up into his hand, it’s constant vibrations and sudden shocks causing his fingers to tingle. He was almost concerned that the thing would burst and take off his fingers digits off. Suddenly, his eyes flickered to the spiritcrafting rune on the outside of his device.

  “Renji…” he muttered. Somehow, his spirit scan had rerouted the lightning energy into the rune he’d added back in the old man’s shop. It had just helped him spiritcraft on the fly!

  Slightly confident that the device would hold up, he rose and began approaching the headmaster. Then he paused and turned his gaze toward Kimoura as a grin formed on his face. This new device of his had given him an idea.

  ****

  Leila dashed into the house as a stir of emotions ran through her spirit. Just hours earlier she had been thrilled at the prospect of selling off their little relic and earning enough to get the Sky Wolves back into the air. Now, it looked like they might not even leave Atherune alive!

  They only had one hope left, at it wasn’t even a very good one. Perhaps, if she could use cipherion’s tooth, then they could turn the tides. Of course, there was always her own divine power... No, that wasn’t an option. Never.

  Leila burst through the door and ran towards the corner of the room, fully expecting to scoop up the draconis blade and return to her friend’s aid. Instead, she was stopped cold in her tracks.

  Standing in front of the relic was the assassin in black, the man with the devilish scar and the cold, dead eyes... Varyon Risen had returned to finish the job.

  “How?” Leila uttered, falling into fighting stance as she swung her spear out in front of her. “We killed you... I saw you die!”

  “Perhaps,” Varyon replied, his voice guttural, almost unnerving. “But the power of the gods works in unnatural ways.”

  Leila scoffed. “So, you’ve come to finish us off then?” her instincts told her to turn and flee, but she couldn’t do that, couldn’t drag this monster out into the battle when they already had so much on their hands. She had to keep him here, even if he could dispatch her with ease. Her spirit shuddered as she came to realize that powerful adepts now surrounded her all sides.

  She was trapped.

  “I... have not,” Varyon replied, bring pause to Leila’s movements. “I’ve come for answers.”

  Leila’s grip tightened on her spear as she channeled wind aura into its tip. “I’m afraid I don’t really have time to answer any questions, what with being under attack and all,” a sudden burst of spiritual energy erupted somewhere outside the house, making the windows rattle.

  “I... I should be killing you right now,” Varyon said, speaking more to himself than to Leila. His gaze slowly shifted to his open palms, his pale digits fully extended. “How long have I been lied to?”

  Leila watched as the man’s mind drifted elsewhere, as his attention shifted to something unseen... Then she used the opportunity to strike.

  Activating her feather dance, Leila leaped across the room and lunged forward with her spear, aiming for the assassin’s unguarded heart. If she coul
d land just this one strike before he snapped out of his daze, then she could end it before he decided to take her life.

  The spear-tip sliced through the air as it soared towards Varyon, spiraling ever-closer towards his flesh. Then it reached his temporal field and the attack slowed to a crawl.

  She had failed.

  Varyon head snapped up just as his hand grabbed onto the haft of the spear. Then in one, clean motion, he used the spear to sweep Leila’s feet out from under her and plant the adept on her back.

  “Damn you!” she growled, but her words came sluggishly as the temporal field slowed every muscle in her body. She suddenly winced, realizing that she’d be dead before she could ever try to muster a defense. But oddly, Varyon’s attack never came.

  Instead, Leila felt her speed return as the assassin reeled back his temporal field. Just what the hell was this man’s game?!

  “Perhaps reaching out to you was a mistake,” Varyon said, eyeing the woman with a cautious gaze. “You’re not the one I need to be speaking too...”

  “Why are you here?!” Leila growled, re-establishing a grip on her spear.

  Varyon paused, considering something as another burst of energy shook the house. Then he met her gaze with the most intense of stares. “I need an audience with the one in red, the man you call Remley. If... if I aid you in your escape, will you grant me as much?”

  Leila was dumbfounded. This adept had been slain by Remley just a day ago, and now he was alive and demanding answers from him!? Something was off, something was very off, but she or the others didn’t have time to spare.

  “Fine!” she yelled. “If you want to help then go out there and lend them your spirit in battle!” she couldn’t believe what she was saying, urging an assassin to lend her friends aid.

  “I can’t,” Varyon replied. “I can’t be seen, especially not by the academy’s dogs. Have you no way out of this?”

  Leila slammed her spear into the floor, growing impatient with Varyon’s banter. “Just my ship, but the core is damaged and we-“

  Suddenly, Varyon stepped forward and retrieved an item from his tunic, a glowing crystalline orb the size of his fist.

  “A spirit stone?” Leila asked. “You want me to fix my ship with-“

  “Not just a spirit stone,” Varyon interjected. “This stone is a piece of my reborn soul, a fragment of myself that I can never regain... and it is far purer, far more powerful than any damned spirit stone”

  Leila took the item in her hand and immediately felt the weight of its power. Spirit stones were merely products of one’s energy but this... this was like a wealth of power in her grasp.

  “Go, get your ship,” Varyon said as he strolled over to the corner of the room. With a single hand, he reached down and retrieved Cipherion’s tooth, its hilt and blade still wrapped tightly in runic fabric.

  “And you’re just going to run off with our relic?” Leila growled.

  “No,” Varyon replied coldly. “I’m going to get it into the right hands. Now go. Escape with your allies... and when the time is right, I’ll return from the shadow for my answers.”

  Leila nodded then dashed through the front of the house, her ship’s resting spot just a short distance away. She wanted so badly to look back, to assess the battle raging just beyond the house, but she knew that she couldn’t. For if she found her friends in trouble, if she found that she had made the wrong decision, then she wasn’t certain she could make it to the ship.

  ****

  Kimoura steeled herself as Ryo and his water clones surrounded her on all sides, battering her body with dense orbs of water aura. Everytime she struck out at one of the clones, it would absorb the blow and reform. And every time she struck out at Ryo, his clones would move in to intercept the blow. She hated to admit it, but the water provided a perfect defense against her fists...

  But she wouldn’t go down without a fight.

  Springing out of her crouch, the light adept pounced forward, performing a devastating palm on one of the approaching clones. The water rippled from the blow, momentarily losing its form before snapping back into place. She tried to capitalize on the split-second opportunity and rush past her foe, but the other clones dove in her direction, smashing into her body with the force of the rising tide.

  Kimoura stumbled to a knee, gripping at her chest as she coughed water out of her lungs. She could sense her opponent make his approach, could feel his aura bearing down on her like the pressure of the sea.

  “Drown in my power,” Ryo uttered, a smug satisfaction evident in his voice. He was going to suffocate her under the power of his water clones. Well if that was the case than she’d go down swinging.

  With her light aura flaring, Kimoura leaped to her feet, prepared to stave off the water adept’s assault. Instead, she found that he’d acquired another problem of his own.

  Blazing through the air was a sphere of black-violet light, a sphere that crashed through a water clone’s head and dissipated it into essence. Both Kimoura and Ryo turned to see Roy standing just feet away, spirit aura ablaze.

  “Attacking me from behind?” Ryo said, crouching into more of a fighting stance. “I shouldn’t expect anything else from a pair of dogs.”

  “You want some, then come get it. I’ll leave you like your friend over there,” Roy pointed to Myra’s crumpled body, causing Ryo’s anger to swell.

  “Kill him!” Ryo ordered, sending a pair of water clones in Roy’s direction. The void adept smirked, then immediately dashed away, taking the pair of clones with him.

  And then it was just Kimoura and Ryo... well, and one clone, but she could deal with that.

  “Now, where were we?” Ryo asked as he positioned his remaining clone in front of him. “Ah, yes. Time for you to drown.”

  Kimoura quickly pulled light aura into her hand as she made her move towards Ryo. As predicted, his water clone stepped in to block, its watery exterior softening to absorb the force of her blow...

  Just as she had hoped.

  Kimoura held back her spirit and plunged her hand through the clone, easily passing through its liquid core before renewing her spirit’s flow. As her hand emerged from the clones back, she forced all of her energy into a singular strike, smashing her hand into Ryo’s chest as she executed her signature technique... the devastating palm.

  The water adept let out a gasp as the blow smashed into him, driving the air out of his lungs and the balance out of his legs. As the man stumbled to the ground, Kimoura climbed over him and lifted a glowing fist above his face. “This might sound a bit ironic with me being a light adept and all, but it’s time for lights out,” The she promptly smashed her fist into his face.

  ****

  Remley grimaced as he pushed off with his lead foot, leaping into the air and narrowly dodging a bolt of lightning that scorched the earth where he once stood. His leg had already taken heavy damage and his spirit was beginning to wane from constant use. He was in trouble, a stark contrast to the headmaster who remained defiant, spirit blazing and body looking no worse for wear.

  Sure, he and the others had been able to take down the rank 4 assassin, but headmaster Zion was a mystic, an aura manipulator built for raining down damage upon groups of foes. Not only that, but his spirit had clearly been boosted by the academy’s finest elixirs, granting him an obvious power boost far beyond his rank.

  Rem landed in a crouch, gathering a quick assessment of the battlefield before rolling away from another deadly bolt. Leila was tinkering in the house, while Roy and Kimoura were engaged with the remaining apprentice. Quinn had finally freed himself from the headmaster’s technique, but he appeared just about as beat up as Rem!

  “Hold still, dog!” Zion yelled, launching another bolt at Rem’s head. With a quick tuck and roll, the fire adept avoided the attack by mere inches, its energy searing the ends of his long, red jacket. Remley wondered why the man hadn’t finished them yet... it was clear that he was toying with them at this point. Perhaps he was hoping fo
r subservience. Well, he’d get none from the Sky Wolves.

  “Quinn, launch me!” Rem yelled, pressing his feet together and crouching low to the ground. A split second later, Quinn pressed his hand into the earth, summoning a bone spire beneath the fire adept’s feet.

  Remley flew into the air as the ivory spire launched him forward, all the while creating a ring of fire energy around his body. If he could launch himself past Zion’s defenses, then perhaps he could neutralize the man before he summoned another lightning storm.

  Unfortunately, that plan fell flat. With a quick adjustment, Zion switched techniques, drawing in his spirit aura then using its energy to create a pillar of lightning. The pillar rose in Remley’s path, slamming into him as he passed and sending him skidding into the dirt.

  Rem groaned as his body slid over the hard ground, coming to a stop several paces in front of the headmaster. His fiery aura was all but a flicker now and his body felt like it’d been hit by a train.

  “Ready to heel?” Zion asked in a mocking tone before forcing Quinn back with another technique. He could see the man’s lightning energy coursing through the ground nearby, sealing it and preventing any sneaky earth techniques.

  “Piss off,” Remley replied, spitting a bit of blood into the grass as he rose to a knee.

  “Very well,” Zion replied, a look of disappointment on his smug face. “Dragging you in suits me just fine,” Suddenly, the thunder adept began channeling aura into his hands anew, more than likely readying an imprisonment technique for him.

  Remley winced as tried to rise to his feet, the pain of battle stinging at his many wounds. He was out of tricks, out of resources, and nearly out of spirit energy... and still Leila hadn’t emerged from the damned house!

  Defiant to the end, Remley propped himself up on his blade and gave the headmaster a grin. No matter what happened, he was not going to grovel. He watched as Zion sent Quinn to the ground with an errant bolt, wincing as the dread hunter slammed into the dirt. Then Zion turned to face him and he knew it was his turn to fall ... except Remley had noticed something odd.