Path of Transcendence 1: Ultimatum of the Nameless God (10 page)

Talon stood up and turned his back to Thorrin. “I don't give a fuck about them. If you want to babysit them, that's your choice. I'm going to find Haven, get that fuckers body, and put an end to this. That's all I'm interested in.”

“What about Selestra?”

Talon's back went rigid “She's on her own. I'll do everything I can to send her home, because of what I owe her father, but I can't spend my time taking care of her. Besides, she'd throw a bitch fit, if I did. We despise each other. It's not an act or a game. We have too much bad history between us.”

“Are you planning to run off by yourself?”

“I'm always by myself.”

Thorrin's face twisted into an odd expression. “It doesn't have to be that way.”

“For me, it does. Just drop it. Please.”

Thorrin sighed. “There's something you might want to look into. The city the crafters ran off to, I took a look at. That place is ancient and it was made by Dvergar. The memories that I have from the real Thorrin have a lot of interesting things buried in them. Dvergar are old. They've been on this world for what must be hundreds of thousands of years. If there are still Dvergar in that city, they will probably know about Haven. If you go northeast till you hit a small river or the coast, the city is just a little inland from the coast along that river.”

“I was planning to go there already. Menton is supposed to be attacking the city. Now that we're done here, I'll be leaving. It's better that I avoid Selestra, or things could get ugly between us.”

“If there are real Dvergar there, Menton will never take that place. Their strength is terrifying. There is no way that a player army will conquer a city defended by them.”

Talon half-waved at Thorrin. “I'll see you around. Someday.”

Thorrin stared at Talon's back, until he was concealed by the trees in the valley. Then, he took a different path down the ridge, returning to the town.

Nessa was waiting for him outside his cabin. She seemed scared and upset.

“What's wrong girl?”

Nessa threw her arms around  Thorrin's neck, and started sobbing. Thorrin held her gently, as though she was fragile porcelain. He was afraid of hurting or killing her, with his superhuman strength.

“Nessa, it'll be okay. Tell me what happened.”

Spilling out words between sobs, Nessa started talking. “I tried healing her, healing Selestra. It was terrible. The raped her, Thorrin! Dozen's of times! I felt it all, all the pain. I can't take this, anymore. Healing Talon. Healing her. It's too much pain! I can't use this power. It's not a gift. It's a curse.”

Thorrin gently stroked Nessa's head. “It's okay, girl. You don't have to use it. I won't ever let anyone force you to.”

Menton's father was a piece of shit, and Menton's a piece of shit too.

Thorrin held the crying girl for what seemed like hours.

During the years I was trapped in the Lands of Despair, he was as close to a friend as anyone has ever been to me. I did not understand him in the beginning, and probably, I still do not. He was always ready to help me, to help anyone that was not his enemy, no matter what the circumstances. There were others in his guild that were similar to him, but most were just normal people, with the same prejudices as anyone else. Still, his people were loyal to him, from the first day to the last battle.

I owe Thorrin. Nessa too. I owe her more than I owe Thorrin.

“Thank you.”

“It was simple to acquire. No thanks are necessary. Are you ready to spar?” Urehara-sensei's eagerness to fight is a palpable feeling in the air. As his control over his ki has grown, his natural projection of his combative nature has grown. His aura is already so strong that anyone with a weak will would be completely cowed from its pressure.

“Of course, Sensei.” I cannot suppress my grin. I am just as hungry to test my abilities as he is, and right now, sparring is our only outlet to test ourselves.

Urehara-sensei frowns slightly. “I have told you, you should stop calling me Sensei. You have become as much my teacher as I am your teacher.”

“Once we cross over to the Labyrinth of Yggr, we should choose names to go by. Using our real names would be an instant giveaway to players. They wouldn't necessarily know we were actually Earth humans, but they would know we weren't Labyrinth natives. That could be a bad thing, depending on who it is. I'll stop calling you Sensei then.”

Urehara-sensei shakes his head wryly, and we go inside the dojo. He takes up a boken, a wooden sword, and I grab a pair of wooden rods, that are each three feet long. Our combat styles have become very different, since the start of the Great Fuck Over. For his entire life, Urehara-sensei has already been training his sword techniques. I had already been experimenting with Talon's martial art styles in this world, before the Great Fuck Over, but during my time in Talon's body, I developed my own style of fighting. It is not entirely based on any single style, even if it is dominated by Shadow Fist.

We bow and immediately attack each other. There is no need for either of us to feel out our opponent. We each know our opponent's style and habits almost as well as our own now. Our wooden weapons clack together in a rapid staccato beat. Having two weapons, I push my attack, trying to force an opening in Urehara-sensei's defense. Using only a single weapon, Urehara-sensei fights defensively, shutting down my attacks, while waiting for me to expose an opening.

Circling each other, we move and strike at full speed. Periodically, one or the other of us will land a blow or two, but we are using only enough strength to not lose control of our weapons. This is a test of skill, not a fight to the death. The strikes that we are landing are still hard enough to bruise and could even break bones. We are too evenly matched for there to be a clear winner. I have the advantage in real battle experience, but Urehara-sensei's body is superior, it did not have to be rebuilt from the effects of an extended coma.

Never stopping, sometimes pausing, as we maneuver for advantage, our battle continues for over an hour. We are both breathing heavily, but I am more winded than Urehara-sensei. I still have a long way to go.

A ring-tone sounds from Urehara-sensei's mobile terminal, and he backs away lowering his sword. I lower my weapons as well, and Urehara-sensei picks up his terminal, looking at the display.

“Yes?”

Urehara-sensei listens for several minutes, without interrupting.

“Continue your investigation but be careful. Use roundabout methods to find the data, the government will be watching for people searching for information about that location.”

He listens for a few minutes more.

“That approach is acceptable. Do it.”

Terminating the call, Urehara-sensei turns to me. “One of my resources has turned up the probable location for The Nameless Entertainment, Inc.'s real equipment, but it is not good. They have a facility in a U.S. government weapons testing center. It is nothing that I have ever heard about in the past, so it is probably a military black operation.”

“If the government is involved, why would the FBI have sent agents to interrogate me?”

“A territorial battle, the FBI, more likely the DOJ knows that a branch of the military is involved in the project, and they want to expose it or take over control. There are constant political power games taking place in every government, and you are being viewed as a potential tool for one or both sides.

“Once we know more, we can make our plans for entering the facility.”

Crack! BOOM!

The trunk of a wooden man splits down the middle, and the wooden rod in my right hand explodes into splinters. Ordinary wood is not able to withstand having very much ki channeled through it, without being destroyed. It would be a different story if my rods had been carved from some of the exotic woods that can be found in the Battleground of the Damned. Weak as it is, when fully focused, my ki is far more than an Earth-born oak can withstand.

While our ki, Urehara-sensei's as well as mine, is already much stronger than when we started training, we still have barely more power than the weakest of the adepts and casters in the Battleground of the Damned. We are running out of time, our move is already planned for New Years Eve. With only one more month to train, will we be able to survive in the Labyrinth of Yggr?

Focusing my ki into my palm, I shatter the arm of another wooden man with a single strike. The impact does not cause any pain or numbness, it does not even turn my palm red. For most of my life, I trained under Urehara-sensei, but I never had the kind of strength and power I have now. Even if it is not on par with the stronger adepts and casters in the Labyrinth of Yggr, there is no man of Earth, other than Urehara-sensei or Tanaka, who could equal me.

Settling into a full lotus, I begin to forcibly circulate my ki again. Even if my body is stronger than it has ever been, it is still only capable of channeling a small fraction of the ki that my soul can generate. The time spent in my Half-Dvergar body must have changed my soul more than I would have ever imagined possible. Perhaps, like Urehara-sensei, I was also generating uncontrolled ki, before the Great Fuck Over. That could by why the “game” put me into Talon's body.

Since the game was never a game, it is entirely too possible that we were already being changed before the Great Fuck Over. Was The Nameless preparing us for the day he would entrap us and make his demands? Can I turn his machinations back on him?

The hum of an electric car's motors interrupt my meditation. Opening my soul, I feel Urehara-sensei's ki. Even though the aura of wild uncontrolled ki no longer rages around him, and he has learned to somewhat harness his power, he still burns brighter than he should, creating a weak energy field. He is noticeable to anyone who can sense ki.

Passing through the dojo, I find Urehara-sensei removing shipping crates from the back of a minivan.

“Sensei.” I move around behind the minivan and pick up one the largest one. It feels like it weighs close over two hundred pounds, but that is not even close to my limits anymore.

Urehara-sensei grins, like a kid in a candy store. “Some equipment I arranged for has been completed. This may not be as powerful as what we will be able to loot in the Labyrinth of Yggr, but it is much better then nothing.”

“Oh?” I cannot keep the curiosity off my face.

After moving the crates into the dojo, we open them revealing weapons, armor, clothing, and other gear. The largest of the crates contains four swords and over a dozen knives of various sizes and styles. Two of the swords were a matched pair of samurai swords, katana and
o-wakizashi. The other two are a matched set of longswords, with plain cruciform guards, in the later style of the “bastard swords” that were most often wielded with two hands. At the guard, the blades are only about two inches wide, but they are also nearly ¾ of an inch thick. It is a dual-edged sword, and the edges have a hamon, like a katana. A heavy pommel in the shape of ten sided tear drop, offsets the  weight of the heavy blade.

A slightly smaller crate contains two suits of armor, one in the general style of feudal Japanese samurai armor, except it is crafted entirely from metal. The deep red lacquer finish is offset by a single golden crane on the breastplate. The other armor is a suit of more of less European style  chainmail, lacquered matte black.

Picking up one of the longswords, it seems much heavier than it should, at least twice to three times what I expected. Walking through a few drills, the sword feels comfortable. Its heavier weight feels right, and the balance is superb. Spinning, I catch the second sword, that Urehara-sensei throws to me.

“You normally use two weapons.”

I cannot stop myself from grinning, even though I know how disgusting the expression is on my face. Increasing the tempo, I rapidly perform more drills, the swords whistling through the air. Even though I mostly used axes or empty hands in the Lands of Despair, I am not unskilled with swords. Without the mass and strength of my Half-Dvergar body to back up axes, it would be accurate to say that I am more efficient with swords.

“These swords are superb,. Even with their weight, the balance is almost perfect, and that weight will help with penetrating armor.”

Urehara-sensei grins. “These weapons were made by the last true sword-smith in Japan. Though, he was forced to use some extremely modern equipment at one of the Urehara Group's locations to forge them. All of these are made from a combination of sheets of stainless steal, tantalum, and tungsten, that were combined using traditional Japanese metal folding methods. Since you often strike with the butts of your sticks, I had him design those pommels to give you a point to pierce an enemies armor with.”

These swords should hold up, even against some of the powerful enemies we will find in the Labyrinth of Yggr. The cost of these weapons has to be enormous, but Urehara-sensei would just shrug it off as nothing, should I mention it.

“Thank you, Sensei. Is the armor the same?”

When I call him “Sensei,” Urehara-sensei's faces stiffened, but his grin returns just as quickly, probably, because I ask about the armor. “Yours is made form the same metals, folded a hundred times and then drawn into wire to make the chain. Mine is made from a lightweight titanium alloy. Your strength has to already be twice my own, I cannot fight with the same weight of weapons and armor that you can.”