Path of Transcendence 1: Ultimatum of the Nameless God (24 page)

Perzey shakes her head. “Rachael, my sister. I've already felt pain. I hate Thug Horde.”

The contempt in my laugh makes her flinch. As I push back the hood of my cloak, she stares at the ruin of my face, the patchy hair growing from the left side of my head. Something other than revulsion moves in her eyes, as she really looks at me for the first time. She is clearly thinking about something, without saying anything.

“Have you felt the pain of your own blood turning away from you and running out of your hospital room, before vomiting in the hall. As a twelve year old child, have you ever been forced to always wear a hooded sweatshirt in school so the other children would not be forced to look at your face? Have been taunted by other children, called Freddie Kruger and Jason, while the teachers looked on smiling? Have been surrounded and herded into a maintenance room by children who thought their older brothers would beat you bloody? Have you ever been trapped in the burning wreckage of a care while the fire slowly cooked you alive?”

Standing, I drop my cloak to the ground and remove my armor and the padded leather clothing beneath it. Perzey stares at me silently, while the fear returns to her eyes. Her eyes travel over the twisted skin that covers the left side of my body.

“Pain taught me to hate. More pain than you have ever conceived of in your wildest nightmares taught me to hate, like you cannot imagine. After I learned to hate, I played Taereun with the pain dampers at zero. It was not as intense as what I thought of as real life, but it was still eighty percent or a little more. I was cut, stabbed, electrocuted, burned, crucified, hurt in ways you have never seen, not even working in a hospital. I embraced the pain. Everything I suffered through, I used to make me stronger.”

I trap Perzey's eyes with own. “You don't have enough pain or hate to follow my path. You have to figure out your own way to be strong. I can teach you to fight. If you can learn to use the skills in that body, I can help you hone them. You don't even understand how incredible that body is. The real Perzey spent a lifetime honing that body, and you are wasting it.”

Taking a bar of harsh soap from one of my rings, I turn my back to her. I can feel her eyes raking across the the scars covering most of my back, my ass and the backs of my thighs.

“Compared to me, you see yourself as weak. You are right. You are weak, but I'm not strong. You have never seen true strength. You have never seen indomitable, unstoppable power, backed by an unbreakable will. If you ever do, then and only then, you will understand the true meaning of strength.”

The river water is cooler than the sweltering air. My aura drives away any predators or parasites that have had designs upon me, and I float on my back staring at the night sky.

I do not know why I told Perzey so much. The only person to ever hear a part of that was Urehara-sensei, but even with him, I never revealed so much. The memory of her eyes, with that something that I cannot understand, keeps floating in my mind. What did I see in her? Is that unknown something what made me so loquacious?

I am not certain how much time has passed, when I lower my feet to the river bed and begin to wash away the remaining dust and sweat. Those two bitches were wrong about me. I do sweat, it is just that I do not sweat much.

Perzey is sitting by the fire staring at me as I walk out of the water. Her eyes stare at me hungrily, with the darkness behind that hunger clearer. I have seen eyes like hers many times in the past. In the Lands of Despair, I saw hundreds of trapped players, who straddled the same line. Madness is swirling in the depths of her eyes. She is teetering on the brink, and one little push is all it will take to send her over the edge.

“I don't care what you say. I will be strong. as strong as you. I don't care how much it hurts, I'll be stronger than you.”

With a snap of my wrist, I hurl the soap at her, and her hand snaps it out of the air. When she looks at the soap in her hand, there is confusion in her eyes, and I think I finally understand. That was an unconscious reaction. When she came charging at me so quickly, floating on a cushion of wind, she was on the brink of madness and acting unconsciously.

“You're filthy. Go clean yourself up.”

Perzey brazenly strips off her armor and clothing, teetering on the edge of madness she is embracing her fear. She was listening when I talked, but she got the message wrong. Then again, she might have gotten it right. For her, madness might be her strength. If I push her over the edge, it might unleash her power, but she will almost certainly become a bomb, one that could explode at any time.

Perzey struts toward the river, her crossing steps making her hips sway seductively. Her body has scars. Whoever the real Perzey was, she was a fighter, but there are none bad enough to ruin the appeal of that body.

I watch her, until her ass disappears beneath the water. I do not like her. I have no affection for her. Still, I want to possess that body.

I can feel her eyes boring holes in my back as I dress and don my armor. The hint of a smile touches the corners of my lips. I do not know what effect she thought seducing me would have, but her ploy failing before it ever really started has angered her.

More than a hundred Thuggies are gathered in front of us, probably closer to two hundred. They are camped outside the tunnel leading to the Four Bones Goblin Lair.

The day after Perzey's attempt at seduction, before noon, we found the Thug Horde camp. The corpses of two women were lying on the ground. Both had obviously been brutally raped, before having their throats slit. At the sight, I did not feel anything in particular, but Perzey obviously moved farther over the line toward madness.

Later that day, before the usual afternoon rains, we crossed a trail that branched off the Bull-rush River trail. I found the tracks of more than twenty people joining with the Thug Horde group that we were following. There were no signs of struggle, and the group from the side trail appeared to have been waiting in a small clearing where the trails met. As we went further, the footprints of the new arrivals and our prey intermittently overlay one another, as though they were travelling in one group.

The next day, after we passed the point where the Thuggies camped, we found more groups joining them, to the point where I could not even begin to estimate the numbers.

Today we followed the trail past Zavin's Hole, to where we are now. The Thuggies are camped facing the tunnel. Obviously they are waiting for something, but I do not know what it is.

In typical Thug Horde arrogance, they do not have any scouts or guards on the back side of their camp. Most Thugs never thought anything was a threat to them. With the exception of Talon, that is, but Talon disappeared years ago.

*What are they doing?*
Perzey has a confused look on her face. Tactics and strategy are probably not among her strong points.

*They are waiting to attack whoever comes out of the tunnel, but why so many of them are gathered for it, I have no clue. We can't beat close to two hundred of them, so we will wait and see what happens.*

It was almost dark when we reached the Thug Horde camp, and as the sun goes down I move away from them. It is very unlikely that anything will happen during the night.

After eating a cold meal, I sit down to meditate. Again, my aura keeps away any parasites or predators.

“Who do ye think ye are barring our path?”

As we are stealthily making our way toward the Thug Horde camp, a voice fills the area around us. Even though the voice is obviously speaking softly, the power of the magic amplifying it makes it painful. I do not need to see the speaker to know he is Dvergar. Nothing human nor Alfar has such a deep timbre to its voice.

A shiver going through me, I speed up my advance.

“If ye do not clear the path, all will die.” Again the voice pounds into our ears.

Ahead, I see colors other than green. I halt where I am still mostly screened by the near-jungle vegetation.

All of the Thugs are formed up in a semicircle, facing the tunnel exit. It is obvious my estimate was off, there are well over two hundred of them. The Dvergar and whoever else they are confronting are hidden by their numbers. Looking above, I pick out a branch that should give us a clear view of the tunnel.

Jumping straight up, I grab a thick branch, about eleven feet over my head. Hooking my feet around the branch, I reach down for Perzey and grab her hands when she jumps.

“Attack!” That voice is human.

I swing Perzey up to the branch and scramble up behind her. Moving near the end of the thick branch, I squat down and part the leaves. Perzey scuttles up behind me and leans on my shoulders.

Between the cave exit and the Thug Horde force, three Dvergar are standing in a line. From this distance, it is impossible to judge height, but I already know that all three are between 4'6” and 5' tall. Their shoulders are nearly as wide as they are tall. While their legs are too short in relation to their body, their arms are too long, giving them an apish appearance.

The grey-bearded Dvergar in the middle is slightly shorter than the other two. Dressed in a full suit of chainmail, he has an axe hanging on his belt and a shield strapped to his left arm. On his left is a red-bearded Dvergar with great axe. On the grey-beard's left is a black-bearded Dvergar with a spear.

The Thuggie melees begin to charge forward, while their ranged attackers and casters bombard the Dvergar. The center Dvergar raises his hand, and a spell pattern snaps into existence for a fraction of a second. As the spell pattern disappears, a curtain of dust rises from the ground forming a dome over the three Dvergar. The Thug Horde bombardment bounce off, explodes against, or rolls down the dome, while doing no damage to the Dvergar inside.

The spell pattern was weird. I cannot be certain, because it disappeared so fast, but it seemed to be yellowish brown. A normal spell pattern is gold or silver. But the casting speed is what was even more interesting. I have never seen a spell cast so quickly. I could not even see the Dvergar draw the pattern. It simply appeared and disappeared.

Perzey's hand clenches my shoulders.
*There so many Thugs, how can they face them like that?*

*Thug Horde is fucked.*

*But there are only thee of them.*

*Watch. This is what true strength is. Dvergar. Real Dvergar not a Possessed Dvergar.*

I do not need to look to be aware of Perzey's confusion. She, like most players, has no clue how powerful real Dvergar are.

When the Thug Horde front is barely five feet from them, the Dvergar on the left and right move. Their speed is so high, I can only see blurs of movement. I have to follow them, by the trail of dead bodies and empty space they leave behind.

The middle Dvergar raises his hand and another spell pattern, this one orangish red flashes into existence for a fraction of a second. The seventeen Thug Horde casters that remained behind are engulfed in pillars of flame.

“AAAARRRRGGGHH!”

Their screams last for maybe two seconds, before all seventeen fall to the ground as still burning corpses.

In less than ten seconds more than two-thirds of the Thug Horde force is already dead. These three Dvergar are orders of magnitude more deadly than the ones I met as Talon. I have never seen such a display of raw power from Dvergar before.

Perzey points to a fleeing archer.
*That one! He's Kahar!*

*Hold on to me tightly.*

Perzey hesitates for a second, before her arms wrap tightly around my neck.

With a single bounce to get some spring, I jump from the branch we are standing on, to the next tree.

“EEEEKKKK!”
Perzey arms tighten even more in midair, and her legs snake around my waist.

As the branch I land on springs up, I leap again. This time I hook my arm around the bole of a thinner tree changing my direction of flight. As my feet land on the next branch, I spring upward, grabbing the branch above me and chin myself up.

Locating the fleeing Kahar, I make a running leap to the next tree. Perzey clings tightly to me, as the ground passes by more then twenty feet below now. Two more leaps and I am next to the road, but behind the fleeing Thug.

Dropping to the ground, I sprint after the Thug. Looking over his shoulder, Kahar sees me and spins, firing an arrow at me. Not slowing my pace, I deflect the arrow on the draw, and Kahar's eyes widen in astonishment. As he fires a second arrow, my second sword repeats the feat. Kahar spins again, taking off in a headlong rush.

In less than five seconds, I have closed the gap and kick his feet out form under him. As Kahar tumbles to the ground, I stop, after slicing his bow string.

Perzey releases her grip on my neck and stands next to me.

“If you want him dead, kill him yourself. If he kills you, I'll probably let him walk away.”

Perzey looks at me, and I sheathe my swords.

*Kill him. Please.*
The fear is suppressing the madness in her eyes.

*If you want him dead, do it yourself. Running your mouth about being stronger than me, and  all you can do is beg me to kill him. You're fucking pathetic.*
I turn away from her and start walking into the woods.

*No. Wait. Please.*

*Why? You're too weak, nothing but a coward and a user. You'll drag me down, if I stay with you. Kill him and show me you're worth something.*

There is no need to look, to see the tears falling down her face or the hand reaching out towards me.

Kahar laughs and draws  his long-knife. “I don't know what the fuck is going on, but I remember you bitch. You were one of the ones the frog sent to us. You were screaming about your sister. That little slut was so wild I had to break her arms and legs to keep her in one place, and she still squirmed better than most, when I fucked her. I wonder if you'll squirm as good.”

At the edge of the wood, I turn to look at Perzey and shrug.
*Kill him. If you don't, I'll just watch, while he rapes you to death.*

“BASTARD! YOU FUCKING BASTARD!” Perzey's shrieks echo off the escarpment.

Kahar is quietly sneaking up behind Perzey, but I do not give any sign of to tip her off. Either, she is going fight effectively and live, or she will die.

Not seeing any sympathy in my eyes, Perzey spins towards Kahar, drawing her swords. Seeing how close he is, she stumbles backwards, and Kahar charges her. His long-knife barely misses slashing her wrist.

“NOOOO!” Perzey starts to swing wildly.

Kahar has skill, but I cannot see any sign of adept abilities directly relating to melee.  However, his skill is not enough to deal with Perzey's wild barrage of attacks.

Something causes me to look over my shoulder, and I turn to the three Dvergar who are standing behind me. The grey beard is only about 4'7”, but there is no question in my mind that he could destroy me in a fraction of a second. His presence reminds me of Boran.

“Transcendent.”

The grey beard cocks his head fractionally to the side. “Ye are a rather interesting human. Yer body is completely lacking any trace of Dvergar, but yer mind and soul have a strong overlay of Dvergar to them. Not even enough Dvergar to make ye a Half-Dvergar abomination, but no human should have any trace of Dvergar in his patterns. So, what are ye?”

“I used to be the soul that made a Half-Dvergar one of the Possessed.”

The gray beard spits on the ground between us. “So, ye were Talon. Twas no fault of his nor yers that he was born what he was, but he was still an abomination.”

I look over my shoulder at Perzey. Her attacks are still wild, but she seems to be moving more smoothly.

The black beard looks at me, when I turn back. “Her mind and soul are horribly mismatched  with her body. She be even worse than most Possessed. If ye keep pushing her like ye did, her mind will break.”

I shrug. “She can't use her body's powers. If she goes slightly insane, I think she might be able to.”

The grey beard grunts. “That might work.”

The three Dvergar turn to leave.

“Wait! Can you block out the spying a god?”

“Gods are myth.”

“Can you block the spying of The Nameless.”

The Grey Beard turns back to me and stares, without saying a word. Stepping close, he raises his hand, and a dome of interwoven fire and stone surrounds us.

“Speak.”

“If I said, I think I know where the gate to the Chamber of Transition is, but the controls are dead, would that matter to you?”

The grey beard  stares into my eyes for several long minutes. “If ye truly believe that, come to Alkhalazen's Demise.”

The dome disappears and the grey beard turns to walk away. Pausing for a moment, he seems to be thinking. “I have a warning for ye. If ye step further along yer path, there will be no recourse but destruction or eternity.”

“What?”

The Dvergar do not say anything else and disappear into the woods.

Turning around, I watch Perzey hack Kahar's corpse into little pieces. In her eyes, the madness has become dominant. I wonder where it will end for her.