What in the actual hell? I thought.

  I paused trying to make sense of what the heck was going on. I raised my defenses just in case, but she hadn’t made any hostile moves thus far. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect but a civil conversation wasn’t it.

  Still, that was exactly what I needed and I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

  “You were expecting me?” I asked, hovering closer towards her. “Why?”

  “To seek mine destruction would be thy purpose, is it not?” She leaned her head back exposing her throat. “Come do so, if thou doth dare. Thou art stronger now. I sense it. Perhaps strong enough to even fulfil thy wish.”

  “Goading me in for a free hit?” I scoffed at her with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “No thanks. And to be honest, I thought I’d killed you already. How are you still here?”

  She chortled, haughtily. “Thou cannest not destroy that which is not flesh, Foul Husk. The Exalted One, thou hast merely been freed to ascend to a higher plane. But thou hast cursed me now with impotence. No more shall mine purpose be fulfilled.”

  What the hell did that mean?

  And what did she mean by freeing him?

  But the inkling I’d been feeling all along was starting to solidify now.

  Hun Wu had been right after all.

  I’d gone and freed I’Xol’Ukz somehow by killing him.

  “So you were the real prison,” I said. “Your chains were meant for him.”

  “Thou understandeth not mine purpose. For mine’s is not to enslave, but to empower. To extend the Will of the Exalted One through the paths of the moon. But thou hath made mine paths obsolete, for the Exalted One is far above the false gods of this realm. It is eternal. Constrained no longer by flesh, the Exalted One now seeds the moons with its presence…by its own Will.”

  That didn’t sound good, but it would explain the faint hint of Dark Frenzy I’d been sensing now. “So I’Xol’Ukz is no longer here, huh?”

  Wherever here now was exactly.

  That gave me another idea. I summoned my Frenzy to project my Sacred Soul across the stars. To get a glimpse of where I now was. As I aligned the meridians, my Dantian screamed. I suddenly found myself upon a Hell World, under the rays of a Cursed Star.

  But it seemed all too familiar.

  I knew that star.

  I’d created it.

  This was my Hell World.

  I snapped back into the Chainmainden’s Domain to hear her laughing again.

  “Curious that thou didst traverse so far to reach me. Knowest thou not thy own soul, Husk?”

  Shit… no wonder she’d been expecting me. I’d placed her core inside my Inner World.

  Did that mean that this entire construct was now inside of me?

  My mind did a bit of a double take at that.

  What did that mean though?

  Was I now her master or something? Was that why she didn’t attack me?

  I grimaced. “So where is I’Xol’Ukz now then? Tell me where your master is so I can kill him!”

  She laughed once more. “One such as thou, a mere Husk, cannot slay a true god. Thou art but mortal flesh. Even now, thou art but a shade, an apparition of power. Only a spirit can slay a spirit and only a god can slay a god.”

  “But I can still slay you right?” I brandished my fist with [Lightning]. “Tell me where is now or you’ll die by my hand.”

  “Thou may try. I would relish it.” She then grinned as a sickening pulse of Lemonade came with a lust filled taunt. “Ravage me with thine hate, oh Husk.…Tear mine soul apart.”

  I hesitated.

  Nah…to hell with that.

  She was way too eager. Maybe killing her was just what she wanted.

  Another trap.

  Just like with killing that slug.

  Maybe I’d freed her from I’xol’ukz’s control enough for her to regain some of her humanity though. Even if I could kill her, she had knowledge and answers. Answers that I needed to save what was left of my world.

  “How do I stop it? How do I stop I’xol’ukz now?”

  “Thou canneth not. Thou hast undone what was done. The Hearld of the Stars shall cause the moons to bloom with blood and with it the Cleansing Flame shall erase thy worlds.”

  This was getting nowhere. But I knew who this woman truly was. Or once was. Perhaps I could use it against her now.

  “Is that what you truly set out to do?” I channeled my Frenzy into [Struggler’s Resolve]. “You…Lysandra the concubine of Wu Sin Taun. Tell me the truth of what happened to you on Dokumu. Did Taun betray you and sacrifice you to I’Xol’Ukz? To corrupt you to serve him?”

  Her eyes flashed with recognition and shock.

  I sensed something else too.

  A sharp spike of [Fear] and [Everyone’s Pain]

  But then it ceased, her brows lowering in a scowl. “Foul and crafty Husk. The mortal known by that name is no longer. She accepted the Exalted One of her own free will to become the what you see before thee. To serve the Exalted One is mine only purpose and thou hath now stripped that from me.” Hatred and anger welled up inside her. “Curse thee oh Husk of a Vile Flame. Curse thee for stealing mine purpose. For corrupting the one True Flame!”

  Damn, that kind of backfired, I thought.

  But that initial shock and what I’d felt told me that I’d struck a nerve.

  The true her was still in there somewhere.

  In my mind’s eye, I focused on Lysandra’s core. It was a glowing purple stone corrupted with Demonic Qi, exuding with undeath. The opposite of what she was in life. A healer according to Zin Tai. Like Rhe Su Long, it was a failed ascension of sorts. But was it truly of her own doing? It didn’t make sense. Who would subject themselves to becoming something like this and why?

  “You’re not going to help me kill him are you?”

  “I shall never turn against my master, but try to kill me, if thou doth dare.”

  “No, that’s what you seem to want. What if I killed every demon and gate to my world instead? Would that stop the Bloodmoon?”

  She laughed. “I shall not aid thee, Husk. Do what thou willeth. Mine purpose is no longer fulfilled, usurped by the power of the Exalted one himself. What gain is there to light a candle in the brilliance of the sun?”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  I wasn’t going to get a straight answer out of her.

  Not like this.

  She was still I’Xan’Dra…a spawn of I’Xol’Ukz.

  Or a hybrid perhaps, like what had become of Hung Feng.

  But the essence of her true self was still there. Perhaps if I could remove the corruption from her core I could bring her back to who she truly was. Then maybe I could get all the answers I needed. Like how to truly stop I’xol’ukz. I knew the [Core Rebirth] technique, but I could only imagine what using something like that would do on a corrupted core. Not to mention she was ‘alive’ already. In spirit form anyway.

  I needed help for something like this.

  Help that perhaps Master Muraboshi could provide.

  “I’ll be back for you, Lysandra. Till them keep your damn gates off my planet.”

  She hissed at me as I retreated back through the planes of the moon.

  I used the harmonics of Threja’s Sword to guide me, linking me back to the chain leading to Earth’s moon. I had needed Kelsey’s Flame as a guide before, but my senses were far more acute now.

  As I traversed the planes new thoughts occurred.

  Despite the lack of I’Xol’ukz’s presence, the spectral planes of the moons were still filled with lumbering monstrosities and howling demons, but I was starting to get the full picture now. I’Xol’Ukz had been at the center before, sending his demons through the portals and populating the various spiritual planes. But he was everywhere now, released from his mortal prison and not concentrated in a bottle like before. That would explain the diffusion of Dark Frenzy, but I wasn’t sure what that meant in terms of its wider influence now. I knew one thing for certain though. If I’Xol’Ukz was gone from the Chainmaiden’s core, then there was no way to replenish the demons beyond what was already here now.

  That meant so long as I killed them all here, or the gates at least, I could stem the tide of demons swarming on the Earth. Time moved slower in the Spiritual Realm and I used that to my advantage to clear out as many demons and gate crystals as I could on the upper level.

  “[Wrath of a Billion Slain Souls]!”

  I went through with abandon tearing up the desolate spectral terrain. The Chainmaiden appeared every so often, scoffing at me, her spectral form tethered to the crystals by the golden rings and chains.

  “Thou labors are but in vain, Husk. The Exalted One no longer hast need of mine gates. When his fullness is reached, every moon of thy realm shalt bloom with his Divine Blood.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ll be sure to kill him well before that happens.”

  She cackled once more. “I shalt relish observing thy futility. And while we doth speak, how doth fare the brand upon they seed, Husk?”

  It took me a second to understand what she was talking about.

  But then I remembered. She was the one who had marked Bryce with one of her gates.

  “Shall I touch it again to make certain thy seed blooms?”

  Sharp anger spiked within my soul.

  “You’d better think again, bitch! Stay away from my family!”

  I lashed out at her apparition with a violent [Lightning Kick of Fury]. My leg cleaved right through her body and the crystal obelisk behind her, shattering it to pieces. Her haunting laugh re-emerged as she transferred to a crystal a stone’s throw away.

  “Such power. Thou hast grown rapidly, Husk. I could snuff thee out before in mine lesser forms. But now, thou can repel me with but a single blow.”

  That was true.

  The first time I’d fought her, she’d nearly killed me. But now I’Xan’Dra was no challenge at all, at least not in her projected form. It was a testament to my newfound strength of ascension as a Lesser Deity Realm cultivator. I was powerful as hell now, but was I strong enough to slay a true god?

  Or whatever the heck I’Xol’Ukz actually was.

  “I’ll spare you for now, bitch,” I said. “But I’ll be back.”

  As I ascended one of the remaining chains, I reemerged in the Spiritual Realm and quickly found my way back through the darkness to my real body. I opened my eyes to a fresh wave of demons assaulting us. Summoning my Frenzy I tore through them, using my [Lightning Fist] techniques alone.

  Bone and sinew burned as I took out scores of demons at a time.

  When the wave finally ceased, hundreds of corpses lay mangled all around me.

  “What happened, Master Warden?” one of the soldiers asked from behind. “Did you have a vision? What did you see?”

  I supposed that was what my jaunt through the moon must have looked like to him. I was only gone for a few minutes by my estimation, but was standing in a trance the entire time.

  I looked up at the Bloodmoon and could sense a lessoning of the Dark Frenzy there.

  It was a few shades less red too.

  My clearing of the moon’s spectral surface had worked.

  But there was still a heck of a lot more work to be done.

  “Yes,” I finally answered him. “I’ve seen a vision of our way out of this.” I then gave him a smile with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “Keep fighting till dawn. There is hope at the end of this.”

  *   *   *

  I spent another couple of hours battling in between the real world and the spectral planes of the moon. I didn’t need to find a gate to get back there though. I simply went into my mind’s eye, entering my inner world and took a shortcut through the Chainmaiden’s domain.

  It pissed her off the first couple of times, but I didn’t care. In between clearing waves of demons in the real world and protecting the city, I would pop back onto the surface of the moon to clear out thousands more from the other side.

  It was spiritually and physically exhausting, but I could feel the gains that were coming with it. I cultivated fresh Frenzy from my Bloodlust as well as tempering my spiritual fortitude by exposing myself to the weakened Frenzy on the moon’s surface full bore. I could do the same in the real world as well, but I kept it up for the sake of the soldiers with me.

  By the time the sky began to lighten, I had made a noticeable dent in the concentration of Dark Frenzy radiating down. Maybe only a fraction but it was not bad for a night’s work. When the demon waves finally let up, I flew into the city center to assess the damage and to see what I’d managed to save.

  Pockets of destruction were all throughout the province—skirmishes where a stray demon or two had gotten through. I made it to the city center and was relieved to see most of the residential district had been spared, protected by my Glaive’s aura which, from the air, looked to have a diameter of about ten miles.

  Not bad, but not good enough to save the entire city.

  I flew down to the epicenter to find Zu Tien dutifully brandishing my Phalanx Glaive at the center of the city square. Thousands were amassed around her and as I approached, people looked to the sky with shouts of praise.

  “It’s the Iron Marshal!”

  “Look, he’s ascended!”

  “Marshal, help us!”

  “What do we do now?”

  “Help us!!’

  The shouts became more desperate and needy, cries for help more than anything else. I hovered over them and raised my voice with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “People of Jurin, listen to me. We’ve suffered a devastating blow this night. I stand before you now as your ruler. The Duke of Terra. The Princess Lunalah is no more, but she has seen fit to perform this cowardly act as a form of retribution against me. I won’t lie to you. The devastation is more than anyone can bear and its planet wide. Only Jurin and the capital of Li Wan province have been saved.”

  A chill filled the air as I paused, accompanied by hushed murmurs of shock, incomprehension and horror. I tried to think of what I could possibly say to reassure them, but telling them the truth was the best I could do for now.

  “This isn’t over. The demon assaults will resume tonight. We need to take stock and prepare. My sword provides a barrier that will shield you, but you need to salvage what you can from outside the barrier before nightfall.”

  I released a sigh as I tapped into [Everyone’s Sorrow and Pain].

  “This won’t be easy, but I’m with you. I will fight the demons until they are no more and we are all safe from the moon again.”

  I gauged the time. It would be nightfall again in Li Wan soon.

  “I go now to protect the capital, but I’ll return at nightfall. Do not devolve into chaos. Protect each other and prepare.”

  The crowd erupted into shouts and queries again, but I couldn’t answer them now. I took off with [Lightning Walk] aiming West this time to see if it was indeed faster. It would also give me a chance to see what had become of the rest of the planet.

  To see what else we had lost.

  As I crossed the city, I spotted one of the sections that didn’t survive. What was left of the artisan district lay trampled and in ruins, corpses of demons and people both littering the ground.

  My stomach lurched at the sight of it.

  But something even greater tugged at my heart.

  Trepidation filled my soul as I flew over the destruction, looking for the small workshop on the edge of a forest on the outskirts of the district. I landed next to an all too familiar wood pile and the nostalgia hit me like a tidal wave. This was the place I had first learned to cultivate and the home of two people who treated me as a son.

  “Master Edrik! Lysa!”

  I ran towards the house, hoping to find no one there, hoping they had made it out and to the safety of the city center. But as I stepped through the shattered doorway, the horror of reality shook me to my core.

  Edrik was on the floor face down, a bloodied blade in his hand. Lysa lay next to him, her throat ripped open. Her eyes glassy and fixed. I cried out with a sob, pain pouring from the depths of my soul. I’d seen plenty of death before, but nothing hit me as hard as seeing this now.

  Perhaps it was me finally coming down from all the adrenaline of the crisis, but to see two of my dearest friends slaughtered shook me more than the millions more that had already been lost.

  And for what? I thought. A spoiled princess’s petty rage?

  I couldn’t stand it.

  My Flame flared as [Everyone’s Sorrow] filled me, fueling my own hatred and wrath. I balled my fist as I fell to my knees, taking in the magnitude of what had just transpired. This was like a second apocalypse. The entire world destroyed in a single night yet again.

  The cold callousness of its execution echoed back to my childhood, reinforcing everything that was wrong with the empire. Everything I stood against. My Twin Dao resonated with the grief and injustice. Perhaps I’d been na?ve to think that my advancement and new gains would come scot-free.

  Everything had a price in this new world.

  Even success.

  I felt the Struggler’s hand on my shoulder as I measured the cost. All those lives lost. My heart burned with hatred and rage for the one who had caused it all. I thought I’d finally won against Lunalah, but all I did was turn her into an even more dangerous and destructive monster. I wanted to fly off and find her. Drag her right out of that pagoda and tear out her insides.

  That would be more than she deserved for causing all this. But I couldn’t focus on that right now. My vengeance would have to wait. I wasn’t just a Berserker hellbent on destruction anymore. I’d made my pledge to defend the Empire, to defeat I’Xol’Ukz and the scourge of the Cursed Stars. And I’d now become a Duke. A ruler responsible for what was left of my world.

  My enemies would have to wait.

  Recovery was the priority now.

  First, I would rebuild.

  Then I would destroy.