Eugene opened his eyes.
The unblinking stare of the Four Gods rested upon him. His Bondage Vouch with Kash demanded to be fulfilled. According to the terms of the Vouch, both of them had lost the fight, and so not only did Kash need to hand over the Papa Pole, but Eugene needed to tell him about Kevin’s License Plate.
Eugene was resting in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV. An array of Hibiscan machinery churned behind Eugene, monitoring his vital signs and managing his medical care. A cultivator trained in the medical arts opened the door and walked in before bowing deeply.
“Sect Elder, Kash wants to enter.”
“Let him in,” replied Eugene.
The doctor left, walking past Kash. The Kambili-rank cultivator grasped the Papa Pole with his right hand. It was a dark gray metal rod, surprisingly only about a foot long. It rippled with latent Hibiscan energy.
“Grzegorz, you look much better already.”
Eugene’s scarred face only stared at him.
“I hate to part with my pole, but a deal’s a deal.”
He handed the Papa Pole to Eugene.
Eugene felt the Papa Pole’s essence penetrate his mind. It was in a resting state, and thus gave off only a minute amount of ambient Hibiscan energy. Eugene attuned to the Hibiscan artifact and felt a transferral of ownership.
“Is that it?” asked Eugene.
Kash smirked.
“Yeah, that’s all. You’re the official owner and have full control of it. Technically, explaining the details of how it works wasn’t in our contract, so have fun figuring that out.”
“Heh, you re-” Eugene coughed up blood, “really are salty about losing.”
“A draw,” said Kash.
“It was in practice a loss,” Eugene said, “and let’s not argue semantics.”
Eugene ripped out the IV with a spray of blood and carved a purple hole in reality.
“Time for my end of the deal,” he said.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you already know how to make Hibiscan portals,” said Kash.
Eugene crawled through. Kash walked after him.
They emerged into an anechoic chamber, enchanted Hibiscuses lining the walls to deaden any sound.
Stolen story; please report.
“In addition to sound barriers, the room is warded against non-authorized purple teleportation and scry-”
“Blah, blah, blah, just tell me,” said Kash.
“It’s quite simple, really,” said Eugene, “and not very significant.”
“Uh huh,” said Kash.
“Stumbling across Kevin’s license plate was a most comedic turn of events.”
Kash froze. His mind instantly connected the dots. The demon cultivator Eugene had stolen Kevin’s license plate from the Holy Book all those centuries ago! But how had Grzegorz found out?
“You see, I found it in the fractal, essentially by accident. The most important discovery of our age, and it was found by me diving too deep into the Hibiscan fractal, like a fool.”
Kash was too stunned to respond. He knew Grzegorz must have discovered something truly profound in order to ascend several realms in an afternoon, but this was above anything he would have suspected.
Everything clicked into place. Grzegorz’s Hibiscan fighting style was clearly based on his knowledge of Kevin’s license plate. Any cultivator who didn’t know about KLP would be missing a fundamental part of the Holy Book, and thus their cultivation would be inherently crippled. That explained how Grzegorz had managed to get the upper hand in the fight a few times.
“I-I need to think about this.”
“Have fun,” said Eugene.
They both opened different portals and entered them, Eugene going back to his hospital bed, but not before dropping the Papa Pole.
After crawling back onto the bed, Eugene closed his eyes. He could clearly feel the throbbing of the Pole, its location apparent to him. He mentally grasped it, and it instantly appeared into his hand. How convenient.
The Pole was fully charged with Kash’s lightning energy. Eugene had read accounts of Kash’s fights in which he deployed the Pole. The last time was eight years ago, when Kash wiped out the remaining known forces of the Multiplying Rabbit Sect, one of the most powerful demon cultivation sects. He killed hundreds of cultivators, including a dozen Kambilis, with three strikes from the Papa Pole.
That had been part of a joint operation between the Fourth Jade Alliance and the Five-Headed Tortoise Sect. The Multiplying Rabbit Sect was caught trying to infiltrate a diplomatic summit between the Fourth Jade Alliance and the Five-Headed Tortoise Sect, and so it was decided that it had to be eliminated. The other demon sects did nothing, cowering in fear of the united power of the entire non-demon cultivating world.
Part of the reason why the Fourth Jade Alliance and the Five-Headed Tortoise Sect currently felt so comfortable with waging their cold war against each other was because they thought the demon cultivator menace had been severely weakened to the point of irrelevance.
Of course, the Multiplying Rabbit Sect hadn’t been exterminated, and now was nearing the power it had before it was “destroyed”. Those thought to have been killed eight years ago had been somehow reborn. It was unknown exactly how, but such things weren’t surprising considering that sect’s patronage to the Infinite Rabbit, one of the four Heavenly Beasts. It was one of two that had turned to demon cultivation, the other one being the Manifold Lion.
The Five-Headed Tortoise and the mysterious Dog were the other two Heavenly Beasts, and both held rivalries with the demon cultivating Heavenly Beasts.
Eugene directed his thoughts away from the past, instead thinking about what to do now. He entered the timeless realm and dropped the Papa Pole off there, the same place where he kept Kevin’s License Plate. He slipped out.
Even that brief excursion into the anechoic chamber exhausted him. The internal and external damage done to him had been mostly healed, but he was still far from peak physical condition. Even considering Hibiscan healing methods, some things could only be mended with time.
Eugene drifted off to sleep, deliberately inducing a Hibiscan coma that he would only awake from in a week or so. That would get him back to 90% of his normal strength once he woke up and would speed up the process of getting to 100% strength.
It was time to rest.