The world held its breath as I charged out of the cathedral-like a bat out of hell. Each crack sounded like a peal of thunder rippling with waves of qi that physically tore open the cathedral. Drops of liquid qi fell like rain as if a squall had emerged eager to bathe a dry land. Another crack and the wind picked up; at my back, I heard building tear apart, and people began to scream before their sound was replaced by the squeal of hurricane-force winds. A sudden flood of qi rushed behind me, and I leaped high into the air, all the while fighting the winds with flight. The rope I used to bind Emily to my back threatened to break but held long enough to kick off from a building.

Down below, a flood of qi swept through the women walking the streets. I had just enough time between leaping between rooftops to see them dissolve flesh and bones. That would be me If I didn’t run like hell.

I abused the hell out of flight and Ocean King’s Fancy to maneuver through the rushing winds and maintain my cultivation. Unfortunately, the hurricane winds kept getting stronger, and if I took even a second to gain altitude, they would overtake me. Doves, crows, and sea birds tried to fly away only for the storm to suck them in; gaining altitude wasn’t a good idea.

The rain continued to fall, both fueling my flight and soaking me to the bone. I slowed a little bit with every drop of water, and the wolfish winds nipped at my hills. Gemini was a massive township spread across two rivers and walled in. The cathedral had stood near the dead center of town. All I had to do was make it past the wall, and I would gain a few seconds on the storm.

My battle form fell away to save qi. I threw myself in a guardhouse and looked back. Waves of liquid qi crashed over Castle Moore and tore it from its hill in the center of town.

Another crack resounded through the universe so mighty it made my cultivation shake. The damn thing wasn’t even fully hatched yet, and already it had destroyed the city. Waves of qi tore buildings from their foundation and wore away the stone into sand. In moments the center of the city resembled a lake. Gemini looked like a city walled in and built around a large lake.

I pulled a lever in the gatehouse and watched gears turn and the gate slowly rise. Only to stop before they fully opened. I placed Emily on the ground and leaped from the guard tower to investigate.

Outside the guardhouse, raging winds tore away roofs, and ice-cold water qi rained too numerous to use spirit sight properly. I clawed my way through the wind to the hidden gears that had been stopped. When I opened up the machine and looked inside, I saw one of the cursed books jammed into the metal gears.

“How is Emily doing?” I drew and fired my sidearm without a second thought.

An inhuman shriek met my reply, and I fired again for good measure. Then spread my palm out and unleashed a torrent of black flames. For a moment, the world lit up as my fire hit a mutant creature full in the chest.

Before the flames hit, I saw its proper form in the light. Its head had mutated into that of a round bulbous mix of starfish and squid, a crab shell covered its arms, legs, and torso, and its left arm had been turned into a massive crab claw. A legion of tentacles draped from its neck, running smoothly down its body. Then there were the bulbous shrimp-like eyes. One had been shot through while my second round punctured its throat. Then, finally, the flames hit.

I held them until the screams went silent and the air filled with the scent of roasted crab meat. Steam hissed out of the creature’s body and ripped open its shell to escape. Its head had been melted down into a charred paste. I grabbed ahold of the book, yanked it free, and burned it to ash. The tentacled words shrieked as they died. Soon the gears turned, and the gate opened again.

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When I opened the gatehouse, I fired again at a form leaning over Emily. The creature twisted, and I fired again. “Carlson was supposed to take you out.” The mutant said.

I cupped my hand this time when I unleashed a geyser of flames. The flames kept closer together instead of fanning out. But this one was fast. I threw itself towards Emily, and I fired again. The round caught the creature in its soft fish-scaled chest.

“How my cultivation is higher than yours?” Indeed the mutant had a stronger cultivation base. But what did that matter if he couldn’t make proper use of it? The priest’s sidearm remained undrawn.

It fired a water jet from its mouth, and I dodged as I felt the build-up of qi. Then, I entered my battle form and dodged felt the water jet bite into my arm. The arm went numb instantly, and my sidearm fell to the ground uselessly.

The second my sidearm fell, I drew my knife and applied my qi engine. It opened its massive shark-like mouth and tried to bite me. I wasn’t having any of that. My joints cried as I turned 15 degrees and rammed the knife in the monster’s throat. Its teeth clicked together, and the former priest’s eyes bulged into surprise when it felt my knife in its jugular. A slurry of flesh, blood, and bone flew over my hand as the serrated qi edge of my knife turned with RPMs, impossible for a normal chainsaw. Six inches of steel cut through the monster’s spine in one fluid motion spilling flesh slurry all over the guardhouse walls.

The creature spasmed as I sawed through its spine until, with a pop, I cut through.

I loaded Emily on my back and strapped her as tightly as I could one-handed. My arm still hadn’t healed after the water jet. But, to my eyes, I watched my flesh slowly knit itself back. I tossed a beast core in my mouth and processed it quickly as I turned the lever of the gate again to begin closing it.

From there, I leaped from the guardhouse and shot through the gate before it could close. I dropped my battle form again and felt my wound bleed in earnest. With most of the wind off of me, I ran northeast further into triad territory and away from the village. Just to avoid any further issues, I leaped into the air and flew.

I’ve never done this before. Using flight to keep the hurricane winds from taking me away was one thing, but this was different. My qi drained at an insane rate, and I kept losing altitude. It was cold as hell in the air, and I couldn’t use dragon fire midflight. Flying took every bit of concentration, and I kept wobbling. Emily’s bindings to me cut at my skin and aggravated my shoulder wound. To stay afloat, I had to eat beast cores to recover the qi flight cost.

Out of the hundreds of goatmen, I harvested there were maybe 200 beast cores in my inventory, give or take a few. With that in mind, I flew higher until I was certain no one would be able to see us. I had a hunch that the few people who might have escaped didn’t last long.

For hours I flew even as I felt more cracks. Still, the beast hadn’t hatched, but I was certain it would soon. I didn’t know how far I managed to get from the city or if I was still in Gemini County at all. But, I knew that we were in the Astro Province, and if we traveled east far enough, we could enter Castle Province.

Still, I continued to fly, unsure of what distance would be safe. Finally, only after I’d exhausted over a hundred beast cored did I decide to touch down. We ended up in a hilly forested area that was most likely at the foot of the Gilded Crown, a mountain range North of our location home of the wealthy Count Jurgen Mannis of Bedrock County. If the maps in Castle Moore were accurate, then Bedrock bordered on Astro Province’s Cancer County to the west, a ghost zone to the south, and to its North and East Stone Wall County.

Further east would see us in Throne County, where Duke Klaus Goldstein kept court. If we headed further east eventually, we’d run into Fort Nightguard built around palace Prophet’s Rest, where King Walter Raphael resided over the four provinces in his kingdom. Then, a bit north of Fort Nightguard, we’d hit a bit of land between the kingdom of Knight Angel and Prophet’s Trust on the edge of a ghost kingdom. That’s where I wanted to go, and Logan claimed the land would be cheap. But, unfortunately, few sane people would dare to settle in that land.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough beast cores to cross the distance. Emily needed a place to rest and recover. I could use some shut-eye as well. I had no idea how much of her remained from the mind raping she had endured.

So, we dropped down, and I killed a few spirit deer as we landed. Then, after setting up camp, lighting a fire, and tossing some peanuts in to cook with the deer fat, I settled down. My spiritual sense stretched out, searching for any danger while I oiled my gun and reloaded the spent rounds.

A twitch from my dominant hand soothed some of my worries. The feeling in my arm came back slowly but surely. Then, slowly, I closed and opened the hand.

I glanced back at Emily lying against the tree. She seemed far less bitchy in her sleep.

Suddenly the birds erupted from the trees, and the world cried out. I knew it for what it was; the Serpent had finally hatched. I transformed as I felt waves of its qi from thousands of miles away. This creature, this king of kings, held more power than anything I had ever sensed. I felt its awareness zero in on me out of curiosity. From the creature’s qi, I felt bright blue eyes staring back at me hungrily.

I rebuked it with dragon fire pushing back against its overwhelming qi. The creature continued to press against me even as I pushed it away. From it, I felt endless curiosity, a sense of kinship, and worry. Moments later, it slowly withdrew its qi, and the endless tide of its power receded like a crashed wave. I jammed three beast cores in my mouth and let their qi refill my reserves.

Logan should have run with me. I realized that now. That creature’s power far surpassed anything I’d ever seen or felt in my short stay in this world.

“Red,” I turned to see Emily awake with apparently more than a teaspoon of brains left in her head.