Chapter 19 Training
Instantly, Khyree found himself standing on the scorching desert sands of the ancient realm, easily a dozen kilometers out from the large pyramidal construct. The giant red sun hovered in the clear sky, its rays baking him with its radiant light. There wasn’t the single hint of moving air to be felt under the oppressive waves of unrelenting heat. “I forgot how hot it is in this place,” Khyree exclaimed as he looked at the pyramid off in the distance.
From the moment he had arrived back into the realm, Khyree felt cut off from the flow of essence. It wasn’t until that moment that he realized how used he had gotten to being constantly in contact with the ever present spiritual energy. Though he was back in the realm and could once more manipulate the ambient essence of the place, the energy felt lackluster and stale even compared to the free flowing essence of the outside world.
Remembering his purpose in entering the artifact, Khyree fixed his eyes on his destination. “Well there is no way, I am going to waste my time walking there.”
With a single thought, Khyree folded the space around himself and materialized within the control room at the top of the pyramid.
“Blessing be upon you, my master,” intoned Talib in a solemn voice. He looked exactly the same as he did the last time Khyree had seen him. The thousands years old spirit construct as usual was posted near one of the see through walls of the control room, where he constantly stared out at the stark sandy landscape.
“Peace, spirit,” replied Khyree. He walked over to join Talib. Khyree manifested a throne-like chair of soft stone, upon which he quickly sat down.
“Master, you are aware that with every manifestation you make, every teleport you use and with every summon that you call into being that you drain the ambient level of essence of the realm,” said Talib.
“I see that much hasn’t changed with you old spirit in the time that I have been gone,” Khyree responded, while shaking his head.
“No, I have not master. You have been gone for just over a year. A single year, with no trial participants is no great strain on the resources of the realm. You will find that everything has remained the same in your absence,” replied Talib.
“Okay Talib, as much as I like being called master, it does wear old after a bit. You know my name. Just call me Khyree or Mourntree. Pick one. I don’t care. But the reason I popped in here today is that I have some questions for you. Now you said previously that you have opened the portal every thousand years in the hope of finding a worthy inheritor. Now those Trials that I went through, the battle royale and the many deaths, were those the same Trials that everyone else faced or were they all different?”
“The Trials are all randomized. No two participants from the same group ever face the same challenges. While the nature of each challenge is different, the difficulty scales according to the level of the participant involved in said challenge.”
“I see,” murmured Khyree as he thought back to the two inner students that had participated in the Trials the same time that he did. “Then that means the reason why those Immortals from my Trial failed is because they had their own life and death challenges to overcome and they couldn’t do it. Hmm. Talib, who was it that designed the challenges in the Trials, was it you or your former master?”
“My former master laid down all the groundwork for the Trials, making sure to account for a host of possible techniques and abilities that participants may have brought with them. A section in the spellscript ensures that all participants are stripped of any weapons and items before letting them begin the challenges. Over the span of years, I have made many adjustments to the different parts of the spellscript to enhance maximum lethality in the challenges. Until you came along I was sure that everyone involved would just die attempting the Trials and become more fuel for the realm.”
Khyree was not even surprised. He knew from his previous interaction with the old man that even though the spirit construct’s purpose in hosting the Trials was to find a new master, that Talib in truth was far more interested in how much essence he could reap from the death of the participants. The idea of having a new master was a distant second to Talib’s goals. At times very distant.
“So if you can alter the spellscript, does that mean you are aware of what happens during the challenges?”
“Of course I can. Watching the participants die over and over again throughout the years has become something of a form of entertainment for me,” replied Talib with a slight smile on his face. “It’s not as if there is a whole lot going on inside of the realm, most of the time. Just a slowly decaying land, and a cooling sun.”
“Very good. Then I do believe that I made the right decision by coming here today,” Khyree said excitedly. “Talib I need you to set me up with a custom designed personal challenge. I recently have started cultivating a defensive martial art technique that I got from my Sect. I want to use the capabilities of this construct to help me increase my proficiency.”
“That is within the scope of my abilities… Lord Mourntree,” said the spirit caretaker, he was clearly uncomfortable using anything less than some kind of honorific for his new master. “What would be the defined parameters, I’m assuming you do not wish to engage in a random challenge.”
Khyree thought about it for a bit before answering. Lightly tapping a finger against his chin in contemplation. “I’m thinking of a combat scenario. Multiple opponents. Humanoid, preferably. Random and staggered attacks. Unarmed. A changing environment, though definitely indoors.”
“Danger rating?” asked Talib.
Khyree knew that it was a fair question to be asked, but he still looked at the spirit sideways for a second before answering. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was fully connected to the ancient artifact and therefore the spirit’s very own lifeline, he would definitely be more worried that Talib would try to kill him for his ka at the first opportunity.
“Well the only way that I can quickly increase my understanding of the art is if I put it all on the line. So make the challenge appropriate for my level. But only enough to be challenging. I’m not trying to die today. Do you hear me?” Khyree wanted to make sure the spirit fully understood his instructions.
“Yes sir, my Lord Mourntree. I’m sure I can accommodate those requests,” Talib stated confidently. “However, there is the question of essence. We only have a very finite amount of materials that can be converted to essence at this time. If I pull the energy cost from the sun, this realm will come closer to destabilization.”
“Ah no worries, Talib. During this past year, thanks to that very useful spellscript that you inscribed on the artifact I have been able to cultivate quite successfully. I’m going to release some of my Ka to help increase the ambient essence of this realm.”
Talib’s eyes fairly gleamed upon hearing the news. For Ka or is what is known as personal essence is over a thousand times more refined and intense than the free flowing essence of the earth and the universe. For the first time since Khyree had come back to the realm, Talib looked over at him with an eager expression.
Khyree searched within himself, and sought out the many strands of Ka he had been able to cultivate thus far. Strands that seemed to increase in density the more he cultivated. Encasing some of them firmly in his will he brought them to the surface of his skin, and with a deep and tremulous breath he released the spiritual energy through his pores and out into the control chamber, where the embedded lines of spellscript readily absorbed the essence strands like a cracked desert plain sucked in drops of water.
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Already he could feel the massive construct growing more defined, and once darkened sections of the building began to light up as if for the first time in thousands of years. Talib closed his eyes and took a heavy breath, his chest expanded as he seemed to breathe in something ephemeral and perhaps only seen by himself. Khyree watched as the old man’s wrinkled visage began to lose some of their deeply etched lines. It was only then that Khyree noticed that the old spirit caretaker had been slightly slouching his shoulders the entire time he had known him.
Khyree could definitely feel the difference inside of himself as the energy was released. His muscles didn’t feel quite as loose as they did before. In fact he felt as if they had even lost some of their fullness. He estimated that he had just released roughly around forty percent of the ka he had managed to cultivate thus far. It was slightly more than he had really wanted to, but he knew that he had an obligation to restore the realm. Besides, he figured that if he could train in relative secrecy inside of the ancient artifact, then no one would really know what he was truly capable of until it was too late.
After a few moments, Talib opened his eyes and spoke, “Your will be done, Lord Mourntree.” said the spirit caretaker, who then stepped back a few paces and raised his hands to chest level. Blue eldritch light began to coalesce between his hands. The energy got denser and formed into a tiny sphere. Khyree watched as Talib’s fingers began to move back and forth as if he was rhythmically tapping something unseen. The blue sphere of energy soon solidified into a dark blue and black dark crystal box.
The spirit caretaker then began to manipulate the crystal box between his hands. His fingers moved rapidly as they pushed, pulled, twisted and turned the box into a number of different configurations. Configurations that would quickly be swapped out as Talib constantly made lightning fast changes to the box. It was as if the spirit was manipulating the box into a series of different puzzles. Each one is more complex than the one before.
Khyree could see the old man smiling the entire time. For some reason that smile did not make Khyree happy at all. But he would trust in the spirit’s word.
With a few more minor changes in the overall shape of the latest puzzle design the spirit had configured, he turned and looked Khyree in the eyes and spoke, “It is ready, my lord.”
In the preceding ten minutes that Talib had worked with a feverish intensity, Khyree had long since come to the conclusion that the unusual puzzle box directly represented the pyramidal structure they were. He knew that if he took the time and had the sufficient knowledge and skill that he could access and interpret the command matrix for the pyramid and make direct changes to the realm itself.
Khyree knew that the artifact gave him that ability, but he also knew that he didn’t currently possess the knowledge needed to fully comprehend and command the realm. So for now it was safer and easier to just go through the spiritual caretaker. Even if that meant he would have to watch him closely, and be very careful with his word choices around him. Any ambiguity would most likely be exploited at least until Talib came to fully accept his leadership.
“Great. When can I go in?” Khyree asked.
“Now,” responded Talib, right before he snapped his fingers and sent Khyree to the special challenge location.
One second Khyree was talking to Talib, and the next he found himself laying down in a deep patch of snow within a cold and mountainous region. “Ah just great,” Khyree said in displeasure. “First I get roasted, now I have to freeze. Well at least it is a good thing that this time around, I’m an Immortal. That means I got some ka that I can put to some good use.” He got to his feet, and brushed off the snow from his robes. He quickly found that he was standing in snow half a meter deep. “That is certainly going to make any combat maneuvers very difficult,” he said aloud. “I could have sworn I told that spirit that I wanted something indoors.”
Khyree glanced around but saw nothing but a desolate snow covered landscape. He could tell that he was currently in a drift between several ice capped mountains. There were a few isolated withered trees that could be spotted that dotted the land. The overhead sky was dark and ominous and filled with heavy clouds. Khyree felt violated by the cold winds.
Khyree rotated his Ka and used it to push some warmth into his rapidly stiffening limbs. “Hmm, in all of the previous challenges before there was some kind of activation required, whether it was the turning of the hour glass or the act of initiating the first death. I wonder what the activation sequence is in this one.” Khyree saw nothing that stood out to him in particular.
“I guess I have to explore a bit then,” said Khyree as he set off to explore the area. He had only managed to make it a couple of dozen meters when there was a strange wailing that came on the frigid breeze. He stopped in his tracks as he waited to see what would happen next.
Soon came a series of staccato like popping noises. Khyree quickly looked up in the sky as he noticed that there were creatures being forcefully ejected from the heavy clouds above. There was a sharp whistling sound as they cut through the sky on a collision trajectory for Khyree. “What in the abyss are those bloody things?” he asked as he saw the strange entities falling from the sky.
Khyree wished that there was some sort of cover that he could make his way to and ride out the strange falling projectiles, but there was just open space as far as his eyes could see. He pushed himself to move through the thick snow as fast as his legs could go. He knew he only had moments before the first of the projectiles would make landfall and he had no desire to be crushed by the incoming traffic.
Khyree dodged in a random series of zigs and zags as the first of the bodies crashed heavily into the snow around him, sending up huge blasts of snow. Soon there was no place to safely run to as dozens of bodies made impact around him. Khyree slowed to a stop and braced himself. He knew that this was only the beginning.
Once all the clouds of drifting snow had fallen back down to the ground the creatures were finally revealed. Khyree sucked in a slow breath as he took in the strange humanoid creatures arrayed against him. One in and all they were large feathered creatures with a mostly human shape. Though they had bird-like heads complete with large beaks, talons on their five fingered hands, their three toed clawed feet and small wings that extended from their backs. They were not wearing any clothes. The only thing that really distinguished the hybrid bird like humans from one another were the different colored feathers that each one had.
Khyree and the strange bird creatures stared at each other for a breathless moment. The air was filled with tension so thick it felt like molasses. “Alright, you misbegotten feathered freaks, you want some of this??? Then come get some!” yelled Khyree. He then circulated his ka and began his Heavenly Dance of Misty Springs technique.
As Khyree seamlessly moved through the practiced motions, his ka erupted and affected the moisture in the air around him. Instantly the snow directly around him for a single meter, changed into droplets of water of varying densities that flowed around Khyree’s limbs and torso in rapidly twisting circles.
The feathered creatures needed no further invitation and leapt forward to attack the lone Immortal in their midst. Piercing cries could be heard as their small wings flapped and gave them an extra burst to their speed as they viciously attacked with both beak and talons. Their speed was so great that the deep snow didn’t for a moment slow them down.
Khyree moved as gracefully as a dancer between his multiple opponents. Many of their strikes were deflected away from him by the fiercely rotating drops of water. Though there were a few that penetrated deep enough to score wounds on his body. Luckily most of the force of the blows had been lost in the breaking through of his watery defensive art.
In the span of a few minutes, Khyree had taken hundreds of attacks to different parts of his body. His body had been knocked back and forth between the many bird creatures, Khyree felt like a toy being played with between multiple predators. Though he was injured it was not enough to stop him from giving back just as good as he got.
With increased practice during the fight, he learned how to manipulate the watery field around him better, slowly growing skilled enough to control how close or how far he could extend it from his person. He felt like the only things really holding him back was a lack of experience and enough ka. He could tell that based on how strong the attacks leveled against him were, how fast his ka was being drained in order to maintain the field.
As the fight wore on, Khyree never stopped moving and unleashing attacks of his own. He was ripping off wings, crushing knee caps, and ruthlessly attacking all soft targets of opportunity. He made sure to constantly change the elevation of his blows to prevent his opponents from predicting where he would strike next. If they went high, then Khyree went low. When they moved to block, he would evade and then lunge at another opponent.
Blood, his and theirs pooled into thick hot soupy puddles that melted the snow at their feet. Feathers, limbs and various viscera soon joined the steamy detritus. Khyree finally came to a standstill after he bit the throat out of his last bird-like adversary, and saw that he was the last one standing.
Khyree stood there with his chest heaving as he took in deep and heavy breaths, his shoulders rising up and down, examined his blood covered hands with tufts of feathers stuck to them and smiled. A smile that echoed with self -satisfaction. He looked over the once stark snowy filled landscape and saw the scattered piles of the dismembered remains of his foes and felt more alive than he had in a long time.
“Oh yeah, I am liking this,” Khyree said out loud. He raised his head to the sky, and with words that brooked no dissent, he called out an absolute command “Talib, send me more!!!”