Advancement Chambers used to be large and specialized chambers. For Jim, the training room also doubled as the Advancement Chamber. The room was about half the size of a basketball court and was surrounded with special material thick and durable enough to allow Transcendents to train.

There were two doors. One to enter the room by, and another leading to the machinery that crystals were fed into, purified, and released into the training room as a potent energy mist easy to cultivate.

High on the walls were screens protected by sturdy and thick glass that played Amber’s highlights on a loop. John tried to tune the highlights out. He had always hated them but now they were preventing him from clearing his mind of worry.

John was hidden as best as he could be, though Nine seemed able to see through his cloak, manifestation, and [Skill] somehow. He waited a little way down the wall with the open door Nine needed to enter through, both Ah’krat’ra and Defiance in hand, in his battle-mind, [Slowing Aura] activated, all buffs applied.

The token Betrayal gave John was in his sash for easy access just in case. During their time in the arena, he had seen Nine show flashes of brilliance while fighting, but those times were rare, and he would’ve bet anything he could easily trounce Nine. He questioned that now.

The big question was whether Nine would allow John to fight back or if he’d cheat by freezing him up again.

“John. I’m assuming you prefer John over Five-three.” Nine’s voice came from outside the door, worrying John as he had neither felt nor sensed the man approach in any way. “Are you ready? I’m coming in.”

Why Nine would announce himself made no sense to John. It helped him a lot since he wanted this fight over immediately so he could see to his wife. He had enough of a bead on Nine’s voice for Ah’krat’ra. He infused essence into his sword and was surrounded by a thick shield of essence as the attack built up. A mighty beam flashed out of the blade and curved out the door, tracking Nine.

There was no way to dodge the beam. It tracked opponents and always hit its target.

The sword took a lot from John and left him weakened. That wouldn’t matter if the fight was over. He felt Nine die as the great beam landed and destroy his foe. He let out an anxious sigh of relief. He could go see to Amber now. He prayed she still lived.

But the fight wasn’t over. A moment after he died, Nine’s presence reappeared right outside the door in nearly the same spot. Somehow.

Nine stepped into the room, whole and completely unharmed. At the academy, the biosynth only had four bolters and six pucks. Now, 12 pucks floated in front of him. John had to assume he had more than four bolters too.

“Didn’t I ask you, friend to friend, not to damage the ship,” asked Nine. “Come on now. You just destroyed at least one wall. Not nice, John. Not nice at all.”

As soon as Nine had started to speak, John cast [Flawless Glyph of Plasma Barrage]. Nine failed to unbind the spell. Nine’s puck peripherals stopped 12 of the meteorites, but all 12 pucks were destroyed. Nine danced around the other five meteorites as he spoke.

John had also sent one of his bolters at Nine. It looked like it hit his enemy, but Nine didn’t react at all and John could no longer feel, sense, or control his peripheral.

“Did you really not expect me to be prepared for the attack that killed my princess? Come on, friend. I thought you had more respect for me than this.”

One after the other, John let loose a barrage of blade energy attacks, and Nine easily sidestepped them all.

As he went to cast [Flawless Glyph of Darkflame Jet], Nine, his right arm raised, cast his own manifestation John was unable to unbind. Eight balls of orange essence streaked towards John. Accompanying them were two bolters.

Bolters were meant to be controlled one at a time. John had never seen two bolters utilized at the same time before. Not even by Meles.

John went to slip through the shadows and was denied. Something held his ankle. His orb-eye saw it was a chain of light glowing darkly, connected to the floor with no slack at all.

Frantically, John created two pinpoint essence-shields in the path of two orange balls of essence. With his [Aura] slowing them down, Ah’krat’ra easily sliced through the two peripherals. Defiance blocked two more essence balls. [Multi-Shield] broke as it blocked two more. His auto reflect-shield sent the last two back to Nine, but they dissipated in the air on the way.

John quickly recast [Multi-Shield] and infused essence into Defiance as the shield blocked an orange beam that hit like a truck. He swiped at and destroyed two more bolters, blocked another beam with Defiance, and his [Multi-Shield] blocked some of the orange beam that slammed into his hip right after. Both auto-shields broke almost immediately.

John expected the beam to do a lot more damage. It put a hole in his armor and hurt a little, turning his skin crisp, but much to his surprise, didn’t do much real damage at all. His new absorb [Perk] must’ve been responsible for that. The beam attack was powerful, proven by how easily it tore through his [Multi-Shield] and both auto-shields.

John yanked hard on his leg, trying to break the chain as he blocked another beam. Eight more balls of essence streaked at him followed by a beam right after. Two more pin-point shields formed as he sent his second bolter at Nine. He blocked what he could and felt his second and last bolter disappear.

John figured if the beam couldn’t hurt him all the much, neither could the orange balls. He didn’t put all the effort he could into defense. Instead of recasting [Multi-Shield], he cast [Flawless Glyph of Darkflame Jet] while trying to break the chain of darkly glowing light holding him in place. His new absorb [Perk] came through again and the balls of essence did little actual damage.

Then darkflame bathed Nine in fire. But only for a moment as John was also bathed in a destructive fire and had to stop channeling, and this fire injured him greatly. The cooldown for [Emergency Heal] flashed in his eyes. He cast [Heal]. Vital essence stopped enhancing his speed and was sent to heal. The essence banked into [Emergency Heal, Prefill – T1C] also healed what it could.

“Come on now, friend,” said Nine in his monotone voice. “You know I’m good at reflect-shields. You didn’t know my [Aura] enhanced my reflect shield, did you? No. It’s easy having the Trainers show what I want shown. Harder to hide when partied, but not impossible for a Yellow, especially with the right NCU.”

John worked on himself with [Heal] as Nine spoke. Tentatively and lightly, he felt into Nine.

“Clots won’t work on me. I don’t think you can do anything meaningful with my blood. I’ll let you try.”

Nine stood still and let John have free reign with his blood as he spoke. “Princess Thirteen wasn’t supposed to fight. Royalty should never dirty their hands in combat. You were her first real fight. Whatever you just did made my insides itch. I don’t want to say she was weak. She had a different function and was made to be strong in other ways. Fighting is my function. I made this configuration just for you. Oh, it looks like you can almost hold me in place, but not quite. Anything else you’d like to try?”

Nothing was working on Nine. John couldn’t control Nine’s strange blood well enough to do damage. It was as if the blood slipped through his fingers. [Spoil] seemed to work for a second, but only for a second.

“How about some hand-to-hand, my friend?” Nine’s eyes glowed blue, freezing John in place. “If I feel you start a manifestation or use weapon energy, I end this game. I’ve been holding back, using just my old aspect. I have new manifestations with the aspect I opened at Diamond. This tier really is a huge jump in power, especially since my soul was refined to near perfection.”

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Nine saying the last part caused John to realize something that had been tickling the back of his mind. He had noticed something was off about Nine since the Diamond entered the room. The man had no soul. Only dark ones didn’t have souls. He knew Nine had always had one before.

It must have something to do with his new aspect and manifestations. He’s hiding his soul somehow. How does he know I can see souls? I never told him. And what good does hiding a soul do?

Ah. I know. He must have a new invisibility manifestation. He knows I won’t be able to spot him without seeing his soul.

Well, the only real damage I’ve taken is from my own darkflame. I don’t think my manifestations are the way to win this fight. Not until I can cast without him reflecting my own spell back at me. I’ve never seen such a powerful reflect-shield. And I’m much stronger, faster, and more durable than he is. If his plan is to attack me from stealth, it won’t go well for him.

Nine’s eyes returned to their normal color and John could move again. He placed Ah’krat’ra and Defiance on the ground. The darkly glowing chain of light binding his ankle disappeared. Biosynth and vampire approached one another.

Nine bowed so John did too. He knew the biosynth had more bolters, and he was prepared for them.

Then John raised his hands, bent his knees, and took up a stance. Nine just stood as he was.

John threw a jab followed by a kick to the knee. Nine’s head snaked back, avoiding the fist as he raised his leg over the kick.

Shit, thought John. Even in John’s [Slowing Aura], Nine was faster than he had any right to be.

John threw a feint and then tried for a tackle. Nine could have tagged John hard right then, but only dodged enough for John to miss, his impassive and unemotional face giving nothing away.

John let loose with a dozen different combinations. Everything he threw at Nine was avoided, as if John was a child fighting a master.

John kept going, trying to seem frustrated while planning. And it was easy to do since he was very frustrated.

Both Hux and Marbrouk agreed that fighting a completely ignorant and untrained man was more dangerous than fighting a man that had some training. The unskilled and ignorant could be unpredictable and do something so surprisingly stupid and unexpected that it somehow worked out.

John had to do something different. If he could get ahold of Nine, he could finally damage the man or drain his essence. Something. Something other than being toyed with.

Since actual sound tactics and skill were all failing John, the best plan he could come up with was a complete onslaught of wildness.

There was always a great anger boiling within John he had to constantly suppress. His wife could be dead right now. The man in front of him was responsible. And so was John. For six thousand years he couldn’t have children. Now he could. His wife carried four of them. He could be happy. He could really live again. Have a true purpose. And the man in front of him was taking it from him.

The man in front of John, if she were alive, and he prayed fervently she was, would kill John’s wife. This was a battle John couldn’t lose. Even if it cost his own life, he had to win. He thought about using the token, but he wasn’t ready to give up on himself and his chance for happiness yet. He knew he could beat Nine.

John stopped suppressing his anger and let his feral side take control. He began to attack as a wild and vicious beast would. No skill was shown, just wild strikes and ferocious swipes, and many of them, as fast as possible. A relentless and constant onslaught of ruthless savageness, never letting up, so fast and brutal the attacks couldn’t be avoided.

Nine had to start blocking John’s blows, and John found out the biosynth was far more durable than he himself was. Every blow hurt his own hands, arms, or legs more than they hurt whatever body part Nine used to block them with. The feral part of John didn’t care and kept up the onslaught.

Only one would be left standing, and it had to be John. Like a beast, he growled as he attacked, not caring about pain or anything else.

Finally, John scored a clean swipe with his claws against Nine’s face that sent the biosynth’s strange blood splattering all over. He quickly followed up with another swipe, but Nine grabbed John’s left arm and shattered the elbow.

As his arm was being broken, John clawed Nine’s head with his right hand and tried to grab it in an attempt to pull his enemy in close and grapple with him. Nine slipped away while grabbing hold of John’s good arm.

Then John’s right knee was kicked inwards. Still holding the right wrist, Nine helped John maintain his balance as he shattered the other knee.

Since his arm was still grasped in Nine’s tight grip, as he fell to the ground, John yanked his arm as hard as he could, trying to pull the Diamond to himself, his fangs bared. That failed.

As John lay on his back, Nine looked him in the eye as he broke the arm he was still clasping before letting it flop down.

John tried reaching for Betrayal’s token in his sash with a broken arm, but his fingers weren’t working. There was no chance of getting to it. The biosynth maintained eye contact as he slowly straddled his opponent.

Ignoring the pain, John attacked with his arms, only causing the compound breaks to worsen and damage him further.

“Relax,” calmly said Nine. “This will all be over soon. Your face isn’t protected by that subdermal bioware. You’re hard to kill, my friend, but do you believe you’ll survive having your face caved in and your brain pulled out? I bet you won’t.”

A hard punch rocked John’s head. Then another. He impotently flailed his broken arms at his foe. The next blow broke his nose, and he choked on blood. Another massive punch rocked him again. He let his broken arms rest on Nine and started to cast. Nine unbound it.

“Unbinding that was easy,” said Nine. “Guess you can’t focus through the pain. I had no chance of unbinding you before.”

John tried casting again and was unbound again. “Enough. Manifest again and I start taking my time and making this much worse than it has to be. Just do the right thing for once and die.”

Knowing it meant his own death, John tried taking Nine’s soul. He initiated his ability, but no contest of wills began.

John had no idea how Nine was doing it, but it was like the biosynth wasn’t just hiding his soul, it was if he somehow didn’t have a soul at all. That was an impossibility. He tried mentally calling for Betrayal. Nothing happened.

John was out of tricks. There was nothing left for him to try. There was nothing he could do. This was his end.

John tried entering his Mind’s Eye. He figured it wouldn’t let him since he was in combat. He was surprised when he was allowed in. Avatar, standing dignified, just looked at him.

“Thanks for letting me enter in combat, Avatar.”

“It’s a stupid rule,” she replied. “I’ve never liked it.”

John nodded his head. “Looks like this is the end of the road for your silly boy. I’ve failed. Again. For the last time. You’ve been a dear friend to me, and I love you. I treasure all the time we’ve spent together. All our talks. Thank you for all your help and for being such a good friend. I could ask for none better. I’ll miss you.”

Avatar glitched badly. After some time went by without her replying, John continued. “Please…I know there’s rules, but please, please, do what you can to protect my wife and the children she carries. Please.”

Avatar glitched again and said, “If there was anything I could do, you know I would. For you, my silly boy.”

John’s heart sank. “I know you would. Goodbye, my dear friend.”

“Goodbye, John.”

John waited, expecting her to say her spiel about the mission and the core. It didn’t come, so he exited his mind. A punch drove his head into the ground. Another powerful one blasted his face right after. Then another.

Dear God, thought John as he silently began to pray. Please, I beg of you, heal my wife. Protect her. Don’t let her pay for my failure. I’ll except any fate in exchange. I’ll do anything.

The next punch made John choke on his teeth. He didn’t have time to cough them out before the next punch rocked him.

More blows rained down, one after the other, as Nine learned how John had earned his first name in battle, Nut. His head was tough to crack.

And another punch. Then another. And another.

Nine’s next blow missed as the maw of a giant bear covered in ridged spikes and scales enveloped his head and bit down viciously. A powerful beam of destructive essence shot from the bear’s eyes and took off Nine’s left arm.

As the bear chewed on the Diamond’s head, a paw swipe tore into his body followed by a massive echo attack that tore far more deeply into it, tearing his torso apart.

Then the bear tore Nine’s head off, shook it angrily in her maw, and spit it out as Nine’s headless body slumped down and banged off the ground.

His wife had gotten a lot stronger since John had last seen her fight, and his chest filled with pride.

Two types of healing were infused into John as Amber took her demon form. A medical bandage covered her whole upper torso, wrapped both over her shoulders and under her arms.

Over the massive wound, blood dyed much of the thick bandage red. A wound that definitely should’ve been fatal.

“Wow, that guy was such a jerk, huh,” asked Amber as she took John’s right arm in her hands to set the bones.

John knew something wasn’t right as Nine’s corpse disappeared. Corpses didn’t disappear. And if he were dead, there’d be a dark-green crystal on the ground. There wasn’t. Nine was somehow still alive, even with his head separated from the torso. He must’ve used his new stealth manifestation.

John tried warning Amber, but his mouth wouldn’t work. He tensed at the pain of having his bone forced back into his arm and set.

As Amber was touching him, John tried tugging on her mind, trying to initiate the process of pulling her into his Mind’s Eye, but it was going sluggishly. Then he stopped trying to find her mind as two Nines walked into the room.

After placing John’s arm gently on the ground, Amber turned towards them both as she stood.

The two Nines each had 12 pucks floating in front of them and six bolters showing. The Nine on the left said, “Sorry about all this, my Alii. Just as I started to feel like I truly belonged to something bigger than myself again, that I had a real purpose again, your lover had to go and kill the woman I’m sworn to protect again.”

“Stand down, Oliua,” commanded Amber. “You haven’t done anything that can’t be fixed. Yet. Just stand down and we’ll work through this.”

“I am fixing things, Alii. It’s too bad I already ascended to Diamond. Using you to strengthen my soul would’ve been nice. Oh well. I can still make a lot of crystals off you.”