The Celestial Forge

By: Schin Ka’Tharos

CHAPTER 10

(Part 2)

Celestial essence flowed from me like a wild river spilling over its borders. The aura of violent order that surrounded me cut down two of the pack immediately as I crashed into their ranks. Their bodies slapped the ground in a pile of wet pulp, dismembered and sliced apart from the tendrils of celestial essence.

I focused my will and what minimal guidance I could manage into forging a vague approximation of a gauntlet of raw energy around my one somewhat functional hand. Before I could go on the offensive again a jackal had closed the distance and attacked. I tried to slip the clawed strike with head movement but I underestimated the difference in speed between us and the claw landed. To my good fortune the raw power roiling from me blocked the blow like a well placed shield turning away a knife which gave me an opening to strike. My essence encased fist plunged through the creatures chest. Without hesitation I moved my attention to the the next wave of jackals that ensued.

Next came a cluster of five that rushed together and I danced among them flowing in Jundok. I was a tempest of raw destruction and my enemies fell before me with little effort. More jackals followed. Groups of two or more jackals continued to crash into me like waves on a boulder, and I struck them down without mercy.

As the minutes crawled on I continued to slay droves of assailants, my techniques devolving to mere brutish essence shrouded hammers fists and elbows.

After some time I realized that the entire pack of jackals lay dead around me and what I now fought was a myriad of other creatures that had finally arrived seeking the spoils of the celestial manna.

Eventually I stood alone in the garden once more. The dead and silent lay scattered around me. I was exhausted and pushed to my limits both in will and body, but the essence of the heavenly manna still burned within me. I marveled at the immeasurable depths of power contained within my Grandfather’s gift. How vast was the potential advancement that had just been stolen from me?

I began to contemplate salvaging the last vestments of my inheritance and thought to shift back into my heart of five foundations technique, but I had doubts that my physical state would allow it. My body was broken. Besides the countless shallow cuts, bumps, and bruised ribs, my left arm still hung mostly useless and my shoulders raw shredded flesh throbbed. I was confident that my right hand and forearm had multiple fractures and despite some blood coagulation my clawed back still seeped blood.

I knew of no techniques for healing or reforming flesh and the skill that it would require would have been far beyond me even so. My thoughts shifted to the Tower of Atonement. I remembered one of the items Uncle had left in the cabinet had some healing properties. But even more, I desired rest.

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Then I heard a stirring behind me and turned to see a jackals’ corpse rise from the earth.

The death scout towered over me, now twice its original size. It’s jaw still set wrong on its face, but the rest of the creature was changed. In fighting for my life I had failed to notice what the jackals had been doing. I had believed I was getting stronger and dominating them as I cut through their ranks. I was in error. Through some innate technique, each jackal was redistributing their arcane essence to a single pack member, the death scout. Now the creature that stood before me pulsed with power that rivaled Adepts. Not only its power seemed to increase but its eyes gleamed with heightened intelligence. What stood before me was far beyond the creatures I had just faced.

My manna was running close to empty. I could already feel the patterned chaos flowing around me begin to wain.

I lunged at it, in hopes that the celestial tendrils around me would cut it down like it had its brothers and end it quickly. However, the essence cords that smashed into the evolved jackal merely caused shallow cuts. I had aimed to land a low left knee to its mid section while following that up with a right hook to its jaw again, but the creatures speed was greater than I had anticipated. It slid past my knee and grabbed my approaching wrist. With a twist I was thrown and slammed to the ground a few feet away.

As I dragged myself to my feet I swear I saw its lips curl into a wicked grin. The smile turned to a snarl as it lunged with mouth wide, aimed my neck. I instinctively pushed out more of the remaining celestial rain within me. It’s power met the jackals and its teeth stalled only inches from my face. The celestial rain poured out of me and washed completely over the death scout, clashing with the jackals own arcane energy that flared out from its core. Our eyes locked and I could feel it’s hatred for me and the will of its’ pack that it carried within it.

Hair, flesh, muscle all melted from its face, my celestial aura pressing upon it. Even so, it kept pushing towards me, slowly edging closer.

I was beyond tired and unsure how much more of the celestial rain remained. In a final act of desperation I expelled every remnant of celestial rain essence along with any of my own that I had assimilated in one final surge.

The jackal seemed to sense what I was doing and it also released a greater amount of arcane energy. Blue white celestial and crimson arcane met in that moment. For a breath all sensation ceased. The world around us stilled and reality pulled towards where we met. I remember the haunting visage of the death scout in that moment; sinew and bone visible throughout the beasts face, the pure contempt it harbored.

Then the moment lurched and destruction and chaos erupted forth.

The garden died directly around us, all organic matter within fifty yards disintegrated. Shockwaves pulsed out and rippled through the garden. Sacred trees uprooted, herbs sought after in every corner of Ildara burned, and ancient flowers not seen by civilization for a thousand years fell to ash. The energy compressed once more directly around the jackal and myself and for a half a moment I watched as the celestial essence tore through the jackal and half of its body began to disintegrate. Relief flooded into me.

I could finally rest. It was over.

Then I was sent skyward. The clash of essence caused such an incredible explosion that I was blasted from the garden with such concussive force that I blacked out. I regained consciousness seconds later as I soared through the clouds across the wastelands. I found it hard in not to simply give up as I watched my tower fade into the distance.

There’s almost always a little more we can give. When we push ourselves to the limit, there's just a little more that we hold back. There’s a hidden reserve we rarely tap into if ever, only in life or death scenarios are we even aware its there. I pulled at these dredges and forged with the last vestiges of essence within me using a modified Ten Skies Armament technique and formed a makeshift cocoon around myself. I spent everything I had. All that remained was complete and utter exhaustion, physical and emotional; that, and my cocoon.

I then smashed into the side of a ravine and there found my rest.

Next Chapter...

Chapter 11: