I watched the deity draw an obsidian knife. Sparks of electricity raked over it as small strands of Chi gathered to cut along its edge. Chac wielded Chi as effortlessly as others breathed. His face had lost the old man’s wrinkles, and the grey in his hair regained its dark, vibrant color.
Between the moment the knife descended and when it would have plunged into my chest. Black chi rushed around my paralyzed body. The woman I loved pressed her knuckles against my chest.
“For six years I put up with the ridicule of being seen with you. I had to be sure you loved me. Now I can stop pretending.” My blood fell and servants rushed to collect it. “It took time to nurture your body to become the perfect sacrifice.”
I saw the flame of a human sized pill furnace then a bright light and the world returned to the present.
How did this creature give me a PTSD flashback.
“Why, I thought you were thankful?” I asked.
“Dear fly, my friend, to be sacrificed for we gods guarantees your place in heaven. There is no greater gift I can give you. Go from this life to a world we created as a reward for great works,” Chac said.
The knife came down at a practiced angle to cut beneath my ribs and pierce my diaphragm. Then, the God would reach into my chest and rip out my heart. All the while, I’ll gasp and choke for breath.
My hand lashed out, and I caught the God’s wrist. The angle, gravity, and his Chi weren’t enough. I sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. If they hadn’t figured it out, it would have been seven years before the first God could wield even a fraction of their full power on the mortal plane.
“You almost had me there,” I said.
My arm trembled as the knife-edged closer to my gut. The claws of wood chi had raked across my flesh, and light spears pierced me. I could feel the slightest amount of Chi move to my will. My will directed my regeneration to finish healing. Broken bones set, my ruptured spleen sealed itself, and my percentage increased one tiny tick at a time.
34% of the venom still coursed through my body, dealing damage that was healed behind it. I let it continue instead of rooting it out because it was creative arson. When the venom damaged my organs, my regeneration repaired them better than before. Traces of the natural treasures remained in my system, accelerating my regeneration fragment after its third upgrade.
“It's a shame. If you had more soldiers and had turned more chiefs and warriors, you might have stood a chance.” I smiled, and Chac looked unnerved. My hand brushed the ground, and I was up in an instant. My body felt so much lighter. Every move was streamlined, and the aches and pains flaring through my body were followed by a refreshing cooling sensation. “Well, man, I’m sorry you aren’t stronger.”
My rapier slashed, cutting a fiery line in his knee. The God’s leg buckled as it healed before my eyes. Flames erupted from the closing skin like a volcano blowing its top. A god’s healing wouldn’t be denied. The flesh-covered flames as they erupted repeatedly.
“That hurts,” Chac said.
I snorted. “As a spirit, pain must be a foreign concept to you. I don’t think you have nerves; you only hunger for more Chi.”
“If I can’t beat you, then I’ll have your body.” I tasted static.
My vision exploded as a bolt of lightning and deity chi crashed into me. It was my worst-case scenario. A foreign pattern moved for the free-floating Chi in my cells. The pattern reached out, but I denied it. By moving my Chi, I had already staked my claim on it.
A blow to my face sapped my concentration. Parts of my body suddenly bore Chac's pattern. I felt a sudden resonance with the avatar in front of me. The chunk of foreign god chi moved for more of my Chi, but I rebuffed it while slashing down on Chac’s shoulder as he lunged for my throat. His knee buckled as his arm struggled to heal. Another slash took the joint in his other wrist for good measure. I looked inwardly to see half of my body was taken over.
I gathered my Chi and attacked the side of the patterns in a flanking maneuver. Chac shouted and erupted in bolts of lightning as he lunged for me. I sheered off part of the pattern and retook control. My blood carried my Chi all over my body, allowing me to use hit-and-run tactics to wear down the creature until an idea struck me.
My Chi shifted, forming up in places, and in others, I left a trail of pacifist chi leading Chac’s essence in a direction. The spirit acted like a spirit and lunged for the path of least resistance, growing fast and momentous. I danced away from the possessed chief, pushing the spirit chi toward the first lock.
The hunk of Chac chi hit a wall, and I paid my full attention to it. My Chi shifted, forming seals by pulling, filtering, and absorbing the foreign Chi. My will was never greater than within my body, and Chac’s little gift fled into the lock. I couldn’t move my Chi like the hunk of god chi; mine wasn’t as dense, and it didn’t have a pattern to keep its shape. My Chi would have broken entirely on the lock. My technique pulled at the creature while it attacked the lock. The Chi grew more desperate as my Chi took ground. Then I felt a blow to my head. A jolt picked me off my feet as Chac reached down and picked up a club with obsidian stones rammed into its end.
I moved back to my feet and smiled. The god chi within me wasn’t bothering with what it believed was a stomach hungry to digest it. Instead, it bashed itself against the lock, and I saw a crack appear.
“Attacking me from inside and out, do you have no honor. How could you expect a mortal to compete with a spirit in Chi.?”
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“I don’t mean to fight dirty friend, but I’m hardly a war god, and you’re making this more difficult than it has to be.” Chac moved in with a burst of wind and swung his weapon as electricity arced across its surface. Flames lanced across the God’s body despite the pouring rain and Chac’s healing capacity.
Another crack appeared in the lock, and my anticipation soared. I blocked his attack and let the lightning flow through me, directing it into Chac’s Chi within me. The resonance increased the will of the foreign Chi in my body, but it also allowed me to use the shard of the spirit as a magnet for Chac’s chi techniques.
I clutched my chest and took a step back. “So powerful, no wonder you’re a god.” More cracks appeared on the lock, and I could feel a limitation loosen as my Chi became a little easier to control. My seals tightened their structure, and I pushed with all my might.
The lock shattered, and holding back my smile was almost impossible.
“You are a demon,” I said.
“To some and Chac the life bringer to others.”
Defeating the gods while they were spirits was impossible. I needed to bring them down to my level by their own choices. They had to have something to gain from it. Bodies were great for storing and producing Chi. Spirits naturally lose a percentage of their energy over time.
I spat out a mouthful of blood and set my Chi to finish off the invasive god chi. The deity swung his weapon, and I parried before giving ground. Every swing appeared ready to rip the sword from my hand.
It echoed through my head. The first lock was gone. All I had to do was nearly get possessed by a god. Chi outside my body was still impossible to move, but a whole new world opened inside me. Chi flowed to formerly dry places, priming the locations for conversion.
A shoulder check launched me through the side of a hut. The roof caved in, spilling thatch across the ground. I stood back to my feet. I grimaced and buckled my knee. Across the field, the artillery brigade positioned the canon.
My knee buckled out of control, and I knew I had messed up. Too much greed and fun for my own good. I was playing with a divine spirit. Those kinds of beings were usually way above my pay grade. A sweeping kick from Chac dropped me off my other leg.
Chac swung and buried hunks of obsidian in my shoulder. I screamed as the pain finally overtook my threshold. Blood spurted from the wound as Chac placed a boot on my chest and yanked his weapon free. The God raised his weapon for the killing blow.
A canon fired, and a lead ball took Chac’s leg at the knee.
“What rotten luck! Maybe if there had been more of you, this would have ended differently,” I said.
“No, don’t,” I stabbed him through the trachea and out his brainstem. Flames erupted within his body as I took his body beyond the point of no return. I withdrew my weapon and pulled his natural treasure free.
In my hand, I held a golden peach with a halo hovering above it. The treasure was so beautiful. I could feel the sparks of divinity within it and even a seed within. Eating it would boost my regeneration permanently. It might add decades to my lifespan.
I smiled, or I could plant and grow it. Water it with spirit water and fertilize its soil with the dung of spirit beasts. What kind of tree could I grow with it. I could see the golden divinity of Chac within the peach, unprotected and ripe for consumption. I should eat it. After all, I could feel the seeds of Dao fragments within the peach. Wood and water could fuse into growth and worked quite well with regeneration during growth. Add only one more Dao fragment, and I could make a spirit art.
I could practically taste the sweet meat in the natural treasure in my hand. There weren’t any grand plans, and this situation had happened too early. My preparations weren’t set to take full advantage of it. I wanted far more puppets before then, and maybe I could have worked on a prison for the gods.
Something truly diabolical came to mind, but it fled my thoughts every time I toyed with the idea. One lockdown and Chi was so much easier to control. The Chi within my body obeyed my command almost like a true chi-gathering cultivator. It was a start.
…
Fragrant flowers and coconut oil greeted me in my personal palanquin. It was still a work in progress. Puppets led by sailors and noblemen worked on projects all around the camp. Massive wheels were built along with a railing for the third floor. Plums of smoke rose from the foundry, turning raw ore into iron, which would soon become steel axes, shovels, and swords.
More puppets filed in and lined up with the ones on standby. Men tied up and led by those same puppets came into camp with skills that would benefit us. From woodworkers to priests, we gathered information about the land. Arrows were made in parts to be assembled when the steel arrowheads were finished. A few puppets layered the arrows with seals to bypass air resistance, gravity, and friction.
Puppets practiced firing lines and putting obsidian-tipped arrows through targets. Their systems learned quickly, turning the units I grouped together into killing machines.
I unbuckled my sword and tossed it on the counter. Next, my boots came off, giving my feet a break. I took a step with my bare feet on the wooden floor of the palanquin. Hand-sanded level floors were amazing; they felt so stable. Had I become used to the rocking?
On my table, next to empty plates, was a report I recently looked over. I read it over from right to left, from up to down, noting each character and its meaning. We were moving forward quickly, impossibly fast, even. We had a foothold on the beach, but we weren’t where I wanted to be.
Reports from my more intelligent puppets claim that mares were going into heat much faster, and our stallions had marked increases in stature. Nature chi, a mix of water and wood, caused rapid natural growth, making the horses grow to their physical peaks. They weren’t yet spirit beasts, only larger, stronger, and more intelligent animals.
I made a note to begin researching something fun. Pure pain seals always failed and ended with their users dead. My branding seals would maintain their loyalty with a bit of pain when they defied orders and a dose of pleasure when they obeyed. Implementation and adaptation to more powerful beasts would be tricky, but I looked forward to the challenge.
Spirit water in their troughs, nature chi in their grass, and breeding the biggest, strongest stallions with the mares should ensure the next generation is bigger and stronger than the last. Increasing the resources would shorten the time between insemination and birth. My desire for legions of horse archers might take a decade to get off the ground, even with legions of puppets.
I didn’t want much, just around 100,000 horses, competent riders, and genius tacticians. Just 300 years ago, horse archers like the Mongols took the known world. Only their love of drink stopped them from taking over the world.
Some part of me felt like Caesar, not that I was anything like the man but that I wanted to grasp the greatness of the last great conqueror. For Caesar, that was Alexander the Great, a man who took the greatest army in the world like Dad’s new sportscar, gassed up and ready. There were those who called these men the great arsons of history, burning down the old so the new could prosper.
I washed my hands in our sink. Seals gathered water in the air in a tank, and seals below the drain pushed the used water out through a tube. I had to have soap, and the girls liked being clean. They sure took enough showers. I would worry about the water bill if we were back in my time.
A knock at the door made me sigh. I opened the door to see my puppets with a 19-year-old Malintzin in their custody. The girl had been covered in dirt-caked upon her skin and too much bitter resentment, so I had my puppets wash her in the river. That would get her clean enough for a shower in my palanquin.
“Welcome to my mobile fortress,” I said.
I didn’t speak Yucatec or Nahuatl, which was clear from her confused expression. I held out my hand, and the girl hesitantly took it.
One of the men handed me a list. “Praise Christ and the Virgin Mary; the savage is clean. With God’s blessing, this girl has become our sister in Christ. We seek to further our cause and the cause of God. What is our next job, Prophet Atom?” the puppet asked.
It was much wordier than I would have liked, but hopefully, the Spaniards would accept it and move on. FBI agents were the most vocal of white nationalists and often members of their leadership. If it worked for them, it would work with the puppets. No one expected the Muslims tossing gays off rooftops to be gay. It was, after all, the most enthusiastic ones that had the most to hide.
“Join the others in clearing parts of the forest for the orchard. Follow the foreman’s orders.” I said.
I closed the door and let my grin spread across my face as wide as I dared. Diary, I did it. I broke down on a source of endless natural treasures. It's self-sustaining, and I’ve already begun infecting the water supply with spiritual energy. Soon, the natives' birth rate will increase, and the death rates from diseases will drop. I raised my head to the heavens and laughed my most evil and sinister laugh.
The girl yelped as I lifted her over my head so her dirty feet wouldn’t stain the ground and carried her to the bathroom two rooms down. My palanquin was more of a train than a palanquin. In the second cart was a full-length spa, shower, and bath with tables for relaxation, coconut oil for rubbing, and so much more. There were even ribbons for hair.
I gave the Malintzin a sinister look. The girl looked around and gulped. She didn’t resist when I pulled her to the shower and turned on the water. I tested the heat until it was only warm and pulled off my clothes. She gave me a resigned look until I pulled my shirt and pants off. The girl looked me up and down as her eyes brightened slightly until her beautiful brown eyes were practically sparkling. We were going to have a fun time.