Rihal
They hid behind some trees at the edge of a clearing, waiting for the Judges to pass through. Thankfully, they weren’t separating. All the Sprouts they were going after were on the same route. Fortunately, the Judges were traveling by horses. If they had access to teleportation devices like Vorthe’s void bridges, they’d be more trouble than two Spirit Realm artists could handle.
The clopping of hooved feet joined the tweeting of birds in the air, but the birds soon stopped at the Judge’s approach. Something about the Judges just scared the whole of nature away. Sacred artists were like that too but not to the extent that Judges were. Sacred artists could still blend in with nature, Judges couldn’t. They always stood out mysteriously.
Rihal and Idrel looked at each other. They nodded before teleporting to the clearing. The massive horses the Judges were riding reared back on their hind legs, at their sudden appearance.
“And where do you three think you’re going?” Idrel asked.
“The war is that way.” Rihal gestured with his head toward the direction they were coming from.
Two of the Judges dismounted as quickly as they could, their massive limbs taking too much time and effort just to climb down their horses. Even the horses had to brace themselves so they didn’t fall — thankfully, the Judges weren’t elites. Even the Baelors were limber than they were. They stood in front of their horses as the remaining Judge, still mounted, held onto the reins of all three horses.
“Heathens of Vorthe,” one of them said in a deep, mechanical, booming voice. “You dare obstruct our path!”
He held out his hand and Rihal knew what was coming next. A telekinetic blast obliterated the patch of grass he stood on moments ago — he had teleported away. With his mental energy, he pushed the Judge sideways. It took a lot of effort as these monsters were very dense. The Judge staggered, exposing the pipe-like artifact behind his head. Rihal threw a blade at the artifact, an artifact Vorthe knew very little about.
This artifact was one of the things that kept these Judges whole and sane. Destroying it would make them go berserk. So they protected it with all their being. If another wasn’t attached on time, they die. The time frame from berserker to death varied by how young the Judge was. The younger they were, the quicker they died.
Rihal’s blade was knocked off course, but he expected that — plus it was an artifact itself; A Returning Blade. It would continue to aim for the artifact behind the Judge’s head until it hit it.
It was better for the Judge to be focused on guarding his blind spots than shooting telekinetic blasts at him. Another blade joined the first and the Judge growled in frustration for the first time. He rushed Rihal, even as two blades whirled toward him in the air, aiming to destroy his lifeline. Rihal teleported away. He wasn’t about to get into a brawl with a creature that was physically more powerful than he was.
He let the Judge get close enough sometimes, Just to hit him with a mental attack. It didn’t work on him as effectively as it would if he wasn’t putting on that damn skull-shaped helmet. But he’d take what he got. Killing him would be a challenge but he could do it. That wasn’t his directive though.
Rihal took a glance at Idrel, noticing he was holding back as well. They weren’t supposed to go all out. Judges didn’t know what sacred artists were truly capable of due to the fact Spirit Realm artists held back against them — with good reason. It kept them guessing and groping in the dark. They only knew what Sprouts were capable of.
In a rage, the Judge let loose a blast of light, obliterating a section of the forest in an instant. Idrel whistled in awe and appreciation.
“That’s powerful,” he said. “You should try to take one of that, Rihal? You know, fresh sunshine from a young Judge.”
“You should take your own advice, viper.” Rihal dodged another blast and shifted the soil beneath the Judge’s feet. The Judge did an unintentional split and roared in pain. It was a comical sight to behold.
He quickly covered his whole body in light, deflecting Rihal’s blade as they reached the back of his neck. Everything thirty feet or more around the Judge was obliterated in an instant. The air crackled with a powerful aura of the Force of Light — divine energy, as the Church called it. But Rihal knew it was just the Force of Light — albeit Light with more power behind it.
“Have we gotten to the serious part of the fight?” he asked from a hundred feet away on a tree.
The Judge aimed both hands at him and shot a powerful beam of golden light. The beam shot at him at an upward angle, obliterating the forest in its path for more than a mile. The shockwave from the blast cleared the sky of clouds and the rest of the forest it didn’t touch was leveled completely. The ground trembled violently as it absorbed the shockwave. Rihal was sure it would all be seen and felt from miles away. That was an awful lot of power for just one shot.
“You Judges have no control…” Rihal said accusatorily, approaching the Judge from behind. “...only raw power. Tell me, how has this devastating power helped you?”
“Enough!” The Judge who hadn’t joined the fight roared a good distance away. Their fight had taken them a few dozen paces from their starting point. “They’re wasting our time. End this.”
The Judges turned serious. Their fists glowed with a blinding golden light, so bright that it was hard to focus on. They raised one fist each into the air and the blinding light intensified, looking like small suns.
“This is bad,” Rihal said. “We have to stop them.”
“Already ahead of you.” Idrel shot forward.
“You imbecile! There’s no way to get near them like this!”
Idrel was almost to one of the Judges when said Judge unclenched and clenched his second fist — the one not raised. A massive force blasted out of it sending Idrel sailing backwards like a leaf in a storm. He hit his head on a tree which cracked from the impact. If not for his sturdy physique, Idrel would have cracked his skull as well.
Rihal braced himself for the attack. He was over a hundred feet away from the Judges but the devastation they could unleash knew no limits.
“Idrel get up!” He shouted. Idrel groaned in pain from a few dozen paces away. “They’re about to unleash—”
The Judges brought their fists down to the earth with a punch. Rihal teleported to Idrel and teleported them five hundred feet into the air. The world shook with a thunderous roar. The golden light from their technique blinded him even from so far away. The blast kept expanding and expanding, getting closer to his position in the sky. It had already covered a vast distance and it kept spreading still.
Idrel groaned again, waking up slowly. “What happened?” he asked.
“You were an idiot and decided to test fate, that’s what happened.”
“Woah!” the viper exclaimed when he saw the blast. He extricated himself from Rihal’s arms with a grimace. Rihal snorted. “Did they do this?”
“Yes, but the amount of energy and willpower it would’ve taken to use such a technique should keep them exhausted for a few days,” Rihal said in thought. “Only one of them is capable of fighting now.”
“We should go after them—”
“We’re not soldiers, Idrel, or have you forgotten your training… our mission?” Rihal knew what the viper’s problem was but reminding him of their mission was enough to get him to back down. “They are long gone by now. The bastards are immune to friendly fire.” Rihal wished the same could be said for sacred artists but that was wishful thinking.
“Yes, they call it Sanctuary. I was taught about it too, remember? No need to throw the knowledge in my face,” Idrel said. His voice had a bite to it. Could he at least be less obvious with the envy?
The momentum of the blast died down before reaching them but they had to use their cloaks to cover themselves as dust and debris washed over them. Such a powerful blast could transfer energy to surrounding materials that could be harmful if breathed in. As Spirit Realm artists, they could rid themselves of such contamination but it would be a chore. It was best to prevent such things from happening altogether.
Rihal’s ears rang silently as they descended. The whole atmosphere took on that strange energy from the blast. A giant scar was all he could see on the face of the earth. Everything for at least three miles was scorched to ash.
Rihal shook his head at the devastation. Nature would recover, but was all this necessary in the first place?
“I hope you haven’t forgotten our bet so soon, Rihal,” Idrel said. “I will guide Forester toward your bastard. You guide him toward—”
“You’re the challenger, Idrel. Do as you please.” Rihal didn’t want to waste his time on insults. He furrowed his brows in thought as something occurred to him.
“What is it?” Idrel asked and Rihal raised an eyebrow at him. “You have that look on you. The one that lets me know you’re puzzling over some detail of the Judges.”
“Hmm.” He nodded absently. “The Judge in the center — the one who didn’t join the fight. Did he look a little smaller than the other two to you?”
~~~
A strong gale beat against him right before tremors shook the ground for a few seconds. Jerome opened his eyes, confused.
“Did you feel that?” Ms. Tara asked.
He nodded. “It came from the east.” His thoughts went to the one thing that had been on his mind ever since finding out the Messengers he’d been fighting were clones: Judges. But it could be something else.
The Itakars slept through the disturbance like logs of wood. Csala and Nyx were on watch duty and fortunately for him, he had completed all ten handguns, a plentiful amount of bullets, cartridges, and propellants. He had even made two more automatic rifles that looked more like what he’d seen in movies than the slab of solid steel straight out of a sci-fi movie he first made.
Sheela’s knives were also complete. He’d made her twenty-four blades in total, twelve throwing knives, six wicked-looking daggers for stabbing, and two sets of twin short swords. He also made three sets of twin short swords for Csala, which he knew she’d love.
“It’s best to get back to meditating before the sun sets completely.”
Ms. Tara nodded at his words and shut her eyes. All three of them were sitting in a circle and in cross-legged positions as they cycled. Since Jerome had taught them a very good breathing technique to use in cycling, they had been doing it at every opportunity they got. It was an uncomfortable experience for them but a necessary one if they wanted to differentiate themselves from normal Sprouts.
Night slowly fell and before long, the Itakars began to rise. Nyx and Csala came back from their patrol of the perimeter as everyone was packing up their bedrolls.
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“Okay gather around, everyone,” Jerome called out. “And prepare yourself because this would be a very uncomfortable experience.”
“You don’t have to worry about us, Jerome. We Itakars have very strong bellies,” Ajax said. Some of them nodded, tapping their bellies for effect.
“Yes, Jerome,” Bram said. “I hear teleportation takes a toll. But nothing of the sort can happen to we Itakars. We’re made of sterner stuff, aye? I more than others.” He held his arms out in a pose with his fingers pointing back at himself. That just riled up the rest of his teammates.
The rest of the Itakars sneered at him. “Ye blasted son of a monkey! Ye puked yer guts the first time ye were teleported,” one of their teammates said.
“If anyone would handle it better, it’d be Ajax, ye piss licker!” another said.
“Piss licker. That’s a new one,” someone else said.
Ouch. Jerome felt that one. He couldn’t help but smile, thinking he would never get bored around the Itakars. Selene was shaking her head in shame next to him. He nudged her to do something about the cussing contest before it got out of hand.
“Terry, ye prancing rabbit!” Bram lashed out at him. “Yer empty brain’s filled with nothing but fluff. Do ye still carry around that nude painting of a rabbit girl?” — everyone oohed at that and Terry turned red in embarrassment — “Ye have no right ta’ talk when yer betters are talkin’.”
“Alright that’s enough,” Selene clapped her hands loudly. “Gather around everyone.” They grumbled as they gathered around Jerome.
“Terry’s right, you know?” Ajax said to Bram who shrugged. “I can handle teleportation better.” He made a pose of his own to mock Bram’s earlier pose.
“Easy for you to say,” Trudhorn replied. “You’ve been jumping everywhere since you got that void bridge.”
“Only makes sense to use it, don’t you think,” Jerome said. “Anyway, here we go…” he bent down in the center of the group and placed his ringed fist on the ground. With the aid of the pod of Hezvar, he expanded his senses to span three miles all around.
Only birds and small creatures were there to notice. No large animals, which made him wonder, did the Messengers kill everything they came across? He activated a portal formation using his ring as the base. A golden runic circle widened to encompass the crowd and the Itakars exclaimed in awe. The ringing sound deep inside him reminded him again of the fact that he could now hear the singing of runes. The portal sucked them all up and they winked out of existence.
They appeared three miles closer to the mountain in the distance but to Jerome’s eyes it only looked like he took a few steps. Nothing seemed to have changed. The Itakars dropped to their knees as they puked, some of them emptying their bowels. Ajax was the only one less affected as he only stumbled for a moment before righting himself. Jerome’s team was protected from the effects as they all had rings like his to protect them.
“You all look like you could use some rest,” Jerome said, trying hard not to sound smug but failing. “Want some water?”
Selene threw a clump of dirt at him. Jerome dodged it, chuckling. Nia surprised him, standing up first. Her legs shook as she stood but she soon steadied herself.
“Quite the experience,” she said. “Are we closer…? Fucking mountain’s still too far, Jerome.”
“That’s because we’re very far away from it,” Ms. Tara said. “Jerome?”
Jerome wasn’t paying attention to them anymore as Achilleia transmitted what she was sensing to him. Judges… from a few miles away. The images she was transmitting to him were like satellite images. Which meant she was taking a peek at them from Terra Praeta. That must have been exhausting for her, giving that she had just lost a piece of her nexus.
Calling the Judges ‘powerful’ would be an understatement. From the data he was receiving through the nanites in his brain from Achilleia, he could tell these weren’t beings he could take lightly. They weren’t even hiding their auras.
“They can’t, Xerae, not until they’re elites. Their power is an abomination to nature—”
So there are those even more powerful than these? He asked in frustration.
“Yes, Xerae…”
“Spread out,” he growled ominously. Everyone stopped to look at him.
“Jerome, what’s wrong?” Selene asked.
“I can sense some very powerful auras coming toward us.” He clenched and unclenched his fist. “They’re still a ways away, but they’ll reach us in at least a quarter at the speed they’re riding. Their horses are not just trained for terrain like this, they’re built for it.” It was almost like watching a living tank bulldoze its way through the jungle.
“A quarter away is miles away. You can extend your perception that far?” Trudhorn asked in disbelief.
Jerome grunted in answer. “I’ll go ahead with Nyx and Csala to draw their attention. The rest of you should go around them.”
“Oh, so you’re giving the orders now, huh?” Selene folded her arms, trying to look him down.
“I want us to survive, Selene.” His gaze bore into hers and she looked away.
They all split up but Ms. Tara and Sheela stuck with him. Jerome turned to look at them both. He could smell their fears but also their determination. Nyx left him to deal with them, moving forward to intercept the Judes.
Join me when you’re done babysitting, she said.
Csala stood beside him, waiting for him to speak.
“You know I care about you both, right?” he said to them. “And I’m very aware of how far you both have come. You are more powerful than you were two years ago.”
“Two years ago?” Ms. Tara asked, confused.
“A year in Terra Praeta is two here,” Jerome said. Csala looked at him in confusion but said nothing. “As I was saying, you’ve grown stronger. Far stronger than most Sprouts would ever be. But these Judges are a few steps above even the most powerful Sprouts. And they’re not going to hold back.”
‘We can fight them, Jerome. Our rings can protect us against them,” Sheela said.
Jerome nodded. “Yes, Sheela. But we don’t know much about them—”
“And what about you, Jerome? You’re Sprout too,” Ms. Tara said with a shaky voice. He took her in his arms and hugged her tightly.
“I’ve never said this to anyone, Ms. Tara, but I’m different. I’ll be alright.”
“I know you’re different, Jerome,” she said, still hugging him tightly. “I’ve known since you were very little.”
He smiled bashfully. “Let’s not bring that up right—” Sheela put a finger against his lips to shush him before hugging him too.
“And we’ll be alright too, Jerome,” she said. “Trust us. Any sign of danger and I’ll get us out of there.”
Jerome sighed.
“This is nice and all but, can we get going…?” Csala asked.
Jerome drew her into the group hug too. He held them close for a moment before letting them go. “Alright. Let’s move. Any sign of being overwhelmed and you hightail it out of there, understand?”
“Hightail, got it.” Sheela mock-saluted with her left fist. “I wouldn’t pretend to know what that means but I get the context.”
They raced after Nyx, flying the rest of the way to meet up with her. The Judges were still far away but if they could get close enough, they could use the element of surprise to take them down. And he sincerely hoped that would be enough.
They got within six miles of the Judges but they seemed not to have noticed them. Jerome stopped to form a plan in his head. They knew next to nothing about the Judges, except that they used the ascended arts.
Wait, Achilleia, you said something about their powers being an abomination to nature.
“Oh, now you’re interested in listening.”
Jerome sighed. I’m sorry, Achilleia. I’m just frustrated.
“I’m frustrated too, Xerae. But you don’t see me going off the rails…”
Got it. Keep a cool head. He nodded to himself.
“I watched them fight Rihal and Idrel. The one in the center should be the only threat among them right now. The other two are wasted, don’t focus on them. Although they may still have some juice left.”
Achilleia showed him the fight and his jaw dropped at the scenes he saw.
These Judges are a terror! He closed his eyes to concentrate.
“What are you trying to do, Xerae?”
Want to send the memory of the fight to Nyx. She needs to know what she’s getting into.
Gathering the memory and sending it like a package proved a challenge. He didn’t succeed and Achilleia had to do it for him.
“You just need practice, Xerae. Right now you’re under a lot of stress.”
He took a deep breath to settle his nerves. Nyx looked at him with horror in her eyes but it was soon replaced with determination.
“Still wanna push onwards?” Jerome asked her.
“Yes,” she said through gritted teeth.
“From what Achilleia glimpsed, two of them are exhausted. They used a lot of their… powers? Hmm. I can’t really say these Judges learn to wield essence like us. It felt like seeing someone shoot a rifle.”
“You watched them fight?” Ms. Tara asked.
“Achilleia watched them fight. They fought with Rihal and one other Spirit Realm artist.” His brows drew together as he recalled the viper.
“Oh. I remember Rihal.” Ms. Tara nodded. “But you said these Judges fight like they are wielding rifles? What does that mean?”
“Perhaps their powers are gained and not learned,” Sheela said. “There are nasty potions people take to increase their strength a hundred fold. When that happens, such people wouldn’t be able to control their strength for a while, unlike we who grow from strength to strength and know just how strong we are, when to hold back and when to let loose.”
Everyone looked at her like she had grown a second head.
“That’s eerily insightful of you, Sheela,” Csala said.
“I’m not dumb…” she said, offended.
“I think you’re right, Sheela.” Jerome took over the conversation. “But it doesn’t take away from the fact that their shots are a lot more powerful than the average sacred artist’s attack. Plus they can shoot telekinetic blasts too.”
“What’s that?” Ms. Tara asked.
“Something akin to moving things with your mind,” he said. “Tell me, how good are you with mental energy?”
Ms. Tara and Sheela looked away.
“It’s not a problem, but you’d have to use your mental energy quite a bit for this. These Judges use light beams and they have a very long range.”
“How long?” Csala asked.
“Very long,” Nyx said. “Let’s say, half a mile long.”
“Half a mile is accurate.” Jerome nodded. “But they have to prepare for that attack, I think.” The Judge didn’t use that attack at the start and he took a while before he shot it. Almost five seconds. “Even at that they have an almost impenetrable defense. Rihal’s partner, Idrel, tried to attack while they were preparing the attack that shook the ground a while ago—”
“That was them? All the way from here… there?” Sheela asked, shocked.
“Yes. Idrel was thrown back, should I say.”
“More like flung back like a ragdoll,” Nyx said. Jerome gave her a pointed look and she shrugged. “I can tell you hate him.”
Damn. She could probably read him like he could read her.
“That’s fixable,” Achilleia chipped in.
Jerome shook the thought away. “Back to the point. They have a mechanism at the back of their heads, a coupling of metals that make up a pipe that connects the backs of their heads to their spines. Rihal and Idrel were trying to hit the pipes with flying daggers. That’s where we start from. We go around them and hit them fast and hard.
“I take the first shot at the middle Judge. If I miss,” he turned to Nyx, “Light them up. Csala, dream aura. If you can make them sleep, or weak, that’s good.”
“I should be able to slow them down by fogging their minds,” Csala said.
“That’s good. They’re already slow but slower is better for us. And remember, they are incredibly strong. And dense.” Everyone knew what he was talking about as he had explained density. “Ms. Tar and Sheela, you’ll be supporting us… from afar.” He gave Sheela a pointed look
“Can’t we just fight them from the sky?” Ms. Tara asked. “Or just go around them and not fight them. I’m not scared or anything, I’m just… If we can prevent a fight with them I think we should.”
“Something tells me we can’t,” Nyx said. It was night but Jerome could see her golden irises looking into the distance as if she was tracking something. “We’re not the only powerful ones that came from Terra Praeta, but we’re the ones attracting them.”
“Nyx is right, Ms. Tara. We may not have a choice but to fight.” He squeezed her shoulder to reassure her. “And we can always take to the skies if they’re too tough for us.”
They began moving again but gave the Judges a wide berth as they circled around. No one knew how far they could extend their senses. There was no need to take the chances.