An armor and regalia emerged from within Almarine’s body and covered her from head to toe. The armor was made of a deep blue and silver that matched Almarine’s mana. The identical properties were no mere coincidence; the physical manifestation of her core and soul now being worn outwardly for all to see.
Under the effects of her core Almarine swept aside the blade in front of her. Took a step backward to widen her balance, and cocked an arm back just above her waist.
The punch she sent toward Jade was enough to rip the space that separated the two from each other. Jade now seemed to move in slow motion to Almarine, and was still amidst a downward strike by the time her fist made it within a handful of inches from her now wide open chest.
“Got who…?” Even though Almarine knew her strike was going to land, she felt the powerful Ancient Artifact come to life in the distance. She roared and while her hand closed in the final few inches everything changed.
The armor Jade had arrived in beeped softly. Runes could be seen both internally and externally, all various levels of details and sizes revealed as they came to life. Many various colored symbols flared in activity as the armor visibly began to melt.
The armor moved through the air imperceivable, its form like water pulled on a line while it shot toward Jade and reformed around her body in a fraction of a blink.
The armor closed completely around Jade’s body in the exact moment Almarine’s punch landed. A concussive forced rippled out; the body of Jade unseen by even the drones above while the woman’s body created a trench within the dump grounds.
Move, Mari, you can’t keep this up for long!
…
A cheer went up throughout the orphanage from nearly end to end. The majority from a mass gathering still positioned a short distance from the perimeter wall.
Eventually all groups returned home. The surveillance equipment was no longer capable of tracking the fight. Both women involved able to fight at a semi-ascended level.
Some cultivators were far from being gods, but still fought at tiers that made even those at the highest realms below the heavens freeze with misunderstanding.
Explosions were heard for the next few days and many wondered the limits of both women involved. More specifically, their own family members.
A group of mostly unknown figures took up space on top the orphanage’s perimeter wall. Each individual capable of watching the fight without aid from skill or ability; their eyes as powerful as stars.
“We are sure it isn’t her?” The first to speak a tall blonde woman with steel grey eyes. Her formal black business suit accented by the black crown worn around her neck as a collar.
“I am…” said a short silver haired man with silver hair so long it touched his shoulders and covered his face.
He stood shirtless with chains that dangled from his wrist, each link of the weapons completely different from the last. The only things on his body, the weapons, his pants, expensive belt, and his shoes.
“I am too,” said Sheathe Scion of Graveyard. The General stood next to a cloaked man who chuckled. His red cowled hood, only allowing for his large white beard to be seen. Sheathe Scion’s own hood worn in honor and imitation of this man.
“I’m not…” Everyone there looked toward the man. His smile wide when he spoke up once more.
“There are elders I wouldn’t let fight that girl. I’m sure she’d just use them to bridge the gap between herself and the gods that much more quickly, if I could have avoided even this I would have.”
“She reminds me of Zara,” said the final member of their party. A woman wearing an elegant combat kimono with a dragon mask fused to her face looked toward the man wearing the open red sweatshirt and sneered.
“Scared another one of your own can surpass you,” asked the masked woman. The man scoffed and looked toward her. His eyes able to be seen for the briefest moment.
The masked woman looked away, her long white curls whipped by the breeze as she did so. The depths of innumerable realms held within each iris of this ancient man only recently returned to his prime, was enough to crush her with a glance alone and she knew it.
“I fear only one, and that is the maiden herself, all should fear the DragonPhoenix however, even Arkanous would have been eclipsed by whoever claims that mantle, maiden help us all when that occurs.”
“It seems the queen of slaves allowed herself to go untested for far too long,” spoke up the silver haired young man, able to pull the attention from the masked woman and back toward the fight. They could all see it. Almarine was going to lose.
Jade didn’t have the countless amount of years of fighting knowledge and experience like Almarine, but her ability to mimic and learn was truly remarkable by any standard. From mortal to godling alike.
“I don’t see the point of this, sir,” said Sheathe.
“I don’t either,” admitted the silver haired young man.
“Almarine fights this fight no matter where she is, societies always cycle back to a mindset that either imprisons or enslaves, and it eats at her no matter how many times she sees it happen,” said the blonde woman. An unconscious touch lingered on her decorative collar as she spoke. A memory from a time where Almarine’s actions in secret may have resulted in her own freedom.
“All this because cultivators want to play with the lives of others in an attempt to feel powerful, Carter owns all of us. What’s the big deal?” asked the young man, his confusion pure, yet he gave off the impression that he’d just made an emotionless observation, not that he truly cared to know.
“Because freedom is a right, boy. I have taken your own when given the opportunity as if I didn’t, another would, and I'd rather not give that power to the next man. My pride as a hunter of gods and beings beyond immortality would be at risk of dwindling with time,” said Carter Omni before he turned around now dismissive of the fight's conclusion as he could predict the outcome.
“And as I said I fear nothing but the maiden, even time can be swayed to work in my favor with a little sacrifice, training, and refinement…”
…
Jade dodged a trinity of punches that she knew from firsthand experience would completely disable whatever limb or portion of the body they struck. She then sent a copy of the pressure point attack Almarine used, toward the inside of the woman’s own knee, the attack landing smoothly and precisely.
Almarine’s knee buckled, her upheld limb dangled only long enough for her foot to slump visibly, and for Almarine to strike her own knee twice. Jade’s damage reversed in an instant.
The orphan Mother tilted her head to dodge a fist, even while her leg once more continued its original path through the air.
Jade’s eyes went wide only an instant before she realized she needed to move. The kick connecting in the same instance that she teleported.
The resulting kick was even more powerful as Almarine redirected the energy of the movement magic. Recycling everything she made contact with the moment her foot reached her face. The mid range teleport was diminished to a short range jump, that coincidentally moved them in line with a series of ruined buildings covered in trash. Jade collided with every bit of the buildings, ancient structures, only even capable of being destroyed because of their lack of upkeep and maintenance, in addition to the access to a mana source.
Almarine who’d never teleported in her life, attempted to do so in the moment Jade bursted free of the rubble and debris, and was shocked when it worked.
She’d been watching the mana flows of Jade during each teleport, but hadn’t been able to see the portion that took place during the middle of the mana-based technique until after she’d landed her last kick.
Almarine hadn’t accomplished something of this degree in so long, that the rush of adrenaline that built in her chest made her entire being vibrate; lost in the sensation she waited too long to follow through, and Jade was able to land without being bothered further.
Jade chuckled as she came back to her feet. She began to speak not aware of the change to Almarine, a sensation long thought to be dead in her heart reignited for the briefest moment…
“I really thought this would just be an easy job, hop a realm over do my thing and boom, I’d get paid, but—“ Almarine vanished, but when she reemerged, three of her appeared. All three in the middle of an attack at seemingly easy and avoidable…
“What the sparks,” cursed Jade. After dodging the three attacks both with teleports and acrobatics of her own, she wasn’t able to plant her foot before three more clones appeared.
“Okay, this may be bad,” said Jade forced to block, and dodge without end. She’d been pressed plenty of times throughout the fight, but an obvious change had just occurred and Jade was unaware as to how or why.
Almarine’s smile was massive. She began to pummel her granddaughter at a peak martial artist level that even she’d been unaware she was capable of achieving. The more the fight moved forward, the more she saw the woman’s limitations.
Yes, the armor she wore made her fast enough to fight with Almarine. Strong enough to be struck and strike back, but Almarine hadn’t seen any magic so far in the fight that made her see Jade as a threat.
Jade had slowed down on the movement technique, once she realized Almarine had begun to force her into a vulnerable situation, pressure her until she felt she had to, then perfectly time attacks when she did finally decide to follow through and teleport.
Jade’s armor triggered her helmet function when a punch came directed at the back of her skull. The demon mask with etched engravings of angelic wings slid into place instantly, and Jade started to see her foe in a new light.
“I’m sorry, old lady, but if you keep this—“ Jade was cut off, when even while she dodged, a large shadow was cast from above her as if a giant loomed over her suddenly. When Jade looked up, the giant hand that only grew larger and swelled with power made her mind go blank. She felt something loosen in her mental restraints in the moment she felt she may die without ever being able to see her son again.
It was in this same moment that Almarine noticed the cost of her power had started to take hold of her surroundings. Bugs and birds fell from the air. The very small amounts of grass and dirt within the dump began to disintegrate into sand. While the more valuable items either naturally more dense, or filled with mana only took longer to turn to dust as the mana took longer to be sucked dry from the materials.
Shocked from her bloodlust, the pressure within the environment switched. A killing intent withdrawn from one combatant, as the other released their own. Almarine tried to block but the awakened fury was awake within her granddaughter now, and Almarine would soon learn why her father felt the way he did about the woman once named, Elizabeth Carter.
“I concede the du—“ Almarine was kicked straight up into the air. Jade started to chain together the movement technique and her attacks with such fine accuracy that the actions seemed completely synchronized.
Almarine could have blocked, but a depression clung to her mind at the sight that her power had begun to have on the environment. This was the reason her climb to godhood had ended. The inevitable cost of the club was no longer something she valued.
She couldn’t let her children see her destroy and murder to make change. She wanted them to have the power to defend themselves. Beyond that, she wouldn’t inspire the continued unbalanced cycles of life and death for honor of any kind.
“Yeah right!” Jade knocked Almarine through the air continually. The orphan mother was sent back and forward through the sky so quickly her body created streaks through the air until the shape of a 20 sided object was made.
The final strike of the battle was enough to create an impact crater an acre in diameter. Almarine’s bloody form at the center of the hole, laughing even while she was forced to spit up an errant molar from the back of her mouth. This was not received well by Jade at all. The frown on her face enough to set her off many times over, the woman hated being laughed at more than anything else in her comparatively shorter life.
“You’re a real piece of work you know that,” said Jade as she walked to stand over Almarine, hands on her hips once she stopped.
“Need me to start the countdown?”
“No need, I was already conceding,” coughed Almarine between laughs.
“I don’t know what you see as so sparking funny,” said Jade. She’d grabbed Almarine by the ankle and dragged her through the dump. Their destination miles away, but the ritualistic tendencies of long dead societies still held claim through the most dominated and remembered laws. So Jade would drag her prey to where she was instructed, and Almarine could not resist.
“Nothing child. Just my limitations, they no longer can sadden me after today. Live or die I have a new purpose.” They walked in silence and Almarine found herself wanting to know more about the young woman who could learn so quickly. Taking an opportunity she knew she wouldn’t receive again, she spoke.
“How is a girl as powerful as yourself not already an ascended?” Jade looked back over her shoulder, and stared at Almarine for a moment before she looked away and asked a question of her own.
“Tell me what this place is first and I’ll think about giving you an answer, how’ about that?”
“Well, that is a difficult story to tell. I don’t know that we have the time for a complete answer to what this was, and was meant to be,” said Almarine. No longer laughing, but dazzled by the woman’s obvious interest in a new place. True interest in new things often the first thing to die in most cultivators.
“Well try, if you don’t at least do that, then you didn’t truly want an answer to your original question.” Almarine smiled at Jade’s words. She rested her hands on her chest and felt herself lifted an imperceivable amount from the ground below. No longer truly being dragged but pulled through the air subtly.
“There is a place within Endless, known as Limniscate, Ikarus built it as a centralized hub as it was the only place powerful enough to connect a single place to all the realms the corporation had gained access too, once completed the golden age of the realms known as Equinox began,” explained Almarine. The two continuing to travel passed the orphanage. Jade being told an ancient old story built on the truth, caged with such powerful systemic controls that the telling was incapable of being distorted or manipulated, or forgotten once heard.
A law of creation that could not be forgotten once learned, was the first that would change Jade’s life forever, and set her on a path to find the origin of Endless.
The women's journey took them from the slums to the lavish inner sectors of Maelstrom. The orphan mother seen carried through the streets to her surprise had been cheered for the entire way.
Mortals and cultivators could be seen cheering, from high to low throughout Maelstrom for the first time in a unified front in a millennium. No cultivator hailed with cheers and applause in this manner since the creation of their last official continental wonder being crafted and completed. Maelstrom one step closer to becoming a solid planet once more.
Then finally gateway was in sight. A single street in between them and a portal that led directly to the front of the CityNation’s capitol. Tempest.
“You still never told me why you aren’t being hailed as a god amongst gods?”
“You were serious about that? How are you going to laugh at my idea to rebuild the Ikarus core, and not know my answer to that already?”
“I cannot answer for another mighty individual, some see even the mightiest of gods as simpletons because of their single minded strength, yet the most intelligent of our kind seem to be unequivocally more dominant in anything they try because of a single minded focus on any one thing.”
“I see your point I suppose, but it's not that I couldn’t join the gods, it's that I honestly don’t want or need to, rather spend my time cooking and tasting new foods honestly, I want to cook my son a special meal when I find him, my memory is also an issue, I can learn things extremely fast, make sudden leaps and bounds even, but that’s probably just because I’m… probably more than likely relearning something I learned already,” said Jade with a sigh. Almarine digested as much as she could and smiled, feeling she may finally have an opportunity on her hands.
She began to power up her core, the access to life energy so abundant that gravity changed around the pair when her core inhaled the ambient life energy around them.
“What are you doing, old lady? You lost. We are going in here for your sentencing with the nearest System Admin, don’t dishonor yourself in this way.”
“I’m sorry my fellow daughter of Omni, I know of rules that you may not be aware of and dispersing my available power back into the atmosphere for the use of other cultivators before my sentencing is not against any laws,” said Almarine continuing to channel power at an accelerated rate.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Why, because the orphans of this land don’t deserve a life as mere pets or house servants, and this broken set of rules will only grow to consume more lives, I may as well save those I can from this in any way I can!” Almarine had no intent in doing a thing with the energy, no… but instead plant a seed and make a threat that may end in her benefit, absolutely.
“I will give you this piece of advice, if you find another Ikarus facility with a complete core, use its portal systems to find your son, there are no greater networks in creation with as many accessible realm portals as their facilities,” said Almarine. Her body started to lift higher into the air and Jade growled.
“Oh no you don’t lady. Get back here right now,,” roared Jade. She climbed atop Almarine’s ascending body as more and more life energy filled her rapidly. At the center of the CityNation was the most dense point for life energy in the entire planet, and one of the highest in the realm. The threat Almarine was making with the ambient mana alone, was beyond frightening, and Jade could sense the planetary destruction potential as it built in the woman’s body.
“Come on, lady, what do you want? You can’t go psycho on me now!” Almarine began to laugh, finding the situation hilarious, as she hadn’t truly broken the law yet…
“What do I want, hmm, help me break into the core of Tempest so that I can plead my case directly to the city’s mana core and not one of these measly System Admins you speak of. Do that, and I may even speak to one of my ex charges, a young man named Mr. Kim who rents the dump's lands from me, I’ll finish his contract and give you the ruins. You know their true value,” tempted Almarine. The pair continued to rise, and more power was seized by Almarine than Jade had ever felt any cultivator in her travels thus far, and knew Almarine may be a fallen in that moment. A cultivator who’d reached godhood and left its realms due to limitation or lack of will to ascend.
The orphan mother had more than enough power held within her to erase the entire planet and more, and hadn’t truly begun to even take from the life of those around her yet. She was quickly coming to a point where people would begin to feel certain effects if she didn’t stop soon, but the appearance of dedication had to appear real, or Almarine knew the woman wouldn’t help her.
Her plan felt ridiculous, but so did storming the capitol alone to try and talk with a sentient magical organizational tool when she thought too long about what she needed to accomplish.
Against all odds though, it was in that moment that Jade agreed to the first of many of Almarine’s terrible plans.
“I’ll do it, but only if you give me the dump like you said, as well as help me rebuild the core, or find me the appropriate help to do so, I’m not the best at organizing…” Almarine’s draw on the surrounding life-force shuttered to an immediate stop and her entire brow furrowed as she slowly let the excess of energy her body couldn’t hold without damage to her soul back into the environment.
“Deal.”