– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 218, Season of the Setting Sun, Day 66 –
Terry was sitting on a transfixed slab of tertium that created an improvised chair. His feet were solidly on the ground. It was hard to imagine how irritating something minor as not being able to lift your feet could become with every passing second. He was surrounded by blackness with the only source of light being a fading illumination from the ground.
He glanced down to see a martialist fighting against a group of magic beasts. He would find the man’s strong-willed struggle admirable, if the man wasn’t also a colossal prick whom Terry had thrown to the beasts himself.
The martialist was wearing a set of yellow-orange robes that were completely tattered. Terry did not remember which martial sect the man belonged to. Something with lightning or thunder, most likely, because it was one of the people professing unimaginable indignation at Terry’s defiling of the sacred artifact of the Monkey King.
The guy had been part of the people trying to rob and ambush Terry several times. When Apex and Terry had tracked the man’s group down, he had decisively abandoned his companions and left them to die. This had killed whatever pity or compunctions Terry had possessed about their own plan for the martialist.
Unfortunately for the man, the pair had come specifically for him. The reason was simple: he carried a trace of Vicious’s weird mana. The man had been marked by the cultist as a target.
Terry was watching the martialist’s desperate battle with indifferent eyes. His only interest was in making sure that the man, who was teetering on the verge of death, did not die for real.
Terry understood more about Vicious now. He had tracked the strange mana left behind by the cultist for months. He had discovered many of his victims. He had also traded for information with some of his contacts among the martialists.
Vicious would swoop in to ambush those he could kill easily, but one noteworthy part was that the cultist did kill personally. His victims did not show signs of succumbing to their injuries. They died directly at the cultist’s hands.
From what Terry had learned of Vicious in this pocket realm, the cultist was collecting more than just items.
Both Terry’s aunt Sigille and his cousin Matteo had voiced their suspicions that the ‘faith’ of the Shapeless Pond was in fact a deathcult. Even though it had never been officially acknowledged as such in the Tiv Empire, Terry concurred with Sigille and Matteo.
Vicious was obviously collecting souls for the Shapeless Pond. That was why Terry and Apex did not allow the cultist’s targets to carelessly die under their watch.
Terry saw a horned rabbit creature stab the martialist in the calf before the man was able to unleash a martialist technique to hold on a bit longer.
He might have felt pity if he did not know the character of the martialist. He did not find much kindness left inside himself for those like this man.
Terry had vowed to kill Vicious before the folded space opened up again. For that, they required the means and the opportunity. As far as means went, Terry and Apex were as strong and prepared as they could be before the time ran out. What they still lacked was a good opportunity.
They had to bait Vicious out. For this reason, they were controlling the location of the cultist’s targets. They were concealing their own presence while setting the bait to lure Vicious out.
Terry was not sure yet how he would ever describe his current plan and actions to his family in the future without stepping even further onto the Preacher’s path of deceitful sophistry. Terry did not like lying. He did not like twisting words to conceal a lie either, which was why his intrusive thoughts were always pointing it out whenever he was falling into the habit.
‘Controlling the location’ sounds much better than ‘abducting.’
‘Setting the bait’ is a nice way to avoid saying that ‘Apex beats them into a pulp and then we throw them to the wolves until they are barely breathing.’
Terry knew well that these martialists would kill him for a shiny item without a second of hesitation, so he did not truly feel guilty about using them as bait. Nevertheless, it definitely did not make for a nice-sounding story.
Terry had to constantly remind himself what these martialists had done and would be happy to do again. Otherwise, he would feel like an absolute arse. He certainly did not feel like a hero sitting here in the dark shadow plane and creeping on a man that was desperately fighting for his life.
Terry was frowning because he spotted two silhouettes in familiar robes on the window-like ground. He almost rolled his eyes when he saw them trying to attack the struggling martialist instead of attacking the beasts threatening the person.
“Of course, they would do that.” Terry stood up and collected his portable air-bench. He was now able to recognize their faces as well. “I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you know what kind of person he is.”
Terry lifted his foot and the plane around him flipped. Back in the normal plane, he shouted: “Hold it, please!” At the same time, he hurled a shield to block the fiery attack of a golden crow created with a mana resonance technique.
“Terry?” The siblings from the Blazing Sun Sect paused their attack.
“Bastards, you—”
“Shut it!” Terry whacked his captive bait over the head and then pinned him on the ground with immovable tertium. He pointed down at the trapped martialist and looked at the siblings. “Do you also have a personal grudge with him? Can it wait? I kind of need him alive at the moment.”
The siblings shot each other a glance and then the woman spoke up. “Is this some kind of torture? I did not have you pegged as the type for cruelty.”
Terry suppressed a frown.
“Save me, please! My sect will repay you!” The captive martialist begged.
“Didn’t we tell you to shut it?!” Out of thin air, Apex appeared. Her voice immediately caused the captive to whimper and quiet down.
Terry knew that Apex was using her own artifact to conceal her presence. Some kind of veil that distorted light around her and some weird pill to hide her mana. He raised his hand to calm down the duo from the Blazing Sun Sect, who were not really fond of his ally against Vicious.
Apex landed a light kick on the captive and growled. “You can only save yourself. Think of yourself as dead, because that’s what you are until I tell you otherwise. We might find someone to take your place among the dead. Continue annoying me and I’ll transition you to permanently dead right now.”
The captive let out a whimper once more.
“Is this about the demonic cultivator?” asked the woman from the Blazing Sun Sect siblings.
“Deathcult channeler, yes.” Terry replied and pointed at their captive. “I really don’t care if you kill him later. That’s between you and him, but for now, we’ll have a use for his life.”
“We were actually looking for you regarding that,” interjected the brother. “We have some more items that might interest you.” He retrieved several containers.
“That’s soulstain liquid, I already have that,” interjected Apex from the side.
Terry glanced at her with a raised eyebrow.
“What?!” barked Apex. “I have made preparations.”
“Not that…” Terry felt tired whenever he was interacting with this woman. “What the Wastes is ‘soulstain liquid’?”
“A liquid to mark a soul with mana,” replied the brother from the Blazing Sun Sect. “Transforms a soul signature into a mana signature that cannot be easily concealed. You seem to be an exceptional sensor, so I figured you could use it…” He looked at Apex. “But if you already have it—”
“I’ll take it,” interjected Terry hastily and ignored Apex’s scoff. “What do you want in exchange?”
“Nothing.” The sister of the siblings replied. “You have given us an advance, remember? Nobody likes owing debts.”
“Thanks.” Terry hoped that his surprise did not show too much on his face. “What are the others?”
“Just sack them and hurry it up,” barked Apex impatiently. “I can explain what they are later. Tell your play buddies to piss off. The little shitstain won’t kill himself!”
Terry turned to the duo from the Blazing Sun Sect with a helpless expression. “Sorry about that, but the gist is true. Your presence might scare him away.”
“Understood.” The duo handed over the prepared items.
“One more thing,” said the brother. “I don’t know how much you have learned about this folded space, but from what we know, the closing date is not always fixed. Our sect elders were guessing that the realm closes slightly earlier every time.”
Terry scowled at this news.
“I know,” said Apex. “The only reliable signs are the flashing celestial bodies.”
“Good, then you should be prepared.” The duo from the Blazing Sun Sect nodded and bolted away.
“Wait, what?” Terry looked at Apex. “What ‘flashing celestial bodies’?”
“Simple, you see the sky light up in orange, you better piss off before the third flash.” Apex replied and was already vanishing with the help of her artifacts. She did not elaborate any further.
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I think I would have preferred hearing an explanation from the siblings. Anyway, orange lights. Use the ticket before the third flash. Or something…
Focus. One step at a time.
Back to the shadows.
Terry nodded and then used his magic brooch to return to the shadow plane. His eyes instantly narrowed when he spotted a trace of purple light behind a shadow structure.
He hurriedly switched to the normal plane. He ignored the martialist, who was fighting with magic beasts again. Instead he rapidly dashed to the location roughly matching the source of purple light in the shadow plane.
When Terry was back in the shadows, he was now in a position to both observe the battle of their bait as well as to examine the strange purple mark. No matter how Terry looked at it, to him it seemed like a dungeon mark.
But there was something else. There was something about the shape. It seemed like an eye with a vertical slit. The pupil was left dark while the silhouette glowed purple.
Is it an eye though? Or have I stared into too many lizard eyes when I was in Thanatos?
Terry could not help but feel something was off with his initial impression. He could not put it into words. Like a vague recollection that was fleeing from his grasp.
Ever since the day of Chalita’s ambush, Terry had made it a point to periodically search the shadow plane for potential dungeon marks. He had found a few. They did not all share the same shape, but those with the highest mana intensity and outline clarity did indeed have the same appearance. Always the vertical pupil, or something like that at least.
Terry had searched his library of dungeon-related books for traces of the symbol but had come up empty. Even so, he could not shake the feeling that he should recognize this symbol.
Terry knew that his days in this folded space were coming to an end. He hoped to deal with Vicious quickly, so that he might have some time to indulge his curiosity about these strange dungeon marks without worrying about a deathcult channeler stalking his family in the future.
***
A tall woman and a voluminous man were walking towards a camp of martialists. Both of them were wearing the same white-blue combat robes.
“Senior Brother Zhang warned me again to avoid interacting with Shen’s group if possible,” said Chun.
“What are we supposed to do then?!” retorted Barnes. “I refuse to simply submit quietly to our fates.”
Chun smiled and watched her martial brother talk heatedly.
“Junior Sheila seems content to turtle in, but she is not the one lacking a ticket,” continued Barnes. “Senior Zhang has done great deeds but he is too cowardly in my opinion.”
“I agree,” said Chun. “If there is a chance, we’ll have to take it. It’s either buy a ticket from Shen’s lot or risk offending other powerful sects by trying to rob from the few that are still in possession of their entrance tickets.”
“I doubt Senior Zhang would want us to jump straight to the latter, so we are really following his wishes,” said Barnes drily. “If the damned scoundrel from Arcana had not destroyed more than forty tickets at once, we would have more options.”
The two were led to a group of Shen’s friends.
“What…?” Barnes’ face grew flushed at the demand from the entrance guards.
“You want to examine our storage items?” Chun’s expression darkened as well.
“Or you can just leave them here directly as compensation.” A red-haired woman with a scar above her left eye was smirking at them. “The tickets don’t come cheaply. You should know what your lives are worth.”
If it was not for the fact that they were outnumbered and outmatched, Chun and Barnes might have started a fight right then and there for the indignation.
After nearly an hour of heated exchanges, the two left the encampment.
Chun glanced at her martial brother. “Are you sure you don’t want to—?”
“No.” Barnes cut her off. “I refuse to submit to such insults. I’d rather take my chances challenging a ticket holder directly to a match of life and death.”
“That assumes their sects will hold up the bargain.” Chun pointed out.
“If they don’t, I’ll burn their whole sect to the ground,” growled Barnes. “Offending sects be damned.”
Chun retracted the ticket in her hand that had been slightly extended to Barnes. She was looking at the ticket with a conflicted expression. In contrast to Barnes, Chun had performed the trade. She had to part with all treasures she had collected in this folded space. Honestly, this whole pocket realm had been a disaster.
Behind them in Shen’s camp, a woman in pink with a giant sword on her back leaned in to talk to the red-haired woman. “There are a few other groups already following the two for her ticket, but we’ll be quicker. We’ll have it back before sunset, with some additional spoils.”
“Shen warned us to be cautious of Zhang and their Princess,” reminded the red–haired woman.
“Zhang, I understand, but why Sheila?”
“She supposedly has a few life-preserving artifacts from their sect elders…”
***
Apex stuffed the unconscious martialist into some strange bag that shrunk the person down to fit.
Probably just a more specialized dimensional body bag like those we used in the Guardians for bringing back beast remains. This one works for living beasts. There are probably good and completely innocuous reasons to have something like that. Like missions to capture living specimens. Probably.
Terry resisted the urge to ask why Apex had such a bag or where she got it from. He was not sure if he really wanted to know the answer.
“That makes two,” said Apex. “Where to next?”
Terry had made sure to only share the details of targets he considered to have less than upstanding characters with his rageful ally.
“There’s another one…” Terry concentrated again on his mana sense. He was sifting through the countless mana signatures when he became distracted by another movement. “Wait, I’ll be right back.”
Terry dashed away to leave Apex shouting curses after him. He was rapidly cycling his mana in a burst technique to accentuate speed above all else. He summoned his king spear in case his legs weren’t fast enough. With enough mana, the pole could grow quicker than Terry was able to run.
When he was halfway to his destination, Terry remembered to stop cloaking his mana. He was pleased that his prominent mana signature showed the desired effect. Perhaps he would not have to fight after all.
“The Arcanian!” “Terry? Shit!” “The rumors? Is he really working with the Outcast?” “Run run run!”
Terry’s mana-enhanced hearing picked up the reactions among the flustered group of martialists. He did not bother pursuing them and instead stopped at the heavily injured elven man in green-golden robes, who was left bleeding on the ground.
“Guillermo?” Terry retrieved a few healing items and began first aid.
“T-Terry?” The elf was barely conscious at first.
Terry fed the martialist a healing bean and bandaged a heavy gash on the man’s torso.
When the elf had received sufficient treatment to continue healing himself, Terry raised his question. “What happened here?”
“I had a deal with one of them to trade resources…” Guillermo was panting weakly. “She lured a bunch of bastards here to gang up on me.”
I could tell that. More than thirty when I came over.
Terry knew that this ‘Outcast’ from the Ironbark Fist Sect was strong but with these numbers, it was not just about strength alone. Terry himself had often cursed about lacking good offensive options, but on the flip side, his Immovable Object spell was among the best defensive option imaginable, even more so when paired with his disruption field.
“Why did you help me?” asked Guillermo.
“We still haven’t finished trading,” replied Terry. However, his face showed more kindness than he intended. He was hesitant to admit that he did not want to lose one of the few comparatively sane people to talk to in this battle-lunatic asylum.
Zhang from the Icy Dew Mountain seemed reasonable, but also very much avoiding Terry since their first encounter. The felan woman Hom was not much of a talker and only rarely came forth to trade. Terry had mostly interacted with Shen, Guillermo, and the secretive duo from the Blazing Sun Sect.
Shen had been crossed off the conversation list after the recent ambush that had caused Terry to incinerate his spare tickets. There really weren’t many people left on the list.
Guillermo exclaimed a weak self-derisive chuckle. “I’m afraid I won’t be in a position to trade much. They stole practically everything.” His expression darkened. “They only broke up when one of them got my ticket and betrayed the others… My ticket…”
Terry’s face stiffened. “I… Don’t have any spares.”
Unexpectedly, Guillermo broke out in laughter that was eventually interrupted by pained inhalations of breath. “So I heard.” He coughed. “I have to think of something. I have to get going. For what it’s worth: Thanks. Your interference allows me a chance.” The elf stood up shakily. “However small…”
***
“Eat it,” barked Apex and held out a pill.
“But…” In front of Apex sat another martialist whom Terry and Apex had ‘recruited’ into baiting Vicious.
Terry stood slightly to the back and reminded himself of the fact that the woman was among the people trying to rob him after he won the Third Staff of the Monkey King. She had also been very quick to offer to sell out her companions when she was unable to escape.
“You recognize the pill?” demanded Apex.
“Y-yes,” stammered the martialist.
“Then you know that it will allow you a breakthrough,” continued Apex impatiently.
“B-but it will damage my future potential!” protested the martialist.
“You have no future potential,” retorted Apex flatly. “You are dead until I tell you otherwise.”
Terry had heard similar threats many times over the past few days. By now they had forced three different martialists into acting as bait. The rough-fisted Apex wasn’t gentle and, honestly, neither was Terry.
Character aside, these martialists had already been marked by Vicious. The fate that would have awaited them if Vicious had gotten to them first was certain death or worse, so Terry understood that there was truth in Apex’s threats.
“You can take the pill as a gift, break through, and we see what happens.” Azure flames flickered in Apex’s eyes. “Or you join the other two and get to fight the beasts again.”
“No!” exclaimed the captive martialist.
Terry caught a glance from his ally. He knew what she wanted to know. “They’re still alive and fighting. No sign of him yet.”
Their attempts to lure Vicious out had not shown any success yet, which is why they had decided to change their bait. Terry had put forth the theory that Vicious was attracted to cultivation breakthroughs for more reasons than to sabotage and weaken his opponents.
Terry was not an expert in deathcults or martialist cultivation, but his inner Academy student connected both topics to souls. If there was some kind of qualitative change in a martialist’s soul during a breakthrough attempt, then it would make sense that a cultist sending souls to his leader would show growing interest.
“Do your best!” Apex stuffed the pill forcefully into the mouth of the hesitant martialist.
Terry quietly placed a few other items next to the captive whose mana was spiraling out of control.
“What are these for?” Apex glared at him. “Why would you waste these precious resources here?”
Terry had to think before coming up with an answer. “We want her to succeed, right?”
“Yes, but we don’t care about her state after she has succeeded,” stressed Apex coldly. “The pill should be enough to push her over.”
“Th-thank you.” The captive martialist gritted through her teeth. Her face showed the pain she was in and she hurriedly grabbed one item that could alleviate some of it.
Terry did not show any reaction. He still remembered the woman’s expression when attempting to have her juniors take her place. If nothing else, he had learned in this folded space how many different masks a single person could wear.
Apex harrumphed but did not press the topic. “Hide, or do you also want to hold the wimp’s hand?”
Terry rolled his eyes and did not bother to reply. The two quickly vanished from sight and mana sense with the help of their respective magic items.
From the shadow plane, Terry could follow the woman’s breakthrough attempt. He did not sense the change in mana from here. Luckily, he did not need to. When the woman’s complexion changed first to a warm glow and then to a pale and ashen appearance, Terry knew that their bait had worked. He lifted his foot just in time to hear a certain laughter echo through the cavern they had chosen for the trap.
“Heeheehee…”
***