Luo Xuo batted aside the weak punch thrown by the haggard man in front of him with his left hand. Then, he smoothly grabbed a hold of the man’s frail neck with one hand and squeezed lightly. The wide-eyed man’s neck burst like a popped balloon and his body dropped to the ground, shortly followed by his head.
Luo Xuo groaned with annoyance as he flicked his hand in an effort to remove the still-warm gore. Why these peasants had to be so difficult, he didn't understand. If they surrendered, they would become part of the many valued laborers of the Hondu Empire, a much more fitting status than the one they had now.
He wiped his bloodied hand on the tattered clothing of the man he had just killed before looking up at the destroyed village, making sure no survivors remained untaken care of. Charred remains of simple wooden structures were all that remained of the town. It was a brutal display of power; one the empire was fond of. Among the remains of the town, dead bodies littered the decimated streets. The only living beings were those of the Hondu Empire. Xuo nodded with satisfaction and then beckoned one of his nearby Captains to come near him.
The man quickly approached him and snapped his hand into a salute. Luo Xuo looked expressionlessly at the way his hand shook when saluting. How his eyes flitted back in forth nervously between his face and the burnt village. The quivering legs almost made Luo Xuo kill him. It would have been all too easy as well.
No words were ever spoken between him and any of his men until he deigned to speak. All of Luo Xuo’s soldiers knew that by now. He breathed in the ashy air and turned his attention away from the Captain and toward the valley that separated the army from their target, the Drku Kingdom. The crossing bridge had been destroyed by the Drku to buy time to prepare for war. It was a successful ploy that couldn’t be subverted by the Hondu. Even now, he could see fortifications in the distance. There had always been defenses past the Prin Valley, awaiting the day the Hondu would attack. However, now that the imminent war was clear, the high stone walls were being doubly reinforced. Not only that, but spies had also reported that entire divisions of soldiers were being sent to protect the border of the kingdom.
That obstacle would be overcome, and Luo Xuo would make sure of it. He wrenched his gaze back onto the Captain.
“Captain Zhao, begin to enact the plan by sunrise tomorrow. If it is not finished by the time of the World Gathering, consider your life null.”
The scared animal that was Captain Zhao audibly gulped. “Yes sir! General Xuo will not be disappointed.”
“You are dismissed. Inform the others.”
The man scurried off like a rat to fulfill his orders. With the Captain gone, Luo Xuo’s face morphed into an ugly grimace, and he spoke with vitriol, spitting his words out. “I’ll kill that bitch. I’ll kill that fucking bitch.” He breathed deeply a few times, and his face settled into an unreadable mask.
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The Seeker calmly ushered the last batch of hesitant souls into the Spirit Gate and took a moment to scan the Sea of Stars for any stragglers. He noticed one shying away in the core of a fiery star. He made his way through dense clumps of mana toward the soul. When he reached the young soul, he tentatively held out a helping hand.
Suddenly, a lance of spirit flame shot out from the youngling, searing a part of his left hand’s palm. The Seeker glanced at his scorched hand with raised eyebrows and smiled softly at the worried soul.
“Ah, that is a great sign for you. Come along now,” he said, leaning in closer.
Then, he stood straight and walked back toward the gates with an unwilling, fiery soul hovering alongside him. He approached the Fire Gate before coming to a standstill in front of the gateway.
The elderly man looked at the soul with a slight smile. “Time to go now!” With a final push from the Seeker, the soul rocketed into the gateway into a new home.
With a satisfied smile, the galactic landscape abruptly dissipated and, instead, was replaced by the cluttered interior of a cozy cabin. On the floor was a shaggy, white rug that appeared to have been ripped off the back of a large creature. In the top left corner of the open floor room was a bookshelf with roughed-up tomes, seemingly from ancient times. The Seeker relaxedly boiled some fresh tea as he hummed a tune only he would recognize.
A few minutes later, a perfectly fruity and sweet black tea sat on the round, wood table. The Seeker closed his eyes and sighed when the aroma drifted towards him before taking a satisfactory sip. Moments later, he procured a rolled-up map and unfurled it across the table. All the while drinking his tea.
Sprinkled all over the map were differently colored dots and star-shaped ink blotches, seemingly randomly distributed throughout the parchment.
The Seeker murmured under his breath before sending out a tendril of his soul force to tap one of the bright red, sparkling dots. His eyes unfocused when the tendril was, by all accounts, absorbed by the map, and he sat ramrod straight.
Suddenly, he snapped out of his still state before muttering. "Well, I suppose it is that time again. Have a seat."
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The open air above the chair opposite him warped and shifted, and a figure materialized and took a seat on the unoccupied chair. The new person was dressed informally, to say the least: wet and dirty brown boots that extended to the knees, damp black pants so stained with dirt one had a hard time telling if they were initially another color other than brown, and a shredded light gray robe with more holes than a sponge. Underneath there certainly was a cheap tunic just as beaten as the rest of the man's attire. Another might have been revolted, but he had become used to the disheveled appearance many moons ago.
The person had a wiry face, cracked, yellow teeth barred in a big smile, a mop of thin, white- actually, why is he smiling?
The Seeker realized he had voiced his thoughts out loud when the gaunt man spoke with bemusement. "Why, can I not just be happy to see an old pal? It's been three whole eons since we last chatted," He chuckled with a voice dryer than a desert. "Joking, joking, it's only been nine millennia."
The Seeker sat impassively. "Just tell me when the transfer will be ready."
The man rolled his eyes. "You're no fun, never have been, have you?" The Seeker glared at him, "Anyways, the next batch will be due in only one of those Earth days. I've been working hard after all." He pulled his robe in closer as if he'd done an excellent job, and in the process ripped a few new holes.
The Seeker raised his eyebrows, "An Earth day? That is... surprisingly impressive coming from you."
The Weaver beamed with wretched teeth, preening to appear assiduous. Returning to normal a moment later, he said. "I impressed myself too."
"Right. So, what do you think of this batch."
The Weaver shrugged. "I'm not sure about this one, honestly. Coming from a planet with no magic to one with a TON of magic likely won't bode well."
The Seeker said with a long sigh. "You know that isn't what I mean."
Raising his hands in surrender, the Weaver said. "Don't eat me, please," The Seeker glanced at him blankly, "Fine, I'll tell you since we're friends. There are a couple mortals of interest: one lady with a bloodline with some traces of F..."
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Ace strummed his fingers expectantly against the smooth surface of the futuristic virtual reality headset. His parents had unveiled the gift hours before for his 18th birthday. Of course, it had not been a surprise for him when he opened the present; after all, he was the one who requested it because he knew that his mom and dad would never have known about VR technology.
But, back to the headset, it was not big and bulky like many other VR technologies; instead, it was slight and had a strap that wrapped nicely around his head when he tried it on. The frame was a pitch-black color that did not reflect any light. In contrast to the metal exterior, the lens was made of reflective blue glass that sheened with a brilliant glow even in the dark. Overall, it was a very classy and compact design for something so technologically complicated.
However, none of those reasons were why the headset was special compared to the other VR tech in the market. It was the extent of what the thing could do. It was confirmed that the device could trick the mind into believing it was in a separate reality, sensations included. Smelling, tasting, touching, seeing, and hearing were all senses that felt 100 percent real in whatever alternate world or any place on Earth the headset cooked up, or so they say. How did any of it work? Ace had absolutely no clue, nor did he care as long as it was safe.
Which, by the way, he was pretty sure it was. When the things' capabilities became widely advertised and started gaining traction, the United States government stepped in and did extensive testing to confirm that it was harmless to use as advertised. The many pages featured in the safety document had put all the doubters of security at ease. Essentially, it meant that there were no harmful effects from the device or any other malicious stuff associated with the ability to affect people using it neurologically. To be fair, I was also worried about a mind-controlling tech CEO.
Ace peered down at the dim blue light of the lens, a twang of suspicion echoing in his mind that he promptly brushed off. Why would some evil CEO attempt to harm people through a VR headset meant for video games? There was no logical reason at all... right... right?
Tick!
Ace tilted his head upwards toward the clock hanging on his bedroom wall. It was midnight, at last. "Finally, that took long enough."
He grabbed the headset, thrilled to see what awaited him in the new world. Well, sort of a new world, but not really. Ace slipped it snuggly around his black hair and pressed the power button. Ding! The first thing to greet him was a plane of stars amidst a black space. The stars were varying shades of orange, red, yellow, white, and blue. The picturesque landscape was incredible. On the other hand, the strangest feeling had originated with him, like he was being stalked by a lethal predator. Not exactly a pleasant one. It suffused his entire being and he couldn’t help but shiver inside.
Naw, fuck this, Ace thought internally, so he moved to take the headset off but found that, weirdly enough, he had no control of his limbs. Unsettling was definitely the word to describe the situation he was in.
Ace tried again, but to no avail, to take the headset off. Uh oh. After failing for the second time, he started flitting his eyes around the vast expanse of space nervously. Apart from the black void filled with stars and what looked like random bits of... space dust hovering around, there were also condensed, light blue... space dust particles in the form of more defined shapes. These shapes heavily resembled the shapes of human hearts and deviated in size a ton. Some were tinier, about the size of, well, a human heart; the majority were somewhere in-between that size and twice it.
Ace spotted a sizable amount of practically minuscule hearts. But, the really obvious outliers were the giant ones. Prominent hearts the size of brown bears and creatures of similar proportions. The largest one he saw was humongous, about as big as an elephant.
Huh, what do I look like? It turned out that he was also a floating heart. A bear-sized one at that. Still, he felt a bit disappointed that he was smaller than the elephant heart.
Ace comforted himself. It's not the size that matters, it's how you use it. He couldn't help but snigger.
Back to the soul... yup, a soul was a better descriptor, talk. They stretched into space farther than he could see, numbering in the millions, likely. Yet, there was no sign of movement from the numerous souls, including himself.
Ace had tried to move, but it was as if an invisible force was preventing him from doing so. Without anything more to observe or notice, Ace anxiously waited for anything to happen. In the time he had to wait, he tried to remove his headset many times but quickly accepted defeat in that pursuit. It would’ve been a mind-numbingly boring experience except for the chilling feeling that lingered around Ace’s mind.
It wasn’t all dismal though. During the long period Ace waited, thousands of more souls had popped into existence out of nowhere. There wasn’t any pattern to their arrival and when they finally stopped coming, nearly all the stars had been blotted out by the light blue souls.
Once the souls stopped showing up, a shrill sound started to permeate the place, slowly picking up in intensity. It reminded Ace of a tornado siren, just a million times worse. The disturbing sensation returned with a vengeance. The only thing Ace could see was a white world of pain. His mind rang like an alarm bell cranked up to maximum volume. He tried to fight back against the pain with no success. Uncontrollable terror began to set in as he registered it was only a matter of time till he passed out or worse.
Before he did, he heard the yelling of a man possibly even more scared than he was. “Time to go. Fuck!” The cause of his panic became clear because a second later, an agonizingly loud roar that shook the world resounded through Ace’s entire being and slammed him over the edge of consciousness.