James could barely watch as the servitor transported one of the bodies to the machine in the distance. With a carelessness only an automated drone could have, it deposited the body in a chute at the end of the machine. The equipment came to life, performing tasks inside its metal shell that only it knew.

The results, however, appeared for all to see.

The first machine’s job seemed to be separating a cultivator’s body from its cores. A single core, shining red in the factory lighting, fell from a slot above the conveyor belt into a tray. A servitor came a moment later to collect the core.

Sick to his stomach, James watched as the discarded body moved down the conveyor belt like a piece of processed meat. It fell into the jaws of the second machine, vanishing for seconds before coming out the other end in various pieces of cybernetics and limbs. Another orb, shining a dull red, appeared in another tray.

James saw his master’s face ashen in shock, but he had not context as to why. He followed her gaze to the new core now in the tray, watching as a servitor transported it along further down the conveyor belt. There the core fell into a slot next to four others before it sank into this next machine.

The noise of the factory pounded in James’s ears as he continued to stare, unable to pull his gaze away. Pistons moved, gears cranked, and the cybernetic limbs entered. On the other end of the machine, James barely spied five cores leaving in a tray, their dull luster now marginally brighter.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. James started, forgetting for a moment his master was next to him. Nadia gave him a distressing look, pulling him further into the shadows.

He saw Osman walk past, a snippet of conversation piercing through the din of the factory. “…a place to put the body until we can frame…”

The cultivator walked past, hands behind his back and an assessing gaze that looked more at home on a foreman in a steel factory. James shuddered, wondering how someone could be so callous.

James and his master waited in the shadows, the latter using her camouflage to ensure no servitor or camera caught them. The guards never patrolled, content to sit at the elevator playing games on their handheld.

Finally, Osman made his way to the elevator with guards in tow. The elevator whirred upward, leaving James and Nadia alone with only two guards in the factory.

Nadia directed James to the side, having him wait in an untrafficked while she moved through the lines of machines toward the guards.

Neither noticed her approach, or the subsequent chain of spinning water that took their heads from their shoulders. His master’s water powers caught the bodies, moving them to the side before she walked back to James with her handheld out.

“Start recording,” she told her disciple.

For once, James saw none of his master’s witty amusement behind her eyes. She was cold as the ocean depths, her mind focused on revealing the insanity before her.

James did as she asked, pulling his handheld out and following a conveyor belt, no matter how sick it made him feel. At the end, James finally fell to the ground and heaved. His previous meal emptied from his stomach onto the floor.

Nadia was by him in seconds, using her powers to clean James and the area around him. The coldness had left her eyes, replaced by genuine concern.

“Come, let us leave,” she said.

James shook his head. “Grab solid evidence. One of those cores, or cybernetics.”

“The video is enough,” Nadia said gently.

He nodded weakly, not wanting to argue more with his master. He felt drained, devoid of something.

Nadia led James over to a set of boxes and let him sit. “Wait here. I will deal with those that come down.”

James shook his head. “Can we just sneak back out? I have enough strength for that, and I’m tired of seeing dead bodies.”

Nadia leaned next to her disciple, taking his cheek in her hand. “I know how hard this is, and I did not want you to see this side of our world yet. But these cultivators must pay for their crimes of desecration, and if I delay they might escape. Do you understand?”

James looked into his master’s eyes and saw compassion, but also resolve. She had spent her life in this world, grew up learning about the terrible deeds some had done. He saw that she would do something about it, regardless of his protests.

“Alright, master,” he answered weakly.

“Rest, this will not take long,” Nadia said.

James did, closing his eyes.

He heard the sounds of the elevator, then loud shouting as Nadia began her assault. James opened his eyes to see his master having already sent two of the gangsters to the king of the dead. A third was already on the way, not realizing that Nadia’s water spun fast enough to cut diamond. The look of surprise as he died seemed to etch itself into James’s brain.

An eruption of fire shot at Nadia after she dispatched the gangster. It was Paulie, to James’s surprise. He had expected the gangster to have left with Osman.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The Oni gangster smirked as his blast traveled toward Nadia, only for the look to fall away as Nadia used her water to cut through the fireball. She came at him with a sweeping leg coated in water.

Paulie jumped and extended his hands. James saw the ripples of heat forming before the air ignited in a roaring snake of flame that moved to bite Nadia. She answered by falling lower to the ground, using her spinning momentum to bring up a wave of water that washed the fire away.

Paulie tried to use her momentum against her, igniting the air at behind Nadia to create fireballs. But James’s master simply spun her elbow and twisted her back, breaking the fireballs with a water-coated strike. In moments, she was back on her feet, closer to Paulie than before.

The gangster tried to get some distance by ignited another gangster’s body and throwing it, but Nadia was on a mission, and Paulie’s fire element stood no chance against Nadia’s water. She sliced through the incoming body, then sent a slicing wave at Paulie, the man barely avoiding the blow with superhuman reactions.

Nadia danced in, spinning in waves of water intent on slicing through her opponent. Paulie joined the dance, dodging by instinctive reactions each time. They fell into the movements, Paulie constantly retreating through the factory. However, it soon became apparent to James that his master was cornering the gangster.

Sure enough, Paulie soon found himself trapped against the wall of the factory. Stuck between a literal rock and a hard place, the gangster decided to pull out his last card. James saw the heat haze before Paulie’s body exploded in flames. His two horns glowed a dangerous shade of orange as he charged Nadia.

His master clapped her hands, conjuring a ball of water in her hand that soon became a spinning watery shield. Paulie collided with the spinning ball, his fire evaporating the water as he tried to pierce through. Nadia concentrated, shrinking the dome and thickening it as she spun and produced more water from her core.

There was a roaring, desperate shout from Paulie as he tried to burn through. Steam hissed out from their fight, masking the area in an impossible to see through cloud.

James stood, moving toward his master with some panic. While he trusted Nadia, losing sight of her made him all the more anxious.

A blasting wave of water appeared, drowning out the steam and James’s fears. Paulie flew into the sky, one arm now missing. Nadia sent another slicing wave toward the man, separating him from his legs. He landed on the floor in a concussed heap.

James ran to his master, who looked winded from the fight. “Are you alright?”

“I am fine. This is only from using so much water at once. My cores aren’t the happiest when I pull so much out at once.”

She looked at James with concern. “Are you feeling up to move?”

James nodded.

There was a loud cough behind him. He turned to see Paulie pushing himself up on one hand, surprise on his face.

“Well, friend,” he coughed out with a delirious laugh. “What brings you to my neck of the woods?”

“You know him?” Nadia asked.

“Ha! Your disciple here pulled me into fixing his fights,” Paulie said.

“I was going to bet on myself to lose and use the prize money to get a core,” James said.

“I see,” Nadia said. “And you didn’t come to me why?”

“Master, I can’t rely on you all the time, right?” James asked. “Didn’t you want me to learn things for myself?”

She sighed. “You are correct. I guess I expected you to learn in a more orthodox manner. Make connections with merchants, not gangsters. But we will talk about the why later. This is not the time.”

James nodded before turning to Paulie. “Why would you do this?”

The gangster laughed. “The same reason as you! Money and power! Not all of use are lucky enough for power to fall into our laps like you. Some of us have to work for it!”

James felt hot under his robes as anger took him. “This didn’t fall into my lap! I wanted nothing to do with this! They came to me!”

He moved toward the gangster, intent on hurting him. He wanted—no needed—to hit Paulie, if only to get a small sliver of revenge. No, of justice.

Nadia stopped him. “He is not worth your anger. And we have little time.”

James shrugged her off. “He’s not even sorry.”

“And he never will be,” Nadia said with a heavy heart. “Nothing you do will make him understand.”

Paulie just laughed. “Well, finish me off then! I played the game and lost, that’s all!”

Nadia flicked a hand, sending a spinning sliver of water at Paulie as she turned. “Come, do not heed his words. We must make haste to Sect Leader Robert. He must see Osman’s treachery.”

She started the elevator, moving up the side outside the biometric scanners with James behind her.

As they made their way back, James tried to make sense of what he saw, if only to try and find some reason for the madness.

“What were they doing down there?” James asked.

“Something no righteous cultivator would ever allow,” Nadia said. “They were turning bodies into cores.”

James looked stunned. “What?”

Nadia looked at James. “There is a way for a dying cultivator to pass on their knowledge. Remember how I stated cores are worlds of their own?”

James nodded.

“Well,” Nadia paused as they sneaked out of the elevator and through the hole she’d made previously. “It is possible for a cultivator with enough knowledge in the Metastate to condense their essence and make a core of their own. Doing so is a death sentence, as it takes the entirety of a cultivator. All that they are, conscious and subconscious, what they change in the world, and what they don’t change, is placed into a world of their own, formed by their thoughts.”

“But those cultivators were dead,” James said.

“Death is only a cessation, disciple,” Nadia said. “As long as the body is preserved, enough power could revive a person, but it would take more than most can afford to give.”

“So, they’re using the bodies to…” James couldn’t finish the sentence.”

“To make new cores, using the machines as intermediaries to take in the essence of the cultivator. I assume most scan the brain and use that as a basis, then craft a core using the body.”

“That’s, that’s horrible,” James said.

“It is,” Nadia said. “And we will put a stop to it. I am sure many of those bodies were meant to be cremated, meaning this is a problem that spans the entirety of SeeSee.”

“Then why are we going to the sect master?” James asked. “Why not to the city authorities? Or your family?”

“This is a sect issue first, disciple,” Nadia explained. “If I do not go to the leader first and to the authorities instead, the other sects would place all the blame on Blue Mountain and ignore themselves. Second, I have to assume some of the government is corrupt. Cremation is a national policy. No, it is best if we clean our own house first and then focus on the rest of the city. That way we have a base of power to get back to.”

“And as for my family,” she said in a defeated tone, “Archimedes and the other great families care little for anything outside of their insular community. The fact that there are even branches in SeeSee is because of my presence, not because of anything else.”

James could see the hurt on his master’s face. So he changed topics. “But is the sect leader going to do anything? What if he doesn’t believe you?”

“We have the video,” Nadia said. She looked at James. “I know you believe the sect master is not the most ethical, and I admit he often does his best to appease everyone, but he does so in order to preserve the strength of the sect. That is who Robert is, someone who ensures the sect stays strong. Once he learns of the demonic influence in the sect, he will not hesitate to assist.”

“Okay, master,” James said as the car sped toward the sect leader’s location.

“We cannot do this on our own, disciple,” Nadia said. “Something as large as this must be dealt with by organization.”