The letter shone brighter, streaming silver like moonlight. There was a drawing carved on the surface. A collection of clean lines that shifted the more Zane looked, gaining dimensions… He let his eyes unfocus. He quickly sank into the vision.
An old man solidified before him. A man with a big frame full of wiry muscle. Zane got the impression that an immense amount of strength was packed into those dense limbs—he had frizzy white hair and a frizzy white beard, and he was clad in bloodstained furs, like some old war chief.
“Hello there!” he said with a grin. He waved. Zane waved back.
“We meet at last!” He paused. “Well, not yet. This is merely a recording. But you know who I am.”
Zane nodded. The Barbarian Sage looked a lot shaggier and stringier than the one in the visions, but he had the same big toothy smile.
“I suppose I should do a real introduction, though, eh?” He cleared his throat. “They call me the Barbarian Sage! I’m the founder of the Titan Rhino Bloodline Path. Grand Elder of the Steelheart Conclave, slayer of the Three Great Calamities, four-time Dragonspire Galactic Champion… let’s see. What else have I done?”
He scratched his head.
“Ah! I’m ranked in the top 10 on the Monster Kill leaderboards across the Dragonspire Galaxy—and I haven’t been active in ages! So there’s that.”
A thought seemed to occur to him. “…These things don’t mean much to you, do they?”
“No,” said Zane.
“Ah.” A pause. “Well! Rest assured, they are quite impressive.”
“Sure,” said Zane.
“Well, anyway. I've been following your journey very closely, Zane Walker. Did you know you're the only living member of the Titan Rhino Bloodline, besides myself?”
He stroked his beard thoughtfully. “As it turns out, it's very difficult to take in Titan Rhino blood. Even by Godbeast standards! It's quite a painful process. The blood only takes to certain types of bodies and souls. It requires a great deal of fortitude. Do you know how long I've waited for someone like you to come along? Why—it’s been half a Chaos Cycle. I was losing hope! Then I heard some pre-Integration Earthling’s giving it a shot… I must admit—at first I was pretty dubious. But Zane, you’ve won me over—and then some!”
“Thanks,” said Zane.
“Now,” said the old man, rubbing his hands, a little giddy. “Onto business! I'm here to make you an offer—a hell of an offer, I must say. I had to pull some strings and make some semi-credible threats to get all this—but it was worth it.”
“First!” The Barbarian Sage stuck up a wrinkly finger. “A complete set of Titan Rhino Godbeast body parts!”
And treasures floated out from him, surrounding him. A few looked like the tendon Zane had already taken in, but longer and stronger. One seemed to be a patch of skin—it looked like a rugged silver plate. Another, a swirling bead of mercury. A third a chunk of cast-iron lung, a forth what seemed to be the tip of a horn, scything to a gleaming tip.
“To complete the Titan Rhino Bloodline,” said the Sage, “That is, gain all 1028 drops—you must incorporate Nine Godbeast body parts! Right now you’ve got two, the Tendon and the Heartstrings. Which is the maximum you can get before Ascendant. But the higher you rise, the more you can take in. Until, at the end, your body will be equivalent to that of a full-blooded Godbeast at the peak of its powers—one of the true hegemons of the galaxy.”
The Barbarian Sage nodded. “You would be able to dominate True Gods with your physical flesh alone! Even among Godbeasts, very few could make that claim…”
The treasures winked out. The Sage raised a second finger. “But that’s not all. I also offer you my expertise.”
New images flickered up—golden-tipped scrolls, recording crystals, stacks of massive hidebound tomes…
“I know all the ways you can screw up—some quite badly. I’ve done it myself! I also know all the tips and tricks, all the shortcuts to skyrocket your body’s process. And I would make Skills tailored to you that’ll get the most out of your body! Right now, your body is like a hunk of raw ore… strong, but it could be so much more if fashioned into a true weapon! Right now you wield its powers passively. Without active Bloodline techniques, I would estimate you have unlocked less than a third of its true physical potential. But I would unleash you in full.”
The Sage raised a third finger. “And last—you’d be my sole direct disciple, with access to all my training tools—the very ones I used to achieve one of the strongest physiques in the Dragonspyre Galaxy. Why—even at my age I would say only…”
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He thought about it for a second. “Four, maybe five people in the galaxy can match me there! In my youth I forged a number of tools to power-level my progress, each of which is a unique treasure tailored to the Titan Rhino’s needs. My One Billion Kill Array, my Crucible of the Flesh, my gymnasium and its lovely Crusher Wall… trust me—you’ll love ‘em!”
The Sage rubbed his hands together. “That should be the bulk of it. Let’s see….”
He pulled out a chunk of tattered parchment and consulted it, squinting. “Right, right. Body parts… training… ah! You'll also get 50,000 Heaven-grade stones. And official status as a Grand Elder’s personal disciple, which means you'll automatically be elevated to Chosen status, with a seasonal stipend to match—that is to say, every season you’ll get the top-tier training stipend…”
He rubbed his chin. “Yep, looks like all of it!”
Clasping his fists, he turned back to Zane and grinned. “Alright, kid. Join me, and we’ll make you the most unstoppable force in all the Dragonspyre Galaxy—and we'll have a grand old time doing it! You take care. Eat wel!”
He waved. Zane waved back. He vanished.
***
“So?” said Reina when Zane looked up blinking.
“It’s pretty good,” said Zane. “I like him.”
But he would need to check out the other one too.
He went over to the Stormfire-wreathed letter, stuck his hand into the flames, and pulled it out. He uncorked the scroll and slowly began to unravel it.
A vision flared to life, quickly unfurling over the sheet. Zane let himself fade into it.
An old man stood before him. He was lean and rather small of stature, with a wispy white beard. He held himself with a certain proud, sure bearing—one look, and you knew he was a master.
His eyes were like pools of still water. His hands were clasped behind his back.
“Greetings, Zane Walker,” said Sage Noughtfire.
“Hi,” said Zane.
“My name is Noughtfire,” said the Sage. “Grand Elder of the Azure Flame Faction. I, like you, walk the path of Stormfire. I know well its many twists and turns—and I’ve gone further along than any man in living memory.”
He said all this matter-of-factly. “I know the power that lights the stars. And I know the powers beyond that too, when stars start to collapse to their hearts, when their energies concentrate in great interstellar beams and lance across the universe… I’ve seen Stormfire taken to its most potent heights! Heights that graze the very Law of Destruction.”
The more he spoke, the more fiery his eyes got. “At its peak, Stormfire is one of the most potent forces not only in the Dragonspire Galaxy but in the broader universe! This power could be yours—with the right guidance.”
It was just a vision, Zane knew. Yet when vision—Noughtfire looked at him and their eyes met, he could swear the old man was right there.
“I’ve been observing your journey, Zane. You’ve impressed me. Any of my disciples can tell you that is a very rare thing.”
“Thanks,” said Zane.
“But the path ahead of you is yet long and treacherous. You’ve taken the first step. If you wish to become all you were meant to be—if you wish to hold the power of a star in your hands… come to the Azure Flame Faction.”
He held his head up high, eyes flaring, and in that moment he seemed much larger than his size. “This is my offer to you. First, you’ll become one of my direct disciples—and gain a stipend equivalent to that of a Chosen. Second—and here is the true treasure—you’ll have access to the Lightning Constellation. My secret realm, the home to all my disciples. There you'll find the greatest concentration of Stormfire in all the Dragonspire Galaxy…”
He raised a palm and a vision flared to life, a mirage made of flickering flames—showing seven bright spots zigzagging, smoldering in air…
“Seven stars,” said Noughtfire softly. “With dozens of planets, each with history spanning hundreds of thousands of years, where billions live… but to I and my disciples, their primary function is as a training ground. Each star, and its solar system, is built for one purpose: to further my disciples’ flames.”
The image flickered.
“Some star systems have planets whose purpose is to provide my disciples the richest plasma treasures…”
It showed a mountainous world glimmering with mineral-deposits. A Stormfire-purple star glared down far above. Plasma storms raged over its surface; you could see huddles of ironhide tents clumped together, scribed with thick runes, blocking out the worst of it—tribes, maybe. The storms lit into the crystals—which glowed brighter and brighter with Stormfire energies…
“Others serve as testing grounds, where my disciples sharpen themselves against combat trials whose difficulty is the stuff of legends—trials which have produced legends in their wake…”
The image flickered between planets—here a world where rivers of plasma lowed, and wraiths made of the stuff emerged from deep within, there islands of floating magnetic rock where steely lightning-serpents cracked across the sky, an icy crystalline wasteland where strange illusory wraiths flickered to and fro…
“Others made purely for cultivation…”
A thickly built, horribly scarred, shirtless man grimacing under a waterfall of pure plasma. All around him, lakes of plasma streamed vivid purple deep into the empty skies.
“Others where Stormfire Law abounds—where you can find an asteroid to perch upon, and watch a year's worth of sunsets and be enlightened in the ways of Stormfire.”
A girl sitting with her back to a purple sunset, alone on a barren peak high above the clouds… the air around her was so charged it flickered like static on an old television screen.
It all vanished, and there stood Noughtfire looking quite serious, hands clasped behind his back. “My disciples walk their own paths. It will be up to you how far you go. But I offer you the ultimate training grounds. Here you will never lack for ways in which to temper yourself. Here you could make of yourself a True God. And even more.”
Zane blinked. Those other images were still floating through his head. Of those stars, and the powers churning within….
“But access to these things, I can offer without much cost,” said Noughtfire. “There are certain rare resources which are very valuable even for me—one-of-a-kind. And I offer these to you too—should you prove yourself worthy of them.”
He took out a gold-tipped scroll.
“I offer you this list of bonus incentives.”