Lightning, Inspiration

"What should I do? What should I do? Ugh! What am I gonna do?!" An old cultivator paced back and forth in an extensive office. He was tall, wore a fancy suit, and had silver hair. He was a Human, and after seeing the images from security in his office, he became profoundly afraid. He recognized those people entering the central building, especially the well-acclaimed royal princess! He was at the Neutrality realm 8th stage, and just as he continued walking back and forth, the door to his office finally opened.

Creaaak~. Heian Ciemnosc walked in with the Blauw Empire’s royal princess, walking side by side with him with her back straight and her nose high up. Heian Ciemnosc stopped before the paralyzed man, whose cultivation base was equal to Ishikyy’s, and politely smiled before extending his left pale hand. Like a demon’s apparition suddenly trying to contact him, the old cultivator looked at this development with completely widened eyes.

“... When I heard about a place far away from the busiest zone in the south, where a bunch of rebellious leading figures among the settlements reunited and started questioning the Blauw Empire’s actions and plans for the future, I would have never come to this mediocre town so far from the Palace and where the trouble is. Thank you, mayor. Very thoughtful.” Heian Ciemnosc said as soon as the mayor clasped his hand with his.

The mayor became paralyzed again, but only for a few seconds this time. Afterwards, he looked up at Heian Ciemnosc, immediately knowing he could not even use words to play around against such an eminent figure. The mayor watched Heian Ciemnosc’s polite expression but suddenly noticed the royal princess looking around his office, and various ideas formed in his mind. The mayor’s eyes flashed continuously, facing away from Heian Ciemnosc, thinking he didn’t notice.

“Royal princess, it’s an honor- ah! Assigned supervisor, you too! It is also an honor for this little mayor to know you. You are this Empire’s precious pillars, truly a commendable feat, uh… for letting me have you here, in my office. Heheh.” The mayor walked towards Ishikyy, stopping a couple steps before her and attracting her eyes. She looked at the old cultivator with indifference and as if she had no thoughts in that little head of hers.

“Ahem, royal princess, you’ve grown! Ah. I’m sure you’ve always been curious about the inland territory. You can come here whenever you want to take a look, and I will arrange things for you. Have you tasted the traditional southern dishes? It would’ve been ‘True Dragon House’ territorial cuisine or the Nation’s. Haha. But with your Empire’s liberation, we can reunite our Region’s culture more easily and without factions, hahaha…” The mayor said, engaging in a cheerful, encouraging mood with Ishikyy. Or at least trying to.

“...” Nevertheless, Ishikyy looked at the mayor, who lowered his stance, bent his back, and semi-nodded while chatting her up. Her brightest, cutest eyes didn’t show the slightest pitying trace as she looked down at him, as her chin was still slightly raised. The mayor understood the lack of response from the royal princess as his clasped hands rubbed off on each other, trying to find a way out.

‘Should I? No! This black monster would catch me as soon as I moved… but he’s not well-versed in speed, right? I could still grab the royal princess hostage. That would be enough for me to live!’ The mayor thought as Ishikyy didn’t depart her eyes from him. No shit. After going through war and commanding her people to die and kill, how could such a measly thing as a hidden face-off with an older generation mean anything to her?

“Alright, you know what. Let’s do it this way. No need for ‘righteous’ words or meaning in the leadership role,” Heian Ciemnosc said. His words and voice woke the mayor up, and he suddenly felt like the air around him was all under the jurisdiction of not nature… but something else. The mayor’s eyes widened again, and he slowly turned his head and looked up again to stare at the pervertedly handsome, pale face with slight terror increasing in his eyes.

“My apprentice here has seen a lot on her time during the war. She can easily detect things others don’t, as do her equals in the army. And all 3 of us here know one of us is a leader to the small forces threatening the ordinary lives of civilians with the prospect that the Blauw Empire is now giving them unprecedented attention in the entire history of the Far East Region… outside the Blauw Empire in the past, of course.”

“...” Heian Ciemnosc spoke with a slight exposition, which left the mayor feeling strange as he knitted his eyebrows, wrinkling the sides of his forehead. Heian Ciemnosc continued, however, and gave the mayor no time to utter a noise. “My apprentice here has just broken into the 8th stage, too. We can resolve this quickly, so why don’t you both spar a little? The mayor will be given a chance if he wins, but if my apprentice wins, I do as I please.”

“... Is this… authentic?” The mayor asked after gulping, taking his sweet time to consider the possibilities. Heian Ciemnosc nodded and said, “It’s only fair. Besides, strength has to be well represented— and by the right people. It can no longer be so anonymous and unhelpful.”

The mayor heard Heian Ciemnosc’s flowery words and couldn’t help but find his claims understandable. Inevitably, the mayor nodded, and Heian Ciemnosc waved his right arm as if to clean up everything before him. The office’s furniture moved away, along with the mantles and carpet. The air was also swept to the sides. The mayor couldn’t help feeling immensely dumbfounded by the precision the black monster showed.

“There. Now, you can fight. Go on. There are many things we ought to do,” Heian Ciemnosc said as he floated backwards and sat cross-legged in the air. Ishikyy watched her teacher’s stance and nodded at him, showing him she knew what to do. She stepped forwards and stood just 10 meters before the mayor, whose face remained polite and looked at her as if he would go easy on her. Ishikyy kept her indifferent expression when, suddenly, the mayor dashed madly forth!

Whoosh! Tap, tap, ta- Whoosh! Pshift- tliiiing~~... Ckrsheeeeeerrrrr! Grab! Thud, thud, thud!

The mayor’s eyes fiercely looked at the royal princess’s ‘unsuspecting’ face as he employed all his Neutral Energy in his movements. His body rushed past, about to start flying, as his feet left the floor. Only a couple millimeters before he gained a massive speed boost and soared in the air to capture her. However, Ishikyy didn’t even blink, nor did her eyes fidgeted. She impulsed her body forward, her azure tail already covered with scales, coming out of her uniform from the rear. Her left hand became an azure claw with 5 sharp, smallish individual claws.

However, her right hand extended outwards to the side, and her left azure claw rested at her side. Nevertheless, she had already stopped in her previous actions while the mayor continued forwards, finally taking to the air, but in the middle of meeting with an abundant source of Water element bodies. Ishikyy’s Neutral Energy and Water manipulation painted a canvas in the air with her right palm softly open, touching the air beside her.

The mayor’s body was less than 70% complete after initially rushing into Ishikyy’s Art technique, but his body continued diving into it, and only one outcome could come out of it. It was an astounding frame, one only the townsfolk looking at the screens in the streets could witness, leaving them baffled, curious, suspicious, and a little afraid. It was not new that their mayor was shady, but to think he would die today just like that… It made them fear for their safety.

Splassshhh~! While the mayor’s blood splurted everywhere on a wall from his office, the Water Art technique Ishikyy employed extended to her rear. Her azure tail ‘grew’ a couple meters but was only enhanced and covered by the Water element as she swung it. It suddenly stabbed the mayor’s body from the side as it was becoming destroyed by her Water Art technique, from the side that wasn’t being destroyed still.

“AAAAAH!” The mayor’s body was pulled backwards, and Ishikyy’s tail rose in the air, holding onto the body it impaled in a reverse ‘U’ shape. The mayor’s left side was only flesh and blood as his arm was gone, and part of his ribs were obliterated in the previous process. The tail was ruthless as it started slamming the mayor’s body up and down on the floor. The floor cracked, and organs spilled out on it with every slam, morbidly keeping the civilians in the tow watching, unable to look away.

The mayor’s body slowly lost more and more parts of his body as the tail kept slamming him squarely on the face, torso, and legs. Not even a minute later, with Ishikyy crossing her arms before her nonexistent breasts, the mayor’s life was taken, and his limbless torso, battered and horrifyingly bloody, remained on the floor as his face was stiff. She stopped and looked at the side before stepping out of the camera’s angle way.

Step, step, step… Heian Ciemnosc stepped into the scene and showed his appearance to everyone. Some civilians recognized as the fella with a lovely wife, walking through the streets just a couple or several more hours ago. He looked at the camera and preached. His pale red lips started moving under the spectator’s insecure eyes.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“This was your mayor. A cultivator in the Blauw Empire’s territory who handled matters in this town worse than mediocre. And whose other identity was the leader of a group within the Empire’s domain that threatened its security. As you might have seen before, this person wasn’t denying those claims. And he even dared spar with the royal princess despite the implications of his situation and a possible way out.”

“There’s one thing he said and was wrong about: the Blauw Empire’s war against the top 5 organizations wasn’t a liberation, but a conquest. The Blauw Empire has become the sole ruler of the Region. Anyone trying to diminish the Empire’s forces or harming it from the inside, belonging to the empire, will be punished accordingly! You were given enough time to learn these changes. If you don’t learn anything by the end of the year, you will be taken away into another zone in the Empire’s territory.”

“From now on, an Imperial Elder will take the lead on this town. All the troubles you’ve faced but didn’t dare or couldn’t voice out will now be heard. The cultivators forced to join this town’s militia are freed from any fake duty but can choose to enter the Empire’s military college registration next month. This isn’t a message only for this town, and these benefits are not solely thought for this town.”

“Some of you might not even know, and that’s on you. But the Empire’s people are the Empire’s heart. Every single one of you might attempt to take a spot in the Empire’s army, one way or another, cultivator or not! If you decide not to listen to this advice, fine. But if you refuse to behave like a sentient being, you will face the worst punishment: banishment!” Heian Ciemnosc said, clearing any doubts or questions the townsfolk might have.

“The Empire won’t let settlements like these hinder the Far East Region’s inland territory reformation. Anyone trying to sabotage, humiliate, or block this process will be killed off without any sort of trial or questioning. Everything is changing for this Region, the birth of the only Warlord organization in the world, of its rise to prominence.” Heian Ciemnosc said before pausing, and then, he said something they had wanted to hear for so long.

“... Starting with this useless central building.” Then, the screens went black as dozens of helicopters flew over from the distance. They were in formation but weren’t attacking nor rapidly flying over. As they came nearer, their altitude descended, and the townsfolk could see hundreds of Imperial Guards moving towards the central building, evacuating anyone near it, and starting to form a blockade 100 meters around it. Then, after leaving 500 Imperial Guards on the ground, the helicopters rose into the sky and headed towards the central building.

Heian Ciemnosc and Ishikyy walked out of the central building’s empty zone, where the guards’ corpses were still littering the ground, and went past the Imperial Guards as they bowed and kneeled to Heian Ciemnosc and the royal princess, respectively. The townsfolk watched them walk among the Imperial Guards, treated with the utmost respect and escorted to a parking lot half a kilometer away.

And by the time they were moving towards an old but long car, rusty and with the previous vehicles parked beside it moved a few spots away, the Empire’s helicopters opened fire on the central building. Dozens of missiles flew, one per helicopter, as the artillery gun from each heavy type bombarded it nonstop. Heian Ciemnosc and Ishikyy stopped before the car in a horrible state and looked back at the fireworks with the sudden cluster of flames formed in the middle.

Pfiuh, pfiuh, pfiuh, pfiuh, pfiuh, pfiuh, pfiuh, pfiuh, pfiuh, pfiuh, pfiuh, pfiuh…! Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum! Pum!...

The town was suddenly enveloped by the incessant fire of the helicopters, but it started suddenly and finished rapidly. The helicopters emptied a round at the town’s central building and empty space before retreating and taking flight to the northeast. Meanwhile, the townsfolk didn’t know what to think. The peak around here was around the Conflagrate realm, so they didn’t know the extensiveness of a Second Step cultivator’s power levels. Not even Heian Ciemnosc had seen it himself and only heard from word of mouth.

All Heian Ciemnosc knew about a Second Step cultivator at the peak was that they could do what those dozens of helicopters, but without needing to spend even a tenth of their Neutral Energy storage. Nevertheless, as the town became dumbfounded, he sent a wisp of his Spirit Sense into his medallion, and the ‘rusty car’ became a smallish speeding vehicle. It looked like the Ornament but was too small, with only 4 seats, one behind the other and on a higher step on the last seat.

Heian Ciemnosc sat at the top, at the rear, and helped Ishikyy at the front. The commands for piloting the speeding vehicle were projected from below as he took them, closed the cabin, and zoomed in the distance.

… The incident with that town’s mayor and its ‘forces’ consisting of civilians, not even citizens, didn’t become a big deal, and it only affected the Far East Region. It slowly spread outside the Blackotia Kingdom, but when it did, it was ignored. Such a thing was too unimportant, especially to those from other Existences. On the other hand, Heian Ciemnosc brought Ishikyy to the sea to practice something else… something new… The probability of her innate affinity with the Lightning element!

Instead of taking something fancy, or at least a decent ship, Heian Ciemnosc rapidly created a boat and boarded it with Ishikyy. She never complained. The boat had a typical wooden color from the most ordinary forests and was about 5 meters long and 2 meters wide. It wasn’t tall and was just for a few people to board at most. They passed through patrols and Flotillas, moving towards their training regimen zones, getting greeted and bowed at respectfully as they went.

After a couple hours of meditation, Heian Ciemnosc stopped Ishikyy as she crossed her legs and clasped her hands in the Heian Ciemnosc way by grabbing her left wrist and shaking it. She opened her brightest, cutest eyes, and looked at her personal Imperial Teacher. “What is it?”

“It’s time, the weather is good.” Heian Ciemnosc sat on the stern of the boat and lazily rested his back as he said. Ishikyy nodded and stood up. Her eyes were excited. She didn’t know what it would be like to attempt learning the Lightning element, but if it was remotely similar to the Water element, then she would enjoy it. Ishikyy looked at the sky and listening to Heian Ciemnosc’s words, followed his instructions and calmed her inner being to be as still as the waters and the sky. Not the water itself but its movements and correlation to the clouds above them.

And not the sky in the sense of everything that’s not the ground, and only the air or the wind, but the eerie calmness and simple non-existence of the flora that would be below, either on soil or underwater. Fauna also didn’t give birth in the sky, unlike anything below. In this way, between the most unforgettable, unmistakable, and undeniable levels of every Kingdom— the earth, ocean, and sky. The latter was unique and unfathomable.

It didn’t matter that space was so easy to traverse nowadays as long as one became a Second Step organization, at the very least. The sky was always, one way or another, the same in every place of this world. Even rare regions within space contained clouds and traces of the sky, just as it had bodies of water, gas, and raw Elements in synchrony with the Elemental poisoning.

“...” Ishikyy’s head faced the sky. Her eyelids were tranquil and closed as she felt like her face was becoming wet with several droplets from rain that didn’t exist. Even though she could swear the sensation was real, and her skin was indeed sinking with every water dropping on it, she knew it was nothing but an illusion, yet not an illusion at the same time. Heian Ciemnosc looked as she instinctively lifted her right hand.

Zzzzz…

“...” Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes looked up at the sky, and it seemed like he heard not just thunder coming to be among the clouds, but that it was aiming towards them… As if locking their general position. However, it felt much different from the heavenly tribulations he had faced, or anyone would, for that matter. At that moment, Ishikyy smiled, feeling content with the fake rain that her aura started surging on its own. Water particles surrounded her body, touching her, but never incorporating into her body, simply passing by and caressing her body to form a flowery image before Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes.

“Call it,” Heian Ciemnosc’s whispering voice could barely be heard, but it was like a stern reminder to Ishikyy. She opened her eyes, and those eyes flashed quickly with an intense glow, more severe than ever before, as she also looked at the sky. Suddenly, her eyes reflected a lightning bolt. It seemed so long and blue. However, it was very tiny when she looked up at it, and as it disappeared, her Water elemental aura surged a little more upwards.

“!...” Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes suddenly shrank their contents, and he held his body with his pale palms on the sides where he sat. Ishikyy’s Water aura surged as more and more thunder zapped and moved within the clouds. It was as if Ishikyy was driving those bolts towards her, and her Water aura consumed some of their presence from a far distance down below. Suddenly, Heian Ciemnosc felt his heart clench as he watched a lightning bolt, barely a few inches wide, endlessly long, rush towards Ishikyy.

His darkest eyes were glued to that thing, and despite its speed being far above what he could react to, he followed it with his stare without missing a beat. On the other hand, Ishikyy couldn’t do the same, but she was right below the lightning bolt crashing down on her. All she had to do was look up to not lose sight of it. Her right hand remained up, but her left hand instinctively raised next. Her fingers softly and elegantly separated as they moved up and down like ocean waves.

Kaaaaaa~... chaaaaa…~.

The lightning bolt descended towards her. It was tiny, but it continued to decrease its size as it crashed down, virtually dissipating just before reaching the tip of her index finger, which was coincidentally the highest from the other 4, with the rest either following after or fluctuating further down. The blue lightning dissipated just 3 meters above her, yet, her left index finger suddenly zapped, and a whitish-blue sparkle blinked on her yolk.

ZZZZZZZZZZ~!

Suddenly, the royal princess’s body was covered with waves and waves of blue lightning around her body, fluctuating and taking the shapes of waves, like the ocean. She was a little goddess of Lightning.

…