“Don’t give me that look. How was I supposed to know it would retain that much expertise from its floor of origin? I thought it’d be downgraded appropriately along with its rank when it was imported!” Karrenne argued feebly.
Theora’s dantian openly roiled with malice–her rage thickening the very air–but she refused to try and smother it for appearance’s sake. Not this time. She was still reeling from witnessing the disastrous encounter with the projectionist, and was only grateful she’d had the presence of mind to speed back up the time dilation in this chamber to synchronize with the scenario. Without her quick action, it may have already been too late to help Samantha.
Sensing Theora wasn’t convinced this outcome wasn’t intentional, Karrenne continued, “I’ve imported hundreds of constructs from higher-floor rifts and it’s never caused this kind of issue! I admit, I’ve never imported a projectionist to a floor this low before… but even you didn’t consider this possibility. Is it truly my fault? Really, I don’t believe either of us are to blame for this… this…” she paused, searching for the right word, “...edge case.”
When Theora finally spoke, her voice shook the observation room, “So you’ve condemned my most promising candidate out of ignorance?”
“This can still be remedied.” Karrenne claimed, “We can fix this.”
“WE?” Theora snarled, “I will fix this. You will do nothing.”
Karrenne let out an exasperated sigh, “I understand that you want to help her, but treating me like the enemy isn’t helpful. I also want to help her!”
The air grew even heavier as Theora came dangerously close to violence. “Haven’t you done enough? Two. Two scenarios was all it took for you to ruin everything.”
“Despite what you may think of me, I was trying to teach and challenge her–not destroy her. She needed to face an opponent with a matching skillset to–”
Theora cut her off, “Enough. No matter your intentions or excuses, the fact remains the same.”
Karrenne let out a huff, “Fine! Let’s just move on to solutions then. There’s really only two things we can do at this point. Either we let the situation play out and accept that the girl’s spirit may remain trapped in the rift… or we can enact one of the emergency protocols to reunite her soul and body ourselves.”
Theora let out a disbelieving laugh, “Are you insane? As soon as we directly intervene in a scenario like that she’ll get immediately ejected from the rift and into the waiting jaws of an Ancient Cliff Drake.”
“And then she could be properly reincarnated! That’s preferable to the current situation, isn’t it?”
Theora shook her head, completely floored by the nonsense Karrenne was spewing.
Karrenne scowled at her, “Am I wrong? As it stands now, once the quest’s time limit elapses and she fails, the rift will recognize her as slain and deposit her body outside. Except this time when the drake eats her, all memories of her current life will be lost and it will be like she never existed to the wheel. True death. Well, it will be true death after someone goes to put the poor shade out of its misery.”
“Oh, I see now.” Theora said cooly, her fiery anger instantly growing icy, “You want to leave her to die and kill her shade to cover up your incompetence. Are you afraid that this latest failure will finally see you reassigned?”
Karrenne’s nostrils flared, “Blame me all you want, but at the end of the day this is on your head. I only made suggestions. You’re the one who implemented them and had final say.”
The air grew very still as Theora focused intently upon the woman, and Karrenne seemed to wilt slightly under her stare, “You know what? This is partially my fault. You’ve let your pathetic, petty jealousy and insecurity rule your life, and I see now that I was equally pathetic to let that impact how I lived mine. Leave. Now.”
“I beg your pardon? I am still your Observant, and I’m not going anywhere.” Karrenne drew herself up, indignant, “You and I both know that you don’t want it on the record that you refused to comply with my investigation. So, enough bluster and threats. We’ll decide a path forward and–”
Theora slammed Karrenne’s fragment against the opposite wall by the throat, “Go ahead and record my insubordination. When I am brought before the board and questioned about it, I will tell them exactly what happened here. Do we understand each other?”
Contrary to Theora’s expectations, Karrenne let out the most delighted, joyful laugh that Theora had ever heard from the woman. Theora was suddenly convinced Karrenne had truly lost her mind.
“You think you can intimidate me? You think bullying my fragment means anything? You forget yourself. The moment this fragment is destroyed I will reunite my consciousness, drag the real you out of your seat by the hair, and show you what true strength is.”
Glowing sigils of every color were birthed into existence around Theora as she began weaving an art that would not only destroy this fragment of Karrenne, but would cause such painful, intense mental backlash to her that she would be out of commission for at least a few real-world minutes.
Karrenne’s eyes widened, “You wouldn’t dare.”
“I changed my mind. I think you should stay just a bit longer.”
Karrenne struggled to free herself from Theora’s uncompromising chokehold as the art finished forming. Given that even a majority of Karrenne’s consciousness was still weaker than a small fragment of Theora’s, such efforts were futile.
The air vibrated with potency as Karrenne’s fragment began to scream in agony. Her skin cracked like parched earth, and fiery light shone through the gaps like lava flow. Theora’s eyes turned pitch black, her gaze casting an inexplicable darkness over everything in front of her.
“You’re the one who’s forgotten yourself. Your kind of strength means nothing here, and I hope you get sent back to the front lines where you belong.”
Gathering the destructive energy of her art into a command, Theora spoke her will into reality.
“Begone.”
Karrenne's fragment was utterly obliterated, exploding outwards into shards of shattered qi. Instead of letting the energy be absorbed by the world spire, the second stage of her art activated. Then, she spoke her will into reality once again.
“Construct.”
The shards gathered and compressed into a small ball of intensely bright qi. Theora molded and shaped the energy into something that she hoped could remedy the dire situation that Samantha found herself in. Though Theora was no expert with constructs and her creation would be rather crude, if it did what she needed it to then none of that mattered.
Inserting a custom-made construct into a rift scenario was technically allowed, though exploiting this loophole was both unusual and frowned upon. Because representatives were already given permissions to influence the constructs generated by the scenario or add additional ones, it wasn’t usually viewed as direct interference. Theora hoped this would remain the case even though this construct would be wholly spiritual.
Theora had been hesitant to add in a fully-fledged projectionist into this scenario, but she’d let Karrenne intimidate her into compliance. She’d thought Samantha would still have a fair shot at success because her qi pool was more than twice what the projectionist possessed–which should’ve given her a significant advantage against him–but hadn’t been aware of all the factors that would come into play. Neither of them had.
Projectionist constructs usually didn’t start appearing in rifts until the 3rd or 4th floor when most ascendants had been given the chance to gain sufficient exposure to the ability. Theora had to specially request a lower-powered instance of the construct for this scenario, but she failed to consider how vastly different its knowledge pool would be from a true 2nd floor projectionist. It expertly manipulated Samantha into wasting significant energy in the beginning of the fight while simultaneously sapping her strength, but not so much that she would notice right away. It was even able to continue sapping her energy as they actively fought–which typically required significant training and the ability to segment concentration.
In any other low-rank spiritual fight, the two projectionists would beat each other into submission but not outright kill each other. A projectionist may come out of the fight with minor spiritual damage or backlash from the encounter and it would hinder them until they had recovered, but it wouldn’t leave permanent damage. This was the outcome Theora had been anticipating. For a construct to aim for severing Samantha’s soul cord before she’d even learned basic techniques for how to escape an anchor hold…? Any sane representative would agree it’s much too harsh for a 2nd floor rift scenario.
As unfair as this type of death was, it could be argued that such a thing is not an impossible occurrence, and thus it is a valid outcome. The thing that Theora really couldn’t stand for was how it impacted Samantha because of her Rebirth Core. The construct had been correct that most people immediately die when their soul cord breaks. However, with the Rebirth Core, Samantha’s body was dying and resurrecting so quickly that it prevented her soul from properly being given the opportunity to reincarnate. This automatically put her on the path to becoming a shade, a disembodied soul with an insatiable hunger for qi due to being detached from its cultivation base. In the world spire, the few souls that refuse to return to the wheel can feed on other spirits, founts, or can subsist on ambient qi to avoid devolving into a shade. In a rift scenario that is devoid of all those things by design, Samantha had no means to stave off losing her humanity and would quickly deteriorate. It wouldn’t be long before she was turned into a mindless, malicious spirit.
Theora rejected that future.
The construct she formed finished taking shape–a white raven–and she imbued it with the instructions on how to proceed. Then, she opened a small path leading into the rift scenario and the raven flew through. In moments it should reach Samantha, and Theora only prayed that this worked as she planned. It would still be largely up to Samantha to get herself out of this situation, but the construct at least gave her a fighting chance at success. If this didn’t work, Theora wouldn’t hesitate to activate the emergency protocol and take matters into her own hands. Even if Samantha died as a result of her interference, it was an infinitely kinder fate than life as a shade.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
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Samantha screamed. Whether it was from pain, frustration, despair, or rage she couldn’t say. All she knew was that she was starving. She was dying from hunger and there was no food anywhere.
She’d flown everywhere! Searched everywhere! There were no other projections she could consume and she was unable to eat the constructs that she’d found. It infuriated her that these artificial beings were utterly inedible. Even when she’d coated her fangs with [Piercing Strike], there was no relief from sinking her teeth into them. It was like they were devoid of a soul! And, perhaps, they were… or maybe she just couldn’t penetrate their defenses.
She didn’t have many attempts left. Each time she cast her art to feed, it fed from her in turn. Fractured as she already was, wasting her efforts would only see her destroyed, not sated.
As she let out another mournful wail, a bright flash of light from the North immediately caught her attention. It shone like the sun, and, curiously, the light it cast on her was tantalizing. She just knew its source would be a meal most divine. It flew Eastward, and she gave chase before contemplating what the odd new arrival could be. She followed it for miles and miles, excited by how she could practically taste its essence on the breeze.
This. This is what will sate me. Once I’m full I can… I can… what did I want to do afterwards, again?
Getting closer, she realized that the tasty creature was some sort of white bird. Its spirit was so potent that it was blinding at this distance, but that didn’t deter her in the slightest. If anything, it encouraged her to fly faster. Yet, no matter how fast she pursued it, it always stayed just out of her reach. It wasn’t until it went into some building that it finally stopped, but she didn’t question her good fortune. She threw herself on top of the bird and snatched it. She showed no hesitation or mercy as she activated [Piercing Strike] one last time and bit into it. She’d expected it to resist somewhat, but it only rested placidly in her grip as she slowly consumed it.
The bird’s qi was so dense that it felt sort of like biting into a rock–the most delectable rock that Samantha had ever tasted. Each flake of energy she was able to break off was more satisfying than consuming the entire projectionist had been. The bottomless void of her hunger seemed to be slightly less-so with each bite. It was complete bliss, and she gladly lost herself within it.
After what could have been several minutes, hours, or days, the last piece of the bird was thoroughly devoured. Samantha threw back her head with a laugh, feeling both over-full and impossibly light and free. The gnawing hunger was gone! How long had she been searching for a suitable meal? How long had it been since she knew contentment? She searched her recent memory, but everything was a blur. Going back further she recalled a time when she was eating cubed steak by a small fire. When she had enough food that she could even share with Silas.
Silas?
All at once Samantha regained her senses. Panic overtook her as the gravity of her situation settled on her. She had no idea what had just happened to her or what that bird was, but she wasn’t going to waste a second longer thinking about it. She needed to get back to her body right now. She looked around and realized that she was in the exact same warehouse that she had started the scenario in.
Perfect, I can retrace our steps from here.
Flying out in the direction she’d traveled originally, she followed the path she’d taken through the woods. Due to her near-perfect memory, making her way back to the camp she’d set up was no trouble. Arriving at the site, there wasn’t much sign that she’d settled here. There were, however, multiple sets of footprints–both human and animal–leading off in one direction. It seemed that while Tobias and Silas had been careful not to leave signs of their passage behind, their pursuers had no such qualms.
Deciding to follow the easily visible tracks and the wide path of pushed-aside foliage, it didn’t take long for her to stumble across the group. They were actively chasing after something.
“It went that way!”
“Follow it!”
“Search the area! It wouldn’t be so aggressive if its master wasn’t hidden nearby. The crates have got to be around here somewhere!”
Multiple people yelled over each other, and the occasional howl or bark added to the chaos. And, beneath the noise, there was something else. A humming? Vibration?
She suspected that Silas was distracting this group, but something told her that she should follow whatever that mysterious low, buzzing sound was. It was difficult to pinpoint, but she could tell when she was getting closer or farther away by how intense the hum got.
After several minutes of searching around, she found the place where the vibration was so loud that it felt like it shook her very spirit. She expected to find her body lying somewhere nearby, but the only thing of note in the area was a small section of freshly packed dirt. Hovering over the spot, she got the sensation that she was being pulled downwards into the earth.
Oh Silas, you didn’t…
Trusting in her gut feeling to give herself over to the sensation, she allowed her spirit to be pulled downward beneath the dirt. It felt similar to sinking her entire body into a warm tub of water after a long, hard day of work. Soothing. Relaxing. Right. She closed her spiritual eyes and let herself be immersed in the feeling for a moment.
The deeper she sunk into the feeling, the clearer a mental image became. In her mind’s eye she swore she could see two halves of a broken thread blown by an unseen breeze. She reached out to reconnect them, but couldn’t figure a way to smoothly rejoin the two ends. Eventually, she had to settle for a basic knot.
The calm ‘rightness’ instantly vanished as she found herself pressed on all sides in complete darkness. She was cold, damp, and unable to breathe. Pressing out with all of her might, whatever held her exploded outward and light filtered in from above. She sat up, and spat out a mouthful of dirt. She blindly groped around as she crawled out of the hole she’d been buried in and blew the loose debris out of her nose.
Love and warmth flooded her binding thread as Silas greeted her, “You’re back! I knew you’d come back!”
Samantha sent her own feelings of relief and joy to Silas, “I’m sorry for worrying you. I’ll explain everything later. Are you okay?”
“Tired, mostly. Much better now that you’re here, though! Can you help me? Tobias helped with some of the ones chasing us, but then he left. I’ve been keeping them busy by myself, but there’s too many for just me.”
“Yeah, I’m coming. Just let me…” she trailed off as she found what she was looking for. Her spear had been buried beside her, so she fished it out of the hole and started running in the general direction of Silas’s qi signature. “On my way!”
“I did good, right? I protected you!” Silas asked happily.
“I mean, I didn’t expect to wake up in a shallow grave… but yes! You did great.” she praised.
“Not a grave! A burrow!” he protested.
“Right.” She was unconvinced, but easily agreed. Just because it looked and felt exactly like a grave didn’t necessarily mean it was one, she supposed.
It didn’t take long to find where the group had ‘cornered’ her companion, although in reality they were the ones that were in danger. The five bandits were a mix of Coppers from Low to Peak, and each was bonded to some hound-like spirit beast. Silas had made a show of looking hurt to tempt them into a chase, but Samantha could tell he could fly off and escape if he really needed to. Now that she was here they could hopefully wrap things up quickly and Silas could get some proper rest. He’d definitely earned it.
Once she’d identified who was the highest ranked cultivator–and thus was most likely to have useful information–she coordinated a two-pronged attack with Silas to start picking enemies off. Her qi pool had fully replenished while she was disembodied, so she struck out with her full strength in the interest of ending the fight quickly and encouraged Silas to do the same.
Using [Translucence] and [Cloud Step] to sneak up behind the unsuspecting enemies, she prepared her first attack with [Piercing Strike] and [High Speed Strike]. Aiming for the High Copper’s heart, she ruthlessly plunged the weapon through his back and out the front of his chest, then whipped her spear to the side to fling his corpse into the unsuspecting Mid Copper beside him. Simultaneously, Silas used [Leap] to quickly gain altitude and began flying higher to make use of [High Speed Dive]. Coating her right leg with [Piercing Strike] and [High Speed Strike] this time, she activated [Flurry] and lashed out at the nearest spirit beasts, breaking the bones and rupturing the organs of three of them before the ability duration ended. The subsequent groans and pained looks from their bonded cultivators told her that all three had been killed.
The three cultivators still standing–now fully aware of her presence–turned to face her as the Mid Copper worked to disentangle himself from the body and stand. As they rushed her, she activated her sphere of perception to get a better picture of the battlefield, and noticed one hound had gotten too close to her in the chaos. She winced as it latched onto her calf, but luckily the spirit beast’s bite was less formidable than her armored robes. Though the sharp pressure from its teeth was painful it wouldn’t do more than bruise provided it didn’t activate some ability.
Realizing one of their beasts grabbed ahold of her, the three cultivators launched an attack in hopes of overcoming her higher tier with numbers. Debating on how to best deal with the group as her enhanced perception slowed their movements to a crawl, she sensed Silas quickly descending towards her. And, she did mean quickly. Even with the rest of the world moving at a snail’s pace, Silas’s dive seemed to be normal speed, which meant his true speed must’ve been truly frightful to behold.
In moments he crashed into the spirit beast holding her, the combination of force and his fully formed antler rack shredding it to pieces. The impact Silas made with the ground left a small crater in the earth, but he seemed neither disoriented nor harmed by the sudden stop. In fact, he was already in the process of turning his head towards the onrushing enemies and growing a large horn for an [Antler Shot].
She directed him to shoot the left-most cultivator–the Low Copper–with the antler shot as she took on another Mid-Copper on the right. Increasing her speed to its approximate maximum of 46 with [Swift] and prepping her attack with [High Speed Strike] and [Piercing Strike] once more, she launched herself forward and closed the distance in moments. Her spear traveled at such velocity that the Mid-Copper was completely unable to react to it, and was slain before he’d even had a chance to swing his weapon at her in turn.
The Peak Copper in the center was taking advantage of her split attention as best he could and was swinging his sword down towards her head. Activating her enchanted bracer, the small buckler sprung outwards and hardened just in time to deflect the blow off to the side. His momentum at this point had brought him too close to effectively kick or spear him, so she did the next best thing. Releasing her grip on the spear that was still trapped in the Mid Copper’s chest, she sped up her arm with [High Speed Strike] and delivered an elbow attack to his jaw in an attempt to knock him unconscious.
With a loud crack his jaw broke, his head jerked to the side, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he unceremoniously flopped to the ground in a heap. The strain from keeping up her sphere of perception was starting to take a toll, but she felt safe enough to deactivate it now that only two enemy cultivators remained.
As the world sped back up, a spear of bone plunged through the eye socket and out the back of the head of the Low Copper, killing them immediately.
Make that one remaining.
By this point, the Mid Copper she’d thrown a corpse at during the start of the fight realized how outmatched his group was compared to her and Silas. He’d entered a full retreat with the last surviving spirit beast, but wasn’t too far off yet to catch up to and kill. She considered chasing him down, but had a better idea.
“Silas, could you discreetly follow them? I suspect they might lead us back to their main camp. I can finish up here.”
To her surprise, Silas didn’t immediately agree to her request. Before she got a chance to ask about the feelings of discomfort and uncertainty coming through their bond, he volunteered the information himself, “Are you sure we can’t stay together? You just got back. What if something bad happens again?”
Her heart ached at the obvious concern, and now that the hectic rush was finally calming down she could admit that she had her own reservations about splitting up again so soon. The experience of having her soul cord severed and everything that came along with that–Samantha shuddered at recalling it–was traumatizing to say the least. Maybe it wasn’t so bad to keep Silas a little closer for a bit.
“You’re right. We still have this one here anyways.” she said, gesturing to the unconscious Peak Copper, “But we shouldn’t just leave them alone either…”
“Oh, I can take care of that!” Silas chirped happily, flying off in the direction the enemies had fled. “Be back soon!”
She smiled at her vicious little friend, glad to be able to speak with him again. She hadn’t realized how comforting she found their continuous connection until it was gone.
As Silas hunted down the last of their foes, she reached down and touched the Peak Copper’s busted jaw before healing it with [Flawless Healing Touch] so that he’d be able to speak to her properly. Once he awoke, she had quite a few questions for him about his group’s activities. After she was finished questioning him, she could see about completing her deliveries and dealing with them.