It was his first time watching someone Bind a kami.
Tanya and Olfric had run him ragged through the entire Shikigami ritual back when he had been an earnest student at Zuken’s place. With Inanna gone, and Lukas exclusively focussing on his own survival in an alien land, he had jumped at the chance of learning whatever knowledge he could gain with all the grace of a starved animal. By the time he was done with those texts in Zuken’s library, the books had at least six creases in them.
Naturally, none of them ended up making a lick of difference, since he ended up siphoning any and all kami the old way, but that's another story.
That said, this was probably the first time in the history of yokai that an Asukan, not to mention a former Clan heir, was performing a Shikigami Ritual in front of yokai-kind. Given the kind of crowd this had gathered, Lukas imagined that seeing a fellow spiritual creature be caged within the enemy kind’s soul garnered a morbid fascination similar to how the natives flocked to watch prisoners of war being subjected to the guillotine by the colonizing administrators in the late nineteenth century.
Olfric was standing in the center of the large circle that was mostly reserved for settling debacles through Trial by Combat. Not long ago, Lukas had been subjected to a similar trial against a kasha called Quonnan. He had vexed the fiery devil to the point of self-immolation, only to siphon it into himself, an act that cemented his position as the vaunted Outsider of Legend.
There would be no Trail today. Instead, Olfric was standing close to the periphery, with Elena next to him. Behind them was a barrier separating him from the yokai crowd outside the Circle.
“All this just for Kami Binding?” he asked.
“Not just a Kami Binding,” said Solana from beside. The two of them were standing on a balcony overlooking the Circle. Solana was an ancient skinwalker that had been there for at least six centuries, and still had enough vanity to make herself look like a young woman in her late twenties. She was the de-facto Leader of the yokai, and was more or less one giant bitch boss that acted like she was having a cramp every waking second, at least in Lukas’s company.
It was hard to blame her. After all, he shattered her six century old resolve to bits.
“The Shikigami Ritual always takes place at a Shrine, Outsider. Within a territory cursed by that Usurper’s Eternal Light, they drag a kami out, weaken it in every way that matters, and seal it within their soul, subjecting it to a lifetime of imprisonment.”
Pot, meet kettle, Lukas wanted to say. But irritating Solana would get him nowhere.
“But there is no Eternal Light here.”
Her teeth showed, and Lukas was suddenly reminded of how she looked beneath that flesh-mask.
“And here in the Desert, there is no Eternal Light,” he reasoned. “So Olfric has to face the kami at his own peril and subdue it.”
“Exactly.”
Okay, he was looking at this wrong. This wasn’t a crowd expecting a guillotine death. This was closer to the Romans sitting in the Colosseum watching gladiators thrown to lions.
Then he was struck by how at home he was by the same thing.
He really had made some bad choices in life.
“If Olfric subdues the kami, he demonstrates his fortitude and you know he’ll be a useful pawn. If he loses and the kami takes over, you’ll still have a useful pawn. Either way, you win.” He cocked his head. “And Tanya agreed with this?”
“She didn’t. The changeling did. So long as she was allowed to help that Asukan.”
Lukas narrowed his eyes in Elena’s direction. The changeling had always stuck out on his wierdometer, and while she was a capable psion, something about her abilities rubbed him the wrong way. Gathering anomalous energy within, he shaped it into a metaphysical lance and hurled it at Elena. It was a new trick he had learned, allowing him to exercise his Anomaly-functions outside his range, and Elena was the perfect guinea-pig to test it upon.
So color him surprised when instead of a Screen unfolding before his eyes with Elena’s details on it, he stiffened from having the oddest feeling in the back of his brain. It was almost like a kaleidoscope coming into focus, only the point never arrived and it kept spinning and spinning without ever giving the expected insight. Even more disturbing, Lukas realized, was the feeling of deja-vu, a certainty that he’d experienced this sensation before, though for the life of him, he couldn’t recall when.
Thankfully, something else happened right then to distract him. A large, stone coffin erupted from the ground, before dispersing into sand and falling off, revealing….
A demon.
Lukas hurled another mental lance, and the Screen flickered into existence.
JAAN (LEVEL-3)
Spiritual Parasite. 97% spiritual similarity with MARID species. Lack of Physical Body. Energy Core employs Water and Ether.
It was a serpent, there was no doubt about that much. But to call it a mere ‘snake’ was like calling a wolf just a ‘dog’ or tiger just a ‘cat’. Easily fifteen feet in length, its body as thick as an oak tree trunk, with a large draconian face, and protrusions erupting all over its body, all the way until its tail. It was a twisted combination of a snake and a porcupine, crafted out of water and held in place by ether.
To call it a mismatch would be a laughable understatement.
Every single motion was akin to the deadly beauty of a hawk in flight. Not as deadly as Meynte some of the other things he had faced recently, but certainly far, far more than Olfric could possibly face. In fact, he nearly died at the first strike.
Meanwhile, more information flooded into Lukas’s mind.
SKILL
LEVEL
Possession
2
Water Creation
3
Water Manipulation
1
Pressure Modulation
3
He arched an eyebrow. A kami that had a natural facility for Level-3 Pressure Modulation and Water Creation? Where was this gem hiding all this while?
His understanding of kami was that they were spiritual parasites, most of them limited to Level-1 or Level-2’s. More importantly, they did not gain any soul capacity, or Leveled-up, and hence, required a host to possess and use their soul capacity to do so. Asukans exploited this dependency to entrap them within their souls through the Shikigami Ritual and forced them to do their bidding.
And then from time to time, there came along some kami that were born at a higher-level.
Like the bylestyrs.
Or the Ifrit-King.
Also, something about this creature set him at edge. It was strong, but nothing he hadn’t faced or could crush without exerting himself. No, instead there was this feeling of nothingness that exuded from it. A numbing, empty void that seemed to make the world around it smaller with every pointless, meaningless, mechanical movement it cared nothing for.
It was hideous. Disgusting. A beast that had no intention to bond or grow. Just a butcher’s tool that wanted to cleave the object in front of it.
That would be Olfric.
“That thing is….” he began.
“You feel it, don’t you?” whispered Solana, and Lukas noticed a mad light in her eyes. “Its name is Uwabami, and it’s a true demon. One of the most dangerous beasts I’ve ever faced in my lifetime. It has devoured the lives of sixteen Asukans till date during the Shikigami ritual. I consider myself lucky to get my hands on it, before the soldiers of Baramunz could have killed it.”
“Why are you doing this?” asked Lukas flatly. “Olfric will die and Tanya will hate you for this.”
“Oh not necessarily,” whispered the skinwalker, her hungry eyes fixated on the former aquamancer. “I admit I was most vexed when the brat brought the Asukan and his pet changeling into my territory. But I’ve Seen what festers within him. Something tells me this will be no inane battle.”
Lukas would’ve disagreed, but seeing the former Asukan battle this monstrosity made him falter. Olfric was using the aqāru weapon Lukas had crafted for Tanya — a condensed band of the metal with a ‘memory’ function installed within it, allowing it to take the shape of whatever weapon the bearer could think of, and currently, it was in the form of a curved scythe connected to a cylindrical hilt on the other ending in a long chain that connected it to another weighted hilt on the other side.
Basically, one of those weapons with the ‘Don’t try this at home’ tag.
The scythe cut through the serpent’s liquid body with deceptive ease, only for the watery form to regrow back, while the monster tried its best to tear Olfric’s limbs apart, instead of trying to possess him and twist him into a mindless host.
“I’ve studied his soul,” said Solana with the air of a scientist discussing a lab rat that survived a particularly bad experiment. “A former aquamancer that one is, and houses the skills of his previous kami. Water Manipulation Level-3. Together, they could be great.”
“Together, they’d be a rabid dog I’ll have to put down on sheer principle,” said Lukas, scowling. “Even if Olfric somehow survives its onslaught, he cannot hope to control the kami without Eternal Light. And that beast doesn’t look like the kind to follow orders.”
As if his words had been a portent, Olfric slashed through the beast’s head, dispersing the portion into water, only for it to reforge itself back, this time into three of them.
“I suppose the two of them will just have to surprise us then,” said Solana.
Lukas frowned. He hated when he missed the subtext.
The three maws of the kami lashed out. Neither of them were alike, in one a dozen, smaller snapping jaws, in one the fing-lined pit of a lamprey, and in the third was a hundred, jagged, grasping finger-like things within. All they had in common was that each one was large enough to hold a man of Olfric’s size comfortably inside it before crushing him to sticky paste.
Olfric charged, ducking under the first head to strike at it and stabbing upward, dragging his weapon along its neck and splitting it open in a single, smooth motion, leaping back in midair, and swirling the weapon in a circle, slashing the second head off its neck. He landed lightly on one foot, and snapped the weapon behind him, letting the third maw impale itself head on. The beast drew back, shrieking in rage with such force that Lukas could feel his bones vibrating from the sound. It flailed its tail around, grabbed Olfric by a leg and slammed him down to the ground. The water condensed back, forming a singular head, which reared back, and Lukas prepared himself, ready to halt the beast before it hit the Asukan and….
Someone pushed and leapt between Olfric and the serpent and raised both arms up, as if to use her own body as a shield.
“Stop!” said Elena.
Lukas would’ve found it rather sweet if it weren’t the single stupidest thing he had ever seen in his life. For starters, the kami was just going to stomp through her, she was no shield at all. The incongruity of the situation nearly made him laugh out loud, if he wasn’t painfully aware that he needed to intervene at any moment, and the serpent maw was already descending…
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And stopping?
…What the hell? Thought Lukas. The serpent stopped in its tracks, its jaws halted roughly an inch away from Elena’s face.
“Don’t attack us,” Elena yelled. As if the monster was going to simply listen to her. “Stay! Don’t attack us! Just stay right there!”
To Lukas’s utter surprise, the serpent paused and stared at the changeling like she had grown a second head.
“What are you doing?” asked Olfric, pushing himself back up.
“Giving you time, you moron!” snapped Elena. “Prepare the Circle, quick.”
Lukas had to give the man points for not wasting time as he instantly pulled out a trinket, and released Eternal Light from within, channeling the Light to conjure a perfect Circle around the kami.
“I had almost forgotten,” said Lukas. “Olfric was an Onmyōji.”
Circles were a kind of screen or barrier, a way to trap spirits or make a shield or prevent something ethereal or even raw power from escaping. And then there were props to help improve focus, and sigils, runes or whatever you wanted to call the important-looking squiggles inscribed within the Circle to direct the power and make it work in predetermined ways.
For Lukas, who never had to deal with power limitations, it was all about enacting his will on the universe. For Olfric, it was also about finding the right amount of power to get the effect, no more no less. He was willing to hazard a guess that more experienced casters were able to estimate just how much power any given spell would need just from experience, taking the complexity of the different symbols, and being able to factor them together to figure out a precise end number.
Kind of like algebra, only algebra that might blow up if you don’t divide and then add in the right order.
The serpent hissed, and tried to escape the Circle, which was already constricting around him, while the crowd all around were getting agitated and howling at Olfric, no doubt his actions fueling their hatred for Asukans.
The Eternal Light unleashed was too little to subdue a monster like that, even with whatever strangeness Elena was enacting upon it. It would paint Olfric, and by extension, Tanya in a bad light, but…
But it was too simple.
The Solana he knew wouldn’t waste her time on something this inane. He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, and found her staring down with undivided attention.
What game are you playing?
A second circle manifested around Olfric, this one smaller and constricting around him. Lukas saw the familiar sigils of the pentagon take shape, the spiritual and elemental restraint materializing around him. The serpent hissed and screeched, but never once did it try to shatter the constraints or physically attack Elena who was standing between it and Olfric, glaring at it while shaking at the same time.
“You see it, don’t you?” whispered Solana. “That changeling. Her lifeforce is pitiful, she has no mana. And yet, she commands an ethereal form to obey her every command.”
“It’s not Olfric you were interested in seeing battle,” Lukas reasoned. “It’s her.”
Her teeth showed. “You’ve always suffered from tunnel vision, Outsider. Both of us can See beyond the physical. You tell me, what is going on?”
Curious, Lukas settled his stare on Olfric. The Screen listed him as boasting all the Skills that his previous kami — a Level-3 Marid had. Combining them with this beast would indeed make the two of them greater than the sum of their parts, but there was something more…. Something odd.
Mutated Soul Architecture Detected
Spiritual Resonance Detected
Mutated, not damaged. Every single bremetan possessed by yokai revealed ‘damaged’ soul architecture. And Spiritual Resonance? That was only possible when —
His thoughts vanished as Olfric raised his hands, and motes of energy began to condense around him. His arms grew larger, almost claw-like, and extended outward to grab the serpent’s head in its iron grip.
“That’s… Metamancy!” Lukas almost yelled. Olfric’s previous kami didn’t have any metamantic ability, and Olfric was a bremetan, which meant he couldn’t use mana without a kami. This was freaking impossible.
He watched with a mix of fascination and disbelief as those claw-like arms shattered the serpent’s form, and for the first time, the water droplets were not reforming back into the snake, but instead were being drawn towards Olfric, snaking around his arm and merging into him, while the immense hissing noises escaped the remnants of the spiritual beast.
Lukas looked to his left. Solana was a slender, pale thing, her eyes bright, jet black and narrowed, and watching, as the former aquamancer fell on his knees, as the Eternal Light Circles dissipated.
Then it happened.
The ground shook, and Olfric threw his head back, and let out a monstrous roar, his eyes aqualine blue, his jaws open, with power rolling off him in waves. And around him rose a massive volume of water, erupting out of his very skin. It contorted and condensed, forming into a familiar serpentine form, twisting around his body, arising out of his arms, its head reaching ten feet into the air before looming downward, as if daring everyone to fight it.
And then it dispersed, and Olfric collapsed.
The Screen flickered, revealing new information.
SYMBIOTE
SKILL
LEVEL
Possession
2
Water Creation
3
Water Manipulation
3
Pressure Modulation
3
A complete collection of Level-3 skills in Aquamancy. Enough to make all but the really powerful monsters out there to stop and take pause. Even Solana would be hard-pressed to defeat him.
Still, no mention of Metamancy. So, where did that come from?
“Show’s over,” said Solana, a small smile playing on her face. “And he even managed to save his soul.”
“His soul is resonating with something,” said Lukas, freezing Solana on her tracks as she turned to walk away. “I’ll wager it has something to do with the possession back in the anomaly. Mizo, she was the one that possessed him and failed. Wasn’t she?”
Her mouth ticked up at one corner. “Mizo has always been talented as a reiki.”
“Level-3 Metamancy,” said Lukas, still not moving from his place. “That incomplete possession left something behind, didn’t it? A slow, but guaranteed mutation in Olfric’s soul. I bet something similar is happening with Mizo, and you wanted to test how deep the connection went.” He narrowed his eyes and looked at the skinwalker. “What are you expecting? Another Oni?”
She gave him a tiny snort. “Even after thousands of years, we yokai have no idea of what conditions allow the transformation of a yokai and a bremetan into an Oni. They are rare, unique melting points of mysteries, and if you believe the legends, are heralds of change. That Asukan over there is different, but being different is not some free pass to surpass the natural order. Something slightly unique perhaps, or at least a set of fairly amusing tricks. Whatever he ends up being, it should be fairly interesting. Same goes for the girl.”
Lukas considered that. “You want to watch both of them develop? Then you need to help Tanya rescue Zuken Banksi.”
Solana spun around. “I refuse. The Shimizu have cursed themselves in their foot by annihilating the svartalfars. They are on the verge of losing everything, and they are lashing out. And when they lose, they will kill that man, and the Shogun of Llaisy Kingdom will lash out. The Eaborid Kingdom will be stuck in a rebellion, the armies of Lord Straff facing the might of Mujin Shimizu. The Earth King shall try to bend the scales in Mujin’s favor, as he always has, and Lord Naowa will escalate things.”
Something wild shone in her eyes, and her smile widened to inhuman proportions. “And just that, the entire south-east shall be devoured by war, and we yokai shall feast on it. And all I have to do is… nothing.”
“Tanya told me you wanted to make her the next Lady of Shimizu.”
Solana clicked her tongue. “She will. Once the entire South-East lies in shatters, Tanya shall rise up, bearing the Wind King’s kami, and resurrect the Shimizu. Even better, she will start her own clan. And through her, the yokai shall rule over the entire South-East, without any opposition.”
“Because they will be dead.”
“Exactly.”
The worst part? Lukas found himself agreeing with her. He had killed his fair share of beings during his time in this cut-throat murder world. With the South-eastern side of the Empire devolved into chaos, Tanya would be safe, and that was all Lukas cared about. It would also give him enough time to focus on resurrecting Inanna, and fulfilling his promise, while letting Tanya come into her powers without any threat on her life. Inanna would applaud this solution.
All he had to do was let Zuken die.
“You know as well as I that I am right, Outsider,” said Solana, giving him a look of pity. Or possibly contempt. “Yes, you can defy me and choose to protect that Asukan for whatever obligation you feel for him. I’m certain that the changeling and our newest symbiote shall join you and Tanya in this mad quest. But what will you gain out of it? The wrath of a Warlord, and attention on Tanya. You know perfectly that Tanya isn’t ready to face that kind of challenge. Not yet. Without you supporting her, she will give up. Make her give up.”
Lukas closed his eyes. Solana was right, as much as he hated admitting it. Yes, she was suggesting a cheap way out, but it was also the safest bet and came with the greatest rewards. But….
Easy did not turn wrong into right.
“What if we can save Zuken, and also let things play out the way you want? Let the world think that Zuken is dead, and have things devolve into war between kingdoms?”
“An interesting suggestion, but risky. Why must I spare it any thought?”
“Because if you do, then it will go a long way in building bridges with Tanya. Olfric and Elena joined hands with her to save Zuken. You help them do that, and you have them under your thumb. But none of that really matters, because I’m going to give you something that can change everything in the eventual war that happens between the Asukan Empire and the yokai.”
“Which is?”
“A goddess,” said Lukas, meeting her eye. “The goddess that beat Everfrost into submission, and she did it with her hands tied and eyes closed. A Supreme Queen, that Empress Meynte claimed, shone brighter than Amaterasu. A monarch that tore Pantheons down and sat on a mountain of corpses of Kings and Emperors. A dictator, a tyrant, a killer of gods and beasts, that is the goddess I am willing to give to your kind. The goddess that I want to bring back.”
“Bring… back?”
He pursed his lips. “She is no more. She sacrificed herself to save me.”
Solana snorted. “A goddess dying to save a mortal? Now I have heard everything.”
Lukas did not laugh.
“...You’re serious,” said Solana, flabbergasted.
“It’s exactly because it’s preposterous that she did it. She… she was something else. But that is what I offer as an incentive, Solana. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. You used me and you betrayed me. Several times over. And when you lost, you tried to break Tanya again by destroying her old relationships. Even half of that is enough to make me want to sic Blob on you and slowly consume your soul, make you feel the exquisite agony your kind loves to share with hapless bremetans. And yes, I’ve reached the end of my patience and so this is how things are now.”
“And what is that?” She demanded defiantly.
“Help me save Zuken. Grant me all your six centuries worth of connections and knowledge to find a way to get my goddess back. And in return, I will give you a chance to take back what is yours.”
“And why would I believe you?”
And there was the clincher. This would make or break it.
“Because Meynte wasn’t the only one that became an Empress through a Taboo.”
Solana stilled.
“My goddess wasn’t the Supreme Queen for nothing. First, she became an Empress with a Taboo. Not a half-assed effort like Meynte. No, a true Taboo-wielder. One that massacred Pantheons in her wake. And then she Ascended with her own Truth, and as the Supreme Queen of the Heavens and the Earth.”
“Tell me something,” She demanded, her eyes affixed to his. “This goddess… if she was this powerful, why is it that I have not heard of her?”
And that was the crux of the matter. Wasn’t it?
“Tell me,” he asked conversationally, “Do you remember that tale you told us, about how the war ended? About how Meynte was winning, how your gods Fujin and Raijin had slayed Tsukuyomi? And then… they hadn’t? Instead Fujin and Raijin were dead, and Tsukuyomi was alive?” He met her dark eyes. “Do you remember how you described it to me?”
Solana gazed at him inscrutably. “Like someone who didn't like the story that came to pass and tore the page to rewrite it again. But what of it?”
He smiled. And it was a bitter one. “Once upon a time, there was a girl. A slave girl. She didn’t have fancy soulcrafting powers like me, nor was she an ancient skinwalker like yourself. A plain, vanilla, mortal with an ambition. A lust. A desire so great that the entire world, no, the entire universe fell short to accommodate it.”
“A desire for what?”
He smiled. “Everything.”
He looked down at the Trial Circle. It was empty now.
“She was a slave. Someone that had nothing. No identity, no power, no ornaments, nothing she could claim for herself. Rock-bottom was her reality. And from there, with nothing but sheer diligence, will power and treachery, she arose. She tricked, hustled, betrayed and tortured her way to power. She was to murder as maestros are to music. She was to war what oil is to flame. Her footsteps left behind mountains of corpses. Clans, Nobles, Kings and even Emperors, she overcame them all. And then when faced with the might of a God, with her greatest power no longer enough, she turned to something that even the Great Progenitor would shrink away from.”
“A Taboo?”
“A Taboo,” Lukas agreed. “She became its Wielder. Butcher of Gods and Beasts, they called her. She destroyed multiple Pantheons, taking her acolytes with her, stepping over the broken thrones of the dead gods, and upon that hill of corpses, created her own Empire. Akkad. And if that wasn’t enough, she Ascended through a new Truth, and became a Goddess of her new Pantheon, ruling as the Supreme Queen of Heaven and the mortal world.”
“Akkad…” murmured Solana. “In all my years, I have never come across that name. I imagine it predates Crooked One-Eye and the Nordic Pantheon.”
He let out a bittersweet chuckle. “It does. But I’m certain even your Crooked One-Eye, if he’s still there, somewhere, doesn’t know of it. No one,” he sighed, “no one knows of it.”
“...Why?”
“Because,” said Lukas. “Something happened, and it erased all History of the goddess, her journey, her legend and her pantheon, from existence. As if someone did not like the story that came to pass and tore the page to rewrite it again.”
Solana staggered. “You — do you think —”
“I do.”
“But — But how can I —”
“The question isn’t if we can defeat the Empire, Solana. Nor is it if we can survive against the Asukan Pantheon. The question is what if we managed to do all that, only for this story to be rewritten again? That is the Enemy that I want to defeat. And I need the true power of Everfrost and every single bit of help you can give me. The question is, will you?”
Solana stayed silent for a while. When she finally looked at him, her eyes were like granite.
“Sometimes I wonder if killing you back then would have been the better option.”
Lukas snorted out a quick laugh. “Let me know when you’ve made a decision.”
A small, grim smile hit her face for an instant and was gone. “I believe I can take you to meet Ultaf Shimizu. In person. Say, what do you feel about a field trip?”
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