Legends are usually bullshit. Tall tales meant to shape your perception of something or someone. But the Realmbreaker… he lives his legend. He lives it hard.
Let me tell you how I knew. How I realized he was going to be a problem for the Claimed Hells. Shit, for everyone. It all started when he willingly walked back into the embrace of the archdevil. Casting himself across into the Hearted Realm of Gluttony. All for the explicit purpose of killing the weakness in his heart.
Most know what happened to the Drowned Sky Sect these days. What happened to its matriarch? Losing your mother that way… takes a piece from you too.
And Wei hated that. More than anything, I think he hated the fact that he felt any pain at all. Just wanted to turn pain into hate.
Hate he could live with.
Hate he could use.
-John Bishop
79
Endure
“What do you mean you're going back?” Agnesia said as Wei released the last of his companions from his inventory. He made his intentions known through declarations.
“I have unfinished business in the Hearted Realm. I must return. I must face the ghosts of my sect until they trouble me no more.”
The reactions he got from the others were exactly what he expected—mostly worry and doubt, with the only point of approval coming from John Bishop. Whatever the Trespasser’s game, and rough as his disposition was, he respected strength. There was a steel to him that Wei understood could be found only in consummate warriors and cultivators alike.
“Wei, my friend, I am not sure that is wise,” Rafael began. “I understand that, eh—” his words trailed off as he sought the most diplomatic way of phrasing his dissent. “It is good that you are taking a direct approach to your problems. But there might be unanticipated dangers as well. We saw many demons roaming across the surface of the Hearted Realm.”
“I do not return to face the demons,” Wei said, making his intentions plain. His light frown creased his brow. “At least not demons of the flesh. Rather, it is a demon of the heart I seek to slay.” Taking in his companions standing before the looming shape that was Mobile Fortress Wei, the young master simply sighed. “I have seen your wounds, and you have likely guessed mine. My mother—she was murdered at the hands of my father, William Yu. I knew him by a different name, to be a different man. I was a fool, as was my mother, as were all the members of my sect for falling to his deception. I return now to make right my shame and quell the ghosts of my past before they infest my present and future.”
“Wait, this is unnecessary,” Ellena said, her voice thin and fragile. She looked pale and true to her complexion, as if she had glimpsed a ghost—two ghosts—her children, now lost forever to the grasp of the Dying Queen. Looking at Rafael and Bishop, Ellena bit her lip, but continued. “We do not need to rely on our own strength alone. It is as Sir Bishop said. He can help.”
“He will not touch my memories,” Wei interrupted, his statement resolute. “He will not twist the fabric of my mind. I will remain myself. I will stand or fall by the merits of my own virtue, to the advancements of my own constitution and cultivation.”
His eyes briefly met Bishop’s, and the man held no judgment, nor respect for that matter. It was like he was perfectly neutral about Wei’s decision.
“I will not judge the rest of you. I cannot master your pain, your failures, for you. If you wish to use your potions, to use other means to calm your minds, so be it. Such a decision is commendable, wise even. But I am committed to walking the path of the fool.”
“You’re committed to being a bloody loon,” Agnesia said, frustration leaking over. Her fists were clenched as she approached him, worry in her eyes. “Wei, you've done a lot for us. You don't need to do this. I can go back with you. I can help you.”
Wei shook his head, and she fell silent. “It’s not that I wouldn’t appreciate the company,” he said simply. Something almost like a smirk grew on his face. “Mocking you has been one of the few joys I’ve discovered while running this sect, after all.”
The smirk was gone, replaced with a frown. “Wei. You’re a right bastard.”
Wei chuckled despite everything, but his amusement was fleeting. Before him loomed the weight of his trials and tribulations, ever-present. “I must do this alone. I must. Much hinges upon my will and my capacity to endure in the face of my past. The System is mine. I am patriarch. I must be worthy.”
Agnesia seemed as if still ready to argue, but a little grumble from Roggi silenced her before she could begin.
“Let the lad go. Let him be,” the Oathbearer ooked upon Wei. “He wants to make something of himself, but one doesn’t forge an alloy without tasting the sting of the forge.”
“But he’s a person, not an alloy!” Agnesia growled.
“I don’t think he’s gonna get that luxury anymore,” the Oathbearer surmised. He shared a look with the young master, and both of them replied with a nod. There would be things they needed to talk about, things relating to the Unfallen and the Trine, but that was for after Wei returned. If he returned.
Trauma resisted by Aspect of (Intent)
Regarding Rafael, Wei said nothing to the lich but rather sent him a message in the chat function. “Watch Bishop. I trust him enough for now, but the power he wields is a violating one, and we don’t know his long-term goals.”
Rafael, to his credit, didn’t betray the fact that he got a message at all. “I do not believe that Mr. Bishop will betray our confidence,” Rafael said carefully, clearly more taken with the man than Wei was.
“Perhaps not today,” the young master said. “Tomorrow, however, who can say if any of us are still allies?”
That earned him a glance from the lich. One that Wei didn’t return.
“Bishop,” the young master declared, “you may peer through the minds of my disciples and root out every sign of traitorous intent. I will speak with you again when I return.”
A new request appeared within his interface, and Wei realized that Bishop was trying to add him as a contact.
“We’ll talk sooner than that,” Bishop said simply, hesitating. But for a moment, Wei accepted in the back of his mind. He heard Bishop’s voice loud and clear. “Wasn’t sure if you were going to let me in for a moment.”
“Me neither,” Wei said honestly. “But I suspect that you’ll have plenty more to tell me when I return to the Hearted Realm. More that you do not wish to say in front of the others.”
“Something like that. Honestly, I just want an option to pull your ass out of the fire in case this little manhood ritual of yours goes sideways.”
Wei bit back a sneer. “It is not some childish ritual.”
“Ain’t calling it childish, but it’s definitely a ritual.” Wei heard Bishop laugh. “Honestly, there are plenty more less fucked-up ways for you to get over what happened to you. That kind of trauma—”
“I am not traumatized,” Wei spoke, mind burning with Intent, and he felt something pop. Bishop grunted in surprise. Before Wei, he saw a trickle of blood leaking from Bishop’s nose. The man blinked rapidly as he gave Wei a look.
“All right then, I hit a nerve. Not every day the nerve hits back, though.”
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
“What just happened?” Agnesia blinked.
Wei had no intention of indulging the man’s humor. What was said had been said. Now all that remained was the task at hand.
The scythe materialized over the young master as he activated his Form of the Harvester. His intent surged, far-reaching back to the way he came, to the great rift that separated the Moongrave from the Hearted Realm. With a contentious slash of his Broken Crescent, the concept of distance broke. A vast swath of space separating the young master from his destination vanished outright, carrying the momentum of his egress as Wei continued, striding for that boiling chasm before doubt or terror could grip his heart. He formed a Liminal Anchor as he strode, and at once he felt the majority of his Source waft out from him, forming a threshold of light and darkness.
He knew they would be waiting for him on the other side—his mother, Master Mouze, Hosha, and more. All the members of his sect, the Hundred Names, lost to demons, lost to the fire, lost because of one man’s betrayal, because of the cruel games of greater powers that thought nothing of sacrificing lesser realms.
As the darkness consumed him and pulled him upwards into the inner world of the Archdevil, the young master stopped fighting past the memories and thought back to the moment the black tower sundered his world. There was nothing he could have done, nothing any of them could have done to prevent it. It was by pure chance, a perverse twist of fortune, that he survived it all, claiming the prize his father was meant to take.
He re-emerged within the Hearted Realm, and once more, the enervation gnawed at his being. The Essence spilling from his Eidolon was unavoidable, but already he could feel himself more resistant than before, his fortitude acclimating to the deleterious effects of Ravenous Hunger. Sizzling as it struck him, splashing down upon his silken mane of hair, hissing against his new armor, he directed his burning cape to shroud himself from the caustic rain before planting his spear through the ground. Blood gushed from the membrane that served as soil in this foul place, and not far, a hundred meters away, the world began to tremor and break, the massive jaws that lined the surface of this realm opening their maws, unleashing licking tongues, spewing out a flood of demons like a spray of vomit.
“Are you here?” he declared, his voice carrying far and wide. He didn’t care if the beasts of gluttony came. They would be a welcome threat, but they were also not what he came to face. “I, Patriarch Wei An Wei of the Drowned Sky Sect, declare that come to you as an invader, an enemy!” He pointed his finger at the ruinous heart that pulsed above the clouds. “Witness me, witness my defiance, witness my will, and know that nothing you have, nothing you will ever have, will turn me from my path.”
Fortification Advanced > 29
[5/10] Aspect Advancements to Core Ascension
Fortitude advanced, and suddenly, a hearted maw rose into a cacophonous scream. Demons of gluttony fell upon each other, tearing, biting, feasting. Then he felt it, a new presence approaching him. Him specifically. It tore down through the clouds at a staggering speed, the stratocumulus of the upper atmosphere peeling from its gargantuan form like a contrail behind a comet.
Ripping his Eidolon from the ground, Wei faced the AArchdevil’s champion and observed its form. It resembled a six-winged creature lined with lapping maws, whip-like tongues, and plumage made from enamel instead of feathers. An old, jolting screech escaped from the creature as it accelerated down toward Wei, a shockwave rippling out from its form.
Skymarrow Devourer: Lv. 89
In its wake followed bulbs of cancerous flesh and worm-like creatures that sported rows of teeth. The way their Essence comingled with the Devourer made Wei suspect a relation between the demmons.
Soul Burrower: Lv. 25
Just then, Wei saw them, the ghostly visages that made up the members of his sect. They formed in a long row just before the bottom jaw splitting the land. Though they were three hundred meters away from Wei, his omniscience allowed him perfect sight, and they had no difficulty looking back upon him as well. He knew their faces; he remembered their deaths. Wounds inflicted upon their bodies lingered even past the point of their end. And at their center, surrounded by the sect elders and trusted seniors, was his mother—a matriarch, still missing her head, but otherwise unburnt and silently judging him.
A pain knot formed in Wei’s throat, but he swallowed it down.
He was truthful about what he said: he wasn’t here to battle demons. But he would not turn from battle. And if the ghosts were content to behold his will, then he was content to perform.
And then the Skymarrow Devourer passed into the outer threshold of Wei’s awareness, and a series of Dilation-Echoes formed. Portents of closing fangs flashed through the young master’s body. He moved in advance, as always, but this time even that wasn’t fast enough. Five hundred meters away, every mouth the Skymarrow Devourer had opened at once. A strange pulsation of Essence swept out from it. Rather than biting into Wei directly, the young master felt a crushing weight crash down against his spirit. Wei’s flesh roiled and shuddered within as his Fortification struggled against the bio-manipulation inflected on him. The crushing strain of hunger returned to him as the Aspect’s focus shifted.
Without hesitating, the young master infused a catalyst into his Eidolon. Doing so only made his weakness grow. He’d come in here a fraction of who he was and gave another fraction just to see himself empowered. To do this was to dance on the edge of death. A single well-placed hit from his adversary, already many levels superior to him, would likely see him dead. But what other way was there to be? How else should one face their tribulation?
“Might wanna pull back, kid,” Bishop said suddenly, breaking the young master’s focus. “Thought you were going here to face your demons, not commit suicide.”
“It’s only suicide if I fail,” Wei replied.
The Skymarrow Devourer took another bite, and Wei bit back a snarl of discomfort, but his bones rattled, but failed to break. It circled the air once, twice more, slowly, then began to turn. A new Dilation-Echo fell upon the master, this one showing a fifteen-meter-long demon slamming into him, reducing him to little more than a source of meat or paste. He wouldn’t survive a single strike, perhaps not even if he were fully powered. So he needed to dance on the edge, directing all power from his Intent over to Relativity. The world grew slower and slower still. Bishop’s words began to drone, but remarkably the Trespasser kept up, despite the dilation.
Wei saved a final look for his mother and the fallen members of his sect and spoke under his breath. “Witness me now, and witness who I am becoming. I will honor you. I will make this right, and I will take back what we’ve lost from our foes. I will take it back tenfold.” In that moment of madness and clarity, a single microsecond before the Sky-Marrow Devourer hit him, a burning thought, strong and clear, materialized within Wei’s mind.
The Inheritors. We're doing all this to seize an antediluvian vault and to claim their hegemony of Earth. I will take the vault from them and then I will take this Earth. Such will be my rightful recompense for all that I’ve suffered.
An oath worthy of being sealed by righteous battle. The Devourer accelerated. Air and sound exploded out around its body like a shockwave. It punched into the ground where Wei had stood like an arrow, digging through barren flesh. The young master was no longer there. The only sign of his escape was revealed by a flashing scythe, oscillating between shadow and light. The devourer tore deep into the earth and kept going. Before it could pass beyond the range of Wei’s Omniscience, he used his outsider mastery on it. To his surprise, its perception grew superimposed over his.
That indicated astonishingly low Mind and Perception Aspects on its part. So he knew what to break, but he still needed to deal with its lesser companions first. The worms were quick in their own right, but compared to the Devourer, they might as well have been standing still. Thanks to his catalyst-infused speed, Wei had a substantial magnitude over them, and his volatility warned him to stay attached to the ground. Even as he spun, his body curling down, they sprayed gouts of acid capable of dissolving even hardened steel.
The young master was moving like currents of wind, spinning an evasive pirouette, essence-shift allowing him to flow through the attack before reforming, spear raised in a thrust, lightning leaping from its tip. As bolts struck, and when bolts struck, both worms exploded in cataclysmic bursts, yet the demons pushed on, unfettered, their Constitutions high. Or they would have, if two scythes born of his Source didn’t fall immediately after the blows were landed, cleaving deep into the demons’ spirits where no physical attack could touch.
RELATIVITY REAPED! [1 Charge]
MIND REAPED! [1 Charge]
The worms screamed, specks of mind torn from their bodies, and even as Wei felt his Intent drop, he gained charges of Enlightenment and Relativity.
Fifteen seconds to Essence Overload
The young master spent both sets of charges and grew even faster, his mind flowing even clearer, directing glances across the devourer’s outside. He saw the demon burrowing through a place of shadow, and a feeling of insatiable need to devour soon spilled over into him. Somehow, he knew it was tunneling toward the biomatter beneath him, planning to ambush Wei from below.
If the young master had waited for an echo to start his dodge, it would have been too late. With each bite it took, the demon grew stronger, faster, and even with his recently reaped speed, it was still over three times quicker than he. Wei resolved that issue by being one step ahead in thought. As the Devourer exploded out from the ground, bringing with it an eruption of gore and dirt, it closed its maw on a solid object, but it wasn’t Wei.
Not even close.
A Lance of Calamity forged from wind, lightning, water, and sky, drilled down into the throat of the beast. Wei poured enough essence into the spear to deliver a strike like a punch that could blast a hole through a small moon. Despite all of that, despite the few inches it traveled down the gore’s throat, the demon was strong, far too strong, and it exhaled as it bit down, flinging away all the essence powering the spear before biting the construct made from ice, storm, wind, and earth in half like a morsel.
Ten seconds to Essence Overload
Two hundred meters down away hovering an open gouge parting the land, Wei looked up at the demon. The beginnings of doubt and exhaustion crept over him. Perhaps he didn’t exactly mean to taunt the archdevil before he started this tribulation.
“Too late to get smart now.” Bishop laughed in the back of Wei’s mind. “Well, there’s no sense regretting things now. Get his ass, or he’s gonna get yours.”