The following day, Alex awoke without any unexpected guests intruding in on his sleep. As he stood up from his humongous bed, he noticed that he was extremely well-rested. Nova, who was silently napping near him on a velvety pillow raised her head, and once she saw Alex was up, swam through the air until she once again settled around his neck.
“You seem to really like my neck, don’t you?” he addressed Nova.
While the only physical sounds she could make were weird hissing noises, on an instinctual level, Alex could feel her responses; which is why when she hissed slowly in reply, Alex could feel a vague feeling of confirmation hidden in the message.
“Well then, we wouldn’t want to keep the others waiting, would we? Moira would have a fit if she didn’t get her feast because of us,” he added with a slight smile.
As he was already approaching the door, ready to leave the room in search of Elder Bellum and his great-nephew and niece, he remembered he forgot something. With a casual turn of his body, he went over to the table near the bed and placed his gaze on what was on the table. A seamless mask with absolutely no apertures, as well as three almost identical black tokens. With a swift movement of his hands, he gathered the things. The tokens were quickly placed in the left pocket of his trousers while the mask was tucked into the inner part of his robe, placed directly over where his heart was beating. After spending another moment to make sure he didn’t forget anything else, he felt content to finally leave the confines of his new abode.
As he left the room, he touched the doors with his Darkstone, and the two soldiers carved into the doorframe once again crossed their spears. After locking the doors to the room, he started walking when a thought occurred to him. Yesterday, when Moira took him to his new quarters, she led him across the mazelike corridors of the Legion’s keep but never bothered to teach him the way back. As his brow was starting to descend into a frown, a memory flashed inside of his mind; the exact sequence of turns and twists he passed yesterday while following in Moira’s wake.
“Weird, my memory might be good, but it’s not that good. I might remember three or four on a good day, but definitely not however many there were yesterday-“ as he was about to finish his thought, another thought popped into his mind.
“Fourteen,” he thought. “There were exactly fourteen turns from the main hall until the living quarters.”
After standing still for a short while, he tried recalling something else. After about another minute, Alex found out he could recall with great clarity much more than just the path to the hall; he could recall specific events that happened decades earlier with eerie clarity.
“I guess the world is not the only thing that’s bound to change.” he thought with excitement and started a jog towards the main hall.
His physical prowess also received an upgrade. After sprinting for close to three minutes along the winding corridors of the keep, his breathing was steady and Alex wasn’t even breaking a sweat. He suddenly remembered what Jake and Amber were capable of, and wondered.
“If this is simply from awakening the breath inside my body, I cannot wait to see what else can be done with this.” he thought.
As he was contemplating, he found himself back at the great hall where the trial took place. A long table filled with all manners of otherworldly food was placed in the middle. Elder Bellum was seated at the head of the table, with Moira and Cian on his right. The Elder and Cian were sipping on some kind of drink, while Moira was stuffing herself like there was no tomorrow. Taking another look at the table, he could see an empty chair on the Elder’s right.
“Ah, Legionnaire Farwalker. Nice of you to join us,” said Elder Bellum while pointing towards the chair to his left with his hand.
As Alex was approaching the empty seat, Moira excitedly addressed the Elder.
“Grand Uncle, what did you get from the 3rd Commander?” she giddily asked as she immediately returned to stuffing herself silly.
“While the Commander didn’t mention what the gift is yet, he did confirm yesterday that our friend here is the first to join the Legion on this world; and so it’s a matter of time until the outworld can send the reward over. It’s probably going to happen in about a month when the situation will start to escalate.” answered the Elder, full of content.
Hearing about this, Alex couldn’t keep his thoughts to himself and attempted to join the conversation.
“May I speak, Elder?” he addressed the Elder with a respectful tone.
As the Elder turned his head towards Alex, a weird expression was covering his face.
“Of course, we may be called the Nightmare Legion, but it’s more Nightmare than Legion, which means you don’t have to be so uptight when addressing me. Besides, you’re the first recruit we’ve received in a long time, and also the reason I turned a considerable profit this time around.” explained the Elder with a joyful look on his face.
“I see. Then, may I ask what exactly did you mean by the situation escalating in about a month?” Alex asked with interest.
“Do you remember the induction?” the Elder asked.
“Yes, certainly,” answered Alex truthfully. Even if he initially forgot some small detail, after what happened yesterday, he could recall the conversation with Pahan word for word easily.
“That’s easy then. It will take the Divine Breath about a month to absolutely suffuse this world. Right now only the biggest energy resources were affected; your electricity and nuclear energy and anything that used those as a resource. As you’ve no doubt noticed, your moving contraptions work, and some of your smaller weapons, which do not require the breath also work. Right now the biggest danger to the native population comes either from natural wildlife that was recently exposed to the breath or from themselves. That will all change in a month; that is when the other side is going to make their move.” the Elder explained.
“People will die in hordes, waves of righteous path cultivators will start clashing with the unorthodox path, vying for supremacy on this world. And that is when the Legion will reap the most benefits.” the Elder added with a wolfish grin and expectation gleaming in his eyes.
“Wasn’t the main goal of the allied factions from this outpost, and from other outposts for that matter, to recruit as many new arrivals as possible?” Alex asked, trying to make sense of the Elder’s words.
“That’s right, that’s the Alliance’s goal. But then again, we’re not really part of the Alliance.” the Elder said.
Seeing confusion start emerging on Alex’s face, the Elder decided that now was as good a time as any to introduce Alex to the inner workings of the Legion.
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“You see, boy, we’re not really part of either the orthodox or the unorthodox path, as they like to call themselves. We are mercenaries. This time, the Alliance acquired the service of the Queen’s 3rd Legion to accompany half of the outposts onto this world, one of which just happens to be the outpost you’ve arrived at.” the Elder explained.
“But why would they do such a thing? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the Legion is not strong, but I don’t imagine the other factions being so weak they’d need our help,” asked Alex with genuine interest.
“You’re not wrong, but not quite right either. Hmm, what do you know of the Accords?” the Elder asked.
“Not much. They protected Earth while we were considered a lesser world; which completely changed when some mad scientist discovered the breath. The Accords are also what seems to keep the Alliance working together.” Alex answered to the best of his knowledge.
“You’ve pretty much got it covered, but there are some nuances. I won’t bore you with the long version, so listen. The gist of it is that while the Accords are what keeps the Alliance running, it is also what keeps the Alliance in check. There are some things that the Alliance cannot be seen doing, and so they need a middleman, which happens to be us in this case.” the Elder explained once again with a suggestive look on his face.
“So, we do the wetwork for the Alliance,” concluded Alex.
“Okay, that explains why there’s only the three of you from the Legion at this outpost, compared to other factions. I guess the 3rd Legion is spread pretty thin across the globe.” Alex mused out loud.
After the exchange was over, Elder Bellum was content to return his attention to his cup and its contents, while Cian joined Moira in on eating. Alex himself was chewing on a roasted spiked wing of a strange bird, which, humorously enough, tasted like chicken. After about half an hour later, everybody except Moira was done with eating. While the little girl was stuffing inhuman amounts of food into herself, Cian was content to watch her with fascination while Elder Bellum seemed to be in thought as he addressed Alex.
“Do you have the tokens you received yesterday with you?” he asked in a single breath.
“Yes,” Alex answered, feeling with his hand the cold stony surface of the tokens.
“Good. As I said, we have only a month until things start heating up, so you’re going to have to get stronger if you want to survive. I will have to attend to some matters that will force me to be away until the month is over, which is why we have to do this now.” the Elder said.
“I’m sure you’ve already noticed changes within yourself after yesterday’s awakening, but that is just child’s play compared with what is possible with an actual Cultivation Method. Follow me,” he added, starting to walk in a leisurely manner.
The Elder seemed to make very slow, deliberate steps. Unfortunately, the steps only seemed slow. In reality, with each step, the Elder was moving further and further away, forcing Alex to move faster just to barely keep up with him.
While following in Elder Bellum’s wake, Alex made a mental note to ask whether the keep had a map. It would be useful since he wouldn’t want to get lost in these winding paths of archways and corridors. After a short while, Alex finally caught up to the Elder; who had stopped in front of a heavy, barred gate, glistening with a dark metallic sheen.
“Where are we?” asked Alex, looking at the gate before him.
“The Armory.” replied the Elder while waving his hand towards the gate.
As soon as the Elder raised his hand, Alex could hear the sounds of the gates opening. Their heavy steel frame scraping on the marble floor seemed to make the walls themselves shudder. As the gates fully opened, Elder Bellum confidently stepped inside; Alex, not waiting for an invitation, did the same.
Once inside, countless rows of weapons greeted Alex. He was familiar with some of them; swords, spears, sabres, axes, and many more. At the same time, some items seemed completely alien to Alex; giant steel rings, a stack of interconnected nails, weird drill-like weapons, and many more exotic weapons just like them. One of the most eye-catching sights was a giant black sphere settled on an altar smack in the middle of the armoury. Seeing Alex’s face, seemingly mesmerized with what was before him, Elder Bellum chose this moment to start speaking.
“Most factions specialize in their own special skills, which means that the path of a recruit is largely predetermined. Take the Myriad Visions Sect for example; all their members starting with the lowliest of disciples to the Sect Master cultivate the same Cultivation Method – the Many-eyed Deity Scripture, which means that with a couple of minute differences, their fighting style is largely the same,” he said.
“That is not the case with the Legion. Barring the Nightmare Companion, which every Legion member has, every recruit is free to choose from among the many Cultivation Methods available at the Librarium,” he added while pointing at the giant black sphere laying on the altar in the middle of the Armory.
“Now, every warrior’s journey starts with a weapon. Do you have a preference?” Elder Bellum asked while turning towards Alex.
“Not really. Earth used to be mostly peaceful, which means that there was no need to be proficient in weapons. I can recognize most of the ones here, and maybe I could even use them on the most basic of levels, but no such thing as preference.” Alex replied.
“Okay, we’re going to do it the old fashioned way then. Go and pick a weapon one by one and try to use it. See what feels different.” the Elder added while pointing at the rows of armaments around them.
What followed next was an exercise in futility, at least from Elder Bellum’s words. Alex tried clumsily swinging every type of weapon he could lay his eyes on. From swords to spears to axes, Alex seemed to have absolutely no talent for weaponry. At one point he even took a spiked whip and almost gouged out his eye while trying it. Half an hour of disappointment later, Alex started to become slightly dispirited when Elder Bellum spoke.
“Stop. Put the chakrams back on the shelf,” he said “It seems you do not have an affinity for weapons, which is not the end of the world, though it will make our task at hand a little bit more taxing. Hmmm.”
As Alex stood by the Elder’s side while he was deep in thought, disappointment was starting to rear its head once again. After all that transpired, Alex thought he would embark on the path of the heroes he worshipped from his books, brandishing magic swords, deadly spears, and the like. While he was contemplating what was going to happen next, a thought seemed to cross Elder Bellum’s mind as he addressed Alex.
“Throw a punch.” he curtly said.
While growing up, Alex was never interested in fighting unless it was on the yellowed pages of a hardback. What little exposure he did have, came from when his father would watch fights on the TV. Concentrating for a short while, he was focusing on remembering one of the fights he’d seen while he was small. The memory came to him in great clarity almost immediately. Trying to imitate what he saw when he was small, he tucked his shoulders in, stepped a little forward with his right side, and threw a jab in one fluid motion. The jab, powered by what little Breath Alex had in his body, made the air around his fist whistle. From start to finish, the whole sequence felt right in his mind, and finally, Elder Bellum’s words started to make sense. Every other weapon he tried felt unnatural, while this was effortless.
“Great, it seems you’re going to make a fine unarmed combatant.” the Elder said with a small clap on Alex’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry about it too much, maybe unarmed combat was objectively weaker on this world, but that’s going to change soon enough. A fist infused with the Divine Breath can wreak as much destruction as any weapon, perhaps even more. Now, follow me.” he added as he started navigating the different rows of weaponry around them.
Very soon the two found themselves in front of one of the more desolate parts of the armoury. There was only one item on the shelf in front of them, a pair of steel clawed gauntlets with intricate patterns inscribed on them.
“Now, take out the weapon token.” the Elder said.
Alex assumed the weapon token was the one with an upright sword on it, and so took it out of his pocket and handed it over to the Elder. The elder took the token and with a simple motion of his fist crushed it into dark powder. The floating bits of the powder seemed to gather around the gauntlets, settling around it as the Elder spoke.
“Drop some blood on the gauntlets now,” he said.
Already familiar with the bonding process from when he did the same to the Darkstone, he didn’t waste much time as he bit his finger and let a few drops of blood fall onto each gauntlet. As the blood was soaked into the metal surface of the gauntlets, the dust which was previously content to float around the gauntlets started to get absorbed as well.
“Now try them on,” the Elder added.
As Alex put the gauntlets onto his hands, they seemed too big. But as soon as that thought crossed his mind, he could feel the metal folding onto itself until it became a perfect fit for his hands. The steely interior of the gauntlets was smooth and cool, while the outside was littered with jags and spiky bits.
Admiring the intricate art on the gauntlets, he made a fist, and all felt right for Alex.