Night had fallen a few hours ago, but Noki refused to stop for a break even at the behest of Kila. He had been traveling on foot for hours in the abysmal heat, but he only felt a slight fatigue in his body; he could keep going a few more hours if it meant he’d be safe. He couldn’t explain it, but he felt as if something dangerous was searching for him, that he was brushing upon the edges of something powerful. Kila assured him that if they were in danger she’d know, but she had also seemed distracted by something.
“If you need to stop,” Noki said as the two leapt over a crevice before returning to the trees, “we can now. Whatever that feeling I had before is gone now, I think we’re safe.”
Kila’s face tensed at the word safe, but Noki couldn’t see from behind. Safe was something they weren’t the moment they fled from Mion and they certainly weren’t safe now that Noki was officially an enemy of the Okari Clan. She’d need to end this quickly; it was one thing to be doing a favor for a Kolo, but if this became a family issue and she was seen allied to both the Monsari and Noki, her family would be in danger. Kila wasn’t like her cousin who was scouted by the Okari and made an Envoy, she’d have no other family to protect her in case she was caught in the middle.
“Or we can keep going, I’m good to travel.” Noki took Kila’s silence, and the fact that she kept moving, as a yes so he decided to stop speaking.
“Did I do something? Is it because of what I said about the thing following us? No that wouldn’t make sense, who would be mad over that? But if she is mad about that, how do I fix it?” Noki was so caught up in his thinking that he nearly slammed into Kila’s back; thankfully, his reaction time had improved and he managed to flip over her and land on the thick branch ahead of her.
“What happened, why are we stopping?”
“Look,” Kila said as she pointed behind him. Noki turned and saw a sky of black and blue, stretching endlessly. “We’re at the edge of the mountain, the forest stops here.”
“Mountain? You mean we’ve been on a mountain the entire time?” Noki stared out into the openness with sheer bewilderment. He couldn’t see as well as Kila, but in his vision he saw tiny red and orange lights flickering far below him through a white haze. No, not a haze, those were clouds. “Are those clouds down there? How’d they get there?”
Kila leapt in front of Noki and landed on a branch that extended over the edge of the mountain. She’d grown used to Noki’s lack of general knowledge so she answered him without even thinking. “ The Red Forest. Watercliff Village. Everything you know exists on the peak of a massive mountain called Sleeping Serpent. We’ll start our way down the mountain tomorrow, for now we should make camp.” Kila stepped off the branch and fell seventy-feet down onto a patch of grass and dirt, channeled her Physical Tera into her arms and legs, and proceeded to dig a ditch half a mile deep around her. “Come on down, I made some space for us to camp. Scourbeasts shouldn’t be able to get us in our sleep this way.”
Noki landed, though not as graceful as Kila, and whistled in amazement. She’d only touched the ground a moment ago and they were already standing on top of a freshly dug hill. He couldn’t help but think about the difference between their abilities and it made him a bit jealous, but also excited for when he reached Iron Soul. He turned to Kila to tell her what a great job she did, but he found himself distracted by her face. Usually they traveled near each other and occasionally fought together, but he’d never been this close to her face before.
“Wow…Kila’s eyes are really bright in the moonlight, and her face looks really soft.” Noki went over her facial features, noting the smoothness of her face, the fullness of her lips and…was that a hit of red in her skin? He had heard Baira mentioning something about how she had a sort of yellow undertone to her, so maybe Kila’s was red.
It was only when he felt the warmth of her breath against his face did he realize he was mere inches from her.
“What are you doing?”
“Oh I just noticed how pretty your face was. How do you get it so smooth like that?”
“Wha…what the hell are you talking about?” Kila had a high opinion of her looks; she was no match for the likes of a Major Vassal Family but compared to everyone else, she was easily out of their league; and yet an off comment about her looks had somehow frazzled her.
“Did I say something wrong? I didn’t mean any offense, I just never really looked at your face.” Noki placed his hand on his chin, “Now that I think about it, the only other person I’ve been this close to was Baira and she did react the same way.”
“Of course she did,” Kila said as she pushed Noki away, “anyone would when someone like you says something like that.” Noki gave her a confused look and she quickly continued. “I mean look at you, you look like all you do is fight and think about fighting so it’s a little jarring to hear soft words from that body.”
She pointed to Noki and he gave himself a once over. He’d forgotten just how different he looked physically; his jaw was a bit more defined and the clothes he borrowed from Mion only made him look more menacing.
“I’m sorry,” Noki said while reflexively making himself smaller, “ it’s still taking some getting used to..uh looking like this I mean, not your face, I’m pretty used it to it by now-oh not saying it’s like a common face or anything because it’s not; in fact next to Baira its-” An instinct came over Noki telling him he was digging a deeper ditch than the one Kila had made, so he told himself to shut up and change the topic. “Well, I’m gonna go practice cultivating, over there,” he said while pointing to the farthest area from Kila.
“Yeah, I think that might be a great idea,” Kila responded. Noki couldn’t be sure, a part of him felt Kila’s Tera circulating through her body and he didn’t want to stick around to find out. Once he sat at the edge of the camping area, Kila relaxed and decided to use the opportunity to communicate with Amani. She made sure Noki wasn’t watching before pulling out spiritstone that was pure black except for a sliver of purple that ran across its surface. It had still amazed her that she was able to find its location while she was traveling with Mion’s group; especially since Amani told her it ‘landed’ only a few hundred feet from her location. Kila channeled her Mental Tera into the spiritstone and immediately found herself in Amani’s Sanctuary.
It looked different from when she was there last. There was a faux bright blue sky with purple clouds above and what appeared to be an oasis surrounded by golden sands. Kila moved through the surprisingly lush environment, able to feel the plants rub against her body, and found herself staring at a partially submerged image of Amani.
“Did I call at a bad time?” Kila said using her most respectful voice, “I can come back if you need more time to shower.”
“Oh you’re fine,” Amani responded, “I took a real bath hours ago, I just wanted to see how much of it I could recreate her.” She flicked her wrist and the water wrapped around her, giving her a robe of rushing water that heavily obscured her body. “I take it you’re at the edge of Sleeping Serpent?”
“Yes. I’ll take him down the mountain tomorrow and if it all goes well, he’ll be in the Flatlands by mid day.” The Flatlands was a stretch of land that had no changes in elevation and was impossibly straight. “There aren’t any scourbeasts or chimeric ones there, and there’s only a small village of Nulls in that direction so we should be fine.”
“Yes I’m aware of the layout,” Amani said though her tone was less dismissive and more cavalier. “I’m going to need you to leave a bit sooner than that.”
“Kolo Amani?”
“I’m currently traveling with the Monsari Envoy and it appears we’re headed to get a cousin of ours and take them back home.”
“Envoy? Then the families have already made their moves?” This was bad, if the Monsari felt the need to remove both Baira and Amani, then that meant there was a serious threat out there. “So then there really is a member of the Ten Shadows lurking nearby?”
“Can’t say for certain but you know how they get. It won’t look good for you or Noki if you’re caught together, so I suggest you go now and wait for your envoy back at the village. I assume you have a solid cover story ready to go?”
“Yes, Kolo Amani. I’ll tell Mion that after the attack, I was badly injured and needed a few days to flush out the foreign Tera of that thing.” Kila knew it was a Wildling but information like that wasn’t something someone of her status should know. “I doubt he’ll look too closely at my story, Mion isn’t one to dig too deep.”
“Well then, you better be going,” Amani said, “they’ll probably send a few Gold Souls to get you and if they are coming from The Peaks, you have little over an hour to be back in Watercliff.” Amani was about to dismiss Kila, but noticed just a smallest hint of hesitation coming from her. “Is there something else you want to say?”
“I-” Kila wanted to find the correct words to use, “I’m just a bit confused, Kolo Amani. You tasked me to escort Noki off the mountain and into Blackhide City, but he’s only an Earthen Soul; they’ll be Irons in the city. Isn’t that the same as sending him to his death?” Kila realized a moment later that she was directly questioning a Kolo and added, “At least, that’s how someone with my insight sees things.”
A smile formed on Amani’s face. “You know, you sound like Baira a bit, she also had some concern with my plans but trust me, Noki is far more capable than a typical Earthen Soul. That should be something as plain as day to you, Kila.”
Kila felt a flood of memories of her time with Noki begin to form in the clouds above and tried to dismiss them, but Amani’s power dwarfed hers and she forced them to appear. Scenes from Noki’s fights with Mion, the Knifebear and the Psybat played out on a loop.
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“Tell me,” Amani said, “ what do you think about that?” She pointed to her own memory of Noki fighting with the Tigerbull from the Divination Ceremony.
Kila watched the memory and saw Noki get impaled through his chest. She hadn’t been at the ceremony at that time since she snuck out with the guards to fight, but what she saw was both impossible yet at the same time irrefutable.
“That should have killed him outright, even an Iron would need a few hours to recover from that.”
“And yet here he is, most assuredly not dead. If an attack at that level didn’t kill him, and he wasn’t even a full Earthen mind you, then what do you think it’ll take to put him down for good now?”
Of course Amani knew Noki hadn’t fully ascended to Earthen previously, she was a Kolo of the Embrace; reading someone’s Soul Rank to that level would be nothing for her. Still, Kila didn’t like what the connecting dots were leading to; how had Noki survived an attack far above his capability, and why did he glow with an orange light?
“Kolo Amani, If I may be so forward, what exactly is he? It’s true he’s more than an Earthen Soul, but what about that strange Tera he sometimes uses? Is it some kind of Inheritance?”
“Noki is….interesting to say the least, but enough about that, you’re losing time. Remember to tell Noki where to go and get yourself back to the village, can’t have my spy getting captured so easily now can I?”
Before Kila could answer, she found herself back in the camping ground bathed in moonlight. Of course almost no time had passed in the Physical Realm, her skin was still warm from when Noki had invaded her space, so she still had more or less an hour to get back.
“Well, we were going to part ways sooner or later,” Kila thought to herself before standing up and noticing unusual Tera Waves coming from Noki.
Something was wrong, or at least Noki thought as much. Ever since he became a full-fledged Earthen Soul, his cultivation seemed to be broken. He entered into River Circulation but the Tera wouldn’t flow as freely as before; it was like his Tera had turned to mud. It clung to his pathways, refusing to budge a single inch.
“Oh come on, why isn’t it working now? Do I need to channel more of my own Tera?” Without any other ideas, Noki did just that. He focused on his Body Kulda and drew power from there, forcing all of his energy out of the core and into his Tera Pathways. Physical Tera flooded his body and he willed it to push the cultivated Tera throughout his body. Red hot pain ignited along his pathways as the two Tera interacted, but Noki pressed on. “Man this really hurts, but if I do it a bit longer maybe it’ll get easier.”
“Noki, stop what you’re doing right now.”
Noki opened his eyes and saw a look on Kila’s face that he’d only seen before on Baira, when he had accidentally eaten the Sanguine Lily.
“Are you trying to destroy your body?”
“What? No I-”
“Then why are you a second away from ripping apart your pathways? You don’t draw in Tera and use your own at the same time, that’s way too much energy at once.” Just a moment ago she was being told by a Kolo of the Embrace how capable he was, and now this idiot was one forced circulation away from irreparably damaging his Tera Pathways.
“But the Tera I cultivated was moving properly, so I thought I’d give it a little bit of a push. You know, like when sometimes when you’re in a tunnel and the rocks are too heavy to move, you dig a hole and let the water from the Waterfall rush in and move it? Or I guess I was the only one making the holes so you probably wouldn’t know.”
Kila ignored that mess of an analogy and focused on the fact that he said his Tera wasn’t moving. The only way that would happen is if he had drawn in more Tera than his pathways could handle, but at his level that wouldn’t be- Kila thought about what she saw in Amani’s Sanctuary and terminated her thought.
“Let me help you,” Kila said before sitting down in front of him. “Turn around and whatever you do, don’t draw on your cores.”
Noki gave her a confused look but did as she said. When his back was to him, Kila placed a hand on it and let her Mental Tera flow to his Mind Kulda and her Physical Tera to his Body Kulda. “I’m going to purge the excess Tera from your pathways, just relax and it’ll be over in a minute.” Kila felt Noki’s muscles lose tension and took that as her sign to start. It was easy infiltrating his Mind Kulda–he really needed to work on his mental defense–but his Body Kulda was an entirely different story. It was like passing through sludge to Kila’s senses and try as she might, she couldn’t get it to budge.
Kila pulled her hand back and let out a breath. “ It’s too dense. I don’t know how you drew in that much Tera, but it clogged your pathways.”
“So what’s that mean? I won’t be able to cultivate anymore?” Noki kept his back to Kila and elected to crane his neck to speak to her. “Is there anything I can do?”
The desperation in his voice made Noki’s imposing frame look tiny in Kila’s eyes, and she was reminded of that same tiny boy that stood up against the Tigerbull.
“What a minute, when Noki got impaled by the Tigerbull he should have died, but didn’t. If he’s somehow able heal like an Iron at his level, then maybe what he needs is..” Kila’s eyes hardened as she drew out her daggers.
“Uh, Kila? Why are your weapons out?”
Kila glowered down at Noki, and with the moonlight shining behind her looked like a brown-eyed shadow.
“I’m going to hunt some scourbeasts. Stay here and don’t try to cultivate until I get back.” Without waiting for another word, she leapt from the camping grounds and bolted deeper into the forest.
“Well yeah, it’s not like I can do anything else,” Noki said to himself under his breath. He allowed himself to fall back and stared into the night sky. The stars shone as brilliantly as they had been these last few nights and the moon seemed to be changing colors, which he knew meant the season was soon to change.
“My first Summer as a Divine Artist, pretty soon I’ll experience my first Fall and Winter as one too. I wonder if…when I’m strong enough to be a Delver….I’ll run into my dad?”
Noki didn’t like to think about his father, because he didn’t know how to feel about him. His childhood had been a near constant barrage of torture and fear, all because his father had left him in Watercliff. At the same time, if he wasn’t in Watercliff then he wouldn’t have known about Divine Artists or Delvers in the first place, and he also wouldn’t have met with Baira and eventually gotten that weird scourbeast’s core.
“That core.” Noki placed his hand on his stomach, “Thanks to that I became a Divine Artist, but I feel like there’s more to this thing. I heal a lot faster than I should and sometimes I feel these instincts that don’t feel like mine. I should have Amani look me over, make sure everything is ok.”
As if on queue, a primal instinct sounded throughout Noki’s body and he sprang from the ground. He almost activated his Divine Sight but remembered Kila’s warning, so he used only the physical enhancements brought about from his Earthen Soul Body to scan his surroundings.
Nothing.
There was nothing to see, yet the instinct inside him grew louder and louder. His heart began to race as adrenaline coursed through his body, sharpening his already enhanced senses to a razor’s edge. At this heightened level of awareness, Noki could feel a shift in the air as something was moving towards him. His attention fell towards the direction Kila had exited through not too long ago. Something quick broke through the line and leapt high above Noki. It landed with enough force to kick up the dirt and send a section of the camping ground crumbling down into the ditch below.
“I was informed by one of our instructors that there was a disturbance in this side of the forest,” Mion said through the dust cloud, “so I came here expecting to find a scourbeast to challenge. Imagine my surprise to not only discover that my old hunting stash had been raided, but that the disturbance was you.”
Noki’s blood went cold as a million thoughts raced through his head about Kila. If Mion had come from the same direction, then there was a chance that he had gotten to her, but there was no way for Noki to know for sure since he couldn’t use his Tera to sense her.
“So, you not only defiled my home, but think yourself worthy to wear my old clothes?” Mion’s rage was as palpable as the bits of rock and dirt slowly rising in the air around him. “A quick death is too good for you. I’m going to crush you limb by limb until you’re immobile and then I’ll heal you and do it again and again, until you beg me to smash that useless head of yours into dust.”
Fear gripped Noki with its familiar touch, but he didn’t let it stay his tongue. “What did you do to Kila?” He forced what little authority he could into his words, hoping to sound more intimidating than terrified.
“What do you know of….of course, now I know how you found my hunting ground.”
Noki immediately realized his mistake. If he somehow survived this, he would do everything he could to make sure Kila was safe; though it brought him a small comfort to know that Mion hadn’t seen her.
“After I kill you, I”ll remind her just which family she serves.” Mion raised a clenched fist, infused with Earth Aspect, and prepared to strike the ground when a third party entered the fray.
A row of trees fell with a thunderous noise as two stonebears emerged. One of them was twice the size of the Tigerbull from the ceremony, but the other was so large that its shadow darkened the entirety of the camping ground. Its eyes were a stone gray and its entire body was covered in spots of hard stones of gray and white where its dark gray fur didn’t show. The larger stonebear contrasted with the smaller one with its stark black fur, white eyes, and pure gray stones.
“This was it, this was the dangerous feeling I was sensing earlier,” Noki thought to himself.
“Ah, so you’ve finally come to take your revenge,” Mion gleefully said to the larger stonebear, “good! I was starting to worry you hadn’t gotten my message.” He let his Earth Aspect flow through his body and layered it with his potent Physical Tera, boosting his physical capabilities far higher than he ever had before. “After fighting that Wildling, I figured out how to increase my power even more. Now, let me see your true strength!”
The larger stonebear roared with enough power to make the camping ground crumble, but Mion leapt towards it at the same time and struck it with a mighty blow. It echoed throughout the forest and the shockwave cracked the ground below and separated branches from trees.
Noki landed a few feet away from the ditch and turned to see Mion battling the large Stonebear. He hated to admit it, but he was in awe of the fight; even with his Tera unusable he could tell that Mion was operating on a level much higher than himself, Kila and maybe even Baira. A secondary roar jolted Noki from his thoughts and made him focus on the other stonebear. He recognized it as the one he saw when he first entered the forest but unlike last time, it was wide awake.
“I don’t know why they’re here, but its pretty clear that they want both of us dead,” Noki thought as the stonebear slowly stalked towards him. “Maybe I can make it back over the ditch and head down the mountain. Kila is probably sensing all this and staying away, so she wouldn’t mind if I left, right?”
Noki took a small step back to maintain the distance between himself and the approaching beast.
“But what if she’s on her way to help me and I leave? Then she’d be stuck against both the stonebears and Mion. I can’t do that to her, not after all she’s done to help me get this far.”
Seeing no other option, Noki readied himself for a fight.
“If I’m going to have a chance of surviving this, I can’t worry about my future ascension. I have to get past what’s in front of me right now!”
Against Kila’s orders, Noki began to force his Physical Tera through his pathways once again.