The next morning Haze gathered us all in the hotel lobby with our packs on our backs and missions to give out. “Starting with you, Scarlet,” Haze began as she addressed her student, “You and everyone else will be going to the Shcorenath empire in the south for an extermination mission. There is a horde of krakens assaulting a port town there. Find the cause and kill as many monsters as you can.” She then handed Scarlet the sheet of paper with the mission details and a bag of money for travel.
Scarlet took the paper and the bag and bowed, “Yes, Master. I’ll ensure the success of this mission.”
Haze nodded, “Good. Zeana, you and I are going north to Niflheim for another extermination mission. This one will be a bit easier than theirs.”
I nodded, and Yuki yipped in confirmation, “Right. What about the twins?” I asked, pointing to the two girls looking up at Haze hopefully.
“You two have three assignments due at school and a test in two weeks. I expect you to have your second cores by the end of the day tomorrow, got it,” Haze said, glowering down at the twins.
The two girls recoiled from the glare and averted their gaze, “Aye, Master. We’ll do our best.”
Nodding again, Haze said, “Good, now let’s go. We have ships to catch.” She then turned and, without waiting for us, left. The rest of the team and I hurriedly followed, piled into a hovercraft waiting for us, and sped off to the ship docks. Everyone disembarked the hovercraft there except for the twins, who had to go to school.
Haze and I separated from the team as they went to charter a ship to the Schorenath empire, while Haze and I apparently already had a ship ready for us. Haze led me to a very familiar ship. The F.F.S.C. RayRider with Seven and Pike, waiting for us at the end of a boarding plank.
“Quite a magnificent ship, isn’t it?” an old man said behind me, making me jump halfway out of my skin.
Yuki almost fell off my shoulder as I screamed, grabbed the hilt of my sword out of reflex, and turned to see the crotchety laughing Guru Shi’en standing behind me. Clutching my chest, I quickly controlled my breathing, helped Yuki back onto my shoulders, and said, “Will you stop that!? Why are you here?”
Guru Shi’en kept chuckling to himself for a few seconds before answering, “I am here at the request of Master Hazaizil.”
I turned to Haze, “Why is he here?” I asked a little worry in my voice. I’m not worried he’ll get hurt. I’m worried he’ll hurt me somehow.
“He’s here to train you,” Haze said matter of factly.
I blinked, “Why? You’re my master. Aren’t you supposed to train me?”
Haze sighed, “You’re advancing too fast for me to keep up. So, I’m doing the only thing I can. I’m pushing you further.”
“You’re what?”
“What Master Hazaizil is trying to say is she’s trying to make you a master,” Guru Shi’en explained.
“But-but, I’ve only trained for a little over a year!” I protested, “I still have a lot to learn! And even more to advance!”
Guru Shi’en chuckled, “Yes, yes, we know. That’s why I’m going to be taking over your training. That’s the second reason, at least.”
“The second reason? What’s the first?”
“COME ON HURRY UP!! I DON’T HAVE ALL DAY!!” Seven yelled from the deck of her ship.
“HOLD ON!” Haze yelled back as Guru Shi’en continued.
“The first reason is to see if you are even ready for the training and to see whether you are worthy of learning the secrets I will be teaching you.”
“Exactly,” Haze chimed in, “If you don’t pass his examination on this mission, then I’m still your Master and teacher. If you pass, you’ll be given the rank and title of master and have two new students to teach.”
I cocked my head, “We already have two students picked out for me?”
“You’ll be taking Leila and Shersha off my hands,” Haze clarified.
A mix of emotions flowed through me at that point. On the one hand, I’m terrified of the responsibility. On the other hand, I’m excited to be teaching someone I know at least. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and refocus my attention on the present, then I nodded, “I will do my best to live up to your expectations Master Haze, Master Shi’en,” I said and bowed deeply, accidentally making Yuki fall off my shoulders. She looked up at me and yapped her protests at being thrown to the ground.
“Hmm, good. You finally called me Master. This might just prove interesting,” Master Shi’en said as he began his slow ascent up the boarding plank, closely followed by Haze and I.
***
As I hurled over the edge of the ship, I remembered how much I hate motion sickness. And had to reactivate my wings to hover over the ship. I’ve spent the last week cultivating my Crucible core and getting her up as much as possible, and after I hurled my lunch, I opened up my stat screen.
Name: Zeana Si’enn; Title: The Endless Storm; Race: Deadly Zin; Cores: 8; Age: 9.
First Core 1: Lightning And Force Lvl 7
First Core 2: Water And Life Lvl 7
Second Core 1: Earth And Force Lvl 7
Second Core 2: Ice, Edge, And Force Lvl 7
Third Core 1: Air and Fire Lvl 7
Third Core 2: Fire, Ice, And Edge Lvl 6
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Fourth Core 1: undecided
Fourth Core 2: undecided
Skills:
Quick Advancements Lvl 10
High Pain Tolerance Lvl 2
Chakra Separation lvl 2
Monster Tamer lvl 1
Natural Abilities: Flight, Hard Skin, High Agility, High Dexterity, High Intelligence, Hivemind, Multiply, Genetic Alterations, Kitsune Form, Split Cores, Climbing Form, Tsudzurao Form, Quick Transformation.
Racial Abilities: Sin, Penance.
Finally, I reached level six. I don’t think it would’ve taken this long to reach level six, but cycling while motion sick proved to be very difficult. As I slowly felt my strength return, I looked upon the land passing by before me. The land below was covered in fire and ice. Rivers of lava flowed through glaciers of ice, cutting wide, winding fissures through the ice. Here and there, tall arched pillars of black stone glowed with red lines of lava flowing down them like blood seeping from the blackened ribcage of a giant as grey snow accumulated atop the corps-like structure.
In the distance, a city with high blue walls was barely visible through the red and white steam that floated into the dark clouds above. The city was bathed in the red light of a volcano that looked frozen in time and erupting simultaneously. The lava spewed out of the mountain, forming a massive black and ruby-colored Yew tree with ash-colored leaves pulsing with red energy every few minutes as the rivers of lava flowed uphill toward the volcanic tree.
I turned to Haze and Master Shi’en and asked, “Are we there yet?”
“Yes, we are,” Haze answered as Seven turned the ship around a black stone pillar toward the city, “Welcome to Sanguine de Savoie, the capital city of Niflheim and the tree of souls.”
I nodded, “Okay, what are we doing here?” I asked, “I know it’s an extermination mission, but you never told me much past that.”
“We’re here for chakras and to track down a monster near those ruins somewhere over there,” she said, pointing to the right, where a wall of thick steam obscured our vision.
“Okay, sounds easy enough, I guess.”
“Not quite,” Haze countered, “One of the chakras you want will be generated by you as you fight the monster. So I suggest you use that chakra for the main core rather than the second.”
“Why?”
“You’ll see,” was Haze’s only cryptic response as she fell silent for the rest of the trip to the city. The trip took another hour before we stopped at the dock. From there, Master Shi’en, Haze, Yuki, and I disembarked and began walking through the city.
Sanguine de Savoie felt depressing. The buildings were made of volcanic rock and obsidian, making every building black. The air was thick with ash, and I had to cast a spell to filter the air for Yuki and I.
We walked for ten minutes to the town center where we were supposed to meet somebody. As we walked, I tried my best to ignore the depressing architecture and reveled at the people who lived there. They were all demons of every different kind. Some looked like tiny red devils with long pointed tails, long ears like an elf’s, with two small horns coming from their temples. Others looked like massive half-dead minotaurs with the heads of skeletal bulls, the bulging muscles of a black-skinned human, and the legs of a bull. And others looked half-human, with the only defining features being their horns or leathery wings.
As we drew closer to the town center, we stopped before a building with a sign that read ‘Flaming Council,’ which we entered. The room we walked into was lit with glowing red rubies that gave off a sinister red light, and in the center of the room sat a female demon I couldn’t identify.
She wore no clothes but had pale white skin with inky black and red liquid covering her body. The black liquid covered her muscular thighs and up the front of her body, leaving her back bare, going around her navel, covering her voluptuous chest, and then down her arms, covering her forearms and clawed hands. Like tiger stripes, red lines ran over the black liquid and pulsed with power. On her back were two raven-black wings with long ivory claws on their tips, and a steel chain hung around her neck with a blue sapphire in the center of it hanging between her breasts. The woman flicked back her waist-long, silky black hair and looked at us with glowing emerald green eyes as a seductive smile curled her ruby-red lips.
“Ah, you must be the cultivators who accepted the mission. I must admit I wish there were more of you,” the woman said, her voice low and sultry, as though she was whispering sweet nothings into our ears.
“Yeah, nice to meet you too. I’m Master Hazaizil, and this is Zeana and Guru Shi’en,” Haze said, pointing to each of us in turn.
The woman started and blinked as she looked toward the old man we had with us, and she bowed politely, “My apologies for my rudeness Guru Shi’en. I had no idea the leader of the Fusang empire would be here. Allow me to start over. I am infernal counselor one. You may call me Noir. It is an honor to meet you.”
Master Shi’en raised his hand, “Please forget the formalities, my lady. It is a pleasure to meet you, Noir.”
Noir raised from her bow, clasped her hands before her, and said, “I will provide you with any information you need about the monster and any comforts you may need while you stay here. What would you like to know first?”
“Bring us to the best spot to cultivate dark and light chakras. We’ll be fighting the monster tomorrow morning,” Haze said, wasting no time.
“Right this way, then. We don’t have long,” Noir agreed and hastily walked out the door. I couldn’t help but smile as we followed her as I was finally going to get my next core. I thought long and hard about my next two cores and came to two choices. My first choice was a pure light core. If I had control over that pure concept, then I could do a lot of stuff with light. I couldn’t wait to get it leveled up to its maximum power.
Noir led us through the city again, and we stopped at one of the taller obsidian buildings, which she pointed to the top before speaking, “The top of the building is the best place to cultivate the two chakras.” She looked at the massive volcanic tree of souls pulsing rapidly and said, “You have five minutes until total darkness and ten until final light.”
“What’s final light?” I asked.
“You’ll find out soon. Now go!” Haze said as she cycled her chakras and jumped to the top of the building in a single bound. I sighed and felt Fengbao cycle his energy to my wings and launch me to the top of the building where Haze sat cross-legged, about to meditate. I dropped my pack and sat next to her in the same pose. There we waited for something to happen.
I looked up at the Tree of Souls as the pulsing energy within it grew in speed with each passing moment. Then as the tree seemed to glow constantly without pulsing, a wave of darkness shot up the trunk of the tree and cast the city into complete darkness. The tree turned from molten lava to oozing black stone without a hint of any light or power emanating from it.
“It’s time. When you see the sun start cultivating the light,” Haze said and took a deep breath as she began cultivating the darkness around us.
I nodded and waited, Yuki curling up in my lap and getting comfortable. A few minutes later, a small glimmer of light from just under the clouds. I shook my head to get out of my reverie and was about to close my eyes when something happened. A wave of celestial light rolled over the icy plains below and covered the city and the tree above, giving the world a different look and feel.
Instead of icy plains with rivers of lava flowing through it. Blue ethereal trees formed instead, and the depressing black buildings turned white and blue, reflecting the white light and fracturing it into rainbow-colored light up to the tree above. The tree changed as well. Instead of black molten rock, the tree had brown and white bark going up its trunk and covering its branches. The once-ashen leaves became pink, and hundreds of thousands of large pink, yellow, and orange peaches grew along the branches.
“Wow,” I whispered, then suddenly remembered what I was supposed to be doing. I closed my eyes and felt around for the chakras around me. One felt vast and slow, like a never-ending cold space of nothingness, while the other felt warm and comforting, like a hug from a close friend.
I focused on the second chakra and pulled it into myself, feeling it enter my body and flow through my channels as I guided it to my second Heart core. Using the energy coursing through me, I tunneled through the walls of my channel to the core as fast as I could and began filling the core with the light chakra. I soon felt the energy around me dissipate and disappear, but by then, I had already filled my core and read the notification.
Fourth Core 2: Light Lvl 1
***