40. United

The fires were put out. The survivors were healed, and the dead were buried. The city of Mer’cah began the long process of healing. It mourned its dead, and it celebrated its heroes.

It’s mortal leaders did their best with the logistics of the recovery while the cultivators gathered to investigate what had happened, demanding answers as to who had attacked them and why. The council that had initially begun as the ringleader for the tournament became an investigatory body.

I, along with Pi Phon and Hien Ro, were called to answer for what the patriarch of the Six Mountain Sect had done.

I was not presumed guilty, as the obvious target of the attack, and anyway my heroics during the battle in the sky were too much for them to ignore and try to pin the blame on me. Rather, I was a witness in the investigation, forcing me to sit through hours of testimony from all sides of the matter.

I listened as Tornolai described the sense of corruption that he had witnessed in the attacker’s Qi. The shallowness of the attackers Dao, the falseness of his power. I nodded along, pleased that the gregarious and boisterous man could have a serious side. A serious side which faded the moment he was relieved from giving his testimony, as he vanished shouting about alcohol and brothels.

I listened as Pi Phon relayed the events which had led to the schism in the Six Mountain Sect. He detailed the growing unease which he had felt, whispers of elders and juniors and friends going missing, of ‘mortals’ with the faces of advanced cultivators. He told the tale of how Di Phon had seen the corruption coming and chosen to face it alone, sending out his loyal son and what companions he trusted to the safety of the south.

These facts backed up his previous words on the matter. He had been warning the elite of the city of the split between the loyalists of the Six Mountain Sect and the new faction, the Sovereign Summit Sect, from the day he’d set foot in the city. They hadn’t believed him before when he’d spoken of demonic cultivation and the raising of undead, but the recent events had given credence to every word that he’d uttered before.

Finally it was my turn to speak.

And I did not know what to say.

“Do you know why it was that Ko Ren has targeted you, Little Bug?” Tonilla asked me.

“Because the master who has been feeding him demonic knowledge wishes to devour my soul,” I said after debating how to explain the matter in simple terms for hours. I had foreseen the question coming, and so it only took moments to select which of the responses would be best from the list I had thought of.

“There is no other reason?” Tonilla pressed.

“His master’s master pursues me because of events from one of my previous lives,” I admitted. “There is nothing that I have done in this life to warrant such animosity. But through the last hundred lives I have lived, my life has been cut short because of their pursuit. They have gone to lengths greater than this to kill me. They will go to lengths greater than this to kill me.”

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“What would happen if we turned you over to them?” one of the other elders inquired.

“Speak with the people of your city and answer that question for yourself,” I suggested, confident in my popularity among the masses.

“Would it bring an end to such attacks?” the elder pressed.

I sighed. “No. The hand which corrupts this world sees this as an opportunity above and beyond simply grasping my soul, it is an opportunity to spread his influence beyond the reach of the one who holds his leash. Now that he has planted his seed in the soils of Atla, he will not stop until he has claimed the harvest. Ko Ren and others like him will continue to seek out more and more power whether I am here to face them or not.”

“Has this happened before?” the elder asked.

“This exact situation? No, but they have shown their willingness to corrupt and destroy the innocent lives,” I said. “Would you like to hear of all the times in which they succeeded in killing me before I gathered power? Would you like to hear of the devastation that they leave in their wake each time my soul germinates a new form? Do not think that I enjoy this game of endless sorrow that my presence leaves in its wake. It is breaking that cycle which gives my life purpose, and whether you stand behind me, or beside me, I shall endeavor to shield you from the corruption of the Divine Fates Empire.”

There was a gasp suddenly as I named my enemy.

“Are you claiming that the attack, the entire battle in the heavens, that was due to your presence in this world?” the elder demanded harshly.

“I do not get to choose where or whence I am born,” I said. “But Empress Nadia presses her vengeance without regard for those who are caught in the wake. I am fortunate that the realm of this world was able to stand between she and I, for if she had not been forestalled, this entire world would be but ash and ruin. Just as the one whence I spent my last, short and meaningless life.”

“And what did you do to her to warrant such persecution?” the elder demanded.

“I watched as the world burned around her. I watched as time took away all that she loved and held dear. I watched as every attempt to forestall the inevitable failed and entropy shattered that which had once been whole into millions of pieces. I watched as her life drew to a close, and when all that she had left to turn to were demonic techniques, I closed my eyes and looked away,” I admitted.

“So it is your fault—”

“Enough, Elder Sila,” Tonilla said.

“But—”

“Enough,” she repeated. “There is clearly more to this story than we are ready to comprehend. Thank you, Po Guah, for sharing as much as you have about the cycle of your past lives. The question I have to ask is how do we stop the devastation which you mentioned, which overcame your world in your previous existence? How do we stand against the Divine Fates Empire?”

I considered her words carefully before answering with but one of my own.

“United.”