Silas walked into the inn, dragging his hammer behind him. The establishment was nice, with decorative paintings, wood paneling, and a nicely built fire in a hearth along one wall of the room. To the right, when he first walked in, there was a bar counter, and littered around the room were some oversized plush chairs for the patrons to sit in. To the left was a staircase leading up to the other two floors the inn had.
The one other thing that stuck out in the main room of the inn was the half-naked women either sitting at the bar or in two of the chairs. They were lounging around, talking and giggling. There were maybe half a dozen of them. They had a lot more flesh exposed than Silas was used to seeing from someone who wasn’t his wife. He tried to push the views from his mind as he walked to the bar counter.
The man behind the bar was a plump man, well-groomed with short-cropped hair and clean facial features. You could tell this man was someone who, while being large, took care of himself. Silas smiled at him.
“Greetings fellow cultivator, my name is Silas, and I’m wondering if I could have a room for the foreseeable future?” he asked.
The man looked at him like Silas had grown a second head. “Well, Silas, uh,” the innkeeper paused before he looked around at all the half-naked women. “We have rooms, but they’re not really for rent like a traditional inn.” He then narrowed his eyes at Silas. “You do know what sort of establishment we are, don’t you?”
Silas smirked and grinned. “Yes, of course. Tell me, brother, what is your name?”
The man looked at him, caught a bit off guard when Silas called him brother. “My name is Leo, Silas.”
“Please Leo, call me brother,” Silas laughed a little, putting his hands on the bar counter. His hammer leaned against it with the head of the hammer on the ground. His slight laughing caught the attention of the girls who now stared at him curiously. “So, here’s the thing, my brother. I can’t really go into the city, due to, well, because of some politics, but I need to remain close to the city.” It seemed like Silas could really lay on the charm when he needed to.
Leo stared at Silas and reached out with his spirit sensing Silas’s. Leo gave Silas a look like he was scared and finally calmed and then shook his head. “No, we have the protection of the glorious Pavilion. We don’t need some broken cultivator,” he sneered when he said the last bit.
Silas frowned and sighed before he spoke, “well, broken as I may be, I'm sure I could defeat you.”
Leo just laughed and shook his head. “I doubt you could, but it doesn’t matter. Go. It’s almost lunchtime for the girls, and I must get cooking. Leave, or I will have you removed from the inn.”
Silas could probably put this Leo man in his place. It wasn’t worth it. Instead, he gave one long sideways glance at Leo and then turned to look at the girls. He then dragged his hammer outside and back to the road. He looked around a little and shrugged, crossing the road and kept walking away from the city. Silas had an idea, but he didn’t really like it, so he kept in the woods of the area.
He walked until he was tired, and the night was almost falling. He opened the pack he had and dug around until he found his last piece of bread he had taken and saved from his dinner the night before. The roll was wrapped in fabric; he didn’t mind the bits of thread or the staleness. He hadn’t eaten since that dinner. Sitting on a fallen tree, he looked around his little area. He supposed this was as good as an area to make camp for the night, and in the morning, he would have to hunt.
Finishing his pitiful dinner, he sighed and concentrated, pulling a small pop-up tent and some blankets for him to sleep in from the ring. The tent was really just a big thick blanket he’d tie to some trees to make a small triangular tent shape. He’d be able to sleep under this to protect himself from the wind and if it drizzled. Any more weather than that, though, and Silas would be in trouble.
Sitting in the grass now with his little area setup Silas closed his eyes and concentrated. He looked inside himself, imagining his channels and picturing his madra. That cool dark silver color flowing through his system. He imagined his core, which was larger than usual because of his training so hard when he was younger. It was full to the brim of the deep gray liquid. He traced along his channels, leaving the core, but as he went, it got harder. The black gooey ooze from before was getting worse. The black ooze was thicker and took up more of his channels.
Silas strained to fight through it, to open his channels. Sitting there in a lotus position in the dirt, he started breathing heavily and even sweating with the workout he was giving his mental facilities. Finally, he passed out.
Silas woke up half-slumped against the broken-down tree he was sitting on the night before. He woke covered in dry sweat and even some of the black ooze. Looking around his little area, he frowned. The hell did he bother setting the tent up for? Shaking his head, he stood up, groaning a little. Sleeping in such a way was difficult on the back. Looking up, he saw that the sun was rising in the distance over the trees. Well, he mused, an attempt on his life did not awaken him, so at least he had slept last night.
Thinking over what he had learned last night, he got worried. These pills he took that Master Eichi made for him were not working. His issue seemed to be getting worse. He couldn’t get any information about what happened to his village. His own father kicked him out of the city he was born in, and now he couldn’t go back home. Well, he could, but what was the point? There was nothing for him there. Nothing at all.
He shook his head and grabbed his hammer, lugging it upon his shoulder. He needed to find some breakfast, and if he could find a big enough animal, he could cure some meat and keep it to eat. There had to be some deer or something around here. He’d leave his little camp the way it was and head off and look for something.
As Silas walked through the woods, he could only carry his hammer on his shoulder a little while before he dropped it and dragged it, letting one side of the head drag through the dirt. He hadn’t gone very far from his camp when he realized his hammer was a little heavier than it normally was. He looked back and saw a familiar phoenix on it.
Silas smiled, and when he realized he knew the phoenix. Shu had gotten much darker since the last time Silas saw him. Before when Silas had seen him, he saw the darkening of the feathers and flame, but now the bird was darker, almost fully black. Silas let the handle of the hammer fall, and he approached Shu, kneeling down, inspecting the phoenix.
“What’s going on with you, little buddy?” Silas asked, and narrowed his eyes at the magical creature. Shu simply squawked and turned his head at him.
Silas smirked and nodded. “Yeah, I guess. Well, come on then, you can help me hunt for something to eat.”
So, the two set off deeper into the woods. Eventually, he saw some tree trunks that were marred and scratched at. Silas squinted his eyes and kneeled down, inspecting them.
“Shu, how do you feel about fighting a bear?” Silas asked, frowning a bit, but shrugged. “We’ll be alright, probably,” he paused for a moment. “...maybe. Hopefully.”
Silas couldn’t even climb to his feet before he heard the loud growl and was charged from the side. Silas could almost dodge in time, but he failed. He was knocked to the ground on his back, looking up at a giant white bear baring its fangs at him.
Growling loudly in Silas’s face, his giant paws digging into his chest, his hammer left in the dirt some feet away, Shu perched on the face of the hammer, watching. He turned his head and squawked at the bear as well.
Silas was straining to fight the bear off of him. His arms were outstretched, holding the massive beast's jowls away. Silas yelled out in agony as the beast fought the grip Silas had on him, pushing his paws deeper into Silas’s chest growling in response to the yell. Silas wasn’t even fully recovered from his previous night dealing with the assassins, and now he had to fight a damn bear?!
He pulled one hand away from the snout of the animal and balled his hand into a fist. Cycling as much of his madra as he could to his arm. Pushing through the pain and resistance, he then punched the bear right in its snout. The bear growled in response and lifted his paws up, standing to its full height. It had to be over seven feet tall. Silas’s eyes opened in shock and amazement. The bear fell back to its paws, one of them coming back to swipe at Silas with that paw that was bigger than his head.
This attack, if Silas lived through it, would not be good for him. Silas rolled to the side, and he heard the massive animal fall on its paws. Struggling to his feet, he staggered for his war hammer. He looked to the ground, looking at his own shadow. Quietly wondering if it would do anything in this fight like it had two times now, bailing him out of situations he could not get out of himself. Come on, Silas pleaded while staring at the shadow while using what little strength he had. He lifted his hammer, standing there breathing heavily and haggardly. His robes torn to shreds from the bear's claws.
The bear growled and charged at Silas. He tightened his grip on the hammer, squeezing the life out of it, mustering all of whatever strength he had. Lifting it back, he swung it towards the bear, who was still charging towards him. The bear was too large and moving too quickly to really dodge or anything else but get hit. Teeth still grazed into Silas’s arm.
It didn’t get deep, though, thanks to the blow Silas landed in the bear's midsection and caused the bear’s teeth to graze down his arm. While the marks weren’t that deep, they were down the entire length of Silas’s forearm. The bear now was on the ground, its insides crushed, breathing heavily, looking up at Silas.
Silas advanced on the bear, dragging his hammer behind him, panting. He looked around for a moment for Shu, finding him on a branch low to the ground. “Thanks for the help,” he smirked a little before looking down at the bear.
The bear looked up to him, scared. The creature knew what was going to happen now, and with Silas’s arm hanging limp and bloody. It would be hard for him to do, but Silas had to deliver the finishing blow on this massive animal.
He couldn’t leave him suffering like this. Holding the hammer so the handle was straight up in the air, Silas maneuvered his inertia and its own weight to get it on his shoulder. He went back to looking at the bear and then just kind of flopped the hammer down the face, landing on the bear’s head, crushing it. The ragged breathing was over, and the bear was dead.
Examining his shredded arm, Silas grunted. He lacked healing pills or any means of immediate remedy. Now, he faced the daunting task of breaking down the massive bear for its meat before it spoiled. However, the urgency lay in stopping the bleeding.
During his stay at the hotel in the capital, Silas had taken a bath towel and stored it in his pack. Extracting one now, he exerted considerable effort to tear it into strips. He tied the fabric tightly above the wound, securing one end with his teeth and pulling the other side as tight as possible.
Contemplating his next move, Silas considered his less-than-warm reception at the inn before. Doubting that Leo would provide assistance, he nonetheless felt compelled to try. Bleeding out miles from the city of his birth, far from his current home, was not his intended fate. Glancing at his hammer, he acknowledged he wouldn’t be able to lift it again. Doubting his ability to access his storage ring due to his weakened spirit, Silas frowned. He didn’t want to abandon the hammer, but he couldn’t discern any other course of action.
Turning to Shu, perched on a branch in the tree, Silas instructed, “Shu, make sure no one messes with my hammer.” He then walked off, propping his arm up to minimize blood loss, though the linen was already soaked in blood.
Fortunately, the inn wasn’t far away. By the time Silas reached it, he was staggering so badly that upon entering through the front door, he fell and passed out.
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If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Kenji hated coming here, to the land of the dead. He stood at the opening to the long walkway. It took forever, and honestly, there were other things he needed to do. Still, he was coming here humbly. His sister was right. The thing he assured couldn’t be stolen was, in fact, stolen.
The opening was a large doorway made of solid stone, larger than any entrance that would normally be comprehended. Around the entrance were gigantic statues of his siblings, Lilith being the largest of them. There also seemed to be some kind of rolling fog that never quit. Looking through the entrance, all you could see was a long hallway, with everything looking like they cast it in the same piece of stone. There were no grooves or edges, almost like they carved the hallway into a giant mountain. Kenji walked down this hallway, trying to move as quickly as he could.
The hallway was bare, nothing on the walls. It was all void of any sort of decoration. He and Lilith really were the most alike between all the siblings. This was why they got along so well. They had the same dark outlook on everything, with her being the embodiment of death and him of shadows and nightmares. It really only made sense. The other siblings were more showy and flamboyant, besides Minako, but she had other stuff going on.
Eventually, finally, in what seemed like forever, Kenji reached the other end of the hallway. The fog only seemed stronger now, rolling around close to the ground. When he came to the end of the hallway, there was a gate. The gate was closed with an old heavy chain and a lock on it. In front of the gate was a figure wearing a robe. Not the sort of robes the Sacred Artists wore, but this one was heavy and one full piece of fabric with a hood over the figure's head.
The hood was so large, in fact, that it completely covered the being's face. It stood holding a large scythe like it was a staff. Not a practical weapon, but Lilith’s mother was from the western lands. They had lots of symbolism that showed death looking like this, so Lilith adopted it as her gatekeeper.
“Gatekeeper, it is I, Kenji, brother to your master, Lilith. I seek an audience with the lord over this domain,” Kenji said to the being in his raspy broken voice.
The figure seemed to look over Kenji, inspecting him and his intent. Who knew what powers Lilith imbued this gatekeeper with when it was given this post. Lilith was rather powerful. It took several moments with Kenji staring at it blankly behind his blindfold. Finally, magically, the lock fell from the chain and the chain unraveled itself, opening the gates. The figure, still silent, simply moved to the side for Kenji to enter.
Kenji walked into the fog, through the opening was a large open black desert with gravestones everywhere. Over the dark lands was a large black castle. That was one thing they differed on. While Kenji had his crumbling manor, Lilith had this massive castle. She had creatures and servants to help her, though. Kenji didn’t trust the inhabitants of his lands to help him with anything. They were nightmares and shadow demons, after all. Who in their right mind would trust them?
Lilith also had the benefit of selecting cultivators who established themselves powerful to move on to the realms beyond the Earth. The ones selected to carry death mana. There weren’t many since death mana was so powerful, but it was still more servants than he had in his realm. Although, with the current situation going on, it seemed like Kenji would have himself a Sage of Shadow mana soon enough.
He walked through the darkened desert of his sister's lands, down a long path between all the different gravestones and mausoleums. There were even a couple of ancient sarcophagi around the lands of the dead, with riches laid around them in the form of gems and golden coins and trinkets. Besides these graves and small stone buildings, the massive graveyard was empty.
He finally reached the end of the trail and came to the front gates of the castle, where Lilith was sitting on top of her horse, waiting for him. She spoke when she saw him, “Brother, you didn’t have to make the journey here. I would have met you.”
Kenji looked up at his sister and held his head in a bit of shame. “You were right, it’s gone. I went and checked after we spoke. It had to be the brat.”
Lilith looked down to her brother with an expression somewhere between confusion and anger, “Why in the world would Genki want the bauble?”
Kenji looked up to her, exacerbated. “Who knows why she would take it? To take over my lands? To take power away from me? I don’t know. She has done nothing yet besides setting that nightmare into the mortal world, but with that bauble dear sister, we both know she could do so much more. What happens if she gets the rest of the pieces? It’s unthinkable.”
Lilith shook her head. “No. Father would never allow something like that to happen. He doesn’t seem to care much about what happens in our lands, with us, but I think he’d care if one of us tried to take control over everything.”
“Maybe,” was all Kenji could reply.
They both then looked up for a moment as if they heard something, then they looked back at each other. “Why is Kentaro calling us? He never calls a meeting.” Kenji was the first to speak, and Lilith frowned.
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Silas woke in a soft bed covered in frilly lace of bright colors. He woke suddenly, almost jumping out of the bed. Then he heard some giggles from the corner of the room. Looking to see who was giggling, he saw two girls sitting at a small table drinking from teacups with a pot in between them.
“Finally, you’re awake. Leo will be happy to get you out of here finally,” one of them spoke up, a young woman with fiery red hair. She looked at him with her bright green eyes. She had pale skin and was obviously from the Western Islands.
Silas slumped back in bed for a moment and closed his eyes; he was so comfortable. Then he jumped back up. “Leo?” He made it back to the whorehouse. He could barely remember the walk out of the woods or getting here, let alone stumbling and falling on the ground as soon as he walked in.
Silas looked around the room and took in his surroundings, quickly realizing he was in one of the girls’ rooms, one of the working girls’ rooms. From the frilly pink curtains to the matching fuzzy rug on the floor. The girls drinking their tea giggled once more when Silas jumped out of bed and looked to the second girl. She had tan skin and almond eyes and the typical dark hair found in the south, closer to where he lived.
“Oh, don’t get worked up. You aren’t the first man who woke up in that bed,” the red-haired girl spoke. “Though they usually aren’t so bloody when they come into my room. Come sit down and have some tea with us, and I’ll fill you in.” She motioned to a third chair at the table. “It’ll help you feel better.”
That was when Silas realized he was only in his underclothes now. He went wide-eyed once more and, paired with what she just said, blushed and tried to cover his chest up.
“Your clothes are on the nightstand by the bed, dear Cultivator. We washed them for you and fixed them up. Something tore the sleeve up,” the redhead then told him. “Not that you really have anything to be embarrassed about.” She added, “Lil chubbier than most of the cultivators we see, but you’re more built. They’re usually tall and skinny.” She shook her head.
Silas quickly grabbed his clothes and dressed himself. He was still in a haze that he couldn’t quite work his way out of. “What happened?”
“You walked in and passed out all bloody. Leo yelled and threw a fit but figured it’d be better for his karma if he helped you. So, he fed you some elixirs he had, which he also complained about, and then I volunteered for you to sleep in my room,” the red-haired woman explained. The other woman stayed quiet and just sat drinking her tea, watching them both.
“How long?” Silas asked, bewildered, looking at her.
“Well, it was about midday when you got here and bled all over our floors. You slept through the night and now here you are waking up in time for mid-morning tea,” she explained.
“It might still be good then. A bear attacked me, and I killed it. I was planning on breaking it down and giving some to Leo in exchange for his help.” Silas told the pair standing there, now fully dressed in his cleaned and patched up robes. They looked almost new; they got them so clean, and there were only some small stitches where the robes were torn by the bear. They really did great work.
“It should be, yes, unless something else came along and ate the meat. The season is cold. It’s always cold here in this damn north, but now it’s getting to be dreadfully so, but that might also have worked out in your favor. I doubt anything was roaming around in the snow we had last night,” she nodded along and spoke while he stood there.
His hammer was still sitting out there in the woods. That thing was a treasure. He had to hurry and make sure it was still there. He doubted the phoenix stayed and watched over it or guarded it. “I must go!” he expressed. Silas then stopped for a moment. Silas had to show his appreciation to his benefactor. It would be rude not to give thanks and repay the favor of saving his life.
The red-headed woman smirked and laughed in her tea, seeing Silas’s dilemma. This time, it was an outright laugh as well. Not just one of those cutesy giggles that Silas was almost positive, the girls faked to get men’s attention so they’d be customers. “Go ahead, I will explain to Leo the situation. Just come back as soon as you can. He expects some kind of payment, and I’m sure enough bear meat for us will win him over.”
That was all Silas needed to hear. He bolted out of the room “Thank you!” calling behind him as he went out into the hallway of the inn.
“Turn left!” she called after him and laughed again. Silas followed the direction and turned left in the hall, finding the stairs to go down. He’d run down them before he headed for the door, spotting Leo standing at the bar where he first met the man. “I’ll be back. The red head will explain!” he shouted. That’s when Silas realized he never got the woman’s name, which he felt bad about. She gave him her bed to sleep in, and he didn't even get her name.
Leo shouted at Silas as he ran out of the door, but Silas barely heard him. He would return and give the man and his ladies enough meat for a month as soon as he could get to the animal and break it down.
Once he was outside, he realized how much colder it was today than it had been previously and clasped his outer robe around him. Running through the snow, he realized his madra had recharged a little from sleeping so much. This was good because he could also warm his body a bit and force himself to run faster.
When Silas returned to the scene of the dead bear in the woods, he found it exactly as he had left it. Dead bear with a crushed abdomen and head buried in a bit of snow, and his war hammer was on the ground next to it. There was also a lot of blood pooled around everywhere. This was when he finally realized just how much blood he had actually lost and was surprised he could even make it to the inn.
Silas then heard the squawk, and he spun. Shu was still there on the branch he was on when Silas had left. “Shu! You guarded my hammer. You’re a wonderful creature, aren’t you?” He smiled and laughed while holding his belly as he did so. Shu simply gave another squawk and then disappeared in a poof of shadow.
Silas laughed, more to himself than anything. Then he walked to the dead bear. With some of the recovered madra, he pulled a dagger from his storage ring. He went about breaking down the bear and pulling all the meat he could from it. Then cleaned it with some snow he had gathered, washing away the bulk of the blood. He fashioned a small sled with some tree branches and the last towel he had stolen from the hotel in the capital and some of the remaining leaves and such that weren’t blown away or buried.
This entire process had taken him quite a while, but he broke down the entire animal and even skinned it. Before nightfall, he was dragging his sled and the meat to the inn. He explained everything to Leo, who seemed hesitant and still angry about having to use his expensive elixirs on Silas, but he took the meat anyway. He even told Silas to keep the bearskin, and that he’d need it since he wasn’t sleeping inside the inn again unless he was a paying customer. Silas had also spoken with the redheaded woman from before, who he learned was named Maisy.
By the time the sun set, Silas had a fire going next to his original campsite, and he had a belly full of cooked bear meat. Silas could also clean the bearskin and could use it as a blanket to help keep him warm in the night.