Zuzen Bakar appeared in an empty field somewhere in the middle of the Harta continent, somewhere far from any settlements, towns, or cities, somewhere far from ordinary people's eyes. He’d fallen like a meteor, making the air scream with his descent, his aura flaring brightly. Then he landed like a snowflake barely rustling the grass as he touched down.
Moments later he was accompanied by several others, all of them from Radiant Orrichalcum Gardens, all of them disciples of their master, the youngest person to ever climb to the rank of elder in the sect. The powerful man they’d ever meant including the Sect Head, and the occasional envoys from the mother sect.
A few of these self-named disciples were even fellow elders of the sect, people decades or even centuries their master’s senior. Warriors who’d put away their pride for a sake of being enlightened in the true essence of martial power.
People who’d eventually become convinced and converted the more they were shown and taught, putting away their own petty plots and schemes as they saw how long the road they were trying to walk on actually was.
One of the last to land was a short young woman, only six feet or so in height, gray skinned, with goat horns and an ox-tail, making for a striking resemblance with their Sect Head.
She was Radha Suresh’s daughter, Arya, someone who was being groomed to be an elder and possibly take her father’s place in the sect. Someone with other elders in the sect serving as her masters, or at least that had been the case before all her former masters become Elder Oedhiem’s disciples.
Looking at things now, Zuzen couldn’t help feel slightly awed. He felt the urge to challenge the strange unicorn horned jotun a second time just to see how long he’d last before the younger jotun finally crushed him. He was pretty sure he’d last a full minute now, even if the master wasn’t holding back.
“Hail, Bakar...how goes life as a rogue cultivator?” said Arya. Finding her way to Zuzen’s side after hoping off of her flying sword.
“It goes…” said Zuzen, wrinkling his nose. He wasn’t sure what he was doing counted as roughing in as a rogue cultivator. As far as he knew, normal rogue cultivators didn’t walk around with spatial bags filled with enough rare materials, weaponry, devices, and essence medicines to put most sect vaults to shame.
Most of his work, most of all the other “rogue” cultivator’s work, as part of their master’s scheme was for them to wander around looking aloof. Butting their heads into things that weren’t their business, showing off their power and wealth, to draw a following. Killing off the occasional would be robber and rival that came around, to try and take the things they’d shown off, for that same purpose
At the moment Zuzen had fifteen brother’s in arms that he was developing and sixty lower leveled disciples that he’d usually observe from a distance and then visit at just the right time to deliver some usual advice, a bit of support, and a small fortune of materials to before “mysteriously” vanishing again.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Those who’d been scattered and told to join other sects were doing much the same thing except with their lower disciples. Basically doing their best impression of what the master was doing. Gathering all the available talents in their area and converting them into future followers of the Radiant Orrichacalcum Gardens.
Another of their fellow disciples wandered over a cat-eared monstrum with the last name Kenneth and a thing for crimson capes.
“Damn, is this really okay, people are gonna notice if we all go missing like this...It’ll ruin the plan.” whined Kenneth.
Arya chuckled and tossed a honey roasted chestnut that she’d gotten from a bag of mix that she’d pulled from her spatial pocket into her mouth.
“Eh, I wouldn’t worry about it. Something tells me that guy has a plan.” said Arya.
Zuzen gave her a sidelong look, and then shivered, Arya was one of those that responded to power. She was a nice enough person generally, but she also was an adherent believer in establishing dominance over those who were weaker than her and following those who were stronger.
For her it wasn’t just a matter of flattering the strong and oppressing the weak. In her head might truly made right, and some of the things she’d been shown were enough that Zuzen was fairly sure that if her father turned the sect over to her today, she’d likely turn it right over to their master in the same hour.
She was a true zealot of their master’s “Pancosmic Way”, what made Zuzen feel a cold in the back of his neck, was the knowledge that with each passing day, he wasn’t far off from becoming like the rest of the zealots himself.
As he was busy thinking these thoughts he realized that the crowd around him had gone silent, he looked around and saw they were all looking upwards at the sky.
Zuzen looked up and saw that the sky above them hadn’t darkened, and the same clouds that had been above them before were above them now. He wondered what everyone was looking up at and then it flickered into view.
A massive vessel that could have likely flattened their entire sect if it ever tried to land. A vessel so big that Zuzen couldn’t help wondering why experts from around the continent and its neighboring isles weren’t all flying towards it to see what on Embla was going on.
A light opened in the bottom of the ship and the entire field was bathed in blue, pure, blinding, blue light.
Zuzen felt the bottom fall out of his stomach, then felt the world shift. He closed his eyes as his spiritual sense and physical perception could no longer take the light. Then he when he opened them again, he found himself staring down at an empty field. The same empty field that he had been standing in just moments ago.
He blinked and then blinked again.
“Okay….Now, what the hell is that suppo-…?” said Zuzen.
He heard Kenneth, retching, and saw the cat man lean over to gag, watching with an odd fascination as the disgusting slurry seemed evaporate in mid-air never quite touching the ground.
“Hello, all. Thanks for showing up when I called. I know you were all busy, but I sort of figured that it’d probably be best if I called you in all at once.”
All heads immediately turned towards the speaker, after monsters of taking instruction and being gently indoctrinated, everyone in this space, whatever it was, knew the voice well.
Edwin Oedheim, Elder of the Radiant Orichalcum Gardens, stood on a small circular stage. Or rather than standing on the stage he seemed to be floating above it. He drifted to the left and to the right and the stage seemed to follow him.
“Hey, guys.” said the young Jotun.
“Hail, Master.” said crowd. All of them falling to his knees.
Zuzen knelt as well, and wondered when exactly it was that all of this began feeling so natural.
“So first off….the plan is off. I repeat the plan is off. After certain options recently became available I and Sect Head Suresh decided that doing things the slow way, and trying to be clever...was kind of a huge fucking waste of time….Sorry for wasting your time though, I know how much you guys have sacrificed and how much you’ve put into it, but I think you guys are all going to like this new plan, a whole...lot...better.”