All spiritually risen undead indeed have the commonality of being dead. But that was where the similarities ended. In truth, as a group, the undead were as complex and variant as living spirit beings. This should not be a surprise considering that each risen undead is reborn, or more accurately, raised, in large part by a blend of their karma and the circumstances surrounding their unique deaths.
Utsuki Kanda had died by rapidly divesting her committed Core Cultivation of all free Essence to shield the Zindagee flowers. It was fitting that she reanimated as a life-force wraith. An undead entity with the ability to quickly absorb and expend vast amounts of spiritual energy.
The fates had been kind, and Utsuki had never had to feed the searing undead hunger that defined wraiths with the totality of a living spirit being's Essence. No. She had spent her existence in the donated spiritual space of Shisoka's Core. Feeding off the residual metaphysical equivalent of body heat from Shisoka’s life force. Her husband, a full Spherical attunement beyond her own, had more than enough for the both of them. But that didn't mean Utsutki didn't understand her skills as a wraith. She was, in fact, extremely good at drawing and channeling Essence when she wanted.
And she wanted to drain Xsias dry.
Xsias of the Savoy was a Blood Essence vampire. While it was impossible to be sure why she had been reanimated as a blood feeder. It was likely that Xsias had spent her life feeding from the pain and agony she had caused others. At least, that was what Shisoka's studies of the undead revealed on such matters. After Utsuki’s reanimation, Shisoka had poured himself into the subject of undeath. He had lived and breathed nothing else for thousands of cycles, becoming a recluse as he devoured all he could find on the subject in his ultimately futile search to save Utsuki. During this time, as she did now, Utsuki had lived vicariously through his senses and their shared mindscape. Of necessity, she had learned everything Shisoka had... In truth, it had been a trying time for them both. Utsutki had never favored academics.
Ultimately, she had insisted Shisoka stop for her sanity, if not his, and give them something to look at other than dusty old tomes that made her want to rethink the choice of not flying into Noha's sun.
But at this moment, attacking an almost infinitely more powerful foe, Utsuki was grateful for the time Shisoka had spent. Blood Essence vampires had many advantages over the living and many undead. These betterments included accelerated restoration rates. Large jumps in speed. As well as significant increases in their physical strength. Most also enjoyed factorial gains in the range of their mind control.
At least they did when they were adequately fed.
When blood feeders were starved to an empty husk, they were slower, weaker, and dominated by an overriding, all-consuming blood hunger. Their thinking was so overwhelmed with the need to feed that such vampires were nothing but blood-hungry beasts who could only focus on the need for Blood Essence until their lust was slaked.
Right now, Utsuki didn’t have a great deal of time. This undead vermin had dominated Aeneas and wounded Shisoka to the point of death with her steel and poison. He needed time to heal and clear himself of her toxins.
If she could give him that time... Utsuki would. Though her primary goal was to change Xsias into an opponent Shisoka could fight and have a possibility of defeating. So, changing Xsias into a raging hunger-driven beast was her primary aim.
Xsias was clearly a Tetrahedral Cultivator—an order of magnitude physically stronger than Shisoka, she also had the Tetrahedral capacity to blend her Attunements to accomplish her will. If she was skilled enough, there was nothing she couldn't achieve with her Cultivation.
Her husband was a great warrior, but if nothing changed... Shisoka stood no chance to survive a direct confrontation with her. Even if Xsias hadn't ambushed him... However, if Xsias was wholly drained of blood into a wild and unthinking animal? An animal who could always be counted on to feed first and foremost above all other goals? Things were different. Such an opponent was a predictable beast Shisoka could defeat... if the fates favored him.
So Utsuki drank in the vampire's Essence. Gorging her Meridians and Core beyond her capacity to possibly hold. And still, Utsuki pulled the vampire's strength in. The wraith's channels stretched, leaked, and burst. Utsuki could feel her undead body rupturing with the vampire's power. But she didn't stop.
She wouldn't.
The Savoy had been paralyzed by the surprise of Utsuki's attack and the massively endothermic results of the deep energy drain. For thousands of meters in every direction, the ground and Zindagee stalks had frosted over with a thick layer of sharp white spikes. Close in, the very air in a one-hundred-meter sphere around Xsias had entombed her in a solid ball of clear ice. Every molecule in Xsias' body had been slowed to the point of crystallization with its neighbors. Still, Utsuki could taste the cloying flavor of Blood Essence within Xsias' Core and Meridians. So, the wraith continued her drain.
Separated as she was from Shisoka's Core, Utsuki didn't know if he was recovering from Xsias' attack or was too far gone to take advantage of this distraction. But it didn't matter...
I am doing what can be done. I only hope the few micros I give him will be enough to make a difference!
Finally, the unavoidable realities in Utsuki's situation began to surface.
Literally drowning in the vampire's siphoned energy... Utsuki could use none of it to fuel her own actions. Only Essence from living spirit beings could do that. On top of this, the reserves of power Utsuki was using in her sixth Spherical Attunement to drain the Tetrahedral vampire’s Core were ending. Xsias was a complete Core level more advanced. At least ten orders of magnitude greater in strength. Even now, with Xsias completely frozen under more than one hundred meters of solidified air, Utsuki's hold faded as the volume of her siphon slacked...
The Savoy's fingers twitched, and the encasing ice cracked from the growing movements. Giant shards of ice calved loose and shattered on the hard ground.
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But this didn't matter either. Utsuki had anticipated her assault failing. The math of a sixth Attunement Cultivator taking on a Tetrahedral Cored being was simple: In short micros, Utsuki's attack would collapse, and the vampire would tear her physical presence to shreds before consuming the pieces. The wraith had always known this was going to be a one-way trip... But even so...
I’m not done yet!
The wraith braced her existence and roared her fury. Thousands of cycles of the wraith's ongoing defiance erupted into Xsias' mind. Stress fractures raced anew through their shared mental space at the power. Even as Utsuki's undead fire guttered out, her drain redoubled in intensity—pushing the vampire deeper into the lightless pit of Blood Essence starvation.
Utsuki Tanda's actions in life had made her nothing less than a blade who’s sharp edge had cut down an oppressive Kotei to free the Kaizuko crushed under his heel. Nothing in her undeath had changed that one iota. She would leave this existence as she had lived it... Paying back the Savoy assassin in kind and tenfold more for the pain she brought to her family.
Utsuki felt a profound gratitude take hold of her spirit. Joyful she could give Shisoka a small part of the meaning he had given her life back.
I only wish I could give you more than these few micros, my love...
Utsuki's shrieks were still echoing through Xsias' frozen mind as the last of her risen force burned away... Then her awareness faded to nothing.
For the second time in her existence, Utsuki Kanda had given all and everything to protect what she loved...
...Several micros ticked by...
...
...
...
...Then a monster driven to madness by starvation burst from its frozen prison in a fractured ice nova, the gleaming radiance reflected from her blades belying its aura of absolute death.
* * * * *
The whiplash from the first strike made Josh bite through his tongue. Stars of pain spun around his... flying?... head. Josh spit blood from his mouth and noted he was indeed airborne but angling to crash-land into the surrounding fields of giant flowers. On reflex, Josh activated his earth shield. A second later another pulse smashed the transparent golden-orange barrier into a spiderweb of cracks. He felt more than heard the bones of his nose crack as he smashed his face. Great! Now I’ve got two black eyes... and I’m still flying...
He was also getting nauseous. The second hit had sent his shield spinning like a well-struck cue ball. How far? No way of knowing... But far. On the plus side, during his rotations, Josh saw two other body-sized golden-orange orbs arcing through the air before the second pulse hit them. A small win. But in a fight with an opponent so much faster than them ...We need to take what we can get. Josh quietly prayed for Jishin and Zurui. The two of them not being Attuned to anything was worrying.
That strike must have been some kind of Force Attuned pulse. Josh shook his still-swimming head. No time for theorizing. The Aspect of the attack didn't really matter. The critical question: Was the assassin Black Eyes? Josh ground his teeth. Very Likely.
Ten seconds went by with no third slam. He was finally coming in for what he decided to optimistically call, a landing!
His tumbling crash dug a ten-foot-wide trench through the sunflowers half a football field long. Dirt sprayed up all around his shield. When he finished, he released the earth shield and pushed off the fibrous, silver-dollar-thick sunflower stalks wrapped around him. With eyes still rolling around in his head, Josh wobbled and leaned forward on his hands and knees. He was only partially successful in not throwing up. Instead, he dry-retched. When was the last time I ate anything? He slapped his own face to focus back on the present.
A thick smell of 'living green' filled the air as Josh staggered to his feet and looked around. All he could see behind and to the sides was an unending canopy of bobbing sunflower heads topping about four feet above him. Through the gully of his crash landing, Josh saw the platform they had been standing on several miles distant. Was that Shisoka lurching to its feet? Even with his enhanced sight, Josh was so far away the figure was little more than the suggestion of a shadow. Hopefully, I'm not just seeing what I want to see...
Through their Bond, Sen was about five hundred yards to his left and already speeding toward him through the stalks. Josh was sorely tempted to expand his mindscape and find Alysa and the others. Instead, he confirmed that his mentation shield was pulled down as tight as possible. The man in a Talan crew jumper behind Black Eyes had obviously been under her mental control. More importantly, Sophie said Black Eyes was living in Radin's mind. Not wanting to swim in lava ever again, he and Sen needed to go 'brain-barrier' all the way here.
Josh looked in Sen's direction. ~Sen, that's got to be 'Black Eyes' Sophie warned us about. Keep your mindscape locked down tight.~
~Agreed and already done.~
Applying his brain instead of his metaphysical brawn, Josh used his earpiece. "Alysa, Jishin, Zurui ...are you all ok?"
Alysa's choking voice came through, "...[cough]...Ughff... I will be... need a few more micros of healing."
Thank God! "Heal up! Find Jishin and Zurui and get out of here. This is Black Eyes. She will be able to dominate your mind if she gets a chance—" Sen flashed into the ten-foot-wide slash Josh had made in the field.
Josh meaningfully caught Sen’s eye to confirm the next thing he said. "...I heard Shisoka mention 'singularity munitions' when the Talan ships exploded." Sen nodded his agreement physically and through their Bond. "You need to check in with the Brigantine and warn them about the singularities Black Eyes created. They have to get to a minimum safe distance...At least... Ahhh..." Josh's science mind started trying to do rapid calculations based on the likely mass of the city ships he had already seen swallowed by the three event horizons along with Noha-6's terrain ring and massive fragments he could even now see being torn from the very soon to be gone planet.
Unlike in the event of a supernova or already stable black holes, there were no accretion disks of super-heated matter glowing thousands of times brighter than any sun, spinning around the three growing singularities. This meant there was no mass left behind from their amplifying gravitational influence. The event horizons were still expanding rapidly!
Looking up where the three city ships had been, all Josh could see was debris being pulled down into black spheres with advancing diameters. Josh could see that the transmission of light vectors near and around them was being altered. The reddish halos of refracted EM waves that bent around the gravitation wells had increased in size by at least 50% in the last ten seconds. Josh halted his science mind's frantic and futile attempts to quantify the singularities' expansions. I don't have enough data... I also have no idea what the starting mass and density of the freshly created singularities were... It doesn't matter! They are big enough to be gigantic freaking problems!
Josh finished his statement to Alysa. "...The Brigantine needs to be three or more light years from here."
"Roger that... [cough, cough... blahhppt]—" Through the open transmitter, it sounded like Alysa was hacking up a melon-sized-furball. Gratefully, her voice was stronger when she returned, reassuring them that she was healing. "What are you two [cough] going to do?"
Josh caught Sen's eyes once more. ~You with me, brother?~
Look of incredulity. No words necessary.
Together, they stood up and shot off through the rows of sunflowers toward the platform Black Eyes had blasted them from. And then Josh answered. "Like I promised my little girl... We're going to take down this rabid animal."
"I don't—"
"Tanner out." Josh switched off his receiver.
At Josh's side, Sen narrowed his eyes and did the same.