Scorching... Broiling...

Every square inch of Josh’s body was on literal fire and melting. Innate reflexes made him twist and use his hands to try and cover his most vulnerable parts, but his movements just seemed to make everything worse. The pain was all-consuming and rendered conscious thought almost impossible. Earth shield, summoned so many times that it was now an automatic reflex, didn’t respond to his calls for instigation.

Though Essence cycled like a hurricane without direction through his Meridians in response to the anguish, it coursed without a purpose—just the spastic action of an animal trapped in a dark sack. The only thought Josh had going through his head was that death was coming fast, and he had no idea how to stop it! There was absolutely no relief, no hope for deliverance from the all-consuming inferno that his world had become.

“Arrrgghhh!” “Rayaghhaaaaaaaahaaaaa!”

“Yaaaaghhhhaaaarrggggghhhhhaaaa...”

“Ghharrrhhhaaa...”

“...”

The pain hadn’t stopped. If anything, it was even worse, but the molten ore had filled his mouth and destroyed his palate and vocal cords. He simply couldn’t scream anymore.

“...”

“...”

The need for conscious thought from… somewhere exerted itself over Josh’s tortured mind.

Focus, Josh...

It hurts!

Focus, Joshua!

I’m burning alive, you bastard!!

Joshua Elias Tanner!! Focus your mind!!

…Josh tried.

There had to be a way out of this—something he could think of. The last thing he had seen was the brick-red glowing of super-heated rock all around him.. What options did he have?

My mindscape is still active.

After a second of conscious effort, Josh determined his mindscape registered no one in the six-hundred-plus yards of its circumference. Also, it was impossible to effectively move through the thick mass of lava. Even if he could, he had no idea which direction to go...

If there was nothing he could do—there might be some information he could get.

Status.

Physical Health Status:

15000/15000

Spherical Cultivation units

Free Essence:

40500/29076 → 39026 → 38076 → 38026

Spherical Cultivation units

It took about four seconds for his agony-stunned brain to understand that he was losing fifty free Essence a second.

That’s a lot of free Essence...

He needed to absorb more...

Wait... lava is earth. I should be able to pull earth aura from it!

The mind-blanking torment of having his body consumed by fire made everything take more time than it should. After several seconds, Josh directed his Meridians to pull earth Aura.

And he got...

Nothing!

Physical Health Status:

15000/15000

Spherical Cultivation units

Free Essence:

40500/36901 → 35851 → 35801 → 34751

Spherical Cultivation units

Nope. None! He was still losing fifty free Essence every second. That shouldn’t be possible. He was surrounded by earth. He could barely move his arms because of it. Burning rock, the consistency of clay, was in his mouth and had turned his tongue, tonsils, and nasal passages to charcoal. His skull was a literal pressure cooker.

Soon his brain would boil and he would die.

Don’t give up, Josh...

What? What do I have to work with!

Mr. Spock’s quote on probability.

The thought came to Josh unbidden. His first response to having

the idea...

My brain is already boiling. The end is already here...

But... Josh didn’t have anything else right now and if he gave up, everybody else would die. Sen... Alysa...

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Sophie is in this now too!

She was legitimately at risk. So Josh pulled his favorite quote from Star Trek to the front of his brain.

“When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

Slowly, almost drunkenly, he went with it...

Okay, Spock. What can we rule out?

He didn’t have any more information at his disposal than what he could see and feel.

Well… That wasn’t quite true. He had his health status—but that wasn’t changing. So it was clearly wr—-

Wha-what!

The incongruity of floating in an endless sea of lava and not losing even one health point sent his conscious mind into a frenzy of activity. Even with constant regeneration as his Essence cycled, Josh’s health would have to dip down and up. Staying rock solid like it was—

Is clearly impossible.

A second mental wind came to him.

If my mindscape says I am alone then... where is Sen?

Even if he was beyond the mindscape’s range, their Karmic Bond would tell Josh where Sen was.

Calling on the Bond, he found...

Sen was right next to him. Josh could even intuitively feel Sen’s Karmic presence when he tried. Despite this, Josh’s mind continued to insist he was alone. No one, not even Sen, was here. Sen, the always bright spot in Josh’s mindscape, was nowhere to be seen, and yet he was also right here with him. Both being correct was...

Also, impossible.

Between the two—Josh trusted his Bond, hands down, and twice on Sunday.

Now it was time for an improbable conclusion—

I’m not surrounded by lava. I’m still standing in the Brigantine’s half-destroyed hangar bay!

The lava isn’t real!

Josh mentally shouted it again, anticipating the lava would dispel instantly.

Sadly, the lava didn’t operate off of the same principles as fairies in Peter Pan...

Now the pain was even starting to dull his muscular movements. Though dense as uranium, Josh’s muscles had finally succumbed and charred to a cinder, killing his nerves in the process.

They are dying just like I will if I don’t figure this out!

Okay, okay, okay! Spock had gotten Josh as far as he could. The rest was on Josh.

The lava wasn’t real. It was likely a mental construct from one of Kyon Shi’s Attunements or undead powers—at least vampires had mental powers in all the movies Josh watched. Either way, assuming the improbability that Josh was under some form of mind control or illusion... simply wishing it away wasn’t going to cut it...

I need some kind of mental protection... Some form of mind shield... Oh!

Without wasting another thought, Josh pulled his mindscape to its tightest point. In fact, precisely the place it had been in when he had first found it on the Raptor. It formed a solid bubble tightly fighting around the link between his physical brain and spiritual Meridians—

The pain stopped. His muscles and eyes were back. He was breathing at sixty breaths a minute, and his heart was hammering at 280 bpm.

Josh was back in the hangar bay, standing over Dezain’s bound form, or rather—the body Kyon Shi had started using as his new hangout. It was still bound, gagged, and shackled, but Dezain’s knee and ankle joints had ruptured. Exposed bone and articular tissue stuck out randomly when Kyon Shi forced the body to sit cross-legged in shackles that wouldn’t break.

The undead jerked its head at Josh’s return to the conscious present.

Surprise! You muther!

He turned away from the malicious bastard.

Sen was closer to his end than Josh had been and needed out— Josh’s Interface chimed.

New Mind Attunement Skill created—

Josh pushed that out of his thoughts as well and finished his pivot toward Sen, who was still standing next to him, rocking slightly from heel to toe. His skin tone was sallow and ashen in a muddled pattern, and his face wore a senseless, slack expression.

Not looking good at all!

~Sen!~ Josh grabbed the man’s shoulders. ~Retract your mindscape around you!~

~Joshua…~ Sen’s eyes rolled beneath their lids. ~whe... wha...~

Sen’s brain was fried. Only nonsensical information came through

their Bond.

There is no time for this.

Josh crinkled his brow. ~Sorry for this, brother!~

Josh grabbed Sen’s head with both hands and wrestled control of his cranial Meridians to retract Senyak’s mental sphere. Inside another Cultivator’s Meridians—even Sen’s, Josh’s Intent crashed against significant resistance. It felt like trying to push an early-model Cadillac uphill by himself. With enough effort, it might go... but it was going to cost him in pain. Now and tomorrow.

Josh gritted his teeth and pulled harder. His eyes bulged, teeth clenched together, and a low growl sounded in his throat. More. He still needed more Essence as he shoved the ephemeral energy through Sen’s Meridians. He could feel Sen’s reserves of free Essence bottoming out. Would he have to dip into Sen’s Core’s consolidated Essence in this state?

Josh was about to change tack and do just that in order to give himself more time to wrestle this elephant, when finally, Sen’s mindscape began to slowly reel in!

Like the tide, almost imperceptible at first and then it picked up speed—Josh pulled again to build momentum now that the metaphorical static friction of instigation had been broken. The retraction accelerated until the mindscape which acted as a shield snapped into place around Sen’s pineal gland.

His mentation restored—Sen’s face jerked up with eyes open but rolling. He whispered three stilted syllables before falling face forward into Josh’s arms.

“Gra... ti... tude...”

~Don’t mention it, brother.~

Josh caught his Karmic brother’s body and laid him down gently. Josh’s interface pinged... again...

Error: New Tetrahedral Hybrid Attunement skill created: Error

Josh pushed the notification to the side. There would be time to check it later.

I need to deal with the devil in the room.

Even through the gag and blindfold, Josh could see a vicious expression on Kyon Shi’s face. Creepily, the energy vampire spoke verbally and directly into Josh’s

mind. In both cases, his dry voice left the feeling of insects dragging thick chitinous legs over Josh’s skin.

The lights around them flickered and dimmed appreciably as darkness pushed in from the periphery in response to the undead’s growing presence.

“Impressive control of a skill you have only been attuned to for less than a day. You will both make solid stones under my feet, until you crumble from my power. As all do. I may even have uses for that human pet you are so fond of. Alysa? Isn’t that her na—”

Activating the Acceleration ability of his weapon, Josh’s bastard sword sliced through Dezain’s neck so quickly the head remained in place for several seconds before toppling off to the side as his dead body finally slumped forward.

However, if Josh had been trying to stop Kyon Shi, cutting his head off had the opposite effect. Horror filled Josh as the energy feeder’s reedy laughter increased in volume, and the decapitated head continued to talk.

“Anger! Good! Breaking your soul will be our first intimacy together. When we are done, you will beg for permission to feed on Alysa’s flesh—”

Guttural words sprang from Josh instinctually as he scrambled around Dezain’s body and kicked the still-talking head with enhancement. “Come for Alysa and my brother and I will take you apart!”

Dezain’s flying head hit a nearby bulkhead so hard it splattered into a spray of vile chunks covering the area like a Jackson Pollock painting. The darkness over the area grew without interruption. Kyon Shi’s mocking laughter hit 110 decibels as he chortled like one of Ian Fleming’s villains.

“Ahhahahahah... I am coming for you! There is no escape! Ahahhahhahahah!”

Running out of ways to kill the bastard, Josh stood still and looked around the now fully dark hangar. His skin started to crawl as Kyon Shi’s presence became palpable and matched the rising volume of his laughter. The ear-splitting sound abruptly ended. Water dripping in the distance was the only thing that could be heard with Josh’s enhanced hearing—

“I keep my promises. First, I’ll take your pet!” Kyon Shi whispered behind Josh’s ear.

The energy drainer’s tone was deadly serious, almost intimate. Josh whipped around, fully enhanced sword at the ready—and saw nothing. The undead was gone, both mentally and physically. The lighting in the area flickered and returned to full-on, hospital bright. The mental pressure and the feel of insects crawling stopped.

Josh spun in a circle and watched the area to make sure Kyon Shi wouldn’t pull a tree-jumper and spring out from behind a pile of rubble. Josh exhaled a shaky breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. Nerves calmed by the second, and breathing came in steady draws. Active thinking once again reengaged—

The security lights and alarms started going off through the destroyed hangar.

Not helping! That’s all I need, a conscientious and quick-acting evil villain!

Sen shot up from the ground at Josh’s back, sword drawn in a defensive stance. Wobbling slightly from side to side, but ready to die standing. He circled behind his brother. The security lights alternately lit them in yellow.

~Glad you’re back among the living.~ Josh said with a shaky sigh ~Change of plans. We’re in the fire again and need to get to Alysa—But it’s definitely a trap.~

Josh sent the encounter with Kyon Shi through their Bond to Sen.

Catching his breath, Sen replied. ~Yes, brother... agreed. We should warn her. She will be doubly dangerous if she is on the lookout.~

Josh internally kicked himself for dropping the ball and not warning her.

Chagrined, Josh said. ~Agreed!~

Josh tapped the earpiece Ishan gave him. “Alysa! Alysa, come in!” No response.

He tried with Ishan and Lobo, who were supposed to be with her. Nothing responded again.

Josh then pulled out the hand comms unit that Jishin had given him when he agreed to help them. He may know where the space marines were– A busy signal blared from the small emitter on it when he pushed the connect button. A busy signal in space! Josh had no words for how space-aged technology hadn’t caught on to call waiting...

Had Kyon Shi been able to act on his plans to grab Alysa already? Communicating was out. It was time to go.

Putting an end to their pointless circling, Josh and Sen ran for the

bridge several miles away... where Alysa was planning on being during the hyperspace jump.

Sen raised a hand. ~As we run... would you tell me something?~ Pursed lips.

~Sure. What’s on your mind?~

~Who is Mr. Spock? Sen blinked, confused. ~And why am I feeling an overwhelming indebtedness to him?~

Josh cocked his left eyebrow in response. ~Spock? Spock’s a badass, Sen—a true badass, and we owe him big time!~