In a daze, Elijah left the ruins behind. He still paid attention to his surroundings, but he struggled to pull his thoughts away from contemplation of his recent experiences. The puzzle itself hadn’t been terribly complex. However, his ability to solve it had been compromised by external factors – like the fact that he’d been on the verge of death almost from the very beginning.
But now that he was safe, Elijah could look at it more objectively. And when he did, he couldn’t deny the fear creeping up his spine. For so long, he’d gone through life believing that he was invincible. Certainly, he’d had plenty of close calls. Only recently, he’d very nearly been lted by one of the chanical wasps. Yet, each ti, he’d pulled through by virtue of his many advantages.
This ti was different.
His spells had been inaccessible. His cultivation and attributes hadn’t been enough to save him. And even his Mind had very nearly failed.
That was terrifying.
The only saving grace was that Elijah was almost certain that the system had set the puzzle up. But given that that system had, in turn, been created by people – powerful though they were – it suggested his place in the multi-verse in a way that re stories and guides couldn’t.
So, as he trekked back to the camp, he felt smaller and more inconsequential than ever before. However, with every step, he also felt a sense of purpose. If those people could reach a point where they could do such incredible things, then Elijah could as well. It would obviously take an eternity, but the possibility was there all the sa. That was comforting enough to calm his nerves.
Soon enough, Elijah reached the camp and settled down next to the embers of the fire. Just looking at it reminded him of the first piece of the puzzle he’d just solved, and a shiver ran up his spine. By that point, Sadie had taken over for Dat, and after a mont, she sat next to him and asked, “What did you find?”
“Context,” he said.
“What does that an?”
He shrugged, then answered, “It ans that we’re tiny, little specks of dust in a universe bigger than any of us can comprehend. There are people out there so powerful that they can crush us with a stray thought.”
He’d known that almost from the very beginning, but it had always felt so far away. Now, after having his power blocked or completely overwheld, it was closer than ever before.
“That’s the way it’s always been, Elijah,” Sadie said. “Even before all of this, the universe was infinite.”
“It’s one thing to know that – from an intellectual standpoint – and sothing altogether different to have it hamred into you by circumstances beyond your control,” he said.
“What happened?”
Elijah sighed, then ran his hand over his bald head. The barest hint of stubble had returned, but it would be so ti before he once again had a full head of hair. Even his eyebrows were gone, which made him feel like he hadn’t co so far since the worst parts of chemotherapy. He still rembered the looks he’d gotten back then. Disgust. Pity. Compassion. Anger. Nobody liked being reminded that, but for a twist of fate, they could have been in his place.
He explained what had happened, starting with finding the pyramid. Then, he went on to describe the frescoes and, finally, the puzzle he’d struggled to solve. “If I’d been playing a ga or sothing, I could’ve done it easily. But with that poison inside , I couldn’t think straight. Add the rising water and the –”
“I get it,” Sadie said, putting her hand on his shoulder. She gave it a squeeze. “Anybody would have reacted similarly.”
“Would you?” he asked. He’d seen Sadie in battle. For all that her single-minded, black-and-white views of the world were frustrating to deal with, that mindset also gave her a clarity in battle that he envied. If she felt doubts, she never showed them.
“I don’t know. Maybe,” she said with a shrug. She still wore her beaten and battered armor.
“Do you ever take that off?” he asked, wanting to change the subject.
“Not in the field,” she said. Then, in a quieter voice, she added, “Not at ho, either.”
“Is it really as bad as you say?” was Elijah’s next question. She’d spoken of the situation in Hong Kong often enough that he had so idea of what was going on there, but neither Sadie nor Dat had elaborated on the details.
“Worse. My family has a stronghold that mostly protects us,” she said. “We’re well-defended, with enough food and water to last for years. But there are plenty of others that don’t have that. We took on as many as we could handle, and we’ve built what defenses we could. But the undead just keep coming, tearing everything down almost as quickly as we can build. People aren’t just in danger of being killed by the undead, though. They’re starving. Much of the water is tainted, too. Just keeping everyone from dying from dehydration is a full-ti job. So people had to take classes specifically to counter that.”
Elijah tried to imagine what she described, but the best he could co up with was a combination of a war zone and sothing like he’d seen in apocalyptic zombie movies. It probably wasn’t accurate, but even those images were enough to take him aback.
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“I still intend to help,” he said. “You know that, right? I know we have our differences, Sadie, but…”
She shook her head. “You are so difficult to read. My instincts tell that you are the worst person I’ve t. You have so much blood on your hands. But…”
“I’ve killed a lot of people, Sadie. Thousands, probably. Most of them deserved it, but...but so didn’t. I know that. I have to live with it. At the end of the day, though, I can’t regret my actions because what I did was necessary,” he said.
He’d thought a lot about what had happened in Easton, and while he knew that he’d been motivated by selfish rage – primarily, at least – he was equally certain that he’d done what needed to be done. The place had been a cesspool of human corruption. Now, it couldn’t spread that disease.
“You think you’re an appropriate judge of who deserves to die?”
Elijah leaned back, his palms digging into the ground as he said, “Nope. Not even close. And that wasn’t my motivation in the first place.”
“What was?”
For a mont, Elijah considered withholding the real answer to that question. He and Sadie were not friends – in fact, he was certain that the woman hated everything about him – so pouring his heart out to her wasn’t at the top of his list of things to do. Yet, when he opened his mouth, he couldn’t stop himself from asking, “You had a sister that died, right?”
“I did. Lisa.”
“I did too,” he said. “Alyssa. We used to be really close, but…things happened, and we drifted apart. When the world changed, I was flying ho to die. I had terminal cancer, and I wanted to nd our relationship. We never really had any big disagreents or anything. We didn’t dislike one another. It was just that she lived outside of Seattle, and I was in Hawaii. I had my life, and she had hers. But with death knocking on my door, I wanted to reconnect. I wanted to leave her with better mories than an absentee brother who ran away from ho.”
He shook his head. “I never made it. The world changed, and I ended up on a deserted island where I spent the next year just trying to find food and shelter enough to survive. But when I got strong enough, I went searching for her,” he said. “Not the easy task you might think. With how the world got redistributed and expanded, I had no idea where to even start. At the ti, I fooled myself into believing she was fine. Alyssa was always stronger than . She was smart. And I could see her wife’s na on the power rankings, so I just knew she was fine.”
“She wasn’t, though, was she?” Sadie asked.
Elijah didn’t imdiately answer. Instead, he said, “You remind of her. I an, she wasn’t as sanctimonious as you, but I think you two would have been friends.”
“What happened?”
“She was betrayed by a man she thought was her friend,” Elijah answered. “And that man built a city, corrupting everything he touched until they were beyond all hope of redemption. I killed…a lot of people. Most of them attacked first. They were soldiers. But I killed others, too. They deserved it. I know that. But if you think I’m walking around without any guilt, then you’re grossly mistaken.”
Elijah hadn’t intended to tell the whole story, but in the end, he hadn’t been able to hold back. As he stared at the fire, tears trickled down his cheeks. He didn’t regret his actions, but regret and guilt were two very different things.
“I’m sorry,” Sadie said.
“For what? You didn’t kill her.”
“For the way I judged you.”
Elijah shook his head. “It’s not your fault. You’re dealing with an ability, right? Those can be powerful,” he said.
She ran a hand through her black hair, then sighed. “I wish that was the only reason,” she said. “Truth is that I’ve always been like this. I’ve worked on it, but…”
“I get it,” Elijah said. Then, he glanced around, saying, “If you want to get so rest, I’m going to be up for a while. I can take watch.”
Thankfully, Sadie could recognize the situation for what it was. Sharing was all well and good, but Elijah had a limit to what he could handle in any given day. So, she took the hint and headed to her own tent, where she settled in to sleep. Pointedly, she didn’t even remove her armor.
For his part, Elijah dipped his hand into the Ghoul-Hide Satchel and wrapped his fingers around the crystalline leaf he’d gotten as a reward for solving the puzzle. It was a guide just like any other he’d gotten from a Branch of the World Tree, but what made it intriguing was the contents:
The Tragedy of War
For eons, the planet of Ka’arath was no different than any other. Powerful entities rose and fell, civilizations prospered and were wiped out, and their people progressed to the brink of establishing themselves as a true power within the multi-verse.
One ka’alaki aid to push them over the edge…
As Elijah read on, he discovered that Ka’arath – the na of the excised world on which the Trial was held – had established itself as a powerful C-Grade planet. Yet, that wasn’t enough for Yloa K’hnam, the would-be Lightning Emperor. He knew that if they were going to push to a higher realm, they would need to do two things. First, the planet itself would need to take a leap into the B-Grade, which was no small feat. Second, he would need to take control of his entire world.
The first was all but out of his grasp for the ti being, but the second – well, that was within reach. So, he built the power of his sect, and when he judged that they were strong enough, went to war against the ta’alaki. At first, his enemies fell easily, but they quickly regrouped and banded together to form a potent opposition that stymied his progress.
The war went on for centuries as the two sides – which had predictably been drawn along racial lines between the ta’alaki and the ka’alaki – clashed in one battle after another. Yloa and his forces won as often as they lost, and the death toll mounted into the millions. However, war was a great catalyst for growth, and the survivors made great strides in their levels and cultivation.
Eventually, the progressively destructive battles left whole swaths of the planet unlivable. But over ti, Yloa and his forces won, enslaving the bulk of the ta’alaki. There were still pockets of resistance, but their impact was extrely limited. That allowed Yloa to establish his planet-wide empire and declare himself the Lightning Emperor.
That was where the guide ended, leaving Elijah to wonder about two things. First, how did the planet – which had just been consolidated under one rule – end up getting excised from the World Tree? And second, how did Yloa an to address the other issue and push the grade of the planet higher?
The guide had no more answers, leaving Elijah with more questions than when he’d begun reading.
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