Path of the Berserker

Princess Lunalah’s chest tightened as the enormous demon ploughed straight through the outer wall of the arena and into the stadium beyond. It took all her wherewithal to even look at the thing—so horrid was it in ferocity and form.

Body like a bloated corpse, covered in oozing sores and things that looked like exposed brains. A demonic face sat in the center of its torso and upon its shoulders, its malformed head had a second face that resembled something akin to a man, but with grotesque features and putrid black eyes.

She could sense the Demonic Qi pouring off of it even from where she stood atop the dais. The crowd fled in panic before the monster as the entire situation quickly devolved into chaos. The High Magistrate and her aides had already done the same, leaving both her and the Warden alone on the skiff, hovering above the chaos.

To her surprise, the demon’s hands went through a series of martial incantations and huge torrents of flames erupted within the arena. The fires spread quickly, filling the stadium with smoke as thousands of citizens either ran for their lives or were burned alive.

It all unfolded in a matter of moments.

Anyone on the ground was at risk of being killed now.

But Lunalah cared only about one person in particular.

“Did they kill her?” she asked.

Lunalah turned to the Warden, who was now staring wide eyed into the fiery turmoil below. She looked back at her quizzically. “Your Majesty?”

“The girl Silver Light. Did your nieces do as instructed? Did they kill her and her child?”

The Warden shook her head as if in disbelief. “Princess, can you not see what is transpiring? An Awakened demon has breached the barrier! There’s an inferno below!”

“Did I ask you to state the obvious?” Lunalah’s insides flared at her insubordination. “Is the girl dead or not?”

The warden furrowed her brow with incomprehension before glancing back to the arena again. “I can not tell but likely, your majesty. And if she isn’t dead already, she soon will be. Her along with everyone else in the city. What are we to do about this?”

“We?” Lunalah scoffed. “Are you not the Warden of this province, Lady Silver Tear?”

Silver Tear’s brows lowered. “I sent you communications about these Demonic surges for weeks now, your majesty. I asked for reinforcements from the central military and received nothing!”

Lunalah recalled the matter, but she would not take the blame for the Warden’s inability to protect her own domain. “Lack of preparation will not help you now. These are your wards. Protect them as you see fit. You should be more than capable yourself, shouldn’t you?”

“That is no ordinary demon, your majesty,” Silver Tear said. “It has breached the barrier. We need your strength. Are you not the ultimate protector of this realm?”

Lunalah risked another glimpse at the monstrosity below.

A few cultivators were now attempting to put up a resistance, but they were quickly swarmed by the smaller demons under its influence, burned to ash by the torrents of flames or went running in madness due to the Demonic Qi itself.

Tendrils of fear rose up inside of Lunalah.

It had literally been decades since she had done anything close to fighting a threat like this. Or ever perhaps. Such things were for lesser people to face. But the thought of being subject to that Demonic Qi frightened her most of all. She knew stories of even the most brilliant of cultivators succumbing to it.

No way would she risk her life on such a futile task.

But she could not show such weakness in front of the likes of Lady Silver Tear.

Best to show indifference instead.

Lunalah lifted her chin and scoffed.

“There is nothing within this province that I find of value any longer,” she said and as the words were uttered so too did they resonate within her soul. The Iron Bull was all that truly mattered to her and now that he was gone—nothing mattered at all.

Not even the death of that little girl meant anything to her now.

A hollow victory.

The emptiness within her heart swelled, and with it came the hardening of her soul.

“Let that creature raze the lower city and all its native inhabitants to the ground,” she said. “Let it destroy everything.”

Silver Tear’s mouth fell open. “Your majesty?”

“There is nothing left for me to see or do here. I shall be returning to the capital. If there are any citizens amongst the populous below, I suggest you order them to flee to the safety of the imperial city and mount a defense there if you can.”

Silver Tear continued to stare at her stupefied, but she had no time for her incompetence.

“Report on the losses once it’s all over,” she said.

With that, Lunalah lifted into the air with a burst of Qi to return to her skiff, eager to leave the pitiful province of Jurin far behind.

* * *

Kelsey screamed with rage as she tore through another wave of charging demons.

Her Flame was burning incandescent, but that paled compared to the true flames now burning all around her. Max had said Hong Feng was an elder within the Fire Bird Sect and it seemed his demonic reincarnation had retained some of his talent, if not improved upon it.

Huge flaming tornadoes were ripping through the stadium, killing people indiscriminately along with the demons. But the people she cared about the most were cowering at the edge of the arena, and she was doing everything in her power to protect them.

“[Wrath of a Thousand Slain Souls]!”

She released the massive lightning technique to stun a new wave of demons that were attempting to get past her and then quickly dispatched them with her axe. A stray cultivator glanced at her perplexed, mouth ajar, filled with lemonade—seconds before a demon jumped out of the billowing smoke and killed him.

“Shit!”Kelsey cursed.

This was insane.

For her, fighting demons was just another night of cultivating or searching for Max under the Bloodmoon, but for these people, this was perhaps literally their worst nightmares come true. She needed to get Fia and the others to safety before she could turn her attention to the monster that was truly causing all of this.

I’xon’xhang.

Deep inside her Berserker soul yearned for the rematch.

She was destined to die fighting that thing, she knew, but she didn’t care.

Not as long as it died with her.

“Fia!” Kelsey cried rushing back to the edge of the arena to check on her.

She arrived to find Fia now joined by her entire family as she lay on the ground wincing in extreme pain. Her mother was cradling her, and her father was holding her hand. Yu Li was clutching little Su Ling while Gui Zu and Zu Tien were doing their best to fight off stray demons that ventured too close. Jian Yi was staring up at the monstrosity now at the center of the arena with a smoldering ember in her heart.

Kelsey could sense it all. Their fear. Their confusion.

But there was only one thing they could do.

“You all need to leave now,” Kelsey said. “That thing will kill you all and if it doesn’t, you’ll go mad from the Demonic Qi.”

“We can’t move her,” Rhi Dong said. “She’s gone into labor.”

“What?” Kelsey said. “Then the baby is…?”

“We don’t know,” Rhi Dong said quickly, as if not to get her hopes up.

Fia then looked up at her, whimpering amidst her sobs. “I still can’t feel it, Kel Zhi. I don’t feel the baby anymore…”

Kelsey’s heart sank.

“She’s deeply wounded inside,” Rhi Dong said. “Any movement now is a risk until the baby is out.”

Kelsey didn’t know what that meant for Fia, but she knew what it meant for her.

If they couldn’t move, then that damn demon had to go.

“Leave it to me,” Kelsey said with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “That thing will be dead before you know it.”

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“Kel Zhi wait!” Gui Zu shouted after her, but she was already sprinting into the fray.

Past the smoke and blazing infernos, Kelsey tapped into her true strength and bolstered her body with [Steel Skin] and [Steel Core]. She then engaged her [Soul Shield] technique when the Dark Frenzy began to get too thick and tug at the edges of her vision.

Even with it, she had to fight with every bit of Frenzy she could muster to keep the Darkness at bay. But thankfully her Flame was in rip-roaring, full Dao mode. This was her purpose. To rid this world of demons was her calling.

She approached the monstrous form of I’Xong’xhang, screaming with a warcry. “Face me now, demon! I’ll send you back to the damn moon!”

Kelsey leapt from the ground, jumping two stories high to come face to ‘face’ with the giant second face on the demon’s torso. She laid into it with a [Lightning Three Log Chop] and felt the satisfying cleave of her axe sinking deep into the monster’s flesh.

It roared in pain and rage. “Cursed little gnat of a Flame. Your insignificance insults me!”

Kelsey held onto her axe handle for leverage and then pummeled her fist into the eye of the monster repeatedly, desperate to burst it wide open. “I’ll show you how insignificant I am you overgrown basta—!”

She never got the last curse out before her world ignited into a torrent of flames.

She lost grip of her axe and fell to the ground, her body now on fire. Searing hot pain ripped across her hardened skin and she cried out in rage, as her Flame flash converted the pain into even more Frenzy.

The monster was now incased in a shield of swirling flames.

And it still had her damn axe too.

Time to pull out all the stops, she thought.

She didn’t know who could still see her or if it even mattered anymore, but she had no choice but to shift it into high gear.

“[Mark of the Demon]…”

As she evoked the technique, her charred skin was restored anew, but this time in a deep red hue. Horns grew upon her head as well and as she tapped into her Dantian, she felt the density had grown ten-fold.

She leapt toward the demon again, not giving a shit about its protective flames.

With her [Steel Skin] technique heighted by [Mark of the Demon] she withstood their impact but wasn’t spared their pain. She didn’t care. It just added more fuel to her Flame. She screamed with pain and rage as she retook her axe, ripping it from the beast’s torso.

She then climbed up instead of down, hacking at it with a savagery until she reached its very head. The hideous face of the being filled her insides with a primal terror and when she looked into its black eyes, all she saw were the stars.

She froze for a second, as her [Soul Shield] technique went into overdrive, desperate to protect her mind from the hidden truth she had now stared dead in the face.

This wasn’t just I’xong’Xhang.

This was an embodiment of I’xol’ukz as well!

~Clever little husk~

The words intoned directly within her mind, but her ears heard only the nail-on-chalkboard screeches she had come to expect from the dark god.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

~Thou hast discerned the true nature of thy foe. Tremble then, in the might of a firstborn of the One True Flame~

The words shook her to her core.

It was like the reverse of [Fear the Flame].

The monsters gaping mouth then opened before her and she had to force herself to move with a yell. But it was too little too late. From within the demon’s mouth, a solid stream of green fire struck her and pelted her into the ground.

Kelsey cried out as the firehose like stream of emerald flames pinned her down. Her demon skin and flesh smoked and charred as her vision began to blur. She was at [Death’s Door] already and she had barely scratched the thing.

The thought infuriated her, and her Flame responded in kind, ripping with fresh Frenzy to keep her alive. But it wasn’t enough to break free of the technique itself.

This demon was strong, infused with the power of the god of Dark Frenzy itself.

As her vision began to tunnel, she saw the brief opportunity to do one thing yet.

But it would mean risking everything.

To hell with it, she thought.

Kelsey deactivated her [Soul Shield] and used the cycling of her Frenzy alone to push back against the Darkness. Instantly the corners of her vision shrank as she gained insight into the spiritual realm.

I’xol’ukz’s dark tentacles were everywhere, blocking her vision, but she slipped into the blue hued form of her [Spectral Body] to dive further ahead.

There was only one person who could help her now.

At the top of her spiritual lungs, she cried out into the darkness.

“Max! I need you! Find me!” she screamed. “Wherever the hell you are!”

* * *

I crested the rise to a sight I had been yearning to see for hours.

There, less than half a mile away was the sleek hull of a supply skiff, nestled atop a ridge.

Elation filled me like never before.

We’d done it.

We’d made it!

“Guys look!” I shouted back to my team. “They’re here.”

Blue Rose rested her hands on her knees next to me, panting and sweating. “Holy shit… I didn’t think we were going to make it at all.”

She had good reason to think that. We had more than half the distance to make up but we pushed on with a fervor that would not relent. We had just full sprinted twenty marathons and with salvation being so close, our bodies were collectively about to throw in the towel.

But we couldn’t just yet.

“We still need to make it to dawn,” I said, glancing upwards. Already the rays of the Cursed Star were beginning to brighten the sky. “Come on. Let’s go back up our fellow legionnaires.”

It felt like performing a victory lap as we sped across the last quarter mile, slaying stray hordes of demons along the way. The legionnaires of the 30th deployment had set up a wide perimeter and by the looks of it they had even managed to take out a gate. That gave me even more comfort that we would all be heading home soon.

“What in the Nine Hells?!” someone cried out as we got closer. “Platoon Commander! You must come see this!”

Black-robed legionnaires rushed to the edge of the perimeter before us and as all of us staggered to a halt in front of them, their eyes went wide with shock and disbelief.

“Are you all from the 29th?” the platoon commander, a guy I recognized by face, but not by name said. “You’re all alive?”

“Alive thanks to what’s left of the 28th,” Blue Rose said and then nudged me.

They then all looked at me, as if not even noticing me before, and perhaps after thinking me already dead, they mistook me as some other beefy lunkhead from the 29th that they had simply forgotten about. But as the stares of incomprehension turned to recognition, all of them suddenly began crying out with elation and lemonade.

“Holy shit!”

“The Iron Bull!”

“It’s the Iron Bull!”

“The Iron Bull lives!”

They crowded around me like a was a celebrity or something then, some of them looking fearful to even touch me. The questions then became even more bizarre as their thoughts went from disbelief to pure speculation now.

“How did you survive?”

“Did you ascend to godhood here?”

“He must have!”

“Look at him! He no longer needs to wear even clothes!”

I laughed at the absurdity of it all, but I suppose I was like seeing a man return from the grave. “Take it easy guys. Its still the same old me. Plus, I got another relic from the 28th with me as well.”

I grabbed a hold of Jei Su Long by his arm and pushed him forward while pulling the bag off his head. A new collection of gasps went into the air. Jei Su Long then began shouting into his gag, desperate to communicate to them—and with fresh lies no doubt.

“Is that Jei Su Long?” one of them asked.

“It is,” Blue Rose said. “And as you can see, he lied about killing the Iron Bull and everything else. He’s also the one responsible for the loss of the 29th deployment as well. If you wish to stand for justice, stand against him when the Iron Bull puts forward his claim to clear his name.”

That got a series of conversations going, but it was too much to get into right now.

“My fellow legionnaires,” I said with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “While I would no doubt appreciate your support once we reach the Xin Long, I would implore you to wait until we actually reach it. We cleared out most of the demons on the way here, but the Cursed Star is about to rise and a whole new world of hurt will be on its way. We’ll reinforce you where we can.”

The Platoon Commander gave me a salute. “Rest easy all of you. We have less than a half hour before the dropskiff returns for retrieval. I can only imagine what you all have lived through to make it this far. Relax by the aetherite haul. We’ve got you.”

Wing Pho and Wu Liang gave tired bows and then made a bee line for the skiff, basking in the harmonic radiance of the aetherite once they reached it. Blue Rose did the same, dragging Song De and Jei Su Long with her.

I dropped my [Sacred Soul Shield] once I reached the small barrier produced by the aetherite, saving the last sliver full of Frenzy left in my Dantian. As I sat down next to Blue Rose, I breathed out another sigh of relief.

“Almost home,” I said and in that moment, I could almost let myself be free. I’d survived hell and back and now I was nearly on my way. My conflict with Jei Su Long aside, I had basically achieved my goal. I was now a full-fledged legionnaire ready to face the Warden to take over the whole of Jurin Province.

When I had left Earth, I didn’t know if I would return strong enough to defeat her.

But now, I felt more than ready.

As I gazed up at the Bloodmoon a new thought occurred.

Maybe I could run into Kelsey one last time to let her know I was finally on my way.

I stood back up and Blue Rose looked at me quizzically.

“Where are you going?” she said.

“Going to make a quick phone call,” I said and then laughed at the way her face scrunched up in confusion. “Nevermind. I’m coming right back.”

As I reached halfway to the perimeter, the protection of the barrier fell away and I was exposed to the full influence of the Bloodmoon. It was kind of bizarre to think that only months ago, being exposed like this would have had me sweating bricks and seeing monsters.

But now, it was like wading into a warm bath.

I extended my senses and let the darkness of the spiritual space invade my field of view. I jumped into my red-hued Struggler form and almost instantly a shrill ‘cry’ met my ears. It was sharp and caused a stirring in my soul.

At first, I thought it was I’xol’ukz, but there was a signature to it that had only one name.

Kelsey.

I focused on it more and sensed it again.

A shrill cry.

Desperate.

Like a cry for help almost.

I glanced back to the real world for a moment. “Hey Blue, come here a sec please.”

She did so with a question on her face. “What now? Aren’t you damn tired?”

“I need to go into meditation again. Like when I was cultivating back in the cave. Can you watch over me?”

“Now?” Blue Rose looked up at the brightening sky. “Max, the skiff is going to be here soon.”

“I know, this will be quick… I think someone I know might be in trouble.”

“What?”

“Just stay by me,” I said and then dove back into the spiritual realm. I flew across the darkness with [Ride the Lightning], searching for the closest gate. I jumped right in once I found one and then ignored I’xan’dra when she showed up to protest against me riding through her gates unchecked again.

I flew overtop the demons instead of plowing through them, eager for speed as I homed in on Kelsey’s Flame. I dove one floor down and then up again, reappearing on the hell scape of Earth’s moon. Kelsey’s voice was more prominent then and as I found the crystal it was coming from, I flew right up the chain with [Ride the Lightning] again.

As I appeared back in normal spiritual space, I could sense the great distance I had travelled yet again. It didn’t take me long after that to find Kelsey’s Flame. It was burning brightly but looked distressed and studying closer, I could see why. Next to it was another gate, but smaller than the ones I had just jumped through.

As I connected with her Flame, a flood of emotions filled me.

Panic.

Pain.

Destruction.

A need for help.

And not just for her.

For Fia… the baby…

Everyone.

I pulled away in shock, feeling her turmoil within my own soul.

“Shit! Hang on, Kelsey!” I joined my Flame with hers, channeling fresh Frenzy but still it didn’t seem to be enough. It kept her going but I could sense her death. And more. I took a step back once again. I needed to know what the hell was going on.

I thought back to my fight with G’hru’julah. I couldn’t find her in those caves, but had used my [Spectral Projection] to reach her instead, jumping across space and time. I didn’t know what distance that had been. Thousands of feet? Miles? The most I had done was half a mile before that, but could it work over this vast distance when connected through the gates?

Only one way to find out, I thought.

I gathered my [Struggler’s Resolve] and in the corner of my vision, superimposed the image from my true eyes. I could see Blue Rose staring at me confused.

“Yo, Blue,” I said. “Hand me my last canteen.”

She paused for a moment, but then complied.

I couldn’t really feel the canteen in my hands but guided it to my mouth and drank deeply. I wasn’t sure how much Frenzy this would take, but having a full tank of gas couldn’t hurt.

I passed the canteen back to her half empty and then jumped back into the spiritual realm again. I engaged my meridians and then focused on sending my [Spectral Body] across the galaxy to inhabit the real world.

My mind and soul screamed as I felt my spirit being stretched across lightyears.

Violent colors flashed before my eyes and then in a final brilliant burst of white light, I was there. My spiritual eyes were blurred, still disorientated from the technique, but as I gained focus, I found myself hovering in midair. I was in the stadium back in Jurin Province.

And everything was covered in flames.