Chapter 1033: Let Them Come (Patreon)

As the intelligence czar for an empire that spanned galaxies and held a position on the cosmic stage, very few questions had answers beyond the reach of Anson Cazus. As a result, Anson had developed a loathing for those few queries whose resolutions were denied to him.

Some mysteries were easier to accept than others. There were cosmic events taking place on such an escalated level that to involve the Imperium was to expose it to risk, something Anton would accept even ignorance to avoid. Even if he suspected that Princess Dawn held those answers, he trusted they were kept from him for a reason.

The princess was usually at the heart of affairs which Anson deemed too dangerous to investigate at anything but a large remove. Her position as First Daughter of the World-Phoenix had brought the Imperium to even greater prominence, but that prestige also brought attention and envy.

When it came to matters like the Cosmic Throne, and the new great astral being almost certainly linked to its restoration, Anton could live without answers. Some knowledge was too dangerous to hold. But the people princess Dawn had bought in to be housed in the palace were a more approachable mystery, making his lack of answers more frustrating.

With the resources of the Imperium, it had not been hard to discover where they were from. Why those people mattered to the princess was a more difficult question. The isolated world from which they had come had one major asset to impede intelligence gathering: irrelevance. Never having been worth the effort before, meant that Anton had to task fresh assets to gather that information.

His agents did not disappoint, finding a number of threads to tug on. The world in question was one anchor point of a link between universes, and those universes were subject to the historical event known as The Builder’s Folly. Furthermore, the last few decades had seen renewed attention from the great astral beings and their agents, including Princess Dawn herself.

This suggested that these universes were a focal point of some larger plot, or a conflict between great astral beings. More detailed inquiry had proven challenging, as the astral beings had put isolating restrictions in place, particularly on the anchor worlds connecting the universes.

As for the people that Dawn had brought to the Imperium, the princess had made it clear that they were off-limits. They had been present for some time, and now Helsveth had brought an entirely new set, which did not make things easier. Helsveth had spent much of her childhood in the Imperium under Dawn’s tutelage and held great respect for the empress and emperor-consort, but she had now succeeded Dawn’s position as prime vessel of the World-Phoenix. She was now someone whose actions Anton was extremely reticent to investigate.

He sat in his office, a data hub whose magitech cost more than most planets. Screens covered the walls, some with images, still or moving, while others scrolled text. There was no desk, no chair in which to get even a modicum of relaxation. If he required either for a task, they would manifest into being. In the centre of the room was a large, conical projector. Floating over it was an image of the dimension ship Dawn’s first guests had arrived in. It had been traced back to a pirate fleet that prowled the rural backwaters of the cosmos, the kind that were never quite worth the effort to hunt down.

A set of three vertical screens on the wall behind him vanished, turning into an open doorway. Standing on the other side was Anton’s chief of staff, but he didn’t turn to face her, his eyes still glued to the projection.

“Sir, the royal family is requesting you.”

“About?”

“They wish to meet with you, Princess Dawn and her newly arrived guests.”

Anton turned to face his assistant.

“All of them?”

“Yes, sir. We may finally get some of those answers.”

***

It was a city of death. The brickwork was shattered and crumbling, most buildings damaged with many collapsed entirely. The cobbles and flagstones underfoot were cracked and broken, spiky weeds of black and purple growing through like diseased veins. The streets were filed with detritus; bits of fallen building, broken carts and fallen fruit stalls. The produce had long turned to rot, much like the city’s populace who had been reduced to undead mockeries of life.

Then came the fire. Ethereal ghost flames stormed through the city, sweeping across the streets, buildings and people as if their corruption was an accelerant. Overhead, the night sky was no longer visible, glowing butterflies blocking it out and washing the city in blue and orange light.

Jason walked through the streets, mostly ignoring the undead as the ghost fire did the work for him. Occasionally an undead would rush at him in a frenzy, only to be dismissively carved apart by Jason’s sword. Those wounds vanished as the fires took them, undoing the corruption and purging the stain of undeath. Like an apocalypse running backwards, the ghost fires made whole the broken buildings and people alike. Hideous undead were turned back into normal people, and the dread necropolis back into a city.

Jason walked through the streets now filled with unconscious but restored souls. He strolled, his sword dangling casually from his hand, red sigils glowing along the black blade. In the sky above, the butterflies faded away, revealing a starry sky and a bright, full moon. The moonlight washed over the city like a cleansing balm, as if clearing away the last of the filth.

Jason stood in the middle of an empty market square, oddly clear of unconscious souls. The moonlight shone off the freshly cleaned cobbles, slicked wet from the damp night air. Shade bodies moved about, acting as scouts. With his aura disempowered, Jason’s normally potent senses were likewise diminished.

“You were right, Mr Asano,” Shade told him. “Acting at night on such a large target has drawn their attention.”

“How many?”

“I cannot be certain; they are effective at hiding themselves. I can confirm six, but I suspect as many as double that. How do you want to approach this?”

“Let them come. We’ll see what they’ve got.”

“Mr Asano, I will remind you that my brother has modified them specifically to hunt you. What they have may well be more than you are ready for.”

“Then I’m going to need you to rescue me.”

“I do not approve of your cavalier approach.”

“Umber doesn’t want me dead. He wants me miserable. Running and hiding.”

“Have you considered that he may have approached that by creating a threat you need to run and hide from?”

“I guess we’ll see.”

A sinister aura flooded the square, a cold and enervating sensation. Jason could sense multiple sources, all around him, yet they somehow combined to form a single force that pressed down on his spirit. It was aura suppression, but of a kind unlike any he’d experienced. Rather than crushing his aura down, it was felt like it was being siphoned away.

“Mr Asano, I could—”

“No,” Jason said. “It will only work well once, so let’s save it for when it matters.”

Even with its attached power now at diamond-rank, Jason’s aura was insufficient to resist the combined effects draining it away. As his aura became fully suppressed, he felt access to his essence abilities cut off. His cloak remained, as did the power infused into his weapon, having already been out and ready. He would not be able to replace them should he need to, however, or use the active effects of his cloak.

It was only after they were certain his powers were suppressed that the energy vampires stepped out of their hiding places, stepping out of alleyways and darkened corners. As Shade predicted, there was a full dozen of them.

“So, you’re Jason Asano,” one of them said. “They were right about your arrogance. You should have run.”

Jason said nothing as he panned his head around, his orange and blue eyes shining from the darkness of his hood.

“I’ve also heard you use the Way of the Reaper,” the vampire continued. “That is the fighting style of our order. Do you really think you can beat us with it?”

Jason remained silent. The vampire snarled and flung himself at Jason in a gold-rank blur. He seemed to pass right through Jason and keep going, crashing through a wall. The other eleven leaped into action immediately, lunging on Jason.

***

Dawn led Helsveth and Team Biscuit into what she had told them was a parlour. It did have a variety of couches and lounging chairs but was spacious enough to contain a small town, three storey buildings included.

“You could fit my entire academy in here,” Rufus said.

“Academy?” Helsveth asked.

“My family runs a school,” he said absently as he continued to take in the sheer scope of the room.

Belinda pulled a tray of filled shot glasses out from her storage space, but Humphrey waved at it with a prohibiting gesture.

“Not now,” he said. “We may have had our fun, but that was in the private residence. This is the palace proper, and we must be proper in turn. We have seen the empress and emperor as Dawn’s parents, but what we see next will be the monarchs of an empire beyond all of our comprehensions. It’s time to put away frivolities and act with dignity, if not for our own sake, then for that of our hosts. If we act the fool, then we not only disrespect them, but shame them for having allowed us into these august halls. Do we all understand?”

Belinda put away the tray, but kept a rebellious expression on her face.

“Jason would cause trouble,” she muttered.

“Jason’s impulse control has not made him a beacon of respect,” Humphrey said. “But you also know that he has worked hard to overcome those impulses and be more diplomatic. Regardless of how effective he may or may not have been, even he has come to see the value of treating people with respect. I expect the same from all of you.  Lindy, you are too smart and too cunning not to know how to do this, and why it matters.”

Belinda grumbled but there was no sincerity in it.

***

Shadows danced under the moonlight. Vampires dashed and darted like piranhas around a chunk of meat, glinting blades lunging to bite. Jason’s cloak flared with stars, flowing around him like a living thing. The vampires hissed hunger and frustration as their swords and knives missed, Jason’s blade slicing them for their troubles.

The vampires moved fast, but jerkily, forced to stop and start. Gold-rank speed could only do so much in the face of physics, and carelessness would send them tumbling across the ground or flying into walls. Jason could move just as swiftly but didn’t, not having his aura to control himself fully. He chose to confront the reckless pace of the vampires with precision and control, using and deception and positioning to counter their advantage in speed and numbers. He used their own advantages against them, leading them, in their uncontrolled haste, to interfere with one another as they rushed around.

Where they stopped and started, Jason was ever on the move, always where he needed to be, and never where they expected. His shroud of darkness and stars masked his exact position as enemy blades stabbed through it, hitting nothing but air. Their overreach left them exposed to counter attacks, his blade glowing red as it sliced vampiric flesh. Jason’s powers were suppressed but his sword still left afflictions that consumed life force, leaving behind wounds that spread rot into the vampires’ bodies. It would take a lot to kill a gold-ranker, but Jason was happy to make as many cuts as required.

The vampires were swiftly confused at the effectiveness of Jason’s tactics. They fought with the same style, had suppressed his powers and outnumbered him twelve to one, yet they were left dancing in the palm of his hand. They were not fools, however, and switched up their approach. They slowed themselves down, improved their coordination and stopped crowding in as uncoordinated individuals. They used their numbers as an asset instead of a liability, moving together to run him down and corral him in.

Refusing to be penned in, Jason broke out of their encirclement. In breaking past, one the vampires’ weapons finally found purchase, even a grazing cut sending searing pain through Jason. He realised immediately that these were weapons derived from copying Thadwick’s own, highly effective against gestalt beings like him. He’d once been impaled by such a weapon, the resulting eruption of power annihilating a city.

Jason ignored the pain, an old acquaintance he had little time for. Even as his blood splattered on the ground he was dashing into an alley, leading the vampires on a chase. They did not just follow blindly, only a few going down the alley. Other leapt onto rooftops or moved around buildings, aiming to flank and pin him in. What none of them noticed were the leeches crawling out of the pool of Jason’s blood as if it were a portal.

***

“Let me see if I am following this, Princess,” Anson said to Dawn. They were seated at a round table, along with Helsveth, Team Biscuit, the empress and the emperor-consort.

“This friend of yours,” Anson continued, “is somehow gold-rank while also being an astral king, a god, and a great astral being.”

“He’s not completely any of those things,” Dawn clarified. “He’s not very much a god, definitely abnormal as an astral king, and far too mortal compared to other great astral beings. Even the Builder, who was mortal himself.”

“And he’s currently trapped in a corrupted afterlife,” Anson said.

“Yes.”

“Well, that does answer a lot of long-standing questions. I’m not sure how any of that is of use to the Imperium, but I’m sure we’ll find some way to leverage it.”

“How we leverage it,” Dawn said, “is by using the time he is trapped to help raise his companions to diamond-rank. His team, and other allies I had ferried from their own worlds. We put them through our training programs.”

“How does that help us?” Anson said. “We have more and stronger diamond-rankers already.”

“It helps us because one day, Jason Asano is going to be a great astral being in the fullness of his power, and the Imperium will be a friend who helped him in his time of need.”

“Great astral beings don’t have friends,” Anson pointed out.

“No,” Orbis said, the emperor-consort breaking his silence. “But imagine the benefits if one did.”

Anson was a very smart man who was very good at his job, so he didn’t have to imagine for long.

“Training programs,” he said. “I’ll have the program directors start drawing up a regimen immediately.”

***

Jason led the vampires on a merry chase through the alleys and backstreets of the city, all while the purified souls slowly roused around them. He had a few close calls, but Gordon intervened at several critical moments. Whenever Jason was pressured enough that a blow would land, Gordon was suddenly there, storming up in a cloud of blue and orange sparks to produce a shield.

Finally, Jason led his pursuers back to the square where the battle had begun. The vampires pushing their speed to the limit to catch him ran headfirst into a hulking abomination that made the undead look pleasant by comparison. A mass of flesh the size of a school bus, nine grotesque necks stretched out like fat, distended snakes, each one terminating in a round mouth with layered rings of teeth. Most of the vampires managed to veer away, but three crashed right into it, the nine heads immediately moving to latch on to them. The remaining vampires took one look at the hideous thing and fled, disappearing into the night.

Previous Next