Gleam - Chapter 155 (Patreon)

It was remarkably easy to decide that the forces of the universe were going to help him find out how to kill the screaming eldritch abomination that was well through the process of tearing the street around him.

Every single crash threatened to rip him out of his reverie. His Essence required joy, relaxation, peace – quite literally everything that he didn’t have at the moment. Each second that passed was another moment where one of his friends could die.

The universe didn’t care. It was all the same to it. Things ground on. Life continued. When the evil grew too great, it would eventually be culled – but its definition of too great and Chance’s were vastly different.

The power to handle the eldritch monster was there, somewhere, waiting for him to take it. He flooded his mind with Essence, pushing the alleyway farther away from his vision as he sank into the shimmering strands of yarn in his fingers.

No matter how badly he wanted to rush, Chance couldn’t. Understanding came at an agonizing crawl as the peace finally started to flood his mind and mute out the rest of the world.

The universe couldn’t be hurried. It moved at its own pace, uncaring for all those who lived within it. After all, in its eyes, they were all just parts of a whole.

A degree of understanding for Rilu’s situation seeped into Chance. Rilu had all the power to change anything as he wanted to, but he couldn’t do it without risking backlash from the universe for interfering too much.

The universe wanted to enforce balance. It couldn’t tolerate absolute good any more than it could tolerate absolute evil. The back of Chance’s neck prickled. It wasn’t just Rilu that he was coming to understand.

If he wanted true power – the ability to save his friends whenever he wanted, regardless of the consequences, then Rilu’s path was the wrong one. Rilu followed only the good. Karma was powerful, but it came at cost. Its cultivators were more beholden to the universe than any other.

There was another option. A Karma cultivator that had the power to do absolutely anything he wanted. Not because he was good – not because he was evil. It was because he understood the universe.

He understood balance. And, in order to take everything he wanted, he took from others as well. Every good act was weighted by bad. Every life saved was a life taken. It was sickening, but that was the way the universe worked.

Chance’s lips pressed thin. His peace flickered, distant sounds of battle inching back into his mind. The idea of becoming like Yamish to save his friends was vile. There was a reason the cultivator’s body was so twisted and warped, and it wasn’t because he spent his free time handing out flowers to children.

I won’t become that. I won’t take that path.

The yarn in Chance’s hands shimmered in response. It seemed to be asking a question, prying at his conviction.

How much am I willing to give up holding fast to my path? At what point do I become like Rilu, unable to so much as lift a finger when people die around me? Can I really just wait for an opportunity where someone makes a mistake and gets their Karma so deeply intertwined with mine that I can justify fighting back?

Power built around Chance, but it wasn’t his. Not yet. It was an offering. A potential path, one that would let him do everything he wanted. The only thing he’d have to do in exchange was a tiny change to his path. Instead of saving everyone, he’d just have to focus on saving the ones he cared about.

Isn’t that a small thing to give? Who cares about anyone else? As long as my friends are safe, does it matter?

It only took Chance an instant to determine an answer to that question. There was no amount of time he was willing to wait. There was nothing he was willing to budge on. He wasn’t going to sit back and do nothing – but he refused to become like Yamish.

Maybe the universe demands balance. Maybe it doesn’t.

The yarn started to unravel. It moved faster and faster, swirling up around Chance as his thoughts sharpened and set themselves in stone. Faster and faster the golden light wrapped around Chance’s body and danced like ribbons through the sea.

Everything about Centurion is flawed. It’s incredible, but at the same time, it’s no different than Earth. Forget balance and all that shit. I’ve only ever wanted one thing. If the universe has a problem with me, then it come let me know face-to-face. Let’s see if it bothers to show up.

The last of the yarn unraveled. It whipped around Chance, strands of Karma burning with conviction and determination. His eyes snapped back open, burning light flaring within them as his dwindling reserves of Essence churned and roared. Faint crackles of energy leapt off his skin like miniature bolts of lightning.

Screw the universe. I’m doing this shit my way.

***

Yamish watched on as Essence crackled around Chance, unable to believe his own eyes. The sky above Centurion darkened, already-heavy clouds condensing in the alleyway above the boy. Karmic energy roared off him in an invisible pillar, rising up into the heavens.

And, impossibly, the heavens were acknowledging it. The power of Tribulation arced around Chance’s body and swirled within his movements.

“Impossible,” Yamish breathed. “The universe has acknowledged a mere child to this degree?”

His words did nothing to alter the truth. The clouds built and grew darker. Chance sprinted across the street, his urumi out at his side.

The Lifereaver’s long body stiffened at Chance’s approach. It slammed to a halt, taking a blow from Wren in the process that it barely even registered. The Lifereaver’s head snapped toward Chance, the others forgotten.

If the monster had been permitted to grow for longer, it too would have drawn such attention from the universe – but not like this. It hadn’t finished consuming the Essence Eaters that had been brought to feed it.

Even if the Lifereaver had consumed all the power that had awaited it and grown to summon Tribulation, the power gathering in the air was not the same as what it had been prepared for.

The universe disliked unbalance. The amount of darkness stored within the Essence Eaters was great. Combining it together and destroying the souls trapped within them would have magnified that power enough to turn spur the universe into action.

But Chance had not committed great atrocity. On the contrary. He’d refused to do it. Yamish was stunned to realize that he didn’t know how, but Chance had somehow spoken directly to the universe.

And, in doing so, he’d spat in its face. It had shown him the truth. It had given him his path – the very same path that Yamish followed. The True Path. Balance. Everything had been aligned.

“What form of arrogant fool rejects the universe itself?” Yamish breathed, his eyes sparkling with delight. The Tribulation Lightning was growing stronger. Arcs of energy screamed off Chance, calling out to the heavens.

He was a mere Rank 3. A flicker of existence, so irrelevant that it had no right to even exist. There was no ground for him to even consider rejecting anything from. Power was power, and anything that came from the universe itself was not an option.

There were no gifts. There were only commands. To reject that power… Yamish couldn’t even consider it. The universe hated imbalance, but it abhorred those who stood in direct opposition to it.

The only ones who could even dare to do such a thing were greater than Yamish himself. He’d stumbled upon remnants of their passing before. Beings whose power had grown to such magnitude that the universe itself lost their grip over them.

They had lived outside the boundaries of law. Nothing the universe desired was relevant to them, and they did as they willed. Even the distant traces of their passing had given Yamish so much understanding that he’d spent thousands of years in cultivation, emerging far greater than he ever could have imagined.

It was impossible for a mere child to garner the same attention from the universe that those great beings had. And yet, as Yamish’s thoughts swirled in circles of disbelief, the lightning grew stronger.

The Lifereaver screamed, its mouth splitting apart as it lunged for Chance in an attempt to kill him before the heavens could execute their will. He laughed, Essence dancing alongside him as he bounded to the side, vaulting off his hands to avoid a leg as it pierced down where he had landed, and flung himself at the centipedal monster.

His urumi whistled through the air, extending to its full length as waves of Karmic power raced down its links. It whipped around the monster, digging deep into its flesh. Instead of freeing the weapon, Chance used it like a lasso.

Glowing golden lightning crackled through the sky. Chance’s gaze flicked up at the clouds gathering above him. The Lifereaver twisted its body, legs erupting from its back to grab at him.

It was like trying to swat a fly with a stick. Chance danced and dodged past every blow. He shouldn’t have had the power to do any more. Yamish had felt the Essence remaining within him, and it should have long since run out.

But it did not. The power continued to flow. It ignited around Chance and burned the back of the Lifereaver with its intensity, digging into the black and tearing through it. The monster screamed and thrashed.

A delighted laugh slipped out of Yamish’s throat as he finally realized what the power was. Chance wasn’t materializing Essence from thin air. He was drawing in the power around him. Not Karma, but Tribulation itself.

“He steals from the universe,” Yamish breathed. “A fool indeed.”

The Lifereaver desperately tried to throw Chance off itself. Pain was not what motivated the creature. It was fear – not of Chance, but of what was to come. A beast such as it was more than aware of what the universe demanded of those that went against it.

A part of Yamish wondered if the scene he was observing would have played out if the boy had known the full extent of what his decision was, but another part already knew the answer. There had been no point in Chance’s life where he’d ever so much as considered the smart decision.

The boy was a fool, through and through. His unyielding belief that the universe had to provide good to all was so intense that, even if he’d known the punishment for his actions, he would not have so much as blinked at the cost.

Power screamed through the air. Gleam itself trembled. The Lifereaver let out a horrified cry, thrashing desperately, but Chance held strong. He looked up to the sky, his lips peeling back.

Not to curse the universe. Not to beg for forgiveness or a way out. He looked up at the hammer of existence to smile.

The clouds rumbled. They darkened and turned pitch black. And, with a crack like the roar of a god, a bolt of golden lightning crashed down upon Chance.