Golden eyes watched the monster’s movements carefully for an opening. Nika was wheezing as she clutched white-knuckled hands around the claw that had pierced through her side, her Ki flowing in and out of it. The monster raised another claw for a strike and… Now!
He loosed the arrow and immediately dashed forward. By the third step, he activated his Ki in the only three locations that were letting in light. It was much easier to make things brighter than darker and harder still to control the surrounding aura instead of his own Ki. Pain flared in his head as he stretched his control to block out all incoming light. In the next instant, there was near-perfect darkness.
But his bright eyes could still see every detail. He saw how the monster was forced to abandon its strike to knock away the arrow, could see the strain on Nika’s face as she snapped its claw in two and pulled it out of the ground and out of her flesh.
A few more steps and then he was sliding forward, grabbing Nika’s hand before pulling her back.
“Time to go!”
A flash of relief when she let herself be pulled along and then they were racing for the door.
“Another promising young Clay? Ohh,” the demon said hungrily, “But I can smell it on you. Deceit. Delusion! Pungent and delicious.”
Dario’s only response was to pivot and kick one of the poison traps in the monster’s direction. He pushed Nika through the doorway without looking back, placed the other poison trap right in front of it, then stepped through himself before pushing plant Ki out.
With another flash of pain in his head, he released the working of light and instead pushed green Ki out into four separate threads, the vines quickly growing to fill most of the doorway as Nika moved ahead. He left it half-finished when he felt dizziness setting in, then dashed wildly through the rooms, bumping into doorways and tripping over debris. He fell but managed to turn it into a dive, rolling back to his feet with Nika just in front of him now, clutching at her side as she ran.
Even when they had left the building, he could still feel the demon’s twisted laughter, as if it was traveling through the stone and into his bones.
“Won’t you stay for tea and share your tales with this old man? Tell me of your hopes and dreams. Tell me of your childhood and your fears. Tell me all those lovely stories you like to tell yourselves.”
The horrible sound of that distorted voice kept the fear running cold through Dario’s veins, pushing him to keep running even as his legs hurt and his chest burned. They ran deep into the bones of the old city, pausing only to swallow healing pills and quickly wrap bandages around Nika’s wounds. Their flight took them through courtyards and windows, crawling over a crumbling rooftop into an old complex of mostly-collapsed residences, using Nika’s ability to weaken stone to pass through blockades, doing their best to block the passage behind them.
It was in an old sitting room that they finally collapsed, greedily sucking in the stale air. Nika’s skin was unusually pale, a mess of white hairs sticking to her sweaty scalp. Her clothing was torn in places, with a large bloodstain having spread on her left side.
“Are you going to be okay?” Dario asked. “Is it healing?”
Nika’s expression was strained as she went through her pack. “It narrowly missed my kidney, so I will recover, given time. Still, it is too much for a single healing pill to handle and there are only two remaining. It will be more efficient to apply a salve,” she said, taking out a small ceramic pot.
Nika had a dark expression, brow furrowed and mouth set in a thin line, but still Dario attempted to break the silence.
“So… Any idea what just happened there? You didn’t see it, at first? What did it look like to you?”
“It was just a curious old man.” Her frown deepened. “He - it - tricked me. It must have been some kind of illusion.”
Dario nodded slowly. “I could see that horrible thing clearly when I walked in. It looked like it was feeding on you. There was a haze of brown Ki covering the monster while a thick stream of the stuff ran from you to it. Just about the same shade of brown I saw before getting kicked out of that stupid test. You said that the brown Ki was supposed to come out if we said stuff that wasn’t true?”
Nika took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. “I believe it is linked to lies, yes. Delusion, as it was saying, or self-deceit of some kind. It was baiting me, trying to have me utter things that-”
She shook her head, grinding her teeth as her eyes went hard again.
“I will not rest before that demon is slain.”
“I think it might be a parasite, actually,” Dario said casually, hiding the shiver that ran down his spine as he recalled facing down that deadly monster. He nearly flinched when the weight of Nika’s full, angry attention was turned on him, then began to share the information he’d gotten from Hana.
“So the working theory is that, at some point in the past, a dangerous species of parasite took over this floor. It would have infected beast and man alike from what we’ve seen here, developing abilities based on mental Ki in even mindless beasts. But we know nothing about how this disaster unfolded, or what happened afterwards, so that the story became lost to time,” Nika summarized.
“That about sums it up, I guess. The question is how we’re going to fight them off and finally get out of here,” Dario said, scratching at the growing stubble on his chin. “The beetles were tough as nails and the cats had dangerous attacks, but that demon was really something else. Maybe the parasites are stronger if they can grab a person? I mean, the beasts seemed mostly dumb, or at least not smarter than normal. But with the old man, the parasite was talking like a person, right?”
Nika nodded slowly. “I have read of rare Reijuu-class parasites that grow with their hosts. The greater the quality of the host, the stronger the symbiote. Nevertheless, that does not help us determine what its weakness might be.”
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Another silence stretched as they considered their situation. Dario was beginning to feel more than a little bummed out with how this adventure was developing. There had already been too much fighting and not nearly enough treasure for his taste, but now they had to deal with ancient parasites on top of that. His only worry had been getting home in time to keep his promise, but if he got caught by one of those wicked black claws, he might not make it home at all.
Nika seemed bent on killing that creepy thing, but if he was honest, he didn’t see the point of it. The fastest way to get out of here was to solve that damn test, but he had already said what he wanted and had no idea what more it wanted him to say. A bit more information would be helpful, which meant that…
“I think we have to go back to the institute,” he said into the silence.
Nika jerked up, looking over at him and blinking, before narrowing her eyes.
“If this is about your treasure sense again-”
“What? No. Well, if there is treasure, that would be great, but just as a bonus. Think about it, that was the only place where we’ve really found clues so far, right? And though we went through the test, we didn’t explore the rest of that building. Remember that hidden alcove with the riddle that you thought was about empathy?”
Nika’s brows lifted with realization. “Yes,” she said, something like hope or excitement coming back to her voice, “there were signs of fighting but the entrance must have been well hidden. It might well have been a place of hiding, for some people. Perhaps there, we might find some answers.”
“Alright then,” Dario said with a smile, “sounds like we have a plan! Head to the dome, unlock the hidden passage, figure out how to pass the test and hopefully find out about the parasite’s weaknesses too.”
Nika nodded, then pulled out a strange black book from her pack, opening it with careful respect, as if she was handling her grandmother’s ashes.
“What’s that?” Dario asked.
She looked at him and paused for a moment before speaking, as if considering whether or not to share her secret.
“Something I found hidden in the vault. It seems to be some kind of manual, written by what I assume was an old Houjo clan member.”
“Wait, you went off treasure hunting without me? The audacity,” Dario said with feigned offense, which only managed to soften Nika’s expression by a fraction. “Well, as it so happens, I did find something for myself as well.” He dug up a small, round core with a cluster of seeds inside. “Though I’m not entirely sure what to do with it yet.”
To his vision, the core was brimming with plant Ki, though he was beginning to see subtle differences in the nature of the Ki. There were different aspects here than in the vine; growth was weaker in the seeds of the thorny tree, but instead it had plenty of hardness, or something close to it.
Nika looked determined as she straightened her back, sitting cross-legged with the manual held open in front of her. “We will both have to grow stronger, if we are to face the challenges of this floor and slay that demon.”
Dario thought it would be a whole lot smarter to avoid that parasite entirely, but he didn’t see any possibility of convincing the headstrong noblewoman of that at the moment. She was entirely focused on reading that booklet anyway, so instead, he took out his tablet, hoping to get some cultivation ideas to work on himself.
Adventureman is glad to report that the core has been extracted. At great cost to my skin, I should add. So now what should I do with it?
Dear adventureman, I regret to inform you that your request for further plant Ki cultivating secrets has been denied due to outstanding debts. In order to receive more tips, kindly provide secrets to settle the debt first.
What shameless exploitation of a poor adventureman who has found himself in mortal danger! But seriously, there’s not much to tell. I was just a young kid of the Belt, learning how to find treasure in the heaps of trash. Father left to do important stuff on higher floors when I was young, mother and kids sad, big drama. Brother basically did the same a bit less than a decade later, leading to even more drama.
Your father must have been an advanced cultivator then? What mission was so important?
I don’t really know, to be honest. I loved his stories of past adventures on higher floors when I was younger, but when he left I was too young and too sad to really understand. He was like a traveling researcher. My brother, Matteo, took an interest in the same kind of things. Scholarly stuff, you know?
And your mother?
She’s a teacher, though most of us don’t really go to school in the Belt. Still, as much as possible, she teaches the kids things like how to read, the basics of how the world works. She’s very caring like that. I guess it must have broken something in her, to have her precious family leave her behind like that.
That’s so sad!
Dario nodded to himself, feeling the familiar old sadness gripping him again, although it felt like it had lost a bit of its bite. He began to wonder about Hana’s story then - who was she, actually? But that would have to wait for another time. As Nika had said, they needed to get stronger.
It’s often said that the best adventuremen have the saddest backstories. But I need your help! Tell me how the best plant cultivators fight. I need to get stronger fast.
Well, actually the vast majority of plant Ki users are farmers of sorts, since the easiest use is simply to make plants grow faster.
Yeah I can make the vines grow, but how do I get them to do what I want? Like, how can I get them to attack my enemies?
You can’t. They’re plants. They don’t even have brains. They can only grow and behave as per their nature. Some advanced plants may be susceptible to Controller Ki, but that won’t work for you. From what I’ve heard, the most successful plant cultivators plan their battles well ahead of time and only fight on favourable ground. They use traps like poison and constrictive plants that suddenly rise up from the ground, while using aspects such as pliancy to Fortify their bodies.
I might be able to work with that… But then I first need to work on digging out those seams, or I won't have enough space to put more plant Ki. Any ideas how to speed up the process?
Normally, the only thing to do is to push more Ki in and be patient while it slowly spreads its roots. But in your case, there might be a trick…
After a bit of back and forth, Dario felt at least satisfied that he had the beginning of a plan for speeding things up. So far, the root-like veins of green Ki had been slowly spreading down through his legs, but over the last two days they’d barely gone down by half a centimeter.
Their plan was based on a simple principle that would only work in Dario’s particular situation. It was in the nature of the plant Ki to grow towards the light of the pillar, so using his light Ki, he should be able to move things along.
But before he could get started on that, he decided to close his eyes for a little while. They hadn’t slept in over a day and were both completely exhausted. It would just be a short nap.
Dario closed his eyes…
…and woke up to the sound of howling.