A middle-aged man wearing padded armor covered in rivets and a sword on his back appears not too far away from Max. Not recognizing the man, Max hides near a tree and continues to watch him.

  I don’t think I have seen him before. He isn’t one of the soldiers that was traveling with Lady Rosalee and Sir Darvill. I don’t think he was one of the two from the road, either. They wore cloaks, but I still don’t think he is. He has a weird feeling around him.

  He is dangerous, very dangerous. I don’t know how I know that, but I do. He also has some kind of energy inside of him. It isn’t the same feeling that the corrupt power gives off; it is something different. The man stops and glances behind him before Lady Rosalee stumbles past a bush and into view.

  Sighing, the man looks at her. “Are you sure you want to go after your friend? For all you know, he is dead, or they have taken him. You really should let me just escort you back to your knight.”

  “Max won’t be killed that easily. I cannot just leave him out here when he was facing three of them alone. The only reason we didn’t die before you arrived was because he drew most of them after him.” Huffing, she puts her hands on her hips and looks around the woods, trying to see any sign of struggle.

  Max shakes his head, putting his spear away. He quickly picks up the bow and quiver and struggles to get it on as he approaches the two of them. “Hey! I’m over here. I’m fine, you can stop looking.”

  Margrave Bradley Vince spots Max and proceeds to look at the boy from head to toe. Strange. There is a familiar sort of energy coming from the boy.

  She said he had been chased in here by three people who worked with the guy I killed. He was clearly no slouch, and they had left him readily behind, even though I’m pretty sure they were after this boy. He has a wound to his side, but it doesn’t seem that bad. He couldn’t possibly have dealt with them all by himself, could he?

  “Boy, the Lady tells me that you were pursued by brigands into these woods. How did you manage to escape them?”

  Rubbing the back of his head, Max winces, unsure of what to say. He looks to Lady Rosalee, who has a strange look upon her face, and realizes that she isn’t wearing her helmet.

  She doesn’t have her helmet on, and he also referred to her as a Lady. Whoever it is, she seems to trust him enough to follow him after me. He probably helped them with the two I left behind. Where are Joshua and Gregory anyway?

  “Long story short, they weren’t brigands but paladins of Eschaton. They weren’t very familiar with the woods; between its inhabitants and my bow, I was able to deal with all of them. The bishop that was with them managed to score a blow against me.” Max touches his side gingerly before continuing, “After I ran out of arrows. I won out in the end. Where is Joshua and Gregory?”

  The margrave’s eyes widened at the boy's nonchalant attitude. Eschaton paladins and a bishop? Well, after dealing with the scythe man, it could easily be said he was a priest, given his energy strength and the magic he wielded. The psychotic nature also fits.

  The girl said that after killing the soldier, the other person left the battlefield without care for his allies, which also fits a paladin of Eschaton. She never mentioned that they were involved in this. He looks over at Lady Rosalee, and she shies away from his look and answers Max’s question.

  “I believe Joshua went to get Sir Darvill. Gregory didn’t make it.”

  “He left you? Were you even done with the fight before he left?” Max’s eyes narrow, and there is anger in his voice.

  Lady Rosalee rubs the back of her neck and looks away from the two men. “We should head back to the road. It wouldn’t do us any good if Sir Darvill arrives only to find everyone gone.”

  With that, the three of them move as a group and head back to the road. The margrave cannot help but stare at Max’s back, who walks in front of him beside Lady Rosalee. Two paladins and a bishop. There is no way someone of his age should be able to face that.

  Even if he used the forest and some tricks, how in the hells could he have managed that? You don’t become a paladin or bishop without having skill and a very deep mean streak. By all means, he should be wishing he was dead, already dead, or captured. There is also that strange energy about him. I cannot quite place it.

  The road isn’t that far away, and they make it back without any hassle. Lady Rosalee follows the margrave to his horse while Max looks over the scene of the battle. It looks far worse than I thought.

  Gregory’s fight has a lot of movement and blood splatter. There are a couple decent marks from where his opponent's sword struck the ground. They are too large to have come from his sword. It looks like he was overpowered.

  Max pauses next to Gregory’s body. You were a good man, Gregory. I really didn’t get to know you personally, only as a teacher. You understood me better than anyone I have met so far. I wish it hadn’t ended this way for you. You did your duty to the best of your ability; rest now.

  After his silent prayer, he retrieves Gregory’s sword. After taking the sheath and belt from Gregory’s body, he sheathes the sword and carries it with him as he walks back toward where Lady Rosalee fought.

  Lady Rosalee is exasperated when she sees Max take Gregory’s sword and stroll around where they fought. She is just about to go and say something to him when the margrave holds out his hand to stop her.

  “He isn’t just messing around; he’s trying to see the fights. The way that he took the sword from the soldier didn’t look like he just wanted the weapon. It looked more like he was paying his respects and is taking the sword to honor him in a way.”

  “Seems as though your companion has the heart of a warrior. You did not seem surprised when he said he killed members of Eschaton, only that he called them by their name.”

  Hesitating, Lady Rosalee looks at the margrave before sighing. Max really used their name. There is no going back now. A Margrave might not be directly related to any one kingdom, but they do seem to strive for the betterment of the realm. He should be against Eschaton like we are.

  “This isn’t his first run-in with them. They even believe him to be some special enemy of theirs, even though neither of us are sure of that.”

  “When he last fought them before this, they cast some sort of spell or curse upon him. They seemed very surprised he was able to withstand it, and the backlash of the spell failing killed one of their members.”

  “He saved me years ago. I… I saw firsthand how determined he can be, even against overwhelming odds. With nothing more than a damaged torch as a club, he tried to fight a corpse lurker; he failed in the end, but still.”

  “When it comes to Max, I have learned that it is never wise to bet against him. When three of them chased after him into the woods, my first thought wasn’t for his safety but wondering why he ran from them.”

  “I have never seen nor heard of him running from a fight, even when a knight has encouraged him to do so. Running away like that, all I could think was he had to have some sort of plan; it looks like I was right.” Her eyes sparkle as she watches Max while she speaks about him.

  Following her gaze, the Margrave watches Max as well. So there is something strange about him. I don’t know how or what was going on that he needed to rescue her, but the way she talks about it, this wasn’t recent. That means he was even younger when he fought a corpse lurker.

  I have seen trained soldiers die horrible deaths against those things. Just escaping with your life could be considered a feat if you meet one unexpectedly.

  He has fought Eschaton before and was even spelled by them. That is far more interesting, though. Normally, Eschaton tries to keep to themselves and pull strings behind the curtains. For them to have gone so far as to send people after him while he is being escorted by a knight and soldiers means that they think he is special.

  They must either really want him for something or, more likely, given the type of man that scythe wielder was, they want him dead. To be considered such a threat at this young of an age, they must really fear what he will one day become.

  This might also explain the energy I feel from him. Either that is what is giving him his strength and fearlessness, or it is a remnant of the spell they cast upon him.

  Max walks around where Lady Rosalee fought quicker than he had Gregory’s site. There is some blood here, most likely Rosalee’s. She seemed fine when we were walking back, but this is more blood than what should have come from a light wound. That man must have treated her with something.

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  Just like with Gregory, it looks like the person from Eschaton completely overwhelmed her. This is strange, though. Max kneels down and touches a long scar across the ground. He cannot help but shiver when his hand touches the edge of the groove.

  What caused this? There seems to be something here still… some sort of energy, maybe? Whatever it was, it completely destroyed this man. Max follows the trail of the groove back to the man standing beside Lady Rosalee and his horse.

  He did this. This is unbelievable. Whatever he did, I cannot begin to even fathom. Standing Max approaches the two of them standing beside the horse.

  “You caused this groove? It seems to come from near your horse and travels past that corpse.” Max motions to the scar left upon the ground by the margrave's energy attack.

  Lady Rosalee’s mouth hangs open, and the margrave smiles. “I did. It is impressive that you were able to deduce that so quickly. You also seem very sure of yourself.”

  “There are very few people who can cause such damage, few enough that this should be the first time you are seeing it, yet you don’t doubt that a person caused it.”

  Max looks away from the Margrave and at the ground where the attack passed. “It resembles magic, but I don’t think it is. There is a type of terrifying energy lingering on its trail. Almost reminds me of the attack Eschaton used against me, only this one doesn’t have that same feeling corrupt energy has.”

  The margrave moves beside Max. “What you speak of is a type of qi. Even the corrupted energy that the members of Eschaton use can be classified as a type of qi.”

  “Not very many people know about this. The few who do tend to be the strongest in the world, and they tend to keep it a secret for one reason or another.”

  “In every person, there are types of energy or qi that move through their body. For most people, the amount is rather small, and they don’t even notice it.”

  “The most common way people see or hear about qi is through the mage term mana. Mana and qi are not unrelated to one another. See, to use mana, a mage has to gather a certain amount of qi inside of their body and then use it to tap into the mana that is stored in everything.”

  “Raw mana is useless, even to a mage; the majority of the time, they have to use the energy inside themselves along with their spell craft to shape the mana and cast it out as whatever they intended. People say that a mage can ‘run out of mana’, but that is completely incorrect.”

  “Mana exists everywhere in everything; it cannot run out. What the mage actually runs out of is the qi energy inside of themselves that they use to mold the mana.”

  Kneeling beside Max and the wound on the earth, he continues his explanation. “Now, even a healer uses qi and mana to mix with an injured person’s personal qi. They supplement their amount and quickly spend it to revitalize and heal. To the party being healed, they only feel light and energy as their body heals, and might feel weak when they are finished.”

  “This is because the qi is spent, and without it, their body isn’t as strong as before until it recovers the energy. This is all really technical and only matters to mages and healers most of the time.”

  “Years ago, in ancient times, some people found a way to sense the energy inside of themselves. This led to the creation of the mages and healers, but a few people could still sense this qi, but not use mana. For the most part, the mages who were basically in charge of helping these people just thought they were defective.”

  “Most of these people went about their lives thinking they were only half-blessed. That they were at the cusp of the magical realm but unable to cross the threshold.”

  Looking up at Max, he touches his chest as he speaks. “A few didn’t follow this belief. They studied the energy inside themselves and found that even the simplest of tasks, such as moving or lifting, used this energy to a very small degree.”

  “After years of practice, they managed to manipulate the amount of energy used. If less was used, the person would be weaker than they normally would be, but could perform for far longer periods of time. On the other hand, if the person used more energy than was required, they were able to perform inhuman feats.”

  “Many of these people were called Imítheos or demigods because of the things that they were able to do. I do not know if they were actually related to gods or not, but that doesn’t really matter for this story.”

  “Generations pass, and most of this information is lost or locked away in kings’ vaults or wizard towers. A few people like myself stumbled upon this once again, though. We might not have had the lessons or guidance from those before us, but we managed to control qi.”

  Standing up, he points at the groove upon the ground. “After we mastered it, we found that our aging slowed down. Having unnatural powers and extremely long lives, some of us were considered monsters and hunted down.”

  “The more we fought against those who tried to kill us, the more we began to find a new path. The energy could make you faster and stronger, sure, but without decades of practice, the amount most anyone had didn’t lend to long, drawn-out fights.”

  “Taking a page out of the mage’s playbook, the few of us remaining managed to externalize our energy. Not using mana like a mage, but purely the energy we have trained and built up inside of ourselves. Using this energy, we could cause massive and devastating attacks similar to the one I used here.”

  “Of course, back then, when we were all very young, even an attack like this one would have left us extremely exhausted and weak. After years of training and growing the amount of qi inside of us, this is now nothing.”

  “We rarely share this information with people, and many of us hide among the people or as hermits. The few of us who are known to openly use our powers have gained the title of margrave.”

  “The kingdoms wanted to recruit us as weapons, but we chose to go about our own business. They still give us positions higher than most other nobles; only dukes and kings hold a higher status. Between our age and power, even without official status, there are very few who know of us that would go against us.”

  The Margrave touches Max’s chest with two fingers. “I sense inside of you a strong, unique qi. How you have so much of it, or why it is so dense, I have no idea. I have never felt any qi quite like it before.”

  He shrugs and walks back to his horse. “Eschaton uses a type of qi that is parasitic. In essence, that is how the corruption works. They mix this unique qi into themselves and the world around them; it changes the energy it touches to be similar.”

  “Usually, the changed energy is weaker than the pure stuff found in their crystals, though. That is why most corrupt things have small mutations. For the larger mutations that they cause within themselves when they are threatened, that requires a source of pure energy like their crystals to achieve.”

  “Most people, even if they are able to use their new mutated form to defeat whatever threatens them, end up dying because their own body cannot contain, process, or renew the pure qi. Without a source of continuous pure corrupt qi, they basically starve to death.”

  “Yours definitely does not feel like that. It feels dangerous in a different way. I feel like I have, maybe a long, long time ago, felt something vaguely similar, but cannot clearly remember when, where, or who.”

  Lady Rosalee kept turning her head from the margrave to Max as he was talking. I have never heard anything even remotely like this before. This is insane.

  I saw the energy he released himself but to think there is that kind of energy inside of every living being just seems impossible. How long would it take for someone to notice this ‘qi’ inside of themselves?

  It is unimaginable how they would even start to work out how to use it after they did manage to find it, but I see no reason why he would lie to us about this. If Max does have unique qi, that might explain why they think he is Echthrós.

  Coming from another world, I’m sure both of their qis are different from ours. The way he is able to fight and kill things he shouldn't, could be explained by him tapping into this power unknowingly. If he can somehow master it like the Margraves have, I shudder to think of the power he might have.

  Max just nods at everything he has just heard. Qi. This seems to be a huge piece of the puzzle. The god that we talked about being behind Eschaton might not actually be one, but someone with special qi.

  They spread it like a plague to everyone and everything around them, changing their personal energies to match its own. The crystals are probably created directly by this person, that would be why they are pure.

  The silver alloy that Rosalee and Elijah spoke about, harming the corruption, probably has mana or qi or whatever that is not compatible with the corrupt qi. Salt has always been said to have cleansing properties, and so has fire.

  My qi being unique probably also explains why the enchantment on the sword changed from clear to lime green.

  If we have to cross the Dread Wastes and fight the origin of the corruption, we are definitely going to have to figure out how to use qi. Somehow, if we can use our qi to purify or remove the parasitic qi, we would be able to eat and drink the native plants, animals, and water of the Dread Wastes.

  “Sir, I know I probably have no right to ask and probably shouldn’t even ask anyway, but how do you use qi?”

  Laughing, the man mounts his horse and looks at Max. “You are too young and innocent to travel down that path. In the future, you might traverse it, but for now, be happy being able to use it subconsciously enough to beat paladins of Eschaton. They won’t forgive you for that boy.”

  Lady Rosalee’s mouth hangs open as she looks at Max. Did he not hear the part about them not telling people any of this? Or the fact that it is a secret? Why would he ask that!? This is something we will have to carefully try to find clues about. There is no way he will just hand this power over to strangers, let alone children.

  “I know they won’t forgive me. They will send more after me in the future for sure. I also have a debt to repay to one of their bishops once I can find where he is located.”

  “I cannot rely on accidentally using qi and hoping to get by on luck. Even if it is hard and dangerous, I have to get stronger. I know it is something that you cannot fully impart on me over weeks, let alone here on this road, but if you could give me something, a hint, anything, that can help me figure it out on my own.”

  The fierce look in Max’s eyes as he stares at the margrave unsettles him slightly. This boy is beyond unusual.

  “Meditate. Focus on the energy that subtly flows all throughout your body. Finding this energy is one of the hardest parts. Once you can sense it, get a feel for how it moves and reacts inside of you.”

  “That is the basis behind all of the abilities it can grant you. After that, you just have to move it around consciously instead of doing it subconsciously as a reaction. That is all I will give you. If you can master even a small portion of it, you will greatly increase your strength.”

  “Much like a muscle, the more you use it, the faster, easier, and stronger it gets. If you can physically use it, even only internally, then you can seek me out, and I might just teach you how to fully control it. Now, let us set off and locate your escort.”

  Both Max and Lady Rosalee walk beside the margrave as he rides back down the road from where they came. They try to engrave the simple and vague instructions about qi into their minds so they will not be able to forget it.

  Lady Rosalee has little intention of trying to master qi, but this fundamental piece of knowledge changes many things about how the world around her works. She tries to sort out this new worldview that keeps rapidly expanding in front of her.

  Max, on the other hand, does not care for the greater meaning this holds about the universe, but simply in the more practical ways it will affect them and their quest against Eschaton. He even looks at his hands while they walk and tries to visualize the energy moving inside of them.