78. True North

  “This is the moment I have been waiting for,” Ko Si whispered in his ear. “Do you feel that? That is the power that you have been chasing, but compared to what you have claimed, you are weak and hollow.”

  Ko Ren stared at the newly arrived Little Bug, who floated in the air between Ko Ren and the Peach Blossoms. Between Ko Ren and his targets. Between Ko Ren and everything .

  “If that is what true power tastes like,” Ko Ren said, still reeling from the destruction of one of his two puppets, “Then I will consume his power and make it my own.”

  “Consume at your peril, brother,” Ko Si whispered. “He has already killed one god. I remember, now. I watched him from the other side of the river as he freed countless souls from the dread god on the plains of lamentation. I chose to be reborn into this body, but never found the proper moment for an awakening. It is only in death when I became myself again.”

  “What nonsense is this?” Ko Ren muttered. “Be silent specter!”

  “I squandered the providence he gave me. I squandered so much—”

  “Hello Master,” Little Bug said, bowing humbly to Ko Ren. “I see you there. I hope you do not mind, but I shall release you from your suffering and send you into the peace of samsara. May you be reborn into a life of peace and happiness.”

  “What nonsense is—”

  “Thank you, Master,” Ko Si said, and Ko Ren gasped as he was forced to bow. “This one was not worthy to learn from you.”

  “We are all worthy of learning, Pupil,” Little Bug answered. “May you always remember that at least.”

  Ko Ren gathered his power, preparing another attack with everything he had and--

  The vampyric technique which held Ko Si’s core, her power, to his own evaporated.

  “Thank you.” Ko Si’s voice faded into--

  Ko Ren gasped as he saw through the veil, to that which awaited those who die. Of what awaited him. He recoiled in horror and screamed in madness.

  “Ko Ren. You too I shall send into Samsara,” Little Bug said. “I pray that heaven’s judgment for the suffering you inflicted in this life takes into account the fact that you were twisted by forces beyond your understanding or control.”

  “No! No, I will not end up like that!” Ko Ren screamed in defiance. He pulled the energy from his remaining puppet and--

  The puppet came apart at the seems, it’s power hollow and empty. Ko Ren realized too late that Little Bug had woven together an attack on the puppet while they were speaking, one which pulled apart the enchantments binding the body to unlife.

  And he had pulled the technique into his own body. He screamed in denial as the technique quenched the undead fire that kept the parts of him that were still mortal alive, and then he--

  ~~~~~

  I watched as the last light of life faded from Ko Ren’s eyes. He had become a twisted mockery of a man, but I had once respected him. As his corpse hovered in the air for a moment, I paid him the final respect of a junior to an elder.

  “Goodnight, Elder Ko Ren. May you drink deeply of the waters of lethe and forget this madness. May you learn justice and compassion in your next lives. May you—”

  “Enough of that,” the corpse of Ko Ren said, and I nodded. I had been expecting this. “You have made a mistake to reveal yourself to me, Unbound one. I have been hunting you for centuries and you finally appear before me? You think that I shall allow you to escape so easily?”

  “You claim this body as a vessel to hunt me,” I said. It was not a question, but a statement of fact.

  “I shall devour your soul and bear it back to Empress Nadia! Finally, finally I shall be free once more!” the voice of the hunter exclaimed.

  “I name you,” I said. “You are Ant. You have risen to great heights, but never again shall the confluence of providence which allowed you to gather power in this world allow a second chance. You shall be born to small lives for all of your future lives. You will be an insect, a flee, a helpless—”

  “Enough of this nonsense! Face me!” the possessed corpse exclaimed. And it’s power soared.

  Past the Golden Path.

  And past the diamond.

  Onto the platinum path, as the necromancer empowered the corpse with a significant portion of his true self.

  The dead and undead on the battlefield groaned and pulled themselves back up. Their master had arrived, and they groaned as they were called once more into his service.

  And then they fell, their strings cut, as the technique that had slain Ko Ren worked its way through the battlefield.

  “Wait, how did you do that?” the necromancer demanded. “Dammit. Wait a second.”

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  He muttered, and the corpses rose again.

  Only to fall again.

  “You cannot use puppets against me,” I informed him. “That’s all that your technique is. You are not truly a necromancer, Ant. You are a puppeteer. You do not call back life from death, you parade corpses around and—”

  “I know very well the limits of my power! And if I cannot wear you down with bodies, then I will simply crush you myself!” the necromancer exclaimed.

  From the corpse of Ko Ren came a Dao avatar. Taking the form of a hideous hydra, it began attacking the soldiers with many heads while.

  A figure of an Asura emerged and stood between the hydra and the forces.

  “I will protect the masses!” Di Ram called to me. “Little Bug! I cannot face him. If you have anything you’re holding back, now is the time to play it!”

  “Yes,” I said. “It comes down to this moment. I ask you one last time, Ant. Please. Surrender.”

  “Me? Surrender? Are you high? Do you think just because you’ve got a little trick that keeps me from using my army that I’ll just give up?” the platinum ranked monster before me laughed. “I am going to crush your body and torture your soul and deliver your mangled remains to Nadia! And then I will—”

  “I am sorry for what you shall endure for the rest of eternity for the consequences of your actions in this life, Ant,” I said.

  And then the fight began in earnest.

  ~~~~~~

  Across the world, my final avatars, the ones which had been engaged in activities too important to abandon halfway through, paused.

  “This is the moment,” I said through a thousand and one mouths. “I am sorry that I could not prepare you more.”

  ~~~~~~

  Po Sana held her children close. The voice in the heavens had spoken, and then it had gone silent.

  The answer of the heavens to the darkest moment of history had been silence. She saw that plainly, and she expected nothing more.

  She held in her hand a little bottle. Poison. She looked at her children. Her daughter looked at her, understanding on her face.

  “We’re a family,” Po Sana said. “Family’s should be together in times like this.”

  “I understand, mama,” Her eldest daughter said. “You’re right. It’s better than—”

  “You’re right, Mother,” I said, stepping out of the darkness. “Families should be together in times like this.”

  “Little Bug?” my mother said, looking surprised. “What are you—shouldn’t you be—Oh I missed you!” she exclaimed, and she enveloped me in a hug, the bottle of poison dropping to the floor.

  “I am sorry that I never sent word that I was doing well,” I said. “I am not really here, even now. I am fighting a fight which only I can win. But I am not alone.”

  “Oh,” she said, stepping back. “You’re not really here, are you? This is a … a cultivator trick?”

  “Yes,” I said. “But there’s something I wanted to do. For all of you. I want you to sit with me and listen very carefully.”

  We each sat down on the cushions in Tonilla’s mansion, where my mother and the rest of my family were being housed during these dark times.

  “I am going to teach you a cultivation technique,” I informed them. “It is called the Peach Blossom Dream.”

  ~~~~~~

  “Hien Ro!” I called out. “Why is it called the North Star Guiding Technique?”

  “Is now the moment for a lesson, master?” my first friend asked, channeling his energy to shield the city from the hydra’s attack.

  “Who is the North Star?” I persisted. “Is it you?”

  “Of course not,” he said. “There is no north star. We’re a constellation.”

  “A constellation, yes,” I agreed. “Which points to the north star. You guide the world to find their guide. That is the purpose of the North Star Guiding Technique,” I explained even as I shielded them from the corruption radiating out from Ko Ren’s body.

  “What does this have to do with—”

  “I never once tried to join the collective,” I said. “Because you could not comprehend what would happen if I did. Do you still wish to learn how to cultivate your soul?”

  “Yes, but is now the time—”

  “Let me be your north star, disciples!” I called.

  There was a pause as, despite the chaos of the battle being fought on so many different levels, they hesitated.

  And then I felt them reach out to me with all that they were.

  I reached back.

  ~~~~~

  Toorah was cultivating with the technique that he had learned from the master cultivator when the stars went out. He blinked in surprise, then stood. Long moments passed and the stars did not come back.

  “Don’t worry,” the master cultivator said. “It’s time. Practice what I taught you, and you’ll do well in the new world, Toorah.”

  The voice calmed him, and he sat. He began cultivating again.

  He lost track of time as the array, erected atop the nexus of the energy gathering arrays which were now cut off from the heavens, suddenly came to life.

  And the world of Atla began to shine.

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