Street Cultivation 3: Chapters 35-36 (Patreon)

I was glad to see the positive response to the first chapters of TWC. ^-^ But I'll generally save updates on that for Tuesdays, as I'm sure you all want to wrap up the cliffhanger from last time.

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Chapter 35: Bone Contract

Melissa let out a gasp that was suffocated by the sudden force wrenching her from the world. She suddenly found herself adrift in an expanse of pitch black ground and pale sky. Though she hadn't seen what had happened, her surroundings looked like how her brother had described the demon realm.

That meant that she needed to figure out how to summon her aura. When she tried, she found it inaccessible, but he'd said something about that too. She tried to remain calm, since she needed to keep her head if she was going to get back and help her family.

Suddenly a terrible pain shot through Melissa's stomach and she crumpled to her knees. It was exactly where she felt her ether void, and for a terrible moment she feared that it had turned against her again. Yet the pain wasn't the same, it was as if all the life was being drained from her...

"I've only seen this in simulation." The voice was warm and buttery, nothing like how she would have expected a demon to sound. She struggled to look up and saw a creature approaching, looking like a human skeleton with a horned head, face formed from bone.

"It... it hurts..." Melissa tried to summon her aura again and once more failed. It was like she was slowly eroding from the inside...

"We're naturally suited to our own realm, of course." The demon bent down beside her, helping her up. When she touched its hand, the bone felt strangely cool, yet the pain receded. "Humans are mostly unsuited, yet you do have an aura spark at the core of your souls. Most of you. How unusual for a human to have an ether void that was never fixed."

"Just who are you?" As soon as she was standing, Melissa pulled her hand back, even though the pain began to return. Old fears were beginning to rise, but she thought she had overcome them. The ether void wasn't her enemy, it was part of her.

"I am... something like a scientist, you could say. If you agree to let me study you, I'd be happy to help you return to your own realm."

"Study me?"

"Oh yes. Your condition is poor now, but if we were to meet under better circumstances..." The demon waved its hand and a tablet appeared, just like a tablet from the real world. "I'll help you get back, but I'd feel much better if you signed an agreement to work together with me."

Melissa tried to look at the words, but the pain was getting worse and her vision was blurring. Besides, it didn't really matter.

"Screw you!" She tried to strike the tablet, but her hand passed directly through. "You really think I'm that stupid? That somebody helpful just shows up? You're obviously working with that mercenary guy."

"I suppose that would have been too easy." The demon smiled, bone lips pressed together... until they ripped apart, the bone tearing in a jagged line. All of its bones shifted, soft edges becoming cruel spikes. "You're right, I'm not being helpful. But you should still consider yourself lucky. That human fool would have just killed you, wasting all your potential profit."

Shaking her head and gripping her stomach tighter, Melissa tried to shake off the pain. She regained enough focus and managed to push off the ground, sending herself sailing into the air.

A spike of bone exploded through her chest.

The power of it seemed to pin her in place, even as it sent agony through her chest. Yet despite all the pain, Melissa found herself staring downward in horror. Though the spike hadn't torn her skin or shirt, it felt as though it was embedded in her soul. When she struggled to pull it out, the spike felt more solid than the rest of the demon realm, yet she couldn't grip it.

"You don't understand how much danger you're in." The demon floated up in front of her, holding the tablet in one hand and a bone spear in the other. "I may need you alive, but I can cause you a great deal of suffering. And I don't need to do a thing to watch you destroy yourself. The only person who can protect you from the effects is me."

"My... my bro-" The spear of bone cut through her side and she cried out in agony again. Her world completely dissolved into the pain for an instant that seemed to go on far too long.

When she was aware of herself again, pain came first, both from the spikes through her body and the void eroding her from the inside. Her eyes had been open, they just told her nothing. She slowly came back to herself, realizing she was still pinned in midair, the skeleton demon regarding her with its terrible grin.

"You think anyone is coming for you? Passing between realms isn't easy. Even our human partner only has one grenade that can create a portal. Your only choice is to sign the contract with me."

"I..." Her voice came out weak and pained, forcing her to take several gulping breaths to get herself under control. There were tears in the corners of her eyes, no matter how much she tried to blink them away. "Then why are you so desperate to get me to sign?"

"I'm not desperate." The demon smiled, face cracking broader. It manifested another bone spear from the darkness, then very slowly slid it through her heart.

Melissa promised herself that she wouldn't scream and broke that promise. This one hurt so much more, a growing agony spreading through her entire being instead of a single sharp pain. She didn't feel like she would pass out this time, which meant that she felt every bit of it.

When the spike was all the way through her heart, Melissa thought the demon would offer her the contract again. Instead it merely smiled cruelly and formed another, stabbing this one into her thigh. Melissa screamed and thrashed, each pained movement tugging the other spikes impaling her and increasing the pain.

Worse than that was the sheer helplessness. She desperately reached for her aura, but there was nothing. Her ether void pulsed in response, but it still consumed her. There was absolutely nothing she could do, leaving her with a humiliating mix of emotions she could barely name.

At last it ended. A bony hand grasped her arm, briefly making all the pain recede. Now the demon bent close, raising the contract to her again.

"Do you know how long I could torture you here? I don't, but I would be happy to find out. Just watching you come apart would be useful information."

"What... what do I need to do?" She hated how weak her voice sounded.

"All I need is a bit of your blood to sign the contract. You need a special device to bleed here, and I wasn't quite prepared for this, but I can acquire the proper needle."

"No, I... I have one..." Melissa shakily raised her hand into the inner pocket of her robe... and removed it with her middle finger raised.

For just a moment, as the demon stared at her in shock, it was worth it. Then a spear of bone drove through her face and she screamed.

~ ~ ~

As soon as he understood the emergency, Rick began channeling lucrim to Katenka. Far more than he ever had before, but he was desperate to find a way to get to Melissa. As he did so, she seemed to become more solid and flew to the pillar of aura.

"This... they broke the barrier..." She grimaced as she dug her fingers into the aura, as if trying to wrench it back open. "Still weak... but it's not easy..."

"What can I do?" He was ready to throw all the lucrim he had at her, but she shook her head.

"Don't need more... just stop him..."

Rick's movements had bought him a little time, but now the mercenary understood what he was trying to do. The man hurled both grenades, one directly toward them and one toward the ground.

On instinct Rick leapt away, just before another cloud of fog expanded. He desperately looked for the others, but saw that Uncle Frank had pulled himself over it with an aura hand, while Katenka was still working within the fog, apparently unharmed. Still, the life-consuming fog was expanding, preventing access to the closed portal.

No, that was a distraction. The real threat was the second grenade... "He has another demon!" Rick called the warning just before another one of the demonic scorpions leapt at his uncle from behind.

Uncle Frank summoned a blue fist around his entire body, smashing the scorpion skyward. It wasn't dead, but that didn't matter since the mercenary was drawing a sidearm. Given how well-equipped he was, Rick had to assume it could fire lucrim bullets, or was essential to a firearms technique. He leapt directly at his opponent in a Bunyan's Step.

This time the mercenary didn't try to fire at him, just leapt away. Rick was after him the next second and the two of them flashed back and forth across the ruin. Several times the mercenary suddenly reversed, trying to drive him into the clouds of gas, but Rick kept after him. Thoughts of Melissa set his blood boiling, yet instead of blind rage he found himself overflowing with calculated thoughts of murder.

All at once he was on his opponent, reacting on instinct and hitting the man's neck with his fist. Yet the mercenary had already been firing, several gunshots impacting on Rick's torso. The force of the lucrim bullets sent him staggering back a step, his defensive cores struggling.

Before any more could be fired, a blue palm slammed down between them. The mercenary sneered and raised his gun to fire through it, only for the hand to suddenly sweep at him, slapping him into the jungle. Uncle Frank limped closer, but there was fire in his eyes.

"Go, Rick. Save Melissa."

"But..." Rick looked toward where the mercenary was no doubt regrouping and preparing for an ambush. Yet he saw that within the fog, a portal had been torn open. Katenka was nowhere in sight, but there was no time to think about that.

"I trust you despite these demonic bonds. Trust me to handle this." Something in Uncle Frank's tone broke through to him. Rick nodded sharply to him, then ran toward the portal.

He plunged through the fog in an instant, feeling it eating into him, then suddenly he was skating into the demon realm. His aura lit up around his body almost without thinking, but the Triune Golden Spheres winked out. Fighting here wasn't really an option.

Almost immediately he saw her: Melissa hung in the air, impaled by several long spears that looked like they were made of bone. His heart leapt to his throat: he would have thought she was dead except for how her body shook, yet the agony on her face was almost worse.

Only after seeing her did he even notice the demons. Several scorpions were frozen in swaths of ice, Katenka storming forward. Yet she struggled against a skeletal demon that shattered through her ice and hurled more bone spears at her.

"You!" Realizing that the demon was the one torturing his sister, Rick roared out the word and nearly leapt toward him. Yet he realized, just before the demon gave him a jagged grin, that he couldn't attack the demon. Not here, at least not effectively.

His sister let out an anguished cry and Rick ran. Toward the demon, but no longer intending to attack him. At the last second, Rick changed direction, instead turning toward Katenka. He bit hard into the meat of his palm, salty blood filling his mouth, and reached out toward her.

Immediately she grasped his palm. He felt the strength flow out of him into her as he gave her the power deep within his blood. A solid blue beam swept out, freezing everything in its path, including the skeletal demon. Rick staggered, but didn't let himself fall, trying to rush on toward Melissa.

For a moment, he thought that he was going to make it, but then he heard the ice shatter. The demon came after them, waving a hand, and bone-like scorpions began springing up from the ground all around them. Rick attempted to charge through, and Katenka laid waste to them with bursts of ice, but the sheer force of the scorpion rush drove both of them back.

On the other side of the summoned demons, the leader floated toward Melissa again. It created another spear of bone, this one dripping something foul and black. Rick let out a cry, smashing directly through demons in his path, but he knew that he was too late...

Melissa let out another scream. Not of pain, but something inhuman.

Darkness exploded from her, a sphere so utterly black that it cast the demon realm in shades of gray. The sphere expanded rapidly, consuming the spurs of bone impaling her. For a moment the demon looked shocked, then it leapt away to escape the sphere.

Rick leapt into its path, flaring his aura as much as he could. The demon faltered and then the sphere swept up toward them. A pulse of fear sent Rick leaping back, but the demon was too slow, swallowed by the darkness. It gave a loud cry, then it shattered into fragments of bone that were consumed by the void.

It continued expanding until it was far larger than Melissa, carving a vast crater out of the ground and consuming many of the demonic scorpions. Rick could only stare, trying to find his sister in the darkness. He was only dimly aware of Katenka freezing the remaining scorpions until she stepped up beside him, staring at the dark sphere.

"That..." Katenka took a deep breath, watching it with wide eyes. "That is a soul void made manifest. I... I can't go into that."

"But I have to." Deep within, Rick could see Melissa, and her mouth was still open in a silent cry. Before anyone could stop him, he hurled himself into the air toward his sister.

When he hit the sphere of darkness, it swept through him, and for a moment he thought that it would tear him apart. He struggled on, relying not so much on his defensive cores as on raw unwillingness to surrender to it. Not until he got to her.

He'd lost his vision entirely, but he felt himself collide with his sister. She was the first solid thing he'd felt in the demon realm, and he immediately clung to her. For a moment the void raged even more intensely around them, then all at once it vanished.

Melissa collapsed into his arms, still whimpering in pain. He held her tightly, wishing that he could do something, but he was still too numb. All the demons around them were dead, yet it didn't feel like a victory. Not when he could feel her tears in his shirt, her body shaking with quiet sobs.

"Rick..." Katenka appeared beside them with a concerned look on her face. "You need to go back through before the portal closes for good. You might be able to survive here, but your sister..."

"Right." Rick took a deep breath and refocused as he drifted back down to the ground. As soon as he touched down, he pushed himself off at an angle, back toward the rift in the sky through which he could see the human realm. It was growing smaller, but there was enough time. "Katenka... thank you."

She closed her eyes sadly. "Have her thank me."

There was no more time. Rick plunged back into the human realm, bracing himself for the lethal fog, but there was nothing but scorched air. He staggered on the uneven stones, struggling to keep Melissa from falling. She had floated in the demon realm, but now lay completely limp, almost like a dead body.

Adrenaline surged through Rick's blood, but the fight was over. Uncle Frank sat on a broken pillar nearby, his shirt stained with blood but with no other signs of injury. The mercenary was unconscious and pinned in the grip of another aura hand.

"I've contacted the authorities." Uncle Frank sounded ragged, concern bleeding into his voice. "Melissa... is she?"

"I'm alive." She grated out the words in a much lower voice than normal. "I'm fine."

It could not have been more obviously a lie, even if she didn't fall into his chest and begin crying again. Rick wrapped his arms around her, but his legs gave out and they both slumped to the ground.

Only then did everything catch up to him. The battle against the mercenary, the exposure to the lethal fog, traveling between realms, and giving so much of his blood... willpower had taken him that far, but he had reached his absolute limit.

Rick fell unconscious still clutching his weeping sister in his arms.

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Chapter 36: Demonic Trauma

When Rick woke, he stared at a sterile white ceiling. He tried to get up, only for a doctor to press him back down, then create a quick aura technique that eased the sudden ache in his chest. The man looked vaguely familiar to Rick, so he assumed that the doctor was one of the dedicated Showdown healers. Yet when he tried to ask questions, the man just shook his head and left.

Soon after, H entered with a grimace. It was worse than his normal glower, a truly grim expression that focused entirely on Rick. "You do realize you're on thin ice with this. Your Showdown insurance will cover extracurricular activities, but if you exploit it, that will become a problem for both of us."

"My sister almost died." Rick didn't want to show any weakness, but the statement fell bluntly from his lips. H sighed, started to raise a cigarette to his lips, then returned it to his pocket.

"I suspected I would get family problems with you. Try to keep it under control." H rubbed his eyes wearily and shifted to lean back against the wall of the hospital room.

"Is she alright?"

"She was discharged without any major expenses. They say she needs to work through whatever it is herself. I took her costs from your upcoming income. I forgave the extra expenses for you because everything you encountered was good for your defensive cores. Getting shot isn't ideal training, but if you survive it, that's worth something."

Rick didn't answer, just stared at him. Eventually H turned away, though he paused at the door.

"You don't have another event for five days. Take care of everything by then. Whatever else is happening, you need to get your head straight."

Once his mentor was gone, Rick sat up. He still hurt, especially in every place where he'd been shot, but the doctors had done a good job healing him. His clothes and other things all sat in a box near the bed, so he changed into them. As he did so, he found himself coughing a bit - the gas grenades must have done a number on his lungs even though he'd tried not to breathe any of it.

Other than one of the nurses letting him check out, no one bothered him. He supposed that they were used to Showdown fighters getting injured in various surprising ways. A few people tried to talk to him on the way back to the hotel, but he ignored all of them.

When he came to their hallway, he saw Uncle Frank seated outside their hotel room. He looked so grim that for a moment Rick feared the worst, but his uncle only looked up at him with a somber expression. "I tried to talk to Melissa, but... I think she'd be happy to have you there."

Accepting that wordlessly, Rick stepped inside. Immediately he saw that Melissa's bed was a lump of sheets and blankets, all the covers from both beds gathered into one pile. He could only presume that she was at the center of it, because none of her was visible, so he approached slowly.

"Melissa... I just woke up in the hospital." He didn't get a response, so he carefully sat down on the side of the bed near the pile of blankets. "I'm glad you weren't hurt worse. I'm... sorry I couldn't do more to help you."

There were muffled sounds, then Melissa's head poked out from one side of the blankets. "Brother... don't say that... Uncle Frank has been that way too..."

"How are you feeling?" It looked as though she'd been crying, but she didn't look as broken as he'd worried. His question made her sigh and pull the blankets back over her head.

"I'm fine. The doctors said I was healthy, so I'm healthy. It's just in my head... but I don't want to talk about it."

"You don't have to." Rick shifted closer and rubbed her back through the blankets. "I'm here to talk if you ever want to, but I don't want to force it. Is there anything you do want?"

"Just... could I have some water? And then... just... stay for a bit..."

Rick quickly went to pour her a glass of water. She was so quiet and subdued that he desperately wanted to do something for her, crack some joke that would make her laugh again. But despite whatever the doctors said, he knew that she had been injured in a deeper way, and trying any of that could make things worse.

When he returned with the water, Melissa emerged enough to drink it. He stayed nearby awkwardly, again putting a hand on her back. It shivered, but when he started to pull away, she aggressively moved into him. Suddenly he had a mess of blankets and his sister in his arms. All he could do was wrap his arms around the bundle and hold her as best she could. She wept, but completely silently.

Eventually she seemed to fall asleep. Rick waited until he was sure, then gently lowered her down into a more comfortable position with one of the pillows beneath her head. Even in sleep she didn't seem peaceful, leading him to wonder if there was some leftover demonic condition.

Not wanting to have that conversation with his uncle, Rick instead retreated to the bathroom so he wouldn't wake his sister and spoke softly. "Katenka, is there any lingering demonic effect?"

"The doctors would have noticed it." She manifested beside him, eyes pale and sorrowful. "It would be... easier if there was an explanation like that. But I fear this is simply a matter of trauma."

"What the demon was trying... what did it do to her?"

"From what I can tell, his goal was partially to cause pain, partially to lower her control. He wanted to use her for her ether void, though I don't know how."

"Figure out, if you can." Rick stared at his reflection and was surprised at how dead his eyes looked. He washed his face, but didn't feel much better. At some point during that process, Katenka disappeared, hopefully to learn more.

But no, she was probably right. There would be no easy lucrim solution here.

With nothing else to do, Rick left the room again. Uncle Frank was still seated on the bench, his hands trying to strangle one another. Rick didn't say anything, just sat down beside him. They were silent for a long time, the air conditioning of the hotel a disturbingly normal backdrop, and then his uncle spoke quietly.

"I was a fool to invite you here."

In all their years together, Rick had never seen his uncle so turned against himself. Part of him wanted to offer reassurance, but another part... "How often do things like this happen?"

"Sometimes. Never. Maybe more often than I've told myself." Uncle Frank vigorously rubbed his face with both hands. "That mercenary was the worst, by far. Most scavengers flee when they see someone can defend themselves... I've never seen anyone with such developed Lucores, much less extensive demonic contracts.

"But... but how many times have I run into someone using a lucrim gun? I think I've tricked myself into believing it almost never happens, but that isn't true. God... I once invited the two of you to come work with me. Such a fool... that would have been a disaster. It could have gotten you killed. And now, Melissa..."

His uncle trailed off, staring into nothing with a haunted expression. Rick didn't know what to say to him, and didn't have much to give. But the self-incrimination he heard was enough to soften his heart. "It wasn't your fault, Uncle Frank. You couldn't have predicted that we'd run into someone like that."

"But I knew it was a risk, and I took it."

"We were the ones who asked."

"But I'm supposed to be the one who guides you, not who..." Uncle Frank took a deep breath and straightened up a little. "But that's the past now. Without you, that would have gone much worse. I don't think I would have been able to rescue Melissa without you, or without that demonic bond. What... what actually happened in there?"

"You don't know?" Rick looked over in surprise. "I assumed that the authorities... what happened to the mercenary?"

"I sent a distress call to international authorities as soon as I saw he had a gun, it's just that it took them some time to arrive. When they did, they gave you emergency treatment and had him arrested. It... feels wrong to say, but they actually paid us for this. There was a price on his head."

"Then just who is he?"

"That, we don't know. Apparently they had a tip that someone had violated their borders in a lucrim vehicle, but there seems to be no information about how. They said they'd call me back, but I don't think they will. There's always some game among the wealthy and powerful, and no one who's responsible will ever ever face any justice. At least the bastard is behind bars."

All Rick could do was consider that in silence. It certainly wasn't satisfying - part of him still wanted to tear the man apart with his own hands. At least the mercenary hadn't been put in a local jail where he would probably end up released due to some corruption or other. As far as he knew, when international authorities took someone down, that was the end of their free lives.

"I won't judge." Uncle Frank looked over at him and again twisted his hands together. "Just... tell me what happened in there."

"A demon tortured Melissa." It hurt to say it, but there was no point trying to soften the truth. "I think the mercenary might actually have been working for it, though I don't know why. It seemed to be bad luck, just... opportunistic."

"And what happened to it?"

"The demon that did that to her? It was destroyed. Melissa actually did it herself, but the whole ordeal..." Rick lapsed into silence, because there was nothing else to really say. He hadn't explained half of what he'd seen, but it was enough. All they could do now was try to cope as best they could.

Over the next day, they simply abided in the hotel. When they spoke, it was quietly and without substance. Melissa slept a lot, but Rick tried to be nearby whenever she needed something. Though it felt wrong to train while she was suffering, he ended up going through his usual routine just because he felt so helpless and there was nothing else he could do.

While seated with his legs crossed one evening, he was surprised when Melissa suddenly shifted up against his back. He hadn't heard her leave the bed even though she'd dragged all the blankets with her.

"Melissa? I'm sorry, I was just..."

"Don't stop." She wriggled around so that her bundle was partially propped against him. "Just feeling that makes things seem more... normal. Actually, I want to..."

After taking a deep breath, Melissa let it out slowly and darkness expanded around her. At first Rick was tense, remembering the destructive aura that had torn into him, but the void left him untouched. It was her Manifest Destruction technique, he realized, though improved since the last time he'd seen it. Since it knew him, it just wrapped him in shadows. Soon the lights flickered out and they sat alone in near total darkness.

"I'm sorry." Melissa took a shuddering breath before continuing. "Because of me, both of you..."

"How can you say that?" Rick found her hand on his shoulder and squeezed. "You weren't responsible for us being attacked. Uncle Frank has been beating himself up over this ever since. I've wished that I could do more. But the truth is, it was just one terrible man."

"But I pushed us to go out further and didn't take the risks seriously. I thought that I could defend myself, but I was so naive..."

"Don't say that. You were unlucky. Do you know how many risks I've taken? How many times I've nearly been dismembered or could have ruined our lives over stupid mistakes? Most of those worked out, but that was just dumb luck too."

"I guess... we're both just lucky idiots." Melissa sniffled, but shifted to lean her head against him. "Um, please thank Katenka for me. I tried to be brave, but I was starting to lose hope. But then she came through and started fighting the other demon and I was able to hold on."

"If she didn't hear, I'll tell her." Rick wanted to say more, but all words felt inadequate. He settled for just rubbing her shoulder and back.

Now Melissa was no longer crying, but she still seemed fragile. There was no grinning or joking and he wondered if those would ever return. Would this one accident be something that changed her life forever? He didn't think so, having seen her overcome so much, but he couldn't know what she was feeling. All he could do was resolve to help her as much as he could.

"I..." Melissa spoke up, then paused for an extremely long time, so long that Rick wondered if she'd changed her mind. But eventually she spoke just above a whisper. "I felt so helpless. That's what still claws at me from the inside. I've been in some scary situations, but I've never felt..."

Rick could listen to her words, but he couldn't know exactly what she was feeling. All he had were the same simple comforts that felt so inadequate. Yet when his hand stopped rubbing her back, she jostled his arm for more. It was almost like her old self, and when she looked at him, she gave a teary smile.

"I'll be alright, Rick. Really, I will. But I need time."

"We'll give it to you." He hugged her close and this time they both wept.

The moment stretched until his phone beeped. Rick saw that H had scheduled him for another Showdown event. He methodically turned off the phone, set it aside, and wrapped his arms around his sister.