Chapter 225. Death Energy Isn’t Cheating (Patreon)

[ this is friday's late chapter, thanks for your patience. enjoy! also, if you are doing the $20 hardcover tier, please remember to cancel change your tier by the end of the month so you aren't charged again at that price. if you are double charged i can refund you but that's best avoided if possible. ]

“Welcome back,” Karanos says. “What did you learn?”

I gasp and prop myself up on my forearms. “I learned that the void is terrible. Ascendants dive into the emptiness between planes for fun?”

“For treasure, mostly,” the wisened ascendant quips. “You died quickly. What went wrong?”

Standing, I reply, “I couldn’t breathe. More than that, it felt like the air was sucked from my lungs. I couldn’t even hold my breath.”

“What did you sense happening with your practice?”

I consider for a moment. “The negative pressure caused both gases and liquids to swell. The air simply rushed out of my lungs, shredding them on the way out, while my tissues started to lyse and burst. More than that...I shouldn’t have fallen unconscious so quickly, even without air in my lungs. I think the pressure directly stripped the oxygen from my blood.”

That all sounds painful, Maria transmits. Her expression is composed, but I sense the worry over our bond.

The void was cold, so at least it numbed the pain as a side effect, in a blisteringly-painful sort of way.

Karanos’ expression is devoid of sympathy. “Sounds like your ascendant energy didn’t help you very much.”

I sigh. “Unfortunately not. So, what was I doing wrong?”

“Demonstrate spreading your energy around like you did in the void,” he instructs.

I oblige and blue energy flickers up and down my body. Karanos walks over and places his hands on my shoulder, one hand near my pectoral and the other on my trapezius.

“You know, Ari was just like you,” he states. “Hated her first trip in the void. We all fear something in that place. She feared the darkness.”

“For me it was the cold,” I admit. “What is your fear?”

“Getting lost,” he says. “Alright, Ian, your energy isn’t doing anything for you. You’re smothering it throughout your body but you need to use it to reinforce and insulate. Think about using your energy to protect yourself from the cold. Also consider how to protect yourself from the pressure.”

“I could try putting on a specialized suit,” I suggest. “I’m sure that’s what Beginning practitioners rely on.”

Karanos is unconvinced. “You don’t need a suit. You’re an ascendant with ascendant energy, and you’re a Death practitioner–you can influence your own physiology.”

Blue energy coalesces around Maria’s arms. “Ian, I don’t think the pressure aspect is as hard as you think. When I empower my body with ascendant energy, I’m really just stabilizing my limbs against powerful forces, making them unyielding. It’s not necessarily energy within that is undergirding them. Outside forces pushing in–that’s pressure.”

“But my energy isn’t like yours,” I say. “Yours is naturally inclined to reinforce the body, while mine is good at penetrating others’ defenses.”

“That kind of mindset is going to hold you back,” Karanos says. “Perspective is most important.”

I don’t disagree with him, but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do. How can my defense-penetrating ascendant energy be used to insulate myself against cold and pressure?

Karanos sighs and takes his hands away. “I wish you weren’t the type that learns best when you’re about to die.”

I grimace. I can see where his train of thought is headed. “I don’t think it’s necessary to go back out there before I figure something out...”

His serious expression is uncompromising. “Five minutes to find a way to deal with cold and pressure, then it’s back to the void.”

Isn’t he being just a tad unreasonable? I transmit to Maria.

He’s pushing you because he knows you can succeed, she replies.

I’m not sure where his confidence comes from.

Five minutes passes in the blink of an eye.

“Alright, time to try again,” Karanos replies. “But this time I’m coming with.”

My eyes widen. “Oh.”

He cuts open the veil and motions for me to come closer. “I’m going in first. Grab my hand.”

His palm is warm and dry, long fingers wrapping securely around my wrist. He suddenly steps into the tear in the veil and tugs me along.

The gesture catches me off guard–I didn’t expect him to drag me forward so suddenly. I breathe out, emptying my lungs to prevent the air from bursting out in the vacuum. Then I reflexively channel ascendant energy over my skin, but like before, it doesn’t dull the numbing, burning kiss of the dark cold.

Karanos illuminates the void, a pale white light glowing in his off hand. I feel ebbing energy in Karanos’ fingers, his energy producing vibrations on my skin. Suddenly, I feel the vibrations lock. It’s like they’re vibrating so rapidly, and so in sync, that the energy permanently applies pressure to my hand. Where the rest of my skin begins to turn red and swell with ruptured vessels, my hand is forced to keep its shape.

Karanos seems unfazed by the void, the light revealing his nonchalant expression. Where normally there is no sign that he’s using ascendant energy, I detect a faint red glow that covers his skin and clothes, stark against the black backdrop.

My vision starts to fade as lack of oxygen takes over.

Karanos intervenes. He lets the light wink out, then places his free hand on my forehead and presses on the space between my eyebrows. I feel his vibrating energy pulse through my skull, sending shivers down my spine.

“Your turn,” he mouths.

Barely conscious, I instinctively marry my energy with his, trying to replicate the way his energy dances over my skin. A humming, a buzzing...a piercing deep into the flesh, pushing down. The image of needles comes to mind, and those soon shift to multicolored arrows. A delusion of thin arrows interposes on the real world, hundreds spearing me through, stringing my insides together, keeping me from coming apart at the seams.

The world melts away and I wake up on the ground of the meadow again. By now the dusty sepulcher has fully reverted back to grassland.

“Ugh,” I moan, making no attempt to get up.

“You lasted longer that time,” Maria acknowledges.

I open one eye. “No thanks to my own efforts–Karanos kept me conscious.”

Karanos appears a half second later, his hand peeling back the veil. He alights lightly next to me on the grass. “You seemed to be touching on something at the end.”

“Perhaps,” I murmur.

The idea of staking myself together with thousands of needles–or arrows–almost reminds me of the giant necromantic construct I made back on the lightless plane. I studded the behemoth with massive nails that served as foci for my practice. The key here isn’t in having a few large stakes, but a nearly continuous number of them, covering every part of my skin, piercing inward and applying pressure.

Or at least that’s what I think will work.

“Give me fifteen minutes this time,” I say. “Then we can try again.”

“If that’s so, I’ll leave you two alone for a bit. You don’t need a babysitter.”

—

Void Seeker Karanos

Sitting in the light after spending time in the void is a great palate cleanser. Unfortunately, the glade where we decided to practice cutting through to the void isn’t particularly sunny, the trees dappling the grass in shadow.

To give Ian and Maria some time alone, I fly a few minutes away and get comfortable on a wide boulder. The sun is harsher here and warms my face. Contrary to the beliefs of the ignorant, external light sources don’t give Light affinity any benefit. That’s the domain of Sun affinity. Even so, I’ve always found natural-looking light comforting, unlike the reddish tinted radiance of my own practice.

The transmission artifact rests loosely in my hands. I press the button on the bottom and suddenly find myself next to Crystal and Sah.

“Hello!” I bellow.

Startled, the frost dragon greets me with a breath of flames. He sniffs at the air in confusion and begins to growl low in his throat.

Crystal calmly places a Death-energy paw on Sah’s shoulder. The dragon snorts, then flies off and leaves the two of us alone.

“Why must you always startle Sah?” Crystal laments. “He knows you are not really here because you lack a scent. It unnerves him.”

I snort. “I don’t know why you all cart him around. He can’t go through planes without throwing a fit.”

“He will learn in time.”

“How have you been?”

“Fine. I have been trying to teach Sah how to paint.”

She...what? I shake my head. “Anyway, I come bearing news.”

“What?”

“I win the bet.”

“No.”

I grin. “Yes.”

“Proof?”

“A bit short on concrete evidence, but my intuition is usually spot on about these things.”

“You don’t win unless you have proof they have gotten together.”

“The bet was to first kiss,” I retort. “Nothing more than that.”

“Yes, get together,” Crystal repeats.

I rub the bridge of my nose. “That phrase has other connotations. You know the phrase has other connotations. Don’t play dumb.”

She blinks, her expression unreadable.

“You know, it’s uncomfortable to have a conversation with you. You’re always so expressionless.”

“Your face is always expressionless,” Crystal claps back. “Stern Karanos, only breaking his strict facade in key moments. Or around a giant, sapient fish.”

“You know it’s not because I’m trying to manipulate people,” I say. “Serious is just my resting facial expression.”

“Not when you are with Marina or Cayeun.”

I frown. “I suppose not. Takes a while to get to that level of familiarity, though.”

“You close yourself off. I am aware. Beyond romantic engagements that may or may not exist in the absence of proof, how have they been progressing?”

I sigh. “Well enough. Ian still doubts himself. Maria is a good encouragement, thankfully.”

“He has remarkable talent, if only he would overcome his mental blocks.”

Agreeing, I say, “He has moments of clarity when his back is against the wall and he fights unrestrained, forgetting that he is supposed to be a new ascendant at the bottom of the proverbial food chain. He needs to stop being so hung up about his age.”

“And as I always say, Maria is the key.”

She does keep saying that, but I don’t see it. Maria encourages Ian and provides emotional support, which is valuable, but Ian needs to deal with his insecurities himself.

“I have already told you my thoughts on this,” Crystal adds. “Yet you always look surprised.”

I roll my eyes. I do not look surprised. “Love doesn’t fix everything, Crystal. For someone stuck in a pond her whole life, you’re awfully romantic.”

“We’ll see, in the end.”

I kill the transmission, then head back over to Ian and Maria.

Maria kneels behind Ian, her hands on his back. He sits with his legs folded, his eyes shut in concentration. I’m far enough away that neither notices me, so I observe from afar. Ian mutters something and Maria squeezes his shoulders. Cyan energy passes from her fingertips into his back.

Ian presses his hands together and dense, controlled blue energy coats his fingers like paint.

That’s not going to work, I think to myself. It’s too inefficient to wield so much energy on the outside.

Ian seems to come to the same conclusion; he huffs, and the energy dissipates.

Maria brings her hand up to his jaw and whispers something in his ear. He inclines his head in consideration, then holds up one hand and flexes his fingers. Maria makes a back and forth motion with her index finger, drawing it across his neck.

Where before Ian just called upon ascendant energy, now Death Energy manifests over his hand–a mesh of dark nodes with oily strings drawn between them. It reminds me of a spider web. The threads multiply, soon appearing like iridescent muscle sinews. A moment later, the black erupts into blue, like oil catching fire.

I smile and surge forward, landing behind Ian and Maria.

Maria flinches, her arm recoiling from his neck.

Ian coughs. “Hello.”

I point to his arm. “You seem to be making progress.”

“Not sure it’s going to work,” he frowns. “You’re able to stay in the void through only using ascendant energy.”

I snort. “What, is using Death energy cheating? No, it isn’t. Do what works. If you can insulate and surround yourself in a pressurized barrier using your practice, then that’s what you should do.”

“Oh.”

I sigh inwardly. Ian...what am I to do with you? “Void, now. You’re breaking the veil this time.”

He groans and stand up, then mechanically strikes out with his elbow, the plane splintering like thick glass. He repeats the strike and the sky crumbles off, revealing pitch black.

“Aren’t you coming?” he asks.

“I’ll be right behind you.” No need to drag in a willing participant.

Ian exhales deeply, then steps into the abyss. I follow right on his heels. “You too,” I call out to Maria.

Maria grabs the blue circlet and runs her finger along it; the artifact’s glow fades as it's deactivated, and Maria’s appearance returns to its typical unnatural guise, her eyes an electric, glowing blue. In this instance, she’s lucky to be undead—she doesn’t need to breathe, the temperature isn’t a problem, and her rigid body won’t rupture from the pressure in the same way ours will.

She and I enter the portal one after the other. Within, Ian is almost invisible, a shroud of dark energy obscuring all but his eyes. Soul gems rotate around him, glowing ever so softly violet. Energy wicks off the gems and covers his body.

But I can tell he’s already fading, his limbs still swelling, his face growing pale. Maria looks over at me in concern, shaking her head.

I raise a finger to my lips, signing for her to be quiet. Whether Ian fails or not, I’m intrigued by the method he’s developing. The Death energy itself doesn’t have a physical presence, but when mixed with ascendant energy...

In a sudden burst of azure light, fire licks over Ian’s body, traveling along the Death energy threads. Something about the energy causes the threads to stiffen and compress, like robes that change their form to fit the wearer.

His already-puffy, half-ruined body stabilizes.

I give him a thumbs up.

Five seconds later he goes unconscious.

Maria looks pained, but follows me back to the meadow as I carve a hole in the veil, leaving Ian behind. While we wait for him to resurrect, I pull a small apparatus from one of my storage rings and hold it behind me. Maria gives me a questioning look, but I shake my head.

Ian respawns a moment later. “Okay,” he says, no longer so dispirited, his eyes filled with energy. He jumps to his feet. “Pressure and temperature accounted for. Mostly. Now, on to breathing.”

I choose that moment to present the apparatus: a thin piece of gossamer weave, almost like a bubble turned to cloth. It feels plasticky and pliant.

He stares at me in confusion.

I nod. “Take it.”

“What is it?” he says, hesitantly grabbing the item. He pulls it taut between his hands, the material stretching several inches.

“A breathing artifact.”

He looks like he’s choking. “You had this all along?”

“Of course.”

He contorts his mouth into a polite smile. “How considerate of you.” Then he walks away, his hands kneading his hair.

Maria meets my eyes and shakes her head. “Hilarious,” she drawls.

Ian sighs dramatically and turns back around, his expression serious. “Genuinely, thank you. I understand what you were doing before, even if I don’t like that it involved dying repeatedly.”

My lips twitch into a smile. “Alright, enough loafing around. Void, here we come!”