163: Legacy of the Akh Nara (Patreon)

“The first thing you did right was to attack the enemies you knew you could defeat,” Cirayus spoke slowly, stroking his beard. “Your first mistake was assuming the other beasts would let you.”

Vir grimaced. The giant had a point.

“I had a time limit.”

“No, lad, you succumbed to artificial pressure. Tell me, would you have died, had you taken longer than ten minutes?”

“N-no.”

“Would you have been crippled, or otherwise severely injured?”

“No,” Vir said, understanding where Cirayus was going with this.

“Would I have been in danger?”

Vir scoffed. “I doubt there’s anything that can threaten you.”

“That is a bet I would not take, lad. In this situation, I was in no danger. You allowed your ambition to override your good sense.”

Vir hung his head. He’d done exactly that. He’d been so blinded by the time limit, he didn’t even bother to understand what he was getting himself into.

“Knowledge is power and information keeps you safe. There are times that force one to act without knowledge of their enemies, true, but this was not one of them.”

“I should’ve taken some time to stalk my prey, learning their behavior,” Vir admitted. “I know. That’s exactly what I normally do, but…”

“Discipline. ‘Tis simple to navigate a calm sea, but our mettle is tested only when the storms arrive. Remember this going forward.”

So this is what a proper instructor looks like, Vir thought. He didn’t mind the criticism. In fact, he welcomed it. Every bit helped him improve. Wasn’t that all that mattered?

“You’ll learn these lessons in time. I can advise you to hasten the process, but there truly is no substitute for experience. Fight, fight some more, and then keep fighting. The more battles you accrue during your time here, the stronger—and wiser—you will be for it.”

“I will. And I’ll do it without your help.”

“Good! There are plenty of enemies in this realm. Now if you like, you can listen to me ramble about what I know of the Akh Nara while we travel.”

“Are you kidding? Tell me everything!” Vir rose and together, they resumed their bounding gate, jumping dozens of steps at a time.

Lightning cracked in the distance and a stiff breeze blew past, as if to accompany the opening of Cirayus’ tale.

“I know as much about the Akh Nara as anyone, and yet, I’m afraid I’ve uncovered only bits and pieces,” Cirayus began. “My findings have shown that they share only a single unifying trait.”

“Which is?”

“Each were supremely powerful beings. Some stronger than the others. The first primordial is rumored to have lived around three millennia, just after the fall of the Gods.”

“Parai the Ancient,” Vir said, half-guessing based on his ancestor’s name.

“Aye. I take it you’ve met?”

“We have. The prana channeling technique I use came from Parai, actually. I also modified it slightly to deal with the prana poisoning, though that’s more of a crutch for now. Cirayus, what exactly is the primordial? Why do they exist?”

“Wish I could tell you, lad. All I can say for sure is all the Akh Nara have that same eight pronged tattoo you bear on your chest, and that there have been five of them since the fall of the gods.”

“Five? Not six?” Vir asked. “Are you sure?”

“Quite certain, lad, or else I’d have read about it. Why do you ask?”

“At Daha, I stumbled upon the lost ruins of an ancient Prime Imperium outpost, Valaka Amara.”

Cirayus’ eyes went wide.

“It was intact, too. Lit up when I entered it.”

“Not just a single building, but an entire outpost? And an active one? Astounding. I’m not sure you grasp the full weight of this experience. Apart from the Vimana in the Human Realm, that may be the only place of its kind! Oh, what our researchers would do to get their hands on something like that. What was it like? Tell me everything.”

Despite his terrifying appearance, Cirayus reminded Vir of an eager child in that moment, desperate to hear more.

“Magnificent,” Vir replied honestly. “The way they baked prana into their architecture was… It was beautiful on a level I can’t even begin to describe. That’s not all. I met an avatar of Lord Janak.”

Cirayus had been enthusiastic before, but now he regarded Vir with religious fervor.

“A living god? How?”

Maiya had had a similar reaction, though not quite to this degree. Cirayus seemed almost possessed by his reverence. Something deeper than mere awe and surprise drove those feelings, but what?

“He said the real Janak died millennia ago. That he was just a copy, or something like that. And that what I was seeing was a projection of that copy. Seems he has a real body, buried somewhere deep in the Ash.”

“Mahādi,” Cirayus whispered. “It has to be.”

“That’s right! You know of it?”

“Aye,” the demon replied, his words coming slowly. “Only rumors, though. There is said to be a place, buried so deeply within the Ashen Realm, only your ancestors ventured there. A place where many Ash Beasts dare not tread. Where the prana is so dense, it becomes visible to the naked eye. A realm where nightmares become reality. The core.”

And Janak wants me to go there… Perfect.

“This confirms it. Mahādi is real!” Cirayus said, his voice full of awe. “I never knew. Never could have known! Demons will have a field day with this!”

Vir contemplated tell Cirayus that Janak told him to go there, but the look in the demon’s eye told him that might be ill advised, at least for now. Vir wouldn’t put it past the giant to change their destination and plot a course for that place. That was something he wanted to avoid until he was strong. Truly strong.

“The reason I mention it is that Janak said I was the seventh of my line. I never understood what that meant, but I think he was referring to my previous incarnations.”

“Hmm. Reaper Ekanai, Shardul the Vicious, Narak the Destroyer, Jalendra the Wise, and Parai the Ancient. I’ve never heard of another, but if Lord Janak said so, it must be true.”

All the names were familiar to Vir, except one.

“Jalendra the Wise?”

“One of our great philosopher kings. Jalendra single-handedly brought demons out of centuries of warring and infighting, uniting the Demon Realm for the first time in recorded history. He rose to power a few hundred years after Parai’s death. A lover of arts, culture, and a genius at military strategy. Feared by his enemies and loved by nearly everyone else.”

“I see,” Vir replied. He hoped to meet this ancestor one day. Given how he’d seen a memory from Parai, who was even older, he remained hopeful. “Anyway, I don’t think Lord Janak would misspeak.”

The identity of the sixth ancestor was a mystery, but not one that would be solved now. Perhaps he’d find clues in the Demon Realm.

“How about you put your newly learned lesson to practice?“ Cirayus said, pointing to a lone Phantomblade that stalked in the distance.

Vir drew to two hundred paces of the beast, then halted. This was an enemy he'd fought and barely defeated in the Human Realm. It had been a tough fight, and while he had some idea of the creature's attacks, he couldn't be sure it didn't have access to stronger ones here.

He waited, observing. To attack, he'd need the element of surprise. The scales on its back launched with terrifying speed, and so he'd have to close the distance without being noticed.

Easier said than done; the beast kept its head on a swivel, continuously scanning its surroundings. Even with Leap and Blink, Vir doubted he could close the distance in time.

So he went prone, lying flat on the ash, and waited. Five minutes passed, then ten, but the Phantomblade made no movement.

“I'll start you learning chakras right now if you can defeat that beast.“

This again. He's tempting me.

Vir settled in as he watched, but there was no reason to watch in silence.

“Tell me more about the primordials,“ he said. “You mentioned they all possessed the same tattoo. What else?”

“No harm chatting, I suppose.“ Cirayus stroked his tattoo. “We know the Akh Nara can inscribe multiple Ultimate Bloodline tattoos. Records from Shardul, Reaper Ekanai, and Jalendra’s time all prove this. The other oddity lies in how these tattoos are formed.” Cirayus pointed to his bare chest. “On normal demons, Ultimate tattoos are inscribed in specific places upon their body.”

“They can’t be put just anywhere?” Vir asked.

“Correct. The proximity of a tattoo to its area of influence determines its efficacy. Balancer of Scales affects my entire body, and so it may be inscribed upon either the chest or back. This holds true for all tattoos. An Iksana Sight tattoo must be applied near the eyes, or it will be weak.”

“I see. So what’s different about the primordials?”

“Every Ultimate tattoo they inscribe links up to a prong on your chest tattoo, and the placement doesn’t seem to matter nearly as much.”

Eight powers as strong as Balancer of Scales… It was nearly unfathomable.

“Unfortunately, only six remain.”

“Six? Then why does my tattoo have eight prongs?”

For the first time in their conversation, Cirayus looked anguished. “Some of the tattoos have been… lost, I’m afraid.”

“Lost. As in misplaced? How does a clan lose their most powerful weapon?”

“When they’re wiped out by another clan. Perhaps someone hid them, dying off before they could tell another. Perhaps the invading clan burned the inscription scroll. Demon history is a long and bloody one. Such things happen, though of course, clans do everything in their power to save them.”

Vir’s throat went dry. “And… the Ultimate tattoo of my clan? What of Garga’s?”

Cirayus looked away. “I cannot say, lad. I left before Garga truly fell. I doubt your father would allow the scroll to fall into the wrong hands, but I cannot see him destroying the inscription so easily. Not while you lived. He was better than that.”

“I’m surprised he didn’t send it with you, to be honest.”

“Far safer to keep it in the Demon Realm. Losing you would be a tragedy. A terrible tragedy. But if the worst were to happen, the Akh Nara would eventually reincarnate. Perhaps not soon, but one day. The same cannot be said for the inscription.”

Vir wondered why they didn’t simply make copies of the thing, though doing so came with its own risks. Especially if the master inscription was a closely guarded secret.

“There’s more,” Cirayus continued. “Jalendra accumulated more tattoos than any other primordial. Least, that we know of. He was also the most well informed of them all. Trust me, I’ve spent more than my fair share of time studying this topic over the centuries. It’s one of the great demon mysteries, after all.”

“And? What did his writings say?” Vir asked, urging the giant not to take any more tangents.

“In his writings, we find mentions of a power. Seemed he spent the last years of his life searching desperately for it, but never managed it. Called it the Supreme Arbiter. Apparently, it was a power that put even the Ultimate abilities to shame, if such a thing can be believed.”

The Supreme Arbiter? The name felt familiar to Vir, though he couldn’t place where he’d heard it. Or even if he ever had. To motivate someone like Jalendra, who already possessed so much strength, it truly had to be in a league of its own.

Vir turned to face the giant. “I can't do it,“ he said with a look of frustration. “I just don't have enough information on the Phantomblade to know I can safely fight it. I'll have to pass this time.“

Expecting a look of disappointment, Vir braced himself for a lecture.

“An excellent decision, lad,“ Cirayus said, clapping his shoulders. “I agree. Phantomblades can launch a hundred of their scales as fast as you can Leap. As you stand, you have no way of taking the beast down in a single blow. If you had tried to attack, I would have stopped you.“

A hundred!? Vir blanched. The Phantomblade he'd fought could only fire one at a time. I'd seriously have died.

Cirayus rose from his spot across from Vir, offering his hand. “We’d best not linger long. Especially not with so many corpses lying about. Even the scavengers in the Ash are more than capable of biting your head off.”

“Where do we go from here?” Vir asked.

“First, I need to get my bearings. The Ash’s landscape shifts continuously, but certain features remain. Before we venture deeper, we need to visit a cache I buried before leaving for the Human Realm.”

“What’s in it?”

“A weapon and a guide. Sikandar, my trusty blade of several centuries, and an Artifact that will point the way to the Demon Realm.”

Vir’s eyes narrowed. “That exists?” It seemed awfully convenient.

“Aye, a handful do, in the Demon Realm. I wouldn’t call them common—Artifacts are never common—but they’re numerous enough to be bartered between clans for exorbitant sums. We don’t understand their true purpose, but the devices are bonded with their paired partner. So long as its sister in the Demon Realm is active, the Artifact will point the way to the nearest gate.”

Vir could hardly believe what he was hearing. “You buried such an important Artifact? In the Ash?”

“Would you risk allowing such a device to fall into the hands of humans? We didn’t know what to expect from the Human Realm. None of us had ever traveled there and returned safely. If the device fell into their hands…”

“Prana poisoning keeps them out. But you couldn’t have known that at the time. If they were strong enough, they could march right into the Demon Realm.”

“Aye. Better to hide it in a safe spot. One that we can easily find, yet one unlikely to ever be stolen by some errant beast.”

“Er, such as?” Vir asked, beginning to fear the response.

“The lair of an Alpha Shrike.”

Shrike… Shrike. Ah, yes. The avian creatures with a Balar Rank of Four Hundred to Eight Hundred. Wait, Alpha?

“Is that a stronger variety?”

“Oh yes. Stronger, and far, far larger.”

The power ranking in this realm simply defied common sense. That went both for their enemies, and for the giant himself. Vir had to remind himself Cirayus was the strongest creature alive in the Human Realm. Here, he may not be the strongest, but his Balar Rank was likely easily over a thousand. Perhaps even two-thousand with his chakras. Vir hadn’t fully grasped the true magnitude of their power.

“By the way,” Vir asked, falling into step next to the demon. “What is my clan’s Ultimate Bloodline tattoo?”

“You mean I never told you?” Cirayus asked with a look that said he was just waiting for Vir to ask. “Aspect of the Demon God.”

“Uh, that sounds impressive? Does it give you horns and let you breathe fire or something?”

Maiya would get a kick out of that, he thought.

“Nothing so flashy, I’m afraid.”

Figures. Nothing could ever live up to such an overly pompous name. Vir wondered whether the Garga clan was trying to make it sound cool, or if it was just bravado.

“It simply makes you invincible.”

Vir’s jaw hit the floor. Right before he stumbled and fell into a pile of ash.