Fates Parallel Chapter 330 - Asura (Patreon)

Thanks to their new avatar, Jia and Eui were able to dramatically expand their training regimen. Even while possessing the avatar, their original bodies would maintain a state of steady meditation—drawing on the intense mana of the peak to strengthen the foundations of their cultivation.

Not only that, but after some experimentation, they’d discovered that it was possible for just one of them to use the avatar while the other remained on the mountain to train. Even Heian could transfer herself into it—though they all agreed it was best if she didn’t tempt fate. Nevertheless, she could still hitch a ride with one or both of them in order to travel down the mountain to spend time with Narae and Iseul.

Which was how Eui found herself sitting alone on the plateau, pondering the technique she wanted to create.

Jia’s body meditated quietly within a protective formation, but her spirit was elsewhere. Eui could still feel her presence down on the mountain—their connection had grown too strong to break by something as mundane as distance—but not her thoughts or sensations. It was as close to alone as Eui had been in years.

She relished it, a little bit. Eui loved Jia, of course—and she had no complaints with her life partner—but Jia was a social girl at heart, while Eui enjoyed the occasional quiet moment alone.

As tempting as it was to return to her old habit of wallowing in self-loathing, Eui wasn't in the mood for once. Her soul had intermingled with Jia's so thoroughly that even separate as they were at that moment, a small part of her was still Jia. It was a comforting feeling, providing both a soothing balm for her darker thoughts, and a bit of that restless energy that constantly drove Jia toward self-improvement.

Taking advantage of that energy, Eui turned her thoughts to the swords laid out before her. One was a wooden training sword, another just a plain steel straight sword, and the last was an immortal blade forged from some kind of essence-infused metal that Eui hadn’t bothered to remember the name of.

None of them could withstand her destructive ki.

Her technique, The Six Arms of Asura, had five movements—or ‘arms’—meant to guide its practitioner along the path of martial destruction. Only five, despite the name—it was incomplete, because its previous masters had all succumbed to their own destructive ki and died.

It was up to Eui to create the sixth arm herself. Once, she thought that would mean something akin to Jia’s Lightning God Transformation, which turned her into a living lightning bolt and allowed her to strike with the speed and power of a thunderstorm. Or maybe Hayakawa Kaede’s Weightless Fist, the ultimate technique of which made her vanish from space entirely, only to reappear the next instant to bring the weight of a mountain down on her opponent in a singular strike.

The apex of martial arts was to fully embody one’s affinity. To transform for just a moment into a living avatar of Lightning, or Gravity...or perhaps Destruction.

But that’s just what people had already been doing for hundreds of years. Stuck at the apex of houtian cultivation without ever being able to cross that threshold into the xiantian realm until Master Ienaga Yumi’s fateful transformation—something the Master herself rejected as a true path to power.

Why, then, should Eui be so set on copying it? Was that really the destination of her path, or was it the sort of thinking that had gotten her predecessors killed?

So she sat and meditated on her martial art. The technique that she had so stubbornly insisted on learning all those years ago, despite Ienaga’s warnings, and assurances that she didn’t have to focus on her elemental affinity.

Eui rejected that thinking then, and she rejected it now. Cultivation was the realization of one’s ultimate ideal self, and there was no way it could ever be reached by trying to suppress a part of who she was. Destruction was something built into the foundation of Eui’s soul.

She began by reviewing the art from the very beginning.

The first arm—to imbue an object with destruction essence and hold control over it long enough to throw. More of a practice technique than something meant for actual combat, Eui had nevertheless made good use of it early on in her adventures. It felt like an eternity ago now that she’d been throwing exploding knives around—keeping a huge supply of spares in Jia’s ring at all times.

She smiled and patted the hunting knife at her hip—now the only one she kept. It had been a gift from her father, and it was mostly decorative. Just a keepsake.

The second arm—once the practitioner was comfortable imbuing destruction essence into foreign objects, they would move onto empowering their own body. It was a big step, and where most disciples died. Any small mistake could result in deviation or worse. Once mastered, the practitioner’s strikes were indomitable and deadly.

Eui grimaced. Mastering that technique had been a painful experience, even with her nascent demon core helping to manage the backlash. Not just for her, either—she shuddered at the memory of almost accidentally severing Takeda Rika’s legs with a swipe of her tail.

She hadn’t become a qi healer just because the Wood-element Tranquility of the Verdant Marsh was a convenient counterbalance to her Destruction-aligned ki. Without her ability to heal, Eui would almost certainly have killed someone—or herself—in training.

The third arm—was actually just the first fighting style. Contrary to the number, it was usually mastered before the second arm, as it was designed to capitalize on the first arm’s throwing expertise. Despite being a ranged style, the movements were quite slow and methodical. Since the first and second arms required so much concentration, the fighting style emphasized situational awareness and minimalist movements.

There wasn’t much to say about it. Eui had practiced and mastered it, but it was an unusually defensive style for such an offensively powerful element.

The fourth arm—the second fighting style. This was the melee combat style, and like its ranged counterpart, it was slow and methodical. Eui’s blocky motions and planted feet had always given her an odd contrast to Jia’s jittery, flickering dance across the battlefield. The principle was simple—Destruction made the practitioner an unstoppable force, so it was best to face opponents front and center.

Eui wasn’t actually very fond of it. She had encountered plenty of opponents who were more than happy to take advantage of her lack of mobility, and though the third and fourth arms were meant to be used together to create a large zone of control, that did her no good against faster or longer ranged fighters.

As her control improved, Eui had started learning to incorporate movements from Yoshika’s otherwise-neglected Soft Fist style, and to traverse the battlefield with the help of Jia’s lightning steps—made possible thanks to their personal artifacts. She also combined the first and second arms to infuse a sword with Destruction and improve her reach.

The modified style gave Eui a more graceful, flowing movement that struck with deceptively powerful blows due to the unstoppable nature of destruction.

The fifth arm—far and away the most dangerous and destructive technique in Yoshika’s arsenal. As far as Eui knew, she was the only person to ever survive actually using it. It was a desperation move that she’d only used in combat once in her entire life—and it had been enough to slay a xiantian fiend.

The fifth arm required the practitioner to focus the destructive energy within their body, letting it build up until it was so concentrated that it could be released all at once in a huge blast of raw destruction.

It was difficult to practice, on account of the enormous area it affected and the giant risk of backlash. Even if Eui did it perfectly, she would suffer for it. Nevertheless, she had taken the time to practice it, when she could. She wouldn’t call herself a master, but she was confident in her use of it—seldom though it may have been.

Which led her to the sixth and final arm. There wasn’t one, really. In theory, it was supposed to be an extension of the fifth—wielding that internally concentrated Destruction essence to become a living force of destruction, like Jia or Kaede’s technique.

Eui found herself considering a different direction. The ultimate expression of a martial art wasn’t just about embodying her ki. She needed to create a technique that was the culmination of everything that the Six Arms had taught her.

With that concept in mind, Eui closed her eyes and began visualizing. It was important to have a firm image in her head before moving on to practical experiments—a lesson Eui wished she’d learned before inflicting so many injuries on herself in her earliest days of practice.

She imagined herself back in the academy training fields, with novice students running laps around the track while the more advanced classes sparred upon the central ring. Master Ienaga shouted instructions to correct any mistakes she saw.

“An Eui! You are not some Qin spiritualist, trying to invent a sword technique by sitting cross-legged in front of it. Take a stance!”

Eui nearly startled herself by how realistic her imagined instructor was. Her visualization technique drew from the bonds of her soulscape to create an experience nearly as vivid as reality.

She hurried to her feet and took up the wooden training sword in front of her.

“Sloppy! Who taught you swordplay? An element as volatile as destruction can ill afford missteps, and your stance alone is full of errors. Guard up! Check your footing, keep your shoulders loose! No part of your body exists in isolation—every movement utilizes your entire body, and your stance must remain perfect through every action.”

Eui’s imagined version of Ienaga was a bit harsher than the real thing, but it got the message across. She carefully went through each part of her body and made small corrections to her stance, then checked again until it was all perfect.

“Good. You have to internalize these motions. Master them to perfection and beyond, until they come as naturally as breathing. You cannot afford any distractions if you are going to master the element of Destruction. Now—strike!”

Eui’s body flowed through the movement with practiced ease, swiping her sword through the air in a swift and perfect crescent. The wooden blade practically sang as it cut the air—a keening whistle following in the wake of her strike.

“Ow!”

Eui fell to her knees as a lance of pain shot up through her arm from the tips of her fingers all the way up through her shoulder.

“What the fuck? I didn’t even channel any ki.”

At her feet, the splintered remains of the wooden sword lay scattered. Eui didn’t understand—it was just a visualization, but the pain she experienced was real.

“Of course it hurts, idiot child.”

Eui’s eyes widened at the sound of a voice she hadn’t heard in years. She looked up to see Elder Qin Zhao towering over her, looking down his nose imperiously.

“To embody Destruction, whether through the literal essence of qi or the metaphorical symbol of movement, is to cause pain, suffering, and death. Did I not warn you of your fate when we first met? Yet you have chosen to follow this path regardless, so you will see it through to the end—now, pick up your sword.”

Eui groaned and picked up the plain steel blade, ignoring the twinge in her muscles as she took up her stance once more.

“Good. The pain is part of your path, and you cannot let it distract you or lead you astray. You walk on a razor’s edge, with no room for divergence. Remember who and what you are—focus your entire being into your technique. Embrace your path, and strike!”

Qin’s words cut deep. Of course, they were actually Eui’s, but that didn’t make them hurt any less. She knew what she was, but it always hurt to admit it. Still, as he said, pain was part of her path—she had to stop hiding from it.

Eui was a killer. Reformed, maybe—but she knew that was just a comforting lie. She wouldn’t hesitate to kill again if anything threatened her, Jia, or any of the people they cared about. She had killed innocents, and might one day do so again.

She had spread pain and suffering—not only of her victims, but their families and loved ones too. Eui was a hypocrite at her core, robbing others of their livelihoods to protect her own. Nothing could ever make up for that.

Perhaps she should try, though. It had been years, but surely some of those she’d wronged were still out there—still suffering from her misdeeds. It would be a difficult and painful path, but wasn’t that part of the point?

Eui had to accept the suffering she caused. To embrace it, and feel it as her own. She would one day find and repay those she had wronged. Though it might cause them even more suffering, and certainly be painful for her—that too, Eui embraced.

With her resolve strengthened, and her path laid out before her, Eui put everything she had into the blade and swung with the full weight of her emotions behind the attack.

The sword exploded before she was halfway through the swing.

“Ah, fuck!”

Eui collapsed into a fetal position as her entire body was wracked with pain. She cursed with each convulsion as she rode the seizure out, wondering why her visualization wasn’t protecting her from the backlash.

“Tsk tsk tsk. Miss An, you’re forgetting your fundamentals! Were you not the one who taught this old bird that the mind and body are inextricably linked?”

Magus Hwang Sung appeared at Eui’s side, extending a hand and helping her to her feet.

“Your form is impeccable, and your resolve is strong, but there’s more to it than that, isn’t there?”

Eui nodded shakily.

“Obviously, but I’ve already run myself ragged trying to understand Destruction on an elemental level.”

Hwang Sung smiled and adjusted his spectacles, the owl feathers in his hair puffing out with amusement.

“Humor an old man then, Miss An. What is Destruction?”

“You mean to me, or just in general?”

“For academic purposes, let us assume that the two are one and the same.”

Eui sighed and closed her eyes, reciting from memory what she knew about elemental destruction.

“Destruction is the confluence of Fire, Air, and Yin. Like its adjacent elements, Plasma and Void, it consumes all that it touches, but unlike those elements it doesn’t discriminate between the material and immaterial. Its connection to Warmth is a little fuzzier, but it can be clarified by comparing it to Warmth’s more positive aspect—Lightning.

“Warmth is essentially a transfer of energy. Lightning takes that to a positive extreme—moving huge amounts of energy from one point to another in sudden bursts. By contrast, Destruction is the negative extreme—removing all energy within its area.”

The old scholar nodded with satisfaction.

“An excellent answer. Many consider it to be the antithesis of life itself—which is supported by the fact that its elemental opposite is Wood, the element of life and growth.”

“Right. I know all that. Why remind me now?”

“Simply to remind you that Destruction cannot abide any element other than itself. As the Grandmaster Guan Yu already explained, Wood and Metal are poor conduits. As my colleagues have stressed already, you do not have the kind of margin of error to allow for your technique to be channeled through imperfect tools.”

Eui sighed. So it was back to this, then. Eui picked up the immortal blade and eyed it with disdain. It was a masterwork of metal, shaped by experts who knew just how to take advantage of the essence it had absorbed over countless eons.

It wasn’t enough.

Other elements could neutralize or counter Destruction, but never coexist with it. Her technique needed something else. Something impossible. How could any sword act as a conduit for Destruction?

“Forgetting someone, darling?”

Eui whirled around to see Jianmo. The seven-foot tall purple haired demoness—the sword demon—in all her buxom glory, grinned devilishly down at her. Eui’s imagination might have embellished a detail or two.

Jianmo shook her head ruefully.

“After all I’ve done for you, to just cast me aside like that. I don’t hate that ruthless nature.”

Eui rolled her eyes—even in her imagination, Jianmo was tedious to deal with.

“Do you have a real point for me, or am I just torturing myself now?”

“Ahaha! What an edge! That’s my girl. My point is simple—you’re overthinking things! This is your world—your mind. Why limit yourself to just what’s in front of you? A blade of destruction is more than possible—it’s real. You’ve met me yourself.”

Eui looked down, and the sword was already in her hands. The immortal blade was replaced by a perfect replica of Jianmo’s blade—complete with the glowing red demon core set into the guard.

“If I’ve told you once, my sweet, I’ve told you a thousand thousand times. Don’t think—do! Forget reality—that shit’s boring. Make your own truth, and pull it kicking and screaming into the world!”

“I don’t think you’ve ever said that—”

Jianmo cut her off with a wave of her hand and tutted.

“Ah, tch, tch, tch—what did I just say about thinking? You’ve got everything you need, girl—make it happen!”

Eui sighed and turned around, tightening her grip on the sword. She took a deep breath to center herself.

The world fell away around her. Jianmo, her instructors, the students, the training field, the spring, the mountain, her real body.

One by one, everything disappeared until there was only Eui and her sword. That wasn’t enough—Eui was her sword. It was part of her, and she was part of it. There was only her.

Then she too fell away. Bit by bit until all that was left was the technique. The quintessence of Destruction, resolved down into a single motion. An act of singular purpose and absolute perfection.

To cut.

All at once, Eui exploded into motion. Like a crimson star, her blade flashed in a brilliant arc that tore heaven and earth asunder. The air shrieked and the earth crumbled in her wake as the concentrated wave of destruction tore a gouge through the ground and surged forth through mountain before carrying on to split the clouds beyond.

Eui blinked, realizing she was back in reality—that she’d actually done that. The sleeve of her robe was destroyed, and her arm had been torn to bloody shreds, but the pain was the last thing on her mind.

She could still feel the phantom blade in her grip, though it rapidly faded. Eui desperately tried to hold on to that vision, but it slipped through her fingers like water until there was nothing left. Eui had her technique, but not the tool to realize it.

“Quite the mess you’ve made.”

Eui jumped. This time the voice really was real—and there weren’t many people who could sneak up on her like that.

Next to her, Guan Yu stood with his arms crossed, looking decidedly unimpressed, despite his impassive expression.

“You were specifically instructed not to disrupt the flow of the spring, An Eui.”

He gestured at the tear in the earth, where Eui’s cut had gone deep enough to intersect the source of the spring, causing water to leak through the chasm and down the wrong side of the mountain.

“There’s only so much we can tolerate—even from honored guests. I expect you to have this repaired within the day, or I will petition to have you removed from the sect’s grounds and our hospitality revoked. Am I understood?”

Eui swallowed nervously and bowed at a ninety degree angle.

“Yes, Grandmaster! My deepest apologies for the damage—it was unintentional.”

Guan Yu nodded once, then turned away before pausing.

“Congratulations on completing your technique. Judging from the backlash, it needs some work, but I’m pleased to see that you took my words to heart.”

Eui blinked—struck speechless by the sudden compliment. Guan Yu turned to meet her gaze.

“Have you named the technique? I believe this accomplishment is grand enough to warrant it.”

The words came unbidden to Eui’s lips—as if it had existed within her all along, just waiting to be realized.

“The Sixth Arm of Asura—Star Sundering Slash.”