by Philip Read
*
I wake up with Master Zaraya standing over me with Shea and another healer not far off. She grins at me like she’s pleased or something, I flex my arm and a sharp pain shoots up into me.
“We just attached it, you will need to rest it for another 100 hours before you can fully use it again.” The unknown healer says.
“Which is just about enough time for you to face Masashi again, you did good.” Zaraya says nodding happily and I can see Shea scowling at my master displeased but not protesting. It seems my new Master has more cloud in the conclave than I realised.
“How can I have done good with a severed arm?” I ask getting up with her help, I feel much weaker than I should but a light quest of spirit sense let’s me know that all my bound weapons are in the room within reach and I relax a little.
“You lasted nearly 8 hours, I’m impressed. I didn’t know you could go that long with someone at his level when you used your polearm of a sword over there, well done.” She says again with a grin and I realise that my new master is a little crazy. Why would she put me in a room with the man if she didn’t expect me to last, complete Savage this lady.
But I grin at little as well, I needed that fight, that release, it was amazing to let the monster loose for a change. At least the monster that’s my nodachi. The monster that’s my Rage is an entirely different kind of problem and I know at some point it will eventually come out, the berserker rage always finds a reason to come out.
*
From there its a group session with Master Zaraya and the other disciples. She talks about letting go, about how vast the world is and the universe as a whole and how our little planet Gaia is just the tip of the iceberg. She talks about how we are frogs in a well thinking this is all that life has to offer and how our Imperiums and Archmages think they have acquired true power but they haven’t, not in the bigger scheme of things.
She says we should reach for things that are so far beyond us that we can barely imagine them as possible, that even toddlers reach for things beyond their grasp yet as we get older and our imagination is stifled by people saying we can’t do this or that we lose sight of what we could become.
She says that we don’t even know what we are capable of yet we have the audacity to choose to dictate our Awakenings? Apparently the height of stupidity in her eyes is taking the gift from the heavens Mana, and dictating how we want it to affect change in our lives instead of letting it do as it deems appropriate or necessary.
She speaks of her own Awakening experience and how she let the heavens make the changes it thought best for her through her Awakening. Of how her own imagination and vision would always put limits on her progress and how she hoped by letting her body Awaken to Mana as it chose she could be more than whatever she would have otherwise envisioned for herself.
She speaks of her many array of Gaia acknowledged skills from many different disciplines from magic, psionic, warrior, elemental and more things she was still discovering about herself. She speaks of how slow her developmental progress is compared to other Awakened that specialise in either magic, or psionics but of how versatile she is as a result of her way of Awakening.
A way that has been followed by 4 other people successfully that she knows about, 3 of them members of the Order and one of them from another world. She speaks a little on the new tier system of gauging Awakening that was taught at the Academy where the initial stage of Awakening is called tier 1 Awakening regardless of specialisation. Whether it be in magic or warrior or sex or anything else everyone that has gone through the first stage of Awakening may specialise in, it is a tier 1 Awakening.
A system apparently used in a world called Omega she once visited that she glosses over. Awakened Lord being tier 2, Awakened King being tier 3, and Imperium being tier 4 level of Awakening. She implies that there are greater tiers of Awakening we haven’t even dreamt of on Gaia and she leaves us with that topic to discuss, otherwise it’s a good meal we all share.
*
From there it’s off to the underside where Abigail introduces me to Brandi, Sarah and Harley who completely change my understanding of the pleasure and fulfilment that can be derived from sex. Yes, I receive my first sexual experience from women that are tier 1 sex Awakened and its a glorious experience that leaves me moaning and shuddering in pleasure as I experience my first multiple orgasm. I didn’t even know males could experience though but Brandi is a master of her craft.
Harley and Sarah mostly watch and occasionally help out but my 3 hours in Brandi’s care leave me completely satiated without being tired of sex or even mentally tired. In fact my mind seems to have been almost completely rested even as my body feels that satisfied fatigue.
After that its back to the surface for another 6 hours of sleep before we have to go to our chosen fields of study for another 6 to 10 hours of personal study. For me that means time at the Spiritus with the other would be sorcerers, enchanters and spiritists.
Master Hyde helps me practice summoning my nodachi from across the room to my hand, something I apparently did while in the Rage with apparent ease. I can sort of do it but only after going through the summoning dance which shouldn’t be the case. Once the dance has been mastered it shouldn’t be necessary to go through the whole process every time I’m summoning something I’ve already summoned and have a contract with, in this case my nodachi.
After that it’s off to mandatory eating with the others, a spacial diet we apparently have to follow. Master Zaraya joins us and keeps talking about letting go and not relying on ourselves so much, brainwashing or indoctrination but it starts sinking in. After the meal we have 10 hours to ourselves before the entire process starts all over again.
It took us something like 110 hours to finish the regiment today so by the time we go for hunting and gathering its already past dawn. That is the schedule that Master Zaraya has set up for us for the 2 months I have left at the Compound before beginning the journey home.
Chapter 60
Sachihiro
There is a moment between blinks that we all know about and experience in our everyday life without paying particular attention to. The moment between tangible moments where sometimes very important life changing events occur. The moment we all refer to as a ‘split second’ regardless of how long it actually lasts. That moment of split decision, that moment of split action we all sometimes following when our blood is hot.
It is at that moment that a battle between Awakened occurs and it is at that moment that an unbridled zanjutsu battle occurs.
Sparks fly off as our blades connect to a sound like sizzling in a fire. I switch my feet and duck down as I push my entire weight behind my slash, Masashi twists and spins over me our elbows connect as we both block each other’s strikes, my legs are already on their way to sweep at his feet as he already counters with a knee. We spin and twist even as our blades connect, him keeping close me trying to create space.
His strikes mostly come in from above and slashing diagonally downwards trying to keep me on the floor a strategy to prevent me from using the unpredictable moves of my acrobatic style kyokugei.
Zanjutsu is more than a discipline in the use of a soul sword, its more than the use of spirit and soul in combat, it’s a about a completely pure art of swordsmanship, it is a Way that can be followed to immortality and beyond.
Zanjutsu is to fight in such a way that the part of your soul that is in the weapon and the part of your soul that is in the body become one. When you become a living weapon to the extent that even though you can’t see his sword with your eyes the part of your soul that can defend and neutralize the threat does so. Our movements are so fast and precise that I can’t follow his blade with my eyes.
I can follow his body, I can follow his feet, I can sometimes even follow his eye movements but I cannot follow his blade with my sight, that’s how fast we’re moving and at our level of skill if you depend on your eyes to fight you’re dead.
But I can and I do d
eflect and counter his blows because it’s not with sight that I fight now its with my soul, all of it as I have achieved something I now know as soul presence. There is no holding back between us as my bloodlust rises to dangerous levels, dangerous for him because I am at the edge of the Rage and I like it.
Truly this is a warrior worthy as a glorious death, truly I should give him the honour of a death with a clean soul. Yes, yes I should give him everything I have so that he may speak of me in the ever-after, so we may be warrior brothers there that have shed each others blood writing our sagas into the stars for the astrologers and seers to read, and with that thought I blissfully fall into the Cold Rage.
*
I feign and swing he deflects and I twist and step as he deflects the blade but my foot connects to his chest pushing him stumbling back. I can’t believe I have been resisting this liberation and clarify of thought and purpose. This freedom to do as I please and do what’s necessary in the face of seeking deeper truths.
I look at Masashi and know that he needs to know the true purpose of the sword as he goes to the grave, taking that truth with him to contemplate in his after lyfe.
I move forward with an amplified step the wood splintering under my foot and the air bursting away slightly in my wake, our blades clash to sparks and a sound like the clapping of fefelent flaps.
I really don’t know how he could have moved in time to stop that strike nor where he got the power to not have my strike go right through his guard but he does block it even as his pushed stumbling further back and I strike again.
My side swing is somehow deflected again to white sparks and the sound of pans clashing together as I chip off a part of his very soul. I moving in and out with my strikes leaving long gashes on his arms and sides as his blade starts to defend just a moment too late to prevent a cut but fast enough to save his life.
Though its all he can do to stay alive as I move in attack barely giving him time to think I find it admirable that he has lasted this long at all. Truly this is a grandmaster swordsman to make me work up a sweat and I will remember him, this here will be the first of many teachers that I will defeat on my path to godhood and glory. In that way he will be remembered as being part of my story and my humble beginnings.
I move in and up and his left arm detaches with a spin and spray twisting in the air but he still manages to deflect my next 3 strikes moving in concert with me before the upward momentum of his severed arm reaches the peak of it’s displacement.
I kick and slash and stab and stab and slash as the arm pauses in the air for a moment before starting it’s inevitable descent. I’m impressed as we dance the dance of death, I did not expect that he had it in himself at his current level to challenge me to this extent and for this long, not when my mind is as clear as it is and I am in pure combat mode. That’s what I should call this clear minded focused state, combat mode. I think even as I take half his left foot clean off giving myself the clear advantage as he loses his footing.
I twist and stab taking him through the chest before cleanly pulling out as he crumbles behind me his blood squirting out of his chest in a dramatic geyser. Its not like his death was in question as soon as I let myself go, but he lasted longer that I would have thought him capable off.
He is only a grandmaster swordsman and a master kenjutsu specialist after all, not even a tier 1 Awakened but relying on skill alone to test himself against me. Admirable but a mistake I won’t let anyone that I face survive from.
The geyser of blood sprays out from what used to be his heart which is just now an organ with a clean hole in it as I walk away from him not needing my eyes to be aware of the entire room.
I’m still surprised though as Zaraya steps forward from a spot on the wall that is consciously empty to my vibration sense and moves like lightning to put a hand on Masashi’s chest and channel her energies into his wound and heart.
I watch her the whole time even as I turn to face her, she is extremely fast yet she is fast in slow motion. There is something strange with what she is doing to him almost like she is welding him together and the strength of his soul is helping keep him intact. His eyes flatter open as he looks up at Zaraya even as her energy permeates into him stopping his stumps from bleeding.
“H-he.. Pughhh.. he arggh..” He sputters out a mouthful of blood as he tries to speak and Zaraya sooths him with a soft shushing sound as she turns his head to the side so he doesn’t choke.
“Shhh… It’s okey, I know, you’ll be okey and I’ll take care of everything.” She says and he closes his eyes and relaxes.
She lifts him off the floor easily and walks him towards the door which is opens by a 3rd arm I never before noticed she had that is invisible to the naked eye and completely undetectable to most senses. She places him in the hands of waiting healers and closes the sliding door with a soft click before facing me fully.
“So I finally get to see the berserker Rage of Sachihiro, you’re strong but you’re still holding back.” She says as she takes her shoes off before rolling up her sleeves and stretching her legs dramatically.
I watch this display ready to bestow upon her the honour of a death at my hands, its a shame she prevented Masashi from experiencing that death but it’s his lose more than anyone else’s. I’m looking at her and she doesnt seem to be empowering herself while my spirit aura is white to those that can see it, billowing like a layer of fire on top of my skin.
“What makes you think I’m holding back?” I ask even as I ready my own legs for movement but all in all I’m ready for action. I take a breath and let it out cold and thin having maximized the amount of energy I absorb from the air.
“Wow, your voice is different.” She says unlimbering a short sword from her spacial ring on her left hand before getting into a defensive crouch.
I grin at her, even as she continues to speak. “You’ve been avoiding this side of yourself trying to prevent it from coming out for fear of hurting someone. It’s okey, I’m here now and I’m your Master and I say it’s okey to let out the berserker Sachi, you won’t be able to hurt me so let it all out.
“You’ve been like a fist that’s been clenching too tightly for so long that you don’t really know how to let go anymore but its okey, the berserker rage is beautiful to-” she doesn’t finish that sentence as I rush in and strike down with a downward strike that could fell a tree in half, but she stops it cold on her aura honed short sword.
I kick and sweep and duck and slash and slash and slash even as my spirit aura keeps increasing in intensity as I unleash myself frustrated by the apparent ease with which she is deflecting my strikes and her incessive talking. “Let it all out Sachi, it’s okey-”
I cut off her mental projections from reaching me even as our blades keep meeting to the dull sounds of to blunt metal objects clashing together. I am the weapon and I am honed for a killing edge.
“That was impressive Sachi well done, but you have to do better than that to permanently keep my voice from reaching you.” Her mental communication permeates into my mental shielding like smoke through cell bars seemingly unstoppable.
“Haahhhhhh” I roar as something within my shoulder tears as I swing a strike from a completely unexpected angle only to have that stopped cold on the middle of her sword that now has spiderweb cracks where our blades meet.
“Yes Sachi let it all out, let everything out but don’t loose anything in this fight, don’t lose the knowledge of how to transcend the limits of your body.” She keeps saying even as she moves keeping me at bay with her phantom arm which I find I can injure just as easily as I can any other arm but it’s replaced by another and another.
My left knee pops out of alignment as I twist and block a strike from her that was also too fast to follow with my eyes but I have long since sunk deep into my vibration sense and soul presence.
Vibration sense makes everything monochromatic around me providing minute detail of all movements with a 5m radius around me. It isn’t even my bodie
s senses that I’ve been using in this fight I suddenly realize, these are the senses on my blade.
It hums and vibrates at different frequencies and different tunes mapping out our surroundings and keeping track of things even outside the visible light frequencies. Things like Zaraya’s phantom arms that should be impossible to see and are soundless as they come at me one at a time.
I know she is trying and failing to smoother a smile as her arms come at me one after another from different directions, flexible beyond reason and their length extending as long as she chooses to make them. I destroy my body as the limits that the mind has set in every human creature so it doesn’t kill itself with its potential are broken.
I move so fast I rip at some of my muscles, twist at such angles that some of my ligaments snap, I move so swiftly that sound of my movements only follow after I’ve moved. I’m done with half assing it, I’m doing this to the death, surely to kill such a worthy warrior is worth destroying this mortal body of mine.
And I can’t say that I’m not enjoying this fight as frustrating as it is. It is obvious that she is well beyond me in power but I have surprised her a few times with my skill, nearly wounding her on several occasions.
The difference in power between us is vast, too vast for me to be such a challenge to her but I am, because in this state in Combat State using vibration sense and having achieved my first limit break, in this state I am pure zanjutsu.
*
We clash again and again and I notice with my own grin that its a new blade she is using to fight, how she switched it out so quickly I’m not sure but I’m happy with the fact that my spirit aura honed blade cut through her own aura and damaged her first blade while she was being complacent.