Cults of the Dragon Gods (Path of Transcendence Book 4)

by Brian McGoldrick

  The six women near the throne all appear as somewhat caricatural versions of themselves. They facial and physical features that are exaggerated or minimized. Angelique looks likes a dumpy childish version of herself with a blank mask for its face. Valcrit appears almost exactly like he does in real, except for extremely large piercing eyes. Dacbold look a twisted hybrid of human and Dvergar.

  Tie Quan looks exactly like his projection. This is not his perception of himself. This is his Body. As I fix my stare on him, his eyes spring wide open in shock.

  "You shifted your Body into the Realm of Mind." My lips peal back from my teeth in a predatory grin.

  Tie Quan laughs, but it sounds forced. "You're not a proper Psi. So, what does it matter if you can see me?"

  I can see his real body, I cannot see his Power or his pattern. Even if I push a fair amount of Trinity into my pattern sight spell it makes no difference.

  There are a number of ways to hide your pattern. There may be thousands of them, if not more. I only know how to do it with a few techniques and know of the existence but not the method for a dozen-odd more. The main idea is to use raw Power or some variant of dimensional warping to mask or obfuscate your pattern and make your form look like nothing more than a "solid" object in any way, shape, or form you try to view it. They all share a major problem of requiring either a lot of concentration or not inconsiderable use of Power. By hiding your pattern and the nature of your Power, you limit the amount of Power you have available. So, trying to hide the nature or level of you own Power from someone with greater level of Power or a higher Circle of Coalescence becomes difficult to impossible depending on the level of difference between you and the being trying to ascertain the nature your pattern or Power.

  Tie Quan has a higher Circle of Coalescence than me, more Power than me, or both.

  From within my core realm, I draw a thick rope of Trinity. Preparing to wrap my swords with my Power, I look at the blade held in my left hand and momentarily freeze. What the hell are these swords supposed to be?

  Even though I am only distracted for a fraction of a second, my attempt to dodge Tie Quan's next strike is slow, and the tip of his bisento leaves a deep, diagonal wound across my chest. My internal organs are undamaged, but three of my ribs and my sternum are almost completely severed.

  Now that I can see him, Tie Quan changes his attack pattern and shows real skill in the way he wields his bisento, but even if he is skilled, his chicken legs are a fatal flaw. His bisento does not appear to be made from Elemental metal, but from the way he handles it, it must have have twenty times the mass of a steel weapon of similar size. Looking at the way he moves, his stance is unsteady. He lacks the the mass and strength in his legs to provide a solid base for a heavy weapon like his bisento. He uses Ki to stabilize his stance and to aid in accelerating his movements. Without Ki, he looks like the weight and momentum of his weapon would be constantly dragging him out of position.

  As I keep moving to avoid a series of successive attacks, I clamp my jaws shut and try to ignore the pain. Using the Trinity that I am controlling, I stop any further blood loss from the wound in my chest. I only need to survive the fight, and afterward, I can advance the healing considerably with the Light Od. Life was angry with me for not using it to heal my wounds after the fight with the whores. Now that I have traces of both Dark and Light Od mixed into my Trinity in my personal realm, I should have a much easier time using the Light Od to heal myself.

  It was my first look at the appearance of my swords in the Realm of Mind that gave me enough of a shock to break my focus. Without leaving myself vulnerable, I take the time to examine them more closely.

  Items of Power are technically inanimate objects, and with the exception of Legendary Items, they should look exactly the same when viewed in the Realm of Mind as in the Realm of Body. My bastard swords do not. It looks as though I am holding a pair of winged dragons with their forward claws stretched out to rend a target. Also here in the Realm of Mind, there is also a faint but clear intent to destroy Tie Quan surrounding both blades.

  I do not know what Boran did when he Made these weapons, but having just been forged, they cannot be Legendary Item with millennia of accumulated Power and lore. There should not be anything hidden in them that would give them an alternative nature that would revealed in the Realm of Mind.

  Taking the rope of Trinity that drew from my core realm, I split it in twain and fill my bastard swords with my Power. As though it is feeding on my Trinity, the destructive intent in my bastard swords forms a nebulous black cloud around each blade. It may not be very strong, but the idea that the aura exemplifies, destruction, is clear and easily understood in the Realm of Mind.

  Tie Quan halts his attacks and takes several steps backward. He stares not at me but my swords, and the shadow of fear bordering on terror is visible in his eyes. What is it about these swords that instills such fear in that Dragonian cunt and him?

  Clang!

  Without giving Tie Quan any time to recover, I spring forward into a thrust with my left-hand blade, and he barely blocks it with the haft of his bisento. With my Trinity enhancing the blade, it is capable of affecting the Realm of Mind.

  Tie Quan's control over his Ki is lacking, and the force transmitted to him through his weapon knocks him off balance. Following through with the momentum from my thrust, my right-hand blade sweeps down on him and an overhand strike, and Tie Quan tries to twist out of the blades path at the same time he tries to bring his bisento up in a cross block.

  Clang! Thump.

  It is a testament to Tie Quan's speed and reactions that he manages to interpose his weapon between my blade and himself, but he barely slows my blade. The impact against the haft of his bisento knocks him to the ground. Instead of trying to slow his momentum as he slides across the idea of a deck, he twists and springs back to his feet with his weapon at the ready.

  Again, a predatory grin splits my lips. Even though Tie Quan has a weak lower body, he has enough talent and skill that this might be interesting.

  As we close with each other, neither of us bothers with taunts. Our weapons lash out at one another. We strike, block, riposte, parry, counter, and dodge. As each of us searches for a hole in the other person's defenses, the timing, speed, angle, and force of each blow changes, and I am the defender more than the attacker.

  My techniques are not as polished as Tie Quan's, but my attacks have more speed and power behind them. Other than Thrall, Tie Quan is the best technician I have ever faced with weapons in our hands. Compared his mastery of his arts, I am years behind him in perfecting my mastery of Shadow Fist.

  Growing up, I always knew that I was stronger then the norm for my age, and despite being a fat-ass, I was fast. Even though I always try to improve my skill, I developed a habit of my relying on my innate strength and speed. There was no need to use proper techniques when beating the shit out of the trash that thought of themselves as the bullies, and my Half-Dvergar body was so powerful that I could crush most enemies with raw physical power.

  Urehara-sensei's martial arts came so easy to me that I equaled the best of his student in only a few years. It is only after meeting Thrall that I really started focusing on perfecting my technique. I had never understood the philosophy and intricate detail that could exist in a martial art before Thrall taught me the proper version of Shadow Fist.

  My initial estimate on the weight of Tie Quan's bisento is off. From the impacts between our weapons, it has to be closer to thirty times the weight of a similar steel weapon than twenty.

  Tie Quan stops doing whatever he was doing to conceal his Power, and his speed increases. For the first time, I see Power flow through him and into his bisento. It is made up of ten braided strands. He is in the Third Circle of Coalescence and working toward the Fourth Circle. Even though he is so far ahead of me in his Circle of Coalescence, he seems to be slightly under my level from a pure physical perspective, and the strength of the braided Power he is controllin
g does not look any greater than the strength of Trinity that I can summon.

  CLANG! CLANG! CLANG-CLANG! CLANG!

  Every weapon and fighting style has its own advantages and disadvantages. The better trained a fighter is, the more they unconsciously focus on the strengths of their weapon and fighting style. The most difficult thing about fighting a partially trained amateur is their unpredictability, the way they use attacks that seem to be pulled out of their asses. Tie Quan is moving like he expects me to fight in a certain way and use certain types of patterns. He seems to almost be able to predict my attack patterns.

  Most two weapon fighting styles either use one weapon as the primary defense and the other as the primary offense or constantly change from one weapon to the other in the attack to keep up a flow of strikes. Stances and techniques all evolve to support the basic philosophy of the style.

  I deliberately break the fighting patterns that I have developed. While I attack more aggressively, using more speed and force behind my attacks, I switch to attack patterns that do not flow naturally. As I mix in two or three strikes with one blade before unleashing the other, Tie Quan's responses slow down. As I change the lines of my attacks to be non-optimal, his reactions start to break down.

  After a barrage of off-tempo attacks, I thrust with both swords at once, one mid and one high. As Tie Quan blocks the mid level blade and leans back out of the line of the high, I snap a kick into his knee. Not getting any resistance, I sway forward, momentarily off-balance.

  Tie Quan reactions are good, and he does not let my mistake slip by. I do not try to recover and dive past him to avoid the blade of his bisento that streaks upward from low on my right side. I feel Tie Quan channeling Power into his weapon, and with a right shoulder roll, I spring back to my feet and spin into a block with both swords. As his bisento hits my swords, it seems light as a feather for a fraction of a second, and then, its weight increases exponentially. What the hell did he just do?

  Tie Quan's fighting style changes. He stops using Power to maintain a stable stance. Our weapons clash against each other a few more times, and the same increase in the mass of Tie Quan's bisento happens each time.

  Tie Quan has an interesting trick, but it is time to end this fight. Attacking Tie Quan's head with my right hand blade, I aim a hard, short round kick at his left shin, and after the results of my previous kick, he ignores it.

  "AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"

  As my instep passes through Tie Quan's shin, my Trinity explodes into the Realm of Mind. Blood flash and fragments of bone explode from his shin, and he collapses to his left knee.

  With Tie Quan not even seeming to see my attack, I drive my left hand sword through his right shoulder, and something stirs inside my weapon. A mix of hate, rage, and insatiable hunger flares outward from my sword. It only lasts for a fraction of a second, but it carries an impression of a sentient mind on the verge of awakening before it disappears again.

  As the sentience disappears, I am left with a sense of irritation. In the fraction of a second that the sentience seemed on the close awareness, it drained Tie Quan of most of his Power and the essence I discovered that exists in living creatures. I had planned to suck the essence out Tie Quan's corpse, myself.

  Tie Quan shifts back into the Realm of Body. He falls backward off my swords and coughs up blood. Lying limply on the metal deck plates, he glares up at me. "I have seen the truth. You know how ugly you are. You are a monster in your own eyes. How much do you hate yourself?"

  I smile. "No more than I hate everything else."

  I have long since come to term with my hate. I cannot feel love. A desire for possession is the closest I can come to loving anything. It is why I have such strong desires to own Elan and Perzey before her. Things that I do not hate or desire to possess I am apathetic toward.

  Tie Quan stares at me for a few moments, and then, returns my smile. "I see. You have embraced your hate. It your strength. You do not lie to yourself and try to emasculate yourself because of your hate like most pigs. I lost before we met."

  My chuckle is intentionally mocking. "Don't worry, you're not alone. Every asshole that thought he was better than me, because of whatever bullshit reason, has lost just like you.

  "There are nuclear missiles on this sub, aren't there?"

  Still sprawled on their cushions near the throne, Tie Quan's already pale sluts appear as if all the blood drains from them. Their fear fills the air like a dense fog reeking with a foul odor.

  CLANG! Click.

  Behind me, the hatch of this compartment has closed. I do not need to check it to know that it is locked.

  Tie Quan stares at me with narrowed eyes. "You are the leader of your group, not the Dvergar. It surprised me to see that in the Dvergar's mind."

  "That's right. Are there missiles?"

  Tie Quan smirks. "You can't stop their launch. By the time you get out of this chamber, they will have already reached their targets."

  I laugh. "I was planning to launch them myself, and it won't take us long to get out of here. Two of us are Smiths. That hatch won't slow us down."

  Tie Quan starts to laugh but coughs up more blood. "You want to launch them? Who are you, pig? I have never heard of any of Woden's dogs that looked like you, and with those strange wards embedded in your bones, I can only pick up the surface thoughts from the auras of your followers."

  "I'm Woden's enemy."

  A serene look settles on Tie Quan's face. "We were never enemies to begin with. It seems destiny wanted our battle to happen."

  I shake my head. "No. We are enemies. I'm going to kill every last little worm that thinks its a True Dragon that I find and enslave their lackeys."

  I sit down on the deck and lay my swords down, crossed, in front me. "I have a bit of time. Let's talk. Are you targeting Woden's lackeys with your attack?"

  With a look or curiosity on his face, Tie Quan shrugs. "No, our purpose is to eliminate the United States. Even weakened as it is, its existence is still an impediment to our forces taking over the Earth. What are those abominations you are wielding?"

  I look at my swords. "Would you believe me if I told you I don't know?"

  "Possibly. Where did you get them?"

  "Boran Second Father gave them to me."

  Tie Quan's eyes flicker to Dacbold. "That explains the Dvergar, but you have DokkAlfar and a DokkAlfar airship under your control. Who is this Smith God."

  "Thrall, my mentor and master in the martial arts. He gave it to me, the airship. Why are you attacking America now?"

  Tie Quan looks at me speculatively. "Yggdrasil's drive has been removed from the Earth. Did you have something to do with that?"

  My only answer to his question is a cold smile. "Are you all fighting over the wreckage of that Dragon dimensional space ship?"

  Tie Quan chuckles, and blood bubbles form at the corner of his lips. "So, you know about it. Do you serve that ancient Dvergar monster?"

  I shrug. "We have an arrangement. It's more like a mercenary contract. Are there any of you dragon bloods or dragonians at Santa Rosa Island?"

  Tie Quan frowns. "There might be a Dragon. Are you going to attack the traitorous minions of the Thirteen Heavens?"

  "They have some people that came to Earth with me. How soon will your missiles launch?"

  "Tomorrow, 11:45AM Washing DC time."

  Tie Quan shakily wipes away the blood running from his mouth. "I think I am out of time."

  I stand up and sheathe my swords. "Thanks. I enjoyed fighting you."

  Tie Quan smiles faintly. "I would have enjoyed it more had I killed you."

  I chuckle, and the light of life fades from Tie Quan's eyes.

  Collecting the Spoils

  *** The Pacific Ocean – Earth ***

  Return: Day 353

  August 16, 2078

  (Brand)

  Valcrit is sitting upright with help from Angelique. His face is pale, and blood is dripping from his nose and the corners of his eyes.
In my pattern sight, he does not look so good. Whatever Tie Quan did to him, it left behind damage to his pattern. When directly viewed, a pattern, whether a being or an object, look like a incredibly complex three-dimensional fractal structure. In Valcrit's case, it looks like someone took a sword to that fractal ball. There are several areas where the lines are broken and mangled. The damage appears to be mostly in his Soul.

  I am not sure how effective the Light Od will be on the kind of damage that Valcrit has, but I draw a thread of it from within my personal realm and channel it into him. His bleeding stops, but I do not see any changes to the damage in his pattern. Since I am not a healer, this is the best that I will be able to do.

  "Will you be able to move on your own?"

  For a moment, Valcrit frown before nodding. "I should be able to."

  "Let me know if you need help."

  "Yes, Master."

  I turn toward Tie Quan's six women. Not a one of them did anything to help him. It seems that they are nothing more than decorations for his dick.

  "Master, what are you going to do with them?"

  I look at Angelique. "Do you have a suggestion?"

  "I think we should make them slaves and sell them. Slaves as beautiful as they are should get us top prices on the auction block." Angelique's grin is a picture of pure innocence that is at odds with her words and the insecurity in her Mind and Soul.

  No matter what she may be hiding, Angelique is coming along quite nicely. Her willingness to make slaves out of these girls is a good indicator that she is shaking off the fake morality of the cowards on Earth.