Guild Master: A LitRPG adventure (Tower of Power Book 1)
Page 26
“Why are you doing all of this to get me on your side, Narzarah?”
“Because you stood up to us, of course. Your little moon is the first low-magic world we have ever encountered that stood against us with such success, considering your handicap. The only one that had refused to bow and add its strength to the Arashan. Your people have somehow learned to harness their innate power in ways that we have never seen before. There is so little magic on this world that most spells simply can’t work without us bringing gems and anima-wells from other worlds to power them. The innate anima of our mages is not enough to power them.” Narzarah considered him shrewdly. “Yet you have achieved something once thought impossible: you have devised a way to strengthen your own anima. To change it, and to achieve power without the use of spells and magic in nature. And you, among all of your people, have stood on the top, the youngest ever to become a Sage. You killed the most of our warriors and mages, and you prolonged what was supposed to be a short campaign of several months to five years. My God can use such talent and strength. I know that you are a warrior in your heart, just like me. Join us, Vin, and you will be by my side, leading the Host in the conquest of the stars.”
Vin listened to the words Narzarah spoke. And even though his words were in Vin’s own language, words which he knew the meaning of, he did not understand half of what Narzarah was saying. But it didn’t matter, in the end, whether Vin understood or not. He would never submit his soul to them. He had seen the mark of their God: the twisting red aura that coiled through their souls, giving them power. It was not something that any honorable spirit artist would even consider. To take such power unearned, to bow and step off the path, would take away so much of what it meant to be a spirit artist.
“If you wanted my power and my talents, you should not have put me in this weak body. In any case, I would never submit my soul to your God. Look at what you are, Narzarah! You have been twisted and corrupted by a power not conquered by your own will. I know that, once, you must have been like me—and now you are nothing but a disfigured puppet of a dark God.”
Narzarah laughed at Vin’s words. “I forget, sometimes, when we encounter worlds like yours. Those that have forgotten about the Sundering, forgotten about your origins. You look at me and see me as disfigured; you think my horns and eyes are a result of what you call demonic energy. Yet there are thousands of species all shaped as the first children of the Lifebringer, and my kind are just one among them. There is so much that you do not know about the rules of our plane of existence.” Narzarah leaned down to look at Vin, making their eyes level. “You think that your body was what made you powerful? It is not. It is your soul. The vessel of flesh you possess is only a conduit to what the soul has the will to do. It is the soul and the will that shape all the power in our universe. Given time, you could get that body,” Narzarah said, poking Vin’s chest with a finger, “to be as strong as your original.”
Narzarah shook his head and looked aside for moment, gazing at the construction of the World Gate. Then he turned back to Vin with a somehow softer look. “I have encountered others like you, Vin. You are an old soul, a favored soul. One which keeps finding its way back to this plane. You want to die and go to the heavens? Hah! You would only be sent back to this plane, and in time we would meet again.”
“None of your insanities change my answer, Narzarah. I will not abandon my honor. I will never give you the secrets of my people’s spirit arts,” Vin said firmly, looking the destroyer of his world in the eyes.
“Well, there is time yet. You are still young, and I will convince you eventually. But I don’t need you to teach me anything. I have already convinced others to share with me the secrets of your arts,” Narzarah said, and glanced to his side as two shapes stepped forward.
Vin had noticed others around the table, but hadn’t paid them any attention. Now he turned his eyes on them and froze. He knew them—Xhao Wa Lei of the Stone Heart Clan, and Xiang Hao Ming Li of the Fire Serpent Clan. He had not seen them since they had marched on the enemy’s World Gate. He had believed them dead, killed in the battle. But now… He might not be able to see their souls, but he felt them. They felt the same as Narzarah, and he knew that there was a pulsating tether that had been connected to their souls from somewhere beyond.
“What have you done?” Vin asked, disgusted.
Lei winced, his face taking on a shameful expression and his eyes looking away, evading Vin’s glare. Ming Li stepped forward, looking Vin in the eyes with a smile on her beautiful face.
“We survived, Vin,” she said. “Our people lie dead on the ground, rotting—and yet we live, and are more powerful than ever.”
“You disgraced your ancestors, your families! What would your father say if he could see you now?” Vin spat at her.
Ming Li’s face contorted into an ugly expression of rage. “Why do I care what the old fool would have thought? He was petty, and jealous of my power—he withheld the family secrets from me! Well, now I don’t need his scrolls, or the Way of the Coiling Fire Serpent! I have more power than he could’ve ever hoped to achieve!”
“And the only thing you gave in return was your soul.” Vin shook his head in disappointment. “You dishonored yourself—for what? For power? Your father was right to deny you the secrets of your Clan. You are not worthy.”
“I am more worthy than anyone ever was! And what do you think your honor will get you?” she spat back. “Our people are dead, and you will never be free. You will spend the rest of eternity as a prisoner of the Host, and there will come a time when even you must break.”
“I will never disgrace myself by stepping off my way, by abandoning the path—by betraying the arts created by our ancestors,” Vin said in return.
“Then I pity you and your honor,” Ming Li said haughtily.
Vin turned from her, not able to keep his eyes on what she had become a moment more. He looked at Lei, someone who he had thought an honored rival once. “And what about you, Lei? Will you not try to convince me to betray all that I am?”
Lei grimaced and turned to look at Vin, the shame clear in his eyes. “I know that there is no point. You will never agree to compromise your beliefs and stop walking the path.”
“That,” Narzarah interjected, “is where we disagree. Solitude and time break everyone eventually.” His eyes got a faraway look about them, and he whispered, as if to himself, “I know that better than most.”
Vin prepared to speak again, but they were interrupted. A group of Arashan approached them. Three men and three women, red-skinned and horned. The first half of the group, made up of two men and a woman, were wearing robe-like garments and carried large staffs adorned with gems on their tips. Vin recognized what they were. The enemy called them “mages,” wielders of strange powers. The last half, two women and one man, were adorned with armor similar to Narzarah’s, swords fastened at their waists.
The group stepped close—yet, among them, Vin noticed a man with no sign of corruption, dressed in an unfamiliar garb. He had red hair and green eyes, and his garb was a black tunic with green embroidery at the hem. A symbol of a strange blade piercing a black-and-yellow sun adorned his right breast. He had a black sash around his waist beneath a leather belt and a long, wide sword sheathed on his left side. The man walked with the corrupted completely at ease, not bothered by their demonic appearance in the slightest.
The leader of the group, a tall Arashan, stepped up to Narzarah. “We are ready to open the breach, Commander,” he said.
Narzarah nodded. “Good.” He then turned to look at the strange man standing among the other Arashan. “Are you ready, Grand Marshal?”
The man looked at Narzarah with contempt. “You fulfill your part of the bargain, and we will pay your price.”
“Careful, Grand Marshal,” Narzarah said threateningly. “There are countless others on your world who would jump at the opportunity to aid us.”
“As long as you help me achieve our goals, we will have n
o problems,” the Grand Marshal replied tersely.
“Good,” Narzarah said, and the group left, heading toward the archway.
The Grand Marshal’s piercing green eyes glanced at Vin as he passed him, but he didn’t stop. Vin’s gaze followed the strange man as they reached the archway. Two Arashan mages stepped close to the two crystals on each side of the construct, and started chanting.
“You disapprove, Vin?” Narzarah said, forcing Vin to look back at him.
“That man has no honor. Whatever he wants is not worth what you will do to his world,” Vin said.
“Your own people have done the same. The Golden Lion Clan built a World Gate for us in secret, and here we are.”
“Yes, and they were the first that you killed.”
“Your people are strong,” Narzarah said simply, “and strength breeds arrogance. The Golden Lion Clan misunderstood what we are. They sought to control us and use us to conquer the other clans.”
“And that man, does he know what you will do after you reach his world?”
“Of course not. He thinks that the Host will aid his people in the conquest of their world. And we will—for a time. Perhaps if they prove worthy, we might even allow a few to join us. But we will deal with them appropriately once the time is right.”
“Their world must be without honor if any of them would use you to further their gains,” Vin said sadly.
“Ah, the ignorance of your people never ceases to astound me. For all the knowledge you have gained in your arts, you are ignorant of greater realties of this plane.” Narzarah shook his head, and gestured to the two brutes. “In time you will see the truth. And when you do, you will join us.”
The brutes stepped close to grab Vin and carry him away back to his prison.
“I can walk by myself. Allow me this decency, Narzarah. In this body I am harmless to you and yours,” Vin said, defeated. His dignity had been stolen; he needed something back, even something as small as this.
Narzarah looked at him for a moment, then nodded at the brutes. “There is nowhere for you to run now. This world is ours. Walk back to your cell, Vin, and think hard on what I have said. At any moment you can change your answer, and I will welcome you in the ranks of the Arashan with open arms.”
Vin nodded at Narzarah, and turned to walk back toward the prison. He glanced at Lei and Ming Li as he walked pass them.
“You will break, Vin. I know you will. And then you shall see the power that the Arashan and their God offer,” Ming Li said, smiling darkly.
Vin ignored her and walked away, the brutes following two steps behind him. He drew close to the archway, seeing the group of six Arashan and the strange man waiting as two Arashan mages kept their staffs pointed at the two crystals, red energy seeping from the staffs to the crystals. Vin slowed as they stepped close. The brutes, seemingly content to follow his pace, slowed as well.
“Be ready! We can’t keep the breach open for long!” one of the mages yelled.
A strange man grabbed Vin’s attention—he looked much like the Arashan with horns and long, black hair, and piercing golden eyes. But where the Arashan had red skin, this one was pale. The man held Vin’s gaze, then cast his eyes to the archway and back at Vin, raising an eyebrow at him. Vin turned to look at the archway as it pulsed with visible aura. He turned back, but the man was no longer there. Vin cast his sight around him, looking, but saw no one that even resembled the man he had seen. I’m seeing things. I’ve been imprisoned for too long, he thought to himself.
Vin looked at the mages as they worked. And then, suddenly, the archway pulsed with power, and a tear appeared that spread to fill the archway, and Vin could see trees through it and people waiting. Narzarah had been right: there was nowhere on Orb that Vin could run to.
Vin looked behind him, and saw that the brutes were watching the archway as the first of the group passed through it. He was close to the archway, a dozen steps at most. Vin’s eyes slid further behind him to look at Narzarah, Lei, and Ming Li, as they too watched the archway. Narzarah’s eyes met Vin’s, and Vin smiled. Narzarah’s eyes narrowed in confusion and then widened in realization. He opened his mouth to speak, but it was too late.
Vin took a deep breath and jumped forward, running as fast as his vessel could carry him. The body was not even at the first step of the path—its core was not developed, preventing Vin from using any of the advanced techniques he knew. But being housed in a weak vessel did not mean that he couldn’t use ki, it only meant that he was very limited in doing so. Vin pushed the air out of his lungs, pulling ki from his core and pushing it through his channels. It was dangerous, a thing that should never be attempted before one reached at least the second step, but there was no choice.
He could cripple his ki channels if he made a single mistake. But Vin wasn’t someone on the second step, nor was he at the same level that this body was. He was a Sage on the seventh step of the path—a master of the spirit arts. His legs burned as ki flooded through them, and he activated a Surging technique. In the blink of an eye, he reached the archway as the last of the group passed through. The two mages holding the breach open failed to act in their shock as Vin reached out with his hands and grabbed one of the crystals from the pedestal, pulling it with him. Red energy flashed across his vision and he slipped, turning mid step as his back passed through the breach.
A shape appeared in front of him. Lei had finishing the Wind Step technique faster than Vin had ever seen him move before. His hand reached out to grab Vin, to pull him back—but then Vin saw Lei’s eyes and the sorrow and regret deep within them. And just as his hand was about to grab him, Lei hesitated, his fingers bent, and his hand missed. Ming Li appeared a step behind him, just as Vin passed through the breach and into a strange, dark realm. Seeing Lei’s failure, Ming Li jumped forward through the archway as its aura and energy twisted and churned, and Vin fell through it. Ming Li passed through the archway and was close to grabbing him when the crystal in Vin’s hand exploded with a blast of force. The opening they passed through closed, and the force of the explosion threw Vin sideways, separating him and Ming Li in the ether.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Vin saw the other opening in the distance, and saw Ming Li falling toward it. Then the darkness disappeared and was replaced by light. Vin was falling through the air, and then he hit the surface of what felt like a body of water, leaving him confused and disoriented. His muscles burning from the ki he had sent through them, he had no strength to move. Sinking deeper, he rejoiced, for he knew that he would truly die, and at last he was going to be free. His soul would ascend to the realm of the Gods.
His eyes stared at the bright spot above him, the sun shining through the waves illuminating his path to the heavens—but then a shape broke the surface of the water and swam toward him. But Vin was too weak to stay awake, to see if he would live or die.
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