Malware: A Cultivation Academy Series (Bastion Academy Book 2)

by J D Astra

  As we passed close to the wall of the kingdom, and Mae’s arrow didn’t relent, worry blossomed in me from the “what ifs.”

  I didn’t want to believe the truth I felt in my gut: they had my family.

  Chapter 38

  WE CROSSED THE KINGDOM barrier, and Mae’s arrow held steady to the northwest. We were certainly headed toward outer-cities. I alternated between pacing from the back of the small room, near the cramped Woong-ji, and the steering column. Finally, Hana pulled me aside. I sat against the wall once more. The other fifth-year students were sitting down, cycling for the battle to come.

  She came to a cross-legged position.

  “Let’s meditate,” she said as I saw the glimmer of pink on the horizon. The sun was near.

  I closed my eyes and breathed with her. I felt Mae assessing our location, assessing my doom, and calculating how to get us out of whatever situation presented itself. With her secondary device, Mae was more powerful than I could’ve imagined. I wondered what she would be like at full power, restored to her previous glory.

  The arrow flashed in my vision again, and I gave direction adjustments to Gui-ne. I queried Mae, though she was busy, and confirmed my suspicion that we were headed toward Namnak. So, the story I’d woven with my bits of data was true. They wanted Mae.

  My back spasmed with brief, but intense agony, and I slouched against the wall.

  Hana was beside me in an instant.

  “Hey, you’re okay,” she whispered, trying to reassure me.

  “It’s not that,” I said with a sigh and laid my head back. “We’re headed for my home. Shin-soo all but confirmed it.”

  “He can’t break the Silent Pact to tell us what they know. They might not—”

  “They know,” I said through clenched teeth as the pain flared again, then died just as fast.

  The malware was hot in my veins. The rapid shifts from cold to hot had me in a chilled sweat, despite the countermeasures we’d put in place. It made me tired and seemed to zap the energy straight from my muscles. I considered taking the second to last Battle Strength potion, but remembered Sung-ki’s warning. Two was tolerable. Three was dangerous. Four would surely be my death.

  “I guess I’ll see it for the first time,” Hana whispered back as she held tight to my right arm.

  “I’m sorry I kept you from it.”

  “I’m not sure why,” she said playfully and nuzzled my chin.

  I stared past the others, through the glass and into the dawn beyond. “Because we’re poor. We live in a tiny three-bedroom house, with no money. You’ve had so much. What would our paltry lives look like in comparison?”

  Hana pulled me closer, and her warmth staved off the rapid shift of the cold, tingling malware in my veins. She kissed my chin. “I chose you. I knew what that meant.”

  Guilt nagged at me. “I know.”

  Eun-bi had been so disappointed when Hana didn’t come with me. Everyone was disappointed. They all wanted to meet Hana, and my anxiety had prevented that. Now, if I was right, they would meet under much different circumstances—if they met at all.

  There was a real possibility that Hiro Kumiho had executed my family, but I knew their true purpose was manipulation. They would be his bargaining chip.

  He would want Mae in exchange.

  “We’re getting close, within five kilometers,” Mae said aloud, breaking my grim thought. She’d spent the majority of the flight keeping the malware at bay while tracking it, two process intense tasks. But now that she knew—just as I did—we were headed for home, she didn’t have to track the signal anymore.

  Namnak came into view below, and I closed my eyes. The boiling heat returned to my veins, but it wasn’t the malware. If Hiro Kumiho had laid a hand on any of my family, it would be his end. I would make him pay a thousand times over for any damage he’d done.

  But if he hadn’t, and he wanted to trade... could I? Could I sacrifice Mae—knowing what she was capable of and how dangerous she could be in the wrong hands—to save my family?

  It would only save my family for a time.

  Power like Mae’s wasn’t for anything but total domination of munje.

  “Dropping altitude,” Gui-ne said, and the gears hissed with the release of pressure from the balloon.

  Starbursts formed at the edges of my vision, and my head clouded, slowing my thoughts. The chill of the malware came returned, battling the heat of fury in my chest. I pitched forward to climb to my feet, but Hana pulled me back.

  “You’re too sick,” she whispered.

  I scowled. “It doesn’t matter if I’m dying, I will not let that man hurt my family.”

  Hana opened her mouth, but I stopped her. “If my presence helps us win—by even a small margin—I’d rather die helping than die in this balloon watching.”

  “I’ll have your back,” Shin-soo said and offered me his hand.

  I took it, and Hana was up just as fast, positioning herself between us.

  “What’s got you on Team Jiyong so fast?” she asked with suspicion. “You were collaborating with Tae-do all year—”

  “You mean tormented all year?” Shin-soo cut her off, his cheeks red. He looked away, shaking his head as his jaw tensed. “He’s a demon in a family of monsters,” he said through gritted teeth. “I won’t be his puppet anymore.”

  My head was foggy, but I felt his sincerity.

  “We’ll see how good you watch his back,” Hana mumbled and turned toward the side door.

  “Found a spot to touch down,” Gui-ne said as he turned us about.

  I saw Eun-bi’s garden out the glass window, and anxiety swarmed through my body. What if I was too sick to fight? What if I got in the way?

  What if they were already dead?

  “Breathe, cycle, and drink that third potion,” Mae reminded me.

  We still had more tricks to show off, and this malware wasn’t so bad. What was a little fever chill and back spasms? We could do this.

  I pulled the third potion from my belt and downed it with a grimace. The rush of strength through my body erased thoughts of failure from my mind, and I stepped up to the door. A massive metal hand clamped down on my shoulder. I turned to see Woong-ji, sweating like me, with gold veins snaking under her skin.

  “Me first,” she said with excitement.

  I stepped out of the way and she moved forward. The command carriage jostled as we set down, and the door snapped open with the press of a button. Woong-ji charged out, her machina suit blasting from the doorway with a poof of air.

  Se-nim approached the door next, dashing a potion over the portal. A white spell like a veil burst into existence from the floor. Se-nim shot me a wink, then stepped through. Bo was next, then me, passing through the sparkling spell with a sense of calm determination.

  I felt Se-nim ahead of me and Bo beside me like how I felt Mae in my head, but less intense. Then I felt Hana behind me, and Shin-soo. It was as if our minds and bodies were communicating on the air, revealing their intents without words. What was that potion Se-nim had used?

  “At the ready,” Bo said, and we raised our weapons in unison.

  Woong-ji raised her arm and blasted a bright red shot into the sky. A blanket of crimson ry fell over my home in a wide, sparkling dome. The eerie blood color sparked new fury in me as I thought of my family harmed inside. The spell dropped down around the garden, illuminating a cloaked figure in black charging forward. Two more appeared in sparkling red highlights behind him.

  And then another five.

  I raised my spear in sweaty hands and knew what I had to do. It wasn’t words, but the weapon told me I could control the flow of others’ munje by giving the spear my ma.

  I pulled my stored munje down my arms and into the spear, illuminating the shaft in golden runes. There was a push and pull as I felt the spear accept my magic, then the light traveled to the spear-tip in a rush. It glowed like a blinding beacon before dimming to a steady thrum that beat in time with my hammering
heart.

  A hard metal thunk brought me back to the present as Woong-ji slammed a massive fist into the first combatant. They blocked the blow with crossed arms infused with zo so black it killed all light around it.

  Woong-ji opened her oversized machina fist with a quick flick, hitting the man between the legs and punting him four meters with a yelp. Four more came in at her flank, but Gui-ne was there in a flash. The six were locked in combat and the three rear assassins leapt over the action.

  They all moved to converge on me, but I could feel my friends as we coordinated our attacks. Se-nim and Hana took one man, Bo another, and Shin-soo turned to guard me against the last.

  I breathed deep and called on the knowledge in the spear for the spell to cast. The feeling of ancient arcane knowledge flowed through me and the spear whispered its secret: Jeeo.

  Control.

  I sliced the weapon through the air and cast Jeeo. A blast of my golden munje rippled out across the battlefield, and I felt my friends and opponents. There were two more in the house with my family—my family. They were alive.

  I could sense the way everyone moved. I could feel the flow and choreography of the battlefield. I could influence the outcome of each encounter.

  Mae’s voice was strained as she said, “I can visualize the data.”

  Artificial highlights appeared in my vision, wrapping my allies in green, my foes in red, and my family in blue.

  The spear-tip dimmed, empty of my munje. A pulling, draining sensation weakened my arms as the spear dragged more ma from my reservoir, recharging the weapon. A bar appeared in the upper left of my periphery that showed the recharge time for the spear—two more minutes.

  I looked at the woman battling Shin-soo, and she lit up in bright red in my vision. The flow of her zo munje was displayed in black, running through highways of veins in her body. The enemy threw up a block as Shin-soo delivered a heavy strike. I cut the enemy’s zo lines in the forearm, weakening her significantly. Shin-soo’s blow landed against her blocking arm with a sickening snap.

  The woman cried out, but recovered, throwing a counter kick. The more I tried to manipulate the flow of her munje, the more her highlight faded from view. The spear helped me to understand.

  Each demand used my munje, rendering it spent, just like when I controlled Tuko. There was limited ma munje in her system from the Jeeo spell, and I could only affect a few things before I was out completely. I wanted to keep her in my sight, so I chose to focus on Shin-soo.

  His heart was hammering, munje flowing freely, but I knew I could still help. I commanded my ma to support his core in heat conversion, keep him from roasting his brains like Woong-ji always warned us about.

  With his enemy’s arm broken, Shin-soo had the upper hand, so I turned my focus to Woong-ji. She was still holding off three enemies on her own. The trio of death danced around her like I’d seen at the Wong dojang, each moving with carefully timed precision.

  Woong-ji’s bot was damaged in several places, so I set my ma on a repair mission to the critical joints. I focused on the ma in the enemies, but noticed there was less than had been in the others. Perhaps proximity affected it, or maybe the ma dissolved in their system if unused? No matter, I sent what munje was there to their core and commanded it to destroy their weakest bands and disrupt the flow of energy.

  Se-nim broke off to help Woong-ji and I turned to Hana with her opponent. They had dealt important strikes to their enemy; one where Hana’s blade had pierced the man’s side. I turned my munje on that spot and ordered it to assault the zo he was using to heal.

  Hana’s blades were alive with ry, distorting the positions of her arms as she moved. The opponent adjusted his blocks with each of her attacks, but one more went through. I surged the ma from Hana into her blade when it pierced his shoulder. The munje was deposited in the wound and went to work assaulting his systems.

  The bar in the upper left of my vision flashed—the spear was charged. I whipped the weapon around me in a powerful arc, blasting Jeeo again. My arms shook as the runes pulled more ma down the staff.

  I turned my focus back on the battlefield, sensing now the munje in the earth. I created a block of dirt where one of the three dancing assassins was about to step. The man hit the solid clod and tripped sideways.

  Woong-ji kicked back and landed a blow to the man’s gut, sending him flying ten meters. The two remaining assassins changed their attack pattern, shifting so they protected each other’s flanks. Woong-ji pushed forward, and I created a thick block of dirt behind the opponents. They stumbled, and Woong-ji took advantage, hammering their legs with a low kick.

  Hollow sucking ripped on my reservoir, sending sharp pains through my gut.

  “You’re out of ma, drop the spear,” Mae said, her voice taxed.

  “I have to guard the weapon!” I said through clenched teeth.

  “You won’t without a core! Drop it!” Mae retorted.

  I tossed the weapon back to the Golden Wing, and the agony stopped. But I also lost control of the battlefield. With nothing else to do, I rushed toward Hana to help with her opponent.

  “Stop!” a command boomed across the battlefield. I trembled from the base of my spine to my skull as I felt the ry infiltration root me to the spot. The spell may have held me in place, but it was the voice that stopped my heart.

  I knew that voice.

  The word came from my mouth in a hush. “Father?”

  Chapter 39

  THE DOOR TO THE BACK patio was thrown open. Hiro Kumiho held a blade to my mother’s throat, and another assassin detained Eun-bi. The other children cried from the kitchen. Suyi held them all tightly away from the battle, her eyes red and face streaked with dirty tears.

  Fury swelled in my chest and freed me from the ry command spell. I stepped forward as my vision narrowed on Hiro—Hiroto—Kumiho.

  My father.

  Shin-soo grabbed my arm and held me back. “Wait.”

  “No!” I screamed trying to wrench myself from his grasp.

  Father pressed the tip of the blade into mother’s neck, and two red drips followed. Mother winced, but didn’t cry out for help.

  “Stop if you want her to live,” he warned, and I halted.

  “We only want you. Or rather, what’s inside you,” he corrected, and I felt my anger intensify. How could he be pressing a blade to my mother’s—his wife’s—throat over a ghost?

  “You knew it before you knew he was your father,” Mae said through the speaker on my chest. “He wants my power. I can feel the other piece of me somewhere on him.”

  I swallowed hard against the lump growing in my throat. “It’s been you all this time?” The question came out choked.

  Bo shared an idea through our link: Stay strong, negotiate, and stall him.

  “Let’s not waste time. Come with me, and we can save your mother,” he said, still holding the knife to her throat.

  “You’re killing my friends, everyone at Bastion, and holding a knife to her throat as you say we can save her?” I asked, stalling to cycle more ma and en.

  “Are you coming or not?” He pressed the blade down harder.

  “Yes,” I said with hands raised in defeat.

  “Jiyong!” Hana whispered in an outrage.

  But I wasn’t giving up.

  I took a slow step forward, then another. “You have to promise to let everyone live. Turn off the signal, deactivate the nanites inside the students at Bastion and everyone else in the city.”

  He cocked his head slightly at the word nanites. So, I had surprised him. Good. There was more where that came from.

  “I will not make that promise,” he said coolly.

  I stopped. “Then there’s no reason for me to coming willingly, and you’ll have to try to kill us all now, while we still have the upper hand.”

  “You wouldn’t sacrifice your mother!” he snapped, holding her tighter.

  Mae used her power to visualize the ry flowing through his throat to hide
his true intent. He didn’t want me to see through that outrage of disbelief to the root—his sorrow. He didn’t want to kill his family, and he didn’t want to kill me. He wanted me alive, and my mother, too.

  But would he sacrifice us both if he had to? I didn’t know.

  “Promise me and I’ll give you exactly what you want: full cooperation with Maeyoung,” I said and took one more step forward. I was flanked by Woong-ji and Se-nim, but for what I was about to do, that gave me little courage.

  Father’s posture was stiff, but he didn’t press the blade down harder or call my bluff. I couldn’t allow him to be in control of another two parts of Mae with how much destruction he’d caused holding just one.

  He lowered the blade at my mother’s neck and whistled two high pitched notes. The Wong assassins pulled back, one of them grabbing my arm on the way. I hoped my connection with the others was still strong as I revealed my intent: revolt.

  I sent a massive jolt of en down my arm and electrified the man. His body seized, gripping me tighter, but he dropped to the ground in a loss of control. Hana’s ry infused dagger flew past my head, aimed straight at my father. He pulled out of the way, straight into the path of the real blade.

  The dagger pierced his shoulder, and he dropped my mother. Suyi leapt from the doorway, stabbing the man holding Eun-bi with gardening sheers. The improvised weapon impaled his leg, and he howled, rearing back.

  The battle resumed all at once.

  I cut the stream of electricity and the trembling man dragged me to the ground with him. I turned to go for the spear, but the electrocuted assassin held tight to my arm. He punched at my face and I deflected. I used the forward momentum to drop my knee into his gut. The man grunted, but was ready with another blow to my chest. I blocked, but the pain of his strike radiated through my forearms.

  I moved my knee and planted my full weight against the assassin, throwing a punch with my free arm. He bucked, kicked, and pulled in quick succession when my fist came down. I flew over his head and hit the ground with a painful crack as fetid orange goop exploded out from under my back.