by Yuri Ajin
Laura took the remote control from the table. An image of a ten-foot-tall monster with black chitin and three pairs of eyes wandering a ruined city appeared on the wall. Its arms were long and curved like sickles, and its overall appearance was that of an insect.
“A new type of monster?” Lily asked. She had never seen such a creature before.
“We thought the same at first...” Laura grimaced. “This thing cost us the lives of three Exorcists, which is why there are only nine of us left. These aren’t mindless beasts, but an intelligent race, which is also capable of cultivating. The System calls them Kaoh’s. For convenience, we decided to call them insectoids.”
It makes sense that humans aren’t the only creatures in the Ecumene, but I didn’t think that I’d see a representative of another race so soon, Kai thought.
“Get used to it,” Rune’ Tan responded. “You’ll see even more amazing creatures. In fact, humans are quite weak as a species, and only our fertility is preventing us from disappearing.”
“I should be surprised, but I’m not.” Kai smiled on the inside. “Do you know something about these Kaoh’s?”
“No. This is the first time I heard about them. After all, there are millions of worlds. Only the System knows what creatures inhabit all of them.”
“Another race?” Ivsim was surprised. “They’re clearly not an easy opponent. What powers do they possess, and how many of them are there?”
“In the beginning, there were about a thousand of them, mostly at the Soul Stage. If our data is correct, there are a couple of dozen Exorcists among them. Our scouts found six giant ones.” The image changed to show a thirty-foot-tall insectoid with wings and a huge stomach, around which other Kaoh’s were gathering. “Their energy was suppressed.”
“Elementalists.” Kai sighed.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“The next step after the Exorcist Stage,” he explained. “As for the suppressed energy, that’s the System protecting Earth. The energy of those who come here is lowered if they’re at the Soul Stage or higher.”
“Hold on, wait...” Laura said, just as confused as all of her colleagues. “Are you telling me that your powers are limited?”
“Yeah.” Kai nodded. “Those at the Soul Stage are thirty-five percent weaker. Exorcists, sixty-five percent, and Elementalists, ninety-five.”
The officials exchanged glances, unable to believe that what Kai had done wasn’t even all that he was capable of. They only had luck to thank that he and his friends were on their side.
“Please, go on,” Kai said when the silence became unbearable.
“What? Oh yes! So...” Laura cleared her throat and gathered her thoughts. “A thousand insectoids appeared in the south of Brazil. Strong as they were, they didn’t pose a threat at that time. At least, that was what we thought. In just six months, while we were getting ready for the raid, they managed to capture six of the largest cities and turn them into their hives.” The image changed again, showing a giant spherical structure that occupied an area of several blocks and was taller than most skyscrapers. “As we later found out, those six large insectoids turned out to be their queens, like that of bees or ants. In just six months, their army grew to twelve thousand. Humans, beasts, and even Demonids became their prey, and their numbers soon reached over ten thousand.”
“If that’s true, then I doubt that we’ll be able to fight them off on our own. Given that they have Elementalists in their ranks, we stand no chance,” Jiang Si commented, grimacing. “Maybe it’s better to try to negotiate with them?”
“Listen to the end, please.” Laura smiled coldly. “We tried. However, they made it clear that we’re nothing more than food to them by eating several of our diplomats. However, we did learn that they don’t use sound to communicate, but smell.
“A year and a half ago, we decided to attack them to prevent them from making their colony even bigger. The nearest hive was in Bogota, the capital of Colombia. Thanks to our tech, as well as the fact that their queen was in hibernation of some kind, we managed to destroy the hive. The victory, unfortunately, wasn’t without a price. To keep future casualties at a minimum, we decided to take more drastic measures with the rest of the hives.”
“You... Nuked them?!” Kai exclaimed in surprise.
“Exactly.” The commander-in-chief smiled and nodded. “The five remaining hives were destroyed in an instant.”
“Then what’s the point of this operation?” Lily asked.
“They have appeared again. Like you, they probably came from another world. Fortunately, this time, there are fewer of them. There’s only one queen, fifteen Exorcists, and about three hundred followers at the Source Creation level.”
“So... What’s the problem?” Ivsim asked, sensing that there was a catch.
“They appeared out of nowhere a month and a half ago, right under our noses — in Houston, Texas.”
“And since it’s so close, you don’t want to use nuclear weapons on your own territory,” Kai said calmly.
“Yes. However, that’s not the only reason. We got a huge amount of extremely useful resources from this hive. And since they’re nowhere as numerous as before, we want to pay them another visit. Your help will come in handy.”
“Aren’t you afraid that the queen will be awake this time?” Elize asked. “Even a weakened Elementalist is practically invincible for a handful of Exorcists.”
“We are aware of that possibility. As a last resort, we’re ready to repeat the nuclear strike,” the commander-in-chief said firmly.
“Commendable.” Elize chuckled haughtily.
“I propose we proceed to the operation and your role in it,” Laura continued.
“I apologize,” Kai interrupted. “But I have to point something out... I hope you understand that they may come again in the future and in much larger numbers. I’m sure you don’t want to nuke the entire Earth. What do you plan to do in this case?”
“I suppose you have a suggestion?” Diamond asked as if he was reading his brother’s mind.
“Yes. The tower you’re looking for is a portal to other worlds. If you find it and claim it, you’ll not only be able to know where and when invaders will appear but also control who gets in and who gets out,” Kai told them what Rune’Tan had told him just a second ago.
“You forgot to mention that at least one Elementalist is needed to control the Gates.” Rune’Tan chuckled.
“It doesn’t matter right now. I’m confident that the first Elementalist will appear on Earth before these things become a global problem. This should motivate them to search for the Gates, which will be of use to us as well,” Kai replied.
“Also, I can help you narrow down the search area,” he added.
“What are you talking about?” His friends turned to him in surprise.
“It’s simple. By using the satellites, we can find the person who has the highest chance to be the first to find the tower.”
“Wait... Are you talking about...” Elize began.
“I’m talking about Jiang Dao!”
***
After the meeting, they went to the research department.
For the artifacts to work, you had to project a mental image of the desired person or item into them. This was done by connecting the person with the memory of said individual or item to the artifact via a helmet. And since only two helmets were available, Kai and Jiang Yong were instructed to transmit the image, as they were the ones who saw Jiang Dao more often than the others.
“You can begin,” Laura said. She was supervising the process. “Close your eyes and remember everything you can about this Jiang Dao.”
The connector helmets were activated, after which a signal was distributed throughout the entire satellite network. The map blinked and then began to bring Europe closer. A red dot, moving at high speed to the northeast, appeared on the territory of Poland.
“Well! We found—” Jiang Si started but was interrupted by a power-out.
***
Meanwhile, a few kilometers above Lublin, East Poland
A small airship was heading northeast. On it were Jiang Dao, who had brought the vessel with him in a special spatial artifact, and twenty Elementalists of the Seven Blades Clan, who had sworn loyalty to him.
As he was already familiar with the Tower and its internal workings, Jiang Dao had little trouble determining the approximate location of the Earth’s Gates. And although the search required him to be in a constant state of meditation, he was still closer to the tower than anyone else looking for it was.
Sitting on the deck, he suddenly felt a strange tingling sensation on the back of his head.
Someone thinks that they can spy on me and get away with it? he thought, looking up at the sky.
His hand went up, index finger pointing somewhere into the distance.
He spent a minute frozen in this pose. And then he smiled, and squeezed his hand, as if he was crushing something.
“Idiots...”
***
The lights in the building went out for a moment. Kai and Jiang Yong fell unconscious. Due to a wave of power that swept through the room, those below the Soul Stage also lost consciousness.
“What’s happening?!” Diamond shouted, alarmed, and rushed over to his brother.
A few seconds later, when the equipment in the room started working again, he got his answer.
“Shit! One of the satellites has been destroyed!”
Chapter 12
THE HIVE
An hour and a half later, Kai woke up. Even though he had a splitting headache, he was back on his feet thanks to his bloodline.
The same, unfortunately, couldn’t be said for Jiang Yong.
The poor young man remained unconscious for almost two days, and even when he woke up, he couldn’t move for several hours. But even this was a good outcome. If he hadn’t been a cultivator, he would’ve suffered serious damage, which would’ve greatly impeded his further development.
Luckily for the rest of those who fell victim to the shockwave, they didn’t suffer any physical damage as they weren’t directly connected to the helmets like Kai and Jiang Yong were. They, and the rest of the people in the building, felt like someone had put a razor-sharp blade to their throats, while the two young cultivators experienced a pain equal to that of being stabbed in the chest with a dull knife.
Due to this sudden attack and the damage it had caused both to the systems and psyches of those who had fallen victim to it, the beginning of the operation had to be postponed for four days.
It wasn’t until Kai consulted with Rune’Tan that they knew what had caused this sudden power out. If the redhead was to be believed, Jiang Dao could easily sense that someone was looking for him. With the help of his powerful aura, coupled with the Sword Sphere, he easily traced the energy to the satellite and discovered its connection with Washington. It was through this spiritual link that he launched his attack, after which he destroyed the satellite with the Forces of Space.
***
The beginning of Operation Purification was near. Kai, his team, as well as members of the Union, arrived in Texas. Landing in the nearest major city from Houston, they climbed into the jeeps and buses and finally headed for the hive.
That trip was to last about three hours, so Kai decided to use them well.
Taking out the Memory Jade and the Knowledge Crystal he got from Luke, he put them on his palm and opened the Mind Gate. His plan was to study them both as thoroughly as possible.
Closing his eyes, he focused on the Crystal and saturated it with his ki in order to contemplate on it and gain an understanding of its structure and function. As the item was rather unusual and complex, it took him about fifteen minutes to figure out how it worked. The Crystal was made of tens of thousands of energy threads, compactly intertwined into a ball, which, at first glance, looked like it couldn’t be untangled.
Having spent another ten minutes contemplating this ball, he used his energy vision to figure out just where the threads began and where they ended. After a couple of minutes of fiddling with it, he understood which threads connected with others and where. He then identified the main knots and important clusters of Forces. The only thing that remained was to figure out just how the Crystal worked. However, for this, he needed Rune’Tan’s help.
Relying on his eidetic memory, he projected the image of the Crystal’s structure into his spirit world. Being its master, he accelerated the flow of time in it so that Rune’Tan could understand the structure before the trip was over. Fortunately, the Soul Spark wasn’t affected by this, so the redhead didn’t age at an increased speed.
However, to use this technique, the soul owner had to leave their spirit world. That was why, under normal circumstances, manipulating time was just a useless exercise, since it didn’t affect the cultivator.
After seven hours inside the spirit world and forty minutes in reality, Rune’Tan was finally done.
“So what do you say?” Kai asked when the redhead woke up from his meditation.
“It’s rather unusual. I’ve seen similar items before, but I’ve never seen anything like this. This Crystal contains a piece of Luke’s soul,” the redhead replied. “See the central pattern that surrounds most of the Forces? That’s the soul piece.”
“So, what you’re saying is that the Spark died, or rather, went out, but that the System had sealed his Shell and ki into this Crystal?”
“Correct. Apparently, to create these items, the System uses souls, preventing their owners from dying.”
“But why souls?” Kai asked in surprise. “And how does this relate to the knowledge of techniques and everything else that can be obtained from such items?”
“I don’t know the exact answer. But Soul Masters have this hypothesis that the Shell isn’t there only to protect the Spark, but also to preserve the mind. For example, I have a consciousness and memories, even though I don’t have a physical body, nor a brain. Just remember the Spirits, who also have a mind, albeit a primitive one. But their bodies are just a clump of Forces...”
“Are you saying that the brain isn’t that important?” Kai inquired, interested.
“Well, not exactly. I think everything is interconnected. In one of my studies, I found out that in newborns, a soul doesn’t form until they’ve reached a minimum level of intelligence. It’s at that moment that a Shell is formed by the Forces of the universe and that the soul energy appears. After that comes the Spark. Therefore, I’m led to believe that even an artificial mind can have a soul, which leads to an interesting conclusion—”
“Hold on, hold on... As interesting as your research is, let’s get back to the original topic. Why would the System use souls?”
“Like I’ve said, if the Shell really contains the mind, then the memories should be there, too. In that case, why wouldn’t the System transfer them to someone else? Why let a technique or knowledge go to waste?”
“Just as I thought.” Kai nodded. “I have one more question. What negative effect does it have? Why do these crystals halt one’s development at the Elementalist Stage?”
“Because there’s prana, which is neutral and can be absorbed from the air, and there’s ki, which coincides with the unique frequency of your Spark. Everyone’s Sparks and souls are different. By absorbing someone else’s soul energy, you’re mixing it with your own, which interferes with the transition to the Holy Lord Stage,” Rune’Tan replied. “Why exactly to that stage, I don’t know.”
Thanking him for the advice, Kai moved on to the Jade. Examining it took much less time since its structure turned out to be somewhat simpler than that of the Crystal. It was based on the Forces of Mind and the effect of a spirit imprint, because of which, when used, it didn’t impede the user’s cultivation in any way. On the other hand, such artifacts didn’t allow a person to learn something instantly, only accelerated the learning process.
Soon enough, their jeep came to a halt.
&n
bsp; ***
A huge dark purple dome that looked like it was made of flesh, was visible even from outside the city limits. But as the line of Union’s buses and jeeps drew nearer, Kai realized just how big the thing actually was.
“Aren’t we too close?” he asked Diamond when they got to the local HQ, which had been built a couple of miles away from the hive.
“They’re inactive at the moment. I don’t know why they do this, but it works for us,” he explained.
Kai glanced back at the hive, remembering the second video they were shown at the meeting. This one showed the Kaoh’s who had arrived on Earth a month and a half ago. Almost three hundred insectoids and their queen were rapidly approaching Houston, while the authorities were trying to evacuate the place. Unfortunately, the city was under the control of the Central Alliance then, and not the Union, which was why they couldn’t organize a proper retreat or defend their citizens.
The Kaoh’s invaded the city, killing everyone in their path. At some point, the helicopter that was filming everything got shot down. Then the video continued from another camera. It recorded the exact moment when the queen’s huge stomach suddenly lit up, enveloping her colony in a dark purple dome, which began to grow rapidly and absorb everything in its path. This was the hive, which had grown to gigantic proportions during these one and a half months.
“Commander-in-Chief Rogers!” One of the men saluted the old man who had come out to greet the newcomers.
“Ditch the formalities, Dale.” The head of the Union grinned, holding out his hand.
Dale shook his hand and nodded back at the door.
“The leader of the Central Alliance and some of their guild leaders are here.”
A guy approached them with a smile on his face. He looked twenty, but was probably much older. The two greeted each other.