Bastion 2 - 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 and 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 as 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.

Pi-Ki 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 and 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 my 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 I what I had to do. It wasn’t words, but the weapon told me I could control the flow of other’s 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 beckon 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 over-sized machina fist with a quick flick, hitting the man between the legs and bunting 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 as 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; and 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 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, and Shin-soo’s blow landed 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 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 dissolve 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 with the flow of energy.

I turned to Hana as Bo broke off to help Woong-ji. 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 as 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 create 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 the two 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.