HTG - Chapter 191

Kalon

Chapter One-Hundred-Ninety-One: Sha - Part One

Planet: Etheria

“Well, since you survived what I told you not to do, now you get your first lecture from your master,” Dargo begins.

“I do not have a master,” I say, slanting my eyes at him.

Dargo clears his throat, “As your instructor…”

My eyes narrow.

He sighs, “As someone who wishes to help you not kill yourself.”

My gaze lightens and I nod, “There was little choice to not try it. I could not have defeated the beast without it. Breaking the sixth was not enough. Even if I had managed to break the seventh, it wouldn’t have…”

Dargo blinks rapidly and interrupts with a stuttered response, “The… the seventh?”

I look down at my hands, remembering the energy that pulsed through them. There was balance for a time. Turning to look at Dargo, I answer his question, “Right after I broke the sixth, I felt the edge of the seventh boundary. With more Netheric maka…” I pause thinking on what Kotina said, “Netheric mana, I could have broken it.”

Arkon turns to look at me, his face still covered by his visor, he does not speak though. Why does he not speak?

Dargo is silent for a time, before he slowly leans against a steaming boulder.

“By all logic, based on everything I know, you should be dead right now. Exploded into a thousand pieces across all of Etheria,” Dargo says, shifting his weight, looking me up and down, his head tilts at my chest as though he sees something there, “You should be a footnote and yet another lesson for the foolish as to why you cannot combine the two forms of mana…” He looks up into my eyes, there is a strangeness in his gaze, like he’s more than curious, like he’s cautious of me. “Yet, again… you live, and as far as I can tell, you’re not dying. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s actually fucking ludicrous. And you’re saying you felt the seventh bound… which is madness. Absolute and utter madness. There has never been a mortal, nor a spark, nor even a full-fledged god who has progressed this fast and not died a very, very violent death.”

“I think it can be balanced…” I pause, weighing my words, looking at Arkon, “I think that I can break the Etheric and keep the Netheric bounds.”

Dargo laughs abruptly, then clears his throat again, “Since he’s not going to say anything apparently. Boy, are you insane?”

I do not reply, I ruminate on what I felt while it is still fresh in my mind.

“You cannot progress in both forms of mana,” Dargo says sternly, “I don’t know how you managed to balance a shard for even a brief amount of time, nor do I think you even comprehend how lucky you were to find a shard that could hold both in a balanced state for long enough to…”

“I didn’t find one.”

Dargo shakes his head, tsking at me, “Do you know how rare it is to find a shard with an internal structure capable of holding…”

“I didn’t find one,” I repeat, but he ignores it again.

“It takes years sometimes to find shards that can even be experimented with, and that’s on a small scale, what you just did was throw an unstable energy into a Colossal Ethaki’s core. If we...” he pauses, gritting his teeth, “If Arkon hadn’t been here and thought to use the perfect set of runes to counter such a blast from the destabilization of it’s core… you… you…” he stammers, then looks at me squarely, “What do you mean you didn’t find one?”

He looks around, warily, as though searching for someone who must have given me the shard.

“Did someone give you a shard?” he asks quickly, glancing at Arkon.

“No, I made it myself.”

“You what?”

“I made it old man, are you deaf and dumb?”

He mutters something to himself. Arkon and him exchange a glance again.

“Is that not normal?” I ask, thinking on it, “My people traded maka into stones for rations. Some until they became Shulka, or Krothaspawn as you know them.”

Dargo slumps against the rock, eyes caught in memory and thoughts, we all stand in silence for a time, the steam from the black blood creating a hazy scene in front of me. There is a loud groaning from Kotina as she stirs. Her eyes open slowly and she turns to look at all of us. Relief washes over me as she gives me a weak grin.

“Well shit,” she mutters, she feels her chest, a look of surprise that it does not hurt fills her face for a few moments, then she looks at her hands and blinks, “Runt, what the fuck happened?”

“Arkon saved us, including Dargo.”

Dargo shoots me a look, there is bitterness in him for the comment. He does not seem like the type that likes to be indebted.

“You mean our fancy Sentinel needed to be saved?” Kotina asks, rolling to her side and slowly rising to her feet, the grin becoming more complete.

“Yes, yes, soak it in,” Dargo says with an eye roll. Then his expression shifts and a devious smile lands on his face, “Kotina, you remember our bet?”

She grimaces and looks toward me. A questioning look tells me she doesn’t know if I’ve already told them the truth. That I’d figured all of this out. I nod to her, then turn to Dargo and feign curiosity, “What bet, old man?”

“That you’d figure out what was going on swiftly. Since you’re not an idiot and this entire plan was cobbled together by Ravena. She just wanted to see…”

“Figured out what?” I ask.

He blinks at me, tilting his head, “Boy, you didn’t even look surprised to see us, don’t tell me you didn’t see through all of this.” He turns to Kotina, “Don’t think I have forgotten the stakes of our bet.”

“I don’t understand,” I say, folding my arms, “I thought it was luck that you arrived when you did.”  

He gives me a discerning glance, one that says he is not a fool. However, I hold the feigned expression, staring at him for answers. Seeing this, he changes his stance and says, “Either way, the bet is voided because the emergency beacon was used.”

“Is it though?” Kotina asks, grinning deeper, she turns to Arkon and asks, “Lord, what’s your take on this?”

Arkon still hasn’t spoken, nor has he moved from his spot. She waits a moment for him to reply, but he doesn’t.

“Let’s just void the bet,” Dargo sighs, turning to me, “We have more important things to discuss right now.”

“You wish to be my master, yet you do not even honor simple bets,” I say, stretching my weary frame, “How can I ever respect someone who does not respect themselves?”

Dargo swallows and turns to look at the mass of steaming creature guts, “We can discuss this later,” he rubs his temples, “Let me get this straight, you think you made the shard?”

A sigh falls from my weary lips, “Old man, do not make me repeat myself a thousand times.”

“You made a shard?” Kotina asks me with a furrowed brow.

I nod.

She raises an eyebrow, “Well, I’ll add that to your list of unique talents then.”

Dargo spins and looks at her with a disbelieving expression, “You’re just going to believe him?”

She shrugs, “His blood literally kills Krothaspawn, and it can break down Etherium and Netherium indiscriminately, and he’s immune to Netheric poisoning while also being able to use Etheric mana. Making a shard is hardly surprising when you consider that. Not to mention he broke into the fifth at an unprecedented speed.”

“Sixth now,” I correct her.

She blinks at me, “You serious?”

I nod.

She breathes out, “Well fucking hell,” turning to Arkon, “Lord are you sure we need to have him forsake the Netheric bounds?”

Again Arkon does not answer.  

“What is this fucking nonsense you’re talking about?” Dargo asks, looking somehow flustered, “Are all of you insane?”

“Maybe Runt is right, maybe you’re deaf,” Kotina sighs.

“You’ve struck your head and scrambled what little brain cells you have,” Dargo says, shaking his head, “Stop filling my disciples head with nonsense about his blood and…”

“I am not your disciple, old man, and she speaks the truth.”

He looks at me and frowns, then turns to the ground and grabs a simple fragmented shard that barely glows blue, he extends the small shard outward, “Here, make me a believer.”

I look at it, then in a moment of clarity I say, “Only if you honor your bet.”

He laughs, rolling his eyes, “The bet that you couldn’t possibly know about if she hadn’t cheated, sure I’ll honor it. But in exchange, when I disprove your bullshit, you take the rites and become my formal disciple and stop being so godsdamned unruly. Deal?”

I crouch down and pick up a warm stone from the ground, tossing it in the distance, “Such a big ask, I think I require more.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, ask away.”

“I want your personal ship, and all of your assets.”

“My personal… what are you on about?” he asks, tossing the shard at my feet, “Just do it already, there are a thousand things we must discuss, not to mention we need to get you stabilized, there’s no telling if you’ll still get rebound sickness from bounding so fast.”

“Do we have a deal?” I ask.

“Fine, a deal, whatever, hurry up.”

A grin finds me that matches Kotina’s.

Gingerly I pick up the shard slowly, even as small as it is, no bigger than a pebble, it brims with life. Such a small shard would have fed me and Arrum for a week. Those were simpler days. Even though they were mired in oppression and despair, they were shared with my bonded brother. Making them precious to me.

“Boy, we don’t have all day.”

The shard pierces my skin and my body drinks it dry in less than a breath. My body has become greedier now that I’m in the sixth. I feel the warm sensation of the maka flowing through me toward my core. Black dust that Kotina called Ulatar sprinkles into the wind.

Dargo steps forward, grasping my hand and inspecting the wound that has already sealed. He leans down and grabs another shard and pushes it into my palm. The same result happens again, and again when he uses the next. Leaving only a pile of black dust to fall into the wind.

“I don’t believe it,” he whispers, pinching the dust and examining it closer, “She can’t have been right.”

“Who?”

He looks at me strangely, “You shall know them by the blood that cannot be tainted. By the fire that cannot be quelled…”

He stops abruptly as a loud thud strikes the ground. We both turn and see Kotina kneeling over Arkon on the ground.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Kotina says quickly, trying to fiddle with his armor. She manages to find something under his shoulder and I feel a pulse of Netheric maka as his armor splays open.

Steam billows like a thundercloud from his opened armor. Black lines trace all along his body. Dargo leaves me and rushes to his side.

“Why didn’t you say anything,” Dargo grumbles, extending his hand and beginning to write runes all around him, he looks at Kotina, “Fetch me as much Etherium as you…”

She bounds before he finishes, hurtling across the landscape at terrifying speeds.

“Boy, come, this will be a good lesson for you,” Dargo says.

Arkon’s eyes are rolled into the back of his head, his hands grip the stone and shear it into dust.

He’s turning Netheric, and fast. Was this because he protected all of us? Is this why he wasn’t speaking? Because Ravens can’t show weakness…

Vek.