Last Life

SEVERAL THINGS HAPPENED at once in the course of the second that followed. I ordered the parasite to make its move, while simultaneously scooping a small clot of golden mana out of my reservoir and sending it flowing into the Coronal Node on the top of my head.

As the little energy boost sank in, the node suddenly flashed and increased my perceptive abilities exponentially. Time seemed to slow down. I could see the black web expanding into a large, spiderweb-like net as it moved through space toward me. Its threads were pulsating, shining with a deep, anthracite-black light.

With a quick golden flash, the icy crust that had been holding my energy system in check suddenly burst apart into a million spark-spitting fragments.

As soon as the block was removed, the brown mana saturating the air started to pour into my system, like water gushing in through a hole in a ship’s hull. If the golden parasite had been able to speak, I’m sure I would have heard a pretty vicious beast-like growl.

In the space of a single heartbeat, I formed a golden web in front of myself, which quickly transformed into a magical shield. And not a moment too soon, as it turned out, because the black web smacked into that shield just a fraction of a second later.

The collision of the two webs produced a sudden, violent flash. My magical shield flickered and disappeared; the black web was vibrating from the force of the impact, but it was still flying inexorably forward.

I realized my error immediately, of course: knowing that speed was of the essence, I had acted on instinct and put too small a clot of mana into my web, and consequently it wasn’t powerful enough to stop the black web. Luckily, though, the trick still ended up having the desired effect. My web slowed the demon’s spell down long enough for me to jerk my body backward, grab the two Ghosts’ arms and wrench them off my wrists, then shove both Ghosts in front of me.

As I rolled backward, I redirected part of my mana flow into my aura. The golden mist that surrounded my body grew thicker (it was also sucking energy from the runes around us). As I hopped back up onto my feet, my shackles — now deprived of their energy source — clattered to the stone floor with a muffled clang.

The parasite wasn’t interfering with me in any of this. We were working in harmony, like two parts of a single whole. He was filling up my reservoir, while I focused on handling external threats.

Finding myself next to one of the Ghosts who had been standing behind me, I quickly ducked under his arm (which he had only just barely begun to raise). His gray eyes widened; his mouth opened just a little bit. He didn’t even have a chance to activate his magical shield. With a quick shift, I whirled around behind his back and landed a vicious uppercut right on the backside of his head.

I heard a dull crunch, and my pointy-eared opponent crumpled to the ground, as limp as though somebody had pulled a support rod out of his spine. I bent down over my stricken enemy’s body, then pulled his sword from its scabbard, along with a slightly-curved dagger.

My Coronal node began to vibrate; after powering it up with golden mana, I could literally feel the approach of danger. I rolled to the side, then turned and saw another black web slap down onto the spot where I had just been standing.

Another roll... Then a jump... I bent down to let the next black web pass harmlessly over my head.

Two lunges to the right... And then I changed direction and headed for the exit.

“Don’t let him escape!” I heard the infuriated demon roar from behind me.

Hold on, I thought with a wry smile... Who said I was going anywhere? I mean, I just got here, right?

Almost in unison, the Ghosts rushed toward me from all sides. I quickly glanced around. All their magical shields were activated.

I took a deep breath... Then I sent some mana coursing down my energy channels. Everything was ready.

I spread my arms to the side and bent my head forward. A golden glow flashed out across the blades of my sword and dagger. Like a huge celestial dragon spreading its wings, I was ready to embark on a journey that would destroy everything in my path.

I took a slow, creeping step forward. My first opponent dove into a long thrust with his sword. I gave the parasite a signal, and it sent a big dose of golden mana surging down the energy channels in my right arm.

The Ghost’s sword, which was shrouded in a pale gray haze, slipped past my shoulder, missing it by no more than the width of two fingers. My pointy-eared opponent tumbled forward and landed belly-first on the outstretched tip of my dagger.

His magical shield emitted a sudden, blinding flash in the spot where the mana-charged blade slammed into his abdomen. A ragged ripple surged out across his body, and after a few more quick blows the Ghost was left without his magical shield. As soon as his shield was gone, I sank my short, slightly-curved blade into his abdomen, punching through his breastplate as if it were no more than a sheet of paper.

The Ghost shuddered and let out a loud gasp. Inertia was still moving his body forward, but the devastating damage my golden mana had done to his energy system made it pretty clear that he wouldn’t be alive for much longer. As I dashed forward, I jerked my hand to the side, ripping the dagger out of my opponent’s stomach with a stomach-turning crunch as his armor and rib bones cracked apart.

Another step forward, and I was face-to-face with my next two opponents. They threw themselves at me almost simultaneously from both sides. The one on the right slammed straight into a magical shield I created from one of my webs; the impact was as violent as if he had run full-force into a stone wall.

I heard the clang of steel and a loud stream of curses as the Ghost was thrown back and sent rolling along the stone floor. The magical haze surrounding his body flashed a few times, then resumed its original color.

The second Ghost wasn’t so lucky. A quick swing of my right-hand “dragon wing,” and my sword (which was practically dripping with golden mana) slammed down onto his neck. Smashing through the gray bastards’ shields required me to pump a good deal of energy into my sword and dagger, but thankfully there was so much brown mana in the hall that you could practically reach out and touch it. And of course, the golden parasite was sucking it in and wolfing it down like a hunger-crazed monster, which turned it into “gold” almost instantly.

With a flash, the shield around the Ghost popped like a soap bubble, and my burning golden blade cut its body almost completely in half. A spray of hot blood stung my face. I could taste the characteristic metallic tang in my mouth.

The gray swordsman’s body didn’t even have time to splatter to the floor before my next opponent came jumping toward me, with two others hot on his heels. I slid deftly between them. I dodged quickly and parried their sword thrusts. As I did so, I launched into a counterattack; I was just waiting for the moment when the parasite would work up enough energy for my next powerful blow.

Meanwhile, a few more Ghosts rushed over to join their compatriots. They would grunt, hiss, and puff loudly every time they swung an especially powerful blow. I kept switching from one opponent to the other, using quick dashes to move around and keep them guessing. I would shelter behind one Ghost’s body and launch an attack from the relative safety that that provided. Several times, I threw up webs as shields. Each step, each movement, each thrust and swing brought the tempo of the “Dance of the Celestial Dragon” to a faster tempo. I entered the state that Mamoru Yamada had trained me to achieve…

“Under the entire vault of the heavens, there’s nothing that can withstand the Great Serpent,” he used to say.

The more my movements sped up, the more those of my opponents started to become hesitant and weak.

I checked my reservoir. The parasite had done its work well. It was time...

One of the gray bastards, whose shield was practically gone, tried to stab me in the side. After easily dodging his thrust, I whipped around into a counterattack and plunged my dagger into his heart. His eyes bulged; his face twisted into a grimace; a death scream caught in his throat.

A long, lunging swing — and the next opponent fell screaming to the floor with her legs cut off. Fountains of blood sprayed blood all over the ground in all directions.

A broad-shouldered, sharp-eared Ghost in full armor (which was lined with fur) let out a loud roar and swung a fighting scythe up above his head. I met this with a magical shield, then sank my dagger into his abdomen just below the ribs. With a golden flash, the northerner’s side turned into a huge, nasty-looking avulsive tear.

And yet he was still alive. Grunting and grimacing, he tried to wave me back with his scythe. I quickly dove beneath the razor-sharp curve of his blade. By that point, the handle of my dagger was slippery with blood, and it finally slipped out of my hands. A swing of my sword sent the northerner’s head rolling across the ground. His magical shield was already gone, so I didn’t even need to use mana for the killing blow.

Another northerner, who had already crouched down and leaned forward, suddenly shot forward at me with a vicious swing of his sword. Apparently, he was hoping to chop my right leg clean off, but alas — he missed, and in the process he made it all the easier for me to run my sword through his body.

My blow was quick. I took aim at the base of his neck, after sending a pretty sizable clot of mana all the way to the very tip of the weapon. The Ghost’s gray magical shield flickered, and my blade sank into his throat like a warm knife into butter.

At that point, however, something unexpected happened. With a dull crunch, my sword suddenly snapped in half. Even Shadow steel couldn’t withstand the force of so much golden mana flowing through it.

Naturally, nobody was going to give me a chance to rearm if they could help it. With renewed vigor, the surviving Ghosts threw themselves at me from all sides.

The parasite had been greedily devouring the energy in the air around us, and at my command it pumped a huge golden surge into the aura around my body. This immediately made the aura thicker and denser.

I dodged the first blow by ducking to the right; I could feel the blade whistle past the side of my head. The second blow hit my aura, but didn’t break it.

I responded with a web called a Chaos Fang. Up to the very last minute, I had been trying to keep my attack webs a secret; after all, I didn’t want the demon to find out any more about my skills than absolutely necessary. But it seemed that the time had finally come. A golden spindle shot forward from my hand, punched through the magical shield on the Ghost closest to me, and sank itself into his heart.

Inhale... Exhale... The parasite poured more mana into my aura. My hands were soon wrapped in a thick, shimmering golden haze, which shaped itself into a pair of translucent paws with huge claws at their tips.

A quick lunge, and the glowing claws on my left hand tore open another northerner’s throat. Another lunge, and my right hand’s claws sank deep between the shoulderblades of a Ghost who had let his guard down for just a split second.

For the next few seconds, I flitted from one opponent to the next, snarling and scowling like a wild beast as I shredded and smashed my way through armor and living flesh. Magical shields emitted violent flashes as they cracked, flickered, and sometimes held for a blow or two; inevitably, though, they all eventually disappeared, one after another. The smell and taste of my slain enemies’ blood was intoxicating, and it gave me a strange, inexplicable feeling of oneness with my true nature.

Blow after blow — one, two, three. The pointy-eared Ghosts were falling before they could even raise their weapons. They were no longer able even to attempt a coordinated attack. Their reservoirs were practically empty. I could sense their fear and horror. Their faces, their eyes, and their hearts said it all loud and clear.

The entire battle lasted a matter of minutes, but that was enough to litter the marble floor with corpses and drown it in a pond’s worth of their thick, viscous blood.

To my right, I suddenly heard an abrupt growl from the master of the underground.

“Useless vermin! Once again, I have to do everything myself!”

With that, the surviving ghosts jumped back from me. I could see relief on some of their faces.

A sense of danger surged over me again. Obeying the commands of my dialed-up perceptive abilities, I rolled to the side, then turned and saw that the floor where I had just been standing had burst open in a shower of rock and earth. A long, disgusting black vine, covered in nasty-looking curved thorns, had crawled up out of it.

It started to widen, increasing in volume and length at the same time. Like a huge snake, the vine began to slither toward me, then turned to the side and raced around the room until it started to surround me and close me in a ring.

I raced for the opening, which was closing fast, but I didn’t make it in time. The last escape route from the ring quickly slipped shut. And just a moment later, the ring began to tighten, as a wall of magical black bramble bushes quickly grew up all along its surface.

I stretched my arm out, formed a web, and threw a Chaos Fang at the disgusting vine. The section I had aimed my attack at suddenly grew denser as it absorbed the force of the blow. A light vibration, pocked with little sparks of gold, rippled out across the black, thorny surface of the vine. But that was all.

So I turned to look at the demon seated on his massive crystal, then switched tactics and directed my attacks straight at him, firing several webs in quick succession. To my disappointment, the demon Lord didn’t even flinch. My golden fangs flew straight into some invisible barrier and, like moths flying into a bonfire, they burst into flames and dissipated impotently into the air.

Lord Khaldrekar’s wide, almost lipless face spread into a disdainful smile that exposed a pair of long fangs.

“The little fox dares to think that he’s acquired some power? I suppose I’ll have to educate him!”

The giant’s claw-studded hand stretched out to grab a big outcrop that jutted out from the wall of the massive brown crystal. With one quick movement, he jerked the outcrop and tore off a hunk of crystal the size of a bull’s head. The demon did this so easily that you might have thought the entire gigantic brut was composed of raw clay.

A moment later, the brut in the giant’s hand crumbled to dust, and a long, coal-black spear appeared in its place. The lord of the underground stood up, sprang up off the surface of the crystal, and soared up into the vaulted ceiling of the hall.

In one huge jump, he crossed the distance between us in the space of just a few heartbeats. Watching as the huge body soared toward me with its spear leveled straight at my heart, I started to form a huge mass of mana. It was even bigger than the one I had summoned during the cavern collapse. I managed to scoop out nearly half the supply of mana in my reservoir. It was as much as I could hope to control, given my limited powers of concentration. One false move, and the giant, sun-like ball of mana I had collected would explode, destroying my physical body and my energy body alike.

After forming a web, I sent the mana I had collected surging into it just a fraction of a second before the monster landed. And sure enough, a defensive dome flashed into being above my head, similar to the one that had saved me and Uwe during the collapse. This time, however, the energy cords were much thicker and longer.

I was about to scoop another portion of mana from my reservoir, but at just that moment a blow of indescribable power suddenly slammed down onto the dome. As I watched in awe, the golden cords flickered and started to fall to the ground like rotten, barren vines. Gods, I thought... How powerful IS this beast?

Actually, that was the only thing that crossed my mind before the monster’s huge, black spearhead crunched into my right shoulder and nailed my body to the ground like a specimen moth.

Then came the pain...

It was so intense and overpowering that it actually seemed to slow the flow of time and reduce reality to a single, unbearable moment.

So all-consuming was it, in fact, that for a moment I couldn’t even conceive of anything else in the world besides the horrible sensation itself. Every breath in, every breath out, had suddenly become a trial.

It felt like my nervous system was screaming out a nonstop signal of agony. Neither thought nor movement was possible in such a state — every thought was immediately hijacked by the unbearable, burning wave of pain.

The agony overpowered my will and made me shiver and grind my teeth as my mind searched frantically for any opportunity to escape. Reality seemed to lose its meaning altogether as my consciousness shrank to a single, simple imperative: survive.

The last thing I saw before the welcome embrace of darkness was the burning look of triumph and pleasure in the demon’s eyes...

A moment later, the darkness was gone, and I found myself looking out across a familiar alien landscape. An endless desert, beneath a yellow sun and fiery-red clouds.

The first thing I noticed was that the burning, all-consuming pain was gone. All that remained was a faint echo.

I quickly examined my energy body (which was floating in the air, just like the previous time) and saw a big black blotch in the area around my shoulder. It was flashing and pulsing, and I could see that it was trying to spread; it was being held in place, however, by golden energy channels that were fighting fiercely to keep it confined.

My arrival in the alien sky got noticed much more quickly this time. Dark shadows started flying in from all around me, like a pack of hungry hyenas around a bloody carcass. I hadn’t uttered a single word, but apparently they spotted me anyway. I assume that it had something to do with my wound. The black mana was luring the wandering shadows like a lighthouse in the darkness.

This time, however, none of them tried to say anything or persuade me at all.

The pale, discolored shadows simply started screaming at one another.

“He’s mine!”

“Mine!”

“No, he’s mine!”

I tensed up and prepared to defend myself. Not that I had the faintest idea how to do that, of course. When the nearest shadows were only a couple yards from the spot where I was hanging helplessly in midair, a film of golden energy suddenly swooped out and surrounded the area. The sight of it caused the shadows to erupt in a chorus of awestruck howls.

Hundreds of bright flashes started appearing within the depths of the film.

“That’ll hold them off for a while,” I heard a female voice say from somewhere nearby.

It was the same loud, ringing, curious voice I had heard before. If only, I thought... If only its owner knew just how happy I was to hear her by my side...

“What are you doing here, looking like that?” She asked sternly. “You may as well have rung a big dinner bell for everything in this part of the Reverse, coming here with that filth on your shoulder. You’re lucky there’s nothing more dangerous in the area right now. You can speak, by the way. These vermin already know you’re here. Although actually, no... Best if you stay silent. I sense the presence of a large devourer. We’ll tak somewhere else...”

The world flickered, and I found myself inside a big cavern, whose walls were glowing with a pale, fiery-orange light. A moment later, I heard a stern old man’s voice speak up from behind my back.

“Unthinking savage. You acted very foolishly, returning to the Reverse with the mark of death upon you like this.”