12-72. Small
Hu Shui was accustomed to making do with inferior characteristics. He’d spent much of his life – almost twenty years – as a paraplegic, so he knew precisely how to adapt to less than favorable circumstances. He had persevered, carving out a life for himself. He’d married a wonderful woman who didn’t care that he was half a man, and he’d managed to become one of the world’s leading experts in his field.
He had been happy, even before the world had been transformed.
By anyone’s measure, he’d exceeded expectations, and by such a margin as to place himself in an entirely different realm. That had extended into the years following the world’s transformation. Some called it an apocalypse, and it was that. But Hu Shui had taken it as the opportunity it was, working tirelessly to not only heal his ruptured spine but to build something that would usher Earth into a new era.
The second he’d learned of the existence of civilizations whose reach spanned multiple galaxies and had lasted for eons, he had realized just how precarious a position Earth truly occupied. Unless they came together, they would fall. It was inevitable.
So, he’d spent the past few years building the Conclave and spreading the teleportation network across the globe. He’d made deals. He had sent Explorers across precarious oceans and through deadly territory that would have killed most other mortals, all in the hope that it would help humanity survive the coming storm.
But not everyone believed in his altruistic intent. People – both human and otherwise – opposed his efforts. They attempted to sabotage new construction. They attacked, both with mundane force and economic power. And through it all, Hu Shui had endeavored to defend the institution he’d helped found.
While Nyasha focused on research and administration, he embraced combat. She dealt with the bureaucrats and merchants. He fought the bandits, would-be warlords, and petty tyrants who stood in their way. In the meantime, he took every opportunity for improvement, and over the past five years, he’d spent more time in towers than in his wife’s company.
All so that he could rival the most powerful people in the world.
A useless endeavor, as he’d discovered when he’d met Elijah Hart. No matter how much power Hu Shui had managed to gather, that man was on an entirely different plane of existence. Disappointing, but acceptable – if that was an isolated event. But then he’d met Sadie Song. And Isaiah Roberts. And now, Benedict Emerson.
They all had something he didn’t. Something that made their progression count for that much more.
Elder cores.
After meeting Elijah and sensing what later became obvious, Hu Shui had spent months researching them. And he’d come away in despair. That lasted until one of his Librarians found a missive on djinn.
The elder race was widely considered to have been lost, but like all such races, that designation failed to tell the whole story. There were djinn still out there. Thousands of them, at the very least. Probably many more than that. But in the grand scheme of things, they were so rare and reclusive that most people considered them extinct. The same was true of most of the other fallen elders.
That created a seed of an idea that bloomed with more focused research, and just as a plan had begun to form, he’d met the prophet. The girl was small and scared, and she had needed shelter. Hu Shui and the Conclave had provided it, and in return, she’d given him a prophecy.
He still remembered the exact words, but the gist of it came down to the fact that he could get what he needed if he accompanied Elijah Hart into the Primal Realm known as the Labyrinth of Dead Gods. What’s more, she told him that Earth would fall if he failed to do so. From there, his path was set.
So far, the Primal Realm had been even more traumatic than he could have imagined. Being forced to endure dozens of deaths was just the beginning, and since then, he had been pushed to the end of his rope. It wasn’t all bad, though. His research had given him a host of ideas about how to develop a djinn core. He didn’t have access to the final pieces of information he would need to make that plan a reality, but by this point, he was certain he would be successful.
If he survived.
And considering that he’d very nearly been buried under a skyscraper, that was not assured. The only reason he’d survived the attack by the automaton was because of his teleportation powers. Meanwhile, Benedict had escaped by sprouting black wings – either a new ability or one he’d so far kept hidden – that took him to relative safety.
Even as one automaton tore down the building they’d occupied, two others rampaged through the city. The battle wasn’t limited to those massive creatures, though. Djinn fought djinn, and much smaller artificial monsters roamed the streets, killing anyone who stood in their way.
It was like their first encounter with Eden remade.
This time, they didn’t have Elijah Hart to protect them, either. He’d disappeared well before the attack, which suggested that he’d done something to cause it. Power, the man had, but he lacked even a semblance of caution. If he’d been any weaker, he would have long since perished.
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But he did have that power, and every time he did something reckless, it granted more. His insanity – for what else could it be – engendered a cycle of progression that had put him on a trajectory no one else on Earth could hope to match.
For now, though, Hu Shui and Benedict were on their own, and that reality left him feeling every bit as weak as he’d felt as a paraplegic.
He pushed those dark thoughts away, launching himself forward, his stride multiplied by Seven Step. As the name of the ability suggested, each step taken under its influence counted for seven, allowing him to cover ground incredibly quickly. The increased speed was necessary, because he only narrowly avoided a descending leg that crushed everything for dozens of feet all around the point of impact.
He paid it no attention, leaping upon that limb. His feet hit the barest hint of a ledge, and he threw himself higher. Over and over, he repeated it, his swords held at the ready. They proved necessary when he found his way blocked by a pair of smaller automatons. One looked like a mechanical squid, while the other was the more common bipedal version. Both were at least three times Hu Shui’s size and teeming with ethera.
He embraced Dimensional Cut and slashed out with his swords.
An instant later, the ability tore twin rips in reality, making an X on the bipedal automaton’s chest. Hu Shui didn’t hesitate to use Spatial Distortion. Combined with Seven Step, it allowed him to instantly teleport inside the automaton’s chest, grab the core, and appear hundreds of feet away.
He tossed it, then stepped back through Spatial Distortion.
It all happened in less than an instant. Otherwise, he would have been caught in the following explosion. Even hundreds of feet away, he found himself thrown against the surface of the massive automaton’s leg. Only a quick Seven Step allowed him to escape being thrown free, and he used that opportunity to grab another crack between the armored plates covering the thing’s body.
The squid-shaped automaton was not so fortunate, and it went spinning through the air and out of sight behind a crumbling skyscraper. Hu Shui retrieved a potion from Astral Storage, then downed it. It wasn’t as good as Hart’s healing spells, but it would do wonders for the burns he’d just endured. So far, he’d managed to keep from using his store, but without the Druid around, he was forced to do what was necessary.
Below, Benedict had managed to capture hundreds of djinn, wrapping his ethereal red chains around them as he dragged them into a hastily drawn ritual circle. They struggled against him, but those chains sapped them of ethera. When he threw them into place, the circle – drawn in his blood – blazed with energy, opening a portal from which poured thousands of imps.
Hu Shui barely marked the potent little menaces, instead focusing on his task. He needed to reach the automaton’s chest and somehow expose the core. Once that seemingly impossible task had been accomplished, either he or Benedict would need to separate that cubic creation from the monster.
All without melting from the rampant energy flowing through the automaton.
He bounded up the thing’s leg, Seven Step hastening his climb until, at last, he reached the monster’s torso. Unsurprisingly, it was not unguarded. A dozen automatons – all the bipedal versions – stood before him, blocking his way.
Hu Shui embraced his latest ability – Temporal Fracture.
Time seemed to slow. Everything stood still. And Hu Shui acted, throwing himself forward as quickly as he could. Repeated uses of Dimensional Cut followed, and the automatons – all seeming to be frozen in place – had no defense against the ability.
Time flickered, and they moved, though only for a split second as Hu Shui allowed the ability to briefly lapse. Their chests exploded under Dimensional Cut before he reasserted Temporal Fracture. Then, he dove within one of the creatures’ open chest cavities.
The ethera was almost completely frozen, but it still burned. Thankfully, Temporal Fracture’s effect meant that he wasn’t exposed for more than a thousandth of a second before he had the core in hand. He didn’t throw it, though. Instead, with his feet powered by Seven Step, he repeated the action with each of the automatons before finally tossing them all at the rapidly approaching squid-monster that had recovered from the previous explosion.
With the final few moments remaining on Temporal Fracture, Hu Shui raced across the massive automaton’s chest, taking cover behind a ridge near its hip. Nearby, ethera, frozen by the ability, danced slowly within the joint. Then, Temporal Fracture faded.
Fire and ethera swept across the surface as everything was destroyed. Even sheltered behind the ridge, Hu Shui was burned. Thankfully, the ongoing effect of the potion – called a Regrowth Elixir – kept him alive long enough for the wave of boiling energy to pass him by.
Knowing that his job wasn’t done, he dragged himself out of cover and, hanging from the automaton’s chest, beheld the carnage.
That was when he saw dozens more foes climbing free of the ethereal joints holding the monster together. His heart dropped, and his stomach clenched. Temporal Fracture would not be available for two more days.
And he knew he couldn’t beat them otherwise.
Just before he decided to retreat, Hu Shui felt something approaching. He turned to behold a sight that brought joy to his heart.
Elijah – in the form of that majestic emerald dragon – banked around a corner, then slammed into the automaton’s chest. He hit with such force that the automaton staggered backward, tearing through another skyscraper like it was nothing. A few of the smaller machines fell free, though it was too much to hope that the fall would harm them. They were far too durable for that.
Hart, already transforming, said, “Get free. I’m going to take care of this.”
“Alone?”
“Just do it. Get Benedict, too.”
Hu Shui knew better than to argue, especially because he had no idea what else to do. However, before he followed the order, he saw something truly disturbing. Elijah hadn’t transformed into one of his familiar shapes. Instead, his body morphed, shrinking down as his scales paled. In only a moment, he’d taken on a form that looked like an albino salamander. Though that impression was marred by a few other characteristics.
First was the red speckles that glowed like the embers of a dying fire. They covered his entire back, slowly becoming more infrequent as they spread across his shoulders and down his arms and legs. His front was entirely unmarred by their presence.
Second was the fact that the creature was almost five feet tall and bipedal – shaped much like the smaller, red-and-black shape he infrequently adopted.
And finally, from his shoulders extended a mantle of fluttering ash waving in a nonexistent breeze. Just looking at it filled Hu Shui with the image of a forest fire – or rather, the devastation one would leave unchecked.
It only took a moment for him to catalogue Elijah’s new form, but it was enough to tell him that it was well beyond his power. He retreated, using Seven Step to get as far away from whatever the Druid had planned.