Path of the Berserker

I broke away from Ling Wei and Zin Tai, agreeing to meet up with them at the transit hub and the Omni Gate leading to the planet closest to Lung Zept. With Lung Zept being a penal colony, no Omni gate was present, but Ling Wei managed to charter us a small ship that would get us there in only a day or so.

I was in the middle of contemplating whether we should make our way home through the Omni Gate or risk the longer journey back to Earth via the ship to avoid the taxes, when a voice called out to me from behind, breaking my thoughts.

“The Great Duke Iron Bull, is it not? Such a pleasure!”

I looked over my shoulder to see two men in fine robes bowing deeply to me. One had a long ponytail with a thin mustache. The other guy looked like he could have come from India, with dark skin and long, gray streaked hair that reached to his shoulders.

I returned the bow warily. “Hey.”

“Please, forgive the intrusion, Duke Iron Bull,” the guy with the ponytail said. “My name is Bei Gu and this is my associates Yin Pak. Very pleased to meet you in person.”

They bowed to me politely once more and I awkwardly bowed again. “Ah…thanks. Nice to meet you.”

“I know you must be busy,” Bei Gu said. “So we beg only a moment of your time.”

“Yeah, I’m just on my way somewhere actually.”

“Yes, yes, I’m sure you are.”

“Please, let us offer to buy you a drink at least,” Yin Pak said. “We are huge admirers of you.”

I hesitated a moment, recalling Zin Tai’s words of warning about being on a different sort of playing field now. Were these guys truly friends or foes? And what the hell did they want? Buying me drinks out of nowhere?

“No time for drinks, my friends. As I said. I’ve got to be somewhere.”

“Perhaps just a quick one then?” Bei Gu said, as a flicker of fear came from within him. “It won’t take long.”

That gave me even more pause.

I changed my posture, dropping into a ready stance. “Alright, what the hell do you guys want?”

“Nothing!” Yin Pak said. “We just want to talk.”

“About what?” I gave them a dose of [Fear the Flame]. “Did the Empress Revenah or Princess Lunalah send you?”

More fear spiked within both of them.

“No, No!” Bei Gu said. “Nothing like that.”

“Quite the opposite, in fact,” Yin Pak added.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Please, we clearly have offended you, Duke Iron Bull,” Bei Gu said with another bow. “We deeply apologize. Let us make amends.”

“I got no time for bullshit, man. Whatever the hell it is you want spit it out?”

They shared a quick glance with one another and then edged closer, glancing about.

“It’s a somewhat sensitive matter,” Bei Gu said. “Perhaps if not a drink we could at least have a conversation away from the street and all these ears?”

Now this was really getting weird. But I didn’t sense anything two dangerous about the two of them. Not that physical or martial prowess mattered in this new world. Still, I didn’t get a sense of malice from them either.

“Alright,” I said and then ripped a page out of the Speaker’s book. “I’ll give you fifteen minutes.”

* * *

We made for a large courtyard close by and then sat on a couple of stone benches far from anyone else. Bei Gu and Yin Pak made a big deal of still looking over their shoulders. Whatever they had to share was clearly ‘life threatening’ to them, but they obviously weren’t used to sharing secrets like this in public. If anything they were making themselves look even more suspicious.

“Look, whatever it is just spit it out. You two are going to draw way too much attention like this.”

“Sorry,” Bei Gu said. “Again, we apologize for accosting you like this. We heard that you were within the Golden city and saw the commotion you caused at the Council Building.”

“I wouldn’t call that a commotion.”

Bei Gu chuckled. “Perhaps not. But seeing those purple robes on the march caused quite a stir. We were on Luxor during your trial, by the way. Before I forget, I wish to give my personal thanks. We indeed owe you our lives.”

The thanks came with genuine lemonade, no bullshit.

I simply nodded. “You’re welcome.”

“You may not know this, but we are neighbors,” Bei Gu continued and then quickly added. “In a cosmic sense.”

I was still confused. “What?”

“The planets of our territories border yours,” Yin Pak said. “My territory is ruled by the Princess Zulia and Bei Gu’s territory is ruled by the Princess Pria.”

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

“Never heard of ‘em,” I said.

“You would perhaps not. They are not of significant standing for the throne. Not unlike your princess which you recently and successfully dethroned.”

Then they both nodded and grinned at me profusely.

“Okay…”

“Duke Iron Bull,” Bei Gu said. “We are native descendants of our worlds, having been assimilated into the Yee empire not too long before your planet. Yet you have done in only a few decades what some of us have dreamed of for centuries.”

“What we mean to say is, what you did was nothing short of miraculous,” Yin Pak added. “It is something we would very much like to learn from you. How you did it.”

“And if you would perhaps consider…” Bei Gu leaned closer. “Doing the same for us?”

They paused wide eyed, finally dropping the bomb.

I understood now why they were cagey.

An ask like this was equivalent to treason.

“Look fellahs, I’m not in the business of knocking off princesses every other month.”

Well, at least not yet, I felt like adding, but I kept that part to myself.

“Fact is I got a lot on my plate right now. My entire planet is in shambles in case you haven’t heard. Plus, my name is mud thanks to Empress Revenah. People calling me the Bloody Duke and shit.”

“Oh yes,” Bei Gu said nodding. “We know. Trust that we never believed those stories. We know the truth of the matter. Some of your people fled to our world. It was purely the Princess Lunalah’s doing.”

“Yeah.. wish it were as easy as that to tell the truth now.”

“We hear you, Duke Iron Bull,” Yin Pak said. “We consider you a just and good man and a powerful cultivator the likes we have not seen before. I believe you have the ability to rule more than just your present world. All we are saying, is if you decide to expand your rule into our territory, we would be first in line to welcome and assist you.”

Shit, were these guys talking straight up rebellion and revolution?

“You know you can get killed for just saying something like that, right?” I grimaced with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “What makes you think I won’t just take this information back to the Speaker of the High Council?”

They paled a bit.

“You may indeed,” Bei Gu said. “But we came with the hope that you would perhaps view us as kindred spirits. We are from poor native worlds with low ranking and cruel princesses. Our people starve and have no place.”

“Cruel? With names like Zulia and Pria?”

They looked confused for a moment, until I laughed, signaling it was a joke.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make light of the situation.”

“It’s fine,” Bei Gu said. “And I apologize for making you uncomfortable by making this request. When we saw you travelling alone, we decided to take the chance. I pray we have not judged wrongly.”

True fear was rumbling inside them now.

I considered if this could still be some kind of trap. Stooges from Lunalah or the Empress trying to get me implicated in some treason plot. It’d be a great way to destroy everything I’d gained. I sensed these two were genuine though, if not a little desperate. But I didn’t know this new game well enough to be playing it loose right now.

Especially when I had other priorities.

“Tell you what,” I said. “I’m going to pretend this conversation never happened and I suggest you do the same. I’ve got a world to rebuild and whatever you just didn’t say, is not on my priority list. Clear?”

They glanced briefly at one another, their fear increasing.

“Y-yes Duke Iron Bull,” Bei Gu said nodding. “We understand.”

“Good, because especially now that I’ve just signed up as a Liberator for the next 100 years, I’d hate for my first assignment to be one of your worlds, got it?”

They nodded again like little kids being schooled.

“Alright,” I said standing up. “Nice meeting you, but I won’t be seeing you again.”

“Ah! Please, Duke Iron Bull,” Bei Gu said pushing something towards me. “My contact. Not for what we… didn’t just discuss. But for anything else. We are neighbors now after all.”

I glanced at the small card he handed to me.

His Excellency, the Most High and Honorable Bei Gu

Governor of Wudia

Territory of 2^nd Princess Zulia

238^th Heir to the Throne

“Holy shit, you’re a governor?”

“We both are,” Yin Pak said, handing me his card as well. “I am Governor of the planet Shingali.”

I stared at both the cards.

Maybe these guys were actually legit.

Which was even more scary.

“Alright, like I said. I won’t be seeing you around. Later.”

With that I turned and left, heading on my way again.

I could feel both of them staring at me as I crossed the courtyard.

I dared not look at the cards again, not until I was sure to be out of their sight. When I finally did, I paused to really take it all in. I’d just been proposition by two governors to throw a coup party. Not that this couldn’t all still be some kind of trap, but these guys stood to lose way too much to be playing games, especially for the likes of Lunalah and her mother.

Which left the fact that this was real.

Shit…I’d just signed up to be a damn Enforcer for the Empire pretty much and these guys were talking rebellion? Not that it didn’t cause my Flame to stir. They didn’t describe too much about their worlds, but conditions had to be awful for them to risk this much even to come ask me something like this.

I suppose it was also kind of nice that they thought I was a good guy who wouldn’t rat them out to the empire right away. Or did that make me a bad guy in the Empire’s eyes?

No matter.

Either way, I weren’t no snitch.

But I wasn’t exactly in the position to lead some kind of rebellion either.

My world was hanging on by a thread and I had a cosmic level space monster to deal with. Which was exactly the purpose of my little pitstop.

As I came before the Pai Fang with the Omni Gate leading to Rhi Ben, I paused. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to be caught with those guys’ contact details if something did go down. Legit or not, treason was still treason.

I was just about to incinerate them with a quick burst of flame from my palm when another thought occurred. Maybe it was the rebel in me. Or some faint whisper from my Flame. But the thought of completely turning my back on them didn’t sit right.

Especially if it were all true.

I did the next best thing to destroying the cards, to rid myself of the evidence. Cycling my Frenzy I absorbed the cards within my Inner World. Maybe not tomorrow, but who knew what the future might bring?

As I gazed at the images of the cards floating within my mind’s eye, I shifted focus to the real object I needed to explore within my Inner World. The core of the Chainmaiden was hovering there, blackened and corrupted.

With Chief Muraboshi’s help, perhaps I could cleanse it and have a real conversation with her. The real her. Lysandra, not I’Xan’dra. The thought made me pep up my step with excitement. Even though I had to rebuild my world, it would all be for naught, if I couldn’t stop I’Xol’ukz from taking over every moon in the galaxy in the end.

As I approached the guard on the gate I reached into my robes for my shiny new transit permit.

The guard laughed and waved it away. “No need for that, Brother Max.”

I blinked in shock. “Huh? You know me?”

“You didn’t think Chief Muraboshi would entrust our safety to the empire completely, did you?”

I was still drawing a blank.

The guard then gestured to his imperial robes. “Every year, one of us draws the short straw and has to sign up for imperial duty in the real world. Guess you never saw a changing of the guard while you were here, huh?”

I studied him closer and the recognition hit once I stripped the helmet and chin strap away.

“Master Yu!”

Six years of fond memories came flooding back as I embraced him in a hug. I didn’t know him as well as Master Koh, but he was like a close neighbor. As was everyone else in the village. It had only been a few months, but it might have been years for him.

“How is everyone?” I asked.

“Go find out for yourself,” Master Yu said with a laugh. “And while you’re there remind Master Mushu that his turn is up next. Thank the damn Stars, I’ve only got eight more months of this crap left. Go on and enjoy yourself, son. And welcome home.”