Path of the Berserker

I wanted nothing more than to enjoy my space cruise back home with the woman I loved, but Ling Wei reminded me there was one last piece of business to take care of before we could depart. Hein took Fia, Bryce and Blue Rose up into orbit, where they were already loading the cargo hauler, the Pai Ku for the long journey home, leaving Ling Wei and I behind. Taking the skiff, we made a quick hop to Du Gok Shang where I was met with yet another surprise reunion.

“Colonel Harris??”

I couldn’t believe my eyes as the middled aged soldier gave me a laugh. He was decked out in a prison guard uniform, along with a couple of his men from the bunker, all assembled atop the landing platform to greet us. Joining them was what had to be 50 or so young men and women from back home that I didn’t know.

I gave him a hearty handshake and then drew him into a hug. “What the hell are you guys doing all the way out here, man? You hated the big city that much?”

He laughed again slapping me on the shoulder. “Hey, you had a need and I was finding myself without one.” He then jerked his chin towards Ling Wei. “Your girl here is too damn efficient. She’s got everything under control. Nothing for us to do!”

He spoke the last part in Yee, causing Ling Wei to blush a little.

“Thank you, colonel,” she said with a quick bow.

“I still can’t believe you’re here,” I said.

He glanced back at his guys, fellow soldiers from an age now passed. “You pulled it off Max. You successfully rekindled the spirit of the Earth back home. Hell of a lot to rebuild still, but that’s work for Susan and the like. She’s already set up a Terran School, teaching English and Earth history. But we soldiers have fulfilled our mission. We vowed to protect the civilians until civilization returned. And now it has. All thanks to you.”

It was my turn to blush now, giving a chuckle. I played it off by greeting everyone in his crew. I knew them all by name and they beamed with pride as I embraced them all.

“Anyway, the boys and I figured maintaining a prison couldn’t be much harder than maintaining a bunker for 20 years with nothing but bubblegum and shoelaces. Plus, we’re all engineers so we’re good at figuring stuff out. And when else would we ever get a chance to visit the stars?”

I guess I couldn’t argue with him there.

I had been wondering how we would pull this off. To source enough people to volunteer to be stationed on a damn penal colony lightyears from home. To have Harris step up like this was more than a relief. He was someone I could trust implicitly and he seemed gung ho to take on the assignment to boot.

“Colonel Harris was most helpful with the recruitment drive,” Ling Wei said. “He hand selected these citizens himself. I believe we may have the manpower we need to take over this contract now.”

“Yes, once we learn everything,” Harris said. “The goons running this place are tight lipped but that won’t matter. Ling Wei got them to hand over the working schematics via the contract. The rest we can pick up through observation.”

I smiled nodding. “Outstanding, colonel.”

An icy presence filled the air, and I looked behind me to see the dour-faced warden, Ying Zi, approaching across the landing platform. She had a frown that seemed even more pronounced than the last time I’d seen her. True to form though, she bowed to me with the utmost etiquette and respect.

“This one is pleased to see you have returned, Duke Iron Bull. I take it that your sortie to the Hell Worlds was a success?”

“That it was,” I said, returning her bow. “I guess you’ve already met my new maintenance team?”

Ying Zi flicked her eyes towards Harris for a second. “A native of your world, I understand. His accent is most interesting. He speaks using only a single tone yet somehow manages to compensate for the lack of clarity through gesture. Fascinating really.”

Harris looked at me, clearly unable to understand her own flatulent, formal tones. “What she just say?”

I leaned over to Harris and spoke in English. “She’s dissing how you talk. A real piece of work, she is.”

“I gathered that already.”

“She’s appointed by the Empire though, so you have to put up with her. Until I find a way to replace her, anyway.”

I then mentioned to Harris about the pregnant women and kids I’d seen in the third ward. “Anything you can do to stop that crap from happening, do so.”

“You got it, boss.”

Ying Zi smiled, waiting patiently for us to conclude our conversation. “Hearing your native tongue, I must applaud you Duke Iron Bull for being able to adapt to the sophistication of the Yee language.”

I grinned at her with [Fear the Flame]. “Yeah, they don’t call me Max Chun for nothing.”

She blinked shocked, rocked by both my technique and my self-deprecating words, clearly uncertain how to take them.

I finished her off with a cold shoulder of [Indifference] as I turned to Harris to give him a final handshake. “I’ll leave it up to you then, Colonel. Thanks for having my back. I feel in good hands.”

“You are,” he said. “Now enjoy the ride back home, boss. You’ve earned it.”

* * *

As I made my way back on the skiff with Ling Wei, she filled me in on what was happening back home. Things still weren’t pretty, but they were making headway. Kelsey was on her nightly patrols as Ling Wei called them, fighting back the demons, meanwhile, Master Hei Dong was slowly rebuilding the government in the capital while Jian Yi did the same back in Jurin.

“When you return with the aetherite, it will make all the difference,” Ling Wei said, as the skiff entered orbit and we approached the Xing Long. “Oh by the way, I’m recommending you leave all the surplus aetherite here on Lung Zept.”

“Huh?” I said. “But we’ll need to sell it for cash. We’ve got a lot of expenses, don’t we?”

“True, but I’ve bartered a deal to pay the Su Long’s in Aetherite instead of spirit stones.”

I stared back at her, lost a bit.

“Until Colonel Harris trains his team enough to take over from Tai Su Long’s maintenance company, we still need to pay him. And we also need to pay him for use of the Xing Long to reach the Hell Worlds for each deployment.”

“Right…?” I said slowly, still not getting it.

“So if we pay them in aetherite, we don’t need to sell it first, which means you avoid having to pay the tax you would have had incurred, had you sold it to the Empire for spirit stones.”

The lightbulb finally went off. “Ah! Damn, Ling Wei. You’re a genius. Awesome!”

She smiled. “That will only buy us a few months, however. The planet is still without an income stream, and the council has already sent official notice to decommission the Omni gate in six months’ time. We desperately need a fix to our economy.”

“Yeah, I know, I know,” I said, feeling the pressure again. “But I think Blue Rose and Hein have a plan for that.” I thought a moment more. “Well Hein does anyway.”

Ling Wei chuckled, standing as the skiff entered the hanger bay of the Xing Long. “I’m sure that you all will have able time to sort that out on your way back then.”

I pondered what she’d said for a moment. “You all? You mean you’re not coming?”

Ling Wei grinned as the airlock opened and she stood to the side, ushering me to exit. “Nope. Too much work to do. I’m going to stay a few more days to ensure Harris is alright and then I’m catching another ride back through the Omni Gate. Try to relax though, Max. Everything is in hand, but when you get back you’ll have tons of work to do.”

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She gave me a final as I disembarked and then pointed to another ship waiting inside in massive hangar. It was the Pai Ku, the same freight hauler we had hired to get here, now fully loaded with aetherite, I assumed. As I approached, I saw Fia waiting for me along with Blue Rose, who was surprisingly holding Bryce by the hand.

The little guy ran to me as soon as he spotted me, screaming baba again.

I knelt and welcomed him into my open arms, still unable to believe he’d gotten so big already.

Fia beamed at me as she gave me a kiss and then ruffled our son’s hair. “Ready to go?”

I shared a smile with Blue Rose and immediately I felt relaxed and overcome with joy.

“Yeah. Let’s start our vacation.”

* * *

The next four weeks went by like a year.

Captain Jin and his crew played able hosts as Fia and I enjoyed a couple’s cruise alongside Hein and Blue Rose. Bryce was getting to be a handful at his age, now able to sprint as a toddler. A beat-up space cruiser probably wasn’t the safest environment to have someone his age running around, but I enjoyed my time chasing after him during the days as much as I did my time alone with Fia at night.

There wasn’t a whole lot to do on the ship, but Ling Wei had seen to it to stock us with exotic foods and other treats that the chef luckily didn’t have to cook, given his skills were basic at best. There were all varieties of fruits and steamed dishes along with buns and other baked goods. Besides eating like a pig, I spent time raising my son, enjoying simple pleasures like reading basic children’s books to him, including one Susan had handmade to teach English.

He picked up things quickly, and even at his age Fia was able to teach him the most rudimentary of martial training, like sitting still and breathing properly. It was alien for me to see a child that young being given martial instruction, but Fia said she was doing the same at his age as most nobles did. It made me wonder just how strong Bryce might become one day. I could already sense a smoldering ember within him, no doubt caused by the trauma of his birth, but I would need to take care of that gate on his neck if I were to ensure he reached the age to kindle it.

When not with them, I cultivated my own inner strength and thoughts. My body was pretty much fully healed by the second week and I could only imagine the gains I had banked from my tour of the hell worlds. I didn’t know when I would next have the chance to flex my muscle like that, but I had certainly grown from it. My meridian pathways had completely reformed after healing, literally growing to four or five times the capacity they had been before. That meant my cultivation speed was now through the roof. This was a new leap in progression for me. Increasing the density of my Dantian was one thing, but with how much Frenzy my new techniques now pulled, I was still draining it like crazy.

My Flame was able to produce near limitless Frenzy depending on the circumstances, but taking advantage of it was limited by how quickly I could cultivate. Now however, with five times my normal cultivation speed, I couldn’t wait to see how many techniques I could maintain without it affecting my Dantian levels at all.

That would have to wait though.

No way was I turning into a colossus inside a ship the size of the Pai Ku.

By the last week, we were all starting to get a little bored of the scenery and turned our attention to the matters at hand. Not surprisingly, it was a combination of Fia and Hein who decided to call the first official meeting.

It happened after dinner once we had put Bryce down for the night.

Around a table full of plum wine, Hein was the first to raise the topic.

“Blue, we are going to need your family’s money to survive.”

She sighed at him in a way that said he’d clearly already raised the topic with her in private. “I don’t know why you think that’s possible.”

“Just tell them what you told me,” Hein said. “The full story.”

Fia and I kept our mouths shut, not knowing where this was going exactly, but it was clear it was something Blue Rose didn’t want to deal with head on. Maybe she had been following me all this time just to avoid it.

After a moment more, her eyes narrowed and she said, “It was all my uncle’s doing. He was the one who betrayed my father, the so-called Baron of Elixirs, Wen Yi Fae. He conspired with our enemies to accuse him of treason before the princess. My mother died defending him in court. Me and my three elder brothers were implicated next, sentenced to imprisonment. They were sent to Du Gok Shang.”

“What!” I said, standing. “They’re at Du Gok Shang? Why didn’t you say something? If they’re there, we can—”

“Relax,” Blue Rose said. “They’re already dead. They were artisans and businessmen like my father. Didn’t last a year in there. Which was their plan all along I guess and also why they had me sentenced to Du Gok Bhong instead.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“They knew as a martial cultivator I would probably survive in a normal prison.” She then hacked out a mirthless laugh. “They probably thought I’d never survive the gauntlet, let alone make it to the Cursed Stars. But here I am. Thanks to you, Max.”

A surge of rage sparked within my twin dao as I took in her story, my Flame resonating with her [Pain]. “Blue this is an injustice that must be righted on principle alone. Forget the money.”

“Yes, but how?” she said. “Sure Max you’re probably strong enough to kill the entire population of Genesha by now, but that won’t solve anything. I’m the last remaining member of my disgraced family, and my uncle has complete control of the empire now. And even if I did gain control, I know nothing about how to run that business. That was all my brothers’ focus mainly. The most my father taught me were the basics.”

“What about your brothers’ families?” Fia asked. “Did they have children?”

She shook her head as more pain bubbled from inside. “All killed off. My uncle saw to it my father’s entire bloodline was erased.”

“All save for you,” Hein said.

I was starting to see the picture more clearly now. “No wonder you didn’t want to be seen anywhere on the core worlds. Is your uncle aware that you’re still alive?”

She shrugged. “Probably. But he also knows I’m more of a physical threat than anything else. I’m harder to kill now, but the fact that he hasn’t tried to, means he’s already pegged me for what I am.” Her bottom lip curled with a mixture of self-pity and disappointment. “A weak-willed child too stupid to even know what to do.”

“Hey, hey,” Hein said. “Stop talking that nonsense. You’re plenty tough and we’ll get you your revenge.”

“I don’t even know if I deserve it,” Blue Rose suddenly blurted, her eyes shimmering. “My whole life I’ve rejected my father’s legacy. I was more interested in following my mother's path. To be a warrior. It’s why they called me Blue Rose.”

She said it in a way that sounded like a curse.

“What’s it mean?” Fia asked.

I remembered her saying it was like the opposite of being a pretty flower or something, but I didn’t ever recall her fully explaining it before. We all waited for her to speak, clearly dredging up old memories now.

Finally she let out another sigh. “The Blue Rose is native to the ice fields of Genisha. It’s a tough plant, can withstand anything.”

I smiled. “That sounds like you.”

“That’s not all.” She then rolled her eyes. “The plant is basically extinct now because it only grows in those conditions. Ice fields where there are no insects to pollinate it. It’s a tough but dumb plant, and it’s only alive today because people know how to grow it artificially. My brothers called me Blue Rose as a joke. Because I only existed in the family as a tough, dumb idiot, due to their brilliance that supported me.”

“Holy shit,” I said. “Blue, if I had known this I never would have called you—”

“It’s my name now. I chose it. Because it’s what I am. I never respected what my father and brothers did. So I rejected it all. Maybe I was jealous. I knew I could never be as clever or gifted as them.” She smiled at me weakly. “I was the chun in my family, Max. And when I reached Du Gok Bhong, I guess I called myself Blue Rose, because I was just waiting for me to finally die without my family’s support.”

My heart sank, seeing her true self now. “Blue…”

“Anyway…That’s my story. I wouldn’t know where to even start with avenging my family.”

“We can start by going there,” Hein said, resting his hand atop hers. “To your homeworld. You’re not alone now. You have us.” He then jerked a thumb at me. “Hells you’ve got him! The guy that just killed an entire horde of Star Born behemoths by himself!”

She smiled weakly. “But again, to do what?”

“File a writ against your uncle to start,” Fia said. “Allow Max to challenge him in martial combat.”

“Like I would let you steal my honor in the ring?” Blue Rose laughed. “Besides I’ve already thought of that. This isn’t a birth right like nobility. It’s a business. I’ve lost my claim to title already by being the daughter of a traitor. My uncle owns it all outright. And legally.”

“You still deserve justice…” Ire rose within me, fueling my Flame. “This isn’t about the money for me anymore. Your uncle needs to pay.”

“Yes and you have bills to pay,” Hein said. “There is still a win here, I know it. Blue, who are the workers loyal to? Your uncle or your father?”

“Huh?”

“The artisans and crafters. Would they respect you restoring your father’s legacy?”

“I don’t know. I don’t really know them all that well, to be honest.”

I nodded at Hein. “I think you’re on to something.”

I’d spent six years within the Muraboshi tribe and if there was one thing I knew about artisans, it was that they respected their craft far more than money. “You said your father was an artisan, right? Like was he the one who made the elixirs and taught everyone else?”

She nodded. “My mother said that was why my uncle was able to outmaneuver him so easily. My uncle ran the business. My father supplied the product. He was too absorbed in his craft to even sense the plot against him.”

“There’s only one thing to do then,” Hein said. “We need to get back to Genisha and see who is still loyal to your father.”

“And then what?” Blue Rose asked.

Hein smiled at me. “We offer them to redomicile in a new tax-free jurisdiction, run by a very benevolent Duke.”

“Yes!” Fia said excitedly. “One that can give them access to one of the rarest elements in the realm. Aetehrite.”

The picture was starting to fall into place before me and I recalled Muraboshi’s words to me when I had asked about his Omni Gate. “Guys, this could be the solution to everything. Even keeping the Omni Gate.”

“What?” Blue Rose said.

“People go to Ri Ben because they are the best smiths. They go to Genisha because they craft the best elixirs. Blue, if the artisans are loyal to you, and we get them to come here, then the empire would have to let us keep the Omni Gate. We’d have people clawing to get in here.”

“It would become the new Genisha,” Fia said.

We all nodded as we paused on that and Blue Rose smiled a little. “I guess. The only thing would be if they’re actually willing to follow me. A person who paid them no heed her entire life.”

“They respected your father,” Hein said. “I’m sure they’ll respect you for that alone, I’m certain of it.”

We all looked at her as her eyes darted back and forth, contemplating it.

Finally, she tilted her head to the side and let out a sigh. “Alright. It’s worth a shot I guess.”

I felt a new sense of purpose brewing within me.

A solution born of resolve.

“It’s settled then,” I said. “Once things are stabilized back home, we’re headed to Genisha.”