Path of the Berserker

“Damn it, Master Hao!” Blue Rose fumed. “A Twin Dragon Elixir would have been better than this! I thought Max asked you for something achievable.”

“It is,” he said. “These things do exist, even though rare. And I can train you to extract the essence from it. The technique itself is quite simple but requires a high degree of control. If that’s the only thing I’m teaching you, I’m sure it can be achieved in five years.”

Blue Rose grumbled some more, but I tuned it out to focus on the true matter at hand. The Celestial Realm. Was there some way to enter it as a mortal to get these seeds? And if so, could I use that to solve the bigger problem at hand?

To find and kill I’Xol’ukz without leaving my family behind?

“Master Hao, how does one access the Celestial Realm without ascending? Is it possible?”

“What?”

“To get the seeds, how does one get them?”

“Oh, I have no idea. But the ones who do know might be able to tell you.”

“Who are they?”

“The monks of the Ajunnah Monastery in the Lao Tai region. That’s where they come from. But just to get there is not easy. It is by invitation only, but as you are a Duke perhaps with your influence, you may be allowed to enter.”

I let out a laugh. I didn’t know if this was the Flame leading me, coincidence or blind luck, but I wasn’t going to complain. “Good news. I already have an invitation.”

Master Hao’s eyes grew wide. “You do? How?”

“From Chief Muraboshi. I already had another reason to travel to the monastery, but this can make the trip even more worthwhile.”

The thought of being able to traverse the barrier to the Celestial Realm as a mortal had me itching to go already. If these monks knew how to get these seeds, then they had to have some technique to do so.

“I don’t imagine these seeds are easy to come by then,” Hein said. “What would they want for them. If they even sell them.”

“Again, no idea, but I do know they don’t just give them to anyone,” Hao said. “There is enough potency in Golden Seed Essence to skip an entire realm of cultivation.” He then smiled at Blue Rose. “Trust me. If you make this essence, it will set your name on fire across the empire. You may well destroy your uncle’s legacy while creating your own.”

“Okay, okay,” Blue Rose said. “Quit trying to sell me on the positives. What happens if I can’t do it? What happens if I fail?”

Everyone went quiet.

“Well…” Master Hao said. “You would have destroyed a priceless celestial component in front of the entire community of artisan brewers. In one sense, many might think it the logical outcome, considering you have no history of crafting. Others might see it as a thinly veiled attempt to win over their sensibilities or an incredible and extremely wasteful act of hubris. All would earn you eternal ridicule and scorn.”

The silence grew even more deafening.

“Oh! And for myself as well, of course,” Hao added with a smile as if in consolation.

“Alright, so failure is not an option,” Hein said.

“This will be a one-shot deal.” I nodded with a chuckle. “Talk about the [Odds being Against Her], right?”

Blue Rose squinted at me with hostility. “Why the hell are you saying it like that?”

“Sorry. Inside joke.”

“With who?”

“Look, let’s focus here,” Hein said. “Blue this is something you’ve fought for, yes? Survived literal Hell for. This is the last leg of that journey. You can do it. I believe in you.”

“Nice for you to say, but you’re not the one who has to give up five years of her life to do it.”

“Let’s not forget that I will have to as well,” Master Hao said.

“Yes, I know…” Blue Rose sat down at the creaky wooden table, head in her hands. “What if we just wait some more? Keep talking with Master Jun Ho. Maybe he’ll come around.”

“You’ll be waiting a lot longer than five years for that to happen,” Hao said sitting down across the table from her. “Listen to Master Hein. He has faith in you and so do I. So long as you put your all into it, I will see you through. Just like I did your father.”

Blue Rose looked up and smiled at him weakly. “Thank you, Master Hao.”

“So long as Duke Iron Bull comes up with a seed that is.”

“Whatever it takes, consider it done,” I said. “Even if it means traversing realms or going through hell itself.”

Silence fell again as Blue Rose stared at the ground.

She then looked up at me. “Well, I suppose if you were strong enough to tough out six years in solitude, then I can do the same.”

“Hey, its isolation,” I said. “Not solitude. The Muraboshi tribe would love to have you there, I’m sure.”

“And even if not,” Hein said. “You’ll have me.”

Blue Rose’s mouth hung open for a moment. “Hein…I couldn’t possibly ask you to sacrifice five—”

“You’re not asking. I’m offering. And I can’t think of a better way to spend five years of shore leave.” He smiled at her. “I think you’ll be good company.”

Blue Rose stared at him, eyes watering before leaping from the table and jumping into Hein’s arms. She buried her head in his chest not saying anything, but by the bobbing of her shoulders I could tell she was crying a little.

I couldn’t blame her. The sight even had me a little choked up.

“Thanks, you guys,” I said. “Doing this means a lot.”

“I suppose that’s it then,” Hao said. “Lin has agreed to the training. All you have to do now, Duke Iron Bull, is to deliver that seed in time for the exhibition. How does the time compression work by the way? Is it truly a year for each day?”

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“I’m not too sure, but you can split it anyway you want, I think. The Chief will tell us how. Once he grants us permission, that is.”

Master Hao’s face dropped. “You still need to seek permission?”

“Of course, it’s not like I run the place,” I said. “But don’t worry. Me and the Chief go way back. Got to be a century or more in their time at least.”

“Is that so?”

“Trust me. There’s no way he’s gonna say no.”

* * *

“Absolutely not!”

I was seated in lotus position, sitting across from a very perturbed looking Chief Muraboshi. It was a couple of days since our meeting on Genisha and while I didn’t expect a few concerns, an outright refusal was nowhere on my radar.

“But Chief, this is very important. A lot is riding on this. Remember you told me how you were able to keep your Omni Gate? Getting the Yi Fae clan to redomicile on my world would do the same for me. It’s our only chance to survive.”

“Spare me the details, it won’t change anything. There is no way I can allow another artisan clan access to our secrets.”

“It’s just one guy. Well three if you count Hein and Blue Rose herself.”

“Yes, I can see them all well enough sitting outside the portal,” he grumbled. “Maybe they’ll give up and leave if I keep you here long enough.”

“What? How long has it been for them?”

“Just a day and a half.”

“What! I told them I’d be back in ten minutes!”

Muraboshi chuckled as he waved his palm and an image of my friends—lounging around and kicking rocks—appeared. “A persistent bunch, at least. If not loyal.”

“Please Chief, can’t we work something out?”

He sighed. “I want to help you, Brother Max, I do. But if word of our secret techniques, or even the existence of the village itself, becomes widespread, we’d have a line stretching halfway across the planet with people begging to get in here.”

His words brought me back to when I had first tried to find the village myself. Hell, it was only because I had relit their living forge with the heart of a Fallen Star that I was granted access myself as an outsider. What the hell kind of equivalent would it take for him to accept Blue Rose, Hao and Hein the same way?

“What if you kept them isolated in the separate world?” I asked.

“What?”

“They’re not really here to learn anything from your clan, per se. We just need to use your time compression technique. The Exhibition is in three months and she will need about five years to train. They need not see the village at all, although it would be nice. I don’t know how food and stuff would work either, but maybe—”

“Alright, enough!” Muraboshi raised his palm. “I suppose I could provide something like that, especially if the compression is not too great. But you would need to convince one of your brethren to supply them with food and whatnot. I’m not going through the trouble of creating wild game and animals for them to hunt.”

“I’m sure Master Koh would be willing to help me out,” I said. “Well maybe.”

“You might wish to consider a trade,” Muraboshi said. “If your tutor is willing to take on an extra student, I’m sure someone in the village might be willing to barter their time to learn a new skill.”

“I’m sure I could get him to agree.”

Muraboshi furrowed his brow at me. “You use that phrase a lot. Are you sure, you know what ‘I’m sure’ means?”

I grinned. “Yes, I’m sure.”

He shook his head. “I suppose the intrigue of seeing how this all plays out will be entertaining enough.”

“So you’ll do it?”

He sighed. “Yes, Max. I’ll allowed them entry into their own section within my Inner World.”

“Thank you!” I bowed to him deeply, lowering my head to the ground. “I’ll make sure they don’t mess the place up.”

“I should certainly hope not.”

With that secured I went on to my next major goal. “One more thing, chief.”

“Oh?”

“I have some more questions about the Ajunnah Monastery. I need to get something called a Golden Seed and Master Hao said they have them there.”

He nodded. “Yes, that’s true.”

“So how do they get them from the Celestial Realm? Is there a way they use to travel there and return again as mortals?”

Chief Muraboshi looked upward thoughtfully as he folded his arms. “The Spiritual Realm and the Celestial Realm share borders that at times may overlap. The same is true for the planes of Hell and why in the realm of dreams or deep meditation that contact with the spiritual is possible. But I have never known of a mortal to visit the Celestial Realm and then return again.”

My mood soured a little. Perhaps there was no shortcut around this. I could clearly see what he was explaining though through my own experience. The Spiritual Realm to me was that dark space I entered, where I could sense and see things, but when I entered the Gates and travelled to the planes of the moon I truly felt I was in someplace else.

So what exactly was that ‘moon’ place then?

Was it part of the celestial realm?

Or perhaps even a plane of Hell?

“Oh!” Muraboshi suddenly said, his eyes widening. “There is one person who has managed to ascend and return.”

“Really?” My heart sped with renewed excitement. “Who? And do you think I can learn their technique?”

Muraboshi laughed. “Perhaps you can seek an audience to ask him yourself when he returns in a few years. I speak of the Emperor of course.”

“Oh…” I said deflated. “I don’t think that counts.”

Or maybe it does, I thought to myself.

“Either way I can’t wait years. The Empire is threatening to remove the Omni Gate in less than a year’s time. I need to have all this in place by then, just to have a chance of convincing the Council to let me keep it.”

“I see. Well, you said the spirit within that cursed core might possess the answers you seek, yes?”

I nodded. “That was my original reason for traveling to Ajunnah, yeah.”

“By my estimation, that core may be as old as the Emperor himself, so it might very well have the information you are looking for. For more than I have anyway.”

“Really?”

As Chief Muraboshi nodded, I refocused my goals.

If he was right and the Chainmaiden was as old as he said, then she alone might indeed have the answers. She was the closest to I’Xol’Ukz, the entity I needed to kill and I wouldn’t get straight answers from her until I rid her core of the corruption.

I needed to turn I’Xan’dra back into Lysandra.

“How long do you think it will take for me to get to the monastery?” I asked. “I remember you saying it was across the realm.”

“With a fast ship, perhaps a month or two from the furthest Omni Gate.”

“Two months each way?”

He nodded and I began to do the math in my head. I wouldn’t be cutting it exactly close, but that was a lot of travel time. That would leave me only a couple of months to secure these Seeds. Still, it I got them quickly, I’d return long in time for Blue Rose to use them in the competition. But even more so, I’d need to be back for the stupid Debutants Ball I’d promised Fia and not to mention my Liberator training a few days after that. I had a lot of travelling ahead of me and a race to get what I needed on top of that.

I blew out a sight. “No rest for the weary.”

“How’s that?”

“Nothing,” I said with a smile. “Just planning my next move.”

“Plan well then. As for your friends…” He gestured to the portal and smiled. “…I’ll see to it they are well taken care of.”

* * *

I pulled both Hein and Blue Rose into an embrace, crushing them both, one under each arm. “I know you guys are going to miss me, so here’s something to remember me by.”

Hein pushed back against me, growling. “After making us wait two damn days, this is the best you can do?”

I laughed as I let him go.

We were just outside the new pocket dimension Chief Muraboshi had created. Through the portal to it, I could see lush green fields, blue skies and a small house. I managed to talk Master Koh into looking after them, who seemed more than eager to pick up the alchemist skills from Master Hao.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Master Hao said bowing to me. “Thank you for getting us access, Duke Iron Bull.”

“Hey, the hard work is up to you guys now,” I said and clapped Blue Rose on the shoulder as I released her from my hug as well. “Make sure you don’t screw up!”

Blue Rose gave me a playful scowl and then laughed. “Make sure you don’t screw up either. Get me that seed. Two if you can. You know…in case I do screw up.”

I grinned. “I got you. See you guys in five years.”

We did another round of hugs, more meaningful this time, knowing full well the span of time we were placing between us. As they passed through the portal with a final wave, I couldn’t help but feel a touch of sadness, tempered by gratitude.

I truly had the best friends looking out for me and having my back.

Which meant I couldn’t let them down either.

I exited the temporal space and onto the desolate landscape that was Planet Rhi Ben proper. Despite the oven-like conditions and oppressive atmosphere a new sense of purpose and even lightness filled me. For the first time in what felt like years, I was actually on my own.

Just me and my mission.

No entourage. No retainer.

No bureaucracy or kingdom to run.

Just a foray into the unknown and a hope for success.

I grinned, refreshed by the thought.

It was time to unlock the secrets of Ajunnah Monastery.

And I couldn’t wait.