Path of the Berserker

MASTER HEI DONG entered the Imperial court building with his wife, Rhi Dong, and Fia by his side. A small crowd had gathered in the public viewing area, an anomaly of sorts for such a low-profile matter, but he supposed the inclusion of a Grand Sage in the proceedings would bring all kinds of onlookers.

Rhi Dong looked concerned at their presence, but he steered her clear of them as they entered the defendant’s area.

“Pay them no mind,” Hei Dong said. “They are here to see the Grand Sage, not us.”

At the mention of the title, Hei Dong nodded to the man who was seated on the elevated dais overlooking the courtroom. Zin Tai, the Grand Sage, smiled back at him, confirmation that their initial meeting had panned out well, despite Yi Xhi Yen cutting it short. Already Hei Dong was envisioning how he could wine and dine the Grand Sage into a position of trust and familiarity once all this was over.

“There lies your vindication, daughter,” he whispered to Fia. “All the way from the core worlds. And a great ally he may become to our family in the future as well.”

The girl did not seem impressed and instead continued to gaze into nothingness, her mind wandering elsewhere. Hei Dong tapped Fia’s shoulder to draw her attention.

“Did you hear what I said?”

Fia snapped out of her gaze promptly. “Yes, Father. The Grand Sage. Yes, I see him.”

Hei Dong harrumphed inwardly. The youth clearly had no concept of the Grand Sage’s prestige and value to their family.

Fia was a warrior like her mother and a Sage was not impressive to such a lot no matter how skilled or powerful they were.

The court doors opened and Master Lo Feng entered along with his two cronies. The redhaired woman was not with him, however. Hei Dong pondered at that. If they were all here, then where was she?

“Fia,” he said, leaning to her with a whisper. “Have your shadows kept an eye on that red-haired woman who came by the other day?”

“Hin Wu?”

“If that was her name, yes.”

“Ah…” Fia glanced to the side. “They reported they have not seen her. For weeks even.”

Hei Dong sense an uneasiness in Fia’s Qi. Perhaps he should not have brought it up. He didn’t give thought to how Fia might be feeling about being subjected to this examination in general.

“It’s no matter,” Hei Dong said reassuringly. “This all ends today regardless.”

Hei Dong gave Lo Feng a pleasant smile and bowed from across the courtroom, but the man refused to return it and gave him a nasty scowl instead.

Perfect, Hei Dong thought. He was already on the backfoot.

This would be a day to be savored.

The crowd stood as the High Magistrate, Yi Xhi Yen, entered the courtroom and she banged her gavel as she took her seat for the proceedings to commence.

“This court is called to order,” she said. “In the case of the Fire Bird Clan versus the Dong Family, I now reconvene these quite delayed proceedings.” She then looked to her side at Zin Tai. “I recognize the presence of the most honorable Grand Sage Zin Tai, who has travelled from the Interior to be a part of these proceedings today. Grand Master Sage, we welcome you.”

Zin Tai bowed. “It is an honor to be within your court, Madam High Magistrate.”

“Master Hei Dong,” Yi Xhi Yen said, turning to him. “You have agreed to allow the accused, your daughter, the Lady Silver Light, to be subjected to the examination by the Grand Sage. Is this correct?”

“Indeed it is, your honor,” Hei Dong said.

“Very well…” She then turned to Lo Feng. “Master Lo Feng, you additionally have agreed to this measure as determining the identity of the cultivator who produced the quill left at the place of the incident. Is this correct?”

Lo Feng paused a moment, glaring across the courtroom. “Yes, that is correct.”

Hei Dong smiled.

Lo Feng’s fate was sealed and he knew it.

“Then we shall commence with the examination,” Yi Xhi Yen said. “Grand Master Sage, I turn the court over to you.”

Zin Tai stood with another bow. “A thousand thanks, Madam High Magistrate. I will beg the court’s indulgence in terms of time. The imprinting of one’s unique and distinct Qi pattern upon an object takes but a moment, but to decipher it takes both time to determine that pattern and further to examine if one’s Qi signature is a match.”

Two bailiffs entered the courtroom, one carrying a hard-backed chair and the other a small table with the silver quill sealed in a small glass jar. That sat them both in the center of the courtroom and the Grand Sage descended from the dais to stand between them.

“Can the one to be examined please step forward,” he said.

“Lady Silver Light,” Yi Xhi Yen said from the dais. “You may approach the Grand Sage.”

A sliver of uneasiness tricked down Hei Dong’s spine as he witnessed Fia swallow back the lump in her throat before being escorted into the center of the courtroom by the bailiffs. He knew with certainty of the outcome, yet still it pained him to watch his child being subjected to this process.

He leered across the courtroom at Lo Feng.

You will pay dearly for this in the end, he thought.

When Fia was seated in the chair the Grand Sage spoke again.

“I shall now commence the examination,” he said. “It will take no less than two hours for me to reach a conclusion.”

* * *

I let out a satisfied roar as I pinned the giant demon to the wall with my knee and then lopped off its head with my axe. Kelsey swept in behind me to hack apart two smaller demons flanking its sides, tearing into them with a mighty roar of her own.

It had been over three hours now since we began our assault on the bunker and we were approaching the finish line. The ordeal had been worse than we figured. The demons here were different—larger and stronger than the ones we faced before or even on the surface.

More bestial.

More feral.

I couldn’t sense any Dark Frenzy, but by their physiques, they had to have been exposed to it often to grow much stronger and larger than their cousins on the surface.

Kelsey herself matched them in size though.

She had finally made use of her first high-tier manifestation technique, employing [Mark of the Giant]. I couldn’t say it was a shock to see her now standing six inches taller than normal with an extra fifty pounds of muscles. I’d seen her in a much greater state of transformation when she had turned full demon before, but to see her do so in a controlled manner was an accomplishment in and of itself.

Kelsey now stood eye to eye with normal-sized demons at nearly six feet tall and the larger ones even cowered at her presence from her savage ferocity. A mini Threja in the making. Inside, her Flame was a blast furnace of boundless energy, exuding enough Frenzy to keep her [Mark of the Giant] form maintained while also leaving plenty in the way for me to syphon from to conserve my own strength a bit.

I pushed on through the endless hordes of demons without any [Marks] at all, saving my body for what could possibly await us on the second floor.

“Almost there!” Kelsey shouted, as she cleaved a succubus in two. “But damn these things are getting harder to kill, I swear!”

It was true.

The higher we climbed the stronger they had become.

“The stairwell is just up ahead,” I said. “Hang back in case there’s Dark Frenzy. I’ll tell you when it’s clear.”

Kelsey nodded and I made my way towards the latest handful of demons trying to clamber down the stairs. I stowed my Phalanx Glaive and chopped through with just my axe in hand, adjusting to the tighter confines. Cuts oozed blood from my [Steel Skin] as the demons raked their jagged claws and weapons across my body, but I endured the pain to push through to the next flight and suddenly I became aware of something strange.

There was light.

Lots of it.

Enough to make my eyes squint from the loss of night vision that had taken hold while we were in the lower depth and armed only with the faint luminescent of our head lamps to see. I finally broke through to the next level with a burst of [Wrath of a Thousand Slain Souls], leveling a hundred demons or more with my lightning blast. And when the dust and ozone finally cleared, I had to pause at what I saw laid out before me.

The entire second floor was gone, along with the first.

Open sky hung above me.

I stood at the bottom of a crater which had once been the first two floors of the bunker, now collapsed in on themselves, as if a bomb had gone off to level the place. Overhead the sky was a mosaic of sunburned clouds, approaching late afternoon in a vibrant display of oranges, reds and gold.

But that all paled in comparison to what truly drew my attention.

There, hovering in the open space of the crater was a structure I’d seen only once before.

But not this size.

The gate.

It was an inverted triangle stretching almost sixty feet high. It spanned from the bottom of the crater and was nearly as wide at the top. Each side was made of flesh, sinew and bone, thick as tree trunks, pulsating with a life of their own.

I diverted my gaze from looking directly inside the gate, but from it a subtle aura of Dark Frenzy flowed. It was enough to make my Flame smoke a little but not much. In contrast, I could sense that an immense stream of Dark Frenzy was spewing directly from the mouth of the gate itself.

Demons by the hundreds spilled out of it, shrieking and screeching as they transformed in real time, changing from amorphous red blobs into red-skinned humanoids by the time they hit the ground. The thing was literally birthing them.

But they seemed different than the ones on the surface.

Less human.

More bestial.

Stronger.

The same as we’d fought all the way to the top.

The [Odds were Against Me] fighting so many of them.

My body surged with the fresh Frenzy of the technique, replenishing my depleted core.

“Holy shit,” I suddenly heard from behind me and was shocked to see Kelsey standing there.

“Kelsey, it’s not safe!”

“Yeah, I can sense that,” she said, with her head turned from looking directly into the gate. “Dark Frenzy. But it ain’t strong. I’m not turning yet.”

I weighed the options. My initial blast that had cleared the area was slowly being filled by more demons spilling from the gate. And that was in addition to the thousand or so that were already here, thronging around the triangle as if in worship of it.

I looked at the sky.

It was still daytime, but it wouldn’t last forever.

We had less than two hours left and we had plenty to kill.

Thunderous cries filled the air as the demons fixed on us and began to charge.

I glanced at Kelsey who now stood by my side.

“Stick to the outskirts,” I said. “So long as you can withstand the Dark Frenzy, you can fight. Just stay away from the front of the gate. I’ll use my [Soul Shield] technique to tackle those ones head on.”

“Got it,” she said.

“We need to clear this place out fast and get to destroying that gate,” I said. “By the looks of it, it’s going to take a heck of a lot more than a couple of swings.”

I looked down at her axe.

It was chipped and worn, the wooden shaft slick and covered in demon blood.

“Here,” I said, extending my axe to her. “Take this. You’ll need it.”

Her eyes widened as she took the Corrupted Steel in her hands. “Holy shit… for real?”

“It’s got strings attached,” I said. “I want it back, but consider it a temporary graduation present.”

A wicked smile came to her blood-covered lips.

“Thanks, Max…” Frenzy surged within her as she wielded the axe with both hands. And then her smile inverted to form a battle-hardened grimace. “Let’s get this done…”

Kelsey charged ahead as I shifted forms with [Mark of the Demon] and [Mark of the Giant], turning into a bull-horned monster to rival those spilling from the gate.

~Cursed Demon of the Flame!~

~Two Demons!!~

~Summon the Lord God of the Moon!~

~Summon the Herald of Stars!~

They all screamed over one another, their guttural cries transforming into words I could understand within my [Demon]-augmented mind. I looked to see Kelsey already hard at it, taking gashes to her [Giant]-sized body as she flew into a horde of demons with my axe. The weapon sung with the sweet ring! of steel as she cleaved through blackened armor and weapons alike.

Her fervor spurred me on and I let loose with my Phalanx Glaive as I charged into a fresh wave of demons streaming from the gate. I activated my [Soul Shield] technique and felt it pulse as the full-on force of the Dark Frenzy hit like a tidal wave.

I cried out under the pressure, but my technique held true.

I didn’t transform.

But I was burning a shitload of Frenzy to keep it maintained.

Need to work faster, I thought.

I channeled my lightning attacks through the massive blade, cleaving whole hordes of demons with a single stroke. Relying on my martial forms, I repositioned myself swiftly about the battlefield, facing my back to the gaping maw of the gate while also trying to maintain an eye on Kelsey.

The girl was a monster—tearing through demons like she’d been born for it.

And perhaps in some ways she was.

This was the core of her Dao.

The root of her deepest pain.

She screamed and cried with tears in her eyes, taking vengeance for every loved one she’d lost. Her ferocity was perhaps no different than I would be fighting the Yee Emperor.

That gave me comfort to focus on my task at hand.

I set to work, slowly clearing the demons from in front of the gate.

~For the Lord of the Moon!~

~For the Lord of the Moon!~

Theykept crying out as I decimated them, some falling to their knees worshiping the giant triangle as they died.

I kept at it.

Ripping and tearing, cleaving through my enemies.

I lost track of time as the demons seemed to keep coming with no end.

Only the subtle fading of the light gave any indication of our progression and by the time the crater was finally cleared, the red hue of afternoon had shifted to a deep purple of twilight. I stumbled away from the gate to find Kelsey. She was hacking through a final horde of demons, but even she looked to be finally losing steam.

“Kelsey, come on,” I said. “We need to take out this gate. I don’t know how long we have until another wave spawns.” I shouldered the Phalanx Glaive and summoned my Frenzy as I approached the base of the triangle. “Head back to the stairwell. When I destroyed a small one of these back at the base, it went off like a Dark Frenzy bomb. Not sure how much damage this one will do.”

From behind we could see straight through the thing, just an empty triangle made of flesh and bone. I could only glimpse what I’d seen from the other side. A purplish void. Other things I could quite remember or understand.

“You going to be alright?” Kelsey asked.

I shrugged. “Don’t know, don’t care. This thing just needs to be destroyed.”

Kelsey nodded and I could sense the fear creeping in her soul.

“If I don’t make it, you need to carry on to free our people, understand?”

“Max, make sure you at least try to protect yourself, alright? I can’t do all this alone…”

“Head for the stairwell, Kelsey,” I said. “Go now!”

I gave her a ten-count before charging forward with an accelerated sprint, leaping into the sky. I summoned my [Steel Skin] and [Steel Lightning], Frenzy coursing through my meridians as I saved a last burst for my ultimate technique.

“[Lightning Splits the Towering Oak!]”

A column of blue lightning split the heavens and struck the glaive just as I cleaved into the base of the triangle. It cut right through with a massive snap of bone and hit the shattered concrete below, going off with a boom!

I shielded my eyes from the shockwave of debris, but when it finally cleared, not much had happened at all. The triangle was cut clean through, but it didn’t self-destruct like the smaller one did. Instead, the muscle and sinew began to snap and twist, reforming itself to mend the cut I’d made.

What the hell…?

I went again with a spinning [One Chop Cleave], again my blade cutting through with the Frenzy-fueled force of my hit. But just like before the gate simply began to mend. I hit it three more times, cutting out a large portion. Still, it had no lasting effect, the gate mending as quickly as one of my [Mark] techniques taking form.

“Max, what happened?”

Kelsey had returned, sneaking up cautiously from behind me.

“I don’t know,” I said. “It’s just keeps healing itself.”

A new sound filled the air…or perhaps filled my mind was more accurate.

~For the Lord of the Moon!~

~For the Lord of the Moon!~

I peered through the opening within the gate to see a large demon beheading one of its kin. I expected to see more pop out at any moment but then the demon paused and did something I didn’t expect. It took the blade to its own throat and cut it open with a quick slash.

~For the…. Lord… of the Moon…~

Its final words seemed to echo and I sensed a sudden shift in the pressure of Dark Frenzy in the air. Kelsey grunted, holding her head.

“What the hell was that?” she said.

I struggled to figure it out myself until the bodies of the dead demons began to shift and squirm. At first, I thought it was another corpse demon forming, but the process was different. The bodies didn’t just twist and mash into one another. They began to transform, turning black and tarlike.

The black tar began to spread, covering the masses of dead demons like a plague.

Then within the tar eyes began to form.

“I’xol’ukz…” Kelsey said, before I could even utter it.

Shit…

I thought back to the chanting. The way they worshipped the triangle as we slaughtered them. In retrospect it was all too damn easy. They weren’t really trying to kill us. They were using us to help them summon their god.

“Max, what do we do now?” Kelsey said.

I considered the scenarios playing out in my mind.

None of them were good.

This was no different than when Hin Wu’s body had begun to transform.

Kelsey had seen I’xol’ukz, but not in this form. And from the bodies of the demons we’d killed, it was going to be massive. There was no telling what being exposed to that level of Dark Frenzy would do to her. She could lose her soul in an instant.

“I don’t know if we can fight this,” I said. “It’d be like killing every demon we’d just killed only all at once.” And then paused to look at her. “You could transform again. Much worse this time.”

“I don’t give a shit,” Kelsey said with determination in her heart. “If this is where my path ends, then so be it. But I didn’t come all this way just to die. That thing is going down with me.”

A sudden flare erupted within her Flame as it changed colors, going from bright yellow to a vibrant cobalt blue.

Holt shit, I though as I continued to stare at her, stunned. Had she just conquered her Fear of Certain Death?

But I didn’t have time to contemplate it all.

Kelsey was in full Berserker mode, no backing down, but I still had some marbles left to think things through. Together perhaps we had a chance, but perhaps our best chance was to defeat I’xol’ukz the same way I had with Hin Wu.

But that meant I needed to act.

Right now.

“I’ll make you a deal, Kelsey,” I said. “If I fail, killing him is all yours.”

Kelsey glanced at me, confused. “What are you talking about?”

“Hold my beer,” I said and passed her my Phalanx Glaive before plopping onto the floor in lotus position. “I’m going to try and stop this sucker from the other side.”

Kelsey mouthed a few words I could no longer hear as I retreated within the recesses of my own mind. I had no idea what I would find once I popped out on the other side, but one thing was certain. Stopping I’xol’ukz from entering our world from within the spirit realm, was the only chance I had at keeping both Kelsey and I alive.