Chapter 30
1
“How are you feeling today?” John asked as he inspected Vulsa’s spirit.
He had been coming to check on the insect every day for the last two weeks following his purge of Vulsa’s enslavement. The first few days had been worrying. John’s success in banishing the foreign spirit had not exempted Vulsa from harm.
John had diligently returned each day to check on the Kulthaq’s recovery. At first, it seemed like irreparable harm had been done to them. But as the days passed, John began to see the damage he had done mend itself.
He had been relieved to see the strength return to Vulsa’s spirit in the days following the event. Slowly, all traces of trauma had rewound to a state of harmony. Now, as he inspected Vulsa, he could not tell that there had ever been a problem with their spirit.
“I feel well. I still do not have the urge to kill you,” Vulsa responded.
“Lucky for you, right?” John laughed.
“Very much, yes,” Vulsa agreed.
John was pleased at the result of his efforts. He wasn’t sure he wanted to repeat the process, but at least he had been able to help. He bid Vulsa farewell, imploring them to let John know if there was any change to his mind or spirit.
Next on his list of people to see was Jules. In the nearly three months since he had started mapping the Garden, the man had taken Obsidian base across more of the strange world than John would have thought possible. Moreover, he had managed to visually capture every mile they had traveled.
The massive map had long since evolved from being drawn on a huge roll of paper taped together to cover the floor. Now, with accurate measurements for distances, the map was simply drawn onto the floor itself. Jules had commandeered one of the largest rooms within Obsidian temple after they had overextended the map beyond limits of the first room.
After reaching Emerald Base, Jules had given his cartographers some much needed time off. After they had returned to work, he set about mapping the course to every base he knew. After months of this, the information they had gathered had been immense.
Now, John walked across a much larger and much less fragile iteration of the map as he approached the ever-busy Jules. He was spotted fairly soon and hailed. He greeted the man with a smile and asked his daily question.
“What’s the latest?”
“Nothing new to report. We’ve catalogued over a hundred bases. There’s no telling how much we still have to do though. Right now, I’m working on getting an accurate representation of size. I’ve got the base moving directly east to see how long it takes to get back where we started. Once we know that it should be easier to gauge how big the Garden actually is. And how long it’ll take to map it all. It could take years. Decades, even,” Jules said.
Contrary to his words, the man did not sound daunted or discouraged by the workload. If anything, he sounded like he couldn’t have been more excited. John knew that however long it took, be it years, decades, or his entire life, Jules would see the task finished.
“That sounds like a lot of math,” John said.
“No more than usual,” Jules disagreed.
“Usual for you, maybe.”
“That reminds me, your dad has been overseeing the responsibilities of the guild since I devoted my time to this. He’s taken control of things really well. I think we should make it permanent.”
“Are you sure? Would he even want to?” John asked.
“Want to? I think we’d have to tie him up to stop him. He’s really taken a shining to the administration of it all,” Jules said.
“Hm. I wouldn’t have taken him for a logistics man,” John said, thinking of how his father had always been a hands on, elbow grease kind of guy.
His mom was more the organization nut, being a teacher of children as she had. His father had always done physical labor, building things, fixing things, and the like. Though, neither of his parents were the same people they had been before the takeover. Not that anyone was.
His mother had closed herself off after her husband’s disappearance. Locked in a state of numb shock at the new world, she had been almost unable to show emotion beyond worry for her son. Jack coming home safe had helped her to emerge, but there was still a lot of lingering trauma that kept her from her old self.
As for Jack, he had almost the opposite reaction to events. Having been imprisoned by a strange race of possum people, unable to understand them or negotiate for a his release, he had been through situations that would have broken most. And yet, seemingly in spite of his ordeal, Jack had come back whole and sane.
He almost seemed to be faking his positivity and joy. John suspected that on some level, he was. He just didn’t want his family to see the damage. John sighed at the thought as Jules spoke again.
“Before I forget, Liz came looking for you. Something about giving her more fruit before she dies of old age?” Jules said inquiringly.
John rolled his eyes. She insisted on being a nuisance. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know where to find him at all times.
Even his house was turning into a favorite haunt for her. He had come home a few days before to find her in his kitchen, seemingly right at home as she helped his mom with dinner. His incredulous questions were met with indifference from both women.
“When was she here?” John asked.
“A few hours ago. Said she would be at Thunder Fox Sanctuary all day if you want to find her.” Jules said.
“Alright. Thanks. I’ll see you soon,” John said before departing.
He found Liz where she said he would. Soon after leaving his room, she strolled up beside him. It wasn’t surprising, as she had chosen her room right next to his.
“Impatient much?” He asked, feigning exasperation.
“Impatient? I’ve been waiting weeks for you to get off your ass,” Liz shot back.
“Off my ass? You’re the one on my ass. And what’s the hurry anyway? It’s not like they’re going anywhere.”
“I’m the one that’s not going anywhere. It’s not fair that you have a magical fix for Divine genes and the rest of us have to rely on a flaky guy who can’t be expected to show up on any given day,” Liz countered.
“I’ve been very reliable in my schedule for the last several weeks, thank you very much. And it’s not my fault you chose inferior Cultivations. If I’m not mistaken though, once your spirit develops a particular flavor, you should be able to connect to Divine genes that are similar enough. If your spirit has connection to fire, Divine genes related to fire or heat should respond to you. It’s only because you haven’t cultivated your spirit that you haven’t developed an affinity yet,” John explained.
“So your affinity is… moons?” Liz asked.
“Luminescence,” John laughed.
In truth, it was more than that. It was also a sense of comfort and a stamina fortification. But he was less likely to find genes of those natures.
Liz stopped walking.
“So, what kind of spiritual affinity would I need to connect to this?” She asked.
2
“Where the hell did you get that?” John asked incredulously as he beheld the gene in Liz’s hand.
It was small, maybe the size of a tennis ball. It glowed with a green inner light. John’s eyes boggled at it.
“I picked it up after the bird it came from picked a fight with a turtle,” Liz explained.
“You know, its statements like that that make you truly appreciate how different life is now,” John said.
“I thought the turtle would take the gene. I’ve seen it happen before. It seems like when a beast reaches Divine tier, they no longer progress using flesh. After that, it’s like they have to find compatible sources to increase their power.”
John nodded. Suné had basically told him as much. It was why she needed lightning or recovery-based genes to advance.
“Well, if I had to guess, having not seen the bird itself, I would say something to do with wind or speed would help connect with it. But I might have a better way,” John said as he inspected it.
He realized as he analyzed the gene that there was a critical difference between it and the cactus fruit he had been working with. The fruit, and also the ant larvae, had spirits of their own. They were living, if immature, beings.
The gene was something different altogether. John had been considering them to be two types of the same resource. In reality, the genes had no spirit to speak of.
Instead, they had an imprint of a spirit. A guideline for the gene to follow. It was that impression that someone wishing to consume a Divine gene would need to fit their spirit into. If they were similar enough to the gene, they could claim it.
But in John’s case, many more options were opened to him. He could, of course, still use Annihilation to erase any trace of the imprint, making the gene susceptible to any who wished to consume it. But John thought back to his Neutralization of the cactus fruit.
Without a spirit of its own, couldn’t John just neutralize the gene much more simply than trying to erase an aspect of it? Was that the true intended purpose of that branch? Perhaps John’s difficulty in dominating the fruit had been a simple case of having the wrong tool for the job.
As soon as he considered it, John knew he was onto something. He turned back toward his room and set off at a brisk pace. He impatiently beckoned Liz to follow.
Once there, John requested the gene from Liz. She hesitantly gave it over, not wanting John to consume it for himself. John sat down and focused his energy on Culmination of Neutralization.
He felt the flavor of his spirit diminish until it was suppressed altogether. As before, he began wrapping his spirit around the gene. He was careful not to attempt consuming it, a process which almost happened naturally once a connection was formed.
John felt the impression left by the spirit of the bird it belonged to slowly diminishing from the gene. It was like when he had been wiping away the spirit of the fruit, only this time, with no spirit to resist the change, the gene was quickly being cleansed of any qualifications to consume it. Within half a minute, the task was done.
“There,” John said as he handed the gene back to Liz.
“That looked a little too painless after last time,” Liz said skeptically.
“It was a lot easier this time. Give it a try,” John insisted.
Liz still looked doubtful, but she grasped the gene firmly in her hand and closed her eyes. She stood opposite where John sat for several seconds without change. John patiently watched her.
Unlike with the fruit, John had not been suppressing the gene with Neutralization. He had truly brought it to a state of neutrality. As such, he wasn’t worried that the gene would break free of the effect like he had been with the fruit.
After a few minutes, Liz seemed to realize she was just standing there and gave a slight jump. She quickly shook herself from whatever had distracted her before focusing on her possession. Within seconds, it started to dissolve into her skin.
John watched as the ecstasy inducing process of consuming Divine genes overtook Liz once more. He pulled her onto the bed next to him as her legs began to shake from the experience. She fell back and drew in great gasps of breath as her being expanded.
“What took so long,” John asked as Liz recovered from her ordeal.
“I could… feel it. Like it was… begging me to connect with it,” Liz managed between deep lungfuls of air.
“Interesting,” John said honestly.
He had experienced similar feelings when simulating the spirit of the fruit or larvae he had consumed. But that had been more like the Divine fruit latching onto him after realizing they were the same. He supposed every life behaved differently, and even the echo of a dead bird could have desire.
“So, how many did you get this time?” John asked.
“Seven,” Liz said.
“Seriously? You’re so lucky. My first four genes barely gave me as many as two genes gave you,” John complained.
“I’m just more deserving, that’s all,” Liz teased.
“Sure,” John said.
In reality, John had a good idea of why there had been such a difference. First, John’s first two acquisitions had come from ant eggs. The immature creatures naturally wouldn’t provide as much.
Secondly, John had used Simulation to consume Divine genes. While it had worked, his imperfect Simulation of the spirit had probably lowered the yield. Whereas, Neutralization had provided a much more compatible product for Liz to consume, resulting in her better yield.
“I’ll have to take the effort in the future,” John said.
“What’s the latest on the rest of the fruit?” Liz asked.
“My God, you’re insatiable. Are you not satisfied with what you’ve been given already?” John scolded half heartedly.
“Of course not. Even you aren’t confident fighting Divine beasts. How else am I going to progress?” Liz asked.
“That’s actually a good point. Even with fifty Divine genes, I feel insignificant compared to any of the Divine life we’ve come across so far. I was lucky to kill that jaguar.”
“So, are you going to give me more fruit or not?” Liz asked.
“You’re kind of a brat, you know that?” John asked.
An hour later, John and Liz sat alone in a secluded room within Obsidian Temple. He had retrieved the remaining fruit from his vault where they had been since his last attempt at altering their nature. With any luck, Liz would soon have more fruit than she could possibly make use of.
3
John focused his attention on the pile of fruit as he began to circulate his energy through the complex pathways associated with Annihilation. He poured a plethora into the process, not wanting to come up short on his attempt. When he was certain he had what he needed, he started projecting.
Unlike with Neutralization, John was not attempting to connect peacefully with the fruits. That meant that he didn’t have to waste precious energy on two different tasks. His only goal was destruction.
The tricky part of that became what to Annihilate and what to keep. John was certain he could separate the physical from the spiritual after his success with Vulsa, but he still had reservations about the awesome power. So, it was with a delicate hand that he began attempting to wipe away the spiritual energy of each fruit.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
As with combatting the foreign influence on Vulsa’s spirit, the spirits of the fruits he attacked fought back. Unlike with Vulsa, however, each fruit contained the full scope of their spiritual presence. They fought back against the intrusion with vehemence.
John felt his own spirit recoil against the thrashing fruits’ spirits. Anywhere his spirit attempted to press against that of a fruit, he felt intense spiritual backlash. It was like trying to close his hand around a cluster of sewing needles.
John grimaced in discomfort as his repeated attempts were foiled by the determined spirits of the fruits. He couldn’t seem to find a way around their defenses to implement the Annihilation he had built up. With his own spirit suffering lashes from the poisonous plants, it was becoming toxic to continue the attempt.
John backed away from the effort of wrestling the inanimate creatures. He took a shaky breath to steady himself, but his spirit felt unclean from all of the foreign influence upon it. He took a moment to circulate Neutralization through himself to cleanse the effects, careful not to let his accumulated Annihilation potential fizzle.
John took a few seconds to consider his goal before continuing. Clearly, simply battering at the spiritual defenses of the fruits would get him nowhere. They were more than capable of defending against direct spiritual attacks.
He needed a change in tactics. The problem was that John had no idea what was likely to work better. He was not removing the traces of a foreign spirit from the fruit. He was attempting to wipe their spirits away like smears on a window.
Setting aside the blasphemous idea of impossibility, John concentrated his thoughts on the delivery method. He had been trying to essentially grapple with the fruits’ spirits. He had sought to wrestle them into submission before beginning the process of Annihilation.
Perhaps he had it all wrong. Maybe he was getting the order of operations backwards. The thought gave John an idea he hadn’t considered before. It was too tempting not to at least try it.
John took a moment to envision what he wished to try. When he thought he had a basic grasp of the concept, he set to work. Weaving the potential he had accumulated into a form he could work with, John prepared to try again.
On the outside, and no doubt to Liz’s growing impatience, John appeared to be doing nothing at all. Internally, however, John was going through a process so complex, he dared not even open his eyes in the attempt. It took several long moments, but after his preparations were completed, he attacked the fruits once more.
As his spirit lashed out with dagger-like intensity, John felt each fruit recoil for the first time. His attacks were more than simply spiritual battle. Every ounce of his spirit was mingled with the potential for Annihilation.
Instead of trying to plant Annihilation into the fruits, John had chosen to use it more directly. He hadn’t even considered the possibility before then, but now that he had, it seemed almost obvious. Everything capable of spiritual manipulation used its spirit as a medium for interacting with others.
John had been steadily discovering that truth over the past months. From watching Suné use her abilities, to being skewered by the massive cactus, to fighting against the jaguar, they all learned to attack using the power of their spirits. Now, John had properly learned as well.
With each brush against his spirit, those of the fruits seemed to recoil. More than that, the Annihilation woven into his spirit caused almost unbelievable damage to each spirit it contacted. Great swaths of spiritual energy were wiped away.
Each time his spirit relented, the spirits of the fruits would surge in an attempt to regain the sections that were lost. It was all to no avail, however. John’s spirit was too volatile, his attacks too relentless.
Slowly but surely, each of the fruits lost any semblance of defense. When John sat back in exhaustion, it was with the success he had sought. Each of the remaining fruit now sat impotently, unaware of what they had lost.
“Okay,” John panted, “give one a try.”
Liz grabbed one of the fruits and brought it close to her face to inspect it. It was a deep green color, tinged with streaks of blue. She gripped it tighter in her hand, and almost instantly the fruit began to dissolve.
The familiar look of euphoria overtook Liz once more as the Divine tier energy pulsed through her. Luckily she was already in a seated position, so John didn’t need to catch her this time. He just watched in open adoration as her already stunning beauty seemed to almost enhance as he watched.
Her eyes rolled into her head as her breathing became severe. John suspected another formidable increase in her gene count given how overcome she was. He waited patiently as she slowly calmed down.
“Eight this time,” she said without being prompted.
“Already in the twenties. I’m jealous. You’ll probably come close to me before the fruit stop providing.” John said.
Liz nodded, but she seemed preoccupied. She looked down at the remaining fruits like she had just realized something unpleasant. John noticed and asked about it.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. I think so. It’s just…”
“What’s wrong?” John asked.
“It’s the fruit. That one felt different. I don’t know how to explain it. Except that there was no resistance. There was nothing to connect to at all. It felt dead.”
“Oh,” John said as his face fell.
“What is it?” Liz asked.
“They are dead,” John said regretfully.
4
Following Liz’s acquisition of genes, she asked John to return the remaining produce to the vault. He was surprised that she didn’t want to stay there consuming them until she couldn’t anymore. When asked about it, she shrugged.
“I don’t think I can handle anymore at the moment. Now that they’re not fighting back, I can come back for them any time, right?”
“I guess so,” John had admitted.
They parted ways after that, John having promised he would finally begin training Emma in basic combat. Liz left him with a scathing remark about how his sister could come to her when John’s limited expertise had expired. He simply rolled his eyes as he stepped onto a transition pad to return home.
John learned later that day that even without genes to enhance her ability, Emma was impressively capable. They only used staves to duel, despite his sister’s desire to try out her father’s gift. John felt it best not to risk serious injury in the course of her tutelage.
Even so, her proficiency and ability to grasp the flow of a fight left him nearly suffering injuries anyway. It was clear that her mind had firmly grasped the practice of Analyzation at least at a basic level. John was surprised to see her spirit, primitive and underdeveloped as it was, begin to circulate in all the proper channels to make use of the first branch.
He was astounded at the knowledge. It was clear that her spirit was far too weak to even consider attempting any branch beyond the first, but nevertheless, his sister was practicing Third Eye of Callysta. When he discovered this, he dropped his arms and rushed at her to give her an immense hug of pride.
When John regained consciousness, he had a throbbing headache. The porch light they had been training by pierced into his eyes from both behind and above him as he slowly made sense of where he was. He groaned in pain as his fingers gingerly touched the knot on his head.
“Sorry,” Emma said in an ashamed tone.
“What the hell happened?” John grated.
“You came at me. I thought it was some new kind of training. I thought you wanted me to stop you,” Emma explained.
“So you bashed my skull in?” John asked incredulously.
“Well… it stopped you,” Emma said defensively.
“I was trying to give you a hug, you asshole. You didn’t tell me you could actually practice Third Eye of Callysta.”
“Oh! Yeah I can totally see that now, in hindsight. I’m sorry,” Emma apologized again.
“It’s fine. But Jesus, go for the stomach or something next time,” John begged.
“Okay… so anyway… yeah! I have been working on practicing Analyzation. It’s still limited by my age and fitness but, the basics are still possible,” Emma said.
“I’m surprised you’ve been able to circulate your spirit at all. It took me a long time to get the hang of it.”
“Yeah, well. You always were a bit slow on the uptake,” Emma said.
“I was not!” John argued.
“Okay, brother. Whatever you say,” Emma smiled.
“You know, I don’t have to take it easy on you,” John reminded her.
“Oh, I know John,” she said in a sympathetic voice, “you just can’t help it.”
John pushed her playfully as he climbed to his feet, still clutching gingerly at his bruised skull. They made their way inside where their parents were both seated in the kitchen. John silently grabbed a bag of ice from the freezer and pressed it to his head as he circulated Neutralization to numb the pain.
“So, I think you’re right. We’re going to need to transition from just dealing in genes to include the option to trade souls as well,” John’s mom was saying.
“What are you guys talking about?” He asked.
He was surprised to hear his mother talking about affairs related to the Garden. She hardly acknowledged its existence unless she absolutely had to. He assumed it was her way of coping with the stress of their new lives.
“Your mom has been helping with the organization of the Golden Guardians,” Jack explained.
“The what?” John asked.
“The constantly growing guild of protectors you recklessly enlisted before callously shunting the responsibility off to others. Ring any bells?” Jack asked.
“Ohhh! Right. Is that what I named it? Man, I’m horrible at that kind of thing.”
John had honestly not remembered what the guild was even called. His cluelessness was all the more evident after his father’s scathing remarks. John just shrugged.
“Hey, there’s always a friend to help or a family member that’s missing. I can’t help how busy I am!” John protested.
“Well anyway. Your mother has been helping hash out the future of your guild. You may have noticed you have more genes than you know what to do with.”
“I do? This is the first I’m hearing of this. Since when do I have a vault full of useless low-grade genes taking up precious space? You made that up!” John said impudently.
“Okay, smart ass. What I’m trying to say is that we could offer those genes for anyone who wants to trade souls they don’t want or can’t use. That way, we can get a variety of souls in addition to the genes that keep coming in,” Jack explained.
“So, instead of one useless commodity, you want to stock up on two? I don’t understand how a bunch of low-grade souls will help the surplus.”
“That’s because you have nothing to do with the day-to-day maintenance of your own guild,” Jack said a bit testily.
“Well then do you care to enlighten me?” John asked just as impatiently.
“Some of our clientele wants to go out and hunt dangerous, high-grade beasts with capable people watching their backs. A small percentage. Something like two percent. The majority of our clients are young and inexperienced. We’re paid by their parents or their employers to keep them safe while they acquire the lowest tier genes. Often, they come without an ounce of preparation or capability. If we had a surplus of low tier souls, we could at least ensure they don’t go out naked and unarmed. Moreover, when they start to get stronger, they’re going to want to trade up for better gear. If they know we have both souls and genes, we can keep all their business within our guild.”
“Jeez, that’s why I never liked playing Monopoly with you,” John said.
“You just don’t have the vision, son. It takes a practiced mind to thrive as a business owner. It also helps if you buy Boardwalk as early as possible.”
5
John spent the next week focusing mainly on Sublime Apotheosis. His progression had been explosive with the advent of Culmination. He was reaching a point where his body operated at a heightened baseline.
Without practicing the Physical Cultivation at all, John found that his body was still much sturdier than it had been before entering the Garden. Indeed, it was even much sturdier than it had been upon beginning Sublime Apotheosis. It seemed that the cultivation gave both immediate surges of fortitude and permanent long term enhancement.
Upon actively practicing Sublime Apotheosis, however, the possibilities of his physique seemed to become almost limitless. With each powerful beat of his heart, his capabilities skyrocketed. His organs reacted instinctively to the increase in potential, working more efficiently than any human body could achieve naturally.
Still, despite everything John had been able to achieve in his Cultivation, he was missing something. There was still a piece of the puzzle missing. Much like with Lunar Radiance, John suspected he was overlooking a critical aspect of the practice. What that was, though, John couldn’t seem to figure out.
“John?”
John looked up from his scroll as Jules came into the room. At a glance, he knew something was wrong. For one thing, Jules had been so absorbed in his new passion that seeing him stray this far from his work at all was a first.
“What’s wrong?” He asked.
“I don’t know, man. It’s those kids. You know, Liz’s brothers?”
An immediate and seemingly bottomless pit formed in John’s stomach at the words. He leapt to his feet before Jules even finished speaking.
“What happened to them? Are they okay?”
“I only saw the one. Not sure which it was. But he was beat up pretty bad, man.”
“Where is he now? Is he okay? What’s-”
Jules put a calming hand out to stop John’s interrogation.
“I don’t know man. He said to find you and tell you to come to his house as quickly as possible. Then he took off. Listen…” Jules paused, “whatever this is, it’s serious. I’ve already notified every Guardian in Obsidian. Say the word, and you’ll have men at your back.”
John took in Jules’s words without registering them for several seconds. His mind was already traveling along the many complex avenues, seeking clarity from almost no information. He shook himself as he felt Jules put a hand on his shoulder.
“John? You okay man?”
“Stay here. Have our best men on standby. I’ll be back when I know what’s going on,” John said as he walked definitively onto the transition pad.
“You got it, boss,” Jules said as he and the rest of Obsidian base faded from John’s sight.
“John!” Amy shouted in relief as he burst through the front doors.
She looked more mentally unwell than the day he met her, and that was saying something. Her eyes were red with tears. Her hands shook in built up tension that could not release.
“I came as soon as I heard. What happened? Where are the boys?” He asked.
“Oh, thank God you’re here. I didn’t know what to do. We’ve sent for Kumani medical attention, but they should have been here by now. He’s not doing good,” Amy said, almost in hysterics as she quickly led John through the large house.
The bottomless pit in John’s stomach seemed to widen with each passing step as Amy led him. When he looked down, an alarming amount of blood trailed the floor. They followed it back to the room John remembered seeing Amy studying a scroll within upon his last visit.
Lying in place of a scroll, book, or any other implement of knowledge was either Jason or Caleb. John couldn’t tell which it was at the moment. Whichever, they were in seriously bad shape.
Their twin sat crying silent tears as he stared at his brother’s unconscious, bruised and bloodied form. He looked little better than his brother. Blood and bruises covered his face, but he was whole and sound, where his brother was clearly neither.
He looked up as John and Amy burst into the room. Without a word, he threw himself at John.
“I’m so sorry, John! I didn’t know what to do! I thought you could help somehow. Jason tried to stop him! But he… but-”
John grabbed the crying boy and pulled him into his chest. For several seconds, he just held Caleb as his uncontrolled breathing broke.
“Shhhhh. I’m here now, man. It’s going to be okay.”
“Can you help him?”
“I’ll do what I can. It doesn’t look good.”
John wanted nothing more than to interrogate Caleb for everything he knew about whatever had happened, but one glance at his critically injured brother made John get straight to business.
“Bring me cold water. As much of it as you can. Sterile rags, too! We need to clean him up to see what we’re dealing with.”
As Amy and Caleb jumped to action, John turned his attention to Jason, lying on the table. Blood covered everything in sight, and John couldn’t tell how much had been lost, but he knew there couldn’t be a lot left. He put his hand on Jason’s neck to check his pulse.
He found it there, weak, but determined. As he was checking, John felt an almost imperceptible jolt pass from Jason into him. He was too late when he realized what it meant.
Immediate stinging and numbing pain coursed through John’s entire arm in an instant. He gasped and stumbled back, clutching at his arm as a poisonous spiritual presence coursed through his veins and muscles. His every nerve was aflame, and the pain nearly overwhelmed John before he could mount a defense.
With a deep breath, he circulated his own spirit as he felt the invasive presence spreading. Icy tendrils stretched for his heart with insidious fingers, seeking to freeze him from within. John’s spirit surged in defiance as he circulated Neutralization with everything he had.
He added Culmination potential into the mix, finally overtaking the chilling sensation just as it started to spread into his chest. It took everything he had and then some to purge the effects of the foreign spirit from his body. The effort sent him sliding down the wall in exhaustion before Amy or Caleb had returned.
“Is he going to die?”
John jumped at the voice. It came from Darren, the eldest sibling of the twins. He sat so quietly against the adjacent wall that John had not even noticed him until he spoke.
“I don’t know,” John told him honestly.
“You can help?” Darren asked next.
“I… don’t know that either. I hope so,” John confessed.
Amy and Caleb returned a moment later to see John collapsed against the wall. He held up a hand to forestall any questions. He looked back to Jason with a determined expression.
“Change of plans,” he panted.
“What’s happening?” Amy asked as she looked from John to her son and back again.
“This is a trap,” John said.
“What is?” Amy asked.
“Your son.”
6
“My son is a trap?” Amy asked, suitably alarmed.
“Yes. But I suspect, only for me. Do me a favor, check his pulse,” John said.
Amy did as instructed. John watched her spirit carefully as she did so for any signs of concern. To his relief, she remained unmolested.
“That’s what I thought,” John said, nodding.
“What?” Amy asked.
“Someone is using Jason as a weapon. The injuries are just the beginning. His body is housing a parasitic spirit. It was tied to him in the hopes that I would be in contact with him.”
“What does that mean, John? I don’t know what a parasitic spirit is.”
“Nothing good. It also means I can’t take my time and make sure I do things safely. I’m going to have to risk it.”
“Risk what?” Amy asked in alarm.
“Annihilation,” John said as he began circulating his already tired spirit.
“What?!” Amy demanded, but John had already closed his eyes.
He stepped closer to Jason as he brought his spirit to a neutral state. As fast as he could without alarming it, John connected himself to Jason’s weak spirit. It felt feeble, intoxicated, and noxious.
John’s brain was immediately on fire as he felt the invasive spirit surge into him at the slightest contact with Jason’s spirit. He flinched in obvious pain, causing Amy to call out in alarm. He held a hand up to ease her mind a bit as his neutral state steadily overcame the latest spiritual dagger thrust at him.
“Fucking determined, aren’t you?” John ground out as he fought back against the insidious entity to gain purchase with Jason’s spirit.
Annihilation was quickly woven through his spirit, willed to unmake any unnatural presence it came into contact with. He felt icy tendrils of spirit evaporate under his ministrations, but there was so much of it, he worried he didn’t have what it would take.
“No,” John demanded of his weaker self.
He did have what it took. He would win this fight. Strength he thought already exhausted surged within him as Sublime Apotheosis triggered on its own. His heart beat like a bass drum, and with it came just a ripple of the potential power he knew it was capable of producing.
The ripple spread through him like an avalanche racing down a mountain. As he exalted in his body’s autonomous activity, it seemed to mold with his exertion of spirit. And when the next beat of his heart came, it was in sync with his spiritual exertions.
This time, the ripple seemed to leap from the physical to the spiritual. He felt it wash over Jason’s body like the tide upon a dry shore. It did the boy no harm, as that was never its purpose. Its purpose was to drown the infectious spirit, washing it clean from Jason’s body entirely.
With each new beat of John’s heart, he directed more of his spirit into the attack against Jason’s assailant. Like the inexorable sunrise after a long night, John slowly purged all deadly toxins from his subject. Annihilation teamed with Sublime Apotheosis, a process John neither understood nor fully controlled.
What he did do was direct it towards completely exorcising what ever horrid entity poisoned Jason’s body. Bit by bit, inch by inch, his body was released from the plague it had been under. As the last vestiges of spirit were purged, Jason gasped in a great lungful of air.
His breathing, which had been barely existent before then suddenly snapped back into place with alarming speed. His eyes opened, and he surged upward. John put a hand on him to keep from exacerbating his many wounds.
“Woah buddy. Take it easy. You’re safe. Look at me! We’re all here Jason. You’re okay,” John said, putting a steadying hand on him.
“John? Mom? What happened? Where am I?”
“You’re home. You’re safe. It’s okay. Just breathe.” Amy assured her son.
Caleb came up beside his brother. They met eyes, and Jason pulled his twin into a tight embrace. To no one’s surprise, he started sobbing.
“You did it! You got to John in time! I told you he would help. You saved my life, Caleb,” Jason said through sobs.
“Shhhh. It’s okay honey,” Amy said gently.
“Lie still for a minute,” John said.
Jason looked to him with shining eyes but did as he was told. John put a calming hand on him before turning to his mother.
“Do you have the water? Rags? We need to get these ruined clothes off him and clean his wounds. I can still feel toxins coursing through his body. I purged the spirit, but it seems like there was some more physical poison in addition to the spiritual taint.”
“Is that bad?” Amy asked as she moved to comply.
“Well, it isn’t good. Luckily, toxins in the body are easy to deal with compared to what I just went through. I’ll get him sorted out. But we have to see exactly how bad it is first. I can feel several places where toxins are entering his body.”
Amy worked diligently to gently clean her son’s ruined body to a state where they could recognize actual points of trauma. John sent a continuous stream of Culminated Neutrality through the medium of spirit to cleanse Jason of any lingering toxins in his bloodstream. A few minutes later, with Jason’s careful direction, John was able to both alleviate the damage and coax his body into jumpstarting its recovery.
“Tell me what happened,” John said calmly.
Now that there was no longer a life-threatening situation to cloud his thinking, John realized what seemed so wrong about the whole thing. He hadn’t been able to consider the conditions that led Jason to this state before that moment. Now that he had, he understood the true severity of the situation. His horrid suspicion was confirmed a moment later, when Jason spoke.
“He took Liz.”
What is this chapter called?
