Savage Awakening 565. Leagues (V)

“I’m just saying, it might not be helpful to give yourself too hard a time about it,” said Zane. He took another bite of kebab. “If you want to feel better about it, maybe you could put your knowledge to a useful purpose.”

Kain shrugged. “There are those who make their purpose to fix this world… I have no such inclination. I would rather it, and I, pass like ships in the night.”

“I’m not saying you have to be a do-gooder, all of a sudden,” said Zane. “You don’t have to go too far out of your way. But it can be nice to put your strength and knowledge to use, you know? It’s something to do.”

Kain considered this as he, too, munched. For a few seconds, there was only munching going on between the two of them. Then Kain dabbed his mouth with a handkerchief. “Perhaps,” he said at last.

“You know, you’ve chilled out significantly in the time I’ve known you,” said Zane amiably.

Kain seemed faintly amused by the thought.

Toward the end of their conversation, Zane figured he might as well give the guy a push.

“You mentioned having a master, right?”

“Indeed,” said Kain. “He meant a great deal to me.”

Zane waited to see if he would say more, but Kain didn’t seem forthcoming. Which was fair. The guy seemed lost in thought for a few seconds as he considered the flames.

“You ever thought about getting a disciple of your own?” said Zane. “It could be a pretty valuable experience.”

He believed Kain when the guy said he was happy on his own, but the guy still seemed to have some regrets in him—some unresolved stuff, maybe from getting cut off from all his friends, family, and master so fast. He just felt like pushing the guy a little, for his own sake. He got the feeling Noughtfire would appreciate it.

“Disciples?” Kain snorted. “No. Certainly not for me. The hassle it’d involve… I can’t see why I’d ever possibly do that.”

“…”

***

After that fifth season ended, for a while things went back to the usual. Except for that one day, deep in the offseason—about eleven years into his time in the Pure Yang—Kain simply didn’t show up.

Zane was a bit worried, so he checked up on the guy instead of doing that day’s clearing alone. He found Kain’s tent sealed. Reality shivered around it, Law-fragments swirling here and there, burning with starry light…

He left Kain alone. He felt hopeful for the guy. Sure enough, a few hours later, there came a great expulsion of light in the Astral Plane, a vast pillar striking deep into the skies. Zane felt the reverberations in the Astral Plane from miles out.

A few minutes later, Kain arrived at the starfield to inform him that he had finished his Law project—a study of one of the more light-based Concepts of the Law of Supernova, which were favored by masters of the Constellation Order. Once you got to levels as high as Tier 7, Laws could overlap between Great Factions. Though it was the Concepts that made those Laws that gave them their identities. 

It’d taken Kain something like two thousand years to finish it. 

“Nice,” said Zane, who’d figured. “So… does it make your own Supernova any stronger?” 

“No,” said Kain. “My Law is my Law. My path has long since been chosen.”  

“Wait." He blinked. "...So you can’t use it?” 

“I can use invoke it in runes,” said Kain. “And my knowledge of it can inform various other arts, and understandings, of the natural world.” 

“But you can’t use it in a fight.” 

“No.” Kain shrugged. “But a little knowledge never goes awry.” 

“…” Zane knew it sounded a little meatheaded to focus on the fight thing. But he couldn’t imagine sitting for a few thousand years to study something simply for the sake of it. 

No wonder Noughtfire was how he was.

“Still, congrats.” 

“Thank you.” 

“…How many other Concepts have you learned that you don’t use in your own Skills?” 

“Some would say too many,” said Kain, with a wry smile. “Though it never feels like enough.” 

Now Zane was wondering how many Concepts modern-day Noughtfire.knew. 

Anyway. He wondered if he should’ve prepared a present or something. Though it would’ve been a bit awkward if Kain hadn’t managed it. He’d find something. Maybe a nice calligraphy brush.

There was a pause.

“So… is that it, then?” He felt a little melancholy all of a sudden. He’d never really thought about Kain heading on out. When he’d first come here, he would’ve jumped at the thought, but now the thought felt a little bittersweet. He’d miss the guy.

“Is that what?” said Kain.

“As in, when are you headed out?” Zane clarified.

“I’m not heading out,” said Kain. He had that slightly amused look on his face again. “That was my third of four Concepts. I’ve still got one to go, which I intend to finish at this starfield.”

“…Oh. You ascended to Empyrean without a Great Circle?” 

Kain shrugged. “

“I expect I’ll be here long after you’re gone,” said Kain.

“That’s good to know. See you tomorrow, then?”

“Same time as usual.”

***

That offseason, Zane managed to grind out another few dozen percentage points in firepower progress. That brought his total up to 250%. Each percent grew harder and harder, but still, it wouldn’t be long until he finished this Concept up. Another two seasons, maybe.

This Pure Yang time had been one of his most relaxed comprehension phases so far, a nice breather. Most of the action, he’d been glad to spectate. He’d seen quite a few dramatic storylines play out down in the valley. There was a point halfway through season four that Jaxarys nearly got usurped by her own second-in-command, the dragon prince Varaxes; she ended up having to 1-versus-six him and a bunch of other young masters just to secure her position. With Kain’s scrying glasses—now fitted with audio—they could hear the smug speech Varaxes gave as he ambushed her. Then her quiet rage and her cold look at six other very talented peak T0 Empyreans surrounding her as she said, “Is that all?”

Then she’d wiped the floor with them. Zane was no Jaxarys fan—far from it—but he had to admit the Iron Princess had her moments. He also quite disliked the pompous Varaxes, so it made for quite the cathartic scene.

He would have to say goodbye to the league too. The thought of lifting with the Sage again never failed to get him excited, but it was now just hitting him how little he had left here… two more seasons, with his accelerated timeline, also meant just two more chances at shards. He’d end with 80 to 90, if he had to guess. A respectable sum.

If he needed more, he could always come back for them. Right now his time was better spent finally finishing up his Red Giant Concepts.

Kain kept up his experimenting. One day he even asked about Zane’s disguise amulet, which apparently contained far stronger cloaking mechanisms than anything Kain was used to; he suspected they could block even ‘deep scrying,’ whatever that meant. He asked to take some scrying-images of it, which Zane obliged. He would’ve been a little suspicious of most, but this was Noughtfire. He was pretty sure it was harmless nerdery. 

Once every few weeks, Kain would take a day trip and mysteriously vanish. He told Zane he was just running some errands. Zane left the guy to it.

He caught Kain taking one of those rifts in reality in his front yard—the ones he’d said were meant to teleport him great distances. He figured it was related to that one anomaly Kain had identified a while ago and left it at that. If something came of it, he figured he’d hear about it soon.

***

The sixth shard and likely second-to-last shard season Zane would have began without much fanfare.

During that season, Zane ticked up his Starfire firepower another 20%. He was nearing that +300% firepower boost; it was getting to the point he was having some trouble gauging just how strong that was practically. He’d gone from ‘one-shotting an Astrolith’ to ‘very easily one-shotting an Astrolith.’

At the same time, he was starting to grasp some of the more mysterious aspects of starfire—its capacities related to fundamental creation and destruction, the duties it performed in the hearts of stars… it was impossible to put into words. But you could feel it sometimes when glimpsing nature’s grandeur. It was this quality that gave starfire its subtle aura of awe. Once you grasped how fundamental starfire was to the base workings of the world, how crucial it was to every single star, you could integrate its Destruction that much better.

Only a few other notable things happened down in the valley that season. Halfway through, there was some kind of ceremony; he felt several more T2 auras. It appeared Jaxarys was being crowned as the true heir to the dragons’ throne, a ceremony attended by several elder dragons.

His own Stone Axes were finally forced to leave the Pure Yang mid-season, which had him in a funk for a solid week.

Toward the end of that season, he tried convincing Kain to go down into the valley that season—violating their mountain-only policy this once, just to give that end-of-season King Astrolith boss a go. That thing alone had twenty to twenty-five shards in it, depending on the year, and he was sure with Kain’s new beam, and his full stack, they could give it a run for its money.

Kain couldn’t be moved, unfortunately. He tried to talk the guy into it, but it wasn’t happening that season.

Just a week before the end-of-season shower, there came a surprise—Jaxarys herself came up to the base of Mount X with a crew. At first, he thought they might be coming to strike, but she waited patiently down there and didn’t intrude on their territory.

“You may as well see what she wants,” said Kain, shrugging, so he did.

“Greetings,” she’d said when he made his way down. “My name is Jaxarys, princess of the race of True Dragons, and all dragonkind.”

“I know,” said Zane. He had to admit, he was a bit cranky.

“You do?” She blinked.

“What’s up?”

“This will be my final season in the Pure Yang,” she said. “We’ve never formally met, but I’ve always quite admired those slashing techniques of yours, ever since the day I first glimpsed them. I was wondering if you would be willing to grant me a demonstration before I go, to sate my own curiosity.”

“I’ll have to decline,” said Zane. “You’re the one who forced my Stone Axes out.”

“What?” said Jaxarys.

“The guys with the Stone Axe flags."

“…The Stonebreakers?”

“That’s right.”

“Pardon,” said Jaxarys. “I didn’t know the Mount X coalition was allied with them.”

“I’m not allied with them,” said Zane. “They’re just my guys.”

A baffled princess made her way back into the valley.

***

At the end of that shard season, he gained another 10 shards, bringing his total up to 71.

He’d sent the Creation shards off to Reina, who kept them for safekeeping; she’d take in more at True God after she finished up with her final ritual. She’d seek the highest blessing the World Tree had to offer, which would involve bonding with a ‘Law seed’ of the World Tree. It sounded quite involved.

More years passed. In that final offseason in the Pure Yang land, Zane got within striking distance of finishing up his Concept of Starfire.

These days every smash he threw exploded with starfire-white. Its effects were most noticeable on short-range, linear slashes, when he’d unleash blows twice as fast, three or four times as strong as they were when he’d first entered the Pure Yang. Even his steps felt the firepower. In a word, he just felt far more explosive than when he’d first come all those years ago. 

His sixth Star-crushing Slash was well on its way too.

His final season, the seventh shard season in the Pure Yang, fourteen years total, soon began.

Halfway through, he finished his sixth Star-crushing Slash. An obscene amount of firepower packed into a two-mile stretch; when he slashed now, it burned a shining fissure deep into Mount X—and for just a few hours, the face of Mount X would show a third great slash.

It’d take some serious build-up to achieve that slash. Because of how intensive it was, it was still mostly useful against only the tankiest of bosses. But he was quite proud of it.

Now all that was left, in the few months he had left, was to finish off Starfire for good.