AIR 116-118

Chapter 116

There were no shores. 

Not in the land of the dead. 

“HEAVE!!!” 

They all held fast in their small realm sailor. They were God-Kings, all of them. But here they were nothing but men floating atop a careless sea. 

The Sea of Death roiled as the God-Imperiums clashed. Thankfully, the ship was at the edges. The impact was all held within the Sea and they merely floated on it. 

But still, the two beings clashed below and the sailors held strong. 

Arthur and Lancelot, the Broken King and the Usurper. 

The Kings of ancient lore smashed in wrath and fury.

“Collect!” The Captain yelled.

Every member of the ship sent out their hands and reached for an impact, a piece of the God-Imperiums’ power carelessly thrown into the void. To the God-Imperiums, it was a breath of effort, an attack they had already thrown away, but to anyone beneath their rank, it was a vital cultivation tool. 

The Qi of the Imperium. The power on high. It could give breakthroughs and insights into the next realm. 

The problem was grabbing it. How could anyone beneath the Imperium Realm grab at such concentrated and powerful power? To even sail near this battle would be suicide to most. 

But not to the sailors. This was their job, their duty, and they had purchased the right equipment for it. 

The only thing that could touch a God-Imperium was another God-Imperium. 

And so that was what they used. The corpses of long-dead God-Imperiums were their ships, and their skins covered their hands like gloves. 

Wukong watched from a distance. He was mainly watching the fight, but his eyes wandered on occasion to the small beings at the edge of the Sea. 

“A shame isn’t it,” a voice asked him. 

Aphrodite stood next to him. The personification of love and lust. 

Wukong snorted.

“Was this not your doing?” He asked. 

“My daughter moves on her own, contrary to what you may believe.”

“She moves with her nature,” Wukong replied. 

“Ah the fault of the beautiful then?”

“What do you want?” he asked. 

“I want nothing but to be wanted.”

Wukong stared at the realm sailor. It was a piece of a God-Imperium, reshaped and fashioned to float through the Sea of Death. When a God-Imperium died, they were erased entirely from existence. Laws and concepts, ideas and stories were broken into nothingness. 

They were utterly erased. But even in annihilation they left something behind and that something became the shadow and corpse of what they were. It became empty strength only waiting to be given form. 

Primordial Qi of the highest quality. 

Given a good blacksmith, someone around the ninth step of the sixteenth rank, it could be forged into something that could interact with a God-Imperium’s power. 

And regardless of how powerful God-Kings were thought to be, this was how they lived. Under the rule of the God-Imperiums, fighting to prove their strength and begging for whatever they could receive. 

Wukong envied them.

Aphrodite, the Lady of Desire. She was said to have seduced the leaves off of a tree at one point. 

“I’ve heard things recently,” She spoke. “Things you might care to know about. I’ve been approached by a few of my friends and they have knowledge that would interest you.”

“Tell it to The Tome,” Wukong replied.

“That dry old thing? I’d rather make love to a mortal.”

“I’m sure you will.”

“You three obsessive children and your little city never listen to anyone do you?”

Wukong shrugged. 

He watched the battle from a distance. Arthur and Lancelot were always fighting each other. Gwenuvier, Arthur’s old wife had betrayed him and married Lancelot. Arthur had nearly died but been given a second chance by the Fey, and with them on the brink of death, he had established Avalone. 

An island of Fey, death, rebirth, and power. 

Gwenuvier was Aphrodite’s child. And the woman took after her mother very well. 

Wukong could see her in the distance, watching the two men fight face full of concern and fear. She couldn't see him of course, even if they were both at the seventeenth rank, she was only of the first step while he was of the ninth. 

And steps meant all that much more in the realm of God-Imperium. 

“What do you want to say Aphrodite?”

“There are whispers of a war in the distance, I hear these whispers and I am afraid.”

“You're at the ninth step of God-Imperium, you have no need to be afraid.”

“I’m not worried about myself you fool. I’m worried about my children. And why do you take the news of war so insouciantly?”

“There’s always news of war,” he replied. 

“Yes, but this time I’m the one telling you. I wouldn’t confuse mere rumors with credible threats.”

“No, you wouldn’t.”

“Then-”

“It’s just not news to me,” Wukong replied. 

Aphrodite looked at him, now with all of her being and all of her presence. She flared to fullness as her entire existence came to be in that one spot and the two men in the distance stopped their fighting and stared at her. All of the beings with the Sea of Death did the same. The gods of death looked from their realms and all that occupied their lands did as well. 

Beauty overwhelmed them. Desire ran true. They saw perfection, absolute and true, they saw love, truth, and purity and their minds existed only for her. 

Beauty was all they saw and desire was all they felt. 

“Stop it,” Wukong spoke. 

Then the flare died down. 

And just as quickly, everyone returned to their previous actions. Some came sailing this way, others sent out messages to certain factions, notifying them of Aphrodite’s presence. 

Few collected whatever bit of her essence they could and stared making their way to the market to sell whatever concept of beauty they had collected.

“You shocked me,” she filtered. 

Wukong snorted. Her power wouldn’t affect him, but the same could be said for her. 

Aphrodite was the woman of desire. Love, lust, worship, she commanded them all and she could inspire it in all beings. She was the love of a married couple and she was the passion in the heart of all beings. 

But she was also the lust in an evil man’s eyes and the delusions of love in a rejected lover. She was desire, in all its beauty and its horror. 

Though Wukong could hardly claim to be her better. 

“No I didn’t.”

“Well, I did like the attention. But truly, war? Is it coming?”

“I couldn’t tell you,” Wukong said with a slight smile on his face. “But it seems to be ringing in the distance. Even the Fisherman senses it.”

Aphrodite straightened. 

The Fisherman was a powerful being who’s warnings should have been trusted. But even then, what brought concern to Aphrodite’s heart more than even that was Wukong’s smile. 

The Knights fought in the distance, a woman looked on with sadness and concern. God-Kings tried to make their fortune in depths of death itself and Wukong smiled. 

She was the woman of desire, and even if she could not seduce Wukong, she knew his desire. Everyone knew his desire. 

And that made his smile even more unsettling. 

“How close is it?” She asked. 

“Not close. I think its still a long ways away.”

“Then can it be prevented?”

“No,” Wukong said with a shake of his head. “Too many beings have made too many plans for it to simply dissipate. And I think it’ll be everyone this time. Like the First War of Instinct.”

“I… that was before even me,” Aphrodite whispered. 

“That was before most God-Imperium, back when birth came from spontaneous creation. When there were no realms or lands. Back in the first steps of existence.”

Aphrodite was no longer flirting, and not even Gods knew how that could happen, but now for the first time in a really long time, she fell silent. 

Not many things could overwhelm a God-Imperium of the ninth step. And almost nothing could make them feel fear.

But Aphrodite felt that now, and so did Wukong in his own way. Fear, anticipation, joy, and Wukong thought about the last emotion. It was something he hadn’t felt in a long time. 

Excitement. 

Chapter 117

Forn walked me through the forest, off footpaths, and into ravines and many other places.

“Do the realms within the trees contain life?” I asked her. 

“Yes, but only plant life.”

“So they are trees that contain realms that contain more trees?”

“They used to be more diverse. We used to have a green world filled with all types of species within the leaves, but the Holy Druids considered that distasteful.”

“The ones in charge of the Holy Grove?”

“Yes, they went about and culled or moved any tree that contained sentient life, moving it all towards their own groves. They said it would be cruel for these plants, which are eaten by beasts, insects, and men, to contain so much thinking life. So they guard any world tree they find. They even have rewards for anyone who finds them. The Fey hated that of course, well most of them. The Kind King’s Court supported the idea and there was a major conflict over the whole thing.”

“But it seems like they’ve succeeded nonetheless,” I stated.

“Yes,” She nodded. “Trees capable of bearing realms with sentient life have since become a currency. Everyone has them and some even trade with them, but no one leaves them out and unprotected anymore. They can at the very least rely on the Holy Grove to give them something for it.”

“Trees as currency,” I chuckled. “Couldn’t someone grow them?”

“Only if they want to face the wrath of the Holy Grove and all who side with them. The Forest is wild but it has rules and rulers. The Fey, The Groves, The Beast Kings, and a few other powers stand at the top.”

We lept across a small stream. Within a drop of that stream’s water was enough liquid to fill an endless space and make it burst. It wasn’t just the quantity of water but also its quality. Everything here existed on a higher level. The water wasn’t just water, it was relief, it was flowing, it was overwhelming strength, and at the same the very cradle of life. 

Soon we got to an even bigger river, one that ran so deep and so through that even we couldn’t hope to cross it. 

“Take a cup,” Forn said to me. “It is of our land and as a druid I allow you a piece of it.”

I nodded and took out a container and filled it with the water. 

I had a feeling, an almost certainty that if I took the water without permission something bad would have happened. 

“Is this your grove?” I asked.

“Yes, from this river forward is the land of my people, The Druids of Life. You cannot enter but wait and I will return with a farewell gift.”

“A gift?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “If it weren’t for you that dragon might have eaten me.”

“Nah, you were close enough to escape. And if I hadn’t helped you, that dragon would have come after me once it had gotten you.”

“No. It was gaining on me, and while I could have escaped to my grove it would have lived to hunt another day.”

I didn’t bother to argue.

Forn turned to the river and walked. For her, it was a small stream of water, barely a foot wide. The river and the land submitted to her, and for a moment I felt I could do the same. 

But with one step, Forn was on the other side and without her here, the river reminded me of what it was. 

It was a thing, an amalgamation of water. And while the land knew Forn, it did not know me. 

I waited. 

The Forest was a thing of its own, more like the Realm of Imperium than just a simple forest. Things existed relative to one another here, instead of interacting on the same fabric of reality, things just were. 

The river relative to me was immense. It did not know me and I wasn’t a druid, so it allowed me to perceive it in all of its strength. It wasn’t sentient and it didn’t have a soul. 

But a door would let someone with the right key open it and it was the same for this river. The dragon she had slain was large relative to me, something that appeared to be the size of a house, but to Forn, it was small enough to sling across her shoulder. 

Though size wasn’t an accurate representation for it. It was metaphysical weight. Power, presence, soul, value. 

Qi. 

Someone leaped back over the river. It wasn’t Forn. 

It was a man, no a giant. A fifteenth-rank being. His skin was black and his hair was dreaded and bark-like. Vines grew from his hair and wrapped around him as if they were rooted in his skin and his eyes were a deep and vibrant green. 

His form was well-built and though he chose to limit his presence, possibly as a courtesy to me. I could still feel the denseness of his power. He walked towards me and with every step, the earth bloomed green and vibrant. 

A trail of grass and bushes budded behind him and whatever plant he stepped on seemed to come back with more life and vigor. 

I was becoming more and more aware of the differences between powerful beings. This guy didn’t compare to a God-Imperium, but I could still feel his weight. It was like a mountain being compared to a sun. He wasn’t a God-Imperium, but he was still large. 

“So you are the one who helped Forn?” The man asked me. 

“Yes, honored master.”

He didn’t bother studying me, only giving me a mere glance then nodded. 

“I thank you,” he replied. 

“I’m certain she could have escaped on her own. Moreover, I’m certain her abilities were enough to defeat the beast with proper timing.”

“No,” the man mumbled. “She could have escaped back here, but she wouldn’t have done that. It is not her nature. For her to even come to you speaks of her desperateness in the moment. You helped her evade death.”

“Surely you would’ve intervened if it came to that, no?”

The man turned and looked at me. 

“No. Cubs must learn to hunt, chicks must learn to fly, to live with the wild is to be wild, with its dangers and its freedom.”

“You would have let her die?” I asked. 

“She would have let herself die. If she wanted my protection, she could have come and called me. But she didn’t ask and so I did not give it.”

“I see. ”

I didn’t openly state my confusion but I didn’t need to. The World King seemed to sense it. The vines on his chest grew and withered and died and grew again as he adjusted himself to sit on the ground. 

“It is our nature, to be wild and to grow like the plants. To live is to be both prey and predator. We druids do not give up our humanity to be in the wild. We still have bonds and families. But to be wild is to be free from all rules and limitations, even the ones that limit you. You understand this yes?”

“Yes, honored master. But…”

I held my tongue. I shouldn’t be asking questions, not now. Not to this giant being in front of me. It was the exact opposite of what Dane would have done. He probably wouldn’t have followed Forn all the way here either, though the girl could have attacked me at any point in our journey here or she could have thrown me into danger on purpose. 

Well, maybe Dane would have risked following Forn here. Her grove was the reason I was here after all. 

But he would have never asked this man questions. He would have stayed quiet and bowed silently. 

“Drean was a good name for you,” the man suddenly spoke. “But I think prey would have been a better word.”

“Apologies, honored master.”

“Do not apologize, for you act as you are. But all your shivering and worry will not fix your soul. Oh yes, I see it. What a strange thing you have, is that why you seek the Soulsween? Yes, yes, I suppose it would help. Two natures mixed together yet neither make you whole, how strange indeed.”

I held my breath. Of course, he could see that part of me. Even he wouldn’t be able to pierce past a God-Imperium’s power. Hell, I doubted if other God-Imperiums would know or even care about me. The Tome had implied that whatever bits of qi the Tome or Wukong had applied to me, it only marked me as their follower and nothing more. 

It was like a political badge that protected me from the influence of other God-Imperiums. Protected in the lightest sense of the word. It was more like political immunity. It prevented divination and if I ran into a God-Imperium, which should be a stastical impossibility for a being of my rank, they would ignore me to not offend Wukong. 

“Yes, I seek ailghment for my condition.”

“Soulsween will help,” the druid said with a nod. “Though you pick at your wound now that you see it, like a boy playing with his scab.”

“Pardon?”

“Your indicisiveness and fear works against you. You seek to be whole but value one part more than the other. You seek to not worry but you stink of the behavior of prey. Oh yes, I know not what hunts you but you scurry and shiver like a rat in the dark.”

“I… have enemies.”

“We all have enemies.”

“Great enemies. Enemies so powerfull-”

“It doesn’t matter how powerful they are. We are all prey to those above us.”

The the man leaned in and looked me in the eyes.

“But to live like prey is to become one. You are prey, all prey no predator. You run and run and run like a scared mouse. You do not rest, grow, or eat. You do not seek strength or power, and you act with the will of two people hoping to become one. If you want to fix your soul, fix your mind. Settle yourself and do not become torn in two.”

Then the man leaped off into the distance, deeper into the Hills of Life. I couldn’t perceive that area. It was dangeoruse, even looking in that direction brought pierls to my mind. 

And so his form dissapepeared into the dangerous distance, and I stood there in wonder. 

Chapter 118

Forn leaped across the river and landed right next to me. 

Then she looked around and stared at the ground for a moment. 

“My father came here?” She asked. 

“Someone did, though he didn’t give me a name.”

She closed her eyes and sighed. 

“It was my father. I thought he had chosen to stay in the grove but that was just a piece of him. His main body must have left without me noticing.”

“He splits himself?”

Splitting, cloning, mirroring, or whatever you wanted to call it was a common technique. The problem was that this technique was useless for stealth. If the goal was to do two things at once then yes, you could do that. But there was always multipresence. A person of even the seventh rank could be in multiple places at once. 

And if it was for stealth or power then it was entirely useless at my rank. 

After all, you are you, and relative to yourself you will always exist. If Forn’s dad fought with someone of a higher rank then they could kill him, then proceed to kill the other him left within the grove. The ties between the separated beings were immensely strong.

But it probably wouldn’t be able to get into the grove and that gave at least a part of him protection that even a God-King couldn’t violate. 

“Yes, it's more common among all the God ranks, particularly above the fourteenth realm. But it makes sense, he seemed kinder at the end of our conversation.”

I gave her a confused look, and she elaborated. 

“At his level, he splits himself up, his power, his law, his dao. Druid’s are care takers but are also hunters. He left his kinder part in the grove and sent his hunter part out into the wild.”

“Does that diminish his strength?”

“Only in the nature of the split. He might not be able to heal himself as well or take care of the forest, but he should be able to hunt just as wildly as he does regularly.”

“Interesting,” I noted. 

She opened her hand and displayed a large leaf tied up with plant fiber. 

“Here, at no charge to you. Its well grown Soulsween a long with a few other herbs my father threw in there. He said you might find it useful for your alignments.”

I took the small bundle from her and sent my senses into the leaf. It contained a large amount of Soulsween, rooted even along with a number of other herbs. 

“This- this is quiet a lot.”

“Yes,” Forn nodded. “It also contains payment your half of the dragon.”

“There’s no need-”

“No no, simple Soulsween doesn’t make up for what you did. Even my father insisted on that.”

She didn't have to tell me twice. 

I smiled and accepted the gifts. A part of me was worried. It thought of schemes and hiding and possible plots being executed by the druids. But if that was truly the case, then they would have just done it by now. Forn’s father was a God-King and he could do anything to me at any moment, and the fact that he hadn’t gave me comfort. 

“Your father is gracious,” I replied. 

Forn snorted. 

“You met with his hunter half, and the Dao knows that part isn’t gracious at all. Tell me, how long did it take before he insulted you?”

“He didn’t insult me me,” I shrugged. “He was just honest.”

“Do not like to me. Honesty without consideration is still insult.”

“He said I acted like prey and that prey would have been a better nickname than Drean.”

“Drean? I wasn’t being too serious when I gave you that name and I didn’t tell him that much about you,” she mumbled. 

“He must have been watching.” 

“Of course he was,” Forn said. 

“Is that a problem?”

“Partly. To cultivate one’s dao is to live one’s life. My dao is that of the growing wild. But to be wild means to be free, from both protections and restrictions.”

“And him watching over you restricts your practice?”

“Yes,” she replied with a strong nod.

“If it means anything, he said he wouldn’t have helped you fight the dragon. He was certain about that.”

“Was he?” Forn said with a look of genuine surprise. 

Then she smiled. 

“Yes, that means something. Thank you.”

Then she dug into her pouch and pulled out a small stick. 

“Here,” she said holding the stick out to me. “It's a sapling. A piece of our Grove. You can plant it anywhere and use it as a direct connection to this place. And don’t worry, while the tree will always be tied to this grove, it will blossom and change into something new the moment it's planted, meaning even we can’t trace it back to you.”

I bowed and accepted the gift.

“It is a sign of formal acceptance. It allows you to come directly to this area the next time you need to buy something.”

It was something to guarantee repeat business. That made sense, though I didn’t understand why she would give it to me. 

“How does it work?”

“It roots onto the forest you attach it to, fundamentally changing its nature to adapt to its surroundings. This makes it undetectable by us but it's still something from the Cosmic Forest so you can use it as a node to get here and back, as long as you know its existence after it's been planted.”

That made sense. There were hidden realms after all. If the multiverse was a map, then the heavens and hells would be like the north and south poles, and while you could point to general areas on it, you didn’t know every state or town on the map. And you could infinitely zoom in on the map and find even more places hidden between what you thought you knew. 

After all the celestial realms were major constellations, stars that could be seen from anywhere in the void, and the infinitely smaller realms that existed between couldn’t be known by everyone. 

But these people had God-Kings leading them. I had met one and it was doubtless that they had others. 

If they really wanted to, they could probably divine my location. 

Then I looked at my tail and felt the book returning itself into my storage space. 

Well, maybe they couldn’t determine my location with a God-Imperiums nature attached to me. 

I looked at the sapling and wondered if I could get a God-Imperiums nature to attach to it to. Maybe. It would make it hard or even impossible for it to be divined. 

I wondered if the nature of my tale could be shared with the tree. 

I’d have to ask the Tome. It said that both it and Wukong would only intervene in matters related to God-Imperiums and divinations, so maybe this would fall underneath that umbrella.

You aren’t protected from all divination. You aren’t even protected from most of it. Dangers can still find you, only matters related to God-Imperiums will be thwarted. Even now you are known to the people of this place and if they truly wished to, they could divine your true name. But they haven’t and as long as you’re not antagonistic towards them, they won’t.

That scared me. 

You’ve inherited the cowardice of both mortal and god. You see what Dane sees and yet you move with the emotions of a mortal man. Yes, they can attack you. Yes, it is a choice they can make for no reason, but they are immortals boy, God-Kings even. Their dao has been tempered over time incomprehensible and they would rather die than turn against it. You can trust them to be themselves. You can trust your own judgement of them to be true. You only do as I say because of my power, you only obeyed Wukong because of his but you do not look to our nature. 

We are that we are. We are bound by our paths and no matter how much we might deviate, even God-Imperiums can not change their very natures so easily.

Know them, know yourself and be assured in your actions. You will grow for it and in growth you will heal. 

I thought about those words for a moment. 

I understood them. For my soul to heal, for me to heal, I had to piece together the parts of Dane and Bill into one functiuonal whole. The herbs would help but that was only the initial stage. 

By being overtly cautiose, I was avoiding conflict and by avoiding conflict, I was avoiding growth. My dao helped, but it was weak compared to my soul. I need to grow. I needed everything to grow. 

It was easy to be a wise immortal infront of Chin and that small group of villagers. But everyone could give advice to children. If a kid played in the mud and you told them to clean themselves, then were you wise or just an adult?

My nature risked blindsideness and idiocracey. But to heal required action, which risked letting me make stupid decisions. 

But, were they stupid?

Was Dane’s path the only way to go?

He was intelligent, sure, but he was also Dane. Most of the damage to my soul was due to his decisions. He avoided danger in the real world, but he had torn his soul. 

To live was to act and to act was at times to falter. I had to be okay with that. I had to risk that. 

I felt the weight of a choice on my shoulders. The weight of a world full of consequences. 

I looked towards Forn and smiled. 

“Do you know where I could go hunting?”