Apocalypse Cultivation 2, ch 28

Jake called up his interface from the Mini Map, enhanced.  He’d checked it before, while restrained and being pulled to this place, but sure enough it was still working perfectly.

The weird chaos of this planet and its many illusions might be able to confuse even some of the most powerful warriors, and probably the highest technology, but it didn’t fool Jake’s map.  As always, it had recorded wherever he’d been, creating an easily accessed map in his head.

So Jake had some transportation and navigation.  The problem was going to be ignoring his senses.

Oh well, no time like the present, he thought.  Standing and staring at the absolute insanity of this world was not going to accomplish anything.

Luckily, the little flying machine Jake had found was very simple to operate.  It had a lever for altitude, and wouldn’t go low enough to scrap against the ground once it was turned on.  The steering was simple, and the throttle was a basic dial.  Jake was able to get familiar with the controls before even leaving the garage.

Traveling ended up being much easier than Jake had imagined.  He just blocked out what his senses were telling him and focused on his map.  It had even recorded his altitude at the time the reading had been taken.  Following the path back that the restrains had dragged him on was almost stupidly easy.  It was a pretty much a straight shot, too.

The only weird part came about halfway back.  He almost missed it because he was so busy not paying attention to what was happening around him in order to stay focused.  This had, ironically, required that he not pay too much attention to the map, too.  He’d remained focused by being unfocused.

In his mental map, he noticed that his path to his new house had taken a dog leg.  Instead of a straight line the entire way, it turned into a half circle in the area coming up.

Jake only briefly thought about it, deciding to continue to follow the path instead of cutting through with a short cut.  He knew nothing about this planet and literally could not even see where he was going.  It was a risk to deviate from the path and follow the flight path he’d taken in, but an even bigger risk to ignore the dog leg and go through.

Who knew what the minotaur might have been avoiding?

Luckily, there were no more incidents.  The path continued straight as an arrow back to the area Jake had first entered this place.  When he arrived, he felt a sense of nostalgia even though he hadn’t even been conscious for an entire day yet on this world.

Hopefully I’m not too late, he thought.  As if to mock his sense of urgency, it was not immediately obvious how to open a portal back to earth.

Now that he was on the ground, the area directly around him was not nearly as confusing and unsettling as it was in the sky or from a distance.

Jake finally found magitech hardware disguised as rocks that would help form and maintain a hole between worlds.

Suddenly, the enormity of the situation, his growth in power, the fact that he’d survived, was returning to earth, just all of it came crashing down all at once.  To calm his mind, Jake slowly did stretches, then moved into some kata.

When he was ready to start thinking rationally again, he searched the area for more clues about how to activate the portal.  There was a small, panicky thought in the back of his mind that there was a risk the portal might send him on a one way trip to one of Ahriman’s worlds.  Jake stopped to think about that.

He looked around at the world he was on, apparently full of nothing but chaos and illusions.  Even though Jake didn’t need regular food anymore, he still needed to kill monsters for sustenance.  Staying here would mean a death sentence.  Even if he found some food stores or monsters to kill at his new oversized house, his days would be numbered.

With that thought, Jake pulled a pen and paper out of storage to make a note for himself.

Figure out how to store food in storage.

That done, he got back to thinking again.  The problem about where the portal would lead was not one he could solve with his limited information.  Ultimately he decided that he didn’t have a choice.  All he could do was hope for the best and be ready for anything…if he could get the damn thing to work in the first place.

Then he got back to work.

Finally, using a combination of magic know-how and his memories of actually coming through the portal, he was able to piece together that this was a fixed-location transportation area.  But most importantly, he realized that he was not powerful enough to use it yet.  At least not fully in control.

If he could force the system to reactivate, it should open to the last place it connected to, though. At least he thought so.

Jake sat cross legged and tried not to let his sense of urgency make him do anything dumb.  Finally, after going through everything in his inventory and all of his abilities, he came across a rather simple, if out-the-box solution.

Phoenix Piercing Talon.

Every stable teleportation gate like this one, no matter what power was used to create it, functioned sort of like a door through subspace.  Jake had never been powerful enough of a mage to use this sort of magic, but prior to learning cultivation in his past life, he’d been fascinated by the subject and studied a lot.

Each transportation “door” had a lock, and the necessary key was more complex based on the complexity of the door, the lock, and whoever opened the portal in the first place.

Jake had a hunch that this gate had actually been created in secret by the late Conophta.  It had taken a lot of raw power to craft but was crude, inelegant.

After a few exploratory probes to test his theory, Jake was pretty sure he could actually open the portal again.  Good, he thought.

There was only one more thing left to do.  He settled down and left an imprint of the world on his supernatural senses, and also allowed his mind to point to his new home, bonded to him through his linking with its power crystal.  That done, he pulled a stone out of his storage that he’d imprinted with his own, unique energy.  He placed that carefully near the portal area.

Maybe he’d be able to find this place again in the future.  He hoped that when he was more powerful, the option might present itself.

Finally, there wasn’t anything else to do but activate the portal.  Jake shoved a thin thread of Phoenix Piercing Talon into the “keyhole” of the working.  He focused on keeping all of the technique’s destructive force focused on a tiny point in the far distance to avoid damaging anything.  Then he slowly expanded the technique, filling all the nooks and crannies necessary to create a “key.”

It worked.

The air shimmered and the next thing Jake knew, he was in between moments of time again.

This time, he instinctively understood that he could choose to ignore the moment between time, just blink it away.  He wondered why he hadn’t ever reacted this way before to being transported between realities, but realized it’d always been done by a god or Faceted, or other powerful being before.  This was the first portal by a lower level mage.he’d taken that he knew of.

In the time between moments that seemed to last forever, Jake meditated again.  This time he deepened his understanding of shadows, but still could not quite get any farther.  Unlike when he’d been enlightened about Phoenix Piercing Talon and Veil Piercing Phoenix Eyes, he still didn’t even know the actual name or structures of any techniques.  Of course, Jake was also painfully aware that he didn’t know the true name of the great Dao that formed the foundation of his Phoenix techniques.

Unlike the last time he’d reappeared in the physical world, this time he knew it was about to happen.  There was no delay, he immediately fell into a defensive stance, summoning Bloom to his hand.

There was no attack, but he startled a woman carrying a box so badly she fell on her ass with a squeak.  Her mouth opened and closed a few times after Jake looked around, trying to get his bearings.  He was definitely back in Locust Grove.  Good.  Then he checked his internal clock.

You’ve got to be shitting me, he thought. About four days had passed since he’d arrived back on earth.  In fact, dawn was coming soon, which would technically make it the four day mark, as supernatural entities tended to measure things.

The odds of being back on the dot like this were astronomically low.  Then Jake realized that four days was an odd amount of time for a goddess to give in the first place.  Gods and other supernatural entities liked single days, three days, six days, seven days, and a fortnight.  Any other time limit, in days, was very rare.

Now Jake suspected that Morrigan had had an idea that all of this, or something like it, might happen.  It was an extremely uncomfortable thing to think about.

The woman who’d dropped the box on the ground, an attractive black women in her 30’s, suddenly found her voice and shouted, “The Grim! It’s the Grim, he’s here!”

Another person, a teen girl, came running from behind one of the nearby stores.  She goggled.  “Are you okay, Justine?”

“Don’t mind me, get James!  On your radio!”

“I left it with my tools.”

“Then go to your tools and call James on the radio! The Grim is here! Hurry up!  Sprint!”

The girl took off like an arrow.

Jake furrowed his brow in confusion and tried to look a question at the woman on the ground, but he’d forgotten what he looked like.  His slight frown must have looked horrifying.  The woman paled and gasped.  “Please, Mister Grim, we know what you told James and we saved them all!  It’s…thank you for all that you have done.  We would never betray you.  I swear!”

“It’s okay, uh, I come in peace.” Said Jake. That didn’t seem to help.

The woman began to tremble and she very deliberately dropped the rifle in her hands, pushing it away with her foot.  She stayed completely still, only her eyes moving.

Jake sighed and smoothly crossed his legs, sitting on the asphalt.  As he did so he realized that normal humans might have trouble seeing well in the predawn light.  It made him wonder again if he could even think of himself as human anymore, and at the end of the day, if that really mattered.

He thought back to the fact that his teacher, Master Zi was a dragon.  The Protectors back in Macon had been human.

Nah, doesn’t matter that much, he thought.

He wasn’t sure exactly what was going on with the people here in Locust Grove, but it was obvious that all the raiders were gone.  Burn barrels and solar lights were scattered around the area, providing some measure of light.  Some mist blanketed the ground.  There weren’t many people here, but the teen girl Jake had just seen seemed to be a noncombatant, so maybe this area was behind a safe perimeter area.

A lot had definitely changed in just a few days.  The barriers were gone.  A lot of the debris had been cleaned up.  There were no bodies, but that was a given unless the entire area had been abandoned, and even then, monsters might have gotten to them.

There were signs of new construction, though.  It looked like some of the businesses were being turned into shelters.  Maybe this area was going to be a new stronghold.

Headlights popped up over a hill and a jeep cruised up to a stop near Jake.  Three men got out warily.  They didn’t point their weapons at  Jake, but they didn’t respond when he cheerily waved to them, either.

One’s radio kept squawking and after hitting the talk button, he said, “Yeah, blue eyes.  It–he–matches the description.  Not making any aggressive movements.”  After some more squawking he said, “Yeah he’s just sitting here with his sword on his lap.”  More squawking.  “No, nobody had been stupid enough to attack him.  Laci said he just popped out of nowhere, like literally appeared in the middle of the road.  One minutes she was walking behind a building for some tools, the next, Harriet Smith was yelling and the Grim was there.”  Longer squawking this time.  “Yes, Mrs. Smith is still here.  We’ll definitely stay here until James arrives.”

Another couple vehicles pulled up soon later and Jake was starting to feel downright amused.  It was like a festival.

The two new trucks had the Paladins, and Jake was shocked when Tracy ran to him, bending down to give him a hug around his shoulders.  “Thank you, oh thank you,” she said.  “Thank you for saving our babies.”

Jake awkwardly patted her arm.

Tracy turned and with the rest of the Paladins next to her, and with a voice of steel, she said, “Back up, everyone.  Give the Grim space.  If it weren’t for him, most of us would probably be dead by now…or worse.”

Nobody looked like the wanted to argue and all but the Paladins backed up.  There seemed to be a sense of relief that the area’s most powerful awakened fighters were there now.

John, the leader, had a bandaged arm now but still seemed full of fire.  He made a face as he looked at Jake.  “Are you just going to sit there, Jake?  The way you’re staying so still and not saying anything is probably freaking some of these people out.  Are you doing it on purpose?”

Jake grinned, remembering the tone he’d used when asking John about the “Paladins” name.  He wondered if the man was mimicking Jake’s delivery on purpose and decided it didn’t matter.  It was funny either way.  “I was just trying to defuse any potential situations,” he said.  He stood.

“Yeah, well, I can’t blame you.  Even though I doubt anyone in town could actually hurt you, it might be awkward if the people you are trying to help keep trying to shoot you in the face.”

“Exactly,” said Jake.  He stretched one arm.  “I have to get going soon.”

“We…kind of figured it might be something like that,” said Caleb.  The Paladin member had darker eyes now than the last time Jake had seen him, only a few days ago.

Jake gestured around them.  “So what happened here?”

John spit.  “We found the kids you saved, the ones that were on the way here.  The barrier you left freaked some people out but we proved it wouldn’t hurt humans.  Then your fight with the psychos here was really, really loud.  By the time anyone could investigate, most of them were dead.

“We mounted an offensive and managed to retake the area.  We had some prisoners, but after we saw what they’d been doing in the Walmart…”  He shook his head.  “Can’t leave people alive who do that sort of thing, not in this world.

“Anyway, we’ve been rebuilding some, trying to decide whether to stay put or move out.  The attack at the school was eye opening and the Paladins can’t be everywhere.  Ironically, some folks have started trying to find some of your old advice on the internet to help with making a decision.  In fact, now that you’re here, what do you suggest?”

Everyone on the street seemed to lean forward as Jake decided how to respond.

Finally, he said, “The only reason you have not been overwhelmed by the monsters out of McDonough so far was that they probably went North to Atlanta.  All the big cities have really powerful monsters that can sometimes build armies.  Eventually, some of the big monsters are going to get hungry or adventurous and come south.  This place will be flattened, no matter how you build up this area.  You don’t have enough people or enough time, or enough awakened.”

“You mean superhuman people?”

“Yeah.  And because of what the bastards here before were doing, probably sacrificing kids to dark gods, there’s a miasma in the area that is eventually going to be like catnip to monsters.”  Jake briefly changed his vision to look around the area, something he should have done before.  “Yeah, just confirmed it.”

“So what should we do?” asked Tracy.

Jake poitned at the highway.  “Head south to Macon.  That place was decently organized even before I left, and because there was just a showdown there, there should be some calm for a bit.  Right now, survivors really need to take all their resources with them and look for safety in numbers. Rebuild.  Areas that used to have a decent number of people, but not fullblown big cities are the best.”

“Places like Macon?” asked John.

“Exactly.  And they have the lakes there for water,” said Jake.

The entire time they’d been talking, more vehicles had pulled up.  People had gotten out silently, forming a larger crowd around them.

Something abruptly changed, though.  A golf cart had come down the road from the direction of the Walmart.  A man was driving, sitting next to a pretty young woman.  Jake thought that both of them looked vaguely familiar.  He might have met them the night he’d actually been active in this area because getting pulled into the world of illusions.

The golf car stopped and the man got out.  He walked forward and nodded to the Paladins.  Then he stepped directly up to Jake.

“Hello, Grim.  A lot has changed in the last few days, and for some bizarre reason, I’m a new leader of this community.”

Jake blinked.  He wasn’t sure how to respond to that.  “Cool.”

The man said, “My name is James.  Before anything else, I need to thank you for all that you’ve done for us.” And then, just like in a fucking movie, he began to slow clap.  Everyone else standing around them, at least fifty people now, all clapped too.

Jake wanted to cringe right out of his skin.  What the hell is going on!?  He got a sudden urge to just leave, but grit his teeth and waiting.  He still needed to ask someone in charge where he could get some vampire cores, and the guy in front of him seemed to be in charge.  Time was running out.  The sun was starting to rise.

As soon as the clapping died down, James said, “I have something for you.”  He took off his backpack and extended it to Jake.

Curious, Jake accepted it and looked inside.  Some stress on his shoulder was immediately lifted.  The backpack was absolutely full of monster cores.  He couldn’t even guess how many.  It looked like most of them were from vampires, too.”

James said, “After you told me that we should save the cores for you, we all pitched in to find them and keep them ready for your return.  Not a single person would dare rob the Grim, especially after all you’ve done for us.”

Jake wasn’t sure what to say.  He just held the backpack loosely in one hand until he made it vanish into his storage ring.  The surrounding onlookers gasped in shock.

“Uh, thank you,” said Jake.  Then he pointed vaguely down the road.  “I need to get going soon.  Sort of have a train to catch to another world.”

There were more gasps, but James nodded seriously.  “I thought it might be something like that.”  Jake began to turn, but James held up one forestalling hand.  “Oh yeah, we’ve been using the radios more lately.  The surviving communities have been talking, and we’ve been spending more time talking to people in Macon.  I was asked to pass on a message.”

Jake was a little curious now.  He nodded for the man to continue.

James said, “A man named Vincent, a leader in Macon, told us to tell you he is fighting the good fight for real now.  And that he is glad you are, too.”  He paused.  “And he said no hard feelings that you stole so much of his shit.”

Vincent, huh?  Jake chuckled.  He said, “Stealing, huh?” and shook his head and thought for a minute.  He actually considered taking the CZ Shadow 2 out of his inventory and giving it to James to give back to Vincent as a joke, but decided against he.  Jake really liked that pistol.  Instead, he pulled two enchanted spears out of his storage.  The people around him goggled and didn’t move.

Jake had taken dozens of weapons from the house he’d inherited from Conophta.  Most of the weapons were far too big for humans, but there had been a few exceptions.  The minotaur had seemed to enjoy collecting weapons, all weapons.  Jake gestured over the Paladins, then handed one of them to John.  The serious man easily spun it and rendered a salute.  If most normal people had done that, it might have looked cheesy, but somehow John made it look cool.

Then he gestured James closer and handed him the other spear.  The man accepted it reverently. “That one creates an explosive blast if you twist the blade while it’s jabbed into something.  If you see Vincent, give him that and tell him we’re even.”

“Alright. I will.”

Jake took one more look around and nodded.  Then, maybe because he’d just seen John salute, he tried to give a humorous salute of his own with two fingers.  When half the people watching flinched, he got a sour feeling in his stomach and thought, Fuck it.  Time to go anyway.

Take turned, bounded over a handful of onlookers, and flash stepped three times in quick succession down the street.  He found the parking lot he’d appeared at when he’d first arrived back on earth, and felt the draw of an open portal.

Without hesitation, he dove in.

***

James pinched the skin under his nose.  He still felt a mixture of awe and dread, even after the Grim was gone.

Kathy quietly walked up behind him as one of the surrounding people said, “James, did he just wiggle his claws at us?”

“I…don’t know,” said James.  He still wasn’t used to his new leadership role.  People kept asking him questions and half of the time he had no answer.

Harried moved forward.  Her tone was thoughtful when she said, “Will he ever come back?”

Another woman wryly asked, “Do we want him to come back?”

Kathy confidently said, “I think if he comes back, it’ll be because we really need him.”

“Maybe,” said James noncommittally.  He thought about the monster cores he’d just handed over.  He could tell they were important to the Grim.  For the last few days, he’d stressed, feeling like he was holding a suitcase nuke.  He was worried that maybe the Grim might be angry that he wasn’t looking for him to give him the cores.  Then he worried that the Grim might misunderstand if he went back to the site of the battle and didn’t find monster cores on the ground.

Some of the defenders had argued to leave them there, but they hadn’t gotten a message directly from the Grim like James had.  Sometimes he wondered if people seemed to care more about his opinion now because of that.

John thoughtfully tapped the butt of the spear he’d received on the ground.  “I’ve seen him a few times now, and I still don’t know what he actually is.”

All of the Paladins nodded.

“All I know,” said Tracy, “is that he does what’s right.”

“And he sure killed a hell of a lot of people doing what was right,” said Dalton.  The Paladin had his arms folded.

“Yeah.”  James drew a breath.  “I’ve talked to the leaders in Macon more.  We can actually feel lucky that everything ended the way it did.  Macon was bad.  Really bad.”

“I dunno, man,” said Dalton.  “The Grim fought that giant bull demon thing at the school.  That thing could have problem chewed us all up.  Bullets had no effect.  It shrugged off a direct blast from Stephanie.

The Paladins’ mage nodded.  “The thing didn’t even turn.  I don’t think I even hurt it.”

John said, “Some of the raiders said that the bull demon came back, dragged Jake, the Grim, into a portal.  That was the last place anyone saw him go.”

“Maybe he went to hell,” said Dalton with a chuckle, but nobody else laughed.

“He seemed even stronger this time,” said James quietly.

One of the onloookers, a teen girl named Jenny hugged herself.  “He’s even freakier looking in the light.  Did you see the smoke stuff that comes off his body?  Doesn’t it have like…color now?  Reddish?”

“I saw that, too,” said the young man her age standing next to her.  He put an arm around her.  “And it was like the air was warping around him, like he was really hot or something but…he wasn’t hot.”

Caleb, the youngest Paladin, suddenly slashed his hand through the air.  “I don’t like this.  Doesn’t seem right to talk shit about the Grim when he just left after saving all our asses. I don’t care about any of this.  All I know is I’m glad the Grim is on our side.”

Some more reluctantly than others, but everyone nodded.