[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 73: Re-Greeting

Raiko’s question rang in Sam’s ears. It played over and over again like a broken record.

“Who are you?”

“Raiko,” Sam said gently. “It’s me, Sam. You know, the guy you hassled on Earth? You chased me through a portal into some hellish apocalypse battle that we both fought in… nothing? Wow. I figured at least getting you back to your body would have stuck in your mind a little. Am I really so forgettable?” He added, trying to inject some levity into the situation.

“Ah, well, I’m just kidding.”

Sam stopped and stared. “Seriously, Raiko? You had me scared.”

“Actually….”

He stared.

“Thought I’d lift your spirits.”

“By lying? C’mon!”

She shrugged, then winced and pressed a hand to her head. “Doubt I’d forget your handsome face, but if what you say is true, take me to the Sacred Tree. Please.”

“Fine.”

The walk to the Tree was uneventful. Aside from stepping over the dissolving bodies of the demons, Sam and Raiko didn’t speak until they were through the thickets of bamboo that screened the Sacred Tree from view.

Wherever those warrior spirits were now, they were nowhere to be seen.

“What now?” Sam asked.

Entering into the Tree’s presence was like stepping into a new world. Golden leaves swirled about the place from its swaying branches, leaving glittering motes in the spring that bubbled beneath its roots.

Taking in a deep breath of the fresh air, he felt revitalized. Currents of mana, that he could now actually perceive, flowed around Sam and Raiko. They seemed to trail from the Tree itself.

The exhaustion was still there, but his mana trickled upwards.

“Put me down.” Blood seeped from her helmet.

Sam took a moment to think about it. Well, it’s not like she has her katana anymore, he thought to himself. Not after I used my Breaker bloodline on it.

He set her down and backed away.

“So many debuffs. What happened to me?” Raiko mumbled, struggling to pull off her armor, piece by piece.

“We fought,” Sam explained at length.

“And you’re a War Incarnate? Never thought I’d find another.” In nothing more than light inner robes, she dragged herself into the spring. A considerable amount of blood filtered into the waters.

Runes lit up along the outer rim, set into carved bricks of stone.

She sank beneath the glowing, steaming surface. He could barely see her down there, just a vague outline.

Hopefully she wasn’t drowning herself, or didn’t fall unconscious.

Kai was still holding Komachi when he and Matt entered through the screen of bamboo.

“We were wondering where the dullahans had gotten to,” Matt said, looking just as undead as usual. Which wasn’t much, aside from those virulent green veins around his poison-green eyes. “They wouldn’t let the demon into here, so he said he’d return to his little tower archives and if we needed him, that was where we could find him. He… also said to thank you for not killing him.”

His cat peered around Matt’s legs. “Komachi! What’s Raiko doin’ in there?”

“She’s hurt,” Sam said. “And I guess that heals her? Thanks for offering, by the way,” he said to the water. Did it bubble in response? “I’m not down to under a fifth of my Health or anything.”

Matt looked at the water for a long while. “Can she breathe underwater?”

“If I have to save her again, I’m going to be super mad.”

“You’re the hero apparently,” Matt said.

“Head injuries make people dumb. I know this cause I’m a cat. I mean, Cleric. Yis.”

“I do not have enough mana to heal you,” Kai said, “but now that the battle is over, I can recover quicker and help. I also have… many new notifications that will take me a while to go through.”

“Same,” Matt said, grinning ear to ear. “Seriously, I’ve more than doubled my level since being saved by you guys. I’ve already got a Second Order Job pending!”

“We all do,” Kai said. “You are not special.”

Matt pouted. “I feel special.”

One of the runes went dark, and Raiko emerged from the waters, robes clinging revealingly to her willowy frame.

Sam knew he probably shouldn’t look, but he did. He tried to convince himself he was just looking for injuries. At least he noticed many of her wounds were on the mend.

She glanced sharply at the newcomers.

“She doesn’t remember anybody,” Sam told them as if he just remembered, having trouble concentrating.

Matt raised a hand in greeting. “I’m Matt, your second love interest. You were spurned by Sam because he’s got an oddly close relationship with his cat there.” He pointed. “And so you and I hooked up. You like that I’m funny and not at all an ex-retail store manager.”

“Oh yeah?” Raiko gave him a flat look. “Come in here and let’s see you prove it.”

“Prove… what, exactly?”

“Prove you’re my lover. In front of these—”

“I said love interest!”

“I heard hooked up in there,” she countered. “Who are the rest of you, then?”

One by one, they made their reintroductions. Sam sat down on an exposed root from the tree.

Surprisingly, Kai of all people, put a comforting hand on his shoulder. Kai, Hawai’i’s native son, who had always looked down on Sam and called him a haole despite being born in O’ahu just the same as Kai.

This new world was a strange place indeed.

“Where’s Haman?” Raiko asked in confusion.

Komachi hopped down and danced, making a painfully obvious attempt at distraction.

One she didn’t have much energy for. After a few hip gyrations, she slumped to the ground in fatigue.

Sam looked around. “Honestly, I kind of figured he would be here. I haven’t seen him since… the worlds were shattered and we were brought here.” He looked at her oddly. “You really don’t remember anything of the last week?”

Raiko looked away, troubled by Haman’s disappearance. “I’m starting to remember. Not much, yet. I need time to heal and re-acclimatize.”

Komachi gently put a paw into the water, then shook it out. “Sam needs healing,” she said, looking sharply at Raiko. “Us healers are out of commission.”

“It’s okay, Komachi,” Sam said. “I’m pretty sure all of my bleeding is internal. That’s good right? What? Why are you looking at me like that? It’s on the inside where it belongs!”

Raiko stared at him, then shook her head at his antics. “You don’t need my permission. Go ahead, please, you’re welcome and safe here. The restoration runestones are more than enough for us all.”

Sam eased himself into the heated waters and immediately felt the effects of his health being restored. He sighed deeply and laid his head against the stone rim and looked up at the boughs of the Tree.

Matt took Sam’s old seat and sat down, his eyes unfocused as he looked through the slew of notification everybody had received.

For once, Sam wasn’t in a rush to get to them. He would, in a few minutes, but for now he just wanted to heal back up to full and relax.

They were done for now. The battle was over. They’d won.

Raiko’s Skyshard was safe. And though Sam had no idea what that meant for Sil’mara—his tiny Skyshard still floating overhead—that was a problem for future Sam.

Right here. Right now. He just wanted to sit and recover.

It had felt like ever since that fateful day on the beach of Hawai’i he had been running from or to something without end. What rest he was able to get was far and few between, usually pressured by some deadline or other.

Sam had to admit it felt good just to exist for a moment without the world crashing down around his ears.

It didn’t hurt that the host of notifications he had would likely hold more abilities, skills, and maybe even a spell or two. He’d likely need a few solid hours just to decide what abilities he would pick, assuming there were any to pick from.

Despite how cats were notoriously known for disliking water, Komachi purred, floating across the surface like a soggy loaf. “Dis nice.”

Kai slipped in after Sam and sighed in relaxation. Matt looked on enviously, but didn’t bother to join them. “If you’ve got a poison bath, I would love to soak in that to heal my injuries. You know, the injuries I sustained valiantly protecting the dullahan and fighting hordes of demons.”

“You fought seven,” Kai said without turning around or opening his eyes. “I had to clean up most of your kills, and even then, Sam destroying the shaman was what really did the trick. You should be thanking him for getting so much Experience. You might just be the highest level Mage because of him.”

“No, see, I might not be a Mage any longer,” Matt countered. “Now that I’m undead—”

“You’re undead? Now that’s an ironic pairing,” Raiko said.

“Uh, you and me?” Matt seemed to be nervous.

“Yes, the convincingly real relationship we have.”

“Now that’s just hurtful.”

Sam let the noise of the conversation wash over him. He was finally safe. Even if it was fleeting, he could rest for a bit.

His Skyshard would need seeing to. He needed to know if he could combine it somehow with Raiko’s larger Skyshard.

If they could, then that meant they would have co-ownership of sorts, with two Settlement Cores.

Their Skyshards would become stronger together. If one was attacked, the other could aid in its defense.

He hadn’t even scratched the surface of what his [Sourcestone] could do. If the Tree could aid in healing, what could his [Sourcestone] do?

There hadn’t been much time to study it in between training while they were heading toward Raiko’s Skyshard. There was no reason to fiddle with the damn thing and risk damaging it somehow.

But now? There was time, even if just a few days.

Time enough to see what this whole Voidknight Legend business was about, see to his levels, skills, and what rewards the completion of the Skyshard’s quest would be.

If fighting the demons gave that much Experience, he was deeply curious—and a little greedy—to know what the “Immense Job, Path, and Skyshard Experience are awarded upon victory” meant for them.

Then there were still the other Dark Vaults, though Sam didn’t know how he’d get to another Layer. He also had to find Kale, Chris, Kylie, and likely Leilani as well… then who knows.

How is there still so much to do after everything I’ve done already?

It felt like he had moved heaven and earth just to get here, and it… barely seemed like he had done anything to reduce the laundry list of tasks that had built up.

He couldn’t help but equate it to doing chores around the apartment. If he didn’t keep on top of them every single damn day, he would wake up to find that the sink was clogged, the bathroom was a biohazard nightmare, he had no clean towels, and no food.

In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he had been able to take care of himself since coming to Il’dran.

Technically, this was the first bath he had. Aside from all the rain. And the same went for everybody else.

At least Matt wasn’t soaking in here, too. His skin would probably slough off or something.

Oh, that’s gross. Am I sitting in my filth along with everyone else’s?

The glowing waters appeared as clean as ever, though. Not even a tinge of Raiko’s blood, or an errant floating log from Komachi.

Sam decided it was best not to think about it and purged it from his mind, just in case.

Something did float by. The toy that resembled Haman, Raiko’s pobul, that he met in another lifetime.

He remembered the tiny little otter clinging to Raiko and… didn’t he cast magic too? That would make him a magical companion, a bit like Komachi.

Sam couldn’t even fathom the idea of a life without his cat. He reached out and scooped the cat up, holding her to his chest as he used to do back in Hawai’i.

Maybe Haman was out there somewhere. If he was anything like Komachi, he would be trying to get back to her.

Raiko reached out to the otter-like doll and tenderly held it close, turning melancholic.

Sam stroked Komachi’s plush, if soggy, fur and listened to the comforting sound of her purr. He was beyond lucky to have her, both in this life and the last. Here, she was a stellar healer who had kept him alive in every fight he had fought in.

Even with Kai as a secondary healer, Sam would still count on Komachi to pull him back from the brink.

The warmth of the spring soaked into his tired muscles. Sam let himself relax until he dozed off.