Legacy Index - All Chapters
Ten minutes passed by them, Jason taking that time to close his eyes and cycle his qi as Lilly instructed. He knew Wēi was watching, her serpent’s eyes seeing him further his cultivation.
The others discussed amongst themselves, getting information from Zhi, and giving them time to recuperate. Apparently, they’d been running low on stamina, too.
Before, they just needed to watch out for specific types of cultivators, orcs, and other main threats. Each group’s leader had a runic notebook that repeated messages within a mile of each other.
It worked great at the start, but over the past week, casualties have been stacking up amid the chaos. This group’s leader was Instructor Hale. A mage that could use three different elements, though his specialty was wind.
Five hours earlier, a flare gun was used by another instructor; a high emergency alert. He told them to stay still for an hour as he went to check it out. He didn’t return. Now, they were making their way toward the area, being careful, but working against protocol.
They were supposed to retreat toward the seaside if they lost their instructor.
Jason wasn’t complaining. Unfortunately, they were in a bit of a bind with a certain twelve-year-old cultist taking an interest in him. And they didn’t even know.
He breathed, feeling a mountain’s breeze flow through his bones, gradually spreading outward. Inside, he saw the dim outline of the star sword. Behind it, faintly, there was a dark mountain. Above that, an eye, a single curious star flickering at its center.
Lilly said not to focus on those right now, though the eye was curious. She never met anyone with three starting constellations. Even she only had two. But the sword was easier and better to put his effort into for quick results. It would also lay the foundation for his cultivation.
Of the nine stars of the sword, the tip and two adjacent were nearing solid white. He’d locked two stars in for the Second Foundation. With the pellet, Lilly instructed him not to let its excess energy go to waste; its surging, restorative force would pave the way for the Third Star.
Sweat beaded down his brow and body, and as the final minute came, his breathing deepened, and he felt every fiber of him strengthen. The pellet’s force faded.
I’ve broken into the Third Foundation.
“Excellent progress,” Lilly mumbled, sitting cross-legged in front of him with a mixed expression. “The problem is Wēi may not be able to read Eli or your brains with that strange boy’s powers, due to my interference. But Zhi is not protected.”
Jason opened his eyes to stare into the ghost’s silver irises.
Which means she knows the mythical Jade Phoenix is attached to me.
Lilly’s gaze drifted to the snake girl, who was helping Eli rummage through her backpack as a friend. He wasn’t sure what Eli was looking for, but she appeared to be getting more nervous as time went on, sorting their supplies.
She could have been anxious because he’d had to leave his pack at the vault to not attract attention with the sword. What family head would be carrying his own pack?
“Even without that knowledge. Just seeing you advance, and how efficient you were at using that pellet, she would be questioning if she could have accomplished what you just did.”
I’m not the subject of her interest.
Lilly’s mouth bunched to the side, a weird glare coming his way.
“I wouldn’t say that. The greatest master in history couldn’t fix an idiot.”
He wasn’t quite sure what she meant by that; it sounded like a compliment and an insult at the same time. Jason just let it slide off.
Eli quickly took all their attention again as she sat back.
“It’s gone…”
“What’s gone?” Wēi asked, examining every item with fascination. “Did it fall out when you were running outside? This is a strange thing. A white mask with a flower on it? A violet?”
“The gun isn’t here… The flare gun Hoarhammer gave us. I-I don’t know where the mask came from, Wēi. B-but the gun. I put it in my bag, and…” Her eyes went big, and the reason for it was staring over her shoulder. “Jason, what do we do without it?”
Jason sat there, gaze shifting to the water-streaked window. In the gap of silence, liquid still fell down its length, white lightning streaking across the dark, multi-hued heavens. He looked at Wēi, who looked more puzzled by the mask than by what it meant that the gun was gone.
Lilly, tell Eli that there’s nothing we can do. If you’re correct, Wēi has it. Keith is feeding her all the information she needs.
Lilly barely got the words out to his semi-panicked sister before the bad news spread.
Peter’s plaque crackled before Jason could physically answer, Kathi’s voice reflecting his sister’s growing concern.
“Mine isn’t at my side. It was there five minutes ago.”
The cascade started down the net, every person in the rescue party looking and reporting theirs missing.
Jason’s heartbeat rose, and in that frantic scramble, he looked at Wēi.
Her act was perfect: scared, amber eyes big, and backing toward a corner.
Time slowed.
It didn’t make sense to him. Yes, Wēi was extremely strong. But how could she get to Kathi? She was across the street, floors above them, keeping overwatch.
Then, the gap in time zoomed out, sounds cleared, and his consciousness spread. Every raindrop along his path in this out-of-body experience echoed into eternity, and he felt the very flow of reality. It was different than when Nyx heightened his senses.
It was purer. It was clearer.
Then he saw it.
He heard it, felt it, as if a flicking tongue right next to his ear.
A violet-scaled serpent, fluctuating in size as needed, slithering quietly across the street, through the storm toward them. It hid in water and shadow. The gun was in its mouth.
In the next instant, he doubled over, groaning as a massive headache hit him, and Lilly was by his side. Eli quickly abandoned her pack to crawl to him, a spark of panic in her eyes.
“True Divine Sense? Impossible… That is my innate blood talent.”
“Jason!”
“I’m okay,” he mumbled, seeing double for a few seconds as his heart and breathing came under control. “Maybe it was a smoke thief goblin.”
His explanation hit the others, Kathi shifting positions to scan new angles, and Melissa cursing as she checked her mana jewel items—they loved shiny things, being collectors, not hostile. It gave him a chance to collect himself.
Sweat slicked down the back of his neck, controlling his breathing.
Lilly continued to mumble to herself.
“We aren’t truly bonded? How? Could this fragment of my soul provide my blood talent? Did the pellet grant you minor access?”
It doesn’t matter right now.
The whites of Jason’s eyes darkened, purple haloes rising from the black as Nyx synchronized their senses to his inner request. He watched the snake exit a crack, hidden amidst the shadows with a similar ability as Nyx, and enter Wēi’s hoodie slit. Light glowed through as it was pulled into her pouch, hidden inside.
He eased back his vision, seeing the girl’s momentary smile.
She was impressed.
Lilly was just as impressed with her, dropping the blood talent talk in favor of the immediate threat.
“She left every weapon. She took the only thing that could threaten her. Careful, Bumpkin, I think she may be after me. That means getting inside you and extracting me from within you with her blood arts.”
Jason shivered, hugging Eli to let her know it would work out.
We really need to work on your phrasing, Lilly.
“What do you mean? It is exactly as—your dirty mind is the issue!”
“It’s okay, Eli. As long as we’re together. Right, Peter?”
Peter looked unsure himself, but his prompt snapped the minotaur Beast Core leader back.
“Huh? Yeah. Yeah. We’ll just head in the direction Instructor Hale went. They have runic trackers on our radios that pick up signals in a radius. When we get close enough, they can find us within a thousand meters.”
Melissa, the spear guy, Kathi, and even Keith agreed; the ESP user appeared almost normal, if overly protective and close to Wēi.
“It’s a product of the venom,” Lilly explained, the group packing everything to move; a brightening Wēi helped Eli. “Whoever is infected views the snake and their bonded as if their closest loved one, temporarily overriding them in their memories.”
Jason reflexively took a step forward at that; if Eli was infected…
“Oh. Didn’t I mention it is more gender prone? Whatever the snake’s gender, its potency increases by a multiple of 100. It would only make Eli view her slightly more favorably, not affecting memories at all.”
You should have led with that.
In packing everything up, Eli’s hand lingered on the odd mask, looking at the branching violet pattern. Her head tilted to the side, looking at it from a different angle. Then, she gave a start as Wēi shuffled over to help.
Just like that, Eli was back to her confident side, secretly giving him a thumbs up.
…She’s so tough.
It wasn’t long until they were once again moving into the storm. Jason kept the fang out, staying close to Eli and Wēi in the formation they had decided on. Spear-guy was in the tail, just behind Melissa, Peter in the front. Keith wasn’t happy about being closer to Peter than Wēi, but he didn’t argue when the girl said she felt safe with him there.
Lilly went deeper into her internal rambles of terms and logic she thought was broken.
Clearly, the eye formation was True Divine Sense.
But as a constellation? That was weird.
Innate blood talents didn’t operate like that.
She couldn’t figure out how he was advancing in this abnormal fashion.
And that frustrated her.