51. The Finish (I)

The next morning, as most of the camp was still dozing, Zane saw a Signature's dot pop up on his mini-map.

It came in the same region as before. The dead forest, the lair of the Keeper.

Zane set out to meet it. And sure enough, there was Elias Ventor, hands folded, smiling a meaningless smile.

"Congratulations! For the second time this week, no less," Elias said. "Marvelous job on the beaches. You had me worried at the end there. But you pulled through. I did expect you to win, but I thought it'd be a team thing, not alone—you're just full of surprises, aren't you?"

"What do you want?" said Zane. He crossed his arms.

"Oh, just dropping by. I've heard some news," said Elias, shrugging. "Marcus is getting desperate. He's paid up big time to get this fancy set of armor from his allies up north. Impervious to your Laws, as it happens. I hear they're also sending serious reinforcements in... oh... three or four days? If you want to go after the man, your window's closing."

"I see," said Zane evenly. "And how do you know all this?"

"I have lots of friends," said Elias, waving a hand airily. "I hear things."

Zane stayed silent.

"I'd be worried if I were you," Elias continued. "I hear Marcus has decided to turtle up in the Space Needle and wait it out. And with his armor set, well... you'll have a hard time finding a way to get past all that in time…"

He touched a finger to his lips. "As it happens, though, I do have a little trinket you may find useful."

He shook out his Bag of Holding and pulled out a leather-bound book. A stylized blue flame logo marked the cover. The title was engraved in gold lettering of some language Zane had never seen before. It looked like something straight out of a museum—something that might've been in some ancient emperor's collection.

ℝ𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕊𝕦𝕟 𝕊𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕙, 𝕍𝕠𝕝 𝕀 (ℂ)

𝕋𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕋𝕠𝕞𝕖 𝕥𝕖𝕒𝕔𝕙𝕖𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕤𝕥 𝕋𝕚𝕖𝕣 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕗𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕒𝕝 𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔸𝕫𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝔽𝕝𝕒𝕞𝕖 𝔽𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟, 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕚𝕤𝕡𝕦𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕣𝕦𝕝𝕖𝕣 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕎𝕖𝕚𝕩𝕚𝕟𝕘 ℂ𝕝𝕦𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣. 𝔽𝕠𝕣 𝔸𝕫𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝔽𝕝𝕒𝕞𝕖 𝔽𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕕𝕚𝕤𝕔𝕚𝕡𝕝𝕖𝕤 𝕠𝕟𝕝𝕪.

ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕢𝕦𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕖𝕤:

𝟙 𝕄𝕒𝕛𝕠𝕣 𝕃𝕒𝕨 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔼𝕝𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕝 𝕃𝕒𝕨 𝕠𝕗 𝕎𝕚𝕟𝕕

𝟙 𝕄𝕒𝕛𝕠𝕣 𝕃𝕒𝕨 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔼𝕝𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕝 𝕃𝕒𝕨 𝔽𝕚𝕣𝕖

Since Sharpness counted as a Law of Wind, it was pretty much perfect for him.

"I picked this up in a C-ranked dungeon," said Elias, "Pity, though. No one in my Faction can make heads or tails of it. Seems to be some relic left by an alien Faction…Who knows? Maybe you can crack it. I should say, though—this one won't be easy. Just reading it takes a huge amount of Soul Power. I know another guy who meets the Law criteria—a World Ranker, mind you—and she couldn't figure it out either."

He tossed it to Zane, but Zane didn't catch it—he let it clatter on the ground. Elias shrugged. "Try it, or don't! It's all the same to me. If you can crack it, it'll solve all your problems, that's for sure. I'll come pick it up after the war's over. How's that sound?"

"Why are you giving me this?" said Zane.

Elias paused. "I think," he said slowly, "You may be someone special. But I need to make sure. Best of luck!"

He smiled, waved, and sauntered off.

Zane stood there, frowning, watching the man as he left.

'Allies in the north?'

The Harbour Masters had never mentioned any such allies. As far as Zane knew, the Legion only had enemies up there.

He got the feeling every second word out of Elias's mouth was a lie.

Frowning, Zane picked up the Tome and brushed it off. He checked it again. It seemed like a normal treasure, alright. It seemed as real as Elias' other gifts.

Strange.

If the man wanted to throw Zane free gifts, he was free to. Zane didn't mind taking free things. But if Elias imagined that earned him any goodwill with Zane or any control over him, the man had another thing coming.

***

By noon, the Luminous Faction had lined up to march once more. Through Reina's strategizing, they'd walloped the Legion army. They were all smiles. Morale was high. If anyone had doubts about Reina's leadership, they were gone now.

The Legion basically didn't have an army anymore. Only those who still clung to Seattle, a sad few hundred. Reina was more than up to the task of leading the Faction north and reclaiming lost land, Safe Zone by Safe Zone.

They were moving as fast as they could for Seattle. Zane checked his Beacon map at midday and found half the state lit up for the Luminous Faction. By evening, it was nearly three-quarters. They were converging on Seattle from all sides.

Apparently, Elias was telling the truth on another account—Reina soon confirmed Marcus had barricaded himself up in Legion headquarters. There, he seemed ready to make a last stand.

While his Faction went north, Zane stayed behind.

He sat cross-legged in an empty clearing and took out the Skill Tome. If Elias was telling the truth… he might need this. Couldn't hurt to check it out.

He opened it up and started to read. The pages were worn yellow, the text inked black in neat penmanship, seemingly by hand. It looked alien, but the letters somehow made sense in his mind. Like they were some universal language he knew but never learned.

It started with a lengthy treatise on the nature of Fire and Wind. How one fed into another—Wind sustained Fire, and on and on. Something about how devouring and slicing worked in the Universe... It was very flowery, very abstract. It kind of irked him.

Then the text got to the point: the Skill itself. At first, Zane couldn't grasp any of it. It just kept slipping out of his mind; he read sentence after sentence and couldn't tell you a thing about them. Something about these letters was odd, unlike any book he'd read before. It felt like they were trying to start a fire in his mind—but the verbal flint kept striking air. So nothing happened, over and over.

After he spent noon to dusk like this, just staring, he gave up on it. Every time he'd learned a Law or a Skill, he'd been quite emotional, at least excited. He was quickly realizing that he learned best when he was full of feeling.

The annoying thing was, he almost never felt that way on a daily basis.

He had to put himself in some other state of mind... he sighed. It was getting late.

He closed his eyes and thought about Marcus putting his hands on Reina.

He thought about the leering look on the man's face. He thought about the way Reina thrashed… The way Marcus laughed…

His chest was getting tight. He felt his teeth gnashing, his fists clenching.

This was it—yes. He thought about how dearly he wanted to slice that man into bloody ribbons. He let himself wallow in his hatred. It focused him.

He breathed out and gave the book another look. He read with a fiery intensity. He poured himself into the text.

This time, it took less than an hour to slip into it.

As he flipped through the pages, a scene surfaced in his mind, like a dream.

A short Asian man with steel-gray eyes locked eyes with him. He was dressed in something like those Japanese martial arts robes, wielding a sliver of a blade.

"Disciple of the Azure Flame Faction!" he said. "My name is Elder Cao. It is my honor to welcome you to the Martial Way."

He cleared his throat. "You are about to learn the first of the Azure Flame Faction's foundation Arts. Don't be fooled by its name—foundation is not basic. Foundation is essential! It is on the back of this Skill that the Founder first conquered the D-Grade Wulong Mountain World, and established this Faction. Of course—his Rising Sun Slash was Tier 14. Today, I shall teach you the first Tier."

Zane leaned in. Go on…

"But before that lesson," said Elder Cao. "You must learn the first lesson all martial artists must learn. Humility. On the road of Martial Arts you will fail over, and over, and over! You may have seen those Chosen, those Young Masters—true geniuses endowed with enormous Soul Power, who've achieved the First Tier of this Skill in mere weeks. It may be difficult to believe, but there are even certain natives of ur-Planets—that is, extremely rare planets with extremely high-potential, natives—that learn this even faster! The Heavens do not distribute their gifts equally. Do not be discouraged, disciple, if it takes you months. Some take years. The Martial Way is long and full of bends… only the tenacious have a hope of reaching the end!"

All Zane got out of that was Elder Cao liked the sound of his own voice.

The man bowed to Zane. He drew his blade. At last.

Then he shouted, stepped forth, and slashed.

As the blade moved, Fire and Sharpness melded seamlessly together. You couldn't pick one apart from the other—they made one clean, immensely powerful slash. It glowed brilliantly, gloriously fiery, like the first rays of a morning sun. For a second Elder Cao glowed red—the world glowed red. Ripples of heat trailed in its wake.

It left a deep red scar burning in the air long after the short man sheathed his sword.

And bowed. And the scene vanished.

Zane blinked.

He had to see it again. He barely caught any of that.

For the next day straight, Zane played it back and forth, again and again. He didn't eat. He didn't sleep. He was lost in utter concentration. You couldn't prise the book out of his hands if you wanted to. And all throughout he let his hatred run at a slow boil.

Time slipped quickly by.

Around the end of his second day, he breathed out at last, closed his eyes, and shut the text.

He could see it in his mind's eye. Elder Cao raising his blade, and slashing.

Zane stood and summoned an Axe. He gathered Fire and Sharpness on its tip, just as the Elder had done. He ran them together like two streams merging to make one furious river, so seamless you couldn't tell the water of one stream from the other.

He took a step, threw out the Axe, and carved.

The world glowed fiery red. The heat of it buffeted his face.

𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕖𝕕!

ℝ𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕊𝕦𝕟 𝕊𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕙 𝕀 [𝔼𝕡𝕚𝕔]

He looked up. Beside the crescent moon, there was a second brighter crescent of angry red, a tear on the surface of the world that lingered in the night sky.

So… it took him all of two days to grasp it.

It was a very powerful Skill, sure. Probably stronger than any he had right now. But he wondered what Elias had made all that fuss about. The man had made it seem like it'd be hard. So did that Elder Cao. Very strange.

What was that Elder Cao rambled on about? Humility? Zane had learned the Skill, sure. He didn't feel any humbler. If anything he was baffled it was so easy.

He went back to base and saw where Reina had stationed her troops. By then, nearly all of Washington was under Luminous Faction control. They had Seattle surrounded.

The last message Reina sent him was from a Safe Zone near Bellevue. She said they'd secured the city, but Marcus had barricaded himself in the Space Needle beneath layers of walls teeming with tough Steel Laws. She said they had him surrounded, but they couldn't break through.

Zane made for Seattle. Strange. It had been two days, and he was still just as angry as before.

***

Hours later, he arrived.

Seattle was a patchwork quilt of dungeons. Each neighborhood he wandered into had its own flavor; one, what had probably been the tech sector, had looming dungeons of glass and steel—other areas downtown had an old-world charm, dominated by vines and huge stone buildings. He passed where the University of Washington had been, now an E-ranked dungeon called 'Labyrinth of Lost Knowledge.' Its buildings were made dark, gothic, haunting, all jagged spires, snaking with mists.

Most of the city was smoking. The faces of skyscrapers were blackened and craters dotted the streets. The signs of battle were everywhere—but it was over now. The Needle—where Marcus made his headquarters—stood out high above the rest. Zane marched for it.

Zane had been to the Needle once before as a child. It still looked like itself—only more so, all space-gray and sleek and domineering.

Walls surrounding what had been the Space Needle were high, lined with barbed wire, and gleamed with runes—runes that threw back anyone who tried to enter and melted any strike that went against them. Thick Steel Laws shimmered on the walls. Zane watched as hundreds of Rangers shot straight into them. On the other side, warriors hacked ferociously. None could so much as scratch it.

As Zane passed through, his army squawked and scattered, clearing a path.

He drew out his Axes.

"Stand back," he said calmly.

His Axes lit up with Fire, lit up with Sharpness.

Rising Sun Slash!

His Axes shot forth. The world flared red. There was a great piercing screeching.

When the light cleared there was a smoking V, glowing deep black-red, carved down the front of the wall.

Zane yanked.

And that whole chunk of wall came flying. Not falling over—flying. It sailed overhead, vanished into the distance. Somewhere far behind, there was a thick splash.

"Stay out of my way," Zane said to his army. "That man is mine."

And he marched on through.