Hmmph... this junior is a good seed [Cultivation Management Quest]

[no.]

Gaius Antonius Omake #20: Boiling Rage, Part 1

The chaotic sounds of battle finally began to die down after hours of on-and-off combat. The first wave of Dervish invaders had been repelled, if at significant cost. Acrid towers of smoke rose from burnt tents and buildings, and bodies dotted the fields in all directions, meaning there was hardly any way one could look without being reminded of the grisly work that had been done.

Most of the casualties had been Dervishes, but not all. Eight Devil corpses had been found in the aftermath of this, only the first battle of what would surely be many. Still, the defenses had held, and more than twice their number in enemies had been killed in exchange. That wasn't even counting the several that had fallen under the tender ministrations of Centurion Barda: those, she had dissolved so thoroughly that their bodies became indistinguishable from the mud, making them impossible to count. Indeed, this was a victory.

Still, there was no time to rest; the Dervishes were known to regroup very quickly, and thus the three free agents were to resupply and return to their individual forts(which some had given the unflattering name of "micro-forts") to prepare for the next attack. With any luck, it would be several more waves before the enemy discovered the locations of these forts and attempted to breach them. Once that happened, the surprise would be lost, and the free agents would shore up the normal defensive lines in future battles since their ability to ambush the enemy would no longer be a factor.

Gaius retrieved a cloth and some oil and began to clean his weapons and armor. It was perhaps a bit rude, to begin maintenance while the bodies were still warm, but he figured the earlier, the better. He focused his mind on the repetitive, mindless task, so as to quiet the sensations still lingering in his mind. He'd never seen nearly so many humans die at once before, even ones as mutated as the Dervishes; it was a disquieting experience even for a Golden Devil. He supposed anyone in their right mind would be in a bad mood after their first brush with war, no matter how thoroughly they had been trained.

The Seeker had hoped to take the rest of the day slow, buying some books, some good food, whatever he wanted to, then retire back to that awful box. It was funny; he had wanted nothing more than to escape from the fort, but now he wished to be alone again, ideally after talking to as few people as possible. As to what he would do once he was alone again: no clue; perhaps he would do some writing, some philosophizing, some cultivation, or perhaps he would just sleep for an entire day. Whatever he needed to get his thought back in order.

His weapons cleaned to perfection and saved from any possible danger of rust, Gaius now removed his lamellar one piece at a time and began to clean it inside and out. This part was a lot more difficult, due to the overlapping nature of the plates. Oftentimes, he would have to wedge his rag underneath a plate to wipe off a bit of blood or grime, which meant he risked slicing his fingers on the edges. Indeed, by the time he was halfway done, a few droplets of blood had rolled down The Seeker's middle and index fingers and made it all the way to his wrists before drying up. He would definitely need to get some tips about how to clean lamellar before returning to his fort; there was no way it was supposed to be so painful or take so long.

Of course, of course this reprieve from the work and the stress wasn't meant to last; a Legionnaire, thin, red-faced, panting with exhaustion, approached him at a dead rush. "Gaius, Gaius, the commander needs to see you right now!"

----

Obviously there hadn't been much to say - in the Clan, your commander's word is physical law. After quickly re-equipping his armor and weapons, Gaius followed after the little guy, soon finding himself in Muyi's tent.

The word 'tent' might be doing it an injustice, actually. At ten feet tall and thirty feet across, the structure was closer to a pavilion, but this was no luxury; it needed to be that large to comfortable house the massive Muyi and all of his maps and diagrams. The Centurion ran a tight ship, preferring to keep things practical and by-the-book so that when the chips were down, he knew exactly what to fall back on. Gaius entered and bowed, finding his senior pacing back and forth, hands clasped behind his back. Another legionnaire whose name Gaius couldn't recall stood at attention beside him, and the two waited beneath a heavy, anxiety-inducing silence. Soon, three others arrived one at a time, and only then did the officer break his silence.

"We've done a headcount. Five of our number are missing." He began, his voice a rumbling timbre which seemed to almost shake the ground. "Prisoners of war are common, but that many, in a battle of this size, against the Blood Cannibals? Not so much. We have reason to believe they're planning something."

The commander gave them a moment to let the information sink in. This is what the soldiers under Muyi's command liked about him, despite how he drove them forward into extremely harsh battles: he took their own understanding into account. Unlike some Centurions who were satisfied merely to have their forces obey like automatons, the tree-man preferred when his subordinates comprehended why he did things, as well as the importance of their roles. "Not a hostage situation, most likely; we would not compromise this position for five legionnaires, and they know this. We suspect something sorcerous in nature. We looked into the files, and all five captured soldiers had a high concentration of the Blood of Bronze."

The five of them began to understand now, why the commander might be so nervous. They'd treated the Dervishes as savage animals, and indeed, every report characterized them as simple-minded and animalistic, sacrificing some of their human rationality for greater raw killing power and especially speed. They hadn't prepared to deal with an intelligent enemy, one capable of mounting a long, slow siege.

"The Blood Path is a gateway to many abilities some might consider unnatural. The Blood Cannibals mostly practice them in their most primitive form: consuming human flesh to gain the most efficient cultivation boost possible. However, this is hardly all it is good for. Golden Devil bodies, especially live ones, can be used for all sorts of reagents and rituals, especially when one is willing to stoop to the Blood Path." He scanned his gaze horizontally, looking each of them in the eye for but a moment to impress upon them the importance of this mission. "You five are to fan out and attempt to track down these prisoners. If you find them, send a messenger bird back to us and we'll send a squad to reinforce you. Free the prisoners if you can... but if you have no choice, kill them, and make their bodies unusable. It's a mercy compared to what those savages would do."

The tree-man nodded off to the side, prompting a legionnaire to step forward with a box full of jade slips plated in bronze. "These are Bronze-Bane Vortex Arrays. Each of you, take five. They will resonate with the Blood of Bronze in a Clansman's body if they're in Qi Condensation, consuming all of their qi to fuel an explosion and leaving nothing left of their body. Now go, take a horse and hurry! There is no time to waste!" He concluded, barking out their final orders.

With that, the five of them all took their extremely volatile packages, along with thick leather gloves which went up to the elbow, so as to handle them safely. They all went their separate ways without a word further spoken - for really, what more was there to say?

----

It was almost funny, Gaius thought as he raced through the desert, farther and father from the Xin Kingdom's lands. He walked a path which doomed him to loneliness, a bit moreso than most Cultivators. Said path also meant that his powerful senses made him a great tracker, which meant he was often physically alone as well. A bitter irony, that.

He was about eighty miles out from the camp now - multiple days' travel for a mortal, but no major feat for a skilled outrider in the Ninth Heavenstage - which meant he was officially in Blood Cannibal territory. Not that it looked any different; those endless white-yellow dunes looked and felt the same across most of the Organ Meat Desert, though oases tended to look different depending on where you were. However, while it may have appeared the same, Gaius could feel a slight shift in the air, a gradual, infinitesimal weakening in the fabric of the prime creative substance. The qi was getting even thinner, something he could scarcely believe was possible. Xin Kingdom's land was already trash, barely good enough to sustain a large civilization; how much weaker could the qi get before a place truly became unlivable? He understood the Blood Cannibals' desperation a little bit better now: they were literally right up against a wall of death, having to consume the products of more fruitful land to stay alive.

He wasn't just riding off in a random direction, of course; he was following the tracks of several Spirit-Flaying Raptors running close together. All of the other trackers were doing the same, each hoping their trail of choice would lead to the prisoners. They were essentially running on luck here, and luck was not something Golden Devils had in abundance.

Then he saw it: the gray. Little by little, the sand beneath and in front of him became tinged with flecks of grey. Then these flecks got darker, and made up more and more of the ground. This was something Gaius knew infinitely from his time as an orphan: volcanic sand. He was beginning to approach a volcano, and from the distance the ash had spread, a big one. With a reflexive quickness born from experience, Gaius ate the remaining scraps of his ration in two short bites - it wouldn't do to let flecks of ash get in it.

It was the slowly-darkening shade of the sand which alerted Gaius to his target, rendering the sand they kicked up more visible than it otherwise would be. If they were maintaining a punishing pace like this, so far out from the battle-lines, still going in a straight line away... these Dervishes couldn't be returning to camp. It would be madness to make camp so far away from the battlefield; the troops would be tired before the fighting even began.

This might just be it.

Here's my newest daily omake from the backlog. This was originally one much longer omake but I found it didn't flow that well as one continuous thing, so I rewrote it slightly and split it into parts. This takes place before Gaius figured out that ridiculously broken earth-swimming technique. Thanks again to @Mochinator for letting me use Muyi in a cameo.

@ReaderOfFate

 

[no.]

Gaius Antonius Omake #21: Boiling Rage, Part 2

It was another hour of careful tracking, keeping just barely close enough to see the quarry but not so close that they could see him, until the destination became clear: the caldera itself. Rising out of the dunes like some submerged beast, the peak of the volcano could be seen emerging several hundred feet above the sand. Gaius wrote out his coordinates onto a tiny scroll, then threw it upwards, where a Legion Cloudhawk, one of the fastest and stealthiest birds in the whole Third Sea, briefly decloaked itself to grab the message, then blended back into the sky. Hopefully backup would arrive quick enough to matter.

This slope would make Gaius easier to spot, so he decided to go around the other way. Hitching his horse to a post on the opposite side of the volcano, The Seeker removed his armor, boots and tunic so as to make as little noise as possible, put down a couple of camoflage arrays to hide the horse and armor, then began his stealthy ascent, grappling hook-topped rope in hand.

What the hell were these idiots doing, messing around with blood qi inside the caldera of a dormant volcano? Were they trying to activate the damn thing? This was possibly the most dangerous place they could do their rituals, if they were really doing them, so there had to be a reason. Gaius crept closer and closer to the lip of the caldera, lying down just outside it and pressing his bare chest to the rock to try and catch a hint of what might be going on.

At first Gaius only got indistinct noise, so he shut off his taste and touch to sharpen his hearing, and individual voices became more clear.

"I don't get it. There's no bronze in their bodies, just meat. It's just different qi and techniques, they aren't really made of it." One man questioned.

"That's because you're not thinking metaphysically. We're working with concepts here, it-"

Someone was coming.

Gaius' focus immediately swerved, focusing in on the sound of someone trudging back up to the lip of the caldera, about fifty feet away. He would need to calculate this perfectly. The average range of a human's vision when including peripheral vision was about 220 degrees. Cultivators had sharper eyes; theirs maxed out at 240 degrees. Moving on his hands and knees quickly but quietly like some strange beast, Gaius crept around the edge of the caldera until he was entirely on the opposite end from the man coming out to look.

This was way too dangerous. If the horse was startled and moved too quickly for the camoflage arrays to mask, or this cannibal turned his head too far, or he simply decided to patroll the whole volcano, Gaius was fucked. Thankfully, the man simply raised his hand to block the sun from his gaze and looked out the way they had come. Seemingly satisfied, the cannibal went back down into the caldera. Gaius lay on his back for a few moments to slow down his heartbeat and refocus; that had been way too close.

Gaius took the risk of peeking his head over the lip, for just a moment. There he saw five Dervishes, milling around next to five Clansmen, all stripped down to their underclosed and held tight in manacles. One captive was being forcibly latched onto a stone slab of some unusual construction he could not place. In the dead center of the caldera, some kind of wooden stake had been planted, doused in oil and then lit on fire. Three of the cannibals stood around the stake, chanting something under their breath as they fed streams of qi into the flames.

"Awaken, O great spirit. Sleeper, return to us from the realm of dreams. Set your heat free once more, so that you may consume these offerings." One Dervish, holding some sort of long, ornate staff declared, his voice rising above the others. The flames grew in intensity, rising higher and higher, and a low, nearly-imperceptible rumble could be felt beneath their feet.

What the fuck? Gaius was utterly taken aback. Outright provoking a volcano spirit from inside a caldera had to be amongst the top... not ten, but maybe thirty dumbest things you could do. Even if they could keep that thing under control, what would they even need it for, under these conditions? It had to be related to the prisoners; so then, was this the blood path socrery Muyi had been worried about?

Gaius pondered what he had heard in the back of his mind as he hooked the side of his grappling hook to the lip, firmly gripped the attached rope with both hands and began to rappel down. He didn't need to do this of course; the slope was gentle enough that even a mortal could walk down safely. This was just to lighten his step a tiny bit more, to help him get a few steps closer unheard. This ritual seemed suitable for those above these Dervishes' cultivation, to invoke the assistance of a volcano spirit, an infamously volatile breed. Probably the scheme of some upstart rather than an officer's plan, then.

A Dervish with a staff, who appeared to be leading the ritual, began to chant and pray before the fire, which grew bigger and hotter in response to his words. "O, great one who dwells beneath the earth. This meagre one humbly begs you; stand up from your throne and unleash your fire. In exchange we offer you five human lives, so please, burn for us, that we may melt away the invaders' unholy power and take it for our own!"

So that was their game: use a ritual to appease the volcano spirit, invoke its power to burn those legionnaires alive and smelt the essense of bronze out of their bodies, and probably use it to brew something, maybe some kind of medicine or elixir. A poison that only affected bronze-aspected beings, perhaps? It didn't really matter, he supposed. For a bunch of degenerates, these Dervishes had ambition.

Thirty more feet. Five Dervishes, five prisoners. Ideally, he'd want to kill one Dervish and free one prisoner before he was seen, bringing the odds down to four-on-two. Bad odds, but workable. They might just kills the prisoners rather than let them be freed, though that would spoil their plan. Still, not just any cannibal could become a Dervish; all of them were Seventh Heavenstage or higher. This particular group was all Eighth and Ninth. In a straight-up fight, with no armor, and his only ally unarmed and injured? No, that wasn't working out in his favor.

...so then what? There wasn't enough time to wait for the reinforcements; the ritual was about to begin. How could he beat all of these Dervishes, in these conditions, complete his mission and survive? Twenty-four feet and closing. There were so few tools at his disposal, so few variables to disrupt.

Wait. There was one possibility, Gaius thought as he reached into his pocket and retrieved one of the Bronze-Bane Vortex Arrays. But to use a fellow Clansman as a weapon like that, was that really okay? No, it had nothing to do with okay, Gaius thought grimmly. If there was any possibility of succeeding at his mission, surviving and saving anyone at all, it was this way. He bit his lip, spit a drop of blood onto the slip, and begged the man on the slab for forgiveness as he flung that accursed array at him.

The projectile whizzed past the head of a nearby cannibal and bounced off the prisoner's heaving chest, and for a harrowing tenth of a second, nothing seemed to happen. Then, a sickening, swirling sucking sensation tugged at Gaius' qi. It was too weak at this distance to rip his away, but that clansman wasn't so lucky. The vital energy was shredded apart and sucked into a hellish vortex in a few seconds, shrivelling his body into a dessicated husk. A horrifying death, but one so fast he barely felt any pain.

The surrounding cannibals pulled themselves out of the fugue state of the ritual, looking either to the slip or in Gaius' direction in shock. Two of them shouted in surprize. One particularly smart Dervish immediately flung himself out of the way without a moment's hesitation; that saved him.

A deafening boom shook the earth, blowing the three nearby cannibals into wet chunks and bodily flinging everyone else end over end. There was no time to ride out the stunning effect - Gaius had turned off his hearing just before the bomb went off, which bought him a few more seconds.

A knife flashed out at the Dervish closest to the now very dazed prisoners, and the man put his arm in the way on pure reflex; this safed his life but lost him the chance to fight back. Gaius' sword was swung with all the speed and cruelty of a hurricane, spilling the cannibal's guts and drenching The Seeker's bare chest in blood. He grabbed two prisoners, ignoring their blind struggling as he hauled them out of the caldera in a dead sprint, then flung them down the slope - if they had a lot of bronze in them, a tumble like that wouldn't hurt them too much.

Gaius turned back to rush for the other two prisoners, only to see the final survivor standing between the operative and his objective. A small man with sharp features and bright blue tattoos across his face, this man was either very stupid, very confident or very spiteful, to not just flee after losing the rest of his team.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" the Dervish screamed in desperation, some sort of bubbling, no doubt corrosive liquid floating around him and the prisoners. He shook his head slightly, his dog-like ears violently twitching as he attempted to drive out the no doubt maddening ringing. "Stay right where you are, motherfucker, I'll chew off your dick! How dare you, how dare you!?"

"You seem upset." Gaius smirked, analyzing the battlefield for a way out of this. The two stood at a stalemate, over fourty feet apart. Faint cracking sounds could be heard beneath Gaius' feet, which was a source of worry nearly as big as the enemy before him.

He could scarcely believe how well that had worked. Completing his mission and getting two POW's back alive was already an achievement, but he felt like exceeding expectations even further today. He had killed a fellow Clansmen, he was a kinslayer, if an officially sanctioned one. The shame and horror of his actions would not, could not be allowed to set in until the mission was complete, but still, Gaius couldn't help but feel that man's life was worth more than just 'success'. No, if he was going to sacrifice a comrade in arms, he would purchase as much as possible with that spent life.

Indeed, Gaius had gotten very far already. How could he get even farther with what he had now? What would be the perfect move? It was time to find out.

Here's the second part of that omake. I decided to cut it here because it made for a good cliffhanger. I wanted some fun tacticool operator shit, hopefully I pulled it off.
@TehChron

 

[no.]

Gaius Antonius Omake #35: The Overflowing Passion Race, Part 1

In the extreme north of the Shimmering Soup Sect's lands, right where the desert met the mountains on the border between the Golden Devil and Yuan Clans, lay a small but well-hidden valley. A fairly tough natural fortress, with soil of a high but not miraculous quality, it was the perfect mix of security and obscurity. This meant it was the ideal spot to house a group that was concerned with protection and small enough for larger powers to overlook.

In this valley lived the Steadfast Bone Sect. Founded some meager 400 years ago, they were powerless on on the scale which would affect the Virtuous Flipper Region at large. Indeed, the people of this sect were concerned mainly with bringing in more resources and strength to it, gaining more power without attracting any hatred. There would be very little reason for a Cultivator of a larger faction to visit unless they were already in the area.

Case in point, the tall man in the wide-brimmed hat and black cloak, walking into Abyss Village(named for the extremely deep lake which bordered it) to find a place to eat. His most recent mission had taken longer than expected, and he'd almost run out of rations, so happening upon this place was a blessing. The sun hung high in the sky, baking everything and everyone with merciless summertime heat and making his stomach only feel emptier.

Just one problem: people were giving this man a wide berth, as he stood out pretty starkly in every respect, telling anyone with a working pair of eyes that this was someone important, or at least someone weird. This meant he couldn't bring himself to ask anyone for directions, as he would have to corner them, maybe even lean over their head, and that would be too awkward. So there he was, turning in a random direction as every corner, figuring he could eventually cover the whole village and find someone selling food that way.

Exactly seven minutes into his aimless wandering, this man was joined by another. His new companion was a stocky, brawny man with a beard and flashy green armor. The two walked side-by-side, not saying much, but the shorter man seemed to know this village better, so taller one followed his lead.

"What's your name?" The bearded man drawled casually.

"Gaius." the stranger responded quietly.

"Gaius who?"

"Antonius. You?"

"Quan Chao. You're from the Golden Devils, right?" The other Cultivator - for what else could he be, to speak so brazenly - asked, a gleam in his eye. "You here for the race?"

"Right now I'm here for lunch. An hour from now, ask me again." Gaius chuckled. "What kind of race are you talking about?"

"Oh come on, you shame me with such dismissal!" Quan Chao joked, leading his companion to a bright red noodle stall. "Here we go, this stall outclasses all the other cooking in the valley. Buy me a meal, because I'll be teaching you a lot today." The enthusiastic man laughed jovially, straight from the belly.

Gaius sighed as he sunk into a seat, his knees making faint popping sounds. He always thought a Cultivator's joins ought to not sound like that, but perhaps even Cultivators' bodies got a little weird once they got too tall. "You're really twisting my arm, brother. But why not, I am a magnanimous fellow." He smirked, patting the seat next to him.

And so the two ordered their meals, both very large in quantity and paired with drinks both strong and numerous.

"So tell me, Quan Chao; what is this race?" Gaius prompted, propping his head up on his fist.

"The Overflowing Passion Race!" Quan Chao declared with a grin and slapped the table for emphasis. "For a backwater like us, such a thing is the biggest event we could aspire to. Once a year, the best disciples in the Steadfast Bone Sect compete to win a Moon Hawk Core, siezed from a mighty mountain beast. Very powerful stuff for one in Qi Condensation. For someone at the peak, one or two would be enough to push them into Foundation Establishment, and thus into the rank of Elder, should they hold enough talent."

"A sect this size hands out something like that out to a disciple once a year?" Gaius questioned as his companion knocked back yet another cup of wine. "Far be it from me to question, but that seems a tad wasteful."

"Wasteful? Perhaps, but it gets us new Elders more frequently than we otherwise would. And the more Elders we get into Foundation Establishment, the more times we get to throw the dice." Quan Chao explained, casting his hand out to mimic such an action.

"You're fishing for a core before someone bothers to properly subjugate you, then?" Gaius replied, taking another bite.

"That's the ticket, it is!" The bearded man said, pointing one meaty finger in the air. "If we can produce a Grand Elder in Core Formation, we'll have far more bargaining power in the coming centuries. We'll secure our future and all that. The game never ends, ya know." He concluded, chowing down on another mouthful of noodles.

"Makes sense to me, but if this is a matter of such importance, why let outsiders compete?" Gaius questioned, downing a swig of wine.

"We do a lot of stuff like that; gotta get wandering cultivators to settle down if they're inthe area, bring in strong blood and all that."

"I thought you were a sect, not a clan." The Seeker pressed, once more urged on by his own Dao to be nosy.

"Eeh, when a sect's this young it's all the same. The rules can get more solid when we're better established. Besides, the rules and the route are different every year, so someone who doesn't know the valley well wouldn't have much of a chance."

"Understandable, I suppose."

The two Cultivators fell silent for a few minutes as they finished their meal. They were both pretty drunk now, and their inhibitions began to recede as they are known to do when liquor is involved.

"You never answered my qestion, you know. Are you here to compete?" Quan Chao asked with a gaze like the flat of a blade.

"I don't plan on settling down here, I'm very happy with the Golden Devils. Cursed or not, they're my people." The taller man laughed. "...but, I suppose that Moon Hawk Core is a pretty impressive prize. If they're going to offer it up like that then I might as well go for it."

"That's what I was hoping to hear!" Quan Chao bellowed, slapping Gaius on the back vigorously and taking yet another drink. "Rivalry, competition, respect! Those are the things that make the years more bearable, eh?"

"Something like that. You're on!"

The two men clinked their glasses together in celebration.

----

Of course, things were never quite that simple. With just a week to go until the climactic event, word spread quickly. It wasn't long before everyone knew that a Golden Devil would be participating in the Overflowing Passion Race this year. One person in particular was furious, glaring at the inn where Gaius was staying from atop a nearby cliff just outside the village.

"Frustrating, ain't it? A Devil walking in here and trying to steal our treasure?" Asked this man to two other people. Beside him stood a tall man with a pinched face and round spectacles and a woman with a burn scar across her neck and jaw and her hair pulled into a single tight braid.

"Who in the world does this bastard think he is anyway, bullying us like this? We never did anything to the Devils!" The woman snarled, baring her teeth and cracking her knuckles.

"And the freak's already one of the favorites to win." The tall man noted, pushing his glasses up his nose. "The betting parlors are giving him pretty good odds. Must be nice, being born with such powerful blood." He muttered bitterly.

"I won't stand for it." The first man said. "No matter how you look at it, that prize doesn't belong to him; I don't care who wins, as long as we make sure he loses."

I said I was done posting omakes for this turn, but then somebody said something on discord that sent my paranoia into overdrive. I thought 'well, I've got the first part of that race arc finished' so I decided to post it this turn as a buzzer-beater. The middle and conclusion of this arc will be coming later, posted in between chapters of The Cursed Legacy.

I wanted to explore the kinds of antics that weak, small sects get up to. A lot of xianxia stories start in such places after all. Thus, Gaius is acting in a rather unsavory role here, as someone from a vastly larger and stronger faction, here to bully some backwater scrubs.

 

[no.]

Gaius Antonius Omake # 22: Boiling Rage, Part 3

The two enemies squared off, each contemplating his next move as the tension built further and further, stretching toward the breaking point. "I am more than upset, devil! But I must admit, I'm impressed too. Now, you're going to throw away your weapons; all of them. Then you're going to walk down here nice and slow. If you don't..." The Dervish closed his hand to punctuate the statement, making the streams of acid close in on the two Clansmen more and more. Soon the two were pressed tightly together, the sickening substance hissing as it ate away at strips of their clothes and hair.

"Alright, I understand. Calm down there, I'm complying." Gaius said as he slowly disarmed himself, taking his time to buy every precious second to think he could.

"Just kill the barbaroi scum!" One prisoner yelled, prompting the acid to shrink just a tiny bit tighter, until the sound of sizzling skin could be heard and the two began to cry out in pain. "It's fine, Gaius! Complete the mission!" the other prisoner yelled with a voice like thunder. More cracking. The heat seemed to rise several degrees.

"Shut up! Shut the fuck up!" The cannibal yelled, drawing a dagger and plunging it several inches into the woman's thigh. The man clearly knew his stuff when it came to butchering; he struck right where he could cause the most pain without severing an artery. "Don't you dare disobey me or they're dead, then you're next." He declared, turning back to Gaius and pointing his finger accusitorily. The cracking grew louder, and the ground rumbled for a moment.

Oh dear. It seemed that ritual wasn't quite as foiled as Gaius hoped; at the very least something was woken up. Or maybe it was the explosion that did it, which in hindsight was foolish to set off in a volcano. This was going to get very bad very quickly.

Just another minute, and that would hopefully be enough. Ever so slowly, Gaius removed his swords and his remaining knife, placing them on the ground beside him. Then, one step at a time, he walked toward the Dervish as slowly as possible. By the time he was halfway there, the earth spilled forth.

With another, thunderous crack, the earth split open, prompting the Dervish to drop his technique entirely and just flee. All three parties ran in different directions, only to be stymied again and again as more rents in the earth opened up. The sweltering heat grew even more unbearable, as molten rock began to slowly ooze up into the open air.

As if this wasn't bad enough, Gaius had to perform prodigous leaps, flips and cartwheels to avoid the blasts of multicolored smoke fired off by the Dervish, who seemed determined even now to at least kill him. He summoned up yet another Aegis variation, this one intended to repel toxins, blasting out a multicolored wind of countless strange chemicals which rendered the attacks... not safe, but less immediately harmful to life. The two enemies ran side-by side up and over the lip of the caldera, eyes trained on each other as the Dervish tried again and again to circumvent Gaius' defenses, and Gaius in turn spent qi exorbiantly to fend him off.

Then the world exploded.

Or at least, that's what it felt like beneath their feet, as the earth rumbled and shook, and small jets of pressurized magma began to shoot several feet up before falling back down. Gaius was no geologist, but he knew that for a volcano to go from dormant to active this fast was completely impossible... through purely physical means, at least. That spirit was awake and it was pissed.

Running off before his enemy could regain his bearings, Gaius' gaze darted around in search of the prisoners. One of them, the woman, was doing everything she could to scrable her way out, but between her wounds, the cuffs and the smoke, she wasn't getting far. There was no sign of the man. Grabbing ahold of the soldier's hand before she could slide deeper in, he unceremoniously flung her down the slope, then sprinted down himself as fast as his legs could take him.

Gaius' gaze darted around - where was that tattooed Dervish? He didn't seem to be there yet, but that didn't mean much; in all this chaos, there were plenty of techniques that could be used to hide oneself. His senses screamed at him, stretched the the breaking point and constantly firing off false positives.

The horse, of course, was terrified out of its mind, the sheer mind-numbing primar fear of this situation having practically un-broken it. Gaius could barely calm the animal down long enough to haul the three insentate prisoners up onto its back, then cut the rope tethering it to its post. The steed needed no further encouragement, galloping at full speed as far away as it could get.

"I'm not going back empty handed, damn you!" The blood-mad voice of the enraged Dervish called after Gaius. He turned around, resigned to a troublesome battle. The smoke and sulfur of the volcano swirled around the poison-master, coiling like an angry dragon.

"You've ruined everything, but thats fine. It's fine! I don't need those cretins, I'll refine your body by myself." He ranted and raved, sending massive toxic clouds billowing out at Gaius, who ran and dived, searching for some kind of opening.

Gaius tried to run around the wall of toxins, but it wrapped around its wielder with ease, driving him back again and again. This was bad, all of that smoke made approach impossible.

Thinking quickly, The Seeker broke a lump of brittle volcanic stone into shards and pebbles beneath his heel, then scooped them up. Running away wouldn't work, he'd be too far away to attack, and this guy would only get more smoke to attack with over time. Getting closer would just get him killed though. So, best to maintain this distance.

While most would be unable to see through the cloying black clouds, Gaius' eyes could penetrate with relative ease so long as he focused them; he flung the stones one at a time with unerring accuracy, putting the Dervish on the back foot for a moment. The other man responded with more condensed blasts of smoke, and the two traded back and forth for some time.

Finally, Gaius misstepped, and a tendril of smoke crashed into his chest. Though it was a gas, it felt more like being blasted with a stream of liquid, blasting The Seeker off his feet and sending him tumbling across the black sand. A few seconds later, when Gaius was back on his feet, the poison kicked in.

His vision blurred, his knees buckled, and before he could process this, Gaius was already face-down on the ground. Through some shred of primordial instinct, he flung himself back down the slope, rolling down out of the way of yet another noxious cloud. This extended his life just a tiny bit longer.

He had to get up right now or it was all over. Step one: find the ground. The obscene dizzyness made this impossible to begin with. By the time Gaius fought his way up to his hands and knees the Dervish was already before him, that disgusting smoke swirling and compressing in his hands until it was nearly a liquid.

"You've got a sturdy constitution, but this will finish you!" the man declared, raising his arm to throw the deadly projectile.

thunk, thunk, thunk was all Gaius heard, as the dog-man was riddled with meter-long arrows. Indistinct voices called out behind him, but none of the mattered. More important than that, he needed to void these toxins. A strike to a pressure point in the lower abdomen, and the contents of his stomach were entered upon the ground, alongside some blood, bile and liquified toxins. He broke out into hacking coughs; fuck, that wasn't enough. So much was already in his blood.

Darkness claimed the Seeker, and he was forced to leave his life in the hands of his rescuers.

----

Consciousness returned to Gaius in quickly-fading fits and starts; wrapping his head in a fuzzy, fluffy feeling. He couldn't open his eyes, but he could make out blood-tinted shadows through his eyelids. That big man over there, that had to be Centurion Muyi. He had come to visit Gaius himself? Those other blobs were probably humans, but he couldn't tall who.

The fingers of his right hand twitched, sending a jolt of pain down his arm as they rubbed against the cot beneath him. Good, not paralyzed. He checked his remaining limbs, performing little twitches with all three. That infinitesimal movement seemed to put him out of breath, his lungs burning as he forced in oxygen through his infuriatingly sluggish body.

Probably best to go back to sleep, then; he wouldn't accomplish anything like this. His mind was instantly submerged.

Gaius woke up again much later, how much later he couldn't tell, and this time he could get his eyes open. Unsurprisingly, he was in a medical tent. A nearby nurse came up to him and began to explain his condition in a monologue that he only partially followed. He got the gist at least; he was alive, not crippled, and the poisons had been flushed out before they could do much damage. He should heal quickly, then - that was a relief.

Over the next few hours, information begn to trickle in; the three prisoners he got back would all live; the mission was a wild success, and he would get a bonus this month.

"And that's the long and short of it." Concluded Tyro, Muyi's stoic and businesslike acting second-in-command. A tall woman with her hair cut into a short bob, the officer had a permanently severe quality to her posture and features, and delivered her words in clipped, clinical tones. Gaius got the feeling that she didn't particularly want to be here, and would rather cozy up to a big pile of paperwork.

"Thanks for letting me know. I'm sorry I couldn't get everyone back." Gaius replied, his voice still faint and hoarse.

She rose an eyebrow, possibly in befuddlement at Gaius' pessimism - he couldn't exactly tell, with how stoic and understated her expressions tended to be. "Don't beat yourself up so much; by any metric you exceeded Centurion Muyi's expectations. Mine as well."

"I just wish I could have gotten back all five." Gaius rasped, grimacing in displeasure.

"Everyone always wishes they could have done this or that, soldier. That's life: thinking 'I wish I was stronger'. You'd be better off not dwelling too much on every time you fall short; you'll go mad if you do." Tyro advised him matter-of-factly. With that, she turned on her heel and smoothly exited the tent.

Gaius sighed, pondering that perhaps she was right. Better to think thoughts of inner peace, so as to mend his body faster. He needed to hurry up and finish waiting in this cloth box so that he could go wait in a stone and metal box instead.

And that's the last third of it. I'm not too fond of the ending; I couldn't figure out how to wrap it up in a compelling way. I hope the action was at least enjoyable

@Humbaba can you get this and the previous one?

 

[no.]

Gaius Antonius Omake #23: Stirring

Gaius' first bad headache happened shortly after his 45th birthday, during a trip to the Beast-Raising Forest to pick out a steed for yet another solo mission. Obviously he'd gotten them before, like everyone else in the world, but this was different.

"It hurts..."

Gaius clutched his head in both hands as he dimmed his sight and hearing, rushing around in search of some kind of shade. These trees weren't enough, the specks of light poking through the canopy were like needles stabbing into his brain.

"Why does it hurt this much? Am I sick?"

Where, where was the right spot? He needed someplace dark, someplace quiet. He couldn't just shut off all his senses, not outside his home - no public place is ever 100% safe after all. Down in that ravine to the west? It would have to do.

Gaius stumbled down a steep hill, nearly tripping entirely several times; he had no time to search for a safer way down. The crunching of the leaves beneath his feet resounded like like the blast of a mining array. The grinding sensation of his boots against the soil felt likeit would shake his bones apart.

"Here, here is fine!" Gaius exclaimed, slamming his fists into the side of the hill again and again. Soil exploded, stone cracked and crumbled, as Gaius slowly carved out a place to hide from this agony.

Soon enough, The Seeker had smashed open enough space to crawl into, which he did without hesitation. He didn't even mind when the stone around him collapsed into a cave-in, threatening to crush him under its weight; at least the light was gone. He faced away from the tiny opening he had punched near the entrance for air, pulling his hat down over his eyes and cowering like a terrified animal as the gut-twisting pain ever so slowly left him.

Two hours later Gaius emerged from the tomb he had built for himself, only a dull throb in the front and sides of his head remaining. He checked himself in to a Clan physician as soon as he could, but not complications were found. The doctor hypothesized that it might have been a constricted blood vessel in the brain brought on by intense chronic stress, and recommended he sleep five hours a day and take some pill whose name he couldn't remember for the next month. He settled on four and a half hours and not a minute more.

The headaches did not become chronic, as Gaius feared they would. This event seemed to have been a one-time thing, so it quickly faded from his memory as he fell back into the endless routine that was his life.

----

The next time it happened was when Gaius was fourty-eight, and it was at a much less convenient time and place.

A crashing sound alerted the surrounding patrons of the bar as an incredibly expensive liquor(by mortal standards, at least) spread out into a puddle across the floor of the tavern from a shattered porcelain cup. Gaius felt a dozen pairs of concerned eyes on him an intense pain and pressure spread across the inside of his skull.

"My lord? Is everything alright?" The bartender asked, mortified at the idea her drinks might have sickened or offended an immortal.

Gaius didn't even hear the woman, so overwhelmed was he by the sensations around him that seemed to grow a hundredfold in intensity. "Not again, it can't be happening again..." He mumbled. He reached into one bag and threw a small handful of electrum coins at his table - an action he immediately regretted, as the clatter of the little metal disks falling all over the place seemed like an avalanche in both volume and vibration.

"Damn it, which way? Which way out of town!?" The Seeker roared, clutching his head in one hand as he used his other to steady himself against the wall. small bursts and tendrils of qi started to flare out uncontrollably, and one terrified mortal outside pointed to his right. With no thought to dignity or propriety, he ran and ran until he found himself over a mile away from the outermost houses.

Every star in the sky was an arrow jabbing into his eyes but at least the noise was gone. Gaius fell to his knees in the sand, noting in some small corner of his mind that it would take days to get it all out of his trousers and his boots.

The agonized legionnaire grabbed to handfuls of sand and squeezes them as hard as he could, attempting to center his mind and shut out the pain. "Get a hold of yourself. You're The Seeker. You can weather this."

It was the dead of night when Gaius returned to that town, hoping to not draw too much attention to himself; an endeavor which went down the drain when he came upon the owner, bartender and barmaids from that tavern throwing themselves at his feet begging for forgiveness. He quietly explained to the mortals that it wasn't their fault, that he merely suffered from a medical problem(which, he supposed, he did, now that this had happened twice).

----

Gaius' third big headache came when he was fifty. He was spending the night at Axia's apartment after she managed to convince him to clear out an entire three hours of his schedule to relax after returning from yet another months-long solo hunting mission.

"No no no, not again..." He muttered, shaking his head like a restive horse in a vain attempt to disperse the building pressure.

"Are you quite alright, dear?" Axia asked with an exaggerated dainty little tilt of her head that he might find endearing if he wasn't in pain.

"No, not at all. I- Stop, no. Don't say anything, don't move. No noise, gah! The light..." Gaius rambled on, stumbling away toward the windows overlooking a huge fountain. (It was topped by an impressively large and beautiful granite statue depicting the nude likeness of the previous Grand Elder). He pulled the blinds shut like he was slamming a door, like he was physically throwing out the light which offended him so.

Axia got up and followed quickly after him, siezing his face with both hands and turning him to face her. "Your eyes are getting bloodshot. Do these come on quickly? You might have brain damage." She advised with a worried look.

"That's what I thought last time. Doctors keep telling me it's not anything physical. Metaphysical pressure they say, qi echoes." Gaius tried to explain, words tumbling out of his mouth like water from a pitcher.

"Metaphysical- Gaius, beloved, light of my life, how did you give yourself metaphysical brain damage?" The Young Mistress replied, a slightly dangerous gleam in her eye.

"I don't know, can't talk, just put me in the pantry please..." He dismissed, lacking the energy to have any serious conversation right now. His girlfriend looked like she wanted to say something, but decided to hold her tongue as she led Gaius toward the pantry in question.

"I'll check up on you once an hour. If it's gotten worse we're going to a physician right away." She informed him in a scolding tone. "Once you're feeling better we will have a talk about this." Then the shut the door, leaving Gaius shrouded in blessed darkness.

----

Two weeks later, Axia managed to get Gaius to come on a trip with her out to the Burnished Crags and meet with a relative of hers, a cousin if he recalled correctly. This woman, Colette Quintia, was a soul cultivator, and had been convinced to take a look at Gaius in exchange for some kind of favor later. He got the feeling the two women didn't have the best relationship, as their words to each other were clipped and to-the-point.

A tall, thin woman with high cheekbones and a sharp chin, Colette didn't seem to have much care for Gaius' boundaries, treating him simply as a problem to examine and solve. She prodded at his pressure points, piercing through his body with ghostly white tendrils of qi which effortlessly parted his own and sent intense chills through his body. By the end of the examination, Gaius could not help but feel a little bit violated, like he'd been taken apart and put together as if he were a machine.

"I think I understand now." Colette said, clasping her bony hands behind her back. "It's friction between you and your future self."

Gaius screwed up his face in confusion. "Come again? Are you saying I've travelled through time?"

"Not exactly; it's more a matter of will." Colette clarified, gesturing grandly with one hand. "Amongst all the forces in the cosmos, the human will is one of the most potent. By declaring with such confidence your intention to follow one path, you have prompted the world to respond."

"Respond how, exactly?" Gaius inquired, cupping his chin in thought. "Is the world trying to resist my path? I thought that only happened in Tribulations?"

Colette wagged her finger disapprovingly. "No, no, not resistance, if anything it's the opposite. Your path, as you have described to me, is so selfish that it is inherently paradoxical. You are manifesting that which you are to become."

"That which I am to become... so my future self, as you said." Gaius mused, revelation dawning plainly upon his face.

"Exactly. Your ideal self wishes to emerge, but it cannot, as you are not that man. This dissonance is the source of your pain. The act of becoming your ideal self quiets that stirring, but if you do not move with enough speed, then it torments you." Colette smirked, her eyes reflecting a mix of fascination and scorn. "Think of it like this: so long as you follow The Dao of The Seeker, you shall be harried by a ferocious beast. It will forever nip at your heels, pushing you onward. One day will be devoured, Gaius; it is only a matter of time."

A grim silence fell over The Seeker as he pondered these words. "I think... I think that was something I always knew on some level, I just didn't know how to spell it out. Thank you, my lady. You have enlightened me a great deal." Gaius confessed, bowing deeply.

"We don't bow here, boy, we do handshakes." Colette reminded him with an eerie laugh. "More importantly, do you really not care? Does this not sway you at all? You're creating a monster; in your hubris, you are trapped in between the judgement of the heavens and the vortex of your own philosophy. Are you truly prepared to battle with Scylla and Charybdis like that?"

Gaius steeled his expression. "No, not at all. But I will be, when the time comes. That's what cultivation is about, isn't it?"

Colette scoffed, shaking her head. "Men. So stubborn. Well, have it your way."

And so Gaius returned to Axia, telling her... not quite the truth. More like an optimistic version of the truth, so that she wouldn't worry for him. The future colliding with the present and tormenting him for his own weakness? That was nothing, he would cope with it. If anything it was reassuring; his path had a future, had endless potential, this was the proof. In getting the answers he needed, he would use the power of the future to break free of the past, so that his life could finally begin.

Don't have anything witty to say about this one, just more content exploring the potential consequences of using a cheat Dao.

@Kaboomatic

 

[no.]

Gaius Antonius Omake #24: The Shield of Light

Wind howled and thunder roared. Lightning flashed and rain pounded like arrows. A terrible monsoon had struck the towns and villages near the southern base of Turtlebone Mountain and no one dared come out, even the many low-level spirit beasts. Only two things were willingly out in the middle of this disastrous storm. The First were the Centennial Storm Trout, three hundred pound spirit fish who swam through the moisture-filled air with ease in their furious and feverish mating dance, hoping to catch lightning to evolve into pseudodragons and win more mates. The second was Gaius, who saw these miserable conditions as the perfect chance to train.

A huge, blue-tinted shield of light ten feet in diameter was projected from his hands, facing against the wind which flung the rain sideways at his body. From it, a miniature dust storm was projected, breaking up the droplets into smaller pieces with scouring wind and absorbing the moisture to form clumps of mud which fell harmlessly to the ground all around Gaius.

Aegis Manifestation: Water

It wasn't nearly enough, no matter how much effort Gaius poured in. Most of the moisture was blocked, slowly turning the ground around Gaius' feet into a tall mound of mud, but he was still pelted by a deluge of rainwater, soaking through his robes and chilling him to the bone. His long hair blew wildly behind him, whipped up by the furious clashing of wind as he continued to exert his qi to its fullest extent.

To most, this life-threatening training would seem excessive, even insane, but Gaius saw results. Or at least, the beginnings of what might become results. More than remaining a still projection, the disc rippled and writhed slightly, reacting to where the pressure was the highest at Gaius' command. It didn't accomplish much, but he could at least slightly alter the shape of his shield and the concentration of its force, after so many years of effort.

He focused his perception, straining against the overload of sensations. His spiritual sense desperately grasped at every inch of his shields, tracing every thread and filament of qi, every impulse of movement, and seized at them.

"Left..." Gaius muttered through gritted teeth as the shield ever so slowly leaned to the left, until it settled into an oblong shape. "Right..." He continued, carefully reversing the movement, then shifting to the other side. This whole process took nearly twenty seconds and made sweat pour down his face. It wasn't a matter of strength; the sheer, masterful precision necessary to alter the technique's shape like this was vastly greater than what was needed to cast it in the first place. Still, this was very good - he'd never been able to move it this much before.

The Aegis Manifestation series was unpopular, to say the least. There were dozens of versions of the technique at various levels of difficulty, each designed to repel a specific kind of force, element or attack with a countering force. The narrow specialization of each version meant that, besides those who regularly fought against a certain type of beast or enemy, learning any one version just wasn't worth it when a more broad and generalist defense would cover a much wider range of situations.

Gaius, however, had not just learned one or two versions, but every single version of Aegis Manifestation available to a Cultivator of his rank. Pure madness, and an utter waste of prodigious talent, some might say. How many useful techniques could Gaius have learned in his twenty years as a Cultivator thus far, with his highly noteworthy aptitude? It was hard to say. Indeed, he was wasting his talent; he wasn't just good at cultivation itself but had a keen sense for combat and a high degree of qi control. Nonetheless, he had focused himself so much, and down such substandard paths of development, that he was probably below average when it came to Ninth Heavenstage Body Cultivators.

Joke's on them. Gaius was finally, just barely, beginning to see, to feel, to understand.

Aegis was a legendary weapon. Said to be a treasure belonging to the Imperator himself, that mysterious and ever-distant figure to whom the Golden Devils still paid tribute, it was a shield of golden light which warded away all evil, all corruption, and was utterly invincible, repelling anything and everything which might threaten his chosen people. There were even tales from the ancient past, claiming that a few mighty Spirit Severing warriors had personally wielded the Aegis at the behest of the Imperator to protect the righteous from the wicked. Hence, an Aegis Manifestation technique was meant to bring forth a figment of this almighty force, to repel a single type of danger.

Most scholars thought of the Shield of Light as a metaphor; less a literal artifact(though something resembling it probably existed at some point) and more a narrative device representing the resilience of the people of bronze, both individually and as a society. If the Imperator was the Golden Devil Clan personified, then the Aegis was their prowess at defensive warfare and their determination to cling to life no matter what hardships may come their way.

To Gaius, the Aegis could be said to be something well-suited to his ideals. The Seeker was a being of purity: pure mind, pure soul, pure Dao, an unfettered wanderer who attains what he pursues no matter what. Therefore, the power to ward off all corruption, all danger, anything and everything that might hold him back, was a power he would do anything to attain. Thus, he devoted his combat arts almost completely to the Aegis Manifestation series, so as to understand the underlying principles and extract the True Aegis within.

The Aegis Reversal had been his first foray into this deeper understanding, but had hit a wall. As useful as the technique was, it lacked purity; compromise would never bring out the true indomitable spirit of the technique, for such was anathema to its perfection.

Finally, after all these years of trying with nothing to show for it, his insanity was beginning to pay off. Far from home, tortured by the elements and walking on the edge of death, Gaius' qi had started to become one with the Shield of Light. Infinitesimal progress, but infinitely meaningful.

Then it went wrong, and it was all over with just that little slip. The shield began to fade and flicker, and the wind and rain struck Gaius harder than before. After keeping it up so long, he wouldn't be able to cast it again; it was time to go. Pressing two fingers to the ruby-encrusted clasp of his cloak, Gaius activated the arrays inscribed on the inside of the garment. The Traveler's Mercy Cloak was, indeed, a true mercy, allowing Gaius to train in such harsh conditions with a lowered risk of death. The storm began to part around The Seeker for the most part as a simple protective field enshrouded him. It wouldn't be much use against qi-infused attacks, but against bad weather, this minor treasure was invaluable.

That said, the cloak would only work for an hour before needing to recharge, and in a massive storm like this, some of the rain still punched through, so Gaius would need to find some kind of shelter. The Legionnaire set off to search.

----

Gaius would of course not be so lucky as to find a cave at the base of Turtlebone Mountain with no spirit beasts in it. A few dozen sets of faintly glowing eyes trained on the exhausted Cultivator, and a struggle for survival began. Some kind of bats, nearly four feet in wingspan with sharp, oversized claws on their wings and feet.

A step to the side and a front kick with a pointed toe, and two bats at once were pierced. One bit into his shoulder and another into the back of his neck; Gaius threw himself back-first into the cave wall, and those two died as well.

Death. It follows us always, and cultivation could be said to be a struggle against death. Thus, Cultivators often achieve moments of clarity when death is just one step behind. Here, as Gaius struggled against his own doom, a couple of wrong moves away from the abyss, his consciousness expanded.

Kill another with a left jab, then duck. A quarter-second too slow; his forehead was gouged instead of his eyes. He grabbed the offending creature by the wing and swung it like a club, taking out two more beasts in tandem. Five more bats swooped in, their shapes becoming clearer and clearer despite the darkness. Pushing off the wall in a surge of motion, Gaius acted before they could envelop him. Right straight, left elbow, right short upper, sway to the left, then fall back. Three more beasts died, as razor-like claws slashed across the warrior's chest and forearm.

It is in struggling to survive that humans create purpose for themselves. Screaming against the darkness, pulling back against entropy, gathering the world, the cosmos, into their own self - that is cultivation. If life is defined by its constrast against death, then to cultivate is to gather life, to gather mind, to gather self, until you can hold no more. So it is no wonder that in the face of death, the hunger of life is at its strongest.

They were circling now, looking for openings. The faint sound of flapping wings - backfist, high side kick, low side kick, spear hand. Four more fall. The ravenous fangs of creatures as desperate to live as Gaius tore into his thighs and his back; they knew well enough by now to not attack his neck. Gaius reached down and grabbed two bats, pulling them away and crushing them in his hands. Another leapt off him and tried to flee, only for its fellows to be thrown at it. One clipped a wing, the other landed directly. Another beast ripped a chunk out of Gaius' ankle, sending him down to one knee.

Anyone can perform a martial arts exhibition when in peak condition. Anyone can write poetry or craft philosophy in an empty room, merely pondering on the world rather than living in it. True mastery is found in the most extreme conditions possible, in that boundary between life and death. Pain, joy, ambition, hate, love, all of it crashing like the thunder, pounding like the rain, howling like the wind.

Gaius roared in defiance, striking again at the menacing creatures around him. Blood splashed and flowed, splattered and burst, the currency of life being spent in abundance in this primal dance. He forced back the horde, struggled back to his feet and pressed his back against the wall. He could see all of them now, more clearly than ever before. It was as if the inside of this cave in the middle of the night during a monsoon was as bright as the outside during a clear day. With any cohesion or capability for ambush lost, it was only another minute and several more losses before the bats broke ranks and left their home, taking wing into the night as they fled for their lives.

Mindful of the degree of his injuries and exhaustion, Gaius reached into his pouch and retrieved a few pills. Blood replenishment, coagulant, qi qi replenishment. Taking all three at once was very dangerous. This whole day had been far too dangerous. The warrior swallowed all three, washed down by the blood filling up his throat. One step, two steps, three, and then he collapsed.

----

It is a shield because you call a shield. It is not a shield, it is the light itself, the will to survive. What is danger, before the strength of will? The world is nothing, the mind is much larger. The shield is the will is the mind is the self. You are the light. Seek. Seek. Seek. Seek.

Gaius eyes opened slowly, and the first thing that struck him was the cold. His hands and feet had grown numb, and it was getting hard to breathe. The second thing he realized was that he was alive. Best to stay awake then, because he wasn't sure that would be the case if he fell back to sleep. Pressing his fist against the ground, Gaius managed to get up to a sitting position. He couldn't move his ankle much, so walking wasn't safe yet.

Gaius dragged himself out into the incredibly hot sunlight, which struck him like a hammer, but despite the pounding in his head and the stinging in his eyes, he was grateful. This heat would dry his clothes out, then once his ankle healed a little more he would get up and leave. He had a long walk ahead of him to the nearest settlement, but long walks were The Seeker's specialty.

"Maybe that was a little excessive..." Gaius wondered aloud, his voice coming out scratchy and faint through a damaged throat. Yes, he'd gone too far this time. He probably ought to wait until he hit Foundation Establishment before he came back to this mountain. Still, he figured some things out, he thought. Despite everything, the thought made him smile.

Another hour of recuperation passed, as Gaius slowly regained his energy and sensation returned to his limbs. He was so painfully thirsty, but he needed to wait another two hours before he could safely take a hydration pill. It was there, in that moment of weakness, looking at the quickly-healing cuts on his forearm, that Gaius slipped up and complained for the first time in years. "So much trouble, and I can still barely move that damn thing. This is obscene..."

In response to his own sinful words, Gaius slapped both his cheeks as hard as he could, producing a loud and painful thwack that faintly echoed up the mountain. If he had any beard to speak of, half of it would be gone now, so vigorous was the blow. He sighed, closing his eyes and enjoying the nice post-rain aroma.

"Might as well cultivate while I'm waiting. Not like I can defend myself either way." The Seeker mused, manually pulling his legs into a meditative position and retrieving a spirit stone. "Please don't kill me, beasts." He chuckled, making a pleading gesture with both hands before sinking deep into that familiar itching and stretching sensation.

Another vignette, this one taking place before turn 8. I'm not sure exactly where on the timeline this is, but it's before Gaius went off to war.

 

[no.]

Gaius Antonius Omake # 25: Searching for Companionship

"I'm not doing this."

"Come on, just give it a try!"

"I'm too busy, there's no time."

"Sooner or later, there will have to be time." Jiang Li said, putting his hands on his hips. "You need to learn to budget your time."

"I think I'm budgeting it very well, considering what I'm trying to do." Gaius retorted, crossing his arms and leaning back against a wall. "What's with all this sudden interest, anyway?"

"It's about your emotional health, man." Jiang Li shot back. "You can't burn the candle at both ends forever, who knows how long that's sustainable?"

"This schedule isn't both ends, it's just one end. It's not that hard." The taller man insisted. "Really, you don't have to worry about me, I'm okay." He smiled.

"Alright, if you say so. One day though, you'll have to give someone the time of day." Jiang Li conceded, defeated once more.

Soon after, the two friends went their separate ways, leaving the marketplace to go about their own business. Gaius left for the market, whilst Jiang Li rounded a corner and sat at a table with two others, both of whom had the look of someone who'd been eavesdropping.

"Still no luck, huh?" Diana asked, crossing her legs and sipping some kind of expensive cocktail. "I'm telling you, it's not gonna work."

"It can and it must!" Jiang Li declared, taking the remaining empty chair. He propped up his elbows on the table and steepled his fingers together. "We're going to pull this off, it's for his own damn good."

Across from him, Xie Chin groaned. "He's so emotionally dishonest though. There's just no way to force this; he'll figure it out on his own in about 300 years."

"No way, I'm not backing down yet, there's a lot of stuff left to try." Jiang Li refuted. "Gaius desperately needs to loosen up; we're getting him to date somebody."

----

After scrapping many elaborate tricks and schemes, the trio eventually settled for something simpler: good old fashioned collusion. One of the three would introduce Gaius to someone and try to push him and the other person to hit it off. If that one failed, another one would try. Hopefully if they rotated, Gaius wouldn't catch on.

The first at bat was Xie Chin, who brought along a friend of her's named Camilla. A nice lady, very enthusiastic and open, she blew right through Gaius' half-hearted awkwardness and began to spend time with him fairly often. Xie Chin proclaimed her victory to the others upon seeing the bubbly girl drag Gaius along to an art museum with her elbow twined with his(well, more like his wrist).

Indeed, it seemed as if that cunning beauty had created a happy couple with the greatest of ease, only for those hopes to be thoroughly deflated.

"Can we take a break?" Gaius finally asked, after an entire hour of trying to rouse himself to speak.

"What do you mean? Do you not like fowl hunting?" Camilla asked, lowering her bow and turning to speak to her ostensible boyfriend.

"Nah, it's interesting enough. I mean like... from this courting stuff. I know you're not supposed to acknowledge it directly but like... I don't know, I only have so much emotional energy in the day, and all that." The tall man looked away, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'd rather just hang out as two people without this obligation of it being a thing, you know? I can't let my cultivation be hindered by inner turmoil."

"...Ah. Okay..." The girl replied, the two falling into an ominous silence. "I'll, uh, see you around...".

The message was clear, even if Gaius wouldn't say it outright: he found Camilla's romantic affection exhausting, and didn't want to devote himself so heavily to any one person right now. As Camilla sobbed into her chest the next day, Xie Chin bitterly accepted defeat.

Subject: Camilla. Time before failure: 13 days, 10 hours.

----

"Okay, that was a miserable failure, and now Camilla is mad at me for encouraging her to act on that crush." Xie Chin said bitterly, glowering at her co-conspirators. The three of them silently pondered for a minute, drinking their tea.

"I'll go next." Jiang Li spoke up with a cheeky grin. "I know Gaius better than anyone, I've got the perfect girl for him."

"Somehow I'm not entirely confident in that..." Diana muttered quietly into her cup.

----

Three weeks after things had been settled with Camilla, Jiang Li introduced Gaius to Julia. Unlike Xie Chen, he made sure the two run into each other repeatedly, rather than directly encouraging them to become mutually involved. Julia was a serious, studious girl who wasn't particularly demonstrative and knew when to give people their space. No matter how you sliced it, the two made for a good match.

This endeavor bore fruit for a lot longer than the last one. Occasionally the two could be seen holding hands together, and the conspirators had confirmed that each had visited the other's house at least once. They weren't particularly affectionate in public, but there was a quiet solidarity the two shared at all times. Indeed, Gaius didn't seem to be rejecting Julia in any sense at all.

The problem was actually the opposite: she seemed to be getting exasperated with him. The two would often engage in metaphysical and philosophical debate togehter, nerd shit to the nth degree that Jiang Li couldn't comprehend at all. What he did understand, however, was that Julia seemed to find Gaius' ideas and his stubbornness about said ideas infuriating. Oh dear.

A Dao mismatch. How many times had love been destroyed by that cruel twist of fate? Alas, it claimed another victim today, as Julia eventually left Gaius over an argument over 'the meaning of fulfillment' or something along those lines.

Subject: Julia. Time before failure: 29 days, 3 hours.

----

"Okay, I was wrong too."

"And?"

"And I lose the bet..." Jiangi Li pouted, forking over a few low-grade spirit stones to Diana. "Damnit, couldn't they have waited another day before the breakup? I was just 21 hours short!"

As their friend sulked into his wine, Diana was furiously taking notes, narrowing down a long list of potential subjects.

"I'm surprised to see you caring this much all of a sudden." Xie Chin noted, intrigued.

"What can I say? I want to win." Diana smirked back.

----

An entire month an a half later, Diana introduced Gaius to a man named Marcus. This man was very straightforward and emotionally undemanding; he would take things as slowly as he needed to, and never got excessively involved in anything. This meant that he could bring Gaius into engaging conversations with ease without overwhelming him, and soon the two were seen doing things together at least once a week. Things had gone down with wild and shocking success.

There was just one problem: No one could actually tell if they were dating or not. The certainly never kissed. Sometimes they hugged, but held it a bit longer than appropriate for a platonic embrace. They sat very close together, but never outright in each other's lap. Were they just very private about things? Was one of them oblivious? Were they both oblivious? Were they just friends? The trio of manipulative friends were completely unsure about the situation, thus putting their strategy in a state of limbo for the forseeable future.

The conspirators despaired and turned to drink. Well, more drink than usual. At least if this attempt failed they could begin the rotation again, but without knowing whether or not it had succeeded, they couldn't continue, because they would risk destroying a genuine relationship. And they couldn't ask Gaius about it either, or they would give the whole thing away! Gaius wasn't stupid, the big man already seemed to have some suspicions; they had to act delicately. This was a true stalemate: the game was over.

Subject: Marcus. Time before failure: ???

----

As three friends seethed, two other friends(really, that was actually all they were) laughed. The first was Gaius, and the other was a fellow clansman; tall, if not as extreme as The Seeker's height, and brawny, with his hair styled into come kind of complex fluffy mass that Gaius usually couldn't comprehend.

"I still can't believe we've strung them along for this long!" Marcus laughed, slapping his knee. "You're a mean guy, you really are."

"Oh come on now. They started this, I'm just fighting back." Gaius replied with a smirk. "They just don't get how much I really do need the time."

The other man sighed and hung his head. "I can sympathize with their frustration, at least. It's tough being a prodigy, but it seems like it's tough being friends with one too."

"It's not that it's tough. I don't know if it's a hard way to live because I don't know any other way. Right now I feel like if I don't go all out, I'll burst into flames. There's an endless energy inside me and it has to be used as much as I can manage." Gaius explained, gesticulating with his hands a bit to punctuate his point. He showed more passion now, thinking and talking about cultivating, than he did when the two did anything fun together.

Marcus pouted, reaching out and gently taking hold of Gaius' hand. "You know, I really would date you if you asked."

"I know. Maybe someday." Gaius smiled sadly, patting his fake boyfriend's hand.

To some, an arrangement like this might seem completely deranged. After all, if you want to be with someone, why not just be with them? The fact of the matter simply was that Gaius didn't have enough room in his heart or mind right now. The sheer exhilarating desire to follow the path of The Seeker had swallowed him whole, and it was a pleasant existence so far. This lack of room did not bring him any despair, because living as The Seeker required not contemplating leaving that very path. Madness? Perhaps, but Gaius found purpose and meaning in it, so being mad was fine.

Keep the path open. No matter what you do, don't feel anything or get involved in anything that could put an obstacle in the way. Alienating, but if that was enough to dissuade Gaius, what kind of Cultivator would he be?

More stuff from the backlog, this one set way back, a couple years before Gaius reached the Ninth Heavenstage. I'm not too proud of this one, I wanted some character-driven comedy but it ended up a bit dull I think. Still, wordcount is wordcount.

 

[no.]

Gaius Antonius Omake # 26: Message

Gaius woke up with a gasp, covered in sweat, precisely at 6 AM, and rolled out of bed, frantaically crawling toward his desk like a rabid animal. Eyes wide and inhumanly focused, The Seeker dragged himself into his chair and prepared a chunk of charcoal and a piece of parchment. He immediately began to inscribe his thoughts ino text, working as hard as he could to get it all out before any of the night's revelations could fade.

What is cultivation, exactly? Moreover, is it intelligently designed?

Indeed, cultivation has discreet stages, but how much of this system was designed from the ground up by some heavenly will, and how much is merely the laws of physics, substances rushing from high pressure areas to low pressure ones?

What is Qi Condensation? Simple enough; it is to take in qi from the environment and forcibly expand the dantian, a metaphysical organ which exists in both physical and spiritual form. As the spiritual part of the dantian is stretched out, it reacts by producing more qi, a process which is measured in Heavenstages. When the dantian is filled, the qi begins to spill out and saturate the body. Should Qi Condensation be maintained, then the qi will fill the bones and muscles, then the circulatory system, then the spinal column and finally the brain, which is the most resistant to saturation of all - the most "high-pressure". These are the Olympian Keystones. Again it must be asked; is this not just a vessel beng filled? Many theorize that this was the only form of qi use which the very first prehistoric cultivators of the Turtle World were aware of, taking in qi one day and then using it the next, rarely cultivating enough to go up more than a few Heavenstages.

What is Foundation Establishment? Even more simple: a new form of condensation. The qi in the dantian is compressed into a pillar, allowing it to be filled up all over again, then compressed into another pillar, and so on. Simply put, the essense of the qi is repeatedly squeezed into a smaller shape to make more room. While the presence of a powerful Dao to shape the pillars and protect against Heavenly Tribulation is needed, was this always the case or was its necessity itself shaped by the heavens' judgement? Pillar-building may not have always been a philosophical and ritualistic practice; it may have originated merely as a much more efficient way to store and produce qi.

What is Core Formation? More compression. The pillars are fused into a single larger pillar, which then takes physical form as a new organ; a reactor of sorts with a capacity vastly outstripping the dantian. As more qi is poured into the core, it is forced to become more solid, thus increasing its own qi production. This continues until the core is so solid, so full, so dense that it can take no more, and it breaks. In this sense, a core is simply the fused piller of a Great Circle Foundation Establishment Cultivator, brought into the physical layer of reality and further reinforced and built upon.

What is Nascent Soul? This is far less understood. Nascent Soul Cultivators are rare enough that scientific study is difficult, but the process essentially involved breaking one's core, thus releasing all of the stored energy, and using it to give rise to a secondary soul. This in effect gives one a degree of limited power over creation itself, namely the ability to unravel it, in addition to unfathomable raw power. How then, does this soul generate such immense qi? Perhaps it has a tiny dantian of its own? These details are unknown to the people of the Virtuous Flipper Region, and thus the facts stop here.

Perhaps there is a purely scientific explanation behind the mysteries of the Nascent Soul stage, but as far as we can tell, there appears to be a clear deliniation between the stages up to Core Formation and Nascent Soul, with the former being increasingly efficient means of qi production and the latter being wholly mystical in nature. Perhaps the stages up to Core Formation are a biological process which the heavens later codified and restricted, and Nascent Soul is something new entirely, some ritual which, without the participation of the heavens, would not be possible.

Finally finished, the Legionairre put aside his implement and took a deep breath. "What in the world did I write this out for?" Gaius wondered, stroking his chin. "This is the same stuff everyone thinks about, and I'm not even a Soul Cultivator. Am I missing something?"

He got up and filed his newest piece of writing away one of many huge piles. Shuffling into the washroom, he began to wash his face, trying to run the remaining drowsiness out of his eyes. "What are you trying to tell me?" Gaius asked the mirror. "That was extremely common analysis. Is it a starting point? Am I to contemplate the divide between the physical and the mystical?" He continued to wonder aloud to no avail. His reflection in the tempered glass gazed back at him and offered no assistance in the matter.

With a weary sigh, The Seeker stripped off his nightclothes, revealing his chiseled physique, marked here and there with small scars from particularly deep wounds that even the healing of a Cultivator couldn't completely erase. Stepping into his bathtub and flash-heating it with a burst of qi, Gaius noted that he was out of clean water and would need to instruct a Junior to get him some more.

Stepping into the bath, he continued contemplating his recent revelations. "Is it a message from The Seeker that is me, The Seeker that is God, or The Seeker that I will be?" He lathered his body as he ran through the options. If it was from The God, then he had no hope to unravel it from his lowly station. If it was from The Self, then it was something already on his subconscious mind. If it was from The Future, then it was most likey some kind of instruction. He nodded to himself as he began to wet and scrub his unruly hair into order. Best to consider the meaning behind the Core-Nascent division in his writing and philosophy for the near future, just to be safe.

Gaius got out of the bath, lazily blowing the moisture off with more qi. Wasteful, perhaps, but Gaius wasn't present of mind enough to bother with such menial tasks yet. He'd also wasted too much time today; he was about five minutes behind schedule and he'd have to go a tiny bit faster in the rest of the day's tasks to make up for it.

A simple one this time. If you're wondering what the massive piles of parchment and scrolls in Gaius' bedroom are, a lot of it is this - Gaius getting visions in his dreams and writing down the first thing that comes to mind. A lot of the time it's nonsense, but he's very thorough and fastidious about doing this because he believes he is sending messages to himself.

An interesting thought experiment: if you're the oracle of a god, and that god is one you created, is that any different from just being mad?

 

[no.]

Side-Omake: The World In Your Eyes

Galatea Antonius would not describe herself as someone particularly special.

Sure, she was a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, so statistically she was nearly one in ten thousand, but... it never felt particularly amazing to her, with the stories of amazing mighty elders she'd grown up reading. Centurions, as amazing as they seemed to their juniors, were nonetheless a common sight. They were normal people, who went to bars and mess halls, who fooled around with prostitutes and fought personally, out on the field of battle, frequently. Elders were different, they were big-picture types, who controlled millions of lives and only came out when necessary, political creatures whose plans could take centuries to bear fruit. That wasn't her, she was just... normal.

Still, Galatea was the strongest Cultivator the Antonius family had ever produced, which meant they were moving up in the world, which was nice. As a six-pillar Foundation Establishment, she tended to lead most military operations she was involved in, and she was pretty good at it. Her soldiers respected her, her record was quite positive, and life had in general been extremely kind to her for the last century.

Then the worst Trial in her or almost anyone else's life occurred, most of the Elders were killed in some freak accident that was classified even to her, and as a result the command structure became wildly understaffed. Galatea nowadays often found herself being tasked with command roles that would have been given to Elders. These jobs, naturally, were bigger, more complex and usually more boring than the field work she had become accustomed to. Suddenly, she was an Elder, if a fake one. Looking at situations from the widest possible scope, planning the movement of mind-boggling numbers of troops where hundreds or even thousands of deaths would be her fault if she screwed up once.

Things got a bit better with each passing decade though, as new Elders began to trickle in one at a time, the new councilmembers got accustomed to their jobs, and Guest Elders from the Golden Devils' vassal states were brought in to bridge the gap for the time being. It was this confluence of events, the overpromotion and the imported talent, that she met Liu Fei.

It was a joint mission to reinforce the Iron Basin, a particularly hot and desolate region which had been hit very hard during the Trial. The task had been assigned to the LVII, a small legion made up of just eight Centuria. Still, a massive undertaking by any measure, but none of the Clan's true Elders had been available to oversee the operations. Thus, Liu Fei had been assigned to oversee things, with Galatea as his second-in-command and the intermediary between him and the troops.

From the beginning he was a fascinating man. Just by looking at him, one could glimpse a sort of etherial quality to him, for which there weren't quite the right words. Every movement, every gesture, every strand of hair was deliberate, yet effortless. Indeed, the spark of heavenly genius which marked a true prodigy could be glimpsed in the eyes of Liu Fei, who had broken through to Core Formation at the age of 300 despite rising all the way to the Twelfth Heavenstage of Qi Condensation in his youth. Now he was at the Cloud Core stage, and everyone could tell he had much, much farther to advance from here.

She felt embarassed to even be standing beside this man. She, who was half a century older and still wasn't done building her seventh pillar. Still, the Hong Xuan Clan's military structure wasn't quite the same as the Golden Devils' so she often found herself acting as a translator and advisor of sorts, allowing everything to run smoothly. It was as if were a chain keeping Liu Fei tethered to the earth, stopping him from floating away like the weightless, timeless creature he appeared to be.

----

"I must say, I thought I had already eaten every part of an ox before, but the tail? Now that is quite a novelty" Liu Fei commented, curiously poking at a plate of oxtail with his fork. "What is the proper way to eat this, exactly?"

"It's simple, you just cut around the bone. The spinal fluid has already seeped into the meat; there's no cord anymore." Galatea explained, making the man's face light up in understanding. It was moments like these when she remembered that this Elder was younger than she was, and a bit childish besides. He was slow to try new things at all, be they new clothes, new food or even a different kind of bed. It had been delightful to push the mysterious Cultivator into trying new things, in part because she actually felt like his equal in those moments, but also because the way he flushed when embarassed was adorable.

"So, what is your take on the Blood Cannibals' recent espionage actions?" Liu Fei asked, pausing to take a sip of wine.

"That is certainly a big mystery, yes..." Galatea mused, dipping a heel of bread in a bit of extra sauce. "If I had to take a wild guess, I would postulate that they're setting up something big. Some kind of huge trap to win them big victories the second the war begins, so that they can get easy meals and grow stronger. That's all it ever is with those freaks."

This was nice, not being so overly stiff and concerned with rank. She knew the only reason she could eat and speak with Liu Fei like this was because of her own overpromotion and the man's own casual demeanor, so she would appreciate it while it lasted. Although, perhaps 'casual' was not the best way to describe this fascinating man; it was more like he was detached from such petty things as rank, radiating an aura of general benevolence to all those around him.

"It's a little odd, for you to give me the time of day like this." Galatea admitted with a wistful sigh. "It seems like I just caught you on the way out. You're destined for greater things and I've nearly hit my peak; With my aptitude I would almost certainly die if I tried to ascend. Soon I'll be just another face in the crowd to you."

Liu Fei seemed ready to dismiss such concerns with good humor, before realizing how seriously she was taking them. He reached up and scratched his head in consternation. "Is that really what you think?"

"It's not what I think, it's a fact. You're far better than me."

"Am I really? I'm not sure." Liu Fei shrugged. "Sometimes I feel like things just... worked out for me, at some point, and things lined up. Some sort of frame of mind or confluence of Feng Shue that put me on a fortunate path. I don't feel like a legend or a hero. And I can certiainly tell you, I wouldn't be here now if I hadn't-"

"Found that Moonsilver E-String in the Qigai Secret Realm, I know, you've told me." Galatea interrupted before Liu Fei could insult her with his humility any longer.

"What am I supposed to say, 'Tea?" He sighed, throwing up his hands. "I'm no one of importance, I just managed to make it here. And I don't intend to just forget about you; you've become so very important to me." He smiled, reaching across the table to hold her hand.

----

Galatea wasn't actually sure when the two of them became lovers, but it was the kind of thing you feel coming from a long ways off. An inexorable specter which approached the two at whatever speed it pleased. Perhaps it was the day the two led an attck on a massive Hundred Li Python which threatened to flatten the city of Diakos. When Liu Fei smashed the monster to pieces with a rain of falling stars, a mournful and beutiful song radiating from his guqin, perhaps that was the moment.

Or maybe it was when she had visited his family home in the Hong Xuan Clan and seen how wonderfully he treated his young great-nieces and great-nephews. Perhaps at that moment, something within Galatea wondered what it would be like to see this man play with her own children.

It could have even been at the Emporikipolis' centennial festival, when a botched confetti launcher shot a projectile of compressed paper right into Liu Fei's eye, and he had laughed and laughed while flush with embarassment, begging the vendor to stop kowtowing at his feet.

Or perhaps 'lovers' wasn't something they simply became all of a sudden. Maybe it had been there for a long time, and they had slowly admitted it to themselves and each other. Not with words, but in the rhythm of their qi, in nigh-imperceptible gestures and small, insignificant touches. Yes, that sounded about right.

As the years passed and their relationship deepened, Galatea learned more and more about Liu Fei's worries and doubts. There had been whispers in the Hong Xuan clan, he claimed, that he was being considered as a future Grand Elder, should his very impressive growth continue. The fact that there existed a bare sliver of a chance he might one day reach Nascent Soul meant that his life became everyone's business, something that her lover resented.

Despite Liu Fei's frustration, as the head of a family herself(if a young and irrelevant one) she understood the cold calculus at play. What was the happiness of one man, next to the chance to stand on equal footing with the Golden Devils, either in this generation or within a few? There was almost a timelessness to it; endless cycles of humans, moving in a great ebb and flow on the scale of tens of generations. It was a surreal, alienating image.

"It doesn't matter what happens." Her fiance had said to her once whilst practicing his music up on a mountaintop. No matter how the Devils and the Hong Xuan try to divide my loyalties, you'll always be my girl."

She leaned against Liu Fei's back and wrapped her arms around his midsection, feeling the vibrations of his song as they reverberated back through his bones each time he plucked a string. Yes, she could believe that. Finally, she allowed herself to look forward, to dream big again.

Just realized I forgot to post something yesterday, so here it is today. Hoping to also post that tier list tonight. Some more prequel stuff; I enjoy showing Liu Fei from an outside perspective, it allows me to build more character whilst further deepening the mystery around him. As you can see, neither of Gaius' parents were exactly average, Galatea just doesn't have much self-esteem.

 

[no.]

Side-Omake: no.'s Top Ten Good Seeds

I was originally going to make this a tier list, but while I tried my best to emphasize positivity, it still felt too mean-spirited no matter what I did. So instead, I'm going to rank what I feel are the top ten best good seeds in the whole quest. If someone wants to start the thread and get involved without reading everything anyone ever posted, I will instruct them to read the story posts as well as these ten stories. These are the cream of the crop, the characters whose writing I feel deepens the setting, sucks in the reader and expands the world more than any others.

Just as I did in the now-aborted tier list, I did not even consider my own good seed in terms of rankings. Gaius is a character who I've poured a lot of emotional weight into, so I wouldn't be able to judge him objectively.

Finally, after much painful deliberation, I have decided to only include one character per author on this list, because it wouldn't be fair to split the spotlight unevenly, so as an honorable mention:

#X. Aliki Floros:

@Alectai 's second character, he continues to impress with his worldbuilding chops with Aliki, fleshing out little corners of the setting that you might never have even thought about had he not brought them up. Aliki is a much newer character than Rina, and thus not as well-established, but her origins alone are fascinating and mysterious.

That's probably how I'd describe Aliki in general: the appeal is learning more about what her whole deal is. There's a degree of subtle horror to it as well; you're never quite sure if she won't at any moment snap and bite your head off. This makes her great to keep up with, because you have to learn more.

----

And so, with all of the guidelines set, let's start off the list. Remember, I consider every one of these good seeds' stories something fantastic and worth following closely. The precise placement comes down mostly to my personal taste.

#10. Aristoteles 'Aris' Kalokagathos:

Topping off the list is @Siual 's decidedly Hellenic take on the arrogant Young Master, Aris. As far as Golden Devil officers go, Aris is not particularly unusual. In fact, he's downright stereotypical, but that's kind of the point. Aris is a fairly standard character because his purpose is to act as a viewpoint for the real star of his omakes: the warfare.

You can tell at a glance that Siual adores military fiction, and that oozes from every pore of his writing. He captures the Devils' unusual mix of east and west, as well as their mix of regimented battle and bombastic magical powers, blending it all into jaw-dropping action scenes. He pulls you into the grime and the gore and the noise with bone-rattling intensity, bringing the warfare which defines the Clan's existence into a stark and personal up-close view. It's a real shame he's not getting omake anymore; I would have loved to see Siual's take on some more recent battles.

#9. Xiao Yi/Jin Muyi:

This guy. This absolute madlad. The character of Xiao Yi, later Jin Muyi after a certain incident, is one of the ones which in no uncertain terms defines the very identity of 'Hmm Good Seed'(We probably need to come up with a shorthand title). A character who's been here from the very beginning, Muyi is an old veteran in every sense of the word, and @Mochinator absolutely wins the 'most improved' award of the whole thread. That's not to say his earlier stuff is bad, so much as his later work is genuinely some of the most fantastic and impactful material on the site.

Part of Muyi's appeal as a character is that he's Just Some Guy. He doesn't come from a prestigious background, is not a heaven-defying genius and has no incredible latent gifts. By the standards of the Clan he was an ordinary soldier who, through hard work, diligence, personal virtue and sheer determination, siezed greatness. Thus, when you read Muyi's stories, you're following the saga which has sort of a blue collar feel to it. Muyi is all of us, and that's a powerful thing, because it means we can all be Muyi.

#8. Maria:

Many seeds, often the more ambitious ones, are very protagonist-y, whilst others are written more like you might see from a secondary character. @BadAtScreenNames ' Maria is very much the former, and is an interesting reflection on how traumatic experiences can shape who you are as a person.

Many characters in fantasy action adventure stories will have backstories involving some kind of horrific event or period, which motivates them to seek revenge in some fashion. The interesting thing about Maria is how she chooses to seek revenge on not any particular person but evil itself. It's a deeply compelling case study in how, rather than seek to metaphorically escape from their own trauma, some people cloak themselves in it, make weapons of it, because they no longer feel complete without their own pain.

However, as compelling as this all is, I can't put her any higher because she's only been here for two turns, so there's a lot more to be explored with her. Still, she's absolutely one to watch out for.

#7. Xiuying Ten Jiang:

As much as I love @shibosho 's good seed, I can't justifiably rank her any higher than this, for just one reason: her story is very much one in progress. With only three turns' worth of development, this is someone who is just starting out, but she has exploded onto the scene with a fantastic first impression.

Xiuying is a decidedly wackier and more comedic character than most, one who brings to light the satirical absurdity of xianxia as a genre, with her obsession with noodles, proclamation for sudden mood swings and treating silly subjects with utmost seriousness, and a master who's just as much of an idiot as she is. Still, there is a sort of bull-headed earnestness to the little swordswoman that is absolutely infectious, which means I'm absolutely psyched to see what comes next for her and where the character will go. If the quality of her current adventures is anything to go by, she'll likely move even higher on my ranking.

#6. Wei Feng:

Remember what I said about Jin Muyi? That all goes double for Wei Feng, or perhaps even more. Wei Feng was created by @Humbaba pretty early on in the quest, on turn 2 I believe. He did not particularly stand out then. He then had a terrible performance on his first fate roll, making it only to the Second Heavenstage. Having only made it a single Heavenstage in twenty years, this man was to everyone's eyes a failure, IC and OOC.

Then he boiled himself nearly to death.

Wei Feng, fucking Chad that he is, burned himself in a cauldron of boiling holy water over and over again to activate his barely-functional meridians, because he is not a man who gives up. You see, Wei Feng had a dream. A dream to become a mighty hero without losing sight of his origins, to maintain his love for humanity no matter how high he climbed, so that he could protect mortals from any danger the world might throw at them. He would not give in here.

From there, Wei Feng's story of constant rebirth, of always getting back up, began to unfold, and it's one that's still going on. Every time some setback occurs, he survives it and comes back stronger than before, and thus he is known as The Phoenix. I know that in theory every Good Seed is equally talented, some are just luckier than others, but in my headcanon I like to imagine Wei Feng was born with barely more aptitude than the average Golden Devil, so that his stubborn refusal to die or fade away shines even brighter.

Where the fuck will The Phoenix's insane journey go from here? I don't know, but I'm waiting with bated breath to find out. In a way this is another in-progress character arc despite being a lot longer than the other two, simply because it's the world's most insane underdog story.

#5. Rina Callista:

Rina was... difficult to rank, in a lot of ways. She sometimes feels like her omakes are practically the same as story posts from occipital himself, due to how much Alectai's writing has gone on to define the setting and the story. She's in some ways more myth than character, the shining example whose birth and ascension represents the coming of a new Heroic Age.

In my mind, Rina's larger metanarrative role is similar to that of Superman: she is the template which all other good seeds define themselves by and against. Her tale is the tale of a person trying to become the ideal human, and the margins of her character are found in both the places where she succeeds and those where she falls short. While she's not at the top of the list because there's a few stories which simply resonated with me more, I do believe that of all the seeds she is the most important. Everyone who reads the thread should definitely also read her omakes.

#4. Eirene of Nowhere:

If I were ranking these seeds only on whose author I wish were still writing, it would be @Liliet 's Eirene. There is... not really a singular reason why I like Eirene so much. She's just so delightful. There is a somber wistfullness to Eirene stepping into immortality that a lot of these kinds of stories lack. Coming from a community of mortals, you watch as she sees everyone she knew fade away, which really front-loads the emotions and paints everything afterwards in a melancholic tint.

There is a refined, quiet and otherworldly beauty to everything Eirene does; if anyone was born to be a Cultivator it was her. There is a lot of philosophical musing in many of her omakes, which only reinforces this feeling. None of her storylines are particularly crazy, but you get invested in all of them because you really, really want to see Eirene not just succeed, but bring peace to everyone she encounters.

I really wish there was more of her stories, but in a way, her being so fleeting only makes her more beautiful.

#3. Ferenike:

Back when this was a tier list, the requirement to get into the S-tier was "could you carry a book series all by yourself?" No seed fits this better than Ferenike, because her omakes practically form novels in and of themselves. @BungieONI didn't write many vignettes for the character, preferring more longform, narrative adventures. This means you can't casually dip into Ferenike's story, you pretty much have to read the whole thing from the beginning. The upside to this is that her stories build a supporting cast, all of whom are compelling in their own right.

Ferenike is a fairly standard protagonist, being brave, kind, adventurous, incredibly determined, and bold, but she's very easy to root for because of how well her sheer drive to succeed is communicated; of all the good seeds she's got one of the most clear internal worlds. Her relatively straightforward characterization also makes her a good springboard for the other cast members of her stories.

Though the character has since become retired(presumably she died offscreen on turn 8), her stories are still there, still hold up fantastically well, and contribute to the worldbuilding on a level second only to Alectai's writing. Be sure to give them a look.

#2. The Ninth Prince:

Out of all the good seeds, @Kaboomatic 's Anoush Naag might be the most overtly protagonist-y as a baseline presence. And indeed, whenever Princey enters a scene, he becomes the main character regardless of whatever was going on beforehand. You can't help but watch with awe as this guy does just about anything, so powerful is his charisma.

The first sensation you'll feel when you start reading one of his omakes, moreso than the occular sensation of the words hitting your eyeballs, is the overwhelming taste of cheese. The Ninth Prince is an extremely pulpy character, going on silly adventures and performing dazzling stunts of derring-do, always with a cocky grin and a one-liner at hand. On top of this, he's probably the most plot-relevant of all the seeds, being directly tied to the Fifth Sea invaders, meaning knowing what his deal is will actually help you follow the main story.

I'm not even sure what else to say about this guy besides 'go read his stuff'. You'll be on the edge of your seat the whole time.

#1. Minervina Barda:

Taking her place atop the mountain as my personal favorite Good Seed is the terrifying Poison Witch herself, the heartless man-slayer with titles uncountable, @Katana1515 's Minervina Barda.

The thing which sets Minervina so far above her contemporaries is personality: she's bursting at the seams with character, making everything she does shockingly entertaining. Cocky, ruthless, audacious, misanthropic and a little bit deranged, Minervina is about as far from a heroic warrior as you can get. She's the archetypal trickster hero, striding to victory on the misery and bewilderment of her enemies and remaining endlessly charming as she does it.

Indeed, her greatest weapon isn't her unique constitution or the countless absurdly deadly substances she's brewed, but her devotion to pure, unfettered scumbag tactics above all else. You always want to read her stories to see what she'll stoop to next, and how she'll come out ahead no matter the odds. And if all that wasn't enough, her constant chemical experiments, a mix of equal parts magic and science, flesh out corners of the worldbuilding that almost no other seeds approach.

If you were to ask me whether The Ninth Prince or Minervina is my favorite good seed, my answer would change depending on the day of the week, the time of day, what I ate for breakfast and seismic activity off the coast of Indonesia. Neither is my favorite, they're equally great. I just happened to prefer Minervina today, when I posted the list, so that's why it shook out this way.