Chapter 21 - The Bridge Between Two Worlds
This thing wouldn't leave me alone. Somewhere in the back of my mind, it was like a worm of my personal conscience was gnawing at the back of my skull every fucking time I mentioned or thought about how unpleasant and evil these spirits were. When I enveloped them in clouds of sand and locked them inside my body, I would occasionally glance back at... Afka.
Her red face and stubborn gaze did not express any condemnation; she supported me with her personal strategic experience and the tactics of other people, helping me to cope with the immense threats posed by the spirits, but I understood from the bond between us that it was hard for her to look at me. Her gaze burned.
"I don't want you to start thinking that I exalt myself or other people above all spirits," I said, standing in the middle of a village crumbling from magmatic eruptions, at the foot of a completely destroyed volcano, surrounded by a totally scorched forest, and I looked down at the fox sitting with her paws folded. Her snout didn't try to say anything about the tyranny that Azula and I had created here, she just pondered one thought sadly:
"Do you also perceive me as a threat to humans? Against the backdrop of burning buildings, her words weighed heavily. I had just opened my mouth to repeat my previous statement when she added, "If Wang Shi Tong had not agreed to support you, how would you have reacted to me?The reason for this thought was perfectly clear: I had made a cruel, previously unthinkable compromise with myself in order to destroy the spirit of prophecy that could completely change the course of this war — and this venture with spirits could not be considered anything else. How do you defeat someone who knows that you are coming to try to destroy them? One could say that it is impossible, as the spirit is capable of learning everything about you and taking absolutely every possible step a month or even a year before the attack...
But there were two small problems with today's attack: fate, as Anubis said, is a fickle thing, and only his choices allow me to predict the actions of another predictor. We could have run after each other endlessly until, in the end, one of us trapped the other, but then the second problem arose. The guardian spirit, like the most loyal dog, was tied to a single village by its bonds; it fed through it. And its feeding trough could be broken.
Knowing what the spirit would do, and more importantly, understanding where it would be and what its weakness was, I invaded the village with a carefully thought-out plan and burned it to the ground. The inhabitants? They fled and were frightened away by Azula. The surrounding forest, sad as it may be, cannot be restored. But the spirit... no matter how strong it seemed, at the moment of transformation into a dark entity, they all become vulnerable. They become vulnerable and literally unable to resist until the moment of absorption. Just like that dark dragon, which was no problem to finish off.
Afka asked me about this only because of the indescribable cruelty, which she still condemned. To take away people's homes, blood and hope for the sake of killing one spirit? It even sounded cruel. She wanted to know where the line was that I was willing to cross.
"You know, Afka," I said, forming all the sand I had used in battle into a pumpkin behind my back and crouching down, "for that unthinkable hypothetical situation to happen, where I perceive you as an enemy, hundreds of positive moments involving you would have to be ripped from my life. The other spirits don't give a damn about me or the progress of humanity... and if you're asking all this out of pity for the homeless residents, then I'll sort everything out.
Patting the redhead's embarrassed head, I returned to the townspeople and, seeing how Azula had forced them all to kneel before her, dispelled the atmosphere of misunderstanding. There was no need to scare them all so much; the kids were already ready to submit to their conquerors. After sending a letter to the nearest army that accompanied us on our campaigns, we waited for them to arrive with their carts and supplies and took each resident to a pre-arranged location. There were only a few of these locations:
in the north, centre and south of the continent. The northern refuge was provided and defended by the citizens of the country of fire, who settled the inhabitants in one of the earliest colonies, where the people of fire and earth had been coexisting for a long time, about a hundred years. In the south, the village of China took on the role of a refuge. The inhabitants there, as I heard, were ecstatic about my conquest, and the most skilled Pai Sho players, who also had experience in real battles, even became commanders of part of the army. In the centre, Omashu became a refuge, and the inhabitants quickly settled in, so there was nothing to worry about. And it was not worth thinking that every town and village that stood in our way would be burned to the ground; even Oza could not afford to do that. Only the most problematic places, where the inhabitants were ready to tear their throats out for their ancestors and were fervently prayed for, were razed to the ground to get to their holy places.
Until now, these places had not caused any serious concern... but the next one could, and most likely would, become a big thorn in our side. The final stage of the preventive strike was not even a choice; there were no three or even four variations on how best to approach the war. We all understood that there was only one way out: destroy the Misty Swamp, the most accessible portal to our world. But even my heart bled at the thought of it, not out of pity for the trees or, God forbid, the spirits that dwell there.
It was just that the most important part of that place was the guru who had helped me more than once. He was attached to that place on a chakra level; for him, the swamp was the whole world that he cherished and nurtured. To go there and destroy everything? That's when Afka's question came back to haunt me. Who am I willing to destroy for my own goals? How cruel a creature am I capable of becoming? How can I help him?
There was an option... perhaps too complicated, and I shouldn't have been thinking about such difficult tasks for the sake of some unwashed hermit, but my conscience wouldn't let me do otherwise. I would force Guru Hugh to give up his love.
"What is that? - Freezing with a darkened gaze, Azula wrinkled her nose and deliberately pinched it with her fingers," - It smells worse than burnt flesh. One of the worst places for a fire mage, trees with such moisture content burn very poorly.We stopped right at the roots of the swamp trees; if we had gone a little further, we would have ended up in the marsh, where it was simply impossible to move. The few patches of dry land that could be seen were already occupied by some creatures — either bright, obviously poisonous frogs or even crocodiles. There were also strange birds and large beetles on the trees, but the most unpleasant sight was the spirits, which gathered like schools of fish, floating in the air or hiding among the trees. I had no idea how many of them there were here before, but now that I had the opportunity to see that side of the world, I felt out of my element.
"Afraid of getting dirty halfway there? I thought you'd tasted dirt and wouldn't shy away from debauchery," the princess's face expressed a desire to strike me with lightning bolts. But to some extent she was right — the scale of the swamp was frightening, and it could take decades to destroy it all. Fortunately, there was a simpler way: we could deal with the main tree, which was responsible for maintaining the delicate balance between the two worlds.
After persuading Azula to ignore the tons of mud that would undoubtedly stain her exquisite dress and praised face, we ran forward, no longer on varans. They were far from being the top predators here; in such intricate thickets, there were plenty of animals that would gladly catch and eat them, so instead, I grabbed Azula with a sandy tentacle and, climbing higher up into the treetops, walked along the branches on my sandy feet.
There was no point in being afraid of birds and spirits anymore. Unlike my past self, I was no longer so harmless. So, just noticing that, by all the laws of bad luck, a flock of some familiar moths began to gather around me, as if thirsty for revenge for our previous encounter, I simply threw sand at them and turned it into solid stone the moment it hit them. The creatures fell, unable to move. I became the top predator here, able to reach the large tree, the Banyan, with no problem. That was where the second predator was.
"Now let's take a look at this beautiful beetle," - having moved as close as possible, my senses began to convey to me the voice of a wise man. He stood in front of a large group of people, like a teacher in front of a crowd of uncomprehending schoolchildren. "Don't you think he's as much a part of the cycle of living beings as you are, or even as the trees?
"But Guru, didn't we eat the same beetle for breakfast? Does that mean we were acting like cruel animals?
"Everyone eats to survive, the main thing is not to forget this and not to take more than you need. Think twice before killing a herd of animals — how many lives will you destroy for food that you will throw away anyway? Hmm? I think we'll stop the lesson for today.
Hugh fulfilled his dream and took up teaching others. In this case, it was the swamp water mages. For a second, I even felt happy for him — he had wanted this for a long time but never got started. My meeting with him had apparently helped him move forward with this desire; I showed him how to teach. Now it wasn't just me who saw him, but Hugh himself noticed my approach. He slowly narrowed his eyes and let his students go for a walk behind the nearest tree. Soon we landed right in front of him...
The dishevelled man with dirty, almost rotten teeth was still energetic, and his face even lit up with pleasure when he saw me. He understood how many chakras I had opened since our last meeting, and I saw how many he had opened... It's worth mentioning that I was not mistaken in my thoughts. When we first met, I thought he had six or seven open, but it was impossible to know for sure. But in the last few days, I was absolutely certain of the answer — he couldn't have seven chakras open. He was too zealous in defending the swamp he loved, reacting to literally any threat, no matter how small. A person with seven chakras would be calmer and more inert. Although, from my experience, I can say that this is not always entirely true.
"Dagoth! I was wondering when you would show up," the man spread his arms wide as Azula stood up, brushed the sand off her suit, and looked at the man with narrowed eyes.
"Is this the guardian of the swamp? Oh, sort it out yourself, I'm not getting involved," she rolled her eyes, turned away and glanced at Hugh's two students, adult men dressed in leaves, who were stealing glances at Azula as if she were a goddess of beauty who had descended from heaven... well, compared to them, the girl of royal blood really was a goddess.
"I missed you too, Hugh. I want to thank you for that book with whistles that allowed me to learn how to tame living creatures. It helped me out in a couple of situations," I said, spreading my arms wide and moving closer to hug him, when I felt something strange. Inside me, inside my very soul, where many spirits were hidden in a suppressed state, one of the creatures stirred. It didn't want to break free, it just sensed some kind of threat.The spirit of prophecy couldn't give me as much detail about future events as Anubis, as it only spoke in hints, but I clearly understood that I needed to pay attention to any little things around me. Any signal or small thing could be a sign of something great... that's why I saw it. A strangely trembling root, behind which a crowd of water mages was hiding, the root of Bananas himself, which was slowly and completely unremarkably changing its position.
After blinking a couple of times and focusing on Hugh, it began to dawn on me.
"The tree already knows everything," I said, causing the man who was keeping his distance from me to become wary of my insight. The tree was a living spirit, most likely well aware of why I had come here. This was the final stage of preparation for war, and all the most serious beings already understood where the world was headed, and if they knew, then Hugh knew too.
And so we stood there silently, staring at each other like old friends who probably couldn't have achieved what we had without each other's help. I certainly wouldn't have been able to overcome the barrier to the first chakra so easily, nor would I have learned to use qi as a separate, zero-level form of magic. And Hugh had experienced the joy of discipleship... he had achieved what he wanted. It was certainly painful to make such a sudden decision, but our positions were as firm as rock.
"When we first met, I told you that spirits and humans are only part of a whole. We must help each other to live in constant harmony," said the swamp mage in an extremely upset tone. And in the next moment, a huge amount of algae was drawn to him from the nearby water, while tree roots broke out of the ground and surrounded Azula and me in a kind of cage. And if it weren't for the spirit under my command, we would have had a big problem right then and there," "Unfortunately, you started thinking about how to destroy it all.
"I can argue with you. Hugh. How about we just talk? - The tree roots around Azula and me immediately fell, melted by the red-hot magma ball spinning at tremendous speed and burning the stone itself. A couple of Azula's lunges cut through the other roots that were trying to bind our legs, and my heavy gaze directed at Hugh's students made them stay away from us. No, they ran away altogether; this fight was not for kids like them.
However, despite my desire to talk, I already knew the answer. No, not thanks to Anubis — I felt a tremor in my soul again and, from the gathering vines, I understood that before we could talk, we would first have to clean up this place. Literally.
"Azula, can you destroy all the vegetation in the area?
"I was just thinking of trying to awaken a new flame within myself," she said with a devilish smile on her face.
Even if solving this problem is harder than moving a fucking rock... I'll do it. I'll open the seventh chakra in Hugh.