42 A leap of Faith

I glanced around, the sudden closeness made everything awkward. The car bent deeper into the very limits of its suspension, but at least the tires didn't pop. Kessiah glanced out the window,

"So here's the thing..." She turned back to me, "I think there's something wrong with Torix."

I raised an eyebrow, pulling my helmet off my face, "What do you think? He has seemed a bit, I don't know, brutal I guess."

She leaned onto one of her arms, restless like nowhere was comfortable, "I don't know. I'm not good at stuff like this, but he's different now. When he crushed what-his-face...Uh, Whatley?"

"Whitley."

"Yeah, that guy. That wasn't like him. It's almost like there's something really bothering him, and he isn't talking about it. I tried talking to Althea about it, but that's like talking to a wall."

I rolled my eyes, "She just doesn't like talking much. Either that or she's nervous. Back to Torix."

Kessiah nodded, "Yeah yeah." She crossed her arms, "I think the pressure's getting to him."

"What? Pressure?"

"Yeah. I know Torix. He wasn't a risk taker at all. That bag of bones has been alive for a long time. I outleveled him, and I just kind of fuck around is all. He must have taken things slow. Like, really slow."

I nodded, "So now he's in a high pressure situation, somewhere he's uncomfortable. If you think about it, he did end up struggling with the ritual to get us transported off world."

Kessiah sighed, "Yeah, he told you guys that was because of Schema's new quest. That's true now, but him being late and slow didn't have anything to do with the quest of survival. He was just messing up stuff."

I turned towards Kessiah, "Anything we can do to take some of the pressure off?"

She scratched the back of her head, "Uh, if you could help with the runes that would be awesome. He really enjoys the dominion magic too. Just having someone to talk to about everything would help him a lot."

Kessiah put a hand on my shoulder as she said, "I'm sorry I'm having to ask this of you. You're already pretty damn busy with all your other...stuff I guess."

I noticed the hand on my shoulder a bit too much. It made me think of things I shouldn't, so I killed off a few wandering thoughts. Kessiah let me go, giving me space to think as she continued,

"He needs help, and I can't give it to him. I get bored, and even if I try not to sound like it, he picks up on it pretty quickly. Althea's nothing like him. She's into tech."

I shrugged, "I'll give it a shot. I can do it when everyone else is sleeping anyways, since I don't have to."

Kessiah grinned before hugging me to her. She let me go, opening the car door,

"Thanks Dan Dan. I'll see yah around. Try not to spend to much time in cars during night. Can't imagine that's too healthy."

I grinned back, "Eh, sometimes it's good to think."

Kessiah bounced away, a nice pop to her steps. The melancholy melted, and now she was back to her old self. It surprised me how much faith she had in me to help Torix, but she knew him better than I did. I decided to put the same kind of faith in her, for now at least.

With everything handled, I stepped out of the car and paced around the camp. I Torix set up shop nearby, in a normal suburban house off to the side. I knocked on the door,

"Yo, can I come in?"

No voice replied, so I stepped inside. Unlike most of the nearby houses, this place was nearly untouched. A comfortable, warm air flowed inside the building. Several portraits, trinkets, and paintings hung on the walls of the two story house. The walls were brown, tan, and other subdued colors. The whole place was soft, from the fluffy carpet floors to the toys spread on the ground.

As I walked deeper into the place, the staircase towards the basement was left open. Where else would an evil necromancer set up shop then in the basement of a building afterall? Once I reached the bottom, the cinderblock walls gave off an earthy smell. The smooth concrete floors were dry, just like the air I was breathing in.

Torix leaned against a desk, papers spread out across the entire expanse. The desk was slanted, and he was rolling a marble up the desk before letting it roll back down to his finger. It made the same sound, over and over. After hearing it a few times, the sound blended into the background of the room, like it was meant to be there.

I paced down the steps, Torix ignoring me as I entered. I reached behind him before leaning against a nearby wall,

"You alright?"

Torix snapped out of it, his head shooting up. He turned towards me, then back at the desk,

"Oh. Daniel. I'm sorry about this. You shouldn't see your master in such a distasteful, lazy light."

"Everyone needs to loaf around sometimes. Anyways, I was hoping you could elaborate on dominion magic some. If you're not too busy that is."

Torix sighed, "I would love too, but I'm busy helping organize the mess I made when I killed Whitley. It was blunder of mine, like many others that you've no doubt noticed."

I rolled my eyes, "Everyone makes mistakes."

Torix spread his hands out wide, staring at the wall, "Yes, of course they do, but should a master make so many in front of his student? I think not."

Torix slapped the marble, sending it clattering onto the floor nearby, "It's absurd. You've seen me fail more than you've seen me succeed. How can you possibly learn from me when I can't accomplish any task at any turn."

I sighed, "Eh, I wouldn't think about it too much."

Torix leaned into his hand, covering his face, "It's all I can think about. We are so close to destruction that I can taste it. If I were to sleep, I would dream only in nightmares. This isn't the time nor the place for mishaps and screwups. I am ruining our chances of killing Yawm."

I bit my lip before he pressed his hands against the sides of his head and continued, "When I trained Alfred in the ways of the dark arts, I only made one mistake during the entire process. That one mistake was enough for him to leave me. I took one unnecessary life, and he abandoned me from his own. I was crushed."

Torix sighed, "Sorry for letting you know this all...I've been rather stressed as of late."

After a joyless laugh, I patted his shoulder, "Yeah, I noticed."

Torix nodded before turning to me. His fire eyes flickered, "Do you know what I was thinking when I met you?"

I cupped my chin in a hand, "Uhh...I don't know. It seemed like you were deciding on whether or not to kill me."

Torix shook his head, "No, not at all. I was thinking that this was a chance at redemption. I could pass on my legacy, teaching you all I know so that I may pass on without worry. I painted this picture of an immortal, invincible magician that knew everything."

"You did a damn good job, I think."

A puff of laughter escaped Torix, "But you have seen the cracks in painting. I'm not invincible. I make mistakes, and I'm struggling with handling the situation at hand. I was supposed to be the ideal master. Now, you can't even trust me. What kind of master puts so much stress on his student, that he begins hearing voices? I mean it is absurd!"

I tapped Torix's shoulder, "You know I shut that voice up. When I did so, I found resolve. I found my own way of doing things. You didn't teach me where to walk Torix. You taught me to walk on my own."

I let him go and spread my arms wide, "Everyone fails, Torix. I mean everyone, but it's not about how hard you fall man. It's about how many times you get back up. If anything, show me an example of never giving up or some cheesy bullshit like that. You got it in you."

Torix laughed, a tiny grin sliding onto his face. He nodded, "You may be right, Daniel."

I tapped my chest, "Hell yeah I am. Let's get your ass out of this dungeon. I got some magic to learn, and you're the only one who can teach it to me."

The tiny grin turned into a full fledged smile as Torix stood, "I suppose I can find some time to help you. You are my disciple after all."

We walked up the steps of the basement, chatting about the intricacies of dominion magic. We walked outside, finding the open yard. Torix created a table out of black liquid. I walked in front of it before pressing my weight down on it. It held, though ripples were sent through the expanse. It was weird. It didn't feel like it was supporting my weight. It was pushing back instead.

Torix reached up a hand. With a bit of glowing mana, he created glowing lines as he lectured. The short, dense orations were followed by me scrambling to apply the concepts towards my own dominion magic. There was a glaring problem though. Without the voice's intervention, I couldn't create dominion magic.

Of course I could learn the concepts behind the magic. The photographic memory from the intelligence perked helped as well. This made learning much easier, but breaking the barrier into applying my newfound knowledge was an enigma. Torix said I would gain a fluid control of my affinity with time. I already knew that wasn't true though. I needed a change in mentality.

I wouldn't revert back to using the voice though. It was like I was compromising on who I was for strength. Fuck compromises. Fuck letting something else control me. I would get a handle on the dominion magic, even if I had to kill myself doing it.

Before I could though, Torix turned the lesson back towards augmentation. He taught me new runic combinations, each of them wild and different. They didn't suit me quite like my own incantations, but they were like new tools on my table. I could use certain combinations of runes for adding to my own original inscriptions.

That enabled quite a bit of improvement on my current formula. It was at that point that I asked Torix if there was any common breakthroughs I could use for gaining tree points. He knew of many for dominion magic and his chosen fields, but he didn't know much for my specific style of fighting.

I'd have better luck asking Kessiah probably, but that didn't make my time with Torix pointless. Far from it. By the time the sun was up, I developed a whole new runic set for my forearms, shins, and palms. They still didn't pass Torix's own standards, but they were a start. When I had to leave, I was ready to try out my new toys.

As I started walking off, Torix snapped his fingers which destroyed the black table and markings that floated in the air. He turned to me,

"Thank you for this...break from all the tedium of these past days. I needed it, more than I knew."

I waved his thanks away, "Don't mention it. Just make sure to repay the favor later."

I figured making him feel like he would pay me back may make him feel better. It was weird. It turned out that even if you're an immortal lich, you still have feelings and problems. In the end, I guess most everyone was like everybody else. We were all just trying to get by.

And I wasn't outside of that conundrum either. I walked back towards Kessiah and Althea. I walked back up towards our tent before tapping Althea's tent flap thing. I didn't know what to call it.

Anyways, Althea grumbled from inside,

"Who is it?"

"Daniel. You ready to rip some zombies apart?"

After a long yawn, she replied, "Did you even sleep?"

"No. Now come on. We don't have time to waste."

Leaving her tent, I walked towards one of the workbenches near the center of the camp. The entire place was buzzing with life. Troops carried supplies. Other's scarfed down their breakfasts with tired eyes and heavy heels. One drill sergeant went back and forth to each tent, shouting each member awake.

Off in the distance, Kessiah walked up with her hair all frazzled. She looked like she'd slept in the back of a car instead of a bed. When she reached up to me, she snapped,

"You know, I usually have Torix make me a bed before I go to sleep everyday. Thanks a lot for taking my bed maker."

I laughed before smiling, "My pleasure."

She grinned back before Althea stumbled up to us. She looked groggy today, like fighting for so long had taken its toll on her. Kessiah slapped her back as she said,

"Yo miss missy. Cheer up. You have a day of bloodletting ahead of you."

Althea sighed, "Yeah. I know."

I raised an eyebrow, "Would you rather do something else or?"

"It's not that. I'm just not used to this yet. It's going to take some time to adjust to this much...killing."

Kessiah gave her a noogie with her hand, "Get used to it toots. You ready Dan Dan?"

I nodded. She pointed off towards another section of the city,

"Let's go fuck them up."

We ran towards the next set of ten blocks, ready for another day of slaughter. It only took minutes before we resumed our formation, me in front with the both of them at the back. Smoother than a knife slitting a throat, we went about our business. The blood and guts and bodies would've piled high behind us if not for my armor.

Fortunately, we didn't have to deal with the rot of corpses. Pretty much all the life in Springfield was already done for. The only things we bothered dealing with was the aftermath, and aftermath there was.

Scenes of bloodshed and horror, like cars rammed into half formed zombies, littered the areas. It almost made me thankful how few people made it past the tutorial. Otherwise we'd be fighting thousands and thousands more zombies than we already were.

The sun was a little past midday by the time we finished our quota of a ten block square. According to the legion, we had about forty of the little bite sized segments left. Not wanting to waste any more time, the three of us kept going after our quota. We figured why not. None of us were tired yet, so there wasn't really a reason to stop.

The steel legion struggled to keep up though. They thought we couldn't clear them so quickly at our level. In fact, they estimated our total clear time would be around two years instead of less than two months. Every bit of their supply chain struggled with trying to keep up, from moving the barrier machine to moving the camp. Torix was their savior in that regard.

He used several summons for helping move and carry various supplies. He ordered them, giving succinct, concise commands that made everything run smoother. Without his intervention, I doubt the legion could've maintained the feverish pace we kept up. Fortunately for us, they did.

It was in the afternoon when we neared a set of restuarants. At that point, I cut off oppression. We discovered early on that any place with food was swarming with the spawns. Oppression would aggro packs of them. Kessiah had to help out Althea last time since around thirty sprinted at her. She took some of the exp, which was the real reason we were murdering so many of these fucks. Kessiah wasn't going to gain levels from these lowly spawns anyways.

As we neared the first of the series of restaurants, there were already several dead spawns. The bodies were burned, leaving behind charred bones. The entire restaurant was like that. We passed by another two restaurants before there was the sound of clattering pans and gunfire.

Curious as cats, the three of us snuck together to investigate. There was a shitty chinese buffet, tables turned over in every direction. Every ornament was designed to look expensive, but was actually cheap as hell. All along the walls and floor was dried blood, just like everywhere else. There was new blood though. We found the source at the back of corner of the restaurant.

There was a group of survivors fighting back. Two guys were standing at the front with two girls behind them. Another girl was sitting behind an overturned table nearby.

The guys had crude shields made of stone barriers. They would slam them into the zombies, causing them to stumble away. While they fumbled, the girls would unload a clip into them over a second or two. The hidden girl would then dash in, slice the exposed insect core before retreating back to safety.

In all honesty, they weren't the cleanest looking group, but what they lacked in finesse, they made up for with practicality. They were nothing like us. Althea and I just crushed the zombies now, overwhelming them with raw power. We sacrificed safety for speed most of the time. These people chose to take their time.

The gunners were standing with their backs against a wall. The two guys out front both had extra shield rocks beside them incase one of theirs snapped. Each of them wore fitted clothing, almost tight. It made it so that the spawns couldn't grab them as easily. No heavy armor here, just plain, brown leather. Enough to stop teeth and nails, but not much else.

It let them kite backwards most of the time, but now they were stuck in a hole. They didn't have anyway of getting out, and there was about fifteen or so zombies running out of the back of the restaurant still. Althea shot a hole through one of the zombie's heads before I darted into through a window.

Glass clattered against the ground before I charged through several tables. Another spear shot past my head, stabbing through another fleshy abomination's core. Right before a pack of the zombies crashed into the shields guys, I tackled straight into the spawns.

Like a wrecking ball, I kept my arms wide as I slammed the monsters straight into the concrete wall. My momentum and the weight of the zombies combined caved it in. Before they could recover, I pulled my fist back and roared as I crushed a zombies spine with a heavy fist. I grabbed the cord of bone, wrenching it out with the ribs still attached.

I chomped into the core of the creature, killing it at that moment. One of the zombies pulled itself from the wall and dashed towards the shield guys. I tore the spine in my hands in half before stabbing the ribs into the running zombie.

The bones sliced into the monster, pinning it against the wall. I kept turning, my feet sliding on the floor. I let my hand swing around as I grabbed the skull of another chasing zombie. I pulled it off its feet as I spun, slamming the head of the creature right into the head of the pinned zombie. Brains and blood and bone exploded as the skulls crumbled in my hand.

With a quick thrust of my arm, I pierced the freshly slammed body, pulling out the insect core. I devoured it before a spray of bullets shot straight into my face. They didn't do much, so I ignored them as I turned back towards the horde.

Althea already killed two more zombies, though she was reloading now. I charged forward, ducking low. The first zombie to reach me was thin and tall, like a stretched out tube of meat. The petal bug had landed on its head. When it reached me, I shot my arm upwards.

My fingers wrapped around its head like metal claws. They dug into its skin as I pulled it up and off the ground. I pulled my other arm back, whipping my other arm forward. The slender man followed. I turned my torso, dragging the monster's head into the ground.

Like a balloon full of blood, the monster's skull popped against the ground as I crushed it. Another spawn came towards me. From my lunged position, I pressed my heels into the ground. My fist built momentum before I drilled an uppercut straight through the monster, pulling the core out of it.

A mist and rain of organs and blood rained down before I jerked my arm back. The body fell to the ground before I bit into the core. The zombies slowed down after that. It made me guess at just how sentient they were. I couldn't help but wonder if they could feel fear.

If I could, I'd make them. I charged forward with another hail of bullets unloading onto my back. I roared,

"Stop firing at me or else I'll kill you too, you dumb fucks."

The clanking of two dropped guns landed on the ground. The last zombie came up towards me. The skull of a woman had split in half, teeth reaching out of each side of her opened head. Her legs had reformed into a four legged platform. Her arms were like whips.

They wrapped around me before pulling me towards her. When I was within her range, my armor grinned with a sinister crimson leaking from between the armor's teeth. As if sensing my lack of fear, the fleshy whips around me loosened, but the thing's fate was already sealed.

I chomped into it, tearing it apart as my armor absorbed the creature. The monster shook, struggling to shake me off. I held tightly to it as it struggled. It tried stabbing me, pulling itself off, even vomiting onto me. It couldn't get away as I consumed it from top to bottom. Blood squirted in every direction, making the floors slick with red.

The creature stopped its struggle before I lifted it outward. My armor shot needles into it, absorbing its remaining corpse. I walked back and forth between the bodies. I repeated the process on body parts and the larger pools of blood as well. By the time I finished, the building looked much like it had before.

Althea and Kessiah walked in behind me before the group of five looked at me. Their hands and legs shook. Their pale faces were gaunt, like they were suddenly sick. I glanced back and forth at them before noticing two faces I'd seen before.

It was insane seeing the both of them here. I suppose after we met and left in BloodHollow, they cleaned up their acts. I must have inspired them to go so far as to take advantage of the double exp from the area. I didn't really know.

I spread my arms,

"David, Stacy, it's good to see some familiar faces around here."