Chapter 612: The Only Person Who Thinks It’s Obvious

On one side of the duelling area, the entire wall was made up of reinforced glass, behind which was the lake at the heart of the sky island. Specially reared aquatic creatures, unfazed by the regular water traffic, swam around in the water. It was an impressive backdrop for anyone viewing from the seats that made up the other side of the area, also behind reinforced glass.

There were VIP viewing booths into which the palace stewards were expertly guiding the more prestigious attendees, dealing with the etiquette protocols on the fly. There were also ready areas at each end, behind massive doors. In the one set aside for Jason, Rufus, Sophie and Humphrey, they were accompanied by their friends and several others. Trenchant Moore, Zareen and Liara were all in attendance.

Jason was staring into the middle distance, his expression blank.

“Mr Moore,” he said. “I’m going to go see Young Master de Varco about final details. If you would be kind enough to lead my friend to that viewing booth you mentioned.

“Of course, Mr Asano. And Princess Liara, His Majesty has asked after you.”

“What about the men in your pagoda?” Zareen asked Jason.

“They’re contained,” he said, his tone matter-of-fact.

“What does that mean?” Liara asked. “We’re going to need to talk to them. I know your pagoda is intimidating, but it’s still a silver-rank construct. Four gold rankers might be able to break out of they’re determined enough.”

“I’ve calibrated the house to keep rotting their flesh at roughly the same rate as their gold-rank recovery attributes will heal it,” Jason said. “It will keep them debilitated until I attend them myself.”

“Jason,” Rufus said in a worried voice.

“Rufus, you remember the joke back in Greenstone right?” Jason asked. His voice held the whimsy of a man certain the police wouldn’t find the family before he’d had his fun. “It turns out I am the man with the evil powers. I’ve already taught one world that.”

As Jason strode out of the room Humphrey also went to talk to him, but Arabelle gestured him to stop. She looked to Farrah, who left to trail Jason.

“Am I missing something?” Zareen asked. “Or is he remotely torturing a group of gold rankers? From here.”

“Your mother once approached me about the gap in Jason’s Adventure Society records during his time away,” Arabelle told her. “I refused to share what I knew, but I advocated against Jason participating in political games. I told her that he should be sent away with his team, which I believe she agreed with, to her credit. The choice was made at higher levels within the Adventure Society and royal family both, if I’m not mistaken.”

“You’re not,” Liara confirmed.

“You may get your wish of learning about Jason’s time away after all, milady,” Arabelle said. “If you put Jason in a political mess, try to exploit him and then make moves on him behind his back–”

“We didn’t,” Liara said.

“Someone did,” Arabelle said. “And that’s what happened in that missing time. It happened a lot, and now you’re seeing what Jason does when that happens. Put him in that mindset and his instincts are to trust no one and kill everyone. To put aside his principles whatever it costs him because that’s what it takes when the world is against you and everyone coming for you has more power.”

“It’s not like that,” Humphrey said. “This is a different world. And he has us.”

“Which I strongly advise to remind him of before his duel,” Arabelle said. “Especially if you’re interested in de Varco still wanting to be an adventurer after.”

***

Farrah followed Jason into the hall, which was a plaIn brick tunnel. To those who didn’t know how expensive the bricks were, it lacked the opulence of a royal palace. To those who did, it was practically a treasury. Entering the tunnel, Farrah was ready to rush to catch Jason, but found him leaning his forehead against the wall.

“I thought I was better,” he said.

“You are.”

“I’ve been sitting around in the tropics, thinking I wasn’t the same. But when push came to shove, it took one day. One day, and I’m back to the same savage, reactionary violence I was doing on Earth.”

“You are better, Jason, even if you don’t see it.”

“I’m torturing a bunch of strangers as we speak.”

“Then stop,” Farrah said lightly.

Jason pushed himself off the wall and turned to look at her, expression cold.

“No.”

She flashed him a smile.

“You know what you remind me of right now? You, back in Greenstone. Getting some kills under your belt and wondering what was becoming of you.”

“And now we know what became of me. I wouldn’t have been willing to do what I’m doing back then.”

“No, you wouldn’t. But on Earth, you wouldn’t have been beating yourself up over it, either. On Earth, you killed without a moment’s consideration of whether it was right because you didn’t have the luxury. You didn’t have time for right or wrong, only for what was necessary.”

“I took it too far, Farrah. You are what you do, and what I did was put aside my principles.”

“But now you’re pondering them again, and that’s good. Keep questioning. But that brutal part of you, that can do what’s necessary – it’s necessary too. Some days you're going to need it. But you can also put it back in the box, and that's the difference. On Earth, you were a diamond knife, sharp but brittle. You were never soft, and every time you got a little sharper, you were always on the verge of breaking.”

He bowed his head.

“You kept me from breaking.”

“Barely. But you have more people now, and you are different, Jason. I see it, even if you don’t. You’re not as soft as you started out, but also not as hard as you became. Right now you have a balance; you can do the hard things without losing yourself in doing them. I know you’re still getting the hang of maintaining it, but we’re here to help you. You just have to let us.”

“Crap. I’m the fragile, high-maintenance one, aren’t I?”

Farrah laughed.

“You’re only just figuring that out? Look, if you deny what you learned about yourself on Earth, it’s going to devour you from the inside out. But you can’t let it dominate you, either. Compartmentalise. Keep it in the box where it belongs and pull it out when you need it. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know.”

“You’re sounding a lot like Arabelle.”

"We talked about you a lot. She wanted to know about your world and our time there from someone other than you, so she could better help you. And she did, even if you maybe don't see it right now. But I see it, so you’ll just have to trust me.”

Jason smiled.

“I can do that. Are you sure you won’t come with us when we leave Rimaros?”

“You have a portal power and I’m inventing the magic phone. It’s not like you’re going back to Earth and I won’t see you for a decade. Which means you’ll be getting plenty more advice from me, starting with this: Don’t make this Hector guy quit being an adventurer due to mental trauma. He’s not the one who broke into your house.”

“They set off some kind of bomb in there,” Jason said. “Blew a giant hole in the middle.”

“They’re gold rankers. Even if they’re crap gold rankers, they could still throw a garbage truck like a basketball.”

“Did you watch a lot of sports on Earth?”

"No, Jason. There was a bunch of giant, athletic men running around in tight outfits and I thought to myself, 'that's not for me.' Is the pagoda intact?"

“Not really. I’m going to have to return it to the flask and reproduce it.”

“Don’t,” Farrah said. “Pack up and go tonight. Be gone by first light. It’s past time you hit the road and had those adventures we promised you back in Greenstone.”

“There’s still stuff to do. People to collect. I haven’t even decided if the royal family get to–”

“They don’t. As for the people who are going with you, I’ll let them know to get ready. If they don’t, go without them; they’ll catch up or they won’t. You’re the high-maintenance one, remember? Let them work around you.”

***

Sophie’s opponent was an elf with the sword, shield, myriad and arsenal essences. Her fighting style combined mobility with conjured swords and shields that floated around her to fight the enemy on their own. Using quick abilities to conjure the weapons bought time for her to cast more powerful spells.

The many shields, conjured over and over, moved into Sophie’s path as she attempted to slip through with her speed. At the same time, Sophie was bombarded with swords that she needed to smash out of the air. They would just keep hunting her, making it harder and harder as more swords were conjured up.

Fortunately for Sophie, her Radiant Fist and Immortal Fist powers gave her disruptive-force and resonating-force damage respectively, ideally suited for crushing rigid, conjured tools. Even so, they were accumulating faster than she was breaking them down.

The early advantage was with the elf. Sophie initially dodged through the conjured defenders multiple times to attack her, but Sophie’s strikes simply didn’t do enough damage and she was repeatedly forced to back off from counterattacks. The elf was more of a ranged than melee combatant, but no one with the sword essence was a slouch up close. With floating swords and shields harassing her, Sophie wasn’t able to push the attack for long.

The count of swords and shields slowly accumulated, making it harder for Sophie to reach the elf with raw speed, but Sophie had tricks of her own as well. Her Cloud Step power allowed her to run on air as if it were solid ground and, for brief moments, take on a mist form that made her near-impervious to most forms of damage. Her Mirage Step power allowed her to make short, blinking teleports, leaving behind afterimages that sent out dimensional blade attacks to alleviate the pressure.

Sophie also used a space-distorting power. She could manipulate space to dodge seemingly unavoidable attacks, but where Jason also used his power to obscure and deceive, Sophie incorporated the distortions into her ever-flowing movement. Adding staccato shifts to her prodigious speed made it all the harder to predict and intercept her, while incongruously never seeming erratic or disjointed.

Jason had joined the Storm King, Soramir, Trenchant Moore and Liara in a viewing booth, at Soramir’s request. The king had already levied some pointed questions about how Jason was communing with his cloud house through the palace’s defence magic, but to Jason’s surprise, Soramir had shut him down.

“That space-distortion ability she’s using,” Soramir said as she observed Sophie. “That’s Between the Raindrops?”

“Good eye,” Jason said.

"Her mastery of it is formidable. In fact, her entire power set is dangerously skill-oriented, yet she makes it look easy. You found this girl stealing in some provincial city-state?"

“There was an open contract to catch her,” Jason said. “Oddly enough, we’d met before, briefly. Friend of a friend. Once it became obvious that there was some ugly politics involved, turning her into an adventurer seemed the obvious way to get it settled.”

Liara let out a snorting laugh, despite the august company.

“You’re the only person who thinks it’s obvious to break the thief you caught yourself out of an Adventure Society holding facility, stash her with Emir Bahadir, of all people, and then turn her into an adventurer.”

“Bahadir?” the king asked with a scowl.

“He’s a friend,” Jason said. “I know he’s not super-popular around here.”

“She’s quite the find,” Soramir said. “I’m starting to see why Roland has always been so avid about scholarships.”

“You’re talking about Roland Remore?” Jason asked, referring to Rufus’ diamond-rank grandfather.

“Yes. His family runs a school. He won't stop talking about it."

“Try turning it into a drinking game,” Jason suggested. “It won’t stop him, but it makes it a lot more fun.”

As they talked, the duel below was escalating. Sophie blurred as the Eternal Moment power accelerated her personal time stream. She used the brief moment of subjectively frozen time to create a storm of wind blades that erupted when time resumed. Each blade exploded on impact, smashing many of the conjured weapons apart. It brought her precious breathing room after they had threatened to overwhelm her.

“This match is shaping up to be quite interesting,” Soramir said. “Miss Wexler is getting stronger as she goes, and I believe she’s inflicting escalating retributive damage. Is that something from her balance essence?”

“That’s right,” Jason said. “She used an awakening stone of karma to pick up that particular power. Legendary stone, but it didn’t disappoint. Her opponent is interesting, though. It seems like she’s being increasingly pushed, but it looks like she’s using all those conjured swords and shields to set up a combat ritual. Something to flip the match in a moment, I suspect.”

“You noticed that?” Soramir asked, mild surprise in his voice.

“A member of his team uses combat rituals quite heavily, Ancestral Majesty,” Liara explained. “It is quite likely that Miss Wexler has likewise recognised it.”

“Yet, she hasn’t started taking greater risks to try and close the fight out early,” Soramir observed. “She should be racing to finish the battle before her opponent completes the ritual, even at the risk of taking greater damage. Yet she maintains her slowly escalating tempo.”

“For all her speed,” Jason said, “Sophie does things at her own pace.”

“Meaning she either doesn’t know about the ritual, or she has something ready herself,” Soramir observed.

“Sophie used a couple of awakening stones of the moment,” Jason said. “One of them gave her that self-accelerating power she used to produce all those wind blades at once. The other gave her a power she hasn’t shown off yet.”

Soramir tapped a finger to his lips thoughtfully, considering the powers such a stone could produce from Sophie’s essences. It was a long list, even off the top of his head, but the circumstances gave him clues as to what it could be. His eyes sparkled as he made a guess.

“Moment of Oneness?” he asked.

“You know your essence abilities,” Jason said.

“It will take courage and timing to pull off,” Soramir observed.

“I'm not worried," Jason said. "Courage and timing are kind of her things."

The combat ritual suddenly triggered and the arena was immediately filled with so many conjured swords it was impossible to see the combatants with the naked eye.

“Fog of Swords,” Soramir said. “Dedicated combat ritual essence ability spells are extremely rare.”

“Levelling that thing must be a real prick,” Jason said. “The effort shows, though; she timed it well. Sophie’s time-acceleration power could maybe have let her dodge it all, but her enemy made sure it was on cooldown.”

The swords plunged in, too thick and too numerous for any amount of spatial distortion to let Sophie avoid. Countless swords slammed into her, each one exploding as it did. They moved with blinding speed, designed specifically to catch out even someone as fast as Sophie. In the wake of the force explosions that distorted the air, Sophie was left standing unharmed, not having bothered to dodge. Her opponent’s eyes went wide as Sophie blinked, arriving right behind her. Sophie’s fist was a blur as it arrived at the back of the elf’s head, only to be stopped dead as it was caught in a hand. The impact caused their clothes and hair to whip as if caught in a gale.

Up in the booth, Jason looked down at Soramir, blocking Sophie’s punch, then to the diamond ranker’s now-empty seat.

“Miss Wexler,” Soramir said. “Unless Young Mistress Draglund here objects, I am going to declare you the victor.”

The elf was shaken, both from the sudden arrival of Soramir Rimaros and the blast that had gone off right behind her head.

“No objection, Ancestral Majesty.”

“Excellent,” Soramir said. “It was a fine match indeed. I can honestly say that you are as excellent a pair of warriors as is to be found at your rank.”

The elf bowed.

“Thank you for your kind words, Ancestral Majesty. This is the honour of my life.”

“You are a credit to your house, Mistress Draglund. Have you ever considered switching over to the Sapphire Crown guild?”

“I am very satisfied where I am, Ancestral Majesty.”

“Well, you can’t blame an old man for trying,” he said, then turned to Sophie.

“I won’t bother trying to recruit you,” he told her. “I imagine you’re at least as much trouble as your friend Asano.”

“I do my best.”

“From what I’ve just seen,” Soramir told her, “your best is very good indeed.”

Announcement: I will be going on break for all of April, during which time there will be no chapters released on any platform, except the book six launch on Amazon. Patreon charges will be suspended for April for existing patrons, while new patrons that join after the April 1st billing cycle will be charged for the month. Sorry for the short notice - there was an issue with scheduling where the notices were attached to the wrong chapters. I apologise for that.