MM - Chapter 189 - ETCHINGS OF THE ABSTRACT

Grandmaster Vought

- Carter City -

As much as Vought desired to rush straight to KongRu’s home and question him, there was an important task that demanded his attention. He left the tiny airport, soon arriving at the city’s official morgue. After a very brief introduction, a stiff-backed Captain Hemlock escorted Vought down several flights of stairs to a well-lit basement. They passed through a security door and several checkpoints before arriving at the resting place of one of Vought’s oldest friends.

An on-staff technician pulled Jedidiah’s corpse from a cooled locker and drew back the sheet covering him. Vought had never seen the younger martial so prominently display his age. They had known each other for just over a century, and been like family for half that time. Vought took great pride in his professionalism. However, when the Captain got a glance of the grandmaster’s expression, he immediately excused himself from the room.

As was proper, the corpse was in pristine condition. It wasn’t the body’s treatment that infuriated Vought; it was the gaping hole in his abdomen surrounded by ugly, distorted tissue. Jedidiah’s death had not been a clean one. It was not quick, painless, or honorable. He was pecked to death by a pigeon, slowly peeled open until delicate innards were shown the light of day, then left to bleed out.

The man had faithfully served his country for sixty years and met a most gruesome end at the hands of a child. Vought’s emotions demanded release through his demesne—an action that would turn the entire building into a graveyard. Vought kept it inside, bottling his fury for later.

The first reason he came in person was that there was no room for error on this mission. The tensions between the Coalition of Masters and PsyCore were stretched to the limit. Which, in turn, created immense pressure from the government’s oversight committee, which only sought to keep both sides in check. Vought couldn’t afford another PR snafu. Jedidiah’s failure had created enough of a storm that his people were on the back foot. With a crisis looming, the situation could not be allowed to grow any worse.

Vought tapped Jedidiah’s left temple, creating a complete copy of his LinQ. The second reason Vought came was that only three people on the planet had clearance to do what he’d just done. The other two were currently out on sensitive missions of their own. Vought’s state-of-the-art LinQ rapidly categorized the copied data, then created a graph of Jedidiah’s brain fluctuations in the last few minutes of his life. Only the grandmaster could see the AR graph that appeared midair.

The vodcast of Jedidiah’s last fight was replayed in Vought’s vision, lights pulsing whenever his friend’s mental energy spiked. The LinQ’s estimations were unnecessary. He and Jedidiah had sparred enough that Vought was easily able to envision every step of the battle against KongRu. Watching Jedidiah being picked apart all over again was excruciating and chilling in a way that it hadn’t been before.

Since first seeing the duel, Vought had been under the impression that Jedidiah went easy on KongRu for a reason he was not privy to. That hope was dashed beyond recovery. Especially at the end, Jedidiah had gone all out, a fact which made absolutely no sense.

Jedidiah’s placement on the national master’s ranking list wasn’t for show. If ranked on martial technique alone, he would have landed somewhere in the five thousands. However, his mental strength, control, and multitasking were top-notch. Even peak masters would be hard-pressed to fend off his mental assaults.

How did a boy not even thirty manage it? He would have to start training in the womb and grow up on a battlefield soaked in blood, of which there are none… No wonder KongRu’s master chose not to put him through the quenching. He would have killed himself in seconds.

The conundrum couldn’t be explained away as KongRu being some kind of savant or genius. Vought had met plenty of them; each and every one had advantages in control, multitasking, and intuition, never raw mental strength. Vought checked the data two more times, until it was absolutely clear that Jedidiah faced KongRu alone; the other masters and grandmaster in attendance didn’t contribute in any way.

So how? This child is surrounded by mystery and wrapped in secrets. 

At that moment, Vought’s LinQ completed a scan of the entire day’s data and pinged a warning that he was not at all happy to see. Just before the match began, Jedidiah had been doused by several layers of psychic energy. The readings were consistent with a topographical memory and thought scan, which meant there was a high probability that a PsyCore agent had been present at the duel.

Vought gently covered his friend’s body with the sheet, then pushed him back into the secured freezer for preservation. The corpse was a treasure trove of origin energy worth billions of credits. It could not be allowed to decay further.

Vought exited the room, holding back a snarl as he made a priority call. As far as the public was concerned, the woman who answered was Vought’s nemesis. In reality, they worked closely together in a cordial-enough fashion, ensuring their two organizations never crossed the line into all-out conflict. 

“What now?” The weariness in her voice was unmasked, a weakness she would never share with her underlings.

“One of your people was in Carter City.”

The woman paused at the accusation in Vought’s tone. She spoke carefully, a thick mask of professionalism covering her previous weariness. “Yes. A team went to observe for personal reasons. I’ve already confirmed there was no interference in the match.”

“That’s not why I’m calling. If your team was there, then they got a read on Raine KongRu. I’m on my way to his place now. I want to know everything.”

Raine KongRu

- Primal Realm -

Raine knew he was being unreasonable. There was a fine line where effort turned to stubbornness, and he had set sail from that coast over an hour ago. Instead of immediately rushing off to the next group of Fetches, he stopped, eyes closed, and face lifted to taste the small beam of sunlight slicing through the canopy above.

I’m reaching for too much. I chose to spread my efforts between nine different weapons, further diluting my efforts between bloodlust and Connection is idiotic. Both require a lifetime of effort to master. Primal Energy isn’t a solution; it's an aid. If I don’t start using it reasonably, this priceless opportunity is going to slip away without any real gains.

Unification isn’t happening. As amazing as it would be, there are thousands of nuances I still don’t understand that are going to keep it out of my grasp. I need to focus on one of the three: Mental ability, True Connection, or martial stances. So… which one do I pick?

Of the three, the stances will be the easiest to improve. That’s out for now. The other two I have little to no experience with since I failed to awaken my brain’s potential in the past. Secondhand information has taken me this far, but my progress is drying up quick.

Bhima will eventually have new information for me regarding mental abilities. Though, I’m only one death away from that avenue closing forever. Ignore that, then. Which of the two is more valuable? True Connection will improve my ability to sense and manipulate the energies within ZionLine. On the other hand, deepening my understanding of bloodlust will enhance my potential in both worlds. Both can be taught to the guild, and either will give me a leg up on getting through the boss’s roots.

Raine’s thoughts were pulled back to his battle with Jedidiah. He knew winning that fight was as much luck as at had been skill and preparation. If Jedidiah’s mental strength were a little stronger, or if his martial skills weren’t so rusty, Raine would have been done for. That would not be the last time he confronted a master. Much stronger opponents were coming. If he couldn’t defend himself on Earth, then everything else was meaningless.

Unlike those who didn’t know how much ZionLine changed people, Raine fully grasped why his mental strength was able to stand up to Jedidiah’s. For him, it was common knowledge that the more combat one experienced, and the more deadly that combat was, the greater the benefits when it came to mental strength. Those with fifteen years in ZionLine awakened from Genesis with significantly more powerful mental abilities than those with one or two months. That was why Celeste and Mel were so weak, despite awakening with ReGen as he did.

Not much of a choice. Every one of my plans falls apart if I die to the next master who comes knocking. Bloodlust it is. I’ll leave True Connection to the filthy cheaters like Celeste.

Raine jumped, landing atop the nearest tree. Above the canopy, out in the open, freezing cold wind cut deep, attempting to steal his breath. He inhaled deeply, taking in the cold and fully embracing the many sweeping changes that occurred within his body. He had to change in the same way, and just as rapidly, or only death awaited.

The boss wasn’t far. Ten kilometers at most. From his vantage, Raine could see it tearing through the jungle on a direct path toward him. His eyes closed again. Drawing another breath, he embraced the cold and pulled out the questions that needed answering.

What is bloodlust, exactly? What is mental strength? How is it improved or grown? At their core, what are mental abilities? Why do they require an awakened brain? Why do the dreams, or sequences of images that come with Genesis, determine the mental ability developed? Why aren’t there infinite versions of mental abilities?

Along with the freezing chill within, Primal Energy thrummed. It coursed through his cells, empowering with the potential of creation, of creativity. Raine chose a question at random and leaped down the rabbit hole.

There aren’t infinite types of mental abilities because they aren’t as unique to each person as they seem. Different schools of thought can be distilled into… well, schools, or groupings, and the same goes for mental abilities. Those with a proclivity to physical, brutal violence will develop bloodlust. Within that ‘school’, there are numerous avenues. I don’t crave killing, I crave challenge through combat, while someone else with bloodlust might desire nothing more than unfiltered murder.

But people are multifaceted. We can fit within many schools at once. So what determines the eventual outcome? Is it predetermined at all? Maybe it's a split-second choice. I’ve had several of those recently; a moment of crystallization where the muddy suddenly becomes clear. Is that all Genesis is? A short story, like an unfolding flower, and at its end, a choice to smell and pluck, or move along is made…

In the past, those who failed at Genesis required months or years before finding another chance. Does it take time for a new story to develop, for life to change us enough that a new ‘school’ becomes dominant? That feels right. If it is, what does that make mental abilities? They become less of a randomized road to power, and more abstract, a concept, no… an ideal.

Shivers not from the cold crept up Raine’s spine. The word rang true through his entire being, pulsing with potential and depth. As with the unfolding flower he’d just imagined, the truth blossomed inside him.

Mental abilities are ideals. The intensity of that ideal, how closely it is held, and the time it’s nurtured all directly affect the wielder’s mental strength.

Raine had been forced to spar tens of thousands of times against the awakened and their mental abilities, while he could only defend himself with stubbornness. Each time, the kernel of an ideal held deep within his heart had been stressed, challenged, and refined, forcing it to grow and grow and grow. Its dull edges were shaved away, replaced by a core so immutable that none alive could ever shatter it. And when it was finally realized in his moment of Genesis, it was ready to burst into the open. Raine hadn’t needed a nap like the girls because he already knew the profound truth inside, and merely set it free.

Then the only questions left are how an awakened brain can turn an ideal into something physical, and how I can make bloodlust even stronger. Scratch that. Strength shouldn’t be my focus. I need control, nuance, sensation, feedback. If I had those, then feeling the roots coming in advance and getting out of their way would be simple.

The solution wasn’t as hard to find as Raine expected. 

I need understanding. If bloodlust is an ideal, the more I understand what that ideal means to me, the more control I should gain.

Raine was done standing still. His cells thrummed with need. He leaned forward until falling, then Lunged in the direction of a group of Fetches he’d spotted previously. Bloodlust crowded the air ahead of him, staining a small corner of the Primal Realm with his ideal. It was a call to violence, a desire to see his enemies torn limb from limb and for their blood to stain his hands. He would add their corpses to the ocean of blood he’d already spilled. There, they would serve him forevermore.