Chương 126: A Crack Forming

Joe slammed into a snow-covered hill somewhere within the raging storm, and the moment he was no longer standing inside the dead field, his healing finally kicked in, sealing the wounds as the blood stopped flowing. He popped a healing pill into his mouth, steadied himself, and vanished, reappearing back inside the eye of the storm. He stared in shock at the fading tornado of mana before him; the remnants of his attack had partially landed.

It became painfully clear that the wraith had countered with some kind of protective barrier, allowing it to survive the point-blank blast with barely a scratch.

"Fuck," he swore, blasting forward and forcing himself back into the fight. Calling it a fight felt wrong because it was closer to a relentless dance of dodges than an exchange of blows. Joe evaded every attack the wraith hurled at him, while the wraith avoided every strike he sent its way. The thing showed no sign of fatigue; it did not breathe, it did not sweat, and it fought in absolute silence like an impassive ghost.

Joe tried once again to leave himself open and bait it into a grab, but the wraith had learned and refused to fall for the same trick twice. He cursed under his breath, knowing he had squandered his best chance to end it early, and so the fight dragged on. Two hours later, Joe was thoroughly fed up and making no progress at all. He tried shouting at the wraith, reasoning with it, bargaining, but all it ever answered with was the same hollow scream of "Life for life!"

He even attempted to lure it beyond the dead field so he could use his seeds, but it never left its sanctuary and only screamed until he returned. For a brief, bitter moment, he considered abandoning the entire mess, but when he sent Maggie a message, urging her to flee into the storm, she refused and remained seated, staring blankly at the severed head of her husband nearby.

Another hour passed, and somewhere amid the frustration and exhaustion, Joe finally began to notice something subtle about the wraith's movements. It was not faster than him, not truly, but it moved better, more completely, in a way his mind struggled to articulate. It was no longer like fighting underwater, as he had first thought; it was like fighting the water itself. Joe stumbled.

Not from an attack, but from a sensation deep within, as an almost imperceptible crack formed in the hidden bottleneck restraining him. His eyes widened slightly as a surge of joy flooded through him, sharp and unexpected. He was learning. The fight itself was teaching him, forcing understanding through repetition and pressure, and he knew that if he kept going, if he endured and adapted, he might break through the bottleneck that had bound him. Naturally, it was never going to be that easy.

The wraith finally spoke something new, its voice tearing through the air as it screamed, "AAaahhhhh! Life for life! I will take its life!" In a blur of motion, the wraith changed targets and rushed toward Maggie, who still sat unmoving, her eyes glazed over as she stared into nothingness. Panic tore through Joe as he reacted, throwing himself into the wraith's path and Space-Jumping directly in front of it, only for the wraith to flow around him as if he were nothing more than mist.

Joe hurled waves of mana, unleashed blasts of aura, and threw everything he had at it, but nothing even slowed the damn thing down. He watched in horror as a spectral claw tore Maggie's head from her shoulders right in front of him, her life ending in a violent explosion of blood. Crack. Joe moved. For the first time, his staff struck true. It slammed into the wraith's arm and shattered it on impact, the sound ringing like breaking ice.

The wraith wailed in pain and flashed away, but it was not fast enough this time. Joe appeared the instant it did and swung again. This time, it barely dodged and fled once more into icy mist, yet again, Joe was there at the exact moment it reformed, his staff striking true and smashing into its form as ice erupted across its body. Joe moved as if he were one with the moment, one with the air, and one with his staff, everything aligned in a blissful… Crack.

The moment shattered, and his partial understanding slipped away like a dream upon waking. He shook his head and attacked again, and the wraith returned to moving like water, dodging nearly every strike. However, it was badly injured, its movements jerky and staggered, and Joe pressed the assault without mercy. Anger flooded his mind as he drove forward. They had only wanted to study plants. They had not meant to hurt anyone. Why did it have to kill them?

He roared as his staff blurred faster and faster, until one clean strike slammed the wraith into the ground. He blasted part of its body with mana, shattering chunks of its icy form, and when it tried to retaliate, its attacks were frantic and sloppy. Joe evaded them with ease and continued the assault. Strike after strike tore into the wraith, ripping away pieces of its form as it screamed in fury and outrage, but Joe ignored it all. It had killed two near-innocent people who never stood a chance.

Mercy no longer had a place here. Joe landed a final, devastating blow to its shoulder, shattering what remained of its frame, and the wraith finally collapsed, no longer able to evade or fight back. Joe stood over the ruined creature, his breath ragged and hoarse, and only then did he realize how utterly exhausted he was. His legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees, still staring down at the writhing remnants.

"Why did you have to kill them?" he shouted hoarsely.

"I could have helped you!" The soulless eyes staring back at him offered no answer. It was over. Joe delivered the final blow, and the wraith disintegrated into fine dust, which scattered and vanished on a faint, passing wind. He did not know how long he sat there recovering, but eventually Joe forced himself to his feet and buried what remained of Morgan and Maggie.

He marked their grave with a small stone and said a silent prayer, knowing there was no value in blaming himself for something he had been powerless to prevent. They had been doomed the moment they stepped into that field. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. It had taken him two, maybe three hours just to land a single solid hit on that wretched thing. They never stood a chance.

Fate had abandoned them to a brutal end, and it served as a harsh reminder that no matter how strong he became, he could not save everyone. Turning his back on the grave, Joe walked slowly toward the storm that still lingered around the field. It was visibly weakening now, as if its existence had been bound to the wraith, so instead of leaving immediately, he chose to wait. He stepped out of the icy field and sat down, pulsing Nature's Paradise into the dead, rotten ground beneath him.

Life returned slowly, but it returned nonetheless. Another three hours passed before the storm faded away. The field was no longer a frozen wasteland, but a place of colour and growth, with red and blue flowers spreading out in every direction around him. Joe stood and stretched his aching legs, noticing now just how long he had been moving without rest.

He rolled his shoulders, bounced lightly on his feet, and decided that once he was back, he intended to drown himself in highly intoxicating pills or find the strongest alcohol available, preferably both. As he took a step forward, he paused and glanced back at the centre of the field, where snow was beginning to settle once more. Two small sprigs protruded from the ground there, barely visible against the white. Curiosity tugged at him, and he walked closer to investigate.

He crouched beside them and gently poked one of the sprigs, watching it sway softly under his touch. For reasons he could not quite explain, it reminded him of a certain gorgeous green-skinned Seeker. With a faint smile, he pulled out an empty glass container from his storage ring and, with careful hands, dug the sprig out along with a small clump of soil, sealing it safely inside. He stored the container away for future use, climbed onto his skyboat, and headed south toward warmer skies and familiar ground.

When Joe returned to Landradad, the first thing he did was look for Corel. Unfortunately, when he found her, she was not alone. Waiting with her was a familiar face he had not seen in quite some time, Samira.

"Oh my god! Samira! You got fat!" Joe exclaimed as he rushed over and placed a hand on her belly.

"When are you due? Whose child is it? It's not mine, is it?"

"How on earth could it ever be yours?" Samira laughed as she slapped him on the shoulder.

"I remember a couple of nights that were very hazy, and I just wanted to make sure I didn't unknowingly take advantage of you," he replied with a broad grin. Samira slapped him again before pulling him into a gentle hug.

"Ack! What are you made of? It's like I slapped steel," she said, shaking her hand dramatically.

"My husband, Manoj, is the father. You missed the wedding, by the way." Joe shot a sharp glare at Esha, who just so happened to be within eyeshot nearby.

"I am so sorry. If someone had told me, I would have come running," he said, bowing his head.

"It's not your fault, or Esh's. Be kind," Samira chided, swatting him playfully before continuing.

"You were… asleep when we got married. We took photos." She pulled out a massive photo book, and Joe spent the next hour listening as she recounted her wedding day, the happiest moments of her life laid out page by page. Joe enjoyed every minute catching up with her, finding the conversation to be the perfect distraction from the events of the past day.

"We're expecting a boy," Samira said happily. Joe's eyebrows nearly leapt off his face, but before he could suggest the perfect name, his hopes were dashed.

"Zakir is the name we chose. Zakir Yousef Bhaskar," she said.

"That's a beautiful name," Joe said warmly.

"Wait a minute. Yousef? That sounds awfully close to…"

"Yes. I admit, we were a little inspired to choose a similar-sounding name to someone who saved my life twice," Samira said with a chuckle as she patted his arm.

"I just can't remember who that was."

"Well, I'm sure whoever that person is, wherever he is, he's delighted by the honour," Joe replied with a wide smile.

"So where's the husband? I need to shake that man's hand."

"He's still in Kunlun, but once he has some free time, I'll make sure we visit. Maybe after the little one is here," Samira said, gently rubbing her stomach.

"Careful, Sam. You don't want to let him near the boy until he's at least in his twenties," Esha added with a tilt of her head.

"Otherwise, he might pick up bad habits and start surrounding himself with women like Mr Playboy here." Joe looked at Esha, Samira, Corel, and Variaya, then shrugged helplessly. She had a point.

"I promise my current lady-filled house is not a reflection of my true, pure soul," Joe said with a chuckle.

"It was purely luck." Esha promptly threw a cushion at his head. As the evening continued, they ate and caught up properly, and before long, Alice and Felicia joined them as well. What began as a quiet dinner slowly turned into a small, impromptu gathering filled with laughter, good food, and music played softly by Corel, whose melodies set a warm tone for the night.

"So, where did you just come back from?" Esha asked casually. Joe groaned as the memory of the winter storm surfaced, his mood shifting in an instant. Seeing the change, Corel smoothly intervened before he had to relive it aloud.

"He went to deal with the World Tree, and then there was a small incident. He'll tell us about it another day," she said. Esha, perceptive as ever, nodded and steered the conversation elsewhere, for which Joe was silently grateful. Eventually, a friend arrived to escort Samira back to Kunlun, and the evening's festivities began to wind down.

Once he no longer had to restrain himself around his pregnant friend, Joe downed an entire barrel of the strongest alcohol he owned, quickly becoming more drunk than he could ever remember being. He danced with his friends one by one, before being half-carried to his bed, where he collapsed laughing. For once, he was more than happy to share a bed filled with friends, curling up between four warm bodies as sleep claimed him.

The next few days passed in a hazy blur, but Joe eventually returned to peak mental clarity. When he did, he found himself sitting on one of Yggdrasil's branches, quietly pondering the crack that had formed in his bottleneck. It had appeared the moment he noticed something was fundamentally different about the way the wraith moved, but he still could not grasp what that realization truly meant.

He spent an entire week turning the problem over in his mind without progress, until he finally accepted that thought alone might not be enough. Perhaps he needed another battle to widen his perspective, but that meant finding an opponent strong enough to challenge him, and he had no idea where such a foe could be found. As he considered this, a sharp pain flared in his arm, distinctly different from before and not accompanied by his mana bars emptying.

Instead, it felt as though the thing within the void of his arm was testing him. Joe knew that he had to do something about… it. And now seemed like as good a time as any to begin.

'Rel. I'm going to do something extremely dangerous. So don't worry if you feel… weird emotions.'

'What does that mean?' Corel replied, her pulse thick with concern.

'I'll explain when it's over.'

'Joseph!' It was already too late, as Joe closed his eyes and turned his mind inward, focusing on the void in his arm, or rather, the prison cell of the being trapped within.