“That’s far enough. Let’s circle around,” Arthur said, tilting his speeder, and the blurry desert below resolved itself into endless chains of dunes. He shot a glance at his brother. “Did you bring the telescopes?”

  “Yeah, got them right here,” Roland said, tapping the ring on his index finger.

  “Alright, let’s hope the two of them are still alive. If we could watch the end of their fight, when all the trump cards come out, that'd be the best,” Arthur remarked.

  “Are you sure? Darkheart is very secretive about his cultivation art. I’m worried he might do something if he notices us spying,” Roland said with concern.

  “It’s a risk worth taking. Not only do we get to see what Darkheart can do, we can also find out what that peasant is really capable of. I want his secrets, little brother, I need that strength! Do you trust Darkheart will share them fairly after he kills him?”

  “No.” Roland’s expression darkened.

  “Exactly. He’s going to fuck us over. Unless we have the knowledge that something exists, we can’t argue our point. Worst case, I can always send a messenger to Father telling him that Darkheart robbed us. But we need to find out what is there to rob. Cultivation techniques, artifacts, we need to see what he has,” Arthur stated with a determined look. “As much as I hate to say this, I don’t think Darkheart will have it as easy as he thinks.”

  “I don’t think so either. I’m coming with you,” Roland nodded decisively.

  “Good. We’re a few minutes out. Let’s head to that big oasis near the Well; we can hide in the bushes and observe the situation,” Arthur suggested, and his brother followed his lead.

  The two speeders sliced through the air just below the clouds, approaching their destination.

  “Look!” Roland suddenly broke the silence, pointing at something in the distance.

  “What the… Give me that damn telescope,” Arthur gestured impatiently, his eyes fixed on the remote patch of torn-up desert.

  Roland passed him one of the spyglasses, taking the other for himself.

  “Whoa. That whole area is properly fucked! What the hell happened there?” Roland gasped, looking at the two large craters and a massive, several-hundred-foot-long furrow.

  A grim expression settled on Arthur’s face.

  “Looks like we’re too late; they seem to have already battled it out. Can you see anyone?” he asked, sweeping the telescope across the devastated area.

  “No… Wait! Check out that massive crater on the left,” Roland pointed towards the dark spot a few hundred feet from the Well of the Ancients.

  Arthur immediately swiped over the area with his spyglass.

  “Shit…” His voice fell upon witnessing the carnage below. “Did they butcher each other? I’ve never seen so much blood in my life.”

  “I think Cade’s speeder is still there!” Roland yelled out in excitement. From so far away, the broad silhouette of the Arrow Nine was merely a black blot on the backdrop of bright sand.

  “Stay quiet,” Arthur hissed. “Let’s check out the crater, then we’ll see what’s in the speeder. First, we need to make sure that Darkheart isn’t around.”

  Both brothers spent the next few minutes scanning through every inch of the area ahead, eventually arriving at the conclusion that the manhunter had departed.

  “Why would he leave the Nine, though? It’s 20,000 crystals just sitting there,” Roland pondered.

  “Agreed, it’s definitely unlike Darkheart. Maybe he learned something that made him disregard all else and rush away?” Arthur mused, suspiciously eyeing the dunes around the Well.

  “What shall we do then?” Roland asked.

  “Let’s go see the crater first,” Arthur decided after a brief pause.

  The brothers dropped altitude and continued flying close to the ground the rest of the way. They stopped a couple hundred feet away from the bloody crater, dismounting their speeders underneath a large palm tree. After taking another couple of minutes to confirm the area was indeed safe, they proceeded on foot.

  Making short, controlled leaps, Arthur and Roland warily climbed towards the edge of the crater. An immense force must have struck at its center, generating intense heat, as occasional clumps of thin black glass crunched under their feet. The surrounding sand was still hot to the touch.

  As the brothers reached the peak, they were rooted in place upon setting their eyes on the horrific scene in front of them. A strong coppery scent hit their nostrils, riding on a wave of heat.

  “What the fuck…” Arthur felt nausea rising in his throat and heard Roland retching behind his back.

  The sides of the crater were covered in hundreds of red, drying streaks, with the center impact site nearly drowning in crimson. But that wasn’t the reason for their adverse reaction.

  In the middle of the crater lay a skinless, steaming body, somehow still in one piece. Sunlight highlighted the glistening blood, still oozing from its torn muscles.

  The whole place reeked of death.

  “Darkheart is an animal…” Roland said in a quiet voice, wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his gray robe.

  “I despised that fucking peasant, but this…? That’s some truly diabolical shit.” A grimace of disgust twisted Arthur’s pale face.

  “Do you… do you want to take a closer look?” Roland asked, his tone suggesting he desired the exact opposite.

  “Nah, let the peasant rot," Arthur shook his head, not trying to hide his disgust. "Considering that sadistic fuck skinned him, he would've taken the storage artifacts anyway. Let’s take a look at the Arrow instead.”

  Both brothers brought out their speeders from storage, and flew slowly towards the distant silhouette of Cade’s Arrow Nine, choosing to skirt around the site of carnage.

  “It seems like that barrier he put over it is still working,” Roland mentioned offhandedly. “And look—Jade is there as well!” he added in a thrilled tone.

  “See? I told you it was worth coming back!” Arthur chortled. “And that barrier looks rather faint to me. We should have no problem breaking through it.”

  They dropped to the ground a few dozen feet from Cade’s speeder, sending their own fliers back into storage. Then Arthur’s hands flashed, and a golden formation circle appeared above his head, its center pointing at the shimmering barrier.

  “Come on, it’s not going to break itself,” he rushed his younger brother, whose hands likewise flickered, casting quick seals.

  A golden sword as long as three men emerged from the circle, then shot forward, smashing into the barrier with the speed of a lightning bolt. The translucent hemisphere trembled but otherwise didn’t seem greatly affected. A waft of wind brought over a clean scent, the result of Arthur’s potent energy discharge.

  Almost immediately, nine smaller golden swords struck the barrier. Soon the brothers were unloading strike after strike, laughing as they pushed their Sword Sacrament battle arts to their limit. After nearly a minute of the non-stop barrage, the barrier finally gave in, collapsing with the sound of crushed glass, its shards dispersing into millions of glowing particles.

  “Fuck, that thing was actually quite durable. I’m nearly spent,” Arthur commented, wiping his forehead. After all, early stage Foundation Establishment reservoirs were tiny.

  “Same. I don’t think I have enough qi for more than one, maybe two proper blows left in me,” Roland nodded, breathing heavily.

  “Alright, go and grab that bitch. I have a great idea what to do with her,” Arthur grinned maliciously.

  “Why is it always me doing all the dirty work?” Roland grimaced.

  “Because you’re younger, and your cultivation is lower. Also, I’m the third heir,” Arthur stated, clasping his hands behind his back. “Very soon to be the second,” he chortled, shooting a glance towards the Well’s dark maw.

  Roland grinned and leaped onto the speeder, pulling Jade’s unconscious body from her seat and unceremoniously throwing her underneath his brother’s feet.

  “I always wanted to know how it'd feel to use the Emperor’s daughter as my private whore,” Arthur’s lips pulled back into a lecherous snarl. He pushed Jade’s body with his foot. Seeing her helpless and unresponsive, his grimace twisted into a wicked grin, and he started undoing his belt.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  “A… A…” Roland stuttered.

  “The fuck is it now? Can’t I have a moment to enjoy my well-earned triumph?” Arthur growled, looking up at his brother, whose shaking hand pointed at something behind his back. “What?” He sharply turned around, and the blood nearly froze in his veins.

  There was a path of footsteps marked in sand leading from the bloody crater. A bloody, skinless corpse shuffled its way towards them. The way the sand stuck to its raw, slick muscle and the tiny trickles of blood that burst each time it moved was both horrifying and nauseating.

  “Fuck me!” Arthur yelled in terror, taking two steps back and tripping over Jade’s body. He swallowed a curse, quickly scrambling back to his feet.

  “Artie, what is this? How is this fucking thing alive?!” Roland yelled, his knees trembling.

  “How the fuck would I know?!” Arthur yelled back in exasperation, before steadying himself. “Wait! Look how slow he is. Bring out your Judgement; we’ll take him from the sides,” he added quickly, pulling out his own golden longsword from the ring.

  Thick cords of muscle twisted on the corpse’s frame like a bunch of slithering snakes, propelling the body forward one step at a time, its raw form glistening in the late morning sun. The tendons tensed and stretched, while the corpse’s fanged teeth seemed to be stuck in a perpetual grin, its lips torn away with the rest of its skin.

  “Look, he has fangs. Do you think he’s actually a vampire?” Roland asked nervously. “Or was, since he’s not doing all that well now.” He let out a short, anxious chuckle. Both brothers were settling down after seeing that the walking corpse didn’t seem capable of anything beyond shuffling uselessly forward. Roland circled the bloody figure from the left, his golden sword steady despite his sweating grip.

  “All I know is that I was right! I hated that peasant from the moment I saw him, and look! He’s an actual fucking monster,” Arthur spat with grim satisfaction. “Let’s chop this thing to pieces; we’ll see if it can reanimate after that.”

  “Alright, say when,” Roland nodded grimly, his eyes fixed on the gruesome figure.

  Suddenly, the corpse mumbled something, one of its arms stretching forward as if it was trying to grasp something in its sinewy hold.

  “The fuck?!” Both brothers exclaimed, taking a couple of steps back from their positions.

  This walking, eyeless husk seemed to head towards Jade, either unaware or unconcerned about the two armed men flanking it.

  “Have a go at it!” Arthur ordered nervously.

  “No way, why me again?!” Roland exclaimed in a shrill voice.

  “Just do it! I’ll follow right after. Our golden qi is going to slow it down even more!” Arthur argued, yelling angrily and waving his longsword in front of him.

  “Fine. You owe me big time, though,” Roland said, raising the glowing golden sword overhead. He then stepped forward, bringing the weapon down in a vicious, well-executed arc meant to split the walking abomination’s skull.

  However, just as the sword was about to land on target, the corpse’s hand shot upwards, intercepting Roland’s Judgement and grabbing the shining weapon by its blade, stopping it firmly in place. Surprisingly, other than drawing a little blood, the sword didn’t cut even half an inch into its flesh.

  “What?!” Both brothers exclaimed in horror, and Roland grabbed the hilt of his sword in both hands, trying to wrestle it from the skinless creature’s unrelenting grip.

  The blood-slickened form slowly turned its skeletal head, setting its empty, bleeding eyesockets on its attacker.

  “Don’t just fucking stand there!” Roland yelled in panic, sensing the malevolent will in that gaze. He pulled on his sword with all his strength, but he might as well have been trying to rip out the massive mithril gates protecting the monastery’s courtyard.

  Arthur immediately came to his senses and threw himself at the bloodied corpse. He readied his longsword for a perfect downwards strike, aimed at severing the creature’s arm.

  However, he was a moment too late. The glistening husk’s jaw suddenly popped, extending to thrice its normal size with a series of nauseating creaks and crunches, and its raw form blurred towards Roland.

  The younger of the two brothers had no hope of matching the walking corpse’s preternatural speed without enough qi. Helpless, he managed to take one step backward before wide-open jaws capable of swallowing a small animal clamped down on his neck, fangs like daggers tearing into the carotid artery. A thick stream of hot blood poured into the abomination’s cavernous mouth.

  “No!” Arthur screamed, bringing his sword down on the creature’s back with all of his strength, and slicing less than half an inch into its hardened muscle. “Fuck!” he yelled in surprise at the corpse’s unexpected toughness. He clenched his teeth, and using up the rest of his spiritual qi, he filled his weapon with spiritual energy, imbuing it with water-severing properties. He brought the sword down once again, this time with an aim to sever the creature’s neck and hopefully save his brother’s life.

  Just as his strike was about to land, the unliving thing that had once been Cade Ward—still draining Roland’s blood in greedy gulps—snapped into a new position, yanking the younger brother’s head directly into the path of the falling sword.

  Arthur was far too committed to the blow. He tried pulling back, but his physical strength wasn’t enough to reverse the deadly momentum in the last moment.

  The world slowed down, and the young Brightheart watched with sinking dread as his weapon struck. Roland’s skull exploded in a cloud of crimson steam, covering their immediate surroundings in bits of bone and brain matter. The sword, its energy now spent, lodged itself in the standing corpse’s shoulder.

  Arthur froze, staring unblinking at the scene, his eyes wide open in horror, his whole body shaking traumatically.

  The skinless figure discarded Roland’s mutilated body to the side, its other arm immediately shooting towards the longsword. It effortlessly tore out the weapon from both the wound and the stunned noble’s grip in one swift move.

  Arthur stared blankly at his brother’s corpse, then looked at his empty hand, his brain unable to process what just happened.

  The skinless figure, still holding the long blade, suddenly released a deep sigh. Then it cracked its neck, leveling its eyeless stare on the older brother.

  “Two… little... rats,” Cade rasped, his lipless mouth unable to properly form words.

  “Wh—What?” Arthur’s eyes widened in pure panic.

  “Want to… kill my friend? You're clearly… tired of living!” The hoarse words turned into a terrifying, grating roar, and Cade’s throbbing muscles took on a scarlet, eye-piercing glow as he ignited a large portion of the newly acquired blood qi.

  Arthur released a piercing cry, snapping around and fleeing in a decision born of pure terror. Unable to fly away, his legs pounded rhythmically at the sand, but without any spiritual qi in his pre-core he couldn’t run fast enough.

  Cade’s blood-slickened shape caught up with him in no time. A grisly hand caught the older Brightheart by the nape of his neck, snatching him into the air like a child. Arthur cried out again, his arms and legs flapping, before the Asura viciously brought him down, rage further fueling his strength. The heir’s body smashed face-first into the sand with a low, resonating thud.

  “Phfft…” Arthur’s legs twitched. His hands clawed at his neck, trying to pry apart Cade’s glistening fingers while spitting out bloody sand, but he was far too weak. He felt himself lifted off the ground before Cade slammed his body down with overwhelming force—once, twice, again and again. The Asura repeated the brutal motion like a senseless automaton stuck in one setting, each blow a heavy, dull thump resonating through the desert’s surface for nearly half a mile and scattering local birds. Half a breath later, Arthur’s neck finally snapped, and his broken form went limp, his face a brutalized, shattered mask. Under forces that violent, the sand compacted into a layer hard as stone.

  Cade opened his hand, letting the body drop into the pit his onslaught had carved into the desert, now thickly splattered with crimson. He then took out a jug of Rank 3 blood essence from his ring and gulped it down. Then a second one, and a third one. Throwing the last empty jug away, the Asura released a satisfied sigh. His body was gravely hurt, and it would take some time to heal. Refilling his voracious heart with potent essence was a good start, pushing back the encroaching bloodrage.

  His gaze shifted between the two corpses, and he slowly shook his head. If he remembered correctly, their father was a Duke in the Brightheart Empire. Another problem in the making, but for now he had more important matters to attend to.

  Cade cranked his neck, loosening the tension in his upper body before checking the corpses for storage artifacts. After taking the brothers’ rings and picking up Roland’s Judgement, his attention turned to his speeder and Jade’s pale, unconscious form. Fortunately, at least physically she was mostly fine. He suspected Arthur had been planning to throw her in the Well, a perfect opportunity to dispose of the princess. In all likelihood, nobody would have found whatever was left of her body in its depths. After some thought, he decided this would be a good resting place for the brothers. Unfortunately, their early second tier blood was far too weak for his purposes.

  After examining Jade’s life signature in more detail, Cade arrived at a positive conclusion. Not only had her physical state not worsened, it had actually improved a little. This was amazing news, though he couldn’t understand why she was still unconscious. It was a real miracle he had managed to interrupt the brothers’ nefarious plans in the nick of time. He didn’t know exactly what sort of primal instinct had awakened him, but he suspected his voracious heart must have somehow picked up on the presence of the brothers; after all, it was the source of his life sense. A survival reaction, maybe? For all he knew, it could have been something natural for the Asura. He had hundreds of questions regarding his race but no one to answer them. The Book of Life focused mainly on cultivation and providing insights into various laws. Even though he was surrounded by people who wished him well, on some level Cade still felt alone, unable to share his real thoughts and feelings with anyone.

  He placed Jade gently in the backseat of his new Arrow Nine. He couldn’t remember much of what had just occurred. His last memory of the fight with Darkheart was from the moment he struck the ground after his ignited ribbons turned the manhunter into mincemeat. His next flash of consciousness came when his danger sense rang in alarm, warning him of an incoming blow from Roland’s Judgement. He had instinctively sheathed his hand with the last remnants of blood qi, finding himself on the cusp of bloodrage.

  Cade directed the Arrow towards the gory crater, landing near its center. After dismounting, he started sifting through drying, bloody clumps, gritting his teeth as the blazing sand set his partially regenerated nerve endings on fire. Just being exposed to the dry desert air was a torture.

  The first items he found were the vambraces—now dull, devoid of spiritual qi, but otherwise undamaged. Not even an hour later, his hand—now covered with patches of pinkish skin—triumphantly held up a black ring. A small smile spread his partially regrown lips. A True Core cultivator’s ring! There were bound to be amazing things inside.

  Cade returned to his speeder, his mood darkening as his gaze lingered on the Well before settling on the princess’s unconscious form. The muscles along his jaw rippled, and his fists tightened, finger joints popping in quiet warning. Soon, there would come a day when no one in their right mind would dream of harming people he had decided to protect. Wincing from pain, he wrapped himself in his gray Sword Dao robe, then checked the tightness on the fastening belts, ensuring Jade’s body was properly secured. Satisfied, the Asura leaped into the front seat, taking one last glance at the blood-soaked crater left behind, most of it Darkheart's.

  “If that’s not the definition of a bad death, then I don’t know what is,” Cade muttered, slowly shaking his head. What happened here was bound to cause more trouble down the line. He needed to raise his realm—and his skills—as fast as possible. With determination sharper than Legion’s edge, the Asura sent a trickle of blood qi into the Arrow’s intricate formations, shooting towards the monastery with a thunderous roar.

  END OF BOOK ONE

  NEXT:

  Thanks for reading!

  If you enjoyed the first book, please consider leaving a rating or a review.

  Second book will follow the usual posting schedule Mon/Wed/Fri.

  "Soldier Ask Not", where we find out why Gorgo the Gray can't remember his past, where his name came from, and learn more about his mysterious origins. He's a very important character—a hero in his own right—who will return in Book Two.