49. Beyond

  The moment that it happened was a moment just like any. Sora was speaking with Taimei and her husband, Polkluk, about her place in their school. About the future, where there might be more to the world than just climbing to the next floor, or winning a tournament. A world where she might have a child, or where she might be noteworthy for some other reason. Or maybe not. A world where she could claim something for herself and be proud of it.

  She was the first to notice it. A sudden line in the sky ripped open, an a giant eye looked through the gaping darkness. She screamed and pointed towards it, even as the hole in the blue sky opened wider and wider.

  Even from the distance, she could see the enemies step through. And she could feel their power. They were beyond the gold-ranked competitors, they were each in the diamond realm, and their leaders were beyond even that.

  Taimei turned to see what she was screaming at, and abruptly turned to her husband.

  “Go with the others,” Taimei said. “I’ll support the rest of you from a distance. Sora, stay with me, I’ll keep you safe.”

  Sora nodded, and Polkluk flew up into the sky to face the invaders. He had already linked with his wife to create the beginning of the North Star Guiding formation, and as the other Peach Blossoms flew up, they reached out together and formed their battle formation once more.

  They were not alone. All of the gold ranked competitors filed out of the waiting areas and flew to confront these invaders. Hundreds of fighters stood fast in defense of their world, even as the Worldfather flew to take his place at the front of all of them.

  When he spoke, his words were clear to everyone.

  “You come to the world of Atla,” he stated. “You were not invited. State your intentions, and I as Worldfather shall decide whether or not you are welcome.”

  “Worldfather?” the leader of the enemies questioned. He laughed. “I shall slay you and claim this world for myself! Your Xian Bond shall not protect you, you will beg for mercy and I shall—”

  “So you have chosen to bleed into the lands and fertilize the growth of the next generation,” the Worldfather said. “Very well. As you have declared your intention, I declare mine. Citizens of Atla! We are being invaded! We are at war! If you have the strength to face these invaders, I call upon you to stand with me now in this time of conflict!”

  And then the sky was awash with light. Sora screamed, she was but a child in the foundation realm, but Taimei was there with her, gathering others who could not defend themselves and ushering them into the secure locations of the coliseum.

  “Stay there until the Worldfather speaks again and says that it is safe to come out,” Taimei told the children she had gathered. “I must go now.”

  “Wait,” Sora called out, but Taimei was already gone, moving at the speed of a golden path cultivator in a hurry. She turned around at the strangers that were sharing her shelter and swallowed nervously.

  She hoped that everything would be alright.

  ~~~~~~~

  Wusho studied the forces arrayed before him, waiting patiently as the world’s defenders arrived and arranged themselves. There was the Xian Lord himself, of course, standing at the forefront and shielding the others with his powers as he bought time for more forces to arrive. That was fine as far as Wusho was concerned, he wished to get this all over at once. The more defenders that were crushed in the opening combat, the easier the taming of the rest of the world would be.

  And what a world it was! The Qi here, though hostile and alien, was so abundant and thick that if Wusho did not know better he would think that he was standing on a galactic nexus. How a single world could put out so much Qi was unknown to him, but he had his own trump card.

  At his side, a sword. It had been a mastercrafted blade once, but he had never drawn it in his lifetime, and it was now rusted and worn. But it was worth entire planets for those who knew its secrets, and Wusho knew what it was. He could draw it only five times, and then he would die. But each draw would cut through the strings of fate!

  A relic from the rise of the Divine Fates Empire, imbued with a blessed soul and empowered by a providence crystal in its tang, it was a gift to Wusho by the empress herself. With this weapon in his possession, his army was unbeatable. They had never known defeat, and they never would so long as Wusho was their general.

  The rip in the cosmos closed behind him, the being that had poked the hole bellowing as it turned its attention elsewhere. Wusho shuttered slightly at the soul-wrenching quality of that being’s voice, but he noticed that the Atlians were hardly effected at all. Protected by this ‘Worldfather’ perhaps? Or maybe it was the world itself shielding them?

  It didn’t matter.

  He wasn’t the only one with trump cards in his army, and once the Atlian defenses were lined up, he drew his blade for the first time and called out.

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  “Division twelve-eight-eighty-three of the Divine Fates Imperial Army! I call you to battle! I call you to conquest! Take this world in the name of the empress!” he shouted.

  His forces charged, and the battle began.

  ~~~~~~

  I watched as the enemy allowed my world to rally its defenses. When I had glanced at today’s events with my fate vision, I had seen only a calm day of the tournament, like the one before and the one after. I hadn’t seen this coming, and I wondered why. But I didn’t have too much time to wonder.

  I stood at the vanguard with my true self. Atlas was there at my side, in spirit and not in body, as he had dissolved his eidolon the moment he had felt the breech in the dimensions to focus on the invaders.

  “I’m pressing against them, but they’re strong enough that I can’t just burn them away,” he told me. “I can only weaken them a little and keep them from using my Qi against my people. But even so, they’re so very strong.”

  “Focus on empowering the defenders,” I told him calmly. “We’ll emerge victorious.”

  “There’s something else,” he said. “They have something with them. I don’t like it. It twists things and churns things and it’s ugly.”

  “Something demonic?” I asked.

  “I think so,” he told me. “But I can’t get a good look at it. Every time I try I see something different. Sometimes it’s a knife, other times it’s a cup, and a ring, and a pair of glasses, or, I don’t know. There’s a face in there somewhere, but it’s old and screaming and sad, I think.”

  I had a sinking feeling in my stomach as I realized what had been brought onto my world-child. “It’s a fate-defying artifact,” I said. “That is why I could not see this event happening today. It was obscured from me.”

  “Does that mean that we’ll lose?” Atla asked.

  “They’re not the only ones who can defy fate,” I assured my world son. Then the enemy leader made a speech, and the opposing army charged.

  ~~~~~~

  Di Ram was busy calling out orders when it happened.

  The enemy charged, but at that same moment, the leaders of the army, the Platinum ranked cultivators of the enemy and Little Bug, unleashed a devastating, nearly world-ending attack. The forces collided in the heavens, ripping through his senses as the Qi churned and the fabric of reality rippled with the forces invoked.

  He felt a churning in his stomach that caused him to feel queasy. He felt dirty and impure, and at the same time he felt cleansed and purified. The weapon of the enemy met the shield of Atla, and the spear was turned aside.

  It lasted an entire moment, as the enemy realized for the first time the titanic strength of a Xian Lord and the allies realizing for the first time the power arrayed against them. Both sides realized that this fight might be the end of them.

  But more than that, as far as Di Ram was concerned, it might be the end of the current way of life on Atla.

  When the dizzying forces of the energies faded and reality reasserted itself, he realized that the enemies were charging.

  “Charge!” he called out to his own forces, and the battle commenced.

  ~~~~~

  Wusho blinked in surprise as the opening thrust was turned away by the Xian Lord. He looked at his weapon, then tsked and sheathed it. It was too much to expect that alone would solve his problems, but he had hopefully weakened the Xian Lord considerably by forcing him to defend his forces.

  He had eight lieutenants under his command at platinum rank, and eighty diamond ranked cultivators. He himself was on the cusp of mythril rank, and when he had this world as a personal cultivation resource he intended to cross that threshold, establishing himself as a ruthless force in the cosmos. He would continue to give fealty to the empress, of course, but the beachhead he had established in this previously untapped dimension would ensure his relevance to the empire.

  He was so confident in his victory that when the Shield of Atla was followed up by its Gladius, he barely had time to draw his own shield to defend his forces. Once more a titanic technique was unleashed in the closing space between the two armies, and six of the invaders were caught by the fires of creation and burnt away before the platinum lieutenants could shield them.

  Wusho tsked. So it was like that, was it? He cursed that he could not follow the counter-thrust up with another thrust of his own, but as the two armies began their battle, neither could the enemy.

  Or so he thought, until another wave of the fires of creation washed over the field, sparing the defending army and forcing the lieutenants to shield their own forces.

  Wusho cursed. If that was the way it was to be, then he would draw his blade once more. Empowering the relic with his core’s Qi, he unleashed the fiery wrath of hell.

  Not at the battlefield, for he knew that unlike the defenders, his own attack could not tell the difference between friend and foe. No.

  He launched his lance at the city of Mer’cah.

  ~~~~~~~~

  In the blink of an eye, one third of the city was washed away, the souls within it screaming out in agony as forces beyond their comprehension ended their lives. I seethed with rage.

  “Father,” Atla whispered, and I felt his pain. “I couldn’t save them.”

  “It’s not your fault,” I assured my world-son. “This battle isn’t over yet. The day will be won, and the enemy driven back. Only then will we have time to mourn the cost of victory.”

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