55. Diplomacy

  Shisuke barely noticed the tidal forces attempting to rip him apart as he was carried from his home dimension to the demesne of Prince Ostain. He arrived in the middle of a wheat field, spending a few moments looking about quietly as he waited for his guide to appear.

  A hint of killing intent was all the warning he got, but it was enough. His blade met the blade of his assailant, an overwhelming pressure oppressing him. He flared his own Qi and intent in response, glaring back at the shadow-covered opponent.

  Shisuke’s blade, made of folded spiritual steal, met the opponents shadow-covered blades. He dashed backwards, and the opponent gave chase. He sliced, and like a colossal scythe, the stalks of the wheat fell all around him as his sword technique cut everything between him and his opponent.

  The shadow-cloaked enemy raised his blade and met the sword technique on his own blade, splitting it before it connected with his shadowy flesh.

  The world abruptly brightened as the opponent called the shadows of the world into his own blade, and he launched a technique of his own at Shisuke. Shisuke dodged at the last second, and the shadows turned to pursue. Cursing, Shisuke raised his blade to meet the approaching technique, deflecting it just in time to twist and catch the assailant’s blade on his own.

  “Why are you attacking me?” Shisuke demanded, but he was met with silence.

  The opponent dashed back, and the exchange of techniques continued.

  They fought for twenty minutes, proving that they were each others equals as near-miss and almost-strikes brought them within millimeters of death. No words were spoken, they allowed the combat to speak for them.

  Abruptly, the assailant laughed, dashing back a thousand yards and holding up his hands.

  “Apologies, apologies, stranger,” he said, and the shadows that had been obscuring his identity released. He was a young blond man with unnaturally black eyes. He bowed politely as though he had not just been trying to murder his guest. “It is customary in this land to gauge the strength of our guests in such a manner. I assure you that you were never in any danger.”

  “And if I had failed to pass this test of martial strength?” Shisuke demanded.

  “Then you would have had to face the test of guile,” the stranger admitted. “but strength proceeds all else, and so the second test is not required if you.”

  The stranger snapped his fingers, and abruptly the fields around them shattered like glass, and Shisuke found himself standing below the stars before a beautiful palace. They stood in a garden, with marble statues of children playing all around them. “The test of guile would have been find the true entrance. But as you are mighty, then the door is open to you. Come with me, the prince awaits.”

  Shisuke frowned, but followed after the stranger. Servants appeared to take his cloak from him, and they offered him food and drink, though he refrained. These strangers had already tried to kill him once, so he did not trust them.

  The stranger brought him into a throne room, where an enormous man with bulging muscles held court. Duke Ostoin had one eye hidden behind an eye patch, while the other was black with a yellow iris.

  Shisuke took one look at that eye and immediately saw that it was blind. Whatever secret lie behind the eye patch, it was that eye which allowed the man to see.

  “The visitor from the world of Atla has passed the first test,” the guide declared. “I tried my very best, but my blade could not meet his flesh.”

  “I expected more of you, Triskie,” the enthroned man said in a deep voice.

  “Perhaps it was not my failing, but the strength of our visitor which should be pointed out,” the guide said, “For after all, he comes from the same world as the tower crusher.”

  The enthroned man scoffed, and abruptly the two men merged, and the yellow eye of the giant man could see once more.

  Shisuke tsked. He had been warned to expect strangeness, but this was outside of his expectations.

  “I am Shisuke, of the nation of Nonpo, of the world of Atla. We are under attack, and I have come to secure an alliance against the Divine Fates Empire,” Shisuke said. “Am I to assume that I address Prince Ostain?”

  “One aspect of us,” the prince said. He sighed. “Your alliance is granted. We shall dispatch sixteen divisions of our armies in the defense of your homeworld. They shall seek out and establish forward bases. Once they have dug in, they will work to fend off assaults on your dimension.”

  Shisuke blinked. That was easier than he’d expected. “I was expecting more resistance.”

  “Why would we dispute a call to arms from someone we hope to call an ally in the future?” Duke Ostain asked. Then he grinned. “Besides. Once we have dug in, I never said when we would be leaving.”

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  Shisuke swallowed. “Then, you intend to invade Atla as well?”

  “Atla, no, Atla belongs entirely to Lord Little Bug. I would not presume to challenge him on his home ground,” Prince Ostain said. His smile grew. “Duke Loshi, however, has too many worlds for him to manage properly. Perhaps we shall do him a favor and take a few of them off his hand when this war is over. In the meantime, well, they shall serve as our bases of operation.”

  Shisuke nodded. “You are using Atla’s call as a cover to get into position for a later conflict,” he said, signaling his understanding.

  “Is that a problem?”

  “Lord Loshi turned his back on Atla,” Shisuke said. “He has sown the seeds of abandonment and disloyalty. Let him reap what harvest remains to him when the dust settles.”

  ~~~~~

  Lady Di Tonilla arrived in Duke Valan’s dimension, then promptly vomited as the after effects of the dimensional tides took their toll on her body. A guide was there to offer her a cloth to wiper her mouth.

  “Yes, I’m told that the journey is most unpleasant,” the guide said with a pleasant smile. “I apologize that there is no way to make it more enjoyable. Do not worry, a servant shall appear to clean this mess up shortly. Let us make our way to the audience hall. Normally there would be an extensive parade and long lists of parties where you would have to engage in a game of selecting which houses to attend and which to ignore, but with recent events being what they are there is little time for pageantry.”

  “You know about the attack on Atla?” Tonilla asked.

  “We’ve been watching the events in Duke Loshi’s realm very closely,” the guide explained. “It’s only natural that we know this much.”

  “I see,” Tonilla said, and she followed her guide through the empty streets of Duke Valan’s capital. “Where is everyone?”

  “Oh, when the call to arms went out, everyone simply vanished,” the guide said. “Honestly, it’s like they were afraid of being conscripted and sent to the front lines to serve as fodder. Consequently, while we have many elites, our supply of front line fodder is of rather short supply.”

  “I see,” Tonilla said. She walked with increasing confidence through the empty streets as her body recovered. When they came to the palace, she saw the first signs of life, as a young girl came skipping out to greet them.

  “Hellooo! I am Omaia,” the girl exclaimed. “And you’re from Atla. I want to talk with you before you talk with Valan. He’s boring and he’ll claim you forever. Come this way.”

  And before Tonilla could object, the environment abruptly changed. She looked around at the expansive room around her. Before her was an old crone of a woman reclining on a bed of silks. She was sitting up, but Tonilla could see that it was costing her greatly to do so.

  “I am Omaia,” the woman said. “And I am on my deathbed. My daughters and granddaughters are unworthy of inheriting my world. I ask you, child of Atla, are you? Prove yourself to me, and I shall raise you to the rank of Xian Lord, to stand proudly beside Little Bug as a peer. If that is your wish.”

  Di Tonilla did not allow her surprise to show. She felt around her whispers of a world asking “Are you worthy? Are you next? Shall you be the one?”

  “Yes,” Di Tonilla said finally. “I accept whatever challenge is required of me to prove my worth.”

  “I like a bit of spark,” the old woman said. “Very well. Let us start with your fears. Show me what you are afraid of, child of Atla!”

  Abruptly, Tonilla was plunged into a nightmare that would not end.

  ~~~~~~~

  Lord Loshi cursed as yet another incursion took root in his dimension. So far, he had fought off six hundred and eighty three of them, but he had also lost twelve worlds to his enemies.

  He had thought that the previous invasion by the Divine Fats Empire had been the worst case scenario, but he saw now that he had only been facing the Empress. Now that she had unleashed her army on his realm, he was faced with an existential crisis.

  With each world that he lost, his power shrank. With each world that was destroyed, his power shrank. Each battle diminished his power, and each incursion added weight to the enemy’s momentum.

  He was no fool. He knew that he was losing.

  What was it that the damn empress wanted, anyway? He frowned, and he brought up the representation of the world of Atla. Their previous battle had taken place in the skies above that world, he recalled, and he had taken wounds in sheltering the people from her attacks. But he had driven her off in the end.

  But aside from the single incursion that the new lord of Atla had fended off, none of the latest attacks were aimed towards the former battleground. He hadn’t been involved in that fight at all, thinking that it was Lord ‘Little Bug’s’ responsibility to protect his people now. So he couldn’t tell whether the force sent to claim Atla was especially potent or not.

  If not Atla, what else could it be? What was drawing the attention of the Divine Fates? He bit his thumb, an old habit that he never allowed others to see, but the slight pain helped him think.

  “Atla is independent now,” he said, and he swiped his hands. “It is not my responsibility to guard or guide them any further.”

  And with this decided, he began realigning his forces to deal with this latest paradigm. His dimension was under siege, and while Atla resided in his dimension, it was not his responsibility. He would focus on the worlds which were still loyal to him, and he would reclaim those which had been taken from him by the Divine Fates.

  Satisfied, he began issuing his commands through the ancient magical construct, and his forces began to move into place throughout the dimension.

  Even though he had been forced to call upon the Emerald Court for backup, he would not easily give away his dimension. If the multiverse thought they could take it from him, then they would pay for the territory in blood and pain and the lives of the unworthy.

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