PreCursive

  The differeween them was too great for Kazuma’s blow to move Venix even a single inch, of course. The Antium took the punch without blinking straight on the , still staring down at the heavily breathing Kawamaran man who had assaulted him.

  The rest of us weren’t so taciturn about it.

  Bel, Azarus, and I stepped forward at the sudden violence. I don’t know what the others were intending, but I was going to restrain the man. Judging from the grip Bel and Azarus had on their ons, they…might have been going for a more perma solution.

  Venix halted suotions. “Stop!” He barked our way, freezing the three of us. Still, he never looked away from the seething form of the man who had struck him ond never followed up. “His anger is uandable. Young bde, am I known to you?”

  Kazuma gred at the Antium, chest heaving from the effort of the strike he had delivered. “Only the name,” He said heavily. “Our records, they did not mention your race. If I had known…I would have struck you down there on the beach.”

  Venix ined his head. “You would have tried,” He aowledged. “And failed. But this does not matter. What does is that the bde of my master, the Shōmetsu no Kiba-”

  Language Adaptation helpfully informed that transted roughly to ‘Fang of Annihition’.

  Fun.

  “-still exists. And so I begin to uand the Madman’s pn,” He tinued, frowning at Kazuma. “He will retrieve the sword, and force you to el the might of his Core Colpse through it. He believes it will be enough to fully erase the existence of Tatsugan.”

  Kazuma didn’t let up on his glower, but he nodded. “Yes, you would uand, wouldn’t you? Cur.”

  A cough broke the standoff betweewo men. The both of them, and me for that matter, followed it to the source, finding Renauld standing there with his fist in front of his muzzle. “That’s all…very dramatic, sure. But, uh…what is this big bad sword, and why is it important?”

  “And would it actually work?” I asked pointedly after he was done.

  Venix sighed and reached up to massage his brow, agitating his antennae in the process. “Possibly,” He relutly admitted, tathered surprise. His lips quirked up in a humorless smile. “The Shōmetsu no Kiba is a mighty bde indeed. With it, you absorb any attack, any energy directed against it, and i with the very cept of ‘Erasure’. Then, ohat power has been attuned, it be unleashed upon your target. Historically, the Artefact has no upper limit to what it harness, and was used to great effe the War in Heaven against the Godbound.”

  His eyes flickered over to me for a moment before tinuing.

  “It was left in the care of the Imperial family iermath of the Initialization wars, and then bound to the Higanashi for services rendered.” Venix crossed all four of his arms. “It became their family bde, and then passed to my master upon his elevation to Lordship of that family. And then, when he fell, it was thought destroyed by the wyrm. And because of that…”

  “My family was forced into hiding by the Imperial court,” Kazuma spat, still gring at Venix. “We lost everything! Our wealth, our influen the court, even our home! We became little better than oners, without a shred of honor to our he shame of it all drove us to the outer reaches of the Empire, where we huddled like rats in a of trash! So yes, when the Order of Solstice’s Fme came to me with a proposal on how to win my family’s honor back, by truly sying the great wyrm, I took it!”

  Venix was silent for a moment, simply staring at the fuming man. “And you would die in the process,” He said, soft, pre-emptive grief in his voice.

  It grew silent around us, then.

  “You are not nearly strong enough to wield the sword at that level,” Venix tinued. “The effort of eling a Tier Four’s Core Colpse…it would erase you, along with the beast.”

  Kazuma didn’t deny it.

  “That is MY sacrifiake!” He shouted defiantly, thumping his chest with one fist. “MY choiot yours! If it will save my family from the gutters, it is one I will gdly make! And you will not take that from me! I will kill you before I allow it!”

  At that…Venix…

  Looked away, and didn’t speak in protest.

  I noticed that his shoulders fell slightly, though.

  Nobody spoke for a moment, as the hot, humid wind of the jungle misted about us. I looked up in the midst of the standoff, to see that it was nearly lunchtime by now. We’d…been talking for quite a while now.

  As much as I didn’t want to denigrate Kazuma’s decision, it ultimately…wasn’t our business. We still had a decision to make, and we didn’t have the full story.

  I coughed into my fist, in a mirror of Renauld from earlier. As the gathered’s eyes fell on me, I spoke. “You still never answered why the Order left you behind, then, if Shacklock’s whole pn relies on you,” I pointed out. “You said something about betrayal?”

  Kazuma finally tore his gaze away from Venix to frown at me. “Yes, because not everyone in the Order of Solstice’s Fme agrees with his decision,” He said relutly. “Fas have arisen in their ranks. Some believe the Grandmaster’s pn to be their best course of a, after their exile following the struct War. By ridding my try of such a persistent threat, they hope to iate with the River Throne for the right to establish themselves as a reized Sect. Others think it’s foolish to try and permaly sy Tatsugan. They tend that they build a new home on this isnd, and sy him occasionally,” He stressed. “Keeping in mind the need for the wyrm to still live for periods of time. They io hold the threat of the Camity over Hinaga’s head for the right to settle the isnd.”

  I blinked slowly at that…ridiculous pn.

  Azarus spoke what I’m sure we were all thinking. “That’s dumb,” He bluntly. “They’re just goin’ to antagohe Kawamarans. Even if it works, they’re always goin’ to be lookin’ to root ‘em out.”

  Kazuma nodded. “It is foolish, which is why the Grandmaster isn’t in favor of it. For all his reputation as a madman, he’s still shrewd. He might be able to hold off on the apex of his Core Colpse for another decade, at the very least, but he doesn’t want to do that. He would rather spend it on this course of a and ensure a more stable future for the Order he founded.”

  “But if you’re out of the way,” Liora said slowly.

  “Then Shacklock has no choice, and has to go with the other fa’s pn,” I finished for her, frowning.

  “Just so,” Kazuma nodded. “Initially, I put no thought into how the pany lit into multiple ptoons on our jourowards the heart of Goryuen. There was the forward and rear patrols, as well as the tral and. With the sheer danger involved when you sider the Oni hordes that inhabit this isnd, you need ample warning to teract them. I was…enced to be in the rear guard by Captairom. I should have been more suspicious.”

  He sighed, massaging his brow.

  “I was too trusting. The man is the leading f among those who wish to see this led by the Order of Solstice’s fme,” Kazuma tinued, frustration thi his voice. “But he’s been so courteous towards me that treachery never once crossed my mind. And now I must question just how much of the battle that occurred was real. Did the violence of Oni that we entered ce upon us by happenstance? Did the Captain’s scouts draw them to our position? Whatever the case, it doesn’t matter. In the midst of battle, I was suddenly immobilized by a forot born of the Oni. It was a binding Spell of some sort, that I could dis from the Mana involved. The timing was very deliberate, because I was then struck by the full force of a tree the monster was using a club, and knocked into the juhere I y, broken and alone, until you came upon me. And now I owe you a debt that I ot truly repay.”

  Then, the samurai stood from his log, and turo face Renauld and I in particur.

  And bowed sharply at the waist, at a full y degrees.

  “I thank you, Healers, for the gift of life that you have exteo me,” Kazuma said solemnly. “I will not fet this.”

  Renauld nodded easily at the thanks. I think, as a Healer, he was very used to statements like that. I wasn’t too put off by it either. Kazuma’s thanks, while overtly formal, were very in lih my experiences among the Kawamaran’s. I’d growo the ritualism io their culture while operating my little business.

  Renauld wasn’t likely to do it, so I stood up from my own log aurhe bow to the appropriate degree. Not too deep, not too shallow. You had to bahese things if you didn’t want to cause offense. “It was only our duty, Kazuma Higanashi,” I said politely. “It…occurs to me that we haven’t fully introduced ourselves. I am Nathan Hart, and this…” I trailed off expetly, looking at my ‘fellow’ Healer.

  Renauld took the hint, and the rest of my panions followed.

  While they were introdug themselves to the samurai, I was sidling over to Venix. After the…midly dramatifrontatioween him and Kazuma, the Antium samurai had stepped back.

  I didn’t mince words when I spoke to him, even if I did them quietly.

  “Should we leave?” I whispered bluntly. At Venix’s raised eyebrow, I eborated. “Goryuen, I mean. This situation just got way more plicated, and I didn’t sign up to be the in middle of an internal power struggle of an Order that wanted me dead a few months ago.”

  Venix sidered me for a moment. “And what of your bunker?”

  I shook my head minutely, as Azarus presented Kazuma with his katana in the background. I think my Smith friend had found it not far from the samurai, and had taken it upon himself to and mend it while we did the same to the samurai’s body. “This might be important to me, but it’s not that important. I always e back ter when this situation has been resolved.”

  “I’m not so sure…” Venix whispered, staring out into the jungle.

  “What?”

  “sider the bigger picture, Nathan,” An ued voice said near my elbow. I didn’t jump, if only because the owner had a habit of doing this these days. Liora had some way to dodge my blood sense and had a tendenp out of shadows and startle me. Holy, I think it was a kind of training she’d picked up for the both of us. The Gnoll woman had joined us while Renauld and Azarus kept uest busy. “I’m not sure we afford to retreat now.”

  I furrowed my brow at her. “How so?”

  “ear to have blundered our way into a potential diplomatit,” Liora answered, with a wry, humorless cast to her vulpine lips. “sider the optics. A Herztalian Martial Order is currently in the process of attempting to occupy a highly votile nd, owned by another sn nation. They might be exiles, but the Order of Solstice’s Fme has been around for a very long time, to the extent they were practically a Herztalian institution. I guarantee members of the River Court will be skeptical of how unattached they are, if not the Emperor himself. This campaign will be viewed as an attempt by a newly ed High King to solidify his reign after a tumultuous civil war, and the exile merely a farcial cover. It’s not in Ki Oskar’s temperament to do so, but the possibility of quering this nd in the name of Herztal will be lingering in the back of those rebellious officer’s minds. Kazuma Higanashi has, perhaps, not thought of this. This Captairom could be sidering using the isnd as a bargaining piece to return to the Kingdom.”

  “…since when were you an expert on iional and inter-court politics?” I asked her with a raised eyebrow.

  Liora just shrugged mysteriously at me. “The point is, if the Order of Solstice’s Fme succeeds in ying cim to this isnd, it could be…bad, for the Kingdom.”

  And she was a bit of patriot, yeah, I got it.

  Our attention was drawn, however, when Venix shook his head. “That is not the reason I am hesitant to retreat,” He said quietly, before looking down at us gravely. “The boy’s story, where he was ambushed by a full violence here ier jungle? Such a thing should be impossible. Normally, the density of Oni here ier jungle is too low froups to form. As I’ve said, only outcasts and failures lurk out here.”

  “Normally?” I asked, a frown growing on my lips.

  Venix nodded. “Normally. However…in times when Tatsugan is nearing his apex…that ges. The Oni horde swells and grows, and violences are seen elsewhere across the isnd.”

  “You think the dragon has nearly pleted his assion into Camity,” Liora said, studying Venix with a frown.

  “I don’t know,” Venix said with a matg twist to his lips. For once, he didn’t correeone about Tatsugan about not being a dragon. “But this ot be left uigated. I inquired as to Tatsugan’s current stage before we left for the isnd. The st report was from a year ago, and he was said to be in his adolest state. However, if the growth of the Immortal Wyrm has accelerated in some way, the Empire must be informed. I’m sorry Hart, but we must press on.”

  Ah.

  Swell.