Path of the Berserker-Chapter 13Book 5:

Waves of tremendous pressure washed over me as I descended through the darkness.

I was into the unknown for sure now.

As I fell for what felt like nearly a minute, I began to fear that I truly had descended into some irreversible plane of Hell. The pressure of Dark Frenzy increased until I found my [Sacred Soul Shield] technique draining my Dantian like I was back under the rays of a Cursed Star again.

Finally, something emerged in the darkness.

A pinprick of violet colored light.

It grew and grew, rising up to reach me as I literally fell towards it at terminal speed. I braced myself for impact at the last minute and then punched through yet another dimensional barrier. Brillian colors flashed before my eyes and suddenly I found myself motionless and drifting in a huge void of space lined with purple crystal. I was instantly reminded of the crystal core I had found deep inside the Hell World of Fhae I’ung.

A new presence instantly caught my senses.

Powerful and threatening.

“Foul interloper,” a haunting and familiar voice came from behind me. “Know thee no bounds, putrid husk?”

I spun in midair to face the voice and the enormous, blue-skinned form of the Chainmaiden I’xan’dra filled my view. She was big before, but now she was statue of liberty-sized huge, taking up nearly the entire space within the strange spectral plane I was in. She looked slightly different as well. When she emerged from the various crystal obelisks before, she was chained to them by her wrists and neck, but now she was bound spread eagle, tethered at the wrists and angles and impaled by what had to be a dozen or more chains. Her wings were broken, with one of them stripped bare, right down to the bone. Her eyes were also concealed by yet another set of chains, these ones smaller, forming a mesh that covered her face like a blindfold.

“Well damn,” I said, flexing with [Fear the Flame]. “Looks like someone messed you up pretty bad. Was it your boss I’xol’ukz? Cause I’ve come to kill the bastard.”

“Insolent words,” she said, her voice reverberating loudly within the crystal chamber. “The exalted one’s powers are far beyond your comprehension. The exalted one cannot be slain.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” I said. “Where the hell is he?”

“The Exalted One is everywhere and nowhere. Your lowly mortal thoughts can not comprehend.”

I scanned about looking for the telltale tentacles of the dark god, but all I could see were her chains.

Where the hell even am I? I thought.

Was I still on a Bloodmoon? Or had I found the Chainmainden’s true location somewhere? Wherever that was?

I looked closer and noticed each length of chain, piercing her body, was tethered to the crystal interior of the chamber and where they met seemed to be another portal of sorts. There had to be close to a dozen of them.

A dozen separate portals all leading to different moons perhaps?

Or perhaps even elsewhere?

I had no clue, but my Frenzy was melting away like butter in the sun and I needed to get done what I’d come here for.

“Look, I got no time to deal with you and your damn riddles,” I said. “Which one of these portals leads to I’xol’ukz? That bastard put a mark on my son and now he’s going to pay.”

“Sweet fool of a mortal husk. It is I who hath marked thy offspring. The Exalted One awaits yet the full opening of the aperture and only then shall the Exalted One’s recompence be paid in full.”

I grimaced, hatred redirecting in my heart.

“So it was you?”

But it all made sense.

I’xan’dra was the one who guarded the gates after all and now it was clear that she created them on I’xol’ukz’s behalf. And if he wasn’t here for me to kill, then I was going after the next best thing.

“Well, you just saved me a trip looking for your master, bitch.” I cycled my Frenzy as my rage stirred, now directed at the towering blue succubus before me. “I need only kill you to save my son’s soul.”

I darted forward with [Ride the Lightning], expecting the chains to try and block me.

But not a single one moved.

I weaved through the lattice of rusted steel and reaching her, went full bore with a double overhead cleave.

“[Lightning Three Log Chop]!”

My weapons carved into the chainmaiden’s blue skin, and a deeper shade of blue mist exploded outwards. A horrid shriek of pain filled the chamber, and I followed up with three more double strikes, ripping her flesh apart. I angled backwards to go for her throat next, but then noticed, her wounds were already closing.

Shit, forgot about that.

I aimed for one of the chains next and struck it with a [One Chop Cleave].

My weapon bounced off the of it ineffectively with a cascade of sparks. I tried again with even more force and Frenzy, but the massive link would not shatter. I backed away, reassessing the situation. I had to remember this was still within the spiritual realm and perhaps my inner strength was not yet powerful enough to destroy it.

But maybe I could try something else.

I charged straight into her torso with [Lightning Drill of Fury] and punched right through her massive body. She wailed like a banshee, but I didn’t let up and went for another [Drill of Fury] and then another.

I targeted close to where the chains were attached to her body, trying to weaken the flesh and just pull them loose. I’xan’dra cried out with each hit, but in between them, her body healed at an alarming rate.

Damn it! I thought.

I went faster and faster trying to beat her healing ability, bouncing back and forth like a bee trapped inside a bottle. My Frenzy was draining like crazy and with the amount I still needed to maintain my [Sacred Soul Shield] technique, I had to stop once I reached halfway.

I came to a stop to view my handiwork and the chinmaiden’s body was a tangled mess of blue flesh, oozing her blue essence into the air. She was in immense pain, and I cultivated it to keep my Frenzy from dropping too low.

A chuckle of amusement escaped her lips and within the pain I sensed something else. Like a hint of lemonade. Was that…lust? Her body seemed to heal more rapidly and I realized she was doing something similar to what I was.

Cultivating her pain into strength.

“Oh, why didst thou stop?” she said almost breathlessly. “Inflict thy wounds, husk. Thy do naught but nourish my soul.”

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My anger spiked. “Creepy weirdo bitch. You’re actually getting off to this, aren’t you?”

A fang-laced smile parted her deep blue lips as she leered at me. “It is not often I am visited by one powerful enough to inflict such harm. For all thy troublesomeness, this was worth the aggravation.”

I felt like drilling her with another volley of fury filled techniques, but that was only giving her what she wanted. And plus, that would drain me of the precious Frenzy I had left.

Damn it, I thought.

Where the hell did this leave me? She was practically unkillable in her own domain.

“Allow me now, oh husk, to reciprocate thy sweet pain.”

Dark Frenzy began to build in the air around me.

Just like before, I expected her to somehow perhaps unshackle herself to attack, but then I saw something even worse. From each link of chain a shimmering blue image emerged, each a perfect copy of the next. It was the form of I’xan’dra I was more accustomed to. The same I had encountered on the surface of the moon multiple times. They were like a revived version of her current self.

Perhaps they were even akin to the form I was in now.

Fragments of her Sacred Soul.

I lost count of how many blue succubi emerged.

Over a hundred at least.

That had to put the [Odds Against Me] for sure.

My Flame kicked in, revitalized with the new challenge.

This was turning into the Warden Battle 2.0.

Defending myself against multiple high-tiered beings at once.

But I’d learned the lesson from that match.

And I wasn’t ashamed to unleash my trump card early.

“[Wrath of a Million Slain Souls]!”

My ultimate technique went off like an exploding star, filling the chamber with [Frenzied Lightning]. A cacophony of screams resounded throughout the Chainmaiden’s domain and near simultaneously they stopped as one my one the [Spectral] forms were overwhelmed and shattered.

Seconds passed as only a haze of blue mist remained.

A hint of true lemonade came from within I’xan’dra now. “Such power. A pity it was not directed at me. But let us see how long thy strength lasts.”

The Dark Frenzy pulsed again and one by one the [Spectral] forms of I’xan’dra began to reform.

Shit…

That blast of [Wrath of a Million Slain Souls] had taken a lot out of me.

And I wouldn’t be able to keep it up forever.

There was no longer a point to any of this either.

I’xol’ukz wasn’t here and I had no way to kill her.

I had to leave.

But which portal was it?

I tried to sense for Kelsey’s Flame as I glanced at each one. Over two dozen of the Chainmaindens suddenly swarmed at me like a colony of bats. I mobilized with [Lightning Walk] and took them on with my axe and glaive, conserving what might be my last pulse of [Wrath of a million Slain Souls] for when I found my way home.

Blue dust and screams filled the chamber as I cleaved through the scythe wielding women two at a time. It dawned on me then how tough facing just one of her had been the first time. But my strength had grown exponentially since then and the thought spurred me on.

Keep it up, the Struggler whispered to me. Keep going until you hear Kelsey’s Flame.

The odds of randomly picking the right portal, was definably not in my favor and winding up back on a hell world, a trillion miles away, was not something I was looking to experience right now.

Kelsey, where are you?

The battle of attrition went into overdrive with me slaying the [Spectral] avatars nearly as fast as I’xan’dra could summon them.

But I couldn’t win this.

I searched and searched but perhaps Kelsey was now too far away. Seconds drew into minutes, my Frenzy depleting with each one. Then faintly, I caught a sense of her. I focused on it immediately and the trace of her Flame sharpened.

I steamrolled through twenty of more of the succubi to get closer to it.

Finally, I saw which portal it was.

The chain tethered to her right arm.

I stashed it away mentally as I prepared to blast the chamber with [Wrath of a Million Slain Souls] again. But then a stray thought clawed in the back of my mind. I couldn’t just go back empty handed, could I?

I’d learned that the lower gate led to a vast nexus controlled by I’xan’dra and that I’xol’ukz could flow through any one of them. She knew where the bastard was, but I had no way of harming her to force her compliance and tell me where.

At least not in the spiritual realm.

I’d traveled who knew how far in the real world, but one thing was for certain.

Wherever I was now, if I’xan’dra had some kind of correlating physical form.

This is the place it would be.

I rolled the dice in my mind.

Just a peek, I thought.

Another glimpse into the unseen.

I hacked through a last trio of Succubi that were standing guard in front of the portal that led back home, but I didn’t dive inside. Instead, I cycled my Frenzy and willed my [Spectral Form] to transmit across the cosmos and emerge in the real world.

My mind screamed as it was stretched thin as a razor and the world blurred.

Colors flashed.

Darkness.

And then suddenly I was somewhere else.

Gloom and shadows surrounded me as my [Spectral Projection] took form. The Frenzy within my Dantian began draining at a super accelerated pace. Faster than I had ever seen it drain before. If my first trip across the stars was any measure, then I had to be ten times as far away.

Which meant I had literally seconds to figure out where I was.

I honed my mental quickness, taking it all in and committing it to a memory I could perhaps explore later. But what I could see right away was that I was on a barren and desolate world. A world covered in death and decay. I saw what looked like mountains and perhaps even a city in the distance.

Or perhaps I was in some sort of deep valley or mine.

I could see the faint pinprick of stars in between the patchwork of dark clouds in the sky above. And then something even more significant. Moons. Three of them. Varying in sizes, one of them a Bloodmoon for sure.

Something moved on my peripheral and when I looked my soul chilled.

An enormous skeleton of some long dead creature was moving through the darkness.

Two more emerged. Humanoid it looked like, but giants as well. Tattered robes and armor clung to the animated bones of the giant skeletons as they ambled through wherever the hell I was. I quickly took in my closer surrounds. It was a graveyard or mausoleum perhaps.

I tried to sense where the chainmaiden herself might be and in the distance, I saw something towering over the rest of the tomes. I risked a few more precious seconds to close in on it and saw it was an enormous ivory throne.

Sitting upon it was another giant skeleton, draped in what I could only describe as a decaying wedding gown. The head of the skeleton wore a small crown and about its wrists were a familiar looking set of shackles.

A pale light emanated from the corpse at about where a Dantian would be, and just barely through the decaying fabric and bone I could see a huge crystalline core of a once cultivator, throbbing with vibrance still.

I sensed something else then. freewёbnoνel.com

Dark Frenzy of a potency I’d never felt before.

Horrid nail-on-chalkboard screeches filled the air as something that resembled a white slug slithered out of the skeleton’s eye socket. A wave of some unseen energy then hit me and my [Spectral Form] evaporated in an instant.

I was suddenly back inside the Chainmaiden’s chamber and the swarm of a hundred succubae instantly fixed on my sudden appearance.

“Foul Husk!”

I didn’t wait for her to give the order for her minions to attack. I jetted instantly to the portal tethered to her right arm and punched my way inside. I rode the darkened channel upwards, relieved to feel the pressure of Dark Frenzy lessoning with each passing second.

I burst through the gate with less than an eighth of a tank to spare.

I [Rode the Lightning] to the chain leading to the upper plane of the moon, sensing Kelsey’s Flame much stronger now. When I burst through, I found her fending off a huge swarm of demons. I wasted no time just scooping her up and rocketing us up the chain that would lead us home.

I hit the spiritual realm and instantly snapped back to my real body.

I opened my eyes with a gasp and saw Fia still holding the baby. I couldn’t tell how much time had passed in the real world, but it couldn’t have been much. Kelsey reanimated a second later and looked up at me with concern.

“Max what the hell happened?” she said in English. “Sheese, I feel like I got the bends from you pulling us out of there so fast.”

I didn’t know what the bends was, and I didn’t have the inclination at the moment to ask. My mind was still reeling from what I had experienced and my soul was spent beyond exhaustion.

“Max!” Fia called to me and when I saw her take a step towards the barrier my heart jumped.

“Don’t come closer! I’m okay!”

I hauled myself and Kelsey across the barrier and felt the combined warmth of Venja and Xam nourishing my weary soul. It was then that I noticed the demon corpses littering the area we’d just been in.

“Shit,” I said. “Demons attacked us?”

I knew it was a possibility, but in the time that we were gone, plus the time compression, it shouldn’t have been likely.

“How long has it been?”

“You were both gone for nearly an hour,” Fia said. “Don’t ever do that again!” She thumped me on my chest, and I could see actual tears in her eyes.

“Damn,” Kelsey said, looking at the corpses as well. “You killed them, Fia?”

“Shouldn’t have had to,” she said. She then rolled her eyes. “Not that they were doing much to the two of you to be honest, but still. You took too long!”

I pulled her into a hug. “Sorry to make you worry. I thought it’d only be a couple of minutes in real time.”

She sighed. “So, was it worth it?”

“Yeah, what the hell did you find down there, Max?” Kelsey said. “You were gone for over an hour and then come flying out of there like a bat out of hell.”

“Like a what out of what?” Fia asked.

“Nothing, just a Terran phrase,” Kelsey explained. “Anyway, did you find I’xol’ukz or not?”

They both looked at me as I considered the question myself.

In truth I wasn’t sure.

Not about what I’d seen, where I was, or anything for that matter.

But I couldn’t deny what I’d felt.

That was the purest form of Dark Frenzy I had encountered yet.

“Maybe,” I said, my mind already reliving the moment, while tracing my memory for clues. “But I’m going to need to do some serious research to figure out exactly where.”

And I knew just the person to help me.