Episode 65: Broken Boundaries

Arson woke up to an itching sensation on his right palm, and a soft breeze drifted across his face. He blinked drearily, and wiped at his face to wake up. Not entirely awake, Arson missed the giant Titan Steel Tree in the form of a ship, colliding with the skyline behind him. Almost a dozen skyscrapers toppled by the massive ship that searched for a high density mana area to replant itself. The first thing he did realize after waking, was that his feet weren’t touching the ground, which made him truly open his eyes and look at his surroundings. He found himself dangling from the side of his once hotel room. Alarm and dread filled Arson, when he took in the sight of the missing hotel’s top half; the purple and golden flames that spread throughout the viewable distance all around him, and the dozens of missed notifications that demanded to be read that quickly consumed his vision entirely. “What happened?” Arson read through the notifications as fast as he could, even before he managed to detach himself from the side of the building. Once on his feet, he decided to try and find the others, and to his surprise no one answered his calls, but with the chaos seen around him he expected they were busy. “If anyone is hurt…” The thought made Arson’s stomach spin in his rattled state, but a familiar sensation filled his mind, telling him that Troy was at a minimum, alive. The pressure of the situation didn’t diminish, but knowing she was okay, centered Arson enough for him to move. The notifications that had awaited him once he woke up flickered through his mind even as he lifted off to take flight. It was then that Arson remembered the strange sensation on his palm and looked down when the itching returned. There, now burned into his skin like a brand was his family’s crest. The sideways hourglass held there a permanent seal, infused by creation mana, irremovable by anything but Arson meeting age based milestones of power and growth. “I wonder how much my core will be limited and when,” asked Arson to himself. The itching grew the more that Arson pushed mana into his body to fly, but the sensation was bearable enough that Arson found himself capable of ignoring it after a while. As he flew, he began to see signs of his friends and family. The first was the dozen propeller palm drones that seemed to move rubble away from crushed cultivators. He couldn’t find Xani anywhere which worried him, but he was able to find Auto. His brother followed the drones around, looking for something. “Auto, where is my team?” yelled Arson as he landed. Auto seemed frantic in his search to the point that he almost didn’t look in Arson’s direction, but froze when he did. “Where are my people, Auto?” asked Arson a second time. Auto just stared, not directly at Arson, but just above his head. “Arson…” The name felt like a question, but struck Arson like a statement. It was then he realized his crown was not only out in the open, it could not be returned to his soul’s realm. “Auto, there is no time for this, Raid Corp is on the way, I have to get my team out of here now. Where is everyone?” asked Arson. Auto shook his head and spun around to return to his search as he spoke, almost as if the shock of seeing Arson’s crown had taken his mind away from an emergency. “I can’t find Xani anywhere, my sisters are with Lane and Jasmine somewhere, and your girlfriend is being broadcasted by Raid Corp cameras with Cro, fighting someone looking for my little brother,” said Auto, before he paused once and looked back at Arson. “Looking for you…” Arson ignored his brother and pulled up the broadcasts Raid Corp offered through the Chatter app, and quickly found the cast with Troy. On screen, Troy, Micro, and a slightly older Amorra Glory could be seen fighting. Arson didn’t know how the fight started, and to his surprise, he could guess how it was going to end. Amorra Glory was considered to be a runic master, able to speak the runic language of Univers as easily as most cultivators used mana for simple tasks. This detail alone was enough to put her a grade above Micro’s own prowess and many above Troy’s. “Find Xani, and send her my way when you do,” said Arson before he bursted into the air with a boom after his body broke the sound barrier. He found Troy and Micro facing off with Amorra moments later and landed inside the broken hotel with a thud that further unsettled the crushed building. “Amorra, stop!” Amorra held Micro in a one-armed headlock, and Troy off the ground by her neck with her opposing limb. “Hey you,” said Amorra sweetly. She dropped Troy and tossed Micro aside in the next moment before she tried to rush toward Arson. “I missed you!” Amorra tried to jump into Arson’s arms only for Arson to quickly spawn Jack, Jill, and Jane, the three living hand constructs to grab Amorra from the air, stopping her approach. She frowned at Arson the moment she was snatched from the air. Two hands wrapped around her shoulders and the final snagged her by the collar of her dress. “Darling, what’s wrong, you didn’t miss me, love?” “Amorra why are you here?” asked Arson as he looked around. Rob appeared and fed Troy potions, while Khalif picked Micro off the ground. Both young women wore faces filled with anger and intended revenge, but Arson had already messaged both to collect themselves and leave as fast as possible. We may not be as poor as we once were, but none of us have the wealth to pay for something like this… “I’m here to be by my king’s side, you didn’t come home, so I came to you,” responded Amorra. “I am not your king, Amorra, we’ve talked about this,” said Arson, putting himself between his friends and Amorra. Arson knew he could defend himself from the young queen, but if she were to lash out at one of his friends… “Don’t be that way, darling, especially after I traveled all this way,” said Amorra. Arson couldn’t help but notice the runes that formed at random points on the bare skin of her exposed arms and neck. “Amorra we don’t have time for this, you need to leave,” said Arson, hoping that his own friends would hurry up, but knew they had no intentions of leaving him after a single glance in their direction. “Look what we have here,” said Axis from above them all. Arson and the others in the room looked up to see, Axis, Ash, Autumn, Aura, Jasmine, Lane, and an unconscious Xani being held by Auto. Arson didn’t even get a chance to tell them to leave before Aura and Ash jumped inside the dilapidated hotel room. “I told you…,” muttered Ash with a glance toward Aura after she took in Arson’s crown. “Shut up Ash, you will get a chance to bother our brother later,” said Aura with a smile and wink toward Arson. “I need all of you to leave before Raid Corp gets here,” demanded Arson. The command wasn’t received by anyone there, as all knew whoever Arson stood in front of was no normal cultivator, and though the relationship was new and nearly non existent, even his siblings worried over the outcome for many different reasons. His friends were wary of the young woman. Ash was worried that someone else would claim honor she deserved by beating Arson; while the rest of his siblings wanted to explore the newly forming bond between them and Arson. “Sorry boss, can’t do it,” said Khalif. Arson sighed as many others nodded in agreement over their refusal to leave. “Well, darling, all you had to do was say you wanted some alone time,” said Amorra. The young woman was still held by Arson’s living hand constructs, but raised a hand full of powerful runes that had formed in her palm as she spoke. Arson tried to stop Amorra but the rune in her hand bursted. A wave of energy passed through the room and practically everyone there was expelled from the hotel’s interior, the wave capable of performing a minor teleportation on specific targets. Which left Arson, Amorra, and Troy who hadn’t been effected by the rune. “Hmm, you must be stronger than you appear, or is it that you are untrained, maybe I can’t read the true extent of your mana, or—" Amorra was cut off by Arson who didn’t enjoy seeing most of the people he loved vanish from his sight from Amorra’s simply waved hand. “Leave now Amorra or you will force me to take action.” Crystal clear water began to pool at Arson’s feet. The liquid climbed his legs and wrapped around his feet like armor. Two leg guards made of water, light and electricity rippled around his lower half in a constant storm of movement and power. The act could be seen as nothing but a true threat; the use of Arson’s mana enough to make all there suffocate. Arson dropped Amorra and managed to pick up Troy with Jack, Jill and Jane before she passed out completely. She wobbled slightly even as her eyelids fluttered and she was lifted off her feet and pulled outside. “Arson, no…” mumbled Troy with an extended arm limply held out toward him. “Is she your faithful? You know that means. I must get rid of her, darling, there is only room for one in your life and I can’t allow that to be anyone but me,” said Amorra. Arson could tell in that moment that Amorrra meant what she was saying to the core of her being. There was something about the words her father had spoken to her on his death bed that made her pursuit of a husband unrivaled in her life. Arson could only nod in response, feeling their battle about to begin as Amorra stared at the retreating figure of Troy as she was pulled away. Runes filled the air between them and Amorra began to chant in the language of Univers. The air began to warp around them and Arson felt gravity being distorted as he took his stance. He widened his stance and contemplated his need for his weapon, but changed his mind after realizing that the pressure of his mana was enough to cause Amorra’s runic casting to stutter. Debris and rubble lifted off the ground all around the two cultivators left inside the collapsing hotel, and Arson waited for Amorra to begin. “Don’t disappoint me, darling,” said Amorra, and a countless number of runes started to spin around Amorra’s hands while she slowly brought them together, causing the runes to collide and explode. In the next instance, Arson found himself dodging large sections of walls and debris. The energy being summoned by Amorra was enough to pull down more partially destroyed buildings nearby and turn them into mana infused stone that she sent in Arson’s direction. Walls were pulled inward from all directions and caused explosive bits of shrapnel and rubble to burst all around them. Amorra was at first unaffected by the chaos; a barrier formed by mana able to block anything sent in her direction, but one gravity influenced heel drop from Arson was enough to make Amorra’s eyes go wide. Arson bashed the barrier around the young woman with kick after kick. His movements far to fast to be pinned down before he delivered another kick. “You’ve grown,” said Amorra. More runes formed while she concentrated on Arson’s kicks. Each blow stronger than the last. Arson tried to summon more conductive waters to his lower half with each strike, only to realize he had more mana inside, that was inaccessible. The sensation of itching growing on his palm to a near unbearable level. “As have you, Amorra, but none of that matters to me and you know it. My affection for you will never be more than an advisor or friend,” said Arson. Amorra’s intensity grew, and the distortion caused by Amorrra’s mana usage accelerated the chaotic fluctuations within the area beyond what was safe for her. Arson’s own mana pushed the instability further, but Arson’s own blood and mana was not effected by Amorra’s use of Univers by the slightest. His kicks started to cause dents and cracks in the barrier around Amorra, while entire walls were sent at Arson, only to be disintegrated by his aura alone. “Stop, Amorra! None of this makes any sense!” Arson could feel the weight of cultivators far stronger than himself or Amorra closing in around them. The little amount of mana he could use from his restricted mana pool, lessened further when Raid Corp’s guards managed to surround the area. “I’ll destroy anyone or anything in my way, Sovereign, it's everything or nothing for me at this point. I refuse to be alone,” screamed Amorra with tears in her eyes. “I refuse to be without you!” Arson tried to use his Gestalt rune to summon aid, but felt the seal on his hand seem to catch fire when he did so. He fired as many conductive water orbs as he could, until he felt his mana run dry for the first time in season cycles. Sparks, the seal even has an effect on my regeneration, cursed Arson mentally. His core had officially been completed, only for a seal to take away more than 90% of his mana. His siblings all experienced similar volumes of mana loss under the seal’s effects, but none to the same degree, as none had received the same trinity core as Arson. None but him, had been bestowed his family’s crown. A crown that was the legacy not of a single Omni family, or two as both his parents believed him to have, but instead, a convergence of all the Omni bloodlines at once. Splintered fractions of an original immortal’s bloodline, restored within Arson to match its once unlimited potential. “Cease!” A single spoken word was enough to stop all motion around Arson and Amorra. Walls meant to collide with Arson, dust and chunks of rubble, even Arson’s own body was frozen in the middle of a powerful spin kick. Arson was able to move his eyes, and took in the small group visually as they descended into the room. Arson knew the group was strong as he was still unable to move, but wondered if the seal wasn’t on his right palm if that would still be true. “You youngsters are quite a handful,” said a kind looking older lady. Her long black hair had lines of white that ran through her bangs and framed her face in a way that made her look younger than Arson would guess she was. “You know, the more I look at you, the more I see her face,” said one of the three to enter. “He does look like our cousin,” said the man that accompanied the two woman. Arson felt two of the people looked familiar, but the third woman who’d spoken first was a wildcard. The one on the left, had many of what he now saw to be the features of the women in his own family. The one to the right was almost as tall as Arson now was, and honestly could be mistaken for a older version of Alexander. “Will you refrain from this violence if I allow you to speak,” said the older woman in the middle. Guards began to drop in, similar to Graveyard agents or Corporate Military regiments. It only took a matter of moments before both Arson and Amorra were surrounded, and Arson became able to move his head, whilst his body remained frozen midair. Arson nodded, and forced down a frown when he saw Amorra also nod. “That’s better. Civilized folks have come to speak some sense into my love. What is your name, kind maiden,” said Amorra. Arson couldn’t help but wince when he saw the woman’s reaction to Amorra; the woman’s facial features changing almost instantly. “Now because I know you are from a potentially higher realm I won’t take offense to your use of the Maiden’s title in my direction, but refrain from doing so in others' direction, child, they may not treat you as kindly, as for my name, I am Max,” said the woman. Arson couldn’t help but smile, even more impressed by what Max continued further with. “As for civilized, you are in the wrong place for that, or maybe the right one, with the havoc your ship has caused today. I’d be surprised if you wouldn’t fit in at any one of our prestigious academies,” said Max with an ever creasing brow as she spoke. Arson could see the play, but wondered if Amorra would. Arson didn’t know what type of ship the woman was interested in, but knew it must be valuable if she was making such an suggestion during her introduction. “Oh, the Titan Steel Tree, that is a gift for my darling, Sovereign. I’d have shown it to him by now, but he hasn’t even hugged me yet. Can you believe that?” “I see, as a student of my school I’d have thought you would have more class than to start a harem, but the like is still in your background, I suppose,” said Max with a glance at the man and woman beside herself. Arson chose then to speak up as he did not like the opinion being formed about him, nor did he even know why it was even being suggested. Please tell me I don’t have a weird family… seen enough of those during the trials, and pray to the maiden that we are just a simple family, not like I’m even a part of it anyway, Arson thought before he spoke up. “I am coveted, Headmaster Max. I do not share my heart beyond my family, my love, and my friends. She is not here, but will be taking classes of her own if we manage to pass the final step of the entrance exam. I don’t know what in my character would ever suggest to you that I would enjoy such a thing?” “Pardon me, child, my nature will often seem crude, but it is not you, it is my age, cycles breed assumptions. I merely see the many lines of power that connect you to others, and thought…” Max trailed off and looked at Amorra with a slight frown before she looked back at Arson again. “Be careful with this one child; she is truly infatuated with you,” stated Max. Arson couldn’t help but glance at Amorra in that moment, and saw the massive smile she wore. “I understand. I am doing my best to get her home as safely as possible, but I assure you, she doesn’t listen to reason, I know this may look bad, but she did attack first, and—“ “Stop, child. We watched everything from above, we know that you have nothing to do with this, but until Raid Corp has settled matters with both parties they have sent us to retrieve you both, in addition to your party, young man,” said Max. She waved her hand and all momentum was stolen from Arson’s body, which caused him to fall since he was suddenly able to move again . Before he could even collect himself and rise, members of the Raid Corp guards closed in and grabbed him. His initial instinct was to fight back, but remembered the Headmaster’s power and refrained. “Is that necessary?” asked Arson as the Raid Corp guard smiled at him while he strapped ManaBank Manacles across the lengths of his forearms. The man just nodded, and Arson fought back the urge to laugh in his face. “These are even weaker than the ones Dare had me in." “Don’t strap her down, she’s foreign royalty, you could start an inter-realm incident,” mumbled Arson when men and women started to approach Amorra. “Awe, see I knew you cared about me,” said Amorra gleefully. “No, I just don’t want anymore problems, and you may have been caught on broadcast doing this, but you don’t have credits, Amorra, so it will inevitably fall on my shoulders one way or another to fix all this. I can feel it coming,” said Arson more to himself than in response. “Hmm, maybe I should be trying harder to get the kid to join my school,” said the man beside Max, before the other familiar woman nodded in agreement. “Wise beyond his seasons,” said the woman. “What kind of backwater doesn’t take diamonds and gold, money should be no issue, my dear,” said Amorrra. “I don’t want your money. I want you to leave, there is nothing for you here, Amorra. I am even going to try and leave the realm shortly, I just need to pass my Travelers exam and I have gained admission to the 3rd most prominent college Sekt in the SunSpire realms,” pleaded Arson. He truly didn’t know what else to do. He’d planned on trying to knock her unconscious and ask his mother to return her home, but quickly had a feeling that things were about to change to become unfavorable rather quickly as they were escorted to a Raid Corp transport ship. “I’m not going anywhere darling!”