Savage Awakening 573. One More Thing (IV)

A/N: Added a brief section to last chapter where Malzareth talks about the Savage Sage title! 

Zane Walker… 

They were such weak, insignificant creatures. Yet he and that woman had proven infuriatingly difficult to crush.

At each stage in his development, Zane Walker had exceeded Malzareth’s expectations. His talent was… fine enough, for a backwater human. Malzareth prided himself on his self-awareness. He would not underestimate his foes. He would see them clearly, give them credit where it was due. This much talent was enough to put Zane on his map.

The most notable thing about Zane, moreso than his talent, was his soul. 

Not just the size of it—immense for a man… It was the quality. 

Somehow Zane had even attracted a Universe-class title like the Savage Sage. A title whose holders’ names rang through all of the history of the Universe; a title even Malzareth was forced to respect. 

Zane was still nothing now. But Malzareth could see glimmers of the man he was becoming, see them all over his Skills, his body… if he broke through to True God and that Title made its presence known even further… 

Malzareth hissed. 

Lord Malzareth would not allow him to become the Savage Sage he had the potential to be. 

Even if Zane fulfilled his potential he could not stop what was coming. That was a given. 

There was simply no reason to allow such a risk. 

//

“So,” said Noughtfire innocently, taking a sip of tea. “How was the trip?”

“You’re lucky you helped out at the end there,” said Zane, giving him a critical look. “I’ll spare you the wedgie for now.”

“I never did learn what that was,” said Noughtfire mildly.

“Don’t worry about it.” Zane sat cross-legged on the straw mat.

“Tea?”

“Sure, thanks.”

And they drank.

“…That was pretty fun,” Zane allowed. He was a little annoyed at Noughtfire’s long con—though it was exactly the kind of thing Noughtfire would try. But he was glad to see his friend again, even if he’d just seen him, in a way. “That was why you adjusted my disguise amulet before I left? So it’d match your memories?”

“That’s right,” said Noughtfire.

“So how long ago was that, anyway, for you?” Zane was quite curious. The Kain he’d met had already completed all of his Stormfire Supernova Concepts. He’d been collecting other Supernova Concepts as bonuses, so he had to be pretty deep in… He’d looked well into middle age, but an eye test was pretty unreliable when it came to folks with lifespans stretching hundreds of thousands, potentially millions of years.

“That?” Noughtfire shrugged. “That was long before I became the man I consider Noughtfire. But it was quite a pivotal episode in my own history, despite its being so short… I’ve lived well over seven hundred thousand years, Zane. That was less than one hundred thousand in.”

Zane nodded.

“But your earliest years tend to define you, for better or worse,” said Noughtfire. “My years would’ve set me on the path to become a bitter, closed-off fellow, I’m afraid. For good reasons, one might say—losing one’s civilization does that to a man, even one as… detached, shall we say, as I. Without a little push, perhaps I would’ve stayed that way.”

“I feel like I didn’t do that much,” said Zane, a bit surprised. “We just shared some drinks and watched Yang League for a few years.”

He could see why making a friend would help Kain back then. But he’d hardly done anything earth-shattering, he felt.

“What I needed back then was a friend,” said Noughtfire, smiling slightly. “That’s all. I’d largely given up on that as a Concept… back then, my sole goal was the advancement of my own Law. That was the only way I could see the fulfillment of the path of Stormfire. That is a very narrow way to live one’s life.”

“I shall never reach the end of that path,” he continued. “I know that now. Perhaps if I’d stayed in that mindset, I’d be in terminal despair right now. But now I derive more fulfillment from seeing my disciples progress—Striker, and Burnwater, and Lin Rai, and you—than I ever did for my own Law learning.” 

Noughtfire shrugged. “I used to think I could forestall change with the right preparation. Continue on exactly as I had been, until the day the Chaos Cycle finished… I see now that was foolishness. Change, in this case, proved quite good.” 

“That’s good to hear,” said Zane. “I’m glad it’s worked out for you.”

Zane felt he knew why Kain had made friends with him rather than some of the other folk that’d dared the mountain over the years. He considered himself a fairly straightforward guy and he mostly kept to himself. In hindsight, it helped his case quite a bit.

“By the way,” he said, remembering. “How long will that Hreinn guy be out for? It’s not permanent, is it?”

It’d be quite nice if that Hreinn were taken out of the picture for good. Zane was hopeful, but not too optimistic. “That Gilgoroth got blasted too, and he made a comeback in time for the war.”

“The Elder Nightmare Dragon Gilgoroth took Tribulation Lightning from the modern era—among the weakest it’s ever been. The lightning Hreinn took is… considerably more difficult to contend with,” said Noughtfire. Judging by the look on his face, he was fondly remembering that blasting. “Hreinn’s soul resistance is among the highest in all the Galaxy. When it comes to survivability, he knows every trick, underhanded or not, that there is… in the state he found himself in, though, even he was quite limited in what he could do. Still, the lightning that blasted Gilgoroth would not have been enough to cripple him. But lightning from the dawn of the era… that’s a different matter entirely.”

Zane nodded.

“The System sought to send both into deep hibernation,” continued Noughtfire. “But in Hreinn’s case, the effects on the soul will be significantly longer-lasting simply because it is vastly more difficult to heal. Imagine the difference between being knocked unconscious by a punch to the face and being struck by a horse’s hoof and sent into a three-month coma.”

“That makes sense.”

“Without external assistance, there’s a strong chance Hreinn would not be revived this Chaos Cycle. He may not even survive its ending.”

Noughtfire paused. “His master may see fit to revive him. But even for Malzareth, such a feat would take a great deal of time and resources. By the time he manages it, if he wishes to commit the resources, the War will be nearly over, I’d imagine.”

Zane found that a pretty satisfying answer.

He had a few more questions about what’d gone down, which Noughtfire was happy to answer. The first was if it’d been some master plan to lure Hreinn back in time, so he could use that stronger Tribulation Lightning to take him down.

“I knew he’d do it, of course,” said Noughtfire wryly. “Given that I remember him doing it. But I never lured him into putting himself in a compromised position. That was a happy accident. Sometimes good planning is simply putting yourself in a strong position to capitalize on your enemy’s mistakes… There is a saying common to games of war—‘tactics flow from a superior position.’”

“Fair enough…I hope you learned at least one more fighting technique since then,” said Zane.

“I have. More than one, as a matter of fact.”

“Really?”

“I can handle myself, Zane. There’s no need to concern yourself with my combat prowess. I assure you it’ll suffice,” said Noughtfire dryly. “Onto more serious matters.”

He steepled his fingers. “The matter of the imminent war, and your role in it.”

“Right.”

Zane got a little more serious too.

“Your aim, as I understand it, is to fight at the highest level of the War,” said Noughtfire.

Zane nodded. “The goal’s to eventually fight Malzareth itself, or at least join in that fight.”

The reason was pretty self-explanatory. It was the whole Galaxy’s goal to have a go at Malzareth, but for Zane specifically, that monster had made things quite personal. And that snake didn’t intend on stopping, by the looks of it.

“There is a feasible route there,” said Noughtfire. “If you hit the right System Store power-ups and carry your momentum through the war.”

Noughtfire knew Zane’s aims pretty well by now. It was as audacious a goal as any he’d ever taken up, but he was fast stockpiling the resources to make it a reality. In Creation and Destruction, he had well over a hundred shards burning a hole in his pocket.

…He still needed something to do with those Creation shards, of which he’d amassed well over 50… 

He figured he’d find something. It would’ve been nice if he could sell them back to the System for credits, but there was no barter mechanism, unfortunately.

“Fighting the snake will probably come at the very end, though,” said Zane, just thinking things through. “It’ll take some grinding before I get there… did you have something in mind?”

His ultimate priority was to defend his friends, his home, and to finish off Malzareth. Anything to do that, and he was in.

“Not me. The Mistress Reina’s been quite involved with the strategizing within Dragonspire Command,” said Noughtfire. “That is, the joint command post which every Great Faction is party to. She’s envisioned a role which I think you’ll quite like, pending your approval. You’ll have to ask her for the specific details.”

“Sure. I’m making my way over to the World Tree right after this, actually.”

He’d quite missed her. He wondered what she’d been up to since her last update—she was just about getting ready for her ritual, if he remembered right.

“Broadly, you will have free rein over a sector of the battlefield,” said Noughtfire. “A sector which defends the Azure Flame, the World Tree, Mount Thundercrest, Steelheart Conclave, and parts of the Cult of Endless Shadow.”

He blinked. “That seems like quite the stretch.”

“It is,” Noughtfire acknowledged. “It’s also less than you’d think, due to the geography of the Galaxy… only three of those Factions will be exposed directly to the front lines. Mistress Reina can handle the specifics.”

Zane nodded. This sounded pretty good so far. It’d let him fight alongside his friends and also protect the places he cared about.

“Most who fight will be foot soldiers, holding the front lines,” said Noughtfire. “But you will have the same privileges as every Empyrean-level powerhouse in Dragonspire. You’ll be a roaming warrior, going where the battle needs you most. Going where the fire’s hottest, so to speak, and putting it out. That could mean fighting mass hordes. It could mean fighting Greater Endbringers… or even stronger, once you’ve gained the strength.”

Noughtfire held out a palm. “In time that will mean fighting some of the strongest Empyreans this Galaxy has to offer, far stronger than even the King Astrolith…”

A treasure appeared in his palm—a gourd made of black steel. A mark ran down its center: a pure white lightning bolt.

“This should be of some help.”

Cowart Gourd of the Peerless Defiant [Rare (O)]

Zane identified it further—there seemed to be more there. 

This species of Gourd was engineered and grown by Archon Cowart for use by his clan’s peerless talents wishing to fight up in rank. It contains the elixir: Elixir of the Peerless Defiant [Rare (O)]. Consumption of this elixir prior to the True God breakthrough grants the trait ‘Peerless Defiant’ to their Reality Distortion Field. +125% suppression resistance.