Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 139: Heaviness

”Feels good, doesn’t it?”

Zac was interrupted from his brooding and looked over at the grinning demon. The two were currently sitting in a secluded group of sofas, and the heavy atmosphere kept any curious onlooker far away.

“I think I might have shown too much of myself,” Zac said with a sigh.

Zac looked at Ogras for a second and shook his head ruefully.

“I have a little sister. I believe I have found her whereabouts, but I am afraid that my identity is exposed, and they will use her to get to me.”

Since the beginning he hadn’t really told the demons anything about himself, and he hadn’t even explained why he wanted to keep going on excursions through the teleporter. He was afraid of the same thing he was now, that someone would use his family to get to him. But he was running out of ideas, and Ogras usually had some methods up his sleeves.

To Zac’s surprise, he saw that the demon had turned uncharacteristically serious as he looked at him.

“The Undead Incursion?” Ogras asked with a somber face.

“In a town close by,” Zac nodded.

“You need to find someone who has a teleporter in the area,” Ogras mused

“I did, but there seems to be some problem,” Zac said and retold the conversation with the stocky man.

“I think I know what’s going on, but we’ll find out for sure in a bit,” Ogras said. “However, I have an idea that will ensure it doesn’t matter what little schemes those politicians have.”

“Oh?” Zac said with some hope.

Ogras took out two glass vials from his pouch and threw them over to Zac.

“The black vial contains a poison pill called [Ten Steps to Hell]. If ingested the victim will wake up every night with searing pain in his chest, as though as his lungs are on fire. Every night for ten nights the pain will keep getting worse. On the tenth night you will die. It is extremely painful, and only the most skilled E-Ranked healers would be able to treat it. It should be incurable on this baby planet,” Ogras said with a sinister grin.

“How does this help me?” Zac frowned.

“The other vial contains the antidote,” Ogras explained. “Feed the poison to the man with the portal. Tell him to open the portal in 9 nights. You promise you will give him the antidote when you arrive in his town. If you do or not is up to you. He might try to heal himself, but it will fail. The inevitable pain every night will be a painful reminder to comply unless he wants to die.”

Zac blankly stared down at the two small bottles in his hands, hesitant at what to do. He felt that if he actually went through with this he would be stepping over some sort of threshold, arriving at a place where anything goes. The owner of the town by the undead incursion hadn’t done anything wrong, and this poison sounded like something horrifying to be subjected to.

Then again, it might be his only means to reach his sister. The more he thought about it the more he felt that he had left a trail of breadcrumbs that lead right to his identity. He remembered the feeling of walking through the park filled with unmarked graves, his father’s one of them.

Zacʼs eyes hardened and he put the two bottles into his pouch, which made a small smile emerge on Ogras’ face. If he had to become a villain to make sure his sister was alright, then so be it.

“Thank you. I will use these if I see no other option. What do you want in return?” Zac asked.

He was quite clear about the demon’s personality, where everything was weighted in benefits.

“Let’s just say you owe me one,” the demon said with a small smile.

“Sigh, fine. Now can you tell me what your actions were about in there? And don’t tell me it was pre-auction joking around again.”

“Aren’t you getting more astute? From what I’ve gathered she is an elite from a well-established clan on this world. This Marshall Clan will be one of our biggest competitors for the dominion of Earth, provided we don’t get slaughtered by the invaders or these so-called Dominators,” Ogras said, his face turning serious.

“You were busy shrinking away from her glares, so I had to do something. We needed information about her powers and temperament. The returns were above expectations,” he continued.

“How was you getting your throat slit and us ruining our relation count as good returns? And I have no interest in world dominion” Zac frowned.

“You need to think deeper, because other people are. Even if you say you don’t care, who would believe you? Your very existence is a threat to anyone trying to unify this planet. Unless you stop progressing and become mediocre you will be forced into conflict, no matter what you want,” the demon snorted.

“And we gained a lot of information about Thea Marshal. For one, we know she has a bit of a short fuse. She could have just ignored me, but she didn’t. Such a thing can always be exploited in the future. We also know that her family is a liability for her. When I attacked that man she clearly got frantic but tried to hide it under a guise of disdain,” Ogras said.

Zac was surprised, as he’d only seen the exchange as an embarrassing diversion from the auction.

“It seems the Marshall clan is quite large, which is a huge liability for a caring powerhouse. Having a large group of weak people to protect acts like an anchor, tying you down. Finally, we learned a bit about her method of attacks,” he concluded.

“Oh, you figured out her trick? I couldn’t see what she did at all.” Zac asked.

“I’m not completely sure, but I know for certain that it was a bladed attack. I’ve been cut enough times by various things to know the difference between a Dao, skill, and blade-cut. My belief is that she has one or multiple hovering bladed weapons out around her at all times,” he concluded.

“You remember Rydel, that asshole? I think she’s doing the same thing with a sword or a few daggers, but through either the properties of the weapons themselves or through a skill they become invisible. She’s essentially creating a field of death around her, where a strike can come at any time. Quite a good method. A shame I wasn’t able to gauge her range,” Ogras concluded with a sigh.

Zac was stunned. Earlier he really regretted bringing the demon along, but by now he felt quite thankful that he actually did. He did not only provide a last-resort solution to get to Kenzie, he even helped him realize his mistakes as he scouted out his enemies.

“What about almost kidnapping the movie star? Was that you wanting to gauge someone else’s reactions?” Zac changed the subject.

“No that was just for me,” the demon said with a grin. “I haven’t given up yet, you should know. We should go rampage a bit, kill a few people. When she sees our powers she’ll be much more willing to come back with us.”

Zac snorted but didn’t say anything. He didn’t know why, but like the demon was a bit on edge about something since he left his seclusion. Perhaps his gains weren’t as good as he’d hoped, and he was a bit antsy. He’d explained his reasoning for accosting Thea, but at the same time it felt like the demon was simply trying to create trouble to take his mind off of other things.

It wasn’t the time to start digging into those murky waters. If it was related to the demon’s cultivation he would never be truthful, and they were neither close enough or drunk enough to have any sort of heart-to-heart about anything troubling. Besides, the demon wasn’t the only one with problems.

Various troubles and issues were whirling through Zac’s head as he closed his eyes for a bit as he lay back in the sofa. There was the issue of Port Atwood, how to ensure the safety and progress of his emerging island kingdom. The third wave was coming as well, and he still had no idea what he could expect.

There was the issue of New Washington and their shrewd politicians. It felt as though the situation was getting out of hand, and a schism was forming between himself and his fellow humans. He even felt more comfortable around demons and the Zhix ambassador than his own old countrymen by this point.

There was also the heaviest responsibility of finding Kenzie. The feeling as he stood in front of the newly erected gravestone was etched into his memory, and he would rather die than not live up to the promise.

The issues of the Incursions and Dominators were also a constant buzzing in the back of his head. Any other issues like those of Port Atwood, or even finding Kenzie, was all for naught unless something was done about these enemies. Time was running out and unless something changed the invaders would soon be too powerful to handle.

Felt he was weighted down by a mountain of responsibilities, and heaviness shrouded his mind. However, suddenly it was as though various scattered thoughts and impressions crystallized, and ordered themselves up into something structured.

Zac fell into a trance as he somehow felt connected to the universe. He’d pondered daily on the various facets of heaviness lately, and now it was as though the universe suddenly was showing him the answer sheet. His current emotions were actually represented in a small section of something far greater, and in another corner he sensed his original insights.

The Dao of Heaviness was a low tiered Dao, or a foundational Dao as Alyn called it, but the vastness of that he sensed was extraordinary. He desperately tried to imprint the impression of it, but it was as though almost all of it slipped through his fingers. He managed to absorb some small snippets that were related to the emotional heaviness that he’d felt lately at least, and it seamlessly integrated into the fractal axe in his mind.

The dark color of the Heaviness-imbued half of the axe got deeper, and it radiated a stronger aura than before. Still, it was nowhere near the vastness he just felt.

He opened his eyes, only to see Ogras’ face plastered just centimeters from him.

“What the hell are you doing?” Zac asked with some trepidation.

“God damn it, did you just have an epiphany? Just disgusting,” Ogras said with a frown as he moved back, and even the little merchant who had appeared from nowere sitting closeby threw an envious glance at him.

“Why were you so close that you almost straddled me though?” Zac asked with a weird look.

“Don’t flatter yourself. I was trying to sense anything to get some hints of how to get an epiphany of my own. Since your Dao Seeds are low leveled I needed to get closer to sense the fluctuations,” the demon spat.

“Did you find out anything?” Zac asked curiously.

“No, it was just a chaotic jumble. No idea how to get anything useful from that,” the demon answered with a grimace.

“So, what did you upgrade?”

Zac didn’t answer, instead opening his menu with a smile.