Ashborn Primordial-Chapter Ashborn 399: Dangerous Games

Tara had been right. Vir didn’t like the news. At all.

As he sat at a table in the naga’s quarters, the hot tea in front of him untouched and cooling, he wondered why the gods, or Fate, rather, hated him so.

“What will you do?” Tara asked.

Vir groaned, massaging his temples. “What can I do?”

“Um, you’re the Akh Nara? You could have him killed?” Tara said. “Or do it yourself. Heck, this is the Ash! All you need to do is send him through that Gate to Mahādi. He’ll vaporize before he even makes it to the other side,” Tara said. While she did her best to hide it, she was clearly still uncomfortable with having a Gate that led straight to the home of the most hostile beasts just a few dozen paces away from camp. To say nothing of the torrent of prana that erupted from that Gate. It had been placed far from the others primarily for that reason.

“You don’t know that he’s betrayed us,” Vir said, idly considering how ‘Death by Mahādi Gate’ could very well be a viable form of execution. One that showed off his own power.

He shook his head. Dark thoughts, Vir. He refused to think of such matters as tools to further his own power. While Vir very much suspected several Rajas would be only too happy to capitalize on such an opportunity, Vir needed to be above that to have any hope of reuniting the realm. He had to rise above the petty politics and power mongering of kings and lords.

“Entering and exiting Gates to the Demon Realm, sometimes multiple times a day? Heading alone to remote forests? Meetings in secret?” Tara said, arcing an eyebrow.

“I admit it is all highly suspicious…” Vir said, suddenly less confident of his path.

“Why even take the chance? Lock him up in some dungeon or something.”

“And tip off the enemy?” Vir asked. “If Raoul is working with the Chits, we would lose a very valuable advantage.”

Tara raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

“Think about it,” Vir said. “By allowing Raoul to learn only what we want him to know, we can feed misinformation to the enemy. We can let them believe we’ll attack head-on while we work to infiltrate the city from within.”

“A solid plan… Assuming you can control him. Assuming he doesn’t find out and leak our real plans to them. This is Raoul, after all. The guy is crafty, if nothing else.”

“It’s a risk,” Vir admitted, slouching in his chair. “It’s also why we’ve yet to entrust Raoul with the actual plan. Right now, he thinks we’ll storm Samar Patag’s walls. The only part of the plan he knows about is my infiltration of the castle proper. We need only continue feeding him lies.”

Was Raoul the reason why the rebellion was fated to fail? Or, if Vir killed the cult leader, would the chaos sown be the trigger that brought him down? Was it his inability to use Raoul to play the enemy?

No. That was the path to madness. To insanity. The possibilities were endless. Any path he chose could be subverted. Vir knew thinking this way was pointless, and yet, like an Ash Wolf’s claw, he couldn’t be free of it, no matter how much he struggled.

“I say kill him and be done with it,” Tara said. “Least risk.”

“Is it, though? We lose a highly capable commander by killing him,” Vir said. “Who would replace him? You?”

Tara pursed her lips and looked away. “I admit I lack command experience… Panav don’t make very good military leaders.”

“That’s my point,” Vir said. “As suspicious as he is, he’s shown himself to be a brilliant—if ruthless—tactician. Aside from Balagra and Cirayus, what other field commanders do we have?”

“The Ravager is training several…” Tara muttered.

“Sure, and I’m sure some of them will be adequate. That doesn’t change the fact that not one of them will have seen actual combat against demons by the time we attack. Or have you forgotten how every single demon in my army is a Laborer Calling?”

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“You would trust Raoul to command troops on the day of the invasion?”

Vir shrugged. “His ability to betray us is actually quite low, with an entire army out on the field. My demons are thinking, intelligent beings. Should they suspect his leadership, he’ll be lucky to run away with his life. The worst he could do is put out a mediocre performance. Poor enough to hinder us, but not so bad that his decision-making comes into question. The thing is, even Raoul’s mediocre performance would be better than a fresh commander’s best.”

“That’s… I concede your point,” Tara sighed. “Just… Be careful? Please?”

Vir rose from his seat, feeling exhausted despite the energizing prana. “I will,” he said. “Of that, you can be sure.”

“What will you do not?” Tara asked as he made to leave.

“Right now? I need a break. I need to relax, to take stock of the situation.”

“So… Heading to Panav, then?” Tara asked. “You might not be aware, but my clan has quite the ironclad reputation as the premiere vacation spot in all the realm.”

Vir raised an eyebrow. “I… Hadn’t known. And I was thinking of something a bit more physical. I was thinking of fighting Ash Beasts with Cirayus in the deepest region of the Ash.”

Vir wished he could have recorded the look of sheer, utter horror on Tara’s face.

“Let’s go.”

“Er, you sure?” Vir asked, looking at the company of two hundred demons Cirayus was running through combat training.

“Right now. Oi! Balagra! Get over here and take over. I’ve urgent business to attend to.”

“Of course, Ravager,” Balagra said, dropping whatever it was he was doing and rushing over. “Where will you be off to?”

“The Deep Ash,” Cirayus said, stroking his beard with a heavy frown. “Urgent business, I’m afraid. I must leave at once.”

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“Cirayus, you don’t—”

“Nonsense, lad!” Cirayus thundered. “This must not be delayed even a moment further! Come! Let us be gone!”

Then, before Vir could react, Cirayus had picked up him up and thrown him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, bounding for the nearby Gate Nexus, only setting him down once they’d arrived.

“That was, uh… undignified,” Vir said, coughing awkwardly as he smoothed out his armor—armor that had been repaired since his fight with Cirayus. The forgemasters had ogled over the armor, even bolstered it in places using demonic techniques. It was now better than ever.

As for Cirayus… Vir looked at the new Sikandar. It resembled the original only in its enormous size. Its gorgeous seric blade was even prettier before. It was also thicker, and now sported a curve along the entire length of its blade, rather than just the tip as before. The giant wore the weapon strapped diagonally across his back.

“It looks better. Fiercer,” Vir said.

“And I’ve not had the chance to test it!” Cirayus thundered, shaking his fists. “The injustice! A new blade, and no beasts to kill! What will it think of me now?”

“Uh, last I checked, blades were not thinking beings, Cirayus.”

“Nonsense. A blade has a soul. Especially one as old as Sikandar. Never forget that.”

“Er, alright?” Vir said, not quite sure if his godfather was joking. Vir could never tell when Cirayus got this way.

“Shall we depart, then?” Cirayus asked, eyeing the Gate that led into the deepest region of the Ash… Apart from Mahādi. Not even Cirayus could weather that realm’s prana yet.

Constructing that Gate had taken all of Vir’s precious free time. To enter the Human Realm, one had to pass through the core of the Ash, and so Vir saw it as laying the foundation to his eventual reunion with Maiya.

The hard part had been done. The Gate was established, and now, he needed to venture out to less dense parts of the Ash, eventually reaching the Human Realm on the other side.

The Gate also happened to make for an excellent training ground for their most seasoned warriors. Of which there were still only a handful, but Vir hoped that more would join their ranks soon.

“Give me one moment,” Vir replied, using Balancer of Scales to jump into the air. “Let me recharge the other Gates.”

While Vir could have used Leap or Blink to accomplish the same feat, he forced himself to use Balancer of Scales whenever he could. He had precious little time to practice it as it was, so he wanted to flex that muscle as often as possible, lest he forget Narak’s hard-won lessons.

Vir arrived at the nearest Gate—leading to one of his several bases in the periphery of the Ash—and recharged its prana. From there, he moved on to the next, which led to Baira, and so on.

Part of the reason he’d created this Gate nexus—a ring of Gates all clustered together—was for ease of access. Any location in any realm, just a few dozen steps away. The second reason had been security. This way, he could concentrate his forces in one area, responding to any threat that came through. While a horde had yet to assault them, a few beasts had wandered through, more out of curiosity than anything else.

His troops usually scared them away, but a few stayed and fought. They were swiftly and mercilessly cut down.

The last reason for the nexus had been for Vir’s own quality of life. By having most Gates in his network nearby, he could recharge them all with just a few minutes of effort. Though most only needed refilling once every few weeks, he made it his daily routine to check up on them. Mostly because of the disaster it would be if the bases became stranded and isolated.

Some, like the ones that led deeper into the Ash, didn’t require recharging at all. Those he got for free.

Vir finished his chore to find that Cirayus had already ventured through. Rolling his eyes, Vir followed suit.

He fully expected to find the Ravager on the other side, attacking some horde of monsters.

He found exactly that. He just also found that the horde numbered in the hundreds, with more piling on every moment.

“C’mon, lad! Join the fun!” Cirayus said as a half-dozen Ash Biters went flying into the air.

Vir cracked his neck, feeling his heart pumping madly. Feeling the old thirst for combat surface after being so long dormant.

Most others would see a horde like this and run for their lives.

Vir licked his lips. “Old man, you really don’t have to tell me twice.”