Bastion 2 - Chapter 40

I gritted my teeth and threw my elbow, trying to deflect her strike. The assassin turned her wrist and batted my attempt aside, then jabbed my back with a sharp zap. Feeling in my chest disappeared, but I could sense my arms. My effort had forced her to miss the mark.

She raised her hand again as a silver blade pierced gut, nearly impaling my numb chest. Blood splattered my face, and the woman gave a gurgling gasp. Hana pushed the woman aside as she pulled the long blade free. It was one of the enemy’s swords. The blade handle was wrapped with the different colors for munje.

But there wasn’t time for that.

“The spear,” I groaned and reached toward the weapon.

An assassin sailed through the air behind Hana, their sword upraised. I shoved her away, rolling a half turn in the opposite direction as the blade stopped a centimeter from the ground. Hana blocked the swordsman’s next blow, then dodged, dancing away from me.

She was buying me time.

I crawled on my elbows toward the spear, dragging my limp body behind me. I touched the staff and felt the same sucking abyss sensation as before. I didn’t have enough ma to refill it. I rolled to my back and pulled myself up against the cockpit, then cycled as I watched in horror.

Bo was lying on the ground. Hana was locked in swordplay, already sporting two bleeding cuts. Shin-soo was rising, but looked bad. Gui-ne and Woong-ji stood back to back, fighting the two assassins and Hiro Kumiho as they circled their prey.

The staff was only half charged, and the ma munje from the last blast was all but faded. It seemed there was a limited time my munje would remain in the target before becoming ineffective, and I cursed myself for not storing more ma.

I willed my core to work faster as I breathed deeper. The energy blasted through my ma bands and into the crystal, then zipped down my arms into the staff. Almost there.

The sound of metal whining pulled my attention outward. Woong-ji yelled and stumbled back as the leg of her massive suit bent and compacted. My father’s silver glowing hands tightened, and the leg collapsed with a crunch.

Woong-ji screamed in agony and my heart stopped. The assassins closed in and she raised her metal arm. Fire blasted out, searing one black cloaked man. The fire ripped through the air ten meters, setting ablaze the ripe kindling of a pine tree’s lower branches.

Woong-ji’s suit burst apart with a hiss and she crawled out of it. My father advanced on her but Gui-ne stepped between them, bloodied fists raised. My father landed two hits to his side that burst with red and Gui-ne collapsed. What was that spell he infused his punches with?

The bar in the corner of my vision filled and I pulled the spear through the air for Jeeo, creating a shockwave of gold. I reached out for all the ma in my father’s body, seeking the only path to victory: the device of Mae in his pocket.

My vision blurred as the artificial highways of light appeared before me. I set my ma on a suicide mission to the power supply as I whispered, “Mae, overclock.”

Heat poured down my veins like lava into the spear, amplifying my spell. The vision of the device disappeared as my ma ripped it apart. Blue arcs zapped up to his chest. He stopped in his tracks and fell to his knees, reaching for his pocket with jerky motions as he screamed.

He pulled the device free and threw it just as the immense power exploded. A blue-green shield shimmered around his body, protecting him from the blast that sent everyone else to the ground. The energy hit my chest with the force of a dozen punches, everywhere at once. My head slammed against the glass of the Golden Wing with a crack, and my vision grew dark at the edges.

“Mae”—I gasped—“signal dead?”

Her presence was weak in my mind as she whispered, “Confirmed.”

“You think that matters?” Father growled as he stormed toward me. “I didn’t come here to kill Bastions—I came for you. And look at what you’ve done!” I couldn’t move as Father pulled my limp body from the ground. He gripped my chin and lifted my head so I could see the battlefield, what I had done.

The trees crackled and glowed red hot as the fire blazed and dripped from the canopy, reaching toward my home. Every window of the house was shattered. My friends lay motionless on the ground, and my Master gripped her mangled leg.

My gaze drifted back to his face. The fox mask was broken over his left eye, exposing the familiar green iris I saw in the mirror every day.

“You could’ve come with me willingly. We could’ve saved your mother, together,” he said, disappointment in his tone and furrowed brow.

“We couldn’t let you wield this kind of power,” I gasped the words through my aching chest.

Pag-hwe.

The ancient spell flashed in my mind, and I realized I still had a grip on the spear. Awareness of Eun-bi’s garden bloomed inside me. I knew what to do.

I called on the munje in every living plant, our goat, the chickens, and ordered it to return to me with the energy of its host.

The garden glowed brilliant green as munje from the life around us flowed down into me in a rush. All at once, my leg snapped back into place, and my back popped. I regained sensation in my lower half, and barred my teeth in agony. My chest cracked and I could fill my lungs again. Power surged through my body and cooled my core, dimming the pain with it.

I pried my father’s grip from my face and twisted as I pulled my leg up between us. I kicked with all my might, landing my heel in his gut. He crumpled as his ribs snapped. He dropped me as he gasped for air.

Black flame rippled over my skin and engulfed me in strength. I surged forward, planting the spear in the ground as I kicked up at my father’s head. The mask shattered and he stumbled, trying to regain his footing.

My gut lurched with regret as I saw my aged father for the first time in nine years. Silver threaded his trimmed goatee, and streaks of it ran through his receding hair. Dark circles sat under my father’s eyes, and wrinkles adorned his lips. How had he gotten so old?

I dismissed the feeling and moved forward with a swipe of the spear, but it was too late. The split second of hesitation allowed him to recover.

He blocked my blow, holding the weapon tightly in his iron grip. He pulled me in close as he smirked. “And you’re lecturing me on the abuse of power?”

He pushed away hard, and spun a heavy kick into my chest that burst with red sparks. I fell back with a gasp as stars filled my vision.

My father approached, and I pointed the spear at his chest.

Uunmy.

He stopped, teeth bared in a painful grimace. Black tendrils reached up his neck, across his cheek, and into his eye. Blood leaked down his face from every opening, and he clawed at his throat.

Uunmy!

I dropped the spear, my heart breaking.

My father sucked down a gasp and stumbled back. His eyes were wild with fear, and echoed my own horror.

Without another word, he leapt backwards in a gravity defying move that sent him sailing through the blackened, life-stripped trees. They dissolved to ash as he moved through the branches and disappeared behind a wall of gray smoke and death.

I came up to a knee, holding my aching chest with a trembling hand.

I turned in a circle as all I’d known for all my life blew away in the wind, leaving only gray and red stained dirt behind. The chicken coup was quiet and empty, nothing but blackness and shriveled bones. The goat was silent, and I knew the only thing behind the walls of the shed was a pile of ash. My heart thudded with terror as I took in the power of the spear before me.

My mother limped from the back patio, her neck streaked with crimson.

“What have I done?” I choked.

“There’s no time,” Mae urged weakly. “Woong-ji is critical, and you still have enough energy to save her.”

“The others?” I asked as I ran to the tiny old woman bleeding out into the snow.

“Hana, Shin-soo, and Bo are alive,” Mae reported and though I hated myself, I was relieved. Hana survived.

I picked up the spear and ran to Woong-ji’s side. I knew I couldn’t heal her without its power. I placed one hand over her leg as the other held the spear tightly. I closed my eyes and cycled zo healing as I mobilized the ma in her to activate her core. Her leg was in ruins. Every part of it screamed to me for help and I worked my flow of munje through her with speed.

“Her tibia is shattered. The best we can do is stop the bleeding,” Mae said.

Hot tears from Jigu spilled down my cheeks as I felt the very life of the little world I had helped build flow through me and into Woong-ji. The goat stopped her bleeding. The chickens staved off infection. The plants soothed her pain.

When I my work was done, and the stolen life force given away, I sat back with exhaustion.

I was hollow.

I was despicable.

I could never do this again.

“Jiyong,” my mother croaked.

I turned to see my trembling family walking barefoot through the snow. Their sleeping clothes were smeared with ash and blood, but their faces were dry of tears. My throat tightened and my eyes stung. I took the deep breath before a scream and Minjee leaped toward me. I wrapped her in my grip as I sobbed, and the family rushed down to me.

We held each other in the freezing snow and wailed, screamed, cursed, and bellowed out his name in agony.

When my mother had cried enough, she looked up to the sky and shouted, “Hiroto Law—we disown you!”