Savage Awakening 283. Second Try

A/N:

Minor retcon--the Chaos Fruit is the reward rather than the Plasma Phoenix Core (swapped), and it grants him 30 extra Nascent Levels, not 40, which is a bit much!

//

“Come in,” said Noughtfire.  

Zane did, ducking to fit through the doorway.  

“Hey there,” said Zane, waving. He looked around the spare room, wondering at a place to sit. He ended up just standing. 

Noughtfire inspected his new disciple. 

Zane was a peculiar one, even for a man from an Ur-Planet. Noughtfire knew there was a great deal of fire hidden beneath that unassuming façade—it, more than even his great soul talents, was why Noughtfire chose Zane.  

That was a soul meant for Stormfire.  

And yet Zane never seemed to make much of a deal of it, which amused Noughtfire. Even Burnwater, who was perhaps the most pleasant of his disciples, had a certain pride to him.  

Zane didn’t seem much interested in flexing his powers for anything other than fighting things and protecting things. He had a single-minded focus. That could take a man quite far.  

Noughtfire was quite curious to see just how far in the coming years. 

Of his disciples, who were his great hope
 this bumbling big man might just be the one who held the most.

“I hadn’t expected you for another month,” said Noughtfire.  

Zane blinked. “Oh.”  

“Do you have anything new to report?”  

Zane nodded, put up a finger. A flame sparked to life atop it.  

A little flame. Yet it burned with the full heft of Zane's soul—and there was no mistaking it. That intensity
 the domain it cast
 it could only be Perfect Full-Fusion.  

Noughtfire inspected that new flame too. It took some effort to keep his face blank.  

In fact, Noughtfire had told something of a lie just now. 


He hadn't expected Zane here for at least three months.  

The fire winked out.  

Noughtfire cleared his throat. 

“Well then,” he said at last. “Outside you'll find a Chaos Tree—and on it, a ripe Chaos Fruit. It is yours. As promised.”  

He gestured at the tree. 

Zane looked at the fruit, then at Noughtfire. “I can just go pluck it?” He seemed surprised it was so simple. 

“Indeed.”  

“Well
. thanks.”  

“
Do I bow now, or
” 

“That is not necessary.” If Zane bowed he might just bring down the little house. 

“Oh. Alright, then. See you later.”  

He turned to head off.  

“Ah—one more thing,” said Noughtfire.  

Zane came to a halt and managed to smack his face on the roof somehow.  

“What’s up,” said Zane, rubbing his nose.  

“The Chaos Fruit can be rather
 overwhelming. It’d be best to digest it slowly.”  

“I will do that.”  

Gingerly he ducked under the frame and was gone.  

Noughtfire looked after the open entrance for a moment, pondering. “Hmm.”  

With a little smile, he went back to his tome.  

***

Zane went up to the Chaos Fruit.

Chaos Fruit [Sky (S)]

The tree was stark white, not a leaf on it. The fruit seemed to be the only thing it bore, and it was quite some fruit. A galaxy seemed to swirl under its skin, and as he came up to it, a mesmerizing effect washed over him, something like being mildly drunk. He could spend hours, days, even staring into those depths
 it had an inner life. 

According to the Incentive List, the Chaos Tree only bore fruit twice every Chaos Cycle. The Fruit’s main purpose was to set a strong ‘foundation’ for Zane's body before he Ascended. It would increase his chances of making it. Anything that strengthened his body, Zane would welcome.

Almost as an aside, it also mentioned it granted 30 Nascent Levels.

So it was with some gingerness that Zane took hold of the fruit and plucked it. He half-expected it to explode or something—but other than the galaxy swirling a little faster, then slowing, nothing much changed.

He considered the Fruit up-close. Now that he got a hand on it, he could feel just how much energy was trapped under the skin, gently swirling, dormant
 it still felt hot to the touch. 

He looked around.


 Probably here was not the best place to eat this. Past experience told him this kind of thing tended to get quite messy.

He pocketed it and went on home.

*** 

He cleared out the courtyard just for this occasion. Sat down with a load of towels at his side and specially-imported ice blocks from the deep south of the planet. Jawl said they had to mine them out from underground deposits and use preserve-arrays to keep them from melting. They would supplement his towels nicely.

Zane took a knife and sliced the Chaos Fruit into eighths. Just in case. Again he was mildly surprised to see it did not explode when he did it. Maybe he was being more cautious than he had to be.

He sat down, grabbed a slice, and ate.

His first thought was that it tasted like a pear. Sweet and tangy. He chewed, chewed again—it wasn’t so bad. Some essence burst in his mouth, started trickling in. It wasn’t so different from eating a normal essence fruit


The essence kept bursting.

Zane blinked. 


Hmm.

Then it started tasting like an apple. And a raspberry. And a blueberry.

Then it began to taste like salt. And pepperoni. And licorice. And then like things that were not even edible, like motor oil and steel. Then like every flavor known to man and many flavors not known. He tasted what the sound of a songbird singing, and the feeling of morning sunrise, and the passage of time, which sort of tasted like lemon, actually. Something tingly and vaguely indescribable flowed through his body, the sort of feeling one might get when being baptized. 

A new expanding world of flavor in his mouth—growing so fast it crowded out the rest of his sensations, until it was all there was


“Hrnggg,” said Zane, and keeled over.

But this bit he rather expected, and so his face hit something soft for once. A nice towel. Then the sweating and flopping about began.

When it was done, though


Level up! 

Level up!

Level up!

Level up! 

Essence Level 354 -> 358

He breathed out, wiped himself down with an iced towel. Got a smoothie to slurp on which tasted quite pleasant, like the passing of time. 

That wasn’t so bad.

His body still felt tingly, head-to-toe. 

He went for his second fruit.

Then his third
 fourth


Level up! 

Level up!


 

Soon a haze of thick essence rose over the proceedings. Rising deep into the skies, like some kind of cocoon, as Zane’s body took on more raw power than it ever had


Zane came out five hours later, breathing heavy, sweating, wrapped in big towels, but almost a new man compared to when he’d gone in.

Level 384. 

You could see it in the quiet presence of him as he stood there, radiating essence like heat


It was an enormous jump—the sort of jump he felt he wouldn’t truly understand until he put it into practice. Thirty Levels, all at once
 

He wasn’t far now from true Ascension. 

The Zane from a few days ago felt like a distant memory. He had gotten a full Stormfire. He’d just topped up on firepower too
 he clenched his fist.

It was time for a rematch with the big golem.

First, though. He patted his belly. It was time for dinner. 

It felt like ever since he’d come, everyone he met was totally committed to feeding him. 

This was a state of affairs Zane was quite happy with. 

*** 

Jawl presented him with one more letter at the dinner table.

“It has been in processing for a few days, my Lord. It came from outside the Faction, you see.” Jawl opened it up.

This one came from a certain ‘Val Arandor, High Prince of the Great & Honorable Arandor Family, rightful rulers of the World Tree Faction.’

Jawl opened it up, and a pretty elf-boy started shouting at Zane, waving a fist.

“Zane Walker!” Here the elf-boy took a moment to sneer. His face was pink with anger. “I demand that you unhand the fair Priestess Reina, and meet me in the Arenas of the Boughs, man-to-man. By rights she should be mine—she ought to marry the most eligible in the World Tree Faction, not some mongrel outsider!” 

A host of cheers from behind him. Angry elf-faces popping up in the projection, then fading away. “I challenge you to an honor duel! A duel which will decide Reina’s hand—” 

He went on and on. It sounded rather like a mosquito buzzing in Zane's ears. He wondered how the letter even got in here.

“Should I throw it away, my Lord?” said Jawl, folding it up.

Zane was about to say yes. Then he looked at the letter again and thought about it.

“No,” said Zane, narrowing his eyes. “Keep it.”

*** 

Almost a week had passed since he'd first come here—a very quick week, it felt like. It would soon be time to go home, as planned, to visit Reina. He missed her quite a bit, especially in the nights. 

Before then, though—it was time for a long-due rematch.

The next morning he headed off to the portal. And from there made his way to Ragnos. The Killing Star Galaxy had been fully reset—the planets moved slowly, peacefully in their orbits. Waiting for another challenge.

Zane made straight for the first portal.

He emerged on that shattered floating mass
 

And it was on. 

Planet 1

Begin

Red-eyed monsters started crawling up from the depths, crawling down from the darkened skies soon enough


Storm Serpent (Simulated Monster)

Essence Level 399 

Hypergolem (Simulated Monster) 

Essence Level 399

Go time.

Zane brought out his chains. His hammer lit up and instantly he felt the power of his new pseudo-domain—the pressure shaking the world around it, changing its colors until it, too, shaded Stormfire. That pressure blew out all around him, wiping out the Steel- and the Electric-Law there, swallowed up by sparks of constant Stormfire
 Sparks that leapt to nearby islands, setting things aflame
 just standing there, Zane was wreaking havoc.

Then he attacked.

He swung his a hammer low and felt his domain flare.

The hammer shot forward like all air resistance had been ripped out of the equation—the burst of it almost dragged Zane along. If he was surprised, the Hypergolems were even more so. They made strange whirring sounds, trying to shift themselves to block, just too slow—Zane’s powers found them vulnerable. 

The hammers made contact. The Perfect Full Stormfire crashed into them
 there was an explosion in soul and steel—and his hammers crunched through with contemptuous ease. 

Steel blazed, burned at the level of the soul—his new Stormfire found the essence powering that steel, and swallowed it; found the simulated souls and burned them up too—the Skills propping them up started failing down every inch of the limb as Stormfire tore through—it was like seeing a forest fire ripping through dried old wood. No resistance.

The golems let out shrill shrieks that quickly went sour, dipped to low notes as their massive bodies failed on them at shocking pace, ripped apart by that brutish flame
 

Before it had taken a massive burst of essence to knock one of the golems overboard. But now his first strike had swallowed up a line—and when the light faded he found them melted, hollowed out, crushed in melting heaps
 

They could not touch him.

He turned to the skies, teeth bared—and the Storm Serpents skidded to a halt, suddenly unsure. In that pause, Zane caught hold of them. His domain flared—and he saw them slow, dragged by a higher gravity even as his hammer sped up, brightening, gaining a killer intensity—BOOM!

That was how the first horde of the land and the skies got wiped out.

That was how Zane got warmed up.

He was a little surprised how easy it felt—then he remembered it was not only the new Laws, the new domains. Everything he threw came with a great new heft. The Level gap was gone. His essence by itself could overwhelm these Monsters
 

They could no longer test his limits.

“More,” growled Zane. 

He wanted the big one.