======= 35 - Death Worshipper ==========
Time flew by as fast as the circus travelled across the continent of the Earth people. I didn't even want to think about how much of this beautiful world I had seen: cities and villages that had been conquered both long ago and relatively recently; magnificent views, some of which seemed impossible to have been created by nature, but rather by the hand of the world's best landscape designers — the mages of the earth; and, of course, I managed to visit the sites of battles. The world, after all, continued to wage war, and it was not uncommon for us to arrive at a site and find rubble strewn about, along with the dead bodies of fire mages. But there was no sign of those who had attacked us. Why? They rarely won, and often they were all taken away on an iron prison ship. During the three months I spent accompanying the travelling circus, I had somehow come to terms with these conditions and the fact that hatred was everywhere. I was more concerned about my own failure.
Having visited so many lands, it was impossible not to get knocked down a peg or two: a couple of times our carts broke down, a couple more times we were attacked by bandits, and sometimes, because of them, or for a whole host of other reasons, performances were cancelled. The longer I was with the circus, the better I understood the problems of this place, but although it might have seemed from the outside that I was trembling with fear after every accident and just putting up with it, that wasn't the case. I had to adapt to learn how to travel with such a fragile group without putting them in danger: constantly watching out for possible attacks, re-checking transport and belongings, and constantly making sure that nothing would disrupt the performances or any other work. Often, I even had to inspect the places where the tents would be pitched, because there was one case of a karst collapse! I'm not joking — nature used the earth-shattering technique I learned from Chin against me. But since it was impossible to defend myself against the world alone, and fighting with such consequences was still necessary, I got close to the local participants and forced them, literally called on them, to at least not disrupt the performances. If Ringmaster had seen how much I was doing for his circus, I might even have been promoted. But he didn't see. Why? Just bad luck.
Ultimately, in order to better adapt to the battle against the forces of nature, I even had to learn to listen more carefully. Sitting down on the ground somewhere in the wilderness, in the middle of a forest or on an empty clearing, I immersed myself completely in my sixth sense, only now receiving signals from the whole world. Trees, whose roots went deep into the ground, feeding the great trunk of life; the earth beneath my feet, seeing every fold and rock that could move thanks to me; even animals and, perhaps, people, in whose bodies energy flowed in exactly the same way. Sometimes I entered such a deep meditation that I truly felt at one with the world, and the reason for this was the combination of seismic sensitivity with a very similar sensation of qi. It was foolish to think that these skills were fundamentally different — they had one source: magic. It took some effort to combine the pure technique of earth mages with ordinary raw qi, which even non-mages can manipulate, and to spend part of the three months just understanding how these disciplines work, but in the future, it could bear fruit. It's hard to imagine, but... if I ever see qi flowing through a person's body, I'll be able to predict what magic trick they're going to use. I'll be able to know about an attack even if the enemy is standing still and doing nothing.
But all this is just theory and speculation about the next chakra, because that is what is needed to fully feel and "see" qi in other people's bodies. Speaking of the present, the material world, Anubis, just like back then in the cave, sometimes threw in new training requirements, only now in a slightly strange direction.
"Beep-beep-beep. Bang*
"Damn!" The coachman frowned as soon as the cart with our belongings bumped into the wheels of an animal running by. The procession stopped because the wheel had come off the axle and things were falling on the ground. As soon as some of us got closer, we saw a rather large tiger rabbit with large fangs and a broken neck. He's dead... He jumped under the wheels himself, don't look at me like that.
"Poor thing..." the gymnasts lamented, looking disappointedly at the animal.
"Quick, put the wheel back on the axle, there's no time for sentimentality. We have to get to the newly founded colony, where people are suffering terribly! - The ringmaster, in turn, just frowned and waved his arms. I looked at the body and sighed sadly. If I hadn't been asleep, maybe I would have noticed and helped?
Touching the rabbit to move it out of the way, I suddenly felt that its body was still emitting energy. After death, it didn't disappear... rather, it took on a new form.
"Choose:
1 - Conductor of the Dead (To understand life, you must study death. You have already begun to learn the ways of the priest Anubis, so you can gain a deeper understanding of the basics of death and study the world of the living through the dead, or through their salvation. You will discover the fundamentals of life and death, which will accelerate your understanding of love)
2 - Death Qi (You have realised that you can study the flow of energy even in dead bodies. Focus on studying those who have already passed away. It will be easier for you to influence spirits and understand their nature. Subsequent chakras will deepen this direction).
I even froze with the corpse in my hands, gradually feeling its spirit leave. These choices were extremely strange and unlike any other. No, they were more reminiscent of Anubis's natural path — he wields death itself, most of its aspects, and now, thanks to my study of qi, I could touch his mastery. But to understand life through death, seriously? Well, perhaps that was the essence of the fourth chakra, for which it was necessary to accept such a concept as loss. But when it came to spirits, I couldn't understand why the hell I needed them. Unless it was necessary to get closer to the Avatar. Then yes, through communication with spirits, I could get to know him better, make him reveal the secrets of his teachers, or steer him in the direction I wanted. And also, for example, reduce the influence of Roku, at least try...
But there was a problem. Even if it became easier for me to communicate with the spirits, it would still be impossible to influence them more than the Avatar does. Yes, maybe when I first met him, my skills would be better, but according to my plan, the Avatar should not have any serious influence on our world at all. I wanted to push him back to the spirits, to solve their problems, where he belonged. And I would take care of the practical side of things.
Under strange glances, I took the rabbit's body with me in the cart. I placed it in front of me, sat in the lotus position, and began to watch the little creature's soul drain away.
"Well, he's a monk.
"He's praying for the animal. How sweet.
The strange looks quickly disappeared, and people just shrugged their shoulders. I could feel the creature's qi forming into something ephemeral, moving to another plane of existence. It was a soul imbued with various emotions. There are probably many ways to study it, but since my patron is the god of the dead himself, I also followed the path of a guide for the dead. However, I studied death in order to prevent it.
Soon, when the cart was repaired, I buried the corpse under the sand while no one was looking. After making a few notes in my book, I simply sat down to watch and listen. It was amazing how many creatures died under the wheels of heavy carts: ants and beetles, small rodents that were unlucky enough to pass by. Even more deaths occurred during the hunt, when people brought wild boars, deer or duck-billed ducks and slaughtered them during stops. "The natural process of life," I whispered quietly, tracing the letters with my tired hands covered in fresh blisters. One of the pictures showed the cycle of life, how the death of some helped others to exist, how spiritual understanding of this affected the understanding of the world. Only when such topics were strictly structured on the pages did I feel inner peace and tranquillity. And when I finished, a whole burden of responsibility fell from my shoulders. "It's done.
Having completed a whole book, inspired by Laghima's few meagre sources of knowledge, I told Afka that it was now ready to be given to Wang Shi Tong. The last page in my study of the fourth chakra was the realisation that I needed to seriously think about the structure of my life and love it for what it is. This is the most important part of unity. Now I feel somehow happier.
But then a day passed... two... we even managed to get to that very new colony, whose guards were much more organised than anywhere else and kept a close eye on every resident trying to settle into their new life, but I still didn't see the results of my research.
"So, why the hell haven't I opened my chakra yet? - sitting on a chair, tapping my finger on my knee, I clicked and lamented the injustice of such treatment. There it was again, that incomprehensible spirituality, frankly annoying in its pedantry, telling me that I hadn't done enough. You see, I misunderstood the meaning of love and didn't learn enough about qi, or what? I wrote down everything I learned about energy in the pages of the book, drew a diagram of a human body with all the points that Tai Li checked. I'm sure even Airo couldn't have structured the knowledge like that. I wrote the book, after all!
"Phew, the audience here is tough, most people are unhappy that we came. Why are you so unhappy? " asked Tai Li, who came backstage and found me looking sour. You could say I resembled the people from that village, whose lives had been destroyed and who were now being forced to watch the performance. But you can understand them, the locals were captured only recently.
"He's been acting strange all day," said a trainer walking by, holding three armoured tigers on leashes. The animals stopped next to me and curled up cutely, starting to rub against me. "Cute cats," I muttered. "Hmm... but I don't understand this even more. They're usually afraid of everyone and don't let you pet them. Come on, let's go, what are you standing there for?"
The man came out on stage, glancing strangely at Tai Li for a second. This became a frequent occurrence, as the girl began to bother everyone less and less and stopped flirting with anyone at all. Noticing the change, the growth of her personality, the guys were disappointed that they were no longer being paid attention to, and now I was the only one who was honoured.
Looking up at the interested Tai Li, I effortlessly sensed her affection. It was difficult to say what kind of affection it was, most likely not even romantic. It was the result of my actions, my attempts to change, which caused people to be drawn to me. Seeing something like this in the first world would have been impossible. Before, I had only provoked disapproval, but now even people I didn't know well considered me a good friend.
"I don't understand how to love," I replied listlessly, causing the girl to even bat her eyelashes.
"Really? You know, I'm a master at love! " she clapped her hands eagerly. For a second, I even felt surprised... why hadn't I asked her about it before? She was so clingy that she had been through quite a few relationships, she literally had more experience than me! I was lucky.
And just at that moment...
"What's going on?" I frowned. The vibrations in the ground intensified sharply, telling me something strange. The layers were beginning to shift, obeying someone's magic.
Boom-bang-dads*
At the same time, I felt an attack. Surprisingly, it didn't come from the fire mages, because it was the ground itself that was rising around the circus, creating mounds and unevenness that caused people to lose their balance and fall. First, someone changed the battlefield, making it more convenient, and then... stones started flying.
I sprang into action immediately. Jumping to my feet and standing in front of Tai Li, I raised my shield, which was hit by a large piece of debris, knocking down the partition of the tent and then the entire tent. My legs tensed and moved back, but the stone was stopped without a drop of magic.
"What...?" The surprised girl blinked, first looking at my back, then at the direction from which the stone had come. There, among the visitors, several people in ordinary grey uniforms rose and began throwing large pebbles at the soldiers of the Fire People. Several mages also appeared on the street, whose heavy movements lifted whole boulders, which they wanted to turn the occupiers into a pulp," - The rebels Zhao was talking about. They are attacking all the people of the Fire Nation.
The girl whispered tensely, in a tone that suggested this was not the first time such a thing had happened. Indeed, even I had seen the aftermath of at least one such attack — Zhao was the one who had rectified the situation at that moment, turning the battlefield into a wasteland. Now... there was no Zhao capable of resolving the conflict.
"We have to stop them before the village is harmed," Tai Li broke away, but after running a dozen metres, she turned to me, calling for help.
Did I really have to fight against... my own people?
"Don't get hit by the boulders!
"Ouch, my leg.
The circus members screamed in fear. Many ran away, even the fire mages did not try to participate in the battle, because possessing magic did not mean that you would win against a whole trained squad. For if there are many enemies, there is one big problem.
You can't even trust the ground beneath your feet.
========== 36 - The Chakra of the Clergy ==========
Never before had I seen so close how not just another earth mage, but an army of rulers of rubble and large boulders directly opposed to you, operated in an open field. This is not an arena where opponents fight one-on-one; nor is it a convenient place to learn, where all the rules of combat, if not agreed upon in advance, are established by an unspoken rule: do not kill. Now the rebels had attacked with the clear intention of recapturing the territory that had once belonged to them, and to this end they had created chaos: stones blocked the exits and convenient roads, mounds rising from the ground and spikes made the terrain difficult for everyone except themselves. This was how battles usually unfolded when a whole group of mages joined forces, although they were still being skilfully repelled. The soldiers of fire did not expect this, but after all the harsh training they had undergone in the army, each of them began to shoot balls of compressed flame as hard as they could, plunging the battlefield into chaos, consisting of boulders and flashes of flame flying in all directions, and protecting civilians and members of the circus. The boulders, which were difficult to stop, knocked down entire rows of people. For the first time, I observed from the sidelines how difficult it was to resist such raw, pure force.
Yes, right now we were standing behind people who were considered monsters and unprincipled bastards who could only kill and plunder. But what I saw clearly demonstrated that the soldiers were grouping together to prevent casualties among us. The fire mages were protecting me... if they found out, they would quickly retire before the news reached Zhao or even the Fire Lord himself. The problem was that the rebels were attacking indiscriminately — yes, it quickly became clear that they had apparently taken the civilians away long ago, or that they had never come to the circus in the first place, but the clowns and other performers were no better than the guys in military uniform. And if you were a mage, you were a priority target. The animal trainer, who was performing with a whip set on fire by magic, saw a chunk of rock the size of himself flying towards him. He didn't even have time to blink, and if it weren't for Tai Li, who rushed towards him and knocked him off his feet, he would have been turned into a pancake.
Bang-boom-boom*
The ball continued to roll due to the force with which it had been thrown. The trainer was saved, but the tigers scattered across the stage were unable to orient themselves in the chaos and almost became the next target of the evil stone.
Top*
But then, I released a drop of magical energy onto the ground. My improved understanding of qi changed my perception of magic so much that I instantly stopped the boulder, as if it had hit a wall. It was my first serious use of magic after all my training, and it felt so easy.
"Ur-ur-ur," the tigers twitched with fear, instantly closing themselves in their shells like huge armoured vehicles. So whose side should I take? Should I go with the people who are just trying to get their beloved home back, or with those who will send all the rebels to prison, and that's in the best case scenario?
Choose:
1 - Quicksand (By helping the rebels, you will condemn the circus and the fire soldiers to imprisonment. However, you will rise again and even become a symbol of the uprising. You will earn the respect of the command of the army of the people of the earth. Your relationship with Tai Li and the rest of the people will end)
2 - Scorched Earth (Side with the soldiers of the Fire Nation and try to minimise casualties. Note that the fewer casualties you suffer, the fewer Earthbenders will be executed, down to zero)
3 - The Decider (You can end the entire battle on your own. Reveal yourself, but do not take sides. Negotiate so that the two armies go their separate ways. Be careful, relations with the fire and earth peoples will deteriorate significantly. No one will be harmed or enslaved. But you will have to leave. There is a chance to persuade Tai Li to go with you.
4 - Proud Priest (The priests of the god of death may kill, but they prefer to heal. No matter the outcome of the battle, show your character and reduce the number of deaths to zero. Warning: there are already casualties who need help. If you don't help them immediately, the first victims will appear. This is an excellent opportunity to learn about life and death and how to prevent the latter. Try to save everyone.)
Some half-measures and obvious attempts to do only part of the job. I've started to notice that I'm criticising Anubis's options, but that's more because of the visual sense of control that I've grown accustomed to lately. When that feeling is deliberately taken away, it feels uncomfortable. And that's why I don't understand why it's not possible to heal everyone and fight someone. Am I really that weak?
"H-help... - but at that moment I heard the voice of a soldier who had been hit by a rock. Yes, he was a member of the army of fire, and yes, he knew what he was getting himself into... but I ran anyway, unzipped a bag of supplies that was lying nearby, and examined the wound.
"An open wound, shards of rock almost pierced his lung. Damn, what bad luck," I lamented over the situation as a whole, rather than the fate of my enemy, and only briefly administered first aid. Fortunately, my senses scanned the body so well that it made me an excellent doctor. It was as if Superman had gone to work as a surgeon instead of a newspaper reporter — I could identify the problems of literally everyone in the area and understand who needed help first.
"Can I help?" Tai Lee, who was in a relatively calm state, ran up to me while I was saving a life and didn't have enough strength to even get into the fight and help everyone.
"Yes... let's try to come up with two options for getting out of this mess," the girl looked at me in complete confusion. But when I asked her to drag a few people over to me so I could help them as quickly as possible, she did as I asked. She brought the wounded who were in the worst condition and even asked her friends to help build a stretcher. And while I was operating, I was also performing magic.
A huge amount of magical energy was flowing through my legs. To be honest, I had never experienced anything like it before. It was as if I had discovered how to unlock the body's potential. Points that I had never even felt before, whose location I wasn't even sure of, were pushing out powerful streams of magic, stopping stones flying towards the soldiers, reducing the number of casualties; erecting walls in front of those who did not have time to protect themselves from the fire, so that I would have to heal my current enemies less, and at the same time quietly trying to change the landscape. The latter became a problem that, due to my scattered concentration, refused to be solved — I was literally fighting while sitting in one place, a couple of dozen metres from the battlefield. What I was doing was considered an achievement in itself.
"Magic doesn't have to come out through your feet. The elements can be controlled even from a distance, but if you do everything right, you can improve the effect. If you use your body's energy system correctly, letting energy flow not only through movement, as everyone else does, but with an awareness of what is responsible for your techniques, you can perform miracles even while locked in a cage."
I felt like I was in that very cage — unable to move from the wounded, but forced to somehow get out of the situation. How? Well... Just like Bumi controlled the earth without making any movements. Just by letting the qi flow through his body in the right way. Conquering the element that others were trying to control.
Crunch-crunch*
At that moment, there were very loud noises. People looked around in confusion, while the ground beneath our enemies' feet began to sink. First by a metre, and then a giant hole formed, into which people who did not expect such treachery fell. The giant sinkhole drowned our enemies and caused them to fall on top of each other. Of course, if there had been soil around, they would have quickly climbed out, but the material was no different from sand. And that was a problem.
"What the hell is going on there?" the man under my hands opened his eyes in shock, having found enough strength to lift his head. Looking back at him with the most sullen expression I could muster, I put his head back in place.
"None of your business. Say another word and you're dead.
"Kha!
I really was able to fight and heal at the same time. I don't understand why Anubis said it wouldn't work. At least, not until someone else joined the fight.
Shu-uh*
The air was cut by something very fast and small. It was aimed at me, as if to take out the doctor. But if it had really been a pebble, there would have been no problem — I didn't try to catch it with my hand, but simply raised my shield. Allowing the small but sharp crystal, which only needed one contact with the skin to grow inside the body, to shatter into pieces. Jemmonite, damn it.
"Who?" I raised my head, glancing at the creature that was throwing small but far more deadly projectiles that I might not even have noticed. "Hm?"
My surprise knew no bounds. Twenty metres away stood a young man with a frightened look on his face, who was probably fighting for the first time. It wasn't even his age that surprised me, nor the fact that he was lucky not to fall into the pit — it was more that I was unlucky — but that he strongly resembled someone I knew. A guy from the Omash mines who I used to work with. A guy I tried to teach how to use crystals, and who caused an accident when he collapsed. I couldn't even remember his name, but his face... his face was different. He left because he couldn't even use simple earth magic.
But it was definitely him. There were incredibly few soldiers in the army who used crystals.
"Luck... are you kidding? I doubted that they recognised me, at least nothing indicated that they did. One guy was simply giving orders on who to take out, and the commander's finger pointed at me. He picked up several crystals and threw them again: a man like that could be very dangerous on the battlefield.
Putting up my shield, I blocked each of the crystals that were trying to hit different places, even my legs, which weren't covered by the shield, but my hands were faster. All the projectiles shattered into pieces and, at my will, lost their ability to grow. But while I was doing this, life was draining from the others. Was I really unable to choose two paths at once? There was no point in fighting if I couldn't fulfil the priest's tasks to help open the chakra, but simply saving everyone without dealing with the source of the problem was pointless. Was I too weak, or was it simply impossible? Once I dealt with one, wouldn't someone else come to his aid and start interfering with me again?
"No, enough whining," I thought, going over all the options in my head. Why feel sorry for how things were going when I just needed to figure out the answer? Are there obstacles preventing me from doing my job? And asking someone else to deal with them is the same as asking someone to kill them, isn't it? Almost... I had Kioshi's plan, and I was going to create a group of people I could give orders to, believing that there would be no deaths.
Catching sight of Tai Lee, who had brought another body with her acrobatic friends, I sighed deeply. An excellent chance to test how it would work, wasn't it? All I did was call the girl over and give her a little hint that I was being distracted, and without hesitation, she nodded, found her target as quickly as if she had been a tracker since childhood, and with her hands behind her back, ran across the battlefield like a shinobi. She dodged all the stones and shells, jumped over dangerous areas, and even dodged the very crystals that the frightened mage was throwing at his approaching target. In an instant, he lost his power from the blows to his pressure points. Then she got rid of the man who was giving him orders. Suddenly, several more mages appeared and decided to target me, reaching me even faster than I had expected.
Tai Li carried out her assignment perfectly and did not complain that she could not kill anyone, as Suyuki did. Whatever her past was, I was very glad that it was connected with battles. Soon, there were no enemies left, and I sat over all the healed soldiers, none of whom had died, as well as the captured rebels, who couldn't even move. No one even complained that I had saved them; instead, I felt the respect of those around me.
I had become so skilled at understanding people who were about to die and how to save them that I could literally call myself a priest of Anubis without any irony. Although that sounded like I was serving him... better just a Priest of Death.
And it was all thanks to one person.
"Phew, are you okay? - Tai Li approached me, wiping sweat from her forehead and panting. After running through streams of fire and boulders, she looked a little tired, but she was still looking at me intently." "Aren't you tired?
The way she helped. She carried out the order quickly and without question. She's amazing!
"I can't believe you did that just because you felt inspired to help."
"Huh? - I even blinked. Anubis spoke with complete incomprehension, but with a hint of irony," - "Did what? I don't understand you."
"My innocent one. You feel something more than respect."
But I didn't immediately accept these words. Because at that very moment, I felt a surge of energy rush through my body. Like that very chi, which seemed to flow quite quickly and without any particular stagnation, broke through the barrier in my heart, accelerating sharply to almost the speed of light. At that moment, my body found balance. All the chakras, which were called elements, were open, and I experienced Zen. The energy that I had considered something understandable, which I had studied for more than four months, took hold and revealed itself in other people's bodies as a stream of different feelings and emotions.
And the culprit was a girl who could have solved a good part of my problems. But love? No way~
Right?