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The crowd thinned and I began to see evidence of carnage on the walls. Smears of fresh blood and handprints on white tile. And then Kelsey let out a yelp as we came across two massacred bodies at the end of the hall.

“Oh my God!” Kelsey ran towards them, and then screamed when she saw their faces, a mixture of rage and fear. “It’s Thomas and Ruben.”

I didn’t know them well enough to feel the pain she did, but it ignited the Frenzied Flame in her soul. But beyond the rage and hate I could sense something else.

A deep dread and fear.

“I still haven’t seen my mom yet,” she said.

She looked at me with shaky eyes and I reassured her with a nod of [Struggler’s Resolve]. “Your mom is built of the same stuff you are, Kelsey. She’ll be okay. We just need to find her. Come on.”

We reached the top of the stairwell leading to level four and found Jim and a small squad of soldiers laying suppressive fire into a horde of screeching demons writhing below.

“Down here!” he shouted to us as we drew near.

The creatures fighting to get up the stairs, clawing at one another just as much as the soldiers keeping them pinned down.

“Jim, have you seen my mom?” Kelsey said with desperation in her voice.

“No,” he said, and then perhaps sensing her fear he added, “She’s probably with the squad that’s pinned down in the northern quadrant. We can’t get through to them from here. These demons don’t seem to be able to get past the top of these stairs, but we can’t get through them either.”

“Must be the barrier,” I said, looking upwards instinctively. “This must be as far as it can penetrate through the ground.”

“Good to know, but a bad way to find out,” Jim said. “We need you to get through to that squad, Max.”

“Say less,” I said brandishing my axe.

“I’m coming too,” Kelsey said, brandishing her own.

I paused a minute and was about to give her a spiel about the danger she was entering, but she’d seen these things tear me apart every night for nearly a week. She knew what she was getting into, and no way was a Berserker going to back down from a challenge to save her mom.

“Stay close,” I said.

I leapt down into the stairwell with a scream, swinging wide with my axe techniques.

Blood and offal flowed as I hacked half a dozen of them at a time, their numbers too dense to allow anything less. My [Bloodlust] kicked in with the fresh kills and I used the extra Frenzy to drive deeper into the pack.

They seemed stronger than normal, but nowhere near as strong as being under the full influence of the Bloodmoon. The penetration of both the sword’s effect and the moon had to be about the same, and that was just fine with me.

It meant the deeper I went the weaker they got.

I was about to harden my body with [Iron Skin] but then stopped myself to go the extra mile of feeding solid Frenzy through the meridian sequence for [Steel Skin]. I’d never used the technique in true combat before and my body grew taut as the sudden flow of Frenzy turned my skin into an impenetrable armor. Suddenly the claws and fangs raking against my skin became a rough massage at best.

A new sense of invulnerability filled me as I let out a cackle.

“Too weak!” I cried. “All of you!”

I cut a bloody path through the swarming demons and glanced back to see Kelsey putting a finishing blow on a demon who had already lost an arm and half a leg. Her Frenzy was spiking like crazy, her Flame flaring at full strength as the demons evoked the spiritual root of her Dao.

I did my best to keep an eye on her as we pressed through the corridors and above the wail of the demons, I heard the popcorn sound of sporadic gunfire in the distance.

“This way!” I shouted to Kelsey as I pressed through.

I entered the confines of one of the dormitory blocks and went all out, laying to waste the demons with a fervor. Kelsey suddenly appeared at my side hacking through them with an intensity that matched my own. Her clothes and face were covered in blood, and I couldn’t tell if it was hers or not, or even if it mattered anymore.

The sounds of gunfire grew louder as we cleared the room and suddenly we found ourselves in an open space, surrounded by twitching demon corpses.

“Mom!” Kelsey shouted. scanning about.

She finally ran towards a far corner of the room where several desks and overturned beds had been used to make a makeshift barricade. With a single hand, Kelsey tossed one of the steel desks aside as if it were made of plastic, revealing four soldiers along with what had to be a dozen civilians cowering in terror beneath.

“Mom!” Kelsey cried again, pushing through the crowd. “Where’s my mom?!”

Susan suddenly emerged from the group and rushed to embrace her daughter.

“Kelsey!” she cried and then suddenly pulled back from her in a panic, realizing Kelsey was covered in blood. “My God! Kelsey!”

“It’s okay,” she said. “I’m not hurt… much anyway. Are you okay?”

Susan didn’t respond to the question but instead looked right at me. “We need to get out of here. Those things are coming right through the wall!”

“Where?” I said.

“Next floor down,” someone said weakly, and when I looked, I saw it was Captain Flores. She lay on the ground clutching her stomach while hissing in pain, a claw wound to the gut it looked like.

“We need to get her out of here and to the infirmary,” Susan said.

“No,” Flores said, standing painfully to her feet. “I need to make sure that damn portal is destroyed.”

“Portal?” I said.

“I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s like the gate we saw back at the other base, but smaller.”

“Take me to it,” I said.

“In a minute,” she said, leaning over at the waist. “Is the way you came clear?”

“Mostly,” Kelsey said.

Flores then turned to her men. “Williams, take command and get these civilians to the surface ASAP.”

The man Williams paused for a moment, almost as if he were about to protest for Flores to leave instead. But he quickly nodded. “Yes, captain. Follow me, people. Move quickly!”

I looked to Kelsey before she could even ask. “You go with them. They may need you. I’ll shut this portal down with Flores.”

She hesitated for a second and I could sense her Flame still blazing, but then she nodded. “Bring her back in one piece, Max.”

Kelsey joined the soldiers at the front, cleaving through a stray demon as they exited the room.

I looked back to Flores and helped steady her, securing her arm around my waist. “Where is this portal?”

“Next floor down in the ventilation room.”

“You can just tell me where it is, you know?” I said, looking down at her. She didn’t look good. “I can get there on my own.”

“What?” Flores said, cracking a weak smile. “And let you take all the glory? No way. Plus, it’s not as easy to get to as you think. And I need to confirm something for myself as well. Come on.”

She began guiding me through the complex and I quickly understood why she couldn’t have simply directed me there. We exited the main corridor and then entered a hatch that led into a dimly lit crawl space that I could barely fit into. I put her on my back as we descended down several sets of rusty ladders and then landed on a grated platform some thirty feet below.

“That way,” she said and pointed down one of the three gangways connected to the platform.

I sensed movement up ahead and slid Flores slowly from my back. “Wait here a sec.”

I rushed forward with a burst of Frenzy, taking the handful of demons by surprise. I cleaved through two of them with a single axe swing and then followed through with another flurry of axe techniques taking down the other three before they could even make a sound.

As the bodies fell, I used the opportunity to cultivate the Frenzy triggered by my [Bloodlust]. Fresh lemonade came from behind.

“Damn it, Max,” Flores wheezed as she limped beside me. “You are downright scary at times. I’m glad you’re on our side.”

“You hanging in there?” I asked, looking at her wound. She was bleeding badly and looking pale. Whatever we had to do we had to get it done quickly.

“I’ve had worse,” she said, maintaining her composure. “It’s right over here, I think.”

We went a little further and then stopped at a dinnerplate-sized hole in the concrete wall.

“Just as I figured,” she said, pointing to it. “That’s how the bastards got in.”

I looked at the hole. It was smooth on the inside, like a pipe or conduit. But it didn’t make sense though.

“All of those demons fit through that tiny thing?” I said. “I thought you said there was a portal or something.”

“There is,” Flores said. “But the demons that constructed it came through that vent, I think. It’s the only other place connecting us to the communications tunnel that leads to the second base. When I saw where the portal was, I figured one or two of them must have wormed their way up through this vent to get in here.”

I immediately thought of I’xol’ukz. The monster had indeed been formulating a different plan. Although, I still could hardly fathom how one of those demons could even fit through that vent.

Unless they were children, I thought.

The idea of children being turned by the Bloodmoon was even more disturbing. I shook the image from my mind.

“You sure this is the only access left?” I asked.

“As far as I know,” Flores said, hissing between clenched teeth as she clutched her side.

I readied my axe and then laid into the concrete wall with a [Three Log Chop], collapsing the ventilation duct.

“Where’s this portal?”

“Other side of the access hatch to level five.” She jerked her head in the direction. “But be careful. The corridor is bound to be swarming with them.”

“Don’t worry,” I said, choking up on my axe. “I don’t plan to show any mercy.”

“Good. Because if any of them are left alive, they can probably make another portal again.”

She didn’t have to tell me twice. I was about to push off when she stopped me again.

“Wait, Max,” she said weakly, grabbing my wrist. “There’s one more thing. Don’t look into it. I only glimpsed it from the side and it felt like I was losing my mind. Whatever it is, it’s the same as what turned Harris’ guys crazy. You have to destroy it. Promise me that.”

“Consider it done, captain.” I gave her a nod. “Be right back.”

I scouted off in the direction she had indicated, bolstering myself with [Steel Skin] and charging my axe with lightning. Without Kelsey to worry about, I could finally go all out with my lightning techniques. I found the hatchway and kicked it open with an almighty yell.

“[Wrath of a Thousand Slain Souls!]”

I dove into the sea of unsuspecting demons and unleashed the rage deep in my soul. Limbs and heads went flying as I mowed through them like fodder, lightning crackling and booming. By the ease of my destruction, I knew then that I had to have achieved Stage X in my Body Refinement. After weeks of training, battling both Bloodmoon-influenced demons at night and giant monsters by the day, I had achieved a new peak of performance in reflexes, strength, and toughness.

The thought bolstered my confidence, and I charged through with abandon, clearing the corridor of the hundreds of demons thronging within.

And then suddenly I felt it.

Dark Frenzy.

It was weak at first, but as I pushed on the sensation became stronger.

The strength grew exponentially, doubling after moving forward just a few feet.

Was something coming?

And then I saw it.

There at the far end of the corridor was a man-sized object shaped like an inverted triangle. It was plastered to the wall and as the demons passed from in front of it, I could feel a huge burst of Dark Frenzy streaming from it, powerful as the Bloodmoon itself.

I winced as the dark energy touched my Flame, causing it to smoke.

I realized I was halfway down the corridor now, halfway to destroying whatever that thing was. I looked away from it, remembering what Flores had said as well as a passage from the Shura.

“We sayeth thus again—only glimpse and stare not into void of the unknown, for terrors that can break even the minds of Soul Emperors, within the void doth freely roam.”

I took the advice to heart and kept my eyes from staring directly at it.

Out of the corner of my vision, I saw a dozen more demons crawl from out of the object, but I dared not peer into it to see from where they came.

But where had they come from? I wondered.

Was it a connection to the tunnel behind the collapsed basement?

To the second base?

Or even the moon itself?

My curiosity dared me to look, the Demon craving more Insight into the unknown, but I tempered myself with the [Struggler’s Resolve], pulling back.

“No,” I said.

It was more than just my own knowledge and advancement I was questing for now.

This thing needed to be destroyed to protect my people.

And the longer I stood here glimpsing it, the longer it would have to corrupt my soul and turn me into a demon forever.

And who knew what kind of damage I could do then.

Then a new thought occurred.

Was this a trap?

A trap constructed by I’xol’ukz to lure me down here and claim my soul?

The thought both terrified and infuriate me.

No way was that monster playing me for a patsy.

“Back to the nine hells with all of you!”

I charged forward with a new sense of Frenzy and resolve.

The darkness pierced me the closer I got, the world starting to tunnel, but I pressed on.

My experience facing the Bloodmoon every night kicked in. I could survive for more than two minutes now before succumbing to the moon’s influence, according to Kelsey anyway. But I didn’t have her Flame to guide me back to sanity either.

I needed to destroy this thing before it took over and I lost control for good.

I pressed on through the thinning mass of demons, lightning and blood flying.

My Flame spewed thick black smoke and I tried to engage the [Soul Shield] technique to protect it. Somehow, just like with trying to use the [Brand of the Frenzied Flame] technique to etch the orb, I encountered that same locked door within my mind.

No way to defend against it, I thought.

It was do or die time.

I needed to reach that portal and destroy it before it destroyed me!

I broke into a sprint, pushing aside the demons in my path.

It was counterproductive, the Dark Frenzy streaming from the portal becoming stronger the closer I got to it. I glimpsed a corner of the triangle and saw hordes of writhing demons there, the scene stretching into infinity.

I nearly became mesmerized by it, my vision shrinking.

In the darkness, at the corners of my vision, I sensed the monster itself.

I’xol’ukz, the King of the Moon.

~Predictable Flame. Come hither into mine embrace.~

Its tentacles flared around me and I realized then that the whole thing had indeed been an elaborate trap. It was crushing me between two sources of influence. The moon from above and the portal from below.

To hell with it, I thought.

It thought it had won but I wouldn’t allow it.

I dug deep with [Struggler’s Resolve], thinking of everyone still counting on me.

Kelsey and her mother.

The people back home.

Captain Flores who was slowly dying, waiting for me to destroy this thing and bring her back to the surface.

With iron will, I forced my mind and spirit to fight back, the Struggler grabbing the edges of my vision and pulling it back into focus. I regained full control, just feet from the demonic portal now. I stared into for a second, and instantly couldn’t comprehend what I saw.

I ignored it with [Indifference], focusing upon the outer structure of the portal itself. It was a gruesome construct made of sinew and bone, pulsating with a life of its own. I roared as I cleaved into it with a lightning-charged [Three Log Chop].

“Go back to hell!”

My axe blade hit and with a sound like thunder, a bomb of dark energy went off.

Wha-boom!

The portal collapsed and exploded all at once, the Dark Frenzy momentarily snuffing out my Flame. I blacked out for a second and then found myself on the ground. My head hurt like a steamroller had run over it and my body felt even worse. Internally I saw my Flame was still intact though, albeit slightly tainted and red.

I stood and looked at the remnants of the portal. It was shattered to pieces along with every demon within a thirty-foot radius. The Dark Frenzy was gone with it, as was the influence of I’xol’ukz.

The King of the Moon, I scoffed inwardly.

I’d let its monstrous appearance deceive me for far too long.

This was no awakened spirit beast.

It was a dark god from beyond the stars, capable of calculating strategy and ruthless vengeance and I needed to understand as much as possible about it to defeat it.

No, not it, I reminded myself.

Him.

I tried to recall what I had seen when I looked into that portal, but for some reason my mind drew a blank. It instead led me back to another portion of the same Shura.

“For the eyes of mortals are shielded with the merciful veil of ignorance. To peel back this veil is to embark upon a path of both enlightenment and folly, for to see the unseen is to glimpse infinity.”

The veil of ignorance was not yet ready to peel itself back to reveal what it was that I had seen apparently. Yet more mysteries to unlock. I needed knowledge as well as power to traverse the spiritual realm.

I tucked the lingering thought away and made my way back to Flores. I kept an eye out for stray demons as I went, chasing down and killing a couple of them to ensure the entire facility was cleared.

By the time I got back to Flores, my Flame had nearly recovered, but a new sense of dread filled me when I called Flores’ name and heard no response.

“Flores!” I shouted again as I stepped through the hatchway.

I saw her slumped against an I-beam, but when I ran to her, my heart sank.

Her mouth was ajar, her eyes glassy and fixed.

Captain Flores was gone.

* * *

Taking her body back to the surface, I somberly placed Flores along with the five other residents who had sadly lost their lives in the attack. An hour of confusion passed as the community pulled itself together from the trauma. Jim led the way, first securing the facility below before turning attention to the survivors on top.

Even though the facility was secured, there was no way in hell anyone felt safe enough to return to the bunker right now. Jim’s men and I went to work building makeshift shelters instead, expanding on the tent already constructed within the courtyard. By the time we were done, it looked a bit like the tent city back home.

Eventually we all gathered before a bonfire, the six freshly dug graves, including that of Captain Flores, laid out before us. One of the community members was a chaplain and a short ceremony was held to honor them and whisk their spirits into the afterlife.

With as much as I knew now, I wondered even more just where they would eventually go.

Jim said a few words to offer comfort and encouragement and when it came time to honor Captain Flores, I finally took to the front of the crowd to say a few words as well.

“Captain Flores was the true hero tonight,” I said. “She was mortally wounded, and knew it. But instead of retreating to save herself, she made sure I knew exactly where to go to eliminate the threat for good. Thanks to her sacrifice, what happened tonight can never happen again.”

As the community said their goodbye and paid their respects, I could sense [Everyone’s Anguish and Pain]. Kelsey came and stood by me and while there was pain coming from her as well, the overwhelming emotion I sensed was rage.

“Those demons will pay for this,” she said, her Flame roaring. “When I get strong like you, I’m going to kill every last one of them.” She then looked to the night sky. “Even if I have to go to the damn moon to do it.”

She flawlessly executed [Struggler’s Resolve] before me, without reading a single text on how to do it. Once again, it was proof that the manual was but a guide. Her Flame was already leading her along her own path.

And I was honor bound to help her along the way.

“You will one day,” I said. “I believe it. And I’m going to make sure you’re strong enough to do it too.”

But for that I needed to grow in strength as well.

The messages from the Flame guiding my own path were clear. I’d learned as much as I could in the wild. Now it was time to seek further knowledge from back home. Knowledge that could only come from a scholar. Knowledge to unravel the mysteries Captain Flores had given her life to share with me before she passed on.

I rested my hand on Kelsey’s shoulder and gave her my own pledge of [Struggler’s Resolve].

“The next time I return from the city… you will have your orb, Kelsey. And when you’re strong enough, we’ll hunt down the dark god responsible for this…together.”