Savage Webs, page 28
part #2 of Apocalypse Cultivation Series
“Holy shit, fuck this,” he whispered. There was a limit for everything, and Jake had just met his. The thing hadn’t just been stealing his life energy; it’d felt like it’d been damaging his soul. Maybe it had.
Jake began stumbling back toward the exit. Mistakes were made, he thought. Abort, abort. Game over, man, game over!
His mental state deteriorated quickly now; his focus had been shaken. Everything started sliding sideways and the pit of his stomach fell out. The death energy he’d just consumed was like an uncomfortable weight in his stomach too, like the sensation of eating something really dense and maybe a little off back when he’d been human.
Jake knew he was in trouble when he actually stumbled over a stone in the road. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d tripped over something like that. Did cultivators trip? This one did. Jake knew his thoughts were flying apart, but he was having hard time holding on to them. If he spun his cultivation base to try steadying himself, it actually made the problem worse.
The Dead City loomed around him now; oppressive, terrifying. Whispers were louder in his head. The extremely dim, ambient light, something of a comfort before, now seemed to beat like a heart. This effect was disturbing enough to begin with, but the frequency of the heartbeats was speeding up.
Things moved in the deep shadows. Jake could feel eyes on him, could feel the edges of thoughts from things sleeping in the surrounding buildings. Coming here was a mistake, thought Jake. He was too weak for this. In the Dead City, Jake was food. Now he knew that fact down to his bones. If he hadn’t been a monster who could somehow process energy that should be pure poison, he’d already be dead. Or worse.
As he moved down the middle of the street, trying with varying success to walk without showing his fear and lack of balance, he saw something that filled him with a different sort of fear so powerful, it temporarily washed away everything else he was feeling.
He’d spotted a little boy up ahead on the street, standing near the sidewalk. The streets looked super wide with no cars on them, and the boy seemed even smaller because of it. Alone, scared, helpless. Panic gripped Jake.
"Little boy, are you lost?" he hissed. "This is a place for the dead! You shouldn’t be here. We need to go! Right now!"
"Where are my parents?" asked the boy. He held out his hand. "Will you lead me?"
The world spun. "Yes," said Jake. His heart was full of resolution and he took the hand by reflex. Immediately, a feeling of death and inevitability ran up his arm. His heart and chi stopped. He suddenly noticed the emptiness in the boy’s eyes for the first time, but it was too late. The boy’s eyes quickly filled in with darkness, showing nothing but holes into nothingness. Jake had just stumbled upon one of the most powerful, feared denizens of the Dead City: a revenant.
Even though there was no wind in the city, it seemed a small breeze blew an ancient piece of paper nearby. The whispers in the back of Jake’s mind were laughing now. His vision almost doubled and time seemed to stand still. Jake’s cultivation base trembled, coming dangerously close to a dangerous deviation before slowing to a stop.
The ambient light seemed to darken.
"Where do we go, mister?" said the revenant. Control of Jake’s body was gone. He couldn't move a muscle. The spirit held Jake’s soul in his little hand. However, through this bond, he also felt a glimmer of something besides hate and hunter. Sadness. Longing for the light. Deep pain over a betrayal. The boy just wanted to escape and to stop hurting. But Jake knew the truth–there was no way for the revenant to stop hurting, and all the pain and misery it could bring on others would all be for nothing.
It was a struggle fighting through the fog over his brain, but Jake managed to say, “I am sorry. You must stay here. I cannot help you."
“You lied, then!"
"No, I was mistaken. Please accept my apology." Jake tried to push, to convey his sincerity through the bond that had him in a supernatural chokehold.
The spirit's mouth opened far too wide, showing sharp, black teeth, and Jake felt the fear of impending soul death, but his conscience was clear. Trickery would have won me nothing, so I have been honest.
Suddenly, the bond moved again and Jake felt something powerful, angry, and…unstable invade his soulspace. It was perhaps the most violating thing he’d ever experienced in his life. The revenant moved to Jake’s mind and savagely ripped open his memories, searching for…something. The search grew faster, almost more frantic. Instead of fighting, Jake opened himself more. This entity had been strong enough to blast right through his protection and had him completely helpless. There was no point in resisting at this point. All he could do was try to communicate without words that he’d meant no harm, had been confused by the Dead City, and had just seen a child that needed help.
The boy-spirit slowly leaned forward, as if to devour Jake, but suddenly his features reverted back to human and he started to cry. "You are scary-looking, but you are a nice mister. Thank you for trying, and thank you for being honest, mister. Thank you for helping other children…not become like me." The revenant sobbed and met Jake’s eyes, searching for something new. This time, he seemed to find it and nodded. With that, he released control over Jake’s body and soul, and ran away. He was gone from sight in seconds.
Jake’s shivering was so strong, his teeth clattered. He blinked, not entirely sure what had just happened. The only thing that was certain of was that he’d just gotten incredibly lucky. Ultimately, he could only assume that the revenant was a brand new spirit, and had not yet been consumed with the anger and spite of his kind, the living dead.
He tried to resist it, but he couldn’t help the cold overtaking his body. His hands were clawed, his muscles spasmed. What he’d just been through had been traumatic at every level he could feel pain. Even his cultivation base shuddered.
Jake fell over onto the ancient cracked San Antonio street and lost consciousness.
Chapter 36
Jake woke up and nothing around him had really changed, which was surprising. He really should have died while he was defenseless on the ground.
The Dead City was cold, uninviting, dangerous, alien…but he was still alive to be oppressed by it. His soul was still intact too. A little bruised and wounded, but still there.
He got up slowly, painfully, and began cycling his cultivation base. That action was calming, but also hurt like hell. His body, mind, and spirit were damaged. He only had a few moments of complete lucidity before the whispers and confusion began again. In that time, he did some quick thinking.
Jake really needed to achieve a Reforged Body, but it was probably more important that he escape. The two issues were both pressing, but he decided that discretion was the better part of … he lost his train of thought. Escape. Yes.
Then he stumbled forward, moving forward steadily to return to the portal.
And even through his muddled thoughts, he finally realized he was completely, hopelessly lost.
Jake sat down for a minute, putting his hands on his head. Panic had been welling up, but fear was a mind killer. He rubbed his thumbs on his horns, trying to think. Cycling his cultivation base still didn’t help and even trying to do so was hurting worse than before.
He didn’t recognize the street he was on. The street sign had long since fallen down or been pulled off, and even if it hadn’t, he probably wouldn’t recognize it. He was in some sort or residential area and he was having a hard time finding any landmarks that he recognized.
Several ideas came to mind, and the most straightforward was to climb up a building to get his bearings. He could feel it was a bad idea, but it wasn’t until he remembered the giant death machines on the highway that he thought of some reasons why. There was a reason he’d been keeping to the middle of the road too. So far, he’d been ripped to shreds internally and had to basically eat pure, distilled death energy just to stay alive, and that was after running into two locals. What would happen if more woke up? What if all of them did?
He shivered. If Jake was forced to honestly assess himself, he’d reluctantly have to admit that he could be brave. But the Dead City was a different kind of danger than he’d ever faced before. Walking was difficult, even thinking was difficult, and he could absolutely wind up worse than dead. How could he even make brave or cowardly decisions if he couldn’t trust his own mind? Even his senses were starting to go bad on him. He was hearing things, seeing things, even feeling things. Gooseflesh covered his back as he felt two fingers caress his arms before disappearing.
This had been a bad idea. Fucking Slim, he thought. He immediately felt guilty for that thought, though. Slim had tried to warn him.
The low light of the Dead City was definitely starting to grow dimmer. Jake reasoned that maybe as night fell outside in the Murim world, the Dead City had “night” too. That was probably bad. No, it was definitely bad. He really needed to leave.
Thinking was getting harder. His mind felt like he was floating, and he could feel himself slipping into a fuzzy haze, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Whenever he felt himself growing frustrated or scared, he tried to center himself. Negative emotions would likely just make things work.
Jake turned a corner and blinked in astonishment, then confusion, then dread. Up ahead, standing in the middle of the road, was a woman wearing a red dress. She had to be a spirit, but Jake wasn’t sure anymore if that was a good thing or a bad thing. The woman had dark hair and her dress was decorated with white embroidered birds.
She drifted closer and Jake was guarded at first. He almost reached for something. A weapon? He thought he should have a saber, but maybe not. The claws on his hands were a comfort as the spirit woman got close enough to talk conversationally.
Up close, the spirit was definitely a ghost. Probably a strong one. She’s pretty, he thought. Yes, the ghost had to be powerful. She seemed as solid as a real person. Only someone paying close attention would notice any wispiness or anything unnatural at all..
Jake felt a wave of goodwill. She was not attacking and instead held her empty hands out to her sides in a gesture of peace. Maybe this spirit wasn’t so bad. She smiled and said, "Traveler, be careful to keep your charm, your protection, or the dead might eat you!"
Jake absently nodded and touched his Pendant of Insight. “Is that your charm?” she asked. He nodded again and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
A flash of something through his mind made him feel uneasy, but he dismissed it. He’d been feeling awful for so long, it was nice to have a break.
“There was the presence of a revenant nearby recently. You should be very careful, young man!”
He nodded. Revenant. That sounded bad. He felt like the word should mean more to him and even shivered but couldn’t place it. “Why aren’t you scared? I’m a monster,” mumbled Jake.
“No, I can sense your human soul.” The ghost woman smiled. “Are you not feeling well?”
Jake shook his head.
“Of course you aren’t! There are side effects with the type of protection charm you have!” She put her hands out as if to tell him, but stopped, like she couldn’t quite reach him. “What is your name?”
“Jake.”
“What about your full name?”
Alarm bells rang in the back of Jake’s mind, but everything was so fuzzy, so dull, he couldn’t quite focus on them. He answered, “Jacob Hessian Mazzariello.”
“I see. Okay, Jake, you probably feel heavy and confused, right?” Jake nodded. “Well, you’ve been here for too long, but maybe I can help. Do you need to find your way home? To return to the living world? You have a way?”
Jake had to think about the question for a while but nodded. His thoughts were so slow. So very slow.
The spirit smiled and her lovely eyes sparkled. Jake distantly noted that what he mistook as makeup before was just part of her face. Of course. Ghosts don’t wear makeup. He chuckled at himself.
“I can’t just let you go like this with a good conscience, Jake. I’m going to help you, okay? Your charm, the one around your neck, all you need to do is make sure it’s not touching your skin, okay? You have been wearing it for too long and the energy is mixing with the energy here, and slowly poisoning you. So you just need to take it off for a short moment, just to reset, and put it right back on.” She smiled helpfully.
That sounded good to Jake. Something was nagging at the back of his mind again, but by this point, he was so full of death energy that his energy was doing all it could just to fight it off from contaminating his dantian. He slowly reached down and put the pendant on top of the necklace that Lady Brima had given him, not only breaking contact with his skin but intentionally breaking contact with its effects too. The physical act had been symbolic to help facilitate terminating the connection.
He immediately felt a hand on his wrist, cold as liquid nitrogen but not so bad. The ghost was touching him.
Night deepened, and he became more confused. His thoughts slowed even further, and he began to hear the whispers of the dead more strongly, so loud his bones vibrated. The spirit in the red dress was at his side, speaking softly. Her words were nice. They were like water on a dusty ground. All of Jake’s worries and stress were gone. He felt like he should be doing something, but if it were important enough, he’d remember, right?
The ghost gave him instructions, and he followed them, cutting his finger and feeding her a drop of his blood. It felt like the ground was moving. His consciousness felt like it was starting to float away.
Suddenly, the ghost screamed and fell back, her hair writhing and her skull visible through her skin, like she'd been struck by lightning. "What did you do!" she shrieked.
Clarity hit Jake like a cube of ice thrown into hot oil. He blinked once, disoriented, but then stared coldly at the twisting spirit. Several facts had come smashing down on Jake’s mind all at once and he got himself up to speed in record time. "You tried to steal my soul," he stated as fact. “Not eat it, not kill me; you were trying to…own me. Forever.” The words felt true logically but also spiritually. Jake’s skin crawled, but he stood firm, dealing with the situation, processing everything that had just happened to him, and figuring out what was going on now. He could deal with all of this later, if there was a later. If the ghost attacked in his current weakened state, he wasn’t sure he could fend her off, especially not without drawing his saber.
Now that his mind was working properly again, he could assume that the boy revenant had scared off all the other dead for a while, similar to smaller fish fleeing a great white shark. This ghost must have been one of the most powerful spirits in the area to be the first to find Jake afterwards.
"There is no way I should have failed!" wailed the spirit. "The only way to avoid being possessed without the protection of a charm touching the skin is to have already been possessed within a day, but that is not impossible! You would no longer have your soul! It’s there! I felt it!"
Jake briefly thought about the revenant that had metaphorically chewed on everything that made Jake, Jake, before spitting it all out. It had been the most painful, violating experience of his life so far, but in this moment, he felt lucky. This ghost had likely intended far worse. "What happened, spirit?" he demanded. “How am I not your slave right now?”
"My possession technique reversed." Her hate-filled eyes bored into him from the ground, but they had no power anymore.
Nothing Jake had ever dealt with as a cultivator could have prepared him for this situation, but luckily, his mage training could help fill the holes. "So now I own you as thoroughly as you were trying to own me?"
"...Yes."
He eyed the evil creature before him. “And now you must answer me honestly too, right? You already had that built into what you were trying to do to me?" He could feel threads binding him to the vile thing before him. The spell she’d tried to cast had almost perfectly rebounded and reversed. Jake wasn’t sure about the Murim world, but it was rare for mages to experience anything like it back on Earth. In fact, it almost never happened. In this case, the spell had probably reflected instead of dissipating or exploding because the bindings had already grown so strong before it was actually attempted.
"Yes." The spirit bared her teeth at him. All past attempts of seductive behavior had been abandoned, but now that she was powerless, Jake wasn’t fazed. The surrounding city was still a huge danger, though.
“What else did you have baked into what you tried to do to me?”
“General loyalty and goodwill. No rude speech or actions without pain.”
Thorough, thought Jake. If his feelings toward the ghost had been cold before, now they were freezing. He needed more information, though. “Why can I think so well right now? Why is the death energy not affecting me anymore?”
“This bond connects us, offering protection for you,” grated the spirit.
“Why?”
“Because if you had died too quickly, my effort to enslave you would have been wasted.”
Jake narrowed his eyes. Rage from what the ghost had tried to do with him was postponed for more pressing concerns. "Do you know where the portal is that I came here through?"
"No."
That’s interesting, thought Jake. Maybe it’s hidden from the dead. For the first time, Jake looked around and noticed he was in an alley. He didn’t remember how he got here or what direction they’d come from. His instincts were telling him that he was in great danger.
Suddenly, another thought occurred to Jake, another way to further tighten the binds on his malevolent would-be captor. "Spirit, what is your name?"
"In death, I am known as Corner Spider."
"What were you known as in life?"
"I do not know."
