Storms Of Ataraxy

"This is fucking ridiculous. How is this allowed to even be a thing?!" I protested angrily aloud, Cassi and Lonni trying desperately to avoid eye contact. For the last 10 minutes, a synopsis of some of my most traumatic childhood memories got out on display like a fucking experimental POV film from the 2010's, only with a demonic homicidal twist on everything. And the family?! What the actual fuck was that all about, I don't know anyone named Cere?!

"Damn, Tom. If it hadn't prepared you for this integration nearly perfectly, I'd almost feel sorry for that fucked up childhood." Derrick snickered, still sitting in the corner of the room. His halberd's rune was now radiating a powerful violet glow, hovering over his blade without him even looking at it. I laughed, realizing he might have a point. 

"Alright, maybe it did a little. All the same, I'm not really comfortable with this event effectively leaking my life, considering the entire multiverse is going to see this shit." I replied, pacing over toward Derrick to join him. Cassi and Lonni remained silent, no doubt feeling quite awkward with having seen what they had. It also wasn't really worth explaining to them it wasn't that bad, that the system certainly spruced it up to make it more dire. Because, quite honestly, I got pretty used to that shit back then. I wasn't getting my arm snapped every Tuesday, but getting my ass beat was always a bi-weekly event at minimum. Didn't mean I never got my licks in too, though. 

"Hey, it could be worse." Derrick said, as I began sitting down in my meditation spot. 

"Oh yeah? Worse than my friend experiencing my childhood trauma literally first-hand? How do you figure?" I asked, letting out a big sigh as I sat down. 

"You could be some boring ass dude who got married, had kids, and ditched them to drive down a mountain with your boy." He replied with a shrug. 

"…actually that's pretty fair…hmph." I replied with a shrug, before swaying slowly to generate flow from my hips to the top of my head. I quickly slipped into Flow Meditation, in fact quicker than I was used to. A great calm washed over my mind as I allowed my thoughts to surface naturally, rather than sift through them like a feral trash-panda. It'd been a while since I let my spirit have a recharge this way, and it usually yielded great insight on my current mindstate whenever I took the time to ground myself this way. Shit, I'm not sure I've grounded myself since the tournament, something Korbin would absolutely kill me for if he knew. Oh well, hopefully it never comes up. 

 After three, deep slowly drawn breaths, my heart slowed as my mind slowly unwound. The blood rushing through my head was all I could hear between my ears. Silence, as I entered my personal place of calm; the beach. Not just any beach, one I created in my own head nearly a year ago, when I truly needed somewhere within to calm my ass down in a pinch. The sun glistened off the waves slowly swelling as it approached the shore, arching over itself in a beautiful barrel-shape symphony. The sound of voluminous salt water crashing in on itself made the hairs on the back of my neck dance, as glee poured through every crevice of my mind. 

Now, now I can think. First things first, let's play with this Ripple Str-

 While processing my very first thoughts while sitting atop my sands of serenity, bathing in essentially my 'happy place', the familiar sensation of my twinblades clutched in my palms shifted my attention downward. Both weapons shimmered, one emitting a massive spiraling unstable arc of lightning mana that crackled, instantly glassing the sections of sand on the beach its bolts shot through. The feeling of a thousand tiny rocks and glass shards collapsing around my sinking body instantly jolted me into a panic, attempting to Ripple Stride out of the quicksand to no avail. The gleaming sunlight beading down was almost immediately covered in darkness as I slipped deep into the sands, until finally entering a free fall somewhere beneath the earth itself. 

Uhhh, okay, just wake up Tom. Open. Your. Eyes. 

 I felt my eyelids squeeze shut and flutter open multiple times, yet each time the scene was the same; a lightless abyss accompanied by wind whizzing in my ears. 

Wait…isn't falling through floors how K-

*THUD*

…fuck. 

——————————————————————

 "Korbin? The council is ready to see you." The guard said, poking his helmeted head around the doorframe. 

"Thank you, and I'm sorry but I don't believe I caught your name?" I replied, standing up from the bed. 

"Ehtani, sir." The guard replied, swinging the door open and standing at attention beside it. 

"It's a pleasure, Ehtani. Please." I said, gesturing toward the hallway, alit by dozens of glowing multicolored glass orbs that hovered near the ceiling. Ehtani nodded before leading me down the southern corridor. The glimmering limestone walls are decorated with massive portraits, each depicting vastly different scenarios. One in particular displaying what appears to be a civil war, only to scale equivalent to two small countries duking it on in a futuristic metropolitan. Winged beasts, the likes of which I've never seen yet recognize as native to Planet Apouti by the very particular green hue each beasts skin glowed with. Another painting depicted the Council's inception, 12 individual rulers from across the globe banding together with one goal in mind; peace, without removing the freedom of violence. 

"How long have you been stationed at the capital, Ehtani?" I asked as we strolled around the corner into the mana lift. Ehtani placed his hand onto the console, glowing with strobing blue energy as he fed his mana into the machine. In seconds, the floor underfoot whirred to life with heavy metallic clunks before its silent ascent. 

"A couple months now. Barely got out of training before they sent me here." He replied, his eyes wide with excitement in recalling his tenure here. Based on how I didn't recall asking about his training, I figured he felt like sharing. 

"Really? That feels pretty fast, though it's been months since I've last visited. Integrating and managing so many military protocols have begun blending them in my memory." I replied, wearing far more interest than I felt. Still, it passed the time while we rose several hundred floors up the blue dimly lit mana lift shaft. 

"I was the top of my class, sir. Especially in combatives, namely unarmed combat if we're splitting hairs." Ehtani replied with a chuckle, coolly shrugging as if he didn't carry the tone of a giddy son recalling his spaghetti art at dinner while recalling beating the shit out of his own allies. 

"Very nice, and how many other recruits did you mercile-Uhp! Looks like this is our floor." I said, as the mana lift loudly clicked into place at the top floor. A door with the number atop its metallic truss labeled '639' hummed a dim red glow. 

*ding*

 The door split into, quietly sliding across the cold metal floor revealing a massive hall. The ceiling looked hundreds of feet overhead, the massive hollow room resembling an auditorium that forgot to promote their concerts. Stained glass filled the walls, allowing the light from both of Apouti's suns to beam through from either side of the structure. At the center of the grandiose hall sat the council, hovering atop half spherical chairs forming a large circle. 

"The council is waiting, Sir Erickson." Ehtani said, stopping in his tracks and stepping aside for me to continue. 

"Just call me Korbin, and thank you for your hospitality, Ehtani." I replied. After trading bows, I strolled past the boastfully friendly guard and onto the platform the council surrounded. 

"Hello, my friends. It's been some time." I said, peering up at each member of the council. Their leader, the 6 limbed semi-amphibious warrior I fought alongside in order to unite the planet less than a year ago. The Psuaveridian bore bright green scales, his piercing red slitted eyes squinting as he smiled upon spotting me. 

"Ahh, Korbin! What do we have the pleasure of hosting Earth's most charismatic warrior?" He asked through his gurgling voice, the water tanks he had linked to his glistening green armor that fit tight to his scaly skin. 

"Oh nothing in particular. One of our settlements had a bit of a demon infestation unfortunately, forcing us to expend the majority of the artillery you so kindly export to us every month. I fear Brigid is growing audacious, and was hoping I could bother you for an early restock order to be placed?" I asked, returning my old friends' grin in kind. 

"I do not recall funding your tenuous planetary sovereignty being part of our deal." Shilev sneered, glaring down at me with those big, bulbous white eyes. A human by birth, Shilev was raised by a Psuaveridian family. Namely Gydrian, the very leader of this council. She had an affinity for a very particular form of perception, in that she had a knack for spotting what she calls your 'aura'. Essentially the mana forms our bodies passively released as we use fractions of the resources to just exist. She judged people off this invisible cloud, metricized by colors she solely passed judgement over. Needless to say, she was a deeply untrusting individual, and I can't say I blame her. 

After all, she was the first one I convinced to sign the contract. 

"Relax, sister. Without Korbin and his elite task force, we wouldn't be enjoying the expeditious prosperity our people have only now finally begun to reap." Gydrian snapped, shooting a disapproving glare at his adopted sister. 

"Why should we give away our artillery for nothing?! Regardless of what he's done for our people, have you no sense of self preservation?" Shilev shot back, sitting up high in her comfy hovering loveseat. 

"Dear Shilev, we have no need for such weaponry any longer. You know as well as I that our planet rests at the edge of our galaxy, comfortably behind several colossal void pockets. Unless a small transport, or a god, decides to invade, I see little reason for your paranoia. Respectfully." Krielios added, the elderly Psuaveridian councilman added, hovering beside Shilev. The human's piercing white eyes fell at her lap, her furrowed brow slowly relaxing as we sat in the brief silence. 

"..if I may, I hold little resentment toward providing a form of compensation. Our worlds have cooperated before, and clearly to great success, I have no issue continuing nurturing that relationship to my best abilities." I spoke up, glancing briefly among each member before locking eyes with Shilev.

"You reek of the same vile demons that once held our nation divided. That stench appears to have only grown more fowl since your absence, you understand my hesitation don't you?" She replied, almost pleadingly with the disapproving stares of her fellow council members beaming into her skull. 

"Of course I do. Which is why I ask for further opportunities to prove my intentions." I replied, bowing my head slightly and hiding the smirk I fought to hold back. 

"No, Korbin, this meeting was not made to question your loyalty. Regardless of Shilev's protests, this council will take a vote. All in favor of providing Korbin and his people further means of defending themselves from tyranny as they had us?" Gydrian thunderously proposed, his voice bubbling under the water filtration system whirring in the back of his neck. 

"Here-here!"

"Here-here!"

"Here-here!"

"Here-here!"

Almost in unison, every member raised their hands high proclaiming their votes. All, except Shilev, who merely with her face buried in her hands. 

"Then it's settled! I'll send for the General to commission another several dozen shipments of our finest artillery to be delivered to Elysium as soon as possible. While few may hold reservations, I wish to reassure you and your people that you have our support, just as you had ours." Gydrian announced, placing two of his 4 hands together and bowing in his hovering chair. The rest of the council quickly followed suit, even Shilev. 

"Thank you, this kindness will never go forgotten by the people of Elysium." I replied, returning a bow of my own. As I turned to leave their chambers however, a tinge of disgust surged through my chest. 

"Ugh, how naive. A council this large could never suffice in defending this planet's survival, let alone their integrity." That nagging fucking voice said, finally showing himself since…well, I'm not sure actually. 

"Please, big words for an offbrand subconscious that sounds more spiteful than a professional athlete's high school ex." I thought back, striding toward the exit. Ehtani stood by the door, nodding with a smile as I approached. 

"You know nothing of peace. The brutality it requires to maintain it, is the same as it would to test its strength. And this planet? Wouldn't take a mere H grade to crumble this little 'paradise's thin veil of institutionalized global empathy more than a few days. Me? Minutes." The voice sneered, the sheer audacity stopping me in my tracks. 

"I fucking DARE you. This place is a bastion of hope, proof peace is attainable by metrics attainable NOW, to even the weakest, newest planets. Try to do more than spatter your spiteful nahlism, I assure you, you will fail." I shot back, feeling my fists clinching tightly. Standing no more than 8 feet from the exit, I awaited my passive-aggressive passengers' response. 

…thought so.

With a smile, I took my first step toward the exit, only for my leg to freeze a centimeter from the ground. Then, it shot back down to its original position, my hands slowly relaxing by themselves. 

"Fine, if you wish to test your strength here, of all places, I will provide your assessment." The voice said, echoing through my mind far louder than ever before. A cold, wet sensation began filling the inside of my feet, the foreign feeling quickly creeping up my legs. 

"Mother…fucker, what is this?" I demanded, trying desperately to regain command over my bodily functions. Suddenly, my hand shot up from my hip, summoning my battle axe to my hand from my storage space. Slowly, the world stretched and bent around me, like I was sinking into myself. The cold fluid passed my hips, eclipsing over my ribcage as I felt my heart rate increase exponentially. 

"Stop, STOP! What are you doing?!" I screamed internally, the muscles in my face not even flinching regardless of my attempts to let out my refusal audibly. I felt as my felt spun me around, facing the distant council members hovering in their chambers. As I felt the strange fluid fill my chest and creep up my neck, a flash of blue and white covered my vision before going blind entirely. A series of crackling explosions and screams drowned out in powerful crashes filled my ears, as my hearing began to warp as well. Before long, every sense except my sense of self vanished, the voices words being the last thing I got to hear besides my own thoughts. 

"What you asked of me."

———-———-———-————————————-