Path of the Berserker-Chapter 12Book 5:

My soul boiled with rage as my eyes fixed on the symbol.

“That bastard,” I whispered. “That gods-damned bastard…”

“Son, what is it?” Rhi Dong said, looking concerned. “Fia?”

“It’s alright, mother. Max can handle this.”

“Handle what?” Hei Dong said.

“Not what,” I said as my ire surged. “Who.”

I couldn’t believe that son of a bitch.

Trying to mess with my family directly, now?

My Flame flared.

“Max, let’s go talk about this with Venja,” Kelsey said, no doubt sensing my Flame. “It’s not as bad as it looks. At least not yet.”

“What do you mean ‘not yet’?”

“Just come,” Kelsey said.

Everyone else still looked confused, as well they should be. We were talking Berserker crap, and only a select few of us knew what that even was. I passed the baby to Fia as I tried to settle myself down.

Clear your head, think straight, I told myself as the Struggler regained control.

“Sorry all,” I said. “Kelsey and I need to discuss some business.”

“This involves me too,” Fia said, standing. “Don’t worry everyone. Everything is fine.”

I then looked to Kelsey. “Okay, let’s go.”

It was time to have a chat with Venja.

* * *

We left the rest of our perplexed family behind as Kelsey and I made our way to the center of the village square along with Fia and the baby. Flashbacks to that night in the stadium raced through my mind the closer we got. I should have known nothing involving the God of Dark Frenzy came without a price. He’d gone through a lot of effort to break through the barrier, even reviving Hong Feng’s soul to do so.

And now the end result was here.

Making my very son a target.

Whether he knew Fia was pregnant or just saw an opportunity was still yet to be seen. I looked at Bryce once more and felt fear and anger both. The thought that there could be some kind of demon or a piece of I’xol’ukz living inside of him was tearing me apart.

I did sense something else inside him though.

A smoldering ember.

But did I’xol’ukz cause that?

“Take it easy,” Kelsey said, reassuring me with a pat on my arm. It was then that I realized how intently I was staring at the baby.

“Bryce is fine,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with him. Venja and Xam both agreed on that.”

“Xam?” I said.

Kelsey looked back at me with one of her, ‘I can’t believe you’re so stupid’ kind of stares.

“Yes, Xam,” she said. “Did you forget?”

Who the hell was she talking abou—?

“It’s you, Max!” Kelsey said. “Or the jacked-up version of you that you left behind when you engraved my axe with your technique.”

Holy crap, I’d nearly forgotten about him.

“You said jacked up?”

Kelsey sighed. “You’ll see.”

We got to the center of the square where Venja was resting in her sword stand.

Kelsey then pulled out her axe and sat in lotus position.

“What shall I do?” Fia asked. “Just hold him?”

Kelsey nodded to her. “You ready, Max?”

I sat in lotus position as well and then took Kelsey’s hand as we both transitioned into the spiritual realm. In the darkness, Kelsey’s blue hued Struggler form emerged along with Venja. I then saw what I thought was my own Blue-hued Struggler form standing next to her, until I remembered I was already in my upgraded red-hued form.

My mirror image nodded at me. “What’s up, boss? You finally decided to show up to pay your respects?”

The cocky bastard grinned at me, but I wasn’t in the mood for jokes. “Just tell me what the hell is going on with my son.”

“Easy, Max,” Venja said, resting her large hand on my shoulder. “First, it’s good to see you again. I’m glad you made it back home.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“I know you are worried for your son,” she said. “But fear not. He is safe for now.”

The thought didn’t settle me. It was the same as what Kelsey said earlier.

“What do you mean, ‘for now’?”

Venja and Xam both shared an uncomfortable glance with one another.

My anger flared.

“Just spit it out, damn it! What the hell is wrong with my son?”

“He’s been marked with a gate, Max,” Xam said.

“Well, no shit! I can see that for myself. What the hell does it mean? Is I’xol’ukz controlling him?”

“No,” Venja said quickly. “No, we don’t think so. His soul is still young and pure, so far as I can tell. What I don’t know, is what may happen when he gets older or when his Flame matures.”

“Or,” Xam added. “What might happen, if he were ever exposed to Dark Frenzy. With a gate like that linked right to his soul…” He then shook his head with a frown. “The change would be instant.”

My insides chilled. Flashbacks of Dim Wei transforming into a demon before my eyes filled my mind, and the thought of the same happening to my newborn son tore my soul apart. I let out a gut-wrenching cry of anguish, fear and hate.

“That piece of shit!”

I then thought of something else.

“Does Fia know all this?”

Kelsey shook her head. “Not the exposure to Dark Frenzy part. She understands he’s safe for the moment, but that something must be done.”

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My mind was reeling. We were on a planet surrounded by the influence of Dark Frenzy. One stray step into the rays of the Bloodmoon without a protective barrier, and I’xol’ukz would kill my son, or do even worse.

Turn him into one of his own.

“We’re not quite sure what to do next, Max,” Kelsey said. “We have no idea how to remove something like this. I was hoping you might have more insight from being on the Hell Worlds?”

I was only barely listening to her now, my mind already racing to explore my inner most thoughts for a solution. I’d discovered a heck of a lot about my own existence and that of the Flame upon the Hell World of Fae I’ung, but something like this was new, even to me. I knew what a gate was. I’d destroyed many. But removing one was something I didn’t know how to do.

One thing was for certain though.

Putting a gate on my newborn child like some kind of death mark, was a line that never should have been crossed.

“So that bastard wants to attack my family like this, huh?” I said, as my ire began to boil again. “He’s going to learn what it means to evoke the wrath of the Frenzied Flame.”

My Flame shook with reverberation as the root of my Twin Dao flared.

There would be only one way to keep my son safe from I’xol’ukz’s influence now.

I had to remove it completely.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Xam said alarmed, already sensing my thoughts. “You’re not serious, are you?”

“I fear he might be,” Venja said.

“What?” Kelsey said bewildered, head darting between the two of them. “I can’t read his thoughts like you guys. What are they talking about, Max?”

“It’s simple,” I said. “If I can’t remove the gate, then I’m going to remove where the hell it leads to.”

“Meaning?” she said, still confused.

“Meaning I’m going to destroy I’xol’ukz himself.”

She blinked at me. “Max, I’xol’ukz is a force. It’s Dark Frenzy itself. Can it even be destroyed? Does it even have a body to destroy?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But I got a good idea of where he might be hiding if so.”

Thoughts of when I had ventured across the cosmos using the gates of the moons returned to my mind. “When I projected my Sacred Soul here from Fhae I’ung, I traversed through I’xan’dra’s gates several times. On a lower level there was a central hub that seemed to connect all the moons and on it was another enormous gate that led to someplace further down. Like a final gate to where everything might be stemming from.”

“And you think I’xol’ukz is there?” Kelsey asked.

“It’s my best guess. Or it will lead me closer to him, at least.”

“Let’s say he is there,” Xam said. “You really think you’re strong enough to kill him?”

He was probably right. Even Threja herself was looking to ascend to the True Deity Realm before taking on a god. Still, I wasn’t going to let that stop me. Something had to be done and the first step was at least finding out where the bastard was.

“I might not be strong enough to kill him,” I said. “Not yet. But I am going to find him and send him a damn painful message if I do.”

I popped out of the spiritual realm to see Fia waiting patiently for us all, still holding Bryce in her arms.

“What happened?” she said. “Do you have any idea how to remove the mark from him?”

“One,” I said. “But I’m going to need to descend the planes of hell to do it.”

* * *

Fia was begging me not to go as I [Trudged] through the village square, my Frenzy and fury building for what was yet to come. She was talking sense. I was heading into the unknown with a half-baked plan, but my soul would not settle knowing the kind of grasp that evil bastard had on our child.

Kelsey did her best to placate her, but she too knew that I could not let this go unchallenged. I was in full Berserker mode now and facing I’xol’ukz’s head on would be the only remedy to soothe the fury burning in my heart.

The Bloodmoon was still high in the sky, and in a few hours, I would need to get Master Hei Dong to the city to deal with all kinds of bureaucratic crap back home. Righting the wrongs in the city, wooing the damn princess, convincing her to make me a Duke.

It was all like playing pretend compared to this.

Those things couldn’t be furthest from my mind right now.

I wouldn’t be able to focus on any of that knowing that bastard held my son’s soul in the balance.

“I still don’t understand what you are going to do,” Fia said. “Max, you just got back. I won’t let you leave again!”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said. “Physically anyway.”

Fia sighed exasperated. “Kel Zhi! Will you help me, here?”

Kelsey shrugged. “I’ll make sure he stays safe, Fia, I promise. Right, Max?”

I barely nodded as I approached the edge of the barrier.

“Fia, make sure you stay back with the baby,” I said, glancing nervously at my son.

One step across the barrier’s threshold and we would lose him.

Forever.

The thought burned me up inside again.

“Okay, let’s go, Kelsey. Time to make this son of a bitch pay for messing with my family.”

I stepped into the rays of the Bloodmoon and the effect barely stirred my Flame.

For Kelsey it was different. I could see the strain on her face as she fought against it with her [Soul Shield] technique. I jumped back into the spiritual realm and Kelsey’s Struggler form joined me at my side.

“So…what is the plan?” she asked.

“We find a gate, jump in and start kicking ass,” I said. “You can withstand the spiritual pressure of the top plane of the moon now, right?”

“With soul shield, yeah.”

“Then let’s go.”

We traversed through the darkness, covering unknown miles in the real world as we homed in on the diffuse sense of Dark Frenzy coming from the moon. Eventually it started to concentrate and sure enough the glowing, inverted triangle of a gate appeared.

I wasted no time jumping inside with Kelsey right behind me.

The familiar purple sky of the moon’s hellscape greeted me with a strong pulse of Dark Frenzy. As we fell towards the surface, I prepared my [Spectral Weapons], materializing my Axe and Glaive. I hit the ground at full speed, causing a massive explosion of red shale as I landed amidst the sea of demons milling about on the surface.

I turned my rage and hatred into burning Frenzy, cutting loose on the demon swarm. My lightning techniques ripped through them, killing hundreds at a time and next to me Kelsey employed the same, screaming as her Frenzy flared. We tore past the crystal obelisks that littered the landscape like trees, the thick chains tethered to them streaming into the purple sky like strings of unseen kites.

A shrill cry then rang out.

We both stopped and looked in its direction to see a behemoth three stories high, charging right at us. Its humanoid body was covered in scaly red skin, and where it’s head would be, was instead the body of a worm with a lamprey-like mouth that continued to emit a horrific high-pitched squeal. It plowed towards us through its smaller brethren, swatting them aside with wide swings of a Dark Frenzy induced axe.

Kelsey tensed next to me, her mind taking in something yet unseen.

But I’d seen much worse.

I charged forward unfazed and unleashed an overhead [Lightning Cleave of Fury] with my [Spectral] Phalanx Glaive. A towering arc of lightning streamed from my weapon’s tip and towards the giant monster. It struck with a sundering boom, splitting the demon in two. It fell apart in two halves while still in motion, its enormous body crumbling to ash as it fell towards us, finally hitting the ground with a massive thoom! before sending up a cloud of black soot.

“Holy shit you’ve gotten strong,” Kelsey muttered next to me as the ash rained down like black snow. “No wonder you think you can take on a god.”

I cracked a smile. “Thanks for the lemonade. Now let’s keep kicking ass.”

We pressed on, slaughtering the demon spirits at breakneck speed, making our way steadily towards the towering central gate, that stood at least three hundred feet high. Kelsey was doing remarkably well, but I wasn’t sure if she could survive plunging down to the next level. Still, just having her as an anchor on the first plane would be good enough to provide me a lifeline home if things went south.

By the time we reached the foot of the towering gate, Kelsey was riled up like a mad woman, seething with Frenzy and Bloodlust and covered in the black soot of demon ash. The entire area around us was cleared for miles. It was the result I was aiming for. I could have simply flown to the gate, but clearing the area like this left it safe for Kelsey to remain as my lookout.

“So, you’re going in there, huh?” she said, jutting her chin at the gate.

An opaque purple film covered the massive area within the triangle.

The barrier between this plane and the next.

“Yeah,” I said. “And then through one more after that. How you doing, Frenzy wise?”

“Burning it like crazy but I’m maintaining. You?”

“Still holding strong.” In truth I was barely burning anything to combat the pressure of the surrounding Dark Frenzy, but that would soon change. “Okay, stay put here for ten minutes. I’m going to take a quick peek.”

“Just a quick one,” Kelsey said. “I promised Fia I wouldn’t let you kill yourself.”

“I won’t,” I said, and before I left, I split my vision to view the real world through my true eyes. Barely a minute had passed in the real world since we entered the spiritual realm and the time compression would only increase the deeper I went. Fia was still standing there behind the barrier, holding Bryce, looking confused and concerned.

Just hang on, I’ll be back soon.

I leapt through the purple film of the gate and plummeted a second time, descending to the lower plane of the moon. The spiritual pressure of the Dark Frenzy increased exponentially, but I fought against it with the power of cycling my Frenzy alone.

Swarms of behemoths filled the desolated planes below me now and I stayed above them with [Ride the Lightning], powering my way across the vibrant purple sky and towards the enormous second gate at the center of the realm. It was different than the one I had just come through. Three times as big perhaps, with its sides made of the same rune covered crystal as the obelisks.

I slid to a stop in midair, pausing right before the entrance to the gate.

Like the one on the plane above, it was covered with an opaque film, but the color of this one was black instead of purple. I readied myself as I prepared to dive inside, activating my [Sacred Soul Shield] technique. I closed my eyes for a moment and focused on the faint trace of Kelsey’s Flame.

That alone would be my lifeline to reality.

My anchor to my true self.

To everything I was fighting for.

This is it, I thought.

This was the only place I knew of that could have the answers to saving my son.

The location of I’xol’ukz.

I’d only taunted the monster before about coming to his home turf of the Hell Worlds.

But in truth, I knew now, that the Cursed Stars was not his domain.

This was.

I readied myself to face the god of Dark Frenzy.

To see the yet unseen.

With a final breath, I stepped through into the unknown and everything around me went black.