Chapter 997: The Man Who Fought the Monsters

Jason floated over the water of the River Faron, meditating on his progress towards diamond rank. He had not been human for a quarter of a century, yet he had always clung to his humanity. It had been a close thing, a couple of times, but he’d always managed to hold on. Power, destiny, and no few of his own choices seemed determined to make him something more than human, already rendering him immortal. He couldn’t help but think that they would also make him something less.

One day, he would come into the fullness of his power. The System. The full realisation of his astral kingdom. Whatever it was listening to prayers led to. And he had been listening, not that he could do anything about it. What he could do something about was holding onto his humanity.

Dawn had been in Jason’s position once. Looking down the barrel of transcendent power, losing track of who she once was. She’d been sent to Earth to anchor her sense of mortality before she left mortality behind. Jason had been doing the same thing, spending as much of his years on Earth as he could indulging in time with friends and family. They did everything from fighting vampires to learning to kite surf. High-rank agility helped a lot with the latter.

As Europe was slowly but surely reclaimed by humanity, Jason increasingly left that task to the humans. Humphrey continued to participate, but the team at large did not. They moved their combat from Earth to the outer edges of Jason’s astral spaces, where Rufus had done much of his gold-rank training.

The dimensional boundaries of the astral spaces offered fluctuating magical conditions and a plethora of often bizarre gold-rank monsters. Rufus had always acted with caution, never going too close to the outer edge, but things were different with the full team.

The astral spaces were the only place on Earth, or at least Earth adjacent, that could offer genuine challenge to the most powerful adventurers. Jason’s grandmother had started opening these spaces to clan members as they grew more powerful, and even some from outside the clan. The ability to grant such opportunities was a powerful weapon in the clan’s diplomatic armoury.

Having moved into the mid-ranges of gold rank, Jason and his team were past the need for battle to push them to greater heights. Even so, they never slacked off, never allowed themselves to grow complacent or out of practise. Whatever destination he was headed towards, Jason would always be the man who fought the monsters, with his friends by his side.

Earth was proving a surprisingly effective place for Jason and his allies to advance their abilities. For the silver-rankers still rising through the clan ranks, he had the monsters to throw them at while that remained effective. Nik was largely past that point, but Emi was still working her way up.

“I’m sorry that I’m not there yet,” she’d told Jason. They were sitting on a rooftop after Nik’s celebration party for reaching gold rank. Their legs dangled off the edge as they looked up at the stars.

“There’s no rush,” he assured her. “It’s not race, it can’t be. Immortality has no finish line.”

“I’m not immortal, Uncle Jason.”

“Not yet.”

“You know… you know that last time you came back to Earth, I got scared. I thought I wanted to be like you, fighting monsters. Then I saw what that meant. What it did to you, and I got scared.”

“And so you should have.”

“After you left, and we didn’t hear from you, I blamed myself. And Mum. I thought that if we understood what you were going through better, you wouldn’t have stayed away so long. So, I pushed myself to fight monsters. But I forgot what I’d learned watching you. When I got my magic, I felt invincible. Then something happened. We pushed too hard — I pushed too hard — and it all went wrong. After that, I knew for sure that I couldn’t be like you. Like Farrah. I do go out and fight monsters to rank up, but it can’t be my life.”

“It doesn’t have to be. You’re going to be the first archwizard to come from Earth, and that’s more than enough.”

“Archwizard? Is that like a special title from Pallimustus?”

“No, it’s a thing I just made up. Sounds good though, right?”

She slapped him on the arm and he let out maniacal laughter.

***

As the path through gold towards diamond grew more contemplative, there was an array of experienced adventurers to offer guidance to the rising silvers. Nik’s transition to gold was not built on a sudden revelation but the solid accumulation of wisdom and understanding. It was an unremarkable yet unshakable foundation on which to build his future growth.

For Nik and the other adventurers from Pallimustus, Earth presented challenges that they had never experienced at home. On Pallimustus, the job was to kill monsters and walk away. People might be famous, but information could only spread so fast. People might have opinions, but few ways to communicate en masse, let alone, organise. If they did, there was little they could accomplish. Democratic systems were all but unheard of, and the stratification of power was ingrained into every culture, however much they differed.

On Earth, their every action was scrutinised. Interpreted, reinterpreted, misinterpreted. A lie could spread from person to person like a plague, changing the fate of nations. This meant that every time Jason or his friends appeared in public, or what could be made public by anyone with a camera phone, they had to be intensely aware of their actions. Not just what they did, but how those actions could be perceived.

Being under a microscope was frustrating, but also came with one surprising benefit. Advancing essences beyond gold rank required significant amount of self-examination, and the realities of fame were pushing Jason and his team to do so almost reflexively. Advancement towards diamond, so notoriously difficult on Pallimustus, was ironically easier on Earth.

An unconventional ally in their quest for advancement was Terrance Tilden. As well as being Anna’s brother, he was a public relations expert and perennial attendee of mandatory sensitivity training. Over the last few years, he had been instrumental in not just managing the image of Jason’s increasingly famous friends and family but pushing them to drive themselves into new situations. From that came the possibility of new revelations.

Sophie, for example, had pushed her Wind essence in new directions. She had been travelling the world for several years, using her aura to purge whole cities of disease and shut down epidemics before they could take hold.