Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai] - Chapter 104: Exit portal

Seconds ticked by. Even though Chance and Quinn had been fighting just minutes before, both of them paid borderline no attention to each other as they sat. The silence was occasionally broken by distant screams or loud, crashing explosions. Shudders shook the island periodically, but nobody else ever entered the room.

Time stretched on, going from minutes to hours. Chance continued to patrol the room, just to make sure nobody slipped by whatever was happening outside, but it proved pointless. The inside of the mansion was empty. Nobody was coming.

Chance wasn’t sure exactly how much time passed. It wasn’t more than a day, but it was at least twelve hours – probably somewhere between the two, when the ring of smoke surrounding the crystal fluttered as if a breeze had blown through it.

He and Quinn both watched it warily. Ocie still hadn’t tried to contact Chance, and he hadn’t heard any fighting inside the mansion itself, so he doubted that anyone had attacked or interrupted Bella, but that still didn’t completely reassure him.

Something glittered within the smoke. A sparkle of green light shimmered behind it, and Bella stepped out of the flames, walking through them as if they weren’t there. She looked like she’d just woken up from a long nap.

Rubbing the weariness from her eyes, Bella looked from Chance to Quinn. “How long was I out? Who is this?”

“Not that long,” Chance said, a relieved smile crossing his face. “This is Quinn. She’s… well, she isn’t an enemy. Someone was using Essence to force her to fight.”

Bella’s eyes darkened. “Disgusting. Where are they?”

“Dead,” Quinn said, her voice still slightly hollow. “Your friend killed her.”

“Chance?” Bella asked, blinking. “That’s surprising. I would have assumed you’d try to leave her alive and scold her or something. Good job. People like that don’t deserve to live.”

Chance cleared his throat and glanced to the side. “Actually, I wasn’t the one that killed her. I admit I considered it, but it felt like killing her would negatively impact my own Karma because of how pathetic she was. I know, I know. That’s odd, since she was clearly a terrible person, but I couldn’t shake the gut feeling.”

Bella’s frown deepened. “That’s understandable, but if you didn’t kill this person – what friend is she talking about?”

“Lin,” Chance said with a grim expression. “He showed up with Nimea – that was her name – Nimea’s head.”

“He’s also in the Ancient Realm? I could tell he was unhinged, but just how bad are we talking? He seemed to be on our side back in the Dancing Cloud Sect.”

“I think sides are very relative with him,” Chance said. “And, possibly worse, I have no idea how strong Lin really is. The Shikari that was chasing us implied that he was wanted by someone high up, which can’t be a good sign.”

Bella just cocked an eyebrow. She didn’t need to say anything for Chance to be able to read what she was thinking.

So are we.

“I don’t think he’ll just randomly attack us. I just don’t want to take the risk. After Nimea –” Chance broke off and frowned, his fists clenching by his sides. “Never mind.”

“This is going really far just to repay a small favor,” Bella said. “Do you think he’s aiming for something?”

Chance shrugged. “I have no idea. Maybe he’s just a really honorable person and feels like favors need to be paid back. He could also just have a great understanding of Karma. But, if things do go poorly, I don’t think we can defeat him. Not unless you just got a lot stronger. Speaking of, did it work?”

Bella glanced over her shoulder at the smoke rising up behind them. When she looked back, a confident grin stretched across her lips. “Yeah. I’m a Knight now.”

“Yes! Great job!” Chance exclaimed.

“Thanks. It honestly almost feels like I didn’t quite earn it,” Bella said, chewing her lower lip for a moment. “But I got a lot from it. Didn’t even need to finish using up the Essence, actually. There’s still some left.”

“Did Ocie take it?”

Bella shook her head. “No. Maybe you’re rubbing off on her. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, especially after how tempted she seemed to be earlier. Once I was done cultivating, Ocie just sank into the ground and left.”

“Huh,” Chance said. “Well, good for her. It’s good to learn how to share. She’s gotten more than enough out of this whole thing, so it’ll be nice to let someone else profit. Quinn, couldn’t you also use the crystal?”

“I thought you said I couldn’t–”

“Not until Bella was done,” Chance said. “But she is, and you’ve been dealt a pretty bad hand. I’m not going to stop you. Besides, if you want to have any chance of surviving out there on your own, you’re going to need to be stronger.”

Quinn swallowed. Her eyes went from Chance to the wall of smoke surrounding the crystal.

“It might be a bit before anyone else is bold enough to challenge Lin. Even if he leaves, you could have enough time to cultivate here if you’re quick to escape,” Chance said. “It’s up to you. Nobody can force you to make a decision anymore.”

“Why are you doing this?” Quinn asked. “I don’t understand. I tried to kill you a few hours ago. Even if I was being controlled, it was still me.”

“The key bit here is tried. Besides, you attempted to talk things out. Since Bella has what she needs, there’s no reason for us to be enemies. I’d rather the power went to someone who actually needs it rather than some random greedy cultivator. But you’re going to have to make your decision fast. The longer you’re here, the more chances someone strong shows up.”

Quinn stared at the fire for a few moments. Then her jaw set and she slowly rose to her feet.

“Thank you. You’re right. I can’t go back the way I came, so I’ll need to be strong enough to follow after someone. I’ll take the shot.”

“Good luck,” Chance said.

Quinn nodded. She stepped past them, headed toward the wall of smoke. As she passed Chance, he tilted his head slightly to the side and turned to look back at her.

“Hey, Quinn?”

“Yes?” Quinn stopped walking just before the wall of fire blocking off the crystal.

“I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re a Knight as well, aren’t you? Why didn’t you put up more of a fight? I’m not saying you were a bad warrior, but you should have been able to do a lot more than what you did.”

Quinn didn’t answer for a moment. Then she slowly turned back, and a flicker of a smile crossed her face before vanishing, replaced by sad determination once more. “You’re a little more astute than I thought you were. Nimea could only make me do what she could imagine, and she wasn’t a Knight. It’s not my fault she just thought I was incompetent. It’s pretty difficult to know what someone’s abilities are if you never see them, you know.”

Then she stepped through the fire, vanishing within it. Bella and Chance exchanged a glance, then wordlessly stepped into the hall that Nimea and Quinn had left them. They walked silently for a few moments before Bella finally broke it.

“If I’m picking up context clues correctly…”

“She wanted Nimea to die,” Chance said with a nod. “Quinn intentionally didn’t let Nimea know she was a good bit stronger than she actually was, hoping she’d lose the fight. She might have been planning to die as well, I think. I doubt she expected someone to kill Nimea but not her.”

“She’s a pretty damn good actor,” Bella muttered, glancing over her shoulder. They came to a curve in the tunnel and followed it, starting to ascend a makeshift stairwell in the stone. “Either that or she only just made up her mind about the future now.”

“Might as well give her the benefit of the doubt. I think there’s a reason I could tell that killing Nimea would mess with my Karma, though. Quinn deserved to be free. Everyone does – but I’m not a sword for hire. That interaction wasn’t organic. Nimea should have faced justice by Quinn’s own hand, not mine or Lin’s.”

“Somehow, I get the feeling that Lin might not really care all that much about this sort of thing. If he did, he wouldn’t go around punching holes in people’s chests,” Bella muttered. “Thanks for covering me, though. I wouldn’t have been able to do that if you weren’t there.”

“We’re a team,” Chance said with a shrug. “That’s what we do. It’s just too bad Quinn and Nimea weren’t the same. They could have done so much more. Hopefully Quinn can find someone that treats her like an equal.”

The tunnel wound up, taking a sharp turn before leading outside, letting sunlight wash into the tunnel through the small hole above them. It was just tall enough to be a little too far to see out of, even if they jumped. Chance and Bella both fell silent in case someone else was in the area. They exchanged a glance and Bella pointed at herself. Chance nodded, then crouched near the wall.

Bella stepped forward. Her skin glittered, turning crystalline. Chance boosted her up and she caught onto the edge of the hole, pulling herself up and glancing around.

“I don’t see anyone else here.”

She swung out the rest of the way, then reached down to Chance, pulling him up as well. Chance opened his third eye, quickly looking around as soon as he was on the surface to see if he could spot any strands of Karma hanging around.

There were none. Surprisingly, he couldn’t even see anything belonging to Lin. He scrunched his nose. That meant that either Lin had left, or he had some sort of way to hide his Karma from Chance.

Where’d he go? I feel like he would have showed up if he was still here, but I find it hard to believe that someone actually beat him in a fight. Lin just feels… I don’t know. Too strong to go down like that? Not to some random cultivator, at least.

“Anyone?” Bella asked.

“No.” Chance shook his head. “Nobody that I can see, at least. What are your thoughts on trying to get out of the Ancient Realm? If Lin is here, then–”

“Shae and the other Shikari could be as well,” Bella said with a grim nod. “They probably are.”

Assuming Lin wasn’t lying about killing Shae. I saw that room. Even if he says Shae survived, I wouldn’t be surprised if Lin just meant he left him alive and Shae died a minute later.

“Right,” Chance said. “So… escape?”

“Escape,” Bella agreed. They walked up to the edge of the small floating island they were on and squinted out over the horizon, looking for the nearest exit portal. Bella pointed to their left, where a beam of blue light rose between a small cluster of large, jagged hills. There were a few ruins clumped on top of them, but it was also the closest beam to them.

“It’s certainly close, but there’s lots of places for people to hide,” Chance said. “People will almost certainly be waiting for anyone that’s trying to leave to try and get the jump on them. That’s a good place to do it.”

“That’s kind of what I’m counting on,” Bella said with a grin. “We’ll go back to the Dancing Cloud sect if we use our own exit portal, won’t we?”

Chance’s eyes lit up. “Oh! I don’t know how I didn’t think of that. You’re thinking we should try to run through someone else’s portal to throw off the Shikari?”

“Exactly. What do you think?”

“Well, at the very least, it’ll be a nice change of attitude. We’ll actually be happy to see someone attack us for once.”

Bella laughed. “Then it’s decided. Let’s get out of here before someone comes after us. I still want to do a lot more practice before I actually try to use my new abilities. I don’t think they’d go too well in a surprise test like yours did.”

“You going to tell me what they are?” Chance asked as they started toward the rope bridges, making their way away from the floating islands.

“Once I’m confident I can actually do it,” Bella replied. “I don’t want to rely on it quite yet.”

“Fair enough. Onward, then. Hopefully, the Shikari are a lot farther behind us than Lin was.”