Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai] - Chapter 99: Afterlife

Vizen’s laughter rang across the marble. His clones charged Chance and Bella, green Essence sharpening into weapons in their hands. Chance whipped his urumi in a wide circle, calling out a warning to Bella, who dropped to the ground.

Golden mist spilled out from him, washing across the ground around them as the segmented blades of his weapon carved into Vizen’s clones. They carved clean through everything they touched, burning through the dark liquid that made them up without resistance.

For every clone that splattered to the ground, another erupted in its place. Chance twirled, yanking his urumi back and carving through another few clones in the process. The ground rumbled and a ring of stones erupted from the marble all around them, forming a spiked fence.

Several of the clones impaled themselves before they could stop, sliding along the rock before slumping down and splattering to the marble beneath. Cracks spread through the marble and rubble shook itself free, forming into Ocie’s golem form.

“How many of you are there?” Vizen’s voice hissed from all around them. “Are you an entire sect?”

“That’s pretty ironic, coming from you,” Bella replied, her jaw tight. She lowered her voice and glanced at Chance. “What should we do? There are a lot of them, and I don’t think attacking these is going to do much to hurt Vizen.”

“I’m not sure,” Chance admitted, struggling to keep a chuckle down. His Essence wasn’t a huge fan of planning fights out. It urged him to leap over the barricade of jagged stones and start twirling the urumi, consequences be damned. That would have been much more fun.

Chance shook his head and narrowed his eyes. “Ocie?”

“I can locate his true form,” Ocie said. “It may take time. My senses are limited here.”

Vizen cackled. “A pile of sentient rocks against a cultivator. Let’s see you try, artifact. I’ll consume you once I’ve dealt with the children.”

The clones lurched forward, climbing over each other in a wave of bodies and cresting the spikes that Ocie had erected.

“Do it!” Chance yelled. He jumped, boosting off the base of one of the rocks and launching himself into the air. It was tempting to call on the powers Knight rank had granted him, but Chance resisted the urge. If he could surprise Vizen with them once the man’s real body was forced out, they’d be more effective.

Instead, Chance opened his third eye. Strands of Karma ran in every direction, rising up from the marble like a sea of seaweed. Chance couldn’t tell where they actually originated from. It looked like Vizen was literally everywhere around them.

A clone lurched toward Chance, slashing at him with an arm that ended in a scythe. He flicked his urumi, binding around the clone’s arm and severing it. With another pirouette, Chance split the body in two and killed three more of them before they could get close.

One of Vizen’s bodies sailed through the air and crashed into a pile of several others, turning them all into a splatter of black liquid. Chance glanced over his shoulder as Bella climbed over the edge of the spiked rocks and grabbed another one of the clones, ignoring its attempts to cut through her Essence-enforced skin, and hurled it as well.

“This is pretty fun! Kind of like bowling!” Bella called to Chance.

Chance laughed. He ducked under a blow and his essence caught another one of the clones. It tripped, falling into the path of another one’s sword and impaling itself. Chance dispatched both of them with a swift strike.

“You have bowling here?” Chance asked, swaying to dodge another two strikes. “I thought that was an Earth thing.”

He reached out, snagging one of the strands of Karma that emerged from the ground. Chance only got a moment to see within it, where the glowing form of another cultivator’s face stared back at him, before energy rushed into his body.

Power filled Chance’s muscles and he sped up noticeably, easily avoiding a group of clones that all dove for him in an attempt to pin him down. Chance’s laughter trailed behind him as he danced through the watery forms of Vizen, carving through them like a golden tornado.

Behind him, a massive group of the clones rose up around Bella, all clawing at her to absolutely no effect. She waded through their ranks, every swing of her fists splattering heads and sending their bodies splashing back to the ground.

Chance swirled to a stop as he realized that no more clones had gathered around him. The ground rippled, a pool of black forming around him. He vaulted back, launching off his hands and landing safely a dozen feet away as a huge form burst out of the marble.

Chitinous green spikes jutted out all over what looked to be a monstrous cockroach. Its face was a twisted, warped version of Vizen’s. Green liquid dripped from his eyes and mouth, hissing as it splattered against the marble.

“Good to see you’re showing us what you really look like,” Chance said cheerfully.

Vizen hissed in fury. The spikes on his back rippled and ripped upward, launching into the air before raining down toward Chance. Chance drew deeply on his Essence and twirled his urumi above his head, smashing several of the spikes.

Then he closed his eyes and drew a deep breath before letting himself move instinctively, not even trying to dodge. He jumped forward and twisted to the side, shifting his weight as easily as water flowed through a river.

All around him, what sounded like glass shattered against marble. When the noises stopped, Chance opened his eyes again. A sea of smashed green Essence fragments littered the ground around him.

Vizen screamed in fury and lunged forward. His face split apart, revealing several rows of glistening, green teeth. Despite his enormous, buglike body, the monster moved with incredible speed.

Chance barely managed to twist out of the way of Vizen’s jaws as the slammed shut, catching only air. His urumi scored across the monster’s side. Black liquid poured out of it in a deluge.

“Where’s your real body?” Chance asked, drawing his urumi back with a flick of his wrist. “Or is hiding all you can do?”

“All I need to do is distract you,” Vizen said with a wheezing laugh. “Your friend is far weaker than you are. Your Essence is clearly unique, but hers is nothing special. She will fall while you crow victoriously to me, and her death will lie at your feet. You are an arrogant child.”

Chance laughed in his face. Vizen’s expression flickered, disbelief crossing his misshapen features.

“Scum like you couldn’t ever even get close to hurting Bella,” Chance said, wiping the mirth from his eyes and dodging out of the way as Vizen tried to spear him with a sharp leg. “You’re barely worth the energy it would take her to lift her boot and squash you. I bet you haven’t even managed to scratch her yet.”

Vizen hissed in fury and leapt at Chance. Chance rolled forward, whipping his urumi vertically. The bug monster tried to adjust its trajectory, but it was too late. Black liquid sprayed across the ground as he was severed in two.

The two halves of the monster disintegrated, turning into black rain and splattering down on the marble. Chance turned toward the horde of enemies trying to bury Bella, stepping toward it, but she burst free of them before he could even raise his urumi again.

She hit the ground in a roll, sprinting over to join Chance with a grim smile on her lips. “Doing okay?”

“He’s all talk,” Chance replied.

“You too? I think his Essence has something to do with turning people against each other,” Bella said. “I heard him talking to you, and he was trying to tell me that I would be much stronger without you holding me back.”

Both of them laughed. Dark blood pooled all around them, more bodies rising up from it.

“Infuriating children,” Vizen hissed from one of them. “I–”

Bella punched him in the face, blowing the clone’s head clean off.

“He really does only have one trick,” Bella said. A scythe of green Essence erupted from the ground behind her. It shattered against her back, failing to penetrate once more. She smirked. “Nice try. You’re honestly pathetic.”

“How is this possible? You are children,” Vizen hissed. Several of his clones backed up. “You cannot resist my power.”

“Maybe you should have spent more time trying to better yourself instead of hunting those weaker than you,” Chance suggested, carving the clones apart with a sweeping blow from his urumi.

As one, all of the clones screamed. Chance and Bella both spun, expecting another attack, but nothing came.

Instead, the ground rumbled. Ocie rose up from the earth, her arm sharpened into a long spike. Vizen was speared on the end of it, his eyes wide in disbelief. The green armor on his body flickered faintly, and he was far skinnier and more withered than all the clones he’d been forming.

“I… don’t–”

Ocie’s other arm flashed. Vizen’s head pitched forward and fell to the ground, severed. With a flick, Ocie tossed the corpse down beside its head. All around them, the clones splattered to the ground and formed into pools of black. They shimmered, slowly fading away until nothing was left.

“I found him,” Ocie said. “He was so focused on the two of you that he forgot to conceal his Essence.”

Chance let his urumi lower and released his hold on his Essence, pulling it back into himself. “That was… easier than I expected, actually.”

“He was preying on the weak,” Bella said in disgust. “Nobody that cultivates like that will ever be truly powerful. He probably hasn’t been properly challenged in years. What a waste of talent. Imagine how powerful the ability to form bodies like that would have been on someone who wasn’t a waste of oxygen.”

Chance nodded in agreement. His urumi slithered back around his wrist, turning into a bracelet. “He got what was coming to him. I do wonder what he cultivated, though.”

“Strife,” Ocie said. “I felt it when I ran him through. I suspect he was stronger than the two of you believe. His powers were just borderline worthless against people that actually trust each other. An unfortunate matchup.”

Chance and Bella glanced at each other.

“Perhaps it was Karma,” Chance suggested, a smile tugging at the edges of his lips.

“Did he have anything on him?” Bella asked, approaching Vizen’s true body.

Ocie shook her rocky head, the stones grinding as they scraped against each other. “Nothing of worth. He was no better off than those that he looked down on.”

“Figures,” Chance said with a sad shake of his head. “We should definitely get out of here before more cultivators get teleported to the same spot. Do you want to choose the direction this time, Bella?”

Bella raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? Why would I do that when we have a literal wayfinder built in to your Essence?”

“Last time, it led us to an Essence Eater.”

“Which you reached Knight Rank from defeating,” Bella pointed out. “Maybe next time it’ll be my turn.”

“She has a point. When it comes to games of luck, there is nobody better to pick than a Karma cultivator,” Ocie said. “But I will take my leave.”

She crumbled back to marble, leaving a small pile of rubble where she’d once stood. Bella nudged Chance.

“Go on.”

“That way, I guess,” Chance said, picking a direction at random after calling on his Essence. “There’s a ruin over there that looks interesting. Maybe it’ll have some more loot for us.”

“Works for me.”

Chance sent one last glance back at the men that Vizen had killed. He inclined his head respectfully, mentally wishing them a safe journey into whatever came next.

Then the two of them set back off, leaving Vizen behind, accompanied by only the men he’d just slaughtered to the afterlife.