Steampunk Apocalypse! - 180 Evacuation

Huo sighed in relief after Ed agreed. With this, there was at least a chance of China rising once again.

“Oh, before I forget.” Ed narrowed his eyes. “Where’s Yuki and OP Baldy?” Perhaps the most unexpected event of the entire war was when he found out that Yuki had been replaced by a fake. Many of the actions he took were influenced by this false information, and though it was too late for regrets, he still wanted to know the truth.

“Oh, that.” An awkward expression appeared on Huo’s face. “Originally, Chonglin had planned on marrying his adopted son to Yuki. He needed to get rid of her father, Tama, first though. So, he found information on the Zombie esper and gave it to him. Tama left instantly to go hunt the Zombie esper down in Africa.”

Ed frowned. “The esper that killed Yuki’s mother and your wife?” He asked.

“Mm.” Huo nodded. “I thought about going as well, but I would just hold Tama back. Besides, I had my own priorities with the upcoming war.”

“I see…” Ed nodded.

“As for Yuki.” Huo continued. “She was vehemently opposed to the wedding, which was rather surprising. While not particularly close, she never seemed to hate Bai while growing up. She was also a very obedient child.” He chuckled. “You should’ve seen the look on Chonglin’s face when she opposed him so strongly. It was as if someone had stabbed him with a knife and twisted it several times.” He grinned while glancing at Ed. “And I think we both know who caused Yuki to act that way.”

“Not my fault she has good taste in men.” Ed half-arrogantly, half-sarcastically replied while shrugging his shoulders.

“Ha, I suppose not.” Huo agreed. “Well, her Uncle Fang came home for the upcoming wedding. That was Chonglin’s biggest mistake, because he immediately escaped to Europe with her. The old fool had no choice but to find a stand-in to save face!”

“Europe…” Ed sighed. It seemed his upcoming journey would only grow more chaotic. Not only would he need to research technology in Europe, but he also needed to find Yuki, kill Feather, destroy Nexus, and avoid being outed as an esper by European authorities. Fortunately, he would be much stronger by then as long as he managed to heal his soul in India.

Suddenly, a small flame appeared near the obsidian doors. It looked like a tiny snake as it swam through the air towards Huo. It rushed straight for his head and vanished, seemingly passing a message to him. “Time to go.” He said as he stood up. “It’ll be a long time before I return.” He sighed while longingly looking around the cavern.

“Where exactly will we be hiding?” Ed curiously asked. He knew that it was extremely difficult to keep secrets from Nexus, and with many people following them wherever they went, there was bound to be information leaks.

“No need to worry about it.” Huo grinned as he left the cavern.

Ed and Huo reentered the city above ground. Shockingly, nearly ten-thousand people had assembled in the streets in crude lines. There was only a single esper to every hundred ordinary people, and those espers were relatively weak. The lined-up humans seemed to be the relatives and descendants of the dead Fire Dragon Sect members.

Flames covered Huo as he flew into the air. “Thank you for coming!” His voice bellowed throughout the crowd. “Today, the Fire Dragon Sect has been defeated. We have lost our dear brothers, sisters, and…” His voice choked. “Sons and daughters.” He coughed into his hand, recovering his voice. “Our country has been betrayed by both internal and external forces. Our ancient lands are being divided up as prizes of war.” His face grew dark. “Make no mistake. The world has entered a new era! A new era of war and colonialism!”

Whispers echoed throughout the crowd discussing what was being said.

“However!” Huo continued. “China will rise again! The Fire Dragon Sect will rise from the ashes and take its rightful place as the ruler of China in the future! All of you are here because I’ve personally determined you to be the most loyal members to both China and the sect.” He slowly looked over the crowd, eyeing many individuals within it. “I ask that you pledge your loyalty to me and your country. It may take a decade or even longer, and many of us will die, but we will take our land back!”

Clapping and cheers echoed throughout the crowd. Perhaps Huo wasn’t the best speech giver in the world, but he had an intimidating presence. Sometimes it didn’t matter what was said so much as who was saying it. If Tai was still alive and this speech had come from him, then it may not have worked. He lacked the experience and acknowledgement of the people, whereas Huo had been one of China’s leading and most respected leaders for half a century. Granted, Tai would likely have been able to find his own speech and manner of inspiring others.

Ed curiously looked through the crowd from where he stood. He spotted Flair and Tao amongst them. It seemed that Huo had prepared beforehand, making sure they were present for whatever he had planned.

“Today, we leave our home, but we will return again someday!” Huo raised his hand high in the air as he finished his speech. A ball of flame covered his fist and rapidly expanded in size to cover the entire crowd. The flames covered Flair, Tao, and Ed as well. And then, they vanished.

…

The crowd was shocked as they all simultaneously appeared in a huge cavern. Bright orange lava cast their shadows on the cavern walls. They seemed to be in an underground volcano of some sort.

“Welcome to the new Fire Dragon Sect!” Huo’s voice boomed through the crowd. “Forgive me, but I can’t reveal our location to any of you due to the risk of information leaks.” He pointed at several different tunnels. “These tunnels lead to your rooms. There is an individual room for each of you equipped with basic necessities. We have enough food and water stock to last several years, and more will continue to be added over time. In addition to the bedrooms, we also have several basic training rooms, lecture halls, and other amenities. I’m sure you’re all curious about what comes next, and you’ll find out in time. I ask that you please be patient for now.” He glanced down at the hundred weak espers remaining under his command. “In the meantime, please direct any questions to the cultivators that lead you here.”

With his explanation finished, Huo snapped his fingers. Flames covered him and Ed, causing them to teleport once again. They appeared in a new cavern. A circular floor was surrounded by a moat of lava. It seemed that Huo planned on using this as his new office and meditation spot.

“Alright.” Huo smiled. “I’ll start gathering the needed specimens for you to create new cultivators.”

“Will this really work?” Ed skeptically asked. “Even if you manage to gather enough resources for me to convert all 10,000 of those humans into espers, your forces would still be less than half of the combined forces of the original Seven Sect Alliance. And that doesn’t even account for how much weaker they’ll be individually.”

“It’ll be different this time.” Huo shook his head in disagreement. “This time, I’m not just creating a simple sect. I’m creating a true army with synchronized training and coordination.”

“Like the Mongol Army?” He replied.

“Exactly.” Huo nodded. “Just their thousand-man force showed what could be accomplished with proper training, and most of them didn’t even use powers. With the rise of Nexus, the world is rapidly changing. Loosely affiliated cultivators acting as crude militias is no longer good enough. Countries need to once again adopt the methods of the past, raising formal armies under their command.”

Ed nodded in agreement. In many ways, the world was returning to what it used to be like in the past. The Mana Apocalypse had originally caused chaos, and the apocalypse before it had caused mass casualties. Between this and the terror of the Nightmares, countries rarely went to war. They simply had no need to. A single cultivator might dominate the entire battlefield back then. Additionally, human populations were low, and the threat of nightmares was always looming on the horizon. Now, things were starting to change. While the nightmares were just as threatening as ever, human populations had largely recovered, though in far fewer cities than before. Additionally, almost every country had at least one dominating esper. However, even if an esper was extremely powerful, it was nearly impossible to control an entire country of espers. Attempting to do so would just get them killed by the masses of unhappy elites. But Nexus was quickly changing this norm. Secret trade agreements and alliances were starting to pop up, and the situation was becoming more and more similar to the previous world wars. Soon, espers in each country would have no choice but to band together more formally to fend off foreign invasions. Otherwise, they might just become the next China.

Huo sat down in the lotus position on the hard-stone floor. “Truthfully, I think there’s more going on behind the scenes than just Nexus.” He sighed.

“Hmm?” Ed rose an eyebrow as he sat down as well.

“It’s likely related to the inheritance.” Huo continued to explain his thoughts. “Different areas around the world have made reference to the inheritance, but nobody really knows what it is. But just the requirements to gain it are enough to make anyone’s imagination run wild.”

‘Sect Master Long knows about the inheritance too?’ Ed frowned. It seemed the big secret he had stumbled upon under Reef city wasn’t nearly as secret as he had originally hoped. He had already confirmed in the past that Nexus and the World Hunter Association knew at least some information related to the inheritance as well.

Huo examined Ed and nodded. “You know about it already?”

“I do.”He sighed, not bothering to hide it anymore. After all, what was the point of keeping a secret that everyone knew? Well, he still wouldn’t tell anyone about what he specifically encountered underneath Reef city.

“I only know part of it.” Huo replied. “The seven nightmares are the key to the inheritance. But to defeat the seven nightmares? It would cause disastrous casualties to any individual country even attempting to defeat just one.”

“You think Nexus wants to defeat the seven nightmares for the keys and gain the inheritance?” Ed interrupted.

“Right.” Huo nodded, confirming what Ed already believed. “It’s the only logical reason for all the wars breaking out lately. Land isn’t that valuable, as there’s plenty of it to be reconquered from the forces of nature. It makes more sense that they want to unify the world’s forces and obtain whatever the inheritance is.

“Mm.” Ed nodded in agreement.

“Well.” Huo suddenly stood up. “Time is burning. I’m going hunting for espers and mutants. I’ve already informed my men to bring the humans in one at a time. I’ll constantly be teleporting the captured mutants and espers inside, so you should keep busy for the next month.” He laughed. “You might not even get any sleep.”

“Ah, that reminds me.” Ed reached out to stop Huo from leaving. “How did you teleport us here? It didn’t seem to be related to darkness or space?”

“Mm.” Huo nodded while pointing towards the lava. “I can teleport wherever there is flame or fire within several hundred kilometers. It’s pretty convenient.”

“I would think such a power would be more related to darkness…” Ed frowned. Every form of teleportation he had seen so far had used darkness as a base for the law.

“The elements are just an illusion.” Huo shook his head. “They’re man-made concepts and have even been manipulated by man. Many things that seemingly should belong to another element are found in different elements. Many things that seem like they shouldn’t belong to any element are found in one. Our ancestors divided them up crudely based on their own thoughts and biases.”

“Do you mean Yu the Great?” Ed questioned.

“Mm.” Huo nodded. “And perhaps others. I’ve read Chonglin’s compilation of thoughts from various espers that viewed his mural.” He smiled. “Try not to let the elements cloud your vision in the future. You’ll have a much easier time mastering laws if you don’t try to shoehorn them into specific categories.”

“Alright.” Ed nodded. “Thanks for the advice.”

“Any time.” Huo waved, and in a flash of flames, he was gone.