[A/N: The dialogue in this chapter is intentionally high-level and derisive to show the rich contrasts between Kiera and Kaze's speech patterns and the similarities in their thinking and articulation.
It also makes it unnaturally overbearing. However, if you make an effort, you'll find this chapter has the best dialogue in the novel. Hands down. It's a hilarious, lethal war of clever lines. Enjoy!]
--
An issue broke out outside the main training area--far out.
"Look, if I could fill my knowledge into a bathtub, I'd let you soak in it." Kiera snapped, "I'd even throw in a [eureka] moment to commemorate the shocking occassion. But I can't!"
A petite neon-pink-haired woman with black-layered roots was striding away from a man who was following her.
She wore a loose black t-shirt with a silver necklace, black leggings, and white shoes. All three made her vibrant pink hair pop.
The man was plain. He was around eighteen and a muscular athlete in a green t-shirt and grey shorts with a short temper.
It was obvious by the look in his eyes that he was interested in her and wasn't taking rejection well.
"You're not performing your duties for the lesson!" The man growled, "You're supposed to help people. Other people are, so stop keeping everyone else down!"
"I'm not following the lesson?" She scoffed in bewilderment, "Look, Bundy. I'm trying to cultivate, and you're a zealous volunteer of the stalk patrol.
You're breaking two rules, so get away from me."
"My name is Nate, bitch!" Nate, a muscular brown-haired teen, snapped.
"Oh! Forgive me. People like you are normally just referred to by their creep factor." She said with false panic, holding up her hands, "Bundy isn't adequate because you're not charming, but it's all I got."
Nate's eyes flashed with murder. "I'm going to kill you!"
"That'd be the quintessential [preventing people from cultivating] action." Kiera giggled maliciously,
"Buuuuuuuut~ While I'd loooooove to give Kaze an opened and closed slap dunk example of your stalker behavior, I enjoy living. Sooooo, fuck off, yeah?"
"Did you just tell me to fuck off?" Nate growled in anger.
"Pretty please?" She requested with cute puppy dog eyes, blinking twice.
"You're asking for it bitch." He declared aggressively.
"No, I'm not asking for anything but for you to leave me alone." Kiera scoffed, "That's why I'm moving somewhere far away from you.
You're the one apocalypsing, asking the impossible of me. So leave, kay? Byeeeeee!"
She turned around and began walking away. Not two steps into her walk, the man charged, her hand lifted, and she turned around swiftly.
At that moment, Nate's eyes flashed before his eyes when he met her gaze.
Wrath and anticipation were in her eyes; she expected him to charge, and her lifted hand wasn't an attempt to [slap].
Keira's gaze told him it was an offensive technique she was confident would take him out in one decisive blow.
As she waved her hand, an invisible force gripped their bodies, paralyzing them.
Kiera and Nate stood frozen in shock, fearful of the strange paralysis they had experienced.
They couldn't scan their surroundings past their peripherals due to the paralysis, so their fear only increased when they heard slow clapping from their blind spot.
It wasn't a blind spot; both of their hearts jolted when the emperor materialized from thin air a few feet away from them.
"You, Nate." Kaze chuckled, "You're fucked. Aside from the obvious, if there's one thing I won't tolerate on this campus, it's stalking."
Nate's eyes trembled in horror and disbelief. The emperor's words shattered his soul and stomped the broken pieces.
Everything changed for him in a blink of an eye.
"E-Emperor Kaze, you said everyone was--"
"Supposed to learn the cultivation technique." The emperor replied coldly, "I said that helping people could be the best option; it was never an obligation.
Forcing such a preposterous action would teach people the virtues of failure."
"T-Then, why would you emphasize it?" Nate swallowed nervously.
"There's a difference between helping people when it's the best option and helping people because you're forced to." Kaze scoffed.
"One milks the weak and coddles their frail natures; the other teaches the value of short-term sacrifice to obtain long-term strength.
There have been three lessons on this subject. If you don't know it, as you've claimed, you're playing stupid to hide your stalking behavior, or you are genuinely stupid and a stalker.
Both are equally bad, and you're fucked either way."
"I-I'm sorry." The brown-haired athlete stuttered.
"Why are you looking at me with the face of a suffering imp?" The emperor laugh-scoffed, "You were harassing this woman, yes?
Your sorries are valueless when they're catered to the punishing party instead of the victim, you clown."
Nate turned to Kiera, whose eyes were trembling in shock. He opened his mouth, but he was immediately cut off.
"Save your empty justifications of your faux regrets." Kaze scoffed, "There's a blond-haired woman named Lina near the amphitheater.
See her so you can receive temporary punishment while I weigh a permanent one."
The invisible force on the man's body lifted, causing him to stumble. He got up slowly and looked at the emperor with pleading eyes.
"F-Faction Leader, isn't this... a bit too harsh? I was heated, but it wasn't like I was looking for a fight." Nate asked in shame, "Heated moments happen, right?"
"Harsh?" The emperor scoffed, "This woman doesn't know her strength. If I didn't intervene, I'd be spitting on your corpse as the jesters dragged it away.
The sanctimony of actions is irrelevant if the party who promotes them is dead."
Kiera and Nate's eyes froze as the atmosphere multiplied exponentially. His words carved terror into their souls.
"You understand, yes?" Kaze asked the man, "Now fuck off, pretty please. By that, I mean leave immediately before there are irreparable consequences."
The man's eyes trembled before he fell silent and strode away awkwardly, struggling to walk straight with his shakey legs.
The emperor turned to the pink-haired woman of eighteen, still frozen in her striking position. He had a strange expression that was both scolding and forgiving.
"Did you understand you'd kill him?" Kaze asked sternly.
Kiera dry-swallowed nervously. "I planned to lessen the attack so it would blast him away, not kill him.
It was a sweeping motion, fainting the attack to make him dodge and swiping him from the side at lesser power."
The emperor studied her expression closely. "While that's commendable, slowing down a shuttle moving 120 miles per hour to 30 won't change the outcome."
Her eyes trembled in realization. "I didn't know."
"That much is obvious." Kaze laugh-scoffed, releasing his Qi to let her stand, "However, I cannot slight you for rationally acting given your knowledge.
If he were a stalker looking to assault you, self-defense is useless when you're incapacitated.
You did the right thing; you're just unskilled at present, but that will change.
So your action needs no exoneration; learn from your oversight and practice your technique before you test it on a bumbling fool."
Keria was stunned by his words, and she hung her head. "Thank you, Kaze.... Not for your clemency, but because you saved me from experiencing something like that."
"Don't thank me." He demanded coldly, "Whenever you use a technique with lethal force capacity, you must be prepared to face any consequences if you lose or fail.
I can neither teach nor save you from that fate.
Stopping you was rational, given my situation, as were your actions, given yours. It wasn't personal."
She gave him a bitter smile. "I see. Now what?"
"Did you not just hear me?" Kaze asked mockingly, "I acted upon my duties as you did yours.
Surely you understand that we'll continue doing that, yes?"
"You're the worst teacher, you know that?" Keria giggled with wide eyes.
The emperor's cheek twitched. "That's a bold assertion."
"No... it's just...." She giggled harder, "It's just that I almost killed someone, and now you're casually walking away to let me cultivate?
[Surely you understand] how strange that is, right?"
Kaze gave her a lukewarm smile. "That makes me a good teacher. You'll understand one day."
"I'll make sure to remember that statement at my arrainment." Kiera giggled.
"Immortal Skye is an autonomous zone; we're not bound by Malta law." He smiled, "So remember that at your award ceremony when you master that sky technique."
Her eyes froze in shock. "Wait... never mind. That question is pointless."
The emperor narrowed his eyes in interest. "Come with me. There are things I must do but you've peaked my curiosity so I'll compensate you for the lost time."
"Wait...." Kiera whispered before looking up and seeing that he had already started walking. She quickly caught up in confusion.
"So? What happened?" Kaze asked in amusement.
"What happened?" She chuckled bitterly, "That twice-baked nukepotato courted me, preaching the profound perks of noobdom.
I courteously informed him that I couldn't infodump a cultivation technique into his tiny brain.
He didn't take kindly to that, so he chased after me like a premature simp twister. The rest is history."
The emperor's eyes widened, and he shook his head in bafflement.
"What is this chimerical manner of speech of yours?" Kaze scoffed in disbelief.
"I'm not sure if I should condemn you for your language or praise your strength for surviving so long with that tongue of yours."
Kiera felt fear wash over her but was overwhelmed by his humorous statement and giggled in bewilderment. "Can't we just settle for chastising me?
Both of those options are preeee~ty extreme."
"Yes, they are. Such is fitting when your language is born from the depths of repulsive internet culture."
The pink-haired woman giggled involuntarily. "If you insist upon one of the two extreme, I'd appreciate you praising my strength then."
"I'm sure you would." Kaze laugh-scoffed breathlessly, "Speaking of strength, how did you happen upon that cultivation technique?
Your strange physique also alludes even myself."
"You act like you know everything." She replied mockingly.
"No, but I know more than you can fathom." He replied dryly, "Now, will you stop wasting my time and inform me of how you acquired the Sorrow Wind technique?"
Kiera's eyes shot open, and she turned to the emperor to ask him how he knew her technique. However, when she saw his stern face, she followed his directive.
"An arrogant muntpig flew... a decrepit... a cultivator flew from the sky and gave me the same confused look." She sighed, dissatisfied she couldn't change her language.
Normally she'd act cute and sweet, saying little in such a situation.
However, the cat was out of the bag, and she couldn't feign stupidity. So she found herself talking in a manner her teacher despised.
However, the emperor was satisfied with her attempts, so he didn't reprimand her.
"So they got a pretty black-haired woman with gorgeous purple eyes to assess me." She continued.
"It was hard to breathe around her, and she couldn't speak English, but she was actually useful."
Kaze's eyes widened in surprise, remembering that Crux told him she assessed other rare physiques, which he decided he'd ask her about later.
"The translator said I had the Divine Flow Physique, and the purple-eyed woman gave me this sky technique." Kiera continued.
Kaze's eyes widened in perplexity. "Divine Flow Physique? Is that a wind-tempering physique?"
Kiera's eyes glided to the left in thought. "Not that I know of? It's not a [wind physique]; it allows me to reverse the flow of Qi in the atmosphere and shift it when cultivating.
I only got Sorrow Winds because she felt inspired to give me the technique because of a dream."
The emperor turned to the woman with a serious expression. "You must train your physique immediately before you kill yourself."
Kiera's eyes widened in disbelief after Kaze told her that her physique would kill her.
"K-Kill myself?" Keria stuttered in shock.
"That's what I just said, yes?" Kaze replied sternly, "Pay attention because I do not jest.
That physique is immensely powerful beyond comprehension but correspondingly dangerous.
Such is the nature of power and the reason that weapon will quickly backfire on you."
The pink-haired woman stared at him in confusion and hesitation. She didn't know what to think about what she was hearing.
"Starting tomorrow, I will train you personally." The emperor announced with a serious expression, assaulting the petite teen with powerful emotions, both positive and negative.
"I don't know what to say...." She whispered.
"Nothing, it's better that way." He chuckled bitterly, touching her forehead.
"Hey! What are you doing, you cree... peh." Kiera asked as a profound wave of information crashed through her mind.
It ripped through misconceptions and false hypotheses she had developed about cultivation instantly.
"W-What did you just do?" She stuttered.
"I [infodumped] cultivation techniques into your tiny brain." Kaze replied mockingly, mocking her words, "I can't teach you how to cultivate like this.
However, by giving you multiple minor techniques, it supplements information on cultivation, yes?"
Her eyes trembled in disbelief, and she looked at him with trembling golden eyes. "Yeah... this is so dope."
"Remarkable, extraordinary, staggering, astonishing, shocking, thrilling, sensational, prodigious." Kaze scoffed.
"There's a surplus of words for exceptional, confounding, impassioned, or distinguished to express the intensity of your thoughts.
You do not lack resources to elucidate your feelings, so there isn't a reason not to speak in a universally communicative language."
"That's rich, Mr. [Lexicon]." Kiera asked mockingly in the emperor's pretentious, grandiose voice, "Surely you're cognizant of how esoteric your antiquated vocabulary is for us youngins', yes?"
Her incredible Kaze impersonation was truly remarkable and left his cheek twitching.
While she was satisfied by the outcome, she was surprised to learn [why] he was so irritated.
"Unbelievable. Your diction far surpasses the throngs of simple-minded fools infesting this uncouth wasteland." He chuckled in disbelief.
"Yet you insist upon using atrocious language even standing before your teacher and benefactor?"
Kiera opened and closed her mouth a few times. She messed up by proving that she had a strong vocabulary and wasn't using it. Still--
"What's the point of hiding my personality?" The pink-haired teen asked seriously, "If you expect immediate results, I'll only disappoint you and drive you insane.
Surely you understand that people don't change so quickly, even when they try.
So I'd rather be myself as I try than be someone else as I fail."
Kaze studied her facial expressions silently for a few seconds before scoffing in annoyance.
"Make an effort. In the meantime, we'll build your power so that language doesn't kill you."
Follow current nov𝒆ls on freew(𝒆)bnov𝒆l.(c)om