Sachihiro

I sit in the full lotus with my unsheathed nodachi on my lap trying to find myself within the Rage, breathe in breathe out. The full lotus is a very difficult position to get into especially for us generally more rigid Barbarians but I have been schooled by the Hito in many arts, flexibility is necessary for some of them and I've been keeping up with my stretching.

Having just finished a long meditation session in which I think I achieved the elusive quiet mind so I'm quite relaxed.

I'm not sure how quiet mind should feel nor have I received any skills acknowledgement from Gaia, but maybe that's not how things are supposed to work.

I focus on my nodachi in my lap, trying to commune with the spirit within. Jinzen, mind becoming one with the zanpakuto. At least that's the idea.

There are nearly 600 people in the training campus of the Conclave, it's been acknowledged to everyone there that the place is now called the Conclave Academy. A school for rich spoilt princes, princesses and second sons of the accomplished or powerful throughout the continent. I'm not sure how but word of the place has spread throughout Pangaea despite the strict secrecy lecture conducted with every arrival and every departure.

The place is too good to have stayed a secret long because everyone that is eventually allowed to leave comes out 10 times better than what they were when they arrived. Regardless of whether or not they are actually accepted into being part of the Conclave community, the Compound, or are just sent home after their training.

The communities include the children, wives, non-combatant husbands of anyone that goes past the training camps and gets accepted into the Conclave Civitas.

The training camp/academy stage is brutal and can be anything from a year to two years of almost complete and constant training, but not always combat training. The lecture talk about life and philosophy and the importance of compassion and mercy, they teach critical thinking but also to kill when necessary and exactly how. The ethics of our societies I guess I could call it, it's interesting because I've never seen my society in the way it is analysed by these scholars who barely know us. The Conclave Academy more than anything reveals to me how these different people see the world, how they see us than it changes my perspective about anything.

Killing a person unarmed isn't an easy thing to do. I hear that in some parts of the world people aren't as resilient but generally a human being can recover from almost anything.

Fighting hand to hand you have to aim for pressure points or weak spot that disable or cause pain to your opponent to slow them down. Kill moves usually comes in form of crushing the trachea or breaking the neck bone.

Even then you have you make sure that your opponent is dead and not paralyzed or you just made an enemy that you might have to fight another day. The lessons are extensive from human, elven, naga and certain beast physiology. All their weaknesses and the many ways to exploit them but it doesn't just end at physical training.

Everyone at the training camps learns to speak and read Common, everyone. The campus itself is diversely occupied by different creatures and peoples.

Nagas, dwarves, elves, beastmen, humans, a few Monkeys, undines and even a fae, orcs and gnomes. The campus can approximately house up to 3000 people according to rumour but of even the people who know of the Academy few are allowed to find it.

The influx of new students happened a few months ago out of nowhere when they just started showing up in ones and two. Peoples of all types and races and apparently they are all descendants of some guy who is the founder or one of the founders of the Conclave. Getting exposed to so many different peoples, cultures and training programs has been a huge eye-opener for us to and we've been attending out as we give anything that involves combat our all.

Currently the most interesting group of people are the Barbarians from a completely different continent, our long lost kin. The size of them and their lust for violence giving them away some but mainly its the berserker Rage that lurks within them that sings to our own Rages in psychic recognition. Blood recognizing blood and all that.

They say they are from a continent they call Rocce e Vento but according to Academy maps, it's actually named Culla. Their homeland is known as Ondora and they certainly live in a tough part of the world, a place were the Tundra is a paradise in comparison to though to be fair it seems everywhere is shitty in comparison to the Tundra.

They are the same height, bulk and general stature as our people but their skin is more grey than is usual for humans and definitely not as soft. They have rune shaped brands all over their bodies and they don't circumcise all their boy children at infancy, but use circumcision as a right of passage into manhood instead of being blooded in battle like we do.

One might think that because of that they are probably less blood thirsty, but one would be wrong. Their love for battle and death ranges on necrophilic obsession for their culture exults death as the greatest achievement they could ever accomplish. Why they think that I'm yet to find out but they don't blood their weapons on each other because their territory, Ondora has plenty of shit that's been trying to kill them for the past 2000 years without adding tribal feuds into the mix.

They speak of other types of Barbarian people that have a different berserker Rage than us, a people that double in size and quadruple in strength when in the Rage. They also talk about the green orcs that don't have the normal skin colour of regular people but a deep green that has perpetually given them something close to the speed and strength of the Rage at all times without needing to actually become berserker. But they are also generally more aggressive to everyone and everything around them constantly.

The Mare, our estrange cousins call themselves. The Mare people of Ondora and they are a wonder to behold with axes or hammers or spears. They are also a people that have had very few Awakened in their history and never anyone that Awakens to magic but they know that it's from the curse that gave us all our berserkers.

Everyone seems to start at the academy but not everyone spends a year there, some spend less and some more. Those that usually spend less are the very component fighters that go there mostly for the lectures and to be evaluated than for training. It's now our second year at the Conclave and we have graduated from the Academy to the Compound, almost all of us.

90% of the Tundra Barbarians that come down to this continent are invited to the Compound but surprisingly not all pass this unknown test that determines who qualifies. Reaching the Compounds is said to be only the second step in climbing up the hierarchy that is the Conclave pyramid. The Compounds seem a lot like Anastasia, the dwarven city within the Dawn Mountain but with more soil, concrete and plants as opposed to stone, worked stone, molten stone and minerals.

Everything has been happening fast for us since we clumped in with the Volvocine sibling last year. They went to all our lectures and training lessons that first month, the second month we went to theirs. There is very little as funny as watching Dustin and Victor try to learn the kung fu style of unarmed fighting that the Volvacines are trained in but they eventually got the basics.

All six of us that were matched with one of the brothers eventually got the basics Om, Asger, Caden, Dustin, Victor and I. And we all get along surprisingly well with everyone we have been matched with. The greatest boon for the six us has been training with Master Black when he trains his grandchildren.

The man mostly leaves us writen instructions and places some else to supervise our progress while he personally trains Om and Volvox but being in his tutelage has been good for all of us. The kung fu is great and apparently unarmed combat is a discipline that is severely overlooked by our people but we are all learning.

Ava and a few others I haven't seen in months as they were chosen by a new Master that only takes young women for some reason. Ever since we all qualified to joint the Conclave of Civitas four months ago the training has been more intense and more focused to our different strengths than the mostly general Academy training. And the entire time I've been fantasizing about bringing my kids here, but they've already made a home in Paradisum.

Taking them away from another home would just be cruel, especially after taking Kuyoki away from the only home, she has ever known. But spirits beyond I miss them, I miss them a lot and the four years I got to spend with them seems like such a short amount of time now. Especially with little Didi who was just getting to know me.

But with the presence of the fae in Paradisum the Tundra is probably still the safest place for them to be and with these nightly incursions by underworld beats and peoples has made the world a much more dangerous place. There has never been more vampires, ghouls, nightmares, shades, tenebra, hellhounds and more depending on which part of the underworld a portion of Gaia is connected to. The nights are no longer safe as dark affinity creatures that are considered bottom feeders down there try to make a niche for themselves up here.

We've all been here over a year, at least my friends and I have and already the number things we've learnt are astounding. I've learnt about soul stones, stones that can gather and store the energy expelled when a soul departs and I've learnt that its the same thing my beautiful monster has been doing to replenish herself since the forging. The war was good for our recover and I can even walk around the Compound now whiles leaving my nodachi in my rooms without thinking of killing myself. And I can sense where she is at all times our connection has never been stronger and the more I communicate with her the more substantial our connection.

Om and I have spoken to Master Black about our visualization training and he said its good we've started doing image training but we will really be able to use it to its full potential when we unlock skills. Every time the man speaks there is a raging rush of blood to my head that drowns out all other sound. Asger went fully into the berserker rage the first time he heard that voice and Caden just looked sick. It's interesting to know that Om suddenly seemed bigger and to fill the room more yet he hadn't actually increased in size at all.

 

Leaving the Academy doesn't mean the end of learning for in the Compounds there are lessons conducted as well, just much more specialized and comprehensive training. Master Black has spoken to us about the 15 enclaves that are being established to be the step after achieving acceptance into the Conclave Civitas.

These enclaves will work mostly independently from each other with different heads and be a place for the more elite and specialized people. People that have a reason for the pursuit of power, strength or purpose. People that want to be doing missions for the Conclave, but mainly it looks like the Conclave is going to turn into one huge army.

There different enclaves cater to people that specialised in alchemy and academia, apothecary and healing, gardening, animal husbandry and beast taming, sailing, strategy and espionage, magic, psionics, fighting, smithing, building, spirit, and killing and espionage. These people who chose to specialise in one of those paths are each from the Civitas.

The heads of each conclave report to 5 chosen people that are suppose to know everything within each conclave and have the bigger picture in mind. Those five people must also be replaced every 13 years so corruption doesn't fester within the ranks. And all 20 people within that structure report to a head of council reelected every 7 years who also acts as a disciplinarian.

The heads of each enclave can stay the same for 40 years but after that someone within the ranks of that particular conclave chosen in however that particular department sees fit. Everyone at the compounds learns about the hierarchical structure of the conclave but no one really know who is in which conclave themselves. There is talk of massive building projects that are taking place on other continents even as the compound itself isn't yet finished.

On advice of Master Black I have gone into the Conclave of Spiritus, it isn't exactly what I thought it was but it's been a great help to my development. Spiritus doesn't just deal with spiritual energy, the manifestation of it and all its uses but it also deals with actual spirits, which means sorcery.

Sorcery is the manipulation of spirits or energy from the spiritual realm in order to affect the physical realm. From summoning spirits to imbuing tools and objects with spiritual energy, to using it to affect change within the physical. Every person has a little spiritual energy within them for we are all part spirit somehow, but that is a minute amount of spirit that acts more like skin protecting us from the elements. To have an affinity for more spiritual energy or to actively train in increasing spiritual energy is a rare and difficult thing without the help of actual spirits, but apparently, all Barbarians with the berserker curse have much denser spiritual energy than is normal. At least that's what I'm learning in my new vocation, but I take everything with a grain of salt because these people that have been studying these phenomena for hundreds of years could be wrong. No one is infallible and as they themselves along with Asriel thought me how to think critically and question every known 'fact'.

 

I move within the sigil in the exact choreographed sequence from one circle to another. Each part of my body just so, elbows just so, hands moving in synchronization with each other even as my fingers flow from one mudra to another. My Image training is implacable and I have within my mind the crystal clear image of what I expect to happen once I finish the ritual. All the while projecting my spiritual energy within and around myself as thickly as I can maintain for this long. My every movement within the sigil in this dance I'm doing precise, sweating profusely and contorting my body in awkward positions in a summoning ritual.

But instead of summoning a spirit like most sorcerers would I'm actually just trying to open a microscopic portal within myself and summon the spiritual energy that is as abundant there as air is here. The only other known source of the energy besides living creatures.

And even as I do the last twist like a dancer praising the world for its beauty, my hair coming out of its braid cascading over my face, my arms and leg muscles warm from the effort, my core having had a good workout, my spiritual energy almost depleted I finish the ritual. I finish with a flourish prompting some of my fellow disciples to start clapping before being shushed by the masters.

 

I came to this vocation because of advice from the Master with the Sinister voice that causes unprepared Barbarians to go into the Rage if he gives them instructions. I came here amongst sorcerers and would be sorcerers being the only warrior but having the senses natural spiritual pressure the masters have seen outside of shamans, medicine men, witch doctors, spirit guides, witches and seers.

I was taught the basics about spirits and the emergence of the deities. I was taught the importance of listening carefully when dealing with spirits for though a summoned spirit cannot lie to it's summoner it can mislead or refuse to be helpful altogether. I learnt the basic sigils and magic symbols with my fellow disciples who I found it difficult to relate to because they mostly wore robes and funny hats and have never killed anyone before.

I learnt the mental exercises necessary to be able to partition the mind into two parts in case a spirit ever attempts to possess us and is initially too powerful we have somewhere to retreat to. It also helps if we ever acquire a familial bond and need to translate two sets of senses within our minds. I learnt that celestial ore has such a high affinity for spirit energy because it is thought to be from the spirit realm.

My Kata was used as an example that by imbuing my spiritual energy into the beautiful dwarven made single-handed throwing axe I had actually made it a part of me at the spiritual level. And that such weapons are scalable because they constantly feed off the spiritual energy a person projects at almost the same rate at which it is replenished naturally. And that usually people that have more than one bound scalable weapon take longer to get their weapons to be as powerful as a person that only has one because two or more weapons now have to share a minute amount of spirit energy. But this isn't the case with Barbarians because we apparently have an unusually dense spirit pressure that increases even further when we go into the Rage.

I've learnt all these things and more the four months I've been coming here but I have been the only one unable to summon even the simplest of ghost spirits using only sigils, Images, will and words. So one day an old man all the masters bowed respectfully to showed me the summoning dance after taking one look at me and giggling excessively.

We spent two days in the minor summoning hall me, him, Master Hyde and Master Forster. They learnt the dance with me and their ignorance of this way of summoning increased my determination to learn it. We danced and danced and dance for nearly 200 hours straight but then an elven young man showed up and bowed to the old man and waited by the door.

"It seems my time with all of you is at an end, I have other responsibilities." He said to everyone then took me aside.

"You have great potential but you will not be a summoner of spirits because another spirit already has a claim on you and is preventing all others from coming to your call." He says to me with an arm around me neck in a familiar gesture, I thought about his words for a moment and remembered the blessing from the deity of knowledge I had also allowed my children to receive.

"Is it dangerous?" I ask, kicking myself for messing with shit I don't understand.

"It could be but it isn't with the deity you chose, she will prevent most other spirits from interfering with you but she will be no help to you against physical threats."

I nod acknowledging this and the relief I feel within my chest is immense. I don't know why I trust this man so much but like I did Asriel when we travelled I believe everything he says as though spoken in godspeak.

"If I cannot summon a spirit why have you been teaching me this summoning dance?" I ask as we stop before the handsome young man dressed like a hunter a dagger on his waist but otherwise unarmed. Okey, the man isn't handsome he's actually beautiful but I have since coming here gotten used to the androgynous nature of elves.

"Though you may both be able to summon spirits, you my syphon spiritual energy through summoning. Try it once you've mastered the moves." He says that turns even as I bow to him.

"This is my grandson Israel, Israel this young man is..."

He looks up in thought slightly but I haven't told him my name even once since we've been here training-

"Sachihiro." He says as though he blucked my name from the space above my head. "Interesting name for one of your people, anyways so long."

We continued training in that summoning ritual after a rest for more hours until we perfected it. Learning something new along with your teachers is very encouraging and gets rid of the cloak of infallibility a lot of teachers try to convey to their students. We did everything the same except my Image wasn't on summoning a spirit but summoning spirit air I guess I could call it.

 

And here I am after pouring as much of my will and spiritual energy behind that Imagine throughout the dance yet nothing has happened. I stand up straight in the middle of the huge sigil permanently etched on the floor with a sigh. Both Master Hyde and Forester have been able to use the summoning dance without issue, but I have failed again.

I wipe the sweat and hair from my face and look up and see the pity on some faces and the mirth on others and even wonder on some that enjoyed the dance for the sheer joy of enjoying the dance. I can feel that my beautiful monster is pleased with me in the satin wrappings I've been carrying it around in since I came here.

I don't like those looks, any of them and I turn my back to them but the room is circular with multiple circles etched into the floor in a pattern. I step out of the circle heading straight towards my monster so I can retreat from all these eyes but I don't get far.

As soon as I'm fully out of the summoning circle I'm knocked off my feet as a pressure like an overpowered punch to the gut but from inside my guts floors me. I quickly manage to get on one knee but that's all I manage before I feel something sipping into me both soothingly and extremely painfully and I do as my trainers advise us all to do when in pain, I scream.

When being tortured or in extreme pain don't hold it in if you don't have to. Don't try not to feel it or endure it needlessly, that will drive you mad. Scream, clench your fists, cry, sob, weep, shit yourself, your teeth or whatever else you need to do as an outlet so that that pain is slightly more bearable. Most women in childbirth scream through the pain and the screaming allows them to release some of the psychic pressure that extreme pain causes.

That is the lesson given to us at the Academy by Master Thoman, and so I scream through the pain of nothing pure and something not entering through me from the inside. Its like being parched in a desert and only having access to water with sharp glass crystals within it. Your thirst is quenched but your throat is wrecked and so with me as whatever the spirits breath there flows into me in an unfiltered state because it was summoned in it's pure form, not filtered for the mortal realm like it should be.

I don't know when it starts happening but I start to notice that I have my nodachi in hand unsheathed humming pleasantly with blood on the blade and on the floor. Everyone is standing far off and I'm cordoned in by 6 guards of the Conclave Proelium, the fighters with shields and swords out to keep me where I am. Shit, I must have gone into the Rage but how I got my nodachi in hand I don't know I was across the room on the personal weapon's rack.

I sigh and stand up straight flinching the blood off my blade before sheathing it. My sheathed is also as much a part of me as any other of my artifacts so I always have sense of where it is. Master Hyde lifts a hand to keep everyone back and walks confidently towards me. He may seem like a regular 165cm tall and lean human being in robes more fit for an academic than a warrior but I've learnt not to underestimate because of appearances.

"Did I kill anyone?" I ask as he stands in front of me looking up at my face.

"Close but not quite."

"Good, I'd like to be excused, is there anything else?"

"You summoned an element from the spirits realm, not uncommon amongst our circles but certainly very rare and almost always fatal if it's summoned in it's unfiltered state.

"You're alive because of the greed of all the spirit familiars and summoned spirits in the room that almost immediately tried to feed off the spirit element you summoned.

"Summoning your blade like that was a good way of preventing yourself from being sucked dry of spiritual energy. I didn't know a spiritual weapon could be summoned like that."

Neither did I, "this one is a spacial case."

He snorts at my careful response. "I know a soul weapon when I see one boy, why have you been hiding it?"

I remain quiet under his glare but I'm aware of the armed people around meet sheathing their blades and the spectacle already being gossiped about.

"Well, in any case, it would be safer to only do that again with your weapon on you. It also seems to be able to feed on that spirit element so you don't take the brunt of it next time."

"Yes Master Hyde, thank you, sir," I say with a bow and walk smoothly towards the exits. I have a lot of thinking to do.