Divine Arsenal: Dual Weapon Cultivation Read online

  A line from my church upbringing rang in the back of my mind: has it ever occurred to you that nothing occurs to God? Eliezer might be powerful enough to call himself a god, but he wasn’t omniscient. Which meant there were potentially levels of power even beyond his…

  “A Black Core is quite the leg up in a world which has a very low survival rate. And of course, you know the most important thing now: which is that you know nothing.” He folded his arms, giving me a smug look. “Honestly, you should thank me.”

  “Thank you? For impaling me with a spear? For planting this...this weird whatever the fuck it is inside of my body?”

  “Yes,” Eliezer said smoothly. “You should.”

  He paused, as if waiting for me to praise him. If this man’s a god, then the gods must be crazy, I thought, stifling a mad bit of laughter. Wanting to be thanked for almost murdering a guy. And planting a ‘Black Core’ inside me, like it’s some kind of fancy weight-loss device…

  I pressed my hand against my side as I thought it. If I concentrated and pushed hard, I could almost make out the outline of the strange object against my side.

  I once dated a girl who’d had a medical device called a ‘V Block’ installed beneath her skin, all wrapped up around her vagal nerve to regulate some bodily process or another. We’d figured out we weren’t really compatible within a couple dates, and went our separate ways. But I’d felt that weird device whenever I gave her a hug—and now, touching the thing called a ‘Black Core’ through my side, I felt like I understood her a little bit better.

  When I didn’t hasten to thank him for nearly sending me to the other side, Eliezer let out a little harrumph and started talking again like he’d never stopped. “The fact of the matter is, you survived,” he said, again as if I should be grateful to him. “The thousands of others on whom I’ve tried this technique were not nearly as skilled—or as lucky. Their potential failed them.” His bushy eyebrows furrowed together. “You are something special, Eric.”

  Something clicked inside my brain. “Wait. You’ve killed thousands of people like me, who didn’t measure up!?”

  He laughed, and didn’t bother denying it. “What you’ve done today is merely the first, hesitant step of a baby colt. You will need to strive hard to cultivate and ascend through the Realms before you ever hope to truly walk. More still, should you wish to reach my level and one day oppose me.”

  The horror hit me square in the chest. I knew Eliezer was capable of destroying entire civilizations with a wave of the hand—he’d shown me as much with his light show. But it hit differently to discover that thousands of innocent people had received the same surprise as me. I tried to picture Eliezer standing over thousands of young men and women, dispassionately watching them bleed to death. I found I couldn’t.

  “Oppose you?” I snarled. “Fuck you! Thousands of people died just like that? In terror and pain?”

  “Terror and pain are the twin pillars holding up reality,” Eliezer said, his voice unutterably deep and sad. “When you get to be my age, you truly understand that knowing nothing is both a blessing and a curse. Believe me, young man, you will regret many things along the path of the Eternal Dao. Your actions, your deeds—your choices. But you must never, never regret learning. Better to face a hard truth like a man than run screaming from it like a suckling babe.”

  “I’m going to get that power,” I growled, setting my feet firmly on the carpet. “And when I do, old man, I’m going to kill you!”

  A savage smile spread across Eliezer’s face. “Good. Remember that anger—you’re going to need it.”

  In a flash, the spear was back in the old man’s hands. I winced, expecting another blow—or worse, for him to attack Anna—but instead of a stab, he twirled the metal rod between his hands like an acrobat preparing to do a trick. Blue flame erupted from the curved metal blade at the end of the glaive , bathing the tent in an unearthly glow.

  Eliezer twisted the glaive so quickly that it soon became a circle of flame. With a grunt, he thrust the whole thing away from him, and it came loose like a wheel being thrown from an axle along a busy highway. The circle of flames bounced across the carpet, careening madly toward Anna and me. We dropped to the floor, screaming as a wave of blue flame cascaded over us both.

  It didn’t burn. The flame consumed the world, turning everything blue, and when it faded, Anna and I were on our hands and knees against the asphalt. We were back in the fairground parking lot. The lights of the fair had gone dark, the attractions and rides closed for the night.

  But we were both still alive. Somehow, we’d made it through a meeting with a god in one piece. At least, that’s what I thought at that moment, but I’d have never guessed just how wrong I would turn out to be.

  Chapter 2

  Anna rose to her feet slowly, brushing the dirt off her leggings. “Eric, please tell me you saw everything I did. Otherwise I’m about to check myself into a psych ward.”

  I took hold of her arm, looking back at the now-dark carnival. Silhouettes of rides and tents stretched against the starry sky, looming like colossi over our heads. What had once been a fun place to spend a second date now felt like a setting out of a horror movie. A cold wind blew across the parking lot, sending discarded paper hats bouncing like tumbleweeds across the asphalt.

  “I don’t know,” I said, looking around the parking lot for my car. Only a few vehicles remained at this late hour, most of which looked like they’d broken down and been left there. My Altima stood out like a black sheep in a field of white, a few lanes away. “It sure as hell felt real. What time is it?”

  Anna reached into her purse and pulled out a slender iPhone, a worried expression on her face. “Oh my God,” she whispered, holding the screen up so I could see.

  A low whistle left my lips. “How’d it get this late so early?” I asked, checking my own phone against hers just to be sure. Considering everything else that had happened tonight, some sort of temporal vortex didn’t seem totally outside of the realm of possibility. “Maybe you weren’t kidding about that LSD in the beer tent, Anna. That was...wild.”

  Another blast of cold wind blew across the parking lot. Anna shivered, pressing her curvy body harder against mine. Her limbs shook like the branches of a tree in a storm.

  “I want to get out of here,” my date said. “Will you take me home, Eric?”

  I swallowed my disappointment as the two of us climbed into my car. Well, it was a nice date, I thought, buckling my seatbelt and kicking the engine on. If only Anna had never seen that damn tent. Totally killed the mood…

  I probably wasn’t getting a third date, I realized. Which was a shame, because Anna was the most compatible girl I’d gone out with in a really long time.

  A few minutes later, with the heater in the Altima going full blast, the atmosphere in the car began to relax. Anna shook herself, like someone starting from a trance, and turned the radio on low. The late-night AM host was in the middle of an interview with an expert on ‘alien abductions’. For once in my life, I didn’t find the idea farfetched at all.

  “We should go on that show,” Anna said with a little laugh. “I bet we could tell those people one hell of a story…”

  Before long, both of us were laughing. “Look at us,” I said, keeping my eyes forward on the highway. The further away from the fair we drove, the more everything that had happened felt like some kind of crazy dream—or a mass hallucination. “We’re about ready to put on our tinfoil hats and start talking about parallel universes or some shit.”

  Anna’s hand gripped my thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Peak Supreme God,” she muttered, giving me a sideways glance. “You think they dosed you before the light show, or during?”

  My knuckles tightened on the steering wheel. “You think that’s what they did? They drugged us?”

  Honestly, there was some sense to the idea. I was kind of thinking that I was still drugged a little bit. The road looked...weird. I couldn’t remember the last tim
e the big double lines in the center had looked so yellow, or the asphalt so dark. A trio of deer crouched by the side of the road, waiting for my car to pass, and I swear it looked like they were fucking glowing. Like, a day-glo nightclub-glow-stick shine.

  “I mean, there had to be a reason no one else went in that tent,” Anna said with a snort. It was a strange sensation, listening to her. From the set of her shoulders and the look on her face, I was absolutely sure she didn’t believe what she was saying—more than that, she knew she didn’t believe it.

  But like those poor bastards who’d believed they’d been abducted by aliens, when something comes around that completely destroys your conception of the universe, you have two choices. You can either get over it, fit it into a framework that makes sense so you can move on with your life—or you can end up the kind of person who calls into a radio show at three in the morning, screaming about anal probes.

  Neither I nor Anna wanted to end up like that. So we laughed together, tacitly agreeing to each other’s story.

  “Yeah,” I said, taking the off-ramp toward the suburb where Anna lived. “Crazy shit. Someone should call the cops on those people. Technically, dosing someone without their consent is assault, right…?”

  Shit. I almost believed it was all some crazy drug trip. Keeping one hand on the wheel, I slipped my fingers through the torn gash in my shirt. When my fingers strayed to my side, I felt something hard and strangely cold beneath my skin.

  I swallowed hard. No matter what Anna I tried to tell each other, that thing inside me proved tonight was no hallucination. I’d have to come to terms with that sooner or later. But for now, I focused on trying to end this date as gallantly as possible.

  We’d made it almost to the turn into Anna’s neighborhood when she suddenly gave a start.

  “Hey,” she blurted, the green glow from the dashboard light reflected in her piercing eyes. The more I looked at her, the more she seemed to be glowing a little bit, too—the same as those deer. I hoped whatever that old man dosed me with wore off soon, otherwise I might have some explaining to do at work. “I don’t really want to go home.”

  Hope welled within me. “You don’t?”

  Anna shook her head. “Not tonight,” she said, suppressing a tremor. “How about we go back to your place and have a drink?”

  She didn’t need to tell me twice. I did a U-turn in the intersection, checking the corners to make sure no cars were approaching from either side.

  “Sounds like a plan,” I said, grinning over at the cute blonde. “You sure?”

  The hand on my thigh slid over. Anna’s fingers reached for the zipper on my pants, tugging it down in a rustle of metal on fabric. I bit back a moan, my cock stiffening in my boxers.

  “I don’t want to be alone tonight,” Anna purred, shifting in her seat. She crossed one leg over the other, leaning across the center console until her head rested against my shoulder. “And I don’t think you want to be alone tonight either, Eric.”

  “Fuck,” I panted, the back of my head hitting the seat rest.

  Anna’s nimble fingers slipped into the hole in my pants, pulling out my cock and giving it a few hard strokes. I couldn’t believe my luck. Just a few minutes ago, I’d been lamenting how badly this date had been thrown off-course. Now it looked like I was about to get lucky after all.

  The car accelerated back onto the highway. My own apartment wasn’t far from Anna’s—we both commuted to the same office, after all—so getting there wouldn’t take long.

  “You sure about this?” I asked, which was a dumb thing to say to a woman holding onto your dick.

  “Totally,” Anna whispered, staring down at my cock as a fat bead of pre-cum dripped from the tip. “I like you a lot, Eric. That weird guy in the tent wasn’t lying when he predicted you were going to get lucky tonight.” Her fingers kept on stroking, until it felt like all the blood in my body throbbed in my erection. “After a night like this, I just need to get my head on straight, you know? Relax a little.”

  “Yeah,” I panted, the headlights dimming in my view. “That sounds good…”

  A naughty smile lit up Anna’s features. “And speaking of my head—”

  The seatbelt clicked as Anna leaned over and into my lap. Her warm, wet mouth enveloped the head of my cock, planting a few experimental kisses on the throbbing crown before going deeper, further. One hand remained steady on the wheel, the other tangling in her long ash-blonde hair as I gently guided her down.

  “Holy shit,” I panted, taking the exit to my apartment building. I nearly veered right off the road—Anna’s mouth on my cock felt that good. Shit, road head was so amazing.

  Okay, something weird is definitely going on, I thought through the haze of pleasure. Anna’s tongue felt better than anything I’d ever experienced in my life. The world swam, the colors on the dashboard and the beams from the headlights brightening like a noonday sun. It was like I could sense their energy—their vibrations.

  I was definitely picking up some good vibrations from Anna. Tendrils of light rose like steam from her hair as she sucked me off, wrapping gently around my fingers as I tangled them in her long ash-blonde locks. Whatever this was, I had no idea—but I was going to fucking enjoy it.

  Somehow I managed to get us to my apartment crashing. By the time I put it in park, Anna’s head was bobbing up and down on me like a cork. The head of my cock hit the back of her throat over and over again, like my cute co-worker had never even heard the words ‘gag reflex’. The familiar rush worked its way up my shaft, my balls tightening as an orgasm approached.

  Anna felt it and pulled off me with a wet little pop. “Nuh uh,” she said, shaking her head.

  “Huh?” Frustration coursed through me. My cock throbbed in the open air, dripping with Anna’s saliva. The world suddenly seemed a little darker. “What’s up? Why did you stop?”

  She planted a little kiss on my cheek. “Take me upstairs,” she commanded, giving my cock a squeeze. “I want a drink—then I want you to throw me on your bed and finish what I just started.”

  Part of me wanted to grab her by that long hair and guide her lips back to my dick. I wanted to come—no, I needed to. Something hard and dark pulsed inside of me, right around the spot where that weird old guy put that thing beneath my skin.

  Yeah, I should have realized the two phenomena were related—but you try thinking clearly when the gorgeous co-worker you have a crush on is begging for your dick. At that moment, the only thing in my mind was getting Anna upstairs and having my way with her as quickly as possible.

  “There’s a bottle of whiskey in the freezer,” I said as I closed the apartment door behind us. Anna’s fingers hadn’t strayed from my cock once the whole walk up, and now I was harder than I could remember being in a very, very long time. “There’s more liquor in the cabinet, too, if you don’t mind something warm…”

  “Oh, I like it hot,” Anna giggled, popping the freezer door open. She pulled out the bottle of whiskey and took a long pull, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. God damn that girl could drink. Her performance back at the fair hadn’t been for show: she really could hold her liquor like one of the guys.

  “Yeah you do,” I growled, reaching for her skirt. The polka-dot hem of her classy gown went over her ass, showing the pair of dark leggings beneath. A darker patch dominated the space between Anna’s thighs, revealing just how turned on she was.

  I stared at it and groaned. “No panties?” I said, tugging the leggings down just to be sure. “Bad girl…”

  A bare, glistening slit greeted me. Anna’s folds were pink and warm, utterly primed and ready for me.

  “I thought you might discover that tonight,” Anna said, winking at me over her shoulder. “So which way is the bedroom?”

  I pointed down the hallway. “Right down there,” I growled, wrapping my hands around Anna’s upper thighs. “Here, I’ll show you.”

  There was no telling what had gotten into me. But as I lifted Anna
over my shoulder, carrying her like a caveman back to my lair, I knew that whatever was in me was inside Anna, too. She squealed like she’d never been more excited, just barely keeping the bottle of whiskey from spilling everywhere as her cute butt bounced against my shoulder.

  We made it to the bedroom, and I tossed her onto the mattress, just as she’d requested. Within moments, the bottle of whiskey was safely on the nightstand and Anna’s thumbs were on her leggings, tugging them down her tanned thighs. The buttons on her polka-dot blouse came next, her tits spilling free from the confining fabric.

  “Come here,” I grunted, putting my hand on the back of her head.

  With her sitting on the bed and me standing beside it, she was at the perfect height to wrap her lips around my cock. She made a tight seal, her cheeks hollowing out as she kept eye contact with me, going deep. I moaned as I hit the back of her throat, my balls slapping gently against her chin as she picked right back up where she’d left off in the car.

  “I don’t normally do this,” she said, pulling off me without breaking eye contact. She put her tongue right on the underside of my crown and teased it back and forth, making my legs shake. “I’m not really into oral—but fuck, you taste so good all of a sudden! It’s like I can’t get enough of you…!”

  “I can’t get enough of you, either,” I grunted, putting my cock back in her mouth. The truth was, I felt the same way. I’d been with women before, but I’d never felt this heat, this energy coming off a female body before. The atmosphere between me and Anna was electric, charged up like the strange glowing shit I’d seen on the drive over. I know she felt it, too.

  Before long, Anna’s fingers slid between her own thighs. Her pelvis arched into the air, offering her soaking wet pussy as she fingered herself in time with her mouth. Her lips ran up and down my shaft, her naughty tongue swirling as those fingers rubbed her clit in the same rhythm. Soon, we were both on the edge, the entire bedroom reeking of sex.