Chapter 424: You Really Aren’t Local (2/2)

“It’s what came to mind,” Jason said. “Obi-Wan Kenobi? Nothing? You really aren’t local, are you?”

“I am Shako,” he man said. “I am a servant of the Builder.”

“I know,” Jason said. “I picked up on your star seed when you tried to impress me by letting your aura poke out of your pants. Please tell me the builder didn't just blow up my world by shoving a ranga through the dimensional wall.”

“No,” Shako said. “This event provides a window through which I am able to enter and leave without harming your world, so long as I am gone before this space reasserts itself in physical reality.”

“So the Builder thought he’d take the chance to send someone in and off me?”

“No,” Shako said. “He sent me to deliver his thanks.”

“For what?”

“The current Builder inherited the power of his predecessor, but also his responsibilities. He inherited the mistake that was this world. It costs him nothing but dignity should this world be annihilated but the dignity of a great astral being is no small thing.”

“Really? Sounds like a holdover from his mortal days, to me. What does an infinite being care about dignity? It seems a little petty.”

“Be careful with your words, mortal.”

“Mate, your boss sucks.”

Shako’s expression went very blandly diplomatic.

“You did not encounter him in the best of vessels,” Shako said. “Thadwick Mercer lingered like a disease, affecting even subsequent vessels for a time.”

“Vessels like you?” Jason surmised.

“Yes,” Shako confirmed and Jason laughed.

“You caught a dose of Thadwick, that's hilarious. Also, tell your boss to shove it up his arse. Thadwick was a top-shelf prick but he didn't turn your boss into a cosmic land bandit. He didn't strip astral spaces off worlds, killing people in job lots from the fallout. How many people has it been across all the realities and all the worlds? Billions? Trillions? He can take his thanks for whatever he's thanking me for and shove it so far up his quoit that it pops out his nose.”

“How… colourful. You don’t want the gift he offers as parts of his thanks, then?”

“Your damn right I don’t. Thus far, everything the Builder has sent my way has impaled my body a whole bunch of times and even took a run at my soul.”

“This gift is sent with gratitude, not malice.”

“It wasn’t? You should have led with that. I’m definitely going to take the word of a guy whose boss tried to core me like an apple.”

“You would do well not to impugn my integrity, silver-ranker.”

“Mate, you're a captain in the fleet of a cosmic pirate admiral. How many people have you killed in the name of your boss playing with blocks like an infant? I'd tell you to take your integrity and shove it up your boss' arse, next to where he put his thanks, but you beat me to it. Probably by a few centuries.”

Shako reached out and Jason lurched forward, his neck falling into Shako’s grip. His aura crushed down, suppressing Jason’s aura in an instant.

“So, more Vader than Obi-Wan,” Jason said, his voice unstifled by the grip on his throat. “Obvious, now that I think about it.”

Jason met the diamond-ranker's gaze, unfazed by having his aura ground down to nothing.

“You think I won't kill you for your insolence?” Shako asked.

“If you're going to kill me, I can do bugger-all about it. I'm not going to pretend your boss is worthy of respect first because he's not, and I don't think it matters anyway. Your boss sent you here with orders to kill me or not. I'm willing to bet you follow them, either way.”

Jason closed his eyes, letting his instinct guide him. He drew on his spirit domain and the vast quantities of power currently coursing through it as reality itself was reshaped. Melding it with his suppressed aura, Jason aura projected not his own aura but that of his entire spirit domain, pushing back against the suppressive force of the diamond ranker.

Shako sneered as he felt Jason attempt to push back, but it dropped off his face as he felt the aura pressure him from all around. Jason’s inexpert control of his spirit domain was not enough to push back the power of an ancient and powerful diamond ranker even a little, but even noticing that moment of pressure from a mere silver-ranker chilled Shako to the core.

Shako’s empty hand swung out, splattering Jason’s head like a rotting melon. Jason's neck chain fell to the floor as Shako then palm-slapped Jason's chest, the whole torso exploding backwards, scattering across the balcony and into the rainbow energy outside. The force of the strike warped Jason's sword, which was merely bronze-rank. It also fell to the floor.

Jason’s scattered body parts burned up in dark flame, limned in silver starlight, which merged to take the shape of a dark, star-filled phoenix. Shako started gathering transcendent light between his hands but the phoenix shot back, disappearing into the rainbow energy.

Another portal appeared next to Shako’s portal arch, this one a shimmering sheet of silver-grey light. Through it stepped Dawn in her true body. Her celestine form had ruby hair and eyes, glimmering like actual gemstones.

“That’s enough, Shako.”