Modern Awakening - A cultivation, LitRPG, apocalyptic novel

Only the gravity mage had attacked as Shen approached. He guessed they wanted him to get as far from the floating islands as possible; they believed the further he got, the surer his demise became. The gravity mage had just tried to get him killed faster by affecting his approach, while the others saved their willpower for when he got close. Once there, they planned to keep him pinned and distracted while the boss came.

That's indeed what happened when Shen arrived. They attacked, but they had no chance to hit him on solid ground. Shen had a level six D+ movement Skill. It was almost too easy to dodge the incoming spells.

He only needed to kill the gravity mage for his increased safety. However, all eleven people had betrayed him, and he had promised retribution to those who betrayed anyone.

Still, starting with the mages would make things easier. Shen used a Backstep to quickly bypass the five defenders, then easily beheaded a couple of mages.

They had shown wisdom in their tactics against him, but they were still humans. One of them panicked when Shen suddenly got right beside him and used something akin to Alicia's Hellfire Eclipse, except the flames were typical red; she had really paved the way with that spell. The idiot wanted to distract and pin Shen down, but he didn't seem to consider how stupid it was to block everyone's vision of the incoming boss.

Shen surrounded his body with Zephyr Qi to make the fiery explosions happen as far from him as possible and simply ran from there in the opposite direction from the boss.

A couple of seconds later, a huge metal foot stomped eight of them to death. Shen had killed two mages, so only a defender who had run away survived, if barely. The man was a few feet to the right of the electrical coating around the golem's foot. Shen looked at him, and the defender threw himself against the electricity, choosing to earn some extra participation points with his death.

That had been anti-climatic. Shen would have felt absolutely pissed off at wasting his free Skill level up for that if it wasn't for an important detail: he had learned a lot about Concept mastery.

He hadn't learned how to master a Concept, but he now knew what a mastered Concept looked like and what it could accomplish. The two most significant gains when mastering a Concept were the ability to deny the Concept and the potential to develop an aura.

Concept denial was an intriguing application Shen hadn't considered before. For instance, he was currently incapable of making his spearhead dull using the Concept of Sharpness. He could only push Reality in a way the Concept considered more. But once he mastered Sharpness, he would be able to turn his blade completely blunt if he wanted. More importantly, once he mastered Arc Flash, he would also be able to deny its effects on him to a point—including the resulting blast that hurt him as much as his enemies.

As for aura, it was the constant manifestation of a Concept around someone. For instance, if he mastered Zephyr, it would be as if he had a continuous layer of Zephyr Qi around him, except it would be weaker and not consume any qi. It would let him do anything Zephyr Qi could do, only less effectively than using qi directly.

So Shen needed to comprehend enough of a Concept to be able to pinpoint its existence on the fabric of Reality, take it away with precision, and passively his understanding to affect Reality around him.

The best way to accomplish that understanding was obvious: he had to live the Concept.

All of it.

The Path Resolution Tribulation had been much, much sneakier than he had given it credit for. It hadn't just tried to make his will falter; it had also attempted to make him negate the right path by pushing him toward it. It knew he would reject the push depending on how it did that. Therefore, it had told him to accept War fully by focusing on the negatives, which had made him refuse parts of the Concept and think to himself that his wars would never be like those.

However, War could be terrible, and Shen had to accept the paradox of control: he couldn't control every aspect of a war, yet at the same time, he would be able to control everything with absolute power and the will to use it. He could negate any war if he were strong enough to crush all opposition before the war even started.

A Path was a set of Concepts and Laws directed by his will rather than the Heavens. And with it all, he could affect Reality. In a way, Shen was becoming a Heaven of his own, judging right from wrong, as he had felt when he threw his weapon at traitors from above.

Was he willing to become someone who judged people from above just because he was stronger than them?

He needed to see something to help him decide.

With his level six footwork, he outran the golem. He went around it, returned to the floating steps, and from the highest one, he looked around. But he didn't look at it as if it were a trial.

He looked as if it were a real war without revivals.

There was a limited resource everyone wanted, eighty pieces of ancient power, and each would be given to one person after they passed the trial. Shen, as the strongest, had arrived and demanded one piece be his. Then, because these people were elites of sects and clans, and the Eternal Empire was at war, he had trained them using the unique environment of that trial.

As the strongest, he also established rules that weren't official trial rules. Not because anyone had given him the right, but because he had grasped that right with his own two hands.

Both the pieces of power and the space to fight for it were limited, so he demanded everyone fight among themselves for spots to fight. They had obeyed because they had no other choice. Even if he had good intentions, it was because of his power, not necessarily their agreement with his methods, that they had complied.

And then people died.

Over a thousand people died, a thousand elites needed to fight against greater enemies of the Empire, many of them by his own hands. Many more would die, and only eighty would be revived with the pieces of power once the trial was over.

Was it worth it? Had he done right? This was just a play pretend, but would he have gone through with it if this was a real war?

Shen dodged a golem's punch and decided that...

...yes, he would.

It wasn't easy. He had taken it upon himself to lead these people, so honor demanded he bears some responsibility for them. He was responsible for the twelve hundred looks of rage and sadness, greed and despair, hope and desolation on the circles surrounding the battle. His was the duty of bearing the weight of their emotions.

Yet, even carrying that weight, he couldn't deny a fundamental truth: the thirteen hundred lives in here were here because they were willing to risk it. To ignore their willingness to put their lives on the line would only dishonor them.

Likewise, he would never force anyone to fight unless there was a cause important enough, like the continued existence of everything. Shen still resented the Alliance for some changes it had done to his mind, yet he understood them better now. He would probably have made the same choices if the situation had been dire enough.

War wasn't glorious, yet it could be the right decision.

Even as he saw tired faces holding up only because of their greed, he didn't condemn them anymore. He also didn't criticize the war that forced them into it. That was just how wars were. If something was worthy enough to fight for, it was only natural to put everything on the line for that.

War wasn't glorious, but winning it could be if they fought for the right cause.

And wasn't the cause here just right? They wanted to grab an Achievement that would likely make them a little stronger, thus allowing them to protect humankind better. Of course, there was some egoism here and there, and even those who thought of the collective good weren't saints. Shen himself wanted the Achievement because he wanted the extra power too. But the result would strengthen Earth.

War wasn't glorious. It was ugly, cruel, and had far-fetching consequences. Children became orphans, men and women became widows, and parents lost their offspring in it. Yet, sometimes, it was needed.

War crimes were still crimes—yet they would happen. Betrayal had occurred in this very war, which was under Shen's control—yet at the same so beyond said control. He could only accept the harsh truth and act in one of two ways.

One, beware of those crimes and decide if a war was worth the atrocities that would inevitably happen.

Two, grow so strong his will could touch every inch of a war and thus give him absolute control over it.

A fireball hit the golem not far from him, and he followed its source to find a panting Alicia struggling to create a new fireball. Yet she persisted.

Or, he reckoned, three; find people who shared his honor, ethics, and ideals and trust them to do the right thing.

Generals weren't always the isolated, aloof kind he felt like as he looked down on every other participant. Most had advisors they trusted, seconds-in-command, a chain of command made of people that believed it what the general did—in Shen's case, in doing the right thing. If entire battalions decided to commit a war crime, the fault was ultimately the general's for taking such troops under their command and giving them free rein. Choosing well those who surrounded him was also part of War—a part the tribulation had so conveniently not shown in its illusions.

He could simply reject those with ill intentions. He could make honor a demand to enter his service, just like the Immortal Guard, the personal troops directly below the Immortal Emperor. And if he ever found himself lacking those, he had to be willing to accept the consequences.

The last thing he needed to consider was the boss.

Golems weren't living beings, but what if they were? What if a powerful creature who just wanted to live had been forced to protect the eighty pieces of ancient power? What if the people he killed on a battlefield were just fighting because their rulers forced them?

Shen didn't care. He was responsible for his people, not others. They could only surrender or accept their deaths.

Then again, what if Shen was the aggressor on a war of expansion because his people simply didn't have the space to keep growing? Was it the right thing to do? He had a responsibility to his people, not foreigners. Yet, could he justify killing others for their land and still keep his honor?

No, he couldn't; he would find another solution.

But what if his people were dying in poisoned land—regardless of whether it was of their own making or not—and their only chance was conquering someone else's land?

That was the horror of War that Shen truly feared. The tribulation had said War was both Battlefield and Warrior... and more.

This was it, the more, the final piece he was missing.

Would Shen harm the innocent to protect other innocents? It had been so impersonal in the tribulation; to hurt a little girl for quadrillions of lives. It had also been so simple; hurt a villain to protect the innocent Alicia.

But what if it was three million lives under his care against ten billion others? What if those ten billion lived in the land Shen's people needed to survive, no alternative? What if the incoming war wasn't for the greater good, only the good of three million against ten billion?

He had said he didn't know, and it had let him pass the tribulation. But if he wanted to truly master War, he needed more than the resolution to keep his Path. That's what the tribulation had tested. This was the next step.

If a genuinely hideous war, started by his very hands, was the only way forward, would he do it? Without that determination, he could never truly become a warmaster.

Shen...

...

Shen would do it.

He would kill billions to save a few million under his rule and care.

To impose the will on his Path was to become a Heaven of his own, commanding elements and people. Or maybe, it was like becoming the Immortal Emperor of his own fate and whoever it touched. His current cultivation realm was called the Fate Origin realm.

The Immortal Emperor ruled for his people, not the general good of all Reality.

Shen would do the same—for now.

For there was a way to become terrifyingly effective in war and to deny it whole. A way to conquer all creation under the banner of war and then stop it for good. The manifestation of what war was, brought, and how to deny it.

Absolute power.

Power was needed to move forth on one's Path. Power corrupted, but fear and self-doubt would cripple him. To move to the next realm, rank up, and reach the top, Shen needed to pursue power and accept all that came with it, the beautiful and the ugly both.

He had to accept all that War was, including the fact that he would one day fight in unjust wars—either by his making or by belonging to the wrong side—and that he would also be those Wars. He wasn't perfect; he had triumphed over the tribulation by realizing that.

Yet, accepting his imperfection shouldn't bring comfort; instead, it should push him toward improvement.

It shouldn't make him fearful of himself; instead, it should make him beware of other powerful beings who were as imperfect as him. Therefore, he had to grow powerful enough to oppose their bad decisions.

Shen accepted his weakness and strived for more.

He was War. Imperfect, yes, but sometimes, the only answer. And he was the answer to his Path.

With his Path, he would bring his vision upon Reality. That was the only way to accomplish what he believed in. The only way to kill the wicked and protect the innocent.

The Path of Feng Shen contained War because he understood that War, with all it entailed, was required to achieve his goals.

And Feng Shen mastered War because he would never accept anything less.

Something clicked in his mind and soul. If drawing from a Concept had been like reading from a page before, it now felt like the entire page was suddenly slammed on his brain. He understood the Concept of War entirely, even tiny details he had glossed over. He had never felt more like War than now.

That also allowed him to see the dozens, hundreds of pages that were the tiny footnotes explaining everything even better; where it came from, its purpose, how it connected to everything else. Details that could further push his understanding in smaller parts of the Concept of War.

Yet, Shen was already a master of War.

Invisible strings beyond time and space connected to the exactly ninety-three survivors and the golem. He became aware of them like never before. All paths to accomplish victory were crystal clear in his mind. All sacrifices he could make to improve everyone's damage output or even ways to make them all die—which was obviously easy—were simply obvious.

He understood better what they fought for, the emotions shown on each one's face and posture, their willpower, the troops' morale, and how failure would crush them.

Shen improved his understanding even of things War barely touched upon, like the weakness of individuals. When he looked at the final boss, he understood its weaknesses and how to exploit them. His general damage output also improved slightly because destroying one's enemy was also part of the War. He could hurt the thing now.

And yet, that wasn't even the best news.

Achievement unlocked: True Pioneer

You're the first participant of your race's Pioneer Tutorial to master a Concept.

Reward: Free stat upgrade from E+ to D-. Must be used when upgrading to D-rank.

Shen laughed in the air as he jumped away from the floating steps to avoid the golem's rotating arms.

This tutorial was harsh and cruel, yet his understanding of War strategy told him it had a purpose. He was sure this was it; this was the apex, the final goal, the true objective:

Have someone reach D-rank and use the free upgrade from mastering their first Concept to kill the final boss.

Shen had been a bit anxious about ranking up in front of the golem; he had had no idea if the system would protect him during the process.

Now, he was sure that even if the system wouldn't protect him, the tutorial would.

"Buy rank-up and use the free stat upgrade on agility," he said.

It was time to finish this.