The Court of Souls?

“In traditional Chinese culture, qì or ch'i (About this sound qì, also known as gi in Korean culture, ki in Japanese culture and Prana in Indian culture) is an active principle forming part of any living thing. Qi literally translates as "breath", "air", or "gas", and figuratively as "material energy", "life force", or "energy flow". Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts.”

- The Journey to the Afterlife

***Dedessia, the Sea of Souls, Nurien***

***Elona***

The week passed fairly quickly while we enjoyed the luxuries of Nurien. Especially the private times at night and the comfortable beds, once we discovered them. Not paying any attention to the world around us is what landed us in this blind alley with no way out.

“What have we gotten ourselves into?” I watch in horror as another pair of challengers is carried away. These are no friendly contests between two parties. Each contest is an attempt at maiming the opponent as badly as possible.

The way of conduct for these bouts is to challenge another party of your choosing. Then the challenger chooses the type of contest. Apparently it can be anything. From a game of chess to playing a song and asking the audience on who gave the better performance.

Afterwards the challenged party can accept and propose a handicap for the challenger. Once both parties agree, the bout begins. If there is no agreement, another challenge has to be made until both parties are satisfied. That's one of the reasons why the longest part of these challenges are the negotiations at the beginning.

“Blasted spirits! No wonder that most of them choose a good, old brawl!” Shade calls out and watches another pair of challengers trying to decide on what they should choose. They've been haggling with each other for several minutes.

I tilt my head and sigh. “At least they are trying to find something less... problematic.”

A fight between higher immortals can do a lot of damage to the surroundings if they decide to go all out. So most of the rougher challenges are taken outside by teleporting a short distance away from the safe zone. We can still watch the fight through various scrying orbs. They are big balls of glass that are enchanted with observation-spells.

“I wonder why nobody is challenging us?” I mumble. We've been watching the fights for over an hour, but nobody made a move on us so far. Manti and Aswang were challenged to team battles twice. They won both of them with ease. Their opponents were small fry who thought the same of Shade's allies. But while it may be true that I don't think of them as especially strong on their own, together they are formidable.

Manti relies heavily on long-range magical attacks, while Aswang is a close combat fighter. But one shouldn't make the mistake of trying to get too close to Manti. One group already tried to take out Manti by going in fast and close.

Manticores are poisonous creatures and Manti is apparently able to release a cloud of toxic gas. Together with poisonous fingernails and sufficient close combat skills to survive until the poison has done its job, attacking Manti all out is a sure-fire strategy to lose the battle.

The fact that Aswang acts as a ferocious guard doesn't make it any easier.

“They are not challenging us because they are hoping to judge our abilities by observing our reactions. Whenever we pay attention to a battle, their eyes are glued to our faces. They want to know what surprises us.” Shade gives me a sudden explanation of the situation.

“Really?” I ask a little dumbfounded. Of course I noticed the prying eyes, but I got so used to being looked at, that I thought nothing much of it. Being a succubus comes with a lot of attention. “Then why did they already challenge Manti and Aswang? They, too, are new here.”

“That's because they are supposed to be just underlings of mine. It doesn't happen often that there are many people with considerable fighting powers in the same clan. Normally the leader is the strongest. They simply went to test the weakest link first.” Shade shrugs his shoulders.

I attempt to answer, but the shout of a big thug's voice thwarts me. “I, Morello from the clan Imothep and my partner Rhia from Soistaat, want to challenge the leader of Semper Fidelis and his spouse from Carissimi.”

Spouse?! “Did he call me a spouse!?” I gasp and get to my feet.

Shade takes my hand and pats it. “There, there. I am sure he didn't mean it as an insult. Spouse is just another name for wife in some worlds. Let's see what he is up to.” Shade walks me to the centre of the big room where our challenger is waiting.

“But in most worlds I can remember, it is meant at least as disparagement.” I add quickly while following him.

Our opponent is a huge man. At least two heads taller than me and twice my width with southern features and dark skin. I am not entirely sure I should even call him human. There are monstrous muscles flexing beneath his tight shirt. Uwah, who in the world would want to do something like that to his own body. Muscles are cool on a man, but at that point it can't even be called attractive any more. Just repulsive.

His female counterpart is much more to my liking. And that has to say something since I am not into girls. She has long, blonde hair and looks almost like a normal human. If it weren't for the dark, golden hue to her skin. In a world where I had to choose between him and her, I would take her and forsake the opportunity of children.

“I challenge you to a contest of strength!” The brute points at us. To be more accurate, he points at Shade.

Shade tries to stand a little straighter, but much like myself he looks small and fragile compared to the monster in front of us. I wonder how he will fare in a contest of strength against someone like him.

“And the exact terms of our challenge?” Shade asks, unfazed by the mountain in front of him. I am so proud of him, standing up like that while the opponent clearly has more physical strength.

“Arm wrestling! One on one,” Morello answers, raising his chin. “There is no need to kill you. And taking one of the little sticks you call arms is more than enough!”

“Is that so? Well, we accept. No further rules necessary. Normal arm wrestling. As simple as that,” Shade answers.

I raise an eyebrow and look at him. “Are you sure? He is rather... big.”

Shade smiles disarmingly at me. “Of course I am sure, Dear.”

“If you don't want any handicap for me, then I accept too!” Morello pushes his female companion back to clear the stage. It's not done in a loving 'please stand aside' manner, but feels more like 'you are in the way'. She wrinkles her nose and is obviously displeased, but says nothing.

Then he grabs one of the nearby tables and places it between us. Two chairs follow in short order and Morello sits down, waiting for Shade.

I wait for Shade to take his seat, but for a few moments nothing happens. Then I feel a hand on my butt and I am pushed forward. With a squeal I stumble two steps and hold my bottom protectively. Then I turn around to look at my partner.

He raises his thumb and grins. “Go and get him, Sugar.”

There are a lot of things I want to answer, but Morello complains first. “No, no! I am not fighting your woman. I challenged you!”

“I am sorry, but you didn't say exactly which one of us you want to fight. I am not into brute force. My wife is much better suited for such tasks.” Shade urges me with both hands to take the seat.

I gasp. “You are the one who accepted! You should fight him! And I am not a brute! My arts are delicate and complicated skills! Just because you can't grasp how much skill they require, doesn't mean that there is no thinking involved!”

“Please. Let us not have a public scene here. Be that as it may, the visible outcome is one of brute force. This is a challenge of Rock, Paper, Scissors. He is Scissors, I am Paper, you are Rock. It's only logical to use the Rock to smash the Scissors.” Shade points at Morello.

“I am not fighting weak women! Come here if you think of yourself as a man!” Morello screams in rage.

“What is a man? I am not against performing my manly duties as a husband. But the strength department always belonged to my wife. She will be your opponent.” Shade gestures once more for me to take his place.

I turn around and grumble while sitting down. “You owe me! You are just lucky that this brute seems to look down on women! Otherwise I wouldn't even think about taking your place.” I raise my right hand and offer it to Morello.

Morello is shocked. For a moment he looks at me as if I am some kind of cute, little doll. Then he laughs and stands up. “I have no need to prove myself against women. If you don't want to take the challenge, then that's fine with me.”

“You already accepted! Does that mean that you are running away?” I call out so that everyone can hear.

A vein on Morello's forehead bulges and he returns to his seat. “You will regret this! Accusing me of running away when I just tried to give you a way out, Cutie. It seems like you bet on the wrong man. I won't hold back!”

I smile and wriggle my fingers. “Suit yourself. Hopefully you don't underestimate me too much. It's true that my husband is weaker when it comes to pure physical abilities.”

“Rhia! Come here and give us a countdown!” Morello commands his girlfriend and encloses my hand with his huge paw. I call it a paw because it is one. I can barely reach the ends of his palm with my fingers. Closing my hand around his is completely out of the question.

We share more than enough skin contact to allow me to suck out his energies. But I guess that wouldn't count as a fight of strength.

As we get ready I can feel him unleashing his mana reserves to enhance his physical abilities. At least he isn't taking me so lightly that he thinks he can take me with his body alone.

There is so much energy that it even creates a visible aura around him and sparks of electricity wander up and down his forearm. He is really going all out on me, but he hasn't mastered his inner magical system. Otherwise he wouldn't waste so much power by dispersing it into the environment.

I smile and call upon my own power reserves as Rhia reaches out and places her hand on top of ours. When she takes it away, it is the sign to start.

My mana fills my entire body and wanders up my arm to circulate through muscles and bones. Arm wrestling isn't just a question of arm strength. It's a technique which requires the entire body. You have to support your stability with your legs, otherwise you would simply fall over. Then you have to use your entire upper body to push.

Grabbing the corner of the table is also helpful, but just for battles without magic. I would simply break it as I am now.

As we sit there and glare at each other, Morello tries to squeeze my hand. I answer with equal force and let a small amount of my mana seep through my palm and into Morello's arm. This invasion of his being is subtle, but Morello could easily detect it if he wasn't so busily trying to crush my hand. The prickling sensation of my invasion must lose out to the pressure.

I explore the structure of the bones and muscles in his forearm. Just that. I fear that going any deeper towards his core could be detected.

There are some slight ripples in his tendons, but nothing which could give me a decisive edge. The badly healed bone close to the base of his forearm is much more interesting. It seems to be an old wound which was never treated properly. Healing powers aren't infallible and Morello didn't get it looked at properly.

There is a weakness if the force is applied in a certain angle. I smile at Morella and tilt my wrist slightly, bringing him into the proper position. Sadly this probing technique can't be used in actual battle. It takes too much time, but in cases like this one it is perfect.

“Are you ready?” Rhia asks.

I nod and Morello growls triumphantly, releasing even more power.

Releasing his battle aura in such a flashy way makes him look like some kind of Mortal Kombat fighter.

It's pitiful... wasting energy like that. Everything you disperse into your surroundings is useless for body enhancement.

“Three!”

Magic can be divided into different, basic schools. The first and most common one is to force mana out of your body and to manipulate it in order to achieve some kind of spelleffect. According to my memories all my previous reincarnations weren't exactly masterful in that branch of magic. Except for some teleportation and gravity magic. There are also a few memories of rune magic. But it's nothing which couldn't be done by thousands of others. Shade's past personas were all masters of this part of magic.

“Two!”

What my personas as a god excelled at, was the manipulation of mana inside my own body to achieve enhancing effects, or to achieve special effects. Some may call it Qi or martial arts, but it's still just a form of magic.

“One!” Rhia takes her hand away and I twist a little further, pull, and push downwards, releasing all the energy which I stored in my arm. It's a high speed technique which allows for maximum speed and power with small movements.

Snap. Krack! Krack!

I gently touch the table's surface with Morello's hand. As I forced him into the right position, his arm broke and now it is folded backwards. If it hadn't broken, Morello would have won. But as it is now, I am the winner.

It's just a little shocking that the bone broke and shattered in such an unexpected way. The stump pierced through the skin and there is also a lot more blood than I expected. It must have injured an artery on the way out.

Errr... yes, and there are the fingers. I might have crushed a few in my enthusiasm.

Morello is staring at his hand as blood pulses out of the wound with each beat of his heart. Then he looks up at me, eyes wide.

“I am so sorry. It's entirely my fault. My husband doesn't break that badly when I use a little force on him! I shouldn't have gone all out. Please get that looked at. So sorry!” I let go of his hand and back away, then I bow three times and hurry back to Shade.

He spreads his hands and grins. “Marvellous, Dear! I knew that he is no match for you. But I am surprised that he didn't scream. Must be a tough one.”

I cross my arms in front of my chest to regard Shade for a few seconds. “That's probably because he is in shock. The screaming comes when they try to set the bones. And I haven't forgotten your involvement in this!”

He gulps. Apparently he caught my choice of words. “Try to set?”

“It's a quite complicated spiral fracture, which requires advanced healing abilities. In addition, the force caused the bone to shatter on a length of four centimetres. It will be a complicated puzzle for the healers.” I raise my nose to look up at him. “So how do you intend to repay me for this setup?”

He scratches his chest, eyes flicking here and there, he is always doing that when thinking of running away. In his previous lives too!

Then his expression lights up as if he found the answer. “Sex?”

I squint my eyes and reach out. “Give me your hand.”

He raises a hand and steps away. “Nononono. I get it! Whatever you want! A date under moonlight. A favour. A present. I'll do anything which makes you happy.”

“There is no moon in this world!” I love teasing him.

“I'll make one! Just for you! Your own moon! So tell me.”

He is so loud! And people are looking at us. It feels like I am the evil one. I blow a strand of hair out of my face and sigh. “Why do you even need a reason to do all of the above with your woman?”

His expression lights up. “Oh, so that's how it works! It would have been so much easier if someone had told me beforehand!”

I bite my lower lip. “Now you are the one who is teasing me!”

“Yes.”

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