Quantum Cultivation by Jace Kang (simple e reader TXT) 📕

Ryusuke turned to Keiko. “Do you believe that your world is in danger from my world?”

She gave a tentative nod. “Yes.” Perhaps her dear sister couldn’t deny what she’d seen with her own eyes.

“Then will you help us?” He searched her eyes.

“I’ll help you escape with Aya, but that’s as much as I can promise.”

Well, that was a surprise. Maybe Keiko wasn’t such a heartless bitch, after all.

“Better than nothing.” Tossing Ken his staff, Ryusuke scooped Siena up into his arms. Unlike before, Aya felt no sense of jealousy.

Around her in the EtherSpace, the samurai Sentinels were falling to ninja—her SI representation of external viruses. If the signal jamming was any indication, the MoD was looking to take control of the Peacekeeper EtherSpace, and was using a first wave of Level Four and Five AI attackers.

“You need to hurry,” she told the others. “The EtherSpace is under attack by the MoD. I won’t be able to control the building’s internal systems much longer.”

Keiko, Kentaro, and Ryu ran through the room, jumping over and sidestepping bodies and wreckage. When they arrived at the maglift bay, the open doors to the central stairwell echoed with dozens of rushing footsteps and shouting.

Inside the Operations partition, the MoD ninjas had already decompiled the code for essential Operators; a Level Four guarded the maglift control. Using the combat code she’d unwittingly developed, she punched at it with a Water Boxing punch. The ninja sidestepped, and a blade flashed in its hand. He thrust it at her exposed flank, but she spun with it using Chen Taiji’s Cloud Hands. A deft twist of her hands plucked the knife away, and she slashed its throat with an underhand-gripped cut.

With the invading AI decompiled, she went to work taking control of the closest maglift.  It wouldn’t be long before MoD reinforcements arrived, especially since her friends were constrained by real time. She brought a maglift to their level. Once they were inside, she closed the door and took them down to the eighth floor at double speed.

With six ninja AI approaching her, she dashed to the Operations partition, which resembled a miniature layout of Peacekeeper Headquarters. She opened her interrogation room. The low-level Operators continued doing their jobs here, and she went and opened her room.

Then she jacked out. The world around her spun; real time felt like being mired in muck and swamp. Standing up on wobbling legs, she staggered to the open door and looked out. Martin and Kim lay on the floor by the threshold, and she nearly fell stepping over them.  Some of the Peacekeepers who’d tried to prevent Siena and Kentaro from reaching her now groaned as they stirred.

When Kentaro turned the corner from the maglift bay, her heart leaped. How strange it was to have an actual physiological reaction.

“Aya!” he said, running around the fallen Peacekeepers, arms outstretched.

She let him embrace her. After these last few days, real human contact had come to feel right.

“Aya.” Keiko approached.

Kentaro stepped aside, eyes darting between them. “You really do look like twins.”

Ignoring him, Keiko squeezed Aya’s hand. “Your image is everywhere. There’s nothing I can do to keep you out of trouble.”

Aya’s eyes shifted to Ryusuke, who still carried Siena despite the Elestrae’s betrayal. Then, she looked to her sister. “It’s all right. I’ve grown accustomed to life on the run. Will you let me go now?”

Chuckling, Keiko’s gaze went from Ryusuke to Ken before settling on her. “I don’t think I can stop you.  I’m just happy that you are a step closer to being whole.”

Siena stirred in Ryusuke’s arms. Groaning, her eyes fluttered open. “Ryu, please forgive me. I had to.”

“I can’t.” He set her down, frowning as he searched her eyes.

“We’ve been looking for a power source like that for centuries. I—”

“Aran told us,” Aya said, seeing little point in wasting oxygen on whatever lie Siena planned to tell.

Ryusuke nodded in agreement. “You’ve seen what is happening with the open portals. You’ve seen what Earth’s Ministry of Defense can do. This could mean a war between worlds, and one where neither side has defenses against the other.”

The Elestrae hung her head. “I’ll help you think of a way to close the portals.”

“Right now, you need to think of a way to escape.” With a wave, Keiko backed away.

Was this the last time Aya would see her sister? Something unpleasant churned in her stomach.

“Can you help us fight our way out of here?” Ryu asked Siena.

“I have a better way. I’ve been channeling from my Core. Once I’m replenished, I can whisk us away.”

Ryu held out a green pill.

Smiling, Siena took it, then popped it in her mouth. “Where do you want to go?”

“Honnoji Temple.”

Taking their hands, Siena spoke a word.

The world swirled around them, the sensation just as disorienting as when she’d taken Aya and Ryu into battle against the Kappa.

When Aya blinked her eyes, a wooden Shinto gate with pitched tiled eaves rose before them. The words ‘Honnoji Temple’ were emblazoned in the ancient language on a white plaque, which reflected in the moonlight.

Chapter 40:

The Purebred

W ith Ken’s interest in military history, he was excited to visit Honnoji Temple. It was here that the famous warlord Oda Nobunaga, the first great unifier of Japan, had been betrayed by his retainer, Akechi Mitsuhide.  The temple had burned that night, and Nobunaga’s body was never found.

If what the Elestrae Aran had said was true, the sphere found within the well here was a real Dragon Pearl, and that’s what had kept the portals between worlds closed.

Entrusted with Master Ryu’s staff, Ken felt his heartbeat pick up. They walked through the gate