“Come on, Junior toon Commander! Get it together!”


    I clenched my fists and teeth as Jei Su Long’s obnoxious crooning drilled into my ears. Even my mask of indifference was starting to slip as his constant badgering threatened to push me over the edge. It was only the fact that I knew that that was exactly the result he wanted, that kept me fromshing out and pummeling the little bastard in front of the entire battalion of army personnel.


    It was our third day on the Xing Long and I was assembled with my toon within therge hanger that I now knew to be the main assembly point for the military personnel on board. Ship time was training time, or so I quickly came to understand and one thing the army did better than anyone else, was marching drills.


    In Du Gok Bhong, we learned the basics of military formations and drill routines, but we were like rank amateurspared to even the most basic of the soldiers here. Normally, the Legionnaire toon on board would be on the viewing side of such activities, taking in the various drill routines andpetitions as entertainment.


    But the dumb asshole Jei Su Long decided to make uspete against the other soldiers, putting me in charge while he and his uncle lounged on the dais next to the General and watched us make fools of ourselves. With but a hour’s notice and practice, we were now trying to replicate theplex drill routines that the infantrymen knew from the depts of their souls.


    “This isplete bullshit,” Juk Sui muttered as we failed yet another attempt to get the routine right. “Why are we being subjected to this loss of face?”


    “Because that’s what the <em>Senior</em> Commander wants,” I said with just as much venom, but I had to at least try to keep my men’s morale intact. “Just deal with it for now. Remember our true mission.”


    “But he brings us shame, Commander,” Jin Po, a stocky cultivator with deep brown skin and green eyes said. “We are being mocked as Graduate Legionnaires bymon foot soldiers!”


    His fellow countrymen, Li Hei and Ben Wu both nodded in agreement.I nced about at the barely-out-of-their-teens infantrymen who were stomping around us in their polished boots with ease, performing the drill routines wlessly. I couldn’t sense any maliceing from any of them. If anything, there was even a little lemonade from being able to see us Legionnaires up close.


    “Don’t worry about it,” I said. “These guys have nothing but respect for us still. Trust me.”


    I nced back up at the dais where Jei Su Long was pping like an idiot for thetest infantry toon on disy. It burned me up inside. He was doing all this because of me, forcing my men to face disrespect just because he wanted to embarrass me personally.


    <em>Little prick</em>, I thought.


    But I held my mask of indifference as I put shoulder to the task and reformed my men for another attempt. I barked out the orders, barely remembering them myself. About half of them had gotten it, but poor Dim Wei had two left feet.


    The whole thing was frigging ridiculous.


    We passed by the other ten toons on disy, and I suddenly felt a strong sense of anger. I looked for where it wasing from and noticed one of the Infantry toonmanders staring at me. I shot him a questioning look and he quickly broke eye contact with me, ncing away as his soul spiked with fear.


    <em>What the hell? </em>


    I decided to pay him no mind and kept up the effort performing the drill routine, but in the end, it was all for naught. We screwed it up just like the previous six times and were finally kicked out of the event. Mumbles and curses filled the ranks as I pulled my toon to the side and away from the remaining teams.


    It took Jei Su Long a whole ten minutes to realize we weren’t in thepetition anymore and when he finally did, he jumped off the dais and stormed towards us like the pissed off <em>Karen</em> he was.


    “Why have you shamed us so, Iron Bull?” he shouted. “Can you not do what even these lowly soldiers can?” He then smirked. “Clearly this proves the President’s wisdom in cing me over you as Senior toon Commander.”


    He paused as if to make a big show of it.


    Like he had done all this just to give him the tform to make such a ridiculous statement. As for the intended audience, thankfully not a soul in my toon was buying it.


    “Wisdom indeed,” I said with a shit-eating grin. “By making you Senior Commander you can now observe from a safe distance while Imand on the ground. Just like you did today.”


    That got a few snickers and he immediately turned beet red with anger. “Who justughed?”


    “I didn’t hear anything,” I said dismissively. “Anyway, just remember our orders, Senior toon Commander. Up here you’re in charge, but on the ground… it’s me.”


    His face twisted into a scowl, and he opened his mouth as if to say something else, but his words were drowned out by a ring xon that resounded throughout the hanger. Immediately the drillpetition ended and the soldiers on the square quickly fell into their normal battalion formation.


    Jei Su Long looked about dumbfounded, not knowing what to do.


    I stepped in front of him and issued themands to get us in rank and file.


    “Ah… good!” Jei Su long said after he realized what I was doing. “Yes, get them in line Junior Commander.”


    I let out another restrained sigh as Jei Su Long took his ce to my left, heading up the toon. Infantryman Wei then took a spot next to him as our liaison.


    The ship’s Captain, Li Jeng appeared and immediately met with the general along with Jei Su Long’s uncle, Hai Su Long on the dais. After a brief conversation they all seemed to nod to one another and then Captain Li Jeng disappeared while General Gong took center stage.


    “Battalion!” he shouted and the entire contingent of soldiers brought themselves to attention. “Listen clearly. Our missing of the first gate and our detour into the core worlds seems to have been guided by the fates. We have just received an imperialmunication that a fringe world has been impacted by a fallen Cursed Star. We are fortunate to be the closest vessel to respond. I have given orders to Captain Li Jeng to change course for the El D’shar. As a fringe world, defending it from this cmity will bring our battalion much honor. Reports indicate that it is a C ss event, which also falls in our favor. We have faced worse and thus this battle should be routine, but do not growcent.” He then turned to smile towards my toon. “Let us show our honored guests that we can do more than simply march.”


    He paused for augh and the battalionughed with him.


    “Time to reach El D’shar is 14 hours. The order is rest and preparation. We will make fall as soon as we enter orbit. Battalion dismissed!”


    * * *


    Being in the army was the definition of hurry up and wait.


    Or so I was learning.


    After rushing around like banshees for a couple of hours, grabbing gear, prepping drop skiffs and mming down chow, the entire ship went silent for a solid eight hours of rest and recovery before the assault.


    For me, I found a ce where I could get some peace and quiet.


    I sat in lotus position, staring out at the stars in the forward observation port, behind one of the gigantic eyes of the celestial dragon ship. That was how the cultivators referred to it, I’d learned. A celestial dragon. And to be fair, I could find no better way to describe it myself.


    I let my mind drift as my body drifted through the cosmos at unimaginable speed.


    I had no idea how far away El D’shar was, but to get there in only 14 hours sounded like they had to be hauling ass. As I reflected inwardly, I extended my peace and solitude by venturing onto thekeside beach back home, tucked away in the core of my mind’s eye.


    The red-hued Struggler of my secondary soul was there, greeting me with a wave.


    It was still a bit odd to see <em>him</em> and not my usual twin selves of the Demon and the Struggler chilling around the camp fire, but it was confirmation yet again of my ascension.


    I still hadn’t had time to decently reflect on that.


    My increase in power was one thing, but now I needed to find a new path to progression as well. The Sacred Soul Realm wasn’t the end, in fact it was only the beginning if I wanted to face down the likes of the Princess and whoever else would stand in my way.


    The question now was…how?


    I summoned the shuras in my mind’s eye and considered the techniques I still had yet to master. There were the advanced manifestation techniques such as [Spectral Form] which would turn me into my red-hued doppelganger in the real world and [Furnace of the Frenzied me] which would turn the real world into my own personal version of hell.


    Or something like that.


    While the information was there, I ran into the same issue as when I first started learning from the shuras. They were written in a way that assumed you were already skilled at cultivation at a base level. For me, I had to figure out how to be a Sacred Soul Realm cultivator first.


    There was only so much I could glean from the library at Du Gok Bhong.


    But maybe there would be an opportunity still.


    One just on the horizon.


    Jei Su Long’s uncle had mentioned forcing us into some kind of pit stop on a core world. Surely a ce like that would have ess to any manual you could think of. And with my status as a Graduate Legionnaire, I probably had the clout to gain that ess too.


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The Struggler grinned at me as he nodded slowly.


    “Yeah, you know what I’m thinking, you bastard,” I said with augh.


    At first, I was pissed off as hell about this detour dying me from getting to the Hell Worlds and eventually back home. But maybe this was all the me again, guiding my path. When would I have gotten ess to a core world before now?


    Of course, I had no idea how I’d even navigate or go about such a thing as snagging a Sacred Soul Realm cultivation manual from somewhere. But now that it held some possibility, I had to put my mind to it.


    * * *


    The ride down to side was bumpy as hell.


    I was strapped into my harness along with the rest of my toon, but we were joined by General Gong and Governor Tai Su Long, along with several of their aides, being in the mainmand skiff. It was a great honor to be numbered among them, or so we were told in the final assembly before we were rushed to theunch bays of the Xing Long for deployment.


    The main toons were sardine canned inside skiffs the size of cargo nes and then thrust into space against the backdrop of a vibrant green and blue sphere that was the El D’shar. I had watched two of them depart via a small view port before we ourselves were ushered inside themand skiff.


    As we leveled out, Infantryman Wei gave a signal for us to undo the harnesses and once we had all unstrapped, he gave a second signal for us to stay clear of the walls. We huddled around a center console in the middle of the skiff and then to my surprise, the roof and sides of the craft began to peel back in segments, turning the enclosed craft into a normal side skiff again.


    The hurricane st of rushing air hit me at what had to be over a hundred miles an hour, but I reacted swiftly with a cycling of my Frenzy to keep me glued to the deck. My legionnaires instinctively did the same, some stumbling a little, but the military personnel on board seemed well prepared for it, not flinching a bit.


    Bright sunshine spilled from a radiant aqua blue sky, dotted with clouds. Being out in the open, the sight was freeing in more ways than one. I’d been stuck in prison cells and tin cans for months and the sky above Du Gok Bhong was nowhere near as pretty as this.


    I could sense the same from my men as they basked in the sunlight looking skyward, grins on their faces. As we dropped more altitude and slowed further, we punched through anotheryer of clouds and a vastndscape appeared below us.


    We all instinctively edged towards the railing on the skiff’s side and leaned over for a better view. There wasnd as far as I could see, t and cultivated with farms and forest all cut into checkerboard squares. Lakes and rivers ran between thend and then slowly the topography changed, bing dotted with small viges and then what appeared to be a vast city emerged, something that had to be ten times the size of Jurin province.


    Huge pagoda like towers and monuments stood between thousands upon thousands of smaller buildings. For a moment I wondered if even here I could find the knowledge I sought. But the thought was scattered when smoke came into view. We dipped even closer to the surface, perhaps just a couple hundred feet up and the stillness of thendscape suddenly grew rife with chaos and turmoil as we drew closer.


    At what appeared to be the perimeter of the city was a sea of demons that were breaching an outer wall and pouring into the streets. Fires were breaking out everywhere as monsters the size of buildings demolished everything in their path.


    One of the battalion carriers was already on site,nded in a field just outside the city. Thousands of troops were pouring forth and attacking the demons from the rear. It all yed out like a wargame as General Gong began tapping things on a Qi screen built into the center console of the skiff.


    “Gold Company is addressing the major breach in this area,” one of his aides reported. “Jade and Saphire are quelling the same to the west. Ruby is defending a town further north that ispletely under siege.”


    “What of the strike zone?” General Gong said.


    “Reports indicate it is a hundred miles North-East. No visual of it as yet.”


    “Let’s get there then,” Gong said. “Bring Onyxpany with us. We’ll start softening the impact zone while the rest of the battalion stabilizes the area here. Once done, give orders for Saphire to remain on defensive rotation while Ruby, Jade and Gold reinforce Onyx at the strike zone.”


    “Yes sir,” the aide said and immediately began punching things into the console.


    I marveled for a moment at it all and what the aide was now doing in particr.


    They had to have some form of instantaneousmunication to ry themands, the same as how they received the initial distress call while in space. But it wasn’t like they were talking into a mic or anything. It was like he was tapping out Morris code or something.


    “Hey,” I said to Infantryman Wei. “How is he rying thosemands?”


    “Huh?” he said, looking at me confused.


    “How is he getting the general’smands to the otherpanies?”


    He frowned a little. “Have you no concept of Qi stone pairing?”


    I shook my head. “I’m from a real backwater world. We don’t even have an Omni Gate.”


    I still wasn’t sure what an Omni Gate even was, but I knew we didn’t have one.


    “Whenbined with aetherite, Qi stone pairs can resonate across vast distances near instantaneously,” he said pointing to the console. “There are identical consoles on eachmand vessel with matching pair sets. They mimic what we do and see here.”


    “Ah!” I said. “So it <em>is</em> sort of like Morris code then.”


    “Like what?”


    “Never mind.”


    But it made me wonder why they still made us send physical letters and shit. Maybe it was just less expensive, or more likely, it was just another way to keep the elite the elite while usmoners remained the scum of the universe and had to rely on snail mail.


    The thought sparked my me and I went back to viewing the conflict below to quell my ire. Gold Company was making a good push into the demon horde from behind. From our height, I couldn’t tell what kind of demons they were, but obviously they weren’t the Cursed Star born variety.


    But clearly, they weren’t from a Bloodmoon gate either.


    “Hey Wei, one more question,” I said calling him over again. “What are these Cursed Star falls exactly? Do theye from the Cursed Stars themselves?”


    “In a way,” he said. “They areets caused by the remnants of Bloodmoons that explode.”


    I did a double take. “Bloodmoons explode?”


    He shrugged. “Sometimes. These are the results.”


    <em>Shit</em>, I thought.


    I’xol’ukz had all kinds of jacked up ways to spread his ilk.


    But it made sense in a way.


    I looked at the conflicts more closely and saw what had to be your everyday cultivators defending themselves in the streets. I then realized that something was missing.


    “These ces don’t have barriers like on Bloodmoon worlds, do they?”


    Wei shook his head. “It’s our job to protect them.” He then pointed down into the fray, where barricades were set up in the middle of the streets and defended by soldiers and martial sect cultivators alike. “It appears we came just in time. The local regiments are taxed and about to fall.”


    He was right.


    The civilians and local military personnel were overwhelmed.


    And without a barrier to retreat into, everyone down there was fair game.


    The thought brought an unsettling to my soul that stirred my me, my twin Dao kicking in. I had to defend these people too. And as much as I hated the imperial system, if I didn’t defeat the Cursed Stars on their home turf, more meteors or cursedets like this would fall.


    We finally headed away from the city towards where the strike zone was. The ground below us was dotted with wandering demons and it made me wonder if there wasn’t some minor effect from the meteor that mirrored that of the Bloodmoon.


    “Do these Bloodmos caused people to mutate into demons?” I asked Wei.


    He raised a brow at me, almost as if surprised I would ask such a thing. “For those unlucky enough to be caught in the initial st, yes. But that phenomenon is not well known. The meteor bes dormant after that. Did you study such things at the academy?”


    I wobbled my head. “Sort of. Demon hunting is sort of a hobby of mine.”


    He chortled. “Interesting. It was lucky this fallen star onlynded close to a small town. If it hadnded within the city, this would have easily been an A ss event. The demons would have been in millions.”


    <em>Poor bastards</em>, I thought as I looked down at the demons with new eyes.


    They were likely all just victims too.


    The topography changed yet again as we neared what had to be the strike zone. The earth was scorched and barren, like it had been ravaged by a wildfire. Wandering through were even thicker hordes of demons and then finally I saw the Cursed Fallen Star for myself.


    Nestled in a crater that had to be five miles wide was a reddish-brown hunk of space rock that was smoldering with heat. It was as big as an office building and filled with cracks that spewed new demons from within.


    From the size of it, there was no question now that over half the demons we’d seen had to havee from people being mutated. I couldn’t sense any Dark Frenzying from it from where I was, but the subtle <em>stench</em> of it was in the air.


    The drop skiff of the Onyx battalion was already on the ground and the soldiers from it were spilling from the gangway to engage the demons head on. As we got closer, I could see they operated much like the phnx crews back at Du Gok Bhong, working in formations that leveraged their numbers over their individual strengths.


    They made good headway taking outrge numbers at a time, but their assault on the meteorite wasn’t without incident. As the demons retaliated from the surprise attack, they mmed into Onyx Company’s formations brutally. Bodies of soldiers went flying into the air,nding within the hordes to be torn apart.


    It was maddening and sickening to watch.


    Jei Su Long and his uncle however seemed oblivious to it all, pping and cheering like they were still watching the damn drillpetition. I grimaced, feeling my me churning within like a caged beast.


    “General Gong,” I said as I approached him with a small bow. “Would you allow my legionnaires to assist? I feel awkward standing here and doing nothing while men die.”


    “Nonsense!” Tai Su Long said, apparently overhearing me. “These soldiers are meant to die. Let them im their honor. You would cause them to lose face by bailing them out of trouble now.”


    General Gong merely smiled. “The Governor speaks wisely. I appreciate your offer of assistance, but attending to something like this is far below your station, toon Commander.”


    “Or perhaps not,” Jei Su Long said, joining in the conversation. “This One is from a lowly colony world after all.” He thenughed. “For that reason, I will forgive your impudence of a request to the General outside of mymand, Iron Bull. Recall your own words. On the ground you are in charge, but up here… it is <em>I</em>.”


    I stifled my anger with [Indifference]. “So it seems.”


    Jei Su Long and his uncle shared augh together and resumed their viewing of the battlefield. General Gong pped me on the shoulder with a smile.


    “Do not mind them,” he whispered. “They are core-worlders. It is their way. And I do indeed appreciate your offer of supp—”


    His words cut short as a deafening p of thunder belted the air with a tremendous <em>BOOM!</em>


    Everyone on the skiff ducked instinctively at the sound, but it took us a second more to realize where it hade from. Below a huge crack had formed in the meteorite, splitting it nearly wide open. Whatever shock wave had caused the thunder had mmed into half the toons within Onyxpany, killing the men instantly.


    <em>Holy shit…</em>I thought.


    But then I saw something even worse.


    An enormous, scaled leg stepped through the crack in the meteor, followed by a pair of wed hands that gripped the crack at its side and tore it further apart. A monster that had to be six stories tall emerged and bellowed a roar from below. Even from our distance it caused my ears to hurt. Its body was bestial in form, like a gori with red hued scales, but its head was like that of a lion with a flowing mane. On its back were a pair of wings that looked far too small for its size. The closest thing I could describe it to was perhaps a manticore.


    I looked to General Gong and his face had gone pale.


    “Send emergencymunicate to allpanies!” he shouted. “The fallen star was concealing a Thrantor! This is no longer a C ss event! Esction is now at S ss. Order allpanies to fall back to our position to engage!”


    “But General!” his aide said. “Allpanies are deeply engaged already. It they withdraw now we will lose the city.”


    “To hell with the city!” Gong said. “If that monster has time to develop its wings, it will be airborne and wipe out this entire!”


    My me stirred. “My offer still stands, general. Let me and my men deal with that monster down there while your otherpanies defend the city.”


    He paused a moment and then looked to Jei Su Long and his uncle for ascent. “I would indeed take that offer of help now, Senior Commander.”


    Jei Su Long red at me, his anger palpable. He then nced up at his uncle. Tai Su Long merely shrugged offering the decision back to him.


    Long seconds passed as all eyes fell on Jei Su Long.


    He looked to the ground, his eyes shifting, calcting.


    “No,” he said finally, and everyone’s jaws dropped. “I will not have the junior toonmander’s errant directive to assist be qualified by myself. This is a duty below that of a legionnaire. We are trained to fight upon the Hell Worlds. Let these here earn their honor and glory for the empire upon their own merit. Your decision is overruled…Junior toonmander.”


    General Gong was speechless.


    Governor Tai Su Long however nodded in approval. “Well said. I believe the Senior toon Commander has given his decision, general. Your men are on their own.”


    Jei Su Long then smirked at me, as if he had just won some kind of battle. That he had one upped me in front of everyone, but at the cost of perhaps millions of lives. I couldn’t believe it. My me erupted with the outrage of my twin Dao.


    “Are you frigging serious, man?” I shouted at him. “This is about more than just your damn ego!”


    Tai Su Long reeled back in shock. “H-how dare you speak out of turn!”


    “You are to be reprimanded!” Jei Su Long said. “You cannot speak to me like that! You are but the Junior toon Commander!”


    “The hell I am!” I said as I grabbed my Axe and ive. “I am <em>the</em> toon Commander and by order of President Tzu Lu Zen himself, I holdmand over the toon when on the ground.”


    I then hopped onto the railing of the skiff.


    “And when I hit the ground, my order is this.” I flew into the air with [Lightning Walk]. “Follow me.”