Beyond Gods 57 Genghis Khan's Mongolia

Miss Obama smiled at Johan and said, "Kwan often makes these artifacts by himself and due to his unique high level skill sets and accomplishments, every item he gives out is often invaluable even for a person like me. Even among the ancients, his accomplishments in some cases can be comparable. You are truly fortunate."

"Incredible," whispered Johan glancing down at his hand.

They walked out of the warehouse and Miss Obama said, "While me and Rey gather the rest of the soul stones, I think we can make better use of our time if we were to split up. I'll send you to the node Genghis Khan is at."

Johan froze upon hearing Miss Obama's words. From what he knew about Mongolia during the period of Genghis Khan, it had been a hard and unforgiving land filled with murderous war lords and an unforgiving terrain spa.r.s.e of vegetation.

Being there alone was akin to a death sentence.

"I'll die if I go alone," said Johan. "I don't even know where to start looking for him or how to use the inter-spatial ring."

"I'll find you once Rey is back to normal," said Miss Obama ignoring Johan's comment. "To see what is in the ring, just focus on it. It is triggered by your perception."

Miss Obama casually waved her hand.

FOOOOSSHHHH!

Johan was flung backwards by an invisible force into the spatial rift.

"Ahhhh!," yelled Johan in surprise.

A bright light blinded him and seconds later Johan was lying on the ground, alone, in the middle of a cold barren desert that was spa.r.s.e of vegetation and full of sand dunes. The sun shone high in the morning sky. Johan hugged himself s.h.i.+vering from the cold.

Miss Obama had acted without forewarning and without giving him time to prepare himself.

"This must be Mongolia's Gobi desert," muttered Johan frowning and accepting his situation.

Genghis Khan had been a conqueror who had caught Johan's attention during his history cla.s.ses. Partly, because he was the only non-western conqueror of note that had stood out. Johan had read tales about Genghis above and beyond what was necessary because of his uniqueness. He had conquered more of the world than any sole western ruler and tales of his battles, time as a slave, betrayal by those closest to him, womanizing and deeds were widely spoken of all over the world to this day.

SSSSQQQUUWWWWAAAKKKKKKKK!!!!!

A lone black bird let out a cry as it flew in the sky high above him, snapping Johan out of his thoughts. Johan gazed at it and watched it fly away into the distance.

"You would think that the future wife of the first black American president," muttered Johan in despair, "wouldn't make such an inconsiderate plan ..."

A tumble weed blew across the desert in front of him.

"... but then again, she did mold Rey's view of feminism."

Johan glanced around looking for signs of human life and couldn't see any. The light cold breeze blew the sand slowly and would cover up any footprints people had left walking through this area before him within ten minutes.

He didn't know the first thing about navigation, surviving in the wild, or tracking people ... he hadn't had a reason to. But now they were skills he now wished he had taken the time to learn. His situation wasn't looking good.

Johan realized that pondering his situation would get him nowhere, so he started walking in the direction the bird had flown, reasoning that it would head towards the closest food source.

The cold gnawed at Johan like daggers. But soon he learnt to ignore it. Continuously harsh high intensity training and spending years in the pit had gotten Johan used to being in a constant state of discomfort. At times he and Neil had gone on with fractured bones forcing themselves to continue to climb up the pit. Their improvement had not come without injury. His struggles coupled with food from the labyrinth in a mana rich environment made him much more resilient and hardy than the majority of human's from earth. A lesser man dressed in a tee-s.h.i.+rt and pants as Johan was would have succ.u.mbed to the cold in a day.

Johan walked and sometimes jogged continuously for three days and nights without food or water. Alone in the desert, he more aware of himself and his body than usual. He realized that as time progressed he was being weakened by an invisible force that seemed to be normalizing him to normal human attainable levels.

The days were cold and the nights colder. He didn't sleep, afraid that if he did, the cold or some stray animal would put an end to him. Periodically, he saw snow leopards and other animals in he distance curiously eyeing him, but they kept their distance.

The weather and lack of food in a desert with sub-arctic temperatures coupled with a ma.n.a.less environment took its toll on him. Dark bags formed underneath his eyes, his lips dried and peeled, and he lost a noticeable amount of weight.

But Johan soldiered on.

When he felt like giving up and lying down, images of his parents powerlessly murdered and Armyka's smirk flashed in his mind. His time in the pit when he had often almost given up.

A women who had taken everything from him on a whim, without reason.

... she was sinister.

His feelings for her were a source of hate that drove Johan on.

He would not let her win by dying.

After three days to Johan's delight, the desert gave out to land with spa.r.s.e weed like gra.s.s growth. Johan gobbled down the gra.s.s desperate to get something into his stomach and puked it out when it didn't agree with him.

"I need real food," croaked Johan, "and water ..."

He wasn't used to going so long without food.

NNNNNNEEEEEIIIIGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!

In the distance Johan heard the bray of a horse followed by the chatter of a group of men. After having weathered the Mongolian desert's terrain for three days and nights alone, hearing those voices was like hearing the hymns of angels.

"This must be the Mongolian Steppe," muttered Johan, "where Genghis's clan would often settle themselves. Otherwise, I am in China ... which I pray I am not."

Johan followed the source of the sounds to find numerous tents setup in the distance and several soldier's wearing fur garments some with horses who seemed to follow them around like dogs. Men and women of various races cold congregating together among the tents. The sun had begun setting in the sky and some were setting up fires around camp.

Upon closer inspection, Johan realized many were armed with swords or bows. This made him cautious. Despite having trained in different marital arts, a trained solider could end his life in a second using a weapon. He decided to keep his distance and approach the camp fire under the cover of night in order to get a better feeling for the men.

Night fell and Johan approached the camp cautiously still keeping to the shadows in order to better hear the men. They had broken out drinks and meats and were feasting and chattering happily. Some were cooking and the sweet smell of roasting meat reached Johan's nose causing his stomach to rumble.

He crawled within hearing distance of a group of men sitting around one of the camp fires.

"So who was the girl?," asked a solider wearing a red fur. He had blue eyes and blonde hair.

"Maybe she was a princess," said a black African solider wearing blue fur, "Not sure. But she has the b.a.l.l.s to say she and her people were better than us. Said we were disgusting and dirty. She says this all in front of Khan!"

"Oh s.h.i.+t!?," laughed red fur, "he must have killed her!"

"No," laughed blue fur, "he walks out, knocks her to the floor pulling up her skirt and does her in front of all of us. Out in the open!"

"BWWAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! HA! HA! HA! HA!," bawled all the soldiers around the campfire, "BWAHA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!"

"AND HE DOESN'T EVEN MAKE HER HIS WIFE!," yelled out blue fur. "HE HANDS HER OFF TO ALEXANDER! THE GUY THAT CAUGHT THOSE WEIRD SORES ALL OVER HIS BODY THAT HE CAN'T GET RID OF! THE ONES HE GIVES ALL HIS WIVES!"

"AH HA HAAAA HA HAA!," bawled the soldiers laughing even harder.

"THE DOG IS STRIPPED OF ALL ITS PRIDE," laughed the red fur, "SHE IS NOW LESS THAN A DOG!"

This man Genghis was Kwan's good friend!? thought Johan to himself.

"My new wife just gave in during the last raid our group did," laughed the blue fur man, "I guess cutting her husband's head off in front of her does that! Works better for making the new dogs bite their tongues instead of barking!"

It was clear that these men were nothing more than murdering, vicious rapists and crooks. Everything Johan had read about.

Johan's stomach churned when he realized that he was going to have to befriend a rapist ... maybe even a community of rapists, in order to get the information to get out of this array and pa.s.s the trial.

Yet, he had no other choice.

But on the bright side, he knew he had found Genghis's men. Now all that was left to be done was to find the man himself.