Note on Upcoming Chapters

My plans for this project.

Pon's path is set, there have only been a few minor changes from the original concept that came to me in a dream.

I simply haven't gotten around to actually fleshing out this timeline.

Here is how the story would unravel, though:

Pon returns to his world as the last Spirit Knight, granted inhuman strength and endurance as well as higher density and stamina.

Pon saves the lives of two miscreants he accidentally put in critical condition.

Pon sets out from a humble part time job seeking adventure, having been given the forgiveness of the men he injured and the justification he desired.

**SPOILERS**

Pon is stalked through a forest from the perspective of an elf guarding her borders.  In the dead of night the elf attacks Pon assuming they are actually asleep despite Pon sitting with his legs crossed.  The elf comes to the conclusion that Pon is not human after having their blade broken by his bare hands.

From Pon's perspective again, he enters the city only to find it's inhabitants fleeing due to a large naval attack on the port.  Soon after Pon learns of the superior range of the cannons off shore.  Pon takes a running start and sinks two of the boats before taking the third hostage and directing to shore.  The remaining six ships flee in fear of the unknown weapon and the treachery of the third ship.

It is revealed that a great engineer of the opposing nation, whose capital is well defended between the northern mountains and peninsula, has accidentally discovered advanced ballistic technology based on the concept of ridges in the cannon barrels causing the rounds to spin: which increased the effective range beyond what the southern nation can match.  Pon himself first discovers the changes in the barrel and then questions the men before meeting with the king's court and his "wizard."

An arms race begins as the "wizard" uses their nations superior metal quality to craft smaller portable cannons with the improved barrels, but complains of no method of rearmament past the first round.  Pon suggests allowing the rifle to be loaded from another end, but the discussion is cut short as Pon is summoned by the King's brother to attend the court war council.

Pon reluctantly arrives and is immediately tasked with charging the land border towards the mountains.  Pon is insulted by the order and threatens to kill the King only to be talked down by the king's brother.

Pon charges the northern border and finds immediate praise among the king's men as well as the enemies who flee from his path after word spreads of him fighting for days on end never to suffer a wound while countless men die around him.  Even as they flee in his immediate presence, it is never until Pon actually arrives that they beg because his feats are so incredible that few believe them until seeing it first hand.  On one such occasion an officer driven mad by his failure against Pon goes alone to meet with him, and instead of anger or opposition greets Pon as a subordinate and asks him what he is supposed to do.  Pon asks him to gather all of their weapons and armor into a pile, then await the southern army to greet them as refugees.

Pon finds traces of the dark aura nearby the withered pines at the foot of the mountain.  Upon inspection Pon comes across a group of Greenskins assembling a spawning pit for their young to develop, and slaughters them without a second thought.  He tells no one of where hes been or what he has seen.

At the foot of the mountain Pon is finally outmatched by improved mobile rifles based on the wizards designs, but with the addition of a top mounted reload and trigger method allowing for vastly superior fire rate.  While his nearly metallic skin protects him from being fatally wounded, Pon suffers damage while retreating from the hail of bullets.  When questioned of what had occurred Pon claimed it was a tactical decisions to retreat in anticipation of yet more riflemen lying ahead.

Without a way to know how many and where their enemies are, they are unable to safely continue into the mountains by land. Pon helped build a stronghold from the dying woods and instructs the soldiers stationed there to rotate between surveying all fronts, secluded training, and rest.  It was more their jobs to gather information than defend their position and they needed to be ready to cover their own escape at any time.

Pon attempts to return to the southern capital only to realize his sister is changing and unwell with the dark sickness.  He resolves to storm the Northern Capital and find answers about the dark presence in that land.

Sailors and military officers of the northern nation share stories of a shark that has acquired a taste for hard tack.  Supposedly, the shark breaks straight through the hull of the ship and grabs containers of food before disappearing into the depths.  While it's not very large, it's extremely fast and must be incredibly heavy, because the entire ship rocks as it strikes.  The meeting concludes with stories that claim it's not a shark at all, but some sort of monster merfolk traveling in a clear path towards the capital.  One of them mentions that the empire's been having some extreme bad luck recently, first with the unstoppable warrior Pon, and now this thieving sentient shark.

Pon fights his way through the capital city, beating each line of defense with his unmatched speed, power, and prowess as a tactician; only ever stopped momentarily by old knights with superior strategy.  One of these tacticians had previously set up the ambush at the foot of the mountains, and claimed to have yet more in store just for Pon further down the pass.  Now, he has evacuated the inner city into the palace and set the entire city alight with the whale oil previously traded with the south, now in excess.  Pon, to the tacticians dismay, was immune to temperatures below five hundred degrees due to his metallic reinforced body.

As the failed northern monarch is visited by one official after another over the crisis the capital is facing, he informs each and every one of them with increasing dismay that they can do nothing but surrender, and throw themselves upon the mercy of the south.  He is having intermediate schizophrenic hallucinations of his father, the former king, consoling with him over this tragedy.  The mad Pon enters the room covered in the blood of the final defenses.  The king is already on his knees  before Pon, handing his crown up to the conqueror.

Pon, as lightly as he is capable, hits the King aside and dislocates his shoulder.  Pon questions the king of the darkness in the lands.  The king explains that a war god had visited his dreams and claimed his people could thrive for a hundred years by subjugating the south.  The blessings were few, though.  Firstly, it was the insight behind the cannons, and then the rifles.  More importantly, though, the god saw fit to buy time while Pon was at the foot of the mountains.  Pon claims not to care, he only wishes to know how to cure the taint.  The king claims there is no taint, only spirits are affected by the War God's presence.  Pon holds the king up by the collar and asks why the king mocks him so, that his sister is obviously sick.  The king explains that he understands the pain.  He has been speaking with his father all day.  He thanks Pon, because he is finally able to let his father rest.  The former monarch is released and Pon now drops to his knees, sobbing the name Sebil as the monarch exits the room.

Thus is the story of Pon, the last spirit knight.