"I had hoped that some day you would visit Zarathza with me," she said softly. "Now you—"
"Now nothing has changed," grinned Jonathan, dropping beside her and taking her soft hands between his. "Shar Bytu made me infinite, didn't he? How can Morka Kar hurt me?"
Her eyes widened in concern. "But Morka Kar is also infinite, as you put it. He will fight your mind. You do not know the sciences that Morka Kar knows. Not knowing what he can do against you, you will be helpless. He will stun your brain, drive it mad, then—destroy it."
"If I can't think as fast as that bullying windbag, I'm willing to be destroyed."
Adatha Za sounded annoyed. "It is not a question of thinking fast, although that does enter into it. It is more a matter of knowing how to oppose the weapons that Morka Kar will create to fight you."
"—that he will create?"
"Certainly. Of old on Zarathza, men carried swords and shields. Later they used percussion guns, still later, atomic disintegrators. But as the years passed into eons, and as life on Zarathza evolved, it was discovered that these weapons were of no use against a trained mind that could shoot a bolt of mental force against the weapon to destroy it. So men went naked into combat and there they thought up their weapons swiftly, through force of mind alone. Their opponents met their mental creations with defenses and weapons of their own. The more unusual the weapon, the easier it was to decide the victor."
Jonathan whistled.
"My ideas on weapons stop about at a .45 caliber automatic. A sword is useless. So's a bow and arrows. Or a spear. You say Zarathza had atomic disintegrators a long time ago, eh?"
The girl shivered.