Book 6. Chapter 18 |
Shit, not again, I thought.
How the hell was I going to rescue a planetary spirit in distress while also protecting my team from a horde of incoming behemoths? Then again, how could I not try to do both? The thought of T’huet being under siege from a Deep Dweller raised the stakes another notch. I hadn’t planned on visiting the planet’s core, but now that she’d sensed me, I couldn’t turn my back on her.
Especially as I was literally helping myself to a portion of her crystalized soul for my own needs. Still, saving her would have to wait for now. I looked back to my team and saw them adjusting to the rhythm of staying alive on a Hell World—splitting their numbers between mining the loose Aetherite on the surface and protecting the skiffs from the incoming waves of demons.
And now it was my turn to do the same.
Except my demons were behemoth sized.
Cycling my Frenzy, I triggered my meridians, removing [Mark of the Savage] and replacing it with [Mark of the Colossus]. My body underwent a titanic metamorphosis, my joints popping like gunfire. More than a few screams of alarm came from my own men, but the lemonade that flowed with it upon my full transformation was enough to cultivate from.
“Holy shit!”
“Is that the marshal?!”
“He truly is a god…”
The monstrosities wailed and screeched as they were blasted back by my attack. I pressed in for the kill with a savage uppercut to a giant, crab-like creature that looked to be walking on stilts by the length of its legs. My [Lightning] charged fist broke through the behemoth’s carapace and showered me with black blood and foul-smelling offal, triggering my [Bloodlust].
I cultivated the fresh Frenzy produced from my Flame and with the amount I was expending to keep my [Lesser Deity Form] plus [Colossus] going, I would need every ounce to recharge my Dantian.
I grabbed the misshaped head of another behemoth and crusted it in my palm, causing its massive body to go limp. Then suddenly, something jabbed me in the side.
I grunted as the pain bloomed and I glanced down to see a somewhat smaller behemoth that resembled a rhinoceros, digging its horn into my ribs. I grimaced through the agony and volleyed the creature away from me with a kick, sending it flying into another Behemoth like a soccer ball.
A stray tentacle wrapped about my thigh as another one those flower-headed creatures joined the fray. More tentacles came, searing my skin like acid as they wrapped about me. Something knocked my feet from under me and my back slammed into the ground with a mini earthquake, evacuating my lungs with a whoosh of air.
The [Odds Against me Shifted] as behemoth after behemoth dog-piled on top of me, their writhing bodies tearing into my body with viscous teeth, claws and scales. I struggled to fight back, thrashing and flailing but even with my great strength it was hard to move. No leverage. No force.
Only pain.
I cried out as even my [Mark of the Arch Demon] enhanced [Diamond Skin], fell prey to the onslaught. Blood erupted from wounds I couldn’t see, the stinging pain magnified by the hot liquid running down my body. Still, it triggered my [Bloodlust] and as my Flame flared, producing more Frenzy, I cultivated it to fight back with a fervor not my own.
My mind gave into the animalistic instinct of raw survival.
It was shocking almost.
Something I hadn’t felt in a long time.
A true threat that could warrant my demise.
The creatures must have sensed it too, because their attacks came more ferociously as they added to the din with screams to their dark god.
~It is weakened~
~I’xol’ukz give us strength!~
~Destroy the traitor!~
~Eradicate the traitorous Flame!~
I fought back with [Wrath of a million Slain Souls] blasting away some of them, but taking a huge dent to my Dantian as a result, sinking it well below the quarter mark. New Behemoths took their places, but I didn’t have the juice to let loose another blast. My muscle power alone would have to suffice to drive them off for a while. Frenzy flowed like a fountain as my killing instinct took hold.
Rend and tear.
Crush and kill.
The savage demon in my heart cried out as I ripped through the creatures, one monstrous beast at a time. The core of my twin dao resonated with the cries of defeat from my enemies. I punched and kicked, killing behemoths in one or two [Lightning] charged blows. But the more I killed the more of them that seemed to come from nowhere. I quickly found myself hemmed in again, unable to move, the sea of behemoths crushing me with the sheer mass of their numbers.
I no longer feared death, but I could sense it beckoningly close now.
I refused to accept it, even as my pain wracked body was ripped and torn, my Dantian edging towards zero. I had enough Frenzy for one more [Wrath of a Million Slain Souls]. I could reset the battle again, but then what? The mass of behemoths would simply crush me again and then there would be no reset to save me.
I gritted my teeth in fury as I fought for a solution.
I would not let these monsters get the best of me.
But how?
In the midst of my pain, I closed my eyes and focused.
I looked inwardly, slowing time within the Inner World of my mind’s eye.
Then slowly a new revelation formed as desperation gave way to clarity.
This was not just a physical battle.
I was fighting off the demonic hordes of the Cursed Stars.
And I could fight back with something more than just brute strength.
Something that would give them a taste of their own medicine.
Something that would shake the core of their dark souls.
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Redirecting my Frenzy, I channeled it into new meridians, tapping into the power of my [Mark of the Arch Demon] form.
“You ugly bastards think you’re the only ones kissed by the [Furious Flames of the Father]?” I shouted the words with [Torment of the Frenzied Flame], causing them to immediately repel from me with a mixture of [Pain] and [Fear]. “You throw your all at me… eager for my demise, yet [I Still Live] and once you taste the [Focused Fury] of my [Burning Soul] all that shall remain will be [Barren Ground].”
My meridians surged, multiple techniques going off at once. The shock of it was eviscerating, like lightning flowing through my veins. I screamed with violence and pain as my body erupted into flames that scorched my enemies, burning them while driving them mad at the same time.
~Cursed Flame!~
~Blasphemous!~
~Spare us this wrath!~
~Release us from this!~
I ignored their pleas for mercy as I regained my footing and then [Trudged] through the clamoring horde with a newfound sense of both purpose and strength. I shrugged off their assaults with quick snaps of my fists, pulverizing the monsters and converting their bodies into quivering heaps of bloodied tissue and broken bones.
The howls and cries were maddening, but I locked my mental focus and pushed through.
I kept going, not sure of how much time had passed.
I monitored the Frenzy in my Dantian as it fluctuated up and down like a seesaw—full one second from the amount of Frenzy pouring from my Flame and then nearly bottoming out from how much I was expending. My spiritual pathways were going into overdrive, threatening to burn out.
At some point [Death’s Door] kicked in to replace all the blood I’d lost. I had to put an end to this at some point. I lost sight of how many behemoths were there and how many I had already killed.
Fifty? A hundred? A thousand?
I wasn’t sure.
But one thing was certain.
I couldn’t stop until I’d killed them all.
My soul flared with conviction and resolve, the world turning red as the Struggler let loose some of his control. The demon within me grinned, taking savage pleasure at the destruction of my wayward kin.
“You shall never defeat the power of the Frenzied Flame! You shall not defeat this world which it has born!”
I wasn’t even sure where the words had come from, but they continued to traumatize my enemies as I waded through them with deadly purpose. My body was spent, even more of my functions reverting to life support via [Death’s Door] but the Frenzy of my Flame was keeping me going at top speed. The world began to tunnel, but I kept going.
Rending.
Tearing.
Killing.
Something whispered to me, but I struggled to comprehend what it was.
Words came again.
Faintly I heard a woman’s voice.
“Supreme Grand Marshal!”
My eyes flashed open as if waking from a dream. The world expanded around me as the Struggler regained control.
“Supreme Grand Marshal!”
I looked down to see Kwan Li and two of her men, standing atop a behemoth’s corpse and shouting up at me. What the hell?
“Why are you out here?” my voice boomed and reverberated as I spoke.
“Marshal you’ve been beating that thing for nearly an hour,” Kwan Li said. “We couldn’t get you to stop.”
“What?”
Then, in my hands I saw there was the body of a behemoth that I had clearly been punching long enough to no longer recognize the form it once held. I then looked around me further and saw the entire mountainside littered with the corpses of what had to be thousands of behemoths.
Holy shit…
“I think you’ve killed them all, Supreme Grand Marshal,” Kwan Li said. “No more seem to be coming.”
I looked to the sky and saw the Bloodmoon now low on the horizon. “H-how long?”
“The last skiff drop arrives in less than two hours. Thank the heavens you awoke. We didn’t know if we’d ever get you back home.”
“Where’s the camp?”
“This way,” Kwan Li said pointing. “Are you alright in that form?”
I looked down at myself. My body was a wreck and my meridians felt like they’d been rifled through with barbed wire. But I had enough Frenzy trickling through me to maintain [Mark of the Colossus] and [Death’s Door] but not for long. My head felt funny too, my mind seemingly returning from someplace else and there was more than a little Cursed Frenzy now tainting the Flame of my soul.
“I need to get back to the Aetherite,” I said. “I’m Qi poisoned.”
“Can you walk?”
I grunted with a nod. “I think that’s about the only thing I can do.”
I groaned with pain as I forced my enormous legs to move. I turned in the direction Kwan Li had pointed and followed her and her men down the mountainside as she flew over the sea of corpses. I had to unfortunately literally climb over them, a marathon of agony that taxed what strength was left in my body and soul.
As I neared the camp, I felt the soothing resonance of the aetherite field.
My men stared at me like I was one of the behemoths and for how I probably looked I couldn’t blame them. There seemed to be a few less of them too, but my mind was too ravaged to truly take count. With the crunch of aetherite beneath my feet I finally released [Mark of the Colossus] and collapsed onto the hard ground, my body shrinking to its normal size.
Blaring pain came with it as every wound I’d received translated to my normal body.
“Yung Jo! Come quickly to treat the marshal!” Kwan Li commanded and one of the younger legionnaires rushed to my side and began wrapping me with healing bandages. He gave me a vial of elixir to drink but I didn’t even have the strength to lift it to my lips.
“I’ve got you, sir,” he said and fed me the cool liquid that immediately went to work, causing a warmth in my stomach that began radiating outwards.
Yung Jo was staring beyond me and out at the corpses littering the mountain, his eyes unsteady. “I sure hope I remember this.”
I managed a chuckle. “Yeah, me too.”
My response seemed to surprise him and he laughed. “You truly are a legend beyond legends. This day shall be heralded for ten thousand years. Supreme Grand Marshal, I am honored to have followed you this day.”
He bowed to me with a kowtow and I reflected on what he’d said.
I’d just taken out an entire horde of behemoths.
Something normal cultivators would tremble at to kill even one.
Granted they kind of took me out too, but I was still standing.
More or less.
I found I could barely move now, my body seizing up.
“Help me into lotus position,” I said. “I need to cultivate.”
Young Jo nodded and assisted me as I endured the pain.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “You can rest. We’re nearly done. You’ll be back on the Xing Long soon.”
I nodded but I was already working on phase two.
I cycled the scant amount of Frenzy I had left, expelling the toxins of the Cursed Frenzy that was choking my Flame. As I exhaled the foul substance in a black vapor, I felt the power of my Flame return—burning brightly, despite the damage to my body and soul.
I was spent, but I had one more job to do.
And thankfully it would take the strength of my spirit alone.
But even that ran on Frenzy I didn’t have.
It was going to hurt to cultivate right now, but I was going to need a full tank for what came next. Placing my hand on the raw Aetherite, I focused my mind’s eye and tapped into [Everyone’s Pain]. Immediately the image of T’huet returned to my mind’s eye, accompanied by flashing images of carnage, reliving the turmoil and destruction of her people’s demise.
My Flame flared with indignation.
The brutality that led to their loss.
I winced as I cultivated, the Frenzy flowing through my overused pathways like vinegar poured on a fresh wound. I endured it and kept going, the frenzy pouring in much faster than before. The millions of lost souls created an infinite stream of Frenzy from my Flame and with the new pathways I’d just unclogged, I filled my Dantian in mere minutes.
“Senior Commander!” I called and Kwan Li arrived with a salute as she returned from the battlefield.
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m going into another trance,” I said. “Watch over me and wake me if the drop ship comes.”
She nodded, perhaps thinking I was simply healing or cultivating, but I had one more behemoth to fry. I receded into my minds eyes and inhabited the red-hued form of the Struggler as I entered the Spiritual plane.
It was like taking a breath in a newborn body.
All the pain was left behind in my physical form and I reveled in the separation for a moment. But I knew my time was limited. In the darkness I sought the pulse of raw, unrefined Frenzy that was T’huet’s core. The last time I’d done this I had to be far closer to the source itself, but my senses had grown exponentially now. I traversed the darkness, until I found it, the shimmering golden cloud that represented the planet’s soul.
A purplish ilk of Cursed Frenzy was clinging to it.
Consuming it.
“Hang on, I’m coming,” I said and refocused once more as I prepared to project my [Sacred Soul]. The spiritual realm twisted in a spiral as my spirit stretched across the distance of space and time, emerging in a familiar looking cavern that was literally miles wide.
In the center was the pulsing amber crystal that was T’huet’s physical form.
A hiss filled the air.
Like a giant snake ready to pounce from somewhere unseen.
Chittering sounds came next, like the flexing of insect mandibles and with it, demonic words entered my mind.
~So bold of thee, Cursed One~
I sensed the Cursed Frenzy before I even saw it.
From the far side of the glowing Aetherite crystal came the serpentine form of a giant centipede that literally had to be miles long. Its body was a rust-colored brown with flecks of purple incandescence glowing on its jaws and the venomous tips of its tail.
I summoned my [Spectral Weapons] the spiritual forms of my Axe and Glaive. “I don’t have a lot of time, so I’ll make this quick. What’s your name so I can add it to the list of Deep Dwellers I’ve slain.”
The giant centipede lifted itself from the surface of the crystal, its enormous head revealing a pale human face imbedded in its center. It was that of a woman, and the face leered as words came again, lips unmoving.
~Thou didst slay mine sister,G’hru’julah. A sin for which thou shalt now pay. For the cosmos hath long since foreseen thy demise. And by Its Greater Will, the honor shall be through mine own claw. The claw of M’tru’julah.”