Chapter 347
Gale and the group sat in the main cavern, the platform serving as their makeshift war room. Technically, it was already one, but that's besides the point.
The disciples had conversations of their own, things about what to do after this rift and where to go. Some wanted to go to Europe, live there, maybe in Poland or Spain or France. Countries that Gale had never been to nor wanted to go to, mostly because of the United Knights' presence, allegedly.
Some wanted to eat hotdogs, hamburgers, fries, poutine, barbeque, basically anything American, except poutine was Canadian. At least those were understandable sentiments.
What caught Gale's attention the most were the slight sobs. Some were 17 years old, barely even adults. At that age, he was still reading the stupid fantasy books from the orphanage. Yet these kids, they probably had been killing, murdering, and fighting for the Blood Blade sect since they hit puberty.
How would they even live after all of this? Gale didn't even know how to cook after he got out of the rift. To them, it was the same experience. Only one thing was going for them. They'd all be accepted by Sterling, more so to be able to live a normal life in society rather than learn how Aur works. That's what Kyle and Clyde said.
"It's ridiculous that you're not helping us in this," Rachel said, glaring at Erin, who floated just above the platform. "You're part of the team."
"That is incorrect," Erin said. "I am the supervisor, not an active participant in what you call a 'rift run'. Hence, my participation will be minimal."
"At least tell us you're going to save us if we're about to die," Lily said.
"Your life shall be saved just before its last threads are about to be cut."
"Group huddle," Kyle and Clyde said suddenly.
Rachel, Lily, Gale, Kyle, and Clyde moved to the corner of the cave. Or at least tried to find what looked like one, since the cave was technically a dome like cavern. Except Xinyi wasn't there.
Glancing back at her, he saw her looking at them with confusion on her face like she wasn't part of the team. Rookie mistake. Gale waved her over, and Xinyi jogged to join them, finally forming the proper huddle.
"What's this?" Xinyi asked.
"Newbie, don't ask," Kyle said. "This is mad serious."
"Matter of life and death," Clyde said.
"What the hell is happening?" Rachel asked.
"I actually kind of agree with Kyle's sentiment this time," Lily said.
Gale also had no idea what was going on. Group huddles were always fun, but every time, he was lost. "What's wrong?"
"Did everyone hear what Erin just said?" Kyle asked. "This shit is about to get serious."
"She said she'll save us just before our 'last thread' of life." Clyde made air quotes. "Which means we could be half bisected at the waist, intestines spilling out, spine visible, but as long as our heart is still beating, she'll take care of us. Eventually."
Gale nodded. That didn't sound like a comfortable thing to experience. He definitely had never experienced being cut at the waist before. That would probably hurt more than bullying. But as long as they were alive, maybe it was fine? Maybe.
Lily nodded as well. "I'd rather die than experience all that pain."
"Exactly," Kyle said.
"What's the big deal?" Gale asked. "Erin knows what we can do. If she says we can do this, then we can do this. She would've already said no if we couldn't."
Kyle pointed at him. "That's exactly the problem, bambam. If our combined power is like... 101 along with those disciples, and that divine beast is sitting at 100, sure, we can win. Technically. But that gap is tiny. That means we're going to get our asses kicked repeatedly before we finally pull through. This isn't a normal subjugation. This isn't even a boss battle."
"This is a souls like boss," Clyde said. "Except you have one chance to win, and if you don't, you keep experiencing almost-death every single time. That's not a fight. That's torture. She's crazy."
If Clyde put it like that, Gale thought about it again. Almost dying, over and over... just like back in the Eclipsed. Except this time, there's a life saving grace of coming out alive if they fail. Better than dying completely.
"Doesn't sound too bad if Erin can just keep saving us again and again," Gale said. "We'd eventually win."
"Eventually," Kyle said flatly. "After how many almost-deaths? Ten? Twenty? A hundred?"
"We haven't even tried yet," Rachel said. "What's the worse that could-"
Gale's hand shot out and clamped over Rachel's mouth before she could finish the sentence. Temperature shot up as Rachel's face completely flushed. The fire in he eyes ignited, something inside those eyes woke up when he grabbed her mouth.
"Don't say it," Gale whispered into her ear.
"Don't say what?"
"You know what."
Rachel nodded, temperature still climbing.
"Rachel, please stop," Lily said, then whispered to cool down the room once again.
Pulling his hands away from Rachel, Gale then nodded, satisfied that the bad words didn't get a chance to be said.
Xinyi cleared her throat. "If it helps, I was able to grasp the divine beast with my Hemorrhaging Grasp earlier. Held it for a few seconds before it broke free. There should be plenty of time to do some damage while it's restrained."
"Do the disciples have a way to hold down the divine beast?" Gale asked. "Arrays or formations or whatever you Jiuling people use?"
"There are arrays that could be used," Xinyi said. "Binding formations, suppression circles, that sort of thing. But undoubtedly, they'd be destroyed easily by the beast. It's too big, basically. The arrays might buy a second or two at most before it tears through them."
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
"What about damage?" Lily asked. "Can any of them actually hurt it?"
Xinyi shook her head. "The skin is too tough. Even my sword couldn't cut through at all. I hit it with everything I had during the fight. Even the Soul Devouring Hell Blade didn't do much. I only cracked one tooth."
Surely, fire could kill the corruption, right? Gale stepped out of the huddle and walked over to where Erin floated. "Erin, could Rachel just engulf the divine beast in flames? Like, burn it from the inside out?"
"The woman of fire may try," Erin said. "But be warned, if the beast has consumed the node, her fire's prowess may not be enough to penetrate deep into its flesh."
Gale walked back to the huddle.
"Green fire is an option," he said. "But Erin says if the worm ate that corruption node thing, Rachel's flames might not matter."
"Great," Kyle muttered. "What else we got?"
Clyde groaned. "I don't wanna almost die, man."
"Whatever, it doesn't matter. It's best to just try. The disciples should create the arrays," Rachel said. "Set up as many binding formations as they can around the battle area. We distract the worm, keep its attention on us, while they prepare the arrays continuously." She turned to Xinyi. "Once you're fully charged with Qi, how often can you use that grasp thing?"
Xinyi hesitated, but then said, "At least 6 times."
"Six times..." Rachel said. "Each one lasting a few seconds. Plus however many arrays the disciples can set up. That's our window."
It wasn't much against a Late-Mystic divine beast that had possibly consumed a corruption node. Eating it probably made it even more crazy. But it was something. At least they won't completely die. Just almost die. Somehow, to Kyle and Clyde, that sounded like something worse than actual dying. Lily too. Rachel didn't say much about it.
"Good," Gale said. "Then rest up. Recover your Qi. All of you."
He looked at Xinyi specifically. "We fight the divine beast at first morning light tomorrow. Get the disciples ready too."
Xinyi made an "ok" sign with her hand.
*
Behind Gale was the maw of the divine beast descending on him. Presence Between was already at 90% integration, already reaching the most he's ever integrated. However, he was running for his life.
A shockwave bullet rumbled and whistled past his head, aimed dead centre at the beast's open mouth. Clyde's ether had charged it to the extreme. Gale could tell based on the amount of ambient ether that it gave off.
Nothing happened. The worm probably didn't even register the existence of the bullet.
Gale dashed forward just as the maw crashed into the sand where he'd been standing. The impact shook the entire desert, sending dunes collapsing inward, but he was already moving.
One Step activated. The world compressed. Distance at the side of his eyes folded. Suddenly, the worm's descending body was in front of him.
One slash. Erebus carved through the air, a streak of darkness that devoured everything in its path. When the streak dissipated, there didn't seem to be any damage on the scales.
By the time the worm's body came up, it was already at where Clyde was as it surged upward, mouth open. Xinyi appeared from above, flying below with her sword, grabbing Clyde and throwing him away from the ascending maw.
A hail of keratin needles erupted from the sand, catching Xinyi mid-throw. Blood shield blocked the incoming needles. Some passed the shield and punched through her shoulders and lungs.
Kyle's dagger flew through the air. Just as the glint of the dagger reached Clyde, he blinked. Before he could throw it again while grabbing his brother, Lily's blue shield materialized beneath both of them to block a hail of needles that came from the sand.
Tornadoes spun up around the battlefield.
Five of them, just like before, rising from the sand in columns that blocked out the sky. Sharp grains of sand compressed into crescents that launched outward in every direction possible. Anything and anyone caught in between all 5 tornadoes was inside a meat grinder.
Phase defense activated automatically, perfectly defending against all crescents. However, since it was sand, Phase Touch had almost covered his whole body rather than just the minimum necessary per crescent.
Rachel burst through a tornado, engulfed in raging flames. Her white hot flames turned green in an instant as a fireball surged from her outwards towards the beast's open maw.
Sand shot up from the ground, forming a shield in front of the worm's mouth. The fireball detonated against the sand shield, green fire splashed outward but did not penetrate.
The sand shield suddenly dropped. The beast turned its maw towards Rachel and gave chase.
Rachel rocketed away from the worm toward the trap they had told the disciples to be at. It was a binding formation that the disciples had to work through while the fight was happening.
As the divine beast crossed the tripwire, all the disciples injected their Qi into the array.
Blue light erupted from the sand as the binding formations triggered. Chains of blood Qi wrapped around the worm's body in nets of veins, pulling it down to hold it in place. The divine beast worm thrashed while its mouth was held open by the Qi.
Xinyi transformed her sword to the Devouring Hell Blade. Blood Qi coagulated around her sword, transforming it into a wide saber. Swinging her blade once, she launched a maelstrom of blood crescents towards the divine beast's open maw.
Further away, Clyde fired three explosive bullets at the same time, each one charged to the maximum, artificed with extra punch that made it have a trail of shockwave.
The attacks entered the beast's mouth and exploded. Fire and blood Qi raged on in the divine beast's mouth, all of it going off all at once, breaking the teeth in its mouth.
Gale sent out multiple reflections as well while Rachel hurled white hot fire into its mouth.
Then, a low-pitched noise hit them just as Lily's blue shields appeared in front of all of them. The low pitch froze their muscles in place. Blood Qi chains snapped. And before they could even blink, sharp sand blasts erupted from the beast's mouth.
Each and every blue light shield that was in front of them shattered.
Gale saw his arms separate from his body, both spinning away from him. Blood sprayed out of the stumps.
Around him, the rest weren't any better. Xinyi clutched at her chest where a sand blade cut through her lung. Rachel collapsed, her right leg no longer attached to her body. Clyde's wrist and forearm were gone. Kyle had a hole in his stomach the size of his fist, making his intestines visible. Lily had needles punched through her stomach, lungs, and neck. The disciples all had a similar amount of damage.
The divine beast reared back, preparing another attack. This one would finish them off. But before it could, all their bodies, along with their limbs, floated as a blue outline formed on all of them.
Their bodies were dragged back towards the canyon. Each one of them landed in front of Erin, who was sitting by a rock. She took a sip from her tea. Her face completely blank, emotions unable to be read as if she had just watched an action TV show. Yet, boredom also didn't appear on her face. Just complete focus on what was happening.
The divine beast fired a volley of keratin needles at her position.
An ice shield materialized in front of the canyon entrance, blocking every single needle without Erin even looking up from her tea.
Raising one hand, Erin conjured an orb of water above her palm. It hovered for a moment before separating into 66 droplets.
A droplet touched Gale's chest just as his severed arms flew to jam themselves back into the stumps. For a few seconds, he gritted his teeth as he felt the indescribable pain. Though it wasn't as bad as reconfiguring his essence pathways.
Which did remind him he was probably forgetting something.
Nevertheless, he fought himself from screaming at the pain. He felt all the fibres of his muscle, nerves, veins, and everything else reconnect. At certain points, he wanted to black out but, his body doesn't allow him to.
Around him, some couldn't keep their voices down. Lily screamed, so did Rachel. Surprisingly, Kyle and Clyde didn't scream. The disciples all screamed. Xinyi kept her cool as she had the least amount of damage, as expected of an Early-Mystic.
For a couple of minutes, everyone writhed in pain until they became exhausted. Gale lay on the canyon floor, gasping for breath, his newly reattached arms flexing. He made sure that both arms worked. Luckily, they did.
"This is fucking crazy," Kyle said, his face pale. He clutched at his stomach where the hole originally was.
"What the fuck," Rachel said through her teeth. She looked up at Erin while still on the ground. "Do you want more fire? I'll give you whatever you want. Just help us fight that thing."
"The trade is not accepted," Erin said, taking another sip of tea. "The corruption takes years to settle on its host. Should you fail to finish off the beast in 3 years from this day, I shall then intervene."
"3 years?! You're fucking kidding me," Rachel said.
"I do not jest. Such forms of communication do not convey information clearly."
Forcing himself up, Gale looked at everyone on the ground. He was kind of used to pain already, but maybe not others. The good thing was, just like he thought, they were still alive. The bad thing was, they were still alive, feeling all the pain imaginable.
"At least we're still breathing," he said. "Let's regroup and think of a better plan."