The Last Dainv

Gale finished the best beef pasta he's ever had, and it came from an MRE, though, that was relative. It was the first beef pasta he's ever had, but that's besides the point.

It's been 38 attempts, 38 times he's almost died. 81 days so far and counting. Ollie had packed them 90 MRE each, and they were down to 9 days left of rations. They have at most 2 or 3 attempts left depending on everyone's energy.

The teeth were definitely the weak point, and they've already had made some progress on figuring out the boss' attack pattern.

1st issue was the tornado. It made it very hard to move around which meant they couldn't manoeuvre. Xinyi had killed one of the tornadoes on the very first time she defended herself against the beast.

She was on Tornado duty.

Second issue, and probably a boon, anything that hits the tail would cause the keratin needles to retract from the holes. Once they were gone, they'd have at most 9 minutes before it needed another hit. That was Clyde's role. A high explosive round right at the tail would force it to retract.

Kyle would help him get a vantage shot in the air while Lily removes the sand shield protecting the tail.

Next was the issue with the instant kill move that comes from the mouth. A sand blast that would cut up everything in its way. This could happen at any time, but usually happens right after the earthquake.

In the beginning when they were first paralyzed, they thought it was a sound that came from the mouth. That was wrong. It was the sound that came off of the quake generated by the worm's bottom.

Rachel got lucky on the 24th attempt and exploded the underneath of the worm, interrupting the first wave of the earthquake completely. They were able to move freely, but the sand blast cut them up anyways.

On that front, Rachel was also a main player. The sandblast had a wind up since the sand would compress right in front of its mouth and then decompress at a rapid rate, causing high pressure sand to cut them up into pieces.

An became placed right in front of the mouth to weaken the compression, allowing Lily to conjure 3 layers of blue shields right in front of everyone. The weakened compression would at most penetrate up to the third shield, and any remaining force would bounce off their armour. It would still hurt though. Lily found this out at the 33rd attempt, maximizing energy conservation.

Gale's job was clear and simple. Look for any opportunity to hit the tooth. There was exactly 6 teeth in its mouth that were larger than normal. The purpose of the teeth were unknown, but every time they made one of them bleed, the stun on the worm would grow longer.

Two were already bleeding, and this fact became their biggest advantage. This wasn't some game where the boss respawns at full hp every attempt. Instead, they respawned with full hp, ready to go, but the boss stayed at its current state.

If there were any more surprises, they'd just have to keep on trudging through this boss multiple times. If they run out of MREs, it wasn't that bad to eat worm meat. Somehow, a part of him hoped that they would go past 90 days, but everyone always gave their all whenever he mentioned the worm meat.

Clyde sat against the canyon wall, munching on his own MRE. His hands were steady. Somewhere at the 15th attempt, he just got used to it. Same with Kyle who was taking a nap on a flat rock, mouth open, drooling, with sunglasses on.

The twins adapted faster than everyone else which made Gale curious how bad were their torture as children…

The others though, it took around the 22nd attempts for them to get used to the pain enough that their bodies stopped trembling.

Rachel sat cross-legged nearby, licking her bowl clean. Her pasta was the same as his which apparently was one of her favourite dishes. She said it tasted way better with Velveeta cheese and ketchup slathered all over the dish. Two slices of Singles cheese was also a good substitute.

The note was 'locked in' Gale's head.

Xinyi meditated in her usual spot, legs crossed, hands on her knees, breathing slow and evenly. Her signature grew over the past week, stabilizing her Early-Mystic stage. All the fighting became a catalyst and her signature is now hitting the borders of Mid-Mystic.

It sounded strong, enough to fight off a Late-Mystic; but unfortunately, A Divine Beast was a totally different beast compared to the human stage hierarchy.

Lily sat beside her, mirroring her posture, always joining Xinyi with meditation. Two of them had gotten along rather well. Xinyi even said she wanted to dye her hair blonde once they get back to civilization, but Clyde said it wouldn't look good on her.

Gale agreed immediately.

The disciples had their own circle further back in the cave. Some were playing cards with a deck that Tony had brought. Others napped just like Kyle.

Everyone had gotten used to life over the past 80 days.

Still, they took each attempt seriously. Best effort every time. No slacking even though Erin would save them.

"Everyone ready?" Gale asked as he stood up.

Kyle snapped awake instantly, sitting up straight and throwing a salute. "Ready, Sir Master Feral, Sir!"

Rachel set the bowl down. "Ready."

Xinyi opened her eyes. "Ready."

Lily stood up beside her. "Ready."

Clyde crumpled his MRE pouch and tossed it into the pile of trash they'd accumulated. "Born ready, bambam."

The disciples stirred, putting away their cards, shaking awake the nappers, forming up in their usual positions. Tony gave Gale a nod. Mary flashed an ok sign.

"Everyone knows what to do?" Gale asked.

"Are we going to use dust again this time?" Rachel asked. "Last time it almost worked."

"Might as well," Gale said. "We should have all of its attack patterns now. The dust will give us the extra edge we need to push through."

"Famous last words for this attempt," Kyle said, grinning.

The dust they used were the modified ones by Erin, slightly reduced efficacy for no side effect.

Gale and the team walked to the edge of the canyon, standing in a line at the boundary between rock and sand. The desert stretched out before them, sand dunes rolling toward the horizon as far as the eye could see.

Presence Between extended outward, tendrils stretching into the sand. The sandworm was there. Just a couple hundred meters away.

39th time's the charm.

Run, start.

Gale ran. Feet hit the sand as he sprinted towards the middle of the dunes. The others fanned out behind him, each heading to their designated optimal positions.

Kyle would be near Clyde at all times to provide him mobility. Lily would be constantly mid air using her shields. Rachel was always near the beast's mouth. Xinyi with her mobility would constantly circle the battlefield while the disciples would do their best to set up the array right on top of the beast rather than waiting for the beast to come to a designated area.

Stopping at the top of a dune, Gale waited.

Presence Between felt the signature below. The sandworm was rising, mouth first, aiming to swallow him whole from underneath. They found out at the 19th attempt this was the best way to start the fight to get it to focus on Gale rather than anyone else.

3

2

1

Gale jumped.

The dune exploded beneath where he'd been standing, the sandworm's maw burst through the sand. Its massive mouth swallowed all the sand beneath him into the endless abyss.

Mid-air, Gale pulled out his Weber ballista. Aiming the Weber at Tooth #1, the first one that bled thanks to Xinyi's first fight with it, he pulled the trigger. Phase shot beamed through the air.

The beam thwiped through the air and hit the tooth dead centre.

No spark or anything fancy. The phase shot didn't go through as expected. Instead, the tooth absorbed the energy with the existing cracks widening and causing more green ichor to seep out.

The sandworm roared as it turned and descended back, diving towards the sand to reset.

But Rachel was already there. A fireball the size of a house launched toward the spot where the sandworm was about to burrow to. It swallowed the fireball just when it was about to enter the sand. A low boom could be heard when the fireball exploded inside of the sandworm.

The disruption stopped the sandworm from burrowing completely . Instead, it reacted by hurling up sand tornadoes, 5 of them. Columns of cutting sand spun throughout the battle field, and Lily was already moving.

She sprinted up diagonally in mid air. By the 100th metre mark, she got a good vantage point of the tail. At the apex of her rise, she took aim with her deagle towards the spot where the tail would be. One pull of the trigger, and a lance streaked downward

But before the lance could hit the sand, Xinyi was already there. Her sword sliced horiontally, throwing up a wave of sand that revealed the buried tail.

A thinner sand shield instantly formed around the tail that was then promptly removed by the blue lance.

Everything was going as planned so far. And right about now, Gale was just at the top of the worm with Clyde's bullet streaking towards him.

A flash of his sword, and he batted the bullet towards the tail. It entered one of the needle holes just as the keratin spikes were loading and exploded.

All the needles retracted.

The holes sealed up, now the sandworm's tail completely neutralized for the next 9 minutes.

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Xinyi moved to the tornadoes next. She danced with the tornadoes, cutting up their cores. Each one dissipated one by one as she zipped and zagged in the battle field. After slicing up the last tornado, the skies were clear and their mobility as a team came back.

Clear skies.

"Activate the array!" Tony shouted.

60 disciples activated their formation simultaneously. Blood Qi veins erupted from positions they set up before the, wrapping around the sandworm's body in a net of veiny chains. The divine beast became momentarily restrainted.

Gale held on to the edge of the lip and raised his balista again. Tooth #1 aimed right on his sight. One shot, and this time, instead of just making it bleed more, the phase shot energy chipped off a piece of it which also caused cracks to worsen. Green ichor sprayed from the damaged spot making the sandworm roar even louder.

The sandworm's signature pulsed. Blood Qi chains snapped.

The next part of the pattern was the Earthquake and Rachel was already there.

An explosion boomed right below the sandworm's body.

The beast surged upward, lifted by the force of Rachel's fireball detonating against its underside. Before it could settle, another explosion boomed. The sandworm jumped higher, a part of its massive body actually leaving the sand for a moment.

A third explosion.

The sandworm's entire body lifted into the air, disconnected from the ground that was supposed to channel its earthquake attack. No ground contact meant no seismic waves. No seismic waves meant no stun.

Compressed sand gathered at the mouth of the sandworm.

It didn't relent as it continued to conjure up an attack even though it couldn't stun them.

The sand in front of its mouth began to condense, pressure building, ready to decompress and cut up everything in its path.

Three blue shields appeared in front of everyone.

An explosion rang out right in front of the beast's mouth at the same time the shield formed.

The compression became disrupted. Sand blast weakened. And when it fired , the sand hit Lily's shield, all three before slamming into Gale's armour that felt like a truck just hit him.

No time to waste.

Gale dove straight down to meet the giant mouth face to face. Ballista aimed towards tooth #1 again. One pull of the trigger, aiming at the same chipped spot. This time the phase shot violently exploded against the teeth making it fall off.

The sandworm thrashed. Its body whipped back and forth, coiling and uncoiling, sending sand and sandstone alike flying to the air.

Everyone backed off. It was first tooth that they took off.

For 30 seconds, they watched the sandworm continue to thrash, not doing anything. It didn't attack them, all it did was wallow in its own pain.

Everything went according to plan. Whatever the fuck the teeth were for can wait after the 6th tooth was gone.

Everyone got into positions again as the worm slowly calmed down. The 2nd to the 6th teeth came easier than the first. Everyone knew what they were doing, and none of them missed their marks. Not even the disciples.

39th attempt was a perfect run.

Stretching his arms, Gale let out a soft moan. His left arm was cut off during the 39th attempt, somewhere around the last tooth. It was the sandworm's desperate attempt to unleash multiple sandblasts at once. But, due to how weakened it was, it only managed to dismember one limb from each of them using 4 full blasts. Lily's shields did all the work.

In front of everyone lay the giant sandworm.

It wasn't moving. All 6 teeth destroyed perfectly, leaving what looked like half teeth that bled with green ichor. The beast was still alive, though, as Presence Between could feel its slight, rhythmic breathing. Its signature was still present.

Clyde walked up to Erin, holding his own left hand in his right. The wrist was a clean cut, bone and veins visible, still slightly dripping with blood. Xinyi had pressed a couple of pressure points on him to stop the bleeding during the battle.

"Fix, please," he said.

Erin blew a drop of water his way. The droplet entered his stump and the severed hand floated at the correct angle to reattach itself onto the stump. Muscle fibres writhed around his hand, veins connected, nerves joined again.

Flexing his fingers, Clyde gave Erin a thumbs up with the same left hand.

"Surprisingly, we got used to being dismembered," Rachel sighed. "Still gross, though."

"I'm kinda used to it now," Lily said. "You think this kind of skill will be useful for something later?"

"I mean, it could be," Kyle said. "Erin's got that thing going for her where she doesn't even flinch."

"One of these days, we'll all be terminators," Clyde said.

"Erin," Gale said, then dramatically voiced, "Your way of the spartan training had made us all stronger. Your students give you a bow for allowing us your presence!"

"The spartan ways you speak of was not the intention," Erin said. "Your own inexperience led you to inefficiently handle the sandworm with the necessary haste. Everything you experienced is but a side effect of multiple iterations of the same fight. Had you succeeded on the first attempt, none of the dismemberment would have occurred."

"Coolio," Kyle said, laughing. "At least we kinda know what it means when she says pain is just a by-product of the brain."

Walking closer to the unmoving sandworm, Gale felt its signature slowly recovering, albeit at a speed that would take it thousands of years to get back to its tip-top shape.

Divine beasts were tough. How strong would the divine beasts have been back in Hotel Frankley? Its powers that could change the landscape did make it feel like a cool boss fight.

"What's the next step?" Gale asked. "The thing isn't dead yet."

"The next part is extraction," Erin said. "The woman of fire's ability would be most useful in this step."

"What do I have to do?" Rachel asked.

"Feed the living beast with fire. This will purge the corruption from its body but also kill it in the process," Erin said. "However, the divine beast was still once a protector of this world. We must give it a merciful end."

"Then what do we do?" Lily asked.

"Behind where each of the 6 teeth used to be are the beast's hearts. There are 6 of you. Strike at the same time as the beast's body burns to free the beast from its torment."

"Wait," Kyle said. "Why didn't you just say that there were hearts behind each tooth?!"

"The group gave no query for such information."

"You're telling me, we could've killed this beast if we had just gone for the hearts instead of the teeth?"

"Correct."

Kyle dropped his shoulders along with his hands. His knees hit the ground as his mouth opened in a silent yell.

"I don't even wanna yell," Rachel said. "I'm too tired to yell."

"Is everyone ready?" Gale asked.

"Ready," Rachel said.

She walked towards the giant sandworm, stopping a few metres from its mouth. The beast's breath was still there. Tendrils fed Gale the rancid smell strong enough to make most people gag, but after going through the tomb's own types of smell, this was nothing.

It was too bad they were going to burn it to ash.

He could've really taken some beast meat from a Late-Mystic divine beast. That would've been... maybe tasty. Or maybe it would have a different texture. It could be better for making jerky too.

Giant sandworm divine beast jerky. That would be a great marketing name for his brand.

Fire suddenly engulfed Rachel's whole form. Flames started from her hand that coalesced in front of her chest into an orb of pure fire that looked to be almost liquid. It grew larger and larger until it formed a mini-star.

From that mini-star, fire flowed towards the sandworm's giant mouth, entering slowly. The beast looked like it was drinking liquid flames as the mini-star kept flowing its fire into it, endlessly.

For a couple of minutes, nothing really happened. The giant sandworm was just that big. Rachel would've never filled this thing up during a fight if it took this long.

Presence Between tracked the flames as they spread through the sandworm's giant mile long body. The fire moved down its mouth and into its main body, down through multiple organs. Smokey oily miasma covered the innards of the worm, pulsing independently from the beast's own pulse. Tendrils picked up the screeching and writhing inside the worm's body as Rachel's flame purified where they attached.

Finally, the flames reached the surface.

The sandworm's body began to glow from within, fire visible through its thick, leathery skin. Soon enough, the flames broke through, engulfing the whole beast in Rachel's fire.

The beast didn't scream nor roared. It simply remained as it was, unmoving, maintaining its calm even as fire consumed it from the inside out. A slight breeze could be felt from the surroundings.

'Save me from this pain, young heroes. Thank you,'

It communicated these words without speaking or using a language they knew. The message directly wired into each of them, and they understood it without having to comprehend it.

Xinyi struck first, launching herself into the air. Pure Blood Qi surged around her as her sword coated in blood formed a wide sabre. A single swing at the 1st tooth sent forth a concentrated crescent, slicing through the flesh and rupturing the heart. Green ichor sprayed out violently.

Clyde shot his Weber sniper rifle upwards. Instead of the normal explosive round, he used a tracing bullet that flew through the air and arced down to hit the heart behind the 2nd tooth's heart dead centre.

6 shots fired into the air from Kyle's pistol. Similar tracing bullets all arced towards the area behind the 3rd tooth. All 6 hitting the same spot, drilling the heart.

Lily sent out a blue lance just above the 4th tooth. Before it missed, she conjured a blue shield at an angle. The lance reflected off the shield, redirecting downwards. It pierced through the beast's flesh and found its mark, green ichor spraying out.

Rachel simply sent a fireball. It flew into the beast's mouth and detonated behind the 5th tooth. The explosion was timed to detonate exactly just above the heart.

Gale jumped, finding the 6th tooth. One Step activated. The space between him and the 6th tooth disappeared. One swipe of Erebus, and darkness devoured the remaining tooth along with the heart behind it. Blood sprayed everywhere, but Phase Defense activated just before any of it could splatter on him.

These actions were all performed simultaneously in a single second except for Gale being a fraction of a second behind to deliver the last hit.

The sandworm shuddered once.

[Plkmwryd Felled...]

[Extracting Origin from Prey.]

[Description: For billions of years, Plkmwryd protected the dunes of Kt from invaders that dared tread its sands. She hoped for one day, Lady Lu would return and at least stroke her skin. When the connection disappeared, she knew Lady Lu had died. Through her grief, she became hostile to all forms of life except her own children.]

[Origin Grain: 6,500]

[Warning: Host maximum storage capacity is 1,400. Remaining Origin Grains lost.]

[Reward: 80,000 points]

Lady Lu... Could she have been a Dainv? That would explain why the divine beast had waited billions of years for someone to return. And when the connection disappeared, when Lady Lu died somewhere far away, Plkmwryd's grief turned into madness.

Because of the divine beast, no life could be found on this planet except its own offspring. Her grief led her to kill everything, every intelligent creature that attempted to thrive on this planet, just because her loved one died.

It reminded Gale of Witch Moura's fortune.

The last bits of corruption tried to writhe away from Rachel's fire. Black tendrils of miasma, disconnected from their host, crawled across the sand in a desperate attempt to escape. Rachel sent down a small fireball at it, and the little bits scrunched up until they burnt to nothing.

The world's yellow sky suddenly turned dull. The yellow turned into a duller yellow that almost looked grey as if the whole world had become mute.

"The world is now dead," Erin said. "In the future, it will no longer support intelligent life. Its Origin Spirit has perished."

Harsh winds began to pick up. Sand swirled into the air, forming clouds that blocked what little light remained. Lightning cracked across the gray sky, white bolts that struck the dunes and turned sand into glass. Thunder rolled across the desert as the world sent its last death throes.

"We must leave now," Erin said. "Otherwise, you will be caught in the Origin's death."

Blue light surrounded everyone. Gale felt himself lift off the ground, along with Rachel, Kyle, Clyde, Lily, Xinyi, and all 60 disciples. Erin's telekinesis grabbed them all at once, pulling them into the air.

Without waiting for a response, they went from 0 to 100 in literally 2 seconds. Through the sand dunes, past the spikes, and in between the canyon walls, the landscape and scenery blurred. Some of the disciples tried to scream, but the wind noise was too loud. The only one that could be heard screaming was Rachel, at the top of her lungs, about a stupid floating bluey.

The exit appeared ahead. The same rift portal they entered through 81 days ago.

Everyone passed through forcefully via Erin's telekinesis.

The dry air changed into a musty humid air. They were back to Earth's dark blue night sky as the stars above twinkled through the light smog of Guatemala.

They emerged on the other side surrounded by United Knights everywhere. Knights in full armour that was an in between of medieval and modern tactical gear. Swords came at each of their necks. Most of the knights centred the Blood Blade Sect's disciples and Xinyi.

Everyone held their hands up, except Erin.

Standing at the front, Elias looked everyone up and down with his arms crossed and a conflicted expression. He looked at Erin, waiting for her to say something.

"Based on the legal text," Erin said, "the Blood Blade disciples are all pardoned of any wrongdoing. Shall we debate on this matter using existing text as reference?"

"No need." Elias held up a hand. "Just take them to the facility. Have them sign papers."

"I had looked forward to the intellectual debate," Erin said. "Why must you rob me of it?"

"I already trust you, Erin. No need to give me a headache."

"I see. However, the situation remains highly debatable."

"Hardly. If they're with you, then there's already a procedure that was followed, assuming that you follow the law to the T. I would already expect the debate to be meaningless."

"Debates are not meaningless. They exist to find loopholes and exploitable systems that could be tested under the challenge of debate."

"Yes, but in this case, since you're already calling for a debate, you already have a winning argument. There's no need for a debate."

"You cannot assume such, as you have not been presented with the argument yet."

"The argument is already in front of me, and you guys haven't killed them, meaning that things are in order, and order is what the United Knights uphold."

"Fair."

"Settled then."

Gale lowered his hands. "Is that the first time Erin's been defeated?"

"Defeat is merely a construct when it comes to intellectual debates," Erin said. "Debates are neither won nor lost. They exist for the purpose of challenging logic to forge its bonds tighter."

"Yup," Rachel said. "So Erin lost the debate. Never saw that one coming."

"This will forever be in my memory," Lily said.

"Should've gotten a video of it," Kyle said. "Even if it was like 5 seconds."

Author's Notes:

GUYS, i only posted half of the chapter accidentally. please tell me if there was something wrong in the chapter. Chapters should never be so short!