He walked out of the hole again, and in a few seemingly casual steps, had returned to the black void in the sky. His presence had all but vanished, and the night sky returned to normal. His words, however, continued to linger on. It was no exaggeration that his appearance had revealed some truths of this world, and he had no need to lie.
Crow was the first one to break out of his trance. “Regardless of that man’s words, we need to get ready.”
Everyone looked up, where twinkles of ominous crimson light had spread out. In response to their appearance, white specks of light had risen from who knows where, and were moving rapidly towards the interlopers.
“The special forces. I’m not too sure which countries contributed, but Singapore’s definitely one of them,” Miles said, as if to answer our burgeoning questions, “I can sense the distinctive make of the Conclave’s mana signatures. The one glowing crimson are the Outsiders as we know them, and the black ones are simply mindless thralls who obey their leaders.”
I turned my eyes heavenward and magnified the view again. It seemed that the crimson lights weren’t the only Outsiders present. Winged, misshapen monsters were following behind them, and as the white lights drew closer, the Outsider forces reacted by forming up in clearly distinct groups: led by the Outsiders that were glowing crimson.
The night sky had lit up, separated into two distinct groups of red and white, cast against a silvery backdrop.
“If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that some National Day Parade stuff was going on,” I said, trying to lighten the atmosphere.
Hao Wei nudged me in the ribs, a bit harder than usual. “We’re not exactly seeking out levity here, Aster.”
“Fine, I’m sorry.” Hazred’s words had shaken everyone far more than they cared to let on, including me.
Each of these crimson lights were clearly stronger than Miles or Mr. Meng. If we went by the disturbances they caused just by being present; and these two were people close or were the peaks of their organizations.
And… the ominous departing words that this trial, or in other words, this world that we’re in, would end in two days. I couldn’t help but to think of Aurora: the Key. It wouldn’t need a psychology professor to guess that virtually everyone here was thinking the same way.
“Screw that,” I growled to the air, speaking to no one in particular, “save the girl first, think later.”
Grunts and murmurs of assent could be heard all around me, and I felt relieved for some odd reason. It seemed that everyone at least had the same idea: survive the next few days before thinking about anything else. The overseer might have been nice, but I didn’t really put it past anyone else from the Far Shore to talk to us over tea and biscuits.
Perhaps I had an instinctive distrust of tentacles, or I’m a human supremacist, but it seemed like everyone else didn’t fancy the idea of falling into their hands either.
Like shooting stars, more and more speckles of white light had appeared, joining the already present army of white in a standoff against the crimson lights. Meanwhile, the Outsiders were still steadily increasing in numbers, as more groups of Outsider thralls and their crimson commanders poured out of the breach.
“It’s like an entire Outsider battalion.” Miles had taken out a monocle that was undoubtedly enchanted and was peering at the sky through it. “It seems like the Far Shore really is treating this as a military exercise.”
Mr. Meng looked at his watch, his face expressionless. “It’s 1 a.m. now. We are a few good hours away from dawn.”
I shrugged. “The number of allies arriving here are stupendous as well. Though, they’re floating in the cold night, staring at some ugly fuglies, ready to fight. And here we are, sitting in a fortress made by a wizard, cultivator, and practitioner; commenting on the state of things like we aren’t actually involved.”
Crow broke into a tinkling laugh, which was incidentally the first time I’ve heard him laugh out loud. I guess he didn’t want anyone to know he laughed in such a weird manner, but it’s cool. It didn’t take long for his giggles to die down, and he said, “I came here expecting to protect some rich man’s child, maybe off some gangsters; but suddenly, I now find myself helping a group of supernaturally touched people protect the world.”
“I just wanted to earn good money, but now? I feel like I got cheated or something,” said Miles.
He glared at me sharply, to which I looked at a particularly interesting bit of white light in the sky.
Everyone looked at Hao Wei, and with a look that told everyone he was weirded out, he replied, “I just came here to learn under Aster, but now I’m apparently in this ‘Save the World’ group,” he paused, “wait, why are we doing this again?”
Everyone broke into laughter.
“On the topic of complaints, I would like to formally protest to Mr. Meng,” I said, trying to choke down my laughter, “how far did you have to go to rope me in? My Beacon was eighteen patches out of date, despite it being unconnected for only three months. The heck?”
Mr. Meng looked at the sky, where the red and white were continuing to gather strength.
“Don’t get me started on this. Beacon work for the past few months has been a nightmare,” he paused, ruminating on his words, “a nightmare before I walked into this shitty quagmire of an August, anyway. Every week had a few bugs leaked out, for some damn reason. Most of them were so obscure, you had to be literally bored out of your mind to find them too.”
He tapped his finger on his thigh repeatedly. “We’re talking about a system that has been running for centuries with no hitches whatsoever, and suddenly eighteen devastating system bugs appear from nowhere.”
I smiled at his workplace grouses. It was a good thing to make these kinds of conversations right now, especially with the impending threat. It helped take people’s minds of things, especially when Mr. Meng was so high strung, and Miles, still somewhat dazed. At least us youngsters could do something.
A singular movement in the sky caught our eyes. A single white light had suddenly pulsed, flaring in a degree of brightness unseen before by its peers, and stepped out, away from the crowd in a challenge. The two groups were far enough that it would take a minute or so to fly to the other, by my estimate, and an up-close examination revealed that the man was starting to speed towards the crimson lights. He was soon joined by a few others and started to look like a white star or comet dashing through the sky, gathering strength as he did so. He raised a sword, which kindled into an equally brilliant white light, burning brighter and brighter as he continued to streak through the sky.
“Reckless.”
“Thoughtless.”
“Must be the guy that no one liked.”
My thoughts spilled out… although it wasn’t the only one.
“I say,” complained Hao Wei, “he’s part of the bunch trying to protect our hides, right? At least show some concern! Also, whatever happened to that gloomy and serious atmosphere we had going barely five minutes ago?”
No one said anything in reply, instead choosing to watch that comet streak on. It seemed, however, that the Far Shore battalion had deemed that comet to have lived one second too long.
A deafening, horrible screech, something I couldn’t find within myself to describe, using animals as a metaphor, came from nowhere, pressing down upon my eardrums. Something had charged out of the formation of Outsiders, glowing an ominous crimson, with a stomach churning, sickly tinge of green, surging out to meet the streak of blinding white.
As they met, a blaze of light, so bright that I couldn’t put a color to it, flashed, spontaneously igniting the air around them for several moments. In that brief passage of time, the silvery light of the barrier that protected the Earth seemed so insignificant, outshone by that light, and a detonation rolled across the night sky: so loud that I staggered backwards as the shockwave hit me. My body trembled and jerked in pain, but the discomfort passed rapidly, leaving me with a profound sense of weakness.
>
The light vanished as quickly as it appeared, and my robbed vision returned after a few moments.
My stomach heaved, as I caught sight of dissected body parts, quartered and torn apart; clearly illuminated by the glow of the power its owner had been harnessing just seconds ago. I watched, unable to tear my eyes away. Watching as these people vanished into the dark recesses of the night.
Someone had died.
My heart raced slightly at that thought, before inexplicably calming down. Watching him die… didn’t feel all that different from watching a documentary—did it?
That streak of green and crimson shrieked, both in victory and in an order. Like an immovable tide, the ranks of bloody light surged forward towards the lake of blinding white. Streaks of varying colors flew around the sky as both sides attacked; a light show for the unknowing citizens below. Occasionally, two different colored lights would collide, and one would darken, while others just vanished outright.
Thunderclaps were sometimes produced as two lights clashed, and it seemed like a shower of sorts, as blood and whatever Outsiders had as blood spilled, splattering everywhere. I didn’t need a mirror to tell that the blood had drained from my face, and the others were all showing the same reactions to the gore that was happening above us.
“So… this is what it means to fight,” a soft voice said, and I instinctively turned.
“Aurora!” Mr. Meng turned, regarding the young girl that had shown up behind us. “What are you doing here? Go back to the car, you shouldn’t be seeing this.”
“It’s not like I don’t know anything, Dad. I’ve been awake for quite some time. I heard everything.” She smiled sadly, looking at the lights that were diminishing in color. “I could feel it, when that thing came down and spoke to you all.”
Guilt flashed across her face. “I’m not going to make it. And if everyone here continues to protect me… you’ll all die too.”
The air screamed, interrupting her next words, as a single red light, flanked by its shadowy underlings, approached us rapidly. Its interceptor could still be seen, a dying glow of white light falling from the sky. Without any preamble, it raised a scythe-like appendage, intending to strike the barrier that protected us with an ear-piercing shriek.
Mr. Meng smiled faintly. “I’m not going to die, my child.”
From nowhere, a wooden sword appeared in his right hand, and the air hummed in a pleasant melody as he gripped it. Squinting at the Outsider as it drew close to the shadowy-gold barrier, he swung the sword casually, from left to right.
There was nothing to it. No beam of light, no sound. Just a lazy movement. And the monster fell apart silently, bisected horizontally, as did the underlings following behind. The neatly bisected Outsiders, now devoid of any spiritual power, smashed into the tower of light, bouncing off and turning to motes of light.
He stowed his sword, looking like he had done nothing of much importance.
“See?” Mr. Meng gestured casually, “daddy won’t die. Nor will our friends.”
An uncertain expression emerged onto Aurora’s face. “But…”
“No buts, Aurora. Now, go and hide in the car.” He stretched his arms, like he was doing a cool down routine after some exercise. “You’ll get in the way of our friends here.”
“But—”
“Don’t worry.” He smiled, and led her gently to the car, opening the door for her. “Be a good girl and stay there. I’ll be back soon.”
He walked back to us, where he was sure that he was out of view from the car, before showing his fatigue. His arms shook, and his chest heaved rapidly. Miles walked over, shaking his head.
“Are you crazy, Mr. Meng?” Miles gesticulated wildly, his movements furious. “I may not be that knowledgeable about you cultivators, but even I can tell that that’s not something you can use!”
“I used it often some time ago, so what’s the problem? Also, it’s a sentient spirit sword, it sponsored parts of the power requirement.” Mr. Meng retorted faintly.
Miles smacked his forehead, his old bones somewhat creaking as he did so.
“Come on, Mr. Meng. Before the Third Collapse, right? When your cultivation base was a lot higher?” He shook his head. “I can’t tell for sure, but once or twice more and you’re a goner. Please don’t make Aurora an orphan for such an insane reason. How do you think she’ll feel if you died trying to reassure her?”
“Fine, I get it. I won’t do that again.” Mr. Meng relented, turning away from Miles to regard the skies. “Rather, the battle doesn’t seem to go well for us, does it?”
Miles flinched as a particularly bright light flared brilliantly overhead. “They’re actually started to blow themselves up. The Conclave did sell self-destruction runes, but it’s actually my first time seeing them in action.”
The white lights had dwindled in number faster than their crimson counterparts. With a surge of coordination, the white lights started to take out their enemies with them, flying into clusters of crimson light before bursting into clusters of radiant flame. That tactic was effective for a short time, before the crimson-colored ranks spread out. What remained of the special forces, in return, immediately started to turn and flee, their white trails streaking across the sky.
“They did better than expected, I guess.” I mentally compared the numbers before and after the battle.
A good number of the crimson lights had flown off in pursuit of the white lights, the chase adding some more surreal beauty to the night sky.
Hao Wei looked at me critically. “I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but you’re quite the cold-hearted person.”
“Is that so?” I raised my hand to my chin, thinking. “After all, if I had to warrant a guess, the red lights, the commanders, were closer to sorcerers and Foundation Establishment cultivators. Our allies couldn’t have matched them in power, so to think that they whittled off a good thirty percent of their leaders was incredibly impressive.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.” Hao Wei frowned, trying to find the correct words. “It’s like… you’re looking at them in a cost-benefit analysis, or something like that. Where’s your empathy?”
He exhaled loudly. “Never mind, now’s not the time for that.”
The leftover Outsiders had formed up into a small squad, and were flying towards us… or the giant, glimmering tower of light that was oddly contrasted with some ominous dark smoke. Doesn’t take a genius, I guess. Miles took out a rod, while Hao Wei had hunched over in some sort of stance.
“Hold,” said Mr. Meng, his expression grim.
The group that came over to us was at most a fifth of the original size, and the crimson leaders were largely absent, save for a few. It was evident that this group wanted to negotiate, or talk, at least. Everyone within the barrier continued to tense up, watching for their next move.
The Outsiders had halted in mid-air, arrayed neatly in front of the barrier. Up close, the Outsider battalion looked like it practiced an equal opportunity policy for all races, ranging from humanoid figures to the utterly alien—the kinds that appeared in nightmares.
Something built like an average size human stepped out, glowing with the crimson that these guys seemed to like a lot. A tinge of green, which now looked like a color at home on a pile of vomit, pulsed faintly, identifying him as the Outsider that had taken apart the first casualties of the battle earlier. He had a human face… he looked like a human, but there were chunks of chitinous, metallic black shells growing everywhere in a haphazard manner. Also, he was practically naked, which made it fortunate that Aurora was in the car, unable to see him.
He hovered briefly, with no visible wings or anything, before landing gently on the ground.
With a smooth, utterly unearthly voice, he spoke.
“Hand over the Key, and everyone here shall leave unmolested.” He went straight to the point, his eyes blinking rapidly.
He cast a pair… actually, there were two pairs of eyes on his head, squintin
g as he tried to appraise and intimidate us.
Mr. Meng stepped forward smoothly, his hands at his hips. “We refuse. What are you going to do about it?”
He walked up close to the barrier, trying to stare down the literal bugger, causing the mantis-man to take a step back.
In an utterly human-like manner, the mantis-man crossed his hands in front of him. “I am in a good mood. Twice I ask of you good men, hand over the Key and we shall leave you unharmed.”
This yes and no thing probably came from Old-World customs, where asking three times was the custom. How old were those monsters? I shrugged mentally and stepped out.
“And twice we reply with a denial. Also, put on your trousers at least. Your junk’s going to give everyone here nightmares and a superiority complex.”
Anger twisted his already twisted face. “My patience will run out soon. Hand the Key over. Or die.”
With a disdainful snort, Mr. Meng stabbed a finger at him, and the Outsider’s face warped in pain as greenish blood spilled everywhere. Mr. Meng’s finger jabbed at the air viciously a few more times, and more greenish blood spurted into the air as parts of the Outsider caved inwards. I felt the air harden as Hao Wei acted, increasing the volume of air a few times over near the Outsider leader, slowing his retreat.
I didn’t dare to attack the Outsider directly, but his flunkies were probably something I could get rid of. My gaze fell on them, and as I called upon my will, the world seemed to slow down, like they were flying through some thick soup. This slowness felt unnatural, but it seemed to be advantageous towards me and I acted decisively.
“Vanish!” I spat, focusing on a large group of Outsiders that were not glowing crimson, holding an image of the empty sky in my mind.
Natural Law rumbled in response, and a good number disappeared in an explosion of gore, while others simply ceased to exist. I felt a sensation of spikes growing from inside my body, and I staggered as blood vessels ruptured in my left arm. The world spun as a wave of dizziness hit me, causing me to stagger.
To Fling a Light Page 12
