Corvayne quickly double checked that the withered husk of the sect leader was in fact dead, then moved to look at the hole in the golden sphere. The bubbling blackened gold had signs that someone had sheared the essence or enchantments under the surface. Bits of it on the floor of the sphere were still together, frayed ends blowing in the unseen energies the orb was still drawing in.
He turned to Rio, whom he had moments before encouraged to confess to the sect leader. He had felt conviction respect and love and devotion mixed up with six hundred years of longing and six hundred years of hope. She had walked into the chamber gambling he'd see her at this moment with fresh eyes... all of that dashed onto the floor. Just minutes ago she had been a demon eyed imposing figure. The disguise fell as she was weeping.
Corvayne was tempted to try to explain to her the time loop and give her hope by telling her they might yet step back and fix things, but for all he knew the man, laying there as a dried up skeleton in country music digs, had been murdered hundreds of years ago.
Corvayne put a hand on the gold wall and felt that it had a hint of warmth. Even if he couldn't get his answers and she couldn't get her confession... they might be able to get revenge. After all, if they didn't know who killed him, they couldn't stop them in the next loop.
“It's still warm from being melted...”
“What's the point?!” Rio cried out. “It was a waste! Six hundred years, my whole life...”
He considered slapping her, as that's what they often did in stories when the hero needed someone to get their act together, but instead he hugged her, and then mended her back while she cried.
“Whatever was here stole his life. If it was using an artifact or ability to bottle it, his life force might not be impossible to steal it back. Either way, you would avenge your master right?”
He felt her nod, and they seperated. She took her flying sword off and dropped it to the ground. Corvayne got his own gear and potions ready as she composed herself. His compass resisted 'the Sect leaders killer' but he could see a straight line of holes extending from the gold sphere, like a bullet shot through dozens of sheets of paper.
He stepped behind her on the flying blade, and Rio turned. “I want the full link again.”
“You tried to pin me down and...” He paused as he did not want to confirm or deny he would let her go further. “You pinned me down to make out with me last time.”
She completely missed his point. “I don't care what I do, if I have to face fuck you with my tongue to make this sword go that fast-”
Corvayne rolled his eyes and pushed the link forward, his own disinterest in kissing while in the same room with a murder victim mostly dousing her physical reaction to unifying... mostly.
The took off, blazing out of the mountain. The line out was, compared to the moving stones they had barreled through, trivial to navigate. The path cleaved through traps, rooms, and empty space. There were cobwebs of damaged essence along the way, as well as one other dried up body he saw in an otherwise dark and empty chamber. Leaving the mountain, they shot out past snow and into thin air, so far up that the illusion of stars and moons above was in places pierced by the bottom of the next layer. He could see through the glittering stars and colorful moons hints of reversed mountains.
That is, save for a very bright moon that was almost certainly floating over the sect. One that he felt a unity link to.
“Did you see which way they went?” He asked the moon.
Rio looked at him like he was crazy for a half beat before the moon shone a gentle beam towards the stables.
“Fuck, thought so. We'll talk later, thanks!”
Rio didn't need any further motivation to punch it. As they dropped, Corvayne could see the river bends and make out the academy, with an airship lit up from below floating above it. His connection to Gylwin's worm came alive. She projected she was busy with the Red Line Sect leader actually showing up, with the others fleeing while she stalled or killed him. A faint boom in the distance punctuated that the fight was on.
“Bad news, in addition to our killer-”
Rio got what he was thinking through the link. “Do... do we run?”
It was a good thought. If they ran... No. Compass wasn't some unique ability. He was pretty sure Kirae had mentioned two different variants that merchants and thieves had. The airship could carry several thousand cultivators, and through Rio he got images of hounds they had bred in the stables that could sniff out mana ores to help keep the fields producing mutant wheat. [Organization] summed it up: There was no way the Red Line sect didn't have ways to hunt them, nor would they leave Preshe alone if the prince wanted her.
“We got to at least kill the prince. If we do that without getting seen, great. If not, his dad will probably put multi-billion crystal bounties on all of us. I don't honestly know if I can keep up with a floor 80 rulers cashflow, even though I bleed money.”
Her funk lifted for a moment. “You BLEED those crystals?!”
He let one get all the way out and pulled it from his shoulder. Rio took it and looked at it. “It's turning gray!”
“Is that bad?”
“It's nearly priceless! Wait, do they come out EVERY-where? All over?” She looked down at her own crotch then back at his eyes.
Corvayne frowned and projected a memory that basically said 'yes, and it hurts' to her.
“Has it ever happened when you-”
“No because I can store them before they break the skin.”
He let her keep the crystal and tried to push forward his own cold desire for justice to her. “If this thing could beat your master, even using a sneak attack to get him when he was at his most vulnerable... we need to be ready to fight it with all our might. Basically, hit it before it knows what happened.”
He already guessed that seeing Bombshell at the club on top of Bayou's suspicions, that he'd find out that she had somehow hidden everything that should have confirmed her as the leader of the vampire cultivators. Landing near the stables, he walked into the massive open barn structure. In the gloom most of the creatures were sleeping or placidly chewing hay, but there were no people were moving about. Which was wrong, there were people here twenty four hours, and they never turned off the overhead lights. Eyes adjusting to moonlight sneaking in from the rafters he let his senses expand as he crept down hay strewn isles.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
They found Big Red's body not far from the offices, drained into being near unrecognizable save his mustache. The man's gun was still in hand. Corvayne's view of essence made him sure it was recent, thin strands leading to a dark corner. He channeled [[Growth]] into his eyes and the dark essence swirling around the woman became clear after a momentary spike of pain. So much for ambushing.
“Come out Bombay, or whatever your name is.”
Rio glanced at him, then pulled our her revolver as Bombshell appeared, wearing a white dress soaked with blood.
She licked her finger clean of a speck of essence. “Lucky guess?”
Corvayne had his hive greatsword ready to swing. “Sort of. I get the sense that you were waiting for a distraction to aim for the sect leader. Are you a part of Red Line? Or are they pawns of one of the brides?”
She reared up, gaining height to tower over them, clothes stretching to fit her distended form. Corvayne's essence sight suggested her form was bulging, squirming, disgusting.
“I need to thank you two... you killed Sheolbeth and left the body for me. I have been trying to claw my way up to being strong enough to take her out. The rest of these demonic cultivators can't tell the difference between what they do and what I do.”
Corvayne snapped a thread of essence trying to get at Rio. “They just steal people's life force. You can somehow take their luck or fate as well. I just assumed you were another twisted vampire under your facade. You acting on your own then?”
They started circling. Corvayne was watching her movements, ignoring the feeling of power the woman was giving off lest he cower. How had she hidden that much power?
“Why should I tell you?” She asked, looking down at them, stepping around so that they kept the light between them and avoiding hitting her head on protruding parts of the stalls.
“Because if not us, who else?” Corvayne said.
“The Magus. I need to make him remember me. If I can be his equal, if I can show him how to break the level cap... he won't need the others! I'll make him remember me! ME! MEEEE!!!”
She laughed, cried, then lunged, and only because he had links to both his enemy and Rio's speed was Corvayne able to avoid her. She spun, legs not finding traction as she sent hay and dried bullshit clouds flying.
Rio was pissed. “It's just... you killed him for essence?! You've destroyed our sect!”
Bombshell laughed, drawing a gun and perfectly sighting Rio before using a weapon skill that caused the gun to blur. Rio screamed as dozens of rounds that became thousands of bullets blowing through her. Corvayne felt half the pain, dropping him to his knees. The huge woman knocked Corvayne's attempt to block her aside with a dismissive backhand. He crashed through a stable.
Big Bombshell spoke up, curling a blond hair as one eye watched him attempting to get out of a pile of wood. “It's not the essence my little cowgirl. I steal full levels. I've got a thousand from consuming Dusty? Dotsy? A fat pig fit for a feast. I'll make him remember!”
Rio tried to pull her gun up, and the woman kicked her. Rio cried out, switching her gear on what felt like instinct to something that would defend her and help her heal. That is, if Bombshell wasn't kicking her so hard it was cracking the floor.
Corvayne started pushing himself back. If he could get far enough away, he might hit her with an orbital bombardment. Scratch that, he needed to buy time. He swung his blade and clenched his fists, combining his hive weapons with [Cross Skill: Shield Bash].
What flew out where chrome single jet ships, shaped like gleaming knuckles and trailing gray plasma as they slammed into Bombshell like a wave of pure force. He heard things cracking, and he moved to Rio before he swung again, this time using [Cross Skill: Storm Thrust]. The shield ships came barreling back to him as a fresh wave of what looked like horns with jets on them flew out, dive boombing her with explosive force that sent her flying away from the ground and away from the stables.
Corvayne grabbed Rio and hopped on her flying sword. She was alive, barely, and Corvayne borrowed only her expertise in flying. He tried to share [[Vitality]] with her, but she didn't 'get it' and he stopped before he screwed up her healing.
He flew outside, eyes trained on a dust cloud as he tried to prepare orbital bombardment. The skill resisted... she was too close.
He realized she was moving at him just soon enough to swerve as something like a line of dust flew at him, the huge woman turning and flinging another twin strands of black essence his way. Corvayne cut through them, and she looked smug as he flew backwards, then after ten seconds her expression turned confused.
Corvayne spit on the ground. “Screw you and the sword you rode in on, lady.” He took a swing and activated [Cross-Skill: Orbital Bombardment]. Both his items glowed blue and instead of wasps he saw what looked like canisters shoot straight up.
Bombshell held her hands up to block the attack, glowing shields forming then breaking. She chuckled. “Your little tricks not working right?”
Her shadow caught on a moonbeam. The faint blue light jerked her back to it, and the bride snarled and ripped herself free, but too late. Red holographs appeared all over her as something above bathed her in hundreds of lights. A moment later thousands of gray missiles rained down, shattering the ground and quickly kicking up too much dust to see.
Corvayne wasn't fooled, his [[Unity]] link picking up the woman's hunger and anger even though it was as faint as a whisper. He could see she had left the leg the moonbeam had caught behind, and was now coming at him hopping on one leg, still faster than he was on the sword.
She reached out, and Corvayne could see black essence gathered. [[Agility]] let him throw Rio up and spin low to avoid the soul-eating claw, and then he used [Cross-Skill: Reap] to lay down lines of black goop while his shadow hands caught the wounded cowgirl and leaned back to get out of range of a backswipe.
With her pinned, he felt the world vibrate. The name [Moonlight Greatsword] popped into his mind. Above, Diamonds-In-Passing was glowing brightly, and something like a comet came flying at the monster woman who was shredding the grasping patches of shadow. The bright projectile pierced her, and then exploded in thousands of blue novas that clung to her. A moment later Corvayne felt it mix with energy already on the woman. He slammed the sword into the ground and put everything into a shadow shield.
[Combo: Moon Bomb]
The shield of swirling shadow buckled, only able to stay up because part of his own energy was flowing back into him. Rio's sword was turned to slag, and looking around he could see what looked like a lifeless moonscape, craters and dust, centered around a figure like a frozen blue wraith, reaching out with clawed hands.
Some of the crust started to break.
“She's still alive?”
Corvayne pulled the original Cowtivator sword he had won from the original pack that ambushed him, and pointed himself at the academy as the thing he was fleeing shed a layer of bodies or souls or something. No, the blue was a thin tissue paper layer of silvery essence. It's presence unveiled a moment while it created a new layer. It must have had thousands of levels.
Screw that. “Rio, I'm sorry, we failed, there's no way we can take that damn thing. We dropped a moon on it.”
“It... was... level... 3000.”
He looked back, and it was still reforming. Though, he thought he saw something odd in its woven essence.
“Yeah, I don't know how we both are not dead. She must have burned most of her ammo-”
The rule about jinxing one's self screamed at him and he used gravity to drive them into the dirt as his cowboy hat was nearly ripped off by the wind of hundreds of quantum bullets flying over his head. A part of him begrudgingly wanted to figure out how to do that move. Meanwhile, another moonbeam came flying down, which prompted the bride to stop for a moment and start shooting at the moon. Corvayne saw Diamonds-In-Passing shed some of her outer layer, thin dusty rocks revealing the hardened surface.
He sent the danger present from essence strings through [[Unity]] at the moon, and a moment later it compressed into a trio of glowing lights and spun away. He could see them now in the air, trying to follow Diamonds.
With a few hills now between the source and those strings, they had lost her. Corvayne didn't trust that for a moment would keep them safe. Especially since he was seeing now a three way fight between vampires, Red Line cultivators, and Fistful of Dao members. Make that five way: over the next hill monsters were being destroyed by a group he didn't recognize at first. The Three Kings had shown up too.
He spotted the prison he had stayed at, and recalling his neck ring he changed directions.
He flew in the open door and saw his cowgirl guards, Night Rider, the mechanics, and even the Horsespit brothers behind bars. He started with Rio's right hand man, whom radiated protective fury. [[Unity]] wasn't perfect, but it told him enough that he was the perfect problem to keep Rio safe. It was funny, she had dragged him into this mess yet he was worried about her.
“Night Rider, I'm going to spring you first. Sect Leader Rio's been betrayed five different ways. Dusky is dead, the Red Lines are taking over. I need you all to keep her safe.”
He used essence to open and disable his neckring, which he stored, but oddly the man shook his head and spit, annoyance welling in him. “I can't do that. She chose you hombre.”
Corvayne felt his jaw open a little, then shut as he accepted it. He dug into [[Unity]] to pick Rio's brain. What did she care about? “Fine. Then saddle up and try to get everyone you can off this floor. Neo Nashville too. Oh, after I free you put all the collars in a pile, I need em.”
He went up and down the row, getting more then a few busty girls hugging him and calling him sugar. Maybe those girls guarding him really WOULD have done something between the bars. It was moot, he wasn't available and there wouldn't be a sect left if he ever was in the future.
In the last cell was the werewolf. He deactivated the neckring, and the thing for the first time he had seen calmed down. Standing up, it looked much, much, much bigger than when he had been contained in the cell.
“Hey buddy, if I set you free can you do me a solid and get the guys in red robes?”
It thought. It took a while, like a car that hadn't been started in a few months whining before it growled to life. “Grondoff. Kick. Ass.”
That was a yes, he was nearly sure. Breaking the collar off to store with the rest of them, he opened the door. The things excitement at being let loose was palatable.
“Grondoff... SPIN!” It cried happily as it crashed through a wall, using what looked like the greataxe technique [Whirlwind] with it's claws.
He looked back to the linked suppression formations in the prison, then pulled his hive greatsword out and turned it sideways, like a giant spade. He wouldn't fight if he could avoid it, but if he HAD to, well, sometimes a spear moves sideways to go forward. There's no cheating in war.
“[Cross-Skill: Dig]”