K̷̪̭̻͑O̷̞̱͘̕Č̸̨̳̥̥̱̣̲̰̠̊̈́͜K̶̨̜̻̺̻͉̅͑̌͊͝ ̶̛̩͗̉͗̋̆̐̄̿̆Ạ̷̡̡͓̹̓ ̷̢̢̹͖͇͛̒͋̂͜͝D̵̢̨̢̞͉͍͖́̋̿̀͆̀͌̽Ǫ̷̈́̈͝O̵̖̅̈́̾̍̑̚̚͝D̷̹͇̼̖̖̜͌̊̊̓̌͊͝͝ͅL̵̦̣͉̗͔͉̝͛̒̓̆̈̍̇̇͝E̵̹̯̯̬̩̰͇͍̻̿̓̅̉̓̂͝ͅ ̴̖̫̻̥̦̊̌̍͜I̴̡̛ ̷̧͍̗̦͎̤͆̓͂̓͂̉̈D̸̨̝̘̹̞̼͈͔͓̳̾̐̑̀͋̀͌Ẻ̶̢̛͓̱̠͇̟̩̦M̸̗͇̙̯͊́A̸̧͈̦̻̣̟͇̘̯̱̔́̕N̶̡͈͕͈͍̜̖̘̣̈́̈̔͌̄͗̕͝ͅD̶͎̼͉͍̥̤͉̻̟̖͂͘ ̶̞͊Ḅ̸̢̱̳̖̆͆̔͆̐͝L̵̡̳̬̠̫̥̊̿̇Ǒ̶̻̋O̷̢͇͕̎̓̓̀D̷̡͙̮̳̰̼̭͇͗̆̍͑ͅ ̴̥̘̟̯̰̥̮̯̟̫̄͗̃͝S̴̘̺͓͋͋̌̈́̊̊̌͂ͅA̴̲̲̤͙̒͝͝C̶͍͔̦̹͍̳͇̲͓̉́̊̽͐Ṛ̷̦̦͓̌̏͊͋̌͊͝Ì̵̢̯̲͙͉̀̈̄̈́F̵̲̪͔̞̹̻͉̞͊̃̆͒́̚͝I̴̢̬͛͐C̸̛̜̓̍̚͝Ę̷̪̠͉̯͔̹͔͖̀͊̂̋͋͋͛S̴͇̞͉̅̑̕ ̵̪̏͒̿̃̄̔͋͜͠K̷̜̼̒̓͆͆̂̓̈́̔I̶̢̔L̴̪̅̎͑̆̀͘̕͘͝͠Ḽ̸̨̢͓̹̘̙̻͓̔ ̴̢̟̠̟̳̭͎̺̇̏̋͋Ä̸̡̧̘͈͙́͒̈́̋̇̂͝Ľ̷̖̜L̶̦̳͔͈͖̄̐̔ ̵̧̢͖̝̼͔̭̠̔͊̊͛̈́͑͘H̷̢͇̤̮̹͇̦̫͍̽̓̉ͅU̴̢̱͗̽̅͌̈̒͆́Ṁ̴̠͎̗̫͚͕̞Ã̶͎͍̯̤̣͉́͊̾N̵̢̧̛͉̘̣̺͎̂́̒̈̆͛͝͝ͅŜ̸̡̲͇̬͚̲̦͍̙̪͒̾̽͘ ̸̛̰̤͓̾̈̃̊͒̊̓͘Ḑ̵̖̹̟̩͒̀̎͘͠͠Ȫ̴͎̙̜̪̜̥͇̲̝͒͌̈́O̴̖͙̼̬̓̑̏̓̌
My morning gets ruined by that damn rooster again.
I wonder if there is some sort of Cultivator version of a sniper rifle in this world, so I can shoot his head off. I mean, this World’s Eastern side is similar to Earth-China, culture-wise. Then there should be some form of gunpowder available, right?
I gotta inquire about that with Yi, the midget probably knows about it since he’s all sciency and stuff.
Speaking of the devil, Yi Gore steps inside our hut once again, waking up the clones. I wonder how the hell he manages to wake up that early, even before the rooster cries out. Does he have even an alarm clock built into that swiss army knife appendage of his? I wouldn’t be too surprised if he did.
Breakfast is unfortunately clone shlop again, but this time Yi tried adding some cheap seasonings to it, making it slightly more palatable, but not by much. At least I still got a sandwich.
After that, it’s wash time again. As I sit and freeze my butt off in the mountain morning wind, I wonder for how many more days we’ll have to repeat this ritual.
Once everyone is changed into their flowery kimonos once again, we begin our morning routine practice.
━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━
*KA-BLAAANG!!!*
Not even five minutes after practice begins, an earth-shaking explosion rattles the entire mountain side.
"Tch...dammit...they’re here...I had hoped to have some more time..." Yi grumbles to himself.
"What the hell was that, Senior? It nearly knocked me off my feet!"
"It’s the Hero of the Sun and his party. They have arrived. That was a siege-level explosion spell, aimed at the defensive formation array surrounding the Sect Outpost, probably by the party’s casters. The outpost has a weak defensive formation, so it will go down within about ten minutes, maybe even less if they really push it. We must make haste."
Yi fumbles with his knobs and switches on his arm again, and the clones fall in line. I follow as well.
"Alright. Everybody equip your golden hair brooches. Be careful not to poke yourselves with the pointy end."
After puttin on our golden brooches, we all follow Yi down the mountain slope. After a few twists and turns, we wind up in a huge courtyard a few levels lower, elevation wise. Inside the courtyard, there’s a large mass of minions gathered. Some are regular people, some are strange monster-humanoid hybrids, and some are obviously clones, albeit of male gender as far as I can tell, all looking strangely like a pale, hairless and emaciated version of the Sect Master Fury Bone.
The “Final Boss” is here too, escorted from both sides by Elder Xin and a couple of other well dressed people, which I reckon also have leadership positions.
Immediately, the female clones get distributed to each separate squads, with the minions now getting tasked by the Sect Master with protecting the girls against the other members of the Hero’s party, and with running interference tactics. As far as I’m concerned, the Sect Master tells me to stay close and follow him, as I’m a slightly more valuable asset. That suits me just fine, since I do not want to have to face the Hero, nor anybody from his party directly if I don’t have to. I’ll just hide somewhere out of sight while they duke it out with eachother.
Yi Gore also finds himself being dragged off to the insides of the mountain towards Lab 25 by Elder Xin and his cronies, so that they may release a few more batches of the “male” version of the clones from their hibernation pods. I hope that the little guy will be alright and nobody kills him in the siege.
The earth shakes once more from the impact of another siege spell, and the dome-shaped transparent barrier that seems to surround the entire Sect Outpost begins to crack and shudder under the pressure.
One more of those volleys, and it’s going down for sure.
I chase after the Sect Master as he runs inside one of the largest buildings, one that resembles a Chinese temple or pagoda, with the four endings of the roof curved upwards.
We both stop inside a large room supported by many tall columns, resembling a throne/audience room, fancy chair included.
The Sect Master deposits his behind upon the golden throne in a very relaxed manner, and whips out something resembling a scrying crystal ball, to monitor the progress of the minions. Myself, I just run behind the throne and hide there, while still looking inside of the ball.
Of course, as I had assumed, the minions are getting slaughtered by the hundreds. The Hero of the Sun and his companions are merciless, and cut down swathes of trash mobs without remorse.
What a wasteful way of fighting! Why send so many troops, if you know they will get insta-gibbed? To wear down the Hero’s Party Qi and Stamina I assume? Otherwise, I don’t see the point!
It takes about half an hour for the party to get up the mountainside and near to our level. All throughout this time, the entire pagoda-like building around us has shaken and shuddered from each explosion or impact, and dust and wood chippings have kept raining upon my hair continuously.
Once the party got inside of the lower buildings, a trap had been sprung. Lured away by one of the sister clones, the Hero had rushed off to catch her, but the rest of the minions had blown up the support columns of the building and had blocked off the exit, as well as the rest of the Hero’s party members.
Split apart from eachother, the Hero and his party had been forced to find their own separate ways through the palace to reach the “Final Boss” room.
The path that was left open for the Hero to take, was the one filled with little sister bait.
It takes about fifteen more minutes for the Hero to go through them all. I prayed that at least some of them survived. They were, afterall, my “sisters”, in a twisted sort of a way.
The last group of sister+minion defenders left the throne room, and shut the doors behind them.
It was just me and the Sect Master left alone in the throne room for now.
More explosions and shaking rocked the building, and even some of the ceiling chandeliers began to fall to the ground in a messy pile.
*JBAANG!*
Both doors to the throne room suddenly fly off their hinges and crash onto the floor in a mess of splinters.
Geez man, senseless violence much? You could have just pulled the handles, it’s not like they were locked or anything! I think to myself.
The Hero walks into the throne room while carrying the 12th sister clone who had just left a few minutes ago, which now totally looked disheveled and molested, with a dead-fish stare in her eyes.
The Hero tosses aside the clone like a rag doll and begins complaining that he has failed to “share his cultivation” with her again.
12 clutches her belly, pain painted all over her face, yells in horrendous agony, then a second later blows up into a thousand pieces raining down all over the throne room.
The Hero does not seem to care even a bit about the exploding clone, and focuses his gaze upon the Sect Master.
"Your evil ways have tainted this land for way too long, Fury Bone! Your end is at hand, delivered by the edge of my very own sword! Prepare yourself, Fiend!"
The Sect Master gazes upon the Hero for a second, then a huge grin gets painted all over his face. On the side of the Hero’s left shoulder, just below the plate, a golden hair pin can be seen sticking out. The Hero is bleeding slightly, and there does not seem to be any sort of regeneration happening at all.
Holy crap, the clones actually managed to accomplish their task!!! I guess that all of the training has not been for nothing.
"We shall see who is the foolish one, “Hero”." The Sect Master produces a decorated ivory-white chinese sword from somewhere, and assumes combat stance.
"Just the way I like it, (ptew)" The Hero spits a loogie full of blood at the feet of the Sect Master and whips out his own golden bastard sword.
In the next second, both figures disappear from place, and all I can manage to see is a series of blurry afterimages crashing into eachother and metallic sparks flying everywhere.
Holy fucking shit! These guys are moving so fast that I cannot even track them with my eyes. My near-mortal vision just cannot keep up!
Needless to say, they wreck absolutely everything in their path. Chandeliers, stone columns, the occasional surviving minion, they all get cut to shreds like tofu by the furious blade tornado composed of the two high level Cultivators.
Still, I have to give props to the Sect Master. He’s keeping up with the Hero pretty well. What worries me though, is that the Hero has barely taken any scratches. Yi told me that he doesn't even know how to dodge, but from what I can see, he’s quite adept at it.
The Sect Master has noticed it too.
"It seems that you have improved yet again since our confrontation last year, young Hero! You are much less reckless with your attacks and defense! It seems that I will have to go all out!”
"HAH, Of course I have! Do you think I’m like the other morons and can’t realise that the reliance on my regeneration is my biggest weakness? I have spent the last year coming up with a solution to that, and I want to “gift” it to you in the full. These things?" He grabs the hair pin and pulls it out of his shoulder. "They are well thought out. I have to give you credit for thinking of crafting such things. But as it stands, they are completely useless. I have learned to not rely on my regeneration anymore. But I see you have not been idle either, so I will have to go all out as well!
Well, fuck!
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The Sect Master begins to ooze even more of that bloody red Qi aura, and tendrils made of it begin to wrap all around the ivory sword, turning it crimson, then yells:
"[Last Sword Dance Under The Bloody Moons]"
Not waiting to be outdone, the Hero begins to shine golden-yellow, and his hair and body bulk begins to grow. Holy shit, is he going Super-Saiyan?
No wait, that’s wrong! All of his hair just fell off!
What the hell?
The Hero also yells:
[Immortal Body of the Golden Buddha]
Well, that explains the sudden baldness. Also, do all of these high level Cultivators have to shout out the names of their techniques for the skills to work? Seems silly to tell your opponent what you’re about to do, just my two cents! But then again, what do I know? I’m just a low level damaged clone.
The next instance, they both vanish again, alongside with the front section of the roof and their entire half-side of the room. I huddle behind the golden throne and pray that I don’t get killed by the Area-Of-Effect damage from the two, or from random falling debris.
Fortunately, the throne has some small-sized bubble-barrier formation built around it, and it has fended off most of the stray shots. It was probably there as sort of an anti-assasination device, made for whoever the throne had originally belonged to.
Absolute darkness alternates with absolute shining light, making the fight between the two look like a disco strobe light show. My retina is protesting in pain, just from trying to look in their direction.
They keep clashing with eachother for the next five minutes, and neither of them seems to want to give up. I guess this has turned into an endurance fight now. I just hope that this throne’s barrier can last longer than their hitpoints, otherwise I will probably get mushed.
In the end, a screeching noise comes from the ivory sword of the Sect Master, and the blade shatters into a thousand pieces. Some of the shards impale the Sect Master, and some even the Hero. Taking advantage of the brief disorientation, the Hero charges, and slashes a huge gash across the Sect Master’s entire chest.
Seeing that he has lost his advantage, the Sect Master immediately crushes a talisman, and a black portal appears right behind him.
"This is not over, Hero! I shall have my vengeance! Until next time!"
"Coward! Where the fuck do you think you’re going?" Yells the Hero. "[Holy Lance, Stance 23 - Impalement]"
*Shhhhwong...Crash!*
Suddenly, a huge Lance of Light stabs into the chest of the Sect Master and then further down into the floor tiles, preventing him from jumping into the portal. He tries to turn around, wide eyed, only to see the Hero charge a split second later and chop his head off. The head rolls down on the floor leaving a bloody trail, with a look of incredulity still pasted on its face.
A horrible angry scream can be heard, as a ghostly-white shadow jumps out of the headless body and tries to flee towards the sky.
"Not so fast, Fury Bone!" The Hero extends his hand towards the apparition while holding a huge purple gem, and yells another skill.
[Dark Pact: Soul Prison]
Immediately, ghosty chains extend away from the purple gem and coil around the ghostly visage of the Sect Master, then begin to pull it down towards the gem.
"AAAAEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiii...fwoop!" The purple gem swallows the soul of the Sect Master, trapping it inside.
The soul disappears within the gem while still pounding on the crystal walls in despair, its cries of anger forever muted by the prison.
Damn, I guess the Hero did come prepared for everything. Oh well, so much for the whole Moon-Devouring Sect, I guess.
If only both had not been so absolutely corny with their Antagonist vs Hero line deliveries and pointless showmanship, I might have even felt impressed a little bit.
Unfortunately for me, my jittery presence did not escape the notice of the Hero.
He finds me huddled behind the throne while grasping my head in panic.
Unlike the other clones which had tried to seduce the Hero, I begin to scream and display panicked movements as soon as I see him, telling the Hero to stay the fuck away from me while pointing a crude iron dagger in his direction. I know this is a gamble, but after seeing 12 blow up, I’m willing to take it.
"Have you comez to kill me again, Oni-chan? Have you come to “zhare your cultivation with me” and blow me into piecez onz more?"
"You! What the hell are you? You are not like the other ones!"
It's like his gaze is piercing right through me, seeing directly into the depths of my soul.
He rushes towards me and I try to stab into his neck with my small dagger, while yelling painfully in panic. The dagger bounces off the skin of his neck like it was made out of rock, then the blade snaps in half.
Jeez, what the hell is this guy made out of, adamantite?
Timmy: You have attacked the Hero of the Sun
Timmy: You have done 0 damage to the Hero of the Sun
Timmy: Weapon damage negated by the Hero of the Sun's [Normal Weapon Immunity] passive skill.
The hero yanks the remains of the dagger away from my hand, then slams me against the corner of the wall. As soon as he puts one of his hands on my body, I feel a torrent of those spiritual tendrils begin to invade every corner of my being and search every nook and cranny.
Timmy: Aaah, Sempai [Hero's Companion System], please be gentle!
Did Timmy just get molested as well?
I gaze back at the Hero. He is giving me a very confused look.
"Lei Lei, is that the real you?"
...
"What the hell have they done to you?"
...
"Your spiritual root is missing? Wait, no, that's wrong...you have a damaged spiritual root inside of your...dantian? Well, that's heck of a weird…"
"Well of courze I'm going to be damezd goods, Oni-chan, after what you zid to me! Your monzter, how could you lay your handz on me like zat! We are blood brother and zister! Inceztual Hentai Lolicon Pedobear!"
"Get your handz off of me, you big oaf!" I push him away, interrupting the spiritual search of my internals. I do not want him poking too hard inside of me, least he notices that I'm not his real sister.
"Erm, no! Lei Lei...it's not like that! I only wanted to share my cultivation with you, and that was the fastest way to achieve it!"
"Did you not zhink what would happen for even a zecond if you “zhared your cultivation wiz me”, as you so call it? Zat essence was way too ztrong for me to abzorb with my young body! I waz torn azunder from the inzaide by the Yang energiez contained within it! You killed me, Oni-chan! I blew up into a million piecez because of you!"
I scream with panic and rage at him.
"I truzted you!" I slap my fists against his breastplate.
"I loved you!"
"And instead, you yangz-ed me to death!"
"No, I…"
"Do not even try to deny it, you knowz very well what you did!"
I give him a furious, scowling look that could melt rocks.
Timmy: High acting skills detected, recalculating.
Timmy: Oops, it seems that I have forgotten to enable this option. From now on, every time you will use a skill from your old world, the system will recalculate your proficiency and will display the correct number for it, but you have to use those skills at least once for me to correctly grasp their level.
Well Duh, Timmy! I did take Acting as my minor in College... I mean, not now Timmy, don't bother me!
The Hero of the Sun looks incredulously at me.
"Lei Lei, talk to me, how are you even still alive? Even after all of these years, you have not grown up even a little bit!"
"Of courze I have not! I have been kept into zuzpended animation inside one of those healing podz, for what zeems like agez. It took a long time for me to heal all of my woundz!"
"After you did all of thoze...horrible thingz to me, Oni-chan, ze demonic zect recovered my body pieces zen put them back together uzing dark magicz and weird medicinez. Zey only took me out of the pod alongzide with those other clonez they have made out of my blood (I point out at the recently blown up Nr.12) just to zcrew with your mind, becauze you were getting too cloze to ze base."
"Ah....Yes, yes, a...hahaha...clones, so that's what all of those... things were! Haha...it all makes sense now!"
He begins to laugh out hysterically...
Ok, so he had no idea that those things were clones...then why the hell did he abuse them in such a violent way?
"Lei Lei! Come here to Oni-chan! He will take care of you just as he did at the seaside!
I scrunch my eyes at him. Good thing that I watched all of those memory fragments that Yi Gore gave me! I detect this is a test question, so I yell back at him:
"Liar! We never went to the zeazide! You promized me that you would take me zere to zee ze waves and the zeagullz, but we never got anywhere near!
His eyes widen as large as onions and then begin to tear up.
"Lei Lei, it really is you!" He drops on his knees in front of me. "Please forgive Big Brother! Big Brother was foolish, he did not know what he was doing!"
As I am now stuck against the corner of the room, he bends down and begins to embrace me.
"Everything is going to be alright Lei Lei! It's just going to be the two of us together from now on. I won't let anyone harm you, ever again. You are the only one for me, the only one I will ever love!"
And as soon as he said that, he also put his hands inside of my underwear.
Ok, fuck it! That was the last straw! I was hoping to maybe leave the sect with this moron, but enough is enough!!!
Just as he was hugging me, I pulled out my hair pin and then I jammed it straight into his left ear hole, all the way through to the brainstem.
Timmy: You have attacked the Hero of the Sun using [Golden Hair Brooch Of The Timid Recluse Queen]
Timmy: High grade weapon detected! [Normal Weapon Immunity] ignored.
Timmy: The Hero of the Sun has been affected by status [Mingmen Nerve Shock Paralysis]
Timmy: The Hero of the Sun is now susceptible to critical strikes!
Timmy: You have dealt 55117 critical damage to the Hero of the Sun.
Timmy: The Hero of the Sun has been re-inflicted with [Tissue Necrosis] and [Generalized Regeneration Suppression] by the [Golden Hair Brooch Of The Timid Recluse Queen]
The Hero of the Sun crumples backwards with a stunned look on his face, eyes twitching wildly inside of his eye sockets, looking all over the room.
I kick the hair brooch with my feet deeper inside of his skull again.
"Die! Hentai Lolicon Pedobear! Sister molester!"
Klunk, crunch! I kick even harder!
Timmy: 227885 critical damage inflicted!
Timmy: The Hero of the Sun’s [Brain] body part has reached zero hitpoints.
Timmy: Catastrophic body-wide organ failure imminent!
Timmy: Keep hitting him, baby!
Klunk, crunch, crunch, crunch! I kick even harder!
Timmy: 392484 critical damage inflicted!
Timmy: The Hero of the Sun has died!
*System Level Up SFX!*
Timmy: Congratulations!
Timmy: You have slain the Hero of the Sun [Level 50/Paragon 28]
Timmy: You have gained Normal Experience.
Timmy: Due to being very low level, a lot of the experience has been lost. Sorry babe, this little Timmy can’t handle too much of that good stuff yet!
Timmy: You have leveled up!
Timmy: You are now [Level 14]
Timmy: 60 Unassigned Attribute points and 12 Unassigned Skill Point have been awarded
Timmy: Achievement unlocked
[Hero Slayer]
Description:
For good or for bad, you have triumphed against another “paid user account”, who was a very well-known figure around the world. You have gained a large chunk of Normal Experience. You have gained 1 Unassigned Skill Point. To the winner go the spoils. Yey!
I immediately calm my shaking hands. Hold it inside, Trina, you cannot cry out yet, there’s still stuff to do. First, I yank out the hair brooch from the inside of the Hero's ear, then I put it back into my hair, even bloodied as it was. After that, I grab the Hero's golden sword. It is incredibly heavy, and I can barely move it. I slash the Hero across the neck with it’s blade edge. This time, some damage is being done and blood begins to pour out of the wound and all over my robes. I drag the now bloodied sword away, then I place it inside the hand of the now very-dead Sect Master, making it look like he was still grasping the hilt when he had died together with the Hero. Wait a second, this ring looks precious! It's probably the Sect Master’s spatial ring! Yoink, confiscated! Should I take the Hero’s ring as well? No, his party will notice that...
I managed to set the whole murder scene right in the nick of time, just as the Hero's companion party arrived into the room in a blaze of glory, finding me laying huddled over the dead body of the Hero while bawling my eyes out like a child. I could finally release all of those pent-up tears related to transmigration that I have been choking down for the last few days.
I began to release the waterworks without restraint, and hoped that the Hero's party would buy my act as well.