Chapter 14: The (Old) Monsters are Coming
Ivor woke up in a hospital bed to blaring alarms, screaming, and a voice that sounded like it was coming through a PH system. “Everybody get up! Run to the inner city shelter if you’re injured or haven’t reached peak qi attunement! If you’re uninjured and have decent cultivation, get up! Outer sect disciples, form groups of service disciples or join groups of other outer sect disciples! Inner sect disciples and higher, report to headquarters for a briefing! The beast tide is FAR worse than we thought! They have more meridian openers than we have disciples, and they all have abilities! They haven’t reached us yet, but at the pace they’re going, they’ll hit in an hour! If you’re near a breakthrough, make it and then prepare! We’ve already detected Divinity beasts and stronger! We can only hope there isn’t a Core beast - although we could probably take it on. Supreme Elder Grand Void out - and remember, deserters will have their souls torn apart bit by bit!”
Ivor had heard the Hobo refer to Divinity when talking about the second main step of cultivation, and Cores in the third, so he assumed these beasts had reached those points… but as far as he knew, the sect didn’t have anyone past Foundation Building. If they could take it on, he assumed they either had lots of powerful people with Divinities or someone of their own with a Core. That was reassuring, but he also doubted that he could survive a stray attack from someone at that level.
Ivor’s mental state was always abnormally stable, but he was starting to tremble; he was actually worried more than the other disciples with his knowledge of the levels of power that might be thrown around in the battle to come. Ivor broke into a far-too-wide smile, trying to suppress his fear. His heart rate and breathing spread up as his legs began twitching, desperately wanting to slam into the ground and let him take off… and slam they did. Thankfully for him, he froze up for just a little bit longer than a peak qi attunement disciple with dark green hair, who kicked off the ground to run to the door, dying without noticing the hole in his head. A life was cut short just like that, but it did keep Ivor and quite a few others from taking off.
Ivor slowly grabbed his eight energy pills before speaking hurriedly. “Can I have a little water? I have enough pills to make a breakthrough, but I need the water for my technique.”
A hand holding a small glass of water thrust out under Ivor’s nose. He looked to the side and saw that with his memory, he recognized the person holding it! “You’re the one kid from the tree I climbed back when I came here, right?! Advon, was it. If you’re at meridian opening now, you must have some talent! It lightens the mood seeing a familiar face… although just a little.”
Advon had changed a lot. He had better cultivation now, and Ivor surmised that he cultivated water qi due to the qi in the water he had given to Ivor. He was terrified as well, the hand that had given Ivor water trembling. Ivor thought on how to reassure him while plopping his pills into the water and taking them like he had the first eight he used on his bladder. His cultivation jumped up as he thought of something to say. “Thanks for the water. Hey, want to group up with me? I’m a temporary outer sect disciple, so I can form a group. I can’t promise you it’ll be safe, but… I’ll try to cover for you? Oh, is your injury healed?”
Ivor let out a nervous chuckle as beads of sweat formed on his forehead, but he was managing a cooler disposition than Advon. “Yeahthatwouldbenice. I was scouting for signs of the beast tide but got cut on the side by a beast. I managed to retreat though, and it’s better now.”
Ivor inhaled deeply and grabbed Advon’s hand, standing up and leaving the infirmary to find some members for his group. He already knew two he wanted - Anencephalous Klutz and Daoist Silkpants. He knew them, and he didn’t want to work with strangers. “Come on, Advon. I know some service disciples who I want to include in my group. If they join us, you’ll probably live through the battle. Is there anyone you think I should inclu-oh shit.”
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Ivor remembered that Edwina had hit peak qi attunement. He thought she might be a bit of a liability, but she reminded him of himself, and he couldn’t in good conscience leave a young girl to die. Yeah, I guess that sounds like what would happen. Even as a young girl, her life would be cut short like so many others. Heck, maybe mine will… although I’m guessing I should take the whole “deserters get their souls ripped apart” thing seriously so… not planning on that. I used to think of the Hobo as nice, huh? I guess the part about me being less than an ant to him wasn’t a joke. Why would he care about me? Maybe it’s like a biologist observing a bacteria. That would make some sense. “There’s one more person I need to find.”
When Ivor and Advon left the infirmary, they were stunned. There was a gigantic white firmament covering the city and even the slums. Apparently the higher-ups in the sect did care about the slums, although Ivor wasn’t sure on their reasons. The barrier looked divine, emanating an aura that seemed to encourage reverence, and Ivor had no doubt that ignorant folk could very well form a cult worshipping it. Then he saw the phoenix.
A massive bird covered in flames, maybe even made of them, was rising into the air from what Ivor thought was the center of the island. It was terrifying, its light seeming like the center of the universe in Ivor’s eyes. It turned toward Samsara City, by far the most developed settlement, and charged. From far beyond the triangle of cities, which only covered half the surface of the massive island with a surface of half a million square kilometers, and even the island itself, a water dragon of the same power as the phoenix emerged, charging at Samsara City as well. But not all hope was lost - a white-robed figure letting off far more majesty than those creatures rose up into the sky, and Advon bowed down on instinct. He hurried to inform Ivor of an extremely important titbit - “When I look at that person, I feel something in my very soul; I’m… fairly sure that I’ve been worshipping them for many years. They might literally be God; the God worshipped by the abrahamic religions. I think I’m starting to understand why Supreme Elder Void was so calm.”
Ivor was astonished at the sect’s divine backing, but before he could contemplate it, a few words rang throughout the city. “Come from your city of paradise to do battle, my servants! Army of Heaven!”
A court made up of a few thousand angels manifested from distortions in space, each of them pale with pure white wings. They turned and spoke to their white-robed summoner in chorus. “Greetings, Venerable Samsara. We sense your wish, so we shall defeat the powerful beasts on the ground, the ones the sect cannot defeat after the catastrophe weakened it.”
The angels shot towards the tide of monsters, a few beams of light streaking out to execute its members, but its leading members, the Divinity beasts, charged up to engage them. The angels were outnumbered three-to-one, so Ivor could only hope they were stronger than the Divinity beasts. Venerable Samsara’s fist stretched out toward the beast tide and opened, sending three ruby marbles into its ranks. The marbles turned into clusters of blood-red weapons that started to roll through the tide, growing for each beast they killed. Sadly, the phoenix and water dragon reached the city too quickly for the Venerable to act more, so he uttered a few words to them in a booming voice. “Two Core beasts, huh? You might be bottom ranked with low-ranked Daos, but fighting two-against-one might be a little troublesome. It would definitely cause collateral damage, and I wouldn’t want my barrier broken, but all you disciples down there! Don’t fear, I have a solution! It’s a legendary technique - ‘I reject your reality and substitute my own!’”
Venerable Samsara and the Core beasts vanished, allowing Ivor to quickly recover from his awe. “Hey Advon, let’s find our group now. It’s quite… reassuring to know that we literally have God on our side. I’m not entirely convinced that I won’t be killed by collateral damage, but I’d say I’m fairly lucky, so… maybe it won’t go wrong.”
When Ivor glanced at Advon, he was on his knees crying. “I can’t believe that this sect… is literally the creation of God. I read that Venerable Samsara was the Dao name of the founder of the sect. I’m feeling better now, so… let’s go.”
After their morale was sufficiently raised, Ivor and Advon began to run - not away, but to Edwina, Silkpants, Klutz, and hopefully victory.