Little Sigh (2—Last Part)

Gurgle gurgle, gurgle.

"You won't be able to attack them like that, I don't know, and I don't care how you came to know of my 3 corpses, but that steel you are so proud of will no longer be useful to you anymore, Commander Ciemnosc." Kinski quickly said, laying out his words to Ciemnosc, making him stop in his tracks and twist his head around while at the same time, Kinski added.

"Unless...you own a Mortal grade weapon..." It wasn't stupid nor impossible, with how Ciemnosc has managed himself, according to reports and from how Kinski had met him back then, it wouldn't be any strange for the commander of such a powerful army to have become another holder of the way too few Mortal grade weapons.

With Ciemnosc turning his head back. Only, there were some obvious and big bubbles coming from under the water right where the surface of land became below water and hence no longer a surface. However, Ciemnosc’s words were against Kinski and Katherine’s imagination. With a calm and quiet voice, he said. “No, who- why would I need a sword to do this?”

Swish- whoosh.

“!” - “!” Right after saying that, Kinski and Katherine reacted but were still too slow to Ciemnosc throwing out the sword still covered by those wormy thingies, the blade of the sword was already ‘rotting’ away somehow but stopped rotting the moment Ciemnosc threw it away; in the direction of Kinski.

Step.

With a quick sidestep, Kinski avoided the flying sword and anything that it splattered around as it left his vision ever so simply, quickly, and without any Power Energy put into it, which confirmed Ciemnosc being at the Phrenic realm 9th stage ‘only’ and that he still wasn’t hiding his strength of a Spirit Gathering realm.

Which, according to information about this commander once again, Kinski obviously knew all the kinds of strengths that Ciemnosc would have over himself should he even be at the very 1st stage of the Spirit Gathering realm…

…tak…

“Elder Brother!” - “Keep yourself there, Katherine, don’t move.” Katherine obviously became anxious for her little Elder Brother. But the elder brother in question couldn’t be any more anxious already with the young girl trying to help knowing she shouldn’t. Yet, just as Kinski reminded Katherine of their agreed procedures in the worst-case scenarios, Ciemnosc suddenly attacked at a 3 meters tall, blue, and obviously decayed yet full body that suddenly came up from below the water line.

PAM! Fluwoooshh~...pam.

Ciemnosc’s left fist went over to the jaw of the 1st corpse, which was then sent sliding through the water with only its shoulders and up above the water, the rest being pushed away even despite the strong resistance coming from the nature of water itself - for more than 35 meters alone. But suddenly, Ciemnosc’s jaw was upper-punched by another blue arm from below!

Yet, however, Ciemnosc only moved about 20 inches into the air before directly falling back into the water as if nothing had happened to him. The only difference between a normal person who had been so strongly punched like that and Ciemnosc was that besides being awake, Ciemnosc was also moving his jaw around, not in pain but as if trying to sense something.

Finally, after a long time of a few seconds long moving his head, shoulders, and even grasping his jaw, Ciemnosc said under the amazed eyes of Kinski and Katherine while the 1st corpse was swimming back to Kinski’s surface of the land and another 2 came from below to stand in front of himself. “I thought they were something, but they only have a…’bombastic’ effect on their bodies. They are not powerful at all!”

“Hey, Kinsko you, isn’t there a way to empower them? Surely they can’t be this weak, eh?” Ciemnosc added, giving Kinski a glare, which the latter then took as the look of a child begging an ‘adult’— an old teenager —to play with them at the very least, so sad.

“Urgh!” Not being provoked but rather feeling powerless somehow, for any reason, Kinski commanded the 3 corpses, 3 meters tall, blue skin, decayed yet complete without a single part of their bodies with worms coming out or something to stand at the north-northeast and northwest to Ciemnosc…while his Power Energy was swiftly sent to them with a kind of detailed black-ash rock which he took from his Covert Space bag while Ciemnosc talked.

At first, he was hesitant, as using the item that is basically the way to make these 3 weapons powerful was costly in terms of maintenance at the time of a fight. But seeing Ciemnosc just wave it off his ass like the 3 corpses, the terror of the Moribund Yearning Cult for whenever they appeared, being treated like sidekicks really let Kinski get a real grip on the situation.

“Katherine, do NOT move from there, no matter what! You hear me?!” Kinski shouted, at Katherine, one last time before becoming fully engrossed in the battle about to take place. What was strange was, Ciemnosc didn’t make a move despite obviously sensing the change in the 3 corpses, like any other cultivator would have done already.

“Heh, they seem to be getting fun now, but it’s somewhat…disappointing.” Ciemnosc finally said, commenting ‘rudely’ on the terrors of the Moribund Yearning Cult like they were just so-so. But Kinski had no time to worry about that as this monster’s monstrous physical strength was what kept him on the edge and already sweating; barely feeling the tiredness from his Power Energy being used up.

“Hm,” Ciemnosc grinned, and right after, his right leg swept on the ground to create an opening. But just as the 1st corpse in the middle, the 2nd corpse to Ciemnosc’s front at the right, and the 3rd corpse to the left were about to lunge at him from so up close, the little one moved first.

Pom! Swwi- pa-tah! Swish, pam! Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~!

First and foremost, Ciemnosc suddenly launched an attack on the one to his right, embedding his right elbow in the 2nd corpse’s solar plexus and sending it flying back into the water, ricocheting and its back somewhat appearing with cracks as if Ciemnosc and the water attacked as a team.

And then, without being tardy, Ciemnosc directly sent out his right fist to punch hard at the 1st corpse who was too late to react still. Yet, the 3rd corpse’s right arm was already sent out towards his head from behind to his left. Ciemnosc could only use his left hand, first, to block it and grab the 3rd corpse’s right fist with his left palm, grabbing it softly but directly making the 3rd corpse’s whole body go stiff.

It was then that the right fist of Ciemnosc connected to a now ready to receive 1st corpse, which was facing Ciemnosc and with its hands coming over to its solar plexus to protect it from any powerful strike that’ll damage its body. However, instead of going that up, Ciemnosc aimed directly in front of himself with his right hand, aiming at the crotch of the 1st corpse.

A second later, as the 1st corpse was sent flying and similarly to the 2nd corpse began ricocheting its back, legs, and head on the water over and over again from the surface of the land area towards the rest of the lake around, Ciemnosc’s left hand that had softly grabbed onto the 3rd corpse’s right fist suddenly gripped with tedious strength!

To that, the corpse’s right fist became as flat as a dinner plate, there were no cracking sounds from bones nor blood coming out from the fist, but it indeed became broken altogether. And right after, Ciemnosc gave the 3rd corpse no time to breathe before harshly pulling with his left hand, the 3rd corpse became a ‘flying sword’ just like the sword from before, flying over the surface of the water all the way until stabbing the ground at the shore on the other side of the lake with its head. Thereon created a large screen of dirt before it all fell down and semi buried its body in the process.

Just like that, under 5 seconds, Ciemnosc who was surrounded by the 3 corpses who can grow up to even face off an Obsidiafying realm on their own given enough time to themselves and their owner, were all sent off each towards a different angle towards the lake and outside of it…by a mere Phrenic realm cultivator at the 9th stage!

Standing in the same pose that he ended up in after throwing the 3rd corpse’s body backwards, Ciemnosc slowly relaxed his posture, as swimming sounds from 3 different angles came towards him once again. His head turned to give Kinski a glare with his left eye. Kinski’s very own extremely cloud-dark eyes became terrified for a few seconds there of the dark from Ciemnosc’s pure, ‘childish’ eyes.

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Swish swish.

Looking back at his front, Ciemnosc saw the 3 corpses coming back up again; one had its crotch totally destroyed by a small margin, the other had its vertical spine from behind protruding more than ordinarily with a dent on its upper abdomen, and the other had its head basically battered into a kind of conehead - only the latter was slowly regenerating from such an injury.

‘Not only do they have learning capabilities, seemingly on their own… They also seem to be able to heal…except for those who I directly ‘touched’?’ Ciemnosc quickly thought in just a moment, studying with both his naked eyes and not the 3 corpses surrounding him once again.

Though he himself was tall, very tall for his age, and many more things that wouldn’t make sense of him being a human, these 3 corpses with blue skin and hairless heads were so tall and bulky that if they directly surrounded Ciemnosc up close, his body would disappear from sight.

At this moment, as they seemed to take time doing nothing, the sound of Power Energy flowing outside of a cultivator’s body sounded. And along with the obvious trace of someone’s Spirit Sense, Ciemnosc managed to see a kind of connection between these 3 corpses and Kinski who was rather a few tens of meters away and couldn’t send his Power Energy out like Conflagrate realm cultivators when using a deathly skill or technique.

“!” But just then, Ciemnosc detected from corpse 2 a very fast and much powerful strike coming from its right fist thrown at the right side of his head! Ciemnosc lowered his body as fast as possible, avoiding the fist, but right away came the 1st corpse’s left knee, aiming directly at his left ear from his head turned right to avoid the right fist from the 2nd corpse.

Ciemnosc had no choice but to send his right fist against the left knee, leaving a bit of an opening for the 3rd corpse to gesture his hands into knives, hacking them downwards at Ciemnosc’s shoulder. His right fist connected to the left knee, leaving Ciemnosc’s eyes to open further a bit more, his right hand bouncing back as the left knee being struck forced the 1st corpse a few steps back in return.

Pom-pah- psah! Whoosh whoosh, tap- trrr, whoosh!

Ciemnosc used the force from his right arm bouncing back to turn to his left, his left foot impulsing his body upwards by being pushed against the ground and his right leg ‘slowly’ lifting itself up while dragging its foot, Ciemnosc’s hands opened up and he shrunk his shoulders to have the less amount of width possible to avoid those knife hands.

His right foot already with its sole against the ground, it pushed the rest of his body good enough with his left foot never leaving the ground. He pushed against the 3rd corpse’s stomach without being given enough room to send even a palm strike against it. But with the support from his legs and the 3rd corpse’s movement of hacking down with his hacking down motion, it was enough.

Yet, as the 3rd corpse was sent flying directly towards the water, 3 meters away from the surface of the land in the middle of the lake, instead of even way farther than the shore of the lake, he was now using 2 hands instead of 1. Ciemnosc didn’t have any more time to evade, fully, the right fist of the 2nd corpse that came again as he was in the midst of pushing the 3rd corpse’s stomach away. There was not much he could do anymore.

Only being able to turn his torso to the right and send his body slightly backwards, the right fist of the 2nd corpse was still aiming perfectly at his face. But even then, Ciemnosc still jumped with both his feet, his right foot being the only leg he could mobilize to impulse himself up once again, leaving only his left leg to strike the 2nd corpse.

However, instead of kicking at the 2nd corpse, Ciemnosc even took his Claws Out for only his left foot and then directed his kicking upwards motion towards the right arm of the 2nd corpse. Right away, Ciemnosc could feel a strong, large, and cold fist punch at his left cheek, his body already receiving the impact as well and beginning to fly backwards.

But right as the fist hit him hard on the face, Ciemnosc’s left foot had successfully hit the armpit of the corpse’s right arm. And with his body being sent backwards, intentionally or not, the 2nd corpse’s whole right shoulder was cut off cleanly by Ciemnosc’s left foot!!

Swish- pam! Phhshk! Ckrsheeeeeerrrrr…

“!!” Seeing this, even with his Power Energy already covering his 3 corpses entirely inside out, Kinski was, with his mind blown; utterly speechless! He could only think out loud inside his head, his eyes widely surprised in a bad way, ‘How can that be?! It’s impossible! What kind of strength does the kid have?! Nobody can tear apart a corpse’s body of this level like this!!’.

But that was just the beginning for the poor Kinski, who didn’t even know what was going to come. What was at first a cruel defeat of these corpses without them being used properly would become a nightmarish set of scenes that anyone who knew about these corpses will have for the rest of their lives and in the afterlife when they are long gone.

…And, indeed, that was just the start. As from then on, it looked like the commander Ciemnosc that is rumored to be all that…was even more! And had things that weren’t even known by his own people! Let alone the spies placed all around and the amount of information that could be taken from prisoners. This was completely novel! If he could get out of this alive…

Kinski could, of course. He just had to be willing to get his legs cut off and arms separated from his torso. He might be able to run with those sacrifices, possibly even having to give up those 3 corpses. But for the information of Ciemnosc’s stupidly strong body, to a degree never seen before, if the cult’s upper echelons learned of such a method for cultivating…

However, every time such a thought was formalized in his mind for even half a second, he would turn to look in Katherine’s direction, and all sorts of retreats were directly gone. And even then, if he was really willing to sacrifice Katherine, which was obviously never going to happen in any possible dimension, why would he do that just for the Moribund Yearning Cult? And he himself for that matter?

Yet, it was a truth that seeing Ciemnosc, one little boy barely 10 years old or something, could jump around and face off the 3 corpses with their capabilities at full use - yet only receiving one punch or 2, or kicks for every encounter.

The corpses weren’t that resistant. Their durability wasn’t their real strong point, but their growth and their learning capabilities, as if they were something that could learn anything by just seeing or experiencing it once. Yet, the more the battle continued, the more the corpses’ bodies began to be maimed by Ciemnosc’s punches and kicks.

In that manner, even if Kinski had unlimited Power Energy, which he so obviously had not, the crippling of the 3 corpses would be more than enough to keep him hopeless. Kinski wasn’t really one to have incredible fighting capabilities, and that wasn’t for him to blame, as according to Ciemnosc’s studies over the corpses— which he didn’t forget to express out loud every now and then —, Kinski was indeed someone that excelled in Spirit Sense.

And according to his overall knowledge, the world didn’t have anything to do with Spirit Sense, at most, it could be used for certain tools and weapons, as well as to give some tiny bit of maneuverability to certain deathly techniques or skills. But other than that, there wasn’t even a cultivation method for someone with good Spirit Sense like Kinski, which might be the reason why people like him can’t even get to actually develop it in the first place and become ‘weak’ in the face of pure talent in cultivating.

“Oh wow, I see that they each have a trace of your Spirit Sense in them! Is there a kind of method to directly transport your Power Energy into them like this?! So fascinating~!”

As one of the things that Ciemnosc shouted in the middle of a battle right after trying to behead with his open palms the head of the 3rd corpse, being stopped by the other 2 corpses by almost being beaten from all sides. It made Kinski feel somewhat strange, while Katherine was still all too anxious about the safety of the 3 ‘big brothers’ who were supposed to protect them without any trouble.

Yet, that wasn’t all that Ciemnosc had to offer in his seemingly perfectly trespassing all common sense and laws when Craftspeople go on ahead and learn new things or discover incredible things in others’ works. All of that, only Kinski could understand the meaning of Ciemnosc simply ‘casually’ speaking out the secrets of the 3 corpses and their functionality with even a twinge of disappointment as if really it wasn’t anything worthwhile.

Hell, it even made Kinski casually respond back at one of Ciemnosc’s comments, “It’s not that this is all it can offer, but rather that the technology and those behind it just haven’t found a way to advance in their research. Otherwise, these would be mass produced and not just some would be made every few thousands and thousands of years…”

Yet, Ciemnosc continued on to give a little bit of his comments, the one with the most impact striking both Kinski and Katherine this time together was something that finally gave Kinski a certain kind of indication, but Katherine still continued to be tense and even became more anxious and tense after such words were spoken from Ciemnosc’s pretty, slightly pale lips.

“The pathways for these corpses to use Power Energy are too bad, sluggish, and I’m sure it even follows its initial, main designer’s experience in cultivation. Craftspeople are almost all talentless in cultivation but way too vain and conceited for their own good. So many obvious wrongs, yet nobody bothered to amend them? Seriously, how bad is the world, huh?”

And the battle continued, however; Ciemnosc’s body would constantly be seen jumping from one part to another, even when he was ganged upon and forced down to the riverbed, a few seconds later, he was back up tens of meters in the air as if not even a whole mountain could stop him.

Katherine would grow more and more anxious seeing these stunts. But Kinski was, although also getting more worried for the young girl’s safety, still amazed and impressed by Ciemnosc’s unique prowess altogether.

STEP, STEP, STEP.

…Then, finally after almost a whole hour, with the sunset so ready to darken everything around the woods, the 3 corpses each without their limbs, be it their legs, arms, and even neck and head. They were all swiftly cut off, and some were even floating a bit above the water’s surface, though they appeared about to fall down since they weren’t even actual living beings.

At that moment, holding 3 torsos that were cut thrice each and with 2 of them in his right hand, Ciemnosc was hiding his Claws Out from his hands like this, holding tight onto the sliced pieces of the corpses’ torsos. Letting them fall with his Claws Out and going back In instead, the steps Ciemnosc made as he made his way to stand in front of Kinski were damn heavy thanks to the corpses’ torsos… But his momentum was even heavier.

“...” - “...” Looking at each other, only Ciemnosc could be said to be at the advantage here, as even Kinski, who isn’t at the same level as Ciemnosc in any way in terms of Spirit Sense could tell that…that Ciemnosc hasn’t made any use of his Power Energy during this whole ‘battle’. Which was more like a field trip for Ciemnosc to enjoy himself with for a bit of time.

…