Monstrous

"Y-yes, sect master Farno- ah err... respected sect master Holoriu?" The elder respectfully spoke in return to the sect master of an outside sect but spoke to his own sect master with veneration; though there was also trepidation and veneration alike within his throat. Sect master Holoriu nodded with his arms crossed, full of approval, also satisfied with being asked before actually speaking, which somewhat showed his might over the other major organizations' upper echelons very simply yet showily.

The elder prepared himself, both physically and mentally, to begin. These upper echelons of the major organizations had of course been in the dark the whole time. While almost all of this time it has been a hell for those from the major organizations and a parade for the rebels who even escape with big numbers in the end.

They might want to know it all right away, and it was a great opportunity since everyone was around to hear it. But they might not be ready for the information yet…“Yes, sect masters and pastor; here is what has happened over the last few days…” The elder gave himself a few imaginary pats on his imaginary back and drew a large breath in his lungs before beginning. “ After Ciemnosc was identified to have escaped from the stadium, we sent forces to entrap him and send him to the central building.

“However, because there were sudden groups of cultivators from all major organizations attacking one another, there were reports that these rebellions were quelled but that they either were attacked while they were moving towards the central building or back to the gates. Those closer to the central building were reported to have to come back, as there were too many of the rebels on the way to the central building, and need to keep the prisoner within the most secured points of the sect’s territory, which the nearest gate.”

“Hold on, ‘prisoner’?” Grand ancestor Xing Kei of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect interjected at this moment, his white eyebrows furrowing as he gestured towards the elders with his crooked and tired fingers. The elder began to visibly shake and tremble as he faced and felt the grand ancestor’s gaze and confusion, which the elder could only respond to.

“Yes, grand ancestor. There were 4 different reports, at the same time, that the target ‘Ciemnosc’ was caught by all 4 of them.” The elder said he knew very well what might follow, which the grand ancestor indeed immediately reacted to. “How can you ever believe such a stupid thing?! You fools! They were obviously against you all along!”

“Grand ancestor is right. That is true! However,” the elder hesitatingly began, only continuing when he saw the grand ancestor tiredly keep silent and lower his right arm. “At that time, since the ice on the stadium became obvious for all to witness, communications were impossible, someone from the very inner core of our sect had to disrupt our arrays and even manage to break our communications machines.”

“But don’t worry, grand ancestor, sect master!” The elder added, his head nodding as he gave both his superiors a begging gaze. “The machines have already been repaired. Our Craftspeople have been working on it since day 1, as those who were the perpetrators of this had fled just minutes later after checking that everything was… br-br- broken.”

“Hmph…” The sect master showed not much response, while the grand ancestor’s visible response easily made the elder tremble again. While the other major organizations’ upper echelons were silent from the outside but who knew from the inside.

“Afterwards,” the elder continued, with a voice as if he was neatly sodomized. “The prisoner was brought to each gate… where… where some of our own elders and acting elders ended up betraying the sect and helped all the 4 armies come out of the gates by destroying the recently built defenses, arrays, and the most powerful gate arrays.”

“They… they made their way towards the north, west, south, and east; each of them had a large armored vehicle with 3 cannons on top. But before we could send any people after them, even more, hidden dangers were coming out of hiding and ambushing our disciples, even acting elders and elders. All major organizations had a lot of their members disappear. While the higher-ups were held by the rebels, the disciples would get killed over and over again in missions of scouting for more rebels.”

“In the end,… o- our people, from all 4 major organizations, became too d- d- too depressed to even partake in any mission! Only early on in the morning today did we see a few hundreds of thousands finally leave the sect’s territory through the several holes in the walls and at the gates t- th-... that are no more.” The elder said, finishing his brief report.

“You imbeciles!!” The grand ancestor said, beginning to take his shame and humiliation as one of the strongest among those at the Obsidiafying realm, yet being practically disabled on the very first day of the fight by Li Tong.

“You let Ciemnosc leave?! You let those rebels remain around, how come you never thought of interrogating our disciples then?! Why were those cowards hiding if they are the elders and acting elders of our sect?! How dare they not respond to the situation?! You, you all are to be beh-... ARRGHH!”

The grand ancestor went on and on about, ending up not finishing his first thought out words and turning around over and over again in frustration. The elder in question could only look in acquiescence, even if he wanted to explain that interrogating millions of disciples and believers from all 4 major organizations was something they just didn’t even know how to do, let alone start, and that the elders and acting elders, as well as those clergy elders and enforcer elders, were all afraid of their lives because they didn’t know that Obsidiafying realm cultivators could actually be ambushed and assassinated…

However, how could he do that? He is just an elder, and the one cursing at everyone was the grand ancestor. What to do but say ‘yes, sorry’?

“GASP!!-” But just at this moment, as the Eagerburning Flames Sect and the Preferential Light Justice Sect were feeling the weakness and wanted to return back to their ‘home’, and the Moribund Yearning Cult showed no sign of wanting to stop tracking Ciemnosc to study him, ancestor Pu Lianter gasped, before shrilly screaming her shit out; right before zooming in the distance. “My dear Enaro, Enaro, noooo! NOOOO! He killed my Enaro, my Enaro, AAAAAAHHH!!!”

Whooosh.

Seeing ancestor Pu Lianter leave right away, her hair in disarray but her body practically unharmed, every upper echelon around looked on at her departing figure towards the central building condescendingly before taking their gazes away and shaking while looking down at the ground.

Grand ancestor Xing Kei and sect master Holoriu kept looking at her figure. They then looked at each other with the same face, as they knew the only reason only she could fly at these moments was that she didn’t even show her tail while hiding from both Li Tong and grand ancestor Pesela.

“Pastor, sect masters, we’ll go check Ciemnosc’s location. Please come with us so that we, the adults, can deal with this matter that others can obviously not.” While sect master Holoriu’s eyes twitched as grand ancestor Xing Kei invited everyone into the central building instead of the sect master doing that himself, the groups of the other 3 major organizations became lively.

The Moribund Yearning Cult was already stepping towards the grand ancestor. While the Eagerburning Flames Sect had its sect master tell the others something before the sect master then stepped towards the grand ancestor as well. As for the Preferential Light Justice Sect, they were silent while its sect master was seemingly pensive. And after a little while more as the grand ancestor waited, sect master Yolin gave her group a glare before turning around and coming over to stand beside sect master Farno. Her sect’s members then began to also leave the area carefully with whatever little Power Energy they had for that matter to float down…

…When the 4 groups of people were making their way to the central building, they saw ancestor Pu Lianter suddenly rush back with her pelican carrying her this time. And after they arrived at the central building, they were already wondering if ancestor Pu Lianter was moving to the west because that was the path that Ciemnosc took or because he ended up changing his course to the Little Lake.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

But either way, all that mattered was to know where he was and do nothing more but intercept him and bring him back, alive or dead. Nobody cared.

Step step step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step.

Walking into the building, entering the elevator, and covering their tiredness with some chatter among their fellow upper echelons, the 4 major organizations finally arrived before the central command. When stepping into the room, they could already see where a few monitors showed different images, but all about one single image in particular.

‘Ciemnosc!...’ Sect master Yolin saw in that one particular image the commanding vehicle of Ciemnosc, as well as a motorbike, in the middle of nowhere close to the separation between the center of the Region and the west, where the Little Lake makes its appearance and its whole history return to every cultivator’s memory within the central common’s room.

“He’s here, quite a few tens of thousands of meters away from our sect’s territory. He seems to have stopped for some reason. But for some reason, we can’t track his Identification Token.” One Craftsperson within the room haughtily said, giving these most powerful and fickle cultivators not much of a glance despite every single one of them being able to slap him to death, accidentally, at once.

“Wouldn’t it be because it is in his Covert Space bag?” An enforcer elder from the Moribund Yearning Cult asked, and the Craftsperson’s words made the enforcer elder have to endure the need to experiment with the former’s body. “Ha! From the Moribund Yearning Cult, no wonder, totally barbarian it seems eh.”

“Well, where do you think his Covert Space bags are made from? Even our Covert Space bags can be tracked. Why wouldn’t the Identification Token be tracked? We even have the course that he followed before, even when our systems were out. Look he went through here and here, passing over some ambushes lying in waiting but avoiding the rest. Maybe he interrogated some of you bunch and he managed to know where not to go.”

“Anyways, am I done explaining to you all? I have to keep monitoring this,” Saying that, the Craftsperson took a seat and proceeded to ignore his superiors and all these incredibly powerful men and women behind him.

“W-wait a moment…” Suddenly, elder Tin frowned, as did grand ancestor Xing Kei. With the latter saying nothing, he took his own Identification Token out and read it, his gaze not leaving its panel for a long, long while.

“He killed her. He killed her!...” On the other hand, elder Tin said after just taking a glance over his Identification Token, and all others couldn’t help but look over as obvious answers were formed in their heads. And just then, grand ancestor Xing Kei, with his eyes closed, looked up at the ceiling while muttering out slowly. “My disciple is dead now, too. He took her away from me.”

“...” An uncomfortable silence fell upon the room, while sect master Yolin was feeling undoubtedly pensive, falling completely into a trance that she didn’t even seem to have fallen into. Then, someone awoke her with some words, making that someone feel cold sweat drop from their back, “Well, he is at the 10th stage of the Phrenic realm after all.”

“Did you manage to find all possible routes that the other 3 baits took?” Sect master Holoriu took this chance of the grand ancestor being involved in his own grief to speak out at last. The Craftsperson in charge of monitoring became stiffened before he looked at the sect master and obediently nodded. “Mhm, I was just trying to decipher that, and we’re about to figure that out.”

Ignoring the false words of the Craftsperson, sect master Holoriu looked at another few monitors who were starting to form a shape of the sect’s territory’s southern, northern, and eastern gates, then distancing themselves away from it and following a certain path.

“Those are my disciples,” sect master Yolin said at this moment, interrupting the movements of those cameras, with sect master Holoriu adding up as well. “And mine too, if they are to be brought back, punished, or killed, that is all something my sect will be in charge of doing. Not any outsider.”

Their grave words made the Craftsperson’s hands tremble, stopping the tracking of those 3 rebels¡ baits. But then, the sect master turned his head around and gaze at them briefly before returning his head back to the monitors, “No, they are rebels, not anyone’s disciples. They are all to be killed-”

“What?!” Before the sect master could finish his words, the Craftsperson suddenly shouted with a high-pitched tone, drawing everyone’s attention right away. Looking with a side glance at this dumb idiot, sect master Holoriu then looked at the monitor, while the Craftsperson explained himself in a dear so obvious panic.

“It- it just stopped working! I don’t know what to do. Even the arrays are all gone. Everything’s gone! What?! I- I don’t know how this happened!”

Pum! Bugsh bugsh bugsh bugsh bugsh…sshglaaghh sshglaaghh sshglaaghh…

“Shut up!” Sect master Holoriu furiously shouted, already making the Craftsperson with only cultivation of the Conflagrate realm 1st stage bleed from his ears a lot, but that didn’t seem to be enough as the sect master sent a right slap-handed slap to the left side of that cultivator’s head. Immediately. A strong burst of Power Energy thundered across the room, bouncing off and off time again.

The Craftsperson’s body directly became little chunks of flesh, with no bones to be seen, as if they all turned to dust or became stuck within those little chunks of flesh with blood making a star on the walls, floor, and ceiling even. With organs flying about all over the now useless controls, they then fell on the floor while some little chunks of flesh rolled on the floor still.

As the blood trickled down the ceiling as well, with a stern face, grand ancestor Xing Kei spoke to everyone while elder Tin had a darkened face and looked down; his whole self really turning a dark shed never so dark before.

“Everyone, there are some really advanced cultivation rooms on another floor. If anyone is up for going into a hunt…then please, follow me!” With strict footsteps, not caring, and even less waiting for anyone to say anything, not even praise or a follow-up set of words, the grand ancestors began to step out of the room and onwards to the elevator.

Step… …step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step…

And so, everyone moved to follow the grand ancestor, including the sect master, who didn’t do so until the end - except for the remaining two in the room. While the Moribund Yearning Cult and the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect were still with a few dozen of their upper echelons accompanying their sect master, pastor, and direct subordinates of such, the sect masters of the Preferential Light Justice Sect and Eagerburning Flames Sect were all on their own.

Step, step.

And they also made their way towards the elevator like the rest of them. They were still going to pursue Ciemnosc. The difference was just mild as they were not together with their major organizations. They were both all on their own.

***

Within the underground at the left from the now repaired and slightly upgraded commanding vehicle, not even half an hour away from reaching the west of the Region.

In front and to the right of the commanding vehicle, a motorbike was standing with an incredible look, it looked different from how it did not only a few months ago, but even a few days ago as well. And right to the left of the commanding vehicle, 15 meters underground, Ciemnosc’s body was in a mildly spacious rectangular room 2 meters tall and 6 meters long with a width of 1.25 meters. It wasn’t on purpose, but it is how Ciemnosc rushed a hole to hide underground.

The dirt above his head was of course moved with an array which he simply left with a little timing, in correlation with other arrays, as a tough ceiling was made at the top beforehand and Ciemnosc just had to go through the even tougher gate before the arrays began pouring and strengthening the dirt on top of his burrow.

Right now, at these instants, and from Ciemnosc’s hands as they faced the corners of the ceiling to his sides, Supreme Powerful Stones drifted into dust as he was sitting cross-legged and with his body naked. There was a mat under him however so that not a single speck of dirt or dust would fall on his intimate, manly parts.

At this moment, his eyes were closed with ease, and so they had been for hours and hours without end. Within the deepest of Ciemnosc’s body, mind, and whole self, he was slowly visualizing a sight full of darkness…that yet had a barely visible silhouette within all of this obscurity.

‘My… natal spirit… what is it?’ Thought Ciemnosc while he looked at the cocoon that had a pair of ‘links’ that went up and down, a thing he could tell because he could, and not because he could recognize what was left, right or up, down; he simply just knew.

And this cocoon that was now seemingly beating, Ciemnosc could already begin disintegrating it as long as he willed it. The darkness around him and the incredible flow of it was already very well beyond what he deemed more than necessary to break through to towards the next little step, in this 1st Step that only he seemed to have knowledge of.

Without saying nor thinking anything, not even in this most ‘my own’ kind of way that Ciemnosc and anyone else could get into whenever they cultivated he began to disintegrate his own cocoon, hiding that… Natal Spirit, which will become the terror of anything in the not that far future.

… … … …swish!

And from the outside, as the cocoon began disintegrating, both inside Ciemnosc’s body and outside of his body, tremendous noises began to thunder within this little hole underneath all of the dirt above.

…