Don't Say Goodbye

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

From the gates of the check leading to the port, many figures came out, amounting to a few thousand, with some many more behind, numbering for about a couple a thousand at most and from varying strengths. There was a very little amount of elite within them though, but many at the early or middle stages of the Spirit Gathering realm.

There wasn’t a single Craftsperson among them, and with Schnell seemingly figuring Ciemnosc’s thoughts, he said while standing up. “We couldn’t kill many of them, only 2. They were being protected at all times by some acting elders, while ours died directly with some of the cannons from Makis.”

Step step- tap.

“At first, it was just Makis making strange, uncomfortable comments the next morning after you left the stronghold for the missions against the Moribund Yearning Cult’s encampment. But once you left, he announced his independence and that of his forces and all who wanted as long as they followed him… and Joah and Jenlin.” Schnell said as he began stepping hurriedly to the port, the others making way for them as they looked at Ciemnosc with such deep reverie.

But Ciemnosc stopped Schnell, who seemed angst to hurry him out of this pathetic world, though that was only to the west. And after being stopped Schnell comprehended and looked apologetically at his Commander, but Ciemnosc said instead in a quiet voice - seemingly acting breathless. “I need you to choose people, ‘they’ are already coming and not going to take long, so pick people that are willing to stay and burn the bodies of our fallen.”

“Yes C-” Schnell immediately nodded, his eyes turning to those who came out right away when knowing that ‘this unknown person’ was actually their very same commander. But before he could even finish nodding, let alone speaking, they both got bombarded with so many volunteers. “I'll do it sir, I want to.” - “I will!” - “Me too!” - “I have nothing else but loyalty, let me do it, Commander!” - “I’ll do it too!” - “Let me do so as well!” - “Please let me!” - “I will also!”

“...” Ciemnosc looked at the foolish suicidal buddies who are more than glad to take their lives as a token for sending their comrades away. He remembered the first time the corpses of his troops were burned on the cold Little Lake, which now was warm despite the coldness of the snowing all around and the climate really starting to get impossible for ordinary people to live in.

‘Who would have thought.’ Ciemnosc thought, feeling some closure, as he looked at everyone who volunteered, while some others who had the same face as the former were seemingly waiting for something else. Ciemnosc looked at Schnell, “Okay, let go.”

“Yes… Commander.” Hearing his Commander’s softened, quiet voice, Schnell strangely didn’t feel afraid of what the Commander was thinking, it was as if this was simply just Ciemnosc. And so, Schnell began walking beside Ciemnosc as the volunteers began to move the corpses of their fallen comrades left and right, but hesitating to do anything to the other side’s corpses.

“For the others… spit on them if you’d like,” Ciemnosc’s voice was hoarse as everyone heard it, they then looked at their departing Commander’s back, and Schnell looked back at them with a wink, and thereby spitting sounds were heard endlessly before a massive funeral.

Step step step step…

“Commander, we have the cannons on a couple of ships, and we also managed to confiscate the ones that those bastardly Craftspeople were once again creating without your authorization. We might not put them all down at all… but we did manage to avoid allowing the other side to have those cannons.” Schnell began briefing Ciemnosc, a little bit, who in return frowned just slightly and Schnell directly went over to explain the whole matter.

“It was commander Shidar, Ernesto, and Situ Shi, who first gave us their armored cars’ cannons for the ships so that, Commander…” Schnell became hesitant, obviously and naturally, as he looked at Ciemnosc with a lot of asking for forgiveness. “So that when Commander arrived, we would be able to defend you from anyone who dared come for you.”

“... Hmf.” Ciemnosc hummed with a grave tone, looking ahead with lifeless, darkest eyes. After a couple of seconds of silence, as he and Schnell stepped onto the port, he said, “Continue.”

Schnell nodded, gulped down a little, and accommodated his thoughts and heart, before cleanly pointing around and such. “Commander, but we only managed to get 8 ships to have 2 cannons on each side. Even as they were working for others, the Craftspeople were working so badly still. But the cannons are very well done at the very least, though only 8 ships of the 30 right now are equipped so…”

Seeing Schnell hesitate, Ciemnosc looked at him to the right and spoke out quietly and softly. “So I should destroy them with ‘this one’ right here, and then the port?”

Pointing at his commanding vehicle following them, and the surrounding troopers moving around them and, getting ready to board the 8 ships that were indeed possible of being used for the moment that they were indeed needed.

“Um, basically, yes.” Schnell nodded, his body shrinking a little as he felt embarrassed. It was the Commander’s work they were talking about, and they were asking the Commander himself to destroy them all and also to expect the remaining few to be destroyed and those in it to die as well. Wasn’t that a lot? But unfortunately for Schnell’s worries, Ciemnosc directly agreed.

“Alright, when we sail-” Just as Schnell’s eyes widened and brightened up, and just as Ciemnosc was talking with his own tone, he frowned and immediately brought his hand up and his palm facing him, his Identification Token appeared. Reading through it, Ciemnosc then looked at Schnell and changed his words from before, “They’ve just passed over outpost 2, outpost 3, and outpost 1. There’s no time, tell the others I’m already destroying the other ships while I make my way to the Little Lake.”

“W- w- wh- what?!” Schnell reacted strongly and without thinking much about it. Commented a little desperate. “But isn’t it still a bit far away? We have like half an hour? We should be able to safely prep-”

“No, Schnell, those are Obsidiafying realm. Now do what I told you to!” Ciemnosc loudly said, with those troopers and sailors moving around and stopping in their tracks. And when Ciemnosc wanted to pull Schnell into his commanding vehicle, he caught only hair with his hand as he was already inside it. Looking outside at Schnell, who took a couple of steps backwards before he could grab him and pull him in, Ciemnosc could only let him speak while he also closed the entrance to his own commanding vehicle.

“Sorry, Commander, but if it’s true what you said… Then I can be useful from here, first.” Schnell said, adding at the end of his words as if to soften Ciemnosc’s momentarily stubborn mind and heart. But Ciemnosc… how could he just believe in those words? No comfort could take his mind away from knowing where all of this was going. Schnell could only add at the last moment, “Don’t worry, Commander. Your resources are already on the other side; the west is now really and already… waiting for you, Commander.”

“It couldn’t have been at a better time.” Those were Schnell’s last words spoken to Ciemnosc as the former finally then closed the entrance of the Commander’s commanding vehicle and stepped back, with Ciemnosc standing in the same spot for a few more seconds before finally turning around and sitting on the driver’s seat while Schnell had already also turned around and began yelling out loud at the troopers and sailors around.

“Now get to move! The enemy is here. Het those ships out already. The Commander will fucking need you by now!!... Stay away from the ships without cannons. Drag everyone away!!... Start leaving the port, is about to be bombarded. Why is that ship not sailing already?! MOVE IT ALREADY!”

TRRCCRKKRRR TRRCCRKKRRR, trckrr trckrr, trckrr…

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“... phew.” When Schnell heard the commanding vehicle speed out at full speed towards the end of the port leading to the northwest of the whole Region and towards the shortest amount of distance between the port and the shore on the other side. He turned around and looked at it disappearing quickly; the port was also nearing the other shore anyway, it just needed a few more weeks of construction for it to really reach the other shore.

Btrrr btree btrr btr btree btrrr btrree…

Ciemnosc drove his commanding vehicle without any hesitation, going at full speed but without forgetting to target the ships that had no cannons on them, slowly placing a target on each of them which the cannons themselves would be firing at on his signal. A few seconds passed but that was enough for everyone within the port to not only move away from those ships but to give up on taking more important parts from those armed ships that needed emergency repairs.

They also managed to start evacuating the port. While they seemed to form up lines with the armored cars that were left, the only and the last ones from the previous hundreds and hundred of armored cars that were completely fine previously as Ciemnosc’s army.

Pum, pum pum pum, pum pum pum… Boom boom boom boom…

The cannons began firing, and beautiful but easily destructible explosions went out in each of the 22 poor ships he constructed. Every single one of them was targeted specifically by Ciemnosc as he continued making his way to the end of the port. Every 80 meters of their length and 40 meters of their width was taken over by pure white, translucent, and transparent explosion, slowly making huge penetrations through their entire structural bodies and finally exploding in a blast somewhere deep.

Each ship that was bombarded twice at the very least had its wooden material simply flying about at fast speeds, sometimes even targeting the evacuating troopers but the armored cars aided for that matter.

Pum pum pum… … …booom… boooom…. Boom boom boom boom!

And then, without hesitating for even his own sake and having never really tested whether his commanding vehicle could deal with just one single attack of such, let alone a bombardment of the same; Ciemnosc began to directly bombard the port from where it began to a ton more of key points of it that would remain standing even with the beginning of the wooden port destroyed.

And, indeed, as the evacuated troopers were now safe and hard at work but also fast in constructing something, thousands of splinters went off all around the port as some small parts began crumbling after the pure white, translucent, and transparent explosions destroyed it where it commenced, thereon destroying other parts that were seemingly not affected and taking them down as well.

This continued and continued, the port was rapidly being destroyed and Ciemnosc was already tens of kilometers away from where it had first been built. And though he could see every part of the port with his cannons’ systems, he was only able to see a blurry shadow nearby for about a couple of kilometers away from the end of the port as it made its way towards his commanding vehicle all of a sudden!

“??” However, as the blurry, intangible figure rushed his steps towards him, its towering figure was slowly revealed as the speed he was going was enough to make the clothes covering him fly away from his body. And it was then that, still shooting at the rest of the port. And right behind this person, Ciemnosc stopped his finger that was about to press on to send the last bout of bombardment into the air for them to then fall on the port; dangerously close to his commanding vehicle as he could use his Spirit Sense to see them already.

‘I knew you would find a way to kill them, Mosto…’ Thinking just that, Ciemnosc looked back without taking a look at his arrays’ projections, as if he could look at Mosto, who simply stood on the last bit of the port that was built, and his left index finger still above the projected button from the array. ‘It will be better for you if you were just trying to catch me just now.’

Pum… … Splash~! … … …boom.

And with those words ending in his mind, Ciemnosc’s left index finger fell on the projected button, the cannon at the very front shooting one last time. The whole port was already broken, with only the last part, which was exactly where Mosto was. Left intact. Everywhere else was littered with wooden planks, parts, and even metallic parts that were once holding this incredibly strong port all at once.

Mosto’s figure dashed, with force, to the side and directly at the waters of the Little Lake, the coldness from the climate washed away by the incredible warmth of the Little Lake… as Ciemnosc’s commanding vehicle fell on the water as well, invulnerable to such little changes, as well as the last bit of the port exploded into smithereens at last.

Gurgle gurgle gurgle gurgle~.

Yet, while Mosto was swimming back to the shore, avoiding the still rushing fast waters below what was once a port, with all sorts of dangerous remnants swarming all over the place. Ciemnosc’s commanding vehicle didn’t dive any more than when it directly fell at such incredible speed; it directly floated, and right after, it began ‘bloating’ as its sides were now as if hidden by a bubble-shaped compartment around its wheels, front, and rear.

As soon as it floated up, from a small hut at its top, just before the front windows, Ciemnosc came out of it and looked back at where Mosto had jumped to. After looking at a semi pathetic figure trying to swim back to the shore, not going to risk chasing Ciemnosc with such weaponry and of unknown strength, Ciemnosc looked at the port instead where his people were at the shore on the other side and seemingly finished with their preparations…

. . .

Within the stronghold, all around, many cultivators could be seen carrying several corpses to certain places which had smoke drifting into the skies.

Whistle~! Whoosh! Futomp.

“You over there!” Just as one trooper was moving 40 corpses away by carrying them over a broken piece of an armored car tied with strong ropes, he was shouted at by an impossibly powerful cultivator who seemed to have come from so far away! The Obsidiafying cultivator added, “Where is Ciemnosc right now? What are you doing wasting time picking up corpses for those weirdos of the Moribund Yearning Cult? Just let them do that job on their own.”

“...!” The trooper’s look of fear and curiosity changed; from that, it became one with dropped eyebrows and cold eyes before sticking out a middle finger to the old man. The old man who was on his Cloudless Eagle and the surrounding cultivators on the pelicans reacted; strongly.

“How dare YOU!?” - “Apprehend him right away. Take him down!” - “How does he dare?! Presumptuous! He must be put together with the rest to the floor, you bloody ant!”

Pshift- thud- splaggggssshh~.

And so, the trooper barely felt his body moving when he lost consciousness. The sudden jolt of his body by a strong bout of another Obsidiafying realm cultivator’s Power Energy on their pelican made the trooper lose all consciousness. In a way, it was a fine way to go, as he didn’t see nor would feel his body suddenly becoming an ‘image’ plastered over the ground at the last instant of his life.

His body had been flown to the ground by about that bit of Power Energy, so small and seemingly nonimportant, but died instantly after losing consciousness; also instantly.

“Take everyone down, take everyone down!!” The Obsidiafying realm cultivator's shrill screams went out, making all the other Obsidiafying realm cultivators around get to work already. Every single part of the stronghold was then searched for, not leaving any trace. And they, the ones ‘playing’ as ‘hunters’, did so in the name of finding Ciemnosc. It was just going to be a pity that all these hundreds of cultivators were on the side of that criminal and were even trying to help the criminal gain some extra time for his escape!

But that was a thing for the 4 major organizations to be reported of dutifully by these ‘hunters’ of the criminal, to worry about, as right now all that was happening within the stronghold was simply the addition of a few hundred more bodies to the already couple hundred thousand all around.

When those ‘hunters’ found other groups of Obsidiafying realm cultivators, they convinced those other groups from joining them, easing the activity that was already too easy to complete. But it was at least more fun that way, for whenever they found one, they would even play with such and pass the ‘soon to be’ corpse around each other.

But in the end…

“Hey! Over here! I found some other partners of that criminal!” One cultivator found the plaza that led to the now gone port, which they of course didn’t even know such a thing was gone, and alerted the others by their Identification Tokens, who then hurried up to the large plaza right away.

Whoosh whoosh- whistle~, whoosh whoosh whoosh.

It didn’t take even half a minute for every single Obsidiafying realm cultivator to find their way to the large plaza, even for those who were outside the stronghold thinking there might be some rats sneaking away, but found no one despite circling the stronghold quite several times.

“Heeey~, there’s a lot, what are they doing? Hmm~?” They were all standing in the air, some on the back of their pelicans, though most of those with pelicans as mounts decided to simply float in the air. And the few who were at the late stages of the Obsidiafying realm were instead all on the back of their Cloudless Eagle mounts. And as a curious Obsidiafying realm cultivator beside a Cloudless Eagle asked, there seemed to be no one from the puny ants below them to answer them, all too quiet and simply looking up… defiantly.

And that, ooh, that was just their worst crime! In these Obsidiafying realm cultivators’ eyes…

Then, one who was at the back of a Cloudless Eagle and the highest of them all in the air looked down with his Cloudless Eagle preying on the weaklings’ bodies— that was of its same cultivation base —, and began to speak. The other Obsidiafying realm cultivators quieted down, and this one old man, an elder of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect, commenced…

Step step step step…

What they couldn’t hear was thousands of quickest of footsteps ever from one sole person moving back towards the large plaza… from below, underground.

…