To The East
"The mountain!! THE MOUNTAIN! He wants to blow it all up. The academy is in danger! The grand- the grand array, headmaster! We must activate it!!!" The person kept on shouting. He was literally going mad as he went about it. Those from the east looked confused and frowned at the person but still felt a sense of alarm and urgency. It was enhanced when they noticed the headmaster's eyes going wide as if about to bulge out of their sockets.
“...!” The headmaster was befuddled. As he tried searching for an answer and possibilities. His eyes darted around. And just as something seemed to click as his mind went back to the images of not so long ago, where explosions occurred one after the other and could barely be seen with the academy’s grand array, and even from not so long ago, the headmaster looked at the retreating back of Ciemnosc with enormous shock.
“Ciemnosc, please stop! Do not-” The headmaster was about to say… about to say, right as Ciemnosc was jumping from the edge, where a giant black pelican with a large, curved beak was there just to let him step on its back. Ignoring the headmaster, Ciemnosc turned to look at the combating Creatures and those who were chasing after other Obsidiafying realm cultivators. With their numbers, they had actually taken 2 Obsidiafying realm cultivators down with them.
And indeed, they had sacrificed many of their own just to kill those 2 and injure many more. But those cultivators were now retreating, while the Creatures were foolishly chasing to try killing them. With a loud voice, his dark Power Energy resting, he spoke loudly towards them. “Do not fight to your deaths if you don’t have to. Flee when you have the chance!”
Creeeeeee.
With that, Ciemnosc nodded at the giant bird, and with the terrestrial Creatures coming off its back to being held or land on other huge flying Creatures’ backs, or ‘seats’ as Ciemnosc left the place in a swift motion as the wind quickly parted for the giant black pelican to pass.
“Let him go!” The headmaster yelled right after having heard enough from the mad person still screaming to save the academy and as he saw Ciemnosc depart from the auditorium’s aerial space. Right away, he added, seeing that some were still going after Ciemnosc, and took out a token from his Covert Space bag.
The Obsdiafying realm cultivators stopped chasing after Ciemnosc. And after Ciemnosc had given his command, the Creatures dashed and flew away from the mountain, freedom regained. Most terrestrial Creatures were held by their fellow flying Creatures. But for those who were the fastest, they just left on their own down the mountain and faster than ever, as if their lives depended on it. Thanks to that, the cultivators had an easier time taking those Creatures off of themselves and reunite with the Headmaster.
“This is how I can protect everyone from now on, do not part too far away from me, and remain attentive in case Ciemnosc returns.” The headmaster showed the token into the air, letting everyone see it, helping them feel safer. “Now, tell me. How can Ciemnosc threaten the whole academy? How is it possible?”
The headmaster was shaking his head as he questioned a few of them, not believing what these people kept saying up until now. The cultivators started remembering it after hearing it from one person, elaborating on the things they saw Ciemnosc do one after another. Right after, the headmaster’s face fell as he looked into the token. An image of the entire academy’s territory showed from the academy at the foot of the mountain and the mountain itself.
“There is noth- !!” The headmaster, and everyone else, were capable of glimpsing everything within the academy’s territory then. And just as the headmaster calmed down after noticing nothing wrong, he detected tiny strands of little somethings. Those little somethings seemed to be… craving paths open through the middle of the mountain… and something seemed to give them some kind of… powerful glow.
Rumble… rumble… rumble, rumble… rumble rumble…
The world, no, the mountain suddenly started shaking. But it wasn’t so sudden. It was initially as if the mountain began to have tummy problems, only to start having seizures like crazy. The auditorium, which was already mostly a platform with large, wide-open holes, and the seats were almost completely gone, began leaning left, right, to the front and back.
“Headmaster, can you stop it? He clearly plans to harm the whole academy!” A surviving supervisor said, feeling the pain and soreness all over his body once the battle seemed to have ended at last. The headmaster nodded slightly, his eyes and frown focused on the token’s projection of the academy’s territory. But as time passed, the little bit of blood and calmness his face was gaining was lost as it became pale again…
“I… I- I… I can’t… I can’t… it isn’t working anymore.” The headmaster shook his head, desperate but utterly hopeless at the same time. He couldn’t make any sense of it. From the sides, one person commented with vileness in his tone. “Did she do something to it? Ciemnosc is her friend, and one of them, too. She must’ve helped him. They must’ve known about this before coming here! They are all traitors!”
“Do not speak like that!” The headmaster snapped at that person, his eyes furious and his frown even more. He looked at everyone around him. The headmaster nodded in satisfaction before saying in a breathless voice. “Tini is an angel. All she would do is for the academy. It is not the same when it comes to Suru. He is old and tired, after all. But it was Tini who did this all for the academy! Not for us, nor herself, the academy!”
“It is Ciemnosc’s bidding. He was the one who helped us deepen our knowledge and control over our academy’s grand array in the first place. But what you said is partly true. He… he might’ve known all along about this, after all.” The headmaster said clearly. There was pain in his being as his face contorted, his eyes closed with strength, and he almost let out a bellow.
But it was of no importance. What was of magnified importance now was the safety of the academy, this magnificent relic that is and has to remain as the most incredible specific organization’s territory. With his emotions being swallowed back into his stomach, the headmaster quickly ordered, “This is what he predicted and wanted. Now we focus on the entirety of our Obsidiafying realm workforce to protect the academy. Get to it! Care not for Ciemnosc. What matters is to keep our home safe.”
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
“What about you? Aren’t we allies? As our ally, you should come up and stand with u-” The headmaster held his forehead with the venus of his right hand. But he then saw pastor Noles who looked around with narrowed, unworried eyes. The pastor smirked. He faced the headmaster and spoke clearly, “Allies? Mister ‘headmaster’... well, that seems to change with one’s whims. You have lost a major portion of your strength and can’t even keep a single child under control.”
The pastor’s face suddenly fell and became somber. His voice, also becoming somber, spat out mercilessly, “What allies are you talking about?”
“... Fine, you must leave. But do not think the academy will endure these provocations, we might be weakened, but we still stand!” The headmaster wasn’t weak nor slow to respond in kind. But the pastor remained calm as he shook his head a couple times, advising ‘kindly’ as he left with his smaller entourage than before, “The Moribund Yearning Cult wouldn’t have failed so miserably in taking down such a kid. He would’ve been caught since the beginning and not attempted to be converted to ‘good’. Your academy seems so dull in the matter of decisiveness!”
With that, the pastor left. A few members of the other ‘major’ organizations departed with him, weakened and glad they weren’t backstabbed like the academy. But pastor Noles was a capable man, after all. And without the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect leading them, they needed a leader, even if not the strongest among the 4 ‘major’ organizations.
Seeing them fly away after the academy’s Obsidiafying realm cultivators left, the headmaster was left alone with a pair of injured female teachers and the black supervisor. His head was hurting, and the other 3 could see it. Getting close to the headmaster, the black supervisor held his shoulders and helped him stay on his feet. He really needed such support.
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“Headmaster, are y-... any instructions?” The black supervisor said, the mountain’s rumbling seemingly ceding, but that felt more like a storm brewing than peace arriving at their door. The headmaster was holding his forehead with both hands, his face appearing more wrinkled now, and the little bit of hair around his head seemingly about to fall at any moment.
“Yes… I need you to lead the search for Ciemnosc and go towards the east if needed. It would be their stupidity if they were to start another war now… I’m sure Ciemnosc won’t let them have a chance to think about it. This boy has been planning… ever since we sent him out. Do not face him directly, nor send any students to their deaths. Just keep track of him. He would… eventually… have to make a mistake. Capture him. He is the academy’s problem, nobody else’s.” The headmaster elaborated all in one go with difficulty but smoothly. He then added…
“It’s obvious, as it has been shown, that Ciemnosc is impossible to capture.” The headmaster’s voice turned soft, painful too. “It would be like a pack of lions trying to trap a rat in an open field. Yet, this rat is too agile and has a power that no lion can afford to face off. Losing one’s whiskers would weaken the lions, while this rat can grow them instead.”
“Understood,” the black supervisor nodded, slowly letting go of the headmaster, who stumbled about a little before stabilizing himself. The headmaster opened his mouth to speak again, “I will begin helping all around. We must not let the academy fall now. Afterwards… I will remain here resting for some time to recuperate. Do not get excited. I’m not breaking through anything. I merely need to… rest.”
Said the headmaster as he departed from his position and began flying towards the ground below the mountain. Whatever was coming, nothing could help them but themselves. Even if they must… sacrifice… another Obsidiafying realm cultivator, they must save it.
… Below the mountain, at the workshop. Ciemnosc immediately dropped off the giant black pelican, with some terrestrial Creatures being let go of from its clutches safely and dropping from its back too. As they rushed down the mountain, the giant black pelican sadly allowed itself to be caressed before nodding one last time to its master, soaring into the skies and drifting away in the wind.
Ching, til.
A bell noise was heard just as Ciemnosc walked towards his buildings from the landing zone. Tini waved at him riding a bicycle but was ignored by him as he continued onwards his building. Meanwhile, the door to Older Brother’s hard building opened, and from it, he came out to watch Ciemnosc with frowned eyebrows and worried eyes set on him.
Ciemnosc quickly went to his buildings, his footsteps at a regular speed. Entering each building, he emptied out of their contents and everything he once made and was preparing for the academy. All of it was now going back to his pockets, and others burned, to be destroyed and remain only in that little head of his. He had given them a chance to prove their side, and they just had to fuck it all up.
When he came to the amplest building towards the west, he looked at all the small Creatures before starting to feed them. There was an array formation that would deliver the food as long as he placed it at the beginning. It would travel from little house to little house of these Creatures, each a flying type and their house just like a dog’s.
Instead of putting food there, as the automation already does daily, Ciemnosc pointed at it with his right index finger and from it, a bout of dark Power Energy was condensed. Poking the place where the array formation began and would thereupon distribute the food, a considerable deal of dark Power Energy began to travel to different places, and take many routes like tunnels all between the houses, delivering a bit of dark Power Energy each.
“Go now. Use it so you won’t burn your Spirit Heart-Link and Power Energy to escape. Get going. You weren’t going to live with me forever anyway.” Hearing his words, as baby-sized Creatures they might be, and defective too. They understood.
Cri cri cri, cri, cri, cri, cri, cri, cri, cri, cri… pew, pew, pew, pew pew, pew pew, pew pew pew, pew…
As their cries resounded, they greeted the ‘father’ they had been with for their whole time these few months, except for the recent ones, and took to flight. He was their ‘father’ because despite being seen as defective, hence useless and dead already since birth, in their cocoons, and little newborns or still in their egg stage by their actual parents and tossed to the side. Ciemnosc had still picked them up and given them peace, food, and a roof.
Immediately, they became beams of light with their own body colors that streaked far into the distance. Not one of these little Creatures had dared to come and rub themselves on Ciemnosc’s legs or palms, fearing still what Ciemnosc gave them, a feeling of sorts that guaranteed them to feel an utmost dependency yet a kind of subservience.
Watching them go, Ciemnosc enjoyed their little beams of lights as they quickly disappeared. He didn’t know if they would understand that they were instead different and had many more opportunities hidden within themselves or would die before it. Or die trying. Whichever was the case, he gave them the push they needed to find their own.
Step, step.
Coming out of the largest building, Ciemnosc saw Tini and Older Brother together at the ice cream machine. Walking towards them at his own pace while the mountain made the workshop seem to fly off at any moment, with yet the three of them remaining at peace.
“I’m leaving,” Ciemnosc flatly said. His eyes seemed much more different than before, so altered. Older Brother looked at them silently, feeling absorbed in those darkest eyes. So lifeless. But despite also being so ultimately cold, they were serene and a captivation to themselves that made one go lunatic just from looking at them. They also just happened to be so lovable as well.
“Ciemnosc, is it true what they say about you?” Tini’s voice sounded at this moment. She had just picked up another cone of ice cream and licked it twice before asking. Her obscure blue eyes set on Ciemnosc, widely opened and curious but somehow looking disinterested at the same time. “That you eat people, you are an actual monster, not just because of your talent but because you are?”
“... Do you wanna come with me?” Ciemnosc looked at Tini without saying anything in return. It was her turn to look at his eyes and decipher all those emotions in them, the feelings and the sensations she felt from them. It was like they could consume anything and anyone. Just as some of her ice cream was about to fall out, she picked it up with her chin and lower lip before starting to lap herself with her tongue.
“Hmh,” Tini shrugged her shoulders, turned around, and left Ciemnosc and Older Brother behind as she trotted back to her soft home. Watching her back, both boy and the old man looked as Ciemnosc looked at the other first. Then Older Brother returned the look before saying with anxiousness. “Tsk, ah. Don’t blame her. She, after all-”
“Blame who?” Ciemnosc turned his body and faced Older Brother as if he didn’t even know who was there to blame, if there were any. Older Brother fell silent at this and could only keep quiet, press his lips together, and bitterly nodded a few times. “...”
“Ciemnosc, take care. From now on, you might be all alone, but I wish you luck.” Older Brother said once a few seconds proceeded, for he clearly did not want to take time from him, but still finding difficult farewell words to be spouted. “I myself, too old, too old… We might never meet again, but I want you to know… Others don’t matter. And I’m sure nothing can stop you, kid. Go far.”
“....” Ciemnosc looked at Older Brother and kept silent a few seconds more. Then, with his lips moving to talk more like an adult than the child he is. He spouted in return. “Finally, someone old and wise. The first one. Maybe that headmaster needed to be at death’s door to be wise, too?”
“... Don’t curse me, immature old man.” The old man, Older Brother himself, said a few seconds after enduring the insult. Ciemnosc shook his head as they looked at the north, the sun mostly at their backs and on the right side of their bodies before Ciemnosc left him. Older Brother had wanted to tap his shoulder to truthfully say ‘goodbye’, but he was too late to do that as Ciemnosc’s lonely back was already half a step away.
… …trckrr … … … …
From afar, Older Brother, as if rooted on the spot where he was left alone to watch the kid go. A motor could be heard in the distance, speeding down the mountain. As the armored car descended the mountainside like it was nobody’s business, Older Brother returned to his soft buildings this time, a bent back and tired footsteps. What was life when one had to live like that? Like himself, or like that boy? And what was the point of others like that girl?
Later on, as many would come knocking and asking, all he would say was ‘dunno’ before hiding behind his windows again and… perhaps… slowly waiting for death to claim him too. If death was even existent.
On the other hand, Ciemnosc quickly made his way to the grand array’s exit. A tremendous rumbling sound could be heard from within the mountain. It was becoming more and more intense every minute or so, as if the mountain itself was alive and trying to keep in something tenebrous inside itself from escaping. It was, more or less, like Ciemnosc making his way out of the academy’s grounds, and the grand array was his mountain. A little bit of an inception.
The academy didn’t lose all of its Obsidiafying realm cultivators, but an immense deal of them were indeed… dead now. Some were critically injured, especially after Ciemnosc’s Creatures went up the mountain to facilitate his escape. Though the eastern forces believed the academy to be crippled, the staff members of it were aware of those who were just… watching.
Not only from the neutral party. From the small portion of all parties that remained at their own residences or dormitories. The majority were from the one that supported Ciemnosc. They just watched him depart from the mountain and leave for the exit. Those who were watching were all at the peak of the Obsidaifying realm and were either the oldest and the strongest or had a wisdom that it was best for them to keep quiet, as well as a raging heart of a person. Other than that of a cultivator - in Ciemnosc’s eyes and mind, the only good of the academy and the world itself.
He quickly drove through the new, depressing streets, where he saw his teammates… waiting for him? Frowning, Ciemnosc thought to himself, ‘What are they doing here? They must’ve waited for me… but why? They should have had gone to the base already!’
Worried, he came close to them and came out his armored car…
…