Long Road Ahead

"It's good that you're here. You should get out quickly. More Obsidiafying realm 'cultivators' are coming." Missa's voice went out as soon as Ciemnosc came out of his commanding vehicle, followed by Gallah as Ciemnosc found himself hugged by the former. "Your commanding vehicle is here, good. You'll need it for the road, Little Ciemnosc."

"You shouldn't take any more time out here. Many are watching. Though the others no longer see you as respectable as before, how they should, they are still watching, "Fatima was next, joining Gallah and Missa in an already obvious group hug. Leen wasn't slow as she directly said softly while slowly embracing him, "It's good that you're here. Yes, the base is waiting for your return and is fighting others as we speak. You gotta hurry and make their sacrifices worthy. Not only are they sacrificing a lot fighting their fellow students."

Ciemnosc was stunned as he heard and felt them. He couldn’t bring himself to hug them back precisely because of that; at the beginning. After Leen started speaking and went over to him to embrace him, he hugged everyone back as much as he could. The hug, extended several seconds because of it, finally ended a bit of a long time after when the girls looked up at him with their chins attractively raised to face him and Gallah grinning widely at the side.

“Ciemnosc,” Missa commenced, her left hand picking up the right side of just jaw as she put those meaty lips against his, and a trail of saliva traced them as they separated. Despite being a simple, hard-pressing peck, their faces were like tiny lovers finding each other. Her eyes opened slowly, as did Ciemnosc’s, to look at hers, confused.

“You have known my past already,” her voice was thoroughly soft, containing calmness and tranquility as she looked dazedly at his face from so up-close, not that away from another kiss with just their lips protruding. “My parents died early, leaving a little Missa to fend for herself, it wasn’t just a mistake somewhere, but it made me grow faster. What is not known in those records, and only your eyes, I imagine, are able to see, is that when they did, I suffered deviation in my cultivation.”

“Though I survived, I lost most of my talent to it. In exchange, however, my Spirit Sense reached a level I never thought would be this… big.” Missa looked at Ciemnosc, her eyes as soft as her voice as she narrowed them, and how dangerously at that. She concluded, her right hand taking his nap and meeting the fingers of her other hand there as her face came closer again. “I only stopped hooking up out the team when you arrived, as if my everything could be found out at last, and my destiny had arrived. My fate, one that I had long thought gone.”

“Thank you,” Missa closed her eyes and blindly sent her head forth. He had grown so much to match her height. She then somehow felt so proud just because of that, and then enjoyed the sensation of simply being intimate together in this ‘different’ way. When their lips separated once again, lovingly. She gave the silly boy a tender eskimo kiss.

Watching her departing back as she turned around and stood right before where the array formed a gap to go through, Ciemnosc didn’t notice when Fatima appeared and held his hands. Each with slowness as she picked them up before bringing them both, clasped together, to her left chest.

Slowly, Ciemnosc kept his hands there, the heartbeat of one of many he hears at any time with his unusual senses, even as a cultivator, was directly pounded from his hands in their entirety back to his body and all of his ordinary-senses. She held his nape just as Missa did. It could be seen how she and Missa were so compatible with each other. After a quick peck at the tip of his nose, she lowered her head and met forehead-to-forehead with him.

“You have a lot to learn, for example. You can’t keep behaving like a kid, especially with the type of things you usually do and are capable of doing, our Little Ciemnosc.” She rubbed her forehead left and right on his as Ciemnosc remained still, “You have to be good to your next women, either your women or those you are dumb with, okay?”

“...” Ciemnosc was still dumbstruck, but he nodded with his head and ‘mn’ with his heart. Following that, which Fatima seemed to simply be able to feel and understand, she added, her hearts meeting his as they both became messy for the other’s pair. “No matter what, if it’s you, nothing is wrong. Nothing. You know the world, but the world doesn’t know you. So don’t be afraid of showing it to them, to everything, to it all. Alright~?”

“Mn…” Ciemnosc hmmed while still maintaining a stillness unique to him. Fatima tilted her head to the right and cupped his cheeks before passionately pecking him with her eyes closed. Following suit, Ciemnosc closed his eyes as it all happened swiftly yet slowly.

Ciemnosc watched Fatima leave him, too, and right after came Gallah, who placed his right hand on Ciemnosc’s left shoulder as a bro would to another. Grinning, his handsome fella-self showed now more than ever. “Little boy, heh heh. You will want to hide in the dirt after getting unvirgined by somebody. Trust me, you have no idea what kittens these a-”

Pat pat.

“Ou- wah, alright.” Being patted twice by Ciemnosc’s right hand on his left arm was too much. The pain was there, and Gallah could’ve lost an arm if Ciemnosc wasn’t polite. He stopped talking about these fine females’ ways of bedding and simply looked at Ciemnosc, “Just like Fatima said, don’t be afraid, who dares blemish you on paper? Just strike them down and see if many more dare do the same.”

“...” Ciemnosc looked at the handsome bro, nodded, and was nodded back by the handsome fella. After their bro moment, Ciemnosc was quickly embraced by Leen, who scrambled over to his stomach, burying her head on his chest and sniffing in as much as she wanted before raising her head. Her eyes looked at him brightly, and he lowered his head to buss her this time, holding her little face with his long, slightly pale hands.

“Hiya.” She hopped up after Ciemnosc separated their lips and was about to straighten his neck, embraced it, and pressed her nose against his. Straddling him while he was dazed from her sudden tenderness, she ended up with her nose above his glabella. Not thinking at all, the tender young woman kissed his forehead with her eyes having softly closed.

“You know, it is just as Missa said. The academy was never a naturally good place. Every once in a while, many suffer for no reason. Many just lose what helps others become what they are, grow up and learn life with their beloved ones. My grandparents died early, leaving my father alone. The same happened with my mother’s parents. But they did well, in the end, and brought me up as best they could… It is just the same with this, Ciemnosc.”

Her face suddenly turned serious, and her heartbeat beat faster quite a few times. She continued while caressing Ciemnosc’s face and closing hers to him. “Maybe this is no longer the home we believe, but if it’s going to be destroyed, we would rather see that… than run away from it. And dying to protect you, we have also decided upon that matter. Now ho, our Ciemnosc, keep going.”

Leen closed in enough. Her lips clashed with his, and so did their eyelashes. It was another peck, though this one felt much more than any other he shared with her. Slowly climbing down his body, she tracked her steps abc and returned to form a line before the grand array.

“...” They looked at him in silence. Their eyes watched him as he looked at them with those darkest eyes before slowly stepping back into his commanding vehicle. He somberly closed the door of his commanding vehicle and started it. When he came driving past them, he stopped, opened the door, and without coming off of his seat. Muttered to them ever so slightly. “I will always remember you.”

His voice wasn’t heavy, just quiet, calm, and soft. It made them feel terrifyingly seduced, carrying charisma and their ‘souls’ stolen before he closed the door and drove away.

Trckrr… trckrr… trckrr… …trckrr … … … trckrr… Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh.

Ciemnosc’s commanding vehicle left the grand array like a worm going through dirt, without much difficulty, but also not making it noticeable that someone was departing from there. The sounds of its motor were becoming less and less audible as it went farther away… When, suddenly, a set of noises came right after them, the sounds of the commanding vehicle, and with the new figures flying through the air coming, words came speaking.

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“It’s over here. Those students weren’t lying. Look!” - “I still hear some motor going in the distance. We can still catch him if our academy’s grand array has a breach somewhere.” - “It’s them? They were hiding, after all, ignored them for now. They are our academy’s second problem. Ciemnosc must be captured at all costs!”

Five figures came towards them, or more accurately, tried to go past them over their heads as their direction was where Ciemnosc had left. Just as they were less than 100 meters before Ciemnosc’s teammates, Missa yelled out while standing sharp like a sword between them on the ground, floating up and coming to face them one by one, with the rest of her team joining her.

The incoming figures were 5, however, and they were only 4. Yet, they were impossibly fearless as they faced these peak Obsidiafying realm cultivators weren’t fazed at all by their ‘blockade’ made out of Conflagrate realm cultivators. Only they felt insulted. Of the 5, 2 were relatively injured, bleeding all over and still suffering from some injuries. But they also had a tenacity that allowed them to keep moving.

“What is this nonsense? Leave already! Your place is not here. You will receive what is befitting of traitorous scum like you once we return. I heard some of you are rather unique even. You will see that the academy is changing, and for the better! And things like these are not tolerable!!” One of them. Who was completely fine, unlike those 2 who were injured and spoke rashly and impatiently despite being completely unharmed.

“You will not go anywhere near our Ciemnosc,” Missa spoke. While Gallah, Leen, and Fatima appeared solemn, stern, and even looked somewhat scary. Feeling the latter made the Obsidiafying realm cultivators feel humiliated. The one who was already impatient became even more rash. He took a step forth on the air and soared tens of meters above Missa and the rest of the team.

“Enough with this. You will be punished right now. Accept your torture. Today will just be the beginn- what is… that?!” The Obsidiafying realm supervisor showered them with his pressure, making Missa and the rest feel incredibly paralyzed. She felt her body coming back down to the ground without any ounce of her strength capable of helping her at this moment to endure it and remain in the air. Let alone fight back. But neither she nor her teammates ever considered facing off such opponents that even outnumbered them.

Flip flip flip flip.

At the same time, their hands flung and revealed a paper in them. They had been taken out from their Covert Space bags and were a gift Ciemnosc had given them early on when they returned to the academy. While the inpatient cultivation was talking, feeling so mighty among Conflagrate realm cultivators as a peak Obsidiafying realm expert, he instantly felt wrong and in danger when those papers appeared in the youths’ hands.

“Stop them!” The cultivator yelled, and not knowing well what was going on but understanding the change in their fellow’s tone of voice, they launched themselves to the Conflagrate realm youths without any contemplation.

“...” - “...” - “...” - “...” The teammates closed their eyes, reciting an incantation under their breath as they brought that talisman Ciemnosc had created for them, and with so much effort, only equal to the resources he used to make the ink and ‘bless’ the paper with. The talismans seemed to start burning, their entirety as if slowly beginning to churn the piece of paper to ashes. But in the next moment, it completely burned out, becoming ashes and… doing something inhumane to their holders.

Pshift… shaaaa…

Suddenly, and all at once. Missa, Fatima, Leen and Gallah felt their bodies lose all strength. Their closed eyelids began to expel blood from their lacrimals. Under their fingernails, blood seeped out just as well. Their heads began to become bloodied from the top, as their pores unnaturally opened, and their bellybutton simply started bleeding out. While this happened, the space in front of them and above began to be condensed with a darkness that seemed to devour their life.

Like a drop of water becoming bigger down the way of someone’s skin, consuming more water and becoming thicker, they went from little strands of see-thru black-gray to moving clouds the size of 2 adults as they seemed to move in an impossibly high speed to this world.

Aiming for the cultivators above who were trying to kill them, or hurt them at the very least, the clouds of see-thru black-gray shot at the glabellas of those Obsidiafying realm cultivators, the peak of the world and of all the most powerful men and women. As soon as it went into their bodies, they were forced to open their eyes widely, stick their whole tongues out, and all their blood seemed to have been drained from their bodies as they became paler than pale.

Whooosh….

Their bodies began falling head-on, not a single sound emitted from the moment the impatient cultivator noticed the danger they could be in with his own eyes to the moment 4 of them lost all their lives. Except for one of them, who was only critically injured and was falling, but with his life still intact, more or less. Nevertheless, they were bound to fall, and with what seemed their cultivation base gone, all of them would fall harshly against the ground, crashing against it, which would surely kill off the last enemy.

On the other hand, Ciemnosc’s teammates fell backwards, their bodies empty of life except for one; Missa’s body. Leen was with her eyes open as she fell backwards, her nape head-on, and was the first part of her body to meet the ground soon. But even though her death was painful and what she experienced even Ciemnosc would rather not have it, they were still with all of the light and beautiful moments she underwent from the beginning of her path as a little baby to her farewell to Ciemnosc with her teammates and their departure of life.

Fatima was with her eyes narrowed. They looked so peaceful despite having no light. Her arms were below her body even as it began falling heavily. Her back and waist were straight, her legs bent, and her face facing the sky as it was grayer than earlier on. But… it somehow looked so beautiful, or so did it seem on the reflection of her eyes while her mouth was slightly ajar.

Her smallish smile showing her teeth but with her lips resting and relaxed showed her beauty, but more than anything, a kind of comfort that could deepen and endlessly send sorrow into anyone’s heart.

Gallah was with his eyes closed, his arms 120 degrees from his leaning backwrds position, whereas his thighs, bum, and lower back would be the first parts of his body to meet head-on the ground at the same time. His lips were showing some kind of smile, a little grin. As he fell, his hair floated slightly upwards, but not that much, as if it was attached to himself, perhaps because of his blood thickness or simply the fact he was too relaxed as he perished.

‘Aah…’ Missa, on the other hand, witnessed her beloved’s deaths, even as she could no longer move and felt Fatima go away from all worlds and enter somewhere, anywhere… perhaps nowhere. She saw that, as Fatima, Leen, and Gallah had tried to exert themselves even more than possible to attack the 5th figure, they immediately died without leaving even a single sound like the enemy 4 figures that had no chance to even think.

But she saw that, even with those efforts, it was futile, and that 5th figure was left alive. Critically injured, yes. And would have definitely crashed into meat paste as soon as he met the ground… perhaps. But it was futile nonetheless.

“With your heart…” - ‘With my heart.’ As Missa made excruciating efforts to roll her eyeballs to the right, exactly where the 5th figure was facing the incoming closer ground with eyes impossibly widened; and a gasping mouth left aghast. His words began resounding in her heart, repeating them in her mind as she felt that little bit of Spirit Sense, of life, left within her.

“Use more than your eyes, when using your eyes…” - ‘Use more than… my eyes when… using my eyes.’ She continued, her right hand beginning to move, a feat most impossible even if she were to at the Ashes Apperception realm… or beyond. But she didn’t, nor needed, know that.

“Don’t be afraid…” - ‘Don’t be afraid.’ - “Of seeing things you shouldn’t see…” - ‘Of seeing what I shouldn’t see.’ - “And watch as long as your heart beats…” - ‘And watch as long… as my heart beats.’ - “And learn… So that you know how to best kill.”

“... So that I can learn… how to kill… like this, Ciemnosc?” Missa recited with her mouth this time around; her lips moving as her eyes crazily trembled at an iota level. Her mind filled with everything the man falling beside her consisted of, still a few meters away. She saw his heart and brain. Both pulsating as if they were going to pop out, while the man’s heart was actually beginning to collapse and some tumors appeared in it… so bizarrely.

As soon as she recited with her mouth. Her index finger crookedly clenched. Right at the exact moment, the man’s heart was cut into two, and his brain imploded, turning the man’s skull bloated and squishy, like a dead egg from a reptile or bird’s offspring.

“Heh…” Missa’s eyes were never so beautiful as she accomplished such an impossible task. Something not even Ciemnosc is capable of. He would’ve been shocked and proud and would possibly mate with her, right? Missa was sure she would feel proud of her… but that would have to be left for another life.

After she finished her little one last job, she looked into the sky. The background behind her became darker as the ground became so close. Facing the sky, her orange hair was short and curly and hugged the space above her face. She smiled beautifully, and as she looked at tiny dots becoming droplets falling all around her, evading her and her teammates but falling elsewhere like a soft, downpouring of the truths of life.

It wasn’t just because she was afraid that Ciemnosc would be threatened in case this Obsidiafying realm cultivator survived. He would’ve most likely died in the fall. But it was for her teammates, mostly. She could not let their efforts go to waste, even less so as their team leader. Could she now?

Pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter…patter…

… … …RUMBLE… RUMBLE… RUMBLEEE… RUUUMMBLEEEEEE~...

Their bodies continued to fall, hitting the ground so simply as if they were picked up, or rather down, by the earth and the world itself, delicately turning into beings of purity upon falling.

…