Gaining Respect
"...Hoah, that was a good move, dumb and silly, but it worked really well to take the weight off their shoulders~." With a good mood, Valeria spoke out at Ciemnosc, who seemed to be having fun looking at their naked backs and some hairy asses rushing to the warm water in this cooling down temperature.
"Hmm, thank you, Valy. Eh, is it always this cold?" Ciemnosc crossed his arms before his chest and said, while they along with Mosto ignored a little group of most acting elders and a few core disciples and inner sect disciples coming towards them. Valeria tsk'ed lightly with the left side of her lips before threatening her commander. "It is not. It is the first thing from all of the times that wars occurred around here. Maybe it is something about the air? Ahem, call me that again...in public, and see if I don't show them all your bum to them."
"Mm, I see... You're ruthless. Good thing you're on my side and not on 'theirs'." Ciemnosc, still with his arms crossed in front of his chest. He seemed to be pondering about the entire set of words of Valeria before saying as he gestured to those just 50 meters behind them to their left, moving towards them.
"Valy, sweetie, the most beautiful, incredible, and strongest woman in the entire world. Oh, could you do something for me?"
“You…sigh, just tell me. What?” Valeria the blushing beauty resurfaced, with Mosto the clever turning his head around and not feeling his neck as if some wind was whistling through it… Then, she crossed her arms like Ciemnosc and even adopted his playfulness and looked to where he gestured with his left index finger with its nails facing the ground and squinted her eyes as she heard him…
Step, step, step, step…
“...Hm?” Suddenly seeing the little goddess they felt so afraid of confronting right now suddenly leave and make her way to the water as well, not taking her clothes off though the leading acting leader within the approaching group towards Ciemnosc halted for just 2 seconds before continuing. The leading acting elder wondered and said to the rest of his group, “Why is elder Tin’s little girl running? Does she not care about her ‘boyfriend’?”
“Eeh, we do not know…” - “Maybe she found someone else? If so, can I then have my turn?!” - “If she’s so fickle, can I have my ways with her later on, too?” - “Silence! Here is our first target yet. Shut up and do as you were told.”
Several people spoke in this 50+ group of almost all acting elders sent to this mission and a few more core and inner sect disciples behind them. But were mostly silenced when they were just 22 meters away from Ciemnosc.
“...Here, hold this. Remember, aim it to the front the entire time. Better if you can take even better angles, you got it? …What am I doing? You don’t talk, just nod if you are aware of your instructions.” Taking his time to take his brand new, first cell phone in his life out before giving it to Mosto and accommodating it in his right hand was raised about at his solar plexus level; Ciemnosc even look back at Mosto to see him nod his head in a ‘obviously, duh’ manner when facing the little group coming towards them.
“... Ah, mister Ciemnosc, was it?” The leading acting elder, a snarky old man with a tattered face filled with wrinkles and barely any hair left to the back and sides of his head, since at his back it was all bald already. Spoke to Ciemnosc while stopping just 19 meters away from Ciemnosc. He did it so obviously without taste and even ignored naming him as at least sir.
“I have been thinking, oh, we can forget about the previous words of this old me, I was just curious about the procedures of those orders you gave but uh, I uh, I see you’re doing well. Are you recording? How strange. Well, might as well, haha! I was planning on doing that myself. You save us the trouble. Really how thoughtful, mister Ciemnosc.”
“Okay, okay, okay. Look, mr you. I don’t know what you are speaking so much for. You can just tell me what is your problem,” Ciemnosc suddenly stopped talking, lowered his chin slightly, and with his eyes upturned said. “And I’ll solve it for you.”
“Oh? Hahahaha! Solve it then, for me, come on.” The leading acting elder said, almost slapping his hands amidst laughter but failing by a seeming failure of his old person’s calculations. He then looked once more at the cell phone in Mosto’s hands, a mere, trifling, and useless Spirit Gathering realm cultivator that couldn’t be any more hopeless before a majestic Conflagrate realm acting elder such as himself.
“You see, Ciemnosc.” The leading acting elder said with a lower tone now after his laughter, finally lowering the pretense also. “For the internet and communications, such as social media… It isn’t the same with us cultivators as with those mortals. Oo, it is not. You see, even if you somehow managed to have a connection to the sect, if everyone there saw you getting raped and murdered, you would still be seen as weak and deserved it.”
“It isn’t going to help you in anything, boy. Now, you will deliver to me,” the leading acting elder took his own Identification Token out with his left hand, raising it in the air a bit before continuing. “What corresponds to those in power, a true cultivator!!”
“Mmm,” Ciemnosc nodded, very slowly and twice, in the second nod taking his Identification Token out with his right hand and showing it directly towards the group of the strongest people in the entire corps, demanding for becoming the real commanders of this corps. Then, he lowered it down and held it with its panel facing the sky, and his head hung low a little bit.
“...Don’t think so,” Ciemnosc said, raising his head and then, in his right hand, pressing his thumb on the panel. However, that was totally, obviously just for show as he could just use his Spirit Sense. In a moment, there was a sound like that of a line sliding at really high speeds through the ground, whistling on the grass, and falling leaves on the ground all around the little group within just 5 seconds.
Pi-ping~! Vrruuuurr, veeeuum veeuuum veeeuuum~~...~~...~!
At the end of those 5 seconds, and just as the Conflagrate realm acting elders were feeling their whole bodies unnaturally halting, from a little bit to their entire bodies, their panic finally showed on their old, proud, and haughty faces when facing a little kid soon to be deprived of life. Even more so when a few actual steel-like ropes, elastic tubes, or whatever they really were with a blackish steel color - as it surrounded the little group of theirs with a square shape of 25 square meters.
While the acting elders as a whole were caught in the strange elastic tube-like thingies, those other core disciples at the Spirit Gathering realm and inner disciples at the Phrenic realm were all scared and backing away, long and heavy step after long and heavy step. Even those that were rather to the side of some acting elders were able to escape smoothly from the rare situation.
“What is going on? Is this- what is this?” - “This is impossible! What kind of trick is this?!” - “It can’t be! This, th-th- this kid…are these the work of arrays?!” - “Against Conflagrate realm cultivators? And only at that? IMPOSSIBLE!” Many very damn surprised and wondering voices spoke as they were held in a longer state of halt once they were surrounded by those strange things within the square-shaped…formation.
Swish swish wooong~.
“This…this is indeed an array.” The leading acting elder, as he couldn’t move with his back slouched and hands placed together with spread open fingers, commented at last, which made the entire group of theirs become rather quelled. They looked on at Ciemnosc in silence as he looked back at them, a screen with weird hieroglyphs and of a transparent color with some flashing blue light covering them from all sides, even under their feet without any obstruction.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Step, step step step…
Ciemnosc walked up to them, held his Identification Token in his right hand, and looked at each of the acting elders trapped in his mix of arrays. Once he got close up to the point that just extending his hand fully out he would be able to cross through the array and touch the leading acting elder’s neck, left chest, or head, Ciemnosc did just that as he went through the array like it was nothing.
Swishh~~...
“You see, this is not because of me holding the device to move these new little toys of mine, no. Anyone can pass through them, it wasn’t just me. Some of your very own disciples managed to ‘get free’ just now, didn’t they?” Ciemnosc smirked, then spoke and slowly. The eyes of the leading acting elder and all other acting elders opened wide as they realized something and could only now stare at Ciemnosc’s back before starting shouting - but not for long as their entire bodies were being fully frozen on the spot; little by little.
“No, wait! Come back! Come back!!” - “Dammit, Ciemnosc, dammit. It was only just a joke. We were trying to scare you, really!!” - “Ciemnosc- commander Ciemnosc, pleeasse~!” The 360-degree change was real, and these acting elders showed it all to Ciemnosc. None of them believed this was actually happening! Everything felt so surreal…
And it was even more so visible through looking at the leading acting elder whose face that had remained until now full of dignity and ‘taking back what is mine’ attitude, changed his face to a sweaty one while trying to speak through his rapidly stiffening teeth.
“Ciemnosc, commander Ciemnosc!! I know what we did wasn’t right, and you are completely capable of feeling angered by us. I would understand that if you did. But this is us who we are all talking about! You can’t take the lives of all of your acting elders! Can’t you?! We are the 3rd cornerstone of the entire sect. We make a lot of sacrifices and things for the sect. I even have a few notorious acting elders who managed to create a little bit of history and plant their names in the sect’s books. You can’t do this, Ciemnosc!”
“...” Ciemnosc didn’t respond. He just turned around once he was at the same place as before with Mosto still behind him a little and to his left. The leading acting elder continued, seeing no actual threat around with his eyes flashing and darting left and right rapidly before setting themselves deadly locking onto Ciemnosc’s body…as if seeing through him!
“You. Can’t. Kill me.” The leading acting elder said word by word, and without shouting anymore, even his eyelashes became stiff and no longer moved, let alone his tongue, which had much more muscle and weight than the former. All Ciemnosc did to face this was to raise his right hand while some disciples of these acting elders were kinda rushing in and hesitating to really, fully do so in order to save their masters; all of them still thought it was a trap or that they might be harmed for doing so. The fear was real, now.
“Even if you were all a bunch of elders, just because you thought it was okay to defy me, just because you’re stronger, and even though you are,” Ciemnosc said, a hoarse and dragged-on voice coming out of his mouth, he continued with a slightly quiet and calm tone afterwards instead. “I will still kill you all.”
Swish, vrrrrrrrrrr~. Vrrrrr-, vrrrrrr~.
Ciemnosc once again raised his right hand. He held it up to right above his shoulder level and faced it towards the acting elders’ group at the front, who looked appalled and heard those strange, mechanized noises, confused when they didn’t experience nor saw the array explode or something.
‘Thank you for not letting me let people like you stay around me.’ Innocently, Ciemnosc thought as he sent a strand of his Spirit Sense towards his Identification Token. As it entered it…a command that was ready to be used became effective, and just a few tens of meters away, his commanding vehicle’s ‘3 little heads’ on top of it turned to face the group of acting elders and some running away disciples with their masters in their hands.
“Ciemnosc! You can’t-”
TON TON TON~!!- BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM~~!!...
“Hmph,” a very quiet snort resounded within the exploding, beautiful transparent flames that quickly dissipated almost as fast as they came into being after exploding and from such a close distance from where they were shot from. There wasn’t any shelling to speak of. The explosions were merely energy, pure energy that was used up for creating a destructive effect, that which these ‘glorious’ men and women of old age among some younger generation who ‘volunteered’ so nicely to become its first test subjects. “Oops, I forgot to tell them that this wasn’t being shown to the sect. Tsk, not at all~.”
When the mass of pure energy hit the ground, it exploded and made a small blast of energy, but then it merged through living beings and directly made them another target that exploded just like the initial shot but a third from its total power. But before exploding on the ground, the mass of energy went through the bodies of all these acting elders, their cultivation rendered useless to defend against this kind of weapon.
All in all. It was an explosion that seemed as if it would go on and on, terrifying even the ghosts as it would end up destroying anything that it touches and only stop when there wasn’t anything else to destroy. But, in truth, it stopped soon after, and barely made any explosive waves around it, with Ciemnosc and Mosto being more than fine after it all happened in just 3 seconds.
Silence regained its domination over the entire surroundings, the flashing form just now was pretty and strong, but it was too short, and it barely made any light in the slowly approaching dusk. From afar, however, it was sure to have been heard. Yet no noises of people rushing could be heard…which eventually raised some vindictive hearts full of ‘bravery’.
“CIEMNOOOSC! How could you?!” - “How dare you, Ciemnosc?! You are going against the sect, the select~! AAAH!!” - “You think one stupid retard at the 10th stage can stop us? Fucking diee!! Ciemnosc!!”
Dash~ dash dash- step step step step!
“Oh, it’s my turn. Let me.” Ciemnosc turned around after jumping his eyebrows once, ‘fun’ written all over his face as he took his phone from the silent Mosto whose attention was now all in the incoming Spirit Gathering realm cultivators moving towards them. Once Ciemnosc had his phone back and Mosto was like a dog waiting for the master’s orders with his hand holding its neck, he gave the approaching, raging fellow core and inner sect disciples a look with his own eyes one last time before focusing the phone’s camera at them.
“Go now, have your fun.”
STOMP! Whoosh~!
“AAAGGHH!!” A core disciple was grabbed by the neck by Mosto. He could only scream as he was punched in the stomach by the rabid dog, his entire organs imploding and leaving him a few seconds to scream.
“UFHBHFAAA–!!” Another core disciple in the 10th stage was caught just more than 10 meters away from reaching Ciemnosc, his right arm grabbed at tightly, and with the force as he was running, he detached his own arm from his body; just to show Mosto’s brutal, raw strength.
“AH! Diee, die die die!!” Mosto was sneak attacked from behind next though. His back was the target of a long, heavy sword that a core disciple at the 9th stage used all his Power Energy to into his weapon and hacked down at the back of Mosto over and over again. However, without exerting his own Power Energy to his bare back, wearing only a shirt, Mosto resisted each hack from the core disciple from behind, showing no damage done to him whatsoever.
Crr-...craaaaaaaaaaccckkk~!
On the other hand, the more he was hit, the more Mosto tightened his grip on the other core disciple’s neck, slowly mushing it into a ‘dried up’ stick with the head somehow still connected to below and the skin of the dried up stick, which is supposed to be a human being’s neck, was still rosy white with all of the blood spurting out of the 7 orifices of the core disciple’s head and painting it deep red.
Fwuuush- TAH!
Mosto suddenly waved his free arm backwards, his palm wide open, and directly striking the tired-out 9th-stage core disciple. Immediately, the core disciple felt his body leave any signs of life to be shut down, his organs as if half-crushed and half-critically injured with just the power from that palm flowing through all over his body - the 9th stage core disciple went still while standing on the ground…before falling flat backwards.
Pah.
…For the next few minutes, Mosto focused on his next targets, which were a few dozen, that tried to rush towards Ciemnosc. No longer from any petty, ignorant, and foolish revenge but to save their lives!
Only now did they understand they weren’t the strong ones. Only now did they process their masters’ whole deaths, and they couldn’t even face off against a single person who was just at the peak of the Spirit Gathering realm! They even had more than ten at the same stage but still couldn’t face this monstrous tank at all!
And when they finally gave up, opting to run, which they should’ve done in the first place, Mosto was already allowed to leave Ciemnosc’s side and at ease since quite a line of foolish living people now corpses were surrounding him. As Ciemnosc made some spins, he showed them all how every single person failed and met their demise in their attempt at taking him down…
Then, the transmission ended.
…