In short order their hurried pace led them past luxurious pagodas and walled off manors before opening into a well organized market with the gate just beyond. Though artificial light was minimal, the cloudless heavens were brilliant with countless stars and pale moonlight washing over them all.
Only the distant portcullis was well lit with multiple lamps giving what would normally be just a pair of guandao-wielding guards a highly visible space to defend, for all that their night vision would be near blind beyond thirty feet. Still, word of a disturbance had clearly gone out, as there was now close to a full platoon of men guarding the gate.
Alex felt his heart rate speed up, catching sight of the soldiers’ hard, uncompromising stares.
Yet Te Chang refused to slow his pace, the others following quickly behind.
Alex furrowed his brow, sensing there were several ways the senior cultivator could play this. But the most daring gambit that would virtually guarantee safe passage would also imperil them if the guard was in fact compromised.
Alex wasted no time, mentally feeling out some of the prizes he had claimed in the first desert rift he had ever dared, in addition to what was, perhaps, the greatest prize of all, claimed moments before fleeing the final rift for good. Of course he hadn’t felt the need to share such prizes with all those present, for a variety of reasons that had made sense at the time.
But all politics and potential abuses of power aside, there truly was no greater good than the wellbeing of the entire city. And if there was even a chance that a middle road would allow them to walk free without difficulty, regardless of whether the guard was compromised or not…
He took a steadying breath, claiming the tiny prize, far smaller than the ones he had surrendered so willingly just hours ago, and solemnly strode up to where Te Chang and Sulia were confronting a surprisingly sharp-eyed guard captain gazing coolly at the pare of cultivators before him.
Alex winced. The man was a Bronze so Deep he was just a half-step from Silver. Clearly, he would not be cowed, not even with two full silvers confronting him.
“It is imperative that you unbar the gate and let us through immediately, Captain Goizing!” Sulia snapped, hot eyes glaring at the heavily armored man.
The captain crossed his arms, chin jutting in clear refusal, though his words were polite enough. “Our apologies, honored instructor, but our duty is to protect this city at all costs. There’s been a disturbance in the city. Until we’ve fully ascertained its nature, the gates will remain secured.”
“Husband!” Sulia snapped.
Te Chang’s lips thinned, eyes flashing with dangerous heat.
Alex’s eyes widened, wondering if the strain of the night had finally taken its tole, as the normally unflappable man appeared ready to explode.
Alex winced as the tension suddenly ratcheted up, even the captain stepping back and glaring, a heartbeat from shouting out orders that would result in a bloodbath.
If Alex was going to act, it had to be now.
“Forgive my delay, master. I found it!” Affecting the mien of an anxious student, Alex quickly scooted to the front, crouching slightly and stooping his shoulders, cultivator’s robes having already been donned over bloodstained armor, with his hood covering more secrets still.
He quickly bowed to a suddenly still Te Chang and the captain as well.
“Forgive me, honored captain. My master’s frustration lies with my own foolishness. I can only pray that he will forgive me,” he said, flashing a fragment of the shattered core from the first Titan worm he had killed with black lightning, though his Doom Strike had only managed to slay the monstrous beast by shattering the glorious prize it had held. Alex wasn’t even sure if broken shards would serve the city’s needs, and he sure as hell wasn’t ready to answer any questions, not yet, but its icy brilliance and what it signified couldn’t be denied. His display earned a surprised gasp from the captain, his voice going from granite hardness to soft wonder. “Your school actually did it. You found an ice core in the final hour!”
And with that one phrase and the score of hopeful stares at the glittering prize made it clear that neither Captain Goizing nor his men had anything but the city’s best interests at heart. Had it been otherwise… even if Alex’s broken fragment had been seized, at least the prize Te Chang guarded so fiercely would still be intact and in his possession.
Senior Cultivator Te Chang nodded solemnly, all traces of his earlier killing ire so far gone it would be an insult to see him as ever being anything other than the gently concerned cultivator appealing to the better nature of his fellows.
“We have indeed, Captain Goizing. And it is my sincere hope that you and a select squad of your best men will do us the singular honor of escorting us to the Northern anchor point. For your concerns are more than justified. Foul deeds have indeed been committed this night. My students and fellow instructors were lucky to escape with our lives from an ambush meant to see this city deprived of water and a population more easily swayed and influenced, perhaps destroyed, by our enemies.”
Captain Goizing’s eyebrows immediately shot up, and Alex couldn’t help but nod in approval. Just because they had no proof as of yet didn’t mean they couldn’t use rumor and suspicion to immediately point anyone who would later cast a disparaging light at their actions as being co-conspirators with those who would try to doom their city, forcing any accuser on the back foot.
Because in politics, intrigue, and warfare, the best defense was almost always a good offense.
No matter how many people Alex had rather savagely butchered that night. It had, after all, been for the sake of Liushi’s rescue.
And all it took to add irrefutable legitimacy to their assertions was revealing a single shattered fragment of a beast core that now, much to Alex’s heartfelt relief, turned potential adversaries into actual allies.
“My men and I would be honored to escort you to the anchor point,” the captain quickly assured, slamming fist to chest.
Te Chang gave the man a friendly nod. “Your grace and assistance during these trying times will most certainly not be forgotten, captain. I promise you that.”
The man chuckled. “So long as the city is safe, that is all I could possibly ask for, revered cultivator.” He then nodded to his men. “Open the portcullis and assemble the men immediately.”
And in less time than Alex would have thought possible, he was savoring the myriad scents of cool desert air as the entire platoon, moving like a well-oiled machine, was walking through the sands around the elevated rock face of the caldera's rim upon which the city had been built. A natural elevation that was even better than a city wall, showcasing just how massive a volcano must have been here to form a rim so incredibly thick.
“I can only imagine the work that went into making this city,” Alex wondered aloud, stealing a glance Ya ling’s way.
The girl gave a tight, strained smile. “It’s always been this way. Gone so far back that no one remembers the initial construction of any of the desert cities. Powerful wujens beyond the might of even Gold are credited for flattening the ridge and constructing most of the roads and buildings… but that’s just a guess. No one knows for sure.”
Alex nodded. “Thank you for enlightening me.”
Ya Ling gave a tight nod, immediately looking away.
“Ya Ling...”
But she didn’t say another word.
Alex swallowed the painful lump in his throat before turning his focus back to what mattered. The safety of the city. And for all that Alex knew he had nothing to worry about with their party mostly at full strength and the addition of the half-step Silver and a full squad of his best men… still, he worried. Scanning the distant desert sands, seeing nothing but endless desert, just as he had expected.
Before stumbling with a curse, his gaze catching sight of things he had fervently hoped never to see again.
“Alex?” Asked none other than Dui Zhong, a concerned look on the man’s features.
Alex shook his head, glaring at the glowing yellow-green eyes in the distance, knowing it could mean only one thing. “We got walkers.”
The cultivator frowned. “Alex?”
“Living dead,” he hissed. “Like the ones we fought before!”
Dui Zhong frowned, peering off into the distance, before cursing under his breath.
“The restless ones have returned.”
Sulia’s brooding features widened with unmistakable fear, for all that she was suddenly radiating the fearsome killing intent of a wujen in her absolute prime. “Where? Point them out!”
Alex’s hand pointed unerringly to where he could sense the aberrations.
Sulia furrowed her brow in consternation. “I sense nothing, boy. Are you sure you...”
Her words were cut off by her husband’s hand tightly clenching her own. “The boy is right. They seek to cloak themselves in Shadow, but twenty years on the road has given Dui the sight he longed for, and at this point it would be strange if the Ruidian boy wasn’t surprising us with yet another unexpected feat.”
Captain Goizing paled. “Undead? I sense nothing. Men?”
Solemnly, the dozen shook their heads, but that didn’t prevent them from picking up their pace to as fast a clip as the yielding desert sands would allow without utterly exhausting the lower ranked basics among the soldiers.
Alex paid no attention to their byplay, thoughts racing as to what his next move had to be, if the things turned their way.
There was still a chance they were simply...
Ya Ling whimpered, eyes widening. “Alex, I can feel them now. Like a blight upon the desert sands. They’re coming. They’re coming this way!”
Alex flashed a bitter smile as her hand clenched his own. Apparently whatever dismay she felt at his presence paled before the presence of creatures so wretched as to slip completely free of the River of Souls.
As if she was the one sensing his thoughts, her cheeks flushed prettily in the moonlight, her hand slipping free.
“Alex, I...”
“No time,” he curtly said, pulling his fangtian ji from storage, paying no heed to the half dozen wide-eyed looks this earned him from the soldiers glancing his way.
He remembered all too well how their last encounter with the dead had gone. How horrifically impervious they were, where even a master ritual could do no more than freeze them in place… before they broke free.
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Alex turned to Te Chang. “The walkers are coming.” He then shifted his gaze to what could only be their target, seeing the spot along the sheer northern cliff face that must be the ritual sight. His gaze widened with wonder as he caught sight of dozens of giant silver sigils halfway up the face of the caldera that must have been larger than half the school pagodas flashing in the moonlight.
He shook his head in awe, wondering just how magnificent the sight would look under the morning sun.
“Once the core’s in place...”
The captain furrowed his brow, savvy enough to sense the shift in Alex’s demeanor. His frown quickly turned to a look of surprise when Te Chang dipped his head to Alex, as if to an equal.
“Once the gem’s sealed, no force on earth, not even a Gold, will be able to pull it free.”
Goizing cleared his throat. “Elder Te Chang, who exactly is this...” The captain’s eyes abruptly widened, finally catching sight of something far more alarming than an uppity Ruidian. He cursed under his breath. “I see them now. They’re heading right for the ritual sight!”
Alex cursed under his breath. Because if that was correct…
“How?” A horrified Sulia gasped. “They’re unthinking monsters! Not calculating demons… how would they know to intercept.. they should be charging right for us!”
“Actually that’s not true,” Ya Ling whispered, wincing before the increasingly panicked wujen’s glare. “They’re the souls of those so vile that the River provides them no rest, forcing them to endure the agony of their darkest sins being washed away in those bitter cold waters. The ones who slip free are the most evil, the most desperate to escape, and the most clever. Which mean that the more powerful the restless spirit, the more resourceful and malicious it’s likely to be. Even if only one of them is that self-aware… the rest will happily follow right along.”
Sulia gazed at Ya Ling in surprise. “How do you even know this, child?”
“Our caravan was attacked by a greater revenant and his thralls just days before we arrived.”
Sulia cursed softly under her breath. “Husband, this cannot stand. We need additional backup!”
It was at that moment that the night rang with ear-piercing hums.
Alex twisted around, looking for unseen enemies before realizing that the alarm was coming from his pin.
Sulia paled. “Our worst fears. No!”
The captain’s eyes widened, “My lady, your pin! We have to return, right now!”
“We don’t dare return!” Te Chang snapped, glaring at the captain who flinched and paled before his unrestrained killing aura. “Don’t you understand? We’re in no better position to help right now than to secure the city’s water supply for as many years as we can! That stability, that assurance, will only strengthen our position! Because by the time we get back...”
“It will already be too late,” Sulia whispered, haunted gaze cutting Alex to the quick.
“Worse, if the coup that we fear was instigated by outside forces and they emerge victorious, they will happily seize all the cores we possess to supply their own city before cutting off all our heads!” Te Chang hissed. “Now come. Our only hope is to secure our water supply and stabilize the political pillars upon which both our prince and academy stand!”
Even knowing only a tiny piece of everything going on, Alex couldn’t help but agree. The captain himself took comfort in their leader’s words, and was about to charge forth when the night rang with eerie barks and howls.
Half the men blanched, stumbling over their own feet. “The dead call their own. We’ll never make it in time!” Goizing whispered.
“You’re right,” Alex forced himself to say. “What we need is a diversion.” Now racing past the group, he caught Te Chang’s gaze. “I’m going to hit their flank. See if I can sow some glorious chaos within their ranks.” He flashed a bitter smile. “Good luck. And your wife’s ice will do absolutely nothing against them unless she can cast ritual tier spells. Hanz and Lieberman can at least help defend you with their own arts, so try not to die.”
“How dare you presume to speak for me!” Sulia snapped, fear turning to anger in the blink of an eye. Not that Alex blamed her a bit, with emotions and desperation running so high. So he paid her no mind at all, simply increased his loping jog to a sprint, Desert Sense somehow evolving to a mastery over the terrain, knowing just where to step as Prismatic Fox Restoration infused his muscles with boundless energy.
Despite his growing sense of dread, his teeth flashed in the moonlight as he once more charged fate’s breach where only heroes and utterly doomed fools would dare to tread.
Still, he reveled in the glorious growth his resolve had already earned him. A Silver Giant’s Strength was his once more, and few things were sweeter than movement so effortless that it was like soaring across living dream.
“Alex, they’re undead! What you’re doing is suicide!” Te Chang’s voice made no impact on Alex’s forward momentum. Not even Dui Zhong’s rueful chuckle. “You’d be surprised by just how resourceful that lad is. Now come on. Let’s not let the boy’s sacrifice be in vain.”
“Alex!” Ya Ling’s voice alone slowed his momentum. “You need me,” she softly said, sliding effortlessly by his side, her true strength as a queen of the desert sands manifesting once more.
Alex swallowed the lump in his throat. “I’m sorry, Ya Ling. I only wanted to save your life. I would never...”
Ya Ling’s eyes widened, before she gave an angry shake of her head. “Now’s not the time.” She softened her words with a tight smile. “Now we play at being heroes, holding so tight to the fox’s tale that he’ll be forced to see us through to the very end! Or we’ll slip free and splash right into the river where all idealists and dreamers eventually end up, fools to our own folly. Or so the stories go.”
She flashed him a surprisingly cheeky grin. “This is nothing compared to those titan worms! Now are you ready to grab on tight, Alex?”
The deserts rang with his bitter laughter. “As if I could ever let go.”
“Good. I’ll distract, you strike.”
Alex grit his teeth but forced a nod, the head of his weapon now giving a high pitched hum as a whirling storm of Air, Water, shards of impossibly sharp Steel and crackling Lightning swirled in a remarkably energy efficient storm of destruction.
He could only hope it would be enough… or with almost a score of eyes glancing their way, he’d have no secrets at all.
***
Alex’s heart roared in his ears so fiercely he didn’t even hear the guttural hisses promising eternal damnation slipping free of the parched lips of countless revenants snarling and lurching his way, glaring with eyes that shone with what he suspected was the reflected light of the river they were fleeing even now. Desiccated creatures of inky darkness and hideously elongated limbs, clawing at the night with tainted talons that would have destroyed any cultivator’s foundation with a single swipe, before the poor fools decomposed in screaming heap of rotting flesh.
Yet much to the surprise of the closest revenants, their deadly claws didn’t phase Alex at all.
You have successfully dodged cleaving blow!
You have slipped past Enemy Barrage.
You have critically struck your opponent!
The air lit up in a brilliant flash of lightning as Alex channeled his dread into pristine fury, lashing out with tight arcing blows that cleaved through the air and the skulls of snarling revenants with equal ease, his headless foes collapsing as dark ichor and gore splattered their violently hissing comrades.
The entire pack of abominations stumbled in their furious charge. As if even with their alien thoughts, they sensed the sudden shift in the sands of inevitability and fate, the sweet prizes radiating such potency they could no doubt sense was now impossibly far away as death itself faced them with a bitter cold smile that reminded all too many of them of the very same chilly waters they had striven so desperately tear themselves free of.
A handful or roaring revenants leaped for Alex who twisted and weaved past ebony claws that made the midnight air weep and howl.
A miasma of excitement shivered through the abominations as Alex positioned himself right where he needed to be, all his enemies’ focus now entirely on him. The vulnerable prey that had foolishly over-extended. Only then did he reveal his true self, his desperate weaving and dodging quickly becoming the opening movements of a graceful, deadly dance that could have only one ending.
The air abruptly lit up with a staccato burst of flashes as mangled revenants collapsed in burning heaps. Wide yellow eyes among those still upright flinched back when they too heard the desperate screeches of those who had felt the bite of Alex’s cleansing blade, now once more howling their torments within the River of Souls.
High on battle, Alex’s cold laughter washed over them all. “Sorry, assholes! Going to have to burst any mad dreams you have of slaughter. It’s back to the river you go. And I promise that by the time I’m done with your shattered spirits, you’ll be scrubbed so clean of malice and spite that you’ll be no more sentient than the lice in your rotting hair, when you finally slip free of purgatory’s waters once more!”
The furious hisses and glares made it clear that his threats were perfectly understood, even if he could sense Ya Ling’s confusion in their party link, a part of him realizing that he had been speaking a language as old as the desert sands.
It was only a moment of fugue, but more than enough to goad a handful into attacking, including the largest, clearly the leader of the pack, who swiped at Alex with shadowy claws that dripped vile ichor.
Claws that stretched unnaturally as the moon hid behind inky clouds, finding their mark as Ya Ling screamed in the pitiless dark as their foe chortled at the taste of Alex’s blood.
You have been struck by Greater Revenant!
You have taken one Medium Wound.
You have critically struck your foe!
The mercurial desert air suddenly tasted of ozone and summer storms, Alex’s hair whipping wildly as he roared and lashed out with his Fangtian Ji.
Ya Ling cried out, staring in horror as Alex was pierced by ebony claws… a heartbeat before the largest revenant of them all disintegrated in a lightning bolt so massive that nothing was left but the distant howls of a doomed spirit more imagined than real.
“Alex!”
Gentle blue eyes locked with her own. “Duck!”
She hissed and darted around, only then sensing the pair of dark shadows making a beeline for her.
The deadly pair of revenants found themselves stumbling on treacherous sands when the queen of the desert disappeared before their eyes, only for the desert to give birth to a wild-eyed dervish, slashing through joints and tendons with a jian worthy of any princess of the sands.
“Ya Ling, rainfall!”
Perhaps the girl heard him, but paid little mind as Alex weaved and darted past his foes, slipping past rending claws or darting under snapping teeth before sheering steel and pitiless lightning ripped through the darkness, gouts of superheated flesh shocked free of all spiritual possession before rotting to dust in the time it took the remaining abominations to break free of Alex, now desperately fleeing back the way they came.
Alex ignored the rough cheer he thought he heard somewhere in the distance behind him, vindication turning to a black fury that such abominations were even permitted to walk this world thanks to the eternal spite and twisted games of powers that thought themselves gods.
And even if he wasn’t willing to spend eternity in those freezing waters cleaning up their asinine mistakes… it didn’t mean he’d hesitate for a second to put these foul abominations before him back where they belonged.
You have critically struck your foe. Revenant has perished!
You have critically struck your foe. Revenant has perished!
You have graced the desert sands with cleansing lightning.
All revenants in sight have been successfully sent back to the River of Souls.
Experience earned!
Enhanced Storm Strike is now Rank 9!
Alex laughed and roared his triumph as the clouds opened up with an impossible deluge of water, raising his fangtian ji high as the night flashed and he was struck by a glorious bolt of lightning that didn’t taste of his enemies’ spite or malice at all.
Pristine and free of all taint.
Perfect for cleansing the desert sands.
“Alex?”
Alex gently smiled, his former killing fury transformed to a look of wonder as he took in the beautiful ochre sands, now wet with rain, ripe with the promise of life as death decomposed to richest soil and ancient taints were washed away… the air tasting of ozone and his own glorious abilities, just on the cusp of comprehension.
So close he could taste it.
A breakthrough like no other.
Unlike anything he had ever dared before.
“Alex?”
Alex chuckled softly, reaching out a hand for Ya Ling, her former perfect grace somehow transformed to that of an awkward teen as the violent summer storm turned his desert princess into a muddy girl who could barely stumble through the changed terrain.
Yet when she calmly shook her head and stepped back, her gentle smile melted away whatever hurt he might have felt at her rejection.
“I’m sorry, hero. But right now you’re sort of um… crackling with lightning. And I don’t think it would be a very good idea for me to hold you or do anything else with you right now.”
Alex frowned, but before he could think of a good response to that, distant voices somehow carried perfectly to his ears, despite the near torrential rain.
“Did you really think you’d be permitted to enact the ritual, Te Chang? Fool! For the death of my nephew, all you’ll be permitted is a slow, lingering demise!”