Kichi and Masahide began the trek up the slope as their shadows shrank underfoot. The castle fell away into the hollow, and the horizon expanded. Dunaguard sprawled below around the rivers, and the patchwork of farms held it on the wrinkled tablecloth of land.
She spent a moment sitting on an outcropping of granite, watching the miniatures of people, horses, and oxen do their work. Then she tightened her bootlaces and continued farther until the ground became snow and ice. As the air grew thin, she filled her lungs with deep breaths to keep up the conversation, which turned to the soloknight. “The Duke is obviously evil. Why won’t he fight him?”
Masahide’s ears and cheeks were ruddy from the cold. “I wish I knew. But I trust that he has a plan.”
“And if he has his powers drained?”
“It could be that he wants us to intervene. Perhaps he’s distracting the Duke and expecting us to work behind the scenes.
“Why not just tell us?”
Masahide did not answer but doubled his effort to ascend the mountain. “Come on, we don’t want to waste the warm part of the day.”
However, the relentless climb caused her muscles to burn, and she struggled to keep up with him. All she could do was focus on one step at a time. When she slipped on an ice flow, she looked back to see the dizzying drop to the world she’d left. She was in a sky realm now. All was quiet and serene above the alpine environment.
Ahead, three snow devils spun up a flurry of white. Behind them, they left trails that zigzagged in the snow. Their whirl became audible as they neared.
Masahide drew his pure blade. “I hate snow devils. Be careful; they’re challenging to hit.”
Kichi put on the amulate. “I fought one when they dropped me off with the eagles.”
“I see.” He gave her an appraising look. “They’re worse in numbers.”
The stick-figure creatures in the whirlwinds surrounded them and began to harass their progress, intending to send them sliding down the mountain face. Small hands nudged halfway into a step or pulled when on slick rock.
The knights’ swords only parted the air.
As soon as Kichi predicted one of the snow devils’ whereabouts, another interfered with the swing and nearly sent her backward. She looked down a grade where should have been dashed against some boulders. “I can’t hit them.”
Masahide chopped at nothing and roared in frustration. He stopped and was bathed in light from the portal blooming behind him. Arrows fired through it and landed about the devils. Then a lance shot out and skewered one.
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One of the creatures stopped long enough for its wind to dissipate, and its skinny body stood bare. It must’ve been surprised to see the lance take out one of its companions.
Kichi didn’t need the amulet for the strike that cut it in half. She winced at a sound like cleaving wet grass.
The last one darted away uphill. It looked weightless as its funnel lifted and touched down repeatedly in retreat.
But a pair of jaws closed on the snow devil. A wolf as white as the snow surrounding it and as large as a house fixed yellow eyes on Kichi and Masahide. It lept to a nearby ridge and stood majestically.
Kichi didn't know what to say. “Hello,” she said, “Great spirit.”
It growled a sound that could have started an avalanche.
Masahide bowed. “We're here to help a friend. We're climbing to the summit to meet the wind spirits.”
She didn't know why she expected the wolf to say something. Perhaps it was because of its intelligence and yellow eyes or the way it stared at them expectantly.
The portal behind Masahide snapped shut. “We’re no threat to this place,” he said.
The wolf bounded to a higher precipice.
Masahide stepped up to one of the blue stick figures lying broken. “The first time I killed one of these things, it almost killed me first. It was me and another knight, and we'd managed to kill one, but it was so full of corruption that we almost couldn't do it, even together. Pulling all that corruption almost killed us then and on the return journey when we crawled on hands and knees down to the camp.”
Kichi stood above the other corpse. “What happens if you don’t fully cleanse one?”
“It will come back.”
They ran their pure swords into the snow devil's corpses and began to cleanse.
She began to understand the sensation. She felt the energy brimming and spilling over her current capacity. She stopped to rest to make sure she still could stop and crunched the blade down again. The spirit energies ran into a new ring and filled, but she knew when she had enough and ceased.
Masahide finished cleansing hers. “That showed good constraint.”
“Thank you, I’m trying.”
It was the first time she had a good look at the spirits freed from corruption. The other times, she had been too consumed by the power raging into her. The two that they cleansed wafted and disappeared in the sky, and ghostly smoke escaped from the wolf's rows of teeth.
Kichi watched the wolf leap fifty fathoms to a tooth of rock. “You think it’ll attack us?”
“No, and let’s hope not. We wouldn’t have a chance.”
Kichi
Level: 7
Focus: Prescience
Secondary focus: Lava+2
Weapons: pure sword - 5% pure
Items: Near Field Amulet (Prescience+2, focus)