> Let all things cry out. When the end of this kalpa shall arrive, and all the gods and all the devils will scream out of their heavens and their hells, they will be looking for a savior yet. It is the pure error of the warrior to seek out the Farthest Shore. The greatest hidden truth is seen as heresy by the orthodoxy. But all paradoxes and all heresy is integral to finding true, nonconceptual enlightenment. They sing that one must let go of Wandering to find Liberation. Samsara from Nirvana. This is false. To even think of a difference between them is already falling into the trap of conceptual thinking. True Liberation that benefits all beings is beyond Suffering and Emancipation. Beyond the split between phenomenal and absolute reality. All things are emptiness. Remember this.

>

> Emptiness is form, form is emptiness.

>

> Treatise on Enlightenment by Serpent King Sage

Doctor Myu Fan, Pilinitala, and Yiwaritala all turned in absolute shock to Raxri Uttara. Even Ampun Sagara turned with furrowed eyebrows to Raxri. Their bodies wracked with uncertainty, with questioning, with wondering, with pure consternation. If Raxri was someone among the crowd, they would be doing the same!

It was only the Abbot who stood resolute. They smirked, even.

"My dogs!" Silver Wind Witchdog cried out. "To me!"

Like a flood of fur and steel, the dog demon infantry roared out of the cave mouth.

In answer, Yiwaritala raised his pewter staff and slammed it into the ground. The visage of a water buffalo erupted from him again, and then infused Yiwaritala. The monk yelled: "Swords and Spears of the Awoken!" An invisible fire erupted from him, skewering through every single warrior that hadn't fled. The flames burned and steeled their resolve, infusing their Will with greater power. "Set your hearts ablaze! Until all beings are free!"

The monastery warband roared, heartened. They unsheathed their blades and charged, meeting the dog demons head on.

The Abbot leapt up, soaring through the air and watching from a nearby cliff that overlooked the entire battle. Though his face was serene, thunderclouds subtly keened overhead, where he stood.

Strengthened by Yiwaritala's Will Proliferation, Pilinitala charged, descending upon dog demons with certain aplomb. Balancing on her glaive, striking in quick jabs turned into wide circular motions. She was almost acrobatic, like a pesky heaven warrior. Leaping on dog demons' heads, leaping away when she was surrounded.

Raxri knew not to be surrounded by such a force. They will not stop to strike at you.

Ampun Sagara was, however, in the midst of it all, alongside other heavily armored warriors. With his Heaven Thundering Hammer style, he would grab dog demons and then suplex them to the ground. He would slam them into his knee. He would dropkick one and that warrior would barrel down the other warriors behind them. After Ampun Sagara had built enough momentum, took a readying step forward, raised his fist to the sky, and proclaimed: "GOTRABAYE'S GAVEL!"

When his hand inevitably struck the earth. The earth itself shattered and cracked; Ampun Sagara's quake-force strike sent all those before him to the air, broken bones and broken maws. An entire chunk of the dog demon's force, destroyed.

Some of the dog demons that had not been slain by that attack were certainly killed when a bullet went straight through their skill. Raxri turned to see Doctor Myu Fan, moving forward with an intricately designed arquebus. She fired three more shots, slaying a few other dog demons that came up too close to her. When she ran out of bullets, she would only reload by uttering a magic spell, performing the Replenish magic hand sign, and then twirling her gun quickly in mid air. When she caught it again, bullets had somehow returned to the stock, and she as shooting others again and again. One time, as she killed a dog demon, she turned and used it as a bludgeon to strike and kill one behind her, and then she chanted the mantra and twirled her gun furiously fast, parrying a strike from another dog demon's blade. She caught her gun, kicked the dog demon away, and then shot it dead.

Raxri wondered if what she practiced was a martial art or pure magickal tradition.

Raxri themself had entered the fray, making sure to stay close to Pilinitala. Though now, they fought with the quickness and strength of a guardian dog. Three cuts decapitated a dog demon. They moved through the dog demon like a frenzy of iron, like an unfurling steel blossom. Puksa sliced through the dog demons as if they were nothing but butter. When a dog demon managed to get an open shot at Raxri, they quickly parried it away with their rattan shield, moving closer, and stabbing the dog demon immediately with their blade. The dog demons themselves fell quickly, Raxri never felt the need to even use Heavenly Lightning Deflection or Heavenly Lightning Saber.

However, when they faced a particularly well-armored dog demon, clad head to toe in iron and leather lamellar, they had to change tactics. The Ironclad Dog Demon struck with a long glaive as well, bearing a range advantage. Raxri baited an attack, parried it away with their rattan shield and then quickly closed the gap. While they were at a disadvantage, they performed Adamant Lightning Strikes to cut five times in the span it took for a heart to beat, cutting away the strings that held the armor in place. Though this was not perfect: only the Ironclad Dog Demon's right, right shoulderpads, and front breastplate fell off it. But that was more than enough: Raxri quickly transitioned into the fifth Adamant Lightning Strikes Technique. Four slashes to the bare parts, soliciting a pained howl, and then the fifth slash gorily decapitating the Ironclad, separating helmeted head from the rest of their sliced up corpus.

As they fought, Raxri noticed that some of the warriors unspooled into those thread of Will, while others dissipated into fireflies. No doubt these warriors were a mix of the demonic constructs of the dog demon sorcerer, and the demons born from Hri Kresshanna infernal womb.

Through it all, the sounds of death reverberated through the mountain. Though the majority of the deaths were of the dog demons, there were some all too human sounds that signalled one of their ranks had fallen. Raxri grit their teeth, trying to find the source of the screaming, of the pain...to no avail. Sorrow seized their heart and wrenched it. But they could not allow it to make an opening for their enemies, and so they parried even their sorrow with their meditation, and kept it to the side. I will feel you later.

Yiwaritala launched forward to duel directly with the dog demon chief himself. "Ha! And you protect the heaven dancer? That unsightly wizard whom heaven itself repudiates?

Raxri's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but they were too far from the demon chief to do anything about it. Yet. The flood of dog demons seemed endless, even if they seemed easy to fell. Raxri's Will Furnace blazed within their stomach, within their liver, within their heart.

"Whatever your reason, you imperil innocents yet! You quicken this world's death," replied Yiwaritala, and they exchanged blows, pewter staff against Dragonbone Scimitar. Despite being thrice his size, Yiwaritala effortlessly matched the Silver Wind Witchdog's speed and strength, weaving under scimitar blows, leaping and corkscrewing over slashes, parrying away jabs and thrusts. As they moved, their pewter staff jangled a song of serenity, summoning the tranquility of the Merciful Hearer Awoken to the battlefield.

"The world will die all the same!" yelled Silver Wind Witchdog. "There is no reason not to quicken it! Besides, this is the Will of Heaven, not mine. I was merely conscripted, no different from the mercenaries you have brought with you."

"Compare not the practitioner with the monster," replied Yiwaritala, and they managed a clean thwack against the Witchdog's sword hand, forcing him to drop the Dragonbone Scimitar. "Ampun!"

Ampun Sagara was there suddenly, faster than thought. They leapt up to grasp the Dragonbone Scimitar's handle and swung it against the Witchdog. Surprised by the turn of events, the Witchdog only barely parried the blow, and the scimitar gashed into his right side. He screamed in pain and laughed.

Then, Ampun Sagara continued twisting, yelling: "Ox Thews Rolls The Dragon!" As he did, his Will Furnace manifested as a blazing aureole of orange light behind his head, and he flung the Dragonbone Scimitar far, far, far off the mountain, straight over the lands, over to the seas.

The Silver Wind Witchdog laughed brightly. "Ha! What a show!" It began trading blows with Ampun Sagara and Yiwaritala, his giant claws enough to be five greatswords at once. "Let us revel even more!" Now he fought Ampun Sagara and Yiwaritala through multiple rounds.

Doctor Myu Fan was suddenly beside Raxri. She grabbed Raxri's shoulder and pushed them down to duck, allowing Raxri to weave under a horizontal sword slice from a dog demon. Then she uttered a mantra as she pulled the trigger of her arquebus, sending a lance of fire lasering through a line of dog demons, slaying them outright. "Raxri. I will cut a path. You and Pilinitala must find the dog demon sorcerer within. The brunt of the troops now are but his constructs from his rift."

Raxri nodded. "Right. Pilinitala!"

Pilinitala nodded as well. They both meditated upon their Light Body Technique, and then burst through the battlefield, each stride taking up ten normal running steps. They had no need to worry about warriors blocking their path: Myu Fan's fire lasers cut through them all the same.

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When they neared Silver Wind Witchdog, the chief demon turned to claw at Raxri, but Raxri parried it away mid-stride. Pilinitala was there, suddenly, lancing down on the Witchdog's paw and ripping it. Ampun Sagara seized Silver Wind Witchdog's off-balance foot, and he suplexed the demon chief to the other side.

Yiwaritala yelled: "Go! We will cover you!"

Raxri nodded in thanks. The only reason they were not being struck was because of them and the throngs of warriors, both monks and mercenaries, that fought in their name.

Past the gates, the vaunted cave stretched far up, with a few holes allowing sunlight to seep in, illuminating it. Despite this, a few lotus lights floated here and there. Upon hardwood and bamboo platforms stood crude temporary stilt houses and beddings. The stalagmite became places for leaning weapons on and hanging washed clothes.

Of course, none of that mattered at the present. In the middle of the clearing was a natural rocky outcropping. It was as if a god had carved it to become a throne, for it looked like the crude fascimile of a throne room.

The "throne" itself was empty.

Kneeling before it, facing both Pilinitala and Raxri, was the same dog demon sorcerer. It shouted and cried, its vocal cords were torn and ripped as it continued its chanting. Its emaciated frame could only barely house its Will Furance. Its brocaded robes, stolen from a court sorcerer, were heavier than its bones.

Raxri felt a pang of pity.

The rift was torn open, but it was small. Dog demons struggled to be birthed from it. A gaggle of heads and claws ripped and tore at each other trying to squeeze out of whatever nether they were constructed within.

A few of them were already there. Weaponless, they ran over to the crude scimitars and longknives lying on the walls or stalagmites, and assaulted Raxri and Pilinitala.

To the both of them who had cultivated their Will Furnaces, these were nothing but fodder. Pilinitala and Raxri summarily dispatched the small force of dogs in a mandala of blood and steel. When there was nothing but lingering strands of Will left, Raxri turned to the dog demon. "You can still stop this."

The dog demon sorcerer turned to Raxri, eyes bulging, and it shook its head. Its arms--which it had been keeping up all this time as it chanted--fell to their sides, and they stopped chanting. The rift whereupon the dog demons were being birthed closed suddenly, as if reality zipping itself into place. Those dog demons that were halfway birthed were bisected in half.

Raxri looked up at the sorcerer, sword at the ready. They were preparing themselves to perform Heavenly Lightning Saber, should the need come.

The sorcerer raised a keris--the ritual dagger version of the kalis--and stabbed itself in the neck. As blood erupted from it, it smiled. It could not speak, Raxri realized. At least, not the language that Pilintala and Raxri spoke.

It could only speak in violence.

The blood that erupted from the sorcerer was infused with the last gasping strands of their own Will--what is effectively the sorcerer's very own life force. The blood spiralled out and immediately began coagulating into a mass, which calcified into a hulking abomination of a dog, arms and hands so large that it could not wield any armor. It was twice Raxri and Pilinitala's height, its slobbering jaws dripped with venom.

"A monster true," said Pilinitala, readying their weapon. "Raxri! It charges!"

The dog howled and lunged toward Raxri. Still concentrating on their light body technique, Raxri leapt over the dog. It sailed under them, slamming into the wall behind them. As Raxri arced overhead, they threw their rattan shield against the dog hulk, and then twisted their fingers into a Thunderbolt Mantra.

Raxri's Will Furnace fulminated.

"Heavenly Lightning Saber!" They fired off four sword beams of burning royal violet light. Slash-slash-slash-slash, it engraved the dog hulk's back. It howled again in pain.

Pilinitala surged forward then, running up the dog hulk's back, and then leaping and stabbing straight down the dog hulk's head. It roared again and flailed about wildly, sending Pilinitala flying toward a nearby stone spire jutting out of the wall like a trap.

Raxri's eyes widened. "Pilinitala!" At that moment their feet touched the tip of a stalagmite. Raxri immediately focused all their Winds to burst Will straight into that foot. They immediately shot from the stalagmite, faster than they could think, adrenaline rushing through them.

They flung themself in between Pilinitala and the stone spike.

Pilinitala slammed against Raxri and Raxri slammed against the stone spire. Raxri cried out in pain, and the two of them fell to the ground. Despite the shooting pain on their back, Raxri felt that the spike had not pierced them. Their Shield Yantra burned an ember glow. Their granite talisman shuddered.

"Raxri? Raxri!" Pilinitala turned Raxri over and then sighed. "Oh, thank the divinities. You are unhurt."

"No, I am hurt," said Raxri, laughing. They rose to their feet. "Just not punctured. My defensive amulets work now in full force." This world is exceedingly dangerous. No doubt all these defensive talismans and magicks are indispensible.

The hulking dog demon, that abomination summoned by the sorcerer, lunged forward again after it had finally found purchase in the craggy floor of the cave. Raxri leaped forward, immediately, putting theirselves in between Pilinitala and the abomination. Its giant maw, with teeth as long as longknives, bore down upon Raxri.

Raxri performed Heavenly Lightning Deflection. With great effort, and with perfect timing, they managed to deflect the abomination down, slamming them into the floor. Unfortunately, Raxri's hand was cut anyway by the razor sharp of the dog demon's fangs. Blood dripped from the lacerations, but Raxri felt no pain. More importantly, none of their fingers had been ripped apart from their hand.

Pilinitala took this moment to leap into the air, twirl, and then strike down, glaive piercing deep into the hulking dog demon's neck. It writhed, squirmed, and then flailed. This time, Pilinitala pushed herself off of the abomination, twirling in the air before she fell to the ground. In Raxri's meditation, they could see that she was an expert at controlling the flow of her Winds, and thus an expert in harnessing her Will. More importantly, through this all, she was exceptionally calm. Every fear and hesitancy was quickly carried away by the winds of her meditation.

Raxri had leapt back as well as the abomination flailed. It still managed to rise to its feet, like a weredog or dire canine. It snapped at the air, as cursed black blood spurted from its open wound. It put both hands into the earth, and then lunged again. It did this much slower than before, Raxri realized.

Using their Light Body Technique, both Raxri and Pilinitala leapt out of the way. Raxri simply dove to the side, came up on both feet, and then quickly harnessed their Will once again to send three more Heavenly Lightning Saber slashes to the abomination. The abomination howled as it bit into its hind legs.

The abomination turned around. For the briefest second, Raxri noticed the intelligence of the sorcerer flash back into its eyes. It dipped one of its claws into its spurting black blood, uttered a silent mantra in a demon language neither of them knew, and then clawed at the air. A rift to fulminating darkness ripped open, and black arrows shot out from it, arcing and twisting towards both Raxri and Pilinitala.

Pilinitala was leagues more deft than Raxri. With an exhalation, she dodged each of the blackblood javelins by leaping upon stalagmites, corkscrewing in midair, leaping up to overhanging stalactites and leaping off from them at the last minute. The last blackblood javelin she managed to vault over, but a part of it ripped at her back, tearing at her tunic, but not completely destroying it. She dropped low behind a stalagmite and winced. She pondered about drinking the healing gourd for a moment, then though against it. "Merely a graze," she muttered to herself.

Raxri, on the other hand, was both slower and dumber than Pilinitala. Exhaling, they leapt over the first blackblood javelin, dashed over to their rattan shield, twisting over another blackblood javelin as they grabbed it. Then, they rushed toward the dog demon, screaming in defiance all the while, as blackblood javelins chk-chk-chk! impaled the rattan shield. Despite being made of blackblood, they were stopped by the rattan all the same A few of the javelins cut into Raxri's shield hand and forearm, soliciting a few more winces. They made sure that their fingers were all still there, and they were.

When Raxri was before the dog demon it lunged, and Raxri performed Heavenly Lightning Deflection again, this time deflecting three rapid claw strikes. Raxri then cut during the moment when the dog demon overextended, performing Adamant Lightning Strikes. Five sword strokes in the span of a single heartbeat. They traded blows like this for a few more rounds, with Raxri deftly weaving under and deflecting claw strikes, inserting Adamant Lightning Strikes when they had opportunities. The dog demon also managed to puncture the rattan shield so that Raxri was forced to discard it for their own safety, alongside scoring a few claw-strikes upon Raxri's person, though thanks to Raxri's training most of these claw-strikes amounted to nothing more than grazes and light flesh scars.

Then, there! An opening. The dog demon stepped back and dipped its hand into its blackblood again. It uttered another infernal magick spell. Then it swung as if wielding a cleaver, and an arc of blackblood cut through. Raxri parried it with Puksa, and it managed to block the majority of the black slash, though lacerations materialized from their forearm.

More importantly, Pilinitala was there, running. "Raxri!"

The dog demon seemed to slow down from that maneuver.

Instinct overtook them. Raxri rushed forward to stab at the dog demon's chest, and then they performed Adamant Lightning Strikes twice, for both legs. This forced the abomination to their knees.

As it fell to its knees, Pilinitala leapt up, and Raxri used the flat of Puksa's blade for her to leap from. She shot up, twisting in mid air, landing upon the cave's ceiling. She inhaled...

--Raxri summoned all their will to perform Devastating Red Hand against the abomination's maw, sending them flying vertically up--

...she exhaled, glaive pointed straight down, she ripped through the abomination's skull, impaling her glaive to the ground with such force that the metal of the weapon shattered.

The abomination never fell to the ground. It fragmented into those black fireflies.

Breathing heavily, Raxri helped Pilinitala up. Her knees were bruised, but she was more or less fine.

"You are covered in cuts!" said Pilinitala. Raxri shook their head and assured her that they were just fine.

The black fireflies wandered around the area. Some of the other demons that had watched the spectacle simply retreated, either further back into the cave or by some other arcane trick. After a few moments, the black fireflies gathered around Pilinitala and Raxri, before dissipating completely. The dissipations turned into colored winds that funneled and swirled into both of their personages.

Raxri blinked. "What was that...?"

"Will," said Pilinitala, inhaling and uttering a small chant, as if to offer the act of violence to the Awoken and Saviors.

"Will?"

"The Abbot has spoken about how, when one kills another being, if the being that killed them was a Cultivator of some sort, they will gain that being's Will. It's a representation of the greater interconnectedness of Emptiness. A visualization of the greater Shagara's Net, the interpenetration of all things, the removal of the bifurcation between subject and object."

"Blast it all," said Raxri. "All the people that study in the monastery sound so much smarter than I do."

Pilinitala laughed. She removed some gunk from her hair. "You will understand this, Raxri. You fight so well, and with so much skill and panache."

Raxri smiled and shrugged. "I am nowhere near as great as you."

From outside, the howl of the Silver Wind Witchdog.

"We should help the others," said Raxri. Pilinitala nodded and ran out with them.