20. When the Stars Come Out.

I stood atop the summit of my mountain looking north. I had heard something an hour ago, something which had changed everything.

I had just happened to be looking at Hien Ro and Yara when it had happened. And I had watched as the threads of fate had changed before my eyes. This was a happy change, at least in the case of Hien Ro and Yara, as the bonds between them had strengthened to be the ones you expect to see between man and wife while they are young and have not yet discovered their feelings for each other.

But then I looked at Adan and despaired, as not all of the changes were for the better.

Adan was presently doomed to die within a few years.

This was a dramatic change from what I had seen when I first looked at him, as he’d had a long life in front of him at that point. He was only in his mid thirties, after all. And the death that I foresaw for him was not a natural one, but a violent end which I would not wish upon the man.

I had immediately ascended to the peak of the mountain, and now I looked. I looked , willing away the many leagues and defying nature itself to show me the truth of what was occurring in the direction from which the sound had come. That sound which had changed so much.

Few things can change the direction of fate so much that I would notice.

That’s because fate is fickle, and constantly changing her mind. Especially around me.

Whatever was happening back at the Six Mountain Sect, for I felt that was where the sound originated from, I knew that it was something which both didn’t involve me, and yet was a direct outcome of my actions.

I struggled to bear witness to the earthshaking events as they unfolded, but got no more than a small imprint of what was happening.

Of a sole, ancient warrior standing against a massive corruption. He stood because he thought that he must, that he was the last line of defense against the millions who stood behind him.

He was not.

I closed my eyes and whispered, and the wind took my words away from me. Whether they reached their destination, I would never know.

~~~~~~~~

Di Ram spat blood, but he stood fast. Twelve of the undead abominations stood against him, each of them at the cusp of entering the silver path. These were not some errant zombie raised by an imbalance of yin. These were true monstrosities, raised by the loving hand of a master of crafting dark arts. His father had warned him against corruption, but he had no idea that Ko Ren would have seeped so far into evil, into corruption, into darkness as to practice the crafting of these monsters.

They were not the slow zombies that he could trust to his disciples. Already he had lost two promising students who had gotten over their heads. He had lamented the necessity, but he had disposed of their bodies in purifying flames to prevent them from rising again and fighting for the enemy. If the enemy could raise such monsters from the bodies of commoners and peasants, then Di Ram shivered to think what they could do with the bodies of an actual cultivator.

Perhaps, he thought with a chill, he would yet find out.

They moved like marionettes, coordinating with each other according to a will above and greater than their own. Three came at him head on, three to the left and the right, and another three in reserve.

Di Ram was firmly upon the silver path. Far upon the path. He had hoped to join his father upon the golden within a few decades, and perhaps even ascending past his father, who remained on this stunted world out of choice.

But twelve foes at the peak of the bronze path was a step beyond anything he had faced in his life. Even in his youth, when he had faced down a spirit rhino of the silver path while he was still on the bronze, he had only faced one opponent, and he had only needed to survive until his elders arrived to slay the beast.

Now, he was the elder. He held his conjured longsword in his left hand, in his right a spiritual spear that his father had given him. When it was not in use, it was another ring upon his hand, but at its core was the power of a loving father of peerless strength willing protection ot a beloved son.

He threw the spear, and it wiped out the three charging to the left in a flash of light. The spear returned to his hand, but he could not use it that way again for hours.

Now, it was little stronger than the sword in his left hand.

But the display caused the charging enemies to rear back as they reconsidered their tactics.

“Elder Di Ram! Elder Di Ram!” called his juniors, and Di Ram spared a moment to look in the direction of the voices.

More of his juniors were fighting a running retreat. They were limited by the fact that they were defending hundreds of mortals. But he had his own charges to protect.

“Stand and fight!” he called to them rather than rush to their aid. “I shall come and relieve you when I have finished here!”

The juniors reacted in shock at their instructions, but after just a moment they nodded. Dozens of bronze path cultivators turned and set their feet, pulling their weapons to the ready as they stood between undeath and the lives of the innocent.

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Di Ram decided that he had given the nine remaining undead that he faced enough time to consider their tactics, and he charged forward. Spear in his right hand and blade in his left, he dove into the center of the bronze path corpses.

Blow after blow he struck, but the unnatural vitality of the enemies was great, and it took many strikes to put them down. Meanwhile, they fought back with preternatural speed and strength, utilizing the hoes and axes and pitchforks that they had used to proper purposes during their lives.

He heard the screams of his juniors, which only drove him to fight harder.

There would be losses, he realized. He did not want to think about it, but already he began prioritizing those who would receive his immediate attentions in the aftermath. He hoped that Pi Phon and the other advanced cultivators whom he trusted would not take injury, but after that, he began ranking his disciples in terms of potential.

He was still thinking of these matters when he took a pitchfork to the belly. He looked down at the implement, then continued fighting on as though uninjured. It was barely a flesh-wound.

Suddenly, a bell tolled. The animated corpses abruptly fell as though they were puppets whose strings were cut. They began to burn in a purifying white flame, and within moments they were gone.

Di Ram fell to one knee, breathing hard as he closed his eyes. He looked to the north.

“Father,” he said, knowing what that bell meant.

He had fought through the night and halfway through the day, only to be saved by his father once again. But if the final bell tolled, then there were only two options.

Either his father had won the fight against Ko Ren, and soon it would be safe to return …

Or …

He squashed his self-pity and got to his feet. He rushed to see to the wounded. His healing abilities, while meager compared to many, would save lives in the next few moments, but only if he hurried.

For not even the best healer could heal death. The twisted mockeries he had just faced were what you got when one tried.

~~~~~~~~

The fist connected with Di Phon’s face. Squelch. It pulled back. It was empowered. It thrust forward, and connected once more with Di Phon’s face. Squelch.

Di Phon laughed, and he coughed in the face of his attacker, spitting blood on his foe’s already bloody face. A single spray got in the man’s eye, and Ko Ren blinked the stinging droplet away.

“Just give in, old man. It’s over,” Ko Ren said. “It doesn’t have to be your end. Just let me in.”

“I’m not afraid of death,” Di Phon said. “I always thought I would be, in the moment, but now that I see him standing before me I see the face of an old friend.”

“Yes, that’s right. We’re friends, you and I,” Ko Ren said. “Let me in. Let me in, old man.”

“Not you. He stand behind you, and he will go where you go, but he shall never be your friend. You upset the order, and it will be his duty to correct it,” Di Phon said. He closed his eyes. “If you are going to kill me, then simply get it over with. But I shall never admit defeat. And I shall never let you feed on me.”

“Let me in! Let me in!” the madman shouted, unaware of how far his voice carried.

His fist went back. It was empowered. Squelch.

The battle was not over, for all that the younger man had the older pinned to the ground and was beating him relentlessly. It was not over for all that the older man was all out of attacks. For still the golden core of his defenses held fast, and it was against this unassailable fortress that was Di Phon’s cultivation.

And it was treasure which Ko Ren coveted. He knew, some small part of his mind that was screaming in disgust even now, that if he managed to claim it it would rip him apart and turn him into something truly monstrous.

Ko Ren and Ko Si were more or less aligned in all things. That was why the technique to feed upon her had been so successful. The vampire technique required not only betrayal, but betrayal of a loved one, of an ally, in order to work properly. Ko Ren knew this, it was why he was carefully selecting who he taught it to and who they fed upon.

But in this moment he was just. So. Hungry.

He. Wanted. More!

If. Squelch. The. Squelch. Stupid. Squelch. Old. Squelch. Man. Squelch. Would. Squelch. Just. Squelch.

“Let me in!” he shouted.

Another tooth broke, and Di Phon laughed.

“I will never—”

“You do not stand alone. The world stands behind you. Take your rest, and others will take up your cause. Your star shall never fade for the soul never dies. Even should the land be plunged into darkness for a time, the dawn shall come, and it is in the darkness that the stars come out. This I swear to you.”

The words no more than a whisper, and Di Phon had never heard the voice. But it carried with it a power that Di Phon had only met once.

When he had been invited to the court of the Lord of this Realm.

He laughed.

Squelch squelch squelch squelch squelch.

He still laughed.

“Whoever you are, I suppose you’re right. I am being arrogant, thinking that the world rests on my shoulders. That no path remains to me, when there is one left aside from death. One that I forsook long ago. One left…”

He closed his eyes.

The squelching stopped as his body became ephemeral.

In the midst of battle Di Phon ascended.

Ko Ren screamed as his treasure escaped his grasp.

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