The rest of the group woke in the middle of the night to find Silas sitting back up on the ridge in lotus pose, meditating. William pointed up at Silas and looked at the other three. They climbed from their bedrolls and packed their things away, sending everything into their storage rings. They had noticed Silas’s things had already been put away, and William wondered if Silas had even gone to sleep. He neared that stage when a Sacred Artist didn’t really need to sleep anymore.
They walked up behind Silas and looked over the valley. The night was still and dark. Clouds covering most of the moon lights glow. Thanks to their enhanced vision, they could still see across the valley. They probably couldn’t see Silas, but they could see that no one was wandering around in the desert space.
“They are there. I can feel them. Their veils are slipping while they rest.” Silas spoke up once the group was behind him. “Only one illusionist, I think, their leader. The one that made that colorful dragon when we came through before. From what I can tell, there’s just a handful of others, mostly body cultivators, which is why they didn’t put up much of a fight before.” Silas continued a moment later, finally opening his eyes and looking out to the valley with the group.
“So, we want the illusionist. He’s probably the one who knows anything,” Magnus said calmly.
Silas nodded his head and went to his feet. William and Daiki were already hiking down the mountainside. They lingered until the Silas and Magnus caught up with them.
“Let’s make sure we keep our spirits tightly veiled while we work across the valley and up the opposite mountain. I want to get up there before the sun breaks.” Silas said as he ran.
It didn’t take them long to make it across the valley and up on the other mountain. They stayed close to the ground as they came to the top of the mountain, looking for the enemy camp. The camp was a lot like the one they found back on Sunhae, near the Monastery. Just a few tents forming a circle around a middle fire that was currently out.
They set the camp in on the mountainside in between some ridges. The group had the height advantage over it so they could see in. The sentry just stood in the middle of the camp, resting his hand on the sword hilt on his belt. He gave a loud yawn and looked around a little, but didn’t seem to see or feel the group looking down at him.
The camp only left one sentry posted. A lone Sacred Artist who they couldn’t sense. He was keeping his veil on since he was awake. He was dressed in the robes of The Heavenly Dragon Sect, the deep purple outer robe and teal inner robe. The four of them exchanged looks and then looked at Silas questioningly as Silas lifted that scarf around his neck. One end of the long fabric coming up to wrap around his eyes like a blindfold.
“Your eyes can betray you.” Was all that Silas said, grinning.
The group just shrugged and looked back down at the camp. A thick, dark gray, almost black fog rolled in through the camp. “You guys cover me. I’m going to look for the illusionist. Try not to kill them unless you have to.”
Silas stood now, pulling his hammer from his storage ring, the three others doing the same. They stood ready, looking down at the camp. They didn’t realize that Silas was gone. He had drifted into the shadows while they watched. Silas trusted them to do what needed to be done. All he had to do was find the group's leader. It should be easy, find the illusionist and find out what they knew.
“Well, I guess it's time. Hopefully, this isn’t all just some kind of hoax, like it was back on the island.” William spoke slowly, stretching his neck out a little. His hands flexed on the grips of the swords he used, those long daggers that he had proven to be so deadly with time and time again.
The fog moved around the camp and when the sentry tried to examine it. He dipped his hand into the fog and it was cold, dark. It made his hand disappear. Shocked, he pulled his hand back out and looked at his fingers, flexing them a little. He looked up and scanned the mountainside. He moved over to the tent he was closest to and yelled inside. A moment later there was another Sacred Artist standing next to him.
The three moved swiftly and quietly down towards the camp. Staying towards the shadows in the darkness so the lone sentry wouldn’t be able to find them. The sentry seemed to be more alert, however, when that fog rolled in. They looked around the mountains, feeling out with their spirits. They each had their jians drawn and were ready to defend the camp if need be.
While they worked their way down the mountainside, Silas was already in the shadows. He was in the fog, moving where he needed to go. He moved swiftly in that purple tinted world of his trying to sense out where the leader was. It was difficult, though. There was something messing with his spirit. Something blocking him, working against him. He had moved into each of the tents and figured out he was doing more harm than good.
The entire camp was now awake and standing around the campfire in the middle. One of them even set about and lit the fire in the middle. They were all irate and on guard. The trio up in the mountains had to stop moving down. They stayed behind a wall of rock, sneaking looks down here and there when they could to see what was happening.
“What’s going on?”
“Yeah, the hell is this fog?”
“Why’d you wake everyone up?”
The cult members were yelling and asking each other, all of them confused. The people were looking around. They weren’t moving for their weapons or seemed like they were ready to fight. They didn’t know what to do.
The fog swirled around an area a little way from the group, gaining more substance to it. It thickened and turned into that black goo of shadow stuff, forming a figure. The fog then seemed to drip down and disappear, leaving Silas standing there. He looked at the cult with his hammer held at the ready to attack, but his face just looked at them questioningly.
“Where’s the illusionist?” Silas asked once he appeared from the swirling fog of shadows.
The group was stunned for a moment, looking at the man wielding the comically large war hammer that appeared from nowhere. It took them a moment to recover and then the group rushed Silas. Their swords were already drawn and ready for combat. The moment they needed to recover from his appearing seemingly out of thin air only lasted a moment.
Silas stared at them from behind his blindfold. His shadows pushing in on and around them. He had felt something around them, someone around them. He wasn’t there though, he was invisible. Before meeting the group of Sacred Artists, Silas dissipated into the shadows once more, dodging them. They ran by where he was while they were yelling and Silas came back from the shadows just as they passed where he was standing before.
When the group turned in confusion at what had happened, William, Magnus and Daiki jumped from the mountainside above them. The Beggars also had their weapons at the ready and, after their travels, had looked like true beggars as well. Their robes were dirty and musty. Covered in sands from their travels. They engaged the Cult members, who had quickly recovered from their appearance. Blades clanged against each other and the three were in a heated battle against six cult members.
Silas couldn’t focus on that. As soon as he came from the shadows, the illusionist revealed himself. He was using some sort of technique to hide himself from view. Some sort of illusionist trick, most likely. The man had short dark hair and the tanned skin of the southern region of the kingdom. He wore the same purple and teal robes as the other cult members he had met, and remembered the giant version of him from that desert hellscape.
He stood there with a menacing grin on his face, his swords in his hands. He was using a pair of fu tao, known more simply as hook swords. They were full sized swords with blades for hand guards. At the ends of the blades had hooks so you could put them together and swing them for extra reach. He had them crossed in front of him, pointing towards the ground. It was a position so he could still either use them as two separate swords or hook them together and go on the offensive within a breath.
Silas stared at the opponent’s swords and grunted silently to himself. These swords were about as annoying as hook darts, in his opinion. Against someone with a regular sword, he could usually just deflect or stay out of the sword users’ reach. Then he’d just clobber them with the hammer since it was so long. With these hook swords, the sword fighter had more ability to pick the pace of the fight. Silas tightened his grip on his hammer and dug his heels in, staring at the illusionist.
Silas could feel the illusionist quickening his mana and he pushed the shadows harder in around them. The beautiful thing was that people couldn’t tell he was doing this. Shadows were a weightless thing that was usually ignored. They were part of the world and always there. He felt the man moving in, not hooking his swords. The man wanted to try a close battle. Silas never saw him move. He was still standing there where he appeared before grinning. Silas felt it, though. He felt the attack coming.
Silas waited till the last minute, then faded into the shadows. He felt the sword swipe just after he disappeared from view and entered that purple tinted void. After coming out of the shadows, he swung the hammer at the illusionist. He was still hidden from view, but since he was surprised Silas dodged the attack, the hammer blow struck him on the back, knocking him into the dirt.
Silas grinned and chuckled a little, the illusionist groaning. The hit had little power behind it. It was more to prove a point. This illusionist's tricks would not work on Silas anymore, and he wanted the cult leader to know it.
“Hm. Very well. You’ve found a way around the parlor tricks, have you?” The cult leader climbed to his feet and dusted himself off. “Very well then, let’s really do this.”
“Where’s Maisy?” This was one of the whole reasons for Silas to track this man down. To find his fellow Beggar, the girl who had helped him so much through the past winter, and his friend.
Either the cult leader wasn’t paying attention or he didn’t care, but while Silas spoke, he was cycling his own mana. He raised his shadow to fight with him. The Illusionist had tricks, and so did Silas. He might as well use everything he could at his disposal. The shadow was raised on the other side of his opponent, so they were on either side of him.
“Oh, she’s around. Don’t you worry, but it’s not like you’ll see her again, and that shadow will not be able to help you very much, Silas.” He spoke calmly. So he knew he just didn’t care.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The shadow looked at Silas and clasped his hands together, then bowed at Silas. Silas stared at it for a moment and realized the shadow was a little shorter and smaller than it normally was. Then it spoke in that echo. “Master.”
Silas grinned, it was Reiko. Kenji must have sent his own old apprentice to help him with this last battle. Reiko must have just been waiting for Silas to summon the shadow so he could make his appearance. The Cult Leader turned and looked at the shadow suspiciously. “What’d you call him?”
With the Illusionist distracted at this new bit of information that he wasn’t even sure what it was, Silas felt out through the shadows. He searched around the small area they were in. He felt two other presences. One of them was Maisy. He could see her on a ridge just above them, past where William, Daiki, and Magnus were fighting the other Heavenly Dragon sect members. Silas also felt something else. He couldn’t quite place what it was. It was shrouded itself, but it was powerful. It seemed like an animal, though, not a person.
Silas felt the man’s swords suddenly covered in a sort of fire. It wasn’t fire though, it felt more spiritual. He couldn’t quite tell what it was, but he knew it had to be something he didn’t want to be hit with. He could tell that just from the power the fire emitted.
Reiko rushed the illusionist from behind. The Cult leader turned to meet him, the spiritual flaming swords swiping around and Reiko dodging and ducking as quickly as he could. Silas sent the hammer into his storage ring and came running in as well to join the fight. The Illusionist was on the defensive as the pair pushed in with their fists. If Silas could land one of those palm strikes, it could probably end the battle quickly.
They were wearing down The Heavenly Dragon leader, but he was keeping up with them. Then it happened. One of those swords connected with Reiko and struck through his midsection. Reiko fell back and yelled. That echo filled the area everyone was fighting. The fighters who were engaged in their own battle even paused to look at what had happened.
Reiko’s shadowy form had erupted in the spiritual blaze, and he was melting away. Silas didn’t know what to do, but he watched in horror. The Illusionist took the reprieve from the battle to build back up some stamina. He watched Reiko fall to the ground, writhing in pain, still yelling. The shadowy form was melting away in front of Silas’s own eyes. He was going to watch Reiko get destroyed, again!
Silas did the only thing he could think of, while the illusionist laughed and watched Reiko as Silas slammed his palm into the man’s midsection. Silas pushed his own mana into the core of the cult leader.
The man looked at Silas, shocked. He could feel himself losing his power as that shadowy ooze flooded his channels, swallowing the illusionists mana like a cold gooey fog. He fell back with the blow, his hands grabbing his stomach in pain. The swords lost their fire and fell to the ground when he fell back.
Instead of pressing the attack, Silas moved and kneeled beside Reiko. The fire had dissipated when the illusionist dropped his swords and couldn’t hold the technique anymore, but Reiko was still melting away.
“Reiko!”
“Don’t worry Master. I’ll be fine. Kenji will take care of me.” Reiko said calmly, but in pain. He wasn’t there much longer before his form was fully gone.
Silas stared at the boy and watched him disappear. Reiko was gone, melted away back to the void world of Kenji’s. Silas looked up and over to where he had sent the illusionist, but he was gone. He jumped to his feet and pulled the hammer from his storage ring and then reached out with the shadows.
“ENOUGH!” Silas shouted. He felt out with the shadows, trying to find the illusionist. Not only did he not find the illusionist, but that powerful being next to Maisy was also gone.
The trio of Beggars were locked back in battle with a few remaining cult members. Silas rushed the cult members, dissipating into the shadows and shadow walking so he was behind them. When he came from the shadows, his hammer swung and sent a jian wielding Sacred Artist flying into a rock wall. Once that happened, William and Magnus dispatched the other two thanks to Silas’s move, surprising the trio of remaining cult members.
Silas didn’t wait for them to say anything. They were a bit bruised, but a quick feeling of their spirit told Silas they were fine. “Maisy is up there in the mountains.” He pointed up to where he felt her just a few moments before.
The four of them panted and looked at each other, giving each other a nod before climbing up a small goat trail to where Silas had indicated. While they moved, Silas sensed within his core and felt he was running low on mana and power. It seemed like it was over, though. The Illusionist was defeated and gone for now and they were all now standing over Maisy. Silas had removed the scarf from his eyes and was wearing it around his neck like usual, and he looked down at her.
Maisy was unconscious, but when Silas kneeled down beside her, he could tell she was breathing. He untied Maisy’s hands and legs and took the piece of cloth she had that gagged her. William leaned over, holding a vial and brought it under Maisy’s nose, swiping it back and forth a few times.
When Maisy opened her eyes, the sun was just coming up over the mountain top and shone into her eyes as they fluttered open. Silas was holding her up in his arms and looking down at her with a smile.
“Sorry it took us so long,” he said to her.
Maisy smiled and nodded, looking up at him, and then looked at the other three standing behind Silas.
“You’re good, lass, we’re here.” William spoke over Silas’s shoulder and the other two chimed in agreements.
Silas stood now, helping Maisy to her feet as well. “Are you alright?”
Maisy nodded her head. “Yes, I’m fine. Or I will be. They only knocked me out before they brought me here. Mostly, I’ve just been treated as cargo. They knew you were going to come. They were expecting you.” Maisy gasped and looked at Silas. “They’re expecting you. There’s something happening, Silas. It’s not the Dragon Cult, it’s her too!”
Silas looked at Maisy, confused. “Who?” The realization dawned on him before he had finished the question. The Kami that was behind all of this.
“ME YOU SILLY MORTAL!” When the fight was over, Silas had dropped the technique where he was using the shadows to see. He didn’t notice the snow fox off to their left in another clearing.
They all had just turned towards the voice and watched a snow fox leaping towards Silas. The snow fox was transforming as it leaped through the air, transforming into a young-looking girl with black hair and purple streaks. She was wearing purple robes that matched the streak in her hair.
Silas gasped and knocked Maisy away from him just in time for Genki to land a fist on Silas’s jaw, sending him to the clearing on the mountain below. Where they were initially fighting. He landed in the dirt with a loud thump and laid there like a lump. Genki didn’t bother the rest of the Beggars for the time being. In fact, she completely ignored them. She leaped down on the ground with Silas standing over him.
“You’ve been a giant thorn in my side. Ever since that damn monster ate your village and Kenji, of all people, decided to sponsor you.” Genki spit at the lump of Silas on the ground.
Silas groaned and looked up at the Kami. “All of this is your fault.” He tried to pick himself up, looking at the young girl.
“That’s right, it is. You damn mortals. Father’s favorites.” She brought her leg back and slammed it into Silas’s side. Silas once more was sent flying through the air when she struck him. His body cracked against a wall of rock.
Silas slid down the rock wall and landed on his butt, leaning against the wall. His arms were wrapped around his midsection and he looked up at the girl. His body was broken, and he tried to cycle mana to repair what he could while he sat there.
Genki looked down at him with a smirk on her lips. “Idiot, what do you think you’re going to do? Sitting there cycling my brother's power through your channels. You’re standing in front of one of the Kami.”
Silas just smirked and kept cycling his mana through his channels. In reality he didn’t know what he was going to do, nor did he have even the inkling of a plan to fight the Kami. He took solace because if this Kami ended him, perhaps Kenji would take him and let him live in the void of the Shadowlands. Then he’d be back with Himari and Reiko. This was the reason for the smile. All he wanted was to be back with Himari. In the mortal realm, or the Kami’s lands, it didn’t matter.
Genki giggled and then let loose her power. Silas sat there and felt the overwhelming, crushing power push him into the stone wall behind him. Silas grunted as Genki held out a hand towards him.
William, Magnus, and Daiki jumped down to defend Silas while he was sitting there. They had their weapons drawn and ready. Daiki had actually tried to attack Genki on his leap down, bringing his quarterstaff against her back, striking the girl. She didn’t even flinch.
She didn’t acknowledge the three at all, not even when Magnus and William dove in with their own attacks. Magnus swiping his guandao towards her upper body, William swiping his swords towards her midsection. They attacked from opposite sides. She didn’t react until their blades were about to strike her and she released another pulse of her power once more.
“Go away.” She giggled.
Genki blew the three of them back at the pulse of her power. Each of them knocking against a different wall. The Kami pushed her power into each of them, pushing them into walls they landed on. She didn’t even allow them to land in the dirt like she had Silas. Their bodies pushed into the mountain walls as she held them there. She looked back at Silas with that little grin of hers.
“You will not be reunited with anyone. You’re going to be completely unmade, you foolish mortal.” There was no showing of power from the girl, just overwhelming spiritual pressure.
Silas suddenly felt tiny. All the training up to this point, all the work. It meant nothing in the presence of a Kami who wanted to destroy him. Silas gritted his teeth. He could feel channels inside of his spirit crushing. The spiritual power was pushing in right on his very core. He glared up at the Kami, gripping his stomach with his sides.
Genki lowered her hand, and the grin stayed. She kept staring at him and giggled once more. Silas closed his eyes and breathed heavily, groaning. He was looking inside, focusing on his spirit and mana. It was disappearing. Everything was being pulled from him.
“You’re being unmade, you silly mortal. I’m ripping you apart, ripping you away from the very fabric of reality.” She explained to him.
Silas believed her. He could feel it happening to him. He felt himself spiritually melting away, like he had watched Reiko do in front of him. This was more, though. Reiko already belonged to a Kami, so Kenji could fix the boy.