[Ashborn-B1] 65. Standoff (Patreon)

LXV

Standoff

The shadows near the beast’s feet deepened and expanded.

All but one of Erri’s serpents turned away from me and faced the newcomer, and the princess snarled. “I hate persistent men, you know.”

My facial muscles went slack. ‘Gaje. That’s Gaje?’

Talons clawed out of the darkness and dragged him forwards. Dark blue layers of feathers formed a thick coat that wrapped around him like a cloak. His head was not that of a human being but that of a bird with a long, black beak and a mane of feathers. Yet the most striking aspect of his physique were the many eyes embedded in his coat.

At the unsettling sight of him, memories from my meeting with Decim returned.

‘Lady Suntrider. A word of caution if I may:’

White gloves lined with gold reflected in the chandelier’s light above us. Decim interlaced his hands in front of his face.

‘Should you have the choice, you should stay clear from that man. There’s something wrong with him.’

Faint smells of expertly prepared meat and cultivation rewards sped away from my mind. The memory hadn’t resurfaced when I was hunting for targets to steal my first token from. But that was because I hadn’t seen him in this form.

Dozens of vertically-slit pupils whirred in their sockets and froze me in place. The red in the scleras highlighted the darkness inside those orbs. My mind felt like it pulled outside of my skill just looking at them—as if it wanted to descend into the abyss they represented.

‘Truly a Nightmare.’

No truer moniker had ever been granted.

Skul’s claws burrowed through the ground. He hovered over my shoulder and glared. In the wake of his growl, the sensation of my brain trying to exit my skull lessened.

The eyes in Gaje’s fur slowly whirled on Skul…and narrowed.

‘This is bad.’ I reached for my storage ring and popped an essence pill.

No matter how many pills I took, I wouldn’t recover enough energy to use Skul’s ability more than once. Could I kill two Ome—

“I hope we aren’t interrupting.”

Marbles clanged as another figure jumped out of one of the many entrances. Aedan lifted her bloodied morning star in greeting and curtsied. “It’s been some time, Lady Sunstrider. I’m happy to find you in good health.”

I clicked my tongue. One problem after another.

Ger veil chimed as she chuckled. “Oh my. Could the feeling not be mutual? We had such a well-mannered conversation before.”

I snorted. “I suppose. Your counterpart not with you?”

My senses shot through every entrance. If Vyke even so much as showed his ugly face, I was bolting out of here.

“Lord Vyke is currently guiding the bulk of our flock. I’m afraid he won’t be here for your inauguration.”

‘Crazy bitch.’

I snuck a glance at Erri. Her gaze flicked between me and the two others while her serpents flicked their tongues.

‘They’re not her allies.’ But that didn’t make them mine either. As it stood now, the two of us were deer caught in the sight of a predator. One of us may not survive even if we outran the other.

Hooded disciples in long robes jumped out behind Aedan. Around fifty in total. That wouldn’t have been so bad if the Black Fangs didn’t show up, too. I scanned their spirits…Not out of this world. One or two who I’d consider a threat—a white-haired girl with pointy ears and whiskers, a dark-skinned disciple with an eyepatch who tingled to my senses.

“Waow,” the girl with whiskers called. “There’s an entire party going on.” She put her hand to her brow like she was shielding her eyes from the sun and made a show of surveying the room. She locked onto Erri. Her head tilted and she hummed. “That’s strange. Your wound already healed? Isn’t that crazy?” She turned to the dark-skinned boy giving me the tingles at the end of her sentence, who merely shrugged.

‘So it’s as I thought.’

That’s why Erri’s movements had been off. Restoration pills had likely sealed whatever wounds she’d suffered, but they were still mending. Since she was still wounded, I could definitely our un her…but what about the other members in our army? Already, the Fallen Immortals oggled our wounded.

The one saving grace was that the Dragonflight and our army had stopped fighting temporarily.

I side-eyed the princess. “Erri—” she turned to me, the flare in her serpentine eyes revealing she already knew what I was going to say “—I have proposal…”

Ice crunching under heavy footfalls made me trail off. Skul glanced behind us. The monk’s steps were sure. The bangles on his staff chimed to a tune unknown to me. But when I looked through Skul’s gaze, I saw a mass of souls acting as a choir.

They swirled around Korin’s staff, more of them than I’d ever seen in my life.

“You…you’re the Nightmare?” His tone wasn’t cold. Yet I shivered. He stepped into Erri’s range, the light from her constructs casting out every shadow on his face. Even so, a cloud hid most of his expression.

The chamber grew silent with his words, until a gruff voice, one which was never meant to speak regular words, said:

“…what…if…I am?”

Air warped around Korin’s staff. Now the song of the departed was no longer a phantasm. Neither did I need to look through Skul’s eyes to see the mass of squirming souls.

“Gaje Bloodhowl.” Korin levelled his staff. “Today, you will face judgement for what you have done. I swear this upon Rowan’s name.”

“…Ro…wan?” Gaje’s hundred eyes blinked at once.

“My sect brother! The one you so needlessly sent into the afterlife!”

“Ah.” Every fire lighting the chamber dimmed. Darkness ruled for an instant before the lights came back to life. “Rowan.” A tongue poked through the side of his beak. “Didn’t taste good.”

“Korin,” I said, feet ready to find the nearest exit. “Calm down. We cannot fight them.”

“I’m aware, Lady Sunstrider. Please go on ahead without me. I’ll keep them busy for as long as I can.”

I blinked. “Korin…you…”

“Consider it paying my dues. While I’m at it, I’ll take out this sorry excuse for a cultivator.”

Ori rushed up from behind. “Are you planning on fighting them all by yourself?”

Korin didn’t turn to face her. “Ori, you—”

“I’ll stomp your head in if you say I need to leave.”

Her brother sighed. “I don’t care and say it anyway: leave. This isn’t your place to die.”

“Neither is it yours! No matter what you say: I’m not leaving you by yourself!”

Erri snorted. “You want me to team up with you when your own members are fighting? I’ll just all of you as bait.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said. “Aedan is one thing, but Gaje has no reason to go after me. If anything, it’s our clan who will be using you as bait.”

I didn’t know why the Dragonflight and Black Fangs were fighting, but I honestly could care less.

Erri laughed. “Shall I give him a reason then?” Her whip lifted off the floor as she spread her arms. “Oy, Gaje. Remember how you wanted my token and I said I didn’t have it?”

A sour taste went down my throat before Erri even jabbed her thumb in my direction.

“She stole the reward from me, so it’s her you should be after.”

All one hundred eyes whirred back on me. An appendage that was more talon than hand pushed through his cloak of feathers and clutched a black slip that glowed a bright red.

I felt my own slip respond without taking it out of my storage ring.

‘Shit. So that’s why he was in that part of the shrine.’ He must’ve exited the Black temple before me.

The light flickered again, the darkness lasting breaths longer this time.

Erri’s broad, leathery smirk greeted me when the light returned. “Your point, again?”

I flipped the drake off.

No matter. All the more reason to retreat instead of fight. ‘We’ll be fine as long as we make it back to the Dove shrine.’

How strong Gaje was exactly was a mystery to me—everyone spoke of him in hushed whispers, so he couldn’t be weak—but he wasn’t fighting me, Aurille, and more than a hundred of the Allied Forces. Not with the members he had arranged here.

“Lady Suntrider,” Korin said. “Make haste.”

My lips pressed together. I didn’t want to leave him and Ori behind. Not when they still had things to teach me. But fighting our way out of here…

‘Isn’t there something to use, something that would aid our escape…’

I whirled around and searched for anything but came up empty. Our only option was really—

Ice crumbled and shards rained on the floor.

We collectively turned to our right, where the wall closest to our entrance had cracks running through it. Those hadn’t been there before. What—

An entire section of the wall exploded, the blowback throwing me to the floor.

What was it this time?!