[Ashborn-B1] 74. Second Wave (Patreon)

LXXIV

Second Wave

Judith was lying on a table placed outside of Dorothy’s cabin. The spirit that was to be made her partner had her bed moved outside as well.

Scar’s daughters giggled as they helped strap Judith to the table.

One of them hovered near her ear, giggled, and said in a hushed whisper: “It’s going to be incredibly painful.” Her mouth split into a grin that made Judith shiver.

‘Fucking snakes,’ she thought.

“Nathalie,” Dorothy said.

The sprite jerked and rushed off.

“…sorry.” Dorothy exhaled.

The weapon-spirit was still as weak-bodied as before. However, now that it was certain they’d be bound together, a puff of energy had returned to her person like a second wind.

“Don’t worry about it,” Judith said. “They’re just kids.”

Calling spirits potentially centuries old ‘kids’ was strange but it was the truth to her. They all acted like spoiled children. The only reason they didn’t dare do anything to Dorothy was because she was Scar’s eldest daughter and the one he favoured the most. If they did anything to make her uncomfortable, they’d experience his anger wholeheartedly.

“I’m glad the two of you are making friends.” Scar bobbed over floated in their middle. He tested Judith’s straps. “Are you ready?”

“As much as I can be.”

Absorbing a spirit into your body instead of your core was not a simple process. Scar would be executing the operation himself. Apparently, it involved jabbing each part of Dorothy into her body—’think of it like digging thousands of hooks into your flesh,’ he’d said. He also added that was a gross understatement.

Judith found her breathing rhythm. She was ready.

Scar read the determination on her face and turned to Dorothy, who nodded.

“Then let’s begin.” He held out his hand. “Dorothy, this will be painful for you as well, but try not to resist my pull.”

Dorothy answered with a grunt that was close to a cry. Hundreds of tendrils of pure light essence detached from her body and swirled towards Judith.

‘Like a thousand hooks,’ she thought…and swallowed. The first of the tendrils inched over her skin. Well, how bad could it be? Though she quit early, she’d survived some hellish training—

The feedback as the tendril sank into her skin wasn’t immediate.

‘Huh. Was he just scaring me?’

That thought had a moment to pass through her head. Then her mind went blank as her entire body convulsed, and she screamed, to the joy of a hundred jealous sprites.

Ashwing swerved past a boulder about to strike us out of the sky. Whipping winds broke on her nose. Flame gathered in my blade. The sky cried as the flames whizzed towards their target and cut through the golem’s chest.

The monster crumbled to pieces.

It was one of the few golems left. Since the remainder were not focused on me, I had some time to survey the battlefield.

Skul surged forth below me, jaws wide open. His opponent, a reptilian golem, fired a beam of frost, but Skul’s flames rebuffed it. He swallowed the monster whole, then dragged his claws across the earth to whirl on his next enemy.

‘I was afraid he wouldn’t be able to drain them.’ Its why I had him take Saber’s place to test it out. The fact his Spirit Leech worked meant these golems had souls……I buried the question of why that was.

My balekin continued hurling into the army of frost, his ghost guardians on his heels. The smaller constructs were no match for him, but the larger ones were no slouches.

A humanoid creature with stilettos for legs paraded through the Dragonflight. Its legs skewered beasts left and right until its limbs reminded one of satay.

[Frost golem - lvl. 45]

I grimaced. ‘Their level is increasing.’

The number of constructs had doubled after the second phase of the first wave began. With double their numbers, the boulder throwing golems had more space in their backline to do as they pleased. Every person they killed only worsened our situation, too.

That already made them a serious thorn in our side.

Now, you were telling me the golems were levelling on top of everything?

‘We’ll be in trouble by the time the second phase of this wave hits. Let alone the waves after this.’

I turned towards the far end off the chamber. The king had yet to do anything but summon its minions and sit lazily in his chair. Near me, the pillar Erri and her clan were defending was flaring a bright red and growing brighter by the moment.

‘Whatever it’s doing will happen once we clear the entirety of the first wave.’

Aurille’s group was fighting as well. I couldn’t see exactly what was going on, but they were winning. The heiress of the Snow Moon was simply too powerful. However, Aurille’s essence wouldn’t last five rounds if the enemies kept growing in number like this.

‘We need to stop them from spawning.’

Ashwing dove and got me into position to ambush the last golem.

I exhaled and caught my breath. Even though I was piggybacking on Ashwing, sharpening her movements still required energy. So did firing the flame cutters.

I headed to the base of the column.

Erri approached as well. “This better be something good.”

“I hope so.”

It was quite ironic how she was the first person I had to help out of all the others. Gaje, his Black fangs, and Aedan and her Immortals were yet relaxing in the grass, doing absolutely fucking nothing.

My gaze drew towards the tower. Fire rippled through the column, causing the golden lines among the edges to gleam. A square hole at the bottom of the base popped and revealed a crystal on top of a velvet cushion.

Identifying the item didn’t return anything, but a fool could figure out where this was supposed to go.

The only issue was that I had no idea what it’d do.

‘Only one way to find out.’

I swiped the crystal from its seat. “I’ll return to the central pillar and see if it does anything.”

“Be quick about it,” Erri said.

The king had already opened its eyes again, which meant the next wave was coming.

Ashwing blurred through the air as fast as she could and reached the central pillar. Rin’s trident melt through frozen skin acting as armour and killed a rat-like golem on impact. Ren sliced through two advancing beasts, his plasma blade passing through them without much resistance. While the central pillar was under attack, it wasn’t yet seeing as much combat as the other pillars.

So, either our information was wrong, or the situation was going to change after I inserted this gem.

My summon touched the ground, and I jumped down in front of the gem slots. The gem was a perfect fit.

I took a step back and kept my spiritual senses trained on the pillar, paying special attention to the leylines underground. Energy crawled through a vast network of roots. The roots wormed their way up into the pillar and passed through each of the gems. The chain was disconnected. There were holes in the roots where the gems were in the pillar.

‘It’s stopping the energy from reaching the Divine Beast.’

However, now one of those paths had been completed.

A sudden heatwave pulsing forth from the pillar burned my cheeks and made me shield my eyes.

‘What’s happening?!’

I peered through the glare. The glass orb was turning into a damned star! The sight of it created a terrible stab in my stomach.

‘Shit. It’s powering up.’

The heatwave didn’t only hit me. It lashed out at the frozen grassland and melt the ice, struck the flame arts still firing behind me and fanned their flames. But most of all, as the second wave of golems rose from the ground, it slammed into them and sent them reeling. The smallest of the monsters burst into flame and dissolved on the spot.

My eyes widened. ‘So that’s how it’s going to be.’

This development increased the odds of us winning a hundredfold—

Reflex had me reinforce my ears. Though I was quick, a warm stream still leaked from my eardrums.

The heatwave had sailed through the entire chamber and also struck the golem king. The entire shrine trembled with his roar and the massive beast’s arm struck the air in frustration. Hundreds of glimmering shards curved behind his swipe. When they touched the ground, they snapped into hulking, sprinting figures heading straight for the central pillar.

‘Damn it.’ Guess it wouldn’t be that simple.

I spied on Erri’s side of the fight. A big swathe of the golems there had been pulverised in the heat blast, freeing up their army. The drake princess was already slithering her way towards me on the back of one of her serpents.

A glance at Aurille told me her squad would be able to handle their incoming wave as well.

If we cleared this charge, we’d advance to the third wave. Emphasis on ‘if’.

I breathed in deep and cracked my neck.

Judith’s consciousness didn’t return until the operation was finished. Currently, she was floating in one of the pools and enjoying a wash.

The sprite wiping her face with a cloth pouted. “I can’t believe you managed to survive.”

Judith didn’t respond. She was breathing hard despite half an hour having gone by since she came to. The pool water was coloured red from the blood that’d leaked out of her pores. All the muscles in her body convulsed and her skull didn’t feel attached to her body.

‘It’ll take a while for you to adjust,’ a female voice in her head echoed. Her tones were soft yet sharp. Like touching the edge of a knife at rest, they were but a twitch away from splicing you open.

‘I need rest,’ Judith complained.

But rest was a luxury.

Scar bobbed into view with his back turned to her. “You seem hale enough. Dry off and follow me.”

And though she wanted nothing but to fall asleep, Judith had no choice but to follow.

Back down the hallway from the sprite garden was another chamber that housed the many rewards Scar offered those who entered his shrine.

Gold covered most of the pristine, white tiles that made up the floor. Not gold as in the coin, but equipment generously layered in the element. Judith stopped in front of a claymore resting in a standing casket. Its blade was so speckless she could see her reflection as if she was looking in a mirror.

Part of her blonde hair was fastened into a tail. She used a style her mother was fond of, where a bottom layer of hair was purposefully not fixed into the tail, leaving it to hang. Her face was still the same old: nothing to write home about. Perhaps a bit too chubby as she liked her desserts. She also lacked the naturally sharp features that most of her clan ascribed to the talented among them.

‘Why do you disparage yourself?’

“I am merely stating a fact,” Judith whispered.

She angled her head. Her bright blue pupil, which she thought was one of her sole good features, had turned entirely white. A halo surrounded the core of her eye, and four veins attached to the circumference crawled through the entire organ and out onto her skin. They glowed permanently.

Despite what it looked like, she was not blind. But she got no feedback from it unless she focused. When she did, a spectrum of colours she’d never viewed in her life revealed itself.

‘This is nothing yet,’ Dorothy chuckled.

And she wouldn’t until she reached the point where she could fully merge with her new spirit companion.

Judith put a hand over her chest and massaged herself. The pounding of her heart had grown heavier. So heavy that each thud was uncomfortable.

Because of the way Dorothy was bound to her, the organ had to suddenly pump for two while it’d developed its whole life to support a single person.

‘Sorry…’ Dorothy mumbled.

Judith touched her eye. Though the two of them weren’t bound in the way of a regular spirit beast and cultivator, their connection wasn’t any less close—Dorothy could read her thoughts.

If the spirit had been more…insidiously-inclined, she would’ve worried. However, think what she may of Scar, his daughter was a kind soul.

“Don’t worry,” Judith said. “I decided myself to link myself to you. We’re in this together now, for better or worse. Besides, you’ll notice soon that I’ll be the bigger burden on you.”

They still had to survive the outside world, after all.

In her mind, Dorothy did the mental equivalent of lightly grasping Judith’s hand.

“How’s your eye, Child?”

Judith turned around. Scar bobbed his way towards them. He held an item in his hands. An eyepatch? It wasn’t quite the regular version of one, though, as it lacked a wristband to wrap around her head. Also, the material was crystalline.

“Great,” Judith said. “I do have a permanent headache.”

“It’s because it’s working even when you’re not actively using it. This should help.”

He handed her the eye cover. She identified it:

[Ocular Seal (Rare)]

Though crystalline, it had the thinness of a sheet of paper. Small leaf shapes in the middle connected and formed a flower pattern, which perfectly enclosed the halo ring in her eye.

“Put it on. It’ll shrink to fit.”

It indeed shrunk in her fingers as she placed it over her eye. The sensation of it sliding in wasn’t uncomfortable at all.

“Well?” Scar said. “Should be a lot better, eh?”

The moment it clicked in place, the pounding in her skull lessened. She turned to her benefactor and bowed. “Thank you, Lord Scar.”

There was a system limit to what the Lord could gift her for free, but he’d already given her more than enough.

He huffed. “I’m not helping you. I’m aiding my daughter. It’ll absorb part of Dorothy’s power escaping through your eye and keep your vision from being active without you meaning it to be. You’ll need to find an upgrade once your power level increases.”

“How will I know when that is?” Judith asked.

“When you start getting headaches again. Or when your allies complain you’re radiating too much energy.”

As it stood now, Dorothy’s energy was mostly resting within her flesh. But that was because Dorothy was still in the process linking herself tightly to her. Once that finished, most of Dorothy’s energy would be cycling through her spiritual channels as if it was her own essence. If Judith couldn’t store that energy in her core, it’d fill her muscles until they could no longer hold it, then whatever energy sinks remained, like her organs.

Part of the energy would escape out her eye and out her pores, but it wouldn’t be enough to keep up with Dorothy’s growth.

Judith exhaled. She was already prepared for what road awaited her.

“What now?” she asked.

“Now you train,” Scar said.

Judith raised her brow. “The special training room?” she trailed off.

From the way Scar had spoken, the chamber was designed to kill whoever entered. Moreover, Judith had just linked with Dorothy. She was not in full control of her faculties and her new powers. Braving a room like that as the first challenge they undertook together wasn’t wise.

“Don’t make me laugh,” Scar said. “You couldn’t challenge that room if you tried.” He paused for a moment, then added. “In your current condition. I have something else planned for you.”

To be honest, that scared Judith more. A challenge the sprite prepared especially for her?

Dorothy giggled. ‘Father may act harsh, but he’s a sweetheart at his core. The challenge will be hard but fair. He wouldn’t endanger us or anyone else for no reason.’

Judith didn’t let her expression change. Scar had already left them behind, so she turned to regard his back. ‘Him? A sweetheart?’ She wasn’t seeing it…but she supposed it didn’t matter what she could and couldn’t see.

She couldn’t afford to stay behind.

So she followed after the spirit.