[Ashborn-B1] 84. Change (Patreon)

LXXXIV

Change

The light spectacle behind them reflected in the pupils of the Weapon Empire disciples.

‘Milady…’ Garen thought.

He wanted anything but to leave her side at this time. However, with Caelia and Tirion indisposed, he was the only fit to lead this party.

So he turned back to he woods. “Do we have any information on what the item will look like?”

Splitter, as he affectionately called his claymore, rattled in his hands despite not infusing it with essence. The blade was anxious.

“I know, buddy,” Garen whispered.

The Immortals weren’t anywhere in sight, which was strange to say the least.

The missions in this shrine were built around starting conflicts with the other party. Their goal shouldn’t be much different from theirs.

“They could be trying to ambush us,” Elaine said.

His second was wearing regalia similar to his own—her Bladebearer clan was an offshoot of his own.

“So I’ve come to suspect as well,” Garen nodded. “We’ll proceed and search for the shard but keep our wits about us.”

Though eliminating the other party was beneficial, there was a distinct advantage to completing your missions before the other side managed to—a single soldier from the shrine would translate to more combat potential than what slaughtering ten Immortals would net them.

It was also possible that the Immortals were trying to make them think an ambush was coming and were instead rushing off to complete their mission.

That was something Garen couldn’t let happen no matter what. However, since none of them had an idea what the shard looked like, their sole option was to blindly scour the land. But that was a bait in and of itself.

‘We can’t stray too far from the army.’

Otherwise, the Immortals could turn back and flank their allies. He turned over his shoulder to measure the distance…just in time to catch the hundreds of rays shooting through the sky. Their light was so bright Garen had to shield his eyes.

‘They were right about this place.’

Judith had always a strong cultivator because of her background, yet she’d never been outstanding. The problem wasn’t het talent but her drive—she did not hunger for the highest step on the ladder like everyone else. So imagine his disbelief when, the other day, she asked him for physical cultivation tips. Her! The same girl the instructors made him chase when she skipped her lessons again.

A change like that should’ve made him smile—finally his Lady, finally on the path to becoming a weapon capable of shielding those around her!

…But the motive empowering them was not one of valour.

“Movement,” Elaine said.

Light flushed Splitter in an instant, and the blade burned like a star.

Everyone drew their weapons and turned to a treeline not far away. A dozen figures crawled out of the shadows.

“They’re really going at it, huh. Think your precious princess will survive?”

Garen’s gaze narrowed underneath his visor. The Fallen Immortal known as Aedan was an enigma. Impossibly, after studying the footage of the mystic realm that their clan had given them, they realised she was in multiple places at once. Cloning techniques were not unheard of. Better yet, they were sought after. Depending on the technique, a clone could retain memories. That meant one’s cultivation speed could easily double. Because of that cloning techniques were rare. The system didn’t hand them out to just anyone. Even when it did, one needed a specific class geared towards cloning, or their clones would be inferior specimens that didn’t amount to more than a distraction or an extra body. Those specific classes were weaker than regular variants.

That’s why cloning was seen as a high-risk, high-return skill to hunt for.

But Aedan was a bonafide cloner.

Aedan (or was she the other one right now?) waltzed ahead of her clan members, morningstar resting on her shoulder. A dark and brooding haze rose from her robe and hung around her like a cloud, a past and traumatic event that shadowed her very existence.

Slicing through her had not been enough to kill her the last time.

Garen’s shoulders set. “Vigilance.”

Around him, his soldiers nodded and weapons raised.

The Immortals didn’t need to cut off your head to kill you. A single mistake was all it took. A slip up in your attention, and the curse would bite so deep joining them was but a matter of time.

That’s why he cycled twice the necessary amount of essence through his channels.

‘We’ll be alright.’ They outnumbered them. And in a one-on-one, he’d bet on his own soldiers—

Aedan stabbed the thorns on her morning star through her hand. The woman didn’t so much as cry out—not even when she ripped it back out. Blood dripped and pooled on the floor, which grew larger than the amount of blood she lost should’ve created.

The centre of the pool bubbled. Liquid rose from the surface in the shape of a head that solidified into a face. Like this, a whole body emerged from the pool.

The clone also stabbed itself once it was fully formed.

“That should make it more fair, don’t you think?” the first Aedan chuckled.

Garen stopped himself from grimacing. ‘Was she able to do that before?’ Unlikely, or she would’ve used it in the skirmish.

So it was a new skill.

“Shields up,” he barked.

Elaine brought up the front of his squad of shieldbearers.

‘No matter,’ he thought. She wasn’t the only cultivator who’d learned a new ability.

Splitter stabbed the earth. Cracks of energy raced across the ground that showered his Weapon empire soldiers from below. Garen’s shoulderpads trembled like the lionheads attached to it roared.

The metaphor caught him off-guard when an actual roar shattered the air. He whipped around. An unnatural darkness filled the skies over the main army. Tendrils moved within the shadows and Garen followed them to their source.

In the centre of the blackness, a silhouette bigger than any he’d ever seen writhed.

“Ah, that must be Anetta,” one of the Aedan’s. “Not very good at fighting, that one. She prefers a more…ritualistic approach.”

Garen spun back on the woman in front of him. All he could do now was complete his part of the mission.

Gaje’s many eyes burned through my skin. I met the gaze of a set of eyes I considered the centre of his coat. Something shimmered inside the pupils. A heartbeat passed, then I recognised the light for the same one that entered my eyes when my shard throbbed too fiercely—

His body moved, and the recognition fled with the relief in pressure. I didn’t look away from him until my heartrate returned to normal.

Pressing down on the remnants of angst in my stomach, I ran my senses over the barrier. The veil blocked the view of the outside world. However, since we weren’t being blasted to pieces, I could only assume the shield was working.

It was powerful.

“Asshole,” Erri cursed. “You should’ve done this from the start.”

I collected my breath. Ashwing’s essence re-entered the shard. She hadn’t been destroyed completely. However, she wouldn’t be returning to battle for a while.

‘Saber’s my only way to get out quickly now.’

The problem was that he couldn’t carry two people like Ashwing, so Aurille would need to hitch a ride or vault her way back to the central pillar…

‘He waited on purpose.’ That idea entered my head with the certainty of the rising sun.

“How long will this hold?” Aurille asked.

She was heaving but getting her breath back under control.

“Long…enough…” Gaje said.

In this space, his words echoed from everywhere at once. Together with the gruff nature of his voice, it was enough to unnerve anyone listening.

Erri reformed her serpent. “You should save your strength. We don’t know if we need to block another one of those.”

“I hate to say it,” Jake snarled, “but she’s right. We should prepare to scatter.”

“And what do we do after that?” Erri asked.

No one had an immediate response for her.

I felt Gaje’s attention on me. “Your roots,” he said.

I frowned. “What about them?”

One of his long nails pointed down.

A second passed. Then my mouth opened and closed. Would that work? Could it work? The king was leeching energy from the leylines. If I could wrangle the lines, he’d lose that power. It’d interfere with the central pillar, too, but the central pillar had more veins feeding it than the king, so the latter would starve first.

The only issue was that I lost accurate control over my roots after a few metres. How far down were the leylines?

‘I have to try.’

My palm touched the ground, and I closed my eyes. I followed my root down through my mind’s eye.

I’d expected the burrowing to take a while but I’d underestimated their efficiency.

‘The ground is where they belong, after all.’

An abyss of a world expanded inside my head. The underground wasn’t as cold as the surface. Neither were there any signs of life besides the strange fluctuations of energy sprawling across the earth.

‘Residue from the leylines?’

The power was floating aimlessly. Like a morning fog shrouding a village.

Though I lost control the further my roots went, that only mattered if I wanted to give them commands. Having them continue in a line was fine.

Which was how I knew the endeavour was doomed. Almost ten breaths had passed yet I still didn’t catch the faintest hint of a leyline beyond the residue of their power.

“I can’t do it,” I mumbled, eyes still closed. “They’re too far down.”

The others sucked in a breath.

“Guess you’re only good for killing drakes,” Erri said.

I cut off my root with a huff. “Your clanmates love to surface everywhere like worms, that’s why.”

The drake princess stared me down and I her.

…

My brows touched. ‘Surface.’ I turned to where the king would’ve been if the veil didn’t shield us.

“The throne,” I said. “It might work if we can get to the throne.”

The leylines may be far underground, but they had to converge on his seat to feed him.

“It’s our best chance,” Aurille said. She turned to Gaje. “Can you sense what they’re doing outside?”

“Waiting.”

“Then we burst out,” she said. “We should be able to reach the throne in under a minute.”

“What if my roots don’t work?”

“We’ll figure that out when we get there,” she said.

Erri snarled. “I’ll leave you behind first, that’s what. Don’t think you’re getting a ride from me either.”

I resisted the urge to flip her off lest I start a brawl.

‘Patience. Patience.’

The moment this shrine ended, not a second longer.

From the way her tail curled, she must be thinking the same thing.

“Well go on three.” Aurille held up her hand.

When everyone nodded, she started counting up.

I exhaled and summoned Saber. His shroud blanketed my skin like fur. Flames raged through my insides as if a volcano had burst. Times like these, the absence of Mother’s heirloom hit me hard. The first time I’d felt Saber’s rage, his fury had filtered from my shard into my veins and crawled down the blade, making Red Fang tremble like it was being hammered.

The fury raging through me now as the same. Only, the nameless replacement blade didn’t tremble like Red Fang had done.

‘How am I going to help Saber?’

I wouldn’t be doing any serious damage to the king, but I also couldn’t tie him down like I did the smaller golems. So what was there? A way to enhance Saver? How could I possibly do that by summoning some roots?

Aurille reached three. The instant she did, the veil popped out of existence.

I exhaled and gathered my essence. I’d have to figure it out on the go.