Chương 235: I just know it~!

Two things struck Kite as he crested the lip of the cliffs that made up the Labyrinth inside the Jade-Sky Gate. First, it was that the difference in perspective somehow made the struggles and winding paths down below seem so small. Down there, the environment was cramped and shaded, with danger behind almost any corner, while above he could look out over the entirety of the trial. A dark and twisting passage below was merely one of a multitude of gaps in the otherwise entirely flat landscape.

It felt almost anticlimactic to see it from this perspective, but that was soon swept away by the second - and very expected - revelation; the storm hurt. A lot. Even as both Kite and Dragonfly set off in the indicated direction immediately, auras retracted, Kite's whole body started flaring with building agony as the eroding magic took its toll. Calling it a storm was also a bit of a misnomer as the swirling eddies did not exert much physical pressure like buffeting winds.

But the destructive potential more than made up for it. None dared speak for fear that they would be heard by the keen-senses of the silvers below as they pressed forward through the hazard, and Kite quickly found himself very glad for Leyline Warding letting him essentially air walk as another problem with their little hike soon revealed itself.

The storm attacked every exposed bit of him, quickly chewing through armor that fought to sustain itself through its self-repair enchantments, but also other more vulnerable parts. Like his eyes.

"By the gods that's uncomfortable," Kite thought as he had one arm shield his eyes, taking only what glimpses he needed to follow Dragonfly who led him by the hand except when she had to leap ahead to clear one of the many chasm while he could just run ahead on panes of force that were fortunately less affected by the eroding forces.

Even though 'normal' pain was a mere nuisance to a silver-ranker, slowly seeing your field of vision crumble as you felt your eyes being shorn away was still unsettling on many levels, and Kite sent an extra note of admiration to Dragonfly who was constantly exposed to it as her path of regeneration let her body somewhat keep up.

From their tests before they knew that not even Dragonfly's path could keep up with the storm indefinitely, but it could stave it off long enough for her to manage such a trip and come out in fighting shape on the other side. Better, in some ways, as her inner fire was continuously stoked by the experience. Kite, on the other hand, felt that his body started failing in some places as joints and muscles were becoming too damaged.

His rank-enhanced constitution should be enough to carry him through though, but that assumption felt less and less certain by the moment as the passage felt like it took an eternity. He staggered somewhat, unsure of where he was for a moment before Dragonfly seized his hand in hers again, and then he felt her squeeze him thrice in rapid succession while a trickle of her aura nudged his.

"Oh thank the Gods," was all that he had the time to think before Dragonfly's hand then yanked him forwards.

"I've never been so happy to be thrown off a cliff before." He felt himself fall and vaguely thought that he heard Dragonfly's initial battlecry, and as soon as the lurching feeling in his stomach appeared, Kite activated his own means of arriving at their destination for fight as Immortality sent its energizing thrill like living lightning flowing through Kite's body.

Even as he still fell, the world returned in bright clarity and it only took his mind a moment to take in the surroundings towards which he was descending at a free fall. Below, a dead end in the labyrinth created a small open space not unlike most of the intersections Kite had seen so far. And while the area itself was nondescript, the two people currently initiating a counterattack amidst Dragonfly's dual flames was anything but.

One of them looked like a celestine man with dark metallic hair and eyes, even though 'looked like' was a most apt description as metallic carapace was currently bursting out from beneath his skin while insectoid legs crackling with lightning likewise burst from his back even while his body elongated to reveal more segments with similar appendages.

Some dimensional warping had to be involved, as the expanding matter was definitely a lot more voluminous than should have fit his humanoid guise The other looked like an elf woman, even though her features were rapidly vanishing as her face was peeling back in segments to reveal a hollow interior with a glowing crystal that immediately started firing bright destructive beams towards Dragonfly even as other points of her body started glowing brightly enough to be visible through skin and clothing both.

Kite recognized them both from Wander's descriptions, and knew that River's sharp aura senses had finally managed to pin them down through what Kite suspected was at least some modicum of aura senses; the Builder's cultists.

His body thrumming with Immortality's surge of renewal, the arms of Kite's mantle appeared and started launching a trio of attacks towards the foes below even as he reached out with one of own hands to grab a freshly conjured bar of force to right himself just in time to land on his feet in a geyser of gravel and stone shards.

One of the beams from the 'elven' woman hit Dragonfly but then next was cut off abruptly as a shimmering projected strike disrupted the magic causing the ray to disperse into fragments of unstructured mana.

"You-" the one Wander had dubbed 'Beetle guy' began, but he was cut off as Dragonfly's animated axe came in from the side and slammed into the side of his head, followed by the woman herself who dove in as a descending wheel of multi-hued flames that impacted the barrier of lightning which appeared a moment later. At the same time, several hovering discs of metal had separated themselves from the woman, hovering around her in a tight formation as they too started firing beams of burning light.

Kite's attempt at dispelling them - assuming the floating objects to be conjurations - failed though, the things being more than pure magic given form. But the projectiles they fired were more susceptible, and the air between her and Kite turned into an impressive light display as the 'elf' increased her rate of fire substantially while Kite's arms became a blur of both defense and counterattack.

Said projectiles were too numerous to simply take on all at once even for him, but thanks to the direct and efficient footwork drilled into Kite by Master Zarth-an and honed through contracts both with and outside task group Gauntlet, precise dodges and sidesteps managed to compensate as his mind sharpened to process even this madness with some ounce of clarity." Ward!" At one point, Kite brought up his dual barriers for a more direct defense, which seemed to be what the woman had been waiting for.

Her head flashed in Kite's magical perception before, a moment later, the beam fired from her hollow face saw a sudden spike in both potency and magical complexity. It impacted the barriers of Heaven-and-Void Warding, and in an instant started to chew through the shields as if they were made of paper as it siphoned the crumbling magical integrity to add even further power to the attack.

Wander had told Kite of how the 'elf' had broken through the barriers of the array surrounding the walls of the Jade-Sky gate, dubbed The Opportunity by the locals, hinting that whatever odd path she was walking excelled at cracking magical shields and the like. But unfortunately for her, the Pathbreaker had another response for such an assault. Instead of trying to dodge, Kite stepped into the attack even as his staff appeared in his hands for an upwards swing crackling with dispelling energies.

When empowered by Potential of Stolen Power, Pattern-Shattering Counter became more than an instant of negation; what was usually a spark surging into a bright sunbeam. As such, the swing did not just scatter the beam before it could do significant damage to Kite, but the dissolution of the magic continued up the length of the line of magical force like a dispelling grassfire.

It reached the woman's face with a sharp crack, and her staggering backwards proved that while the Builder's cultists were something quite far removed from an essence-user, they still had mana to be drained which they would much rather keep for their own use as well as that they were no more fond of flashing transcendent damage than any other creature Kite had come across. And her discomfort was only increased as Kite's staff had the experience echo the effects again, and then once more.

"She's… not a fighter," Kite thought with some surprised realization as he kept being able to up the pressure.

"Or rather, she fights, but that is not how she has tempered her path. The essence-users among them are a distinct notch above." Still, Kite had been drilled too well by his instructors to start underestimating his foe now, and so he kept grinding down her defenses and reserves while he found that he could spare a moment of attention to where Dragonfly was pummeling the other cultist with fervor.

Lightning arced and crackled in searing bursts as the man - even though he currently looked more like a metallic centipede - tried using his many metallic legs to climb the walls and get some distance between himself and his fiery pursuer, all while beetle constructs had started swarming in from outside their little nook of the Labyrinth to join the fray.

Dragonfly seemed unperturbed by both the incoming swarm and the man's attempts at skirmishing however, her path only glowing brighter under the numerous attacks while she used her empowered leap or animated axe to smash 'Beetle guy' back to the floor. There was a problem though, which seemed to frustrate Kite's intended more for each second, and that was the crackling barrier which constantly appeared to block her strikes.

From what little Kite had seen, the protective measure seemed to be a lot like a mana barrier but with some additional tricks, and while Dragonfly surely could break it, it wasn't what her path was most suited for. And as the courteous lover that he was, Kite proposed a way out.

"Switch?"

"You know just what a girl likes to hear!" Just the fact that they could have the short banter only drove home that Dragonfly wasn't feeling overly strained so far either, at least by the measure of a silver-ranker engaged with a being of similar rank. Their foes heard, of course, but given the disadvantage of both cultists there wasn't too much they could do about it but fling some more attacks their way.

Turning towards 'Bettle guy', Kite let a lightning bolt shatter his shields and be consumed in the process while he returned fire. Or rather, Sage did while Kite kept intercepting other incoming projectiles which might threaten the familiar. The mass of odd and strangely meaningful symbols lit up before firing a beam of blue light into the barrier of their foe, the disruptive force straining the shield quite a lot and hopefully also its user's mana. And then Sage did so again. And again.

And all the while, Kite kept using Pattern-Shattering Counter whenever possible to further deplete the other man's reserves from another angle, pressure that soon seemed to be too much. An unseen signal sent the metal beetles into a frenzy as they started launching themselves towards Kite, forcing him to direct a lot more of his attention towards fending them off. But it was something else that turned the battle on its head sooner than expected.

"Kyyyaaaah!" With another warcry, Dragonfly launched herself at her foe, activating Unbreakable Moment to simply power through one of the more potent blasts of the other woman. Two axes cut high and low, forcing the 'elf' to expend some of her floating metal discs to intercept the incoming cleaving violence.

But that proved to be just a feint - even though that was likening something akin to a landslide to a subtle misdirection - as Dragonfly let go of the axe in her hands to instead grab the other woman by the throat. Her first yanking motion sent the head tilting upward, the beam suddenly becoming a beacon as it shot harmlessly up into the storm above, and the second let Dragonfly slam the weaker woman into the nearby stone wall hard enough to daze even the silver-ranker.

In the brief pause, this let her reach down into a nearby pouch, producing an open suppression collar which she shoved towards the cultist's exposed neck and- Crack Before the collar could snap shut around Dragonfly's quarry, the woman suddenly erupted in a shower of gore and metal as a spiky crystal formation burst from within in an instant.

The stone wall behind was pierced and shattered in multiple places, while Dragonfly was similarly impaled as several of the spikes punched through her chest, shoulder and - to Kite's horror - even her head as one of them found her left eye and kept going. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

He stopped, frozen for a moment as he tried to make sense of the situation, but his opponent did not seem as surprised by the development as the cultist instead took the opportunity to begin a skittering flight down the corridor towards the only exit. Kite barely noticed though, beginning to take a step towards his injured lover before the rest of his senses caught up with him.

And while the senses of a silver-ranker were all strong, the most important among them in that moment was the one letting him sense her aura. That was why Kite came to his senses as Dragonfly's spirit nudged his, and quite hard too. Through the brief touch he felt a bit of her pain, surprise, quite a lot of annoyance, but also life; blessed life, along with a more complex sensation which he interpreted as 'I'll be fine and you're very cute for caring, but focus, Kite!'

And given her inner fire and how it was currently flaring, Kite was once again reminded that as long as Dragonfly's spark remained, there was little she would not recover from. So his next words were not ones of comfort - his own returning nudge of aura saw to that, after all - but a spell often used for this very purpose." Wall!"

The barriers of Leyline warding appeared to block off the corridor for the fleeing cultist, and Kite even went so far as to create a ceiling to prevent the need for a chase up into the storm if his target became desperate enough. Meanwhile, Kite used some stored momentum of Unyielding to make an empowered jump to quickly close the distance.

Gathering metal beetles started firing arcs of lightning towards him from the walls of the corridor, but Kite just threw up his barriers to shield his flanks while he continued his assault on the man himself. This might have seemed a foolhardy course of action, but Kite had chosen it due to something else he had noticed during their earlier exchanges; every time he landed a mana-draining attack, a few of the gathering beetles fell lifeless, tumbling from the walls as dead scrap.

It was a subtle thing that almost exclusively happened outside what one might assume to be his field of vision, hinting at some kind of intent behind the choice. And it also hinted that the cultist leader was suffering more from Kite's mana-hungry attentions than he wanted to let on.

That 'beetle guy' chose to dodge out of the way in a slithering crawl this time rather than raise his barrier gave credence to his theory, and Kite leaned further into the more inexorable parts of his path as he got up close to the other man and stuck to him in dogged pursuit while he kept up his attacks.

The cultists tried numerous tactics to create some distance, from a more destructive area burst of lightning to outright pummeling Kite with a flurry of metal limbs that was only met with the retributive wave from Kite's shield. And when that obviously backfired, metal carapace cracking beneath the retributive resonating force further multiplied by the mana which the man was missing, Kite's foe even tried talking.

"It is a shame that one as competent as you has chosen such a narrow focus for your attention," the man said, voice surprisingly calm and normal even though his body had undergone quite some changes as it had made itself ready for battle.

"Do you even know the forces you are currently fighting? The glory and vastness of the Builder?"

"I will admit that my knowledge of the great astral beings is sorely lacking," Kite replied even as he kept up the pressure as best as he could against his skittering foe, Matra's descendants projecting attack after attack.

"But what I do know is that you, the Builder's followers, have chosen to side with a corruption hiding in these lands. My home."

"Only the means to an end that is much greater than them or their petty god. Before the builder, your nation and even this world is but a small piece in his vision."

"I'm afraid that telling me my kingdom is unimportant, the place where I've spent most of my life growing and finding a path to call my own, really isn't helping your case here."

"Perhaps not, but once you are either dead or converted that sentiment will matter little," the cultist said. It looked like he was about to say something more, but there was the briefest of pauses which along with a shift in the man's aura set Kite's instincts on edge. Without hesitation, the undefined form of the Veiled One's Decree fell into Kite's hand just as he felt a surge of mana as well as an odd shift in the spirit of his foe. It was as if it was stretching out into the distance, moving. Or transferring.

And at silver rank, things moved quickly. The process seemed to take only a scant few heartbeats, whatever its purpose may be. But fortunately, Kite was a silver too. And his hand was quicker. The subtle blade struck 'beetle guy' squarely in the chest, carrying an empowered Disruptive Strike. The dispelling force spread throughout the cultist's form in an instant, and to Kite's aura and magical senses something inside the man seemed to go dramatically awry.

The stretching connection snapped like a taut wire being abruptly severed, and then for a moment it seemed like 'beetle guy' was spiritually in two places at once, a state which - from the feel of it in his aura - seemed to be intensely agonizing in a way that Kite couldn't fathom. Then the remaining sliver closest to Kite collapsed, as did every shred of life within the body before him as well as every mechanical beetle in sight.

The constructs fell clattering from the walls, many starting to dissolve even before they hit the ground. Sensing no more threats in the immediate vicinity, Kite then instantly turned and rushed back towards the sharp crystal formation where Dragonfly was currently trying to extricate herself from the impaling spikes.

"Here, love, let me help you," he said, pulling as gently as possible to help her with the final stretch. Even that process left more blood and gore behind than anyone should ever have needed to witness come out of their lover, but the life of an adventurer had somewhat inured Kite to the sight. But only somewhat.

"Gods, that is definitely a far cry from the kind of penetration I prefer," she managed to grumble when her face had healed up somewhat, crinkling her nose as Kite gave it a flick in response.

"There's a time and a place, love," he gently rebuked, helping Dragonfly to her feet.

"Then why are you smiling as if it was funny?" she cheekily shot back.

"This is my relieved smile."

"Well yeah, but that's not all of it. I see that little quirk in the corner of your mouth. That only comes out when you're really amused but trying to hide it." He had no better response to that than to laugh and hold her close, ignoring the blood that stained both of them. Dragonfly leaned into the embrace for a moment, but soon got back to business.

"We need to hurry and get back to the others. Perhaps Braid or River will know why the heck that woman just exploded like that. That really doesn't seem like it should have been a part of her path. Or body? Their magic was weird."

"Indeed. Something odd happened with the other man as well at the end, but I think that was different." Kite said as they started walking, taking it a bit slower at first to make sure that Dragonfly's body was in good enough shape to move. Superior regeneration or not, she still needed enough muscle intact for proper motor control.

"I'm not entirely sure what he was attempting, but from the result I think he really did not appreciate it being interrupted part way through."

"Is he dead?"

"No, at least I do not think so. Wander will have to tell us if she noticed anything different in his capabilities. Have you recovered enough to move?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Let's go back towards the others. But preferably not through the shredding storm of death this time. If you thought it uncomfortable to see me all impaled back there, you should have seen yourself after that little trip."

"Well, said, my ardent Dragonfly. Well said," Kite agreed. Then they sped off back towards their line, having already made a difference and aiming to make quite a lot more before this was all well and done."

"Rhhhaaagh!" Kura, secondary ritualist of the Builder's cult inside the astral space, tensed at the sudden roar where he was preparing yet another ritual of ascension. It had been some time since Jin, Aki and Discord's zealots had gone off into the Labyrinth to hold the line, but now it seemed that their leader was back. Even though his state left a bit to be desired.

"Jin! What has happened?" Kura called with concern, rushing over to where a cluster of his beetles had come together to fuse back into the other man's form. Or parts of it. Jin missed most of his lower body, the torso ending at a jagged and diagonal break in his Builder-gifted metallic form that looked as if tiny, rectangular pieces had been ripped from him until only this broken half-husk remained. His eyes were still focused though, even though his spirit was as unsteady as Kura had ever felt from their leader.

"Something unexpected," was the only response she got at first, Jin managing to right himself somewhat through his humanoid arms and the few insectoid legs still remaining.

"Still, this has severely damaged my functionality as I was interrupted while transferring my being through the swarm to reconstitute myself elsewhere as two adventurers managed to ambush Aki and I. Almost all of the swarm is gone. Aki too, as her star seed made sure that she wasn't captured."

"Then what shall we do? Can Discord's people hold with two of the ascended drones? How long will you need to recover?"

"Too long," Jin answered matter of factly as he made his way to their stash of ritual components.

"Weeks. My soul was severely affected by the event."

"Damaged?"

"Don't be a fool. My will held true, bolstered by the star seed of our great Builder. But the effects of the severe strain still linger, and recovery will take time."

"Then, again, what shall we do?" Kura repeated.

"There is no way that our people are close to finishing the dimensional tunnel yet and-" He fell silent though, as he followed his leader's intense gaze across the open space, to where their Ruler sat as still as always while more drones occasionally emerged from its body.

"Jin, are you sure?"

"I do not trust our so-called allies to see us through this, Kura. We need something powerful enough to wipe the interlopers from the map. This should give us a chance."

"It won't become diamond-rank though. Neither the space or our materials could sustain such a process."

"As long as it is ours to command and reforged through the Builder's vision, it matters little. Make the preparations for the ritual, Kura. I shall assist you. Trust in what He has wrought."

"Trust in what He has wrought," Kura echoed. Then they both went to work. Off all the problems Fantina LanCaire felt pressing in on her at that moment, as essence-users and drones clashed all around her, she was surprised to find that the gold-ranked constructs - or pseudo-gold as Braid had called them - were among the least of their problems.

After all the clashes so far, the things were becoming a somewhat known quantity where Soul had started to hold her own admirably against the melee version on her own while the close confines and press of battle made it hard for the ranged one to properly leverage its projectiles. No, the biggest problem so far after their Discord-worshipping foes were the other two most chaotic factors that had somehow emerged from the trials. First off were the mutated drones.

Some of them simply sported distended proportions which caused them to lose balance and some of their speed, while others…

"Curse it, another one. River!" Little Crow called from where he had been forced to go for a more melee-oriented approach to keep the enemy drones off Fantina.

The reason for his call was that another of the drones, an enemy one this time, had gone berserk as it started tearing into friend and foe alike with reckless abandon while foul-smelling rainbow smoke started oozing off it as it destabilized even while River's chains reached out and flung the creature back towards the enemy lines to continue its rampage there.

While it wasn't too bad in some places, it was in a position to seriously hamper their attempts to keep problem number two away from making a mess of their whole formation. Not long after Kite had left, more monsters had found their conflict, and given the variance they had seen so far as both sides had needed to direct some attention to keep these rogue elements at bay, it was more of the seemingly random manifestations which had started to plague the trials.

At the moment, a huge and slow ooze shimmering with color meandered around the field, devouring everything its pseudopods managed to get a sucking grip on while a pack of skittering purple spiders kept prowling above to shoot freezing webs down at any adventurers which they felt gave them an opening.

Will, Laevyeth and Braid had been forced to rejoin the others due to these random manifestations, leaving the intersection and surrounding tunnels embroiled in a massive melee between essence-users, drones - both orderly and berserking - from both sides, the cultists' constructs and random monsters that could hail from anywhere in the world.

Had it not been for Kite and Dragonfly's foolhardy venture, the group would probably have retreated or at least reconsidered their approach, but off into the storm they had gone which left Fantina to keep watch over the mess.

"For once, the children seem quite an easy number to manage," she thought, sending arrows flying while her tentacles reached out to provide healing.

"I will make sure to appreciate each and every one of them once we get out of this-""Aha~!" The triumphant squeaking roar from all around was abrupt enough to scatter Fantina's train of thought, and she glanced to the side and up just in time to see a great number of rats in varied poses of victory as metal beetles started falling from the walls or collapse to the gravelly ground where they had previously thought to eradicate as much of Wander as possible.

"I knew it! I knew I would win! Take that, beetle guy! You better run, because They Who Wander has proved who's the real swarming boss in these parts~!" The celebration continued around them, but Fantina still looked to the rat at her shoulder which had woken up as if from a daze.

"They did it?" she asked in a moment between attacks, sending a debilitating arrow into the side of the construct with the shield arm to allow Soul to land a few additional hits.

"I dunno," Wander's body at her shoulder replied with a shrug.

"But beetle guy suddenly seems to have lost it. I have no bodies over there though, so it might just have been my awesomeness~."

"I'm sure," Fantina replied dryly while yanking one of their drones out of the way of a projectile from the other construct, with said projectile continuing to strike the ooze and drive it further to the side and away from where Will - Laevyeth in hand - fought with the black-scaled draconian among flickering shadows and conjured spears.

"I'll go look though. Now it is Wander who rules this place! Nothing will be left unseen! Wherever Kite and Dragonfly are, I will find them. If they can just get here quick enough, we can finish these guys off without any further complications jumping out to bite us in the behind. I just know it~!"