Chương 288: Glimpses of a surge IV

Heavenly Shaft; Darkness Penetrator!" Will's spirit surged along with his words, resonating gloriously through the shaft of his Lady held in a firm grip as he executed the thrust just after making a mighty leap from a floating conjured spear. Laevyeth was alive with flowing mana in his hands even as her tip surged forward, her battlecry joining her wielder's." Iniquity's Bane!"

Beneath them, eight foul creatures of rot and decay looked upwards, raising their gnarled graying hands as they prepared to scatter and dodge the huge spearhead that had formed above them. Bane lurkers were unusual manifestations in the Autumn Lands, and that was a blessing of Fortune unto itself as the silver-ranked, hulking beings could turn a sizeable domain into a fetid swamp simply through their presence.

And five of them at the same time had definitely been reason enough to send Will and his Lady to deal with them. An earlier barrage of special attacks and spells had already left three of the regenerating beings too impaled by Laevyeth's beautiful copies to move properly, and the rest were interrupted by the blinding light that flashed from the spear in Will's hand just a moment before Darkness Penetrator began its descent.

Will didn't stay idle though, and the attack had barely finished its destructive work before he switched places with one of the many spears scattered around the swamp beneath. Appearing this close to the creatures put him within their decaying auras, but Will simply let the gradual necrotic damage flow from his consciousness as he once more attempted to take that next step closer to his Lady.

More spears descended from the sky while others sprang from the ground as the two danced, focusing on each of the lurkers one by one in a relentless flurry. As the fourth fell, glittering blue flowers and crystalline vines sprouted all over them to keep up their reserves for the assault in a storm of strikes carrying Laevyeth's creeping frost that was only further augmented by a bolt of similar blue energies that shot from any spear conjuration that disappeared when Will himself consumed them for his powers.

But the brutal yet elegant dance of violence was not Will's main focus, his mind split as he attempted to mold his spirit to emulate Laevyeth's. He had longed to become a Saint of Spears for so long, but ever since he had felt his Lady, he knew that he could take this dream one step further; to become akin to the spear itself, just as his perfect partner already was. At least he hoped so with every cell of his being, because coming closer to such a state was not easy.

Yet he thought that he came a hair's breadth closer this time. If only he could… Just a little bit more…

"My Lord." Laevyeth's soft voice in his mind caused Will to wake up from his reverie, only to see the eight lurkers impaled and mostly frozen over, their auras extinguished despite their potent regeneration. He knew that he had done it, as the other half of his mind had kept up the fighting while guided by Laevyeth's input in a way that he dared claim few - if any - on this world got to experience.

"Ah, thank you, my Lady," he said softly, not even trying to hide his sense of disappointment as the experience of that next level of closeness shattered like a frail bubble.

"Thou art making progress, my Lord. As am I, I believe," Laevyeth consoled Will as he stepped upon a few more spears to dry land well away from the lurkers before his Lady manifested her looting power that turned the monsters to foul rainbow smoke. In a flash of light, Laevyeth then appeared next to him as they both sat down to meditate next to one another in the afternoon sun, hand in hand.

And as Will followed the threads of his progress and budding path, he was also confronted with another unpleasant truth that not even the intense pace of the monster surge had managed to dispel.

"I… am sorry, my Lord." Will started from his meditation at Laevyeth's words and the raw shame he felt through their touch, grasping her other hand in his as he looked intently into her shimmering eyes.

"Never apologize for your presence or being, my Lady," he fervently declared, even dropping to one knee to remain at height with her seated form.

"Never."

"But–""No. You know my thoughts on the matter. And my heart," Will continued, moving one of the outworlder's hands to his chest.

"Or do I need to run myself through on your tip for you to come close enough to see the verity of my words?"

"I… No, my Lord," Laevyeth eventually said, clearly torn between further shame and a blooming warmth of joy at Will's declaration.

"But… when wilt thou tellest Kite? And the others?"

"If I get the chance, when the surge is over," Will replied, with a sigh.

"It feels like a rather inevitable conclusion by now."

"If only I were not holding thee back…"

"Enough, please," Will chastised, but this time a lot more gently.

"It wasn't your fault that you remained imprisoned for so long, my Lady. You, stuck there on a wall like that, unable to reach for anything, least of all the heavens… I will gladly pay the price of my own progress every day until you catch up and we can continue the climb towards gold in unison. And even if having you by my side keeps slowing me down, it matters not. Together, we shall reach the heavens, and what is a few additional years compared to eternity?"

"Even if it might mean thou mayest not stand as a gold in the face of Discord and their ilk once the battle is truly joined?"

"Even so," Will confirmed.

"The battle against darkness is not just a matter of rank, my Lady. We shall still do our part, even if time bars our path to the next realm of power." The two sat in silence for a few more moments, letting their auras mingle before they rose as one. After all, they had both sensed the incoming presence closing in on their location. Rising into the air upon wings of spears, the Vanguard soon came into view as it sailed through the sky just above the treetops.

As it drew close, the sleek spear-vessel turned and opened a side hatch through which the pair entered, making their way up to the bridge and the newest companion in their adventuring life.

"My Lord, my Lady, Welcome back. I trust that your hunt was a successful one?" Dreaming Sky Minnow asked, seated in the pilot's chair with her usual prim posture. The iron ranker did not have many similarities to her great uncle Grim Snowfall, Will's former manservant and guardian. Where the older man was strict and filled with hard lines, this younger elf was all soft features that somehow seemed at odds with the proper black attire of her maid's robes.

She had still learned proper manners and etiquette very quickly, and both Will and Laevyeth remained most pleased with the resources and time invested in the young woman.

"Indeed, Minnow, things proceeded acceptably," Will said, remaining standing as he offered Laevyeth the other seat at the bridge of their vessel.

"And you? How was your hunt? As the Vanguard seems intact I assume that things went well on your end as well?"

"Yes, my Lord. Things did indeed go as planned. My conjured armaments were enough to dispatch the pack of iron-ranked beasts, even though I still dream of the day when I can finally access everything that the Vanguard has to offer. Provided you remain satisfied with my services that is."

"Of that, I have no doubt. But such things take time," Will counseled, while gesturing towards the west.

"But please now take us home to Gilded. I am sure that there are plenty of other contracts and manifestations for us to hunt down before this surge is over." Minnow did as asked, and Will still felt distinctly impressed with how well the woman had taken to being the pilot for the Vanguard. After a thorough vetting process with the help of his family, she has been determined to have both the mindset and the ambition to fit the role.

With their resources at hand, it has been a small thing to acquire the proper set of essences and let Minnow begin her training. The essences that have been gifted her were the swift, vehicle and wind, resulting in the soaring confluence. Not only had her path let Minnow interact with the vehicle in question, but it also helped her navigate its systems and supplement its capabilities in numerous ways, such as conjuring additional armaments that fired lances of condensed wind or accelerating through bursts of speed.

While the Vanguard was silver ranked, she was locked out of its own built-in options and weaponry as well as its full speed, but as Will had said before it would only be a matter of time before their budding pilot had come far enough on her path for that to be but a memory. And as for her mentality…

"Of course, my lord. Now it is time for us to soar!" The words had barely left Minnow's mouth before the Vanguard sped up, making a sharp turn before setting off towards the west like an arrow. With their silver ranked bodies it was an easy feat for Will and Laevyeth to retain their balance, even though any normal-rankers aboard would have suffered much worse.

Will could only smile to himself as he felt the iron ranker's aura come alive as the forces of the air outside and each turn seemed to course through her like a song only she could hear. Dreaming Sky Minnow had actually been called Little Minnow when they first met, but the moment Will had felt her exaltation and pure bliss as she started navigating the skies during training, he had proclaimed her new name then and there. One that their pilot had embraced wholeheartedly.

If all went well, she would only continue to soar alongside himself and the most perfect example of ladyship at his side. As Soul's fist plunged through the armored carapace of the nightmarish crab creature, she was keenly aware of every slight shift in the angles of her fingers as her hand met increasing resistance. Focusing on the minute motions, she corrected herself numerous times in the blink of an eye to further keep herself as close to her currently emulated concept as possible.

One did not simply have their body take on aspects of something so non-corporeal as a piercing ray of sunlight without the proper self-control, and her efforts were rewarded as she felt her hand speed up once more as it made its way through ichor, guts and shredded carapace. But unlike before her Self-as-Weapon-Approach had reached gold rank, her unarmed strike not only pierced, but actually burned like the rays it emulated.

The monster tore itself away from her strike with a shrill screech that caused several of the bronze-ranked guild members fighting nearby to wince before the sonic attack. Soul made several notes of how to add dealing with sensory attacks to their training regimen, but that was for later. The silver ranked monster ahead of her was a powerful one after all, and while it was not a vaunted gold-ranked opportunity she so strove towards fighting, it was still a moment of tempering not to be disregarded.

Even as she teleported behind it to continue her onslaught, its eyes - set on stalks on the top of the semi-humanoid crustacean - pivoted in an instant to track her movements and her lancing kick glowing with the light of the heavens was intercepted as a clawed appendage twisted 180 degrees to block even as its carapace took on a crystalline sheen at the point of impact.

It was futile though, as the transcendent power of Soul's strike let her foot pierce its defenses again, her Glaring Sun Style leaving behind yet another hole of smoldering flesh that kept burning into the beast. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. As such the dance continued, Soul continuously monitoring herself as well as the area around her.

Several groups of guild members fought nearby, with herself and Young Master Silver leading the bronze-rankers and dealing with the silver-ranked manifestations. Once again she found herself appreciative of the other man's presence as it let her fully focus on her task at hand in the otherwise disruptive chaos that was the monster surge.

Sure, the overwhelming number of enemies had presented a good, extended bout of tempering that forced Soul out of her habits and to work on ways to adapt her use of her styles to more efficiently take down each monster. While versatile and numerous, the forms of Self-as-Weapon-Approach did not suddenly turn her fists into area attacks.

At least not yet, but Soul did have an inkling that continuing to develop them over gold rank might give her a chance to rectify that as they already seemed to push against the constraints of what should be possible.

But even in the face of such challenges, Soul still thought that the monster surge lacked the finesse and individual pressure of a duel, compensating with quantity for a general lack of quality that simply didn't let her sink as deep into herself as she wanted; a state where every strike forging her to be better as long as she could put the proper amount of focus behind them. Still, she got a good chance to work through the Glaring Sun Style before the crab-monster fell to her.

In one way it felt like too soon, and in another she couldn't wait to find the next sense of thrill, the connection with Warrior never as close as when Soul was dancing on the edge.

"Blessed One. Immaculate form, as always," Young Master Silver noted as he appeared next to her after sensing that she was done. While the man had many habits Soul found baffling - such as the way he regarded her and the general shuddering feelings in his aura whenever she drew near - he did have both true skill with his path as well as the proper respect for tempering. Thus, he had known to not disturb her while she fought to claim the most from the opportunity.

As such, Soul gave the man the same courtesy and refrained from pointing out how his aura was once again doing that odd shuddering which implicated a lack of control, which was odd for the otherwise centered and collected warrior who used his path of wrath with such impeccable control.

"It is but one more step towards the heavens. The same holds true for the bronzes," she replied, her aura senses already having revealed the relatively stable state of the other guild members. While there were plenty of strain and injuries to be found, none were in the critical state where Soul felt the need to intervene. She would not be doing them any kindness in denying them even an ounce of tempering, after all.

As such, she sat down where she was to meditate, heedless of the carnage still going on around her or the blood and ichor which stained her form, even though the latter was less than usual thanks to her Glaring Sun Style having cauterized some of the monster's flesh. Part of her perception kept observing her surroundings, of course, but the rest turned inward to feel the mana circulating through her body as it brought strength but also something more. Something deeper.

That an essence-user became less and less a creature of ordinary anatomy was no secret, but to Soul that gradual transformation was nothing to just accept and move on. She was the weapon after all, and much like the swordmaster needed to know their blade inside and out, so did Soul need to strive towards the same.

So she let her senses follow the mana as it moved and affected her body, from restoring her strength to mending the small scrapes and bruises unavoidable in combat for one who fought unarmored up close like her. She felt the mana suffuse her and thought that she could almost see the pulses of strength and speed it brought through her special abilities that as a whole made her stronger and faster than most other essence-users of her rank.

Sure, some might have specialized powers that helped them surpass Soul in one or two areas for a time, but Soul would remain the overall pinnacle of bodily accomplishment for her rank for the rest of her life.

But that was not enough when reaching perfection, which meant that Soul also tried to guide the mana flowing through her best she could, understanding and experience helping her cultivate the progress of her path much like someone taking care of a wild stretch of strong and untamed land; pruning a bit here and encouraging growth a bit there to make for something natural that could grow even stronger than anything kept guarded in a garden.

If there was anything Soul would not let herself become, it would be a greenhouse flower incapable of thriving outside her own bubble, which was also part of why the surge had forced her to start reevaluating the monsters somewhat. Sure, they were simpler, but there was also something in how they seemed to be built for a purpose; as if everything from the shape of their forms to the mana they used followed a more distinct pattern that was less generalized than the people of the world.

One silver-ranked monster could be a lot more different from another than two essence-users of the same rank when it came to physical characteristics. Just that crab monster - Soul hadn't bothered to learn the name of its kind - had moved in a certain way… Something kept stirring in Soul's mind, her hands twitching occasionally as she imagined the vague outlines of forms and mana coursing through her body in certain way– Snap!

The air cracked, causing the nearby Silver to open his eyes from his meditations and glance toward where the fingers of Soul's outstretched hand had come together with enough force to make a sound like a small thunderclap.

"Blessed one?" he asked tentatively, that odd stir in his spirit coming over Silver again as he looked towards Soul, who in turn barely registered it this time as understanding dawned in her mind and things she had previously assumed true were redefined. Soul felt the smile creep up on her face again as the mana within her stirred into proper motion. She was strong, fast. In control.

She was the weapon, and she had just discovered a new way to look at a part of the world she had previously thought had reached the limits of its potential as a stepping stone for her. But contrary to what many might think of her, Soul loved being surprised. In battle, it forced her to the limits and to adapt on the fly, much like her Fortune-blessed encounter with the Pathbreaker. And in this regard…

"I need to go," Soul said, rising from her meditative position.

"I need to find more monsters." Before young master Silver could say anything else, she was off. She would be the weapon. She would be perfection. And now she had found an entirely new, hitherto untested aspect with which to develop herself. With a smile that would last for the rest of the day.

"Oooo…"

"Look!"

"Mom is so fast!"

"Dad will kill more monsters than her!"

"No he won't!"

"Yes he will. Dad has awesome Fists. They're huge!"

"Quiet, the two of you! If they hear us making a ruckus, they'll just chase us off the wall. Do you want to go back to the Temple compound and the little ones?"

"Noooo…."

"I thought so. I wouldn't have brought you along if I didn't feel like you could learn something. Mom and Dad are working hard to protect us and to make sure that we all have essences waiting for us."

"But I thought that Lady Fertility would give us essences if we wanted?"

"Well they would, but that's another kind of essence. Not everyone wants to be part of the church. Some want to be adventurers like Mother or Father. Some can be Crafters. Plenty of our older siblings work that path."

"I want to shoot fire!"

"I want big flying gauntlets like Dad!"

"I– Julien, please make sure that Gustave doesn't fall off the parapet."

"Ughh… Fine. What a bother."

"With an attitude like that, you'll probably end up with the salt essence."

"What? Is that even a thing?"" I don't know. It feels like there are essences for everything. Why not salt?"

"Why salt in the first place?"

"Given your lovely pre-teen attitude lately, I thought it felt fitting. But hush now. The priestess is giving us the stink eye. And we don't get monsters this close to the city outside of the surge. especially not enough for Mom and Dad to need to fight. Pay attention now, brothers and sisters. As LanCaires, this could be us one day."

"- and that we have some more manifestations here, here, and here," one of Wander's bodies pointed out with imperious decisiveness from where it sat on a map in the branch director's conference room in Convergence.

"They are mostly iron and bronze, as usual, but even though the surge is nearing its later stages we cannot grow complacent~." Hanging onto her every word was another small grouping of rat bodies who all nodded in clear agreement with everything the first said, while a few more constantly drew and redrew details on said map while chittering away amongst themselves.

Branch Director Lionel Anchali remained unperturbed by her antics, having spent most of the monster surge within this very room and receiving reports from this very adventurer. Wander could even appreciate that he almost never looked shocked or stunned by her little tirades anymore, instead simply coordinating with his aides on available groups of adventurers that soon began to be assigned to hunt down the different packs before they could come upon softer targets.

"Adventurer Wander, could we perhaps task you with taking care of these four manifestations?" The director asked, pointing out four locations on the map.

"Given the teams available we are unsure if we can reach them in time and we had better not let any remnants linger and gain momentum during such a critical time of this calamity."

"Sure, no problem!" Wander called happily." I thought you might say that, but wouldn't want anyone saying that They Who Wander is trying to steal the glory from her juniors. Just let me… there! That shouldn't take more than half an hour at most as I had to redirect part of my outer scouting bodies. Still, the area they were sniffing about hasn't seen a manifestation recently so they should be able to get back in good order."

"Again, I must commend you for your service and dedication during this crisis," Director Anchali noted.

"Given your dossier, I might have expected that you would… chafe… more at such an assignment. This kind of work doesn't lead itself very well to… what was it? Ah, yes.

'Going where I please, eating good food, peeping at most things and generally having a good time'. That was what I believe your words were upon your last debrief before the monster surge. I see that your three stars are well deserved, especially with you so readily foregoing your growth to let the younger ones have their challenges and rise through the ranks."

"Aw, Director, that's so sweet of you to say," Wander squeaked happily.

"Finally someone who appreciates me and all my hard work! As for your question; sure I love those things. But you know, I also think that it's nice that many more people can get a chance to grow around here these days. Where I came from before I got here… Let's just say that things weren't much like that. At all. Almost - What would Braid call it? - diametrically opposed, actually. Funny that, how things can change~," she finished, the director surprised to see the rat looking almost pensive and forlorn.

"Do you think that you will be staying then?" the director continued, a slight hope leaking through his aura and into his voice.

"We could always use someone of your talents working more closely with Adventure Society, much like you did up north in Gilded. And should you reach gold rank…"

"Whoa there, hold your heidels, Director. I'm taking things nice and slow here," the rat protested at the implication.

"I know how well you keep track of the golds. How am I to have any privacy and do all the things I really like with your people breathing down my neck? I mean should I reach gold, gods forbid, I'd have to be very sneaky about it. As in real sneaky. more subtle than a breeze, more silent than… silence. More… me. But seeing as I'm already in the process of looting your personal pantry in your office - great taste, by the way. I love how you've stocked up on the cheese!

- I'd say that I already got the 'me'-part pretty nailed down."