Chương 289: Glimpses of a surge V

"- and once we're there, make sure to intercept the original contract and change it to our assigned one. This should neatly put the students of the sects on a collision course."

"I see. It seems that our allies are keeping up the pressure. That is good."

"I don't know… It still irks me to essentially take orders from anyone outside the church."

"Keep Deceit in your heart, sister. As always things are moving towards our ends even though we are playing the pawns here. The haven promised by Discord for us and others of the powers in the shadows is worth enough to have the upper echelons invest quite a lot in their success. Can you just imagine moving around a kingdom governed by strife? Our services will be in the highest of demands as people are allowed to unshackle themselves and truly grasp for power.

But alas, the time for us to move out draws near and- wait, wha-" The masked acolyte of Deceit did not have the time to say more as both he and his silver-ranked sister were forced to dive to the side as a mass of barbed chains suddenly erupted among them from thin air like a rattling fireworks display.

But where his own shifting teleport was fast enough, the phasing dodge of his sister in Deceit was not, her leg tangled in the grasping chains that immediately flashed with red-purple lightning that had her scream in agony.

Torn between the instincts to fight or flee, the acolyte had just decided upon the former when three more silver-ranked auras appeared just as their ambusher also faded into view; a lone figure with a mask of smoky glass while the other three had more conventional cloth wrapped around their faces to hide their features.

"Go. We'll take it from here. The cause must thrive," one of the masked trio said, the acolyte recognizing the touch of Discord upon the briefly revealed glimpse of the man's aura. During this brief exchange, the acolyte's fellow sister in Deceit had already been dragged out of sight by the chains that seemed to move with incredible accuracy and determination even while their conjurer started circling to account for the new aggressors.

As he was but a bronze-ranker himself, the acolyte was forced to chalk up his sister as lost, and could only swear vengeance in his heart towards the silver-ranker with the chains and mask while he started running off for all that he was worth while the three agents of Discord descended upon their target who met them accompanied only by the rattle of more chains.

Turning a corner in the otherwise empty building complex - an empty front often used as a staging ground for those in support of Discord's cause - the acolyte was just about to shroud himself in the shifting lies of his god when another masked man suddenly turned a corner just in front of him. Seeing as the man's clothes of stark whites and blacks weren't anything the acolyte recognized, his instincts took over as he conjured a nebulous spear and thrust in one well-practiced motion.

Only too late did he feel a wisp of his target's silver-ranked aura, but not only was it too late to abort the strike but the man also made no attempt to move out of the way. That was why the acolyte, much to his own surprise, found his spear striking true in the man's chest. However, elation never had the time to register as the spearhead instead seemed to suddenly punch through a previously invisible pane of glass only to never emerge on the other side.

For a moment, swirling runes flashed behind the man in a way that gave the impression of a pair of scales suddenly tilting abruptly to one side before the acolyte wheezed a bloody cough as an intense pain blossomed in his own chest as if he had been rammed through by a blade. Or perhaps a spear? To make things worse, the runes then burst into an intense wave of force that threw the acolyte back across the whole corridor, sending him tumbling before the silver-ranker who had never broken stride.

"It is my shame to strike downwards, but this is fast turning into a war of shadows rather than any kind of honorable clash," the man murmured as he passed the acolyte, leaning down to snap a suppression collar around his neck before he could fully come to from the powerful retributive blasts that had impacted him. Laying dazed on his side, he could only see parts of the room beyond where chains spun and lashed everywhere while other darker shapes moved swiftly back and forth.

The newcomer threw himself into the madness, and over the next few minutes the still wheezing acolyte could only see glimpses of the fight within. A flash of a flaming blade. The murmur of spell chants. Mirrors cracking and fate - no… Karma? It had to be karma. - shifting. Chains growing barbs before turning into a blur of motion. Blood splattering the walls. So much. Then silence for a few moments, broken by a woman's voice.

"I do not need your assistance, Champion." It was flat and harsh, but also carried a grudging respect.

"Perhaps not, Bright Day, but it was still decided," the man in black and white replied, voice recognizable to the acolyte from before.

"One of them got away."

"And two have fallen to our paths. A more than fair exchange in our favor. The director and my Sect Leader will be pleased."

"..."

"You have also continued to improve, Bright Day. Gold rank will surely be within your reach one day."

"..."

"Have it your way then. My courtesy will remain. You may be of questionable faith, but I can understand the choice to keep you close. I shall take my leave now. The bronze-ranker who fled lies collared in the hallway." It was only then that the acolyte realized that they were speaking of him, but before he could try and reclaim his feet, his ears were suddenly filled with the rattling of chains and after that, his senses knew only agony.

"Well, Little Beauty… There are a lot of them. Are you ready?" Kite murmured as his armor flashed into existence around his body, the odd metal from which it was wrought leaving it a comfortable weight rather than cumbersome one. The arms of his mantle came with it, already in motion as the wavy-edged lesser copies of Matra started appearing in the spectral hands to send projected attacks into the slathering mass of monsters.

"A proper young mistress is ready for anything, and as such I shall keep striving towards that ideal," Glint remarked calmly as she floated near Kite's side. Her spell-focusing chakram had already started rotating above one of her hands as the first of her globes of water appeared to engulf the lead group of beasts, more shimmering into being as they spoke.

The pair stood alone on the floor of a ravine, the last of the rainbow lights of the recent manifestation ahead of them having all but disappeared after finally disgorging its contents. Kite did not know the name of the monsters, but there was an impressive number of dog-sized creatures each with two pairs of multi-jointed legs and huge slathering maws which spoke volumes as to their aggression.

And given the brightly colored spittle leaving vile trails along the ravine floor and walls, Kite wouldn't bet against someone claiming that the bite would leave something nasty behind.

At the same time as Glint's third globe of water came into being to restrain even more of the beasts, Kite let Starfall drop into his hands before projecting a massive swing into the now densely clumped up monsters, trusting that he was far enough from the mines further away whose occupants - who had barricaded themselves inside to weather the surge - were being led away by some of the bronze-ranked guild members. He wouldn't want to rupture any eardrums unnecessarily, after all.

The caught monsters were left as helpless targets for the powerful force and rippling lightning of the swing, the stone of the ravine's cliff sides shredded to shrapnel in a wide sphere while the monsters were scattered as they were launched back from whence they came. The monsters were silver-rank though, and they were many, meaning that even this rather impressive initial assault barely slowed down the horde as a whole as the rest kept on pushing.

Glint's sphere kept restraining and the arms of Kite's mantle kept up their frantic pace, but it was clear that he would need more measures to buy the time needed.

"Sage, if you please! Wall!" Lending the familiar a charge from Potential of Stolen Power, the customary beam from the astral gatherer was replaced with a shower of gleaming motes that sent rippling explosions cascading into the horde once more, meaning that the charge of the beasts was a lot more broken up once it reached Kite.

Taking a note from Scythe's book, Kite had used Leyline Warding to conjure a pair of barrier walls that reached from his flanks and out to the cliff wall, with plenty of reserve panes hovering behind him to plug any gaps. But instead of making a solid barrier, he had also left himself a gap where he could easily maneuver and that left the monsters able to reach him. And given the ferocity with which they threw themselves at the seemingly weak point of the barriers, the tactic seemed to initially be working.

One pair of maws were caught upon the discs of Heaven-and-Void Warding, Kite retaliating before using his barriers to shove the beasts back into the oncoming others, causing those charging in from behind to stumble upon their siblings. A beam from Sage pierced the body of one of the fallen ones, leaving it incapacitated on the ground, while more of Glint's restraining and draining spheres of water caught a few others.

Kite stepped forward into the charge of yet another, meeting the fangs with Tower of the Unspeaking Chime while Matra itself appeared in his other hand. Nothingness flashed and monster flesh parted, another taking its place and managing to bite onto Kite's arm only to have the impact siphoned off into a watery double following Kite like a shadow before another beam from Sage sent it tumbling.

Finding a rhythm with his familiars, Kite felt an odd sense of balance in the tumultuous situation; constant pressure met by his own resolve despite his somewhat tenuous position in the ravine. He was the shield for the people behind him, but more than that, he could also direct the flow. Being the barrier was not just a matter of keeping everything out, but of choosing what and when to repel and what to let close in order to bring about its doom.

It was control, and Kite sharpened his mind to the utmost of his capabilities to keep as firm a grip on that thread as he possibly could. The monsters surged forward but were shoved back by a surge of mana and unrelenting barriers. The monsters tried climbing above, only to be shot down by the occasional beam from Sage as the constant push and flow of mana made the familiar brim with gathered power.

The monsters managed to bite into him, but the damage was mostly undone by the strength of Kite's armor and the damage transferred by Glint. Even so, the press was simply too much to simply stand firm, especially given the lack of more readily available destruction in Kite's path. Step by step, ground was yielded, but he still managed to retain a sense of balance.

The flow was still his, but there was a growing concern as the roiling battle drew ever closer to the still evacuating stream of people behind him, many distracted by the churning tide of monsters a mere two dozen steps away. The constant stream of monsters also meant that Glint's own karmic breath would be of little use without more potent attacks to draw upon, and Kite was desperately starting to consider other more unconventional - and risky - options when a familiar aura entered his detection range.

"Oh thank the gods," he murmured, shifting his stance and holding nothing back. Another empowered blast from Sage was joined by Starfall's burst of destruction followed by Glint making a risky charge as she transformed to her larger form before bodily plowing into the mass of monsters to push them further back as Kite joined in for a massive shove with his own barriers even though the mana cost of that was prohibitive even for him with a swarm of monsters nearby.

However, this also carried the conflict a few more paces away from the retreating normal-rankers, which was vital as it allowed Dragonfly to really cut loose as she descended from the top of the ravine like a heavenly meteor.

"Kyyyyyaaaaah!" Her first spinning slice detonated outward in a roiling explosion which fortunately only lightly singed Kite thanks to the paired enchantment of her axe and his spear. Monsters were violently blown against the walls, leaving room for Kite's wife to transition into a double spinning attack where two axes - one held and one animated - left twin trails of destruction carrying both normal flame and the frostfire available thanks to Dragonfly's artifact amulet.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. As the monsters were already battered and bruised, this turned the ravine into a place of churning destruction that cleaned up the horde of monsters in short order and accomplished in a mere two minutes what Kite had been unable to do in ten.

"Thank you, dear wife. Your intervention was beyond timely," Kite called, relieved as the slaughter started abating.

"And you, my husband, held out better than expected," Dragonfly replied with a smile that was equally impressive and relieved.

"We knew it might be a challenge sending you up alone while I cleared out the other manifestation, but it was a gamble that paid off well in terms of lives saved."

"Reaching gold rank might have its… peculiarities… but I do believe that pushing oneself to the limits is still also required. It was… enlightening, in a sense, but I'm mostly glad that I held out for the evacuation to finish. At least things should start getting a bit less hectic now that the surge is starting to wind down," Kite said as he joined Dragonfly and Glint in taking up the rear of the last normal-rankers escorted from the failing protections of the mine.

Neither needed to point out that it was odd for people to be holed up in a mine at all during something as drastic as the surge, indicating that there was something shady going on there. But given that none of the people in front of them seemed to have been chained down or otherwise injured, neither Kite nor Dragonfly felt the need to probe further at the moment. Their reports to the Adventure Society should be enough for someone to properly look into it in the future.

Probably even some of their own more investigative fellow guild members, who were fast beginning to provide the guild with an impressive information network. Instead, as soon as the last of the people from the mine had joined the greater escort back towards the surge fortress, Glint carried Kite and Dragonfly up above the treetops in search of more manifestations they could sweep.

The surge might indeed be winding down somewhat, but that did not make the sudden packs of silvers roaming in territories where they would not usually manifest like that any less dangerous. There was still plenty of work to be done. Flashes. Flames. Screeching. Blood. She had to get closer. Had to do something. Cast a spell, that was it! But what was the incantation? Her mouth felt like it was made of lead and stuffed with cotton. More blood flowed every moment and she was just so slow. Too slow.

The shadows came closer. Her sun? Where was it? She- Sprite awoke abruptly to twin sensations of sudden warmth that both contrasted against the cold sweat that drenched her whole body. The first was from her own little sun that hovered above her and spread its warm glow across the bunk beds built into the stone walls of the surge fortresses barracks room. But the other…

"Teacher?" Sprite muttered a bit confused as she recognized the feeling of a warm hand atop her head, stroking gently.

"Sorry to disturb you, Student. I just felt your distress and wanted to help," Dragonfly said softly in an attempt to not wake the other sleeping lower rankers in the room, although her aura senses already told her that she had failed in some cases.

"Come. Join me for some fresh air?" Sprite only managed a nod, heaving herself out of the bed and into the cool night air of early autumn. The courtyard of the fortress was equally full of tents and people simply bunking in bedrolls beneath the open sky, as the surge fortress had gradually been more and more filled to bursting as the defenses of other holdouts and settlements had failed. Sprite had been part of some of those evacuations herself, and knew that there were certainly others that didn't fare so well.

That blood in her dreams…

"Nightmares?" Dragonfly asked softly as they reached the top of the wall, finding a relatively private section away from the sentries. At least the normal rankers below didn't have magically augmented hearing.

"I… yes, Teacher," Sprite admitted, knowing that the older woman would know any attempt at lying for what it was. Besides, given Dragonfly's aura senses she could probably gain a better picture of Sprite's emotion than she herself had, another terrifying thought which she had been forced to come to terms with while living among more powerful essence-users.

"I figured. You're thrown into this so early… Sure, it might be a boon of sorts as your time in iron rank will be extremely short. But on the other hand…" Dragonfly sighed.

"You've already had to grow up fast, Sprite. And now you did again. I at least had a few years to get used to the violence and death… At least as used to it as you can ever be without growing completely jaded." Sprite could only nod mutely, the shivers creeping up her spine as her hands started shaking slightly again. Blessedly enough, both of her temporary teammates still lived, with Opal - the leonid acolyte of Warrior - even having reached bronze rank the week prior.

But Sprite had seen others fall, both people with might and people without. All that killing, all that violence… Wait, what if–"I can handle it, Teacher. I remain in control– " she began, but Dragonfly quickly shushed her with a firm but gentle nudge of her aura.

"Peace, Student," she said, sounding a lot like her husband in that moment.

"I know that you are. You're strained and exhausted, perhaps not in body but definitely in spirit as you've been forced to undergo this baptism of fire. But I've so far never felt that you were on the verge of breaking. Heavens, in some ways I do envy you. Had I been old enough to be an iron-ranker myself back when… Back when my sister died, then at least a few more might have survived. You get to fight, even though it costs you. So please be at peace, Sprite."

Her teacher's words made Sprite feel all warm inside to an extent that she forgot the chill of the night air. Before she knew what she was doing and her rational mind - or at least the part with some dignity - had gotten the chance to stop her, Sprite let her head slump to the side to lean against the shoulder of Dragonfly who sat beside her with their backs against the hard stone wall of the battlement.

Part of her screamed to straighten herself, but that part was drowned out by the emotions that came welling up like one of the geysers even further north than the Autumn Lands. For as long as she could remember, Sprite hadn't been one to cry often, and she couldn't say that she enjoyed shaking with sobs and sniveling very much.

But there was something there towards the end, when the feelings of stress and distress had gradually mellowed into ones of exhaustion while Dragonfly's shoulder still felt warm and comforting.

"Sounded like a good cry. You might need more of those after the surge is done and things start to settle," Sprite's teacher said softly.

"Want to talk about it?" Sprite considered the question, but soon shook her head. The thought of having cried in front of Dragonfly was mortifying enough that she doubted she would be able to find the words.

"Okay. Then we're going to go for the second best in my opinion; meditation," the older woman said as she adjusted herself to sit in front of Sprite instead of to her side.

"Come, join me and follow my instructions. But before that… Take a long look at the people below." Curious and happy for a distraction, Sprite did just that, sweeping her eyes across the crowd of mostly sleeping people below while her aura senses likewise reached out. They too were exhausted, but also asleep to a surprising degree. Given what some of these people had seen, Sprite would have expected many more of them to be tossing and turning in their bedrolls.

"You've done something very important for many of these people, Sprite," Dragonfly continued.

"I don't say this to make you forget those that we've lost, but it is important to consider both parts of the scales. Things can be bad, but that doesn't necessarily take away the good. Keep that in mind now as you let go of the more conscious world and turn your focus inward. We still have a little longer of the surge to go before things calm down in earnest."

"Mistress Sessante," Cala said while giving her fellow gold-ranker a proper bow after stepping into Altessia's personal quarters in their hidden little enclave. Altessia noted the gesture with some amusement as it looked like her subordinate had already picked up a few habits from the locals after arriving in Hua-Xi, but said nothing as she turned to the younger gold-ranker from the report she had been reading.

"Am I to assume that this surge has officially been declared over?" Altessia asked, getting a nod in response from Cala.

"Just so, Mistress. The local director of the Adventure Society just made the statement."

"I see. A shame that it is over, in a way, but I feel that our efforts have paid off during the time of turmoil."

"Except for my shortcomings," Cala lamented.

"That Obsidian Crow…"

"Is not that important in the grand scheme of things as long as he is kept out of the capital," Altessia rebuked.

"He is a gold-ranker antagonistic to our cause and therefore not one to be underestimated, but you've kept him on edge, Cala. That should suffice for now."

"And the interloper here in the capital? The one with the chains? Should I deal with her instead, now that the surge is over?"

"Given the nuisance she's become, it would be tempting. But I fear that her presence is in part a trap," Altessia mused.

"She's good for a silver and is definitely doing real damage to our cause. But the local powers that are onto us aren't stupid, unfortunately, and as such I doubt they would use a lone silver agent against us so brazenly without any kind of hidden support. You, Cala, are a much more important piece to us in the long term, and will be used as such. And speaking of which, I have another assignment for you personally."

"I stand ready to grow Discord's garden, Mistress Sessante," Cala replied, standing straighter.

"I know you do," Altessia replied with a smile.

"You will be sent out to assassinate a few other silvers around the sects of the heartlands; ones that are much less likely to be bait. Our efforts during the surge have so far paid off, with plenty of strife remaining after the sects have started acting out against each other on a wider scale. Honestly, I will have to once again commend the locals. Managing to shape a culture to be so individualistic while concentrating a lot of the communal power to hierarchical and prideful organizations competing for resources…

It is a great foundation for what we are attempting."

"One they almost ruined with their lacking competence during these last few years…" Cala muttered, causing Altessia to smile somewhat.

"And that, Cala, is indeed why I was sent to oversee this final part of the project. We need to keep containing the damage from the recent failings while keeping up the pressure on the sects. They shall remain the key to our success. But speaking of the locals, they aren't all as lacking in competence as some. I would suggest that you coordinate with Ametrine before this project, as her personal information from her position in the palace keeps a good grasp of the important sects and their students.

She might be a tad too careful in her approach, but there is value to her efforts too." Cala looked a bit doubtful at the prospect, but nonetheless nodded in acquiescence to her superior.

"Then I shall do that, Mistress Sessante. With the surge over, we shall have an easier time moving. May Discord's garden grow and thrive."

"May Discord's garden grow and thrive," Altessia agreed even as Cala left her quarters. With herself at the head, there was still time to right this ship that had almost gone astray. She just needed to keep making some adjustments to their approach and keep pushing. With the ritual to form the domain just a few years away, they could not be left stagnant and careful. A new haven for Discord and their allies would soon enter the stage of the region, after all, and they would show the rest their strength.

Kite felt weary as he stepped out into the slightly crisp autumn air. Not in body, with his peak silver rank form rarely feeling fatigued unless he was exerting himself to the limit, but in spirit. Even so, Kite let the feeling linger rather than trying to wash it away with thought or effort. Loss was not something one could simply push through, after all.

"Little Kite. It was a good speech you gave," Uncle Walker said as he joined his erstwhile protegé in the fresh air of the temple district of Convergence, before glancing over his shoulder at the building from which they had emerged.

"But gods be willing, I won't have to set foot in this temple again anytime soon. No offense meant, honored Death." Death's temple in Convergence was - to no one's surprise - a somber affair.

Built from dark woods in a style more antique than most of the rest of the city, the complex had plenty of space for the people to bring their dead for the final rites and ceremonies and plenty of small inner gardens and courtyards from which the smoke of funeral pyres and incense still rose thickly as the monster surge remained keenly felt even though the disaster itself had just been declared officially over.

This still meant plenty of work for the adventurers and warriors of the kingdom as monsters didn't suddenly stop manifesting even as plenty of packs from the surge still lingered, but it was at least a time to properly draw breath after the intense pressure for survival going on across the whole world. Kite turned and followed Walker's gaze, nodding.

"Thank you, Uncle. It was hard though, managing to work something in for each and every one of them. With how big the guild has grown, I always knew to expect losses during a surge. And I know that twenty is honestly a low number in the grand scheme of things, but still… I knew most of them to differing degrees, Uncle. Many trained beneath Soul, and I have personally been part of some of their instruction. And yet…

It shames me to admit that I am simultaneously relieved that those lost were not among my family or closest ones."

"Oh, I know, little Kite. Heavens, do I know," Uncle Walker sighed with him, squeezing Spring's hand as she joined him, her doe eyes still slightly red from tears. Seeing his wandering uncle find such comfort at Spring's touch - now his betrothed, after years of determined pursuit - did bring a spark of warmth to Kite's spirit on the otherwise bleak day.

"Both Spring and I knew them well, which is only more the reason why words failed me. Gods, sometimes I just long for the roads again. Those were simpler times, with less people to worry for and grieve but…" he said, drawing Spring a bit closer.

"I suppose that my current life has its perks too. After all, having plenty of people around also brings reason to celebrate. How many rank-up feasts did we have scheduled again, dear?"

"Enough to force us to simply turn it into a grand feast for them all instead," Spring replied, wiping away the last moisture from her eyes as focusing on something more structured helped her center herself.

"You'll be there, won't you, Kite?"

"Of course," Kite readily agreed.

"We have a few more sweeps of our assigned territory left, but should be able to make it. It will be a good time to announce all the new additions to the guild's merit exchange too. As during the last surge, between Sage and my power, there have been riches to be found in the midst of the calamity. But I might as well warn you now, Uncle; after things calm down somewhat after the surge, I might need to widen my experiences a bit more than I first thought, and thus might be away for longer."

"Oh? What sparked this sudden wanderlust even in the midst of the conflict with a certain unpleasant church and their deity?"

"A conversation with Obsidian Crow pertaining to that very topic," Kite answered, truthful if a bit vague.

"There are certain… matters where I find myself in dire need of new perspectives. But we can speak more of that later. For now, let us focus on getting through this last stretch of mourning and celebration both."