Chương 318: The darkness before our very eyes

River snarled as she whirled out of the way of yet another set of sigils that appeared on the wall before flashing incandescently into projected bursts of light intense enough to both damage and stun even one of her power. Not that these particular parts of the palace defenses were more dangerous to her than the dozens of others that had already been triggered by her target, but they cost time as well as let that woman stay just ahead of River's chains. That, and those blasted constructs.

Frustration rising inside her, River spun out of the way of the punch of a jade fist that seemed slow and sluggish to her senses, but five more kept piling in which forced her to change direction briefly as she rappelled herself upwards with another one of her chains.

When that delay meant that her quarry managed to raise another barrier in the opening of a corridor which the courtesan had turned into, that frustration finally boiled over; only River biting down hard on her tongue allowed her to keep down the shriek that - for the first time in what felt like forever - had wanted to force itself from her throat.

Two chains each yanked a construct from their feet and flung them into the barrier like projectiles before launching another barrage of strikes which kept the jade soldiers pinned to the screen of force that was quickly breaking down beneath the gold-ranked violence. All this was done through that accursed shimmering haze that had spread in the wake of the courtesan and allowed the woman to briefly - but infuriatingly frequently - shift into incorporeal smoke and stay out of reach of River's grasping chains.

Seeing those bismuth locks, that form, hearing that voice… bitter anger welled up inside her as she remembered herself as an iron-ranker, heavily injured and alone, petitioning help from a screen behind which no one was listening while her father and the people she had known all her life died.

And even though the years that followed had given River many opportunities to somewhat reevaluate many of her early lessons and experiences, even those of her father, the keen blade of that betrayal and the hopelessness that she had felt then had remained even to this day. In that moment, the fleeting whispers of her god hinted that there was probably delightfully painful reflection to be found in those thoughts, but this was not the time.

Not even her deity was more important than catching up to that fleeing form of the priestess of Discord called Ametrine. Just as the barrier broke, blades formed within the shimmering smoke to strike at River's back, and combined with the efforts of the constructs that kept piling in after her it forced River to spend another precious second sidestepping.

Worse, more constructs were coming from a side passage ahead, forcing River to run up a wall and into the adjoining room - some kind of sitting room decorated with an absurd amount of fine furniture and pillows - and just as she was about to clear the room in whirling leap, another sigil from the palace defenses lit up and knocked her down from her trajectory. By now, Ametrine was out of sight, but River could catch up if not for the heaven-cursed constructs–"Kyyyyyaaaaaahh!"

It was only when the battlecry rang out that River actually properly took note of the silver-ranked aura of Dragonfly which had been drawing steadily closer to her position, so focused had she been on her quarry alone.

The fiery woman leapt up from behind the constructs in the side-corridor, the tall ceilings allowing her empowered leap to pass above them and land just beside where River touched down, only to unleash a fiery spinning attack with her two axes, one burning bright orange while the other trailed icy blue flames instead. The spinning attack was indiscriminate, but River had already sensed the open intent in Dragonfly's aura and thus let her landing turn into a roll beneath the axe.

"Would it help if I held them here? Or– Raaaaagh! Tried?"

"Yes," was all River said as she came out of her roll and shot down the corridor where the priestess of Discord had disappeared. She might not be visible in the smoke ahead, but the woman could not escape River's aura senses.

"... You're welcome! Heavens, not even a thank you…" came the muttered reply from behind River beneath the sound of twin greataxes crushing enchanted jade and construct fists and feet meeting an armored body. To her surprise, a miniscule part of River actually acknowledged that some note of gratitude might actually have been proper in that situation, but the hunt quashed all of it even as her god chuckled at the slight twinge in her emotions that River had come to recognize as a guilty conscience.

More defenses lit up ahead, but she still charged. Her vengeance had never been as close as it was right now.

"Oh gods, it's after us! Group up with the others! Together, we might be–" The frantic call from one of the early silver-ranked guild members was interrupted when the gold-ranked undead abomination burst through a nearby building, uncaring of the lives reaped by its passing. It looked a bit like a toad the size of a wagon wrought from calcified, spiked bones, a trio of human skulls set to form a grotesque facsimile of a lone eye in the middle of its 'face'.

Its huge empty maw gaping, the creature silently bellowed out a roiling cloud of miasmic haze that created horrific illusions while slowly eating into the flesh of anyone caught within. They had heard that there might be gold-ranked undead present, but had thought that their own golds would be present to handle them. Oh how fickle the heavens had proven to be. Now, all that remained was a frantic retreat with the hopes that maybe, just maybe, they might be able to handle it if enough of them grouped up.

Because what silver could stand up to such a–"Heavenly Shaft; Darkness Penetrator!" A massive glowing image of a spear descended from the skies, much as if the sun itself had appeared from behind the overcast, gray summer skies and reached down to purge the lands below. It struck the gold-ranked undead squarely, which was rocked by the impact even though the tyranny of rank robbed the mighty blow of some of its potency.

Even so, it was enough to interrupt the toad-abomination's miasmic breath, and a hail of javelins crackling with lightning followed, and after them came a swarm of twenty one greater spears trailing frost as they struck and slowed the undead creature. And last came the lancer, the spearman who was so easily recognized by anyone in the guild.

"Young Master Indomitable!"

"The Saint of Spears is here!"

"The Lord and Lady!" The murmurs of the guild adventurers were ones of recognition and relief at the arrival of the much more experienced silver-rankers, but also of concern. While much closer to the peak of silver, Triumph of Indomitable Will was still just that; a silver-ranker.

Even so, his aura was brimming with resolve as he shifted through the air and switched places with one of his spears just as the skull-eye of the toad creature had managed to shift and locate the attacker, following it up with a mighty leap upwards to use its unholy strength and bulk as a weapon.

Will's shift left it colliding only with another of his conjured spears as he appeared beneath it, wings composed of even more images of Laevyeth sprouting from his back that shot several more spear-projectiles up into the airborne undead before he swerved out of the way of the monster's downward trajectory, only to be forced to spin and interpose the magnificent spear-form of Laevyeth in his hands to make a spinning deflection as the undead shot a potent beam of necrotic light from its lone eye.

Through some miracle of spearwork that consumed one of the stray conjured spears nearby, the beam was mostly turned aside though its gold-ranked power meant that some errant wisps of the destructive force still got through. Thus, Will's face was slightly stained with dark necrosis as he landed, brandishing Laevyeth towards the toad-creature that landed further down the street.

"The mighty may fight, but that does not leave us any less responsible for facing the darkness before our very eyes!" The bellowed words caused most of the nearby guild members to stop in their retreat, rallying somewhat even as more of the lesser undead had started emerging from between the houses. Will looked so small as he stood there on his own, surrounded by spears glowing gold and blue that floated around him. And yet, there was something there that every observer could perceive, intermingling with his aura.

Will was most decidedly not alone. Had not been since a lost one from beyond the stars had found her way to him.

"My Lady and I shall not back down! The people need protection. And darkness needs vanquishing!" the spearman continued even as the undead started swarming forward once more.

"And when this one falls, we shall find the next. And the next. And thus, we shall not stop until light once more rules this city!" Then, without waiting for any confirmation or sign that the others would follow, Triumph of Indomitable Will charged the incoming darkness even as the gold-ranked undead toad - scuffed but not decisively injured - started its own advance alongside its brethren. To the aspiring Saint of Spears, that mattered little. There was evil to vanquish and darkness to scatter.

"Grand Elder! Grand Elder! We come bearing news of the city. Our scouts say that there is turmoil in the streets, with outcasts taking on undead and other golds fighting in the skies–""Mere illusions by our foes to distract us," the imposing leonid woman replied, eyes still forlorn as she seemed to be studying a skirmish between silver-rankers further away as sect warriors fought hard for control of one of the crystals which they were supposed to claim and protect as part of the tournament.

As per the rules, golds did not interfere unless other golds took to the field, but that did not prevent them from observing and providing passive - if rule-skirting - support through their auras.

"The city is in no danger, but your brethren over there need reinforcement. I have even seen signs of the undead fighting side by side with our foes. Go and show them the might of our sect!"

"I– Yes, Grand Elder!" As the silver-ranker disappeared towards the skirmish in the distance, the fires of outrage burning bright in his eyes, he did not see the form of the leonid grand elder he recognized flicker and vanish, the illusion melting away as the person beneath moved off towards another conflict between other sects.

Keeping the gullible in line was ever part Deceit's grand masquerade of intrigue, after all, and as long as none looked too closely and noticed their part in keeping the sects occupied, the haven and place they had been promised would come to be realized before the day was over and Discord claimed their due.

"Oh. Oh no. Uhm, Sect Leader Dew? We've got a problem…~."

"Out with it then," Frost Among Morning Dew stated briefly while sliding along the frozen landscape that spread out from her thanks to her essence power, every step carrying her a lot further as she kept harrying the grand elder in front of her with the relentless barrage of strikes that was her signature.

The other woman did fight well with her shield and spear, seeming to possess a path that could build up an impressive momentum as warriors of light kept forming alongside her as she fought, but Dew's path countered her too well as the grand elder's path lost its stride in the face of the crippling cold and constant aggression.

But as Wander spoke from her shoulder, Dew made a swinging slash with an icy sword that created expanding waves of razor-sharp icicles that spread out in a semicircle from her to create some room.

"Things are barely holding on inside the city - you know, with the golds popping out of the woodwork. And we just found another one. Or, well, he seemingly found us? Creepy guy with a black staff that seems to spread some sort of wide area afflictions. Obsidian Crow could go after him, but then we would lose too much of our eyes around the city and–""Leave it to me," Dew interrupted, sending another series of sharp icicles flying towards the other gold-ranker to further keep the woman on her toes.

"We knew that this time might come sooner or later. Send the signal to my sect."

"On it! Thanks~!" With her gold-ranked hearing, Dew could pick up the word spreading, keeping the other gold-ranker at bay for a little while longer as the Fated Severance Sect started shifting. Moving. Retreating. Positions were abandoned in orderly fashion after activating some traps to make it harder for enemies to pursue them, even though most foes seemed quite pleased with this new development as they claimed the positions the sect was supposed to defend to remain in the tournament.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Warriors fell back and started moving towards the city in assigned groups along with the remaining support groups of the guild. Only when her people had gained some distance did Dew herself move, gently tossing Wander's body that had accompanied her to the side before melding into a stalagmite of ice and reappearing atop the city wall.

"Direct me, Wander–" Dew began, but then she felt it; a gold-ranked aura that announced itself clearly but without already being engaged in battle. It was a distinct contrast against the other similar duels that were fought across the city, small forms that emanated power and calamity far beyond their frames as each blow sent out shockwaves that echoed across the city, with the exception of the titanic creature of whirling dust that was somehow kept at bay by the glittering form of Glint.

Compared to those, the lone gold-ranker felt almost serene.

"Never mind. I found them."

"Wait! It's–" another of Wander's rat bodies squeaked from where it was running for all it was worth towards Dew's position, the sentence being continued by another one nearby as she appeared much closer to the other gold.

"- it's a weird one. Probably one of Plague's creeps~." That too was something Dew felt keenly upon appearing. Almost invisible, there was some kind of miasma that lay over the district where she had appeared, and even her gold-ranked body immediately felt under attack as it started afflicting her.

"This… It was long ago I last felt this sensation," Dew remarked as she felt the slight shiver of sickness through her normally so indomitable body. What was a bit odd was that the magical disease - of which there was now no doubt that it was - didn't seem to do overly much on its own beneath the slight weakening effect. In the auras of the huddling or fleeing lower-rankers nearby, Dew could feel the same.

Had it been something like a gold-ranked damaging affliction, it would have scoured most of the nearby population in seconds.

"None is beyond Plague's touch, no matter what most of the mighty would like to tell themselves," a voice called from the front yard of a nearby house, easily registering to Dew's gold-ranked senses. A quick leap sent her flying above the rooftops, landing atop a nearby house to lay eyes on this new threat.

It was a human man whose origins Dew could not place as his features seemed to have been bleached into a pallor that would have looked sickly and off on any normal person, yet which his gold-ranked body instead made seem otherworldly and intense. From his skin to his hair to his eyes; everything was different shades of pale, his long thin frame resting with easy balance in the garden even while the miasma billowed out of the house behind him.

"Which is all the more reason one should not help such a god proliferate their purview," Dew replied coldly, twin swords of ice forming in her hands.

"The monsters and other threats of this world reap enough lives as things stand. No need to make it harder for the people without the means to seize proper power."

"Ah, but that is where you are mistaken," the man replied, soft spoken with the tone of an intellectual or academic who would have been at home in any magic society branch Dew could think of.

"Chaff needs to be separated from the wheat on every layer of this world so that the strong like us can rise. Disease is but one way to find those worthy of carrying on, and thus Plague wanders the world and spreads the gift that is the survival of the fittest. Or perhaps I and those like me wander in his stead."

"Then perhaps you should have kept on walking then, rather than run the errands of Discord. Because that is what you are doing, no?"

"This is indeed but a temporary stop," the man said, nodding in pleasant agreement as if the tumult in the city around him barely registered to him.

"But not even divine Plague is beyond the occasional bargain or agreement. And once those are made, the divine does not renege. Not even Deceit from what I have heard, although any deal with them probably isn't on the terms one thinks one has made. Shall I take it that you mean to come and interfere? I had hoped that was the case, as it seems that many of my… allies? Allies around the city seem to have found the opportunity to better themselves, yet I was left without."

"And if I am not?" Dew asked even as part of her mind was focused elsewhere.

"Then I suppose I shall have to go look for more vectors to invest with the touch of divine Plague. The more powerful, the better, but I am used to making do with what serendipity provides. It–" The pale man was interrupted as diagonal blades of ice suddenly shot up from the ground in a circle around him, closing like a lamprey's teeth only for a gnarled staff of black wood to appear in the man's hand as he spun it in a circle, shattering them with speed and power that Dew found shocking.

For a moment she wondered if she was mistaken, but the man's aura did not hint of him progressing that much further into gold rank than she herself had, yet he deflected her ambush with such ease. As he did, there was a brief hint in her magical perception of something… As if he was connected to everything around him. The miasma? No… something numerous. Very numerous. The people. And that bond seemed to convey power.

Nevertheless, the die had been cast as the man smiled further while brandishing his staff in one hand while his other started tracing some kind of symbol of rot and disease in the air.

"Excellent. I–" Then the house behind him suddenly exploded outwards in a plume of splinters, debris and foul vapors as a jagged icicle the size of a small cliff pierced upwards from where it stood. The whole building was annihilated, as was what Dew suspected was spreading the miasma even though there was something else buried nearby; a shielded room whose barrier still held as it became visible like a bubble buried beneath the earth.

Probably the ritual site that the man was guarding, though Dew suspected she might find it hard to deal with herself in the near future.

"That was rather rude," the man 'tssked' as he regarded the destruction even as further essence powers started coming alive within and around his body, one being an incorporeal censer that appeared above his head which started releasing a roiling mist Dew suspected would not be very pleasant to experience.

"And your social graces were what allowed it," Dew retorted even as a frigid circle started spreading from her feet to cover the garden, streets and surrounding houses. It had been a balance in subtlety to have creeping tendrils of frost dig through the ground while they spoke, but she had been provided ample time to at least take care of one part of the problem. And now came the main event.

"Now the time for words is over." Then she dove upon the man like an avalanche, her path once more tested that day. King of the Pure Firmament swerved through the air, diving through a closing gap between barrier segments, unleashing an Omen Slice through another narrow gap that had formed between him and the Sentinel while simultaneously evading three of those projected attacks the younger man directed his way whenever he had the chance.

Or rather, it turned out to be four of them as one of them - no doubt courtesy of that half-seen sword - still hit and ripped more mana from him. Thanks to Undeniable Adversary, that cost was mostly paid with life force instead while the other powers of his flesh essence worked to replenish that which was lost.

Still, the King was feeling his reserves being ground down, and honestly had to admit to being a little impressed at how efficiently the Sentinel's path turned his mana into something all that more precious as every proper attack made would have most people sacrifice their very capacity to stay conscious with each activation. King of the Pure Firmament was not most people, however, and would not be taken down so easily.

His blows were damaging his foe faster than the Sentinel's means of healing could manage, and that was a trend that the King was trying to ensure would continue, as soon as he could manage to cut his way through this heaven-cursed mess of barriers which the man had conjured. Because not only were they hampering the King more than they did the Sentinel, but striking them risked accruing more damage down the line thanks to the retributive affliction. And, as it turned out, even their mere presence was a hazard.

WWJS: Congratulations! Your power [Spiritual Reprisal] has reached Gold 0. [Spiritual Reprisal] has gained additional effects. - Spiritual futility (Wisp) - Special ability (Mana drain). Cost: None. Cooldown: None. Current rank: Gold 0 Effect - Iron: Opponents who make a melee strike against or come into contact with your barriers have some of their mana drained. The drain is continual if the opponent remains in contact with the barrier.

Effect - Bronze: Mana drain ramps up when an enemy has extended contact with the barrier. The rate of drain is gradually reduced back toward initial values during moments not in contact with a barrier. Effect - Silver: The mana drain triggers from ranged attacks as well, as long as they are made from within short enough range. Any magical attack striking your barriers without breaking it will have some of its magic absorbed, replenishing some of the barrier's integrity over time.

Effect - Gold: The mana drain from this power is increased for every affliction which the target is already suffering, and every enemy within close range of one of your barriers will start accumulating instances of the [Reactive Mana] affliction. [Reactive Mana] (Magic, affliction, stacking): The next instance of mana drain suffered by the afflicted is increased for each stack of this affliction, which are then consumed.

This increase is flat for each stack, but will suffer diminishing returns after a threshold has been reached. If the King struck the barriers, he would lose mana. If he chose to instead spend more time navigating his way forward, he would accrue another blasted affliction that would drain his mana even more the next time one of the Sentinel's many effects triggered it. What a path indeed.

Had this been a mere duel for tempering, the King might even have felt a bit elated, but any such joy was now tainted by fear of how Ametrine was faring and the lingering hurt of all these secrets and allegiances that had reached beyond what he had ever imagined. He had entertained this ploy of his opponent enough. When there was no optimal option, his blade would at least let him carve a direct one.

With a decisive warcry, King of the Pure Firmament shifted around in the air and guided his flying artifact - a pair of anklets which projected sigils of flight around his lower legs - to take him straight towards his foe. Consuming several more swords of his array in quick succession, each barrier that stood in the King's way was carved through, the costs be damned.

Adaptive Spectrum Strike along with the ongoing boon of Undeniable Adversary let him add plenty of disruptive force damage to cleave through the panes of force as if they were but paper, and even as the King faintly felt how much mana and life force the detonating afflictions were costing him, the surge of triumph he felt when his sword instead met the metal of the man's staff overshadowed all else.

Utilizing his superior speed, the King dodged and swerved around the strikes that came from the spectral arms while cutting two of them asunder in the process. The next slash, which projected into several omens of impending death to confound, was still interrupted however, as one of the Sentinel's smaller barriers was raised with a word; its central sigil somehow stopping the King's blade dead even as it had carved through the rest of the shield with relative ease.

However, this still left the point of the King's blade pointing straight at the Sentinel, and that was when he unleashed another of the powers of his omen essence.

"Gathered Misfortune Pierces the Heart!" Over the course of the fight, that particular power had amassed a growing pool of destructive omens that had only waited to be unleashed, and now was indeed the time. The tip of the blade lit up before blasting out an intense beam of silvery light.

It had the rough diameter of a grown man's arm, and while the Sentinel just managed to swerve to the side and avoid catching the beam in his face, the King still managed to angle his blade in the last second to let the unleashed power punch a large hole straight through the other man's chest.

It was the type of injury that even a gold-ranker would feel keenly - not to speak of what would happen if a silver-ranker or lower suffered the same fate - and it was only belatedly that the Sentinel managed to swipe a white jade blade through the beam and cut it off with his powers. At the same time, some kind of retributive force sent the King flying back through the air out among the barriers that were flowing in towards him.

But before he could start carving them through once more, the chiming staff appeared in the Sentinel's hand and swung, but not at the King directly. The ringed head of the weapon impacted a nearby stray piece of barrier, and a surge of mana followed as this seemed to trigger some kind of chain reaction. All of the barrier panes in the room - which were still as numerous as they were annoying - detonated at once, sending out directed waves of retributive force.

And as the King was right in the middle of most of them, this meant that the world around him was consumed by the sudden blur as the surroundings disappeared, so intense was the gathered calamity.

"No you will not. Aegis of the Mirror Guard!"

"There. Retreat for now and let the potion work," Fantina LanCaire said calmly, patting the stunned bronze-ranker on the head with one tentacle while calmly continuing to fire arrows into the small pitched battle taking place not far from them where three guild teams were pushing into a small plaza which the undead forces seemed unwilling to retreat from. While they were making progress and fighting most valiantly, Fantina couldn't shake the feeling of how young they all seemed, much like many others in the guild.

Even the fellow members of the Elevenfold Unity, competent as they may be as some had far surpassed her in power already, still gave rise to the feeling inside her that she felt when listening to the bold claims of her late teenage children; that some people either wanted or needed to grow up much quicker than was reasonable. That lost girl of Pain was a most prime example, and Fantina couldn't help but wonder where River was in all this mayhem. She– BOOOM!

The Heavenly Stairway - the towering stepped mountain in the middle of Heavenward whose districts housed the city's rich and affluent - was visible from everywhere in the city. That was doubly true for the palace at its top, home to the King and his court. The palace whose main tower - which was rumored to host the tiered throne room and its balconies all throughout its height - had just exploded outwards in a detonation of epic proportions.

None battling beneath could miss the sudden display of force, even though the palace arrays turned it into a rather odd spectacle as the pieces of debris were mostly caught and suspended before they could be projected out into the city below.

This also let a new pair of auras - both battered and slightly unstable - wash out over the city through the no doubt great cracks in said arrays, and Fantina's heart sank a bit further as she recognized one of them belonging to one of the miniscule forms that could be detected doing battle inside the calamity that had just been unleashed. Perhaps Kite was as lost as River, just in another way.

Fertility and Fortune be willing, they would both survive this day so that she could sit that boy down for a proper talk about what kind of messes one was supposed to be willing to be swept up in.