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Chapter 309: Battle of Pawns
🕑 Added 2023-11-11 17:36:00 +0000 UTCGan Salin tumbled over the ground, landing in a roll that sprang him to his feet. “Ouch!” he exclaimed. “Man, hold your feathers.”
“Shut up!”
Another row of feathers flew for him, each accelerated to resemble an arrow. Gan Salin dodged all of them, twisting his body in impossible directions. “I told you you can’t hit me!”
“And I told you to just die already!”
Fesh Wui, the eagler scion, flapped his wings over and over. Each flap conjured a storm of feathers made of wind, shooting forward at great speed. At the same time, gales pressed against Gan Salin from all sides, attempting to constrict his movement. He shouted. The wind constriction was useless because he chose to ignore it.
“How does it feel, Fesh?” he roared over the wind. “I was weaker than you once, but I’ve caught up! You wasted every resource the Kingdom poured on you!”
The two of them danced a complex waltz, shooting and dodging attacks. Salin was mostly defending and looking for an opening. He could have held his ground. Unfortunately, the eagler wasn’t his only opponent. A green sphere suddenly appeared around him, enveloping him in throbbing pain that made his limbs stretch like they were trying to grow.
“Ugh!” he exclaimed, glaring at the elef scion. “I’ll fucking get you!”
While Gan Salin was distracted by the sphere, Fesh Wui dove down, sharp claws extended. Brother Tao flashed before him, swinging his staff upward to stop him. The two clashed, and Tao flew back. Salin used that split-second of delay to extricate himself from the green sphere, twisting reality to appear behind himself and dodge the eagler’s claws.
Brother Tao rushed for the healer this time. The elef scion raised both hands, summoning a storm of green stars that flew at him. Tao zig-zagged between them, moving at extreme speed, but the closer he got, the more difficult it was to dodge. One of the stars exploded on his only shoulder, sending him spinning away.
“Damn it!” he roared.
Brother Tao was one of the strongest cultivators on Earth, but he was still a ways off from the level of Edgar, Vivi, or Petrovic—not to mention that he’d lost an arm in the final battle of the Integration Tournament. Against the scions, he was more of an annoyance than a real opponent. Gan Salin was almost fighting by himself.
Still, Brother Tao gritted his teeth and jumped back into the fray. He would do his best or die trying.
Salin clashed against the eagler, swinging his arms around like windmills, his claws flashing in the sunlight. The eagler’s own claws rained down, an uninterrupted series of attacks that forced Salin on the back foot. The wind jetted at him from random directions, ruining his balance, and any damage he inflicted on the eagler was immediately healed by the elef scion, who only used half her attention to push back Tao.
Salin gnashed his teeth. Reality warped around him, forcing one of the eagler’s claws to miss as Salin drove a sharp fingertip into his wing. Feathers burst out. A large hole was left in the wing, rendering the eagler incapable of flight, but green energy once again showered him to repair the damage. At the same time, sharp claws came down on Salin’s face, deeply grazing his cheek.
Gan Salin jumped back. He licked his lips, tasting blood. Foam dripped out of his mouth. He was hurt and getting tired, while his opponent was no worse for wear. Fesh Wui threw his head back and unleashed a mighty caw.
This battle was heavily stacked against Gan Salin. The eagler and elef could each match him by themselves, let alone together, and though Brother Tao was trying, his power was just not enough.
Damn it, Jack! he thought. Where the hell are you!?
At this point, any other cultivator of the Dao of Insanity would have turned tail and ran. The Gan Salin of a year ago would have done the same. However, things had changed since then. A new, warm light burned inside him, fueling him and cementing his resolve.
There were people behind him that he needed to protect. He was fighting alongside his friends, none of whom would give up. Therefore, how could he?
Gan Salin possessed the Dao Root of Loyalty. For his companions, he would do the right thing or die trying. More foam emerged from his mouth, his eyes grew redder. With a howl to the sky, he charged again.
Thankfully, Vanderdecken’s music still covered the concert venue, enhancing the alliance fighters. That included Gan Salin—and it also included another important fighter, Edgar Allano.
Edgar stood on an empty patch of ground, surrounded by the battling armies. Nobody seemed willing to interfere in his fight.
“Vlossana…” he muttered, savoring the name. “Doesn’t ring a bell. Why do you want to kill me?”
“Does it matter?”
“I would argue that it does.”
She snorted, furrowing her brows. “Prepare yourself,” she said. “Here I come.”
Edgar was no fool. He could tell a crazy person. He quickly summoned his defenses, raising clouds of dust and various other elements, but her attack bypassed everything to strike at his heart directly.
He felt his willpower shake. Grief and joy hit him at once, overwhelming him. He lost control of his emotions. They made no sense. Suddenly, he was amidst a laughing crowd, laughing alongside them. The joy he felt was so pure he wanted to shout out and love everyone. It filled his heart like a warm balloon. He was happy, so happy he wanted to spread the feeling around to others until the entire world was a place of love.
The scene changed. He was now on top of a hill, watching a burning estate underneath. The stench of burning flesh filled his nose. He gagged and puked, but the feeling of grief was even stronger than the disgust. He recognized neither this place nor the dead, but the emotions were overwhelming him completely. They were what the person who actually experienced this vision—the saphira girl called Vlossana—had felt at the time.
He could tell why she turned unhinged. Deep in his soul, grief and pity intertwined. It pained him that anyone had to experience things like this.
He tried to summon his magic. His Dao shone within his chest, roaring with anger, but all it achieved was to amplify the sense of grief around him. The false Dao he currently employed was one of destruction—exactly the creator of such a scene.
“You are powerless,” the woman’s voice rang, walking out of an ash cloud. “I can sense your Dao. It makes me sick. Someone like you could never comprehend what I am going through, and even if you could, your Dao would shatter and leave you helpless. Just like my family was when the Animal Kingdom attacked them.”
“I don’t understand,” Edgar said with tears in his eyes. “Why are you doing this? Why me? The Kingdom harmed you, but we are against the Kingdom!”
“You don’t need to understand,” she replied with a snort. “This isn’t about you. It’s just part of a deal I’ve made. For the power I need to exact revenge, you are the price. And besides…” Her mouth curved into an ugly sneer. “You will become a side casualty of my rise to power, just like my family was a side casualty of that man’s actions.”
“That man? Who?”
“I told you, you don’t need to know!”
An ugly torrent of emotions lashed out at Edgar and overwhelmed him, spinning him high and low like a hurricane. He was so confused that he couldn’t even muster his magic. He felt happy and sad, every conflicting emotion at once.
“Break!” he shouted, releasing his Dao without any control. The scene around him cracked and shattered like a mirror, revealing the battlefield where he and the saphira still stared into each other’s eyes; not a second had passed in the real world. He saw the pain hiding deep within her eyes. He saw the resolve. His heart—his real Dao, the Dao of Magic, and wonder, and breathless, exciting discovery—cried for her.
Most importantly, however, he felt his own exhaustion. That uncontrolled explosion of magic just now had burned over a third of his total reserves. If he got trapped again, he would be in trouble.
Edgar looked away and galvanized his magic. The elements obeyed his will. Waters rose, fire burned, the earth shook, and the wind blew. Sand and dust circled him, while a tiny star of elemental convergence blossomed before his face, slowly growing in power.
However, as the woman advanced on him, one step at a time, he felt like a child punching a wall. His powers were great but ineffective. The elements roared but were unable to approach her. He couldn’t bring himself to do it. She had infiltrated his psyche and filled him with emotions that he struggled to control. His heart protested this battle. All the doubts he’d ever harbored resurfaced, making him hate himself for even thinking to attack this pained woman instead of hugging her and whispering that everything would be okay.
At the same time, Edgar’s mind was filled with guilt over his own weakness. Everyone depended on him, but he couldn’t bring himself to attack. This woman had found his weaknesses and grabbed them tight. It didn’t matter if his Dao had changed. His heart had not. Faced with this devastated person, he just…couldn’t. The storm of destruction in his Dao raged, but it was unable to reach her, blocked by itself.
She kept approaching, menacing and cold. There was no mercy in those eyes. She would reach Edgar, kill him, and carry on her with her devastated life. Edgar’s eyes were filled with tears, choking over his own weakness.
Jack could have attacked her for sure. Vivi could have. Even the professor, or Brock, or Harambe, or Sparman. But he, Edgar, was the only one who couldn’t. His empathy was too strong. His resolve, too weak. He had sacrificed everything to help his friends, but when push came to shove, he remained just as useless as he always had been. His kindness was a crime.
Vlossana kept approaching, ready to kill.
And, hidden in the surrounding army, disguised as an E-Grade human, the echidna devil cackled to itself. “Hehehe,” it muttered. “Go on, my pawn. Reap his soul for me, and surrender yours at the same time. Fulfill the deal. Corrupt yourself. The moment he dies, both of your pure souls will be mine”—his eyes widened in ecstasy—“and I will recover to the C-Grade!”
Comments
The final paragraph lowers the stakes
Nick Nicholson
Yeah the whole plot with the devil makes no sense
