The world flashed white. Deafening thunder struck just paces away, leaving ringing ears and a sizzling, scorched earth behind. The sky had turned nearly black, and the Ash fell almost as heavily as it did in its nasake realm. All that was missing was the overwhelming prana of that blighted realm.
I want you two to retreat to a safe distance, Vir said in a tone that left no room for dissent.
Were not following you in? Lagen asked. Not like I want to run headlong into whatever it is thats in there, but, well No demon should have to deal with those foes alone. No matter how strong they may be.
Vir squeezed the demons shoulder. Thank you. Truly. Ill be alright. We cant risk stray beasts attacking the Ashva, and since my arts allow to move quickly, I can ferry the armant to you. Just have them strapped and ready to go. I dont want to linger in this place any longer than absolutely necessary.
That makes two of us. May Vera be with you, Neel, Lagen said. Gunin nodded his sentints, already marshalling the Ashva away.
Vir had hoped the city wasnt so far gone. Itd been a fools hope. With half the city enveloped by the shimring Ash Boundary, the condition was dire, and certainly no place for Ashva.
After seeing the two off, Vir turned his attention to infiltration. With no eyes on him any longer, there was no need to restrict his powers. Even so, hed be lying if he said Praya Parul didnt scare him just a bit. Logically, the beasts that lurked within wouldnt hold a candle to the hordes hed fought deep inside the Ash. Let alone the Wyrm hed taken down with Ashanis help.
And yet, as he gazed up at Praya Paruls tall, sturdy wallsnow stained black with Ashhe wondered just what lurked inside. That the city was such a trove of weapons and armor spoke to the chaos that must have ensued when its citizens fled the city. This was a place of death. More a mausoleum than a proper city.
Lightning struck and Virs ears rank with the boom of thunder, as if the skies confird his thoughts.
Vir pushed aside the thought and cycled Prana Current to its maximum, condensing the layer of Ash Prana that surrounded his skin. Then he Leaped over the walls, intent on honoring his words to Lagen and Gunin; theyd linger here not one mont longer than was absolutely necessary.
Would it kill you to speak to ? Gunin asked. The first ti his words went unanswered by Lagen, hed assud the Gargan simply hadnt heard him. The second ti, he wasnt so sure. After being ignored thrice, it didnt take his sisters prodigal talent to understand that he was being ignored.
Normally, Gunin wouldve liked nothing betterhed always preferred to keep to himself, even as a boy. Instead of confronting the demon, hed rather have spent hours agonizing about whether Lagen hated him, coming up with a myriad of responses, and never acting on them. Just that guiding a dozen Ashva, unfortunately, required them to work together. To say nothing of riled up beasts that needed to be pacified. These were gentle creatures, unused to being surrounded by such danger.
You are not the only ones Gunin stole a glance at the shimring Ash boundary that bisected Praya Parul just a few hundred paces away. A permanent reminder of the danger they were all in by rely being there.
I see no need to speak to the enemy, ca Lagens curt reply.
Gunin stiffened. Because I am a kothi, he said.
Dont feign innocence. You know well what I think of your kind, Lagen said. There was genuine loathing in his eyes. Hatred restrained only by the thinnest veneer of self-control.
Hell kill if he gets a chance, Gunin thought, nearly taking an involuntary half-step back. Gunin stopped himself. He isnt the only one with such feelings.
Youre all the sa, Gunin said, panic rising in his chest even as he uttered the words. What are you doing? Hell kill you! You think you were the only ones who lost sothing in that war?
Lagen turned slowly, his jaw flexing. That action, more than his flared nostrils, or the hand that went to his talwars poml, spoke more about just how close Gunin was to receiving a blade to the throat.
This was not his elent, and Gunin feared hed made a grave mistake.
You would lecture about loss? You, who invaded our land? Who enslaved my people? Lagens voice rose as he closed the distance. Barely a pace remained between the two now.
You dare claim that we were at fault for protecting ourselves?
This ti, Gunin did step back.
Lagen stopped. He drew in a long, slow breath. You know? he said with a wry laugh. Id agonized over what I was about to do. Over what had to be done when I had the chance to kill one of you.
The anger had left Lagen. He seed more composed nowhis tone even.
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So why am I shaking?
I must thank you for making the decision easy. Lagen unsheathed his talwar slowly. Golden Gargan tattoos flared to live around his exposed arms. I will rest better at night, knowing one less of your kind draws breath.
This is it, Gunin said, readying his own tattoos, knowing fully well it was a futile gesture. If he could defend himself worth a damn, his family would never have banished him in the first place. Hed never have been sold as a common slave. Him. Heir to his noble family after his prodigal sisters death. After the Gargans had murdered her.
Well, dear sister. It seems I will be joining you shortly.
It was neither Lagens rcy nor Gunins own battle prowess that saved him. It was a howl and a shriek. A terrible, otherworldly scream.
The Ash Beasts had arrived.
Only monts after entering the city, Vir realized sothing was off.
As he bounded from rampart to roof to spire, hed encountered nothing but a city being progressively buried with Ash. Whatever chanism prevented its buildup within the Ashen Realm seed to be absent here, and the streets were covered in it.
While that complicated Virs task, it was the Ash Beasts that worried him.
Forget being attacked0hed spotted not even a single one. Not one solitary beast roaming the soot or digging around for scraps.
Then where did those shrieks co from? Vir wondered. Rather than relief, his worry deepened. This was not normal behavior for Ash Beasts.
He pressed deeper into the city. It was clear from the first mont that the Chitrans old capital was a far cry from Samar Patags squalor. Even abandoned and ravaged by the ash, Vir could easily imagine its forr splendor. Enormous monkey statues standing in heroic poses lined the streets and served as gateways to thoroughfares.
The roads were wide, and the buildings tall. Taller than Vir would have expected. The shorter ones had been buried under the Ash, of course, though Vir felt those couldnt have been more than a tiny minority. Almost every building in the city soared six or seven stories into the air, with bridges and catwalks often stretching between their upper floors, making for a sort of elevated road network.
Did they put those up in response to the ash? Vir wondered. If so, it sounded like the encroaching Boundary had been far greater of an issue than Vir had given them credit for.
Why did you ignore their plight? Vir asked his late father, Raja Maion of Garga. Maybe things wouldnt have unfolded the way they did if you had Maybe you wouldnt have had to die.
Alas, whatever Maions reasons were, they went with him to his grave. If not even Greesha knew, no one would.
The very wind that ravaged the city and broke down the Chitran structures had kept many of the bridges free of Ash, allowing Vir to alight on a hanging bridge to reorient and recover his prana.
The process would take several minutes without Ash Beasts to drain, so Vir used that ti to enter the building that stood at the end of the suspended bridge.
He forced open a door on its uppermost floor, expecting to find the room within empty. Instead, found a room with four narrow bedsone at each corner. Charcoal decorations were etched on the walls, with four wooden dressers filling the space next to each bed. All covered in a thick coating of ash.
Everything too heavy to carry was left behind, Vir surmised as he walked through the room. Two decades ago, soone lived here. A family, perhaps?
In the next room, Vir found a darker space slightly largera common area with a large table and chairs. Owing to its boarded up windows, this room had substantially less ash than the other, and the large rectangular table and chairs all looked to be in good shape.
It drove ho just how short a ti twenty years really was.
This was their reality.
The Ash Boundary may gained ground every day, yes, but it hardly moved quickly. Itd been encroaching upon both the Human and Demon Realms for millennia, which ant its pace couldnt have been more than a glacial crawl.
The situation Vir was dealing with now must have been similar to what the Chitran had dealt with for a century or more. He couldnt even imagine what living like this had been like. Demons wouldve had to clear the streets of Ash constantly, transporting and dumping it elsewhere.
Soot would have stained fingers and clothing, clogging the lungs of children and the elderly.
No matter what Cirayus and the others said about the Chitrans underhanded ways, they were a hardy people. People who dearly valued their clan and their ho, and fought dearly to defend it against an unstoppable enemy.
What other explanation would they have had for refusing to flee as refugees into Garga and the other clans?
With Prana Current having recovered enoughVir wanted a healthy reserve for any enemies he encounteredhe stepped out of the abandoned seven-story house, back onto the bridge, and scanned the city.
Even now, he saw nothing. No sign of Ash Beasts, nor any of the weapons and armor he sought. Not for the first ti, he bemoaned his lack of Chakra mastery. The Life Chakra would have been especially useful here, allowing him to sense the general direction of the Ash Beasts. Despite many hours training in his mindscape with Ekanai, his efforts had proven fruitless.
As with the Foundation Chakra, there was sothing Vir was missing. So crucial elent that would allow him to progress.
If he couldnt rely on Chakra, hed have to leverage his oldest ability instead.
Vir took a mont to adjust the flow to Prana Vision. The Ashen Realm had forced him to recalibrate its sensitivity to avoid overloading his senses, which hed had to do again upon entering the Demon Realm, albeit for the opposite reason.
Now, he tuned it to sothing in between.
Despite his extensive tinkering, Vir had never gotten Prana Vision to show the subtle differences in a particular affinitys density. Hed sorely missed that capability in the Ash, where all prana was black to his eyes. In the other realms, prana shone in different colors, allowing him to easily identify their presence.
At least the ground is still gold with Earth prana here, Vir thought. This wasnt quite the expanse of overwhelming darkness he was used to in the Ash, though it wasnt much better, either.
Which was why it took him a dozen attempts before he thought he saw sothing. An area of the city with Ash Prana that appeared slightly darkerslightly denserthan the rest.
Following his eyes, Vir Leaped in that direction, kicking up puffs of soot with each rooftop landing, lingering just long enough to jump again.
With each mont that passed, his sense of unease grew, as did his confidence that he was on the right track.
Ash Beasts craved prana. This was as true within the Ashen Realm as it was outside.
The cloud grew more distinct as Vir approached, darkening and thickening.
The terrible screech resounded once more, prompting Vir to grip his talwar a little tighter. Prana Current surged at its maximum, and Prana Armor was as dense as the ambient prana conditions would allow.
Vir was prepared. He held every advantage. And yet, he couldnt understand what caused his stomach to churn and his palms to sweat.
It was only when he Leaped across the last building that he understood why. It was only when he fell into the yawning crater that gouged into the earth like a cosmic wound that realization dawned and his unease morphed into full-blown horror.
No. Thats Thats impossible!
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