Gale, Erin, and Kair landed in front of Kulbran's walls by the iron gate. The sa gate that rejected them was still fresh in his mind as if it was just yesterday. This ti, though, there was no turning back. They ca here on a mission.
Looking down beside him, hand in hand, Gale asked Kair, "Can you point to where the bad guys are?"
Kair raised her free hand and pointed directly through the iron gates into the city beyond.
"Alright. Let's go."
They walked up to the iron gates together. Gale in front, Kair beside him still holding his hand, and Erin floating just behind them. The refugees that had been waiting outside the gates scattered when they saw the group approach. Whispers started up, mostly talking about the foreigners being back again with a weird child.
"Halt!"
Two Awakened guards rushed down from the walls, their swords already drawn. They positioned themselves in front of the iron gates, blocking the entrance.
"We told you to leave and never return!" one of them shouted. "By order of the captain, prepare to die!"
Letting go of Kair's hand, Gale moved. Erebus materialized mid-swing, slicing the guard's blade in half. One punch to the face, and the guard was down. The second guard raised his sword for an overhead swing. However, what the guard saw next was a fist straight at his face.
Two guards unconscious in a split second.
Gale turned to face the iron gates. The bands were thick that would take a battering ram a long ti to break through.
He raised the blade and activated Reflection. Three horizontal slices sent waves through the iron. The tal groaned before splitting into pieces and falling to the floor, creating a cloud of dust.
Walking back to where Kair was, Gale took her hand again. The group moved inside the castle walls and then stopped.
"Point again. Where are the bad guys now?" he asked.
Kair looked around the streets of Kulbran. There were exactly four paths from the gate. Her small hand rose and pointed to the 3rd path that would have led to the city's square.
"That way."
They moved through the streets. Citizens peeked through their windows as the group passed. All of them were still the sa hollow cheeked people with dark circles and chapped lips.
Arriving at the city's square, Gale could already guess where the next stop was. "Where now?"
Kair pointed at the castle.
Erebus rose again and Reflection activated. Gale shot waves at the gates that cut the walls and iron into pieces without differentiation. The gate collapsed inward, revealing the courtyard for all to see. Citizens all around opened their doors to peek through what was happening. Those that were further away hid behind their houses and leaned over the corners of walls. Hushed whispers ford that were audible enough without the need for Presence Between to listen to their whispers.
All of the whispers talked about the day of retribution against the royalty that has finally co.
Gale entered the courtyard hand in hand with Kair while Erin followed. And through the straight, neat paved path of the courtyard was the large castle door that lood afar.
As they walked through the yard, Kair tugged at Gale's hand and pointed again. Not at the main castle building, but to the side. A smaller door built into the stone wall led sowhere below ground level. From what he knew about castles from the books, those were probably where they held prisoners.
"The bad guys are over there?" Gale asked.
Kair nodded.
Instead of barging in through the main door, they went towards the prison doors. But before they could reach it, the castle's large doors shuddered open and four figures stepped out to block their path.
Three Early-Resonants and one Mid-Resonant. All in full plate armour, swords already drawn, almost certainly ready for a fight as all their signatures lit up. The one with the black feather on his helt was the sa captain knight person he wanted to punch so much in the face.
"You again," the captain said coldly. "I told you what would happen if you returned."
"I'll return however many tis I want, you stupid captain guard knight person," Gale growled.
"Your arrogance is your downfall, pretender," the captain said.
"Can you not see that I have Kair herself here guiding to where the evil is?" Gale said.
The captain looked down at the small girl holding Gale's hand. "That is just a child. Kair does not show herself to the people of the world. Especially not for a foreigner."
The wind picked up. It started gently, but grew stronger by the second. The torches on the walls flickered, and so went out entirely. The other three knights shifted nervously, their grips tightening on their swords.
I am Kair, why do you keep saying I'm not!? Kair shouted, stepping forward.
"Foolish child, stop with your trickery!" the captain said. "Kair is not so naive child that roams our lands without her guards!"
I told you many tis. I am Kair! I am Kair! Please listen to !
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not ant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Do not dare blasphe Kair's na, child! I shall cut you myself!" one of the Early-Resonant guards said.
Kair stepped back. Tears started welling up in her eyes again. This must've happened multiple tis already. It was no wonder she couldn't cleanse the rift herself. The damn natives of this rift were protecting the corruption themselves.
Gale pulled Kair back gently and patted her head. Guiding her back to where Erin was, he looked into Erin's eyes. "Protect her."
"That is a given," Erin said.
A sphere of ice materialized around Erin and Kair, encasing them in a protective shell that even the remnants were not able to break. Apart from the blue haze, the ice was completely transparent.
Turning back to face the four knights, Gale cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders. He wasn't doing that to intimidate. He really needed to let off so steam.
"The way you and your idiots talked to Kair like that, do you have no sha?" Gale asked.
"What sha is there treating pretenders as they are?" the captain laughed.
"Your words, I take them as treason against the world itself," Gale said. "And for the act of going against the Divine Dark, prepare yourself for the worst."
The captain laughed, and the other three knights joined him.
"The arrogance of foreigners knows no bounds. What can a child do that is one star lower than all of us?" the captain asked.
Gale smiled. "A lot."
He let Presence Between in. Patterns blood across his skin. Dark lines that traced along his arms and neck, visible through the tears in his shirt that Kair's wind had created earlier. His eyes shifted, the pupils dilating until only a thin ring of colour remained around the darkness.
The captain and his guards stopped laughing as they saw darkness form around Gale's being.
Gale moved first.
Erebus materialized as he closed the distance to the nearest Early-Resonant. His blade ca down in a diagonal slash aid at the knight's neck, but the knight was fast enough to raise his sword and block. tal sparked and lit up the surrounding area that had been taken by the darkness.
The second Early-Resonant ca at him from the left. A thrust penetrated through his rib, but Phase Defense activated just at the point of contact, allowing the blade to pass through without resistance.
A smirk ford on Gale's lips, causing the guard to beco enraged.
The captain raised his sword in the air, and the surrounding ether coalesced a feeling of murkiness into their swords.
Sothing was wrong.
The third Early-Resonant swung at him from behind. When the sword ca into contact with his neck, it passed through. But when it did, Gale had to gasp through his throat to forcefully push air into his lungs.
[Warning: User movent is affected by miasmic slow. Host is suggested to avoid direct contact. Phase Defense decreases affliction efficacy by 90%.]
Shit. If that was already a 90% reduction, and he was barely able to breathe, that kind of affliction against him would've been a death sentence if he didn't have Phase Defense.
The first Early-Resonant swung at him from behind. Gale spun and blocked with Erebus, but the impact pushed him back further than it should have. He had just gotten used to Phase Defense too. Facing against four Resonants as an Attuned was too difficult.
"Did you think we would face an intruder without preparation?" the captain said. "The blessing of the true Kair slows all who oppose her chosen servants."
The second Early-Resonant pressed on. A sword cut through overhead down at Gale. Erebus materialized into a shield to block it while another stab ca at his flank from the first knight.
As the stab reached his flank, Gale imdiately blocked it with Erebus shifted back into a sword. Using that montum, he spun and managed to get a kick in at the second guard that was still in his reach.
The third knight was already lunging at where he was landing.
Erebus materialized into a staff. Slamd on the ground. Gale was in an airborne spin again.
That was a mistake.
The captain had predicted his spinning trajectory. His own sword was out with the miasmic slow.
Phase Defense activated, and the sword passed through his heart. Gale felt palpitations in his heart as well as his body becoming slower with just that one hit.
He'd been hit twice now, and he felt himself at 4/5th his max speed. Although there was no damage, a couple more of those hits would put him in a crawl.
Another exchange happened. The second guard ca in low while the third guard ca in high. The first guard was waiting for a chance.
Gale slipped through in the middle of high and low. First guard t him through that gap with a horizontal slash.
Erebus materialized into a shield. This ti he stayed low on the ground so he'd have control of his trajectory.
But that was a mistake. Just as he blocked, a boot slamd into his back by the captain, sending him flying backwards across the courtyard. He skidded along, bouncing a couple of tis and ruining the perfect grass.
Before the guards could charge at him, multiple ice spears shot out from Erin to block the path towards Gale. Dozens more ice spears floated just above the ice sphere, spinning slowly.
"Child," Erin said, and then a wave of cold ca from her direction to him.
[Cold Calm effect applied.]
[All impurities cleansed.]
Gale's body imdiately felt lighter and faster. The pain of the boot that had been planted on his back disappeared. Looking at Erin, her never-wavering expressionless face, he heard her whisper.
"Let the void further in," she said.
Gale hesitated for only a mont. But fuck it. If she's the one saying it, why not.
Taking a deep breath, Presence Between entered his very core and dyed it with its own colour. The squiggly patterns on his skin reconstructed themselves into a billion inexplicable shapes. The tendrils that were usually immaterial in the physical world slowly solidified, becoming visible wisps of darkness that curled out from his spine.
[Warning: Presence Between integration at 90%]
Welco back, young master Hathie. Arad's majestic voice bood in his head. I suggest you summon the void overseer in active form. The multiplier effect will be beneficial.
Multiplier effect? He didn't know what that ant, but against four Resonants, he'd take it.
Reaching into his subjects, he imagined Dani. He pulled her out of the voidal pocket and into the physical realm in an active state. The Overseer, with its bat-like wings, blinked at him with its singular massive eye before understanding what was needed. It settled onto his shoulder, its wings wrapping partially around his neck like a living collar, connecting to one of his tendrils.
[Presence Between integration effect increased by 35%]
His perception of the world changed once again. The tendrils that were just wisps beca thick mucousy tendrils that held millions of mouths and eyes. They were supposed to be grotesque, so it was curious why Gale thought they were so beautiful. Moving them to his will felt as though it had always been a part of him.
And when he looked at the four knights standing before him, he saw sothing he hadn't seen before.
Behind each of them floated a ghastly figure. Deranged smiles with triangular teeth stretching too wide to be of a human face. They clung to the knights with an ethereal smoky oily thread. Those deranged eyes darted between the knight and Gale as if they had found sothing fun to play with.
The corruption had taken over them. It was now a question of whether they were still even capable of thought based on what was on them. Erin called them infected, but Gale would beg to differ. These n themselves had beco part of the tide.
"What do you see, child?" Erin asked.
"A smile clings behind each one of them. The sa one I saw from my room in the fucking orphanage," Gale said.
The ice sphere cracked and then shattered. Erin stepped out with Kair held safely in her arms, her blank expression unchanged but her signature flared.
"Child of Cev, your training is temporarily suspended. The confirmation of the corruption by the eyes of a Cev Dainv enacts the non-negotiable section 1, procedure 8 of the Universal Dainv Defense Code." she said. "I will join the fight in full."
"Fine, but you better leave that knight asshole to ," Gale said.
"Your personal conflict is irrelevant. Nonetheless, I shall not interfere with your vendetta."
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