One Hundred And Fifty
“… let all who are touched by my light…” the ghost girl cried, and the glow above her hands intensified, like a second sun, the colours draining away, leaving behind platinum. Fuck… no cover…
My brain was whirring, trying to work out a way to dodge, but all I could think of was sliding under the beetle kami, which was dumb, as if it then crushed under its body… yeah, that’s probably worse than whatever attack that wraith is doing…
Since there was nowhere to shelter, my next thought turned to Shaeula. She too was out in the open. Making up my mind instantly I leapt over, slamming her to the ground, covering her slender form with my own. As she squawked in protest I felt the ground rumble, slabs of stone and walls of earth tearing free.
“… share my pain, my sorrow!” the skies were lit by a brilliant flash, the piercing silver light dyeing everything with dark shadows. Dark… shadows… what is happening? I felt my mind slipping away, falling into an obsidian pit, the tallic white light above receding, until all was darkness…
Where… where am I? Was that a teleportation attack, or… no, more likely so sort of ntal debuff. It was hard to think as I couldn’t feel my body, or see, or hear. Kind of like those sensory deprivation tanks… wait, that’s a problem… if I was knocked out, I would be completely defenceless, and it probably wasn’t just , the light had covered most of the shrine… I need to wake up. NOW!
Concentrating my will, trying to feel my body, I struggled, but for how long I was uncertain, as without any stimuli it was impossible to judge ti. As I persisted, faint spots of light were forming, floating motes that gradually started forming a picture. It was a laughing face, cruel and without compassion, and though I had never t this person I felt a surge of fear, nausea bubbling in my stomach, cramp in my muscles. I can start to feel again… ugh… pain flared through , my face feeling as though it had been struck hard. Blows rained down on , and the laughing, sneering face was coming at from all sides, multiplied, everywhere I looked he was there.
“Cry for . Scream. Beg! The end is the sa but I want to enjoy this.” The faces all said, words overlapping in a series of baleful echoes, and with every word I felt terror, as though I was a lost child alone in the dark, where monsters lurked.
I tried to retort, ready to tell the bastard to piss off, but I couldn’t form words. I was unable to move the body I couldn’t see or feel, only sensations that were forced on were present, and my skin crawled as though hands were pinching all over. A visceral fear was within , that of sothing precious about to be taken…
“Oh, so you were a virgin I see. How nice for !” the many faces sneered, and pain jabbed through . It was hard to describe, like soone jolting a hot poker through my guts. Hah, you are a couple of weeks too late to say that… I thought, trying to steel myself against the constant burning pains, as well as the feeling of bones breaking under rough use.
I get it, I do… ugh… poor girl… her terrors, anguish, suffering… all of it was transmitted to . A fear that n seldom knew, an experience that I couldn’t process. After all, I’m a man, not a woman… even so…
While the bodily sensations were rely rendered into a serious of tornts, likely nothing as the poor woman felt, the loss, the knowledge that she would die here, never see her family again, all of that I understood, a bleak whirlpool of oblivion that threatened to drown , and through it all, the endless laughter of the perpetrator… as I struggled to avoid being swallowed by the tide of darkness, I clung to one thought. I pray Shaeula doesn’t have to face this… that would be too cruel…
The feelings of pain intensified, and the many faces cried out in joy and extasy, before my very spine felt as if it was broken, what little of my consciousness I retained slipping away…
…io… Akio. Wake… …kio! Get up now! I need you!
A voice! It flickered like a light in the darkness, silver, olivine and citrine. Desperately reaching for it with hands that didn’t exist, as I drew closer I could see again, my body… my body, again, whole and unhard. The many faces ca closer, cackling and sneering, and I instinctively felt dread, like I was a lost soul wandering the dark, before the light flared, green and gold.
… furic can not-not hold for… please! You have to…
Where the light touched, the faces started to disintegrate, flesh sloughing off, revealing bone beneath, before that too burst into flas, turning to ash that was lost in the darkness. My illusory hand stretched, reaching for the light, the voice… and as it touched the fla was warm, and a gentle breeze enveloped .
… STAND UP-UP! I believe you shall never fall here!
With a roar, immaterial and real throats together letting out a great cry, the darkness scattered, the illusion finally collapsing, and I found myself lying on the ground, Shaeula standing in front of , blood soaking down her wyrmscale dress, dripping to the shattered grounds of the shrine. Her pinwheels were spinning in front of her like shields, striking away a storm of iron spikes that were flying her way, though the sheer number ant that so were getting through, and as I watched one gouged her ankle, spilling more blood to the soil. Even so, when she heard my cry she turned, relief plain on her face, her amber eyes kind yet resolute.
“I see you are awake at last-last.” She smiled radiantly. “You made worry. You shall have to make it up to . But later. Now…” another nail winged her, blood scattering from a fine cut on her cheek. “… now we must fight. With everything we have.”
I nodded, before a surge of nausea, left-over remnants of terror and tornt, overca . I vomited noisily, though all that ca out was silvery mist and bile, tears streaming down my face. Still, this is no ti for … ugh… dwelling on what happened. I can process later.
Dragging myself to my feet I quickly surveyed the surroundings. Further orcs had arrived and were engaging our weaselkin, many of whom were still struggling to regain consciousness after the light touched them. Luckily our Kamaitachi had found shelter, and were using scythes of wind to decapitate them one after another, while the mages and musicians who had been far enough back to avoid it regrouped. Ixitt was firing at the wraith of nails with his strange contraptions, yet it was having little effect, her bombardnts raining down on us all. Ulfuric was wielding a massive two-handed sword, striking at the thick legs of the beetle kami, while swarms of biting insects thronged him, chewing into exposed flesh, drawing silvery blood.
Up above, the ghostly woman was motionless, her eyes dark. A half-dozen other ghosts were drifting about, occasionally darting down to attack a lone weaselkin. “So did you… did she…” I fumbled, trying to get myself back in the ga.
“No. you defended , foolish male that you are-are. Though I am grateful. What did you see?” Shaeula asked curiously.
“I saw the face of our enemy, I guess. And… I’m glad I’m not born a woman.”
Shaeula laughed at that. “Even if you were a female, I believe we would still-still be destined for each other. But I understand. That wraith, she is tornted indeed.”
Shaking the final cobwebs free from my head, I tried one last ti to resolve things. Shouting over to the widow of nails, I asked her a question. “I saw what was in her heart. How she suffered. I get why you hate n. But… it is this so-called master of yours who did those terrible things, right?” I wondered if all the floating ghosts had suffered similar fates. They all seed to be won or girls.
tal spears ripped free from the ground, aid at the back of the brawling Ulfuric, and I cast out my vibrating strings of wind, severing the ends before they could pierce him. More ca at Shaeula, but she dodged them skilfully, her small form darting through the gaps, her speed on par with mine now. Damn, she must have really been soaking up the levels…
“Why can’t you just let us take care of your master for you? From what I’ve seen…” my gaze strayed to the floating girl above. “… he’s indeed evil. But if you stand aside, we can set you free.”
For a mont Kiku paused, her hand to her mouth, biting down on sothing that glimred gold. The hailstorm of nails relented for a mont, buying Ulfuric ti to drive back the beetle kami with a mighty kick, cracking the chitin around one leg.
Her eyes sought mine, and for a mont I saw hope, but then… she began to laugh, a screeching, banshee-like wail. “You? You would set us free? We shall only be free when all n who oppress us are dead! You remind of my dear husband. He too talked about justice, and helping people. Yet behind closed doors…” ether from the Territory was being pulled into her, the drain on us increasing. The weaker weaselkin were becoming even more lethargic, and several more could fight no longer, slain by orcs or wraiths. “… no, I shall slay you…” the cloud of nails reford into the huge blade again, the edges glittering like teeth on a chainsaw. “… and your poor woman will know freedom. Only as my daughter, free from physical form, can she truly be free of the grasp of n.”
“You waste-waste your ti, Akio.” Shaeula scoffed. “She will never understand your superiority. You are too-too kind. Harden your heart, and end this.”
Too kind? I just… having seen and felt so of the horrors that the ghost had experienced, even if I couldn’t fully understand, the experience not translating, being a man, I did admit to wishing we could settle things peacefully, only the master of this Territory suffering for his sins. Maybe that was too naïve. Sorry, but… Shaeula is worth any number of you.
“Fine then. No more holding back. Sorry, priest. I never did catch your na. I’ll try not to kill you or the kami, but… I think the shrine here is going to be totalled either way.”
The priest shook his head. “I’m sorry too. Just… tell my daughter…”
Yeah, I know, I get it. you’ve repeated that a lot… “Everyone. No rcy. We win here and push through to the centre.”
At my words Ixitt threw a vial containing an array of shimring particles of green and yellow. The glass shattered and as the tallic dust within scattered it reacted violently, bursting in a viridian cloud, sending fireballs everywhere. The widow was caught by surprise, her kimono smouldering, chunks of iron lting, leaving the edge of her great blade ragged.
I feel extrely guilty about this, but… well, if I tell myself it’s a rcy… I drew on my own fiery energies and focused it into a series of lances, blazing arrows that were launched into the sky, directly at the tornted wraith who was still holding many weaselkin within her tortured dreams.
“You dare!” Kiku screeched, reaching out with a pale hand to the sky, but she could do nothing. Even so, the wraith escaped her fate, as two other, more misty, insubstantial ghosts darted in front of the lances. They were struck, and the flas spread, devouring their forms, only a few faint, mournful cries signalling their demise. Scattered flas struck the wraith behind, her consciousness returning as pain, which should have been alien to her in death, flared once more.
“My daughters! Vile man!” the widow raged, hurling her sword at , only to have it fall into pieces as the pinwheels danced around it, chopping it into chunks. Even as the tal fell it split back into nails, only to have the ground erupt into the tar-like mud again, snaring the falling spikes.
“Shaeula! Help Ulfuric disable the kami. If we can get her nails out…”
Shaeula nodded. “I can-can see them with my eyes. It will be quite a dangerous task, but… you have one such as well, Akio.”
“I shall gift you to Kondou-dono!” the widow was screeching. “Once I have trapped you with my binding nail, you shall suffer for what you have done!” she raced towards , the dirty, long nails on her pale hands turning tallic, lengthening into great claws, dripping rust and blood, silver mist rising from them.
“Shit, who do you think you are? Wolverine? Kimimaru? ” I snapped, sympathy for her plight rapidly diminishing. My spear clashed with her nails, and I discharged the elental fla that was stored within the bluesteel head. Several of her claws were lted clean through, snapping free, and flas nearly decapitated her, only a rapid tilt of her head saving her, though her long, fouled hair was scorched, burning hanks of it fluttering to the ground like fireflies.
Her other hand swung around, trying to slash open my throat, but blades of my own, ford from sharp, vibrating strands of wind, t her, and the clash drove us both back a step. I swept my spear at her own throat as a counter, only to nearly be impaled as a dozen arm-thick nails burst from her chest, tearing open her kimono, revealing the pallid skin beneath. Yeah, more like Kimimaru I see… wind and fla t her attack, the explosion searing my exposed skin, but it was enough to shatter the spikes before they could pierce .
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