WIEDERGEBBURT Act II Chapter 26

I stared at Dyr, trying to figure out what was going on, but I couldn’t for the life of me understand. Dyr was kneeling on all fours in the circle of Runes. Her body still looked human, but there was something beastly about her, something distinctly not human that I couldn’t put my finger on. The Runes around her continued to glow. Her agonized howls filled the night air.

“What the heck is going on?!” Marko shouted in surprise.

Hearing him shout almost made me curse. Had he followed me?! I would have smacked him on the head, but the group surrounding Dyr had already noticed us. Torgny was looking my way and glaring like a man possessed, while the mercenaries were all readying their weapons.

“Ke ke ke. It seems we have unwanted visitors,” the cloaked man sitting on the ground said. “Kill them. Don’t let them escape.”

“Shit! Marko! Back me up here!” I shouted as I moved into the clearing.

“What? R-right!” Marko didn’t seem to understand what was going on, but he was smart enough to realize these people meant trouble. He was already wearing his gauntlets, which he pounded against each other several times in a staccato rhythm. His body erupted in brilliant flames that were an earthy green. Then his gauntlets began glowing with a vibrant light.

The mercenaries had already drawn their weapons. Swords, staves, axes, and polearms were held at the ready. There were exactly one dozen mercenaries, which meant there were 13 people to fight, including Torgny. That cloaked man was pumping Spiritual Power into those Runes. He wouldn’t be able to fight.

“Eryk Veiger,” Torgny said with a feral growl. “I’ve longed for the day I could have my revenge on you.”

“Too bad today isn’t gonna be that day,” I said, and then I attacked.

I channeled Spiritual Power through my Dragon’s Tail Ruler. Lightning crackled along the unwieldy-looking weapon as I swung it forward, unleashing the locking mechanisms on each segment and attacking. My aim was not Torgny yet.

The tip of my ruler flew toward one of the mercenaries, a big man with a scar running down the left side of his face. It plunged through his chest, armor and all, and then emerged from his back. Blood spilled from his chest and mouth. I must have ruptured his lung. Whatever. With another surge of my Spiritual Power, the blade continued moving while the first mercenary died still impaled.

My next foe was smart enough to realize his armor meant nothing. She activated her Spiritual Aura, but I just pumped even more Spiritual Power into my ruler, until the blade segments were glowing so brightly it was impossible to look at them directly. My own power overpowered her aura completely, pierced her through the stomach, and then went out her back. A look of shocked became etched upon the woman’s face. It was the look she died with.

My actions caused the other mercenaries to stop moving. I could see hesitance in their eyes. However, Torgny growled at them.

“What are you fools doing?!” he demanded. “We didn’t pay you to stand around! Kill him!”

Torgny’s words caused the remaining ten mercenaries to move again. I pulled the Dragon’s Tail Ruler back, returning the weapon to its original state. While I did that, the mercenaries had closed on me. However, there was someone else present.

Marko.

As a member of the Kriger Family, one of the Three Heavenly Families, I knew that Marko had been well-trained in combat. I’d also seen his battles during the Spiritualist Grand Tournament. Tonight I got to see those skills up close.

Marko stomped on the ground several times, and then knelt and punched the ground with his gauntlets. The earth erupted in front of him. It transformed into numerous spikes that shot at the mercenaries. However, this attack was just a feint. Several of the mercenaries swung their weapons as they activated their Spiritual Auras, destroying the spikes. Marko used their distracted state while dealing with his first attack to race around and attack them from the side.

“What the—he’s in our midst!”

“Don’t panic! This man is just a—urk!”

“Damn! He’s good!”

Marko’s first attack was a punch infused with the power of the earth element. As the sturdiest of the seven elements, it could be used to strengthen the body, which I could see was what he had done. The sound of bones shattering echoed through the clearing as Marko’s fist caused the face of a mercenary to cave in. That man was dead before he even hit the ground.

“I guess it’s not good if I just stand here,” I muttered as I hefted the Dragon’s Tail Ruler over my shoulder.

For some reason, my instincts were telling me I needed to deal with these people quickly. That was why I generated the lightning element into my feet and activated Flash Step Version 3: Lightning Step.

My body moved several times more quickly than it could with the regular Flash Step. I don’t think anyone even saw me as I raced through the mercenaries’ ranks. I swung my blade nine times. Horizontal. Vertical. Diagonal. Each attack sliced through a mercenary like their bodies and armor was made of butter, but the attacks didn’t seem to do any damage at first. No, it was just that I moved so fast the results had yet to show.

I think barely a second passed before I moved out of Flash Step Version 3: Lightning Step. It was an extremely exhaustive Spiritual Lightning Technique. Currently, one minute was my absolute limit, but I didn’t want to exhaust all my Spiritual Power.

When I stopped using the Lightning Step, which also slowed my perception of time, the world seemed to revert back to its original flow. That was when the results of my attacks finally showed. All nine mercenaries were dead. Two of them were bisected through the waist, their upper bodies falling away from their legs and hitting the ground with wet thuds. Another mercenary’s head slid off her shoulders. There were three I had sliced through using diagonal slashes, and my attacks had gouged deep chunks into their chest, blood spurting as they fell backward and released a panicked gurgle while choking on their own blood. The last three fell forward. I had attacked them from behind, and their backs were sliced open, their spines severed.

“What…?” Torgny’s eyes were bulging as, barely a few seconds after he’d given the order to kill me, his mercenaries lay dead on the ground. He wasn’t the only one expressing shock. Marko was gawking at me like I’d just sprouted an extra head or turned into a Demon Beast.

“Ke ke ke. My, what a powerful young man you are,” the cloaked figure cackled. “No wonder Hagen thinks you are such a threat.”

I glanced at the cloaked figure standing several meters from me and prepared to move. Dyr looked like she was in pain, her body was shivering as she howled, and I could see tears streaming down her eyes. If I wanted to save her, I just needed to kill this cloaked man and disrupt the Runes.

Yet as I prepared to move, a massive fire python five meters in length attacked me from the left, forcing me to dodge. The fire python hissed as it turned around and leapt forward at me. I clicked my tongue and brought the Dragon’s Tail Ruler down, channeling water through the blade to create a very thin but hard as diamond coating. I ignored the cracking sound that came from the stressed metal. My weapon split the python in half.

“I’m not done yet!” Torgny roared as his spun his ax and then rushed forward. He was pretty quick. He swung his ax several times, pythons appearing with each swipe. The smaller snakes lunged at me with the intent of immobilizing me like I’d seen him do during the Spiritualist Grand Tournament in his fight with Ulf Ulfric.

“Tch!”

I stopped using the Second State of Spiritualism and activated my Spiritual Aura. The watery blue aura erupted around my body, crackling as arcs of lightning shot off. Each bolt struck one of the pythons, destroying it. By this point, Torgny had reached me. With a ferocious battlecry that made him sound only half sane, he swung his axe at my head.

I didn’t bother blocking.

Sidestepping the attack, I let the weapon strike the ground where I’d been standing. Fire erupted from the swing. It was hot enough that the ground turned a vibrant red as though it were about to boil. Unconcerned by that, I placed my index finger against his temple.

Torgny froze. “What—?”

That was all I let him get out before I shot a beam of combined lightning and water through his head. It went through one temple and out the other, burning a hole clean through him. I couldn’t see through this hole since blood was gushing out like a fountain, but I didn’t need to. Torgny’s body teetered several times like he was still alive. Then his corpse crumpled to the ground.

“You really are a monster, aren’t you?” Marko said, eying the corpse at my feet.

“That’s an awfully rude thing to say,” I muttered, but I didn’t let that bothered me as I turned back toward the cloaked figure and Dyr.

“Ke ke ke. Hagen is going to be furious to know that his nephew is dead,” the old man hiding inside his cloak said. “Oh, well. Such is life. I never expected those mercenaries and Torgny would be defeated so easily, but since they have, I guess you’ll have to play with my Shadow Puppets.”

As he spoke, the shadows around me and Marko morphed and twisted, or that was how it appeared at first. A closer look revealed that several figures were actually emerging from the shadows. They wore cloaks and had white masks hiding over their faces. Some of the masks were quite plain, but there were a few that had horned masks with the visage of a terrifying demon. There were two dozen of them.

“These are the same kind of puppets that attacked me, and that technique just now was Shadow Walking.” I glared past the puppets at the cloaked man. “So you were the one controlling these things that attacked me. Who are you?”

“Ke ke ke. I can’t tell you who I am just yet, but… hm… let’s just say I am a man fighting for a higher power and leave it that. Ke ke. You can call me Skygge.”

“Skygge…”

I tested the name, which was already familiar to me. Dyr had used that name in the same sentence as Hagen. So this was Skygge. I didn’t know what he meant when he said he worked for a “higher power”, but the only thing I could think of was maybe he worshipped one of the Great Overlords, or perhaps even the Sekbeists. I wouldn’t know for sure unless I captured and beat the information out of him.

“Marko,” I said.

“What?” Marko glanced at me as the Shadow Puppets closed in.

“Your earth element isn’t going to do much good against these Shadow Puppets. Stay back and wait for a chance to disrupt that Rune Array.” I pointed at the glowing Runes surrounding Dyr.

“Tch. I hate the idea of taking orders from you, but fine. I’ll listen to you for now.” Marko took several steps back as I stepped forward.

The Shadow Puppets were already close enough that they could attack if they wanted, but they didn’t, not at first. I wondered why, but then I realized they weren’t really trying to kill me. They were stalling for time.

In that case…

Swinging the Dragon’s Tail Ruler in a horizontal arc as I channeled a combination of the lightning and water elements through it, I unleashed a massive wave of white light that sliced into the foremost shadows, cutting them in half at the waist. Rather than falling into a pool of blood, their bodies burst into smoke and ash. I had only managed to kill six. The rest had been too quick and disappeared into a shadow.

“What incredible power and control. Ke ke ke. And you don’t even need to use movements to properly channel your Spiritual Power. It’s enough to make one think you aren’t human,” Skygge cackled.

I gritted my teeth, but I didn’t let his words bother me as I activated the Flash Step and wove around the Shadow Puppets. The first three were killed easily. I sliced their heads off before they even knew what hit them. Like the first six, these three burst into smoke and ash as if their bodies couldn’t maintain cohesion.

That was nine. Just 15 more to go.

Two Shadow Puppets appeared within my shadow, but I activated my Spiritual Aura before they could attack. Lightning burst from my aura and struck their masks, shattering them, which caused the Shadow Puppets to disappear. I was beginning to understand more about these things the longer I fought them.

Raising my hand, I splayed my five fingers and pointed at a horde of Shadow Puppets preparing to attack me. Lightning and water combined on my fingertips, forming five glowing spheres that shot out, each one striking a puppet’s mask and blowing a hole clean through it. Again, they reverted to smoke and ash.

“I see now,” I said. “These things aren’t enslaved people at all. They’re just masses of the darkness element, agglomerated together and forced to remain in this form with the help of those masks.”

“Ke ke. That’s an awfully perceptive deduction,” Skygge said, all but admitting I was right. “It’s incredibly difficult to create cohesive beings that are capable of affecting the environment like this, especially with the darkness element. I use Runes to fix that.”

I didn’t talk anymore; now that I knew what they were, I attacked with greater zeal. Swinging the Dragon’s Tail Ruler, unleashing bursts of lightning and water, destroying the masks at every opportunity. One. Two. Three more fell to my blade as I used the Flash Step in a continuous flow, reducing the number of Shadow Puppets to five.

“E-Eryk…”

At the sound of a weak voice, I stopped my unrelenting attacks and looked toward the Rune Array. Dyr was lying on her stomach now. Her shoulders and back heaved as drool leaked from her mouth and tears dripped from her eyes. She was looking at me. It was the saddest, most pathetic look I’d ever seen on a person. It was the look of someone who’d given up.

“Marko! Hurry up and disrupt that Rune Array!” I snapped.

“Got it!”

Whatever Marko thought of me, he was smart enough to listen to my orders, rushing forward and preparing to disrupt the Rune Array. All he needed to do was cut one or more of the Runes that made it up and the whole thing would cease functioning.

Yet before he could, the remaining five Shadow Puppets vanished into the shadows and appeared in front of him, forcing him to stop. I grimaced as I used the Flash Step again. I appeared directly in front of Marko and swung my lightning coated ruler, once more ignoring the sounds of something cracking, hard enough to destroy all five masks. The Shadow Puppets burst into smoke.

However, it was already too late.

“Ke ke ke. I’ve already done what I came here to do,” Skyge said, and indeed, the glow from the Rune Array was already gone. He and Dyr soon began disappearing into the shadows around them. “Ke ke. I recommend you two head back to your camp. They’re probably in a lot of trouble right now.”

I was just about to use the Flash Step. Even though I hadn’t been able to stop the Rune Array from doing whatever it was supposed to, I could at least grab Dyr. Before I could, however, Skygge lifted his head, and I froze upon seeing bloody crimson eyes glowing vibrantly within the shadows of his hood. That single second was enough time for both Skygge and Dyr to disappear.

“Damn it,” I muttered.

“What should we do?” asked Marko, who was deferring to me for the moment. “Should we chase after them?”

I shook my head. “We can’t. That Skygge person used a Spiritual Darkness Technique called Shadow Walking. It allows him to move between shadows. Even if I activated Spiritual Perception, I can’t follow him when he’s using Shadow Walking. What’s more, the fact that he managed to evade my detection for so long means he probably has the ability to traverse at least one or two kilometers with a single use of the technique. We won’t catch up to him.”

“Then what should we do?” asked Marko.

“Let’s head back to camp,” I said. “That man said our camp is likely in trouble. I don’t think he was lying.”

Marko didn’t look like he was as sure as me, but he didn’t argue either. As we turned around and headed back the way we came, I prayed that nothing had happened to our group.

***

My prayers were unanswered.

When Marko and I returned to the camp, it was to find pandemonium had spread. Demon Beasts were attacking our group. Several Spiritualists already lay dead. One, an older man of middle age, was being viciously ripped apart by a Felinoid—a jungle cat Demon Beast with sharp claws and fangs. A younger woman with auburn hair lay on the ground several meters to my left, staring sightless at the sky as a Greater Jungle Python swallowed her whole starting from her feet.

“W-what is going on here?!” Marko screamed.

“Don’t ask obvious questions! Get in there and help everyone!” I snapped.

I didn’t wait for Marko to get his act together as I used the Flash Step to dart forward and began carving my way through the Demon Beasts attacking. There were so many I couldn’t begin to count them all. Most of them were just D-ranks, but there were a few like the Greater Python and Felinoid that were C-ranks. With my blade coated in both lightning and water, I cleaved through all the Demon Beasts in my path as I went to the tent my group was using.

The tent was already in shambles. It looked like something had trampled over it.

Calming down before I could panic, I remembered it would be easy to find them if they were still alive. I activated Spiritual Perception. My awareness quickly spread out as the world around me became gray. The only thing I could see in color now were the lights from various Spiritual Auras, most of which were red and blue.

I locked onto the unique Spiritual Signatures of Kari, Lin, and Fay. They were fighting about two dozen meters to my left alongside a number of other Spiritualists. It looked like they had grouped together, which explained why I’d only seen two corpses so far. These must have been the people who had survived the initial attack and gathered to defend themselves.

Moving within a Flash Step, I darted through the twisted trees of this jungle and arrived quickly at the scene where I had sensed their Spiritual Signatures.

14 of the initial 20 Spiritualists were there. They had formed a defensive ring—a formation where several people created a circle so they could defend from attacks coming in any direction. It was a sound strategy. Catalyna was the one directing them. She was next to Finn and an older man as she barked out orders and attacked Demon Beasts that came too close with her sword. However, while she was doing what she could, it was Kari, Fay, and Lin that were taking the brunt of the assault. While the normal Spiritualists had formed the circle, those three were using their teamwork to take down any Demon Beast that got too close.

The three were working well together, with Lin creating a number of ethereal snakes to attack multiple Demon Beasts at once. Her snakes would sink their fangs into the flesh of Demon Beasts, Ligers, Felinoids, and Great Pythons mostly, and the poison they injected slowed them down long enough for Kari or Fay to deal with them. They weren’t using Spiritual Techniques. They attacked with ranseur and fists. Given how many Demon Beasts were present, I assumed they were trying to conserve their Spiritual Power for when they really needed it.

I had no such compunctions.

Taking a deep breath, I channeled my Spiritual Power, which surged through my body like an electric current as I activated Flash Step Version 3: Lightning Step. As lightning skittered around underneath my feet, I moved.

***

When the initial attack came, Kari had been sleeping with Lin and Fay. She’d been woken up by the loud crashing of trees being felled. Fortunately, that noise had woken up all three of them, and they’d been able to emerge from their tent in time to avoid being pulverized as several Demon Beasts trampled it.

They hadn’t been able to put on their armor, but they had grabbed their weapons, which she and Fay had used to fight their way through the horde of attacking Demon Beasts and link up with the others. From their, they had formed a circle defense formation, but she, Fay, and Lin had decided not to join the formation and go on the attack.

That had been fifteen minutes ago.

The current battlefield was an absolute mess, with the corpses of numerous Demon Beasts strewn across the jungle floor. There were Greater Pythons, Felinoids, Ligers, and Poisonous Stinger Frogs.

While it would be easier to assume the Greater Pythons and Felinoids, which were larger and stronger, were a greater threat, the truth was the D-rank Poisonous Stinger Frogs were the most troublesome enemies to deal with. They were only about knee high. Their smaller profile made them harder to spot within this chaos, and they could shoot poisonous needles from their mouths and hides. Their poison was also potent enough that it could numb a Spiritualist’s body if it hit.

So far, she and the others had avoided that by activating their Spiritual Auras, which acted as a shield to protect them from receiving damage from both physical and spiritual attacks. However, some of their comrades weren’t so lucky, and a number of them were already on their knees. Their Spiritual Auras flickered wildly as if they could go out at any second.

She and her two companions did what they could to protect the others. Lin was poisoning the Demon Beasts with a fast acting poison that slowed reaction times and dulled the senses, while she and Fay attacked with purely physical techniques. They didn’t know what was happening. However, if a stronger Demon Beast showed up, they would need all the Spiritual Power they had to deal with it.

“Haaaa!!!”

Kari shot forward as a Felinoid roared in anguish as a snake bit into it, using its distracted state to thrust her ranseur into its left eye socket. Her weapon caused the eye to burst. As blood spilled out, she plunged it further, going straight through its eye and into its brain. She didn’t wait for the creature to fall as she pulled her weapon out and sought out another opponent.

About two meters from her current Location, Fay unleashed a series of monstrously swift strikes with her gauntlets, repeatedly pounding into a Greater Python with a relentless barrage. Indents appeared on the snake’s body. The creature hissed as it tried to attack her with its tail, but she avoided it with nimble steps and continued to hammer it until the Demon Beast’s organs ruptured from the repeated attacks and it died.

No normal person can do that…

Eryk’s training was proving itself during this battles. Hers and Fay’s physical prowess was incredible. She didn’t know another human being that could cause so much damage to a Demon Beast with purely physical attacks.

Twirling her ranseur around her body, Kari took several steps back as she sliced into the muzzle of a Liger—a furred animal similar to a Felinoid but smaller and less powerful. The creature screamed and moved back. She took a step forward stabbed her blade through the tip of its mouth, killing it.

Several more Demon Beasts tried to attack from her blind spot, but Lin created a pair of whips to force them back. The loud cracking of her energy whips caused Kari to recognize the threat as well. She darted forward and leapt on top of a Felinoid. Blood spurted from the creature’s back as she plunged her ranseur deep into its body. She didn’t stay for long, as the Felinoid released a dying breath, she removed his weapon and leapt off.

Landing on the ground, she was just in time to spot Fay rotating her entire body as she punched a Liger so hard it was lifted off the ground and sent soaring. She didn’t need to watch it tumble like a ragdoll to know that her friend’s—and hopefully future sister—attack had killed it.

As the three of them continued to fight, Catalyna barked out orders. “Everyone! Tighten up our defensive formation! Work together! Finn! Get back in line and stop messing around!”

The battle continued to rage. Kari could feel her body becoming a little sluggish. She’d been fighting nonstop for awhile now, and while she only had a few cuts and bruises to show for it, she knew it was only a matter of time before she ran out of energy. The last Felinoid who attacked had managed to slam its head into her torso, where a large and ugly black bruise had formed.

“This is getting us nowhere,” Fay said as she and Kari regrouped with Lin. Like her, Fay and Lin were also injured and breathing heavily. “There’s no end to them.”

“You’re right.” Kari frowned. “What is going on? Why are all these Demon Beasts attacking us?”

“I just want to know where Darling is,” Lin said. “Why isn’t he here?”

Kari wished to know that as well. Eryk had been on watch, and she knew he wouldn’t disappear unless he had a good reason. With the current situation being what it was, she believed that reason had something to do with this horde of attacking Demon Beasts.

As more Demon Beasts came pouring in like an unrelenting flood, Kari and the others found themselves unable to converse as they focused completely on defending themselves and each other. Marko Kriger arrived at some point and joined Catalyna in the defensive circle. There was still no sign of Eryk. However, none of them could afford to think about that as they soon became overwhelmed.

Forced to constantly backpedal as more and more Demon Beasts rushed in from the ground and tree tops, Kari found herself receiving more injuries. A Liger managed to catch her off guard, scratching her arm and drawing blood. She wasn’t the only one to get hurt. Lin hissed as a Felinoid bit into her tail, sinking its fangs in deep. The Lamia girl killed it with a swift whip strike that pierced its head, but the damage had already been done. Similarly, Fay was knocked to the ground as a Felinoid pounced on her. While she managed to kick it off, the Demon Beast had crushed her left gauntlet and blood was leaking from inside.

Just as it looked like they were about to be completely overwhelmed, a bright flash of pale blue lightning suddenly rushed into the clearing and Demon Beasts that had been harassing them became little more than broken bodies lying on the ground.