On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

Four Hundred And Fifteen

As Bell and the girls prepared our battle lines, the open cavern giving us more options due to the extra space, I noticed that Haru-san was looking paler than usual, and her expression was dark. Not only that, but the spirit lights of Tsukiko-san and Kinneka were bobbing around restlessly as well, moving erratically. Is it the flame here?

“Are you all right?” I asked Haru-san, and for a moment she looked at me, brown eyes unfocused, before she shook her head, breaking free of her momentary fugue. She immediately cast her new Light Of Muted Emotions, and her eyes became clear again.

“I think so. Being so close to it… I felt a little niggle when I was on mount Atago, but… it’s worse here. But not unbearable, don’t worry.” She paused, before making a slightly bitter joke. “You take me to all the nicest places, Akio-kun.” She chuckled grimily. “The concentration of Dark Flame must be higher here. Do you think…”

“Can we talk about this later?” Bell advised. She had organised the girls into combat groups, a mixture of ranged support and a blocking combatant, and the enemies had noticed us, a flood of the faster dammed spirits surging towards us, followed by the stone elementals and then the hulking behemoths, slow-moving, amorphous masses of fire and rock, the ground shaking under their steps. “For now, I need you to thin out the pack, Akio, Haru.”

“Right. Yeah, I’ll run support, prevent us being overwhelmed.” I agreed, still keen on having everyone level up and practice as much as was safely possible. “Before that though… Haru-san, can you see the spirit lights?”

Haru-san concentrated. She didn’t have special eyes, but being an Onryo, she was far more sensitive to the presence of other spirits, and so was able to pick up on them more often, even when it wasn’t the rare occasions they were visible to all. “Yes, I see. It makes sense they would be more affected…. Poor Matsumuro-san…” Haru-san cast her Light over them, and the spirit lights calmed, their erratic and almost deranged motions ceasing, returning to the hovering orbits they usually had around me.

“Right. That flame…” The towering column of the sacred flame, tainted by the Lost Flame, was soaring towards the distant roof of the cavern but never reached it, instead vanishing into a crack in space, purple spatial element scattering weakly. “…I think it’s the root of the flame of mount Atago, or one of them at least… I don’t see the Tengu, so… I guess it’s up to us. Watch out though.” The flame occasionally flickered and bobbed, scattering smaller tongues of Lost Flame as if expelling poison.

“Here they come. Thin their numbers!” Bell ordered, and Motoko and Natsumi started loosing the remaining blessed arrows they had, while Haru-san, after gathering herself, began to pierce them with bolts of light, sometimes multiple enemies slain in one burst, ether scattering. A rock elemental charged forwards, reminding me of a sort of hulking bear, and Daiyu moved forwards on graceful feet, her Crushing Palms rapidly destroying it, scattering black rock and flame everywhere. She wheeled, water forming and then projected as a spray of bullets, and a number of damned spirits fell.

“Don’t forget about me!” Kana declared, the ground, which near us was the same black, smooth rock studded with jagged outcrops as the narrow passageways we had ventured through, shifting and swirling, the flaming spirits able to cross them, but the elementals and several of the larger behemoths sinking down, getting stuck. “Ksitigarbha’s Favour is perfect for this.” She clenched her fist in satisfaction, and the trapped victims exploded as the earth closed in on them with a thunderous boom.

That’s a bit odd… As I surveyed the battle, my bullets of Spirit Water and beams of light intervening where necessary, though the girls were acquitting themselves well, Chen Na barely having to call on her barriers, I noticed that closer to the flame the rock changed, going from smooth and glassy to rough and dirty. Maybe the heat melts it? The flame burped, and Lost Flame scattered, and some of the ether that neither we or the Territory had absorbed was drawn in, along with the fading debris of the slain spirits, and more were birthed, resembling Tengu and animals, wolves and bears most prevalent.

“It seems that this will not be so easy.” Motoko observed, though her expression was excited. “Though with everyone here we have naught to fear.”

“That’s right.” Natsumi agreed happily. “More practice, more experience, it’s perfect. But I’m out of arrows.” She looked at me eagerly, and I grinned.

“Fine. Give me your spears and swords.” Motoko and Natsumi handed them over, and I was surprised to see Bell there with her sword too. I called on Spirit Water, bathing them in the blessed element, and with that the three of them joined Daiyu in battle with the renewed horde, while Kana and Daiyu focused on taking out the stronger elementals. Looking at Chen Na, who was watching nervously, wringing her hands, I shrugged.

“Calm down. This is well within our capabilities.” I had a difficult time being nice to her, seeing as she reminded me of Nie Ling’s situation, but the woman in front of me was far more involved in committing atrocities, far less… innocent, for want of a better word, as I didn’t feel that Nie Ling was innocent, even if she wasn’t entirely guilty either. Of course, with her having died and being reborn, without the benefit of Haru-san’s Throne, I wasn’t sure whether she would just remain as a spiritual being on the Astral, or simply vanish entirely. And it’s not something I’m eager to test, even on someone like her. If it was Kondou Kazuo, maybe…

Seeing one of the behemoths looming, I blasted it down with a beam of light that seared through it. It wasn’t as effective as it was on the damned spirits, as when the shroud of formless mist around it boiled off, what lay beneath was stone similar to the elementals. Focusing my energies, I managed to shear through, and it shattered, falling apart. As it fell with a loud impact, ground quivering, Chen Na spoke.

“I… the things you all do seem surprising to me. Back in China, when we were under the Department for Managing Divine Mysteries, before we rebelled… it was similar. But every day we heard tell of someone dying, killed in battle. We feared it, yet… you all seek it out so happily.”

I opened my mouth to deny that, but Daiyu, having crushed another pair of elementals, their numbers diminishing, beat me to it. “Happily? Opportunities are always to be taken.” Her dark eyes narrowed as she surveyed the others battling their opponents bravely. She cast out a few more water bullets, her performance a touch clumsy, as it wasn’t optimised for Qi unlike her Cultivation techniques, and as a group of damned spirits disintegrated, lessening the pressure on her comrades, she continued. “Taking hold of one’s own fate is the choice of all rational people. Otherwise you are a slave to the whims of the strong. We choose…” she looked at me, perhaps remembering her Sect and how we met and what came after. “…to grasp our own fate, and fight those we do not desire to the last breath. And for that we need to risk ourselves, push our limits. Cultivate our strengths. We will not be the pawns of others. Otherwise we will end up where you did.”

Chen Na looked chagrined at that, her expression downcast. “I see. Was it my own lack of will…”

“It all comes down to the strength of one’s drive.” Daiyu agreed. “You let yourself drift on the tides, moved by others. We… we strive to be in control of the waves.”

The fighting was coming to an end, the great column of flame scattering a small number more smaller creatures of fire. Motoko, Natsumi and Bell handled them with some support from Haru-san, and when we were done, I surveyed the battlefield, gathering the remaining ether and topping up those who needed it with Chirurgery. As Natsumi was thanking me, her face red from my touch, Haru-san called to us, as she had drifted over closer to the flame, occasionally using her Light on herself.

“Akio-kun, take a look at this.” She said, a little light element leaping from her hands and striking the black, lumpy floor, which suddenly steamed, a layer of dirt or perhaps ingrained ash flaking away, revealing a rusty red and white ground underneath.

That’s odd. I thought it’d be volcanic stone like everything else here. We went over, careful to avoid the scattered tongues of Lost Flame which were burning around us, to which my Foehn greedily devoured. I bent down, and used my own light to clear a patch of ground, coughing a little at the scent of ash and burning.

“Isn’t that bone?” Natsumi said, tapping the white parts of the floor. “It looks like it’s been carved too.”

“And this should be brick of some sort…” Kana added, kneeling down, a little irritated when ash got on her clothes and the Brigandine beneath. “It’s got some pattern on it too. It looks a bit Japanese, but… not quite?”

We cleared a wider area, Haru-san and I expending a little light element. Under the shimmering yellow glow of the flame, the decorative reliefs were revealed, and Motoko was next to speak. “These seem familiar. I have seen them somewhere, but… I am afraid I cannot place them. They are traditional, certainly…”

“It’s a mystery. But I suppose that isn’t our priority right now.” I turned to look at the burning flame, taking in some of the scattered spatial element. My Eye glowed as I stepped closer. “If this is the root of the sacred flame, where’s the Tengu? Or maybe it’s just one wellspring of the flame…” Suddenly the flame belched, and a glowing nova of yellow flame erupting, heading towards me. I leapt backwards, effortlessly avoiding it, but the spirit lights around me were caught, and suddenly blazed with yellow and golden light. Panicked, my Eye glowed and I made ready to intervene, but after a few moments the spirit lights settled, and they were larger and brighter than before, even the aether starved Kinneka looking significantly closer to resurrection. Before I could speak Haru-san was already bathing them with her Light Of Muted Desires. On seeing my grateful look, she smiled.

“No need to thank me. As fellow ghosts, we have to stick together. It makes me feel a little better about the genocide of my fellow spirits.” She laughed softly, her expression wry. “Besides, we can’t let anything happen to Matsumuro-san, can we?”

“No. I was careless. But…” I had noticed something odd, hence why I had drawn closer. My Eye wasn’t able to penetrate the brilliant glow, but there was something beneath the flames, and the fire itself was flickering, fading slightly then flaring stronger on regular intervals. “Do you see that?” I asked, and it was Daiyu who nodded.

“I do not see it, but with my Qi I can feel it. An irregular rhythm. Like a heartbeat, or no… a breath.” she said, troubled.

“You’re not blocked by the flames then?” I asked, and Daiyu looked at me proudly.

“It is quite the challenge, the strong fiery Qi does indeed distort my vision, and there are many other kinds of Qi here as well, all jumbled, including a dark, unpleasant Qi coming from what you call the Lost Flames, though most of that has vanished for now. But I have excellent control. I can single out what I am searching for. My precision has greatly strengthened since we…” she paused, a faint flush on her cheeks barely visible under the yellow light of the flame. “… since we became Dao Compaions, and my improper Dantian was corrected, amongst… other things.”

“Well done.” At my praise she stood taller. “I’ve been too used to relying on my Eye. And it is powerful, but it’s still sight. Even if obstacles don’t block it, it can still be prevented from working by enough glare, it seems. I’ll have to learn Qi Perception.” As Daiyu agreed to teach me, I tried my own version, aether extending out my senses. It was hard and wasteful, but as I entered the flame with my expanded will, I felt a rush of heat, uncomfortable yet somehow soothing. Except…

“Ugh, that Lost Flame is unpleasant… I can feel my emotions surging, dark urges rising. Fortunately…” My Resilience was high, and my Spiritually Pure Physique prevented it from being more than some muttered buzzing whispers. Reaching down further, there was another, larger cavern, full of a huge amount of spatial element. “…I’m strong against curses and suchlike. Daiyu, did you find the space below?” This would be easier with Split Thoughts, but there’s no need to ruin Eri’s night yet. This is just an investigation, there’s no danger, I think…

“I did. It seems there are several more flames such as this one, all connected to the twisted space below. And within…”

“Yeah.” I agreed, my aether coming into contact with a great deal more of the Lost Flame. “It seems that if it isn’t the source of the Lost Flame, there’s a ton of it we need to get rid of at least. But there’s also…”

Daiyu agreed. “I do not know what it is. I do not believe it is alive, for the Qi signature is … bereft of all but fiery Qi. Yet somehow it breathes.”

“They do say fire breathes, right?” Kana interjected, a little frustrated about not being able to understand what we were talking about. “So, what’s the plan?”

Daiyu and I exchanged glances, before I shrugged. “Yes, they do say that. I think we have to try and find our way to that chamber, so we head down. Although what with the strange, distorted nature of the space in here, heading down might not take us down. Hopefully we can find the Tengu on our way, and cleanse more of the Lost Flame. Speaking of…” I looked at the stronger spirit lights floating around us. “Haru-san, are you not going to try?”

She glanced at the flame, shaking her head. “No, I’ll pass, Akio-kun. It seems that Matsumuro-san was fortunate, the fire that she absorbed was the pure one. But you see…” she pointed, and I nodded. The Lost Flame was still seeping into the fires, and we had no easy way to remove it. It’s not like I can burn it all up with Foehn, if this is one of the wellsprings of the Sacred Flame, destroying it would at best weaken it, and at worst, the whole thing might disappear. I remember when I found Foehn…

“I still think you could manage, but I agree, it’s not worth the risk. When it’s purified though, I think it would very much suit you, Haru-san. So for now, we should press on.”

“Yes, while rest is important, due to the oppression of this place, it only weakens you, Akio.” Bell spoke for the girls. “We should make measured haste.”

Yeah, I used a bit more aether than I wanted probing what lies below. But… whatever it is, the mystery won’t solve itself… With one last look back at the golden flame, tainted by red and black, I sighed, leading us towards the nearest exit that sloped downwards, hoping it would lead us to where we needed to be…

********

“Another wave, just great…” Kana sighed, the ground in front of us turning into a rippling liquid, and the flaming spirits tumbled in, only to be smothered by the rising flowing stone, before it solidified, the once-smooth, glassy floor now lumpy and misshapen. “…it seems like we’ve been here for days. My only consolation is my control is improving. When I get out of here, I want to go somewhere nice. You did it for Eri, right?” she said to me, half-accusing.

“I did.” I agreed. “It was quite the nice night.”

She made a noise of frustration while the others laughed. “Oh, damn Akio, I know you are doing that on purpose! I thought you’d stop teasing me this way when we started going out!”

“Says the girl who was teasing me during the earlier challenges.” I reminded her playfully. “Besides, Eri’s sleeping now. She’s emotionally drained after the shock of her healing, she’s still not quite come to terms with the relief yet. It’ll take a few more days I’m sure.”

“I still can’t believe you were busy making out with Eri while in this place.” Kana puffed out her cheeks. “So, what are you doing? Curled up in her embrace, having a good time?”

“Yes.” I admitted. “But I’m also doing research on my phone and sending a few emails and messages. No rest for the wicked, so my mom would say.”

“And you are most certainly wicked.” Haru-san said, amused. “But Kana-chan, it’s only been hours, I assure you. Though it is hard to keep track of the time in here. So cramped and dingy… and we have to be careful every step we take.”

“It seems you can be more relaxed.” Motoko pointed out correctly as Haru-san walked through an outcropping of jagged, obsidian blades jutting from one wall, passing through them harmlessly.

“Oops, you caught me.” She said cheerfully, though I could tell being closer to the source of the Lost Flame was troubling her, as she was using her light more and more, and was having to use it on the spirit lights too. Fortunately it doesn’t seem to take much of her strength, and the blessing from Tarōbō has compensated for a lot of the drain…

“It’s all right, I know it’s hard, but you’ve all done well, Motoko, Natsumi, Kana. And you’ve all gained a number of levels.”

“Why are you not praising us?” Bell said, looking at Daiyu with a smile. “We will feel left out.”

“It is because he knows we have fought many hard battles before. It is a mark of respect.”

“That’s right.” Natsumi agreed. “Motoko and I did do some fighting in London, but it was a training exercise, there was no real danger, not like now.”

“I don’t know. It feels pretty safe here.” Kana disagreed. “When Akio has to, he can show off.”

“Like in the second chamber. I see.” Natsumi agreed. She turned to me, eyes sparkling. “That was impressive. Hundreds of spirits gone in an instant.”

“I felt a bit bad robbing you all of the experience, but the chamber was crawling with them. We needed to break in.” I said, remembering. After a number of false starts, reaching dead ends or twisting crossroads, we had reached the second source of the Sacred Flame, another pillar of yellow fire soaring from and into twisted space. The chamber was thronged with damned spirits, and more were being created even as we watched, and they were shuffling towards the many exits of the cavern. Since the numbers were so overwhelming, I unleashed a great beam of light element, blasting an opening, purifying many, and after that the battle had been fierce, though manageable.

“Their numbers are certainly increasing, and since they are troublesome to deal with, I can see why the Tengu struggle. Individually I would say a goblin is more dangerous than the half-formed ones, though the ones that resemble people or Tengu are more of a threat. But a goblin that cannot be harmed by mundane weapons and abilities… that can bring down an unprepared warrior. Ten such, a hundred such, a thousand such… it would be a massacre if they stormed the Tengu village atop the mountain, and a problem if they enter your Territory, Haru.” Bell pointed out with her own experiences of battles and skirmishes.

“Yes, the barrier should keep them out, and I could always set up Hands Of Forgiveness on the border, but I’d rather stop them at the source.” She said, distracted, twitching a little.

“Are you all right?” I asked her, and she grimaced.

“I’m just a little uncomfortable. I think we are getting close to the next source of the flame. And this one seems more contaminated. It’s… it’s nothing.” She promised. “I just… it brings out the worst in me. But…” She forced a smile, bathing herself and the spirit lights in more soothing elemental energy. “… it was good timing to get this ability. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure I’d have been all right with just a quick jaunt down here, but Tarōbō certainly was helpful…”

“In that case, we should carry on. We’ve finished up here.” Around us the remaining fragments of ether were absorbed, and we pushed on. It was a few minutes later that Bell called out, her keen eyes spotting something.

“Wait. There!” she pointed, and following her finger, I could see several arrows on the ground, their fletching scorched, the light on their arrowheads having faded, now just cold metal and stone.

“Not ours.” Motoko said, picking it up and inspecting it. “Though…” she pulled one of the shafts she had been given by the Tengu. “It is a match. And…” she touched the burned feathers. “Still warm. I doubt it has been lying here long…”

“There’s more. Blood, and some feathers.” Natsumi spotted them. Dabbing a finger in gingerly to the red liquid, a silver mist rising, she frowned. “Also still warm. I’d say we are no more than ten minutes behind them.”

“I see. Hopefully that means that they’ve successfully cleansed a lot of the Lost Flame and are heading for the sources like we are. We’ll join up with them, and then hopefully…”

“What lies beneath.” Daiyu said, her tone ominous, and I nodded.

“That’s right. What lies beneath, and possibly the source of the Lost Flame…” As we picked up the pace, still keeping cautious, as there were many dangers, I shattered the blades of obsidian on the walls and ceilings with wind and earth element as I took the lead, Chen Na expending a little energy to prevent the shrapnel from injuring anyone. Soon we could see the passageway ahead opening up, and could hear the sounds of fighting. A faint, icy mist was creeping around our feet, and the temperature that was climbing a little had dropped.

“Haanōbō…” I remarked, seeing the residual water element. Then we heard a great, angry bellow, and we all glanced at each other. “And Arangbō, it seems. We’ve found them. Come, on, let’s go…” We moved as quickly as we dared, and soon we were looking into a cavern much like the others, a great flame burning at the centre, though this one had collapsed much of the ground around it, white bone and reddish brick visible amidst the darkness of the pit it had caused. The ground was wet and frozen, a dozen Tengu battling valiantly against damned spirits and earth elementals. A giant one was lying broken, Arangbō on top of it shouting a roar of victory, while even as we watched the red-robed Shungbō unleashed a surge of fiery energy, and several more of the obsidian monsters melted, the fragments of Lost Flame they exuded likewise boiling away, the power of Tarōbō’s blessing purifying them.

And there’s Haanōbō and Fungbō… Seeing that all the Four Directions were safe, I breathed a sigh of relief. Several of the Tengu at the rear spotted us, calling out, and as Shungbō turned to us, flames still streaming from his hands and wings, I nodded at him politely. Yasaka-san’s warnings from the Book… we’ll need to keep our guard up. But first… The dark pit was suddenly filled with a number of huge elementals, black jagged stone paws slamming into the ground, huge, faceless heads looking animalistic and feral peering over the lip of the crater. …I think we need to send those back to their rest…