Chapter 81
Longing of the Voices
Words parted from his lips, yet he could seldom fathom what they meant. All Leo knew to do was chant what was imprinted into his mind, word by word, phrase by phrase.
Golden light began to emerge from his skin, tiny motes as though birthed, and converge toward the ghostly apparition. The first mote of golden light caused her to scream, her face distorting until her eyes bulged, and her mouth tensed into a maw, and she turned to rush toward him, but he continued chanting, blindly believing in the system.
By the time she reached him, motes of golden light had covered her, and she fell to her knees, her head hung low. Leo crouched and gently pressed his hand against her head, continuing to repeat the same chant over and over as the darkness turned to light, and night to day. He felt something shear open from within the ghost and trickle through his palm and into his mind. Just as he was about to yelp in horror, images flashed inside his head and he found himself afoot a journey beyond space and time.
A woman stood, though just barely, against a tide of arrows and flame. She donned torn-up armor made of steel and bound by leather, nicked and cracked across, and wielded a lengthy, gold-gilded spear, though by now it was bloody and broken. Surrounding her were ruins and debris, smoke and ash coalescing into a smog-like fog that descended upon the city.
She parted her lips and spoke, though Leo was unable to understand the words; within her voice, though, he heard anger, resentment, pain, and confusion. He felt a yearning within him arise, yearning to stretch out his arms and hug her, though he knew that was impossible. Even if he didn't know how, he did know this was merely a memory, a gasping remnant that formed the ghost originally. One of hate, pain, and suffering.
An arrow flickered swiftly--so swiftly that Leo estimated it was somehow faster than a bullet--and lodged itself into the woman's left thigh, forcing her to her knees. She speared the ground and held herself up the best she could, panting as blood broke from the wound and flew down her leg like a river. Yet, she pressed onward, screaming until her throat bled and thrusting forward with her spear.
World swirled in that instance, space bending by the will of the weapon, the immense pressure carving open a hole in the void and causing a massive explosion over four hundred yards away. Leo watched just about twenty bodies be tossed up into air, dismembered and destroyed, but it was for naught. That last bit of defiance spent her whole, and she fully fell, the spear in her arms shattering.
Her golden hair fell by the sides of her face, wet with sweat and blood, and she whimpered and wept, unwilling.
Storm surged forward as smoke parted, around a hundred humans--led by a masked figure--appearing. She looked up, gnashing her teeth, and speaking once again. Her voice somehow managed to carry through and be heard, but all it did was elicit laughter.
Leo turned toward the approaching 'army', all decked out in the finest steel, halos of immense cultivation supporting them. His instincts were telling him that they were all stronger than the strongest person Leo had met thus far in the world--Xiaoling.
They, though, failed to elicit the level of fear and terror that Chilly did, so at least it meant they weren't mind-bendingly strong.
Though she cursed (at least he assumed she did, with the level of vitriol she spat words out), it was pointless. The masked man leaned over and lifted her head by the chin, thrusting a dagger through her heart. Her body began to crack like a porcelain vase, red glow piercing through, the frame exploding into ash and dust. As their laughter echoed, Leo watched the fading, red motes of light stir and shudder, converging back toward one place, and forming the very ghost that Leo saw.
Opening his eyes, he realized he was back in the forest.
His hand was no longer touching a cold nothing, but instead felt strange warmth dancing. Looking down, he saw that the pale blue skin had turned rosy for just a moment, as she began to fade. Her distorted face, however, disappeared, and there was an evanescent smile hanging on her lips. A voice escaped them, though, once again, rang hollow in his ears as he could not understand.
She disappeared soon after, and the golden glow disappeared with her, causing the darkness of the night to surge back.
Leo felt spent and empty, not because the chant used a lot of is Qi, or that he was mentally or physically exhausted, but more so in the primal way of a human.
A thousand questions hung above him, and he was uncertain of them all. Should he feel sympathy for a race that had warred with humans not unlike himself? And if he should, what ought he feel toward those very same people? Was the cauldron of war good enough of an excuse? And, perhaps most importantly, would he have to bear witness to more of those scenes?
Considering just how many wails he'd heard coming from the forest, he feared he would. She was not alone, and he did not know whether his heart could take it. Yet, he could not turn heel and ignore them. Even though he only caught a glimpse of it, he saw in just how much pain she was, and how much suffering. It was a cursed existence, and if he was the only path to salvation...
Unbeknownst to him, at some point, he ceased being alone; instead of ghosts, however, it was his friends. Blackie and Milky poked their furry heads through his legs and looked at him with strange worry in their glistening eyes. Red climbed on his back and tossed all six of his arms around him, holding tenderly, while Hoot perched himself atop Leo's head, hooting lowly.
Beside them, Gray nuzzled his head against his thigh, while the tiny kitten skillfully climbed on top of his shoulder and began licking his face.
Howly, too, came, though he stayed a few feet from him, seated, as though shielding him from the shadow.
Even the tiger was there, as were dozens of birds decorating the hanging branches above, and dozens of other critters peeking their heads from between the trees and the shrubbery. And yet, despite there being so many of them, none made a sound beyond Hoot.
He could only smile and use the two arms he had to grab them against his chest and hold. They remained so for a little while longer before he took a deep breath and stood up, looking up past the canopy of the trees and toward the moon.
"Thank you," he spoke softly, feeling the weight of some fourteen or so animals hanging onto him. Even Howly came over and stopped his side, looking up at him. "I'll help them all, I promise. Ha ha, don't worry, don't worry. I'll be fine. Are you doubting me, eh? You don't doubt a handsome man like me, you know? Ha ha, let's go back home. I really need some sleep."
**
Yue slashed diagonally with her sword, easily cutting through the Qi shield that an older man had conjured, cutting him in one fell swoop. That was the fourth--fourth person she had killed in just five minutes. The most terrifying part, though, was that all of them were supposed to be stronger than she was. In fact, the man she just killed... was at Spirit Creation Realm, like her Junior Brother.
Though she sparred with Liang frequently, she never managed to even gain an upper hand, let alone defeat him. Perhaps it was because of those spars that she developed some wild thoughts about the strength of people at the Spirit Creation Realm, but, as with all things in this world it seemed, it was her Master's hand that curated such results.
None of the people she faced could block the strike from the art her Master passed on, the one he said 'had no name because it didn't deserve one', but one Liang and her secretly dubbed 'Heartripper', and if they attacked first, none could keep up with the footwork technique that they dubbed 'Timestopper'.
While what she was doing was terrifying enough, Liang... was another beast entirely.
He jumped into the herd of some twenty people trying to take over the fort, all of which were at least Peak Core Formation, with eight being in Spirit Creation Realm, and two even reaching Fusion Realm. And yet, none were able to stop even one of his punches.
Rather, it was strange--she'd seen Liang go all out before as she'd asked him, and though she was beaten into a pulp within five moves, she still could see him move, and endure those five moves. Others... were not.
He moved in a flash, punching out rather freely like a butterfly, tearing through whatever flimsy defense they tried putting up in a heartbeat. As such, what they likely assumed would be easy work turned into horror, with five that survived having only done so because they escaped.
"You alright?" Liang's countenance once again shifted; when he fought, she noticed even before today, there was a certain charisma to him that made a heart stir. However, he was now back to the airheaded buffoon with a wide grin.
"I am. You?"
"Just fine," he said. "Master's arts are really... haah."
"Have you noticed?" Yue said, putting away the sword and looking around at the horror of their make. There were quite a few bodies strewn across the ground of the silent fort, though they also saw quite a few lining the walls that were not of their make. "The quality of our Qi compared to theirs."
"Incomparable."
"Hm," she nodded. "We should burn some of these bodies."
"Eh? Why? With this, our achievements will be enough to shoot us through the ranks!"
"Maybe," she said. "But don't you think they'll have quite a few questions? Namely, how did two brats manage to kill not one, but two Fusion Realm cultivators. What will you tell them? It's just our innate talents?"
"... right," he nodded understandingly. "What do you propose?"
"Even defeating just ten cultivators of ranks similar to ours will likely be seen as a massive feat," she said. "So, burn most everyone, leaving two Spirit Creation Realm cultivators and eight Core Formation ones. That should be enough."
"Strong and clever," a distantly familiar voice startled them both as they lined up to fight, only to see a shadow emerge from the nearby building. The face was rather familiar, as it was that of the General Huang.
"G-General...!" Yue stuttered, feeling uncertain and immediately mentally preparing to use the Void Scroll in case he attacked.
"Relax," instead, the man laughed rather merrily, inspecting the destruction. "You two did well. Too well. But, well, we don't ask questions here. If we did, no one would want to come, at least not without some heavy escort. How about this? I'll take credit for killing the impossible, and pass on the rewards to you two, while asserting that you fought marvelously against the rest and came ahead against all odds. It should be enough to light you two up."
"Yeah, that works!" Liang immediately accepted, and even Yue nodded. But she was wary--extremely so. Why was he here? And why didn't he do anything when they were attacked? And if he saw them handling it, why didn't he go to the other forts to help? There were too many questions to ask, but she dared not ask them as the man could easily kill both of them. For now, she chose to remain silent, and pray that he was just another eccentric, sort of like her Master.