On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

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 me 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 metallic white light above receding, until all was darkness…

Where… where am I? Was that a teleportation attack, or… no, more likely some sort of mental 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 me, 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 time. 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 met 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 me, my face feeling as though it had been struck hard. Blows rained down on me, and the laughing, sneering face was coming at me from all sides, multiplied, everywhere I looked he was there.

“Cry for me. Scream. Beg! The end is the same 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 me were present, and my skin crawled as though hands were pinching me all over. A visceral fear was within me, that of something precious about to be taken…

“Oh, so you were a virgin I see. How nice for me!” the many faces sneered, and pain jabbed through me. It was hard to describe, like someone 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 me. A fear that men 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 merely rendered into a serious of torments, 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 me, 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 unharmed. The many faces came 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 flames, turning to ash that was lost in the darkness. My illusory hand stretched, reaching for the light, the voice… and as it touched the flame was warm, and a gentle breeze enveloped me.

… 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 me, 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 meant that some 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 me worry. You shall have to make it up to me. 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 torment, overcame me. I vomited noisily, though all that came out was silvery mist and bile, tears streaming down my face. Still, this is no time 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 bombardments 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 game.

“No. you defended me, 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 tormented indeed.”

Shaking the final cobwebs free from my head, I tried one last time 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 men. 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 seemed to be women or girls.

Metal spears ripped free from the ground, aimed 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 came 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 moment Kiku paused, her hand to her mouth, biting down on something that glimmered gold. The hailstorm of nails relented for a moment, buying Ulfuric time to drive back the beetle kami with a mighty kick, cracking the chitin around one leg.

Her eyes sought mine, and for a moment 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 men who oppress us are dead! You remind me 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 reformed 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 men.”

“You waste-waste your time, 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 some 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 name. 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 mercy. We win here and push through to the centre.”

At my words Ixitt threw a vial containing an array of shimmering particles of green and yellow. The glass shattered and as the metallic 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 melting, leaving the edge of her great blade ragged.

I feel extremely guilty about this, but… well, if I tell myself it’s a mercy… 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 tormented 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 flames spread, devouring their forms, only a few faint, mournful cries signalling their demise. Scattered flames 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 me, only to have it fall into pieces as the pinwheels danced around it, chopping it into chunks. Even as the metal 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 me, the dirty, long nails on her pale hands turning metallic, 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 elemental flame that was stored within the bluesteel head. Several of her claws were melted clean through, snapping free, and flames 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, formed from sharp, vibrating strands of wind, met 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 flame met her attack, the explosion searing my exposed skin, but it was enough to shatter the spikes before they could pierce me.

Kiku stumbled back, her kimono just flaming shreds of cloth, and I heard Shaeula behind me snickering, even as she fought beside Ulfuric and Ixitt. “If Eri knows you are ogling naked women, she will be most wroth. Though this one is not-not worthy of your gaze.”

“Eyes on the battlefield.” I countered, barely sparing their fight a glance, as the widow of nails had formed her spikes into a lance, and had copied the rotation of some of our wind-based attacks. It was spinning like a drill, whining menacingly. Ugh, reminds me of the dentist, if said dentist was a cackling madwoman…

“Of course. We have it in hand, do we not-not, master Ulfuric?”

“Hardly.” He rumbled. “I could slay this so-called god, I believe, yet keeping it immobile to save it is far the greater task.” As he spoke he disabled a second leg, before a column of rock rose from the ground, forcing the beetle upwards. As he did so the red glow of earth element around him was fading, his energies almost spent by the long battles.

“Keh-keh-keh. Never a dull moment here, is there?” Ixitt interjected, throwing more vials, these ones exploding into a sticky slime that crawled around the pillar, gluing beetle legs to it. “To think I would, keh-keh, get to experiment so soon.”

Shaeula darted under the struggling beetle, eyes bright, but I was busy myself. Spear met drill, and this time I was pushed back, fragments of bluesteel shaved off my spearhead, the shaft starting to crack.

Up above the poor wraith was preparing to unleash her light again, but before she could I hurled more flames skywards. She flinched, her concentration broken, unused to such battles.

“Bastard! Wicked man! Even in death you would take from us!” Kiku was screaming.

“That’s hardly fair. You are trying to kill us.” Kiku staggered as I cut her leg with a kick wrapped in blades of emerald. My spear sought her heart, only for my body to be blown away, spear flying far from my grasp. Shards of green light fell down around me, and I realised Shaeula had thrown up a last minute barrier, deflecting the blast so that I was only caught by the explosion, not the bolt itself, but even so, everything hurt, and the landing was rough. Damn that Sniper Emplacement… “Die, die, diediedieDIE!” Kiku cried, leaping at my prone body, eyes wild with hate and insanity.

Sorry kami, I tried to be as  respectful as possible, but… “Foehn, Blaze!” a fiery torrent cascaded outwards, jets of blazing yellow fury striking nearby buildings, gates and trees. They instantly ignited, fires towering into the sky.

Kiku shrieked, also ablaze. Her metal drill was discarded, and it was melting into a puddle, giving off ether, of which I grabbed all I could. A nearby wraith burst into sparks and was lost, while the last few orcs burned.

“it’s over…” I muttered, getting to my feet once more, the boiling heat oppressive, my whole body aching with both real and phantom pains. Kiku was thrashing, what was left of her hair and one arm being consumed, and droplets were scattering as she struggled, spreading the fire to her torso. “… sorry I couldn’t help you, but… I have to put my own first…”

“I curse.. you!” the widow howled as her nails tried to stem the flames, only to see them catch fire and liquefy. Her arm dropped away, charred bones hitting the ground with a delicate chink of metal on metal, before she suddenly vanished, her last words echoing. “… I shall see you dead yet!”

The flames that were burning her, now bereft of their fuel, dropped to the floor, and I had to dart away as they scattered. I had already tasted the sting of Foehn during my duel with Shaeraggo, and had no wish to repeat that. So, where the hell did she go? Teleportation? If so I imagine the Foehn would go with her… wait, no, she couldn’t have… could she?

Shit. I had a terrible premonition, and I wasn’t sure whether it was my foresight or just a gut instinct. Turning my attention to Shaeula, who was underneath the struggling beetle kami, shining knife in hand, I raced over, knowing time was short…