Effie gasped heavily after taking another charge on her. He had not shown that, but under her supreme armor there were hidden several minor wounds adding unpleasant stinging to her movement.
The enemy was way too fast in a way that defied her ability to react. It was not only that its ability was to be fast. It also makes wacky things with friction. Sometimes the spear's tip slipped off the rough skin of the stone zebra. Sometimes it was the tip of Kai's arrow. Even Jet's misty weapons weren't an exception. She was still holding it back more due to her giant form.
The situation was getting dire. Cor already lost some crows, Jet exhausted much of her essence, Kai was hit once by a rusty vehicle, and the next hit will dispatch him from the battle. Yet, it didn't get them far.
From the look of it Effie guessed that zebra still needs some footing to move fast. It wasn't flying. It was running, or riding.
The problem then was finding the place it's gonna set the foot, and robbing it of that footing. They were supposed to strike at the same time the place where it put a foot, and the place where it's going to put its foot next, and in the small window of opportunity, when the ability to lessen the friction is is turned off, sent it to grave.
Ironically it was a job for three of people. And not just any people, because ones they could strike strong enough to harm the Great Monster, and acting in perfect synchronization, and directed by pure prediction of where the zebra is gonna go.
Effie dropped the smile, and her usually casual demeanor turned into a moment of concern.
'We're all at risk, and if someone backs out of the plan, we can seriously die this time. Maybe except for Cor.'
"KAI!"
Her booming voice shook the air. Kai didn't blink and summoned his microphone.
"What does the fox say?
"Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!
Gering-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!
Gering-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!"
What the fox say?
"Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow!
Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow!
Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow!"
The zebra momentarily stopped allowing Effie to deliver a vicious punch to the side. The punch slipped, mostly because that hit actually landed. Zebra go away from the grip, and then threw several cars at still singing Kai
"Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho!
Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho!
Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho!"
Kai stopped abruptly, because there were several vehicles flying at him. He escaped most of them, but one grazed him.
At the same time two crows appeared on zebra's eyes, and slashed. A moment later the crows were crushed. But when the view was clear an arrow struck the ground beneath it. Zebra escaped only to land somewhere where Effie was already waiting for it. But instead of striking the enemy she truck her spear into the ground with her spear.
Unexpectedly a fire explosion was unleashed that sent Effie, and the zebra flying. Effie was still laying, while the zebra was about to regain its footing, when it froze.
Behind it was Jet empowered by a supreme black leather armor. She slashed at it with her mist in the scythe form. The blade phased through its black, and white stone body, and extinguished it. Jet didn't stop there. She slashed several more times till she heard the Spell's announcement.
All happened in an instant.
Her core gained another fracture, and started leaking essence again. She got another powerful soul trapped in her misty weapon. Also her soul has gotten a little stronger.
Sadly there were no new Memories, and at those hard times it would be really nice to get one. Really. Isn't defeating a creature of the higher Rank enough? Well, Spell does what it wants to do. There's no helping that.
Coming to things that matter… Everyone was hurt one way or another. However, thanks to them that monster didn't hurt humans. Effie took the corpse to her locket. She was still insistent on trying to eat it.
Then there was Saint Cor, who definitely suffered from having his crows killed. When she came to think about it… each crow was in a way a separate body, and in the case of Sunny it allowed him to make seven anchors.
"Perhaps Cor could… no, it can't be, right? But on the other hand why not?"
She had to admit that among Saints Cor was moderately strong, at least on the surface, really, there's nothing exceptional about him. At least in the realm of Sainthood. But you don't become a Saint by being a moderate Master. There had to be something about Cor that for so many years was building, and maintaining the position of the Government, not just making it a neutral party. It wouldn't be surprising if he actually had that trick in his sleeves.
And hey, being able to make more anchors is not overly mighty. It wouldn't even make him actually powerful.
However, Jet decided it's not even worth inquiring. If Cor didn't reveal being able to do something like that before, why would he do that now? Anyway, ff Cor used Cassie's services, they would inevitably still know.
Effie returned to Bastion to take care of Ling again. Kai departed to subdue another horde of Nightmare Creatures, and she was going tag along with him for taking down the most powerful ones. It will be quite a challenge to do that right after fighting off such a bad match up, but Nightmare Gates don't wait. At the same time they have to find someone willing to enter the seed, because it's the only known way to . And because, sadly, no one can survive in the Dream Realm alone, it has to be a group of Awakened at least.
Meanwhile they can try to… follow the Call, and then kill as many creatures as possible to lessen the amounts that can pass the Nightmare Gate. That will lessen the pressure, and potentially clear the way for the Awakened, who will eventually enter the seed.
Jet, and Kai grinned mysteriously.
Normally that would mean that Government resources are being spread thinner with the Gate they will have to contain. They're going to return spent, achieve very temporal safety, and at most one a few more Masters, and gain a few thousands soul shards, good mostly to saturate the cores of a few Awakened, Dreamers, or two, or three Masters, or one Saint. Alternatively they could fuel some spelltech. However in the end it was a drop in the sea of needs, and ironically in terms of resource management, a waste of Saints' time..
Normally that's what would happen, a waste, but as someone who actually has the knowledge of natural awakening, they could use the shards to raise a number of new Awakened. Those new Awakened then could fight against the creatures way more effectively, and therefore contribute to the Government forces.
Not only that. With Blue-Eyed boulder, her massive storage, it was a very viable option to store the corpses inside, and contribute them to military industry, and even to carry her own crew of supporters in that particular regard to carry the corpses, and the shards into the storage. She had to admit she had stolen the trick from Sunny, or rather he presented the Memory with an intention to be used this way. In general she had a lot of gratitude for that guy.
Who would have thought that spatial storages can be so great? It's not even like she couldn't get one herself from the Government's resources, or even ask Effie to borrow her own. It's just it never occurred to her that she can carry one, for instance as a substitute for a purse, regardless of how small, and unnecessary it sounded.
As she was thinking about the things they flew into the direction of the Nightmare Gate, and were about to help to kill the invading horde. How many creatures could one Gate release? Hundreds. If they can claim the shards, that alone can raise a minor Awakened force.
…
Cassie was laying on a couch, suffering from essence exhaustion. The act of forcefully extracting memories consumed plenty of it, much more than what she would normally spend. That forced her to cut off the marks, because seeing through them was going to spend more essence.
She was eating a golden fruit from Sacred Tree. The fruit had a unique quality that allowed a person to replenish lots of essence through consumption.
Next to her was Sunny, one of the avatars, and Orum, whose expression was still blank.
She didn't erase his memories, well, not all of them. She went only as far as to erase his recollection of memory reading. Soon Master Orum would wake up thinking she wanted to exchange with him some items for his niece, that happened to be a Saint, and a great archer, and luckily for them Lady Cassia stumbled across an arrow of exceptional power, but because she's utterly blind, she preferred to sell it to a Saint that could use it well.
The arrow in question even existed. It was Sunny's creation, he mentioned the enchantment was [Death Dealer] so no one was going to question the transaction actually held place, and was so important that Orum had to appear in person.
She wasn't used to processing so much information, and that contributed greatly to her state. Her ability forces the target to relieve the memories as clearly as possible. Reading them is a metaphor. She doesn't actually read memories. She relieves them with the target. And with memories there comes the emotional impact.
That impact is also a threat, of course. It endangered her sense of self, and that was what terrified her.
"What did you learn?"
Sunny said curiously, while handling her tissue, which Cassie gladly accepted.
"Many important things. It would be the easiest to just show you. Do you want that?"
Sunny nodded. He probably didn't know what it was. He would soon learn. She looked into his eyes, and he looked into hers. He froze, his mind was processing what was happening. It wasn't surprising. Not many had the opportunity to experience what she perceived. Most wouldn't handle that very well, but Sunny was an exceptional case, because he was already perceiving the world through many viewpoints. He will recover very fast.
The moment lasted a few long minutes, but eventually Sunny went to his senses. His face was painted with wonder.
"He is a spy."
Cassie nodded.
Orum was indeed a spy. In early days of the Nightmare Spell Ki's mother saved both him, and his niece. That turned into a lifelong debt of gratitude. He even helped Ki to claim Ravenheart. It was just that Orum was sent by the Spell into place that now is in Sword Domain, and because of that he was eventually forced to pretend to swear loyalty to Valor Clan.
"Yes, he is a spy, but I'm not exactly loyal either so I guess it's fine by me."
Sunny shook his head.
"I mean he's a spy, and he genuinely believes that Anvil is bad, while Ki is good. Doesn't it strike you as well? Such naivety from such an old man. And he dares to play a spy!"
"I agree. I would like him to have a little more critical eye, but we have our priorities."
Then Sunny started considering things.
"About that… Orum memories answer surprisingly many questions. More than I hoped to get today. For example, the dormant ability of Anvil. It explains how he can control all those swords. Overall it's a control over metal. That also means that to approach him we have to use weapons that are not made of metal, and to wear armors not made of metal. And we've just learned two abilities of Ki. She can worsen the wounds, and she can make puppets. Her army of undead is an application of that power. They're not autonomous. They're.."
Cassie broke into his word, sharing his worries.
"She controls them, and she does that to such an extent so she can probably perceive the world through them. That makes things more troublesome, doesn't it?
Sunny put his hands over his face.
"You know… At first I suspected it's possible to disrupt the ability with a specific flute, provided it's the most powerful flute known to humanity, but still. Now I feel that's not a good idea at all! There's also a glaring possibility that the ability can be used on living people similarly to how my Shadow Step can be used on other living creatures.
It complicates our plan to steal Ki's secrets just by kidnapping one of her daughters. We can't kidnap a daughter from anywhere. We have to do that outside of her Domain. And that's not all. After all, we absolutely can't allow Ki to learn we're working together. That would be a disaster of epic proportions."
They had a general idea that the Sovereigns can't know about Sunny being a Saint till the very last moment, but they had very little idea of how a Sovereign perceives the world. Which is important. Sunny, and Cassie were great examples of how hard it is to be sneaky around powerful people. Sunny could see anyone around just with Shadow Sense so it was practically impossible to sneak around him. Cassie could see you with your own eyes! There were already worrying signs that Anvil might be able to extend his perception of the world with swords, and that Ki can do the same with her puppets. It doesn't have to be much/
But here's a question: Why should that be all? There's really no reason to not expect more of them, is it? For example, Anvil might be about swords, but perhaps other metal items can also extend that perception. And that doesn't even include the idea that he has runic sorcery, very potent, and advanced.
Sunny felt terror. They knew the enemy was incredibly mighty, and yet didn't know much. It just how vast it is. Fighting him isn't just facing one person. It's about destroying a vast Domain. They are like ants plotting to bring down an elephant.
Yet Cassie smiled helplessly like she expected things to be this way already.
"Excuse me, what's going on? Where am I?"
Suddenly Master Orum woke up, and started rubbing his eyes shaking off the feeling of being unpresent.
"Master Orum, it's not everyday we find such a good Memory. Master Sunless is here to serve as an appraiser. Thanks to his exceptional expertise he can very accurately deduce the quality of the Memory."
She hit Sunny with her elbow. Sunny coughed nervously before regaining his composure. He nodded vigorously, and started talking in prepared sentences.
"Ah, yes. I learned its enchantments very thoroughly, and I can assure you that the power of that arrow can easily bring down at least a Fallen Titan. The expense of essence is very huge as well so one must not miss it. On the bright side of things the arrow stores the essence for later use, allowing it to charge it beforehand, or wait several days till it will charge itself on its own. I believe that Saint Helie will make great use of it."
Orum looked genuinely excited.
"That's exciting. We're willing to exchange something precious for that. What's the name?"
Sunny smiled politely. There was a sliver of pride in his voice.
"Costly Douceur, Sir."
The old man widened eyes in surprise.
"Good gracious! Excuse me, but what a bizarre name!"