The Last Dainv

Chapter 300

Gale and Erin touched down on the flat lands. Although it wasn't warmer in this area, there was no slow snowfall. Looking up, the sky above was also clear, similar to what he saw in Crystal Falls. And now that the light of the day had dimmed into evening, the stars presented themselves to him once more.

On the ground, though, told of a different story. To the naked eye, it would have been invisible. But to Gale, Presence Between showed him the small signs of conflict.

A blade of grass had been cut cleanly. Skid marks of something had uprooted grass over a couple of centimetres in length. Patches of grass were compressed due to sudden sprints.

Moving forward slowly and crouching onto the grass, a footprint appeared. Not a normal one from a Kairian. It was too thin and more stick-like, which resembled the remnants.

They were getting closer.

On these signs of conflict were the spheres of pure signature that led deeper into the flat lands. The Origin Spirit had come through here.

Gale led the way as Erin followed closely behind. They encountered similar signs of conflict, and the familiar taste of the corruption residue traced by his tendrils' senses.

Staring at the sky while they walked, he saw the stars that made the scene all too peaceful. Yet even though the Aurians were having fun at the mountain resorts, and Drovairt citizens were persisting to live, the world still had a problem. The constant snowfall would have been a detriment to their farms.

"Why doesn't this place have snow?" Gale asked.

Erin floated closer beside him. "Did Crystal Falls have snow?"

"No," he said.

"You have your answer."

"Did Dainvs die here too?"

"A single Dainv was felled in these flat lands," Erin said. "One of Aurumn's blood."

Gale looked around the meadow. Guess this wasn't just some random Dainv if her Origin Shard could cause this much distortion in the lands.

"Are you going to collect her shard too?" he asked.

"The Dainv do not waste. Once we are done with our quest, we shall return here to pay our respects and retrieve what remains," Erin said.

Continuing to follow the signs, the pure signature grew stronger as they moved deeper into the flat lands. However, that also meant there were more signs of the corruption residue moving alongside it.

Presence Between caught something to his left. A shadowy trail moved alongside the flat lands. Nowhere to hide for it in this unobstructed land. A couple of small trees, but that was all.

It was exactly 82 metres away based on where it sat on the taste map. Now that Gale had a good look at it, these things were tall, at least two metres, as its massive claws dangled on the ground. Based on its head movements, it was examining the ground, tracking something.

"Erin," Gale whispered. "Light up the surrounding."

Erebus materialized in his hand as he lunged himself toward the remnant. In three steps, he arrived just below the remnant.

The remnant's head snapped at him lunging from below. Its body tensed. Giant claws rose to block his strike. Erebus dug into the metal-like claws as it jumped backwards to soften the strike.

The remnant's body began to dissolve into shadowy smoke. Edges blurred, darkness seeped out from its torso. But before it could fully disappear, a blinding light from behind Gale lit up the whole surroundings, covering a large portion of the flatlands.

Every shadow vanished except for the few where the small trees and undershrubs grew too large.

It hesitated.

And that one second was all Gale needed. Erebus arced towards the remnant. A claw moved into the way of the arc, but this time, he held the momentum of the slice.

Its claws severed. Five broken pieces of it flew. And as Erebus dug in more, it cleanly sliced off its wrist.

Using its other claws, it swiped at him.

Gale predicted the flow of combat, easily weaving inwards to its flank. One more slice, and the blade passed through where the arm met its torso. The second appendage flew off of its body, thumping on the ground.

It turned and ran. Or tried to. Its thin legs pumped frantically, carrying it toward a small tree that stood alone.

In one step, Gale arrived at the remnant's back. In the second step, his feet firmly planted the remnant onto the ground, driving it face first into the grass.

Before it could recover, Gale twisted his legs downwards, breaking its spine and removing all resistance from the prey.

Erebus sliced twice.

One slice took off the left leg at where the thigh connected to the torso. The other slice took off the right leg. The remnant thrashed around, but it couldn't do anything under the grip of his soles.

Removing his foot from its back, Gale kicked the remnant upwards, flipping it onto its back.

The face. It was that of a human. Or at least, an imitation of one. It had a sort of uncanniness that he couldn't describe. It was still human, yet not. The eyes weren't levelled. Its nose looked like a botched nose job. And it had no eyebrows nor lashes.

Red tears streamed down from its wide eyes that held no pupils. Its mouth sealed shut by what looked like black stitches. Where the thread connected, black blood seeped out.

That was the only part that looked human. The rest of its body wasn't. A torso so slender that it couldn't possibly fit most human organs. Legs like sticks, and its fallen arms were also similar.

It looked at him, furrowing its non-existent brows. Red tears streamed down even more.

But Erebus moved upwards. Slowly, its point descended onto the remnant's throat. It easily slid into its windpipe, and when it did, the remnant coughed, gurgled, and thrashed even more. Black blood sputtered out from where Erebus had stabbed into. Smokey lines lazily flew upwards as the liquid entered a gaseous state, similar to the miasma that Elliot had.

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Finally, when it stopped thrashing, gurgling, and coughing, Gale pulled Erebus out from its throat. His eyes had no qualms about what he had just done. He was only curious about why the corruption tried to make its creations into forms of twisted humans.

[Defiled Remnant of the Mohrusy, Shadow Scout felled...]

[Extracting Origin from Prey.]

Erin's light faded as Gale stood over the corpse. He turned his head back to the trail. The signs of conflict continued deeper into the flatlands, but he switched to tracking the pure signature instead of being distracted by the corrupted residue.

Moving through more of the flatlands, the grass grew taller, reaching up to his waist. Presence Between's tendrils spread outward, tasting the air to map where the pure signature was.

That was when the wind picked up. At first, it was just a slight breeze that blew at them gently. But by the time they exited the tall grasses, it felt more like the wind was getting sucked into a specific direction, similar to when a tornado was forming.

They picked up their speed, moving toward the centre where the wind spun from. Gale ran at full sprint through the blades of grass as Erin floated beside him.

They passed through a creek. The water was being pulled by the wind, creating small waves that flowed upstream against the current.

Then through a bouldery region where rocks jutted out from the grass like broken teeth.

And finally, they arrived at where the wind was strongest.

Twelve remnants surrounded a small whirlwind. Each one stood about two metres tall, their massive claws extended toward the centre. However, they weren't attacking. It looked as though they were observing what was inside the whirlwind.

The same pure signature he had been tracking came from inside the whirlwind. Grass, branches, soil, and debris all spun into a vortex. There was something in there, but Gale couldn't quite see what it was yet.

It was definitely the Origin Spirit that Erin was talking about. And right now, that didn't matter. He needed to kill the remnants.

Although outnumbered, none of these remnants were above Defiled stage. As long as Erin kept the light up, they couldn't escape into shadows.

One of them tried to pounce towards the inside of the whirlwind but was then blown away, though unharmed. That was when all hell broke loose.

Erin raised her hand, and light once again illuminated the surroundings.

The remnants flinched. All of them tried to form their bodies into shadow. But none could.

Gale lunged at the closest one.

Erebus materialized mid-leap. The blade came down on the remnant's neck before it could raise its claws. Its head tumbled into the grass. Its body stayed upright for half a second, and using that body, Gale launched himself toward the second remnant.

The second one met his charge with its claws, swiping horizontally at his torso.

Erebus turned into a staff, pounding the ground once and giving him more air. The claws missed him just by a hair. Erebus turned into a thin long sword again. One swipe, and the remnant was sliced in half at its middle.

The third one met him still in mid-air.

Its claws came at his head from both sides.

Both claws passed through as he activated Phase Defense just as the tips of the claws touched his skin.

When the remnant passed him, Gale twisted in the air. Erebus turned into a halberd. One stab to the back of its head, and it dropped.

Three down.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth diverged on him as he landed.

They came from three directions. Front, left, right. Their claws raised high.

Gale lowered himself into a stance. The halberd lengthened in his grip. Just as the three remnants met him at the centre, he spun the shaft.

All three remnants had their heads fly away and their bodies drop before him all at the same time.

The seventh jumped backwards as Gale charged at it. However, when he chased it, it went closer to where the whirlwind was.

Gale tried stabbing it through the heart. Nothing.

His blade passed through as if it were a shadow.

Noticing the shadows cast by the spinning debris of the whirlwind, that must be why the remnant went closer to the whirlwind.

Trying to stab it multiple times, the remnant danced in the shadow cast by the debris. He couldn't get a clean strike in.

While it retreated, it raised a claw. A black circle formed in front of it. Black needles shot out from the circle, aimed at him.

Phase Defense activated on multiple points across Gale's body. Chest. Arms. Legs. Face. Each needle passed through harmlessly, leaving no wound.

But he couldn't catch up. Every time he closed the distance, the remnant flickered to another shadow.

"Erin!" Gale shouted. "Hold them!"

Erin snapped her fingers and flash-froze the ground immediately. The remnants' feet froze and locked them in place.

The seventh remnant looked down at its trapped legs. Its claws came down, shattering the ice around its feet.

And that was enough time. Gale closed the distance immediately. Erebus sliced horizontally. The seventh head joined the other six on the ground.

The eighth remnant broke free from the ice and charged directly at Erin. Before its claws could even be swung, a sphere of ice materialized around Erin. The remnant's claws struck at the surface multiple times, and each one caused its claws to shatter even more.

From inside the sphere, Erin's eyes met Gale's. This is your fight. I will only support.

The ninth and tenth remnants flanked him while he was looking at Erin.

Their claws came from both sides, both aimed at his ribs and his spine.

Phase defense activated across his torso. Both strikes passed through his body.

Gale didn't even flinch. He was starting to get used to the method of Phase Defense and why Erin would call his kind nigh immortal. It was the reason why Dainv Combat Arts had no defensive forms or techniques. The reason why dad said 'defense is for the weak' and why Erin had drilled the Phase Defense into him at Crystal Falls.

Cev Dainvs didn't need to defend. He had been doing it all wrong all this time. It was simple to just let attacks pass through. And knowing the difference between what can pass through was the mastery of the technique.

[Max Load reached: 1000/350]

A second image of Erebus appeared right behind the 10th remnant's head. Applying the movement vector, he willed it to stab through the head at the same time as the Erebus in his hand stabbed through the ninth's face.

Both remnants dropped.

The 11th and 12th ran at the same time.

[Max Load reached: 1500/350]

Gale activated One Step. Two Erebus materialized in the same plane. His vision distorted as the running remnants looked like they were right in front of him.

One step forward, and his Erebus swung along with the same spatial duplication Erebus at the other remnant.

A streak of darkness swept across both remnants that couldn't run due to the light that covered the area. When the streak disappeared, only their legs remained. Nothing else.

Gale dropped onto the ground as bile rose up from his throat. Puking out bile onto the grass, he wiped his mouth as he stood back up.

"Erin, can you do that calm mind thing again?"

Erin shattered her ice sphere and floated towards him. One hand laid down to pat the top of his head.

[Cold Calm effect applied.]

"Child. I will not always be with you to apply this state," Erin said.

Gale ignored that last line. What mattered was she was here and that was a cheat code against these stupid headaches whenever he experimented.

Turning back towards the whirlwind, it didn't look like it was stopping its rampage. He felt the eyes of whatever was inside the whirlwind stare at him. Not curiosity, more like either a flight or fight response.

"What do we do with that?" Gale asked.

"We wait."

"Why wait? Let's just take it."

"The Origin Spirit's wind can penetrate your Phase Defense. The action you speak of is ill advised."

"Fine, then let's wait in a way that makes it feel like we're less of a threat," Gale said, moving forward a couple of steps and then sitting cross egged in front of the whirlwind.

Erin sat in a floating manner beside him.

For a couple of minutes, they waited. Gale eased up his shoulders to relax them. Presence Between's tendrils tried to penetrate through the vortex of winds, but they were blown away.

Gale grumbled inwardly. Erin was right. If it could swat away his own tendrils, preventing him from seeing into it, then Phase Defense probably wouldn't work.

After several more minutes, the wind started slowing down. That was when Gale's physical eyes saw through what was inside the debris.

Inside the whirlwind was a child. Long green hair, tears flowing down her cheeks. She wore what looked like a flowing green dress that didn't quite fit her height. She was looking right at them but was also checking her surroundings, specifically at the darker parts of the flat lands.

Why was she crying? Maybe all she needs is a bit of comfort.

Standing up once again, Gale felt the wind pick up once more, blocking the view of what was inside.

"Child. We must wait until the spirit calms down."

"No... she needs help," Gale took one step forward.

"There is no defense against the attacks of a world spirit. Do not be foolish."

Taking another step forward, the wind picked up even more.

"I still have to try."

When he took another step, the whirlwind moved. It ran away from them, crossing the flat lands at a high rate of speed. Gale dematerialized Erebus and followed immediately, and so did Erin.