The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'-Chapter 315 - Heads I Win, Tails You Lose... And If It Lands On Its Side, I’ll Push It Over
Chapter 315: Chapter 315 - Heads I Win, Tails You Lose... And If It Lands On Its Side, I’ll Push It Over
The object the illusion ’found’ was a small metal case secured with a latch. Inside were more documents, less official looking. But bearing stamped insignias of multiple small Guilds. And one that was technically larger... the Saltfire Storm Alliance.
"Looks like correspondence between multiple parties. The conspirators?"
Elua’s ’scout’ moved closer, his eagerness no longer concealed.
"What do they say? Who was coordinating this?"
Eyes of the woman who was used to hunting criminals between invasions hardened visibly as she watched the braided haired man and his enthusiastic reaction. The coincidence of finding this place, during what should have been a more simple recon on a growing Voidling position, struck Kefa as completely odd.
"You seem very interested in us learning the specific details."
He suddenly straightened as he stepped back from both cultivators. A hand moved nervously to his own weapon, a short bow at his side, in a gesture calculated to raise the woman’s suspicions further. The trail here ’started’ with a broken arrow - with the same sort of fletching as the ones in his quiver.
"Why wouldn’t I be? Isn’t that why we’re here? To gather intelligence on what is happening in the area?"
Qat watched the exchange, not sure which way to push things. At this rate, a fight would break out that didn’t seem like it would be helpful. So she chose to gently calm things.
"This is valuable evidence of Guild corruption. We should collect and bring everything with us before moving on."
"I think our priority should still be the invasion leader."
She never stopped staring at the scout. Waiting for his hand to twitch the wrong way so she could cut his bow string.
"These documents will still be here when we return with an assault team. Right?"
The ’member’ of the Whispering Winds opened his mouth to object, then suddenly froze. His head snapped toward the quarry at the same time as the other two cultivators. A disturbing heaviness had appeared in the air - a lot like the distortion of during the incursion drop phase - that could only mean one thing.
A ripple crossed over the clearing like a heat haze over desert sand. Vantablack particles of essence created thin, seeking tendrils of nothingness that wove between trees in search. The scout gestured frantically toward the quarry’s edge.
"We need to move. Now."
Kefa hesitated to follow, but the urgency in his tone was too genuine to ignore. More importantly, Qatrand er Yecine moved that direction without any sort of extra question. The young man’s instincts had already led him to survive two large encounters - the woman was sure that a third time would be no different.
The Voidling that entered the clearing bore some resemblance to its lesser counterparts on a larger scale. But it departed even further from the thin armed humanoid shape and into a surreal nightmare.
Standing twice the height of a tall human, the edges of its form held the same unsettling fluidity of its kin. Six tentacle-like upper limbs capped with talons extended from a central mass that undulated beneath a skin of concentrated nothingness. Three thicker legs below supported its mass.
A half dozen eyes arranged in vertical pairs around its center glowed with the same sort of white flame they used to collect information on the world - but four times the size and burning far more intensely. Above, a corona of Void essence surrounded it as it controlled the searching mist.
"Why is that thing here alone? Are we surrounded?"
The scout’s uncalm whisper came as they crouched behind cover. Qat felt her grip tighten on her sword hilt, knuckles whitening beneath her gloves. The creature hadn’t directly noticed them yet - she was sure her Physique would burn her skin if it had.
’Its presence alone makes the air feel stifling. I can see why she is making it seem like he is panicking.’
"We need to retreat and report this."
Kefa whispered with plenty of the same tension. Her twin blades were drawn as they hid, as much to fight off any ambushing small fry as it was to guard against the third member she was pretty sure was not who they said they were. That very person nodded in agreement.
"S-slowly back away. It might not pursue immediately if we don’t-"
The leader class eldritch invader went completely still, all six eyes orientating in the same direction. There was no mistaking its intent to fight as the white flames blazed brighter.
"Run!"
The scout broke cover first, sprinting toward the too distant treeline. Qat took the rear with Kefa close ahead. They’d barely covered half the distance when a wave of the Hivemind spiritual interference hit them... like the sky was an invisible ceiling that just collapsed.
Qat felt it wash down over her with surprisingly little effect. Her Anchor Astralism also naturally resisted the intrusion... and she had been exposed to plenty of intense examples of power and intent from her wife.
The Voidlings did not use the same sort of tricks and techniques to get around things like that - which the reincarnated spiritualist most definitely used as easily as breathing. The test of the Void Divinity was meant to be *relatively* fair.
While some aspects of it could be ’overwhelming’, it was never meant to be ’impossible’. For Kefa who had no handy forms of resistance, the woman stumbled and fell to one knee with a face contorted in confusion. Pupils on constricted and dilated in either eye at random and her tongue felt heavy and cold.
"What’s... happening?"
The ’scout’ stopped running entirely, dropping to the ground as if his strings had been cut. Face planting caused the illusory form to waver for a moment, briefly destabilizing as Elua checked on the status of the twin-blade wielder before snapping back into clarity. Qat drew her heavy blade while turning to stand in front of the struggling member of the Ironclad Order.
"Kefa! Get up!"
Uncoordinated movements tried to make her rise only to fall like the scout had.
"Can’t... think straight... something’s in my head..."
A frown grew on the raven haired swordswoman. Elua had told her more about what had really happened to the Clairvoyant at Sachret Pass. The interference was usually used only on rituals targeting the Hivemind and rarely to incapacitate human minds that weren’t trying to invade the mental link between the Voidlings.
’Then, why... is it my Physique’s fault?’
The creature advanced toward them without a lot of haste, while the fragment in Qat’s chest burned with calm urgency. Her wife was still nearby and fine. Watching and listening.
\ Unexpected variance located. Spiritual resistance exceeds permitted blanketing norms. Requesting- \
\~ No, I don’t think you’ll be doing that. You can fight her on the expected even footing or I can do a *lot* of interesting things with your living corpse as a puppet. ~\
\ Anomaly. Threat is... \
The ’voice’ trailed off as the thousands of alien presences faded and shrunk into the one bright point of white flame amid the cavernous nothing of its foreign mind. If it had a heart, the rate of its beat would have spiked.
There were few terrors as strong to an entity with a mission and a set of collaborators as to be cut off with no way to warn them. Even worse when the one so suddenly isolated had never been alone - barely understood the concept. The edges of the mental void that once felt like the promise of ’more’ now felt like the threat of it.
From expansion into more minds... to one mind expanding more into it.
\~ Well? Choose. Fairness... or unfairness? ~\
Qat’s blade felt firm in her hands as she maintained her defensive stance over the other cultivator when a surprising surge at her began. With improbable speed for its size, the Yecine braced herself for the Voidling leader’s charge.
It suddenly moved laterally at twice the distance her blade could reach. Circling to position itself between Qat and the fallen Kefa, its form rippled as its ’arms’ expanded and lashed outward. Metal intercepted Rending Void, whipping away those most likely to tear through the helpless cultivator.
Qatrand then pivoted sharply as the tentacle-like limbs whipped toward her. Impacts of whipping talons jarred her arms despite a cultivator’s strength. It was clear that this enemy was not ever meant to be taken on by a mortal.
At least not alone, like she ’technically’ was.
Black ichor splattered onto the ground as she severed the tip of one of its weaponized appendages... but three more swiftly struck from different angles that had been left open. Gravity pulled about her form slowed and shuddered the larger creature’s movements much less than it had the smaller Voidlings.
’Its rank as an elementalist must be the top of Enchanter at least.’
The swordswoman leapt down into the attacks, weapon moving with unnatural quickness in her hands to parry the most dangerous of the two attacks. Still, one talon grazed her shoulder... tearing through black fabric and leaving a burning line of pain - as well as burning mint eyes that contemplated going back on her implied word.
’It isn’t as if the construct would know I’ve corrupted it. Unless I design things that way. Hm. How many years of stuck-in-body-I-do-not-control torture should I charge for such a wound?’
While the reincarnator had no real intention of going through with it...
"Three centuries sounds about right."
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