Chapter 16 Chapter 16 - Deaths Shadow (2/2)
”Eh, fuck my head if I'm a corpse,” Lino shrugged his shoulders casually. ”I'd rather live to fight another day than die fighting for something as dumb as pride. How long till we get there?”
”We're here.” Aeala said as she suddenly stopped and pointed up. ”The hatch leads to the last row of the houses before the uphill climb toward the town's exit.”
”Stay behind me.” Lino said as he began climbing the ladder without hesitation, quickly reaching the top. He pushed the hatch open slowly and perked his head outside, glancing around. The room was empty and silent, with floorboards piling up excessive amounts of dust, one of the many clues that no one has entered here in a very, very long time. ”It's clear. Come up.” he called out to Aeala before climbing out and quickly skittering over to the window, glancing outside.
The road leading up the hill was currently full of people being led by cultivators of all levels. He sensed several powerful auras alongside the hill as well as several more at the very top of the hill. Aeala soon approached him from behind and looked out the window herself.
”What do you think?” she asked as she noticed a deep frown on his face.
”There are several ways out, but none of them are optimal.” Lino said after short silence, sighing. ”If only your tits were large enough to hide me…”
”Is this really a right time to be flirting?”
”There's never a wrong time to be flirting.”
”Say that after you've at least popped your cherry.”
”Popped my cherry?” Lino glanced back, looking at her with confusion in his eyes.
”… goddammit, are you innocent or are you perverted?! Pick one!” Aeala rolled her eyes in frustration before changing the subject. ”Don't tell me we'll have to stay here until we're found?”
”… oh fuck your Divine Sense.” Lino mumbled as he rolled his eyes in frustration, suddenly grabbing Aeala by her waist and taking out a sword, bolting through the sidewall like a cannonball. A mere moment later, the entire house blew up in flames, causing screams of confusion to erupt. Meanwhile, Lino landed a few dozen meters outside the house, looking up at the hill where the three of the six Prime Elders and Patriarch Varick himself were standing, looking back at him. ”Hello fellas,” Lino spoke, smiling bitterly. ”You've welcomed me with quite a bang, I see.”
”Did you kill them?” Patriarch Varick asked with emotionless voice.
”… ah, what can I say? They were trying to steal my woman. That's a no-go.”
”Hm,” the Patriarch nodded. ”That's all I need to know.”
”Eh? Dad, who are you talking to?” a twelve-year-old girl suddenly appeared next to the Patriarch, her expression sunken. ”Eh! Lino?!! Where have you been?! No, wait, when did you arrive?!! No, wait, you survived?!!” Vyeala began screaming as she noticed Lino at the bottom of the hill.
Patriarch Varick's heart suddenly turned cold for a moment as a strange sense of foreboding washed over his back. Lino's eyes, meanwhile, widened to their maximum output as a heaven-sent chance was presented to him. Without hesitating even for a moment, he reached into his pocket and took out the [Celestial Rod], gripping it firmly into his grasp while hiding it from everyone's eyes. He carefully calculated the angle and aimed, knowing that this was the only chance he'll have to kill her.
”Aaah, you should have looked for me when you came here!! Didn't you say—” halfway through the sentence, Vyeala felt something gently pierce her throat, like a mosquito bite. She scratched it gently before tilting her head in confusion for a moment, shaking her head afterwards. ”As I was saying, cough, you should have visited me!! What about, cough, cough, your rewards? Cough, cough…”
”Vyeala!!” seeing the girl's strange behavior, the Patriarch immediately walked over and grasped her tightly, sending Qi through her body to inspect her. ”You bastard, what did you do?!!” he roared toward Lino as he realized that his Qi was blocked by something.
”D-dad, cough, cough,” Vyeala mumbled as she suddenly fell on her knees, coughing out a mouthful of pitch-black blood while her nose, eyes and ears began bleeding profusely. ”Cough, aaaaaah, it h-hurts, d-dad, it h-hurts!! H-help, cough, help me!!”
”Vyeala, Vyeala!” the Patriarch fervently tried to send his Qi inside her meridians to purify them, but to no avail. Thick tears began streaming down his cheeks; whatever must be said about her origins, he who had never married in his life or had children of his own always treated her as a daughter. He loved her more than the rest of the Clan combined, and seeing her current state caused his heart to stir and bleed. The little girl's body suddenly began twitching as veins surfaced on her skin, pulsating like mad. Her eyes rounded like eggs for a moment, full of reluctance, disbelief, fear and dread and deep-rooted unwillingness before bursting in a moment of gore, causing a shrill scream to escape her throat.
”AAAAAGGGHHH!!! NOO!!!!!” she cried out as she fell sideways. Her skin quickly gave out as her naturally pale complexion slowly turned ink-black. Everyone was already alarmed as some approached her while others immediately locked their gazes onto Lino, ensuring he didn't go anywhere due to the commotion.
”… was this your grand plan?” Aeala asked, rolling her eyes. ”You figured they didn't want to kill you hard enough, so you went and killed their Sacred Child to provoke them, eh?”
”My Master always taught me that angry, pissed off opponents are easy opponents,” Lino said, chuckling bitterly. ”Although, to be honest, I didn't think the poison would act up that quickly. Is it too potent? Or is her immune system just that weak?”
”… she's a Demon.” Aeala commented. ”I very much doubt that ordinary poisons would be able to kill her.”
”… oh, right!”
”You even forgot that?!! Khm, anyway, what now?”
”Now? Now we fucking run.”
By this point, Vyeala was lying dead-cold on the floor while Patriarch shook her body and called out her name helplessly, over and over again. His thick, coarse voice bounded the hills and cliffs of the valley and even shook the earth beneath. Even air itself seemed to be entombed in his grief as it swayed gently, almost humming a low, deathly lullaby. The moment the last breath escaped her, her body stopped twitching as a strange, deadly aura enwrapped it. Lino's senses screamed of danger and terror as he glanced at her, causing his heart to pause for a moment. A mere second later, twenty-meters tall black shadow sprang out of her body as a maniacal laughter echoed out through the valley. Although the edgeless shadow didn't have eyes, Lino felt it watching him for a moment. His entire body froze up – not because of pressure, but because of the primal fear.
”W-what the fuck is that?!!!” Aeala cried out in terror as she hid behind Lino's back.
”….”
Before having a chance to reply to her question, the shadow suddenly burst apart into a shower of black rain. However, as though linked by a thread, each droplet traveled toward a person from Endo Clan, falling directly in-between their brows. The strange part, though, was that it didn't affect everyone. For instance, none of the ordinary mortals were touched, and most of the weaker cultivators were also exempt from it, causing confusion to arise inside Lino's heart. The world froze for a moment as all sounds dulled and time seemed to have stopped. Yet, a mere blink later, one terrifying roar after another bellowed out, as though the small valley had turned into a bowel of hell.
Everyone who had a droplet enter them suddenly had their skin turn ashen gray while their eyes – regardless of color – grew bloodshot red. Patriarch and six Prime Elders were the most affected ones; their bodies actually grew forcibly, fingernails at the tip of their fingers growing out by nearly thirty centimeters, while their muscles bulged, tearing their clothes apart.
”… better question is,” Lino mumbled. ”What the fuck is this?!”
However, realizing that he had seen more than enough, he forced his mind and heart to calm down before suddenly beginning to run uphill, gathering momentum. As he was nearing the top, Patriarch Varick seemed to have regained his senses as his dulled eyes recovered somewhat, immediately locking onto him. All alarms rang out inside Lino's mind as he suddenly leapt high into the air, nearly ten meters, leaping over the people at the top of the hill. Patriarch Varick suddenly took out three shimmering swords and, stuffing them full with strange, black Qi, shot them toward Lino. The speed of the swords wasn't something someone of Lino's level could keep up with. Almost by instinct, he took out the [Vanguard Shield] and immediately activated its second option, expanding it considerably. Less than a breath later, three swords crashed directly into the shield.
It felt as though it wasn't the swords that crashed against it, but three cannonballs. A massive explosion ensued, causing several cracks to spread throughout the shield, but they didn't manage to break it. However, the shield was pushed backwards, crashing directly into Lino and cracking several of his ribs and even the wrist of his right hand, alongside blowing him backward through the air, directly out of the concealment formation and into the forest outside the Endo Clan's grounds.
Aeala's scream was stifled under the sounds of the explosion as the duo flew for nearly half a mile over the treetops before losing speed and falling in a downward trajectory. While Lino had already activated Empyrean Writ even before the swords crashed against his shield, it did little against the wounds he received. So, instead of covering his entire body, he focused the entirety of his Qi onto his right wrist, realizing that simply running away now would be impossible. Whatever happened to everyone – even if he didn't know the exact cause and effect – boosted their physical capabilities to almost his own level. What the hell happened?!
He hugged Aeala tightly, pushing her against his bosom as he turned his back toward the ground, crashing through several dozen branches and trees before plummeting directly into the ground and rolling backward for nearly fifty meters before finally stopping. He felt his entire body ache from head to toe, but didn't dare to pause even for a second before getting up and flinging Aeala over his shoulder, immediately entering full-sprint-mode. He randomly chose direction without paying it much heed as he didn't have even a second of time to think. He had already felt seven powerful auras catching up to him and, without even needing to confirm it with his own eyes, he realized they belonged to the six Prime Elders and the Patriarch. At that moment, he also realized that he hadn't felt such powerful threat of death since the day he was born. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't calm his crazily beating heart and no matter how much he tried to push his mind to think of an idea, only a single thought remained: Run!