On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

Four Hundred And Fifty-Four

With the fragment of a powerful being defeated, the pain of the bloody wounds his beams of darkness had gouged in me surged, the adrenaline and focus of battle fading. Faint, acrid steam was rising from the two holes pierced in me, and the mist around me was also dispersing. Nasty bastard. In terms of raw combat power, he was a bit weaker than Tarōbō, maybe, but he was both a perfect counter to half of my abilities, and yet ironically fatally weak to another set of skills I had.

Casting my gaze at the remaining Territory, the barrier damaged, I took a deep, reflexive breath, before turning away. Only fools rush in. Preparation has been key so far. And it’s prevented the worst outcomes. Heading back towards the injured Kang Da, who had crawled away, one leg broken and twisted, numerous other injuries all over his body, I directed my Spirit Water to cleanse the last of the mist.

“Well don’t you look a fright?” I said to Kang Da, who looked relieved, despite his handsome face being covered in painful bruises and cuts.

“I know. That thing was a better sniper than me.” He managed a dry smile, before spluttering, his throat not working properly. “But I’m alive. If you give me a while… I’ll support you as you attack the next place. It…” he paused to cough violently again. “…it shouldn’t be so hard. That damn hand was surely the mastermind, right?”

I nodded slowly. “To an extent, certainly. But… only fools rush in.” I piously repeated my earlier thoughts.

“Oh, you’re hurt too.” He noticed the two weeping holes in my body. As I trickled aether into him, healing the worst of his wounds, he batted my hand away weakly. “Worry about yourself. I’ve seen enough to know you’re a cut above me and Bora-noona.” He lowered his voice. “Don’t tell her I said so though, she has… a bad… temper. She’ll never find a decent man, only delinquents like her rough nature and… body art… so carrying on our family legacy falls to me. If I’d have died here…” he managed a pain-filled chuckle.

“Don’t worry about me. These will heal. It’s pretty much a speciality of mine.” I continued to soothe the worst of his pain. “And you should have fled back to the Material when you got hit. What did you think you were going to do?” I chided him.

“I thought you were in trouble. So…” he looked embarrassed. “I was gathering all my strength for one last attack. Even a distraction might have given you a chance. Sorry. It was arrogant of me.”

“Yeah. But your heart was in the right place.” I muttered, taking a liking to the straight-laced young man. Even though he’s being dragged around and dominated by his older sister, he cares for her a lot. I respect that. “Besides, your skill has some potential. You just aren’t suited to solo battles. Now, cheer up.” I pulled him to his feet, having finished the quick healing to stabilise him. “After all, you wouldn’t want to worry Violet-noona, since she’s injured too.”

“What?” his eyebrows shot up in panic. “My idiot, invincible sister? Is… is she all right? Will she die?”

“Whoa, whoa, calm down!” I said, shocked at his sudden turn. “Yeah, she got hurt and can’t continue the fight, but I’m in contact with Shiro who’s withdrawing her. And she’s not in danger of dying, so after all this is done I’ll fix her up as good as new. As I said earlier, healing is a speciality of mine. So head back, and rest up. We’ve done half of this battle, but while things seem to be going our way, for the most part… complacency leads to mistakes.” We’ve not been able to save everyone. And at least one Favour has been lost to us, according to Shiro. But… at least we’ve completed the task we were hired for by Park-ssi.

Kang Da let out a long sigh, before acknowledging my words, and he vanished, no doubt waking up surprised at his body having been moved from the barracks. It’s just as well my sis and the others did, else he’d have been mind-controlled too, I think. Which is why I can’t be complacent. There’s still danger here…

Back in the Material, I saw Shiro coming, hauling the limp Violet-noona on her back. She was alone, and on seeing her, I rushed over, still carrying my three burdens. “Shiro, Violet-noona… looks like you’ve had it hard.”

“Damn right we have, Aki.” Shiro rolled her eyes, and her tone was exhausted. “That bastard was a real pain, little prick. The old man isn’t in good shape, and most of the hostages died, but… one down, I guess. And it looks like you bagged our main target.”

“Yeah. Though he’s also in a bad way.” I could see weaselkin wearing hazard suits starting to move the fallen soldiers back towards our new outdoor camp, while my sis, Ginneka, who was now back in her normal form, Haru and Arisu-san were coming towards us. Moments later, a limping, bruised Kang Da came running too, ignoring his injuries, overtaking my sis and the others. Coming to an unsteady halt, his wounds obviously still paining him, he looked at his sister, aghast.

“Bora-noona, what happened? Why… so many injuries. And where are the others? Your scorpions? Ji-woo-ssi?” His rapid-fire questions made Violet-noona laugh bitterly, just a faint whisper of sound.

“All but Five bought it. Guess we need to start again. A shame. I kind of liked them.” She managed. “Old uncle is still in there. Hurt bad, but if we get him out soon he’ll make it, I’ve been told. But… even now, I’m not myself, little bro. If I wasn’t so banged up, I’d be trying to poison Shiro-unni right now. But look at you, little bro. Not so fine yourself, are you?” The long stream of whispered words exhausted the beaten-down Violet-noona.

“I’m… I’ll live. Akio-nim did healing on me, and … he promised you’ll be fine.” He looked at me pleadingly, and I nodded. There was silence, before Haru spoke up too.

“Don’t worry. Akio-kun can heal the body, me the mind. And if it’s some sort of curse, then we have countermeasures too.”

“That’s right. I’d do it now, but we can’t waste our remaining Spirit Water.” I still had a bad feeling about the sister of the first Chosen. She seemed the more ruthless and dangerous of the two by far, and of such value the hand, or eyeball, or whatever the hell the thing I had slain was, considered her worth taking away with it after Earth fell. So we can pick up the pieces later. Just contain and secure for now.

“You’re calling her unni?” Kang Da asked, incredulous, and the pallid Violet-noona flushed faintly.

“You didn’t… see her fight, bro. It was like a Goddess. I always wanted a sister…”

Shiro and I exchanged a wry look. “All right, conversation over. We’re in a hurry.” I declared, and turned to Arisu-san. “Thanks for coming. It must have been a struggle.”

She gave me a hard look, before simply nodding. “Yes. Though you paid for my daytrip to the coast. I am very busy, but I suppose this was a valid use of my time. As for the difficulty…” she looked at the token that my sis was holding. “…with the harmonics allowing me to find the coordinates here now, it reduced the difficulty significantly, as did White’s abilities, enhancing mine. But it still has left me rather weak. Do not expect combat support from me.”

“Yes, even this is enough.” We quickly reached the entrance to her Room, which was a near-invisible slash in space, though it was leaking aether and spatial element to my Eye. Stepping inside, carrying my unconscious charges, I was followed by Shiro. On seeing Five there and alive still, Violet-noona let out a relieved sigh. The Room had expanded out to several hundred metres on each side, separated into chunks which were distinct cells, with walls of solid, clear material, harder than steel, as I found when I rapped on it with my knuckles, and beds with shackles and manacles made of the same material in each. A number were already occupied, and when the door was shut on Violet-noona, the cell closed off entirely, preventing escape. Yes, I see why Shiro says I’d struggle to beat Arisu-san inside here. It’s almost as if she’s a God in this space, though there are surely limits. Every ability has limits.

Placing Park Yu-jun into one such cell, followed by the other two, I was relieved of my burdens. In the Boundary, I was carefully probing the barrier to the other Territory, slowly taking it down, but here I had different tasks. More soldiers were being ferried in, and one of them was Colonel Song, who was unconscious and bleeding from a gash on his head. Concerned, my Eye flared amber, but fortunately he didn’t seem to be suffering from any serious injury.

After leaving the room, Shiro grabbed my arm, though the effort made her wince, and she groaned, complaining to me bitterly. “Damn, Divine Possession is rough, even now I’ve got enough stats to support a fraction of it. Feels like I’ve been in a car crash. Not that I’d know, considering I’d have died instantly in only a minor bump before all this. So anyway, Tan’s curious about what went down in the Boundary. I am too.”

“And me!” My sis declared, bouncing up and down beside me eagerly. “I know you don’t have time to hear my heroics against the jerk we captured…” she pointed back towards Arisu-san’s room. “…not when lives are on the line. But we need to know this, right?”

I guess it’s relevant, yes. I explained about the warped creature, and Shiro spoke up after a moment of thought. “I see. Tan says that it was definitely a fragment of one of Angra Mainyu’s Daevas. She sensed their familiar stink and was worried. Fortunately it seems that it was just a lost fragment, finally reawakened, and gaining in strength. She says such filth could have grown to terrifying strength if neglected long enough. Shit Tan, are all you higher beings so careless at leaving your trash everywhere?” Shiro pouted. She silently communicated further, and she let out a long sigh when she was done.

“Tan’s just relieved you beat it, though she did believe in you. Oh come on, you must have known I was going to tell him, Tan.” Shiro bantered with the Goddess inside her, before looking at me with curious eyes. “Tan wants to know details though. How did you know you could win?”

“It was hard without my Eye.” I admitted. “Perhaps it was actually a good experience, having to rely on knowledge and what I could notice, rather than what my Eye can see. Firstly, I assumed that beings such as Tan weren’t just everywhere.”

“The Earth is strange, but not that strange.” Shiro agreed, speaking for Tan. “Though honestly, your odds of running into such anomalies seems rather high. Perhaps you were born under an unlucky star, Aki.”

“Perhaps a lucky one. For us, anyway.” Haru disagreed. “Since he won, the benefits must be plentiful.”

“That’s right bro. We’re on a budget for time, but spill quickly!” My sis said eagerly.

“That can wait.” I said, conscious of the hostages and wounded still within the Academy buildings. “But yeah, the League was strong, but it didn’t oppress me like Nurarihyon, or even Shaeula’s father. I was a match for it. And the surrounding Boundary wasn’t suffering from its presence. There were some other tells as well, but I surmised that I had a chance, at the least,. And backing out wasn’t an option, what with how desperate a situation you were in, Shiro.”

“Tan could have handled it, but yeah, it wasn’t good.” She admitted. “So, all told, you did good. Tan’s impressed. And you seem to have a lot of adherence now.”

I nodded. “Yeah, though like the Favour, it’s damn messy. I’ll unpick it all later. For now…”

“Yeah. You’ve a perpetrator to defeat and victims to save.” Jin-Ae was resting, as was Hee-Young, her strength spent by conjuring too much ice, but Eunbi and Lee Jong-su were still eager to fight, and I needed all the hands I could get. Though not for fighting this enemy…

I asked Kang Da to translate, and he did so. The two of them looked a bit put out at my request, but then they looked at the entrance to Arisu-san’s room, perhaps remembering the state Violet-noona was in, and they acquiesced. My Eye was fully functional again, so I could perceive far more information, and while there was still some distortion, perhaps due to the adherence that someone else had absorbed, I was fairly certain that the mastermind behind this mess lay in the main Campus buildings. Not the dorms. So… “I’m worried about the members of Inevitable Victory. I don’t have confidence in them managing to deal with the final opponent. Worst case, they’ll end up turned against us.”

“Yeah.” My sis agreed. “It seems like that would be something that’d happen. But it’s not like we haven’t taken precautions, right?”

“It seems your Spirit Water, potent as it is, has less effect on the blood than the water.” Arisu-san said, having watched some of the attempts to deal with the prisoners inside her room now that they were settled. “It weakens the effects somewhat, but cannot break the hold.”

“I think I know why. At least Tan hinted about it.” Shiro spoke. “I’ll be brief, you need to go, Aki, but… the blood is actually a buffing effect, in a way. Takes one to know one.” She sighed self-deprecatingly. “So the Spirit Water maybe doesn’t recognise it as fully a curse?”

“Yeah, most likely. But at least the other one we can deal with. Perhaps. Against the Chosen herself, the effect of her control is likely to be stronger than water used at a distance.” Which is why we need to preserve it. Those secured in Arisu-san’s care are safe and can be treated at our leisure after all this. “So, I’ll be off. Don’t let down your guard, though. There might be further tricks in store.”

“Sure thing, bro. I’m going to duck into the Boundary and try and raise as much aether as possible so I can call on more Golden Sisters. Some of the cameras broke, but even a couple might help, right?”

Eunbi and Lee Jong-su were already heading towards the dorms where Si-woo and several others hopefully still survived. A number of weaselkin were going with them for hostage transportation, and it was cold, but in the worst case if they fell, Shaeula’s Kin Restoration could likely help. Though it’s been made clear to them there’s the risk of it failing, depending on just how the water that controls minds works. But hopefully, they won’t run into any danger they can’t handle, considering…

My final words said, I raced down towards the main Academy buildings, covering the distance in a handful of seconds, while in the Boundary I began to assault the weakened barrier. It cracked, unable to withstand my impacts, but I was trying to preserve as much strength as possible. My stock of Foehn was greatly diminished, and even with the Bezoar, I had used a great deal of earth element. Water element and Spirit Water was being saved for obvious reasons, so that left wind and light, which I had used quite a bit of as well, but still had plenty in the tank, or wood and darkness. Mind made up, I began to strike the barrier with a swirling gale of jade winds, which I was well-practiced with, and the weakened barrier began to erode under the rapid onslaught. Sporadic fire came back from Defensive Emplacements, which I dodged, and as the barrier began to weaken further, again a mob of the winged Dokkaebi gathered, though fewer in number than the hordes I put down before. Good. If I can draw in any opponents to the Boundary to protect the Territory it’ll reduce pressure in the Material. But then, if not, the Anchor can be found and destroyed and I’ll win that way…

The Academy building, built in an old-fashioned and austere style, loomed ahead of me in the Material, and my Eye shone, seeking out those with high levels of aether within. There was still some interference, but not enough to stop me, and I spotted several traces deeper within the main building. Taking a deep breath, I passed though the already broken down door, likely the work of Choi Ji-ho and his forces.

All right then. Time to see whether I’ll meet up with the girl behind all this first, or her Territory is destroyed by me. Either way, we’ll end this mess! 

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