Chapter 13

  A sound pierced the walls and Yin was launched off his bed as Zeurel jolted up in alarm. ‘’Screaming! People are screaming, what’s happening?!’’

  Yin untangled himself from the plant he’d landed in and brushed the dirt off his clothes, listening to the faint noises. Blasts, thuds and other dull noises reverberated in the walls and floor. ‘’Those fucks.. They’re attacking now.’’

  His mind started to catch up and he ran to the window and peered out at the sky. The night sky was black as pitch, and the city was only lit up by lanterns and what looked like a steadily growing fire off to the east.

  Yin darted back to the bed and found his blade under it. ‘’Zeurel-’’

  ‘’I’m going with you to the front, if there’s anyone I can keep alive there it’s one less working against us.’’ She was already pulling the golden hoof sheaths from Duong on. Good.

  Together they ran through the halls, first into the main house of the compound finding it already bustling. Kam’en bellowed orders to everyone and anyone that entered his line of sight. They kept going, finding Duong and Ten outside by the gates of the Tulaigo household.

  ‘’Montai?’’ Yin asked, already cycling pure madra, feeling his nearly full core work.

  ‘’Already out there.’’ Ten answered and turned setting off at a run towards the now well illuminated side of town. As she went she continuously forged more and more little leaf like knife blades and let them swirl around her. Despite the situation Yin was awed at her ability to not only forge so many times in succession but also use a ruler technique at the same time.

  Duong fiddled with a belt loaded up with an array of multicolored pistol-like casters. ‘’What the hell is the plan? Just kill as many as we can?’’

  Yin spotted a remnant skittering over the street in front of them, a shadowy spider only visible because of the burning buildings around it. He engaged his pure cloak and burst forwards in long smooth strides that put him ahead of his companions. He pulled his blade and threw the sheath away, then slashed, taking way too many legs off.

  The spider-like remnant toppled and then sprouted out more than a dozen more legs, starting to right itself. Then a jet of flame engulfed it, burning on for several seconds before dying out, leaving nothing behind. When the glare of the flames died, Yin saw Duong with a glowing red wand in hand.

  A nod was all he had time to offer for the support as several flying remnants came overhead. Their flight was short lived when Ten spotted them and sent a stream of knives into them, they dissolved into essence before even hitting the ground.

  By the time Yin looked back down another group of remnants had rounded a corner and were bearing down on them. Bursting into action Yin barreled down the street as fast as he could to defeat them before they could use any bindings. The blade in his hands hummed to life as he channeled some madra into it and grew a meter long pale gray edge.

  His first swing bisected three of them, the rest reacted in different ways. Some retreated, some swayed back and readied to unleash their bindings. One slammed a stony fist into Yin’s nose.

  Staggered and blinking back tears Yin was forced to switch to his godspeed cloak and leap, clearing a building. Under him Duong and Ten swiftly annihilated the remaining ones. His nose leaked blood like a faucet for a second and then the damage was mostly healed by his iron body.

  Yin touched down on the roof and wasted another chunk of his madra to rejoin his companions. ‘’Sorry! I should have just left that to you guys.’’ Zeurel ran her hands over his face, and some lingering pain was washed away by her madra. ‘’Let’s split up, I can move faster so I’ll go alone and come get you guys if I run into anything too big for me.’’

  Duong looked spooked out of his mind, trying to look everywhere for more threats. Ten was the opposite, calmly forging more blades for her swarm at a more sedate pace and looked where their last opponents had come from.

  Zeurel brushed her hands over his face again, wiping away blood and involuntary tears from the temporarily broken nose.

  They all looked too deep in their own heads to respond. Yin looked around and spotted a few guards coming their way, Kam’en at their forefront. ‘’Zeurel, go with uncle Kam, he should know where you’re most needed. Ten, take Duong and try to find bigger groups of them, you guys need to take out as many as possible. Just go back if you start to feel drained, we have more people who can take our places.’’

  There wasn’t time to wait for confirmation or to talk to Kam’en about his plans for defense. Yin cycled pure madra and cloaked again, leaping up onto a roof and scanning the skyline.

  There, a shadow passed in front of a towering flame and seconds later devastation followed. Montai was putting in plenty of work, time for Yin to do so as well.

  Jumping a few buildings closer to one of the larger fires Yin found a group of what looked like water remnants. Oceanic creatures mixed with humanoid ones and all sent intermittent bursts of water into the foundations of buildings. Laying the groundwork, making it easier to topple them for the next roving band that looked to be earth and fire types further down the road.

  Retreating a bit he took stock of his options as Montai swooped down again, laying waste to another swathe outside the city. This time met by a barrage of different bursts of elements or forged projectiles.

  Yin was most proficient in cloaks and hand to hand. His forging techniques with pure madra were passable if he had the time to knead the technique into shape. His Falling Star caster technique was sort of useful if he wanted to take a whole street out, but that would drain his core too much.

  So it was down to cqc with the foot long dagger that now felt fragile in his spiritual sense. Duong had overestimated how much it could take.

  Moving back to the edge he tracked the remnants and planned his targets. First the octopus thing, it’s center lit up when it used the binding there, easy weak spot. Next, the fishman, it looked like the bruiser of the group. Then the two lobster looking ones. And lastly the gently floating, almost diffuse, goldfish. Weakest of the bunch.

  Pure madra suffused him, his core felt like it was dropping down to three quarters. Yin aimed, and jumped. Soaring over the road catching the remnants attention, the octopus started to light up again but it was too slow. Yin’s feet touched the opposite wall and he burst down, swinging early and ending up cleaving the creature without needing to use the dagger's binding.

  Rolling to his feet he danced back from a crab claw and simply walked through the goldfish's weak splash of water. The fishman, nearly head and shoulders taller than Yin, brought its bulbous hands down to crush him. But it couldn’t aim well, missing Yin by a wide margin. Yin’s blade carved through its chest and then bit deep into its spine on the backswing.

  But a remnant doesn’t feel pain, it simply swung again much faster this time, catching Yin. Though he’d blocked the force knocked him back and he was forced to scramble away from more splashes of water and nipping claws.

  It was quickly becoming too dangerous so Yin flooded his blade with madra and swung at waist height. The elongated edge took the two lobsters and the goldfish out, but the fishman was still moving.

  The bulbous hands glowed, a binding activating, and then when it swung down it brought a torrent of crushing water down with it. No time to run, Yin used his own version of an Empty Palm and punched upwards. Water met a half forged fist of pure madra and lost, dispersing everywhere around them. Yin swept the knife back and forth, cutting new lines into the remnants chest and then struck again with his left hand. Another unfinished forged fist blasted the remnant into chunks.

  Yin took a deep breath, finally having the moment to do so, and then he was under attack again. A wave of mud was sweeping towards his feet. He jumped, body already sore from the overwork it was being put through. In the air a forged stone hit him square in the stomach and carried him down the road.

  Coughing and spitting, Yin slowly rose, trying to flare his cloak to accelerate the healing of his iron body more. A fire remnant gunned down the road in familiar movements. Yin’s eyes widened and he switched to Falling Star again.

  The remnant flared and flew forward even faster, twirling in the air into a move Yin knew well. An opener from Dan Kugo. Godspeed cloak came up and in the instant of prolonged time Yin plotted out where to aim his punch. He let it fly and was rewarded by searing pain on his fist and arm as it crashed cleanly through the fire remnant.

  As it dissolved into essence, Yin saw the larger group of remnants heading towards him and chose to flee. That was much too big of a fish for him to fry as he was.

  One step took him back into the tops of buildings, and the next two took him over to where he’d started with his friends. He found himself behind the defensive line, and a dozen artists jolted and almost fired techniques at his sudden appearance.

  Dropping down he walked towards what looked like a command center in a commandeered restaurant. Then the fatigue caught up and he limped the rest of the way, his iron body competing with itself trying to drag more madra one way or another.

  As he caught his breath and finally slowed down again, he became aware that his skin stung all over his body. Wiping at his exposed skin only made it worse. Acid. The little goldfish had splashed him with acid.

  Stumbling past some other defenders, going as far as using the pure cloak again, he crossed the interior of the restaurant. An older man with graying hair and unfortunate goldsign whiskers tried to stop him but Yin didn’t let that happen. In the kitchen he quickly found what he was looking for, a stone basin and a hole in the wall over it with scripts around. A simple sentence that drew water up from a reservoir. Yin put both hands around it and activated it with pure madra.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  A torrent of water almost pushed him back, and when it subsided he was treated to the old man yelling. Yin activated it again to the man’s chagrin and used the water to wash himself off, finally getting the stinging sensation to subside.

  Shaking the water off he found that his robes had been compromised by the acid and the blasts of water had torn them off. Leaving him in only pants. He ran his fingers through his hair and clumps of it came away, thankfully not from the scalp.

  Walking back into the hall he was greeted by some of his relatives shouting for calm. ‘’Please, just wait your turn! The Sacred Beast Healer will help you when your turn comes!’’

  Zeurel kneeled over a woman whose stomach was cut open and splayed by a tool Yin hadn’t seen before. Zeurel had her hands inside the woman's body cavity and glowing green light made the scene ever more macabre. But in moments she was done, and with a snap the tool collapsed into a single pole that Zeurel stowed and then she ran a finger over the stomach, leaving a red line of healed flesh. ‘’Next!’’

  Yin took stock of his own state. Pure core down under half, Falling Star even lower than that.

  He’d taken out maybe six or seven of the attacking remnants, and he was already running on empty. Pathetic.

  He caught one of his cousins by the elbow and asked. ‘’How is the defense going, do I have some time to recover?’’

  ‘’Huh? Oh, it’s you.’’ Yin didn’t like the way he ran his eyes over him. ‘’Yes, you should.. You should go back honestly. I don’t know what possessed you to come out here at all. You must know your limits.’’

  Yin flared his pure cloak and shoved him, making the bigger man almost stagger into a table.

  Zeurel did something to a man with what looked like a broken arm, and he slumped. Then she took out a small golden knife and cut into his flesh, separating it and healing the bone directly.

  Yin stepped back out into the street, using his coppersight and spiritual sense to gauge the ambient energies. Fire, shadow, dreams, water, life, earth. A massive hodgepodge of chaotically swirling energy. There wasn’t enough light, he wouldn’t be able to cycle effectively here.

  His eyes turn back to the Tulaigo compound. The light remnant. He could destroy it and that would probably do more than enough to balance out the energies in the air.

  Something came down from the air and Yin staggered into a combat stance that he relaxed out of right away when he saw it was only Montai. The massive bird bleeding from a few forged projectiles that still stuck in his flesh. ‘’Bro this is some fucking bullshit! Do you have any idea how many of them there are? There’s like a fucking thousand! And there’s this cunt at the back, almost killed me by the way. He aint a remnant bro, that guy aint fucking dead yet. He WILL BE THOUGH! WHEN I FUCKING GET HIM!’’

  Yin absently tugged at his hair and came away with another lump in his hand. ‘’Dude, I need to go back and cycle or the next group of remnants I run into is going to be my last. Zeurel is in here, don’t rush her.’’

  Not bothering to wait around, Yin set off at a mundane run, unwilling to waste any more madra. Running against the tide of people coming to aid in the defense made Yin’s skin crawl. He hated it, that he was so weak, that he’d wasted so much time. And for what? Why?

  Fear. Yin the coward. Yin, too scared of what might happen when he asks for help. Yin, willing to stay with monsters for eight years because the idea of saying a name was terrifying.

  He slowed to a walk, the Tulaigo estate towering over him, ghosting through empty halls and past rooms hastily evacuated. ‘’Do you have a minute, Emriss?’’

  ‘’I can give you half of one.’’ Her voice came in his head clear as day, just as he’d thought.

  ‘’The remnant-’’

  ‘’It is not ready yet Yin, I’m sorry.’’

  Yin sighed deeply, it could never be easy. ‘’Right, thank you Emriss. Sorry for..’’ He trailed off as he entered the workshop and found a single pink remnant instead of two. Secretary spun when it noticed him and created a sign out of its body.

  [Help Make Brain]

  Then Secretary started showing him complex circles of scripts. ‘’Slow down, show them one at a time. And explain.’’

  It did so. And Yin took a split second to see that Emriss in her human form was in the room with them now.

  One by one, Secretary went through more and less complex scripts, Yin commenting on what he could tell would be problematic. It was like a sieving process, over minutes he helped Secretary refine the ideas it had until it only had a few designs that slowly changed to gain or abandon features.

  Emriss who’d winked out for a few moments came back and pointed out a circle but said nothing. Yin traced the lines and interpreted the function of it. He pointed at a section. ‘’Rewrite this, balance it with the ‘change’ meaning.’’

  Secretary made new designs at a rapid pace, but Yin could tell it was dimming, using too much power. Forging a weak scale he pushed it right into Secretary and watched it consume it rapidly.

  ‘’Threads. Secretary, make.. let's go with ten, ten control circles, governed by the computation script we made before.’’ Those nights they’d spent speculating had been more than worthwhile after all.

  Faster than he’d have ever thought something like this could go, the brain script was written before his eyes. He made smaller and smaller adjustments, directing the dream spirit until he couldn’t find any more flaws.

  Dozens of small script circles, spun inside, through and around each other in a ball. Now they just needed to make it.

  ‘’I should have brought Duong back with me.’’ Yin lamented, readying himself to take on the extremely precise task. Only for Emriss to suddenly be in the room again, this time bringing with her a young looking man in pale robes. Yin saw his lord level soul before he had to deactivate his copper sight when the man's dream madra flared.

  ‘’I see.’’ He said, and jumped around the scripts Secretary was displaying. ‘’Oooh I see, I see. Change these seven parts, I will guide you.’’ He poked Secretary and it swelled with dream madra and what Yin suspected was soulfire.

  ‘’I thought this was a test where you wouldn’t intervene for any reason.’’ Yin said to where Emriss had last been. The monarch was extremely busy.

  ‘’Let’s just pretend that Secretary was not part of the test shall we?’’ Her voice in his head sounded sly. He wasn’t sure if that was on purpose or if he’d just imagined it.

  The dream lord poked Secretary again, making Yin's companion swell to what looked like dangerous proportions. The scripts changed, and Yin quickly jumped in. ‘’Stop! Tell me why you changed that!’’ He pointed to a part of the complex mechanism and then used his other hand to point at the same part in a new projection of the brain seconds prior.

  ‘’It’s redundant, remember that this is a dream spirit we’re putting into a remnant. What need is there to give it so many extra limbs?’’ His madra turned into an image of complex scripts for a moment, before rewriting several times.

  ‘’It’s basically like giving it the ability to control all its parallel thoughts. It’s a dream spirit, remember that.’’ Yin shot back, memories from his IT job from so long ago coming back with a vengeance. ‘’Secretary, show us a chart of how your workflow would look like in both of these versions of the script.’’

  Two winding data sheets started writing themselves in the air.

  ‘’Ah I see, I see. I see now, young outsider, but you are approaching this wrong. Secretary, add the limiter I showed you to the first regulator and then tune the second and third with potential overflows in mind.’’ The scripts changed and one of the data sheets followed suit and the information changed.

  Yin stared at the esoteric data, and glanced at the dream artists who looked it over as well. ‘’My idea was better.’’ The man who could be anywhere between twenty and three hundred years old pouted like a child. Yin turned back to the main body of his spirit friend. ‘’Secretary-’’

  [Annoying!]

  ‘’Yeah I know, sorry, we’re almost done. Take our version and run as many simulations as you can with minor changes, can you do that?’’ Before he was even done asking the entire room filled with scripts and data sheets.

  ‘’Mhmm! I see!’’ The dream lord danced around the room, taking it all in. ‘’This one, this one and this one.’’ Secretary condensed back down and three versions of the brain were left. More complex by far than the version Yin had intended to try to make a few minutes earlier.

  They both leaned in and studied the scripts in the three different versions. Yin quickly realized that at this point they were just comparing which PC had decimal percentiles better output than the others.’’Secretary, which one do you want?’’ Two disappeared.

  The dream lord snickered and clapped. ‘’Aahaha of course, of course, just as I thought, I saw it all along!’’

  ‘’Mom, can you get this idiot out of here? Emriss. I said Emriss.’’ Yin turned and couldn’t find her anywhere. When he turned back the lord was already gone as well.

  Duong and Ten crashed into the room, the boy half carried by the girl. He slumped onto a desk, clutching at a bleeding wound in his side. Then he saw what Secretary was showing and forgot all about it. ‘’What the- This-’’ He devolved into muttering as he studied the script.

  [How long will Secretary have to wait?]

  Yin admired the much more eloquent communication Secretary displayed. ‘’When he cools off enough to help out.’’ Pointing to Duong who was being bandaged up by Ten on his feet.

  //////

  Montai focused, drawing on his willpower and forcing his madra to do something he’d only succeeded in once. Shadow, Wind and Sharpness in the air around him coalesced onto his wings, holding him aloft over the burning side of the town without needing to move.

  Slowly his ultimate move forged into reality and then he dropped. The largest concentration of remnants his target. As he picked up speed the technique continued to grow, turning his entire body into a spearhead.

  Like a knife through butter he cut through dozens and more remnants of every color. Aiming for where he knew that single living person directing the army was.

  Barriers of earth and water, steel and shadow. Montai cut through them all, but his momentum was fading too fast, he wouldn’t make it. Only a few tens of meters ahead he saw him, the plain looking man with white hair, holding two weapons. A blue and yellowish purple one.

  Montai prepared his Darkwind Shortcut to exit the dangerous area and try again, but then the man raised the yellow weapon. It shone a pale purple light.

  —

  There were remnants around Montai, and a single plain looking man with white hair among them. He held two weapons, one Blue which he raised towards Montai and the other Yellowish purple.

  Montai couldn’t remember how he’d gotten here.

  Faster than he could process a snake of water shot out of the blue weapon and hit his right wing. It burrowed into his flesh and then with a sick splash exploded. Montai collapsed in agony.

  Why. Why had he done that? Why was Montai even here? WHEN did he get here?

  Black came over him, but not because he lost consciousness. He was back on the Miniature Rose, his wing laid beside him. Gramps kneeled to Emriss Silentborn.

  ‘’What happened?’’ He asked bewildered.

  She didn’t answer.