Dao Divinity 2 END (Patreon)

“What is that?” Dar stared at the half man half spider devil.

Fire continued to rage from both sides of the ettercap fortress, filling Dar’s nose with the scent of smoke and obscuring his full view of the devil, but the smoke didn’t seem to stop it or even really concern it. The devil reminded Dar of a drider from table top games, but its human portion was unnatural pale with a face that was too bulbous to be human.

The devil focused his attention at that moment solely at Dar, studying him with dead eyes. Dar saw a spark of intelligence in the devil before it smiled a wicked smile. Clearly it didn’t think it was at the disadvantage.

Dar gripped the shaft of his ax tightly, feeling his skin pull against the smooth grain.

The devil crawled up the top of the silk fortress, letting out a screech as it reached the peak. The screech echoed across the area, causing the spiders to scatter. They were so desperate to escape the wrath of the devil that they went straight into the flames. Cooked ettercap and spider filled the air around them, causing their group to start to gag.

The devil only kept smirking at the destruction around it before once again focusing back on Dar. Right after they’d locked eyes, the devil vanished in front of them.

“Where’d it go?” Dar’s head whipped back and forth. It was nowhere to be found. Dar wondered if it could move that quickly, or if it had some sort of invisibility dao.

“Careful. Don’t lose your wits. Stay focused.” Mika reminded everyone, turning to position her back to their backs. The others followed suit, quickly forming a circle.

“We have to kill this thing.” Dar reminded everyone. “It seems more intelligent than the others. I have no doubt that if it is allowed to live, it’ll come after us.”

“I was sold at giant creepy man spider. Didn’t even need another reason to kill it.” Amelia’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

Feeling uneasy, Dar worked to keep focused like Mika had said and try to solve the problem. If the devil was using dao, he should also need mana as well. Maybe that would help give it away. Relaxing, Dar reached out his senses, trying to see what he could feel.

But as he started to relax to sense for mana, Dar felt a disturbance in the air. Instantly moving, he raised his ax in the overhead block Mika had drilled into him.

Sure enough, the drider was there, its leg smashing down onto Dar’s ax with enough force to buckle his knees. Even with his increased strength, it was stronger than he was. Dar started feeling more uneasy.

But before he could prepare for the next move, Mika was next to him, her trident punching towards the devil’s exposed chest.

The devil spun, another one of itss spider legs snapping out, catching Mika’s weapon and tossing her to the side like she weighed nothing.

Dar couldn’t help but notice the sharp gouges in the packed dirt that the devil’s legs produced as it spun. Each appendage was practically a sword.

Charging, Dar swung up into the devil’s mid section, the girls each starting their own attack at the same time.

The devil jumped back as the butt end of the spider curled under itself before extending back out and spraying Dar down with sticky webbing. The spray covered the surrounding several meters, making it impossible for him to dodge it.

When Dar quickly tried to rip it off, it stretched and retracted back together with the force of a steel cable snapping into place. It was strong and even his first blast of heat had done little to it. “Sasha, help me get rid of this silk.”

Dar had a feeling her dao would be able to mold and strip the webbing off of him in no time.

“On it.” Ribbons shot out of her dress, latching onto a tree and whipping her out of the fight and over to Dar while the others kept the drider busy.

Mika was bringing her spear around for attack after attack, but the devil was quick, dodging or blocking her attacks while also managing to dodge Amelia and Neko’s attacks.

Marcie and Amber weren’t having much luck penetrating the chitinous armor of the devil, but they continued trying to distract it. They also seemed to be keeping any stray spiders at bay while the three girls focused their efforts on the devil.

Dar looked over, searching for Cherry. He found her sitting down on her own, uprooting a nearby tree to bring it to bear against the powerful devil.

“I’ll have you out in a second.” Sasha placed her hand on the silk and it pulled away, curling back into a ball in her fist. “There you go.”

“Thanks.” He hefted his ax just as the tree slammed itself down on the drider, bringing the fighting to a short pause. “Did she get it?” Dar had to laugh as the image of a newspaper taking out a spider flittered into his mind. This was just a bigger version.

But his glee was short lived as the tree exploded into slivers of wood. The devil tore the tree apart, screaming incoherently. It was insanely strong, and it seemed much more pissed.

Shifting himself back into the action, Dar swung his ax with all his might, making sure to keep a better eye on its back end.

The drider fought back with its front two legs, the sharp chitnis legs actually managed to turn one of Lilith’s enchanted weapons. Even managing to overpower him and swing right back at Dar. They both struck with such force that small bursts of air buffeted the world around them.

An explosion rocked the drider, and it looked to the side in shock, narrowing in on Sasha as it moved outside of where Dar could attack.

Sasha stood still, surprised at the attention, her arm still extended from the throw. Dar quickly moved himself between the drider and Sasha, making it focus back on him as he completed a rapid flurry of swings.

While it fought Dar, the devil didn’t forget Sasha. During part of their attacks, it shot webs straight at Sasha. Dar had a moment of satisfaction when the webs hit her and didn’t stick.

Instead, Sasha took control of the webs and turned them around on the drider. As she did, tree limbs snaked out and stabilized her while she held firmly to the spray of web that had frozen midair, still connecting her to the drider.

While Sasha held the drider’s secondary attack at bay, the devil continued to exchange blows with Dar, though the chiten on its front legs were scratched and cracked from taking the brunt of Dar’s ax.

Not to be left out, Mika and Amelia continued attacks along its sides, although they were only partially effective as the devil used its legs to counter the blows.

Another two explosions rocked the drider, as Amber and Marcie took up where Sasha had left off.

Neko took the opportunity to leap on the devil’s back.

All of that together provided the perfect distraction. In its moment to deal with the multiple attacks and the angry Neko on its back, its legs paused. Dar focused on a particular crack in the chiten, swinging for the fences with his ax and connecting with that crack.

The plating on the drider gave way, and Dar’s ax finally bit past armor and into its leg. A sickening crunch sounded as the drider threw its head back in a screech. It sounded like thousands of bugs rubbing their wings together.

All around them, the silk fortress resounded with echoed screams from ettercaps and spiders alike.

Mika didn’t even blink, using Dar’s shoulder as leverage and jumping over him, driving her trident into the chest of the drider, causing it to slump further to the ground. The other women joined, stabbing into the beast before it could right itself.

Dar went to stab once more, but he paused, realizing the noises of the forest had changed. Listening closer, Dar noticed the sound of scurrying had gone from getting quieter to once again getting louder. Something in that screech had called them back. He turned, scanning around immediately.

Spiders were starting to converge towards them, some still on fire as they passed through the flames, drawn by the call.

“Get back.” Dar jumped away and brought up a slab of granite from the ground to shelter him and the girls.

“Um, what is that?” Cherry said, sliding into the shelter along with the other girls and pointing.

The webbed fortress was moving. Or more likely, something big enough to move several tons of webbing was moving. The fortress rippled as the ettercaps and spiders returned to the fortress or returned to whatever was behind those webbed walls.

“Holy shit.” Dar breathed the words. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

A massive spider leg pushed aside the fortress webs. The spider had to be bigger than one of the riverboats. And that was only based on a fraction of it as one of its legs probed outside the fortress, pushing the whole construction of silk aside. The leg slammed down around where the drider lay dying.

Its leg tapped around searching. Not wanting to be identified, Dar wrapped the slab of earth around all of them, molding it to the forest floor.

Stabbing around, the massive spider eventually found the drider’s body. Stabbing its leg through the drider’s torso mercilessly, it dragged him back towards the fortress.

When the body got close, the massive spider’s body struck, pushing through the web and devouring the lesser devil in an instant.

With the opening of the wall, part of the mystery became clearer. The back half of the giant spider’s body was bound in a web of glowing runes. Only its front two legs seemed to be free of the binding.

The sheer number of dao characters and the style reminded Dar of his body, and he realized this might be one of the seals that Lilith had warned him about. The ones she’d put in place to seal off powerful devils. 

“Cherry, is that seal something Lilith put in place?” Dar asked, thinking Cherry’s past history with Lilith might help her recognize them.

“I have no idea. But I see exactly what you are seeing. Someone had tried to contain this… thing, and it’s no longer working.”

“Would setting this all on fire even kill it?” Dar asked.

“What on earth— you can’t be thinking of fighting that, can you?” Mika gasped.

“How can we leave that here?” Dar shot back. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable living on the same continent as this thing.”

“Dar. Move.” Neko had been paying more attention than the rest of them, and the warning gave them enough time to avoid getting hit as the massive spider’s limb crashed down into their hiding spot, jarring Dar and making him clench his teeth.

“What are we supposed to do about this thing?” Dar muttered, pausing to gape at the gathering ettercaps and spiders that were still pouring into the area, but going straight to the spider. And instead of preparing for battle, the behemoth of a spider was just devouring them, while they willingly allowed it. It was a disturbing sight.

The giant spider paused and wriggled more of itself free from the bindings.

“Eating them makes it stronger, more able to break the seal?” Dar asked no one in particular.

“If it has been sealed by Lilith, then it stands to reason it at least was weak at one point. But it looks like it’s growing stronger by the moment.” Sasha observed uneasily.

Dar nodded. He couldn’t let that happen. And if it was weakest now, this was his best shot at taking it out. 

Something deep in his core beckoned him to fight the spider. He could feel the little dao tree pulse, wanting the spider for itself. Like the little dao tree was hungry for the spider. He felt like there wasn’t a better option than to see what the little tree could do.

“Then we need to act now.” Dar stepped out of the small shelter with his ax in one hand, gathering the dao of combustion in his other. As soon as he hit the web, he pushed, trying to set the fortress and the trees that it was built upon on fire.

The old web burned quickly. Unfortunately, it burned so quickly that it burned itself out each time he pushed another section to combust. He started getting frustrated as flame after flame lit, burnt, and then fizzled out.

“We got this, Dar. Do what you need to.” Sasha came up with her firestarter, the others close behind her.

Nodding, Dar pivoted back to the gargantuan spider, watching as it continued to devour more of its brood.

A third leg popped out of the binding, working to grab dirt and continue to pull its body further out with the help of the other two free legs.

Moving closer to the ettercaps and spiders marching themselves up for the massive devil’s mouth, Dar was pleased when they didn’t even seem to notice him. Joining alongside them, Dar moved with them, racing along towards the spider’s mouth, but jumping at the last second to land atop its head.

Raising the pitch black ax and putting all his strength and dao of weight into the swing, he slammed it home into the spider’s head.

But despite the power he’d put into the swing, the ax wasn’t able to break through. The reverberation from the halted momentum rattled up his hands and split his palms.

All eight eyes of the massive spider turned up towards him, as it reared up and screamed loud enough to deafen Dar.

Dar latched onto the edge of a chitinous plate that ended at one of the eyes as the devil flailed and Dar rode it like a bucking bull. He managed it, but only because it was still largely bound and unable to move.

Holding on, Dar worked to come up with a new plan.

Waiting for the devil to stop moving, he raised his ax and aimed for a weaker part of its body, the eyes. Hitting one of them, the spider’s eye popped, and mucus sprayed as the creature continued screaming.

Dar smirked, pleased that plan had worked. Picking up his axe, he started aiming for the second. But he came up short as he watched the eye he’d struck grow back.

The eerie black eye stared back at him angrily. It’s three legs out of the binding slammed into the ground ahead of it, and the ground around it cracked as the thing heaved itself forward.

A fourth leg popped out of the binding and joined the first three.

Knowing he was running out of time, Dar went to town. Ignoring the disgusting spray of goo, Dar continued playing whack-a-mole with the regenerating eyes. He hoped enough damage might stop it from healing, or at least slow it down. 

“If you had a plan little dao tree, now would be the time.” Dar growled, unsure where to go from here. The situation had been dire and he put his trust in the feeling he’d gotten from his inner world.

But the spider kept regenerating. Pausing, Dar felt the little dao tree push against his inner world. It was finnally making its move.

Deep inside Dar he felt a pulse. With it came a wash of clarity, he could sense the complete dao, the underpinnings of the universe focus on this spot. Then another and another, each growing stronger till reality flipped.

His inner world projected itself onto the world around him. All around him was the familiar sight of his inner world. Including the little dao tree hovering right there with Dar. With it came complete control and a brief moment of absolute understanding of everything in his domain.

In that moment of clarity Dar understood. The massive spider couldn’t die. Not if Dar spent the rest of his immortal life hacking away at its eyes.

That’s because it was part of the complete dao. So intricately had it woven itself into the fabric of the universe that it was no longer just a massive monster. It was the dark, shadows and everything that lurked within.

To kill this monster would be to banish all shadows from the world, make it place were light touched every corner and crevice pushing back everything that used the dark. Catastrophic change that would ripple through the world and undo ecosystems. While Dar had no love for spiders, or shadows, they had a role in balancing the world.

Not to mention all of those aspects of the world continued to feed into it. As Dar slowly hacked it apart it would continue to pull on those aspects to survive. It would take Dar banishing every shadow I the world with light to weaken this thing to the point of death.

But while he realize all of this, he realized there was something else present that was on the same level as the massive spider.

The Little Dao Tree. As weak as it was in this moment, it also was stitched into the fabric of the world, only it’s pulse was so weak Dar couldn’t see clearly what exactly it was.

As if rising up to that challenge, the Little Dao Tree acted. Its roots rose up and dove into the wounded eye sockets of the spider and they drank all that it was up.

Dar shivered seeing such a powerful being being devoured by the little tree as the spider rapidly turned into a husk before his eyes.

“What in the world.” He breathed. The little dao tree couldn’t kill it, so instead it was taking all that it was and absorbing it. It was stealing the aspect of the world the spider held onto, repurposing it.

Till the massive spider become naught but dust on the wind.

Dar shivered, not sure what to do with the image of the powerful being getting devoured by the small roots of his little tree. But the roots kept feeding, the spider rapidly turning into a husk before his eyes.

“What in the world was that?” He breathed. The little dao tree couldn’t kill it, so instead, it seemed to be taking all that it was and absorbing it. It was stealing the aspect of the world the spider held onto and repurposing it. Into what? He had no idea.

Soon Dar found his feet planted on the forest floor, nothing under him but dust.

“Dar?” The girls ran over, covered in soot and spider guts as a fire raged around them. Their eyes only held wonder and questions at what they’d just seen.

“We need to go.” Dar said when he could speak. All around them, the spiders and ettercaps were idle, like their purpose had been lost. “Let the fire consume them. We need to go.” He repeated, moving through a gap in the flames and rushing out of the fortress that was about to become the center of a massive wildfire.

As he went, Dar let his inner world suck up dead ettercaps and spiders indiscriminately. He didn’t have time to take up all the bodies before they burned, but he’d use what he could to produce more dao fruits.

“Dar, what happened?” Cherry panted as they ran. The rest were right behind them, all looking interested in his answer.

“I…” Dar paused. He was at a loss of words on how to explain it. The knowledge and flash of insight he’d felt in the moment had turned foggy, like it was an epiphany just out of his reach. “I can’t exactly explain, but that beast was pure dao, and it looks like my body has even more secrets.”

There was a shared look of concern among his women at the lack of an actual answer, but Dar didn’t know what else he could say. So instead he just charged forward, aiming to get them out of the forest.

The flames continued to creep closer, quickly getting out of control and filling the air with smoke.

Dar coughed a harsh cough full of smoke, knowing they needed to hurry. The fire was slower to spread downhill, but they still needed to keep moving to stay ahead of it.

Taking the lead, Dar tried to absorb as much of the heat as he could to protect their group.

“Dar, we need to do something so the fire doesn’t spread to Hearthway.” Cherry reminded him.

“I know.” He hadn’t fully worked that out yet, but he had an idea.

Dar and his dao companions rushed out of the worst of the fire and kept on running towards the village, but as they reached the location of the first battle, they found the fighters were still in the area. 

The fire was clear over their shoulder and Rex, Russ and Bart were standing there to greet them.

“Did you set the whole forest on fire?” Bart stared over Dar’s shoulder, clear concern on his face.

“Pretty sure you told me that was a terrible idea.” Russ snorted.

“Enough. You all should be back at the village, but we can use you now. We need to burn and cut anything we can to create a wall right here in the forest. I want to starve the fire before it can progress further.” Dar didn’t wait to see if they understood before moving to take action.

The other men moved quickly, picking up their weapons and repurposing them to follow his instructions. There was no beauty in their movements as they savagely hacked away and hauled away wood, creating a break in the forest as the raging fire crept slowly down the hill.

Cherry went to work toppling small and medium sized trees, while a dozen teams of five brought down trees with reckless abandon that would have made Frank cringe.

Just shy of where they were creating a gap, the girls used their fire starters to create a back-fire, working to remove anything that might be able to catch.

It was tough work, but the men rallied behind a clear purpose. And when the forest fire pushed them back, it stopped at the line of charred trees created in the back-fire.

Slumping to the ground while the flames on the other side of the break raged, Dar panted. They’d done it. Hearthway was safe. He felt a soft form collapse next to him, as Sasha’s body melted into his. That movement was soon followed by others as Dar’s companions surrounded him.

***

When they finally reached the village, they were covered in layers of soot and guts, but their small family was all alive.

Dar led them all back to the village with a smile on his face. They’d done it. Cheering, he couldn’t help but let the joy of the group lift him up.

But that quickly changed as he noticed some somber faces among those cheering. Loved ones had been lost in the process, and many were grieving. Dar felt guilty for his moments of elation, walking over to one of them. But before he could say a word, the woman shook her head, cutting him off.

“Franky knew what he was doing, and he believed in you. I’m glad that he died honorably. You did well for us.” She leaned forward, giving Dar a hug before grabbing a few of the other grieving women and moving away from the celebrating group.

Dar watched them go, feeling the weight of leadership along with the elation of victory.

He couldn’t ignore that things were changing. Something about that moment with the gigantic spider had felt like he’d taken a giant step towards his destiny. Even now, he could feel something changing inside his inner world.

Part of him wanted to ignore it and just hunker down with his women, but he also couldn’t ignore the way his dao tree had called to him earlier. But in this moment, all he needed to do was celebrate their victory.

Dar was filled with equal amounts of hope and dread for what was to come. But at the very least he was looking forward to some downtime with his girls and showing them their winter home. He couldn’t think of a better thing to make and celebrate their victory. And he knew the perfect place.

Grabbing his dao companions, Dar started steering them back to the caves, wanting to show them their home.

But as they made their way, he heard shouting to one side of the village. Dar paused, desperately wanting to ignore it, but in the end, he did his duty and went over.

Jeffrey was pointing his sword and shouting at a richly dressed man and his entourage of men who looked dressed for heavy labor. Dar had never seen any of them before.

“Can I help you?” Dar let his voice carry across the space between them, his ax still ready if need be.

The leader looked up at Dar, his face quickly shifting into one of apprehension, his men behind watching Dar with wide eyes.

Dar tried not to smirk at the man’s fear. He knew that caked in battle gore and ashes, they were likely a gruesome sight. “Devil problem in the woods. Don’t worry, we took care of them.”

“Oh.” The man seemed unable to say much more as his men pressed in closer behind him. A few looked over their shoulders towards the forest, still glowing orange with the fires.

“Where are my manners.” The man righted himself, his brain seeming to catch up. “I’m Dane Goodhaul, merchant extraordinaire. I heard there was a village here, so we ventured down. But I was surprised to find it empty.” He licked his lips nervously.

“Not so empty, as you can see. We were taking care of a few things nearby. We protect what’s ours.” He gave a meaningful look to the man in case empty had made the man think he’d have any stake.

Softening his expression, Dar continued “But welcome to Hearthway, I’d love to discuss trade, depending on what you have.”

The merchant bowed slightly. “Then let me be the first to congratulate you. Your little village is officially on the map.”

“Hearthway.” Dar clarified.

“Hearthway.” Goodhaul agreed.

Several of the men looked up, and Dar followed their line of sight to see snowflakes fluttering down above them. “It seems winter is finally here.”

Dar nodded, exhausted and ready for a winter slumber. “You are welcome to stay for dinner, but I’m afraid I’m going to need to excuse myself.” Dar looked at Dane. “Many of us need to clean up, and then we have a celebration to kick off.”

AN: Phew. That's all of it. The conclusion was a little short, but I wanted to leave question as to just what is going to change in Dar's inner world for next book. Is there going to be a new dao fruit? And he still has to wow his girls with the new Dar Cave.