Dao 4 Chapter 5 (Patreon)

Dar lifted a bridge of granite out of the river. “See, boats are unnecessary, and we won’t get wet.”

Neko made a noise of utter disgust. “Wet. Wolfy is following us.”

“Yes, I know.” Dar dropped a piece of meat on the bridge, then another on the far side as they went.

He paused, wondering if he should leave the bridge. It wasn’t until he became a grand demon that he could do something like form a bridge from the ground so easily. It would block the river for boats come spring, but for the winter it might make things easier on Russ.

In the end, he left the bridge for the wolf to use and follow them.

“Do you have enough meat to be leaving so much for this creature?” Tami glanced back, trying to catch sight of the white wolf.

“Oh, we could eat nothing but meat for six weeks and I wouldn’t run out. Besides, the bison herd is just up ahead.” Dar noticed that Russ’ boat was pulled up on the shore. The demon and his companions were likely already cleaning their first kill.

“What can you tell us about The White, Cherry?” Dar asked. Cherry had spent a lot of time with Lilith, and had more experience than most. She was his best bet to understand the celestial demon better.

“Old. Older than Lilith. The Deep One might be older than even her, but she’s old. Her dao is mostly ice related. Lilith once called her celestial dao, ‘absolute zero’.”

Dar let out a slow, appreciative whistle. “That’s a pretty bold claim. Absolute Zero is the temperature at which things become so cold even molecules stop. At that temperature, things simply disintegrate, falling apart without electrons spinning. In theory, it is impossible.”

Cherry nodded. “Yes. She makes people so cold that they just turn into dust. Last I heard, she was growing closer to her second celestial dao.”

Dar faltered a little in his step. Going up against a power like that was no joke. Any misstep could easily end in death.

“Okay. Now that you have me scared, what does she look like? What does she like that we can use to maybe not get frozen to dust?” Dar tried to change the topic.

“She once was a giant white serpent with big white antlers.” Cherry put her hands on top of her head.

Dar blinked several times. “She was a dragon, like the Chinese kind that are all big and windy.”

“I do not know what the Chinese are. Dragons are big lizards with wings. She has no wings.”

Thinking for a moment, Dar came up with the word, wondering if the translation magic Lilith put in him would work. “A shenlong.”

“Ah. I haven’t heard that term before, but if that’s what you’d call her then, yes, she’s a shenlong.” Cherry nodded along as she walked. “She believes that the top of her mountain is a place of power, where she can learn her dao better. The White is obsessed with more strength, because she’s in an invisible war with the two surrounding powers. To the north in Tormac there is a giant bird of fire, and south of us around the Mahaklan is The Deep One’s territory.  She’s a demon, but absolutely ruthless. Supposedly she was once a colossal shark.”

Dar added the threat of a phoenix and a megladon to his list. And they were in a tight struggle with The White for who is the strongest.

“What about to the east?”

“There’s a sand spirit over that way. They aren’t very aggressive though.” Tami jumped in. “Sineld doesn’t get much rain, so the land is barren. Their people just focus on survival mostly. No one really wants the Sineld territory.”

Dar thought about similar areas on Earth, wondering if the ones in Grandterra had oil. But even as he thought it, he dismissed it. There was no reason to introduce combustion engines into Grandterra. Dao provided more than enough to create what was needed.

Smiling, Dar considered that he could make a car of stone and move it. It would mean leaving his wolf friend behind, but it seemed like a great way to travel.

Since he had a grand dao, Dar could create matter from mana. Lifting his hands, he waved a square cart with wheels of lava into existence before pulling the heat out and solidifying it. Then he placed it on the ground.

“Get in. Let’s see how far I can push us with this.” Dar stepped into the cart.

He should have made it a bit bigger; it was going to be cozy. But he hadn’t wanted to waste material, nor did it want to make it too large that I was hard to move.

“Box!” Neko jumped in first and poked her head out, her cat ears twitching. “Neko’s box.”

Amber ignored her. She jumped forward, catching the lip and swinging herself over with a flutter of red hair.

“We need to share Neko.” Marcie joined Amber.

Cherry gave Dar a raised eyebrow. “Maybe I’ll go prepare some breakfast in your inner world since this looks like we aren’t stopping anytime soon.”

Dar scratched the back of his head. “Sorry. I’m eager to get going.”

The dryad only smiled before she slipped into his core.

“Still never going to get used to that.” Tami muttered as she glided into the makeshift car.

Dar lifted himself over and stood in the front, the lip was short enough that it only went up to his chest. He wasn’t sure what kind of vegetation they’d be going through, but he wanted ample protection.

“Let’s give this a go.” He shoved on the cart with his dao, and the wheels rolled smoothly enough even if there was a small grind. If the axles broke and a wheel rolled off, he’d just make it again.

His little boxy cart shot forward, faster than a horse.

Neko perched herself high on the right wall, her face in the wind. “So fast! Faster!”

Dar was tempted to give into her demand, but he needed to keep his strength up. He kept the current pace.

“Milord. Allow us to enter your inner world. You will have less weight, and we can rest in order to watch over you as you sleep.”

Her reasoning made sense, so Dar went to pull the maids into his inner world.

But as they went, they grabbed Neko and pulled her in as well, leaving him alone with Tami.

Something told him that was far from an accident.

“So.” Tami looked around noticing the situation as well. “This is another one of those things from your previous life?”

“Sort of. You guys have carts, don’t you?”

“Ones pulled by horses.” She clarified, tapping on the wall. “Grand dao aren’t that common. Especially not ones that would be able to make and move something that can hold people.”

Dar nodded. His other path of dao was that of shadows. Even if he tried to make a cart, it would require all of his strength to hold it together. Moving it would be nearly impossible.

“Yeah. I guess you could say this is like a car. They were a type of carriage with…” He decided not to explain an engine. “A big block of enchantments that replaced the horses.”

“Interesting.” Tami said. “The wealthy of Kindrake often show off with their horses. To make an enchanted block drive the carriage… I’m unsure if that would be seen as extreme wealth or just strange.”

“Probably strange. It’s amazing how in a world with Dao, people here seem to hate anything that disrupts the status quo.” Dar was reminded of Bellhaven’s abhorrent behavior.

Tami shook her head. “You’ve seen but one city at a particular time. Not all of Kindrake or the world for that matter is the same.”

“Well, let’s just say that they gave me a really bad first impression. Besides, it wasn’t as if the capital was treating your kind much better.” Dar almost brought up her brother’s death, but he didn’t want to make her relive those moments.

“Then you should explore the world, although I suppose that’s somewhat what you’re doing right now. And if you can really destroy the Mo, then…” She trailed off, looking at the horizon. “Then you have the power to shape this world.”

Dar felt like he was missing something. She seemed hesitant that he would have that much power, or change the world so much. “Is that okay?”

Tami looked down at her hands, sadness overtaking her face. “I got swept up in all of this, with you and the attacks on Bellhaven. It wasn’t until after that I realized that I had no place among your family.”

“What makes you say that?” Dar asked it gently, genuinely curious what she would say.

“I’m a glorified messenger. I run errands for my family and the king.” She shook her head. “You are… I don’t know… an immortal, learning and mastering dao at speeds completely unheard of. And you’re planning to slay the Mo and accelerate your dao path even faster. The things you’ll do… they are on another level”

Dar cocked his head. “Why wouldn’t I need a messenger too?”

“Oh, you’ll need a messenger. You’ll need hundreds. But you don’t need a messenger as part of your harem.” Tami rolled her eyes at Dar. “Besides, compared to Sasha.” She cupped her chest which while not flat, certainly wasn’t comparable to Sasha.

“Well, do I get a say in this? Or have you already ruled it out.” Dar leaned over, smiling down at Tami. “For the record, I think you’re quite attractive.” Dar grinned at the deer woman with her reddish brown hair, with freckles dappling her face even in the dead of winter.

Tami’s eyes grew wide and then a rosey blush grew behind her freckles. “Stop that.” She hid her face. “It isn’t proper.”

“Shame.” Dar shot her a wink as she peeked between her fingers. The deer woman was flighty, and he was having a little fun teasing her if he was honest. The question was if he was doing too much. “I thought a cute demon like you would be a perfect addition to the harem.”

Dar looked back out over the terrain, letting Tami’s thoughts settle a bit, not wanting to push her too far.

“Just because I’m cute?” Tami asked, clearly playing his words over and over in her head.

“Of course. You know more about how to lead a country than any of us do. I could use your help and guidance. By being ‘just a messenger’, you’ve picked up all kinds of context and information. But the cuteness doesn’t hurt.” Dar shot her another wink.

This time, she didn’t hide despite her clear embarrassment.

“Okay, I can do that. We can use that part of me.” Tami nodded, looking thoughtful.

“I can’t wait to find out which part you mean.” Dar teased, enjoying her growing blush.

“Not what I meant!” She tapped at his temple. “But you need to start thinking further out. You’ve made a wonderful little city. I’d hardly call something with a giant pig iron wall a village.”

Dar had to agree with that. The wall was well above the level of a mere village. “Okay, my own little capital city. It’s working pretty well.”

“At this point.” She rolled her eyes. “Right now it is just bartering. Eventually there are going to be enough people and varied professions that you need coin to enter the equation, especially when you have people using daos to pump out goods as quickly as you have. And with the blacksmiths, you may have a serious advantage. If more of them get the dao of iron and other metals, the city will become a force to rival the smiths of all of Kindrake.”

Dar grinned. “I know. Kindrake pushes demons and spirits into roles that focus on their increased strength, not really ones that utilize their dao.”

Tami nodded. “That’s correct. My family is used as messengers and military officers because few things stop us from traveling where we want.”

The dao of speed was advantageous. Dar had seen her before; it was incredible to watch her hit sixty miles per hour on foot. She was probably the fastest thing on two feet. Well, her family likely could match her speed.

“That’s still a physical attribute. Even giving the people of Hearthway enchanted forges was a big deal.” Dar continued.

“Because heat isn’t really that common of a dao. Dao that lead up to fire are often quite destructive and more the domain of devils and monsters than people living in a city.” Tame sighed. “But your use of Mika’s wave enchantments to make those motors on the boats was interesting.”

Dar nodded. His knowledge of simple mechanics seemed to be benefiting his ability to use dao in creative ways.

But he wasn’t perfect. The motors were wearing themselves out quickly and they would have to replace them often. Luckily, remolding the components wasn’t too difficult.

Dar changed the subject. “Do you have any way to keep track of direction as we travel?” He was using the sun to gauge the correct direction, knowing that for now they just needed to head north east.

“Don’t worry. Just keep this heading for a few days. We might start to see Frost Fang by then. It’s the tallest peak of the whole mountain range; you really can’t miss it.” Tami laughed. “I’d be more concerned about what we encounter over this way. Kindrake’s Bell River and the ocean’s shoreline are ripe with villages, but the people out this way will be harder.”

Dar nodded. Once you got away from the waterways that could hold ships, civilization would change. “Any knowledge of the area?”

“Honestly? No. When Toldove was destroyed by The White, the area this far east was almost abandoned by people. You’ll end up seeing harder folk that stayed, and some migrants from Sineld. The King’s tax collectors come this way, but it’s a struggle. The roads are mostly dirt. If we had started from Kindrake, there’s a main highway that runs to the east where Toldove once stood.”

Dar felt himself prickle at the idea that the people got no help from the king except the tax collectors that showed up. He wasn’t any better than the nobles of Bellhaven.

“But there should be plenty of villages and people still.” Tami was quick to add. “If we can find a road, it should start to connect places. And eventually it will head up towards Toldove’s graveyard. From there we’ll have to walk through woods to get to Frost’s Fang. There won’t be well traveled roads.”

Dar wanted to see this city that The White destroyed with his own eyes.

He kept his cart flying through the snowy fields and rolling hills, cresting each hill with a bright smile for the future. “Good. I want to meet the people of this area. Hopefully they are nicer to demons. If they are, I wouldn’t mind recruiting.”