Dao 4 Chapter 8 (Patreon)

At some point during his practice, Dar drifted off to sleep and awoke under the dao tree in his inner world.

The mystical tree reached towards the sky like a hundred year old oak. But it didn’t look like any ordinary tree. One section carried pink cherry blossoms that seemed to be permanently in bloom, while another had been stained inky black, including the leaves. And then another section was a muddy brown with craggy leaves of a variety of earth tones.

All of it resonated with dao unlike anything else Dar had encountered in Granterra.

He still didn’t fully understand the tree that Lilith had left inside of him.

“Dozed off, did you?” Cherry came up behind Dar and clung to his back. “You work hard, Dar, my tree.”

He squeezed her hands. “Yeah, well times are going to be tougher soon. I need to be stronger too.” He glanced around at his inner world. The house had boxes and bags of goods resting against it, things that Cherry and the others had brought with them for the journey.

Then further out, there was the budding orchard that one day Dar hoped would continue to provide fruit for the village and him and his harem if they needed it.

Dar was preparing for the worst case in so many ways.

Yet his inner world had continued to expand with his strength, truthfully, he didn’t know its boundaries any more.

“Dar.” Cherry pulled herself up and hung around his shoulders. “If you don’t stop thinking about other things, I’m going to have to get creative with my vines.”

Little sprouts of green growth rose up from the ground and twined around his legs, and one poked at his butt.

“Oh hell no. I told you never.” Dar growled and ripped the offending plant up from the ground. As his growl turned into a chuckle, he grabbed the insatiable dryad off his back and pushed her face into the ground in front of him even as she wiggled excitedly in his arms. “A dryad should be punished for that.”

“Punished.” Her eyes glowed a vibrant green. “Yes. Punish your dryad.”

***

Dar woke up refreshed from a night in his inner world. Cherry and then Neko had kept him occupied.

“Milord.” Amber bowed. There were bags under her eyes, like she hadn’t gotten any sleep.

“Rest Amber, thank you for watching over me tonight.” Dar pat her shoulder and kissed the top of her head.

“It was my pleasure.” She paused and picked up Lilith’s dao booklet. “You shouldn’t leave things this precious lying around. May I take it back into your inner world?”

Dar nodded and drew her into his inner world before stretching and looking around.

All of his ladies were in his inner world, which left him to his own devices.

A thump downstairs drew his attention and he stood, leaving the inn’s room to see what was happening.

“Martin, have you seen the corpses?” A shaky voice demanded.

“I have Harold. Please calm down.” Dar recognized the voice that responded as the leader from last night.

A few more voices spoke up in fear, seeming to recount observations from the forest.

“Oh. There is our traveler.” Martin gave Dar a strained smile as he came down the stairs.

Looking around, the inn was filled with gathered townspeople. But it was also one of the largest buildings in the village, so it would make sense for it to serve as a gathering point.

“Sounds like there was some excitement?” Dar asked a sudden worry that his presence and a disaster were going to overlap.

“The forest has become a monster graveyard. Dozens of them, all slaughtered.” A worried woman shrieked. “What could have done something like that?”

Dar had a sinking feeling that he knew. Though he hadn’t expected the girls to be so active so quickly.

“You wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with this?” Martin asked, looking up past Dar towards the room. “Or maybe those two demons?”

“Demons?” Harold the innkeeper perked up. “That’s right! You had two with you. Where did they go?”

“They come and go.” Dar shrugged. “Right now they aren’t here. Though, I know they went out monster hunting last night.”

The crowd visibly recoiled from Dar, and murmurs passed through the crowd.

Martin shook his head. “Those two are dangerous. It might be best if they came down and introduced themselves?”

Dar considered drawing them out of his inner world just to watch all their faces, but he decided the town was too on edge. More strangeness would only make this situation worse.

“I’ll get them.” Harold hurried up the stairs.

Dar winced.

“They aren’t up there?” Martin saw right through him.

Dar sighed and shook his head. “No. They’ll be back soon though, I suspect.”

The leader’s eyes shifted over the crowd that was growing more restless by the moment. “Might be time for you to get out of town. Not that I have a problem, but a sight like people saw in the woods makes a person uncomfortable.”

Harold came storming down the steps. “They are gone.” He shouted with a voice that warbled with fear.

Dar put his hand over his face. The man hadn’t made things any calmer. “I can see your point. And we need to be on our way anyway. But I’d like the directions to Frost’s Fang before I go.”

Martin pulled out a folded piece of paper. “I’m no cartographer, but it’s a rough map.”

The paper seemed to be some sort of notice from Kindrake, but on the back a map had been drawn out with a piece of coal. Dar specifically noticed the marking that was a big circle that he put a skull in.

“Thank you friend. What’s this?” Dar pointed to the skull. It seemed to be along the most direct route.

“Death.” Martin frowned. “No one comes back.” The leader stared at Dar. “Yet that seems to draw you.”

Dar folded up the map and stuffed it in his pocket. “Maybe. Not too much scares me, and if there are monsters there, I’m happy to clear them out.” The crowd at the inn was picking up in intensity, and he wasn’t going to stick around. He’d seen what happened at Bellhaven before when villagers grew self conscious about their lack of power. He wanted nothing to do with the scared rabble.

Martin followed close behind him. “Be careful with those demons. Where again did you say you were from?”

“Hearthway. Other side of the Bellriver, against the cliffs that are maybe a short trek from the river.” Dar tried to give directions.

Martin nodded along. “There’s a few spots like that along the river. When I was younger, I traveled on a few river boats.”

“Well, if you encounter too much trouble, feel free to head that direction. My people are well off for the winter and the coming war.” Dar dropped the hint.

“War?” Martin followed him outside as Dar headed towards his locomotive. “We haven’t heard anything.”

“You likely will soon. Kindrake has been sending out recruiters. My village wants nothing to do with it.” Dar paused with his hand on the iron and granite vehicle.

The hunter frowned, thinking through a few things. “That’s why you are going to The White?”

“My village is half ancient races.” Dar explained. “Which makes us a great recruiting hub. Kindrake wants to take them all and put them on the front lines of a war over gold in the mountains. I have no desire to see my village empty because of their greed. Technically, we got ourselves out of the war, but Bellhaven won’t hold their word, so The White is my best option.”

Karn should have gotten back there by now and told her of Bellhaven, hopefully that only helped his cause.

“Hard times when that’s your best option.” Martin rubbed at his chin, but his contemplation was broken with the roars of several monsters.

Dar looked up to find what he assumed were stragglers from whatever the girls had done the previous night.

Rather than hold back, he summoned up a ball of lava, breaking it into several fist sized balls and launching them across the village at high speed.

When the lava balls hit a monster, they burnt a hole right through it, but more came rushing the village, heading straight for the inn where everybody was gathered.

Dar summoned a giant black blade from his armory in the black keep, holding tight to it as he took a step forward and met the charging monsters.

His blade cut cleanly through two of them before lava rolled off his blade in a wide arc, cutting down the rest of the monsters cleanly.

Dar dismissed the blade back into the armory and turned around to a wide eyed Martin. “I believe your monster problem should be fixed now.”

“You're a demon?” Martin asked.

“No. I was human once, but no longer. I certainly won’t fight a war for Kindrake.” Dar was done hiding.

Martin shrugged. “Can’t really blame them for wanting you.” He smirked and put a hand out to Dar. “So, if we are ever in trouble, we can head to this… Hearthway?”

Dar shook the man’s hand before stepping back to his vehicle. “Sure. But expect a few surprises if you do.” Dar replied, grabbing the edge of his locomotive and swinging himself up into the front.

“I can see that. Good luck.” Martin waved as Dar started his vehicle up and began plowing through the snow once more.

People poured out of the inn after Dar left. He had a feeling some wanted to catch another glimpse of him, and some wanted to make sure that he was gone for good.

It all left Dar shaking his head.

But he’d at least done some good and helped them. He hoped it would help continue to spread goodwill towards the ancient races and his city. Maybe one day they could live in harmony everywhere.

Dar pulled out the hastily drawn map from Martin.

Because it was hand-drawn, Dar knew that the map wasn’t to scale, but it did have the important landmarks.

He tapped on the map where the skull was drawn, wondering what might exist there to lead to so much death.

Cherry was going to kill him, but he fully intended to go find out.

***

“Where are we going on the map?” Tami held the paper in her hands and looked around for one of the landmarks.

“The skull. Any idea what’s there?” Dar wondered if she had knowledge of any larger dangers out in that area.

“Not a clue.” Tami frowned. “It should just be villages and wilderness out here… wait, are you saying we are heading for the skull?”

Dar grinned. “Of course. I want to know what’s been causing trouble.”

“But-“ Tami tried to argue.

Dar shook his head to cut her off. “I was brought into this world to destroy the opposing forces. I am not going to run away from it. I’m going to take on whatever this is. It’s probably just another monster like these others we encountered.”

“What if it is another Mo?” Tami asked, surprised at his answer.

Dar only grinned wider. “Then I injure it and absorb it like the others. I actually wish it was a Mo. Then I could put my new dao to use.”

“What are you working on? With lava, are you going to go the way of the fire birds and The Red in Tormac?” Tami asked.

But Dar shook his head. “No. I’m going for low hanging fruit and utility. I’m not sure what grand dao I will make, but I’ve taken some lesser dao related to Cherry’s new growth grand dao and then others related to wind, and your dao of speed.”

Tami stared at Dar as if he’d just grown horns. “Just like that? You pick a few things you are interested in and just go after them?”

“Pretty much. I force myself to learn the dao by trying to trace them. It hurt for the lesser dao until after I got my first grand dao. Now it is uncomfortable, but well worth it.” Dar watched as they passed on of the landmarks on the map and veered right, straight towards the skull on the map.

Tami held the map up and looked back at the cracked stone depicted on the map before she swallowed. “There’s no going back, is there?”

“Not a chance.” Dar chuckled. “I want to see what’s in the middle of the skull. But it’s also the fastest way to Frost’s Fang.”

Dar drove the locomotive onwards as its enchantments of sharp and heat cut through the snow as if it were butter.

“You have a lot of people relying on you. Do you want to take such a risk?” Tami tried to dissuade him again.

Dar shrugged. “Like I said already. For it to be that dangerous for the people of the village, there’s a high chance it is something that has cultivated a dao. Either it is another Mo that will become a problem for me eventually, or it is something else and I can handle it. I’m well aware of the people that rely on me, but they do that because I go headfirst into problems and resolve them rather than letting them fester into something much larger in the future.”

Dar glanced over and looked Tami in the eye. “I am going. Hide out in my inner world if you must.” Dar stopped being flippant and became serious.

Facing forward once again, Dar took the scene ahead. The road continued through the woods, but the forest was bare. There were no leaves on the trees, and the bark had become gray and lifeless. “Besides, it looks like there is a serious problem here.”

Tami looked around at the trees. “They are all dead.”

“Yep. I guess this is how you get a giant skull on a map.” Dar shook his head just as the front of his locomotive caught something and bones flew over the side of his vehicle. “That too.” Dar slowed down; he saw a village up ahead. “Think they are friendly?”

“Treat this seriously, please.” Tami rolled her eyes.

Dar rolled to a stop in the middle of the village, though he struggled to call it that.

Normally a village needed people, and he saw no signs of life. But he could hear a haunting song off in the distance.

“Stay here. I’m going to check it out.” Dar hopped out and started moving.

“Hold on. You aren’t going alone.” Tami sped over to his side, a saber ready on her hip and her hand itching to draw it.