Dao 4 Chapter 13 (Patreon)

Dar stopped to stretch his legs. He’d traveled with Valdis into the night, until they couldn’t see. Then they’d stopped to rest, and he’d picked it back up again first thing this morning. Everybody else was still in his inner world.

True to Valdis’ words, the monsters of the region gave him space. They could feel the strength of their two grand daos. 

Dar was proud of how hard the others seemed to be working on the dao tree. They were continuously meditating next to it, working to grow stronger for their family. But he was starting to wonder if they were pushing themselves too hard. They didn’t have the same enchantments that he did.

But he knew if he brought it up, they’d just point out how hard he’d been pushing on the dao of life for Valdis.

After bringing so much death, Dar wanted to help her be able to also bring life. He had a feeling death was an isolating dao to wield, and the fact that her position on the map had been marked by a skull backed that.

Dar considered the grand dao he would have at that point. He would then have lava, snow storm, and life.

The cold wind hit Dar’s face as he tried to picture what sort of crazy celestial dao that would create. He started laughing as the images in his mind were ridiculous. He’d have to get creative.

But his thoughts were broken as he smelled smoke. He immediately looked around, trying to identify the cause.

Reaching the top of a foothill, Dar saw several plumes of smoke rising in the air.

He knew that humans weren’t making villages this close to Frost’s Fang and wondered what he was in for.

Pushing on his inner world, he pushed a disoriented Valdis out.

“Holy shit. Warn a girl.” She clutched her breast plate to her chest, with the straps not yet done. “What do you need?”

“A scout.” Dar pointed down at the smoke. “What’s that?”

“A demon tribe.” She frowned. “A big gathering based on the size.”

“Tribe?” Dar thought that demons didn’t form villages.

“A loose term. They just live in the woods here and meet on occasion. It’s mostly to settle grudges or discuss happenings in a larger area. But that’s a big camp if there are that many fires.” Valdis worked over her shoulder, finishing the straps to hold on her breast plate. “I’ll go take a look.” She took to the sky, gliding over the treetops towards the smoke.

Dar just continued to put one foot in front of the other as he headed down the foothill towards the camp. If nothing else, the demons could offer some insights to the area. He was hopeful they’d have some clearer trails that could speed up his journey.

They might not have all the same human characteristics, since they had lived on their own for so long. But Neko had been a chance for him to get used to more primal demons.

They would be intelligent, yet still wild creatures. And they finally gave him an excuse to go downhill.

Dar’s eyes rose to the towering peak that was Frost’s Fang like a sharp needle rising behind the foothills. “Valdis was right. I need to make a fucking helicopter and just skip over all of this.”

For a moment, Dar considered activating all of his enchantments and charging up the hill, but that type of approach seemed more aggressive than he wanted to be when he approached The White.

The last thing he wanted to do was antagonize someone who destroyed entire cities.

Dar squinted at the snow of the hill and a broad grin spread over his face. He had a wonderful idea.

He made a small ball of lava in his hands, expanding it into a thin sheet with a curl up front before cooling it off. It formed into a slightly rounded sled, with a front that would protect him from spraying snow and keep from catching on anything.

The grown kid in him couldn’t help but think this was the biggest hill he’d get to sled down in his life.

Dar jumped on the sled only to realize he hadn’t made handles and quickly made two out of cooled lava, like obnoxiously large motorcycle handles.

The sled took a few seconds to pick up speed, snow starting to spray around the edges.

“Wahoo!” Dar shouted into the wind as he continued to pick up speed and leaned around a large tree, catching air on a bump and flying amid the branches of trees lower down.

In his previous life, he’d have been concerned about crashing and wrecking his body, but he reinforced it with the dao of hard while fortifying the sled as well, bumping along as he whizzed down the slope.

Dar leaned back as the sled picked up more and more speed until he was hurtling down at breakneck speeds. His inner child was a creature of pure glee as he swerved, narrowly missing another tree and catching on a ravine pulling him off course.

Dar didn’t mind. He just needed to go down and gravity was doing a wonderful job of helping him.

A startled gathering of rabbits bolted out of his way as he came around one twist, and Dar banked back to the left, running his hand through the undisturbed powdery snow.

“Dar, what are you doing?” Valdis had swooped down and was flapping her wings at a feverish pace to keep up with him.

“Take my hand.” Dar reached out and caught her hand before yanking her down in his lap.

Valdis screamed as Dar headed straight for a tree, only to pull to the side after getting her settled and clipping a handle on the tree, sending off a shower of splinters and sending them into a tailspin.

“We are going to die!” Valdis yelled and frantically tried to get out of Dar’s lap.

“We are far tougher than this.” Dar wrapped one arm around her waist and leaned into the other side, slowing and stopping their tail spin. Getting them situated, he let it fall once more, picking up speed again as they raced down the hill.

Valdis realized Dar wasn’t going to let her fly away and grabbed onto the handle bars. “How do you steer this? You clearly are incompetent.”

“Hold on and lean.” Dar put his hands over hers, realizing how well her dainty hands fit under his and showed her the movements. He leaned to the right and swerved around more trees before swinging back the other way.

The zig zag pattern slowed them down to a more manageable pace, though Dar thought I was less fun. But Valdis calmed as their pace became slower, so he figured he could deal with it.

“People use sleds to carry goods or for kids to go down small hills. People do not use sleds to race recklessly down foothills.” Valdis scolded him.

“We should do this on the way down from Frost’s Fang.” He grinned.

She turned around in his lap and gave him a glare that promised a long and painful death if he tried that with her.

“Watch out.” He pointed over her shoulder, and she whipped back around, leaning to the left even though it wasn’t even close to hitting them. Dar laughed so hard he had to hold his gut.

“That wasn’t funny.” She tried to swing the sled to the side, but her weight wasn’t making that big of a difference. She needed Dar to lean with her.

“Valdis. We can take a hit from a giant living snow storm. I think we can handle crashing into a tree.” Dar made the sled swerve through the trees with reckless abandon that got his adrenaline going. “Plus this is much better than walking.”

Valdis frowned, but Dar could see the bit of laughter in her eyes. Part of her was loving the adventure.

A mischievous look crossed her face, and she leaned slightly, a bit of snow spraying over her shoulder and hitting Dar in the face. True glee filled her face. “Oh. We can make it do that!”

Valdis then threw her weight to catch the edge of another snow bank, only this time it caught her in the spray of snow. The backfiring of the move made Dar buckle over in laughter.

“Watch out you big idiot!” She turned the tables and Dar snapped to attention, only to see no problem.

“That wasn’t very nice. I’m not an idiot.” Dar pulled Valdis close, feeling a connection with her as they played in the snow.

She snorted. “Turn about is fair play.” Her braid came loose and started to bat him in the shoulder as her hair whipped about in the open air. “Take that.” She glanced behind at him.

“Oh yeah?” Dar pushed the sled into the edge of another snow bank and sprayed them both with a shower of snow.

They were having so much fun that Dar barely noticed it when they slowed down, sliding to a stop at the bottom of the foothill. Time had flown.

Valdis snapped to attention standing and snatching her braid, twisting it back into place. “We have things to do. Playtime is over.”

The genuinely flirtatious woman from a moment ago disappeared, and the hardened warrior returned.

Dar shook his head, but he was still smiling. Seeing Valdis carefree and playful had been nice. He’d have to try to pull that out of her more.

Focusing back on their task, Dar sent the sled back into the ground. He certainly wasn’t going to carry it to the next foothill.

“Do we have company?” He asked, looking through the trees at the bottom of the foothill. Most of the sky was obscured by the giant trees and he couldn’t see the plumes of smoke any more.

“Of course we have company. We might as well have screamed the whole way down.”

“Pretty sure you did.” Dar teased, only to receive a glare as Valdis held tightly to her sword.

She turned to the woods. “Come out.”

A demon stepped out from behind a tree. He had a pair of tusks in his mouth and a piggy nose with a mohawk that ran down the center of his head and back of his neck.

Really, his hair only seemed to grow in that single line.

“The whole mountain heard you two.” The demon spoke slowly as he watched them both with caution.

“Sorry about that.” Dar scratched the back of his head. “It was a fun sled ride down the hill.”

A few more demons and spirits appeared behind the boar trying to get a look at the two newcomers. They were looking back and forth uneasily, and Valdis seemed on edge far more than she should be.

Dar realized he was missing something.

“Is that him?” A female with a huge pair of white bunny ears asked.

The boar shot her an angry glance.

“Am I him?” Dar repeated, looking at the situation in a new light. “You knew I was coming?”

The boar who had met them first glanced to either side, and more of their tribe seemed to be bleeding out of every tree and surrounding Dar.

“Let me try this again.” Dar said. “I’m Darius Yiggs, and I’m on a journey to see The White.”

There was a collective hiss from those that surrounded him.

“I don’t think that helped things.” Valdis muttered from beside him.

“The one who eats our kind for power.” The boar touched a tree and pulled out a large wooden spear from its trunk.

“Excuse me?” Dar took a step back, realizing that they were in for a fight. He looked around, trying to figure out what to do. Showing up at The White’s door with the blood of the nearby demon tribe seemed like a bad way to start his plea for help.

He had to try to defuse the situation.

“I do not eat demons and spirits.” Dar held his hands up.

It didn’t mean he couldn’t. In theory they would work the same as devils, but rarely did they come in the quantity that the dao tree needed for fruits.

“You’ll forgive us for not believing you over one of her majesty’s envoys.” The boar man leveled the spear at Dar.

Valdis took a step forward. “Whatever your concern may be, I cannot allow you to kill him.” She drew her sword, and a deathly green glow emanated from the weapon that had likely slain many.

It reeked of death.

“The Spirit of Death.” Someone shouted, and Dar turned to try and find the speaker. But he couldn’t among the mass of ancient races surrounding them. Besides his village, he had never seen them in such concentration.

“Valdis, your danger is well known. But I would happily die to kill someone who eats our kind. We must protect future generations.” Their resolve only hardened.

“You will die a pointless death, because you’ll find I’m not so easy to kill. I do not want to fight, please cease or you will die.” Dar donned the black knight’s armor and drew one of the large swords. If he had to, he would fight his way out.

Amid the snow, his armor seemed to suck in all of the bright white light that reflected off of the snow, dimming the world around him.

“He’s only strong because of how many of our kind he’s eaten. You’ve all heard the stories from Karn!” A spirit with bright orange hair, draped in heavy brown furs, shouted as a citrine crystal formed in their hands.

That was a grand spirit. Dar couldn’t help but be concerned for Valdis. This gathering wasn’t weak.

“Then you’ll submit to us until we can determine the truth?” The boar asked.

Dar shook his head, making his armor rattle. There was no way that he’d hand himself over to these people and leave his life to their judgment.

He didn’t have time, and they didn’t have a good way to discern the truth. Mob mentality would most likely work against him.

“Then you must understand. We know you as a killer of our people. That you are Lilith’s champion or are present with Valdis matters not.”

Dar went to respond, but it looked like the boar was done talking. He rushed forward.

Valdis moved first, a fluid grace to her movement as her sword sliced through the demon’s spear and landed a shallow cut to the demon.

Despite the small cut, death began to spread out from where it had hit, decaying his flesh an ugly gray. Life fled the demon’s body until he fell to the ground as a husk.

The sudden and horrific death stunned many of those around Dar.

Valdis was absolutely terrifying. Dar had to admit he felt a little more comfortable standing there amidst the small army.

“If you want to die, then come.” Valdis spun in a circle, staring down all of the surrounding demons and spirits.

“She can’t take us all!” A shout rose up from the mob and echoed as the others embraced it.

“Let me.” Dar wiped his hand across the air, spraying lava into the crowd.

Screams filled the air as the battle started.

The spirit that Dar had seen earlier growing orange crystals leapt through the air with a wild cry. Two axes of the orange crystal formed as she landed before Valdis, swinging like a mad woman.

A blast of ice scattered across Dar’s black armor as he spun, swinging his sword in sweeping arcs to keep the enemies at bay.

There were just too many of them for him to focus on individual attacks, and he still was hesitant to slaughter everybody.

Instead he stomped, and a wave of lava rolled out from where his foot had made contact. He managed to catch several of the weaker demons. Then he splashed snow out, filling the air with steam.

The rumble of stone caught Dar’s attention and he pivoted quickly, watching as rocks rolled out of the snow. They began gathering and joining together, forming a golem of stone.

“Valdis, watch out.” Dar shouted.

It was a smart tactic. They were trying to create artificial beings to attack the valkyrie rather than risk their own bodies.

The citrine spirit had her cloak of brown hides torn to shreds, revealing armor of the crystal as she fought with a wild abandon and kept Valdis on the back foot.

Others tried to ambush the spirit of death, but she swiftly dealt death to anyone who got within the reach of her sword. But fighting so many meant that she was taking hits from the spirit attacking her.

Valdis realized the danger of the golem and rolled out of the way. “If you want to help me, kill whoever made it!”

Dar was already on it, trying to search among the group to find the one controlling the golem.

It took a moment, but he spotted his target.

Up the hill, a spirit had snuck around behind them and was partially hidden between the trees.

Dar smirked, and fell into his own shadow, appearing behind the grand spirit, surprising them.

They threw up their hands, but Dar’s sword was already there. The spirit tried to throw up stone, but it didn’t stop his blade. Dar quickly hacked straight through the spirit.

Before it hit the ground, he was already absorbing it into his inner world. If he was already paying for the rumor, he might as well make some good come from the moment.

“He ate Goria!” A demon nearby shouted, and Dar nearly rolled his eyes. Of course they would have noticed.

Dar had to really sink his hips to get any good leverage amid the snow and launched himself high into the air after the demon that had just shouted.

The demon raised a crude bronze sword that was worthless against Dar’s enchanted sword.

It shattered on impact, but it turned Dar’s blade just a small degree. His cut wasn’t clean as the power of his sword stroke transferred to the flat of the blade.

But the small tweak didn’t matter with his current momentum. The momentum from the jump plus his black armor took a chunk off of the demon.

Adjusting, the flat of his blade came down hard enough to cause the rapid snap of bones, like a bowl of popcorn in the microwave.

The demon was reduced to a quibbling mass that wouldn't survive long.

But Dar didn’t have much time to take in the small fry. He needed to free Valdis from the crystalline spirit so that she could be the agent of death once more.

Plunging through the knee deep snow, he felt all of his mana drain to the runes that covered his body. The glow emanating from beneath the black armor gave him a haunted look as he plowed past Valdis, taking two axes to the shoulder and sweeping the citrine spirit off her feet.

She shrieked and slammed the crystal blades into him as she thrashed.

But Dar had her pinned and tackled her into a nearby tree, shattering the trunk and breaking the spirit’s armor.

Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t nearly as strong as diamond.

He tossed her to the ground and raised his blade high as he switched his grip. Then he plunged it through her and into the frozen ground. His sword got stuck and he needed another as more of them charged.

Dar drew the black ax from his inner world and swung for the fences as another demon approached.

There was a flicker of red hair as Amber bled out of his shadow only to disappear into the shadow of a tree.

Across the way, he saw her hair reappear as she buried two knives in another spirit.

Surveying the scene, Dar saw that his strategy had worked. With the citrine spirit removed, Valdis was free to do what she did best. She was a flurry of death.

Her blade took a life with every small cut. A grand demon could survive one, but a few more and they were done.

Meanwhile, Amber appeared and disappeared from the shadows repeatedly until the field was quiet of everything except their three labored breaths.

“Milord. I shall return?” Amber bowed as she grabbed two bodies and bled back into his shadow.

“She’s pissed.” Valdis commented as she checked herself over.

The Valkyrie had small cuts on her arms and thighs, but nothing more than skin deep.

Dar returned his armor and ax to his inner world and stepped over to his sword as his runes continued to glow. He wrestled the sword out of the ground before absorbing it and the spirit that he had impaled.

Valdis watched with interest. “So. They weren’t entirely wrong? You eat them like you do Mo?”

“No. It’s different. But yes, the tree can absorb them. If it absorbs enough of the same type of dao, it will produce a fruit that when eaten will give the demon, spirit or immortal that dao.” He had no reason to lie. “Though I’ve only used it on devils up until now. What they said was not true at the time, but there’s no reason to waste their deaths.”

She stared into his eyes to judge him. “I believe you. Besides, you seem pretty sweet on your harem, and there’s not a lot of death dao users around for you to cultivate into a fruit. Let’s get all of these for you and then see if they had any food cooking at their camp. Fighting works up an appetite.”

Dar’s jaw nearly dropped. She’d just slaughtered so many, and she wanted to go eat.

But she’d had her death dao for a long time. It might actually be just a normal day to her.