Dao 4 Chapter 20 (Patreon)

Bai had walked around, ordering this and that be gathered for the trip before she declared all was ready.

With that, Dar found himself flying through the air a bit differently than his first flight. This time, they were riding on a slab made of ice.

High above Kindrake, they flew far faster than Dar had been able to manage with his storm dao. Bai was forcibly controlling the ice to fly through the air.

And Dar knew he wouldn’t nearly have the strength to travel the same way with his dao of lava.

“Huh. That’s Sineld?” Dar pointed off on the horizon where he could see past the snowy peaks to the sandy desert on the other side. Dinner had turned to evening and then morning through everything that had happened. The sun was rising, beginning to cast a gold shimmer across the desert.

“The mountains catch most of the clouds and hold them on the side of Kindrake. So the ocean breeze doesn’t make it over the mountains. That leaves Sineld very dry.” Bai explained. “It’s a desert, but even so, it can get very cold at night this time of year.”

Dar nodded. It made sense. Without moisture, the land didn’t retain the heat nearly as well as an area with vegetation.

Sineld was east of Kindrake, but it fared a good bit south as well. Far enough south to see the  winter snows didn’t have much of a hold here.

“There is a Mo in this land that I’m aware of. Though, our presence will most likely attract other attention.” Bai pointed far off into the distance.

Dar couldn’t see anything, but he imagined that the spirit that lived in the desert wouldn’t love their intrusion. “Either way, we’ll kill the Mo.”

“We still have plenty of time before we reach there. Why don’t you rest? You've been up all night.” Bai glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.

“Thank you. Uh… a woman is probably going to appear here, and I’m going to make Valdis disappear.” The last thing he wanted to do was startle the very powerful woman next to him.

“Hmm. Interesting. Please go ahead.” Bai turned and kept her focus forward.

Dar pulled Valdis into his inner world and then descended into it himself.

“What’s happening?” Cherry was in his face instantly while the rest of his harem hung back.

“Bai… er… The White is taking us to go kill a Mo. I need someone to watch over my body while I rest.”

Cherry’s face went through several different emotions before she nodded firmly and disappeared. Dar had a feeling she wasn’t going to let anybody else watch over his body when Bai was nearby.

“Milord. Is there anything we can do for you?” Amber bowed with her hands on a platter.

Dar looked over the food. It sounded nice, but it wouldn’t do him any good in his inner world. “I think I’ll just practice towards the life dao I want. If I can achieve it, then that’ll be my third grand dao and I can start to try for celestial.”

The girls got quiet.

“Dar, can you handle making a celestial dao in the same way?” Tami bit her lip. “It is incredibly taxing on the body. I can’t imagine that you would be able to do it so easily.”

“Only one way to find out.” Dar shrugged. He’d need to continue to push himself, even with Bai’s help he couldn’t get rid of the feeling that there was more to come. He’d need as much strength as he could manage for when shit really hit the fan.

Besides, the dao tree had started taking a more active role in this growth recently, and he had a feeling as he absorbed more Mo it would only grow stronger and continue to help guide Dar.

“Then, I’ll join you.” Tami firmed up and marched over to the tree and sat down beside him. “Know that if you push yourself, then I’m going to push myself just as hard.”

“She’s right.” Amber and Marcie sat down too. “We still have our grand dao of darkness that we are pursuing.”

“Girls.” Dar tried to argue, but Neko just put a hand over his mouth. “Hush. We will back you. No words change that.”

Dar looked to Valdis to see if she’d step in and help, but the spirit of death just shook her head. “Don’t think I’m any different. I know what I want, and it’s you.” She grinned like a predator eying its prey.

Dar gave up, sitting down to focus on his dao.

So far he had picked out a handful from Lilith’s dao booklet in hopes of giving him the ability to recover quicker in a fight, and then Cherry’s dao of growth, because what was life without growth?

He had to start to form them into greater dao in order to push himself into the dao of life.

Putting his back against the tree amid his harem, he let his focus sink back into cultivating his dao.

***

“Milord, get up. We have arrived.” Marcie roused him from his concentration amid the tree. He had managed to form two of the three greater dao he needed.

It was getting easier, which spoke well of his future of managing to form a celestial dao. At least, he told himself it had to not be impossible. He had to admit he had some anxiety about the idea of trying to force something so powerful.

“We’ve arrived, Milord.” Marcie reminded him of what was happening.

“Thank you.” Dar pushed himself out of his inner world only to find himself on a small patch of ice amid the desert.

“Interesting. So the maids come and go from his shadows and into his consciousness?” Bai sat at a table with Cherry and Valdis watching him as Amber served them tea.

“Something like that.” Dar grunted and pushed himself off the frozen ground and looked at the desert surrounding them. There were great mounds of dunes, but the sand was so shallow in places that you could see the terribly dry and cracked soil underneath.

“We need Valdis to crack the seal.” Dar got right down to business, but then his stomach betrayed him, growling ferociously at him.

Amber handed him a sandwich made of bread, jerky and some leafy vegetables from his inner world’s garden. He looked at it, wishing there was a mayonnaise equivalent in Kindrake. If he ever got rid of the big problems, maybe he’d work to advance the world’s culinary skills.

“And they are so prompt. Better than my servants. Say, would you like to move to Frost’s Fang? I’ll help you cultivate whatever dao you want and you’ll live under my protection.” Bai tried to swipe Amber from Dar.

Dar just smiled, taking a bite of his sandwich. He knew Amber would never leave him.

“Apologies. The only way I’d serve you is if you joined Dar’s harem. Of course, we do our best to tend to his dao companions as much as we do him. After all, we are his shadow.” Amber politely declined.

In the silence that followed, the crunch of Dar’s sandwich sounded extraordinarily loud.

“You are bringing me so many firsts. Another rejection.” Bai sighed. “Very good maids. I’ll just have to find some of my own and push them to your standards.”

“Thank you.” Amber nodded and then handed Dar a cup of tea just as he was thinking the sandwich was dry and making him thirsty.

Dar drained the cup and handed it back to Amber. “So. Can we take on this Mo now?”

Bai snapped her fingers and Dar could feel a huge sphere surrounding them. He wasn’t sure what it was made of, but then everything within it froze save for the group of them. “This was a Mo that Lilith once asked my help with when she first sealed it. It is a giant serpent of fire.”

Dar nodded along. If it was fire based, then it made sense for Lilith to recruit Bai’s help. Especially when it was first sealed.

“Are you going to be out here for this?” Valdis looked questioningly at Cherry.

The dryad rolled her eyes. “I remember when I was the strong one in the group. When you make this life dao, let me see if I can’t try and train from it.” Cherry dusted off her dress and dove into Dar’s chest to disappear.

“You too. Amber.” Dar chastised the maid who had slunk into his shadow. “I promise you’ll get your chance.”

“Yes, Milord.” She sank into his shadow.

“So cute. I want a pair too.” Bai watched the maid go. “She really is your shadow. Such dedication. Could you train me to be subservient like that one day?”

Dar wasn’t sure if she meant to say all of that out loud, so he decided to ignore the last part of it. “Valdis, pop this sucker.”

The death spirit frowned at him as if he had grown a second head. “I don’t know what that means. But I assume you want me to break the seal.” She stabbed her sword forward and frowned, stepping around the area randomly stabbing the air. “I swore it was right here…”

Finally her sword sank into something and she grinned as the dao of death rolled off of her and her sword pried open the seal. The dao characters that made up the seal started to flicker off and a cage of the dao characters became visible.

It was only a few moments later that the Mo inside the cage became visible.

A giant serpent became clearer and clearer. It looked like it was made of the sun, as it glowed a bright orange with little pops of fire arching off its body.

Bai was ready in an instant, pointing a delicate finger forward as the world plunged to temperatures that made even Dar cold even with his resistance.

“Could you hold on a moment?” Valdis shivered as frost formed on her shoulder pads.

“This is an extremely strong Mo. Do not let your guard down. The seal is failing, get back.” Bai increased the pressure of her dao and the desert turned to a slick sheet of ice as far as Dar could see.

Even what little moisture existed in the desert froze, making it look like the sand was littered with little diamonds.

The Mo that was a snake of living fire roared soundlessly behind the seal as it thrashed and the dao characters began to wink out even faster.

“Okay, getting out.” Valdis flapped her wings, putting more distance between her and the seal as Dar let loose his dao of storms and made a blizzard appear in the middle of a desert.

The seal shattered and for a moment the world didn’t know if it wanted to be scalding hot or frigid cold.

“Freeze.” Bai shouted, and at that moment, it was decided.

The desert froze and so did the Mo, a giant block of ice, with two eyes like miniature suns glowing at the front.

“Do what you need to do to kill it.” Bai demanded as her white brow pinched down.

Dar tried to push the dao tree out, but it didn’t come. “It isn’t weak enough yet.”

The ice around the Mo crackled and the eyes glowed brighter until the ice shattered. The Mo roared like a thousand bonfires. It thrashed and grew larger.

Suddenly, Dar’s dao of storm seemed small compared to the power the Mo possessed.

“Fine then.” Bai lifted her arms and four hundred foot tall ice warriors formed, holding spears as they tried to pin the Mo.

It wiggled out of the way as their spears pierced the ground, and it felt like they shook the world as they tried to catch the slithering, flickering Mo.

“Don’t let it get away!” Valdis screamed. “It will grow far larger.”

Dar didn’t want to know what it was like before it was sealed the first time. This Mo seemed far stronger than the others they had dealt with. He couldn’t help but wonder if they had their own levels of power.

The Mo scattered only to reform, winding up the spear of one of Bai’s giant ice soldiers. It bit the ice, and veins of fire raced through it before the giant shattered.

Dar drew one of the pitch black blades from his inner world and charged as the runes glowed all over his body. He needed to find a way to weaken the Mo.

The living flame didn’t pay him any attention as he got closer, seeming to believe the ice giants were larger threats. Dar jumped up, sinking his blade into its side.

It regretted ignoring him instantly.

The Mo roared in pain before its tail slapped at Dar, catching him and tossing him far into the distance.

A blue beam shot from Bai, piercing the side of the Mo and freezing off a chunk of its flames. “Fear not, Dar. We will crush it.”

“You could transform.” Valdis called out from above.

“And ruin this dress? I think not. Not for some insignificant campfire.” Bai started to shoot more of the bright blue beams. Each time they hit the Mo, a chunk of its flame froze and fell to the ground.

Dar ignored the banter. This beast needed his full attention.

He charged the Mo once more as his rune of regeneration worked overtime to heal the burns on his arms.

Even with the dao of heat, it managed to burn him. The fact that it was overpowering his dao made him suspicious that this Mo was at the celestial level, only weakened.

The Mo was hit once more by Bai’s blue beams, and it paused, seeming to assess the situation once more.

It pivoted, racing off into the distance, likely trying to grow stronger before fighting once more.

Bai summoned a giant wall of ice in front of it. “Valdis, do something.”

The valkyrie dove down with her sword, sending deep green scythes of death down on the Mo.

Dar didn’t want to be left out as he gathered a storm behind him and used it to propel himself even faster towards the Mo, reaching it as he swung the sword high over his head and stabbed it down into its tail.

It thrashed, but his sword had halted its movement as he drew the ax from his inner world and lept at the snake’s head.

Bai flicked her fingers and giant chains of ice sprang out of the wall, coiling themselves around the Mo, binding it for just a second.

Dar let his runes flare as he filled them with mana and came crashing down behind its head, chopping like an executioner before the block.

He severed the Mo’s head, and he finally felt the tree pulse within him.

With a thought, the tree’s roots sprung out of Dar’s chest, stabbing themselves into the Mo. It still thrashed even with its head removed, but it was too weak to resist the dao tree as its roots branched and grew, swallowing up the Mo and absorbing it into his inner world.

Bai stepped up next to him. “Incredible. In all my years. They’ve never died, only been sealed. But it is truly dying.”

“Yes. Or at least, it’s being contained permanently within me. I don’t exactly know how the tree works. I’m not exactly sure what happens if I die.” Dar half joked.

Bai nodded slowly. “I see. Hopefully, we’ll never know.” She grinned at the end of her words.

Dar smiled back, for the first time feeling a truer connection between them. They’d fought side by side, and that built up a certain level of trust and companionship.

And he had to admit, Bai was a beautiful warrior, even if she fought in a dress and a fur wrap that seemed like it belonged at some extravagant gala instead.

Her dao was so cold that it could freeze even a living flame.

But his attention was quickly drawn away from the large and beautiful woman to a wall of sand that rose in the distance and was racing straight for them.

“Maybe we should go?” Dar suggested.

“No. She’s seen us. Better to wait here and talk to her, otherwise Sha will be upset with me next time I venture over here.” Bai looked around them and with a wave of her hand all of the ice she created shattered and fell to the sands. A table and a few chairs of ice formed for Dar and her to sit on.

“Sha? Is that the spirit of the desert?” Dar asked, but he was stopped as he noticed something new. Up above them dark clouds seemed to be bleeding out of a point in the sky.

“What?” Bai joined him in looking up at the abnormality in the sky.

The sand storm was approaching, but Dar didn’t think it had anything to do with what was happening in the sky.

“Valdis, get over here.” Dar’s gut told him something was about to happen.

A black blade so dark that it seemed to swallow the light around it shot down from the sky.

Bai was quick to react, firing another one of her beams that could freeze even fire up to meet it.

The two forces collided, and the shockwave tore apart the desert, yet the blade continued to fall.

“I do not know what you have brought to my desert. But you have forced my hand.” The sand rose up like the desert itself was ready to fight.

Giant swirling pillars of sand flew from the land and met the black sword. Bai joined forces with the desert and shot her icy beam again.

This time, it was enough and it shattered.

With it came a deafening boom that rocked the world, and created huge rents through the land, sending so much sand into the air that Dar had to cover his mouth to not be suffocated.

But the sand rapidly swirled and condensed around him into an oasis behind him and a palace made of sandstone before him.

A dark skinned woman dressed in white and gold cloth that faded at the tips into little grains of sand that poured off her body appeared before them. She scowled at his group from the small palace she had made amid the desert. “Bai, what brings you to my desert, and what disaster have you brought with you?” The gold bracelets on her arms jingled as she spoke.

Bai chuckled to herself before stepping aside and gesturing at Dar. “This man is the disaster I’ve brought. I think you should hear him out.”

Sha scowled at Dar from her throne but gave him a ‘come hither’ gesture. Before he could move, the sand rose up like a wave, carrying him and depositing him before her throne. “Speak.”