Dao 4 Chapter 22 (Patreon)

Dar’s eyes snapped open as the dao of life settled into place. He could feel the vibrance of life with every beat of his heart and every blade of grass underneath him.

And so much vibrance was coming from the dao tree behind him. The tree now stretched high into the sky.

It had been a week of traveling the desert lands of Sineld with Sha and Bai. Thankfully, they hadn’t been attacked by the black sword again. He had added eight new Mo to the dao tree, which to Cherry’s delight had become a rainbow of colors with a total of a dozen mo absorbed into it now. It thrummed with power.

Dar could feel the mana pouring out of the tree into his inner world, which now felt like it had expanded so far that none of them knew its limits.

The tree’s leaves swayed in the breeze and it was like musical chimes celebrating life as the tree continued to pulse behind him.

Dar stood and put a hand against it, feeling it thrum at his touch.

As he arched his head back, straining to look up at the high bows, Dar was glad that he had Cherry. She was the only one that would be able to scale it and get to the new fruit it created.

“You’ve finished?” Valdis walked over, and Dar could feel the lack of life that emanated around her. It repulsed his dao, yet she wasn’t actively killing everything around her.

“Can you feel it?” He asked, curious if she could feel the same thing.

“Yes. Even if you were sleeping, I don’t think I could just kill you with the dao of death. Not that I would. I’d be far more likely to call you for a booty call. I wish this were one of those.” She frowned. “Did I get that right? Cherry has been teaching me a lot of interesting language, and I’m not sure when she’s just messing with me.”

Dar shook his head with a wry smile. “Yeah. You got it. But if this isn’t a booty call, then we’ve reached the next Mo?”

“Yes. This one is the last one in Sineld. Sha really has brought you around to each one.” Valdis extended a hand to help Dar up.

He took it and shook out his legs that were feeling a little weak from sitting for so long. “Sineld is huge.”

“And almost entirely barren. Only the coast is worth much, so everybody leaves it alone. None of the other nations want the trouble that would come from fighting the desert people in the desert.” Valdis turned around.

Dar didn’t blame the people. From what little he had seen of the Sineldian people, they were hardened by the desert. He both respected them for everything they had endured, and pitied them for having to live in such a harsh environment.

“Doesn’t matter much. Let’s kill this last one and get out of here.” Dar grabbed a black blade from the armory and pushed it and Valdis out.

“Why have we not been allowed in there?” Sha asked. “It seems very curious to watch people coming and going from his body.”

“Maybe we have to be dao companions first.” Bai added.

Both of them were smirking, and Dar knew this conversation was their way of making their desires known without directly asking. 

Valdis saved him the trouble. “You only have to swear on your dao to do no harm to his inner world or his people.”

Bai put a hand to her chest. “But I’ve already given such a promise.”

“Later, both of you.” Dar hefted his black blade. “We have the last one here? Great. Then it’ll be a long trip to the next country.”

“That’s the plan? Just go country to country wiping them out and collecting dao companions?” Sha asked with nothing but curiosity.

Dar shrugged. “I don’t think I have the time to continue adding dao companions. If you two want to beat them off, that would be fantastic.”

The two ladies glanced at each other before Sha shrugged. “There’s not a whole lot of ladies. Old Gold lives to my north and The Red north of Bai. Then The Deep One lives in the ocean south of both of us.”

“You are all so creative with names.” Dar rolled his eyes.

Bai scoffed. “You try being so old you were around when languages first sprang forth. We were simply described by those that knew of us.”

“Let’s focus back on the Mo.” Valdis had gotten more comfortable speaking around the celestials as she stepped out towards a little shrine that looked like it was marking some important spot.

“What’s with the shrine?” Dar asked.

“When it is close to breaking free, the area around here rains for days. It has caused a sort of pilgrimage for people to come and see the endless rain when it comes every five or so years.” Sha answered. “Lilith normally comes and reseals the Mo before it floods the country.”

Valdis stepped up to the shrine and stabbed above the podium, at least the spot was marked this time. “Is it okay if the place is destroyed now?”

Dar tried not to point out it might be better to ask that question before she hit the seal with death.

“Well, it won’t rain every five years now, so what’s the point?” Sha tapped her lips. “Unless I can get the power. Then I can come back, but I’ll just rebuild the shrine then.”

“That works.” Valdis pried at the seal, and the bundle of dao characters glowed bright before starting to wink out and the seal unfolded before them.

It expanded, crushing the shrine and forcing Valdis to rush back as something that looked like a giant snapping turtle appeared amid the seal.

Rather than struggle, it sat there, its glowing eyes watching Dar’s group.

“Sha. How wonderful of you to visit me again.” The turtle spoke deliberately, like it was difficult with its large mouth.

Bai’s head snapped to Sha, ice forming on her hand.

“Don’t be like that.” Sha glared at Bai. “When it first appeared, I thought it might be some sort of reincarnation of the Drasil. I have spoken to it on multiple occasions.”

“Yes. You helped nurture me amid the desert as I took joy in drowning your people and swallowing them whole. Then you betrayed me.” The turtle continued to expand until it was well past the size of a house.

Dar stepped forward. “What are you then? How did you get the Drasil’s power?”

“It was given to me by one who cannot hold it. Yet we serve it gladly, for it is the source of our strength and immortality.”

“Something made the Mo?” Dar asked. He couldn’t help the incredulous tone he used.

The turtle barked a laugh as it grew to the size of a small village. “No. They cannot make anything, but they can destroy everything.”

Dar frowned. He wanted more information, but the seal was severely weakening. The turtle’s mouth opened up and a torrent of water exploded out breaking the last of the seal.

Sha threw up a wall of sand that soaked up the water before crashing down on top of the turtle.

This Mo was incredibly large. It did nothing more than shake the sand off its head and glare at them. “I’ll be going now. Something is wrong.”

Bai stomped and a huge wall of ice encircled the group.

The giant turtle ducked inside its shell as water sprayed out of its five holes and made it spin as it shot across the quickly flooding area to slam into the wall and shatter the ice.

“Do not let it get away.” Sha rode on a wave of sand to chase after the Mo.

Dar wasn’t far behind, throwing himself forward and using a storm at his back to hurl himself through the air and onto the back of the turtle. He landed with his sword piercing down on top of the rapidly spinning turtle.

Valdis flew overhead. “That looks fun.”

Dar thought he was going to puke as he went round and round. More than anything, he was having trouble keeping himself standing, even with the sword to steady himself.

With a lack of options, Dar pumped the dao of heat into the sword until the shell he was standing on started to run red.

The Mo stopped spinning, its limbs coming out of its shell, its head craning to peer at Dar with a glare. “Let’s see how you can hang on to this.”

Behind Sha and Bai, a huge twister of all the water that the turtle had poured out onto the land rose high into the sky.

Dar was still disoriented but he needed to move quickly. He ripped out his sword and shoved his hand in the crack in the turtle’s shell before calling on his dao of lava and pouring it into the shell.

The Mo screamed as lava trickled out over its legs.

But that was all the time Dar had to attack before the typhoon hit and Dar was swept off the turtle’s shell and thrown into the air.

As he moved through it, he realized he was still in a storm. It was a cross section between the turtle’s ability to control water and Dar’s dao of storm.

Reaching for the storm that was carrying him away, Dar tried to wrest control of it from the Mo. Unfortunately, that seemed to only make it more violent as the typhoon picked up speed.

Dar had a measure of control and let himself be deposited at the bottom of the storm, while still holding tight to it and trying to redirect it.

“Don’t make me laugh.” The turtle barked as the typhoon stilled before exploding and flooding the desert once again.

But Dar had managed to stall the turtle long enough that Bai and Sha caught up.

Sand rose below the turtle, lifting it into the sky as a colossal statue of ice formed with an ax in its hands.

“Hey, doesn’t that look a little like you?” Valdis flew down to Dar and dragged him to his feet.

The dao of life flared up and flowed through him, bringing him back to perfect health.

“Focus, Valdis.” Although Dar had to admit the the ice statue did look a bit like him as it swung that huge ice ax down at the turtle.

The ax crashed into its shell, sending shards of ice everywhere and making the turtle sink into its shell once more as water flooded out.

Sha rushed towards it, creating huge chains of sand over the turtle to keep it from running. “Don’t think that’ll work again.”

Bai’s ice giant was reforming its ax again as it raised it high. The two of them were ready to beat the turtle through brute force.

Water was still pouring out of the turtle in huge torrents. And now the crack Dar had made in the top of the Mo’s shell was spouting water as the Mo attempted to flood everything.

By the time that Bai hit it the second time, Dar was waist deep in water. The water was rising up to meet the Mo where it was chained down.

“I have a bad feeling.” Dar used the storm dao to fling himself up and out of the water, back up to where the Mo was shackled to the platform of sand. He held his sword before him before pushing it into the side of the turtle where he believed its head was.

Glowing eyes peered out from its shell. “This is pointless. We are immortal.”

“Not to me.” Dar stabbed into the turtle, but it only bled water.

The turtle had the gall to laugh. “Then I’m not your opponent. She is.” It looked up into the far distance, and Dar jumped back to glance over his shoulder.

He didn’t see what the turtle was referencing for a few moments as his gaze quickly flitted around, trying to find the danger.

But after a few moments, Dar noticed it. There was something in the sky, only this time it was like a crack in reality. It was small, but then Dar realized just how far away it was.

“Both of you. Be careful of another attack from the sky.” Dar felt nothing but wrongness from the crack in the sky.

In his distraction, the Mo created waves that crashed up from the lake that was rapidly forming beneath it. The wet chains exploded and the turtle slipped into the lake. One moment it was slow, the next it was like a torpedo shooting through the water only to turn around and charge right back at them.

Dar flung himself into the air as the Mo crashed into the platform of sand he had been standing on.

Great cannons of water launched out of the lake at Dar; after stating he could kill it, it appeared he’d become the target of its attacks.

Dar threw storms left and right, dodging the blasts.

“Dar, watch out!” Bai yelled.

Dar turned, but he didn’t have enough time to react. All of the water that had been shot up into the air was gathering and surging back down at him.

All he could do was brace himself as it slammed into him and plunged him into the growing lake that was now deep enough that he couldn’t see the bottom.

Before he could even start to swim up to the surface, a colossal form came into view as it emerged from cloudy water.

The Mo’s maw was open wide and snapping down.

Dar drew a second sword from his armory and threw them both out in different directions as the huge mouth of the snapping turtle came down on him.

His runes glowed bright amid the muddy water as his muscles bulged with the effort of preventing the turtle from finishing his bite.

Dar yelled nothing but bubbles before he pushed at the girls in his inner world.

Amber shot out, taking in the situation briefly. The tea pot in her hand was quickly discarded as she reached for the enchanted blades she kept under her skirt.

Dar filled himself with the dao of hard, trying to make himself a piece of rock too tough for the Mo to crush to buy her some time.

His maid was joined by a second. Both of them had big tendrils of shadows reaching out and pulling them along the turtle’s mouth as their dagger cut shallow cuts anywhere they could reach.

Underwater, the roar of the Mo was deafening before it started to shake its head, jerking Dar about. His grip on his weapons started to slip.

Great lances of ice shot into the water, stopping the mo from thrashing as it pulled its head back within its shell where it would be protected and bit down with a new vigor.

Dar could see the glow from its eyes reflecting off the inside lip of the shell, but he had another problem. Even if he could keep holding the Mo’s jaw open, he was rapidly running out of air.

Even with the dao of life flaring on his body, he felt a dim edge grow on the outside of his vision.

And he knew that his maids couldn’t be doing much better. Dar pulled at their shadows with his own dao and brought them close enough that he could suck them into his inner world.

Amber flashed him an angry glare before she went with Marcie.

Dar worked through his options quickly in his head.

Despite the cuts inflicted by the maids, the Mo still held Dar tightly. Throwing his body out had only a slim chance of success. Most likely, the Mo would just snap at him again. He might be able to get a better grip on his weapons, but he couldn’t count on that.

Deciding on a third option, one that Dar didn’t love, he swung his legs up and then kicked down as hard as he could as he made a whirlpool, drawing him into the turtle’s throat. He dismissed his weapons back into the armory of the black keep.

The Mo’s maw snapped shut with a booming finality that made Dar shudder.

He didn’t have much time.

Crossing his legs, he focused inwards and sank into his inner world.

All of his ladies were there. The maids were soaking wet but looked ready to fight.

“Tami, I need an empty globe of ice this big.” He gestured with his hands. “Make it now. Quickly. Then I’m pulling you out.”

The deer demon looked confused but after a push from Cherry she started to make it.

Dar roused himself, already feeling sluggish before pushing on Tami.

She appeared with the globe of ice, and Dar let out all of his breath. He grabbed the globe, breaking one side and shoving his head through it, only to take quick gasping breaths as he righted it so that the air would stay trapped at least for how long it lasted before it melted.

Thankfully, it worked for now. At that thought, Dar scribed the dao of cold onto it, hopefully keeping it solid in the water.

The inside was full of breathable air.

Tami swam around and pushed herself against Dar, poking her horned head barely into the space. “Dar, what’s going on?”

“Can you make a few more of these and have them ready for me? And I need you to seal this one to my head. I’ll return you to my inner world to work. I don’t know how long this is going to take, so please just keep making them so I don’t drown.”

Tami’s eyes grew as she took in what was happening, but she nodded. Kissing him, she ducked out of the globe of ice, sealing it around his neck and allowing herself to be drawn into his inner world.

Dar took a deep breath, glad for the air, as he stared around the inside of the beast, trying to figure out how he was going to get out.