Dao 4 Chapter 24 (Patreon)

Sasha had been working with the ladies of the village on cloth making. They pulled fur they had shaved off the bisons into coarse thread.

It wasn’t the best, but it served its purpose just fine for them to stitch clothing, and it was a strong fiber.

“Sasha.” Tabby rushed to the table where Sasha was working, causing all of the ladies to look up from their work.

“Hmm? What’s wrong Tabby.” It only took a glance from Sasha to gather from Tabby’s face that something was very wrong.

“The… the sky is wrong.” The old lady was a trusted friend, and Sasha stood immediately, not asking questions. She pulled her dress up so that she could hurry out of the home they had been working in to see what was happening.

As soon as she exited, she didn’t need directions. Everyone in the village was looking north and pointing.

A… crack had formed in the sky and it looked like it was bleeding.

“Drasil above.” She whispered. “What have you done Dar?” She didn’t know why, but she just knew that a change this grand had something to do with her man.

He always seemed to have a hand in it when things were going awry. Be it just bad luck or him being a portent of change, it was the way of things.

“Sasha, what do we do?” Tabby had followed her out.

“Double the guard. Recall everyone within the walls, and put word out for all of those with greater and grand dao to report to the central hearth.” Sasha quickly ordered.

Sasha managed to wait until Tabby was gone before she clicked her tongue. “Dar had to run off with both of the maids. I could really use them right now.”

She stopped and noticed the village was stirring as Tabby went around spreading the word. The village hurried to follow the orders as Sasha tried to decide what she should do next.

She ended up deciding to find Blaire and Mika, with Mika being her main target. Whatever the crack was, it seemed to be straight upriver. Mika was her best bet.

“Blaire.” Sasha waved above the crowd at the salt spirit as she looked around aimlessly. Blaire had been a little unsettled, seeming to not know what to do without Dar around.

“Sasha. What do you think he’s stirred up now?”

Sasha chuckled, glad the salt spirit had come to the same conclusion. “I have no idea. Where is Mika? We need her to go upriver and inspect this.”

“Last I saw, she was going to go work on the boat. Dar put it on that granite shelf, and we don’t know how to get it off.” Blaire was doing her best not to laugh.

“Of course he did.” Sasha rolled her eyes. “At least she’ll already be at the river.”

Blaire hurried to get in front of her and part the crowd for Sasha. “Do  you think he’s okay?”

“If he did this, it’s probably because he casually broke through the celestial dao, ascended to a Drasil, and is trying to come back to us.” Sasha made up something whimsical with a laugh.

“Yeah…” Blaire chuckled. “He probably is off growing far faster than we could imagine. How many more girls in the harem do you think he’ll bring back?” She looked up at the crack as if she expected Dar to come barging through.

“Minimum two. Probably more.” Sasha sighed. “I’ll bet they are at least grand dao practitioners.” She rubbed at her forehead. The man didn’t realize what it meant to her when he put her in charge of beings older and more powerful than her. She’d been working hard to form her grand dao, but she wasn’t there yet.

More than anything, she was terrified that he was going to completely eclipse her by the time he returned. But she wasn’t going to be the one that held him back.

They passed the crowd of the village and Blaire marched her out to the wall.

Rex was on duty in the tower and Sasha cupped her hands around her mouth. “Rex. We are getting Mika to go check out what that is. Get a list of who left the village this morning and send people out after them. Everyone gets inside and stays inside the wall. Immediately.”

Sasha realized that she was disobeying her own commands, but she didn’t have time to discuss why.

“Be safe. We’ll get it done.” The avian demon nodded sharply to her before whistling over to the other tower.

Sasha didn’t stick around to verify they did as she asked. She trusted them to keep the village safe.

Marching forward, they left the wall.

“You said at least grand.” Blaire had been quiet during the exchange with Rex. “Do you… do you think he’s going to bring home someone who’s a celestial?”

Sasha blew out a heavy breath. She knew it was a possibility. Her lovable lug just had the kind of charm that seemed to draw women to him like flies to honey. “Yes. I think there is a decent chance that The White will be interested in him. Though, I am unsure how it will work out.”

She let out a chuckle at the thought of The White trying to tie him down. “But I’m sure he’ll come back to us.”

Blaire wiggled her nose and frowned.

“Worried you won’t be the second strongest anymore?” Sasha let out a small laugh. “Welcome to how we all feel. He grows so quickly, and so do the women around him. Just accept that it’ll happen and work to use the resources he brings back.”

Blaire grunted. “Hopefully he doesn’t bring too many back.”

“We are well past too many already. It doesn’t even matter.” Sasha continued to push through the snow, using her dress and her dao to keep from getting too much snow on her skin. She didn’t want to have to spend all her mana keeping herself warm.

Up ahead of them, the boat became obvious. It was still docked at the edge of the bell river. Mika’s blue hair was moving around the back of it.

“Mika.” Sasha shouted.

The spirit stood up and came around the side of the boat wearing nothing but a bikini. She didn’t seem to mind using her dao to stay warm. Mika seemed to prefer bikinis to any real clothing, despite Sasha’s attempts. But at least Mika had chosen to not wear shells for the moment.

“Sasha. Need something?”

Rather than explain, Sasha pointed up at the sky.

Mika had been so focused on the river, the giant anomaly hadn’t even attracted her eye.

Mika’s mouth made a big ‘O’. “That doesn’t look good, it’s just upstream too. What do you think Dar did?”

Sasha smirked once more. Dar’s reputation really preceded him.

“I’d like you to swim upstream and check it out. Something is coming out of it, and we need to know what it is so we can prepare. Besides, not much can catch you in the water. If you don’t venture out of the river, you should be safe.” Sasha knew it wasn’t needed, but she still said it. She needed to reassure herself she wasn’t sending Mika to her death.

“Of course, be right back.” Mika didn’t need any encouragement to go for a swim as she dove into the water.

Just the few droplets that landed on Sasha with Mika’s splash made her shiver. She had no idea how the wave spirit enjoyed the chilly wetness, but she thrived in it. Add a little adventure and there was no need to sell Mika on the ask.

“We’ll wait here!” Blaire called out after Mika was already long gone, laughing at her friend.

“She won’t be long.” Sasha commented.

Blaire touched the ground and the snow started to melt in a large ring around them, going as far as to become steam. “Why aren’t you using your dao?”

“Because I’m saving my strength in case this is a larger problem. Well… larger than a crack in the sky. I never thought I’d say that sentence.” Sasha looked at the crack again, just knowing they were going to need all their strength.

“I’d rather you weren’t shivering when we got back.” Blaire said bluntly. “Besides, if Dar shows up and you’re shivering, I’d like to not be at the end of his glares. If he wasn’t on his way back, he sure as shit is now.” She glanced again up at the sky.

Sasha nodded. “If he wasn’t the one who caused it.”

“True.” Blaire looked back upstream where ripples raced across the surface coming back to them.

Mika shot out of the water, landing on the snow. “Bad news. That drip,” She pointed up at the crack. “Is an inky something that becomes devils when it hits the ground.”

“How many?” Sasha frowned. Devils weren’t new to them, but if there were too many, it would be a problem.

“I saw maybe three dozen, but more were spilling out by the second.” Mika’s eyes were wide with fear.

Sasha cursed under her breath. “Okay. Back to the city. We’re strongest together. We’ll get guards on the walls to scout, and we’ll prepare to defend ourselves. Let’s go.” She was already turning and marching while holding up her dress.

The two spirits flanked her as she headed back to the village, her mind swirling with ideas of what to do. She looked up at the crack again and the continued stream of black. If that made devils, then there wasn’t an end to them any time soon.

Soon they’d be devouring everything in the area, and her heart clenched as she realized that also meant the bison that had been helping keep them fed and comfortable.

But they had stores saved up, and Dar would come back to them. He had to. Sasha wouldn’t accept it any other way.

She glanced once more at the crack, an ominous feeling spreading through her.

Blaire was right. If Dar spotted that crack and was able to come protect them, he would. And it likely had drawn the attention of the other neighboring celestials. It was hard to miss; everybody would be assembling their forces, afraid of the unknown.

It was something that couldn’t be ignored.

Thinking through that, Sasha let out a sigh of relief. They wouldn’t be alone; they just needed to outlast the immediate storm.

Rex was still in the tower when Sasha walked back, though one of his wives was up there discussing something with him.

“Rex. Prepare the city for devils.” Sasha shouted.

The avian demon turned around and Sasha noticed it was Shelia up there with him. “What did you say? Devils?”

“Hundreds.” Sasha shouted and pointed at the stream coming down from the crack in the sky. “That is pouring devils into the world.”

Rex frowned, confused at how exactly devils were ‘pouring’ into the world, but it didn’t matter.

Sasha knew that Rex was a man of action, not necessarily one of thoughts. Dar had done well to pick him to defend the village.

Shelia said something to him, and he nodded several times before she jumped down from the tower. “Lady Sasha. We are already preparing everyone who can to man the walls. Do we need to start recruiting from the rest of the village?”

Sasha paused, trying to make all the decisions. She had not planned to lead an entire village of people, but somehow by falling in love with Dar, she had ended up in that position.

Now she was being expected to be some sort of commander and preparing for a battle. She had no idea what she was doing. “Expect this to last for sometime. We need to prepare to ride this out. We don’t know when that thing is going to stop flowing.” She pointed to the stream coming from the crack. “As for how to manage the troops, maybe we should gather a circle of the leaders. Samantha’s husband might have enough military experience to include in this.”

Sasha did what Dar always did when he didn’t know, she sought expert opinions. The other leaders would help her with what to do next.

“Of course. I’ll gather them, though I will represent Rex so that he can work to prepare and man the wall.” Shelia nodded and headed off at a jog.

“What do you want from us?” Mika asked.

“I want Blaire to be on standby. Mika, you should help those on the wall. You know how to fight well enough.” Sasha tried to find the best role she could play beyond leader, noting that they’d need a medic station set up.

Shelia was running ahead, and Sasha saw her collect Samantha and her husband.

Sasha waved at the pair eagerly. “Jeffry, we have a problem. Assume a large mass of devils is forming north of us. What would you do to set up the guard?”

The old man, recently turned far younger, had some fire in his eyes at the news. Battles he once never hoped to be able to fight again were now within his ability.

“Put a third of the village on the walls.” He said decisively.

“A third?” Sasha questioned. It didn’t sound like a lot.

“A third on the wall, a third ready to reinforce, and a third resting. As those on the wall tire, replace them with the ready third and then the final third is able to rest and recover for their turn. We should expect this to be an extended battle.” Jeffry replied.

Sasha nodded, his words made sense. She turned to Shelia. “Get it done. Tell Rex.”

Shelia was off at a dead sprint to the man on the wall.

“Okay. We’ll let the guard take up the majority of the first section. Mix the craftsmen and their families into the second wave. Then the farmers and hunters form the third.” Sasha made up a plan as she looked over the wall. The crack in the sky continued to draw her attention again.

“Devils!” Came a shout over the wall.

Sasha closed her eyes, swearing again. She hoped that Dar was on his way. They needed him. They had some power, but they’d only hold it off for so long.

Townspeople were scrambling, and her newly hatched plan was falling apart already as people were scrambling to get up on the wall.

“Get down. Bart.” Sasha shouted at the blacksmith eagerly heading up to the wall. “I need you to prepare something.”

The blacksmith twirled his hammer a few times before jumping off the ladder and coming over. “What’s the point in this young body if I can’t use it?”

“We’ll use it. But if there are going to be so many of them, maybe we fight smarter.” Sasha had seen more than enough of Dar to know that his strange ideas were often better than just brute forcing through a problem.

“What do you have in mind?”

“Fire. We need to start fires outside the walls to drive them back. The walls are tall enough that we should be fine and hold up against it.”

“And what happens when we need something after this is over?” Bart jumped to the long term.

“We have to assume that there won’t be an after anytime soon, and we’ll let them burn out if we need to.” She watched the stream continue to fall down upon their land. “We might be fighting these devils until Dar gets back.”

She hoped he’d arrive sooner rather than later.

“We’ll need a break at some point. Setting fire to the land around the village is the best option. So, again, what can you do for me? I know you’ve learned the dao of heat.” It had been a popular dao to learn, especially with winter coming.

So many had lived through the frigid winters long enough to see the luxury heat provided them, and for the blacksmiths, it had even more purposes.

“I bet I could cook something up.” Bart rubbed at his chin. “Make some extremely hot enchantments on metal bars and drop them off the side of the wall. Trick will be—“

“Just get it done Bart. Take who you need.” Sasha rolled up her sleeves and pulled a bolt of silk out of her enchanted bag as she set up at a station to stitch people back together.

Slowly but surely, Shelia was sending people back from the wall. Archers atop the wall were starting to fire sporadically down amid what Sasha could only assume were devils.

She glanced over her shoulder at Blaire who had been waiting back. “Blaire, if something big comes, that’s your turn.”

“How will I know?”

“I’m sure it won’t be hard.” Sasha looked back towards the wall. “When Rex personally gets involved, that’s your cue to get up on the wall wherever he is focused.”

Glump walked by, his bare feet sinking into the ground.

Something in Sasha naturally disliked the frog demon. Probably from her life as a silk worm. But his relaxed manor annoyed her as battle raged around them.

“What can I do Lady Sasha?”

She didn’t like being asked for everything, but she was Dar’s number two. She had a role to play, and she wouldn’t fail him. “Keep people calm, and if you can do anything to make the land outside the walls harder to traverse, please do.”

Glump nodded, stomping off.