Dao 4 Chapter 26 (Patreon)

Dar was exhausted after he finished healing all of the injured.

But Sasha was there the entire time, supporting him as he went to work. At the end as he started sagging, she ducked under one of his shoulders. Mika came and took the other, and between the two of them, they practically dragged him back to the black keep.

The people of Hearthway cheered for him with whoops and hollers.

Dar did his best to smile and nod at them as his ladies dragged him back to the courtyard, but he was so tired that even that seemed exhausting.

They sat him at a table that was rapidly expanding under Cherry’s ability.

“So.” Sasha turned to Valdis. “I’m sorry, I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“Valdis. Spirit of Death. I served Lilith,” Valdis replied.

Sasha nodded quickly. “Yes. Dar has told me of the time when Lilith brought him to this world. You have my thanks for helping bring my Dar to me.”

Valdis beamed at the demon. “You are welcome. He’s been an amusing travel companion.”

“Speaking of?” Sasha turned to Dar, who had Mika nestled under one arm. “Care to fill us in on what happened?”

“How many girls did you bring back?” Blaire joked as she sat down. The diamond spirit thankfully looked unscathed to Dar.

He double checked and made sure all of his women were accounted for and then let out a heavy sigh.

“That bad?” The spirit misinterpreted his sigh.

“No. Just relieved to have all of you here. And to answer your question, I only brought back Valdis.”

The death spirit cleared her throat. “I think two women would be very upset to learn they weren’t included.”

Sasha raised an eyebrow.

“Okay. Bai and Sha are somewhat included. They are outside protecting my body. I agreed to date them in return for their help,” Dar explained.

“Bai and Sha?” Sasha glanced at the helpful spirit of death.

“You’d know them as The White and The Desert Queen. Nobody else would call the two celestials by their names so casually. But they’ve traveled with him for the past week, helping him as he slayed many Mo. And as far as I can tell, they can be trusted,” Valdis explained.

“Two celestials?” Mika squeaked. “Really, Dar?”

“What? I needed some help to kill a bunch of Mo.” He gestured at the tree. “As you can see, I’ve been busy.”

Only then did Sasha seem to notice all the changes in the tree. Her neck arched back as she took in the giant limbs. “Just how many have you killed?”

“A dozen now. We went through Sineld with Sha’s help and killed all of the Mo in her country,” Dar explained.

“The last one was a doozy.” Cherry crossed her arms. “So, you did that, and now we have this giant crack in the sky?”

Sasha nodded as they brought it all back to the problem at hand. “Okay, right. The crack in the sky. The two celestials are taking your body further away from it to safety? That makes sense.”

“Yes and no. The other celestials from the surrounding countries are gathering. This is a big problem, one we cannot run away from.” Dar scratched the back of his head feeling awkward because he knew he was partially responsible for it.

“Let me guess. You did this?” Sasha’s face was partially serious, partially on the edge of cracking into a laugh.

“Indirectly. I believe that there is something greater than the Mo. Something made them. And I think I might have upset it by absorbing them.” Dar put on his best charming smile.

“Oh lug.” She leaned into him. “At least you have stronger help. I would very much like to meet these two.”

Valdis cleared her throat.

“And spend some time with Valdis,” Sasha added. “You put me in a very awkward position, my love.”

He knew that she struggled to break herself free from the hierarchy of the dao path. Sasha was a greater demon, and having her lead his harem when he was adding women who were celestial demons and spirits was a position where neither party knew just who was in charge.

“Well, it sounds like we got the basics.” Sasha nodded, seeming to move on from the conversation. “Blaire, Mika, could you help our husband to bed? The rest of you should prepare. We are going to have a meeting, and then I wish to meet these two celestials.”

Despite her discomfort with it, Sasha took charge and nodded to each of the women present.

Blaire came around behind Dar and helped him out from his seat. Already, he felt his strength returning, but he didn’t mind Blaire’s attention as she helped him up.

“It’s been a few weeks,” Blaire whispered. “We are tired, but maybe enjoying each other nice and slow for a little while would be nice.”

***

Dar awoke groggily. The previous day had taken its toll on his body. He cracked open his eyes, taking in the surrounding area.

Rather than the ice platform that he had been expecting, they were floating on a platform made of sandstone.

“The man of the hour awakens.” Bai, Sha, and Sasha were sitting around a table as the maids served them.

Dar blinked away the sleep from his eyes and rose to join them.

“Milord.” Amber was there in an instant with a cup of tea. As soon as he was seated, she shoved a plate full of bread and fresh meat in front of him.

“We hunted a little this morning”, Bai explained. “The land is about to be ruined by devils anyway.”

“Many dead devils though. The ones you brought into your inner world are being buried as we speak,” Marcie supplied. “The dao tree is growing rich with fruit.”

Dar grunted and bit into the steak of some animal without a thought for what I might be. He was hungry enough that it didn’t matter.

“We would still like to see this dao tree,” Sha supplied. “Your lovely wife here has been telling us much about it.” Sha gave him a brilliantly warm smile.

Dar grew slightly suspicious. The placid desert spirit hadn’t smiled at him like that before.He looked towards Sasha who pointedly avoided his gaze.

“Yes. This tree is very interesting. If you had told us that devils fueled these special fruits, we would have just slaughtered them en masse for you. The spirits would be very interested in an easy way to deviate from their set path.” Bai added with a smile. “Either way, it doesn’t matter much now.”

“Why’s that?” Dar asked, looking over the edge of the platform. Down below, it looked like an ant hive.

Devils, tens of thousands of them, blanketed the land below them, swarming up and over each other.

“Kindrake is lost.” Sasha put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Even if you were to act now, there are just too many. They will sweep the country of life.”

Dar lifted his head from the depressing sight and back to the ladies with him. “Then what are we doing?”

He looked back up to the crack in the sky and once again was filled with the feeling that something was up there and watching him.

“Do you guys feel like there is something up there?” Dar stated the question without waiting for an answer to his first one.

“No?” Sha frowned and glanced at the crack. “Though, you are the cause. Maybe you have a connection that is greater than ours.”

Bai nodded with her. “But back to your first question. The celestials are gathered in the country. Though last night we did not meet, we are all aware of each other’s presence. As Sha is the most neutral of us, she should make a space for us all to meet. But that begs the question of what you want out of this. Dar, you started this.”

Dar frowned, not appreciating the weight of that responsibility. “Did not. The crack thing started this.”

Dar tore off another piece of meat, noticing nobody else had spoken up. Sighing, he tried to organize a plan. “So, it seems like there are only two objectives then. One, we go kill the rest of the Mo. Two, we try and directly deal with the problem here.”

“If absorbing the Mo made this problem, wouldn’t absorbing the rest make it worse?” Sasha had to ask.

“Probably. This feels like something that’ll get worse before it gets better.” Dar couldn’t ditch the feeling that there was something up there watching him. “But if we stay here and just kill devils, who knows when it will end? We have no idea if there’s any limit on whatever is pouring through that crack.”

Bai cleared her throat. “May I point out that if there is something behind this, it is likely what the turtle spoke of. None of us are strong enough to fight that.”

Dar wanted to open his mouth and argue that they were plenty strong, but he realized she was right. If whatever was behind the Mo was behind this, then continuing to absorb the Mo would draw it out further.

“He’s made up his mind.” Sasha read him like a book. “We are going for the rest of the Mo.”

“Then in discussion with the rest of the celestials, we should discuss temporary measures here,” Sha replied. “The last thing we want is a tide of devils that sweeps this world clean.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Dar agreed.

Sha nodded, and the sandstone platform expanded as she floated to a new location. Quickly, a table appeared, followed by a large number of chairs and finally pillars appeared along with a roof, giving it a grand appearance. “Then we will start the discussion with the other celestials.”

“I should go.” Sasha bowed quickly.

“Nonsense. You will be my guest,” Sha insisted. “Others will bring family or their lieutenant.”

Sasha clearly wanted to escape, but after a breath, she resolved herself. “Fine.”

Their chairs shifted and became part of the table.

“They come,” Bai stated, looking out into the distance.

A red dot expanded, and Dar thought for a second a living flame was coming. But as it grew closer, he realized he was seeing a giant flaming bird. A real phoenix.

“You should summon Valdis,” Bai reminded him.

Dar did as she asked, and Valdis nodded quickly, taking in the structure around her. Looking at the seats, she sat on Bai’s left. With how Sha had rearranged the area, it had put Dar between the two celestials with Sasha on Sha’s right.

The phoenix landed on the edge of the structure and shook itself, splitting into multiple people.

Dar focused, trying to understand what he was seeing. He figured out that the man was the phoenix and had been carrying several young women on its back.

All of them had red hair that paled to gold at the tips.

“Bai and Sha.” The man put on a roguish grin. “Two lovely ladies. Oh, am I glad to see you.” He strutted in like the living embodiment of a peacock.

“Ah. Do you have more daughters now?” Bai gave a polite laugh.

“What good is a harem for a demon if not to work to produce many heirs? You two are welcome to come to my domain anytime and partake in my pleasure.” He sat in a chair and kicked up his feet. The women, who Dar now recognized as daughters, splayed out behind him.

Each of them was more beautiful than the last, only marred by the cocky expressions on their faces.

“Who might you be?” one of his daughters scowled at Dar, clearly displeased with his stare as her father took a seat across from the two celestials already seated.

“Darius Yigg,” he answered smoothly.

“Our shared dao companion.” Sha placed a hand on his shoulder.

The Red looked like he’d been slapped. “D-dao companion? Both of you? You’ve never taken one as long as I’ve known you, Sha.”

“Well, Hong, now you have,” Sha said simply, the conversation stopping as another celestial broke from the clouds.

An absolutely titanic shark, a thing that would make Shark Week back home salivate and the fans of killer shark movies go crazy, came from the clouds with two other fish-like demons attached to the bottom of its fins.

It swam through the sky as if it was water, and as it got to the edge of Sha’s structure, it transformed into a human man. At least, it was closer to human than it was in the pure shark form.

The Deep One was nine feet tall, rippling with muscle to the degree that it looked like he had earthworms under his skin. His muscles were a momentary distraction from his huge nose and how he kept his mouth open to breath, revealing multiple rows of knife-like teeth.

Unlike Hong, he didn’t sit. Instead, he paced with the two women trailing behind him as if attached. “What have you done, Bai?” His voice was a growl.

“There’s one more coming.” Sha pointed in the distance as a lone gold squiggle grew in their view.

Like Bai, it was a Chinese-styled dragon.

“Relative?” Dar asked.

“No,” Bai scowled at him. “Just a similar starting point.”

Old Gold was less pronounced than the others. It shifted into a respectable, old, unassuming man as it landed. Only the gravity with which the others paid attention to him gave anything away.

“Old Jin. Welcome.” Sha nodded to the old man.

Their names continued to translate differently to Dar when they spoke casually.

“I wish it were a welcome day.” He sat to Sha’s right, shifting The Deep One’s pacing to the area to Bai’s left. “But today we have a grave disaster upon our world. That’s the reason we are all here, isn’t it?”

He cut right to the heart of the problem.

Sha opened the center of the table, allowing them all to see down below. “As you can see, this country has had a disaster strike. Devils are pouring from the crack in the sky and they have already begun flooding the land.”

The Deep One snorted. “Not my territory. The sea protects mine, and these devils would serve as nothing but food for those below the waves.” He glared viciously at Bai.

“We all know that this is more than just a single territory’s problem. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have left your comfortable ocean to investigate.” Bai leaned back, her expression and manners once again the frosty woman Dar had met on top of the mountain.

It made Dar realize just how casual and warm she’d become in his presence recently.

The Deep One scoffed and continued to pace.

“It seems Sineld should be the most concerned,” Hong said, preening like a peacock. “The devils would sooner cross the desert than climb over the mountain passes to my territory. Is that why you two have teamed up?”

The other three took another look at Bai and Sha’s seating, with Dar squished between them.

“I am more concerned with a report I heard that Mo have been getting loose in your territory, Sha.” Old Jin stroked his long beard. “This concerns me. Lilith should be here, should she not?” He glanced pointedly at Valdis.

“My mistress is no longer walking this world.” Valdis bowed her head.

There was a sharp intake of breath from Hong, and for the first time, The Deep One stopped pacing to gawk.

“You jest.” Hong leaned forward, hope in his voice.

“No. Lilith has passed of her own volition.” Valdis’ expression was grim. “But she put into motion the destruction of the Mo with her last breaths.”

Old Jin frowned and looked into his hands while the other two were still taking deep breaths. Finally, Old Jin raised his head. “Would this have anything to do with the crack in the sky?”

Hong’s eyes immediately shifted to Dar, seeming to size him up more intensely. “And what does this man have to do with it?”

Bai nodded slowly. “This man is Lilith’s creation and capable of absorbing the Mo, removing them from our world."

The celestials gathered around went quiet at Bai’s revelation, and Dar could feel The Deep One sizing him up like a snack.