Dao 4 Chapter 28 (Patreon)

Valdis had strength and flexibility to put him through his paces, but Dar had been surprised at the gentleness she’d shown when they’d been together. She’d curled up into him after, finally letting go of her warrior side and relaxing for a moment.

But when Dar had headed off to hunt Mo, she’d headed straight to the central hearth and ate nearly a whole cauldron of stew before setting up under the dao tree. And she’d been in a trance ever since.

“Think she’ll be okay?” Dar asked Cherry who often watched over the tree.

It had been two weeks since their dao paths had intertwined. Dar had been busy killing Mo, spending time with two celestials, and generally trying to integrate Hearthway into his inner world.

“Probably. She’s a spirit, and if this is the direction she thinks her dao path is supposed to go, then it’ll be far easier than you or a demon. Just leave her be. Besides, I think you should be more worried about Neko,” Cherry stated plainly.

“What’s wrong with Neko?” Dar looked around for the jaguar demon, realizing that he hadn’t seen her much. And when he had, she’d just been eating quickly before leaving.

“You should check her room in the keep,” Cherry chuckled, going up on her tiptoes and using roots to lift her up to peck him on the cheek.

Dar looked off towards the room, not sure he liked the ominous nature of Cherry’s warning. But Dar took Cherry’s advice and made his way through the keep in search of Neko.

If he remembered correctly, she was on the third floor on what he kept thinking of as the east side. Dar knocked on her door.

“Come in,” Neko called, sounding distracted before talking to someone else in the room.

Dar frowned but opened the door, finding her sitting next to Sasha. Neko had a pair of crocheting needles and was focusing on a project. Dar looked around the mostly destroyed room and matted down bed.

“Oh. Dar!” Neko hid the project behind her back and knocked over a ball of yarn that rolled across the room.

Neko’s eyes tracked it hungrily, but to Dar’s shock, she didn’t jump to snatch it. Instead, she seemed to be focusing on keeping whatever was behind her back hidden.

Dar raised an eyebrow, his curiosity growing.

“I feel like I haven’t spent much time with you,” Dar stated, eyeing her and then glancing down at Sasha, who had a giant smirk she was seriously struggling to hide.

“Neko okay. Just busy.”

“Yeah? Want to give making kittens another shot?” Dar probed with his strongest card out front.

“Maybe later? Dar is busy. You have more Mo to take on soon,” the cat girl said with a straight face.

Dar’s curiosity turned to concern. Something was seriously up, and he wanted to know what it was.

Seeing his concern, Neko sighed and pulled her project back in front of her. It was a pair of little booties. The statement hit Dar far harder than any Mo had the last few weeks. He had to brace himself against the wall.

Sasha chuckled. “We aren’t sure yet. Neko has missed her monthly blood, and we are hopeful.”

Dar nodded. Without modern testing, it would be hard to know for sure until a number of cycles had passed.

“If Neko knew for sure, she would tell Dar. Just hopeful right now.” Neko stared at the booties again. “I might have kittens!” She glanced back up at Dar with tears shining in her eyes. “Kittens. Neko might finally have kittens.” She played with the two little booties with a giant smile on her face.

Dar strode across the room in a single bound and swept Neko off her feet, pulling her into a loving embrace. “I would love you to have kittens, but if you don’t, that’s okay. We will keep trying. Hell, we can try again right now.”

It didn’t matter to him. Just the idea of her potentially having kittens was exciting to him.

“No!” Neko squealed. “Dar’s monster might hurt the kittens.” She placed her hands protectively over her stomach.

“Neko, I’m sure it is okay for you to keep having sex even if you are pregnant.” Sasha tried to calm the demon down.

“Not with Dar’s monster. It goes up too far!” Neko still kissed Dar hard before letting go. “Sorry, I have to protect the kittens.” She paused and put a finger to her lips in thought. “Neko could give Dar mouth though. Dar still needs Neko love.”

Dar was on Sasha’s side, but if Neko was concerned, he wouldn’t force the issue. Besides, he was fine with months of blowjobs. “Were you hiding from me?”

She looked away. “If it wasn’t kittens, then Neko would have been a failure.”

Dar grabbed her, pulling her even closer into his arms. “Is Sasha a failure because she isn’t pregnant yet?”

“No. But she hasn’t tried as hard as Neko. Neko tries the hardest.” The cat girl's face pinched down into a frown.

“Then I’m sure Neko will succeed first,” Dar stated, and she nodded fervently.

“Kittens.” She had a wild look in her eyes again at the word.

Dar just chuckled and held her close as she had her moment.

Sasha came on the other side and hugged Neko between them. “You’ll have lovely kittens, and then Dar’s harem will be so busy helping you.”

Dar enjoyed the moment, holding them and thinking of a future of little kittens. Dar was going to need his entire harem to keep a bunch of baby Neko’s in line. But the idea of the chaos still brought a smile to his face.

But the smile stalled as he felt a tug on his consciousness. “Neko, I’m sorry, but someone is trying to wake me.”

“It’s okay.” She rubbed her still flat stomach tenderly. “Go take care of the evil Mo for our kittens.” Neko picked up the little booties and the crochet needles as Sasha continued to help her.

Dar pulled himself out of his inner world, unable to help the giant smile that was plastered on his face.

“That happy to keep killing Mo? I would have thought you got bored of it.” Bai watched him with a raised eyebrow. Sha was there on the frozen platform as well.

They’d landed on the ground at the shore of a lake with a giant waterfall pouring down into it. They were surrounded by dense jungle, so Dar could tell that they were still in Old Jin’s territory.

Dar laughed like a mad man. “Neko might be pregnant. So I’m just in a great mood. How many does this make?”

“We are almost done,” Sha said. “At least with the surrounding area.”

Dar nodded, flipping out his black axe. He was the most comfortable with his ax.

Bai held up a scroll that Valdis had made. “It says it is over this way.” She stepped off the platform and made a spear of ice, poking around for it.

On the fourth stab with the spear, she found it. “Ready?”

“Yeah. Rip it open.” Dar spun his axe idly as his runes began to glow brightly all over his body.

Bai wasn’t as good as Valdis at breaking the seals, but she had enough power to make it work.

He watched as her ice spear froze out the runes, and she tore the seal open. The dao characters swirled as it expanded. They froze and cracked while the three of them prepared for a fight.

“Which one is this?” Dar asked.

Sha took the scroll from Bai and unfurled it while Bai broke the seal. “A giant bat.” She looked over the scroll, and they could see the bat growing. “It says here that it creates sounds so loud that people’s ears bleed and their heads explode.”

“Lovely,” Dar said sarcastically and donned his black armor.

Dar had no idea what Lilith had used to make the armor, or how she’d gotten so many enchantments into it. But it served him well as protection.

“Oh, the armor. Want to take it on yourself first?” Sha asked.

“Do me a favor and help me if it tries to escape, but until then, let me use it to train.” Dar hadn’t reached the celestial dao yet, but he was brimming with power. And the dao tree had been practically infusing him with lesser dao that had been bubbling up to greater dao.

It was becoming effortless as new dao flowed to him as he fought. Somehow in battle, the dao tree seemed to awaken, sending different dao to the back of his mind in the most random moments of fights.

So far, it hadn’t let him down.

Bai stepped back as the seal started to break on its own. The bat was flying erratically, throwing itself against the seal as its mouth opened wide with unnaturally large fangs, and the space inside the seal rippled with sound waves.

“I’m going to put some ice blocks in my ears. If you need help, just send up a flare.” Bai touched her ears and stepped back.

Sha did similarly, and Dar braced himself as the seal broke.

Sound waves tore through the seal and blasted the area, shattering the tranquil waterfall. Trees exploded behind Dar as he jumped high into the air to avoid the main blast.

His black armor dampened the attack, and his axe cut through the bat’s right wing, causing it to screech louder and spin.While it spun, its sound waves hit the waterfall, spraying water high into the air and cracking the face of the cliff.

Dar grabbed onto its fur on his way down and swung himself onto its back. It tried to throw him, but Dar was latched on tight as he slid his hand down the shaft and started hacking at the injured wing.

Dar had been fighting giant monsters for several weeks now, honing his tactics. And he’d become much better. But his strategy was rather simple. He would try to get onto their back and then hack them apart.

While it may not be the flashiest, it certainly got the job done.

The bat spun out of control and slammed its back into the cliff hard enough to expand the crack it had made with its sound. The cliff shook and came tumbling down over them.

Amid the falling rock, Dar came away with a tuft of fur in his hands, and the giant bat wiggled free of him, limping into the water and rounding on him.

As it closed its mouth, the sudden lack of noise was disorienting. Dar stood in the stark silence as it opened its mouth once more to screech.

Rock shattered around Dar as he was lifted up and smashed back into the cliff again, sending more of it falling down on him. Annoyed, Dar found himself buried under several tons of rocks.

He began to dig himself out, hearing splashing and scrabbling of rocks on the other side of the mound he was buried in. Dar cursed, hoping the others were keeping the thing from flying away. It would be a pain to chase it down.

As he hefted another rock, something within Dar identified it as Slate. He felt a harmony with the rocks as a dao settled into place in his mind. It always caught him a little off guard, but he had no issue using the dao tree’s assistance.

Parting the rocks in front of him, Dar strode out of the giant pile to find the bat waiting for him. It snapped down on him, like he was some bug crawling out of the soil. Biting into his armor, it strained to break through.

Dar was glad he’d chosen to wear the armor. The bat’s teeth were brutal.And while Dar had lost his axe, he wasn’t out of weapons.

His left arm was inside the bat’s mouth, with his body keeping it open.He drew on his dao of lava, pouring it into the beast's mouth. It squawked, but Dar grabbed onto its fangs with his right hand, riding its jaw up to a stand and wedging himself in place.

“Stupid Mo keep thinking I’m food. Here, eat some of this.” Dar could see its throat and poured lava down it before he gripped one of the fangs with his left hand and ripped it out.

The bat was losing its shit as it tried to get him out of its mouth. The Mo seemed to understand that it had given Dar access to its vocal chords. The lava had reduced its sound waves to mere squeaks of what they were before.

Dar summoned a sword from his inner world, and with a swift slice, he cut straight through the roof of its mouth into its head. The Mo slumped, falling and slamming its jaw against the ground.

Dar bounced out, and it had a stupid, sluggish expression. Even if the Mo couldn’t be killed by sword, it took a bit for them to heal a damaged brain.

“That’s what you get for trying to eat me. Stupid giant monsters always trying to eat the hero.” Dar took the sword, working to do as much damage as he could.

After a few minutes of hacking, the dao tree perked up, ready to absorb the bat. The roots shot out, soaking up the Mo and adding the dao of sound to the collection amid the dao tree.

“Not bad.” Bai floated nearby on a platform of ice as she took out two ice cubes from her ears.

“Maybe one day the monsters will learn that you don’t win by eating him,” Sha chuckled.

“You two think you are so funny.” Dar dismissed his black armor and glanced up at the sky as a violent boom rocked the earth under his feet. The clouds scattered as far as the eye could see, but no attack came.

“Let’s get up into the sky.” Dar grabbed Bai’s platform and lifted himself up as it rose and Sha joined them.

But then he remembered his axe, glancing down below and feeling for it amid the slate before grabbing it with a fist made of stone and shooting it back up into his hand. The stone fell away and he focused back on the sky.

They all were looking in the direction of the crack in the sky over Kindrake.

“It’s larger,” Bai observed.

She wasn’t wrong.

If before it was like a hairline crack in a vase, but the whole thing stayed together, then this one was like someone had punched a hole in the vase and fragments were floating away from Granterra out into the void.

Even as Dar watched, chunks of something were being ripped up from the ground and sucked into the void.

“That doesn’t look good,” Sha stated. “Do we head back?”

“How many more?” Dar asked quickly.

“Just one.” Bai rolled out the scroll going through it. “It won’t take us too far out of the path towards home.”

“Then let’s do it and hurry back.” Dar squinted into the distance.

For the first time, he didn’t feel like he had the focus of something at the crack.He had almost gotten used to the feeling, and now that it was gone, it was more concerning than ever.

“Let’s go. If it hits night, I’ll take you both into my inner world and try to slip through the shadows the rest of the way.” Dar didn’t like to use his shadow moving ability for long distances, but he was going to have to get over it.

Time was too critical, and they needed to get back to Kindrake. Something in his gut told him that whatever was coming would hit soon, and he needed to be ready.