V5C26: Earthen Horror

Indeed, those things did look alike to the Fashionable Gentleman, or at least the figure that might have taken his place. The mouth in particular was identical, while the rest was awfully close, save for the arms and legs.

Just as described, what found them was a four-legged entity with beast-like feet and large, almost disproportionate clawed hands, with them resembling large spikes or daggers far more than anything a regular animal might utilise. It had a largest torso, and one not covered by any clothing that might make it seem more human than it otherwise appeared, and a constant torrent of dust seemed to fall from its body.

The biggest change was in the eyes. In the place of the empty indentations of the entity from the Bao District, these things had bright glowing eyes, acting almost as spotlights as they visibly illuminated the room with a distinct flaming red. Although the shade was similar to the one produced by the light fissures, and the so-called blood of the world that was likely found within them and then placed into the man-made lamps around the area they had found themselves in, it was far from an identical match, and only the fact that it was bright and pierced the dark, at least in part, was truly alike to the comparatively safe glow of the light fissures.

Unfortunately, this thing wasn’t just a static entity that could be safely observed. The moment that it saw them, the earthen horror seemed to growl with the sound of stone scratching against stone, and took a step into the residence of the grave digger. For a moment, it looked around, casting its gaze and crimson light unto all living things within the room.

Before it did much, the man equipped with both sword and armour rushed forward, barging past the others and wielding the weapon in two hands, pointing it towards his enemy.

“This cannot be greater than a third realm planar beast, so permit me to slay it!”

At that moment, although it was not visible in any way, Wei Yi was sure that the man attempted to gather his planar energy and manifest it around the weapon, while circulating the rest throughout his body to empower himself and make himself less vulnerable to attack. Perhaps this was due to her Dao, or perhaps some other instinct, but it was clear that the expected outcome did not arrive for him, although it was not obvious to him.

On the contrary, his reaction speed seemed slower, and so, when the earthen horror pounced only a moment after he attempted to use his planar energy, he had not had the time to process what he saw, only what he thought ought to occur. He hastened forward, attempting to stab the horror’s heart.

What convinced him that there was a heart there in the first place was a different question. For the moment, all that the rest of the people in the room could perceive was the fact that the horror moved more quickly, and before the sword had even one chance to touch a potentially vital part of its body, its claws were already falling upon the man’s shoulder.

The sword did graze the side of the earthen thing, but it could barely leave a scratch. The claws of said thing, meanwhile, easily cut through the metal composing the man’s armour, despite the material being no worse than a three-star metal, tore into his flesh and, with a most audible noise, severed muscle and bone alike in one swift motion. Blood splattered everywhere as the arm fell from its place upon his form, the sword leaving his hands with it as he failed to keep hold of the weapon and instead retreated, bumping into Bao Kang Min as he did so.

“P-Planar energy… doesn’t work! It-”

The jagged teeth-like mouth of the earthen horror put an end to his sentence, although the man’s performance combined with the exclamation that he did manage to provide were sufficient to illustrate the situation.

In surprising silence, the small gathering of people scattered to the edges of the room, as far away from the earthen entity as they could get, save for the mason proclaiming, “A weapon wielded meekly cannot pierce the stone shell of the earthen horror! Strength and sharpness are required in equal measure, or else a weapon that is heavy and brute in its application is required for use of a man with an equal degree of both! Outsiders like you cannot use such feeble things! If ye have no better way to deal with the thing, throw yourselves to its mercy and give us time to flee!”

“Shut it, or else you will be thrown over first,” Wei Yi said, not turning from the earthen thing, “The rest of you, weapons and anything you can. Don’t care what you get, so long as it is effective.”

“What do you intend to do, outsider?” the more amicable grave digger inquired.

“We will kill the earthen horror, of course. You can participate, if you are more interested in survival than your fellow fleeing straight to the door,” she answered, taking that moment to dash forward and straight towards the beast in what appeared to be a purely suicidal act, one that the others were so bewildered by that they paid little mind to it.

Their attention fell to her command instead, for those few moments that ensured that their drive did not turn to early despair at the seeming blatant disregard for one’s own safety and wellbeing.

She dove down, under the earthen horror’s open jaw, and towards the blade that fell near to it. Even with most of her power locked away by this world – a trend that was becoming rather alarming, as every district seemed to have some way of weakening her – she was still abnormally fast, strong and possessed a reaction speed that far surpassed that of a great number of combatants in the Planar Continents.

Indeed, the entity moved, but just a moment too slowly, the claws soaring past Wei Yi’s clothing and missing her by just a single millimetre. Dropping onto the ground, she grabbed the severed arm of the dead man.

Seeing that she did not have the time to remove the weapon from its grip, she promptly dashed back and evaded another attack, although this one did graze her clothes, leaving five faint marks upon it. Furthermore, it seemed that the earthen horror was angered by her deed, and so it became almost visibly faster as everything around it accelerated. The sand and dust that fell from it dropped in larger quantities and with greater speed, and the blaze from its eyes brightened as it locked upon her and dove towards her with rising ferocity.

With too little time to attempt to free the blade from the admittedly tight fingers of the man’s hand, she could only dodge to the side while throwing the arm down in an attempt to loosen or damage the digits of the hand. She could pry them apart, as the limb had lost any of the support from the body and mind that had it before, but that did not mean that the fingers were easy to move, and that they would let go of their weapon without a great deal of effort on her part.

Again, her clothes were scathed, but as she fell to the ground with the arm before her, one of the other people from the Planar Continents, the woman with a hidden dagger, suddenly broke out of the group and leapt right at the earthen horror. Her dagger was held semi-competently, suggesting a small amount of direct experience, and it was aimed for the head of the earthen thing. From the lacking strength and skill of the woman alone, it was more than obvious that it would be inferior in power to the failed strike of the armoured man that now lay in a bloody mess on the ground, but it was fortunate that the entity was distracted now as it had not been at the time, providing a unique opportunity.

Even then, the thing realised that an attack was coming a moment before it struck, but all that did was guide the knife’s blade into one of its eyes.

It did not pierce the earthen flesh of the entity, nor was it able to cause much harm beyond a few loose particles of dust falling from the eye socket, but it did stop the thing’s movement for just a little while, allowing Wei Yi to evade its attack. She took advantage of this and stopped in place, momentarily let go of the arm in her hand to shift her grip upwards, to the wrist, and slashed down at the earthen horror.

Such an attack was also not ideal, but as it fell upon the foe, the blade finally cut into the earthen horror, just by a single minute inch. Nevertheless, it did damage the entity, and as the Ascendant quickly retreated, she saw a large volume of stone dust fall from the edge of the sword, far more than could have possibly been picked up from the surface of the entity alone.

Indeed, the earthen horror had a visible gash on the shoulder, from which dust and sand fell swiftly and without a hint of ceasing, like blood would poor from a wound of a more ordinary living thing. To those present, this was perhaps the best thing they could have witnessed.

The earthen horror could be slain, it could be beaten, and it could be done with their limited strength, with the inconvenience caused by Wei Yi’s need to grip the blade by the arm of its previous owner confirming that more could be done with superior planning and a proper grip on the weapon. Furthermore, the others could likely do the same, even if their overall strength was inferior, for they had already found a number of sharp objects with which they could stab at the foe that had invaded their space, one that retained its light for now.

Those with experience naturally hastened forward first and lunged at the thing while it was still impacted by her earlier attack.

A sharp nail, a metal spike that came from somewhere in the building, and the tip of a shovel all fell upon the earthen horror. The nail pierced the surface, albeit barely, and left no significant mark. Of course, a larger metal spike thrust forth with more force had a greater impact and managed to leave a sufficient indentation in the entity to cause another stream of dust to emerge. Finally, the shovel was thrust directly at the back of the earthen horror and managed to dig into the thing’s skin-like layer, peeling off a thin quantity of dirt and stone from its surface and revealing that which lay beneath, alongside the largest stream of flowing dust so far.

To expect the thing to not retaliate would be foolish, but it was what one of the women did, the one that had pulled a nail out of some part of the residence. She attempted to strike the same area as before a second time – a wise choice, albeit not as wise as targeting one of the other larger injuries – but failed to take into account the clear indication of imminent movement displayed by the earthen horror.

In a sharp movement that might have broken the spine of a regular, living entity, it twisted round and bit down upon the woman. The horror bit off a third of her body, including her left arm and much of her neck with a single decisive movement, covering the ground with yet another layer of blood while it miraculously avoided even a single red stain on its body. How this happened was of no concern even to the ever-curious Ascendant, as there were plenty of reason for blood to not remain upon a form, and instead took advantage of the opening once again, jumping to the back and attacking.

She chose to thrust the tip of the blade into the open wound on the back, applying every bit of force that she could unleash to deliver the strongest blow possible.

When it hit the exposed dirt and stone that acted as flesh for the earthen horror, she instantly figured out why that open wound seemed like such a good target even when she could easily strike any of the other injuries forming on its body. As it turned out, the skin layer of the entity was tougher and denser than that which lay beneath, thus meaning that the weapon easily penetrated deep into the horror and went quite far before it could progress no more.

The dirt of the earthen horror provided just enough resistance that the weapon finally slipped from the hand of its original wielder, and allowed her to toss it away and take up the weapon with her own hand.

This time, her attention was elsewhere. Rather than focusing on her strength, mind, or perhaps even luck, if one was to claim that such a thing existed, her attention was on the fact that her sword had gone just a little bit further than it possibly could have done with everything that she understood about the target of her attack, and her own abilities. Provided that everything distinct between cultivators was truly equalised almost entirely, her attack shouldn’t have been able to pierce nearly half-way through the large torso of the earthen horror. Since this did occur, as undeniably as anything else within this world of earth and stone, there had to be an explanation to consider, and she did not need to think long to understand one such reason.

Dao. The highest power that existed in the Planar Continents, for Dao surpassed such things as energy. They were the very nature of the world being comprehended in such a fashion that they could be applied to the world without a drop of energy at all, although this was not the case with the limits imposed by merely duplicating the knowledge of the heavens. However, in the true acquisition of Dao, many limits that she had come across would be no more, for she would grasp one aspect of the world in its entirety.

For all the flaws within her personal comprehension of Law, weapons and Swords, to be more precise, she still had the level of Minor Achievement in the Sword Dao, Initial Accomplishment in the Ascendant’s Combat Dao, last time she checked, and Full Success in the Ascendant’s Dao itself, although the exact effect of that was more difficult to ascertain in any regard.

What was certain was that, even without the assistance of the heavens, she had to possess at least an Initial Accomplishment stage of the Sword Dao, when the greater Dao were also taken into account. As a result, even if this world was wholly distinct from the Planar Continents, which may well be the case, she had a certain power that the others could not obtain, or did not have, at least. This meant that she, more than ever, was not helpless in this strange and horrifying realm, and that her every blow could not only be effective in the moment, but also benefit her in the long term, for she would be forced to comprehend certain matters without the assistance of the heavens and the Planar Continents.

‘So, as always, there is a way to benefit from the worst things that could be thrown at me… In fact, there is a better chance for the others than for myself. They will have considered far less than I, and so new knowledge could be obtained purely on their own, while I will need to comprehend that which I have been deprived of now that the will of the heaven’s cannot force its own knowledge upon me,’ she considered, pulling out the blade and pondering the presence of her other Dao.

She had relied greatly upon the Truth of the Universe to determine her exact stage in each of her Dao, conceptual and actual alike, and thus she was not sufficiently familiar with the typical process of determining their stage using her own senses. It would be suicidal to attempt to master this right there and then, so she was only interested in the vaguest senses that she could acquire, as to distinguish the Dao that she had at the moment from those that she did not. Her vision states had not been present since her arrival, so they were not sufficient indicators even for those Dao in which she most excelled, so a less obvious method was required.

In the moment, the most obvious Dao to reach for were her Dao of Law, Combat Dao, Sword Dao and the Dao of the Heavens, although that last one she could only hope to apply to the possible heavens of this world, rather than using any of the elements it contained. The Earth Dao might still be applicable, due to the prevalence of dirt and stone in the world.

Even then, she did not expect the elements of the world to match those of the Planar Continents, regardless of the true nature of the environment that she had found herself in. Thus, the five elements that could be produced with planar energy would act as little more than crude references with little substance. It seemed like the majority of the world was made up entirely of the earthen element, if the principles could be matched up in any way, but humans should not be able to endure it, the earthen horrors shouldn’t be able to move quite as they do, and the light fissures and the blood of the world seemed to be more flame-like in origin, which shouldn’t be expected in a world potentially belonging to a purely earth-type entity.

It took her a single focused breath to understand that the Dao of Law was, at most, at the Initial Accomplishment stage alongside her Sword Dao and Combat Dao. She did have some knowledge of those Dao, after all, and the concept of Dao wasn’t unheard of in the world even for those that didn’t have quite the rich life experience that she did, so to have a stage of several Dao wasn’t particularly unexpected.

The Ascendant’s Dao had never applied to much beyond her own abilities, and the concept of ascension, so it was hard to detect its presence. Meanwhile, the Dao of the Heavens did not appear to resonate with anything in this world, so even if it was present, she didn’t appear to be able to extract anything of use from it, as unfortunate as that was.

Nevertheless, she had at least an effective stage of Minor Achievement in her sword usage, and thus her ability to wield anything that could be labelled as a sword within her own consciousness was empowered. This one was one difference between her own Dao and the Dao of heaven’s will, as one was mostly reliant on herself while the other needed to pass through the mind of the heavens, and thus became limited by it. Now that she was the only one defining her own Dao, she had the comprehensions from them, and the applications of those realisations separated from them.

She could not make use of a vision state with a pseudo-Minor Achievement stage, and even the Great Success stage would be far less obviously empowering to her, but that was hardly a negative for her.

The less that she was guided for this time – as she believed with absolute certainty that she would return, although the exact duration of her presence here would be decided by factors mostly outside of her own control – the more she would be able to obtain for herself, and thus she would return with the most power that she could possibly claim. Ideally, she could realise the Dao of Law to the Full Success stage, at which point she would be unparalleled in the Planar Continents and thus equipped to combat the heavens or perhaps even otherworldly demons without much risk to herself, at least in comparison.

In a way, she could be close to divinity in the eyes of others, as the chains of Law would be controllable by her and her alone for a long while, at least until anyone can comprehend exactly what she had understood.

‘Perhaps I could even defeat the heavens using a Full Stage Dao, although it seems that I would need to obtain a Great Dao to truly rival them. In theory, they should have at least one such thing, perhaps the Planar Great Dao, given the name of the world itself,’ Wei Yi quickly thought, returning her attention to the matters at hand, ‘For now, the comprehension of the weakest points of an entity that must exist regardless of internal organs, combined with my ability to use a sword, ought to be sufficient to defeat the current foe and learn at least a little regarding the truth of the world.’

Before, given the warnings of the townsfolk of this strange world, she might have been somewhat worried about her own capabilities, as well as those of the other Planar Continentals, but the worries were abated by the presence of her Dao of Law most of all. Out of everything, she saw Law as being the most fundamental aspect of reality, and so long as she could comprehend the Laws that caused the earthen realm to be as it was, then she would not be trapped forever in its grasp, nor within the restrictions that it imposed. She could attain freedom from it, from the earthen horrors, and eventually from the Planar Continents once she developed her own abilities far enough, but for now she did not actively look forward to such a thing.

“Everyone, don’t attempt to attack this thing more than once! Simply chip away at it, and we shall win in time, regardless of how much longer it may take!” she exclaimed, “Actually, dying would make things worse for us, so don’t do it even if you think you can speed things up by a dozen times, or even a million times.”

That last part got one of the Planar Continentals to change the look that they had, so it had been wise to include it. The exaggeration was a little silly, though, even for that purpose.

She did not delay in attacking again, doing so the moment that she adjusted her grip on the weapon in her hand. The mouth of the earthen horror was wide open, but she did not believe it to be a viable spot to target in the slightest, as she couldn’t help but remember just how easily the claws and teeth of the thing could breach metal and cut through solid armour, meaning that her sword would be just as vulnerable, if not more so due to its general thinness.

Rather, she took advantage of yet another point on the body that had already been partly chipped away, that being the spot targeted by the woman whose life was lost to yet against prove the power of the earthen horror.

Using the piercing point of the weapon, as well as the intricate interior channels meant for the flow of planar energy and the overall shape of the weapon, she applied as much force as she possibly could to strike in just the right fashion to damage the entity the most. Furthermore, the earthen horror moved in a rather predictable fashion, lacking a sufficient degree of intelligence to take advantage of its position, and thus she was able to be sure that it would twist to attack her in the right manner to provide her with even more power for her strike.

Even as it attempted to end her life in the same swift manner as it had ended that of two other Continentals, it simply advanced its own inevitable demise, for the tip of her blade was offered the perfect opportunity to penetrate the layer of tough skin and touch the softer dirt beneath. Only the first moment was difficult – afterward, it just slid right in.

The previous wound was on the back of the entity, and whether or not the earthen horror had any vital organs, it did not appear to be able to grant her the right angle to strike at them. On the other hand, the point made via the callous strike of the second victim of this earthen horror made it most suitable for penetrating all the way through the body, thus hitting anything that might possibly be most dangerous to the entity. Even if this was not the case, it had already been confirmed that the more she cut through, the more damage she did to this thing. As a result, it couldn’t hurt to do as much as possible.

Once the blade was nearly fully inside the entity, the surface of it suddenly cracked, with countless small snaking openings within the stone-like skin opening up before them.

Wei Yi retreated, uncertain of what this sudden change could bring, but the others did not hesitate to take her place and rush in with everything that they had, stabbing at and smashing the earthen horror with everything from the shovel to a chair. The chair was not taken with permission from the grave digger, who did look rather displeased with its usage in this uncouth manner, but he had to forgive this act for the effectiveness it seemed to have.

Whatever had changed about the entity once the surface of it cracked, it had resulted in it being extremely vulnerable to even the most poorly aimed and delivered blows, resulting in the chair smashing apart its wrist with ease. Those attacks that were made with more appropriate weaponry were even more effective, and soon the earthen horror was scattered into naught but dust.

“You… you have slain it? You have slain one of the earthen horrors?” the grave digger asked no-one in particular, his mind unable to comprehend the sudden change from horror to victory, “Then, does that mean-”

From the dust, a strange earthen-grey mist surged out and flew towards those that had delivered the last blows to the entity. The vast majority travelled towards those that attacked with a chair, shovel and a bunch of random items found at the home of the grave digger, but a small particle flew towards the Ascendant, who took several steps back in an attempt to evade it before the speed of the particle became too rapid for her. She couldn’t be sure exactly what it was from a single look, not when her spiritual perception was so limited, but no sane man or woman would have imagined it to be beneficial.

However, with no way to ward it off, she could only attempt to understand exactly what the particle was, and whether it would have any immediate adverse effects – especially ones that she could resolve, or manage in some effective way. Inside of her own body, her spiritual perception remained somewhat effective, so she could detect things that would be entirely unseen outside.

She waited for any sign of negative effects, and yet, all that seemed to emerge was a warm feeling that filled her body and mind, almost as if she was rejuvenated and awakened after a good night’s sleep.

A strange feeling of power emerged within her, and she could see a strand of grey appear within her veins, overpowering the weakened cosmic blood that flowed within in terms of prominence. Without taking further action, she could tell that she had somehow acquired more strength, although the exact direction in which it functioned was less clear. Strength could be physical, pure energy, mental or even incidental, in that it would act in a manner similar to luck or fortune, and it was hard to establish which category this would fit into. All that could be certain was that it was present, and that this couldn’t be solely limited to her.

After all, out of everyone in the room, she had absorbed the least of the earthen horror’s power.

“Outsiders, block up the doorway immediately, before more of the earthen horrors come!” the grave digger instructed, looking to them all in desperation, “Even if you can take down one, attracting too many is too dangerous, understand?”

“That much is obvious,” Wei Yi agreed, heading over to the nearest and largest piece of furniture that she can see, “I still doubt your nature, so explain everything that you can, as quickly as you can, while we do all the work again. By we, I do mean all of us, so just because you got the last hit on that thing doesn’t mean that you can just stand around and be all happy about it.”

Thus, they got to work, with most temporarily overlooking the strange grey mist.