Chapter 1001: Streets of Yu Nok Tor I

Chapter 1001: Streets of Yu Nok Tor I

Tiraeses, how are you doing? Leon asked, both men standing in the rune Leon had carved, their eyes wild and jumping from shadow to shadow. The horde may have pulled back, but that didnt mean they were safe.

The brothers of war, Valiant Ashatar and Strong Ashagon, strode with me this day, Tiraeses replied, which Leon took to mean he was fine.

If you dont mind, ask them if theyll walk with us for a little longer yet, Leon responded. He was then rudely interrupted by the roaring of what sounded like a titanic beast deeper in the city, though as the sound died, he continued like nothing had happened. Well take a minute or two to catch our breath and then proceed.

As you say. Tiraeses then took Leons instruction a little more literally than had been intended and kneeled to silently pray. Leon kept a silent vigil, his eyes locked on the taller structures closer to the heart of Yu Nok Tor. The darkness-clad cultists were still watching them; he could practically feel their eyes upon him. The darkness permeating the plane, despite the rune hed carved, still stuck to him too, leaving him feeling rather unclean.

Shouldve used that twig earlier, he ruminated. Maybe it wouldve worked back in the monastery. Maybe He cut himself off. There wasnt much use crying over spilled milk; he could linger on his mistakes later. For now, he had to focus only on finding some way off the plane, some way to reach Tell Kirin, some way to maybe, just maybe, find out what was happening there and stop it.

[Hey Xaphan,] Leon called out to his soul realm. [Ancestor. Any ideas what Ill be facing?]

[The closer we get, the more this feels like a power siphon,] Xaphan confirmed. [Do you remember the channeler we once encountered?]

Leon grimacedhe remembered the channeler all too well. A sacrificed human being, chained and broken beneath the arena of Andalus, capital of the Cortuban Alliance. The arena, when Leon had been there, had been built to funnel the power of the gladiators within it down to the channeler, where it would then be transferred to the demon at the other endand that demon had been Amon, Leon had learned. The arena, a place where the masses were meant to be entertained by blood sports, had been subverted into one giant ritual circle, where every drop of blood shed upon its sands would have its power stolen, for Amons gain.

[Yes,] he answered.

[This is a more powerful version,] Xaphan quietly responded. [I never used channelers myself, but I know the magic involved. This is older and stronger, but still recognizable. You should brace yourself, though, because I dont know exactly what kind of fuckery youre going to see at the end of this, even if I can identify its purpose.]

[Dead people would be a safe bet,] the Thunderbird stated. [Power like thistransferred from one being to another over a great distancecan rarely be accomplished without using another being as some kind of medium.]

[How does that work, exactly?] Leon asked.

[My dear ambitious boy!] the Thunderbird exclaimed. [Youre not thinking of making one for yourself, are you?]

From her tone, Leon couldnt tell if she was impressed or disgusted. Teasing, at the very least

[No,] he replied. [But knowing how it works may make it easier to break.]Read latest chapters at novelhall.com Only

[Lightning will break it,] the Thunderbird confidently stated. [And if that doesnt work, then just apply more until it does.]

Despite the bleak surroundings, Leon had to fight not to break out laughing. [I suppose thats as good a plan as any: blast the problem with lightning until the problem no longer exists.]

[That method, Ive found, works for any problem you can think of,] the Thunderbird proudly added. [Lightning is the worlds greatest problem-solver.]

[Fire works better, Pigeon,] Xaphan loudly muttered, and Leon felt a quick expression of power in his soul realm, followed by a pained grunt from the former Lord of Flame.

[Care to revise that assessment?] the Thunderbird asked.

[Fuck no,] Xaphan coughed.

[Hm. Looks like youre going to need more discipline. Leon, I trust that you have all of this under control. Ill be here if you need me, but this insolent demon needs to be taught.]

[Dont maim him permanently,] Leon joked.

[Traitor!] Xaphan shouted, though without too much bite.

[I make no promises,] the Thunderbird responded with altogether far too much seriousness.

It was a fairly nice-looking building, made of wood and stone that couldve given the building a certain rustic charm had it been intact and untarnished by the Devils pollution. Once inside, Leon realized it was some kind of bar or restaurant, with booths along the outer wall where windows once were, and an actual bar on the other side, complete with wooden stools. There were no ashen statues, thankfully, but before Leon was able to relax, movement in the far corner caught his eye.

A human figure stood there, rubbing the bars counter with a rag that was barely more than rough scraps of fabric, stained dark gray from ash and unspeakable filth that mightve accumulated. The figure resembled a husk, with a frame so emaciated that Leon couldnt tell if it had been male or female, and its skin was blackened and mottled, as if dried and charred by dark magic. The figure had no hair upon its head nor any clothes upon its body, but it was little more than skin and bone anyway, with all softer parts of its body long gone. Most disturbingly was its face, with empty eye sockets, a missing nose and ears, and its lips shriveled and pulled back in a terrible, almost nauseating grin, showing off teeth as black as coal.

The figure seemed hardly to notice them, contenting itself with wiping the same spot on the counter over and over again. The spot had been worn down, indicating it had been there doing this for a while, its motions practically sanding down that one specific spot of the wooden counter, though Leon hadnt noticed it through the windows or with his magic senses until entering the bar.

Barely a second passed between Leon and Tiraeses noticing the husk and it stopping its movement. Its head cricked and cracked as its eyeless face turned in their direction. Darkness magic in the bar spiked, and Leon moved.

The building shook from the thunder he summoned in his wake, but he didnt want a repeat of their earlier retreat from the city; he took the husks head in one clean slice. Instead of collapsing, the husks body dissolved into black ash and seemed to disappear instead of adding to the ash already spilling into the bar from outside, leaving hardly any trace that it had been there at all, save for the worn-down spot on the counter where it had been endlessly wiping.

Mothers Above and Below Tiraeses whispered in disgust and trepidation.

Maybe we just suck it up and continue? Leon said, deep unease settling into his stomach like a rock. None of this is going to change while we wait. Lets just keep moving

Tiraeses gritted his teeth and bowed slightly. Together, the two left the unsettling bar, only to find that all the ashen statues outside were now slightly different: their heads had all turned to face the bar, though their bodies hadnt. Many of the statues had been facing away, leaving their heads twisted at unnatural and unnerving angles. Hundreds of eyeless faces confronted them, as if accusing them of some crime just committed.

Leon frowned as his heart rate spiked.

[I hope I didnt sound too judgmental when discussing your strategy, Ancestor,] he said into his soul realm. Without waiting for a reply, he burst into action, Tiraeses following suit only a moment after him.

Leon charged forward so quickly that the ash beneath his feet practically exploded behind him. With thunder and lightning he shot through the ashen statues, his blade singing as lightning coursed through it and it cut through the statues. To Leons immense reliefand, to some degree, further disquietthe statues were ash all the way through. He cleaved through not a single speck of flesh or bone.

By thunder and lightning, light and steel, Leon and Tiraeses mowed the statues down, and in only a few seconds, none were left standing. Once more, they were alone on the street.

By all the hells, Leon whispered after the deed was done, and not feeling any calmer. His eyes swiveled around, searching for the cause of all of this, yet finding nothing to latch onto. There didnt appear to be any sign of anyone in their immediate vicinity doing anything magical yet he knew there were ways to avoid detection.

Tiraeses said something, but Leon didnt think it was specifically directed at himsounded somewhat like a prayer, though he closed his eyes and focused on his magic senses, so he couldnt tell for sure. He bathed their surroundings in his magic senses, searching for something, anything, that might explain this. Surely, there were a handful of cultists in nearby streets trying to manipulate them, trying to get them to turn around since their attempt at direct confrontation failed.

Leon concentrated on the shadows, reasoning that if there were any guiding hands nearby, theyd be hiding in darkness. However, on a five-story building only a few hundred feet further down the street, he found something rather curious: clinging to the side of the building over the street was a strange gap in the air. His eyes didnt see anything, but the wind peeled around it and no magic flowed through it. It was like there was some kind of hole there in the air

Or something invisible is hiding itself poorly,

Leon pointed his blade at the spot as a frown spread across his helmeted face. A lightning bolt thick as his arm shot from the tip of Iron Pride and slammed into this empty space almost instantly, revealing it to be far more tangible than the emptiness implied.

A horrible shriek of pain filled the air as something appeared: a mass of dark, though not quite charred black, limbs and heads and glowing red eyes, all mashed together into some new, horrific creature that had Leons skin crawling. The creature fell to the ground, its dozen pairs of arms and equal number of legs thrashing about in pain as its body burned from Leons lightning. Its main body was wide and flat, almost like a plate, while stuck to it between every pair of arms was a human headall male, all apparently from different men, all stuck on slightly differently giving the creature an awful sense of asymmetry, and all with glowing red eyes, as if their eyeballs had been replaced with red lanterns. Every one of the creatures heads screamed its shrill, eardrum-piercing scream.

Leon didnt think too long about it before he shot toward the creature. He felt darkness magic swirl around it right before he reached it, but hed buried Iron-Pride almost to the hilt into the creature before it could even react to his charge.

Silver-blue lightning filled the creature, obliterating it from the inside out. Its shrieking rose in pitch and intensity for a moment before it went silent, Leons lightning and the sound of popping flesh the only things filling the air with sound. All of the creatures eyes popped within half a second of each other, and blood poured from the sockets for the slightest of moments before Leons lightning charred the sockets dry. The limbs, already rather dark, blackened further before falling from the creatures main body, as if whatever magic holding them there had dissipated under the pressure from Leons lightning. The heads followed suit a second later, leaving only the body circular, disc-like main body.

Leon ceased his blast and removed his sword. He took a few steps back to survey his work, noting the relative lack of features on the creatures main body, and the distinct features of every head that had been stuck to it. He had a fairly strong stomach, but as the stench of charred meat filled the air, he felt his stomach grumble a bit in discontentment.

And then the creatures main body shot twenty feet into the air. A long, straight slit on the bottom of the disc-shaped body that Leon hadnt noticed split open, revealing a huge, inhuman, perfectly-symmetrical eye, glowing red and radiating power like almost nothing Leon had ever felt before. Even with his tenth-tier strength, he felt almost like an ant in the gaze of that eye, and it was more the Iron Needle than the muscles in his arm that raised his blade between himself and the eye. Leon heard something fall behind him, but he was transfixed by the gaze of the eye; he couldnt turn away from it. It was only with his magic senses that he was able to see that Tiraeses had fallen to his knees, fear and fury warring for dominance on his face.

The eye focused, the red light shining from the pupil-less eye shone more intensely down upon Leon as power gathered, and silver-blue lightning raced through Leons body, unlocking his limbs and mind. The muscles in his legs tensed as lightning surged through them, readying him for another charge, but in the fraction of a second before he was about to leap at the eye, something huge fell from the sky and impaled the huge floating eye upon wide blades of blue light.

It was a massive golemor so Leon immediately assumed. An armored body thirty feet tall, with powerful limbs and a thick chest and waist, though it still had a vaguely feminine shape to it. Its head was largely featureless, though still with the faint impression of human features, making it more human-like than Nestors head. A single blue eye glowed in the center of its face, and Leon could sense a tremendous amount of power flowing through the golem.

The golem and the eye crashed to the ground, and with a few more swings of its blue light blades, the golem cut the eye into several pieces, and Leon sensed the eyes death, as all the body in the creature vanishedit didnt burst out of its body and into the environment, as magic was wont to do when someone or something was killed, but rather the magic vanished, as if something had reclaimed it from far away.

Just behind Leon, Tiraeses shot back to his feet. Both he and Leon readied themselves for another fight, as even though the golem had just killed the eye, neither were feeling particularly charitable about its intentions