The Siege of Andrassy (7)
"Master, why must I learn the Five Elements Arts?"
It had not been long since I first took up the Dao. My master only chuckled at my question, and when it became clear he wasn't taking it seriously, I grew impatient.
"The arts of longevity and refinement are essential on the road to immortality, but the Five Elements Arts do nothing but harm to others."
"And what say you, Pyeong-a? I find myself curious about your thoughts as well."
I cast my mind back over the troubles I had met in my travels — bandits ambushing me on a lonely forest trail, street thugs picking a fight because my traveling pack looked heavy.
They would have been dire straits indeed had I known no Daoist arts at all, and yet, curiously, the Five Elements Arts had proven all but useless. Against people, the Barrier Arts or the art of transformation were far more practical.
After a moment's deliberation, I gave my answer.
"To fight monstrous powers and restless spirits?"
No matter how I turned the question over, that was the only answer there was. If these great powers were not meant for use against men, then surely their only worthy targets were ghosts and monsters.
"You're right. To subdue monstrous powers and restless spirits is a Daoist's true calling."
"But there are no such monsters in the world, are there?"
My master stroked his beard and smiled.
An old memory. I couldn't fathom why that long-ago exchange should surface now, of all moments — when even my master's face had faded to a blur.
Acrid smoke was rising from every quarter. The fires my sorcery had kindled had swallowed the monsters' corpses whole and still refused to die down.
I had spared no strength. I hurled spell after spell until my pack stood all but empty of talismans, and thanks to that, the enemies pushing through the north gate had broken completely and were falling back in retreat.
A twitch.
A needle-sharp chill pricked at my lower abdomen. Whenever I emptied my Daoist power too far, my old chronic ailment had a habit of raising its head. It was nothing that would trigger a full seizure, but the danger signal came through loud and clear.
"Guardian of the North!"
"Long live Lord Iden!"
I raised a hand for the cheering soldiers. What they needed right now was a hero to stand in for the father they had lost.
Even I could understand that much now. In this harsh world, to have no hero to believe in and follow was a deeply unsettling thing.
And I wanted one thing made perfectly clear. What I had overextended myself for today was not the duty of a Daoist. It was to protect what was mine.
Mine. My people. My city.
The moment I had seen the shattered walls, the realization had struck me: something of mine had been violated. Fury and loss had surged up together. If Mabel and Chris had shoved me toward becoming Grand Duke, then this war, I supposed, was the process by which I finally accepted my father's legacy as my own.
"Iden!"
Mabel came striding up with his knights. They had been charged with defending the east wall, and the fighting there must have been every bit as vicious — they were caked head to toe in monster filth.
"The enemy's main force is in retreat. We must not let this chance slip by."
"You mean to pursue them?"
"Of course. You drive the attack home while the momentum is yours. This is the moment to stamp them out root and branch."
"You're aware their commander is a Demon Duke?"
The Demon Duke Ragnor had yet to show himself at the front lines. He had done nothing but watch from afar, as if this entire war were somebody else's affair.
"That doesn't matter. I'll lead the charge myself. Either you help me, or you stay here."
Mabel was shouting, worked up in a way wholly unlike himself.
The whole situation left a sour taste in my mouth. If I stopped him here, I would go down as the petty little brat who stood between his brother and the Demon Duke's head.
And if I didn't help him, I would be the villain who let a brother that skilled die in ignorance and be driven to his grave.
Even so — the acting lord of this territory was me.
"I cannot permit it."
"What?"
Mabel's face twisted.
"We don't even know what Ragnor's Awoken Ability is. I will not throw the dice against a foe that strong with no information whatsoever."
Among the demonkin, rank was decided strictly by the power one possessed. A Demon Count had proven a match for the Spirit Transformation realm, so a Duke would have to be faced at the Ascension realm at the very least.
"Why should I be robbed of my glory just because you're a coward?"
"This isn't cowardice. We defeated the demonkin's army — we did not defeat Ragnor. Confuse the two, and the price will be steep."
The same cut both ways. Their army had breached the castle, but they had not defeated me, Iden. Which was precisely why they were now paying a steep price and falling back.
"If you're truly so afraid, then I will pay the price alone."
"I told you — I cannot permit it."
"What right does a whelp like you have—!"
"If you deny my authority, brother, then tell me — what exactly are you becoming Grand Duke for?"
I regarded his fury-contorted face with a chill.
He must be frantic inside. This war was meant to star him — and then I had appeared out of nowhere and crushed the enemy's main offensive.
He had failed to instill the conviction that he was the one man the duchy's future required.
Which meant all that awaited him now was the stern judgment of the law.
"...I won't forget what happened today, Iden."
Mabel turned his back, trailing a cold wind behind him.
The battle was over. Street fighting still flared in a few districts, but it amounted to nothing more than mopping up the stragglers the flying monsters had dropped behind our lines.
At the command post, I met Count Andrassy — an elderly man, gaunt of frame and sharp of eye. The moment he saw me, he rose from his seat and knelt on the floor.
"Count Andrassy, my lord. It is an honor to meet you, Lord Iden."
"That's rather an excessive greeting, Count."
I took his hand with a smile, and he straightened to his feet.
"It falls far short of expressing what I owe you. Thanks to you, my county — one already driven to the cliff's edge — will live on."
"You held out well, and that counted for more than you know. However much I wanted to help, none of it would have mattered if your county hadn't stood on its own."
"No, my lord. That things came to this pass is largely my own fault for placing too blind a faith in machines. When the northern wall fell, I had half given up already."
He smiled, wry and self-mocking.
"By the way, Count — where have my knights gotten to?"
Mabel had held the east wall; I had cleared the west. But search the north wall as I might, there was no sign anywhere of the Frost Knights.
"As for the Frost Knights — they received intelligence that the demonkin might infiltrate from below, so they are sweeping the waterways."
"They haven't come back yet?"
"No... though by now, they should have."
The Count's expression darkened in step with mine.
"Show me to the waterway entrances. And give me a map, if you have one."
The Count had a subordinate fetch one. The entrance lay not far from the command post.
"I'll dispatch a search party. Awakened with detection abilities—"
"I'll go on ahead and take a look myself."
I broke into a run for the waterway entrance without another word. My gut told me this was bad. If a force was infiltrating from underground, the odds were high that it was an elite unit holding the key to the entire battle for Andrassy.
It weighed on me all the more because Vitten had only just been whimpering about how worried he was over Thalia. She was a woman I would trust no matter where I sent her, but no one, however strong, could escape death. Such had it been for my master. Such had it been for me.
When I reached the waterways, I stopped first. Dark, damp, and branching out like the veins of a leaf — caution was the only sensible response to a place like this.
"Right, then."
Before exploring, I created eleven clones.
"There's only the one map, so commit your routes to memory now."
The clones bent over the map and began debating who would take which passage. A brief conference later, they had sorted out their assigned sectors.
"Move out!"
The clones scattered in every direction. I took the last route none of them had chosen — a passage running straight into the far left corner.
I had been walking the dark, water-splashed channel for a dozen minutes when furious footsteps began sounding from up ahead.
A person?
I fished out a talisman and held it at the ready. No one sprinting at full power through darkness like this could possibly be an ordinary man.
Before long, something pale came into view in the distance. It took me a moment to recognize it as a naked man.
Without preamble, I flung the barrier talisman in my hand.
"My lord... oof!"
The man went sprawling across the ground in a tremendous clatter. And yet, somehow, the way he tumbled looked awfully familiar.
"Vitten?"
"Yes, my lord, it's me! And Thalia's here too!"
Vitten had Thalia cradled in his arms. Even as he fell, he had strained every sinew to make sure that she, at least, came to no harm.
"How on earth did you end up down in the waterways of all places... Never mind."
One look at Thalia's state told me this was no time for small talk. I rushed over and took her pulse first.
"...How is she?"
Vitten asked, swallowing hard.
Her pulse held barely a flicker of life. The wounds to her belly and side had been dressed — Vitten's fieldwork, no doubt — but she had already lost too much blood. Her vital essence was draining out through those wounds along with it.
And that wasn't all.
The bleeding was only part of it. Her qi and blood were running wild, as if about to burst.
"Overflow."
"I'm sorry — Thalia's in Overflow?"
I nodded.
Whatever manner of foe she had faced, Thalia appeared to have wrung out every last drop of her power before she went down. And somewhere in that process, she seemed to have gained some insight — for a warrior, the moment most perilously prone to qi deviation was precisely the moment of raising one's realm a single step.
"We're taking her to the command post."
I hastily released the seal I had placed on Vitten.
"Carry her and run. Just follow the way I came!"
"Yes, my lord!"
Vitten and I sprinted back to the command post, and the instant we arrived I drove everyone out, the Count included. I settled the unconscious Thalia upright on the bed and gave Vitten his orders.
"Go fetch me the mana core of one of the siege giants we felled today."
"Any giant will do?"
"Yes. Now!"
Vitten didn't even bother with the door. He burst straight through the window and was gone. I laid my hands against Thalia's back and steadied my breathing.
I never imagined I'd end up doing this in this world.
In my past life, I had been the one on the receiving end. Whenever the frigid energy of my severed meridians dammed up my qi and blood, this was the technique with which my master saved my life, time and again.
I pushed my own energy into Thalia's body, coaxing her rampaging qi back onto its proper course.
The trembling, at least, I could do nothing about.
For this to succeed, the one performing it — me — had to be overwhelmingly powerful, and she had to be able to withstand the shock of her twisted qi and blood snapping back into true.
It might even be kinder to leave Thalia be. Falling into qi deviation did not necessarily mean death.
But if I interfered with her qi and blood and even the smallest thing went wrong, her death was a certainty — and the backlash would claim me as well.
Yet if she could only endure it, an immense fortune awaited her. I intended to force open every last meridian she had never been able to use.
"I've got it!"
Vitten returned with the inner core.
"Let's do this."
Those were my last words. It had taken superhuman willpower just to say them. The moment I saw Vitten press the inner core into Thalia's mouth, I began guiding the qi with every ounce of inner power I possessed.