Fates Parallel Chapter 241 - Surprise

As the soldiers approached, Yoshika held up her hands.

“Wait! This isn’t us! We can help.”

Subcommander Uehara eyed her suspiciously.

“You’ve got exceptionally poor timing if that’s true, but I have no reason to take your word for it. If you want to help, then cooperate quietly so that I don’t have to commit more resources to dealing with you.”

Yoshika frowned. She didn’t want to cause trouble, but she could sense multiple xiantian beasts within her domain. People were going to get hurt if she stood by and did nothing.

“The attack is a wave of magical beasts. There are two—no, three xiantian beasts among them. Let us help! Seong Misun is a xiantian mage herself, and we’ve fought xiantian beasts before.”

The princess scowled.

“I never agreed to do anything! I don’t see why I should lift a finger to defend these idiots.”

Yoshika opened Eui’s mouth to argue, but froze when she felt another xiantian domain enter her range. The domain was unyielding steel honed to a razor’s edge—the cold calculus of war distilled into a singular essence. To Yoshika, however, it was the warm and familiar domain of a guiding spirit. Both of her bodies relaxed, grinning widely at Uehara.

“Never mind, you don’t need our help. I think your commander just arrived.”

—-

Ienaga Yumi froze mid-strike as an impossible aura brushed up against the edge of her domain. She didn’t have time to contemplate what it meant—her hesitation had already sent her strike wide and forced her to duck under the vorpal talons of a void-enhanced giant kestrel. The Qin Empire probably had some flowery name for the thing, but as far as Yumi was concerned it was just another dangerous youkai to be put down.

She ducked under the bird’s talons and launched herself up after the retreating monster, catching it by surprise. Yumi’s artifact blade flashed out as she twisted in the air, a tiny infusion of Destruction ensuring that even the xiantian level void beast couldn’t block it. The bird fell to the ground in two pieces, and Yumi hit the ground running.

One down, two to go. The third stage beasts and below she could leave to her soldiers—her targets were only the xiantian threats. One was an enormous toad, belching massive clouds of poison miasma, heedless of the effect it had on the other beasts, while the other was—of all things—a giant rooster, strutting about under a powerful shield of darkness ki.

The toad had to go first—its poison could be spread by the other beasts and would pose a danger to her soldiers and potentially even damage supplies if allowed to proliferate. The chicken was also much stronger, and its defensive techniques would make it more of a problem to deal with.

Yumi was just glad that the monsters weren’t cooperating more closely. It was already strange for them to attack in waves like this, but she could imagine how the speed and offense of the kestrel combined with the toad’s poison and the rooster’s defense would have made for a distressingly powerful formation.

There was no point concerning herself over what-ifs, though. The monsters were attacking in force, but they were uncoordinated. Like a stampeding herd rather than an attacking army. As such, they were far less of a threat than they might have otherwise posed.

Ienaga Yumi carved a bloody path through the monsters, mostly ignoring their pathetic attempts at reprisal until she reached the cloud of toxic gas. Unlike most of her xiantian peers, Yumi did not have the magical prowess of Qin’s cultivators or Goryeo’s mages. Where a mage might call on a gust of wind, or a spiritualist might guard their meridians against the poison, Yumi had to rely on physical means. Many of her enemies had fallen to the mistaken impression that this meant she was weaker or less versatile.

She drew from the nearly bottomless wellspring of ki within her, shaping it into the form she needed. Air and force formed a swirling vortex within her body, which she channeled into her sword as she swung it in a wide, circular arc and unleashed her technique. Aided by her ki, the sheer force of her swing blasted the toxic cloud into the sky, carrying a few weaker monsters along in its wake. Yumi ran through unhindered, her lightning swift movements bringing her face-to-face with the startled toad demon—its toxic breath carried away by the vortex as quickly as it could belch out more.

Yumi beheaded it in a single blow, needing little more than basic martial techniques to execute the monster. With the potential long term threat dealt with, she was free to turn her attention to the most dangerous opponent.

As ridiculous as it looked, the giant chicken’s eyes gleamed with malicious intelligence. It had watched Yumi’s battles intently, gauging her strength and biding its time. It was no mere mindless beast—perhaps even on the precipice of its transformation into a true fiend—and she intended to give it the same consideration that she would a human opponent.

Its barrier posed a problem. While it glowed with a pale light, Yumi could sense the essence of darkness radiating from it—a moon aspect, much like that of one of her students. Darkness was a more abstract element than Yumi was accustomed to, and a metaphysical barrier could be difficult for her to break without resorting to her extremely limited supply of divine essence.

There was no way for her to know without testing it, and Yumi took the initiative to launch herself bodily towards the rooster, coming down on it with a sword strike that split the earth. As her sword touched the barrier, the rooster split into two—though not in quite the way she’d intended. Two copies of the rooster split away from her, placing Yumi directly between them.

The chicken didn’t hesitate to counterattack, both copies flipping backwards and lashing out with impossibly long spurs, enhanced by a glowing energy. Yumi doubted that the doubling effect was as sophisticated as that of Takeda Rika—another of her students—but nevertheless treated both attacks as if they were real and deadly. The chicken’s domain prevented her own from piercing the illusion, and guessing wrong would mean death.

Yumi rolled beneath one set of talons and struck out with her sword to parry the other. Once more, the chicken split into two when her sword should have struck it, the two images continuing their attack as if nothing had happened. Yumi leapt back and blocked her most vital areas with her sword as the claws raked across her armor, leaving deep furrows in the enchanted plates but otherwise failing to harm her.

There were now three images of the rooster staring at her, cocking its head back and forth in what Yumi interpreted as a mocking gesture. She sighed—there was no way around it, she was going to have to use a sacred art. After years of constant skirmishes with Qin’s forces, she was running low on precious divine essence, and hadn’t had time to cultivate it back. Still, better to use it now than to underestimate her opponent and lose everything. That was the attitude that had kept her alive for the last century, and she didn’t intend to change it now.

The chicken's eyes widened in alarm as she began to channel her divine essence, using it to mold her ki into otherwise impossible configurations. Gravity, void, destruction, metal, and countless other elements fused together within her blade, guided by her domain in order to form a unique essence—one that encompassed everything Yumi knew about the art of death, and the act of cutting. A signature technique that Yumi had used to lay dozens of arrogant cultivators low—the essence of battle distilled into a single movement.

‘Sacred Art: Soul Severing Strike!’

The images of the chicken tried to turn and flee as her sword flashed inhumanly fast without displacing the air. An invisible wave of power surged forth faster than the bird could avoid it, slicing all three copies neatly in two—along with dozens of monsters behind them. Two images simply dissipated into loose essence, while the third collapsed into two pieces and a spray of blood.

Ienaga Yumi took a deep breath and sheathed her sword. She bowed once to her fallen opponent, then took a moment to check on the base with her domain. As expected, the soldiers were holding out well under Subcommander Uehara Norio’s command, and there hadn’t been any casualties. More importantly, her senses had not betrayed her earlier—two students Yumi thought she’d lost forever were waiting patiently outside of the south gates, accompanied by a very unusual entourage.

She turned to go meet them when a reflective glint caught her eye. Nestled within the remains of the chicken youkai was a dark orb of materialized ki. Miraculously, the beast’s core had survived intact. With a few precise cuts, Ienaga Yumi extracted the core and looked over it thoughtfully. A xiantian grade darkness core...she could think of a few uses for that.

—-

The wave of magical beasts was defeated rather soundly once Master Ienaga had taken care of the biggest threats, and soon afterwards she emerged from the base with Uehara Norio in tow. Jia wasn’t sure what to expect from her former mentor after three years apart, feeling a bit self conscious as Ienaga regarded their group with a cool expression.

“Takeda, I assume you brought proof of your identities?”

Rika fumbled for something inside of her combat robes.

“Oh! Uh, yeah—here, sealed orders from Lady Hayakawa. Uh, the younger, that is.”

Ienaga accepted the sealed scroll, cracking it open with a tiny bit of her ki and quickly skimming the contents.

“This is legitimate. Princesses Seong and escort, welcome to Okou.”

Seong Misun scoffed and tossed her hair.

“It’s about time! Just let us in already!”

Master Ienaga bowed politely.

“Of course, Your Highness, please make yourself at home.”

The princess did just that, marching haughtily past Ienaga and Uehara and strolling through the gates as though they belonged to her. Eunae flushed red and bowed deeply.

“I’m so sorry about that, Master. Please forgive my sister’s rudeness.”

The martial arts master smiled slightly.

“Don’t worry, I’ve met her before. I’m surprised you still consider me your master, Eunae. Or should I refer to you as Princess Seong?”

“It would make me very happy if you continued to treat me as you would have in the academy.”

“Mm, very well then.”

Finally, Ienaga’s eyes fell on Jia and Eui, and Jia shrank back a bit from the intensity of her gaze.

“Takeda, when exactly were Lee and An inducted into our diplomatic corps?”

Rika grimaced.

“Uh...last year? We ran into them on the way to Goryeo and Lady Hayakawa saw fit to recruit them. Did the Shogun not...?”

She trailed off as Master Ienaga’s frown deepened.

“He did not inform me, no.”

Jia grinned weakly up at her martial arts mentor.

“Uh, surprise?”

Ienaga gave Jia an unamused look, crossing her arms and looming menacingly over her.

“I was told you had both died during the descent.”

Eui shrugged.

“Well, we didn’t. Just got a bit lost for a while. It’s good to see you again, Master.”

Ienaga didn’t respond immediately, and for a moment they all just stood there in awkward silence. Then, as if some invisible barrier had broken, Ienaga dropped to one knee and grabbed each of them in one arm, pulling them into a bone-crushing hug.

“Thank the kami you’re both safe. I’m so sorry I failed you.”