novelraw Chapter 1209 - 1208 - Wraith
Chapter 1209 - 1208 - Wraith
A weapon would not do him any good. He needed something that could recover and repel at the same time. Mostly, he needed time to formulate how to use his Celestial Qi aggressively as even the Celestials that were born in the 1st layer had no idea how to do it!
They spent most of their time creating a foundation for future Celestial cultivators to progress and deepening the understanding of their own elements.
Unlike where 6 elementals could adapt existing Arts once the underlying relationships were adjusted, the Celestials had to start from scratch!
Metal glowed as if in a furnace before being shaped into a sort of dish. He went with the simplest methods as the weaving was straining around them.
He fused it to a dark metal base with 6 slots. He then quickly engraved sigils around the artifact and used his two professions in sync. Celestial Qi fused with the artifact but the gathering array activated in the base.
It was a prayer to hope Celestial Qi was returning to the 3rd layer like the 1st but he became a source of Qi right then and there!
The dish began to glow before a wave spread outward. To anyone else, it would just be a warm breeze and maybe feel a bit energized, but to his 3 enemies, the reaction was far from pleasant.
His soul actually seemed to shrivel as a scream that was not a sound filled the tower. Everyone paled but no one died.
The artifact was literally sending out waves of Celestial Qi in the form of a shockwave.
It was the best he could do on short notice but to other living beings, it was more like a wave of warmth or a spring breeze. For his current enemies it was like constant explosions slamming into them.
The strain on the wards finally vanished but he knew they were not gone. His artifact did not reach much past the ward he created.
It simply bought him the commodity he needed most, time!
Lind arranged several more ores and ingredients while he created a massive red and orange flame. He needed some metals to be softened by a Qi flame before he could Forge them.
Sweat began to pour off of him and he was unaware that a satisfied smile crossed his face. The cough that had bothered him also never surfaced but all of his attention nearly stumbled when he heard a crack.
A glance at his improvised shockwave artifact revealed it was already breaking down. It was not Celestial materials afterall and he had no time to temper them. It was a miracle it lasted long enough.
A much more complex apparatus was taking shape under his hands. It had a cylinder attached to a circular base that had an inlaid circle inside it as well. A swivel, essentially.
The cylinder was only as big as his arm but on one end it had several smaller concave discs with their centers hollowed out. The 6 discs were all shimmering but each one was larger than the last until the largest was fused to one end of the cylinder.
The other end was engraved with sigils that were the best Law Grade versions he could create. Nearly half his Qi was depleted just to make the thing but part of that was the rush.
The simply artifact burst into particles but the wards only shimmered angrily as the wraiths tried to get in.
Lind wasted no time in putting his hand on the engraved side of the cylinder. A hum began to build and he could only wait and pray to the spirits the ward held long enough.
A golden glow slowly built along the cylinder until it reached the first concave disc. It lit up with Celestial Fire, then Water, and the others all glowed in the ratio he had set up for each element.
Time seemed to be both flowing too fast and too slowly depending on what he was focusing on.
The wards were collapsing incredibly quickly while the concave discs took eternities to shimmer.
"Come on! Come on!" Desperation laced every line on his face but finally the very end of the last disc shifted to an emerald-gold color as the wards collapsed!
Another soul shaking shriek filled the air but Lind smiled up at them.
"Go back to Hell!" A coherent beam of light sliced outward before hitting something. A shape came into being straight from the deepest nightmares. Hell had nothing on it.
It was ever changing and had a mouth that was bottomless. It had come for its food!
Once the beam hit one, it arced to the other 2. They were all 3 locked in place and struggling but he saw one was smaller than the other 2. They were breeding!
{Join with us. Become one with us. Sleep with us forever}
An insidious whisper suddenly bloomed in his mind but Lind only sneered.
"I have an appointment to keep and you are in my way!" His eyes blazed emerald suddenly as the Heavens gathered clouds. A very faint feeling was in his dantian at that moment but he rejected it. He looked up and frowned.
"Nice try." The clouds vanished as he focused on killing the monsters before him.
The first one hit began to fray at the edges. The very fabric of its being was unwoven! A scream made blood flow from Lind's orifices but he did not stop. His Qi was draining like a waterfall from his dantian while his Laws were useless.
It was simply a question of what happened first. Did the creatures die, or did he run out of Qi?
The first creature suddenly dispersed into nothing as the remaining 2 beams intensified. Screams of rage shook him but he did not stop! He was winning.
A crack suddenly echoed across the top of the tower! He looked and saw that the cylinder was the failure now! It could not withstand the power he was putting through it!
{You will pay, dragon! Your blood will be used as a healing bath for us and your soul will be preserved for millions of years! We will-} Lind smiled up at them which seemed to disturb them.
"Get in line. I have heard this before." He pushed the artifact even harder and the child was the one to unravel now. Anger turned to fury. The adult could only watch as the smaller wraith also became dust.
The full power now focused on it as it began to unravel, but the cracks were spreading. Qi was leaking and Lind was bottoming out.
He had lost the race.
The last of his Qi left his body as the cylinder fractured. It was still working! The creature was partially undone but it now was sneering at him. It would consume them all to recover!
A tiny furred hand suddenly pressed over his as the tiny fox girl looked up with ancient eyes.
[You do not belong here, Shadow Wraith. The vile one brought you here clearly but you will no longer stay here!] A power far different from his traveled along the cylinder yet his power enhanced it!
[NO! Damn you Nine-Tails!}
The wraith shouted but where before it unraveled, now it was ripped apart by something Lind did not grasp. He saw blood flow from the small child's nose, ears, eyes, and mouth but she did not fall.
Rage filled him.
"YOU USED A CHILD?! A CHILD?!" A race memory might allow an ancestor to act as he well knew, but the odds of it happening after he rejected Heaven's help was extremely low. Further, it only happened AFTER he ran out of Qi.
The wraith was destroyed and his artifact essentially broke in 2 but was otherwise intact. He could repair and improve it but he caught the small girl as his emerald eyes looked coldly down her golden ones.
[Heaven had no right! She was innocent! What have you allowed?!] Lind was incensed but a sneer was on the innocent child's face.
[You have no authority over my kind, dragon. I applaud your efforts but you fell short. You should know, there are more of those things out there. They will be coming.] Lind shook as his limbs wanted to fly into the sky and invoke a challenge right there.
[Heal her with my life.] Shock actually flashed over the fox's face. She softened a bit.
[I can see her memories and know you. You are being stubbor–] An aura unlike anything he normally released left his body as he looked down at her. He then calmly slashed with his hands and aged visibly.
He had still looked very young, barely out of his teenage years despite how tall he had become, but now he was at the heart of his prime life.
The emerald energy was then fused with her tiny body and it shimmered as the ancestor stopped talking after that. Lind felt the child heal and return to normal.
It was not a small thing he had done. Millions of years of his life had been sacrificed to save the child but he refused to let Heaven guilt him! No more tools!
He took the ancestral beast's warning to heart. He had to restore himself and get to work. Everyone here would recover in time but more wraiths could be on the horizon as the only food left in the Whisper Peaks was right in front of him.
He also filed away one of the claims of the beast. The 'vile one' brought the wraiths here. The Great One had to have had a reason but the similarities to Fiends and wraiths could not be denied.
It did leave 1 question. Why didn't the wraiths leave the peaks long ago? The Great One was billions of years old and more by all he could grasp. He was old to the point that the Celestials had essentially been forgotten.
Unlike other inquiries, that one dealt with his survival. It was vital he understand what kept the wraiths contained as it might save all their lives!