Seed Of Speed

When Rainshower saw the severed heads of the Telryn heirs and screamed, a mental attack was also launched at her in that moment of horror. Although her {Shera'don Mental Wall} was trained up to Mastery Stage, and even if it was at the level of Perfection, it was not strong enough to protect her mind from the assault of a Daemora.

The eyes of the heads opened while she collapsed to her knees and then, they spoke to her.

("He is the one responsible for this!")

("His actions brought the monster here!")

("If not for him, your father would still be alive!")

("It's his fault! It's his fault! It's his fault!") they chanted.

Rainshower could not do anything but cry as the Daemora clouded her mind more and more. It was not until Ishu sealed Bako under the sands and return to her side that she could even sense her surroundings.

"I was wrong, Dystina. Let's go back to the sect," Ishu said as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

("Your mother!")

("You can't leave her in the monster's hands!")

("He'll torture her before eating her, just like the rest of the clan!") the heads cried.

"But, but, but... my mother..." she cried, holding the pendant in her hand.

("He doesn't care!")

("He'd leave her to die!")

Before the heads could continue, Ishu nodded and said, "We need to go to the Bastion. That where the thing that turned Bako into that monster is, so your mother is likely there."

He helped her to her feet and held onto her hand with one hand while the other kept ahold of his spear. Although he led her away from the heads, she could still hear the voices whispering to her, but the Daemora was clever enough to suppress her ability to show expression on her, so Ishu would not be alerted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Diego kept his spear ready as he half led, half dragged Rainshower behind him. He could tell something was troubling her, but he just thought it was everything going on. His own mind was a mess at the moment as he could not help but wonder if he was truly responsible for everyone's death.

He stepped into the Bastion, but it was no longer the building he knew before. Only the outer shell of the building had remained the same while the inside had been gutted down to a few stone pillars acting as support. Sunlight streamed in through the woven fabric roof, revealing the gruesome scene of the remains of the villagers.

The entire chamber reeked of death. Each person had piercing wounds, no wider than two fingers, except for the children which looked to be partially eaten. This time, Diego only prevented his nauseas with a spell.

"Ah, I've been waiting for you!" a voice said from above.

Just as Diego looked up, a dark figure jumped down and landed in front of the pile of bodies. It was man, nearly as tall as Bako had been, with onyx black skin and crimson runes across his body. He only wore a loincloth and gold bands on his arms, legs, and around his neck. While there was madness in his eyes like Bako, his was completely under his control it seemed.

"It seems your brother wasn't too much of a challenge to you, but that should be expected with the power you carry," the man said with a laugh.

"Why did you do this?" Diego asked coldly.

"Because of you!" he laughed. "If you hadn't tried to save your brothers' lives, I never would have come to this sandy shithole... but then master would have missed out on that power in your body, so you can say the Heavens provides when it takes."

"Where is Moonwater?!?" Diego yelled.

"Oh? The old woman?" the Avatar asked and waved his hand as if summoning something over. "She's been catatonic since I told her that the sect had already allowed the two of you to head here."

Moonwater, bound in crimson chains, was slowly lowered from the roof. She looked as if she had aged a hundred years, looking frail and thin. Her eyes were completely blank as she stared dimly at the ground.

Rainshower tried to run to her mother, but Diego yanked her back by her hand and said, "It's not safe, Dystina!"

"Mother!" Rainshower screamed as she tried to force her way out of Diego's arms.

The Avatar chuckled darkly as he watched Rainshower struggle then snapped his fingers. The chains binding Moonwater disintegrated into motes of crimson light which dropped her hard onto the sandstone floor. Rainshower screamed in rage and pain, but the Avatar just smiled and raised his hands up in the air as he backed away. Although he wanted to keep ahold of her, Rainshower had gone crazy and was thrashing around in his arms, so Diego finally let her go while he kept his focus on the man.

"Just let them go, you already have me," Diego said as he positioned himself between Rainshower and the Avatar.

The Avatar laughed, "You are much like your father, trying to bargain when you have nothing I want, but your death... none of you are leaving here alive. Now, let's taste this power of my master's mortal foe!"

A fan of crimson chains bloomed as the Avatar spread out his arms. Instantly, Diego activated his [Speed Sight] and [Speed Clones], each one holding onto an identical spear. In the limited space of the hollowed-out building, the chains hit their peak quickly then curved downwards to rain down on the six Diegos.

Normally, things would slow to a crawl under the power of his [Speed Sight], but the blade-tipped chains were moving at the speed of a brisk walk which put them roughly at Swordflash's maximum speed. Thankfully, nearly a year of sparing with Swordflash almost every day, Diego could still handle the attack despite the dozens of chains heading towards each of his bodies.

Three Diegos jumped up in the air and used [Rocking Strike], a defensive spear technique where he kept his right hand straight in front of his body while his left hand held the back of the spear and twisted from side to side. It specialized in handling multiple attacks and knocking them off course. The three Diego remaining on the ground tightened around Rainshower and Moonwater and used [Spinning Shield] to block the remaining chains.

Only... the chains did not just lie on the ground after they were hit. They sn.a.k.e.d around and sought to attack from a different angle, keeping Diego constantly defending from the attacks.

The Avatar laughed after a few minutes of the continual assault and said, "Good, good, already so much better! I don't think I've ever had an opponent make me use the second stage!"

The crimson chains that Diego had been managing to fend off flashed with a golden light then split in two, doubling the dozens into over a hundred, but they still carried the same strength and speed. Now, he was in trouble, but he still had one or two tricks up his sleeve.

With a shout, Diego charged his body with his Heavenly Thunder, so bolts of golden lightning danced across his scarlet-gold skin. His speed soared to match a cultivator of the Fifth Stage of the Demi-Body which also strengthened his [Speed Sight] by boosting his natural speed and slowed the chains further in his eyes.

But there was another unexpected benefit of the 'holy' lightning. When Diego's spears collided with the crimson chains, he could cut through the links, but they would start to regenerate a moment later.

"Ha, ha! Yes! When was the last time I could use my fists in battle?!?" the Avatar laughed with madness.

He kicked off the ground and headed for Diego's closest body. There was no way he could take the Avatar in a straight fight, but Diego did not always play fair. The three Diego's protecting Rainshower and Moonwater had enough time to cast a round of {Golden Lightning Clone}, and the one the Avatar was targeting used {Spatial Swap}.

The clone detonated just before the Avatar could punch it and he was attacked by the 'holy' lightning. The other two clones raced forward to do the exact same while four of his bodies made another {Golden Lightning Clone} to throw at him, but he stood there like it was nothing.

"That tickles," the Avatar rumbled with an amused grin.

Diego started to reach for the attack talisman from Shadowbolt, but Katalina shot it down before the thought could fully form.

::The talisman won't affect an Avatar because their souls are too powerful::

The chains all retracted and twisted to form a thick, scorpion-like tail that was posed to strike over his shoulder. He laughed and dashed towards Rainshower and Moonwater. All six Diegos launched {White Lightning Shooting Star} at the Avatar, four from the front and two from either side.

He laughed and grabbed out for one of the spears while the other five hit his body, but they only pierced a few centimeters into his skin. Before Diego react, the Avatar's other hand reached out and grabbed him by the neck. For the first since he had earned the ability, Diego's [Speed Clone] was f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y broken as the other five bodies vanished, dropping their weapons.

"So, that's how it works. I'll be sure not to be ensnared in the future," he said with and evil grin as his crimson scorpion tail drew back.

A talisman appeared in Diego's hand and lit up with a dark purple flame. The barbed tail struck out, but a purple barrier formed. Either due to his adrenaline or his [Speed Sight], he watched as the tail fought against the barrier, making it stretch like rubber. Then there was only ash in his hand and the barrier popped like a balloon.

The tail had been slowed down significantly, but it still hit him like a truck, shattering all of his ribs and piercing through his sternum. The Avatar made no attention to hold him, so Diego was thrown back several meters, skidding up alongside Rainshower. Diego knew this was the end and pulled out the teleportation talisman.

"You have to run," Diego said as he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Just as he reached up to hand her the talisman, he saw her raise a crimson dagger and stabbed it down into his stomach.

"It's all your fault," Rainshower whispered as a tear rolled down her cheek.

Diego turned his eyes to Rainshower's, ignoring the pain in his gut. Another tear rolled down her cheek as she looked back into his eyes, but before she could remove the crimson blade, Diego dantian erupted with golden lightning and black flames which attacked Rainshower's hand. With one last look of betray, the talisman in his hand ignited.

"NOOOOO!!!" the Avatar shouted as he burst forward with incredible speed, but it was still too late.

Diego vanished with a teal light and reappeared a thousand kilometers away. Gasping in pain and coughing up another mouthful of blood, he hit the hot sand. His body felt incredibly heavy and he barely had the strength to breath, let alone, move. He tried to heal the damage with magic, but it could not restore his energy.

(Why can't I move?) Diego asked silently.

::Your dantian has been pierced, so you can't store any chi which is causing massive problems with your strength and coordination::

(So, what you are saying is that my cultivation is destroyed?)

::If you were a normal person, it would be, but luckily you have the 'Seed of Speed' and its improved regeneration. It will take some time, but your dantian will restore itself::

(Did you really just use the term 'lucky' to describe me right now?)

::You could be dead::

(And I will be once he finds me…)

Diego just laid in the sand, looking up at the empty sky for a time. His mind was plagued by the faces of the villagers who once cheered for him but were now dead because he had unknowingly drawn the Daemora. It was not even his 'God Seed' that had caused the tragedy, but his own actions of sparing his brothers' lives.

He could not even blame Rainshower when he was responsible for her father's death and the condition her mother was in. If he had just left to wander the desert when he first arrived, none of this would have happened. He was the cause of it all.

"The path to Hell is paved with good intentions," Diego mumbled before he rolled over onto his stomach.

Diego might feel that he deserved death, but he had never been the type to give up. He could not muster even muster anymore of his magic at the moment, so he just clawed the sand and slowly dragged himself forward. He had no idea where he was, where he was going, but he knew that he needed to move.

For hours, he devoted every ounce of strength he had remaining to crawling away, even as the sun began to set. He was so focused that he did not even sense a person slowly approaching in the sky behind him. The person landed and tried to call out to him, but he was only moving through sheer determination and had lost his sense of the outside world.

It the truest sense of luck, the person who found him was none other than, Fanflame, who had felt the familiar power of Shadowbolt's magic when Diego used the teleportation talisman. Even using a golem to fly through the air, trying to find some in a mostly empty red desert, in red clothing, was difficult. She only found him by stumbling across the long trail he had left and followed it the hundred or so meters he had managed to crawl.

Fanflame recognized the red robes, so she rushed over to his side and rolled him over. His consciousness was fading, but he managed to croak out four words before he passed out.

"Daemora… Danger… Clan... Dead..."