Soul Venerable (Re-written)

 

After killing and harvesting useful materials from the group of fungal rotwolves, the vanguard team faced a few types of other poison-path creatures that are hard to deal with unless one has the specific methods to counter them. 

Of course, since Kenji could ‘cheat’ by incorporating sound-path profundity in his attack, it is easy for him to dominate the vanguard team contributions, which put a lot of frowns on their faces. His contribution rate which was pushed down to around 30% bounced back to over 50%.

Still, considering the chosen staging ground to assault Fort Esela is close to the Fultheron’s territory, those from Radiant Desolation and Thousand Flower didn’t think too much of it. According to their original captain, as long as the location is secured, other details are minor.

“It actually took us a day to reach our target. These mutants are relentless...” Klauss complained as he cleaned his rifle. He glanced at the others who were doing the same with their equipment. Although they have rested for an hour, their mental fatigue cannot be washed away with a short break.

Poison-path lifeforms are annoying because most of the time, their blood is toxic and it corrodes equipment faster than other lifeforms. Even with special treatment such as alchemical coating or certain types of blessings, the cost to activate those methods would add up in the long run. In this environment where the air is radioactive and contains lethal pathogens, just being here costs resources.  

“Everyone, it’s going to rain soon...” Klauss could hear Shion who returned from investigation tasks warning him and the others. 

“Are we going to find some underground shelter, Herr-Captain?” 

“Underground… in the Ruined Wood palace? Is that wise?” Yulinka interjected Klauss' question with a question.

Unlike in other locations, rain is extremely dangerous in the Ruined Wood Palace. Raindrops are excellent couriers who bring the grey-green radioactive cloud particles from the skies. To make things worse, rain is quite common in this part of the continent. In fact, the swampy land is caused by rainwater which the ground could not keep up with the rate of absorbing. 

Thus, going underground in the ruined wood palace is not wise at all. One needs to be prepared for flash floods and other mutated beasts looking for refuge. 

“We can’t go underground, but staying in the open isn’t a good idea either. The radiation in the skies is too strong for our body to endure, even under the blessing of protections.” Natsuko entered the conversation. 

“We need to accelerate the cleanup process in the area and construct a temporary shelter before it rains.” Shion decided. “I have a method to attract beasts in a large area. Of course, I will participate in the battle because it will be dangerous if I don’t. I’ve investigated the periphery, there shouldn’t be any rank 1 beast in the area but there will be hundreds of beasts, do all of you dare to fight them?”

Everyone glanced at each other before nodding. “Of course, Herr-Captain!” Klauss represented everyone’s opinion. 

“Good. I will begin activating my method, it will take around fifteen minutes to take effect. In the meantime, we should entrench this position.” Shion ordered as she moved northward and sat down crossed legs with eyes closed.

The resting vanguard team moved to act. Natsuko and her friend from Thousand Flower spread Potato Mine seeds and create layers of root wall as barricades. Klauss brought forth a panzerschreck and a bunch of stielhandgranate from his dimensional storage while those from Frozen Heart prepared multiple delayed activation spell sequences. 

As for Kenji, he brought the coffin-like mobile furnace next to Shion and prepared his bow and arrows. He wore a black serpent-scale bodysuit underneath his trench coat. His face is covered by a black gas mask that protects him from pathogens and radiation. He counted his arrows while glancing at everyone else who’s busy at fortifying the location.  

“Do you know what occupation most sound-path cultivators took?” Shion, who's been closing her eyes, asked Kenji.

“Bards and singers.” He answered. “But they are jack of all trades who can do a bit of everything but are shit compared to the real deal. But of course, I’ve heard those who are at the top of society would train or hire bards as spies or assassins, but they are incomparable to the real deal. Why’d you ask?”

“Your understanding of them… are correct. However, their sound-path inheritance isn’t as deep as my clan’s. This time, I will showcase what it means to be a true sound-path cultivator.  You can observe closely, it might prove useful for your own strength-path cultivation.” Shion smiled as she opened her eyes. Her mouth moved, but no sound could be heard. 

Kenji instantly felt his eyes and ears were lacking. He activated [Synesthesia] to gain more information.

‘According to my understanding of [Sound Body Tempering Art], the highest achievement the Nurturing Technique could give me is the ability to make sound from every part of my body. Vocal cord would no longer be the most important organ for sound-path cultivators, but it is still the greatest weapon that they possessed.’ Kenji’s mind is rapidly analyzing Shion.

‘Sound is an invisible wave of vibration that travels through air. According to my understanding of atmospheric strength, physics and chemistry, it is a formless and continuous micro-force that oscillates any medium, be it liquid, solid or gaseous. Normally, I couldn’t observe sound, but Synesthesia allows me to observe it…’

Kenji saw colorful sound waves coming out of Shion’s mouth as she silently muttered incomprehensible and unheardable words.

‘I can see the sound, but cannot hear it. Is this what it means by singing at such a low frequency that the human ear cannot perceive it?’ 

As he kept on observing Shion’s silent song, he began to perceive the interaction of soundwaves and the material world. For example, when the song’s soundwave frequency is high, it can travel fast and far but when it’s low, the soundwave dissipates after a short distance but has great penetration power.  

Suddenly, he gained enlightenment. 

‘I see! So [Triple Extreme Sound: Bell Palm] is a low-pitch sound-attack in short range, allowing it to pierce defenses. For [Drum Fist], it has a balanced portion of pitch and distance, it is used to amplify pure damage… Since the name of the move itself is [Triple Extreme Sound], she must have a third variant, an extremely high-pitch sound attack for long range... So all this time… [Triple Extreme Sound] is a Killing Technique? No wonder she’s not using it too often with her own body...’   

Despite the shocking revelation and his desire to find out more, Kenji could not continue activating [Synesthesia] for a prolonged amount of time, so he stopped it. 

Shortly after, Shion’s voice ceased being silent as she produced sounds of musical instruments from her mouth. At first, it was faint, but as seconds turned into minutes, the instrumentals were joined with vocals of unknown language.

Unlike the native bards or singers of this world, Shion’s sound-path attainment does not allow her to sing until she reached rank 1. The time-path assassin who was after her life, Xi Ling, knew for a fact that she couldn’t sing due to Shion’s low cultivation base. However, this was not because of Shion’s incompetence, but because her songs contain miraculous effects that are difficult to produce by rank 0s. 

Still, this isn’t a problem for her sound-path transcendent-level attainment. Also, she had a lifetime to correct her errors, she wouldn’t limit herself with over-the-top methods but lacks lower-end methods. Thus, she has multiple watered down versions of her songs.

‘Rank 0 soul-path killer move, [Soul Ignition]!’ Shion used souls of beast and goblin that she collected during this whole time as fuel to gain a temporary boost in power. The principle of [Soul Ignition] is quite similar to [Power Overwhelming]. The latter is related to forcefully excavating one’s body potential, while Soul Ignition (at least Shion’s version) allows her to burn souls (self or others) to gain a temporary boost of power.

As Shion gains temporary amplification in certain aspects, she could boost her song’s range so that it travels farther.

‘[Quadruple Widen: Deafening Horizon] should be sufficient.’ Shion silently activated one method after another. Contrary to Kenji’s knowledge, she didn’t actually have to make hand seals to activate ninjutsu. It was a farce. Great mages could instantly activate certain spells, why couldn’t Shion do the same? 

It was merely constructing the activation sequence within one’s sea of consciousness, it isn’t a big deal for true experts.

Sure, it costs additional telepathic resources, but Shion has stocked up quite a bit by not engaging in combat recently. She could splurge some.

Rank 0 sound-path killer move, [Song of Allure]!

The song is aimed to attract beasts with a certain level of strength. As long as they are not rank 1 beast or stronger, they wouldn’t be able to hear it, and thus, aren’t affected in the slightest.

What made it special is the range of the song. It has a whopping 100 meter diameter AoE. Considering this is a rank 0 method, it is extremely wide. Moreover, [Deafening Horizon] multiplied it by a factor of 4, further widening the area of effect.

Slowly, the vanguard team could feel the change in the environment when they heard Shion’s song. 

Weak beasts from the periphery are startled, they gazed at the direction of Shion as if she’s a source of food. Song of Allure works by influencing the beast base needs: by stimulating hunger or the desire to mate and then putting Shion into the target of their desire.

In short, [Song of Allure] is a wide-area agro-pulling method. 

Roars of beasts resounded in the periphery. Fungal Rotwolves, Irradiated Zombie, Toxic Fume Hounds, beast-type Bonelings, Corpse Poison Toads, all sorts of poison-path or necro-path lifeforms are converging on their location. 

Some of them exploded into toxic gore as they stepped onto potato mines or due to Klauss’ stielhandgranate, but these beasts acted as if they lost their sanity as they kept on charging head on. 

“I can take care of the north side by myself. You go assist the other.” Kenji heard Shion whisper in his ear, but when he glanced at her, she was still singing a few meters away from him. 

Kenji took a few seconds to realize that Shion must’ve used some sort of minor sound-path method to tell him. Then, he leaves her side to assist the others.

After he left, Shion took and stabbed her heavy assault shield to the ground to form an entrenched position. Then, she grabbed her main weapon.

“Gunlance Configuration: Flammenwerfer."  

The gunlance on her arms shifted its magic machinery parts to form a new waist-mounted heavy weapon with a length of two meter. It has two barrels and it’s original oversized revolver ammunition chamber now held nine [Flammenwerfer-Treibstoff] containers instead of cannon or mortar shells. 

Of the two barrels, the bottom one could spread liquid fuel up to 50 meters away, while the top one could compress liquid fuel into a ball before launching the projectile like a waist-mounted artillery. 

After the magic machinery transformation is finished, her flammenwerfer immediately spews balls of crimson-orange liquid fire at the incoming foes.

Boom! An explosion of liquid flames exploded amongst the approaching beasts. It created a puddle of fire as everything that went past it got ignited in sticky flames. The flames are chemical fire, it was designed to be especially effective even for greenskins who are known to have fire resistant hide. Thus, these beasts who are weak to fire are burned to death quite easily.

Some of the fungal rotwolves are capable of resisting the mental influence of Song of Allure, they are not charging in blindly towards the puddle of liquid flames. Still, they could not change their endings, a spray of sticky fuel burning in high temperature ended their strange-lifeforce.

Shion didn’t even have to move, the northern area was painted by a sea of liquid flame. She denies the beast advances while deftly burning everything to ashes like a master arsonist. 

Of course, there are some beasts who are capable of evading the molten flames puddle or spray, but she was able to kill them easily with her [Drum Fist]-enhanced kick, there wasn’t a problem in the slightest. 

On the right side of the battlefield, Klauss faced a group of beasts led by a medium-sized beast known as Corpse Poison Toad. His rifle spewed anti-personnel rounds designed for tiny and small-sized beasts, but it wouldn’t pierce the beast’s rubbery hide.  

Tiny-size are monster classification that is typically 1-meter tall or smaller such as kobolds and goblins, whereas small-size are usually those with the size of human and does not exceed 2 meter height, width, or length. 

Medium sized beasts are like Charging Mass Boar or the 2-meter tall, 3-meter wide, and 4-meter long Corpse Poison Toad. It’s dark grey hide is similar to that of crocodile’s, but it is filled with large pimple-like blisters containing liquid concentration of corpse poison. It isn’t wise to receive a direct poison hit even under blessings of protections.

Klauss took out his panzerschreck as he aimed at the toad while feeling internal pain. 

Panzerschreck rockets are one of the more expensive combat resources that he refined personally. Its destructive potential is higher than the toad’s defensive power or its total worth, but he has no other choice. If it was a group of small beasts, the stielhandgranate would be enough, but the toad’s rubbery hide would just absorb the shock, reducing the damage potential to a fraction of its original. Thus, the only option left are the rockets. 

The beast exploded with an explosion of toxic gore after Klauss’s rocket hit its abdomen. It reduces the pressure that he felt, but he didn’t relax. He put down the panzerschreck and resumed firing with his rifle, sometimes throwing his stielhandgranate to aid his friend who is a sword-path cultivator from Radiant Desolation. 

On the opposite side of Shion, the southern battlefield is filled with frozen corpses of poisonous beasts. Sometimes, an explosion of frost wind and ice would erupt, but the heavy work is actually put up by 3-meter tall frost golems. 

The frost golems are made from magical ice, it has a freezing aura that reduces the relative temperature of the area and thus slows the movement of everyone affected. Sure, Yulinka’s methods are not as destructive as Shion or Klauss, but the battlefield is filled with 4 of these golems. They are cleaning the battlefield seemingly slower than the others, but they are actually faster because they have more numbers.

As for the left side of the battlefield, Kenji poured down his pure strength towards the beasts.

For long range, he used his compound bow. The ascetic monk turned into a kinetic artillery. If the beasts could approach him despite the arrows whose strength is on par with siege weapons, Kenji is more than glad to beat the shit out of them. 

Of course, because he fought solo, wounds accumulated up as he received damage, but most piercing and slashing attacks made by claws or bone projectiles could barely scratch his bodysuit. As for blunt damage such as tail sweep or just brunt charge, it went through the defense of the bodysuit, but kenji isn’t as fragile as Shion. He manned up and endured them as if they were light jabs. 

The battle continued for slightly over an hour before Shion stopped singing.

“Haah…” Kenji gasped for breath within his gas mask. “Is it done?” He glanced over the battlefield, seeing everyone was also tired with the battle. Kenji saw Klauss’ face and from the expression as if he was chewing shit, he knew Klauss must be in tears from his heavy resource expenditure.

The poor dude didn’t even take a break after the battle. He immediately took out his refining tools and set up a mini workshop where he could remake all of those bullets. Even if he brought a lot of raw materials, he just expended a lot of bullets, rockets and stielhandgranate.

“Kenji, over here.” He heard Shion’s voice calling him over. He went over to her side, and wasn't surprised that most of the beasts were burnt to a crisp. Shion really went all-out in exterminating them with chemical fire.

“‘Sup, boss?” 

“Because it’s going to rain soon, I need you to set this beacon while I make a temporary shelter for the two of us.” He produced a bunch of parts enough to build a beacon. 

“‘Aight!” The two went to work, leaving the work for cleaning up of the battlefield to Natsuko and her teammate.

 

….

 

Two to three days away from the Ruined Wood Palace.

In a dark tent, Sumire is thinking deeply while Ayame sat beside her. “I’ve received a message from Shion.” She said while showing it on a holographic screen.

The screen only shows a random assortment of rune and letters, it wasn’t in the common tongue. Indeed, it was an encrypted message that only Shion and Sumire could understand. 

“I see.” Sumire nodded continuously as she read the message.

“You actually understood it?” Ayame raised her eyebrows. She’s in this mission only because of Shion promising her things. 

She is tolerating her distrust towards Sumire because she isn’t comfortable being in proximity with her. Yet, she was allocated into Sumire’s last line of defense by Shion for some reason. But Ayame did not reject it because Shion’s arrangement was beneficial for her, according to her AI companion.   

“Yes. She’s showing me a portion of Radiant Desolation, Frozen Heart, and Thousand Flower’s methods, added with a bit of her deduction and analysis of course. I’ve never known that Klauss Ludwig is a techpriest in addition to a combat engineer.” She answered honestly. “It seems like we are fooled.”

Ayame took a second to process her last sentence. “Fooled, as in we're being taken advantage of?”

Sumire nodded, “Yes.  After Shion left us as Vanguard team captain, I saw subtle clues that Thousand Flower and Radiant Desolation worked too well with each other as if they trust each other deeply with one another. Now that she confirmed it by herself, we must prepare countermeasures.”

“According to my understanding of Captain Shion, she must’ve prepared a contingency for these types of situations, right? I can’t see her as someone who lets others take advantage of her.”

“That is without question.” Sumire answered confidently. She made a secret deal with Shion a while ago and knew Shion’s personality more than she’d wanted to. “It seems like… our battle for Fort Esela will be interesting.” Sumire couldn’t help but smile in anticipation. She always wanted to see Shion’s capability in siege battles. “For now, let’s move out according to the route she gives us.” 

Ayame nodded, she materialized a rifle-type assault railgun from her [Cloud Storage]. As a guard, there was no need to equip a heavy sniper rifle designed to kill large beasts at all times. “Understood, Stormtrooper-Captain!”

As Sumire ordered mobilization, 30 elite armored kobolds wrapped up the encampment deftly and started the march towards the Ruined Wood Palace.