Thirty-thousand men marched out of Xidong with a thousand of the war carts. Rina joined them, although she preferred marching on foot rather than the pretentious officers who trotted on their horses. They also brought Xiaojun with them, even though the great Envoy of Man was still unconscious in their cart.
“Bring me with you and I’ll keep him safe,” Hua insisted. “Please! I have the magic blood that can heal him!” So despite her dead weight, they still brought her along. “Thank you! I won’t let any of you down!”
Nonetheless, the future journey was nothing short of a harrowing one. It seemed that the world went dimmer for every step that they took. It had been a long time since they had clashed with the spider people, and no one was excited for it to happen again.
In the day time, the soldiers and their carts would march by foot with scouts working a perimeter around the mobile town. The scouts would report any sighting of monsters or spider people so that they could alert the army. At that moment, the army could interlock their carts and fortify themselves. But in the end, the scouts would never see a monster. It was as if they had simply disappeared.
“Night is coming! Interlock the carts and set watchmen!” Rina would announce. But as usual, the monsters would never come. Even as the terrified soldiers manned their posts and looked into the darkness, they would never find a single beast heading in their direction. It was almost more terrifying than actually seeing them face to face, for nobody knew where they were.
Thus, the days would pass and so would the nights. But Xiaojun would remain asleep in his cart. Hua would remain by his side like a loyal dog, even as the bumpy ride would sometimes knock her around. “Come on Xiaojun. Just wake up already!”
The long march would continue even as they passed through deserted villages. They wouldn’t even find bodies or food. They would just find empty husks and empty homes. “Some people still left their valuables,” Rina said as she found a golden necklace, “I can’t think of anyone who would normally do this.”
Their conclusion was simple. The Beast of Lust’s herd had consumed them to their last drop of blood. “Keep up your watches! We’re getting closer to their fortress!”
The next day, the downcast was even worse. The dark clouds had gotten to the point of near blackness, and the rain followed. But ordinary water didn’t fall from the sky, but a thick slurry of red fell instead. “It’s raining blood! By heaven, it’s raining blood!” soldiers screamed.
“Remain calm! Stay in your positions!” officers would call. But even Rina could feel that something was awry. It was as if she was waiting for a disaster to explode, despite not knowing where the disaster would come from in the first place.
“General, something doesn’t feel right. We’ve been marching for days without a single sighting, and yet now it’s suddenly shrouding darkness and raining blood. This cannot be right. Something like this has got to be part of the work of—”
“Silence please… my head is… not feeling…”
“Father! Are you listening to me?”
“I… I need to rest…”
General Wang looked nothing like the glorious figure that he once was. In only a few days march, he had become impossibly sick. In combination with the current omens, Rina knew that something strange was amok. “I guess I’ll have to take command.”
Rina finally hitched onto a horse and called the command. “Halt! Fortify your positions!” Then she realized why it was raining: the Beast of Lust knew about the power of gunpowder, and she wanted to render it too wet to fire. “Hurry! Get into your positions!”
A distant roar resounded through the valley like the cries of hell grabbing upon them. It was a horrific sound that chilled the soldiers to their souls. “Come on! Come on! The demons are coming!” But the sky was so dark that they couldn’t even see the beasts.
Finally, they managed to lock their formation into place just as the man spiders thrashed against their lines. “There! Fire!” They pulled their triggers only to hear pathetic sniffles instead of powerful gunshots. Guns would not be a viable weapon under this bloody rain.
The carts shook about but ultimately remained intact. “Halberds! Keep pushing them off! Musketeers! Keep the rest of your powder dry! We need to hold them off until the rain stops!”
With the help of the carts, the lines remained still. Blood slowly seeped onto the ground as the halberds stabbed into the screaming beasts. Lightning would briefly gleam the dark world as thunder would resound amidst the screams. The realm of reality had sunken to the world of nightmares.
Through this time, Rina worked hard to both command the field while tending to her father. “Set us a small tent! The general needs to rest!” A structure was hastily constructed and the general was rushed inside. He closed his eyes while his head rocked side to side.
It was clear that his state was worse than unhealthy. His face had become an uncomfortable pale as his body quickly emaciated into a skinny state. “Father! Father!” In a burst of panic, Rina grabbed Hua and brought her to the tent. “Use your blood to treat him! Please!”
General Wang lunged at the huli-jing with hunger in his eyes. “Stop!” Hua shrieked. A claw grew from her hand and swiped the changed man away. Afterwards, soldiers held General Wang down as he gave a horrifying shriek. This man was not the same man.
Hua was shocked at her body’s reaction, but she was more shocked with General Wang’s dramatic change. “What’s happening to him?” They watched as he continued to convulse and throw himself about. It looked like something was trying to emerge from his body.
“Ma’am! There’s problems at the front!” a soldier interrupted. Rina instructed the soldiers to stay put while she went to investigate. “Alright, show me what I have to—”
A flash of lightning illuminated the world and put Rina face to face with a distant, colossal being. It was like a lump of legged meat with a monstrously long neck that exuded its horrific face away from its body. Bodies made up its constitution like a puzzle of corpses, except these bodies were still alive and still groaning in pain.
“By the grace of…” Rina didn’t know what to say. This being was larger than anything she had seen, even when she was journeying with Xiaojun. “We… we have to…” Another flash of lightning revealed the figure moving closer. It was like seeing flashes of death where dark ambiguity filled the pauses.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Then another soldier approached her. “Ma’am! It’s your father! His condition has worsened!” Rina was brought back to the tent just as men screamed in terror. “What in heaven’s name is that!” soldiers screamed.
Rina looked to find that her father was no longer her father, but rather the husk of a worsened being. His head literally split in half as more red liquid oozed from the walking corpse. A creature was ripping him out from the inside, and all Rina could do was watch. “F-Father!”
By the end of the horrific metamorphosis, her father had become a skinless vessel of muscle and malice. To call this thing a “human” would be an insult to both humanity and this godless being. “The Beast of Lust has recruited me to her ranks, for I am the God of Blood.”
Rina was petrified where she stood. It was like her joints had solidified with a thick gelatin and her muscles stuck in their positions. Finally, out of sheer fear, she grabbed her rifle and aimed it at the God of Blood. “Let my father go! I demand it!”
But the God of Blood ignored her demands as it bled and hobbled out of the tent. Everyone kept their distance as lightning continued to flash, and thunder continued to roar. They watched as the God of Blood shuffled its way to the direction of the distant colossus. “This shall be my new vessel. That is my demand.”
This was another moment where man was met with sheer hopelessness. It was as if the Four Beasts had collectively spat on the poor triumphs of man, like a mountain looming over an anthill. Cannons, muskets, gunpowder, and even steel was nothing to the face of these gods. There was nothing that man could do.
The God of Blood levitated into the air like an ascension of a higher being. It slowly floated to the colossus so as to claim its glorious form. “I am the God of Blood, and this is my new vessel. As yang and yin command the order and material of the world, so shall I—”
In the flash of lightning, people saw the God of Blood being grabbed from the air and thrown to the ground. It was like watching a ritual shattered at its very seams as the curious little humans looked at the cart that Xiaojun was resting on. He was gone.
The faint but ever apparent glow of Xiaojun’s glaive shined like a lonely candle in the darkness. Even through the flashes of lightning, Xiaojun’s weapon still imposed through the hellish world. Perhaps man’s salvation would not be through innovative trinkets, but through their own ascension to godhood.
The ordinary humans could only see flashes of the battle. Each blast of lightning revealed a frame of the majestic battle as Xiaojun chopped away at the God of Blood. But in the very next frame, the god’s limbs would return as if they had never been cut.
“I will reach my rightful vessel,” the Blood God demanded. But Xiaojun refused the deity’s demands as he continued to cut away at the impervious demigod. “Blood is my power. I have plenty to lose. Can I say the same for you?” the God of Blood asked.
In another flash of lightning, the soldiers saw a hand pummel into Xiaojun’s chest like thunder. Another strike slashed into him. And with every flash of lightning, another devastating blow would follow. It was clear that the Blood God was unimpressed.
The humans could only watch as their strong envoy slowly crumbled before them. They watched as the god transformed his own bloody arm into a sharp blade and stabbed it into the glowing champion. “What a pathetic sight. The Envoy of Man was nothing but—”
Xiaojun surged with energy as his glaive glowed with radiancy. A warm radius formed around him as he clashed with the unholy being. He sliced the blade right off and lopped the head with it. Even as the headless demon stumbled back, Xiaojun kept going as he followed strike after strike. By the end, the God of Blood was an empty torso.
The gore plopped back and the world paused for a moment. In his usual fashion, Xiaojun had twisted the ways of fate just as humanity had always done. Rather than crumple and die, he chose to stand and fight. But it was clear that the battle was far from over, as the storm came halting to a stop.
“This is more like it,” a voice murmured from the maimed Blood God. “Now it makes sense, as to why the Beast of Lust wanted me here. As it rains blood from the heavens, so does it rain power for my veins. Your moment is nigh, Envoy of Man. There is nothing you can do.”
The rain suddenly stopped in the air, and the pattering on the ground halted like the pause of a drum. Even the spider people scampered away in fear, for this evil could not differentiate corruption from itself. Rina froze as she felt her blood shift in her body. “Everyone! Get the hell back! Get back!”
The soldiers tossed their weapons and leaped from their carts into a mad dash for life. As the rain vibrated midair, the danger became very clear: the God of Blood was extracting blood wherever it could find it. Not even the colossus was safe from this attack, as red liquid oozed from its body and flowed to the demon’s body.
Rina jumped into the tent and closed her eyes. “Stay out of his view! He cannot take your blood if he cannot see you!” Soldiers climbed into carts as others merely ducked for cover. Those who didn’t make it in time had their blood dried from their bodies like a wet towel being squeezed. Their groanless bodies plopped to the floor like ashes.
Xiaojun couldn’t stop the god’s growth. With the blood from the heavens, the colossus, and the surrounding bodies, the demon grew in size even as Xiaojun tried cutting it apart. The incisions would simply heal themselves before they could even part.
Rina could feel the god’s presence even within her tent. It was like her blood was moving in her own flesh, and she was resisting the demands of the very fluid in her body. Her blood wanted to escape her fleshly prison. “Water! I need to drink water!”
Rina opened her bottle only to find blood. But when she blinked, it was water again. Her thoughts were muddled with the horrific prospect of blood. She could imagine the fluid draining from her very fingernails, or really any opening that could find itself out of her—
“You look ghastly pale. Is something the matter?”
Rina looked up to find an old woman in a straw hat. It was a sight that made Rina wonder if she was still alive, or if this was merely a vision from the afterlife. “Are you another hallucination…?” she groaned. “If you’re real… you should run…”
“Hah! Is it because I’m a woman? Well, that wouldn’t make much sense since you’re a woman yourself. Now then, let me see this esteemed Envoy of Man. I’ve always wanted to set eyes on the one who pretentiously carries himself around.”
The old woman bowed and left the tent, despite everyone’s protest. “Wait! It’s not safe out there! The demon will drain your blood!” But the old woman only laughed at such blank threats. “What? That ugly red thing? Please. If I wanted him to move, I’d tell him to move!”
She laughed and walked off while Hua chased after her. “Please listen to Rina!” But the old woman finally snapped and harmlessly smacked the girl’s hand away. “As I said, I just want to see the situation for myself. After all, those two are nothing but pretentious hills who want to become mountains.”
The old woman casually walked to the scene of Xiaojun battling the enormous blood titan. “Wow, the Envoy of Man is nimble as a fly,” she remarked. Then she stomped her foot on the ground and said one word: “Halt!”
The two beings fell to the ground in one sudden move as the strange old woman pouted. “False god, you cannot stop what is already in motion. Relinquish your vessel and return to depths of hell at once!”
The Blood God laughed as he looked down on the puny woman. “You cannot order me to follow your bidding! Not even if you were… no… it cannot be you… but that was so long ago! I thought that you had died!”
“The only thing that was long ago was our divorce. Now go! Or I’ll make you regret your insolence!” With this sentence alone, the woman banished the Blood God away and left only the exhausted but living body of General Wang. “Father!”
Rina ran to her father’s body and ordered her men to extract him right away. As for the old woman, she was looking at Xiaojun with a curious frown. “Hmph! I thought you’d be bigger! Eons of prophecies, years of training, and hours of meditation just to make this?”
Xiaojun responded with a light frown. “I’d watch your—”
“Don’t play dumb with me!” the old woman yelled. She placed her finger on his chest like a grandmother disciplining a child. “You think that just because you’re carrying Huanglong in your hand, you get to do whatever you want? I should’ve never trusted Jin with you! He’s not only a half-man, but a half-wit as well!”
Xiaojun was stuck with surprise. “You know my weapon’s name? And you know Jin as well?”
The old woman scoffed as she pushed the Envoy of Man away. “I am Dao, and it’s clear that you’re far from the way.” In mere moments of this strange woman’s arrival, the once hellish battlefield was restored to a clear pasture. No more words needed to be said to truly signify her power.