Every step taken by Kaede and Katsuya echoed through the spacious hall. Since those present maintained silence, the "patter" of the newcomers' feet almost rang in their ears.
And the closer they got to the thrones, the better they could make out the Great Spirits seated upon them.
The Nine-Tails drew the most attention, sprawled on her "throne." She was in her human form, yet this didn't make a bundle of fluffy tails behind her disappear.
The reddish appendages seemed to live their own lives, unconstrained by the laws of physics. At least, they stretched out further than any physiology would allow.
The Fox was a very tall woman with dazzlingly red long hair, intricately braided, and a narrow, predatory face.
She was lounged elegantly on her side, idly watching her approaching friends with a touch of boredom.
Had Ordyntsev been there, he would have involuntarily compared her attire and pose with the way Roman patricians used to dress and dine relaxedly.
The second Great Spirit, the Imperial Turtle, was starkly different from the Fox.
Like the first, she was in human form, but there the similarity ended. Strict clothing covered every inch of her body, up to her very face. Her neck was carefully concealed under layers of fabric with a pattern resembling a turtle's shell armor. Her hairstyle was arranged in an elaborate "bun," topped with a clip shaped like a small turtle shell.
She was not as tall as the Nine-Tails, but her aura of power was even stronger.
She sat on her throne with a proudly straight back, looking down on everyone with haughtiness.
In the center between the yokai was the third, vacant throne.
There was a clearly drawn boundary on the floor, at which the visitors stopped.
"We greet you, Great Spirits," Katsuya said, bowing deeply. Kaede, standing slightly behind, repeated the greeting. So they remained in their bowed position, awaiting the yokai rulers' words.
"You may straighten up," the cold voice of the Turtle shattered the silence. "You may look upon us and speak. What is the reason for your desire to meet with us?"
"Indeed," the Fox drawled lazily, stretching seductively. "I was enjoying such sweet sleep, and then, out of the blue, I'm summoned, and something is demanded of me..."
"Izanami," the Turtle warned, giving her a cautionary look.
"What?" the Fox protested, sitting up properly, her arms akimbo. "We had a deal: you handle the affairs of this city and don't bother me. In return, I magnanimously agreed to live here and protect it if necessary. So why am I being distracted from my sacred after-lunch nap?"
"Because the situation has changed! And if you had the patience to hear out why you were summoned, you wouldn't be acting this way!" the second yokai ruler lost her temper.
Kaede and Katsuya quietly watched the "holy and infallible Great Spirits" squabble.
"What, seriously? Hey, you, come on, present your very important information that requires my presence," the Nine-Tails gestured mockingly, followed by a heavy sigh from the other yokai.
"We've come to tell you that we believe the second coming of chaos has begun."
The guards standing in the alcoves and the few courtiers present froze, confusedly looking at the messengers who had brought such dire news.
"Ah-ha-ha-ha!" Surprisingly, the Nine-Tails laughed; she even began to wipe away tears. "Hey, Teruko, is this why you summoned me today? How many times has it been, twenty or thirty?"
With each word, Teruko's frown deepened.
"Be quiet, Izanami. As for you two, explain why you think the chaos cult you found has anything to do with a chaos invasion. Just so you know, these parasites are almost impossible to eradicate. And if it's yet another cult, our deputies could have dealt with it. Why did you demand a meeting with us?"
Katsuya froze in fear. She had long avoided all yokai and was unaware of the changing policy towards chaos eradication.
Even now, heading to this meeting, Katsuya wasn't sure they wouldn't remember her.
Yet reality had its own irony.
Over the centuries, the Great Spirits had grown to fear chaos even less than humans!
"Because there were so many chaos servants there!" Kaede's clear voice broke the awkward silence. "We saw them capturing peasants and even yokai!"
"Indeed," the Fox said, now looking at the young Kuchisake-onna with a slightly more serious expression. "That does make the situation a bit more serious than it might have been, but still not a reason enough to distract us, the Great Spirits, and demand our presence."
"But… But…" Kaede faltered, not knowing what to say.
"Great Spirits, listen..." Katsuya tried to salvage the situation but was interrupted.
"Why are we even talking about this? Let me just show you." The young yokai shouted irritably but immediately shrank back, sensing the wrath of the Imperial Turtle. Katsuya closed her eyes in shock. She knew Kaede was not well-versed in the traditions of her kind, but she had not expected it to be this bad.
"How dare you?" the Great Spirit hissed, eyes flashing with anger. "You dare suggest using illusions on us?!"
"Wait, wait, sister," the Nine-Tails was clearly more intrigued by the conversation than the Turtle. A sly smirk crossed her lips. "I'm not opposed; go ahead, little yokai, cast your illusion on me. Show me."
"What a blow to tradition," whispered the spirits standing to the sides, but Kaede didn't care.
Her illusion hit the Nine-Tails and began broadcasting the events that Kaede had seen with her own eyes.
Images of a sinister bell and a cultist camp alternated, showing the full horror of the situation. When the Kuchisake-onna tried to break the connection, she realized with horror that she couldn't.
The Nine-Tails' iron will didn't even notice her attempts, continuing the "show" and reinforcing the channel.
Originally, Kaede wanted to show only the cultists, hiding everything related to her mentor.
The young yokai worried about her sensei's fate and didn't want anything to happen to her.
But the relentless will of the Great Spirit dragged out everything she wanted to hide.
Tears welled up in Kaede's eyes, and if Katsuya hadn't caught her, she would have collapsed to the floor.
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"How interesting," the Nine-Tails said with anticipation, now looking at the heavily breathing Kuchisake-onna and Kumo in a new light. "Imagine, Teruko, this girl turns out to be a student of that very Minoru, the creator of the Deathbringers. And her sensei is quite free."
"Really?" The Turtle's eyebrows knitted together in a frown. "So those rumors that she escaped were true. But what about the chaos servants? Is the threat as great as they said?"
"I wouldn't say so," the Fox narrowed her eyes. "But I wouldn't call it small either. From what I understand, that fool Minoru obtained a chaos artifact, which then subjugated her. These two rescued her, by the way; the second is called Ketsumi, and she was also at the origin of the Deathbringers. But all Minoru's followers have sold themselves to chaos and now faithfully serve it."
The spider woman swallowed hard, clutching the drained Kaede.
"How intriguingly everything unfolds," the Imperial Turtle said slowly. "What do you think of their fate? A traitor's apprentice and a traitor, what an impressive duo."
"They at least had the courage to come here to tell us about the threat of chaos," the Nine-Tails surprisingly defended the trembling guests. "That deserves respect, so it lessens their guilt. Nevertheless, I haven't fully checked her memory, so I think the Kuchisake-onna should be detained for a while. We'll deal with the second one later."
"So be it," Teruko nodded. "And now, give the order to form an assault corps; we should deal with those chaos servants; they've become too bold."
Watching the approaching palace guards, Katsuya realized very clearly that coming to this place had been a huge mistake.
*****
"Katsuya, why are you silent? Say something..." Kaede implored with a touch of sorrow
Right now, they were both chained to the wall inside an underground dungeon. Considering the powerful onmyodo runes on their shackles, there was no chance of escape.
"What am I supposed to say?" the Kumo snapped, turning her head. "That it's all your fault? Because it really is your fault. If you had kept quiet, as we agreed, none of this would have happened! Ah, I wonder how my dearest rice cake is faring. I haven't seen him in so many days. I've never left him for so long..."
"Forgive me," the young yokai whispered after a couple of minutes of silence.
"It doesn't matter now," Katsuya sighed heavily. "What matters is that we're here, and we don't know what will happen to us."
"Would you shut up over there!" From the darkness emerged thick, hairy legs. A second later, the rest of the body appeared. It was a spider woman, like Katsuya. "No one allowed you to chatter! Wait for the Great Spirits' decision in silence, or I'll seal your mouths with web!"
From somewhere to the side, a door creaked open.
The jailer turned in surprise toward the sound.
"Kei? What are you doing here?" she asked in surprise, looking at the approaching colleague. "You're supposed to be up top, what happ..."
With a dull thud, the spider yokai fell to the ground, stretching her legs halfway down the corridor between the cells.
The prisoners huddled together, looking at the strange newcomer, whose appearance changed gradually to a smiling young man dressed in reddish-gold armor.
"Who are you?" Katsuya asked, her tone less than friendly, measuring him with a tight stare.
"Hirui, is that you?" Kaede gasped quietly, prompting an even wider smile on the young man's face.
"What Hiru..." the Kumo stopped short, realization dawning in her eyes. "What are you doing here?!" she whispered in panic. "What do the dragons want from us?!"
"Oh, nothing," the copper dragon they had met on their way to the secret city said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "I just felt that something bad might happen to you and decided to check. And I was right!" He hinted with a glance at their cramped cell.
"And you think we'll believe you?" the Kumo raised an eyebrow.
"But it's true," Hirui spread his hands disarmingly.
"Great dragon, can you save us?" Kaede made big eyes and looked pleadingly at the young man.
"How could I refuse such a beauty," Hirui winked at Kaede, making her blush and shyly look away from the copper dragon's beaming eyes. "But there's a catch," he became more serious. "I can't just pull you out, so I'll have to lie that the elders have demanded a conversation with you."
"What if the Great Spirits ask your elders about us?" Katsuya voiced a logical question.
"Don't worry; I'll talk to my father about it. He can sort it out."
"One question keeps nagging me," the Kumo said suspiciously. "Why are you helping us? You, dragons, aren't known for your altruism."
"Mind your words, spiderling," Hirui's eyes flashed gold, making the Kumo flinch slightly, but the pressure immediately disappeared as if it had never been there, and the dragon turned to Kaede. "I simply couldn't allow such beauty to rot in this dungeon. And you, spiderling, are her friend, so I'll save you too. Now give me a second to remove these chains..."
The man's fingers began to elongate, turning into frightening claws.
It turned out Hirui had ensured they wouldn't be disturbed. No, he hadn't killed anyone, but all the guards were put to sleep for a long time.
When they were almost out of the city, and an alarm inexplicably went off behind them, Hirui transformed instantly and, scooping up the screaming girls with his hind legs, soared into the sky.
"Do you want me to shoot him down?" the Nine-Tails aimed at the young, overly bold dragon rising into the sky.
"We can't," Teruko rolled her eyes. "His father would be too offended by us for that. And I doubt the lizard elders had nothing to do with it."
"They get more daring with every century," Izanami exhaled heavily.
"You were the one who once suggested making peace with them."
"Now I doubt the sanity of my decision back then."
*****
Stas had seen military camps before. He even lived in one for a while - when he had to serve as a healer for the Sansa.
And later, when he was delivering letters during the conflict with Sansa, he'd seen enough of Sumada's defensive outposts.
But something was subtly different now.
It was probably the way people viewed each other and the world around them.
Yet, the change was understandable, considering that the World War had been raging for over a year. And this confrontation was much more vicious and exhausting than the previous clashes.
So, it wasn't surprising that the surrounding warmasters flaunted bags under their eyes or sharply defined cheekbones.
Some twitched nervously at any sudden noise, while others just stared with lifeless, empty eyes. Although their bodies were still alive, their souls had long since died.
Constant danger, the possibility of meeting one's end in even the slightest skirmish, and endless enemy sabotage eroded the sanity of even the sturdiest souls.
The Southern Alliance was pushing forward like a mad beast, and the Sumada, despite all their strength, were having a tough time.
Each of the founding members of the alliance had dangerous secrets that had to be taken into account on the battlefield, even by the supremes, not to mention the ordinary warmasters.
And while Sumada tried to dig in as usual, they did it without any flare.
The reason was that against truly powerful techniques, underground shelters didn't really protect, turning into quality mass graves.
The only chance in such a case was to sleep with one eye open, waiting for the command and ready to run to dodge some powerful technique falling on one's sleeping spot.
As Stas understood, this camp was one of three where troops were being secretly pulled together for a future counteroffensive.
Ordyntsev also figured out why he had been summoned to this war.
As it turned out, Jishin hadn't forgotten the Serpent's strengths, so Stas was assigned as a field medic.
That is, someone who both fights the enemy and carries the wounded off the battlefield, healing them along the way.
Such a framing of the order appealed to Stas much more because it gave him the opportunity to stay away from the most dangerous places.
Knowing his sensei, he thought this status might well save his life.
Moreover, Ordyntsev was surprised to learn that Mei and Eiji had achieved considerable advancements in the field of leadership.
Under the command of both Mei and Eiji, there were about ten ordinary warmasters. Whether it was because of this or something else, the former team members showed no desire to interact with the Serpent.
However, he wasn't particularly bothered by this.
In recent days, apart from pondering improvements to the immortality technique and related techniques, Stas found himself contemplating the fact that the people around him would die eventually, but he would remain alive.
The thought itself seemed obvious, but it immediately contradicted everything a mortal's consciousness was accustomed to.
Now, if Stas would indeed rise to the very top, he wouldn't need to hurry to master this or that skill, for eternity would lay ahead.
On the other hand, Ordyntsev could not forget fantasy elves and how they were portrayed.
A long life played a cruel joke on long-lived races when, after a hundred years, an elven child still remained a child, both physically and psychologically.
However, Stas considered that elves might not even exist at all. And all those notions about the correlation between lifespan and the pace of development are worthless.
Either way, the earthling had something to think about and priorities to rearrange anew.
For now, he had visited the healers' headquarters and negotiated with the leadership to get twenty medics under his command.
Stas had long intended to establish connections with healers, and now, as he believed, was the best moment.
The Serpent expected disdain or distrust toward his skills from Sumada's healers, but surprisingly, they treated him very respectfully, immediately granting what he requested.
Perhaps his acquaintance with the old man Hideo and his grandson Kizashi played its role, or maybe news of how he healed warmasters during the defense of the Gaibatsu fortress had spread.
In any case, they fulfilled his wishes on first ask, providing not just people but even consumables and elixirs.
Now, looking at the clueless eyes of the inexperienced warmaster-healers, Ordyntsev felt compelled to say a few words and clarify certain things.