He had fucked up, Jack had to admit that as he watched Rin. Losing his knife was only the last in a long series of completely avoidable mishaps. To begin with, this whole misunderstanding of him being a demon could have been avoided if he had just talked to Rin. But no, he just had to break into her home without thinking, it was as if he was begging for the situation to get even worse. Not to mention all the other times he simply rushed mindlessly into problems. He was an ancient cultivator, he should behave like it and not like some damned teenager!

But that was something for later. Jack quickly banished the thoughts creeping into his mind. Right now he had bigger problems at hand than that. Cautious he looked at Rin.

With an animalistic howl Rin jumped forward. Being weapon less Jack didn’t even try to fight against her. Even if he tried to use Qi to defend himself, she would rip through him with her sword.

Jack’s eyes flickered over to the floor where Rin had thrown his knife, but he immediately dismissed the idea of trying to get it. Rin was still between him and the knife.

And so Jack did the only thing he could. He turned around and ran. Behind him he could hear Rin starting to follow him. The plastic floor squeaked under her feet.

Jack reached the end of the hallway, arriving in a small foyer. On one side were the elevators, on the other the entrance to the staircases. Suddenly Jack got an idea and he changed his way to the stairs. Behind him Rin’s steps came closer.

Jack run through the door into the stairway, but then he stumbled and nearly fell down. In the last moment he caught himself and continued down the stairs. Behind him Rin crashed into the slowly closing door, nearly tearing it from the angles. She didn’t even slow down.

Letting out a deep growl she stormed after Jack, taking the first step down the stairs- Only to lose her footing as her foot landed on a thin layer of ice covering the stair. With a yelp she flew down the stairs, missing Jack only narrowly, as he pressed himself against the wall, before she crashed into the wall on the other side of the stairway. The sword hit the ground with a metallic sound, but remained firmly in her hand.

Jack cursed as he fought back the nauseous feeling of losing part of his cultivation that had caused him to stumble beforehand. He had hoped she would at least let go of the sword, that was why he had taken the risk to expel the Qi around him to create the ice. Now he had to improvise. Reaching out with his mind he manipulated the small cloud of Qi inside the stairway. A small bolt of condensed air appeared. Hesitating Jack looked down at Rin, an attack like this wouldn’t do much with her enhanced toughness. He needed another way to attack her. Quickly he changed his target and the bolt shoot upwards into the ceiling.

With a crack the bolt crashed into the ceiling. Cracks started to appear. Jack frowned for a moment. The Qi he had ejected was mostly of the fire element because of his cultivation in the ‘Blazes of the Netherflame’ cultivation method. Everything other than flames was weaker than normal.

For a moment he hesitated, should he use his flames? They were the only magic he could have used beforehand as they were only a by-product of his cultivation method, but he hadn’t used them in fear of killing Rin accidentally. But there was a part of him that urged him to do it anyway, to eliminate this threat to himself. This part however was buried far, far inside of himself, being something from his youth as he had fought other cultivators regularly. A long life and a reincarnation in a peaceful world had buried it ever since.

‘Not that she does share that sentiment’, Jack thought as he looked down at Rin who jumbled to get back on her feet again. Rage and hatred burned in her eyes, mixed with a hint of insanity. The corruption was spreading. Jack gritted his teeth. He would keep the flames as a last resort. Until then however…

With a quick manipulation of the Qi around him another three bolts of condensed air formed and crashed into the ceiling. With a crack the thick concrete broke and fist sized fragments rained down. Rin let out a painful yelp as she got hit by one of them.

Jack allowed himself a small smile, then he focused back at shooting more bolts. Down the stairs Rin still struggled to come back to her feet while evading the numerous fragments coming from above, but she was too slow. She had only managed to get back on one knee when a crack resounded in the stairway, even louder than any before. A large piece of concrete, easily the size of Jack himself, fell down from the ceiling.

Rin looked up towards the piece and a smile formed on her face. The sword in her hands began burning in white light. It was bright enough to sting in Jack’s eyes. Worried he began to back away upwards.

With a roar Rin swung her sword. In her crouching stance it looked ridiculous, but its effect certainly wasn’t. The light loosened, forming a large blade that shot upwards. It crashed into the still falling piece of concrete and exploded. Blinded Jack closed his eyes. When he opened them again the piece of concrete had vanished. With a curse on his lips he turned around and run back towards the fifth floor, jumping over the last remains of the ice that had already begun to melt.

A loud howl came from behind Jack and he hastened his steps even farther, sending Qi directly into his legs. Quickly he arrived back in front of room 5.372 where the whole fight had started. Searching Jack’s eyes wandered over the floor until a sole form on the hard plastic floor attracted his view.

With a quick movement Jack grabbed his knife. A quick movement of Qi and the Qi blade sprung back to life as he sprung around. Rin stood on the other end of the hallway. Her breath was laborious and the soft moonlight showed tiny drops of sweat on her face. The last attack must have exhausted her. But in exchange the sudden stream of Qi had hastened her change. Her arms were, by now, completely covered in short, coarse fur. Small claws poked out from holes inside her shoes.

After a moment where the two simply looked at each other, Rin opened her mouth to speak. Jack could see the serrated tips of sharp teeth glistening inside her mouth.

“D. e. mon… kill”

The strange and growling sound of Rin’s voice let a shudder run down Jack’s back. Rin was right on the border to loose herself completely, he could feel it. He hesitated for a moment, then he gritted his teeth. Now it was all or nothing. His previous tries to get the sword away from her were all for naught, same with the one to destroy it. But the later one had at least showed small results.

Jack reached into his Dantian and grabbed every bit of Qi he could safely control. Then he took the rest until he was left with only his completely inert cultivation base. The stream of Qi flowed to the outside and Jack could only do his best to guide it towards the knife. On its way parts of it got lost, absorbed by his body, but a large amount of Qi still arrived at its destination.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The knife in Jack’s vanished within a cloud of black shadows as Qi sprang forth from it. There was simply too much for Jack to control properly and so quite a bit got lost to the surroundings. Jack winced as the nauseating feeling within him got stronger and a deep exhaustion began forming. He had to end this fight now. After the Qi finally settled the blade of Qi had changed into a pitch black colour. Gone were the shadows that formed it, instead it had the same small tendrils of darkness inside of it his Netherflame was made of. And just like the Netherflame something about the blade just seemed wrong, like something that didn’t belong to this world.

Rin’s eyes were focused on the blade and for a moment Jack hoped that the feeling would be enough to hold her back, that some instinctual part of her was afraid of it. That hope was shattered a moment later.

With an animalistic howl Rin threw herself forward, her sword burning in glistening light. With a ripping sound her clothes started to tear, unable to accommodate her changed shape under the strain. Jack grimaced, then he leapt forward, his knife nothing more than a mass of darkness as it cut through the air.

With an explosion of light and darkness the two weapons met in the air between the two opponents.

For a moment it looked as if Jack had parried like he had before, but then Rin’s sword passed by the knife and hit him in the shoulder, making him groan in pain.

With a screeching noise the knife scratched over the sword, carving a long scratch down its length. Apart from that the sword was fine. But Jack had targeted carefully. The scratch had carved right through one of the small runes that were covering the sword.

The runes had actually been made from a special alloy and were the hardest part of the sword when it had been created, almost impossible to become destroyed. But countless years of storing and channelling Qi had caused the strange material to become more and more instable. And so the knife, enhanced merely by the Qi blade of a mundane Qi gatherer, cut through the runes.

With a pained gasp Jack stumbled back, holding his bleeding shoulder. Yet his sight never left Rin. She looked confused at her sword and the large scar jagging its surface. Slowly the glow of the sword dimmed and Jack let out a slight grin. The Qi should now slowly leave the sword, leaving behind an empty husk. And as soon as Rin had lost access to the Qi the fight was as good as-

*CRACK*

With a deafening crack the scratch on the sword widened as a giant torrent of Qi burst forth from it. A moment the rest of the sword hold out, then it too began to crack under the strain. Qi began to fill the air of the hallway.

Jack blanched. That certainly hadn’t been planned. That amount of Qi was much more than he had thought given that it was able to actually destroy the sword. Stretching out his senses he paled even further. This amount of Qi was even more than he had ever had in his old life. How could a mere sword hold this amount of Qi, in a world without Qi no less?

Sadly Jack didn’t have the time to answer his questions. A loud growl woke him from his thoughts. Rin looked at him, a wild look in her eyes. The fur on her body had spread even further until even her face was covered, giving her the appearance of a bipedal wolf. But even worse were the small tendrils of Qi that had started to creep into her.

Jack cursed. Obviously she could absorb the Qi from the sword even if it was in the air around here. He had to get it away from her right now. Mentally he reached out towards the Qi around Rin and tried to separate it from her, but the Qi resisted his command.

Jack could feel his will trying to influence the Qi, but there was something else in there, another will. A will of a being far more ancient and savage than anything he had ever met. In front of it his efforts were nothing more than a child trying to poke it with a stick. Even worse, Rin didn’t have the same problems. The Qi moved ever closer to her, forming a thick blanket he couldn’t tear apart. Rin’s eyes started to glow with an inner light as she absorbed more and more of the Qi.

Jack cursed. If he hadn’t used all his Qi in the last attack this would be much easier, but now he had almost no way to do anything against Rin’s absorption of the Qi. Jack looked down at his knife. It had lost its Qi blade with the last attack, but it was still sharp enough to hurt Rin. If he could distract her she should stop her absorption. Hopefully.

---

Rin was fighting a losing battle. She knew it. It was not her fight against the demon, but against the corruption inside of her. Even now she could feel it, like a voice pushing her to madness and destruction.

And a part of her wanted to follow this voice.

But an even bigger part was fighting back. Pictures of a burning house and corpses came to her mind. If she were to follow the voice wouldn’t she end just like him? The very thought disgusted her.

She hesitated. A short glance at the demon showed her that he was still standing there, fiddling with his knife. If she got rid of the voice, would she be still strong enough to kill him? Or would he kill her when she was weakened?

‘Yes… Use me. Kill him. Then everything will be fine’

She could feel the voice inside of herself getting stronger. Grimacing she pushed back, trying to stay in control of herself. But she could feel herself losing more and more of herself. This… she didn’t want to turn into a demon herself.

Desperate she started probing inside of herself, searching for the origin of the voice. After a few moments she finally found it, hidden deep within her stomach. It was a glowing mass of Spiritual Energy, roughly shaped into a humanoid outline. Small tendrils sprung forth from it, grabbing hold inside her body like a cancerous and twisted organ.

Unsure Rin looked at it. What- How could she silence something like this? It was impossible. At least the voice said that, but Rin didn’t care for its words. Cautiously she got closer to the mass.

As she got closer the voice in her mind got louder. She could feel the madness inside of it, a madness that promised power in exchange for sanity. Gritting her teeth Rin clung to her sense of self, fighting against the voice that tried to corrupt her.

Bit by bit she got closer to the shape, fighting against the dark whispers inside her mind.

Finally she reached it. She could feel the glowing mass. It felt warm, as if she was standing under the light of the morning sun. But more than that she could feel something inside the mass. It wasn’t alive, no it had long since lost the right to call itself that way. It was more akin to an echo of what had once been a being of unimaginable power.

Rin shuddered. She- She knew this feeling. Again her mind returned to the time she had lost everything. He had felt exactly like this, she was sure of it. Was she truly becoming him? For a moment she could almost see herself, having taken his place in the memory, her hands dripping with red blood.

“NO!”

With a scream Rin reached out and grabbed the mass of light. She could feel it resisting, the ancient will inside trying to stop her, but she ignored it. This was her body, her mind and this- this invader, this parasite had no right to be inside of it.

With an enormous effort she began to pull and the light started to move. It was slowly, but the small connections began straining. They stretched more and more, but it wasn’t enough. With a last effort Rin tore the mass free and the small tendrils ripped apart.

Taking hold of the light Rin pushed it to the outside, as fast as she could. Small pieces of it broke of, containing a bit of the will that had poisoned her, but she knew that they were too small to actually change her.

Rin felt a wave of exhaustion coming over her. A moment she managed to resist, then the world went dark and she fell unconscious.

---

Jack’s view jumped back to Rin as he could feel a massive movement of Qi from inside of her. For a moment he thought about escaping. Whatever attack she would use that needed such an amount of Qi was far beyond anything he could defend against. But he was too slow.

Rin raised her head to the sky and a deafening howl came from her throat. Around her windows started breaking as they couldn’t endure the force behind the howl. Even the floor started cracking close to her.

Then came the Qi. Like a glowing stream it gushed forth from Rin, shooting upwards. With a massive crack the ceiling broke, exposing the floor above them. And then came the next ceiling and the next, before the stream became too weak to pierce through the ceiling of the eight floor.

Exhausted Rin slumped down, her Qi completely expulsed. And the Qi in the air had been dispersed by the howl, making it far too thin for her to replenish herself. Even the will that was behind the Qi got shaken and weakened.

Surprised Jack looked at the sight in front of him. Had Rin truly managed to get rid of the Qi inside of her herself? That was… Well, it wasn’t impossible, but she had to have an insane amount of willpower to push back a corruption as strong as this.

Rin looked up. Her view focused on Jack. He tensed. There was still rage and insanity within her eyes, albeit weaker than before. No, that wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t simply weaker, it was as if it was… unfocused? Anyway, he didn’t have time to think more about it.

With an inhuman looking movement Rin jumped. Jack’s eyes widened as he saw the claws aiming for his throat. As if time had slowed down Jack could see them coming closer and closer, Rin’s entire being focused on ending him. It was terrifying.

And still there was a victorious smile on Jack’s face. With a loud slapping sound a bolt of condensed air crashed into Rin’s defenceless side. She had been too focused on Jack to even notice its existence. The bolt wasn’t strong enough to do any harm, but the force of the impact threw her to the side and her claws missed Jack completely.

Jack grinned. Even though Rin had distracted him with her howl beforehand he hadn’t stopped influencing the Qi. Finally he had managed to pierce through the weakened will and gained control over a small part of it. It wasn’t much, but at least he could now create air bolts again.

With a growl Rin stood up, but now that the Qi that supported her run dry her movements had changed. She moved slower, even sluggish. Slowly she stumbled towards Jack.

Jack lifted his hand. Calling upon the last remaining Qi in the air he created more and more bolts of condensed air. He managed to create 8 bolts before the Qi was depleted. With a mental command he shot the bolts.

Rin let out a yelp of pain as the bolts slammed into her, throwing her backwards and into a wall. Now that the Qi was gone she wasn’t as tough as before and the air bolts had actually managed to hurt her. With a last growl Rin stilled. Sighing in relief Jack sunk to the ground. He had won.