“May the voices guide you to our fallen.”
Westward of the Jiuli’s hunting grounds, Lei-Lei and Suzaku stood before the many graves of the fallen Jiuli. Each tomb was made of wooden slabs that stuck out of the ground, and each tomb had a personalized message given by Lei-Lei, which she had Fei etch them in with a chisel. There were easily hundreds. A Silverwolf canine rested on every grave, an offering to the voices that ensured her people’s safety wherever they may be.
“Are you ready?” Suzaku asked.
Lei-Lei nodded, but a part of her was saddened. “This could be my last time visiting them.”
Suzaku put a hand on the depressed ethercaster’s shoulder. “You will have your retribution.”
Lei-Lei knew if Suzaku were by her side, their chances would be greater, but a part of her couldn’t help but be anxious. Will I?
The two left the grounds of the fallen and headed back to the village. On their way back, Suzaku consumed dozens of beasts, swallowing their Shijin Orbs whole each time. Like sticks and branches, they fueled her flame and made her stronger.
They made it back to the ruined village and sat on the many pieces of rubble.
“You really are the Vermillion Bird?” Lei-Lei asked. She watched Suzaku eat what seemed to her like nothing in her hands. Despite using her ether field, she could not detect whatever it was that gave her power.
“Of course, my greatness is,” Suzaku said. “You doubted my greatness?”
Lei-Lei shrugged. It made more sense now why she addressed herself the way she did. “I thought it was a title you gave yourself. Sorry, I didn’t know.”
“My greatness does not blame you. It has been over a millennium, so my greatness and her influence has likely dwindled. It is disheartening personally, but my greatness is hopeful. She has...” She stopped before she could say her wielder’s name. She had him before. “...she has great confidence in herself and her abilities to rule once more.”
“That’s great,” Lei-Lei said, smiling.
The two waited patiently for the demon to return. Each second that went by gave the two of them relief, but they still worried regardless. For Lei-Lei, she’d become worried about her performance during her previous engagement with the demon and worried she’d perform just as poorly now. As for Suzaku, she worried she would let the demon escape again, humiliating her greatness. It’d been three times already: the first time being when she couldn’t save Yushia from being taken, the second time being when she failed to kill the demon while being in its hideout, and the third time being recently when she scorched its hands off in the battle between it and Lei-Lei.
They both bore hatred toward the demon, but fighting a being with an arsenal of cowardly tricks was like trying to reach something distant—possible, but absurd in difficulty. Again, every second that went by gave the two relief, because they’d rather not have to partake in such a risky fight.
And yet, they remained still. What other choice did they have? Every ounce of strength and ether they saved for their final encounter mattered.
Suzaku couldn’t help but stare at Lei-Lei in her new attire. Wearing a robe all the time, she never thought Lei-Lei could be such a pretty girl. It was a stark contrast to her usual look. She too wanted to wear what Lei-Lei wore but chose not to voice those thoughts.
“My greatness may be the Vermillion Bird, but she must admit a hint of uncertainty with what we are doing,” Suzaku said. “If my greatness has learned anything, it is that the tides could shift at any moment.”
Lei-Lei had never heard of such an expression. “The tides shifting?”
“Things can change at any given moment, good or bad. The Tree of Inanis has written our fate, and we must hope she has written it in our favor.”
“The Tree of Inanis is strange,” Lei-Lei said.
“The Tree of Inanis is my greatness’ mother, and yours as well,” Suzaku said. “We will follow her will until the very end.”
A puzzled look appeared on Lei-Lei's face. “Must we?”
“We must,” Suzaku reaffirmed. “My greatness has known that all her life.”
“Even as a child?”
Suzaku paused, reminded of how she couldn’t recall anything from her childhood. She was hesitant, but she had to lie. “Even as a child.”
The sun headed west, retreating for the moon to take its place. The battle, if Merew were to strike soon, would bring Suzaku to a disadvantage. Knowing this, Lei-Lei called for the Voice of Mist and shot a beam of light into the air that exploded into dust, falling like snow. The dust landed in the trees and in the village’s clearing, illuminating the space. She thanked Lei-Lei, to which she responded with a gentle nod.
The ground was stunning. Suzaku could stare for hours, admiring the beautiful light that wouldn’t be possible without the darkness that surrounded them. For her to notice such small details in a tense situation made her anxious, and a sigh left her mouth.
An Erkling barely touched Lei-Lei's ether field, but she still felt it. She extended its reach and sensed it hiding behind a bush.
“We are being watched,” she said. She rose from the rubble she sat on and patted down her white skirt.
“Is it the demon?” Suzaku wondered.
She tilted her head and pointed a finger at where she felt the observing presence. It ran off shortly after being spotted. “Erkling watching. Could be with the demon.”
Suzaku stood and stretched, activating her Ghost Mansion in her right forearm. “That certainly confirms it, then.”
Lei-Lei's eyes scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. “Wait.”
Usually, she could detect both the physical presence and ether of a being. However, this time was different. She turned away from Suzaku and faced the dark forests as a man absent of ether entered her ether field. A puppet? A mere object? No, the thing that approached them lived and breathed. She could sense the man’s lips moving as if speaking a mantra.
Lei-Lei tugged Suzaku, directing her to look in the direction the man came from. As they both looked, she pointed her staff toward it and chanted: “Voice of Mist: Seer’s Light.”
A beam of light shot out of her staff, lighting the surroundings. Then, the light suddenly vanished without time to dissipate.
“You felt it too, didn’t you?” Suzaku asked, baffled by what she saw.
“Yes,” Lei-Lei said, her voice in a slight panic. “It’s taken my light.” Feeling her nerves take over, Lei-Lei began channeling more ether back into her staff. “Voice of Ice: Spears!”
A dozen spears of ice summoned beside her. She shot them all at once, but they too vanished before hitting their target.
Suzaku clenched her teeth and lowered Lei-Lei's staff. “It’s the demon’s shadow! Don’t waste your ether!”
During Lei-Lei's fight with the demon, it never once used its shadows to take her ether. Why was now different?
The demon’s body sunk into the ground. “It’s coming,” Lei-Lei said.
Like a snake, the demon slithered through the bright grass, making it easy for Suzaku to see. Lei-Lei readied her staff again and channeled it with ether as Suzaku observed it, aching to strike.
At the halfway point between the forest and the girls, Merew partially left his shadow, exposing his head and upper torso. He brought his arm out and threw it back behind his head, summoning Trufagetou behind him.
Suzaku’s eyes widened and she took a step back. She gazed at the towering ram and looked it in its hollow eye sockets. A beast nobody had seen before appeared before them, a beast that should not exist in the world governed by Inanis.
Lei-Lei halted her ether in response to Suzaku’s hesitation. “What’s wrong, Suzaku?”
“You are unable to sense it...?” Suzaku’s legs shook, terrified.
She couldn’t understand Suzaku. Her ether field could only sense the demon’s physical presence.
“DOES THIS REMIND YOU OF ANYTHING, OH, GREAT VERMILLION BIRD?”
Such a horrifying beast reminded Suzaku of her greatest defeat: her humiliation against Laplace. Back then, she had met a beast just like the one standing behind the demon. That beast brought her shame and fear. It, just like Laplace’s, stood powerfully.
Merew smiled upon witnessing the Vermillion Bird’s fear. “IT DOES, DOESN’T IT? IT WAS LAPLACE WHO DEFEATED YOU WITH A POWER LIKE MINE! THIS TIME, I WILL FINISH HIS JOB AND RID YOU FROM THIS REALM!”
“What is it talking about, Suzaku?” Lei-Lei asked, her stress building. Suzaku remained silent, still. “Tell me, please!”
“The demon speaks of nonsense!” Suzaku shouted, planting her feet deep in the ground to stop her trembling body. She forced a wicked smile, one of sheer madness. Through it, she spoke bravely. “The demon standing before us is nothing compared to our combined strength.”
Merew boiled with anger as his efforts were pushed aside by the careless words of those still clinging to the mother—the Tree of Inanis. He was different. He had escaped it, and nobody should have been looking down on him.
“Trufagetou,” he said. “Like we discussed. The blind one.”
“Yes, my master.”
Trufagetou mustered ether between its horns and bowed down to its master, granting him the ether it filtered from the Tree of Inanis. Merew felt the rush, that addictive pumping of power in his body as he stuck his palm out toward Lei-Lei.
Suzaku’s eyes widened again. She grabbed Lei-Lei's arm and pulled her aside. Just then, a thick, black liquid shot from the demon’s hand, narrowly missing Lei-Lei as it made a slimy noise in its travel. It splashed against the rubble beside her and swallowed it whole before dissipating.
Suzaku took a deep breath and released Lei-Lei from her grip. She couldn’t afford the feeling of fear. She wanted to strike, but she knew now that it’d cost her life if she acted careless. But what was she to do? Standing behind the demon, a creature like the one that helped seal her a thousand years ago stood in her way, granting its owner strange powers.
“Lei-Lei,” she said. She knew she couldn’t see what she saw. “Standing before my greatness now is the demon, and behind it a creature unfitting of this world. My greatness knows you are not capable of detecting this creature. She would like to propose that you sit out for this fight.”
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“Have you gone mad?” Lei-Lei asked.
Another stream of black liquid left Merew’s hand, again aiming for Lei-Lei. Suzaku pulled her away from its fire.
“You are unable to sense its ether either too, correct?”
“I can hear it...”
“That is not good enough.” Suzaku whispered in Lei-Lei's ear, “Use your ether somewhere safe. Aid me from afar.”
Without a choice, Lei-Lei obliged and ran off into the forest behind them.
“Is that a wise choice, great Vermillion Bird?” Merew taunted, a laxed expression on his face. He enjoyed watching their reactions to his newfound abilities.
“Your world must have shunned you, forcing you to come here,” Suzaku snapped back. “Do you think it wise yourself to challenge the Vermillion Bird?”
“You’ve lost to me before.”
“My greatness was careless before.”
Activating her Well Mansion, ether channeled into her bladed forearm, engulfing it in a spiral of flames.
“Showing off?” Merew asked. He scoffed, unphased by the seemingly unnecessary display. “Is it really worth the effort?”
“That is for you to decide.”
Dashing toward the demon, Suzaku kept watch on both it and its pet. She suddenly stopped, not nearly close enough to cut the demon. Regardless, she slashed her Ghost Mansion through the air.
Is she serious? Merew thought. It really isn’t worth the effort—
The fire on Suzaku’s blade roared monstrous. She channeled more ether—more fire—and with the momentum of her body, her spiral of flames extended like a whip, lacerating down the demon’s torso, leaving a deep, burning scar.
Merew’s body couldn’t react at all, and he watched as the flames clung to the deep cut inflicted upon him. In a panic he patted the flames but that only made them spread further across his body. The Vermillion Bird’s flames were no joke.
Again, the Vermillion Bird brought her blade back and ignited it with an even stronger flame. Before she could whip him again, Merew yelled. “TRUFAGETOU!”
Trufagetou bowed and granted its ether to its master. As the Vermillion brought her flame-engulfed blade down, Merew held out both his palms and summoned a wall of black liquid before him, swallowing the flames.
Wasting no time, Suzaku dashed to the side of the wall before it could fall. Merew, baffled by the Vermillion Bird’s disappearance, glanced to his sides to see her several arm lengths away. He was forced to summon another wall of black liquid to protect himself.
Once more, Suzaku made a sharp turn and darted to another opening, forcing the demon to summon dozens of walls. She’d stop again and make another turn, repeating the process. Pressure became important in controlling the battle, and she applied plenty.
“Stay back, whore!” Merew shouted. With the remaining ether he had left, he encased himself in a dome of his black liquid. The Vermillion Bird had nearly touched it and took several paces back.
She watched the creature behind Merew. Unlike Laplace’s, it didn’t bother attacking, or rather, it couldn’t. It stood idly, waiting for an opportunity to help its master again.
The dome of black liquid dropped and splashed on the ground, swallowing the blind ethercaster’s scattered light on the ground. Panting, Merew begged for more ether, and Trufagetou obeyed. He stuck out his hand at the Vermillion and made sure she wouldn’t get close.
Trufagetou bowed. “Careful, my master—”
“Silence you imbecile!” Merew interrupted. “Worthless piece of shit! Fight for me!”
“You know I can’t, my master,” Trufagetou pleaded. “This is the restriction you have bound to me. In exchange for more of my ether, I will not assist you in your fights if it is not for lending ether. Is that not what you desired?”
Black liquid splashed on Merew’s wounds, swallowing the flames that stuck on him. “Let me change it!” He fought back.
“Changing it now will mean repurposing the schematics of your ether from the ground up.”
Their bickering meant opportunity for Suzaku as she sprinted toward the demon. She charged her flame whip but then saw a familiar face emerge from the bushes wielding a knife. Payuei?
“Die!” he shouted.
Suzaku hesitated once she heard the voice, pulling back her blade as she watched Payuei run out from the dark forest. If she had proceeded with her whip, Payuei would suffer as well. Somehow, he stabbed the demon in the back and withdrew his dagger before stabbing it again and again. The demon screeched in anguish.
“How...?” Suzaku wondered. Fei peeked out from the bushes as well, but she wasn’t as daring as Payuei and stayed back. Her arm was extended, likely from having to stop Payuei. Why in Inanis are they here...?
Lei-Lei yelled. “No!” she ran out from the forest, even more surprised by their appearance. Her ether field hadn’t sensed them at all. Were they out of reach? Even then, it should’ve been impossible for them to escape her Imprisonment Aqua!
Payuei drove his dagger deeper inside the demon. Black blood gushed from its back and onto him. “This is for Mrei!” He pulled his dagger out and unleashed a barrage of piercing.“This is for mother, for father!”
Payuei’s teeth grit as his breath grew heavier each time his blade plunged into the rough skin. His face became crazed. Tears ran down his face, but he smiled, thoroughly enjoying the sharp thrashing and he inflicted. Oh, great vengeance.
“This is for Lei-Lei! This is for Fei! This is for everyone you hurt!”
The demon tried sinking into its shadow but was squeezed out of it like paste. It couldn’t muster anymore ether as its lanky body lay motionless on the ground. Even the demon’s companion vanished, retreating into its master’s body. Payuei fell back, falling on his bottom.
Lei-Lei stopped in her tracks. Her ether field could sense dozens of open wounds that together formed a honeycomb shape. But something was still amiss. The demon itself, or rather a part of it, was still alive.
“I did it, Lei-Lei!” Payuei laughed out hysterically. “I told you I would, didn’t I? I killed the demon!” His crazed eyes met Lei-Lei's. “I can marry—”
Before Payuei could finish his words, his head burst, his neck spraying a fountain of blood. His backside met the ground with a soft thud.
Lei-Lei fell to her knees. her staff dropped to the ground, realizing the only family she had left was her sister who stood near the battlefield. Her death seemed almost unavoidable now.
Payuei’s body rose in what looked like a miracle and stood to face Fei hiding in the bushes. Like a flower, Merew’s head bloomed from the neck with a haunting smile.
“Inanis damn you!” Suzaku clenched her fist as her blade rattled. “Foolish! He’s been possessed!”
Merew adjusted himself in his new body. He dislocated his arms and legs, finding a more comfortable form. He crawled on all fours, resembling a spider and scurried toward Fei while summoning Trufagetou behind him. “You lot are full of tricks, aren’t you? We demons have tricks as well. Many, many tricks!”
The young Jiuli girl let out a frightened cry.
Suzaku launched herself off the ground and flew behind the demon. She drew her blade back, charging it with all the ether she could into her Well Mansion.
It pierced.
Suzaku’s blade sunk into the demon. Her Well Mansion unleashed another relentless blaze at her tip as she drove her blade deeper.
Merew smiled and looked over his shoulder. His earlier statement about tricks stood true. Though the Vermillion Bird’s blade pierced through his body—a sure hit that should’ve killed him—he immediately followed up by using his shadow ether within his body. Instead of the Vermillion Bird’s blade coming out through his torso, it had entered the void of his shadows.
Suzaku immediately removed her blade from the demon’s body just before it could close and rob her permanently of an arm. She leaped back, wary of the demon’s newfound proficiency.
“You’re evolving, my master,” Trufagetou said. “You grow more efficient with the usage of my ether.”
On the brink of death, Merew’s body was forced to adapt quickly. The little unfiltered ether he had left made him more resourceful with what he had, and during that short time, he learned how to survive off it. Before, he had trouble controlling the black liquid as he’d use more than he needed. With Trufagetou resupplying him now, the excessive ether he held within him could be used with the same precision he learned just moments ago.
A barrage of hundreds of icicles dropped down on him from above. Instead of summoning a wall, he summoned a thin, translucent film of black liquid that sent each icicle into his shadow.
Lei-Lei's arms fell to her side, shameful of her efforts. What was she to do against such a foe?
Merew dove into his shadow and zipped past the blind ethercaster and the Vermillion Bird. Trufagetou followed behind him, galloping. He wanted to show everyone his new powers and how great he truly was! He emerged from his shadow and surrounded himself with black liquid, keeping the Vermillion Bird from coming any closer. Trufagetou bowed to its master, granting him a constant stream of ether that he could not contain all at once. With a finger raised to the sky, Merew cackled as his ether streamed out of his finger and into the sky. A thin blanket formed over the destroyed village, blocking the moon.
The demon suddenly grew tired—Suzaku caught on to the plan as the blanket lowered.
“Don’t just sit there, Lei-Lei!” Suzaku ran toward Fei who sat cowering with her hands over her head and picked her up. “Get away from here! Run as far as you can!”
Lei-Lei could hardly grasp the situation, but she ran into the forests knowing Suzaku had her sister safe in her arms.
“IT’S TOO LATE, GREAT VERMILLION BIRD!” Merew yelled out.
The blanket of black liquid already covered a radius too large for them to run away from. As the blanket descended, it grazed and swallowed the head of trees and anything else that touched it. No amount of running could save the girls now. Death stood eagerly beside them.
A howl ripped through the air, blowing leaves off their branches. A Silverwolf as tall as the trees leaped out from the forests and into the clearing. Straddled it on its back, a boy howled with it, his long, bushy black hair flying behind him.
The idiot’s here!? Suzaku thought as the Silverwolf darted toward her.
Before she could move away from its path, Yushia leaned to his side and extended his hand, grabbing and pulling up both Suzaku and Fei. They landed behind him in Dolorma’s soft fur where Moonless sat. The colossal Silverwolf turned a tight angle and rushed toward Lei-Lei next, and she too was lifted and thrown on Dolorma’s soft, furry back.
Dolorma sprinted as fast as she could out of the forests. As she weaved through the trees in her path, she ducked her head lower and lower, narrowly avoiding the blanket of darkness above. The moon became visible once more: she escaped the demon’s blanket of shadows.
The entire had village vanished. The trees surrounding the village vanished, too. What was left of Merew’s attack was a desolate plain of grass and tree stumps. Amidst that plain, Merew and his proxy basked in the moonlight, admiring the damage they’d done. He didn’t bother moving; he wanted to enjoy this drug as much as he could.
“Fei!” Lei-Lei cried. She didn’t care about the village anymore and hugged her sister tight. “Why are you here? I thought you were going to die!”
Fei clung to her sister as well and cried into her beautifully woven clothing. She took several deep breaths before speaking. “Your water barrier... It weakened and... and Payuei managed to break through it! He said he was going to go back and help you fight, but... but I kept telling him not to over and over again, but he didn’t listen to me! I tried everything be he wouldn’t stop!”
The two sisters held on to each other and cried.
Yushia stroked Dolorma’s fur. “Down.”
Dolorma kneeled and Yushia slid off her back. He gave Suzaku, Lei-Lei, and Fei a hand and helped each of them down from the incredible beast. Moonless slid off as well and sat beside his feet.
Suzaku glared at her wielder. “You’re back?”
Yushia gulped. “I’m back.”
“Unbelievable,” Suzaku said, shaking her head. She wiped off the sweat beading down her face, but she couldn’t hide a faint smile.
“I realized something when you left,” Yushia said. “I was worried I wouldn’t be enough to be called your wielder, and I pushed you away thinking I was too weak. But then I got up, and for some reason, I kept fighting... I’m not as weak as I thought. I made a promise with you too, didn’t I?”
Suzaku punched her wielder. “You must not forget such a thing, my wielder. It is your job to help my greatness retrieve her seven mansions.”
“And it’s your job to help find my wife and change the image of my people.”
“My greatness could never forget a promise with an idiot like you.”
Yushia bowed. “I’m sorry I lost myself back then, I mean it!”
Suzaku grabbed her wielder’s hair and yanked his head up. “Raise your head, idiot! Neither my greatness nor her wielder will fall before our promises are fulfilled! Do you understand?”
“I do!” Yushia shouted.
She turned to Lei-Lei. “And you!”
Lei-Lei, still hugging her sister, turned to her voice. “Yes...?”
“The beast I told you of before that you were not able to sense is not an immediate danger to any of us! I want you to solely focus on the demon!”
“But the demon negates my ether—”
“If you are unable to directly hurt that wretched demon, then help us another way! Do you remember what I told you before?”
Lei-Lei remained silent.
“Stand, Lei-Lei! If my greatness has learned anything, it’s that the tides could shift at any second! Do you not remember my greatness telling you this!?”
It clicked in her head, the new expression she had learned earlier that evening. Suzaku was right. Sensing Yushia’s radiating ether, she too felt radiant, and she too could feel the tides changing.
“Yes, my greatness!” Lei-Lei sobbed through her rasp voice. She stood on uneasy legs, her staff aiding her. The three of them were here now. They could bring retribution to her people.
“Suzaku,” Yushia said. He held her right hand and focused his sights on the demon ahead. The intertwined rings engraved in their palms burned like a vortex of fire. “Let’s not waste any more time.”
Suzaku looked forward just as her wielder did. Threads of ether wove themselves around her body.