The sound of her cousin’s voice had filled Guan Po Daiyu with unexpected fury. Just like her father, she sauntered around doing whatever she liked and expected no consequence for her actions. It was very satisfying to see the look on Fa Lian’s face as she had emerged from the stairwell.

Po Shang was below and while she was sure that the oaf had no chance of forcing Yo Shen to relinquish the soul relic within his grasp, it would not do to have him interrupted either. The change in her brother was subtle enough that if you didn’t know him well, you’d have thought he just became more tyrannical and malicious.

It was not so simple.

Pushing the thoughts of her brother’s condition from her mind, Po Daiyu had smiled at Fa Lian. She had taunted her. That had been where things started to feel strange. Fa Lian had replied about having the strength of a dragon or some nonsense before asking Po Daiyu about her own father. She had lost her cool there, which was surely the only reason she found herself in this situation now.

While looking for any trace of her father, Po Daiyu had been wandering into the labyrinth and there was no shortage of treasures to find there. While most things she found were fancy baubles, she had discovered some truly glorious items. A death defying dash along a trap filled hallway had led her to the amulet. She had a much easier time on the way back due to its effect. By using a small amount of mana, the amulet heightened her perception, slowing the world around her.

Another excursion had been interrupted by a large serpentine creature with fur and a mouth full of tentacles. Po Daiyu had no name for the grotesque thing and her attacks were dampened by the thick hair. She couldn’t cut the creature, so she had retreated. That path had led her to a precarious safety. A large cavern opened up behind her retreat and the creature had fallen to its doom in a pool of acid below. The noxious fumes of decomposition were almost enough to make Po Daiyu miss the treasure the room had held.

A censer made of some kind of glossy clay was clutched in the grasp of a long dead explorer. Po Daiyu had taken it and immediately began to feel better. It had cost a few gold pieces to get it properly identified but the result had been more than worth it, though she had been forced to kill the scribe who had performed the identification. Items which passively healed were immensely valuable. The scents. given off by the trinket encouraged accelerated recovery in those who smelled them.

The amulet hanging around her neck was cold, useless in the face of Fa Lian’s speed. The censer at her hip was no longer releasing healing aromas, its energy for the day thoroughly used up. Both items were wondrous things that would fetch a fortune in any reasonable spot in the world.

Fa Lian had become entirely unreasonable.

How had the labyrinth shaped her so quickly? Hadn’t she been dying only a week or so before? The being that bore down on Po Daiyu like a mountain right now could not be her younger cousin. She could not be the girl that Po Daiyu used to bully, pull the hair of and tease. That simply could not be.

It was too unfair.

Once again her younger cousin had found some way to cheat her way to the top and place herself firmly above Po Daiyu. It was maddening and right now there was nothing she could do about it but scream. When the other little Guan bastard showed up and blocked one of Fa Lian’s errant attacks, Po Daiyu was not only relieved but doubly infuriated.

How had this one also grown stronger than her? Xiaomei had shown no potential in all the time that she had scurried around the Jiaoduo, the shadow of her mother’s death constantly on her face. It wasn’t as though Po Daiyu had been sitting around doing nothing, she had pushed herself to the brink multiple times chasing her father’s shadow in the labyrinth but all that she had to show for it were ornaments.

Po Daiyu channelled the relief that the assault had been slowed into revulsion that she had been assisted. Guan Xiaomei had shouted something to Fa Lian who had in turn given Po Daiyu a fearsome glare before beginning to move downstairs. To Po Daiyu’s disgust, Xiaomei stood before her, ready to stop her from interrupting the heiress.

“I see now.” Po Daiyu spat out some blood before she could talk. She pushed herself off the dias which she had leaned on, her strength flagging for a moment. It had not been fatigue that stole Po Daiyu’s knees, though. It had been Fa Lian. Po Daiyu steadied her legs as she faced a much more human opponent and silently thanked the empty god of this church that she had been given a chance to breathe. It wouldn’t be long now before reinforcement arrived, anyway. “When Fa Lian escaped to the labyrinth, she took servants with her. It all makes sense. Going to fight her battles now, too?”

“You’re pathetic.” The dismissal in the girl’s words was all the fuel that Po Daiyu’s muscles needed to return to fighting form. With a snarl on his lips and mana coursing up and down her arms, Po Daiyu sprang forward. The dias exploded behind her, the force of her leap too much for the wooden pulpit to survive. She curled slightly in the air and spun, sending arcs of slicing energy at Xiaomei.

The smaller girl danced out of the way. Literally seeming to follow a pattern, Xiaomei leaned, flipped, dropped and otherwise avoided the incoming attacks. As she dodged, she was pushed back. She manoeuvred around the pews behind her, using them to reach higher perogies in her jumps. She also spun, faster than Po Daiyu did, and she did, Xiaomei released her threads.

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A spray of straight ribbons shot out in all directions, connecting from floor to ceiling to wall to door and everything in between. Xiaomei spoke calmly as she avoided the attacks and continued to create her web. “Just so you know, cousin, if you can’t keep up with me then you definitely can’t touch the others.” She was so nonchalant in her tone and her movements that Po Daiyu had no comeback. She was no match for even Xiaomei. “Also,” the girl said, her last jump took her into a tangle of fabric, “I haven’t forgiven you or Shang.”

The fabric gave Xiaomei a foothold to jump from. Suddenly the web of ribbons was not just a hindrance to Po Daiyu’s movement, but an advantage to Xiaomei’s own. Po Daiyu had no way to keep up with the strange patterns of movement and so she began firing off wave after wave of cutting force. Some of the weaker threads broke but others held, their solidity outlasting Po Daiyu’s slashing mana.

Ignoring her attacks, Xiaomei sprang forward. She splayed her hands and let a cat’s cradle of energy crackle within. It blocked and dissipated the striking blades of magic Po Daiyu launched. Once she was close enough, Xiaomei closed her hands, clasped them around a bundle of cord at her waist and then whipped her arm forward.

It was too quick to see, especially with Po Daiyu’s current anger leading her to lash out instead of calculating her attacks.

The pain Xiaomei inflicted was nothing like the pain Fa Lian did. Both hurt but Fa Lian felt like torture and Xiaomei’s attack felt like finality. Po Daiyu’s limbs locked as a burst of electricity paralysed her. The clap of thunder from the lightning strike, contained in Xiaomei’s bundled cord, sent her frozen body flying, crashing into a wall. Po Daiyu had just enough time to see the doors of the church darken with silhouettes before she fainted.

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Xiaomei wasn’t a fighter. Not in the same way that Dan, Fa Lian or even Hyun Soon were. She learned her techniques because… not doing so seemed rude. If she could avoid a fight, she would much rather do that than risk her abilities not being enough and dying.

So when she easily dismantled Po Daiyu, once the scariest thing in Xiaomei’s life, she felt a strange mix of emotions. First was the cool breeze of relief. Xiaomei worried, even now, that her threads had somehow lost potency. Seeing their efficacy was calming. The ease of which her plan of attack had come to fruition, without any surprises, almost felt like a trick.

However, when the braided cord known as Kariza’s misery struck the ground at Po Daiyu’s feet, right where Xiaomei had wanted it to land, there seemed to be no rug underneath her to pull out. The crystal of lightning did as it always did and exploded with a flash of energy when it struck its target. The woman flew across the room with more of a gasp than a yell, her breath thudding out of her as she collided with the far wall.

Xiaomei herself was a little deafened by the attack. It had seemed to kinder of the two choices she had available. Her own techniques were more defensive and support based so having the knock out punch of the magical item she had taken from the Guan vault had served her well. It was just that the fire side was brutal. Po Daiyu already had burns from Fa Lian and Xiaomei had hoped not to need to use the immolating properties where she could avoid it.

Still revelling in her victory and ears ringing with a high pitched whine, Xiaomei didn’t notice the group filing into the church behind her. It was only when, as though she was not there, members of the group walked past her that Xiaomei noticed them. She was immediately on guard. “Who are you?” She asked the closest hooded figure. Receiving no answer, Xiaomei moved to place her back to the stairs underground.

Seven in total, the figures walked into the church quietly. Their lack of response or reaction to the disarray was disconcerting, as was their sudden arrival. It was not hard to see that they were members of the church of the empty god and so their presence here wasn’t too surprising. None of them approached Xiaomei, leaving her standing awkwardly to one side of the room as they found their positions.

There was an obvious pattern to where each person stopped in the room. A collection of men and women, all wearing white robes and, to add to their intimidation perhaps, a plain white mask with only eye holes. Xiaomei had never spent much time in religious study, so she had no idea who these people were or if their clothing signified any importance.

They did not seem interested in helping Po Daiyu. Instead, they began to chant. Xiaomei had heard a few spells since coming to Allusia and recognised the general language as that of the holy magic used by Grier. It made sense but something about their tone was different. They were certainly not casting a spell of healing.

As quickly as they entered, as quickly as they began their spell, it was over just as abruptly. Xiaomei had no true perception of mana, not like Dan did, but even she felt the immensity of what had just been wrought. In what was, in Xiaomei’s opinion, the completely wrong order of operations, a figure appeared in the centre of the seven individuals. One moment there was an empty space and the next a person with the strangest looking outfit Xiaomei had ever seen simply was.

Next came the noise. A mixture between a volcanic eruption and a choir, like an organ being played by a landslide, the noise filled Xiaomei’s soul and mind. The church itself seemed to swell, as though the rock of the building were trying to absorb the sound and coming off worse for it. The building returned to its normal dimensions quickly, the distended portions of wall and arch snapping back into place as the echoing cacophony abruptly ended.

Seven quick yelps, each attempted to be stifled by the yelper. Seven bodies collapsing to the floor and not moving again.

Death.

Reacting to that word, writ large in her mind, Xiaomei panicked and tried to run. Her legs felt like jelly and all she managed to do was slip. As though they hadn’t noticed her before, and maybe they hadn’t, the figure turned to look at Xiaomei. It was an elderly man, wearing a strange drooping hat and enough jewellery to buy a country. He looked like a bleached shellfish covered in shiny barnacles.

The man stepped over a body as he approached Xiaomei, who was locked in place. The pressure that this man gave off was more intense than anything Xiaomei had ever felt before. Her skin crawled as though it were trying to escape her body with each step that he took towards her. When he spoke, it was as though a graveyard had been given a voice to ask questions. “Where is it, girl?”

Xiaomei did not know what to say. She did not know what the man was looking for or who he was. She was certain that the wrong word, or no words at all, would get her killed. With tears in her eyes, Xiaomei fumbled for an answer though she was only given a few seconds before the man tutted at her and lost his patience.

With a wave of his arm, the man produced a sceptre. It was a bulbous thing, looking more like a mace than a holy instrument but there could be no mistake. This was the holiest of instruments, as far as the church was concerned. Xiaomei may not have known much but she had heard of this. Ornate, with a colour that didn’t quite fit the description of gold or silver, the sceptre almost had its own gravity. It was nearly impossible to look away from.

“Tell me where the soul relic is.” When the man spoke now, the man Xiaomei knew must be the pope of the church of the empty god, his voice carried a different timbre. The graveyard was now filled with demons. An intent wrapped itself around Xiaomei’s thoughts and she had no control over the words that came from her mouth.

“This one does not know the answer to your question.” She felt like she was being puppeted, even down to the words she was using. Without letting his command of Xiaomei go, the pope surveyed the room.

“What happened here?” His voice the very definition of authority, Xiaomei began explaining in painful detail the events leading up to this situation. The man listened impatiently for a few moments before asking “Where is Oblax?” Hearing from Xiaomei that he was downstairs, likely in combat, the pope rolled his eyes and Xiaomei felt the control upon her fade.

Just as he lashed out with the whip in his other hand. The world became flame, agony and darkness, and Xiaomei screamed into unconsciousness.