Hell claimed Yurie’s mind. She was not particularly religious but the church had instilled some fears in her all the same. As the fire and the force threw her against the wall, breaking her, Yurie fell from consciousness.
Right into a nightmare.
The pain in her body combined with the fear and anxiety in her mind. Her every fibre felt as though a hot nail were being pushed through them, a rusty pain that focused her mind rather than let it wander. That was how she knew it was hell. The kind of pain that you can’t run from, the kind that sits behind your eyes and throbs.
It seemed to Yurie that the world was made of blood. She felt slick with it. Thick, oily crimson as far as the eye could see in all directions. The blood boiled, large ribbiting bubbles croaking and groaning as they grew massive. When they popped, they belched out burning drippings, each droplet was a new agony as they drenched Yurie in a new wave of gore.
Through it all, she looked around in desperation. Somewhere, anywhere, there must be a path out of this. There had always been a different path before. Now all she could see was red, red, red. The blanket of blood covering the world had no breaks in its uniformity or its scale. It was simply everything. Even as Yurie thought this, as she was certain that all of existence was simply violence and gore, something new.
Something more terrifying.
The pitch black void of nothingness. Encroaching slowly on her vision, the darkness began to blot out the red. All at once Yurie began clawing towards the scarlet sea. That, at least, promised something. Something was better than the dead nothingness that awaited in the dark.
But that’s not all that happens in the dark, is it? Yurie couldn’t stop the malicious thought from voicing its complaint. If there was ever a time for it, she supposed it would be now. Quietening this voice had been easy recently but the pain made it crystal clear and thunderous. Vicious, cruel and unfair things happen when you step into the shadows but you did, didn’t you? Stepped right onto the black for that boy and look where it got you.
“I don’t regret it.” Yurie had no voice in this place except to herself and to that Other inside her. The pain and fear had dragged Yurie’s consciousness along with it. She was as clear on her feelings as she had ever been. “I don’t want to die.”
So why did you step into the darkness?
“Because he was there.” That had been enough. The pathways couldn’t lead to destruction if they also lead to Guan Ah Dan. Yurie really didn’t know why she felt this so strongly but she was certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ah Dan was someone she needed in her life. She thought about how strange her life had been since she met Xiaomei and the others. About how she felt a part of a group for the first time since she had her scars. About how Ah Dan made her forget her scars.
He made her pathways glow.
As though summoned by that thought, the light burst into the world. A golden spot in the centre of her vision. The world was still a black and red nightmare but a tiny star was approaching. Larger and larger the star grew, pushing away the red. It met the black and held firm, a blazing beacon alighting the world in a fierce glow. The two different shades warred for a short time before the light won out.
As the black was beaten away, the form within the light took shape. It was him, of course. She felt, as he approached, that the darkness was not just being held back but was fleeing Ah Dan.
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The world started to reform into some semblance of normalcy within a few moments. Then came the pain. A knitting, scratching, itching, gnawing pain that was most prevalent in her left knee. It felt as though a spool of rope were being dragged out of her, rope bourbon every spot that it was pulled from. Each broken bone and sliced muscle was a portal for this rope to burn her.
There was a strange calmness to the pain, though. Yurie knew that there was an end to it and with each passing second that thought became more and more of a certainty. She could feel her legs mending, her fingers realigning and her back twisting into place. Each part of her body that needed it was found by Ad Dan’s probing mana and smothered by it. Like warm water, it washed away the pains, forcing them out of her.
“Come on…” The sounds of the world came back and the first one was his voice. Then a dull crash, followed by louder bangs and even a roar. For a confused few seconds, Yurie was sure that she had yet to awaken. Ah Dan continued begging his magic to work and for Yurie to awaken. She obliged, fluttering her eyelids as they, in turn, desperately tried to stay closed. “It’s working!” Dan was quietly exalting, probably to himself.
Yurie waited. She could have said something but the feeling continued to push over her skin again and again, starting from the hand he was holding. It was intoxicatingly gentle, the brushing of Ah Dan’s mana. The facade fell apart as Yurie laughed a little, the tickling of Ah Dan’s mana along with her own thought that she should get hurt more often coupled to create an unstoppable burst of laughter.
Poor Ah Dan must have thought he’d gone completely mad, Yurie thought. From looking at his face, he definitely thought one of them was insane. His eyes looked like they were about to bulge out of his head. That only made Yurie laugh harder. She laughed harder and harder every time she looked at his confused and worried face.
It took a while and much pleading with Dan to stop having that face on his face but eventually Yurie calmed. Both the relief of being alive and the intense amount of energy that currently pulsed around Yurie’s body were making it very hard to take Ah Dan’s serious face seriously. If anything, his worries seemed ridiculous in the face of the world as it currently looked.
The entire world was lit up in gold. Possibility was everywhere, even in the other colours. There was not a single path that didn’t lead to something promising. “What have you done?” Yurie asked in wonder.
“I’m so sorry…” Ah Dan answered with worry.
Yurie had no idea what he was talking about but instead continued to scan the world. With all of her paths gilded as they were, she would need to relearn how to tell them apart. That one over there was tinged with green, she could see. There was another snaking path that looked flecked with a glorious sky blue. “Sorry for what?” Yurie asked, absolutely breathless at the beauty she could see in these dark alleys.
“Your… eyes.”
“Don’t worry about my eyes, can’t you see? Here, take a look with your mana.” Yurie hugged Ah Dan around his neck and kissed him on the cheek, no romance needed in this moment of pure happiness. She knew Ah Dan would take some of her mana and see the world in the glory that it was. How could anything be worth apologising for now?
Ah Dan did as she wanted but his eyes did not shine like Yurie expected. Instead he continued to look worried. “What’s wrong?” Yurie didn’t like the look on his face and nor did she understand it.
“You need to run, go find Fa Lian and the others.” Ah Dan looked over his shoulder again and again, tracing a line up a building. “I need to help Shade.”
Oh right, Yurie remembered, the fighting and all that. Sounds of it were still echoing through the thin alleys on the outskirts of Allusia. “I can help, too.” Yurie lied. Despite the excitement bounding within her, she knew just as well as Ah Dan that she was not a fighter like he was. That she would get in the way and need protecting. She shook her head as he began to speak. “I’ll find them.” She would not argue, she would just help.
The world rippled, the colours all seemed to dim as Yurie made her decision. From the myriad of trails that had painted all that her eye could see, only four or five bloomed with colour now. The rest tinged grey, though still held the colour within. The quirk she had been born with seemed to have been improved by Ah Dan’s mana and Yurie was not going to argue with it. She began following the path, shouting over her shoulder for Ah Dan to stay safe.
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Safe? Is safety even a possibility?
As he took Yurie’s power and looked at the world, Dan was certain that the paths they saw were different. If Yurie saw the violent purples and deep, ominous tones that Dan could, he did not think she would have been so excited. That was good. If the paths were different, then at least Yurie would be okay.
More than okay, more likely. Dan was not sure exactly how she would react and he hadn’t even considered for a moment that it was possible but he had healed Yurie’s wounds.
All of them.
With no time to think about that, Dan scaled the building he had been eyeing up before Yurie left. With a deep breath and a flick of his wrists, gauntlets of mana formed around his arms. Dan put energy into his legs and leapt, making it to the roof of the building in one bound. He found the path he wanted and ran to assist Shade and Calliope.
They weren’t hard to find.