“What did you do to me?” Ying Yueru stopped struggling. Rugged breaths kept coming out of her red lips as she regained some inkling of her current helplessness. Wei Zhiruo, however, refused to indulge the other’s small questions, or ploys, and instead, jumped closer to Ying Yueru’s hanging figure. Red sword’s reflection mirrored in the sea water.

It was marvelous. Wei Zhiruo marveled at the complexity of the matter forming the golden chains. Each of its, small-finger length chain-links were made of gold, etched with incomprehensible shapes and lines that caused a headache once she started staring at them too hard.

She looked up and met those eyes who were chasing her, and said - “You cannot get away. Don’t worry you won't die.” These chains were just reflections of the real hell-chains, they wouldn’t kill a person. So, the woman was really safe. She might lose something precious to offset her crimes and sins - but it wouldn’t be as heavy as losing her life.

Wei Zhiruo touched the chains and became certain of her conjectures.

Everyone in the Middle world was aware of the legend of the Hell chains. It was a story of lingering horror; a tale told to children by their elders to arouse their inner fear and make them obedient.

If there was a bard singing hymns to the greatness of the Ancient Gods walking down the street somewhere, there was always a chance to come across one who was alluding to the might of these chains – legends, odes and parables, in all forms of imagination it had left its traces. It came creeping in the night’s shadow, but left like a singing, raging fire. No one was impervious to its hold. Because in all of its visits – there was a trace of justice being served, and for many helpless, downtrodden men and women, these hell-chains were nothing less than a symbol of the dawn of hope.

It all started in the ancient times, when the God of Darkness, the ruler of Gloomy Trenches – the one called Abyss, made use of the universe's first gold frothing in the river of skies, and smelted to perfection, some thousands of these chains. Like unfettered birds, they flew in the universe like unstoppable curses. Later, after the defeat of the ‘Fallen God’s’, inside that long list of purged fallen Gods was also his name - Abyss, who was killed and out of his darkness formed the ‘Endless Pit of Hell’. But after the fall of that deity, these chains became lost, till the new Hell-keeper found a way to summon them through word [Expel].

Every sinner, every single one of them regardless of the nature of their crimes and their origin, was sentenced and dragged down into the hell when it was his time to be sentenced - and when there was the possibility of the hell-keeper losing a certain fight, he would send the chains in his stead. Gods, immortals, humans and magical creatures feared its reach like nothing else – in the Home of Gloom, in the Country of Night, they were the uncrowned kings, and in the living realm they roamed on certain days of the year seeking out those who smelled of ‘sin’ to drag them down into the hell pits.

The one that emerged in her spiritual world right now was definitely not the actual artefact– rather, it was a ‘tiny’ imitation of it, or rather a reduced, small reflection of the actual thing. How she got her hands around this Rune, was yet another strange tale.

She stumbled upon a dead necromancer’s tomb in the Abyss, when she was searching for the traces of another person. She was lost and knew nothing about the extent of the vast lands that formed Abyss itself in those early days. When she saw troves of scribbled notebooks and books, words and patterns filling margins and even running along on the floor and walls of that tomb, she decided to read them; that necromancer had spent fifty thousand years of his lifespan, dedicating it all, to unravel a single word. Unfortunately, he just had sporadic access to some unconventional legends, few heresies about hell-chains and nothing else as a guide. He wasn’t even a trained Rune-forger! He was just a very good mathematician.

Intrigued by another mortal's sheer passion for words, Wei Zhiruo, began her own little quest of deciphering it. Despite having the luxury of knowing a similar kind of language, she spent five grueling years deciphering just a single word! Not just that - it was two years later, finally, when she successfully learned how to write it down. This…this was just her second time using it – the only time where it properly showed its edges. And also opened up a mad possibility of really summoning the hell-chains one day!

This was a great success. Exceptional.

She felt the metal with her hand.

Her marveling at this glorious phenomenon was completely natural. A word, which was lost, and once banned by the ‘New Era Gods’ - a word which held the powers to summon the wandering ‘Judges of hell’– being able to see it work in a different universe was an electrifying experience.

Here though she was interrupted by a sudden bell-like laughter. Wei Zhiruo looked up to meet a very amused looking woman.

“You…you don’t take me as dead, do you?” Ying Yueru whispered. “Your eyes wander in front of me like wandering in the labyrinth of time - and here I am. Your enemy is hanging pliantly in front of you to receive any kind of punishment you deem fit. Or is it that you don't see me worthy enough to even consider that?” The intensity of her gaze made Wei Zhiruo uncomfortable, so she looked down at the gaping hole in her stomach.

Unworthy? Who would call a woman like this an unworthy opponent? Won’t she be calling herself a piece of trash for suffering so much under her hands?

“I told you the truth.” Wei Zhiruo replied without embarrassment. “Although we both know you would have killed me if you could, but know that this sentiment isn’t mutual. I won't kill you - these chains are called hell-chains and they will just put you through a simple trial, judge the gravity of your sins and then punish you. They cannot take your life.”

“They cannot take my life but they can take everything else - ha! What a compassionate heart…” The woman began laughing, as if she couldn’t believe what she had heard.

Ying Yueru grew increasingly furious – “Release me. Now! We can forget all our disagreements from before. I will walk my way; you can do whatever you please. I will never take revenge against you, I can take an oath if you would like that –in return, just release me.” She stared seriously into the golden eyes, but received no reply.

Wei Zhiruo didn’t look away from the stare, instead she truthfully conveyed the current circumstances to her, “I cannot release you. Hell-chain’s hardly ever leave behind a ‘sinner’ before their punishments are served. You have the smell – death of innocence, sin of old; uncountable sins hang on your shoulder...It will only let you go after balancing your wrongs– what you’ll lose after this is not something I can predict.” She walked up closer to the woman, and looked up. The ragged cloth, blood smeared face and body, and wounds everywhere. She retained nothing of her previous glory or her calm.

“Sins…and you’ll wait for me here while it judges me like that?”

“I should.”

“Despite the possibility that I might kill you by blowing up? I am still in your spiritual sea - do you dare to let me explode in here? And don’t think I wouldn’t do that…”

“You can do whatever you want - just try.”

“...”

Wei Zhiruo knew she had already tried every way to get out. She turned away from her and studied the chains, while Marr asked her worriedly - “Is this going to take time?”

“Don’t worry, it won’t be long. Ten minutes is the longest they will take to complete judgment and sentence. We will handle the rest. I will kick her out as soon as it's done punishing her and you…”

“I will throw her away into the portal - don’t worry. I will be quick this time.” Having reassured her, he hesitantly asked her in a low voice, “Did it try to interrupt your thoughts again?”

“No - without that link, it cannot access my inner senses.”

“What is it? Did you think of something - how did we offend him?”

“It’s not the ‘world consciousness’ as I thought before - it's a power on par with it, but not that. The world rules aren't being used against us for one… he can push some disguised thoughts in my mind, lead us to our present confrontation, but it cannot come down and join or do it himself. No world rule can restrict the world consciousness, so we can rule out it being the ‘world consciousness’ who wants us dead. This thing, he acts in a bounded manner. As if there are some rules which restrict his appearance in reality. But at the same time, he is also powerful enough to influence other powerful beings like this woman…to chase us and do his job instead. I am divided on what to conclude from this.”

“A God?”

“If this world has one. Ah…it's most likely a divine being.”

“This sounds difficult - you cannot forge an enmity with such a being. Remember what we suffered through in the Cuiping world because of a single deity? A single oracle led to the bloodbath of all your clansmen, erased the name of your kingdom from the world, and most likely…was the cause of sudden design to use you in exchange for immortality of the Cuiping world and its people. I am ready to bet that those Ruze people might have exchanged our bloodline with that goddess of theirs! If there was no Goddess of Hope, Syncesia, behind the Ruze clan - do you think all those humans and mages would blindly follow the dictates of such a weak clan as your mother’s?”

“I cannot tell how I caught his eyes. Maybe, it's not me but this woman?”

“But when you wake up, he will know your true worth. You will become more…powerful in his eyes. Do you realize what that means for us?”

“I know…”

Earning the attention of a deity was like walking a single plank bridge, using a single foot. While he stood watching in amusement. A little tilt, a forceful nudge and you are ready to fall to pieces…when pleased he will shower you with endless gifts and boons, and when you are no more ‘pleasing’ in his eyes, he will throw you away, discard you, destroy you to remove all the traces of you from the earth. There was nothing like the entitlement they had…there was only one fate for a ‘pleasing’ human in their eyes; becoming a pet that was ready to do tricks all the time.

Wei Zhiruo floundered in the gravity of her present circumstances and grew extremely reluctant to die. There were so many things she hadn’t done yet…so many riddles, left unsolved. The rune collection has grown tremendously, and now if she lived – she will be busy spending each warm day, bent under her specially made glasses to peer past the bits of runes and look into their essence. Then weave it into a yarn of meaning, and thread it in the spindle of structure, to finally pull out her own interpretation, from the endless depth, unfathomable bottom of it all; all of these ‘words’ had inside them a complete world, and she felt she was at loss if she didn’t get a chance to glimpse them after coming so close to them.

“I wish, I am wrong. This time…”

While Wei Zhiruo was lost in her conversation, she was not unaware of an eye following her closely. Ying Yueru looked dumbstruck; a feeling akin to immense hatred dawned over her face, but she bit her lips, not letting them utter any useless word.

“She hates me? What do you think I should have done instead? Served my soul on a silver platter to earn her good wishes? What a strange woman.” Wei Zhiruo nonchalantly observed, when she finally heard the woman continue saying.

“Release me girl, I'm pleading with you now. Instead of wasting both our times like this, why not try to use something else instead. How about I tell you the whereabouts of some secret realms? And if that is not enough for you, do you know why I came to this place? You aren’t one of the Taiyuan cultivators…of course you do not know the conspiracy behind our presence here.” Ying Yueru said, looking increasingly grievous.

“Yes, you heard me right. Both you and I have fallen in a big game. Or else, what do you think allowed us to enter this world? I don’t care wherever you are from. But you shouldn’t stay too long in this world. A war between the heavens and earth…the mortal and cultivators, is going to unfold in two years. All the mortals will die, and this realm will become a secret realm controlled by a sect member from the Taiyuan realm.” She stopped talking as if judging the impact of her words.

Unfortunately, she didn’t see any obvious changes, as the mask covered everything except the eyes, and those eyes registered no impact from her words. They were as still and clear, as they had been before.

“Why do you think I will believe anything you say?”

“You really are not from the Taiyuan realm, ha…but why do you think I will lie to you about something like this, and at this time?” Ying Yueru questioned. She looked up into the wide canopy of the inner world, a grievousness flickered mixed with agitation.

“...” Wei Zhiruo refrained from replying, pretending to be nonchalant. But in actuality, both she and Marr had regained their utmost alertness.

“It doesn’t matter even if I tell you.” Ying Yueru spoke a little while later. “Next year, a war between mortals will help an evil cultivator to gain enough resentment to ascend, and while ascending directly to the God realm, he will widen the gap that has opened in this realm's outer barrier space. That gap will be widened enough to let in all the sect members, and the current restrictions on cultivators above the Nascent soul level will also become redundant. Why do you think you and I can easily enter this realm with completely independent heavenly principles and rules? It's just this gap that allows our entry and once more powerful cultivators can enter here - this world will become a purgatory. Mortals and animals, birds and trees, nothing will be spared. Like a swarm of locust, they will seize everything. Many others have entered this realm and are awaiting the perfect time to seize its full control and no one can stop them anymore. Not that it matters to either of us, ha. But you should prepare yourself to return through the channel you came here, as this realm will become a personal realm, in possession of …a cultivator.”

“You talk as if you can see the future. You are a prophetess?” Wei Zhiruo asked, raising a brow.

“A prophetess…what is that? No, I cannot predict the future. I just know, some news you are not privy to. Child, I am not scaring you. You know pretty well; all I had ever wanted from you was a body. And a good enough body - but you turned out to be a living giant box of treasure. And you are so dumb…you don’t even realize what you are sitting on! How can you expect me to not be greedy!” Ying Yueru started laughing madly, and looked down at her mockingly.

“Do you know…if any other cultivator ever heard of the size of your inner world, what would he do? He wouldn’t even wait for you to die and pickle you like a vegetable, eat every bit of your muscles and bones and drink all of your magical blood! Because he knows, as I know now, you are a child with a special bloodline and a special physique. No mortal can ever dream of having this.” She whispered like a hissing snake. “So don't blame me for being greedy for a while. But you child, have a kind heart. Look you won’t kill me - I see that in your eyes. So let this chain let me go and we can both go our separate ways. More than greed, I prefer to fulfill the thirst in my heart as I have some blood to avenge. I wouldn’t care about you…I can swear to heaven and abide by it, in fact, you can make a servant contract with me, and make me never utter a word of your secrets.”

“We both know what you can do, Ying Yueru, if I did let you go just now. You don’t have to lie to me. No servant contract will come in your way. You are correct that I will not kill you right now. But you are mistaken on one point.” Wei Zhiruo walked closer to the hanging body and clutched the woman’s foot; she twisted it, breaking a bone.

“Uh!” A slight groan slipped from Ying Yueru’s mouth, but she quickly clenched her teeth to swallow the painful cry. She looked down, gravely insulted and furious.

“It's not that I don’t want to kill you, or that I won’t in the future. It's because I cannot. Do you want to know why?” Wei Zhiruo said in the same whispery tone as that woman had previously used, walking away from her. “It's because I cannot. Right now. I can only let you slip away from my hands until we meet again. Someone wants to kill me using you, and likewise, wants to use my hands to kill you - I will never do such a thankless job for anyone. Which brings us to this result; we are at an impasse. Neither of us are going to be murdered today. It's your good luck.”

“Why? Is it related to that strange voice I heard?” Despite the insult she had borne, Ying Yueru looked shocked and mortified at this new revelation.

“You are not as unaware as you seem. Yes, it's because we both have earned special attention from someone in the skies. An eye is looking at this fight between us, and it will make sure that neither of us can live. A God wants you dead. And me too. Do you recall what you did to anger that being?”

“...”Ying Yueru looked honestly disturbed by this announcement. She seemed to have registered the weirdness and fell into a deep spell of remembrance. In the end she looked dumbstruck, and said, “Indeed. How can Heaven's children have no guardian deity? If she is here…she will bring the eyes following her as well!”

“Heaven’s children…?”

“You seem to have heard this word for the first time.”

“Care to explain?”

“What will I gain in return? Will you accept my offer? I can tell you more if you let me go this instant. I will really not kill you. Running away from this place is the best possible action both of us can take at this time, and killing you will just be another hurdle for me. What do you think?”

“Never mind. I don't believe you. Take it as if I never asked.”

“But you must know - you have been spotted, marked! That Immortal Deity will never let an anomaly like you come in the way of his beloved child! He will kill you. He will kill both of us! You don’t want to die do you? A useless, worthless death like this and with no fault of your own, but just that you happened to stumble upon someone’s path whom you shouldn’t have offended?!”

“You should worry about yourself first.”

Wei Zhiruo looked at the chains. She sensed them judging, felt the magic in the air pulsing; the shift was swift in her eyes- swifter than the negotiation or rather, pleading that was being conveyed to her. She had hardly replied, when the judgement ended, and punishment began.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Uh - aaahhh!”

The agony of the trembling voice that reverberated from her soul could hardly be put in words. Ying Yueru’s eyes completely reddened, tears trickled down her cheek – she looked pitiable. Except she deserved every bit of this pain and torture. There was no better judge than the hell-chain – no impartial heart better than its own. Each dust of sin, its exact weight would be asked back from the ‘sinner’. Until he paid his sins away, he wouldn’t be able to walk off. So, this fairy, Ying Yueru, could only suffer the torturous punishment till the chains judged it was fair enough.

“What if it takes too long-?” Marr asked worriedly.

“It wouldn’t. They are very efficient.” Wei Zhiruo replied to Marr. “On the other hand, I really don’t want this process to end.”

“Hiss! A chosen one and a God. And you have shown off your edges, your potential is right in front of him. If he thinks you shadow his pet…he is going to kill us.”

The process only took three seconds, the soul had lost all traces of consciousness and hung limply, suspended to the chains. Wei Zhiruo confirmed whether she had really fainted or not and said, “She needs to be dealt with. And quickly. We don’t know how many eyes are watching us right now…so we cannot drag this affair any longer. Before anything else comes in our way and pushes us to do some more untoward things – let’s throw her and run.”

“You will cut the link to the portal? Yes, that's the best we can do. Who knows where she will land after going through the space rift.” The white cat looked somber.

“I think it is the safest option we have currently – she cannot die, especially not in my hands. The moment the chain releases her, I will use the expelling rune and you are in charge of directing and dragging her away in the right direction.” Wei Zhiruo closed her eyes. She felt her own broken body, every bit of which was pulsing in pain, shrieking for rest. A gaping hole was still shedding blood, outside. Every bit of her was throbbing for ease.

The next moment, the chains rattled again and the soul fell down with a thud. Marr didn’t need to be alerted twice, and as soon as Wei Zhiruo used her power to use the rune, he jumped and picked the soul in his mouth, gliding in the air as he ran towards the encirclement of the willow tree. Under a second, he had successfully slapped the soul into the portal channel and was back besides a wheezing figure of Wei Zhiruo.

“I’ll cut the channel, don’t worry.” Wei Zhiruo said, joining her two palms then pulling them apart. Tired, she fell down on her back, gulping a large mouthful of air, and pushing the blood to go down her throat.

“Look at yourself – hundred and fifty years of lifespan spent like water, and now we don’t even know how much you have left to live! What if it’s just another fifty more years? Alas! Never mind, I cannot even get angry at you in your current state…” Marr hissed and then cuddled next to her, looking alertly all around himself.

Her heart thumped; an undulating emotion swelled therein. A mildly astringent feeling sucked up her breath, and faintly filled in its place traces and forms of faltering grievances. She wanted to say that she had never, ever wanted none of these things she underwent. Desired nothing of her own – but stopped shortly, because she knew he was well aware of that. He was just talking, with nothing much to say. Grieving with no other form to show it to her without appearing too weak in front of her. She wanted to tell him that he wasn’t weak at all – he had been the best support she could ever ask for. If he wasn’t here, she knew she would have rather chosen a hurried death and fell into oblivion…but, in the same vein as he didn’t want to appear weak – she also didn’t want to appear too clingy. She just snuggled a little closer, and despite the wounds she felt better instantly, inhaling his pure smell.

But the next second, she felt the barrier she had fixed overhead, starting to shatter.

“It's here.” In a second, Marr was over her, forming an armor, and a mask. Faltering steps stood up leaning against a red-sword, looking seriously at the dome that was falling apart, each of its pieces coming down into hundreds of mirror-like fragments. Wei Zhiruo heard Marr curse as he formed a mist around her, fully revealing himself – “This is endless!”

He helped Wei Zhiruo to stand properly, guiding her with unquestionable strength to jump up, and fly to reach the cracking barrier.

“Where are we running to? I don't think this god will stop chasing us.”

“Then let's fight the next thing it sends our way and then run.”

“Fight, fight! Do you know any other method, Amaranthus?”

“As you said, he will keep chasing us. We cannot alert mortals. World consciousness and world rule will get involved. The scale should be as small as it possibly can be.”

“What the heck did we do to suffer such pain!?”

Marr was hardly in any better state than Wei Zhiruo but he didn’t hear one word of protest coming from Wei Zhiruo’s mouth and kept forming a shield around her broken body. His red wisp-like form floated surrounding her, faintly resembling the smoke that comes from a dying candle. Unlike that, though, was the firmness attached in their flickering form. By the moment the last bit of barrier collapsed just in front of them, they’d floated over a place where they could glimpse at a giant black beast hammering his head against the barrier. Their new adversary, another pawn.

“It’s that thing I was chasing before – I can feel its effect. Its vibrations are maligning my thoughts.” Wei Zhiruo said decisively and put an extra layer of protection Rune over both their heads to stop any outward infiltration.

There it was. A badly formed malice, manifesting into a beast. Four legs, burning red eyes, and a figure like a giant wolf– there was nothing uniform in it though, even its contours weren’t fixed. They shifted continuously as if it hadn't yet decided which form it wanted to be.

“I can feel it too.” Marr replied. He hissed as he started flying up. Rolling like a giant red cloud, it swarmed around the beast and started swallowing, chowing down hard on the malice and negative energy. The beast seemed surprised at this attack, as he began tearing at places where red mist gathered.

“Crackle!”

A lightning bolt struck both the figure, as well as Wei Zhiruo. She looked up into the sky, and then hurriedly shouted at the top of her lungs to Marr - “He is watching us! Go up in the clouds! Don’t alert any other forces. Go! Just go!”

Without wasting another breath, Wei Zhiruo released the remaining runes into the sky, simultaneously placing another barrier rune over the willow and started nullifying a significant amount of gravity's effect on herself.

Wei Zhiruo dragged herself up; she jumped up higher and higher into the sky till she was heading up like an arrow, piercing past through the clouds. All around, wherever her eyes reached, there was an endless ocean of flowing clouds and soon she saw a red mist piercing through the layer, chased by a giant black beast.

“Is it following you?” With the continuously swimming vision, she somehow supported herself to grip the sword and asked, “Is it still under control? Can you deal with it?”

“It is. I can absorb all the negative effects and malice on its body. What its original form is…it's hard to judge. The malice is too thick. It's not a wolf though.”

Like a hungry shark jumping over its prey, that creature lunged at her from the midst of the flowing cloud. Wei Zhiruo hurriedly dodged to her left, and at the same time she was slashing against the beast with her sword – her bones twisted and broke, while a piercing sword intention cut through the clouds and fell sharply over the beast’s neck bone. The beast howled in pain and ran away in another direction, while Wei Zhiruo clutched her shoulder bones and rotated them back in their right places nonchalantly.

She attacked again.

“Boom!”

The beast let out a sharp cry of pain. He started tearing at the red mist with increased fury but Wei Zhiruo didn’t stop there, she jumped up and started using her sword to form several consecutive attacks. In a flowing chain of moves, several piercing sword intents came out like ripples formed in a silent water - hitting the pouncing beast at several places on his body. They left behind glaring red wounds.

“Corner it.” Wei Zhiruo said, while following up with several moves.

“On it.”

It was at this moment when they thought they had gained a sufficient upper hand in the battle when something suddenly changed – another lightning bolt, but more furious and purple this time, came piercing down the black sky above the clouds, hurtling towards Wei Zhiruo! If she hadn’t used her sword to deflect it without a seconds wait, and in this way shattered her only weapon, it would have successfully killed her! She felt the never before felt electrifying charge running in her blood, the thunder ringing loudly in her ears!

“Aaah!” Wei Zhiruo screamed out loudly, to ease some pain in her throat and limbs and then looked at her burned hands.

She was now completely empty handed. She breathed in long gulps of air, panting hard. She looked at the whirlpool that the lightning strike had left behind in the cloud, some of its traces still thundering and swimming through it and shouted – “Hurry! We have to escape-! It’s getting stronger and stronger; the next bolt is going to kill us! He is not using the world rules but he can penetrate space!”

She said it but her mind couldn’t register these words fully. Escape where?

“Wei Zhiruo, where -?” The voice thundered through her numb mind, waking her up from the stupor she had landed into. She looked blankly at the red mist, still busy tearing at the black beast chasing it. She hovered in the air and numbly looked down at the wide expanse of land which had no shelter, then up in the sky, which was still a distant dream for her to escape into, and now housed an enemy far greater than her own imagination – she coldly realized, there was nowhere to go. She was like a fly being swatted down to death; it doesn’t matter where she flew, she will still be within reach!

“I don’t know.” And the next second, the realization hit. “We are really going to die.”

And just when they had woken up from a previous death.

“Wei Zhiruo, get a grip on yourself! Fight! It’s still chasing us, let's deal with it first.”

Yes. This was the best solution. She numbly held the hilt of her sword, looked down at its broken blade and numbly started supporting Yuemarr as he deftly rolled in the wind, piercing the cloud chasing behind the beast, while swiftly gulping down its body –!

She felt the starlight collecting in her body, rolling in swirling waves, and washing away its pain - but since there were too many wounds to heal, it hardly showed any outward impact. Wei Zhiruo didn’t muddle for long, instead she closed her eyes and used her tingling spiritual senses to see the world. She used the starlight to form a cover over her fists and flew like an arrow, chasing after the shooting black figure. She chased and dodged, till she found the perfect opportunity and pounced at the beast's face, punching a hole on his nostril!

The beast howled loudly in pain and flew backwards.

The creature seemed to have realized that what it was facing was nothing like a normal mortal, and was now starting to shrink back, trying to slip away. Neither of them allowed it to fall back – Marr with his body and Wei Zhiruo with her remnant of runes and direct, physical attacks.

Suddenly, Marr seemed to sense something else in that beast. He stopped in his tracks then furiously started another rampage of swallowing and tearing into the opponent, but this time he didn’t go haphazardly all over its body but instead penetrated its head! The red mist completely engulfed the figure of the wolf shaped malice demon, saying -

“Engage it! I think I found its weakness.”

“Hurry, we cannot face the next thunder! Are you sure?”

“Yes. Go on- create a portal while you are at it.”

“Is it the only way? It's the only way to go.”

A few seconds of this and Wei Zhiruo saw no lightning striking down. She became increasingly numb and fearful of the last thunderbolt. She numbly attacked the beast using any moves she could summon, hitting precisely at observed weaknesses. But she knew it, the last lightning was going to be a finishing blow!

What to do, what to do now?

What can they do?

Just wait and watch it all slip through her hands?

Wei Zhiruo looked up at the silent black outer space. She thought of the last possibility to escape – teleportation. It doesn’t matter whether they got another chance to get outside of that space rift, they would be alive and have a possibility to survive. Somehow. But hanging here anymore was like waiting for an imminent death.

But what to use to write that down? Blood. She watched her open wound and pierced her hands through it, dyeing the palm red, and used its blood to write down over air. She used her already breaking spiritual senses - and also observed a much graver hole opening up in the sky in her inner world - to hold the drops together in shape, till they formed the specific lines and words. But now, Marr was too embroiled in fighting – she knew he had found something special about the beast and was working hard to tear away at it.

“Hurry. I am at the last stroke, you do not need to kill it, do you?”

“Crackle-!”

The lightning bolt started rolling up in space, as if preparing for its last blow.

She closed her eyes and heard a sound shattering her reasons. Somewhere, the last drop trickled into a brimming jar.

Rage.

She felt its blood-like taste overtaking all her sensation. Her senses charted it quickly, as if she used up every molecule of her being to write down the last stroke, and nothing else could support her hollow shell except anger. She didn’t give away to the lethargic sensation filling her up – her body was going through shock, she was well aware of that, but she also didn’t want it to be so. Her mind observed everything like a bystander, and saw the beast bite a huge chunk of red mist, and felt Marrs pain as he steadily lurked, and kept pushing into the center of the head he had discovered.

Hold on, Wei Zhiruo, just a little bit more.

She just needs to call Marr and teleport away.

No, Marr needs support – he is losing, wake up!

Wake…wake up…

“Wake up!” Marr’s shrill cry finally evoked her spirit.

The sound entered her ears as if for the first time, as she found herself suspended in the air like a broken puppet hanging by its last thread. She jerked her bones and muscles and felt the shift closely – something burned hotly in her heart – it was plunging every sound, every taste to fire and beckoning her to burn too! Wei Zhiruo started running towards Marr instead. The portal remained forgotten behind, hanging on the clouds.

She jumped over the clouds, like a streak of light she was over the neck of the beast, pounding its neck over and over again with her bare hands. She used the last semblance of being conscious on piercing that mostly negative energy with her fist, but as her fist was covered with starlight, it easily pommeled through the creature, puncturing holes and gaping wounds on its body!

She didn’t stop till she heard Marr saying it was done – and then fell down, unable to move another finger. She didn’t have any energy to say that the portal was hanging over there in the sky – they needed to leave quickly, she tried but her lips won’t move.

“I know, I know. Be patient. I am carrying you away. It's my fault…I…” Marr sounded like he was on the verge of crying as he surrounded Wei Zhiruo in his body. Her own eyes though were looking at the beast who was groaning in pain, as if it had been hit by a boulder and had nothing left of his previous rage. “We are going to escape right away. It will not chase us anymore.”

She saw the beast eroding into a black cloud of dust, flowing away…

But then the dark space crackled, as if a barrier had been opened up there somewhere. It was here, death. But Marr seemed to be thinking of throwing her away towards the portal in the last few seconds. She knew it, and felt his thoughts without permission. How could she let him do that and survive? She softly murmured– “Marr don’t. It’s useless.”

“You want to die?!”

“I want to be with you. Just like last time.” She heard a sigh coming from him, a tear trickled down somewhere, her eyes were swimming so she wasn’t sure he was near or far.

A long time ago she knew - he could cry too. He had learned every emotion in a sentient being. But…maybe it was the first time he cried in front of her. In the swimming vision, she saw millions of red drops scattering in the clouds like peach blossoms falling and riding the wind. It was heartbreakingly beautiful.

Then the lightning came hurtling towards them. It pierced the fabric of space and slithered down like a snake, and then let out a world-shaking thunder. Everything was embroiled in its furious rampage, everything burned.

“Crackle! Boom-!”

Wei Zhiruo closed her eyes, and felt Marr closing his eyes too. He had turned into a white cat sitting in her lap…they snuggled close to each other…

“Clap-!”

The thunder hit a body – but not her own. She opened her eyes and felt someone embracing her back. She turned and saw a smiling woman looking down at her. She had never seen her before but she felt oddly familiar. A purple cloak wrapped around her body; she wore many hairpins on her head – but the oddest feature on her face was the small red mole under her left eye. It was shaped like a beautiful petal of some kind of flower. How…strange. The lightning, a flash of burning white, hit her on her back but she seemed to feel nothing.

The thunder pierced her body and still she kept smiling. She seemed to be feeling nothing – but the pain couldn’t be washed away from her eyes.

“Go on – escape, my child.”

A soft whisper lingered in the air, and before she could get a hold of herself, she felt Marr controlling her whole body and running through the clouds, hurtling towards the portal. Wei Zhiruo tried to lunge at the woman, who was suffering through the thunder strike and falling apart, but Marr carried her away. In that blinding light she cried out from her heart, as if she was losing one of the most precious things in the world–

“No-!” The sound came gasping and faltered away in noiselessness. No one heard her cry, as it never escaped her scorched throat.

The woman watched smiling, as the red mist entered the portal, then looked up into the sky. Her soul shattered down, her body broke into pieces and flew up into the barrier of the realm while a piece of her tears, which streamed down her cheeks, crystallized and followed behind into the portal.

The moment Wei Zhiruo touched the portal, the warping space completely sucked away her consciousness, but she didn’t know, the moment she fell into it, a small purple crystal fell into her hands, and as if guiding them through the endless nothingness in space rift, it led them, gently, perseveringly in a direction– while they both remained unconscious – to opposite opening in the portal close by.

Then as the portal opened in another space, it fell silently down into her palms, sitting over there as if it belonged to her. An unconscious crying child gripped the purple crystal in her hands and slept. Wei Zhiruo had fallen down from over the tree canopy, alerting a number of birds to chirp and cry in panic, but she didn’t suffer any new wounds as if a force kept protecting her, till she landed gently.

On the other side, the woman had long fallen into a long eternal sleep. A new star formed in the sky, falling into place in the barrier of the world. The moment her star joined the realm barrier, it thrummed with energy as if a strong force had joined them and became thicker.

***

Inside the Palace of the Lady of the Temples, hidden in the Longsheng Mountains, a maiden hastily ran through the high doors and joined another figure bending over something. She looked nervously and then in an anxious voice asked -

“What is it – eldest sister?” The maiden wore a red fox mask, hiding her whole face. “The barrier strengthened on its own? It's an auspicious sign…or something else has changed?”

“No. A sacrifice was ordained. It’s a birth of a new star in the barrier…what a pity. A mother sacrificed her life to save her child, and the ‘Heavenly Rules’ ordained her spirits. After all, it is one of the oldest forms of sacrifices full of ancient love… The heavenly rules recognized her love and made her a part of the barrier. What a poignant end. Alas!” The woman bent down over a huge pool of sparkling water and said, as if she was reading the happenings in its ripples and waves.

“Can we heal the barrier this way too? How many sacrifices till it is healed completely…the world barrier? Is it why you asked us to perform that sacrificial ceremony when we are on the verge of dying in battle?”

“Not completely. You’re thinking incorrectly. I am just making a hasty guess…Not all kinds of sacrifices can be ordained like this one…we cannot bet on these. The war is imminent. Just sacrificing human life for one’s desire is the way of the devil – haven’t you learned it quite well by this time? After all the greatest of the devil was our own father.” The woman straightened up, and held onto the hands of the other maiden.

“What about our end – first sister? Aren’t you angry about by nosily deciding it all for us?”

“Death is but imminent. It’s not just you. We, all six of us, chose to trust you. But isn’t this something, my little sweet seventh, you are already aware of?” The maiden of the temple looked up into the mask-covered face of her youngest sibling and sighed. “You have worked hard.”

“I could have worked harder, if I knew it would help. Now everything is moving towards the worst possible direction. Even if all of us sisters die and sacrifice our lives - do you think the barrier will heal itself up?”

“...No, my child, it's not that easy. The war between humans will allow those cultivators to harvest the national luck of both Dajin and Daxia, as they endeavor to do so. Many countries have already been looted clean. They will become bolder and then reveal themselves to the world. Instead of hiding in the mountains, they will come out like swarms of locusts - and what about mortals? Who cares for the natives? They hold no sympathy for us aliens. It is now, when we can do the most, and also a time when nothing much can be changed. We can invite more forces to fight those outside cultivators – but do you think it will change anything drastically? The underground turmoil is going to shake the world like a rampaging storm – and death is but a small price we’ll pay. We can only hope that our sacrifice is ordained as this one has been…in a way, this is an auspicious sign. Indeed. May Mother Goddess bless our endeavors.”

“I am ready for it. Even if we fail…I am prepared for it all to come to an end. A saga of one hundred years of pain and anguish…we cannot afford to endure a few more years.”