Aki had barely made it past the oasis into the Sands when the sky darkened. Rolling thunderclouds came overhead as he ran. He watched the clouds with his gray eyes, worried about what they might bring. He hadn’t seen rain the entire time he had been on this continent. Not so much as a daytime shower, let alone rolling black thunderclouds. He tried to push the thought of what a sudden rainstorm would do to the soft sands under his feet, and he pressed on.
It was only moments until the rain came down, though. Large, fat, heavy raindrops fell on and around Aki. The sand turned to mud under his feet. It caught his feet up, slowing him as he tried to run. He churned his mana in his channels, trying to get the wind to help him. Help him ride through the wind, calling upon his new power to assist him.
Nothing came to him. No matter how hard he focused or asked, nothing happened. He could feel his mana cycling through his body. His core was full of the now brighter, thicker light-blue liquid. Still, it seemed he had no power in this place. He stopped running now and looked at the sky, letting the raindrops fall on him. They were cool on his skin that was still hot from spending so long under the desert sun.
He wasn’t entirely sure where to go. When he left Kaimu and Saffron, all they had told him was to head west. When he had gone far enough, he would find what he was after. Aki raised his hands and wiped the rain from his face and looked to the west, squinting a little. He saw nothing but more sandy dunes, as far as his eyes could see.
“Hee hee hee.”
A giggling noise came from all around Aki. It sounded like it came from a young girl. It was soft and innocent. With the current backdrop of the dunes and storm overhead, it gave Aki a chill down his spine. He twisted in his place, trying to ignore the drops of rain coming down on him, looking for a source of the sound. The giggling only became more frequent around him, varying in pitch from soft to ear-blistering loud. Aki had to cycle mana to his ears, so he didn’t blow an eardrum.
“What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here, little cultivator,” a fresh voice came. A voice he recognized.
Aki turned once more and saw the young kami in the black robes. Black hair was long and straight down her back. He smiled at Minako and gave a bow of his head. He was torn now. Should he concentrate on the impending danger of the giggling noise or show respect to the kami who has shown him favor? Interestingly, though, the giggling seemed to have stopped.
“It’s been awhile since I’ve seen you, Lady Kami,” he said with a smile.
Aki gave one last look around when he realized the giggling sounds had stopped. He now focused his gray eyes on Minako, clasped his hands together, and gave her a deep bow. When he got back upright and dropped his hands once more, he looked at her face. She usually looked playful with him, like she was toying with him and that she knew so many things that he didn’t. That she knew a secret that he would love to know, but she would never tell him.
Now she just looked concerned. Almost angry at him. She even waved away the formalities and gave a soft growl. “None of that now. What are you doing here? These aren’t the lands of the Heavens or the Kami. These are demon lands,” Minako scolded him.
“Yeah. I’m looking for some people,” Aki raised a hand placatingly. As if this Jade cultivator knew exactly what he was doing and the demons of hell were not a worry for him.
Minako just gave a growl. She even stomped her foot like a petulant child. Although, Aki supposed she showed herself as a girl of around sixteen, even if she was as old as the very Heavens and this mortal plane.
“No, you fool. This isn’t a game. Not even Rei himself has power over these lands,” Minako said, after several long moments still scolding Aki. “I can’t help you here, his deep in the Shifting Sands like I did before,” she continued.
That’s when the giggling noise started back up. Minako looked worried, showing herself for the kami she truly was. She was the embodiment of despair and desperation, and right now, she looked like every meaning of the word. Minako and Aki both looked around, looking for the source of the giggling once more.
“Aki, do whatever you have to do. Get out of here,” Minako looked at him. It was the last thing she said to him before she disappeared from view. The desperation in her voice, and her calling him his actual name, was very telling. She was gone just as quickly and without a trace as she appeared to him. She called out, though, or Aki thought she had. Her voice trailing lightly on the wind like a soft whisper.
“No, mother!” Aki wasn’t even sure if he heard it correctly. It was so faint. He furrowed his brow.
Suddenly, in front of Aki, three large sand-hedrons rose from the ground. Mammoth triangular structures large enough that the entire capital city of the Sasaki Empire could have fit on the top of each. The ground trembled beneath Aki, and gone from his mind was the thought of Minako and her last words as she disappeared.
The earthquake only got stronger beneath his feet, and Aki cycled mana to his legs to hold steady. He couldn’t hold on and the cultivator fell to his knees. The wet sand was like concrete on his knees when he fell. His fists fell to the dirt now, and he was doubled over. He looked up, watching the sand-hedrons float in the sky in front of him, bits of sand trickling down to the earth.
They were large geometric masterpieces carved from the sand. Triangular forms with a platform at each. Aki’s mind reeled at the scope of power it would take to bring three structures from the sand. They were massive. Each flat area at the top could hold the entire capital city back home in the Empire.
From the darkness in front of Aki, he watched three figures approach. They approached slowly, walking through the darkness of the storm. The rain seemed to bend to their will. They never got wet in the torrential downpour.
Once they got closer, Aki made out the forms of two females and a male. They all wore traditional cultivator robes. No, Aki blinked. They were floating in the air towards him, gliding just above the ground, the bottoms of their robes just brushing along the sand.
The one in the middle was a taller female, and as opposed to the traditional fabric of cultivator robes, hers was leather. They all shared a common color scheme: black, purple, and red. The dominant color just depended on the person. The main one, the leader, Aki supposed, was mainly black. Her outer robe the black leather, while her inner was a deep red, the same color as the stranger, Axel. Then there was a purple trim and inlaid with purple designs. Symbols and shapes Aki couldn’t make out, or didn’t know. He had certainly never seen them before.
She was pale-skinned and fair. She was, in a word, beautiful. The very definition of a fairy. Aki blinked. He couldn’t help but stare at her. Long black hair was combed to one side and blown softly in the harsh wind that was blowing through the sands. She held a playful grin on her full lips, looking down at Aki with amusement.
The male that was to her right and slightly behind wore an outer red cloak. The inner robe was the style of the northern cultivators and in the deep purple color. The lining and trim were black, and he had the same runes or symbols as decoration. His black hair was kept short and spiked. He wore a menacing grin on his thin lips as he looked down at Aki with his red eyes. The cloak Aki noticed seemed to flow more than the other two’s clothing, almost like it had a mind of its own.
The one who stood a little further back than the other two. She didn’t seem as well put together as the other two. She had a smaller form, the form of a young girl. Her purple robes were torn and tattered. The black inner robes she wore looked a little newer, and the deep red embellishments seemed to hold some of the outer robe together. Like they were added in after her outer robes were damaged. Aki couldn’t see her face. She wore a Kitsuné mask that covered her entire face. The mask held a blank expression. Her black hair matched her disheveled appearance, hanging loosely, and seemed almost frayed as it blew in the wind.
The three stood there, floating just above the sand, looking down at Aki like a council ready to pass judgment and send him to the executioner’s galley. The rain had stopped once they had gotten close to him and stopped in their respective positions. The ground had stopped shaking as well, and when Aki stood, the leader spoke.
“Who gave you leave to stand before us, dear mortal?” She asked him. She had a husky voice, seductive and deep.
Aki frowned, unsure what to do. He assumed this was the triumvirate he had been told and warned about. Even Minako the Kami had seemed scared and worried about these three. He ran scenarios through his mind and stayed on his knees in front of the three.
The male giggled a little, and Aki wasn’t expecting such a noise to come from such a dark-looking man. When he spoke, he also had a higher pitch than he was expecting. “He has humility. Who would have guessed from one of the Father’s chosen mortals?”
The lead female frowned and turned to glare at the male. Her eyes narrowed at him, and he seemed cowed. He just lowered his head and gave her a subtle nod with his eyes closed. They may all be the lords of hell, but it appeared there was a pecking order among the triumvirate. Then Aki realized what the man said. Father’s chosen ones? The only one who he had been chosen by was his master, and Minako, for some reason, had been showing him some favor, but he didn’t know why.
“How can a mortal not show humility to the very lords of the hells? Beings as great as yourselves deserve respect,” Aki spoke to them and looked up at the trio.
He went from being to being and lingered when he looked at the one in the mask. Something about her seemed awfully familiar to the cultivator. He dipped his head in the sand in full kowtow to the trio. It seemed these three would obliterate him for the slightest offense, so he decided full humility and respect were the way to go.
The leader and male laughed. His was high and shrill, while hers was deep and throaty. She folded her arms across her chest and spoke. “Rise, Aki. You have been granted an audience here among us. You are looking for something, aren’t you? Someone? Tell us what brings you to our lands here in the mortal realm.”
Aki rose, his head still lowered, but he was on his feet now, at least. “Tell me, how shall I, a mortal cultivator, call you three who rule the hells?”
“I am not simply a lady of hell, dear mortal. I am the Mother, and that you shall call me, just as those of you call Rei the Father,” the leader spoke.
Well, that explained that, thought Aki. So, this was the one that Minako was talking to? Aki’s mind raced. Did this mean this woman also helped Rei create the world? Was she there at the beginning with him? His thoughts were interrupted when the male spoke in his high-pitched voice.
“You may call me Lord Alexis,” he told Aki.
The Mother then just waved to the other female. Aki noted how she moved and yet to say anything this entire time. Aki followed the Mother’s hand movement and looked at the masked demon lord.
“This one, you know. She is a recent addition. You knew her as Genki, Kami of illusions. Now she has been forsaken by Rei and joins us here,” the Mother said. Aki could hear the sneer in her voice.
Aki gaped, looking at the smaller demon lord. Genki. He had met Genki once, years ago now. When his master took him around to meet all the Kami before Aki grew his core. She was always a mischievous thing, and his mind went to that flash of power he had felt coming from past the empire. He had been kept out of the loop for so long on Mesai. So many things must have led up to this.
The Mother laughed and nodded her head. “That’s right, you heard me. Rei doesn’t care about the Kami like you think he does. Nor does he care about you. You think just because he trained you and handpicked your element for you, he cares?” She spat.
Aki’s jaw hit the floor. Was she saying that his master was Rei? He closed his mouth so he wouldn’t look like an idiot anymore and just looked at her, narrowing his gaze. That couldn’t be right. His master was powerful in his own way, was just an old man.
Alexis laughed behind her. He threw his head back and gave a loud, high-pitched, slightly deranged laugh. “He doesn’t know!” the man said, clutching at his sides.
The masked figure looked over at the man, laughing for a moment, and then back down at Aki. The Mother growled, saying, “Silence,” quietly and coldly. The man, once again, was quickly cowed.
“How would he know? Poor thing,” Mother said a moment later. She came down to the ground now, standing right in front of Aki. She even reached and put a hand on his shoulder. Her eyes were plain milky white, like a blind person’s, and she stared into his.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“It’s alright, Aki. He doesn’t tell anyone. The father just parades as that feeble old man collecting people and training them to be cultivators, all for his own end. He picks and chooses who to help, who to care for, but once he uses you for whatever his goal is, he dumps you. Look at poor Genki here,” Mother waved up to the masked ex-kami. “Once he was done with the poor girl, he sent her to me, and here she shall be treated like the queen she is. Even if she has been forsaken by the Heavens. The Hells embrace her openly,” Mother told him.
“We embrace everyone who embraces us, who helps us spread our word and helps us spread our power in the world,” she said. Her hand was now caressing his cheek, rubbing at his beard. She looked at him with affection. She looked down at him with soft eyes. Aki realized she had grown taller than him.
Aki looked up and smiled, somewhat enchanted by the affection she was giving him. His eyes seemed glazed over and glossy. He smiled dumbly and nodded.
“You met one of mine, Axel. He is a good lad,” Alexis came down now, standing next to Mother. One of his hands came to Aki’s shoulders, and he looked at her. “This one is more powerful than he seems. Probably give Axel a run for his money in a straight-up fight.”
Aki absentmindedly nodded his head. Of course, he would give Axel a run for his money. He was Saito Aki, a beggar and wind cultivator in the jade realm of spiritual power. Somewhere far in the back of his brain, though, there was a voice yelling.
“No, you idiot mortal. Don’t fall for it, they’re tricking you! You won't last in a fight against him.”
The voice was there somewhere, screaming out. It was a familiar voice, someone he knew. Someone he had just seen. Aki’s thoughts were fuzzy, he couldn’t place who the voice belonged to. He couldn’t quite make everything out. It was like he was swimming in mud.
Aki looked around in a daze. He looked up at Genki, who was still just floating there. She had her arms crossed against her chest. He thought he could see the slightest of head shakes from the illusionist.
“Come, we can bring you to the treasure hall. Join our little family and you can pick your own treasure. We have things in there Rei would never even let you know about. We can give you the secret to Kentaro’s strength,” the Mother was leaning in close to Aki now, whispering in his ear. Hot, breathy whispers that made his ear slightly wet. “It’s a scroll. It’ll cover your body in runes and summon power from the world and channel it into your body. That’s how he’s so physically strong.”
Aki absentmindedly nodded his head, a dumb grin on his lips. “That sounds great. Show me the way,” he said dumbly.
“Maybe he’d like to eat from the peaches of immortality,” Alexis then spoke up.
They were leading him away from the spot they stood. Aki didn’t even realize it. They were walking through the sands, which had smoothed out into a large flat area. It was still a large open area, but instead of sand, the earth was hard and compact dirt. It shifted into a trail, trees and bushes popping up alongside them. Mother walked in front of him, her hand behind her, holding onto Aki’s hand, leading him along. Alexis was on Aki’s left, his hand still holding onto his shoulder. Genki was still floating in the air, trailing behind the trio.
“Aki, you fool, wake up, snap out of it! They’re tricking you! You can’t defeat Axel. You have no chance as it stands! He’s almost a herald!”
The voice yelled in the back of his head once more, but the Lords of Hell entranced Aki. He watched the scenery change in front of him as he walked, but he didn’t register in his mind that anything was really changing. In front of them, a large classical pagoda rose from the sands now, and Aki looked at it and smiled. The sand-hedrons were over their heads now. They were in the middle of the formation they created in the sky. Sand trickling down to the now lush landscape they were in.
The voice yelling in the back of his head was getting louder. It was gaining power in his head, waking him up a little from the haze he was in. Aki looked around and blinked a couple of times as they walked into the open pagoda. It had several treasures inside, and Aki saw the peach tree in the middle, growing from the ground. A single peach fell from a branch and landed on the ground. It rolled towards Aki's feet, and he looked down at it for a moment.
“It’s not a peach of immortality, you idiot. It’s a ruse, eat that peach, and you’ll belong to them. You’ll be no better than that fool you met before, Axel.”
Aki leaned down and picked up the peach. He looked at the Mother and smiled. “Did you say there was a scroll of power?” he asked her.
She grinned a wide grin and nodded her head. “There is indeed. It’s on the other side of the pagoda. Between this peach and that scroll, you won’t need to cultivate anymore. You’ll have all the power and life you want. Everything the mortal cultivators strive for shall be yours,” she told him. She was still holding him by the hand, and she led him across the pagoda. Aki looked around at the unique treasures. There were vases and paintings, a helmet that had a mask that covered the lower half of the face. Everything was beautifully made, and he could feel the power coming from it all. There was even a sword that Aki eyed. He needed a new sword.
When they got to the other side of the peach tree that grew in the middle, there was a small table. On the table, there was an ivory holder that propped the scroll up. It was held in a scripted metallic roll, and Aki could feel nothing coming from the container. The scripts kept the power inside, Aki figured.
“There is the scroll. With…”
“STOP!” a loud voice yelled, and bright white light filtered from the spot the voice came from. Aki, along with the others, looked over to where the voice came from.
There was a man standing there. Or, well, Aki thought it was a man. The bright white light was almost blinding. The voice was a male voice, however. Powerful. He wore white robes and had short white hair that flowed from the power of the aura the being gave off.
“You have no power here, Rei. These aren’t your lands.” The Mother hissed out towards him. Her grip tightened on Aki, talons growing from the fingers ripping into his flesh. Suddenly, any fog that was in Aki’s mind was gone.
The bright white light and power from Rei, the father wiped it from his mind. He looked down at his hand and dropped the peach to the ground. It spoiled as it hit the ground and rolled away. The peach flesh turned black and dissolved away into the ground.
That’s the power she has, mortal corruption. The Mother is Paimon herself. Demoness of corruption and vileness. She and Rei are two sides of the coin.
Aki looked at the Mother now, Paimon. Named for the very planet itself. She turned. No longer the epitome of beauty, horns grew from her head. Large curved things right above her ears that pointed towards the Heavens. If the Heavens were even above such a place as this.
Her skin seemed to dissolve away in sections, leaving what was left ragged and foul. The smile he was so entranced by was now wide and scared. The thick, full lips were gone. She was now the exact opposite of how Aki had first seen her. She was ugly and scared. Patches of skin melted away and hung from her face and exposed flesh.
Aki looked to his side at Alexis. He, too, had transformed. Horns grew that matched Paimon’s, but where hers were black, his were red. The cloak expanded as well, furling around with power that moved like liquid mana. No. Aki could see the flow of blood now in that movement. It was like liquid, but while it spread out, it gave the bright white power of Rei a wide berth. Teetering at the edges, almost as if it wanted to curl in and attack but was afraid to.
“Perhaps not, but you only have power here because I allow it. Now be gone, leave my cultivator alone. You shall not have him.” Rei commanded the woman.
Aki saw it now. There was his master there in that bright white light. Aki’s mouth gaped open once more, and he fell to his knees. “Master,” he said, lowering his head to the floor of the pagoda in kowtow. He went unnoticed for the time being by Rei, though.
Rei lifted his staff and slammed the end on the ground with a loud bang, and Aki could feel the power it emanated. It wasn’t a simple technique of mana, there was more to it than that. Rei was changing the very fabric of reality with that action. Aki looked up and looked around.
The pagoda, the tree, the treasures were all dissolving around him. Everything was shifting to sand and blowing away in the wind. He didn’t notice behind him the scripted container falling to the ground once the table and holder had dissolved away. He watched around him though and blinked rapidly, trying to comprehend the power that was before him.
Paimon and Alexis shrieked, and then attacked. Paimon’s hands, which were once empty, now held large war fans. They were black metal and about as large as the ax on a large two handed bearded ax. She leaped towards Rei and opened the fans up. Behind her, Alexis leaped into action as well. He went higher than she did. When he leapt, two curved hook-styled sickles formed in his hands.
Genki watched. She was now standing on the ground just behind Aki, while Aki stayed on his knees. The soft, shifting sand was beneath his knees once more. Everything that was in the pagoda and treasures were gone now. She remained motionless and said nothing. She watched the events unfold with Aki.
Rei jumped back when the two lept towards him. His staff went behind him and he held it to his back. His free hand reached towards the Heavens and he waved about a little. White mana expelled from his hand with the gesture. About a dozen blobs of liquid mana. The mana flowed to the sky above Rei’s head and then stayed maybe a foot or two above him. The mana glimmered. It shined like the stars in the sky. They floated in a circle above his head.
Aki could barely comprehend what was happening. Couldn’t even understand the power that the father, his master, was putting off. Throughout these years Aki had never seen his master do any proper technique, use any actual power. The old man had taught him to fight, and trained him, and everything Aki had ever tried to do worked, so he never questioned the man.
Rei brought his staff from behind his back now and swiped it towards that red flowing cloak that seemed to move independently of its master. The cloak wrapped around the staff and pulled it from Rei’s grasp. He didn’t fight it. Rei allowed the staff to be pulled away. He didn’t need it to fight these two in the short term.
Paimon moved like a gymnast, bobbing and weaving, swinging her fans around in some kind of gruesome dance. Rei dodged and danced around her strikes. The white glowing power that was where his eyes should be wasn’t even pointed at Paimon. Instead, he seemed to watch Aki, and was smiling at his apprentice.
Aki was still on his knees, a few feet from the fight. He sat there watching, his mouth agape like he was some kind of idiot. Aki wanted to jump in, to help his master. He’d be lying to himself if he thought he could do anything to help his master fight these two, though.
The other demon lord, Alexis, couldn't help his mother either. While Paimon was attacking Rei, his mana sparkling stars kept weaving around the demonic kami. He was trying to fight them, but the twelve spots of mana seemed to operate like it was its own person. They shot around him while he used actual techniques of blood. Aki couldn’t concentrate on this fight as much. That bloody mana seemed wrong. Full of murder and evil.
Then it dawned on Aki. This is where that stone came from. This man. This was the same kind of power Aki sensed from that blood stone that Calvera used in their fight. He looked back at the fight between Rei and Paimon. He was still dodging and deflecting. He fought like Aki did. He didn’t outright parry any of the attacks Paimon sent towards him. Instead, he’d send an open palm to the nerve in her arms or trip her up some other way so her attacks wouldn’t land on him.
“You haven’t been keeping up with your training Paimon, I’m ashamed. All of this and you haven’t been able to land a single blow against me. I don’t think you’ve even upset my robes,” Rei said to her and chuckled.
Paimon growled and swung around. She moved back to Alexis. The mana stars he had been fighting with floated away, floated back above Rei’s head and rotated in a small circle above him. “You are already defeated, you just haven’t realized it yet,” he said to the pair, smiling.
“You can’t kill us,” Paimon hissed at Rei. Alexis just had this look, a mixture of glaring and fright. He wasn’t so sure. His cloak floated and swirled around him in a flowing mana weaved fabric mess.
“No, I cannot, but I can send you away from this place for a time. Send you to one of your other places in the mortal realm where you may dwell. Give my cultivator a chance to get away,” Rei responded. The glittering white mana above him blasted behind the pair, even behind Genki, who stayed out of the fight. Standing off by herself with her arms crossed against her chest.
The glittering white mana came together once more and exploded in a wave of glittering starlight power. What remained was a fissure in the world. The mana blew through the very fabric of reality.
For the first time, he heard something come from Genki - a sigh. A disappointed sigh of defeat. It glowed the same white that radiated from Rei. This was softer, though. Aki could see through the glow, making out that crack in space was pulling the demons towards it. They seemed to dissolve into sand just as the pagoda and treasures had and get pulled towards the fissure.
Genki went first. She didn’t fight the working of power from the Father. Alexis turned to look somewhere off in the distance. His lower half dissolved away into sand and sucked through the fissure. He looked at Aki and sneered, then gave one of the high-pitched laughs the man had.
Paimon was left standing there by herself. Her power let her dissolve away slower than the other two. She stood facing Rei defiantly, with her back straight. Her corrupted glory surrounding her. With the other two gone, the working of power sucking them away could now concentrate on her, though, and she was dissolving away quicker and quicker.
She looked back at Aki, all disgusting and vile. The beauty she held when he first saw her was long gone. She winked at him and even blew the cultivator a kiss as her last act before her face dissolved away into the sand through the fissure.
Aki drew back, a bit disgusted by the gesture from Paimon. Far more reaction than she would have gotten if she had done it before she transformed into the demon. Then he would have fallen even more head over heels for her. The power the demon woman held over him was so palpable. He shook the feeling away as Rei walked over to him.
“Stand, my apprentice,” Rei told him. The bright white power that shrouded Rei was gone now. It left the old beggar farmer in tattered robes that Aki came to respect and even love was there, smiling down at him with that kind, grandfatherly love.
Aki stayed on his knees and just looked up at him. “How did I not know? How could you not tell me?”
The Elder chuckled and put a hand on Aki’s shoulder. “Aki, my apprentice. I couldn’t tell you. It was not something anyone should know, and lately too many people have found out. Much has happened back in the Sasaki Empire, and I must go,” his master told him.
“Go….” Aki blinked and stood to his feet now. “Go where?” He asked The Elder.
“Oh, here and there,” Rei gave him a wink and a knowing grin. “Kio is gone. She is in the Heavens. Genki has been forsaken, as you saw. Those are the highlights. I am leaving, but you have a powerful ally, Silas Zhao. He has become a saint, a disciple of Kenji. I don’t know what that looks like for the mortal plane yet. I do think it shall be interesting,” Rei spoke, looking at the sky with a faraway look in his eye.
“Don’t worry, go back to the oasis with Kaimu and Saffron. They should help you find your way back to civilization,” Rei then told him.
Aki looked back in the direction he had initially come from before the store. He looked to the east where, if he concentrated and cycled mana to his eyes, he could see the oasis. When he turned back to look at his master, Rei was gone. Disappeared as quickly and silently as he originally came.
Aki frowned but shrugged. It was frustrating sometimes, dealing with kami. It also explained why his master had always seemed to come and go so easily. The man was the father of the kami. He set off east like Rei had told him to do.