Everything was red.

Red sank into eyes, into flesh.

Red filled mouths.

Arms flailed in the blind red, moving dense liquid even as they were carried with the speed of lightning through it.

Then all was a blinding white. Thick water was replaced with thin air. The light was so blinding that still nothing could be seen. Tears welled up in her eyes from how horribly bright it was and she pressed her hands to them in a desperate attempt to shield herself. But the white burned through. It pierced the skin and illuminated bones. Nearby she could now hear above the shrieking wind the pained howl of another voice.

Her vision cleared, the white was leached away by the sight of a splotch of red sitting alone before what looked to be rapidly growing blocks... roof tiles? She could make out a grand palace sunken into the ashen dust, grey patches and white lines only highlighted by the strange impossible shadows slanting from them. They were growing closer, rapidly speeding towards her as they continued to fall.

It felt like an invisible hand had risen up beneath her, catching her in it's soft palm an arm's stretch from the ground before lowering her into the ash.

Bo and Rui Yifu did not get such treatment, tossing small waves of ash over her as they impacted the ground.

Idony laid on the ash which shifted slowly under her as though pushed by a meager wind. Across from her she saw Bo laying in an awkward sprawl, holding his head and grumbling something to himself with bewilderment in his voice. Rui Yifu was quiet and still, but gave the sign he was still alive when he rolled over to shield his eyes from the pallid brightness that surrounded them. Idony moved her head to look at the walls nearby. They were much larger now that she was on the ground, even though they seemed a little bit tilted. They provided no shade from the light around them. In fact, the white light felt like it was even stronger against the wall, radiating with such brilliance she felt that her eyelids might burn away. Luckily however, a shadow leaned over her and blocked the light. She rolled onto her back to stare upwards at a blurry dark shape.

Something wet fell on her face, a tiny drop of rain. Her eyes focused slowly, the bleeding white fading as colors reformed. Red fabric and hair was ruffled by a sudden breeze, tossing ash around them.

"Idony," a soft familiar voice said.

That voice...

She looked up into the gentle round scarred face of a young woman in a vibrant red dress, her red hair lighter in color than her own. Idony's throat felt thick and a weight held down her heart while her eyes burned once more with tears. She was there, moving and speaking. Hands reached down to gently pick her up from the ash and suddenly Idony felt all her limbs move at once to wrap around her mother, holding on so tight as though she would disappear once again. She coughed and sputtered, trying to finds words but only being able to release muffled wails into the soft red silk she buried her face into. Her mother's arms were just as warm as she remembered, but they did not hold her as feebly as they used to. Instead they held her just as tightly. Her mother smelled like pine and frost, the ash around them forgotten.

"You..." Bo's voice managed to cut through her sobs. "I know you... you're Eona, right?"

"Yes-"

Idony grabbed at her mother's dress, pulling. Suddenly she did not want her attention on someone else. She just wanted her mother to focus on her, and her alone. Liu Xie was not there, so she thought somewhere in her tear-swept mind that all she had was her mother.

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"Shh, Idony it's ok," her mother said with a soft hum. "Idony, I'm here. Tell me who your friends are."

She still did not let go of her mother, not even to point at the other two who while looking a little bruised did not seem any worse for wear from their drop into the ash. "The pretty one is Rui Yifu, he's very nice, and the other one with one eye is Bo."

Rui Yifu looked pleased with his introduction. Bo either had not heard her, or was too exhausted to comment on it. Instead he looked at Eona and asked, "how did you... get here?"

Idony felt her mother's arms shift so that now she was being held on her mother's hip by one arm. "I honestly can't tell you much. I woke up in a strange place and someone who... was and was not Liu Xie was there-"

"Baichan," Rui Yifu muttered.

"But a soldier, probably one of the celestial guard, came and brought me to the Amber Emperor's palace. Then I was moved down here to wait for Liu Xie," she said with a nod. "And he will come here, soon."

"How do you know?" Rui Yifu asked, his eyes were squinting, it was still very bright to him.

Eona was quiet in thought for a moment, "I don't know how I know, I just know that he will. He's not too far away now, actually," she pointed into the distance. Idony peeked out from her tear-soaked spot to see strange towers in the far distance. Like dried bones, refusing to crumble into the dust around them. There was something else there too. A gradual warping of light and dark. It was like fabric being frayed, or a bubble being popped only to reform. An oily cut in existence that refused to heal itself and continued to grow bigger and bigger. Shapes would sometimes lunge out. They could be people, or animals, or things that were neither. Civilizations the size of insects and the size of giants rose and fell in seconds in an eternal war. Malformed and shrieking, they tore at each other with a visible hatred before being reabsorbed back into the maelstrom that still grew.

Idony looked back at Rui Yifu and Bo. Rui Yifu's hand was over Bo's remaining eye, but a trickle of blood was leaking from under his hand. Rui Yifu's own eyes were closed, but it was not helping him either as thicker streams of thin red fell down his cheeks. Idony finally let go of her mother to place a hand to her own face. There were no tears at all.

"Oh," Eona's voice sounded worried, "ah, I'm sorry. I didn't know-"

"It's fine," Bo said through gritted teeth, "didn't really want to watch anyway. Kinda painful on the eyes."

Idony looked back to the mass of chaos, and managed to let out a short yell of fear and agony before her mother turned away.

The self-annihilating creation-spewing chaos had ceased. Now it was replaced with a strange dragon-thing. One with a bizarre triangular head, too many eyes and teeth, and a mouth as red as blood as it snapped at the air and started pulling itself rapidly towards them on legs that looked closer to stony roots than limbs. Its shrieking howl filled the air around them impossibly, raising the hairs on her arms and making her heart tear itself to pieces in the pure terror.

The booming sound of its movement, growing faster, ever faster, waves of ash crashing upwards as it raced forward towards them.

Bo's yell was lost over the noise, but the sharp glint of the sword he was drawing cut through the gale as he had somehow managed to clear the space from Rui Yifu to in front of Eona and Idony. But it was too late, the God of Annihilation was already there, its maw wide enough to swallow them all. White roots emerged from the red expanse of its mouth, lunging for them all as among them a human arm reached out as well, straight past Bo's face and towards Idony and Eona.

Idony's eyes focused on the hand, as it came closer and closer.

It was trembling.

It grasped weakly, catching a few locks of her and Eona's hair that it tried to hold onto before its flesh peeled away to reveal pallid muscle, that shriveled away to the bone.

Everything collapsed.

The god's body sank into itself like mud, a million groaning voices escaped its collapsing ribs. The ash flowed over its body, from its body, and beneath its body. A terrible wind howled from the palace behind them, blowing away the remnants into the infinite horizon with a great storm of dust and ash to leave behind a solitary figure.

It was a young man with long white hair, a face of tired apathy and very nice white clothes that still seemed tinged with dirt and wear along its edges. He looked at them, and the apathy evaporated into a smile that melted away all the fear and terror that had made their scars in her mind. Somewhere Bo cheered.

"Liu Xie!" Idony yelled, her mother's cry joining hers so they spoke at once. Idony reached out for him, still using her legs to cling to her mother. Somehow though, he managed to grab both of them in a hug, squeezing them both tightly and Idony got to bury her face squished between them both.

For the first time, Idony felt like she was home.