Chapter 636 - Storm of the Abyss (IX) (Patreon)

Jin Hua shot to her feet, her eyes as wide as saucers--she'd just witnessed an attack that would absolutely kill her. Even if she was ready for it, even if she was expecting it, if she met it head on, she would have no means of defending herself. She'd be cut in half, wondering what deranged thought cursed her to take that attack on directly.

She felt her feet shake as the aftershock arrived, and she twisted her head to the side only to see Lu Qi sitting there... nonchalantly. Rather, he wasn't even paying attention to the battle; he was playing a game of chess with the girl, while the other boy made sure that they weren't disrupted, creating a small isolated pocket.

Only the alchemist looked at her, his gaze... supportive. It was as if he were her father and he was telling her that everything would be alright. Though Yun Qi raved about that man endlessly, not once did he mention anything like this. He said that the man was kind, and that he was funny, and that he was gracious--but he never mentioned that he had the ability to raise monsters that made the chosen of the Holy Lands seem like a group of kids with no future prospects.

Her gaze once again changed over to the inconspicuous figure. Of the many things in her life that she was certain of, one stood above: she could not tie her fate, or Yun Qi's fate, to theirs. People like this... they weren't merely talented or star-like. They were harbingers, they were the scourge of an age. Almost any time she was recited a lesson on the ancient history, it would begin with a rather similar passage: They came from the shadows, usurping the world... or, The legacy of the Sect endured for millions of years, until they came across him, and he ended it...

How many times has she read the words, 'Their appearance marked the beginning of a new age'? Hundreds, if not more? And most of them sounded about as hundredth as impressive as this man and his army of kids was. Yun Qi was already an anomaly that she had difficulty reconciling; if she paired the two back together... won't they completely and utterly annihilate the world?

The battle continued, with the young woman taking on the cloaked figure closing the distance to the pillar immediately, striking out with her fist. The punch was intercepted by the blade of the lengthy sword, causing literal sparks to emerge as if her bare hands were made out of metal. She was pushed back a few steps, but quickly recovered and lunged forward again. In the meantime, a battering of light emerged from the torn parchment, spiraling outward in an array of harsh yet beautiful colors.

Azure, emerald, and scarlet mixed in an unlikely affair, converging into a singular point which erupted like a volcanic burst as the multi-colored flames carrying all three colors blew outwards and surged around the entire 'arena' where most of the fight was concentrated. The other young girl, donning gauntlets that seemed to be four sizes too large, suddenly burst from the flames like a ghost and struck forth. The cloaked figure, still tied up with the bare-knuckled young woman, barely managed to raise their knee to intercept the punch, but it was perhaps the worst thing they could have done.

The sound of the shattering bones was so deafening that Jin Hua felt her heart come to a standstill--it was like a crack of thunder, echoing out in every direction as the cloaked figure was, once again, launched backwards. She saw the air around where the first met the knee blister and sizzle for a moment before barely repairing.

However, before she could fully process it, she noted a spear flying through air like a loosened arrow, stirring the world around it. Just before it landed amidst the debris and dust in the distance, Qi rumbled like a storm and, atop of it appeared a figure, riding it as if it were a sword.

He dismounted, grabbing the spear in the motion and using the momentum to thrust it straight forward--a metallic sound explosion blew out so violently that she had to shield her eardrums with Qi. The winds whipped up a storm of ring-shaped dust, blowing outwardly, as the center cleared. There, the young man had managed to push back the cloaked figure even further, nearly to the edge of the wall.

"Twice, twice!" the young boy who stood back exclaimed.

The Shaman among them tore apart yet another parchment and the world seemed to arrest. The parchment burned away in a magnificent, breathtaking array of colors that sputtered out like water geysers.

A sound bellowed, like a leviathan waking, and the entire hall rumbled and quaked. An outpour of energy defiantly different from Qi tore through the world, shaping into an ephemeral, golden bell. It tolled, as if to announce the end of the world itself.

Shards of light split the reality and reached the figure who began to desperately batter them away the best they could; but shards cut, and blood sputtered out in arches. Before three seconds were up, the figure was missing their left arm from shoulder down, they had a large cut rivening their abdomen and exposing the organs within, and a profusely bleeding gash on their inner thigh.

Behind them, the entire wall was a piece of art carved with the brush of violence--strokes wide and long crossing one another in a manifesto of destruction.

... when did she ever know a Shaman capable of this?

No less a young man who didn't even look to be thirty.

The figure's mask came undone and revealed a desperate face of a man who looked to be in his forties. Scars bore the visage of experience, yet the eyes bore dread. Within it, though, was a resolute soul who stabbed the claymore into the ground and hoisted himself up with it. The hall was silent, the only sound that of the droplets of his blood hitting the ground and pooling underneath him.

He looked up, his eyes as red as blood, and stared at the children who were beginning to encircle him again. There was no doubt that he didn't understand, just like Jin Hua didn't at first.

"I cannot let you pass," he spoke, his voice low and droning. "You who befouled the Lord. In his name, I must purge you from this world."

"Pretty pathetic last words," the bare-knuckled young woman spoke with scorn in her voice. "We'll give you another chance. Want to revise them?"

"We shall all burn," the man said as flames as crimson as his blood were ignited around his sword's blade. "Unto Their Love. And I--"

"--I cannot let you do that," a quiet, gentle voice spoke out as Jin Hua caught a fading glimpse of... something. The next thing she knew was that the man's remaining arm was cleanly cut off, blood spewing outward in a strangely beautiful arch, and the crimson flames that were beginning to burn were extinguished as if they were never there.

The man's expression changed, as his eyes moved to the back--as did Jin Hua's. The boy was still sitting, one leg crossed over the other as he leaned back on the wall behind him. His eyes... were bottomless.

"Brother Tao," the young girl suddenly spoke, glancing at him. "I wanted to have some fun..."

"Hm? Are you saying that playing chess with me isn't fun, Light?" Lu Qi said as the young girl panicked.

"N-no, chess with Master is the most fun! I, I'm just so bad that I can't be fun for Master, and, and I was just teasing Brother Tao, that's all!"

Jin Hua swore up and down within herself that she would disappear as quickly as possible from their side. The longer she stayed, she feared, the deeper the karmic bonds would become. And there was no way her tiny little existence was strong enough to bear them.