百鬼繪卷-Chinese origin; lit, handscroll of one hundred demons
"Do you have to go?"
Slender hands stop their movement of folding in the pristine white fan as their owner turn his attention elsewhere. Gentle honey lift to meet tentative amber, the shade of colour so similar to his that he might as well be looking at himself. The owner of his attention shifted slightly away from his gaze, exposing the curve of her neck to him in the process. His heart skipped, and he wondered idly if she would allow him to reach out and tuck the strands of messy brown behind her ear.
Pieces of talismans crinkle beneath his fingertips and somewhere the caw of a rooster echoed the coming dawn. The weight of his sword hung acutely by his waist, serving as a reminder of the imminent event. Yet he smiled, unworried, eyes holding nothing but adoration for the figure in front of him.
"Will you miss me?"
"No." The reply came back far too fast and far too sharp, the contrast to her previous whisper startlingly different, causing him to smile tenderly at her reddening ears.
"Can you sing for me?"
"No." Yet again, the bare hitch of her voice was there. Yao wanted to so very much to touch her but had to refrain himself at the last minute. He couldn't touch her now, he didn't think he could bear it if he did.
"Then, will you at least pray for me, revered shrine maiden?"
At that she turned finally to face him, amber eyes glinting with what he hoped was longing and sadness for his coming departure. "You are an idiot. Capable men do not need blessings to succeed."
"Maybe so," he mused as he tilted his head playfully, "but all the same, I believe in it, and it would be an honour to receive one from as great as you."
At that she sighed deeply, hands moving away from their position over her stomach. "You are such a ludicrous man." Stepping towards him, her hands came to brush against the fabric of his clothes. Her eyes slipped close, and Yao watched as her lips parted to form murmured words of protection and favour. Her eyelids fluttered, and when she finished, her hand hovered, as if unsure of where to go.
Silently, his hands moved to clasp hers against his chest, head bending to press a kiss against her forehead chastely. She inhaled sharply at his touch, lip trembling as her eyes remained close.
"Wait for me." His whisper caressed her ear.
"I don't have a choice in that matter." Her reply was equally soft.
"Of course you do." His reply was laced with hurt as they held their embrace. "I would never force you to do something you wouldn't want."
"I know that. But your leaving complicates things. I have to entertain you again when you return, don't I not? No one else wants to. You are essentially forcing me to stay here."
His surprise came in the form of a smile. "Then I will come back with haste, so you would not be trapped any longer than you have to." The tinkling of wind chimes soothed their ears as he released her, delighted at the hidden meaning of her words. "I swear this upon my word as a warrior."
.
.
.
拢扇
山河皆寂灭 风云聚散只刹那
Folding the Fan,
Mountains and rivers reduced to rubble. Winds and clouds were summoned in a twinkle.
Yao moved with poise, hands flying and scattering talismans on the ground. Beneath him, the Demon twisted, evading his spells and sword easily while keeping on the same unnerving smile on its human face. Brow narrowing, he flicked his wrist, the white fan sending a gust of wind that destructed the rocks in its way.
Spinning, he arced his sword, slashing open the seam of the Demon's robe, nicking it in the process. "Fool." Frowning now, the Demon moved a hand, and a wave of power flung the blade out of his grasp. It raised his arm, and on cue the smaller demons by its side rushed to surround him, forcing him back.
Yao opened his mouth, shouting words of divine power, fan slamming any creature near him into dust.
拈诀
八方妖魔 满目 魑魅魍魉厮杀
Holding the Incantation,
Demons and spirits from all direction. An eyeful of Devils and monsters killing the another.
The summoned came, flashes of colour clashing with soulless black. Screams and wails of unearthly proportions filled his ears as he struggled to regain his bearings. In the midst of pandemonium, he searched frantically for the leader.
A shadow casted over him, and he ducked, slapping a talisman on the offending demon. The creature wailed and dissolved in a mix of dust. Fanning gusts of hurricanes to the masses, Yao ran down the barren field, following the direction the demons came from.
Incantations fell from his lips, pooling endlessly into spells of liberation, clearing the way for him to proceed. Ruì Shī pounced on unlucky demons while mountain spirits crush them into smithereens, but the object of his fixation was not within the masses of crawling black.
Jumping onto fallen rubble, Yao sliced his way through the thick wave of demons, unflinching as he moved with purpose. Hopping on the tips of broken rock, he soon found himself staring at the Demon, who stood at the highest point of the crumbled mountain.
"Stop this!" He shouted, eyes flashing with radiant fire. The protective spells he wore casted a heavenly glow upon him, making him look almost celestial like. The Demon smirked at him, black eyes shifting into bright bright red, and Yao could not help the angry cluck of his tongue when a pair of black wings sprouted out of its back.
咒结
十万寒鸦也不过天狗幻化
Casting the Spell,
Ten of thousands of ferocious crows are no more than incantations of Tengu.
Devil. Not Demon, but Devil.
Yao cursed as the winged man fired spells in his way. Jumping into the air, he let loose a torrent of sharp winds. Waving the fan harshly, he yelped in pain as a sharp prick of falling splinter bore blood on his arm.
Shooting a glance upwards, he inhaled sharply as noticed the Devil muttering a spell. Black caws and feathers shot down like arrows, blanketing the sky into temporary night. Crow upon crow lunge at him with beaks of the sharpest steel and claws of the keenest poison. They smashed into his barrier, forming indents and tiny ripples on the dome, the force causing him to stumble as he ran.
Yao could feel his barrier breaking, tiny cracks deepening on the dome. He changed tactic.
Running straight for the Devil, he uttered incantations of the strongest calibre, uncaring of the sudden drain of his inner energy. The crows were repelled away, giving him a clear shot at the target.
Black feathers continue to fall as he thrust the tip of the fan straight at his target...
倾轧
血亦为剑何惧怕
Annihilation.
Blood would be my sword cutting off the fear.
And fell, body slamming hard against the rubble from metres in the air. The fan fell from his grip as he wheezed in pain. He was too late.
In the midst of his darkening vision, Yao could hear footsteps walking towards him. His lungs were punctured, back impaled by the splinters on the ground, and right leg twisted in a morbid position. Hands shaking uncontrollably, he lifted the edges of his palm, desperately holding on to the final talisman in his arsenal of weapons, feeling his blood soaking the soil.
The Devil stopped in front of him, and he blinked painfully at the sight of the blade in its hands. His blade.
So this was how he would end.
He moved his hand, only to groan in agony as the Devil placed a foot on his stomach. The talisman fluttered to the ground uselessly, its edges soaked with red. His vision blurred further as the Devil lifted the end of the sword, and Yao blinked sluggishly as he struggled to stay awake.
He could not die. He had promised. She would never trust him again.
The sword plunged down, and Yao felt darkness swallow him whole.
.
.
.
She had left to find him, seeing a vision so horrid that she had to prevent it from ever coming into fruition. She only wishes that she could have arrived sooner.
The land was barren, not a trace of creature, mortal or celestial, to be seen. The silence was deafening and the air so still. There was no blood, no burns, no tears of fabric on the ground, but Lien could not shake off the feeling that somehow something was wrong.
Manoeuvring through the rubble, she froze once noticing the slip of tattered talisman on the ground. Running now, she darted past a row of splintered rock and through the delicate crevice of made by fallen stone, her clothing fluttering behind her.
The further she persisted, the bigger the number of torn talismans she saw appeared. Prayer slips and empty vials of holy water littered the dusty ground, and she could not help the horrified gasp from escaping her throat at the sight of a familiar fan, once beautiful and infused with power, now broken and dyed brown with mud.
As though in a trance, Lien turned her head slowly. Her eyes found the unmoving figure on the ground, and immediately her fingers clenched into tight fists by her side. Inching her way forward, she approached the body heavily and stood over it, her figure casting a mournful shadow over the man she knew and cared so much for.
"You always were a troublesome one. But even I didn't expect this." She moved to pull the forsaken sword out of Yao's chest, before buckling her knees to kneel by his frozen body. Her hands came to grip his left palm, not caring of the blood that came to stain her clothes and hands.
His hand was cold, so very cold, and laced with deep cuts, blood staining its path of flow. His clothes, always so clean and neat, were now tattered and soaked with his liquid essence. His honey eyes, once so vibrant with mirth were now glazed with a film of death. Looking at him now, Lien wanted very much to scream with rage, anger, helplessness. Strange then, for she swore she had the energy to do just that a moment ago.
"Oh Yao..." Pressing his palm tightly against her chest, she let the tears fall. "Out of all the promises to break, why this one? Do you know," she squeezed harder until the pressure against her chest became almost unbearable, "how much trouble you have given me now? I have to finish your job you know? Maybe if I pressed harder, the pain in here won't hurt as much."
Amber orbs glinted with pained and love lost as she gazed at the bloody face of her lover gone. "Yao you fool, it hurts. It hurts so much."
.
.
.
"I have found you."
The Devil turned to regarded the shrine maiden with detachment, its eyes glowing red. In the dark of night, the wings on its back were more pronounced than before, and Lien noticed its visage morphing to that of a bird. Avian-like.
"Shrine maiden." The Devil stated lazily. "Your reverence, the strongest of the land. Do you think you can defeat me?"
Taking no heed of its words, Lien took her stance and close her eyes. Feeling the pulsing of the divine energy within her, she surge her energy into the ground, drawing power from the earth and activating her seals.
Hearing a guttural growl cut off abruptly behind her, she opened her eyes to find a lesser demon being destroyed by a glowing pentagon.
起舞
临月 舒霓裳
指点星斗步飞踏
First Dance
Beside the moon, Sleeves are billowing
Fingers touch the stars with steps twinkling over the sky.
Lien began to dance.
Murmuring incantations and directing the energy from the earth, she tossed countless spells one after the other at the attacking onslaught of screeching demons. Twirling in a circle, she directly her hands to the sky, her naked feet tapping on the ground gracefully. She stretched the arms into the air, palms moving to overlap one another before bringing her arms down in one swift motion.
Meteors flew from her seals in the sky, striking their mark on the demons below. Dodging claws and weapons, her hands moved swiftly, forming seals to trap, kill and defend. Her movement falter ever so slightly as she spun out an arrow's way, narrowly saving her leg.
Never taking her eyes off the Devil, she drew shapes in the air, granting wind and water material bodies. The elements morphed into serpentine beings, dragons and serpents infused with celestial power. They twined and twisted in the group of demons, breaking formations and striking strays not caught in pentagons or crushed by meteors.
再舞
众鬼退避 雷霆
一念神威叱咤
Another Dance
All demons are flinching, Thunderclap
One word released the invincible might.
Clasping both hands as if in prayer, Lien directed the action to the sky, mouth moving in synchronization to her rhythmic pattern. A pain shot through her heart, so sharp she had to gasp as it tore through her body.
Above, the sky rained lightning. Bolts of electricity zapped the earth, disintegrating anything it touched. Rock blasted apart, trees dropped their branches, water bubbled and spurt, while demons burned into nothing. Thunder came soon after, the sound hitting the core of demons with fear.
Cowering, trembling, the demons hissed and rumbled, unwilling to carry on but unable to leave under their master's command. Lien heaved, catching her breath as her body took the toil of the spell. A flame of black came towards her, looking almost greenish when illuminated by her lightning.
Leaping out of the way, Lien cried out as the blade managed to nick a deep wound at her left side. At the exact spot she was before, the Devil growled with malice, all remains of its once frigid calm now gone. It made to dash at her again, but she choose not to duck. Instead, she held her palms outwards, and uttered a single word.
And exhale.
The flash of light swept the whole of the barrier and its surroundings. Pure white holy light of the heavens. The demons cried in terror as they, blinded by the light, burned into wisps of smoke. Others were left to the mercy of the meteors and lightning. Lien could hear the Devil shrieking in pain and the clattering of metal on the ground.
The light faded, and with it her spells of water and wind. Thunder and rock.
终舞
谁拭我眼角契结与我天下
Last Dance
Who wiped away my tears And promised to be with me in the world?
The Devil's wings had burnt, the feathers having singed and peeled away to reveal bone. His scarlet orbs were glazed with agony, torment evident in its every movement. The demons, or what was left of them, took one look at their defeated master and attempted to flee. Every last one burned and died by the pentagrams embedded in and near the barriers formed by her seals.
The Devil turned and stumbled away as soon as it spotted her, eyes frenzied as it tried to make an escape. Hand leaving her dripping wound, Lien muttered an incantation, feet sweeping the floor in a wide arc. Barriers came to trap the Devil and it snarled, hitting the walls frenziedly.
Ignoring the small stabs of pain in her chest, Lien channelled whatever energy she had left, pooling celestial power from the stars and natural energy from the earth. With her body as the vessel, she called upon the spirits of the heavens, creatures of pure light capable of vanquishing the darkest of evils.
This is for Yao.
Her eyes glowed white, and she remembers nothing next.
.
.
.
The next thing she was aware of as she opened her eyes was the cold and pain in her side. Lien felt tired, so very tired as she lay there under the moon. Her spells had worn off, her last traces of strength and energy spent. She wanted very much to tend to the wound in her stomach, but even then she knew it was already too late.
Her organs were already shutting down.
Laying there, on the hard, cold earth as she looked up at the moon, Lien thinks this is the first in a long time since she has felt completely at peace. Strangely, she was not afraid of death. Perhaps the constant dabbling with the spirits had made her used to the notion of the afterlife and the spirit world.
The pain in her side had dimmed into fuzzy pinpricks, and she found it harder and harder to stay aware of her bearings. Maybe it was alright for her to die this way; she was the strongest, and the strongest always die young in battle. It was fitting. She had warded off evil from the land, and peace was ensured for at least a century. She had fulfilled her purpose, and Yao...
"Yao...," she slurred dimly to herself, "I would see him soon." The thought comforted her, and she settled down once more to watch the stars. Breathing started to hurt and she coughed, body convulsing weakly at the tiny motion.
It was time.
Lien smiled serenely as the life left her body. She took no notice of her blood soaking the earth, or the destroyed surroundings. She thought not of her responsibilities as shrine maiden, nor her power over spirits. Her last thoughts were hers and hers alone.
And she thought of a honey brown eyed man that made her heart soar.
天下
难抵这半世韶华
The world
Could never replace half this lifetime with thou.
A/N
Because my first wave of papers are done, you guys get this.
Inspired and written in the span of 10 hours in one sitting. Yolo much. The title, story and lyrics are taken directly from this song of the same title; 百鬼繪卷 by the Chinese Vocaloid Luo Tian Yi. Please listen to it! Congratulations to花之祭P, the composer of this brilliant song that made me write this out this with no regrets at all.
China is a 道士 (Dàoshi), a Taoist priest who practices alchemy and austerity, hence the talismans and summonings.
Translations:
Ruì Shī, 瑞獅-Guardian lions