It was a grim procession through the snow back to the temple of the Blood Moon Sect. A thin, scattered line of men trailed one-by-one behind their holy master, the last of a decimated fighting force. Directly behind the Blood Moon Elder, a shallow ring of men surrounded their prisoner, the white-haired girl, her every limb tied to a different leash. The teenager stumbled over the snowy, rocky ground as she tried to walk with nearly all of her limbs restrained, her arms tied behind her back and leashes upon both her legs and around her neck.
They stopped at the great gates. The walls of the Temple of the Blood Moon stretched out and around, the tips of the crescent meeting at the gates in an inverse circle. The ramparts above surrounded the entrance way in one great, massive killing field. Even as the devastated Blood Moon forces trickled to the great mahogany doors, the men standing at the top of the walls never stopped tracking them with a dozen ballistas and a thousand bows with nocked arrows.
They halted at the Gates of Ibaraki-Doji, the gate to the South and their Temple's main fortification. At the the feet of the gate, a huge, masked man half-wrapped in a red toga lounged lazily, fingering his iron-studded club. The from behind the man's mask spilled a wave of loose skin, once taut and shiny with muscle and fat, now scarred and like liquid. The gatekeeper barely gave a glance to the holy master before reaching up to pound heavily at the red wood behind him with his great club.
Without another word, the Gates of the Heian Ogre opened, doors three stories tall cracking just a sliver to reveal a full regiment of masked men standing at ready from within, armed with pikes and crouched behind dozens of interlocked half-moon shields. They raised their weapons against even their own sect leader, under orders of death-
Let no one into these gates but who the holy master decrees.
"I'm back." The Blood Moon Elder said, and only then did his soldiers turn their weapons away, tilting their pikes up to greet their holy master, stepping to the side to form a procession, welcoming their sect leader and their remaining brothers back into the sanctuary of their sect temple.
The girl Sintra was half-dragged, half-poked at with pikes until her legs finally failed her, and she nearly fell through the gate doors. However, none of the soldiers around her dared approach any closer to force her back to her feet. Already, three of their brothers had found the insides of their skulls turned to porridge in the attempt. They left this task up to their holy master.
The Blood Moon Elder strolled up to the fallen girl, gazing downwards from inside his red hood. He reached down to lightly trace the edge of Sintra's jaw, the red mahogany doors stretching out from behind him like the gates of hell. Beckoning the young girl in.
"Get up," The man ordered. The teenager girl was slow but sure to obey. She choked back a sob before staggering to her feet. Without another word, the Blood Moon Elder turned to stride back into his temple, his prize dragged, pushed and poked behind him once more.
The gatekeeper watched the men file back into the safety of their Temple with disinterest. Each one of their soldiers was more injured and broken than the last. More than a few limped in on re-purposed branches as crutches, or were carried in on make-shift stretchers, sometimes entirely missing limbs. And these were the ones that had survived.
Yet the gatekeeper felt not the slightest shred of sympathy or pity for his broken brothers. This was the law of their sect, after all. The strong survive to consume the weak. Were any of his brothers to fall on the battlefield, they would not have survived the brutality of the New World they were aiming to bring to Ionia anyhow. What difference did it make if a few men died on the battlefield now rather than later in the clutches of some demon from the Blessed Isles?
The gatekeeper gave a closer look over the very last man, mostly so the guardsman could finally go back to closing the gate and relaxing at its feet like he always did. The last soldier was large and limping. A shock of brown hair burst out from behind the man's heavy white mask like a sun. He moved slowly, his red robes billowed over him and from his only arm, he dragged a monk's spade. The repurposed shovel left a trough through the snow as the man carrying the weapon shuffled in. A rare weapon, the gatekeeper noted. The soldier had all the look of one of those impressed temple monks that they had picked up while they were still expanding their influence through the mountains. They were usually good fighters, and all the more ravenous for the carnal pleasures of life that they had been denied in the past as monks. That made them easy to control, too.
But this one… to have been that heavily wounded, perhaps the monk wasn't as skilled as he thought. The gatekeeper kept a lone eye on the back of the wounded man. And then the man instantly forgot the ex-monk, reaching up with his iron-studded club to knock at the red wooden doors at his back. In reply, the gates closed, and the procession of soldiers behind them were dismissed, going back to their own duties.
The temple gates closed, sealing the sect from the outside world.
And Akali, Kona, and Brother Udyr had finally gotten in.
Just inside of the gates, they entered a great courtyard, a massive circle that stretched nearly a half-mile across snow-covered dirt and ancient cobblestones scrawled in a forgotten script. A man-made waterfall fell from the upper levels of the temple into an artificial river, where more walls curved out and past them, mirroring the half-moon crescent shape of the outer ramparts. At the feet of the waterfall was a pool that stretched out, filling a crescent that fed a groves upon groves of cherry blossom trees, still frozen in bloom despite the harsh winter.
Akali peeked out from underneath Brother Udyr's robes. Despite the danger, she couldn't help but stare for a moment longer than she should. She didn't expect the Blood Moon Sect's temple to have such… beauty. Her thoughts of the Sect Temple and their aestheticism was cut short, however, by a hiss of anxiety from Kona, as her friend yanked her back by the ponytail, plunging them both back within the depths of Brother Udyr's robes.
As soon as they had breached the courtyard, the surviving men dispersed, each apparently with their own duties. Or perhaps the whomever their superiors were decided to give their ravaged soldiers a much-needed break. By the looks of these men, Akali mused, the Sect Alliance was giving them a hell of a fight. Good.
Brother Udyr found a moment to slip away from the procession, ducking away in a secluded area of the Courtyard, far away from prying eyes. He weaved through a particular grove of cherry blossom trees before they happened upon a dark, abandoned shrine, dusty and freezing cold from disuse. Brother Udyr climbed the steps carefully, taking off his mask as he did. And when he reached the center of that dark, lonely shrine, he stopped.
Kona rolled out from underneath Brother Udyr's robes, wheezing.
"Bath..." Kona choked out, tears running down her face. "Take… a bath."
"Oh come on, it's not that bad." Akali teased, clambering out from under Brother Udyr's robes on all fours. Kona stuck her tongue out at her.
"That's 'cause you don't realize you smell worse, you disgusting slu-"
"Shh!" Akali smiled, closing her eyes and cupping her fingers around her throat. She tilted her chin up, and whispered for Shen. And by her command, purple light started pouring out from her, filling the shrine with a soft, warm glow. Akali smiled, reaching out with both her arms, as that light started to fill out in the form of Shen.
With a start, the light went out, and Shen collapsed in her arms.
"Hey..." Akali said, patting his head nervously. Hehe. She liked touching him. "You ok?"
"Sorry-I'm fine…" Shen gasped, slumping lower in Akali's arms. She would have thought it sweet, if Shen wasn't so seriously tired. "It's just that doing Father's technique.. a couple of days in a row takes a lot out of me," Shen muttered, crouched low and breathing heavily.
He held his hand up in apology, swallowing. "Just give me a second."
"Well here, Kona has a change of clothes for you." Akali handed Shen a packet of red robes. "Hurry and put them on." They were re-purposed red robes that Kona had picked off of the moving corpses from back in the meadows. Supposedly, they were close enough to their junior Sect's robes that no one would be able to tell at first place.
So Kona said, Akali worried. The teenager took a critical eye at her attire. A simple red robe, tied together with an embroidered corset-like wait wrapping that was secured with a holy rope. There was only the one mask that the Sheperd's mummy owned amongst the field of corpses that they had combed through, so they would need to find some before delving further into the temple. She hoped no one would notice the light notes of dried blood that caked the edges of her robes, or the tears from where a sword had pierced the fabrics.
Brr…
She hugged herself, feeling the cold wind invade her robes from the breaches in her clothes. She was going to have to trade out this cloak as soon as possible.
"Look here," Kona said over the sounds of her scraping a branch into the dirt just outside the shrine. "Memorize this map of the temple. Burn it in your minds." Kona finished drawing a half-moon shape into the dirt, before starting again at the moon's northern middle, drawing out a series of boxes and circles that grew off of the moon like a tree.
"We're in the Temple's lower levels." She pointed to the half-moon shape south of the branched-off buildings. "Here's where all of the junior members practice, train and pretty much live their entire lives. Pretty much anything goes here. They're good soldiers on the battlefield, but in their free time, our Junior Sect members aren't much better than gangs of thugs, rapists and killers. The regiments that live on the lower levels pretty much just a mob of factional gangs that won't give you a minute before you're dragged off into a dark corner of the temple. So for God's sake, don't get grabbed, and don't go wandering off alone."
"'Cept this one," Kona jerked her thumb at Brother Udyr, who was taller than her sitting down. "He's so big, can do whatever he wants. In fact, he'll probably get recruited, fast."
"What's the big deal if they're a bunch of thugs?" Akali asked, looking carefully over her shoulder. No one there yet. "We can just kill them and make it look like a fight, right?"
"Idiot." Kona said, chopping Akali over the head with a hand (ow). "Shen, tell her what weaklings do when they know they're weak."
"They'll gather together to combine their strength," Shen answered carefully. The boy already had wrapped under his eyes with a red sash of cloth, hiding his face. Akali noticed that he was starting to do that more and more often lately. "Which means we probably can't kill them off quickly enough before attracting attention."
"Bingo. And if we attract attention from the high priests-" Kona jerked her thumb up at the high, half-moon walls that circled around them. "We're done. The high priests are no joke."
"...Is that who lives on the upper levels?" Akali turned to look up at the walls around them. It was almost a second fortress from inside, she pondered. She couldn't even see a way up. "The high priests?"
"The high priests, their apprentices," Kona replied, "And the Elder's core force of soldiers. Those are where his elite soldiers and his best disciples live. Those spearmen we passed on the way in are probably some of those very men."
Kona traced her finger in the inside of the half-moon walls. "The grunts mostly eat, train and screw around on the lower levels, within the courtyards and the barracks that's down here." She drew her finger outwards, to the half-moon itself. "His elite soldiers do their duties within the walls, and spend most of their time on top or within them."
FInally, Kona drew her finger out to the scattered buildings that grew out the northern end of the walled complex. "The High Priests and their best disciples live in the Zhanlang Summit, the mountain temple that existed here before we came in and built these walls at the feet of its lower, Southern levels."
"And that's where the Elder is." Akali finished. They were almost there, she thought to herself. Her eyes wandered over those dotted boxes and circles. Somewhere in there, she could finally end this all.
"And my master." Kona added. "We're going to need her strength if we have any chance at taking down the Elder at all. I know the exact place that my master was carted off to. My master made sure to tell me every time she reappeared after missing one of our secret training sessions. I know where she'd be held. If we can get there and set her loose, we'll have our shot."
"Alright, so..." Akali turned back, gazing up those red walls that soared around them. "Step one: how do we get up there?"
"...Want another try at being ninjas?" Kona gave a wry smile.
Two upper-ranked apprentices were talking by the one of many of the common soldier's quarters, a ram-shackle two-story house that used to be some visitor's mansion. Now it was little more than a shanty town for the worst of the Blood Moon Sect's men.
One apprentice took the look of a masked fox wrapped up in red robes and blackened animal furs, and the other wearing the mask of a war god, draped in chainmail and red-painted boiled leather.
They chatted, bored, twirling the blunt clubs at their sides. Today it was their turn to police the junior disciples that were housed here and stop them from entirely clawing each other's throats out. It was glorified janitor work, with how often the lower-ranks were killing each other over the slightest of perceived insults. They were mostly there to make sure that no more than half of the lower ranks didn't kill the other half. Today, however, was a slow day since it seemed that the majority of the lower ranks had been butchered out on the front lines over the past few battles. The two men didn't mind. If the lower ranked scum were too busy out nursing their missing arms and legs, that meant less work for them.
Out of the corner of his eye, the fox-masked apprentice saw a two red-robed figures dart around the tree line towards the back of the barracks. Intrigued, he got up from leaning on the doorframe, whistling while jerking his head to get his comrade to follow him. It was a new policy to never leave their posts alone, with how often the lower rank scum would try to lure each other into three-to-one ambushes for a fucking wheat bun or something.
They strolled around the corner, finally spotting the two mystery figures, one unmasked girl on top of the other, giving her friend a boost over the wall.
"Stop." The fox apprentice ordered, and the two girls turned to the man, startled. The skinny one dropped the one with a ponytail, and they toppled over each other, groaning. The apprentice narrowed his eyes, looking over the girls carefully. They didn't have very many women on the lower ranks. Not ones that lasted long, anyways. Were they some priestess' apprentices? But then they would be in the walls, higher up. Why were they trying to get into the soldier's quarters?
"What are you doing?"
"We- we're not doing anything!" The skinny one snarled. "Just leave us alone! Isn't that what you meatheads always do?"
The fox apprentice grit his teeth. He didn't have time for this shit.
"...I'll only ask one more time."
"..." The ponytailed girl looked away. "We're just getting our masks back… we left them there last night."
The armored apprentice gave a short, cold laugh. He understood what happened.
"So you girls were picked off and toyed around with in there, huh? You didn't just go to Yueyin for that? That crazy bitch'd turn those men inside-out if anyone took her juniors."
The ponytailed girl held out her hand in response, a dagger hidden in the sleeve. The fox apprentice nodded at that, the nose of his fox mask bobbing up and down at the hidden weapon.
"Good answer." The apprentice stepped forwards, drawing his hand past the blunt club at his waist, instead grabbing at the hilt of his blade. "But you two screwed up two of our rules already, first by getting caught in the first place, and then again by letting yourself be seen without your mask."
The apprentice waved his blade from side to side, testing its weight. "Don't worry. I won't rape you like those scum on this level. I'm just going to take a finger, for wasting my time. I'm sure Yueyin will understand."
The ponytailed girl drew her dagger out, tensed. The other girl growled, reaching for the scythe at her hip.
"Still want to fight, you brats?" The man strode forwards with his sword, but his partner put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.
"Forget it, man. Not worth the trouble." The man shrugged his partner off, but lowered his blade. The partner jerked his head at the soldier's quarters. "Go do want you want to do, girls. But we're not going to rescue you if you get caught again."
The girls looked at each other, and put their weapons away. Without another word, they climbed on top of each other, one hopping onto the wall before reaching down to pull the other up, and they jumped over the barrier together, and disappeared into the barracks.
The apprentices were standing by the entrance again when they heard the blood-curdling screams. Men's screams. The apprentices turned to look up at the second-floor window from where the screams and shouts were coming from.
"Hoh?" The armored apprentice said, impressed. "They did it."
The fox apprentice gave an indifferent hmph in reply.
Then the doors between them burst open, and the two girls ran out, new masks on their face and fresh blood dripping from their hands and weapons. The one with the ponytail gave the fox a single look from behind her mask, before running out into the courtyard, angry shouts and curses following them out. Without a word, she threw a severed head at the fox's feet. And then she ran off after her friend, jumping over roots and ducking behind tree trunks. Without another word, the girl disappeared quickly into the cherry blossom groves.
The fox apprentice looked down at the head at his feet. The ugly man's look of surprise and confusion was still present on his pale, bloodless face. The fox gave a twitch of his mouth.
"Not bad, kid."
A mob of men boiled out of the doorway like bees, surrounding, shouting and questioning the apprentices angrily. But the two men remained silent and stony-faced, even behind their masks. This was the law of their sect. As long as the lower-ranks weren't decimating each other, they didn't have to do shit. It was a while before the lower-ranked scum dispersed, spreading out into the grove of cherry blossoms like a swarm of ants, combing the courtyard for the two priestess apprentices.
It was then that the fox tilted his head curiously, deep in thought.
"Why was the ponytail girl holding a third mask..?" He muttered, rubbing his chin.
Akali, Kona and Shen put their masks on, crouched within that same shrine they were in before. A deer, a songbird and a demon all stared between each other. And Brother Udyr loomed above the Ionian teenagers with his own boar's mask, uncertain.
"Shen," Akali said to him, tilting her deer's mask at him to reconfirm the scheme. "You're an apprentice to the mid-level priest Usang."
"Kona," Shen nodded his demon's face to her. "Akali and you are both new apprentices to High Priestess Yueyin. Your previous mistress Priestess Annah was killed on the front lines."
"Old man," Kona nodded the beak of her songbird's mask up at Brother Udyr. "You're the Priest Usang. Don't talk. Just wander around the prayer rooms and mutter sutras under your breath, and let Shen do the talking." The monk nodded in reply, still struggling to keep up with the foreign language.
"...we're going to have to separate, huh? It'll look too weird if all four of us are moving around with each other." Akali said, chewing her lip. She looked at Shen worriedly. "Are you two going to be OK?"
"I should be saying that," Shen countered, arms crossed. "I don't have it in me to use my father's Unity of the Righteous for at least another day. Akali… you keep yourself safe until then."
Akali reached out and hugged Shen.
"We'll meet up tomorrow. Promise?"
"Sure."
Akali let go of Shen, and then she made it a point to look from Kona to Shen with a meaningful glance. They were a team, after all. All of them. At her friend's behest, Kona shuffled forwards, uncertain.
"Shen..." Kona glanced at the boy. The skinny girl held out her hand awkwardly, her bangs over her face. Akali tried her best not to laugh at the scene. "Uh… good luck-"
And to everyone's astonishment, the stoic boy pulled Kona in and hugged her tightly. The skinny girl gave a small eep of surprise.
"I don't know you as well as Akali does," Shen said quietly. "But I still remember that kind person that you were, back at the Lunar Festival. You and Akali were my first new friends for a long time. I'll never forget that.
"You stay safe, Kona." Shen finished. He released the girl.
Kona turned away in reply, the songbird mask pointed at a shrine wall. Akali reached out to poke her friend in the neck, where it was getting red. Kona slapped her finger away, cursing under her breath. But lighter than usual.
She smiled at that. They were still a team.
It was getting dark. Already a few hours had passed since Brother Udyr and Shen left first.
It was decided that the monk and the boy would be the first ones to ascend the great steps up to the upper levels, onto the great half-moon walls of the Blood Moon Temple, while Akali and Kona would follow after a few hours under the same story that the two guard-apprentices at the barracks gave them in the first place. It had still been light out when the humongous man had raised a meaty hand in farewell, while Shen dutifully trailed behind him, doing his best to look the part as an unassuming priest's apprentice. Afterwards, Kona and Akali had spent a few hours napping, each one trading lookouts for each other. But no one ever came.
It was quiet, and the courtyard had finally died down when the two girls finally made their move.
The two darted across the open dirt and cobblestone grounds unmolested. Without anyone to hide from or slow them down, within minutes they arrived at the feet of the waterfall that fell from the upper levels. By the waterfall's sides rose twin sets of interlocking flights of stairs that zigzagged into the stone fortifications, rising higher and higher until they disappeared into the upper levels of the walls.
Kona pointed to the nearest set of stairs to them, and they both ran for it- And were immediately stopped by two guards that were in hiding near the feet of the stairs.
The two ninja girls skidded along the snowy cobblestones, as two red-robed warriors burst into view in front of them, their arms already reaching for the blades strapped to their backs.
"What, more tonight?" The first apprentice questioned. The man stepped forwards in the low light, trying to get a closer look at his intruders. "Alright, scum. What excuse do you have now for- oh." The man stopped, recognizing them. He stood up, crossing his arms like he away did at the sight. "It's you two."
It was the fox-masked apprentice. The same one from earlier today.
"Ah." The other apprentice said, this one with a frog mask. "So these are the girls that caused all that trouble at the barracks, huh?" So the fox-mask didn't have the same partner, Akali noted.
"Yeah, I got in trouble with the captain because I let three more die on my watch, and then I got in trouble again with that Priestess. Cap made me take the fucking night shift because of these little shits."
Akali turned to Kona, and they hunched together, both thumbing their weapons. Last time the man said he was going to take a finger from them. If they had to fight, then…
"Alright, go on up then. Don't keep Mistress Yueyin waiting."
"...You're not going to punish us?" Akali asked warily. "But last time-"
"Yeah, that was before that psycho bitch took a fingernail from me just for mentioning you two to her." The fox-mask held up his index finger, which was heavily bandaged and sporting fresh blood from within. "She was even happy and smiling when she did it. I don't want anything more to do with you two. Fuck off and die, but get Yueyin out of my hair before you do."
They didn't need any more hints. Akali and Kona only had to share a look before they trotted up to the staircase in unison, taking the narrow steps up three at a time.
The fox-masked apprentice gave them a long, glaring look before turning back to the dark, open night below, rubbing his index finger.
The Priestess was waiting for them at the very top of the stairs, flanked by two masked women holding staffs with sharpened crescents on them. She hovered over them, a many-tiered watchtower soaring behind at her back. The winds blew harder up here. Cold mountain gales cut through the unmanned ballistas and the racks upon racks of freshly fletched arrows. There were only a few sentries that dotted the walls, few and far in between.
The woman's hair was pitch-black, her features severe and sharp and her eyes were sunken into her head, giving her a skeletal look. On her forehead shone a red, angry scar, carved in the shape of their sect's symbol, the Teardrop Moon. Her slender, almost inhuman hands feverishly worked a rosary that was wound around her neck. Still, despite the woman's nervous and sickly appearance, the High Priestess Yueyin smiled at Akali with a strange, unnerving warmth, even though neither she nor Kona had seen the woman in their entire lives.
The Priestess' eyes went wide, and she smiled wider, with both rows of teeth showing.
"... I had feared that Sister Annah and all of her brood-daughters died fighting the Alliance. So when I heard that some of our precious few battle-sisters arrived back safely- 'Tis a blessing that still some of her brood remains." Yueyin crouched down, embracing the two girls tightly. "Oh, poor Annah! Oh, you poor girls! You, my daughters of the Blood Moon… you two must carry on Annah's flame into the New World that we are to bring."
"R-right..." Akali said, hugging the woman awkwardly. It was like having a bag of sticks draped over her. The woman was tough, sinewy and surprisingly strong, like she was nothing but jerky and bones.
"Mistress…" Kona said, peeling the priestess off of her as carefully as she could. "We're exhausted. We were, uh, grabbed by some men right as we came back. So we're real tired and all. Can we be excused to our quarters?"
"Of course!" Yueyin said, jumping up. "I will take you to where your new sisters sleep immediately. I believe you already knew them. Sister Yunai and Sister Annah's brood daughters were quite close if I recall correctly. You'll get used to your new sisters in no time."
What-? Akali thought, and she turned to Kona, alarmed. You never mentioned this-! Akali tried to telepathically shout into Kona's head.
The High Priestess rose, grabbing the two girls by the wrist and dragging them off in some direction deeper into the walls, laughing with an edge of mania. The two girls struggled against the woman's grip, but she was insanely strong. Akali winced as the woman's nails dug into her arm.
"T-that's not a good idea- High Priestes- ow!" Akali cried, as she felt the woman draw blood. "We're really tired, so can't we just-"
But the woman wasn't listening. The woman kept on dragging Akali and Kona deeper and deeper into the sect walls, striding forwards with loud, purposeful steps. Inside was a maze of red mahogany and dimly lit oil lamps, burning slowly in the night. The only sound was the continuous thump-thump of their footsteps as the high priestess dragged the two girls off into the darkness and the priestess' two bodyguards quietly shadowing the three of them in the rear.
Shit-! Akali thought, gritting her teeth. At this rate, their story would be blown in no time!
She leaned back to turn to Kona, ready to give the signal- the one to break their cover and only hope they could kill everyone in time before the alarm was raised. When she managed to sneak a glance at her friend from within her mask, she saw that Kona was already reaching for her scythes.
Ok, she would leave the two bodyguards in the back to Kona. If Akali could just get at her sword with her other hand, then- She ran face-first into the High Priestess' back.
The Priestess had stopped in a great, sudden fashion, Akali running into her back and Kona lurching ahead, off balance. The woman's wild look grew even more savage as she cocked her head, growling lightly.
"What are you doing here?! Who are you?!" The woman demanded.
Akali glanced up to see what she was looking at.
It was a masked man. With a black cloak over his shoulders, black armor… and a black, wide-brimmed hat, with only a few gold inscriptions on it that Akali didn't have to read to know what it said, for she had known them her entire life.
均
衡
庙
The Kinkou Temple. It was a Dai'nin, Akali saw. She felt her heart race.
If there was one, then where were the others-? But her thoughts were cut short by the Dai'nin's words.
"Death," The Dai'nin replied, and he charged, drawing his two swords.
Akali took the chance to break the High Priestess' grip and reach for her own sword, but the woman barely noticed as she screeched in anger. Behind them, her two bodyguards grunted in pain as swords sprouted from their chests, and the women fell to the ground, Dai'nin at their backs and blood already pooling beneath them.
"No-!" The High Priestess screamed as she turned around and watched her bodyguards die. Without even looking back, the woman dodged the first Dai'nin's attack and raked her hand across and tore into the charging Dai'nin's face. The man dropped his swords instantly to struggle against the Priestess' grip. Priestess Yueyin took the man to the ground and raked her sharp nails into the man's belly, all while he screamed over and over in shock and pain.
His fellow Dai'nin were just in time to dash forwards and cut off the priestess' head as their comrade died. The woman's head went rolling. The Dai'nin's hands went limb, bloody foam frothing from his lips.
And it was finished.
The Dai'nin team, now only six, milled around their fallen comrade. They bowed their heads out of respect, while the closest one to the corpse closed his fellow ninja's eyes.
In the back, Akali and Kona took a half step away, unsure. This was completely out of their expectations. Should they run? Or reveal themselves now and give themselves up? But if they went back, then the Alliance would capture Kona all over again, and Shen would be left alone and-
One of the Dai'nin leaned in to their leader, talking low so they couldn't hear them. But Akali could. They didn't know they were ninjas, too.
"Lieutenant Sao. What should we do with these young ones?"
Sao? Akali thought back. Master Khen's right-hand man...
"...Do they have weapons?" Sao asked, turning to face Akali and Kona.
"One sword, two scythes." The Dai'nin replied. "I noticed a number of hidden weapons, too. Those little girls are almost as loaded as we are."
"Hm. If they're old enough to fight for the Blood Moon Sect, they're old enough to die for it." Lieutenant Sao said off-handedly. He sheathed his sword with one hand and pulled out a map with the other. taking the time to carefully straighten it out and draw out another deep, black X at their current position with a piece of charcoal, making the number of Xs on the map a grand total of three.
At his subordinate's hesitation, Lieutenant Sao jerked his head. "Well? Make it quick, Soun. We've got two more marks to hit tonight."
"Sir." The Dai'nin said, and he turned to the girls the ninja sword already in his hands. The man held the weapon out to his side, brandishing it menacingly. "Sorry, girls, but you picked the wrong side this time. Find happiness in your next life."
"W-wait!" Akali nearly shouted, reaching down to pull off her mask. "We're-!"
"I had wondered what was drawing me to this place tonight," A low voice said, drifting in from the darkness of the corridor beyond them. In response, all of the Dai'nin drew their swords, aiming them down the wooden hallway at the source of the sound.
"It was a dark, familiar calling." The voice continued. Akali felt a shiver run down her spine. She knew that voice. "Like the scent of the Blessed Isles. Like the scent of blood. But I'm disappointed by this. Turns out it was seven vermin rats, scurrying around my home. Biting at my soldiers and chewing at my possessions."
From the black night was borne a red moon. The Blood Moon Elder's red, hooded figure melted into view, followed closely by his personal soldiers, white-masked demons that stepped quietly in sync with their master. Akali's turned her head back to forth as all of the Dai'nin around her raised their weapons higher, leveling it at the sect leader before them. She felt Kona tap her on the shoulder, and Akali whirled around to face her back. The darkness parted to reveal another wall of elite Blood Moon soldiers, shuffling into view behind them, blocking off their only escape.
They were trapped.
"Courage," Lieutenant Sao said to his men as they wavered, taking each other's back in a tight circle. "We were all prepared for this from the day we were born. And besides..." The man narrowed his eyes at the Blood Moon Elder, gritting his teeth. "That's their leader. If we can take that man down here, we can end this war, here and now."
"Master Elder of the Blood Moon Sect!" Sao shouted, whipping his sword to the side. The man advanced, bursting from the safety of his men's circle, waving his weapon from side to side. "Duel me! On your honor as a sect leader!" But the Blood Moon Elder ignored him, stepping forwards to touch the High Priestess' severed head. The Kinkou Dai'nin instinctively shuffled back, giving way. They couldn't help it. This was dominance in its purest form. "A-are you a coward?!" Sao yelled, unaware of the irony as he shouted this while stepping backwards. "Answer me!"
The Blood Moon Elder barely gave a twitch of his head at the accusation.
"Denied." The Blood Moon Elder replied quietly. "You dare ambush women and children of mines in the middle of the night, assassinating them with overwhelming odds, and expect me to duel you? You, who has lived an unknown guttersnipe and will die completely forgotten…" The Blood Moon Elder lowered his gaze, trailing slowly over the dead bodies of his High Priestess and her two bodyguards. His eyes burned yellow in the torchlight.
"You don't deserve a clean death." The Blood Moon Elder nodded up, signalling to his guards who advanced with lances raised. "Kill them. Slowly."
The soldiers advanced, cutting down the Dai'nin one by one, skewering them before nailing them into the ground with a dozen different lances as the men desperately tried to forge forwards, to cut their way to the Blood Moon Elder. But they could barely hurt anyone, let alone kill their sect leader as they were slaughtered, one by one. Lieutenant Sao screamed and cursed, pushing forwards into that forest of spears, hacking at one lance after another until one finally caught him in his gut, and he was taken down. Sao crumpled to the floor, and then the soldiers truly went to work on him.
More and more soldiers passed Akali and Kona, filling the corridor until all Akali could see of Lieutenant Sao was his blood, pooling out from underneath the soldier's boots, and all she could hear from him were his screams. She always thought of the man as quiet, but he screamed so loudly.
Akali scooted back, shivering. This wasn't just death. This was torture.
A red shadow passed over her face, and Akali looked up.
The Blood Moon Elder towered over her, looking down at her just as she gazed back. Akali felt her words catch in her throat.
"You are lucky that they didn't kill you outright, young acolyte." The Blood Moon Elder said quietly. The two guards flanking him on either side stared down at her impassively. Not caring. Just watching. Analyzing. It was like they were looking at a piece of roadkill, not a person. "Are you ok?"
"Y-..." Akali's words caught in her throat, and for a moment she forgot who she was, and whose mask she had on. "Yes I am, holy master." She curled up to her knees, and clasped her hands, bowing her head.
"I… I'm not worthy."
"Don't be so nervous. You're safe now."
"Sh-she.." Kona started, then stopped, gulping. The Blood Moon Elder swiveled his hooded head to look down on Kona now. "We were just simple farm girls before, master. We've ne'er been so close to the Son of Heaven."
The Blood Moon Elder didn't reply. He only stared quietly at Kona, then slowly he swiveled his head back to Akali. There was no warmth in his eyes. There was no life in his words. Only hunger. "Pick any quarters to rest tonight. You will need your strength to survive the next coming days."
"Y-yes, holy master." Kona mumbled.
"Do your best to prepare yourself." The Blood Moon Elder left as a parting message, and strode off, his hands dry and not-bloodied and his guard filing silently after him like a long, trailing shadow. In the background, Lieutenant Sao's screams faded to whimpers, and then deathly silence.
Akali glanced up at Kona. The girl had fallen to her knees, shivering. Akali looked down, and saw that she was quaking too.
They hugged, and Akali let herself cry. It wasn't until long after the soldiers left and the slave-servants began cleaning up the bloody mess left in the corridor that the two girls picked themselves up and left.
A lone thought crossed Akali's mind.
Welcome to the Blood Moon Sect.
