This chapter is really long. The longest. 9,000 words, 23 pages. Normally I would run through a full day of proofreading before posting but I'm really tired and kind of sick of writing at the moment so I'm going to just put this out there and fix the errors that I find in a couple days.
Sorry for the wait. Here is the next chapter of Brave, Wandering Youth.
With every strike, the dread mounted in Akali's heart.
The Blood Moon Elder had Tripitaka firmly in his grasp, holding him up by the neck. The monk's arms wrapped around the restored hand were just barely keeping the sect leader from snapping his neck like a twig.
The whistle of the sword racing through the air was all the warning for the Blood Moon Elder to whip his hand out from behind him and catch the Dragon Maiden's sword, slipping easily into a one-armed grapple around the lady dragon's arm. Without a sound, the Blood Moon Elder raised both legendary masters up, then smashed them into the earth, cracking the volcanic rock and bouncing their bodies a foot back upwards from the impact.
The Dragon Maiden rose, unsteadily to her feet, just barely dodging another strike from the Elder by collapsing and rolling to her lover's side. The Shojin Abbot laid in the crater made by his own body, unmoving.
This was impossible… she told herself. Her master was like a god of martial arts. All three of these warriors were. But this…
It was happening in front of her eyes.
They were being devoured.
In perfect unison the Dragon Maiden and Yang Guo cut, dancing left and right at once, surrounding the Blood Moon Elder then cutting with a simultaneous strike.
In harmony with them, the Blood Moon Elder curled his arms out and cradled both swords. It didn't matter whether it was the violet blur of the Warrior Saint's first sword or the unstoppable force of nature that was the Warrior Saint' second blade. Both were entangled within the Blood Moon Elder's stride and he brought the lover's weapons together in a tai chi move known as White Crane Spreads its Wings.
Then the Blood Moon Elder curled his wings in, and consumed everything.
Akali, from the other side of the Altar, felt the jerk of her entire body lurching towards the Blood Moon Elder and his hollow heart. The entire world seemed to fold upon the Blood Moon Elder. Like the very light was being consumed within his body, everything stretched and shrank into his heart. It was just a pulse, but it was enough. His feast done, the Blood Moon Elder raised a single hand up to his chest in prayer and thanks for the sustenance. A mockery of the Shojin's practices.
And when it was done, the Dragon Maiden and Yang Guo collapsed, their chi devoured.
The Blood Moon Elder's head swiveled to look straight at Akali.
He was coming.
Her friends had turned to her, screaming something. She didn't know what.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sintra rise, looking unusually grim. Violet flashes shone from the sorceress and the magic energy coursed through the air around her, but she was no longer threatening to the Blood Moon Elder. Kona and Shen looked like they were tossing out every single hidden weapon on them, but still he kept on advancing towards Akali, magic and and throwing weapons all arcing towards that whistling hole in his heart.
The Blood Moon Elder had devoured more than her masters' chi there. It was like he ate the very hope from her heart. She was going to die here. She was going to die in the middle of this burning altar to a shadowy god, eaten alive by whatever dark contract the Blood Moon Elder was going to form.
"Akali! Get up!" Shen screamed as soon as the legendary masters went down.
"Come on!" Kona yelled, slapping Akali hard in the face, but she didn't budge. "Kh! Useless!"
To the side Sintra had both hands out, hovering a foot from the ground- not by choice- but by the sheer volume of magic she was drawing out from within herself.
"Sacred Inferno!" She yelled and a ring of fire erupted around the Blood Moon Elder's feet. Then an explosion. Black and red flames spiraled upwards into the sky, eating the air higher and higher as the magic reached the heavens. It was a tornado of fire, sucking the oxygen from the air and melting the rock underfoot.
A hand burst of from the wall of flames. The fire began to curling around the arm, wrapping itself more and more in the shape of the Blood Moon Elder. Then all of the flame vanished, curling back into the Blood Moon Elder's hollow heart. There was only the smallest spark left in the man's empty chest. And then nothing but blackness.
The man licked his lips.
Sintra held her hand out, pointing at the Blood Moon Elder and what looked like a black marble materialized at fingertips.
"Dark Sun of Xe'Rakh!"
The marble shot out from her fingertip like a slingshot, racing towards the ascended sect leader. Sintra collapsed backwards, falling back to the earth, her Shen Qi spent. But the instant it left her body, that marble began to grow. And grow.
It tore up the volcanic rock below, eagerily devouring the earth it floated over, consuming the rock and air it passed through and growing larger with every piece of matter it consumed and ignited within itself. That black marble pulsed, beating like a heart, each beat leaving it larger than it was last. The black light shone outwards until the Blood Moon Elder was faced with a whirling, howling sphere of black, two stories high, tearing up the ground at his feet and igniting the air around it.
He could have easily sidestepped the attack. Such was the mage girl's focus on producing the most destructive magic possible that she neglected any assistance in actually hitting the Blood Moon Elder with this power.
But the Elder didn't take a step. He instead cradled his hands out, letting the Dark Sun pass through his arms. Scorching his flesh and turning his body into inert, blackened charcoal and ash.
"Thank you for the meal."
The world started to fold on the Blood Moon Elder once again.
"Star Eater."
The sun, the earth, every scrap of purply light bent inwards towards the Blood Moon Elder, sucked into his hollow heart. A great howling sounded through the craterous altar, the sound of the Elder eating everything in his path. When it was done, only he was left standing. There was no trace of the sorceress girl's magic. Nothing at all but a perfect circle of untouched volcanic rock at the Blood Moon Elder's feet, spared the violence of Sintra's magic by the hungry maw in the Elder's chest.
And his arms, once scorched and singed by the sorceress girl's magic, was clean and whole once more, and Sintra face down, the limits of her power finally reached.
The Blood Moon Elder turned to look at Akali, his face shrouded in shadow and his eyes gleaming hungrily. He was coming.
"We're not going to give up. Not until the end!" Shen drew his sword, stepping forwards. "Kona! Go set the array!"
Kona got up, running away from the group as fast as she could. In her hands, she had palmed a piece of white rock.
"Not enough..." Akali muttered to herself.
Brother Uydr charged, trying to match the Blood Moon Elder in a contest of strength. They locked hands and it looked even for a moment. Only a moment. With a single change of the hand, the Blood Moon Elder lifted Brother Udyr up like he was a child and tossed him to the side. Before the enormous man left arm's length, the Blood Moon Elder punched him bodily in the chest. The fist moved like a blur, disappearing into Brother Udyr's muscles and back out again. Akali could her the snapping of bones even from all the way over here.
"It's all not enough."
Shen bravely charged the legendary master, but he simply swat the boy away like a fly. A swat that could brain a horse. Shen had blocked the attack with both hands braced against his sword, but his strength failed him and the sword flat slammed into his chest like a metal club. Shen went toppling from the violent blow, his sword clattering against the ground, his head cracking against the volcanic rock. Landing right in between the Elder and Akali.
The Elder reached down without breaking stride as if to pick Shen off the ground. But there was going to be no further toying around from the Elder. Akali saw the Elder lay his hand over Shen's face. She saw him crush Shen's head before it happened. Her mind was made up right then and there.
No.
You will not touch him.
What do you want? Something asked from within her.
She felt her feet move before it happened.
Nothing but his life.
She was already in between the two, flying, turning in the air, foot planted in the Blood Moon Elder's chest, a familiar strength coursing through her thighs and calves. The sect leader shifted ever-so slightly to look at the surprise attack put right in the middle of his chest.
They locked eyes.
And with a single strike he was taken off of his feet.
Before the Blood Moon Elder even landed, the man was surrounded by dark and shifting shadows. The very moment the sect leader bounced back to his feet, he was wrapped up within a vortex of shades. This smoke… Akali thought, as she drifting in between the billowing folds… it burned the eyes and was thick around the throat. But she knew it. It was like an extension of herself. She could see the Elder through the obscurations, glancing from side to side about the expanding smoke, searching for her.
"Akali..." She heard Shen murmur, grasped tightly her arms. She couldn't see his face, but she could hear the pain in his words. "What have you done?"
For an instant, the smoke cleared and she could see herself within the reflection in his eyes.
Her entire body was wreathed in the dark smoke. Out of her arms, out of her clothes, out of the spot on her chest over her. And she could feel it, too. The burning sensation in her left breast, like something was eating it from inside-out. She was becoming like the Elder. She was dying.
"Huahaha." The Blood Moon Elder advanced on the two young ninjas. "Your mastery of the Vortex of Consuming Shadows is shallow. Your offering is weak."
Akali rose, pushing herself up and off of the kneeling Shen. The boy was still dizzy, blood dripping slightly down from the injury on his temple. She turned to the sword at her hip. The shadows raced and screeched around her, dancing like animals. The blackness leapt from the clouds of smoke to her arm.
She drew her sword, reversed grip. The dark smoke engulfed her blade.
"Twin Disciplines." She felt the Vortex of Shadows course through her rivers of chi. Eating everything that she was and only leaving its dark stain behind. Would this power work with her sect's martial arts?
She had no choice.
"Gluttonous Jade Maiden's Swordsmanship." She raised her sword up to her face, curling the point back downwards to point at the Blood Moon Elder. With her other hand she pointed straight at the Blood Moon Elder. With a flourish she drew her sword backwards, cradling it by the point of her handle to hold it upright behind her back.
She heard Kona's scream.
"Akali!"
"Stay back!" Akali yelled. She turned to glare at Kona from in between the billows of the now fully visible smoke that was pouring out of the sword held at her back. Kona stumbled, stopping in her tracks. Akali saw her friend's eyes wider than she had ever seen them. She didn't think her friend even noticed the tears rolling down her face.
This was necessary.
Akali gave her friend an apologetic smile. And then she dived in.
The Ancient Tomb Sect's martial arts are all designed for women. Relying on external power combined with the principles of Yin force, enemies are lost in the female warrior's confounding speed and power derived from skeletal alignment. Because all of their strength is borne from proper pose and stance, the martial arts of the Ancient Tomb Sect is likened to a dance. The focus on swordsplay and martial skill in the Jade Maiden Sword classified it as an Hard art that draws from Yin. When combined with the martial strength of the Tai Chi Sword, which was Yang and Soft in nature it gave birth to the supreme swordsmanship of the Warrior saint.
However, the Vortex of Shadows was something else entirely. As a Inner Qi skill, its power was linked to changing the body's flow of chi. As a Yin and Soft Inner Qi art, it naturally clashed with the Yin and Hard arts of the Ancient Tomb Sect. The combination of Yin within Yin gave birth to something monstrous.
The smoke was pouring off of her in a torrent.
Garden Chrysanthemum. A looping cut that rose from the ground like a blooming flower. Night under the Western Gaze. A single cut from left to right that drew strength from the stance of the previous attack, using the load-up to double the strike's power. Twin Songs under the Willow. Two strikes that went one, after the one, but landed at the same time.
Akali executed all of Master's swordsplay flawlessly, but the Blood Moon Elder answered them all.
The Elder lunged forwards, hand outstretched at Akali's neck. Simple, but not simplistic. It was a nameless attack borne from complete and utter mastery of martial arts. They danced back and forth, the two Vortex users dashing over and over throughout the altar.
The Blood Moon Elder flung his fist outwards, releasing a ring of dark energy.
Akali stepped back, ducking under it. Then she dashed to the side, curving from side to side like a sidewinder, her sword reversed and pushed up against her elbow. She felt the edge carve into the Blood Moon Elder. One, two, three, four, five strikes she dodged and cut at the same time.
The Blood Moon Elder slammed his hands downwards, turning the rock at their feet as soft as water and a rippling shockwave outwards from his body. Akali cartwheeled backwards, landing on the stone post of the simple suspension bridge that led to the altar that was held high over the lava pit they were on.
So that's how it was. She sensed it from when they were fighting earlier.
The Elder was drawing strength from those around him. When the Wudang Elder and he fought, he was ungodly strong. When her master and the Blood Moon Elder clashed, he was faster than anyone she had ever seen. When the bloody elder and the old monk fought, his resilience was like the unmoving mountain. He was eating their power and turning it on themselves. With three legendary masters coordinating a combined assault upon him, he was invincible.
Which meant the only ones who could possibly stop him were them. how fitting.
Akali turned and ran from the Elder, racing down towards the suspended platform at the center of the altar. She glanced from side to side, looking for the white rock marking that Kona left in three places. One to the north, one to the south-west and one to the south-east. It was ready. This was always the plan.
Akali stopped on that suspended altar, getting used to the slight, uneasy feeling of standing on the platform that was swaying slightly in the dry wind. She glanced at the flatrock sitting in the center of the altar. A long, unassuming triangular block that was warm to the touch. There was dried blood, but it didn't look like a lot of it. Flecks of blood from captives struggling against their restraints, probably. Furthermore Akali noticed not a few amount of silver hairs from the altar's latest occupant. So this is where Sintra was kept?
She turned. The Blood Moon Elder was strolling across that treacherous plankwood bridge, his yellowed eyes fixed hungrily on Akali. Then everything was set.
Ten paces is the effective range, her master had always said, when dealing with martial artists who managed to breakthrough to the third cultivation level of master. Those that did were universally regarded as legendary heroes and villains, equals and peers to the likes of the Dragon Maiden and the Wudang Elder.
The Blood Moon Elder was about fifteen, halfway across that plankwood bridge. Was he scared of accidentally destroying the platform? Then maybe Akali had a little more space than ten paces?
The Blood Moon Elder had lunged again and she had misjudged his range. He disappeared, then reappeared right in front of her, the plankwood he was standing on shattered by the force of the Elder's leap. She couldn't dodge.
The Elder's hand filled her vision. His nails an inch from her eyes.
Shen came flying in, his sword gleaming. The boy's eyes were focused entirely on the Elder's one attack. The Blood Moon Elder's one move- Shen threw his entire being into blocking that singular strike. Shen raised his sword, pushing upwards with both hands and the Blood Moon Elder was repelled, by only a step. It was barely a stumble for the Elder, but it took Shen all of his strength to give Akali that one, single chance.
"Shen-" Akali started, but she was cut off.
"Akali!" She heard Kona yell, and the clack-clack-clack sound of her friend running down a plank-wood bridge to reinforce from behind. Damn it, Akali thought to herself. But still, she obediently ducked as she knew Kona wanted her to. Why couldn't her friends just stick to the plan for once? Akali could feel the white lightning arc over her back, her hair standing on its end from the electricity.
But Blood Moon Elder was curling his hands towards himself once more. The lightning from Kona's scythe began to arc towards that gaping hole in his chest. He was eating their strength once more.
With a throw, Akali pushed Shen away from the range of the Blood Moon Elder's Star Eater. And she took his place.
The great suction erupted from the Blood Moon Elder once again. The white lightning and the dark smoke from Akali was being devouring, heart and soul, into the Blood Moon Elder's qi. Akali could feel the emptiness in her spirit. It was like the Elder was eating her very life away. But there was still more darkness to give. And as the Elder was eating everything around him with the Vortex of Shadows, the sect leader's eyes were closed in concentration. Akali saw her chance.
Please!
A great scraping noise could be heard as Akali bit into the Blood Moon Elder's chest , her dark smoke sword burning its mark into where the Elder's exposed heart once was. She saw her cut break the perfect circle in his chest. She felt the great vacuum around the Elder falter, if only for an instant.
Die!
The Blood Moon Elder looked frozen in place, utterly still. The Elder glanced down at the cut in his chest, breaking the perfect circle that made up the hollow hole in his heart, lightly tracing the break in the hole on his chest.
The sect leader looked at Akali, his mouth open like he was going to speak.
What? She was flying through the air. The entire world turned into a blur, then a flash of light as something struck the back of her head.
Faster than she could even see, faster than she could even think, the Blood Moon Elder was upon her. It was like being rushed by a red blur. She was instantly bowled over, then a victorious hand clamped tightly around her throat. Without another word, the sect leader lifted her up.
Akali's eyes grew wide. From the choking. From her concussion. From her imminent defeat. Through the red fog of her pain, deep down, she finally understood. She was conceited from the very start. The Blood Moon Elder wasn't any weaker at all from being surrounded by her and her friends. He was pretending the entire time. Every last one of his actions had led up to this point.
"All warfare is enabled by deception." She heard the Blood Moon Elder declare. She heard the screams of her friends at her legs, Kona trying to pull her down and Shen screaming in rage, his sword already buried up to its hilt in the Blood Moon Elder's thigh. But the man took no notice of the children flailing at his feet. He treated them like the children they always were.
"Let her go!" Kona cried.
Shen just yelled and yelled and yelled, swinging his sword with every breath he took, flecks of the Elder's blood flying in his face. A dozen of his sword swings in a blink of the eye, but the Blood Moon Elder remained unmoved.
"When you are unable to attack, appear able. When you are able to attack, appear unable." The Blood Moon Elder said to her. She was pulled closer to the Elder and she could feel his breath, cold and dry on her face. It smelled like dust and ashes. "This is the last lesson of your life, girl."
The Blood Moon Elder raised Akali up high, held out his right arm, thick with the sacrificial dark smoke and rammed his hand deep into her chest, ripping her heart out then and there.
"While this Sacrifice still draws breath," She heard the Blood Moon Elder chant over her, victorious. "While she clings to the edge between death and life. I give this Sacrifice to you."
A great web of blood writs, laid out throughout the entire altar, began to glow. The lava pit under them darkened, turning pitch black, rippling, turning more fluid. If anyone were to look over the edge, into the darkness below, they would see a great citadel of dessicated Western buildings, twisted and evilled trees that wrapped their roots deep into the alleyways and stone structures below, becoming great, colossal beings that stretched out into the sky.
And from within that citadel, something stirred. Great and terrible, its form was a great, shifting mass of everything it had eaten before its imprisonment and after. Slowly that mass began to take form.
A great elephant head erupted from that mass and began to trumpet. A giant's hand burst out from that form, clamping onto the base of the largest castle in the citadel. More and more limbs began to birth from the thing to lift itself up and began to climb the spires. Soon, a tiger's head and a dragon's maw joined the elephant head and they, too, began to howl. Up towards the portal that was opened in the lava pit.
It was coming.
She was lying on that central altar, bleeding out, barely there. She was already two steps gone into oblivion. Her blood, dark and crimson, had pooled out from underneath her. She didn't know how she was alive, with a bloody, dark hole in her chest where her heart should be. Maybe she didn't care.
I'm sorry.
There was the sound of voices.
Was that the cry of her friends, after having seen the horror of the evil sect leader gut her like a fish? Or was that coming from below… from where she could her a tiger's roar, a dragon's howl, and the great trumpeting of a great elephant? Those were the loudest noises, but deeper below she could hear a hundred thousand anguished voices, forming a chorus of tortured souls. Was… that going to be her, soon?
A lurch sank into her chest and she arched her back and screamed. The hole in her heart grew wider, mirroring the breadth of the portal below.
"Nooo!" Kona had screamed, so loudly that she was huddering. With complete anguish Kona clawed at her face in despair. It was unmistakable. They had lost. Shen said nothing. The quiet, stoic boy had only fallen to his knees, tears running down his stunned face. The two of them were splattered with a lightly spray of blood. Akali's blood.
The Blood Moon Elder was standing at the edge of the platform, looking down upon the portal beneath. His long, black hair twirling wildly from the great winds that blew from below. He had his hands open, welcoming. Ushering in the god that he sought to return to Ionia.
Shen rose to his feet, his sword hanging limply at his side. With no form, no thought at all, he ran at the Blood Moon Elder.
But the Blood Moon Elder struck him down. It was barely a pat, but it sent Shen sprawled against the ground, his sword sent clattering against the stone of the platform. He could have easily crushed the boy like a bug.
"I could send you to the afterlife, right after the girl." The Blood Moon Elder said quietly. "But it's over now."
There was no need. The Blood Moon Elder pulled Shen up to a kneeling position, the boy's head hung over in defeat, Akali dying just a few feet away. His spirit was completely and utterly crushed.
"Watch the end of the world on your feet, boy."
The arm of the monstrous secret from beneath broke through the portal, crossing worlds from the Blessed Isles to the Mystical Isles. It was returning to Ionia.
"Welcome our new, living god." The Blood Moon Elder raised his arms and a second, massive, giant's arm followed, gripping on the edge of the pit. The creature began to rise from the depths, dark smoke billowing so thickly out of the volcanic pit that it filled the sky around them and shrouded the entire altar in shadow. "One of the god-warriors of old… those that who were once called Ascended, and the only one to hail from Ionia. He who brought back the very first martial arts style that he learned from his masters in Su-Rui'ma and he who is the wellspring of all of Ionia's arts of war.
"The Starving Monk, the first Shojin Abbot, God-Warrior of Ionia and he who gifted the Vortex of Shadows to Ionia.
"His name is Oujaara and we are going to welcome him home."
Akali's hand clenched.
An East Wind began to blow.
There was a hideous, torturous sound that came screeching from below. The Blood Moon Elder frowned, lowering his hands, his triumphant mood softened. The sect leader peered over, and found the two giant's arms writhing at the bottom of the pit, cut off at where their shoulder should be, twisting and coiling atop each other like two monstrous snakes. And the fallen God-Warrior from beneath was trumpeting and roaring and screeching in rage, trapped on the other side of the portal, as if it struck against some great glass ceiling. It began to beat violently against the barrier, but the entryway remained blocked.
There was only one thing that could have happened.
The Blood Moon Elder turned to look. He glanced at the boy at his feet, who was turned to the altar in complete and utter disbelief. The Blood Moon Elder raised his eyes to the eye of the storm that was forming before their eyes.
Akali got up from the altar, her head lolling about lightly. Her eyes were glazed and unfocused.
The wind started to blow harder.
She held her sword up towards the thick, black sky.
雙手互搏
The Twin Disciplines.
Akali's sword traced the pathway to righteousness. The sword of the Jade Maiden breathed. The daughter of the Dragon King rises from the Eastern Seas, garbed in clothes of jade to evangelize the path of righteousness with Avalokiteśvara.
玉女素心劍法
The Jade Maiden's Swordsmanship.
Her master's Twin Discplines was more than just using two disparate styles together, she told her. The martial arts of Ionia one and all had their own soul, their own breaths, their own power. What the technique of two disciplines into one was the melding of two spirits into one.
吸星大法
The Star-Eating Vortex.
The Blood Moon Elder had made one final mistake. By forcibly performing the same method he used on himself on her, in doing so he had given her a piece of his power. The Blood Moon Elder had, once and for all, finally undone himself. For he had underestimated her.
Two disciplines into one.
Akali drew her finger down her sword, a great suction following her touch. By her will, the sword's blade began to fold in on itself, disappearing into the void. The crackling of metal shattering and crunching away heralded a new sword. One that was made of nothing. And everything that it touched, turned to nothing.
And the hole in her chest had eaten away her shirt, baring the void in her heart where the Blood Moon Elder had so helpfully carved for her.
Akali took a step towards the Blood Moon Elder. She stared this monster down with the monster's own power.
"Ravenous Jade Maiden's Sword."
With a step and a cut, and the Blood Moon Elder's ear went flying. Tsk. Akali thought to herself. She meant to take his head, but he moved. The Blood Moon Elder stared down at the girl who had just assaulted him, stunned.
His hands moving like a blur, they carved out at her, making it look as if he had turned into a many-armed demon. But Akali flit through them all. Ducking, weaving, she danced with him.
Akali turned in place, at the Blood Moon Elder's knees. With her steps she walked past him, pulling her sword of the void through the Blood Moon Elder's stomach as she did.
The Blood Moon Elder fell to a knee, clutching at his side. Akali saw him looked down. Was he expecting his wounds to go away so easily? He would not find these cuts to be so easy to bear. The Blood Moon Elder raised his hand to where his ear once was. He groped with his fingers for an instant, looking for the missing lobe. But it was completely gone.
The Elder raised his head. And he laughed. Akali frowned at that. It wasn't the reaction she was expecting.
"Hu. Huaha. You? Eat from me?"
The Blood Moon Elder turned to face her, a new light in his eyes. What was wrong with him? Akali waved her sword to and fro, leaving shimmering cuts in the air from where the void passed, ready for whatever attack may come. The bloody sect leader raised his hands. Not in a guard position… but… they were clasped. He saluted Akali with respect.
"渡元, Du Yuan. 吸星大法, the Star-Eating Vortex."
It was the first time the man had ever looked at her. Not as prey… but as an equal.
She didn't know why, but…
"明麗, Aka Li. 玉女素心劍法, the Jade Maiden Pure Heart Swordsplay." She said, raising her own sword. She glared at this man, this raging dragon who had rampaged throughout Ionia, causing untold amounts of suffering. This man, who had taken away her very life. She was going to end it here and now.
The Blood Moon Elder raised his hand, beckoning Akali.
"Come. There is still time for one last bit of fun."
The two of them charged.
A raging claw-like hand swooped upwards and Akali's arm went flying, ripped off at the shoulder like a leg of turkey. With a shudder, the arm flew backwards into the bloody sect leader, eating in full. The Blood Moon Elder's ear grew back and the deep gash in his side disappeared, his wounds disappearing.
With a roar, she cut deep with her sword in the man's leg, taking out his entire foot. The foot curled into her sword of nothingness and she devoured the man's flesh greedily. Without missing a beat, Akali reached out with a rapidly-regrowing arm, and caught the last bits of the man's foot.
She took a bite out of the man's leg, ripping off a tiny piece to chew, before the entire foot disappeared into herself. She stared down the bloody sect leader the entire while, still gnawing on a hunk of his flesh.
And he never looked happier.
The two ninja juniors sat stunned in the middle of the fight, the winds racing around their heads and great, earth shattering blows passing within a foot of their faces. Shen, fallen, with Kona at his side. The two of them couldn't move. They could scarcely breathe. The force of the attacks and the twin suctions from the two Star Eater users made it feel as if Shen was standing in them middle of a hurricane.
"A...kali?" Kona said, fallen to her knees. She was stunned. Her friend dying… then coming back. It was all too much for the young girl. Shen, by her side, watched the fight with wide eyes, enraptured. His gaze narrowed as he saw the Blood Moon Elder rip Akali's arm off, only for her to cut off the man's foot in reply and eat it. The two of them were carving and regenerating at terrifying rates.
Shen grabbed Kona and pulled the two of them from the fight, back over the plankwood bridge. The two were welcomed by Brother Udyr, who had recovered from his concussion, and Sintra, who was leaning unsteadily on Brother Udyr's chest. The mage girl's breathing was uneven and her eyes were unfocused. Perhaps she had never over-exerted herself in her entire life.
All four of them, Brother Udyr, Sintra, Kona and Shen watched as Akali went blow for blow with the Blood Moon Elder's wrath. Down the line, every emotion could be seen on their faces. Sintra, inscrutable, had the faintests of grins on her faces. Brother Udyr had his hands clasped in prayer, his head bowed.
But it was obvious to Shen that Akali would lose this battle of attrition. Akali… would eventually lose.
"Come on!" Shen growled. "We can't just stand here!"
The other three looked at him. They understood.
Shen saw Kona take a lone glance at the white circle that she had drawn that was closest to her. They were just kids… they were exhausted. But they had to try. With a pat on Kona's shoulder, Shen made for one of the white circles, Kona for another, and Brother Udyr scurried off, carrying Sintra to the circle farthest away from them.
This was always their plan.
The boy lurched off, using his sword as a walking stick, conserving his energy. He shuffled off towards one of the three white circles that Kona had spend drawing with white rock into the circular altar around them. Though there were hard to see under the Blood Moon Sect's inscriptions, they were still there.
Shen stopped at one of the white circles. He didn't know how much he could contribute. Not with his power… but every bit had to help, right? He took a deep breath in preparation. This technique was far too draining on his body to safely conduct in his state, but he had no choice. He had to help Akali.
He raised his sword, ready to stab down.
Then, a pale, lithe hand grabbed him, stopping him dead in his tracks. A beautiful, pale woman with pure white robes and long, dark, black sheets of hair floated around the boy, towering over him. She embraced him lightly, pulling him back. Shen stumbled backwards, at her mercy.
"Easy now. We adults will handle this." The Dragon Maiden's eyes glistened. "How shameful it is, for us masters to depend on the students. But our shame is half our pride."
Across the Altar. Shen saw that the Wudang Elder had also recovered. With a hand, he pulled Kona gently away from the white circle she was standing over. With a gentle pat, the legendary hero stood ready over one of the other white circles. Far away, the old monk, Tripitaka, had made his way to that last circle, but Sintra was trying to push him away. It seemed like she wanted to try this new thing for herself.
"What is this called?" The Dragon Maiden asked, looking carefully over the array circle. It seemed like she knew what it was instinctively. "Oh? This inscription… how clever."
"...This is the Kinkou Empyrean Arts," Shen said, reciting the name of the Kinkou Triumvirate's ultimate move. "The Demon-Sealing Array."
"And this will help my dear disciple?"
"It has to."
"Good enough." Shen saw as the Dragon Maiden unsheathed the Warrior Saint's first, evil, violet sword. The winds started to gather about as she collected what chi had still remaining. Across the altar, he could see Yang Guo and the old monk do the same.
And with a plunge, the three of them stabbed down.
Chains appeared out of nowhere.
The Blood Moon Elder yelled in surprise. Shining, white chains erupted from the altar's circles, wrapping them about the Elder's every limb. With a shout of surprise, Akali fell to the ground as well, the chains wrapping themselves tightly around her face, her neck and her every limb. Straining, Akali turned to look at the source.
...Master?
So they did it.
And that meant… Akali turned to look at the bloody sect leader before her. As she did she felt her entire being plunge into the Spirit World. The ethereal nature of the sealing array dragged her consciousness into the world next to theirs.
Glistening white flowers bloomed everywhere. There was no more altar… just a dead, inert volcanic pit they were floating over. The petals of the flowers jingled like chimes as they blew in the soft wind. The tempest gales of the battle and their gaping voids of hearts did not blow here. Here, they had no power.
...Or so she thought. Akali looked around.
A curling white dragon, a great sea eagle, and a living saint were positioned around the pit, their energy flowing into restraining the monster at the center. The size and nobility of the legendary master's spiritual forms spoke to their mastery and their righteousness.
And at the center…
A towering monster of smoke. With a thousand arms and a hundred heads, the three largest of which, a trumpeting elephant, a roaring tiger and a snapping dragon, writhed and pulled against the chains. It stood taller than every one of the legendary master's spirits, filling the spirit world's sky with its omnipresent form. The thing… it was almost the size of… no, it was that thing that was trying to come into Ionia through the portal.
Akali felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and saw…
Shen?
"Akali!"
Akali felt the chains around her form snapping. And she was dragged back into the real world. It was like falling upwards. She tumbled back into reality.
She fell back and Shen caught her.
"Akali! You're OK!"
Shen…
"You… need to stay back." The hole in her chest still sang and whistled, eating the air and chi all around her like a hungry dragon. Shen… how many days, months, years of his life did she eat away by him being near her? She needed to leave him with as much as possible.
"Akali… you idiot!"
"Shen...I can do it." Akali smiled "I can leave this world a better place. I can leave this world to a better place."
"Selfish! What kind of world is a better place without you?!"
"It's already done." Akali reached up and kissed him. "Shen..."
She smiled. There were tears running down her face. "I hope you one day find someone who loves you as much as I do."
Shen hung his head in reply. There was nothing more to be said. The two of them rose.
Akali saw Shen raise the sword he used to cut away her chains. It wasn't his ordinary sword… no. It was the last of the legendary swords on the Isle. The Sword of the Void. A sword that represented the Warrior Saint's mastery over all martial arts, that even a blade of grass or a leaf blowing in the wind could be used as a blade to cut steel. He, who once called the Sword Devil, the Loner Seeking Defeat, he who once stood on the pinnacle of all martial arts.
This was that man's third and final sword. Akali could see the faintest wisps of a sword within Shen's hands, gathering form in his grasp. She saw him clench that sword so tightly she could see the whites of his knuckles.
Shen raised his head and yelled a wordless yell. Then his yell became real words.
"The Warrior Saint's Third Sword! The Spirit Slaying Sword!"
Shen held his sword out, beckoning.
Without even thinking, Akali flung her sword to the side, and Shen's ethereal sword collided with her own weapon of the void. The two other-worldly weapons gave off a ghastly screech as they clashed, but did not break. Meanwhile, the sword's wielders harmonized their spirits, becoming one.
"Tai Chi Swordsmanship." Shen said.
"Jade Maiden's Pure Heart Swordsmanship." Akali replied. And with every last bit of her being, she drove out the darkness she was using in conjunction with her swordsmanship, returning her martial arts to their original simplicity. The motions of their swords were now a matter of soul, not of strength and a matter of harmony, not of skill. Everything had to be perfect.
The Tai Chi Sword and the Jade Maiden's Pure Heart Sword were always meant to be used together. Lei-Na and the Warrior Saint had purposefully made it that way. However, not just anyone could perform their arts together.
If the two who used this set of sword plays weren't lovers, there would be many aspects of the swordsmanship that would be beyond their comprehension. If it they were friends who were teaming up they would be too polite, if it were a master and student there would be a lack of equality. If it were a husband and wife, they would be able to use some of the aspects of the swordsmanship, but without the feelings of being in love, the shyness, the feeling of being close yet far, the pain of gains and losses, the arts would be a level lower.
Shen drew his sword back and Akali mirrored his movements. Or was she leading him? It was like they were moving as one. Their footsteps fell one after the other. She could feel him move and she instinctively knew where to go. Two pairs of footsteps. One breath. One heart.
"The supreme swordsmanship! The Warrior Saint's Swordsmanship!" They said together.
The wind started to howl. Akali could feel the pain in her heart as she struggled to hold back the Vortex of Shadow's corrupting influence. She just needed a little bit more time!
Meanwhile, Akali saw that the Blood Moon Elder was still trapped, completely bound in shining chains by the Kinkou's Demon-Sealing Array. It looked like the sect leader had finally stopped struggling. Instead he stared silently at the the two ninjas as they danced with their swordsmanship, preparing for the final
"From the very start..." Akali read the man's lips as he muttered to himself. But whatever he said it didn't matter. He dies now.
"From the moment you stood up once more..." The Blood Moon Elder looked up, staring Akali straight in the eyes. Fine. He could watch his death coming.
"...I lost."
"Heaven and Earth, Great Shift!"
They charged-
And the elder slumped, bending over at the waist before either of them did anything. Akali and Shen stumbled, stopping halfway through their attack. How could he move with all those chains wrapping him? Not only that, but chains made from the power of three legendary masters? The Demon-Sealing Array grew with the strength of its applicants and it bound an entity's very spirit to the earth, locking them in place… the only way the chains would let go is if his very spirit...
"Congratulations." The Blood Elder said, his voice strained. He held out his hands, stepping forwards. The ethereal chains had disappeared, vanishing into glitters of light. Before either she or Shen could react, the bloody elder fell onto all fours, listing off to the side. "My time is up."
The man lurched forwards, dark smoke pouring out of the void in his heart. His entire left arm had fallen off, disappearing into smoke and ash before her eyes. With a lunge, he rose from the ground gripped Akali by the shoulder and she flinched in shock. With his eyes he stared deep into Akali's soul.
A smiling young monk in vibrant yellow, orange and purple robes was standing, waiting in the middle of a field of grass. Even with his clean shaven head, he still looked energetic and handsome. He raised his hand out as if for Akali to take it.
"I'll be waiting... in the abyss between oblivions."
The Blood Moon Elder collapsed to the side, his every limb crumbling away into smoke, the void in his heart growing wider and wider. The Star Eating Skill was eating him alive. With a final tumble, the red sect leader fell off the edge of the platform, falling into the lava pit below, the portal to the Blessed Isles completely gone, as if it were never there.
Shen got up with a start, running up to the edge to watch the Elder fall. By the look in his eyes, Akali saw that the Blood Moon Elder truly was done. They were finally done. Thank goodness.
The Vortex had finally taken their enemy.
But that meant-
It was like a dagger in her heart. Akali gasped, falling against the jagged altar at her back. The warm rock poked into her bare back and the hot air felt like it was suffocating. No matter how hard she gasped she couldn't seem to get air. She heard Shen saying something, but she couldn't hear him. She couldn't hear anyone, not her friends, nor her Master who had rushed to her side, not a thing. The only thing that Akali truly could hear was the sound of her own heartbeat. Trapped in another world. Given up to some dark god, it had a deathgrip on her life.
She wanted to say one final goodbye, even mouth some words or touch someone, anyone, but she was going blind too. Nor could she feel anything any longer. Her mouth tasted like ash and all she could smell was the scent of death pouring out of her bare naked chest as the void over her heart grew wider and wider, devouring her.
No, this was OK. This was always meant to happen.
She fell.
Everything was white. Everything was silence. This was the world that Huang Yaoshi, the Heretical Guardian of the East, had lived in for centuries now.
"Mei. What do you see?" He couldn't hear his own words any longer, so he had to approximate them. Mayhaps he sounded like a fool, but none would dare mock him in his presence. There were none left in the Wulin who would dare risk his wroth.
He felt the touch of his young apprentice. She traced the characters onto his palms and he read him in his mind.
"That many? What a pain." He narrowed his milky white eyes. "And you're sure you saw Sou'er in their custody?"
More strokes of Disciple Mei's finger.
"Ch! Those perverted old monks have her?"
He felt the light slap of Mei's hand as she rapped his head. Touch was one of the few senses left to the old master, so he was extra-sensitive to stuff like that. This little brat-! Master Huang rubbed his forehead, parting the long, wild sheets of white hair that flowed all around his face. He would have to punish her impudence later.
More strokes on his hand followed Disciple Mei's rebuke.
"...You're right, Mei. Slander is below me. Fine. I guess it could have been worse than the Shojin."
He felt Mei's soothing pats on the head. Hmph. What man wouldn't enjoy being pat on the head by a beautiful (he assumed) woman, but he wasn't a dog.
"One last thing, Mei?" He rose from his seated position, rising to his full height. As he did he could feel as he pulled Mei's arm upwards. He must be almost twice Mei's height. "How high are we?"
A few numbers.
"Oh? Not so far up then."
And he jumped.
He landed with such force onto the platform that the entire suspened altar shook violently, interrupting what must have looked like a funeral for a circus member.
"Hmph. What a sorry sight you all must look."
"Master Huang?!"
He felt that temperamental brat speak first. It took him much more effort than he liked, but if he really strained himself, he could deign to hear.
So it was Yang Guo. The so-called Divine Guardian of the Center. A trumped up, flouncy title for a kid who grew up too fast for his britches. The Immortal Yang's chi was in sorry state. It must have been a tough fight. Which meant none of them could oppose him now.
"You-!" Her voice was that of unsurpassed melancholy and fury mixed in equal parts, but he she too was spent and powerless. Ah. Little Yang's lover… the Dragon Maiden. As he recalled, her martial arts were also very good.
Heh. He enjoyed being able to walk past the two. Even despite his age and his limp, he could smack them around like the children that they were, spent as they were.
"Master Huang! Please!"
"So you wait for us to exhaust ourselves to ambush us?! Coward!"'
He ignored them. Just the mewling of infants who still had a few centuries to go on him.
He walked onto that rickety altar, his feet sound, steady and heavy.
"Mei! Your eyes!"
He felt the vibrations of his disciple falling to the ground next to him.
"Mei, tell me what you see."
A young girl, Mei wrote feverishly. There was the sound of more protests from the circus around him, but Master Huang ignored them all. This was for his cute granddaughter. Everyone else was secondary.
He felt Mei grow tense.
The girl is dying. It is Batuo's curse, Master Huang.
Batuo… the First Abbot of the Shojin Monastery. One of the few creatures in this world he would call 'Shifu'. The fallen abbot had fallen too deep into his exploration of martial arts after he was gifted godhood by the that mainland kingdom of the sun and sand. At the height of the Age of Terror, he was finally bound to an item, then taken across the world to a faraway isle to be sealed once and for all.
Oujaara, he was now branded. The abbot left behind a curse, however. The knowledge of how to harness his very own martial arts, the pinnacle of all internal skills… the Star Eater.
The Red Elder, too, suffered from Batuo's curse. Then, this girl…?
The one who took out that young upstart, huh? Impressive.
The enigmatic Master Huang approached the altar upon which he felt that dying girl lay. She was in a bad state. Her chi wavered and flickered like a dying fire, all collapsing into that obscene hole in her chest, Batuo's greedy gullet swallowing it all.
He felt the sensation of hands being pulled on his robes. Not little Yang or little Long's…. But someone he didn't know. Children. Actual children. Not much younger than his own granddaughter. Their efforts weren't earnest, though and their movements were reluctant. Were they mourning this girl? He could feel Mei float gently around them and pull them off.
Then Master Huang spun on his heel, facing (he thought) Yang Guo and the Dragon Maiden.
He pointed at Yang Guo.
"You dare kidnap my granddaughter! You dare hold her hostage!"
He felt the vibrations of… their heads were turning from side to side. Feigning ignorance? It didn't matter.
"I… could so easily take this one hostage! A life for a life! Then force you to give me my Suo'er back!"
But I won't do it.
"I won't do it!" He felt his rage grow. How dare they snatch the last of his line from him?! His lovely, cute granddaughter! But even though they were guilty, he would not imitate them. He would not stoop to their level!
"Do you hear me, Little Yang?!" Master Huang stabbed with finger, still trembling with rage and indignation, at the helpless Yang Guo. "I am better than you!"
And he collected the Azure Wave energy in his palm. He could feel the sounds of shock and panic race through his body as legendary masters and children alike ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, trembling and fearful at his might. Sure, they were already spent from fighting his erstwhile ally. But that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy this moment.
Disciple Mei shook her head at this. He didn't need to feel her do it. He knew she was doing it anyways.
With one hand pushing both the frantic boy and girl away and the other shaking with the power of his own style of Inner Skill, the Azure Wave Codex, he slammed his palm into the hole in the girl's heart, and she arched her back and screamed.
"A life for a life,"
Akali heard someone whisper.
"On your honor, you bring me back my Suo'er. You bring her back to me!"
She gasped, drawing a greedy breath.