Author's Note: huh. I though this one was gonna be longer . . . Oh well.
The next one is cool. Five chapters to go, nyo! (that's including the
epilogue)
Enjoy!
Part 4
Fall of the Flaming God
Chapter 50
Legend of the Lady (Part 1)
"Long, long ago when time was an uncharted thing and demons still roamed the earth there was a Goddess of perfectly balanced good and evil. When this Goddess grew so very old that she could no longer bear the live she tried to reincarnate herself, but something went wrong. Instead of keeping her power and being born again, she was born as two different people and crashed to earth. One child kept all the good in the Goddess. She could heal all ailments, wounds; even bring someone back from the dead. She was pure and kind, and always helped others. The other had all the evil that was in the Goddess. With a single touch she could take life away from a person or animal or turn plants into stone. She was always in constant pain of the heart, feeling only sorrow, anger and hate. She could never love someone, though this is what she desired the most.
A simple farmer found these babies where they crashed and took them in as his own children. The child of good he named Sui Ko and the other Sui Ki." Zhang He's stomach did a flip. Weren't those the girls from his dreams? The man lifted his arm and something heavy fell out onto the ground. It rolled in front of Zhang He and he saw it was a crystal ball.
"Look." Breathed the man hoarsely. Zhang He stared into the translucent glass and suddenly he felt like he was falling in. He closed his eyes and held onto his head but when he opened them again he was sitting in the middle of a sunny village. Sui Ki was standing on the hill looking out at the sky. Then, Zhang He's look a like came from behind and tapped her on the shoulder. She didn't jump at all; she didn't even make any reaction at all.
"Ki." The man said to her. "I have something to talk about." She turned her lifeless eyes towards him.
"What, Zhang Ren?" She asked. Zhang He's heart leapt again. Him and the look-alike had the same family name? Now he KNEW something was up.
"Lately, I can't stop thinking about you, Ki. I want you to be my wife." He said without any faltering. She smiled limply as if she was a puppet with strings tied to her lips to make her smile. Then the scene melted away to show a village at sunset. Some Ravens were flying across the sky into their nests. Then he heard the words from the house beside.
"She can't help it. If she doesn't kill and loves too much it hurts her inside. It hurts her to even love, but it's so addicting and wonderful to her she can't help herself, just like if I don't love or heal I'm not myself." Zhang He sped to the window. Zhang Ren and Sui Ko (She looked so strangly like Diao Chan. . .) were talking, just like in his dream before.
"Sui Ko, I'm worried . . perhaps it would be better for me to leave, for my sake and hers. . ." Zhang ren repeated, exactly the same as before. "I want you to come with me. . ." Everything was the same. Only broken memories? But how was he remembering something that never happened?
"You want me to come with you and leave my sister all alone?" Then a thought struck Zhang he. Maybe he was here stop Zhang Ren from running away with Sui Ko. He kicked open the door, but neither turned their head. When he tried to touch someone, his hand went right through. So much for my first plan, He thought. Zhang He decided he'd see what was going on.
"I can't live with her any longer, she's going to kill me, for sure. I will regret this descion for the rest of my life, I know it, but I'd rather have that than die. Please, Ko. . . I loved you from the start, as well as your sister . . ." Sui Ko looked at her feet.
"I suppose if it will help my sister. Alright, let's go." The two of them fled, hand in hand, from the village, the ravens flying along above them. The scene melted away again and he saw Sui Ki alone inher home.
"Ren?" She cried. "Where are you? Where did you go?" She sunk to her knees. The the door exploded open. A villager carring a torch was standing, the rest of the townspeople behind him. They all had torches, pitchforks and whatever tools that were handy. Sui Ki looked up at him.
"She's in here!" He roared, the men flooding in. The grabbed her and pulled her outside. Zhang He wondered why she wasn't killing them. The took her out to the orchard and threw her against a tree.
"Why do you curse our village, demon?" One man asked from the crowd. Ki looked up with glassy eyes.
"Why do you bring this plague upon us?"
"Leave, now!" Ki looked startled.
"I-I don't know what your talking about. I never hurt anyone . . ." She whimpered, almost sounding afraid.
"You're a bringer of death and disease! Get out now!" The leader yelled.
"No, I don't kill. I asked him why people kill and he didn't answer. He said that I shouldn't kill, so I don't. Did you take him away?"
"She speaks madness!"
"Let's kill her and save the whole world the trouble! She a blight upon this planet." The angriest of them proposed, waving his pitchfork. Ki shook her head. The villagers seemed to agree.
"No, it's wrong to kill. There's no reason for it . . . He said that, he told me that." She whispered. Some of the burly men took a length of rope and pushed poor Ki into the tree. The weaved the rope around her wrists, securing her to the tree. They tied her ankles together, the another rope around her neck, fastening her to the tree.
"The ravens will get her." One said after they were done. "Either that or she'll starve." They turned away grimly and led everyone away from the orchard. Ki watched them go, looking sad the entire time. She began to cry tears of blood.
"Where did you go? Why did you leave? I don't like being alone . . . It's going to be dark. . . so dark . . . Come back Zhang Ren. Come back and help me!" She shouted to the night. The ravens came flying in through the darkness, but they did not attack. They flocked around Ki, sitting beside her or in the branches above. She sat there the entire night. The freezing autumn winds but Ki never made one noise and the ravens made no move. She sat in the same place through the entire day, staring blankly at the sky.
At sunset the villagers returned to see if she was dead but they got a surprise. She was still very much alive. They whispered among themselves in front of Ki's lifeless eyes that were so black you could not see the pupil even if you shined a light into them. One of the villagers name was Den Yiu. He fought in the war ten years before and he still had his sword. This man raced home and brought his diamond sharp blade forward. He stepped up to Ki and looked her straight in the eye. She could have killed him now if she wanted to, she had that much power. The man slashed her once, making a vertical slash down the middle of her left eye. He cut up both of her arms and legs, made X marks across her chest, then slashed her throat. Not once did Ki even wince. As she sat bleeding in front of the men, they were sure she'd be dead in thrity minutes. But when they left, she yelled into the dark once again.
"Help me! Zhang Ren! Come back! Help me!" And that was all. She didn't make one sound the entire night or morning following. She lived hrough it all, even though the slash was an inch deep into her throat, even though she had been bleeding all night. They came again at sunset. This time everyone gasped.
She was still alive. The ravens stood still. This time the town medicine man, a skinny man with bad eyesight went to his home and found a vile of the most deadly potion he could find. This potion would make your insides liquefy and come up as a chunky mixture of tissues, fat and black blood. He came, stepped up bravely and poured it down her throat. She did not resist. It would be wrong to kill them, because that's what Zhang Ren told her. She cried for him again as the deadly mixture ate away at her vital organs. Every time she called for him a spray of blood would leak for her lips. It drained from her mouth and nose and flowed down onto her lap. Her remaining eye was stained red as it turned softer and softer. She could not see, she could not move, but she never screamed once. The next sunset the villagers grew terrified. Could this demon not be killed? Was she, this stinking mass dripping with blood and fluids, going to rise and destroy them all? They grew crazy with fear. They would try anything. Then the village shaman spoke up.
"Flame purifies all . . ." His booming voice echoed across the valley of open-mouthed villagers. They got to work. Everyone in the village, from the sickest old women to the youngest child gather everything flammable. They put a heap of straw, sticks and wood around Ki, who made no move. She was weak, yes, but she still had her power. When the last stick was placed, the Shaman came, bearing a torch. He stepped to where Ki was, still surrounded by the ravens. She turned her head towards him and rolled her one runny red eye towards him. Then she looked into his eyes, deep into his eyes. She, cut from head to foot, bound to the tree, a stream of blood spewing from her mouth and staining her teeth black and red, her gums bleeding, pieces of her tongue missing. She opened her mouth and laughed. Everyone in the village felt a bolt of terror strike him. The laugh was like a baby screeching, a women shrieking in grief, a man's last cry before death, the wind at it's most vicious condition and all the animals in the world being put to death. It sounded like none of this, but they felt it in their souls. The felt the sound rather than heard it. The Shaman, a tall man with a veil over his face, fell back.
"Why do people kill?" She asked feebly. The Shaman could stand it no longer. He tossed the torch near Ki and it became an Inferno. He ran, laughing like a maniac as the entire orchard exploded in flame. This time Ki screamed. Ii was a thousand times worse than her laugh. It echoed through the village and even farther than that. All the people fell silent, their eyes opened wide in horror. This was the sound no human could make. It was agony expressed in an auditory form. The people of the town sank to their knees and wept, covering their ears. The ravens stood by her.
The one man stood up and turned back towards the flame.
"Look!" He yelled, pointing towards the hellhole. Black spirits rose from the flames, looking like living scratch marks. They were in the shape of ravens. They swooped out of the fire, screeching and falling to the ground. Then, She rose.
The Lady in Black stood out of the conflagration, tall as the building in the village. Her eyes were the dying pits of Hell, Her mouth a gaping fissure, Her sallow skin looking like dirty paint on the air. She rose out of the flames from her destroyed body and descended upon the village in a fiery rage. It was plunged into a cloud of burning ash, incinerating the buildings and some of the people. Now was time to kill. She didn't care about what Zhang Ren said. She knew now, knew what he did. First She would kill the villagers, then Her sister. It was all too easy. The cloud passed soon, but the darkness remained. She pierced through the screams of the terrified people, sucking the life from them as she flew overhead. Every person in that village died. In the darkness, they were killed. The ground was turned black. The Lady flew above the houses of the world. She knew where Sui Ko was and She hated her.
They were running; they could feel the storm coming. Sui Ko was running out of breath and stamina, she knew the Lady in Black was right behind her. She looked up and saw the terrible wraith in the sky. The phantom descended at an alarming rate and Sui Ko was forced to do something drastic. She did a sealing spell upon herself, using every inch of her power. She was reverted back to the body of a child because the excessive burst of power and hidden inside an impenetrable shield. This orb was taken to the sacred forest and it would remain there until someone could release her with the song.
Zhang Ren ran. He ran as far as could without stopping. He ran without stop for days. He didn't know if She was after him, but he didn't stop to look. He didn't even care. He ran until he came to a cliff high above the sea. He slumped to his knees on the edge of the cliff.
"I'll give myself to you, sea! I o this because I'm so very sorry for what I've done! Now is not the time to fix this, but it will come one day. Please, heavens! Here my plea! Let me be reborn one day and allow me to fix this crime!" And with that he threw himself over the cliff and died.
The Lady did not chase him. She went back to the cursed grounds of the village She once lived in. She was sure that one day Her lover would return. She would call for him sometimes, but he could never come. Every time a person would step onto the ground that was Hers, they would be killed instantly. Sooner or later some sages came around. They spoke the language of the dead to Lady and made a bargain.
"We will build you a temple and worship you. Every year four maidens will be brought in to the temple and on the nights following up to your demise, we will let you have their souls. We will bind one with ropes, slash one with blades, drown one with water, and burn one with fire so they may feel the pain you suffered. We will do this if you let us live here on your sacred land."
And so it was. They took the remains of Ki and buried them in a grave in the village. She would lie there until it was Her time to take the souls, once a year. The village was built with the temple. There was a leader who dressed in Black robes and a white mask whose daughter wore a mask of the Lady in Black. She was the Goddess of everyone in the village. They were protected by a field of tall grass and discouraged travelers with their scarecrows. Ravens were always around. Every year the four girls were taken from other towns, paid for by the leader himself and taken to the temple. They lived there for an entire year until . . .
This was the tradition for many centuries. That is, until four girls came along that didn't agree with the ritual . . .
The next one is cool. Five chapters to go, nyo! (that's including the
epilogue)
Enjoy!
Part 4
Fall of the Flaming God
Chapter 50
Legend of the Lady (Part 1)
"Long, long ago when time was an uncharted thing and demons still roamed the earth there was a Goddess of perfectly balanced good and evil. When this Goddess grew so very old that she could no longer bear the live she tried to reincarnate herself, but something went wrong. Instead of keeping her power and being born again, she was born as two different people and crashed to earth. One child kept all the good in the Goddess. She could heal all ailments, wounds; even bring someone back from the dead. She was pure and kind, and always helped others. The other had all the evil that was in the Goddess. With a single touch she could take life away from a person or animal or turn plants into stone. She was always in constant pain of the heart, feeling only sorrow, anger and hate. She could never love someone, though this is what she desired the most.
A simple farmer found these babies where they crashed and took them in as his own children. The child of good he named Sui Ko and the other Sui Ki." Zhang He's stomach did a flip. Weren't those the girls from his dreams? The man lifted his arm and something heavy fell out onto the ground. It rolled in front of Zhang He and he saw it was a crystal ball.
"Look." Breathed the man hoarsely. Zhang He stared into the translucent glass and suddenly he felt like he was falling in. He closed his eyes and held onto his head but when he opened them again he was sitting in the middle of a sunny village. Sui Ki was standing on the hill looking out at the sky. Then, Zhang He's look a like came from behind and tapped her on the shoulder. She didn't jump at all; she didn't even make any reaction at all.
"Ki." The man said to her. "I have something to talk about." She turned her lifeless eyes towards him.
"What, Zhang Ren?" She asked. Zhang He's heart leapt again. Him and the look-alike had the same family name? Now he KNEW something was up.
"Lately, I can't stop thinking about you, Ki. I want you to be my wife." He said without any faltering. She smiled limply as if she was a puppet with strings tied to her lips to make her smile. Then the scene melted away to show a village at sunset. Some Ravens were flying across the sky into their nests. Then he heard the words from the house beside.
"She can't help it. If she doesn't kill and loves too much it hurts her inside. It hurts her to even love, but it's so addicting and wonderful to her she can't help herself, just like if I don't love or heal I'm not myself." Zhang He sped to the window. Zhang Ren and Sui Ko (She looked so strangly like Diao Chan. . .) were talking, just like in his dream before.
"Sui Ko, I'm worried . . perhaps it would be better for me to leave, for my sake and hers. . ." Zhang ren repeated, exactly the same as before. "I want you to come with me. . ." Everything was the same. Only broken memories? But how was he remembering something that never happened?
"You want me to come with you and leave my sister all alone?" Then a thought struck Zhang he. Maybe he was here stop Zhang Ren from running away with Sui Ko. He kicked open the door, but neither turned their head. When he tried to touch someone, his hand went right through. So much for my first plan, He thought. Zhang He decided he'd see what was going on.
"I can't live with her any longer, she's going to kill me, for sure. I will regret this descion for the rest of my life, I know it, but I'd rather have that than die. Please, Ko. . . I loved you from the start, as well as your sister . . ." Sui Ko looked at her feet.
"I suppose if it will help my sister. Alright, let's go." The two of them fled, hand in hand, from the village, the ravens flying along above them. The scene melted away again and he saw Sui Ki alone inher home.
"Ren?" She cried. "Where are you? Where did you go?" She sunk to her knees. The the door exploded open. A villager carring a torch was standing, the rest of the townspeople behind him. They all had torches, pitchforks and whatever tools that were handy. Sui Ki looked up at him.
"She's in here!" He roared, the men flooding in. The grabbed her and pulled her outside. Zhang He wondered why she wasn't killing them. The took her out to the orchard and threw her against a tree.
"Why do you curse our village, demon?" One man asked from the crowd. Ki looked up with glassy eyes.
"Why do you bring this plague upon us?"
"Leave, now!" Ki looked startled.
"I-I don't know what your talking about. I never hurt anyone . . ." She whimpered, almost sounding afraid.
"You're a bringer of death and disease! Get out now!" The leader yelled.
"No, I don't kill. I asked him why people kill and he didn't answer. He said that I shouldn't kill, so I don't. Did you take him away?"
"She speaks madness!"
"Let's kill her and save the whole world the trouble! She a blight upon this planet." The angriest of them proposed, waving his pitchfork. Ki shook her head. The villagers seemed to agree.
"No, it's wrong to kill. There's no reason for it . . . He said that, he told me that." She whispered. Some of the burly men took a length of rope and pushed poor Ki into the tree. The weaved the rope around her wrists, securing her to the tree. They tied her ankles together, the another rope around her neck, fastening her to the tree.
"The ravens will get her." One said after they were done. "Either that or she'll starve." They turned away grimly and led everyone away from the orchard. Ki watched them go, looking sad the entire time. She began to cry tears of blood.
"Where did you go? Why did you leave? I don't like being alone . . . It's going to be dark. . . so dark . . . Come back Zhang Ren. Come back and help me!" She shouted to the night. The ravens came flying in through the darkness, but they did not attack. They flocked around Ki, sitting beside her or in the branches above. She sat there the entire night. The freezing autumn winds but Ki never made one noise and the ravens made no move. She sat in the same place through the entire day, staring blankly at the sky.
At sunset the villagers returned to see if she was dead but they got a surprise. She was still very much alive. They whispered among themselves in front of Ki's lifeless eyes that were so black you could not see the pupil even if you shined a light into them. One of the villagers name was Den Yiu. He fought in the war ten years before and he still had his sword. This man raced home and brought his diamond sharp blade forward. He stepped up to Ki and looked her straight in the eye. She could have killed him now if she wanted to, she had that much power. The man slashed her once, making a vertical slash down the middle of her left eye. He cut up both of her arms and legs, made X marks across her chest, then slashed her throat. Not once did Ki even wince. As she sat bleeding in front of the men, they were sure she'd be dead in thrity minutes. But when they left, she yelled into the dark once again.
"Help me! Zhang Ren! Come back! Help me!" And that was all. She didn't make one sound the entire night or morning following. She lived hrough it all, even though the slash was an inch deep into her throat, even though she had been bleeding all night. They came again at sunset. This time everyone gasped.
She was still alive. The ravens stood still. This time the town medicine man, a skinny man with bad eyesight went to his home and found a vile of the most deadly potion he could find. This potion would make your insides liquefy and come up as a chunky mixture of tissues, fat and black blood. He came, stepped up bravely and poured it down her throat. She did not resist. It would be wrong to kill them, because that's what Zhang Ren told her. She cried for him again as the deadly mixture ate away at her vital organs. Every time she called for him a spray of blood would leak for her lips. It drained from her mouth and nose and flowed down onto her lap. Her remaining eye was stained red as it turned softer and softer. She could not see, she could not move, but she never screamed once. The next sunset the villagers grew terrified. Could this demon not be killed? Was she, this stinking mass dripping with blood and fluids, going to rise and destroy them all? They grew crazy with fear. They would try anything. Then the village shaman spoke up.
"Flame purifies all . . ." His booming voice echoed across the valley of open-mouthed villagers. They got to work. Everyone in the village, from the sickest old women to the youngest child gather everything flammable. They put a heap of straw, sticks and wood around Ki, who made no move. She was weak, yes, but she still had her power. When the last stick was placed, the Shaman came, bearing a torch. He stepped to where Ki was, still surrounded by the ravens. She turned her head towards him and rolled her one runny red eye towards him. Then she looked into his eyes, deep into his eyes. She, cut from head to foot, bound to the tree, a stream of blood spewing from her mouth and staining her teeth black and red, her gums bleeding, pieces of her tongue missing. She opened her mouth and laughed. Everyone in the village felt a bolt of terror strike him. The laugh was like a baby screeching, a women shrieking in grief, a man's last cry before death, the wind at it's most vicious condition and all the animals in the world being put to death. It sounded like none of this, but they felt it in their souls. The felt the sound rather than heard it. The Shaman, a tall man with a veil over his face, fell back.
"Why do people kill?" She asked feebly. The Shaman could stand it no longer. He tossed the torch near Ki and it became an Inferno. He ran, laughing like a maniac as the entire orchard exploded in flame. This time Ki screamed. Ii was a thousand times worse than her laugh. It echoed through the village and even farther than that. All the people fell silent, their eyes opened wide in horror. This was the sound no human could make. It was agony expressed in an auditory form. The people of the town sank to their knees and wept, covering their ears. The ravens stood by her.
The one man stood up and turned back towards the flame.
"Look!" He yelled, pointing towards the hellhole. Black spirits rose from the flames, looking like living scratch marks. They were in the shape of ravens. They swooped out of the fire, screeching and falling to the ground. Then, She rose.
The Lady in Black stood out of the conflagration, tall as the building in the village. Her eyes were the dying pits of Hell, Her mouth a gaping fissure, Her sallow skin looking like dirty paint on the air. She rose out of the flames from her destroyed body and descended upon the village in a fiery rage. It was plunged into a cloud of burning ash, incinerating the buildings and some of the people. Now was time to kill. She didn't care about what Zhang Ren said. She knew now, knew what he did. First She would kill the villagers, then Her sister. It was all too easy. The cloud passed soon, but the darkness remained. She pierced through the screams of the terrified people, sucking the life from them as she flew overhead. Every person in that village died. In the darkness, they were killed. The ground was turned black. The Lady flew above the houses of the world. She knew where Sui Ko was and She hated her.
They were running; they could feel the storm coming. Sui Ko was running out of breath and stamina, she knew the Lady in Black was right behind her. She looked up and saw the terrible wraith in the sky. The phantom descended at an alarming rate and Sui Ko was forced to do something drastic. She did a sealing spell upon herself, using every inch of her power. She was reverted back to the body of a child because the excessive burst of power and hidden inside an impenetrable shield. This orb was taken to the sacred forest and it would remain there until someone could release her with the song.
Zhang Ren ran. He ran as far as could without stopping. He ran without stop for days. He didn't know if She was after him, but he didn't stop to look. He didn't even care. He ran until he came to a cliff high above the sea. He slumped to his knees on the edge of the cliff.
"I'll give myself to you, sea! I o this because I'm so very sorry for what I've done! Now is not the time to fix this, but it will come one day. Please, heavens! Here my plea! Let me be reborn one day and allow me to fix this crime!" And with that he threw himself over the cliff and died.
The Lady did not chase him. She went back to the cursed grounds of the village She once lived in. She was sure that one day Her lover would return. She would call for him sometimes, but he could never come. Every time a person would step onto the ground that was Hers, they would be killed instantly. Sooner or later some sages came around. They spoke the language of the dead to Lady and made a bargain.
"We will build you a temple and worship you. Every year four maidens will be brought in to the temple and on the nights following up to your demise, we will let you have their souls. We will bind one with ropes, slash one with blades, drown one with water, and burn one with fire so they may feel the pain you suffered. We will do this if you let us live here on your sacred land."
And so it was. They took the remains of Ki and buried them in a grave in the village. She would lie there until it was Her time to take the souls, once a year. The village was built with the temple. There was a leader who dressed in Black robes and a white mask whose daughter wore a mask of the Lady in Black. She was the Goddess of everyone in the village. They were protected by a field of tall grass and discouraged travelers with their scarecrows. Ravens were always around. Every year the four girls were taken from other towns, paid for by the leader himself and taken to the temple. They lived there for an entire year until . . .
This was the tradition for many centuries. That is, until four girls came along that didn't agree with the ritual . . .