When she rounded the final corner of a wall, her destination was within sight. There stood the Xiao Long family mansion, her home for seventeen years, and also the only place she could think of where the mastermind behind all the atrocities hid. Her Semblance roared. As she got closer to the gates, she saw many fully armed guards – far more than Yang has ever seen in any normal day – surrounding the entire perimeter of the mansion with guns trained at any living thing that dare passed under their scope. Not even Yang Xiao Long, the only daughter and heiress to her proud clan was an exception, and as soon as she stepped into view countless number of red dots was trained instantly all over her body. Virtually every man looked to be running on thin ice with terror etched on every one of their faces, but it was only to be expected after such an unprecedented magnitude of unrestrained terrorism. Under any other circumstances, Yang would've gone immediately to comfort her subordinates or relieve some of the obvious tension.
She was nowhere in the mood to even talk.
"I will say this only once," Yang said with eyes as red as blood, "I am not the person you're looking for, so get out of my way. Now."
They scurried away like rats. Not even the bravest of thugs was stupid enough to cross her path. Yang easily strode her way in as soon as the metal gate slid open, and for an instant her pacing quickened before she forcibly suppress it down to a slow but steady gait. In fact, the further she went the smaller her Semblance flames became, until finally they dissipated completely with only her eyes still colored red in fury. If Yang was to follow her true desires she would have sprinted like a mad fire bull directly towards the gathering hall where she knew they would be there, waiting to answer her questions. But no. As much as she was desperate to end this even a second sooner, the thinker inside Yang knew that her injuries still required some time to heal and normalize. She especially understood that if it came down to a fight, if it came down to the worst case scenario, she had to ensure that her ankle and wrist were at least usable, and only then she would stand the slimmest of chance of coming out of this alive and atone for this massacre.
Her victory was already assured. It was absolutely pointless to think otherwise.
At long last, after an excruciating five minutes of walk with absolutely not a single soul at sight, Yang had finally arrived to the open doorway that would lead her to the answers she sought. Have all the non-combatants been sent home or at least moved to somewhere else? That was one comforting thought at least; she could not even bear to think of accidentally injuring any one of them, not after all the things she wished she had never seen or heard. Sucking in a deep breath, the blonde woman steeled herself and passed through the doorway. It was time.
"You're late," a masculine voice greeted her, cool and unfeeling, "I almost thought you couldn't make it."
The first person she saw was Ren. He was kneeling down on the floor at the middle of the gathering hall, posture straight and magenta eyes sharp and guarded as usual. This would've been a completely normal sight if it wasn't for the dual pistols in his hands, which was a banned item in this sacred hall. Granted, this particular occasion was rather special, so Yang was not surprised in the slightest to see this.
What did surprise her however was the injured person lying face down on the floor beside Ren. It was Nora Valkyrie, and in complete contrast to her usual hyperactive and unstoppable self, the woman looked bruised, battered and completely out cold. Despite herself, Yang ran towards the duo with true concern. Her entire body was littered with so many cuts that Yang almost recoiled at the sight of it despite having seen far worse things at the city. Ruby was one thing, but Yang was fairly certain that there weren't many people in this city who could put a single scratch onto the powerful Guardian, much less beat her into such a pitiful state. The one person she thought capable of doing this was nowhere to be seen.
"What happened, Ren? Where's Da?" Yang inquired.
"I don't know," Nora's condition seemed to have caused him great distress. Yang thought she saw dry tear streaks on the young man's cheeks, although she was tactful enough not to point it out, "The Master summoned us here, but when the explosions happened I had Nora come first while I organize the perimeter defense. When I came back, she's already like this."
Ren looked towards the very end of the gathering hall, and Yang followed suit. For the first time, she noticed an open, nearly unnoticeable flat steel door at the far end of the wall. Yang thought she knew every secret passage in the estate, but it was apparent she missed out this one, "I see," Yang glared towards the suspicious entrance with sharp menace, "Stay here with Nora. I'll go check it out."
"Wait. I should go with you," Ren tried standing up, but when Nora let out a sudden moan the young man froze and was instantly back down on his knees again, looking at the groaning woman with concern. Yang sighed lightly and said,
"Just stay here. You're going to be useless anyway if you're distracted like this. If we have to f…" she swallowed down the words, unwilling to say what she had in mind. A boom occurred a little too close than either Guardians would've preferred, and Yang said, "You hear that? I'm not sure what's going on out there but things are getting out of hand. Best we have someone around to coordinate our men."
Lie Ren hesitated, his features wrought with worry until finally, the young man nodded and looked back down towards Nora. Noting that the duo would do fine, Yang headed towards the eerie doorway immediately and did not look back. Her posture was left purposely lax and careless - she didn't think they were the traitor, but if if there was a one in a million chance it was true, she didn't want to be the one on the reactive side. Eventually she reached the metal door - a smooth silver with two simple handles on each side - sucked in a deep breath, and pulled it open. Nothing happened. Casually, she turned backwards and saw Ren utterly oblivious of her actions as he became completely focused in the task of healing Nora with his Aura. She let the breath loose. For now at least, there be no traitors.
She walked in.
The girl watched it all happen from a hill overseeing the city. Smoke and ashes, fire and stones. It was like a scene from hell, and even this far away the wind seemed to carry the screams of the dead.
But if she had to be completely honest with herself, she didn't care much about the massacre that was happening before her. From the moment she became an Executioner, from the moment she became set on the path of vengeance, the only death she cared about were the Demons'. Maybe Mrs. Amberson salvaged the dredges of compassion in her heart she thought she lost forever, but that didn't mean that she was either compassionate or stupid enough to try and salvage this mess. Her time and skills were dedicated to the hunt and nothing else.
Still, it wasn't as if she felt no desire to lend a hand. Even though she had stayed at Jiu Xu for only a day, it was a rare time of contentment that she almost never get to experience her entire life. Taiyang Xiao Long was cool, Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie made a funny duo, and Yang…
Yang was a 'friend'… I guess?
She shook her head and cleared out the stray thoughts. Looking down one last time at the burning city of Jiu Xu, Ruby Rose walked away and vanished without a trace.
The Xiao Long family has a secret.
Long long ago the Xiao Long family was just like any other; normal humans living normal lives going about their everyday. But then, a terrible tragedy happened. While there were no longer any records left about that accident, one thing was certain: The Xiao Long family were made scapegoats to shoulder all the atrocities born of an accident, and since then they were shunned completely from common society. Had this happened during modern times it would not have been an issue. All the family needed to do was to move to a different city and start anew.
But the older times were different. The people were more violent, more barbaric, and not nearly cultured enough to even understand the basic concepts of ethics or the law. The Xiao Long family was hated, abused, and terrorized by their own people. It was a common sight to see them beaten up on the street be it man, woman, elderly, or even a child. The worst part was that they were virtually confined by malicious neighbors, and every time they tried the poor folks were just beaten right back to their cage; to where they 'rightfully' should be. It was hellish. Those who hadn't already killed themselves endured cruelty and torture far beyond any stretch of imagination, and it was not a stretch to say that even a Grimm got better treatment - a swift death - than the suffering family.
Naturally, the Xiao Long family began to hate. Their hatred was deep enough that it wasn't just directed towards the community who oppressed them, but all of mankind. This was the beginning of one of the unholiest worship in Remnant – Demon worship – for if they were treated like monsters, then why should they shackle themselves to their humanity and be tormented for eternity? Why don't they become real monsters and show the bastards exactly how terrible they could be? And so every day they would pray to their black god, wishing with all their heart for the death of all the people around them. They prayed for their tormentors to suffer unto and beyond death, for mankind's very own existence was a blasphemy to the world itself. They became a cult. They believed that the Grimm wasn't the destroyer, but their one true savior – savage angels sent from the heavens to liberate them all for this terrible existence called life. And so they prayed. They prayed with all their souls hoping that one day the Grimm would descend and kill every human in this world.
Since then, the Xiao Long family stood a little straighter, a little prouder. Their once absolute fear became replaced by blind faith, and hence they no longer to anything their tormentors threw at them. They did not react to any form of sufferance, and even when the residents murdered a member of their family right before their eyes the only thing they did was to stare. It didn't take long for the townspeople to realize that something was different. It didn't take long for them to realize that torturing them was no longer fun. Eventually, the townspeople even started to fear them, and soon they chose to avoid the Xiao Long family rather than endure their inexplicably eerie stares.
It was a mistake. Their avoidance had unwittingly given the Xiao Long family more freedom than they ever had before, and these fallen souls wasted no time in exploiting the chance to progress their evil worship. It was then the unspeakable horrors and deaths began: Mr. Liang, blacksmith and father of two of the southern streets found crucified on the hidden walls of a dark alley. Mrs. Johnson's twin babies suddenly vanished from their beds, before reappearing the next day on the porch in the form of two bloody, little heads. The madness only escalated in both frequency and cruelty, and after a few weeks of mass shock and uncontrollable terror, inevitably, the fingers were once again pointed towards the Xiao Long family. Thousands of people surrounded their pitiful wooden hut with torches and curses as they dragged the last three family members out of their holes for execution - a mother, a son and a three months old baby. The father had died two weeks prior a sack of picked clean bones. With the baby still wailing in her mother's breast, they tied both mother and son up to a pole on top of a mountain of firewood. Then, the burning commenced.
But there was a difference. Unlike the last time where the entire tragedy was an accident, this time the Xiao Long family had planned for their own deaths. During their short-lived freedom they had murdered with pure, undiluted hatred a total of ninety six people as sacrifices for their evil god, and when the ninety-ninth sacrifice was presented the Xiao Long family believed that a Demon, the most terrifying and deadliest kind of Grimm would be summoned unto this world. Thus it was with a final laughter of madness and hatred that the duo and an innocent toddler died to complete the absurd ritual.
And they did it. It should not have been possible, because believe it or not, there was no such thing as a Demon summoning ritual. But against all common sense they had succeeded, and a terrifying monster ancient and powerful unlike anything the city has ever seen before descended unto the world. In one night the entire city was wiped out of all its populace, and the souls of the dead that should've passed on to the world beyond was trapped and forced to exist in the its prison of hell forever. They will be forced for an eternity to live the final day of their lives. They will be forced to relive every moment of their agony and pain as the Demon ripped out their hearts and limbs and brains and devoured them all whole. It won't be until a few years later venturing outsiders finally had a name for the Demon, and they called it the Bu Si Mian, Face of the Un-death. For the longest of time, it would seem that the eternal cycle of suffering would never be broken.
That was until forty years ago. That was when a foolish group of adventurers wandered into the uncharted territory, and through luck, courage, persistence and the purest of hearts, the city was finally liberated from its eternal prison.
"… This city used to be nameless," her Da said solemnly, "We now call it Jiu Xu, 'The Redemption'. Funnily enough, that was enough to attract fools to settle in this city, and since then it has enjoyed only peace and prosperity."
Yang did not say a word. More accurately speaking, she had not had a chance to interject during the entire tale. Thirty minute ago, she was running down a seemingly endless spiral of stone-carved staircase deeper and deeper underground with only her Aura to light her path until finally, she reached a strange and unfamiliar space. The darkness was overwhelming, and the place was huge enough that even her flames could not fully illuminate it. Warily, Yang began observing her immediate surroundings and tried to grasp some sense from them.
At first glance the cavern had looked like a temple. There were rows and rows of human-sized statues aligned to both sides of the entrance she came through, and a single rock paved pathway roughly two meters wide leading straight into deeper darkness. Tugged by curiosity, Yang had moved closer to the alien statues for a better look, and upon closer inspection she realized that they were eerie sculptures of some of the most grotesque creatures she has ever seen. Every single one of them was unique in shape, and there were literally thousands of these scary things. Yang felt the coldest chill down her spine even as she hastily backed away from the creepy objects. With a little bit of focus, Yang intensified her Aura flames ever so slightly, just in case these fuckers suddenly came to life and ambush her or something. The blonde brawler continued walking forwards one step at a time, and she had to force her hands down to her sides in a relaxed manner. She could keep herself in a fighting stance, but that would only cause her to feel even more pressured, as if the atmosphere wasn't oppressive enough already. All this time, she thought ominously to herself, seventeen years not knowing that there's a hellhole right underneath my nose.
At long last she arrived at the end of the cavern and into a wide, circular opening. Looks like a platform of some sort. As she stepped closer towards the center the huge thing emerged suddenly from the darkness, and Yang came a hair's breadth away from firing a round before her brain made sense of the thing that she was seeing. In front of her was a face, though it is in no way resembling a human's. It was a giant thing that had to be at least twenty meters wide and paired with the biggest and most terrifying black eyes the blonde woman has ever seen. While logic dictated that the black color was just paint or some other coloring substances, for some reason her instincts screamed that it was something absolutely otherworldly; that she would do well to stay away from it as far away as possible. There was no nose. A elongated smile stretched from ear to ear in the shape of a gigantic jaw. As she stepped cautious forwards Yang noted its sickly white body stretching all the way down a pitch black, seemingly bottomless crevice. It could be fifty meters tall; it could be a thousand. Yang felt her head spinning mad with the implications as she withdrew from the edge – what does this mean? Could there be something else down there? Who built this statue? Could there be something else down here? Just what the hell is this place?
For the first time in her life Yang Xiao Long felt her legs shaking in uncontrollable terror. Since when did her breathing get this ragged? Since when was she drenched with sweat? So cold. The blonde realized abruptly that despite her Aura she was cold enough to jump into a pit of flames. That had never happened in her life. In a desperate attempt to stay warm she forcibly summoned her Semblance flame into existence, and although she would likely exhaust herself a lot more than expected anything was preferable to this bone chilling cold that's seeping into her soul. This place is fucking scary, fucking unnatural, and I'm still not seeing Da anywhere at all, Yang thought to herself while spinning around for the exit, I guess he isn't here then. High time to g –
"Fuck!"
Yang leaped backwards, feet barely stopping in time as she remembered that she had a bottomless pit directly behind her. Standing at the only entrance and exit of this circular platform was her father Taiyang Xiao Long, and he was staring at her with blank eyes that sent terrible chills down her heart.
"The fucking hell, Da, don't fucking scare me like that! I was looking for you!" Yang fought down her fear and walked towards him, all the while trying not to think if he had been staring at her like that for the entire time.
"Would you like to hear a story, Yang?"
A story? Now? In this fucked up place? "Da, you know I love your stories but if you don't mind, I'd really like that we leave this shithole first."
But despite her protests, the old man began talking as if he didn't hear her, and after a lengthy, one-sided storytelling session it seemed that he was finally over. Sensing that Taiyang was waiting her response, Yang tried to think of something that does not fall under the 'can we just go like fucking now' category, "So we're descendants of the same cursed Xiao Long family? That can't be right; you just said the last of them got burned to death."
"That is partially true," Taiyang Xiao Long stated with unbelievable steadiness, considering their surroundings, "At the time, every person of the Xiao Long family was killed, not to say that the Demon murdered everyone in the end anyway. But four months before the terrible tragedy, a woman of great stature had come from outside the city. By pure coincidence she met up with the eldest son of the Xiao Long family on a stray back alley, and they fell in love with each other.
However, the townspeople were constantly observing the Xiao Long family for any chances of abuse, so the affair was quickly discovered, and while they could not mistreat the woman without risking civil war, it was a simple thing to force her out and forbid her from ever returning to the place. The son was executed the next day for adultery. The woman on the other hand had a child, and when news of the city's demise reached her ears she decided to flee far, far away from the accursed place. It was a good thing she did, or the consequences would've been unimaginable."
Yang closed her eyes, finding it impossible to relax with the malice-filled story clogging her mind and the pair of black eyes creating invisible pressure behind her, "Okay. So we're the descendants of Xiao Long, for obviously obvious reasons. Are you saying that we're cursed? No, wait - did the affair happen before the Demon worshiping, or after?"
Taiyang smiled approvingly at her sharp insight and said, "Before. But a Demon's curse is not as simple as that, especially when the human, against all odds, had summoned one of the most powerful evil in Remnant. Therefore every person with the Xiao Long blood flowing in their body were marked, even if they don't know it."
"Marked how? Does it even matter if we were marked? The Demon never moved from the city anyway, and it can't possibly affect people that far away!" Yang replied.
Still Taiyang kept his exasperating smile, "You're underestimating a Demon's curse. It is true that Bu Si Mian's strength could only extend a certain radius away from the city, but it is at least hundred kilometers long. Every men under its influence are afflicted with a powerful need for violence, and the closer they are, the worse it gets. Weaker-minded individuals would outright attack anyone that crosses their path like rabid zombies.
But they are the lucky ones. The people whose blood was purer; the people who are direct descendants of the cursed clan had it far worse. Even outside of the Demon's influence these people are easily irritable, prone to violence, and were struck often by moments of indescribable hatred for mankind. The person's will does not matter: One second a husband may be tending to his wife, and the next he may be violently beating her until the strange fit eventually passed away. Inadvertently, nearly every people with the Xiao Long blood turned out to be criminals."
Taiyang coughed slightly before continuing, "The real horror though, starts when they entered the Demon's influence. You would recall that the summoners of the Demon had a deep hatred towards the mankind that oppressed them unfairly, especially towards all the humans in the city, and that is exactly its sole purpose of existence. Had even one of the original summoners survived, the Demon would've possessed the living vessel and be able to travel anywhere to exact vengeance against every single human in Remnant. Since they have all perished, the Demon had no choice but to wait - in fact, it actively calls out to them - for a suitable vessel to step into its territory. To head towards its heart," Taiyang hesitated for a second before pointing a finger to the floor, "To come here where it resides, so it may possess them and finally resume its quest to kill every human being in the world."
Suddenly Yang felt as if the temperature has dropped a couple more degrees, and her hands were visibly shaking despite her attempts to regain control. Well shit, at least I know now why this place feels like the pits of Hell itself. This is Hell, "Get to the fucking point already, Da. What does that have to do with us? I've never felt anything you just described! Like sure, sometimes I get mad and sometimes I get really mad, but I'm pretty sure they're normal mad. You look pretty fine and dandy to me yourself!"
"You used to hate listening to my heroic tales, don't you Yang?" He started softly, "This time though, I'm afraid that you have to. Would you entertain me for just a little longer?"
For a second, Yang felt a trickle of relief flowing down her skin. Whatever happened up there, whatever the hell was going on with this place, her father was still here. Yang said softly, "Of course I will, Da."
Taiyang returned a thankful smile and nodded, "I told you before that a group of adventurers had put an end to this tragedy. What I did not say however, was that I – no, me and your mother – was part of that group."
Yang's mouth fell open. She wasn't exactly surprised to hear her Da's involvement in the case – he was a hero after all, once upon a time – no, she was surprised to hear him talk about mother. Ever since she passed away five years ago, Da had not talked a single word about her. It was as if he had completely forgotten her existence overnight, and he even had the galls to marry a complete bitch which thankfully died in the hands of some other crazy woman. His callousness of the matter was one of the main reason she grew up to be so rebellious.
"Forty years ago, I was part of an adventuring group called the 'Rose of Summer'. During our journey, we accepted a request to investigate the strange uprising of violence in a small town, and one thing after another we were eventually led to this place.
You said that I look fine and dandy, and I suppose I was doing well for this part of my life. But this wasn't always the case, Yang, and forty years ago it definitely wasn't. As I've mentioned before, anyone with the cursed blood would be affected by the Demon, and as the direct descendant of the lost Xiao Long family I was exceptionally suited to become the Demon's vessel. It wasn't just constant outbursts of violence, I was plagued endlessly by the worst kind of dreams you can imagine; terrible nightmares that turned out to be real memories from the past. The closer I came to the place, the more I lost myself amidst an overwhelming sense of hatred, and at the very end I lost sight of even my own identity. I thought I was a Demon, I thought hated mankind, and I thought wanted to kill all of them - my allies, my friends, everyone."
His eyes watered a little. Yang thought she might be seeing things, but the glint of tears was definitely there, "But your mother never gave up. Lia was a high priestess from the mythical southern tribe of Sabara, and she was very well versed in soul cleansing magic. That was also the only reason why you're unaffected by the curse, Yang – you have your mother's holy powers in you, along with my flames but without its inherent darkness. Throughout the ordeal, when even my own friends had begun to doubt me, she never left my side and did everything in her power to fight the Demon's influence. In the end Bu Si Mian failed to possess me and chose another body instead, and it gave us a once-in-a-lifetime chance to vanquish it once and for all.
However, as you may have noticed we were not as successful as we thought. For one, we failed to destroy the core body of the demon. The two black gems behind you are the cores; living constructs of pure malice," Taiyang Xiao Long pointed towards her back, and Yang cocked her head slightly to catch a glimpse of the terrifying eyes that seemed to see right into her soul, "Not even our great leader Summer Rose was able to destroy it. After all her skills were specialized against Demons with a living body, and at the time Dust technology wasn't nearly as advanced as it is now. Lia wasn't powerful enough to break it, and since my flames are of the same origin as these stones it is ironically the one thing in this world I cannot destroy. Someone needed to look after them so that it could not be misused or even revived into existence, so after Lia and I got married, we decided to settle right here. We believed that given enough time, we would eventually find a way to destroy these things and finally end the threat that's been plaguing this land for countless centuries."
His features grew dark then, and there was a terrible sadness in his eyes that would not fade away, "But five years ago, Lia… Lia died. I've never told you this, but while your mother has incredible power, they came at a steep price. Every time she cast a healing spell, every time she purged evil from a body, she was sacrificing her own life force to do it. Can you imagine how terrible I felt knowing that she sacrificed half her lifespan to save me? That night the blood price finally caught up with her, and even when facing death she was still trying to comfort me, telling me that everything is going to be okay. It is not. I watched her die, and I couldn't do anything to save her. How pathetic. I don't deserve Lia. I never deserved your mother," Taiyang Xiao Long barked out a harsh laughter, even as Yang tried speaking and found no words to offer.
"In the end, the gems remained intact. When Lia was still around, we would try a new spell or two and see if we can break the damn thing, but to no avail. Ever since she passed, there's no one left who could purify the malefic energy it gathered slowly but surely from the people above. I tried looking for another Sabaran tribesmen who could help me, but they're mythical for a reason. And finally…" he paused, "Finally, my nightmares have begun once more. It has been this way ever since Lia passed away, and although I have been doing my best to suppress them, two weeks ago I woke up to find myself at unfamiliar place. Although nothing seemed out of the ordinary, later that evening, three of our men died due to an explosion at the exact area. Since then, the blackouts had happened with alarming frequency, and after a little bit of investigation, it seemed that I wasn't the only one who was affected too. There is no mistake. The terrible Bu Si Mian has awakened once more, and this time even those who aren't of the cursed blood are slowly being controlled. Or maybe it was because they're close to me that the people are being affected? I never knew I was this attractive, hahaha!"
Her old man let out a chuckle, but Yang Xiao Long only felt her heart turned ice cold and her mind a whirlpool of disbelief and fear. She asked with a trembling voice, "Da, there's nothing funny about this. Nothing at all."
All the sudden Taiyang Xiao Long frowned, and his dark eyes squinted with both harshness and anger, "That's right, Yang Xiao Long. This is not a situation to be laughed at. With every passing second I'm losing control over my own body, and in perhaps an hour – no, less than that – Bu Si Mian will possess me and be revived unto this world once more. Oh, its powers are far weaker than it was in the past, but would not stop it from slaughtering the entire city and turn it into an eternal hell once more. I will not allow it. This is the place Lia died to protect, this is our home, and I will not allow Jiu Xu to fall!"
Yang flinched. She had never see him so angry; she had never seen him roared like the very thunder that strikes from the heavens. But that was exactly why she had never been prouder to call this man her father. The shocked but determined daughter stared at Taiyang Xiao Long with renewed hope and pride – Da must have found a way to stop this, and with time running out, she must do everything in her might to aid him in stopping this Demon once and for all. As if reading her mind, her father said,
"To do that, I need your help, Yang Xiao Long. This is a task that you must accomplish if we were to destroy this piece of shit and save everyone," Taiyang stared right into her eyes with burning intensity, and Yang stared right back with what she thought to be equal determination. She would do it. No matter how hard it may be, no matter how impossible things may seem, she would finish it. Yang gave a single nod of acknowledgement, and waited for his words.
"Good," Taiyang Xiao Long smiled viciously and took one step towards Yang, "The ultimate objective is to destroy the two black gems, and only your Semblance flames – a beautiful union of my powers and Lia's – could do it. But first things first: You must kill me now."