Chapter 47 Edge of Victory
The final gambit had begun.
Although the frontal attack led by Kouga had its impetus absorbed and dissipated by the hellish and undying legions of Wei, it had served as a successful diversion allowing three hundred wolves under Akihiro to scale the mountainside unnoticed and descend again as an unstoppable juggernaut. The Weis that had been so tenaciously defending the second line and regaining lost ground crumbled under the unexpected flanking assault that no human army could have managed.
Inch by grudging inch, Wei was pushed back to just outside the keep itself and the already heavy fighting exploded into an indescribable blood soaked frenzy as wolves, refusing to accept any outcome other than victory, hammered Wei's last holdout.
Kagome, oblivious to all this, concentrated on countering Wei's attempts to breach heaven. Although she had slowed his summoning, she had not managed to stop it completely. Inexorably, the blinding wounds of light cutting across the night's dark veil continued to grow even if only at a crawl.
Initially Kagome thought she was successfully countering Wei; however, he had proven to be more creative than she expected. While he had made a pretense of being stymied, in fact he had created a second harmony that went unnoticed by her as she continued to focus on the first summoning harmonic. It was most subtle and only when Kagome realized that it couldn't possibly be this easy to check Wei did she realize she had been made a fool. The second one had been softer, but continued to gently carve away the layers of the heavens above and invite total devastation. Now both of them were engaged in a bizarre game of cat and mouse; each trying to determine where the other's true attention was focused and either inject discord or conduct a melody of oblivion.
At the very edges of Kagome's consciousness, something moved almost indistinguishably. It was an emptiness, an unnatural darkness that stood out almost imperceptibly in the spiritual landscape. Had her attention not been fully consumed by trying to stop Wei, she might have noticed it. As it was, the cold lifelessness did not even register.
Before the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960s, Wei had several Russian friends with whom he spent a great deal of time. Each of their countries had been invaded and their peoples made the victims of gruesome atrocities. It was only natural then that they could commiserate with the suffering of each other's people and for strong bonds of friendship to develop between them. The fact that Wei could speak Russian fluently meant that his company was particularly valued over his fellow Chinese. While Wei generally found the Russian company to be cynical and pessimistic, whenever chess was mentioned they could be counted on to liven up (especially if something like Kvass was on tap) and engage in spirited discussions on chess theory.
It is commonly accepted that in chess each player is allotted sixteen pieces with which to try and dominate the board. While many accepted this as common knowledge, because of his association with Russians, Wei was not entirely sure of its truth.
One of his friends, Arseny, had informed him that among chess experts it was contended that there were actually seventeen pieces, not sixteen; the seventeenth piece being the player. At first, Wei thought this was ludicrous, as the only pieces that counted were those on the board. Yet, as Arseny had argued, because something was not represented on the board did not mean it was not present. The player occupied the ultimate position, as he was the unpredictable force that could not be limited by the squares or by rules of movement. He was an unseen piece that could shift the board's balance of power in a single moment of brilliant maneuvering.
Wei did not count himself as an expert among chess players, but he did in fact have a last and perhaps desperate maneuver to shift the field of battle in his favor once more. The creature he had discovered earlier, what he thought of as his leviathan, had been traveling parallel to his main host. Although he had been sorely tempted to raze settlements with it, he instead had avoided them entirely so as to keep it a secret weapon in his arsenal.
He held the leviathan in reserve until now, partly because it had felt so alien but also because he knew it had to be deployed when the Japanese were at their limit and had nothing else to throw at him. As a secret weapon (and as was the case with all secret weapons) the earlier it was unleashed the less effective it was overall.
In short, timing was everything.
With his most powerful body occupied by Sesshoumaru and a flanking attack from Sesshoumaru's wolf allies crushing his last line of defense and about to break into the keep, Wei knew it was time to spring his own surprise.
And to recapture that Kagome whore in the confusion, Wei thought to himself.
"I want you to show me something Sesshoumaru," Wei said, as he sprang back. The unnatural light spilling down from overhead cast Wei's facial features in harsh square lines causing them to look like they were carved from the most unforgiving stone. "Before you die, before I murder your people, let me see your face as all hope ends."
Wei grinned madly and his eyes were like the shadowed caverns of hell. "This is what you get when you attack China."
Wei gestured to the front of the fortress. "This is my Leviathan!"
