Dynasty Warriors: The Rise of Sun
Next chapter of my Dynasty Warriors story, enjoy.
Reviews:
Wolfgirl2013: Yeah, we sadly know what Gan Ji's presence means.
Now onto the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Dynasty Warriors or its characters.
The Little Conqueror's Peril
It did not take Zhou Yu long to realise he was trapped in an illusion, likely cast by Gan Ji to prevent him from aiding Sun Ce.
'I must break it and find where I am. It's the only way to save Sun Ce...this must have happened to the others too.' Zhou Yu mused. 'How do I break this...what must I do?'
The illusion it seemed was trapping him in a village full of clamouring angry commoners and if he tried to leave he would travel so far, only for the village to come right into sight again ahead of him, as if in a loop. He stopped and tried to think. But the sight of him seemed to anger the villagers more as they began clamouring again, this time directly at him.
"You monster, you stole our food!" Their voices were off however and Zhou Yu soon noticed the truth as another began yelling. "You think you can starve us into submission."
They were all talking in Gan Ji's voice.
Zhou Yu smirked. "If you are trying to drive us despair with lies, you should try harder Gan Ji. No one will starve as the food-"
"You stole our food, hoarded it all for yourselves, for your conquests!" Came the clamour again.
"Ah yes, you mean the harvesting of the food, the transporting it to markets were it was sold and distributed throughout Yang Province." Zhou Yu countered. "The food which very now is filling granaries in the towns and villages, such as that one."
He pointed to the nearby granary which was indeed full and just like that, the illusion shattered and Zhou Yu got his bearings, soon seeing Jianye.
"Zhou Yu!"
He turned to see Lu Su, Lu Meng, Lu Xun and Cheng Pu rushing up to him.
"Good you all made it." He said. "There's no time to explain, we must hurry to Jianye, Sun Ce is in trouble."
They all nodded and hurried along with him to get there, praying they weren't too late.
XXXXX
Shangxiang snarled as she took down the nearest bandit, her chakrams flashing as they cut through the air to strike.
You, you disgusting creature, you deserve this." She snapped.
She too was trapped in an illusion, but hers was of a village being attacked by bandits, who were rather intent on going after and capturing the females of the village for disgustingly obvious purposes.
"Deserve it, hah." One bandit scoffed. "Like you even care, sitting in your castle all safe while we get to rove the villages and take what we want."
"Wh-what are you talking about?" Shangxiang snapped. "We would never let scum like you-"
"Oh but you did and now you're gonna learn why you should've stayed safe in your castle, Princess." The bandit taunted her.
Shangxiang fought back valiantly but the numbers were too great and before she could do anything about it she was held down on the ground, squirming as she cried out.
"Ah, no, get your hands off me, you monsters!"
But then, the one practically on top of her jerked and fell aside, dead. The others let her go but before they could respond they too were cut down while Shangxiang retrieved her weapons.
"Lianshi?!"
"Princess, thank goodness." Lianshi smiled before they stood back to back, weapons ready. "It's one of Gan Ji's illusions, Princess. He's trying to break us, make us believe his lies about Lord Sun Ce."
"Oh please. This is the truth, as if Sun Ce cares about bandits attacking villages."
"But he does." Lianshi replied firmly. "These are the bandits who, until last week, did this to villages in Jing Province before coming here."
"That's right, we knew who they were and saw them coming to attack this village. We rode out and intercepted them before they could do any real damage." Shangxiang added. "This is all a sham. We took care of this, my brother took care of this and protected his people."
Once again the illusion shattered and they found themselves reunited with the Qiao sisters who had also been trapped.
"Sun Ce. We need to-" Daqiao began desperately.
"He must still be in Jianye." Shangxiang said quickly. "That way!"
So with Shangxiang and Daqiao in the lead, the four ladies hurried towards Jianye, desperate to save Sun Ce.
XXXXX
Meanwhile, Sun Quan was locked in his own illusion. He too seemed to keep looping around, through the same village again and again. Unlike all the others however he was alone, completely alone.
"This doesn't make sense, where are you?" He called out.
Truthfully he wasn't alone, but he might as well be. The voices of Huang Gai, Han Dang, Taishi Ci, Xu Sheng and Zhou Tai could be heard around him, calling him and each other. They all hear each other, talk to each other. But no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't physically find each other. Even when the sound and volume of their voices made it apparent they were right next to each other.
"What do we do?" The voice of Taishi Ci echoed.
Han Dang's voice came, distraught and defeated. "I think, we're trapped, lost forgotten.
"No!" Xu Sheng burst out. "There must be away."
"Gan Ji...illusions. we must overcome this our minds." Zhou Tai said at last. "Remember what Wu stands for, what we stand for. Remember."
It dawned on them what he meant and they stopped running, stopped struggling and began to remind themselves of the familial bonds that tied Wu together, they had not been abandoned, Sun Ce would never abandon them. Like with the others they shattered the illusion and found each other, quickly regrouping.
"Where is Lord Sun Ce? We have to rescue him." Taishi Ci burst out.
"The others too." Huang Gai cut in.
Sun Quan mused at this. "They must also be trapped in illusions."
"We were, but we have also broken free."
They turned to see Zhou Yu leading all the others to join them.
"We have to hurry." Shangxiang explained. "Ce is trapped fighting at Jianye."
Quan nodded. "Then what are we waiting for?"
With that they all readied their weapons and hurried to the castle.
XXXXX
Sun Ce let out a tired gasp as he cut down another phantom double, he was running out of steam. But Gan Ji knew things weren't right. His illusions had been dispelled and Sun Ce's allies were closing in.
'I show them the truth and they still deny it. Rushing in to help this tyrant?' He thought bitterly. 'Well, they'll need to see the truth in the harshest possible way...'
With that he acted and Sun Ce paused, noticing the phantom doubles disappear and seeing that Xu Gong's loyalists were already dead. He turned only to let out a choked gasp and drop his weapon. For Gan Ji had been there and thrust his sword right through Sun Ce, the illusion also breaking so they were now visible to the people of Jianye. But Gan Ji's smug smile vanished at what he heard next. No cheers, no relief at being freed from their tyrant overlord. Instead he heard shouts, cries of terror and dismay.
"Lord Sun Ce!" A woman screamed.
"He killed Lord Sun Ce!"
"Monster, murderer, get him!"
He looked around shocked. Instead of joy, the people had become angry and sorrowful. He had given them freedom and they turned on him. He stepped back in shock, letting go of his sword, causing Sun Ce to fall to the ground. Gan Ji was stunned, several of the people around were beyond anger or sorrow, they had murder in their eyes, two farmers had already grabbed pitchforks, the blacksmith had already emerged from his forge, hammer in hand.
"What, what is this?" He choked out in disbelief.
"It's the final proof of your lies."
He turned sharply only to meet a vicious strike from Sun Quan's flame blade. But as he fell, his smug smile returned.
"So I fail...no matter...the Imperial Seal will still destroy the Sun family."
He hit the ground and swiftly burned to ashes which were then cascaded away on the wind.
But nobody cared, they all rushed to Sun Ce but it was too late, his passion and fire were extinguished as his life came to its sudden and premature end.
End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.