A Tale of Forgotten Gods

Chapter 22: Dream against Calamity

Lin’s hands had stopped shaking, they had gone numb due to extraction from the ritual. The coldness spread more in her hand as she tried to keep the door hidden.

Lin took a brief glance at Mo Fei, who was blind and bleeding. His back pressed against the wall. Han had covered Mo Fei’s eyes with a cloth filled with medicines to stop the bleeding, but a few drops of blood still fell. Elara handed the bitter paste of the roots to Han, who pressed it against Mo Fei’s wounds.

Lin whispered with a groan, ”How long?” Her voice was barely audible, but it was heard by Mo Fei. Or to say, it had been felt by Mo Fei. His ’Apprentice’s eyes’ connected the threads. His eyes were closed, yet he saw the outlines of the thread with very odd lines like a sickness. The scar on her hand had spread further.

Mo Fei leaned against the wall. ”Then don’t hold it. Let it fall if you can’t.”

”If I let it fall, then the Overseer–”

”It doesn’t matter, we can’t keep hiding. Just wait for others, then we will ascend.” Mo Fei said quietly. ”So stop hiding that.”

Lin stared at him. The blind kid, trying to teach her how to see.

***

Outside, the cold waited. Jian Yue couldn’t feel his body anymore. Maybe that was kind of a sight too, where the more the fight was going on the more he was losing himself.

The numbness spread from his thigh to his spine and from his spine to thoughts, but giving up meant getting devoured. He had to fight with his blade that was still moving, still cutting arrows from shadow, but the difference was he couldn’t feel himself doing it. It was an instinct, not a consciousness anymore.

He was a puppet who was controlled by the cruel fate of survival. He couldn’t count anymore... Thirty-two? He tried to count, but now the numbers were no longer a straight image, instead a blurry mess.

The Xul-Thal watched. ”Thirty-seven,” it murmured. ”You missed three that time. What’s wrong? Why slow now...? Ahh, you can’t feel pain now.”

Jian Yue stared down at the five arrows in his chest that he hadn’t noticed. He couldn’t feel them. He pulled them out with a dull response.

Xul-Thal spoke through the world again. ”What’s the point? These wounds, once I’m gone will become real.”

”That kid...” It murmured. ”He is asking for help from a stranger, such hopelessness.” Its voice was different now, filled with a slight tremor. It had known that already; it was the worst outcome, yet It was too desperate for a host.

Jian Yue’s blade wavered; he had thought of the possibilities of that stranger. ”You–”

”I know everything, so I told you.”

Its one eye reached Jian Yue. ”Oh, how I love eating strong spirits.” Jian Yue slashed it down and then lunged at it again. His blade found the Xul-Thal’s core. There was no sound of wet crunch.

But Xul-Thal screamed even though it felt nothing. And in that scream, Jian Yue heard something: Zhuo’s name, spoken by a monster that had never known mercy. Then Xul-Thal laughed.

His instinct turned his head toward the Cathedral. At that moment, the numbness didn’t matter anymore... Zhuo was taking too long.

***

Deeper in the snow, outside the Cathedral of Flesh. Snowfall began slowly; the pressure of the perfume weighed. Zhuo looked in the direction of the voice, and from deep within the cave, a man came out.

”What a sorrowful sight.” A grin settled upon the figure’s face. Xue Lan–Zhuo had never met him before. Enemy or ally, he had no clue.

Behind him another man followed. He was younger than him but not as mesmerizing as Xue Lan.

The scent of the perfume reached Kholkis’s nose. Insufferable scent for its bloodthirsty sense. The Kholkis show hesitation under the influence of the scent. No, it wasn’t influenced by Authority, but because the scent didn’t belong in its world.

”I had suspected it... Today is the night of the 4th stage blood moon.” His face held the grin longer as his eyes first stared at Zhuo and then at Kholkis’s leg. ”Interesting day... The Original eye of an Omniscient Xul-Thal.” He chuckled softly in amusement and squinted his eyes as if trying to see through Zhuo.

”Brother, how did you find that. Urgh, you really won the bet, okay.” Yin sighed in defeat.

Xue Lan patted his back, and said, ”You can’t control moths to get information yet, but I can.” Finally he turned to face Zhuo.

”You, child. You have been hunting for it, where is this Eye.” Xue Lan ignored the calamity entirely. ”You had been looking for it for thirty minutes, perhaps; so was I for years.” He stepped forward.

The Kholkis paused to observe. Zhuo’s voice came out with a groan. ”Argh, who... An ally?”

”Ally? Haha, you’ll be disappointed if I say no. Well practically for a few minutes.”

A few moths flew by Zhuo’s side, near the feet of Kholkis. Its talons scattered into thousands of moths. The Kholkis stumbled back, leaving Zhuo buried in the ice.

The talon reformed.

Xue Lan stopped just above the face of Zhuo, and he knelt beside him. ”I’ll ask again: Where is the Eye?” Zhuo coughed; he thought Xue Lan was an ally. And he revealed it.

”I-in its left leg.” It was everything Xue Lan wanted to hear. Zhuo’s eyes dropped a tear in pain but he still lifted his good hand, grabbing the sleeve of Xue Lan.

”Save... Save others.” Xue Lan looked down at Zhuo’s hand with mild curiosity, then his eyes moved to Zhuo’s face. For a moment his face flickered recognition.

”Naive.” He walked toward Kholkis. ”That thing. This is the eye of one of the few who had seen Gods and lived. In the age of Sundering, such things were called Remembrance... For two years I was waiting for this night.”

Xue Lan walked towards Kholkis and said loud enough. ”The fourth stage of the blood moon in World 4. I’ve waited for these conditions to align.” He smiled at his own achievement. ”For the past Demigod ritual.”

The Kholkis stared down at Xue Lan, eyes filled with disgust. It flew high, the sound was late before the wings bypassed it.

Its talon pounced, but it caught nothing. The attack went through him like a mist. Xue Lan caught its talon with a wide grin.

”Aw, a cute little bird, but I don’t need a pet now.” He caught the talon, the massive Kholkis weighed no more than a feather in his grip. Xue Lan slammed it into the snow. The whole ground shook with its weight.

”Don’t fight back now.” Xue Lan pulled its left leg, breaking the bone. The Kholkis loudly screamed and charged with its beak, then, before it could close the distance. The beak got sealed. It tried to scream but no voice came.

It had no mouth that could scream.

Moths flew around the blade of Zhuo, but they couldn’t move it.

”Hm, interesting, the motion is stolen.” Luna moths turned toward the dagger, and took it to Xue Lan. His hand grabbed it.

Once again, the beak was there but not the opportunity to attack. With a blur of motion, Xue Lan was upon the beak. The dagger slashed it; the broken beak fell on the ground.

Then without wasting any moment. He slashed down its chest, one horizontal slash, then a cross slash. Finally, he jumped back, becoming a blur with the dagger, another stab at its wing. It couldn’t even react before it happened.

Squish!

He chopped off its left leg completely, and the blue blood that spilled out came onto his face. His gaze fe inside the chopped talon, an eye with a gorgeous yellow color and white eyelashes, fell on the ground covered in blue blood.

Xue Lan took the eye. He ignored the screaming of the Kholkis, while traced the lashes with finger. ”Impure... the eye is matured but impure.” His eyes met the gaze of the Original Eye, something odd, something... Unexplainable. He raised it closer to his face, examining it with curiosity.

Yin waved at him to get his attention. ”Is something wrong with it?”

Xue Lan traced it once again. Then his nails swiftly slashed the lens of the eye. ”It’s impure. The host must have gone weakened, it needed a new one.” He put the eye in a pouch before putting it in his pocket. Yin nodded in understanding.

Xue Lan glanced at Zhuo, who stood up, barely standing. Xue Lan threw the dagger back at him before a soft smile crossed his lips. ”You can handle a weakened Kholkis, can’t you?” He walked towards the cave again. ”Let’s head back, Yin.”

Before Zhuo could say anything. Their figures disappeared in silence. Zhuo gulped and breathed heavily.

His gaze met Kholkis, both of them broken but alive enough to fight. If it was just pain, the wouldn’t stop. He picked up the dagger that was going to break at any moment.

Xue Lan had used it with such force that it had been scarred now.

His hand gripped it, he felt nothing. The frostbite took over slowly. He switched it to his other hand, and the dagger fell. He picked it up again with a greater ambition.

The Kholkis screamed, a wet, broken sound, and charged at Zhuo with everything it had.

”One hit... is all the dagger can handle.” His eye locked on its neck, and he lunged forward with a whimper.

It would be the final lunge. He reassured himself. The Kholkis stumbled without its one talon. Zhuo’s legs ached; he couldn’t endure it.

The wind itself howled.

———

Zhuo’s dagger found its neck in midair. He held his wrist tightly, slashing down the throat of Kholkis. It fell. Zhuo fell with it.

He crawled, trying to stand again, but he had no energy left. He remembered Jian Yue’s last nod again, and his eyes began to close. He heard a snap of fingers before the sound vanished. A figure with light blue and white robes was there, in a few minutes the figure disappeared.

While in the void of shadows. The Xul-Thal stared at Jian Yue; the world spoke flatly this time.

”As expected. An uninvited interference. Long live warden, your future is quite amusing.” The words hung before the shadow around Xul-Thal got devoured by itself. The ten eyes exploded, scattering black blood everywhere.

A corpse appeared beneath the blood that covered it. A sound of cracking echoed, then the head of the corpse fell on the ground. Jian Yue’s hand met his body covered in blood; the hollow marks were gone, replaced with real flesh and blood.

Slowly the pain took over. But even at that moment, he only thought about the situation of Zhuo.

”You... did it?” His eyes started to get blurry, but he kept himself in pieces. He stumbled as he walked and shouted to call out.

”Han, can you hear me. It’s over, we need help to see Zhuo.” His voice didn’t hide concern. He himself knew Zhuo was just a kid; leaving him to look for the ’Original Eye’ alone was the worst, but letting Zhuo fight Xul-Thal instead was worse.

Elara heard the shout of help. She whispered in urgency. ”Jian Yue needs help. We have to go.”

”You take care of Mo Fei, I’ll go.” Han stood up and rushed outside.

Mo Fei’s eyes closed, but he couldn’t do anything. He had never accused himself before. He never felt guilty until now. ”Only if I knew it. Only if I had never been marked.” He could see that the thread of Zhuo was barely connected; it could snap at any moment.