Fates Parallel Chapter 369 - Threshold

Eui turned to face the group and flicked the blood off of her sword.

“Any complaints?”

Xiao Chong cackled in a way that was uncomfortably reminiscent of Eui’s own laughter, but she ignored it—let the demon think whatever she wants, Bai Lin had to go.

Zheng Long rubbed his temples and groaned.

“I figured it was going to happen, but you could at least have waited until after she helped us get the door open.”

“You don’t seem bothered that I just killed your fiance.”

“It was a political marriage, and one I’m happy to be rid of. Did you think only women have to worry about such things? There will be consequences, no doubt, but that’s only if we can live long enough to suffer them.”

The rest of the Qin cultivators had gone a little pale at the sudden violence, but the fiends were completely unperturbed. Jia glanced nervously at Ruiling—killing their own allies didn’t send a great message to their new friends.

“I hope you’re not too upset with us for breaking our truce.”

The dragon girl shrugged.

“She was asking for it, and you’ve obviously got a history. I’ve only known her for a short time, but even I’m glad she’s dead. I can’t imagine what it must have been like knowing her for years. The pretender over there is right, though—we kinda needed her help, didn’t we?”

Zheng Long grimaced.

“Who are you calling a pretender?!”

“Someone with the audacity to name themselves after dragons! Who just calls themself ‘Long’?”

Sukarto gave her a pointed look, and Ruiling waved him off.

“Not a word, you!”

Eui chuckled wryly.

“We didn’t need Bai Lin, we needed her spirits, and I didn’t do a thing to them.”

Han Yu shook his head.

“You should have done your research, Miss An. The Bai clan’s spirit servants answer only to them, and without their secret techniques, there’s no way to undo the binding—not even death.”

Yoshika thought back to her duels with Bai Lin. She recalled the talismans that bound Bai Lin’s spirits to her, and the chains that controlled them. When Jia and Heian merged into Lee Hei, she’d been able to break the talismans and release the spirits.

“We’ll see about that. I’ve met one of the people they stole those ‘secret techniques’ from, and Heian learned some of it herself.”

Eui dug through Bai Lin’s robes, turning up sixteen nearly identical talismans plus one that was much more ornate. ‘Dozens’ had been an overstatement, but Bai Lin really did have quite a few. Yoshika could sense the power housed within them, and the unmistakable feeling of Shadow essence.

Destroying the talismans would disperse the essence within them—effectively killing the spirits. Something tickled at the back of Yoshika’s mind—she wasn’t sure why, but something about the talismans was involved with her tribulation.

She ignored it for now—the last thing she needed was to summon lightning down on her in the middle of this hellish place. Hopefully once they’d gotten through she’d finally find the time to make her breakthrough once and for all.

“Heian, what do you think, can we break the chains without killing the ones inside?”

Her daughter wobbled her head back and forth uncertainly.

“Mmm...not alone. Lee Hei can do it.”

Heian made a grabbing motion at Jia, who sighed and picked her up.

“Alright, but don’t make me do anything weird this time, okay?”

The little brat didn’t even attempt to make a promise, reaching out from deep within Yoshika’s soul. Jia met her halfway, and Heian’s form melted into her. As it did, her white hair turned black, and her golden eyes turned a bright blue to match Heian’s.

Lee Hei immediately put her forepaws on the ground and stretched—human posture could get so tiring. Feeling better, she got back up on her feet and made her way over to Eui, ignoring the people around her giggling.

Eui handed her the talismans, and she went over each one carefully. There was a hierarchy to them. The little ones were all bound to the big one, which was supposed to be bound to the dead girl, but she was dead.

Lee Hei could see the links between them, and the intricate bindings cruelly designed to kill their captives if destroyed. Even as she looked, the big one was starting to degrade without Bai Lin maintaining it, and would eventually kill her little cousins within.

Well, that wouldn’t do at all! Lee Hei took a bit of herself that was made of Plasma essence, which burned other elements without touching the physical realm, and very carefully traced it through the magical bindings. She had to be careful not to accidentally burn her cousins, but Heian had practiced fine control a lot when she’d tried to make her own shikigami body.

A failed experiment, but a good lesson.

She didn’t bother paying attention to how long it was taking, even when people started shouting. It would take as long as it took, and rushing would only lead to failure. Things got a little bit noisy after that, but it hardly mattered amidst the cacophony of the mana all around her. Lee Hei tuned it all out while she worked.

When she finally finished the last thread, the talismans disintegrated as her cousins immediately fought their way free. She could see their forms clearly in the spirit world, a giant towering spider—much stronger than the girl who it had been bound to—and its little broodlings.

Cousins! Fellow hunters and beings of Shadow! Not that Heian was anymore, but Lee Hei remembered where she came from.

The spiders looked down on her with suspicion. They didn’t need words between fellow spirits, their feelings were enough.

The spiders were happy to be free, but scared of the place they found themselves in.

Lee Hei agreed—it was far too noisy.

Noise was the least of the spiders’ problems. They’d never experienced a world so full of anger.

Lee Hei had met Eui.

The spiders understood. They respected their cousin and were pleased to be free, but they would seek their own way out and return to their progenitor.

Lee Hei worried that would just lead them back to the same enslavement, but the spiders were a different aspect of Shadow than she had once been. The nest was where they belonged, and it was where they would return.

But first, they would help.

—-

Eui blocked another farmer from trying to attack Lee Hei, barely dodging out of the way when he preemptively aborted his attack to switch to targeting her. She clicked her tongue irritably—they were learning.

She felt a shift in Lee Hei’s attention. The spiders were free, and the sudden wave of emotion nearly floored Eui, for all that she was accustomed to spirit communication. An entire conversation happened before she’d even noticed.

“She did it! Everyone get back to the door, let’s go!”

Lee Hei and the spiders were already there and pushing, soon joined by the rest as they abandoned their tasks and fled.

Freeing the spirits had taken much longer than anyone expected, and the farmers had launched another attack. It had been hectic trying to keep everyone safe while also preventing any attacks from reaching Lee Hei.

Eui blessed her luck that no more birds had shown up.

With the help of the spirits, the door began to shift as attacks landed all around them. Heaving with all their might, they pushed the impossibly huge door open, inch by agonizing inch until finally there was a gap large enough to squeeze through.

“Don’t stop pushing yet!”

Eui’s command went almost unheard as a few of the Qin cultivators got in each other’s way trying to be the first ones through. Xiao Chong deliberately ignored her, jumping over the jammed opening and taking advantage of her slim figure to slip through above their heads. One of Melati’s bodies flew through as well, but the second stayed behind to help.

They weren’t going to make it in time. Eui could already sense one of the farmers lining up an attack that would devastate the entire group, and none of them were ready for it. She redoubled her efforts desperately, but the difference of one or two people made the door so much heavier.

The farmer’s scythe swung. Zheng Long burst into flames and took advantage of his insubstantial form to pass through the gap, burning a few of his own comrades along the way. Melati and Ruiling passed through up above, and Sukarto sprung forward to scramble through atop the heads of the Qin cultivators.

Yoshika knew she could still make it, but it would mean leaving people behind. Ja Yun and Iseul, Yue, Yu Xiang, and the remaining Qin cultivators. She couldn’t bring herself to do it. She braced herself for an impact, preparing to use her domain to dismantle as much of the attack as she could manage before it struck.

But the blow never came.

The giant spider spirit, the broodmother guiding its smaller children, lowered its body to shield Yoshika and the rest, taking the blow head-on. Its essence was scattered, completely destroying it, but the attack was stopped.

Yoshika was left only with the last echo of its emotion, in the moment before it died. Not words, but a feeling that spoke as clearly as any grand speech she’d ever heard.

Good luck, cousin.

The cultivators jamming the entrance fell through as the door gave way, and Yoshika grabbed Yu Xiang as the rest raced through the opening. As she dragged the injured man through the door, she gave a silent prayer of thanks to the mourning spirits.

She owed them a debt now, and she wouldn’t forget it.

—-

On the other side of the gate Yoshika found nothing. One second she’d been carrying Yu Xiang on her back, and the next she was alone. Well, not alone—Yoshika was never alone. Heian was still with her, and while she couldn’t sense her bodies, she knew they were still together.

An illusion, then. Or perhaps more soul magic, like the kind Shen Yu had used on her. She didn’t feel the same sense of violation that she had during Shen Yu’s interrogation, and even the bond that he’d imposed on her had largely dissolved now that it was fulfilled.

Yoshika tried to look around, but there were no surroundings to take in. Just empty blackness all around. She tried extending her domain, but she didn’t feel anything. Either it was completely suppressed or there really was nothing around her. No air, no light, no earth—not even a speck of tangible essence.

A voice echoed from all around her—Sovereign Chou.

“Did you think I would not notice that you carry a piece of my legacy with you already? Did you think it would endear me to you? Or did you perhaps think that I would make an exception for the one they called my disciple when I dictated that no true immortals were to set foot within my realm? Then again, perhaps you are a mere pawn, and the mutilated remains of my masterwork are a message from your master.”

A cold sweat formed on the back of Yoshika’s neck. Though Chou’s voice was without affect, his words belied the sort of cold fury that had led the man to massacre entire worlds in the pursuit of power and vengeance.

“No matter. The result is the same. You are permitted one opportunity to plead for your life before I annihilate you for your trespasses.”