Fates Parallel Chapter 365 - Welcoming

Long Ruiling followed Yoshika’s gaze and frowned.

“Uh...how do you know? I don’t see anything.”

Jia blushed—she’d forgotten that she wasn’t sharing her sight with the others.

“Soul Sight—we used a technique that lets us observe the spirit realm. There’s a pathway leading up to a huge gate over there.”

Ruiling blinked.

“That sounds impressive. I didn’t know spirits could build things.”

“I’ve never heard of it, either, but the Bloody Sovereign was powerful enough to create this entire place by himself. Gods feared him. We should probably be prepared to have our definitions of ‘impossible’ challenged at every turn.”

The fiend girl nodded solemnly.

“Thank you for the warning.”

Satisfied with Jia’s explanation, the group followed her lead as she set off towards the gate. After just a few minutes of walking, it became painfully obvious that the gate was both much larger, and much farther away than it looked.

Jia decided that it was as good a time as any to get to know her new allies.

“Long Ruiling, do you mind if I ask a few questions?”

Ruiling spread her wings out and preened happily for some reason.

“Of course! What would you like to know?”

“How did you find the rest of the group after arriving?”

Yue interjected before the fiend girl could respond.

“Actually, we all arrived together. You were the only odd ones out. I’m surprised you found us so fast—the bickering started almost immediately.”

Long Ruiling sighed and shook her head.

“I’d heard that humans didn’t like us fiends very much, but I didn’t realize that hatred ran so deep...”

Jia shot Zheng Long a dirty look as she responded.

“They don’t speak for all of us.”

“Oh. You’re humans too? With the ears and stuff I thought—I don’t know, maybe you were half fiends or something.”

Fighting down her reflex to argue, Jia shook her head. It was obvious that Ruiling’s mistake wasn’t malicious.

“Not quite—though some people deliberately act like we are. We’re actually half-spirits, though that’s a bit of a misnomer, since our actual spirit ancestors are hundreds of generations back. They like to call us beastkin, though. As if we’re animals.”

Long Ruiling cocked her head.

“What’s wrong with that?”

Jia paused.

“Well...just that it’s wrong, I guess? We’re humans, and calling us beastkin denies that identity.”

“Oh! Yeah, I think I know exactly what you mean, now.”

After a brief silence, Ruiling furrowed her brows.

“Um...not to be rude or anything, but who are you, exactly? I’ve already been acquainted with the others, but you two just sort of...showed up? I heard The Snake called you Yoshika, but then people called her Yoshika too.”

Jia smacked herself in the forehead. How could she forget? She’d been so rude!

“I’m sorry about that—we should have introduced ourselves. I’m Lee Jia, and this is my partner An Eui. The name Yoshika refers to both of us...it’s kind of a long story.”

To her surprise, Long Ruiling made a noise of understanding.

“Oooh! You’re like Melati! I didn’t know humans could do that.”

Now it was Jia’s turn to be confused.

“Pardon?”

“I guess it’s our turn to introduce ourselves. As you know, I’m Long Ruiling, of the esteemed clan of Dragons—this is my faithful retainer Sukarto—”

She gestured at the half-human chimera, and he rolled his eyes as he cut her off.

“Childhood friend. We were born and raised in the same village, on the same island. You don’t have to entertain Lingling’s fantasies about being a dragon, you know.”

Sukarto’s voice had an unusual timbre to it, as though his voice was echoing up from somewhere else. Ruiling whirled on him, blushing.

“Shut up! You don’t know anything! My great grandmother was a dragon! That makes me part of the clan!”

“It very much does not—now please introduce Melati before she vibrates out of her carapaces.”

Ruiling huffed and crossed her arms, turning back to Jia.

“Don’t listen to him. Our island doesn’t usually keep track of lineages, so he doesn’t get it.”

She gestured towards the two wasp-like fiends, who were indeed buzzing excitedly—practically trembling as they stared at Jia and Eui.

“And this is Melati—she’s...well, it’s kind of a long story, but I guess she’s like you?”

The pair of fiends rushed forward, as if some invisible leash had been undone, their voices forming a perfect chorus as they bombarded Jia with questions.

“Hello! We’re Melati! You’re like us? Another hive? Why do you have multiple queens? Is it for population control? How do you reproduce? Did you awaken separately or all at once?!”

Jia threw up her hands and backed off as Ruiling stepped in to pull Melati bodily away from her.

“Sorry! She’s actually an awakened beast, so as you can see, her social graces aren’t particularly refined. Mel, what have we told you about personal space?”

The twin fiends hung their heads sadly.

“We’re sorry. We’ve never met another hive that could think before.”

Yoshika felt bad for her. She moved both of her bodies in unison and bowed, speaking in chorus.

“It’s no trouble. We’ve never met another gestalt before either, though I think you might be mistaken about us. We weren’t born this way—it’s the result of our cultivation.”

Melati giggled happily, her two bodies flying in a little helix around each other.

“We see! A human hive! Thank you for answering Melati!”

Yoshika smiled—Melati was kind of adorable once you got past her insectoid appearance.

“Did Long Ruiling say you’re an awakened fiend? You weren’t born with a core?”

“Oh! Lingling is right but wrong. Melati has always been Melati, but we died before we were born, so we lost our core. Had to make a new core. New queen! Now we are small Melati.”

“Small Melati? Wait—you died?!”

The two of them gestured at each other and nodded in unison.

“Small! Small hive, small core, small drones. Too big and we bother others. Then die! We don’t like dying.”

Seeing Yoshika’s confusion, Ruiling shook her head and stepped into translate.

“When Mel first awakened, she was something of a menace on our island. The elders tried to kill her, but she kept coming back. Eventually they decided that it was too much of a pain to try to get rid of her entirely, so she was accepted into the village on the condition that she kept herself...small.”

Melati hung her heads and scuffed the ground with her feet.

“We didn’t know we were causing trouble. Melati just wanted to grow the hive, but reproducing makes us hungry. Lingling and Karto have been very nice at explaining. We’re sorry if we offend you.”

Yoshika shook her heads.

“Not at all. Thank you for explaining. Though—did she say you kept coming back? How many times has that happened?”

Melati put her hands on her hips and raised her head proudly, both her bodies mirroring each other.

“Melati is the fourteenth queen of Melati! One day, we hope that we will become as strong as when we were still the first Melati.”

From the side, Yue giggled quietly to herself.

“And here our Yoshika has only died twice. Let’s hope this is the one aspect in which she simply bows her head to her senior’s superiority.”

Eui elbowed her in the side.

“Shut up, you!”

Jia giggled and shook her head.

“It’s good meeting all of you. I wasn’t sure what to expect from fiends—the ones we met on the mainland were...”

She trailed off, not sure how to put it. Ruiling grimaced.

“Ugh, awakened. Those things don’t represent us—they’re barely even people—no offense, Mel.”

Melati buzzed happily at being acknowledged, but Sukarto cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow at Ruiling, causing her to quickly bow apologetically.

“Right! You too, Karto, I’m sorry! I should be more careful with my words.”

He sighed.

“I understand. Just try to remember that not all awakened are like the leviathans in the sea. Most of us don’t have to look far back in our lineages to find an awakened, and Mel is right here—for all that she doesn’t seem to mind.”

“I know! I know. Anyway, to answer your question, Jia, those would have been awakened beasts. The Snake went around hiring a bunch of them for some important task on the mainland.”

Jia blinked at the sudden and unexpected use of her given name. It’s not like she wasn’t used to it, but it was odd hearing it from a stranger. She decided not to press the issue while there were more important questions.

“Is Do Hye well known even this far away from the mainland? I’m always surprised by how far his reach is.”

Ruiling nodded.

“Oh yeah—everyone knows who The Snake is. He’s been around for centuries, though he sort of comes and goes. People like him a lot—he pays well and even teaches magic sometimes.”

“Is that how you ended up working for him?”

She averted her eyes and coughed.

“Uh...I think at this point I have to admit that I was tricked.”

Sukarto scoffed.

“You think?! I was telling you that from the beginning!”

“Well I’m sorry! I thought he was representing the Dragon Lord! Would you say no to the Dragon Lord?”

“Yes. I would.”

Long Ruiling huffed and crossed her arms.

“Then why did you come with me, Karto?”

“Because you asked me to.”

She blushed and turned back to Jia.

“A-anyway! He misrepresented himself, and also paid us very handsomely. By the time we realized we’d been tricked we were already in too deep.”

Eui scowled.

“Yeah, that sounds like something he’d do. Ugh, the more I learn about him the less I like him, and I’ve been learning a lot recently.”

Jia nodded, looking back at Xiao Chong, following a short distance back.

“What about you? How did you end up here?”

Xiao Chong sneered.

“Fuck off. I’m not here to trade life stories or make friends.”

Jia sighed, but turned her sights on the boy following just behind her.

“And you?”

The boy glanced up, but Xiao Chong moved in front of him.

“Don’t bother. That one doesn’t have a name.”

Eui scoffed.

“Tsk, are we really going to retread this self-hating ideology of yours again?”

The demon woman shook her head.

“Not like that. I mean there’s nothing left of him in there. Most demons lose their sense of self entirely when they fall, until there’s nothing left but hunger. He’s barely sentient. Probably daydreaming about devouring the souls of everyone here as we speak.”

Eui frowned.

“He seems fine to me.”

“He knows better than to fuck with me, and since I’m following you, what’s left of his sorry excuse for a brain can figure out that it probably means you’re even stronger. You can’t eat if you’re dead. Don’t worry, though—when his hunger finally overtakes his self preservation, I’ll be sure to put him down like I did the other one. I doubt he’ll have time to eat more than one or two of you at the most.”

Zheng Long gave her a sidelong glance and stepped a bit further away.

“Such charming company you’ve saddled us with, Miss Yoshika.”

Jia rolled her eyes.

“Don’t try to take the moral high ground, Zheng Long, you’re the only other person here who’s murdered a member of this group.”

“Very funny, Miss Lee, but the accusation rings rather hollow coming from the alleged victim herself. If I had killed you, would you be here to complain about it?”

“It’s unbecoming to brag about your own failure, Zheng Long.”

He turned away and made a disgusted noise as Yue covered her mouth and giggled.

“It is rather embarrassing to lose a fight after killing your opponent, don’t you think?”

Though Zheng Long didn’t dignify her barb with a response, Han Yu refused to let Yue’s comment pass.

“We would never have lost if you hadn’t sold us out you traitorous wh—”

“Uh, guys?”

Ja Yun’s interruption drew everyone’s attention to her, if only because it was the first time she’d spoken since their arrival in Chou’s realm. She wilted under the scrutiny, but pointed ahead of them.

“I hate to interrupt your, um, friendly reminiscing...about the time you all tried to murder each other? But I think we’re here.”

Yoshika looked out at the horizon, frowning. The gate was still pretty far away, but that wasn’t where Ja Yun was pointing. On the path ahead of them, one ghost stood staring, dressed differently from the others.

He wore his hair long and loose, and held himself with the sort of straight-backed confidence that Yoshika associated with Qin nobility. She’d seen that posture a hundred times on powerful men as they spoke down to her.

The man looked young, but something about his dark eyes held an ineffable ageless quality as his gaze swept across them. He wore simple, unadorned robes of astonishing quality—as if the finest tailor in the world had been asked to make the plainest clothes they could design—and carried no weapons.

Belatedly, Yoshika realized that she could see him in both the physical and spiritual realms at the same time. Her domain was limited by the local suppression, and she’d be a little distracted by the conversation, but she was still disturbed that a man with such a palpable presence had somehow managed to appear so close undetected.

It wasn’t like Qin Yongliang’s bizarre there-but-not projection. Now that she was looking at him, he was completely impossible to miss. She just hadn’t noticed him until he’d made his presence known.

Without so much as a word, the man brought the entire group to a halt, all of them remaining still and silent as he regarded them. Then, after a moment that felt like it stretched on forever, he spoke.

“Welcome, intruders, to my domain. The last resting place of the greatest individual to ever grace the realms. In life, I was known by many names—most of which I have long since forgotten. In death, I was given a final epithet—a pithy title upon which to rest my legacy. You may know me as Chou, the Bloody Sovereign.”