Chapter 54: One Last Chance

Chapter 54: One Last Chance

The wind hissed as if a storm were approaching them.

In the center of the pathway, Curator stood confidently. His emotionless dark eyes stared at Yi Jyuhan and Xue Lan directly. Both of their faces slightly tensed.

Moths covered the entire place, merged with the walls.

Xue Lan snapped his fingers and chanted. "Sleepless Dreams." The city changed. They stood in an empty place; above them, a pale moon flickered its light.

The Curator watched the place unfold into a dreamy texture. He looked around, his lips closed in a deadpan reaction. "The Illusion of a Dream World?" He mumbled.

Yi Jyuhan held his fan tightly. No one moved for a few seconds.

The wind shifted. That was a hint that the Curator had moved already. He simply disappeared from their sight and appeared directly near Xue Lan. His weapon—the spine blade moved fast.

Xue Lan shifted his dagger. The moment the spine touched him, his body scattered and appeared above the Curator’s head. He released the dagger free from his hand, which split into a hundred daggers that launched toward the man.

The Curator lifted his hand, the weapon turning into soft flesh, but from behind him, Xue Lan appeared again. The weapons twisted into spears. The Curator jumped back almost too fast.

Yi Jyuhan clawed at the air with his fan; the location of ’Him’ changed. He was directly beneath the spears, approaching him. The weapons’ speed increased as if they were pulled down by gravity harder.

"Such creativity," The Curator countered, the spine moving above. The spears shattered on impact. "Doesn’t amuse me."

Yi Jyuhan lunged next; Xue Lan moved with him. The Curator stood still, like a tall mountain prepared for a hit. Xue Lan stabbed through the air first, his dagger reaching for ’His’ chest.

The Curator raised the spine; the joints pulled together tightly, acting as a sword. The bone hit the dagger with a screech. Yi Jyuhan launched himself from sides, his fan rushing through the air. He quickly swung it; ’He’ just waited for the fan to reach.

THWACK!

Curator caught the fan with his other hand. Xue Lan pushed the dagger, but it didn’t move an inch.

"Tch." Xue Lan looked at Yin Jyuhan, who clicked the fan.

FWIP!

Instantly their places shifted, Curator was holding the dagger now. His eyes widened a bit, then Xue Lan spun and slashed his palm. The blade cut deep.

Xue Lan watched in amusement. Surprisingly, no blood fell on the ground; the skin quickly knitted together as if it were puppet flesh. Yi Jyuhan threw his hand, the fan whispering in the air.

The wind rippled and threw ’Him’ away from them; the air passed through His ear as He was blown away. Xue Lan quickly clawed at empty air; spikes rose from the ground beneath.

A wide grin crossed on ’His’ dead face. The spike impaled Him. The iron tips pierced through His clothes, but again no blood ran down. "Hahah–Pitiful you aren’t a God. Forget it."

Then His eyes darkened. He put His hand on the ground beneath and pushed himself up. The skin closed with a pale thread the same color as his skin.

Instantly after being freed, He surged forward like a deadly shadow.

Yi Jyuhan swung his fan defensively, creating a wall of vacuum between them. The Curator didn’t slow down. He thrust His spine-weapon forward; it extended insanely large, and then the shape of the weapon changed. The spine opened up into the jaws of a lion.

The bony jaw reached his shoulder and almost clamped it.

Xue Lan came between them. The jaw bit his dagger instead. Yi Jyuhan felt the wind pass his neck. If Xue Lan had been a second slower, his shoulder would have been gone.

Yi Jyuhan swallowed. The fan in his hand turned hot. Too hot to even hold, his skin was burning just by holding it.

Xue Lan stepped back. How long? They didn’t know. The Curator simply stared at them; His expression went deadpan again.

That was when Xue Lan noticed the wound. "They are covered in strings." He mumbled. Yi Jyuhan swung his fan, changing the space between them.

The Curator darted His eyes around, His weapon changing back to a spine. "Hopeless actions. You can’t win against me." His voice gradually shifted into a pitiful, soft whisper. "I’ll let you live. Just leave the place and let my God be born."

"That’d be a massacre of humanity." Yi Jyuhan raised his hand and then moved it the right way.

"Just choose your life instead, then. What did those humans give you? You are ascended; humans are not our priority." The Curator warned one last time. "So, move aside and let HIM be born."

"Over my grave!" Yi Jyuhan countered and said, "We survive madness so others don’t have to. What made you think I’d just let my city crumble by a dead pest?"

The Curator inhaled a long breath. "I won’t spare you this time. Think again." He waited patiently. His voice was cold. Confident in a way that it almost whispered facts.

The sun would rise. Rain would fall. And Yi Jyuhan would die. He breathed, trying to keep himself calm. Finally, his expression flattened. "I’m still unchanged."

"Death wish." The Curator mumbled. He lunged toward them with all His might. Xue Lan came out from his shadow and yanked his ankle.

The man looked down and whipped the spine toward him. Xue Lan jumped out, his hand landing on Curator’s. He jumped higher, avoiding the whip.

Fwip!

The places switched.

Yi Jyuhan was now above the Curator. His leg prepared to smack the man’s face.

The Curator raised his weapon and slammed His spine sword in the air.

Yi Jyuhan spun, and his fan came to the ground. It collided with the bone. The man pushed his body backward with sheer force.

"Clever spatial swapping," the Curator’s voice echoed.

Yi Jyuhan grumbled and pushed himself away from ’Him.’

Xue Lan hissed, snapping his fingers twice. The pale moon above shattered, and razor-sharp pieces descended upon the man’s figure. The glowing knives scattered, all launched at once.

The Curator didn’t even flinch. He let the pieces pierce through Him. The blades passed through his flesh one by one, hollowing his body. He should have died... Then why didn’t He? The skin instantly closed the gaps, and He looked at them with a half-hearted smirk.

Yi Jyuhan didn’t waste a second. He snapped his fan shut, twisting his wrist to reverse the gravity. The Curator’s body began to get pulled on the ground. His body slowed.

Xue Lan pulled strings of stars attached to the sky. They turned into glass fragments, reflecting a caged light.

The Curator twisted His body at an impossible angle, trying to force a walk. Yi Jyuhan felt the strain in his wrist. His body ached; the fan was pulling the gravity, but the Curator was resisting. Just by being there, an unmovable force. Like a vast stone in a river, unmoved by the river’s flow.

Sweat trickled down Yi Jyuhan’s temple. The spear came down at once.

The Curator’s flesh turned into an armor of bones. The shards struck the armor with a deafening roar. Before the dust could clear, Xue Lan emerged directly from a fragment, a phantom dagger aimed straight for the man’s throat.

The armor turned into cotton, dream logic, of course.

Yi Jyuhan rushed from ahead, the ribs of his fan glowing with a searing vacuum pressure. As he swept the weapon forward, the armor, which was already turned into cotton, offered no resistance.

The edge of the fan bit deep into the Curator’s incorporeal shoulder. The grotesque, screeching sound echoed as dark, stringy threads were severed by the fan’s invisible, sharp edge.

The Curator’s head snapped to the side to face Yi Jyuhan, His empty eyes locking onto him with terrifying intensity. "You rely too much on these cheap parlor tricks," the Curator whispered, His voice vibrating through the dream world’s suffocating air.

He swung the spine blade wildly, the swipe tearing through the vacuum barrier.

SWIP!

Before the blade could shred Yi Jyuhan’s chest, the space rippled. Xue Lan emerged from the distortion directly in the Curator’s blind spot. His phantom dagger was now coated in a venomous, starlit aura.

Xue Lan drove the blade straight between the Curator’s shoulders. The impact was absolute. Black, ichor-like threads unraveled from the Curator’s back, exploding outward in a chaotic burst.

He clenched His shoulder, the threads slowly sealing the bloodless flesh. Xue Lan noticed that and looked at Yi Jyuhan, who was gasping. "Yi Jyuhan, did you notice that?" Xue Lan shifted his eyes back to the Curator.

Yi Jyuhan squinted his eyes, trying to understand. "He is not using his blood... his strongest weapon."

Xue Lan narrowed his eyes.

The moon in the sky reformed, slowly, not just one but too many moons. They all hung in the sky like a toy.

Yi Jyuhan briefly focused on the moon above. The illusion of the dream had begun to change. He finally shut his fan and raised his hand to the left. Slowly, the fan opened. Crimson beams of light shoot out like sun rays but red. "I shall perform it then." Yi Jyuhan paused and looked at the Curator.

"The Endless Void."

Xue Lan opened his mouth to argue. Then he closed it. That battle meant so much for Yi Jyuhan. He finally focused his gaze around.

The Bitter Illusion had fully manifested too.