Chapter 58: The Artifact

Chapter 58: The Artifact

The courtyard was a graveyard of puppet’s flesh. Riyoshi’s thin blade sang through the air, exchanging blows against Qi Huo’s mutilated blade. The royal guard’s regeneration was slowing. The threads were loose.

"You’re running out of time," Riyoshi said in his calm voice, despite the blood streaming from his shoulder.

Qi Huo’s crimson eyes flickered with understanding. "Should I remind you of you?" He lunged. The mutilated blade carved a deadly arc toward Riyoshi’s chest.

Riyoshi stepped into the strike, his blade passing through the air faster than before. The gravity pulled the sword toward Qi Huo.

His thin blade found Qi Huo’s arm. The blade cut through the threads and then stabbed through his fingers. Riyoshi twisted the blade, severing the finger.

Qi Huo’s eyes widened. He glanced at his chopped finger. His strings wrapped around the finger, before attaching back to his hand.

The strings sewed them again. But the regeneration was clumsy now, the flesh knitting together with an unpolished string. The strings began to rust already. "Tch,"

​Riyoshi didn’t give him room to breathe. ’He isn’t healing his strings,’ Riyoshi observed, his own lungs burning as he parried a heavy, desperate downward swing.

​"You’re getting sloppy." Riyoshi said, shifting his stance.

​Instead of aiming for Qi Huo’s body, Riyoshi altered the gravity around his own blade. He swung a wide, horizontal slash, sending a localized wave of heavy pressure crashing into Qi Huo’s left side

​Qi Huo’s hand slashed down, blood coming out. "I haven’t given up yet." The blood formed sharp spikes. They all launched toward Riyoshi, who pulled his leg back in a stance.

Sssss

The thin blade connected with the blade, slashing down each blood strike with the sword’s sharp tip.

He looked ahead, Qi Huo was not there. From beneath him the blood hands shoot out, ready to cover him. Riyoshi spun, his blade shifting the space between them. The blood fell on the ground, catching nothing.

Then from the tree Qi Huo jumped out, five puppets jumped together. He stabbed his blade through the air, the puppets launched themselves.

Riyoshi bent. The mutilated blade passed just mere inches away from his head. Qi Huo quickly pulled the strings. The puppets slammed themselves on the ground. Riyoshi rolled back, dust covering his clothes.

​Riyoshi surged back, his thin blade turning into a silver blur. He unleashed a fury of strikes, but the puppets came in the way.

***

​A few paces away, Jim saw the opening.

​Having just ducked under Taein’s sweeping scythe, Jim didn’t reset his stance. He used the momentum of his dodge to hurl his sword directly at Qi Huo’s blind spot. In an attempt to help Riyoshi, but as quickly he changed his stance.

​"Eyes on me!" Taein hissed, realizing Jim’s intent too late.

​Jim threw his sword at him, but Taein blocked it with puppets.

Jim pulled his hands backward. The space shifted toward him, Taein who was a few meters away from him now appeared near Jim. Who caught his blade from mid air and pushed it toward the royal guard. Taein pulled out his scythe and hit his blade. Jim’s sword was locked against Taein’s scythe, but he didn’t try to pass through it.

"You’re hesitating again," Taein said. "The slight pause before every strike."

Jim’s jaw tightened. Even as an enemy he always hesitated killing a life form. "I always knew it." Jim whispered.

Taein’s eyes flickered. "Softness leads to demise against enemies."

Jim surged forward. He threw himself at Taein, avoiding the scythe. His hand found Taein’s waist. He caught it and lifted him off the ground. The gravity shifted, then with a loud thud. He smacked the royal guard on the ground. The scythe clattered nearby.

Taein’s calm shattered. "Urgh!"

Jim’s blade found the strings. He quickly swung the blade, severing them entirely.

Taein’s body went rigid. His eyes, for the first time, held something other than patience.

"You still haven’t killed me yet."

"I won’t deny that," Jim said, his voice ragged. "This war is for humanity not just survival."

Taein slowly stood again. Jim stumbled back, clenching his hand.

"I’m a Royal Guard. Unless one of us is dead, I can’t refuse my duty." Taein’s hand reached toward his scythe.

Jim didn’t wait. He surged forward, and caught the threads of Taein. He pulled them toward the nearby tree and wrapped Taein around it. "I have different plans. Let’s finish our fight some other day." Jim stood over Taein, his blade at the royal guard’s throat. A few meters away the scythe rested uselessly. Taein closed his eyes, expecting to be killed.

Jim didn’t move.

He had killed before. Of course not too often, nor without any reason. But this time while fighting he had discovered things. Too many things. Taein was not a monster in his eyes. Just a man who had chosen a side, just as Jim had chosen his.

"Still hesitant?" Taein said, his voice calm. "You forgot your purpose. A loser should die, that’s the law of war."

Jim’s hand trembled. The blade hovered.

"I told you, this war is not for survival." Jim said finally.

He pulled his blade back. Taein’s eyes opened in surprise.

Jim turned away. "Killing you would make me no better than you."

He walked toward Riyoshi. Behind him, Taein’s voice came, barely a whisper: "Then you’ve already lost."

***

Mo Fei and Alisa reached them moments later. They hid behind the tree and watched Riyoshi. "Alisa, tell him somehow to get the Royal Guard closer to me."

Alisa’s eyes narrowed at his words. "Are you sure, what if you aren’t fast enough?"

"My brain is, beside that you shouldn’t slack for what you came here for." Mo Fei clenched the Glaive and waited. Alisa nodded and moved through the tree.

She quickly got behind the tree that was near Riyoshi.

Qi Huo’s puppets clashed with Riyoshi. He got pushed back by them.

Thud.

Alisa threw a rock toward a tree, Riyoshi’s focus shifted slightly toward Alisa before turning back to Qi Huo. He had realized that she was planning something. "Space displacement."

He disappeared from Qi Huo’s sight, and appeared behind the tree.

Alisa quickly pointed toward the bush. "Riyoshi, get him near that bush. We have a good plan."

"What can Mo Fei do?"

"Just do, don’t doubt."

Riyoshi nodded and returned back to the same position. Qi Huo looked at him. "There, I wonder where you ran away?" His eyes scanned the place. He couldn’t understand Riyoshi.

"I won’t hear you." He rushed toward him. Qi Huo lunged back, his mutilated blade colliding with the thin blade. The swords vibrated through the air with a ring.

Riyoshi pushed Qi Huo back, and launched a fist toward him. The punch only touched him before both of them teleported near the bush. Mo Fei was hiding there and quickly came out.

Qi Huo’s breath caught in his throat. He had understood the plan. But before he could lunge toward Mo Fei.

Slam.

Alisa kicked his back. Her legs forced him to lose balance. Mo Fei swung his Glaive and chopped the spirit threads one by one. Only two last threads remained out of ten.

Qi Huo fell on his knees. "What... What is this... My—soul."

Riyoshi lifted him up by hand and threw him toward a wall. The force intensified, smashing him on the walls with a loud thud. His bones cracked and he coughed out blood. "Grgh,"

Riyoshi turned toward Mo Fei. "We really have less time. We need to move and find the Cursed Womb."

***

Meanwhile,

Jian Yue drove his blade through Uro’s arm. Just then Zhuo jumped in from the front. Uro lifted his bone blade but his speed slowed down. Suddenly the bone blade fell, he tried lifting it but couldn’t.

The motion was stolen.

Jian Yue rushed forward, "This ends now." He slashed through Uro’s sides, then drove his blade toward the strings, chopping each of them.

Then he turned toward Zhuo. "You won sooner."

"Thanks to Mo Fei and Alisa." Zhuo said and turned. "They are going to help Riyoshi and Jim."

Jian Yue began to walk. "They might have won, but Lin, Yi Jyuhan and Xue Lan. Why is it taking them so long?" Jian Yue’s voice gradually lowered. "Something is wrong."

Both of them ran toward Riyoshi and Jim just a few meters away from them.

***

Mo Fei, Alisa and Riyoshi reached toward the entrance of the palace. From behind them Jim ran, and stopped nearby, breathing heavily. "You won?"

Riyoshi nodded in response and opened the main door of the palace. All of them entered inside, but the air turned entirely into a venomous scent. They covered their noses and looked around.

Mo Fei’s eyes found a spider statue attached to the doorway. It was massive, its legs stretching across the doorway like a web. Its jaw hung open with a stream of green gas seeping from its fangs. "What is that thing?" Mo Fei’s lungs burned with the first breath.

"Don’t breathe too deep," Alisa warned, pulling a cloth over her mouth. "That’s an Icarus spider’s venom. It’ll paralyze you."

"It’s a common trap," Riyoshi said, his voice tight." But why would he use this?"

Riyoshi swept his gaze over the palace, finding the steps of that wheelbarrow. "Follow it."

Mo Fei heaved a sigh, the venom got infuriating. Then he heard the voice of the Serpent which said, "Great master,"

Mo Fei stopped in his tracks. "What?"

"The Curator’s spirit is visible." The Serpent said with a hiss. A silence settled in his head, his hand reaching for his temple. He opened his Apprentice’s eyes. A thousand threads emerged, but they were not the threads he had seen before. They were different, dense and thick.

"Those threads are not easier to cut..." He muttered then spoke again. "I can’t find him. Tell me where he is?"

"I can only feel the presence. Something is still stopping it... that thing is from the fate world."

Mo Fei squinted his eyes at its words. "A threadbinder’s artifact... He had concealed his location." He paused and then asked, "Can we not know even if he is standing in front of us right now."

"Yes."