Chapter 64: A Bitter Sun

Chapter 64: A Bitter Sun

Riyoshi hung in the grip of the God’s tentacle, the crimson muscle coiled around his waist like a snake. His blade had fallen, and hands were empty. His eyes, however, were calm.

Yi Jyuhan was on the ground, his arm gone, blood pooling beneath him. His wounds weren’t the only thing that hurt; it was never the wounds.

Riyoshi smiled. It wasn’t a grim smile. It wasn’t a brave smile; it was a smile that he’d ever let out to speak freely.

Yi Jyuhan’s lips parted. His hand reached out. "Riyoshi! Escape, pick up the blade!"

"It’s not useful; I’ve spent my whole life looking at any shadow behind us." Riyoshi’s voice was quiet and gentle. "And now you are telling me to not look forward to you?"

The mantis claw rose higher, the God’s jaws opening wider.

Yi Jyuhan clenched his hand, trying to stand, his eyes looking around. Jim, Zhuo, Lin, and Jian Yue were on the ground; they couldn’t move either. What should he do? "Move... Just this once."

Riyoshi closed his eyes. "Someone has to see the stars clearly." He could feel the cold breath of the God’s hunger on his skin. He could hear the wet crunch of the jaws preparing to close, almost as if the God slowed down deliberately. "You always do that; why falter now? Don’t let my blood be the reason you hesitate."

Yi Jyuhan’s voice cracked; he clenched his shoulder, his body trembling as he tried to stand up. "How can I see the sun alone!"

"I’ve stood with the lady," Riyoshi whispered. "The city. The people. The hope. All of their faith belongs to you."

The mantis claw descended. The claw pierced through his chest; Riyoshi’s body went limp. The God’s jaws closed around him; the crunch echoed through the hall, alongside the snap of memories.

...

Yi Jyuhan stared at the empty space where Riyoshi had been. His arm was gone. His friend was gone, and his fan lay on the ground, covered in blood.

He couldn’t blink, staring at the God.

Yi Jyuhan’s hand found the fan, resting nearby. His remaining hand pressed it against his chest, clenching it tightly. His eyes couldn’t see clearly, the blood loss making him dizzy, yet he stood.

"Riyoshi..."

Above him, the God’s jaws chewed slowly, savoring the taste of a soul that had chosen sacrifice over survival. Yi Jyuhan closed his eyes.

How could they win...? The God was ahead of them, its power was beyond them. It wasn’t the God a few moments before.

***

Jian Yue watched the chaos happen, his back pressed against the wall. He watched it silently, but he knew now that they couldn’t win it. That was the defeat... he closed his eyes for a few moments, then opened them again. His eyes paced around, considering his choice.

Finally, he decided and clenched his fist. That was the moment he had been waiting for. One last attempt to win, if that failed...

Jian Yue stood up, his back aching from the hit almost as if the spine had been hanging by sheer will. He walked toward Yi Jyuhan and stopped nearby. Lin watched him; she had realized something was going to happen. Zhuo groaned as he pressed both his hands on the floor and pushed himself up.

From behind the pillar, Mo Fei watched it too. His eyes widened as he stared at Jian Yue’s movements. "Is he..."

Mo Fei quickly moved; Alisa tried to stop, but that time he didn’t. He threw her hand away, Alisa understood that it wasn’t any moment to wait and said, "What happened to you suddenly?"

Mo Fei glanced over his shoulder toward her. "I can’t watch it freely now."

He stepped out of the pillar, holding the Glaive tightly in his hands and the mask on his face. His eyes fixed on Shangguan’s back, he moved swiftly through pillars. His movement made no sound, turning his breath shallow.

The Divine Serpent’s voice echoed in his mind. "Great master, the threads aren’t easy to cut; you may not even slash one."

"A try is worth it."

Alisa followed him behind, her eyes scanning the ground, and watched the royal guards.

Shangguan’s focus was on Xue Lan. He moved his hand inside the cage and grasped Xue Lan’s throat. "Now, you are going to answer me a few questions."

Xue Lan squinted his eyes; he didn’t move his hand to push away the Curator’s hand. "And what are they?"

The Curator’s deep hollow eyes locked on his. "What is the Overseer planning? And why did he choose to do the execution of elders?"

Xue Lan’s eyes twinkled; he remained silent, his expression didn’t change even when his breath was caught in his lungs. "What if I say I don’t know?"

"I’d have been convinced by that if you weren’t a royal guard."

"heh? You have the threadbinder’s artifact, why do you need my answer?"

The Curator’s hands gripped Xue Lan’s throat tighter. "I’m the one who is questioning."

"And I won’t be the one who is answering." Xue Lan felt the bone of his throat being crushed slowly, almost as if he’d snap the neck soon. "Coward..."

Jian Yue stopped near the God, his expressions unchanging. The sinister spider hands launched toward him, but they couldn’t reach him.

Suddenly, a thin veil covered him in a circle. His eyes locked on the God’s. He drew his blade out and stabbed the ground, pushing the blade deeper into the cracked stone.

He opened his mouth and finally spoke, "The Honorable Ruler of the Absence."

The moment the words left, a strong wind blew by the palace. Above them, the sky tilted, the stars dimmed, and the moon shrank. The space itself seemed to lose its shape, turning into a soft sponge.

That was the prayer to the omniscient God, the one who represented knowledge itself. The one that had everything yet nothing held on. The one whose face would get forgotten but the action would remain.

Behind Jian Yue, an invisible hand reached toward him and rested on his back.

The God’s greyish eyes dimmed slowly, then its joints faltered. Its bones twisted, almost as if the wind didn’t move. The hands stopped moving, and the body stilled. Its eyes widened and then froze in a single place.

It tried to move, but its body refused as if the concept of movement was erased and entirely absent. The air didn’t reach it; a barrier stopped the wind and suffocated the God. The sound stopped, no noise at all.

Then a gate opened behind the God.

The door of the death world slowly shattered, and from deep within the gate, a figure of someone reached out his hand toward the stilled God, but the door turned into dust and fell like debris.

It was true God that was close to returning to the mortal world, but the absence brought him back to death.

Jian Yue’s lips parted, and he continued the prayer. "The Creator of Silence." The words stepped out of his mouth; the God’s body twisted further, stopping its limbs one by one as the prayer continued. "The Lord of the Unwritten Ends."

The Curator snapped his head toward Jian Yue, his expression faltered as he looked at the twisted God.

What was that man doing? He thought, his eyes narrowed at the sight. The realization crushed his shoulder; that man must be stopped. A roar escaped his mouth, "What are you waiting for? STOP HIM!"

The royal guards snapped out of their thoughts. Their expressions became concerned, and then swiftly they pulled out their weapons and lunged toward him. Alisa stopped in her tracks and changed her direction toward them and moved.

Clang!

Before they could reach, the group was there.

Alisa’s blade found Mi Shon’s chained bone, stopping him from moving further. Lin came behind Jian Yue’s back, her blade quickly stopping Uro’s bone sword. Jim was upon Taein, his blade locked with the scythe. At last, Zhuo stopped Qi Huo’s blade.

All of their eyes locked on each other. They didn’t move an inch and neither let the royal guards move.

Jian Yue chanted the next words, "The Reader above Cosmos. I held the glimpse of your authority, your devotee had given you one last faith." Just in that moment, after he finished chanting. The God’s entire body froze; there was not a single movement. It was almost frozen in time, in absence and in total void.

The Curator clenched his jaws tightly and let go of the throat of Xue Lan.

Xue Lan’s expression changed as he saw what was coming next. A half smirk crossed his lips, and he said, "Don’t celebrate your victory too soon."

The Curator glanced at him; that wrong smirk made him think for a moment.

Mo Fei appeared behind the Curator. His face hidden, a soft smoke came out of the mask as if he exhaled a long breath. His Glaive raised in the air, hands clenching it tightly, and then...

Slash!

The Glaive cut through one of the thick threads precisely; the thickness didn’t matter at that moment. The eyes on the mask of Mo Fei glowed with the moonlit glow; the thread snapped and fell slowly on the ground.

Shangguan’s heart stopped for a moment, and blood came out of his nose. The threads snapped a part of his brain and the vein of his heart.

Mo Fei raised his Glaive again, and his voice came out raw and desperate, filled with a rage about things that had happened. "You aren’t going to harm anyone else again for your ass God."