Chapter 212 - Bound

A radiant sun burst to life above Yuzu in a blazing hot white light. The air around her burned in the sweltering inferno that engulfed the ash-covered city around her.

The massive black crystal in front of Yuzu began to glow with a fiery orange light as the ashes and debris began to float up into the air from the spiritual pressure.

Yuzu squinted her eyes, barely able to make out the silhouette of a man in the center of the sun as it rose into the sky.

~

A large bony hand clutched Yuzu’s shoulder, shaking her out of her trance. She gasped, filling her lungs with air. Sweat ran down her temples as she trembled, her eyes darting around to get her bearings.

Thick black vines hung from the boughs of leafy green trees. A babbling brook ran through the jungle, filled with hundreds of tiny silver fish. The air was humid and warm. She suddenly recalled that she was in the Valley of Flowers, the heart of Deka’s Divine Kingdom.

Her heart beat rapidly as she reached to her shoulder and pushed away Li Ru’s hand. The image of the ashen landscape was still fresh in her mind. Her eyes still hurt from the blinding light of the sun. She could still feel the blisteringly hot air on her skin.

This was the second vision that she’d had since entering the Valley of Flowers. The first one had been subtle, a scene of a peaceful village played in the back of her mind. She heard the sounds of children laughing and oxen braying in the distance. She felt the rumble of a wagon’s wheels as it slowly rolled into town.

Yuzu had never seen the village before, nor did she recognize the mountainous landscape around it, filled with tall, narrow mountains that rose out of the ground like towers. This time, the vision was centered around yet another strange location.

Were these premonitions of the future? Or views into the past? Were they from her own perspective or another’s? She wasn’t sure.

“Feeling faint?” Li Ru examined her with a critical eye as he retracted his hand.

“No-“ Yuzu muttered, her brows knitting together as she recovered from the vision. “It’s nothing…”

Yuzu’s lips were pressed into a thin line as she followed Li Ru with a dark expression. After traveling with Li Ru for the past few days she had a better understanding of the Death Angel. He seemed to genuinely be looking out for her, sharing tidbits about the world and educating her on history and the subtleties of the Exalted world.

In the God of Life’s Divine Kingdom, Yuzu’s powers were not suppressed. In fact, they seemed to be even more potent, and getting stronger as they neared the bottom of the Valley of Flowers. Because of this Yuzu was able to once more read their conversations in advance.

Yuzu carefully observed the threads, trying to learn as much about Li Ru as she could. Sometimes after reading the future she would change her intent, causing the conversation to shift, but the scholar’s responses only changed slightly and didn’t offer much insight into his thoughts.

On the surface he appeared generous and charitable and took the role of a mentor, but even as he freely shared his knowledge he was carefully watching her and gauging her reactions. Because of this she didn’t dare show any weakness to him.

Yuzu kept the visions to herself as they continued forward.

The next vision came to her as they came upon a small clearing filled with tall grasses. As they waded through Yuzu suddenly saw a beautiful woman in front of her. This woman had long golden hair and two magnificent wings growing out of her back, each wing over six feet in length with brilliant white feathers. In her left hand was a shield, in her right was a spear that was twice her height.

This time Yuzu was prepared and immediately realized that she was experiencing another vision. She could only imagine that she was looking at an angel, based on the woman’s appearance. The armoured angel was facing away from Yuzu and looking down at a body at her feet. She turned the body over with the blunt end of the spear, as if casually examining a fallen foe. However as the corpse turned over she suddenly tensed up.

The shield dropped from her hand and clanged against the ground as the woman knelt down, reaching into the corpse’s chest. She closed her hand around the object and ripped it out.

Yuzu approached carefully, trying to get a glimpse of what the angel held in her hand. It fit comfortably in her palm, an asymmetrical device with a brass and silver body that glowed from within and ticked softly with a complex mechanical rhythm.

“What’s the matter?” Li Ru’s voice interrupted her concentration, causing the image to disperse.

“N-nothing.” Yuzu replied her eyes flickering between meeting Li Ru’s skeptical gaze and the empty space where the angelic woman used to be, “This place… makes me feel strange.”

“Pure Aether has an erosive effect on the spiritual bodies.” Li Ru said contemplatively, “As a Disciple you may not be strong enough to resist continued exposure.”

“My skin has been itching, the further we go the more uneasy I feel” Yuzu frowned, rubbing her arms subconsciously, “It’s like… If I were to lose my concentration, my body would start to unravel…”

“This is one of the dangers of remaining in a Divine Kingdom, but you have nothing to fear, as long as you remain vigilant.” Li Ru said, “You have already intrinsically understood the way to combat the negative effects. That is, as long as you maintain your strength of will, you will survive.”

~

The soil took on a reddish hue as they grew closer to Deka’s lair. The vegetation around them subtly expanded and contracted as if the whole jungle were breathing in sync.

The thick black knot that Yuzu had seen from afar was only a few hundred meters away. Now that they were this close, Yuzu was certain that this knot was formed from the Life God’s threads. They squirmed and spasmed in Yuzu’s spiritual vision, radiating with intense demonic energy.

In the past few days the threads had not only grown thicker and more alive, but the knot had grown several times in size. Golden, silver, white and black threads had materialized and become entangled in the knot. Threads of thousands of people flowed into the knot and were cut short.

The God of Life was really on the verge of returning, and tens of thousands of people would die as a result.

It was hard for Yuzu to process the tragedy that was about to occur. The peaceful, quiet ball of threads looming in the distance made her feel strangely disconnected from the brewing disaster.

This feeling of disconnection was increased by the fact that she did not dare touch the threads, as she intuitively knew that even if she were to take the tiniest glimpse at the future in those threads, her spiritual bodies would shatter and she’d be instantly corrupted into a monster.

Yuzu took her eyes off the knot, letting her eyes rest on Li Ru’s back. She was sure that this scholar’s motives with bringing Yuzu here and sharing his knowledge were directly related to the God of Life’s rebirth. As the Angel of Death, who sensed the God of Life’s life force from within his temple, there was no way that Li Ru did not also know that the God of Life was recovering.

Just like Li Ru kept his motivations secret from her, Yuzu kept her thoughts and knowledge to herself. Both of them were waiting for the other to make the first move.

As Yuzu took a step forward something suddenly popped beneath her foot. She stepped backward in shock, looking down at what she had stepped on - a popped eyeball at the end of a stalk. A shiver ran up her spine as she realized that she was surrounded by numerous devil-eye ferns.

“We’re close.” Li Ru said softly with a calm tone. He reached out to a nearby fern growing out of the side of a tree and cupped one of the eyeballs. A thin white film had formed over the eye, which also looked slightly deflated. “Deka is too weak to nourish the eyes with His life force. He likely has no idea that we’re approaching.”

“No…” Yuzu replied softly, looking at the strings. “He knows.”

“If that’s the case, there’s only one thing left to do.” Li Ru said, looking in the direction of Deka’s lair. He cast a meaningful look at Yuzu, “Have you decided?”

“Decided what?”

“Whose side you are on?”

He turned to face her completely and stared seriously into her eyes.

“From all you’ve learned about Noga’s history from me, and from what you’ve seen of the way the aetheric plane’s natural state, you should now have a grasp of what Lord Noga has done to this land, and what the God of Life can do to restore it.”

“You can feel it, can’t you?” Li Ru continued, “Deka is not yet dead. Without intervention, he might yet survive. But here we are at Deka’s doorstep. The perfect place to intervene.”

A silence fell between them as Li Ru waited for Yuzu’s answer. Her expression grew darker as she resented the fact that Li Ru had taken her here and placed her in this position.

She didn’t want to be here. She didn’t want to decide whether a God lived or died, whether thousands of people lived or died.

“Why?” She finally shook her head, asking bitterly, “Why is Deka coming back? Why doesn’t he just die and leave us in peace?”

“Why is Lord Noga draining the land and killing everything slowly? Why did he have to destroy other nations and cause so much suffering?”

Li Ru stroked his beard as he looked down at Yuzu with a contemplative gaze that was neither sympathetic or annoyed.

After a while he looked off to the distance and spoke in a quiet tone, “There is a law of the Exalted world. A rule that states that no matter how hard we try, no matter how good our intentions, no matter how strong we become… Every path we take will end in tragedy and misfortune.”

“You ask why Lord Noga and Prince Deka have caused so much suffering? It is because they are bound by this law. Every Exalted, from the lowliest Candidate to the most powerful of the Gods, are bound by this singular inescapable rule of the universe.”

“You are no exception. The moment you set down on this path, Yuzu, whether by choice or misfortune, you became beholden to it.”

“This law, the Calamity Mandate.”

— End of Book Three —