Pain. Indescribable, unbearable pain. Yoshika had felt this kind of pain only a few times before. Once when Yan Yue had accidentally torn her aspects away from each other, again when Jia had attempted to sacrifice her soul to save Eui from Zheng Long during their confrontation on Mount Geumji—she’d even felt the pain of Soulfire once, though that memory actually belonged to Rika. The most recent was the Kumiho’s precise scarification of her soul, apparently as a means to bind her to their agreement. Yoshika already regretted that deal.

This pain put all of them to shame. The Soulfire that Eunae wielded was like a tiny candle flame compared to the immolation of her soul she was experiencing. Even the feeling of having herself torn in two by Yan Yue’s careless attempt to separate her aspects seemed like a distant shadow. Her soul was on fire. Eunae had mentioned it once—when she’d first discovered her ability to manipulate Soulfire after making a breakthrough in her ancestral technique—that her soul had been set on fire. She had a distant memory—courtesy of Rika—of Eunae writhing in pain, screaming and bleeding without any apparent cause. Somehow, even after all that, Yoshika had thought Eunae was exaggerating. She wasn’t.

Yoshika was vaguely aware of someone trying to call her name, their voice panicked. She couldn’t tell who it was, couldn’t respond—couldn’t even think through all the pain. She had to do something. The Kumiho had said she’d help. Help?! Yoshika didn’t know what kind of sick prank this was, but it didn’t seem particularly helpful. She needed to stop the fire, or ask for help, or maybe just die—anything to stop the pain! Some subconscious part of her reached out, years of practice and training recognizing a life or death situation and acting automatically even as she screamed for her instincts to stop.

Cruelly, her mind was too finely honed to listen to panicked protests as it focused the mana inside her domain towards accelerating her thoughts and brought every aspect of herself and her surroundings into perfect crystal clarity. Somehow, the pain was even worse under the effects of Absolute Awareness, but she found herself with just enough focus to spare that she could grit her teeth and work through the pain—though not at nearly the accelerated speed her mind normally enjoyed while using the technique.

“—no, oh ancestors, please. Yoshika! Please be alright, I’m so sorry—”

It was Eunae blubbering over her, thick hot tears running in rivulets down her face. It seemed obvious in hindsight, but Yoshika had been preoccupied. She still was. She forced her bodies up into a sitting position, noting that the pale green flames were blazing visibly on both.

“We—we’re fine, Eunae.”

Yoshika wasn’t even sure which voice she spoke with. She had so little attention to spare on anything other than pain. Eunae giggled hysterically.

“No you are not! You’re still on fire! Oh, ancestors, I don’t know what happened—I can’t control this.”

Yoshika nodded curtly.

“Right. Not fine. Your ancestor...is a bitch.”

Eunae’s eyes widened in shock.

“Oh no! You spoke to her? She did this to you?”

Another nod. Yoshika needed to meditate. She wasn’t yet sure how, but this was clearly meant as a trial of some sort to assist her in learning to control the essence around her. If it was anything like the last trial she’d been given by a capricious spirit just trying to ‘help,’ her only options were success or death.

“Need to focus, sorry.”

If Eunae responded, Yoshika didn’t hear it, already digging deep into her reserves of focus to meditate on the problem before her. Her soul was on fire—Soulfire, specifically. An element that Seong Eunae had learned to control from her spirit half, which was a fragment of the Kumiho, one of the great spirits of the old world. It was an exceptionally rare element, seemingly unique to the nine-tailed fox herself, and capable of damaging or altering the very soul. Eunae mostly just used it to make unblockable fireballs that hurt like hell, but obviously it was far more versatile than that.

Nothing that Yoshika knew about Soulfire was helping her right now, though, so she set those thoughts aside. Pushing her mind even deeper inwards, she saw a vision of her soulscape. The inner world of her soul was ablaze with green flames. To her distress, even Heian had been caught up in the conflagration, resonating with a feeling of pure anguish in a uniquely spiritual scream. Yoshika immediately pulled from her reserve of shadow essence to reach out to Heian—if she couldn’t ease her daughter’s pain, then she’d at least share it.

Heian responded immediately, and time seemed to slow as Yoshika gained more resources with which to process everything happening to her. For the briefest moment she considered trying to bring Eunae or Rika into it as well, but Rika had her own tribulation to face, and there was no way that Yoshika would be able to calm her mind enough for joint meditation in her current state. Instead she focused as much as she could afford on her conversation with the Kumiho, and the feelings that had led up to it.

She recognized that strange, unused part of her soul. The one with which she’d instinctively reached out across the Kumiho’s domain to peer into Eunae’s soul. It was impossible to miss—the pale green flames enveloping her soul seemed to be concentrated on that part of her. If the flames could be said to ‘come from’ anywhere, it was there. Though it pained her to do so, Yoshika focused on that part of her soul, flexing experimentally as if she’d discovered a new muscle.

Yoshika found that she could grasp vaguely at the essence around her with that new part of her soul, and even managed to momentarily take hold of the ghostly flames and pull them away from herself, though they quickly spread back to parts where she did so. However, if she tried to grasp inward, or reached out towards the divine essence that Jianmo had left with her, a familiar, terrible pressure built up, forcing her to stop immediately. Whatever this aspect of her soul was, it was the key to her xiantian ascension. Could this be the divine spark that Jianmo and her academy instructors had spoken of?

Thanks in part to Heian’s instincts, Yoshika made several realizations at the same time. First, this was indeed her divine spark, and with it she could create and control her own divine essence. Secondly, she could use it to make the essence in her domain truly become a part of herself. Finally, a thread of divine essence was still connecting her spark to Eunae’s soul, the source of the fire that was consuming her soul.

Yoshika’s knee jerk reaction nearly severed that connection immediately, but a second thought gave her pause. The Soulfire had already wreaked bloody havoc on her cultivation, burning away at her soul in a way that would take months or even years to repair. But it was also essence, and if the Kumiho was going to keep providing, why let it go to waste?

Acting slowly and deliberately, Yoshika experimented with her divine spark, testing its limits. She found that she could reach out in multiple directions at once, and with a bit of effort, carefully enveloped her soul with its influence. It was strangely comforting to do so—like the metaphysical equivalent of wrapping herself up in a hug, or a tight warm blanket. When the envelopment was complete, Yoshika took hold of all of the flames at once and peeled them away from her soul before they could spread any further.

The relief washed over her so quickly that both of her bodies gasped involuntarily. The fire was still there, burning away at her divine spark, but the pain was no longer so all-encompassing and Yoshika was now able to afford much more of her concentration toward something other than pain. With all her extra willpower, Yoshika concentrated on that fire—on making it hers. The thread of influence from Eunae’s inner spirit realized what was happening and retreated right away, the green flames beginning to recede along with it.

Yoshika tightened her grasp on the flames—she wasn’t letting it get away that easily. She had suffered so much, and she wouldn’t let it be for nothing. Each bit of the Soulfire essence that she absorbed made the task easier as it lost the ability to harm her. In an instant that felt like an eternity, Yoshika fought back against the fire that had been consuming her, consuming it in turn until at last she was left with a considerable amount of Soulfire essence. Though it was all a single element, the amount of Soulfire she’d recovered was as much essence as she had lost, if not more. Though now she was stuck trying to figure out what to do with it.

In a moment of clarity, Yoshika realized that she’d effectively done exactly what she said she wasn’t going to do, and stolen some of the Kumiho’s power—effectively Eunae’s power. Now, she was feeling rather guilty about it. Was the Kumiho right about it being in her nature to steal? As irritating as Eunae’s inner spirit was, it was still a part of her. With an inner sigh of resignation, Yoshika decided to give the essence back. Still holding onto it with her divine spark, Yoshika slowly opened her eyes and nearly looked straight back into Eunae’s before both of them averted their gazes.

“Yoshika! You’re alright! What happened?”

Yoshika shrugged Jia’s shoulders, wincing at the residual pain from her ordeal—she was going to be sore for a while after this.

“Er, long story. We talked to your spirit half and it offered to help us. Apparently she follows the Jianmo school of helping people.”

Eunae cringed.

“I am so sorry. I have no control over my ancestral technique. I thought that I could at least handle the Soulfire, but after this...I’m not so sure.”

“Right, about that. We’ve got uh...a bunch of your essence. Like, a lot of it. We weren’t really thinking and tried to reclaim it after so much of our own foundation got burned away, but on second thought, it’s not fair to hurt your cultivation just because of what your ridiculous ancestor pulled on us.”

The princess blinked in confusion, then closed her eyes in quiet meditation for a short moment.

“Oh! Wow, you weren’t joking—ugh, how did all of that happen without me noticing?! Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to have some powerful pseudo-benevolent entity having that much power over your life?”

Yoshika immediately thought about Jianmo, her so-called ‘master’ and ongoing pain in the ass.

“Kinda, yeah. Anyway, we haven’t actually cultivated that essence yet, we’re just kinda...holding onto it. We can give it back.”

Eunae shook her head.

“You keep it. After everything you’ve just been through, and with what you have ahead of you...you’ll need it more than I do.”

Yoshika frowned—it didn’t feel right accepting. Something deep within her burned at the thought—she had to at least offer something in return.

“How about this? We’ll cultivate this Soulfire, but in exchange we promise we’ll do everything we can to help you learn how to control your ancestral technique and make it yours instead of hers. Deal?”

Eunae’s brows furrowed.

“Are you sure? You don’t have to do that—I mean, I don’t even know if I want you to do that. My power is awful, and I’m better off without it.”

“Maybe, but it’s yours and it’s not going away. Maybe if we increase our understanding of Soulfire, we can offer you some insight. Wouldn’t you rather have a fire that burns the way you want it to than one that rages out of control?”

Eunae sighed miserably.

“You’re right. I keep telling myself I should get control over it, but it scares me. I keep running away from it—as if being unable to control it absolves me of responsibility for all the harm it causes. But it doesn’t—it only makes me complicit. I need to make sure that something like what just happened to you never happens again. Alright, I graciously accept your offer, Yoshika. I’ll be in your care.”

Yoshika beamed happily at her friend. In the back of her mind, something felt a little strange about the exchange, but she shook off her concerns. Her domain sang out at the idea of strengthening her bond with Eunae in the interest of mutual empowerment. What could possibly be wrong about that?

Before Yoshika could investigate the thought a loud thunderclap rang out, and the dark cloud high above them began to descend. Yoshika’s trial had ended, but Rika’s was just beginning.