Spirits of the dead, wayward souls, shades—Lee Hei recalled the word used by Wan Guo, the worthless cultivator who had dared to harm her lover—ghosts. It was obvious once she knew what to look for. Each unliving mote of darkness was in a state of steady decay, with the largest and most well formed being the souls of the beasts that Master Ienaga had killed when they had first arrived at the border.

They filled every nook and cranny of the shadow world, the boundary between the physical and spiritual realms. Lee Hei didn’t know why or what it meant yet, only that they were gathering around her family for some reason.

But why? The ones closer to her and her friends were mostly placid—content to stalk them from the edges of their domains and stay hidden in darkness. If anything, some of them had even started to lose interest and migrate towards the larger gathering on the other side of the clearing.

The ones around her family, however, were working themselves into a frenzy. Was it vengeance? Master Ienaga had been the one to slay many of them, after all. But no—the recently dead were the least active of them, just listlessly following the throng of smaller ghosts. It was the tiniest ghosts, the ones closest to fading away entirely, that acted most relentlessly.

“So, you’re the one who seems to understand what’s going on here. What do we do?”

Lee Hei glared back at Eui, who was smiling with false innocence. She was putting on a performance for the others—Eui would be able to tell that Lee Hei was just as confused as the rest of them. She didn’t know what the black lightning she used to move through shadows was, or why she could bring other people with her, or how this entire place worked.

She was letting her instincts guide her, but her instincts told her to avoid the ghosts at any cost. That was a directive she couldn’t follow—not if the cost was her family. Still, Eui didn’t want them to seem weak in front of their friends, so she nudged Lee Hei forward. Lee Hei would have to talk to her about it later—as Jia.

Or even better, as Yoshika. She yearned to feel properly connected to Eui again, to be whole, but whatever was going on with Eui made it dangerous, and this was a poor time for experimentation.

Lee Hei shook her head and focused on the present.

“We need to help them. Master Ienaga might not be able to use her full strength while protecting my family, and we don’t know what kind of weaknesses these ghosts might have.”

Misun rolled her eyes.

“Ghosts? Really? Your first hypothesis was much more believable.”

Rika shrugged carelessly and slapped Misun on the back.

“Unless you’ve got a better idea, big sis, we’re going with ghosts.”

Misun clenched her teeth, seething.

“Takeda Rika, if you do not stop pushing my boundaries, I swear I will kill you and damn the consequences. Stop. Testing me! I do not find your attitude or your relationship with my sister endearing. If anything, they both sicken me. Do not think that your political position places you above reprise—more important officials than you have been swept under the rug for less important alliances. Am I understood?”

Rika paled a bit, nodding stiffly.

“Y-yes, Your Highness. Do whatever you want with me, but if you bully my girlfriend, I’ll continue to be a pain in your ass.”

Misun whirled around, but Eunae threw herself on her sister before she could cast a spell.

“Stop! Please! This is neither the time nor place. Rika, stop antagonizing her, and Misun, please give me a chance to talk to her!”

Eunae’s sister tutted irritably and prised herself free of Eunae’s grip.

“Fine! You’re right, we’re getting distracted. How do you propose we deal with these creatures, then?”

Lee Hei frowned as she considered it. It would be unwise to attack carelessly without understanding what the shades were capable of, but so far they had just been fruitlessly harassing Master Ienaga without actually violating the boundary of her domain—though Hei had noticed that boundary very slowly shrinking. They were ultimately creatures of essence, so they should have similar weaknesses to those of spirits and elementals.

Lee Hei tried calling up a bit of Plasma essence from her dantian, guiding it through her meridians according to the True Awakening of the Dragon’s Heart—a secret technique shared with her by Yan Yue—but produced only more of the strange black flame that Heian had turned into after taking in the Kumiho’s essence.

The Shadowflame infected all the essence she tried to channel, transforming it into something else—such as the black lightning that allowed her to move through shadows. She had a sort of intuitive understanding of the elements, but not enough to predict their effects—she’d have to experiment later, when her family's lives weren’t at stake.

“Eunae, can you try using Soulfire on them? Normal spirits are extremely fearful of it.”

Lee Hei left it unsaid that she herself was horrified by its very existence. Eunae stepped forward and nodded.

“Of course, but we should plan our attack carefully.”

“Agreed. Ja Yun—!”

The former battlemage started, clutching Muddy to her chest and staring at Lee Hei in wide-eyed panic.

“Y-yes?!”

Lee Hei didn’t actually need her for anything, but she’d been white as a sheet ever since Seong Misun’s outburst, and Hei was worried.

“Stay close to Rika. Her domain should protect you if the ghosts get agitated. We don’t necessarily need to defeat or destroy them—as long as we can make an opening, I can get my family to safety.”

Eui raised an eyebrow, speaking to Lee Hei telepathically.

“You’ve gotten way more articulate since the last time.”

Lee Hei shot her a disapproving glare.

“Not now, Eui! We need you to use Jia’s Awakening of the Dragon’s Heart for us. All we get from it is Shadowflame.”

Eui blinked in surprise.

“All I get from it is regular flame. You know that. If we were Yoshika it’d be another story but by myself...?”

“Use the gloves if you have to. The claws of Heaven should be able to do it.”

Eui closed her eyes and started meditating, and Lee Hei felt a pull on her essence. Against her instincts, she let it go and after a brief delay, Eui’s body began to shimmer with an iridescent aura while the tips of the claws on her glove glowed the same way. A bead of sweat formed on her forehead as Eui maintained her concentration, grinning stiffly at Lee Hei.

“This is the best I can do. Happy?”

“Good, thank you.”

Lee Hei paused. She didn’t like how brief she was being with Eui, even if she was still a little upset about the way she’d been ignored earlier. Her cheeks heated up a bit as she added an addendum.

“Also, I love you.”

Eui’s blush matched her own, and Misun cut in to ruin the moment.

“Would you two stop flirting? Or at least speak out loud, I hate it when you do that telepathy thing!”

Lee Hei shook her head.

“S-sorry! Telepathy is faster, it’s strategic.”

Not a single person bought her excuse, so Lee Hei just coughed awkwardly and pressed on.

“Princess Seong, do you know any light spells? Like the one the scout used to hurt Eui—if something like that can pierce the boundary of this place, maybe it will also hurt those things.”

“I’ve got a few prepared that might work. They aren’t nearly as directed as that technique was, though, so stay out of my way when I cast them.”

“Okay, then here’s what we’ll do—Rika and Ja Yun, sorry, but you’ll be distractions. I don’t think there’s a whole lot that you are going to be able to contribute here. Princess Seong will open with a heavy attack, then Eui and Eunae will follow up to create an opening wherever the enemy seems weakest. I’ll try to slip into that opening and get my family to safety.”

Misun grimaced.

“I don’t take orders from you, Ambassador. Who do you think you are, trying to treat me like a subordinate? I am getting sick of this! You, Takeda, An Eui, even my sister have all forgotten the natural order of things. I am your elder, I’m your superior in cultivation, and I am your fucking princess! My Aunt, the Queen, demanded that I join this ridiculous expedition, so I am here. I follow her orders, not yours.”

Eui crossed her arms and glared balefully at the princess.

“Your orders are to escort us, including protection.”

“And so I shall. But I’ll do it however I see fit. I don’t need to entertain a bunch of self-important children playing with things they don’t understand.”

To punctuate her statement, Seong Misun withdrew a series of talismans from within her robes, each of them already humming with power as she charged several spells at once—a display of her power as a xiantian mage.

“Step aside, girls. I’ll show you how a real mage fights.”

Lee Hei paled. That kind of power directed at mortals would be far too risky—not to mention they still didn’t know how using essence in the shadow world would be detected by Qin. An over-the-top display like that was completely reckless.

“Princess, wait! That’s too dangerous!”

Misun shook her head dismissively.

“Out of the way, Lee. I can’t guarantee your safety if you don’t get back.”

The other girls scattered, but Lee Hei and Eui stood their ground. Eui grinned sardonically at Lee Hei.

“So now what?”

Hei didn’t have the luxury to hesitate, Seong Misun’s spells could go off at any moment, and there was no time to plan. It was back to acting on instinct.

“She’s basically still doing what I wanted, just way too hard. Rally the others and stick to the plan. I’ll—I’ll think of something.”

Eui sent a wave of concern and acknowledgement before splitting off to follow her instructions. Misun’s spell reached a crescendo as the mana hit a critical threshold and began to discharge its power. She’d woven several spells together into a single greater effect—something Lee Hei didn’t even know was possible.

A blindingly bright star appeared above her head, burning Lee Hei’s skin just from the proximity, then started firing off lances of light in every direction and creating new stars everywhere the light landed. The new stars would then repeat the process, propagating exponentially and filling the entire area. Lee Hei couldn’t imagine anything surviving within its area once the spell expended itself fully.

So of course, she ran in. Her family was in there, and while she trusted Master Ienaga to keep them as safe as possible, she didn’t even know that this attack was coming!

Lee Hei did her best to accelerate her thoughts, but Absolute Awareness didn’t come easily to her. She’d used it once, very briefly, against the evil bitch that had tortured Eui—Bai Lin, a name and face that she would never forget, her prey—but that had been different, and she’d fainted right afterwards. Unfortunately, it was a technique of the mind, which was a weakness that Heian and Lee Jia both shared.

Still, time slowed down, and it gave her more time to think. Seong Misun had made things difficult by launching her attack unilaterally. The others were still scrambling to react—they wouldn’t make it across the clearing in time to help.

Black lightning crackled around her as she dove into the shadows. The new element changed her Lightning Steps from the erratic zig-zagging movements of Lightning God Transformation into something more controlled, albeit limited. Lee Hei could step almost instantly from one shadow to another, even crossing from the material world to the shadow world and back again—perhaps even into the spirit realm, though she didn’t want to test that just yet.

Unfortunately, though they were creatures of darkness, the ghastly shades surrounding her family cast no shadows, which kept her from simply stepping past them. Lee Hei had hoped that hitting them with enough Light essence would help create an opening, but there’d be no point if Seong Misun’s spell banished all darkness and shadow entirely—or incinerated her sisters.

Lee Hei emerged from the shadows just in time for the first brilliant star to strike the roiling mass of ghosts head-on. A silent wail of pain and anguish pierced through the clearing and shook Lee Hei to her core as the spell struck home. All around them, the more placid shades began to echo the wail, growing more agitated as they massed together.

Though the star burned away the shades that touched it, they stubbornly massed right up to the edges of it, preventing Lee Hei from getting past them without braving Misun’s spell herself—something she wasn’t likely to survive.

More and more of the shades began to rise from the shadows, gathering at the edges of the light and swarming towards the group with a relentless fervor. They were no longer focused entirely on Jia’s family, swarming from every direction in a frenzied assault against whatever was closest.

There was no end to them—as if the souls of everything that had ever died were rising up against them. The weakest ones perished whenever the light struck them, but with each one that vanished, another hundred took its place.

Lee Hei’s friends were getting overwhelmed as well. Rika and Ja Yun couldn’t seem to harm the ghosts at all while Eui and Eunae had been forced to stand by and protect them. Misun was indomitable—her domain repelled the creatures with contemptuous ease, and her Light spell seared them away wherever it touched.

The propagation of Misun’s brilliant stars was advancing rapidly as Lee Hei struggled fruitlessly against the mass of shades surrounding her family. She could clearly see where the shades had been weakened around the star that had struck them, but without her friends to assist her, she had no way of capitalizing on it. The shades were content to ignore her, but none of her attacks had any effect either.

Her thoughts turned to Eui, fighting back to back with Eunae. At the very least, her hypothesis had been correct—Eui’s Plasma-infused claws cut through the shades with ease, and Eunae’s pale green Soulfire sent them scattering. Lee Hei’s fire did nothing, nor did her lightning, nor any other element she could create—they were all corrupted by her Shadowflame.

She could try splitting up again—Lee Jia could create plasma of her own or use her stolen Soulfire to force her way through. Except that then she’d be stuck here, unable to leave the world of shadows without Heian’s help. Help she wouldn’t be able to provide—not after Lee Hei had spent so much of her essence already.

An idea came to her in a flash. A horrible, terrifying idea that was as likely to get her killed as it was to work. She remembered Eunae’s soulfire spreading to Rika from her illusory copies—if she couldn’t produce her own, she’d just have to borrow it from elsewhere.

“Eui, I need you to—”

“No! Whatever it is, no way. I know that feeling from you—I’ve never let myself forget it.”

Lee Hei bit her lip, Eui wasn’t really talking to her. She was talking to Jia, specifically. The light was closing in.

“We don’t have time to argue, Eui! This is the only way!”

“The last time I felt this from you was when you died, Jia! I’m not letting you sacrifice yourself again, not even for them!”

“I’m going to die anyway if Misun’s spell consumes me!”

Eui shook her head.

“No, you can still get out. You can hide in the shadows, or jump back into the physical world. Hell, if you need to, you could just spirit walk away.”

Lee Hei could feel the pain in Eui’s chest, heartbreak mixed together with the pulsing of her demonic core. Tears welled up in each of their eyes as Lee Hei made her final appeal, sending with it all of her thoughts and emotions. Time was up.

“Eui, please! If they die I will never be able to forgive you!”

An indescribable tension stretched between them as the conflict pulled and tore at their bond. They felt a familiar ache as they were pushed to the breaking point, and everything they’d built together threatened to shatter irreparably. The old scar of their first separation at the hands of Yan Yue flared up—the unforgettable pain of their soul being torn asunder.

Then, after a single immortal moment, both stretching into infinity and constrained into a singularity of time, the tension broke. Eui relented, whirling around and snatching one of Eunae’s hovering green flames from the air above her tails.

“Eui, what are you—?!”

Eunae’s protest came far too late, as the flames engulfed Eui entirely, spreading throughout her soul like a wildfire. She didn’t resist it, allowing the Soulfire to spread across the tenuous link to Lee Hei where she too was engulfed by green flames.

It was a familiar pain, but that didn’t make it any more bearable. Soulfire hurt, and it was a pain that transcended the physical—something that would stay with her forever, each memory of it as vivid as the original experience. A small price to pay.

Lee Hei threw herself at the mass of dead spirits where they seemed weakest. The light of Misun’s technique was already spreading out of control, so it wasn’t difficult to find a weak point. In the next second, the stars would envelop them entirely, leaving nothing behind.

The shades scattered away from the Soulfire enveloping her as she burst through the darkness, tumbling to the ground at a startled Ienaga Yumi’s feet. There was almost no space left—Master Ienaga had drawn in her domain as much as she could afford without leaving the other two unprotected. Lee Hei saw her sisters huddled together, with Jung gently stroking Narae’s hair as the latter bawled into her chest.

There was no time for words, Lee Hei pounced forward and wrapped them both in a tight embrace. The Soulfire wouldn’t hurt them, Lee Hei wouldn’t let it spread any further. Almost as an afterthought, she offered a hand to her master, but a subtle shake of Ienaga’s head was more than enough of a refusal.

Without a moment more of hesitation, Lee Hei called forth the last dregs of her stamina to envelop herself and her sisters in black lightning, hurling them all through the shadows and tumbling back into the physical world as everything faded to black.