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43. As The World Falls Apart
🕑 Added 2021-11-06 20:27:39 +0000 UTCWalls of force snapped up around Xue and Hui. Hui held onto Xue for one more second, and then the walls expelled him, throwing him backward. Hui plunged toward the earth below.
“I said I’d make you my furnace, and I will!”
“You’re ours, now!”
“Teehee.”
Hui’s back slammed into Xue’s ice slide. He reached out blindly and grabbed ahold, desperate. His fingers slipped down the ice. He kicked, grappling at the ice. He found a grip at the edge, where the ice roughened, and held on for dear life.
Hui glanced down. His feet dangled over the castle, the massive black structure far, far below. The world began to tip backward, his fingers sliding off the slide. He tore his eyes off the drop and grabbed harder at the ice.
Trapped in the prison, Xue struck at the walls with her fans, furious. The triplets jeered at her, each of them standing on a small magical shuttle. Their identical shuttles each looked like a small stone disk. Each disk emitted a blue glow at its center where the stones embedded in them powered their flight.
“Give in! Pledge to become our furnace, and we’ll let you go!” the first triplet announced.
“C’mon, c’mon,” the second agreed.
The third stared at the void, jaw slack and eyes wide.
“The world is collapsing! We don’t have time for this!” Xue snapped.
“We? You don’t have time for this,” the first replied.
“We can ground the formation and leave you here. You’re the one in trouble, not us!”
“Ahhh… so pretty…”
Xue glanced at Hui. Hui returned the look, apology in his eyes. He dangled twenty feet below her, well out of reach. Even if I could climb up onto the slide, I have no idea if I could climb it without her full movement technique. She said I couldn’t, and I believe her. The triplets couldn’t either, and they’re a realm higher than me.
Xue sighed, turning her eyes away from him. She slashed at the walls again.
“There’s no use!”
“You aren’t getting out!”
“So dark…”
The world rumbled. Cracks splintered across the sky, growing from the void. The floor ruptured, breaking apart. The ice slide shuddered under Hui, almost shattering. Shit! What am I thinking? I have to save Xue! Without her, there’s no way out of this!
But… how? Playing dead won’t do me any good here.
Wait!
He grappled an arm up onto the slide. With his other arm, he yanked at his robe and tore off a scrap. Holding the scrap on the ice with his first hand, he bit his thumb and scribbled desperately over the fabric.
“What are you doing over there?”
“Give up. A Foundation-Building cultivator stands no chance.”
The third triplet giggled. “You’re going to die.”
I don’t know what stage this talisman’s spell is at, but it’s stronger than anything else I have! Hui finished the talisman and pointed it at the prison.
The first triplet chuckled. “Try it. I need a good laugh.”
No, wait. Even if it’s a higher-tier spell, I should only be able to release it at second-stage strength, even if I use all my qi. Hui bit his lip, thinking.
The triplets turned back to Xue. “It looks like time’s running out.”
“Pledge to us already.”
“We’ll take care of you.”
Xue scowled. “I’d rather die.”
The triplets exchanged a glance. As one, they replied, “We can arrange that.”
Wait! I can do it, I can save her! Hui drew out the flint with death qi inside. He held it in his teeth, grabbed his training sword, and knapped off a flake. Putting the sword and flint back, he held out the talisman. In the same hand, he held out the flake of death-qi-filled flint gripped in his fingers in front of the talisman.
He lifted his hand and squinted one eye shut, pointing the flake at the first triplet’s side. Wrapped in between the inner and outer layers of the yin-prison, the triplet ignored him.
“Activate!” Hui shouted.
Wind blasted out of the talisman. It caught the flake of flint and propelled it directly at the triplet.
The triplet looked up, sneering, and then the flake hit the outer wall of the yin-prison.
Gold sparked. The flint struggled against the yin-prison, trapped there by the wind.
The triplet shook his head. “A mere second-tier cultivator—”
Hui reached out to the tiny scrap of his qi in the flint, the spark that powered the death qi. It leaped to life, stimulating the death qi. A black aura surrounded the flint. The black melted the gold, and the flint cut through the outer wall.
Yes! Just like I hoped, the death qi negated the qi in the yin prison! Hui pumped a fist.
The triplet’s eyes widened. He raised a hand against the flake, too slow. Propelled by the wind, flint slammed into the triplet’s gut and burrowed deep inside. Blood spurted. He keeled over, coughing blood.
His corner of the prison wobbled, golden light scintillating wildly. He raised his hands again, as the yin prison collapsed.
“No!” the second triplet shouted. He ran to his fellow’s side and caught the first before he toppled to the ground.
The first triplet gripped his gut. Blood leaked out from between his fingers. His legs wobbled. He lost his balance, and the shuttle flew off into the distance.
Xue burst out of the prison, charging at the two triplets. Fans flashed into her hands. “Time for you to die!”
Flint shattered. The castle broke apart to shatters. With no foundation, the ice shattered under Hui. He plunged.
“Xue!” Hui shouted, desperate.
Xue turned. At the sight of Hui falling, she clicked her tongue. She swept her fan at him. An icy wind caught Hui and threw him toward her. Arms flailing, Hui struggled to keep himself upright.
Reaching out, Xue caught him. She turned toward the triplets again.
They raced past, the second two carrying the first. “You got lucky this time,” the third triplet muttered, and then they vanished into the void.
The sky wobbled, collapsing in on the void. The ground churned, chewing up the flint spires and the undead far below.
Xue glared at the rapidly-escaping triplets. She raised her fans.
Hui tugged at Xue’s robes. “Xue! We have to go!”
“On it!” Xue shouted. She turned and ran for the void, spreading ice before her as she went. Shattered blocks of flint swirled around them, thrown into the air as the world collapsed. One smashed down on them, huge enough to block out the sky. Xue threw herself at the void.
They plunged into black. The world twisted around them. Hui forced his eyes shut, hiding his face against Xue. I don’t want to see that again! Everything twisted uncomfortably around them, and then the world solidified once more.
Hui opened his eyes. Green grass spread around him. Trees towered overhead, brown bark and deep green canopies. Stones poked through lush moss.
“We’re back!” he cried. At last! Out of that dusty, nothing, gray realm!
