In the corner of his vision, he saw her draw up to his side. Her hand was on her right hip, where he knew the hilt of That Which Cuts Stars rested; her left hand she held before her defensively, and he knew she clutched her ocarina.
Neither, however, would be of much use against their mutual opponent.
Hóng’yì stood beneath the Phoenix as though at the heart of a flame, his back to his palace. His páo fluttered, a spill of crimson in the wind of energies that swept the sands. His hair was worn long, and on his forehead was a cinnabar mark in the shape of an eye.
Zen dug his heels into the sand, grounding himself into a fighting stance. “Sòng Lián,” he said quietly. “If one of us must draw on the power of our Demon God to fight him, let it beme.”
He, Xen Temurezen, born to the legacy of a clan tainted by the tragic downfall of the Nightslayer, who had traded his soul away long ago to walk the path of a demonic practitioner.
Lan gave no response, but he felt her eyes on his back, as keen as an arrow.
Across from them, the Crimson Phoenix let out a battle scream.
Zen allowed the power of the Black Tortoise to course through him. The world both expanded and shrank, became finite and infinite at the same time. He saw every star in the sky and every speck of sand, refracting the same light and same energies. This time, however, felt different. This time, he controlled everything.
And this rush of power wasintoxicating.
The Black Tortoise’s voice rumbled down the open bond between them.The prowess of this lineage of emperors that has held control over this land for so long lies in the Art of the Mind. Be on your guard, Xan Temurezen, for I cannot defend your mind if you do not lend its control to me.
Zen lashed out. An explosion ricocheted across the sky as the qì of the Phoenix rose to meet that of the Tortoise, crackling against the confines of the Boundary Seal that hid Shaklahira from the world. For an instant, their surroundingsflickered as the Seal faltered, and Zen caught a glimpse of the true state of Shaklahira: a palace faded and weatherworn, half buried in the barren desert. He blinked and the Crimson Phoenix’s Seals had recovered, along with the lush, vibrant illusion.
Sweat had broken out on his brow. Hóng’yì’s smile, on the other hand, stretched wider. He’d had twelve cycles to practice channeling the Crimson Phoenix’s power…and perhaps countless more of the Seeds of Clarity to bolster his own core, judging by those lotuses he grew at the other end of the spring.
Already, Zen could feel his own strength waning, his grasp on the flow of power beginning to slip here and there, patches of that familiar darkness and the Demon God’s will clouding his mind. If this came down to a test of endurance, he would not win.
Lan had darted over to the shore of Crescent Spring where Chó Tài lay, unconscious. Whatever Seal the imperial heir had woven over him was gone now, relinquished as Hóng’yì turned his every ounce of energy to the duel. As another explosion shook the sky, Lan conjured a Shield Seal to protect them.
By the palace doors, people had appeared: Shaklahira’s court, comprising guards and servants and cooks and maids. They clustered together in silence, the lightning and fire illuminating the fear on their faces.
From their midst, a familiar figure stepped out, decked in armor, one loose red sleeve fluttering behind her. Yeshin Noro Dilaya, matriarch of the Jorshen Steel clan, lifted her curved dao and, with qì as sharp as the blade, began to trace a defensive Seal between them and the battle waging by the spring.
Zen returned his focus to the fight. “Hóng’yì,” he called. “If we continue like this, we will destroy Shaklahira and the people within it. And once the Seal over Shaklahira breaks, the power of these Demon Gods will wipe out all the surroundingcities. Return theClassic of Gods and Demonsto me, and I will walk away. The city of your ancestors’ legacy will remain.”
Hóng’yì tilted his head. “That is the difference between you and me, Xan Temurezen,” he said, a new viciousness to his words. “If power is akin to fire, you are afraid of reaching too close for fear of being burned. ButI”—he bellowed, and the wings of the Phoenix seared brighter, hotter—“I have embraced the fire. I have become it. If this world is fated to burn, then I will be the brightest flame of all.”
This was madness—yetthiswas how the imperial family had managed to hold on to their reign for so long. In the history of the Last Kingdom and all previous eras, there had been challengers to the rule of this land, yet all had been quenched by the imperial line. The imperial line’s end goal was not ruling this kingdom.Powerwas their end goal, and they would gladly burn down the kingdom for it.
“Even so, I agree,” Hóng’yì continued. “It is, indeed, time to end this. Onmyterms.”
The Crimson Phoenix rose higher, the tips of its wing feathers brushing the ground and leaving a trail of molten sand in its wake as it let out another battle scream.
A mountain of energies rammed into Zen. He barely had time to throw up a Defensive Seal—sand, air, heat, and all the threads that he could pull from the world around him, layers and layers that simply eroded to dust beneath the Crimson Phoenix’s qì.
A thrum of alarm singed through his bond with the Black Tortoise. He heard the Demon God hiss, saw the sky shift as its great shadow turned to crouch over him—and then a searing pain sliced through his head, burning through it until only darkness was left.
Hóng’yì smiled, and somehow, Zen knew they were in his ownmind.
Memories flitted past, rushes of sound and sight: white yurts on green grasses stained red, the acrid scent of smoke and blood in the air, the distant screams of livestock and people—
“No,” Zen panted—
—Dé’zi, face slack and eyes blank, the last of his qì fading into nothingness as his lifeblood seeped out—
“No—”
—Xan Tolürigin in chains, kneeling on the stone at the emperor’s feet, weeping and begging softly for his people to be spared—
Zen was on the ground, sobbing as reality and memory blended, as his mind was flayed open by the heir of his clan’s murderer.
