A Tale of Forgotten Gods

Chapter 28: Uninvited enemy

"A god’s devotee."

"This doesn’t answer the question." Mo Fei’s stare hardened.

"It doesn’t? Then you might find out sooner." A chuckle came and then faded slowly.

Mo Fei waited. The silence stretched further. Zhuo moved in an anticlockwise manner, not stopping as if anticipating something to happen. The silence got into his every bone; Mo Fei could easily tell that Zhuo wasn’t built for waiting. He understood now why Zhuo had the Motion authority.

"Jian Yue," Zhuo whispered, his voice trying to sound patient. "How long do we–"

Jian Yue’s hand moved in a gesture to wait, keeping his eyes on the temple.

Zhuo’s hands found his blade and rested his hand on his hilt. The way a child would touch a blanket in the dark.

Mo Fei’s palm shifted to his Glaive and gripped it.

Thock. Thock. Thock.

From the stairs, the hollow thock of wooden soles echoed against the temple’s red-lacquered eaves before the figure even appeared.

Slowly, a figure of a man emerged from the gateway, wearing white robes with soft blue tunics. He had slightly long black hair, tied in a ponytail; his eyes held a glint of joy and playfulness.

"Welcome. Did I scare you?" His palm turned upward in a silent, airy gesture, as if the answer were a bird; he’d just let fly. His eyes never lose that maddening twinkle of amusement.

"..." Mo Fei stayed silent, staring at him.

"..." Jian Yue sighed, holding his blade tightly.

"..." Lin stared flatly, keeping her expression still.

"..." Both kids kept holding Mo Fei.

"... That wasn’t a good joke... Heh, was it?" Zhuo said, looking at others’ annoyed silence.

The man laughed, warm and genuine. "Ah, the honest one." The man’s eyes moved across them. His gaze lingered on Jian Yue’s hollow expression, on Lin’s scarred hand, and then on Zhuo’s youthful expression.

When his gaze reached Mo Fei’s covered eye, it stopped. For the first time, his smile faltered slightly for a moment. "I wonder what had cost you an eye," he said, but it was not a question at all.

"Most lose more than an eye. They lose themselves." His brows rose. "I am Yi Jyuhan, and you..." His eyes landed on Mo Fei’s covered eye. "Are the ones who walked through the misfortune... Those children were offerings."

Xin Yi stared at Yi Jyuhan with an expression as if trying to mix faces. "You’re like them."

Yi Jyuhan’s eyes flickered to her. The amusement not leaving him. "Like who?"

She didn’t answer and pressed closer to Mo Fei.

Mo Fei touched his temple. "How do you know about us?" The world silvered threads everywhere, cultists in every room, their lines stretching through the sky.

But Yi Jyuhan...

Mo Fei blinked and looked again. His threads weren’t connected to him but to somewhere else, as if he weren’t present there. Merely a projection?

Yi Jyuhan looked at Mo Fei’s surprised face; a small grin curved on his lips. "What? No, I don’t know anything about you, but your ribbons tell everything." His eyes landed on kids. "And they were used by an Ascended for the sake of... something terrifying."

Jian Yue and Lin stepped forward. "We are here for the pages."

"Wrong place, pal." His hand rose in a dismissive gesture. "We are Ascenders too; you’re not the only one who seeks them."

Mo Fei tapped his head softly; he found his voice. "He is not real."

Jian Yue turned his head. "He... what?"

"I don’t know. He is somewhere else."

Yi Jyuhan chuckled again and nodded gently. "You got me there. Someone else is waiting for you."

"Who?" Lin questioned.

"What can I say? An old friend, perhaps?"

They didn’t question but just walked inside the temple, their feet tapping on the stairs as they entered the door.

As they went inside, the environment changed from the warm summer to a comfortable cold. Mo Fei walked in silence with his thoughts. Suddenly, Hao Yu tugged his sleeve.

"Are you okay?" He asked, and Mo Fei kept walking slowly... Am I okay? Yes, but there were few parts that had left him.

"Yeah." He paused for a second. "Just thinking."

"About what?"

About ascenders, do they lost a part of them too? "About dinner."

"Dinner? Will there be dinner?" Hao Yu’s face lit up.

"Luck is on our side, so... Probably," and for now that was enough. Yet he couldn’t lift the feeling that something bad would happen; everything was normal, but he couldn’t.

As they walked further inside, people gathered in a room, talking of something. Mo Fei heard half the conversation from afar.

"It’s very soon that the Cursed Womb will be born." One said.

"The place is far from here. It doesn’t matter; there will be a significant amount of murders." Another whispered and continued.

The voices were clearer now.

"In three weeks the bleeding moon will rise. Last time the son of the God was almost born, but it didn’t, or else we would be dead by now."

A Cursed Womb? Mo Fei didn’t know, but it sounded like an object of black magic. Hah, people still believe in that?

Ohh...

In a world veiled by despair, a thing like that could possibly be drastically dangerous. His eyes landed on the light green walls, reflecting the light.

Yi Jyuhan moved to the right, his steps making the same sound of ’Thock.’ He looked back over his shoulder at the group to ensure they hadn’t got lost.

Hao Yu touched the clean polished stone, and his hand traced it. It was cold and wet from water to keep the walls cool. The locket on his neck swung with his movement, catching Lin’s eyes, who watched him quietly.

Zhuo stopped to look outside a gate where there were people sparring with each other. Their hands move with the refinement of long experience, every movement agile and fast.

One of the sparring fighters... a woman with cropped blond hair and arms corded with muscle... noticed him watching. She paused mid-strike, her wooden blade just inches from her partner’s throat.

"You." Her voice cut through the echo of the weapons. "You’ve got the eyes of a warrior, unlike some puppies." She lifted her finger and gestured at her sparring partner, who had the decency to look embarrassed.

Zhuo’s hand went to his blade instinctively.

The woman smiled. "Relax, boy. If I wanted to attack you, I could have. I was just curious. What’s an Arbiter doing with a group that smells like Warden, Keybearer and..."

She sniffed the air theatrically. "... Something no one chooses."

Zhuo said nothing. But his silence was an answer enough.

The woman’s smile widened. She turned back to her sparring partner before Zhuo could respond. Then he realized his distraction and ran toward the group, closing up the distance.

Lin stared over her shoulder to look at him once. Yi Jyuhan opened a door to enter a large hallway. There was a straight path and many rooms.

"Yi Jyuhan." Lin called out as he stopped and looked back. "Where are you really if it’s just your projection?"

Yi Jyuhan tilted his head toward them, raising both of his hands and shaking his head. "Well... maybe in your heart?"

Lin stared in stunned silence. "Motherfu–"

"Kidding, kidding. You will soon see me with your old pal or whatever."

Mo Fei muttered under his breath, "Terrible taste in women." Before he felt a piercing gaze from Lin. He quickly walked ahead, trying to act nonchalant as if he had said nothing.

They followed Yi Jyuhan’s projection deeper into the temple; they saw more of the cultists and their rituals, their silence, and their strange devotion. Both children reacted differently: Hao Yu stared with curiosity, while Xin Yi withdrew.

They passed a room where cultists knelt before a statue. The statue’s face was deliberately obscured... it was a lady with her eyes hidden behind a veil. Mo Fei’s eye caught something similar as before: the statue had no shadow, either.

"A Goddess..." Jian Yue muttered to himself.

Yi Jyuhan moved his hand in his sleeves. "Well, ’She’ is the lady of space; this temple belongs to devotees of Her Authority, and She always listens to them."

"Lady of space," Jian Yue repeated. Hao Yu and Xin Yi turned to the statue, just a prayer. ’Always stay with us to protect us.’

At the doorway, the sparring woman appeared; she waved her palm and gestured for Zhuo to come. "Yo boy. Come here for a minute."

Jian Yue put his hand on Zhuo’s shoulder, a silent warning to not trust blindly.

Zhuo shook his head to reassure and went.

She tested him with presence. Her gaze read his stance, his breathing, and even his fear. "You’ve killed something recently, right? There is the scent of bloodlust."

Zhuo only nodded.

"Hmm. That’s just a first step; the ones who should have killed you are the only teachers worth having." A grin twitched on her lips. "So tell me what it taught you."

"When your friends have hopes on you, it becomes your responsibility to not disappoint them." He said it without another thought. "Strength lies in why you protect."

After hearing that, her hand moved to her face before a soft chuckle came out.

"That’s a little naive. For an introduction, I’m Alisa."

"Zhuo."

Her feet stepped back before walking away. "May we meet again."

Zhuo blinked, then stepped back too.

Mo Fei elbowed him with a small grin on his face. "Isn’t she pretty?" Zhuo stared with his eyes wide open.

"M-maybe."

"Ohhhh." He didn’t say anything, seeing Zhuo embarrassed over such small teasing. Mo Fei suppressed a laugh, his shoulders shaking within the quiet walls.

Both Lin and Jian Yue sighed that it was a very rare thing for them. Their faces tried to hide the amusement.

Hao Yu’s gaze did not leave Mo Fei, the brain of a curious child trying to understand what he was laughing about.

Xin Yi, who finally glanced at Mo Fei, held a flicker of curiosity for the first time. Of course seeing someone laughing all by themselves with no context was quite a bizarre thing after all.

Zhuo walked alongside. He was present there, walking, looking, but his thoughts were somewhere, in the frost. He remembered the moments again.

The Kholkis. Its broken body lay in the snow. The blue blood on his dagger that he had left there. And the person who had saved him, not truly, but enough. Then he remembered his new robes; the fabric was quite expensive, and someone gave them away.

What if he fell into the same situation with no one to save him?

He hadn’t told anyone what it felt like. The impact of Kholkis’s attack that could shatter the bones of any average human. In the final moment, the way the creature’s eye had looked at him was no longer filled with hatred but with recognition.

Like it knew in that final second that pride could be a weakness even when you consider it to be a strength.

Alisa’s words echoed again in his mind.

But he didn’t know the answer. What had the Kholkis actually taught him? Was it that he could die? Or that he would die, eventually, probably sooner than later.

Even if he had died there, it was worth dying for.

His hand tightened on the blade as he followed them. His thoughts scattered like a startled deer as Yi Jyuhan’s steps pulled him back.

Yi Jyuhan took them to an open room; the doors and windows were wide open, and a very familiar scent was present in the air.

A sound of wings fluttering came, followed by a sweet chirrup of birds. Their focus fell on a bird, a petite blue bird with a few red shapes like a blaze. Its long red brows were working as an ornament. A beautiful feather fell on the ground near a man.

It was Yi Jyuhan’s real body... But he wasn’t alone. Next to him, another person sat. His long hair flowed like falling cherry blossom petals, shivering against the air.

Everyone’s eyes widened from the recognition.

Mo Fei held his glaive tightly, and Lin’s hand moved to draw out her blade. Jian Yue’s mouth opened to use his Authority.

But no one was more surprised than Zhuo; his breathing stopped.

How was he here?

"Meet your pal... Xue Lan."

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