Alex pulled Luò Rì Gōng’s soul apart, infusing both halves with a plentiful amount of Aether directly from Sanguis’ ample reserves, making sure neither piece broke apart further or became damaged.
The pain of such an action was unimaginable, he surmised, as he watched the man’s face go through all stages of terror at once, the colour draining from his face, howling in pain before crumpling in place like a wet rag.
Of course, he couldn’t fall to the ground, as there was none, so Alexander watched him shrivel into a husk, breathing ragged, sweat pouring from every pore of his skin, as he shook like an epileptic child in the middle of an episode.
But the result of his painful action was two perfectly symmetrical pieces of soul, both pieces still burning white with golden tinges, albeit a little dimmer at the moment.
He could only guess this was because of the forced rupture. But he could already tell it wasn’t a permanent effect.
Hell, he was almost certain if he pushed both pieces together once more, and infused them with more Aether from Sanguis’ body, he could re-fuse the pieces into a single whole again.
Luò Rì Gōng looked at his tormentor with a gaze full of fear.
"What have you done — huff huff — you could have killed me. Are you insane?" he asked, with a still choppy breath.
Alex clicked his tongue, annoyed.
"But did you die?" he asked, unbothered by the accusation.
Luò Rì Gōng saw the unbothered face the nephilim’s body shot him, and he understood that even if he had died, it wouldn’t have mattered much to whoever was currently controlling this body.
"Why even do this?" he asked, looking at the two pieces of his once-complete soul.
"Ahh, now that is a good question. You see, even if split, this is still technically one soul. So if I do this—
Another howl of pain left Luò Rì Gōng’s lips as Alex clamped his hand on one piece of soul, sending a wave of immeasurable pain through to its proprietor.
"Since both pieces are still technically a whole, you’ll feel whatever happens to either one. Meaning I now have an incentive to ensure your compliance.
"I’ll be hanging onto this little fragment while you get the other back. And if you ever step out of line, of become a danger to the person that will be using your bow, well, let’s just say you can imagine the results yourself," Alex said, grinning devilishly, as he shoved half the soul back into the shrivelled man.
"Now, with this done, I can tell Sanguis is happy with the result, so I’ll let him take over the rest of this tedious conversation. I’m tired," he added, faking a yawn.
Immediately after, Sanguis took over his body once more and looked down at the husk of an ethereal body that had once acted all arrogant before him. With a huff of disdain, he pushed him out of his soul space, sending his mind back to reality.
Outside, time had flown by infinitely slower, and to the others, barely a few seconds passed , where Alexander’s body had moved blazingly fast, grabbed the ethereal being by the throat, and then stared at him intensely for a few seconds.
Now, with his mind reeling back into his own head, the being crumpled to the ground, his ragged breath catching up to its body, as he started shimmering in and out of existence.
He knew he needed to find a body to host him soon, or he would disappear for real.
"Who will be my host?" Luò Rì Gōng asked, looking up at the nephilim who was still staring him down.
But Sanguis couldn’t be bothered with those details. It wasn’t his matter to meddle with in the first place.
He had only done so to protect his master’s friends.
"I’ll leave that matter to him," Sanguis’ scratchy voice echoed, pointing at Rì-Chū
The archer’s head snapped toward the boy he had tried to drain energy from during his release.
"Please, young master. Tell me who will host my power before I fade away.
Rì-Chū was taken aback, confused about what had transpired. He watched the melded Alexander walk back toward Kary, lie down next to her, and suddenly revert to his normal form as he slumped over.
He could only guess what had truly happened, but understood that Alexander, or whoever that voice belonged to, had intervened and reined in the aggressive intentions of the legendary archer.
How, he didn’t know, nor did he care.
For now, he only cared about not wasting his efforts.
"Her!" he shouted, pointing at Yeoja.
"She will be your host and use your bow," he added.
"Huh?" Yeoja said, even more confused about the situation than Rì-Chū.
And it only became worse when the ethereal suddenly became a ball of gas that slammed into her chest, melting into her like a ghost.
She could feel a burning sensation inside her body the moment it collided with her, a darkness taking a place inside her mind that she couldn’t brush away. And then came the voice.
’You are my new master. I shall explain all of my powers to you in due time, but first, to claim my weapon, you must prove you can draw the string. Command my bow to come to you and show me what you are worth.’
Yeoja winced in pain as the voice resounded inside her own head, giving her an instant headache.
But the mention of a bow made her push past the pain, trepidation taking hold of her.
’Does your bow have a name?’ she asked, inside her mind.
’It’s name is Xīyàng,’ the voice replied.
Yeoja knew a bit of Chinese, and she understood the meaning of the word, even if it was a more traditional one.
’Sunset. What a lovely name,’ she thought, a smile appearing on her lips.
She pushed through the pain once more, closing her eyes and thinking about the name of the bow, and imagining a bow in her hand. It wasn’t long before she felt a weight suddenly resting in her palm.
She opened her eyes back and saw a beautiful Manchu bow in her hand, coloured a deep, dark blue, veined with a mix of light purple and crimson red.
The bow measured a little over a metre and a half, and the curved ends on it were adorned with a symbol of a moon covering half a sun.
The weapon itself felt light, but when she slid her fingers across the string, she immediately knew it had a draw weight far superior than a bow like this should have.
Taking a drawing position, she exhaled before tugging at the string, enhancing her arm muscles with mana, as she had done many times in New Eden.
The bowstring whined and crackled with power, a mote of darkness appearing at the tip of her fingers, slowly stretching as she drew the string further and further back.
Once she had successfully drawn the string to her nose, as she had done a million times before, an arrow made of pure, swirling darkness formed between her fingers and bow hand.
She couldn’t just release the arrow into the forest, already feeling its power pulsing next to her cheek. She aimed the bow upward, aiming it at the night sky, and grinned.
Her eyes had a pink sheen to them, as her gaze locked onto something so far away no human eye could ever see it without the help of specialized stargazing tools.
She could only surmise this was one of the bow’s many powers.
"Goodbye, you little peeper," she said, before releasing her fingers.
*DONG!* *WOOSH!*
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