Sword and Snow

Avuri and I had finally hit the wall. We had amassed enough Qi within our Cores and were prepared to try to break through to the Sky Realm. After the final, exhausting day of meditation the day before, we had told Vale that we were prepared and asked that he watch over our bodies and Cierra while we made the attempt.

However, Vale told us to take a day and recover; we should be in the best possible shape to attempt a breakthrough. We was right, so we relaxed for a day before mentally preparing for the struggle to come.

When it was finally the next morning, Vale sat us both down to go over mostly some details that we were both already familiar with, but one we weren’t.

“You both are familiar with the basics of the breakthrough process. You use the Qi within your Core to forcefully expand your Core to a larger size. This often involves fighting personal demons and the like, though it differs for everyone.” He said, as if teaching a class.

“We know that, Vale.” I said, rolling my eyes. “We’ve done this before, remember?”

Vale looked at me hotly, eyes narrowed. “Yes, you idiot, I know. Just like I’m sure you know that the intensity this time around will be magnitudes more difficult than when you breakthrough into the Earth Realm.”

He held up a hand to stop me from talking back again. “What I’m sure you don’t know, is how destructive and dangerous breaking into the Sky Realm can be for those around you.”

That finally shut me up.

“Going to listen now?” He asked sardonically, raising an eyebrow at me. “Good.” He took a deep breath as I glanced over to Avuri, who was sitting nicely and listening attentively. I felt a strong urge to poke her in the side and ruin her ‘good daughter’ act.

“Breaking into the Sky Realm, as I know you know, is when you create your Domain for the first time.” He began, and the talk of Domains brought my attention back around. “The process of breaking into the Sky Realm actually breaks open the walls of your Core itself. You have gathered a critical mass of Qi at this point, that it will hold itself together even without the little shell you originally created. That is what you’re breaking this time.”

He continued right along as we nodded understanding. “The moment that you create enough force to shatter those boundaries, your Qi will explode from your body and permeate the world around you. Essentially, that’s exactly what a Domain is - your Core expanding beyond your body to cover the world around you. And it’s unlikely that you’ll have any control over it at all, until you’ve completely finished the breakthrough itself.”

“So!” He said, clapping to regain our focus again as our minds wandered to the possibilities. “Ultimately, what this means is that we’ll have to put each of you in controlled environments, where you can cause the least possible damage.”

Avuri tilted her head questioningly. “Why not just have us do this apart from one another outside on the grounds then?”

“Because you also need a space that is as neutral as possible when it comes to elemental Qi, and outside among the Four Peaks is anything but.”

I suppose that made sense.

Vale grinned, a toothy sort of smile that held all kinds of devious behavior. I knew it quite well.

“Let me show you where you’ll both be breaking through.”

We stood as a group, and Vale led us down to the first floor of the main house, and then outside the front door. We wound around the walls and to the back of the house, venturing to the shaded area between the house and the elder wisteria tree. At roughly the center point of the rear wall, Vale pulled open a hidden door that was flush with the wall.

“I built this area myself, for basically exactly this occasion.” He said, grinning back at the two of us. “Well, that, and in case anyone ever needs a truly secluded place to meditate.” He shrugged, and walked in.

The doorway led to a stone staircase that descended down below the house. The staircase wasn’t overly long; I guess that we had gone far enough that it would have equated to a sub-basement, rather than just one floor deep.

What stretched out before us was a large stone-hewn cavern. The whole cave seemed to be roughly clover shaped, with the stairs descending into a small center room with four large caverns in the intercardinal directions. It was truly quite impressive, and Avuri and I both let out sighs of awe.

“The rooms aren’t exactly furnished,” Vale began to explain as he led us into one of the four spaces. “But there’s a comfortable cushion to sit on, as well as small amenities that may be necessary during a longer seclusion - a small desk, water, and the like.”

As we approached the center of the empty room, the only thing in the room was the cushion, positioned dead center. On top of the cushion, however, was a small ring. “Ah.” Avuri said, looking it over, “Everything else is in the storage ring?”

Vale nodded. “Each room is like this, yes. The rings are pretty small in the grand scheme of things, so they’re not particularly useful for traveling with. But they’re perfect to contain small necessities for a place like this.”

“But more importantly,” he said, “This entire cavern has been treated with neutral Qi. I’ve been slowly working on it for a while now, and I think it should be ready for you.”

I reached out to the Qi around the room tentatively, and found he was right. The ambient Qi in the room was almost entirely neutral. There was a slight leaning toward earth Qi, but given that we were underground, that was almost unavoidable. The utter lack of any other elemental Qi was almost off putting.

Then, he waved to the cushion. “One of you takes this room, the other takes whichever other you’d like. I will keep an eye on you from the center room for the duration of your breakthrough. Down here, your Domains should be contained well enough to not cause any undue damage. And if things get bad, I can deal with it without worrying about Talya or Cierra.”

I took a deep breath to center myself and turned to Avuri. I tried a smile full of fake confidence. “So, which room you want?” I asked.

“I’ll take the one across the hall.” She said, then stepped up to me and grabbed my hands reassuringly. “We’ve got this. See you soon.”

She squeezed my hands once, so tightly it was almost painful, before she let go and made her way toward her own designated room. Vale looked between the two of us with a wry smile but said nothing as he made his way to the center room.

Finally, he waved back to me. “You know what to do from here. Good luck, Em.”

I nodded sternly before moving to settle myself on the cushion. It was time.

My arm hurt. I spent most of my childhood in constant physical pain from basically torture under duress, but nothing could have quite prepared me for the pain of losing my fucking arm.

My now useless left hand, up to the elbow, was laying on the ground some twenty feet from me. I was using condensed, raw Qi to keep my stump from bleeding me out. It had never come in handy before, but I was glad now that Vale had taught me how to do that.

I shook my head to try to focus. I knew that the shock was making my mind wander and making it hard to concentrate. A weak, ragged breath from behind me - the type that often signaled a close and painful death - brought my mind back into focus.

My eyes fell on the thing in front of me. I couldn’t remember what it had looked like at the start of this whole fight, but the thing before me was certainly no longer human. It had been a demonic Cultivator, but just after our fight had started, its Qi had deviated and warped its body into a monstrosity.

A very, very dangerous monstrosity.

I had thought that I could handle all of the Cultivators here easily enough. It was just the Floral Hills. None of the Cultivators here should have been a problem for me.

But apparently there was one Sky Realm bastard hiding in wait. He had taken the guise of a child in one of the two cages in the subterranean basement. After I had killed everyone involved in this whole disgusting business and went to check on the two children in the cages, he had attacked.

I was pretty sure the girl behind me was on her last legs. Her breathing was unsteady and ragged. I needed to kill this thing in front of me quickly, or she had no hope of making it out of this alive. And I wasn’t sure I could handle another death on my hands like this.

The demon leaped at me. Its speed left afterimages in the air as it closed the distance in an instant. I managed to get my sword up in time to avoid what was surely a death blow. I managed to parry the claws just off to the side enough that it only scratched me.

Then it’s tail swept in from the left. I called up all ten knives I had available to try to deal with that attack, but the tail was powerful enough that it scattered most of the knives into the air and slammed into my side. Without a left arm, my guard was weak on that side, I thought dumbly as I was flung through the air.

Then I stopped suddenly. The jerking motion caused a rough explosion of pain in my back where I bent awkwardly. It took a moment for my mind to catch up; the thing had grabbed me mid-flight with its tail around my middle. It held me there, a little off the ground, and its black and red eyes bore into mine.

“You’re weak, little girl.” It said. The voice was oddly clear in my addled head, especially given that its mouth wasn’t moving.

“Forget about saving that one.” It continued taunting, flinging a hand out toward the girl still in the cage. “You don’t even have the power to save yourself. It’s sad, really.” A strange laugh echoed in my head. “You say you’ve been forged into a weapon, but you’re clearly too weak for this.”

I ground my teeth. In a rage, I ran the blade in my right hand through the demon’s chest. The thing let me, then laughed. “See? Weak.”

Then I felt my jaw crack as a punch connected. I didn’t move much, held fast by the thing’s tail.

I needed something more potent. I reached out with my Qi to one of my knives, altering it into a demon cleansing knife. It flew at the demon’s back at my behest, quiet and deadly.

The demon swatted it out of the air with zero effort. It looked at me, disappointed. “I thought this would be a challenge. I had heard you were hunting demonic Cultivators, so I waited and waited…not only did you show up here so late, you’re not even really a threat to anything beyond a child.”

As it spoke, I tried to think of something. The only thing I could come up with in my addled state was more power. I needed an edge. Something to level the playing field. But with my mind in no state for a cunning plan, I just needed raw power.

I reached deep for my Qi. My Core felt full still, despite the long fight. Dangerously so. I tried to collect myself and pull.

Some Qi came as it was called, but the shell of my Core seemed to limit what I could access at once. Something deep within me laughed wryly.

“If we’re gonna die, may as well go all the way.” I said to myself. Then I reached into my Core with every bit of strength I could, gathered as much of my Qi as I could manage, and pulled.

The outer shell cracked. There was a moment where it held. I prepared for one final try -

Then it shattered.

My Qi rushed out of my body in a whoosh. Everything in the room seemed to suddenly be within arms reach, as if I could reach out and touch it, despite being several meters away.

And it all felt so sharp. Strangely so. Even round stones on the ground suddenly seemed as if they had a sharpened edge.

Everything clicked into place for me at once. Although I didn’t understand it logically, I could feel it. With a tug, loose items from all over the room rose into the air, as if connected to me the same way my knives were.

It didn’t matter what they were. Wooden debris, stones, papers, scrolls…under the force of my Qi, everything was a blade - and there were far too many for the demon to block at once.

With a crooked, bloody smile, I pulled once more.

As all of the refuse around the room flew inward toward me and the demon, my vision went black.