She still heard the song, like a declaration of war. And she willed herself toward it.
Yerin caught glimpses of the real world flashing by, but they were too fast to be comprehended, even at her level. She could only get impressions of strong emotions or presences, and she focused on the ones she was looking for.
Reigan Shen and the Weeping Dragon. Those were her targets.
She felt it approaching. Her song grew louder, almost deafening. And she willed herself out, into the stream that twisted closer to what was real.
…she didn’t stop. The current didn’t release her.
She did scream this time, though she couldn’t be sure it made any sound. Yerin struggled against the force of the Way, trying to claw her way back, but she may as well not have bothered.
Almost immediately, she felt something else. Another impression of Reigan Shen and the Weeping Dragon, but smaller. More distant.
She couldn’t afford to miss this one. Who knew if there would be another chance, or when it would come?
This time, she activated her Moonlight Bridge and urged it in that direction.
She thought it would be hard to activate the Divine Treasure here, but instead it was like trying to strike a spark when the air was full of fire aura. Instead of a simple white light, she exploded into a pale moon, one that swallowed up the blue.
And when she reappeared, she was standing on a ruined building and looking out onto a war.
The song drifted all around her as yellow-haired sacred artists wearing dark blue did battle with their opposites. Massive script formations lit the battlefield as lights from many Paths clashed against one another. The opposing force carried banners of gold and had legions of cloudships that outnumbered their enemies.
But Yerin didn’t particularly care who they were. They weren’t Reigan Shen, and they weren’t the Weeping Dragon.
She tapped into the Moonlight Bridge again. Take me to Lindon, she urged it.
The Treasure was quiet. Expended. It had nothing left.
Yerin let out a sound like she was being stabbed through the gut. Her spirit and thoughts were in chaos, and her veins bubbled with murderous hatred.
It was all but impossible to use techniques in this kind of mindset, but the Phoenix Song was closer than ever. The mysterious melody was louder and more insistent, reminding her that she was surrounded by enemies.
Only then did she look up and pay attention to the symbol on the golden banners.
A white lion.
This was House Shen.
They were flanked by a broad storm cloud, pouring rain and flickering with lightning. A collection of buildings sat on top of the cloud, like an entire sect built in the sky. Its sacred artists hurled serpents of living lightning.
Stormcallers, the cultists of the Weeping Dragon. Yerin had expected them to follow their master through the Trackless Sea, but it seemed they had found easier prey here.
A Herald led the combined forces from the front, a woman with shining wings made of lightning and a thin, delicate sword that crackled with power. Yushi, the Thunder Fairy. Reigan Shen’s right hand.
She had long, brown hair, and was as delicate as her nickname suggested. If Yerin couldn’t feel her strength as a Herald, she would say Yushi looked too delicate to hold a weapon. The wings didn’t seem to be her Goldsign, as a spark burned on the center of Yushi’s forehead.
There were others on the battlefield with real power—two Sages and a handful of Archlords—but Yerin was already moving.
A script-formation flared to life, blocking her. It was made of yellow runes, and she could feel that this was a powerful boundary operated by dozens of Lords and Ladies.
A pair of claws Forged of sword and blood madra appeared to her left and right. Netherclaw’s binding. At the same time, she Enforced her sword and struck with all her might.
The formation rang like thunder, but it didn’t break. The symbols turned orange. Some of the Underlords maintaining the boundary collapsed.
She hit it again. The runes turned red.
The third time, she broke through, but an Archlord was aiming a launcher construct at her. It was constructed of fine materials and reminded her of Lindon’s cannon.
As he activated the weapon, she struck the aura of her sword, and it rang like a bell.
Blades of aura erupted from within him, tearing him apart from the inside out. Her Phoenix Song technique drew something from the dead man, but his weapon still fired. The technique scorched her left arm down to the bone.
She regrew it in seconds, then harvested another load of power from his Remnant. It was bound in silver-red chains, but she broke it apart.
Yerin was like an arrow headed for the Thunder Fairy, and the enemy Herald was finally taking her seriously. Yushi turned to her and crackled with storm madra, the spark on her forehead glowing brightly.
“The Uncrowned Queen,” Yushi began, but she didn’t get further before Yerin whipped a Striker technique at her.
Her face twisted in alarm, and she gathered up a shield of madra, but the red-silver blade never made it to her at all.
“Disappear,” a man’s voice said, and Yerin’s technique twisted and vanished into space.
A manic-looking man with pale hair rose up next to Yushi, and his lightning was a different color. Blue serpents of storm madra encircled his upper arms. The Sage of Calling Storms.
His smile and eyes were too wide, like he was doing his best impression of a skull. Somewhere below her conscious thoughts, Yerin wondered if you had to look like a monster if you wanted to lead a Dreadgod cult.
“Have you come on behalf of your master?” the Storm Sage asked eagerly.
Yerin stopped. Her skin still shone with the red moonlight of the Phoenix Song, and she heard the subtle music that prompted her to kill, but she had another mission.
“Send me to Lindon,” she demanded of the Sage.
Yushi put a hand on her hip. “Didn’t you get a teleportation Treasure?”
Yerin didn’t spare her a single thought.
The Sage spread his arms wide. “I cannot bid farewell before I’m graced by divine teachings! Come, show me what your teacher left you!”
Yerin looked into the mad eyes of the dead man and flooded her sword with madra. “That’s not the wish you wanted to make.”
The Phoenix Song was in her, all around her.
Somebody was going to die.
Ziel heard Mercy running up to him only a moment after the portal closed itself. She sounded panicked, but her words didn’t penetrate his haze at first.
How were they going to do this? He hadn’t completed his Sage insight yet. Though his studies of the Paths of Heaven had helped him understand quite a bit more about Sage authority and the mechanics behind the world, theoretical and practical knowledge were leagues apart.
It was hard to put those ideas into practice here, and he needed to practice them in order to get out. Fortunately, he had a little time.
Mercy’s shaking finally got through to him. “Where’s Yerin?” she demanded. “What happened?”
“The portal’s destroyed.” That was probably obvious, but it was best to go over every detail. “Lindon’s weak. Maybe dead. Yerin went after him.”
He expected Mercy to panic, but after only an instant of shock across her face, it was like her face had turned to steel. In that moment, she resembled what Ziel had seen of her mother.
“Are they still outside?” Mercy asked calmly.
“Lindon is. We can’t know where Yerin ended up.”
“How close is the Weeping Dragon?”
“Close.”
She didn’t ask if they were ready. She knew they weren’t, just as he did. The entire reason she hadn’t sensed Yerin’s battle against that Striker technique was because she had been deep into her Book of Eternal Night, trying to eke every remaining second out of their time here.