Chapter 4: Blood and Moonlight
Almost immediately my body screamed in violent protest.
The two slashes of blade energy tore through the waterfall mist toward me, sharp, merciless arcs of aura that sang of death. My instincts, honed by something deeper than memory, wrenched control from conscious thought. The Abyssal Sword materialized in my grip with a low, hungry hum. I twisted , calling its name in a single breath,
"Anki!"
Black light flared. The sword met the incoming strikes in a shower of sparks and shattered qi. Pain exploded across my ribs and shoulder as residual force hurled me backward. I struck the lake's surface hard, darkness swallowing me whole.
All I remembered after that was the vibration, two lethal waves parting the water like scythes, and a single, startled cry from my attacker.
Then nothing.
I found myself once more in that boundless dark space.
Countless hands, cold, desperate, weeping, clawed at my throat, my arms, my chest. Faces pressed close, mouths open in silent wails, pulling me downward. No panic rose in me. I let them drag me under, sinking into a river of pure blackness that flowed like ink through my veins. It was not drowning. It was merging.
When awareness returned, I sat upright on damp stone, mind strangely calm.
"You have awoken?" A voice drifted from the side, soft, gentle, carrying the faint scent of medicinal herbs and night-blooming jasmine.
I did not answer.
Instead my hand reached instinctively for the Abyssal Sword. It lay neatly beside me, hilt cool against my palm, as though waiting patiently.
"Quite the sword you carry," she continued, tone light yet probing. "You must be a superhuman, then."
Silence.
I could feel her gaze upon me, warm, pitying and the sensation twisted something ugly inside my chest. Pity disgusted me more than pain ever could.
"I know I hurt you," she said quietly, regret threading her words. "I am truly sorry. I did not realize you were blind… much less a child."
She did not wait for forgiveness.
"I applied healing ointment to the wounds I inflicted."
Her hand reached for mine, gentle, tentative.
I jerked away on pure reflex. Not fear. Simply the body remembering every cruelty humans were capable of inflicting.
I forced myself to stand, legs unsteady but determined. Bowed once, low and formal.
"Thank you for the treatment. I will be leaving now."
I turned toward the mouth of the cave.
"Why are you alone?" Her question stopped me mid-step. "So young… and yet completely alone?"
For the first time since the night Yemen burned, true anger stirred, deep, cold, coiling like smoke in my lungs.
"Why do you pretend to care?" My voice came out flat, edged with frost. "For all I know, you could be one of them, the ones who did this to me. Please… leave me be."
I ran.
Out of the cave, into the embrace of the night-shrouded forest. Branches whipped my face; roots clawed at my ankles. I did not slow.
Behind me, she did not pursue. She simply watched my retreating form, murmuring softly to the firelight.
"That little one has been hurt so deeply…"
Her long dark hair gleaming like polished obsidian in the flickering flames, eyes luminous and sorrowful as twin moons, I might have faltered. But I could not see. And I would not stop.
I ran until my lungs burned, until the Abyssal Sword thrummed against my wrist like a second heartbeat.
"Anki," I rasped, thunder rumbling overhead as the first fat drops of rain began to fall. "Tell me how I can get stronger."
"Child of the Abyss," the sword replied, voice calm yet grave, "your heart is unstable."
"Just answer me!" I snarled, rain lashing my face. "How can a blind man become strong?"
A long silence.
Then the howls answered for him.
From the shadowed corners of the trees, four gray wolves emerged, lean, scarred, their auras vicious and predatory. They circled slowly, eyes glowing faintly in the dark, rain matting their fur.
"Your answer stands before you," Anki said quietly. "If you wish to grow stronger, you must swallow everything. When beasts confront you, swallow them. When men come for your life, swallow them. When the deities of this land accuse you of wickedness, drag them into the embrace of the Abyss."
Rain beat against my skin like cold needles.
"So tell me, Child of the Abyss," Anki continued, "from their energy, what level do you perceive?"
I steadied my breathing. The sword rested lightly in my grip, battle stance low and natural.
"two low fluctuations on my right side," I answered, voice steadying. "Each soul vibrates with two distinct points. From the pattern… four Level-2 gray wolves surround me."
Within the radius of my heightened senses, seven meters radius of perfect awareness, I could feel every detail: the size of their bodies, the ripple of muscle beneath wet fur, the exact shape of claw and fang.
And then, within that same vibration, something else appeared.
A white silhouette, ethereal, faceless, stood beside me in my inner vision. It raised a sword in perfect, unhurried form. One swing. Two. Fluid. Precise.
I bent at the waist without thought.
A massive paw swept through the space where my head had been.
I regained balance in an instant, only for jaws to snap toward my face from the front. I dropped low again, thrusting upward. The Abyssal Sword pierced clean through the soft underside of the wolf's throat. Hot blood sprayed across my cheeks and chest.
Another lunged from the side.
I ripped the blade free with brutal force, spun, and drove it straight into the open mouth of the second beast. Bone cracked. The wolf collapsed mid-leap.
Two more converged from opposite flanks.
I spun once more, blade arcing in a shallow crescent, catching one across the throat. Blood fountained. I leaped backward, planting both feet on the back of the fourth wolf as it charged. My white hair, now soaked crimson, whipped in the rain.
"Dabi… and that evil witch…" I whispered through clenched teeth. "I swear I will kill you all."
The sword plunged downward, through skull and spine. The wolf dropped without a sound.
I stepped off the corpse and approached the third, the one I had cut shallowly across the neck. It twitched on the ground, labored breaths fogging the air. I could feel its gaze, pleading, terrified.
"Foolish creature," I said softly. "Even if I granted mercy, you would die."
"But it does not have to be like that."
The voice came from behind me, gentle, yet firm.
I did not retreat.
"It has surrendered," she continued. "I can save it."
I smiled, small, cold, empty.
"It does not need saving. It needs mercy."
Slowly, deliberately, I pressed the point of the Abyssal Sword against the wolf's throat. Then, with both hands, I drew the edge across in one clean stroke. Blood gushed warm across my arms. The twitching ceased.
Relief, strange, hollow, washed through me.
I lay down amid the steaming corpses, rain mingling with blood on my skin. The night sky opened above me, vast and indifferent.
"Tell me, madam fairy," I asked quietly, "how does the night sky look tonight?"
A long pause.
"Who is this child?" she murmured, almost to herself.
"There were originally eight wolves. I took out half the pack so this little one would not be devoured. But now I see… this child does not need my pity."
Her hand closed around my wrist.
Platinum-rank aura flared, soft, overwhelming, undeniable.
"From now on," she said calmly, as though stating an immutable truth, "you belong to me."
The world tilted.
Darkness rushed in once more.
"This damn…"