"So why have you called for me Jing Yuan?" Bahn sat across the table playing Chess with Jing Yuan.
Jing Yuan moved a piece before sighing, "Well perhaps you should move..." The air stilled.
"This is about Fu Xuan's meddling isn't it?" Bahn questioned with internal venom seething through his very existence.
Was wanting a retirement life so hard? What? Because I'm not destroying anything, I'm getting destroyed instead?
Bullshit.
"I could only play dumb in front of her, but regardless our cooperation will likely have to end. Honestly, it was quite surprising to see a Lord Ravager appear in front of Teng Xiao and me one day and asking to retire and live peacefully on the Loufu in exchange for providing help."
Bahn remembered the moment he had come to the Loufu to plead for a place to stay in exchange for help provided to the Loufu as long as he was on Xianzhou territory.
A deal made with the previous Arbiter General now extending to the current Arbiter General.
"Honestly, I have tried steering Fu Xuan away from the topic but she seems intent on figuring it out, even with that little tap on the wrist you gave her. She's deeply loyal and willing to lay her life on the line for the Xianzhou."
Bahn remained silent.
"What about Tingyun?" He asked with a low voice.
His eyes which had never been opened from that day, now glared at Jing Yuan. Amethyst eyes bore straight into his very being.
Jing Yuan sighed, "You know as well as I do, that is a problem on your end. Of course you could continue to stay, however the consequences of being found out are far more heavy."
Bahn nodded, "Yes after-all our agreement meant immunity to scrutiny and I would shoulder the blame under destruction."
The two sat in silence for the longest time before Jing Yuan spoke again. "It's up to you. I'm only presenting our options right now."
Bahn thought over it again and again. Getting found out would affect both his and Tingyun's lives. More importantly it would affect Tingyun on a much larger scale if found out.
While Fu Xuan indeed did derive prosperity from the Matrix, it did not change the nature of the existence of a Lord Ravager.
Frankly he was already 80% intent on leaving, yet the remaining 20% had enlarged to an immeasurable proportion.
Tingyun.
What if Tingyun does not wish to leave?
Even if he were to frame it as a long term move, what if she did not agree?
He didn't want to sound over-controlling but at least with his presence alone, she could walk across the entire universe unscathed doing whatever she wanted to do as long as no Aeons were involved.
For the first time in the time that Lord Ravagers had existed, the eighth had already been defeated. Not by power, not by cunning, but by love.
Sensing his stress, Jing Yuan spoke again. "If Miss Tingyun does not wish to leave, I swear it. She'll be under the Loufu's utmost protection."
I'll make sure to send photos weekly in public spaces of course.
Jing Yuan spoke one last sentence that froze his blood, "Will you annihilate her memories of you?"
Bahn froze before remaining silent as he walked out.
"I will temporarily blur myself from her memories. She'll know I exist, but she won't remember until I come back. It'll be like a fleeting dream."
~~~~
"Tingyun, I've been looking at other places recently. Loufu seems to be a bit slow paced. Would you want to go somewhere a bit more exciting to live? Of course we'll have to find new jobs but it's quite easy for us no?"
Tingyun thought for a bit before turning back with a brightening smile, "Bahn, Loufu is my home. It's where all my friends and family are. In a way Loufu is also my benefactor. Perhaps in the future, but for now. I believe I'll dislike moving."
Bahn smiled back, as he thought internally, "Never change Tingyun, never change. I loved you for this very reason, even though you are weak, your will is stronger than many."
Bahn's closed eyes seemed to convey even more undeniable sadness.
"Tingyun, the reason I talked about it is that I have a very important business trip, also a family matter of sorts. I will be leaving for a while. But I'll be back eventually when the matter is sorted out."
Tingyun looked confused for a bit before she reacted as Bahn embraced her tightly as if he would disappear in the next moment.
"It'll just be a fleeting dream. The best dream you will ever have. And when I come back, that dream will become a reality."
Tingyun watched as the world faded away and they found themselves in a blank white space with an ethereal blue sky dripping down like paint over canvas.
A strange sensation landed on her shoulder as she noticed a wet patch. The fiance she loved for so long was crying silently.
His embrace only tightened.
Tingyun had no idea what was happening nor what this space was. But she could only pat him on the back and support him.
"Ok ok, let's calm down now. Whatever this is I trust you." She looked at his tears and his embrace as if he would never see her again.
"This will be a memory disguised as a dream. And when you awaken from it, it will become reality I promise."
"May this be not a dream of destruction, but a dream of remembrance." The pooling ethereal blue finally dripped to the ground as Tingyun blanked out.
~~~~
"I will always love you~"
She awoke with a strange jolt. Something felt missing. She had felt like a long dream had passed and in that dream she fell in love with someone and they had a wonderful life together until he left for a business trip and familial matter.
How strange and empty, but no matter how she tried to shake off that dream she was convinced it was no dream.
Small items belonging to a male were scattered around the house as small tokens of remembrance.
A small fox holding an emerald sat on her kitchen table. She did not remember buying this item. A small nagging voice dug into her dream as she retrieved only one word.
Bahn
She opened her phone and a call went through.
"Miss Yukong, did I ever have a fiance by the name of Bahn?" She asked in a calm but eager tone.
"Tingyun what has gotten into you? You and a fiance? Furthermore I just checked with the database. There is no one named Bahn in the entirety of the Loufu. Are you feeling sick?"
Meanwhile Jing Yuan from the reports could only sigh.
"How saddening, to have to resort to this..." It was as he suspected.
Memory of him had been wiped from existence save for Tingyun and him. And even then for Tingyun it was only in the form of a hyper-realistic dream in which she was entirely convinced he had existed.
Perhaps at the sheer bubbling rage he felt within him at being forced out of his comfortable life, the nearby memoria of an uninhabited planet blew up.
The planet existed in all but memory.
As he left to find a new temporary place to stay, a sultry seductive voice emerged from existence.
"I didn't expect to find you here~ Mr Eighth..."
He didn't even need to look with his eyes to know that the woman behind him was an old former friend.
"Black Swan... You have ten system seconds to leave before I wipe your existence."
One after another, problems emerging forth to halt his peaceful life.
And if not for years of living with Tingyun, mellowing him out he would have wiped the bitch from existence the moment he got his hands on her.
"I apologise-" Black Swan started as she flinched the moment the planet was physically erased in a flash of blue.
"Five seconds remaining." Bahn seethed as the crimson bow with the dream of murder pointed towards her.
Black Swan continued to poke and prod, "You've changed, quite a lot. If it was the you before, I would long be dead. I've come to talk, serious talk. And an apology overdue."
Bahn's bow finally disappeared as the world around them changed.
They were now within his dream.
"Speak, backstabbing bitch. Our past friendship and favours are the only reason you aren't dead already."
And Tingyun he mentioned silently.
He was getting too soft. But he did not find it repulsive.
"First I'd like to formally apologise for what happened back then. I was impulsive as well back when I first started climbing the ranks. I didn't think about the consequences it would bring about to you."
A suffocating pressure filled the room as Black Swan finally spoke.
"Amphoreus. Destruction has set their eyes on Amphoreus."