Destiny in Cinders

Fiend qi rampaged around the whole place like a turbulent ocean. Yet, the powerful tide of decay seemed to carry signs of life, much like wriggling maggots that flowed out of the juices of rotten fruit. The tides of fiend qi spread out in a rhythm similar to that of breathing.

Then, it began to twist and converge into a gigantic yet odd humanoid shape. It had three heads, five arms, seven mouths, nine eyes and was bloated like a corpse. An oily, viscous substance flowed throughout its body and animated the dim, dead eyes. At the center of its chest was a huge, gaping hole covered in razor-sharp teeth, seemingly stretching endlessly inward. Within it was an impenetrable darkness.

This being seemed to immediately put pressure on all sentient life. Merely revealing a slice of its true nature was enough to cause everyone to feel the sky darken, as if something was blocking out the sunlight.

"An incarnation of heavenly fiends?!" said a member of the Crimsonguard. The mountain-sized heavenly fiend wasn't something they were equipped to handle. Immediately, he gave the order to retreat. No matter how experienced the rest of them were, they scrambled away haggardly in the face of such a threat.

Fortunately, the heavenly fiend didn't seem interested in the Crimsonguard, nor humans for that matter. Instead, it held its gaze fixed on something in the far distance and began heading toward Direlife Canyon.

"Thousands of peaks and myriads of rivers... The seals of humanity are always so boring." It stretched its hand out into the canyon and appeared shocked. "Yvelbane's shard has been claimed?! By who? And when?"

It scanned its surroundings with divine will, sweeping past the Crimsonguard's camp, but found no trace of it. "Don't tell me it was taken a while ago? The question is who did it..."

It couldn't afford to waste any time searching for it. Sighing, it pressed its hand on the rapidly flowing river. It took but an instant for the vast river to be completely corrupted. Its clear waters instantly turned black and oily.

Then, an earthquake rocked the mountains and caused large rifts to form in the ground, scattering the birds and beasts within. Black sword-like fiend qi emerged from the cracks in the ground and formed a shadowy figure above. The silhouette seemed to have torn wings and golden eyes that seemed to be able to see through the human heart. It rapidly took corporeal form as a flawless humanoid figure.

It lowered its head and observed everyone in the vicinity of the canyon, sending chills down their hearts. Yet, it didn't find anyone that piqued its interest.

Right as the heavenly fiend that accompanied it sighed, two bright beams of light in the distance flashed brightly. One of them was a beam of the mirrored light of six suns, bright and blazing. The other reeked of the profound, lethal north, empty and cold like the abyss.

Sage Mystic Mirror and the Lord Inspector of the North in the distance had sensed the manifestation of the heavenly fiend and stopped their fight, opting for a temporary truce against this formidable new foe.

"Let's go," the twisted heavenly fiend said. "Liferot, help me find someone. He is very... interesting. He might have been the one who obtained the legacy of Yvelbane."

"Very well, I'll do as you say," said the heavenly fiend called Liferot. One small part separated itself from its body and entered the deep forest. "But we have to leave now."

Cracks that leaked primordial chaos appeared in the sky and on the ground, forming a pathway straight to the netherworld. Though unstable and looking like it could collapse at any moment, it allowed the heavenly fiends to pass.

Right after that, the shadows scattered and the pressure vanished. The darkened sun returned to its former self. It was as if the heavenly fiends had never appeared once they disappeared through the rift.

At that moment, the two sages' attacks struck the fiend-qi infested Direlife Canyon. Frost and flame assailed the rocks and trees, darkening the skies and causing endless tremors. Once the dust settled, everyone saw that an additional hole had appeared at the center of Direlife Canyon. It looked as if a divine being had poked a finger through the ground, leaving a hole of frost and smoke behind.

Those two figures faced each other near opposite ends of the canyon, giving the pathway a troubled look before turning to each other.

The man with black and white hair, closed eyes and six haloes floating behind him said in a deep voice, "Our battle has not been settled."

The girl with ivory-white, lustrous hair and a plum-blossom mark between her eyebrows squinted slightly and said in a cold tone, "We'll stop here."

She then flew towards a forest in the distance, stretching her hand out multiple times and saving people with black-green lethal qi. It didn't take long before all the survivors of the Heavenly Demon Cult were carried away protectively by her lethal-qi hands as she rapidly left the area.

"Leave this place. It is dangerous," said the man with closed eyes. "The ancient heavenly fiends have broken out of the seal. This is a matter for Grand Chen's Fiendwatch to handle. By the stipulations of the True Martial Treaty, I will secure these grounds before their arrival."

"Do what the sage says!" The Crimsonguard saluted the sage respectfully before escorting everyone away from the area as quickly as possible.

"Interesting. The heavenly fiends seemed to be looking for something earlier," the Lord Inspector of the North muttered, still surveying the land. "Why's there only one cutie here? I heard there were two miracle-arc bearers..."

As expected. Bai Qinghan was cradled within the power of the Lord Inspector of the North. She looked in the direction An Jing had disappeared in. The senior disciple said he got something that's related to the heavenly fiends. It probably contains some kind of divine power. Is that why he was able to use much more power than he's supposed to?

Gu Yeqi, on the other hand, was heavily surrounded by the Crimsonguard. Before leaving, her gaze also lingered on the deep mountains. "Brother Jing was able to predict the coming of the heavenly fiends after all. He saved us, yet he can't come with us... It doesn't seem like he's convening with a heavenly fiend. Don't tell me it's the owner of the sword qi instead?"

"Hmmm..." Sage Mystic Mirror opened his eyes. There weren't any eyeballs behind his eyelids. At the base of the hollow sockets were two crimson-gold dots that reflected everything. These were special arcane eyes. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

He sighed and said, "The shard of the immortal sword is gone. Did fiend qi mask its location or did the heavenly fiends already take it? Not to mention, I felt two star-associated arcs earlier, yet only one ended up with the demonic cult. Where's the other one?"

He searched a few more times, scanning the mountains around the canyon, but found no trace at all. "This doesn't seem right..."

He turned towards the pitch-black fiend qi in Direlife Canyon and shook his head. "The heavenly fiends are growing more active. It's not just headquarters... I have to finish my report and submit it to Endmost Sky."

Dark shadows moved and bubbled within the deep forest, expanding nonstop. Countless eyes seemed wriggled amidst the oily pitch, changing shape before taking on the form of a Crimsonguard. The only thing that looked off was that its face was replaced with a huge, gaping hole that was the abyss itself, flowing with corruption. The construct sniffed around before stopping as if it encountered an error. It wasn't able to locate its target.

Everyone was hunting for An Jing, whether they knew him or not. Even then, they were doomed to fail.

Deep within the ancient ruins of a foreign world, An Jing gradually rose. He wiped away his cold sweat as he looked at the sealed rift. "I managed to survive... It's still too messy outside, so I'll hide here for a bit longer."