She turned, eyes narrowed. The figure before her radiated pure divinity. His face was hidden by a layer of distortment but she knew who it belonged to.
She staggered back.
From fear and recognition.
"You! I earned this," she growled. "I paid the price. I built this brick by brick!"
The peak on the other hand groaned as it was filled with death qi.
Blood soaked every inch of earth, painting it like a canva of blood. Limbs jutted from shattered armor. Numerous spears, broken tusks, and torn banners littered the ground like quills of a porcupine.
Above it all, Huolian rose from the carnage, cloaked in blood-red shen qi, eyes blazing like two dying stars.
Her halberd made from the blood of the dead dragged a line through the mud, singing with the screams of those it had slain. Her face was no longer human, it was demonic and twisted.
The air split open as The Hidden Man descended like divine judgment into the mortal realm.
He hovered, untouched by the rot below, his skin shimmering with Greater Shen Qi. A golden glow so pure that it distorted reality surrounded him. His golden staff spun silently at his side, casting halos of blinding light with each slow rotation.
Huolian stabbed her halberd into the ground.
The earth responded.
A tsunami of flesh and bone erupted behind her as Monkey-Orc corpses, reanimated and snarling, their arms fused with jagged weapons and dripping entrails.
Fallen warriors from all three tribes screamed as they were pulled from death by her will, their eyes glassy, their wounds unhealed.
They charged, shrieking.
The Hidden Man moved.
A single sweep of his staff vaporized dozens, their bodies exploding like overripe fruits. But the swarm kept coming. Huolian vanished into it.
BOOM!!!
Red and golden aura blasted around the battlefield.
The halberd and staff collided in the center of the battlefield with such force that the earth cratered, swallowing the undead and catapulting debris like arrows.
Her halberd danced like a serpent, with beastly wide arcs, brutal thrusts, unpredictable feints. All wrapped in a storm of shrieking blood qi like a demon.
The Hidden Man blocked, parried and countered each of the monstrous blows elegantly.
Huolian ducked under his swing, carving a deep gash through his side, golden blood spilling like molten sunlight.
She followed through, not giving him a moment of rest as she continued spinning, cleaving, lunging. Her halberd dancing like a veil of red.
He caught her next strike and twisted mid-air in a inhuman manner.
Snapped her shoulder with a burst of force that sent bone shards tearing through her flesh.
She howled but not in pain. Instead, it was in ecstasy.
The ground behind them ruptured.
Bloody aberrants rised from the soil in varieties.
Fanged serpents made of intestines, multi-armed giants molded from flesh and armored bone.
Huolian disappeared within the horde again, reemerging atop a mountain of corpses. Her halberd pulsed like a dying red sun.
The Hidden Man surged forward. He spun like a drill leaving five undead split in half.
He ascended into the skies.
She followed him up in bloodlust.
Midair, they collided again, staff crashing into halberd, shattering qi formations and creating shockwaves that leveled the entire peak.
Huolian twisted around his guard, dug her halberd into his chest.
He spat blood but he didn't stop.
Golden Qi exploded, flinging her back. Her ribs shattered on impact, her bones puncturing her lung. She coughed blood, her eyes wide and her face drained of all colours.
But still, she rose back up
She screamed, no words, just pure rage as she rushed at him for a final strike.
Her halberd descended breaking apart the sound barrier.
But the staff was already there.
It spun around the halberd, the next moment.
Slash!
Huolian's head sailed through the air, spinning once in the air as her body collapsed.
The blood constructs shrieked as they crumbled
The undead let groans of peace as they rested again.
The halberd struck the ground last. The place blasted with her blood qi.
And as her blood pooled into the earth she ruled, the sky darkened as the clouds turned crimson.
An explosion followed as her shen qi dissipated.
Red hibiscus covered the broken peak leaving behind a scene of serene beauty over the horror which lay beneath
The Hidden Man did not descend. He said a final prayer and turned away.
The sky cracked again as he ascended into the upper realms again.
And behind him, the battlefield began to rot.
"From betrayal and blood she rose,
On broken oaths and graves of the close.
She reached for gods with a crimson hand
But fell unheard upon her land."
"Ah, fuck. I probably shouldn't go down that route. I didn't expect those righteous Daoist buggers to sniff me out this early."
Huolian laughed.
"I've only got four fate beads left. It matters not."
She probed them inside her core.
"I can always acquire more."
Huolian was not dead. The massacre had not yet happened.
It was merely one of infinite futures that can take place and now, she had seen it.