Earth - Central Park
The electric gold of the Heavenly Tribulation didn't just fade; it shattered. The ominous clouds, which had gathered to punish Takeshi for defying the natural order, simply evaporated, leaving behind a clear night sky and a silence so profound it hurt the ears. The universe, it seemed, had decided to look away.
"The Tribulation... it's gone," Riku whispered, her voice trembling. She didn't question the miracle. She didn't care about the physics of it. She only cared about the man bleeding out in her lap.
She pressed her hands harder against Tim's chest, trying to stem the flow of blood and the spreading black corruption of the void burns. She closed her eyes, forcing her consciousness toward the Soul Qi Bridge, trying to siphon even a drop of vitality from Varek to Tim.
But the connection was fraying. Tim's pulse was a fading echo.
"Don't you dare," Riku sobbed, tears dripping onto his pale face. "We just started this. You don't get to leave."
Cultivation World - The Arena Ruins
The thunderclap of the closing rift faded, leaving behind a heavy silence.
Varek stood shocked and how quickly it all happened. His saber of light flickered and sputtered, the Dao of Light failing him as darkness swallowed the only thing that mattered.
"LIA," Varek shouted, slashing his physical saber at the empty air. "TIM!"
He struck the space again and again, channeling every ounce of his Qi, pushing his Dao of Cutting to find a seam, a flaw, anything he could pry apart. He slashed until his arm burned, desperate to carve a path back to her. But the air simply parted and reformed. He couldn't cut what wasn't there.
He was helpless. For all his power, for all his breakthroughs, he was just a man swinging a sword at nothing.
"She's gone," he choked out, raising the blade for another futile strike. "I have to—"
A hand landed firmly on his shoulder. It wasn't heavy, but it was grounding enough to stop his arm mid-swing.
Varek spun around, his eyes wild, his chest heaving. Kira stood there, clutching her side where blood oozed between her fingers from her own battle with Xotl, but her gaze was steady.
"Stop, Varek," she said, her voice rough but calm. "You can't cut your way in."
"She's alone!" Varek shouted, his voice cracking. "She chased a monster into its own dimension! She's alone in the dark!"
"She chose to go," Kira corrected him, her grip on his shoulder tightening.
Varek stared at the empty space, his hand trembling on his sword hilt. "If she dies in there..."
"She won't, Have faith in her. Lets go looking for her she cant have gotten far." Kira said
Earth - Central Park
Tim's eyes rolled back, his chest heaving with a wet, rattling gasp. The black void scars were spreading.
"Help!" Riku screamed at the empty sky. "Someone help him!"
"Move aside, Riku."
The voice came from above. It wasn't loud, but it carried a weight that cut through the chaos of the battlefield.
Riku looked up through her tears.
Floating twenty feet in the air, seemingly standing on nothing but the dense Qi that now flooded the park, were two figures.
Yui stood with her arms crossed, looking down with an expression that was usually reserved for failed training sets—stern, critical, but undeniably focused.
Beside her was Master Kurokawa. The old man looked serene, his eyes closed, his presence radiating a calm.
"Mistress Yui," Kurokawa said softly. "We must keep a low profile.
"I know," Yui replied, her gaze fixed on Tim's dying form. "But I can see a friend dying. And I think the golden giant and the Heavenly Tribulation kind of blew our low profile out of the water."
She descended, floating down like a feather until her boots touched the grass beside Riku.
"Riku, move aside," Yui commanded, kneeling.
"No, I won't!" Riku snarled, pressing her hands over Tim's wound as if she could hold his life in by sheer force of will. "He tried to protect me! This is my fault! I can fix it!"
"You can't," Yui said, her voice softening just a fraction. "Not here. Not with what you know."
Riku looked up, tears streaming down her face, her mask of confidence completely shattered. She hiccupped, a sound of pure misery.
"Yui... he's dying."
"I know," Yui said. She placed a hand on Riku's shoulder. "That's why you need to let me work. I can help him."
Riku stared at her friend—the girl she thought was just a sadistic martial arts trainer—and finally registered what she had seen moments ago.
"You were floating," Riku whispered.
"We have a lot to talk about," Yui said grimly. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small jade vial. She popped the cork and poured a single drop of golden liquid into Tim's mouth. "But first, we save the idiot."
Tim's convulsing stopped immediately. The black lines on his chest didn't vanish, but they stopped spreading.
Yui looked up at the floating old man.
"Master Kurokawa, lets head back to the dojo. We can help him there."
The old man nodded, drifting down toward the other side of the crater Derek had made.
"Master," Yui called out, pointing a finger at the massive, golden-skinned giant standing motionless with Himari in his arms. "Can you please bring Himari and that... wheelchair rocket man?"
Cultivation World - Field Outside the Stadium
Tim was eating the best baby back ribs of his life.
They were tender, falling off the bone, and slathered in a sauce that tasted like pure vitality. The juices exploded in his mouth with every bite, a warm, metallic sweetness that filled the hollow ache in his chest and soothed the burning scars on his soul.
"Fuck, this is good," he mumbled, his eyes closed in ecstasy as he sucked the savory drippings from his fingers. He felt strong. He felt full. The cold darkness that had been threatening to swallow him was being pushed back by the sheer caloric intake of this feast.
"LIA! Are you there?!"
The voice cut through his gastronomic bliss like a knife. It was frantic, raw, and terrifyingly familiar.
Wait, Tim thought, his chewing slowing. Is that Varek?
The name acted as a harsh anchor, dragging his consciousness out of the dream and slamming it back into reality.
He snapped his eyes open.
He wasn't sitting at a BBQ joint on Earth. He was kneeling in dirt.
He wasn't looking at sticky, sauce-covered male fingers. He was staring at delicate, pale hands—Lia's hands.
And he wasn't holding a rib bone.
Clutched in his grip was a large, ragged chunk of black, shadowy flesh. It pulsed faintly, leaking a dark, viscous ichor that coated Lia's chin and hands.
Tim gagged, the illusion of barbecue sauce instantly replaced by the taste of ozone, raw meat, and ancient, condensed power.
Lia blinked, her vision clearing. She was sitting in a grassy field, the ruins of the stadium smoking in the distance behind her.
What the fuck happened? Lia thought, panic rising in her throat. My last memory was jumping into the rift... the cold... passing out in the void...
She looked down.
Sprawled on the grass in front of her was the carcass of the Golden Core Avatar.
It wasn't just defeated. It had been butchered.
The massive shadow-entity was torn open, its essence seemingly hollowed out. It looked like a pack of wolves had descended upon it.
"LIAAAAA!"
The shout was closer this time. Varek.
Lia scrambled backward, dropping the chunk of shadow flesh as if it were burning coal.
Varek must be nearby, she realized, her heart hammering against her ribs. I have to hide this. How could I possibly explain this? 'Sorry I worried you, I was just cannibalizing a shadow monster in a field?'
She wiped her mouth frantically with her sleeve, but the black ichor stained the silk.
"Shadow worm," she hissed, looking around wildly.
She found it on her shoulder. The shadow leech had shrunk down to the size of a coin, trying to make itself as small and inconspicuous as possible.
But it wasn't just hiding. It was trembling.
The creature wasn't bloated from the feast; it was cowering. It pressed itself flat against her skin, its tiny form vibrating with sheer, abject terror.
"Quick," Lia whispered, pointing at the gruesome remains of the Avatar. "Devour the leftovers. Now."
The leech shuddered violently. A wave of psychic panic hit Lia—a plea for mercy. It looked at the carcass, then back at Lia's ichor-stained lips, and recoiled.
"NOW," she growled.
The leech didn't dare hesitate. Driven by fear it dove off her shoulder. It expanded mid-air into a sheet of desperate darkness, enveloping the remains of the Xotl avatar. It sucked the shadow flesh, the black bones, and even the spilled juices into its own form with a frantic, wet slurping sound, scrubbing the crime scene clean in seconds.
It contracted rapidly, suppressing a spectral shudder, and zipped back to her shoulder, trying to flatten itself as much as possible.
Just as the last trace of black blood vanished, a figure crested the hill.
Varek stumbled into the clearing. His robes torn, his face pale with terror. Kira was right behind him, clutching her side.
"Lia!" Varek gasped, spotting her sitting in the grass.
He didn't walk; he fell toward her, scrambling on his knees until he could grab her shoulders. He looked her over frantically, searching for wounds.
"You're here," he breathed, his voice cracking. "You're actually here."
Lia offered a shaky smile, keeping her hands hidden behind her back.
"I... I made it," she said, her voice hoarse. "I handled it."
Varek pulled her into a crushing hug, burying his face in her neck. "I thought I lost you. I thought you were gone forever."
Lia hugged him back with her clean forearms, careful not to let her stained palms touch his robes. Over his shoulder, she saw Kira staring at her.
The assassin's eyes narrowed. She looked at the patch of grass where the avatar had been—now conspicuously clean and slightly withered—then at the dark stain on the corner of Lia's mouth.
Kira didn't say a word. She just raised an eyebrow, her gaze flickering to the trembling lump on Lia's shoulder.
"I'm okay," Lia whispered to Varek, closing her eyes as the shadow leech pulsed with fear against her neck. "We're all okay."