He fell from the cloud because of her sudden carelessness. One instant he was laughing in weightless wonder; the next, the wind howled past his ears as the world spun upside down. But before the sea could swallow him whole, she streaked down from the heights, a streak of crimson light slicing through the sky, her robes whipping like torn banners of dawn. With a single motion she caught him by the back of his collar, turned mid-air, and flung him upward again, like tossing a bird toward freedom. The force of her throw made his limbs tremble; the air itself cracked open around him as he rose.
He could only laugh. His voice echoed across the sky, lost between clouds of gold and red. One side of the horizon shimmered with holy sunset, the other glowed with a quiet, demonic dawn. Between them, two faint silhouettes drifted backward, vast, translucent forms like spirits of forgotten gods, dissolving into mist as though the heavens were exhaling memories.
She guided her cloud beneath him once more, this time wrapping him in its mist. "Don't move," she said sharply. Her tone had changed; the calm serenity was gone now it became little bit angry.
A tremor rippled through the air. She turned suddenly, her sleeve cutting through the mist, and dodged right, just in time. A massive shadow surged past them — a tortoise the size of a mountain gliding through the sky, its shell covered in moss and cracked jade. When its eyes opened, the world turned green for an instant.
"What—what a big tortoise!" he shouted in disbelief.
Their gazes met the creature's ancient eyes, deep as forgotten oceans, but the moment they blinked, it was gone, fading like a mirage.
The woman frowned deeply. "What is happening here? Is some mystery hiding in these skies? Or perhaps…" She trailed off and began counting on her fingers again, whispering under her breath. The runes she traced on her palm shimmered faintly, patterns of light that pulsed with divine rhythm. But halfway through her calculation, she gasped. Blood trickled from her lips.
He rushed closer, panic breaking through his awe. But before he could speak, she turned her head sharply and glared. "You—! Who are you? Who sent you here? Where—"
Before her words could finish, thunder tore open the clouds. A bolt split the heavens and fell upon them. She dodged it in a blur of motion, the lightning grazing her sleeve and burning its edge to ash. Then more followed, torrents of thunder falling like divine spears.
She thrust her hand forward and formed a dragon seal. The clouds beneath them erupted. From the storming clouds, six enormous cloud dragons rose, each of a different hue: crimson, azure, gold, violet, black, and white. Their roars shook the sky. They spiralled upward, colliding with the falling thunder. The clash was like worlds colliding, the sky exploded in colour, fragments of light rained down, and for a heartbeat the whole firmament seemed to turn into glass.
But the moment of victory cost her dearly. She pressed her fingers beneath her thumb again, calculating, murmuring incantations. Her voice faltered. Blood streamed not just from her mouth but from her nose and ears, staining the white silk of her sleeve.
He cried out, "Hey! Blood—your blood's coming from everywhere! Stop! Heal yourself first!"
She wiped the blood with trembling hands, her face pale as moonlight. Fear flickered in her blindfolded eyes. "No…" she whispered. "It's karma. Great karma. Something is rewriting its path…"
The clouds beneath him rose like a slow breath. His body lifted weightlessly until his eyes were level with hers, close enough to see the faint tremor in her red silk blindfold. Her voice, once calm as moonlight, now held a storm's edge.
She grabbed him by the neck, not hard, but with an authority that froze the air between them. The clouds churned around her wrist like coiling serpents. "Now tell me truthfully," she demanded, her voice sharp yet trembling with hidden confusion, "who are you? What is your relationship with her? Why did she send you? You are—"
Her fingers began to tighten unconsciously. The boy gasped, his breath rasping against her grip. His eyes widened, not in fear, but in disbelief. He wanted to speak, to say he knew nothing, but his voice broke into silence.
Then, suddenly, the heavens screamed.
A blinding flash tore through the sky, a lightning so fierce that for a moment, the world turned white. The shockwave roared across the clouds, shaking the heavens themselves.
She released him instinctively and turned. From above the storm, pillars began to descend. Not structures of stone, but titanic columns of living elements. One, burning red, poured molten rock and flame; another, swirling blue-green, howled with condensed wind that shredded everything in its path. The third cracked open the firmament, a pillar of lightning, pulsing like a heart made of storm.
And before she could even draw her breath, two more rose beside her — one of churning black water that hissed with poison, another of stone and frost mixed, radiating deadly stillness. The five pillars circled her, humming with divine rage.
Her body tensed. She turned sideways, slipping through the smallest gap, but the pillars began to rotate, faster and faster, until the entire sky became a vortex of fire, water, wind, lightning, and rock. The sound was unbearable, like the wailing of worlds being born and dying all at once.
She muttered under her breath, "Five… pillars of origin… this is... This is judgment of heaven. What kind of great karma you posses? Why did it happen to me?"
But the boy, unconscious, drifted helplessly below, his body supported by trembling clouds. She cast a glance at him and grit her teeth. "You troublesome child," she whispered. "Even the heavens are after you."
Before she could move, the attack began.
From the pillars came waves of destruction, fireballs spiralling like comets, stones hurled like meteors, arcs of cutting wind that split the sky, water cannons roaring with thunder, and clouds of venomous vapor bubbling up to devour the air itself.
Her fingers blurred into motion, forming seals faster than thought. With every gesture, ribbons of red fabric burst from her sleeves, weaving around her like a cocoon of silk and blood. She dodged, turned, parried with her guzheng slung across her back, each string resonating with divine energy as she strummed in mid-air. Notes of power became blades of sound, cutting through water blasts and shattering fireballs before they reached her.
But the assault didn't stop.
From beneath the five pillars, the sea itself cracked open. From its depths, five dragons emerged — each mirroring the element of its pillar: fire, wind, lightning, water, and earth. Their eyes burned with ancient wrath; their roars tore the clouds into ribbons. They circled the pillars like guardians of chaos and, with one breath, unleashed radiant beams of destruction toward her.
She crossed her fingers and whispered an invocation. The world around her warped, reality itself folded like cloth. The sky turned crimson. A miniature realm unfolded, an enclosed sphere of red fabric woven with celestial symbols, floating in the void.
The dragons' attacks crashed upon it, tearing the surface. The red threads burned, melted, dissolved into ash, but with every collapse, new layers appeared beneath, glowing brighter, stronger, holding the assault at bay.
The heavens trembled. The air was filled with the sound of drums, wind, and screams of beasts. The light was unbearable, red meeting gold, blue striking against black.
For a long, endless minute, she held, her body trembling, her veins glowing faintly through her skin.
Then, her strength gave out.
The miniature world shattered.
An explosion of red light erupted, swallowing the five dragons, the pillars, and the storm. Waves of divine energy rippled outward, distorting space itself. When the light cleared, only tatters of cloud remained, and she, standing at its centre, gasping for breath, her sleeves torn, her blindfold soaked in blood.
And far below, the boy drifted silently, his wooden hat spinning in the slow fall of ash.
.....
When the mist finally scattered, the world looked broken, torn apart by invisible hands. The sky was still trembling, streaked with golden wounds where the clouds had been ripped open. She stood in the middle of it all, swaying slightly, her breath uneven. A crushing weight pressed down on her shoulders, as if an entire mountain had descended upon her chest. Her body screamed under the burden.
Without hesitation, she crossed her hands and began circulating her internal energy. Threads of azure light moved beneath her skin, rushing through her meridians like rivers returning to the sea. Her pale face gained a hint of color, and with a sharp exhale, she darted toward the edge of the sky — toward freedom.
But before she could break through, the heavens changed again.
A deep hum rose from all directions, the same five pillars that had once been scattered across the horizon began to glow. They turned inward, streams of divine light connecting their tips. In an instant, the lines locked together, forming a pentagonal barrier, rising like a transparent mountain around her.
The air thickened. From the five peak points, complex arrays began to bloom, burning lines that spiraled out in perfect geometry. Circles within circles appeared, each spinning at a different rhythm. From their cores, smaller circles branched out, flickering like distant stars, their patterns rewriting the very fabric of space around her.
She looked up, eyes narrowing. "A formation inside a formation… impossible," she murmured.
Above the barrier, the five dragons reappeared, their colossal forms weaving through the sky, eyes burning like molten suns. But their gaze was fixed, not on the unconscious boy, only on her. Their intent was suffocating, their killing will so intense the clouds melted around them.
She clenched her jaw. "Only me… they're after only me."
She turned and, with a flick of her wrist, released the boy's sealed vital points. His body jerked slightly; faint movement returned to his fingers. She watched him for a brief moment, the corner of her mouth tightening — a flicker of something unreadable in her eyes.
But then the sky tore open again.
From the centre of the five-point array, a beam of light shot upward, a mixture of five colours: fire-red, ocean-blue, storm-white, wind-green, and earth-brown. It pierced the heavens, and in response, the sky roared like a living thing.
A tornado began to form above them, vast beyond measure, its eye glowing gold and black, its roar swallowing the sound of the world. It descended slowly, pulling in clouds, lightning, even fragments of light.
She didn't flee. She sat down cross-legged on the cloud, facing it head-on.
Her eyes closed. The storm reflected on her face, calm, composed, yet burning with hidden fury. A faint blue mark lit up on her forehead, pulsing like a third eye opening. The air stilled. The clouds beneath her formed a perfect circle, a stage of silence amidst chaos.
Her guzheng floated before her. As her fingers touched the strings, a second figure emerged from her body, a manifestation, ethereal and translucent, holding another guzheng of pure energy. The sound that followed was not music, it was thunder wearing melody's skin.
She struck the strings once, a deafening wave of sound exploded outward. The first ring of the barrier shattered. Another stroke, and the second array cracked. Then a flurry, a storm of notes that cut through the air like swords. The entire formation trembled. Her spiritual manifestation mirrored her every move, both playing in perfect unison.
Finally, with one last, trembling chord, a sound like the heavens crying, the fifth array burst apart. The formation crumbled, collapsing into collapsing fragments of light. The tornado which was coming towards them with more power.
She gasped. Her manifestation was still there but a sharp pain cut through her body. Blood trickled from the corner of her lips, but her eyes stayed open.
She turned to look at the boy again. He was still lying motionless, drifting within the trembling clouds. "Still asleep…" she muttered weakly.
Then came the sound, five roars, so loud they made the sea below rise in massive waves. From the remains of the pillars, monstrous shapes began to emerge: fire loons wreathed in molten feathers, water loons made of coiling serpentine currents, lightning loons crackling with violent arcs, wind loons transparent yet cutting the air like blades, and earth hands, massive, stone-covered limbs clawing upward toward her. That tornado was already catching up.
They surged forward as one.
Her fingers blurred across the guzheng, each note a burst of energy. Sound became light, light became blades, but each attack only wounded the beasts slightly. Their roars deepened, and with every roar, the entire world responded, the sea rose higher, winds grew sharper, lightning painted the sky in white fire.
She began to play faster, desperate, furious. The strings glowed, the guzheng itself trembling under her hands. Notes became storms; storms became a shield.
Still, the creatures came closer, tornado about to tear them up. But...
With a scream that tore her throat, she pulled all ten strings at once. The guzheng burst with light, and from her hands, she hurled a sphere of energy, swirling like a miniature sun.
It struck the centre of the battlefield.
A soundless explosion followed, light expanding outward, then collapsing into silence. When the brilliance faded, all five dragons and their loons were gone, reduced to shimmering dust.
The boy woke with a gasp, his eyes wide, confusion painting his face. She turned to look at him, half in relief, half in disbelief, but her attention shifted as she noticed the sky changing again.
The magma pillar began to melt, its fire sinking into the sea. The water pillar dissolved into steam. The wind pillar twisted itself into the others. The lightning pillar, with one last scream of thunder, struck toward them, only to be devoured by her own clouds. The earth pillar broke apart, scattering into dust that the storm carried away.
She stumbled to her feet. Blood poured from her mouth this time, thick, dark, unstoppable. Her legs trembled, her aura dimming like a fading lantern.
In the far distance, through the smoke and mist, a veil shimmered faintly, like a wall between worlds.
The boy saw it too, but when he turned to her, her expression was strange, calm on the surface, but her eyes… her eyes spoke of something far darker.
Something she had just realized.
Something that changed everything.
To be Continued...