Amdirlain's PoV - Bali

The following morning, Amdirlain wasn't far from where she'd watched Klipyl deal with the Sahuagin. Sarah had deployed the house just over the high tide mark. So when dawn arrived, she knelt on the veranda's edge, and listened to it focus on the various creatures feeding in the depths. Their aggression made it wary, but its cannons remained on standby while they stayed beneath the water.

Klipyl slipped from the house; her hair still braided with a rainbow of ribbons. She moved beside Amdirlain, her gaze taking in the thousands of tiny gates that floated level with the porch lip.

"What can I get the newlyweds?"

"Like you allowed anyone to get you anything? I remember a distinct lack of celebrations." Klipyl rolled her eyes and gently mussed Amdirlain's hair.

"Our celebrations were private," argued Amdirlain.

"As were ours," said Klipyl. "What's with all the tiny gates? Are you preparing another star?"

Amdirlain waved to those on her left. "That side is deep space. The other side links to a Demi-Plane that I'm expanding."

"Will you be creating a new type of trial? Normally, you expand them pretty quick."

"No, Gilorn said we'd create demi-planes together for her training. Then, after the biomes were in place, we joined the environment with a suitable Plane. You could say with this one, the devil is in the details."

"Ammie," groaned Klipyl. "Even I have limits with my puns. What sort of place are you making?"

"A dangerous one for which I'll need lots of room to build. Once I determine how far I can expand the Demi-Plane, I'll plan around that," explained Amdirlain.

I'll need lots of space so they won't notice my sleight of hand; cloud architecture for the win.

"What are you planning to do?"

"Run up a new, more hostile instance," Amdirlain winked.

"I think I'm going to put that one in the past life bucket and not ask for an explanation. To change the subject; my thanks for the bow. It's pretty and yet dangerous for the bad guys. It was all Celestial energy, so those explosions won't hurt innocents, right?"

"Yep, nothing layered underneath, so no friendly fire incidents unless you target close to a Fallen," reassured Amdirlain.

"That better not include you," said Klipyl.

Amdirlain shrugged. "Try not to give me a suntan."

"Sis," grumbled Klipyl. "Don't make things that can hurt you."

"I heard your Zen Archery lessons, so I made you the strongest bow you could handle," said Amdirlain. "After this trip, you probably won't see me again until I've gotten rid of my Fallen state. Until then, ensure you target foes at least a hundred metres from me. Are you two going to take a day to yourself after Kadaklan finishes meditating?"

"Is it alright if we stay here a few days?" asked Klipyl hesitantly. "We could do some painting and maybe go see his parents."

Amdirlain's bright smile lit up her face, and Klipyl visibly relaxed. "Slow and steady progress towards the court. If we camp out a week, two, or heck, a few months somewhere along the way, I'm not fussed."

"It just means you've more time for preparations?"

"A wife to snuggle, colossi to make, demi-planes to play with, and gas clouds for star creation, I've got plenty to do," reassured Amdirlain.

"I'm glad Sarah came first on that list." Klipyl sat beside her and rested her head on Amdirlain's shoulder. "Where is she right now?"

"Tinkering. She had some improvements she wanted to explore after dealing with those cities," said Amdirlain, and tried to shift back to a safer topic. "You handle your bow with impressive grace and certainty, Klipyl."

"I simply waited for the correct moment each time," replied Klipyl.

"When you and the target were one?"

"I'm not a Zen Master. I feel the connection points," clarified Klipyl. "At the moment that the arrow's path is right, I let it fly."

I'm not the only one who can be blind to their gifts. The right path? Well, I don't have a use for him myself; maybe his path lies with Klipyl.

Amdirlain opened a small Gate, and a silvery fist-sized cube with golden veins glimmered on the other side of the threshold; his melody was bright and alert. The table was in the middle of a massive stone chamber filled with various-sized True Song crystals, all aglow from the Ki and Mana within. Links to millions of satellites touched him, and he sipped playfully on dozens at once, mentally savouring the geography and internal details of the worlds on display.

"Are you awake, sleepy boy?"

Golden eyes opened on the side of the cube facing them, and feet stuck out from the right side, wiggling casually. "I'm on my side." The words projected from him sounded like he was holding back a yawn despite having no visible mouth.

The playful music running through him gave the game away, but Amdirlain didn't let on. "So it would seem. Want to try again?"

"No, I want more sleep." The eyes closed with a snap, but an arm stuck from the top of the cube and casually flopped back and forth.

Klipyl squealed in delighted glee at the metallic lisp, her gaze on his tiny fingers wiggling in a little wave. "You're so cute."

The golden eyes snapped back open and shifted to regard her. "Hello, Miss Klipyl."

"Klipyl's going to be travelling without me soon, and a guide would be helpful," said Amdirlain, and decided on a nudge. "Should I ask someone else?"

The feet withdrew, and the cube tipped up on that end, his tone sulky. "No, I guide Miss Klipyl."

"Have you decided on a name yet?"

"Nope." The cube wobbled back and forth before regarding Klipyl again. "Are you travelling now?"

"Not yet," replied Klipyl.

He managed an enormous sigh, and Amdirlain caught the upper edges of the cube flex. He seemed to droop, and his eyes slid sorrowfully closed. "Okay, please wake me when you leave, Miss Klipyl."

Amdirlain kept her laughter suppressed. "My apologies, sleepy boy. I'll let you rest and watch your data feeds."

She closed the Gate, and Klipyl looked heartbroken. "He's so cute. Why is he in your storage room?"

Amdirlain snorted. "If you buy into that act, he'll have you eating out of his hand. He's worse than a feline with a butter-wouldn't-melt-in-his-mouth routine. He started as an infernal mapping cube, but I was careless."

"How?" spluttered Klipyl.

"The special ability Inventory is an evolution of the Ki Power Soul Space, and I had an infernal mapping cube within it for decades. Things happened," explained Amdirlain. "I've been feeding him information on worlds once I realised his potential. He woke up properly while I was having my two-year meditation, but he's still happily ingesting the geography of worlds through various observation satellites. If there are any particular worlds you want to travel on, let me know, and I'll hook him up a relay over it."

"I've got a cute little nephew."

"I keep creating life. Who would have thought it?" drawled Amdirlain.

They're not typical children, but I can't say I ended up as childless as I expected for years.

Klipyl smiled gleefully. "He doesn't make you feel all gooey?"

"No," Amdirlain glared with mock sternness.

"But!"

Amdirlain didn't relent with her glare. "No, don't go there."

"But I want to tease you," protested Klipyl.

She grinned slyly. "Don't you think I know that?"

"Ammie," protested Klipyl, planting her hands on her hips.

"Kadaklan is rousing from his meditation. Why don't you go snuggle? I've got lots of toys to make."

Amdirlain opened up a fresh set of gates above the others, connecting hundreds of empty demi-planes, and more figures shimmered into existence across vast plains.

"How many are you making?"

"A few trillion won't be enough. I'll need troops capable of keeping devils and demons distracted."

Hopefully, Laodice heard that, and their real purpose surprises her. I need to work out more contingency layers. I could set up some whose remains work as different traps. It will all be True Song. Even if all it does is have them looking at all the True Song noise, it might distract them enough while I'm elsewhere, not using any.

A line of figures appeared, the external shells hollow capsules for the crystal jigsaw pieces within—hundreds of thousands of magical explosives waiting to be activated.

Klipyl leaned down and kissed the top of her head before heading back inside.

A land area the size of Jupiter's orbit. Who am I kidding? Trillions won't be enough unless I spread them too thin along the boundary. The circumference of a circle that has a radius of seven hundred and seventy-eight is roughly four thousand, eight hundred and eighty-odd, say round up to five thousand. Convert to kilometres and a million times that, and I'll need five trillion to have one each kilometre of the fading domain's boundary. Given their size, they need about a hundred metres to be effective on flat ground, so ten per kilometre taking it to fifty trillion. However, the terrain isn't smooth, so I'll want a staggered line, and one line of 'troops' isn't enough. I'll need to handle aerial foes and enough noise that the bomb carriers and beacons blend.

Amdirlain snorted at the total experience tally.

Proper preparation prevents piss-poor performance. The perfect outcome of a decoy is for the enemy never to figure out it is a distraction, but they'll know it is a distraction since the regiments' makeup will only comprise constructs. I need to make it a decoy they can't ignore, despite knowing it's there to distract.

As she continued calculating and running through options, her task grew. Within the void she was expanding, figures started to float as Amdirlain sang on.

With concealments wrapped around her to hide the flames, Amdirlain floated away from the porch. The blood dripping into the flames turned to steam that she swept off into a Demi-Plane to avoid leaving any traces that might be used against her.

Later that same morning, Klipyl and Kadaklan set off to meet with his parents and enjoy a short honeymoon away from others.

As the day progressed, Amdirlain persevered in her singing, maintaining a fierce pace despite the strenuous nature of the varied songs. She spent days alternating between relaxation with Sarah, training with Jinfeng, and her brutal preparations. It was late at night on the fifth day when a Message reached her. It carried the details of a location in the West Wind's territory and the surrounding situation in a compressed psychic burst.

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Dor Ji's PoV - South East Himalayas

The chill wind cut through the dull robes she'd donned for this task. Unlike those she had worn for decades, the enchantments favoured stealth, not comfort. That luxury, along with her title, was now in the past, relegated to the years before the exposure of the rot. Before the Storm Peak sect elders had learned of the gradual corruption that Di Yu had set to fester in those who should have inherited their noble ideals.

The sect's triumvirate of grandmasters had set the three judges, and those sealed to oaths of silence by them, to trace the minions that had spread the festering rot.

Their search had led them to this night and this place. It was nothing much to look at from the outside, but in this concealed valley, the demon worshiper's sect had twisted ley lines that should have sat a mountain apart to cross. The focal point was the blocky stronghold in the middle, around which the winds ripped with a scything force; fortunately, the noise the wind caused made her sneaking around easier. Unfortunately, each quiet step around took her further from where the judges' squad had gathered. Along the way, she added runes to the rocks, down low where most patrols wouldn't think to look for them. A crunch of rocks had her heart in her throat as she finished the last brush stroke of a rune—the rasp of the brush had never sounded so loud. The clatter of hooved feet made her drop her hand to the concealment charm; its destruction would let the squad know of her doom.

A yak poked its head between the low trees. As it took another step forward, it exploded in a spray of blood, the spiral blast of bones and clawed hands continued until it drilled into the cliff face. Dor Ji stepped sideways and twisted to put her back against the boulder, crouching as low as she could.

The rasping voice of a Demon rose above the wind. "You brought me out here over an animal?"

"I saw something moving among the trees. What do humans see in such things?"

"They feed off them. I'm going back inside," growled the first Demon.

A claw scraped across the rock, and the second Demon slurped up entrails. "Warm, unlike this place."

"Corpses grow cold fast; better to keep them alive to play with," advised the first. With that, he stomped off, his previously silent hooves cracking stone.

The sounds from the second Demon continued as he sucked in torn flesh like noodles while Dor Ji slipped away. She prayed silently to Quan Yin to have mercy on her and that the charm of concealment would continue to hold. She didn't notice the blood the destruction had splattered against her leg, nor that it slowly dripped free.

Her heart stayed in her mouth for the rest of the trip around the perimeter. Every click and strange gust caused her to freeze. At the last stop, all she could hear was her heartbeat, its drumbeat filling her ears as she set the ultimate rune. As Ki and Mana poured out of her, the ink vanished, and the barrier closed with a bright shimmer. A bird call came from the direction of the others before they raced in through the barrier that would keep the demons from escaping.

After a long count of a hundred, Dor Ji felt her heart calm again. She stroked a hand down her pants leg and felt a tacky spot tug at her glove.

"What was the pretty light meant to do?" The growled words came from behind her, and she recognised the second Demon's voice. He stepped forward softly, the knee joints of his furred legs as odd as the skinless fox head mounted on his furry body.

A goat-headed demon with three-fingered hands and gleaming claws emerged from a nearby shadow. "It keeps demons inside, but we're already out."

Scores of demons emerged from the shadows to move in close behind the pair.

"Why did you want her to complete it?"

"One of her for fifty of us versus thousands for each of those that went inside. This way, we all have time to play with this toy and don't have to fight three immortals. I already told our lord that humans are sneaking about the place," explained the goat patiently. "Let's play with our little animal now, but don't kill her."

The fox's lips curled eagerly as he moved around to her flank. "I want to hear her death screams."

Another Demon spoke up from the shadows, a wizened old man with obsidian eyes. "I saw the runes she used; if we kill her, the barrier will not drop. It will feed off her death and seal it for millennia. Do not kill her."

"See, I wasn't the only one who knew," snorted the goat. "You're just too dumb."

"It reeks of sin." The Human-looking demon stated.

The goat's nostrils flared wide, and he dipped his head as if about to change. "We should torture her to make her stay in Di Yu shorter."

"You're too compassionate, brother," laughed the fox. "It will be your downfall."

Do they plan to talk me to death?

The thought broke her free of her frozen terror, and Dor Ji snapped the charm at her belt to drop the concealment, hoping those within would catch her presence. She darted to the open side, only for a blow to spin her from her feet and bounce her across the ground. The night air, surging in through her ripped garments, obliterated the momentary warmth of blood on her skin.

The goat snickered. "Now I can smell how pitiful you are. Run, little rabbit. That is your zodiac. A little water rabbit."

"We should drown her in her blood," cackled the fox, its tongue darted out to taste her scent.

"Drown her in filth." The minor demons roared.

A flailing hand found the charm on her belt to snap, and Dor Ji blurred away; her mind barely controlled the zephyr of speed that flooded through her limbs. Explosions ripped the ground around her as she dodged among the trees. Her hold on the barrier around the heretical sect's camp almost slipped as a thrown rock smashed into her side and spun her into a tree. An enchanted blaze from her ring speared back along the attack's trajectory and eviscerated two demons. The fox who threw it had yanked both into the strike's path to absorb the blow.

"I said don't kill her!" The man's jaw widened as he roared his order over the wind.

Mentally cursing the wizened Demon, she scrambled to her feet, once finely manicured nails cracked and bloody. She bit the cap off a steel flask from her boot and tossed it in the air just in time. The droplets of Ki sprayed down as the fox surged forward; only hastily raised arms prevented him from being blinded or killed. The earth drew all the blazing energy down, which blew through his shoulders and chest, tumbling him backward but incinerating five others.

Her momentary triumph turned to dust in her mouth as the goat's charge caught her side, and her flight ended when she smashed into yet another tree. Her shirt and jacket ripped from her and hung up on his horns, but they blinded him too briefly to matter. He jumped in to drop both knees into her stomach. A hand pinning her down by the throat, cutting her exhalation off, and the other dipped between her breasts.

"What an interesting spot for a gemstone. I wonder if it will hurt to pry it from you."

I don't want to die that way.

The Demon stabbed an elongated nail into her breastbone, and her desperate wail clawed at the blocked airway.

Unknown contingencies activated as the Demon touched the crystal, and a Message flared to its creator.

A sudden crunch announced Lady Am's arrival. Her eyes glowing with rage, she stood there with the Demon's arm shattered in her grasp. Dor Ji's jaw dropped.

How did she know I was in danger?

Beckoned in by Dor Ji's earlier scream, the rest of those hunting her rushed in for the kill. White flames engulfed their surroundings, and Dor Ji gasped in relief when they left her untouched. Demons popped, and the black goop they became in death incinerated to ash. The wizened old demon burst apart in a scream of terror.

"Lady Dor Ji. It seems you got yourself into a spot of trouble." Lady Am said, gently lifting Dor Ji to her feet with ease as if she were a mother tending a babe.

Dor Ji closed her eyes, not wanting to face the contempt she expected in her gaze. "I'm Enchanter Dor Ji now, an associate member of the Storm Peak sect. I aspire to redeem myself someday."

"There are lots of demons inside and an active Di Yu Gate. You've been hunting a heretical sect?" asked Lady Am matter-of-factly.

A bellowing roar came from within the compound. As its parapets rocked, the high cliffs for kilometres around shed rocks and Dor Ji's shoulders slumped. "The squad is going to die. The Yomi King's son is loose."

"Only a weakened Avatar. The Gate didn't have enough charge built up to support a full transition, and that has him thoroughly pissed off," announced Lady Am. Four figures appeared around them: the red-clad woman she'd met at Silver Lake, the prodigy who'd competed at the White Claw ranking tournament, the Immortal Phoenix Kadaklan, and a smiling woman she'd never met. Fatigue and stress made the world spin, and Dor Ji cursed her mind's inability to remember two of their names.

A Jian appeared in the prodigy's hand, and its appearance dragged the name Jinfeng up from memory, but the red woman's foreign name remained elusive.

The top of the compound exploded, and a tusked demonic head popped out of the second-story roof, snarling in rage. Four arms burst through the walls and flailed about for purchase.

As the visible shock wave rippled outwards, Lady Am, the red lady, and the smiling woman changed. Dor Ji caught the after-image of black feathers bursting from Lady Am's skin as she vanished, and scarlet blazed from the red woman's flesh. Dor Ji inhaled as she found herself beneath a scaled creature whose wings and long tail obliterated the trees and undergrowth, smashed rocks and took out the compound's closest wall. Parts of the cliff face rang off crystalline scales, and Jinfeng looked up open-mouthed while the smiling woman turned into a giant and hunched beneath the beast's underbelly. White ribbons came from her massive back, and concentric golden barriers radiated around her to enclose Dor Ji and Jinfeng. The rocks that got under the beast's half-furled wings had their momentum robbed, the stones drifting to the ground. Kadaklan stood unbothered at the back of the group, transforming into a man-sized Phoenix, his feathers a steady amber blaze.

The Demon roared again, but this time, it was a shrill bellow of fear instead of rage. As the red creature above her turned, Dor Ji saw a glimpse of the ruined compound. A massive black feathered monster hung upside down above it; the edges of its wings burned with white flames that screamed louder than damned souls. Two fierce blue-white flames burned in the empty eye sockets of its skeletal head, its wings and long serpentine body blocked the view of the mountain behind. Before Dor Ji could blink, an avalanche of beak strikes ripped at the Yomi King's son; rents turned into gaping wounds before a golden Phoenix with black stars for eyes raced from the monster's mouth and drilled a tight hole through his body, causing two of his arms to drop.

The Demon screamed and, as if in sympathy, an underground explosion caused the ground to bounce beneath her and shake the mountains. The monster opened its beak wide and clamped onto the Demon's massive head; its prey secured, the winged serpent drew back, lifting him from the ground. The flames roiling around its enormous body illuminated the entire valley with the intensity of a desert sun.

Demons poured out from the shattered main building and other holes around the compound like a kicked ants' nest, only to take one look at the serpent overhead and flee. As if bored by his two still flailing hands, it coiled endlessly around its struggling prey and squeezed a black rain from his body. Torrents of fine ashes sprayed from between the coils, dissolving as they drifted to the ground. Under the grotesque downpour, the demons fled until they ran into Dor Ji's barrier—despite her terror, a surge of pride at its hold on them ran through her.

Above her, as the scaled beast inhaled, the noise stifled the valley's winds, and when its head snapped forward, a thick purple gas erupted from its maw to spread across the compound. The vapours spiralled and twisted, rushing over and through gaps in the wall to engulf everything at ground level. Caught in it, the decimated forest died, and the fleeing demons turned to desiccated husks with no fluid left to explode in their usual fashion. The thickening vapour rolled into every opening across the compound.

Only the black dragons of the scourge had anything like that attack.

Shaking herself free of her mental freeze, Dor Ji shook her head frantically. "No! There were allies in there!"

The smiling giant shook blue locks from her shoulders before patting Dor Ji with surprising delicacy. A warm woollen jacket enfolded her but didn't touch the freezing fear squeezing her heart. "Look behind you, Dor Ji. Something ripped away all concealments and physical transformations, but Am wouldn't let allies die."

Dor Ji staggered and spun, and beneath the Dragon's stomach and wings, the judges' squad stood, all hundred strong, bloodied and marked by hard battle but alive. From the expressions, something had their attention riveted from the surrounding devastation.

"Is that feathered serpent Am, Klipyl?" breathed Jinfeng, her knuckles white on her hilt.

"Yep, sis has grown," replied Klipyl. "Does your brain need another reset?"

"The star still takes first place," breathed Jinfeng. Her gaze traced the feathered coils, obsidian sheathed in searing flames, and the tip of her blade trembled. "Maybe. What happened?"

'I brought you here for a little tussle, but the squad used a relic made by the Jade Emperor to stop the Yomi King's deceptions. It had the effect of stripping assumed forms from everything in eight kilometres.'

The voice inside her mind was Lady Am's, but Dor Ji knew without a doubt it came from the monster, and she could feel its gaze even sheltered beneath the red-scaled Dragon.

"How long will you be that way?" asked Jinfeng.

'Maybe until sunset tomorrow. The relic released an energy that coated me.'

Jinfeng shook from head to toe and briefly closed her eyes. "A missed opportunity to try my skills."

'There are still more demons and corrupted spirits in the mountains around here; the Gate's destruction didn't pull them back to Di Yu. A few thousand to fight, Jinfeng,' advised Lady Am. Her mental touch barely brushed Dor Ji's mind, but each word felt like she was under the gaze of a mountain Shen—eternal and more powerful than she could dream to be. 'While I repair the ley lines, you and the squads can hunt them down.'

Dor Ji gasped. "We entered under concealment, but I didn't know we bypassed that many."

"You didn't need to know Dor Ji," said Lady Kalni, her hands busy re-securing equipment among her robes. "Our thanks for the rescue, Lady Am. Also, Lady Sarah, we appreciate the maps of the foes you've provided."

What maps?

"That's lots for us to clean up," said Klipyl.

The red-scaled neck twisted about, a gleaming faceted eye fixed on Klipyl, and a sibilant voice rumbled. "I never promised to share the fun."

"Sarah," Klipyl huffed, waving a finger reprovingly. "That's not teamwork."

Sarah, that was the red woman's name.

Jinfeng started laughing, and Dor Ji stared at her incredulously. "You're travelling with monsters."

Lady Kalni hissed. "You forget yourself, Dor Ji."

"Guess that makes her our boy priest," snickered Sarah, causing Lady Kalni to freeze in confusion.

Lady Am's beak opened, and the pulverised skull dropped into the pit left by the explosion. As a new dust cloud rose, her feathered body fully uncoiled to loop overhead around the small valley.

"You've grown, Sis," said Klipyl.

'Yeah, I've grown a few kilometres. You'd all best get to hunting; the demons are scattering.'

Dor Ji's gaze ran from Am's hooked beak along her length, trying to calculate her size based on the trip she'd made around the valley.

How big was she before? She's more than a few kilometres long. Nine? Twelve might be too many, but not by much.

Jinfeng blurred off, blade steady in her grasp. Sarah, Kadaklan and Klipyl simply vanished. Lady Pema ordered the squads to strike different areas, but no one told Dor Ji who to accompany. When they dispersed, Dor Ji was alone under Lady Am's gaze.

"I'm sorry, Lady Am," sobbed Dor Ji.

'Enchanter Dor Ji, though you travelled with others, you risked your life to track down and hold back demons. You were the only one among the judges' squad without a combat class, and I commend you for serving the people instead of yourself alone. Well done.'

Though nothing changed, the gemstone against her sternum, whose tiny presence had weighed her down since the judges' investigations, felt lighter.

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