Chapter 840: Choices
The atmosphere inside the private space of Astramentis was a powder keg waiting for a single spark. Old Du stood with his weathered hands gripping his wooden paddle, his grey robes flaring with unrestrained fury. Above them, the massive golden rings of the astrolabe spun erratically, casting sharp and aggressive shadows across the polished dark stone.
Torend and the Eidolon delegation remained standing on the marble platform. They had walked into a trap of their own making by underestimating the hidden depths of the people here.
"Execute them," Old Du demanded once again as his voice was trembling with a rage that had accumulated over eras of watching his home suffer. "We will not be bullied by thieves."
The three Eidolon warriors tensed and were bracing for an execution they knew they could not fight off.
"Put the paddle down, Du," Khaos spoke.
His voice was not loud but it resonated with a calm and absolute authority that cut through the escalating hostility. Khaos did not look at the Eidolon envoys. He looked directly at the ferryman.
"You step out to protect the boy but you tell me to stay my hand against those who drew blades on him?" Old Du asked as his dark eyes flashed with betrayal. "They brought an artifact to suppress Astramentis. They planned to steal him away into the dark from the very beginning. Stepping over our pride and dignity in the process."
"And they failed," Khaos replied. The dark purple energy swirling around him slowly began to recede, easing the crushing physical pressure on the room just enough to allow the envoys to breathe.
Khaos took a slow step forward and his eyes locked onto the furious ferryman. "It is not my place to dictate the politics of your realm or how you manage your borders. I am merely a guest traveling with my companion. However, as an old classmate, I will remind you of the ultimate goal you have bled for since the Great Devastation."
Old Du’s jaw tightened but he did not interrupt.
"You want to restore your realm," Khaos stated firmly. "You want to mend the spiritual veins and heal the sky. You have spent thousands of years ferrying candidates across the cosmic cracks just to secure minor resources to keep this place from crumbling into dust."
Khaos gestured lazily toward Torend. "These fools overplayed their hand, yes. But they hold what you need, the correct realm essence. An essence specifically matched to your own. You know how rare that is. How difficult it is. Or else you would have already secured it. If you kill them here to satisfy your pride, you kill that opportunity. You will send a message to the cosmos but your people will continue to suffer in a broken world for who knows how long. Is your pride worth that price?"
The words struck Old Du like a physical blow. The ferryman’s rigid posture faltered. The blazing fury in his eyes warred with the agonizing truth of Khaos’s logic. He looked at Torend, then up at the glowing rings of Astramentis.
The ancient astrolabe slowed its erratic spinning. The sacred artifact processed the logic instantly. It hated the Eidolon for their insult but it loved its realm more. The golden light dimmed from an aggressive flare back to a steady and mourning pulse.
Old Du let out a long and ragged sigh. His shoulders slumped and he slowly lowered his wooden paddle. The storm of his aura dissipated into the cool air of the chamber.
"You are right," Old Du whispered as the fight drained out of him. He looked ancient and impossibly tired all of a sudden. "Pride will not mend anything."
Li Yu watched the exchange in silence. He felt a deep surge of gratitude toward Old Du and Astramentis. They had been willing to throw away their greatest chance at salvation in recent times just to defend him from an ambush. It spoke volumes about their character and the respect they had for the candidates they bring here. They were an honorable pair.
But it also solidified his own decision.
Li Yu stepped forward slightly. The Eidolon leader looked up and his amethyst eyes were wary but flickering with a renewed spark of hope. He assumed the negotiation was back on the table now that the threat of execution had passed.
"I appreciate you standing up for me, Old Du, Astramentis," Li Yu said clearly. He then looked down at the kneeling envoy. "But you and your delegation can leave."
Torend blinked as his pale face registered confusion. "Leave?"
"You heard me," Li Yu said coldly. "Take your weapons and go back to your realm. I will not help you regardless of your issues."
"Wait," Torend protested while scrambling to rise to his feet but keeping his posture deferential due to Khaos’s lingering presence. "You do not understand the stakes. We have the Realm Essence this place needs. We have untold resources. Whatever you require for your own cultivation, the Eidolon Court will provide it. We apologize for the aggression but you must understand our position."
"I understand perfectly," Li Yu countered. "You needed something badly. So you lied, you brought a weapon into a sanctuary and you attempted to kidnap me to force my compliance. I do not like your methods and I do not work with people who view me as a piece of property to be stolen."
Torend’s expression hardened. The panic of facing a supreme being faded. It was replaced by the grim and unyielding sorrow of a leader watching his world burn.
"You are too young," Torend said as his voice echoed with centuries of heavy burdens. "You look at my actions and you see a villain. You see betrayal and hostility. But you do not know anything of true loss. The lengths a person will go to in order to protect the things they care about cannot be underestimated."
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Torend looked past Li Yu. His gaze swept over Old Du and Khaos before returning to the young human.
"When your home is collapsing and your bloodline is facing erasure, morality is a luxury you can no longer afford," Torend lectured fiercely. "Even good and noble people will resort to the most evil and wretched things if that is what it takes to save their family. I am not proud of drawing a blade on you, Li Yu. But I would do it a thousand times over if it meant my people would survive the coming dark."
The speech hung in the air. It was a powerful and desperate defense. Li Yu felt a brief echo of the memories he had lived inside the Temporal Dao Stone. He had seen good men burn villages to slow an enemy advance. He had seen healers poison water supplies to protect their wounded. He understood the horrific calculus of survival.
"I understand your desperation," Li Yu said softly.
Torend let out a breath of relief. He thought he had finally broken through.
"But I do not care," Li Yu finished. His tone dropped into a void of pure pragmatism. "Your desperation does not obligate me to become your savior. Your willingness to do evil things for your people just proves that I cannot trust you. You have made your decisions on how you conduct yourselves and I have made mine. We are done here."
Li Yu turned his back on the Eidolon delegation. He did not wait for a counteroffer. He did not look back at Old Du, Khaos or Astramentis. He simply walked toward the rippling barrier of the private space, stepped through the marble wall and left the chamber.
The silence he left behind was deafening.
Torend stared at the empty space where the young man had just stood. His mind struggled to process the flat and uncompromising rejection. He had expected anger. He had expected demands for a blood oath or exorbitant extortion. He had never anticipated a cultivator walking away from a supreme reward simply on principle.
Astramentis and Khaos were not surprised in the least. Both of them knew his character fairly well by now.
The ancient astrolabe had watched Li Yu navigate the Pagoda of the Veiled Path and other trails. It had seen him walk away from a supreme artifact because the risk outweighed the reward and it had seen him ignore the pleas of strangers when the battle was not his to fight.
Khaos simply smirked. He had watched the boy grow up for quite some time now. Li Yu was kind at heart and he would bleed for his friends. But he despised being coerced and he possessed a spine of pure iron when someone tried to force his hand. He did not see himself as any kind of savior. He would help if his heart moved him to do so but otherwise he would watch things happen without taking action.
The Eidolon Court had made a catastrophic miscalculation. They could not have gotten it more wrong by trying to force him. They treated a quiet pragmatist like a naive mercenary and they had lost their only key.
"You heard the boy," Khaos rumbled as his dark eyes locked back onto Torend. "Your presence is no longer required. Take your people and leave this realm before the ferryman changes his mind."
Torend lowered his head and his amethyst eyes were dark with despair. He had failed. Without another word, he signaled to his delegation. The Eidolon envoys gathered their fractured relic and silently retreated into the shadows. They disappeared from The Veil as quickly as they had arrived.
Li Yu walked through the pale and artificial twilight of Kyokai City. The cool breeze rolling off the silver canals did nothing to soothe the turbulent storm of thoughts in his mind.
He was angry. The sheer audacity of the Eidolon Court attempting to kidnap him in the middle of a meeting enraged him. It was a stark reminder of how dangerous the wider cosmos truly was and how easily a powerful faction would discard basic decency to secure an asset.
Yet beneath the anger, a heavy and uncomfortable guilt gnawed at his chest.
He knew what his refusal meant. He had seen Old Du bow before the unmarked graves in the desolate wasteland. He knew how desperately the ferryman and Astramentis wanted to heal their torn sky and mend their spiritual veins. The Realm Essence offered by the Eidolon Court was the miracle they had been waiting eras for.
By walking away, Li Yu had essentially slammed the door on their salvation.
"They were going to kidnap me," Li Yu muttered to himself. He kicked a loose pebble across the pristine white cobblestones. "I cannot trust them. If I went to their realm, what is to stop them from drugging me or sealing my cultivation? You cannot negotiate with people who start the conversation with an ambush. What if they tried other nasty things?"
His logic was sound. His survival instincts screamed that walking into the Eidolon Court’s territory was a death sentence. He tried his best to throw the thoughts into the back of his mind. He needed a distraction. He navigated the winding streets and headed toward the Ward of Tranquility. He hoped that checking on his friends would ground his racing thoughts.
The healing pavilion was quiet when he arrived. The scent of medicinal herbs and clean linen filled the air. Li Yu slid the paper screen of the private alcove open just an inch and peered inside.
Sora was still lying on the jade healing bed. Her eyes were closed and her chest rose and fell in a slow and deep rhythm. The dullness in her silver fur had vanished and was replaced by a healthy and vibrant sheen. The healers said she was doing much better already but it would just take time to heal such serious injuries. Her body knew what was required so it had entered a state of rest to achieve the task.
Sitting on a sturdy wooden stool beside her bed was Daiki. The giant Raging demon had his elbows resting on his knees and his massive chin propped in his hands as he watched her sleep. He looked incredibly exhausted. Dark circles rimmed his golden eyes.
Li Yu wanted to walk into the alcove. He wanted to sit down next to the giant demon and vent about the Eidolon Court, the attempted kidnapping and the heavy guilt of costing Old Du the Realm Essence. He wanted to vent to a friend.
But as he watched Daiki gently reach out to adjust the blanket over Sora’s shoulders, Li Yu stopped himself. Daiki had just faced so much recently. He had stood before what he thought was his tyrant father and fought to secure the medicine to save the woman he loved. He had won a massive victory and he was finally finding a moment of peace sitting beside her.
Li Yu realized that burdening Daiki with a new crisis was incredibly selfish. His friend had enough on his shoulders right now.
"Good luck to both of you," Li Yu whispered to himself.
He stepped back from the paper screen and silently slid it shut. He walked out of the Ward of Tranquility.
The streets of Kyokai City were mostly empty. Li Yu walked aimlessly along the silver canals and listened to the gentle flow of the water. He watched the glowing koi fish swim beneath the surface. He walked for hours as he tried to organize his thoughts but the conflict remained an abrasive knot in his chest.
Eventually, his aimless wandering led him back to the familiar white stone steps of his own courtyard. He pushed the sliding doors open and stepped into the quiet pavilion. He sat down on the edge of his jade meditation bed and stared at the woven floor mats.
The Eidolon delegation was gone but the heavy weight of his choice lingered in the silent room. He had protected his own safety but the cost was a broken realm remaining broken. He closed his eyes and tried to enter a meditative trance but the morning brought no clear perspective.