Chapter 156 - 200 000 Yin creatures devoured
" I will not lose you, BaiShe... " She clenched her fists until her nails pierced her gloves, letting streams of purple blood flow onto the dented metal. " Not after everything I have done... everything we have built. "
A guttural growl pulled her from her thoughts. Three powerful Yin creatures, attracted by the smell of her fresh blood, emerged from the fissures in the basaltic ground. Their overly long limbs scraped the stone, their empty orbits fixing the templar with a devouring hunger. They were smaller than the Guardian that had wounded BaiShe, but their number and aggressiveness made them just as dangerous.
Zhi Mei wiped away with the back of her hand the tears beading at the edge of her lashes. Her face, usually so gentle and filled with piety, froze into an expression of cold determination. She drew her blade, the azure light of her Qi making the darkness crackle.
" You will not stand in my way, " she spat. " Nothing will stand in my way. "
She leaped forward, not with the perfect coordination of a trained warrior, but with the raw rage of a lioness whose cub had been stolen. Her first strike split the nearest specter from groin to skull, cutting it in two in a spray of black fluids. The monster did not have time to scream before she was already pivoting, her blade tracing a deadly arc that severed the limbs of the second.
The third tried to take her from behind, its black bone claws aiming for her nape. Zhi Mei ducked at the last moment, feeling the icy wind of the attack brush her hair. She thrust her blade downward, the tip emerging through the creature’s skull in a wet sound of viscous liquid that splattered onto her armor.
" He is alive! " she screamed while shredding the specter’s corpse with a furious kick. " I know it! I feel it! "
But deep inside her, the voice of doubt whispered. She had seen the ebony scythe pierce BaiShe’s shoulder. She had seen his silver blood spray the ashen earth. And she had seen the cloud of Yin Qi engulf him, carrying him into its swirling abyss.
No one could survive such exposure to death Qi, not even an Overlord. Not even the one she had crowned Executor.
’ No. I do not want to believe it. ’
She pushed these thoughts back, locking them in a remote corner of her mind. Believing in his survival was the only thing keeping her standing. The only thing preventing her from collapsing, from letting the darkness consume her as it had consumed so many others before her.
She continued to advance, scrutinizing every shadow, every crevasse, every pile of rocks. Her armor was now more black than azure, covered in a layer of dried Yin fluids and her own sweat mixed with her blood. Her wings, tired, now projected only a flickering glow that threatened to extinguish at any moment.