The air was saturated with the smell of burnt steel and blood. On a muddy plain, the armies of the "Gu" and "Yu" clans clashed in a brutal battle. But in the heart of this chaos, there was a deadly calm.
Ling Gu stood amidst a circle of corpses, his sword dripping blood. Before him stood his last opponent, the heir of the "Yu" clan, a young man of the same age, his eyes burning with hatred and exhaustion.
"I will kill you, you 'Gu' bastard!" the "Yu" heir screamed, lunging in a final, desperate attack.
The battle was like a game to Ling Gu. He dodged the blow with an arrogant smile, circled his opponent, and with a single, swift, and fleeting motion, his blade passed through the young man's neck.
The severed head fell into the mud.
The surrounding "Gu" warriors erupted in savage cries of victory.
"The Rogue Prince! The Rogue Prince!"
Ling Gu looked up at the gray sky. "I must return home."
And he disappeared, leaving behind a silent battlefield.
(The House of Despair, Chang'an City)
(404's Perspective)
Strange.
This was the only description his algorithms could produce. His secondary heart was burning, a low, searing sensation he had never recorded in his data before. It coursed through his flawed stone body, a body that was not his own, a body contaminated with the poisons of memory.
"My friend."
Ling Gu appeared out of nowhere, calm and clean as if he had not just come from a battle.
404 looked at him. The man's aura was strange—powerful, yet incredibly organized.
"Who are you?" 404 asked, his voice an echo of the void.
Ling Gu laughed.
"It seems you have amnesia. But you are certainly stronger than my friend." He looked at Yumi's corpse coolly. "What a fool."
Suddenly, everything changed. 404 felt a massive disturbance from above. "There are two individuals fighting in the sky," he said. "And they have moved until they reached here."
Ling Gu looked up with boredom. "One is my father, Tai Gu.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
The other is Tai Yu. Who do you think will win?"
The fight in the sky was a clash of gods. "I believe Tai Gu," 404 said. "He is slightly superior."
"I don't think so," Ling Gu said with a strange calm. "I think... that I will win."
In the sky, the two leaders clashed in a final explosion of energy and fell from the heavens like two extinguished stars, crashing to the earth with tremendous force just a few steps away from them. The dying Tai Yu sighed. "It seems... I have lost.
"
Everyone expected Ling Gu to run to his father's aid.
But he stood still and walked calmly toward the dying Tai Yu. He drew his sword and, in a single, swift, and efficient motion, cut off his head.
Then, he turned slowly and walked toward his father, who was looking at him with shock and pain. He knelt before him.
"Father," he said in a soft voice. "Thank you for your service."
Then, without hesitation, he plunged his sword into Tai Gu's heart.
Tai Gu's eyes widened in absolute shock.
"But I hate," Ling Gu continued, his eyes as cold as ice, "for there to be someone who thinks himself above me, when he is nothing."
Tai Gu let out a final scream, then died.
Ling Gu stood up and laughed. A crazed, triumphant laugh. "Did you see?" he said to 404. "I won."
Suddenly, 404 felt himself fading. His consciousness was withdrawing.
he screamed in the silence of his mind.
"Unfortunately," Ling Gu said, watching him. "Our time together is over. It seems my friend is returning."
404 resisted, but the world rejected him. All sounds faded, and "Dream" returned.
"Dream" woke up. He was confused. "What... what happened?"
Ling Gu laughed. "You raged, my friend, like a wild beast. But you won."
"Dream" looked around. He saw Yumi's corpse, the bodies of Tai Gu, and the severed head of Tai Yu. "What happened here?
Tai Gu and Tai Yu killed each other in a legendary battle," Ling Gu lied with ease. "As for that fox-girl, she was one of the rebels you defeated. Oh, 'Inma'."
"Inma?"
"The Judge of Death and Ruler of the Underworld. That is your title. Come, we must clean up this place. Carry my father's body... and Tai Yu's head."
They arrived at the ruined "Gu" clan palace. The warriors saw "Dream" carrying the bodies and erupted in shouts. "Inma! Inma! The Guardian of Chang'an has returned!"
Ling Gu began his theatrical speech, weeping for his father and swearing revenge.
Then he communicated with "Dream" telepathically:
"Dream" carried out the order, becoming a partner in this bloody lie.
After the chaos subsided, Hong-min's voice screamed in his mind.
"Dream" moved instinctively, searching among the rubble and the corpses. He searched until he found her in an empty courtyard, dead, her broken staff beside her.
Hong-min screamed, and "Dream" cried too. Stone tears fell from his gray eyes. They were not just an echo; they were real. "She deserved what happened to her," "Dream" said to Hong-min as he wept. "She was a traitor."
He found a burning torch nearby. He picked it up and burned her body, and her staff.
As he watched the flames consume the last memory of his sun.