Chapter Text
*Huff* "Man you're good at this!" The Royal Wing muses, spitting out a broken tooth as a new one grows within seconds. Her body was filled with bruises and missing chunks of flesh from the Quantum glitch.
Fu Xuan grunted at the response, pulling out a metal feather in her right arm, while her entire body was littered with burnt marks and slashing wounds.
She tossed the feather aside, fist clenched and a pink barrier enveloped her hand.
"The matrix of preservation had already predicted your every move, further violence is futile." Fu Xuan murmured, slowly walking toward the Wingweaver.
"Oh yea, sure Miss "just got hit by my feather a couple of seconds ago."" She scoffed, spinning her double-sided spear around as the space behind them lit up in a brilliant light. Emerge from behind her were 14 golden shining sparks, gleaming with light that darkened the sky.
"Try keeping up!" A pink constellation appears before the Wingweaver, ready to erupt once the user finishes drawing it. However, one out of fourteen sparks drop to the ground, erupting into blinding light and enveloping her opponent in dust clouds. The pulse from Fu Xuna's novaburst caused some dust to get blown away, revealing a barrier made out of roots blocking her attack.
Then, three stars come out of the dust dashing head first toward her direction.
Fu Xuan dodged the sparks with ease, weaving through the air as the area became a root garden.
She sidestepped, and jumped over, punching a few with her shield-covered hand or even just igniting one before it made contact as more sparks and roots started to rain on her.
"-Thirteen, Fourteen, Now!" Fu Xuan quickly glanced to her side, revealing the Wingweaver was currently on her way to the pink-haired diviner with their mid-swing spear.
She quickly brings out her shield, blocking the attack as her opponent unleashes an onslaught of slashes.
A pink sphere envelops Fu Xuan's hand as she continues to glare at the frenzy slash her opponent is sending her way.
"FIGHT ME YOU COWARD!" The Wingweaver yelled, thrusting their spear into the shield, that was the moment she dissipated the shield as they thrust their spear into the shield, leaving them open.
"Wha-" A punch to the face sent the Wingweaver flying away, skittling away on the hard ground below with a shout of profanity every time her body hit the floor.
Fu Xuan quickly advanced, running at the now-balanced Wingweaver that was about to take flight, but due to the previous punch she took left her in quite a daze, causing some delay in her take-out.
Which causes one of her wings to get grabbed by Fu Xuan before she gets yanked into the punching range.
The Royal wing countered by stabbing her hardened left wing into Fu Xuan's arm but it was already too late, the diviner's right hook connected to the Winged denizen again, and this time it was so hard it sent them into the other side of the platform, spreading dust and fallen steel feathers.
"Huff...huff..." Fu Xuan glanced at her feather-covered arm, before slowly puck it off. One by one.
She grunts at the worryingly familiar pain, she had too much steel feather in her skin today, or weeks, or months.
Once the last feather had been tossed into the empty sky below, she felt the space around her start to shift.
The floor starts to turn, the stars start to move, and she closes her eyes, like many times before.
And in a matter of seconds, it was done, she felt as good as new, her body had been cleansed of the wounds inflicted upon her.
Fu Xuan reopened her eyes again, now staring at the weakened Royal Wing. Their limbs bent and broke to the point they reached her back, her head snapped sideways, and their wings looked more like a snake than a flying organ.
But sure enough, she began to heal, the power of abundance was with her after all.
The limbs start twitching back into their original shape, their wings expand to their original shape, and their head snaps back in place, this time, with an angry glare.
"Oh, what? Not so confident now, are we?" She taunts the Wingweaver as they rise up from the ground, anger clearly shown on her face.
As usual, 14 sparks manifest behind her, violently shining from the wrath of her opponent.
"You're going to regret that." 3 of the stars shot forward and crashed into the ground, exploding in brilliant light and dust cloud.
"This is getting repetitive." She thought, avoiding the root pillar that came from the dust as more light appeared from the dust cloud once more.
The pink diviner continues dodging the star like before, to the point it becomes boring.
Dodge explosion there, dodge this root, parry another one, Novaburst another spark, nothing she didn't do before.
"-twelve, thirteen...!" Suddenly, her third eye shone bright pink.
Fu Xuan quickly turns around and grabs a Wingweaver by the face, before bashing it to the ground.
"Is that all you can think of... huh?" She stares at the male Wingweaver, smirking at her.
"It was nice knowing you Feng." The Royal Wing voice bellowed behind her and was laced with sarcasm as yellow light shone from their direction.
Time seemed to slow down for Fu Xuan as turned back to see the Royal Wing holding one of the sparks in their outreach hand, only a few centimeters away from her chest.
"-Fourteen..." At this moment, Fu Xuan knows, she [Duck] up.
"With pleasure." The Wingweaver in her hand said, knowing full well they were not going to see the next sunset again.
She only got a few blinks to react, but it was too late, the spark made contact with the side of her belly and exploded point black, creating a blinding light and sending Fu Xuan tumbling away into the railing as the carcass of the other Wingweaver splatter all over the clearing.
Before she could lift herself up, a sharp pain entered her entire being. That was when she noticed a giant piece of stick piercing her in her right shoulder.
She flinched in pain, trying to do something about it before a foot came crashing into her left arm and the stick, putting it deeper into her wound.
Lo and behold, it was the Royal wing, with an entire leg in her mount, chewing while humming happily.
"Man! Who knows Feng was this delicious!" She exclaims happily, before tossing the remaining bone down below. "Now, where were we?" The Wingweaver's red eyes gleam under the ever-night sky of the Divination Commission. Quite an unsettling sight to say the least.
Fu Xuan scoffed. "Sacrifice your own kin for such trivial things, aren't you a little bit heartless?" She glares at the chucking Winged denizen as they answer her question.
"Oh, please! It's not like it was the first time I did it, and hey! If it's work, it's work." The Wingweaver lifts the spear to the pink-haired diviner's neck, slowly pressing it closer.
Fu Xuan's third eye shone brightly, looking for a way to escape this situation.
"Have any last words?" The Wingweaver taunts her as their spear draws closer to her neck to the point of drawing blood.
"..." Fu Xuan stared at the Royal Wing, the pink light on her forehead highlighting her surprised face.
A snicker soon turns to a chuckle, and now to full-blown laughter. Much to the Royal Wing's confusion.
"Have you gone insane from your defeat, how amusing." She presses the spear deeper, drawing more blood.
"Agh." Fu Xuan flinched a little at the sudden pain, before finally saying what had been on her mind.
"He was the only WIngweaver here to help you, isn't he?" Fu Xuan's voice mocks her.
Then, in the blink of an eye, Fu Xuan all of her remaining strength to move her right hand and change the directory of the spear, before quickly grabbing the Royal Wing's outreaching arm.
That was when the Winged denizen noticed their surrounding began to shift as a barrier of sorts covered them.
"Wha-" Suddenly, she saw another diviner outside the barrier enveloping them. "No" She looks back only to see the smile on the diviner's face.
The Wingweaver tried to escape the diviner bind, only to get pulled closer to them and get a head butt, leaving them stunted and in a daze.
"Always use others as your sacrifice, how pathetic." She taunt as the Wingweaver felt the atmosphere around them start to become more heavy.
"So let me show you what it felt to become one yourself." From below, the ground erupts into brilliant purple light, hitting both Fu Xuan and the Royal Wing.
Bailu finally met her destination, the crashed Starskiff where Qingni resides. Her ears were filled with dead silence as the Wingweaver force went to the main castle to focus on their attack and left the other section of the garden.
She looked down at her phone as the message that she had been staring at for the past 5 minutes haunted her again.
Yukong: Please keep Qingni safe. I may not come out of this alive.
Yukong sent her this after the alarm went off in the morning.
Normally, she would not bat an eye against such a request. She knows Qingni can keep her own, she literally picks up a chair and KO a Wingweaver for Lan's sake, she wasn't that worried.
Bailu: Of course! But that aside, please come back.
She replied before putting her phone away.
...
Her heartbeat was faster than usual, should check that soon!
She quickly turned the corner, which led her to the clearing where she and Qingni crashed and landed, expecting a half-fixed ship. Maybe it could help Bailu in her case of trying to go up in the air and use her healing water to spray the entire area like a rainstorm.
But what did she get?
The entire clearing was lit on fire, filled with the smell of oil, rubbles, and burnt corpses of many Wingweavers.
...
"Oh no..." She whispers under her breath, looking around.
"Qingni! Where are you!" Bailu yelled, panic lace in her voice as she started to wander around the ruins.
Droplets of tears start forming in her eyes as she uses the water inside her gourd to extinguish the flame.
"QINGNI!" She continued to exclaim, this time, with fear and despair overflowing from her vocal cord.
Oh no...
Not this again...
"Achoo!" A young yellow-haired foxian sneeze, before going back to shaking in sweat and coldness under the blanket.
"You forgot to eat your medicine again, didn't you?" The child stares at Bailu sheepishly with a grin.
"Come on miss, it was too bitter!" The child complained before Bailu walked forward with a syringe in her hand.
The young boy who notices this stares at it in fear, crawling deeper into the bed.
"No!" She took a step forward. "Please don't" Again, a step forward, and now was infront of the bed.
In a quick manner, she snatches the blanket to the side, exposing the boy to the most feared thing in existence.
"NOOOOOO!"
.
.
.
"Come on Rui, it's not that bad!" The boy's mom said as the little foxian pouted and glared at Bailu.
Bailu was assorting her equipment, waiting for the report, before noticing the boy's glare.
She played this game before.
A lollipop suddenly appeared in her hand, the child was now staring at it as if his life depended on it.
"Please wait outside, me and your mother will talk about your symptoms." She said as she handed the child his lollipop.
He excitedly took it, before running out of the room happily.
*Sigh* The mother takes a seat after she takes a bit to sigh.
"...will he be alright?" The mother asks in concern. Bailu could only pity her, the child may not know but both she and his mother know he may not have that much time left.
"..." She stared at the screen as it was loading the patient information.
"Please, please tell me he's alright." She could hear the mother pray from behind.
"Please promise me he'll be alright." Bailu mentally prepared herself.
She turns around with a forced smile. "Of course, he'll be." She said, trying to make the best "Cheerful" and "Calm" impression.
Even if she knew full well the blood that she just extracted from the boy 5 minutes ago was now growing a yellow leaf out of it, she still kept the facade that everything was fine.
They'll surely find a cure for it.
Right?
Bailu shakes her head, snapping herself out of the memory trip. Especially that incident of contaminated water by the denizen of abundance.
She has so many more important things to do than standing here and doing nothing.
"QINGNI! WHERE ARE YOU? " she screamed, using the water from her gourd to extinguish the flame as she continued looking for her friend.
"It's futile." A voice erupts from the silence.
"You can't save her." She looks around, trying to find the person saying that, only to find nothing.
"Wha..." "She was already gone. Death had taken her." The voice said to her, much to her confusion and horror as she looked around in every direction, only to find that no one was here.
"Just like they take him." She continued to listen to it, doubting her mind and thinking she was going insane.
"It's useless to deny that, child." A sensation of fear similar to that of the glowing red dot chasing her in the bamboo garden enters her body. That was when she realized... she was in fact, didn't go insane.
"Oh, why even bother?" The voice continued to taunt her, filling her with unknowing fear and anger.
"You're only wasting your time." The feeling of fear and worry continued to grow until she couldn't take it anymore.
"SHUT UP!" Bailu yells out, tears blurring her vision. And just like that, the crawling sensation of fear dissipates along with the voices.
She wiped the tears from her eyes while looking around again, hell-bent on finding whoever that was.
That was when she noticed an arm sticking out of a rubble, it was a little bit bruised but nothing major.
The arm was wearing something similar to Qingni attire.
"Oh?"
Hope filled her entire being as she used all her strength to pull out the body up till their face was visible to her.
"Interesting..."
It was Qingni.
"I could work with this..."
She slowly pulled the rest of her body out of the rubble, luckily for her, it didn't it didn't crush any part of her body so it was easy to pull her out.
Bailu slowly examined her body, it was full of bruises and a few burnt marks here and there but it was in good condition all things considered.
To her horror, her hand feel so cold... unnaturally cold.
With quick thinking, Bailu quickly presses two of her fingers on the wrist, to her relief, there's still a pulse.
"PleasebealrightPleasebealrightPleasebealright-" She felt a beating on her finger, indicating that the black-haired foxian was still alive.
"There's still a pulse, that's good." She thought, with a little bit of her healing water Qingni was as good as new.
"Qingni, wake up!" She exclaims, nudging her pilot maniac to wake her up.
No response.
"Qingni!" She exclaims louder, nudging a little bit harder.
No response.
"..."
"QINGNI!" She screams, punching Qingni in the belly, causing a reaction to occur.
"Finally." She thought, only for the foxian to slumber down again.
"...very well then." She mutters, rubbing her hand with an ominous gleam in her eyes.
15 minutes later
Bailu stares down at an unconscious Qingni in disbelief, still asleep after Bailu's EVERY treatment.
Slapping the face until you woke up? Check + her cheek starts bleeding.
Soaking her entire face in cold and static-filled water? Check.
Repeatedly jumping on the belly? Check.
Electrocution? Not even a flinch!
"I... think that's all that I can think of..." Bailu rubbed her head, she had used every one of her torture methods medical healing skills, yet to no avail in this case.
Her brain was grinding, thinking of a way to wake this sleepy head up.
"What to do? What to do? What to do..." Bailu franticly looked around, trying to find anything else to wake her up.
*Clank* "Oww!" Her pinkie finger accidentally hit the metal plate of the Starskiff, causing so much pain in her hand.
Bailu pouts at the broken vehicle, before kicking it in a form of revenge, creating a sound of metal vibrating.
"WHO HURTS MY BABY!" Bailu suddenly felt her entire body getting lift up in the air like a bunch of grapes.
She glances behind to see a panicked Qingni, fully awake like she was on 5 shots of pure caffeine and looking so angry that she saw her eyes literally turn red. for a second.
"...Really?" Not a slap to the face, not a gut punch, not even 3000 volts of electricity! But a kick to a Starskiff woke her up?
Bailu looks at the sky, staring at the star with a flabbergasted face.
"Dear Aeon... with my utmost respect... what the [Don't look at me, look at Terminus.] is this?"