Run! Run, before she finds you! Just tell my son that I love him, before she takes my mind again. -Huang Meilong to Kaishin Satoro during the latter’s escape from Yi Mingyue’s custody

  It was no void tear. That was clear to Lin. Having seen the tear in Half-Moon Manor, this was nothing like it. This tear was murky, with shifting colors of navy and black writhing over one another like oil on water’s surface. The tear pulsed once, then the edge seemed to erupt in black and silver flame.

  From within, Lin could feel immense power, unlike anything he’d ever felt before. It pulsed and writhed around him, making his ears pop and his head ache. His nose itched, and, when he put a hand to his upper lip, it came away dripping with crimson.

  “Yoru, what is going on?” he asked, but the moon artist wasn’t there.

  Yoru had backed away several steps, his eyes wide as he stared, transfixed, at the disk. Lin called his name, but there was no response. It was as if Yoru couldn’t even hear him.

  “Yes! My master is here with us! Grant me your blessing, oh mighty Avatar, that I may smite these villains in your name!” Song Qiu cried.

  Is he trying to summon a moon reaver? Lin wondered. If it was a Reaver, then it was by far the most powerful one on the field. It’s aura alone was potent enough to kill a lesser artist.

  He wanted to ask, wanted to understand the fight before him and what it would take to win. However, Yoru was still backing away with no explanation save for the terror that filled his icy eyes. Lin joined him, keeping his eye on the portal while he took several steps back towards Yoru. Only once he was at the moon artist’s side did he hear terrified whispers under his breath.

  “The…the Labyrinth,” Yoru muttered with a trembling voice. “It…it can’t…why? Why here?”

  “Yoru?”

  Lin put a hand on Yoru’s shoulder, trying to shake the legendary cultivator from his stupor. It worked, and Yoru’s piercing eyes flashed to his. In an instant, void-blackened hands were on Lin’s shoulders, squeezing tightly.

  “Lin, you have to run.” It was not a question, nor even an order. It was a terrified plea.

  What was Lin supposed to say to that? Never before had he seen Yoru so scared. Not even facing his darkest demons in the Chain-Bound Fury, nor in the depths of Half-Moon Manor had he been so shaken. What was going on?

  “Yoru, tell me what’s wrong,” he begged, putting his hands on Yoru’s shoulders. “We can run together. Just tell me what to do.”

  “No, you have to go! Lin, that’s the Labyrinth. He opened a portal to the Labyrinth!”

  A chill went down Lin’s spine as his eyes were drawn to the portal. The colors shifted and twisted together faster, now. Navy slid over black before being overturned and consumed. Pinpricks of light sparkled at the edges, and a thread of silver qi crept from the darkness, escaping into the world.

  “Yes! Master! Fill me with your power!” Song Qiu’s fanaticism was plain for all to see. His eyes were filled with greedy insanity as he raised his arms high to reach his god.

  But whatever he was calling to would not be so easily freed. Just as the thread of qi began to reach further, the corona around the portal suddenly flared into golden fire. Qi crisscrossed the yawning portal in a myriad of colors, each one more powerful than the last. Blue, deep as the ocean, pulled the escaping thread back within the Labyrinth’s clutches before white crystals began to grow across the opening. Those crystals were reinforced by green, pink, and gold threads before being coated in a sheen of brilliant silver.

  The whole exchange lasted less than a second before a sickening crunch filled the air. Something inside screamed its fury, and a crack spread across the surface of the multi-colored shield.

  “No, no, no!” Yoru muttered. No longer content with simply backing away, he spun around and sprinted across the square, ignoring the battles raging around him.

  Lin didn’t know what to make of it. What Yoru said didn’t make any sense. The Labyrinth was where the Darkened Moon was once imprisoned. It sprawled for miles and miles beneath the Moon-Soaked Shore. Lin had seen its entrance once, on the day he met Yoru. The moon artist was terrified of that place, but how could that be here?

  The Labyrinth used Yoru’s own power to function, yet he’d been free for over a year and a half. Nothing in any of the legends had said anything about there being something imprisoned in the Labyrinth with him.

  But, if Yoru was here…then what was coming out of the portal?

  A crack snaked across the barrier, and in a single heartbeat, the bars of qi shattered like glass, and a dozen threads of black and blue qi shot forth before the defenses could stop it.

  “Yes! My lord! Fill me! This vessel is ready for your magnificence!” Song Qiu cried.

  “Don’t you realize that amount of qi will kill you?” Lin shouted. Even if it wasn’t actually the Darkened Moon on the other side of that portal, it was powerful. Lin fought to keep his position as the headache began to grow worse.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “It is but a small price to pay to cleanse your filth from the city! Master! I am here! I am-”

  Song Qiu’s fervent offerings were cut short as the qi threads seemed to ignore him entirely. Instead, they struck faster than any viper, shooting straight over his head.

  Yoru’s left leg was yanked out from beneath him, sending him crashing to the ground as the navy threads dug into the black band that wrapped around his unchained ankle.

  “Yoru!” Lin reached him just as he managed to roll to his back. His bare ankle was held aloft, chained by the qi threads that continued to worm underneath his skin.

  “Lin, run!” he begged. “I can’t-”

  A shockwave tensed his body. His chains tightened to the point where Lin wasn’t even sure he could still breathe, and he clutched at his head with his claws. He gasped, eyes squeezed shut.

  Lin didn’t know what was going on, but he no longer needed to. All that mattered was that Yoru was in danger. He turned his sword on the line of navy qi, pulling a seed from Ishida’s carnivorous plant collection from the pocket of his soul that let him store and enhance them. He pressed it to Moon Rose, letting it grow along his blade. With a roar of determination, he struck with everything he had, pouring qi into his muscles and the blade itself to slice through the bindings ensnaring his sworn brother.

  Lin hit the ground hard, having been thrown by the recoil. He rolled several yards before coming to a halt. Pain arced through his ribs, and his clothes smoked with the power of the explosive qi that had retaliated against his strike.

  “Uncle Lin?” It was Xinya. The little girl threw a vicious bolt of lightning at a nearby Moon Reaver before kneeling at her uncle’s side. “What’s going on?” she glanced down his body, seeing the injuries. “You’re hurt!”

  “I’ll…be…fine,” he gasped. “It got Yoru.”

  Xinya’s gaze turned in the direction he’d come from. Yoru was being dragged closer to the portal like a fish on a line. He clawed at the ground, but it did nothing to stop his backward momentum.

  “Uncle!” she cried, standing to try and help him.

  Yoru lifted his gaze. “Xinya! Stay back! Take Lin and run!”

  Like Lin, Xinya was stunned by the order. She paused, and Lin could see her trying to puzzle out the situation. Ten more threads latched onto Yoru’s other limbs, making him look like a puppet. He gritted his teeth, keeping his head down as he continued to claw at the earth beneath him.

  “You…you wretch!” Song Qiu spit with anger. “I was supposed to be the vessel! Not you!”

  “Vessel?” Lin muttered. “Vessel for what?”

  A piercing scream cut the air before dissolving into a choked cough as chains wrapped tight around Yoru’s limbs and neck. Instinct forced him to release his meager hold on the ground to claw at the chains that strangled him.

  Lin tried to crawl to his feet, desperate to help his friend. He stumbled, his feet falling from under him, but that wasn’t about to stop him. He crawled hand over hand until Xinya’s grip at his shoulder pulled him upright. Together, the two of them ran as quickly as Lin was able before collapsing at Yoru’s side.

  Mere yards from the portal, the threads had stopped pulling him closer. He curled in on himself, his hands gripping at his ears as he tried to block whatever was trying to use him.

  “Yoru!” Lin said. He reached out a hand, trying to sooth the legendary moon artist. A flare of voidlight sparked between them, burning cold into Lin’s hand before wrapping around his wrist. Out of habit, he activated his adaptation, letting his qi eat through the familiar qi piece by piece.

  Through gritted teeth, Yoru growled. “Leave me. I…can’t stop…it. The voice!”

  “What voice?” Lin asked. He looked at Xinya, but she just shook her head in confusion.

  “It’s,” Yoru fought to gain enough air to speak and failed.

  A terrible shriek ripped free of the moon artist’s throat. His voice echoed on itself, doubling and tripling as if he were inside a cave.

  “Satoro!” he finally cried. “You have to-”

  Before he could finish, Yoru’s eyes began to change. His face went slack, and the piercing blue began to glow bright with voidlight. The navy and black threads that held him vanished in a puff of smoke. Yoru’s head fell to the ground, and Lin wondered if the pain of whatever was being done to him had caused him to pass out.

  The sound of erupting flames echoed across the battlefield. Looking up, Lin’s heart chilled as he beheld the sky. A corona of silver light, like that which had wreathed the portal itself burned in the sky above. The armillary flared, washing the square and everyone in it with corrosive qi that burned friend and foe alike. The remaining Moon Reaver’s screeched in pain as their qi was corrupted. In an instant, they were completely destroyed.

  Screams filled the square as the rest of the combatants fled to the safety of the surrounding buildings and shadowed streets. The Forgotten welcomed them into buildings before slamming the doors shut barring any windows that let the light in.

  “What in the hell is going on here?” Satoro shouted. His normally perfect skin was already starting to blister, even as he tried to shield himself from the light. “Why did Yoru call for me?”

  Lin shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  “Fools,” a muffled voice muttered. “Idiot children…flailing in the darkness.”

  It took a long moment before Lin realized that the voice had come from Yoru’s downturned head. Yet, it wasn’t quite his voice. The normally smooth tones of Yoru’s voice were scratchy, as if his throat was sore from screaming. Despite the roughness, the words echoed with power.

  “Yoru?”

  “I don’t recall giving you permission to use my given name,” he hissed. “Children are so bold these days, it seems.”

  Chains clinked together as Yoru pushed himself to his feet. When he finally opened his eyes, they shone with far more potent voidlight than Lin had ever seen from him.

  “M-master?” Song Qiu ventured cautiously closer. “Your Highness, is that you?”

  Yoru turned and gave the cultist a bored look. “Who are you to address me?”

  Song Qiu collapsed, kowtowing deeply before him. “This humble one is the one who opened the portal! This one is Song Qiu, of the Shattered Moon Sect!”

  “Shattered Moon?”

  “Yes, sir! The sect stands ready for your commands!”

  “Are you it’s leader?”

  “N-no, your Highness. This one is merely a branch elder.”

  Yoru’s cruel smile sent chills down Lin’s spine. “Then you’ll be my messenger.”

  With a flick of his wrist, qi surged at the Gold. A dozen silver disks of light shredded the cultist. He screamed until his throat was slit and the rest of him lay as a mangled corpse on the ground. As the attack ended and the lights vanished, Lin could see the words “This moon is not shattered” carved into his corpse.

  “Well, this is bad,” Satoro muttered.

  Lin couldn’t muster an answer. All he could do was stare at Yoru in horror. Before his very eyes, the moon artist was altering reality around him. The fabric of his clothes darkened until it was pitch black with silver moons and green moths embroidered into the sleeves and collar.

  When he finally finished, he turned to Lin, Xinya, and Satoro.

  “Now, then. Where were we?” he mused. “Oh, that’s right. You all were being invited to bow.”

  “Is that so?” Satoro growled. His grip tightened on Heixin.

  “It is. After all, it’s not every day that a city’s founder returns from imprisonment,” Yoru grinned. “You all stand in the presence of Tsuyuki Yoru, the Lunar Prince.” He paused, thinking. “Though, these days, I do believe I prefer my alternate title. You may address me as the Darkened Moon.”