Release Schedule: Once per week.
With no recollection of her past or even her own name, our heroine has merely been existing since waking in a place known as the Obsidian Terraces. Uncertain how to fend for herself or earn coin, she turned to protec...
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I snuck through the palace grounds, a hood over my bright hair, and a mask over the bottom half of my face. The palace was so incredibly boring, and the Blighted never drew near to it. Yet, there was so much dark power radiating from just outside of the city. I had no intention of staying trapped in the palace and training against inanimate opponents. After all, I had already killed plenty of Blighted before Yahui had me brought to the palace.
When the sound of a guqin drifted to my ears, I slowed down and crouched in the shadows, tensing. The entrancing melody came from the same direction I felt immense dark power radiating from. A knot formed in my stomach as I crept closer to the suffocating waves of power. From a distance, I couldn't determine if the guqin was responsible for slaying the Blighted I sensed...or if it was summoning them.
I crept closer until so that I could see what was taking place.
Beyond the gates, hordes of deformed undead people and creatures ran toward the Obsidian Terraces without regard for their surrounding allies. The creatures climbed over each other, pushed others out of their way, and yet others even stopped to eat their fallen allies.
The guqin played, sending wave after wave of dark energy flying into the horde, cutting the creatures cleanly in two. Between the creatures and the gates stood dozens of intimidating constructs. The constructs were made of darkness, which flowed inside of intricate silver and crystal cages. It seemed that the purpose of the cages was to help them maintain their corporeal forms.
Directly in front of the gates, Yahui floated in a simple, dark hanfu. He sat in the lotus position with his guqin in the air above his lap. With every graceful motion of his hands, another wave of Blighted fell. Any that managed to escape were cut down by the shadowy creatures that seemed to belong to him.
He...isn't being corrupted by his dark arts? Does that mean he's already been corrupted? I clenched a fist to my chest while I observed. Furthermore, where is his escort? I don't think I've seen him without an escort outside the meditation garden...
"Are you just going to stand there?" Yahui's breath against my ear made me freeze in place. He released a low laugh that made me feel like the next target of his lethal techniques. "If you have time to stare, you have time to help."
Did I lapse on my control of my stealth ability? Or... I let out a small sigh and shifted to peer at Yahui over mask. "With two of us, they should die quickly."
"And after, you will explain yourself." Yahui drifted past me and slid his fingers along the edge of his guqin before shooting me a dangerous look.
I let out a long sigh. "Very well..."
After a moment of brief concentration and a motion from both my hands, daggers of prismatic light formed in the air around me. The Blighted immediately changed direction and made their way toward me instead. Yahui slew the first several waves with quick notes from his guqin, and the shadow beasts killed many more. Even so, more of the foul things made it through to me.
