Chapter 162: 230. Alliance

The magma elemental recoiled as the girls simultaneously erupted in multi-color flames, quickly shrinking away from the fire and reforming itself into a vaguely humanoid shape. The flames took on a life of their own, coalescing in the center of the room in the form of a giant six-tailed fox with scintillating hues of red, pink, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The two beings eyed each other warily for a moment before the fox leapt forward. To Yoshika’s surprise, the magma elemental immediately went on the defensive, ducking back behind a wall of lava that instantly cooled into solid stone, stopping the fox’s advance.

The fox-shaped flames flowed around the stone, barely impeded even as a lance of molten stone caught it head-on when it reformed on the other side. The elemental retreated back towards the throne room, but a wall of green flame rose to block it. For some reason, the Magma elemental was unwilling to touch either the flames or the fox that had spawned them. Cornered between the two, it did something unexpected.

The Magma around its core brightened and expanded as the elemental withdrew its limbs and shaped itself into a ball of swirling lava. Yoshika watched as the outermost layer turned to glass, then stone, then formed another layer of lava over top before repeating the process. The fiery fox pounced on the ball, but was unable to cause any damage.

“Don’t just stand there!”

Kaede’s shout drew Yoshika’s attention from the fascinating result of their sacred art.

“We need to create an opening! The avatar can hurt the elemental, but it’s unable to damage the stone shell. We have to open a way through before the fox runs out of power!”

Yoshika nodded. It was foolish of her to get so caught up just watching—she was still part of this fight, and Kaede was right, their sacred art wasn’t enough to finish things by itself. The elemental had quickly worked out a weakness and mounted an effective defense. Now it was a race against time—could they break through the elemental’s defenses before their only weapon ran out of divine essence?

Rika ran forward to test the elemental’s defenses, but before she could approach a brightly glowing spot appeared on the surface of the stoney sphere. It bulged out for just a moment before exploding in a violent burst of ash and molten stone. Rika didn’t even have time to react before the blast engulfed her, leaving nothing behind but a burning silhouette on the jade walls of the castle. Ja Yun and Eunae cried out at the sight, but another Rika appeared next to them, looking slightly shaken, but smiling reassuringly.

“It’s fine! I’m okay, that was just a clone. Let’s not get hit by one of those again, though.”

Yoshika silently reminded herself to have a chat with Rika about how her new powers worked if they survived this. In the meantime, a plan was beginning to form as she watched the fox try to attack the site of the eruption—though it sealed back up too quickly. She didn’t waste time putting it into action, calling out with Eui’s voice.

“Kaede, with me. Everyone else, distract the elemental. Watch for those blasts and prioritize your own safety above everything else.”

Jia’s body summoned a spear from her ring—one of the long list of weapons that had come with the artifact when they’d looted it from Yan Zhihao—and tossed it to Eui before joining her friends in their attempts to keep the elementals attention away from Eui and Kaede. Yoshika began to charge the spear with the essence of destruction as Kaede jogged over.

“Yoshika, you have an idea?”

“We do, but it’s dangerous.”

Kaede scoffed.

“What else is new? Tell me what you need.”

“Even with our artifact, neither of our bodies can handle both Lightning God Transformation and Six Arms of Asura at the same time—not to their full potential, anyway. We saw how fast the elemental reacted, and we need all the speed and all the power we can get.”

Yoshika could see the understanding dawning on Kaede’s face—she had a good head for battle tactics.

“I see where this is going, but why me? Couldn’t you hand the spear off to Jia’s body?”

“No. I need to maintain constant concentration on this, and Lightning God Transformation would break that. It has to be you.”

“And if you fail to maintain that concentration before I deliver the blow?”

Yoshika smiled sardonically.

“Then you’d be the second of us to have half of their body annihilated in as many days.”

Kaede glared at her flatly, not seeing the humor.

“Alright, I trust you. Hand it over.”

Yoshika gave Kaede the spear, but the other woman hesitated for a moment.

“Last time you tried to throw your sword, the elemental destroyed it immediately...”

“Yeah...”

Kaede glanced at Yoshika sidelong, but Yoshika refused to meet her gaze.

“It’s going to attempt to do the same to me, and I’ll be vulnerable while I strike. You’ll have to time the explosion very precisely.”

Yoshika nodded gravely.

“We told you it was dangerous. There’s a lot that could go wrong, and if we make any mistakes...you die.”

Hayakawa Kaede, the first heiress to the Yamato Shogunate, glanced down at the spear in her hands, its tip crackling with angular red and black lines of destruction, then looked up and met Yoshika’s eyes with a hard gaze.

“Don’t make any mistakes, then.”

Then, after readying her weapon and lowering herself into the familiar stance of her Weightless Fist technique, she vanished in a burst of Gravity essence.

Though it nearly felt as though Yoshika’s head was going to crack open like a melon to do so, she once more relied upon Absolute Awareness to carry her through the next moments. The elemental was impossibly quick to react, despite their efforts to draw its attention away. As fast as she was, by the time Kaede appeared next to the elemental, another eruption point was already bulging out towards her.

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Kaede was fearless, plunging the spear into the elemental without regard for her own safety. With her payload delivered, Kaede gathered Gravity essence to escape once more, but Yoshika could already tell it wouldn’t be enough. Instead, Yoshika released her concentration on the Six Arms of Asura, focusing on Jia’s body and the Lightning essence within. She called on every last bit of ki in her body, instantly becoming a living avatar of the element that had served Jia so well throughout the years.

There was no time for subtlety—the Magma elemental’s eruption and the spear’s detonation would both kill Kaede as surely as the other. Yoshika had to move faster than she ever had before. She launched herself forward with the full speed of a bolt of lightning, slamming bodily into Kaede with a force that she knew would have easily killed both of them two years ago. With a sickening crunch the two of them slammed into a pillar, well away from the elemental’s reprisal. Yoshika just hoped that their training had made them sturdy enough to survive the ‘rescue.’

Her concentration broke, and the world lurched back into normal speed in time for a matching pair of detonations. The explosion of Destruction essence left a gaping hole in the elemental’s shell, and while Yoshika could already see the creature beginning to refill it, the process was slow. Just like the Fire elemental they’d faced back in the bowels of Mount Geumji, this elemental struggled to replace the essence that had been destroyed by Eui’s technique.

That delay was enough. The fox leapt into the opening, turning into a stream of rainbow-hued flames and flowing into the aperture until there was nothing left of it. For a moment, all was still, then cracks began to form in the shell, shedding brightly colored scintillated lights. One crack, then another, then another until the entire thing shattered like glass, leaving only a single bright orange core gently burning with a rainbow flame.

Relief washed over Yoshika in a palpable wave, and she collapsed to her knees. They’d done it! They’d won! Jia and Kaede were in desperate need of healing, they all had severe burns, and they’d spent everything they had, but they’d won! The six of them had defeated a xiantian elemental.

The girls’ celebration was cut short by a sudden, pervasive darkness. As if one moment, everything was fine, and in the next, the entire world ceased to exist. The darkness lasted only a moment, but during that moment, Eui felt cold and completely alone. Just her, floating in an endless empty void, with nothing but her insatiable hunger to keep her company. Then, as quickly as it had come, the darkness vanished, and Yoshika was whole again.

The world was exactly as she remembered it, except that the rainbow flame on the magma core had vanished, and while she couldn’t sense the Magma elemental’s xiantian aura anymore, the core was clearly still alive and gathering essence—already forming a small pool of lava beneath it. Void’s soundless voice resounded through the hall.

“Adequate. Return to negotiation.”

Of course. It wasn’t quite over yet...

 

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The remaining negotiations were largely out of Yoshika’s hands. Now that Yoshika and friends had demonstrated the value of their techniques, the elementals were open to cooperation, and conceded the point that two countries at full strength would be better than a single crippled nation for realizing their goals. Unfortunately, the actual method of that cooperation became a sticking point.

Kaede insisted that taking action against the demons would leave the alliance open to Qin aggression, while Eunae was under the impression that biding time and acting defensively would be the best course. The elementals, of course, still insisted on trying to form an alliance with Qin or the demons, both of which seemed completely impossible. In the end, no clear agreement could be made right away.

“At least release my family and the nobles so that we can discuss it properly in court.”

Eunae looked horribly drained after the constant strain of the last few days as she made her case to the elementals.

“Our goals are aligned, at least in the most immediate sense. You’ve gotten our attention, but it’s going to take months just to repair all the damage you’ve done with this upheaval. Whatever shape this alliance takes, we’re not deciding it tonight—or even any time soon. Agreed?”

After a brief pause, the Void elemental responded directly—Ja Yun hadn’t been willing to host Iseul again.

“Acknowledged.”

The curtain of nothingness receded and where there had been an empty space, Queen Seong Eunhee appeared, surrounded by a formation of dizzying complexity. Yoshika took a mental snapshot of the formation for further study before it could vanish. Between that and the Sky Hall, she’d have her hands full for years trying to make sense of it all. She idly wondered what Dae was up to before she was pulled from her reverie by the queen’s exasperated voice.

“I’ll say! Do you bumbling morons have any idea how much damage you’ve caused?”

Queen Seong paused her rant to direct a glance towards Eunae.

“Not you, sweetie, you’ve done marvelously—I’m proud of you.”

Eunae blinked in surprise at the sudden acknowledgement, her jaw hanging open. The Queen ignored it and returned to yelling at the elementals.

“The ambassadors are right, you’ve completely failed to take into account the human element! For example—get my fucking neice off the ceiling right this instant or I don’t care how important this alliance is to the fate of the world, I will dedicate every moment of my life to ending you!”

There was an awkward silence as the glowing pillar of ice pinning Seong Misun to the ceiling slowly receded, depositing her gently to the floor where she groaned and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

“Ugh, fuck...”

The queen rushed over and swept her into a hug.

“Oh, thank the ancestor you’re alright!”

“Y-yeah, thanks. I—ah”

Misun’s next words were cut off by a sharp slap to the face.

“Don’t think that I’m going to go easy on you just because there’s a hole in your chest, you spoiled brat! I know what you did, and we’re going to have words about it later.”

Misun held a hand to her face where she’d been slapped and stared sullenly at the ground. The queen stood and turned to address the room once more, abandoning her matronly demeanor and standing imperiously as if she hadn’t been a prisoner in her own castle a moment ago.

“Girls, you’ve done an excellent job saving this nation from utter disaster. You must be exhausted. I saw everything from within my prison, and you have my full support. Go home and get some rest—we’ll take it from here.”

With the queen's words, the weight of everything that had happened was lifted from Yoshika's shoulders. Rika's tribulation, her own trial by Soulfire, the threat to her family, Eui's near death, the life-or-death negotiations with the elementals—she hadn't even realized how much everything had been adding up, crushing her under the weight of an invisible pressure. At long last, she could finally take a break. When she got home, she was going to sleep for a week.