Chapter seventeen: Lead Weight Phantasm Curse

  The words hung in the air like frost: “It's too late to run” No one moved.

  Mo Fei's eyes fixed on the door. It was just wood. Just ice. Just sigils that had held for a while. But his body knew something his mind hadn't accepted yet… because his shadow was already halfway across the room, reaching for the threshold, desperate to open the door for whatever waited on the other side.

  The sigils' glow dimmed more and more. Each failure sounds like a glass breaking underwater. The air was thick and cold. It wasn't freezing cold. It was the kind of cold being seen when you thought you were alone.

  Elara grabs Han's arm. Han doesn't pull away. He stood like stone, not because he was brave, but because he didn't know what else to do. Two lives that had never asked for this watching strangers fight for their life.

  Lin’s weapon was in her hand before Mo Fei saw her move. Jian Yue's hand goes to his blade. Zhuo quickly took steps back and drew out his blade with a grim expression. Everyone was prepared. Mo Fei clutching Glaive he felt the awkward silence, a silence before the darkness.

  Lin’s eyes scanned the gate looking at sigils and Jian Yue and Lin both heard the same voice cut through the silence again a whisper, a pleading voice.

  “Please…”

  Lin recognized the shadow, Jian Yue’s eyes confirmed it. He knew too.

  “It's a Xul-Thal,” Lin breathed. “A lead weight phantasm curse. Someone here is marked by its curse.” But who was marked by its curse? They all thought and all of them were sure they had not seen it or encountered it.

  When Lin said ‘Xul-Thal,’ Elara's grip tightened. She didn't know the word. But she knew the cold. She knew the feeling of being watched. She'd felt it every day of her life in Trasia… the guard's gaze, always present, always weighting.

  Jian Yue's voice carried the next words. His hand tightened on the hilt of his blade.

  “Are you certain?” Lin nodded, confirming that someone here was undeniably marked by the curse.

  Mo Fei was deep in his thoughts and suddenly he remembered something in the ‘Forsaken Chamber of the Gods’ before the ritual he saw something moving, a shadow which he dismissed as merely an imagination.

  In the dimness Mo Fei saw his own shadow on the wall except it was facing the wrong direction. Toward the door it stretched almost as if running from its own master.

  “... I think… I know who is marked.” Everyone's eyes locked on Mo Fei waiting for him to continue Jian Yue gestured to continue.

  “I saw a shadow in the ritual chamber…” Jian Yue's eyes were slightly surprised but he knew that it's common for getting Xul-Thal’s attention being an ‘Ascended’.

  Lin’s voice joined in.“And you didn't tell us about it?!” She stopped for a moment staring at the doorway. “It's an entity that needs a host and if the host uses their ‘Ordinal’ powers a portion of their marrow turns into a black sentient blood.” She pointed at Mo Fei. “And you are the next host.”

  Her hand fell again and she warned Mo Fei about its nature. “It whispers in their mind constantly about the world's darkest horror, truths of the world. Driving them to madness.” Lin’s voice was urgent she slowly stood up and prepared for the ritual to keep the gate locked.

  Lin’s jaw tightened as she looked at the weakened sigils “I should be out there with you.” She didn't look at them. “But if the house falls the ‘Overseer’ will know everything. We can't take the risk at this moment. Jian Yue, Zhuo I'm putting this on you.” Her one hand was already moving, tracing the sigils in the air.

  Her other hand was on her blade's hilt her eyes landed on Mo Fei before looking away… But it wasn't for fighting. It was to kill Mo Fei if necessary as he could be the next ‘Host’ Mo Fei stared back and realized the weight of her stare he knew the cold situation now. He gulped slightly.

  Zhuo’s eyes went to the ground, a small hesitation flickered and he questioned one very important thing to keep. He reminded them about this.

  “... Its original eye.” The boy's face was pale, but his hand didn't shake the blade. “It will not leave without destroying it.”

  Lin’s jaw tightened. How could they forget such an important thing? Jian Yue’s face paled “The ‘Original Eye’. Offcourse.”

  “What does that mean!” Mo Fei demanded the answer.

  Zhuo's voice was small. “Its... its original eye. The one it took from the last host. If we don't-"

  “Destroy it,” Lin cut in.” The eye. Before it takes another.” She wasn't looking at any of them.” The last host was a child. It took us three days to find the eye. Took us one second to realize we were too late.”

  Zhuo’s eyes was restlessly locked on the door seeing Lin preparing back for the ritual of the ‘Keybearer’.

  Jian Yue nodded at him with a final confrontation to not waste any moment Jian Yue said.

  “Zhuo, get ready now we are leaving.”

  Zhuo looked at Mo Fei one last time. “Close your eyes and don't open them till this threat is gone because it can make you use your eyes through the curse, stay safe… Big brother.” His words warned him but the last word was strangely warm for Mo Fei. He knew Zhuo was a naive kid but at this moment Zhuo acted differently as if he knew the danger.

  Jian Yue touched the door ready to open it.

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  “I hate to say this… Lin, don't do that before we come back… Even if ‘it’ takes over.”

  “Tch. Don't blame me if anything happens if don't…” A pause almost too quiet to hear. “take care of the boy.” Lin said everything was prepared now.

  Zhuo paused at the threshold. He looked back at Lin’s hands. The ones that had bandaged his first wound, years ago.

  “I'll come back,” he said.

  Lin didn't turn around. “I'll blame you if not,”

  A pause... Then, with a slightly softer tone: “You won't escape, I'm not done teaching you.”

  The door closed behind Zhuo. Mo Fei stared at the wood, at the space where the boy had stood. “Big brother.”

  He'd never been anyone's brother. Never wanted to be. Family was something that happened to other people, in other lives.

  And now a fifteen-year-old with a warrior's belt and too-old eyes had given him the name anyway.

  “Please…” Mo Fei flinched, his eyes widened from the sudden voice. It wasn't outside anymore. It was inside. A whisper behind his eyes he looked behind but nothing… It whispered again.

  “You've seen them, haven't you? The threads. Didn't you realize yet? They are hiding things from you… They can kill you once you become a threat to them… Don't you realize that… Don't you?”

  Mo Fei clamped his hands over his ears tightly. But it was no help. The voice kept growing in his head. He couldn't stop it. His head was starting to get hurt now.

  “You want to know the truth. I can show you. I can show you everything… say, say. Don't you want to know everything about these worlds?”

  “Shut up!!” He breathed heavily.

  Lin glanced at him. “Who are you talking to?”

  Mo Fei looked at her. Her hand was still on her blade. Still close he knew what it could mean.

  “...No one.”

  Lin's eyes didn't leave his face. For a long, terrible moment, she just watched him. Then she turned back to the door.

  “Tch… Liar,” she said quietly. Not angry. Just... tired.

  Jian Yue and Zhuo stepped outside. The cold hit them like a wall. One step from the Still Point's warmth, and suddenly the world was all teeth. Zhuo saw ‘It’ first. ‘It’ didn't hide. didn't need to. ‘It’ stood fifty paces away, stood against the vast snowfield, and ‘It’ waited. Patiently, politely. The Xul-Thal.

  Jian Yue's hand found Zhuo's shoulder. Squeezed once. A warning. A comfort. Both. “We have to find the ‘Original Eye’. We can do this, right Zhuo.”

  BUT! One of the floating eyes had already found Zhuo. It was hung in the air like a bubble floating, and in its pupil, Zhuo saw himself… saw himself dying, saw himself already dead, saw himself standing here fifty years from now, still fighting, still losing. For a moment Zhuo was stunned.

  The eye blinked.

  The vision stopped.

  Zhuo's sword was in his hand. He didn't remember drawing it. There was no way he had taken out his sword; it was in his sheath and remembered it very well.

  The Xul-Thal tilted its head… was that a human gesture? Perhaps ‘It’ had learned somewhere, long ago. The nerves on its scalp twitched, and the floating eyes adjusted, refocused, ten pupils now fixed on two small figures in the snow. It was utterly disgusting seeing its eyes on its hairs floating around.

  Then. It spoke… it spoke without a mouth the voice came into their head no noise in surrounding no air moved.

  “You brought a child.” it paused for a moment and then spoke again

  “How thoughtful.”

  A humanoid being covered in black substance falling on the ground creating a deep darkness ‘Its’ shadow itself an endless void. Zhuo looked at Jian Yue who was holding his blade now.

  Jian Yue lunged forward, his movement was faster than any sound as he closed the distance between them. The blade moved precisely cutting through one of the strands… more precisely a ‘Nerve’ It moved back taking steps back as its eye fell on the ground.

  It leaned on the ground picking up the eye, swallowing the eye. The attack did nothing, no damage to ‘It’ the eye suddenly grew back as ‘It’ swallowed, blinking at them.

  “Tch.” Jian Yue's attacked once again, his blade cutting through the air and chopping off another nerve… Another eye fell. Another eye regrew. ‘It’ wasn't even flinched by the attack, almost as if feeling no pain at all.

  “It's… not working,” Zhuo breathed without knowing the location of the ‘Original Eye’ killing it was impossible.

  The Xul-Thal didn't attack. It just... watched. Its head tilted further and it passed the point where necks should break. It looked at Zhuo with its other sinister eye.

  “Little one,” it said and the voice came from everywhere, from the hail, from the ice, everything was its voice and from Zhuo's own memory of his mother's voice. “Little one, do you know what they'll do to you?”

  Zhuo's sword dipped from his hand. Just slightly. He gasped and he was feeling the voice.

  “They'll use you. Lose you. Forget you. They always do… This, this is the law of nature.” The Xul-Thal took one step forward toward Zhuo. The darkness beneath it spreading wider, reaching toward Zhuo's feet, an endless deep river of shadows. “The woman with the scar? You must have known by now… She's already planning how to kill the marked one, and the marked one? He's already listening to me and soon will be my host. And the man beside you?”

  “Zhuo! Zhuo don't freeze in,” Jian Yue shouted at Zhuo.

  “He has done this before. Four times. Four humans. Four failures. How long before you're the fifth?”

  Zhuo's hand shook.

  The eye closest to him now floating on its nerve like a fruit on a vine, it wrapped around Zhuo looking with its hideous eye. Jian Yue quickly closed the distance, cutting the eye in two pieces. His hand held Zhuo’s and he took distance before slapping Zhuo. The sting was sharp.

  Zhuo blinked, the world snapped back to reality. Zhuo’s eyes not meeting Jian Yue's.

  “I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-”

  “No time! Listen to me. You're not a failure. Didn't you think we are family. It's no time to decide your fate.”

  Zhuo’s eyes paced around as he realized his mistake. But they had fallen into ‘Its’ trap as the shadow grew wider. Beneath them. They were fighting a losing battle.

  Jian Yue grabbed Zhuo and threw him backward away from the spreading darkness.

  “Run!”

  “What? No!”

  “RUN. Find the eye. I'll hold it back for a while. I'm putting everything on you Zhuo.”

  Zhuo's feet wouldn't move… He knew the weight of the situation… But how could he find the eye in a whole district? “How?”

  Jian Yue didn't answer, he had none. He turned to face the Xul-Thal. His movements were slow as he lowered his blade.

  The Xul-Thal paused. Even its floating eyes seemed curious by this. It looked at him with his ten eyes focused on him.

  “You can't call me it's worthless to fight invincible.”

  Inside the Still Point, Mo Fei pressed his palms against his skull. It was getting unbearable. The voice of Xul-Thal was terrific, the truth a person never wanted to know. The voice wouldn't stop. Wouldn't slow. Wouldn't do anything but keep whispering.

  “They're dying out there. Can you feel it? The Warden’s ‘Authority’ and the boy he's so afraid of the future outcomes he is thinking what if fails. He's thinking of you all. Such hope. Such waste.”

  “Be QUIET! I'll cut that tongue of yours.”

  “I don't have any.”

  Mo Fei's eyes snapped open, his hand was on the wall now rubbed against the hard surface.

  The voice laughed softly, with a horrible fondness “Ah. There you are. I was wondering when you'd remember you had those come outside then let's meet those eyes with mine.”

  Mo Fei was moving before he understood why. He couldn't wait any longer. He grabbed the Glaive. Stumbled toward the door.

  Lin's voice cut through: “Don't you dare open that-”

  But he opened it anyway.

  The cold hit him like a blade. The snow. The dark. And in the distance. He saw them. Zhuo, in the middle, staring at something Mo Fei couldn't see. Jian Yue’s blade moved with sparks and surrounded them with a veil of shadow. And shadows moving wrong around him.

  Mo Fei closed his eyes before it could look at them but Mo Fei learned a bit about these eyes. It was a risk or a gamble if he opened them. Either he could find the threads of the Xul-Thal or ended up becoming an useless bait.

  With courage he opened his eyes finally. And he saw the threads connecting its body too far away from them. The thread reached out for a place, a place filled with cold near a cave. The thread entered in it everything was blurred there, just the thread and then it connected to something.

  The Original Eye.

  Mo Fei's own eyes widened. The thread snapped into focus. He could see the path, a silver line stretched through the dark into a familiar location… He finally noticed where that eye was…

  Mo Fei opened his mouth to shout the location before he heard a scream coming out of Zhuo’s throat.

  “YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE OPENED YOUR EYES IN FRONT OF IT!” Zhuo's scream was too late. ‘It’ had seen his eye. A sharp pain flared up on Mo Fei’s eye unaware of what had happened

  Mo Fei's hand flew up to his right eye. His hand met an empty socket. On the ground, steaming in the snow, an eye looked back at him, the vein of the eye snapped in half.

  It was his eye.

  Mo Fei screamed in pain as a sharp whimper came out of his throat, his hand soaked in blood. But even as he fell to his knees, even as the blood froze on his cheek, even as the voice in his head howled with laughter, he pointed he closed his other eye knowing the risk of opening it now it was late as he had already lost one eye.

  “Cathedral,” he gasped. “The eye... it's in the Cathedral of the Flesh. The execution chamber. It's in the fourth-..."

  He couldn't finish. The pain was too much. This time the blood was coming out so much it took him everything to stay in pain.

  But Zhuo understood.

  Zhuo, who had never fought anything alone, who had always had Jian Yue beside him, who had called strangers his family. His face looked at Jian Yue who nodded at him before avoiding a shadow spike coming out of the ground, almost a fatal hit, it was a struggle. Zhuo turned toward the Cathedral, his footsteps urgent as he rushed with everything he got.

  Lin who looked at this now couldn't control the gateway she looked at Han and Elara gestured with eye to quickly take back Mo Fei to house.

  Han and Elara stood up from the corner and rushed outside; this was the moment they wanted. Han and Elara both pulled Mo Fei inside the door, closing the door again.

  “Zhuo is running toward Kholkis!” Mo Fei shouted at them trying to suppress his pain. It was hard even to speak. All the words that were coming were shouts in pain.

  When Mo Fei said this Lin’s eye twitched slightly. She was no help right now if she let go of the ritual… they all might die when ‘Overseer’ finds out she had to keep it up until the fight would finish.