Chapter 5: May the Rivers and Mountains Remain Unharmed

The space inside the carriage warped into something twisted and unreal. A gale surged backward. From the doorway, a red beam burst forth and, in the blink of an eye, swelled into a gigantic hand. It tore at every creature in the car. Shriek after shriek ripped through the air. The giant hand smashed through resistance like rotten wood, crushing any living thing into pulp. Its fingers drank it all in, leaving only wisps of green smoke. Ivy Spears clamped both hands around the door handle, knuckles white. Her body would not stop shaking. Light and shadow flickered across her face as if she were wrestling something unseen. From Ethan Greaves's angle, he saw it clearly. Ivy Spears was slowly withering. Yes. Withering. Her hair fell out in clumps. Her eye sockets sank. Veins bulged up along her skin. It looked as if someone were draining her flesh and blood, drawing her skin tight over bone. Yet her eyes still burned with a stubborn light. The eerie things in the carriage still fought the giant hand with desperate fury, but there was nowhere to run. The car, once packed shoulder to shoulder, had become strangely open. Under the giant hand's ravage, one eerie thing after another dissolved into green smoke. The man in jacket retreated with the few companions he had left. Then, without warning, the arm Ivy Spears used to hold the handle simply… came off. Bang! The door slammed shut. The world fell into silence. As if nothing had ever appeared at all. "The Gate of Sacrifice… closed?" "Ha! Hahaha!" the man in jacket cackled, voice ragged with triumph. "Ivy Spears, you can't stop us! You… you should be wiped out along with the Gate of Sacrifice!" Ivy Spears sagged against the door, just as he said. The Gate of Sacrifice began to disperse from top to bottom, fading away into nothing. And Ivy Spears faded with it. Her head lolled to the side as she looked at Ethan Greaves. "No regrets," she murmured. As she spoke, a twisted body clung to the train's ceiling like a spider. It skittered past in a blur, scraping the metal roof and leaving long gouges behind. The shrill screech set Ethan's teeth on edge, the sound so sharp he wanted to clamp his hands over his ears. Damn roach… Disgusting. The "spider" dropped down, landing right in front of Ivy Spears. Its body was riddled with holes, dense as a honeycomb. From every opening seeped a foul, fishy liquid. Two thin, long tentacle speared through Ivy Spears's shoulders in an instant. The creature opened its mouth and began to tear at her flesh. It seemed it meant to deny her even the mercy of fading away. Ivy Spears lay on the floor, staring up at that hideous, twisted face. Not a trace of pain showed on her expression. She looked like a mounted general, lofty and scornful, as if the monster beneath her contempt was the one suffering. Ethan's eyes went bloodshot. He roared, "Get away from her!" and hurled the cleaver in his hand with all his strength. It did nothing. Not even a flinch. He charged forward anyway. A tentacle as thick as an arm whipped out and wrapped around his ankle. The dark green flesh was covered in dense suction cups. The violent yank stole his balance at once. He crashed hard into a seat armrest and spat blood, his body dragged backward across the floor. Ivy Spears looked at him, trying to say something. Her lips moved, but no sound came. Another chunk of skin was bitten from her face. "Damn it… damn it!" Ethan slammed his palm against the floor, the sound raw and broken. He struggled to roll over. All he saw was darkness. He did not even know what the owner of the tentacle looked like. Blood flooded his throat. He started coughing violently. Behind him came a wet, crisp sound. Crunch, crunch. It was Ivy Spears's bones being chewed. These revolting monsters… Maybe Ivy Spears could have pretended she knew nothing, pretended she had not seen the trap closing in. Maybe she could have kept waiting, even if it was only a little longer. Tomorrow. The day after. A powerful pioneer might have arrived, shattered this so-called Demon Realm, and finally set her free. But the person she waited for… was herself. Was this how it ended? Ethan refused to accept it. But he was not a Martial Artist. Not transcendent. He did not even have the chance to struggle- Suddenly, Ivy Spears's every action replayed in his mind. He endured the pain of being dragged. He lifted both arms and stacked them together, as if remembering an old ritual. How did it go again? Right… "On Veyra's land…" "Sun and moon… shine forever!" "Let ambition become a song…" "To comfort my…" "Mountains…" "and rivers!" He bellowed until his throat tore, roaring like a beast in a trap. One of Ivy Spears's eyeballs had already fallen onto the floor. A little girl darted in, snatched it up, and shoved it into her own empty socket. The other eye stared in Ethan's direction. It wanted to laugh, but could not. *Silly kid. You're not a priestess. Are you really that desperate, grasping at anything?* she thought. Then a startled sound rasped out of her throat. "Huh?!" A golden arc of light gathered above Ethan's head. It thickened, spread, and finally unraveled into countless threads that drifted down. Like golden rain. "Ahhh!" The eerie thing dragging Ethan screamed. When the golden rain splashed onto its tentacle, it hissed. Sss, sss. A strand of gold raced along the tentacle. Wherever it passed, the flesh turned into golden liquid that spilled onto the floor in shimmering streams. From the depths of the darkness came a scream so agonized it made the blood run cold. "This is…" The man in jacket stumbled back, terror flashing in his eyes. The golden liquid rapidly congealed. It became a golden door. Radiant. Blinding. "M-My eyes!" Any eerie thing that saw the golden door clutched its face and shrieked. Ethan struggled up onto his knees. He did not have time to think. He reached out and pressed his hand to the handle. He was about to say something, but the words slipped away. He looked to Ivy Spears, who had only half a face left. She seemed to read his embarrassment. Half a lip lifted. "Your name," she rasped, voice dull and hoarse, each syllable forced out as if it cost her everything. "Invite all lords to Return to Void." Ethan drew a deep breath and nodded hard. Fear vanished from his mind, replaced by fury and grief as he watched Ivy Spears fade. "Ethan Greaves, Invite all lords to Return to Void!" He shoved the door open. What appeared was not a giant hand. It was a towering, broad-shouldered Golden Armor Warrior, wreathed in gold, divine and unearthly. "The golden door… Golden Armor God…" Ivy Spears seemed to realize something. Her voice dwindled until it was barely there. "Your surname is Greaves… Ethan Greaves… little one, so it was… you." Ethan stared at her, stunned. "You… you knew me?" Ivy Spears did not answer. Her lips trembled. She left him only a relieved, gentle look. Then she dispersed completely, breaking into scattered points of light, like fireflies filling the air, brightening and dimming. "May Veyra's rivers and mountains remain unharmed." Those were Ivy Spears's last words, never spoken aloud. Ethan could not understand it. He could not understand why someone would gamble everything to save a stranger. She did not even know his name until the very end. He panted, staring at that Golden Armor War God. The gold that flooded the carriage bathed him, and a comfort he could not explain seeped into his bones. One man's cure. Another's poison. The same golden light that soothed Ethan felt like heart-scorching flame to the eerie things. Low growls and tortured screams rose from those unknown creatures. The man in jacket's clothes split apart, seams tearing wide. Defined muscle bulged beneath, covered in thick reddish-brown fur, streaked with patches of white. His features warped with it. Cheekbones flared outward, his face broadened, until he looked like a ferocious tiger in human skin. "Damn it! Damn it!" he howled, hysteria cracking his voice. He sprang forward, lunging straight at the Golden Armor War God.