Chapter 28: Intervention
The farther they were going, the stranger was the forest. Leaves were getting bigger and tighter, trees larger, and as for insects…
"Slap!"
Redness spread across Xin's hand, but the mosquito managed to get away.
"…" The boy frowned.
"Annoying, isn't it?"
Ying Zheng jumped from the floor of green covering the sky. Strangely, there was no sound when his feet connected with the ground.
"They are Spirit Mosquitos, what an original name! Times fiercer than the normal kind. Here, eat it." He threw him a yellow pill. Xin instinctively swallowed it.
"It will make your sweat dangerous for them, also will make you sweaty. Not really pleasant, but a normal ointment won't work here. These little bastards can bite through the clothes."
"How the progress by the way." He asked with his hands in his pockets and eyes on the girl. Xin followed his stare.
Maha was standing in front of a strange structure. A door with neither knob nor keyhole craved into a mountain. However, if you look closer you will see that it wasn't a mountain, it was a man, no, a demon made structure. Smooth white pyramid with a layer of dirt on it. It wasn't big, though. Only five meters or so.
"Click!" at last yellow shine emitted from the girl's eyes at the door and passed through it as if it was a shadow. Then it dissolved like a smoke.
At first, inside was only darkness. Then many crystals lying and hanging shined, all of the different colors, however making a coherent symphony.
"Fancy." Said Ying Zheng and walked in.
The insides of the structure were made of something smooth; marble, guessed Xin. The light was flowing on the walls. Exactly, flowing. It wasn't static, it was like waves and streams, like a spider web in the sun and wind. It was an indescribable beauty.
"Gaudy." Ying Zheng shook his head slightly.
"No discernible taste."
"Coming from you it is a compliment." Said Maha not even looking at him.
Xin, in turn, was quite fascinated. The light was like water, flowing and filling the pictures carved on the marble. In his opinion, Ying Zheng was just trying to annoy the girl.
"It's beautiful." He said, hoping to turn the tide.
"See, only works on kids."
…
Xin retreated to the corner.
Maha, meanwhile, put her hand hidden by the red sleeve on the largest green crystal in the middle of the room. She closed her eyes as if thinking about something, and when she opened them, they shined with yellow light.
"It should work, but we have to save energy."
The middle crystal blinked and all other extinguished. It, in turn, became brighter but Xin wasn't sure, was it because it was the only source of light left or some different reason.
"Teleportation array can be activated only once…"
"One is enough."
Ying Zheng clapped his hands.
"Get that stuff ready."
"It is, we can use right away."
"Good, soon you'll be teleported, kid. Gonna be fun. Then, can we get directly to the Demon Land from here?"
"No, that array is too weak even when fully charged. I can open path to the Main Nexus; there should be more energy, enough to jump to the Empire."
"The Main Nexus is that big pyramid?" Asked Ying Zheng. Xin remembered something like that in the map he gave him.
"Yes."
"Than it'll do, it's almost a month of traveling away. Activate the thing."
"Come here, put your hands on the crystal."
Xin did, Ying Zheng did too. The crystal had four sides; now three of them were taken. When his palm connected, Xin felt a strong energy inside the crystal, like a whirlwind. It was pressing on his soul light.
After almost week and half of training, he reached the point when he can feel his soul light and manipulate it directly. It was what all living beings do; every move is the soul light passing from a brain and flowing to a hand, or a leg, or lips. But it was instinctive, and as Maha said, that instinct should be remade. Now he was trying to do the same, but the other way, by using the light directly. At first, it was strange, like moving your hand with the other hand, or even more abstract but now… It wasn't much better. However he wasn't slacking off, so these days he was similar to a clumsy bear.
"Are you ready?"
Maha's voice awoke him. The light in the crystal started surging like a tornado, forming a shining ring was almost visible with bare eyes.
"Now that I think about it, everything happening too fast." Complained Ying Zheng.
"One."
Unusual sharpness appeared in Maha's voice. The light became stronger, the ring expanded beyond the crystal.
"Two." Everything began to tremble. The light was brighter and brighter.
"Three."
"Could've told the number you are counting to…"
"Four."
The ring consumed them. A pillar of pure radiance shot from the golden peak of the pyramid toward the sky while insides died in the darkness.
For Xin, all became still. A cloud of light was surrounding him, and nothing but absolute silence.
He looked around and saw two silhouettes. One small, the other big. They were moving but only slightly, like shadows in a changing light.
His feelings were at ease, with time the fog started to weaken.
Suddenly, darkness came. The fog turned into smoke. Xin's eyes opened wide, the small silhouette unknowingly approached him. Even now the smoke was covering it whole. A pure darkness, like a wall, separated them and Ying Zheng.
Is that how it should be? Xin tilted his head. Then the palm of the dark silhouette went right through him.
"Ah…" He felt the wind on his cheeks. Then strong impact passed through his entire body. His breath got interrupted –Bum!-, vibration spread and then came pain, and before he comprehended it something red and black crashed into his chest.
"Agh!" One more impact and tears filled his eyes, he felt like throwing out his heart. Like a doll, he slid to the ground breathing like his neck was broken. The black-red thing, the girl, was lying to the side.
The boy had a hard time getting his lost spirit into himself and then getting on legs. The first his motion after was to fall once again while trying to squat before the girl. Not complaining he turned her lifeless body on the back and the room lit up; her eyes were the only source of light here. He removed the hair and it became even brighter. Then, well, he didn't know.
He looked around for it was his second priority and saw only stones, yellowish-grey and old bricks.
The girl was still doll-like. Xin breathed in.
He can't panic. There should be an explanation for all that has happened. He will find it later; now, what can he do?
The obvious thing came first: his eyes shined with white and he tried sending his thoughts to Maha. Sadly, no response came. Then he lifted her body and used as a lamp. Was it impolite? He will ask her forgiveness later, for now, it worked even better than he expected.
The room was of bricks, at times mixed with moss. There was also a passage out leading to a place not much different.
Should he try going there, or better wait until the girl will wake up? It was a hard choice. No, thinking about it now, it was fairly easy.
He will wait for the girl to wake up and if it won't happen he will start exploring the place.
Xin sat down with Maha still in his hands.
The girl was light. It was strange holding her like that; his nose was burrowing into her hair, so he was barely resisting sneezing. In addition, she was quite soft. But he was a respectable person and resisted the urge to squeeze her.
Together they started waiting.
…