Hana sat by and watched the other members of her family and the looks on their faces. Their expressions made her shy, which brought immediate rage to the mutated Mollen.
"Stop." Hana yelled.
It stopped its movements and heeled back. The creature, under everyone's eyes, had moved to act on Hana's behalf simply because she was shying away.
Hana Giggled. 'This is going to be so much fun.' Her aura soared again and Hana drew a formation on the floor with the special sauce, she had made her own version with a little more kick to it, adding finely ground crystal and several ounces of various essences. The large bottle was a bit comical to watch her squeeze but her aim was pretty good. She drew all the connecting lines and then threw out several Elemental Heart Grass.
Each of them vibrated and then began to beat in a melody.
Hana kept giggling.
"{What is she doing now?}" Vira turned her head sideways a bit trying to make sense of the conjurement. 'Its a summoning spell, but its indistinct? Why? Wouldn't that call a Random Beast?' She spoke up. "Hana, you realize that your offerings will summon a random beast with that formation right?"
"Oh? Is that how it works?" She didn't say it to be sarcastic and it didn't come out that way, Hana simply wanted to know and was grateful that Vira had said something, Hana thought about it and threw a few more Elemental Heart Grass to the offering. Now, there were eight hearts gathered in her formation flag positions and she only had to activate it.
Hana slung another bottle of her blood into the formation.
'Hmm. ' Hana wasn't sure this was what she had wanted. She paused.
Wu Hai looked down at his hand and stared at it. He tried to imitate Hana's aura and spoke directly to the Creature. "Do you have a name?" He felt strange asking it questions but still wondered if it was intelligent. It was all for nothing, a moment passed and the Emperor tossed his hands up. "Maybe you should try. Hehe.."
"Do you have a name?" Hana tried asking the same question but the beast simply stared at the giant. Hana wondered.
She sent her senses to the 3 armed giant, it was taking a little effort to maintain its appearance but Hana had lots of energy left. When she connected, she heard lots of strange noises and presumed them to be how the summons communicated. She tried repeating the order in that state and felt like the giant was speaking for her.
It stood very tall and corrected its posture, following Hana's exact movements at the time. She was overthinking it but managing to do well enough to control it directly. "What is your name?" She asked. To her, it also felt silly to ask the beast this question, she wouldn't understand its clicks and rolls.
The others also had confused looks on their faces, they couldn't understand the creatures chittering that had grown more intense.
"I'm going then." Hana spoke up, her sentinel-like guardian dissipated into nothingness.
"Going where?" Kuzunoha had asked but Hana was already spreading her wings. Hana had only just begun to speak towards it and she was already raring to go.
"OUT THERE!!" Hana yelled as she exited the city shields, she flew toward Death's River with a smile on her face.
Giggles could be heard as she flew into the distance.
"She's laughing hysterically." Vira clapped her hands, "Should we follow her?"
Everyone seemed to nod in unison, the situation was already irregular. Hana hadn't even started the formation, it remained there in the center of the courtyard, abandoned and inactivated.
Wu Hai spread his wings along with Kuzunoha and Vira.
A quick flash of light at the city shield marked their egress from Tower City, Hana was already several dozen kilometers away and traveling fast. The River Reaper was leading the way toward its swarm.
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When Hana arrived, the contracted beast let out a piercing call to all of the surroundings.
Constant and rhythmic replies began to fill the landscape, one chitter became a hundred and the hundred became thousands. The chittering grew louder and more intense the closer they drew toward Hana and the contracted reaper.
Wu Hai caught up and watched from a distance, prepared to whisk Hana away at the first sign of danger. 'She's gotten very confident in her abilities, I wonder if she can pull this off.'
Hana's sentinel guardian began to come out, one hand, two, then the third. It pulled itself out of the hole and stood behind Hana. Hana's reaper pet flew in front of her, it beat its wings repeatedly while Hana stood on the ground. By being on the ground, she figured that she didn't have to worry about attacks from below.
She was right, thousands of death's river reapers began to swarm in her direction. Her contracted reaper started to chitter. Its chittering was definitely marked by signatures of intelligent conversation, many different tones and frequencies came out.
Wu Hai couldn't tell if things were going poorly but the swarm was still approaching.
Hana wasn't willing to become a meal, she saw just how fast each of them could attack up close. She raised her hand above her head, the sentinel did the same. Its shield in its left hand and two forty foot blades in either of the other hands, the sentinel swung at the incoming swarm with its swords. Twenty or so of the reapers were halved in an instant and then the shield came slamming down on top of nearly a hundred in their front line.
A deep cloud of black gas flew toward Hana, it flew into her body. Hana gave off another howl, she grabbed her head and the Sentinel shook. Its body bubbled on its backside and its armor cracked in half at the shoulders. Two, massive hundred foot wings spread out and the sentinel roared.
The Swarm stopped advancing.
"What?" Vira stopped next to the Emperor. Wu Hai shushed her and kept watching. If he was sure that he wouldn't attract their attentions, he would have thrown out a concealment formation to hide their presence.
Hana stood there below the thousands of Reapers that buzzed around her. Her sentinel had taken in a lot of the energy that she had just received and grown wings, to Hana, the sentinel now seemed like the King of the Reapers.
She giggled again.
'What's with the giggling?' Wu Hai watched his daughter carefully, making sure not to miss her advancement. To see their child succeed in life, what sort of parent wouldn't treasure such a moment. He watched, attentively, as Hana pulled a lot of bottles out of her storage.
"Fine, Don't tell me.." Vira whispered quietly next to Wu Hai.
Kuzunoha stood beside them both and squeezed Wu Hai's hand.
Hana landed on the palm of the Sentinel and made it fly up into the air in front of the Death's River Reaper swarm. She chanted quietly, it didn't sound, at least from a distance no one could hear it. Hana's voice was low and tactile, Wu Hai could only read her lips slightly.
'What is she going to do?' Wu Hai felt Kuzunoha's grip tighten and he sent his senses into her body to calm her down, Kuzunoha's breathing slowed and her heart rate dropped. 'She'll be okay.' He wanted to say but dared not interrupt the happenings in front of him.
Hana threw the bottles.
There were several hundred in total, all different sizes. The look on Hana's face meant they were important and that she didn't take her actions lightly. When the bottles began to arc in the air and slow, beginning to fall, Hana had the sentinel strike. Crystalline darts, red in color with a grey weight at the ends, making them look like reverse arrows flew toward the bottles, exploding them.
Hana's chanting had intensified, a great and wet wind blew the bottles contents into the air and scattered it into a fine mist.
The Sentinel Roared and Hana Giggled. "SUBMIT!" There was no hesitation in her words, a Hammer appeared in Hana's hands.
She loosed the grip and it slipped down, putting the handle directly in her grasp.
"EE-IIIUU!!" The sentinel roared, splitting its face open and lunging at the swarm. The Mist was still falling, it coated the bodies of every reaper within. Rushing into the swarm, it swallowed another fifteen that were clumped together and swung its shield. The shield was almost as large as the Reaper King Sentinel, its bashing action either destroyed or maimed about a hundred when it was swung.
"EE-IIIUUU!!" The Reaper King Sentinel roared even louder. It was devastating to watch the scenes unfold in front of them, their brood-mates were instantly pulverized or left for dead on the death river shores.
After only a moment, the mist, which had been quietly falling, had settled on the bodies of the Death's River Reapers. Several among the swarm began to glow, their bodies began to resonate and then a humming sound could be heard from their chittering.
One, then ten, then fifty.
Not all of the Reapers in the cloud had the glow but the glow signified something else for the Reapers. It signaled the return of their ancestry, then, like the concept had dawned on them all at once, the Reapers began to land and lay prone on the ground before the Reaper King.
Hana didn't care if it was because of the Reaper shaped sentinel behind her or another factor, she coldly yelled out, "SUBMIT!" The Reaper King Sentinel did the same, it chittered loudly.
A sea of red glows gathered, thousands of red lights covered the hellscape and the cloud of reapers.
"I don't fucking believe it." Wu Hai gave up on being quiet, the situation had clearly changed.
"What just happened?" Kuzunoha asked but she felt like she already knew the answer.
"Hana just subjugated a species." Wu Hai shook his head wildly. "This is just.. I knew she had a lot of potential and promise but this.. there has to be a limit." Suddenly, Wu Hai felt like Master Jiang so many years before.. his body shivered.
He left Vira and Kuzunoha's side, arriving directly next to Hana's position.
"Did you see!? Did you see!?" Hana was ecstatic, she was jumping up and down on the palm of the Sentinel.
"I saw, but I'm going to give you the one piece of advice that saved my life, slow down." Wu Hai tried to get Hana to humble herself just a bit, modesty was never a problem before but now that she had taken in the Spot Demon, her attitude had turned much more wild.
"Un." Hana nodded but somehow the Emperor wasn't buying it. She giggled, then jumped off the Sentinel's hand and onto the ground. "I can tell that father is worried about me, I think that you're right to worry. What lays in front of me are things I couldn't have imagined and still cannot. Its all scary but isn't that life. I can't live my life in fear." Hana's head drooped a bit, feeling bitter about the circumstances of her immediate past and the lives that had been cut short. "For Jeannie, for Phera.. For my Cousins.. I can never give up."
Wu Hai saw Hana's resolve, it almost made him want to cry. Kuzunoha heard everything, she was.
"Don't worry Father, I won't." Hana turned back to the Swarm, they had all obediently remained in place. The Reaper King chittered slightly, it was a command to move out. The Death's River Reapers flew into the air and circled above.
Hana flew over to her mother and hugged her.
Kuzunoha began to weep uncontrollably, "Why does it feel like.. I won't see you for a long time!"
Hana shook her head, "I can do so much more here." She let her mother go and drifted into the air. "I promise, I won't forget about your worries and that I'll come to find you one day."
Kuzunoha cried on the ground. She wasn't ready to see her little girl heading off into dangerous places alone.
Wu Hai came to her side and hugged her gently, "She has to grow up sometime, didn't I meet you when you were her age, wasn't it you who tried to take a Demon head on?"
Kuzunoha wiped her face, remembering clearly the details of that day. She nodded.
"Our daughter isn't as weak as I was at that time, I think, especially with that swarm, our worries can be mostly dismissed. She's no fool, even if she acts terribly fearless, she knows what caution and consequence are." Wu Hai's words stung like a basket of hornets but as the Emperor, he had to remain objective. Not everything in the world was under his control, he knew that now more than ever. "Lets support her decision, I have faith that our guidance won't be thrown away carelessly."
Kuzunoha finished sniffling, "I think so too." She tried, but couldn't stop crying.
Hana watched her parents grieve from the Reaper King's side. "I love you both." She had made up her mind, Hana flew away. She wouldn't waste any more time.
"There she goes." Vira called out. "I have to admire her decision, she's quite bold, I can see where she gets it." Vira looked over at Wu Hai and Kuzunoha then shook her head, 'I hope I'm not like them in the future.' She put her hands on her stomach, it had gotten much bigger and she could no longer hide the fact that she was pregnant.
"Lets go." Wu Hai channeled and took them all back to the Tower City Pagoda.
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Wu Hai sat with the Empresses, they sat on chairs near the edge of the bed and were going over plans for their future. "I think I can finally retire as the Emperor." His sentence caught Kuzunoha and Vira by surprise."
"You must be kidding?" Vira chided him a bit.
"No, I'm not kidding. I'm serious. Hana's grown, Ho's grown, Wang, Tiancho, Lei, Marcus and Han are also grown. Each of them is capable of taking up the mantle of Emperor. Not to mention, I never wanted this title to begin with, I just ran with it because of Mike." Wu Hai sneered during his last sentence, it was likely that he would never forget that it was Mike who thrust such a heavy burden on his shoulders.
"And what about the rest of the Empire?" Kuzunoha wanted answers, she asked in a sweet tone.
"Marcus and Ho make wonderful candidates. I can't make my parents take this up either, they both have enough to contend with."
Vira joked and replied, "You could always leave it with me?"
It didn't get her the response she wanted, Wu Hai turned to her. "You're coming with me." He turned to Kuzunoha. "You too." He thought some more, "and Mike."
"Going where?" Both of them couldn't help but ask.
"Its going to take preparation and lots of planning, so it might not be for a few years." Wu Hai put his hands on both of their faces.
"Where?" They both sounded out in unison once again.
Wu Hai smiled, "To the land of the Gods!"