act49side

Lamentable, is it not, that Sui's dream has become so torn and broken... fortune and misfortune are truly two sides of the same coin.

You are in Its nightmare, and you have drawn its lines, like it or not.

Look.

Hou points in the distance, where heaven and earth melt into one. Suddenly, a black silhouette emerges from nothingness.

Feranmut.

Humanity.

Weapon.

It all seems utterly unreal, like the picture books that some Yanese soldiers carry with them.

Flip through the pages rapidly, and the pictures begin to move, as though they have been subject to Dusk's touch.

I'll awaken It?

Quite the opposite.

A nightmare does not last long. Anyone trapped in a nightmare only seeks to wake up. This silhouette at least allows It to sleep a little longer.

Then, what do you mean by fortune and misfortune being two sides of the same coin?

Hou says nothing, but Wang sees it.

At first, the images are awkward and stiff, but soon they become smooth.

Not much has changed, except for a white shadow appearing within the black silhouette.

What is that?

All twelve of you took something from Its dream. When It let Yu go, Its old dream gradually blurred, and the new dream became empty.

But what was left behind was not a void. It was a mirror, waiting to reflect the first thing that enters this dream.

That thing... that man, is you.

What is this?!

You are seeing Its nightmare, and now a reflection of you—the you who filled the void in Its dream.

You told me about the strange things that happened to your family a century ago. Now, they have all come together... but in your image.

This is Its creation, Its puppet, and... the reflection of a reflection, which It is loath to face.

It's time to go.

Go?

What else? Do you intend to kill It?

If this is the shape of the void, then killing it might destroy whatever consciousness It still retains in the dream.

Your mind is sharp, but your words are terrifying.

You could not kill Sui outside the dream. What makes you think you can kill It in the dream?

I suppose, you could try it, if you are confident that you will be able to escape unscathed.

I'm confident... that I can take it down with me.

You don't listen to what people say, do you?

I suppose I'll have to fetch someone whom you care about.

Wang?

He wants to sacrifice his own life to kill Sui in this dream.

Have you abandoned your word so soon, my second-oldest brother?

Such opportunity...

Will not come again—

That's quite enough. It's time to bring your brother out of the dream, girl, or we'll all be in danger—

In this dream, this time.

I glimpsed the dream of your slumber, and my own reflection.

You saw the reflection, and the price was... to create an inexplicable foe for yourself in the centuries to come.

Having to face this again, you must be filled with regret.

What a terrible error. If I knew this reflection of yours could leave the dream and enter reality... I would not have left so easily.

Where are you hiding?

No matter... I will find you.

Yes. It's time to go.

Clearly unwilling to stay any longer, Hou waves His stick, and the three figures disappear...

But neither He nor Ling realizes that they have simply taken one of many weiqi stones.

The stone will shatter when they depart the dream, and Hou and Ling will not find the same hill when they attempt to return to the dream.

Don't try to find me again.

It's not worth it.

A black aura suddenly surrounds the proxy. The next instant, he has leapt from the cliff, into the formation of thingless things.

At the horizon, the beast-shaped silhouette seems to have been hit by something, letting out a wail that shakes the earth.

The grey-white tide of humans outlined by black lines quickly swallows the Feranmut's silhouette and rushes toward the proxy.

In the distance, it looked like a thin line; up close, the raging tide obscures the heavens.

Black armor, plain robes, iron swords, pale bows.

Yanese equipment from a thousand years ago in black and white, like an uncolored draft, surrounding the proxy.

The first soldier charges at the proxy. A spear carrying the afterimage of Arts rushes towards the proxy's throat. The proxy cleaves it in two.

Bring it on!

He shouts.

The army in Sui's dream pauses for an instant...

Then, they rush towards him, like a river that his words had frozen for an instant.

What's going on?

M-Mr. Shuo...

You're Ling's Candleholder? Where is she?

As he speaks, a claw the size of a mountain is brought down upon Shuo.

Shuo swings his fist. Heaven and earth tremble.

Its attack foiled, the Sui beast turns its attention to the other side, at the enormous weapon that has just been assembled, not even taking the time to lick its bleeding wounds.

We can't stop It...

Half the Imperial Guard have fallen, along with the Yumen troops that had been deployed to the Tomb of Sui...

We have mobilized every soldier in the four cities around Baizao. We can only hope, before It destroys the next city...

Where is Wang... where is he?!

What use is there in looking for him?

Ling took the others into a dream to protect them when Sui awoke. You led the army to fight Sui... who else could have awakened It, other than the great offender?

The... offender...

<i>Dage!</i>

Ling?!

You should not be here! Or has the dream already...?

Who could see... a gulper of cups...

Become now...

Ling's eyes are closed. The dream has yet to end.

Even in the dream, however, she and the other siblings in it can feel Its presence, so very near now.

It has come to this...

...A fight to the death, it is.

Shuo is awake. He draws his sword, which has not yet tasted blood.

In the dream, Ling points her lantern at the body of the bestial Sui.

The bestial Sui turns around, towards the beings born of Itself—

Yet just before everyone on the battlefield—every human and every beast—could plunge into the coming slaughter, a bloody, black figure appears behind the bestial Sui.

Caught you.

You—

Through dreams in dreams infinite, all of me and all of us are here. There is nowhere for you to go.

You wouldn't dare! Kill me, and you will be destroyed, as will all your family—

Wang does not answer. He lunges forward with his sword and impales the throat of his own reflection, which he had pursued through dreams far too numerous to count.

Strange scenes from countless dreams gush from the wound.

Mountains, Feranmuts, armies... white dreams boil and roil between heaven and earth, and a white mist, fever-hot like fresh blood, wraps around the army and proxy outside the dreams, even the Feranmut.

Only when the white figure falls to the ground do the others see that two bodies lie upon the ground, all life gone from them.

One was Wang. The other was exactly like Wang, but not even death could wipe the malice from his face—no one knew who he was.

Ling?!