‘Lord Houyi!’ Sister cried in a mix of delight and surprise. ‘What are you doing here?—What about your own domain?’

The god lowered his head somberly. ‘... I’m afraid I’ve failed the Earth the moment I allowed these uncultured sun cultists to erect their temples everywhere and pollute the world with their radical faith.’

He looked at the wailing sun priest in front of us.

‘You there, without the arm!’ he called out. ‘Haven’t you learnt that lust burns the soul until your body becomes a piece of charcoal no longer responding to reason or command?’

The armless man only flailed about hysterically, as he tried to get as far away as possible from the person that had inflicted such agony upon him.

‘…That was in one of the scriptures of my temple that you burnt down.’

He went in the direction of the great portal, but was stopped when he ran into a golden-robed figure.

Before he could glance up to see who it was—

His head had already fallen to the ground.

‘…I don’t take kindly to deserters’, Lord Hebo said as he raised his bloodied half-claw in a blaze of fiery aura.

Evaporating the blood.

He turned toward Lord Houyi.

‘…How nice of you to join us, Brother’, he hissed.

‘I thought we weren’t brothers? Is the matter still up for debate then?’

‘There won’t be any doubt about it once you die.’

Lord Houyi chuckled. ‘Well, that’s only logical!’

It was at that moment that I remembered the conversation I had heard in my fortune-telling vision.

‘No, Lord Houyi!’ I cried. ‘He said he wanted to kill you—permanently!’

Both sister and Lord Houyi reacted strongly to this, and they immediately turned toward one another.

‘…Is this true, Yutu?’

‘That was what he said to Lord Shaoyang’—-

‘SILENCEEEE!!!!’

Lord Hebo’s brutal roar resonated across the tranquil Lunar Realm.

When all turned to look at him, he was already mostly dragon.

‘Even you!!!—Even you would choose him over me!!!?’

‘Get behind me!’ Lord Houyi shouted.

The dragon let out an earth-shattering, primal roar, as its monstrous, red-wreathed form coiled into the White Above.

‘HOOOUYIIII!!!!’

The mere pressure exerted from its presence transformed into fierce gales that threatened to blow us off our feet.

Lord Houyi nocked another arrow in his bow.

‘What is it that you have… that I don’t!!??’

Lord Houyi smiled sadly. ‘It should have been me posing that question to you… But looking at you now, Brother, it’s probably too easy to list the things you have that I don’t.’

‘HOOOUYIIII!!!!’

‘I had wanted for Shaoyang to kill you for good… but I suppose there’s no problem to kill you for fun first…!’

Lord Houyi aimed silently at the gigantic beast.

‘Shoot your arrow, Houyi!’

But for some reason, he withdrew his arrow.

The dragon grunted in confusion.

‘For you, none is more fitting.’

But before the beast could growl in rage, he drew his unloaded bowstring again.

Pure magical energy condensed between his hands into a thin shaft radiating with power.

Unlike Sister, whose person shone with white brilliance, Lord Yangjian who dragged around an atmosphere as malevolently black as the armor upon his person, or Lord Hebo who had glinted with prideful yellow before he cloaked himself in an aura of red, Lord Houyi’s power had no colour, and when it radiated, what that meant was that the air itself had become clearer, and every detail become more visibly defined within it.

The power accumulated within this magical arrow until it grew to approach that of the dragon itself.

‘That’s right!—Show me, Houyi—and then I will show you!!’ The dragon roared as its own power began to increase even further.

But Lord Houyi’s power hadn’t stopped growing. Neither of them stopped.

Their growing forces exuded into the space in between them, clashing silently in a deadly tug of war.

Magic filled the atmosphere of the Lunar Realm until it blew upon every quivering leaf of herb, and smothered the very air upon which we drew our breath.

It was unthinkable what destruction would be caused if their attacks collided head-on like this.

Neither us, nor the soldiers who had come through the portal, felt comfortable about such a vision.

But before we had to experience the reality of your fears, Lord Houyi slowly untensed his bowstring, and his energy rapidly deflated, and disappeared along with his magical arrow.

‘For you, none is better’, he said to the great beast still reeling in uncertain disbelief.

But before its outrage could be channeled into a violent rampage—

A hole had opened upon the White Above.

A man in black armor descended.

In his hands was a great spear.

He struck it in the skull with his spear like it were a pole, and the great force of his blow pushed the creature downwards.

Collapsing upon the soldiers upon the White Below.

A feral howl echoed.

A great black dog alighted upon the battlefield.

Ripping to shreds whichever remnant straggler was unfortunate enough to stand before his monstrous maw. Crunching off the limb of one man and kicking another’s skull into the air without a rest in his primal battle dance.

The enemy soldiers all scattered before his nightmarish form.

Lord Yangjian landed before us.

‘Took you long enough’, Lord Houyi said to him.

‘Sorry—Bit held up on the way’, the war god said unapologetically. ‘Besides, I knew that you would definitely be here—even though you shouldn’t.’

He looked at Lord Houyi seriously. ‘I’ve been sent here, but you’ve acted of your own accord. There can be consequences.’

‘I acted within the realm of duty!’ Lord Houyi sighed. ‘It would take a greater fool than I not to realize they’d want to control the moon after exerting solar influence upon the Earth—and you’d already told me about your suspicions regarding Shaoyang.’ He shook his head. ‘I would be lying if I said that it was easy holding my ground here, however.’

Lord Yangjian glanced at the dragon as it rose from the site of impact it had caused upon landing. ‘You mean that idiot.’

‘That idiot has at least ten times the raw energy I can ever muster’, Lord Houyi made a self-deprecating smile.

‘Nine now’, Lord Yangjian said and he stared into the gigantic beast.

‘Regardless, the power that those sun-cultists have amassed is not to be trifled with.’

‘Little thanks to you.’ Lord Yangjian mockingly slapped his friend’s back.

‘I am obliged to deal with human affairs using human means’, Lord Houyi winced. ‘You have no idea how dense they can be.’

‘But we can go non-human at it now right?’ Lord Yangjian grinned.

Lord Houyi smiled. ‘By all means—they’re the ones who started it.’

‘HOOOUYIIII…!!!!’ the dragon groaned as it erected itself again.

‘HOOOUYIIII…!!!!’

‘Let me take that idiot out for you.’ Lord Yangjian stepped up with his spear.

Lord Houyi raised a hand before him. ‘I can try to manage by myself.’

‘Are you sure?’ Lord Yangjian arched an eyebrow. ‘He may have once been human, and your brother, but he’s basically become a dragon since his inauguration as a river god.’

‘So you’re saying, leave it to the experienced Dragonslayer?’

Lord Yangjian simply grinned.

Familiar frustration creased Lord Houyi’s forehead. ‘You’ll have more pressing matters to attend to.’ He pointed to the great portal to the Solar Realm. ‘Over there we’ve yet another idiot orchestrating a coup to overthrow his father and become Lord over all the Heavens. Cut off the head of the dragon, and the body will fall by itself.’

Lord Yangjian nodded.

‘HOOOUYIIII…!!!!’

‘…But are you sure you don’t want me to knock a couple more multiples of you off of this idiot first?’

Lord Houyi looked back to us with concern in his eyes. And Sister nodded at him.

‘…I’m sure’, he said finally. ‘So what are you killing daylight over here for—Sun-Ender?’

Lord Yangjian laughed. ‘You know it riles me up when you read that version of my name.’

‘Xiaotian!’ he whistled, and the Heavenly Dog paused in its terrorizing of the enemy soldiers.

‘Come!’

With that one gesture, both of them flew into the portal, into that world of red and yellow where monstrous creatures of fire lined themselves into a vision of inferno.

Likewise, Lord Houyi stepped up before the dragon within the world of white.

‘It’s time we break our cups.’

The events that unfolded after that were beyond anything I could describe in mere words.

It all took place so fast.

With so many things happening at once.

Lord Houyi no longer remained stationary, but made rapid steps within the White Above, dodging the hot blasts of incinerating energy that the dragon breathed at him, as he returned fire in rains of magical arrows lodging into its huge form like little insignificant splinters.

In the red world, Xiaotianquan split apart from his master, and dove into the sea of solar fire demons, wrestling with them and tearing them to pieces, as their mere touch put his body on fire. A glowing golden crow hovered above him, squawking orders to the monstrous beasts below.

Meanwhile, Lord Yangjian jetted about above as a giant ray of fiery energy followed in his path, dividing the sky. It was shooting from a golden sceptre in the hand of Lord Shaoyang, on top of his high solar throne.

All of these fights were taking place simultaneously, at such great speed that I could barely follow them with my eyes. And yet, I knew that they would all be crucial in determining the fate of the world, so I could not help trying to follow all of them.

But ultimately, my eyes settled upon the fight of Lord Houyi…

…and Lord Hebo.

The arrows that Lord Houyi had shot at the dragon each had negligible effect on diminishing its power, but he had continually aimed for its weak spots, between the scales and claws, and into the eyes and orifices of the body, that eventually, they wore against the powerful beast, and bled away at its strength.

Forcing it to revert to human form.

But all this was not accomplished without cost. The ceremonial robes that Lord Houyi had worn had become a tattered memory of what it had once been as it fluttered about, and his figure itself was burnt and bloody all over.

As two humans standing before one another, it appeared as though Lord Hebo was the one who had the upper hand.

And yet it was he who flinched, when the weakened Lord Houyi stepped up before him.

‘Why?! Why?!!! Why?!!!!!’

He cried over and over again. But Lord Houyi did not answer.

Suddenly, a dangerous glimmer appeared in his eye.

Lord Houyi launched another volley of arrows toward him.

But instead of dodging or deflecting them, Lord Hebo just ignored them as they pierced into his body, as he flew away with an outstretched hand

...toward Sister—

Pointed like a thirsty blade.

Lord Houyi cried as he headed toward us at full speed.

But Lord Hebo would reach her before that.

Walls of snow erected themselves between him and Sister.

But they were not enough to deter him in his madness.

He crashed through every layer of snow, carrying with him the arrows upon his bloodied person.

And came before Sister.

His claw aimed to sink into Sister’s chest—

Only it would not be her chest that it finally sank into.

‘Yu’eeeerrrrr!’