Lord Hebo is standing there... right before me. It is the closest we’ve ever been in a long, long time.

His face looks confused, as he holds me at arm’s length.

Still at arm’s length.

Not allowing me to get closer.

To embrace him.

It looks like he is shivering.

‘ … No … This isn’t my fault… No… It isn’t…’

‘ … Lord… Hebo…?’ I try to whisper.

It seems to surprise him, for he startles, and withdraws his hand.

Finally allowing me to fall upon his chest.

‘ … Lord Hebo… ’

‘ … Xuanzan…’

I feel his shaking hands as they grab hold of my shoulders.

This isn’t the warm embrace that I wanted.

But it is enough.

‘ … Lord Hebo…?’

‘ … Xuanzan…?’

‘ … you know…’

‘ … Yes…?’

‘ … I really wanted… to go back to the River Palace…’

‘ … one last time… ‘

‘ … with you… ‘

I feel sleepy now, after saying that.

It’s always nice to have Lord Hebo as a pillow.

‘ … Xuanzan…?’

He begins to shake me awake.

‘ … Xuanzan…!’

I am so sleepy...

‘ … No… No… This can’t be…’

But I can hear him crying.

‘ … Don’t cry…’

I say as I gaze up at his face.

‘ … Let’s play together…’

‘ …when I… wake up…’

‘Nooo! Xuanzan! Xuanzan!’

At that moment, I can feel Sister’s hands upon me.

As she peels me away from Lord Hebo, and lays me to the ground.

As her glowing light envelopes me, and I regain a little of my wakefulness, I see Lord Houyi pinning Lord Hebo to the ground.

Driving wooden arrows down like nails, to keep his body in place.

Lord Hebo only lay there, crying.

‘It’s not my fault…! It’s not my fault…!’

I want to tell Lord Houyi not to be so rough with him.

But cannot find the strength to say it.

… Actually, I don’t mind this lack of strength so much…

… Because it feels like I don’t have to worry about so many things anymore…

… And there are so many things to worry about…

‘I need to head over and support Yangjian, but will you two be okay?’

Sister looks away from me to Lord Hebo crying and laughing maniacally on the ground.

She nods. ‘ … He shouldn’t pose a threat anymore.’

So Lord Houyi goes into the world of red.

And Sister returns to looking at me gently.

Crying pearly, crystal tears that roll upon her soft cheeks that I have nudged against so often.

Before watering the barren wasteland that has become of my body.

I feel dry…

And cold…

‘Stay with me, Yu’er!’

She says while smiling brilliantly at me.

And all I feel…is how fortunate I am… to have her as my sister.

And inspite of how weak… and lazy… I feel… I want to let her know that.

‘ … Sister…’

‘Yes, Yu’er!’

‘ … I’m sorry…’

‘There’s nothing for you to be sorry for!’—

‘ …No, Sister!...I’m sorry… for not being as good… as I should have been… for not growing up to be great… like you are…

‘I’m sorry… for being just a white rabbit… you had to take care of… who only caused you… trouble…’

‘No, Yu’er!—None of that is true at all!—You were never trouble to me—you were a joy to be around, to light up my days of solitude—you taught me things I never knew about myself—

‘And you were never just a white rabbit!—when the Heavens first brought you to me—and I first saw those beautiful ruby eyes of yours—I knew that you were special—your eyes are beautiful, Yu’er—they shine upon this landscape of pure white—that is how I was always able to find you during hide-and-seek, Yu’er!—they’re the reason I named you the way I did—the reason you’re the Jewel Rabbit!’

‘ … I’m… special…?’

‘You always were!’

‘ … Thank… you… Sis…ter…’

As I hear Sister’s sobs becoming even more intense, I can somehow feel my body getting lighter, and more comfortable. It’s frankly the most comfortable I have felt in a very long time… My consciousness feels light, and I am so much more aware of things.

A loud explosion shakes the world of red, followed by screams of pain and disbelief.

Through the portal, we can see the fiery demons have collapsed into piles upon piles of black rock.

First to return are Lord Yangjian and Xiaotianquan. They are escorting a beautiful man in red robes, with a deep red gash along his statued figure, running down from his shoulder. One of his legs is badly mauled, the fabric ripped straight from the rest of his body.

Xiaotian rushes ahead of them to us. Lord Yangjian reaches out a hand toward him, but ultimately lets it fall.

Xiaotian comes before me, and I never could read the expression upon his black wolf-face very well, but I somehow understand him when he begins howling at the White Above.

‘It’s too late already…’ Lord Yangjian says as he joins us.

It was not a question, and Sister only sobs.

‘All things return to their truest forms in the moment of death…’ says Lord Shaoyang musingly. ‘Why, Lord Hebo, look! She really is a rabbit!’—

Lord Yangjian violently shoves him to his knees upon the ground close to where Lord Hebo lay, and their eyes meet for a split second. ‘You two keep quiet until you receive your punishment’, he grunted.

‘How can it be… there was only a handful of you…’—

‘You don’t know your Father well enough, Shaoyang!’ Lord Yangjian grins as he pushes him even closer to the ground. ‘If there’s only us, then it means we’re enough.’

Lord Shaoyang throws his chin toward Xiaotian who is howling beside me.

‘How did that mutt ever get away from the grip of my Fire Legion?’

‘I think this should answer your question’, comes Lord Houyi’s voice as he appears before us.

He drops a blackbird with three legs to the snow.

One of its wings has been punctured by an arrow.

‘Jinwu!’ Lord Shaoyang cries out for his animal companion. ‘Are you alright?!’

‘Not alright!’ caws the bird. ‘Not alright at all!’

‘I realized he was the one coordinating the demons, so I cut the head off.’

Lord Houyi glances at me and Sister, and a melancholy expression possesses him.

‘Is it over now?’ she asks hesitantly.

Lord Yangjian is the one to answer. ‘Without their energy source from the Solar Realm, I believe King Shun should be able to mop up the sun cultist rebels no problem at all.’

‘But the damage to the planet is done’, Lord Houyi adds darkly.

‘That’s right!—If my father truly is so great, why did he allow me to tamper with his precious human world so?!’ Lord Shaoyang shouts.

Lord Yangjian looks grim. ‘ …I suppose it is a trial within their fates.’ His third eye widens prophetically. 'Hardship refines.'

Everyone falls silent at the cruel thought.

‘So underestimating your strengths was my downfall…’ Lord Shaoyang sighs.

Lord Houyi shakes his head. ‘What you underestimated wasn’t strength—but humanity.’

Lord Shaoyang blinks at him.

‘As the person managing the lower realm, I’m probably the one most familiar with your agenda here’, Lord Houyi says somberly. ‘Your plan was ultimately to take over the Earth and remold it into your perfect vision, by culling away a large portion of the population who couldn’t adapt, and thereby leaving only the strongest and wisest individuals to survive…while being led by your light of guidance.’

‘That’s right!’ Lord Shaoyang laughs. ‘It would be meritocracy at its best! The meritocracy of nature itself! It would be nothing like the world that my Father has allowed to thrive—teeming with fools and idiots who never have to pay the price for their actions!’

‘ … It is because of that rationalist extremism of yours that you are suited as a sun god—but not a patron god of humanity—now not even a sun god.’

‘And I suppose you’re more suited because you indulge their foolish sentimentality?! Just look at the suffering caused by human emotions!—Look around and I’m sure you’ll see! It is better for the fire of reason to burn away all emotions and guide us all toward the path!’

His maniacal laughter echoes throughout the quiet of the Lunar Realm, and weighs upon all our hearts.

Only Lord Houyi seems unaffected, as he produces the golden scepter that Lord Shaoyang has been wielding from his ragged sleeve, and loads it into his bow.

The colours became clearer around him.

Before we can understand what he means to do, he has already released his bowstring, and the projectile rips itself through the fabric of dimensions.

A great chime rings within all our ears.

Sister lifts open the dimensional membrane of her domain, and we see a blue and green globe above us.

There is a crystalline barrier around it, with nine holes… closing themselves.

‘What have you just done, Houyi!?’

’ …You fail to understand humanity, Shaoyang’, Lord Houyi says as he slowly turns around.

His hair begins to be drained of colour.

And his skin appears to dry up.

He walks delicately before me and Sister.

‘No…’ Sister cries as she witnesses his transformation.

He only shakes his head at her gently.

‘I thought you were a god of culture!’ Lord Shaoyang shouts. ‘I thought all you did was pander to the incessant follies of their affairs!’

‘You always knew me as someone swimming around in the climate of human ideas and culture—how difficult is it to imagine me working with the climate of wind and sky itself? They do call me the Lord of the Arts of Spheres. Besides, it is not as if I had patched a heavenly tear on the level that Lady Wa had done.' He chuckles lightly.

It was Lord Yangjian who interrupts him. 'You were not ordered to do this as a god.'

‘ … Of course… and it’s a bit too much to defy the Fates as a human… But speaking from my part as a human, I believe that they deserve another chance.’

‘ … You’re being stripped of your godhood for that chance’, remarks Lord Yangjian sharply.

Lord Houyi only smiles. ‘I was human before I was god.’

‘No! No! No!—Damn you, Houyi!—you’ve ruined everything! You’ve ruined humanity!’ Lord Shaoyang rants manically.

Lord Yangjian’s fingers impatiently land upon his throat, silencing him.

‘Humanity isn’t about conflict and triumph like you had imagined it, Shaoyang. It isn’t about a goal that you set out to achieve—but it isn’t about chasing after the sensations and experiences that please or displease you either.

‘Humanity is about… making peace… with everything… with yourself.’

He touches a gentle pair of fingers upon my little forehead.

‘I say this to you as well, Yutu, as I welcome you to Humanity. There may be times when you are hard-headed, and there may be times when you are weak-willed. But I give you my blessing, and hope that you will ultimately be able to see through it all.

‘For only when you know yourself for what you truly are… can you realize… your truest… potentials.’

His fingers crumbles to dust upon me.

As he casts a smile at Sister, and evaporates into shining clarity.

I slowly feel everything going dark around me again, as drowsiness takes over.

People are crying, but I do not hear them.

Only sweet, treacly darkness, lulling me to sleep.

But from within the darkness…

I can hear someone whispering.

I feel a hand in front of me.

‘Come with me now’, the voice says.

‘This is no time to be sleeping.’

‘You have a lot of things you still have to learn.’

I really just want to sleep for a bit, but instead I ask…

‘ … Will it be fun?’

‘ … You can make it fun.’