Chapter Text
This is a story known to only three mortals alive.
The first, Elio, Destiny's Slave.
The second, Dan Heng, High Elder of the Luofu.
And the third…a nameless individual, who's name shall not be divulged, yet. Although, perhaps, the one reading this already knows the answer.
This is the story of the child who should have never existed, the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end. This is the story of Fate, and of romance. This is the story of a receptacle.
This is not a successful story.
So, shall we begin?
For the sake of simplicity to the mortal readers of this tale, Destiny's Slave will humbly take upon the task of translating the Aeon-speak into understandable language.
Any questions should be kept to oneself. Do not contact the Stellaron Hunter Faction unless you wish for a premature end.
May the cogs of Destiny turn forevermore.
~ The Scriptwriter, Elio
First there is nothing.
Then there is.
“Is she awake?”
“Her functions should be active. She should be processing this information as we speak.”
“She is…rather small isn't she?”
“So is Asat, but he is arguably one of the most formidable among our ranks.”
“Hush, all of you. She is seeing us.”
Words filter through her newly crafted mind, formless things that begin to take shape the more she listens, the more she lives. The girl encased in gold blinks away encrusted magma from her lashes. She wills the fog to disappear, and soon it does.
In front of her swim figures, beings that look down on her with a multitude of emotions. There is awe there, disdain too, hints of worry and boredom. The girl trains her eyes on the being closest to her, and a shiver runs through her spine.
She was just born, but she is not blind. She can sense the power radiating from each of these beings in turn. She can see the golden blood that drips from their bodies and she knows that every single one of them is coated in the blood of the civilisations they have slain.
“Are you aware?” the being in front of her asks. Her bronze tipped claws caress the side of the girl's face, swiping at excess magma that trickles in rivets down her cheek.
“I am aware.”
“And are you alive?” asks another being, this one much more derisive. The dice where his head should be spins excitedly in the gloom.
“I am alive.”
This, the girl knows as a fact.
“And are you awed,” says the first being, “by the life you have been given, Akivili's reincarnation?”
The others laugh at that. The sound contains no merriment, only scorn. The girl purses her lips, her expression souring - she is not Akivili, Akivili is not her name.
This girl, and all the beings in front of her, follow a different path entirely.
Lord Ravagers, her fresh new brain helpfully supplies. We are the Emanators of Destruction.
“I am awed by the presence of my brothers and sisters before me. By the Aeon who crafted me from Akivili's still heart.”
There's a laugh from somewhere to her left, and the girl swivels her head around to see a phantom being with horns like ink.
“I like her, Celenova,” the woman purrs. “Let me keep her.”
“It is not our decision, Phantylia,” says Celenova before her. “Nanook will do what they see fit, and the rest of us can only watch.”
“Which brings us to this,” a smoky figure clad in shapeless white says. “What is her method of Destruction?”
And the girl remembers a hand holding her by the ribcage, as she screamed and clawed at the being above her and her heart (Akivili's heart) was cleaved in two. She remembers a ball of light and fire plunged inside the inky expanse between the two chambers of her heart, remembers the pain that burnt and ravaged like fire. She feels for the Cancer within her and finds it answers her call.
“Self-Destruction,” says the girl. “That is my method. Self…Destruction.”
The Stellaron within her cackles.
“What a pity,” mourns a purple eye above them. “What a pity, what a pity. Akivili, what have you become?”
“She is not Akivili, any more than I am Xipe,” says Celenova. “She is the eighth Lord Ravager, the ninth one to be, and the only one whom Nanook did not bestow a name upon.”
Phantylia cackles. “Why then, hello there little nameless.”
The girl tastes that moniker on her tongue, tries it out for size. It's said as a hiss, the implications larger than she could've ever imagined. It's not a name, but Nanook did not bother to gift her one, so for now that's all she will be known as.
“And Nanook?” she asks.
“He has high hopes for you, nameless,” says the man with the hand and dice for a head. “Everything will become clear in due time.”
“All in due time, all in due time,” says the eye above.
She will have to accept that as it is.
“I look forward to working with you all,” says the girl, and then they leave the Warforge together as one.
The girl rips open her flesh and stares blankly at her ribcage. Ribbons of skin hang from the bone and a swarming mass of stars swirls inside.
A Stellaron.
That's not what her attention is focused on.
There is your essence, an Aeon's voice booms in her ear.
And there it is. A beating, pulsing heart, pink and vulnerable in the centre of it all. Rivers of gold run through the sinewy muscle, capillaries that pulse with the blood of an Aeon long dead. This is Akivili's heart that lives inside of her, the heart that will never stop beating until the day she wreaks enough Destruction to be considered a Lord Ravager worthy of her title.
This girl was crafted from Akivili's remains. Her purpose? To destroy everyone whom Akivili has laid their hands upon.
To destroy the Nameless.
The other Lord Ravagers have long since turned their wonder for her into derision. They scorn her for her puny appearance and her unconventional method of Destruction.
Phantylia, a ghost with a mind as sharp as a blade, laughs in a voice that drips with pity. Celenova, the frontline general and the coveted daughter of Nanook, likes to twist the Stellaron within the girl's chest as if to remind her of her place. Zephyro, the only other Ravager born from a human soul, has not spoken a single word to her since her birth.
All of them lord over her with their shapeless bodies and their shadowy souls. They think she is weak.
(She is weak. She has a heart, and that's what makes her weak.)
"Lord Ravager," scoffs the girl as she stares in the mirror. "What a joke."
Agony.
As soon as she hisses the blasphemous words, a searing pain erupts from her chest. The girl screams as her vision whites out, ragged breaths tearing from her throat. Her legs buckle and she falls to her knees, consumed by the all-encompassing power of the stars. Blisters bubble from her skin. She feels her pulse leaping and bounding in terror.
Remember your place, says the Aeon.
The nameless girl begs for forgiveness.
Solace comes an eternity later, and the screaming of the Stellaron dies down. The girl lays collapsed on the floor, one hand clutching her beating heart in her fist.
(Akivili's heart, not hers.)
She wills it to still. To stop completely, so she can be free from this eternal torment. What did she do to deserve this? Who was she before Nanook moulded her into this abomination she is now?
Tears leak from her eyes as she lies, paralysed, on the floor. Golden cracks spiderweb through her skin, and a gaping chasm of gold cuts all the way across her chest. It's going to be a while before her body heals enough for her to move.
This is why you do not dare to question the Aeon of Destruction. The nameless girl has learnt that the hard way.
A voice echoes through the cavern she's in, sneering at her figure collapsed on the floor.
"Nameless one, fateless one," Phantylia jeers. "You are due to leave for the Xianzhou in five system minutes."
The girl coughs, shudders, and speaks through cracked lips.
"I can't."
The scorn emanating off of Phantylia is practically tangible. Her words drip with poison.
"Weakling," she sings. "Disposed of by such a small piece of Destruction?"
The girl doesn't bother answering that with a reply. It's all she can do to breathe.
"You truly are pathetic," Phantylia says. She announces it like she's commenting on the weather. "Wait here. Celenova is nearby."
"No," begs the girl, but Phantylia has already left. Nanook's wrath is sickening, but Celenova's might be even worse. At least Nanook doesn't care much for her.
Celenova sees her existence like a personal blight on her name.
It's because I can hold a Stellaron, the nameless girl thinks. And it's because I'm the only one who can destroy a Stellaron too.
That is her method of Destruction after all — detonate the Stellaron within herself, rip her body to shreds, and extend the blast radius so far it destroys anything in her path. It hurts, and it's terrifying but it's the only thing she knows.
Eventually Celenova arrives, digs her hand into her ribcage, and moulds the Stellaron within the girl like a potter moulding clay. She screams so loud the sound echoes across the cosmos.
(Far, far away, in a room adorned with books and weapons and only the finest calligraphy, a High Elder lifts his head and frowns.)
"Do not," says Celenova. "Let Nanook down."
She doesn't have the breath to answer. The Lord Ravager picks her up like a ragdoll, and sends her out of the cavern like she weighs nothing more than a piece of trash on the ground.
Dan Heng, High Elder of the Luofu and a man with far too many commitments and not nearly enough time, takes a deep, shuddering breath.
In his hand, he palms the ticket he takes with him everywhere for safety.
His old Astral Express badge.
Rubbing his thumb over the cool metal, he casts his gaze downwards and reads the military logs for the umpteenth time. This next mission should be easy. All Dan Heng has to do is board one of the naval starskiffs, lead the procession to Lushaka and back, and then rest for a few hours before the next responsibility smacks him in the face with the force of a train.
It's nothing more than a military procession, to showcase the (damaged) might of the Luofu after the Stellaron disaster a few system years back. Something small to prove to the other Xianzhou ships that despite their losses, they remain a formidable force.
Dan Heng thinks its a spectacularly bad idea.
They've barely just recovered from the Stellaron disaster. Forget the amount of lives lost and the amount of Vidyadhara eggs smashed — never to recover —, Jing Yuan himself lost both an arm and an eye, and had to forcibly step down from his role as the General. Dan Heng frets everyday that the old general is nearing the throes of the mara and he knows Yanqing panics about the idea even more than he must do.
But, despite the weakened state of the Luofu, General Fu Xuan had insisted that the military procession goes ahead, and only a fool would argue with the Ex-Master Diviner. She had even forced Jing Yuan to attend, despite his retirement, and Dan Heng suspects its because she wants the old general to slowly fulfill his dream of travelling among the stars.
"I have always wanted to visit Lushaka," Jing Yuan had sneakily confided to Dan Heng, when the idea was first proposed.
"…it's just an ocean. If you wanted to swim, we have an entire sea on the Luofu for that purpose."
"Bah! The Luofu ocean and the oceans beyond the stars are two very different things."
And Dan Heng, well, he couldn't exactly argue with that logic. He still remembers his brief life as a Nameless (how could he forget), where he felt freer among the stars, safer than he'd ever felt before. Every single day, he mourns the decision he made to choose this life.
But Dan Heng is a High Elder. Dan Heng has responsibilities that the Preceptors ensure no-one else could carry out.
Dan Heng is deeply, deeply unhappy.
You are a High Elder, he tells himself. You are the head of the Vidyadhara. They need you, after so many of their young was lost.
You must fulfill your role, Dan Heng.
So he attaches his bracer securly to his wrist and ties his flowing hair up so it doesn't get in the way. He lets his tail materialise and adorns it with chains of gold armour ('you represent the Vidyadhara,' the Preceptors hiss in his mind. 'So act like it.') and rolls up his sleeves so the teal scales on his arms are shown for all the Xianzhou to see.
He stands in front of the mirror and draws himself to full height. He is the High Elder. He is the head of the Vidyadhara, one of the most ancient forces in the universe. Permanence pulses through his veins.
But Dan Heng knows that he will never be as great as the High Elders that came before him, mainly because he has no idea what the fuck he's doing.
A knock on the door startles him from his thoughts.
"Dan Heng!" squeaks a familiar voice. "Are you ready to set out?"
Bailu.
"Almost," Dan Heng replies. The door creaks open, and the little Dragon Lady stands, hands on hips, in the centre of his doorway.
She eyes his downcast mouth with a mirrored frown of her own. "Chin up High Elder."
"I've told you before," replies Dan Heng, shifting his weight from one leg to another, "calling me 'High Elder' is unnecessary, Dragon Lady."
"Then stop calling me Dragon Lady and start calling me Bailu!" the little healer huffs. "Don't be a hypocrite about it, Dan Heng!"
He bows his head in apology, and Bailu takes pity on him. She beckons him down to her level.
"One final check-up?" Dan Heng asks, as the Healer Lady gives him a glance over, and then takes his face in her hands. She squishes his cheeks together, and he suddenly feels a small glimmer of what an older brother must feel towards a little, well-meaning sister with lilac hair and dimpled cheeks.
"You could say that," Bailu smiles. It doesn't reach her eyes.
The look quickly shifts into worry, as she speaks in a grave tone:
"Are you happy, Dan Heng?"
"Where did this come from all of a sudden?" he replies.
"Answer the question," says Bailu. "Doctor's orders."
Dan Heng purses his lips childishly, and then drops it almost immediately.
'High Elders do not pout,' says a voice in his mind. 'High Elders do not show weakness.'
"Yes—"
"Don't bother lying to me," Bailu sighs. "I can see the sadness in your eyes. Only a fool would be unable to notice something like this."
"Sometimes I really am happy, Bailu," he tries to argue. He's happy when he's buying snacks for her and stealing time away from under the Preceptors' noses, he's happy when he drinks tea with the Ex-General and sees the crow feet lining his eyes when he smiles.
(He's happy whenever Himeko visits the Luofu. But it's dampened by the absence of Mr. Yang, who has returned home and March, who is encased in ice and will be until the Memokeepers find a cure.)
"But not most of the time, right?" Bailu urges. "You regret this, don't you."
And Dan Heng gently prises her hands off, and stands to full, mighty height. He grasps his weapon and makes his way to the door in silence.
When you have the chance to make a choice, make one that you know you won't regret.
A woman with plum-purple hair had told him that once, on one of the many occasions he had run Blade through with his spear. Back when he was running away from the very destiny he now lives through.
(Playing chess with Mr. Yang, bidding Himeko goodbye before he retired for the night, helping March sharpen the shafts of her arrows. Sitting for hours, days on end in the Archives, the lonely ache in his chest subsiding a little, partly filled by the hum of the machinery.
Pom-Pom's look of utter heartbreak as he left the Express and began a new life on the Luofu, to fill the role given to him from birth.)
"Yes," he says quietly, mostly to himself. He doesn't even know if Bailu can hear. "I regret it every single day."
The fleet of ships is halfway to the star system where Lushaka is contained, when Dan Heng receives the message.
It's a tremendous procession of ships — the highest calibre of military starskiff that the Xianzhou can provide. The crest of the Luofu and the badge of the Hunt is proudly emblazoned on every spare inch of hull, and gleaming teal lights shine from the head ship, signifying that the High Elder of the Luofu is on board.
The other Xianzhou ships have sent military ambassadors to officially congratulate the Luofu on their speedy recovery and return to battle. The Preceptors educate him on the actual motives behind their visit — they want to remind the Luofu of their true place in the Xianzhou hierachy.
"Once the greatest ship of the hexafleet; now the beaten runt of the litter. How the Luofu has fallen," laments Jing Yuan, coming to stand beside Dan Heng. He gives him a sideways glance.
"You look tired, old friend. Shall we sit—"
He cuts himself off mid sentence, seemingly sensing the slip of the tongue. 'Old friend' he had said — such familiarity is reserved for a different face, a time long past.
Dan Heng gracefully pretends he hasn't heard.
"If another Vidyadhara representative questions my capacity as the High Elder," grumbles Dan Heng, "I might actually smash a vase over their head."
Jing Yuan laughs heartily. "Temper, temper! I didn't take you for violent, but there I was wrong."
Dan Heng allows himself to smile at that.
'The High Elder must never let down his guard. Not even among his closest companions.'
He quickly schools his face again.
It had taken Dan Heng years to adjust to his role as the new High Elder, not only because of his brief stint as a Nameless, but also because the last time he'd been here on the Luofu, he was one of the most hated criminals known to man. Being subject to poisonous hatred was bad, but somehow simpering loyalty and threats veiled with niceties is even worse. He's long since learnt the first rule of being an influential figure: do not trust anyone.
Not even Jing Yuan.
But it's very hard for Dan Heng to follow that rule, when the scared, little, imprisoned boy inside of him sees Jing Yuan as the shining beacon of hope, the ray of light that used to bring him food and books and fresh clothes. The High Elder and the Prisoner are always in constant conflict with one another, and today is no different.
"Dan Heng?" Jing Yuan says worriedly.
"It's nothing," replies Dan Heng, snapping himself out of his thoughts. "I'm just tired, that's all."
"That's to be expected," Jing Yuan says with a yawn. Of course the Dozing General (ex-general, Dan Heng reminds himself as he looks at the empty sleeve where Jing Yuan's arm should be) would agree. "I'm starting to think we're never going to arrive at Lushaka—"
And then an angry red light dyes the world red, and a blaring alarm wails throughout the ship.
Dan Heng instantly feels his heart leap into his throat. Jing Yuan's eye widens, that gleam of terror cracking through his laid-back mask. They hesitate for only a second and then both move like one, running towards the ship's command centre.
"What alarm is that?" Jing Yuan shouts over the deafning klaxon.
Dan Heng shoots him a grave look.
"The warning for Destruction."
All the colour drains from Jing Yuan's face.
Dan Heng is greeted by Taoran, one of the more despicable Preceptors who he remembers well from his prison days. Now though, they are unfortunately on the same side.
"Status report?" asks Dan Heng, High Elder.
Taoran does not take up the oppurtunity to jeer at him, even as they are facing the oncoming threat of Destruction. "High Elder. You performed at a subpar level tonight, I am ashamed to admit."
An instinctive part of Dan Heng wants to flinch away from his words.
(Shame, deepest shame and scorn, harsh words followed by a slap around the face or a kick in the ribs. The chains around his arms yank with full force and Dan Heng is beaten to the ground. He tastes dirt and sweat under his tongue—)
Jing Yuan places his comforting hand on his shoulder and Dan Heng is thrown back into the present.
"Not the time," hisses the ex-General. It holds just enough bite to make Taoran back off. "What the hell are we facing. Destruction? Of what kind? The Antimatter Legion?"
"Wrong," Taoran says, poison lacing his words. "It's a Lord Ravager,"
"Shit," swears Jing Yuan, picking up his pace. Dan Heng is practically running to keep up with him as he bursts into the control centre, where the best of the Luofu commanders and pilots sit behind flashing red monitors.
The warning 'DANGER!' seems to blare from every screen.
"Which Lord Ravager is it?!" Jing Yuan shouts, his voice booming throughout the room.
Please not Phantylia again, Dan Heng thinks. His mouth is dry as he strides into the room behind Jing Yuan.
A High Elder must look composed. Head straight, eyes forward, portray the perfect picture of Vidyadhara bravery.
Do not show them you are afraid.
"It's the Stellaron wielder!" someone shouts in a trembling voice.
"Celenova?!" asks Jing Yuan.
"No!" cries another commander. "The smallest one! The Supernova!!"
Dan Heng feels every sound in his ears quieten to a faint hum.
The smallest emanator, so new that she doesn't have a name. The Lord Ravager with a Stellaron in her chest. The Lord Ravager who's detonation can engulf entire galaxies.
The one who's mission is to target and destroy the Nameless.
Dan Heng feels for the metal pin he keeps in his pocket, and the humming in his ears reaches a crescendo.
He knows this next fact with absolute certainty.
She's here for me.
The Lord Ravager without a name hovers in the vaccuum of space, protected from the crushing pressures by the blessings gifted to her by Destruction.
In her chest, she holds the weapon to destroy this entire fleet of ships before her.
But unlike her peers, the other Emanators of Destruction, she gains no satisfaction in doing so.
A defect, that's what she is. A Lord Ravager who despises Destruction? The very idea is laughable.
But that's exactly what this girl is. A runt. A weakling. Someone with a pink, beating, disgusting lump of flesh known as a heart.
"Nameless," she calls out, and her voice echoes across space and time. The fleet of ships before her — so mighty and yet so fragile — shudders to a grinding halt. The one adorned in lights of teal, with elaborate paintings of the ocean decorated on the side, is the one which she must target.
Self-Destruction, echoes a voice in her head. That is my method.. Self… Destruction.
"Show yourself. I will not ask again—"
The muffled boom of the Hunt's blessings extend in an outwards explosion and the girl sighs. The Xianzhou ships have thrown up a Territory, enhancing their weapons.
Little do they know that the Hunt's Territory means nothing to Nanook.
She tries to speak again, but it seem the Luofu ships have immediately resorted to violence. Out of the girl's eyes, she spots honing missiles docked and ready, each one trained on her. Red lasers beam into life, trained on the spot on her chest when the Stellaron resides.
"Fire!" cries a mechanical voice.
One by one, the missiles launch towards her chest. The girl rolls her eyes, unpertubed, and whispers coaxing words to the Stellaron in her chest. She should have known the Xianzhou wouldn't have taken this lying down.
Still, it just makes her job unnecessarily complicated. After all, the outcome of this fight will still be the same.
The power of the Stellaron ignites inside her chest, and her ribcage springs open to reveal the slavering maw of the cavity. Dead stars swirl inside, and streaks of gold begin to thread through her silver hair. When she extends a gloveless hand, the tips of her fingers begin to turn inky black with Fragmentum corruption.
"You asked for this," she warns the Luofu, and then with pitifully little effort, she grabs the first missile with both hands and spins around like she's flinging a shotput.
With a cry, she sends the missile right back to them.
Her clawed hand cleaves through the others like butter. A fist through one, a kick to the other, she tears them to shreds beneath her hands. They send arrows next and she cuts through them too, snarling like an animal, the power of Destruction fighting against the might of the Hunt.
She goes for the ships next.
The girth of the hull eclipses her small, not-human body, but the power of the Stellaron gives her monstrous strength. With a cry, she stabs her hand inside of the hull and drags her fist throughout the entire length of the first ship, cleaving it in half. They send up barriers in desperation, and she rips through them too.
Soldiers crowd onto the deck and fire arrows and weapons and acid bombs at her. Each one is infused with enough strength to destroy an army.
This time the girl can't dodge. So, instead, she lets them hit her.
A spear through her shoulder, an arrow through her skull, acid burning her skin. She bites down on her tongue to stop herself from crying out and the Stellaron screams curses of Destruction for her.
For a single second, there is utter, blissful, nothing.
And then the Stellaron begins to stitch her body back together.
A faint cheering reaches her ears, the sound of the naive soldiers celebrating a moment too soon. Her head is still half-healed, but the girl manages to stare through her usable eye. Her iris burns in golden fury.
She feels the moment the atmosphere shifts from celebration into panic.
They're facing a Lord Ravager who cannot die.
Again and again, they throw weapons at her and again and again, she comes back to life. She isn't even fighting anymore. The Stellaron hisses for blood, but she refuses to let it — not yet, not now.
Eventually they must run out of weapons, or a command must tell the ships to stop, for the girl realises she hasn't 'died' for quite a while now.
And then, finally, the man she's been waiting for emerges from the head ship. The girl waits, the bones from her missing right arm growing at an alarming speed.
"Lord Ravager!" cries out the man beside her target. The girl recognises him — Jing Yuan, the ex-General of the Luofu. Phantylia has bitched about him before. "Retreat now, while you still can. We will not restrain ourselves next time."
The young Lord Ravager sees the bluff for what it truly is. She hisses a retort through her teeth:
"You are not the one I seek to destroy."
And then, with her right finger that's regenerating the sinew and blood, she points to the current High Elder of the Luofu.
"It is him, who I will Destroy today."
The man looks up at her, at the girl admires the way he has schooled his face into perfect neutrality. Not a sheen of sweat shines on his skin, not a hair strays from his thick, long ponytail. If anything, he looks almost bored.
That annoys the girl more than she'd like to admit.
The High Elder stares her down. His eyes (eyes that seem to hold the sea depths) train on the Stellaron within her cavity.
"Why?" is all he asks. No plea for mercy, no exclamation of battle.
The girl looks at him then, really looks at him. Her own gaze travels to the angry red marks under his eyes, the downturn of his lips—
(The scars that litter his bare arms, where he's rolled his sleeves up in preparation for a fight.)
—and suddenly her heart, that lump of useless flesh, decides to beat a little faster. And in that moment, the girl realises something very, very bad.
A part of her doesn't want to kill this guy after all.
The Stellaron screams in her chest, fighting against the wishes of Akivili's stupid heart. The girl tries to shake those blasphemous thoughts away, both hands curling painfully in her silver hair.
How dare she go back on her mission! Her job is to kill the Nameless for what they did!! They have to pay in blood—
Ah. What did they do? thinks the girl. I can't remember anymore
(From the ship's hull, Dan Heng watches as the Lord Ravager mutters curses and half-baked sobs under her breath, ripping at her hair like she's in agony, and decides there and then that she's probably insane.
He doesn't pity her. How could he pity a Lord Ravager? But a part of him… does feel sorry for this human-looking abomination who can't die. He remembers another life, another immortal, and knows the price they pay is something heavier than any burden.)
"Why?" laughs the girl. "Because you're a Nameless that's why!"
"Ex-Nameless," says the High Elder. "Ex-Nameless, so leave me and my people alone, Emanator of Destruction."
And for a second, the girl hesitates.
You dare hesitate? says the Aeon she both loves and despises.
Agony.
The Stellaron twists and burns in her chest, and the girl with a heart screams and prepares for battle once again.
Dan Heng is, frankly, terrified out of his mind.
When he agreed to be a High Elder to try and help with the post Stellaron-disaster restoration mission on the Luofu, he did not anticipate meeting a Lord Ravager out of all things only a few system years after he took up his mantle. What kind of cruel twist of Fate is this?
And even worse — the Lord Ravager's target is him.
Jing Yuan is still arguing with the girl, trying his best to reach a compromise, but Dan Heng knows its futile. He knows there is nothing that can be said to dissuade a Lord Ravager.
He knows, deep in his bones, that someone is going to die tonight.
And then, Taoran speaks up.
"Lord Ravager!" he shouts in a voice that rings true. "It is the Nameless you want, right?"
Suddenly Dan Heng feels like all eyes are trained on him.
"Then take him! Take our High Elder and spare us!"
Jing Yuan rounds on the Preceptor, as Dan Heng is still struggling to understand what's just been offered.
"Your High Elder," he says, voice laced with a dangerous venom. "You'd dare give up your High Elder?"
"What use is he to us?" Taoran hisses in return. "If half the Vidyadhara of not just the Luofu, but the rest of the Xianzhou, die along with him? We have suffered enough losses already!"
"So you want him to be the sacrifice?!" Jing Yuan replies.
"Do not let your old companionship cloud your judgement, Jing Yuan—!"
Their argument is cut short by a single, chilling word.
"No."
All heads snap towards the Lord Ravager. Dan Heng blanches.
An ominous aura coats her skin, her hair charged and spiked with concentrated energy. Inside that hollowed out cavity that contains the blinding light of a Stellaron, the Cancer pulses and screams out a litany of Destruction. Dan Heng feels all his muscles turning rigid with tension.
"I will give you," the girl says. "One minute, before Destruction."
Everything around him descends into chaos.
(Dan Heng had ran along with Jing Yuan and Taoran, taking the stairs two at a time so they could meet the Lord Ravager head on.
"Ship Gamma — down! Ship Mu — down!"
"33 casulaties!"
"16 deceased! 9 Vidyadhara!"
Different voices filter through both the ships and the comms. Jing Yuan's exchanges a grave look with Dan Heng, until his attention is snapped away once more by the sound of a young voice through his personal radio.
"General! What's going on?!"
Yanqing.
"The readings are off the charts! The Luofu is in a panic, the Diviner's readings are—" A crackly sob echoes through the comms. "Dad!"
Yanqing never did manage to fully shake off the familiar title of 'General Jing Yuan', even after the old man retired. But thanks to both Jing Yuan's teasing and Bailu's prompting, it seems the young head of the Cloud Knights has grown into his role as not just the General's Retainer… but his son as well.
As Dan Heng hears the agonised tone behind Yanqing's words, he regrets his choice to become the High Elder of the Luofu again and again and again.
"Yanqing," says Jing Yuan. His voice is soothing, comforting. "Yanqing listen to me. We have the warp calibration system up in place. We have the blessings of the Hunt with us."
"So you'll make it back safely? Tell me the Diviner is wrong, General!!"
Jing Yuan falls silent, and its all the answer Yanqing needs.
"I need you to be strong for me," says Jing Yuan quietly. "I love you, Xiao Yanzi."
But there's no reply.
The comms have been cut.
Dan Heng wishes on every lucky star he has that the last message went through, but there's not much hope judging by the wretchedness cracking through Jing Yuan's stoic exterior.
"How touching," Taoran scoffs, and something sharp and ugly flashes across Jing Yuan's expression. "Now please, can we move? Need I remind you what power the Supernova possesses?"
"Believe me," Jing Yuan hisses through clenches teeth. "I am aware."
"Then you know," says Taoran. "That once she begins counting down, nothing can escape the Stellaron's blast? That as soon as she gives us a time limit, we are all dead men?"
No, Dan Heng does not know this. He turns to Jing Yuan.
"What is he saying?"
Jing Yuan wears the look of a battle-hardened soldier, the perfect picture of an ex-General.
"This Lord Ravager is different from the others. She gives her prey a time-frame before their deaths. A time-frame in which she will not attack."
"Is that not… that's good isn't it?!" Dan Heng replies. "It gives us time to strike her when she's immobile—"
"No," Taoran hisses. "By the time she begins counting, it is already too late. Our engines will die, our warp systems will fail and nothing will escape her blast radius. It's, quite simply, her way of showing mercy."
Dan Heng does not understand.)
He understands now.
The sound of wailing hits him first, guttural screams and gasps from both the knights mourning their dead and the ones who understand the gravity of the monster they're facing. Next comes the begging, the pleading, the grovelling on both knees. And then, of course, the frantic rush for a phone, a radio, something, anything, that will allow them to contact their loved ones back home.
All the while the terrible red siren flashes from every single starskiff in their fleet, an ugly premonition of the bloodbath about to arrive.
Dan Heng stands, rooted to the spot. He's vaguely aware of Jing Yuan moving behind him, typing out a message that might never send maybe? but it fades into the blur of motion and noise that the rest of the world has become.
His eyes stay trained on the Lord Ravager (the girl, she just looks like a girl) who's soundlessly counting down from 60.
Dan Heng, High Elder of the Luofu, has faced Phantylia before, has stared evil in the face. He's seen the psychotic glee that fills the eyes of a Lord Ravager — sometimes he still sees it in his nightmares.
There is none of that in this Ravager's eyes. What there is, is…
A deep, desperate sadness.
And in that moment, Dan Heng makes the most stupidly reckless decision he's ever made in his life.
"Jing Yuan!" he shouts. "Cover me!"
"What— Dan Heng!"
Dan Heng summons the full might of the High Elder, straining under the force of the concentrated power of the Permanence— and strikes.
The Lord Ravager's eyes are a deep golden, like the blood of Destruction, but also like sweet honey and precious jewellery and something to be preserved and not killed. Dan Heng is a Scion of Permanence — he understands stagnancy well.
He also understands that Destruction is quite possibly the antithesis to Permanence.
With the roar of a dragon, he kicks off from the deck of the ship and shoots towards the Lord Ravager, savouring the look of surprise on her face. The tempest of the oceans swirls around his feet, the concentrated power of the Permanence gathers like storm clouds in the air.
Teal meets gold, moon meets stars, Permanence clashes with Destruction in the centre of the battlefield. Dan Heng eyes the girl's cavity, shadowed by her outstretched ribs, where the Cancer inside crackles and screams.
And Dan Heng lifts his arm and strikes right through the Stellaron.
Oh, it burns.
He cries out in pain, forcing himself not to yank his hand away. He grabs the Lord Ravager with his other hand, eyes glowing with sheer overflowing power and even as the smell of burning flesh curls in the air, he doesn't let go. Instead, he coats his arm in even more Cloudhymn magic and plunges his hand in deeper.
The Lord Ravager screams, and gasps out a curse in a language he doesn't recognise, curling in on herself. She claws at his eyes, and he jerks his head away, kicking her stomach. She beats at his chest, each force a wounding blow.
Still, he holds on.
"Let go!" she screams. "Let go, let go!"
Dan Heng grits his teeth, as the Stellaron burns red hot. The Permanence's shield begins to falter, and Dan Heng's vision whites out with the pain.
You are the High Elder, says that all-so persistant voice in his mind. So be a High Elder.
And with one final tug, Dan Heng's hand closes around something cool and wet inside the cavity. The Trailblaze ticket in his pocket vibrates and burns.
The Lord Ravager sobs, a broken sound, and looks into his eyes. For a single second, Dan Heng sees his own pains mirrored in that gaze.
"I'm sorry," he whispers.
And then he wrenches his hand out of her chest, and falls backwards, holding on tight to the beating lump of flesh that he's dragged out of the Lord Ravager.
The last thing he thinks before he blacks out completely, is that up close, the Lord Ravager just looked like a beautifully normal girl.