The Raid Begins

That morning, as the first sound of the nearby roosters announced the break of dawn, the entire army woke up from their slumber. The hundred men formed into formation once more, divided into four main squads – the two on the sides were led each by Baihu and Ryuuhan, taking the rearguard and vanguard roles respectively. While the fifty strongest soldiers surrounded the carriage housing Zhuque and Aoba once more, there was a main difference compared to the start of their journey. The prince had come out of the carriage to join and lead the squad himself, riding a horse as black as night.

“Hey! Why am I not being allowed outside again? I thought we'd talked about this!” Inside the carriage, however, Zhuque was angrily knocking on the door non-stop.

“We had talked about it, yes,” answered Aoba with a light smile. “And I thought we’d agreed on letting you stay safe in the carriage?”

“But what would be the point if I stayed inside? It’s the tower! The. Tower!”

“Precisely. Your skills are still lacking compared to the rest of us. If we let you outside, you’re gonna drag the formation down.”

Instead of the clumsy but kind behavior he had shown the day before, the Aoba right now was a true cold and harsh leader. If there would be any semblance of weakness in his formation, he wouldn’t hesitate to discard it. But since he was forced into this situation, the best thing the young prince could do was to keep the deadweight somewhere safe and unaffecting to the rest of his squads.

However, he wasn’t dealing with the regular deadweight in an army.

“Let me out, or I’ll burn this carriage this instance.”

“Try as you might, but that thing is fireproof. Did you think I didn’t expect that? Learning my fiancee’s behavior is only natural.”

Unfortunately for Zhuque, she was also not dealing with the regular bodyguard.

“... Tch.” The inside of the carriage flared up for just a second, before immediately going back to darkness.

“You can still open the curtains if you’d like,” Aoba continued. “There is still the matter of etiquette, but I’ll make an exception for now. This way, you can still see the tower you so loved while not being a burden to everyone else, right?”

“... Fine,” a quick zip sounded, and the curtains immediately were swept to the side to reveal a clearly annoyed Zhuque. “But just for the record, I’m doing you guys a favor, got it? There can be no underestimating this place, and you’ll need my knowledge to make it out in one piece.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” not dropping his smile, Aoba replied before turning to the rest of his troops. “All units, move!”

The army approached the carved wall, where Ryuuhan was already standing in wait. As Watatsumi’s main intelligence force, the young boy had already known his way around the secrets of the wall.

“I call forth the Judge of the Soul.”

As the same rummage and letters appeared on the wall, he also took no time to answer:

“For the glory of the Crown Prince.”

The same flash of light blinded the area, and this time, the walls completely split open, making enough room for even their large army to enter without breaking formation.

That’s odd. I thought it was only small enough for me. This thing can sense the number of people, I guess? thought Zhuque, but she didn’t bring the matter out. It was just another mystery of the tower that she needed to solve.

The army marched forth. The large space from last time was still there, and as was the split turns that marked the start of a deep descent. No fire could light up the end of the paths, making them look more like the dangerous jaws of a monster from the abyss.

“Which way… Sir?” a soldier from the front asked with hesitance.

Ryuuhan’s eyes were fixated on a scroll. It was his own, depicting the turns and corners he had drawn himself as he managed to traverse through this strange landscape. However, he had only filled half of the map with paths – particularly, the left side, with branching roads that spread deep within like living arteries of a human body.

However, all those paths shared one thing in common.

“We turn right,” the boy gestured. “Everyone, be careful.”

The crowd continued their trip towards their right side. The path was still wide, so there was no reason to tighten their formation, but the soldiers instinctively moved closer to one another – as the glowing blue moss slowly disappeared from the rock formations, the cave turned dimmer and dimmer the further they went in. And along with it, a chill crept up their spine, both in a physical and mental sense.

“Hey… isn’t it a bit cold?” Zhuque was the first to react. True to her words, even inside the carriage, she was puffing out a thin veil of white smoke.

“Is it?” Aoba answered with a question of his own. It was a lie, of course; his hand was shaking from the drop of temperature.

Zhuque noticed this, naturally. But she paid no mind to it – she knew that it was his own way to maintain the troops’ morale. However, it was too stiff an approach; and it would be a whole other issue if he were to fall first, be it battle or elsewise.

With a sigh, Zhuque opened the carriage’s door, lightly tugging on Aoba’s kimono sleeve. “Get in. You’ll die frozen at this rate.”

“I…” the young prince tried to react, but his arm was already locked in place – not by Zhuque, but by the sheer coldness that the cave was emitting.

In the end, he had no choice but to let out a sigh of his own. “I’ll take up on your offer, then.”

As the boy climbed into the carriage, a small flicker of flame on Zhuque’s hand lit up the small space, slowly warming his chilled bones and relaxed his mind.

“I figured you’d want some,” the princess answered, flashing a light, but no less cheeky, grin. “Though it’s probably best if you don’t put it in your mouth.”

The intentional rehash of his old offer the day before resulted in a light chuckle on the boy’s face. “You really are a handful, you know?” Aoba replied.

“I get that a lot.” Zhuque answered with a smug smile.

“I bet you do.”

When the two had warmed themselves sufficiently, Aoba poked his head out the curtains once more to grasp the situation. After the pathway to the right they had traversed through, it was another large, open room. The cave’s ceiling once again rose to unimaginable heights, while on the ground, sparkling rock spikes protruded from the ground, gleaming white with their crystal-clear structures – it was as if they had somehow stumbled into a house of mirrors.

However, dotted within that scenery of seemingly clear, pure sparkle were countless blots of pure black. There they were, small but familiar figures, their avian feathers and talons were sharp like vultures, and they only emphasized their putrid stench filled with rotten flesh. The greyed out, cracked faces they bore were still there, each bearing features of a human, and each bore a different expression: from joy to sadness, anger to surprise, they had it all.

The flock of Bas were everywhere in the room.

“Everyone, to battle position!” In front, in the middle, behind, all four leaders of the army sounded. The vanguard troops readied their katanas and naginatas, while the middle rows tugged on their bowstrings, ready for fire at any moment’s notice.

But out of everyone here, only one person knew how tough their opponents actually were.

“Do not engage in singular combat!” Shouted Zhuque.

“What?” Aoba sounded. From afar, there was a sound of Baihu as well.

“Listen carefully, everyone!” Zhuque cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted as loud as she could. “These things will try to get you into a one-on-one duel with one of them. Do not engage in that, ever! Try to use long-range and wide-range attacks, those that can kill a lot of them at once!”

“Men, ready your shields!” in the front, Ryuuhan ordered. The vanguards dropped their weapons for giant iron plates, each as tall as one adult themselves, and raised them forward to make a long line of blockade.

Zhuque didn’t mention it, but through his experience, Ryuuhan figured out another way to defeat these creatures. They were only dangerous once they had engaged in a duel, which meant that if one never dueled a Ba, it was “harmless”. In other words, they just needed to not kill these things and focused on defense.

“On my mark!” The young retainer, now firmly standing on top of his horse, raised his hand as a signal. “Go!”

At this command, the entire hundred-man formation moved as a single unit, charging with utmost unity, precision and speed that would rival even the strongest warring forces. The infantry in the front and back pushed away any signs of Ba attempting to strike them, while the horseback archers in the center of the formation sniped the flocking bird-like monsters with their hail of arrows.

“Ready… North wing, fire!” In the center of it all, Aoba observed and ordered round by round. According to Zhuque’s words, the most dangerous thing that they could do right now was to kill the Bas individually, so each round of volleys had to count – they needed to destroy them in groups.

Meanwhile, in the carriage, Zhuque couldn’t help but form a smile. She had seen with her own eyes how dangerous these creatures could get. One wrong move, and they could very well be completely destroyed. But now, with help by her side, they were dismantling the Bas with ease – finally replicating the records of the raid army’s clearance in her original life.

Closing her eyes to fully enjoy each sound of arrows shooting and the clashing of shields to bones, the princess hummed a light tune of victory. Her work was done; this was the time for her to savor the scenery.

“You’re in an awfully light tune,” Aoba commented. The prince couldn’t help but widen his eyes in surprise to see his partner be so nonchalant in front of all of this killing. Though her eyes were close so she couldn’t have seen the pools of blackened, thick sludge for blood that dripped out of the Bas when they fell, the stench itself had already covered the area, so much that Aoba had to retreat back in the carriage for fear of its nauseating feel. And yet, Zhuque was completely fine – in fact, she was enjoying every moment of it!

“Well, I did say that I wanted to come to this tower,” the princess answered. “By the way, how are the injuries on our side?”

“None,” Aoba peeked for a second outside before answering. “Ryuuhan and your brother have both done a fine job keeping everyone safe.”

“That’s great news,” Zhuque nodded. “Are there any Bas left outside?”

“A few stragglers, but nothing special. We can clean those up in a flash.”

“Well then…” As Zhuque tried to step outside the carriage, Aoba had already placed his hand over her shoulder, stopping the princess from taking another step.

“What gives? I thought we’re safe?” She asked.

“We are, relatively speaking. But why are you going outside?”

“I can’t just sit here and do nothing! It’s a bit of a letdown, but at least give me some kills!”

“And I assume you’re using your flame, right?” This time, Aoba’s face turned slightly stern once more.

“Naturally,” Zhuque nodded.

“Then I think I have a better idea,” as the words came out of his mouth, the prince gestured outside with a snap of his fingers. “You’ll want a demonstration anyway, right?”

“Demonstration?” Zhuque quizzically asked. However, she didn’t need to wait long for her answer.

Before she knew it, there was already a line of priests in pure white, each with four of them standing at each corner of the room. Each of them carried a long stick with white strips of paper attached to the top, waving them around like a fine dance with a sword.

“Let us hear the words of congratulations,” the eastern line – the one directly in front of them, started.

“Let us cleanse the sins of the era,” the western line continued.

“Let the flames of purgatory burn all sinners,” the southern line sounded.

“Cleansing ritual: Goma.”

As the final northern line finished their chant, a giant pillar of flame, its size exactly equal to the four lines of priests boxed in, erupted from the ground up. However, even if they were in the burning fire itself, all Zhuque felt was a warm, subtle sensation to go along with a bright yellow light covering the entire area, but there was no intense heat at all. Instead, outside, the straggling Bas as well as the remaining corpses soon disintegrated into ashes, leaving not even a single bone left.

The event happened in a flash. So much that Zhuque didn’t even get to enjoy the warm, soothing flame, it had already disappeared.

“What… was that?” Asked the princess.

“It’s one of our rituals for warding off evil. Sixteen priests with fire affinity gather around like you just saw, and send their prayers through the air and the ground to ignite the fire within. This flame will eradicate any evil being, while simultaneously giving a healing effect for the injured soul. Aren’t you feeling better already?”

“Huh, now that you mentioned it… I am,” Zhuque answered. Her soreness had disappeared, while her mind was light like never before, as if she was floating in the air. “But why show me all of this? Surely it’s not just because I also have a fire affinity, right?”

“That’s… because…” Aoba scratched his head, stuttering for words.

“Because?”

“When you put your flame up for me, I felt… warm and familiar. Like how I used to hang out in front of our fire rituals. So I thought… your power might be similar.” Contrary to his confidence at the start, when he was forced to tell the reason, the young prince couldn’t keep his words together, while his face slowly but surely reddened with embarrassment.

“... Thanks.” It was supposed to be normal, but seeing Aoba flustered like that caused Zhuque’s face to redden for a bit as well. Stupid! What are you thinking, Zhuque? She thought to herself.

While the pair was still struggling to continue their conversation, however, another voice from afar had already sounded:

“All right, looks like that’s the last of them! Let’s continue!”