A cyclone burst forth around the demon's broken body and ripping debris from the battlefield. Rocks, shattered weapons, and even unlucky helmets became deadly shrapnel as the cyclone expanded outward in a howling, deadly spiral.
The force slammed into Shu Mingye's hastily raised wall of fire. His boots dug furrows in the ground as he was driven back, gritting his teeth.
Linyue coughed, a thin line of blood trailing from her lip. She wiped it off casually with the back of her hand, her eyes gleaming.
"Okay," she said flatly, her voice calm even as the storm howled around her. Her hair whipped across her face, dust stung her eyes, and something large—probably a piece of a tree—sailed past her head. "Now it's also showing off."
The cyclone roared louder, splitting the battlefield into chaos. Soldiers clung to anything solid—boulders, weapons, even each other—as debris pelted them from every direction. A cabbage cart flew by. Why was there a cabbage cart in the battlefield? Linyue chose not to ask.
From the center of the chaos, the Red Phantom Maiden rose, pieces of its broken body knitting back together with sickening cracks. Bones snapped into place, skin stretched over its skeletal frame. Wind swirled in a manic dance, twisting the shredded remnants of its gown into long, violent streamers. Its hollow eyes locked onto them. And then it smiled. A terrifying, jagged, why-does-it-have-teeth-in-its-cheeks kind of smile.
"Yeah, no," Linyue muttered. "That's illegal."
A split-second later, it vanished. No, not vanished. It moved. Faster than sight. A blur of tattered red, howling wind, and bad fashion choices.
THWACK!
Shu Mingye barely had time to blink before a claw smashed into his chest, sending him rocketing backward. He hit the ground hard, his body carving a trench so deep a soldier could probably plant rice paddies in it later.
Before Linyue could so much as blink, CRACK!
The demon was behind her. A bony elbow slammed into her back. She hit the dirt face-first with a grunt, sliding several feet as her robes collected about five kilograms of battlefield dust.
The demon loomed above her, its claws raised for the killing blow, wind coiling tighter around its grotesque frame. The air pressure spiked so high even the soldiers on the walls clutched their ears. Then Linyue hands slapped the ground with a clap. Blue flame erupted, blossoming into a blazing dome that pushed the demon back for a precious heartbeat.
At the same instant, Shu Mingye rose from his trench with murder in his eyes and fire curling from his palms. He slammed his crimson flames into the earth. The ground beneath the demon shuddered violently.
Then—BOOM.
The explosion wasn't just fire. It was a fusion of Shu Mingye's crimson and Linyue's sapphire, twisting together in a cataclysmic helix. The flames roared like twin dragons, swallowing the demon whole.
The Red Phantom Maiden shrieked, its wind barrier cracking under the annihilating heat. Then—SHATTER!
The wind barrier broke. The battlefield shook violently. For a moment, there was nothing but fire, fury, and the sound of twin spiritual energies ripping the air apart.
Ash rained down. The Red Phantom Maiden was still standing. Its charred body crackled like burnt wood, blackened ribs showing through torn flesh. Every limb trembled as if about to collapse. The once-raging cyclone around it had died down to pathetic little gusts, swirling dust around its cracked feet.
Shu Mingye exhaled sharply, his shoulders lowering just a little. "...Is it over?"
There was a beat of silence. A hopeful silence.
Then—CRACK.
Both of the demon's long, spear-like arms detached from its shoulders with a sickening snap.
Then—SNAP. SNAP.
Its legs followed. Four grotesque limbs hovered midair, suspended by shrieking currents of wind.
"...That's not a good sign," Linyue muttered.
The limbs twitched once. Then they shot off like arrows.
The battlefield erupted into chaos.
"INCOMING—" a soldier barely managed to scream before one arm skewered through him and three others behind him, stacking them like meat skewers.
The detached arms and legs zipped through the air with impossible speed, stabbing soldiers, sucking them dry of their spiritual energy until their bodies collapsed into skin-wrapped skeletons. Then the cursed limbs spun away, seeking their next victims.
"WHAT IS HAPPENING?!" someone wailed from the wall.
"WHY ARE THE LEGS FLYING?!" screamed another.
Shu Mingye's mouth pressed into a thin line. "...What now?"
Linyue stood very still, her face calm but her spine stiff. She knew this technique. She had read of it once.
Elegy of the Red Wind.
The demon had sacrificed its own limbs, turning them into weapons that hunted for spiritual energy. And worse… this wasn't the end. It was the prelude. The real horror was coming.
As if on cue, the Red Phantom Maiden's head twisted with a stomach-turning snap. Its chest cavity began to glow faint red, veins of light crawling through its skeletal frame. Wind picked up again—not weak this time, but thick and heavy, spinning faster and faster until the air vibrated with pressure. And then… the demon dissolved. The demon's skeletal body unraveled into a swirling storm of blood and wind, its tattered red gown shredding into endless ribbons. The storm expanded fast. The battlefield went from "bad day" to "end of days" in three seconds flat.
"Bloodstorm Requiem," Linyue muttered under her breath.
The air was pulling everything now. Rocks. Swords. Shields. Soldiers. Even an unlucky horse let out a panicked whinny as it skidded toward the eye of the storm.
Linyue dug her heels into the dirt, her fingers curling to hold her balance as the wind tried to rip her off her feet. Her crimson robes snapped wildly.
"This is the beginning," she shouted over the roar.
Shu Mingye's eyes narrowed. "The beginning of what?"
He didn't get an answer. Because at that exact moment, the wind doubled in strength.
Linyue's boots lost their grip. "Oh no…" was all she got out before she went flying forward.
She smacked the ground face-first with an undignified thud, sliding a good meter before clawing at the dirt. Her fingers dug trenches as she fought not to be dragged closer to the storm's hungry center.
"Rude!" she yelled at the storm, spitting out a mouthful of soil.
Shu Mingye moved fast. He leapt, his boots barely touching the ground as he shot to her side. He grabbed her around the waist, yanking her back just before another violent gust tried to swallow her whole. His arms locked tight around her as he dug his boots in, flames sparking at his heels to hold them steady.
Linyue coughed, still pressed to his chest. "It's siphoning spiritual energy from everything in range… before it—"
The storm surged. This time the force was so strong Shu Mingye's feet skidded. His boots tore two shallow grooves into the ground as he fought to stay upright. He held onto Linyue with an iron grip, his crimson flames coiling tighter around them like a barrier. But even then, Shu Mingye could barely see through the madness.
The world ahead had turned into a blur of spinning debris—chunks of stone, weapons, low-level demons, and screaming soldiers tumbling through the air. Shields clanged as they pinwheeled toward the storm's hungry center.
"It's going to explode," Linyue said, still clutching his robes. Her hair whipped around violently, the red tassel smacking Shu Mingye in the chin.
"WHAT?!" he shouted over the roar.
"It's gathering energy for an explosion," she repeated, her voice maddeningly serene in the middle of an airborne apocalypse.
"HOW DO WE STOP IT?!"
"I don't know."
Then the wind yanked at their bodies with brute force, and they both slammed to the ground. Shu Mingye gritted his teeth, stabbing his sword into the earth as an anchor. His other arm wrapped around Linyue's head, shielding her from sharp debris slicing past like flying blades.
The wind grew sharper and deadlier. Shu Mingye felt it cut across his arms—thin, hot lines of pain blooming as the storm tried to peel them off the battlefield. With a grim growl, he poured crimson spiritual energy into a blazing shield, the fiery barrier glowing against the suffocating winds.
Linyue turned her head, eyes narrowing toward the storm's heart. Through the chaotic blur, she caught faint glimpses of something glowing—green and red, pulsing like a heartbeat in the darkness.
"Any brilliant ideas?" Shu Mingye growled, holding the shield as shards of shattered rock pelted against it.