The silence was the most terrifying part.
The entire battlefield was frozen. Thousands of demons, both from Ying's army and the city's guard, were staring up at me, their faces masks of awe and fear. The light from my attack was still fading, but the afterimage was burned into their retinas. I had become a legend in a single, blinding moment.
But the power was a fire, and I was the fuel. I could feel it draining me, pulling the life from my very bones. My vision started to tunnel, the edges blurring into a dark, fuzzy grey. My knees buckled.
"Whoa, easy there," Shi grunted, catching me with his four arms before I could face-plant on the balcony. "You're… you're amazing, my lady. But you look like you're about to turn into a puff of smoke."
"I'm fine," I lied, my voice a thin reed. I wasn't fine. I felt like I'd just run a marathon across the entire Underworld.
Down below, Lord Ying recovered from his shock. His terror was quickly replaced by a rage so hot it seemed to make his lava-like skin glow brighter.
"Magic!" he roared, his voice shaking the very foundations of the fortress. "It is just a trick! A parlor trick! She is still just a mortal! ARCHERS!"
A contingent of his demons raised bows made of bone and sinew, but they didn't fire arrows. They fired bolts of pure, corrosive shadow energy, a hundred black spears aimed directly at the balcony.
"Get down!" Xue yelled, shoving me and Shi behind a stone balustrade.
The shadow bolts slammed into the balcony, exploding on impact. The stone cracked and crumbled, the air filled with the acrid stench of void magic.
"They're trying to pin us down!" Xue yelled over the din. "They're sending in their elite to climb the walls while we're suppressed!"
She was right. I could hear the scrabbling of claws on stone, the grunts of demons scaling the fortress walls, using the chaos as cover.
"I can't… I can't do that again," I gasped, my body trembling uncontrollably. "I have nothing left."
"You don't have to," a new voice said.
I looked up. Lord Gu was standing there, his calm, placid face completely out of place in the middle of a battle. He wasn't even looking at the fight. He was looking at me.
"The Lord is on his way," he said, as if commenting on the weather. "But he will be too late. The Iron Tyrant has played his hand, and now, we must play ours."
He reached into his robes and pulled out a small, ornate dagger. The blade was made of a strange, black metal that seemed to drink the light.
"What is that?" Xue asked, her eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"It is a Shadow-Stinger," Gu said calmly. "A relic from the First War. It does not kill the body. It severs the spirit. It is the only thing that can hurt a being of pure energy."
He looked at me, and for the first time, I felt a flicker of true fear from him. "My lady, you have shown us that you are a power. But you have also shown us that you are a weapon without a shield. You are a star, but you are burning yourself out. We need to give you a… focus."
He held out the dagger to me. "You need to take this."
"What?" I stammered, shrinking back. "No! I'm a healer! I don't use weapons!"
"This is not a weapon," Gu said, his voice dropping to a persuasive, hypnotic whisper. "It is a key. It is a tool. It will not help you fight. It will help you control. It will give your sun a place to rest. It will ground you."
"Give it to her!" Xue snarled. "What are you playing at, Gu?"
"I am playing to win, General," Gu said, his eyes never leaving mine. "The Lord is a brilliant strategist, but he is… sentimental. He would never ask this of her. But I am not sentimental. I am practical. And this is the only way."
I looked from the dagger to the battle. The shadow bolts were still raining down. The sounds of fighting were getting closer. We were running out of time.
"What do I do with it?" I asked, my voice trembling.
"Take it," Gu commanded. "And press it to your heart."
It was the craziest, most counter-intuitive thing I had ever heard. A dagger that severs spirits, and I was supposed to press it to my heart? It was suicide.
But I looked at Gu's calm, certain eyes. I looked at Xue's desperate, furious face. I looked at Shi, who was literally shielding me with his own body.
They were all betting on me. They were all putting their faith in me, the mortal, the outsider.
I took the dagger. It was cold, colder than Di Jun's touch, a cold that seemed to seep into my very soul.
"Trust me," Gu whispered.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and pressed the tip of the blade to my chest, right over my heart.
The pain was beyond anything I had ever imagined. It wasn't a physical pain. It was a spiritual pain. It felt like my soul was being torn in two. I screamed, a raw, agonized sound that was lost in the din of the battle.
I fell to my knees, the dagger clattering to the stone floor. But something was different. The pain was still there, but it was… focused. It was like a fire being channeled through a funnel. The chaotic, burning energy inside me was being drawn towards a single point.
I looked down. The dagger wasn't on the floor anymore. It was gone. But in its place, on my chest, right over my heart, was a small, black tattoo. It was the image of the dagger, its hilt just below my collarbone, its point aimed directly at my heart.
And inside me, the change was incredible. My sun was still there, but it was no longer a wild, raging fire. It was contained, focused. It was a laser. I felt a new level of control, a new depth of power. I was no longer just a bonfire. I was a sniper.
I stood up, my body no longer trembling. The exhaustion was gone, replaced by a cool, clear energy.
I looked down at the battlefield, at the demons scrambling up the walls. I raised my hand.
This time, I didn't unleash an explosion. I pointed my finger at the lead demon, a hulking brute with claws like swords.
A thin, almost invisible beam of golden light shot from my fingertip. It moved faster than thought, faster than sight.
The demon's head simply vanished. It didn't explode. It just ceased to exist. The body, for a split second, continued to climb, then toppled backwards, falling into the chasm below.
Silence.
Again.
Every demon on the battlefield stopped and stared at the headless corpse, then up at me.
I had a new weapon. A new power. And I had just sent a message to the entire Underworld.
I was not just a star. I was a god. And I was not to be trifled with.
But as I stood there, basking in my new power, a cold, horrifying thought crept into my mind.
Gu had given me this power. He had orchestrated this entire moment. He had played me like a fiddle.
Why? What was his endgame? And what had I just agreed to?