Chapter 129
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Chapter 129 Soul Suppressing Religious Rites (2)
I missed a step the first time and cursed inwardly, hoping Wei Wei hadn’t noticed. Retracing the conjuration footwork and maintaining the incantation, I started again. “Don’t be nervous.” I told myself, “You’ve got this.”
Yang air began to blossom around me as the ritual fell into place. It seeped from the moonlight into waves that surrounded us. It bloomed from the ground like flowers in the spring and fell into our aura. I felt the power flow through me like a river. It built me up and pulled me down with waves of strength. My chest felt about to burst with raw supernatural power.
“She’s going to fight us.” I said, “She’s almost here. Don’t you feel the Yin air around the building? Watch and be ready.” I told Wei Wei.
I moved my feet in the conjuration work and channeled the power. “I can do it.” I said more to myself.
“Masters, grant me the power to conquer demons…” I chanted, working my way through the suppression incantation. Moonlight glowed on the altar, pulsing brighter and brighter as I went. I felt the Yang air increase, thicken, churn around us. I watched as the Yin air responded. The shadows behind the glass door ahead of us stretched and melded together, turning the entrance into an ebony maw.
I reached the half point of the incantation with sweat dripping down my face. My concentration wavered for only a second, but a second was enough. The supernatural power started to rend the air around me, creating torrents of energy that was cold and hot at the same time. I gasped in surprise and felt panic grip my chest.
“No!” I said aloud, not sure of what to do. “In the name of the-“ I started.
“Who?” I thought, “In the name of who? Who can possibly help me now?”
The Yang air whipped out of my control, pushing away and towards me, through me, into me. I felt a shockwave hit my heart and force a beat that didn’t belong. Pressure and pain expanded in my chest and suddenly I was coughing, gasping, and spewing blood on the altar before me. I was on my knees watching the candles sputter before me.
“Hold on!” Wei Wei called to me. His scream was barely enough to be heard over the roaring whirlwind still wreaking havoc around me, in me.
I wiped away the blood on my chin, staggered to my feet and continued the incantation. I moved my feet in perfect steps and darted my hands in the ritualistic movements. Brandishing the mirror in one hand, I used the other to light an amulet on one of the sputtering candles and cast it into the air. It soared straight up, unaffected by the gale of Yang energy. As it crumbled into ash above me, I raised my head and called, “Enough! Silence!”
The air continued to swirl around me, moving in torrents that could tear into me at the first mistake. Only now the storm was quiet, a light droning sound that faded out of my concentration. I continued the ritual.
As the Yang air grew around me, so too did the Yin storm before us. A screaming wind burst from the doorway and windows facing Wei Wei and I. Glass shattered and an inhuman shriek filled the night.
The soul suppression amulets rustled violently against the wind, but not one of them came off. I smiled to myself, admiring our work. “She’s here.” I told the night.
I continued the suppression incantation, now more confident than ever. Beside me, Wei Wei stepped forward. He raised his sword and cried, “How dare you accost us with your foul wind?”
I watched in amazement as he raised the bell and began using it. His feet moved in tandem conjuration footwork. The bell sounded with each footfall. Each ring sent a gleam of yellow light into the darkness gathered before us, striking it back like torchlight in a dark room.
The scream and wind both fell to a halt after only eight rings of Wei Wei’s bell. I considered him with a smile, thinking to myself, “He’s good, really good.”
I’d only finished the thought when the door to the dormitory burst open in another wind shrieking assault. Wei Wei was caught mid step and flung backwards. He managed to duck his head and curl his shoulder in just before hitting the altar. He rolled past me with a series of heavy thuds.
I wanted to scream, to turn back and help him, but I had to maintain the incantation. The silence coming from behind me was unbearable. I tried to gently turn my head, to catch him breathing in the corner of my eye when a sound rang clear.
“Ding…” A yellow light flashed past my left shoulder into the darkness.
“Ding…” Another followed it. I felt my face stretch into a smile as Wei Wei stepped into sight, sword and bell held high. He was sporting a large cut across one eyebrow, but his step never faltered.
He moved in front of me and combated the shadows as I continued the incantation. I used my free hand and lit a handful of igniting amulets on the candles. The amulets burst into brilliance and I cast them around him. The ones that landed near Wei Wei continued to shine with amazing light, but the ones that landed past him fell away into the shadow.
I summoned all of the energy that was whirling around me and concentrated, blocking out all thoughts of Wei Wei or the darkness mere steps away. I focused all of the power I could. With eyes now closed, I grasped two soul suppression amulets in my hand, lit them, and cast them into the shadows beyond Wei Wei. “In the name of the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord I command you,” I cried, “Suppress!”
The amulets flew, burning brightly against the shadow. A shrieking cry rose from the open door as they went into the darkness, through the darkness, and then they were gone.
“What?” I cried as their light disappeared into nothingness.
“If one or two won’t work, what do I have to do, surround the whole building?” I thought furiously.
Wei Wei raised his voice in a battle cry and rang the bell three, four, five more times. He swung the bell in huge arcs with his right hand. The yellow waves of light crashed into the darkness and all at once the shrieking wind stopped. The darkness paused. The night fell still as I approached the end of the suppression incantation.
The same shrieking cry came again, this time further in the dark building before us. “We’ve hurt her.” I thought. Listening to her cry echo through the empty hallways.
With the air now calm I grew all the more confident. Rolling my feet into the final steps of the ritual I pointed both hands into the sky and cried, “By the name of the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord, I command you! Soul…Suppress…Control!”
The Yang air roiling around me shot into the sky at my final word and illuminated a colossal shape. “Tai Mountain.” I thought, the name appearing in my head. I watched in awe as the peak of the shape gleamed a brilliant golden light and then began to grow. It shot down towards us with impossible majesty. The night sky filled with golden light that was almost painful to look upon.
A sudden rumble of thunder reached my ears from the direction of the dorm. I’d been so busy gawking at the golden sky that I hadn’t noticed. The building was surrounded by a thick black shadow broken only by pale streaks of green lightning. I watched in horror as the lightning collected, grew, and then struck out towards the golden sky. It hit with a resounding clap that deafened me and threw me to the ground. Where it hit the golden mountain was now a sickening greenish black burn.
The lightning gathered for another strike, burning another hideous crack into the golden monument we’d summoned.
“No!” I screamed. The mirror laid face down where it’d fallen from my hand. I rolled to it and angled the reflective surface so it could take in the moonlight still showing overhead. “Come on!” I said, doing my best to reflect it back at the building. At first I couldn’t see it, then a gleam struck back at me. I was aiming too high. I jerked the mirror up sharply and beamed the moonlight into the open dormitory door.
The reflected moonlight tore through the shadow that inhabited the dorm entrance. In the moonlit path of my reflection I saw one of the suppression amulets I’d lost earlier. It sat half burnt in the hallway. When the moonlight struck it, the surviving embers began to smolder once more.
“That’s it!” I crawled to the altar and retrieved another amulet. Careful to aim with the moonlight, I lit it and cast it into the dark hall. It landed with a plop and continued to burn. I watch in triumph as the smoke from the amulet peeled away the darkness around it.
As I continued to lob paper amulets into the foyer and weaken the Yin air there, Wei Wei followed his own plan. He dashed to the altar and placed his tools down. Above him the lighting continued to strike at the golden mountain with deafening crashes. Ignoring the sound of a losing battle, Wei Wei used the blade of his peach wood sword to cut into his index finger and traced a character onto the back of both paper men. When he finished he moved his hand in a ritual sign and shouted, “Soldiers, I summon you!”
I took a moment to gawk as the one closest to me took a step. Its foot turned from a simple wooden claw into a heavily armored boot. The golden boot sank into the soft plaza soil next to me as the now very real soldier marched towards the building. Both soldiers stood taller than a grown man and shone with brilliant golden light. There wasn’t a trace of paper left on them.
Wei Wei pointed to the sky where the golden mountain was being obscured by blackened green streaks. The soldiers took the hint and marched on. When they reached the outside wall of the dorm, they leapt in one smooth motion onto the roof. I stopped watching then and continued with my suppression amulets. The sky above us began to shine brighter as the soldiers fought the lightning and the Tai Mountain drew closer.
The whole world was golden in a matter of minutes. Even the shadowy fog around the building faded away.
“Finish it!” Wei Wei called to me. He was smiling like a giddy little boy. He raised his head to the now glowing dormitory and traced a dispelling incantation. Two armored figures in the distance faded away into ash. He turned his smile to me again. “They can only be used once.”
I returned his smile without a word and set about ending the ritual.
I traced the tactic and felt all of that power flow into and then immediately back out of me. The sky brightened as the light concentrated into a single beam that shot back towards me. I raised my hands at the last possible moments and caught the beam, feeling the supernatural air move through me like a tidal wave. When it left, it took more than I’d given. I felt my head start to pound and the strength leave my legs. I collapsed into a heap as the supernatural air flooded away.
Wei Wei lay down on the ground next to me. He was panting as well. I looked at him through a wave of exhaustion and the two of us started to laugh. Our laughter faded away when a third voice joined us.
A high, paper thin cough of a laugh echoed from the dormitory next to us.
“No…” I said weakly.
“It can’t be!” Wei Wei added.
There were no shadows around the building, no Yin air to be seen. Yet still that laugh echoed on.
“You can’t kill me.” Rang the voice, now coming from an open window on the third floor.
“Wait for me.” It whispered from the broken glass door next to us.
“A few more days…” It continued from everywhere at once. “And I’ll kill you both.”
I closed my eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. “In a few days a master will be here to deal with you.” I thought. I felt my head slipping into a state of desperate rest when I heard Wei Wei cry out. Turning my head and prying my eyes open, I found something horrible.
The side of the dorm was now craned and misshapen. Bricks had dislodged, windows had shattered or turned, railings bent and melded. Looking out over us was a giant sneering green face.
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Chapter 129 Soul Suppressing Religious Rites (2)
I missed a step the first time and cursed inwardly, hoping Wei Wei hadn’t noticed. Retracing the conjuration footwork and maintaining the incantation, I started again. “Don’t be nervous.” I told myself, “You’ve got this.”
Yang air began to blossom around me as the ritual fell into place. It seeped from the moonlight into waves that surrounded us. It bloomed from the ground like flowers in the spring and fell into our aura. I felt the power flow through me like a river. It built me up and pulled me down with waves of strength. My chest felt about to burst with raw supernatural power.
“She’s going to fight us.” I said, “She’s almost here. Don’t you feel the Yin air around the building? Watch and be ready.” I told Wei Wei.
I moved my feet in the conjuration work and channeled the power. “I can do it.” I said more to myself.
“Masters, grant me the power to conquer demons…” I chanted, working my way through the suppression incantation. Moonlight glowed on the altar, pulsing brighter and brighter as I went. I felt the Yang air increase, thicken, churn around us. I watched as the Yin air responded. The shadows behind the glass door ahead of us stretched and melded together, turning the entrance into an ebony maw.
I reached the half point of the incantation with sweat dripping down my face. My concentration wavered for only a second, but a second was enough. The supernatural power started to rend the air around me, creating torrents of energy that was cold and hot at the same time. I gasped in surprise and felt panic grip my chest.
“No!” I said aloud, not sure of what to do. “In the name of the-“ I started.
“Who?” I thought, “In the name of who? Who can possibly help me now?”
The Yang air whipped out of my control, pushing away and towards me, through me, into me. I felt a shockwave hit my heart and force a beat that didn’t belong. Pressure and pain expanded in my chest and suddenly I was coughing, gasping, and spewing blood on the altar before me. I was on my knees watching the candles sputter before me.
“Hold on!” Wei Wei called to me. His scream was barely enough to be heard over the roaring whirlwind still wreaking havoc around me, in me.
I wiped away the blood on my chin, staggered to my feet and continued the incantation. I moved my feet in perfect steps and darted my hands in the ritualistic movements. Brandishing the mirror in one hand, I used the other to light an amulet on one of the sputtering candles and cast it into the air. It soared straight up, unaffected by the gale of Yang energy. As it crumbled into ash above me, I raised my head and called, “Enough! Silence!”
The air continued to swirl around me, moving in torrents that could tear into me at the first mistake. Only now the storm was quiet, a light droning sound that faded out of my concentration. I continued the ritual.
As the Yang air grew around me, so too did the Yin storm before us. A screaming wind burst from the doorway and windows facing Wei Wei and I. Glass shattered and an inhuman shriek filled the night.
The soul suppression amulets rustled violently against the wind, but not one of them came off. I smiled to myself, admiring our work. “She’s here.” I told the night.
I continued the suppression incantation, now more confident than ever. Beside me, Wei Wei stepped forward. He raised his sword and cried, “How dare you accost us with your foul wind?”
I watched in amazement as he raised the bell and began using it. His feet moved in tandem conjuration footwork. The bell sounded with each footfall. Each ring sent a gleam of yellow light into the darkness gathered before us, striking it back like torchlight in a dark room.
The scream and wind both fell to a halt after only eight rings of Wei Wei’s bell. I considered him with a smile, thinking to myself, “He’s good, really good.”
I’d only finished the thought when the door to the dormitory burst open in another wind shrieking assault. Wei Wei was caught mid step and flung backwards. He managed to duck his head and curl his shoulder in just before hitting the altar. He rolled past me with a series of heavy thuds.
I wanted to scream, to turn back and help him, but I had to maintain the incantation. The silence coming from behind me was unbearable. I tried to gently turn my head, to catch him breathing in the corner of my eye when a sound rang clear.
“Ding…” A yellow light flashed past my left shoulder into the darkness.
“Ding…” Another followed it. I felt my face stretch into a smile as Wei Wei stepped into sight, sword and bell held high. He was sporting a large cut across one eyebrow, but his step never faltered.
He moved in front of me and combated the shadows as I continued the incantation. I used my free hand and lit a handful of igniting amulets on the candles. The amulets burst into brilliance and I cast them around him. The ones that landed near Wei Wei continued to shine with amazing light, but the ones that landed past him fell away into the shadow.
I summoned all of the energy that was whirling around me and concentrated, blocking out all thoughts of Wei Wei or the darkness mere steps away. I focused all of the power I could. With eyes now closed, I grasped two soul suppression amulets in my hand, lit them, and cast them into the shadows beyond Wei Wei. “In the name of the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord I command you,” I cried, “Suppress!”
The amulets flew, burning brightly against the shadow. A shrieking cry rose from the open door as they went into the darkness, through the darkness, and then they were gone.
“What?” I cried as their light disappeared into nothingness.
“If one or two won’t work, what do I have to do, surround the whole building?” I thought furiously.
Wei Wei raised his voice in a battle cry and rang the bell three, four, five more times. He swung the bell in huge arcs with his right hand. The yellow waves of light crashed into the darkness and all at once the shrieking wind stopped. The darkness paused. The night fell still as I approached the end of the suppression incantation.
The same shrieking cry came again, this time further in the dark building before us. “We’ve hurt her.” I thought. Listening to her cry echo through the empty hallways.
With the air now calm I grew all the more confident. Rolling my feet into the final steps of the ritual I pointed both hands into the sky and cried, “By the name of the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord, I command you! Soul…Suppress…Control!”
The Yang air roiling around me shot into the sky at my final word and illuminated a colossal shape. “Tai Mountain.” I thought, the name appearing in my head. I watched in awe as the peak of the shape gleamed a brilliant golden light and then began to grow. It shot down towards us with impossible majesty. The night sky filled with golden light that was almost painful to look upon.
A sudden rumble of thunder reached my ears from the direction of the dorm. I’d been so busy gawking at the golden sky that I hadn’t noticed. The building was surrounded by a thick black shadow broken only by pale streaks of green lightning. I watched in horror as the lightning collected, grew, and then struck out towards the golden sky. It hit with a resounding clap that deafened me and threw me to the ground. Where it hit the golden mountain was now a sickening greenish black burn.
The lightning gathered for another strike, burning another hideous crack into the golden monument we’d summoned.
“No!” I screamed. The mirror laid face down where it’d fallen from my hand. I rolled to it and angled the reflective surface so it could take in the moonlight still showing overhead. “Come on!” I said, doing my best to reflect it back at the building. At first I couldn’t see it, then a gleam struck back at me. I was aiming too high. I jerked the mirror up sharply and beamed the moonlight into the open dormitory door.
The reflected moonlight tore through the shadow that inhabited the dorm entrance. In the moonlit path of my reflection I saw one of the suppression amulets I’d lost earlier. It sat half burnt in the hallway. When the moonlight struck it, the surviving embers began to smolder once more.
“That’s it!” I crawled to the altar and retrieved another amulet. Careful to aim with the moonlight, I lit it and cast it into the dark hall. It landed with a plop and continued to burn. I watch in triumph as the smoke from the amulet peeled away the darkness around it.
As I continued to lob paper amulets into the foyer and weaken the Yin air there, Wei Wei followed his own plan. He dashed to the altar and placed his tools down. Above him the lighting continued to strike at the golden mountain with deafening crashes. Ignoring the sound of a losing battle, Wei Wei used the blade of his peach wood sword to cut into his index finger and traced a character onto the back of both paper men. When he finished he moved his hand in a ritual sign and shouted, “Soldiers, I summon you!”
I took a moment to gawk as the one closest to me took a step. Its foot turned from a simple wooden claw into a heavily armored boot. The golden boot sank into the soft plaza soil next to me as the now very real soldier marched towards the building. Both soldiers stood taller than a grown man and shone with brilliant golden light. There wasn’t a trace of paper left on them.
Wei Wei pointed to the sky where the golden mountain was being obscured by blackened green streaks. The soldiers took the hint and marched on. When they reached the outside wall of the dorm, they leapt in one smooth motion onto the roof. I stopped watching then and continued with my suppression amulets. The sky above us began to shine brighter as the soldiers fought the lightning and the Tai Mountain drew closer.
The whole world was golden in a matter of minutes. Even the shadowy fog around the building faded away.
“Finish it!” Wei Wei called to me. He was smiling like a giddy little boy. He raised his head to the now glowing dormitory and traced a dispelling incantation. Two armored figures in the distance faded away into ash. He turned his smile to me again. “They can only be used once.”
I returned his smile without a word and set about ending the ritual.
I traced the tactic and felt all of that power flow into and then immediately back out of me. The sky brightened as the light concentrated into a single beam that shot back towards me. I raised my hands at the last possible moments and caught the beam, feeling the supernatural air move through me like a tidal wave. When it left, it took more than I’d given. I felt my head start to pound and the strength leave my legs. I collapsed into a heap as the supernatural air flooded away.
Wei Wei lay down on the ground next to me. He was panting as well. I looked at him through a wave of exhaustion and the two of us started to laugh. Our laughter faded away when a third voice joined us.
A high, paper thin cough of a laugh echoed from the dormitory next to us.
“No…” I said weakly.
“It can’t be!” Wei Wei added.
There were no shadows around the building, no Yin air to be seen. Yet still that laugh echoed on.
“You can’t kill me.” Rang the voice, now coming from an open window on the third floor.
“Wait for me.” It whispered from the broken glass door next to us.
“A few more days…” It continued from everywhere at once. “And I’ll kill you both.”
I closed my eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. “In a few days a master will be here to deal with you.” I thought. I felt my head slipping into a state of desperate rest when I heard Wei Wei cry out. Turning my head and prying my eyes open, I found something horrible.
The side of the dorm was now craned and misshapen. Bricks had dislodged, windows had shattered or turned, railings bent and melded. Looking out over us was a giant sneering green face.
Chapter 129 Soul Suppressing Religious Rites 2I missed a step the first time and cursed inwardly, hoping Wei Wei hadn't noticed. Retracing the conjuration footwork and maintaining the incantation, I started again. Don't be nervous. I told myself, You've got this.Yang air began to blossom around me as the ritual fell into place. It seeped from the moonlight into waves that surrounded us. It bloomed from the ground like flowers in the spring and fell into our aura. I felt the power flow through me like a river. It built me up and pulled me down with waves of strength. My chest felt about to burst with raw supernatural power.She's going to fight us. I said, She's almost here. Don't you feel the Yin air around the building? Watch and be ready. I told Wei Wei. I moved my feet in the conjuration work and channeled the power. I can do it. I said more to myself.Masters, grant me the power to conquer demons I chanted, working my way through the suppression incantation. Moonlight glowed on the altar, pulsing brighter and brighter as I went. I felt the Yang air increase, thicken, churn around us. I watched as the Yin air responded. The shadows behind the glass door ahead of us stretched and melded together, turning the entrance into an ebony maw. I reached the half point of the incantation with sweat dripping down my face. My concentration wavered for only a second, but a second was enough. The supernatural power started to rend the air around me, creating torrents of energy that was cold and hot at the same time. I gasped in surprise and felt panic grip my chest.No! I said aloud, not sure of what to do. In the name of the- I started.Who? I thought, In the name of who? Who can possibly help me now?The Yang air whipped out of my control, pushing away and towards me, through me, into me. I felt a shockwave hit my heart and force a beat that didn't belong. Pressure and pain expanded in my chest and suddenly I was coughing, gasping, and spewing blood on the altar before me. I was on my knees watching the candles sputter before me.Hold on! Wei Wei called to me. His scream was barely enough to be heard over the roaring whirlwind still wreaking havoc around me, in me.I wiped away the blood on my chin, staggered to my feet and continued the incantation. I moved my feet in perfect steps and darted my hands in the ritualistic movements. Brandishing the mirror in one hand, I used the other to light an amulet on one of the sputtering candles and cast it into the air. It soared straight up, unaffected by the gale of Yang energy. As it crumbled into ash above me, I raised my head and called, Enough! Silence!The air continued to swirl around me, moving in torrents that could tear into me at the first mistake. Only now the storm was quiet, a light droning sound that faded out of my concentration. I continued the ritual.As the Yang air grew around me, so too did the Yin storm before us. A screaming wind burst from the doorway and windows facing Wei Wei and I. Glass shattered and an inhuman shriek filled the night.The soul suppression amulets rustled violently against the wind, but not one of them came off. I smiled to myself, admiring our work. She's here. I told the night.I continued the suppression incantation, now more confident than ever. Beside me, Wei Wei stepped forward. He raised his sword and cried, How dare you accost us with your foul wind?I watched in amazement as he raised the bell and began using it. His feet moved in tandem conjuration footwork. The bell sounded with each footfall. Each ring sent a gleam of yellow light into the darkness gathered before us, striking it back like torchlight in a dark room.The scream and wind both fell to a halt after only eight rings of Wei Wei's bell. I considered him with a smile, thinking to myself, He's good, really good.I'd only finished the thought when the door to the dormitory burst open in another wind shrieking assault. Wei Wei was caught mid step and flung backwards. He managed to duck his head and curl his shoulder in just before hitting the altar. He rolled past me with a series of heavy thuds.I wanted to scream, to turn back and help him, but I had to maintain the incantation. The silence coming from behind me was unbearable. I tried to gently turn my head, to catch him breathing in the corner of my eye when a sound rang clear.Ding A yellow light flashed past my left shoulder into the darkness.Ding Another followed it. I felt my face stretch into a smile as Wei Wei stepped into sight, sword and bell held high. He was sporting a large cut across one eyebrow, but his step never faltered.He moved in front of me and combated the shadows as I continued the incantation. I used my free hand and lit a handful of igniting amulets on the candles. The amulets burst into brilliance and I cast them around him. The ones that landed near Wei Wei continued to shine with amazing light, but the ones that landed past him fell away into the shadow. I summoned all of the energy that was whirling around me and concentrated, blocking out all thoughts of Wei Wei or the darkness mere steps away. I focused all of the power I could. With eyes now closed, I grasped two soul suppression amulets in my hand, lit them, and cast them into the shadows beyond Wei Wei. In the name of the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord I command you, I cried, Suppress!The amulets flew, burning brightly against the shadow. A shrieking cry rose from the open door as they went into the darkness, through the darkness, and then they were gone. What? I cried as their light disappeared into nothingness.If one or two won't work, what do I have to do, surround the whole building? I thought furiously. Wei Wei raised his voice in a battle cry and rang the bell three, four, five more times. He swung the bell in huge arcs with his right hand. The yellow waves of light crashed into the darkness and all at once the shrieking wind stopped. The darkness paused. The night fell still as I approached the end of the suppression incantation.The same shrieking cry came again, this time further in the dark building before us. We've hurt her. I thought. Listening to her cry echo through the empty hallways.With the air now calm I grew all the more confident. Rolling my feet into the final steps of the ritual I pointed both hands into the sky and cried, By the name of the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord, I command you! SoulSuppressControl! The Yang air roiling around me shot into the sky at my final word and illuminated a colossal shape. Tai Mountain. I thought, the name appearing in my head. I watched in awe as the peak of the shape gleamed a brilliant golden light and then began to grow. It shot down towards us with impossible majesty. The night sky filled with golden light that was almost painful to look upon. A sudden rumble of thunder reached my ears from the direction of the dorm. I'd been so busy gawking at the golden sky that I hadn't noticed. The building was surrounded by a thick black shadow broken only by pale streaks of green lightning. I watched in horror as the lightning collected, grew, and then struck out towards the golden sky. It hit with a resounding clap that deafened me and threw me to the ground. Where it hit the golden mountain was now a sickening greenish black burn.The lightning gathered for another strike, burning another hideous crack into the golden monument we'd summoned. No! I screamed. The mirror laid face down where it'd fallen from my hand. I rolled to it and angled the reflective surface so it could take in the moonlight still showing overhead. Come on! I said, doing my best to reflect it back at the building. At first I couldn't see it, then a gleam struck back at me. I was aiming too high. I jerked the mirror up sharply and beamed the moonlight into the open dormitory door.The reflected moonlight tore through the shadow that inhabited the dorm entrance. In the moonlit path of my reflection I saw one of the suppression amulets I'd lost earlier. It sat half burnt in the hallway. When the moonlight struck it, the surviving embers began to smolder once more. That's it! I crawled to the altar and retrieved another amulet. Careful to aim with the moonlight, I lit it and cast it into the dark hall. It landed with a plop and continued to burn. I watch in triumph as the smoke from the amulet peeled away the darkness around it. As I continued to lob paper amulets into the foyer and weaken the Yin air there, Wei Wei followed his own plan. He dashed to the altar and placed his tools down. Above him the lighting continued to strike at the golden mountain with deafening crashes. Ignoring the sound of a losing battle, Wei Wei used the blade of his peach wood sword to cut into his index finger and traced a character onto the back of both paper men. When he finished he moved his hand in a ritual sign and shouted, Soldiers, I summon you! I took a moment to gawk as the one closest to me took a step. Its foot turned from a simple wooden claw into a heavily armored boot. The golden boot sank into the soft plaza soil next to me as the now very real soldier marched towards the building. Both soldiers stood taller than a grown man and shone with brilliant golden light. There wasn't a trace of paper left on them.Wei Wei pointed to the sky where the golden mountain was being obscured by blackened green streaks. The soldiers took the hint and marched on. When they reached the outside wall of the dorm, they leapt in one smooth motion onto the roof. I stopped watching then and continued with my suppression amulets. The sky above us began to shine brighter as the soldiers fought the lightning and the Tai Mountain drew closer.The whole world was golden in a matter of minutes. Even the shadowy fog around the building faded away.Finish it! Wei Wei called to me. He was smiling like a giddy little boy. He raised his head to the now glowing dormitory and traced a dispelling incantation. Two armored figures in the distance faded away into ash. He turned his smile to me again. They can only be used once.I returned his smile without a word and set about ending the ritual.I traced the tactic and felt all of that power flow into and then immediately back out of me. The sky brightened as the light concentrated into a single beam that shot back towards me. I raised my hands at the last possible moments and caught the beam, feeling the supernatural air move through me like a tidal wave. When it left, it took more than I'd given. I felt my head start to pound and the strength leave my legs. I collapsed into a heap as the supernatural air flooded away.Wei Wei lay down on the ground next to me. He was panting as well. I looked at him through a wave of exhaustion and the two of us started to laugh. Our laughter faded away when a third voice joined us.A high, paper thin cough of a laugh echoed from the dormitory next to us.No I said weakly.It can't be! Wei Wei added.There were no shadows around the building, no Yin air to be seen. Yet still that laugh echoed on. You can't kill me. Rang the voice, now coming from an open window on the third floor.Wait for me. It whispered from the broken glass door next to us.A few more days It continued from everywhere at once. And I'll kill you both.I closed my eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. In a few days a master will be here to deal with you. I thought. I felt my head slipping into a state of desperate rest when I heard Wei Wei cry out. Turning my head and prying my eyes open, I found something horrible.The side of the dorm was now craned and misshapen. Bricks had dislodged, windows had shattered or turned, railings bent and melded. Looking out over us was a giant sneering green face.
