"How fitting to have found you in the place they vowed you would never have to step foot on," Amatesu said. Her strides were calm and short. She was taking her time. The clacks of the pointed heels of her sandals echoed with every step, driving Kai-Se's heart deeper and deeper into his gut.

Kai-Se's mind still whirred with the revelations he found out from An-Ri's memories...if he could call those visions that. One thing he was certain of was that An-Ri did all she could to make sure Kai-Se never made it to Shaoryeong. And he just went and butchered it. Now, whatever evil thing Amatesu was planning, it'd be Kai-Se's fault if it happened.

That's why he needed to know first. "Wait," he splayed his fingers out, the gesture effective enough to halt Amatesu's advance towards them. Behind her, all sorts of pained groans and whimpers rang. His gut twinged, with what emotion, he didn't know. "Why are you doing all this, Amatesu?" he asked.

"No mortal should be able to speak my name with such freedom," Amatesu growled, lowering herself into a stance. "Then again, you're not quite mortal, are you?"

Kai-Se sighed. "I've been told by a number of people already," he said. "If you care to enlighten me, what am I?"

Amatesu's back straightened. Her features relaxed into an amused grin. Then, she threw her head back and laughed. Just...laughed. Kai-Se knitted his eyebrows. Did he say something funny? He didn't.

"Oh, this is precious," Amatesu chuckled, wiping the sides of her eyes with hooked fingers. The action smeared more blood below her eyes, like war paint. "Am I your last resort in finding out what's wrong with you? Did you come to Shaoryeong for that? In your futile attempt to cling to your fragile, little life?"

Kai-Se clenched his jaw. It took everything in him to not lunge at the spirit empress first. He'd probably die before he could do that. He needed more time. None of them could fight her with magic and strength. She already established that fact when she slaughtered the multitude of gods whose bodies still lay in waste behind her. Her own creations, killed by her own hands. How much more wicked could she get?

He needed to disarm this grenade not by hacking a sword at it, but by taking it apart bit by bit. With thoughts, with words—things he was good at. Maybe.

"I saw An-Ri's memories of you," Kai-Se began. Just the ripple of the name made Amatesu freeze like a horse caught in the lantern beam. "She loved you so much, Amatesu, so why are you doing this?"

Amatesu scoffed. She wasn't attacking, which was a good thing for Kai-Se. Gave them all more time to think of what to do next to survive. "That isn't love, little blossom," the Empress said. "She pities me. That's why she did it."

Kai-Se shook his head. "Or you pity yourself and assume everyone just feels the same way about you the way you do," he said. "Not everyone hated you, Amatesu. Stop making it seem that way."

"Not everyone did but there are some who do," Amatesu balled her fists, squeezing the blood to drip in a faster pace to the floor. Drip. Drip. Drip. It's sickening. "It's because I was weak. I couldn't be like them because I was weak."

She raised her head and leveled her gaze at Kai-Se. "But not anymore. He made sure I have all the power I need," she said. "Now, I am strong. I am powerful. Everyone will love me. Everyone should love me."

"You don't want love, Amatesu," Kai-Se said. What did that word mean to any of them, anyway? Kai-Se, himself, didn't know what it truly entailed, but it sure wasn't this. "You want worship."

The Spirit Empress' eyes hardened. "That's because it's due me," she said. "I have the right to be adored. To be worshiped. I am a spirit, just like the rest of them. I shouldn't be any different. Equal. Spirits are supposed to be equal," she said. "I should be told in myths, offered sacrifices to in those pathetic mortal temples. I should have never been alone."

"You made yourself alone, Amatesu," Kai-Se said, driving the point home. The Empress, in her quest to be accepted and loved by her kind and who's supposed to be her family, ended up pushing them all away. It's not a good place to be. "You cannot demand to be loved. It should be given. Freely. Without conditions. And by believing you can get it like you would a fruit from a tree, you have set yourself to a path of ruin."

Conflict brewed in Amatesu's gaze like an oncoming storm. Then, as quickly as it set, it vanished in a swirl of red and gold. "Do you know what your problem is, piper?" she asked. Before Kai-Se could reply, though, her grin widened enough to show off her pointed canines. "You talk too much."

Then, she lunged.

Kai-Se felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder. The world whizzed by him as he felt himself go weightless. A blur of green and white zipped past his periphery. "Take him with you, Misaki," Nishi, the god of wind, threw himself in Amatesu's path. "Find out where An-Ri is."

Amatesu slammed into Nishi. Kai-Se felt the wind rise and spin around the god, like the vortex which Kai-Se had once sent after him. Misaki tugged at his hand, drawing his attention away from the fight. "He can handle Amatesu for a bit," Misaki said. "Did you feel An-Ri come back?"

He saw An-Ri's memories, did that count? He opened his mouth to reply but something streaked from the side of his vision. Nishi's weightless body flew in a wide arc before slamming against a pillar. The impact sent wood cracking, the sharp splinters raining down on Misaki and Kai-Se as they ran past it.

"Don't look back," Misaki said through gritted teeth. Her hair flew behind her, bouncing against her back with every step she took. They never once swirled around her head signaling a glance over her shoulder. "Where's An-Ri?"

Kai-Se scanned the hall of punishment, past the endless niches climbing up to the ever-stretching ceiling, the infinite pillars, and the geometric tiles their soles squeaked against. There was no sign of a girl with long, white hair and fluffy white tails.

Then, the floor ballooned below their feet, throwing them forward. Kai-Se floated for a few seconds before hurtling towards the ground at a speed that would surely break his neck. Misaki cursed, a slew of colorful words pouring off her mouth just as she whipped her hands in front of them in a wide arc. The sound of waves crashing against the shore arose from the east. Before Kai-Se's eyes, a swirl of water curled along with Misaki's gesture. It formed into a ball, kind of like a hollow bubble, exploding into a vibrant splash when they slammed into it.

"I should have destroyed these idiots when they were weak," Amatesu was saying, rising from Nishi's motionless form on the floor. Her eyes held a glaring glint brighter than the blood painting her arms, fingers, and nails. Some of her combs and hair accessories had slipped off, her hair spilling from the intricate braids into a waterfall down her back. The blush on her cheeks and the paint on her lips had long been replaced by the sheen of the life she had taken for the past few hours.

Kai-Se sat up, feeling the puddle of water Misaki summoned seep into his trousers and sleeves. Amatesu strode towards them, muttering under her breath. "Look at them! They thought they could defeat me. Me!" she clicked her tongue, shaking her head. "I've never met such fools."

He opened his mouth. His words were shoved back into his throat when a hand clamped across his mouth, the long, manicured nails digging against his neck. "You should think twice before you spurt more nonsense, piper," Amatesu grinned at him. Being this close to her, smelling the metallic tang curling off her dress and her skin, it unfurled a primal fear inside him. He's not going to survive this. It's over.

Amatesu lifted him off the ground using her grip across his jaw. She wasn't squeezing, her face showing no signs of struggle. She had won, and she knew it. "It's quite simple to figure out, little blossom," she switched the hands holding Kai-Se up, this time, her fingers closing around his neck. Behind her, Misaki shot to her feet and dropped into a stance. But who was she kidding when she thought there was anything to be done to help Kai-Se? "Couldn't your meager brain not understand all of this yet?"

She clenched her fingers with Kai-Se's throat stuck between them. Air cut off, making him gasp and claw against her grip. "Do I have to spell it out, step by step? Seems like I do," she chuckled, picking at the blood which seeped through her nail beds. Kai-Se was reduced to a choking mess as she drawled on. "I see that you have revived An-Ri against all odds. Of course, I'll just kill her while her strength still hasn't returned. Takes a while, honestly."

Amatesu smacked her lips, looking to her right like she was deep in thought. "Then, I'll take out all the remnants of the rest of the ancestral spirits stored in you," she gasped in fake wonder. "After that, I'll hand you to my benefactor. He would greatly reward me for your capture. He seemed to have taken a keen interest in you."

Kai-Se was too focused on flailing in her hold, his fingers desperately trying to unscrew the steel curling around his throat, making it hard to breathe. He had what? The remnants? Wh—

The Empress gleaned his scattered thoughts from his face. She laughed. Openly. A guffaw. "You didn't know? Oh, this is so fun," she hovered a few inches off the ground before zipping forward, dragging Kai-Se with her. Pain exploded in his back as she pinned him with such force against another pillar. In the mortal realm, it would have snapped his spine in two. "How did you survive being this clueless, little blossom? Not only you made the mistake of trying to revive An-Ri during my rule, you served all of the spirits' remnants to me. On a rotten platter, maybe, but a platter, nonetheless. I should thank you for that."

Kai-Se was right. He wasn't his father's son, and wasn't fully mortal either. Now, the answer bared itself clean. An-Ri went to the mortal realm bearing a child as she escaped from Amatesu's madness. To prevent being annihilated, the other spirits gathered their remnants and sent it away to another realm. It didn't take long for Kai-Se to realize that Amatesu eventually eliminated all of the other spirits, which made his existence...even more important.

And she was right. His ignorance ruined everything An-Ri had ever worked for and what hope was left in reviving the rest of the spirits.

"Well, now that you've released An-Ri's remnant, the others are bound to follow," Amatesu tapped her chin. "I could keep you here while I slaughter them as they come but that'll take a long time. My benefactor isn't keen on waiting anymore. He needed you the soonest chance possible, you see. I think you'd be delighted to meet him."

Before Kai-Se could react, Amatesu plunged her hand straight into his chest. Excruciating pain burst through his system. His head filled with air at the sight of his own blood, red and hot against his and Amatesu's arm.

Slowly, the Empress reached in with her magic—a foreign and cruel energy sparring with Kai-Se's own. His skin boiled as everything in him rejected Amatesu's magic. He was made to do that, in the first place. This made his aversion to Shaoryeong make sense. The spirits must have enchanted the remnants to avoid the spirit realm at all costs.

And finally...he realized it now, as the force keeping him alive was being slowly siphoned off him, his stories weren't just things he made up on the fly. They were memories, each one waiting to be told, to be remembered. Each story he had told was of the spirits living inside him, each one a valuable remnant begging to be let out, to not be forgotten.

That's why he was a piper. He had lived because of the memories inside him. And now, it was being taken away from him because of his mistake.

The pain had intensified. His vision flickered in and out, dark spots claiming more and more of it. Despite his mind screaming at him to fight, the strength left his limbs, his arms falling to his sides. It's over. Amatesu has won.

"Not so fast, you bitch!" Kaname's voice awakened some idle part in Kai-Se's mind. Something zipped past. In a flash, the steel grip loosened. He crashed to the ground, gasping and hacking, his lungs taking in all the air he failed to supply them.

"Get up, piper," Kaname said, her shadow falling over Kai-Se as she inserted herself between him and Amatesu. "Find An-Ri. She's somewhere in this room. Open the gate with Misaki. Run. Don't go back here until all the spirits are back."

Kai-Se coughed into his fist. It reminded him of how he ended up after all the remnants inside him drew towards Shaoryeong without An-Ri keeping it back. "What about you? You can't fight Amatesu. Not as you are."

Kaname clicked her tongue but a smile pulled at the corners of her lips. "What about me? I know I'm awesome," she said. "I can handle her."

"Pathetic god," Amatesu staggered up, a stream of blood dripping from a small cut on her forehead. That's all Kaname's attack did. "You are nothing. What makes you think you can defeat me? I will not be handled, especially by the likes of you."

Kaname's entire form glowed orange. "Run!" she yelled just as she threw herself at the Spirit Empress. Kai-se didn't dare look back as he heard the loud bangs, the booming explosions, and the pained gasps from both Kaname and Amatesu. By the sound of it, Kaname was able to land a few hits. Let Kai-Se hoped the god had been dreaming of giving the spirit empress a piece of her mind since a lifetime ago.

Misaki strode towards him, carrying something in her arms. Before Kai-Se could react, she shoved it into his chest. The half-healed wound Amatesu had pierced through him throbbed for a bit. "What—"

"That's An-Ri," Misaki said, summoning her magic around her. Kai-Se took a peek to see the familiar white hair and the purple eyes. The only difference? An infant rested against him, her eyes closed and her breathing in small, puffing sounds. Chubby cheeks, small, meaty fists, pudgy face—it was all there. Oh, dear.

Before he could feel anything about it, though, Misaki has started running once again. "Now, we open the gate," she said while watching Kai-Se catch up to her. "We need an anchor though."

He was about to reply when Kaname skidded against the tiles in a loud crash. In an instant, the god was back on her feet, lunging at Amatesu again. "Don't mind me! Open the gate! Hurry!" she yelled.

"It's a good thing I took measures to make sure that whatever you go back to would be no better than this," Amatesu jeered. She batted Kaname out of the way and moved to tackle Kai-Se and Misaki once again. A feral shriek and small hands lunging for the ends of Amatesu's loose hair later, Kaname yanked the Empress back.

As Amatesu twisted and growled, aiming to dislodge Kaname's grip on her hair, she never stopped talking, albeit developing an annoyed growl in her voice. "Insurance, piper. Make sure you have that before making a move against me. Unlike you, I have a whole lifetime to plan this. What would you do when you emerge on the other side to find everything you fought for reduced to ashes?"

Kaname lashed out with her foot, slamming her knee against Amatesu's face. "What are you waiting for?" she yelled at them. "Open the gate!"

Kai-Se turned back to Misaki. Kaname appeared to be capable of preventing Amatesu from raining surprises upon them. Then, something clicked at the back of his head. Everything he fought for, reduced to ashes. The Empire. Could it mean—

She had a servant in the mortal realm. She's the one who started all of this. That's why the faction was suddenly so confident. That's why they were able to storm the Imperial City. All of this...it's to get Kai-Se to seek answers in Shaoryeong, to make him question the possibilities in the mortal realm and turn to the mystical. Amatesu was lucky enough to have stumbled upon Kai-Se incapacitated and desperate. Or...was every bit of Kai-Se's actions part of her plan?

And if she had a servant in the mortal realm...

He turned to Misaki. "Open the gate," he said. "I've found my anchor."

As Misaki focused her magic into the thinning veil between realms, Kai-Se squeezed his eyes shut. This time, he focused on a face he had come to memorize over the days of knowing him.

This time, he allowed himself to think of Nao-Zai.