Kai-Se looked down at the child in his arms, sleeping fitfully despite the ongoing chaos around her. He never pegged the ancestral spirit to be vulnerable, creating some sort of dissonance in his system. Misaki spread her arms forward, faint wisps of ethereal blue light already enveloping her.

"I'm almost spent," Misaki said through gritted teeth. Sweat dotted her hairline, making some of the shorter strands framing her face stick to her forehead. "I'm going to need your help on this one, Kai-Se."

He knitted his eyebrows. "I don't have magic," he said. "I mean, I just got An-Ri back and the ancestral spirit remnants inside me could, maybe count, but—"

"Listen to me," Misaki leveled her gaze at kai-Se, shutting him up. "Mortals, even if they're created from spirit magic, cannot maintain a physical body in Shaoryeong. Their korza cannot handle it, so it just flies around in scattered trails. But you..."

Kai-Se gave a small laugh. They shouldn't even be having this theory talk right now. Behind him, he could hear Kaname's pained cries and the increasing sounds of bones breaking. "Of course, I'm special," he waved his hand in the air. "Yet again."

A small smile played on Misaki's lips. "You get it. Maybe it was the remnants' influence on you, but you've turned it into something different," she said. "You are a worldwalker, Kai-Se. You have magic, and you can help me open the gate. Didn't you open one on your own?"

Kai-Se snorted. "No hard feelings about that?" he asked.

Misaki chuckled. "I wouldn't be helping you now if there was," she said. "Get ready."

He followed Misaki's example and closed his eyes. Like all the times he was made to deal with magic, he focused on the dull thrum of its flow. It was all around him, with strong flashes of it somewhere where Kaname was dealing with Amatesu. He leashed some of the currents, directing them towards where Misaki's energy was building.

Then, Misaki sucked in a breath and swung her arms apart. The swirl of magic grew wider, brighter, howling in Kai-Se's ears. When he opened his eyes, he was met with a gaping maw with purplish light swirling inside it. Unlike the gate he opened in Dansarun, this one wasn't looking to suck anyone in.

He nodded to Misaki, and was about to step through when Kaname's iconic lavender hair zipped past his periphery. A loud crash ensued. He watched the god tumble towards the floor. This time, she didn't get up.

"Kaname!" Before he knew it, he had deserted Misaki and the gate to run towards his friend. Not her too. She didn't deserve being in pain and dying like this. He got to her side, knocking his knees against the floor as he turned her over.

Blood, crimson and sticky against his skin, streamed on several cuts on her arms, face, neck, and legs. Her dirty clothes had been torn and shredded, giving him a full view of the darkening bruises. "Kaname," he whispered, shaking her shoulder with his free hand. The god didn't respond.

From his other arm, An-Ri still hasn't awakened, her usually-upright fox ears sitting flat on the sides of her white hair. He glanced at the induced gate a few paces away. If Kaname was here, then who—

Amatesu whipped towards Kai-Se in a blur of black. Kai-Se raised a hand in defense, calling whatever strand of magic he could. Then, a wall of wind slammed against the Empress, diverting her trajectory into a nearby pillar. She crashed against it, debris and smoke exploding within the impact.

Mild cursing could be heard from the haze of splinters. "Seriously, how many times do I have to ram this woman through?" Nishi's familiar, silky voice bled through. The hazy veil parted to reveal the green-haired god wiping the corner of his lips with the back of his hand. "She's still not dead."

"Nishi!" Misaki's voice called from the gate. A wall of water protected it from Amatesu's possible attacks. "You're okay!"

The god rolled his shoulders and smoothed out the green locks strewn all over the place. "Why wouldn't I be?" he said, striding towards Kai-Se. "Thank the spirits Amatesu is as dumb as a rock. She couldn't even tell I was only pretending to be dead and passed over me. Kaname's done a great job holding her off until I can recover my magic."

Kai-Se watched as Nishi lay his hand over Kaname, enveloping her body in a warm, green light. The god's spectacles sported cracks and streaks of ash and blood. Still, it stayed on his face, which was equally lined with soot. "Now, go and get out of here," Nishi jerked his chin towards Misaki whose eyes never strayed from Amatesu's unmoving form at the base of a pillar.

"What about you?" Kai-Se asked. "I can't leave you and Shaoryeong with Amatesu around."

A groan rang from his left. He turned to find Kaname already sitting up. Most of her cuts and bruises had faded into faint lines on her skin. "We'll be fine," she said. "You've given us something worth looking forward to. Now, we know the spirits can return, starting with An-Ri."

She looked at the sleeping bundle in his arms. "Raise her well," she said. "You'd make a great dad."

Heat rushed into Kai-Se's face. "W-what dad?" he said. "An-Ri isn't really a child, is she?"

Kaname shrugged as she picked herself up, staggering a bit. "Piper, you literally restarted her life cycle," she said with a grin. "Of course, she's a child. Spirits start from scratch too, you know?"

Kai-Se blinked. And blinked again. What...

"Never mind that," Nishi yanked him to his feet in a not-so-gentle pull. "Go through the gate. We'll hold Amatesu back."

Kai-Se nodded. Together, they strode towards Misaki who gave them a brief nod. He turned to the swirling gate in front of him. Somewhere beyond that, Nao-Zai and the rest of the world he left would be there. And they needed his help. Whatever Amatesu cooked up must have reached them now.

He pressed An-Ri closer to his body, his hand cradling her head close to his neck. He was about to step through when he felt weight rest against his back. When he looked down, he discovered it was Kaname. She had wrapped her arms around his midsection. "Don't you forget us, piper," she said. "You'd have to free us someday."

"Of course," Kai-Se turned and let her adjust her embrace around him as well. "There's no way I would forget a friend."

Something glinted in Kaname's eyes. "Friend..."

Kai-Se smiled. "Thanks for your help, Kaname," he said, giving her head a light pat. Sometimes, he just forgot the god wasn't a child but rather a being older than him. Kaname didn't slap his hand away or turn him into a succulent, though, so it's all good. He glanced at Nishi and Misaki, probably being the only gods left. "You too."

Misaki ducked her head at him. "It's been fun," she said. "I don't know about this petalhead, though. You did destroy his empire."

Nishi coughed into his fist, looking everywhere but at Misaki and Kai-Se. "It's...fine," he said. "Go now. Before Amatesu recovers."

Kai-Se was about to do just that when Nishi and Kaname gasped. Something lifted them a few inches from the ground. "You lot just never learn," Amatesu's voice dripped with spite, coming from a disheveled woman striding out of the rubble. A deep scowl twisted her features, showing off her pearly teeth that could have lengthened into fangs. "You will go nowhere while I'm here."

She clenched her fist and Nishi and Kaname started getting strangled. Kai-Se turned to his friends, then to the gate. Should he...should he really leave? If he did, then...

If he left, the gods would die. But if he didn't, what would happen to the people he left in the mortal realm?

"Let them go," Kai-Se faced Amatesu despite the fear ripping his gut to shreds. He didn't want to die, but if it meant saving his friends, he'd welcome it. "I'm the one you want."

Amatesu chuckled. "You're right," she said. "But I wouldn't be able to get to you without tormenting these heathens first, correct?"

Who said something about the Empress being as dumb as a rock? She probably kept Nishi alive just so she could use the god against Kai-Se later on. His fist clenched as his hold around An-Ri tightened. He couldn't...

"Just go!" Kaname said in between strained gasps. She cried as the grip around her neck hardened. "We'll figure it out."

Something pricked at the corner of Kai-Se's eyes. It took him a second to realize they were tears. "I can't..."

Amatesu's smile widened. "Time's up, piper," she said. She raised an arm. A bolt of blinding magic speared towards Kai-Se. "I guess I've won."

He had no time to run, no time to even process what the scaldingly bright spell would do to him. Fire crashed into him, driving him back, burning everything he ever was. The pain would come after. That much was certain. It would...

Wait.

Kai-Se wrenched his eyes open, not even aware he had closed them. His gaze landed on Amatesu. She was shaking.

"N-no," she was saying. Her shoulders shook as she fell to her knees in defeat. What's going on? Why was Kai-Se not dead? Why did Amatesu look like that? "My power..."

A gurgle made Kai-Se look down at the child in his arms. It had begun squirming. White ears perked up, left, and right. A pair of wide, purple eyes stared up at him. He gasped. "A..." he sputtered. "An-Ri."

"Spirits, that's awesome," a strangled but amused voice bled from his left. He turned to find Kaname and Nishi down on all fours, coughing as they were released from Amatesu's grip. "Did you see how An-Ri absorbed Amatesu's power in one swoop? Legendary."

Absorb? An-Ri?

He looked down at the tiny ancestral spirit. "What did you do?" he asked.

The child smiled at him, the beginnings of pointed canines jutting from her gums. Then, she laughed, just like how babies did in the mortal realm. So...she could stop a grown, homicidal empress but she couldn't talk? Great.

"You," Amatesu seethed. She staggered up but she didn't attack. "Don't think you are in the clear just so you escaped me once. He will always find you, Kai-Se, and when he does, you'd wish you never crossed my realm. You're going to wish I didn't find you."

The Spirit Empress doubled over in hysterical laughter. "Savor your victory while you can, little blossom," she said. "He's coming."

Kai-Se gritted his teeth. Whoever that was, it's the least of his concerns now. He turned to Misaki, Nishi, and Kaname. "Think you can handle her now?" he asked. "Just don't...hurt her any more."

Nishi clicked his tongue. "I can't promise you that, but I'll try," he said. "This scoundrel has made the lives of so many people a living hell."

"I did no such thing!" Amatesu screamed. Without the magic of whoever her benefactor was, she couldn't even muster up the courage to attack the gods she, herself, had created. "I created a world of splendor for you! I did everything for you."

Misaki whipped her hands and a stream of water slapped Amatesu's check with a wet splash. "It's amazing how you can believe your own bullcrap," she said, her gaze hard and unforgiving. "You don't mind being turned into a statue, do you?"

Kai-Se was about to laugh along when a thought clicked at the back of his head. She wasn't fighting. Amatesu, the Empress who couldn't stand to be defeated. Why wasn't she fighting?

Slowly, he raised his gaze to meet Amatesu's. Through the facade of indignation and shame, something else lurked inside her eyes. A wicked glint. A malicious intent. Kai-Se's heart skipped a beat. This wasn't over. She still had one thing up her torn, wide sleeves.

"Kaname," Kai-Se called. The god stopped pelting Amatesu's hair with bits of rock and splinters. "Maintain the gate. Don't let her mess it up."

Before Kaname could reply more than a brief nod, Kai-Se turned and dashed for the gate. How foolish had he been? She was buying time, waiting for something to happen. Not in this realm, but in the other one where she had the reach.

Kai-Se gritted his teeth as he burst straight through the swirling void. Shaoryeong's pull roared in his ears, dragging him back. He cursed. Not this time. He wouldn't be stopped here. Squeezing his eyes shut, he sketched the face he had come to memorize in his mind. The gentle curve of his lips, the playful sparkle in his eyes whenever he went along with Kai-Se's teasing, the sweeping flair he boasted when swinging his sword around. His smile, his scary face when he's being stern, his calculating gaze.

Kai-Se couldn't lose that.

He just couldn't.

His magic built inside him, wild and untethered. He sent it forward. Find Nao-Zai, he instructed it. Find him.

Suddenly, he was zipping through the abyss, his korza honing for home. Faster and faster. The colors burned and blurred, melding into a diaspora of streaks and silent howls. Almost too soon, he slammed into a thin barrier. The sound of fabric ripping rang in his ears.

Then, his world exploded into a shower of sunlight. Weight crashed against his limbs as his sensations raged back in full swing. Everything crowded for his attention—the smells, the heat, the noise. The noise.

Flames streaked towards him, the whistles they came with vaguely familiar to Kai-Se. This was from Shaoryeong. Had Amatesu followed him? No time to think about that. A shadow fell over him, pinning him to what could only be the floor. He raised his hand, called for the energy around him, and let it slam against the flames.

A blast rang across the space, coloring his sharpening vision pink and orange.