Elsewhere, in a distant corner of the secret realm, Mystic and Lufei navigated challenges and trials entirely independently.
Fan Yumei and Maxius were absent, leaving them to confront the unknown without guidance, unable to communicate through their bond.
Every shift of the air currents, every flicker of qi, tested their instincts and coordination.
We recap back to 8 hours ago:
The Qi of the secret realm gate throbbed across the clearing as Mystic and the others approached its opening.
Principal Renshu's tall figure stood before the students, calm and precise.
Mystic's tail flicked, sending arcs of golden sparks through the air. Her whale-song-like groan resonated deep in Lufei's mind.
"I don't like place. It's too broken … its danger. Too noisy. I wanna go home…"
Lufei's antlers glowed softly, pulsing a calm rhythm.
"It only feels wrong because you're sensitive, little one. Be still, like a lake. Observe, don't react. The gate isn't trying to harm you."
Maxius, perched nearby, feathers slightly ruffled, rumbled with deep amusement.
"Every twitch you make feeds the fractures of energy. Calm yourself, Mystic. Only then can patterns make sense."
Mystic's body spun agitatedly, thunder sparking faster. "Hmm I want to stay! The something keeps calling me. It's singing. I don't understand it, but it sings."
Lufei's gaze softened, stern but calm. "Instinct will mislead you sometime if you don't use sense of reason. Watch and learn, little one. Observe how your energy responds to theirs. That is your lesson now."
Maxius added, quietly amused, "And if you don't pay attention? You'll find yourself in a mess with master again."
Mystic flinched at the rising tension, tail flicking, sparks scattering. "I don't believe you, Mystic is good calf." She regained some boldness knowing her master won't scold.
Lufei's antlers pulsed softly, scanning the air currents and faint vibrations from the gate.
The energy around them thickened, metallic and ozone-laced. The beasts' instincts screamed: Something changes the moment we step forward.
A sharp trill pierced the chaos—a clear, commanding whistle. Fan Yumei's voice, carried faintly through the fragments of their bond, rang in shards of green and gold: "Let's go!"
Mystic stiffened, tail flicking nervously. Sparks arced along her fins as she caught the intent behind the command: move, now, stay sharp. Lufei pressed her hooves into Mystic's cloud, antlers glowing brighter as she pulsed steadily, guiding Mystic toward the edge.
Fan Yumei's command threaded through every nerve and pulse they could feel, anchoring them amid the swirl of fractured energy.
The smells of ozone and faint metallic tangs filled the air. Mystic's senses flared at the shifting currents of energy, brushing at her like invisible hands.
Lufei swept her antlers through the eddies of qi, probing for stable currents, sensing every tiny vibration in the cloud beneath them.
Sparks danced nervously along Mystic's tail as the currents rippled unpredictably.
As they moved forward on Mystic's cloud, the first shock struck.
Threads linking them to their master and the other beasts pulsed violently, then snapped. Without Fan Yumei, Mystic's storm risked spiraling wild. Without Maxius, Lufei's calm rhythm might scatter.
Mystic tried to follow with Lufei's guidance instinctively, but the chaotic flows of cosmic energy pushed them back. Then a third gate of space appeared under them, twisted under their fins and hooves as it sucked them in.
Space itself seemed to flicker, compress, and stretch, pulling at them in disorienting pulses.
Mystic whale calls echoed—soundless, through the bond that now only echoed like fractured glass.
The bond is blocked!
Thunder flared on her tail and four pectoral fins unleashed strong wind currents that she used to glide against invisible turbulence as she enlarged from her cloud body to skin form.
Lufei lunged, sweeping her antlers through the broken currents, trying to stabilize their trajectory.
The faint hum of the pylons beneath, distant vibrations, and acrid tang of ozone became their anchors in the storm of the gate's power.
They were separated, yet connected.
Mystic flailed, tail slicing through turbulent air, sparks scattering in frantic arcs, while Lufei reached out, green pulses rippling through chaotic currents, probing for even the smallest thread linking them.
Every instinct became a lifeline. Mystic hovered, catching tiny pockets of stable qi, while Lufei traced them with antlers and hooves, sending steady pulses to guide her.
They could no longer rely on their bond to Fan Yumei or Maxius.
They were alone in the chaos, but alive, moving with clarity born of survival.
Hours—or perhaps moments—passed.
Each flick of Mystic's tail, each pulse of Lufei's antlers, each adjustment of fins and hooves carved a rhythm in the madness.
Sparks dimmed to a soft glow, green pulses slowed to a calm beat. The bond between them, though tested and frayed, adapted. They sensed each other, moved together, survived.
Mystic's tail flicked slowly, the golden sparks settling into a gentle glow. Better… for now, she murmured within the bond, almost drowned by the turbulent currents.
Lufei's antlers pulsed faintly, a soft, reassuring rhythm. Yes. We wait. We observe. And when the gate settles, we will be ready.
The violet haze of the gate throbbed around them, indifferent to chaos, time, or the world outside.
And though shaken, separated from guidance and their master, Mystic and Lufei endured.
They moved with clarity now, alive within the fractured currents, aware, and ready for whatever the gate would throw next.
The violet haze coalesced beneath Mystic's fins, rippling like liquid glass.
The ancient pylons hummed, vibrations crawling up her tail, across her cloud body.
Sparks licked along her fins, jittering as the currents twisted around her.
Lufei's antlers glowed green, each pulse tracing the eddies, probing every shifting thread of energy. Ozone stung their nostrils; faint metallic tangs cut across the air.
Mystic twitched, her whale-song groan shivering against the hum, trembling in Lufei's mind.
She nudged the cloud forward, curling into the shape that could hold weight, adjusting as she felt the small, tense pull of their master above.
Lufei pressed her hooves into the cloud, sending slow, steady pulses into the air, brushing at unstable pockets with the tips of her antlers.
The wind bucked, a sudden whip of distorted pressure, and sparks scattered from Mystic's tail like startled fireflies.
Then—the first snap.
Threads of connection ripped, slamming through Mystic's senses.
She yelped, flaring her tail and fanning her large fins to steady the shifting air.
Lufei lurched forward, antlers cutting through twisting currents, green pulses erupting, brushing shards of fractured qi into temporary alignment.
A whale call—soundless—shattered through Mystic's mind.
"Who's there?! Who's calling?" Mystic tried to hear; the suddenness startled her.
Currents pressed against her from all sides, invisible fingers tugging at fins and antlers, cloud and hooves, every stable patch she had carved dissolving before her eyes.
Lufei's hooves struck again and again, arcs of green light threading across turbulent flows, anchoring small pockets where sparks could settle. Mystic lashed her tail, sparks scattering in arcs, striking fragmented shards of energy, cutting them, dispersing them before they could bite.
The air blinked in pulses of color, static slicing through the currents like knives. They spun, twisted, dipped through folds in space, catching themselves on fleeting islands of stability. Mystic flared fins, curling close, feeling the pull of something—someone—vanishing from the threads she could reach.
Through the storm's pulse came a faint sound—waves striking rock, almost drowned by thunder.
The next flicker hit, tearing space itself. Sparks danced, arcs slicing through her cloud form, and Lufei's pulses raced, antlers stroking every tremor, shoving fragments of hostile energy aside. The world twisted, then inverted.
Currents collapsed in jagged waves, whipping at Mystic's body, pushing her out of rhythm.