Miri's jaw tightened, like what came out of her mouth came at a great cost. But honestly, who gave a fuck how she felt?
"I don't expect you to understand. You're just a servant after all, even if you are a divine one."
"Heh," Yun spat. "I'm guessing your choice is final, then?"
Miri exhaled deeply.
"What choice? With my clan gone, I have but my life and yours left to give."
She stole a quick glance at the entity, who was watching their exchange with a patient smile.
"My life, however, is needed elsewhere for the future. Yours must end here, unfortunately. And if that carves a space for the Maliki name within the Heavenly Court's annals, your sacrifice is but an insignificant compromise."
Yun made no effort to comprehend what any of those words meant. After a beat of silence, a muffled laugh reverberated through the cave. It was Yun. Maybe it was all the blood that had rushed to his head, but that was all he felt he could do. Laugh.
"If I may, while I care not for a contrivance of the Aeons like time, it is running out. It'll soon be sunrise, and this delightful chat has grown rather tiresome."
In the middle of his laughing spell, Yun managed to ask, "And you, what do you even want?"
The entity walked toward Yun with measured steps, stopping just close enough to loom. His movements were nothing like the asymmetrical, stumbling prisoner whose body he inhabited.
"The Falling Sky," it said. "What else? It has been closed to us for a very long time. Your master's masters saw to that."
"My master's…?" Yun stumbled. "The Itheon?"
"No, no, no. The Itheon is but a servant. Like you. Just eons more ancient and powerful. Still a mere hatchling to me."
The entity's smile thinned. "Unlike the girl's boisterous kin, I don't need the beast. I need what it guards in its Temple. And for that, I needed a key."
At those words, Yun's realization finally clicked into place.
A vessel's abilities.
Yun was currently hanging from a wall upside down, that is, inverted crucifixion. It was just like Smoky's empty body on the boulder, when the entity left it to inhabit Scruffy's. Whatever ritual that was was about to be carried out on Yun too.
Shit.
"Thanks to you, I have it now. I've been following you for months now. I'm sad you never noticed me. It was quite lonely. Tipping the Maliki of your whereabouts without rousing suspicion was quite the task, you know?"
He tapped Yun's chest with two fingers.
"But at least you awakened your vital core for me. How considerate."
Yun's blood went cold.
As a vessel, what abilities would this body provide? The Cloud Servant's essence. It didn't have to be Yun specifically, just the body.
Miri and the entity had their own covenant going… excluding Yun. In other words, he was no longer needed. This Vision's pieces had begun to fall in place long before Yun inhabited this body at the Lost Sea.
But…
Yun also had at least one piece to tip.
He turned to Miri.
"Mortin," he said.
Miri's expression flickered.
"What about her?"
"How did she get Plagued? I mean, all she did was lose herself to the mountain, right? The same thing happened to me thrice. Granted, only one of us was actively refining its vital essence, so I was able to pull myself out."
Miri looked around puzzled; she muttered something to herself, and then raised her eyebrows.
"You… what did you do?"
Just then, Yun dropped something from his sleeve. It may have looked like a mistake, but it was a deliberate choice on his part.
What clattered on the ground was a broken piece of bone. Specifically, from a tusk. The Dragon's tusk.
When Maliki severed it during his battle, a part of it crashed onto the Blood Maiden's upper deck. A piece of shrapnel then flew off and cut Yun, lodging itself next to him.
Miri was now staring at that same piece of shrapnel on the ground, silently seething.
"While she was confusing herself for a hunk of rock, I gave her a little cut, nothing noticeable, and waited."
Yun's eyes narrowed into slits. "It took a while, but thank Severin it worked. It was her fault for being so damn hostile."
The entity's face remained the same, but its eyes sharpened with recognition at the mention of Severin, like Yun had said something unusual.
Yun couldn't care less, though. He remained intently focused on the downcast expression Miri wore.
Her chest began to heave.
"Oh, I also called the Dragon here."
Only technically true, but just for good measure…
The atmosphere immediately became heavy, bearing down on Yun. He coughed and gasped for air as the pressure began choking him. Red essence flared from Miri's blade, now pointed at Yun's neck.
The entity turned to Miri and lowered her blade with the tip of its finger.
"Calm yourself, girl. It's time…"
With that, the entity turned to Yun with a smile plastered on Scruffy's face.
"... Let me."
It crouched in front of his face.
"You're a treacherous little thing, aren't you?"
Yun caught Miri looking down at him. She wore a complicated expression with many emotions mixed in. Yun didn't care for them. Except one: pity. And that same look, saying, "I'm sorry".
Tch! Why are you still apologizing?!
After ten seconds of silent staring, she turned away from him and said, "Proceed."
Next moment…
Something flashed.
Yun didn't see the knife. He couldn't have. One moment the entity was crouched in front of him, the next something hot and wet flooded his mouth.
Pain.
White, blinding pain.
He tried to scream, but there was no longer a tongue to shape the sound.
What came out was a wet, gurgling choke that sprayed blood across his own face.
He cut my tongue.
He cut my fucking tongue off.
Yun thrashed against the restraints, but they held. Blood poured from his mouth, down his cheek, soaking into his eyes. It burned…
The entity stood and stepped back, wiping the blade on his sleeve.
"Next, I—"
He stopped.
Yun was no longer thrashing. His blood and tears had mixed into a small pond below him, and because he was upside down, the blood caused him to cough something fierce. He was drowning.
Yun dug his teeth into his trembling lower lip, trying to focus the pain away.
But…
He still hadn't tipped his piece yet. Mortin was just the preamble.
He summoned the Loneliest Heart.
The bracelet materialized around his wrist.
Yun visualized its description, the part about light and warmth in particular. Immediately, the bracelet shone.
Light erupted from the dangling stones — soft at first, then blinding. A pure white ray pushed back the shadows in the cave, eliminating every dark corner. Even the frosty air grew slightly warmer.
The entity's hand came up to shield its eyes, and for the first time, something like alarm crossed its features.
"What—"
The light didn't stop at the cave. It poured out through the opening, spilling down the mountainside in a luminous tide. For a moment, it felt like the entire plateau was bathed in it.
Then came the rumbling. A light tremor shook the ground.
Yun spoke to Miri. He physically couldn't, but he didn't care.
Time for a family reunion.