Calamity Mandate

A visitor I've unknowingly brought into this space?

Yuzu's eyes narrowed as she looked at the giant black statue in front of her. She grasped Jun Yi Kong's string, trying to see what games he was playing. The chamber rumbled ominously as the starlight from above flickered from the pressure exerted by the Demon King's spirit. An unfamiliar soft jingle of bells sounded from somewhere.

At her feet, unbeknownst to her, her shadow trembled for a moment, acting strangely in the shimmering starlight. The shadow darkened slightly as two tiny horns poked up above Yuzu's silhouette, and a mischievous grin formed in the shadow of her head.

The shadow of a slender arm separated from Yuzu's, raising up to wag its finger on the floor behind her, as if to chide Jun Yi Kong for revealing its presence.

Yuzu felt the Demon King's pressure weigh down on her, though she did not understand why. Her fists clenched as she glared at him,

"What are you playing at?" She demanded, thinking that he was acting aggressively against her.

"What are you playing at?" A soft, female voice giggled around her. The lips on the strange shadow widened into a grin that took up the entire silhouette of the head.

Hearing the voice Yuzu suddenly realized that something was off. Though Jun Yi Kong enjoyed playing games with her, there was something different about that giggling voice— Something more mischievous and playful than sinister and imposing.

She activated her spiritual vision, spinning around as she looked for the source of the voice. The tapestry of fate gave her no clues, and she did not notice as her shadow twisted beneath her to stay out of her vision. Her spiritual intuition, which typically warned her about dangers, was completely blank at the moment.

Goosebumps formed on her skin as she realized how wrong the current situation was.

"Jun Yi Kong!" Yuzu snapped.

"Jun Yi Kong!" The playful voice repeated, laughing, "Jun Yi Kong!"

Yuzu felt a wave of nausea wash over her from the Demon King's spiritual pressure, causing her eyes to look down as she wavered. It was only at this moment that she noticed the strangeness with her shadow. With final surge of effort, Jun Yi Kong's spirit successfully split the shadow in two.

Unperturbed, the shadow hopped along the floor to stand a short distance away from Yuzu. It planted its feet with its hands on its waist in a frustrated pose, as if pouting about the Demon King's actions.

The form of the shadow was shorter than Yuzu, female, with a petite torso and wide hips. The silhouette had short black hair, with two small blunt horns poking out the top of its head.

Most notably for Yuzu, though, the shadow had no fate string!

In the place where the shadow stood, there was a void in the Tapestry of Fate. It unmistakably the same void that Naomi created.

"A spy?" Yuzu's expression darkened as she quickly remarked to Jun Yi Kong, "Don't let it escape!"

Yuzu felt the pressure lessen on her as Jun Yi Kong focused his attention on the shadow. The shadow's grin suddenly turned panicked under the additional force. It began to squirm and deform, its arms grasping its head as it crumpled in place. The floor and walls shook under the Demon King's powers when suddenly the shadow violently tore into pieces.

"Hmmm…" The chamber returned to normal once more as Jun Yi Kong relaxed his powers.

The shadow slowly faded into nothing, but though it appeared that the entity had been destroyed, Yuzu could clearly see that the void in the tapestry was unaffected. In other words, it was simply an act.

"Are you going to let it mock you like that?" Yuzu frowned, "It doesn't seem to be afraid of you at all."

"Were I not imprisoned, I could handle it easily." Jun Yi Kong muttered contemplatively, "As it stands the chamber limits my power too much to pose it a threat."

A playful giggle accentuated by tiny bells sounded clearly throughout the chamber, echoing off the walls. The void in the tapestry spread across the whole space preventing Yuzu from pinpointing the entity's location at all. At the same time Yuzu felt Jun Yi Kong's presence recede into the base of the demonic statue, as if guarding against the mysterious entity.

Stolen story; please report.

Escape! A single thought came to Yuzu's mind as she decisively pulled out the quartz medallion and willed herself to leave the pocket dimension. However, the action had as much effect as if she had pulled out a useless rock. Yuzu tried channelling her spirituality into it, but the medallion was completely inert.

In response to her escape plan failing Yuzu reached out to Jun Yi Kong's string in hiding and snapped, "What, you couldn't do anything to it so you're hiding from it now? What happened to being the 'Unkillable Demon King'??"

Even this direct provocation didn't work as Jun Yi Kong remained silent, leaving Yuzu to fume by herself in the chamber.

This show of frustration seemed to entertain the shadow as the giggles grew louder, overlapping with each other in a cacophony of sound. There was an edge to the voice that twisted at her spirit, digging painfully into her skin. Her spiritual intuition flared up as cuts began to form on her arms and torso and cheeks.

She was cornered and out of options, but rather than feeling helpless Yuzu felt herself trembling in frustration and anger. The entity clearly had no intention of killing her, nor did it want to communicate with her. It was simply toying with her, laughing at her to egg her on, mocking her for her powerlessness.

Even the injuries forming from the giggles didn't seem to be a result of malice, but a side effect of the entity's voice on her weaker spirit.

Fine, you want to play with me? Yuzu's eyes flared as she activated her spiritual vision.

The golden cage formed from wire-like fate threads appeared in her sight. Her eyes focused on the heroic statue of a man holding a cane and a sword. Unlike all the other statues which contained sarira, this one had a sphere of solid gold hidden within it. From her previous conversation with Jun Yi Kong, she knew that the statue was that of the leader of the one hundred and forty four saints that had imprisoned him in this chamber, and that uniquely, he had not left his sarira in the chamber in his statue.

Yuzu had previously left the sphere undisturbed, but she had a hunch that it served a critical purpose in the function of the golden cage. With nothing to lose, she reached out decisively to the gold sphere and touched it with her spirit.

The moment that she reached out to the sphere the giggling stopped as a pair of almond-shaped eyes materialized in the space across the chamber.

"What are you—!" The voice screeched, a wave of spiritual pressure exploded outward from the eyes. The massive shadows of long, bony arms with wicked claws burst across the curved walls, extending past the rows of saint statues toward Yuzu to slice her apart.

Just as the wave of energy and the claws were about to reach her, Yuzu made contact with the sphere. An incredibly rich light reminiscent of daylight burst out from her eyes as she was filled with an incredible power.

Unmistakably, there was an innate compatibility between the sphere and her own powers of Fate. A connection formed between her and the sphere as it instinctively accepted her as its master. In an instant she saw the entire pocket dimension of Ying Zhen laid out before her from a birds-eye view. She saw the fate threads of every beast and tree and spirit in the pocket dimension and intuitively understood the perfect harmony with which they all existed and supported the Chamber of Divine Judgement.

The golden cage that imprisoned Jun Yi Kong was an incredible artifact that didn't just use the spiritual essence of the hundred and forty four saints sealed within it, but nurtured and replenished their energies by allowing them to flow in a cycle of perfect harmony within Ying Zhen.

Sensing danger toward its new master, the mechanisms in the cage reacted to the shadowy claws. A spindle of golden threads materialized around the chamber, spinning rapidly like a net catching a fish. The shadows were forced to retreat, and in an instant the entity was captured in a spherical cage just large enough to fit a person inside.

The shadows took on a vaguely humanoid form as they tried to smash their way out of the cage, but each time they tried to breach the barrier they jolted back, as if suffering from a painful shock.

After a few failed attempts the entity finally dropped her disguise. A teenage demi-girl, with a human top half and the legs of a goat, materialized in the centre of the cage. She wore a short, multi-layered black dress. She had a petite frame with thin and bony limbs. Her large almond shaped eyes were wide with shock and indignance.

"Hey!" She snarled, "No fair!"

The chamber's energy healed Yuzu's wounds as she took in her newfound control over the ancient space. She had not expected such a dramatic turn of events, but quickly snapped out of her own surprise.

It was a fluke of luck that she'd found a way out, and she didn't trust that this net would be enough to hold this unwanted visitor indefinitely. Despite trapping this intruder and forcing her to show herself, Yuzu was still not able to perceive her on the fate threads.

"What do you want?" Yuzu asked, stepping toward the demi-girl. With a thought, she was able to lower the net down to eye level to get a better view of her.

The demi-girl struggled at her bonds for a moment before a grin appeared on her face. She sighed, shaking her head with a smile. "I was just playing around, Yuzu. I was curious what he saw in such a weakling like you."

"He?" Yuzu glowered, not appreciating that this girl was still teasing her even after being captured.

"Oh, you know. That insufferable, mop-headed, addle-brained little boy who won't stop talking about you." The girl rolled her eyes, "It's always, 'Yuzu did this for me' and 'Yuzu is counting on me' and 'Yuzu, Yuzu, Yuzu' every waking moment. I'd say you broke his brain if it weren't already in pieces."

"Honestly, I am so annoyed that there is a girl out there that he fancies more than me. I had half a mind to kill you the moment I saw you." She continued, her eyes flashing with a mischievous, malicious glee, "But then I'd have to put up with his crying for the next millennia and that sounds even more unbearable."

Hearing these words, a specific person came to Yuzu's mind. Her eyes narrowed in curiosity as she stepped closer to the bundled up demi-girl. "This addle-headed boy, what's his name?"

"Well, who else could it be?" She grinned, amused that her description had led Yuzu to the right conclusion. "I'm talking about Argus, the Paper Prince."