Reforged from Ruin [Eldritch Xianxia Cultivation]

Itchy.

Like something he just can't scratch, always there. Feather-light, just enough pressure to tickle against his skin, constantly, always. Ever since they've arrived here, it's been a feeling that just doesn't stop, like walking through the forest, with leaves and branches touching him as he moves, but they're there even when he's still, and he can't wave them away, can't do anything to stop them.

Like fingernails, running just under his skin, where he can never get used to it.

Rai Jin (and he shivers at that name, at the thought of what it represents) steps out of the "carriage" of the skeleton that came to meet them, and almost falls over backwards.

Not fingernails. Claws.

His master is there, saying something, ready to defend him, and her creatures circle about, ready to react, but there is nothing they can react to. He thinks that he saw Big Sis Shu flinch when she stepped out as well, but even then, he knows that she doesn't feel as much.

He opens his eyes, trying to-

White. Corpse white bone white ash white snow white teeth white the white of desperate pleading eyes so wide there's barely any pupil barely anything in it but the white.

He closes his eyes again. It's so bright. It's so bright and he can't see and it's just raking against him, a wall of-

Quiet.

Deep breaths.

Your master is here. She's watching. Don't let her down.

Exhale.

He starts to move his Qi through his body, channeling it through the meridians near his skin. It's slow-going, at least for the first minute or so, but gradually, he begins to feel the claws fade back, retracting, cutting through leather instead of cotton. A few breaths further, and the claws turn back to nails, scraping against the inside.

Inhale.

Exhale.

He opens his eyes.

White, all-white, blinding white, shapes that are moving in the white, muscle and flesh like wax and tissue and blank bone-white ash-white Death-white-

"Tell me what's wrong," she says, his master's voice echoing, husky music and animal violence.

"I… I can't see. It's too bright, too intense, and-"

"Ah! Of course. One moment-"

And then the White is gone.

Jin blinks, his eyes trying and failing to adjust. It takes a while, and it hurts, going from bright to dark so quickly, but it's not actually dark, not really, just by comparison.

"Apologies, Reverend," says the dark, masculine voice of the skeleton that brought them here. "It appears that we've underestimated the extent to which your 'apprentice' is blessed. I've rarely seen such a reaction to simply arriving into the city before."

A flush of shame, and of frustration. It doesn't take a genius to know that these people aren't allies, no matter how they present themselves, and his master is easy enough to read. She feels the same, and yet here he is, showing weakness, giving them too much information. The frustration redoubles as he feels the pressure against his spiritual skin climb again, the emotions disrupting his concentration.

He has to do better. He can do more.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

He opens his eyes, and Sees.

The white has faded down to almost nothing, something like fog or mist playing at the very edges of things rather than an overwhelming wave of un-color. There's still plenty of it, though. Primarily, it comes from the structure that the buildings are made from, every one of them completely alien to how Jin expects things to be built.

The buildings are tall, cavernous things replete with pillars and carved motifs, strange statues planted on myriad ledges and across strangely shaped roofs far, far above. They remind him of temples, but with stranger design choices, more solid right angles and curving arches, with dozens of windows and doors spaced out throughout them. The same strange neatness and gothic arrangement is multiplied as he looks above, staring at the ways that the buildings are arranged as if on a grid, and at the sky beyond them. The clouds above are arrayed in a near-perfect layer of thin grey, like a ceiling hovering above everything, drawn in strict straight lines by the towering, multi-story buildings all around.

And everywhere, yet again- white. Not an abstract thing now, not an all-encompassing cloud and light over his eyes, but the makeup of the buildings themselves.

They're made of bone.

The edges, the doorways, the archways- almost all of them are made of human skeletons, or humanoid, hips and arms and ribs used as decoration and building material both. The walls, on the other hand, look molded, grown, as if the bones were stretched and molded, or made into ash and reshaped into solid surfaces.

It looks like a nightmare. Like something haunted, the rigidity of hard angles and clear human influence juxtaposed with the organic molding of the shapes of the dead.

And standing before them, at a respectable distance away, are the ghasts of that nightmare, the arbiters of the haunting.

He sees his master, crouched beside him, the centicroc and Beetle arrayed close to her and with their edges, his Big Sis to his other side, her hovering Sacrifice needles as a sort of shield around her. The golden skeleton, the "Bishop", stands to one side, calmly, and behind him, standing like silhouettes in the night, are the others of his kind.

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It is from them that the Death emanates.

Three monsters stand across from them, waiting, patiently, their empty gazes somehow highlighting a sense of eagerness. He can feel them, ever so slightly, focused on him.

On the left, there is… maybe it was once a man. Thirteen skulls, each of them horned and glowing with blue flame, make up a sort of halo, crown, and necklace around the last head, a perfect replica of the others. He towers, taller than his master, but he is sitting at a casual lean, the size of him enough that even without standing, he's larger than even the carriage they came in. His skin is pale white, marked with black tattoos that spiral and curl, like smoke inside his skin, tracing the lines of over a dozen arms, more than should be able to fit on his frame- and every now and then, there are glimpses of hands, and faces, and eyes in that smoke.

On the far right, a figure that reminds him of the golden skeleton, Bishop Lu Karai, but more effeminate, and bejeweled much more extensively. Filigreed in gold with incredible complexity, motifs of delicate flowers and anatomical models giving the impression that the skull is resting on a golden field, with the rest of its body is wrapped in a long set of robes, as intricate and complex as the glass relic it wears. Incense wafts out from inside the suit from little vents, and from hanging censors, the smoke of them making the cloak and hanging capes on its limbs and back wave slightly in the wind, and it reeks of something like rot, but… purified, somehow. Holy. A skinless woman stands beside her, behind her at a respectful distance.

And in the middle, between the two of them, stands a man who looks alive.

He is not.

He is smiling, but it is fake. A performance. His body would not move, would not speak, would not breathe or make the play at life that it is, where it not for his will. His skin is pale. Everything about him is pale. He wears white robes, only barely lighter than his skin, and the only real sign of color in all of his being comes from the brightness of his eyes, a scarlet, glowing crimson.

Bishop Lu Karai steps forward, away from them, until he stands beside the honored corpse, the one covered in gold like he is. He bows to the others, and waves a hand at Jin and his family, as if presenting something.

"My fellow Bishops, I apologize for the confusion. It would seem that I've been a poor host, and disoriented the young initiate, but I believe I have rectified the issue. I present to you all, the Reverend Raika, Initiate Rai Jin, and their entourage."

He turns back to them, bowing this time to Jin's master.

"And on behalf of my fellow Bishops, allow me to seek to improve our first impression. Beside me is my partner, the Bishop Gloriana, beloved of my life and one of those most eager to see you. At our sides, we have the honorable Bishop Kai Valdir, of the Valdir line, and to his side in turn, we have the honorable immortal, the Bishop Seo En-Hyun."

Each, as they are introduced, bows, with varying degrees of depth. Gloriana (he's never heard a name like that, like a title?) is the lightest of them all, barely bending at the waist, while "Kai Valdir" bows almost deeply enough to be improper. Seo En-Hyun, the dead colossi, also bows more than Gloriana, but more sedately, making for a middle ground between the others.

"We, each of us, represent the great houses of the city of Godsfall and the Church of Burrowing Saints, here in one of the great metropoli of the Fallen Kingdom. And we have been very eager to meet you all."

Raika doesn't even look at them. Doesn't even address or respond to anything that Lu Karai says at all.

She's just looking at him, her one arm holding him by the shoulder.

"Are you okay?" she asks, whispering the question.

He's itchy. So itchy. Fingernails under his skin, making him feel raw and exposed. He can see the way that the mist bends to the will of the Bishop that brought them here, the way that the overwhelming, blinding, agonizing White is held at bay and reduced only by the will of these things. If he looks at them too long, he can feel his mind slipping, falling further in, like they are each whirlpools, bending the world around them.

He circulates his Qi. He breathes in, slow and quiet.

Rather than answer with words, he gets to his feet, steps forward, and bows, presenting himself to the predators in gilded corpses before them.

"This one goes by the name of Rai Jin," he says, rising up out of the bow and refusing to bend under the weight of their gazes. "I am honored by the attention granted to me by such esteemed personages."

The man with a dozen skulls smiles, all fang and bone. "So polite! This Seo En-Hyun would be honored if you simply called him grandfather. There is no need to be so formal among fellow aspirants to the Way!"

Even without eyes, Jin can feel the way that Bishop Gloriana rolls her eyes, some sort of barely constrained contempt leaking through the body language of the corpse she wears. "Your good manners credit you, little mortal," she says. "It is… relieving, to see you here, at long last. I, and my estate, would be more than happy to host you and yours. It is the burden and joy of a true believer to support the growth of promising talents in our field."

"Now, now, dear, no need to be overeager," Lu Karai says, stepping close and lightly touching his finger bones to her armored, gilded hand. "I'm sure we're all excited to get properly acquainted with such a wonderful new ally in our mutual struggle, and the promising young apprentice she has brought with her."

"Indeed," whispers the third of the three figures. He only now lifts himself up from the deep bow he placed himself into, smiling in a way that, on a living person, might be possible to perceive as kind. "So steeped in death, for one born so far from our shores. It is ever intriguing to see the ways that the End shapes our world."

His master steps forward, placing her hand on his shoulder. She, he notices, does not bow, though she does nod her head.

"Pardon me for interrupting," she says, "but I'm not entirely comfortable with how badly all of you are salivating over my apprentice. Rather uncouth, for ones who live among such wondrous works and gilded frames."

The thirteen-headed giant throws his heads back and laughs, taking up the silence from the other two "groups".

"Quite so, honorable Rai Ka! This Seo En-Hyun can't help himself- it's not every day I see such a promising junior! I am gladdened by you as well, though; it is a weak master who does not stand up for their student, and I have heard great things about your strength!"

She gives him a thin smile, even though Jin can feel the way she's pleasantly surprised by his statement. "Quite. I couldn't call myself any kind of master if I let anyone, even such prestigious fellows, simply poach my apprentice. Though I am… surprised by just how interested you all are. This Raika might even be a bit insulted, since your eyes have no room for me."

It's always weird, hearing her talk formally like that. It doesn't suit her.

Her hand is still on his shoulder, a steadying presence. Only where she touches does it not itch.

"On the contrary, my dear!" Lu Karai says, bowing profusely from where he stands next to Gloriana and her skinless… assistant? Bodyguard? "We are all most certainly excited for the possible portents that this might entail, but we would never seek to insult someone of your stature. It's not everyday that you meet a rising Apex, after all!"

A silence at that, coming especially from the vampiric figure and Seo. It seems, at least to Jin's eyes, that some of the people here did not actually know that fact.

What is it about him that's so special, they wouldn't even bother to find out just how vast his master has become? Or were they purposefully kept in the dark?

He pats her hand, and she lets go without need for any further communication. If he's going to be of use, if he's supposed to be as special as they claim, he needs to be able to do more.

"Well then! It would be the honor of the city of Godsfall to host such prestigious new allies!" Seo En-Hyun says, his many-fanged and many-mouthed countenance a grim specter of mirth. "Come, come! There is much to see, and much to share, and I'm sure that we'll find a way to be of use to each other yet, hmm?"

And with a wave, the monsters clear a path, and invite them deeper into the land of the dead.