Reforged from Ruin [Eldritch Xianxia Cultivation]

"Ah! The great young master of the wall, returned from yet another late-night rendezvous with the young Blade! Perhaps the asceticism of this great master has at last been broken! Don't worry, I won't tell Mei Yu if you don't."

Shin Ren rolls his eyes, giving Gou Mai a shove so that he falls backwards off where he lounges. The much larger man lands with a thud, the sound matched by his laughter. The noise echoes awkwardly off the stone walls around them, the grey concrete of the fast-printed bunker they're in, in spite of the sound-muting arrays carved into it.

"Please, senior brother, mercy! However shall I cope with the wrath of a man who has only so recently broken his fast!"

"I didn't- she's much too young for me."

The laugh this time is more like a bellow. "Too young for you? Shin Ren, brother of mine, she's not an adolescent! She's, what, six years younger than you? We're cultivators! Give it a few centuries and we'll both be marrying a millenia older and a hundred years younger. You're both adults in the same generation, so such concerns should be beyond you!"

"Well, they remain anyways," he replies. "She's… she's not a child, I know, but she doesn't feel like she's my age. She's naive, for one thing, and the way she sees the world is…"

"I wasn't asking if you broke your fast on discussing philosophy with her, senior brother. She's pretty, she's of the same realm as you, she's a Blade, and she likes to spend time with you. Plenty of love has bloomed on the battlefield with far less!"

"What's this about love on the battlefield?"

Gou Mai jolts and muffles a curse under his breath as Mei Yu enters the room, stepping out from the inside of a mirror on the other side of the chamber. Shin Ren chuckles at the sight, before bowing lightly towards his newly-arrived friend.

"Greetings, Mei Yu. Our friend Gou Mai here was simply making stray comments about things he doesn't understand."

"Well, he was talking, so I assume that much to be true," she replies with a smile, stepping into the main area of the bunker and taking a seat on another chair. A shift in space, like a slight touch of mist or haze, and she's suddenly seated on a far more comfortable bit of furniture, several plush blankets and a few thick pillows taking up a large amount of its surface. "But color me intrigued. I would love to know the exact nature of our brave and noble brother's ignorance on the topics of love. Struck out yet again, Gou Mai?"

"I'll have you know I've had to practically barricade my door from all my would-be suitors, honored lady Mei Yu!" Gou Mai says from where he's lain on the ground. "Such a stout and powerful figure like mine, with such enviable noble bearing- there's practically none on this base, or anywhere in these trenches, who won't beg for my attention if given the opportunity!"

"And your response is to barricade your door? Truly, junior brother, I thought better of your bravery."

Gou Mai feigns shock, taking the insult with good humor. "Truly there is no match for you, senior sister! Your tongue is as sharp as your beauty, and cuts me worse than the Young Blade has cut our senior brother!"

At that, some of the humor drifts from Mei Yu, though she still smiles. It's just a lot icier now as she looks at Shin Ren. "Oh? What's this about being cut by the Young Blade?"

"It's nothing," he replies, shaking his head. "Gou Mai here means to imply some untrue things about our relationship, but as I told him, she's… not my type."

"Too young for him, he says! As if we do not cultivate ageless immortality together!"

Mei Yu relaxes back a bit into her conjured chair. "I suppose I can understand. I too have had my fill of interested suitors that would work as a good investment, and I too have had to deal out my fair share of rejections. I'm afraid I'm saving myself for a better match, in spite of how eagerly pursued I find myself."

"I wish you the best of luck in your pursuit," Shin Ren says, bowing to her again.

Gou Mai snorts off to one side, and Shin Ren kicks him as he walks by and takes a seat.

"It's rare for all of us to be back at once. We haven't had much time recently. Was it only luck that has brought us back together?"

Mei Yu shrugs. "I requested some time. I've earned more than enough military merits to take a few weeks, so who are they to reject my request for a day or two? In spite of everything, I am still a member of the Divine Veil sect, and in good standing besides. They wouldn't dare keep a jade beauty such as myself away from my required beauty sleep."

Shin Ren smiles softly. "I'm… glad to hear that. Though the idea that you would require anything beyond your natural allure to appear more beautiful than any competition is surely foolhardy."

The Smiling Noble whispers in the back of his head, pointing out the ways that Mei Yu carefully colors the air with a technique and very literally veils her face around her cheeks. He pointedly ignores him in turn.

Gou Mai is a bit less proper about it, wolf-whistling at the both of them. "Brother Shin Ren! For an ascetic, you remain stunningly adept with the fairer sex! I do believe that-"

An illusion of a metallic bell smacks him upside the head, fading away into nothingness before he has a chance to track its origin. He laughs again at that, shaking his head and finally getting up. "Alright, alright! Sorry for interrupting the intricate dances of such lovely youths!"

"Gou Mai, aren't you like, one year older than me?" Shin Ren asks.

"Exactly! I'm your elder, making you the youths!"

He laughs at that, softly. It's nice, feeling the way that the tar in his heart lightens ever so softly at their presence.

"Thank you, elder," he says with a smile. "Your good humor and understanding are a balm in these trying times."

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Gou Mai lowers some of his more boisterous energy, smiling in return. "Of course. Who would I be if I couldn't offer even the slightest comfort in such a trying time. It's a shitshow out there, and the Flame on the Wall has been burning bright for quite some time."

He nods. "It's… it's tiring."

Mei Yu leans forward, placing a hand on his forearm. "All that attention on you… are you alright? Has the Young Blade done something to you?"

He shakes his head. Leaning back, he cracks his neck, turning to look about the room.

The chamber is bare, but functional. These pre-fabricated bunkers can be printed and deployed at will, and with how often they're destroyed, new ones are constantly popping up. Even for a hero of the Empire, there's not much that goes into a place like this. No gilded crafting, no ornate and complex decorations- the walls are bare stone, despite how powerful the arrays stored within them are. Sleeping chambers, isolated chambers for cultivation, a central living area and dining spaces- and to one side, the only thing that indicates the uniqueness of the construction.

To one side of the chamber, there are three alcoves. In one of them, a series of mirrors, enchanted with a complex sequence of sigils and kanji reminiscent of the teleportation arrays spread throughout the battlefield and the wider Empire. The one on its opposite side has a staircase, carved from light blue-and-grey stone, which extends up past the ceiling's limit.

At a third point between the other two, there is a single circle of flickering candles, colored red, purple, gold and blue. At their center is an ashen ring, its embers still crackling with heat.

It's not easy to make specially tailored transportation arrays like this. There are other alcoves, empty save for basic metallic rings and simpler formations, but these have been tailored to each of them specifically, designed and hand-made to be placed into the nature of the bunker. They don't have the beautiful architecture and decorations of a "proper" Imperial construction, but they are particularly well designed to allow for rapid redeployment and return.

It is a space made for him. Made for them. Made for heroes of the Wall, not technically in the command structure, not the strongest warriors upon it, but given a place of honor nonetheless.

He's not sure if they would have this place without his connection to Yula, even with their contribution. The Empire's resources are vast, but not infinite.

"She… she's surprisingly considerate. Her standing seems to have no meaning for her, in spite of how powerful she is. She wants only to help, and doesn't seem to have the slightest notion of the fact that she could end this conflict with a word."

"Could she?" Mei Yu asks softly. "Blade or not, she is of the same realm as us. That of a commander of one of the lesser fortress cities, not that of a general of the Empire. The army listens to the Blades, but it is not necessarily a thing of total command."

He shrugs. "Just by being around her, we've been given this place. If she could speak to the generals, or the Emperor itself, they would listen, and surely at least properly reinforce the war efforts. We're still fighting with support from only the neighboring city-states. And all she knows how to do is cut."

"I hear she's fairly good at it, though."

A sigh. "Yes, brother, she is that. And yet she can't move as fast as most, can't survive the same hazardous waste-areas, and she cuts only when it suits her. It is… exhausting."

"... do you still think it's worth it?"

He knows what she's talking about. The plan. The things that she's been connected to, through him.

"...It… it still strikes me as our best option. I've been looking, but I haven't come up with alternatives. Fighting in the Academies would only get us lesser versions of the resources they send out here to the front lines. In spite of how little time, I'm not… I'm developing fast. All of us are. Learning about the Cut from a Blade is certainly more value than what we'd find there. And I… don't know what we'd do, if not be here. Go back to sect politics?"

Gou Mai snorts. "Hardly much of a challenge. Considering the merits I've gained, for sect and Empire both? I could retire as an elder in five years or less, spend my time educating my juniors and marrying as many jade beauties as I'd like! Much more interesting to be here, helping out my poor little juniors."

Mei Yu rolls her eyes, but Shin Ren feels her agreement in the air. "We're both seniors to you, and you know it, Gou Mai. I won't have you bashing the name of the Divine Veils sect with your claims of being my senior rather than my elder."

"Hah! If all it takes to disrespect such honor is to have a claim of this expert, then perhaps your Divine Veils sect could use a bit of a challenge!"

Shin Ren can't help it. He laughs.

The tar pit lightens ever so slightly as the others inside him drink it dry and keep him sane. As they add to the ways that his friends here keep him grounded.

Mei Yu and Gou Mai both grin at each other. Mission accomplished.

None of them are doing perfectly.

All of them do just a bit better with someone close by.

"You're sure that this fifth blade hasn't bothered you?" Mei Yu eventually asks, her voice quiet. "Or… pressured you? Because if she has-"

"No need to be jealous, senior sister," Shin Ren says with a smile. "I'm afraid that your friendship is far too valuable to me to be hurt by a little time apart or a little bit of pressure from even one so mighty in the Empire's order."

Again, he ignores the way her face veils itself. Or how Gou Mai expresses the most shit eating grin he possesses.

"Either way- in spite of the pain, in spite of the… the weight of this place. We're still growing. And the fonder the fifth Blade grows of me, the closer we can get to the other Blades, and the more useful we become. The bull, the spy, all of them- the stronger we get, the better off we are. The better off we are, the more we're in place to make real change."

Nods, all around. Quiet ones.

"I'm… I wouldn't dare to disrespect either of you by saying that you can stay away. That it would cost you nothing, especially not my regard, to find yourself someplace new, someplace where we don't have to do… this."

The Corpse Aflame whispers in the back of his mind. A soft thing, the crackle of quiet flame, telling him of the taste on his friend's bodies, on their Souls.

Death. Ruin. Harm.

The war poisons all it touches.

None of them are slaughter experts. None of them feed on this war and the death it brings. Even as it forces resources into their laps and down their throats so that they get better at contributing to its ever-shifting slaughters.

"I'm ever so glad you don't dare to disrespect me like that," Gou Mai says. "Weird multi-Souls or whatever it is you still haven't properly told us about, I'm not above pulping you from above the clouds!"

Mei Yu giggles. "I wouldn't dare to be so crass as to threaten you with violence, dear one. But I can promise, with certainty, that my retribution to such words coming from your mouth would be legendary."

He sighs. Nods his head.

"Then I am glad I did not say it."

He leaves it at that.

A few hours later, he heads out of the room, back to one of the other chambers. One with a bed. He doesn't remember the last time he slept, but… it feels like an easier possibility with full belly and a core ever so slightly less polluted by the dark of it all.

As the door closes behind him, he very faintly hears voices echoing through it.

"So. You would promise retribution on your "dear one", hmm?"

"Sh- Shut up, Gou Mai."