The Moon Sets... (3)

"Nenene! Please save my siblings!" Momo's cry echoed inside of the sonorous prison, stunning all who stood over their sprawled out bodies. The four Spirit Saints, who were anticipating a fight, dropped their arms in total dismay while Shin threw his head back in confusion. Just a few moments' prior, they were fighting to the death, ready to rid one another's lives without any mercy. So why was Momo now putting herself down for Shin?

"Momo! What are you doing?!" Kin, ever the prideful Noble Beast, screamed at her kneeling sister. "Why are you begging these bastards who imprisoned us?"

Kin continued to wail. The Golden Fox still couldn't forgive Shin for sealing them and torturing Gin for information. If not for Shin, the duo would have never been caught, and they wouldn't be in this predicament. Furthermore, when they were trying to escape, it was Shin's interference that made it all too complicated. Even if Momo were to kneel to someone, it could have been anyone else in the room. Heck, there were four Spirit Saints to beg. There was no way that Kin could endure seeing Momo beg something from the man responsible for everything wrong with their lives.

"Nenene! I'll tell you everything! Everything about the Allfather! Just save my siblings! There's no time!" Momo continued to beg, ignoring the noise that sounded out behind her.

"MOMO!!! Are you not listening? This man is-..."

"NENENE!!!" Unable to withstand Kin's annoying voice anymore, the Moon Rabbit screamed with everything that she had. "Nenene… Keep quiet!" At that moment, an invisible pressure mounted upon Kin's snout, nailing it straight to the floor. There was no movement from the Golden Fox, giving Momo a chance to finally speak to Shin one-on-one without interruptions.

"Nenene! Promise me!"

"..." Shin frowned. Everything had happened too quickly. One moment the Moon Rabbit was hopping about in the air, ready to force her way through the prison to rescue her siblings. The other, she was kneeling down, prepared to unveil all of the Allfather's secrets.

"What are you planning?" Shin asked, not too convinced of Momo's sincerity.

"Nenene… My siblings, they… Save them… Then, I'll tell you everything." Momo pleaded, tears streaming down their eyes. "Nenene… It's my fault. It's my fault that they joined the Black Masks… Nenene, save them… Please."

"... Alright," Shin thought for a moment before finally giving in to the Moon Rabbit's request. "Tell me everything that you know about the Allfather, and I'll save them."

"Nenene! Thank you!" When Momo heard those words, her ears instantly came back to life, and her eyes glistened with the light of a thousand diamonds. She turned her head back at the twin Spirit Beasts, flashing out a brilliant smile. "Nenene… Brother Gin… Sister Kin… Please don't resist."

Without further elaboration, Momo glowed in a pinkish light and an image of the same sanctuary that the Moon Rabbit was known for. The twins peered into the valley, their former home and instantly gasped in complete horror. The beautiful trees… The succulent flowing rivers… They were all tainted in a black substance, one that was so vile that it made both of them nauseous. However, what sickened them the most… Was that it was the same aura that had been implanted within their very own souls, with no way of purging.

"What are you doing?!" Shin hollered, afraid that Momo would renege on her promise and launch a fruitless, last-ditch struggle.

"Nenene, don't worry…" The Moon Rabbit shook her head, all while a soft voice echoed out. Oddly enough, Shin didn't feel any malice from Momo, even though she had unleashed the full power of her domain. It was as if… a tired lion mother had just given up on life and was willing to surrender it to the poachers that had been hunting her down.

Clink… Clink… Clink…

Two black chains fell to the ground. One sprouted out from Kin's head to Momo's left hand while the other was dangling from Gin's chest to Momo's right. Momo didn't do anything to connect the twins to herself. No, it was more like a revelation. The corrupted chains were always there, never dislodged in the first place.

"This is-..." Kin was stunned. She'd never thought that there was such a connection between herself and the Moon Rabbit that she'd once loathed.

"Our connection to the Moon Valley… It was never severed?" Gin theorised. Although it was the first time that they saw these chains, the Silver Monkey could instantly tell the connection.

Hearing her younger brother's words, Momo gave a simple nod. Then, with a suction force that was no weaker than that of a tornado, the chains started to absorb the black mana hidden within the twin Spirit Beasts' souls. A particular heat could be felt pulsating out of their bodies.

"Ahhh!" Kin and Gin both groaned. The heat was subtle and warm, not the vicious destructiveness that was associated with the Allfather's mana. The twin Spirit Beasts felt as if they had been thrust into a sauna, using the warmth of the fire source to soothe their cold and desolate souls.

Bit by bit, the Allfather's mana left Kin and Gin's body, leaving through the chains and entering the sanctuary that Momo had created. The dark mana continued to corrupt the land as if it were a drought eating through a farmer's crops. Trees died instantly while the heavenly skies lost all of its lustre. Stars disappeared rapidly, and all of the water in the valley dried up. When it was all done and dusted, all that remained was a bright luminous moon, surrounded by an ash cloud of darkness.

"She's… purifying the Allfather's spiritual energy!" Shin gasped. He had seen this scene once before when Junius had injected into him a horde of pure spiritual energies. "She's saving them from the Allfather's curse..."

"Ah, so that is what she's trying to do," Longyu Tian scratched the bottom of her chin while observing the rare scene. "Shin, once she's done, let's seal the two Spirit Beasts."

"Huh, why?"

Longyu Tian looked at her protege, frowning in confusion as to where his usual smarts went. Still, the Spirit Saint elaborated: "The Moon Rabbit said that she would be telling us everything that she knew if we saved the two Noble Beasts and now she's absorbing their curse. What does that mean?"

Instead of spilling everything she knew about the Black Masks, the Moon Rabbit had absorbed all of the darkness that hid within Kin and Gin's soul. Why was that? Why was she taking in the burden of the Allfather's curse from her precious siblings?

"She's… sacrificing herself?" Shin shot an odd look towards the Moon Rabbit.

"That's right," Longyu Tian nodded. "My guess is that with the withdrawal of the Mirror Boy, the Allfather will be slamming his hammer of justice down on the Noble Beasts soon. Before that happens, the Moon Rabbit wants to free her siblings from that fate, that's why she's absorbing their curses. In return, we will be free to gain information from the twins immediately… Of course, if we keep our end of the bargain that is."

"I see..." At the sudden revelation, Shin couldn't help but look at the Moon Rabbit in a different light. All this while, he'd been facing Momo with the wrath of a vindicator. The Allfather was a vile being that plunged the world into chaos and had destroyed billions of lives and millions of homes. And… The Nine Coloured Noble Beasts were the horsemen that made that possible.

It was hard to see Momo as anything but a destroyer as well. However, this tender side of hers, one that was filled with love for her siblings, reminded Shin of his own relationship with his family. What wouldn't Shin do for the ones he held most dear? The orphans, his Master, his friends and most recently… His beloved children.

Wasn't Momo the same?

It took a good minute for the process to be completed in its entirety. No corrupted presence was left within Kin and Gin's soul and from this day forward… They were truly free. Free from the Black Masks, the Allfather… Even free from the Moon Rabbit, their one and only youngest sibling. Kin and Gin glanced at one another, unsure of what to feel at this very moment.

Freedom.

That was something that the Golden Fox and the Silver Monkey had sought for so long. They didn't care for the Black Masks' motives, they didn't want to participate in the Grand Scheme for immortality. All that they wanted… was to live their lives happily ever after. Now that they got their freedom, the twin Spirit Beasts didn't know what to feel. Gaping at one another, a soft voice disturbed their frozen brains.

"Nenene… Forgive me, okay?" Momo pleaded. Her face was streaming with tears as her entire pinkish body had turned completely black.

"Momo? MOMO!!!" Seeing the change, the Golden Fox screamed. "W-what… What happened?! What happened to you!!!"

"Nenene, the Allfather is calling..."

"That!!!"

Momo didn't need to say another word. The sanctuary that surrounded her broke down, bits of spiritual energy fell to the ground as her body started to crumble. The Allfather's curse had long been cast, and the black mana was overrunning her entire soul. Even a peak Tier 9 Spirit Beast like Momo was unable to resist the Allfather's influence and could only lay down to await her inevitable fate.

"Nenene… I'm sorry..." Kneeling, the Moon Rabbit looked right at her two siblings, not even sparing a single glance at Shin and the other elites in the prison. An array of emotions were running through Momo's eyes, and her face was breaking apart with every teardrop.

"Nene… If not for me… You wouldn't have suffered..." Momo continued to talk to her unresponsive siblings, knowing that these would be her final words. "Nene, I'm sorry..."

"Momo? NO MOMO!!!" Kin continued her hysterical screamings, not abating in the slightest. All this time, Kin had thought that Momo betrayed Brother Haiiro, that she'd joined the Allfather in search of immortality for selfish reasons. However, that was far from the truth. Momo had joined the Allfather, she'd dragged the three of them into the Black Masks… To revive her beloved Brother Haiiro. To reunite their entire family up in the Immortal Realm.

Alas, that was never going to happen now...

"Nene, I'm sorry..."

"NO, MOMO!!! I'm the one who is sorry!!!" Kin cried. "I shouldn't have done all those things to you! I shouldn't have left you alone! I'm..."

CRACK!!!

While the Golden Fox was in the midst of her teary confession, a thunderous fracture broke off the Moon Rabbit's four limbs. The four limbs then proceeded to be eaten by a gluttonous black aura.

"Nene… It's time..." Momo sighed. She knew her time was up. In a few moments, the Allfather's curse would reach up into her brain and swallow her up. There was nothing that Momo could do to resist anymore. And thus, she made her final request.

"Ne… Can you call me sister? Just one last time?"

The two Noble Beasts froze. They thought back on the many times that Momo approached them, wanting to reconcile and play like the good old days. However, their pride… Their misunderstandings… It had forced them to distance themselves away from the one little sister that wanted to save their lives. Momo had to endure all of those dark ages alone, without her family… How terrible must that have felt? And yet… after all those years of isolation… Momo still wanted to be part of their family?

"Momo… Sister Momo!!!" Kin choked on her tears.

"Sister Momo!" Gin screamed as well.

"Ne… Thank you..." Momo closed her eyes with a fulfilled smile. And then… There was silence.

The curse had finally made its way into the Moon Rabbit's brain and all of her residual spiritual energies faded away into nothingness. And just like that…

The moon sets.