Phantom

Death. Red blood.

Zero sat in his room on the wet floor boards. He couldn't tell if it was the bath water, or something else.

Daiyu stood at the entrance of the room, staring at his form.

"I am possessed," he lied. His face was straight as he said it. He turned to the left, to what remained of the two servant boys. "The mutation made me like this."

He looked back to Daiyu who twirled a piece of her short hair around a finger. "You know what happens to the possessed, no?"

Zero didn't answer. He knew.

From the memories of the dead, he could understand a little bit of it. Some villages had less severe punishments for ordinary possesion cases. But for someone like him, there were other methods. Zero didn't care. He needed the restraint.

Daiyu sighed. One death was excusable. Three, however was not. She walked further into the room, raising her white cloak so the blood on the floor wouldn't stain it. "You need a bath, child."

Zero looked at her blankly. For a while, all was quiet.

Without a care, she let the cloak down and squatted to his eye level. She took out a knife, began slitting his tattered robe. Zero raised a hand to stop her in alarm. The scroll. Daiyu pursed her lips. "How old are you?"

Shakily, Zero got up, holding the robe close to his chest, hands over where the scroll was. He glanced back at the bodies. "Fourteen to be fifteen, miss."

Daiyu nodded, but he did not see. He strode to the bathing screen and went behind it.

"Where did you come from?" The older woman asked, using her knife to scratch the floors. Her expression was of someone daydreaming. Blood soaked the hem of her pristine white cloak but she seemed to have no care for it.

Zero took out the scroll. It was stained with blood but somehow looked...alive. It taunted him. It reminded him he had no choice. This second life was not his, he was beginning to realize.

It was his. It belonged to the eye thumping in place of his heart. He had never been resurrected. He had been killed and brought back to life to serve as a host to this thing. The scroll was only a guide to seeking out this core. It was the mouthpiece of the god's eye.

Zero was but a wagon used for transportation. He looked to the lantern burning in the corner, just past the bath. He could burn it...

A small, tired smile grew on his face. Of course it wouldn't work. This thing was mysterious in behavior. If it had the power to mechanically make him act on his deepest, darkest thoughts and also suck life out of humans with a breeze, what was fire to it?

"Qiqi village, miss." Zero responded after a while of contemplation. His voice was bland, devoid of fluctuations.

Daiyu watched the boy's silhouette through the screen. He had begun undressing. For a while, she stared.

He reminded her of someone from her past. Her eyes fell back down to the ground and she continued scratching the floors.

"Never heard of it," she said.

And then they were quiet. Only the sounds of trickling water and lathering soap could be heard.

Daiyu rose and walked to the window, opening it so the stale, rotting air could escape. Another snow storm had started outside.

Was it possible to leave at dawn with such weather? It was not a good time to travel. However, their time was running out. The winter would only grow worse. The prince was dead. Soon, not only the routes, but even the hidden villages and towns would be crawling with imperial soldiers.

Best to leave before then.

Suddenly, the doors were pulled open. It was the short soldier. He was bleeding from a cut in his abdomen. "I-Imperials...Phan-t-tom squad. "

Daiyu's eyes darkened. A malicious scowl covered her face. She pushed the bathing screen aside. "Out, now." Zero rose from the bathing water that had turned a deep shade of brown.

He quickly stripped a mangled corpse of his garments. His hanging tongue flopped about. There were no eyes in the sockets and his skull was cracked. Zero swiftly put on layers of cloth, then when Daiyu turned to assist the wounded soldier, he took the scroll he had hidden in a pile of dirty cloth and tucked it into the robe.

It was drenched in blood, but it did not matter. He felt cleaner than he had since he died.

Daiyu said to the short soldier, "take the boy and the others. East side of the river. Do not stop. I will catch up. If by dawn you do not see me, go ahead. Pronounce me dead. Tell master we have the Piece."

Zero looked at Daiyu. The short soldier grunted and pulled him by the shoulder. "Move, kid!"

They ran down the softly lit passageway, feet pattering on the cold boards. The other youths were in the main hall lying on mats, asleep. The bleeding man pushed Zero towards them. "Wake them! I'll get the other men."

He walked up to them, hands shaking. He remembered the way the hallway was filled with their blood in his mind.

He leaned down, shook one of the boys. He had a large mole on his cheek. When his eyes opened and he realized who was touching him, he screamed and backed away, falling over the body of another boy with waist length hair. He too woke up.

Before Zero knew it, they were all awake, including the remaining girl and the proud boy.

The latter came forward, hands on his sword, eyes reddening. "You! You disgusting mons—"

Pu'er came in. "Everyone out! Move now! Move!"

Downstairs, a commotion had begun. Soldiers in black and red overalls busted through the doors. The innkeeper and customers were alarmed. "Imperials!" Some criminals cried, dashing out the door.

None made it through, however. Long swords pierced through the necks of those who tried to run. The rest of the runeners gave it up and scrambled away to the corners of the room.

These were no ordinary soldiers. They were Phantoms. A special division of cultivators at the Golden Core level. They had already formed their core of Qi, well on the way to becoming foundation establishment cultivators.

They had masks over their faces, hiding the stone expressions on their faces. They were not here for petty thieves or felons.

They spread out, some searching the rooms on the ground floor and others, climbing to search the ones above.

On reaching, they noticed how everything was quiet.

They took cautious steps, alert. Their longswords were coated in a subtle blue-gold glow, sparks flying. They were pure yang cultivators. The dormant dark mana in the air visibly recoiled.

Step, step.

They moved with careful vigour, their leather boots, quiet.

Signalling with their hands, they separated. They were five that had gone up. Three went down the hall, two entered a room that smelt of rot.

In a corner, were two bodies. Dead boys.

They both had their tongues out, as though something had tried to pull out their guts. One had been stripped naked. The corpse's bones were mangled, twisted inhumanely.

The two cultivators looked at each other, growing wary.

A clatter. The windows were suddenly thrown open. With a fierce move, they assumed position. One threw a dart in the direction of the sound. It hit the window. The clatter had been made by the wind against the broken window. A piece of wood was missing from it.

Suddenly, they heard a cry and a thump. It was one of them.

The two soldiers ran out the door back into the hallway. Bloody palmprints could be seen on the screen door of another room.

Swoosh!

Something sharp came flying their way. A spike. In a mini second, the targeted soldier threw his head down. He was too late though, his ear went flying off. He made a small grunting noise but quickly assumed a fighting stance.

At the end of the hallway from the direction they came, was a woman. Tall, average looking with short black hair, a fan and a long sword. She wore a white cloak that was coloured red at the hems.

Her eyes looked dark and crazed. She hissed as a snake would and in an instant, she was gone.

Behind the one ear soldier, someone dropped to the floor. Dead.

What?!

He drew his sparking sword and turned around swiftly. A moving shadow approached him. He clashed with it but it was far too fast.

Like a whirlpool had sucked him in, the shadow drew him to itself. He held steadfast, raising his sword up high. Another soldier came from behind the shadow.

It moved away, slithering back into the darker parts of the hall. The three phantoms left held their guard.

Whoosh! A spike landed directly in the head of one, his spirit sea cracked open and the Qi in his dantian flowed out in torrents, blinding everyone but the shadow.

Before Daiyu could make her finishing move, something happened.

The one ear soldier blew a high pitched whistle infused with Qi. A weapon and a call for backup.

It blasted her ear drums, and all she could hear was a ringing sound. Dark red blood trickled out of her facial orifices and her hands shook. She was at the peak of golden core but she was still just a golden core cultivator. Her shadow movements had taken quite a toll on her.

She had to run.

Swiftly, she dashed down the passageway, cloak fluttering behind her. The men gave chase.

As she ran, she took a lit lantern from the walls and spat into the fire. It flared as it came in contact with the liquid. The woman spun and threw it behind her. The phantoms did not stop at such a puny attack but they did not know.

The lantern had been contaminated with gu. A dangerous, poisonous liquid she had infused in her body.

With an earth shattering boom, the inn went up in flames.