- WE KNOW THE PATH. WE WILL MARK IT FOR YOU IN DEMON BLOOD, YUKIKO. -
“When the gate is closed, the iron giant will incinerate all around it. Go no farther than you have to, risk nothing more than you need to. Your lives are precious, and I would see each of you back in Everstorm, to tell the tale of this day to your children.”
Shai circled alongside Buruu.
*WE WILL TELL THEM. THEY WILL REMEMBER.*
The voices of the pack echoed in the Kenning, their thoughts as one.
THEY WILL REMEMBER.
Sukaa growled low and deep, emerald eyes on the rising dark.
~ LET US WASTE NO MORE TIME. LET THERE BE AN ENDING. ~
Yukiko looked to Hana and Yoshi, calling to them above the howling wind.
“You two, stay as close to Buruu and I as you can. If we fall before we get to the hellgate, one of you will have to enter Yomi instead. I have no idea what awaits you there or how to fight it. But one of us must finish this story!”
“We will!” Hana cried. “Whatever happens, one of us will see it done!”
Kaiah was flying close-by, gaze fixed on Buruu. She reached out with her thoughts into the bridge, her words echoing in Yukiko’s mind, laced with something close to regret.
- CAN YOU HEAR THE THUNDER, KINSLAYER? OUR FATHER RAIJIN IS PROUD. THE STONES AND THE SKY WILL SING OF YOUR COURAGE FOR A THOUSAND YEARS. -
THAT MATTERS NOT TO ME, KAIAH. IT NEVER HAS.
- I SEE THE TRUTH OF IT. THE LACK OF SELF. THE WILL TO DO WHAT OTHERS WILL NOT. TO PLACE YOUR PACK ABOVE YOURSELF. THE MARK OF A TRUE RULER. -
She nodded, pushed warmth into his mind.
- MY KHAN. -
Buruu purred, nodding once. Yukiko smiled, reached out and touched the mind of every thunder tiger, one by one. Finally she settled on Shai, looked at the pale boy clinging to the Shakhan’s shoulders. She called out, the wind snatching her words from her lips.
“You’re awfully quiet, Yoshi.”
The boy blinked, the corner of his mouth curling into a smile.
“Makes a pleasant change, I’ll wager.”
“There’s no need to be afraid.”
“Can’t say I’m not, Stormgirl. I’d be a liar if I did. But it’s not fear that’s got me stilled.”
“Then what is it?”
He shrugged, looked toward the gathering black.
“Seems a time for doing, not talking…”
Yukiko turned to the Yomi hordes below, the swarms of hellspawn clustered around the blackened pit. The corpse-hawks were a seething cloud, the skinthings and corpsefly maws filling the air with blood-thick roars. She fixed her gaze on the darkness, narrowing her eyes and trembling as the headache bloomed and the tuneless, mournful song echoed in her mind.
That was it. The utter dark. Where they must go.
She nodded.
“Not talking. Doing.”
She drew her katana and held it aloft, the blade’s edge gleaming as lightning arced overhead. Thunder shook the sky, Susano-ō and Raijin gathered to cheer on their struggle against the Endsinger’s horde. The Thunder God’s drums rolled across the clouds, echoed by the gaijin wardrums below, roaring sky-ship engines, thousands of hammers pounding on shields, revving of chainsaw katanas. The army below rippled, rearing back and tensing for the spring.
Yukiko drew a deep breath, the song of the storm filling the sky.
“Not alone!” she roared. “Together!”
She leveled her sword at the enemy.
“BANZAI!”
*
The Earthcrusher roared and lumbered forward, retching lungfuls of billowing black. The army cried out with one voice, charging headlong through the mist and snow toward the Yomi horde, shreddermen in the vanguard, scythesaw arms chattering and raised for the kill. The sky-fleet engines thundered, propellers shredding the soup-thick air, steam and exhaust spewing from their flanks. The Honorable Death came first, flanked by the fair Kurea. Captain Blackbird stood at his ship’s helm and roared into the storm. Kaori beside him, manning a shuriken-thrower, eyes fixed on the incoming swarm.