Sovereign Longyan was a plain looking man, with short messy brown hair, dark eyes, and a simple silk robe. If not for the rapidly swiveling dragon eyes set into the palms of his hands, one wouldn’t even be able to tell he was anything but an ordinary human.

From the same invisible portal, Hayakawa Takeo followed, and any remaining doubt in Yoshika’s mind vanished—her father was in league with the demons. He met Kaede’s gaze as he surveyed the scene, his face twisting into a deep frown.

The demon lord turned to Meiren, his face placid despite the rage Yoshika felt through his aura.

“Meiren, explain yourself.”

It was only the second time Yoshika had ever heard him speak. The first time had been during the original descent of the gods, when he’d given a few brief orders. After that, the few times she’d encountered him were always in battle, and he fought with a silent intensity.

“I was just taking care of these intruders, my lord. I assure you that everything is well in hand.”

“You’re injured.”

She averted her eyes.

“Y-yes, they caught me a little by surprise. They are stronger than I thought—no doubt because of the Sovereign’s Tear, but I was just about to—”

“To sacrifice key pawns to feed your own petty grudge?”

Yu Meiren stared down at the ground and clenched her jaw silently. One of the eyes in Longyan’s palm swiveled around to look at Yoshika, flicking between each of her aspects as she felt the grip of his domain squeeze in around her.

“It wouldn’t have worked. They’re resolved to sacrifice the smith if they have to, and the spirit that essence was stolen from has changed too much. The effect of your technique would be weak—weak enough for them to stop it before it could cause enough harm to fuel your power.”

Yoshika’s heart sank—how did he know all that? Meiren shook her head in protest.

“No! I—”

The demon lord took a furious step towards Yu Meiren, and for a brief instant Yoshika thought he was going to strike her, but when he raised his hand to her it was just to gently lift her chin and force her to make eye contact.

“Meiren, you know I love you.”

She recoiled as if the words were physically painful to her, but Sovereign Longyan tightened his grip on her chin and held her in place.

“I will always forgive your weaknesses and your failures, but my tools are not yours to break. You were going to lose, but worse than that, you were going to take that which belongs to me. Is that what you want?”

Yu Meiren shook her head as much as his grip would allow.

“No, my lord.”

“Of course not. Now...”

He released her and turned to face Yoshika’s party.

“You have something I want. Given that you’ve already resisted attempts to seize it by force, I’m willing to bargain.”

Yu Meiren looked up with a start.

“But—!”

He held up a hand to silence her. Both of the draconic eyes in his palms focused on Yoshika as he spoke.

“Name your price. As one of the three Divine Sovereigns, there are few things in this world or any other which I cannot grant you.”

Kaede cast a suspicious glance at Yu Meiren. Rather than being pleased by her master’s appearance, she seemed more frustrated than anything. Her father, meanwhile, was content to simply watch things unfold. He was a man who understood power, and had accepted his place beneath Longyan—the coward.

“Why would I bargain with you when Yu Meiren is present? And why would you bargain with me, if you can just take what you want?”

The demon lord took a purposeful step to the side, placing himself between Meiren and Yoshika.

“Her domain will not interfere. As for why I would bargain—one does not survive divinity by repeating the same mistakes. You’ve repelled me once, albeit with the aid of that meddlesome dragon, and the possessor of the Sovereign’s Tear has historically been an unpredictable force.”

“And if I give you the Tear, then I lose any leverage to make sure you uphold your end of the deal. Unlike Sovereign Shen, I doubt I can trust your word.”

Rather than be insulted, the demon simply nodded.

“Just so—the battle for the Sovereign’s Tear is not going to end here today, but that does not mean there is no room for negotiation. I’m not the monster you think I am.”

“No—you’re much worse, aren’t you? What you said to Meiren earlier—you actually love her, don’t you?”

He cocked his head and furrowed his brows in confusion.

“Of course I do. It wouldn’t have hurt her if I didn’t.”

“If you love her, then why would you want her to suffer?”

“Because I enjoy her suffering. What greater gift could I offer her?”

And there it was. It had been bothering her ever since learning that Sovereigns hosted entire worlds within them. What kind of god would a demon like Longyan be? It all fell into place.

Longyan was a tyrant—a conqueror. It was clear in the way he spoke to Yu Meiren. He didn’t care what happened to Murayoshi, Hattori, or the stolen fragment of Heian. Only that they were his. She knew exactly what kind of god he was.

A wrathful one. His people would love him, worship him, make sacrifices in his name, and go to war with each other to earn his favor. None of it mattered. Those who died would fuel his power, while those who conquered their neighbors would strengthen his domain further until they too found themselves on the sacrificial altar.

To him, it was all a game. His pawns fought and died for his entertainment, and then he rewarded them by devouring their souls.

“I think that anyone making a deal with you would have to be either a complete fool, or hopelessly desperate.”

Kaede’s father grimaced at her.

“Save me your insults. The oni recognize that power is the only thing that matters. This nation is doomed, and you are the ones who sealed its fate.”

“I’m not the one who sold it to demons.”

“No. You did something infinitely more foolish and gave it away to the empire for nothing.”

Yoshika furrowed her brows.

“What?”

Sovereign Longyan held up a hand and interrupted before the Shogun could answer.

“Enough! I care not for your petty mortal disputes. Forget the Tear—as long as you possess it your fall is inevitable.”

He pointed at Rika and Yumi.

“I know those artifacts. The Divine Beast Index and the Blade of Eightfold Possibilities. You inherited more than just the Sovereign’s Tear. Their power is wasted on you—for them, and whatever else the Bloody Sovereign left you, I am willing to negotiate for your freedom.”

“That’s a small price for such a priceless collection.”

Master Yumi looked askance at Kaede.

“Yoshika, don’t...”

The demon lord stepped forward, ignoring her.

“Nothing is priceless. Love, life, the world itself—all of them can be bartered.”

Kaede frowned. She didn’t doubt that Longyan believed what he was saying, but she didn’t understand why he was bothering. He was a conqueror first, and a demon to boot. Not all demons were slaves to their nature, but like Yu Meiren he had leaned hard into his, embracing his monstrous existence and abandoning what little humanity might have remained.

He was bargaining for a reason. Because he couldn’t just take what he wanted. Something was stopping him from just killing her on the spot, but what?

Yoshika tried to think back to what she knew about fighting xiantian opponents. The first rule was not to be deceived by power alone. She’d killed plenty of xiantian beasts before they’d completed their awakenings into fiends, and even faced off against what was in retrospect a very young xiantian Fire elemental before even reaching the second stage. With the help of her friends, she’d even managed to take down Magma long before reaching xiantian herself.

The cultivator with more raw power wasn’t always advantaged. Ice was about as strong as Magma had been, but her skill made her a far more dangerous opponent. Master Yumi’s focused skill set and finely honed practice made her more than a match for most cultivators of her level. During the descent of the gods, she’d single-handedly defeated one of the demonic invaders and left Meiren with a lasting injury.

That thought stirred another memory in Yoshika’s mind, and Kaede’s eyes briefly flickered as she glanced at her demonic nemesis. Yu Meiren’s missing arm was missing no longer. It had taken years, but she had finally recovered from the damage that Yumi had dealt her on that fateful day.

She hadn’t been the only one to sustain lasting injuries that day. Yan Ren had gone toe-to-toe against Sovereign Longyan, and though he’d survived the encounter, the last Yoshika heard was that he was still undergoing an intensive recovery process.

That would be the second important consideration, then—xiantian fights dealt heavy, lasting damage to the combatants. Yoshika had barely experienced such combat. Most recently, her sparring match against Ice, where Eui had lost an arm of her own. She’d physically recovered, but Eui still had reduced feeling in that arm.

Before that, her only first-hand experience with unrestrained xiantian combat was when defending her Soul Realm from invaders shortly after retrieving the Sovereign’s Tear.

She’d been lucky, then. Though Sovereign Longyan had fought against her, he’d only been able to exert a small fraction of his avatar’s full potential—which was itself already an infinitesimal portion of his divine might. Even so, he’d been an indomitable foe, and though she’d only been fighting with hastily built essence constructs, it had still been a painful fight.

Yoshika could only assume that the reason she hadn’t heard from the Awakening Dragon Sect in the last year was because she’d left their patriarch with exactly the sort of lasting spiritual wound that had incapacitated Yan Ren.

A fight that had only been possible because the Dragon Lord had driven off the demonic sovereign...

A picture began to form. The Dragon Lord’s fight with Longyan surely hadn’t ended after she’d made her escape. They were left behind at the bottom of the ocean in the middle of an enormous magical storm, where the two furious cultivators would have had only each other to vent their rage on.

Yan De had already escaped to lick his wounds, and Master Yumi hadn’t left anything of Sovereign Shen Yu’s already weakened avatar behind.

In her soul realm, the two had been on relatively equal footing. Was it too much of a stretch to imagine that the same would hold true in reality? What had been the outcome of that fight?

Sovereign Longyan’s power was unquestionable, but he’d gone to ground for over a year, quietly amassing power in Yamato without stirring up any other trouble. And now that he was facing her—the bearer of his entire reason for being in her world in the first place—he was willing to negotiate for her freedom?

It was a bluff. It had to be. He was projecting an aura of strength and certainty, but could he be hiding a grievous injury beneath that facade?

Could she risk being wrong?

If the alternative was abandoning the people of Yamato to be treated like cattle and strengthening one of her greatest foes, then she didn’t even consider it a choice.

“Rika, Master Yumi...if anything happens, I’m really sorry.”

The two gave Kaede sad smiles, and Rika put a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, we’re here for you, for better or worse, through thick and thin. I’m with you one hundred percent, whatever you choose.”

Yumi tightened the grip on her sword and nodded tightly.

“I’m prepared to face the consequences. Don’t give these monsters anything.”

The demon lord narrowed his eyes dangerously, the spinning orbs in his palms settling to focus on Kaede and Jia as he spoke.

“Choose your next actions carefully. My mercy is not without limits, and you’ve already tested my patience.”

A calm fell over Yoshika as she made her decision. She wished that she’d been able to do more for Jiaguo, or see her little sister grow up. Meili winced as she came to a grim realization.

“Jiaying is going to be so mad at me...”

She grabbed Rika and pulled her into the Soul Realm as Jia and Kaede sprang forward as one. They dashed away from Sovereign Longyan’s devastating evil eyes with all the speed they could muster, taking full advantage of their movement techniques to travel in unpredictable patterns.

It was in vain. Even with Jia’s Lightspeed Traversal and Kaede’s Weightless Fist, Longyan was faster. Beams of concentrated void and destruction erupted from his draconic eyes and eradicated their bodies from existence in an instant so swift that neither had time to feel any pain.

But Yoshika did. The rift his techniques created in her soul were almost cripplingly painful. It was worse than when Yan Yue had torn Jia and Eui apart, worse than when Eunae’s inner Kumiho had set her soul on fire, worse than anything she could have imagined.

She couldn’t let the pain distract her—she only had one chance, and she refused to let it go to waste.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Eui channeled as much power as she could through Jianmo, allowing her instincts to guide her as she adjusted her ultimate technique to take advantage of the demon sword’s innate power.

Divine Art: Sixth Arm of Asura—Soul Devouring Slash

There was nowhere for her enemies to run. The narrow walls offered no escape routes, the demon lord was engaged with his primary technique having so shrewdly eliminated her most mobile aspects, and even the spirit realm wouldn’t be spared from the all-encompassing destructive force of the Sixth Arm.

As Void had taught her, the very fabric of reality tore itself asunder to heed her will. As her sword descended, everything before her ceased to be. Her father, the demons, Grandmaster Murayoshi, and even the traitorous old priest—none of them would be spared.

Then, in the space between moments, where time seemed to ebb and flow in rapidly changing possibilities, Sovereign Longyan, the Demon Lord opened his third eye.

Demonic Art: Conqueror of All He Sees

His entire face split open like an overripe fruit, revealing his true visage. A single great eye, not human or dragon or anything that could possibly be natural.

Under its alien gaze, reality once more bent and tore as the demon exerted his will. Eui’s wave of Destruction crashed down upon the wall and washed over it like water from the back of a duck. Devastation rocked the courtyard and the town on either side, but the Demon Lord and his allies stood unscathed.

He stepped forward, speaking in an even tone as though his face hadn’t split in two to reveal a hideous eye beneath.

“I warned you not to—”

Sacred Art: Eightfold Soul Severing Strike

Eui hadn’t been the only one to capitalize on Sovereign Longyan’s distraction. Ienaga Yumi appeared behind the demon lord, her injuries bursting open as she exerted herself beyond the safe limits of her condition.

She had charged forward heedless of Eui’s indiscriminate attack, ignoring her own injuries, pushing herself past any reasonable limit, and risking total annihilation just for a single possibility. Or rather—eight.

Eight strikes descended on the demon, each superimposed on top of the others. In one reality, Longyan sprung out of the way immediately. In another, he slipped to the side to narrowly avoid the attack. In a third, he shifted to avoid mortal injury but sustained superficial wounds.

Each possibility was real. Each happening in the same captured instant. The divine relic in Yumi’s hands flared with power, and the branching possibilities snapped together to create a single resolved truth.

A truth in which Yumi’s blade sliced clean through Longyan’s head-sized eyeball and shattered the core within.

Yu Meiren shrieked in anguish as he fell lifelessly to his knees.

“You bitch! What have you done?!”

Master Yumi wasn’t faring much better, coughing up blood as she fell to one knee and supported herself with her sword. Meili was already there supporting her as Eui interposed herself between Meiren and her master.

“It’s over, Meiren! Surrender.”

It was Yoshika’s turn to project false confidence. Taking down Longyan’s avatar had been a costly endeavor, and she wasn’t sure that she could take the demon on her own anymore.

Meiren snarled at her, whirling around to find her hostages only to see Hattori and Hayakawa already fleeing in the distance—only Murayoshi’s unconscious frame remaining within reach.

“Damn you! He won’t forget this, you know. My grudge will seem like a petty dispute by comparison. Nowhere will ever be safe. Not in this world, or the divine realm, or any other. He will find you, and he will destroy you for this.”

Eui spat to the side.

“I’ve heard it all before. You can tell your master we’ll be waiting right—”

“Yoshika!”

Master Yumi’s cry came just a moment too late. Longyan’s corpse twitched violently, the eyes in its palms snapping up to focus on Yoshika’s bodies.

There was no time to react. Meili desperately tried to pull Master Yumi into her soulscape, straining against the immense burden so hard that she felt as though her soul would snap in two. Eui lunged for Meiren, but the demon’s wicked grin of satisfaction was the last thing she saw before a final surge of power erupted from the demonic eyes and Yoshika was consumed by the Void.