Chapter 9 Rui
Rui
A woman was running toward Rui. “Help! A monster!”
“You can see the Revenant?” Rui said, incredulous. The woman looked like a normie; she couldn’t see Revenants. Unless— “Does it look human? Where is it?”
“Around the corner. The boy is trying to f-fight it.”
“What boy?”
The woman started to sob incoherently. Her fear seemed to seep into Rui as she clung on to her.
“Never mind,” said Rui. “Get away from here.”
She pried the woman off and sprinted ahead, but the sight that accosted her was so surprising she stopped in her tracks.
Song Yiran was holding up a baseball bat. In front of him, a Revenant backed up against the wall, its ghoul-like features
twisted in confusion.
“What the hell are you doing?” Rui shouted at him.
Yiran yelled back, “I’m trying to kill it, obviously.”
“With a baseball bat?”
“That’s all I had in my trunk.”
Their loud voices agitated the Revenant. It snarled, limbs flailing toward them.
“Move!”
Rui shouldered Yiran out of the way and loaded Teshin’s crossbow with metal spikes.
She set her sights.
Now.
Her aim was true. But when the spikes hit the Revenant, their crimson light fizzled. They fell, tinkling uselessly on stone,
the dissonant music rattling her. Why wasn’t the magic working?
The Revenant pounced.
Rui leaped out of the way. Cold sweat broke across her forehead as she thought of her next move. No time for barrier spells.
If any civilian was foolish enough to wander into the area, they’d have to fend for themselves. Quickly, she pulled out a
talisman and cast a binding spell instead.
Spirit ropes wrapped around the Revenant. This time, the crimson light burned into pallid flesh.
Relief was sweet. But that moment of respite was short-lived.
The Revenant screeched, scratching at its throat as if trying to tear its skin apart. Within seconds, it broke free of the
binding spell. Clearly, it wasn’t an ordinary Revenant.
This was the Revenant Ada warned her about.
The smell of rot in the air was increasing, and with it, an acrid sulfur stench that burned Rui’s nostrils. Something strange
was happening to the Revenant. She watched in horror as its mouth opened in a silent scream, expanding wider and wider. Until
it gaped beyond reason. Until it looked like the monster was swallowing itself whole from the inside.
From that chasm of a mouth, something else crawled out.
A newborn creature with distorted limbs and bulging eyes. Its long black hair writhed like snakes and its hungry dark eyes
had a reddish tinge. Its gray and bloated face was morphing into a woman’s face.
A Hybrid? But it didn’t look like one. It looked like an evolutionary mistake, trapped between human and monster. The creature
arched its spine, flinging its head upward at the night sky. It let out a piercing cry, and violet tentacles burst from its
back.
The light from Rui’s blades flickered as she shuddered at that awful, unholy sound. She had never seen a Revenant like this
before. Not in real life, not in her textbooks. She could hear Ash’s sardonic voice in her head. This is why Exorcists work in teams. But there was no time to call him or Ada or Zizi or anyone else for backup. She was the only thing standing between this
hungry monster and certain death.
She exhaled, and her crimson blades grew stronger and brighter. Spite was a powerful motivator; if she killed this Revenant by herself, she could rub it in Ash’s face.
“What the fuck is that thing?”
Song Yiran was still standing a few paces away, transfixed by the terrible sight of the monster.
“Why didn’t you run when you had the chance?” she yelled. His presence was a distraction. She had to keep an eye on his safety.
“I don’t run,” Yiran said, jaw hard.
Rui glared. Didn’t he understand she had no time for his bravado nonsense? “Then shut up and don’t get in my way.”
She faced the Revenant again, shooting a few energy bolts at the creature’s torso.
The Revenant dodged. But it was moving slowly now. Was it unused to its new form? If it had less control of its new body,
she could take advantage of that. She shot another series of bolts at one tentacle as a test.
The Revenant screeched. Scorch marks pitted its flesh.
Rui grinned. From the way they burned, she guessed the tentacles were filled with yinqi. They were her target. But she had
to get closer.
She leveraged off the side of the building and catapulted into the air. As she sailed over the Revenant, it reared, bottomless
eyes following the arc of her trajectory. Before she began her descent, Rui rotated her body and thrusted both arms out, certain
of her strike. She felt her blade slicing through flesh and twisted some more. But just as her other blade grazed another
tentacle, her right shoulder popped.
Pain shot through her nerves. She had practiced this move a hundred times. Maybe it was a hundred times too little. Maybe
it was the morning’s injury that affected her technique. Or maybe it was plain old fear. It didn’t matter.
She had missed.
A tentacle shot out from nowhere, slamming into her ribs. Air gusted from her lungs, and she felt something crack. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t scream. Her swords clattered onto the ground, metal ringing like a death chime.
The tentacle wrapped around her. The ground shrank as she went up, up, up, her legs dangling like a rag doll’s. She didn’t
want to know how far the drop would be. Or if she would live to feel it.
The Revenant brought her close to its monstrous face. The stench of rot and sulfur was overpowering. Against her will, Rui
whimpered.
Something pricked her neck. A fog clouded over her mind.
The Revenant started to drink.
It was a hundred times worse than what she had experienced in the training program. Her head lolled back toward the night
sky. The stars are out tonight. It was a strange thought to have in this moment. But the bright spots in the sky were turning black. She was getting weaker,
her mind drifting off to somewhere quiet . . . somewhere dark.
“Let go of her!”
I don’t run.
“I said, let go of her!”
The tentacle around her loosened.
Rui’s lungs filled with air. Her vision focused. She saw a figure jumping up and down on the ground below.
Something whizzed past her ear.
That foolish boy had traded his baseball bat for rocks, and he was throwing them at the Revenant. As if that would do anything
at all. A misguided rock shot past her head. How good—or bad—was Yiran’s aim?
It didn’t matter what he did. Rui couldn’t move a muscle, couldn’t string together a coherent thought. It was over. The Revenant
was going to suck her dry. She was going to die tonight, just like how she was supposed to die exactly four years ago. Fate
merely held its cards close, letting her believe that she was safe, that death would not come for her.
Get a grip on yourself. This is not how it ends. Zizi’s voice—or maybe it was her father’s—spoke in her mind.
Baba.
If she died, what would become of her father? There would be no one to take care of him. No one to make sure he stayed alive. No one who would care if he died.
She couldn’t give up. Not like this.
Gasping, she reached into her coat, fingers inching for the flimsy piece of paper in her pocket.
Another rock bounced off the Revenant’s torso. It didn’t do any damage, but it did distract it. For a moment, the creature
forgot about Rui. It lifted its head and growled at Yiran.
Rui twisted. Her shoulder screamed in pain. But Zizi’s talisman was in her hands. She started the incantation with a shaky
whisper.
Nothing happened.
Hope faded.
Then—at the corner of the talisman—light flickered.
Rui’s chant grew louder as she thanked all the gods in this world and the next. A few more words and her spell would be complete—but
her chant became a yell when the Revenant flung her into the air.
Free-falling, she crashed into the canopy of trees, unable to brace herself. Branches scratched her face and hands. Something
pierced her side, tearing through fabric and flesh.
The ground struck her hard. Jolted her teeth, shook her bones. In a daze, she struggled up and felt her ribs. Her fingers
met with something warm and wet.
Blood. A lot of it.
“Are you all right?” Yiran’s form came into focus. For some reason, he was holding one of her swords. He paled when he saw
her bloody hand. “What happened to you?”
“The Revenant threw me in the air—were you not paying attention?” Every word she said to this imbecile was a waste of effort
and time.
“There’s so much blood,” Yiran said, looking faint.
All Rui wanted was for him to hand over her weapon and get lost. She tried to stand, but her legs buckled. “Give it to me.” She tried to grab at the sword in Yiran’s hand, but he held it away, afraid she might hurt herself. She swiped at him again.
“Stop moving—you’re injured.”
“Shut up, I’ve got to kill—”
A howl turned both their heads. The Revenant was shuddering violently, swaying from side to side.
“Listen,” Yiran said. “I’m going to pick you up and make a run for it.”
Rui’s head was muddled with pain, but she forced herself to concentrate. “No, it’ll chase us. We can’t lead it to other people,
and you can’t outrun it if you’re carrying me. Just go.”
As suddenly as it started, the Revenant’s tremors stopped. It crawled toward them, tentacles trailing behind like misshapen
limbs.
“Go,” she repeated.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not leaving you like this.”
Yiran faced the Revenant, shielding her. What was he thinking? He couldn’t fight it. Not without a spiritual weapon.
Something caught her eye. The talisman. A small piece of it was stuck on her sleeve. The Revenant had thrown her before she
could finish Zizi’s spell . . . Would it still work if she finished the incantation?
Theoretically, if there’s contact between two bodies, the spiritual energy may transfer.
“Spiritual weapon,” Rui whispered to herself, an absurd idea forming in her mind. That was the key. She couldn’t kill the