Fates Parallel Chapter 403 - Voice (Patreon)

Yue blinked at the little spirit—if Heian could even be called such anymore.

“The world? I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to elaborate.”

Heian nodded with a yawn. Yue had always found that affectation to be unusual—spirits didn’t suffer fatigue the same way humans did, but Heian always appeared sleepy.

“Mm, the world. Just this small one, though.”

“Ah, of course. That makes much more sense, thank you.”

That Chou’s realm had become Yoshika’s realm went without saying. Its dramatic transformation into the appearance of the former academy had no other explanation. Even the fiends, who had never seen the place before, understood the significance of the change.

“Heian, dear, why are you here to tell us instead of her?”

“They’re busy. The world needs lots and lots of magic, and moving it all is too hard, so they are stuck concentrating.”

“I see. For how long?”

Heian shrugged.

“A while. They need some help while they are stuck.”

Yue frowned. She wasn’t sure what sort of help she could possibly provide from where she was.

“Hold on, let me gather the others.”

She strode out of the house—now conveniently shaped just like her original accommodations back at the academy, before she’d been forced to move in with Jia and Eui—to find Yang Qiu loitering outside, making a show of lazily guarding the entrance.

She was, apparently, unmoved by the sudden shift in scenery.

“Yang Qiu, where is the nearest Melati?”

The demon lazily gestured over her shoulder with a thumb.

“I told you to stop calling me that.”

“And I told you that I have no intention of playing along with your penchant for degradation. As long as Yoshika has entrusted me with your core, I’ll call you whatever I like.”

“Tsk, you’re going to have to give it back eventually.”

Yue rolled her eyes.

“You know full well that won’t change our relationship in any way. Now come along, Heian has something important to tell us.”

Yang Qiu raised her eyebrows, noticing the spirit for the first time.

“Where’d she come from?”

Heian waved.

“Hi. I’m in charge of the world.”

“By the emperor, that’s a hell of a statement.”

Yue sighed, heading in the direction that Yang Qiu indicated and waving at one of Melati’s drones flying overhead to survey the new scenery.

“She means the tomb—although I suspect we’re going to need a different name for it soon. It looks like Yoshika defeated Chou. Or perhaps befriended him—you never know with Yoshika.”

Yang Qiu chuckled, following along obediently—only her words were rebellious now.

“It’s the same thing for her, isn’t it?”

“I hate that I can’t argue with that.”

Melati noticed Yue and quickly flew down to meet them.

“Hi Miss Yue!”

“Melati, could you be a dear and gather the others? There should be a large square in the center of town that all the main roads lead to—we’ll meet there.”

“Wow! How’d you know?”

Yue smiled nostalgically.

“I’ve been here before—it’s where I met Yoshika.”

“Okay! Melati is going! We’ll bring everyone there.”

There was a beat as Yue expected the fiend woman to fly away, before remembering that she was probably moving to comply with her other bodies.

“Ahem, right then—this way.”

As they made their way to the square, Melati waved excitedly at Heian.

“Hi Yoshi!”

Heian returned the gesture.

“Hi Mel. I’m not mommy, though—I’m Heian.”

Melati cocked her head to one side, and then the other frowning.

“Yoshi has drones that are part of her hive but not Yoshi?”

Heian stared at her for a moment, then just nodded.

“Uh huh.”

“Wow! Melati has so much to learn!”

Yue suspected that Heian’s laziness had just caused a grave misunderstanding, but it wasn’t her place to correct it. She missed the days when the little rascal had been a cute little kitten that she could spoil with bits of light and darkness essence.

They arrived at the square at almost the same time as the others. Han Yu was openly scowling at their surroundings, while Zheng Long wore a complicated frown. The fiends, for their part, simply gawked like tourists. They’d never been to the mainland, and unlike the fantastical appearance that Chou’s realm had once affected, the academy was unmistakably real.

Long Ruiling approached and bowed.

“Miss Yan, you wanted to call a meeting? Has Yoshika returned?”

Her eyes drifted to Heian, but Melati helpfully interjected before Yue could get a word in.

“Little Yoshi isn’t Yoshi.”

Yue pursed her lips.

“No so little anymore, either. You’re as tall as Yoshika now—though I suppose that’s hardly a feat.”

Heian nodded seriously.

“I’m grown up now.”

Yue sincerely doubted that, but she wasn’t going to argue. She may have gained height since Yoshika’s ascension, but she held a childlike demeanor.

Han Yu finally made his way over, probably offended that Yue hadn’t abandoned all other conversation to give him her full attention. She would never understand how someone like him managed to be so self-important. His skill as an alchemist was wasted on him.

“Alright, Yan Yue, what’s all this about? Obviously your new mistress has subverted this place somehow, so now what?”

“I’m not sure. Heian said that Yoshika needed our help.”

“What makes you think I’m going to give it? After everything we’ve—”

Zheng Long put a hand on Han Yu’s shoulder.

“Peace, Han Yu. We’re in Miss Yoshika’s debt—your temper is unbecoming.”

And wasn’t that just the strangest thing? Zheng Long had changed after his ordeal, and Yue was still on the fence about whether or not it was for the better. For the moment, however, she appreciated his assistance.

“I’m still not certain of the details. I wanted to gather everyone here so that Heian wouldn’t need to explain twice. Heian, dear, if you would?”

Heian found a nearby bench to perch on, barely putting her head above the rest, then cleared her throat.

“Mommy—that is, Yoshika—has found the Sovereign’s Tear and taken control of Chou’s realm. It’s taking up most of her attention to keep the place from collapsing on us, so she needs our help to deal with some other problems.”

The sudden change in demeanor was jarring, and Yue was forced to revise her assessment of Heian’s mental age. She wasn’t the only one surprised—Iseul bubbled her way out of Ja Yun’s armor and took the shape of a frowning face.

“Since when are you so well-spoken?”

Heian stuck her tongue out at the elemental.

“Since it’s something more important than messing with you during board games.”

Yue immediately took back her reassessment.

“Let’s stay on track please—what kind of problems?”

Heian cocked her head, as if listening for something, then nodded.

“Two main ones—first is that the thing making time weird is going to break.”

Ja Yun covered her face and groaned.

“Please tell me those aren’t her exact words.”

“No. Second is that once it does, the people outside are going to come knocking.”

Yue felt a cold sweat begin to form. She’d been hoping that they could remain safe within the tomb long enough to find a solution that didn’t involve fighting or appealing to the powerful xiantian fighters awaiting them.

“What’s the situation out there? Are our allies alright? Perhaps with Yoshika’s strength added to theirs, we can turn the tides and break through.”

Heian shook her head.

“I don’t know. Whoever is waiting already noticed the changes, and they aren’t going to wait for us to come to them. Yoshika thinks she can hold the way closed for a while, but they’re going to get in eventually now that they’re not afraid of the owner.”

Long Ruiling stepped forward, her wings fluttering.

“Is there a reason the time compression effect has to stop? This would be easier if we had time to come up with countermeasures or something.”

“It’s too hard. This world is going super fast, and bringing us along with it. Now Yoshika is part of it, so she has to go super fast too, but it’s too much for her. Plus, to move from the Void to the outside world means that she needs to be going at the same speed as the outside world or we’ll crash.”

Yue bit her thumbnail. It was a little bit hard to parse through the filter of Heian’s summary, but it sounded like Yoshika was planning on keeping the entire realm—as greedy as ever—and needed to synchronize with the outside world.

She sighed. Let it never be said that Yoshika made things easy.

“What can we do, then? None of us are capable of holding off xiantian attackers, and whatever level Yoshika is currently operating on is far beyond us to assist with.”

“That’s not true. Right now she only has eyes and ears, and she’s stuck doing a million things at once, but we can help ease that burden. We can be her hands and her voice.”

“I’m not sure I understand, but if you give us something specific then I’ll see what I can do.”

Heian looked up at the sky for a moment, then turned to gaze at something on the horizon.

“This place is only half real. Like the door that we couldn’t move without help from my cousins. It’s made of ideas and emotions as much as it's made of matter—like me. Thanks to that, we have a very strong defense to buy us time.”

Yue tried to follow Heian’s gaze, not seeing what she was looking at. As uncharacteristically eloquent as she was, Heian still had a spirit’s penchant for non-sequitur.

“Heian, please, what do you need us to actually do?”

The cat spirit winced.

“Sorry—I can feel your frustration. I don’t actually know the answer, I just feel it. The barrier is good, but we need to go beyond it. The relationship between thought and form goes both ways here—if we build defenses, they will help Yoshika hold off our enemies.”

“The barrier—wait, as in the academy’s shield formation?! There’s no way that Yoshika could perfectly recreate it within this place.”

“She didn’t, but thought leads to form, and she’s strongly connected to the real one.”

Long Ruiling shook her head and sighed.

“I don’t get it, but you just need us to build a barricade right? How far outside of the walls do we need to go?”

Yue pinched the bridge of her nose.

“If Heian says we need to go beyond the formation, then it’s going to be a few miles. Geumji’s shield formation is the largest on the entire continent.”

Melati giggled, several of her bodies joining in eerie unison.

“We should start moving, then! Melati can carry anyone too slow!”

Ja Yun grimaced.

“Another wall? Why couldn’t Yoshika just use the one I already built instead of getting rid of it? Come on Iseul, we’ve got a lot of work to do...”

Yue was just about to ask what she could do to help when Heian cut her off.

“Actually, not Iseul. I need Yue, Iseul, and...Zheng Long for a special job.”

Yue raised an eyebrow.

“That’s a strange combination. What do you need us for?”

“Talking. You’re better at talking than me. Except Iseul.”

Iseul oozed the rest of the way out of Ja Yun’s armor and constituted herself into human shape, giving Heian an unimpressed glare.

“I have a much better grasp of human language and communication than you do, Heian.”

“You know the words, and memorized the expressions, but that doesn’t mean you’re good at communicating. I’m not either. It’s okay to be bad at things. I need you because you’re smarter than me.”

That seemed to placate the prideful elemental, which presented Yue with the opportunity to ask a more salient question.

“Who exactly are we supposed to be talking to?”

Heian beamed proudly at her.

“Our friends back home!”