-Yunlan-
The first wave of Shadows were killed by Yunlan's light beam, but as they ran to reach their goal, more things began to close the safe path their leader had created for them and soon they were surrounded by all types of creatures from all sides. Shen Wei created a golden shield that will allow them to attack from the inside, but prevent the dark creatures to reach them inside.
Guo sent out his swords, now with double the amount and strenght, slashing anything that came close in a huge circle around Shen Wei's shield and Yunlan used more light attacks to keep the creatures away for as far as he could. Now that he had been granted mastery over his huge amount of star magic, it was easier to use it, with almost no side effect like it did before, tiring him completely just after one single use.
"Lin, use your wind to keep them as far as you can, we need to move!" Yunlan commanded and Lin summon a set of his strongest storm winds, coming down from the grayish clouded sky, in huge twisters, surrounded by thunders that strike down, with a good amount of energy, killing and turning into ashes several Shadows at the same time. Then, the twisters moved in different directions sucking in and throwing away everything in their path.
"Shen Wei, maintain the shield as we move, Guo keep slashing all that moves within your reach. Qing, make some walls with your earth, we can't stay for long in one place, or we will be overwhelmed!" Da Qing assented as he moved both his arms up, while the earth obeyed his command over it, creating long sharps spikes that came out of the snowy ground to their right and left, leaving a cleaner path in the middle.
Shen Wei released a wave of white fire ahead of them, burning to ashes everything that was in front, while Guo keep away those at their side, behind Qing's walls of spikes. They ran for a while, occasionally making long distance attacks, when Shen Wei felt a few strong fires closing in on them.
"Yunlan, Furies are coming, several ones!" Shen Wei shouted.
"Not only that, there are things coming from the air too!" Lin yelled and Yunlan looked up and sure enough, he saw huge shadows in the distance, moving closer at fast speed.
"Are those some kind of odd dragons?" Chu asked, as they halt, to confront the coming Furies.
"Not dragons... those are tainted Qilin's (Kirin's), which means bad news for us. Chu, can you create a golden net that can catch heavenly creatures?" Yunlan asked, hoping they could trap the Kirin's instead of killing them, because Kirin's were sacred beasts of the heavens and a severe punishment with befall in any mortal that dare hurt one.
"I can make the nets, but I doubt they will get in on their own accord and I can't sent them high enough." Chu responded.
"Well, I can help to send them up and even move the nets to chase them, but it will take time to trap one and so far there are three, not to mention Furies coming, as well as everything else." Lin said.
"Okay... Lin, you and Chu take care of trapping the Qirin's and the rest of us will make a stand to take on the rest. You two stay in the middle of Wei's shield, we circle you around." Yunlan said and Qing, Zhu, Wei, Wang, Sang, Guo and himself moved to complete the circle and defend the shield from all sides.
Shen Wei summon his silver dragon, to make things easier to catch the Qirin's or in case things got out of hand. So, Chu summons several golden threads and begin making the first net in the middle of the air, while the others used long range attacks to keep the shadows away. However, once the Furies came the fight became harder.
To keep them as further away, Shen Wei make a second shield and expanded it several yards all around. His silver dragon engaged in a battle with one of them, taking their fight somewhere else, while the second was pierced by Yunlan's light beam, making it explode killing others as well. The third throw itself over the golden barrier, but Shen Wei created a huge arrow of white fire that penetrate the thick stone skin of the Fury, killing it.
Then a forth came, but Da Qing trap it inside a stone cage, then Shen Wei set it on white fire. More came. One after the other, making them using different attacks each time. Da Qing, Zhu, Guo, Wang and even Sang joined forces to with Yunlan and Wei to keep the creatures from getting too close and it worked, although after all the Furies were killed, more things replaced them one, after the other.
"Wow, look there!" Wang pointed at their right, in which one of those Shadow things Guo fought before a few days ago, was getting closer too. Guo summon a yellow talisman and wrote some word on it with his spiritual energy, then he sent it forward. The talisman floated in the air at their shoulders level, then it transformed in a set of golden circles that moved in different direction, and when a symbol was created, it shouted forward with incredible speed, turning into a spiritual whirlpool that devoured anything in its path, including the Shadow Wang referred too.
Up in the sky, Lin was controlling Chu's net with his wind, chasing after one of the Qirin's that had a horse like body, but the head resemble that of a horned dragon, have scales in the back and the tail was longer and thinner with hair only half way down. It eyes were tinted with red, meaning that the Qirin was under the red stone control.
The ones that had shown up were masters of lightning, so the Qirin's attacked down with powerful strikes, but Wang redirect them with her own. She was a fire user after all and before she specialize in healing, she was one of the most talented lightning's users of her age, which is why she became one of Wei's helpers although using lightings consecutively, just like Yunlan's star magic drain her in a short period, but with the enhanced magic, she could use it now without problems. Sang for the other hand, was sending ice spikes away, taking the snow all around them as his best material.
"Come one, come one, COME ON!" Lin yelled, as he guided the gold net toward their target, but failing to trap it.
"Alright, then, I will show you how to trap Qirin's!" Chu yelled, extending his hand. "Guo, give me one of your light talismans." Chu said and Guo comply, coming to him with the requested talismans, then going back to his position. And so, the Puppet Master, attached the talisman to one of his golden strings, as lightning's flashed over their heads
"Wait, use this too..." Zhu said giving small round bottle with greenish powder.
"What's this? Is not poison, right?" Chu asked.
"Of course not! I know what happen to those who harm celestial beast, it's a sleeping powder, shatter this near one, then Lin can spread it into the wind, which will slow them out. I assure, you, it will help you catch them faster." Zhu said and Chu smiled wickedly.
"Then why didn't you give us this earlier?!" Lin shouted angrily, making the rest of the team look back at him with a hint of fury, specially the Earth Master.
"I have my share of tainted creatures too, it's not like I have been sitting around doing nothing!" Zhu responded.
"You bastard, don't take your frustration on her, she is low on powders and we still have a long way to go and may need to use them later. You are lucky she can spare that much!" Da Qing yelled from where he stood.
"Yeah, let's finish this. Thanks Zhu." Chu said and Guo looked at him a bit surprised he actually took part in a discussion while offering thanks at the same time. Chu saw his look and he winked at Guo, instantly making the young sage red in the face, turning around, quite embarrassed. Yunlan smiled and look at his right, blowing a kiss in Shen's direction, but this time, Shen Wei didn't blush, but smiled back at Yunlan and make the motion of taking it, then putting over his heart.
"Damn, that's a killer my Wei..." Yunlan whisper to himself, while his hart raced faster.
"Fine." Lin said bitterly and after Chu sent up his string carrying the small bottle and talisman, Lin make it go higher. Once close to the Qirin's, Chu broke the glass bottle and Lin spread it around all three heavenly beasts, indeed slowing them down, then the Puppet Master infused Guo's talisman with his energy by the string connecting the two and a extraordinary bright light cover the whole sky, blinding everything above and below.
Luckily, Chu was ready for it closing his eyes before the flash of light, because he knew better than anyone how blinding Guo's energy was and as the creatures vision was blurry, he expended his net more and more, in mere fractions of seconds, until it covered all three of them, then parted the net in three sections and trap the tainted beasts, securing them for good. Lin slowly push them down with his wind over the hill they where previously, which didn't have any shadows and they will remain safe, until the land was clean by Nuwa's stone.
"Ah, that was beautiful all three of you... now, it's my turn!" Yunlan smiled mischievously.
"Wait, Yunlan what are you going to do?" Wei asked a bit worry as he sent forward more white fire.
"Don't worry my Prince, I am a Star Master now, just watch and see... alright, let see how this work out with the extra boost." Yunlan gave a full turn, as star and water magic go up from the ground, surrounding him with a kind of cosmic mist, then it twisted around Yunlan growing in size until it was out of Wei's shield, then it spread like a constellation cloud far and wide, occasionally creating red thunders and a gentle crystalline rain.
"Shen Wei, summon back your silver dragon." Yunlan said calmly, while concentrating in spreading the clouds even farther. Wei recalled his dragon and watched in awe as his beloved was cover with beautiful multicolor light, some reflecting in the water that surround him, almost making him shine. He looked beautiful in Shen's eyes, but more than that, he looked powerful out of this world. He wonder if he was on his way to becoming a god, or perhaps he was a god in a previous life, but either way, he was his Yunlan and he would always stay by his side.
Finally, when most of the snow valley was cover with Yunlan's star cloud and rain, the dual master, blew freezing air in his palm and to their astonishment, everything around them became frost for as far as they could see, only leaving behind hundreds or even thusands of snow crystalline figures, sparkling with star lights, then with Yunlan's command over the water and ice, all cover with it exploded, making rainbows with the sun rays, as they fall down.
Once again, they were stunned with the display of magic no one else but him could perform with such beauty, yet terrifying power.
"What? You think I overdid it? I did this before, it just a bit bigger now." 'A bit' was not exactly the word to cover the extension of his killing range, because he had single handedly killed everything around, including the one who had the stone, but no one dared to correct him.
"Let's go, we still have to reach the small red stone." But without enemies on their way, reaching the stone was faster and easier.
Although the one using the stone, was killed the same way as the rest, the small piece of the red meteor was untouched and suspended in the air, with an ominous dark aura. The thing try to attack on its own with dark treads of liquid, but Yunlan throw he goddess stone in the floor below it and they watched as it was cracked by smalls roots from the inside out. Then the roots go down the black earth on the many layers of snow and begin to grow up, trapping the rest stone, until it shatter away with a reddish flash.
After that, the root begin to take the form of thick trunks, then leaves grew from the branches to finally form long trees. More roots came out from the tainted earth for miles, creating a huge forest in just minutes. The gray sky clear up, allowing the sun to shine over their heads and the top of the new trees, with gold and red leafs, that tuner black and fall, then growing again and again, repeating the circle several times until the leafs remained with the gold only.
It was then, that the leafs that had fall down covering the snow completely, turned to ashes and go up in a silver mist. The sky clouded again with the coming of a rain storm. Far above them, lightning's flashed in several colors, then the rain fall down. However, right in front of them, two trees twisted again and again, making a small shelter big enough for all of them to stay in, away from the rain.
Rest, the cleaning with take one day in this part, then you move... The voice of a woman said in the wind and they all understood it was Nuwa's, even if most of them had not hear it before. They ran toward their offered shelter, glad that at least one part was over.
"Just one more step and our journey ends..." Yunlan whisper as he pull Shen to give him a loving hug right in the back of their new shelter.
"Yes, one more day..." Shen Wei whisper, before he slightly kissed Yunlan. The nightmare was going to end soon and a new life will begin in its place.
AN: Thanks for reading, I hope this was good. I wanted bigger, but bigger means longer and you take the risk to becoming boring, so I leave it like this. One or two more chapters left, I deeply thank all those who had read this story from the beginning to bottom, sometimes waiting patiently for the next update. It had been such a pleasure to present you with this little piece of my imagination. With deep love, please take care until next one. 😄😁😍😙💖💚❤💜💝💞🌹