A strange landscape stretched out before her, familiar yet alien at the same time. She wasn’t entirely sure where she was anymore. Nor who, for that matter. It wasn’t the first time she’d shared a consciousness like this—far from it—but it was still a novel experience. Two parts of herself were human, and intimately familiar with sharing each other’s minds and bodies, but the third was different, alien to the other two. It had only done this once before, very briefly, and it had found the experience as confusing then as it did now.

Yoshika—she decided to keep the same name, for now—tried to take in her surroundings. It was...exactly where she had been a moment ago, before taking her step. She recognized the flat, grassy fields outside of the academy, the forest that she had come from in the distance, and the rolling hills to the south, which she’d been prepared to flee towards. Yet at the same time...it wasn’t the same place. She simply knew that it wasn’t, there was a strange, otherworldly haze over everything that made her feel as if she was looking through a window at the world.

When she thought about it, she shouldn’t have been able to see anything while using Steps of the Stalker—it made her invisible, but also blind. The answer came to her immediately, she wasn’t seeing things with her eyes at all, her mind was simply interpreting her more alien senses into something she could humanly comprehend. It was like her soulscape, except this time she knew that she was physically present.

Yoshika realized with a start that something was missing—people! Yue had been right next to her, and the enemy...was gone. She couldn’t see the line of people evacuating to Yamato through the south gate, either...or the academy. The entire town was just missing. An empty, flat plain stretched out where the campus of the grand academy—Yoshika’s home—should have been.

It didn’t cause her any worry. She knew it was still there, it just wasn’t here. She felt the domains of two others searching for her, and she could sense the intent behind each one. The smaller one was concerned—light and dark in harmony, one of her favorites—but the other, more powerful one felt nothing at all. It simply followed instructions as it swept over, past, and through Yoshika without ever touching her. It was a cold thing of loyalty, conformity, and absolute obedience. It felt wrong—unnatural in a way that Yoshika couldn’t quite describe. Neither was able to reach this place.

Yoshika felt a bit lost for a moment, unsure what to do or where to go from here. It was hard to think in this state, and everything was so unfamiliar. The air, the ground, even her body felt ephemeral—distant, as if it was there, but not real—the way mana usually felt. Usually because mana now felt more real to her than anything else. She could feel the natural energy of the world washing over her—her own soul feeling more real to her now than her body did. She could physically feel the essence of her bonds, some larger or smaller, closer or more distant.

She understood most of them right away. Yue, right next to her, of course. Rika and Hayakawa fleeing toward the evacuating group—unusually slowly. Yoshika was a bit perturbed that she had such a bond with Hayakawa. She was still mad at her. Off in the distance, moving further away with every moment, she could feel Dae, Eunae, and the delightful little Haeun that she’d enjoyed playing with so much. She and Haeun had taught each other a great deal, a fact which came to Yoshika both as a fond memory, and a startling revelation.

There were many such bonds, but two stood out as particularly unusual. One seemed to call out to her, and felt intimately familiar—more like the bonds that held her selves together than those that linked her to her friends. The other felt more like a beacon, to bring something to her rather than the other way around, though now that she could feel it she supposed it would be simple enough to just follow it instead.

Without putting much thought into it, Yoshika let her instincts guide her, and followed the familiar bond that called out to her. With each step it felt like she crossed huge gulfs of land, and she understood that it was because she was moving in between spaces, as a spirit did. She followed a river of mana, flowing with such intensity that it threatened to sweep her away if she stood directly in its path. Through the hills, up the mountain, and across a cliff with a gap that no longer seemed so precarious when she could just step between one place and another to end up on the other side.

She stood on a familiar precipice, in a familiar presence. The presence wrapped itself around her and spoke in ideas, concepts, and feelings that completely transcended all concepts of mortal speech. Yoshika made an effort to translate the experience into something her human selves would be able to comprehend when they recalled it later.

“Welcome, kin. We have long awaited your return.”

Yoshika didn’t bow, exactly, but she expressed her respect.

“Thank you, great spirit. We apologize for the wait—we didn’t know you were calling us.”

The spirit coalesced into its form as a giant panther, more real now than it had been the first time Yoshika met it. She wasn’t intimidated by it this time, even as it loomed over her. She knew that it wouldn’t harm her.

“You have changed.”

The words weren’t an indictment, nor were they praise. An observation, more curious than anything.

“Yes. We share our vessels, each of us part of a greater whole. It is better this way, we are learning.”

The panther spirit nodded slowly.

“I was right to entrust myself to you once. I now do so again. The intruders will come for me, and I will not be able to stop them. Take this.”

Yoshika looked down and saw the small flower bush in her hands, as real in this place as it had been in the physical world. It’s dusky, grey petals swaying not in the wind, but with the flow of mana.

“This is what the intruders will seek. It is everything I am, except for you and my kin elsewhere. I entrust it to you, our future. Grow and learn. Become greater, and make us whole once more.”

Yoshika accepted the gift, placing the flower bush safely within her artifact. Before the great spirit faded, she felt its power wash gently through her, another gift. As much of itself as her vessel could withstand. Power enough for her to complete her next task. Once more following her intuition, she followed the second of her mysterious bonds. As she’d known it would, the mere act of doing so called the other side of the bond towards her.

She descended the mountain in what felt like only a handful of steps, slipping past unfamiliar domains that were even now seeking the prize that she carried away. As she walked, Yoshika finally felt as though she had time to try to make sense of everything she was experiencing. Steps of the Stalker had done more than simply turn her invisible, it allowed her to walk through this place between places. The world of spirits, perhaps? That might explain her body, as well.

Yoshika hadn’t had time to acknowledge it, but her body was—well, a single body, for one. Her spirit form, the one that she had painstakingly crafted during her breakthrough. At first she thought it strange that Heian hadn’t been expressed in her new form, but she realized that it was a silly thought—Heian had already been a part of her when she created the form in the first place. So she was in spirit form, travelling through the world of spirits, but how? And how would she get back?

The first question was easy enough to figure out when she pondered it. Her body was partially made of essence, and thus acted as a sort of bridge between the physical and spirit worlds. Steps of the Stalker allowed her to step sideways from one to the other, with some help from Heian. She knew that Heian was the part of her that understood the spirit world. Without it, she would be lost, adrift, maybe for eternity. Or rather, Jia and Eui would. Heian could navigate this place alone if she wanted to, but she would be just as lost in the physical realm.

Yoshika wasn’t sure how far she had walked, while she pondered. Time didn’t seem to exist here, and she began to understand that the reason she seemed to lose all sense of time while in meditation was because it was exactly this world of spirits that she was tapping into when she did so. Did that mean her soulscape was something similar? Her own inner world of spirits?

It was a question she’d have to answer later, as she sensed the link growing stronger. She would be reaching her destination any moment n—

“Oof!”

Yoshika collided with something disturbingly solid, knocking her backwards onto her butt. She hadn’t been expecting that! Nothing was supposed to be solid here. She looked up at the obstacle, and her confusion quickly turned to horror. There, standing above her was a demon woman. Nearly seven feet tall, with physique and figure that would give both Rika and Eunae each a run for their money. A single glossy black horn in the middle of her forehead stood out against skin that was pearlescent like white jade, and her dark purple hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall. The loose robes she wore did little to hide the glowing red demonic core nestled deep within her ample bosom, matched by her cruel, red eyes. She held her hands on her hips and sneered down at Yoshika.

“Well well, what have we here? A little rat who thought she could scurry away unseen? Or perhaps a cat? Aren’t they supposed to be natural enemies?”

The demon giggled at her own joke. Yoshika was stunned. How!? But of course, if she could travel between space like this, so could someone else. She had escaped the tiger’s den, only to find herself before a dragon instead. Yoshika stood up, eyeing the demon uneasily as she brushed herself off—out of habit, there wasn’t any dust in the spirit world. Could she talk her way out of this somehow?

“W-who are you? What do you want with us?”

The demoness threw her head back and laughed heartily as if that was the best joke she’d ever heard.

“Ahahaha! Have you forgotten your master already? Such impudence! I don’t hate cheeky little brats like you, though.”

Yoshika’s mind went blank for a moment. That laugh, that attitude, that peculiar turn of phrase—when she thought about it, even the appearance was similar, except—

“Wha—Jianmo!?”

“Ahahahaha—the look on your face! You shouldn’t be so surprised! I told you that you’d find me if you looked, didn’t I?”

She couldn’t believe it. Her mind was rejecting the reality in front of her. The bond that she’d been following led directly to the demon in front of her, all evidence seemed to point to this being the same Jianmo that had slain Yan Zhihao, helped her to break through, the instigator to so many of her troubles over the past year. She just couldn’t get past one small detail.

“You’re a woman!”

Jianmo raised an eyebrow at her.

“Yes?”

“But—you were a man!”

“Mhm.”

Yoshika found herself floundering, opening and closing her mouth without being able to get any words out. In the end, her protest felt weak even to her own ears.

“But—how—that doesn’t make any sense...”

Jianmo chuckled, and shook her head—his head? Yoshika was so confused.

“I can tell you all about it if you like—it’s a boring story, though. Maybe not here. Whoever taught you to spirit walk did a shit job of it and you’re bleeding that sneaky kitty’s essence all over the place. She was a good neighbor those ten thousand years and at this rate there’s not going to be anything left of her.”

Now that Jianmo mentioned it, Yoshika was spending shadow essence like water, and she hadn’t realized just how much of it she’d used up while lost in thought.

“Um...where should we go, then?”

Jianmo shrugged.

“Just stop spirit walking here.”

“Right! Yes...how?”

Jianmo covered her face with a palm and sighed.

“You used a technique to get here, did you not?”

Yoshika nodded, embarrassed.

“So...stop it. Just stop doing it. This isn’t complicated.”

For the first time, Yoshika realized that she hadn’t really been paying attention to her domain or her soul—or rather, she’d been experiencing it differently than her human consciousness was accustomed to. In this form, her domain was her body. That was probably why there was only one body, and she looked like Yoshika. She didn’t know how to manipulate it like this, but the spirit part of her mind acted instinctively, following her intent. After a moment of focus, the physical world snapped into place around her.

The sudden transition from spiritual to physical was jarring, and Jia immediately lost her balance as the gravity that she hadn’t realized was gone reasserted itself on her, causing her and Eui to collapse into a tangled pile of limbs with Heian sitting on top in her cat form.

“Pffhahaha! First time, huh? I don’t hate clumsy little disciples like you.”

Jia frowned up at the seven foot tall demoness standing over them. She was still a woman—Jia had half-expected her to have a different spirit form like Yoshika, but apparently not. Jia was broken from her thoughts by a sharp pain in her side as Eui poked her.

“Ow! Fuck, I forgot we feel each other’s pain. Get off me, Jia!”

“S-sorry!”

The two girls took a moment to extricate themselves from each other and stand up, brushing themselves off—for real this time. Jianmo just watched them expectantly. Jia and Eui had so many questions, so many things they wanted to know, but Eui threw out the first one that was on both of their minds.

“Why the fuck are you a woman now!?”

Jianmo doubled over in laughter again, wiping at her eyes after a moment as she composed herself.

“That’s what concerns you most?” He—she shrugged. “Well, my last body got obliterated by a divine tribulation, so I made a new one.”

Jia and Eui stared blankly at Jianmo. How were they supposed to respond to that!? Jia decided to let it go for now and ask about something more pressing.

“Are you the reason those demons attacked the academy?”

Jianmo frowned, looking off into the distance and digging into her ear with a pinky as she responded.

“Eh...maybe? I’m probably about sixty to eighty percent responsible.”

Eui grimaced.

“What do you mean ‘sixty to eighty percent’!?”

“Well, it’s definitely my fault they came to this world. And they probably showed up there specifically because of uh...a small remnant of my essence that they might have picked up on...”

Jia remembered the demons that had appeared right near her, how Yu Meiren had immediately identified Eui, and the way they had seemed to be looking for Jianmo. She grimaced as all the pieces fell into place, and then for a moment forgot that she was talking to one of the most powerful beings she’d ever encountered as she stepped forward and slapped Jianmo repeatedly on the shoulder—since she could barely reach her face.

“You fucker! Your stupid beacon led them straight to us! I knew it was all your fault! Do you have any idea how much trouble you’ve brought us!?”

Jianmo held her hands up and chuckled.

“In my defense, I honestly didn’t think either of you would survive, much less trigger—and live through—a divine tribulation. Fascinating cultivation you’ve got, by the way. I thought the cute little demon would eat you, then get put down by Qin’s little brat.”

“How does that make it any better!?”

Jia stopped hitting Jianmo, the redness in her face quickly turning from anger to embarrassment as she caught her breath and realized what she’d done. Eui was looking contemplative, and she narrowed her eyes as she looked up at Jianmo.

“Hold on, ‘this world’? What is that supposed to mean? Where did those demons come from, and why were they attacking the academy?”

Jianmo smirked, stretching her hands above her head in a way that caused Eui’s eyes to wander—Jia elbowed her in the side.

“Well, aren’t you observant? I don’t hate clever little girls like you. They come from the divine realm. The goal of cultivation is to ascend as a god, is it not? Where do you think you will ascend to?”

“I thought you said this world had no gods.”

“It didn’t, yesterday.”

Jia felt the blood drain from her face at the implications of that, but Eui pressed on.

“Okay, but why? If they were here for you, wouldn’t they have shown up during the ten thousand years you were stuck in that mountain or whatever?”

“Probably! They’re not really here for me, though. They’re more interested in my master.”

Jia frowned—someone as powerful as Jianmo had a master?

“Who is that?”

Jianmo shrugged, her expression becoming a bit distant as she responded.

“Someone long dead. It’s not important. They are interested in finding his tomb.”

Jia was getting increasingly frustrated by Jianmo’s non-answers.

“That still doesn’t explain why they attacked the academy!”

“Well, that was probably because they happened to be there, and that’s just what demons do.”

She gave her a flat look.

“You’re a demon.”

“Yes?”

Ugh—she had forgotten how insufferable Jianmo was. Eui helpfully stepped in to get things back on track.

“Alright, fine. So some demon gods descended from the divine realm to come after your master’s tomb—which is here for some reason—followed your beacon to the academy, and ruined our lives because it seemed like fun. How? Why now? What did you have to do with it? And what does it mean for us?”

Jianmo sat down on the grass and scratched her head.

“Uh, right. Well, it’s a bit of a long story, so you might want to sit down. First off, they’re not all gods—or demons for that matter. I doubt that more than three actual deities bothered to send avatars along. As for the rest...well, that’s a bit more complicated.”

Jia and Eui sat down in front of Jianmo, and she began to explain.