Light.

Pressure.

A terrible foreboding.

Lily scrambled awake with a gasp, throwing herself out of her tent and staring— west. It was from the west. She could feel it, and— as she stared west, she could see it. A vast and scarlet light mingling with the winter sunrise, the predawn overtaken by the malevolent, bloody force of it as it pulsed beyond the horizon.

A few seconds later something crashed through the underbrush, Avyr skidding to a stop by her side and curling up protectively around her. His hackles were on edge as he stared just the same as she did, a harsh hiss barely banked beneath a snarling visage.

Another pulse of crimson light lit the sky, followed by a weaker cerulean light and then a further, overwhelmingly powerful eruption of bloody, golden radiance. The pressure of it— even as far away as she was— was enough to kick her back into Avyr’s side and made breathing laborious. Just for a second— but even for a second, that was terrifying. “What…” she panted, savoring the brisk morning air that just moments prior she hadn’t even been able to breathe— “what was that?

”

Avyr stared off into the now-quiet distance for a long, long while before softly mewling— “a fight. The colors of the sky were battling.” And it all clicked. Of course— she’d seen videos of powerful cultivator techniques, the way they could rearrange the landscape and devastate the world around them for as far as the eye could see… and, at the pinnacle of their power, reduce even the celestial bodies to so many shattered fragments.

Whoever had been fighting hadn’t been at that realm of power, but if she’d had to choose between that terrifying video and this, she’d never dare to call it any the lesser? Illogical? Maybe. But to feel it… there was something indelibly, inescapably different about being caught beneath the aura of a cultivator at those highest realms of power. That sensation… “it felt like being a bug in the barrel of a gun. As though blood itself had decreed her something to be cleansed.” The very qi of the world had seemed to transform beneath that terrible, overwhelming power.

Avyr seemed significantly less perturbed than she was, which was totally unfair. Sure, she was close to two whole realms of cultivation behind him, but she’d catch up eventually! Plus, she was made of pretty strong stuff, and…

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Okay, maybe expecting herself not to be affected by the cultivation technique of… who, an elder of the Bloody Saffron Sect? The Sect Master himself? Was kinda laughable. It wasn’t like they’d aimed the technique at her though— she had no delusions that if that’d been the case, she’d have been erased from existence. She’d almost been crushed just from existing in its presence.

It was a sobering thought.

“Powerful cultivators tend to have that effect.” Slowly, as the world once more settled back to the pre-dawn calm, the fight over one way or the other, Avyr uncurled from around her. “You can live beside them for your whole life and only realize the true depth of their power when you feel it…” he mewled softly, gaze locked on something far, far away that only he could see. After a second he shook his head, slowly meandering back towards the qi gathering formation. “It might be best for you to stick closer than me— that sort of technique tends to disturb the wildlife fiercely, and if with a foundation establishment beast around…”

Lily grimaced, but nodded. He did have a point— much as she’d not wanted to camp on the rocks near the formation, with all the steam and the smell of the hot springs, it would be safer to be closer to Avyr.

“Fine, fine…” She’d have to get to work on that defensive formation faster than she’d wanted to. She had much the same doubts as her friend. “As long as it won’t distract you from your cultivation— I know you. Don’t get distracted.”

Avyr ducked his head a little sheepishly. “Of course. I promise I won’t— I really need to push if I want to get anywhere close to making a breakthrough.”

“But you can do it, right?”

Avyr was quiet for a long moment. “Maybe. I don’t know. It seems unlikely, but… I’m closer than thought possible. The technique that Mingtian helped me make… it’s almost scarily effective. A month is a ridiculously small amount of time to advance a major realm, even if its one of the comparatively simpler beginner realms…”

“Sure sure whatever get back to cultivating.” Avyr chuffed out a laugh— but did as instructed, leaping back into the formation and settling once more into a meditative pose. Lily let the faintest edge of a smile brush across her face, just for a moment…

Then, she grabbed her stylus and— with the memory of the bloody sky behind her— set to work. One day she’d be able to contest that level of power— and she would claw her way there no matter the obstacle. If that current obstacle was making a proper defensive formation?

Her grin turned almost manic. Against her? It wouldn’t stand a chance.