Chapter 26: The Gate of Judgment
The air crackled with magic.
Between the cliffs and the looming Red Gate, a wall of shimmering force spread from the staves of the cloaked figures. The ground beneath Yu Zhen's feet thrummed with ancient power—older than empires, older even than memory.
Yu Zhen raised his wooden sword, now pulsing with light.
"Hold formation!" he shouted.
Lan Yueran flanked him on the left, blade unsheathed. Kaiwen moved to the right, sigils already glowing across his palm. Behind them, the Jingyang survivors readied weapons with grim silence.
Then the earth roared.
A wave of pressure exploded outward from the Gate. Dust spiraled skyward. Half the front line staggered. The cloaked figures began to chant, their voices overlapping in a tongue no one understood.
Kaiwen's face paled. "They're awakening the Gate's wards."
"What happens if they finish?" Yu Hao asked.
Kaiwen didn't answer.
Because he didn't know.
---
The first clash came like lightning.
One of the cloaked Keepers lunged forward, staff spinning. His movements were not human—fluid, like wind and shadow woven together. Yu Zhen parried with a single strike, his blade meeting the staff with a resounding crack.
Lan Yueran darted past him, engaging two others. Her footwork was sharp, but their coordination uncanny.
"These aren't ordinary soldiers!" she called.
"No," Yu Zhen said. "They're fragments."
"Fragments?"
"Of something forgotten."
Kaiwen hurled a sphere of flame toward a group of Keepers. It exploded on contact—but when the smoke cleared, the figures remained, robes singed but unfazed.
"They're channeling through the Gate," he growled. "Drawing from something beneath it."
Yu Zhen narrowed his eyes. "Then we sever the link."
---
He broke from the line.
Charging straight toward the arch of the Red Gate, he moved like water over stone—dodging blasts of raw energy, sidestepping strikes from glowing blades.
As he approached the base of the Gate, he saw it: a circle of glyphs etched in ancient script, pulsing in rhythm with the Keepers' chants.
In the center, a single sigil blinked red.
The heart of the ritual.
Yu Zhen plunged his blade into the stone.
A scream—not human—echoed through the cliffs.
All at once, the glyphs faltered. The Keepers staggered. For a brief second, their coordination broke.
Lan Yueran took advantage, slicing through the shoulder of one attacker. Kaiwen sealed another in a barrier of blue flame.
But Yu Zhen didn't stop.
He pressed deeper, carving through the glyphs, disrupting the flow of power.
Then—suddenly—it retaliated.
---
A blast of force hurled him backward.
He hit the ground hard, vision flashing white. For a moment, he couldn't breathe. The sigils flared back to life—but now wilder, unstable. The Gate groaned.
Then—it spoke.
Not in words, but in memory.
A vision filled his mind: a battlefield of light and flame, a thousand years past. The Gate stood intact, whole and gleaming. Armies gathered before it—Rael's armies. And behind the Gate—darkness, immense and alive.
A voice echoed in the void.
"Seal us, and suffer. Free us, and burn."
Yu Zhen gasped, forcing himself upright. The vision faded—but the warning lingered.
The Gate wasn't just a passage.
It was a prison.
---
Back on the field, the Keepers regrouped.
Kaiwen shouted, "They're trying to rebind the rupture! They'll trigger a collapse!"
"What kind?" Yu Hao asked.
Kaiwen looked toward the sky.
"The kind that doesn't stop."
Yu Zhen rejoined them. His tunic was torn, and blood trickled from his brow. "We can't win this head-on."
Lan Yueran cut down another attacker. "Then what's the plan?"
Yu Zhen looked at the Gate. "We need to unmake the glyph entirely. Sever the last link."
Kaiwen's eyes widened. "That's layered sealwork. Old World stuff. You need someone inside it."
Yu Zhen nodded slowly. "I'll go."
"No," Lan Yueran said instantly.
He met her eyes. "It has to be me."
Kaiwen glanced at the circle. "There might be another way."
Yu Zhen turned to him. "There isn't time."
Suddenly, the chanting from the Keepers stopped.
All turned toward the Gate.
The arch began to glow—not red, but white. A massive pulse of energy exploded outward, knocking both sides to the ground.
A tear opened in the air above the Gate.
Not just light—a void.
And from it… something stirred.
---
Then, a horn blew.
Far off—behind the Keepers—a new force emerged from the mists.
Riders. At least fifty. Cloaked in white and silver. Each carried a long spear with a banner bearing the symbol of a phoenix wreathed in flame.
At their front rode a woman in gold-laced armor, face marked with tattoos of flame.
Kaiwen gasped. "The Aether Riders. From the west."
Yu Lian whispered, "But they vanished years ago."
"They've returned," Yu Zhen said. "For this."
The Riders swept into the Keepers like wind through dry leaves. The clash was brutal but swift. The momentum shifted instantly.
Yu Zhen turned to his group. "This is our chance."
---
As the Riders fought, Yu Zhen and Kaiwen sprinted toward the Gate.
Lan Yueran tried to follow—but Yu Zhen stopped her with a glance.
"Stay with them," he said. "If we fail—pull back."
She didn't like it. But she nodded.
At the Gate's base, Kaiwen traced the outer sigils. "If I channel from here… I can weaken the anchor point."
Yu Zhen raised his sword. "Then I'll strike it."
Together, they moved.
Kaiwen's palms lit with blue fire. Runes spiraled out. The glyphs cracked. The air screamed.
Yu Zhen plunged his sword into the heart of the seal.
Light exploded.
The tear above the Gate shuddered.
And then—
Silence.
The seal disintegrated.
The Gate pulsed once.
And the void closed.
---
The last of the Keepers screamed—and vanished into dust.
The Aether Riders pulled back, forming a silent half-circle. Their leader dismounted and approached Yu Zhen.
"You walk with Rael's soul," she said.
Yu Zhen nodded. "And his burden."
"You severed the Gate. It cannot be opened again—not without a life paid."
Yu Zhen sheathed his sword. "Then let none pay it."
She studied him a long moment. Then extended a scroll.
"The eastern city of Hualin still stands—but barely. The flames rise. The Empire does nothing. You must go."
Yu Zhen took the scroll. "And you?"
"We ride north. To the other Gate. There are more than one."
With that, she turned.
And the Riders vanished into the mist as quickly as they came.
---
That night, the survivors camped before the quiet Gate.
The sky had cleared. Stars shone again.
Yu Zhen sat beside the remains of the glyph circle. Kaiwen lay asleep nearby. Lan Yueran approached and sat beside him.
"You were right," she said. "Only you could've done it."
He chuckled softly. "I'd prefer if someone else could've tried."
They sat in silence.
Then she asked, "What now?"
Yu Zhen looked toward the east—toward Hualin, the city in danger.
"We walk again," he said.
She nodded. "Together."
---