"Sorry to keep you waiting, pretty statue." He muttered to himself. His words were back to confident, carefree—like healing Lìngxi, even by giving up an eye, had given him the most pure version of peace.
He didn't stand much longer at that same spot, not wanting to draw the statue's attention there. So he spun his sword and threw it sideways across the lake—where it fell into another deeper valley.
The sword hissed like it was slicing the wind. Kage Ou followed it, his pace growing faster with each step.
"Searching me?! Come over here! Have a secret to share~" He stopped for a second to scream out the words, waving toward the statue hard enough to draw attention before following his sword again, a plan already forming in his mind.
It worked too.
The statue turned toward the way from where the voice seemed to echo through the mountains. Its crimson red sockets searched for the source of the sound.
When it landed on Kage Ou, it didn't waste time even with its heavy, large body. Its feet rose up with spins into the water, then dropped again as it walked toward him. Its tied hands still aggressively tried to open the chains by crashing against whatever part of the mountain it found, creating another blow of chaos—but Lìngxi was at least out of the problem for now.
"Yeah, keep coming!" He called again, grinning at how obediently the statue followed him.
'I'll take it down to the whole valley, away from this spot for now. It's too aggressive to go too close right now.'
The statue came much farther by following him. They were now at the edge of the valley, which was covered with thick layers of smoke, making it impossible to see anything properly. Kage Ou just hoped he wouldn't be blinded by it—since he didn't even have his other eye, his head was pounding, and who knew if he would even grab at the right place or not.
"Get ready, you damn sword! Don't cut my own hand out of blindness!" He scolded it earlier like a strict teacher scolding the most miserable student.
The sword responded with a cry of an owl—as if both embarrassed by the scolding and also signaling that it was ready.
But now the sword didn't only try to follow Kage Ou but also grab him.
After a moment, it lowered itself with the binded hands to grab him. Big hands creating a dark, black shadow all over him.
Kage Ou's eyes widened as he ran with his front facing the statue while trying to find any useful talisman to use—one that wouldn't get ruined by the poisonous water.
Because all of them did.
"The fuck—why does it want to catch me now?! I'm not prepared yet!" His lungs forgot to breathe when the hand almost caught him hard enough to pop him like any puffer fish.
He dodged it barely by rolling down and into many ways. It only made his head spin worse while the running was calming it down.
His sword cried out in worry.
Instead of doing what Kage Ou had planned—it spun back from the space of the thick, smoky valley and slashed several times over the big, tall fingers of the statue, creating golden-black thunder lights with sharp sounds like slicing.
Kage Ou held both his heart and head—heart coming out and mind at its limits. "This.. statue seemed to have its own plan too."
He shook his head, finally realizing his sword had disobeyed him to make sure he was safe—even if every part of his body screamed to just shut down.
Only hope kept him going.
"Damn it, I intended you to move down to the valley, catch me, and unseal that damn Zhèng door to freeze it like the last seven minutes before death! Can't you do a single thing as I ordered?!" He yelled at the sword like he knew the attacks were useless and would just cost him sending it to the sharpeners to get its teeth back.
"Ei?" The sword paused while almost stuck between the palms of the statue.
Not a single part of the statue's hands were damaged. They remained perfect—all it did was remove the dullness and bring out the actual shine.
It had been brought to soft violet while it looked like pale, dirty white the whole time.
Even the statue paused and looked at its hands like it had been dying to see them in this form. It didn't pay proper attention to Kage Ou's sword tangled into the heavy chains like a thin cage. Its hands trembled, fingers twitching.
"A-h... so it was also angry.. because it was dirty..?" Kage Ou breathed, trying to catch his breath. "Fucking strange statue—probably more tidy than I have ever been."
The statue immediately looked at him when he commented, like it had been insulted.
Kage Ou silenced immediately.
'Oh no. It seems to have an.. ego too..'
Before he could stand up, the statue groaned like a dinosaur and slammed both hands over the ground—aimed to punch Kage Ou hard.
Kage Ou quickly rolled aside, not awake enough to go much farther but enough to avoid the attack. Dust filled the area.
"Ah.. God.." Kage Ou coughed out the dust. He swore he had never eaten this much dust even in battlefields.
His whole black robe turned dusty brown. A small royal blue flower sat ridiculously on his head. He lightly paused when he saw it.
"Ou.. looks like my Lìng Lìng.." Even in that moment, he took it and carefully kept it in a safe place into his robe. "I hope it won't be ruined."
The statue stared at Kage Ou with unspoken annoyance and fury for some reason. It kept twisting its heavy hands near him as if threatening: open it, or I will kill you!
But Kage Ou could only dodge by rolling away breathlessly. How could he unseal it while his sword couldn't even leave a scratch on its body?
"Oi, stop! I'm not made of stone like you!" This chaos brought them very close to the edge of the valley—even the mountains were above this middle part.
He ended up hanging at the edge, gripping any random plant and stone.
His sword cried out in panic. But the statue managed to take it out from the chain and held it like a tiny toothpick.
"Fuck.." He whispered tightly as he somehow managed to climb up while his arms gave up. He exhaled when he made it. "Hmph.."
But his eyes flew open when a loud sound of cracking came from somewhere.
Even the statue looked around.
'Please not this now.. please not this..'
He slowly looked at the beaten ground—it was cracked and kept cracking.
They were going to fall.
"Run!"
Just when those words slipped from his mouth—the whole edge of the valley, including the statue with him, started to fall downwards.