Being from different eras, most of the Demons of Devastation have never met. However, it is said that the Oni Prince once traded pointers with the Darkened Moon, long before the latter ascended. According to the accounts of those who witnessed the fight, the Darkened Moon was lucky to have survived. Perhaps the Demons knew, even back then, the connection they shared. Why else would the Oni Prince spare the young cultivator, thus dooming the rest of us to the Darkened Moon's madness a millennia later. -A passage of The Analysis of Voidfall, by Mu Qiran

I took Lin's arm, and he helped me to my feet. We quickly rejoined the rest of those gathered. One of the sketchy oni lay dead on the ground, his throat completely ripped out. Not even Ishida's healing could have saved him. His friend was missing, a humanoid-sized hole in a nearby window showing where he'd been dragged away, leaving Ishida to defend her position alone.

"How long do these things usually last?" I asked the apothecary.

She shrugged helplessly. "They've been getting longer. The last one was weeks ago, but it lasted nearly twenty minutes before that burning eclipse appeared and relit the armillaries."

"It's city wide?" I asked, dreading the answer.

Back when the Black City was still Half-Moon Hearth, the four Ascendents who ruled the city created a massive defense system in order to keep the city stable. Powered by the lunar qi of their prince, designed by the cunning mind of the chief advisor, and using materials gathered by their general and princess, the Armillary Array was born. For centuries it ran without issue, serving to both light the city and hold the fabric of reality together within the city. Without it, the very air and qi would rip itself asunder.

"Most of the time, yes," she answered, shaking her head. "One of these times, our lights will go out forever. Thirteen districts remain."

"There used to be twenty-nine," I muttered.

"If the Void comes, some of us have nowhere else to go." Ishida cast a worried glance back at the counter where Xinya and Xiaolong poked their heads over the counter. I didn't know the full story behind the apothecary and her ward, but I knew they were not native to the Black City. I had no doubt that they were just as much refugees as we were, unable to return to the land of their birth.

"We must first survive this Blackout," Lin said. "We should try and seek shelter below."

"No." Everyone turned at the sound of Satoro's voice. The oni hadn't moved an inch during the fight and was still drinking his wine straight from the jar.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "We can't just stay here in the open. We lost two last time. The next time-"

"Three," Xinya corrected. "That shade lady went crazy and Chiho had to disperse her."

Xiaolong shook his head. "A terrible way to go. The Shades are the most vulnerable of anyone."

"My point is that the next time we might not be able to hold them," I continued, turning back to the oni. He raised the jar to his lips and took a swig before giving me a look that seemed almost…bored.

"You've buried your head in the sand for a month already," he droned. "Are you expecting things to just-"

The door shuddered under the force of a thunderous boom that shook the very frame. Lin and I immediately fell back to the counter where Ishida's sapling had started growing tall on the countertop. It practically reached the ceiling, and its branches spread in a wide canopy overhead. Her qi was soothing, something that was sorely needed as the building shook and trembled around us, barely keeping our enemies at bay.

Satoro cried out in alarm. The window nearest him had exploded inward in a hail of wood scraps that buried themselves in the drunkard's chest. Before he even had the chance to stand, a dense, shadowy void spirit surged into the room, enveloping him entirely in its mass. In the darkness, I heard the sound of his wine jar shattering against the floor.

"Satoro!" Lin called. He and I were already on the move to assist, but if Satoro was who I thought he was, there was no need.

"Son of a three-faced fox bastard!" he shouted. His qi flared, brilliantly marbled in green and white, like fine jade. I put a hand on Lin's shoulder, holding him back.

I knew that qi signature, though it was one I hadn't seen for centuries, even before my imprisonment. After all, one doesn't simply forget the vibrant colors of the enemy they swore to destroy.

A blade cut through the void spirit as Satoro forced it off him. It crashed into the table, taking up the shape of a carnivorous horse once more. It snarled at the oni. To my surprise, though, blisters covered Satoro's skin from where the spirit had tried and failed to dissolve his flesh.

"You ruined my drink," he growled, flexing his hand around the glaive that had been summoned to his hand.

Lin took in a sharp breath next to me as he saw the incredible craftsmanship of that weapon. The obsidian blade was black as night with a shaft to match. Delicate gold filigree traced flowing patterns of leaves and vines around the guard, and a light green tassel hung from the backend. To my knowledge, Lin would have only seen two weapons of comparable quality: Razor Wind, and Eclipse, the weapons of immortals.

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Satoro lunged forward with the glaive, slicing at the spirit. It darted to the side, and I blinked. Void spirits were fast, sure, but Satoro should have been more than capable of killing it in a single blow. What was taking him so long?

The spirit twisted beneath the blade, only to cling to the shaft and race up to his hands. He snarled at the thing. Jade qi flared and the spirit hissed, but instead of retreating, it leapt from the blade to Satoro's chest, knocking him back as it attempted to dig at his qi.

"Just going to stand there?" he shouted. "Is the Demon of-" Before he could finish the taunt, the creature lunged, burying its fangs in his throat.

"Yoru we have to help him!" Lin cried, shaking me from my confused stupor.

Though I didn't understand why, he was right. Green blood seeped onto the ground as Satoro wrestled with the creature in a bitter war of qi.

I flung a chain forward. It cut through the vile spirit just as Lin's seeds landed on the windowsill. They flared and grew with a frenzy, cutting off the spirit's escape. The spirit released Satoro from its teeth, turning to look at the two of us.

"I'm a much better tasting meal than he is, trust me," I said. "He's old and sour." Satoro had stopped moving, laying still on the ground.

"Void…energy beyond…need…" the spirit's words whispered into my mind as it took a step towards me with clawed feet.

Satoro lunged upward, slicing with the legendary glaive. A pulse of qi passed from him to the weapon, then into the creature. It shrieked as green qi ripped through it, unmaking it from the inside.

Then, it was still. The whole exchange had taken scarcely a minute, but Satoro was bleeding from a dozen holes, including a very fatal one where the spirit had torn into his throat. Even as he stood before us, his shoulders jerked as his lungs tried to pull air in, only to be filled with blood.

Ishida rushed forward ready to assist as Lin and I took her place defending the children. Yet, before she could reach him, Satoro waved her off. He couldn't speak through his injuries, but the message was clear to me.

"Don't worry about him," I said on his behalf. "A little thing like that won't kill him, right Satoro?"

A cruel smile crept along his face. One by one, the shrapnel wounds on his chest began to close. His blisters grew smaller and smaller until his skin was just as flawless as I expected from a vain and powerful oni. He leaned on his glaive, waiting for his qi to finish his recovery.

"I don't think I've ever seen an artist heal so fast," Lin murmured. "Is that how more advanced artists look?"

I nodded. "But, in this case, I doubt he's much more advanced than we are, at the moment. His regeneration has always been the pride of his path."

"You know him?"

"Unfortunately, yes." I sighed. "Lin, Ishida, I'd like you to meet Kaishin Satoro, the Oni Prince and Demon of Tragedy."

Satoro wheezed, the injury on his neck finally closing enough for him to speak. "Is that my surname? It's been so long since I've heard it."

"How could you forget your own clan name!"

He shrugged. "Just wasn't important. Which does raise the very interesting question of why a Lunar Pipsqueak like you remembered it, oh, Demon of Misfortune."

My ears burned, and my fists balled at my sides. I hadn't missed his mockery. I met the Oni Prince a few times, but only during official gatherings of the most powerful cultivators of the age. As Gemstone artists, both Jinshi and I qualified. The prince himself, along with most of his higher court wore demonic masks, as was fashionable at the time, and I never got the chance to see his face. However, only one person had the gall to call me by that name. If his qi signature and use of the glaive, Heixin, hadn't given it away, that name certainly did.

"Why are you here, Your Highness?" I hissed, spitting the title with as much malice as I could muster.

He sighed. "As shameful as it is to admit, I'm here for you Xiao-ru." Satoro held up a hand, stopping me before I had the chance to lash at him with my tongue. "But, this doesn't really look like the place to have that conversation, does it? I'd prefer a little more light and a little less screaming, wouldn't you?"

"Since when have you ever cared for the people of the land? Your reign was notable for the negligence of its rulers to the point of cruelty!" I couldn't stand the idea of actually working with one of my most hated rivals from the past.

"Yoru." Lin put a hand on my shoulder. "I gave you the chance to prove me wrong about your past. Maybe Satoro deserves that chance, too?"

"No, I don't," the oni protested simply. "I'm the most wicked there is."

I blinked in surprise. He wasn't going to defend himself?

Seeing my confusion, Satoro rolled his eyes. In an instant, he crossed the distance between us and yanked on my collar, pulling me close enough to smell the alcohol on his breath and count the ridges on his horns.

"Are you waiting for an invitation? Fix the damned lights!"

"What makes you think I can?!"

Rather than Satoro, it was actually Ishida who answered. "I'm not sure if I understand the conversation correctly, but if you're really the Demon of Misfortune, that would make you the Darkened Moon, no? If so, then fixing the district armillary shouldn't be a problem. They're your design after all."

I bit my tongue. In truth, I'd forgotten that the apothecary was even here in the darkness. She was taking the entire conversation with surprising ease, given the legendary titles being thrown about. In fact, her lack of terrified screaming or cowering made me convinced that she was no ordinary person either.

"I…I don't know if I can," I admitted. "It's just powered with my qi, but it was my advisor who designed it."

"That still makes you the best qualified to do it, Pipsqueak," the oni said.

Satoro pinned me with his crimson stare. He was a genius, a prodigy of cultivation, and the one who founded the basis of modern spiritual arts. I might have a mountain of resentment from our past, but people were dying just outside our doors. The void was loud, and it was hungry.

"I'll come with you," Lin said. "I might not be of much help, but I can, at least, keep them off you while you make whatever repairs are needed."

I turned my head, despite still being trapped in Satoro's iron grip. Lin's eyes were earnest. I didn't know why he had such confidence in my ability to fix an array when my specialty was about as far away from array-work as it could possibly be, but I couldn't help but feel a bit uplifted, knowing that he'd be behind me.

"Fine," I answered. Satoro released me. "Miss Ishida, would you remain here to take care of Xinya?"

"Certainly."

"But, Uncle Yoru!" Xinya protested, but a stern glare from Lin cut her off. I agreed with him. She was in no condition to help.

"We better get armed for this one," I said. Lin nodded and we raced for the stairs.

Eclipse was right where I left it, alongside my bow. I grabbed them both, sliding the quiver over my shoulder in a single motion before returning to Lin. Void mist swirled around the sword in his hand, the traces of its original owner's qi reacting to the heightened void in the air.

"Ready to light this place up?" he asked. I nodded.

"Time to see just how much I was paying attention to the creation of my own defenses."

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