Shooting star

[So that's my story]

Wei Sha scratched his head.

Lin Siniang's origin story wasn't something he had expected to hear, ever. Also, in a sense, these tests he had passed now felt too easy considering the prize. Furthermore, the shoes which he now wore were a bit too large for his fancy — a bit too large being a massive underestimation.

"Can you cure my mother?" However, Lin Siniang being the Arch Traitor that had created Hell and all its Eighteen Layers was secondary.

[That's your question?] Lin Siniang's black eyes blinked, and for a moment, she frowned.

"Well, you'll be stuck with me for my lifetime, that I can't change." He shrugged his shoulders. "But my mother might die tomorrow." Of course, demons could change their bonded creature, but what to could Wei Sha upgrade?

[Ah] She had some realisation [You are one of those types]

"And what's my type?"

[Focussed on power, on your goals. Less interested in the matters of the heart and thinking about the impossible]

Wei Sha thought about her assessment. And found her being in the right on every count.

So when coming back from the ponder, he asked, "You can assess anyone this fast?" It sure would help him if she could.

[Demons naturally, humans yes, those other creatures nope, not so much] she answered. [By the way, how's the outside? Has anything major happened in the last two hundred thousand years or so?]

"The Eighteenth Layer has become a cave, and Seventeenth is a desolate ocean of lava," he blurted out information without realising what Lin Siniang's position on the matters so obvious to him would be.

[What!]

X

A small incident — where she dammed Wei Sha's ancestry for the last hundred or two hundred generations — later, Lin Siniang asked.

[What else did I miss?] Her face still beet red, gas clouds floating around her.

"Let's leave history for later." Wei Sha hadn't recovered from her last tirade, so he didn't want to ignite another. "And what about someone stealing my powers?" he diverted the conversation.

She gave him a look before answering. [You can't respect your elders?]

Wei Sha shook his head.

Lin Siniang gave him another look, a poutier one.

[I'm kind of the reason why you exist—] She didn't finish her sentence, seeing as Wei Sha shook his head again.

"You say you know my type, yet don't consider it."

[Then I might as well not help you]

"Then I might as well never cultivate, letting rest of Hell become a part of the Underground Plain."

[You are pushing it] she warned and made sure he understood it by hovering an inch away from his eyes.

"I am," he said, nodding instead of shaking for once.

The two came into an impasse.

Neither side willing to budge meant there would be a long conversation concerning terms. However, as they were 'lord' and 'retainer', there was nothing to fight over. They were, in essence, one and the same.

So in their case, this deadlock manifested as two pairs of eyes drilling into each other, searching for weakness or waiting for the other to fold.

X

It lasted for a week.

"Fine," Wei Sha snapped, giving her the luxury of drawing what power this 'hag' needed to have her superfluous appearances met.

Ling Siniang let out a burst of victorious laughter.

[How did you imagine I would fold?]

"Return." Wei Sha, not too happy about the result, had none of her boastings, and so he called her back.

No way to resist him. The figure of a bright-yellow woman distorted into Wei Sha's soul space.

[Lalalala]

"Return."

[Lalalala]

"Return," Wei Sha repeated for the third time. The word to call back one's being or creature was 'return', and he was sure of this.

[You forgot? I'm the creator of your race?]

Wei Sha, having stood up earlier, searched for her by spinning his head all over.

Every place glanced over, Wei Sha realised. "Don't you tell me."

[It is only logical that I have a few 'extra things' inserted into the genome of a demon]

'This is just great,' he thought. 'I don't have any way to 'suppress' her mouth.'

[Hey!] Lin Siniang cut his thoughts. [No thinking!]

"Y-you c-can read my t-thoughts?" Wei Sha stuttered. Now, this was reaching the line of creepy!

[Nope]

Wei Sha sighed in relief.

[I never got so far] she explained [In the end, you are a mere derivation from a human, and I didn't have much time to create the demon race and all of its variations]

"Me? Descended from humans? Bullshit!"

[Yes you are] she insisted. [angels and ghost too]

"Can I turn you off somehow?" What she was telling him was utter rubbish, and he would have none of it.

[You'll accept it, sooner or later] she said [And no, you cannot silence me. I made sure of that]

"That's fun," he made a sarcastic remark. "Now, how do we get out off here?" From scanning the room, he found no second corridor.

[Don't worry. This whole palace you have been inside of is an illusion produced by me]

In that instant, Wei Sha found himself back in that liquid he had dived into what felt like twenty years ago.

X

What Wei Sha didn't know was that Lin Siniang's wasn't a character left unchecked by those forces in direct and vehement opposition to her ideals and rule.

The act of her bonding to a new host created shock waves in the Awakening Pool. Those waves would go unnoticed by people at the lower end of the ladder, while people at the top would feel a ominous itch in their backs.

Powerful demons, ghosts, and angles alike scratched their backs, sensing something they couldn't pinpoint to with any amount of precision.

The handful of actors in the world stage who got a more precise understanding were what Lin Siniang would call 'family' — at least before she betrayed them.

"Sister?"

"It seems so."

"Fun."

"No. Not fun."

"But."

"No buts."

"Okay."

While her family knew what was behind the event more in-depth, the vast majority would take this as another 'Great Awakening' beginning a 'Great Generation'.