Portal 2

"SSSister…," Kanghui hissed in her large blackish snake-like form, "Long time no see."

Vibrations on the ground made her rise to the full height of the statue. Kanghui's memories flashed before her - betrayal and scapegoating for Nüwa, whose actions left her with a damaged reputation.

"Nüwa," Kanghui spat in disgust as she could hear the shrill alarms going off in the background.

The overwhelming thirst for vengeance actions rushed like a raging deluge, channeling a tsunami of infernal fury through waves of her energy, building upon the vast buildup of millennia of pent up wrath.

The sounds of guards came rushing out in a hurry. Among them, four were Horse-face, Ox-face, Hei and Bai Wuchang, fully armed. Fear, she sniffed. The rich source of fear in their eyes overflowed at the sight of her true form. She slithered into a striking pose, towering over them.

"Gonggong," they greeted her politely, as Horse-face discreetly signal to the others behind not to raise their weapons at her. If a fight with Kanghui broke out in the Courts of Hell, he grimaced at the thought - chaos.

The Courts paid Horse-face too little to risk the injuries, like the rest of them. The parameter alarm started shrieking at an intrusion. The guards stepped away from her with their eyes trained on her.

"Who entered?"

She could hear murmurs as the guards huddled together.

"From the human world," Hei Wuchang muttered aloud. "Who enters from the human world?"

Two claps rang out in the hall, which darkened around them. Kanghui cared not for her desire to seek revenge coursed through her.

"Please… Gonggong, don't make it hard on us," a few voices rang out in panic.

"Hard? Hardly, this place is in need of redecoration," a crystalline voice spoke and then paused.

Kanghui heard the voice before. More than a hundred millennia ago. Her head swung around to see the speaker, only to be surprised by the appearance of Yasomagatsuhi.

Like Arahabaki, Yasomagatsuhi looked no different from the more powerful beings with his flowing black hair with fringes plaited to the side, and a regal and handsome face with dark doe eyes, dressed in a finely brocaded long black kariginu gown, like those of nobles in the Heian period.

Except no one knew how he looked like, save for Arahabaki and her.

Arahabaki pulled Alex behind him as Yasomagatsuhi nodded to them.

"That statue is hideous," he walked towards the stone figurine she loathed with passion and then cringed at it. "Even Yamata-no-Orochi looks much better in the human drawn paintings."

"Lodge a complaint with Takamagahara," Ox-face bellowed at the rest of them.

Yasomagatsuhi raised his eyebrow at them and a malicious grin appeared on his face as Arahabaki stifled a laugh. "Fill that form in triplicates. I need to remind them of my existence every once in a while."

The guards looked taken aback by his nonchalance.

Someone whispered, "inform Xitian of this… this um…"

"My name is Yasomagatsuhi," he answered, waving his hand at one guard running into the entranceway, and threw a cursory glance at Kanghui and pointed to the statue. "Surely you don't miss the Void again?"

Horse-face and the rest took a step back away from him as he approached at his mention of the Void. The Void is the pitch black prison for primeval beings punished for transgressions against the greater balance.

Trap her eyes glowed. Yasomagatsuhi was warning her that someone had placed a trap in place for her. How did she not see it before?

The black wisps immediately dissipated around her as she shrunk back to human form beside him.

"Seriously, Yomi-no-Kuni is more fun, but unfortunately, they banned me after my first visit."

Arahabaki laughed and replied, "well, you did let a million ghosts escape."

Yasomagatsuhi heaved a sigh. "Good old days."

"Why are you here?" Arahabaki asked, with Alex trailing behind him.

Yasomagatsuhi pulled out the black pendant, which was glowing red. "Protecting this investment. No point if she gets thrown into the void again."

A bright glow coming from the ceiling distracted them. Da Siming appeared in front of them and immediately clasped his face at the sight of Yasomagatsuhi.

Cowards and lazy fools, Da Siming cursed the Xitian council who despatched him.

No one wanted to engage Kanghui in her form and Yasomagatsuhi.

Even the Kings of the Courts of Hell were shuddering in their shoes when they made the emergency complaint to Xitian. So he, the big old Da Siming, was sent out as cannon fodder, like the guards before him.

A lot of clueless and useless cannon fodder, he guessed at the number of guards.

"Woe is me," Da Siming hung his head in self pity.

Yasomagatsuhi flashed a smile at him. "So, what's my punishment now?"

"Who dares to punish you? I am your personal welcome party wagon," Da Siming replied sarcastically as the guards gasped and looked at each other before retreating further away.

"I prefer to party crash," Yasomagatsuhi replied, "no offence, just my style."

"Can anyone tell me what this situation is really about?"

Yasomagatsuhi tilted his head at the statue of Nüwa which Da Siming did not notice on entry and to a now poker-faced Kanghui, who was still glaring at the statue.

Da Siming slapped his face again. He had left explicit instructions to the Courts of Hell, not to enrage Kanghui in any way when she came. Nobody listened to him yet again.

"Where is the King of the First Court of Hell?" Da Siming snapped. "Get his ass down here for an explanation. Who placed this here? It wasn't here the last few decades ago."

Horse-face and Ox-face looked at each other, reluctant to be the snitch.

"1000 soul stones for information," Da Siming dangled a large bulging bag in front of the often underpaid and overworked guards.

"Nüwa," Hei Wuchang said and caught the bag thrown. "She installed it a couple of weeks ago."

Da Siming sighed at his dilemma. If he moved the statue, he would incur the wrath of Nüwa. If he didn't, it meant dealing with Arahabaki, Yasomagatsuhi and Kanghui, three primeval beings of everything destructive and nothing constructive.

With a finger, he pointed at the statue. "Move."

Nothing happened.

Da Siming frowned as he tried again. "Move."

Again, nothing. He studied his finger intently and then pointed at an unsuspecting guard's pole arm. "Move."

The pole arm disappeared from the stunned guard.

"Return," Da Siming said, and the pole arm appeared in the guard's hand again.

Nothing wrong with his powers. Damn statue is definitely deliberate. The energy waves were of multiple primeval beings belonging to Nüwa's faction.

"Difficulty?" Yasomagatsuhi asked with a certain smugness in his expression, which tempted Da Siming to send a flying pie into.

"Save us all the trouble. You guys destroy it and we call it a day," Da Siming replied as he watched Kanghui, who never laid eyes off the statue.

Furthermore, this is the timely opportunity to see why Takamagahara feared Yasomagatsuhi and his twin so much. Kill two birds with a stone, he thought.

"Arahabaki, as my senior, you go first."

"Eh? Ok…," Arahabaki shrugged as his chains flew towards the statue, narrowly missing Kanghui.

The chains wound repeatedly around the statue, wrapping it up with the endless flow from his bracelet.

With a pull of his arm, the chains tightened around the statue. Nothing happened.

Arahabaki wound up the chain in his hand and tugged with a grimace, enough to tell Da Siming that Arahabaki faced the same trouble, too.

"Damn thing doesn't want to crack."

"Really now…," Yasomagatsuhi stopped Kanghui from stepping forward.

Da Siming watched Yasomagatsuhi with interest. The infamous primeval being is not straightforward as Arahabaki. Those dark eyes seemed to study everything.

"You give it a go," Arahabaki told him.

Blackish wisps flowed out of Yasomagatsuhi's finger-tip, pointing at the statue, rolling towards the statue before engulfing it whole in purplish blackish flames.

Da Siming and the guards moved away as thirteen small cloaked figurines appeared out of flames and rotated around the statue. Yasomagatsuhi clenched his fist tightly.

*CRACK*

A huge line zigzagged like lightning along the statue as the cloaked figurines swirled around at a faster speed, causing small pieces of rocks to rain on all of them.

Yasomagatsuhi's display of power unnerved Da Siming.

*CRACK*

In a flash, a plume of dust appeared as the statue disintegrated in front of them like a sandcastle swept by waves. Da Siming gawked at where the statue was in disbelief.

No wonder Takamagahara had banned Yasomagatsuhi and his twin. What took a lot of effort to destroy, Yasomagatsuhi did it effortlessly, like breathing by a healthy human.

Yasomagatsuhi reminded Da Siming of the domineering Mount Fuji. Mount Fuji appeared as one volcano, but it was actually three volcanoes in one, with two hidden deep within its volcanic recesses.

Not to mention the magnificent bubbling magma chamber slowly building up vented pressure with nowhere to escape, swelling within until it exploded in the blaze of glory, wiping out hundreds of thousands with its mass eruption.

What the hell was he thinking? Da Siming shook his head to clear the influencing image out of his mind.

"Well, it's been fun, and I have probably outstayed my welcome," Yasomagatsuhi said as a dark portal appeared in front of him.

"Don't be shy. Come visit again…," Da Siming waved to him.

"She tried to set me up again, didn't she?"

Kanghui finally spoke after her long silence.

"If I pursue this matter, it will be opening a can of worms. Think of that as Pandora's box personal portal."