Ya stood, spine straight, eyes closed, head up to the sky, as the portal closed behind him.
He could feel it now, it was stronger, more potent—the instinct that drove him into servitude.
It was his Master, it was his Master's will. And it lived inside of him now.
He let go, pulled himself back for his Master to take complete control.
But his Master pushed him back forward.
'Stay, it is your price to pay,' was the message the instinct sent to his soul.
Ya accepted and regained control of himself, still leaving himself open to guidance from his Master.
He opened his eyes, blinking to adjust his sight to the blinding radiance of the realm of limbo.
The realm glowed with a brilliance that defied sight and understanding. It was a world that was forged in radiance, like it was carved from the heart of a star.
Light did more than shine here, it existed in gravitas, thick and weightless, everywhere in a brightness saturating every atom of space. The sky was not blue but a boundless ocean of gold and white fire, swirling with streams of colorless flame.
There was no sun, for the entire realm was a sun onto itself. Its ground gleamed with molten ivory stone, and even the air shimmered like heated glass.
It was beautiful and the sight of it struck an unwelcome sense of longing inside of Ya, a sense he pushed away.
He turned his eyes forward, taking another gander at the environment. Heavenly architecture rose from the radiant ground like frozen realities. Vast fortresses and halls stretched upward with impossible geometry.
Spires of cloud reaching heights curved inward and merged into rings that hovered above their foundations. Bridges arched across open spaces without any visible anchors.
Stairways coiled on and on around nothing, spiraling endlessly into the sky.
Every structure bore markings like starlight captured in marble. And there were glyphs of peace, creation, judgment upon every surface, shining like bioluminescent pieces.
Light, here in limbo, did not cast shadows. Instead it revealed essence, it stripped the illusion from reality until only truth remained. Limbo had no darkness, it had no corners, and yet it did not feel empty, only infinite.
It was so potently infinite there was no ending in sight, just a vast expense spreading on like the vacuum of space.
Far on the horizon, dominating the distant plane like a sacred wound, loomed the Prison. The target of Ya's visit.
He wondered what it was called in Feyling.
Regardless, its name would have no meaning once the day was done.
The prison didn't look built. It looked like a beam of like that fell from heaven to form a mountain born of divine energy.
The entire structure was a dome of pure light, mountainous in stature and its surface pulsed like a living star-heart. It didn't glow so much as it bled radiance into the land around it, spilling waves of holy rays that shimmered across the ground in soft arcs.
Though distant, the prison seemed alive, as if it possessed will, echoing a thousand purposes. It hummed in frequencies no ear could hear but every soul could feel. A fortress built not to keep out evil, but to hold something deeper in, things meant never to return.
Marching out from the dome at perfect intervals, exactly 500 meters apart, were creatures of light.
These were the guardians of this realm, perhaps.
His wondering was confirmed by the instinct.
'They the guardian spirits of the Feys, formed from the death of every Fey. They share one mind, possess great knowledge and power. I wouldn't advise using the word of destruction upon any of them. You will be admitted into a Fey hive mind afterlife network. It wouldn't be pleasant and would greatly displease your master."
The young servant nodded. He would do nothing that may upset his Master, it was his will and his law of life.
He looked at the guardian spirits. Each one was utterly alien in form to him, born from no Kurana logic from the little he had memory of.
One resembled a floating spiral of wings, each feather ablaze with solar flares.
Another was a twelve-limbed serpent with translucent skin through which suns could be seen rising and dying.
One knelt like a lion sculpted from crystallized dawn, its mane a flickering halo of lightning.
None walked the same; some hovered, some swam through the air, others moved without moving, as if shifting from one point to another by existing in between.
The one behind flowed like water, hovered like a syrup, and pulsed like time, changing to each aforementioned state in a temporal circle. And surrounding it was an aura that projected a thousand different emotions.
They did not speak, but their presence radiated meaning. A meaning he comprehended quite well, his spirit opened up as it was.
"You are seen."
"You are judged."
"Do not approach."
Their arrangement formed a radiant perimeter, an eternal procession of unknown sentinels, encircling the prison with reverence and terror.
Between each beast, the land hummed softly, marked by sigils etched into glowing stone.
'They are reminders that this place was not meant to be entered, not even by the divine,' the instinct informed him.
'This realm is no paradise,' it warned strongly. 'It is a sanctuary of judgment, a vault of holy fire. Beauty lives here, yes, but so does finality. Tread with nothing short of a world destroying force accompanying every step you take."
Ya grinned. Destruction, this felt like his calling. All his cores— the red, yellow, silver, black, blue, and even that brilliant soul essence of white —were all perfect for creating amazing works of destruction for his Master.
He reached out to the first, the red core, the essence of an ancient god of creation and transformation.
A red glow appeared around him as the power bowed to his will, it began to spread all over his Knave garments, creating a piece of black samurai armour upon his body.
His traveling sandals transformed to boots of war, laced and buckled. His breeches became as strong as steel yet flexible as leather.
Scales of impenetrable solidity lined every surface of the fabric as the armour formed from his toes up to his knees and waist then to his neck before flowing to his wrists in long sleeves and ending with fingerless gloves around his hand.
Closing his eyes he rotated his neck, letting out a sigh in contentment.
When he opened his eyes again, all the guardian spirits met his gaze at once.
They knew what was about to happen.
The wind whispered the words of war, Ya charged forward.