kingdom falling | gyuricky

seventytwo | you know me

"I need to get you out of here," Ricky said, once he pulled away. "How many days has it been since you entered the Infernal City?"

Gyuvin blinked. "Um, I don't really know. Time passes weird down here. About a week, maybe?"

"A week..." Ricky nodded to himself. "We still have time. I need to get you out of the Demon Realm before you're too infected to leave."

"But- Ricky, I don't understand. Why are you here? How did you find me?" Gyuvin gave him an odd look. "And what happened to your hair?"

"It's a really long story," Ricky said quickly. "What did they do to you? Why weren't you able to leave?"

Gyuvin held up his wrists, and rusting shackles clanked ominously in the quiet room.

"You couldn't break free of these?"

"I don't have my core anymore, remember?" Gyuvin answered. "I'm basically just a human now. And I haven't had enough time to pick up demonic cultivation. Not that I wanted to, anyway."

"Right," Ricky said, biting his lip. "Sorry."

"Way to rub it in," Gyuvin retorted. "Can you just get me out of these?"

Ricky blasted through the shackles binding Gyuvin with a simple blast of spiritual energy, and helped Gyuvin up to his feet. The other boy stumbled a little as he stood; clearly, he'd been kept down here for a while.

As an afterthought, Ricky removed the hood and veil he was wearing, draped the hood over Gyuvin's head, and tied the veil neatly over the bottom half of Gyuvin's face. "You can't be recognized by anyone. Walk with your head down and don't let go of me once we get out of the building, okay?"

Gyuvin nodded. They headed back up the stairwell and pulled the display case and desk back over the hole in the wall. Ricky peeked out into the dark hallway to make sure no one was there, before he led Gyuvin up the stairs to the second-floor veranda so they could get out. They escaped the Ashen Pavilion without any trouble, blending easily into the crowds of people coming and going.

Ricky slowed down a little, as they left the Pavilion behind them. Only then did he realize how hard he was gripping Gyuvin's hand, and he let go. "Sorry."

"It's fine," Gyuvin said. "Now explain everything to me. Why are you here? How did you get down here in the first place? Are you dead?"

Ricky laughed. "No, I'm not. I projected my soul into the higher underworld and I passed through the lower underworld to get here."

"That's..." Gyuvin trailed off. "Against the laws of the cultivation world. You can't be down here."

Ricky gave him a look that said see if I care, and Gyuvin let it go and moved on. "Why did you come all this way? Did something happen in the human realm?"

"Your father happened, that's what," Ricky answered. "After you died, a Greater Demon appeared in Verdant City. The Demon was able to summon Yuexi, and turn its energy as a holy weapon into demonic power. The Coalition assembled to subdue it, but they've yet to defeat it. It's very strong."

Gyuvin's expression turned grave. He had known about his father cultivating into a Greater Demon, ever since he first entered the Infernal City, but he knew nothing of what his father had been doing outside since he left. "He's got the Alliance behind him. I didn't think it would be easy."

"What is the Alliance, exactly?" Ricky asked, remembering the name he'd heard a couple of times up at the lower underworld.

"The Blood Rain Alliance. I don't know if my dad was the one who started it, but they listen to him now," Gyuvin explained. "It's an alliance of every disgraced cultivator or sentient being down here that has some kind of vendetta against the realm of the living. There's so many more of them than I thought."