And Into Another

                                    

                                          
Shun wasn't sure why he felt so relieved to have fake Shirong around again. He'd been worried about the boy and based on the way Shirong Shidi had fallen out of Chaos itself, he was probably right to be. If Shun was the Adversary and thus a bringer of Chaos, why was it Shirong Shidi who always seemed to be falling into trouble and right back out of it?
                          
Shirong rolled to his feet. Blinked at the black goo absorbing whatever it touched. "The blob?" he muttered. Another of his strange future references. One they didn't have time to explain. "Mo Qinghe, can you close that hole back up?"
                          
"Not by myself." Auntie Qinghe turned her attention on Shun. "Oh, you are a beauty, nephew. As lovely as your mother."
                          
Shun wanted to ask if this was really the time. Except it wasn't time to argue the point either. He focused his attention on the Chaos. Circled round. Circled round again. How the hell had he doubled in size? He'd been huge before. He was gigantic now, or at least a great deal longer than he'd ever been.
                          
Something rose from the Chaos. A thing resembling a black sheet of fabric, waving wildly in the non-existent breeze. What was it?
                          
Without needing Shun to speak, fake Shirong answered the question. "Hundun."
                          
Of course. What else could it be, but thing of Chaos, a representative of endings and beginnings. Having no existence of its own, it existed in contrast to all that truly was. Every Chaos shadow that ever existed came from Hundun's depths, only to break away as they became more and more real.
                          
There was a sadness to the thing, a loneliness born of non-existence. Yet it didn't belong in this world. It'd be destroyed by reality, even as its presence destroyed reality. It had to return to its place. Shun curled closer, forcing the Chaos back through the hole from which it'd come.
                          
Hundun had no mind, no intention. Yet it still desired and tried to break free. If Shun hadn't been training his demonic magic, he might have lost control. The thing was slippery, like trying to hold a silk bag full of water. But it wasn't strong, not as strong as Shun, and it slowly slipped back through the hole.
                          
Then it and the Chaos was gone, leaving them in the middle of a crater of black mud and white stone. And, Shun noticed with interest, a set of stone stairs leading down into darkness.
                          
He sniffed the air from the hole. Not at all good to breathe. Whatever lay below had been closed off for a long time now. Best to stay away for the moment. He turned his attention to Shirong Shidi, intending to somehow express that thought. Except just as he did so, one of the hunters from earlier pulled himself to his feet and snarled, "No antidote?"
                          
Bai Xiang took her human form again, standing between Shun and the hunters, sword drawn, hair and clothes a wild mess. "I didn't say it was fatal, either." She was on the man in an instant. "Unlike my blade. Take yourself and your friends and leave. You're outnumbered."
                          
The man sneered. "Three women and a boy, and a snake we easily captured earlier."
                          
Shirong Shidi coughed. "Respect, sir, but that snake could swallow you whole. Though I wouldn't suggest it. You'd give him indigestion." At the same time he drew his swords, their strange colors gleaming in the late afternoon sunlight. "And, frankly, you'll have to go through me to get at him."
                          
"For that matter," Master Feng added, taking up a guarding stance with Auntie Qinghe and Bai Xiang, "What makes you think the three of us can't protect ourselves and these two children?"
                          
The hunters had no answer to that except to attack.
                          
#
                          
There were a dozen hunters left after the one Shun had taken down earlier. Nor were they wise enough to realize they were attempting to climb Kunlun Shan with a silk thread and a needle. Whether it was stupidity or greed didn't matter. They were bound and determined to capture Shun.