The moon shows us all that is, and all that could be. Fear not its faces, both light and dark, for they can teach us more about ourselves than even the most insightful fortune teller. -Sect Leader Wei Qian of the Heaven's Blade Sect in a lesson for his most troublesome disciple.

The air shifted as the qi around us reacted to her call. I looked at Lin in confusion. Once again, he shrugged.

"I'm not doing this," I whispered.

It was probably some kind of array within the stone…or maybe the stone was only a catalyst. Either way, there was no way that I was truly the source of its power. Of that, I was quite sure.

The wind picked up. The stone in her hand began to shine with moonlight. Qi overflowed from it like water from an endless pitcher, and after a moment, it rose out of the cultist's hand of its own power. Energy swirled in brilliant flashes that further confirmed my suspicions. Pure as it was, it couldn't have been my lunar qi that fueled it. This was something else…

Heaviness settled into the air, making it markedly more difficult to breathe than before. Civilian merchants in their stalls fled in terror, escaping to side streets and alleyways rather than stick around where cultivators would soon do battle with an unknown entity.

"What is that thing?" Lin asked as the light began to gather into distinct limbs.

My heart froze, and cold terror mixed with fear filled me as the light began to fade from the monster's features. White skin was drawn painfully tight over bones that protruded at sharp and awkward angles. It was almost human…if you looked only at its head and ignored the greedy silver eyes and absurd number of sharp teeth crammed between its lips. If you looked at the rest, no animal would come to mind save one from the deepest nightmares of the most troubled minds.

"Moon reaver…" I breathed. Lin just looked at me, expecting further explanation, but I couldn't muster the words.

If voidspawn were spirits of the void, made entirely of qi from beyond our world, then moon reavers were spirits of the moon. Born from pure moon qi, they were ambassadors of fear, beings who warped reality around them to conjure a person's deepest nightmares.

There was a time, in my youth, when these monsters had infested the surface of the moon and occasionally descended to earth to wreak havoc on whole towns. They were a quiet but horrible threat that waited in the shadows while their insanity spread itself like a plague, warping minds and twisting personalities until mortals and cultivators alike turned on their friends and ripped one another to shreds.

I spent nearly two centuries as an Ascendent systematically finding and wiping out every single moon reaver. They represented the worst part of the moon's power and were a perversion of its beauty.

"How…how is one here?!" I gasped, trying desperately to slow the frenzied beating of my heart within my chest. "How did they create one?"

"Oh, blessed child of the moon, chosen angel of our Master," the woman continued to plead, "cleanse this vile scum! Make them rue the day they challenged the Darkened Moon's great design!"

The moon reaver slammed into the ground, its spear-like limbs piercing deep into the grass at its feet. It was easily the size of a horse and had the slavering hunger of a rabid wolf. As the cultists pointed its attention towards us, it growled.

I tightened my grip on my bow, nocking another arrow to the string.

"Do not believe anything you will see," I warned Lin. "It will try to confuse you. Do not let it."

Lin nodded, readjusting his grip on his sword. The green veins of qi that ran like vines beneath his skin flared to life as he prepared for the first attack.

The reaver's head turned to the side, twisting far further than any human neck ever could. Its growl turned to a chilling chortle, a sound I recognized from killing thousands of these abominations in an age long past. It was the sound of a reaver's challenge.

Without any further warning, it shot forward with far greater speed than it had any right to possess, crossing the distance between us in a heartbeat to try and plunge one of its spindles into Lin's chest.

The wood artist backed away just enough to avoid the strike before lunging with his sword. Silver blood dripped slowly from where his blade met the creature's forelimb, but the monster did not react. Reavers were too insane to feel pain.

In the next instant, the moon reaver wrapped itself in moon qi and disappeared from view. Though it was very slight, I could see its path in the air in wisps and threads of silver that disappeared too quickly for anyone but a trained moon artist to follow.

"You take those two," I said to Lin, still tracking the Reaver with my eyes.

He nodded and shifted his blade to slice at the oni before the hulking brute could crush his skull. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched him for a moment longer before being satisfied that he could handle it.

The moon reaver stalked me, trying to escape my notice, but I only stared coolly in its direction.

My blood boiled as I seethed with rage. Moon reavers were creatures of pure insanity. They could not be trusted, nor tamed. So, what was the Shattered Moon Sect doing summoning them? Better question: how had they summoned one? I hunted the entire species of spirit to extinction. No moon of mine would ever naturally create a moon reaver again after I was through. Yet, here it was. How many more were there?

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And, most importantly of all…

How dare they call this disgusting abomination my subordinate? Even at my lowest, with the insanity of the void clawing at my mind, urging me to purge every country that ever did me wrong and sever every friendship I called mine, I never once even considered creating a moon reaver. That they associated these horrors with the Darkened Moon, and, by extension me, sickened me beyond what words could describe.

I might have harbored deep hatred towards the Oni Prince thanks to his acts in my early cultivation years, but I would sooner kiss Satoro than let a single moon reaver exist.

The arrow on my string flared with voidlight. I drew it back in one swift motion, releasing it before the reaver could react. Silver blood dripped onto the ground as my arrow disappeared into the reaver's cloaked field.

"You missed, Yoru."

Chills went down my spine as my little sister's voice spoke from behind me. I didn't turn. I didn't dare. Whatever horrifying image of my sister lay behind me, it wasn't real. Chouko was still safe in the Moon-Soaked Shore. Spring would have just arrived there. Her garden would be in bloom, and she'd be too busy with that to possibly have come to the Black City. No way she was real.

"Look at me, Yoru," she urged. I shook my head, trying to keep track of the moon reaver as the telltale wisps of lunar qi moved aside. It was trying to flank me. I couldn't let it.

A cold hand touched my shoulder, and I whipped around in surprise. My regret was immediate.

The entire landscape changed before my eyes. Suddenly, I was in a sunlit city filled with people. Without even looking, I knew that the red runes of a grand array were carved into the very cobblestones, ready to feed upon my qi and distribute it to the land. Four ascendents lingered at the edges of my awareness, but my eyes were fixed on what was right before me.

Chouko stood there, pale as death itself. Her silver dress was stained with blood fresh from the gaping wound across her neck.

"You remember this day, Yoru?" she asked, her voice now gasping and pained. "You remember how you failed to save me?"

"I…I tried…" I muttered. It was exactly how I remembered it, a scene I would never be allowed to forget. It was one of the Labyrinth's favorite.

"Why do you bother trying? Everything you've ever done, you've only achieved with help! The moment you were left on your own, you fell short," she hissed, eyes seething with rage. "I paid that price, Yoru! You could have saved me! If you'd rushed right to my side after I was kidnapped, you wouldn't have shown up too late to see my body hanging from the walls!" Her voice rose until she was shouting. "You never really loved me, did you? I was just the chain around your ankles. You were eager to be rid of me, of Reili, of Jinshi! You wanted to rule by yourself! How did that go for you?"

"No, no I never…" My voice choked. It was so wrong.

Focus, Yoru! I ordered myself, gritting my teeth. It's not real. Chouko knows how much you loved her. Jinshi knew, when he was alive. This is just the reaver. Focus past it.

At the end of the day, this was no different than being trapped in the Labyrinth. If I could escape its wicked clutches, I could escape the dream-like torment of a mere moon reaver.

"This pitiful recreation of reality is hardly impressive," I said aloud, knowing full well that the moon reaver couldn't understand me. They were little more than mindless beasts feasting on misery.

Void surged around me in a shroud that shredded the illusion. The vision of Chouko dissolved, only to be replaced by the reaver itself, already mid-lunge. Its spear-like limb was already poised to plunge into my chest, and I threw myself to the left, trying to avoid it.

Pain clipped into my shoulder as I rolled out of the creature's path. I looked at the gash. Black liquid was already staining my blue tunic.

If I just had Flash Forward, I wished. I knew I was over reliant on the blooded technique, but it was just so useful! Ever since I'd developed it, the number of hours I was without it could be counted on one hand…at least before I reached Silver. Now, it was locked away.

I sighed. No time like the present to try and fix that. The theory I'd developed back in Saikan dictated that Voidlight destroyed all average realities. Since Flash Forward warned me of the most likely outcomes, and the voidlight removed those, Flash Forward had nothing to show.

The moon reaver wreathed itself in moon qi once more, hiding itself from view. This time, it darted straight through the rest of the battle, where Lin stood at the center of a ring of plants, dueling the woman while the oni nursed a gaping wound on its chest. I might have lost the reaver, but I focused my efforts elsewhere.

"Uncle? Uncle, what's happening to me?" This time, it was Xinya's voice that the reaver conjured as a distraction.

To my left, the little girl stood. She held her hands in front of her, looking at them with horror as her nails twisted into dark claws. Her skin turned pale, and her eyes became purple stars in a well of blackened void. She was voidspawn.

I frowned. How was this a nightmare? Sure, it wouldn't be good if the little girl was twisted in that way, but it certainly wasn't as horrible as the dying image of my executed sister. Why had the reaver chosen this image?

Void tendrils wreathed around the little girl, plunging deep into her chest. She screamed as lightning surged from her. Each bolt turned from purple to black before reaching its destination.

I ignored it, closing my eyes. Xinya was fine. She was helping Ishida with her garden. Her void fever had passed, and short of a voidspawn corrupting her, there was nothing that would turn her into a creature like me.

Instead, I focused on Flash Forward. Pushing more moon qi into the ability, I urged it to shift the frame of reference to the worst possible outcomes. With the voidlight inside me, I had no doubt that only the worst luck would exercise its influence over this particular battle.

Fragments came first. An image of the oni standing and striking Lin was replaced by an image of Xinya's illusion falling to full corruption. Finally, I saw a vision of the reaver. It would strike from behind, and I would be unable to dodge. Once the vision ended with me bleeding out and dying, I spun, an arrow on my string and infused with Voidlight.

The instant the reaver appeared, I released the string. The arrow sailed straight ahead before slamming into the creature's shoulder. It stumbled, eerily quiet as it tried to push through the damage to its body.

Two blades of moonlight erupted from the ground at my command, pinning the creature where it was. The next arrow was fired high into the air. It arced in a clean pattern before rocketing towards the moon reaver like a shooting star. The threads of voidlight from the prior arrows surged around it as it struggled against the blades binding it. It jerked its head back, pulling so hard that bones cracked and muscle ripped.

The arrow pierced straight through a silver eye. The creature twitched before the other eye went dark. Its body began to shimmer with moon qi. Then, as it finally stilled completely, its body burst into qi.

I breathed a sigh of relief as the corrupt qi began to dissipate into the air. In a final spiteful act, I waved a hand, lighting a small mote of voidlight where the reaver died.

"Let it be cleansed by proper moonlight," I muttered. Voidlight might not have been quite the same, but even my darkened light was better than the perverse qi that created moon reavers.

"Block this with your silly plants!" The deep voice of the oni drew my attention back to the ongoing battle between Lin and the cultists.

I was just in time to see the palm strike land squarely on Lin's chest while he was distracted with the oni's companion. He stumbled backward, and my breath caught.

When he finally regained his footing, Lin was three steps over the danger line, and the voidlight had taken notice.

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