Page 91 of Between Ghosts and Gods

Quicker than Kasu could blink, General Shusa charged at them. The only thing that stopped her head being separated from her shoulders was Ruo, who pounced on her just in time, throwing her to the floor as Shusa’s blade whistled through the air above her.

Arun blocked the general’s swing. Their blades glanced against one another, drawing sparks, before the two sprang apart. They exchanged blows, using the crates and shelves as cover as they danced around the storeroom.

“It was a necessary sacrifice. Sunan would have understood.” General Shusa closed in on Arun as he retreated beside the reincarnation wheel. Arun ducked and the sword hit its side with a clang that set Kasu’s teeth on edge.

“You tricked her, didn’t you? You knew she cared about giving ghosts and demons a second chance, so you pretended to secretly support her and sent her to the under-realm with an aura mask and a reincarnation wheel, when behind her back you were the one who told Lady Camellia to catch her and use her for the elixir!” Arun threw himself at the general.

As the god stumbled back, Ruo coiled around Shusa and bit his leg, bringing him to his knees. Their fangs sank deep enough to draw blood. The general howled. Arun tackled him to the ground, but Shusa would not let himself be pinned down for long. He rammed his knee into Arun’s stomach, pushing him away.

General Shusa struggled to his feet, his breathing ragged. “To make a powerful elixir, you need powerful ingredients. The kind you can’t find in the under-realm. I sent Lady Camellia what she needed, but Sunan… Instead of going to Camellia like I instructed, she went to the Pale Lady instead.”

“Because she knew!” Arun lunged at him. “She knew you were up to something. The Pale Lady used to be a god – my mother knew the Pale Lady would understand that the heavens could not be trusted. I wasn’t sure before, but now I’m certain that’s why my mother left the reincarnation wheel in the Pale Lady’s hands.”

Everything was becoming clearer. Kasu had mistakenly believed that only the Pale Lady had known about Sunan’s arrival in the under-realm. She had been wrong. General Shusa had known too.

Kasu could only imagine what Sunan must have felt. She had known that something was amiss with General Shusa, but she still wanted to deliver the reincarnation wheel to the under-realm, to give others another chance at rebirth. After handing the ring to the Pale Lady, Sunan had left, to … to what? Perhaps to return to the mortal realm, to the family that missed her. To Arun. She had tried to leave, only to be caught thanks to the information General Shusa had passed on to Lady Camellia.

The last ingredient needed for Camellia’s elixir, delivered courtesy of the general himself.

“I liked Sunan. She was kind and hardworking, but this was the only way to make the elixir. Sacrifices had to be made.” Kasu could feel Shusa’s frustration in his every swing. Ruo and Arun kept swiping at him then retreating around the shelves or behind the reincarnation wheel like a pair of incessant wasps.

“Just because you say it’s for the greater good doesn’t make it right.” Arun ducked beneath General Shusa’s sword arm and tackled him to the ground. The general’s blade fell, sliding across the floorboards where it came to a stop at Kasu’s feet.

General Shusa threw Arun off and hauled himself up. His hair had come loose from the careful bun it had been tied up in, falling to frame his face in wild tresses. With his breath escaping him in puffs like a dragon breathing fire, he spat a mouthful of blood onto the floor and wiped the rest from his lips.

“The heavens need me! Without me, nothing will change! I have a vision! I have the drive! I deserve to be in charge!”

Kasu snatched up the fallen sword at her feet. The god laughed. “Why are you looking at me like that? If not me, some other god would have used the elixir for their own ends.”

Steeling her courage, Kasu charged. The sword missed Shusa by an embarrassing margin and hit the wall behind him with a thunk, its tip buried in the stone.

With a sneer, General Shusa grabbed the sword by the hilt and pulled it free. Kasu backed away until she was standing in front of the reincarnation wheel.

“Kasu, look out!” Arun grunted as Shusa charged at her. As Kasu retreated underneath the arc of the wheel, her foot caught on the inner circle, and she tumbled to the ground. On the outer ring, she noticed several tiny buttons. As Shusa lunged, Kasu scrambled towards them and slammed her palm against as many as she could.

The wheel glowed as it powered up. The rings began to move. Kasu saw Shusa’s eyes widen with horror and fear as he lunged forward, but it was too late to stop himself.

With a shout of rage, he fell through the wheel and disappeared like dust.

Kasu backed away, heart still pounding. Her gaze travelled up the rings. The pointers were currently set to a snowy mountain and some kind of animal.

“Did you just—” Arun stared at her, eyes wide.

“I–I think I did,” she whispered.

Shusa was gone.

Chapter Forty-Six Kasu

Kasu thought she might be going into shock. Her chest heaved. They had just… Shusa was the guardian god of the south, one of the most well-known and worshipped gods in the heavens, and they had just…

She wasn’t sure how to describe it. Tricked him into reincarnating? Forced his soul to be reborn? Either way, he was gone, and it was unlikely anyone would find him again. When you stepped through the reincarnation wheel, your memory was wiped and you were reborn. It was like throwing a needle into a haystack, except by walking through the wheel that needle was transformed back into a piece of hay. It was a complete reset.

“What do we do now?” Kasu asked.

“We need to get out of here. We can’t trust any of the gods, not even the Celestial Empress. She wanted to pin all the blame on us, just so she could preserve the heavens’ reputation. If she catches us, I don’t think we’ll be rewarded for getting rid of General Shusa.” Arun picked himself up, wincing as he pressed a hand against his bruised stomach.

“But … how do we leave?” Kasu glanced around the room. Even if they managed to escape from Shusa’s palace, they would never be able to sneak out of the heavens.