The gods grow hungry

Chapter 7: The enforcer

The attack came before they reached the tree line.

One moment the night was silent. The next, a wall of pressure slammed into the villagers like an invisible wave. People screamed. Children were thrown to the ground. The weaker ones collapsed, clutching their chests as if the air itself had turned to stone.

Zhong Yue spun around. His flame flared, pushing back against the crushing weight.

"He's here," he said.

The enforcer descended from the darkness, his black-scaled beast snarling and snapping at the air. He was not alone this time. Two more riders flanked him, their faces hidden behind masks of dark metal. The one in the center, the one with the scar, smiled coldly.

"Did you think you could run from me?"

The villagers scrambled back, terror in their eyes. Old Wu stepped forward, his hand on his hunting knife. Mei Ling stood beside him, her face pale but unafraid.

"We are not running," Old Wu said. "We are leaving."

The enforcer laughed. "Leaving. Running. It is the same thing for cattle. You move because you are afraid. Because you know you are weak."

"We are not weak," Mei Ling said. Her voice cracked, but she did not lower her eyes.

"No? Then prove it." The enforcer raised his hand. A ball of dark energy crackled in his palm. "Fight back. Show me this power that made my soldier flee."

The other riders laughed. One of them spoke, his voice muffled by his mask. "They are just farmers, Commander. Let us burn them and be done with it."

"Patience," the enforcer said. "I want to see it first. The golden light. The shield. The trick."

"It is not a trick," Zhong Yue said quietly.

The enforcer's eyes snapped to him. "You. The ghost. The one who should be dead. I heard about you. The last Fuxi, thrown from the execution platform like garbage." He tilted his head. "How did you survive?"

"I believed."

The word was simple. But it hit the enforcer like a blow. His smile faltered for just a moment.

"Belief," he repeated. "That is what the old humans used to say. Before the gods broke them. Before we ground their bones into dust."

"Before you tried to erase us," Zhong Yue said. "But you failed. We are still here. We remember."

The enforcer's face twisted with disgust. "You remember nothing. You are a dying breed clinging to a dead dream. The gods are eternal. The sky-rulers will rule forever. Your belief is meaningless."

"Then why are you afraid?"

The question hung in the air. The enforcer's hand tightened on his reins. The energy in his palm crackled louder.

"I am not afraid," he said. But his voice was too sharp. Too defensive.

"You are terrified," Zhong Yue said. "You have spent centuries oppressing us, and yet here we stand. Alive. Defiant. Believing. And you do not know what to do with that."

"Shut up!"

The enforcer hurled the ball of dark energy. It shot through the air like a meteor, aimed directly at Zhong Yue's chest.

Time slowed.

Zhong Yue did not move. He did not raise his hands or summon a shield. He simply stood there, his eyes fixed on the enforcer's face.

"Remember," he whispered.

The flame inside him surged. It reached out, not to block the attack, but to open something. A door. A connection. A bridge between his mind and the enforcer's.

The dark energy struck him square in the chest.

But instead of burning through him, it passed through. Absorbed. Consumed. The flame swallowed it whole, and in return, it gave something back.

The enforcer screamed.

It was not a scream of pain. It was a scream of pure, unadulterated terror. He clutched his head, his eyes wide and unseeing.

"What is this?" he shrieked. "What are you doing to me?"

Zhong Yue stepped forward. "I am showing you the truth."

The enforcer fell from his beast, landing hard on the frozen ground. The other riders backed away, their beasts rearing and snarling. They did not understand what was happening. They only saw their commander writhing in the dirt, his screams echoing through the trees.

"Make it stop!" he begged. "Please! Make it stop!"

But Zhong Yue did not stop. He could not stop. The flame had taken over, pouring ten thousand years of human suffering directly into the enforcer's mind.

The enforcer saw it all. Every village burned. Every child taken. Every mother weeping over a broken body. Every father dragged away in chains. Every dream crushed, every hope extinguished, every silent prayer offered to gods who never listened.

And then he saw the other side. The love. The laughter. The quiet moments of peace. The warmth of a family gathered around a fire. The strength of a people who refused to die.

It was too much. Too vast. Too human.

The enforcer's mind shattered.

He collapsed, his body twitching, blood streaming from his eyes and ears. The other riders stared in horror.

"What did you do to him?" one of them shouted.

Zhong Yue turned to face them. His eyes glowed with golden fire. His voice was quiet, but it carried the weight of ages.

"I reminded him what it means to be mortal."

The riders did not wait. They turned their beasts and fled into the night, leaving their commander twitching in the dirt.

The villagers stood in stunned silence. Some were crying. Some were praying. Some simply stared at the broken figure on the ground.

Mei Ling was the first to speak. "Is he dead?"

Zhong Yue looked down at the enforcer. The man was still breathing, but his eyes were empty. Whatever had been inside him was gone.

"He is broken," Zhong Yue said. "But he will live. And when he wakes, he will carry what I showed him. He will carry the weight of our history."

Old Wu shook his head slowly. "That is a terrible punishment."

"It is the only punishment that matters." Zhong Yue turned away. "Now we must go. The others will report what happened. More will come."

He began to walk toward the trees. The villagers followed, silent and shaken. They did not look back at the broken enforcer lying in the dirt.

They had won again. But the cost was rising. The flame inside Zhong Yue was dimmer now. Weaker. The connection had taken something from him. A piece of his own strength.

He could feel it fading.

"We need to move faster," he said. "Before I cannot protect you anymore."

Mei Ling caught up to him, her voice low. "What did you do back there? What did you show him?"

Zhong Yue did not answer at first. Then he said, "Everything. I showed him everything."

"Why?"

"Because the gods do not see us as people. They see us as things. Objects to be used and discarded. I wanted him to understand what that means. I wanted him to feel what we feel."

She was quiet for a moment. "Did it work?"

He glanced at her. Her face was pale in the moonlight, but her eyes were steady.

"I think so," he said. "But it will not be enough. The gods will not care. They will send more. Stronger. And next time, I may not be able to stop them."

"Then we need to get stronger too."

He looked at her. Something in her voice had changed. The fear was still there, but it was buried beneath something else. Something harder.

"You are right," he said. "We do."

They reached the tree line and disappeared into the darkness. Behind them, the enforcer lay alone in the dirt, his mind broken, his body trembling.

And in the sky above, two winged beasts streaked toward the heavens, carrying a message that would shake the foundations of the world.

The Human Dao had returned.

And the gods would not let it spread.