In the Secret Base, steam rose slowly from the hot spring beneath the Reishi lamps.
Yan Si sat cross-legged on a rock beside the pool and unwound the white Spirit-Sealing Cloth wrapped around his Asauchi's blade.
The cloth came loose loop by loop, revealing interwoven currents of ghostly white and silver-blue beneath.
He gripped the hilt. The blade did not resist him, but the power inside it began to spin faster.
The Hollow's ferocity collided with the Quincy's sharpness against his palm, sending a faint tremor through it.
Yan Si closed his eyes.
His breathing slowed, and Reishi sank into his body with his thoughts.
His inner world unfolded before him. The sky was still shattered, its dark-red clouds thick as clotted blood, while cracks crisscrossed the ground.
But the first thing he noticed was what he wore.
A pure-white robe draped from his left shoulder, covering half his body.
Its sleeve reached his fingertips. Smooth as satin, the fabric gleamed coldly beneath the daylight filtered through red mist.
His right arm was bare, and silver-blue Reishi patterns flickered across his skin before vanishing.
Soft white fur lined the collar, and half a mask hung from the edge of the hood attached behind it.
Yan Si raised a hand to his face. His fingertips met something cold. The mask was already on.
He looked down at his hands. The robe's sleeve completely covered his left hand, while his right remained bare.
Two states, two powers: the Hollow's deathly white and the Quincy's silver-blue.
"Just equipment," Yan Si murmured.
Even though he had nurtured seeds of both powers in the Asauchi and could now call upon them, neither had truly become part of his soul.
He raised his head, his gaze sweeping across the broken ground toward the icebound volcano in