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“... you’ve done all you could.”
Yuan Bo stood before his Father, the Celestial Dragon Emperor of Grand Cathay… it should have been in the royal palace. It SHOULD have been condemnation of his failure, of his dishonor of allowing the Greenskin to ravage the lands of Cathay, of the destruction the Darklanders had brought to the Bastion, the rising tide of Tigermen and Naga striking against the South. All of them had failed, all of them were unworthy of the power they had been given, and no amount of their father’s mercy would have been deserved…
Yuan Bo had never seen his father like this.
“There is only one Hope for this world and its people; the Compass.”
Yuan Bo didn’t let his feelings show. “One unbreakable shield against the coming darkness, one last blade forged in defiance of fate, it is… my gift to lands of which we have ruled… and my final gift to all those I have failed.”
“The Palace is swarming with our enemies' minions.” Yin-Yin, never one to observe politeness too closely, said angrily. “Wei-jin might well be completely lost, and with us no way to enter the Celestial City!”
The Emperor gave his favored son a nod before he spoke. “There are paths to the Celestial City we have hidden well. Secrets only known to us…”
“And if those are found out?”
“It matters little. I have no doubt our eldest foes plot against us at this very moment…” The Dragon Emperor never looked so… old to his children. Even in his mortal guise it seemed as if he was showing his age. “... Take care… While I have been cold and distant, all of you are the greatest gifts I have ever given to Cathay or this world… Please, for the sake of this old dragon, survive.”
—-
“WAAAAAAGH!!!!”
Greenskins lived only for war. The Dimmed Sunz clan that had lived in the mountains were rallied under a new war boss, who called itself the Iron Hide. They struck down the charging Orcs, many still bellowing… most had retreated or migrated to the West, to where Yuan Bo had heard whisper of Nurglite invasion.
With one swift stroke the second biggest orc had its head cut clear off its body. Then the one next to it… Miao Yin kept them defended, the Iron Dragon setting the corpses and living aflame where he could…
He had a surprisingly good head on his shoulders though Yuan Bo suspected it was because of what had happened to the Empress…
The thought slowed his reaction to a blow from an Orc dressed black iron armor. Black Orcs from the Darklands, and this one was just as cruel and smart as its former masters as it went in for another blow just as fast… only for Yin-Yin to force it back.
“Brother, are you alright there?” Zhao called out with concern.
“What does it look like?” Yin-Yin replied with a growl before the greenskin felt it’s armor heating up… and it seemed to relish it as it tried to kill him again. Yuan Bo took it’s arm, to which it seemed to be more annoyed before throwing it at Li-Dao… but then it was struck by a familiar Staff.
“YOU!”
The Monkey King danced around the Black Orc, who was now very annoyed as his ‘boys’ seemed to be retreating or arguing with one another instead of dealing with the other monkey men. Yuan Bo shot his more… temperamental brother a look to keep him contained… he would prefer to deal with one headache at a time.
Miao Yin finished off the Orc with a bolt while the siblings turned to face the Monkey King… he was always a strange one. The one thing that, perhaps all the siblings could agree on was that he was a mad, cunning and strange sort of beast.
“Well, at least we can get along to slay invaders! I must say, I never expected them to get this far into your sacred lands…”
“What do you want, beast?”
“What? Did you expect my people to just watch the world end?” The Monkey feigned human disgust. “This is more than just your petty bickering or my own magnificence! These are the End Times! Do you think-” He pointed to Yin-Yin. “That I didn’t notice the ships you were building? Or all the nonsense you-” He pointed to Yuan Bo. “Were doing for the compass?”
“Of course, I expected as much but I had hoped Li Dao would have kept you busy.”
Li Dao growled. “Enough of this, monkey! What is it you want?!”
He smiled… a fear response but perhaps he was affecting it for their benefit. “A harem of women, the Imperial Palace, and all the world to know my name… But if we do not save this world, then it doesn’t matter now does it, old friend?”
“I am not-”
“And of course, my old companion in Clan Eshin told us of the way into the Celestial City… it would be suicide anywhere else, but you need a distraction and…” he paused for a moment. “He’s not going to let you idiots die pointlessly, so this is my best bet to getting all those things, understand?”
“He makes a compelling point.” Zhao replied. “Can’t say I blame his reasoning.”
Miao made a face Yuan Bo would have found amusing… if they had time to spare. “You will be allowed to follow us.. Make no mistake, Monkey King, once this is over-.”
“It’s never going to BE over.” The Monkey king puffed up. “Unless we all die, and I doubt you want that.”
Li Dao was already grumbling about it, his great fiery mien almost alight… but they moved on, followed by the hooting and hollering of the monkey men who followed their king. If Yuan Bo forgot for a moment, he could almost imagine them as humans… they were hardly different in many ways, simply more belligerent…
—-
They were not alone. The Greenskins had mostly left Wei-jinn as a literal dung-heap. The corpses of even Shuengan and Celestial Dragon Guards left to rot… Yuan Bo kept moving, though his siblings, even Miao Yin, seemed to shudder at the loss. If his father was right, and he of course always was then it would be worth it.
“I hate orcs; no creativity, no manners.” The Monkey king spat at the corpse of one before turning to the fallen humans. The Monkeys seemed to… almost be disappointed, though Yuan Bo wondered if some were sadder at the waste of meat. They had a good score of them, and while they copied the mannerism of Cathay’s warriors, they were hardly their equals in discipline. “... must have been quite the Green tide to bring this place low.”
Li Dao grunted and gestured to the shattered forms of Terracotta sentients and their enemies, the great, now reduced to rocks. “It was less of that, and more that warboss… Dark Lander enchanted Orcs are always a problem.”
“If rumor proves true,” Yuan Bo said idly as they made their way to the hidden Gondola Stations, ones more Intune with the compass. “They at least broke the Dawi-zharr holding the Bastion…”
“So that’s why your father has grown fonder of his people as of late…” The Monkey’s expression seemed… odd. As if a realization had just been had. “... I will never know what it will be like but… you have my Sympathy.”
“The Bastion has been broken before.” For once, Miao Yin didn’t sound ashamed of the sentence. The very idea once made her look like she was a mortal bitten by a river serpent. “... He will live.”
“Of course, he will.” Yuan Bo declared. “He is older than the gods! Enough of this talk… we go.”
“Oh, now gods exist, I thought our cousins just made them up!” The Monkey king cackled. Yuan Bo tried to ignore it… cousins, he called them. Well, Yuan Bo thought, when did that ever apply?
—
The city was in the hands of Tzeentch. Cultists shifted from nowhere. Some were once peasants branded by the flaming eye, others were perhaps once men… now chaos spawn… and the daemons, by his father the daemons. Blue horrors stalked the streets, fighting the monkey men with anger and jeers while pink horrors watched on…
But they were never a match for Dragons. It was a sight to behold as they took dragonic forms… their ancient enemy would regret this intrusion and regret their very existence in this world. They had one goal… the compass. The Monkey King rode on Li Dao, as if he was an elf, the telescopic staff making work of any mortals and their daemonic allies… but something was very very wrong.
They wanted them there…
—
The Light of Hope, Shen Zoo stayed with her father, ordered to be kept hidden after her return from the lands to the North… she had changed, grown up into a fine young dragon… though in her father’s eyes, she’d hardly been gone at all. It was perhaps… selfish of him to allow her to guide Cathay while her siblings performed the ritual but…
At this time, they all needed hope.
“Father?”
Shen Zoo had…been through a lot, to say the absolute least, but she was the one who was with her father at the very end… she knew she needed to be. The Dragon Emperor stood as the sun was setting and they sailed on… to where, no one knew.
He was older than the gods but… she had met many of them. All of them now had this expression… The expression of someone who merely wished to have more time before the end came. All things can die… but none despaired more then those who seemed to be able to last for eternity.
“... Do not be afraid of me. This world… is not the one I knew. As a child It was so cold, refreshingly so. The Mountains were still high, and the Warpstone Moon was not there… the stars were always so beautiful, even as they changed…” he paused, and Shen Zoo saw a storm gathering, the Winds of Magic tinged with the powers of Death and Chi’an Chi. “... Perhaps if those visitors from beyond had never come, we would have lived in peace, and none of us would have known Chaos… perhaps there is kin to us, wherever you go… I only… I only wish that she was here with me before I go.”
“Father, you cannot win against them…”
“I never could.” he admitted with a smile. “But… all of you, wherever you may go, simply trust that I will watch over you.
She watched as her father casted aside the form of a man to become a dragon. Golden splendor, growing to the size that could have dwarfed mountains… She could have helped him,s he thought but one last look from him told her what her fate was…
Her heart heavy, she left her father to her fate. They sailed on, ignoring the sparks and maelstroms of magic, sailing until the water had become like stardust… and sailing until they arrived somewhere else…
—-
The Terracotta sentinel was charged with the powers of the 8 Winds… the Defender of the Compass its gaze never lifted from the Monkey King, and it was only the siblings that prevented it from its desires to eliminate the radical…
It was made from white and black jade, working in perfect harmony, its ‘eye’ glowing with green light as it stood guard over the object it was made to defend… the last hope of Cathay… whatever it was.
Yuan Bo would do as he must… “First and Greatest of the Sentinels… it doesn’t like you as much as we do.”
“I can tell.” The Monkey King barked back. “Why is it they always hide the best toys in the back?”
“It is not a ‘toy’, monkey…” Li Dao grumbled. “It is the first! Possessed of an intelligence that puts its kin to shame, given the greatest honor… for a craftwork.”
“I would have loved to have him in Lustra or the Southlands…” Yin-Yin admitted.
“Rumors of ‘ancient titans’ and ‘dragon-eating monsters’ are still not substantiated sister.” Yuan Bo replied. To which she said something about where he could stick his ‘edited truths’ which amused the Monkey King.
And something else. Something which set the room on edge. The Sentinel turned, the jade-light within it glowing as the Moon-faced Herald of tzeentch and its minions manifested. “Hello again, or perhaps I should say greetings… you kept me waiting for our one-sided reunion!”
“Kill the Daemon, We need to start the ritual!”
“Oh, I wouldn’t do that if I where you~” The Daemon spoke in a sing-side voice. “I know how this ends come let us have bant-” It yelped as it dodged the Sentinel's blade, with single-minded determination it set about to destroy the interlopers. “WHO FORGOT TO TURN IT OFF?!”
More Daemons were summoned and more tried to enter the room, but Yuan Bo steeled himself… it was time to put it into practice. The Words of the Daemon were simply a distraction… yes, just a distraction… The five siblings prepared the ritual to channel it, with Yuan Bo leading… The plan to save Cathay was underway.
“Whatever you're doing… keep doing it!” The Monkey King yelled over the commotion. The Hearld laughing, chanting really ‘justasplannedjustasplanned’ as it weaved and shot magic at the Sentient, with proved to be a great distraction… perhaps, Yuan Bo thought at the moment, it was of some intellect…
The winds of magic gathered, and he could see it… the destination but… Destination?
“What is this?”
The Herald leapt off the Great and Last Sentinel before casting its own incantation. “YOUR DAD LIED~! THIS IS NOT SALVATION! THIS IS COWARDICE!”
And Chaos broke loose.
—-
“Brother!”
It was Zhao’s Voice. Yuan Bo looked for him in this swirling void of… of Chaos. By his Father he could see every possibility; being slain as a traitor, leader of a Cult of Execution. He saw worlds torn apart and reformed. A Great Eye breaking apart the stars themselves, and the laughter of thirsting gods.
“I will not die here! You hear me?!” Yin-Yin’s voice shouted above the clamor. “I AM THE GREAT DRAGON OF THE SEA!”
More images flashed of Yin-Yin succeeding in Lustria and telling tales of her exploits. Tales of her defeating a mighty king of which none other could be his equal. Of a life with some mutant, who she bore some affection… of her falling to a one-eyed Mutant of tzeentch.
He saw the Great Cyclops with One-Thousand sons, marching across a desert world and turning humans to nothing but ashes, chanting that all would be dust.
“And all IS Dust. to be shaped by my master.”
The Moon-Faced herald leered at him as he fell. “Do you see? DO YOU SEE?! Your world was an amusement to him. The Architect of your Fate toyed with your father, and has BROKEN him… but he is not done toying with you, Jade-one!
“No… no no no…” It was not his voice, but Miao Yin’s and the Demon chortled.
“Would you like to see your father? He is HUMBLED by my master! He died screaming. He died begging for mercy. He died because YOU failed him!"
“Lies… All of this!” Yuan Bo tried to strike with the Dragon Fang, but the daemon merely caused it to strike his back… not enough to break him but enough to give him a dull pain.
“It’s all true… there are trillions of worlds. One world gone silent among our kind is merely a disappointment… there will be other games to play, other eternities and other slaves… your father was a distraction. A snake who dreamed he was an Emperor…” It’s smile widened. “He died to save humans. HUMANS! You think Cathay has a lot of them?! So useful… that human stock.”
“You will not break me.” The Jade Dragon spoke.
“You are already broken… but not to worry, you will see. Once you are on the Silent World, we will find you, and we will do the same. We will keep this game going for all eternity!”
Yuan Bo was struggling to see the Daemon now. “How does it feel to be a mark of the end?” It asked before fading forever… leaving him with that image, the voices of his family scattered around him and visions of possibilities.
In one, He was about to execute a traitorous Zhao Ming long since ordered. In another he saw another executioner fighting to sway his brother… visions of a million worlds, all their fates engulfed in Chaos and disorder…
… they had won, they had always been the destined victors, he thought after a hundred years of keeping it at bay… despair. He was nothing but a stumbling block to Chaos… no, not even that, simply a pest.
But he felt the fall ending soon…
—-
*Remnant, Mistral, the Great War Era.*
Protect… Cathay.
The Jade-Forged was heavily damaged, but it followed protocol. It was instilled with the souls of the best and brightest, it was made to defend Cathay and the Compass… it saw panic beneath it, of humans running from creatures of black and white… but wrong. These were monsters…
But this was not Cathay. It could feel it, the winds were gone from the wisps of it’s masters spell, it studied the situation and thought; Cathay was made up of humans and thus…
Protect… humanity.
And it fought. Because it was as it’s Emperor wanted. The humans thought it was horrifying at first… but it rallied them. It was made the target of the Grimm, but the villagers were fighting back… a leader-beast, large as a Mammoth, charged at it but it stood firm.
Unity, harmony… Its ‘mind’ felt weak, disconnected from the winds… but it would not allow it’s charges to lose, as it was very simple, and made to be.
It would protect humanity at any cost, as any of its kind should.
—-
*Remnant, Vale, 40 years later.*
“Brother… Li Dao! Yuan Bo! Anyone? Sisters?... Hello?”
Zhao called out… and only one answer was there. Miao Yin… “Sister? Are you okay, where… where are we?”
Miao frowned as she floated herself up… the winds were weaker here but… she was alive. She had seen herself against the forces of Chaos within their realm… among other, more horrific fates, but the image of her father…
“Sister?”
“I… Am fine.” Miao Yin lied. “... Where is everyone?”
—-
*Remnant, Vacuo, 40 Years after the Great War.*
The Savannah was hot and Humid… and the Monkey King didn’t like that one bit. The others among them, his people agreed… one even suggested SHAVING of all things to keep the heat away.
But… there was something close by, The Monkey King saw the oasis in the distance.. And pointed. “Alright, BEFORE you ruin your beauty, let’s actually get some water…”
Four eyes stalked them as they got closer. “... You’re not going to let me shoot them are you?’
“No… We’re all lost now…” the other replied. “I will not allow them to suffer, they have lost too.”
“We spared the Dragon-man, i want to get SOMETHING that leaves something behind!”
“Sister, please control the wrath for just a bit… this is not our forest either…”
—-
*Remnant, the Shallow Sea, ????*
Yin-Yin fell into the water and swam to the surface… she couldn’t take her dragon form and she was stuck in the middle of a shallow sea… and she saw land. With little choice, she swam there, grumbling all the way. She KNEW she could have won, she thought to herself as she replayed the images she liked in her head.
—-
*Remnant, ????, ????*
Yuan Bo fell and hit his back, hard… he had no idea where he was and he was lost… everything was lost.
“Father… why… was it… all for nothing?” he struggled to get up, the thoughts and visions of horror playing before his mind. He could not die here, he could not be broken here… he focused on where he was, who he was… the Jade Dragon, closest to both the Empress and Emperor…
He opened his eyes and took in the new world.