In the pantheon of the Eastlands, Xinyu recalled the tale of a warrior who was born neither human nor god. An animal birthed from stone, he alone wrought terror amongst the heavens and earth, forever staining the world with his name.
As the god who rebelled against the gods, he was Son Wukong, the Monkey King. His soul was the one Xinyu could never reach because he was even more selfish and greedy than she. But if there was any time to succeed, it was the moment when she needed the strongest strength in her weakest moment.
"With all the will I have left in me," Xinyu chanted. "I shall take from the Monkey King, Son Wukong. Give your god-defying powers to guarantee the defeat of this corrupted angel."
With even a fraction of his strength, she was sure the angel would fall. If she had to rely on any other god, it was a wager whether their abilities would finish the job.
She closed her eyes and focused her entire being on the target deity as she gave all her stamina and willpower to take even the slightest bit of energy from him. She sensed and glimpsed his vast pool of strength, but her concentration was instantly cast away when Wukong realized her mind's presence and refused her thieving magic. The monkey king's arrogant laughter echoed through Xinyu's head.
"You try to take from me? Bahaha!" Wukong's voice rang. "Maybe try to steal from that pig, Zhu Bajie, next time. I hear he loves little girls such as yourself! Ohaha!"
He would not forfeit his power to anyone, not even an ounce. How he became aware of her presence was unknown, but due to his awareness, she couldn't steal anything from him. Xinyu figured that would be the result, as it always was, but it mattered not. She couldn't dawdle. There was no time. She had to take a risk on someone else as her mortal body's ability to move was growing more rigid and stiff with each second that passed.
"Stupid, selfish monkey," Xinyu said, readying another stance. She huffed, and she puffed, but she dared not let her heart sink. She would not let a single person die, nor would she herself die. Not until she tasted that sweet fruit she endlessly desired.
While the swords clanged and the animals roared in effort as they clawed at the angel in the air, Xinyu's beating heart raced in tandem to the speed of sound. It thumped faster than ever before, hesitating after each beat, and she thought it might give out on her. Breathing was a chore, so much so that she had to blow open her throat with her lungs each time she exhaled.
In spite of the pain she felt and the impossible task before her, Xinyu did not stop smiling. She watched and focused everything on the angel as it slashed away at the zodiac and the legendary swords. That's when she saw it. In the lightshow that illuminated the sky, a sole, shining opportunity twinkling like the brightest star of them all found its way to Xinyu's twidling eyes.
Though its regeneration was fast, it was slowing the more damage it took, and with it, its speed and precision wavered. It began to show openings to her; openings which might allow her to strike its heart and end the battle in finality. Though she had a single movement left in her body, she felt like she could do it. She knew she could. She could do anything, after all, for she was the beacon of hope that could make the impossible possible.
For the final strike, she chose him to end things off with.
"I summon the power of an ancient warrior who vanquished countless evil spirits," Xinyu announced. A ghoulish purple mist rose from the ground and surrounded her body. "With my will, I take the power of Zhong Kui, king of ghosts, and imbue my mortal body."
Beckoned by her words, Xinyu had stolen a bit of Zhong's phantom power. As a warrior hailed for vanquishing ghosts and demons until he became their godly king, his supernatural force and agility were fitting to put down the undead spirit before her.
She saw her chance, but she hesitated.
I hate this, she thought. My body aches, and my mind freezes because it is disgusted by having to embrace the deities that took everything from us.
But even more than the gods, she despised herself for having to use the powers of the beings she disdained most to achieve her goals. Each step she took brought a piercing, shameful pain, and it made her want to vomit and give it all up. But her salvation shone bright and relinquished her of hesitation. When she thought about their smiles and the future she wished to create, all that horrid humiliation faded away. She would bear it, for them. She would accept shame, because that was just who she was. She was not driven by greed for herself, but for all the world.
"I will… I will always find a way to create my own path," Xinyu said, a prayer beneath her steadying breath. "And that path is one that defies fate!"
Xinyu, full of Zhong's might, readied for her final strike.
Strength beyond strength. Speed faster than voice. Sight of all. Hear all the sounds. Sensitive to the touch of whispers. She felt nothing with her numb body, yet Xinyu managed to vest the pulsating vigor of the spirit king in her, giving her the power to move with sound. Her pink robes turned blue, and an emperor's ghostly crown hovered above her head with the god's energy infused into her own soul. She summoned and grasped Zhong's sturdy turquoise sword of fog as she rose from the mud and bent her knees. She closed her muddled eyes as sight was not necessary at the blistering speeds she was about to reach. All she would feel was the enemy's flesh cut into two, right where the heart should lie.
As the last of the legendary swords had been broken and the final zodiac, the dragon, fell from the sky, the angel faltered for a split moment. She knew it would stop in that instance, weak while it tried to recompose.
She was to stake everything on that final strike.
Her knees felt weak, and her body wobbled in and out of consciousness, yet she felt an electric shock burst around her heart and engulf her entire body.
With nothing but her will dragging her hollow body forward, she amassed Zhong's strength into her feet and launched off the ground, collapsing the earth in her wake. Her sword followed behind in her hands as the sharp wind pierced her skin like razors. Her hair felt like it was being ripped from her head as she flung her shattered body through the sky towards the black angel, and she barely had control over her blitzing velocity. It seemed the god of wind was not in her favor, though that was never the case. The trajectory of fate did not matter because her aim was true. She was the one who made the impossible possible and cut through fate, after all.
Cygnus and Brax, Xinyu thought as she flew. Rest well and proud, for without your efforts, this would not have been possible. As for those who lost your lives, I apologize. We will stand upon your corpses so that we may reach the stars, together!
With a clean slice through its chest and heart, the dark angel was cut in two. Diseased ooze gushed all around, sprinkling the empyrean sky with a shower of black blood as the glistening sun shone and broke the remaining darkness. The angel's legs and the upper torso fell to the dirt with a gutting splat, followed by Xinyu, who ungraciously slammed into the ground, spread out on her back.
Xinyu faced the clear blue sky, her eyes twinkling as she gazed yonder."I wonder… is the sky this beautiful to everyone?"
On that day, the kingdom was saved from one hundred and seventeen angels corrupted by an anomalous black magic. Xinyu's unseen battle lasted over seventeen hours, and though her body was on the verge of failing and though her will waned throughout, never once did she consider loss a possibility. She fought with all her might, and though an angel had eluded her blade temporarily, her determined allies were there to back her up. She knew that although the warriors who fought were weak now, they would one day surpass even her and take on the gods in her stead. She saw it. A prophecy of her own. One which she did not predict, but had faith in. It wasn't a vision determined by the prophets of fate, but a future built on trust.
Brax, she really didn't recruit him for any reason in particular, just a gut feeling. After seeing him stand up to a divine being, she knew she was right. If she were to die as the prophecies insisted, she could leave happily knowing there were those to take upon her will.