The Moon's Successor

Newest Dumpster Fire

I just had to title it this, lmao. That's literally the shortest explanation for what happens in this chapter, I swear.

》* • ˚ ˛ * 。 • ˚ ˛ * 。° 。 • ˚* 。 • ˚ ˛ * 。° 。 • ˚* 。 • ˚ ˛ * 。° 。 • ˚《

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽Ritual Site ☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄Macaque⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧

"Do it. Finish the ritual!" Macaque yelled in impatience as he held Mei up. He needed this damn ice off of himself and Linwan as soon as possible, but this scholar was taking too damn long. Tang stared at the scene around him. Pigsy and Sandy were trapped in ice as it encased them further, MK was on the ground in pain, and Linwan... well, the ice on her ears was now covering her hands and was beginning to make its way across her cheeks. He continued to silently break down until a golden cicada appeared on the map he had been holding. He watched it for a bit until it flew off and disappeared. "Alright, you win." Tang closed his eyes and took a breath before summoning forth his own powers. Mei looked at one of the rings then squirmed around with her eyes shut tight. "No! Please, I-I wanna get off this ride!" The ritual truly began as fire covered all of the rings and a gold light came off of Mei. "Yes." Macaque actually seemed excited about this ritual, but frowned as he looked back, seeing Wukong racing towards them. "Stop!" He attempted to reach them but was a moment too late. Mei burst into flames with a cry. "NO!" Everyone was pushed back as the ice that covered Macaque and Linwan broke away, magical chains being broken on them both. He let out a cry as it was forced out of him, but Linwan only whimpered. "It worked!" Macaque marveled as he looked his hands over. Wukong seemed angered and irritated as he spoke. "I'm too late." He heard MK move and groan. "Kid!" "What? Mei?!" MK jumped up and panicked. "Don't worry, I'm coming for ya! Someone get some water. Stop, drop, and roll, Mei!" He rushed towards her but Wukong tackled his student and put him down.

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄Linwan⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧

Linwan finally managed to sit up. "Kid?" She looked towards the source of the voice and saw her mentor staring at her with relieved eyes. She paused then quickly touched her ears. "It's gone?..." "Li, you-" "Wait, Mei!" She looked around to see how the others were but heard Wukong. "You! You ruined everything!" She looked over as soon as she could, seeing Wukong grabbing Macaque out of his own shadows. 'He can do that?!' "I didn't do this!" "Well, you weren't not involved!" The ginger reared his fist back as the shadow monkey turned his head so he'd get hit in his blind eye, but Tang interrupted by yelling out. "Stop!" Wukong looked towards him. "It was me. I mean, yeah Macaque forced me to do it, and I'm definitely starting to have second thoughts on the whole thing now but... I don't know how and I don't know why, I just felt like I had to... like it was... destiny." Aaand Linwan felt sick as she flinched away from the word, almost like she were burned. That word was definitely going to be banned for a while. Her mentor was dropped to the ground before a panicked MK spoke up. "I hate to interrupt but can someone explain what is going on?! What's happening to Mei?" "Yeah, that's our best friend over there. On fire, might I add. What did you guys do?!" "Okay, this is going to sound really bad, but hear me out." Wukong began and Ne Zha cut in. "Wukong... What have you done?" "I made a mistake. During the ritual, a piece of the Samadhi Fire got away from me. I don't know what happened, but I guess, part of it was sealed away in the closest vessel that could contain it. My loyal companion, the White Horse Dragon, Ao Lie." Sandy gasped softly. "Mei's great, great, great, times a thousand great-grandfather!" MK chipped in. "Making Mei the fourth ring!" "I'm sorry she's the what now? The fuck is a Samadhi Fire?!" Linwan spoke in panicked confusion, but before she could get any answers, Mei yelled. "You knew! All along you knew I had this thing inside of me!" "Mei! Hang on a second." MK tried to calm her down but she continued anyway, causing a burst of energy that made everyone flinch away. "And you hid it from all of us! Why?! What were you afraid of?! That you were going to have to tear me apart to get your precious Samadhi Fire?!" Another burst of energy caused Ne Zha to shield most of the group (though Sandy stood in front of him), and Wukong to shield MK, Macaque and Linwan. Flames spewed out of the girl in frustration, making Macaque pull Linwan closer as Wukong continued. "This wasn't supposed to happen! I thought if I could get the Samadhi fire out of you, without hurting you of course. Then I could put it inside myself. Then I don't know, use it to burn up the Lady Bone Demon or something? I was kinda making this up as I went-" "That was your plan?!" Ne Zha yelled and MK agreed. "That's not a good plan!" "Not a good plan?! That's the worst plan ever!" Linwan panicked as she held her arms close to her face. "Yeah, to be honest this is the first time I've said it out loud, so..." Mei seemed to delve further into her negative emotions, causing a burning dragon to roar to life as if it were in agony then angered. "We trusted you! All of us! How could you lead us into this fight without a real plan?! Time and time again, I've watched you put MK in danger, leaving him to figure everything on his own! Don't you realize you're hurting the people who care about you the most?!" The dragon readied an attack and Macaque yelled for everyone to hear. "She's completely out of control! If there's a time to go, it's now!" "No!" MK interjected. "Mei is our best friend. We'd never abandon her when she needs us! We're heroes, it's what we do!" "He's right!" Linwan moved closer to the boy after gently swatting Macaque's arm off of her. "She's always there for us! She needs us this time, so we can't just run!" He stared at Wukong, who was behind Linwan and MK, then stared at her before panicking slightly at another burst of Mei's rage. He dropped into a shadow portal and MK looked towards Linwan before she sighed. "I'll find him later. Mei needs us." She smiled towards the young hero before they both looked towards Mei. "Let's go get our girl, MK."