The Peach Spirit

The Fog

Two glowing pink orbs stared at the half frozen six eared macaque in shock. The monkey stared at the four trapped in ice with a menacing expression. "Macaque!" Exclaimed Wukong with widened eyes that stared at his former friend. Everyone stared at the new challenger until the monkey King spoke once more. "So you got Bone Demon powers now, huh? Well, it is on brand for you to have a worse version of everyone else's powers."

"Wukong!" Snapped Nezha at the Monkey King as the peach boy rolled his eyes. Zao, on the other hand, glared at Macaque with a growl ignoring the Monkey King completely.

"What? He does!" Exclaimed Wukong cheerfully as Macaque stared at him with a deep frown. "What? Not gonna gloat about capturing us? Monologue a little bit before running off to your master?"

"I couldn't care less about what the Lady Bone Demon wants!" Snapped Macaque angrily before turning to the mountain where MK and others were. "So the rings are with MK. Perfect." He said before light exploded from the mountain in front of the four's eyes.

Taro's eyes widened as he stared at the mountain in shock. A odd foreign feeling washed over him as the noise around him became nothing more than static to his ears. The boy's mind raced to figure out what this odd feeling was. It wasn't panic or worry nor was it fear or desperation. Before he could figure it out, the peach boy felt the familiar power of the Lotus prince surround him. Zoning back in, he noticed many lotus petals floating around him majestically before turning sharp and digging themselves deep within the ice.

It didn't take long for Taro to discover what they were for as they quickly exploded, freeing all four of them. As Taro fell to the ground, a familiar golden pheasant flew down towards them from the sky. "Who was that? What happened?" Asked Zi in confusion as he landed next to Taro and Zao as Wukong jumped onto his signature cloud and dashed towards MK and the others. "That monkey- Zao? What are you doing here? W-what did I miss?"

Before Taro or Zao could reply, Nezha spoke out in a firm tone. "I know you still hold a grudge against me, but right now isn't the time to fight. We have to get to that mountain as fast as possible." He said before dashing towards the scene on his magical wheels.

Taro paused, glancing at his pitch black sword with a frown before turning to his avian friend."Zi, your mech." Muttered the Peach boy calmly, prompting the golden pheasant to summon his magnificent golden mech in the air between his companions and the mountain. Taro quickly jumped aboard and silently gestured for Zao to follow. The silver dog followed his companion before the mech blasted off towards the mountain.

The three friends quickly made it to the mountain just in time to witness the catastrophe at hand. Dark velvet flames scorched the air in every direction. The flames were so powerful, Taro could barely keep his footing on the mech. The peach boy turned to the core of it all, the source of this dreadful power to see Mei in an orb made of the samadhi fire screaming in pain.

A thousand thoughts raced through the peach boy's mind. He didn't know what was going on, but he could make a guess whose fault it was as he heard Wukong speak. "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."

Black aura shot out of Taro's blade as he glared at the Monkey King before he felt that foreign feeling wash over him once more, causing the aura to die down as he switched his sight to the horse dragon girl.  The peach boy quickly dashed towards the girl with his sword in hand and stood firmly in place as Zao struggled to get close. Seeing this, Zi quickly unsummoned his mech and dashed towards his companion only for a burst of flames shooting toward the pheasant to force him to go on the defensive.