Chapter 13: Through Other Eyes

-Renji POV-

He and Bai looked up, as the ground quaked and split. A figure flew through the opening with a grace that seemed at odds with his wild appearance. The figure wore vibrant and well made clothes, Renji wasn’t familiar with Chinese fashion but even he could tell that much. But what truly stole the breath from his companions lungs was the rest of his appearance. Bright red thick fur engulfed the vaguely monkey looking man, and in his hand was a golden staff of truly immaculate design.

The figure had a wide, almost childlike, grin on his face as he looked around. His gaze settled on them momentarily, but Renji could sense that he didn’t truly see them. Oh the figure most certainly knew they were present, but in the same way a man might notice a bug. He had deemed them irrelevant, boring even.

A part of Renji wanted to be offended by that, but the rest of him didn’t much care what this beast thought of him.

The monkey man looked towards the distance, at something only he could see, and with a flicker he was gone.

Just as well, Renji could tell he was trouble just by looking at him.

“Was…Was that Sun Wukong” Bai spoke up, her face still locked in what Renji could only describe as incredulous shock.

Renji had no idea who Sun Wukong was so he could only shrug.

“Probably, my liege is capable of creating wonders. A barbarian like that would be well within their capabilities.”

Her gaze snapped to him.

“She made him, ah so he’s not Sun Wukong then. Just a copy.” She seemed relieved at that, like the world had readjusted to something she was familiar with.

He hated to be the one who burst her bubble but…

“No that was the real Sun Wukong, sung back into existence by my liege.” Renji stated.

Bai’s gaze only seemed to grow concerned at that, as if he had said something truly foolish.

“You can’t make Sun Wukong Renji, it doesn’t work like that.”

“My liege decides how things work, not anyone else.” He simply retorted, stating a fact so fundamental to him the naked truth of it almost hurt.

He knew his liege. He knew the power they already possessed, and the power they would one day hold. Calling Godlike beings into existence was not something that was beyond them, and what do you call something that can trivially create gods?

Calling his liege a god was insufficient. Renji didn’t quite know what they would become, but he knew in his very soul that they were something fundamental, something undeniable.

Bai seemed discomforted at his words, as if reminded of something. Still she did not say a word in return, content to keep her peace.

The wait was long, and the night seemed to go on forever. The silence was only occasionally broken up by the sound of very distant explosions. The sound was made inoffensive by distance and he listened in with curiosity. Was the noise coming from the same direction that brute had gone in?

Renji shrugged the thought off. It didn’t matter, if this ‘Sun Wukong’ was making trouble for the Chinese then that was good for them.

Eventually Bai spoke again.

“How much longer must we wait?”

Renji considered the question. Given the amount of drones as well as the amount of camps Bai had mentioned it should have already happened. So either there were far more camps than she had known or something unforeseen had happened.

Both were equally possible in his eyes.

“Soon” he simply said. If they were still waiting in 30 minutes he would inform his liege, but until then they would wait.

The silence seemed to drag on, no further explosions shaked the night sky and he wondered briefly what had occurred in the distant city.

Then there was a flash.

A brief and brilliant white light that quickly coalesced into a confused and panicked looking man. Renji could see all the harried lines on that man’s face, the prematurely aged body wrought with sickness and starvation.

The man was quickly ushered in by Bai, for he was not the last. More flares of light began appearing. First every ten seconds or so, but quickly intensifying until the clearing appeared to be a continuous beacon of light.

The next few minutes were a blur of frenzied commands and people shoving into one another. More than once he had to become involved in order to stop people from being trampled to death.

His liege was, Renji thought, a tad careless in her planning. He supposed it made sense, what would such a perfect being know of the frailty of mortals?

Eventually the light dimmed and then ceased, and they were left with a few thousand angry and confused peasants, looking around confused.

Renji stood up on a nearby rock, thankful he had taken of his Japanese inspired armour for it would not aid in calming these people. The murmur of the crowd intensified by their number until it seemed like a vast roar in his ear.

“QUIET!” He bellowed, quietening the crowd and making them face him.

Renji took a breath before continuing slightly softer.

“I am the servant of-“ Renji hesitated briefly “-Yà lì shān dà, who has come to liberate you of our chains! Already she has removed your guards, and sent righteous justice against the capital!”

This was mostly true, though he was leaving out a lot. He didn’t exactly approve of using Bai’s misinterpretation of his liege’s name but he could see the desperate hope in these people’s eyes. They needed something to cling to, something larger than they had ever known. His liege could be that person, and if they gave due worship for their beneficence then that was all the better.

“My liege wishes to build a great city! So great will be its walls and bastions that never again will you fear reprisal! So great will be it its bounty that none will starve or want again”

None spoke up, but Renji could see the susurrations of quiet wonder held back by long held cynicism.

“I do not ask you to do anything but watch. Rest for now, lodging has been provided within.” He gestures at the smooth metallic opening that had once only been mud and rock.

It took a moment but all eventually started to wander into the facility, too shocked or perhaps too beaten down to outwardly express suspicion.

Then a ripple of shock broke through the crowd as a large blue figure emerged from the entrance, their six arms hanging serenely in the air and a small smile lingering at their lips.

It was his liege.

He went to bow, but the invisible touch of his progenitors power forced him to stand.

There was a gleam in their eye, seemingly oblivious to the mass of people staring at them in awe.

“I’ve finished” they simply said, the grin growing wider on their face. “Which means it’s time to get to my favourite part!”

Bai looked at him, confused and clearly wanting to know what was happening.

Renji already knew.

It was time to build a city.

“Are the other preparations done then?” He gestured to the legion of sick and underfed people.

His creator seemed puzzled for a moment, seemingly only now realizing the many eyes surrounding them. Then their eyes widened.

“Oh, yes! Their rooms should rejuvenate them to the peak of health!” They chirped.

There were murmurs at that, the crowd unsure whether to believe what seemed like a strange giant woman or to immediately find these rooms to test them out.

“Anyway, no more delays Renji. I already know Sun Wukong has made a big enough distraction, so now is the time!”

-The Emperor’s POV-

He groaned, reaching up to his forehead. His head was pounding and when he pulled his hand back t was slick with blood.

“Aaaarrggh” he let out a pained sob as all of the sharp pain from his injuries came flooding back.

He looked around. His once pristine and beautiful palace was now a dusty and cratered mess. He coughed and tried to stand, only to fall back onto the floor when he found himself unable.

He wracked his brain, but found he could remember little.

Someone had invaded his palace, ignored his guards and then…asked for food?

He screwed his eyes shut in confusion. Had that actually happened or was he simply concussed.

…No, as ridiculous as it sounded he was fairly sure that was what happened. He had ordered the Yangban to arrest the obvious parahuman and then everything was a bloody blur.

He looked up, through one of the numerous holes that now littered his palace. He saw a flaming helicopter valiantly attempting to ease out of a death roll before it was swatted out of the air by a golden blur. He swallowed dryly, one moment it had been there the next it had vanished, destroyed with the same amount of effort one might kill a fly.

He looked down through yet another hole, there were far too many, and saw the parahuman who had done this. Who had stood up to him and carelessly thrown his city into turmoil. The thought was enough for him to grit his teeth.

The mockery of Sun Wukong was wildly waving his staff through the air with one arm, the other arm was being used to stuff his face with food from a buffet table.

Did he seriously drag a buffet table outside the palace while he being attacked?

The parahuman was laughing, and it was not the sort of laughter he had been expecting. It was innocent, almost childlike, as if he were merely enjoying some fun game he had found by accident. Another swipe of his arm sent a jet hurtling into a nearby office block, and he had to struggle back the urge to wretch.

He had seen horrors before his coronation, it had been why he was so willing to become a puppet emperor for the Yangbang. Safety. As long as he did his part he was looked after. He didn’t have to witness the bloody destruction of a parhumans malice ever again.

But somehow this was worse. There wasn’t any malice in the figures actions, it seemed to be acting purely of impulse and nothing else, and it was horrifying in a way he couldn’t adequately describe.

Another gesture cut a building in half, and the laughter almost seemed to grow.

Then the monkey dodged out of the way of a mechanical arm and his heart soared as he witnessed the Wujing crater the ground with the missed swing.

The Wujing was, perhaps, one of the mightiest tinkertech war machines ever produced. The power sharing of the Yangbang had allowed for countless specializations to be blended together to form wonders and horrors both. The Wujing was one of these creations meant to guard the Yangban’s main base of operations. That they had sent it out now could only mean they were ready to crush this upstart.

The machine swung, lightning crackling off every swing, the discharges melting the nearby pavement, and even from here the Emperor could feel the sweltering heat. The rebel parahuman danced between the blows, his eyes watching his opponent with curious eyes.

A golden staff riposted a blow and then sank into the chest of the war machine, sinking through metal and circuits before bursting from the metal back in a shower of molten metal.

The Wujing didn’t budged, the metal arms instead grabbing the pole impaling it with both hands and began to squeeze until the whine of servos could be heard by even him.

Sun Wukong, or at least the upstart pretending to be him, raised an eyebrow in amusement.

“Oh? Well aren’t you made of sterner stuff?”

Then with a twist the staff was ripped out the robot’s side, the arms clinging to the staff also ripped off.

Liquid metal seeped from the wounds and even from here the Emperor could see the wounds slowly repairing, but it wouldn’t be fast enough!

The parahuman watched the process also, not at all worried by the war machine healing before his eyes.

The figure instead looked to the remaining airforce, then back to the robot before settling on his staff and grinning.

“Now there’s an idea!” the monkey man said to himself, before a single swing sent the Wujing hurtling towards a helicopter. The machine jerked to the side, it’s operators no doubt trying to prevent the collision but they were too slow.

The Machine broke through the windshield of the helicopter and the Emperor could almost see the wet pop of the pilots as the cockpit was covered in red for just a moment. Then there was a deafening roar as the flying machine exploded.

The laughter returned, stronger than ever.

The Emperor could only watch with wide and disbelieving eyes as one of the greatest creations of the Yangbang was used like an over glorified projectile in a sick and twisted game of baseball.

He curled up then, not wishing to see any more carnage.

He had long since stopped believing in gods.

But today he found the energy to curse them for sending this abomination.

AN: So the city is going to start being built next and Sun Wukong is having a very fun time. The Wujing, despite flubbing in this chapter, is actually an extremely powerful weapon of war. It would be rated as a brute seven with access to molecular breaking technology and the inability to die. Sun Wukong thus decided he now has an immortal baseball.

RIP Chinese pride I guess. Sun Wukong ain't giving that back.