A lean monkey was gesticulating wildly at a pudgy piggy. “I’m telling you, Bajie! You were the one who killed all those demons! You’re the one who kept them from charging right through the village gate! If that happened, who knows how many villagers they would have killed. You saved those villagers!”

“Uhhh… but… I don’t remember fighting any demons…? So it can’t have been me. You’ve got the wrong little piggy!”

“Look, Bajie, you may not know this, but I’m a veteran of a million battles. That’s one of the many, many reasons why they call me the Great Sage Equaling Heaven. Anyway. just looking at the result of a fight is enough for me to know every move of how that fight went. To me, it was obvious that those demons had been killed with a single blow, dealt by someone wielding a nine-toothed rake. Didn’t even matter where they had been hit. The head, the chest, the side, just one hit was enough.” Through it all, Wukong had been acting out the blows with a rather battered-looking metal quarterstaff, flailing it about while producing loud whooshing noises.

Looking like a light had been switched on in his head, Bajie’s face lit up with hope. He raised a timid index finger into the air. “Maybe… maybe it was someone else hitting those demons with a nine-toothed rake?”

“Uh huh, riiight.” Wukong turned to Gao Cai, who had been enjoying the show with an amused smile on his face the entire time. “Hey, you, how many people in the village use a nine-toothed rake like Bajie?”

Gao Cai shook his head, grinning. “Bajie’s the only one. At most, our rakes have four or five teeth, and none of them are as sturdy or heavy as Bajie’s.”

“Exactly!” Wukong pointed his quarterstaff at Gao Cai. “It’d take a really sturdy rake to kill demons in a single blow without breaking! A rake… like… THIS!”

Wukong spun, wielding his quarterstaff in a two-handed grip, hitting the rake that Bajie had been leaning on with a solid CLANGGG that rang resoundingly in all of their ears. The rake, made entirely of some sort of metal, pressed firmly into the ground by Bajie’s rather considerable weight, barely shifted.

Wukong’s quarterstaff, on the other hand, had a noticeable dent where it had hit Bajie’s rake.

“Hey you… that’s...that’s a really good rake…” Wukong mumbled, face slack with amazement as he ran his fingers over the dent. Then his face lit up with enthusiasm.

“Oho! OHO! Wonderful! Bajie, you’ve got potential! I, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven will TRAIN you to be worthy of your magnificent demon-killing nine-tooth rake! Alright! Training starts right now!”

“First lesson, defence! Block with your rake!” Wukong raised his quarterstaff, preparing to strike at Bajie.

Who promptly ran away as fast as his large legs would allow.

“Wait! Strategic repositioning is an advanced lesson! We’ve got to start with the basics! Come back! Bajie!”

A lean monkey wielding a battered quarterstaff chased a pudgy piggy all over the village.

***

Trip had been thinking of her killing of Lord Gao. At some level, she questioned why she was so haunted by it. It wasn’t like she hadn’t killed before. Bandits, bounty hunters, hybrids. The only difference was that they had posed an immediate physical danger to her at the time, and Lord Gao had not.

At an intellectual level, she knew that he had to be stopped for good, and the only way to guarantee that was to end him. Who knew how much suffering, how many lives he would have ruined, if he’d been allowed to form a new village after killing every man, woman and child in Gao Village. Another village with the sole purpose of supplying food to the Crimson Army, at risk of being put down at the slightest hint of rebellion, or more likely as a consequence of displeasing or offending Lord Gao.

No, it was better that he was gone for good.

She admitted to herself that the real reason she felt terrible about it, was because it felt like she had gone against her father’s teaching. Do not kill in cold blood. But she had done exactly that. In a certain way, she had become both judge and executioner, which her father had always taught was a very, very bad idea. A slippery downward slope. Going against what he taught, it felt like she was betraying him.

But he didn’t know what it’s like! He never knew how bad things could get, out here outside the safety of the monastery.

Don’t be silly! It’s not like you’ve become a wanton murderer, killing anyone who displeases you. Not sticking to just one of his teachings, in a rare situation that requires an exception, doesn’t mean that you’re abandoning all his teachings, that you’re betraying him.

Were those justifications? Excuses? She didn’t know.

She did know that she was starting to resent the enforced bed rest that White Dragon had put her under. She needed to be doing something, making progress towards finding her brother!

There was a knock at her door, then it opened and Brother Mender poked his head through.

“Sister Trip! I have something to show you!” He walked through the doorway, holding a black quarterstaff. As it caught the light, Trip noticed strange striated markings along its length.

Brother Mender continued. “I was curious about the two boulders that the Red Robe caused to fall from the sky. We ruined several pickaxes, breaking them down into manageable chunks, but after hammering and grinding them, we found that it was nothing more than dust! What’s even more curious, is that after melting down the dust, it formed this metal that’s harder than anything we encountered! So I noticed that Wukong’s quarterstaff is looking just about done. Do you think he’d like this one?”

Trip smiled. “He’d love it. Just, please let me be there when you give it to him.”

“Of course! Of course! I’m also very curious about how these boulders came about. They’re nothing like any boulder I’ve ever seen, too geometrically perfect, and the composition! Too perfectly uniform! Did the Red Robe bring it from somewhere? Did it somehow will the boulder into existence? From where did the Red Robe get these fantastic powers anyway? It’s most unscientific, I tell you. Almost like the old stories of people flying in the sky on pieces of metal, or creating entire meals from nothing but water and dust! I would never have believed it, had there not been so many witnesses. Balls of fire from their hands!”

Trip stared at Brother Mender.

Brother Mender looked behind him, then back at Trip. “Er… what did I say? Did I say something wrong?”

Trip continued staring at Brother Mender.

“Sister Trip… you’re scaring me…?”

With an abrupt sigh, Trip said. “You’d better sit down. There’s something you need to know.”

Feeling like he was back in a monastery classroom during the days of his childhood, Brother Mender did as Trip asked.

“First, those old stories of people flying and making meals out of nearly nothing, those were true, up until around six or seven centuries ago. Or it might be more, maybe a thousand years, for all I know. Nobody knows for sure. But I know for sure that once, a long time ago, people could do those things. WE could do those things. And it was all done through science, and the machines that science made possible.

Second, what the Red Robe did, it’s scientific too. Because it’s made possible through machines. Although-”

At Brother Mender’s sceptical look, Trip paused.

“Look, here’s what my father told me. A long time ago, people finally succeeded in making machines so small, they were like particles of dust floating in the air. Machines that were like the inside of your metal wagon, except a million times more complicated. All inside a speck of dust. The way it would work, was that these tiny machines would work together to do great things, and they would all be directed just by thinking at them.

But the problem was, that other people then released those tiny machines into the air before they were ready, before the people who made them said it was okay. It was pure luck that nothing really bad happened, just that it didn’t really work as well as it should have. Most people couldn’t do anything with those tiny machines except make themselves sneeze.

Before the Red Robes, what I knew was that only a few people today are able to do anything with those tiny machines, including throwing balls of fire, spears of ice, or globs of acid, but those are extreme cases. Summoning boulders from the sky is new, as are demons being able to use those tiny machines.”

“Sister Trip, I believe that you believe these stories are true-”

Trip held up a hand in front of her face, her index finger pointing upwards. Her brows furrowed as an orange glow formed around her hand. She concentrated and focused as the orange glow turned yellow.

Brother Mender was about to speak again, when a small flame burst into being an inch above Trip’s index finger. It flickered for a few seconds before disappearing.

Trip gave Brother Mender a tired smile. “That’s the most that I can do. Mostly, I use them to aid with recovery after exercise, part of my body strengthening routine. It’s easier for me somehow when I’m trying to affect something inside my body.”

“That’s amazing! So that’s why Master White Dragon said you were recovering faster than expected! Could you teach us?” Brother Mender, now a believer, was back to his usual high level of enthusiasm.

“Not everyone will be able to do it. In fact, it’s likely that very few, or none at all, will be able to.”

At Brother Mender’s look of sheer disappointment, Trip continued. “Still, I suppose I could write down the mental exercises I was taught, for all of you to try. All I know are the basics. Beyond that, it will be up to those who make it through the basics to experiment, if they want to progress further.”

Brother Mender’s eyes lit up at the word ‘experiment’, rushing towards the door. “I’ll go get you some paper!”

***

Inside a cavernous hall with walls of metal, a tall hooded figure clad in a red robe stood on a wooden stage, addressing a motley crew of demons and imps. Lion, tiger and bear demons rubbed shoulders with crocodile, crow and caribou demons. Among their number were the smaller imps, many of which obviously had two or three different animals in their ancestry.

The hall was dimly lit in deep purple, the source of illumination was a row of lights that ran across each wall. Every light was painted in a thick red substance, a faint blue light shining through the areas not painted over.

Figures shrouded in shadow and hooded red robes lined the walls, silent and still.

“Brothers and Sisters, rejoice! Today, after years of training, our acolytes take the final test. If they succeed, they don the red, becoming one of us. Bring out the Imprinter!”

From a doorway at the back of the wall, four Red Robes walked in a square, one arm stretched outwards with palms facing the centre of their formation, where red force shields supported a large metal block. It resembled a thick square pillar, each of its four sides had grooves running across its surface in angular patterns.

The four Red Robes walked with great ceremony, floating the metal block between them until they were in front of the stage. Slowly, they lowered their force shields, until the metal block was on the floor.

“Acolytes, when a Red Robe comes to guide you to the Imprinter, do exactly as they indicate. Your success and your lives depend on it!”

The four Red Robes walked to the front of the crowd of demons and imps, each seeming to select a candidate at random. Two imps, a wolf demon, and a hulking bear demon. Together, their walked their candidates to each side of the Imprinter. With gestures, they bid their candidates to press their backs against the metallic surface.

As soon as the backs of all four candidates came into contact with the Imprinter, it lit up with a dim purple glow. With a deep pulsing hum that each of the candidates felt in their chests, a bright violet bar of light rose from the bottom of each side of the Imprinter. Slowly, it rose until it reached the top of their heads, then descended downwards once more, disappearing after reaching the bottoms of their feet.

There was a silence, but all the acolytes could tell that the Red Robes were expecting something to happen.

With several quiet clicks, manacles emerged from the Imprinter, binding each candidate’s ankles, waist, arms, shoulders, and forehead to its surface. An additional flexible bar of metal wound its way around each candidate’s mouth, slowly tightening until they had no choice but to grip it between their teeth. The moment that was done, long needles hissed out from the Imprinter, jabbing deep into the skulls and necks of the four candidates. By the time the candidates started screaming, the needles had already been withdrawn back into the Imprinter.

Even though the source of their pain was gone, the candidates were still screaming. Even worse, they had gone into seizures, shaking as hard as their restraints would allow. Some had their eyes rolled up, while others were staring into nothing with wide, bloodshot eyes.

Eventually, the screaming and seizures stopped. All four candidates hung limp in their restraints. Again, the needles shot out, this time only entering their necks. Soon after the needles withdrew, three of the candidates began to stir. The fourth, the bear demon, was still.

The manacles clicked open, then disappeared back into the Imprinter. The two imps landed on their feet, while the wolf demon dropped to its knees. The bear demon fell to the floor, landing on it like nothing more than a side of meat. Which was more or less what it had become.

Three Red Robes came forward, draping the three candidates that still lived in their own crimson garments.

The fourth Red Robe dragged the dead bear demon off to one side.

“Welcome, the three of you! You are now truly one of us, brothers and sisters all!”

A lynx demon who had been eyeing the dead bear while hyperventilating, turned around and bolted through the crowd towards the exit. Before it could even escape the crowd, transparent red walls of force formed around it, boxing it in.

The tall Red Robe on stage had one scaled hand extended. As the hand moved, the lynx demon was floated in its red box of force above the crowd, then towards the Imprinter.

“Come now, this display is most unseemly. Would you waste your many years of training and preparation? Are the risks not worth the reward? You must trust me when I say that this must be done.”

By then, the shivering, shuddering lynx demon was already at the Imprinter, the only thing between its back and the metal surface was a red wall of force.

Then the tall Red Robe dropped its hand. The red wall of force disappeared.

Several quiet clicks echoed throughout the deathly silent hall.

Then the screaming began.

-- Chapter 50, End --