Pain was the only thing I was focused on in that one brief moment. My nerves screamed as my eye was rendered useless. I have never in my life experienced something so damn painful as this! Not even when I got several of my teeth kicked out by Fennu. Can you imagine what it's even like? In one second to seeing perfectly in one eyeball and the very next, nothing but darkness? It's something I wouldn't wish on even my worst enemy! Ironic really considering she's the one who just did it!
Worse still, the mountain we were under continued to break apart thanks to myself and Vipes. Suppose the dynamite helped a bit too. I hope she managed to get out of here. I know I'm not anymore. All I can do now is squirm and yell out in pain as the twisted abomination before me watches. Even if its face is nothing but a disgusting misshaped skull I can almost see her grinning with my one good eye remaining. It no longer seems to be going berserk either. I assume my injury has given the beast something of a morale boost.
What's left to say? It's obvious enough that this is it for me. Even without the Mèngyǎn watching me I'll soon be buried alive. It's only by pure luck that it hasn't happened already. Knowing that I may have seconds left, I managed to force myself to look up at the misshapen beast in front of me and stood before it. A sudden boost of courage was now the only thing keeping me going. Without it...
"Well, I guess this is it for both of us." I spoke as calmly as I could given the situation. "Don't suppose you have any final words?"
The demon breathed heavily. Whether it was from tiredness or fury was hard to tell. Either way it was kind of rewarding to see her emotionally torn for once. At least more so than I was.
"I..." It gasped. "I have stared... into... the face of death before... Why should this time... be any different..." The monster continued to wheeze, catching its breath as though somehow exhausted before continuing on. "Time... has taught me patience...! Be it a single year, or ten or a thousand I will emerge and return like a pheonix from the ashes! But you... you will be forgotten... washed away by the sands of time... But I...? I am... eternal... I am... immortal... I... AM... INEVITABLE!"
I have an idea. A very dumb one I have to admit. But if I'm going to die... screw it, why not? I'd rather go down fighting like a true kung fu warrior.
I merely picked up a fist sized rock. There were more than enough to spare. I merely wrapped my tail around it and stared at the thing like it was the most interesting thing in the world. The two coffins still remained behind me. Both of them sporting a gemstone each in the centre of the lids. Kind of going off of this at the top of my head here but... maybe...?
"Eternal?" I asked without looking away from the rock. "Maybe. But to me, the only thing inevitable about you is how much of a pain in the ass you are. And as for being immortal..." Somehow I managed a smirk. "Let's put that to the test shall we?"
I didn't bother to wait for a response. In an instant, with whatever strength remained within me I twisted my body and slammed the rock against the green gem first. The thing shattered with incredible ease. A pained roar from behind told me that what I had just done had worked. I remember the day that Viper had possessed. The thing controlling her muttered something about 'one of red and one of green'. This had to have been what it meant.
I dared to look back and watched with both horror and fascination as the monster began splitting itself right down the middle. Its body becoming darker and darker and darker until it was like a living screaming shadow. It thrashed round the entire time until finally it had become two separate entities. The dark mass on the right sprouted two white orbs near the top of it's head that I assumed to be eyes. As to confirm this, they blinked. It then whispered something in a silent hiss-like manner before it dissipated into nothingness. Considering the state I'm in I might be a bit delusional but I could have sworn it sounded like it said 'thank you.'
Not that I had much time as I remembered the second mass, still there and seemingly more hostile as it snarled and hissed, slowly reshaping itself into a more bipedal form. I'd have been an idiot to wait around to see what would happen should it properly form so I did what I had to and struck the red gem. Like the green one it also shattered as though made of glass.
The Mèngyǎn howled again and it too began to fade, albeit much slower than the first mass.
"You... will not escape here... our tomb is now yours..." It whispered. It's tone defeated and full of hate. I scoffed.
"I've already died once. What's one more?"
The ferocity of falling rocks came down harder, filling up what little space remained. My last few moments consisted of darkness, the worst pain imaginable striking my head for the slightest of seconds and then... nothing.
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"Welcome back my friend."
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"Oogway?!"
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I felt something. Not sure what. Maybe a tug of consciousness or the fact that some small part of me still existed. Regardless it was enough for me to jolt my body and regain my senses. I was at a loss as I looked around. This was... not what I expected.
I don't know where I am. Everything is... bright and golden. Enormous abandoned structures sit on stone podiums and what I could assume was an endless void in all directions. Below me, land and sea, also golden. Some kind of afterlife maybe? That seems the most likely outcome. At least it was peaceful. It also confirmed the obvious. I was dead.
It's... hard to explain the feeling upon realising that. I just pondered on it for a moment. The understanding that everything I once knew and cared about was gone... again. Kind of a hard to swallow realisation. It was hard to believe my eyes that- Wait! My eye! I could see out both of them! I can't believe I didn't notice that right away! It's healed! Ha! Guess there's some good news out of all this.
Only thing is... now what? The Mèngyǎn's gone, Viper's safe and so is China. I did that. Me!
I'd have felt more joyous about it if something hadn't hit me from behind sending me flying into one of the many ancient ruins.
"YOU!" An all too familiar voice yelled out.
Surprisingly my serpentine body was completely fine save for a minor sting. The build I smashed into, it might as well have been made of cardboard the way its stone shattered on impact. Before me I saw my attacker. A lioness. Impossibly old looking, well over a hundred at the very least. I immediately knew who it was, even if this was the first time I had seen her like this.
"Shit." I cursed. "And here I thought I'd seen the last of you. Nice to see your age has finally caught up with you, Mèngyǎn."
"You... will pay for this!"
The lioness slammed into me at incredible speed we entered the building and came out the other end of it, throwing punches at one another.
"You may have trapped me in the spirit realm, but now at least I have the chance to make you suffer for eternity!"
Another blow struck me and I returned it with just as much force. It was a short battle as she grabbed my neck with one hand and unsheathed her claws with the other.
"By the time I'm done with you, you will be begging for death!" She smiled with sadistic glee, raising the clawed hand and about to strike. Before she could, a strange ripping sound could be heard coming from her, and the -'s joyous face turned to confusion, then horror as though someone, or something had sucked the soul out of her. All I had to do was look down to see what had happened.
It was a blade. An enormous blade sticking out from her chest. There was something odd about it too in the short time I had to examine it. It looked like it was made of... jade?
The second I thought that, like a hooked fish, it pulled the lioness back. Luckily her shock had caused her grip to loosen so she didn't pull me with her. The last thing I saw was her screaming agonised face pulled into the stone monument the blade had come from. I barely saw her consumed by the darkness, a flash of green and then silence as though nothing had happened.
I didn't dare stick around. I ran, slithered, flew, whatever I could do to get as far away from whatever that thing was as a deep laughter infected my ears. I came to a horrifying realisation. This wasn't Heaven, this was Hell. And the devil was coming for me.