The Temple of the Elements. It was a place long kept hidden, for within its walls was stored a sacred treasure that must be protected, lest all the realms suffer the consequences. Its location was typically only known to those who gained possession of the Map of Elements, or those to whom they passed on the knowledge.

Bi-Han had been one of the few mortals to have ever possessed the map. He had been hired by the sorcerer Quan Chi to obtain it. As had his nemesis, Scorpion. It had been while pursuing this mission that Bi-Han had finally put an end to Scorpion's life, and in doing so, sealed his own fate.

Kuai Liang had been told this tale before his brother's death, including the location of the temple. As it was the place where the Amulet of Shinnok was kept, safeguarded by the four elemental gods of Earthrealm. As the artefact keeping the fallen Elder God imprisoned in the Netherrealm, it was imperative that the amulet not be reclaimed by any of Shinnok's minions.

Now that the Lin Kuei pursuing him had gone dark for the first time since the Invasion of Earthrealm two years prior, Kuai Liang took the opportunity to visit the temple to meet with the four guardians and make peace for his brother's actions five years prior. What awaited him inside, however, was disheartening, to say the least. The bodies of dead creatures that could only be Netherrealm demons littered the entryway, alongside the bodies of the monks assigned to assist the elementals.

The interior of the temple was labyrinthine and took some time to navigate, yielding yet more and more corpses from both sides of the conflict, along with a new group of humanoids bearing a crest Sub-Zero didn't recognise. Soon, he found the passage leading to the underground chamber where a set of stairs leading to an unsupported platform sat at the centre. No doubt, this was where the amulet was usually kept. However, beyond the demon and monk corpses, the only things remaining in the chamber were four more bodies: a man in Japanese armour and a hat similar to Raiden's, a dark-skinned man with long grey hair kept in a ponytail, a nude man made entirely of water, and what appeared to be a genderless stone golem.

The dark-skinned man, slumped against the wall, looked to have been the only one to have survived, if his laboured breathing was anything to go by. Kuai Liang approached cautiously, unsure if any of the bodies surrounding him might be playing dead and planning to ambush him. No such attack occurred, however, as he reached the man's side. Being shaken roused the man from his unconscious state. The opening of his blank white eyes confirmed Kuai Liang's suspicion that the man was one of the gods assigned to defend the amulet.

"Sub-Zero!?" he said in a panicked tone before quickly calming himself. "No. He was killed on Shang Tsung's island. You are his brother, Kuai Liang, then."

"I am. I came here to make peace for my brother's actions here five years ago. But it looks like we have more urgent matters to attend to."

"The amulet. Is it-"

"Gone. And your fellow guardians seem worse-for-wear than you do."

The man closed his eyes for a moment and then let out a deep sigh of relief before opening them again. The sigh was powerful enough to produce a gentle breeze around Kuai Liang, confirming his identity as Fujin, Earthrealm's God of Wind.

"They yet live. I momentarily feared the worst."

"What happened here, Fujin?"

"Quan Chi's enforcer - Noob Saibot - entered the temple with an army of Netherrealm demons and Brotherhood of Shadow assassins. Saibot alone defeated the four of us in single kombat. I have not seen a warrior able to so deftly keep up with the kombat prowess of a god since your brother set foot in this temple."

"A man to match my brother's skill, hm? I can only hope I have caught up in the years since his death."

"I intend no offence, but I doubt you will be able to defeat him. He defeated Kojin, Suijin, Ugajin and myself by himself. Should you encounter him, your best option will be to retreat."

"I may not be given the choice, Wind God."

"Regardless, we must alert Raiden so he can gather his champions to battle Shinnok's forces. I will take you to him while my compatriots seek out their own champions to aid in the conflict."

"Will you four be able to make the journeys? You're all quite clearly in bad shape."

"We gods are not so easily vanquished, Kuai Liang." Fujin pulled the fabric of his top, exposing a rather nasty-looking patch of frostbitten skin on his right pectoral. "While I am not quite as durable as my brethren, I can survive even a blow such as this. This patch of dead tissue even served as protection from Saibot's strike."

"If you are a god, could you not have healed your wound?"

"I could, of course. Our defeat this day was due to the enemy's overwhelming numbers. When facing Bi-Han, however, our defeat was not so noble. I chose to keep this wound unhealed as a permanent reminder of the hubris that led to our defeat at your brother's hand. Never again will we fall victim to such a character flaw."

"It is good to know even lesser gods can learn from their mistakes," Kuai Liang noted, Fujin observing his distinction and wordlessly agreeing with his assessment. "It gives me hope for my own redemption." Fujin had no doubt this self-deprecation was purely to mask his meaning to avoid offence.

"Indeed, we can. But we must move now. We will need as many of Earthrealm's champions as possible if we are to defeat Shinnok."

The other three gods were just coming around as Kuai Liang helped Fujin to his feet. After getting the other three caught up on the situation, he opened an intra-realm portal to Raiden's Sky Temple, which would serve as the group's command centre of the coming conflict. But something gave Kuai Liang the fleeing that Earthrealm would not be the battleground for this conflict. He suspected it would instead take place in another realm entirely...


I actually wrote the next four chapters before this one, but since I had the idea for this one, I felt this one should come first, given its place in MK4's timeline. I see this as a prologue that works as a good start for a retelling of MK4, be it in prose or a game.