"You have answered my challenge and restored that which is most precious to me. I honor our bargain... here is the golden staff." Dragon King said. He held out the golden staff in his claws, and it was quite heavy as I took it from him. Monkey King must've had some strength if he could wield this.
"A bit of history first. I made this staff long ago, to control both sea and sky. Monkey King tricked it away from me. You will no doubt return it to him - a course of action I advise against. He is nothing but trouble."
I nodded as I bowed low, holding the golden staff behind me. "Thank you for the advice, but we really need his help. If you'll excuse us, we'll be going now. Will Temeraire be coming with us?"
"Oh yes!" The little black dragon said, nodding eagerly with a silver breastplate inlayed with blue sapphires on his chest. Bowing low to Dragon King, he said, "Thank you for everything you have taught me, but now I must go."
Dragon King nodded, and with that, we went back up to the surface of the lake, the setting sun turning it into the color of orange juice. We passed through the ravaged valley to the Santo Oro to set sail for the Temple of the South Wind, where Monkey King was being held.
Entering a cavern, we soon found Monkey King inside his cage, where his eyes widened as he caught a glimpse of his staff in my hands. "My golden staff! Give that to me!"
Slipping it through the bars of the black cage, Monkey King thrusted forward to break the golden lock on the door to the cage. "Freedom! Good job! You're quite the heroes, yes? Well, I must be going."
"Hold it right there! What about your Turtle Ball?" I asked, drawing my sword and putting its blade into Monkey King's path, and he nodded as he pointed with his staff. "Of course! I'll be happy to give it to you - I rolled it into that cave, over there. Follow me inside."
"I have a bad feeling about this..." Emma said quietly to me, and I nodded. "Get your weapons ready, then."
Loading my two flintlock pistols behind my back, we entered the side chamber of the cavern, walking slowly towards the center of the cave. Suddenly, Monkey King turned around and formed his index and middle fingers into a cross. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
In puffs of smoke, four exact lookalikes of Monkey King appeared behind him, all armed with golden staffs. "Did you really think I would surrender my Turtle Ball to someone as gullible as you? Good luck against my doppelgängers!"
Monkey King then threw a smoke bomb on the ground, disappearing as his shadow clones attacked. Firing my two pistols, I made two shadow clones dissipate in a cloud of smoke, and Emma took out another, but Nikolai took the cake for coolest attack.
"Hybrid Spell: Wraith." Nikolai said dangerously, and a glowing black magic circle appeared around him. As his clothes turned black, his cloak's hood came up by itself, shadowing the upper half of his face as a curved blade appeared at the top of his staff like scythe. Finally, raven wings spread from his back, and he leapt for a shadow clone, slicing it in half with his new scythe. "Sorry, but the fact is, I'm a genius!"
Spinning his scythe, the changes reversed until he looked like his usual self. "Like my hybrid spell? With my reserves of mana, I can only hold a form for five minutes, but I'm working on making them more efficient."
"A show of hands, please! Who saw that coming?" Emma asked, raising her hand. "Let's see what Shunzang the Wise had to say in his sealed scroll. He should have seen that coming!"
I brought out the scroll from my obi sash and opened it to be read aloud. "If you are reading this, Monkey King has betrayed you. Return to the Temple of Eternal Serenity at once. Shunzang."
"Oh, he is good." Nikolai remarked, impressed. "Let's set sail for Subata as soon as possible."
Awhile later, we stood in the Temple of Eternal Serenity, where we spoke with Shunzang the Wise. "I could not have warned you of Monkey King's treachery - had you suspected him, he never would have cooperated. My hope was that he had reformed, but apparently, he is unchanged."