XJ-V had expected an Aun’El’s Rebuke right off the bat, but Mah-Jung surprised him with five consecutive Dragon Tooth’s that sailed towards him as though personally intent on his destruction.

Two Dragon Swipes sent the firebolts flying wide, but XJ-V had no time to recover.

His Brother flew towards him with lightning speed, creating a dust-cloud that licked at the flames of Hensha burning all around them, and XJ-V’s quick Flame-Whip only just managed to meet his Brother’s in an explosion of light that sent both Disciples flying back.

As he rose, readying his own volley of Dragon Tooth’s, XJ-V looked down to see a smoking hole in his hand.

This power…that of a top level Temperer…

He closed his mind to the pain roaring through him, launching three firebolts towards the recuperating Jung and following up with a Lightning Claw that ripped clean through the crisp air of the burning village.

His firebolts were blocked, and Mah-Jung tanked his lightning strike with a grunt of pain, rocketing towards him with inhuman speed even as the arc of light connected with his abdomen.

He means to win or die here, XJ-V told himself. You have no room for hesitation.

He channeled two Dragon Tooth’s into his ankles and sped away from Mah-Jung’s jousting strike, only just managing to avoid the next Flame Whip sent to nip at his feet. He circled behind his opponent, launching bolt after bolt of flame that he knew was severely depleting his Qi at a dangerous level, and even with his own flurry of Dragontail Swipes a few of the Cog’s strikes hit true, putting Mah-Jung on the backpedal.

But when XJ-V then sent two arcs of Lightning Claws thundering towards his apparently distracted foe, he saw the dark eyes of Mah-Jung pierce through the light itself.

It was too quick this time. Too overcharged – so much so that XJ-V only realized Jung had initiated the attack when the scent of burning penetrated his sensors. He’d assumed it was from the lightning leaping from his steel fingers. He was wrong.

“Shaaaaa – HUAH!”

Heat – searing and roaring. Burning. All consuming.

XJ-V bore the brunt of Aun’El’s rebuke as he tried to turn and flee, his rocketing feet stuttering and dying away in the face of the brutal explosion billowing out from Mah-Jung’s open palms. He was sent tumbling into a broken house which then collapsed all around him, and he watched as the wooden beams of the roof were vaporized just as quickly as they fell.

XJ-V could do nothing but hold up his hands and focus on his chest – where his true soul watched and waited for its chance. Feeling its host’s steel skin peel away, it was biding its time. It’s chance was coming.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

And as XJ-V dropped to his knees, feeling his metal muscles begin to fail him, he was starting to listen to a voice he had not heard in a very long time…

You will die here unless you use me, it said – speaking with ultimate, divine authority. Do you wish to die, here and now?

XJ-V grit his teeth, hoping against all hopes that the deluge of pure, living fire would finally just subsist. But Brother Jung was putting everything he could into his attack, betting everything on this single strike, knowing that with each passing second, his metal Brother’s Qi was draining away. His defences were wavering. He was dying.

You will die here, the voice murmured in XJ-V’s mind. You will become naught but ash, just like the mortals you once adopted as your own.

The Cog looked up to see Mah-Jung in the center of the growing inferno, his face a picture of pure, animal hate, now.

Do you not see now that you will never be accepted as you are? There will always be those who will hunt you for your nature. Because you do not belong to the world of humans, Cog of Janus.

No…XJ-V murmured. Then, voice rising to a bellow that cut through even the roar of the flames: “NO!”

He knew that voice. He knew what it was – who it was. He knew now that it was the very same presence he’d always felt when he entered the Dao. The thing that held him back. The barrier at the heart of his being that resented its prison.

Yuwa…

You do not belong to their world, the voice of the dead God whispered as he felt his core chassis break away.

I…I belong…I belong…

Flashes of his friends – even though he couldn’t see them. Feng-Lung, Kai-Thai, Fai-Deng. All of them drinking atop the grand library. Training together in the halls of Ramor-Tai. Bowing to their masters as they each paced a path towards their own fates. These sights dominated his mind as his body was peeled apart piece by piece.

I…I belong…

But the image of Mah-Jung dominated his reality. Eyes like those of an Eagle poised to swoop down and finish off its prey in the middle of the desolated hamlet it had once called home.

And then, the voice in his heart became the only thing XJ-V heard at all.

You belong…to me.

…

Mah-Jung stared at his cloud of fire with little satisfaction.

I do not wish you dead, Cog. But there is little choice. For either of us.

He tried to ignore the sights and sounds around him. As soon as he’d entered the arena he’d know what it was it would show him. Still, the knowledge didn’t make the reality any more acceptable. Indeed, he was wondering if the Masters had formulated this little piece of theatre for him and him alone.

“Mah-Jung! Mah-Jung – RUN!”

“Go, son! He’s coming!”

He closed his eyes. He didn’t need those voices. He’d created a whole life for himself without those voices – because of those voices. They never understood. They didn’t understand that, when the time came, he had been chosen. Not them.”

“Impressive,” a chilling voice whispered to him from his back, causing the hairs on his neck to rise like stilted thickets. “You shall have the glory you so desire, Mah-Jung. You shall have all that you wish, if…”

Stop, he told the specter at his back. Stop.

“If…”

“Enough!” he cried out, letting up his attack and clutching his knees. Sweat dribbled from his matted forehead, but the voices he heard still kept up their incessant screaming.

“Everything I do – have done,” he spat. “It has been because that is not the life I have chosen. Not anymore.”

His eyes lighted on the vaporized environment before him – the tracks of burning soil and dust he had carved into the very earth itself. The patch of earth that he had once called home.

His parents were there, begging him to run. And, as a child, he was there, too, watching them die before him. Assuming a battle stance against the one who had come to deliver their fate as though he stood a chance.

“Maybe not, back then…” he told himself. “But perhaps…perhaps now…”

Suddenly a column of light dispelled the illusions – sending his bloodied, torn parents away from his sight and banishing his young face as he looked upon his deliverer. Mah-Jung stood, mouth agape, as he watched a figure rise from the foundation of the pillar, skeletal form wrapped in radiant threads that blinded him.

Yet even so, he couldn’t help but stare.

“Impossible…”

It was the only word that came to mind as he watched the Cog rise, seeing its steel chassis and limbs knit themselves back together and regain the sheen they had lost in the unrelenting maelstrom that was his attack. He watched the Cog’s eyes assume a different color now – a piercing shade of gold that matched the divine tower that challenged the clouds above the arena themselves.

Those eyes were focused on Mah-Jung, and Mah-Jung alone. And the Level 9 Temperer knew that this was no mere Cog he was looking at, now. Once again, he was reduced to a child staring into the sun – watching a power rise before him that he could not truly comprehend, indeed, was not supposed to comprehend.

Yuwa…

In the second this word left his lips the Cog launched himself forward, and Mah-Jung faced the wrath of a God.