Victory…

In the wake of the duel that had had XJ-V stare into the flames of his past, the Colosseum of Aun’El was repurposed. Without having time for nary a breath, the Cog was whisked away to prepare for the ceremony of his triumph, and the celebration that was to come.

Several attendants prepped him with a set of embroidered robes bearing the icons of both the Tiger and the Dragon. The cuffs were long, and flowed right down to his metal feet, almost tripping him as the two outfitters busied about making sure he was completely covered head-to-toe in materials that looked more expensive than his steel and titanium body.

“Stop squirming!” one of them demanded. “Your frame is hard enough to deal with without you twitching about.”

XJ-V looked down at the little man who was currently strapping a pair of ornate sandals onto his feet…and having some real trouble with it.

“You are a very demanding human.”

“And you are evidently a bad model, Brother!” a jovial voice then sang from the door. XJ-V twisted (much to the consternation of his outfitters) and saw Feng-Lung standing in the doorway of his chamber with Arha perched on his shoulder.

“My, my,” the Huli squeaked. “How my good XJ scrubs up nicely!”

“Speak for yourself,” Feng chuckled. “This Cog seems to be even more uncomfortable now than he was when doing battle.”

XJ-V grimaced as his outfitter yanked on his waist to tighten the bow around his midriff.

“Battle was easier than…than being properly dressed!” he croaked. “I would gladly take another bout with Sheloth over these two torture masters.”

They looked up at him with disdain etched on their faces. Feng-Lung then came forward, muttering apologies to them both before he clasped his Brother’s shoulder firmly.

“Well fought,” he said. “Mah-Jung didn’t stand a chance. I had complete confidence in you the whole time. This one, however…”

Arha spat a spitless spit at the boy. “Hmpf! Arha always knew XJ wuld win! Arha is his personal guiding spirit, after all. She knows these things.”

The Disciples, and even the two attendants, proceeded to roll their eyes.

“The nerve of you humans, and Cogs, sometimes!” the bristling creature added. “If that’s the way you feel, Arha can just go back to her Sisters after all. She can, you know!”

“And miss your machine-patrons special occasion?” Feng sneered. “The chance to sit on the top of a giant’s shoulders? As far as I’m aware, XJ-V has been cavorting with no other guardian spirits. Then again, he’s the hot thing these days. There might just be a few other Huli who would snap up the chance to-“

“N-no!” Arha screamed, drawing looks from all the men assembled. “Um…t-that is…Arha must go and get ready for the ceremony, now! XJ-V, you had better be ready!”

“I promise you, Arha,” the smiling robot said. “You are the only Huli for me.”

If spirits could blush, the tiny creature would have set the room ablaze.

“Well…g-good!” she snapped, before running off and disappearing through the wall.

“Huli…” Feng sighed. “I never will get used to them.”

He noted the rather downtrodden face of his Brother in the mirror then – a face that displayed misery beyond what he experienced at the hands of the two tailors.

“As someone who recently went through a bout of depression, your face is a picture, Brother.”

XJ-V turned and flashed a smile that seemed weary, even for a machine.

“Did…did you feel it, Feng?” he asked. “As you observed the fight from the outside, did you sense the change that came over me?”

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The boy was intrigued. He shook his head silently, pulling up a chair as the two bustling outfitters continued their work, both so absorbed as to be barely listening anymore.

“Yuwa…” XJ-V said. “I felt him – stronger than he’s ever been before. I looked down on Mah-Jung and knew that I had the power to slay him. It felt – for a fleeting instant – good to hold such power in these hands. Good to hold a life in these hands…”

“Here you go again…” Feng murmured.

“Brother?”

“Thinking!” the boy scoffed. “You’ve beaten the odds more times than I can even count, XJ-V. Can I even count off your accomplishments on one hand alone? You thawed the heart of a dragon Master, you battled against a Xu’Jan and won, you calmed a tiger’s rage and taught every single human in this place just how valuable our lives are.”

The boy suddenly appeared beside the Cog, shoulder to shoulder with his friend.

“The spirit that’s in you is more powerful than any God, XJ-V. I know it. After all, it’s not just Yuwa’s voice you hear, is it?”

He was right. XJ-V recalled how in the middle of the fight he had fought against the dark presence of the old, decayed God within him. He had finally managed to pull through with the sheer force of will that lived within him. The place in his heart where the teaching of Janus, and of Ramor-Tai, and his own personal experience lived together as one, melding into something distinct – even if he was simply another Cog in this Wasteland.

Maybe that’s what the soul truly was, after all: a matrix of experience.

“Your words have gotten far wiser of late,” XJ-V smiled up at his friend. “There is a Master in you, Feng. Of that, I am certain.”

The boy laughed as the Cog groaned from more alterations to his borrowed robes. “If the day ever came when I ascended to the Rank of Internalized Ego, I would wish you to be beside me, Brother.”

“Well then,” XJ-V grinned. “I guess I had better save the world and come back quickly, mustn’t I?”

…

Almost as quickly as the Speartooth Colosseum had been constructed, it was reformed and repurposed. The Core Regulators toiled before the awed spectators, each one weaving the ancient stones of the building’s edifice into a great silver stairway that seemed to challenge the blasted heavens themselves. At the very apex sat the podium of champions – a place reserved for only those who had truly devoted themselves to their Sect and the ways of Cultivator combat within the hallowed walls of Ramor-Tai.

Fireworks went up that dazzled the night sky. Processions of lantern bearing Seefai – spirits who wore objects of celebrations upon their headless necks – strutted around upon the great spiral staircase performing feats of impossible acrobatics to the delight of the audience. All the while, the Disciples in what remained of the arena watched the dazzling displays with a sense of pride. Tiger and Dragon both had come together in the spirit of competition, and one had emerged who was worthy to walk the wastes. To change the world.

That person was the one who was currently walking the 3,000 steps towards where the Masters and Planeswalker were waiting, every movement of his limb being accompanied by an uproar of applause and a chorus of voices all singing his name.

“Th-the purpose of a ceremony,” the walking Cog confided to his only confidant – the much bushier and radiant Arha who stood to attention on his right shoulder. “I thought the purpose of a ceremony was to reward one who has accomplished something great. Not punish him with further chores.”

“Hmpf,” the haughty Huly huffed.

“What?”

“You – you do not notice anything new about Arha?”

The Cog, who was currently climbing his 2768th step, sighed grimly.

“Your tail has exactly fifty-five new tufts of fur of crimson, cyan, and indigo, presumably pilfered from your sisters approximately one hour ago.”

Her little eye flicked open.

“And…and you have bathed in the pool of Aun’El’s Grove,” he finished. “For precisely one hour since our last conversation. I will concede, Arha: out of the two of us, you certainly look better than I do.”

His grimaced as he looked down at his embroidered attire which trailed behind him, noting a few of his old friends shout up a couple of jibes with the aid of thaumaturgical arts.

Arha, meanwhile, couldn’t hide her smile.

“Oh, XJ,” she beamed. “You know how to make a spirit girl feel appreciated.”

After what then seemed like an agonizingly mundane hour, XJ-V made it to the very summit of the Spearclaw Steps. He was greeted by Masters Longhua and Yoma-Dur, along with the grinning form of Planeswalker Ori’un.

“Well,” Master Yoma-Dur said first. “What did you make of your final duel, XJ-V?”

“It was a test of more than simple endurance, Master,” the Cog replied. “But I have made peace with my fears, as one of the Dragon must.”

“So you say,” Yoma-Dur nodded. “And you have extended such peace to my own students. Fai-Deng has certainly benefitted from your influence. Though…I dare say he is a harsher teacher than is necessary.”

“Coming from you, that’s saying a lot!”

Both Masters turned to rebuke Ori’un’s interruption, and the big guy simply threw up his hands in a gesture of schoolboy surrender.

“But its true,” he then said to XJ-V. “In all my time among the peoples’ of the Wastes, I’ve never met a machine who could not only empathize with a man, but teach him the value of his own soul.”

XJ-V was put in mind of Feng-Lung’s previous statement to him, and bowed gracefully to the Planeswalker.

“It is an honor to have your praise, Planeswalker Ori’un.”

All eyes upon the podium then turned to the one person who hadn’t spoke. Master Longhua of the Eternal Dragon had simply been watching the spectacle before him unfold. But, unbeknownst to the Cog and even to his fellow Master, he had never once taken his eyes off his machine-pupil since he had first begun his climb.

“XJ-V,” he said, coming forward to greet the Cog’s bowed form. “You came to us as a machine seeking knowledge. Such knowledge you not only found, but also imparted to others. Your triumph in this tournament is not only the triumph of martial prowess, but a triumph of spirit. Something not even some humans ever truly attain.”

What happened next caused to Cog to believe he was trapped in a Dao-dream. Longhua came forward, thrust out his arm, and opened his hand in an invitation to a handshake.

XJ-V would have simply stared at that wrinkled hand blankly if the Master had not said anything more.

“You are worthy,” he told him. “You were worthy when you first came amongst us, and you have only grown worthier since. My own hubris and fear blinded me to the truth of your being long ago. A hubris that I believe I never would have believed still existed, if not for you.”

Even the other two leaders balked at this. Whatever change in Longhua that was happening here shocked them more than a Cog winning the tournament of Aun’El itself.

But equally, the Master’s words were not a surprise. Later, when he had time to process their meaning, XJ-V understood that what he was hearing now had been a long time coming. The Master had known this simply truth and kept it to himself for long enough. Only now, when his student was ready to fly from the nest he had spent decades building, was he able to give it voice.

“So let this be a victory for you, and for your people,” Longhua smiled as the Cog gripped his hand. “If you have the power to teach an old Master Cultivator a lesson, then you have the power to correct the course of this dying world.”

XJ-V didn’t know what to say. What could he say in the face of such a personal admission from his Master? Here, on the precipice of heaven itself, might have been the only place Longhua could have admitted the truth. It might also have been the only place where he could wish his best student a fond farewell.

When he then thrust XJ-V’s hand into the air, the cheers of the Disciples could be heard even from the clouds themselves.

“CULTIVATORS OF RAMOR-TAI, I GIVE YOU YOUR CHAMPION!”

And so it was that the Cog who had arrived as an outcast became a living legend.