It was quiet for a moment as they watched the younger version of Jinhua wallow in grief as she curled in on herself trying keep her sanity.
Jinhua watched with a tight lipped look, her eyes watching with an unseen void of acceptance as she felt the two younger children nestle into her sides as they observed with distraught faces.
"This is.... Highly saddening and a unseen turn of events..." Tang commented gravely.
"It was heart breaking, truly... But at that moment I realized that I needed to pick myself back up and grieve later as now wasn't the time for such emotions."
MK looked up sadly as he saw Jinhua's hardened look as she watched the flame screen, "But that's kinda...." He trailed off not knowing a certain word to describe it, but he just knew that he didn't agree yet he understood what she meant.
"Jaded? Heartless? I can see why... but that was just what is was at the time. Especially when my enemy gave no time for me to grieve for my loss."
At that they all turned towards the screen to see what happens next.
The world spun as she leaned back in her position on the ground, her head tilting upward towards the sky in which Jinhua has no idea how to process what events had transpired only seconds ago.
Her throat sore and raw from the continuous screaming and too dry to even utter a couple of words.
She didn't even bother to turn her gaze towards the Demon Fox King as he stood in front of her, his tails swaying in a manner that seemed almost taunting.
His mask discarded to the forest ground as he peered down at her silently, observing her as if her unstable mental state was something fascinating.
"So this is what an actual caring parent looks like..." He hummed out loud as he rubbed his chin, "Not that I would know. I suck at parenting." He dismissed his earlier comment and raised his hand up to show the relic in his grip.
With a snarky grin, he proceeded to take a bite of it and licked his lips as if it was just another fine Danish.
"Oh how the great has fallen...." He chuckled lightly as he watched the relic lose its color and energy as it started to wilt and wither in his hand. Once it shriveled up, he tossed it to the side with a bored glance and looked back to the demoness.
"And the fallen have become great again." He mused with a smirk. His crimson eyes flashing in amusement as he leaned down and placed a long finger under her chin. His long sharp red nail dug into her skin as she was forced to look at him.
The aura around his demonic center grew rapidly and surged through him in plentiful amounts of Chi Energy. The pressure of the aura's intensity made Jinhua grounded in her kneeling position as she felt her hands tremble in clenched fists.
"A God has been given birth today... And he stands right before you..."
Her violet eyes clashed with his Scarlet ones as they they began to glow a dark shade of scarlet.
"But before I go on my conquest I must cut loose ends and finish this battle to its conclusion." He stated curtly with a small hum, "As I have given mercy to your child, I shall grant you, your own."
"My own...?"
At her hesitant question, the new Demonic God let a sickening grin split across his face.
"I shall grant you a passing without pain to escape this cruel reality...."
At that she stiffened in his locked grip around her chin.
"Ah... What was the thing you said before we started dueling..?" He tapped his chin with his one hand, "Oh right..! You said that I would fall by your hands and my blood would be thrown high and low on these very grounds~!" He snapped his fingers in self congratulatory to his memory skills of such a long promise.
Jinhua felt the light in her eyes start dying slowly as she watched the Demonic God stand before her in all his glory.
He raised his hand up and in his grip appeared a long golden clawed gauntlet form and appear around his one hand.
"Isn't it hilarious..? The irony, am I right~?"
His face twisted in utter pleasure seeing her hopeless and given up state. A large and frightening look reeled across his grin as his canines were bared when he began to cackle. It looked as if his muzzle was stretching farther up his face when he laughed louder.
"Let's put this game to an end. Shall we?" He raised a curt brow as he struck down with his weaponized gauntlet.
Jinhua shut her eyes as she tense up her muscles, waiting to be feel the agonizing pain tear through her body.
But there was none.
"You really need to stop being so full of yourself, Princess. It's honestly embarrassing at this point."
Her eyes instantly opened as soon as those words reached her ears.
Looking up to see a figure block her view of the Demon Fox King. Her eyes caught sight of bronze fur and a tail sway confidently in front of her face.
"Wukong...?"
"Yours truly!" He laughed out with his annoying little grin, "Looks like you screwed up majorly this time..!" He commented as he glared down the Fox King and was met at a stand point with both weapons clashing against each other, sending sparks at contact.
Jinhua felt her ears perk up as she felt sudden presence behind her.
"You know... It's not hard to ask someone for help sometimes." A chuckle made the light in Jinhua's eyes return.
"Macaque."
"Yep! The one and only." He slowly ascended out of Wukong's shadow, smiling down at her with his hands on his hips, "And it seems to me that your in quite the bind here."
"No kidding!" Wukong grunted out as he stomped his foot on the ground as he felt himself slide backwards with the brute strength of the demonic god, "Yo, where did you get this power come from?? You gotta tell me your training resume sometimes."
"I would if I could, but I'm afraid there is no more power left in the relic to share." As he finished his sentence, a grin flashed his face as his eyes glowed and he sent the bronze monkey flying with a gut wrenching kick to the stomach.
Jinhua watched on as Macaque whipped his head back towards the Demon Fox King, his purple Chi Staff being summoned at hand in a defensive staff in front of the demoness, "The relic...!!" He growled in realization.
"I hold the power of a absolute godly being..!" He held his darn out along with his stubbed shoulder.
The three other companions watched in horror as his own arm started to grow back but it was tinted this dark burgundy color.
"How could he heal so quickly—?? Wukong asked, standing back up while he held his side at a slight ache.
"It's one of the desirable perks of the relic, a impossible fast pace of regeneration." Jinhua muttered as she slowly stood up beside him.
"So now what? We have to deal him or something...?" Macaque questioned uneasily, "Incase you both know, I don't think we excel in the arts of that type of magic. That's more on Tang's specialty."
Jinhua turned her head towards the two monkey friends, "Where is your group actually. I would have assumed if you two came, the rest followed?"
Wukong looked off to the side, while Macaque shrugged, "Wukong left them at the Spider Queen's palace for a mother day because he didn't wanna get them involved but he told them they would slow him down."
Jinhua gave Wukong a pointed look, "You reaaaalllyyy need to work on your communication skills." She let out a small laugh.
Wukong let out a dramatic gasp, "Me!? But Macaque was the one who threatened to leave us all behind because we were all too slow to getting here!" He pointed at the flustered monkey demon.
"Oh shut up! I heard Jinhua start screaming her bloody head off and just assumed the worst. Which confuses me now as I don't see any wounds on you..." Macaque took the moment to look her up and down as he looked for any scratch or bruising.
Jinhua looked down to the ground at a torn red ribbon that was ripped from Ren as he faded away in her very arms.
She crouched down and picked it up slowly as she could feel her throat close up in a uncomfortable twisted way. She brought the ribbon to her lips and whispered a soft prayer to it softly.
"I'll tell you guys after we defeat the bastard." She hissed out as she tied the red ribbon around her neck. Her own blue ribbon forgotten in the burning carnage of the destroyed forest.
"Which brings us back to the main question at hand." Macaque stated slowly as they all turned they're attention to the grinning Fox King who was looking up towards the sky.
"How the FUCK are we supposed to seal him away, exactly!?" Wukong shouted as he jabbed a thumb in the demonic god's direction, "My guy, just turned into another Buddha but evil version!"
"We won't seal him away."
Both monkey demons looked over at the golden demoness with confused looks.
"We'll kill him here and now."
Wukong scratched his head nervously, "I'm sorry did I miss something or did you just say, we're gonna kill a god."
"Nope!" Jinhua grinned while flicking his forehead, "You heard correctly my fellow monkey friend."
Macaque waved his hand in question, "And HOW exactly are we doing that? We don't exactly have the power and regeneration skills set that he has to actually have a chance."
"Your right." Jinhua nodded in agreement.
Macaque just looked at her with slight annoyance as he saw this was getting them nowhere.
Wukong on the other hand was getting a kick out of it as he felt himself snort out a wheeze looking at Macaque's ticked expression.
"So what's the plan!?" Macaque had had enough and threw his hands up.
Jinhua turned towards the Demon Fox King and glanced over to the discarded relic, "The plan hopefully is that we'll be able to fight fire with fire."
Wukong looked over curiously, "We're gonna get another god to fight him??"
"Close."
The monkies had looked on even more confused than before, "Excuse me..??"
"You lost me." Wukong deadpanned.
Jinhua turned back towards her two friends with a playful grin, "I'm going to become a god."
Wukong was quiet until he raised his arms up defensively, "Okay, now you reaaaallyyy lost me."
"But that's impossible. The only way the Demon Fox King even became a god in the first place was because he took a big yum yum out of the relic right?" Macaque raised a brow.
"Yes." Jinhua then looked over at the monkey demon for a minute, "And did you just say 'Yum Yum...'?"
He went silent for a moment before speaking, "Moving on—!"
Wukong curled in on himself as he erupted into a wheezing fit.
Even Jinhua couldn't help but let out small sorts of giggles.
Macaque waved them off, ignoring their playful looks as he knew full well they won't let that go anytime soon, "So how are you going to become a god without the relic since it died???"
Jinhua placed a hand gently on Macaque's shoulder as she looked inwards to they're enemy, "Do not underestimate the mystics of GuanYin... The relic is sacred for a reason."
Wukong hummed in thought as he readied his staff, "So Im assuming you want us to distract big ol' sadist over there, while you bring back the dead relic." His tail curled in a brief moment as he looked back at his shocked friends.
Jinhua jutted her lip, "You act like a absolute idiot sometimes, but you seem to be more intellectual than you let on." She hummed in amusement as she placed her hand comfortably on the hilt of her sword.
Wukong went quiet as he tried to process her words, "I don't know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment—."
Macaque just patted him on the back of his armor with a smirk lacing his lips, "Don't mind, don't mind.
Wukong smacked his hand off him in annoyance, "Your not helping whatsoever!"
Jinhua ignored the two and slowly withdrew her sword and casted it towards the Demon Fox King who was just watching them the whole time as pure entertainment.
"Ready for round 2, Miss Jinhua?" He mocked with a lick of his lips.
Macaque and Wukong stepped up in front of her, "Sorry dude, we're gonna have throw hands for what you did to our little princess here." The bronze monkey retaliated with a smile, but they all knew it wasn't one of kindness.
"You two? How amusing to think that you would even stand a chance, against a living god." He pursed his lips into a smirk.