Primal Allies

Primal Allies is a main plot related short story, originally posted October 2019. It is preceded by Gift of the Mystic.

Story
A long time had passed until the City of Players could get their hold on the Primal Mystic Nezha back. Busy with chasing down Sun Wukong, the Lotus Prince had lost track of the passing of time, weeks fleeting like mere seconds to the immortal. One day he simply showed up in the City again, same as he had appeared before the Trial, seemingly out of thin air.

Instantly, Tabaqui had made an announcement during the spread-out speakers, informing the Players of Nezha's return, and their following attempt to summon the higher rank Primal whom he had spoken off in the past. Together in a group including the council, Sýr, Kikyo, Locke and Nezu, the Players had teleported to the spot where Nezha assumed Sun Wukong’s current location to be. Explaining the concept of a Primal summon, teaching each individual the respective cast, Nezha developed a strategy with his companions to chase Sun Wukong until the right summon would go through.

It was before long until they ran into the Monkey King, who held a promised Mystic Item. "My my, you sure are persistent, little prince. I unfortunately can't hang around. My bad!" the culprit spoke, cloning himself to escape into several directions, as expected. Fortunately, the Players had set up multiple traps, each of them targeting one of the duplicates.

Locke was the first to attempt his luck at a summon. Only that he ended up unlucky. Confusion and frustration were the results when suddenly a little girl stood in front of him. Both made room for perplexity as she seemed to pull a toilet out of thin air, a ghostly hand grabbing the target and flushing it in the piece of bathroom furniture. Just what had he summoned there?!

Kalan's experience was turning out no better. "Why is there a frog duck?!" he yelled, tossing a fireball at the monkey clone, while the thing he summoned just gave him a blank stare, chewing on a cucumber.

Not far away, Sýr’s eyes shone at the presence of a beautiful woman who came out of her summoning circle. "Ah! Who-" The Glitch did not get to finish her sentence. As if commanded to, the woman opened a jar that she was holding. From inside, hellish creatures came, sucking the Sun Wukong in front of them into the jar, as if it was a gate to the underworld itself.

Determined to make a strike on the right primate, Nezu sunk his teeth into one after another. Only out of a desire to be the first to find the original, he ended up chanting the summoning spell. To his side appeared a woman with bright hair and a heavy armor, holding an impressive spear. Flames burned around her feet, matching the magic of the fox. "Hail, stranger. My name is Jeanne d'Arc, and I have come to your aid! I shall- ...Ah, wait. What is this strange look of yours?"

Kikyo was timed last to make her attempt. With the cloud rider dodging her magic a little too often for her likings, she became irritated, chanting the words of summon in hopes someone useful would come to push the man down from his cloud.

With a glistening aether aura, the summoning circle that formed next to the wolf woman lit up. The color appeared much brighter, more powerful than those before. From particles of life energy, the silhouette of a young man formed within the markings, his glamorous, yet traditional thaoist attire implying that he was a monk of high status. A few times, the Primal spun through the air, before landing on the ground with featherweight feet.

"We did it...! Lord Tang Sanzang!" Nezha shouted as he felt the fellow Primal's presence. Turning around, he saw how close to his own location he had been summoned.

"Suuun Wukoooong!" the desired Primal called out as he exited the summoning area with a leap forward, charging towards a specific monkey, as if blind to the trick. "I have been looking for you everywhere!"

“Ah. Crap.” the remaining apes said in unison. “Your Highness. My pardon, but I was just about to head elsewhere. I’ll see you la-”

“Jinguzhou!” Promptly, the clones of the Monkey King poofed, the original falling from his cloud as he held onto the crown around his scalp, yelping in pain. The Mystic, who seemed oddly delighted to reunite with the demon, hurried forward with the clumsiest run that one could imagine. His eyes widened when he saw an item fall along with Sun Wukong, and he changed course to reach out for it.

“Tang Sanzang, please do not touch that!”

But Nezha’s call came too late. With a delayed ‘huh?’, the item landed in the hands of the Primal. Nearly instantly upon the touch, a number of demons spawned around the holy monk, who tumbled back and landed on his backside. Wailing, he called out for help.

“Fear not!” Jeanne responded loudly, rushing over to slay some of them, regardless of her confusion towards the situation. The Players, knowing the importance of the item and the person holding it, wasted no time to join her in the quest. With the combined forces, the demons were quickly exterminated.

Tang Sanzang sighed in relief. “Thank the heavens! I was almost-” He could not finish his sentence, as Nezha rudely smacked the item out of his hands. “By all due respect; I told you not to touch that.” he scolded a whining Sanzang.

“Ah-! Where did Wukong go?” Distracted by the shiny object and the demons, the monk had forgotten about his subordinate. Naturally, the monkey had made a run for it while nobody had been looking. Tang Sanzang went back to whining.

The Players curiously examined the Mystic Item, surrounded by their new allies, whom they had given a rundown of the situation and world they found themselves in to. It had the odd shape of what resembled a faberge egg, white in color with golden accents. Just as discussed previously, they confirmed that the wisest choice was to give it to the Shepherd. The latter touched the item, whereupon it strangely began to alter its form into that of a weighing scale.

“A scale melded from the tools of the gods of sun and death. To think the ape stole such a creation…” Nezha thought loudly, rubbing his chin. “No… perhaps he did not steal it. But if that is the case, we may have lost Master Anubis and Master Shamash to the deception of Yggdrasil. Let’s pray that I am mistaken, and that neither is our enemy.”

The Players looked at each other with concern. Then they silently gazed upon the Primals who stood among their ranks. Could they truly meld Mystic Items for the Players, should they prove themselves worthy to them?

They would have to find out.