Page 99 of Elemasters

Sitting there with one hand resting on his closed fist, and the other holding firmly onto his ceremonial blade, was Qin Shi Huang.

Or more accurately… Ying Zheng.

Gone was the gaudy armor and antlered helmet, and he wasn’t even wearing the beaded crown Dustin had seen in so many paintings over the years. He was just sitting there, with his long ebony hair hanging loose and a tired look in his eyes.

“I had no doubts that you would arrive here,” he said, voice low and steady, “you and your brother carry the Ying name well, and the sheer persistence that comes with it,”

“We didn’t come here to chit chat,” Chloe said, limping closer as metal began to encase her skin much more slowly than usual. They were all fucking depleted at this point, “we’re gonna finish you,”

Zheng shook his head like a disappointed parent.

“I do not question that you’ll try, but I do question why you are so intent on it?” he stood up slowly, letting the blade rest against the throne as he paced the floor in front of it, “I brought peace and stability to what I believed to be the entire world in my time. Do you not wish for me to do the same in yours? I have spent centuries fragmented on the spiritual plane, slowly piecing myself together while I watched my empire and the entire globe around it descend into madness time and again. You must want better than that!”

Dustin stepped forward just a bit, putting his hand out to signal Chloe that now wasn’t the moment to attack… not yet.

“You know, my mom curates artifacts from your empire, and she always told me about the Mandate of Heaven. That an emperor’s right to rule wasn’t inherent, but it was based on how well they served the people. I’ve seen your memories; the people were fucking terrified of you,”

Ying Zheng snorted; a sound almost like a laugh.

“Perhaps they were. But do you know why China still exists, while the empires of men like Alexander the so-called Great, and Napoleon crumbled? They lacked vision. Structure. No matter how many times my nation fractured, I provided it with a framework to return to upon it’s reformation,”

“Please bro, you ruled for like twenty minutes and then your own son wrecked your shit,” Chris rolled his eyes, “I’m a basketball team captain, not an immortal emperor, and even I can tell you the best way to lead a group of idiots is through respect, not by scaring them shitless,”

“Who doesn’t want a better, more peaceful world? One where everyone can just exist as themselves without worrying, where no one has to live through fucked up wars or anything else? But you think you’re the one to do it? The one who stole Chris’s body? Who killed innocent people just for being in your fucking way? Try to convince yourself you’re all high and mighty if you want, but spare us the bullshit justifications,” Bailey practically spat, crossing her arms and staring him down.

“Humanity isn’t perfect,” James said softly, his gaze on the floor for a pensive moment, before he locked eyes with Ying Zheng, a fury behind his glare that Dustin had never seen from him before, “that means you’re not either. Even after all this, you’re still just a guy who can fuck up like everyone else,”

Dustin stepped even closer to Zheng, completely resolute.

“I know the kind of world you lived in, and why you felt like it was necessary to do what you did. But in the end, you failed, Ying Zheng. Your dynasty came to an end, China’s not even an empire anymore, and now for the second time, a group of Elemental Sages has defeated you,”

Ying Zheng was silent, simply looking between the five Elemasters with those tired eyes.

Eventually, he cleared his throat and spoke up.

“Actually, Childe Ying, you have left one failure unlisted,”

With that, a horrendous gale erupted from the center of the room, throwing everyone to the ground as Qin Shi Huang grabbed his ceremonial blade. He sauntered over to Dustin, pressing its tip against his throat.

“Perhaps my greatest failure of all, was siring a bloodline that refuses to do what is necessary to create the world they envision,”

Before Qin Shi Huang could send Dustin’s head rolling, an impossibly bright flash of jade light illuminated the room.

In an instant, the ceremonial sword was reduced to ash, blowing away on the residual breeze from the emperor’s attack. Standing before them was Liu Ruanyu; no longer a quirky old man at a pawn shop, or a magnificent dragon made of jade. Now, just an unassuming, bearded man in what looked to be farmer’s clothes, though they still retained his signature green hue.

“Ying Zheng, it’s time to let this end,” Ruanyu said calmly, placing his hand on the emperor’s shoulder, “you did as much as anyone could. You had just as many regrets as victories. You defined history for millennia. All things must fade, and you cannot be spared that fate any longer,”

Ying Zheng’s eyes widened in something that looked just as much like offense as terror; as if he was both in awe of Ruanyu’s might, and pissed at him for daring to wield it.

“W-what is this insolence?”

“The insolence has been yours Ying Zheng. I too once stole from heaven, to bring water to the world and give humans a better chance to survive. Your theft of Ao Guang’s scale was not to create peace for the world, but security for yourself. For at your core, you have always remained that scared child in the Zhao Estate, frightened of tigers and wolves,”

Dustin’s eyes darted back to Ying Zheng… who was now several feet shorter than Ruanyu. No longer dressed in an emperor’s fancy robes; he was now a child, clad in tattered rags and looking far too skinny.

“Through the very authority you once vested in me, I now strip you of your divinity. King Yanluo of the underworld will claim you, and, in time, you will finally know the peace you have always craved,”

Ying Zheng stumbled backwards, looking at his hands as they slowly turned to ash on the breeze, just as his sword had. He frantically scanned the room one final time, as if he was looking for something, anything, that could save him… but he was only met with the stalwart gaze of the Elemasters as they watched him dissolve into nothingness.