The moon beneath the red giant did not know peace.

  Even after the void-beast dissolved into harmless mist under Sun Wukong’s quiet recitation, the jungle continued to pulse with strange life. Bioluminescent vines crawled across broken towers. Pools of luminous spores drifted like underwater plankton through the air. Insects the size of birds hummed between crystal leaves, their wings refracting the red sunlight into fractured rainbows.

  The ruins surrounding Pandora and Wukong had once belonged to a civilization that believed knowledge could replace wisdom.

  Their buildings still whispered that arrogance.

  Towering spires leaned like broken ribs against the sky. Circular plazas held shattered statues of beings with elongated skulls and mechanical halos—ancient philosophers who had tried to digitize their own souls. Many had succeeded.

  But what they became afterward was another matter.

  Wukong stood atop the ruined spire where Pandora had made her last stand.

  His tail flicked idly behind him as he scanned the horizon.

  Pandora, still gripping her plasma blade, had not moved far from where the void-beast had vanished.

  “You erased it,” she said at last.

  “I unfolded it,” Wukong corrected.

  “That thing was tearing reality apart.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you spoke one sentence.”

  “Yes.”

  Pandora turned toward him slowly.

  The suspicion in her eyes had not softened.

  “You’re either the most dangerous being I’ve ever met,” she said, “or the calmest liar in the galaxy.”

  Wukong scratched behind one ear thoughtfully.

  “I’ve been called both.”

  He hopped down from the spire, landing lightly on the cracked stone beside her.

  Up close, Pandora was even more imposing. Nearly seven feet tall, her green skin carried the marks of countless battles—burn scars, old blade wounds, and metallic grafts where drones had once nearly torn her apart. Her armor was a chaotic blend of alien alloys and ancient relic plates engraved with tribal runes.

  She studied Wukong carefully.

  “You’re not human.”

  “No.”

  “Not one of the Void Courts either.”

  “No.”

  Her eyes narrowed.

  “Then what are you?”

  Wukong twirled the Ruyi Jingu Bang once before shrinking it down to the size of a needle and tucking it behind his ear.

  “Just a traveler.”

  Pandora stared at him.

  “That answer is insulting.”

  “Then imagine a better one.”

  For a moment, she looked like she might strike him.

  Instead, she laughed—a sharp, incredulous sound.

  “You just erased a cosmic predator and you act like you’re on vacation.”

  “I’ve found vacations improve one’s perspective.”

  “You’re insane.”

  “That’s also been suggested.”

  The jungle suddenly fell quiet.

  Wukong’s expression changed.

  He tilted his head slightly, as if listening to something far away.

  Pandora noticed immediately.

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  “What is it?”

  Wukong didn’t answer.

  He closed his eyes.

  Across the stars, something had stirred.

  A presence.

  Not hostile.

  Not benevolent.

  Familiar.

  Like hearing an old rival’s footsteps echoing down a forgotten hallway.

  The Six-Eared Macaque.

  The thought surfaced in Wukong’s mind like a memory rising through deep water.

  He opened his eyes again.

  Pandora was watching him closely.

  “You felt something,” she said.

  “Yes.”

  “Enemy?”

  “Possibly.”

  She activated her blade again.

  “Good. I was getting bored.”

  Wukong chuckled.

  “Not that kind of enemy.”

  Pandora frowned.

  “What other kind is there?”

  “The kind who teaches you something about yourself.”

  She stared at him.

  “Those are the worst kind.”

  Far away.

  Light-years beyond the red giant system.

  The violet planet continued its endless harmonic whisper.

  Inside the regeneration facility, alarms pulsed in soft waves of blue light.

  Lina rushed through the central chamber, her boots clanging against the metal floor.

  “Stabilize the qi regulators!” she shouted.

  The hovering drone beside her beeped anxiously.

  “Energy intake exceeding predicted parameters.”

  “By how much?”

  “Two hundred percent.”

  Lina swore under her breath.

  The regeneration vat glowed brighter than ever before.

  Inside the golden liquid, the Six-Eared Macaque floated motionless.

  But the machines surrounding him told a different story.

  His neural activity had exploded.

  Energy readings surged off every chart.

  Qi currents spiraled through the vat like miniature galaxies.

  Lina stared at the data.

  “This shouldn’t be possible…”

  The Macaque’s body had been severely damaged when she first discovered him drifting in a derelict starship three years earlier.

  Half his nervous system had been burned out by some unknown cosmic battle.

  No known medical technology could have repaired him.

  But something about his physiology had fascinated Lina.

  It wasn’t purely biological.

  Nor purely spiritual.

  It was something stranger.

  As if his body had been designed by a civilization that understood both physics and myth equally well.

  So she built the vat.

  And waited.

  Three years of silence.

  Three years of meditation.

  Three years of slow regeneration.

  Until tonight.

  Inside the glowing liquid, the Macaque’s fingers curled slowly into a fist.

  Lina stepped closer to the glass.

  “Hey…” she said softly.

  “Can you hear me?”

  The drone beeped.

  “Subject approaching consciousness threshold.”

  The Macaque’s eyes opened.

  They were not angry.

  Not confused.

  Not even surprised.

  They were calm.

  Deeply calm.

  Like someone waking from a long dream he had fully understood.

  Golden light shimmered across his pupils.

  For a long moment he simply looked through the glass at Lina.

  Then he spoke.

  Even underwater, the words carried clearly through the chamber.

  “Where… is this world?”

  Lina froze.

  Her mouth opened.

  Closed.

  “You can talk?”

  The Macaque blinked slowly.

  “I have spoken for many centuries.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  She rushed to the control panel, nearly knocking over three holographic displays.

  “My name is Lina,” she said quickly. “You were critically injured when I found you drifting in deep space. I’ve been repairing your body.”

  The Macaque listened quietly.

  “You saved my life.”

  “Technically the machines did most of the work.”

  “Yet you guided them.”

  He studied her for a moment.

  “Why?”

  Lina shrugged awkwardly.

  “You looked… important.”

  The Macaque tilted his head slightly.

  “Important?”

  “Yeah. Like one of those mythological figures you read about in old Earth stories.”

  The Macaque closed his eyes briefly.

  “Perhaps.”

  Lina leaned against the console.

  “So… do you have a name?”

  The Macaque opened his eyes again.

  “Once I had many.”

  “That sounds mysterious.”

  “It is mostly inconvenient.”

  She grinned.

  “Well I still need something to call you.”

  The Macaque considered this.

  Finally he said:

  “Six-Eared Macaque.”

  Lina blinked.

  “That’s… oddly specific.”

  “It was given to me long ago.”

  “By who?”

  “A monkey.”

  Lina raised an eyebrow.

  “Right.”

  A quiet alarm beeped again.

  The drone rotated nervously.

  “External anomaly detected.”

  Lina frowned.

  “What kind?”

  “Unidentified spacecraft entering planetary orbit.”

  She groaned.

  “Great.”

  The Macaque’s gaze sharpened.

  “Enemies?”

  “Probably scavengers.”

  She gestured toward the facility walls.

  “This planet sits on top of ancient alien tech. Raiders show up every few months hoping to loot something valuable.”

  The Macaque slowly sat upright inside the vat.

  Golden fluid cascaded off his shoulders.

  “Your world is troubled.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  The drone projected an image of the incoming ship.

  A massive black vessel shaped like a spearhead.

  Its hull pulsed with strange symbols.

  Lina’s expression darkened.

  “Oh no.”

  “What is it?”

  “That’s not scavengers.”

  She zoomed the image closer.

  The symbols glowing across the ship’s hull resembled spiraling sutras—but twisted, corrupted versions of sacred geometry.

  “They call themselves the Event Horizon Order,” Lina said quietly.

  “Fanatics.”

  The Macaque’s eyes narrowed.

  “They believe enlightenment lies beyond the edge of spacetime itself.”

  “And they’ll destroy entire civilizations trying to get there.”

  Outside the facility, the massive ship began descending through the violet clouds.

  The ground trembled.

  Lina looked back toward the vat.

  “You should probably stay in there,” she said nervously.

  “You’re still healing.”

  The Six-Eared Macaque slowly placed one hand against the glass.

  His strength had not fully returned.

  But his awareness had.

  Across the galaxy he could feel it.

  Sun Wukong.

  Alive.

  Active.

  Moving through the stars once again.

  The Macaque smiled faintly.

  “Old rival,” he murmured.

  Then he looked back at Lina.

  “You may wish to step away from the glass.”

  “Why?”

  The vat exploded.

  Golden liquid burst outward in a radiant wave as the Macaque stepped free, landing lightly on the chamber floor.

  Energy crackled across his body.

  The machines around the room flickered wildly.

  Lina stared.

  “You just destroyed three years of work!”

  The Macaque calmly stretched his arms.

  His tail swayed behind him like a living metronome.

  “Then we must ensure those years were not wasted.”

  Outside, the invading ship’s landing engines roared.

  The sky burned violet.

  And somewhere far away—

  Sun Wukong suddenly grinned without knowing why.

  The game had begun.

  And the Journey to the Event Horizon had just acquired a second Monkey King.