"WOAH!!"

Was my reaction the moment we arrived at the base of the statue...

From afar, the thing was already massive, but up close? It was beyond scale..

The entire thing pierced the very clouds, only the two massive feet planted on the ground were already like heaven reaching pillars.

And the surroundings?

Absolute insanity.

The statue stood at the center of a gigantic circular valley spanning beyond what my eyes could see.

Massive stone platforms floated throughout the skies like shattered fragments of a world.

Ancient stairways carved into mountains spiraled endlessly upward.

Huge rivers of glowing golden liquid flowed through the earth like veins.

Runes covered cliff faces.

Floating islands drifted lazily overhead.

Somewhere in the distance entire mountain peaks hung upside down.

"..."

"...what the fuck."

THIS! Was supposed to be a monkey inheritance site? BULLSHIT!

This was an entire monkey kingdom.

Yet before I could properly take in everything...

Thud!

"Huh?"

One of the silver furred apes behind us suddenly dropped to one knee.

Then another.

And another.

Heavy breathing echoed out.

Sweat rolled down faces.

One female ape directly collapsed onto both palms, veins bulging around her neck.

"Wha... what the hell?"

The female silver furred ape, sorin, turned immediately.

"Are you guys alright?!"

"I... I don’t know..." one of them struggled out.

"...it suddenly got heavy..."

DUMMMMM!!!!!

A deep pulse spread through the air.

Like the beating of some ancient heart.

The skies trembled.

The earth groaned.

And suddenly...

I felt it.

A strange pressure spreading across the entire place.

Not enough to affect me.

Not even remotely close.

But enough for me to notice.

The only reason I noticed? The atmosphere made me notice.

DUMMMMM!!!!!

Another pulse followed.

This time I finally looked around.

And everywhere I looked, it was pandemonium!

"AHHHHHHHHH!!!"

"I can’t move!"

"What is this?!"

Blood sprayed from someone’s mouth.

A young ape face planted into the ground, monkey butt raised comically..

I laughed!! Before resuming my environmental survey.

Several people had already collapsed entirely.

Others staggered around drunkenly.

The sight was supposed to be jarring, but seeing monkeys face planting and moving like they’d had too much monkey wine? I was having a difficult time not breaking the solemn atmosphere with my laughter..

Some had already turned around and began retreating.

Smart.

"...pressure." I muttered, less a question, more an affirmation.

"Hm."

Leo narrowed his eyes.

"The statue is rejecting people."

"Rejecting?"

"It seems this monkey king fellow wasn’t some random monkey, idiot."

"Whoever made this inheritance clearly doesn’t want trash reaching the end."

I looked toward Malachi.

The monkey was standing perfectly straight.

No sweat.

No strain.

Beside him Sorin looked equally relaxed.

"...you guys feel anything?"

Malachi blinked.

"Huh? Feel what?"

"..."

"...you don’t feel like your guts are exploding?."

He blinked several times before,

"Hahahahaha!!"

Breaking out into a loud boisterous laugh.

"Of course I don’t feel anything! I’m destined to become the Monkey King after all!"

Then his grin widened.

"Look over there."

Following his finger, my eyes landed on several groups scattered around the place.

Each occupying their own territory.

Each standing unaffected by the pressure.

A crimson furred group stood upon a floating platform.

Their leader had his arms folded, expression calm.

A red eyed, black haired youth stood next to him, expression bored as he scanned the surrounding landscape.

Nearby stood another group of dark metallic furred apes whose bodies looked carved from steel itself.

Another had blue fur with tiny arcs of lightning dancing around their bodies.

Then another.

And another.

And another.

"They’re all heirs?" I asked.

"Yup."

Malachi grinned.

"The Redstones."

He pointed.

"The Ironveins."

Another point.

"The Thundercrests."

"And the Ashfangs, Moonclaws and Skybreakers too."

"..."

I slowly looked back at him.

"...how many damn monkey clans are there?"

He grinned, "enough to make any one single force fearful of antagonizing a group a crazy angry monkeys."

Damn. He was right.

With their numbers, they could drown you in a battle of attrition.

Yet before our conversation could continue.

"Amitabha, benefactor."

A calm voice interrupted us.

I turned.

A group of monks had appeared nearby.

Bald heads.

Golden robes.

Peaceful expressions.

Prayer beads wrapped around their wrists.

Unlike those fraudulent posers from Lankesh, these ones actually looked like monks.

Their gazes however...

Were fixed on Malachi.

"The inheritance of the Monkey King should not return to this world."

"..."

"..."

The leading youth smiled gently.

"The scriptures speak of calamity."

Malachi frowned.

"Say what now?"

I leveled a plain stare on this bald headed cue ball before me, confused just as much as the monkey.

"Yo! Krillin!" I called out.

"Who now?"

"You wouldn’t get it." Waving the monkey off, I continued," So, let me get this straight." My voice finally broke their heated gazes from Malachi.

"You brought your shiny bald ass heads all the way over here, just to spew some random philosophical bullshit? And expect us to go ’oh wow, so wise, so much wisdom, thank you bald fuck?’ Damn."

"This is why I still prefer those posers from lankesh, at least they never make stupid comments about shit, they’ll just try to loot the inheritance for themselves." The monkey sighed, dragging a hand over his face..

"They’ll what now?" I asked, stupefied.

"Those bastards don’t have any limits or shame."

"But they’re not monkeys?"

"They don’t care."

"Damn..." and just like that, the bald headed donkeys were promptly ignored, their presence, forgotten.

Yet, before our conversation could continue,

"Amitabha, benefactor, it will do you good to heed our warnings." The bald fuck interrupted once again.

"Man, you guys must have really small dicks." I said outta nowhere, both Malachi and Leo giving me strange looks.

"What’s this got to do with the size of their dicks?"

"Well, research shows that men with exceptionally small dicks have a tendency for spewing sophistry, it’s a coping mechanism to avoid thinking about their tiny pee pee all the time."

"What type of weird research do you watch? First, red monkey butts, now weird tiny dicks? Should we be worried?"

"Meh.. unless you’ve got tiny dicks like cue ball over here, I think you’re good." I shrugged..

...

....

A thick silence engulfed The place as I could see veins twitch visibly on the bald heads of some monks..

"YOU DARE..." a monk wanted to lash out, but an outstretched arm stopped him..

"May I know your name, benefactor, you seem aggressive towards us." The leading youth smiled amicably.

"Aggressive? Not even close." I grinned, all pristine whites on display, "believe me, you do not wish to see me be aggressive."

"I could say the same, benefactor." The monk smiled.

Oho?

My grin sharpened as the silence thickened, before,

"Then may I know benefactor’s name?" The monke asked once more.

"Draven, call me Dante Draven."

"Then, benefactor Draven, I hope our paths cross once again, amitabha." The monk bowed gently as he lead his cohorts away, distancing themselves from the massive statue..

"That monk, he’s not normal."

"You sensed it too huh?" I smiled at Leo’s remark.

There was something odd about that monk.

I didn’t know what, but I had a feeling we’d be seeing each other soon..

"Heh. To think an inheritance run would unlock such an interesting character, and speaking of interesting..." from the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the black robed guy from earlier, the same one that had smiled at me.

He was still wearing that obnoxious smile.

His face still looking as punchable as before.

"Soon." I didn’t need to bother with him, not yet.

Because just from the itchy feeling I was getting from my hand, it wouldn’t be long before I satisfied it by socketing it into that annoying smirking face..

"Now," I shifted my attention from the poser, focus returning to the massive statue..

"What do we do from here..."

And as if my question had been heard, a low hum filled the sky, as a transparent dome flashed once, then vanished.

Before I could begin to understand what just happened.

"WELCOME, YOUNGLINGS, I AM ORION STONEBORN, THE KING OF THE LAST ERA, AND I DECLARE THE RACE FOR THE NEXT KING, OPENED!"

"NOW, CLIMB! FOR DESTINY AWAITS THE TRULY WORTHY AT THE TOP!"

A beat of silence followed as the moment stretched before..

"CLIMB!"

All hell broke loose...

************

A/N: I’m really enjoying writing these Chapters, it’s just one random thing after another...

************

Thanks for reading..