Flame

Deep in the Sha-Chi-choked ruins of the lion dance hall, fire lights the night. Grandmaster Flame holds the steel lion head high, with Second-in-Command Senior Mo as the tail behind him. The two step onto the burning Plum Blossom Stakes, leaping and turning in perfect sync, their every movement capturing the majesty of the mighty lion.

Yet both dancers are controlled by masks sewn onto their faces. Every leap and lunge carries murderous intent. Saw blades whirl on either side of the lion head like a beast’s fangs, devouring whatever stands before them. The fire spewing from the lion’s mouth can no longer drive away evil. Instead, it burns everything around it, fueled by Sha-Chi.

The disaster began with the New Year’s Eve bells that stirred the Sha-Chi. The uncontrolled flames unleashed a slaughter, burning the people of the estate and the Lion Dance Disciples alike. Flame himself was gravely wounded and left dying in the inferno, where Leng Tu subjected him to Perfect Transcension and used the mask to control his mind.

A lion dancer whose calling was to subdue evil would not become an evil thing himself. With the last of his will, he sealed his own meridians and suppressed his murderous nature. He waits for a new one to pluck the green to come through the flames, end this calamity, and burn away the evils of the world in his stead.

He still dances amid the flames, as he did in years past to the cheers of the crowd, driving out evil and bringing blessings to the people.

At the height of the battle, he stands atop the Plum Blossom Stakes and lets out a long cry, calling his disciples to dance with him. All the lion dancers here have fallen victim to Perfect Transcension, their minds lost. They turn the art of lion dancing into deadly techniques and charge at Soul, only to have Soul defeat them one by one and claim the lion head.

Behind the mask, he watches as Soul leaps onto the high stakes and battles in the form of a lion dancer, and sees in him the hope of the art's continuation. The one to pluck the green he had awaited has finally arrived, to perform the final dance alongside him.

When the dance reaches its end, Soul dons Flame's lion head. As the lion's bright eyes meet Flame's, his own will breaks free of the mask's control in an instant. Flame knows that his life is nearly spent, and before him stands a new lion dancer. The spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth gathers in those eyes.

The Grandmaster can finally depart in peace. The art of lion dancing, and the will to drive out evil, are entrusted to Soul along with the lion head.

The bell on New Year’s Eve drove Flame’s Sha-Chi out of control, and the flames burned the people of the estate and the Lion Dance Disciples alike. Dying in the fire, he was given Perfect Transcension by Leng Tu and bound by a mask. With the last of his will he sealed his own meridians, held down his bloodlust, and waited for someone to come through the flames: a new one to pluck the green.

A letter with messy handwriting in Pangzhen, unsigned, reads like his: its writer let the wolf in, has the Perfect Transcension in him, and gives the key to his lion dance hall to “the true one to pluck the green”. The game never names the writer.

In the final dance Soul leaps onto the high stakes and fights like a lion dancer, then takes up Flame’s lion head. As the lion’s eyes meet his, Flame’s own will breaks free of the mask for an instant, and he departs in peace, leaving the art and the lion head with Soul. Near the end he appears once more, as a vision, to tell Soul to practise that lion head well.