Founding Ancestor

Dark miasmic energy swirled violently around Mei Ling, cocooning her weeping form. With an earth-rending shockwave, the cocoon exploded outward. Mei Ling emerged, floating several feet off the ground, her hair now dichromatic - snow white on the right and arterial crimson on the left.

As she touched down gracefully, her mismatched gaze turned to examine her transformed body. Gone was the petite girlish frame, now replaced with alluring, voluptuous curves barely contained by the contrasting silks of innocence and vengeance.

The Patriarch and Elder gaped at this dramatic metamorphosis until realization sparked in the Elder's eyes. Immediately, he dropped to one knee, head bowed.

"Ancestor!" he uttered; his usual nonchalance gone. "This junior pays his respects and bids you welcome back to our clan!"

The Patriarch's eyes bulged in disbelief. "What nonsense is thi-" he began, but the Elder urgently yanked him down into a similar kneeling posture.

"Show respect, you fool!" the Elder hissed under his breath. "She is the Founding Ancestor!"

The Patriarch trembled, droplets of nervous sweat beading his brow. To think the legendary progenitor of their Mei Clan had returned to the mortal plane after all this time...it was unthinkable. Immediately, he pressed his head to the floor.

"Ten thousand apologies, Revered Ancestor!" he exclaimed, pulse thundering in his ears. "This junior apologizes for not recognizing you!"

Mei Ling blinked slowly, still adjusting to her new level of senses and perception. These kneeling fools before her...why did they seem so familiar? She tried to grasp the fleeting memories fluttering away like mist.

"You..." she began, but a spike of agony lanced through her mind. With a scream, she clutched her head, the foundations of the great hall cracking from the energy currents swirling around her.

When the pain finally passed, she fixed the two men with a glare promising eons of torment. In the span of a blink, she appeared before the Patriarch, hand clenched around his throat. With contemptuous ease, she drove her fingers into his chest, grasping the still-beating heart.

The Elder reacted immediately to restrain her, but she tossed the Patriarch aside like a rag doll and unleashed a furious barrage to keep the Elder at bay.

"Ancestor, please quell your rage!" the Elder pleaded, narrowly avoiding disembowelment from her razor-sharp nails. "We are your clansmen!"

But she was beyond reason now, memories and newer emotions clashing violently for dominance. All she understood was a desire to destroy anything and everything around her.

With a vengeful scream, her smaller body began to violently shift between her young and mature forms unstably. Each transformation released shockwaves of energy that blew holes in the clan walls and collapsed nearby structures.

The Elder desperately tried to pacify her, but was forced to expend most of his strength simply containing the worst of the collateral damage. He watched helplessly as she rampaged through ancestral shrines and sacred halls, leaving nothing but devastation in her wake.

Several times, he nearly had her restrained with bindings and sealing spells. But she somehow intuited and avoided them, continuing her mindless path of destruction.

"Please, Ancestor! Do not undo your clan's centuries of growth and heritage!"

His pleas went unheeded. She moved unpredictably between adult and child forms, lashing out wildly with weapons forged of yin and yang energies. Each clash with her released enough power to atomize mountains.

At long last, the transformations and attacks ceased as Mei Ling reverted fully to her young body. She hovered unsteadily in the air, framed by the orange glow of raging fires across the rubble-strewn clan compound.

The Elder watched warily, but she simply floated in place now, sides heaving from exertion. Whatever reservoir of power had fueled her rampage seemed depleted. With a soft groan, darkness claimed her vision and she plummeted from the sky.

The Elder darted forward, snatching her comatose body from mid-air before she could impact the debris below. Gently, he laid the slumbering girl down, brushing errant bangs from her sweat-slicked forehead. His own energy reserves were nearly empty from the battle and strain of damage control.

For several long minutes, he simply watched the steady rise and fall of Mei Ling's chest as she slept. The answers he desperately sought lingered just out of reach, but time was no longer an ally here. This child clearly harbored the soul and powers of their Revered Ancestor. That complicated matters tremendously.

With a tired sigh, the Elder stood slowly. The clan power structure and politics would be in chaos after these events. He needed to take Mei Ling somewhere secure while he sorted through this puzzle and determined the best path forward.

But one thing was certain - the girl slumbering serenely before him was perhaps the greatest Opportunity that had surfaced for the Mei Clan in its long history. Whether she was truly their progenitor reincarnated or not, the child must be protected and nurtured at all costs.

She represented the clan's future now. He would mold her into the prestige and influence befitting one of her limitless potential. This disaster could yet transform into a new golden age for the Mei Clan.

He thought to himself that although the Mei Clan had incurred huge loses that day, there were still huge gains. Mei Ling turning out to be the reincarnation of the founding ancestor was a blessing in disguise. Although she couldn't control her power at the moment, she could still fully revive as the founding ancestor if her cultivation reached the soul formation realm.

He gathered the slumbering Mei Ling gently in his arms. After the unbridled chaos unleashed by the girl across the devastated compound, an uneasy silence now hung over the ruined ancestral shrines and buildings as scattered fires continued burning.

The Elder took a deep, centering breath. There could be no delay. He needed to relocate Mei Ling somewhere more suitable until she awakened and he could piece together exactly what had transpired here. Too many specifics waited on razor's edge. The future and destiny of the entire clan depended now on his handling of this volatile situation.

Tearing a talisman he held with his two fingers, he opened an interspatial portal to transfer them both to a secure-

"Did I say you could leave?"

The softly menacing words cut through the crackling fires as the opened spatial portal closed itself shut. The Elder froze in place, blood turning to ice in his veins. That voice...here?! Impossible!