I watched the chaos unfold from afar, my scrying spell rippling like liquid glass before me. The Great Devourer tore through the land with effortless malice, its immense body coiling and uncoiling as villages crumbled and armies scattered like insects. The ninja ran—not out of cowardice, but necessity. Even heroes had limits.
And I… had choices to make.
I could end this now.
That truth settled heavily in my mind, not as a temptation, but as a calculation. With the Element of Time, my Oni powers, and my mastery of magic, defeating the Great Devourer would be trivial. I wouldn't even need the Golden Weapons. I could freeze the creature in time, rewind its growth, unravel its existence strand by strand. Power-wise, this was not a fight—it was an inconvenience.
But power without purpose is wasteful.
I leaned back, fingers steepled, eyes glowing faintly as the scrying image shifted. The Devourer lunged again. Screams echoed. Fear spread. And yet… I felt nothing. No urgency. No moral pull. Only strategy.
Defeating the Great Devourer would gain me nothing.
No territory.No artifact.No leverage.
And worse—it would reveal me.
No. If I acted now, I would step onto the board too early. Wu, the ninja, the remaining elemental masters—they would all notice me. They would prepare. They would adapt. I had waited decades, even centuries, for the perfect position. I would not throw that away for the sake of heroics.
There was something far more valuable on the horizon.
The Mega Weapon.
I knew exactly how this would end. I had watched the timelines, studied the patterns, memorized the canon of this world as if it were scripture. Garmadon would take the four Golden Weapons and corrupt them into something greater—something terrifying.
A weapon that could rewrite reality.
One wish a day.
People underestimated that limitation. One wish was more than enough. With precision, with intelligence, with patience… one wish could reshape the world over time. Empires could be rewritten. Enemies erased. Laws of reality bent just enough to always favor the wielder.
And Garmadon?He lacked the discipline to use it properly.
Which meant it would eventually be mine.
So I waited.
I watched as the ninja struggled, as Lloyd faltered beneath the weight of destiny. I watched Wu's apparent sacrifice and felt nothing—no triumph, no sorrow. Only acknowledgment. Pieces moving into place.
Eventually, as I knew they would, the ninja made their choice.
They gave Garmadon the Golden Weapons.
I smiled.
The Devourer's end came swiftly after that. A surge of golden power tore through the beast from within, destabilizing it, overwhelming its corrupted growth. The explosion lit the sky, the serpent's body disintegrating into ash and energy, its reign of terror ending not with a whimper, but with annihilation.
And just as predicted—
Garmadon ran.
The Golden Weapons clutched in his hands, his form twisted and broken, his mind consumed by ambition and resentment. He vanished into the horizon, already dreaming of the power he would soon claim.
Wu emerged soon after, alive—of course. I had never truly believed he was gone. The old man was nothing if not stubborn.
I closed my scrying spell, the image fading into darkness.
"Good," I murmured to myself, purple Oni flames flickering briefly across my knuckles before fading once more. "Everything is proceeding exactly as it should."
Now the board was set.
The Great Devourer was gone.The ninja believed the worst was over.And Garmadon was about to make his greatest mistake.
Soon, the Mega Weapon would exist.
And when the time was right—when Garmadon was isolated, weakened, distracted—I would take it from him. Cleanly. Efficiently. Without witnesses.
I rose from my seat and turned toward the balcony overlooking the Lava Lands, my kingdom glowing red and gold beneath the molten sky.
"Patience," I said softly. "Power always rewards those who wait."
And I waited.