The encounter took place on the surface of the Moon Palace, a landscape of silver dust and oscillating jade.
Chang'e, the Lady of the Moon, floated above her courtyard. She was elegance personified, her robes woven from starlight and silence. She looked down at the intruder who had burned a hole through the celestial gates.
Agni stood on the jade tiles. He was a being of restless energy, his two faces looking in all directions, his tongue flickering like a flame. Where he stepped, the cold lunar dust turned to glass.
" This place is cold," Agni crackled. "It needs warmth."
"It needs peace," Chang'e replied, her voice cooling the air. "And you are noise."
The Elixir and the Flame
Chang'e raised her sleeves. Lunar Veil.
A mist of pure entropy descended. It was the chill of deep space, a cold so absolute it could freeze atoms. It sought to smother the Fire God, to rob him of his fuel.
Agni didn't shiver. He inhaled.
"Cold is just fuel waiting to burn!"
Chang'e frowned. She tipped a vial of Elixir Ascension—the potion of immortality. A river of sacred water poured down, threatening to drown the fire.
Agni laughed. Sacrificial Flame.
He opened his mouth and drank the river. To Agni, everything offered to him was a sacrifice. The elixir didn't extinguish him; it made him holy. He grew in size, turning from red to white to a blinding gold.
The Purifying Conflagration
"You misunderstand nature, Goddess," Agni boomed, his voice now a roar that shook the craters. "The moon only shines because the sun burns. You are a reflection. I am the Source."
Agni unleashed Purifying Conflagration.
A wave of heat exploded outwards. It didn't just melt the jade palace; it sublimated it. The Lunar Veil evaporated instantly. The cold vacuum of space was filled with a roaring inferno.
Chang'e shielded her face, her robes singeing. She realized that no amount of cold could put out the concept of combustion itself.
"Too hot," she whispered.
She summoned the Jade Rabbit to carry her away, retreating to the dark side of the moon.
Agni stood alone in the center of a molten crater, glowing like a second sun. "Much better," he decided. "Now it feels like home."