Book 1 - Arc 1 Epilogue: "New Beginnings"

The woman floated in the sky, looking in horror as the Metal Giant rose from the blood-red mountain. A cacophony of grinding metal and clicking gears clicking was heard around the globe, their whine like the wailing of millions of lost souls.

The Metal Giant stepped off the mountain peak, and its many sword-like legs pierced deep into the earth. Thousands of silver tendrils whipped into the sky, scouring the clouds and blocking out the Sun. With each step, they stripped the earth of its essence and life, stole its metal and wealth, and left nothing but a barren wasteland in their wake.

The Metal Giant roared again, and thousands of tall, steel pillars rose from the ground. An endless stream of fire and destruction rained from the pillars’ tops, falling on the unsuspecting world, burning the newly built, shining cities and ancient, impenetrable fortresses equally.

All around, she saw people screaming, running… burning. Ancient Cultivators tried to hide behind their formations and ancient walls. But the fire ate away at their defenses until they, too, crumbled. Great Mages stood on the branches of their “World Tree,” slinging spells and curses at the Metal Giant, but to no effect. Even the mighty Mentalists of Avalon tried to push back, only to be driven mad by the Metal Giant’s endless rage and all-consuming hatred.

Finally, the ‘gods’ descended from their city beyond the sky, but they too fell, one by one, their power used to fuel the Giant as it rampaged from atop its mountain.

Again, the Metal Giant roared, and from the mountain crawled millions of tiny metal men. The metal men marched across the land, never tiring, never sleeping, slaughtering everything that crossed their path. Like a silver wave, they washed over the earth, filling the cracks and crevices that the great steel pillars could not reach with their fire.

Those that tried to hide, and those that tried to resist, were crushed beneath the wave. Yet some did neither and bowed down to the Metal Giant instead, begging it to spare them. The Metal Giant roared again, and the people who bowed down transformed, becoming metal men themselves, adding their numbers to the slowly growing hoard. Still, it wasn’t enough, for the Metal Giant seemed insatiable; it wouldn’t stop until everything in the world had bowed… or burned.

The Metal Giant roared one last time, and the world itself screamed. Thousands of beings rose from the ground, made of fire, water, earth and air. As one, they cried out in sorrow and pain, as their greatest, their brothers and sisters, and then themselves, all became fuel for the Metal Giant.

In that last moment, the Grand Firmament, which for countless eons had stood immutable, cracked.

The fissures began small, yet quickly enlarged and multiplied as the Elementals’ shrieks intensified. Soon, the entire sky was filled with spiderweb cracks, the Grand Firmament trembled, and every world it protected ‘Pulsed’ with some unknown fear.

The woman stared, her mouth agape, tears streaming down her wide eyes. She shook her head and fell to her knees, unable to process what she was seeing. It was then that the woman felt a strange sensation like she was being watched.

Her eyes fell from the sky and turned toward the Metal Giant. Her gaze didn’t linger on the Giant, but turned to the mountain itself. There, covering every inch of the mountain, millions upon millions of faces stared back at her.

Bile rising in her throat, the woman realized the mountain was no mountain of stone and rocks; it was one of corpses. Millions of faces stared directly at her, some filled with bitter hatred, others with unending sorrow and confusion, and still others grinned, a dark and malicious grin stretching from ear to ear as if seeing some foul criminal finally meet their end.

Suddenly, there was a loud cracking sound, and pieces of the Firmament broke away. Restrained no longer, the very Sun itself seemed to roar along with the Metal Giant as it flared to life. Despite this, the woman found she couldn’t turn away from the eyes staring at her, only slowly back away, her tears unending as she shook her head, not accepting what she saw.

There was a flash of light, and every world of the Grand Firmament burned.

=================

“GUAHAHHHHHHAAA!”

The silent night was shattered by the soul-shaking scream. Like a hornet’s nest being kicked, the tranquil serenity broke into chaos in an instant as various people throughout the mountaintop monastery lept into action. A door deep within the monastery’s main hall was flung open as half a dozen armor-clad female warriors carrying two-pronged spears rushed inside the room.

“High Abbess!?”

The lead warrior cried out, her wide eyes rapidly scanning the room, attempting to find the unseen threat. But, the only thing inside the room was a panting young woman who appeared but twenty years old, sitting on the simple straw bedroll as sweat poured from her shaved head. The High Abbess took a few deep, ragged breaths before turning towards the guards.

“I’m… I’m fine, Captain. Return to your posts.”

“But, High Abbess!”

“I said I’m fine!”

The High Abbess snapped, her voice visibly shaking the air and causing the warriors to flinch. The High Abbess took another breath and repeated, this time steady and soft.

“I’ll… be fine, Captain. Thank you. Please see that the proper people are informed that everything is alright. Also, spread the word that meditation today will begin early.”

The Caption snapped into a salute, though her eyes still looked at the High Abbess in worry.

“Yes, Ma’am!”

Then, as one, the group exited the room and gently shut the door.

The High Abbess slowly stood and approached the nearby wash basin. She stared into the clear water at her reflection, noting the deep bags and bloodshot eyes that marred her otherwise striking features. With a sigh, she reached down and splashed some cool water on her face before standing and speaking into the empty room without turning around.

“Isabelle, I believe I requested to be left alone….”

“Booo! I still want to know how you do that.”

From the shadows, a figure materialized a young woman dressed in skin-tight black cloth up to her eyes under dark leather armor. The image would have been intimidating had the woman’s cerulean eyes and long, neatly curled golden locks not ruined it.

The High Abbess sighed and turned to face the woman, an eyebrow raised.

“What are you wearing?”

The young woman named Isabelle squealed and spun on her heel.

“Do you like it, Mitsuko?! I had it custom-made just last week! It’s made of Shadestalker silk and….”

Amari Mitsuko, High Abbess of the Shanti Oni Monastery, raised a hand to stop her over-excited friend.

“I’m curious about why my spymaster looks like a fresh-blood adventurer attempting to look edgy and dark.”

Isabelle pouted her lip as she looked up at the High Abbess.

“Awww, you’re never any fun anymore. They’re great for stealth missions, though! It’s not like the Agents will always wear them!”

[*cough* Besides, I’ve already sent in an order for 100…]

She added under her breath, despite both knowing the High Abbess could hear her perfectly well.

The High Abbess sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose and gestured out the door.

“Just GO, Isabelle. I have to get ready for the morning meditation. I’ll speak to you later today.”

Isabelle slumped, defeated, before making her way to the open door. She stopped at the doorway and, without turning, asked in a soft voice, its previous brightness missing,

“Hey, Mi-Mi, are…”

“I’m fine, Isabelle. Now please, we have much to do.”

Isabelle stood silent for a moment longer before disappearing around the door.

The High Abbess returned to the washbasin and finished cleaning herself for the morning before staring out a nearby window. Yes, they had far too much still to do… and so little time left.

=================

The two old men sat silently at the small table, taking in the beautiful view from high atop the tower. The man on the left wore a simple white Gi, accented with only a jade outline of an open eye. His long, white beard was neatly braided and lay across his lap. The other man wore an elegant brown robe whose fibers seemed to mimic the grain and texture of rich wood and dark soil. While he appeared much younger than his counterpart, the march of time was visible on the man’s weathered and tired face.

The brown-robed man was the first to speak, his voice deep but smooth and controlled after years as an experienced orator.

“So, my old friend, you couldn’t learn anything? How strange. Yesterday, if someone had told me that the Grand Seer couldn’t learn even the tiniest detail, I’d have laughed them out of my office.”

The Grand Seer simply sipped his tea and laid the cup down. His wizened voice cracked as if out of practice, though its strength didn’t match his aged appearance.

“Cedar, my boy, I know you have grown used to twisting words during your time in the wasp’s nest you call an Assembly, but don’t try that on me. I whooped you when you were a lad. Don’t think I’ll not do the same still, Archmage or not.”

The two stared at each other over the table for a long moment, eyes hard, before the facade broke, and both men broke out into laughter.

When the laughter died, Cedar looked at the old man with a raised brow.

“In all seriousness, though, Nothing?”

The Grand Seer sighed and lowered his head.

“No, not ‘nothing.’ It’s simply what there is that makes no sense. There are pieces of the puzzle missing, and I can’t tell if this is simply one piece itself or if things are being… hidden.”

Cedar’s eyes went wide, and his mouth dropped.

“Hidden?! From you? Who could do something like that?”

The Grand Seer’s eyes clouded over as he turned to look out over the vast expanse below them.

“Yes… that is the question… isn’t it?”

=================

A young girl lay sleeping inside the crystal sphere, curled tightly into a ball, thousands of thick, glowing roots wrapped around it as they held it suspended over a bottomless pit. Suddenly from the pit, a deep rumbling could be heard, the grinding of stone on stone and a deep crackling like ice breaking in the dead of winter.

The girl’s features pinched into a frown as she squirmed in her rest, as if fighting some strange nightmare. As she did, a single drop of crystal clear liquid slid from the surface of the crystal sphere and fell into the pit below. The drop fell and fell until even the light of the roots above could no longer reach it.

Then the darkness below fell silent once more.

=================

Lian Peng, again a young man in scholarly robes, meditated atop what remained of the wreck, watching the three figures approach.

The first was a black dragon, so dark that she stood out even against the empty void around her, her serpentine body so long she gave the illusion of stretching into infinity.

Following closely beside (too close!), a gargantuan whale-like creature seemed to “swim” through space itself. The massive beast could have easily swallowed his own Divine Avatar but was still dwarfed by the still larger wreck beneath him.

And in front of both, egging them on while laughing the entire time, was a young… girl? She sat cross-legged on top of what appeared to be a massive fireball, half a mile wide, though the flames didn’t appear to worry her. They didn’t even so much as singe the Giant, pointy hat she insisted on wearing, despite it being several sizes too big for her slight frame.

After a while, all three stopped only a few meters away, the two massive creatures taking on human forms in a swirl of Celestial energy, and the enormous fireball simply dissolved into millions of tiny embers with a wave of the girl’s hand.

Lian Peng bowed deeply to the young girl.

“Grand Magi Deathstealer. It is good to see you again, Teacher.”

The young girl nodded, struggling not to be smothered by her hat.

Then, turning to the former dragon, he bowed again, though not as deep.

“Lunar Queen Xiàshuō. Truly, I am blessed to have one such as you rush to my aid.”

Xiàshuō’s beauty was as mesmerizing as ever, and he could barely look away. If anyone had ever deserved to be called a “Fairy,” it was her. Then again, some would say he was just biased.

Finally, Lian Peng turned to the group’s last member, a large, muscular warrior, his body sculpted and perfected by thousands of years of combat and conflict until it was perfect.

“Namgil…”

Lian Peng spoke, both his voice and face blank as a slate.

“That’s Lunar King Namgil, you birdbrained bastard! At least use my title!”

Lian Peng chuckled, covering his mouth with the sleeve of his robe.

“I’ll use it when you actually beat me for once.”

Lunar King Namgil roared, a vein visibly pulsing on his head.

“Screw you! Who’s the one late to Divinity?! I’ve already surpassed you!”

Lian Peng scoffed.

“And yet you still lose every time we duel. Maybe if you’d not rushed ahead and spent some time on your Foundation, you might have stood a chance!”

“Why you!!!”

Namgil rushed Lian Peng as the latter took a combat stance.

Only for a small girl to appear between them, whacking both across the head with a large, gnarled staff that had appeared out of nowhere.

“Now, boys, there’s a time and a place for everything. This is not one of them.”

Though her smile was bright and her voice cheerful, Lian Peng and Namgil froze, a cold sweat breaking over their skin as a chill swept down their spine. At the gentle tilt of her head, long forgotten memories carved deep into their body and soul were revived, like ravenous nightmares clawing to be set free. Neither hesitated, backing away and bowing deep to the Grand Magi.

“Yes, Teacher!”

“Yes, Teacher!”

They echoed.

Xiàshuō, for her part, only sighed, placing her head in her empty palm and shaking her head.

The Grand Magi nodded, then turned her eyes towards the wreck below them.

“I would ask you to explain what’s going on here and what you found, but I’m afraid Lian Peng’s little spat has attracted some insects. How about it, boys? Want to show some children why the Lunar Scouts are still top dogs?”

When she spoke, Lian Peng turned his attention to the two dozen or so unknown energy signatures advancing from all directions.

Sighing with a weariness that dug into his bones, Lian Peng prepared to meet their “guests.”

He could never get a break, could he?