When human kin fight,

a dawn shall rise.

When dragon race coil,

The heaven shall cry.

When the dwarf takes his axe,

The ground shall turn red

And when the slaughter starts,

Tears shall turn red.

While the tens of thousands of voices shook the city, another earth shattering event was already on it’s way. From above the starry night sky of the endless and never-ending city a golden light descended from realm unknown to those that have no visited them.

The golden light slowly descended downwards, shining akin to a meteorite heading for earth. And indeed, the might that was hidden behind this golden light was enough to shatter mountains and disperse rivers.

At some point a gigantic array had become visible on the sky above the city. A dome spanning all of it with its intricate and archaic inscriptions. There were no powerful ripples, no awe-inspiring sense of indestructibility to this strangely unseeming giant array. Yet anyone who laid eyes onto it knew of its shocking might.

Finally, after a few minutes of continuous descend the beautiful golden light touched the ancient formation and for a moment a flash of bright light turned everything into a never-ending, eternal white.

The large armies beneath remained organized and calm, despite lacking any kind of vision for these few moments.

A moment later the light disappeared, and millions of eyes fell onto the slowly disintegrating array and the golden light that continued its descend.

Cries of shock and disbelieve sounded out from all parts of the city, only few could have imagined such an outcome!

Finally, the giant array completely broke and all of sudden sun light covered the city of eternal light. The always black sky had become blue and the endless stars had been replaced by a single one.

All of sudden it had become dawn.

And this dawn was the final sign of what was about to come.

When human kin fight,

a dawn shall rise.

Amidst the chaos that resulted out of almost all remaining beings rapidly fleeing the city, the golden light finally touched the ground only a few hundred meters away from the combined army of dwarves and dragons.

Another flash of light appeared and within seconds the golden light changed form and became a massive gate made of pure gold. Beautiful ornaments decorated the tall pillars and Buddhist scriptures were skillfully engraved into this masterpiece of art.

Ji smiled.

“They have come.”

The door opened and as it did thousands of Buddhist hymns and prayers filled the city. A holy radiance covered the world and announced the descend of a buddha. Strange phenomena occurred all around the gate. Illusory deva’s prayed, wise elders fought with despicable asuras and buddha’s taught the way of Buddhism.

It was a wonderous sight worthy of one of the mightiest powers amongst the humans.

As the gates opened, figures started to emerge from within it. Thousands of monks clad in golden armor, similar to the famous shaolin armors that had acquired fame through television. Their bodies were fully trained and a strong will to fight radiated from each of these monks.

These were the countless bodhisattvas that had been gathered from temples from all around the world.

Behind them many more Buddhists strode out of the gate, each emitting terrifying power no lesser than that of a god. Finally, Raja, Saji and Sakra stepped out of the gate and followed the many hundred-thousand-man strong Buddhist army.

Trained and orderly the large army took position next to the dragons and dwarves.

Raja, Sakra and Saji, followed by a tiny fairy, walked over to Tian and Ji.

“Where are the humans?”, Sakra asked with narrowed eyes. He did not care about his lack of courtesy.

Ji did not mind the impoliteness. “They are attacking from another location. Mr. Sherevile should arrive here soon. We can attack as soon as he has taken command over the dwarves.”

Sakra’s right eyebrow rose, but he remained quiet. Instead he took a look around.

“It’s been some time since I last visited this city.”, he suddenly said.

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Ji laughed. “Well normally it isn’t as bright as today.”

Sakra also had to laugh.

Ji glanced over at Raja.

“Survive.”, he said firmly.

The monk smiled and nodded.

Then Ji looked at Saji and his expression became a little guilty.

“Come with me for a bit.”, he took Saji by her arm and led her away from the others. She did not fight against it and let him pull her away. Her expression was somewhat unusual.

Ji naturally saw that and hesitated. He gritted his teeth.

“I’m sorry.”, he suddenly said.

Saji was surprised.

“For what?”

Ji smiled wryly. “For bringing you into a world which I knew would experience war soon. I don’t understand why I brought you here in the first place…

From the very moment you entered my pub I already knew that this war would happen and even I know that it is a bad idea to involve a mortal into a war of god. Yet for some reason I still forced you to remain.”, he himself did not know why he did that.

Saji took a long look at him.

Then she shook her head.

“Don’t feel sorry for that. I also don’t know why you did what you did, perhaps that is what happens once you get too old. You do things you don’t understand why you do them in the first place. But is that a bad thing?

To be honest of course there are dangers in this world where even a pebble could kill me with ease. But on the other hand, how many would give their life to experience the things that I experienced?”, she smiled.

“Why does everything have to be bad or good? It is the way it is, and I don’t regret anything, so I don’t think you should.”

Ji was silent for a little bit.

“How can a young girl like you be wiser than a four hundred years old idiot like me?”, he suddenly had to laugh.

Saji grinned and shrugged her shoulders.

“I’m a smart girl, that’s all.”

Ji smiled. But then he turned serious again.

“Go to the pub, I have made some arrangements for you in case that we lose this war. Kan will also look after you.”, he said reassuring

Saji was quiet for a few moments. Then she nodded.

“I hope you survive.”, she looked into Ji’s eyes and said.

He smiled wryly. “I also hope that.”

“Also…”, Saji began speaking.

“I know that Raja did not tell me the real reason for this war.”

Ji looked surprised.

“What did he tell you?”

“That you wanted peace, but they instead started this war.

This is nothing you weren’t prepared for. In fact, I am very sure that this war was your intention from the very beginning. In the end this is just another power struggle, isn’t it?”

Ji suddenly had to laugh.

“What is so funny?”, Saji frowned somewhat displeased.

Ji continued to laugh.

“Why is it that you are so much wiser than I am?”, he ridiculed himself.

“So…”, he looked straight into her eyes.

“Is this a bad reason for a war?”, the look in his eyes was provocative.

Saji shook her head.

“Why do you always insist on good or bad? It is how it is. You guys chose this war, how is it my place to judge you?”

…..

“ALL TROOPS. ATTENTION!”, Tian’s mighty voice swept over the hundred thousand of gods. Next to him stood Raja, Ji, Mr. Sherevile and Sakra.

Everything became quiet and all eyes were looking at the five gods in front of them.

Ji walked a few steps forwards and looked at this great army of gods.

“Gods of the four factions.”, he did not shout and yet his voice was clearly audible to every single god.

“My name is Ji and I am the disciple of the late master of the council.

Four hundred years ago the lady of the council rallied her faction and overtook my master, taking the position of leadership over the human race. The Buddhists and many human gods could not accept this, as well as our brothers the dwarves and the heavenly dragons. For four hundred years we have remained silent and did not involve ourselves into these matters. For four hundred years there was peace because we did not want to provoke the conflict.

Now. I could give the excuse that they started the war. I could claim that we wanted peace and they forced our hand.

But to let us be honest.

All of us know what this war is about. All of us know that this is a struggle of power. A war that we wage to satisfy out ambition and to trample on those who took it from us four hundred years ago!”

Everything was quiet.

Raja was shocked by Ji’s words, as were many of the gods present. They did not expect him to voice it out this clearly. Usually the commander of the army would justify the war with something that would take away the blame from him, but Ji obviously did not intent on doing this!

“You are surprised.”, Ji smiled.

“Of course, you are. Who would expect such words from me?

But I am just stating the real reason for this war. A war that all of you chose, knowing what this was truly about.

We are fighting for ambition. We are fighting so we can regain the power we once had within the human race.

I don’t want to use false justification and discredit all those who will die in this war.

They will not die for the pathetic reason that they had to take revenge. They will not die because someone else attacked them. They will die because they choose to take their fate into their hands and change what they are!

THIS is what is the meaning of ambition. To FIGHT for change. To rick everything for the chance to be more than we already are.

We are fighting to satisfy our ambition and to crush those who trampled on us 400 years ago!

For four hundred years we have been suppressed by that damned slut and her followers. We were forced to remain quiet while they decided the course of the human race.

We had to live mundane lives, incapable of changing anything for the sake of mere peace!

Now we will fight to change this! Now we will die to change our fate!”

It was scarily quiet. Not a single sound was hearable as Ji surveyed the gods in front of him.

Finally, a single voice echoed out from the sea of gods.

“For ambition!”

It was followed by five hundred thousand others.

“KILL!”

The attack had started.

Tian, Sakra and Mr. Sherevile immediately took control over their respective armies and led them towards the headquarters of the human council. A sea of warriors, a sea of gods that could shake heaven and earth slowly went into motion and shot towards that certain tall building in the middle of a giant square.

Naturally the human council did not remain quiet either.

Tens of thousands of gods began to stream out of their headquarters and formed defensive formations. Hundreds of powerful arrays suddenly sprung up and formed a powerful defense line. More than a million gods on both sides channeled all of their power and released their auras causing in powerful storms being created around the charging armies.

The first army to engage were the heavenly dragons. Coiling in the air they attacked the defensive arrays and used their incredible bodies to tear apart their human enemies. Magical attacks flashed as the dragon’s used the ancient knowledge of their race to cover the defensive line in a barrage of powerful attacks.

Hundreds of gods died in a single assault and their blood went on to taint the ground in crimson red.

At the same time dark clouds gathered on the formerly blue sky above the city. Soon the first rain drops fell onto the violent slaughtering down below and not long after that it had turned into a full out rainstorm.

When dragon race coil,

The heaven shall cry.

While the dragons were slaughtering hundreds of human gods, the also received massive damage by the other party.

One dragon managed to get through the array and crushed a human goddess between his sharp teeth. A pained cry resounded, then the goddess was death. In the next moment the dragon went on to attack another human god, using magic to create lightning bolts from nowhere. But before the dragon could attack, a sword severed his maned head. Another human god had appeared next to him and now grimly wiped of the blood from his sword.

Thousands died on both sides and turned the world into an abyss of carnage.