The time after Nero’s death and the Final Empire's collapse was, and I suppose still is, a time of war, and strangely enough, also a time of peace. The people war among themselves, slaying each other for the fragments of the Final Empire, and yet it is nothing in the face of what is to come. It is the light drizzle that rushes ahead of the raging storm. With every death, the void of rage consumes more and more of the watcher. Soon, I fear, he will break, and that horrid future my ancestor fought will come to pass. I need to stabilize the people, return self-control to the pools of life and passion they have become. Else I will find myself crossing blades with God himself.
The universe burned. The people fought, igniting in explosions of passion and being. It was strangely beautiful, but this was not what I wanted. They had no purpose. No will. No path.
The passion consumed everything like a raging wildfire. Perhaps only those with such purity as HER and Kyoko could bear such passion. These passion-wrought people were consumed to fan the flames higher.
And so the universe burned.
The void in me begged me to quench the flame, to start again.
But with the last of my patience, I cradled the final sparks of hope.
Perhaps they would manage to recover themselves.
But now, the universe only burned.
—---------------------------------------------
Kyoko looked down at the central base of the rebellion from the air above. It was one of the few places intact after Nero’s fall. I suppose their constant resistance to Nero's aura reinforced them against such influences. Still, many struggled within their newfound bonds, lost to passion.
‘ Kyoko sighed as he sensed those people. He had not expected such a breakdown at exposure to his path. He supposed he should have. Very few people could bear such passion, but those that could would only be stronger for it. And indeed, the ones that maintained control felt like smoldering torches, ready to ignite into storms of passion and fury.
As he touched down in the landing bay, he was immediately mobbed by a crowd of rebels, led by Xanthar, Leo’s former second in command.
“Kyoko! What the hell happened! Everything’s falling apart!” he roared over the clamor.
Kyoko sighed. “I did it, Xanthar. I slew the Final Emperor. We are free. I just didn’t expect all of… this.” He waved to the burning skyline in the distance.
The crowd instantly went silent. “You… you slew the Final Emperor?” came a hesitant voice.
“Yes. No longer shall we live under the yoke of another.”
The silence seemed to stretch on forever, until one small voice broke it.
“We won?”
The crowd erupted into cheering and Kyoko winced as he saw passion begin to overtake even those that had originally resisted it. He immediately banished it from the citadel of the rebellion and let them celebrate.
They deserve a break before what was to come.
—------------------------------------
Kyoko and the leaders of the rebellion sat in a massive conference room, covered in holograms protecting scenes from other planets and galaxies. It was a nightmarish collage of burning skylines and warring people.
The council was silent as they took in the chaos.
Finally, Xanthar turned to Kyoko. “What did you do?”
Kyoko sighed, stroking the hilt of God-Slayer. “I killed Nero.”
Xanthar snorted. “Well obviously you did something mor-”
“I don’t think you understand what it means to kill someone like me or Nero. We are beings whose existence is fundamentally tied to our paths. To kill Nero, I had to sever order and replace it with my path. I supplanted him and in doing so supplanted order.”
Xanthar’s face was expressionless. “With what?”
“With chaos. With passion. With life. With freedom. With myself”
Xantehr squinted at the holograms before turning a skeptical gaze to Kyoko, “They don’t seem free, Just slaves to passion instead of order.”
Kyoko sighed frustratedly, preventing waves of irritation from setting off everybody in this room. “I know. The majority can't bear my path, so they are instead enslaved by it. But still, the concept is sound. If you find the few that can bear it, you will find them more free than ever before. I’m sure most of you here can attest to that.”
There were some nods, and few smiles before Xanther spoke again, this time angry. “We stand for freedom! We cannot enslave the people just to be free ourselves! That is the opposite of what we stand for!” He whirled to Kyoko. “You need to reverse this right now.”
Kyoko shook his head. “I can’t. It's a part of the world now.”
“You put it there! You can take it down!”
“It's a part of me, Xanthar. I could sooner renounce everything that is me then tear that law from the sky.” Kyoko frowned. “Besides, even if I could retract it, the backlash from erasing a law as strong as Nero’s would likely produce a reaction of a similar caliber. I will instead be refining my path, and in doing so, the law. My path is far from complete, this whole fiasco has been clear on that. My path needs to reflect that.”
“And how will you do that?”
Kyoko smiled. “Study. There have been many fascinating people throughout history. I plan to study them. Record their greatest aspects, and integrate them within me. Our greatest trials are coming.” He lifted his head to gaze directly at me. “We must be prepared for their arrival.”
“What trials?” Xanther question wearily.
“Now is not the time for that conversation. I want you guys to help restore order.” The irony of the statement was not lost on Kyoko. “Start with this planet and spread.”
He got to his feet, prompting the rest to do the same.
“We have work to do.”
—----------------------------------------------
As soon as Kyoko entered his apartment, he collapsed onto his bed. He was still hurting from his battle, but more crucially, he didn’t know what to do.
It had all happened so fast. His father's death, the fight, the crown falling from the sky, the world going mad.
And it was all his fault. Should he have just let Nero rule? The people seemed content under him. He immediately rejected the suggestion. The essence of his being would not stand for such speculation. Still, the collapse was his fault. If he had just been a bit more prepared, a bit stronger, he could have avoided it all, stabilized the people as their world was turned upside down.
And now they faced imminent destruction.
Kyoko turned his gaze to me, and I could feel his determination to protect his people. Whether by appeasing me or fighting me. I respected such determination, even as madness lurked on the edges of my vision.
Then, Kyoko closed his eyes and slipped into a long overdue rest.
—-----------------------------------
The next morning, the universe was still on fire, burning only marginally lower for all those that had been consumed in the flame. The troops of the rebellion spread far and wide, desperately enforcing order upon the passion stricken masses. It was a nightmare, with even the rebels frequently losing grip of their passion and starting full on riots.
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Still, even in the absolute loss of control, the power of Kyoko’s path was viable. Burning with passion, men achieved things previously impossible. They survived wounds unsurvivable and defeated opponents undefeatable.
It was still a disaster of unprecedented proportions, and tearing my gaze away from the heart wrenching damage, I focused back on my final hope.
Kyoko walked the Erduk halls, trailing a hand on the wall almost reverently, taking in their majesty. Physically, the halls were nothing to scoff at, with swelling arches and delicate carvings, most lost to time. But the true worth of the halls was in its conceptual weight. Every square inch of those halls excluded more weight than most men will ever feel, saturated in the presence of paths beyond humanity.
Those halls were truth and that truth was why Kyoko had come.
He was hoping to find inspiration for his path in the paths of his ancestors. There are as many paths to the heavens as there are stars in the sky, and Kyoko planned to embody as many as possible.
He started in the present, walking backwards in time as he traced the lives of his long-dead ancestors, starting with his father’s vault. Here, deep below the earth, he didn't bother maintaining the shroud he kept up for the mortals. He blazed with a passion far greater than the mortals that quarreled among the stars.
And it was with that passion he began to study.
Vault by vault. Paragon by Paragon.
Time flowed like a river as he carefully read the contents of every vault, felt their essence and then integrated them into his path.
His path evolved at a frightening rate, and among the stars, the people began to cool, the raging fire slowing to reveal the grim ashes it had left behind. The invisible weight in the air, that herald of passion, was changing. No longer did it spurn them to blind passion, but rather it taught them the beginnings of control of that passion.
Yet it could not teach them mastery, for not even Kyoko had truly mastered his passion. So that cosmos still burned, even as its flames dimmed.
Below the Mountain of Adam, Kyoko continued to grow, adding concept after endless concept to his path. At this point, his path was so heavy, so expansive, I didn't know if even he could carry it to a higher existence. But still, he never hesitated, simply growing like a flower finally given the loving attention of the sun.
He left Isabella’s path with knowledge and the willingness to face anything, no matter the consequences. Jausn’s granted him a cold awareness of his solitude, separate as he was. Adam taught him how to create, wielding nothing but will as a medium. Jorhan cut him with blades of searing light, and in doing so revealed the nature of the blade.
Path by path, legend by legend, Kyoko grew. And as he grew the world above cooled, passion becoming tempered in understanding. It burned as fiercely as before, but now it knew where and when to burn.
The people became snapped to awareness, only for the knowledge of the ash they had left behind to drive them back into passion wrought madness.
Still Kyoko advanced.
In the fifth year, he stood in front of the doors to Angelica's room. I averted my gaze, unwilling to gaze upon her, especially in the state I was in. especially with what i was considering.
Kyoko spent a full year in that chamber, with neither food nor water and I watched the results manifest themselves. Slowly at first, but then all at once purity rushed into his path, adding nothing, but refining it to a higher state. A state of not only power, but subtlety.
To be pure was to be focused, to be committed. And with that commitment and focus, the last of those enslaved to their passion awoke.
Awoke to a world of ash and ruins.
The majority of humanity had perished in those years, and with it a large portion of humanities technology was wiped out as well. The last stronghold of humanity was contained solely within the solar system the resistance had once called their headquarters.
It was ironic in a way. From one solar system to the universe then back again.
Still, humanity had survived, but looking into their haunted eyes, I wondered if they could ever truly thrive again. I wondered if this would be the setback that broke them. They were on the verge of breaking, struggling with the guilt of what their passion-controlled selves had done and the despair from losing friends and family. Even with the reassuring presence of Kyoko’s path, they were lost amid a sea of chaos. Was this humanities end?
Thousands of light-years away, Kyoko left the Mountain of Adam and stretched out his senses to find not a human left alive. The homeworld had been hit the hardest by Nero and Kyoko’s clash.
Kyoko sighed sadly, accepting the blame for what he had done.
His passion was controlled, but still, he was like the people above. Struggling with both guilt and loss, lost amid a sea of infinity.
He didn’t know what to do, or how to atone.
So he stood atop the Mountain of Adam and basked in the light of the stars, letting their light and meaning caress him. Then, armed with only his old journal, he began another journey, this one around the Homeworld.
Perhaps there he would find redemption.
—--------------------------------------------------
I had never stopped adding the paths of the mighty to the Homeworld, even when the greatest took to the stars. I don’t know why. Perhaps I had hoped that even a planet might ascend if enough meaning was forced upon it. Never mind the reason, the result was that the homeworld was dripping with meaning, from the sun infused with Adam’s love to the painter’s creation infused river.
It had gotten to the point where those weak of will could not stand the weight in the air. It crushed their minds and ripped their souls from their bodies. To Kyoko the pressure might have been a light breeze. But even he was taken aback by the density of concepts and laws in the air.
The vaults had been the cumulation of the Erduks, the greatest lineage to ever exist. But even they paled in comparison to the sum total of humanity over the ages.
Kyoko began to walk, not with any particular direction. He simply walked, drinking in the meaning in the air and setting to augmenting his path even further.
I wondered what would become of him, if he succeeded in integrating all of it. The broader the path, the greater the creation required to elevate it. With a path that contained the sum essence of humanity, his ascension would be as hard as Nero’s, even as a single person.
Still, he forged on, drinking in truths that defined men as if they were no more than water. A truth of nihilism that drove a man to philosophy joined a truth of war that once defined a great general, both united in a raging sea of passion. Kyoko was an inescapable vortex, pulling truths to him as a tornado pulled dust.
And the effects were noticeable. His path broadened and deepened at a noticeable rate and with every bit of growth the people in the stars stabilized further, basking in his lights. Kyoko had become the heavens, and the heavens needed to encompass all things, so he explored, and he grew.
And the people thrived in turn.
The years began to pass once more, the wheel of time freed from the steel grip of fear. Kyoko continued his growth, and the people continued their recovery, rebuilding what they had lost. It would likely be centuries before they recovered their former glory, but it was enough to send the void packing.
Still though, despite the progress being made, the people were still lost amid a sea of collective guilt and sorrow. True forgiveness is a rarity, and those people were aware of it.
Still, humans are truly resilient beings, and supported by Kyoko’s growth, they were able to suppress it and continue forward in the rebuilding. Yet it smoldered within them like an unscratchable itch, whispering the truth of their culpability.
—------------------------------------------
Twenty years passed in blink
Kyoko sat in the core of the sun, leveraging the full weight of his being to avoid being burned to crisp. Even he struggled here, not only because of the power of the yellow dwarf, but also because of the depth of the path it represented.
Adam’s love was as unfathomable as the day he willed it into being, the only path I have truly failed to grasp after all this time. The thought of HER sent a pang of sorrow through me, and I quickly refocused on Kyoko.
I suspected Adam’s path was one of the few things that could match Kyoko’s purity and my proof was before me as Kyoko struggled, grappling with the indiscriminate endless love that had defined Adam.
—-------------------------------
Five years passed.
The heavens were changing, this change perhaps the greatest since HER. They began to act upon greater emotion than mere passion. Passion is strong. As strong as it gets. It burns with untenable glory, searing all that dare encroach upon it. But it lacks the gentleness, subtlety of softer emotions. The soft contentment of a joyful day. The mild annoyance of a stubbed toe.
They did not burn as passion does, yet they could just as much power.
Adam’s quiet love seeped into burning passion, and something greater was created. Something soft and gentle and all-encompassing. It seemed weak, but looking at his newfound path, I shuddered.
I didn’t want to know what would happen if that ignited. Passion burns bright, yes. But it is unfocused, even with Kyoko’s purity and refinement. But with the guiding hand of love?
I no longer knew what he was capable of.
A quiet sigh heralded the completion of Kyoko’s path, and a wave of love and forgiveness spread out, finding the specks of guilt and sorrow, and gently guiding the people through forgiving themselves.
Kyoko stepped out of the star looking aged. I still don’t know why he let his age show. Avoiding time’s gaze was trivial for one of his power. But he embraced the age, and the wisdom that came with it. His long golden hair was less vivid and the corners of his eyes showed the first signs of wrinkles. Yet his azure eyes had only grown deeper and more unfathomable.
There, standing in the void of space, he seemed to shine brighter than the burning sun behind him. Where he once burned greater than any star, his light was now calm, and yet it was brighter than it ever had been.
And it continued to grow.
And grow.
And grow.
For a second, I thought he was trying to ascend, but then he closed his eyes and exhaled, sending the light out in a cleaning wave.
It spread through the cosmos like the light of a new day, revealing the possibilities hidden by the cold night.
Morning had come, and it was time to heal.