POV Narrator

In the vast open sky, hovering between heaven and earth, Natine floats silently; her deep emerald eyes piercing through the veil of clouds covering the world below, revealing its every secret. Like a celestial goddess, an absolute power flows freely from her; suppressing her surroundings.

“How many years has it been since I’ve begun my search?” She contemplates silently, a small frown forming on her perfect oval face. “I’ve looked through every part of the world countless times, yet I’m unable to find anything. I refuse to give up; this whole matter is clearly not as black and white as it first seemed, but I’ll get to the bottom of this mystery, one way or another.” She decides, a smile forming on her face, a hint of arrogance radiating from it.

On the planet below, from the endless oceans covering it, she feels a slight disturbance of elemental essence. Clearly powerful, but easily overlooked in comparison to the world around it. But Natine notices it; she’s been looking for anything suspicious and this is akin to a lit flare lighting up the sky.

“This power, it feels familiar. It’s somewhat like the power that I encountered all those years ago, but its strength is inferior by a whole level. Well, this is the best lead that I’ve received in a long time, so it can’t hurt to investigate further.” She mumbles to herself, firmly deciding on her course of actions.

Floating on the endless ocean’s surface, a huge humanoid-shaped island rests calmly on the blue waters. Its surface is covered with a vast green forest, with occasional mountain ranges littered in between. On closer inspection, other oddities can be seen on the island. Like a giant tree easily ten times the height of the surrounding forest and a white granite fortress with a divine garden surrounding it.

On the fortress’ bridge, Zohn’s eyes focus on Achous, trying to peer into his very being. Realising the tense atmosphere, a warm smile form on Zohn’s face, quickly reforming his usually calm, kind appearance.

“You, strange creature, it’s rare for us to get visitors… Who are you?” Zohn asks, his eyes still focused on Achous; his eyes betraying the warm smile on his face. Achous’ eyes flash with worry, he manages to stammer out a response, “Uhm, my name is Achous, I was an explorer who got stuck here because of the fog.”.

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In complete silence, Zohn stares at Achous for a full minute. The worry in Achous’ heart grows stronger with each passing second. After the minute, Zohn breaks the silence with another question, his expression unchanging, “Did you plant this garden?”. “Ye… yes,” He manages to reply, his legs shaking slightly, unsure if he’s at fault here.

Suddenly, the smile on Zohn’s face expands, his eyes turning friendly in the prosses. From Zohn’s long white beard, he says “Thank you for the hard work, it looks absolutely beautiful. I know how hard it is to plant flowers and trees and I can tell the effort that you put into this. It must have taken quite a while, truly, thank you.”.

Achous is momentarily dumbstruck by the sudden change, a single thought runs through his mind, “He’s suddenly thanking me so genuinely, he seems really attached to this place, is he the so-called ‘champion?”.

“With that taken care of, on to the next person. You under the bridge, come out, hiding is pointless in front of me.” Zohn instructs calmly, his eyes still pointed at Achous. A small yip sounds from beneath the bridge. In a second, Aia’s body forms in the water, carefully making its way towards the river bank and finally onto the bridge next to Achous.

Zohn stares at her intently for a few seconds before finally speaking, “I can see the energy within you, you are a part of Col, unlike this winged fellow next to you; I can just imagine his expression when he wakes up and finds this… You and I aren’t that different; were both parts of something much greater, but each with our own unique role.”.

Zohn lets out a happy sigh as he continues, “This place has changed so much since I went to sleep, I can only imagine what the rest of it looks like; just the small precedent created here leaves me excited.” Zohn’s face emanates happiness, like an old man finding a new hobby.

“How rude of me, dear being, what’s your name?” Zohn asks, his voice filled with love and care. “My name is Aia, it's nice to meet you, great champi…” Before she can finish her introduction, Zohn suddenly looks up towards the sky.

Zohn’s expression undergoes a rapid transformation, seemingly reform from a kind smile to a deep glare. “Sorry, dear child, we seem to have an uninvited guest,” Zohn says, his gaze still fixed to the empty sky. “What guest?” Aia asks innocently, but before anyone answers her, an overwhelming power suddenly pushes down on the island.

“That would be me,” a voice suddenly answers. In the sky, Natine floats, her overwhelming presence radiating on the land below. “How strange, how come I’ve never noticed this place before?” She ponders as she observes the strange island below. The most shocking thing to her is that she can’t sense the island below. If she wasn’t personally observing it with her own eyes, then she wouldn’t have believed that there was an island here.

As quickly as it came, the pressure vanishes; Zohn’s power pushing back against it. With his eyes keenly locked onto Natine’s floating figure, Zohn roars in a voice filled with anger and hate, “Just who might you be to come here and try to harm Col?!”.