Chapter 1 Interlude
...How much time had passed? Five thousand years? Fifty thousand years? Eleknar could not tell. His mind wandered amidst the plane of this cursed existence he was confined to. He required a body to function outside the realm of thought with minor exceptions, and the last body to possess the qualities needed to host a being of his caliber had been cast into death long ago despite numerous attempts at bonding since his last reincarnation. Surely there were others, those suitable vessels whose souls were on par with a luster able to bring him back, but none were anywhere near him on this plane of Oblivion. This prison of his. He would have sensed them by now if they were nearby, and only one out of every hundred million souls stood a chance at bonding. The odds were not in his favor of finding a host.
Boredom had long since set in. Extreme boredom, boredom that no living thing should ever have to endure. Though he wasn’t technically living… Was he? Not in this state anyway. He still remembered death’s embrace rushing over him. The look of exalted triumph written upon the features of the archangel Gabriel as the holy warrior cast Eleknar down from life’s theatre.
The angels had called him evil, cursing his name and banishing him… but unable to fully destroy him. What fools, for who was to be judge and jury on what was good or what was evil? Who were they to pass judgement on one such as him? Eventually… in time as the ages passed him by… he would outlast them. Maybe even rise back to power in time to be the one that would personally crush them for their sins against a higher power and set their gilded cities of the Heavens to flame. Those flying self righteous rats would deserve nothing less than genocide.
How unfortunate that time could not be now.
Eleknar, a being spawned of the creator himself in the infancy of the universe, was a relic of the days of old. Long before the All Spirit, long before the Fourteen Realms split off from the Labyrinth Worlds and the gates between worlds were closed. Before the Fourteenth Outer Realm was cast into outer darkness devoid of magic. Even as the Heavens and Hells had just been created... Eleknar had been there, lurking in the void.
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Eleknar watched a comet hurl overhead to crash far off to the east of his prison. He watched in absolute silence and felt the influx of souls as they rushed from Oblivion into his homeland. It felt good being so close to their deaths... so close to their passing.
A rift in space near Eleknar’s location suddenly caught his attention. He felt the All Spirit’s mana signature just briefly… an annoying and fleeting signature as always... but then another smaller one appeared. The soul signature was uncultivated, an obvious newborn babe within the spectrum of time. Completely new to him - he was very curious as to how another life form could have gotten so close to him without his noticing.
It only took Eleknar a couple of seconds to realize that it was a human man. How would a human have traveled here to Oblivion? Perhaps other parts of Oblivion would have been accessible, but here? There were no gates or portals nearby and he hadn’t sensed any magic or miracles being cast around him, so Eleknar was quite vexed.
Eleknar was not used to being vexed.
He took an avid interest in this newcomer and began to thoroughly evaluate this mortal. Soon after studying the soul signature emanating out from the newcomer, Eleknar realized the significance of this arrival… and how significant it was. To think that such a soul could even exist! It should not be possible for one such as this to exist! His excitement quickly growing to a state of extreme urgency, Eleknar quickly went to work drawing the man towards him. Fearing for what would happen if this newcomer were to encounter the local inhabitants of this plane of Oblivion, he set to work concealing the man’s soul signature completely from others that may try to take it.
It must be saved. It must be preserved… Thankfully the All Spirit had blessed this man with temporary... immortality? It was as if the All Spirit had put this man here on purpose… just for him. The chance of this happening was no coincidence, of that Eleknar was certain, but Eleknar was unsure of why the All Spirit would perform such an act.
Usually humans were amongst the weakest of the sentient races, their souls lacking anything Eleknar would ever consider even close to satiating. Supreme Demons and Archdemons of the highest breeds were usually the selected choice and they were ever quick to accept his unholy bond. But this human… Eleknar had never felt anything like it in the countless years he had existed and doubted that he would ever find another vessel like it ever again even through the eternities he would surely last.
He wouldn’t allow this man to escape.
After waiting for so long… Eleknar’s heir had finally arrived.