Observing the long line of survivors from above in the sky was Fi, the little spirit of ice. Everyone below was slowly moving toward a fortified town she could see in the distance. Maybe they would be able to leave this twisted forest in three days, two more would be needed to reach the town.

But this wasn’t something that mattered to her. She simply looked up at the vast sky – how calm and cold it is – she thought to herself. The constant buzzing and sounds of her past mixed with irradiant heat were all but gone. Now, it was all so cold. Even the stars and the sun were just a fraction of the ever-present warmth during the infancy of Existence.

The war that followed creation was a simple mess of suffering, pain, carnage, madness, and survival. The First of her kind was weak both in mind and body but his desperation pushed him to write and write a legendary hero that could contend with the everlasting heat. So, when wisps of eternity found him hiding inside a palace of jade, his bloody corpse, mangled as it was after every single molecule from his body was entranced by an incandescent heat, became a birthing sac for the Second.

This one had a better mind, yet his body and his power were lacking. Another legend – more in-depth this time – was made. The Second met a fate worse than his predecessor but the Third was born like a crystalline lotus over a sea of boiling red.

A body and a mind able to endure most of everything. Alas, it was power that she lacked. Soon, a dragon of blossoming improbability found her and after bewitching her, managed to find a way to crush this spirit to pieces. She could do nothing but endure as she was like a cube of ice under a press. Slowly being crushed, cracked, and…

crunch

So came the Fourth who had all three. It was an impressive beast like the dragon who had killed the one before. It fought and fought until it discovered what it was lacking: recovery. It was destined to die from its inception. A life given with an expiration date. Every wound it took remained on its large body which was at first only a few cuts that soon formed cracks as long as stars. This crystalline dragon headed into the heart of creation by itself out of rage and fear at its promised death…

So came the Fifth who had all four aspects: Fi. She created a legend of the Sixth like everyone else had done and fought the same war they were stuck in. Those spirits of ice were all bound by the curse of the First who died brutally. They were forced to fight and die as it was the reason they were created.

So, Fi fought like no other. She went far beyond her limitation by becoming something else not bound by the curse of death. From a spirit of ice, she changed into a spirit of stillness and then later into the first spirit of the unmoving. She forced the raging tempest of primordial essence into a standstill and molded them into simple waves of information. She culled any movement, any shaking, and any spinning of whatever stood in her way effectively bringing an end to the endless chaos of creation.

With her little hand, she had created the curse that is entropy…

And so, the spirit waited inside the palace of jade which the First had created. The walls were filled with legends of the Sixth that would come to life once she died. But this was something impossible. Even if she died, no one would be born from her corpse. There was no need for the Sixth like there was no need for the Fifth anymore. She had won by herself.

Above in the sky, the hero looked down at the weak mortal which she was jealous of. Nothing could kill her and even if something did manage to do so, the curse of entropy would revive her.

The orange leaves crushed under the proceeding of the dying survivors sounded like the Third. The branches cracking whispered the same tune as the Fourth while the wails formed by the wind were like the cries of the Second. While the rain, heavy and suffocating, was like the First who had cursed her to this fate.

She wanted to die and the only one who could ever grant her this wish refused to do so.

The spirit lifted her right sleeve to see her perfect white skin covered by a large tattoo of alternating bands and weaving patterns. It was something she despised but could never gather the courage to remove it… It was Yuu who made it. ‘An old tradition she was taught’, she said.

This mysterious spirit with red hair… Fi still firmly remembered the first time she met her. She was waiting inside her palace of jade; waiting for death to come. The one to open the frozen doors which had remained still since their making was Yuu. She was wearing the fur of a bear above thick blue clothing with spiraling patterns on the cuffs and hem.

This girl’s arrival caused Fi to feel happiness for the first time in her life. ‘Finally, someone that can kill me,’ she thought. But she guessed wrong. Yuu had come to ask her for help, “Help me save reality and I promise I’ll give you a life worth living.”

This promise managed to intrigue Fi. Following this, both spirits marked the other arm with patterns that might represent themselves. Yuu, who already had falling leaves on her right arm, had ice crystals added. When she learned what this marking meant was the first time she felt anger.

Like how some people give rings to their loved ones, this marking was something a few people used to express how they wished to walk hand in hand with someone. In the case of those two spirits, this had the meaning of Yuu forcing Fi to live as long as she did.

‘I’ll give you a life worth living.’

“Liar,” whispered a sad Fi. It was the first time she felt this feeling and didn’t understand the reason. “We’ll walk hand in hand till the end of time. Then why leave me to those mortals? You know how much I hate them…”

This word ‘hate’, it wasn’t the first time she felt it. The first person she ever hated was the one to have inscribed leaves onto Yuu’s arm first. Fi didn’t really understand her own emotion sometimes and this was a lost cause.

As she was remembering her past, a pillar of fire surged out from a tree and turned it into ashes. “Hm… That man’s hunting in the wrong direction.” Looking from above, she could see the elven man in his birthday suit engulfed in flame and going from tree to tree – all sick and feeble that should be fell – to embrace them so they turn to cinder. It wasn’t the first time he had done so. At one point, he realized that the mysterious bear snacking on random people could be seen using its shadow.

“HAHA! Brother!” exclaimed a man covered in bandages and missing a few limbs. It was Rouhong who miraculously survived his wounds and managed to get out of the carriage he was locked in. “Let me join you.”

The man remade his missing limbs out of flowing magma as flame also enrobed him in a scale-like armor. They looked at one another, almost as if seeing their long lost brother, and said with only a glance, “Let’s show that bastard what we are made of.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Yet, before they could leave, a cat holding on to an incandescent staff in one hand and a baby in the other came to them. Then, a bird of fire was created from the eye at the top of the staff which was followed by it dancing in the air while letting out sharp chirping from time to time. “Let me also be of use, gentlemen. Simply walking like this will scare the beast away before we find it. It is smart and has killed around 20 of our people already: it’s thus gluttonous. How about we…”

“Dumb mortal,” said Fi, disinterested in those fools. She looked at the other end of the carriage where the bear had just killed an old lady in the strangest of ways. It was toying with them. Obviously, seeing anyone suddenly going up like a rocket only to instantly crash back on the ground head-first had to be unnerving.

The little spirit wondered if she should do something herself but concluded that doing so would be overstepping. They were mortal and death was their liberation, something she would never get to taste. They would be free from their pain and suffering to then possibly enter a better world; she didn’t think of death as something bad.

So, the spirit kept thinking about her past while glancing at the forest surrounding them.

❖

“My lord,” said an old lady. “Are we not going to attack those people?” She pointed with a bonny finger at the carriages in the distance. Around her, all kinds of nightmarish creatures mixed with gigantic frogs were waiting.

“Call me Aria from now on,” responded the one who was once referred to as the lord of dreams. “You, your name. Have you told me?”

The old lady turned around confused at the way this ‘Aria’ was acting but nonetheless gave away her name, “This one is called Dhumavati. I am the things that are not and the things that would not…”

Not caring to solve this riddle, the lord of dreams simply pointed to the sky where Fi was floating. “Never attack anything under the protection of this hero. You are ‘the things you are’ now because of her and a few others. Pay your respect, Dhumavati.”

Those two women got on their knees while the other creatures did their best imitation of them – with some stumbling down awkwardly. After Fi noticed them for a brief moment and got back to what she was doing, this group left in the opposite direction.

“Prepare as many troops as you can and get them battle-ready,” said Aria to the old lady. “We will march toward the east, killing anyone in our way. That sea of void you talked about is your key to surviving your demise. Until your creator shows himself, this place will be the safest.”

“Very well, my lord. I shall prepare an army for you, but this might take time.”

“Do take your time as I won’t accept failure.”

❀

“‘Find the way to Tir Na Nog and save him.’ is what this one says,” said Tsuki who was reading the strips of paper which she was strangely able to read now. She had them since the first day of coming into this world, but they sadly didn’t seem to give her any hint toward getting Alice back.

All in all, those strips of paper looked more like prayers or requests from desperate people: like wishes upon a falling star or a prayer to an unseen god. Hoomaikai was recording the content in a readable medium. At first, she wanted to use this chance to learn this strange language, but it soon became clear that it was impossible as the letters would change form whenever she wasn’t looking. So, there seemed to be another unknown requirement needed to read this language.

“‘Crystal gates need to be repaired, please?’, ‘I want to hear a song from the Wind Whisperer!’, ‘My cat has been missing. Please report to me if you find him. He looks like…’ Seriously Tsuki… isn’t there any…” Hoomaikai was trying to figure out a pattern or a greater meaning behind those strips by reading what she had just recorded. She wanted to ask Tsuki something but then noticed the old insane man looking at the strip of paper Tsuki had just read about saving the brother of someone.

His eyes were almost bloodshot as he stared at the piece of paper and in a moment of lucidity asked, “Niamh? Was this Niamh?!” The old man was almost in Tsuki’s face while asking this.

Tsuki, with no other choice, looked at the paper with more attention and found such a name written in a damaged corner. “Y-yes?”

Tears then welled up in the man’s eyes as he caressed the four golden rings on his fingers. “He’s still alive…still alive..alive…live…” slowly, he returned to how he was before but kept on a melancholic expression.

Tsuki pushed him with care while he kept whispering words without any meaning in them. She then placed the strip of paper on his lap which he cradled before sleeping soundlessly.

“Weirdo,” said Hoomaikai, who didn’t really like this madman. She had a bad experience with insane people and simply couldn’t come to trust them at all, even if they were inoffensive.

As for Tsuki, she took out the letter she took inside Yassil’s house. This one also, she could now read. The words were similar to the ones on the strips of paper which Hoomaikai took note of to deepen her study.

“It says: ‘The devourer, consume all that is, all that was. From the dust, distant and old, he came. War of old which he was beaten in, this beast licked his wounds after surviving. Tied to the god of night, unsealed by Memory – the Book formed by the dusk of war – raging and hungry it was. Ho the mad one, princess of the Gale, wielding the book failed to end him for her greed for power was too great. Up, look at the war that took place: this dead dust is the result of greed and gluttony. Fail me not for my sacrifice. Slay the beast so the same fate does not come to us. The temple of the god of Night: go north inside the mountain, underground he thinker. For he alone saw the Book, this weapon that can slay the beast. Fear the princess, it’s already too late for me. Find the Book and consume the devourer.’”

“…”

“…”

The two girls looked at one another unsure of what to say. They could barely understand what was implied. As for Tsuki, she remembered the giant bear made of vines and bones that was Yassil asking her to head into the mountain in the north. But the content of the letter was simply too heavy at the moment such that she put it back safely inside her bag.

They looked outside at the raging fire under the control of three men and said nothing much. It was better for someone righteous to know the content of the letter than them. Tsuki only wanted to find Alice while Hoomaikai was already tired of trying to save a dying world and only wanted to experience living.

Suddenly, Tsuki changed herself into a complex dress similar to those she saw on Kanga’s artifact and got out to help the three others. She needed to do something to clear her mind. Hoomaikai was sadly unable to follow and looked with an embarrassed grin at the girl covered in petals which she knew was trying to annoy her. And it did work, “Geez, trying to act like a magical girl but put on a boring transformation. If it was me, I would…” So, an idea started forming inside the wounded girl’s mind. All she needed was for her leg to recover and then…

҈

North of them, not so far as to reach the snowy mountain, two giants fought in a forest of translucent blue leaves. On one side was a bear made of wood and bones while on the other was a wolf. It was Yassil who gave a blue ribbon to Tsuki and Shamala who made Tsuki end her child's suffering.

The giant bear was attacking everything and anything mindlessly while its opponent was doing all she could to return reason to this elf who used to take care of her along with his wife. The beast couldn’t accept the state Yassil was in and fought day and night.

A multitude of wooden spikes tried to impale her, yet she moved with impressive agility while dodging everything as if knowing their path in advance. The bear had yet to land a single blow on the wolf which kept snarling at him. A rift tried to open behind the bear before being swiftly destroyed by Shamala.

From the other side of said rift, a princess of a destroyed land lamented that her plan was being foiled by a simple mut.

*

Gupta’s report of the week.

A lot of corpses are now inside the temple as a new king to replace Paundraka was found. This creature is bringing terror to everything hiding while rampaging around. So many things are being destroyed that Gupta is scared the temple might crumble.

Still, a large number of creatures have been culled and Gupta realized that not many should be left. He needs to kill this new king before it finds him. Using the tools inside the medical wing, Gupta started the production of potent venom.

Gupta started exploring around while avoiding detection as he required material for the venom. The suspended garden above the pool is inaccessible for now due to the drinkable water attracting many creatures.

Gupta found a large cave outside the temple that could be mined for resources. For now, mushrooms are growing on the walls. He took a few samples which he will test their effect on dying creatures.

Mission: reach the medical wing and make it usable. Make the venom.

Resources needed: 50 units of wood. Lockpicking tools.

Research: 70% sludge. 5% walls (paused).

Map explored: 10%

Mine discovered.