A woman covered from head to toe in red robes was sitting near a boy with black hair, and telling him a story.

“The swirling mass of chaos without substance, and form. Where energy from all over the universe gathers into a sea of lights that are spread out like an ocean, surrounded by an all encompassing pitch black darkness. This closed off reality separated from the physical world, is what we call the realm of the gods.

From what I was told the entire realm belongs to a single entity without emotions, thought or will, it simply exists. From this space where emotions, consciousness, desires, and energy are invaded by the material world, strange phenomenon occur.

These masses of energy that attracts these varying elements, converge into a single point giving birth to things known as god. The shapes, figures, personality, and powers reflect the sources of the foreign elements that made it into a conscious being. In this realm they held innumerable power, immortality, lack of desires, and lack of needs.

However, through influence of the mortals in the physical realm, things like desires, and wants started to bloom like weeds, in a garden that used to be filled with nothing but plain grass. Through this influence the curiosity of the gods, and their desires to mingle with the mortal realm intensified. By abandoning their all powerful forms, to break past the god realm into the physical realm, they abandoned what truly made them gods, and left a mere shell in it's place.

The mortal body they took over became what was known as an avatar, it was not merely the representative of a god, but a living embodiment of their physical form. A god that abandoned immortality to attain a physical form, dies with that physical form, and the shell left in the god realm with it.”

The woman in the flowing red robes that covered her face sighed, as she presented the small boy with a single colourless blade, that looked no different then glass. The image slowly grew blurry, while that distant conversation, and scene faded from view.

Lan opened his eyes to stare at grey ceiling, in a pitch black room.

“They were like children ruled by the new experiences, which also led them to there poor judgment, and eventual downfall. However like the old gods, news ones will be born from the same process, and like the old gods before, will they make they same mistake?”

Lan murmured in a tiny voice.

“No, it doesn't matter anymore.”

[Do you enjoy talking to yourself, Lan?]

[You never sleep do you?]

[My kind barely needs sleep after all, but I'm glad you're here to keep me company.]

[Well I'm happy I can be of some use.]

[Hmm...]

[What?]

[Nothing.]

Lan sighed again as he lazed around the building, he spent more time lying on the floor, and staring at the ceiling then anything else. He honestly had no idea how many days passed, and how many more will continue, it was a life devoid of purpose, and ambition. Occasionally he would travel back to that closed dimension to look for usable items, and collect edible plants along the way.

Friends, family, loved ones, those are things he had mourned over countless eons ago, there was simply nothing left for him. Once the machines fails, and Zara's support system finally collapses, there was a distinct possibility that Zara will disappear as well. He would gladly die along with her.

It was not sadness, loneliness, or anything like that, it was merely a logical conclusion to a person with no more desires. Eat, sleep, and wait for death.

With only a diet of plants, and no sunlight, his skin grew more pale, and his body thinner than before.

During one of his trips to the closed dimension, he felt a slight tremor rumbling in the distance.

“It's been happening more frequently lately....”

Right now he was carrying two buckets filled with water, walking in the same dark path, many, many times. There were still areas much farther than the closed dimension, but it simply was nothing he desired to see. He found water, materials, and clothes; he needed nothing else in the world.

What could possibly motivate him to go farther? Absolutely nothing.

When he finally returned to the building again, the same scenery greeted his eyes, and Zara was still hidden by her wings, floating in the gel. If one did not know better, it would look like a floating doll, forever encased in a silent prison.

[Zara.]

[Yes?]

[Are you bored?]

[A bit, lately I've just been thinking of the past, that's all.]

[Is that so....]

[Want to play a word game?]

[Sure.]

Lan walked to the side of the tube, and leaned on it while closing his eyes, they played a word game that lasted hours.

Several days had passed, and Lan was now walking in the black water, leading up to a solitary hill. The corpses of the two people still remained in the same spot, and the lingering thoughts still remained as powerful as ever.

The entities that guarded the hill no longer reappeared, and allowed Lan to easily march into the castle. Lately he came to watch the paintings, and march down the silent hallways. He saw paintings of massive islands floating in the sky, where cities, and giant castles were made.

He saw ships shaped like wooden vessels normally found on the sea floating lazily in the sky. Massive islands that looked to have something like an engine attached to it's back, were flying along with those ships. In every single painting he came to realize a common trait. Not one of them looked to be a painting of the ground.

The painters constantly used white to signify clouds, and each landscape painting mirrored what would be found in the sky, due to flying ships, clouds, and birds being depicted in the same height level.

While looking at those paintings he finally came to a stop at the end of the hallway where he found the last picture. It was a swirling mass of water shaped into a vortex, floating in the middle of the sky. Underneath the vortex on the ground, were five massive mountains, where giant statues were built upon.

It looked like massive scaled creatures, shaped like a winged lizard. These creatures were not something he's seen before, which is not really surprising. He tried to make out the text used for the painting but sadly did not recognize the words used.

“It seems while the language remains the same, the alphabets have changed. So does that mean I'm considered an illiterate now?”

He walked to another hallway lined with paintings, each one featured a portrait of a man in overly tacky clothing, and in a manner befitting of a ruler. He passed by each one, that vaguely had similar characteristics, which can be assumed that they were of a direct relation to one another. There on the last painting was a familiar face, the dead body of the young man on the side of the hill.

“So he was a young king.”

Walking past the hall way, he entered an area that resembled a church, with colour tinted glass, and murals. The mural showed various people reaching out to the sky, longing for a single ball of black light.

A large painting was framed in the centre of the massive room.

Men, and women were worshipping a person that had black light glowing from her dress, and hair. The trees were twisted, images resembling ghosts flew around her. The woman had long glossy black hair that trailed down her form fitting dress, her lips looked blood red, and her well defined features looked both dignified, and beautiful.

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The painter emphasized her face, and eyes in the painting, the violet eyes were sharp, but incredibly vibrant. Her posture conveyed a feeling of nobility, and strength. Her skin was painted in a way that made her otherworldly, pale like marble, but somehow contained human warmth.

“An avatar huh? Regardless of race, or gender, they always retain an otherworldly beauty.”

To the left of the people worshipping the woman, a black forest lay, where blood formed pools on the ground, where flames were burning wildly, and where dozens of armed men lay dead on the scorched surface.

A single black spear lay impaled in the centre of the pile of corpses, and ghosts swarmed out of the spear, like a massive procession leading into the world.

“Oh, so she's a warrior.”

Lan closed his eyes, and touched the painting.

“All hail the goddess of darkness, for saving the federation, and our beautiful cities. Praise her might, and divine glory. Let her divine will shine through the federation as our guiding avatar, let her deliver us from the oppression by the empire of light, and the tyrant known as the king of dawn.”

“Hmm, a war between nations, or avatars?”

Lan opened his eyes, and continued to examine the room, as he was searching about he came upon a bottle of wine. A curious expression formed on his face at seeing the glass.

“This is an interesting surprise.”

He immediately opened the bottle, and smelt the aroma.

“Hmm looks like an older wine, I expected it to be fresh since it was stuck in a closed dimension.”

He took a small sip, and let it wash around in his mouth before swallowing.

“Hmm quite a buttery taste, rich, low in acidity, and a smooth finish, not bad.”

He put the cork on the bottle, and slowly exited the room. The castle now seemed like nothing but a second home now, due to how many times he wandered inside.

As soon as he left the closed dimension he looked back at it, and sighed again

“If only those things didn't devour all magic as well, we could at least have had more survivors using this method.”

With the bottle firmly in hand he walked slowly into the darkness.

The loud rumble in the distance grew larger, and longer. When he returned to the building he would tell Zara what he found, and continue to pointlessly live out his life. Only now he had a bit of wine to accompany him.

“Does that make me a useless, and illiterate drinker now?”

A self depreciating smile formed on his cracked lips.

“That's also fine, I have no use for keeping up any false images, I'll gladly accept that label.”

As he was casually walking towards the building, Lan's lazy, unfocused eyes started to form a sharp glare, his casual smile, slowly bent into a frown. In the distance he felt a powerful surge of mana, developing in the distance.

A slow gradual warmth spread inside the muscles of his legs, as he bent forward, and dashed out. Like a phantom disappearing, and reappearing in the darkness, he became a living blur, causing the air to vibrate wherever he rushed passed.

When he rushed into the expansive cavern, a large magic circle was forming under the cliff, and building.

“A tactical scale magic circle!”

He poured even more mana into his legs, and rushed forward at blinding speed, a loud sizzling sound exploded behind him. However before he could even reach the outer layers of the magic circle, the building disappeared into particles of light.

Lan threw away the bottle, and ran up the side of the cliff, a magic circle replaced the soles of his shoes, allowing him to run up freely. His dull mind slowly sharpened, and his normally clouded eyes started to show clarity.

Lan touched the air around him, and closed his eyes.

“The mana in the air is distorted causing it to disappear, this only happens with teleportation magic.”

Lan walked around where the building used to be, “the trail of disappearing mana creates a path in that direction, and going upwards.”

Lan pointed to the left side of the wall, the mana was especially lacking in that direction, compared to the entire area, and it went upwards, indicating somewhere above. It could be the surface, and maybe even the sky.

“Judging how sparse the density of mana is, around the area with even mana stones present, it should be a long distance teleportation, for them to be able to teleport a building this far in the earth, would mean a link was somehow existed.”

Several ideas popped into his head, for a link to form meant an identical object must be in place. From his understanding, teleportation between objects must occur with a similarly prepared magic on both sides, and a massive investment in mana.

A tactical scale magic circle is enough to cover a small city, which can only be formed by over a dozen high class magic users.

“An organization of some sort?”

Lan shook his head, and cleared his muddled mind.

“No, it doesn't matter at this point.”

He felt a throbbing pain in his legs, as he looked downwards, streams of blood were pouring from his legs. His body had lacked proper nutrients for a long time now, it could not sustain what he demanded of his body. His physique had also deteriorated making him slightly emaciated.

Lan sighed, as he began to walk back to the castle, his heart was pounding, and an certain emotion poured out, that he thought he didn't have anymore. It was worry.

From the castle he made a sack, brought a barrel with a lid filled with water, and started to gather a pile of plants from the cavern. He tied a sash on his waist, and placed a sword there. He changed his raggedy clothes, for the new ones in the castle.

He raided the vaults to stock up on some gold, and slowly marched out of the closed dimension.

Staring above him a small light in the ceiling was visible, small layers of magic circles formed over his blue, right eye.

He raised his right hand.

“Illusha's slayer armoury.”

Ten sword impaled the ground around him, and one handle above, but this time the right side lit up.

He chose a thin sword that glowed dull silver, and had a spiral blue handle, the other swords burst apart into light, and in his right palm was left with a silver ball of light. He grabbed the sword on his waist, and pulled it out. The light slowly changed the old sword, into the thin silver sword.

In the darkness silver arcs shot out, and danced in the sky. Explosions rumbled in the cavern, and rocks burst apart, and fell to the ground below. The explosions grew louder, and louder, as the amount of rocks continued to fall down in a massive avalanche.

Eventually a massive beam of light spread across the darkness, from the distant sky above.

Lan stood in the centre of the pile of rocks, that were carved into tiny pieces of rubble around him.

He was blinded by the bright light pouring down, while covering his eyes.

“Well Zara, wait for me please. Try not to do anything drastic.”

With a tired sigh, he stared out at the long forgotten light of day.