Once again, would really appreciate some constructive criticism.

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2000 years is more than enough time for countless things to change. Especially when the beginning of this thousand year period is a turning point in the history of the world, bringing the world into an entirely new era. Old traditions and new ideals clash. They cannot co-exist, one must perish. Such times are chaotic, forlorn, and bloody. Friendships crumble, families break, and all falsities and lies are uncovered, revealing the ugly nature of the world. These times of change, provide a stage for ambition and advancement to overtake tradition, and to enforce a new order upon the world. The young shine brighter and the old grow dimmer, until the day the light covers every single nook and cranny of the world. Ageless legends are born, new kingdoms rise, ancient empires fall, and once the sacrificial blood is paid, that is when the new era truly begins.

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In a little forest, the occasional streaks of sunlight broke through the thick canopy of green leaves, dotting the ground with little golden specks. This is a very peaceful little forest. Birds sung in their nests to their little ones, insects buzzed around clear, sparkling ponds dotted across the forest while small animals such as grey-trubble rabbits, bushy-tailed squirrels and red-eyed possums lay lazily under the shade.

For 2 millennia this forest has remained this way, untouched by the revolution that had occurred in the outside world, like a sanctuary and haven of peace, a small preservation of the world’s sanity. And yet, if one were to look down upon this forest from above, they would notice that based on the formation of the forest, it would almost appear as though it was actually protecting something, and this something, seemed to be located at the very heart of the forest.

A quiet, serene pond lay at the very centre of the forest. This pond is unlike  all of the others in these woodlands, even on Faylan. Its colour is of the purest aqua-blue, untainted by any other colours. The pond buzzes with immense water elemental energy, so dense and pure, as if it were the source of all water elemental energy in the world. Even so, this pond has remained completely silent for all these years. Animals did not move about here, the sound of insects cannot be heard, not even a single ripple has ever appeared in this pond. Time here seems to be froze, he only change here is day and night. This, is a place truly secluded from the world. But today, that was all changing.

For the first time in 2000 years, a small, almost unnoticeable ripple appeared in the pond. And then another, and then another, and as the ripples gradually became larger and more numerous, a dark shadow could be seen rising up from beneath the pond. As the shadow neared the surface, the pond even started to bubble, the water elemental energy in the pond became incredibly active. Above the pond the water elemental energy was taking on the form of countless beings, little flying water alva, charming female syreni, stunningly beautiful pradinis. The once silent pond became filled with the sounds of playful laughter and joyful singing. As the shadow was about to break the surface, the bubbling of the pond had already reached its limit, water spewing dozens of meters into the air. In the air, the density of the water elemental energy had reached a point where just a drop of it was enough to power a Class-10 water spell. When the shadow finally broke through the surface, the pond once again returned to silence, not a trace of the previous extraordinary phenomena could be seen. The water elemental energy had all returned to the pond and not even an echo of the previous laughter and singing could be heard. Everything seemed to have been an illusion. The pond had returned to its previous calm state, silent and still.

However a change had occurred to the unchanging pond. At the centre of the pond, the rising shadow revealed itself to be a large, white lotus flower  bud of approximately 2 meters in diameter. After a brief period of silence, the water lily began to blossom, slowly opening its delicate petals. Layer by layer its petals slowly lowered, releasing a sweet, aquatic scent into the air. As the last of the white lotus flower’s petals unfurled itself, a 36 petaled white lotus flower of the purest white had finished blooming.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

This white lotus flower was an incredibly strange sight. Not only because of its numerous petals and unnatural size, but because at the heart of the lotus, laying on a bed of yellow stamen, a newborn human baby quietly slept.

The baby’s skin is a soft white with a yellow tint. The little thing in between the baby’s legs indicated that this is a baby boy.  A light bed of black hair layered the top of his head. His pudgy arms and legs curled around himself  in the fetal position. The features of his face are essentially the same as every other baby, except for his facial expression. If you had to place a word on it, it would be lazy. That’s right, this newborn baby that doesn't even know what milk tastes like, has an expression of laziness on his face.

With his every breath, he sucked in the dense water elemental energy around him. Such an act was completely unbelievable! It needs to be known that, the first step to becoming a mage is discovering one’s natural affinity. This can be achieved through the use of certain items such as elemental detection orbs or from another mage sending his energy into your body to check for your affinity. You can also do this yourself but without the proper knowledge and talent, this process could take anywhere from days to months. After discovering one’s natural affinity, the next step is to sense the magical energy within the environment. This is a step that select gifted individuals can achieve within a day while others would require at the very least one month, some a year or more. And finally, to complete the first stage of becoming a mage, one must be able to communicate with the surrounding magical energy and absorb it into their bodies. This, is the first, real step to becoming a mage. Like the previous step, some of the gifted few are able to complete this step in a short period of time, and others, are forever unable to take that step forward.

But here you have a newborn baby, without any knowledge, any training, any help, breathing in the water elemental energy as though it were a natural born ability. He can already be considered a fledgling mage, an achievement that would make the eyes of anybody pop out of their sockets.... even though towards the newborn baby this really couldn’t be considered much of an achievement. Even then, even more jaw dropping is the purity and density of the water elemental energy he was absorbing. Even if he is able to absorb the elemental energy, that does not mean that he should be able use and convert the energy. Right now, even if water elemental energy is the most gentle of the elemental energies, the density and the purity of the elemental energy that he has absorbed should have already completely destroyed his body and ended his life! Yet, this newborn boy was perfectly fine, not even a hint of discomfort on his face. This is because, just like how the absorption of the surrounding energy came naturally to the baby, the circulation of energy was also completed without any thought, as if it were an action that had already been practiced tens of thousands of times. The elemental energy circulated within the baby’s body following a profound path, strengthening the newborn’s body and converting the elemental energy into the baby’s own. Not only that, the elemental energy that entered into the newborn’s body was like a drop of water entering into a dried sea, being greedily absorbed by the newborn’s body. If a mage were to be here watching this right now, they’d probably have already bashed there head in on a tree and be staring at the sky in tears, wondering what they've been doing with theirs lives this entire time.

As he opened his eyes to take his first look at the world, his eyes released a beam of almost substantial light as if signaling his awakening. It pierced through the tree canopy, wanting to break through the heavens, but the light was blocked and masked by an unknown force that suddenly rose up, causing it to disappear. Further adding to this newborn’s abnormality, when he fully opened his eyes, what greeted the world in the place of his eyes were not the regular coloured eyes of a human, but a pair of slowly spinning yin-yang fish.