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“The Continent has existed for as long as it has needed to exist. The Dialogue had occurred, and it was birthed. Not from an egg, or from a star, but from the will of Gods. Most on the Continent think of it as a flat plane. That the ends terminate and beyond them the seas boil and fall into uncaring Aether. They are correct. This is highly inefficient, but The Continent had greater needs than the efficiency of physics. It is a gathering place. A place of POWER.

And every decade, it calls out and brings them in. The Chosen. Selected for their potential, their ability to grow beyond the domain they had been born into. Humans in abundance, for the human world was overflowing and spilled over easily, but others as well. Many many others from many many places.

In The Continent they gather and mingle. They talk here, they live here, they Grow here.

They Grow strong beyond Mortal strength. They Grow until they surpass all limitations.

And if they do not die to blade or magic, they ASCEND.”

Nina stared unblinking at the text. There were many more pages that she had completely memorized. She was twenty two and had spent the last nine years accumulating information on “The Continent”. Secretly. To her family she had always been a sweet and somewhat quiet girl. She had friends who thought of her fondly, and she had always been a diligent student. She was pretty and pleasant and fairly unremarkable.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Because she had learned as a child that people could not see your hidden self. Your inner mind.

She loathed them all. She hated this world, hated how the absolute highest you could climb would never truly elevate you above any other person. All the money and fame and power in the world would not stop you from dying from old age. Reality would never bow to you. People would still THINK they were better than you. Mortality, humanity, was absolute.

But that was okay, because she had a way out. She knew as soon as she saw it that the Book did not lie. She had been thirteen, and it had been laying on the muddy snowy ground. It had appeared for her. She had felt herself stop breathing as she picked it up. It was as if she had, in that moment, realized that her reality was monochromatic.

The book however had color, potential, possibility.

She had searched for more information, and she had found it. She had amassed the necessary tools to pave the way.

Only one last thing to do. She pricked her tongue with a needle and let a drop of the stinging blood fall onto the book, as she flicked the lighter next to the dry ancient pages. The book ignited, smoke billowing out from it.

She had doused the room in gasoline ahead of time, to make absolutely sure the conflagration would completely envelop her. The book said that many of the “Chosen” died through natural events, and that in the death of the body the way would be opened to The Continent.

Well, it didn’t NEED to be a natural death. And the window of time was now.

The flames crawled up her body and she closed her eyes. Nina felt intense joy, even as she heard herself screaming. God, even her own body was weak. She dimly heard other voices crying out as the flames spread through the building.

Light and Darkness swallowed her.