Prologue

10/16/2018 - Land of Mists and Stardust

The dreadnought was a massive thing, a naval vessel resembling the most advanced modern military ships, the rival of any true battleship, and she had only been upgraded since they had commandeered it nearly four years ago. The vessel itself was solid gold, or whatever insanely strong metal the kingdom of Prospit uses that heavily resembles gold. As with all ships in the former royal navy, it was a quite literally shining example of military might with style. Ever since the day they had commandeered this royal flagship, the various humans and Trolls, survivors of old Earth and New Alternia respectively, had called it their home. It was from here that Xavier, alongside the few that remained behind, watched the world of LoMaS down below. The hour of their ultimate victory was soon at hand, after four years of effort, of struggles and deaths, of Strife practically without end, Xavier couldn't help but smile as he knew his friends were ready to create their very own universe. Finally, they would have a true home once again.

That was, until He arrived. Within moments, an army had descended upon their home, Xavier and his friends fought desperately against the sheer numbers used against them. Each of these soldiers, human and alien alike, were gathered from across time and space. An army of failed players, those who would never achieve the Ultimate Reward, banding together to defeat ones who would soon be victorious. Every passing moment seemed an eternity as Xavier cut down the zealous ranks attempting to board the ship, he was the strongest fighter among their ranks, now that the Knight of Rage was dead. With each body that fell limp or was tossed overboard the golden vessel, for each that was hurled down to the atmosphere below or cast adrift in the void, away from any God-Tiers that could make the journey to save them, it seemed two more took their place. Xavier had lost track of how long they had been at this, each of his remaining friends and Troll allies fighting like cornered beasts. Right up until the point where LoMaS was lit ablaze. 

Xavier witnessed the detonation, a massive explosion of force erupted from the Valley of Dragons, the crust of the world itself was torn open before his very eyes, and the atmosphere was set ablaze. Mountain ranges were leveled entirely, verdant plains were swept away in storms of fire, and the natural precipitation of stardust that in part gave the world its namesake was scattered up into the bright light of the flames, shimmering until it was all burned away. Xavier's eyes widened in absolute horror as he watched this world, his world, washed away by flames in an instant. Soon enough, his fear was replaced with the feeling of burning rage. 

Gathering his energy, a bright white light forming around his body, he took flight. With a blade in hand, an obsidian sword larger than himself, Xavier descended down towards the site where his world had begun to burn. He knew exactly what had caused this, or rather, who. "MEADUS!" His scream echoed throughout the broken world as its target turned to witness the missile careening straight towards him. The Troll only barely had time to put up his guard before the impact, wrapping his massive wings around himself as the force of a meteor struck him, forcing him back from his perch atop the tallest mountain overlooking the now ruined Valley of Dragons. He was hurled diagonally downward, impacting the ground and leaving a skidding crater behind before managing to catch his footing and rise once more. With a flash of bright blue light, Xavier would appear but a few scant meters away from his opponent, the two staring one another down for a brief moment. Xavier Mathis was comically small compared to the massive, musclebound alien standing before him, the Bloody Raven stood at an imposing two meters, which itself was dwarfed by the massive avian wings protruding from his back. The wings, much like his long hair, was dark, dirty and disheveled, though much longer as they easily stretched to four meters wide at full length. They were partially folded in, however, as the Troll could fully well see the need for defense above all else. His skin was an ashen grey, like all of his species, though as he was Xavier's elder by some time, it bore a slight tint of the color of his blood, further distinguished by the color of his eyes. The same hue of rusty red that marked him as a common, disposable, lowest-caste Troll. Those same eyes burned with hatred for the human that stood before him, this human was less than two thirds of his height, his skin pale, his eyes a deep sapphire blue, and his short hair a chestnut brown. The only point of commonality between them were their ragged clothing, Xavier clad in what appeared to be a long-sleeved shirt that matched the dark blue of his eyes, worn and faded slate grey jeans, and brown leather hiking boots that had seen better days. Meadus meanwhile had exquisite black leather dress shoes, though their condition may have been an indication of frequent use of his wings, the tattered remnants of his once perfect 3-piece suit, however, were more telling. 

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In the last seconds before their confrontation resumed, Meadus would throw away the last of the black sport coat and red undershirt, merely scraps adorning his shoulders by that point, and resume their battle in haste with an opening strike. The Troll's bare hand may as well have been a lethal blade when bolstered by his telekinesis, his raw strength managing to overwhelm Xavier as the human could only block this powerful blow with the flat of his great sword, being forced backwards and having to dig his heels into the ash-laden soil to merely keep upright. However, what Xavier lacked in raw strength, he more than had the advantage in agility. Expertly side-stepping from the lock, he took to Meadus's exposed right side, pivoting on heel and attempting to use the momentum for a destructive blow of his own, meant to come crashing into the Troll's ribs from a diagonal angle, upward so that his wings wouldn't have the time to retract for defense. Instead, however, his opponent would simply take to the air. 

Xavier gritted his teeth as the Rustblood ascended towards the void, his eyes turning a pure white from the influx of energy as he powered up, attempting to give chase. Meadus, however, had another plan as he held his left hand to the sky. Envisioning a perfect sphere, he would begin concentrating his telekinetic power into this shape, gargantuan at first, the size of a massive meteor or a small moon. That was the difficult part, once this had been achieved, he would begin to compress the structure, forcing his will upon it to grow smaller, more compact, dense, with so much heat and friction of the energy holding steady and threatening to collapse, it would be a small supernova. Meadus's gaze would turn down towards his opponent giving chase, his wings nearing their limit for speed and beginning to strain, and he would pull them in, diving towards his opponent with his left hand now outstretched, ready to annihilate the human entirely. No matter what armor he had alchemized, no matter how powerful he had gotten since his ascension, he could not survive something like this directly. 

Unfortunately for Meadus, his opponent was adept at avoiding damage whenever possible, now with both parties well beyond the one-time atmosphere of LoMaS, Xavier would concentrate every ounce of his aspect energy, every bit of power he could while still maintaining flight, into his sword. The power caused the pitch black blade to flare up with a white light that caused the weapon to nearly double in size from the coating of raw power surrounding it. When both of these forces collided mid-swing from Xavier, the resulting explosion would have leveled a world. The feeling of the impact coursing through his body was the last sensation he remembered before the impact.

When Xavier opened his eyes once more, searing pain coursed through every fiber of his being, He had put everything into that attack, but it wasn't enough. Meadus stood, holding Xavier up by the tattered remnants of his shirt. He looked down to see that the blade he wielded was laying on the ground. Xavier could only crack a smile as Meadus readied his right hand, fingers entirely extended for a penetrating strike. The Bloody Raven looked his opponent in the eyes with contempt beyond measure as he readied the killing blow.  "When y0u return t0 the infinite dream, y0ur 0nly mem0ries will be 0f y0ur failures." Xavier could only take a final look into those yellow and red eyes as the motion of the Troll's arm, and the sudden pain in his chest, consumed what remained of his consciousness.   

It has been nearly two hundred years since that day, and those words were still burned into his mind.