2035 C.E., Lhasa, Earth

In the east, two men stood on a mountaintop, one clad in simple red robes and the other in robes of red and orange. They watched a dark titan sow death and destruction on the unsuspecting city below with hard eyes.

The dark creature was larger than any physical body I had ever manifested. Such bodies required far too many resources to sustain long term but I doubted the astral being cared to remain. It simply basked in the death of the humans and seemed to gain pleasure out of destroying pieces of infrastructure responsible for lighting up the city. The sky above had darkened to an inky black making it impossible to determine if it was day or night. This left any regions robbed of light plunged into thick darkness.

“Master, what is that thing?” asked the red and orange-clad man, his voice trembling with fear. His breath came in shallow as though he were winded from something.

“I do not know…,” the master said stroking his long wispy beard. “But it cannot be allowed to run rampant.”

Both men had mana signatures far above the human average but the gap between the red-robed man and his student was massive. A glance at the master’s soul revealed the truth. He was a sorcerer and an old one at that. I couldn’t tell if he was a child of Libbu or a descendant whose Bridge had been awakened but at the moment, it didn’t matter.

“I…” The student hesitated as he looked at the creature below. “I will do my best, master!”

The master shook his head. “You will flee from here.”

“But master! I—”

“Yonten, knowing the limits to one’s strength is as important as finding the courage to fight. Against this foe, you will only get in my way,” the master said calmly. He held out his hand. “Transfer your qi to me.”

The student gritted his teeth but took the master’s hand. I felt the mana pass between their bodies from student to master. The mana or qi as they called it had a different feel from pure mana much like the dark mana of the invaders; however, it contained fragments of Truth about life and the Old World itself. It was astounding. Had I really been so out of the loop? Had man managed to develop distinguished forms of mana so quickly?

The red-robed man changed the pattern of his breathing and the mana shifted circulating through his body similar to the flow of blood. His hunched form stood straighter and his thin frame began to bulge with muscle. His mana control was impressive.

“If I do not survive this encounter,” the master said looking at his student. “I forbid you from avenging me in a fit of foolishness. Find the other eight Sages of the East. Tell them the time of reckoning has come. We can hide our presence from the world no longer.”

With that, he jumped down the mountainside bounding hundreds of meters at a time. Despite being empowered by absorbing his student’s qi, I knew he was no match for the dark titan, at least not without a little help.

***

2035 C.E., London, Earth

An eerie silence hung over a massive metropolis. People rushed through the streets their eyes wild with fright and their lips parted in screams. Yet, no sound came from the flock. They were being hunted. The shadows, once innocuous, prowled along the ground picking off seemingly random targets within the crowds. They pushed and shoved their way toward a large cathedral that shone with an otherworldly light.

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From within one of the cathedral’s smaller towers, a man in a black robe watched the masses pouring toward the building. His face was impassive as he leaned against one of the openings near the top of the tower, nothing before him but open air. He took a drink from a silver flask on his hip.

“Brother Broderick,” said a gentle voice. The man turned to face the speaker, a woman in dark blue robes and a matching headdress that hung partway down her back. She regarded the man, then the flask in his hand with sad eyes. “The Bishop has made his decision.”

“And?” he asked.

His voice lacked any of the warmth that the woman’s had. It was heavy with resignation and fatigue yet I sensed the sizable amount of mana coalescing in his soul burn with the need for action. He wasn’t a sorcerer, at least not a full one. His Bridge was incomplete; however, somehow, he had advanced well above the human standard despite the deficiency.

“You and the other Templars are to stay here and protect the cathedral until we get word from the Archbishop or have more information.”

“Can’t blame the old bastard.” He took another swig from his flask. “Safe and careful. Hope hiding works out for him.”

“What do you mean ‘works out for him’?” The man met her gaze then returned his own to the streets below. “You can’t mean… No! Have you lost your mind?!”

“The cathedral is already protected from those things by the light of the holy artifact. As long as the other brothers keep it charged with the Grace of God, it will hold,” Brother Broderick said.

“But what if they break through? You can’t just leave!”

"It will hold.”

“How can you know that?” She asked, her voice growing frantic. From the sounds of it, there seemed to be more to her anxiety than the integrity of this holy light or the threat of the shadows beyond.

“I have faith,” the Brother answered with a weary smile. “Look at them flee, Victoria. How many do you figure there are? One thousand? Three? Five? It’s so little compared to the rest of London. What good will waiting here do for the masses stuck in their homes or jobs? Besides, if I create a big enough ruckus away from the cathedral, it’ll make it easier for the people headed here.”

“You’re just one man; you may be strong but you can only do so much,” she said, her eyes pleading with the man. “You have no idea what these dark demons are capable of or if your power will affect them. If you fall, we’ll be at the mercy of those things. None of the other Templars are as Graced as you and they look to you for hope.”

“All the more reason why I must go.” He drank again.

“Auger…. Please,” she begged. “Don’t leave us. Don’t leave me.”

He was silent for a while watching the mayhem below.

“We’ve known each other for a long time, Vicky. I’d hoped I would see the day you were excused from your vows,” Auger mused.

“Don’t say things like that,” She stepped close to him losing much of the propriety she’d displayed. They embraced. It was a tender moment that spoke volumes of the history and feelings between them.

“Will you pray with me?” He asked. She could only nod through the sobs that wracked her frame.

Auger looked to the dark sky and spoke. “I give thanks to the Lord for the life I have lived. I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors. You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king. Amen.”

“Amen,” said Victoria. Her tears soaked into Auger’s robes but he continued to smile. She gripped his hands as though her life depended on it. “Swear you’ll come back to me. Swear.”

He looked at her with a host of unspoken emotions yet in the end, he expressed none of them. Instead, he vanished from her grasp, there one moment, gone the next with a flash of light.

In the streets below several blocks away, he appeared surrounded by darkness. The hungry shadows converged, prepared to feast on the foolish mortal.

“And he said unto man, ‘While I am in the world, I am the Light of the World’,” Auger Broderick said, his words piercing the veil of silence. From the depths of his soul, another presence emerged; one I recognized from long ago— one of the few kings whose souls I chose not to bind out of respect. I heard fear and defiance battling in the lone man’s voice as he shouted into the darkness.

“Light of Solomon, heed my call!”