The horse’s hooves slammed against the dirt road as the youngest founder approached the headquarters. It was late, but his news for his fellow founders was deeply important. Being the founder of the use of Krisis was difficult, it put a lot of pressure on the founders’ shoulders, each of the four needing to find a purpose, something to drive them. The other three had found their purpose, but the youngest was ambitious, and nothing satisfied him, until now. He jumped off the horse, sprinting with inhuman speed through the complex corridors of the underground fortress. He found the others right where they should be. The eldest, along with a team of cartographers were looking over a large map, sketching out roadways and paths. The others were on either side of the room. The senior was tending to her plants, watering and nurturing, a faint light from her hand causing the flower to blossom and grow. On the table next to her were modified seeds, experiments to improve the growth of the plants. On the other side of the room, the junior stood at a metal table, a small smithing hammer in one hand, making small modifications to what seemed to be a small waterwheel, the table full of them. As the youngest burst into the room, manic grin on his face, everyone turned their attention to him. The eldest asked his cartographers to leave the room, and the founders greeted the youngest, for two years had passed since his departure to find his purpose. The youngest mentioned his research and experimentation on his journey, and that he had finally found his purpose. He explained the ability to travel to other worlds by harnessing the core aspects of reality, to tear a hole into the world and bring their destination to them. He also mentioned the ability to cause the same Krisis event that occurred on Aether that gave them their Krisis. He talked of the ability to have a planet to themselves, a new world rich full of Krisis, they would be the new dragons that had plagued their world for a millennia. The others were interested, as power would help each and every one of them. The youngest told of them to go forth and for each of them to study and grow in power with each of the core aspects of reality: Life, Death, Time, and Space. Congratulations were had, and a return feast was held to welcome the youngest back, but his enthusiasm could not be kempt. He would have power.
The eldest was tasked with the research of space, the others of life and time, and the youngest, death. The mastery of a specific aspect of reality was daunting and time consuming. While this was the only thing on the youngest’s mind, the others still had duties. Where the youngest only took 5 years to finish his journey, sufficiently mastered his aspect of reality, the others were slower. 10 years had past before all of them had finished, and while the youngest was antsy to keep going, he was patient, he had all the time in the world. Finally, it was time. The founders had gathered, and they began. A ritual of the youngest’s design was drawn up, made to pull upon the power of each of their aspects. The ritual took three days to complete, and the whole time, each of them were drained of their Krisis and their connection to the aspects, but the process was complete. During the ritual, something had been forming in the center of the ritual circle, but now it was formed, a large, circular swirl of Krisis. It was the size of three wagons across, and the center of it was completely blank. The youngest was too excited to celebrate. He asked the eldest to manipulate the space in the portal to open outside of the headquarters. With a thought, the eldest waved his hand, and the portal showed the outside of the headquarters, under the large mountain, covered by trees. The youngest stepped through the portal, and he was suddenly there, no adverse effects, just like he thought. He stepped back in and the image faded behind him. The youngest asked for the other side of the world, in the middle of the ocean. The eldest waved his hand, and the image opened to a vast blue ocean, the salty smell cresting into the room, before the image faded. The youngest breathed deep and asked the eldest to open the portal to the world closest to them, the Emerald Expanse. The eldest’s eyes closed in concentration, and his hand moved more slowly. Eventually, an image of a vast green jungle appeared in front of them. A wild, foreign smell filled the room, but outside of the blow of the wind, complete silence. The youngest noted of no notable wildlife as they surveyed the new world, notably absent was Krisis, meaning that staying there would keep them from regenerating their Krisis.
And thus, the process of excavating to the world’s core began. The method the youngest had made to trigger a Krisis event was simple, but difficult. Dig to the core of the planet, and infect it with Krisis, it would taint the power of the planet, and the Krisis would ravage the surface, paving the world for rebirth, same to how Aether did. The senior visited as much of the planet as she could desire, finding some interesting specimens, but none that would be of any practical use, due to their distinct lack of Krisis. The junior worked closely with the youngest, aiding him in any digging that would take place in order to get his hands on any unique metals or minerals during the digging process. The eldest was distinctly uninterested in this world until it served his purposes. While the other founders frolicked among a useless world, he was hard at work making their own the best it could be. The excavation was long and hard, but eventually, the core was within reach. The youngest performed the procedure, infecting the world’s core, and the planet was evacuated while the Krisis event took place. It took some time for the event to happen, time spent waiting in anticipation for the next step in power. When the event occurred, and the wait while the Krisis settled was done, the portal opened once more. It was… sad, disappointing. The life was dimmer, the Krisis thin, weak. No matter where on the planet they went, the Krisis was worse than on Aether. Though the others assumed the youngest would be devastated, he seemed shockingly calm for having the past many years of his life almost completely ruined. The resources on this planet were of no use to them, and the Krisis significantly worse than Aether. The youngest just noted the failure and resigned to consult his studies. Less than a week later, the youngest called a private meeting with the founders. The others, excited to see what he had found out, appeared accordingly. The youngest told that what he was going to say would be hard to hear, but the cost would be worth it. He said that the Krisis event drew in the life from the outside, and the extinction event that followed destroyed all life on the planet. He had deduced that their planet was one with a great many animals, and perhaps even sentient life before the Krisis event took place, thus why their world has higher quality Krisis, and why a world full of plants and no animals produced the opposite. The others questioned where he was going with this. He responded by saying that if they were to find a planet full of sentient life and perform a Krisis event there, then the quality of Krisis would far eclipse their own. The world would be mundane, without the purpose given to them by Krisis, and that their lives would be a small price to pay to give them the power to advance past their limits. The others sat in shocked silence. The eldest was the first to ask if he was certain life was what made their world be higher quality than the Emerald Expanse. The youngest confidently confirmed that point, stating there is no alternative. The eldest asked the youngest to leave the room while he and the others discussed the matter. Hesitant, the youngest left the room. The remaining founders spoke in hushed tones, going over what was just revealed to them. Power, immense and incredible power, but at the cost of uncountable innocent lives. The first one to object to the idea was the senior, stating that her devotion to life nearly caused her to abort the first mission, but taking the lives of so many would not sit well with her. The next to object to the idea was the eldest, stating that the power earned would be tainted, and that anyone who took said power would be a thoughtless demon taking anything they can get. Finally, after hearing the other two, the junior spoke of his ideas to use said power and how it could advance his research 100-fold, yet that wasn’t why he did it. He researched for the thrill of finding something new, not just to have it handed to him, and he wouldn’t deprive his descendants of that same thrill of development and discovery. The youngest was called back into the room, eager to hear their answer. He was crestfallen to find out his fellow founders had outright rejected his idea, expressing their disdain for the idea of so many deaths being on their hands. The youngest said nothing, leaving the headquarters.
The remaining founders closed off access to the portal room, the portal of which was unable to be closed due to the absence of the youngest. One night, a patrolling guard saw someone in the closed off portal room, attempting to operate the stagnant portal. Raising the alarm, the founders rushed to the scene only to find the youngest, wild look in his eyes, before running to a secret hatch in the corner of the room. The others attempted to follow, but the tunnel branched off in 10 different directions, and they did not know what he was truly capable of. The others became desperate, scared of the idea of the youngest attempting to operate the portal alone, potentially breaking reality completely. They had no choice but to attempt to collapse the portal by reversing the ritual used to form it. Unfortunately, without all four there to perform the ritual safely, the process backfired, causing the portal to collapse, but not completely. The four concepts of the portal; life, death, time, and space all took physical forms, shards, and exploded from the portal. Despite the 500 feet of solid rock above them from under the mountain, the reality shards carved straight through, jettisoning through the sky and scattering among the land. An immediate call for search teams was made, and that night 100 teams went out to find the missing shards and promptly return them. The first shard was found 1 month into the search. In the northwestern most corner of the continent, where the senior held her land, a forest had appeared where there was not one previously. The shard was found in a mile long trench filled with grass, trees, and other foliage. The shard of life was contained and returned. The next shard was found six months later. As a search team was looking along the southwestern part of the continent, the part belonging to the junior, they stated to have witnessed the shard falling out of the sky. The shard was erratic, slowing and speeding up as is fell. When it finally landed, it had sped up, creating a crater one mile across. The search team descended into the crater, retrieving the shard and securing it in a temporally locked box, keeping the shard of time locked up safely. The search went on for two more years, before a peasant boy had reportedly approached his city guard holding something in a cloth in his hands. The boy was soaking wet and claimed to have been fishing and swimming in the lake by his village when something shiny caught his eye. At the bottom of the lake he had found the shard, but touching it caused him to return to the pier he was fishing on. Cloth in hand, he retrieved the shard this time, making sure not to touch it. The incident was reported to the kingdom, and a nearby search team quickly came by to retrieve the shard and the story from the boy, who was compensated for his great service.
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For five years they searched for the shards. Experiments revealed that the shards connection to the concepts was heightened after they were separated, but that they had been stabilizing, becoming more predictable. It appeared they worked like any other crafted magic item, link them to yourself so they can only be used by you. While searching for the final remaining shard, a plan was conceived. Destroying the shards, while not impossible, would be extremely difficult. Additionally, destroying the shards could have potentially apocalyptic downsides. The plan was to assign a shard to each of the remaining founders and hide them away from any attempts to recreate their experiment. The only problem was the still missing shard of death, and the founders feared that it laid in the hands of the youngest. The search continued, and at the end of the 5th year of searching, a search party found tracks leading to an expansive underground network on the border of the mainland and the desert, the border of the Eldest and Youngest’s territories. Confident this was the location of the Youngest’s hideout, the remaining founders mobilized and lead a raid of the underground facility. The corridors were full of traps and dead ends, but with enough time and determination, nothing could stop their might. Reaching the heart of the labyrinth, the founders discovered a hidden laboratory, full of devices of metal, runes, and most importantly, suspended in a sphere of force was the shard of death. The youngest whipped around, panic clear on his disheveled appearance, throwing a burst of dark energy to slow the raid. He ran to a control panel and slammed a hand down on a glowing red rune, causing the sphere to begin arcing electricity, lashing out at everyone in the room. Some of the raid were struck down, but the founders remained steadfast, slowly approaching the dais the control panel lay upon. Desperate, the youngest made one last attempt to ward off his impending demise, slamming a pitch-black rune, causing the force sphere to dissipate, a manic grin covering his face. The electricity did not stop, however, causing the current to flow into the golden shard. With an ever-growing whine, the youngest leaped for the shard, only for the shard to break apart, falling to pieces, along with the youngest. Without a sound, their particles fell and began to swirl, condensing into a pitch-black ball. With a yell, the eldest constructed a shield of force, surrounding the remaining raid, just before a titanic wave of undeath detonated from the sphere. The energy washed past them like a wave, not harming the shield or destroying anything in the room. The wave continued down the corridor and continued outward, unleashing itself upon the forest. For 5 miles surrounding the cave entrance, everything was killed. Trees fell to ash and animals; even powerful beast kings fell to bones upon the forest floor. Both the shard and the youngest were gone, but nobody rejoiced, for this was a time of grief and mourning. Whatever the youngest had become, he was still their friend, and one they would not soon forget, for his tale would be a cautionary tale for those who seek power, but not the patience to earn it.
And thus, their plan was enacted, shards distributed to each of the remaining founders. The shard of space going to the eldest, the shard of life going to the senior, and the shard of time going to the junior. From there they returned to their territory, where they each constructed their kingdoms, both to protect the shards that hold together their world, and to lead their citizens to a better future.
Zane sat there, stunned. Marcus closed the book he was reading from, looking up to Zane, and back down at the shard in his hands. Zane, seemingly forgetting he was holding a spatial nuke in his hand, threw it to the other side of the couch he was sitting on.
“You see why it’s such a big deal that you have that now?” Marcus asked.
Zane nodded his head, heartbeat quickening. He had so many questions about the story, but none of them seemed to matter. Why him? Why did he have to get plucked from his world and taken to a place where if he dies, he could potentially cause the apocalypse. And just what was that book at the library?
Zane sighed, unable to process what he had just heard. “I guess the smart this to do is to stay here then.” Zane said, gesturing around the room. “Shard would be safer that way, I can’t die and cause the spatial version of the big boy to ravage an unknown city to dust.”
Marcus raised an eyebrow, probably at the big boy comment, but his face hardened, and he nodded his head. Zane looked to the floor, eyes catching the glowing blue cube in his hands. His hands wanted something to do, so he apparently formed a spectral construct. Zane shook his head, clearing the fuzz in his brain.
“I have a couple of questions.” Zane said, looking up to meet Marcus’s gaze. Marcus only nodded. “First, which… country? Territory? Whatever, which kingdom are we in now, and what are the others?” Zane asked.
Marcus chuckled, showing the first sign of humor in a while. “Of all the crazy shit I just told you, that’s the first question you ask me?” Zane just shrugged. “Well, we are in the kingdom of Alir, a land of plains and mountains. We are close to the small southern town of Bask, a fishing and farming village on the river. To the west, the kingdom of Praxia, a vast tundra with the most impressive capitol in the world. To the north is the kingdom of Oria, a vast forest inhabited by spirits of nature and fey. To the west is the lost kingdom of Ashfall, a vast desert radiating death energy after the god of death was struck down there. It’s now inhabited by mindless undead called ashened.”
Zane sat there, stunned by the reveal of what Marcus just said. He shook his head. (If I as a new question every time he tells me something, I don’t think I’ll ever leave this cabin.) Zane thought to himself. “Second, in the story, the founders are all referred to as youngest, eldest, stuff like that, what are their real names?”
Marcus nodded. “Good question, strangely enough, it has been a tradition since the death of the founders to not refer to them by name in stories. The meaning of why we do this is lost on me, but it’s just the way things are. The eldest’s name was Aliron, the senior’s name was Ophelia, the junior’s name was Sylas, and the youngest’s name was Millian.”
Zane nodded his head. “That does sound like a strange custom, is it somehow respectful to strike your founder’s name from history. Like, I get it for the youngest, but--” Zane stopped, seeming to hear what Marcus had said for the first time. He felt like his heart had fallen to his feet, and his breathing stopped.
“You alright there Zane. You’re as pale as a sheet.” Marcus said, standing. Zane realized he also was standing, and gripped in his left hand was the shard. Zane took a deep breath and looked to Marcus.
“How is the youngest’s name spelled?” Zane said, hands shaking.
Marcus looked at Zane with concern, like a kind grandparent from one of those old Christmas movies.
“M-I-L-L-I-A-N” Marcus replied, hand firm on Zane’s shoulder.
Zane’s legs gave out, and he collapsed down on the couch. He felt like a horse had just kick his head, eyes wide. Too many things fell into place for them to be a coincidence.
“What’s wrong?” Marcus asked, alarm entering his voice.
With a shaking voice, Zane spoke. “Do you remember how I told you I got here?” Zane asked, voice so soft he could barely hear it, but Marcus nodded.
“You said a book opened a portal and sucked you in, and you ended up in the woods.” Marcus said, recounting Zane’s panicked answer from earlier.
“Not just that though.” Zain said, taking another deep breath. “The reason I taken was because we received a letter from a rich man who wanted to buy the book, said it was the last book in a collection from his childhood. He was willing to give us a rather large sum for the book, so I went to go get it.” Zane looked up to the concerned but serious face of Marcus, his savior. “The name of the man who offered to buy the book was Mateo Millian.”