Alex found his awareness floating in the darkness of space, making its way through the Starry Sky. A feeling of detachment suffused his being, as though he was simply an observer of events long past. Unable to see his own body, move, or speak for that matter, he decided to simply abandon himself in the experience, his instincts telling him there was no hidden danger. As he passed stars, nebulae, and all other manners of celestial bodies, he arrived before a giant planet that Earth’s modern scientists would categorize as a mega-Earth. Once he arrived above the green and blue titanic ball of life, a mysterious force suffused him, seemingly pulling him downwards.
As he started his descent, he took in the sights around him. Slowly falling, he saw gargantuan structures erected all over the surface of the planet. Majestic towers and ziggurats that would put Earth’s architecture to shame; floating mage-rings of lustrous stone, heaven-piercing towers made of precious metals, statues carved from whole mountains. Interestingly enough, it seemed that for all the signs of civilization present on this planet, it coexisted in perfect symbiosis with nature. For every majestic edifice, Alex could see a sprawling forest lush with green, a sky-grazing mountain peak, an ever-stretching plain, a deadly, noxious swamp, or majestic islands floating above the ground, not one bit losing in majesty to the artificial sights.
Once Alex’s descent brought him closer to the planet’s atmosphere, his downward descent took a detour, sending Alex sideways, flying towards the biggest peak on this planet.
The mountain was sharp, shaped in the form of a sword or spearpoint. Starting from the base, a simple path littered with stairs was laid out from the bottom to the top. Atop the peak, stood a temple seemingly crafted of a gold-like metal. At the entrance of the temple, colossal gates stood motionless, barring entry to this abode of cultivation. The gate’s surface was covered by a massive mural. In front of the gate stood one lone man in a kneeling position, seemingly paying his respects.
Taking another look around himself, Alex could see that he was inside the kneeling man, now occupying his body. At once, in one smooth motion, Alex’s host body raised his head. Unable to influence the movement of his host, Alex decided to focus his attention on the mural, feeling a mysterious attraction from it.
A man dressed in simple and ragged cloth was kneeling on the highest peak under the Great Starry Sky as gargantuan chains descended from the heavens, shackling the man. As the man looked below himself, despair filled him when he realized that everyone else was shackled with the same chains, not even realizing they were imprisoned.
A great and furious anger filled the man as he fought against the shackles binding him. Day after night, night after day, the man fought against his chains to no avail as his despair deepened. He was supposed to be at the peak of cultivation, first among equals between his peers, and yet, he could do nothing against the tethers imprisoning him. Aeons passed and seasons changed as the man worked towards a solution, never quite giving in to his sentence.
Immersed in the story of the mural, Alex could only continue to look.
With the passage of time, the man seemed to reach a conclusion. With great sorrow, and against everyone’s expectations, he crippled his own cultivation, forsaking his Path and becoming mortal once again.
Once the man became a mortal, the mural once again changed. More and more of the man’s companions abandoned him; his friends, his family, even his own twin brother. Against all expectations, the man was not sad. On the contrary, pure joy possessed him for one single reason.
The illusory shackles only he could see previously chaining him were nowhere to be found. He was right all along; the cause of his distress was indeed his cultivation. Once some time passed, the man decided it was time to once again embark on the arduous path, and started cultivating again.
Woefully, the instant he started cycling the Divine Breath throughout his now-mortal body, the fetters of illusory chains once again started ensnaring him, forcing him to once again cripple his cultivation. Disappointed, but not dispirited, the man secluded himself on the highest peak and started his research from scratch.
Years passed, and the man, now a mortal, aged. Grey strands of hair flowed from the crown of his head, wrinkles covered every inch of his face as his joints ached with every movement made. And yet, finally, as his lifespan was nigh extinguished, the man reached enlightenment. Preparing for his final attempt, the man gathered his will as he started to practice the Cultivation Method he created.
As Alex looked upon the following images displayed on the mural, a shiver of familiarity went down his spine.
The man had started weaving what little Divine Breath he had in his frail and old body into a thread. After the filament was created, he focused his Will into a sharp point, spearheading the Divine Breath thread inside his body. Immediately as he was done, he thrust the thread of Divine Breath through his Life Spring, Mind Palace, and Soul Essence, binding them into one.
Once finished, he looked up at the sky and spoke.
“Unfettered, unshackled.” the man said in a deep thrum.
And with those words acting as a spark, the intricately weaved Divine Breath thread burst into ethereal flames as the three Primordial Apertures started melding into one entity. Time passed as the illusory flames slowly started dying down, revealing the lustrous, transparent, golden-coloured sphere floating serenely inside the man’s solar plexus. Inside the sphere, a miniature version of the same man could be seen floating about.
Instantly as the man embarked on the path to immortality once again, the blighted chains that haunted his whole life once again descended upon him. This time though? This time was different.
The very moment the accursed chains touched his being, the golden-coloured Unity inside the man started spinning with explosive might, releasing wave after wave of power, shattering the chains time and time again as they tried to once again subjugate the man.
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Once the chains could no longer contain him, the man cried tears of joy as his laugh echoed throughout the world, signalling his triumph. The mysterious chains never plagued the man after that, but little did he know that his act of defiance had set in motion a most-terrible chain of events that would take eternities to come into motion.
At first, other cultivators took to ridicule the man, who sacrificed his Path in favour of the scraps he had now at his disposal. The ridicule only worsened as the man tried to convince, to teach, his peers. Time once again passed, but this time, the man seemed to be younger and stronger as each day passed. As his power grew, the ridicule turned to fear as the man quickly reached the power he held in his prime and far surpassed it.
Seeing the fear, jealousy, envy, hate, and even disgust in his peer’s gazes, the understanding that the Starry Sky’s shackles were already deeply ingrained both without and within his peers dawned on him in a wave of grief. Thus, he gave up on them and decided to return to his roots.
Following his disappearance, he decided to settle down on the same mountain peak where he first created the Unity, and established his own faction – the Adepts of Unity, dedicated wholeheartedly to spreading his knowledge to all who might listen and freeing as many as possible from the Starry Sky’s oppression. It is on this mountain peak that the first generation of the Adepts of Unity was handpicked by the man from the mortal population of the planet.
As the seasons changed, the desolate mountain peak became the majestic temple Alex was seeing before him, with thousands of disciples kneeling before the man in the mural, listening to him while he expounded his knowledge of the heavens.
Finally, Alex’s, or rather his host’s eyes finally reached the final image depicted in the mural.
Once the man imparted all he knew, he turned his back on the Adepts of Unity and walked away into something. Alex could see what was depicted on the mural, but his brain simply couldn’t comprehend what it was that he was seeing. No words came to him, and no concept seemed enough to describe what he was seeing. It was like trying to think or describe a new colour; seemingly easy but virtually unfeasible.
As he was done looking at the mural, he could feel something moist on his cheeks.
Immediately, his host wiped the two thin streaks of tears rolling down his face, as he touched his forehead towards the ground and spoke.
“Master, your unworthy disciple has failed you.” Alex’s host said, “Our legacy, our people, our everything – taken from us.”
At the same time that the host’s voice rang out, the planet’s skies turned dark and tumultuous. Black storm clouds covered the entirety of the planet as streaks of multicoloured lightning danced around the firmament. Witnessing this, the host stood up, once again lifting his head.
“And now, they’ve come for our home, for our last bastion.” the man addressed the mural, his voice suffused with immense sadness, before a blood-crazed look covered his face. “But they’ve miscalculated, the price they will pay for this transgression will drown their very existence in blood and screams.”
As soon as his declaration was made, the dark skies opened up to make way for three figures descending onto this world.
The androgynous figure in the middle caused the very fabric of space-time to tremble in their presence as the other two bowed their heads in reverence towards it. Their majesty so overbearing, that Alex was overtaken with doubt whether what he was seeing was real or not. As the figures kept descending, the one in the middle addressed Alex’s host.
“Losing your nerve now that you’re cornered, Ygdaon?” the godlike figure asked, as its voice thundered louder than any thunder seemingly ever could.
“Do not utter my name with the filth you call your mouth, betrayer,” Ygdaon replied.
“Always with the theatrics.” the figure said, “You know, you should have joined the Hegemons when you had the chance.”
“And become a slave like you, like them? After all the trials Master went through to free us!? NEVER!” Ygdaon caused the world itself to shudder as waves of power suffused his voice.
“Fool, look at yourself. A teeny-tiny ant, crawling on the ground while the heavens are mine for the taking. In time I will subjugate the Hegemons themselves, and become what our master never could.” the figure spoke with disdain in his voice.
“Ha! If you believe the Master left the Hegemons alone because he feared them, you’re more delusional than I thought!” Ygdaon’s laugh rang across the sky as he started to fly towards the three figures, “Have you forgotten how Master took pity as we were dying in the Empire’s slums? How he fed us when we were starving? How he taught us? How he loved us? Does that mean nothing to you!?”
“It means nothing in the face of true power! Look at me, Ygdaon, look how the heavens themselves hasten to obey my call. Time, Space, Cause and Effect – constructs for me to play with!” the figure boasted in a roar.
As the figure spoke, it lifted his hands, and reality obeyed. Space ripped and flowed at the figure’s command, forming a spatial lance. The figure waved his hand once again, and a giant hole appeared through Ygdaon’s torso, seemingly out of nowhere. Alex could feel only a fraction of the pain of his host, but even that was enough to make him want to scream at the top of his inexistent lungs.
“Gaze upon greatness, Ygdaon!” the figure screamed.
Immediately as the wound registered, Alex could already feel his host’s Unity spinning ferociously as the wound closed instantly, as if it didn’t even happen. As it did, sorrow returned to Ygdaon’s expression.
“You betrayed us for these cheap tricks, Sister?” Ygdaon spoke in a soft and pained voice.
“You think moulding the very Aspect of Space we exist in and bypassing the Law of Causality to bring about only the Effect with a simple thought is a cheap trick!? Have you gone senile, brother!?” the figure rebutted, taking offence at Ygdaon’s accusation.
As the figure’s scream rang about the skies, a nine-coloured lightning bolt struck below the two quarrelling siblings. Ygdaon didn’t pay attention at first since the bolt was not aimed at him, but as soon as it passed him, understanding dawned on him. He turned back in a hurry, but it was too late. The nine-coloured bolt had already struck the mural, crushing it with tyrannical might, seemingly forbidding it to exist under the Starry Sky’s presence. Seeing the last vestige of their legacy crumbling into little pieces, a cold glint took root in Ygdaon’s iris as he turned towards his nemesis.
“You might think the heavens are your servant, but their gifts are poisonous. Sooner or later you, all of you, will have to pay for them.” Ygdaon spoke in a cold voice, “Now though? Now, let me show you true power!!!”
As soon as Ygdaon’s voice rang out, his Unity started expanding.
“Intrinsic Unity Art: Transcendental Hierophany.” Ygdaon incanted.
A blinding light emerged out of Ygdaon, and the whole world turned a sight-searing gold.
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Within the confines of the Legion’s Keep, Alex suddenly awoke drenched in an ice-cold sweat. Bringing his hand towards his forehead in hopes to stem the cold flow of sweat, he noticed they were incessantly shaking. Taking a moment to examine himself, it seemed that it wasn’t just his hands, but rather his whole body along with Nova’s body that was shaking.
Turning his head to the right, he could see Jane, soundly sleeping without a worry. Her sight seemed to calm him down, at least slightly.
“What the hell was that?” Alex muttered under his breath, forcing his mind to start breaking down what happened.