"Kieran, I must say…" The Sage croaked harshly. "Witnessing your first steps into this world has been the blessing of my rather long life." He confessed with a trulyjoyous expression toward Kieran, who supported his drooping head with one arm.
"Now I…can move on from this final chapter with a smile, and even hope in my heart." He murmured.
"No Regus!" Kieran blurted in denial.
"I still need your help, there's so much I don't know about–"
"If it's you…I feel there is yet hope, for–" The Sage cut him off weakly, but a sudden thought made him stop. "No, it's too early." he shook his head as he leaned backwards, bony hands trembled as they fought to support his weight and failed.
Kieran admired the old man's tenacity to still put on a brave face despite the clear powerlessness that was overcoming him. This admiration quickly gave way to worry and concern.
"What's happening Regus? I can't feel your mana or qi anymore!" Kieran panicked, his senses failing to detect any feeling of life in the man's frail body.
"Alas, the time for my final journey has come. And I must pass this torch onto you, my boy." His eyes traced the empty sky above as he spoke. Kieran thought he almost looked happy to be going anywhere but here.
"So I will give you some last minute guidance, if…if you don't mind listening to the final words of a regretful dead man, that is." He met Kierans wet eyes with a sad smile.
Kieran wasn't one to make friends easily, especially with his elders. Growing up without parents or grandparents of his own caused him to feel uncomfortable with elderly people.
He found them to be more shrewd and judgy than he could kindly tolerate, but hearing the Sage mention his final words pained him deeper than he imagined.
To already think about saying goodbye to this man when he'd barely just met him, and now unexpectedly become his student of sorts, it was all too much to bear.
His eyes began to well up further as he thought about having to leave another new friend behind.
"Of…of course" Kieran stammered slightly, chest full with emotion.
"I can't even begin to guess how much I owe you, honourable Sage" he said formally, even dipping his head in respect.
"But for as long as you have left, you have my ear…and my friendship." He said, forcing a smile through the tears that escaped his clenched eyes.
"Hmm, I'm glad. Then listen well young man" he croaked with a visible effort, and placed a delicate hand to the side of Kieran's cheek.
His skin was cold to the touch, but Kieran felt the next words said come through to his mind as clear as day, despite the man's mouth not moving at all. Some kind of mental communication, he assumed.
"Always strive to advance your cultivation level. Do not allow your realm to stagnate due to fear and uncertainty, lest the steps you forge through grit and determination wither and fade beneath your very feet." He warned delicately, as a strict grandfather would. Eliciting a deep nod from Kieran.
"When I first began to practise this incredible technique, my mentor sent me to explore a primordial realm belonging to an ancient cult, one sealed since the first ages of the cosmos."
"Little remained due to the passage of time and destruction of countless wars being fought within, but amidst the endless ruins, one Great stone stele survived." He recounted.
"Despite the hatred spread in lies and rumors as to the nature of previous Heavenly Demons, the words carved into this timeless monument implied the opposite."
"When heavens cry beneath void's keep, Heavenly Demon, arise and reap" he spoke with a poetic cadence as he recalled the scripture.
"Vague as that may be to you, I could only infer that the origin of the Heavenly Demonic Art is one antithetical to the beings of the void. And whether good or evil, any force against the ever-encroaching void will be needed desperately when the age of darkness falls upon the cosmos." he insisted.
"The void? Are they monsters?" Kieran wondered aloud, and the Sage replied through their mental connection, a slither of amusement in his tone.
"You will no doubt encounter beings of the void in the coming days. When you do, hold firm to your allies, and do not doubt your path's conviction, for they are truly beings of nightmare and chaos. Creatures so twisted and foreign to our ways of life that their only purpose is to consume and destroy the living."
“There has never been a Heavenly Demon with all four elemental affinities. What that means for your path, I do not truly know. I only wish I could be there to witness your glorious ascension in person, my dear boy.” He smiled then, as though nothing was wrong and he just required a short rest to regain his strength.
"I-I understand, Sir…mostly." Kieran replied with some uncertainty, drawing a deeper smile from the Sage.
"Again, I can't thank you enough for all your help, Regus. For the first time since this madness began, I don't feel entirely lost. Which is saying something for me" he awkwardly grinned, staring into the man's emotional grey eyes.
"I'll never forget what you've done, and I promise to hold everything you've told me close to–"
Kieran stopped abruptly, his words caught in his throat.
Then tears poured from his eyes as he watched his teacher's hand fall limply to the ground with finality.
Kieran grabbed at the man's shoulders to try to rouse him from the peaceful sleep he seemingly fell into, but his hands passed right through the man's phantom-like body.
"No! Regus!" He cried in denial, hands trying to find purchase in the fading outline of his mentor.
But despite his desperate pleading, the first teacher on his cultivation journey, Regus Everwinter, passed away before his eyes.
The faded figure of the Sage's limp body dissolved into nothing within seconds, leaving nought but smoky scraps of robe behind and a sea of painful emotions churning inside Kieran's heart.
The streams racing down Kieran's cheeks now were the only proof that the wise and kind man had even existed.
Kieran wiped the tears away with the back of his clenched fists, deciding to be strong for his mentor the way Regus had been strong for him even at the end of his long life.
"I'll make you proud, teacher." He promised to the empty spot where the man had just been. "People will remember your name again one day, and your enemies will regret what they did to you. I'm gonna make sure of it." He proclaimed with tightly clenched lips and fists.
Fucking Undying Flame bastards! Just you wait...
Then with a bow so deep that his forehead rested upon the ground, Kieran prayed with all his heart to the mysterious gods he'd heard of, if any were listening. He begged them to guide his teacher safely to the next life, and that Regus would find peace with his loved ones who'd been waiting for him for too long.
Time drifted by without notice to Kieran's prostrated form. He remained bent down with sincerity for so long that his tears had become dry lines of salt down his cheeks.
He'd begun thinking about his parents, and how he'd never gotten to know them before they died, either.
He wondered if they waited for him on some distant shore beyond this life somewhere. Maybe they'd meet Regus there, and he'd tell them all about the rude young man who stumbled across his prison.
A smile crept onto his face for the first time in a while, and he almost laughed at the absurdly wishful thinking.
When he finally raised his head, all that lay before him was a mound of tattered fabric that stung his chest to look at.
With the notion of burying this last remnant of his mentor once outside, he grasped the shreds of cloth in his hands. When his fingers caught something unexpectedly solid within the messy bundle, he stopped himself.
From amongst the rags, he pulled out a solid black metal band, one he instantly recognised as the thick shackles The Sage had been wearing.
Initially, he thought it to be some magically engraved iron like those placed on him back in the dungeon, but as he looked closer, he noticed strange patterns and foreign writing across the smooth black surface.
What sort of metal is this? He wondered, red raw eyes scrutinising their pristine condition.
It was strange to him that any material would bear no signs of wear and tear, not when someone had forged it an uncountable number years ago.
Kieran held one of the heavy metal bands up to his face, taking a closer look at the patterns and miniature writings engraved on it. A niggling sense of danger began building in his chest the longer he examined it, which only made him more interested in the origin of these bindings.
'Wait what?" He whispered to himself in surprise.
Before his eyes, a faint light shivered unnaturally across the metal band. Then the various engravings on the surface writhed and shifted to form a single bold character within a deeply gouged circle.
Despite the unique arrangement of lines and curves, he knew this character well enough by now.
"The symbol for Fire? But why?" He frowned.
Then, as if a lightbulb went off in his brain, he rushed to collect the rest of the bands from within the pile of smoky mess.
Brushing the charred fabric and ash from the other three, he laid all four beside each other to compare them.
Upon each pristine shackle were similar engravings that likewise shifted oddly at his focused examination to form a single distinct character in the center.
"Four bands, four elements…" he thought out loud, unsure what this coincidence suggested. His only theory was that it had something to do with the seal outside maintaining this place's isolation from natural spacetime.
The Sage had told him that many such hidden realms would be bound to a central focus of some kind, be it a unique item or collection of energy. So considering the rest of this spatial realm was destitute and empty, this was the only idea that stood out as plausible to him.
Maybe this is my way out? He considered, then almost slapped himself for not listening to Regus better when he was telling him about the prison space.
Much like the elemental seal outside, Kieran lined up the four bands in their corresponding order from left to right.
Fire, wind, ice, then lightning. There, easy!
He watched expectantly, but there was no reaction from the metal rings, nor the space around him.
"Erm, bollocks…what else?" He considered trying a different order but other than trying every possible permutation, he didn't know where to begin.
It was only when he thought about the constant cycling of elemental energies within himself that he realised he'd forgotten to close the loop.
So starting with the ring with the fire emblem, he arranged all of the bands in a short circle of sorts, sides touching, with a small gap left in the centre.
Nothing happened initially, and Kieran was about ready to swear at the sky, kick them all away, and give up. But just as he pulled his foot back, he thought of Regus and bit down on his lip.
The old man had worn these bindings for an incredible amount of time, not by his choice of course, but nonetheless, the idea of damaging them felt disrespectful to his teacher.
Kieran instead took a closer look at the bands, hoping to spot anything that might give him an inkling of what to do. That was when he noticed the deep, circular engraving surrounding the fire emblem to be missing.
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Instead, two parallel lines ran lengthwise along the ring's smooth surface, almost looking as though they connected directly into the new matching lines on the lightning and wind rings on either side.
Kieran reached to turn them around and checked the ice ring for the same changes but pulled his hand back immediately when a sharp cold sensation bit into his fingertips, layering them with a fine dusting of white frost.
"Ow, what the fu–Oh!" He cut himself off in realisation when he touched the fire ring next and instantly felt a strong heat rush into his skin, relieving and thawing his icy fingers.
A strong sense of deja vu came over him, and a familiar spark of an idea leapt out in his mind. As usual, he began with some deep breathing, careful not to try and extract any energy from the surrounding space after his teacher's warning.
Activating his breath of the soul for the first time since undergoing his initiation into the Heavenly Demonic Art, Kieran quickly found that his internal energy had changed drastically beyond his notice and in a very short time.
No longer did he feel his breath in just his lungs and chest, he actively felt a pulling sensation in his lower dantian and upper core at the same time. Without a fresh influx of qi or mana though, they simply pulled in the ambient energies floating throughout his meridians..
As he exhaled, this energy was released back into his manabody, but it came out slightly differently to what he'd become accustomed to. The energy seemed brighter and more dense to his senses. And when he channelled it into his fist, his entire arm began to thrum with a strength he'd not felt before.
His attention span still as short as ever, Kieran became distracted from his original purpose, losing himself amongst the unique feelings of this new power. Any sense of haste to leave this place fled his mind with each inhale and exhale. Choosing to adopt a more stereotypical meditative position, he crossed his legs and rested both open palms upon his thighs. Within moments of breathwork, his mind fully calmed and all his mental focus turned inwards.
Despite only recently being enhanced, Kieran discovered that all his meridians were currently undergoing another peculiar change. The countless energy vessels that weaved through his entire body appeared to be soaking up the residual qi and mana flowing within.
His thoughts filed with curiosity as the meridians greedily lapped up every free drop of energy all by themselves.
The seconds ticked by, and Kieran calmly watched on as motes of energy continued to disappear from his channels in a slow trickle that he couldn't comprehend.
His focus was drawn to the thin walls of his primary meridian, and as he observed it, the membrane-like walls looked to thicken ever so slightly with each moment that passed.
Something clicked in his mind as he watched the meridian becoming more and more dense, and he felt confident he'd hit the nail on the head.
So this is what he meant by building my foundation with mana and qi? Interesting…
Kieran wondered just how much information The Sage could have provided about his cultivation if only he'd gotten there sooner.
The hope of getting to know his mentor better and learning all the man had to teach him only brought back that gaping hole of loss once more.
He gave me this gift, I can't let it go to waste.
Kieran shoved the dark thoughts aside, focusing only on the shifting lights inside himself.
With a deep sigh, he let the nagging worry and doubt filter out of him, carried away by the air. With his inhale, he boldly pulled at the world around him, unsure what to expect as he intently welcomed all the energies he knew to gather to his call.
This time when he exhaled as fully as he could, he found he still had a small hollow space inside him that could still be filled, it made him feel ravenous not being able to consume a thing. Then he almost facepalmed as he realised the sensation was coming from his dantian.
Intent on filling up his energy reserves, he pulled past the limits of his lung capacity until he felt a tiny trickle of elemental mana come through from seemingly nowhere.
Before he could even examine the unexpected dose of mana, his black core soaked it all up like a starving man would when presented with a miraculous sip of water in the desert. The space inside him, which he now realised was his dantian, didn't feel any different.
Kieran assumed the small trickle of mana wasn't anywhere near enough to make a dent in his internal energy stores, especially when his black core didn't leave any crumbs for the rest of him.
Letting his senses expand outwards from his body, Kieran froze in surprise when he vaguely saw four beacons of light sizzling just in front of where he sat. Each circle of energy glowed brightly, each with a different colour to his mind's eye. When he leaned closer he could make out a distinct character floating in the middle of each shimmering circle.
Kieran opened his eyes and tried to disregard the doubt he felt as he took in the sight of four unmoving dull rings of metal. They hadn't moved or changed in any way, but when he closed his eyes and focused his mind again, he saw them glowing as clear as day.
Huh? Why would they be used as shackles if they are so full of energy? It just didn't make sense to him, but he wouldn't look another gift horse in the mouth. It was time to feast.
He reached forward and picked up the shackle full of fire mana, ignoring the intense heat that permeated his hand on contact. Holding it close to his chest, Kieran slowly pulled inwards again.
The instant relief of hot mana filling in through his palms overrode any sense of caution until he pulled with all his focus. The veins in his arms began to throb with heat and when he looked at them they were glowing eerily orange through his skin.
His body could handle a crazy amount of fire mana by now, that much he was certain of. But he couldn't ignore the feeling of wrongness that welled up inside him once the heat had almost filled his entire body.
A pulse of warning came from his dantian and Kieran instinctively stopped pulling at the band's mana.
Strangely, the metal felt lukewarm in his hands now, despite the heat he could still feel coming off the thing. He then noticed a slight glow in the corner of his eye. It was coming from the fire emblem on the band's surface.
"Curioser and curioser" he mumbled to himself thoughtfully.
Placing the fire band back in place with the other three, he was greeted by a shifting of energy in the air, one that seemed to build in power then stop suddenly, as though it were waiting for something else in order to continue.
Kieran considered his options for a moment before deciding to just send it, and deal with any unexpected consequences afterwards.
He grasped hold of the wind-infused shackle, clutching it to his chest in both hands. Immediately the soothing sensation of wind mana flowed into him of its own accord. Wave after wave of cool and light energy wafted through him like a gentle breeze on a hot summer's day.
Much like with the fire mana, he eventually felt a pang of discomfort from his dantian and followed his intuition, placing the ring back with the others. Also like before, a white glow emanated from the wind sigil engraved on the band's surface, as well as another shift of unseen energy in the space surrounding him.
The combination of the fire and wind mana inside him felt intensely hot, yet naturally comfortable. His slowly reinforcing meridians and dantian allowed the two types of energy to coexist alongside each other without any interference as they cycled.
Amidst a strong bout of deja vu, Kieran picked up the ice band next, repeating the same process with the frosty mana that soothed all the heat in his body to a peaceful lull. The whole situation was eerily similar to when he first solved the elemental seal to enter this realm.
"If it's the same shit, then what's there to hesitate over?" He asked himself rhetorically. One way or the other he had to leave this place, so for now he blindly hoped this would be his exit ticket as he prepared to grab the fourth band.
Despite not being able to remember much of the lightning element's thunderous arrival when completing the seal, Kieran refused to back down.
If he survived a giant lightning bolt once, he figured there was little this small hunk of metal could possibly do to harm him now that he'd grown considerably stronger since that time.
The moment he took that first inhale of lightning mana, however, his confidence evaporated amongst a veritable storm of electrical arcs that washed over his whole body. His black core erupted with purple flames and his dantian began to churn up a violent storm of elemental energy.
Pain seized control of his limbs, causing every muscle to spasm at once. It took all he had not to let go of the metal band as countless sparks of blinding yellow and blue light filled his entire vision.
Eyes shut involuntarily, Kieran instead used his vague mana sense to keep watch of the uncontrollable rush of energy. Doing his best to resist the searing snakes of energy that writhed their way through his hands and up his arms, it felt like he was holding onto a rollercoaster covered in electrical wiring as he did his best to stay focused on his breath.
This brief struggle continued for what felt like hours to him, only ending when the destructive mana tore its way towards his core and dantian simultaneously.
Upon reaching his core, the violet flames there reacted to the lightning and came to life with a palpable fury. All the mixed elemental energies in his body surged toward his black core at once as if summoned by it.
The chaotic energy slowly began to trickle out of his core where it streaned into his main meridian.
Once there Kieran was ecstatic to see and feel the combined elemental energy moving as a single unit, obedient and calm. His breath continued throughout the pain and chaos, steadily urging more lightning mana towards his core along with the remaining elemental mana left in his body.
The strength seemed to flee his body along with the last dregs of elemental mana abandoning his flesh and mana channels. A pang of worry flashed in his mind and he began to fear he'd messed up badly somehow.
But the moment the gentle stream of unified energies made contact with his dantian, his whole world changed.
One moment, he felt his grasp on consciousness slipping slightly, but a second later it was as if someone had directly injected adrenaline into his heart. His eyes shot open and he jumped to his feet in a sudden explosion of light.
"What the fuck was that?!" He yelped in surprise.
The initial shock and confusion only escalated when he looked down and saw his limbs glowing with a multitude of colours, reminiscent of light scattered through a prism. Even stranger yet was the shimmering circle of this light beaming out from his stomach.
He felt it then, the cool heat inside his dantian that surpassed his ability to even express. like someone had hooked his body up to a huge reservoir of energy that existed inside him but also somewhere else simultaneously.
Looking inwards, Kieran found his dantian had transformed once again. The cascading lightshow shining from within emerged like a butterfly from a cocoon, throwing off the plain white shell of before. A mesmerizing display of shifting colours exuded from his dantian and into his mana channels.
Every single meridian in his body began soaking up the newly unified energy as though it had been waiting desperately for its arrival.
Kieran's body initially felt light and agile since learning the Heavenly Demonic Body Art, whereas now he felt a strange sense of that same weightlessness mixed with the lumbering mass of a mountain inside him.
His legs felt unnaturally heavy with each step he took forward, but when he pushed harder, the distance covered with each step was more akin to a leaping bound.
“Holy shit I'm strong!” he exclaimed as he came to a sudden stop.
Whipping his hands out in a quick series of basic boxing combinations brought him another bout of shocked joy.
“And I'm fast as fuck, boooy!” he cackled at his ridiculous speed. Each swift strike he fired out sent small gusts of wind whistling away from his knuckles.
After launching several wild kicks in the air, demonstrating a sudden increase in flexibility and leg strength too, Kieran stood there and took a moment to process it all. With this new power he could become a true force to be reckoned with once he makes his way back to civilisation, or whatever remains of it.
Either way, he would do his best to keep moving forward and climbing the path to power.
“Speaking of power…” he mumbled, looking at the ground. All over the nearby floor, motes of colour rushed about in dazzling circles and flashes in hypnotising patterns. He really fucking wished he could find a jacket somewhere close. God knew how poorly people would react to seeing a half-naked bald guy covered in blood running around. And worst of all, now he kept glowing.
Maybe my rejuvenation will help with my hair growing back?
For a brief moment, he desperately hoped. But his hands stroked only smooth silky skin up top, eliciting a long sigh of disappointment from him.
What did Regus do? My whole body feels different…
Despite the absurd changes to his own physicality and sense of self, Kieran knew this was only the beginning of a much larger journey. A journey his mentor had given his very last breath to prepare him for.
If a great Sage, like Regus Everwinter, had done all this just to provide him with a better chance for the future, then there must also be an equally terrifying danger of some kind looming on the near horizon.
I can't stay here much longer… he decided with unnatural conviction.
He knew deep down he should have tried to leave already, but he didn't feel ready to depart this place just yet.
Kieran went back to his earlier spot and reached down to collect the four elemental bindings, hoping they might prove useful at some later stage. He thought that maybe they’d be useful for cultivation for a while, or at least until the elemental energy got completely drained from them.
Attempting to grasp hold of the closest ring, he felt an almost magnetic resistance pushing his hand away.
The sensation was just like the elemental barrier around the raised dais in the dungeon hall.
Kieran focused on the churning elements inside himself. Only requiring a slight effort, he caused the flow of mana to channel into his hands until they both began to shine with a multitude of colours.
Just as he guessed, the unified elemental energy allowed him to pass right through the barrier without resistance. Instead, there was a pulling sensation that hummed in unison with the mana in his hands, latching his grip to the surface of the strange metal.
When he lifted the shackle to inspect it, the other three glowing rings came with it. Whatever magic was connecting them locked all four together as a single, inseparable unit.
Was that me? He pondered, considering if the unique elemental energy he exuded was interacting strangely with the other elements, or if this was all by some mysterious design.
Kieran could have sat there theorising the nuances of these peculiar metal bands for hours, perhaps with some quiet periods of energy cultivation too.
Fate, however, would not grant him the chance to consider anything at all. The light from each band increased by magnitudes at that moment, burning blindingly bright enough to block out any of the light his own energy channelling had been giving off.
The amalgamation of all four rings suddenly flew from his grip into the air before him, where much to his surprise, it began to spin in place.
“Okay, this is new” he muttered. The newfound caution he felt for magical items caused him to step back as the formation of rings sped up.
Like an ethereal fidget spinner, the four rings span faster and faster until they morphed into a circular blur of incandescent lights. The cacophonous oscillating grew louder and louder until the very fabric of the prison space began to shudder too.
“Huh?” Kieran raised his eyebrows.
Those minuscule cracks in space he'd all but forgotten about made themselves known with pulsing screeches that grew more ear-piercing by the second. Just when he thought things couldn't get any weirder, a feeling of intense danger flashed in his chest, sending his heart racing.
At first, he thought the spatial ruptures were bigger than before, but he guessed it was just his increased senses or something. That is until the fear in his heart multiplied endlessly and he saw tiny black dots appearing all through the entire prison space.
“Well, that can't be good” he mumbled, doing his best to breathe through the terror creeping into his bones.
He knew he shouldn't just stand there doing nothing, but where could he possibly go? There was no clear exit, and the entire realm felt as though it were collapsing in every direction.
When he noticed movement in the distance, his worry was confirmed. Several of the small ruptures expanded in an instant, tearing big enough to fit a family-sized sedan through. Visible cracks in existence flowed out like webs from the darkness, as though someone had driven a hammer directly into spacetime itself.
For a moment, Kieran was sure he saw something flickering in the darkness of these ruptures. At first he thought it was just that weird static your eyes get when they stare into the dark, but then he saw it clear as day. Pale, empty white eyes grew closer by the second, just behind a dark veil of light from the emptiness beyond.
He turned suddenly, distracted by the endless whirring of the spinning rings that approached a crescendo of light and noise. Kieran wondered desperately what the hell it was doing to this place as he edged closer to see beyond the blinding light.
An inexplicable force took hold of his arm then, urging him to reach out and touch the display of lights and motion that was the last bastion of life amidst endless encroaching chasms of blackness. The world shattered around him piece by piece with a deafening sound, the spatial realm finally failing under the intense pressure of the ruptures and whatever the four rings had started.
Kieran felt that awful gnawing helplessness of death's approach, so he figured he might as well take a risk instead of waiting like an NPC.
He reached out a glowing hand to touch the blur of the ring's centre when the entire thing stopped in place.
The Four rings expanded suddenly from the middle, leaving a gaping hole in reality at the centre bound by a circle of a shimmering rainbow of lights.
A single delicate tendril of the multicoloured light stretched out toward him like a curious animal, until it grazed across his upheld hand.
“Wow, It almost looks like a port–” Kieran vanished from where he stood, swallowed by light.
The charred pieces of black cloth that remained behind paled in comparison to the swelling tide of void beings that consumed the fractured space.