Prologue - The End

In a desolate plain, it is filled with ancient building. But neither of the building is perfect and there always a hint of fragile making it feels very unsafe. All the building even gives the feeling that it can disintegrate at any moment, even by a light touch. On the wall of each building are carved with ancient symbols, giving it a very mysterious feeling.

But one of the building, or it can better be called a “tower” emit a divine aura, an aura of an emperor that can trample at all beings! The tower is so high that it even reaches the sky, producing an unfathomable feeling of how high the tower is. It is carved with a very neat arrangement of ancient symbols giving it a very beautiful and neat appearance. The structure of the tower also has an odd design that if a person watches the tower from far away making it looks like a sword. Atop of the tower might even be a hilt of the sword, but who knows?

“I…..have waited for thousands of years and there is not even a human has appeared in this place….”

On the side below of the tower, a middle-aged man with a short neat hair is sitting on a wooden chair. The man wears a red robe with a unique golden pattern giving it a fiery and noble looking robe, but the left sleeve of the robe seems to have torn off and burnt because of the ash color at the end of the sleeve. His face is covered with a white fox-looking mask that has a very unique design, the eyes of the mask is filled with red-neon color making it emit a demoness appearance in a murky place. The mask is tied with a golden thread at the side of it and it is attached with two bells.

Beside him is a black long sword that has been pierce deeply inside the earth. But the long sword doesn’t really suit him because it has a very normal appearance. It doesn’t even give any shine like a normal metallic sword should have. Instead, the sword appears to be absorbing the light surrounding it! Rather than calling it a “metal long sword”, it probably better off with “black wooden sword”.

“Alas……does the human is on the verge of extinct? Does there not even a single person that can reach the pinnacle? Human…….a being that is full of weakness but at the same the time, it is a being that is without any limit….”

The middle-age man sighs with a very depressed and conflicted expression. But suddenly, a light emerge from the lowest floor of the tower. The light burst like a star with a warm feeling on it. The middle-age man expression suddenly turn into shock and his mouth slowly turn upward and become an arrogant grin just like an emperor should have.

“Hah! It seems my wait worth it……”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

At the east of a small continent, there stand a small village in a green lush forest. This forest is quite a beauty in nature, creating a peaceful atmosphere around it. The village doesn’t really stand out and have quite a low population of humans. Though it is small, it operates in a very average manner causing it too not stand out. The civilization of this village not really high but the village has a very peaceful atmosphere without any conflict in it.

The village has two fields that is used to planting crop and used to provide the villager a fair amount of fare. Other than the field, there also a farm with a few beasts that provided some milk and material for the villager apparel. At the north end of the village, there is a small cave that is used to mine and provide the villager a significant amount of earnings.

The west of the village is the place where the villagers dwell. There is around 10 – 15 small hut with a considerably larger hut at the center of it. It is probably where the villager head reside. By using the size and appearance of each hut, it shows that the village is treating each other equally and there is no difference of rank or power in this village.

“Hira! Don’t you dare doing something idiotic!”

At the edge of west in the village, there stand a small girl with short green hair only reaching her shoulder, looking at her appearance, she probably around the age of 10. She wears a peach color tunic with a grey-red baggy trouser tied at her waist. Her eyes have a hint of bluish color with big almond shaped eyes. Her face is cute with two dimples on her cheek when she smiles. But rather than smiling right now, her face has an angry and worried expression when facing a small stature figure in front of her.

It’s a small boy with a messy green hair. His face is almost same with the small girl, but rather than having a girly aura, he has a brave and mighty aura of a warrior. Even though the aura is not really large because of his small figure, it does give a feel of an adventurous youth. His figure seems to be at the age of 8 because of the small and undeveloped body. He has a pair of almond shape eye but with a small amount of bags under his eyes, but the size of his eyes is smaller when compared with the small girl. The different about his eyes is it has a gold-yellowish color with a wild black pupil rather than bluish color. It gave him a wild and unrestrained feeling. He wears the same peach tunic but with a short greyish pant, the tunic he wears seems to have a small amount of rip and tear. This proves that this boy is quite a playful and adventurous boy.

“Ahahaha, what do you mean idiotic, sis? I’m just standing on this large stone! No big deal, no big deal!” The boy shouted back at her sister playfully.

This pair of children seems to be a family.

“Get back here! Or I’ll tell mommy about this!”

Rather than become scared or agitated, the boy called Hira become even more defiant by playfully frightening his sister with his movement. He started to do a small hop but still maintaining his balance on the edge of the stone that he is standing. For a small kid like him to be able to do this, it’s quite bizarre! This stone is somewhat different from a normal stone because of its large size and shape. The stone has a very intriguing and peculiar shape like it has something hidden in it. It is somewhat better to called it a tomb rather than a large stone.

“Hahaha! Watch this sis! I can already do “Hidden Summer Sea Step” easily!”

The moment that the boy says that, his leg started to move in a very fluid and mysterious way. His leg becomes something like illusion with more and more afterimage produced! This move is very serene and smooth to be watched at. It also give a warm feeling towards Hira, that is why he loves this move, because of the calm and comfortable feeling that it emit towards him.

But her sister has a different reaction, she start to become even more concerned about his brother behavior. She afraid of him falls down from the edge of the tomb, because the tomb is situated at the edge of the cliff. Below the cliff is an abyss. The villager from her village calls it “End of Abyss” because it already obvious what does it means. Once a person falls into the abyss, then there is no way to save him or her! There is one person who has fallen into the abyss once in the history of the village, that person is called “Unyielding Hero”. He is a person who is born from the village and has saved the village against a very deadly beast. This is a common fairy tale story for the youngster in the village, the outcome of the story is very clear that the young hero has sacrificed himself for the village and has never come back after he falls down!

“You better listen to your elder sister right NOW! Come down!” the girl shouted really hard causing her voice become a little bit hoarse.

“Aiya, why are you so stern! I’m just playing here!” Hira reply her sister with a playful tone. But when he saw her sister face is on the verge of crying he started to become panic and hop down immediately from the tomb.

“Okay, okay…I give up. So please stop crying, okay? I’m on the ground now. I’m really sorry…” He immediately apologizes and consoles her sister whose face already messed up with tears.

“Y-you better be! Uwaaaaah!” her sister seems can’t hold back her tears anymore and start to cry clamorously.

“Aiya, I’m really sorry okay? Come on now, let’s go back home.” He pet her sister head and held down her hand leading her toward the village area. It’s like their role has been reversed.

They walk into the village area and the people around them start to look at this warming pair of children. Hira greet the people properly while still holding her sister’s hand and went ahead to a small hut. His sister remains quiet along the way trying to hold back her tear at her best. Hira has tried his best to console her sister and apologize repeatedly.

“Ahhh, Hira, did you make Crea cry again?”

Suddenly a melodious voice slips out behind Hira and her sister. Hira turn his head and saw a teenage girl with her hair tied up in a pony-style. She has a bright fiery red hair with a pair of big cute eye. Her eyebrows are really thin and refine creating her an elegance face. She is wearing a set of ordinary hunter armor with only one steel pauldron on her left shoulder. The pauldron seems to be tied with a short piece of red mantle that produce a contrast sense on her whole appearance. The hunter armor is compose of a leather garb that is protected with a leather cuirass, a pair of steel vambrace and a steel cuisse that cover both of her thigh with a leather tasset tied around her waist. The teenage girl is smiling while looking both of Hira and his sister.

Surprise by her sudden arrival, Hira instantly greets her with a cheery and childish tone.

“Ah! Good morning Sis Meera!”

Followed by his elder sister, Crea, she also greets the teenage girl which is called, Meera.

“Good morning Sis Meera.” After a few apologize and comfort from her little brother, Crea’s state becomes much better. At least by now she can greet people normally.

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“So what happen this time? Did Hira create more mischief around the village?” Meera ask both of them with a playful tone.

“Obviously not! I didn’t do anything bad at all this time! Hmpf!” he said with a proud tone and held his chest higher, it looks really childish.

“Oh really? Then why Crea face looks very sad? She even has some smear of tear on her face?” unconvinced by Hira answer, she asked with a stern voice giving a little pressure towards him.

“Eh….this…” stumbled by Meera question, Hira face form into a dumb shape.

“You must hear this Sis Meera, Hira he…” irk with Hira answer toward Meera, Crea start to explain what happened at the west of the village.

Hira become a little bit alarm when Crea start to talk about everything that happened at the cliff. He knew that this will bring him a troublesome thing if Meera know about this event. He tried to stop Crea from talking when suddenly Meera burst into rage when she heard Crea’s story mid-way.

“What!? Are you an idiot Hira!? Do you think that place is a playground!?” she shouted at Hira with an astounded amount of voice that make Hira ear turns red.

He even wondered if the girl in front of him is even a girl. Her shout can even defeat a normal warrior’s howl.

“Uh, well I know it’s not a playground surely……” He tried to coaxes Meera by giving her a pitied and upturned eyes. This action usually works toward her and the villager around this village. But it seems this time it will not turn out really well.

“Do you hear me!? This time you’re forbidden to go that place again! It is a sacred place and with only permission Elder Ju that you can enter it! Understand?” from a high-pitch voice until a soft-voice is used by Meera to scold Hira action. This shows her concern toward him.

For Meera, Hira and Crea is like her own blood little brother and sister. Even though she doesn’t really get angry toward Hira when he do some mischief around the village, but this time the place that he play around is the “End of Abyss” cliff. This place is very dangerous and it is also a sacred place of the village because of the tomb. The tomb that Hira just stand is the tomb of the “Unyielding Hero”. It is treated with utmost respect by the villager because of the young hero deed. Even though it is unbeknownst if the fairy tale is the truth or not, the story had been passed for a long time ago even before the elder of the village is being born. And Hira playing around the sacred place is really an inappropriate thing to do.

“Yes Sis Meera, I’ll be sure not to make the same mistake again….” Turning down his head, Hira give a pitied and dejected voice.

This make Meera heart softened when she sees how cute her little brother is. Even though they’re not a blood family, she has known this pair of children from the time they’re born. After seeing Hira’s action, she sighed with a tired expression and asked him the detail about his training.

“Haahh, there is no use to regret of the past, just make sure that you understand what is the effect of your action today. Tell me, how’s your training been this day?” She tries to change the topic to ease Hira dejected heart.

In this world, strength is the main part of human life! The world is filled with a lot of dangerous life form that can endanger the human species. In the history of human, a long time ago, the human species is in the verge of extinct because of the overflowing race that had invaded their world. A sudden dimension-hole has appeared in the middle of the world causing it to transport a variety of races into this world. Even though at first the human can repel some of the races using intelligence and advance technology, at the end they are cornered by a race that is categories as “Colossus”.

This race has a terrifying size that can even rival the largest mountain in this world. With it’s infinite amount of stamina and strength, they can just pound anything they see! The Colossus can destroy a large kingdom easily by using their strength to smash the kingdom in one strike. Their figure has a structure of moving fortress with hardened physical body that can’t even be pierce with steel weapon. The human has developed quite a lot of useful technology to defeat the Colossus, but it can only give the human some sense of hope but not victory. Any action of the human is futile against the Colossus but the human keep struggling until the end, yet it’s not only Colossus that is threatening the human at that time there still some of the race that is equal to Colossus, such as the Dragon.

This caused the humans to be cornered and had almost extinct from the surface of the world. In the end, a special party that made up of five people has turns the tide for the human. This five people have been cultivated and supported by an alliance of two kingdoms. The human have only left with two large kingdoms that had been maintaining their defense at best. Their purpose is to hinder the other race attack and give them as much time as they can to cultivate the special party. It is unknown by the present human what level has the special party reach because of their devastating strength throughout the history. A human from the special party has enough strength to turn a mountain into dust, to fly reaching the end of the sky, calling a red light-thunder from above the sky, creating a sea of blue flame or even a forest of jade ice! This has caused the human to survive and able to repel the invading action slowly by making cultivating as one of the primary activity of human daily life. Upon the victory of the human against the many races, the five people from the special party have suddenly gone from the world without any trace. The human have tried to search them but they can’t find any trace, so they conclude that the five people may have ascended to even higher realm!

“I had already reached the third stage of Neophyte level! Right now I can even fight with a first stage Median beast evenly! Hmpf!” Upon Meera asked him about his training progression, he become proud and held his chest higher again. He already forgot about the scolding he got.

The world is filled with a lot of different mana essence, the human use this source of energy to strengthen their physical and mental state. They absorb the mana that is available and refined it to suit their own body, this is what called “cultivating”. By refining the mana that has been absorbed, the human body will use the energy that is absorbed to develop their own strength. Without refining the mana after absorbing, it will cause the human body to become in chaos situation because of the distinct essence of mana available. It can cause the body of human to stop functioning and may cause death!

“Hoh…..not bad. But don’t get too high of yourself! You’re only at Neophyte level! You can’t even beat a peak-level Median beast.” Even though Meera is first shocked with Hira answer, she started to pour cold water on him.

“Hmpf! Just wait until I reach the same age as you! I might even be able to defeat you Sis Meera!” Not even affected by her word, he even proudly proclaimed to defeat her in the future!

Even though “absorbing mana essence” may sound simple, it actually takes quite a toll for human to absorb the mana essence. To absorb the essence, humans are required to be in a full-concentration state to feel the location of the mana essence. This process is different for each human, because it all depends on their talent. There might be a human that be able to perceive the mana essence in an instant, but there also might be a human that take some time to perceive the mana essence.

“Yeah right! You still has a long way to go to beat me!” challenged by Hira’s word, Meera reply him with a smug smile on her face. If it is another ordinary boy, she might just brush it off as a kid’s tantrum, but if it’s Hira, she has to take it seriously.

For the village, Hira is their diamond, it just has not been polished enough. In term of talent, he probably has a top-grade talent quality. This can be proven by how he perceived the mana essence. For a human that has an average talent, they may take4 hour to perceive the mana essence. For above-average, it will take 2-3 hour while an ordinary genius will take 1 hour at most. But for him? He only needed a few minutes to locate the essence. When Elder Ju found out about his innate talent, he become incomparably happy! He even suspected that Hira is being loved by the mana so much that they just let him to absorb them!

“Well, that’s enough for today, go back home and sleep! For your action today, I’ll only forgive you this once! Understood?” Applying some pressure into her words, she scolded Hira. She can only hope that this little rascal will be able to control himself more.

“Ye-“ But before even Hira can reply, there is a sudden explosion happen at the center of the village!

This causes the three of them to be dumbfounded. It has been quite a long time before any of invasion or attack has happen in the village. Most of it would usually be a magical beast going rampage. But this kind of explosion seems to be man-made.

“Both of you, enter your house now! Meet your parent and seek refuge! Hira take care of your sister!” Alarmed by the explosion, Meera immediately take action and run off to the village central with high-speed movement.

“Sis Meera!” Confused by this event, Hira immediately turn in to panic-state. He doesn’t even know what happening anymore. Then he turns and saw his sister, Crea, face become really scared.

Argh! What are you doing dumbass!? Your sister is even more scared then you and now you’re panicking!? What are you!? A kid!?

Feeling guilty by his state, he immediately swapped his expression into a happy go lucky that he usually had. He doesn’t want his sister to be sad and scared. But before he can even talk, there suddenly a blurry figure passes his sister…..

And all that left is Crea’s lower body.