“You calm, kid?”

Kiba’s words barely registered. Edan stood on the edge of a cloud, taking quick panicked breaths as he looked over the edge. Blues and pinks swirled together in a soothing gradient and made Edan think of the setting sun. He was hit with a bout of vertigo as his mind tried to convince him the sky was below him and he was standing upside down.

Staggering back Edan tried to control his breathing. The heat had faded, again. Or perhaps the shock of Kiba’s words kept his mind distracted. Part of him wanted to call the man a liar, to shout and scream at him.

Why would he lie? That was the same thought that kept Edan from blissful denial.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

Kiba walked up beside Edan and then continued walking. He stepped off the cloud into the open air and stood there. Turning back to Edan he held his arms out wide.

“Why would I lie?” He gestured for Edan to join him. “Come on, let me show you. Don’t worry, you won't fall if I don't want you to.”

After the day he had, stepping off the cloud was the easiest thing Edan had done. He didn’t even hesitate.

The clouds around them boiled and rolled before receding.

Kiba and Edan stood suspended in space, beneath their feet was Terra in all her glory. They fell through space and past clouds. Edan felt his stomach rise into his throat as they hurtled towards the ground, but he kept from screaming.

“This was your world when I got here,” Kiba said, using his chin to point at the scene before them.

The pair stood above a city of glass and steel. Buildings reached from the ground like trees, stretching towards the sun. Edan noticed things moving in rows and identified them as vehicles. History lessons and stories of old Earth helped give names to so many foreign items. Cars and trucks.

Edan could see people walking about the streets. None bore weapons and instead of armor, they wore a strange assortment of clothes.

“Is this real?” Edan whispered, caught up in the vision before him.

“For the most part. The Precursor wasn’t the first creature to find your planet, it was just the first to make a nuisance of itself. There was one, it got stuck along the coast.”

“How do you know?”

“It was the one I heard. The one I tracked. I scanned your world when I first entered the atmosphere and continued to monitor it as the so-called Precusory arrived.” He rubbed his chin as he continued to watch the people below. “I got bored and it was entertaining for a while.”

The scene before Edan changed. Now a creature towered over the city skyscrapers. It was bipedal with hunched hind legs and long forelimbs. It had a short snout and large flat eyes. Ridges ran along its brow, like a crown with the two largest spikes reaching up like horns. Its dark leathery skin seemed to shift in the midday sun.

“That is a bull,” Kiba interjected lightly.

The vision before Edan changed again. The Precursor-the bull, lumbered forward, its massive frame shaking the ground and turning towering buildings into rubble. People were running and screaming as their city came tumbling down around them.

Behind the massive hulking form of the Precursor, smaller creatures appeared, the air around them rippling like a heat wave. They were only smaller in comparison to the Precursor. Each came up to his shoulders but carried an equally bulky frame. At random they split up, each lumbering off in a different direction, heedless of the destruction and death in their wake.

“The vanguard I assume?” Kiba said, mockingly. “Who gave them these names? The Precursor. The Vanguard.”

“The Four Star Heavenly Sect. They said the creatures brought the system with them.”

Edan felt a sinking in his heart.

Ignoring the worm of uncertainty that had grown in the pit of his stomach, Edan focused on the scene beneath him and Kiba.

The Precursor continued on its way, the ruin of a city left behind it. Eventually, it stopped next to the coast. Waves, looking ridiculously small, crashed against its toes. The bull sniffed the air and then with a low, bass, moo it drove its oversized forearms into the ground. The skin along its body rippled from the force, tentacles rising like hair and lashing the air.

Edan watched, partly horrified, partly fascinated, as more tentacles rose along its legs, stretching out they latched the creature to the ground. So slowly at first that Edan barely noticed, the creature began to sink into the ground. Sand started to crest out from it as it sank.

There was a thump and a wave of sound stretched out with the bull at its center. It was more than sound though. Where it passed things changed. Waves grew more violent, and the ground shifted as sand turned to rock before crumbling back into pebbles. Grass wilted, then regrew larger and thicker than before before dying again.

“Your world, trying to get used to the injection of Vitalis,” Kiba said by way of explanation.

“So they did bring the system!”

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“No, kid. Worlds are just like cultivators, they grow and change and some, not all, manage to light their spark. If they do, the world evolves and the System is implemented to help govern it. The evolution is slow though and could take thousands of years, giving the world time to adjust to Vitalis. This,” Kiba pointed to the bull as another wave of force was released from it. “Is forced. The vanguard, as the Four Star Sect calls them, did the same.”

Once more appearing above Terra, Edan watched as the land masses shifted, some broke apart and merged, others rose from below the sea. Forests grew in deserts and Ice gave way to sea.

There was a ripple in space. Like someone had dropped a pebble into a pool of stars. From the center of the ripple a castle appeared, the jagged land it rested on looking like it had been forcefully uprooted from some stony cliff.

“Star Castle,” Edan said, recognizing the building with its flagged towers. “It brought the Four Star Heavenly Sect here. We thought they had come as saviors. They taught humans how to cultivate and train and how to harness Vitalis.”

“They were just following the signal from the Flare Calfs.”

“But they chained the Precursor and Vanguard!”

Once more Edan and Kiba fell from space. This time Edan allowed himself to enjoy it. Even Kiba had a smile on his face. They arrived on a green hill. Forests stretched out behind them and a dozen streams ran together before them, meeting the sea. Floating in the sky above the sea were hundreds of small islands, each held in place by massive thick steel cables.

Edan gasped. He recognized the location, though he hadn't been there since he was a baby.

“Solaris! That's the capital. That's the main branch of the Terra-based Four Star Heavenly Sect!” He exclaimed, pointing up. “Have you been here before?”

“In a sense. This was created before I died. When I could spare the energy to sense it. It could look very different now.”

Edan continued to look on in wonder. Water fell from the sides of some of the islands, looking like crystal waterfalls in the sun. And just as the stories said, the cables holding the islands in place led to the steel collar embedded in the neck of the Precursor. The creature's giant form lay curled up in slumber where the rivers converged. Root-like tentacles grew from its skin, holding it locked to the ground.

“They say the cables will shiver should the Precursor ever wake up and the Four Star Heavenly Sect will act in defense of Earth one more,” Edan told Kiba.

“You still sound unsure, kid. You ever wanted to join the sect?” Kiba asked.

“Of course I did, as a child! I thought it was the path to getting my…well, I thought it would make me strong.”

“And I suppose those that get chosen then grow up to be the heroes of your world. Fighting alongside the Sect to protect their world.”

“Yes! I mean, No! They are heroes, just to other worlds. The same way the Sect protects Earth, they travel to other worlds to protect them.”

“Ahhh I see. Convenient.” Kiba glanced up at the floating islands, his words still light. “But I suppose they ensure everyone has the chance to cultivate the best methods. I mean, the more powerful people there are, the better protected Earth is, right?”

“No! The more powerful people around the more they could cause trouble! The sect controls the cultivation methods available, to ensure our safety.” Edan didn’t like the way Kiba was asking the questions.

Kiba gave Edan a long-level look. “And that makes sense to you?”

‘What are you trying to say?” Edan asked hotly, his temper getting the best of him.

“Open your eyes, kid. Part of you already knows I’m telling the truth.”

“But the Guilds, and the other sects, they’d have to know,” Edan rubbed the bridge of his nose, his head was pounding and his limbs tingled. “Why doesn’t anyone know?”

“They likely do but are restricted by contracts. Those who get recruited locally are shuffled off world. I’d imagine travel to Terra from other Realms is heavily controlled?"

“They said it was for our safety. We aren’t strong enough to protect ourselves yet.” Edan whispered.

The world disappeared from beneath their feet as they once more stood among the clouds. The soft pinks and blue of the sky surrounded them.

“The Guilds are old, kid. And powerful. Your planet isn’t worth the effort of saving. A newly integrated world, even one forced to integrate early, will spawn all sorts of treasures. It’s easier to get along with the ruling power than it is to overthrow them.” Kiba sat, a seat forming under him to catch his weight. “When you have control over millions of worlds, what's the value of one little one?”

“But why?” Edan flopped down, the numbness in his legs passing his knees. A chair caught him and he leaned back, rubbing his chest. “You said it was for cultivation?”

“The further you go on the road of cultivation, the harder it becomes to take a step. Each one requires effort. Effort and resources. What that resource is, depends on the path the cultivator takes. For someone who follows the Path of War, perhaps they need to live on a battlefield until the blood of others seeps into their bones. For someone who follows a Path of Stars, perhaps it requires the cultivator to consume a planet rich with Vitalis.”

The sentence was delivered in such a calm, conversational tone, that it took Edan a second to register what was being said.

“If the System deems a world ready for integration, it provides it with a protected status. Limits who and what can approach. Like I said, the integration takes years and years so it doesn’t want anyone fucking with its plans.” Kiba gave a shrug, his amber eyes watching clouds float by. “Now, what if you find a world before the System does. A world ready to be integrated. Why not just forcefully integrate it yourself? You could lay claim to it immediately. Sure, it would still take time to reach maturity and be worth consuming, but if you wanted a little return on your investment in the meantime, why not use its resources to train and grow your disciples. Maybe pick up a few more.”

Kiba pointed to an open space among the clouds.

Edan turned in his chair and saw a male figure appear in the sky, his arm outstretched as if for a hug. A planet appeared beneath him. Pieces broke off of it. Small at first, but soon they grew larger. The crust of Earth peeled back like a shell and Vitalis was pulled from its core in a steady stream of gold.

Edan looked on in horror as the world was consumed.

“I met the little fucker once,” Kiba said, his eyes lingering on the man as they glowed a hot orange. “He wasn't very impressive. Had this crazy idea that worship was owed to him.”

“What do I do?” Edan asked, his voice cracking as he fought back tears. He couldn’t look away from the dying world.

“There’s nothing you can do, kid. For what it's worth, I am sorry.”

“There has t-ahhh!” Edan clutched his head, a spike of agony piercing through his brain. “Fuck, that hurt!”

“You’re holding on longer than most,” Kiba said as if it were some form of reassurance to Edan. “and some of them were grades above you.”

“Does it hurt?”

“No, they just…faded.” Kiba sighed, his eyes cooling to an eggshell blue. “You must be fighting it.”

“I can feel it, right here,” Edan touched his chest. The earlier heat had turned painful. It felt like he had swallowed coals and they’d gotten caught in his throat. His breath felt hot. “It’s hot.”

Kiba didn’t have anything to say and Edan allowed the silence to stretch as he felt his consciousness fade.