Two men stood, side by side, on the precipice of a cliff as they watched the blue moon on the horizon. The Incarnation of the Moon seemed to gaze over the entire world from THEIR place in the skies. This day was the final day leading to the dawn of a new age, spearheaded by the Regisan Dynasty, the Age of Emperors.

"Bernard, do you know? The Constellation Guardian of the 'Rivers of Flame' Temple has delivered me a message. A prophecy, moreso. The "Path to the Stars". A path to somewhere beyond this world. The cosmos."

"Oh, so it really exists? Hahaha! The realm of Gods is at hand at last! Soon, we will all know…"

"Yes, yes. Though the meaning of the prophecy is beyond my comprehension due to the odd words that were used, I can infer that this may also mean that the Gods want us to know. Since it was revealed to us, it is most likely that the Heralds of the Gods (Emperors) and the High Temple Lords know as well."

"Then that may mean the Gods want another upheaval of a new era to happen, just like in the previous era, the Era of Dawn."

"I am only hoping that, when the new era arrives, the High Warring Flame (Incarnation of Destruction) will finally allow me to "crusade". It has been a long while since I've been named as a destroyer."

"No, before that, we must head to the Lost Temple of the Land of Ancestry, there is something… I must do "it" when I get there…."

The voices began to fade, meanwhile small specks of radiance began to litter the morning skies, and it soon turned to night, as a pale, young man, who wore a sleek fedora and a gleaming black suit and held an aura of depravity that could turn anyone into a maniac, opened his eyes and grinned.

However, as it turned out, anyone who stared deeply into the eyes of this young man could tell that his age surpassed hundreds of years, and as a being of the 8th Star Echelon, with an Arcane Core with the name of "Puppeteer", it was obvious how he managed to look so young while being so old. He replaced his original self with a "puppet", a marionette, so that he could live for as long as he wanted. Much like someone who served the Incarnation of Debauchery and Joy (A God).

On this night, there were no clouds and the night sky was more beautiful than it ever could be as it stared down the mountains and rivers that were surrounded by the land of the Western United Artois-Sanguinet Empire, located to the south of the Western Continent.

The young man with a fedora spread his arms as he embraced the darkness of midnight, and then he drew a longsword from a blood-stained sheath that had been left by a corpse near him and used it to slice open his left and right hands. Then, he sang a prayer.

"The sun shall eventually set and rise. The shadows of dusk shall cast their gaze upon the land, dreading the moment the horizon brightens and dawn arrives. Soon, all will bow towards the Sun, all while the Sun shall rise once again, for eternity."

He unleashed a treacherous mocking smile, as he finished off with, 

"All in the cosmos is for the Eternal Joyseeking (Incarnation of Debauchery and Joy)!"

This individual mocked the Incarnation of the Blazing Destruction, by finishing off the prayer meant to honour THEM, with words that only cast their gaze towards the God that holds the intangible strings of all living things. If a normal person spoke these words, they would immediately be subjected to Divine Punishment, but since this man was second to none amongst Temple worshippers, being a Sacred Temple Lord, he didn't worry.

"Now I know about that 'secret'. The "Path to the Stars", huh?! I'll put on a dance when on the path towards the Gods, one that THEY, the Incarnation of all things that yearn and lust, can be proud of!"

"All hail!"

•••

"All…"

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"All hail… all hail the Eternal…!…?" 

"…Huh? What the… what did I just, ugh, say…?"

Percy Orsini woke up, on a hammock swinging from tree to tree, dazed from his "dream". 

"What… was that? All hail? All hail what exactly?" Percy said, extremely confused and still dazed as he rose from the hammock, putting his hand on a nearby tree to balance himself as he did.

"I… I don't know what I was dreaming about, I just keep getting the feeling that it was really important, but I just can't remember..."

Percy sighed, rubbed an eye once and shook his head in disbelief, before finally deciding to dismiss it. He stretched his arms out and sat up from the hammock, ready to begin his day once again. Though most of his days were very boring and unproductive, consisting of throwing small rocks upwards from the ground all day and all night, and then going back to sleep again.

"…Life sucks."

"I'm tired of just… sitting around all day! I just want to get an Arcane Core or something…! But… that's probably impossible, considering my luck."

The year was 1876, January 8th of the Perclian Calender that was based off the names of the brightest stars in the night sky, and Percy lived in this woodlands, alone. 

He had no family here, or, at all, as he came from very distant lands. The extremely far Eastern Continent in fact, and even from a small unknown country he didn't actually remember the name of. The reason why Percy was now in the Western Continent's Sanguinet Empire, so far away from his homeland was because he was captured at a young age by people foreign to his land, and while he no longer recall it, he could never forget how he was treated there, especially due to his uniqueness.

It was often rumoured among other slaves that his ancestors were cursed by the country's national Deity Creature, the Scarlet Serpent, long ago, which explained was why his eyes were like that, but in reality, even Percy himself doesn't actually really know why his pupils are crimson red, or why he was discriminated against so harshly as a slave because of it—even when most people don't pay it any mind during a normal conversation.

Unfortunately, after Percy escaped his captivity, he couldn't ask the "Ten Sanguinet Divisions" Law & Security Commission, that oversaw the country on behalf of the actual rulers, the Sanguine Court, that was formed from a subsidiary branch of the ruling Royal Families, for help after he escaped as he didn't have a Travelling Special Book, a special book which allows entry into most countries and regions. 

But even then, he was thankful that his captors had picked this rather peaceful country for him to mine instead of one racked with war.

Percy rubbed his eyes once again and gazed at the cold morning sky. He wondered if, one day, he would gain a special encounter. He desperately wanted an Arcane Core, after all.

Arcane Cores, in simple terms, were 'special cultivation cores' that one could gain after being gazed upon by an Incarnation, a God from the cosmos. The Arcane Core fuses with the person, and is influenced by their personality and their traits, and they gain abilities related to them in some way, as in, someone who has a strong sense of justice will gain an Arcane Core with the name, "Sword of Justice" or "Blade of Judgement", depending on how kind or how neutral they are.

But besides that, no Arcane Core can be the same, due to the "Absorption of Arcane Principles", which, in simpler terms, explains how the characteristics of the Arcane Core gained are related to you, at the core. 

Someone like an exploiter that linked to falsities would gain abilities capable of partial manipulation of laws, order manipulation and destruction, weaving lies into reality and all else. Meanwhile, the power of an Arcane Core is ranked in sequence, from the 1st Star Echelon to the 12th Star Echelon, and someone can gain significant strength from moving up Echelons through the "Rite of Arcane Passage". And finally, once someone reaches the 12th Star Echelon, they can create a "Constellation Chain" out of their Arcane Core, allow them to ascend to even more unfathomable heights.

Percy squinted his eyes at the surroundings, looking around the lush forest of greenery for a moment, before deciding,

"Y'know what? I'm just going to go to sleep. At least I'll be kept occupied by my dreams… or not. But at this point, that doesn't matter!"

Percy hopped back into his hammock, and slowly drifted to sleep amongst the chirping of birds and other forest noises. His vision began to blur, and he did nothing but slowly close his eyes as he peacefully succumbed to slumber. A tingling sensation ran through his tendons, muscles, flesh, blood and even bones as he slept, and then it was into a sea of darkness he went, as the memories of his past slowly enveloped him. 

His consciousness faded as if he was heading into eternal sleep, and he dived into the deepest enclaves of his own mind. 

It was only through these dreams that he was able to see his hidden memories, as they were preserved in Memoria. The Incarnation of Dream & Memories forbids to let any memory fade and be discarded into the void forever.

All memories and dreams that exist, to THEIR glorious and divine eyes, no matter dream or nightmare, of the past or of the future, are beautiful. THEY remember and see beauty through all things, THEIR followers using THEIR gaze to pierce through the mysterious veil of reality and reveal the wonders beneath.

And so, because of that God, Percy began to dream of that day, which he had already begun to forget.