Spark's Curtain call

Black pillar-like musical cords hung across a boundless, waning blacking sky with a shattered microphone on a rotting stage of coral. Countless music sheets covered the floor, not one completed, a waking voice spoke, groggy multi-toned, and yet formless across the realm. "So where here again actors, your dance from the last show was wonderful… But you are not satisfied with that, aren't you? Multiple voices responded in kind, overwhelming yet resolute, but muffled quickly to silence as they spoke, "You wish to go on you say why? That reason is self-destructive. It has already happened so many times."

"Why not rest? But you can't go on like this, to continue on this path would be cruel. I understand, but is the price you're willing to stake everything on worth it? How I am similar to you all, yes I may not be who I am in the end but I try to go that far by any means… No, I have no right to judge. I'll do it as many times as it takes for your wish and mine. At the end of the road, I wish all of you happiness if a short rest is not possible. I hope you can keep going. It may take a long time, but when I return, hopefully, we will find what we are both looking for, may it be at this time or another, let this sacred right begin."

The dreamscape shook violently, the music chords glowed like a rainbow." A light is merely a small flicker in the days to come. Like an upcoming storm that is simply life, all look below to that deep resonance that blankets the world. The now will eventually fall, the future is as dazzling as blood from the very gods, who drink from the goblet of belief. The true loneliness is to never complete an act, to not try is the worst sin but to do the deed no matter how cruel it is to one another. So listen to the symphony sing along with its band and know true freedom, it does not matter if you are not good, raise those tired vocals and scream out loud."

"I am the perpetual engine of my fate, and as I stand so will many others, and I will inherit my world's fortune and misfortune, and I swear so it may be as clear as that pink sky where the flag bearer waits for thee. For a journey to the past, I will pledge all I am at all costs of my existence that will fade into the backline, with the will of thousands clacking their feet against the dead soil. The impossible has already happened, only the fury remains so I will break upon the marble." 

"For the world long gone, for the sky that is no longer clear, for the tears wasted. Hear it free, that song that wavers from the heart, no not the name that speaks, know only the welcoming soul. What is the end? What is the beginning of such a rhythm? No answer as expected but to and from you go, may it be from your dreams or shallow sea we go to where the torch lies. That unmistakable warmth all clings to that unknown so before all wake with a bow I grant you sight to see the paradise clinging on far."

"Stalrous Proxis will you fight against the erosion of time or keep going as night is to the moon? Maybe you will dance till tomorrow in bleak darkness or up those pure steps you call heaven. Wake now, children of Proxsis, wake, for this time all will walk as one, partings are merely a step on your trail, and once you reach it all of you will reach me. Yell your name! Bury that fear and walk on the dead cold road that is life towards me, and answer with resolve who you are. Dear actors, the night is fading, so good morning to the new age, I grant thee a grand parting, may the act begin my dim stars.

What is a tale worth remembering is someone who reached the heights of the divine? Or gathered the people? Maybe nothing at all, as in the end death is the course we walk. Immortals can be slain and true death can be granted to the undead. We all will be buried but till then we must keep going through the awakening, to inherit all from our ancestors may be the corruption of the very land or a single coin that has no use. That inheritance drives one soul so until mine reaches the goal I will continue to live, the realm began to fade fully as the last word was spoken leaving only a distant star that reflected a person.

I sat in my office of carefully carved blue molten rocks, velvet cloths covered most of the walls and floor, and an engraving of a collapsing crystal core was upon it. I sat tiredly in my rotating jade chair, one hand over my eyes partly stunting my vision, the other lying across my legs. For a moment I stayed like that then channeled my magic through me, I moved my hand away from my eyes and extended it forward doing a circular motion creating a water mirror, and looked at myself. I was a seven-foot-five male with a slim body. I wore a dark purple, partially crystallized mask of bone resembling a mishmash of bears and trolls, crammed together roughly that covered my face partly.

With a full set of deep red leather, covered with two thin layers of white and Prussian blue Drenchin holy steel, the chest piece has ruined mural markings of golden figures weaving threads around a midnight cat playing with it. On my arms. Two halves of a silver crossbow with a pitch-black tip to its arrows are adjusted to it covered in cinder-colored spores, White silky gloves covered my hands with the marking of a chained dragon breaking out of a multilayered magic circle with ten circular jade color gems embedded around the magic circles.

The legs have bloody crimson-liquid cloth wrapped around them, with a sigil of a skull cracking as a tree grows out of it rapidly. Burgundy dried dirt and flora boots that had long peachy white petals shaped like bells growing out of them. Three bronze rings on their right hand are shaped like animals, the first a hawk, the second a weasel, and the third a turtle. I was covered in mint cream, Uranian blue, melon smooth multicolored scales, with sea-colored eyes. The iris was forest green, depicting themselves looking down a cliff towards the sea beast, carrying ruined ships and homes on its back as it dived below. A long, creamy white tail half my body size, covered in pulsating midnight green tattoos. Of a cavern collapsing, a large halo hovering behind him with the same color fixed with gold. Sharp blackened claws, and various holes on their back, dripping out magma and heated air.

Slowly, I precisely expanded my mana circuit, and the mirror range increased, showing me the entire Undershard. The vast pitch-black cavern stretched out. Crystal structures became more visible resembling trees all over, along with different pathways that moved up and down and between the rocks. A ruined castle pulsing with radiant blue and gold ore, mixed with magic was embedded into the floor's cavern. Using my small amount of divinity, I caused the entire Undershard to glow, awakening the people who lived in my domain. I felt their thoughts move around the domain, some felt tired and sleepy, others hopeful.

I let out a long sigh as I saw my son, leaving through an abandoned mine shaft while looking around cautiously. I rubbed my temples for a short movement as I could tell a long headache would hit me today. Within five minutes I stopped and started to focus on creating small water wisps from liquids dripping down the walls to follow him. In a quick motion of my hand, the mirror vanished and I closed my eyes. " That boy is something else going out at four in the morning, where did he even get that type of attitude to sneak out? He doesn't get that from me. Maybe I should have raised him like Grandpa Adah did to me..."

A small but almost silent chuckle ran through the chamber, I opened my eyes to see where it came from and saw my partner Ifrantis standing there with one of his hands over his mouth, trying to stop his laugh any further. Ifrantis was a seven-foot-four male with a muscular build. He wore a creamy thin white cloak with the marking of a large tree, shaped like a fish stretching its roots out of the sea, and three layers of cloudy, silver-colored clothing under it. The first layer was made partially of wool, wolf skin, and dragon scales, the second layer is deep dark metal, and the last layer is long stretchy kraken skin.

Its tentacles firmly wrapped around my legs and arms, it pulses with solar energy creating bright yellowish, crimson markings depicting a great battle between it and smaller humanoid figures on it, colliding between a pillar of fire breaking past the clouds. Pitch black and glowing sky blue gloves and boots made of raven feathers, and rough void beast fur. Midnight-long diamond earrings shaped like a seagull with a piercing look in its eyes. His skin is peachy-yellow, and his bronze hair is long but short on the right but the left, reaching down the back and partially covering that side's eye.

He had platinum-colored eyes, while the iris was a glowing cyan, depicting spirits being tethered by spectral mint green chains to a long scroll beaded on a mossy wall, stamped with a coin that cracked down the middle. I felt our bonded mark on his back, it was an obsidian, lava tattoo of themselves in the palm of a large multicolored drake wrapped around a ruined kingdom, looking down at them with a tender look in their eyes. " Ruren, do take a break now. You have been working like this for three months even if you are not human like me, you still will be beaten down with this kind of work."

"I looked away, having an almost aggrieved look on my face. " I can't the last time I did, those invaders from beyond sent wave after wave of six-tier void entities here, I was the only one who could control this city at that point, our son. Imferus is not up to the task of taking on this responsibility, so I will have to wait for a successor for the authority." But our daughter? What about her? She seems quite interested in taking it on. She even started to practice with a sword weekly. A cold shiver went through my body as he mentioned her, and my expression softened "That is a long way away, one wrong step and she could die on the transfer, plus she is just a child, a five-year-old. Reinenis should live like a child; she does not need to be doing such things till she's nine."

"I agree but it's her choice in the end, children of this time fight to live. It has been twenty-five years since the imbalance of our world, and the young are forced to grow up because of this. Most magic isn't as powerful, void gates and entities much worse than your grandfather crashing against us there is little choice." I looked down and closed my eyes, feeling the full weight of his words alone. I felt his presence vanish and reappear as he was now in front of me hugging me close while my head lay on his shoulder, I opened my eyes looking at the open birch door behind him cautiously.

We stayed like that for fifteen minutes before the alarm shook across the Undershard. I detected twenty void gates opening up simultaneously on the surface far above. My entire body shook as I felt this was strange, there had never been such a coordinated attack until a general arrived or formed. I moved away from Ifrantis for a moment to try to access their grade only to find them all being eight-level. I turned to him quickly. " Another raid it seems, and they might have a general or something worse, and try to deal with them the best you can. I'll be up there in a moment. They're very low grade, so many of the mages can deal with most of them but eventually be overrun."

With a quick nod and pat on my head, he vanished in a blink leaving only a water puddle where he was. I moved my hand to the side in a quick motion creating a bleeding red holographic terminal that had runic designs in the shape of a splitting crown, my hands moved over a gate symbol. Within a press of a bit of my magic, the entire Undershard shook once more, the gates that lead to the surface closed and anyone near them. Citizens who were registered in the system were forcefully pulled into the inner sanctum. I closed the terminal and walked out of my office, My eyes glossed over the countless ancient undead, some spirits others with flesh.

They all had scared expressions as they were going through the corridor back toward their homes, some say the dead have nothing to fear but they do in the end oblivion, and corrosion of the spirit. And for others, far worse fates. My body felt twisted inside as hundreds quickly turned into thousands quickly on the surface. The blood within responded like a heartbeat, I felt hungry, I too had void blood, I knew I was of a higher rank, the third rank, which was closest to being a Domain conquer when it comes to void spawn.

I found myself salivating for a moment before I regained my senses and wiped it away. I moved my magical circuits around my body and put my hands together as I transmitted myself to the surface. As I arrived, I saw the purplish pink sky and swarms of rat-like void entities glowing in an orange glow being pummeled down by the basic elements from adventurers from the barren tides guild. I instinctively moved to the side as I sensed some spells were about to reach me, causing it to explode on contact with some of the entities. Eighteen pitch-black silvers of reality I sensed before surrounded a humanoid figure glowing with an almost nighttime glow of a light blue moon, his body completely made up of cracked hands.

A singular silver eye could be seen peeking through the gaps of one of the fingers, Its iris took the shape of a queen of hearts card being segmented. They floated around with their hands up trying to keep a barrier up that held a white glow toward them, Their entire body breaking rapidly. As large bubbles brushed against him, they appeared and disappeared around them, the annoyance could be felt radiating off them, I started to look deeper into them only to find a tenth-rank magic signature coming off them. "So it's weaker than its subordinates, how amusing." Hearing this their eye glared at me and their barrier fell.

It pointed both its arms and blasted forth an unsteady stream of void particles in my direction, but as it released the blast its lower torso was rendered to dust as twenty bubbles appeared in rapid succession and collided with his body. The blast knocked them around and he partly faded in a steam smokescreen. I scanned his form once more to dwell on the damage only to find the main source of it wasn't heavily damaged at all." How dare you! If it wasn't for this false body I would have you dead! Why should the Innkeeper have to suffer such a humiliation!" He roared out in fragmented voices. I felt a strange unease when he mentioned false body making me remember darker memories and I immediately made snapping motions with my fingers, cause the ground he was hovering above impaled him from all sides and then sank him below it,

As his body started to glow brighter and his mana signature skyrocketed by four levels, the entire ground split open as he was put there like hands moving through sand. I readied my body as I saw his once-ruined body quickly rising from the earth, His missing parts that were once gone were imminently healed. His eyes were still fixed on my direction. His hand-like body unfurled where his face would be to his chest and back revealing an obsidian skeletal structure that resembled a birdcage. Within that structure was a wilting moonlight butterfly. Ifrantis appeared behind him as he was unfurling, uncloaked, with his Scholar Varifus Bow of Detached Valor. Varifus is a dark chocolate-colored compound bow made of cracked, dusty fossils. It's partially holographic, with bits of neon blue and midnight circuitry visible through the cracks.

Its arrow was fully charged, and with one finger he let go of its twelve illuminated bow strings and a thin beam hit that cage head-on. Its entire body contorted like the space itself was being forcefully spun, knocking him away slightly as it was sent crashing into a nearby hoard of void mice. Then a large explosion went off, melting the mana within twenty meters of it. I sensed his power increase on the impact and its gaze changed targets a bit, before the crash and prepared one of my spells. I went down on one knee and placed both my hands on the wet grassy earth beneath me and chanted "The land is naught for the storm, life withers and decays into retribution to outlanders so may it be the god of conquest to take the stage all of what you are is simply mine for the taking."

"As I finished my chant, nine arachnid blades made of a thin layer of the innkeeper void energy sprang from portals that formed around Ifrantis from all sides, stopping his escape. He managed to swiftly dodge most of them, but three, as they were about to hit. My eyes glowed and moved towards his position and parts of my divinity flared up as large broadswords made of silver wooden roots surrounded him taking the hit. The moment they touched the sword it shattered like glass, my attention went back towards the entity whose cage was cracked and visibly showing signs of mana leakage.

I sat up fully and pointed one of my hands towards it, making a gesture of twisting a key, the air around him jetted forth covering him and doing the same action. It let out screams and threats as it was captured. More arachnid-like legs appeared in rapid succession around me as I slowly turned my hand. They try striking me only to get parried off and shatter each time it touches me. " What are you!? There should be only one here in the reports who has been confirmed to be divine. And you what is that weapon there should be nothing like in this era, did they lie to me? Those damn pompous higher-ups wait till I…" I quickly turned my hand in reverse causing a large crack to sound out on the battlefield as his entire body was compacted into the shape of a sugar cube. His tether to his home layer was ripped from him upon dying, along with all his knowledge flowing into me, along with flattening the gates with my lesser divine aura.

I slowly resealed my divinity and looked upon the remaining void entities who stopped in place for mere moments as the gates were gone from the area, and started to flee towards another area where the remaining were. Before they got the chance to leave, they were frozen and then shattered into pieces by nearby mages. I started to track the location to where the other two void gates were, only to find one fading rapidly and the other still active along with my grandfather's mana signature there. His undead energy flickered with many others. I knew the location well enough. High Peaks village was there but now empty, a rune craft barrier once protected it but was easily eaten away by a living magical layline which was corrupted.

I let out a sigh "There has to be more than the mere fact that a rank six was hiding as a rank ten is peculiar. I don't like the idea of them obtaining false bodies nor do I have the energy to look into it. I'll look into the memories I have obtained when I have the energy. " I mutter under my breath, then look over at Ifrantis and gave him a knowing look, he nods and I teleport into our room, multiple tables of devices and papers lying about. The floor was covered in a large bear-furred rug while the walls were made of clean-cut gray stone with runic marks, of myself holding a golden feather. I moved to the closet and started to take off everything and left it near it. My head hung tiredly as I walked over to the bed made of crimson wood that arched into a spiral, to the glassy ceiling which reflected the light of the incoming day.

They are mostly made up of foreign beasts with extra fluffy hide adorned with a light gray to blue coloring to it. I plopped down on the bed immediately as I got close. My tail grabbed the covers with a strong grip and covered me, then it wrapped around my waist as it let out a golden glow of angelic energy. I quickly fell asleep as the calming waves covered me then pure silence overtook the room as I fell asleep fully. The runes on the walls glowed and then started to glitch and swirl across the ceiling like constellations within the sky, one particular shone brighter. It was of a guillotine-like blade swiping down a mountain of treasure like a fishing hook.

The light from the glass ceiling flashed a blinding pink in the room every five seconds, the fire of the same kind formed, it did not burn but covered everything. Then it all vanished as day quickly turned to night in an instant leaving only a red, maddening glow. A voice spoke through the unknown of the phenomenon. Its voice excited yet maddening too. "Like then we all asked if this place was worth dying for, and now we have that answer, what is fate but another question in the hat of mystery, so tell me, holder of the chalice, of fickle strife. One who sits on the divine throne of conquest. What is the sin your party committed on that dreaded day of disaster, why did the corruption of the leylines reach all over the world tell me, place your heart on the scale of your soul, and speak free… 

And so here I am playing in a ruined place, let me tell you our state of affairs if you have forgotten. Barely any light covers the skies to warm the living body or to decompose the undead's true form—no pure underworld for, just a sickly corrupted womb now that produced monsters. A maelstrom calls to you its words sickly sweet, the sound of something rousing from all sides could be heard. The red glow from the distance gets closer. Its gentle coaxing turned into a command, and then a ripple of rising energy began to rise. I could not find the source but looked unimpressed as it barely caused my disease to react.

I knew of this type of void entity, it was a simple level nine gorger, nothing impressive in abilities or natural strength. The wet earth beneath me sent a shiver through me as I saw that cyan moon rise steadily, its light falling on the twisted forms of the people who had stopped their eternal march forward. Thousands of silver void threads flickered out of their open large wounds as a partially visible smoke, a flame surrounded them like a shackle. I looked at it concerned as it had been at least twenty minutes since I snuck out. My eyes scanned the far-gone people for ten minutes unwaveringly as I looked deeper over the land, darker thoughts began to flow through me, what is their life now? Why should they go forward? When we have already lost most of the population to Hypentral corrosion? Yet that fire burns on within as the sun rises, and the full petulant emerald moon takes its place, we get another chance to pretend.

I let out a bitter chuckle, I felt the heavy wind magic particles move the snow-white iced trees and go across my peachy-yellow skin which was partially covered in mint cream scales and caused my messy short melon and bronze hair to move about. Slowly I let out a short chant causing the influx of the unknown being's void energy to plummet to zero "I scribe Twilight the course is charted but broken ruin is where we go." Reflective golden holy rain fell across the forest I was within, that being screeched and wailed, and through it all, I looked to my reflection through the rain. I was fit, being five-foot-two in height, and wore three long, lapis lazuli, jasper, and amethyst scarves around my neck that had patterns of drakes gliding around unstable cliffs. An oversized sweater with a design of a hydra,

Made up of those same colors, gems, made with large void beast fur of different kinds, that's over multiple bandages that covered my entire upper body, which had pulsating violet markings of two hands touching opposite sides of a mirror. Blueberry black leather pants have different ritual trinkets hanging across them, and blackened forest tree sandals are made of pure magical energy that resembles a winged serpent about to release its elemental breath. My skin was peachy-yellow and partially covered in mint cream scales, even my eyes let out their dual-colored glow, the left being sea colored while the right was platinum, with the iris taking the shape of a crocodile void crusher, standing on its hind legs in front of a small child.

Its jaw is broken, and a black hole forms above it with a pulsating deep orange gate behind it getting wider. I touched my shivering five Ox-like horns permeated in deep orange corruption in the form of cracks, on opposite sides of my head angled in a shoveling way, the same permeation as my horns but in the form of miasma covered the entire upper side of my body. Several smaller halos hover behind me, four of them are covered in corruption while the others emit an earthy brown, gold light with a tail ten times bigger and longer than the rest of my body. I began to pull out a crow skull, needle, and thread. I positioned it at the back of the skull locking towards the origin point of the entity through the rain, then tapped the needle over and left multiple cracks in it, as I poured various pain enhancing hexes into the process.

It let out multiple screams of terror. The wind began to pick up and move in a certain direction signalling it was trying to flee, yet as it tried holy water chains grasped them firmly in place, filled to the brim with my spirit magic. Its true body was unable to flee out of the forest. I could tell it was breaking apart as it lost its connection to its energy. I landed a killing blow, quickly chanting an instant death curse but before I unleashed it, I poured more magical energy into the spell for it to succeed. I slammed the needle into the crow's skull with inhuman strength and speed, shattering it to dust as the needle made contact, the entity let out a loud pained roar which caused the trees to shudder in fear as it was completely vanquished. The faint void energy that dwelled in the former people began to collapse. This would only stop them for a week before they regained it all back and began to move once more, nothing could truly stop them in the end.

The Hordes' bodies went more limp than usual and fell on their knees, and the scent of jasmine began to permeate the area. I could feel the corruption in the area being pushed back a bit, a childish laughter started to blast out randomly, my eyes looked over to behind the trees to where it was coming from, to see an entity with a large face who looked exactly like trees. Fifteen bronze leather bags hung from his branches with different animal-like trinkets," Jerut Merchant…" I whispered venomously. He tilts his head as I look it over with a bored expression for a bit before I start to walk away. "What a disappointing reaction, where are you going? Come on, I can sell you stuff, no tricks or anything!" I stopped and gave it a skeptical look.

"What could you give me that I need? Your merchant guild is unsavory, looting the ruined towns and cheating people of their desires with a single handshake." A complex look appeared on their face, they looked away from me as I started to glare at them, my tail swayed back and forth irritated by their presence. " I know many of the members did all that and are still… But I'm not like that! I am part of a small branch office that gives back and hunts down objects for clients, along with many other odd jobs. Our contracts benefit you more than us, you see, since the corruption began to seep through many of the leylines, we normally travel through have been inaccessible so less energy to feed on.

"So my department Iyushishei Sparkle is trying to stabilize it as much as we can so it can't spread and affect more areas that live off it." He quickly put down one of his bags which had a dog trinket upon it and pulled out a large condensed tear-shaped magical crystal the size of a human head. "We sell stuff like this for settlements to help out or even volunteer to help out on food scouting." I gave him a look over, finding it was the purest mana I'd seen in a long while," he quickly put it back into the backpack. Giving him a look once over, my eyes started to glow bright as I sent my magical energy into them then I started to look deep into him to see if he was genuine, once I confirmed they turned back to normal. "I see, if what you are saying is true then would you have a map that leads to Emererssion station, a safer way past the thousands of corrupted individuals." He looked at me surprised for a moment then began to think, having a complex look forming on his wooden face.

"Yes and no it depends on one's ability to use it effectively, all I can tell you is I can sell it to you if you have any abilities like traveling to another dimension which is not likely, or something akin to teleportation to another structure." Of course let me show you," I began to course my spirit magic through my hands, calling upon the woodland spirits, then pointed at a nearby tree which opens a gate to a tree behind me. He had a surprised look. "That's unique, I don't see many users of that kind of magic around, especially since that realm has long been sealed off by normal means." I shrugged " So what do I need to give for the map?"

"Oh, just some of your magical energy, that's all!" I eyed him suspiciously "What will you use it for?" He gave me a knowing smile "I'll do what my department does, farm it up and turn it into magical energy for myself and the rest into crystals for other survivors to use." You should see the contract for this kind of thing is always asked. The tree-like fae began to hold its hand towards me letting its green mana which then turned into a contract in front of me floating. I read it over, finding no loopholes but saw something that caught my eye within it. " How strange you would want others to spread the word about the department you say you're a part of, but why not do it through other channels of communication?"

A tired expression appeared on his face almost immediately. "We are mostly oppressed from doing so, if we cross that line we will be kicked out from the community where we live, no magical layline less survival rate. The higher-ups don't like us stooping to the level of the common folk they call all of you. It's quite annoying that many good businesses go down and we can't do anything about it unless we want to toil away across this war-torn field of corruption. A whole family could be deported if one of them breaks the rules of the guild so it's naturally in the contract more beneficial for all, I think since the better the reputation the sooner we can abolish such a stagnant rule."

I nodded " I see well good to be doing business with you, the tracking spell within this contract bugs me a bit, but if you were dangerous you would give away free things like it didn't matter so you have a deal. My hand hovered over it. I pulsed my semi-corrupted mana and condensed it to the point that it could not affect anyone, making it glow purple as I signed, and once I did a small portion within me was taken. The contract folded up and flew back to the fey, Several chair-sized, crystal purple mana appeared near him. He looked at it completely overwhelmed "It's post to take a small portion that would be at least close to all the mana in a human body, just how much do you have, what exactly are you? I didn't respond."

He shook his head mumbling something before he reached down to the bag near his legs and opened it. He pulled in the mana stones, then pulled out a map with one hand and closed the bag. The map itself looked like it was made of butterfly wings that radiated an almost rainbow glow to it, and emanated my same magical properties, it flew over to me, and he put the large mana crystals in his small bag like liquid. I grasped it and gave it one look over confirming it was true, then I put it with my tail, which was carefully wrapping around it protectively. He carefully repositioned his bags onto his branches and bowed, the contract melted into him.

" I may not know what you are but thank you for the trade, may our items bring you joy, and may you live a long life my name Is Juewen may we meet again dear customer." After the bow, he turned away but as he walked past a tree he completely vanished, I could feel his magical aura fade like it never existed. Suddenly my stomach began to rumble, and I felt a deep hunger, " Ah right I forgot I didn't have time to eat anything before this lead." I mumbled under my breath, rubbing my temples as I expected both of my parents to be angry on my return, along with a long painful headache from my little sister to be yelling at the top of her lungs for me to play with her.

I grasped one of my ritual trinkets on my clothing and raised it to the sky, it was a reddish large orc heart stabbed with green thorns from all sides. I crushed it with my immense strength and felt a blinding purifying light move over me, my body was propelled into the air, as I hovered and faced south accelerating my body with my holy magic. Different scents came to me as I moved at top speed, of life and death and the various unknowns that caused my corruption to twitch a bit. My eyes focused ahead, trying to make out Mt Oare from its highly concentrated undead energy that swirls around it like a living entity.

I felt life signs fade as I moved past ruined villages, and heard a screech of rage as a void gate shattered, with smaller entities crawling from the ground. The taste of people's warm yet sweet creamy souls moved over my tongue. I devoured them along the way. They did not need it anyway; out in the outskirts, there was barely anyone who knew how to fight such entities from the beyond, nor anyone with the right magical experience to at least hurt one. Death is a kind thing but they don't bring it, they simply lock it into a constant life cycle, you can't move or think of strength just follow and destroy all that makes you uncomfortable. Once it happens it's too late, no cure, just grief.

A grief that will devour you whole one day, so if you are one of their kin in a way, I hope you don't catch the corrosion as in the end, a worse fate awaits thee, as my thoughts moved around about it, I felt a spike in a familiar magical response causing me stop my acceleration and turn to its direction. I saw my great grandfather Ahah standing in front of a light grey void gate covered in the purplish inky blood of his kin, its shape was of a crying dove, and the size was of a full camp of five hundred people. Hundreds of spider-like void beasts of the eighth rank rushed out of it, their small forms which were similar to toads kept duplicating with each movement. Their eyes glowed a venomous green with the irises being the two number ones crumbling to dust.

I maneuvered my halos into more comfortable positions like an armchair, keeping myself afloat still but prepared for any attacks that could reach me, and simply watched as he began his extermination. Adah stood at six-foot-one with a moderate build towards himself. He wore an ivory thorny four-pointed crown that had blackened circular dots across its surface. A plated, worn-down, silvery chest piece reveals their upper chest, flaming dark red, blackened skin with patches of crystal and stretchy oily fur of the same color, hangs across their vambraces.

Baggy light cyan pants made of souls that have charcoal-colored daggers embedded down the knees in five rolls with intersecting chains, creating a symbol maelstrom of hearts lifting upwards to the sky, a belt of similar make with it. Leathery light red boots covered in dark green miasma, sharp bony extrusions in the shape of bat wings are covered in a sticky red substance at its side. A small ring made of reflective teal-colored glass on the finger of their left hand, its shape is similar to a seashell mixed with an iron maiden.

He was partly an obsidian-colored skeleton, covered in a constantly shifting rosewood fog, that took the shape of different humanoid beings. The upper right side of their body has reddish, midnight skin with sleek plain black hair that's slightly spiky in design, and the left eye is a melon-shaded wisp flame while the right is a plain eye. Their irises take the shape of a freshly melting corpse with holy blades of bright yellow stabbed deeply into them from all sides, lying on their knees in front of countless large shadow indigo mirrors.

Chains are hooked across their arms connecting to each other with a feminine figure within them holding out their hand towards them with a sad look in their eyes, one large inky black wing out the left side of their body with a white searing marking of a scepter impaled in a large kingly demonic figure. An orange whip flame was in his left hand burning more intensely as the blood on his body began to move towards it like fuel. They continued to charge at him mindlessly, making clicking noises that resembled mice. His hands moved with cold precision as they got into range, ripping through their distorted bodies, with each whip slash came small flaming dust balls that propelled the deeper hordes into the gates.

I could tell he was holding back, if he wanted to he could wipe them all out with blood bullets, such a low-level gate would cease to function with him alone, yet I did wonder why one popped up, and why the night came so soon it was still in the morning before I left. I felt his presence notice me as I kept watching, he turned slightly looking at me with his one fleshy eye, and gave me a bored look, then turned away. He raised his left hand for a moment, and I felt the mana ripple around me, like my soul was going to be flattened, the spirits in the area mumbled afraid as potent dark magic was felt. He made the whip in his other hand vanish, and he lifted it as well. The armies moved on towards him, now free to go forward without destruction, but as they were about to reach him, He clasped his hands and opened them in their direction.

A sickening blast of void particles similar to the miasma that covered him was released, melting them and the gate they came forth from in a mere six seconds. Within those seconds of destined destruction came a single scream in unison, not animal-like, but humanoid, sending a familiar shiver down my back, and causing my corruption to flare up as a repressed memory of mine started to resurface. My halos became wobbly and reset their position behind me as flashes of myself still being my egg came to me, along with an overlapping figure whose upper body was humanoid yet the rest of him was hidden. I felt something eating me up inside, the night itself felt like it was moving over me making my muscles feel stiff.

I began to fall, I wanted to stop myself but the terror I felt stopped me, my magical circuits felt like they were burning me from within like they didn't belong, and my heart beat erratically. It was hard to breathe, as I was falling I felt a bony hand wrap around me slowing the process and I was dropped safely to the ground. I fell backward as I landed, my back on the dead earthy brown soil, one hand over my heart. My tail twitched all over, flashing the multiple polar opposite energies within which were battling for control. Through it all I saw great-grandpa Adah who looked at me worriedly picking me again more.

He looked aggrieved for a moment then sighed "You didn't take your medication before you left today did you?" I couldn't respond well, only letting out huffed breaths as my blood felt hot, and my mind became foggy. I brushed my tail against him with great difficulty and dropped the map I was holding into his hand before I reached my limit. My bandages sparked with intensity and started to tear as their repression magic was getting deluded and then eaten. Strands of my consciousness started to unfurl, and once I was on my final strand I completely went limp.

"That question that kept being asked, what was it? Right what right do we have to continue many asked, and many walked toward their version of it. Did they burn brighter than the world when they reached it?" I looked on towards the horizon of pink flames, the sky darkening bit by bit in multiple colors but swiftly changing back to its original state. A forest of black trees that were twisted in harp shapes was below, I looked down the flaming staircase that led to me and a chalk-white tower that had a whale-like entity curled around it radiating a blinding glow.

" I asked who I was once, yet the answer was more, how can you identify something that is simply a concept? How can one bite at the roots of someone's soul, and take all that they are? There was no answer, only pain, a kind of loneliness but there was something there, a melody waking." It started to rain and with it, I saw my reflection. I was four-foot-nine with a slim build and wore a midnight, jade-peaked cap that had a marking of two humanoids holding down a beast man.

A third of them put their hands within the exposed chest and widen it as they split them apart. A smooth chocolate and bubblegum pink silk shirt that has various clouds swarming across it, along with a pain gray tabby cat-shaped tie that hugs a yarn ball and a sea salt colored leather coat with its hood having fox-like ears that have three pairs of demonic piercing eyes sardonyx earrings on each. Tight toasted almond leather pants, with white glowing steaks of nine kitsune tails dangling a serpent-like blade above a ruined gate.

Two neon pink, ink bells wrapped in a ribbon shaped like a heart are on opposite sides of their legs. Cotton candy pink, silver and black sneakers that are partly mechanical and musical energy, which have five speakers with the emblem of a dog-like radio moving its head to a beat at its center. My skin was dark brown while my eyes were seafoam with the iris depicting themselves with a planet-scaled orange flaming wolf standing behind them, flickering like a lighthouse with infinite gateways of different lights spanning around them.

They had tethers connected to their bodies. Banana, vanilla-colored short hair, wolf, cat, and fox mixed beast ears along with flourishing puffed up sea blue twelve tails that have all their traits as well, which reach ten times my body height, a shimmering bright violet gem shaped like a conductor, and musicians about to start their performance is on the upper middle part of his chest. He has tattoos of the same shimmering color going across my arms and legs as music notes. As I looked at my form I felt confused yet somewhat tired like I was sleeping for a long time, but also that I needed to do something.

I tried to go through my memories to see if something had changed and to find the same feeling going through me. I found nothing yet and kept seeking a beacon," Hey Suki, when this entire war is over, wanna join us to go to the festival? I heard they had your favorite pudding there too." Spoke a fractured voice close to my ear, I turned towards it finding no one yet my body shivered uncomfortably. " That voice who was waiting, have I been… No not possible then Could it have been? Before I could think deeply about it the world around me began to shake all of a sudden. I looked around shaken and hugged one of my tails as a natural response.

Out of all of my twenty-six years of life, I have never seen such a thing happen, even though I travel to other domains through the ether rails and see their fragmented worlds lingering calamities I have never seen one in mine. I always thought mine was simply cut off from a planet that was its final bastion of life, as there were no other sectors that had the same ID as mine. Most entities born here always go off and explore, if they do come back it is simply to fuel the flames with their tales of adventures, where that fire goes after I don't know.

Reuzerio Anrcracy is a world of symphony, one chord connected to something that has long been in slumber. The being in question I knew not the answer, only a longing, and a few words that repeat in every dream. " Must keep going forward, one day no one will be there for me," as my mind paced back and forth a loud cracking noise caught my attention. I looked to the skies seeing a rift of gold and purple mixed with a small flame that was being chased by beings from beyond who took on the form of small earth-bulldozing dragons.

My instincts kicked in as I saw them, and my pink flames gathered around my hand forming my weapon Jeschumin, an opal-colored short spear made of pearls, that has a large flaming orange flag depicting multiple lighthouses. Gathered around a singular pale blue flame in the dark sea, that is being cradled by a large wolf of similar flame holding a short sword within its jaws radiating darker hues of the lighthouses. Doing a slashing motion with it, their bodies were incinerated along with the gate swiftly before they touched the flames. I then slammed down the bottom of my spear on the clear-cut gray marble floor beneath me, sending an imminent command toward it.

The flame teleported right in front of me and before it did I was about to strike where it would appear from, but before I could I felt a familiar feeling move across my being stopping my spear movement a few meters away from it. I started to walk down the stairs, and one by one, I felt an intensity like the world around me was shaking. I didn't know why, but it felt so familiar. I kept going, and the feeling got stronger, causing me to feel immensely confused. I tried to pinpoint its location only to find a singular point. It was a strange engraving on the soul, one that reminded me of a warm memory.

I felt something cold move through me as I looked deeper, first came loud screaming, then a beat that repeated continuously, and slowly a song was playing. The notes become silent yet are seen in those screams, vivid imagery of colossal corpses made not of the flesh but concepts of more meaning. One was completely shattered into fragments, and another's corpse lay bound by multiple streams of energy to a confusing, completely changing sword that was glitching. A third who pulsed with madness yet the body was like a corpse, a fourth whose corpse was strung around multiple planets like threads, and a final whose body was scattered as twenty-three lights.

The colour that radiated off them made my body convulse for a moment then my fire ran rampant, I tried to put it out yet it only grew and covered my realm with quick efficiency. Some of the wandering flames' voices spoke through as the flame covered them like a hug. "A prophecy that must be fulfilled to the last drop of one's tears," said an old man. A promise long wilting past time, past the events of now and where it rests waiting for a chorus to be heard" spoke a pompous lady. "A light's trail soaked in sin, oh gods of this ruined land what is thy secret, oh mortals who live in destruction when the clock stops today?" An envious man roared out whose voice was starting to break.

"The soul calls from afar bringing gifts from foreign worlds long past gone, and so we arrive at that spark rises in twilight, we go on so in the end what is an encore? What is a symphony you chose to play? An elegant voice spoke, it was child-like yet held maturity, and all the voices faded. My body started to move on its own, my hand stretched out to the soul of flame longingly then all went to black as I heard a voice of comfort before a great tiredness overcame me as I made contact with it. " A sunset yet to bloom, and a horizon made to pick up the pieces he wishes longly across many worlds is a destined vow of the heart herald of paths slumber and wake to the world and with each step keep longing for that kinship that is a chance meeting. I call thee far and past every limit so may we meet again in a different sky oh bearer of longing."