Chapter 16: Chapter 16

“OH NO, I’m not teaming up with you, now where’s Varin?!” I threw the warhammer at him and again, it passed through. 

“Did you really think I’d show up here myself?” Ko’s illusion stepped out from the doorway, ducking under the frame as he entered. “Varin and I are heading this way though, I just had to make sure you were here.” He turned to King Leucothea. “Your Highness.” He bowed his head forward slightly. “You have done quite a number on my outposts, I applaud you.” He turned his attention to Maeve. “Then there is you.”

“What about me?”

Ko smirked and split himself in two—the second image shimmered for a few moments, breaking apart and reforming until there was no difference between the two.

Maeve lifted her arms, revealing the daggers held inside her sleeves. 

Ko froze and placed his hands outward on both copies. “Woah now, no need for that, I’m not attacking, I just need more hands.” He began waving his hands in a pattern, extending them to his entire arm as he started to dance around us. “I just want to show you something, then you can decide if you want to work together.”

His hands moved elegantly through the air, producing raindrops wherever they danced—the drops staying in the air, hovering like they were about to fall at any moment. They shook slightly, gleaming a bit with the glow of Ko’s body. He moved sideways, pushing himself through the wall of rain, creating an outline within it. The copy followed suit, making another outline within the rain. 

The attention moved from Ko to the silhouettes in the rain. They moved back and forth as he wiggled his fingers up and down, controlling them as puppets. The silhouettes danced around, twirling into the rain, causing them to shift into an array of colors

It captivated all of us and as Ko began to narrate the story, we became lost in a sea of lights and wonders.

*

Beyond eons ago, before the creation of The All Tree, before the creation of the universe itself, seven entities came into existence.

These seven entities were beings of immense power and are responsible for the creation of The All Tree—with its creation, there was a magical explosion, one that gave birth to this universe and The Eternals; Ebony and Ivory, Highers of Eternity and Infinity—soon after, Vol too would be expelled from within the tree’s magical trunk, finalizing The Eternal Trio.

The Seven began teaching the three of them the ways of mana and magic. This eventually led to the creation of Arrithia, which is where most believe this world started.

The Seven would leave the trio to their own devices and begin traveling their new creation, expanding the universe’s corners in all directions so that more worlds could be formed by The All Tree.

Countless years would pass before The Seven would return to Arrithia and what they found disgusted them—Highers and Dragons were at war.

The All Tree was designed to keep balance in the universe and when it saw that The Highers were being left unchecked, it gave birth to the Dragons.

The Seven put an end to the war with the snap of their fingers, but not without damage having already been done to The All Tree—it would need an endless fill of mana to survive, thus a branch was extended down to Arrithia and The Castle of Connections was formed.

The Highers in an attempt to show peace to Dragons gave them five of their castle’s magic cores—this caused the dimension holding the castle to this one to splinter and break, creating The Fragment Castle it is known as today.

The Five Dragons Chiefs took one core each and headed out into The Burned Cosmos their war had created. They set out and established their clans, using branches of The All Tree to connect them and before long had grown into a full-fledged Empire of Dragons.

This angered Ebony and Ivory—they saw themselves at the top, above Arrithia, above Dragons, above The Seven themselves—so they devised a plan—one that would allow them to rule over Arrithia uncontested by Dragons and The Seven.

Ebony and Ivory would strip The Seven of their powers with the invention of Dark Magic, casting them down to Arrithia with a magical explosion so large it shook the planet to its core and broke what was once one landmass into the world of islands we know today.

The Seven had fallen to Arrithia in a comatose state, but still as powerful as an 11-Star Mage. Ebony and Ivory would connect smaller branches of The All Tree to them so that if they were to ever awaken from their slumber, all Highers would know.

The Souls left behind by The Seven had also fallen to Arrithia, embedding themselves in different life forms around the planet—this would mark the moment that Arrithians would start to live incredibly long lives, but those with a Soul, they would be the first reincarnates of this new world.

Those who die in Arrithia, their Spirits are taken to Volja Vatre, a dimension splintered into countless afterlives, all designed and taken care of by The Council of Deaths, but those with a Soul, are reborn again—their old memories locked away, waiting to be freed.

*

Both Kos waved their hands once more, parting the colorful raindrops to point at me, speaking to me in unison. “One of those seven souls was used to turn you, our dear Zero, from a Dragon to a Human.” The one to the left moved behind the other and stepped forward, merging the copies into one. Ko’s gaze didn’t leave me, even as he walked back to the center of his raindrop play. “And the plan is to gather the other six and have you eat them so you can become powerful enough to kill Ebony and Ivory for Master Protos.” He smiled at me.

“That doesn’t explain why you called me out specifically before the play,” Maeve stated.

“Oh, I just don’t like your mother and I know saying I have a subject that pertains to her and then not talking about said subject, it irks her to no end, so I, hopefully correctly, assumed that it would bother you, and thus, I may find some joy, was I wrong? Are you irked? May I be joyous?”

Maeve grumbled slightly before letting out a low and raspy; “No, yes, no.”

I snickered, cutting myself short when she glared my way. “Sorry?” I turned myself back to Ko, watching the play fade into nothingness with a wave of his hand. “The story mentions 11-Star Mages, but the Arrithian System only goes up to 10, care to share?”

“That is correct, the Souls are still only a fraction of their power it would seem.”

“It would seem? I know why you turned to me, these Old Gods, they can kill Original Highers and they finally woke up, didn’t they?” I leaned my head forward, then back again, exhaling loudly as I already knew the answer.

Ko nodded. “I had thought I was feeling bad for young Varin, but it would seem the pressure in my chest was the collective fear of all The Highers.”

“Seven 11 Star Mages who don’t even have their full power, wait, does that mean by ingesting all those Souls you were going to make me an 11 Star Mage?” I exclaimed.

Ko shook his head. “13 Star Mage is what you would become.”

“Oh.” I dwelled on the thought for a moment, then circled back to my question from before. “Tell me again why the Arrithian System only goes up to 10…OW!” Maeve punched me in the ribs and took a step forward.

“What you’re saying is the plan you all had for Zero could become null and void now that The Six have awoken because they’ll be gunning for the Souls too?” Maeve looked back at me for a moment, then at Ko again. “This plan has been in the works for over ten billion years because it isn’t just about killing Ebony and Ivory, it’s about killing The Seven too, isn’t it?”

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Ko nodded. “It has taken over ten billion years for all seven Souls to be reincarnated on Arrithia at once, that is the only reason we have put up with him this long.”

Maeve stifled her laugh; “And with all seven Souls on Arrithia it has awoken the Old Gods.”

“Why wouldn’t Zero just help the Old Gods and restore balance?” Sliphoof stated, drawing attention over him and the others.

I shook my finger at him and then pointed it at the others; “I had forgotten you all were here, but you do raise a good point.” I turned to Ko. “Why are you all telling me any of this, it doesn’t make sense, why would I help any of you over choosing to restore balance with The Seven, Old Gods, ah, whatever we are calling them?”

“You raise a good point yourself Zero.” Ko crossed his arms and rested his hand against his cheek. “I asked them the same thing, why tell the puppet he is a puppet hmm? It would seem you are in a predicament, hmm?” Ko smiled as he began to fade away. “Kill Eternity for Infinity, kill them both for Protos, or let the Old Gods regain their powers, who knows what they’ll do…” His head was all that was left of the image, his mouth fading with each last word. “...maybe they’ll fix their mistake and just start over with everything.”

And just like that, Ko was gone, leaving me, Maeve, and The New Casaders alone.

“Well, that was confusing,” Sliphoof stated. “But I do know one thing, I wanna come with you, wherever you’re going, even after you leave the island.”

“Sliphoof?!” King Leucothea exclaimed. “You aren’t–.”

“Can I explain first?”

King Leucothea lowered her head. “My apologies, continue.”

Sliphoof stepped up to me, his eyes filled with excitement with a little bit of sternness that accompanied his voice. “I may have only known you since, well, a few moments ago, but I can tell, you’ll do the right thing and I want to support someone who will do that.”

“Why?” I asked. “You said it yourself, you haven’t known me that long, how can you tell I’ll do the right thing?”

“Because you didn’t spend the last ten billion years trying to do the wrong thing…” He paused for a second, cutting a glance to Maeve. “...plus the scary lady seems like she won’t let you do the wrong thing even if you tried.”

“You lean more to Maeve not letting me be evil though, don’t you?” Sliphoof nodded his head at me. “Thought so.” I turned to King Leucothea. “Hey, I need a favor.”

*

“Sooooo, how much lying are you doing to Zero?” Varin asked.

Ko was sitting on the stump of a tree with his legs crossed and arms folded over himself. He opened an eye at Varin. “We just finished and none actually…” He unfolded his arms and pressed his hands against his knees. “...I may have tried to mess with him a bit, but I didn’t lie, he now knows everything, now will you get him to help me?”

Varin laughed from her nose. She stood up from the ground and walked over to Ko. She stuck out her hand; “That was part one of your promise, you still have to fulfill the second part, getting me back to him.”

Ko waved his hand through the air; “Yeah, yeah, I know, though….” He turned his head. “...I don’t think taking you to him will be needed…” Varin turned her attention to where Ko was looking—there was a bright pink beam of light shining from The Land of Poppies. “...I think he is well on his way.”

*

“How long has it been?”

[UNKNOWN]

“And the others?”

[AWAKEN, BUT WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN, THEIR SYSTEMS ARE STILL OFFLINE]

“How has everything been running?”

[WITH SOME EXCEPTIONS ALL PROCESSES ARE RUNNING NORMALLY, WITH ONE SMALL VARIATION]

“What would that be?”

[A DRAGON BY THE NAME OF XAYDDRYRTH HAS UNKNOWINGLY GAINED ACCESS TO THE SYSTEM]

“Haha, is that so, now how did they manage that?”

[YOUR APOSTLE, SUN-KONG, HE GAVE XAYDDRYRTH, RY-JING]

“Haha, now why would he have gone and done something like that?”

[UNKNOWN]

“Well, what about the other Apostles, they give away their System Keys too?”

[UNKNOWN]

“Haha, of course, at least you can tell me the system is still running, now, how about we go pay a visit to this Xayddryrth, what do you say Ace?”

[AS YOU WISH, MASTER ALADDIN]

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