Chapter 1: Chapter 1 – End of an Age

17th March, 3040 B.E.

The Last Day Of The 3rd Age of Reclamation 

A large caravan was traveling through a thick forest on a dirt road. The forest was extremely dark and eerily silent. It was nighttime and no moon could be seen. It was a moonless night and the light of the stars was not enough to illuminate it. But white flashes of light that occurred at a usual interval of once every two seconds kept illuminated the entire forest intermittently. The white flashes were very bright since it was nighttime.

No creaking of insects or roars of wild animals could be heard. It was as if the entire forest had become vacant of creatures somehow. The state of the forest was not normal. Something was extremely wrong with it. Usually, at night, night predators became active and their roars reverberated throughout the forest but tonight no such thing happened. The forest was totally silent.

Similarly, the condition of the caravan was also not normal just like the eerily silent forest. Some people were on foot while some were riding on horses. Some of the travelers were also sitting in the wagons and carriages that were being pulled by the horses.

The speed at which the caravan was moving was a  bit fast. The wagon and carriage drivers were trying to hurry their horses as best as they could while the horse riders kept pace with them. It was as if something was chasing them, something dangerous and terrifying. 

All the travelers had a haggard appearance. They had dirt on their faces and their bodies were smelly. They also had dark circles around their eyes as if they had not slept for days. All of them supported terrified and hopeless expressions on their faces. Without uttering anything to each other, they silently moved with the caravan.

The men on foot had the worst of it. They were running lightly in order to keep up with the rapidly advancing caravan. In addition to that, cries of the children and infants could be heard from the carriages as well as muffled shushing sounds. 

Once in a while, one of them fell and could not get up. The entire caravan stopped at that and the passed-out person was put on a wagon or a carriage while another person got out of them and replaced the passed-out one. It was as if they were taking turns walking on foot.

Bouts of vibrations could also be felt from the ground along with the white flashes of light. Sometimes the white flashes increased in intensity and sometimes, there was a significant pause between the two of them. Similarly, there was a tinge of red mixed with the white flashes occasionally but it was rare. 

The same could be said by the vibrations coming from the ground. Sometimes, they were intense while occasionally, there was a small pause between two normal episodes.

The haggard and tired caravan also came across other travelers along the way. Those travelers were also in the same condition as those in the caravan. In fact, some were in much worse condition than them. 

The caravan passed by without saying anything to them. Similarly, most of the travelers also remained silent as if they had tact and understanding while some begged the caravan for taking them along. The caravan ignored those beggars. All of them were traveling in the same direction, that was toward the west. It seemed like they were all running away from something located in the east.

Coincidentally, the source of those bright white flashes and vibrations was also present in the east.

In addition to the white flashes and vibrations, irregular sonic booms could be heard from above their heads. It was as if some kind of fast objects were constantly passing from above them. They were heading from the west to the east, opposite the direction the caravan was traveling in. The objects were so fast that they broke the sound barrier. It seemed like those supersonic objects were attracted by the source of the flashes and vibrations.

Whenever they passed above their heads, all the travelers whether they were part of the large caravan or not looked up as their expressions changed from desolation to slight hopeful. But a few minutes later, their hopeful expressions returned to their previous state. It was as if those supersonic objects could give them hope for a few minutes only.

At the head of the large caravan was a white-haired old man who was riding a high-breed white horse. His height was five feet ten inches and he had black eyes. His hair was long and white in color but some light blonde hair could also be seen. His clean-shaven face was full of wrinkles and age.

Periodically, he looked back toward the east with a fearful and worried expression. He was worried about someone very close to him.

"Son..." The old man muttered silently as he looked toward the east, his eyes a bit hopeful. He was expecting his son to appear in his vision whenever he looked back. Although he knew that it was not possible and that whatever he was imagining was pure nonsense, he could not help but hope for that illogical thing to happen by some miracle. This was his fatherly love for a son.

His son was out there, fighting with all his strength in order to give them some time to flee toward the west. He was giving away his life for them so that they could make some distance from those horrors in the east. 

The old man knew that his son would not come back. Those terrifying beings would also take his life away. But as a father, he still hoped to see his son. Tears started rolling down again on his already tear-stained aging face as he remembered the childhood face of his dear son.

He stopped looking after a few seconds when his son did not appear miraculously. He then looked up and stared at a slightly shining spot in the sky. His sorrowful expression twisted into an expression of hate and anger.

If only it had not come. It was so beautiful. We even took it as a good omen and celebrated that beautiful scene. But alas, we didn't know the horrors it brought with it. How happy we were before it. The old man reminisced inwardly as he thought about the happy days before the calamity befell them.

He stopped looking toward the bright spot in the sky and started looking forward. The anger and hate slowly vanished from his face as he started thinking about his son who he would never be able to see again in the future.

But suddenly, he was interrupted by a bright red-tinged white flash. The old man's expression instantly turned fearful. He quickly tightened his hold on the reins of his horse as he prepared for something. 

He became nervous and started counting from one. With each passing second, his nervousness increased and his hold on the reins tightened more and more so much so that his knuckles turned white. In the meantime, normal flashes kept ensuing.

Just as his count was about to reach the one-minute mark, intense vibrations traveled through the ground below them. The old man's horse jumped in surprise and he almost fell from it. 

His horse was not the only one who got spooked. All the horses in the caravan were disturbed. The horse riders and carriage drivers tried their best to calm their rides down but some failed and fell from their horses. Some of the fallen were also injured. The caravan came to a halt and the injured were treated.

The old man looked toward the east with a horrified expression. He had realized something just now. The intensity of the flashes and the vibrations were increasing rapidly. Coincidentally, another intense red-tinged flash occurred right then and the old man caught sight of some distant giant dusty mushroom cloud on the horizon. 

The old man showed a surprised expression at that. He was not surprised at the mushroom clouds but at the intense abnormal bright flash that happened again within a minute after the last one.

"PREPARE YOURSELVES!!" The old man shouted toward his caravan with a voice full of fear. The people prepared themselves and hold on to their recently calmed hoses tightly. Another intense vibration passed by and the horses were spooked again.

Fortunately, nobody fell down this time and they calmed their horses easily. The caravan immediately started moving after that. But not two minutes had passed before another great white flash was seen and they repeated the thing with their horses. 

Whenever a great vibration passed by, children in the carriages broke into crying loudly. The adults were not in a good state either. All of them were terrified and desolate.

The caravan could not move after that. The intense red-tinged flashes kept increasing in frequency and the normal flashes kept decreasing. The travelers had to bind their horses to the nearby trees because they got tired after a few times trying to calm their highly disturbed rides. 

Females also came out of the wagons and carriages, carrying the still-crying infants or holding the hands of their children. Tears could be seen on their frightened faces as they tried to soothe their crying children. It was a scene of desolation and bleakness.

After about fifteen minutes, the frequency increased so much that a red-tinged flash happened after only ten seconds. Intense vibrations passed by them after every few seconds. 

Many vomited and horses continued being restless as mothers kept trying to console their innocent children. All of them kept looking at the old man in order to console themselves and derive some kind of mental support from him. He was their pillar.

The old was sitting with his back supported by a tree. He was facing east and had a hopeless expression on his face. He was aware of the glances that were being passed on him. But he could not help them today. He was helpless.

Two days ago, they were happily living their lives when a messenger from the sects arrived at their city on a large tamed eagle, bearing the news of the apocalypse. Horrors had appeared in the east, near the border. The human armies in the east had already fallen by the time the messenger set out of the sect on the fastest ride possible.

The sects were next. As the messenger was setting out, the sects had already mobilized all their manpower in order to rescue the army remnants and hold the demons as long as they could in order to give populations enough time to escape toward the west. His son was among them.

They were ordered by the messenger to vacate the city. By the time he had reached their city, he had already informed all the populations in the east. On asking the cause of this calamity, he only did one thing. He pointed toward a shining spot in the sky and everyone understood. Nothing more was needed.

The old man was quick to order his clan to pack up and leave the city. While many citizens were still in denial, they were already out of the city. They were among the first ones who left the city and set for the capital in the west. They had already been traveling for about two days. This was their second night.

They had not slept the first night to widen the distance between them and the demons. But today, they could not sleep at all. Not them, not their children, no one could sleep. Whenever they closed their eyes, they would start having terrifying nightmares. Either they were being devoured by those horrors or their children in those nightmares.

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It all started about seven hours ago. There were no flashes or vibrations seven hours ago. Seven hours ago, just after the afternoon, they felt small vibrations from the ground. They were surprised at that and quickly looked around to find the source of those. 

They quickly caught sight of a dusty mushroom cloud rising on the horizon in the far east. It looked small but all of them knew that it was located more than four hundred kilometers away. They all quickly realized how big it must be to be seen from hundreds of kilometers away.

They were not aware of its origin. So, they soon stopped paying any more attention to it and resumed their journey. A few minutes later, great pressure descended upon them. It was so much that it became difficult for them to breathe normally. It was the pressure of a higher lifeform on inferior beings such as like them.

Right then, those who were sleeping woke up with a start. Children started crying while adults had horrified expressions on their faces. According to them, they had watched different kinds of nightmares where they or their loved ones were being devoured by hideous beings.

The old man realized who those hideous beings were. They were the horrors that the messenger was telling them about. He himself tried to sleep immediately after that but met with the greatest nightmare of his life. All of his children were being chewed apart by black-colored hideous beings.

From then on, sleeping had become forbidden for them all. All of them knew innately that it was due to the presence of that existence who is responsible for the pressure they were feeling right then.

It was a couple of minutes later after the presence's descent that things truly escalated. A white flash occurred along with a vibration in the ground. With that, the suffocating pressure they were feeling also went down by a few notches.

Since then, it had been almost seven hours. All of them had arrived at a single conclusion in that duration on their own without even consulting each other.

An epic battle of colossal proportions was taking place somewhere in the east. Two unfathomable beings were constantly colliding with each other in a life-and-death battle. It was between the presence who was responsible for their nightmares and something else they had no idea of.

As for why they arrived at such a conclusion related to the magnitude of the battle, it was the time delay between the flashes and the vibrations. By calculating the difference, they deduced that the battle was taking place more than four hundred kilometers away. A battle whose aftereffects could be seen and felt for hundreds of kilometers, they could not imagine its magnitude at all.

As for the identity of the nightmare presence, they had some educated guesses about it. They were guessing that it was the leader of the demons. Only leaders were worthy of such power. As for the identity of the being who was fighting him, they had no idea. Many thought it to be Tamat but the old man who was much more knowledgeable and experienced than his people didn't even think about this possibility.

Just as the old man was thinking about it, a sonic boom was heard from above them. Many looked up and hope blossomed in their hearts.

Seeing their behavior, the old man only shook his head. There was a reason he did not think of Tamat as the combatant in the east. He didn't even consider him as a possibility. In his early days when he was an ambitious man, he had much interest in the Great Battle of the Moon. In order to satiate his curiosity, he read many records about it.

He knew the details of that battle. He knew how much destruction they inflicted upon the landscape. Thinking about that and then feeling the vibrations from the ground, the old man could not help but give a despairing smile. Even Vashulkomoor could not hold a candle against the beings in the east, much less the sovereigns. They would fall like flies if they dare to interfere in the battle. The old man was truly worried for them.

What frustrated him the most was the identity of the second participant. He knew that no human was strong enough to fight in such a battle. If there was no human then there was only one choice remaining.

Something happened right then. The red-tinged bright flashes sharply increased in frequency so much so that one could be seen after only two seconds and it was quickly approaching the one-second mark. By then, the forest would remain illuminated continuously and they would constantly feel intense vibrations in the ground.

But that thing did not come to pass and the white flashes also stopped. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Just when they were about to release breaths of relief, it happened. A white flash so bright that one ran the risk of blindness if he dared looked at it directly, occurred. All of the people present in the forest had to close their eyes or cover them with their hands. It was so bright that everything became white for a few seconds. All the colors had faded.

This bright white light could not be called a flash at all. It was akin to a great white source of light like the sun. It was as if another sun had appeared in the east. It lasted for a few seconds before it slowly faded away.

It was then that the weary migrants opened their eyes and looked toward the east. For a few seconds, they remained still with bated breaths, waiting for another flash to occur. But no such thing happened even after waiting for ten seconds. It was then the people realized another thing. The pressure from the demonic being they were feeling for the past few hours had disappeared all of a sudden.

Realizing that, many burst into cheers. They had tears rolling down their cheeks as they smiled widely. The great battle that shook the very ground underneath them had ended. The nightmare demon had finally been defeated after seven hours. People laughed and hugged each other in happiness. Many immediately laid down to fall asleep.

"BRACE FOR IMPACT, YOU FOOLS. THINGS HAVE NOT ENDED YET." A loud shout resounded throughout their cheers and stunned them. The ones who were trying to sleep also jumped in surprise. The old man almost tore his vocal cords apart as he shouted for people to prepare themselves.

In their happiness, they had forgotten that a flash is not the only sequelae of a collision. It was always accompanied by shockwave vibrations in the ground. Seeing the immensity of the last flash, the old man feared that they would be hit with something worse this time.

And he was not wrong in his guess. A few seconds later, a literal earthquake hit them. The earth started shaking strongly and almost all of the people present lost their balance. Those who were holding something were secure while those who had not managed to brace fell. Similarly, some of the horses grew so restless that they managed to free themselves from the trees and ran over a couple of fallen men. Their status was unknown.

Several wagons and carriages were upturned and many trees fell. Small cracks could also be seen on the ground here and there. The earthquake continued for many minutes as the earth kept shaking. In addition to the earthquake, a yellowish-red glow could be seen in the sky from the east. It was as if someone had set a large part of the forest in the east on fire. Everyone became curious about it.

The old man became a bit brave after seeing that nothing was happening to his tree. His tree was also taller and thicker than the rest. Using his cultivation, he quickly climbed the tree and reached the top. Then, he looked toward the east and caught sight of a line of yellowish-red spots just where the sky met with the ground and they were rapidly shifting. Those spots were the source of the glow. It seemed to him as if the entire horizon was on fire.

Although it was a moonless light, the glow was enough for him to identify those moving spots. In addition to that, it was not cloudy. The dim light of stars was also aiding the old man slightly in identifying those black spots at the distance. 

In fact, using his knowledge of geography, it was very easy to determine their identity from a distance even if it was the dark of the night and they were not glowing themselves. What was needed was some kind of light source, even if it came from the stars.

As the old man recognized them, the color drained from his face. As the earthquake was fading, he raised his shaking hand and pointed toward them with a horrified expression.

"MOUNTAINS!! THOSE ARE THE ERUPTING MOUNTAINS. EVEN THE MOUNTAINS ARE SHIFTING. DAMN IT."

Many people below him were surprised at his shout but when they heard it fully, they had a similar reaction just like that of the old man. The last collision was so great that the entire mountain range was shifting and an earthquake was created. It had turned an entire region of mountains into a volcanic area

The earthquake faded at last after a minute as the mountains also stopped shifting. Some color returned to the old man's face at that and he climbed down the tree. 

He looked around and observed his people. Some were showing frightened expressions while some showed an expression of relief. Some of the wagons were also turned over and some people were injured. He still had a sense of unease. The air pressure had fallen sharply sometime ago. Just as he was about to order them to do something, it was then that it hit them.

ROARRRRRRRRR

A great inhuman roar reached them along with massive shockwaves. The gusts of wind were so intense that empty carriages and wagons started rolling on the ground. Many trees were uprooted from the ground. Similarly, almost all of the people in the now scattered caravan lost their footing and were swept away in the shockwaves as the wind was knocked out of them.

Some collided with the trees badly while some collided with each other. Several tried to hold tightly whatever they could grab for support. Modicum was successful in taking control of their bodies while some only injured their hands. The females could not spare their hands at all so,  they were affected the most.

The mothers hugged their children tightly in order to protect them from injuries as they shielded them with their bodies. But they were not able to protect them from the effects of the continuous roar.

The great roar was so loud that they all went deaf in the next second after it reached them. In addition to that, all of them had started bleeding from their ears, eyes, and noses. 

Blood streamed down their faces and necks as they started feeling extreme pain in their ears, eyes, and noses. They were also hit by strong vertigo and went dizzy. Even the little infants and children were no exception. Their mothers' hearts shattered as they looked at their beloved who were bleeding from their orifices. 

Tears rolled down their cheeks as they hugged their bleeding infants tightly to give them some motherly warmth. Their bodies kept suffering from various injuries. They were helpless there. They could not protect their little children from something like that.

Fortunately, those aftereffects lasted for a few seconds, unlike the terrifying earthquake that had lasted for minutes. People started getting up from the ground, many were injured. But some did not get up at all, their condition unknown. Not even a twitch could be detected from them.

The old man also got up from the ground. He did not even bother wiping off the dust from his face. With a lifeless expression, he stared at the ground, his eyes unfocused. He had just realized the identity of the second combatant.

So, it is a beast. It is the damn ancestor of Vashulkomoor. We are dead. The old man thought as his legs weakened and he fell to his knees. He had lost whatever little hope he had previously completely. The man who had been the bedrock of hundreds of lives for decades had finally lost all hope. He grabbed his head with both of his hands as he sunk into the abyss of despair. They were doomed.

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