《Ethera: Tale Of A Legend》 -1 Prologue Who I was, I could no longer recollect properly. Even my real name was of bleak recall. I only remembered the nature of my existence which was that of a human mortal from the realm of earth in the Outerworld. My existence only knew my quill pen and my rolls of parchment. Many were the names that people came to call me by, all of which I responded to unconsciously. On this significant day, I was sitting at my oak table while writing in quick, ferocious bursts, punctuated only by my countless astral visions and my moments of reverie. I wrote because I felt the compulsion to do so, and the language of my written script, was that of the immortal deities. How was I able to do so? Because now, I fully understood the language and its concept. This was not my making, since I was only a mortal. This was bestowed upon my entity in order to write what I saw and would see, down, for future testimony. It had been so long since I had written using the immortal language, making the script I was writing, to come irregularly at the beginning. The long strokes of my precious quill pen had been just a little too formative, but eventually I remembered my way. And the letters, flew from my pen like a mirage of lightning. The more I write, the more I became one with the memories and the strokes of the immortal language. It was in the dark of the night as snow fell from a sky of umber darkness, covering the landscape of the world outside my closed window, in white. The falling snow had obscured my vision so that I could barely discern the distant, beyond my humble abode which made me decided to close the bamboo window. My chamber was well lit from the light of Cavara. The ever burning lamp that I managed to buy from the antique dealer that grazed our town, not too long ago. The light was giving my chamber a radiant glow. Soon the events of the recent past were flowing freely. After scribbling furiously for some minutes, I sat as motionless as I could, for hours. I was watching the snowflakes drift down, and thought it welcoming that they should come so heavily. I watched the written scripts in front of me on the table as my soul tremble in confirmation. There was still a lot for me to write as my mind continued to process the recollected information it had recieved. The snow fell peacefully and quietly since I had managed to close my windows shut. No disturbances needed, so that I could write without having to clear this oak table of mine, every few minutes. I remembered clearly what hapened to me to cause my scribbling away like a deprived lunatic. The memories were still fresh like engraved journals. I remembered sleeping in my bamboo bed one night, when I suddenly found myself floating back in time. My body was still lying in bed but my spirit was being carted away. This had never happened to me before. True, I was a scribbler, but I only write accounts that were related to me in the physical sense. But this..., this was in the domain of the spirits. The anticipation of my destination was already making my soul weary and extremely disturbed. Why was I having this spirit experience? This question kept nagging at the back of my mind as I floated back in time. After a moment of eternity, the clouds beneath me parted to reveal a serene landscape. This was a place of lucid moonstones and cloudstones. The massive walls of this place were made from pure sunstones. The gates of ivory were exquisite to behold. The symbols and sigils covering the gates were indication that this place was the Ethereal Eternal, the Infinitum. Fear gripped my soul, as my spirit continued to float and was deposited in front of a giant lucid mirror of rainbow colour that was emanating a divine energy. Energy so divine that it made my spirit trembled in fear. The Million Myriads Mirror. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. This was a divine artefact that no mortal or deity had ever seen without entering reincarnation. Here my spirit was, standing before the mirror as a mortal spirit. And as far as my memory was concerned, I was still a living mortal at this point in time. Not yet entered the samsara cycle. Then, why was I here, standing in front of the divine mirror? There was only one answer that came to my mind. Taking into consideration my work as a scribbler, I could only be here to bear a witness to a divine occurence at the least. As I continued to waddle in my thoughts, I heard a voice that sounded too close to my ears, yet, sounded very far off. "Pay attention to what you see, so you may write them down. They will serve as a reference in the future." I turned to the direction of the voice so I may see who was speaking to me. My spirit nearly exploded from the glimpse of eternal light. I quickly fell on my knees and kow-towed to this formless entity of light. "Stand and pay attention." With great difficulty, I stood and continued to stare at the mirror. Appearing before me inside the mirror, was the underworld with no end to its entirety. Worryingly, I tried to turn my head and observe my sorroundings to know if I was actually dead and into reincarnation or I was only dreaming. I knew this experience was already too much for a motal soul to bear, and now to be seeing the underworld. This wasn''t something a mortal should be seeing and definitely not a place where a mortal should be. But, I was compelled to observe. Wherever I was, and whatever was happening, this entity that brought me here truly wanted me to be a witness to this event. Remebering the words of the entity, I focused my attention back on the mirror. The Underworld unfolded before me. The underworld was truly a magnificent and terrifying world. The glory of the Underworld couldn''t be explained with words alone. Only by sight could it be observed appreciatively. The Underworld had a central palacium under the rule of lord Hades, the Divine-Supreme of the underworld. The underworld was divided into three realms, Abaddon, Abyss and Tartarus. Each of these realms was under the rule of a sovereign, the World-Sovereign. Each realm had numerous dominions with each dominion under the rulership of a king, the Doma-King. A ruler was compelled to name his house according to the region of his or her rule. Lord Hades was of the house of Underworld. The scene before me shifted and displayed the realm of Tartarus. The realm of dungeons. This was the realm where the evil souls with extreme karmic sins were imprisoned, including the dangerous and dreadful titans. As I was indulging myself in its reverie, I was shown a massive dome house. The symbol and sigil in front of the house was a clear indication. The house of Tartarus. The house of Tartarus was located high on a very tall mountain that looked dark and enchanting. The obsidian house. The home of lord Hargoven, the World-Sovereign of the Tartarus realm. Taking a closer look at the place, I could see that It had undergone severe battle as of recent. The immense, domed obsidian building was pierced in many places. Its obsidian walls had signs of slashes and gashes. After realization dawned on me, I closed my eyes at sight of the palace. A ghost of its former glory, though, there were still signs of life inside the palace. This was the house of the ruler of the realm of Tartarus. What a sad state! The mirror reverted backwards and stopped at the image of a young girl. Who could this be? It had to be someone of importance, I wondered. Then, suddenly, as if it read my mind, a name was displayed. Ethera. That was her name. An immortal deity from the house of Tartarus. The daughter of lord Hargoven of the ruling house of the realm of Tartarus in the underworld. Was I here to bear witness to this immortal girl? Was I brought here to be able to tell the tale of an immortal girl, who became a legendary myth? The mirror took my spirit along with it as it descended into the depth of darkness, silently. As we dropped down, the state of the house became more glaring. Sorrow once again washed over me as I remembered the young girl who called this place her home. As I was wallowing in the sorrow of the place, I saw the faint passage of a mighty shadow which made me trembled. A shadow that even made the passage of time to vibrate and flunctuate. A memory of a shadow that could cause the mirror to flunctuate? Surely, a shadow of an entity that didn''t belong to the place. Who or what was this shadow? The mirror shifted back to the young immortal girl, Ethera, and stopped as the voice of the entity that brought me here sounded again. "Now, it begins. See and bear witness." 1 Creation In the beginning, there was nothing but the void. The true origin. It was a single existence of temporal infinity. The temporal infinity of space or formless matter of the primordial energy. The infinitum energy. It was from this energy that the source was created. The ALPHEGA. The source or the core formed from the very essence of matter. It was from this source or core, that the primordial universe was formed. The Alphega was the essence core, the source of life, of the universe. All universal energy originated from this essence core, the force that underlay everything that ever existed or ever happened. The Alphega was the ultimate existence of order and chaos. A creative harmony and disorder that displayed the ultimate nature of the universal balance. The immeasurable mighty force of the Alphega was truly harmonious and chaotic. The true origin of life in the universe. Every existing entity in the universe was created from the essence of the Alphega. The true source of life, thus, all things received their energy from the Alphega in order to exist. Without the energy from Alphega, an existence in the universe would simply cease to be. After the forming of the embryo of the primordal universe, the essence of the Alphega began to expand the spacetime of the primordial universe. This occured in an intrinsic expansive way, causing the scale of space itself to change. This very act, made the primordial universe to evolve rapidly. The cosmic worlds were formed. The created cosmos was made up of three worlds which contained many realms and dominions. With the expansion of the universe, the universe was divided into three parts[worlds]. The overworld, the outerworld and the underworld. The two energy were distributed by the intricacy of their essence of matter. Most of the light energy formed the overworld, the underworld was formed mainly from the dark energy, and the outerworld was developed from the equal measures of the two energy. Though, they were different in their terms of existence, the light energy and the dark energy, literally coexisted. Despite their forms, one could not exist without the other. That was why, despite the differences in their major compositions, both the overworld and the underworld still had different proportions of the two energy. At the center of the universe, in the area beyond the realms, was the Ethereal Eternal or the Infinitum. This area was where the Alphega core, was located. The heart of the universe. Since it was an essence core of life, the harmonious and chaotic force of the Alphega was evident in the fact that, every other existence with perpetuity had a core. The worlds as part of the universe, had Decrons. These were smaller essence cores connected to the Alphega, the mother core of the universe. The Alphega would absorb Infinitum energy from the void of infinity and refined it, in order to create the light energy and the dark energy. It was only after then, that the Decrons would absorb the light and the dark energy and released these energy in the worlds. This energy released was often refered to as spiritual energy. After the creation of the primordial universe, the Ethereal Eternal became home to the primordials. The primordials. First of their kinds. These were extremely powerful entities, created from the energy of the Alphega essence core during the spacetime expansions. The primordials were creation of the universe that were beyond the realms of the universe. Entities of pure infinitum energy, directly refined from the essence of matter from the void. They were pure divine beings of immense powers who had become one with the Alphega core of the universe. They were seeing to the well-being of the universe in relations to the defined laws of creation. Billions of years later, the scale of the universe needed to be balanced. Lightness and darkness, Order and chaos, light energy and dark energy, these two variations would always collide despite their co-existence. Thus, to create a balance in the universe, the Alphega core created two equally same, yet, different entities. The deities. One set of the deities, would have more light energy in their existence while the other deities would have more dark energies in their creation. The light energy deities were created in the Overworld while the dark energy deities, were formed in the Underworld. The Overworld deities took the titles of ''gods and godesses'' while the Underworld deities decided to settle for ''demons and demonesses''. These were the second creation. Billions of years after the deities, life took forms in the cosmos. Different living entities sprang to life in the worlds. Among them, were the immense sentients of nature. The primordial titans. The mighty titans. Powerful forces of nature that gained the knowledge of awareness and started to reason. They realized their existence and became sentients. Living entities that could materialized in the mortal forms. They evolved from various existence of nature, in the forms of rivers, seas, mountains and others. After the titans, came the divine beasts. These creation of the universe, were capable of speaking in mortal languages, transforming into mortal forms and practicing cultivation. They were sentient creatures of great strength and power. They were divided into two types, the Innate-Bloodline divine beasts and the Magical-Essence divine beasts. The innate-bloodline divine beasts were creatures that grew stronger and more powerful over the course of time. The epitome of their powers, was when they awakened their bloodline which could lead them directly to true immortality. Whereas, the magical-essence divine beasts didn''t have innate bloodline but they were born with evanesce cores. Though, they were not particularly as strong and powerful as the innate-bloodline divine beasts from their birth, they would grow stronger with time. Their final forms and powers, mostly depended on nature and then, on their essence cores and essence energy. Then, millions of years after the divine beasts came the mundane animals. Although, some of them started to exhibit magical traits, they neither had nor gained sentience. They were never aware of their existence, since they had no reasoning abilities. These were the sacred beasts, and their bodies contained great benefits to both mortals and immortals. Millions of years after the beasts, the balance of the universe was still lacking. Hence, the creation of the catalysts of balance. The final piece of the puzzle. The mortals. They were created from the vital essence of life of the Alphega, the Chi essence of life, according to the laws of creation. Mortals were created in the Outerworld from a little proportion of both the light energy and dark energy. This was due to the fact that, higher portion of the two energy would have affected the balance of the universe. This was how the three worlds of the universe came to be. Though, the three worlds existed, there was still a troubling question of true immortality. Both the mortals and immortals were succeptible to death. This brought about the quest for immortality. Sects, schools and clans or houses, began to formulate their ways of reaching true immortality. After many years, one general way was achieved. Cultivation. This could happen due to the fact that the mortal and immortal body had a dantian. The center of oneself. By sensing the spirit energy and absorbing the energy to form Chi, in the dantian, mortals were capable of improving health, increasing longevity and growing powerful. The cultivation of Chi in the dantian to form a core, was the root of the immortality tree. While immortals, who already had cores from their birth, were stepping closer to true immortality. Secret manuscripts were created. Scriptures and manuals containing instructions on training in cultivation methods. Over the course of millions of years, innumerable numbers of mortals and immortals had died while using these manuscripts to achieve immortality. But some manuscripts and techniques had proven true. These manuscripts became being regarded as extremely valuable treasures. Thus, they were secretly kept and well-guarded by clans, sects or schools and loose cultivators who were in possession of them. Treasures of magical and divine nature, were created during creation of the universe. And they were located all over the universe and primordial chaos. Natural treasures of immense powers which could be harnessed to further the path of cultivation and martial arts. The path of cultivation was a hard, tedious and dangerous one. It required obtaining a Chi cultivation technique and the availability of spirit energy. But most importantly, was the essence crystals, the resources for advancement. There were various stages of advancemet for an immortal cultivator. The first stage was the Shenxian, the deity soul becoming a celestial. The second stage was the Tianshang, the celestial soul becoming ethereal eternal. The third stage was the Shensheng, the Ethereal Eternal level. Every stage of advancement had further stages, apart from the Shensheng which had only one. For the first stage [Shenxian], there were three stages. The Monarchs, the Hegemons and the Empyreans. The second stage [Tianshang] had three stages. The Stellars, the Sovereigns and the Supremes. For the Ethereal Eternal. The third stage [Shensheng] had only one. The primordials. Total universal emptiness. Harmony and chaos were the underlying nature of the Universe. Unity and disunity, light and dark, and harmony and chaos were the basic qualities that the Universe operated on. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Nonetheless, cultivation was an act of defiance against the laws of creation. Mortals and immortals, lived, died and reincarnated. That, was the law of creation. For mortals and immortals to be aiming for Ethereal Eternal, was going against the natural order of creation. Though cultivation was not a forbidden act, it was still an act of defiance. The wrath of creation was the heavenly tribulations. Every major steps into immortality brought heavenly tribulations. To survive the tribulations meant a step towards true immortality. This was Ethereal Eternal. 2 Ethera The Birth Tartarus realm. One of the realms of the Underworld. The realm generally known as the pit of chains. This was the most chaotic and powerful of the three realms of the underworld. Each realm in any world had a divine cosmic treasure or artifact. Any deity or mortal, that could conjur a tiny portion of the divine cosmic treasure, would be the chosen guardian of the treasure and ruler of the realm. In the underworld, the three realms were; the Abaddon, the Abyss and the Tartarus. The divine cosmic treasure of the Abaddon was Uttaria, the undying golem of Abaddon who bore the Divine Shifting-Death sword. For the Abyss, it was Erebus, the many manifesting Divine Last-Rite hounds of Abyss. While the Tartarus had Crucible, the Divine Timeless-Fate chains of Tartarus. The realm of Tartarus was where the most errant and sinful deities were sent to, to be imprisoned by the judgement of the Principals. The principals were the Gathering of the Foremosts from the three worlds. They followed the decree that was made by the Alphega during creation that preserved the ways of the universe. This was the most chaotic of the realms, even after the intervention of lord Hades. The clan of Lord Hargoven was now the ruling house of Tartarus. He had managed to conjur an essence of the chains of Tartarus when he was a demon stellar deity. And the binding chains of Tartarus when he became a demon sovereign deity. He had led his clan through extreme difficulty and harsh bitterness, to the top of the chain in Tartarus. His colossal domain, now sat on an enormous mountain at the edge of Tartarus. This was where his clan now resided in comfort. It was from here that he now rule the realm of Tartarus as the sovereign under the supreme rulership of lord Hades. On this dark-turning evening, as the sun was finally disappearing below the horizon and the fleeting colours of dusk faded away, lord Hargoven sat down under the massive oakenham tree and stared into the far distant in contemplation. The longer nights befitted the dark energy of the underworld. The short daytime was the time of rest and restoration. He became lost in thoughts as he ruminated on the circumstances of things. Yes, he was now the ruler of the Tartarus realm. He had almost everything a deity could wished for. The power and fame that his clan had thoroughly deserved after gruesome years at the bottom of non-existence. Millions of years as a matter of fact. Now they were at the top, yet, he wasn''t that happy. This sadness, he shared with his wife. His ever enduring wife. Only one, but massively important, thing was missing in their lives. A child! A child was the missing piece in their lives. The joys and despairs, a child would bring to any family couldn''t be put into words. Ah, the sound of a child''s voice, the cries, the screams, the laughters and the child''s growth in their very eyes. Who wouldn''t want all that? Moreover, in the Underworld, the power of a true deity, lay in the chain of offspring. That was the power that bound the ancestral past to the future. But most importantly, the traits of ancestral power essence. His child could also have the traits of conjuring the essence of the chains of Tartarus. This would continue to give his clan an advantage in this chaotic world if he would ascend to the Ethereal Eternal or if he was dead. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Eternal essence be his witness, he had tried everything he knew. He had met various physicians and alchemists throughtout the Underworld, but, none of their methods and pills had worked. With a heart stricken with grieve, he had lost all hope, until a servant of his, told him about a physician his own grandfather once knew. A physician that resided in his own personal dominion? That was a powerful physician. He had searched for the dominion of this physician and after great difficulty, had located it. It was not a hidden dominion, only a private one. This allowed him to locate the dominion in the end. There were some deities that were more powerful than sovereigns, but, decided to remain in their dominions. They could have become sovereign of the realms if they wanted to, but ruling had no appeal to them. This physician was one of them. Lord Hargoven still remembered the encounter with the physician, clearly. Though, he had seen many deities in his life-time, the demon-supreme, lord Hades, and the council of Utmosts, were of the most terrific existence. And this physician, was of the same height as them. Unbound to any realm, he could be on his to one of Ethereal Eternal realms. "Greetings, alchemist Udreabis. I thank you for alowing me in. Eternal essence be on you." "Anything for the honored, lord Hargoven of the house of Tartarus, I greet you too with the eternal essence." Alchemist Udreabis observed had observed him for a moment before nodding his head. "What brings you to my little dominion, lord Hargoven?" "Pardon me for the intrusion, alchemist Udreabis. I have a problem that has been troubling my mind for a time now and I''ve tried everything I could but to no avail. You are the last hope I probably have." "A child?" Asked alchemist Udreabis. "Yes, a child." Replied lord Hargoven, solemnly. "Ways of the Alphega couldn''t be comprehended in its totality. Everything was for a purpose, that was of certainty." Alchemist Udreabis ruminated on some information in his mind before continuing after a time. "Hm. There is a way I know of. Though it''s hard, Alphega might grant you what you seek. There are some items you must provide for me, the rest I can add. The Springroot spirit grass, the primeval Phoenix blood crystal, the light and dark Eternal Twin-orb and the Sanguine Burning Star. Get me all these, and with the rest of the items with me, I will make you the ultimate pill. The Cosmic Nimbus pill. And who knows, the mother core might answer your supplements." "Thank you, alchemist Udreabis. I will try my best to find the items." "Anything for the honored, lord Hargoven." He had left the dominion and started looking for the items. The items had taken almost every thing he got. He had lost all of his consorts and his two legs when he was retrieving the Phoenix blood crystal and had to spend few days regrowing them. He had bought the twin Orb with more than a reasonable fortune. Yet, he could have died while acquiring the Sanguine Burning Star. All these for a child? Yes, surely worth it. And today, he would be recieving the Cosmic Nimbus pill. Everything he had been working and striving for. Today, it would come to bare. This would be a surprise present for his wife. As he sat under the oakenham tree, lost in his own thoughts, lord Hargoven suddenly snapped out of his reverie and raised his head in anticipation before standing up. "It''s time." He said to himself as he headed towards his flying caravan. He returned few hours later and quickly located his wife. He found her meditating, in the secular chamber and shook his head in comprehension. He knew his wife was cultivating in order to take her mind of her personal anguish. This, he perfectly understood and related with. But hopefully, things would change for the better. "Ah, my husband, I didn''t know when you entered. As you know, a little meditation is good for the body and soul." "Don''t worry, my wife. I know of the agony. By eternal beyond, it will come to pass." Lord Hargoven looked worryingly at his wife, Amarodia, before patting her on the back gently. Amarodia. Gentle and mild as a dove, brutal and vengeful as the hounds of Abyss. With a mind working frantically like the harrowed frame. How fortunate was he to have a wife like this? Extremely fortunate. He produced a rainbow colored pill and showed it to his wife who was still flexing her body from meditation. "I have this for you, my wife." Amarodia opened her eyes only to stare in bewilderment at the pill in her husband hand. The energy coming from the pill, was an evidence of its power. "Hopefully, this will be the last time." The two held each other tight as the wallowed in the embrace. A little sob from Amarodia before clearing her throat. "Hopefully." Few agonizing months later, Amarodia concieved to the eternal joy of the two and whole clan of the house of Tartarus. They kept it quiet not to raise their hope and that of the clan, unnecessarily high. With cautious joy, the maintained their usual ways. As the time passed by, and the evidence of the pregnancy became glaringly obvious, they started endeavoring to tell people. The news spread like wildfire. The house of Tartarus was going to have an heir. Months later, they had a child. A glorious girl whose first scream was like that of a thousand rising Phoenix. The most terrifying part of her was the energy of her birth. For the deities of the underworld, their birth energy was majority dark energy and minor light energies. But for their child, her energy was flaring brightly of dark and light energy. The level of the energy was too great for a young adult deity talkless of a newly born. They watched as the two energy mixed together before entering back into her body. Never seen before. The signs of the wonder of a child they had. Their cosmic child. They decided to give her a new name. Ethera. The light in darkness. 3 Essence Of Ethera As time flowed softly by, like a petal in the wind, with no dramatic flare to mark its passage, it continued to leave the design of its mysteries. The unknown mysteries of the known, it was called. And who could argue otherwise? As old lives gone by and new ones began, the way of time of the universal existence maintained it course. There was no better way to witness the way time maintained its universal existence, than to observe its effect on this beautiful young girl who was watching the fast approaching twilight. A taller than average girl but with fragile looking body. Long dark silver-grey hair that encompassed equally colored eyes. She continued watching the twilight that indicated the coming of the nightfall in the underworld. Lost in her own mind, she was totally unaware of the scrying eyes of her watchful parents. Her name was Ethera. It appeared as if it was just yesterday that this young girl was born, but, ten years had softly passed since her birth. Ten years! Sometimes, everything was still like a dream. A dream that mustn''t be disturbed in order to avoid a shattering heart. But this dream, was simply beyond illusion, and too wonderful not to be true. And in reality, it was as real as Tartarus. Ethera. The essence of light in the darkness. Or the essence of darkness in the light? Despite her fragile look, the young girl was full of life energy. Ever since her birth, she had been growing in strength and in wisdom, both beyond her age level. Her full strength was truly terrifying for her delicate-looking body. How could a fragile body packed so much strength? At first, they had thought her body was a little deficient until they witnessed her immense power. Ah, what a child? After relating the development to alchemist Udreabis, who couldn''t stop smiling and laughing, they came to an understanding. The cosmic grade pill was the first of its kind ever made. Alchemist Udreabis had made an experimental substitution to some of the items, for a riskier but much more potent ones. One of them was the Phoenix crystal. He had been using Nine-Sky golden eagle blood, but had gone for the extremely rare and extremely powerful Phoenix crystal. All these he made, due to his conclusion on the essence of energy of the parents. They could still recollect the words of the alchemist, clearly, as he alternated his gaze between lord Hargoven and lady Amarodia. "After seeing you the first day and hearing about your wife, I was able to determine some things about you two and came to a decision. The essence of energy, the strength and uniqueness of the two of you, combined with a special pill? That would be a masterpiece If you wanted something as extraordinary as a child, why not make it a spectacular one, despite the risks? Hence, this very cosmic pill. The essence of the cosmic pill and the essence of energy of the two of you. Even I, can''t determine the nature of your child''s essence. At the end of everything, it worked more than I even expected. One day, please permit this old one, a chance to pay you a visit to see this wonder of yours." They had left that dominion with joy of full understanding. Although, this phenomenom consolidated their belief about the uniqueness of their child, it was also a source of worry. This could attract unwanted attention to their child. There were many deities, especially in the underworld, that could find this disturbing in a way. And the unbound deities were of uttermost concerns. Those ones could kill without cause. Yet, sooner or later, their child would be in the public eyes. Nothing they could do about that. She would have to fully learn the ways of life and of deities in school. They would prefer later, if they could help it, however, there child must forge her path like every other deities. Just like every other child of the underworld, she would have to face the Stone of Destiny in front of the Council Of The Utmosts at the Darkfall Conjecture. And, that was where they would be heading off to, the next day. Since, the following day would be the day for the Rite Of Path for every young deities of ten deity years of age. Ethera was now ten deity years of age. This was her age of manifestation, hence, she would have to partake of the rite. The council would preside and witness the manifestation of each present child. Records must be taken. This was each child''s dream. Especially, to be noticed by the representative of the topmost schools. And Ethera had been looking forward to this ocassion. Her parents had been preparing her since she was born. Long hours of being taught the basics and the most important ways of life. How to deal with other entities and what to expect in life. They had been exhausting, but she knew it was due to the fact that they really loved her. And the following day, would be the day that her life trials would begin. "Life of a deity." She gave a simple smile as the memories of the past came flooding in. Of a time when she would sit, unbearably, in front of her parents as they would teach her before they would all start to meditate. She was a little mischievious then as meditation wasn''t her thing. Sitting in one place with eyes closed as she freed her mind, simply beyond her endurance. But now, she appreciated it. Though, meditation was still not her main thing. "Inner peace. Would try more." She thought to herself as she headed towards the training center at the back of their mansion. Martial arts! Now, that was her main thing. She loved practising martial arts and engaging in mock combats. Though, she didn''t practise with any weapon since she didn''t know what weapon her soul manifestation would acquire. Nonetheless, her hand combat was incredible for her age. The power in her hand martial arts was truly a wonder. But, she knew when to reduce her power output as taught to her by her parents. She continued to the training center, unaware of her parent eyes on her. They had been cautiously observing and monitoring Ethera. Afterall, she was their only child. Despite them trying to hide all these, they still couldn''t care less if others were watching them or not. They knew what they had to go through before they could have her. So, whether they over watched her or not, it was perfectly justified. They stood by the opened window of the upper living chamber as they used their divine sight to continue watching their daughter. Lady Amarodia, gently squeezed the arm of lord Hargoven while resting her head on his shoulder. "Look at her, my husband. Our child." "Yes, my wife. Our child she is." "See, how wonderful she looks everyday? That''s my true essence in her." "I agreed with you, my beautiful wife. And you see how strong she is everyday? That''s also because of me." "Can''t argue with that, my powerful lord." Said Amarodia giving a slight bow to her husband. "Where would I be without my true strength, without you, my beautiful lady?" "On the throne of Tartarus?" "That would only be in dreams." They both laughed to that before Amarodia gave a soft sigh. "How fast time moves. I still can''t believe she''s ten now." "Yes, it is. And, I know your mind wonders about tomorrow, my wife." "Yes. How will her rite go? What manifestation would she have? Which school will take her?" "Rest your mind, my wife. Wonder not. I tell you this. One thing is definitely certain." "What is that, my hussband?" "No matter how fast time moves, our daughter is our daughter and will prove so tomorrow." "Yes. And will forever be our daughter." "Should we go and see how her night was going?" "I suppose." They joined Ethera at the training center where they all practise for a time before calling it a night. They moved to the dining chamber where a special delicacy of the Nine Mountain spirit deer was steaming on the table. The night was dedicated to Ethera as she began her immortal deity journey. After the meal, they all departed to their various ways as Ethera made her way to the silent cultivation chamber. More importantly, she would soon be able to cultivate after her manifestation. Then, her advancement would truly begin. Oh, how good would it be to be like her parents, one day. The journey would start the following day. A journey of no end, she was told. How far she would go would depend on her as from the next day. She closed her eyes as she began to meditate. Inner peace. The following night would be the big day for her and the other kids. She wanted to be ready as much as possible for the events. After meditating for few hours, she left the chamber and looked for her parents. She bid them goodday as she left for her room. As sleep took over, Ethera began to have a calling dream. A soul-drawing dream about the void. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. 4 Astral-Dream Projection? When a soul was in the threshold of true awareness, what followed was the profound silence. And the projection of the profound silenceg, was the beginning of the soul''s becoming. Deep in the world of dreams, Ethera felt herself floating in the dark energy light of the underworld. She was observing the landscape underneath her while her spirit soared. The landscape scenery was of utter wonder. The way it was naturally formed and carved, was truly magnificient to behold. As she watched, the landscape continued to enlarge, as the three dark realms of the Underworld came to fore. She noticed three massive energy flares at the center of the realms which brought her to a realization. She must be seeing all these due to her spiritual sight. For, there was no way such flares could be seen with the naked immortal eyes. Floating sensation? Spiritual sight? Astral projection! But for certainty, this wasn''t of her doing. She would have kept her conscious knowledge of being in an atral projection from the very beginning , if she was the one that actually initiated it. Nevertheless, anything that initiated the astral projection of her soul without her knowledge of it from the start, must be exceedingly powerful. Extreme caution was needed. Since she was still a young deity, she had to thread cautiously here. Deity or no deity, she could easily die in here. The thought gave her a degree of fear since she would soon be taking her first steps into the immortal life of a true deity. The expansion of the landscape continued in a blur that made the floating soul of Ethera, ache badly. As her spirit was at the point of combustion, the image slowed down and showed the scene of total darkness. Complete darkness. Ethera quickly went from blanking what she was seeing, to, trying to open her spiritual sight to make sense of the darkness she was looking at. As she strained her spiritual sight, to no avail, she heard a gentle and soft voice that seemed distant. "The void. The true beginning." "Uh?" Ethera turned to the source of the voice, only for her to continue seeing complete darkness. She looked sideways, to the same results. She tried to reach for her spatial sac in order to take her defensive talisman but realized that she was in spirit projection. "Not meant to startle you, young immortal." The already rattled Ethera, stared at the direction of the voice in bewilderment. Not meant o startle? ''But, you already did!'' She wanted to scream and maybe whoever brought her here would just throw her out of this place. But, slowly calmed her jostled mind. Who knew maybe the entity that brought her here would simply chain her spirit up if she would annoy it. After a moment, she asked. "Who... who are you?" "Who I am, is not yet for you to know. As a matter of fact, it was not in your power to know. But, the time will come and won''t be long. That, I can assure you, young immortal. Do you even know the great length I went through to be here, to bring you here?" "Astral projection." "Close enough but huge difference. This is Astral Dream Projection. Much more difficult to initiate." "Ok, but why am I here?" "You are here for us to meet. And, Is there a better way to meet you than to show you the tiniest glimpse of what was? What was of the universe, of myself and ofnyourself? How we all came to be? This way, you will fully understand me when the time comes." "I can''t even see you now, and my head hurts from trying in the darkness." "Don''t stress it, young one. You can''t. Not with the stage you are now. However, don''t worry. Though you can''t see me now, but you will, young immortal. You will. And as I said, the time will come. But for now, I want you to see and know about the power of the essence of the dark matter. The very essence that gave birth to the universe, to me and to you, but all in a different way." There was a short pause before the entity gave a short sigh. "Are you not going to ask me how? What I meant by all these?" The questions caught already confused Ethera off-guard as she scrambled to recollect her thoughts. With a raised brow, she slowly asked. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "How?" "It''s good of you to ask and I will tell you. You see, young immortal. In a long forgotten time, there was only the timeless void. Before the void, there was no time and no existence, apart from the pure essence of matter of the void. This, you already knew, right? Good. Then, something happened with the essence of matter in the void. It started to change. And out of the void, an essence core was formed. This, you knew too. Right? Yes. The first creation. The Alphega. "But this next one, you never knew. As the essence core began to form the universe, two crystals were formed. The dark energy crystal and the light energy crystal. The condensed ultimate pure essence of matter. Where am I going with all these, you ask? The dark energy crystal, was the heart and the core of the Crucible. The Chains of Tartarus. "Are you with me? Good. While the light energy crystal, was the heart and core of the Fangs of Aether. This was where it truly began with you. When you were born, your scream caused a reaction that stirred the core of the light orb of Aether, the divine treasure of the realm of Aether in the Overworld, known as the Crown of a Timeless Star. And probably, caused a stir in the core of the Chains of Tartarus. Why all these, you asked? You see, your father was from the Tartarus realm, this you know. But, what of your mother? Aha! "A pity my essence is running low, young immortal. I used most of my fading essence, to bring you here. From now on, I can no longer bring you here, but you can come here whenever you are strong enough. What remains of my memories, I will tell you. Only this, I can provide. At this point, I have to bid you farewell. If not, my life-essence essence would just fade away before I can tell you what remains. And you know what that means. Alright, farewell, young immortal." Ethera woke up with a startle. It was an astral dream, yet, it felt so real. What kind of astral dream could that be? Ethera couldn''t bring herself to believe the idea of the essence of an entity, summoning her and appearing to her in a dream. Dreams! Though, she was only ten deity years of age, she knew this could only be a mere astral dream of the subconscious self. No astral dream could truly transport the living spirit through projection into an unknown place. At the same time, even if it was only a dream, could those crystal cores, somehow, exist? And, what about her mother? No, she wouldn''t let this affect her mind in any way. Tonight, was the night of the Rite of Path. She pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind while concentrating on the night. The night she had been preparing for, for so long which had finally arrived. Since she had woken up quite early on this evening, she decided to put on the new robe that her parents had bought for her for this glorious night. After preparing herself, she went looking for her parents and found them in the living chamber. They pretended as if they hadn''t been watching her since and that they hadn''t been anxious of the night and hadn''t been expecting her. With their back to the entrance, they appeared to be fixing different things in the living chamber. Whereas, on the large marble table at the corner of the chamber, were the items she would be taking to the rite. Carefully packed and arranged in order. When she saw this, she smiled while shaking her head. She might be young, but she knew her parent were even more concerned about the rite more than her. She knew they had been discussing about and their acts were pretenses. She decided to act along too, she would add to the fun of a beautiful evening. "Good evening, father, mother." "Good evening, Twin essence." Her parents replied as they stopped what they were doing in pretense and turned their attention to her. "Here you are. Up and running so early." Continued her mother with a broad smile. "And, all dressed up. Is there any ocassion today we are not aware of?" Quipped in her father with a stifled grin as he gestured towards Ethera''s new robe in a pretense of solitude. "I know you are all playing with me. You already knew today is the rite of path. And, I can see the preparationn you''ve made on the table there." "Alright, you caught us." They all laughed and proceeded to check the prepared items. It was time to leave for the Conjecture for the trials. Lord Hargoven checked the arrays protecting the massive dome-building of the house of Tartarus. With everything ready and follwed by few servants, they headed for their flying carriage. Feeling a little anxious, she looked at her parents and they nodded to her in assured confirmation. "It''s all good." 5 Darkfall Conjecture I The Darkfall Conjecture. A colossal building constructed out of black palladium and laced with black diamonds. It was located at the center of the underworld, inbetween the three realms. This was an ancient building from the time immemorial, built by the divine constructs[artificial sentients] of the primordials in accordance with the ways of the universe. This building could contain millions of the Underworlders without getting crowded. It was truly a divine conjecture. Right from the enormous palladium gates, the whole conjecture was covered with various types of runes, sygils and symbols. This was the most powerful and secured building in the underworld. At the center of the spacious conjecture, were the six divine items. The Amber Scale, to measure the level of affiliated essence. The Stone of Destiny, for the becoming of the deity. The Mythic Eye, to determine the fate of deities. The Ageless Nimbus, to determine the path that the deities would walk. The Transient circlet, for the soul existence from birth. The Crimson Cinder for the soul weapon of each deity. Beyond the six divine items, was an arc of the thrones of the six judges. These six judges had no affiliation to any realm, domain or dominion. Neither did they have any affinity with any Underworlder. Due to their nature, they were like the many manifestations of the true essence core of the underworld. Not even the supreme, lord Hades, could interfere in their activities. And, in front of them, on the table, were the opened scrolls of records. Debijjan[the keeper of the records of path]. Uvumel[the keeper of the records of destiny]. Azerus[the keeper of the records of fate]. Shadiomar[the keeper of the records of soul artillery]. Ossidor[the keeper of the records of essence affiliation]. And, Agrinor[the keeper of the records of existential entity]. Few meters behind the thrones of the judges, was the arranged seating area of the honored ones. The area was divided into three. The lower, the middle and the upper. The lower rows of thrones were for the honored Monarchs, Paramounts and the Empyreans. The middle row was where the thrones of the honored Stellars and other Sovereigns, including the grand patriarchs of the different schools of the underworld, were located. On the upper row, was situated the throne of the Supreme of the Underworld, lord Hades. To his right side, were the three sovereign lords of the three realms of the Underworld. Lord Vogratis of the house of Abaddon, Lady Allunar of the house of Abyss and lord Hargoven of the house of Tartarus. To the left hand side of lord Hades, were the three stellar kings[guardians] of the three sacred domains. King Iggarros of the Flowing-Phantom domain, king Eddarea of the Eternal-Yonder, and king Obbatora of the Desolate-Argent domain. Each of these kings were of the late stage of the stellar level of cultivation and were chosen by the calling of the essence core of the Underworld. Their domains were the gateways between the underworld and the other parts of the universe and its beyond. The two sides of the Conjecture center, from the gates to the place of the divine items, were the seating area of the other Underworlders. From the deities, to the beasts and other living entities. On this day, the Conjecture was brimming with high amount of energy from the present Underworlders. All the honored ones were also present including lord Hades himself. The high level of joyful apprehension inside the conjecture, couldn''t be totally comprehended due to the protective runes, but, could still be sensed. The most important of all the rite, was the path of deity. Though, there were many paths a deity could take, the most, seemingly, important of them were six in numbers. The Path of the Azure Herald. The Path of the Divine Yonder. The Path of the Desolate Nether. The path of the Eternal Inferno. The Path of the Flowing Nebula. And, the Path of the Sanguine Sanctum. With the approval of lord Hades and the agreement of the judges, the high Savant approached the center to open the activities of the day. The participating deities were ushered ino the Conjecture to the cheers and applause of the watching Underworlders. "We welcome you all to the Darkfall Conjecture. We have all made the journey from far and wide to be here today. Today, which is the day for the young deities. This is the day they will be performing their rites of paths. Today, they will know their place in this universe. What they were, what they are now, and what they will become. As we all know, all young deities would have to undergo the rite, sooner or later, as all the adults can testify to. And talking about the adults, we will like to pay honor to the ones that are more than deserving." The high savant turned to the direction of the thrones, to the cheers and applause of the crowd. "Highest honor to the Supreme ruler of the Underworld. Lord Hades. Under who, the Underworld is in relative peace and harmony. Glorious honor to the six judges of the Underworld, the keepers of all records. High honor to the Sovereigns of the three realms and the kings of the three sacred domains, for maintaining orders. Honor to the schools'' patriarchs, the stellars, the empyreans, the paramounts and the monarchs. And, to all the adult deities in presence. "Not forgetting the younger ones too." Said the high savant after a pause, to more cheers and applause from the crowd. The high savant waited happily for a moment before continuing. This was why he was the high savant. Full of wisdom, he knew how to how and when to offer his words to others. He turned his attention to the young participants. "Today is your day of manifestation. Let your heart be free as you let your light shine. The judges will rightly direct you with the divine items when the time comes. And maybe, you''ll hear from the Supreme one himself." There were gasps of awe and apprehension as the kids turned towards the direction of the supreme throne. But, all they could see, was a dark silent shadow. Only the others were partially visible to them. Ethera couldn''t see her father but she could sense him among the sovereigns. "Once again, welcome." As the participating kids were ushered into an area of the conjecture with the protective arrays, the eyes of all the ruling deities became more keener. The rite of path was of different meaning to all present. For the sovereigns, kings, stellars and other honored ones, this was a traditional way to elevate their realms, dominions, domains, clans and houses. As long as their participating young deities came out with a great path and, a good destiny and fate, the better for their realms'' reputation. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. For the schools'' patriarchs, they would have the chance to choose young deities with bright and radiant future to be affiliated with their schools. This could elevate the position of their school ranking. And if they could get the best young deity, the bragging ways would be theirs. And for the young participating deities, it was about their future lives. Simply, life and oblivion. From inside the area, the young deities could clearly see what was happening on the outside. Ethera, who was at the middle of the participants, had no problem seeing the outside due to her unique height. She reckoned it would take quite some time before it would be her turn. She watched as they were called, one by one, and directed to the center of the Conjecture under the scrutinizing eyes of everybody present where they performed their rite of path. Massive energy flares, extreme choices of weapons, unique deity paths and exceedingly great existence were recorded as the kids kept on performing the rite, one after the other. Many deities were already rejoicing the outcome of their participating young deities while others were not in a very good mood. Soon, it was the turn of Ethera. She walked beside the junior savant as she was directed towards the center of the conjecture. By the words of the judges, Ethera was placed before the first divine treasure, the Ageless Nimbus. "The Path of Twin Realms." Announced judge Debijjan to the gasps and sighs of the watching deities. This was a path that had been announced in the underworld, only once before now, in its recorded history. A path that could never be walked by any underworld deities. And a path that couldn''t be threaded, would only bring pain and despair. And, it would never bring true immortality to the deity. There would be no advancement in cultivation level beyond a certain stage. Simply, no Ethereal Eternal. Infernal fire claim my soul! 1 Creation A Prologue In the beginning, there was nothing but the void. The true origin. It was a single existence of temporal infinity. The temporal infinity of space or formless matter of the primordial energy. The infinitum energy. It was from this energy that the source was created. The ALPHEGA. The source or the core formed from the very essence of matter. It was from this source or core, that the primordial universe was formed. The Alphega was the essence core, the source of life, of the universe. All universal energy originated from this essence core, the force that underlay everything that ever existed or ever happened. The Alphega was the ultimate existence of order and chaos. A creative harmony and disorder that displayed the ultimate nature of the universal balance. The immeasurable mighty force of the Alphega was truly harmonious and chaotic. The true origin of life in the universe. Every existing entity in the universe was created from the essence of the Alphega. The true source of life, thus, all things received their energy from the Alphega in order to exist. Without the energy from Alphega, an existence in the universe would simply cease to be. After the forming of the embryo of the primordal universe, the essence of the Alphega began to expand the spacetime of the primordial universe. This occured in an intrinsic expansive way, causing the scale of space itself to change. This very act, made the primordial universe to evolve rapidly. The cosmic worlds were formed. The created cosmos was made up of three worlds which contained many realms and dominions. With the expansion of the universe, the universe was divided into three parts[worlds]. The overworld, the outerworld and the underworld. The two energy were distributed by the intricacy of their essence of matter. Most of the light energy formed the overworld, the underworld was formed mainly from the dark energy, and the outerworld was developed from the equal measures of the two energy. Though, they were different in their terms of existence, the light energy and the dark energy, literally coexisted. Despite their forms, one could not exist without the other. That was why, despite the differences in their major compositions, both the overworld and the underworld still had different proportions of the two energy. At the center of the universe, in the area beyond the realms, was the Ethereal Eternal or the Infinitum. This area was where the Alphega core, was located. The heart of the universe. Since it was an essence core of life, the harmonious and chaotic force of the Alphega was evident in the fact that, every other existence with perpetuity had a core. The worlds as part of the universe, had Decrons. These were smaller essence cores connected to the Alphega, the mother core of the universe. The Alphega would absorb Infinitum energy from the void of infinity and refined it, in order to create the light energy and the dark energy. It was only after then, that the Decrons would absorb the light and the dark energy and released these energy in the worlds. This energy released was often refered to as spiritual energy. After the creation of the primordial universe, the Ethereal Eternal became home to the primordials. The primordials. First of their kinds. These were extremely powerful entities, created from the energy of the Alphega essence core during the spacetime expansions. The primordials were creation of the universe that were beyond the realms of the universe. Entities of pure infinitum energy, directly refined from the essence of matter from the void. They were pure divine beings of immense powers who had become one with the Alphega core of the universe. They were seeing to the well-being of the universe in relations to the defined laws of creation. Billions of years later, the scale of the universe needed to be balanced. Lightness and darkness, Order and chaos, light energy and dark energy, these two variations would always collide despite their co-existence. Thus, to create a balance in the universe, the Alphega core created two equally same, yet, different entities. The deities. One set of the deities, would have more light energy in their existence while the other deities would have more dark energies in their creation. The light energy deities were created in the Overworld while the dark energy deities, were formed in the Underworld. The Overworld deities took the titles of ''gods and godesses'' while the Underworld deities decided to settle for ''demons and demonesses''. These were the second creation. Billions of years after the deities, life took forms in the cosmos. Different living entities sprang to life in the worlds. Among them, were the immense sentients of nature. The primordial titans. The mighty titans. Powerful forces of nature that gained the knowledge of awareness and started to reason. They realized their existence and became sentients. Living entities that could materialized in the mortal forms. They evolved from various existence of nature, in the forms of rivers, seas, mountains and others. After the titans, came the divine beasts. These creation of the universe, were capable of speaking in mortal languages, transforming into mortal forms and practicing cultivation. They were sentient creatures of great strength and power. They were divided into two types, the Innate-Bloodline divine beasts and the Magical-Essence divine beasts. The innate-bloodline divine beasts were creatures that grew stronger and more powerful over the course of time. The epitome of their powers, was when they awakened their bloodline which could lead them directly to true immortality. Whereas, the magical-essence divine beasts didn''t have innate bloodline but they were born with evanesce cores. Though, they were not particularly as strong and powerful as the innate-bloodline divine beasts from their birth, they would grow stronger with time. Their final forms and powers, mostly depended on nature and then, on their essence cores and essence energy. Then, millions of years after the divine beasts came the mundane animals. Although, some of them started to exhibit magical traits, they neither had nor gained sentience. They were never aware of their existence, since they had no reasoning abilities. These were the sacred beasts, and their bodies contained great benefits to both mortals and immortals. Millions of years after the beasts, the balance of the universe was still lacking. Hence, the creation of the catalysts of balance. The final piece of the puzzle. The mortals. They were created from the vital essence of life of the Alphega, the Chi essence of life, according to the laws of creation. Mortals were created in the Outerworld from a little proportion of both the light energy and dark energy. This was due to the fact that, higher portion of the two energy would have affected the balance of the universe. This was how the three worlds of the universe came to be. Though, the three worlds existed, there was still a troubling question of true immortality. Both the mortals and immortals were succeptible to death. This brought about the quest for immortality. Sects, schools and clans or houses, began to formulate their ways of reaching true immortality. After many years, one general way was achieved. Cultivation. This could happen due to the fact that the mortal and immortal body had a dantian. The center of oneself. By sensing the spirit energy and absorbing the energy to form Chi, in the dantian, mortals were capable of improving health, increasing longevity and growing powerful. The cultivation of Chi in the dantian to form a core, was the root of the immortality tree. While immortals, who already had cores from their birth, were stepping closer to true immortality. Secret manuscripts were created. Scriptures and manuals containing instructions on training in cultivation methods. Over the course of millions of years, innumerable numbers of mortals and immortals had died while using these manuscripts to achieve immortality. But some manuscripts and techniques had proven true. These manuscripts became being regarded as extremely valuable treasures. Thus, they were secretly kept and well-guarded by clans, sects or schools and loose cultivators who were in possession of them. Treasures of magical and divine nature, were created during creation of the universe. And they were located all over the universe and primordial chaos. Natural treasures of immense powers which could be harnessed to further the path of cultivation and martial arts. The path of cultivation was a hard, tedious and dangerous one. It required obtaining a Chi cultivation technique and the availability of spirit energy. But most importantly, was the essence crystals, the resources for advancement. There were various stages of advancemet for an immortal cultivator. The first stage was the Shenxian, the deity soul becoming a celestial. The second stage was the Tianshang, the celestial soul becoming ethereal eternal. The third stage was the Shensheng, the Ethereal Eternal level. Every stage of advancement had further stages, apart from the Shensheng which had only one. For the first stage [Shenxian], there were three stages. The Monarchs, the Hegemons and the Empyreans. The second stage [Tianshang] had three stages. The Stellars, the Sovereigns and the Supremes. For the Ethereal Eternal. The third stage [Shensheng] had only one. The primordials. Total universal emptiness. Harmony and chaos were the underlying nature of the Universe. Unity and disunity, light and dark, and harmony and chaos were the basic qualities that the Universe operated on. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Nonetheless, cultivation was an act of defiance against the laws of creation. Mortals and immortals, lived, died and reincarnated. That, was the law of creation. For mortals and immortals to be aiming for Ethereal Eternal, was going against the natural order of creation. Though cultivation was not a forbidden act, it was still an act of defiance. The wrath of creation was the heavenly tribulations. Every major steps into immortality brought heavenly tribulations. To survive the tribulations meant a step towards true immortality. This was Ethereal Eternal. 2 The Birth Of Ethera I The Underworld. A raging world of chaos energy that was without spatial end or limitation. One of the three universal worlds of creation, the Underworld was created with greater amount of dark energy[Chaos energy] and lesser amount of light energy[Writ energy]. The chaos energy was the defining reason for the chaotic nature of the Underworld. A chaotic world where only the strongest deities could survive. As it was under the creational law of higher existence of the underworld, any deity including the supreme ruler of the Underworld could be challenged at any time. The Underworld was currently under the rulership of the World-Supreme, lord Hades. He was an herald who happened to be ruler of the realm of Abyss. He had won the divine sygil which gave him the power to the supremacy of the Underworld. But, he had no unconditional claim to the throne. He could be challenged at any time and if he was to loose the battle, there would be another supreme ruler. And in the battle for rulership, there could only be one survivor. The nature of the underworld. There were five mighty realms in the Underworld, they were¡ª Abaddon, Abyss, Acheron, Erebus and Tartarus. Tartarus! The realm of the Nine Shadow Pits. This was the last realm that bordered the void of existence, making it one of the most chaotic and powerful of the five realms of the underworld. The realm that was generally known as the Plane of Shadow Chains. This was due to the divine Crucible. The divine Crucible. This was the Timeless-Fate chains of Tartarus. The divine Shadow Chains from where the realm of Tartarus got its reference as the Plane of Shadow Chains. As it was with the other worlds, each realm of the Underworld, had a divine artifact as its cosmic treasure. And, the divine artifact of the Tartarus realm was, the Crucible. Any deity or mortal, that could conjur a tiny portion of the divine cosmic treasure, would be the chosen guardian of the treasure and ruler of the realm. However, if there were more than one deity who could conjur the divine treasure, they would have to battle it out to choose the ultimate Realm-Sovereign. This was the rule of law of any world in the universe in order for it to be just and balanced. For the underworld, its chaotic nature was evident in the deadly battles for the ultimate rulership. Boundless battles that had come to define the existential nature of the underworld. Lord Deggorath of the Shadow-Fire clan, was the sovereign of the realm of Tartarus. Along with twenty other deities, he had managed to conjur an essence of the chains of Tartarus when he was a demon stellar deity. And, the binding chains of Tartarus when he became a sovereign deity, the same as ten others. The battles he partook to become the ultimate sovereign of Tartarus, was of colossal nature. Yet, he did it to the glory of his clan, the Shadow-Flame clan. He had risen at a difficult time for his clan and led them through extreme and harsh bitterness, to the top of the chain in Tartarus realm. Of the Shadow-Flame clan, was lord Hargoven. A deity who was once a peak stage Stellar and was knocking on the door of the Sovereign level, but was now forever reduced to the Shenxian stage. An early stage monarch. This was due to his life-essence core that was shattered in a battle that he didn''t fully anticipated in magnitude. Though, the essence core had been amended, the extent of the damage meant that he couldn''t advance further than the monarch stage. Lord Hargoven was sitting down under a massive oakenham tree, staring into the far distant in appreciation and apprehension, as the sun was finally disappearing below the horizon and the fleeting colors of dusk faded away. The approaching longer night, was a befitting companion to the dark energy and chaotic nature of the underworld. He closed his eyes as he gently inhaled the fresh air into his lungs, circulating it before releasing it slowly. Lost in thoughts, he ruminated on the circumstances of things that were happening in his life. Yes, he was a member of the Shadow-Flame clan of the Tartarus realm. A monarch deity with a small manor of his own and a beautiful wife to be true. After that battle that got his essence-core shattered, he never believed he could even be where he was today. He could have been dead from the complications of a shattered core. He knew his life-essence could have dissipated and for that, he was grateful. He had almost everything a minor deity could wished for, especially, the power and fame that his clan had attained after gruesome years at the bottom of non-existence. Many years of oblivion as a matter of fact. Yet, he wasn''t that happy. This sadness, he shared with his wife. Amarodia! His ever enduring and loving wife. They had sacrificed so much to be together and start their own family. Inspite of all these, one but massively important thing was missing in their lives for their ancestral lines to continue. A child! The missing piece in their lives and in the continuation of their ancestral lines. In the Underworld, ancestral lines was of the umost importance. The power of a clan and family, lay in the chain of offspring. This was what bound the future to the ancestral past. With offspring, a clan had the hope of them having the traits of conjuring the essence of the chains of Tartarus and eventually the binding chains. This way, a clan could become the ruling clan or continue to maintain its rule. But most importantly, The joys and despairs that a child would bring to him and his wife. Some deities couldn''t care less but definitely not them. Though, they were together after so long journey, the significance of a child to them couldn''t be put into words. It would be the crown of relief on their throne of pain. Ah, the sound of a child''s voice, the cries, the screams, the laughters and watching the growth of the child to become a strong deity with their own very eyes. All they ever wanted. Eternal essence be his witness, despite the limitation in power and resources, he had tried everything he knew of so they could have a child. He had met various physicians and alchemists throughout the Underworld, but, none of their methods and pills had worked. The frequent use of the available resources, had taken a toll on them. With a heart stricken with grieve, he had lost all hope until his Kuln servant told him about a physician his that his old master once knew. A physician that resided in his own personal domain? That was a powerful physician. To own a domain,the deity had to reach the sovereign stage. Domains were extremely diificult to find unless they were open domains. A closed domain at his current level, it would be almost impossible for him to locate and have an audience with such a deity. But as a member of a realm''s ruling clan, he might have a slightest chance. He had started the search for the domain with a little optimisim which quickly disappeared after many years spent in vain. This was despite the domain not being a hidden one, but a closed domain. After many difficult and dangerous years of searching, he had finally located it. There were ultimate deities, major deities and minor deities. From Empyreans to Sovereigns, were major deities while below were minor deities. The ultimate deities were the supremes. Though, mostly from afar, he had seen many deities in his life-time and of them, lord Hades and the council of the Utmosts, were of the most terrific existence. And of the major deities, the highest were the sovereigns. Nevertheless, there were some domain deities that were just as powerful as a realm ruler even with their realms divine treasures. He had his thoughts that this alchemist was one of those few deities that were unbound to a particular realm. Ah, he himself was a major deity before his core was shattered and could have attain his own domain upon reaching sovereign stage. However, he wasn''t sad due to this. The gain from the battle far surpassed his loss in advancement. Lord Hargoven still remembered his encounter with the alchemist, clearly. He re-lived the moment he met the sovereign alchemist. \"Greetings, sovereign alchemist Udreabis. I thank you gratefully for allowing me an entrance into your domain. Eternal essence continue to be on you.\" \"I greet you too, lord Hargoven of the Shadow-Flame clan. Your noble fame preceeds you. A shattered core for the love of your life? Not many could have undergone such. A noble course indeed. Even if you were not from an honored clan, I would have attended to you still.\" He had noticed how alchemist Udreabis had observed him for a moment before nodding his head in sincere acknowledgement. \"So, what brings you to my little domain, lord Hargoven?\" \"Pardon me for the intrusion, sovereign alchemist Udreabis. The problem that brought me have taken me far and wide but all to no avail. You are the last hope I probably have.\" \"A child?\" Alchemist Udreabis had asked him. \"Yes, a child.\" He had replied solemnly, as he continued to look at the alchemist who was stroking his beard in thoughts. How could he have known the problem easily like that? Only a true alchemist could have avhieved that feat. He had continued to wait for a moment before the sovereign alchemist sighed and stared at him. \"Ways of the Alphega couldn''t be comprehended in its totality. Everything was for a purpose, that was of certainty.\" Alchemist Udreabis had paused for a time as he ruminated on some information in his mind before continuing. \"Hm. There is a way I know of, lord Hargoven. Though it''s hard, Alphega might grant you what you seek. There are some items you must provide for me, the rest I can add. The Springroot spirit grass, the primeval Phoenix blood crystal, the light and dark Eternal Twin-orb and the Sanguine Burning Star. Get me all these, and with the rest of the items with me, I will make you an ultimate pill. The Cosmic Nimbus pill. And who knows, the mother core might answer your supplements.\" \"Thank you, alchemist Udreabis. I will try my best to find the items.\" \"Anything for a noble course, lord Hargoven.\" 3 The Birth Of Ethera II As the evening continued to turn darker and more shadows came out to dance, lord Hargoven''s gaze was intently fixed on the recent past while ruminating on its circumstantial events. He, semi-consciously, reached into his dimensional space and removed some leviadon seeds that he slowly popped into his mouth. His mind continued to contemplate in silence as it apprehended the way things were panning out. He recollected his sojourn after he had left the alchemist''s domain. He had started looking frantically for the items which had taken almost every thing he got, to gather. He had lost all of his consorts and his two legs, when he was retrieving the Phoenix blood crystal and had to spend some long days regrowing them. He had bought the Twin-Orb with more than a reasonable fortune. He could also have died while acquiring the Sanguine Burning Star. All these for a child? Yes, surely worth it, if it would work. And today, he would be going to alchemist Udreabis to collect the Cosmic Nimbus pill. Everything he had been working and striving hard for, would come to bare today. This would be a soul refreshing gift to them, especially to his wife who had been through so much already. He could only hope that this pill turned out to be true this time around. Though, his wife had never complained about any pill he had been giving her. Always, she took them with renewed hope, each time. Retrieving his wandering thoughts, lord Hargoven raised his head in anxious anticipation before standing up. \"It''s time.\" He said to himself as he turned to a streak of dark light, heading towards the direction of the alchemist''s domain. He wouldn''t be using his carriage that had the sygil of the Shadow-Flame clan, in order to maintain his secrecy. There would be no reason for him to attract unnecessary attention at this point. After some long hours, he returned with a cautious smile on his face. With his divine sense, he quickly located his wife who was meditating in the secular chamber as usual. Most of her time was spent in the secular chamber to relax her anxious mind. He knew the extent of the sacrifices that his wife hade made. This made him to shake his head in wary comprehension of his wife''s personal anguish. This, he perfectly understood and related with, but hopefully, things would change for the better soon. He gently nudged her mind using his mind-voice as he blurred towards where she was meditating. Worryingly, lord Hargoven looked at his wife, who was still closing her eyes but could sense his presence, with a renewed hope. Gentle and mild as a dove, brutal and vengeful as the hounds of Abyss. And her mind? It was working frantically like the harrowed frame of Tartarus. How fortunate was he to have a wife like this? Extremely fortunate. \"Amarodia, my love. Seeing you, is everything on my mind.\" \"Hmmm... \" A soft and easy smile displayed on her face, lady Amarodia slowly opened her eyes to the sight of her husband. She slowly stood up, straightened herself and headed in the direction of her husband who was trying hard to compose himself. From the tone of his mind-voice, she could tell of something important going on, in her husband''s mind. \"Everything on your mind, my husband? Nothing else?\" She continued to move slowly towards her husband, as her gleeful eyes tried to search for the clues of what was on her husband''s mind. \"Ah, my loving wife. What can my mind hide from you?\" He produced a rainbow colored pill and showed it to his wife who took a few step back in utter shock. The powerful energy coming from the pill was an evidence of its immense power. A nimbus pill? That would take a sovereign deity, at the least, to make. And the items needed to make a nimbus pill? She could only imagine all these in total astonishment. As she could already determine from the look of things, it had to do with the child they are seeking. \"Hopefully, this will be the last time, my darling wife.\" The two held each other lovingly, as they wallowed in their own embrace. Though, long deity years that seemed eternal they had been longing for a child, this act from her husband was more than she could have asked for. She could imagine what he had been through to get this pill. After heaving a long suffering sigh, Amarodia cleared her throat softly. \"You are everything I could, ever, have asked for, my dear husband. Thank you.\" Few agonizing months later, Amarodia saw the sign of pregnancy. Their eternal joy couldn''t be put into words. Since it was still early, they kept it quiet in order not to raise their hope unnecessarily high. With cautious joy, the maintained their usual ways. As the time passed by, and the evidence of the pregnancy became glaringly obvious, they started endeavoring in their hopes for the future. They were going to have a child of their own? What they had thought to be nearly impossible, a few years ago, was now going to happen. Their ancestral line would continue and it didn''t matter which side of the parental line the child would follow. Ah, who could have thought it would be now? Happiness that knew no bound. Their small manor continued to bustle with joyful activities for the following months. Some months later, they had a child. A glorious girl whose first scream was like that of a thousand rising Phoenix. The most terrifying part of her was the energy of her birth. For the deities of the underworld, their birth energy was majority dark energy and minority light energies. But for their child, it was totally different. Her birth energy was of an interjection of radiant dark and light energy. This was a strange happening that was beginning to make them wonder in bewilderment. They continued to watch as the two energy, suddenly flared at the same time and mixed together to emit a dark silver energy light before entering back into their child''s body. Could it be due to a problem with the child''s birth? An energy issue? Something to do with the cosmic pill? They didn''t know what they should make of this scene, hence, they decided to keep it quiet until they have asked the alchemist, sovereign Udreabis. Nonetheless, this was their day of celebration. And nothing, could take that away from them. After delibrating on the names they could give their child, they settled on one that rang a familiar tone to them. Ethera. The essence of twin light. 4 Essence Of Ethera As time flowed softly by, like a petal in the wind, with no dramatic flare to mark its passage, it continued to leave the design of its mysteries. The unknown mysteries of the known, it was called. And who could argue otherwise? As old lives gone by and new ones began, the way of time of the universal existence maintained it course. There was no better way to witness the way time maintained its universal existence, than to observe its effect on this beautiful young girl who was watching the fast approaching twilight. A taller than average girl but with fragile looking body. Long dark silver-grey hair that encompassed equally colored eyes. She continued watching the twilight that indicated the coming of the nightfall in the underworld. Lost in her own mind, she was totally unaware of the scrying eyes of her watchful parents. Her name was Ethera. It appeared as if it was just yesterday that this young girl was born, but, ten years had softly passed since her birth. Ten years! Sometimes, everything was still like a dream. A dream that mustn''t be disturbed in order to avoid a shattering heart. But this dream, was simply beyond illusion, and too wonderful not to be true. And in reality, it was as real as Tartarus. Ethera. The essence of light in the darkness. Or the essence of darkness in the light? Despite her fragile look, the young girl was full of life energy. Ever since her birth, she had been growing in strength and in wisdom, both beyond her age level. Her full strength was truly terrifying for her delicate-looking body. How could a fragile body packed so much strength? At first, they had thought her body was a little deficient until they witnessed her immense power. Ah, what a child? After relating the development to alchemist Udreabis, who couldn''t stop smiling and laughing, they came to an understanding. The cosmic grade pill was the first of its kind ever made. Alchemist Udreabis had made an experimental substitution to some of the items, for a riskier but much more potent ones. One of them was the Phoenix crystal. He had been using Nine-Sky golden eagle blood, but had gone for the extremely rare and extremely powerful Phoenix crystal. All these he made, due to his conclusion on the essence of energy of the parents. They could still recollect the words of the alchemist, clearly, as he alternated his gaze between lord Hargoven and lady Amarodia. \"After seeing you the first day and hearing about your wife, I was able to determine some things about you two and came to a decision. The essence of energy, the strength and uniqueness of the two of you, combined with a special pill? That would be a masterpiece If you wanted something as extraordinary as a child, why not make it a spectacular one, despite the risks? Hence, this very cosmic pill. The essence of the cosmic pill and the essence of energy of the two of you. Even I, can''t determine the nature of your child''s essence. At the end of everything, it worked more than I even expected. One day, please permit this old one, a chance to pay you a visit to see this wonder of yours.\" They had left that dominion with joy of full understanding. Although, this phenomenom consolidated their belief about the uniqueness of their child, it was also a source of worry. This could attract unwanted attention to their child. There were many deities, especially in the underworld, that could find this disturbing in a way. And the unbound deities were of uttermost concerns. Those ones could kill without cause. Yet, sooner or later, their child would be in the public eyes. Nothing they could do about that. She would have to fully learn the ways of life and of deities in school. They would prefer later, if they could help it, however, there child must forge her path like every other deities. Just like every other child of the underworld, she would have to face the Stone of Destiny in front of the Council Of The Utmosts at the Darkfall Conjecture. And, that was where they would be heading off to, the next day. Since, the following day would be the day for the Rite Of Path for every young deities of ten deity years of age. Ethera was now ten deity years of age. This was her age of manifestation, hence, she would have to partake of the rite. The council would preside and witness the manifestation of each present child. Records must be taken. This was each child''s dream. Especially, to be noticed by the representative of the topmost schools. And Ethera had been looking forward to this ocassion. Her parents had been preparing her since she was born. Long hours of being taught the basics and the most important ways of life. How to deal with other entities and what to expect in life. They had been exhausting, but she knew it was due to the fact that they really loved her. And the following day, would be the day that her life trials would begin. \"Life of a deity.\" She gave a simple smile as the memories of the past came flooding in. Of a time when she would sit, unbearably, in front of her parents as they would teach her before they would all start to meditate. She was a little mischievious then as meditation wasn''t her thing. Sitting in one place with eyes closed as she freed her mind, simply beyond her endurance. But now, she appreciated it. Though, meditation was still not her main thing. \"Inner peace. Would try more.\" She thought to herself as she headed towards the training center at the back of their mansion. Martial arts! Now, that was her main thing. She loved practising martial arts and engaging in mock combats. Though, she didn''t practise with any weapon since she didn''t know what weapon her soul manifestation would acquire. Nonetheless, her hand combat was incredible for her age. The power in her hand martial arts was truly a wonder. But, she knew when to reduce her power output as taught to her by her parents. She continued to the training center, unaware of her parent eyes on her. They had been cautiously observing and monitoring Ethera. Afterall, she was their only child. Despite them trying to hide all these, they still couldn''t care less if others were watching them or not. They knew what they had to go through before they could have her. So, whether they over watched her or not, it was perfectly justified. They stood by the opened window of the upper living chamber as they used their divine sight to continue watching their daughter. Lady Amarodia, gently squeezed the arm of lord Hargoven while resting her head on his shoulder. \"Look at her, my husband. Our child.\" \"Yes, my wife. Our child she is.\" \"See, how wonderful she looks everyday? That''s my true essence in her.\" \"I agreed with you, my beautiful wife. And you see how strong she is everyday? That''s also because of me.\" \"Can''t argue with that, my powerful lord.\" Said Amarodia giving a slight bow to her husband. \"Where would I be without my true strength, without you, my beautiful lady?\" \"On the throne of Tartarus?\" \"That would only be in dreams.\" They both laughed to that before Amarodia gave a soft sigh. \"How fast time moves. I still can''t believe she''s ten now.\" \"Yes, it is. And, I know your mind wonders about tomorrow, my wife.\" \"Yes. How will her rite go? What manifestation would she have? Which school will take her?\" \"Rest your mind, my wife. Wonder not. I tell you this. One thing is definitely certain.\" \"What is that, my hussband?\" \"No matter how fast time moves, our daughter is our daughter and will prove so tomorrow.\" \"Yes. And will forever be our daughter.\" \"Should we go and see how her night was going?\" \"I suppose.\" They joined Ethera at the training center where they all practise for a time before calling it a night. They moved to the dining chamber where a special delicacy of the Nine Mountain spirit deer was steaming on the table. The night was dedicated to Ethera as she began her immortal deity journey. After the meal, they all departed to their various ways as Ethera made her way to the silent cultivation chamber. More importantly, she would soon be able to cultivate after her manifestation. Then, her advancement would truly begin. Oh, how good would it be to be like her parents, one day. The journey would start the following day. A journey of no end, she was told. How far she would go would depend on her as from the next day. She closed her eyes as she began to meditate. Inner peace. The following night would be the big day for her and the other kids. She wanted to be ready as much as possible for the events. After meditating for few hours, she left the chamber and looked for her parents. She bid them goodday as she left for her room. As sleep took over, Ethera began to have a calling dream. A soul-drawing dream about the void. 5 Astral-Dream Projection? When a soul was in the threshold of true awareness, what followed was the profound silence. And the projection of the profound silenceg, was the beginning of the soul''s becoming. Deep in the world of dreams, Ethera felt herself floating in the dark energy light of the underworld. She was observing the landscape underneath her while her spirit soared. The landscape scenery was of utter wonder. The way it was naturally formed and carved, was truly magnificient to behold. As she watched, the landscape continued to enlarge, as the three dark realms of the Underworld came to fore. She noticed three massive energy flares at the center of the realms which brought her to a realization. She must be seeing all these due to her spiritual sight. For, there was no way such flares could be seen with the naked immortal eyes. Floating sensation? Spiritual sight? Astral projection! But for certainty, this wasn''t of her doing. She would have kept her conscious knowledge of being in an atral projection from the very beginning , if she was the one that actually initiated it. Nevertheless, anything that initiated the astral projection of her soul without her knowledge of it from the start, must be exceedingly powerful. Extreme caution was needed. Since she was still a young deity, she had to thread cautiously here. Deity or no deity, she could easily die in here. The thought gave her a degree of fear since she would soon be taking her first steps into the immortal life of a true deity. The expansion of the landscape continued in a blur that made the floating soul of Ethera, ache badly. As her spirit was at the point of combustion, the image slowed down and showed the scene of total darkness. Complete darkness. Ethera quickly went from blanking what she was seeing, to, trying to open her spiritual sight to make sense of the darkness she was looking at. As she strained her spiritual sight, to no avail, she heard a gentle and soft voice that seemed distant. \"The void. The true beginning.\" \"Uh?\" Ethera turned to the source of the voice, only for her to continue seeing complete darkness. She looked sideways, to the same results. She tried to reach for her spatial sac in order to take her defensive talisman but realized that she was in spirit projection. \"Not meant to startle you, young immortal.\" The already rattled Ethera, stared at the direction of the voice in bewilderment. Not meant o startle? ''But, you already did!'' She wanted to scream and maybe whoever brought her here would just throw her out of this place. But, slowly calmed her jostled mind. Who knew maybe the entity that brought her here would simply chain her spirit up if she would annoy it. After a moment, she asked. \"Who... who are you?\" \"Who I am, is not yet for you to know. As a matter of fact, it was not in your power to know. But, the time will come and won''t be long. That, I can assure you, young immortal. Do you even know the great length I went through to be here, to bring you here?\" \"Astral projection.\" \"Close enough but huge difference. This is Astral Dream Projection. Much more difficult to initiate.\" \"Ok, but why am I here?\" \"You are here for us to meet. And, Is there a better way to meet you than to show you the tiniest glimpse of what was? What was of the universe, of myself and ofnyourself? How we all came to be? This way, you will fully understand me when the time comes.\" \"I can''t even see you now, and my head hurts from trying in the darkness.\" \"Don''t stress it, young one. You can''t. Not with the stage you are now. However, don''t worry. Though you can''t see me now, but you will, young immortal. You will. And as I said, the time will come. But for now, I want you to see and know about the power of the essence of the dark matter. The very essence that gave birth to the universe, to me and to you, but all in a different way.\" There was a short pause before the entity gave a short sigh. \"Are you not going to ask me how? What I meant by all these?\" The questions caught already confused Ethera off-guard as she scrambled to recollect her thoughts. With a raised brow, she slowly asked. \"How?\" \"It''s good of you to ask and I will tell you. You see, young immortal. In a long forgotten time, there was only the timeless void. Before the void, there was no time and no existence, apart from the pure essence of matter of the void. This, you already knew, right? Good. Then, something happened with the essence of matter in the void. It started to change. And out of the void, an essence core was formed. This, you knew too. Right? Yes. The first creation. The Alphega. \"But this next one, you never knew. As the essence core began to form the universe, two crystals were formed. The dark energy crystal and the light energy crystal. The condensed ultimate pure essence of matter. Where am I going with all these, you ask? The dark energy crystal, was the heart and the core of the Crucible. The Chains of Tartarus. \"Are you with me? Good. While the light energy crystal, was the heart and core of the Fangs of Aether. This was where it truly began with you. When you were born, your scream caused a reaction that stirred the core of the light orb of Aether, the divine treasure of the realm of Aether in the Overworld, known as the Crown of a Timeless Star. And probably, caused a stir in the core of the Chains of Tartarus. Why all these, you asked? You see, your father was from the Tartarus realm, this you know. But, what of your mother? Aha! \"A pity my essence is running low, young immortal. I used most of my fading essence, to bring you here. From now on, I can no longer bring you here, but you can come here whenever you are strong enough. What remains of my memories, I will tell you. Only this, I can provide. At this point, I have to bid you farewell. If not, my life-essence essence would just fade away before I can tell you what remains. And you know what that means. Alright, farewell, young immortal.\" Ethera woke up with a startle. It was an astral dream, yet, it felt so real. What kind of astral dream could that be? Ethera couldn''t bring herself to believe the idea of the essence of an entity, summoning her and appearing to her in a dream. Dreams! Though, she was only ten deity years of age, she knew this could only be a mere astral dream of the subconscious self. No astral dream could truly transport the living spirit through projection into an unknown place. At the same time, even if it was only a dream, could those crystal cores, somehow, exist? And, what about her mother? No, she wouldn''t let this affect her mind in any way. Tonight, was the night of the Rite of Path. She pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind while concentrating on the night. The night she had been preparing for, for so long which had finally arrived. Since she had woken up quite early on this evening, she decided to put on the new robe that her parents had bought for her for this glorious night. After preparing herself, she went looking for her parents and found them in the living chamber. They pretended as if they hadn''t been watching her since and that they hadn''t been anxious of the night and hadn''t been expecting her. With their back to the entrance, they appeared to be fixing different things in the living chamber. Whereas, on the large marble table at the corner of the chamber, were the items she would be taking to the rite. Carefully packed and arranged in order. When she saw this, she smiled while shaking her head. She might be young, but she knew her parent were even more concerned about the rite more than her. She knew they had been discussing about and their acts were pretenses. She decided to act along too, she would add to the fun of a beautiful evening. \"Good evening, father, mother.\" \"Good evening, Twin essence.\" Her parents replied as they stopped what they were doing in pretense and turned their attention to her. \"Here you are. Up and running so early.\" Continued her mother with a broad smile. \"And, all dressed up. Is there any ocassion today we are not aware of?\" Quipped in her father with a stifled grin as he gestured towards Ethera''s new robe in a pretense of solitude. \"I know you are all playing with me. You already knew today is the rite of path. And, I can see the preparationn you''ve made on the table there.\" \"Alright, you caught us.\" They all laughed and proceeded to check the prepared items. It was time to leave for the Conjecture for the trials. Lord Hargoven checked the arrays protecting the massive dome-building of the house of Tartarus. With everything ready and follwed by few servants, they headed for their flying carriage. Feeling a little anxious, she looked at her parents and they nodded to her in assured confirmation. \"It''s all good.\" 6 Darkfall Conjecture I The Darkfall Conjecture. A colossal building constructed out of black palladium and laced with black diamonds. It was located at the center of the underworld, inbetween the three realms. This was an ancient building from the time immemorial, built by the divine constructs[artificial sentients] of the primordials in accordance with the ways of the universe. This building could contain millions of the Underworlders without getting crowded. It was truly a divine conjecture. Right from the enormous palladium gates, the whole conjecture was covered with various types of runes, sygils and symbols. This was the most powerful and secured building in the underworld. At the center of the spacious conjecture, were the six divine items. The Amber Scale, to measure the level of affiliated essence. The Stone of Destiny, for the becoming of the deity. The Mythic Eye, to determine the fate of deities. The Ageless Nimbus, to determine the path that the deities would walk. The Transient circlet, for the soul existence from birth. The Crimson Cinder for the soul weapon of each deity. Beyond the six divine items, was an arc of the thrones of the six judges. These six judges had no affiliation to any realm, domain or dominion. Neither did they have any affinity with any Underworlder. Due to their nature, they were like the many manifestations of the true essence core of the underworld. Not even the supreme, lord Hades, could interfere in their activities. And, in front of them, on the table, were the opened scrolls of records. Debijjan[the keeper of the records of path]. Uvumel[the keeper of the records of destiny]. Azerus[the keeper of the records of fate]. Shadiomar[the keeper of the records of soul artillery]. Ossidor[the keeper of the records of essence affiliation]. And, Agrinor[the keeper of the records of existential entity]. Few meters behind the thrones of the judges, was the arranged seating area of the honored ones. The area was divided into three. The lower, the middle and the upper. The lower rows of thrones were for the honored Monarchs, Paramounts and the Empyreans. The middle row was where the thrones of the honored Stellars and other Sovereigns, including the grand patriarchs of the different schools of the underworld, were located. On the upper row, was situated the throne of the Supreme of the Underworld, lord Hades. To his right side, were the three sovereign lords of the three realms of the Underworld. Lord Vogratis of the house of Abaddon, Lady Allunar of the house of Abyss and lord Hargoven of the house of Tartarus. To the left hand side of lord Hades, were the three stellar kings[guardians] of the three sacred domains. King Iggarros of the Flowing-Phantom domain, king Eddarea of the Eternal-Yonder, and king Obbatora of the Desolate-Argent domain. Each of these kings were of the late stage of the stellar level of cultivation and were chosen by the calling of the essence core of the Underworld. Their domains were the gateways between the underworld and the other parts of the universe and its beyond. The two sides of the Conjecture center, from the gates to the place of the divine items, were the seating area of the other Underworlders. From the deities, to the beasts and other living entities. On this day, the Conjecture was brimming with high amount of energy from the present Underworlders. All the honored ones were also present including lord Hades himself. The high level of joyful apprehension inside the conjecture, couldn''t be totally comprehended due to the protective runes, but, could still be sensed. The most important of all the rite, was the path of deity. Though, there were many paths a deity could take, the most, seemingly, important of them were six in numbers. The Path of the Azure Herald. The Path of the Divine Yonder. The Path of the Desolate Nether. The path of the Eternal Inferno. The Path of the Flowing Nebula. And, the Path of the Sanguine Sanctum. With the approval of lord Hades and the agreement of the judges, the high Savant approached the center to open the activities of the day. The participating deities were ushered ino the Conjecture to the cheers and applause of the watching Underworlders. \"We welcome you all to the Darkfall Conjecture. We have all made the journey from far and wide to be here today. Today, which is the day for the young deities. This is the day they will be performing their rites of paths. Today, they will know their place in this universe. What they were, what they are now, and what they will become. As we all know, all young deities would have to undergo the rite, sooner or later, as all the adults can testify to. And talking about the adults, we will like to pay honor to the ones that are more than deserving.\" The high savant turned to the direction of the thrones, to the cheers and applause of the crowd. \"Highest honor to the Supreme ruler of the Underworld. Lord Hades. Under who, the Underworld is in relative peace and harmony. Glorious honor to the six judges of the Underworld, the keepers of all records. High honor to the Sovereigns of the three realms and the kings of the three sacred domains, for maintaining orders. Honor to the schools'' patriarchs, the stellars, the empyreans, the paramounts and the monarchs. And, to all the adult deities in presence. \"Not forgetting the younger ones too.\" Said the high savant after a pause, to more cheers and applause from the crowd. The high savant waited happily for a moment before continuing. This was why he was the high savant. Full of wisdom, he knew how to how and when to offer his words to others. He turned his attention to the young participants. \"Today is your day of manifestation. Let your heart be free as you let your light shine. The judges will rightly direct you with the divine items when the time comes. And maybe, you''ll hear from the Supreme one himself.\" There were gasps of awe and apprehension as the kids turned towards the direction of the supreme throne. But, all they could see, was a dark silent shadow. Only the others were partially visible to them. Ethera couldn''t see her father but she could sense him among the sovereigns. \"Once again, welcome.\" As the participating kids were ushered into an area of the conjecture with the protective arrays, the eyes of all the ruling deities became more keener. The rite of path was of different meaning to all present. For the sovereigns, kings, stellars and other honored ones, this was a traditional way to elevate their realms, dominions, domains, clans and houses. As long as their participating young deities came out with a great path and, a good destiny and fate, the better for their realms'' reputation. For the schools'' patriarchs, they would have the chance to choose young deities with bright and radiant future to be affiliated with their schools. This could elevate the position of their school ranking. And if they could get the best young deity, the bragging ways would be theirs. And for the young participating deities, it was about their future lives. Simply, life and oblivion. From inside the area, the young deities could clearly see what was happening on the outside. Ethera, who was at the middle of the participants, had no problem seeing the outside due to her unique height. She reckoned it would take quite some time before it would be her turn. She watched as they were called, one by one, and directed to the center of the Conjecture under the scrutinizing eyes of everybody present where they performed their rite of path. Massive energy flares, extreme choices of weapons, unique deity paths and exceedingly great existence were recorded as the kids kept on performing the rite, one after the other. Many deities were already rejoicing the outcome of their participating young deities while others were not in a very good mood. Soon, it was the turn of Ethera. She walked beside the junior savant as she was directed towards the center of the conjecture. By the words of the judges, Ethera was placed before the first divine treasure, the Ageless Nimbus. \"The Path of Twin Realms.\" Announced judge Debijjan to the gasps and sighs of the watching deities. This was a path that had been announced in the underworld, only once before now, in its recorded history. A path that could never be walked by any underworld deities. And a path that couldn''t be threaded, would only bring pain and despair. And, it would never bring true immortality to the deity. There would be no advancement in cultivation level beyond a certain stage. Simply, no Ethereal Eternal. Infernal fire claim my soul! 7 Essence Of Ethera II Ethera had been looking forward to this ocassion. Her parents had been preparing her since she was born. Long hours of combat training and meditation to deal with the underworld and other entities. The training had been exhausting, but she knew it was due to the fact that they really loved her and wanted her to have a good chance at survival. And the following day, would be the day that her life trials would truly begin. \"World of a deity.\" She gave an apprehensive smile as the memories of the past came flooding in. Of a time when she would sit, unbearably, in front of her parents as they meditated. She was a little mischievious then as meditation wasn''t her thing. Sitting in one place with eyes closed as she freed her mind, simply beyond her endurance. Pfft. But now, she appreciated all the effort of her parents more. Though, meditation was still not her main thing. \"Inner peace.\" She thought to herself as she slowly closed her eyes. She would need a lot of inner peace as she prepared for the rite. There was nothing she could do about the rite since the awakening wasn''t in her hands. She could only try to impress during the combat trials. Moments later, she headed towards the training center at the back of their mansion. Martial arts! Now, that was her main thing. She loved practising martial arts and engaging in mock combats. Though, she didn''t practise with any weapon since she didn''t know what weapon her soul awakening would acquire. Nonetheless, her hand combat was incredibly powerful for her age. The power in her hand martial arts was truly a wonder. Also, she knew how to vary her combat power''s output as taught to her by her parents. The general basics of martial arts. With eagerness, she continued towards the training center, unaware of her parent eyes on her. They had been cautiously observing and monitoring Ethera. Afterall, she was their only child. Despite them trying to hide all these, they still couldn''t care less if others were watching them or not. They knew what they had gone through before they could have her. So, whether they over-watched her or not, it was perfectly justified. They stood by the opened window of the upper living chamber as they used their divine sight to continue watching their daughter. Lady Amarodia, gently squeezed the arm of her husband while resting her head on his shoulder. Her sight fixated on her child who was going in the direction of the training area. \"Look at her, my husband. Our own child, all grown up now.\" \"Yes, my wife. She is.\" \"And do you see how wonderful she looks everyday? That''s my true essence in her.\" \"I couldn''t agree more with you, my beautiful wife. But you see how strong she is everyday? That''s because of me. Don''t you agree?\" \"Can''t argue with that at all.\" Said Amarodia with a wide smile on her face. It might be a joke on the part of her husband, but Amarodia knew the level of her husband''s power. Especially, when he was a stellar deity before the battle that got his core shattered. Even now with an amended core, he was still a powerful deity. But what could have been without the tragic incident? She knew what he had sacrificed to be here today with her. Hargoven could see a mixture of joyful and grateful expression on Amarodia''s face which made him smile broadly as he jokingly shook his head. \"Where would I be without you, my true strength?\" \"On the throne of the underworld?\" \"In my dreams, surely in my dreams.\" They both laughed softly before turning their attention back to Ethera who was now practising her general hand combat. They couldn''t teach her any named combat technique since they didn''t know what her awakening would be. A named technique must be in alignment with the manifestation of a deity. Tomorrow after the rite, they would know the way forward for her. Oh, how good would it be if she could get a manifestation like her father Amarodia gave a soft sigh as she gently patted the hand of her husband. \"How fast the time moves. I still can''t believe she''s ten now.\" \"Yes, she is.\" Hargoven responded while patting his wife''s shoulder in a soothing way. \"And, I know your mind wonders about tomorrow.\" \"Yes, I am worried. How will her rite go? What manifestation would she have? Which school will take her? You remembered her essence energy when she was born? The dark silver energy?\" \"How can I forget that, my wife? Still, I want you to rest your mind, for one thing is definitely certain. No matter what her awakening is tomorrow, our daughter will surely be fine.\" \"I hope she does.\" \"She will. Now, should we go and see how her day was going?\" \"Alright.\" They joined Ethera at the training center where they all practise for a time before calling time on it. They moved to the dining chamber where a special delicacy of the Nine Mountain spirit deer was steaming on the table. The night was dedicated to Ethera as she began her immortal deity journey. After the meal, they all departed to their various ways as Ethera made her way to the silent cultivation chamber. Despite not being able to fully cultivate until after her awakening, she sat down and closed her eyes in meditation. Oh, how good would it be to be like her parents, one day. The journey would start the following day. A journey of no end, she was told. How far she would go would depend on her as from the next day. She began to relax and free her mind of anxiety and expectation''s burden. The following night would be the big day for her and the other kids. She wanted to be ready as much as possible for the events. Inner peace! After meditating for few hours, she left the chamber and went looking for her parents. She bid them night and left for her room. As sleep took over, Ethera began to have a calling dream. A soul-drawing dream about the void. 4 Essence Of Ethera I As time flowed softly by, like a petal in the wind, with no dramatic flare to mark its passage, it continued to leave the design of its mysteries. The unknown mysteries of the known, it was called. And who could argue otherwise? As old lives gone by and new ones began, the way of time of the universal existence maintained it course. There was no better way to witness the way time maintained its universal existence, than to observe its effect on this beautiful young girl who was watching the fast approaching twilight. A taller than average girl but with fragile looking body. Long dark silver-grey hair that encompassed equally colored eyes. She continued watching the twilight that indicated the coming of the nightfall in the underworld. Lost in her own mind, she was totally unaware of the scrying eyes of her watchful parents. Her name was Ethera. It appeared as if it was just yesterday that this young girl was born, but, ten years had softly passed since her birth. Ten years! Sometimes, everything was still like a dream. A dream that mustn''t be disturbed in order to avoid a shattering heart. But this dream, was simply beyond illusion, and too wonderful not to be true. And in reality, it was as real as Tartarus. Ethera. The essence of light in the darkness. Or the essence of darkness in the light? Despite her fragile look, the young girl was full of life energy. Ever since her birth, she had been growing in strength and in wisdom, both beyond her age level. Her full strength was truly terrifying for her delicate-looking body. How could a fragile body packed so much strength? At first, they had thought her body was a little deficient until they witnessed her immense power. Ah, what a child? After relating the development to alchemist Udreabis, who couldn''t stop smiling and laughing, they came to an understanding. The cosmic grade pill was the first of its kind ever made. Alchemist Udreabis had made an experimental substitution to some of the items, for a riskier but much more potent ones. One of them was the Phoenix crystal. He had been using Nine-Sky golden eagle blood, but had gone for the extremely rare and extremely powerful Phoenix crystal. All these he made, due to his conclusion on the essence of energy of the parents. They could still recollect the words of the alchemist, clearly, as he alternated his gaze between lord Hargoven and lady Amarodia. \"After seeing you the first day and hearing about your wife, I was able to determine some things about you two and came to a decision. The essence of energy, the strength and uniqueness of the two of you, combined with a special pill? That would be a masterpiece If you wanted something as extraordinary as a child, why not make it a spectacular one, despite the risks? Hence, this very cosmic pill. The essence of the cosmic pill and the essence of energy of the two of you. Even I, can''t determine the nature of your child''s essence. At the end of everything, it worked more than I even expected. One day, please permit this old one, a chance to pay you a visit to see this wonder of yours.\" They had left that dominion with joy of full understanding. Although, this phenomenom consolidated their belief about the uniqueness of their child, it was also a source of worry. This could attract unwanted attention to their child. There were many deities, especially in the underworld, that could find this disturbing in a way. And the unbound deities were of uttermost concerns. Those ones could kill without cause. Yet, sooner or later, their child would be in the public eyes. Nothing they could do about that. She would have to fully learn the ways of life and of deities in school. They would prefer later, if they could help it, however, there child must forge her path like every other deities. Just like every other child of the underworld, she would have to face the Stone of Destiny in front of the Council Of The Utmosts at the Darkfall Conjecture. And, that was where they would be heading off to, the next day. Since, the following day would be the day for the Rite Of Path for every young deities of ten deity years of age. Ethera was now ten deity years of age. This was her age of manifestation, hence, she would have to partake of the rite. The council would preside and witness the manifestation of each present child. Records must be taken. This was each child''s dream. Especially, to be noticed by the representative of the topmost schools. And Ethera had been looking forward to this ocassion. Her parents had been preparing her since she was born. Long hours of being taught the basics and the most important ways of life. How to deal with other entities and what to expect in life. They had been exhausting, but she knew it was due to the fact that they really loved her. And the following day, would be the day that her life trials would begin. \"Life of a deity.\" She gave a simple smile as the memories of the past came flooding in. Of a time when she would sit, unbearably, in front of her parents as they would teach her before they would all start to meditate. She was a little mischievious then as meditation wasn''t her thing. Sitting in one place with eyes closed as she freed her mind, simply beyond her endurance. But now, she appreciated it. Though, meditation was still not her main thing. \"Inner peace. Would try more.\" She thought to herself as she headed towards the training center at the back of their mansion. Martial arts! Now, that was her main thing. She loved practising martial arts and engaging in mock combats. Though, she didn''t practise with any weapon since she didn''t know what weapon her soul manifestation would acquire. Nonetheless, her hand combat was incredible for her age. The power in her hand martial arts was truly a wonder. But, she knew when to reduce her power output as taught to her by her parents. She continued to the training center, unaware of her parent eyes on her. They had been cautiously observing and monitoring Ethera. Afterall, she was their only child. Despite them trying to hide all these, they still couldn''t care less if others were watching them or not. They knew what they had to go through before they could have her. So, whether they over watched her or not, it was perfectly justified. They stood by the opened window of the upper living chamber as they used their divine sight to continue watching their daughter. Lady Amarodia, gently squeezed the arm of lord Hargoven while resting her head on his shoulder. \"Look at her, my husband. Our child.\" \"Yes, my wife. Our child she is.\" \"See, how wonderful she looks everyday? That''s my true essence in her.\" \"I agreed with you, my beautiful wife. And you see how strong she is everyday? That''s also because of me.\" \"Can''t argue with that, my powerful lord.\" Said Amarodia giving a slight bow to her husband. \"Where would I be without my true strength, without you, my beautiful lady?\" \"On the throne of Tartarus?\" \"That would only be in dreams.\" They both laughed to that before Amarodia gave a soft sigh. \"How fast time moves. I still can''t believe she''s ten now.\" \"Yes, it is. And, I know your mind wonders about tomorrow, my wife.\" \"Yes. How will her rite go? What manifestation would she have? Which school will take her?\" \"Rest your mind, my wife. Wonder not. I tell you this. One thing is definitely certain.\" \"What is that, my hussband?\" \"No matter how fast time moves, our daughter is our daughter and will prove so tomorrow.\" \"Yes. And will forever be our daughter.\" \"Should we go and see how her night was going?\" \"I suppose.\" They joined Ethera at the training center where they all practise for a time before calling it a night. They moved to the dining chamber where a special delicacy of the Nine Mountain spirit deer was steaming on the table. The night was dedicated to Ethera as she began her immortal deity journey. After the meal, they all departed to their various ways as Ethera made her way to the silent cultivation chamber. More importantly, she would soon be able to cultivate after her manifestation. Then, her advancement would truly begin. Oh, how good would it be to be like her parents, one day. The journey would start the following day. A journey of no end, she was told. How far she would go would depend on her as from the next day. She closed her eyes as she began to meditate. Inner peace. The following night would be the big day for her and the other kids. She wanted to be ready as much as possible for the events. After meditating for few hours, she left the chamber and looked for her parents. She bid them goodday as she left for her room. As sleep took over, Ethera began to have a calling dream. A soul-drawing dream about the void. 5 Essence Of Ethera II Ethera had been looking forward to this ocassion. Her parents had been preparing her since she was born. Long hours of combat training and meditation to deal with the underworld and other entities. The training had been exhausting, but she knew it was due to the fact that they really loved her and wanted her to have a good chance at survival. And the following day, would be the day that her life trials would truly begin. \"World of a deity.\" She gave an apprehensive smile as the memories of the past came flooding in. Of a time when she would sit, unbearably, in front of her parents as they meditated. She was a little mischievious then as meditation wasn''t her thing. Sitting in one place with eyes closed as she freed her mind, simply beyond her endurance. Pfft. But now, she appreciated all the effort of her parents more. Though, meditation was still not her main thing. \"Inner peace.\" She thought to herself as she slowly closed her eyes. She would need a lot of inner peace as she prepared for the rite. There was nothing she could do about the rite since the awakening wasn''t in her hands. She could only try to impress during the combat trials. Moments later, she headed towards the training center at the back of their mansion. Martial arts! Now, that was her main thing. She loved practising martial arts and engaging in mock combats. Though, she didn''t practise with any weapon since she didn''t know what weapon her soul awakening would acquire. Nonetheless, her hand combat was incredibly powerful for her age. The power in her hand martial arts was truly a wonder. Also, she knew how to vary her combat power''s output as taught to her by her parents. The general basics of martial arts. With eagerness, she continued towards the training center, unaware of her parent eyes on her. They had been cautiously observing and monitoring Ethera. Afterall, she was their only child. Despite them trying to hide all these, they still couldn''t care less if others were watching them or not. They knew what they had gone through before they could have her. So, whether they over-watched her or not, it was perfectly justified. They stood by the opened window of the upper living chamber as they used their divine sight to continue watching their daughter. Lady Amarodia, gently squeezed the arm of her husband while resting her head on his shoulder. Her sight fixated on her child who was going in the direction of the training area. \"Look at her, my husband. Our own child, all grown up now.\" \"Yes, my wife. She is.\" \"And do you see how wonderful she looks everyday? That''s my true essence in her.\" \"I couldn''t agree more with you, my beautiful wife. But you see how strong she is everyday? That''s because of me. Don''t you agree?\" \"Can''t argue with that at all.\" Said Amarodia with a wide smile on her face. It might be a joke on the part of her husband, but Amarodia knew the level of her husband''s power. Especially, when he was a stellar deity before the battle that got his core shattered. Even now with an amended core, he was still a powerful deity. But what could have been without the tragic incident? She knew what he had sacrificed to be here today with her. Hargoven could see a mixture of joyful and grateful expression on Amarodia''s face which made him smile broadly as he jokingly shook his head. \"Where would I be without you, my true strength?\" \"On the throne of the underworld?\" \"In my dreams, surely in my dreams.\" They both laughed softly before turning their attention back to Ethera who was now practising her general hand combat. They couldn''t teach her any named combat technique since they didn''t know what her awakening would be. A named technique must be in alignment with the manifestation of a deity. Tomorrow after the rite, they would know the way forward for her. Oh, how good would it be if she could get a manifestation like her father who had the path of the Flowing Nebula or perhaps, the path of the Azure Herald like the archsupreme, lord Hades. Amarodia gave a soft sigh as she gently patted the hand of her husband. \"How fast the time moves. I still can''t believe she''s ten now.\" \"Yes, she is.\" Hargoven responded while patting his wife''s shoulder in a soothing way. \"And, I know your mind wonders about tomorrow.\" \"Yes, I am worried. How will her rite go? What manifestation would she have? Which school will take her? You remembered her essence energy when she was born? The dark silver energy?\" \"How can I forget that, my wife? Still, I want you to rest your mind, for one thing is definitely certain. No matter what her awakening is tomorrow, our daughter will surely be fine.\" \"I hope she does.\" \"She will. Now, should we go and see how her day was going?\" \"Alright.\" They joined Ethera at the training center where they all practise for a time before calling time on it. They moved to the dining chamber where a special delicacy of the Nine Mountain spirit deer was steaming on the table. The night was dedicated to Ethera as she began her immortal deity journey. After the meal, they all departed to their various ways as Ethera made her way to the silent cultivation chamber. Despite not being able to fully cultivate until after her awakening, she sat down and closed her eyes in meditation. Oh, how good would it be to be like her parents, one day. The journey would start the following day. A journey of no end, she was told. How far she would go would depend on her as from the next day. She began to relax and free her mind of anxiety and expectation''s burden. The following night would be the big day for her and the other kids. She wanted to be ready as much as possible for the events. Inner peace! After meditating for few hours, she left the chamber and went looking for her parents. She bid them night and left for her room. As sleep took over, Ethera began to have a calling dream. A soul-drawing dream about the void. 6 Astral-Dream Projection? When a soul was in the threshold of true awareness, what followed was the profound silence. And the projection of the profound silenceg, was the beginning of the soul''s becoming. Deep in the world of dreams, Ethera felt herself floating in the dark energy light of the underworld. She was observing the landscape underneath her while her spirit soared. The landscape scenery was of utter wonder. The way it was naturally formed and carved, was truly magnificient to behold. As she watched, the landscape continued to enlarge, as the three dark realms of the Underworld came to fore. She noticed three massive energy flares at the center of the realms which brought her to a realization. She must be seeing all these due to her spiritual sight. For, there was no way such flares could be seen with the naked immortal eyes. Floating sensation? Spiritual sight? Astral projection! But for certainty, this wasn''t of her doing. She would have kept her conscious knowledge of being in an atral projection from the very beginning , if she was the one that actually initiated it. Nevertheless, anything that initiated the astral projection of her soul without her knowledge of it from the start, must be exceedingly powerful. Extreme caution was needed. Since she was still a young deity, she had to thread cautiously here. Deity or no deity, she could easily die in here. The thought gave her a degree of fear since she would soon be taking her first steps into the immortal life of a true deity. The expansion of the landscape continued in a blur that made the floating soul of Ethera, ache badly. As her spirit was at the point of combustion, the image slowed down and showed the scene of total darkness. Complete darkness. Ethera quickly went from blanking what she was seeing, to, trying to open her spiritual sight to make sense of the darkness she was looking at. As she strained her spiritual sight, to no avail, she heard a gentle and soft voice that seemed distant. \"The void. The true beginning.\" \"Uh?\" Ethera turned to the source of the voice, only for her to continue seeing complete darkness. She looked sideways, to the same results. She tried to reach for her spatial sac in order to take her defensive talisman but realized that she was in spirit projection. \"Not meant to startle you, young immortal.\" The already rattled Ethera, stared at the direction of the voice in bewilderment. Not meant o startle? ''But, you already did!'' She wanted to scream and maybe whoever brought her here would just throw her out of this place. But, slowly calmed her jostled mind. Who knew maybe the entity that brought her here would simply chain her spirit up if she would annoy it. After a moment, she asked. \"Who... who are you?\" \"Who I am, is not yet for you to know. As a matter of fact, it was not in your power to know. But, the time will come and won''t be long. That, I can assure you, young immortal. Do you even know the great length I went through to be here, to bring you here?\" \"Astral projection.\" \"Close enough but huge difference. This is Astral Dream Projection. Much more difficult to initiate.\" \"Ok, but why am I here?\" \"You are here for us to meet. And, Is there a better way to meet you than to show you the tiniest glimpse of what was? What was of the universe, of myself and ofnyourself? How we all came to be? This way, you will fully understand me when the time comes.\" \"I can''t even see you now, and my head hurts from trying in the darkness.\" \"Don''t stress it, young one. You can''t. Not with the stage you are now. However, don''t worry. Though you can''t see me now, but you will, young immortal. You will. And as I said, the time will come. But for now, I want you to see and know about the power of the essence of the dark matter. The very essence that gave birth to the universe, to me and to you, but all in a different way.\" There was a short pause before the entity gave a short sigh. \"Are you not going to ask me how? What I meant by all these?\" The questions caught already confused Ethera off-guard as she scrambled to recollect her thoughts. With a raised brow, she slowly asked. \"How?\" \"It''s good of you to ask and I will tell you. You see, young immortal. In a long forgotten time, there was only the timeless void. Before the void, there was no time and no existence, apart from the pure essence of matter of the void. This, you already knew, right? Good. Then, something happened with the essence of matter in the void. It started to change. And out of the void, an essence core was formed. This, you knew too. Right? Yes. The first creation. The Alphega. \"But this next one, you never knew. As the essence core began to form the universe, two crystals were formed. The dark energy crystal and the light energy crystal. The condensed ultimate pure essence of matter. Where am I going with all these, you ask? The dark energy crystal, was the heart and the core of the Crucible. The Chains of Tartarus. \"Are you with me? Good. While the light energy crystal, was the heart and core of the Fangs of Aether. This was where it truly began with you. When you were born, your scream caused a reaction that stirred the core of the light orb of Aether, the divine treasure of the realm of Aether in the Overworld, known as the Crown of a Timeless Star. And probably, caused a stir in the core of the Chains of Tartarus. Why all these, you asked? You see, your father was from the Tartarus realm, this you know. But, what of your mother? Aha! \"A pity my essence is running low, young immortal. I used most of my fading essence, to bring you here. From now on, I can no longer bring you here, but you can come here whenever you are strong enough. What remains of my memories, I will tell you. Only this, I can provide. At this point, I have to bid you farewell. If not, my life-essence essence would just fade away before I can tell you what remains. And you know what that means. Alright, farewell, young immortal.\" Ethera woke up with a startle. It was an astral dream, yet, it felt so real. What kind of astral dream could that be? Ethera couldn''t bring herself to believe the idea of the essence of an entity, summoning her and appearing to her in a dream. Dreams! Though, she was only ten deity years of age, she knew this could only be a mere astral dream of the subconscious self. No astral dream could truly transport the living spirit through projection into an unknown place. At the same time, even if it was only a dream, could those crystal cores, somehow, exist? And, what about her mother? No, she wouldn''t let this affect her mind in any way. Tonight, was the night of the Rite of Path. She pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind while concentrating on the night. The night she had been preparing for, for so long which had finally arrived. Since she had woken up quite early on this evening, she decided to put on the new robe that her parents had bought for her for this glorious night. After preparing herself, she went looking for her parents and found them in the living chamber. They pretended as if they hadn''t been watching her since and that they hadn''t been anxious of the night and hadn''t been expecting her. With their back to the entrance, they appeared to be fixing different things in the living chamber. Whereas, on the large marble table at the corner of the chamber, were the items she would be taking to the rite. Carefully packed and arranged in order. When she saw this, she smiled while shaking her head. She might be young, but she knew her parent were even more concerned about the rite more than her. She knew they had been discussing about and their acts were pretenses. She decided to act along too, she would add to the fun of a beautiful evening. \"Good evening, father, mother.\" \"Good evening, Twin essence.\" Her parents replied as they stopped what they were doing in pretense and turned their attention to her. \"Here you are. Up and running so early.\" Continued her mother with a broad smile. \"And, all dressed up. Is there any ocassion today we are not aware of?\" Quipped in her father with a stifled grin as he gestured towards Ethera''s new robe in a pretense of solitude. \"I know you are all playing with me. You already knew today is the rite of path. And, I can see the preparationn you''ve made on the table there.\" \"Alright, you caught us.\" They all laughed and proceeded to check the prepared items. It was time to leave for the Conjecture for the trials. Lord Hargoven checked the arrays protecting the massive dome-building of the house of Tartarus. With everything ready and follwed by few servants, they headed for their flying carriage. Feeling a little anxious, she looked at her parents and they nodded to her in assured confirmation. \"It''s all good.\" 7 Darkfall Conjecture I The Darkfall Conjecture. A colossal building constructed out of black palladium and laced with black diamonds. It was located at the center of the underworld, inbetween the three realms. This was an ancient building from the time immemorial, built by the divine constructs[artificial sentients] of the primordials in accordance with the ways of the universe. This building could contain millions of the Underworlders without getting crowded. It was truly a divine conjecture. Right from the enormous palladium gates, the whole conjecture was covered with various types of runes, sygils and symbols. This was the most powerful and secured building in the underworld. At the center of the spacious conjecture, were the six divine items. The Amber Scale, to measure the level of affiliated essence. The Stone of Destiny, for the becoming of the deity. The Mythic Eye, to determine the fate of deities. The Ageless Nimbus, to determine the path that the deities would walk. The Transient circlet, for the soul existence from birth. The Crimson Cinder for the soul weapon of each deity. Beyond the six divine items, was an arc of the thrones of the six judges. These six judges had no affiliation to any realm, domain or dominion. Neither did they have any affinity with any Underworlder. Due to their nature, they were like the many manifestations of the true essence core of the underworld. Not even the supreme, lord Hades, could interfere in their activities. And, in front of them, on the table, were the opened scrolls of records. Debijjan[the keeper of the records of path]. Uvumel[the keeper of the records of destiny]. Azerus[the keeper of the records of fate]. Shadiomar[the keeper of the records of soul artillery]. Ossidor[the keeper of the records of essence affiliation]. And, Agrinor[the keeper of the records of existential entity]. Few meters behind the thrones of the judges, was the arranged seating area of the honored ones. The area was divided into three. The lower, the middle and the upper. The lower rows of thrones were for the honored Monarchs, Paramounts and the Empyreans. The middle row was where the thrones of the honored Stellars and other Sovereigns, including the grand patriarchs of the different schools of the underworld, were located. On the upper row, was situated the throne of the Supreme of the Underworld, lord Hades. To his right side, were the three sovereign lords of the three realms of the Underworld. Lord Vogratis of the house of Abaddon, Lady Allunar of the house of Abyss and lord Hargoven of the house of Tartarus. To the left hand side of lord Hades, were the three stellar kings[guardians] of the three sacred domains. King Iggarros of the Flowing-Phantom domain, king Eddarea of the Eternal-Yonder, and king Obbatora of the Desolate-Argent domain. Each of these kings were of the late stage of the stellar level of cultivation and were chosen by the calling of the essence core of the Underworld. Their domains were the gateways between the underworld and the other parts of the universe and its beyond. The two sides of the Conjecture center, from the gates to the place of the divine items, were the seating area of the other Underworlders. From the deities, to the beasts and other living entities. On this day, the Conjecture was brimming with high amount of energy from the present Underworlders. All the honored ones were also present including lord Hades himself. The high level of joyful apprehension inside the conjecture, couldn''t be totally comprehended due to the protective runes, but, could still be sensed. The most important of all the rite, was the path of deity. Though, there were many paths a deity could take, the most, seemingly, important of them were six in numbers. The Path of the Azure Herald. The Path of the Divine Yonder. The Path of the Desolate Nether. The path of the Eternal Inferno. The Path of the Flowing Nebula. And, the Path of the Sanguine Sanctum. With the approval of lord Hades and the agreement of the judges, the high Savant approached the center to open the activities of the day. The participating deities were ushered ino the Conjecture to the cheers and applause of the watching Underworlders. \"We welcome you all to the Darkfall Conjecture. We have all made the journey from far and wide to be here today. Today, which is the day for the young deities. This is the day they will be performing their rites of paths. Today, they will know their place in this universe. What they were, what they are now, and what they will become. As we all know, all young deities would have to undergo the rite, sooner or later, as all the adults can testify to. And talking about the adults, we will like to pay honor to the ones that are more than deserving.\" The high savant turned to the direction of the thrones, to the cheers and applause of the crowd. \"Highest honor to the Supreme ruler of the Underworld. Lord Hades. Under who, the Underworld is in relative peace and harmony. Glorious honor to the six judges of the Underworld, the keepers of all records. High honor to the Sovereigns of the three realms and the kings of the three sacred domains, for maintaining orders. Honor to the schools'' patriarchs, the stellars, the empyreans, the paramounts and the monarchs. And, to all the adult deities in presence. \"Not forgetting the younger ones too.\" Said the high savant after a pause, to more cheers and applause from the crowd. The high savant waited happily for a moment before continuing. This was why he was the high savant. Full of wisdom, he knew how to how and when to offer his words to others. He turned his attention to the young participants. \"Today is your day of manifestation. Let your heart be free as you let your light shine. The judges will rightly direct you with the divine items when the time comes. And maybe, you''ll hear from the Supreme one himself.\" There were gasps of awe and apprehension as the kids turned towards the direction of the supreme throne. But, all they could see, was a dark silent shadow. Only the others were partially visible to them. Ethera couldn''t see her father but she could sense him among the sovereigns. \"Once again, welcome.\" As the participating kids were ushered into an area of the conjecture with the protective arrays, the eyes of all the ruling deities became more keener. The rite of path was of different meaning to all present. For the sovereigns, kings, stellars and other honored ones, this was a traditional way to elevate their realms, dominions, domains, clans and houses. As long as their participating young deities came out with a great path and, a good destiny and fate, the better for their realms'' reputation. For the schools'' patriarchs, they would have the chance to choose young deities with bright and radiant future to be affiliated with their schools. This could elevate the position of their school ranking. And if they could get the best young deity, the bragging ways would be theirs. And for the young participating deities, it was about their future lives. Simply, life and oblivion. From inside the area, the young deities could clearly see what was happening on the outside. Ethera, who was at the middle of the participants, had no problem seeing the outside due to her unique height. She reckoned it would take quite some time before it would be her turn. She watched as they were called, one by one, and directed to the center of the Conjecture under the scrutinizing eyes of everybody present where they performed their rite of path. Massive energy flares, extreme choices of weapons, unique deity paths and exceedingly great existence were recorded as the kids kept on performing the rite, one after the other. Many deities were already rejoicing the outcome of their participating young deities while others were not in a very good mood. Soon, it was the turn of Ethera. She walked beside the junior savant as she was directed towards the center of the conjecture. By the words of the judges, Ethera was placed before the first divine treasure, the Ageless Nimbus. \"The Path of Twin Realms.\" Announced judge Debijjan to the gasps and sighs of the watching deities. This was a path that had been announced in the underworld, only once before now, in its recorded history. A path that could never be walked by any underworld deities. And a path that couldn''t be threaded, would only bring pain and despair. And, it would never bring true immortality to the deity. There would be no advancement in cultivation level beyond a certain stage. Simply, no Ethereal Eternal. Infernal fire claim my soul! -5 Glossary The World Of Ethera @@ THE ETHEREAL ETERNAL ¡ñ THE INFINITUM. THE UNIVERSE [THREE WORLDS] ¡ñ THE OVERWORLD ¡ñ THE OUTERWORLD ¡ñ THE UNDERWORLD THE OVERWORLD [THREE REALMS] ¡ñ THE AETHER ¡ñ THE ELYSIUM ¡ñ THE HEAVENS THE OUTERWORLD [THREE REALMS] ¡ñ THE NIRVANA Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. ¡ñ THE EARTH ¡ñ THE ANCHOR THE UNDERWORLD [THREE REALMS] ¡ñ THE ABADDON ¡ñ THE EREBUS ¡ñ THE TARTARUS @@ -4 Glossary Overworld @@ THE OVERWORLD ¡ñ DOMINION ¡ñ REALMS THE DOMINION [RULING HOUSE] ¡ñ SUPREMUS [HOUSE OF SUPREMUS] THE REALMS [RULING HOUSE] Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. ¡ñ ETHER [HOUSE OF ETHER] ¡ñ ELYSIUM [HOUSE OF ELYSIUM] ¡ñ HEAVENS [HOUSE OF HEAVENS] THE ENERGY ¡ñ LIGHT ENERGY [MAJOR ENERGY] ¡ñ DARK ENERGYB[MINOR ENERGY] @@ -3 Glossary The Underworld @@ THE UNDERWORLD ¡ñ DOMINION ¡ñ REALMS THE DOMINION [RULING HOUSE] ¡ñ SUPREMUS [HOUSE OF SUPREMUS] Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. THE REALMS [RULING HOUSE] ¡ñ ABADDON [HOUSE OF ABADDON] ¡ñ EREBUS [HOUSE OF EREBUS] ¡ñ TARTARUS [HOUSE OF TARTARUS] THE ENERGY ¡ñ DARK ENERGY [MAJOR ENERGY] ¡ñ LIGHT ENERGYB[MINOR ENERGY] @@ -2 Glossary Outerworld @@ THE OUTERWORLD ¡ñ DOMINION ¡ñ REALMS THE DOMINION [RULING HOUSE] ¡ñ SUPREMUS [HOUSE OF SUPREMUS] THE REALMS [RULING HOUSE] ¡ñ NIRVANA [HOUSE OF NIRVANA] Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. ¡ñ EARTH [HOUSE OF EARTH] ¡ñ ANCHOR [HOUSE OF ANCHOR] THE ENERGY ¡ñ LIGHT ENERGY [MINOR ENERGY] ¡ñ DARK ENERGYB[MINOR ENERGY] @@ 7 Astral Dream Projection? I When a soul was in the threshold of true awareness, what followed was the profundity of true silence. And the projection of this massively significant silence, was the beginning of a soul''s true becoming. And deep in the threshold of the world of dreams, Ethera felt an awareness of herself floating in the light of dark energy of the underworld. As she floated, she saw a massive phantom-like landscape underneath her while her spirit soared, high above the dark sky. Gradually, as she soared higher, the ghostly landscape began to change into a more recognizable one that was of utter wonder to the gazing eyes. Five infinite lucid oceans that seperated five un-ending realms. The Underworld. A lasting world of chaos that had infinite possibility of expansion. She had never seen the whole of the Tartarus realm before, talkless of the other realms. But, the way the world''s landscape was naturally formed and carved, other realms would also be magnificient to behold. As she continued to soar higher, the landscape continued to enlarge and the structures of the five dark realms of the Underworld began to take shape. She noticed five massive energy flares at the center of the realms which made her to wonder in bewilderment. Spiritual vision? The only plausible explanation for her to be seeing all these was due to an aesthetic spiritual vision. For, there was no way such divine energy flares could be seen with the naked immortal eyes. Floating sensation. Spiritual vision. Astral projection! It had to be astral projection. Though, she had never used astral projection before due to the protection of her parents, she could identify one. She remembered their words of souls travelling to any part of the universe almost instantly. Much more faster and safer than the physical body. However, the deity wouldn''t be able to alter much of anything with only the soul and the soul could still be intercepted and trapped by a more powerful deity. For certainty, this astral projection wasn''t of her doing. She wouldn''t have initiated one before her awakening and moreover, she would have kept her conscious knowledge of her own soul''s projection from the very beginning, if she was the one that actually performed it. Nevertheless, anything or anyone that instituted the astral projection of her soul without her knowledge of it from the start, must be exceedingly powerful. True, she was still a young deity who was yet to undergo awakening, she should still be aware of her soul''s projection. For her not to be aware, extreme caution was needed. Since she couldn''t control her soul''s projection and was still a young deity, she had to thread cautiously here. Deity or no deity, she could easily be trapped in here or even be killed without knowing any better. The thought gave her a degree of fear since she would soon be taking her first steps into the immortal life of a true deity. The expansion of the landscape continued in a blur as everything melted away from her view. This made the floating soul of Ethera, ache badly prompting screams that couldn''t be heard. As her spirit neared the point of combustion, the image slowed down and showed the scene of darkness. Complete darkness that engulfed her soul too. Panic took hold of her as she strained her spiritual vision to no avail. Was her soul being trapped? Why? As she was wondering in total apprehension, she heard a gentle and soft voice that seemed to echoe from the distant. \"The void. This is the true beginning.\" A male husky voice sounded behind her. \"Huh?\" With a mind gripped with fear, Ethera turned to the source of the voice, only for her to continue seeing complete darkness. She looked sideways, to the same results. She tried to reach for her dimensional crystal, storage container, in order to take her defensive talisman but realized that she was in an astral projection. \"Who... who are you?\" \"Who I am, is not for you to know. Not yet, anyway. Since your power is still lacking. But, the time will come and won''t be long. That, I can assure you, young immortal. Do you even know the great length I went through to be here, to bring you here?\" \"To take my soul?\" \"Take your soul? A raspy laughter echoed forth from the sorrounding darkness. \"To what purpose would that be, young immortal? I understand your concern but I never meant to startle you.\" The already rattled Ethera, looked around in the darkness in utter disbelief. Not meant to startle her? ''But, you already did!'' She wanted to scream and kick something, then, maybe whoever brought her here would simply throw her out of this place in annoyance. \"Alright. Maybe, meant to startle you a little bit.\" The raspy laughter ensued from the darkness again. \"But, I won''t throw you out yet. Now, you are wondering why you are here?\" An entity that could read her mind? Slowly, Ethera calmed her jostled mind. Who knew maybe this entity would simply decide to chain her soul if she should slightly annoy him. After recovering herself, Ethera asked. \"Yes.\" \"I will get to that shortly. Meanwhile, the first question should be how you got here.\" \"Astral projection?\" \"Close, yet, far away. You see, young immortal, this is Astral-Dream Projection.\" \"Astral-Dream projection? If it''s a dream projection, don''t I need to be induced with a dream since I don''t sleep?\" Ethera asked as she recollected the memories she had of her parents inducing her with dreams for her to sleep. Could she truly be here? An entity that could transport another deity soul in an astral-dream projection, must be at the stellar stage at the least. Evidence of the power of this entity. \"Of course, we deities don''t sleep unless we are induced with a dream. That''s why I went to great length to induce you with one. And, don''t ask me how. The reason why there is a huge difference between this and astral-projection. Dream projection has its own advantages. It can be used to transmit or communicate extremely important information since it is safe from interception unless the interceptor is exceedingly more powerful. This is the reason why astral-dream projection is much more difficult to initiate. Regarding what you are seeing, you can only be here through the Astral-Dream projection. If not, your soul would simply disintegrate.\" \"Is that why I''m here? To see?\" \"You are here to know. But first, for us to meet.\" \"I can''t even see you.\" \"No, you can''t. Not with the stage you are now. But don''t worry, you will see me when the time comes. For now, Is there a better way to meet you than your introduction to the tiniest glimpse of what was? What was of the universe, of myself and of yourself? How we all came to be? This way, you will fully understand me when the time comes. Are you with me, young immortal?\" \"Do I have any choice?\" \"Yes. You can decide not to listen which will give me a reason to lock-up your soul.\" \"Huh?\" \"Hehehe. Good. Now that I have your undivided attention, there won''t be any need for soul chains. Hehehe.\" The husky voice produce a deep sounded laughter before profound silence engulfed the place. -1 Authors Projection Who Am I? Who I was, I could no longer recollect properly. Even my real name was of bleak recall to me. I only remembered the nature of my existence which was that of a human mortal from the realm of earth in the Outerworld. My existence only knew my quill pen and my rolls of parchment. Many were the names that people came to call me by, all of which I responded to unconsciously. On this significant day, I was sitting at my oak table while writing in quick, ferocious bursts, punctuated only by my countless astral visions and my moments of reverie. I wrote because I felt the compulsion to do so, and the language of my written script, was that of the immortal deities. How was I able to do so? Because now, I fully understood the language and its concept. This was not my making, since I was only a mortal. This was bestowed upon my entity in order to write what I saw and would see, down, for future testimony. It had been so long since I had written using the immortal language, making the script I was writing, to come irregularly at the beginning. The long strokes of my precious quill pen had been just a little too formative, but eventually I remembered my way. And the letters, flew from my pen like a mirage of lightning. The more I write, the more I became one with the memories and the strokes of the immortal language. It was in the dark of the night as snow fell from a sky of umber darkness, covering the landscape of the world outside my closed window, in white. The falling snow had obscured my vision so that I could barely discern the distant, beyond my humble abode which made me decided to close the bamboo window. My chamber was well lit from the light of Cavara. The ever burning lamp that I managed to buy from the antique dealer that grazed our town, not too long ago. The light was giving my chamber a radiant glow. Soon the events of the recent past were flowing freely. After scribbling furiously for some minutes, I sat as motionless as I could, for hours. I was watching the snowflakes drift down, and thought it welcoming that they should come so heavily. I watched the written scripts in front of me on the table as my soul tremble in confirmation. There was still a lot for me to write as my mind continued to process the recollected information it had recieved. The snow fell peacefully and quietly since I had managed to close my windows shut. No disturbances needed, so that I could write without having to clear this oak table of mine, every few minutes. I remembered clearly what hapened to me to trigger my scribbling away like a depraved lunatic. The memories were still fresh like engraved journals. I remembered sleeping in my bamboo bed one night, when I suddenly found myself floating back in time. My body was still lying in bed but my spirit was being carted away. This had never happened to me before. True, I was a scribbler, but I only write accounts that were related to me in the physical sense. But this..., this was in the domain of the spirits. The anticipation of my destination was already making my soul weary and extremely disturbed. Why was I having this spirit experience? This question kept nagging at the back of my mind as I floated back in time. After a moment of eternity, the clouds beneath me parted to reveal a serene landscape. This was a place of lucid moonstones and cloudstones. The massive walls of this place were made from pure sunstones. The gates of ivory were exquisite to behold. The symbols and sigils covering the gates were indication that this place was the Ethereal Eternal, the Infinitum. Fear gripped my soul, as my spirit continued to float and was deposited in front of a giant lucid mirror of rainbow colour that was emanating a divine energy. Energy so divine that it made my spirit trembled in fear. The Million Myriads Mirror. This was a divine artefact that no mortal or deity had ever seen without entering reincarnation. Here my spirit was, standing before the mirror as a mortal spirit. And as far as my memory was concerned, I was still a living mortal at this point in time. Not yet entered the samsara cycle. Then, why was I here, standing in front of the divine mirror? There was only one answer that came to my mind. Taking into consideration my work as a scribbler, I could only be here to bear a witness to a divine occurence at the least. As I continued to waddle in my thoughts, I heard a voice that sounded too close to my ears, yet, sounded very far off. \"Pay attention to what you see, so you may write them down. They will serve as a reference in the future.\" I turned to the direction of the voice so I may see who was speaking to me. My spirit nearly exploded from the glimpse of eternal light. I quickly fell on my knees and kow-towed to this formless entity of light. \"Stand and pay attention.\" With great difficulty, I stood and continued to stare at the mirror. Appearing before me inside the mirror, was the underworld with no end to its entirety. Worryingly, I tried to turn my head and observe my sorroundings to know if I was actually dead and into reincarnation or I was only dreaming. I knew this experience was already too much for a motal soul to bear, and now to be seeing the underworld. This wasn''t something a mortal should be seeing and definitely not a place where a mortal should be. But, I was compelled to observe. Wherever I was, and whatever was happening, this entity that brought me here truly wanted me to be a witness to this event. Remebering the words of the entity, I focused my attention back on the mirror. The Underworld unfolded before me. The underworld was truly a magnificent and terrifying world. The glory of the Underworld couldn''t be explained with words alone. Only by sight could it be observed appreciatively. The Underworld had a central palacium under the rule of lord Hades, the Divine-Supreme of the underworld. The underworld was divided into five realms; Abaddon, Abyss, Acheron, Erebus and Tartarus. Each of these realms was under the rule of a sovereign, the Realm-Sovereign. Each realm had four dominions which were under the rulership of a stellar, the Doma-Stellar. The dominions were made up of smaller territories known as Demesnes that were controlled by the Demes-Empyreans. A named ruler was mandated to name the region of his or her rule according to the given name. Lord Hades was of the house of Hades. The scene before me shifted and displayed the realm of Tartarus. The realm of dungeons. This was the realm where the evil souls with extreme karmic sins were imprisoned, including the dangerous and dreadful titans. As I was indulging myself in its reverie, I was shown a massive dome house. The symbol and sigil in front of the house was a clear indication. The house of Ethera. The house of Ethera was located high on a very tall mountain that appeared dark and incredibly enchanting. The obsidian house it was called. The home of lady Ethera, the Realm-Sovereign of Tartarus. Taking a closer look at the place, I could see that It had undergone severe battle as of recent. The immense, domed obsidian building was pierced in many places. Its obsidian walls had signs of slashes and gashes. As realization dawned on me, I closed my eyes at sight of the palace. A ghost of its former glory, though, there were still signs of life inside the palace. This was the house of the ruler of the realm of Tartarus. What a sad state! The mirror reverted backwards and stopped at the image of a young girl whose age was difficult for me to say due to her appearance. Body and face that looked young, yet, the eyes looked ancient. Who could this be? It had to be someone of extreme importance, I wondered. Then, suddenly, as if it read my mind, a name was displayed. Ethera. That was her name. An immortal deity from the realm of Tartarus. The daughter of lord Hargoven and lady Amarodia. Was I here to bear witness to the parents or to this immortal girl? Was I brought here to be able to tell the tale of an immortal girl, who was to became a mythical legend? The mirror took my spirit along with it as it descended into the depth of darkness, silently. As we dropped down, the state of the house became more glaring. Sorrow once again washed over me as I remembered the young girl that I saw earlier. Ethera! As I was wallowing in the sorrow of the place, I saw the faint passage of a mighty shadow which made me trembled in utter fear. A shadow that even made the passage of time to vibrate and flunctuate. A memory of a shadow that could cause the mirror to flunctuate? Surely, a shadow of an entity of unfathomable powers that didn''t belong to the place. Who or what was this shadow? The mirror shifted back to the young immortal girl, Ethera, and stopped as the voice of the entity that brought me here sounded again. \"Now, it begins. See and bear witness.\" 6 Astral Dream Projection? I When a soul was in the threshold of true awareness, what followed was the profundity of true silence. And the projection of this massively significant silence, was the beginning of a soul''s true becoming. And deep in the threshold of the world of dreams, Ethera felt an awareness of herself floating in the light of dark energy of the underworld. As she floated, she saw a massive phantom-like landscape underneath her while her spirit soared, high above the dark sky. Gradually, as she soared higher, the ghostly landscape began to change into a more recognizable one that was of utter wonder to the gazing eyes. Five infinite lucid oceans that seperated five un-ending realms. The Underworld. A lasting world of chaos that had infinite possibility of expansion. She had never seen the whole of the Tartarus realm before, talkless of the other realms. But, the way the world''s landscape was naturally formed and carved, other realms would also be magnificient to behold. As she continued to soar higher, the landscape continued to enlarge and the structures of the five dark realms of the Underworld began to take shape. She noticed five massive energy flares at the center of the realms which made her to wonder in bewilderment. Spiritual vision? The only plausible explanation for her to be seeing all these was due to an aesthetic spiritual vision. For, there was no way such divine energy flares could be seen with the naked immortal eyes. Floating sensation. Spiritual vision. Astral projection! It had to be astral projection. Though, she had never used astral projection before due to the protection of her parents, she could identify one. She remembered their words of souls travelling to any part of the universe almost instantly. Much more faster and safer than the physical body. However, the deity wouldn''t be able to alter much of anything with only the soul and the soul could still be intercepted and trapped by a more powerful deity. For certainty, this astral projection wasn''t of her doing. She wouldn''t have initiated one before her awakening and moreover, she would have kept her conscious knowledge of her own soul''s projection from the very beginning, if she was the one that actually performed it. Nevertheless, anything or anyone that instituted the astral projection of her soul without her knowledge of it from the start, must be exceedingly powerful. True, she was still a young deity who was yet to undergo awakening, she should still be aware of her soul''s projection. For her not to be aware, extreme caution was needed. Since she couldn''t control her soul''s projection and was still a young deity, she had to thread cautiously here. Deity or no deity, she could easily be trapped in here or even be killed without knowing any better. The thought gave her a degree of fear since she would soon be taking her first steps into the immortal life of a true deity. The expansion of the landscape continued in a blur as everything melted away from her view. This made the floating soul of Ethera, ache badly prompting screams that couldn''t be heard. As her spirit neared the point of combustion, the image slowed down and showed the scene of darkness. Complete darkness that engulfed her soul too. Panic took hold of her as she strained her spiritual vision to no avail. Was her soul being trapped? Why? As she was wondering in total apprehension, she heard a gentle and soft voice that seemed to echoe from the distant. \"The void. This is the true beginning.\" A male husky voice sounded behind her. \"Huh?\" With a mind gripped with fear, Ethera turned to the source of the voice, only for her to continue seeing complete darkness. She looked sideways, to the same results. She tried to reach for her dimensional crystal, storage container, in order to take her defensive talisman but realized that she was in an astral projection. \"Who... who are you?\" \"Who I am, is not for you to know. Not yet, anyway. Since your power is still lacking. But, the time will come and won''t be long. That, I can assure you, young immortal. Do you even know the great length I went through to be here, to bring you here?\" \"To take my soul?\" \"Take your soul? A raspy laughter echoed forth from the sorrounding darkness. \"To what purpose would that be, young immortal? I understand your concern but I never meant to startle you.\" The already rattled Ethera, looked around in the darkness in utter disbelief. Not meant to startle her? ''But, you already did!'' She wanted to scream and kick something, then, maybe whoever brought her here would simply throw her out of this place in annoyance. \"Alright. Maybe, meant to startle you a little bit.\" The raspy laughter ensued from the darkness again. \"But, I won''t throw you out yet. Now, you are wondering why you are here?\" An entity that could read her mind? Slowly, Ethera calmed her jostled mind. Who knew maybe this entity would simply decide to chain her soul if she should slightly annoy him. After recovering herself, Ethera asked. \"Yes.\" \"I will get to that shortly. Meanwhile, the first question should be how you got here.\" \"Astral projection?\" \"Close, yet, far away. You see, young immortal, this is Astral-Dream Projection.\" \"Astral-Dream projection? If it''s a dream projection, don''t I need to be induced with a dream since I don''t sleep?\" Ethera asked as she recollected the memories she had of her parents inducing her with dreams for her to sleep. Could she truly be here? An entity that could transport another deity soul in an astral-dream projection, must be at the stellar stage at the least. Evidence of the power of this entity. \"Of course, we deities don''t sleep unless we are induced with a dream. That''s why I went to great length to induce you with one. And, don''t ask me how. The reason why there is a huge difference between this and astral-projection. Dream projection has its own advantages. It can be used to transmit or communicate extremely important information since it is safe from interception unless the interceptor is exceedingly more powerful. This is the reason why astral-dream projection is much more difficult to initiate. Regarding what you are seeing, you can only be here through the Astral-Dream projection. If not, your soul would simply disintegrate.\" \"Is that why I''m here? To see?\" \"You are here to know. But first, for us to meet.\" \"I can''t even see you.\" \"No, you can''t. Not with the stage you are now. But don''t worry, you will see me when the time comes. For now, Is there a better way to meet you than your introduction to the tiniest glimpse of what was? What was of the universe, of myself and of yourself? How we all came to be? This way, you will fully understand me when the time comes. Are you with me, young immortal?\" \"Do I have any choice?\" \"Yes. You can decide not to listen which will give me a reason to lock-up your soul.\" \"Huh?\" \"Hehehe. Good. Now that I have your undivided attention, there won''t be any need for soul chains. Hehehe.\" The husky voice produce a deep sounded laughter before profound silence engulfed the place. 7 Astral Dream Projection? II When a soul was in the threshold of true awareness, what followed was the profundity of true silence. And the projection of this massively significant silence, was the beginning of a soul''s true becoming. And deep in the threshold of the world of dreams, Ethera felt an awareness of herself floating in the light of dark energy of the underworld. As she floated, she saw a massive phantom-like landscape underneath her while her spirit soared, high above the dark sky. Gradually, as she soared higher, the ghostly landscape began to change into a more recognizable one that was of utter wonder to the gazing eyes. Five infinite lucid oceans that seperated five un-ending realms. The Underworld. A lasting world of chaos that had infinite possibility of expansion. She had never seen the whole of the Tartarus realm before, talkless of the other realms. But, the way the world''s landscape was naturally formed and carved, other realms would also be magnificient to behold. As she continued to soar higher, the landscape continued to enlarge and the structures of the five dark realms of the Underworld began to take shape. She noticed five massive energy flares at the center of the realms which made her to wonder in bewilderment. Spiritual vision? The only plausible explanation for her to be seeing all these was due to an aesthetic spiritual vision. For, there was no way such divine energy flares could be seen with the naked immortal eyes. Floating sensation. Spiritual vision. Astral projection! It had to be astral projection. Though, she had never used astral projection before due to the protection of her parents, she could identify one. She remembered their words of souls travelling to any part of the universe almost instantly. Much more faster and safer than the physical body. However, the deity wouldn''t be able to alter much of anything with only the soul and the soul could still be intercepted and trapped by a more powerful deity. For certainty, this astral projection wasn''t of her doing. She wouldn''t have initiated one before her awakening and moreover, she would have kept her conscious knowledge of her own soul''s projection from the very beginning, if she was the one that actually performed it. Nevertheless, anything or anyone that instituted the astral projection of her soul without her knowledge of it from the start, must be exceedingly powerful. True, she was still a young deity who was yet to undergo awakening, she should still be aware of her soul''s projection. For her not to be aware, extreme caution was needed. Since she couldn''t control her soul''s projection and was still a young deity, she had to thread cautiously here. Deity or no deity, she could easily be trapped in here or even be killed without knowing any better. The thought gave her a degree of fear since she would soon be taking her first steps into the immortal life of a true deity. The expansion of the landscape continued in a blur as everything melted away from her view. This made the floating soul of Ethera, ache badly prompting screams that couldn''t be heard. As her spirit neared the point of combustion, the image slowed down and showed the scene of darkness. Complete darkness that engulfed her soul too. Panic took hold of her as she strained her spiritual vision to no avail. Was her soul being trapped? Why? As she was wondering in total apprehension, she heard a gentle and soft voice that seemed to echoe from the distant. \"The void. This is the true beginning.\" A male husky voice sounded behind her. \"Huh?\" With a mind gripped with fear, Ethera turned to the source of the voice, only for her to continue seeing complete darkness. She looked sideways, to the same results. She tried to reach for her dimensional crystal, storage container, in order to take her defensive talisman but realized that she was in an astral projection. \"Who... who are you?\" \"Who I am, is not for you to know. Not yet, anyway. Since your power is still lacking. But, the time will come and won''t be long. That, I can assure you, young immortal. Do you even know the great length I went through to be here, to bring you here?\" \"To take my soul?\" \"Take your soul? A raspy laughter echoed forth from the sorrounding darkness. \"To what purpose would that be, young immortal? I understand your concern but I never meant to startle you.\" The already rattled Ethera, looked around in the darkness in utter disbelief. Not meant to startle her? ''But, you already did!'' She wanted to scream and kick something, then, maybe whoever brought her here would simply throw her out of this place in annoyance. \"Alright. Maybe, meant to startle you a little bit.\" The raspy laughter ensued from the darkness again. \"But, I won''t throw you out yet. Now, you are wondering why you are here?\" An entity that could read her mind? Slowly, Ethera calmed her jostled mind. Who knew maybe this entity would simply decide to chain her soul if she should slightly annoy him. After recovering herself, Ethera asked. \"Yes.\" \"I will get to that shortly. Meanwhile, the first question should be how you got here.\" \"Astral projection?\" \"Close, yet, far away. You see, young immortal, this is Astral-Dream Projection.\" \"Astral-Dream projection? If it''s a dream projection, don''t I need to be induced with a dream since I don''t sleep?\" Ethera asked as she recollected the memories she had of her parents inducing her with dreams for her to sleep. Could she truly be here? An entity that could transport another deity soul in an astral-dream projection, must be at the stellar stage at the least. Evidence of the power of this entity. \"Of course, we deities don''t sleep unless we are induced with a dream. That''s why I went to great length to induce you with one. And, don''t ask me how. The reason why there is a huge difference between this and astral-projection. Dream projection has its own advantages. It can be used to transmit or communicate extremely important information since it is safe from interception unless the interceptor is exceedingly more powerful. This is the reason why astral-dream projection is much more difficult to initiate. Regarding what you are seeing, you can only be here through the Astral-Dream projection. If not, your soul would simply disintegrate.\" \"Is that why I''m here? To see?\" \"You are here to know. But first, for us to meet.\" \"I can''t even see you.\" \"No, you can''t. Not with the stage you are now. But don''t worry, you will see me when the time comes. For now, Is there a better way to meet you than your introduction to the tiniest glimpse of what was? What was of the universe, of myself and of yourself? How we all came to be? This way, you will fully understand me when the time comes. Are you with me, young immortal?\" \"Do I have any choice?\" \"Yes. You can decide not to listen which will give me a reason to lock-up your soul.\" \"Huh?\" \"Hehehe. Good. Now that I have your undivided attention, there won''t be any need for soul chains. Hehehe.\" The husky voice produce a deep sounded laughter before profound silence engulfed the place. 8 Darkfall Conjecture I The Darkfall Conjecture. A colossal building constructed out of black palladium and laced with black diamonds. It was located at the center of the underworld, inbetween the three realms. This was an ancient building from the time immemorial, built by the divine constructs[artificial sentients] of the primordials in accordance with the ways of the universe. This building could contain millions of the Underworlders without getting crowded. It was truly a divine conjecture. Right from the enormous palladium gates, the whole conjecture was covered with various types of runes, sygils and symbols. This was the most powerful and secured building in the underworld. At the center of the spacious conjecture, were the six divine items. The Amber Scale, to measure the level of affiliated essence. The Stone of Destiny, for the becoming of the deity. The Mythic Eye, to determine the fate of deities. The Ageless Nimbus, to determine the path that the deities would walk. The Transient circlet, for the soul existence from birth. The Crimson Cinder for the soul weapon of each deity. Beyond the six divine items, was an arc of the thrones of the six judges. These six judges had no affiliation to any realm, domain or dominion. Neither did they have any affinity with any Underworlder. Due to their nature, they were like the many manifestations of the true essence core of the underworld. Not even the supreme, lord Hades, could interfere in their activities. And, in front of them, on the table, were the opened scrolls of records. Debijjan[the keeper of the records of path]. Uvumel[the keeper of the records of destiny]. Azerus[the keeper of the records of fate]. Shadiomar[the keeper of the records of soul artillery]. Ossidor[the keeper of the records of essence affiliation]. And, Agrinor[the keeper of the records of existential entity]. Few meters behind the thrones of the judges, was the arranged seating area of the honored ones. The area was divided into three. The lower, the middle and the upper. The lower rows of thrones were for the honored Monarchs, Paramounts and the Empyreans. The middle row was where the thrones of the honored Stellars and other Sovereigns, including the grand patriarchs of the different schools of the underworld, were located. On the upper row, was situated the throne of the Supreme of the Underworld, lord Hades. To his right side, were the three sovereign lords of the three realms of the Underworld. Lord Vogratis of the house of Abaddon, Lady Allunar of the house of Abyss and lord Hargoven of the house of Tartarus. To the left hand side of lord Hades, were the three stellar kings[guardians] of the three sacred domains. King Iggarros of the Flowing-Phantom domain, king Eddarea of the Eternal-Yonder, and king Obbatora of the Desolate-Argent domain. Each of these kings were of the late stage of the stellar level of cultivation and were chosen by the calling of the essence core of the Underworld. Their domains were the gateways between the underworld and the other parts of the universe and its beyond. The two sides of the Conjecture center, from the gates to the place of the divine items, were the seating area of the other Underworlders. From the deities, to the beasts and other living entities. On this day, the Conjecture was brimming with high amount of energy from the present Underworlders. All the honored ones were also present including lord Hades himself. The high level of joyful apprehension inside the conjecture, couldn''t be totally comprehended due to the protective runes, but, could still be sensed. The most important of all the rite, was the path of deity. Though, there were many paths a deity could take, the most, seemingly, important of them were six in numbers. The Path of the Azure Herald. The Path of the Divine Yonder. The Path of the Desolate Nether. The path of the Eternal Inferno. The Path of the Flowing Nebula. And, the Path of the Sanguine Sanctum. With the approval of lord Hades and the agreement of the judges, the high Savant approached the center to open the activities of the day. The participating deities were ushered ino the Conjecture to the cheers and applause of the watching Underworlders. \"We welcome you all to the Darkfall Conjecture. We have all made the journey from far and wide to be here today. Today, which is the day for the young deities. This is the day they will be performing their rites of paths. Today, they will know their place in this universe. What they were, what they are now, and what they will become. As we all know, all young deities would have to undergo the rite, sooner or later, as all the adults can testify to. And talking about the adults, we will like to pay honor to the ones that are more than deserving.\" The high savant turned to the direction of the thrones, to the cheers and applause of the crowd. \"Highest honor to the Supreme ruler of the Underworld. Lord Hades. Under who, the Underworld is in relative peace and harmony. Glorious honor to the six judges of the Underworld, the keepers of all records. High honor to the Sovereigns of the three realms and the kings of the three sacred domains, for maintaining orders. Honor to the schools'' patriarchs, the stellars, the empyreans, the paramounts and the monarchs. And, to all the adult deities in presence. \"Not forgetting the younger ones too.\" Said the high savant after a pause, to more cheers and applause from the crowd. The high savant waited happily for a moment before continuing. This was why he was the high savant. Full of wisdom, he knew how to how and when to offer his words to others. He turned his attention to the young participants. \"Today is your day of manifestation. Let your heart be free as you let your light shine. The judges will rightly direct you with the divine items when the time comes. And maybe, you''ll hear from the Supreme one himself.\" There were gasps of awe and apprehension as the kids turned towards the direction of the supreme throne. But, all they could see, was a dark silent shadow. Only the others were partially visible to them. Ethera couldn''t see her father but she could sense him among the sovereigns. \"Once again, welcome.\" As the participating kids were ushered into an area of the conjecture with the protective arrays, the eyes of all the ruling deities became more keener. The rite of path was of different meaning to all present. For the sovereigns, kings, stellars and other honored ones, this was a traditional way to elevate their realms, dominions, domains, clans and houses. As long as their participating young deities came out with a great path and, a good destiny and fate, the better for their realms'' reputation. For the schools'' patriarchs, they would have the chance to choose young deities with bright and radiant future to be affiliated with their schools. This could elevate the position of their school ranking. And if they could get the best young deity, the bragging ways would be theirs. And for the young participating deities, it was about their future lives. Simply, life and oblivion. From inside the area, the young deities could clearly see what was happening on the outside. Ethera, who was at the middle of the participants, had no problem seeing the outside due to her unique height. She reckoned it would take quite some time before it would be her turn. She watched as they were called, one by one, and directed to the center of the Conjecture under the scrutinizing eyes of everybody present where they performed their rite of path. Massive energy flares, extreme choices of weapons, unique deity paths and exceedingly great existence were recorded as the kids kept on performing the rite, one after the other. Many deities were already rejoicing the outcome of their participating young deities while others were not in a very good mood. Soon, it was the turn of Ethera. She walked beside the junior savant as she was directed towards the center of the conjecture. By the words of the judges, Ethera was placed before the first divine treasure, the Ageless Nimbus. \"The Path of Twin Realms.\" Announced judge Debijjan to the gasps and sighs of the watching deities. This was a path that had been announced in the underworld, only once before now, in its recorded history. A path that could never be walked by any underworld deities. And a path that couldn''t be threaded, would only bring pain and despair. And, it would never bring true immortality to the deity. There would be no advancement in cultivation level beyond a certain stage. Simply, no Ethereal Eternal. Infernal fire claim my soul! 9 Darkfall Conjecture II With a nod from lord Hades and the agreement of the judges, the high Savant approached the center to open the activities of the day. The participating deities were ushered ino the Conjecture to the cheers and applause of some of the watching Underworlders, and gravely stares from the others. \"We welcome you all to the Darkfall Conjecture. We have all put aside our disagreement to make the journey from far and wide to be here today. Today, which is the day for the young deities, is the day they will be performing their rites of paths. Today, they will know their places in this universe. What they are now and what they will become as a true deity. As we all know, all young deities would have to undergo the rite, sooner or later, as all the adults here can testify to. And talking about the adults, we will like to pay honor to the ones that are more than deserving.\" The high savant turned to the direction of the thrones, to the cheers and applause of the crowd. \"Highest honor to the Arch-supreme ruler of the Underworld, Lord Hades. Under who, the Underworld is in a relatively peaceful and harmonious chaos. Glorious honor to the four judges of the Underworld, the keepers of all records. High honor to the Supremes of the five realms, the ruling sovereigns and stellars and all the honored ones. Particularly, the schools'' patriarchs. And, to all the adult deities in presence who are a living proof of the ultimate existence in this wonderful world of chaos. \"Examples for the younger ones here today.\" Said the high savant after a pause, to more cheers and stares from the wstching deities. The high savant waited happily for a moment before continuing. This was why he was the high savant. Full of wisdom, he knew how to incite intentions into most deities and when to offer his soothing words to the others. After achieving his aim with the introduction, he turned his attention towards the young participants. \"Today is your day of awakening. Tomorrow, who knows what you''ll be. My life could be threatened by any of you in the future, if you are strong enough. Also, your life could be cut short if you are too weak. Hence, let your heart be free as you let your light shine, for this is the way of the universe. \"Now, as we begin, the judges will rightly direct you with the divine items when the time comes. And maybe, you''ll hear from the Arch-Supreme one himself.\" There were gasps of awe and apprehension from the kids as they turned towards the direction of the supreme throne. But, all they could see, was a dark encompassing shadow. The whole area of the thrones and that of the honored ones, was completely in shadows. Only the other deities were visible to them. \"Once again, welcome.\" As the participating kids were ushered into an area of the conjecture with the protective arrays, the eyes of all the ruling deities became more keener. The rite of path was of different meaning to all present. For the supremes, sovereigns, stellars and other honored ones, there were two major reasons for their keen interests. First, this was a traditional way to elevate their realms, dominions, demesnes and clans. As long as their participating young deities came out with a great results, the better for their realms'' reputation. Second, to know the potential future threats. Any of these new deities could be after their thrones and lives in the coming years. They had to know the brightest ones to keep an eye on them. For the schools'' patriarchs, they would have the chance to choose young deities with bright and radiant future to teach and make them affiliated with their schools. This could elevate the position of their school rankings. And if they could get the best young deity, any future battles could be theirs to loose. And for the young participating deities, it was about their future survival. Simply, a matter of life and oblivion. The latter, they would rather avoid. From inside the reserved area of the conjecture, the young deities could clearly see what was happening on the outside. Ethera, who was standing at the middle of the congregated participants, had no problem seeing the outside due to her unique height. She reckoned it would take quite some time before it would be her turn. She watched as they were called, one by one, and directed to the center of the Conjecture under the scrutinizing eyes of everybody present, as they performed their rite of path. Powerful energy flares, extreme soul weapons, unique deity paths and exceedingly great future becoming, were recorded as the kids kept on performing the rite, one after the other. Many deities were already rejoicing the outcome of their participating young deities while others were in a very grevious mood. Soon, it was the turn of Ethera. Anxiety took hold of her as she walked beside the junior savant towards the direction of the center of the conjecture. How would her right go? Would she be able to get a good path to make her parents proud of her? By the words of the judges, Ethera was placed before the first divine treasure, the Ageless Nimbus. Placing her hands on the giant treasure, the golden light of the treasure came to life as it engulfed Ethera. Formed symbols and signs were displayed on the giant divine treasure. \"The Path of Twin Realms.\" Announced judge Debijjan to the gasps, sighs and smiles of the watching deities. This was a path that had been announced in the underworld, only once before now, in its recorded history. A path that had been declared could never be walked, successfully, by any underworld deities. And a path that couldn''t be threaded since it would only bring pain and despair to the deity. This was a path that had generally been said would never bring true immortality to the deity. Hence, there would be no advancement in cultivation level beyond a certain stage. Simply, no Ethereal Eternal. Infernal flame on her soul! 10 Darkfall Conjecture III A dead path! Ethera contemplated in complete inward dejection and intense anxiety as different information passed through her mind in seconds. The path of Twin Realms was one of the dead paths muted to her by her parents that no young deity should get. As a matter of fact, she had learned that the path of twin realms was one of the most difficult paths in any world, for any living deity to walk. It was an extremely dangerous and deadly ancient path that had been singled out by the deities as a cursed path. Since the time immemorial, only one deity in the whole of the Underworld was ever known to have followed its course. Yet, despite all his efforts, he became a loose deity in the end. For a deity to have a good chance of threading the path of the Twin Realms, there were two things that must happened. First, the deity must have a true manifestation of the combination of the equal essence energy of both the Underworld and the Overworld. And second, the deity must have every possible fortunate encounters. As a dyad, a deity could decide to walk only one of the two realms but there wouldn''t be balance in the deity''s life-essence and would still become a loose deity at the end of it. Even, if the deity had a true essence affiliation of the two worlds, it would still be extremely difficult to walk in order to reach true immortality. Unless, the deity would walk the two realms to the ascension stage, which had never been done before, true immortality would only be of the dreams. Nonetheless, with a fate that entailed these two deity worlds, a dyad deity could be a true drifter. Able to exist and cultivate in both worlds of the deities without too much difficulties. This was a benefit of a drifting deity, though, was nothing compare to the dangers it certainly involved. As long as there was possibility of her being on the good side of fate, she could stand a chance of true immortality. Otherwise, it would be a futile sojourn. From the Ageless-Nimbus, Ethera moved to the next divine treasure. The Amber Scale. It was time to measure her soul essence affiliation. Since having the Twin-Realms path, would she be able to manifest the essence of the two deity worlds to stand a chance of true immortality. She could feel the burning eyes of the present deities on her as she stood on the Amber Scale. She closed her eyes in apprehension as the scale vibrated intensely. The impulse was sent to her soul which released an emission of dark silver essence. The essence was absorbed into the scale and separated into two energy of black and white. There was utter silence as they all watched the lights on the Amber Scale. If it was of equal essence, two lights must flared on the sides of the scale. Otherwise, her destiny would have been sealed. No Ethereal Eternal under any circumstances. Seconds later, two lights on the sides of the scale lit up brightly before fizzling out immediately. The radiance of the two lights should be more than enough to determine her affiliation. Or, not? She watched the keeper of the records of essence affiliation, judge Ossidor, scribbled on his scroll before voicing out loudly. "Dark Silver Essence energy. Twin affinity. A Dyad." Ethera heaved a huge sigh of relief after hearing these words. She was a dyad. Not that it mattered to other deities, but to her, it meant a chance at true immortality. Her major concern now, was to find a school that would train her and guide her path. Without one, she would be a loose deity which was good as a dead deity. She took a glance towards the direction of the school patriarchs but could only see cold stares. Ah, she would surely be a loose cultivator if they all ignored her. She tried to calm her mind as she was directed towards the next divine treasure. The Transient circlet. A hovering colourless ring of Becoming. The number of the Transient Circlet''s manifestation around a deity would determine the nature of the deity''s power of becoming. Ten-rings were the rarest and most revelled of all deities. They were naturally powerful deities, the true deities with the brightest becoming fate. Only few were ten-rings in the Underworld. The few included the arch-supreme himself, lord Hades. The ten transient rings on his fingers were an indication of his true becoming fate. Her own father had seven while her mother had six. How many would she get too? Would she be strong enough? As soon as she was placed under the ring, a transient barricade was formed around her, sealing her off from the rest of the world. It was after several long minutes, that the barricade disappeared and the circlet returned to its hovering state. All eyes were on Ethera as they tried to see how many rings would form around her. This was the last manifestations for her to achieve some sort of reputation for her family. A six-ring manifestation would be more than enough to give her some honour to redeem her awakening. Even, a five-ring would be just as good for her to be accepted by some school patriarchs. Ethera waited to see how many rings would appeared but none came. She stared at judge Uvumel who observed the Transient Circlet carefully before scribbling on his opened scroll. He looked at Ethera as he made his declaration. "Unknown becoming. Fateless manifestations." Fateless? This was becoming more and more unbearable for her. She wouldn''t even have a single ring? She wasn''t even strong enough for one? That was it. No school would take her now. She was going to be a loose cultivator. Her spirit was now totally dejected. Her parents had spent so much on her to be here today and she had little to show in return. A Fateless Dyad? By the time she was moved to the last divine treasure, her mind was no longer in the awakening. The manifestation of the soul weapon was of extreme importance to a deity. The Mythic Eye would disclose the type of soul weapon and the precise location for a deity to conjure the soul weapon. The soul weapon would forever be linked to the soul of the deity and kept in the soul-space. Though, some deities could later forge a more powerful similar weapon. The luminous light from the Mythic Eye enclosed Ethera as the eye gazed into her very soul. As the luminous light rescinded and the Mythic Eye retracted, judge Shadiomar''s voice sounded out. "Glaive. Valley of A-Thousand-Death." At the same time as judge Shadiomar was making the announcement, Ethera too was unconsciously making an utterance in her mind. "A glaive." So much for a rude awakening. By the time Ethera finished her rite, the conjecture was already back in a happy mood. They had already forgotten about a young fateless girl. Of what concern was her to them? They wouldn''t careless if she was dead, dying or alive. Though, most would prefer her dead. One less future threat, if she made it that far. As a deity, she could already be as good as dead or be a potential immortal in the future. However, no deity had ever finished the path 0f the Twin Realms and being a deity with unknown fate, she could possibly die at anytime. After her rite, Ethera waited and watched anxiously as the other remaining kids performed their rites. There were many kids who ended up with various strong paths and becoming. Ten nine-rings and two ten-rings. Even twenty kids with the Death-herald manifestation. This was the highest graded awakening year that was ever recorded. As the high savant concluded with the numbers, Ethera was already lost in thoughts. As she was contemplating, all of her thoughts disappeared as the voice of lord Hades rang throughout the conjecture. 11 Darkfall Conjecture IV "Welcome to the Underworld." The shadows sealing off the upper area of the thrones vibrated mildly from the sound of the voice of the Arch-supreme himself before releasing a pulse of energy. As silence took over from the energy pulse, the older deities knew that the silence meant that lord Hades had departed as with the tradition, and that, other honoured rulers had followed suite. Those were the ones that could leave the conjecture directly from their thrones which also served as portal. This was an indication of the coming to an end of the awakening rite. The judges gave the signal for the high savant to round up with the young participants. The high savant turned towards the young deities before raising his voice. "Now that you have all undergone your awakening, you have now become true deities. As such, I also welcome you to the Underworld. As Underworlders, we are all fortunate to be part of this amazing world of chaos. As young deities, you are the future pillar of this world, but only, if you live long enough. Why is that? This has nothing to do with you personally. It was imply because of the nature of our world. There is no other world that can match our extreme chaos. That is why only the strongest survives in this world. "Remember this, as you leave this place, the only universal law protecting you and at the same time could harm you in this world, is the Darmora law. As long as you are not in any form of contest or contestable situations, you will not be challenged. And as of now, this law also protect you from the throes of higher level deities. For now only the deities of your level can challenge you if you are in a contestable situations. When you become a ranked deity, starting from the Premier stage, you can be challenged by any ranked deity for any ranked position and contest. You may invoke the Darmora law and give up the position or contest, thereby, living to fight another day. "More importantly, before you challenge others, you must consider carefully. There are many higher level deities who go about the Underworld in a simple deceiving way of life. Once you issue a challenge to them, there would be no going back. If you are not strong enough, you will just die. "That been said, if you believe you are strong enough in the future, you are free to challenge me at any time for my position as the high savant. But, for now, I welcome you to the world of deities." With that, the informality of the rite was finally over. The school representatives started giving out their tokens to the young deities while other deities were making alliances and acquaintances. Notable deities would be securing their foothold in the Underworld through different agreements. In simpler words, today was a free day for the deities to achieve any of their peaceful objectives while they were still gathered on the conjecture premises. Ethera looked around as the young participants were receiving their invitation token from the schools assistants. Quite a number of them were even receiving tokens from more than one school. The young deities that manifested the most coveted paths and rings, were receiving their invitation tokens from all the present schools. The prestige of these young deities to choose the school of their making, was something Ethera couldn''t relate with as she continued to look around anxiously. As soon as the tokens were given out and collected, the school representatives as well as the young deities and their families, were immediately leaving through their portals. Gradually, the conjecture was becoming more and more empty as even more deities were leaving. With great apprehension, Ethera glanced at her parents who continued to pat her gently on the back in a soothing comfort. They continued to wait as the hours progressively wound down. Just as they had given up all hope of securing any token, and were about to leave, they were approached by an old deity who was donning a yellow and white robe. The white part of the robe was a perfect match with his long beard and hair. His sharp and keen eyes, were a contrast to his old appearance. Although, aged appearance showed years of experience, it was simply deceptive when it came to physicality of a deity. Many deities just preferred to display the effect of the passage of time on their physical bodies like the mortals of the Outerworld. Probably same with this old deity too, but, there was a hint of authority in him. "Greetings to you, my notable lord and lady. And to you, my pivotal young lady." "We greet you too, salient lord." Ethera''s parent replied in unison while Ethera could only bow her head in reply. Even from his words, they could feel his substantive nature. But who could he possibly be? He couldn''t be seeking to form an alliance with them when they had nothing to offer in return, could he? Could he be a school representative? If not, this would be a wrong time to be entertaining any deity for any other reasons. Breaking free of his thoughts, lord Hargoven gently cleared his throat, strategically. "Mm. Is there anything we can do for you, salient lord?" "Adoghar, that''s the name. And yes, there is. I was thinking if it will be possible for me to entice my pivotal young lady here, with an invitational token." "What?" Ethera asked with wide eyes that would send the sun into hiding. Could this be true? She would be going to a school? With eyes still wide in utter surprise, Ethera stared at her parents who couldn''t stop themselves from throwing obviously warranted questions. "A school invitation?" "A school token?" "Yes, to all your questions. A school invitational token. The Eternal-Sanctum. Though, it''s a newly formed school, but as the school''s patriarch, I believe we can work together to achieve greatness, if chosen." "The patriarch himself?" "If it helps." "If I may ask, why go about giving the invitations yourself, lord Adoghar?" "Well, as I said earlier, It''s a newly formed school. Hence, for now, I need to do this by myself. I hope to create trust with my students earlier on." "We are rightly honoured, lord Adoghar. Our daughter will really like to receive an invitation to your school." "Very well, then. This is my school''s token. She can come to check it a week from now, if she so decided. If she likes it, she will be starting immediately. Only, if that''s alright with all of you. And, just so you know, my notable lord and lady, there will be a small fee of fifty Iradium gold coins." "That can be taken care of, lord Adoghar. I''m Hargoven and this is my wife, Amarodia. Our young here, is Ethera." "Good to met you all. I will be taking my leave now, lord Hargoven, lady Amarodia and young lady Ethera. Hope to see you all soon." "Good to meet you too, lord Adoghar." Lord Adoghar took out a token and swiftly made some hand seals. A faint line of aura left Ethera''s body and entered the token. Lord Adoghar took a proper look at the token before giving it to lord Hargoven. Bidding his farewell, he subsequently left the conjecture. After his departure, they quickly examined the token for its authenticity. Ethera''s identity and the school''s details were embedded into the token. Following the token''s confirmation, they gave the token to Ethera who carefully put it inside her dimensional space. By this time, they were one of the few remaining deities on the conjecture premises. With joyful heart, Ethera followed her parents through the opened portal, taking them back to their small manor. She had received an invitational token to a school where she would be trained and her path would be guided. She had done it. Well, not yet totally. Nevertheless, she could now be within a chance of not becoming a loose deity with death in view. The following week, she would be visiting the school to get familiar with it. She had already chosen the school since it was her only invitation. Before then, she would have to visit the Valley of A-Thousand-Death for her soul-weapon. But for now, she would let the happiness washed over her. As they sat around the table filled with celebratory delicacies, lord Hargoven stopped them, raising one finger. "Hold on." Reaching into his spatial dimension, he produced a small round jar of the rare Nine Nebula Nectar and placed it on the table. While smiling at the surprised look on his wife''s and daughter'' s eyes, he poured the nectar into their three jugs. This had required a lot to acquire, however, this day was truly worthy of it. A day of awakening that didn''t start favourably to their daughter, yet, had somehow finished with a hopeful future. As long as their daughter was happy, it was more than worth it. With a wide smile now on his face, lord Hargoven raised his jug. "To the twin essence." 12 Bonds As the receding blue and orange colours of the sky battled the forming blackness of the incoming nightfall, a beautiful colour array was cast across the surface of their small manor. A strand of this light, seeped through a small opening in the living chamber and created a light of no significant display. But, this light enchanted Ethera, who was draining the last drop of her portion of the Nine Nebula Nectar. Similar to being in a trance, she stood still and continued to watch it with transfixed eyes. A moment later, after regaining her awareness, Ethera turned towards the direction of her parents who were standing by the opened door of the living chamber, watching her with amusement. "A reverie?" Asked her father, who was smiling while raising an eye brow. "Probably an awakening of her consciousness." Answered Amarodia, feigning a surprise as she glanced at her husband before slowly asking. "Another jar of the nectar to celebrate?" "Huh?" Exclaimed Hargoven in despair, only to be met with a hearty laughter from his wife. Hargoven released a long suffering sigh as he shook his head to Amarodia''s continuous laughter as she warmly held his hand. Ethera who was now smiling after moment of laughter, ran to her parents and held them tightly in an embrace. She continued to hold them while they gently patted her on the shoulders. After some long seconds, she raised her head to look at her parents. Observing the wide and easy smile on her parents'' faces, Ethera''s mind was full of gratitude to them for her life. Their colossal roles in her current existential state, couldn''t be emphasized enough by her. Despite her disappointment destined path, they were still, eternally, joyful that she was existing in their lives as their daughter. Glancing at her father, she recollected the words of her mother in regards to her brave father. She had been listening to her mother talked about the sacrifices her father had made. The many battles his father had fought just to have a child, despite having a shattered core. How he had lost his legs which could well have been his life, while searching for the blood phoenix crystal required by the sovereign alchemist. Twice, he could have lost his life as he was trying to gather some of the items, not to mention the family fortune he had spent on other items too. Exceptional sacrifices he had made for her. Shifting her focus to her mother, she couldn''t help but wondered the extent of the sacrifices she had made in this life. Her mother! An Overworlder, who, despite not having any means of soul transformation, had left the crypt of the Overworld for the chaos of the Underworld, Ethera could only imagine appreciatively, her mother''s sacrifices. Her father had been singing the praise of her mother to her since the day she was born. About the pills her mother had taken before she was finally conceived, which were enough to turn the Underworld into an alchemist''s dungeon. More so, these pills had made a large toll on her, yet, she had never once complained about it all. This was even minor in comparison, to the large amount of life-essence she had been expending from her body regularly to infuse into her foetus when she was pregnant. Her very life essence. As an Overworlder with basically light energy, it would have required only a small-to-average amount of life-essence if she was in the Overworld. But in the Underworld that was made up of majorly dark chaos energy, she had used a large amount of her life essence to regulate her foetus. As a young deity, Ethera wasn''t sure about the consequences of this, but she knew an average Overworlder would have permanently damaged her life-force. Yet, somehow, her mother had survived all these without damaging her life-force. As she was thinking about this, her mind suddenly recalled the words of the astral dream entity. "But, what of your mother?" Could there really be more to her mother? She knew that her father''s shattered core, was as a result of a great battle involving her mother which had resulted in her coming to the Underworld. But, she didn''t know enough about who her mother was in the Overworld. Her parents hadn''t told her much about this incident. Could there be more to the dreams and that unknown entity? "Ahem." The sound from her parents, brought Ethera out of her deep thoughts prompting her to stare at them. The pride on their faces as they returned her stare, was a source of joy and inspiration for her. It was a sign of complete confidence and trust they had in her. Now that she had undergone her awakening rite and became a true deity, big responsibility lay on her shoulders. Nonetheless, this would be a massive task. First of which was to try and justify the pride they had in her, provided she didn''t die young. Secondly, to be strong enough to survive in this world of chaos. This was almost impossible, especially, since she had a cursed path. For her to be stronger, she would have to advance by harnessing the essence of both the light and dark energy. Whereas, the light energy was simply impossible to harness in the Underworld without the light-energy essence crystals. Though, they could continue to rely on being a member of the Shadow-Fire clan, their position as the ruling clan might not last for long. Her second uncle, lord Deggorath, had been engaging in different battles of the recent, due to the number of challenges that were coming his way. Despite being extremely powerful, an opposing deity might one day find one or more pure-graded divine treasures to be used against him. The result of which could remove the Shadow-Flame clan from where they were now on the Tartarus ladder and might put them in a deadly situation in Tartarus. Her grandparents and many of her clan, were evidences of the danger of not being in a safe position in any realm of the Underworld. Who, with their many years under the pangs of extreme difficulties, had lost their lives. Since they could find themselves in the same situations again, she had to be prepared. Although, she couldn''t think of any way to achieve this. But, she could try to train herself at the least. Leaving her parents who were walking towards the front of their manor, Ethera made her way to her room. She sat in a lotus position and began to free her mind from the recollection of the recent events. After meditating for several minutes, she moved to cultivation. As Shadow-Fire clan, they had the Shadow Flame technique. Not the best technique, but it was manageable for a true Underworld path. For her twin realms path, this was going to be an impossible technique. Now that she was a true deity, if she continued to cultivate like this, she might never even advance a phase, talk-less of a level. Since she wasn''t in the Overworld, she would be needing the light core-essence crystals if she truly wanted to advance and become stronger. As of now, this was certainly impossible. After cultivating for a time, she sighed and stood up. Remembering her parents words not to let anger ever clouded her mind, she calmed her mind and walked towards the direction of the training centre. Using the general cloud-steps, she arrived at their training ground and shot, high, into the air. Swirling the wooden glaive given to her by her father over her head, she descended and slammed the flattened edge on the ground. Seeing the resulting cloud of aek[dust], Ethera smiled gently as the seals on the training ground came alive. 13 A Beautiful Day? As the sun emerged from the horizon in the glory of the early morning, serene gold petals pushed into the blue colour of the sky after being cast in different direction, creating a wonderful scenery. After the wondrous blackness of the night, an amazing rising sun was an indication of the beginning of another day as a deity in the Underworld. Dressed in her Spire-Shield cloth armour, Ethera came out of her room with a determined look, holding her wooden glaive in her right hand while the left was clenched in a fist. Raising her head, she closed her eyes and basked herself in the wondrous early morning sunrise. Her Spire-Shield cloth armour brought out the uniqueness of her stature in the way she was standing there with her eyes closed. The sensational feeling she was having was some sort of inspiration for her soul as she held her wooden glaive, more tightly. This past day, which was a day after her awakening rite, she had spent most of her time practising her martial arts while devoting the least of her time to cultivation. What was the essence of cultivating when she couldn''t even sense any light spiritual energy when using their ancestral technique, talk-less of harnessing it. The Shadow-Flame technique was specifically meant for harnessing chaos spiritual energy. Even with a greater cultivation technique, she would only be able to sense the light energy. Harnessing it would practically be impossible. If she would try to harness the dark energy without harnessing the light energy at the same time, she would permanently be destroying her life-force. These were the problems of her path of the Twin-Realms. The only possible solution were the energy-essence crystals. Therefore, she would be concentrating more on her martial arts. For now. And, she had been training relentlessly. Especially, to get more familiar with a glaive while using the wood replica of the glaive. She had to be ready before going to the valley of a-thousand-death. The reason being that, after she had conjured the weapon, their will be dark-energy elementals that would follow her weapon''s manifestation. These elementals were the universe''s way of testing the mettle of the young deities'' worthiness of having a soul space that would open after a successful trial. Hence, she would have to battle these elementals for her survival. Though, it was uncommon to find a young deity succumbing to these minor elementals, it had happened a number of times before. If she didn''t want to be one of those, she would have to be prepared to her best possibilities. She would have preferred taking her time to train for a longer time, probably weeks, but tradition didn''t leave any room for this. According to the tradition of all the three worlds, a young deity must go to the place of a weapon conjuration within three days of the awakening rite. If any young deity made an attempt after three days, the deity might easily loose his or life when facing the elementals. The reason being that the conjured elementals wouldn''t be the minor ones anymore, they would be the major ones with much higher powers. This was not even an option Ethera wanted to consider. So, she was going to train harder and would be going to the valley tomorrow morning. Opening her eyes, her face was set in grim determination as she made her way to the training ground. Weapon ready, she checked the seals before activating the Ground-Gravers. These were the artificial underground beasts used for training all sort of deities. They were of different grades and levels according to the strength of the opposing deity. Immediately activating the Ground-Gravers, the surface of the training ground changed as twisting tunnels were manifested. This was her second day of facing these artificial beasts after her awakening and acquiring her wooden glaive. Despite them being more or less of her level, she knew she would need more time to get acquainted with their ways. Her time with them the day before, was a disaster. Although, the strikes of the beasts wouldn''t kill her, they would leave extremely painful marks behind. Thus, today, she would try a different approach. With a nod of self assurance, she descended into the opened tunnel. It was after several long minutes of intense fighting, that she returned back to the surface, breathing heavily. Not noticing the shadowy figure that was just outside the training ground, Ethera quickly checked her body for any form of injury. She had exchanged hundreds of strikes with the beasts. There were claw marks on her cloth armour but no serious damage of any kind to the armour or her own body. She shook her as she let out a deep breath. Despite her incredible strength, the beasts were much more stronger than her with their numbers. She could hold herself on a one-on-one battle but there were five of them which put her highly at a disadvantage. It was at this stage that she quitted the day before, but today, she decided to carry on with a renewed determination despite her obvious cons. Knowing that the beasts would be dashing out of the ground at anytime now, she hurriedly removed a commonly known strength replenishing pill, the Tide-Flow medicinal pill, from her dimensional space. She was about to put it in her mouth when an invisible force wrenched the pill from her hand. The pill shot towards the direction of the shadowy figure that she failed to notice. It was then that she saw the figure for the first time and realized her predicaments. The figure was completely covered in gleaming shadow energy. Although, there was no danger alarm coming from the shadowy figure, there was still primal fear in Ethera, knowing this was an exceedingly powerful entity. She looked around uneasily while slowly moving backwards, away from the shadowy figure. She was still moving backwards when she remembered that the seals on the training ground were still active. The Ground-Gravers! Like lightning, she swirled around with her glaive in an horizontal arc''s slash. But the moment she turned around, her face was some feet away from the extended claws of the five beasts. The shocking effect of this scenario made Ethera dropped her glaive as she scrambled backward in fear. After recollecting their attacks wouldn''t kill her, Ethera stopped her scrambling and slowly regained herself. Then, she realized that the beasts were all frozen in place with only their eyes that were moving. Why were they frozen? Did she do anything wrong? Ethera was still thinking about the extremely painful experience she could have had provided the beasts were not frozen, when she heard a deep voice behind her. "In a true battle, you are already dead." "Huh?" Exclaimed Ethera, turning around to the sight of the shadowy figure, now a few feet away from her before scrambling backward again. "Very dead." The grave beasts had occupied her mind making her forgot totally about this entity. Staring at the figure, she could see primal traces with her young deity eyes. Despite no evil intent coming from the figure, the figure was even more fearful than she had thought. Now she was stuck between a powerful shadowy figure and some grave beasts. How did this figure passed through their manor''s defensive arrays? Most importantly, where were her parents? How could they not notice this entity? Probably, more powerful? She was still thinking about this when the figure''s voice brought her back to reality. "In a battle, a distracted deity, is a dead deity." While Ethera cautiously watched the shadowy figure, the shadow covering it suddenly retracted and revealed a tall, muscular deity in a glowing signature black robe. His black pupil covered most of his eyes, matching his long flowing black air and beard. Recognition dawned on Ethera as she slowly asked. "Second uncle?" "Took you long enough. Now walk with me. Your parents are waiting." 14 Lord Deggorath I With a great heaviness in his heart, Lord Deggorath, the supreme ruler of the Tartarus realm, turned around and walked slowly towards the entrance of Ethera''s family manor. As he threaded slowly and softly, his mind waa occuppied by the possible fate of his clan in the event of his demise or dethronement. His clan wasn''t strong enough to survive such an outcome. They had become much more stronger since he became the supreme ruler of the Tartarus realm, but not exactly the result he was looking for. This could all change with a new supreme leader. He could still, clearly, remember the pains of the past of his clan and was sure they would experience the same fate if he was to die. He could feel the approach of another deity of a gigantic nature, far beyond his level of power. He never knew there would be the coming of a deity that would give him a sleepless night in the Tartarus realm. Even, in the whole of the Underworld, not many could threaten his life. Yet, lord Deggorath could sense the pulse of an absolute power from this deity with the traces of the deity''s claim to the Tartarus deific line. If not for the law about ruling deities, he could have simply decided to walk away from the throne. Walking away meant his clan would have to go back to the bottom of the clans in the Tartarus realm. This was a position he didn''t want his clan to be in. Yet, he had the feeling he could die if he stayed and encountered a dangerous deity vying to be the new ruler of Tartarus, he could be loose his soul and brought the destruction of his clan. In this case, he could feel how right he was. So, he had to try as much as possible to prepare his clan. And, one of his clan members, was this young girl who was now walking beside him. He was there two days ago, at the conjecture where she had her awakening rite and saw the preceedings. Her soul had aligned with a dangerous path that could easily be the end of her. However, if she could successfully walk the path, there would be true immortality for her which would benefit her clan eventually. Despite all the optimism he might be having about her, he knew this was an almost impossible endeavour. However, he would try his best for her to be successful. Therefore, he had informed Ethera''s parents of his visit and that he would be here, specifically, to see her in training. No mentioning of this to Ethera beforehand. Hearing this, they knew their daughter was in for a serious training predicament, but not everyday a supreme ruler would come to pay a young deity a visit. Yes, they were relatives, but it was still a mighty honour to receive his visit. He had been watching Ethera''s training this morning since he came purposely because of her. In martial arts, she was at the crude stage. She had no named technique yet since she had to find a technique that soothed her path of Twin-Realms. Nonetheless, her raw combat power and spirit, were of highest rate when compared to her young age. From now on, there would be a lot of work for her to do, but the potential was there. Her major problem was in the area of soul advancement. To cultivate her soul, she would need the essence energy crystals. He had heard from his reliable sources that a deity of the Twin-Realms, would also have to use chaos energy essence crystals along with the writ energy essence crystals, at the same time. As a supreme ruler himself, he could simply craft the chaos essence crystals from his own energy essence. Although, he could only make one in a day, there shouldn''t be too much problem in creating a number of the chaos essence crystals. The problem was finding the writ[light] essence crystals, since they were only crafted by a supreme deity like himself. He could try to purchase them, but they were extremely expensive and rare to find. His own Furians had used the whole of the day before in searching for the writ essence crystals and could only show a couple of the crystals as a result. With a shake of his head, he sighed inwardly. "If only he could find more. Then, maybe..." While walking forward together, Ethera glanced in silence at lord Deggorath who appeared lost in deep thoughts. She had decided to maintain her silence while they continued moving slowly ever forward. Yet... Sometimes, she couldn''t help but wonder about her second uncle. Despite being her second uncle, this was an extremely powerful figure in the Underworld. Only few could actually threatened him in the Underworld. So powerful, yet, so troubled. Since they left the training ground, he hadn''t said anything to her but troubled expression was apparent on his face. What could be troubling her second uncle this much? Was he annoyed with her training? Ah, she rembered the look on his face back at the training ground. Could it be that he was disappointed in her performance? Well, who wouldn''t be. . All these because of her. In a dereft state of mind, Ethera''s tight grip on the wooden spear was beginning to have effect on it, which caught the attention of lord Deggorath. He looked at the expression on Ethera''s face and gave an inner smile which lightened his mood. She had a determined look which was necessary in the deity world. But, determination alone couldn''t make all the difference. Her path to true immortality had been sealed. There was nothing she could have done better with that, except to make the best use of what she got. "You did nothing wrong, child. We are simply the subjects of the cosmic fate." He stopped and stared at Ethera before letting out a soft breath. Despite her fixed path, she could really do something about her martial arts in order to survive, from now on. "You are strong, yet, weak. Though, stronger than I thought. Nonetheless, your weakness is great. Hence, you need to continue working harder to overcome your weakness. Or, at the least, cover them. Only then, can you have a chance in this world." With grave determination on her face, Ethera nodded her head in some sort of relief. She had a weight lifted off her shoulder knowing thst her second uncle wasn''t that angry with her. His words, the words of a realm supreme, were actually like a mighty source of motivation for her. They were the echoes of the words of her parents to her everyday. "Yes, uncle. I will work harder. I promise." "Hm." Lord Deggorath nodded back in response before resuming his slow walk towards the manor. A small distance in, Ethera''s parents came into view. Though, they had been watching the whole scenarios, apprehensively, with their divine sight from the entrance of their manor, they acted surprised and delighted to see them. They had nothing to complain about since it was in their daughter''s interest, anyway. She would need all the training she could get. If not, she could easily take a journey of reincarnation. Giving him a slight bow, Hargoven and Amarodia, formally announced the arrival of Lord Deggorath into their manor. "Lord Deggorath.'' 15 Lord Deggorath II Lord Deggorath glanced at the young Ethera who was making her way out of the living chamber and signalled her to stop. Although she was still a young deity in the looks of it, she had undergone her awakening rite which made her a full deity. As a full deity in the underworld, she would be treated as an adult deity if a raging chaos descended. That was why, in the underworld, deities would have to grow up quick or die quicker. Without the necessary motivational push, she could easily die on her extremely dangerous path. He would have to give her the needed motivation to encourage her to put more effort into her developmental growth. He had seen the strength levels of her body and martial combat, and knew they were well beyond her age. Obviously, her soul''s strength was lacking, but she was much more stronger than most of her age physically. Therefore, as the patriarch of the Shadow-Flame clan, he had decided to make her a named deity. He had already sent the decreed decision through soul projection to his assistant to be taken to the judges at the Darkfall Conjecture for the record keeping. This was very early for her since she just completed her awakening rite and yet to open her soul space. Even after opening her soul''s space, she would have to advance her soul to a certain stage in order to be a named deity in a clan. Nonetheless, by now, her name would be entered into their clan''s list of known deities which would appear when their clan''s public list was assessed. Clan''s list was a way to project the clan''s strength, prestige and power to the other clans. Despite knowing that all young deities always looked forward to being a named deity, lord Deggorath knew they still dreaded the dangers that accompanied it. With what he had seen, he knew he was right. As long as she was alive, she would always be an asset to their Shadow-Flame clan. Especially during a clan challenge. Hence, she needed to be aware of everything concerning the Shadow-Flame clan from now on. Underworld''s tradition dictated that a clan''s patriarch would decide the state of a deity after the awakening rite. And he had made his own decision regarding Ethera. This was a major declaration in their clan. Despite the danger and risk of being a named deity, this was a deity with a grim determination that was exceedingly salient. "Stay. This concerns you too." Said lord Deggorath as he raised his palm to stop the exiting Ethera. "Today, I came here purposely because of you since I didn''t have the chance to congratulate you after your awakening. From what I''ve seen of you today, I believe your congratulation is well deserved. So, I have made a decision and the decree has been sent to the Darkfall Conjecture for the records." He looked at their expectant faces before focusing on Ethera and slowly made the announcement. "From today onward, you are a named deity." "Ah!" Gasped Ethera with mouth agape as she stared at her second uncle in utter disbelief. Her? Now? How? She just did her awakening rite two days ago! Moreover, she had a cursed path with no future assurance and was yet to open her soul space. How could she be a named deity at this time? Her name would now be known as a named deity albeit a young one that was yet to reach the incipient stage as a true beginner. Highest honour for her in that. But, was that not like walking the path of reincarnation at this stage? Ethera didn''t know whether to scream or cry as she turned to look at her parents who were as shocked and surprised as herself. She could see that they were having the same feeling as hers. Seconds later, she could see them smiling bitterly and she knew why. Sooner or later, she would have to be a named deity having undergone her awakening. It was just that, this was happening way too fast for her. It suppose to be during the third stage of incipient at the least, yet she hadn''t even started the first stage which would be after opening her soul space. But knowing her second uncle, she had the belief that he did it for a good reason, no matter what it entailed. She had to appear strong to her uncle to show he could rely on her. "Thank you, second uncle. I promise not to let you down." "Hm." Lord Deggorath stared deeply at Ethera and sighed inwardly. As a named deity, her name would be known throughout the underworld as a full member of the Shadow-Flame clan, if the records at the Darkfall Conjectures were accessed. This meant that she could be challenged as a part of the ruling clan during clans'' battles. It was very uncommon but sometimes, other named deities of a ruling clan could be challenged. Despite this not having any effect on the outcome of the ruler-ship battle between the supreme patriarchs, it was still a way to show the strength of a clan. However, their could be dire consequences for the loosing clan. This was what they had to avoid. Although Ethera wouldn''t be challenged by any deity of the Premier level and above, she could be challenged by any deity of the Incipient levels. There were two general levels; the incipient levels and the ranking levels. The incipient levels were for the new deities while the ranking levels were for the veteran deities. The incipient levels were five. They were; bronze puritan, silver puritan, gold puritan, platinum puritan and diamond puritan. While the ranking levels were premier, paragon, paramount, stellar, sovereign and supreme. It was a big responsibility to be placed on the young girl''s shoulder, but it was a necessity. Yes, these were dangerous times but one never knew. She might not even participate in a single clans battle until becoming a ranking deity. "Our clan has been challenged by the Death-Skulls clan." "Ah!" "The Death-Skulls? I thought they no longer existed as a clan after their last battle." Seeing the worried look on their faces, lord Deggorath shook his head before lowering it in contemplation. "Apparently, they only staged their disappearance." "Second brother, that means lord Chamaria is still alive?" "Yes. And he has challenged me." "This is concerning, second brother. We both saw what he did in his battle with lord Olonem. For him to be challenging you now... You will have to be careful, second brother. Even their whole clan will be more dangerous than before. We both saw what they did during their battle with the Rapid-Slayers clan." "Hm. Let me worry about him, fourth brother. You have been issued a challenge also. A premier deity by the name, Aleroth. For him to challenge you, he must have known much about you. For what it took, he could be a peak stage premier or even more. I will find out more about him before the clan''s salient meeting, a lunar from now. Then you''ll decide if you want to go ahead or not. Until then, fourth brother." Lord Deggorath flicked his hand and three black crystals with one white crystal manifested on his palm. For the first time that day, he smiled thinly when he saw the look on their faces. Especially the shocking expression on Ethera''s face who was already on her knees. They should have known by now that he would do everything he could for his clan. "Take these crystals, child. They are all for now." Lord Deggorath flicked his hand and the crystals flew towards Ethera who quickly extended her hand to receive them. "Th... thank you, second uncle." "Welcome to the world of chaos." With a swipe of his hand, a wide portal opened inside the living chamber. Without looking back, lord Deggorath stepped into the portal and vanished alongside the portal. 16 A Thoughtful Mind After the departure of lord Deggorath, Ethera had been sitting alone in her small chamber, contemplating on the words of her second uncle. She was now a named deity of their clan. A named deity! A full deity! She beamed in a wide smile as she glanced at the bronze crest on the upper left side of her Spire-Shield armour robe. The bronze crest was bearing her name which indicated that she was now a named bronze-puritan. Even before becoming a bronze-puritan. That was something she had never imagined. Think of it, she would now be attending the regular gatherings of their clan''s full deities to have discussions on the clan''s general welfare and other less important issues. Although as a no-ranking deity, she was exempted from their clan''s Shadow Council and First Conclave, the Regular Gathering was more than enough for her as a young deity who just performed her awakening. She closed her eyes as she gently patted the crest. Yes, it was a great honour and a dream that came true, yet, there were great responsibilities that came with it. Especially, the risks that came with being a named deity of a ruling clan which were guided by a set of ways. The Damora laws. According to the binding laws of the underworld regarding the clans, a named deity of any level of the incipient stage could be challenged by another opposing named deity of any level of the incipient stage too. Which meant that she could be challenged by a diamond-puritan deity when she became a bonze-puritan. Despite the goodness of the Damara law protecting the incipient levels deities from being killed, she could still be immortally harmed. Particularly her essence core, which could be shattered. Well, if her level of advancement remained the way it was now, she would simply surrender when faced with a diamond-puritan or any deity above her level, just like most others. Without advancement, how would she face a silver-puritan talkless of a diamon-puritan. Where as, without the essence crystals, there wouldn''t be any advancement. "Ahhh!" She let out a quick breath as she agonized about her predicament. Her uncle had done great for her to soothe her agony. She reached into her spatial dimension and removed her four crystals. Three chaos essence crystals and one writ essence crystal. Normally, two chaos essence crystals would be enough to take her to the silver-puritan stage, but her path of Twin-Realms would also require two light energy essence crystals. She would need one more to reach the next stage. However, if her uncle could find only one writ essence crystal, she knew she wouldn''t be able to find any on her own. Anyway, it was better to take her mind off it for now. As her mind wandered off to her father, Ethera stood up and went looking for her parents. Since it would soon be twilight, she decided to check the cultivation room. As she made her way to the cultivation room, she wondered why any deity would want to challenge her father who wasn''t even part of the Conclave Of Deities. True, her father was a Premier deity which meant he was still a ranking deity and could be challenged, however, he was a dormant premier. Since his core was shattered, he had become a latent deity. There was simply no accredited honour in challenging him. So, why would someone challenged her dormant father? No matter what might come up later, her father must concede and relinquish the challenge. He had the right to do that as a latent deity. She would have to talk to her parent about this. Nearing the cultivation room, Ethera could sense the presence of her parents inside the chamber. She gently eased the stone door opened and peeked inside. The cultivation room was serene and her parents were sitting down in lotus position with their eyes closed. Meditation. Why were they even meditating? They should be worried about the upcoming situation. With a slight frown on her face, she walked into the room. Seeing that they didn''t acknowledge her presence, she sat down silently and joined them in meditation. After a couple of minutes, she opened her eyes to find that her parents were still deep into meditation. She knew they had already realized her presence through their divine sense before she entered the cultivation room but didn''t want to disrupt their meditation. Well, sooner or later, they would have to open their eyes and she would be the first thing they would see. As she was about closing her eyes, her father''s voice sounded in a whisper in her mind which made her snapped her eyes wide open. "In this chaotic world of deities, the one thing we have is our honour, my child. Honour is the immortality in us as deities. It is the shield of the deity soul. The very first thing to be put on by it and the last to be laid down. Soon, you will understand this, my daughter." Ethera was staring widely at her father''s closed eyes while his words sounded in her mind. What honour was her father talking about? Wasn''t there honour in admitting defeat and avoid the unseen dangers of a challenge? She continued gazing at him as his eyes slowly opened. It was at this time that her mother''s eyes suddenly flew open which caught her attention. She turned her head towards the direction of her mother who gave a soft breath before locking eyes with her which threw her off. There was a dim blue-white glow in her mother''s eyes that she had never seen before. She quickly realized she truly knew little about her mother. "We know why you are here, my daughter. You are worried about your father because of the immortal challenge. Aren''t you? You don''t need to be. This is a clan''s challenge, not a clan''s war. Honour will be at stake on both end to prevent mortal harm. As a deity of honour, your father has to be there. His hard earned honour is at stake as well as the honour of the clan." "But mother, father is a member of the ruling clan. The honour is always there. He doesn''t need to accept any fight." "There are better ways to concede defeat in a challenge without tarnishing the honour, Ethera. If your father thinks he can''t continue with the challenge, he would concede in a way where he won''t loose too much face as a ranking deity. But it will be a great dishonor if he won''t appear to duel at all. Dishonour that he may not be able to amend and the consequences could be severe." With an easy smile on his face, lord Hargoven stretched his and placed it on his daughter''s shoulder. "Rest your mind, Ethera. I have no plan on dying anytime soon. And surely, not in a challenge. Alright?" After recieving a nod from his daughter, Hargoven''s smile became wider s he examined the spire-shield robe armour on Ethera. Today was the third day after her awakening and the day she had to get her soul weapon in the valley of A-Thousand-Death. Going by what he had seen of his daughter, he knew she had prepared so hard for this day. "Now let''s go and get your soul weapon." 17 The Valley Of A-Thousand-Death I The Ivory dominion. This was one of the free dominions controlled by the laws of creation and supervised by the Utmost judges. It contained many summoning valley and one of them was the valley of A-Thousand-Death. A deadly closed-valley with an appearance that proved true to its frightening name. Located at the centre of three enormous ash mountains that co-joined together to form a terrible arc, this was one of the summoning valleys for soul weapons that were created by the Cosmic Eternal Soulsmiths. The large entrance to the valley was divided into five smaller entrances, with each entrance leading to a seal-demarcated section of the valley, allowing five deities to summon at the same time. Right from these entrances were the exploding death shards that were rotaing over the craters of poisonous bubbling ash-coloured liquid. However, the most dangerous were the phantoms lining the sides of the valley. These dangerous entities were placed there in the event of any young deity that failed to come for summoning within three days after the awakening. Once inside, there was no other way of escaping the valley apart from the entrance, since there was only one way in and out of the death valley. Here on this day, at the outskirt of the valley''s entrance, were many young deities waiting for their turns, including Ethera who came earlier along with her parents. Despite her coming very early, she still met quite a number of young deities at the valley. She waited in total apprehension as she continued to watch them going went into the valley, one after the other. Since she had arrived, all the young deities had been completing their trials with no greater difficulties. And when she saw some of the weapons they brought out, she couldn''t help but sighed inwardly. There were seven types of weapons in all of the universe. They were ¡ª generic, imperial, legendary, epic, mythical, astral and cosmic weapons. And during summoning, lightning was the universal indicator of the nature of the weapon coming to the summoner. White lightning was an indication for the generic weapons[basic weapons], blue lightning for imperial weapons, yellow lightning represented legendary weapons, red lightning for epic weapons, mythical weapons by green lightning, astral weapons was heralded by orange lightning, and the cosmic weapons through the violet lightning. Six times, she witnessed the blue lightning summoning which meant an imperial weapon. Four times, the yellow lightning struck, indicating legendary weapons, while epic weapons were summoned three times through the red lightning. And once, she saw the green lightning which greatly increased her anxiety. Although she had been preparing for today for a long time, being here now, was totally unnerving. When her turn finally came, she looked at her parents who gave her a confirmatory nod, before she slowly but steadily made her way to the entrance and entered the valley. As she walked on, she noticed that with each foot she placed on the ground, there was a loud thudding inside her soul that made her head banged achingly. Reaching the centre of the valley, she stood in front of the giant monolith and recited the words written on it, just as she was instructed. After the recital, the air of the valley began to form a raging wind while the ground started to vibrate uncontrollably. She quickly took out the summoning scroll she received from the judges of Darkfall, and threw it into the air which slowly calmed things down. Once a young deity performed the awakening rituals, the deity''s soul would be linked to a summoning scroll to be used in a summoning valley. As she watched, the scroll suddenly let out a wailing scream before busting into flames, sealing off the entrance to her section. She rapidly check her armoured robe and planted her feet firmer on the ground. She had learned before-hand how the events would happen up to this stage, there would be a thunder to indicate the beginning of the summoning, but she had no idea of what would come next. Just as expected, there was a thunderous sound as a gigantic white lightning descended on her section of the valley making her shield her eyes with her hands. Seconds later, after the lightning had vanished, Ethera saw a bronze coloured glaive floating in front of her. Ah, her soul weapon. Her own weapon. Her heart was beating faster as she kept on looking at the weapon. This was the moment. Ethera moved closer and grabbed the weapon with her extended hand. The moment she lay her hand on the glaive, a strong energy wave was released from the core of the glaive that travelled straight into her soul. She gasped for air and her body shook slightly, as her soul made the connection with the weapon, opening the long awaited Soul-Space. With a wide and easy smile, she looked at her soul weapon again. Despite being a generic weapon, she was happy with it. As long as it belonged to her. And now, she would have to undergo trial battles to prove her worthiness of her soul space. This was the moment she had been preparing for. All her effort and training would be put under a difficult but important trials now. Holding the glaive tightly, she adjusted her stance as she waited for the summoned entities. But all of a sudden, as darkness descended on the whole valley, stranding the young deities but also blocking the valley off, from scrying eyes. Then, there was another thunderous sound followed by a colossal violet lightning which quickly sent a vibration throughout the underworld, drawing the attention of all powerful deities and waking up the slumbering deadly entites. Another Cosmic weapon had been born. Ethera was left stunned at the sight of the darkness and the sound of another thunder. What was this all about? This couldn''t be right since there was no telling her about any darkness. And the thunder couldn''t be for her since she already had her own soul weapon. When she recollected that there were other four young deities who were undergoing their summoning, she relaxed her mind and waited for the darkness to clear, probably. Few minutes later, the darkness dissipated to the utter shock and fright of Ethera. Floating in front of her, was an obsidian black pole that appeared to be a glaive, but with its two blades missing. Huh? Her? A cosmic weapons? Another soul wespon? Eternal flame.