35 Meeting 1 (1/2)

Argenti sat on her golden flame throne, with the ranking 1 across it. Her every move was watched. Only slightly parting her lips easily gained everyone's attention.

\”I'm sure many of you are wondering why this meeting has been called. You're wondering what event could possibly occur that could cause us all to gather.\” Agenti's clear voice captivated everyone in the Grand Hall.

\”The reason, is that after five billion years, one of the eight missing Gatekeeper keys have resurfaced.\”

As she said this the Grand Hall erupted into muttering and whispering.

\”Really, good heavens\”

\”What does this mean?\”

\”Could it be them?\”

\”The outsiders you mean?\”

\”Yes the outsiders.\”

The green skinned woman next to Mao Lu, audibly gasped, \”A key has appeared, what could this mean? Could she be back but I thought we killed her!?\”

Argenti waited patiently for everyone to settle down before she stated.

\”For our newer more fresher Gatekeepers, you may not know the full situation behind the Gatekeepers keys, and may not understand the full implications of it all. So allow me to enlighten you.\”

\”Six billion years ago, my predecessor, the first ever Gatekeeper. Gatekeeper Dawn, went against one of our sacred rules. He consummated with a woman and that woman bore his child.

When he realised this he did everything in his power to hide that information and kept that child a secret. He couldn't bring himself to kill her even though he knew her existence was forbidden.

Do you know the reason why we are forbidden to have children?

One reason is because that child will inherit our Gatekeeper abilities, but the main reason is because this child will not be confined by our rules. Because this child won't be a Gatekeeper.

Someone with Gatekeeper abilities yet none of the restrictions. It is an existence with great power and no control.

The Creator made the 400 realms so that he could see the potential of life. To see whether someone could train to be as powerful as the Creator. Through hard work and effort.

Our Gatekeeper abilities are grossly unfair, but that is why we are confined as Gatekeepers, our role is to protect, not to pursue power for personal gain.

As much as our Realm is the source of our power it is also what restrains us. Cages us, limiting our growth.\”

Mao Lu was surprised when he heard this.

It made sense though and answered a question Mao Lu had had.

A Gatekeepers potential is suppressed by their Realm, duty and rules. That's why they could have such immense power.

Practitioners could become the Chosen One the Creator wanted, but a Gatekeeper could not. Since they could only be a Gatekeeper and were stuck in that role.

\”Dawn's daughter became the abomination that the rules were meant to prevent.\” Argenti continued, \”She had our powers but with no restriction she began to experiment. She realised that there was more than the 400 realms, she knew that there was more out there and she wanted to explore it, she wanted to control it.

She began creating life and destroying many as well. All for her growing curiosity and desire to become The Creator.

Realm 208, 169, and 2 still suffer the consequences of her experimentation and are still nearly lifeless wastelands with only essence remaining in them. She killed countless.\”

As Argenti said this, the Gatekeepers of the Realms she'd mentioned, all clenched their fists and gritted their teeth in rage. Obsidian had silent anger in his eyes.

\”Her powers became nearly unstoppable, as she could use all essence as she pleased. She could weild time and predict the future and see our assaults against her far before they came. She could defeat us with but a wave of her finger.

For the 1 billion years that she was active it was a very dark period.

To maintain our secrets we lied to public and told them that natural phenomenon was causing all these tragedies. Yet the lies only broke the trust we had with the public, as many sensed that this was more than a natural phenomenon.

The day it became extreme, or rather more extreme was when that bitch, made contact with the Outsider. Our enemy, those outsiders that we have been protecting the 400 realms from.

This crazy girl believed that the 400 realms were a mistake. That only she could create the perfect life and not One, our Creator.

She began devising a weapon with the Outsiders, called Judgement.

This one weapon could destroy all of us.

That's when we went to full out war. Many Gatekeepers were sacrificed in this battle. Many of the first generation gave their lives to fight against her.

An era was wiped out.

Dawn, in the final battle, gave his life to kill his daughter, regretting ever allowing her birth.

And somehow, despite great loss, we were able to push the enemy back and steal the keys that would start this weapon.

The 100 Judgement keys or known today as the Gatekeeper keys.

We destroyed 92 of these keys but somehow eight went missing.

Some believed the daughter survived and took them, or perhaps the Outsiders infiltrated us and stole them. How they disappeared, even today, I do not know.

But the point is these keys that have the potential to harm or even destroy our realms, are out there.

These eight keys don't just have the ability to allow someone to enter a Realm without permission. The key distorts reality. And has the potential to cause irregularities in a Realm that can lead to its collapse.

If all 100 were still around with the weapon Judgement, then all the 400 realms would be wiped out. Our homes would all be gone. We would be gone.

For many years we searched tirelessly for the missing keys and found no leads. We even told the public lies, calling them Gatekeeper keys, so that if anyone found one they'd report it.

Yet 5 billion years passed by and nothing happened, and for a while, like many of you, I relaxed. I believed that maybe the eight keys had truly just been lost and would hopefully never be found again. But now we know that they are still around and only recently, one was used.\”

The atmosphere was heavy and sombre. Mao Lu felt nervous. Gates had only briefly mentioned the story of the keys, but not in full detail.

Mao Lu had had no idea that these keys had such big implications.

No wonder this was being treated as such a serious matter.

\”Today we have with us the new Gatekeeper of Realm 145. The key user ended up in his Realm, and is currently in his custody. Gatekeeper Lu will now tell us the information he has on this topic so far.\” Argenti calmly gestured towards Mao Lu.

All the attention in the Hall immediately turned on him.

Mao Lu wasn't usually the type to get tense or feel nervous but right now he felt very pressured.

He forced himself to calm down and in the most controlled voice he could muster, he said, \”Yes I am Gatekeeper Lu of Realm 145 and the key user has indeed ended up in my Realm and is currently in my custody.\”

\”The key user is from Realm 348, the Star Realm. His name is Chàng Bo. He is the son of the Supreme Lord of Stars.\”

When Mao Lu said this sentence the hall erupted into even further muttering.