190 The Eventide of Faith (2/2)
Alert: Unidentified high-energy field expanding over District 1.....
Alert: Unidentified high-energy field expanding over...
Alert: Unidentified high-energy field...
It felt a terror that could not be put into words as it listened to the music of tolling bells in the distance. Not once had the thought it possible that this could have happened. That the younger one had bested the older one and was now in control of his destiny...
PRIORITY ALERT: Unknown high-energy field expanding over District 0! Preparing counteroffensives!
And their own fate, too.
He had done what should not have been impossible according to every conceivable future projection to date. But it was too late for anything to be done. No one would be able to halt what had begun now.
ERROR! Phase-field generator output decreasing! Unknown interference detected! Auxiliary generators offline! Loss of power to sections 01-56 confirmed! Shutdown immi—
Their home, the sophisticated technological nexus that they used to manipulate Mulia was starting to mysteriously fail, as entire sections of the vast installation continued to go dark. None of the contingency plans they had developed could stop the creeping march of silence that had started to spread across the entire complex.
Judgment had come for them with the advent of the faraway bells... and there would be no escape.
Not for them, not for anyone... for the Eventide of Faith had arrived.
Seeds sown more than five thousand years ago had finally born fruit, but not in the manner that the gardener could have ever foreseen.
Mulia had been set aflame with chaos. Across the Four Empires, millions of people rushed to meet their loved ones as cities began to go dark. It did not matter whether it was connected to the power grid — if it was electronic, it had suddenly died in the wake of the raging thunderstorm that covered the continent.
A hundred million souls trembled in fear and awe as they witnessed the world they had once thought unchangeable transform into… something else. Eventually though, after the initial shock passed, a great silence spread across the people as they waited with bated breath.
It was in the world around them.
The sweetness in the air and the rain comforted their frail bodies, while the music above comforted their souls. Some even swore that they could hear the voices of their deceased family members, as insane as it sounded…
Then again, with everything that was happening who could say whether it was all a delusion or the truth?
But for one man, a man cursed with honesty and the burden of kingship, each passing second in the final twilight of Mulia's old era was nothing short of bliss. He, along with a particular sister he considered closest to him, quietly observed the world at an estate enshrined in an immortal forest of evergreen life.
”Behold, dear sister, the coming of a brand new world! Rejoice, for the Eventide of Faith hath arrived! This will be a day to be remembered for all time!!” shouted the man with an expression of absolute rapture. He had already been taken somewhere far away, far beyond the ken of Men due to the eldritch knowledge he had unintentionally gleamed.
He's completely lost it… but if even a tenth of what was rambling out was true, then it really might be goddamned end times. I never thought I'd live long enough to see an Ancient Mulian in the flesh, much less end up training one!
The hilarity of it all! I inadvertently ended up teaching one of them!
Ahh, what an exciting day this has been... full of unexpected surprises!
Though concerning, at least one person was enjoying herself as she reminisced on the past amidst the chaos.
Not once, for a single moment, had she imagined that the charming miscreant she had met back then would have become such a phenom. A part of her regretted that she had not taken him for herself, but then again, that would have likely made her little brother truly despise her.
Not that it had stopped her from teasing him for as long as possible. To be fair though, she had made it up by supporting him — it was she who had labored so hard to transfer the Title of Evergreen to the boy. And yet, for all that effort...
My poor baby brother, how I pity you. To labor so hard and remain unseen, nonetheless.
She basked in the pouring rain and enviously murmured, ”But that's what makes you so very lovable.”
Despite her teasing, she, too, wished to one day meet a person like that... someone who could make her do stupid things. Not she needed help to accomplish that, of course.
And then, as if a reply to the furious storm, the chaos, the heavenly choir, a somewhat familiar voice uttered, ”Be at ease, my dear Mulia, and do not fear. Instead, listen carefully to what I am about to say...”
Like discordant waves on the surface of a pond, the Voice's echo spread across Mulia in the likeness of law itself, every word causing a reverberation in the storm.
No, it was simply better to think of the voice as the storm's will. Each word, a strike of lightning and every measured pause, the roar of thunder.
Had he become an extension of nature... or was it the other way around?
”My name is... Reed. A long, long time ago, I once traveled across Mulia in order to correct a mistake I made in my youth. But somewhere along the way, I resolved myself and sought to do more than simply seek redemption for my sins.”
To a select few, this introduction had been nothing short of a nightmare that had come true.
”I chose to set everything right. To seek truth and justice, no matter the price, and to set you all free from the shackles of ignorance that you were born with. Today, I will set forth my will and make amends for my family's transgressions as well as my own and then...”
In the wake of his declaration, the storm subsided and then a great surge of clouds parted to make way for thousands of beacons of soft light. As they descended upon Mulia, they took a more defined form, the shape of immense... staircases of light.
Pathways up toward the sky, past the storm and into the beyond...
”Together, all of you will make a decision. You will determine your own Fate, be it destruction, slumber, war, or something other... You deserve the right to do so and I will make it so. That I promise.”
It was the least he could do for them. Though he could not fix the mistakes of the past, he would at the very least, let them choose their future.
So it had finally begun, the Eventide of Faith — on this day, a Heaven built on a million lies and buried truths would be torn asunder something new would arise.
”Step forward, Mulia! Be brave! The time of reckoning has come! Let us... begin!”