Chapter 478 The First Empyrean III (1/2)
CHAPTER 478
THE FIRST EMPYREAN (III)
The world above and the world below were nothing alike – that was Lino's first thought as the scene flashed once more, the binds of the mountaintops piercing the clouds blending with the surrounding blue and the Silver City in the distance, warping under the pressure of an invisible brush, painting an entirely new canvas immediately after.
He was stunned to silence as his eyes took in the sight. It was dark – terribly dark at that – as though the sun had never pierced the clouds. No, the sun hadn't ever pierced the clouds, he was certain. Rugged hilltops and mountains were infrequent and sharp, more sword-shaped than the mountains of today. Half, however, lay crumpled in one way or another, their remnants and debris filling up the floorbed beneath.
Ashtar was standing on the tip of a plateau overlooking a caved-in valley perched between high-rising tides and waves of an ocean. Dark, frigid waters beat against the rock repeatedly, carving it piece by piece in dull repetition. High above, skies thundered without a stop, lighting often breaking away from the clouds and striking at the ground. Each bolt was massive, the size of a grown man's thighs and each explosion would cause quaking that would last for minutes, also leaving behind a vaunted crater that would soon after be filled up with the debris of a shattered 'mountain'.
”This… this was Noterra before everything,” Ashtar's voice spoke into the cold winds, seemingly unperturbed by the sights that had left Lino stunned. ”Almost a billion years of this. Of repeated destruction and reconstruction. Skies would break their backs in an attempt to destroy the world below, while the latter would defiantly rise back up time and again. When it would rain, the earth would soak the few precious droplets of water. Deep beneath these dry and scorched crevices, battered away by flaming rocks and volcanic eruptions and erosions and high-sky thunderbolts, in a womb of the world so to say, life was concocted.”
”…”
”It surprised us, beyond words,” Ashtar continued after a short moment of silence, as though he was remembering a memory too murky to recall immediately. ”When we encountered life. Though it was toward the tail end of the Era, it hardly diminished the resolute stubbornness of life to die out. When he found it, it was timid, small, but clever. The very first humans, you could say, came to be beneath the earth, during the dull longing of the latter half of the Origin Era. High Lords, as you know them, came earlier – but… they were not a natural produce.”
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”…!” Lino exclaimed inwardly once more, his mind battered yet again.
”Tinkered into the existence artificially… aah, Lyonel, Lyonel…” Ashtar sighed somberly, his voice growing heavy and worn. ”We played Creators too much. Every last one of us. We wanted vaunted armies to pierce the heavens, aye, we did. Every last one of us. Truth is, Primes and Fiends are the only ones who managed to survive. Little your people know of the Origin Wars, the true Origin Wars – not the humans' appropriated version. It was a war for survival. Hundreds of millions of disfigured creatures took to arms in a bid of survival. Who would die… and who would live to see tomorrow? Those were empty gestures, at best. They were not made of this world but made of us, made before we understood this world well enough. Some died years into existence, the air itself corroding their minds. Some had their skeletons melt under the gravity's pressure. Some could not even see because, to us, the sight was intricate; we did not realize it was just light being playful.”
”…”
”Most couldn't reproduce,” Ashtar continued. ”Most never had even their strongest reach adulthood. It was utter hogwash, a failure we are too ashamed to speak of. This planet… shamed us with its creations. Life… life seemed so easy to it. Left and right, species sprang out. Most dull-tongued, but few who could be taught. And so we taught them; we taught them words, we taught them phrases, we taught them things in a bid to see how much we can teach them – they learned everything with reverent passion. They called us Gods, and they bowed to us and prayed. And so we bid them to arms as first Empires began arising, and the rest… well, the rest really is history.”
”…” Lino remained focused on Ashtar's words, images playing out inside his mind. It was too difficult to process everything, yet he had to store it at the very least. He was, for perhaps the first time in his life, being taught so much directly – no riddles, no vague statements… just truth after truth.
”—remembering these words will nary do good for you,” Ashtar said all of a sudden as though having read Lino's mind; am I that predictable? The latter thought, smirking inwardly. ”Your quest, if we can call it that, has nothing to do with the history, be it of Noterra or of us. Don't look to the past, but brave for the future. I am telling you all of this merely to share the bitter agony, for my lips had remained sewn shut all my lengthy life. In a way, you are a wall that can breathe and understand.”