Chapter 478 The First Empyrean III (2/2)
The scene flashed once more before Lino had a chance to process the insult. The dark sky remained, the fiery rivers grew wider and more rapid – it didn't seem as though they ventured much further into the future. If anything, things appeared much worse than the last time, as though the world was truly at the brink of a complete collapse.
”Today,” Ashtar said, glancing up toward the high-skies. ”Was the day Ataxia, with all his Primes, took to heavens and invaded the Silver City. Today was the day Gaia was born. Today is the day the Silver City was purged, yet its sealed chamber persisted nonetheless. Today is the day the eternal War of Writs, as poignant as it may be, begun. As I told you prior, I was not there to witness it, nor was I there to fight.” the scene flashed once more, rapidly, as Ashtar found himself looking over the black-clad army of Primes. Nearly all had lost their pristine, angelic figures, growing into what Lino could only describe as abominations. In the far distance, he recognized one of them – Umbra. As she was in the present, she was in the past; a young, tender-looking girl with tendrils breaking out of her limbs.
”What do You mean I can't go?!” Ashtar asked angrily in a low tone, his expression distorted.
”This is not your war to fight, Child,” Ataxia's robotic voice replied. ”Let them win it. You… I've a different task for you.”
”What task could possibly hold a higher importance than winning back the Silver City for You, father? Of standing by the side of my Brethren as we make the final charge?!”
”… this is but a single battle, Child,” Ataxia replied. ”War shall persist, as it always has, and as it always will. Today… today we shall achieve a grand victory, but however grand it may be, it is but a single one. Not even 300 souls is not an army that can withstand the tides of time and changes. We need to look toward the future, Child. Toward tomorrow, and toward the beyond. For that, I shall put you in charge – as the brightest, smartest, and strongest, I will give you reigns to create My army. One that will cause even the heavens to shake and quake and tremble in their boots.”
”—Father…” Ashtar mumbled emotionally, choking on his own words. ”I—I would be honored! But…” his voice trailed off, full of uncertainty.
”But how? It is simple,” Ataxia said. ”This world, surprisingly, is endowed with strange forms of energy. These energies will give birth to life, sooner or later. It will spring up free, from these cracks of the world. I will teach you to understand this energy, Child, to witness it, behold it, and to upturn it. I will teach you to use it as a means to all ends. It will be your own to command.”
The energy that Ataxia spoke of came alight in front of Ashtar's eyes. Lino immediately recognized the familiar scene, tendrils of Qi dancing freely. It was truly abundant – more so than it was at any other place of the present that Lino had visited. Just a grain-sized bubble of space held so much Qi it could restore his own reserves twice over. He was shaken inwardly; if Qi was as abundant in the present as it was back then, would there ever be limits to reach? Or would men and women alike bound all known ceilings of strength?
He dismayed the thought; no, there was a limit to strength. Omnipotence is a lie, he was certain. Yet, beholding the colorful strands that radiated amidst the otherwise dark world, he wavered. Just a single grain-sized bubble held so much Qi… not only in abundance but also in sheer quality.
It took him a moment to recognize another reality – the Qi before him was not beholden to an Element. No… i-impossible… he stuttered inwardly, unwilling to believe what he was seeing. How could Qi be without an Element? What was it then?
”It is not without an Element,” Ashtar voice echoed out inside of his mind, settling his turmoil temporarily. ”Ataxia spoke of it once. The Qi during the Origin Era came as a remnant of the planet's distant past when it was still being formed amidst the stars. All Elements at that point conjoined into one, the one you are seeing right now. We never learned its nature; it was neither Chaotic nor Orderly… merely… natural. As though it always belonged, never out of place. Ataxia never seemed to dwell on it, and neither did the other Writs. They knew something, I was certain, that the rest were not privy to. But they wouldn't speak of it. Why? I cannot say.”
Ashtar reached out with his arm and grasped the manifold layers of Qi into his hand, the sleek flashes of light bending and folding over his fair fingers. Lino couldn't even imagine the strength Ashtar felt in that moment – how did it feel to hold so much Qi in the palm of his hands? Lino wouldn't even reach a thousandth of it if he went all out, even giving away his life in the process. This small bundle of light that Ashtar was holding, Lino was certain, was more than enough to carve out the Three Continents and blast them to ashes.
”Qi is as natural in this world as the oxygen we breathe, Lyonel,” Ashtar continued, playing with the handful of light. ”We may have taught Nativeborn to use it, but they would have learned eventually without us. In a way, you lot are lucky, be you ordinary Mortals or the 'gifted' infused with special bodies. You were born of this Qi, however diluted it may be in the present. It offsets the natural weaknesses your frail bodies possess. Though we learned to manipulate it in our own right, we can never be as proficient, as we are not of its origin. Now, I will show it to you – Lyonel. How I broke down the Nature of Qi and how I turned it upside down. How I took something pure and corrupted it beyond reason. How I became the evil the world saw me as…”