*Boom*
Uleen Virgo, the King of the Night and the almighty slayer of the Vestr, was alone again. Here it was again, the putrid curse It carried that had no name but held vast consequences.
"Aali... Aaliyah... Toby..."
The faith Uleen put in these kids was truly that of endemic proportions, entrusting power that great to kids. Power so great it withstood the reversal of time because it was the mark, the mark of a beast.
The mark of the Beast, once a life is touched by this mark, it sticks to the soul regardless of the flow of time.
"Timus, my dear brother...", Uleen was worried about the rest of the Origins, as puzzling as it was, Origins could not die, only sleep for a very long time until they decided to reawaken. All Origins shared a sacred bond of family, calling on their names in the lower realms to draw strength from.
That was the literal definition of family.
The slayer of the Vestr in the form of the gigantic bird had speedily exited Willow-Hind, headed for a deserted island farthest west from the human continent called Aghar. With Aghar, things there came to an end when Longhua had descended to Hilderia and challenged the King for authority. It was brutal, and history still mourns that very battle.
How could friends become enemies?
Aghar was once the home of a race of magic beings, witches, wizards, sorcerers, spellcasters, Faes, and a handful of death-denied creatures that the King of the Night in all Its glory had personally brought with It to Hilderia billions of years ago.
Uleen Virgo was the fastest in all of Hilderia, possessing speeds that could shatter the planets when going all out. It happened once before. No giant, fairy, lycans, or even the mighty dragons could match the magnificence.
What was there to be done that an Origin could not accomplish?
Uleen could break space and instantly reappear on any plane It so wished, but that power could break the fragile Hilderia, Uleen was not willing to take that chance. Every use of the might of the Origins was perfectly calculated.
*Flap*
*Boom*
Uleen flew past continents of snow and ice. Radolva was just up north, the mighty eyes of the Origin on an automatic Radar-sonar scan on that specific location for one reason and one reason only. The Nords had lost their ruler and greatest assets not too long ago.
Though Uleen could tell that Utgard was still alive, but It could not seem to find Utgard anywhere on Hilderia. Having suspected that it had something to do with the witty self-proclaimed king of the humans. Uleen had become a cryptid not too long after being an unwilling resident of Hilderia.
"Humans and their deception...", The King was in deep monologue
Cryptids were absolutely necessary to keep Hilderia running and to ensure an astute balance, one of the reasons the legends of the King of the Night were so terrifying. It was so easy to make rumors and plaster them to the name of something that was not there to defend Its honor.
Cryptids moved like the wind; most of them were completely hands-off, but some blended into the society of the lower Hilderians through cloaking or humanoid forms when there was need. Few cryptids chose anarchy over peace and balance like the tragic Utgard and the Nord.
"Tragic indeed, foolish Nord..." speaking to the winds as emotionless as a being of flesh and breath could muster.
It simply did not care, after all, a god need not interfere in all activities of the lower bugs.
Uleen was arrogant, and It was well aware, leaving a gentle smirk spread across Its face.
*Boom*
Uleen picked up the pace, making sure not to accelerate too fast or face the consequences of Hildera again; this time, maybe the Origin of Time will be an inefficient fix for such massive destruction.
No challenge, no brief, no repulse, just cautious audacity filled the air around Uleen as It sped past through various greens, red, white-blue, pitch black, and other colors of various continents in a matter of fractions of seconds before finally spotting Aghar just ahead slowing down as to not devaste the already torn island (formerly a great continent) any more than it was.
Letting go of Its hold on space-time, the King majestically descended upon the land, as the sole of Its feet contacted the barren sands of Aghar a certain magical veil was dispersed.
That land was as barren as Uleen could remember. Not even a single plant could thrive on the land, even secondary succession was not a possible means of rebreathing life into the soil.
After the battle between the Dragonlord and the Slayer of the Vestr, all the people of Aghar were poisoned by radiation from the battle and decayed into nothingness. The core of a once great continent was destabilized, and everything sank.
No magic, no power, no spell that weak could protect against the might of two titans, even the death-deprived were affected running mad and fleeing the continents to other reaches where they were captured and tortutured for their knowledge on Ahgarian magics. They were later thrown into prisons in various pits deep in Hildera, where no god can hear their mourning. Uleen could though and still chose not to act.
"Aghar...", the king lamented.
The first time Uleen had been saddened in a very long time.
"I had sworn not to interfere nor raise you, I had sworn not to play favorites... But this prison Hilderia has changed me, and I..." turning toward the waters.
"I will break my solemn oath," reaching Its arms forth, forcing gravity to bend to Its authorithy the King of the Night pulled from the depths, raising what was once sunk.
"Aghar" the Night king spoke "I met two promising ones that restored my faith..." The sands began to tremble as the island started to gain altitude. "Aaliyah and Toby were so good to me, I left them with the humans what does that say about me?"
There was more disturbance shaken the very world of Hilderia as a whole.
"Where did I go wrong?"
"I can no longer remember the primal home I was born into, my family scattered across infinite infinity asleep or D.O.D knows what... There was no bad, yet we lost ourselves, my son, the seven-headed Origin killed by the cursed Jordan..."
The only one of the Origins to be killed, because he was not just an Origin, he was all, everything. When something is all, it begins to contradict itself, creating loopholes allowing
That was the moment the Origins were lost.
The waters rippled, and a massive mass rose from it.
"We lost the queen; how beautiful you were sister... We were mourning his loss, we failed... I failed to hold you; now you slumber somewhere I can never reach." Tears slid down the face of the formerly presumed heartless Origin.
Tears so golden they could be mistaken for gemstones
"I fell into the world of creation and stumbled into various worlds... I was once an idea, now I am flesh, and all these worlds met their eventual demise all because of me. WHY MEEEE!!!" The Origin raged, "I was supposed to be the Origin of vitality yet countless are gone because of me. Why is that, sister?"
There was no connection, no link to signify she had heard Uleen's prayers
The Origin forcefully stumbled to the floor in agony
"We knew not what love was, yet I miss the lot of you in your absence." The raising of Aghar halted. "I tried replacing my family, but the lives of the lot of them were too short, and they all withered. After discovering death, I infused my essence into more creatures I called family, but they became war-torn as soon as I gave them free will, and they tore apart their world. Countless times and countless times, I met the same fate, and so I decided to take on the mantle of the stoic and jaded god, yet wherever I went, I was hunted as a mere beast and now the rest is lost to time."
"TIMUS, WAKE UP", no response
In a deeper state of grief and loneliness, the King pulled harder, and the entire mass of Ahgar sprang back up, and the land stopped quaking.
"I vow to correct my mistakes and make Hilderia safe and equal for all..." The King quickly got up, dusting the sands from Its attire. "I vow to one day reunite with all the Origins"
The king spread Its arms in a wingspan motion as Its feet left the ground, it started ascending high above the clouds.
Looking down on a once great continent, which was the first continent on Hilderia, now reduced to sand and mud, the King steeled Its heart.
As far as Its eyes could see, there was nothing. For years, the remains of Ahgar was cloaked with powerful spelling by the Beast so that no man that breath could find the place. A conditional spell requiring a lot of magic, the condition being it could not be found by any but the one who created the spell, and the only was for break said spell was for the creator to come in contact with the land again.
"The magic residue from years of this spell being active will serve to make this new Ahgar a place of high magic. Many will try to conquer here, but I will remake all Ahgarians into warriors and great protectors. You and the elves would work in tandem to create balance and harmony; after all, you all were the blueprints that helped create the Elven race.
Closing Its eyes and reaching out the King sought Its Sister
"Sister" the King called out, to no response
"Queen of the Origins", also receiving no response
"First mother", instead of waiting for the purr of acceptance that followed name called the King had to substitute.
The king then cloaked the entirety of Ahgar in a purple veil, making magic unable to enter or escape so as not to arouse the suspicions of the ever-watchful dragons
Having Its arm already spread out, the King reached in more, spreading more magic across Ahgar as vast as it was.
"You are not dead, for Origins do not die... Why have you forsaken me sister?"
It stayed on air for minutes that turned to hours, and time tracking was lost
"WHY DO YOU DENY ME YOUR PRESENCE...", for countless eons, Uleen had tried reaching out to other Origins. Sometimes there was a purr and no action, sometimes there was absolutely nothing, but this time the silence broke It.
Never did It think the Origins would deny It solace.
Heartbroken, the Slayer of the Vestr was now angry and looking for bloodshed. Lucky enough It had Its chance
"KING OF THE NIGHT, I KNOW YOU DID THIS... COME ON, FACE ME!!!", this war cry came from the Elven Ashloven islands.
This was the same war cry that It had heard prior to resetting time, the was broken and needed to kill something to vent off frustration
"Who dares call me in such a fashion?"
Uleen shifted Its attention into the distance readying to fly over to Elven territory. The king brought the veil down not even bothering to recloak Aghar's radioactive landmass from the rest of Hilderia from finding it out
Uleen sped off into the distance, before it could get too far a rain of fire descended hitting Uleen off course, burning the skin of the ultimate hunter in the process, sending both the flame and the king down to the toxic muddy field, but before It could make contact with the mud It regained Its footing on space-time.
The king was puzzled, these flame hurt but it felt familiar looking around for the flames there was no sign of it, the King did not bother to hunt whoever attacked him but chose to continue on to the Elven lands.
As it readied to take off again a handheld onto his shoulders with brutish force
"Why in such a hurry, Virgo?"
The King of the Night, for the first time in forever, froze at the sound of the voice
"Turn around and face me" the voice demanded
And so the Slayer of the Vestr did to meet the eyes of Its guest and was ever the more shocked to see the face of a former adversary.