•••

From the peak of Mt. Evanescence, a sky-reaching ethereal tree began to form, it’s trunk and branches were grey in colour, with red-leaves proliferating the tree's limbs. The spectral creatures enclosing the peak of the mountain began to perch along the twisting branches; they gently amalgamated with the tree itself invoking a paroxysm of excitement from the towering tree.

The leaves began to shine with incandescent light, while all the life-essence of the land around Mt. Evanescence was syphoned towards the arcane sabre. The arcane sabre itself had amalgamated with the trunk of the tree, leaving a vermillion coloured tattoo in the shape of a sabre upon the bark; the symbol itself ever-growing with a thickening vermillion light.

Every being around Mt. Evanescence felt their blood start to flow in a disorderly manner, the Qi and blood essence slowly started to leave their bodies; pandemonium gradually began to spread across the plains.

There was only one person physically unaffected by the sabre tree but compared to everyone else the waves within her heart surpassed their physical traumas.

A violent war of emotions raged within her heart.

Patriarch Cestra realising that his wife Jasmine was not standing next to him, as she usually has done for the past millennia, sent out his spiritual sense and finally found her standing forlornly upon the Elders platform, he felt his heart shake as if struck by an earthquake.

His beautiful wife, his angelic wife, his benevolent future, stood there; tears of crimson flowing down her face, her eyes glazed over. An aura of absolute slaughter emanated from her being, an atmosphere of an Asura, one she has only shown once before.

The aura was similar to the blood-tree above Mt. Evanescence.

“Jasmine!” Cestra sent a message of desperation through his soul to hers.

Jasmine’s body shuddered, and her aura was instantly withdrawn back into her body. She turned to her husband, her eyes stained with blood, and gave him a strained smile.

“Jasmine, we’ll speak after this. Remember, I am always here for you. Your problems may be impossible for the Ethereal Grotto Sect to solve at this point, but I promise you, we will try. If we can’t, we always have our son and daughters.” Cestra gently comforted his beloved wife.

While Cestra and Jasmine were conversing a hologram of a monk multiple-kilometres in length appeared in the sky above the monastery situated in front of Mt. Evanescence. The bald monk was dressed in a long orange robe, with Sanskrit stitched on the hems of his robes.

“Amitabha, oh, great senior, have mercy upon our souls; I ask you to placate your anger. We mean you no harm, we only ask you to allow us to send the juniors of our world into your dwellings to experience their own nirvana.” The monk’s projection said strongly.

As if hearing the monk’s pleading words, the vermillion sabre in the tree stopped absorbing the essence of the land as well as the cultivator's blood essence.

The sky-piercing tree gradually faded out of existence, the celestial clouds at the peak of Mt. Evanescence began to form once again; the appearance of the summit fading from every single being around the mountain

A feeling of Evanescence was left in the minds of all entities.

Upon the floating celestial lake, the Holy Land members looked incredulously upon Mt. Evanescence, all of them were physically affected in some way or another by the towering tree.

The projection of the monk in the sky turned towards the direction of the plains, “Amitabha. My dear brothers and sisters of the Way, we must begin the Awakening Ceremony earlier than predicted. An eminent ancestor has already taken a liking to a disciple somewhere on this plain.”

“Every child between the ages of five and seven, please converge in front of the Monastery of the Way, the duration of one’s stay within Mt. Evanescence can be between two to three years. Please prepare adequately. Amitabh.” With those words, the projection of the monk disappeared.

•••

“Children, although I’ve explained the process to you before I deem it necessary to explain it to you once again. During your ascension of the stairs towards the peak of Mt. Evanescence, you will have to deal with an increase in pressure. The increase in pressure will be relative to your bone-age,”

“After a certain number of steps, one will reach a new stage, at each stage, one must comprehend a wonder provided by Mt. Evanescence. Once you manage to comprehend a wonder, you can move on to the next step and attempt the climb once again to reach a new wonder,” Expounded Cestra.

“The further you ascend the stairs the greater the chance of a passed-ancestor noticing you. Now for you five, many passed-ancestors would jump at the chance to make you their Soul-Disciple, I want you to pick an inheritance that suits you. Remember the higher you ascend, the stronger the inheritance. One may even feel a ‘calling’, a calling is when one resonates harmoniously with an inheritance that a connection is subconsciously formed between you and the past-ancestor,”

“Who knows, maybe one of you will manage to spark the interest of an Immortal being who has left a strand of their spiritual sense in the mountain,” Cestra said to rile up the children.

Looking at the burning eyes of the children before him Cestra nodded his head, inwardly pleased with himself, managing to elicit a smile from Jasmine.

“Come, let’s go to the monastery.”

At the base of the monastery stood thousands of young children with their guardians, all of them were from prominent empires with millions of years of history; any single one of these empires would strike fear into the hearts of commoners.

But here these children had nothing to brag about when compared to the forty odd children in front of them; the offspring of the Holy Lands.

Astrallis and his group moved joyfully to their new found friends of the Quintessential Umbra Organisation, the two designated leaders of the congregation were two beautiful opposite sexed elf twins.

“Hello, Netruvean and Netravean. I hope we will be able to work together during our ascension of the Evanescence Steps,” Astrallis flashed a smile that could shame heaven and earth.

“Of course Brother Astrallis.” The two elves blushed while looking at his smile.

Netravean looked towards her brother Netruvean a hint of annoyance flashed across her eyes, “Why are you blushing idiot, he’s a male just like you.” She thought inwardly.

But that didn’t stop her adorable face from striking an even more significant smile, but it quickly receded when she felt a piercing killing-intent lock on to her. Turning abruptly she found herself face-to-face with a pink-haired girl with large fuchsia coloured eyes, the girl sharply held out her hand in greeting,

“Hello, I don’t think we managed to talk earlier. I am Azalea Rosea, Princess of the Rosea Family of the Ethereal Grotto Sect and Astrallis’ childhood friend.” Sweetly stated Azalea a sense of ownership in her eyes.

Grabbing Azalea’s hand tightly, “Hello Azalea Rosea, I am Netruvean Silvanus, Junior Saintess of the Quintessential Umbra Organisation.

Unbeknownst to everyone around them a battle of Qi was happening between the two hands of the beautiful but terrifying girls.

At this moment, a spark of rivalry over the ownership of Astrallis commenced.

•••

A line-up of nine monks, who practice the Way of Buddhism, stood before Mt. Evanescence preparing a sacrifice for the ancestors within the sky-piercing monolith.

After lighting a ceremonial incense stick, the monks bowed towards the four cardinal directions as a sign of respect to heaven and earth.

“Oh, dear merciful Spirit of the Mountain, we beseech you as your humble servants to allow sacred passage for the young hopefuls of the Augustin World.” The chants of the monks echoed throughout the monastery in unison.

In response to the monk's chants the essence around Mt. Evanescence began to shudder with excitement forming a spiralling spacial-tear, and from within the disrupted space an archaic stairway materialised and amalgamated with the face of Mt. Evanescence.

The stairway itself went through the spacial disruptions around the mountain and even further bursting through the celestial clouds enclosing the peak. The lowest steps of the stairway were the longest, allowing for at least ten thousand people to stand on it, the size of the levels decreased the further one ascended the mountain.

At the end of every 108-steps, a natural wonder stood; this carried on till the celestial clouds, after that no one could fathom the trial within.

An inanimate voice resonated out from within Mt. Evanescence, “Trial challengers, within awaits your destiny. Every 108-steps the pressure exerted upon you will increase manifold. At the end of every 108-steps will be a natural wonder formed during the Primordial Era, comprehend the profundities within and move along to the next stage,”

“Goodluck. May the odds be ever in your favour.”

•••