The fourth floor was far more active than it should have been for a dimension that was made to emulate the four elements. It was usually the place that people spent the least time, because normal people could not stay in it for more than about six months before succumbing to the extremes. However today, the field of fire was full of men walking too and fro around the mountainous region near the centre of the landmass.

Normally people ignored the mountain, but Declan was sure that his dream was bound within the mountain. It had taken him a year, looking all around the mountain itself, but finally he had discovered a crack in the almost perfect illusion. The tiniest chink in what would have otherwise been the perfect armour. He smiled. The thousand years he had been alive would finally be worth something if he could get the Fallen Morning to back the Lupe clan. They would rise to prominence above the other clans, and they would be able to lord themselves over anyone below Babel herself. All it required was to make a pact with two devils.

Declan knew that his plans would have his father turning in his grave, but he did not care. His father never had his vision. He was happy with the place that their clan held, one of being subservient to the Book clans, simply because bodily transformation was a pipe dream. Declan had moved on. He had become an auxiliary member of a clan, and had climbed the tower after attaining Heaven rank. He had sacrificed his purity for power, and now he would do it again, so that no Lupe was ever looked down on again.

He smirked as he put his hands through the wall that he had been facing for ten minutes, proving to his brother and to everyone else that had followed him that he was right. He was not insane, and that there was something that would lead them to the answer that they had been looking for all this time in the mountain. He could not be anything but the vanguard of the endeavour, as anything else would be considered weakness in the eyes of his peers, so he pushed through the gateway and flinched as he entered the world beyond.

What he saw on the other side was unbelievable. It was a paradise in comparison to the field of flames that were behind him. He could not even feel the scalding heat that was everywhere in the field. Instead there was a grassy plateau, a river, a pond and a small wooden house with a man sitting outside, looking as if he had been waiting for Declan. He stood up and meandered over to the Lupe man, and bowed slightly at him.

“Good day, I am Luke Jeshua, how can I help you?”

“Sir... My name is Declan Lupe, and I would like to ask you if you know anything about the fallen morning”. Declan had to tread carefully. He had no idea if the man he was facing was truly the fallen morning, or perhaps just a person imprisoned in this land to pass on the information about the whereabouts of the fallen morning himself. There was no way for him to know.

The man, Luke, laughed. “Ah, now that’s a title I have not heard in awhile. Yes, I believe can tell you all about him, but to do so, I need to take a trip, and you’re going to help me. To start with, we need to destroy the barrier that stands around this hellish place”.

Declan looked at Luke in surprise, he had finally found another clue to the whereabouts of the disaster that had plagued the greater clans hundreds of cycles ago. If he could harness its power, then he would without a doubt find a way to oust the other clans and become a power greater than any of them. He immediately turned around and moved to try and work out how the region was separated, the quicker he complied with Luke's request the quicker he would be able to find his answers. Luke hummed as Declan walked off. It was so simple for him to move someone's mind to do what he wanted. There was no effort in it, especially when they had as weak a mind as the Lupe's, but he did not dwell on the thought for long. He would have to get his things together before he would be ready to go back to his mother. He was no longer interested in destroying her creation, but instead he would supersede her. She had left him locked up for thousands of years, and he would make her pay. He looked up at the slowly splintering hemisphere that made up the shield keeping him in and opened his arms wide. The Fallen Morning was back.