Encroaching darkness engulfs the mind.

Petal of flower, adorning the five colors closes its mouth.

Seeds sprout, ghosts arise;

What work do have the livings’ life?

Can one shut the voices of hell?

Or will one bear with the mad?

Weep, long and wide, weep.

For what you have is anything but tear

What work do have the livings’ fear?

None is mercy, the whole is cruel.

And the truth is one brought together.

Can the hell shut the mercy,

Can the cells contain the cruel?

What does the real hold, what does the false say?

All in all, one is must; all in one, one is just.

One in one, all is false; one in all, that is God.

What does God hold for itself? Is it worthy of He or She, or is it too high to be deserving he and she? To be God, to rule them all, to be the one, and to be the above. That is the purpose of Draconic.

What does it mean to say what, to ask questions, to tell one the truth? Can the world bear the brunt of our malfunctioned souls and the storms of our wisdom? Can the people understand the words behind words and meanings under meanings? Why are the world and people alike so fragile?

These are the questions you need to consider upon, young one. Are you worthy to be one in all, or will you be the all in one? Will your path end all in all, or will your path lead to one in one? Will you question the sins of your kind and detest their immorality, or praise it high and make them a god?

The ability to choose is only yours, and yours. But what will you do with it?

Death is an answer you are looking for, but death is not looking for you. Death won’t look after you and will find people you don’t want it to find.

This is the truth and will be false.

So says the Overlord: Blood and death is the fuel; soul and mind are the vessels, and people are the fire. Which one you will belong, you will choose.

That will be the time flower blooms, skies weep, earth sunder, people grief, warriors leave, souls lie, and the world dies.

*********

‘’What in the hell-Your majesty!’’ Quan cried out in alarm. His soul shook from the tears he saw, falling down from Ubel’s eyes in the color of black and red. ‘’What did you show him, majesty!? Why won’t you show mercy to my pitiful disciple?!’’ Why one needed power, he always asked and questioned. He never stopped asking it, and would not stop even after getting an answer even if it was true.

For if he stopped, then what was the point of immortality?

‘’It is his fate’’ Tulpar said, her wings fluttered.

‘’TRUTH? GIVE ME BACK THE TRUTH, LET ME KNOW THE TRUTH. TRUTH-TRUTH-TRUTH-TRUTH-TRUTH-TRUTH-TRU…’’

Ubel’s cries intensified. His arms flailed around as he wept tears of death and blood and tore apart his skin with his nails. He left bloody lines and marks along with his head, widened his eyes and continued again. The cycle of screams, pain, self-damage, torture, then another scream that left no more than a huge mental scar on both people.

‘’Brynhildr, oh Brynhildr. Oh, the mother of all and bearer of light...’’ Gaobun’s whispers turned into erratic mutterings. His hands were trembling fiercer than a boat in a storm in the sea, and his closed eyelids couldn’t contain the tears that he shed in alike colors.

‘’Enough, pilgrim, with your pleadings!’’ Tulpar, fed up enough with Quan’s unceasing blabberings of mercy finally reacted. She let out a breath of Qi. Air froze in front of the crystalline power and enveloped Quan’s body amidst his last cry. His upper body froze completely as he slumped down on the Crane that settled itself in fear of a progenitor, yet he could still move his eyes and shake his legs.

Tulpar got amused by the man, who still pleaded for the lives of two younglings under her gaze with his eyes. They opened and closed harsh and fast, his eyes shook as he half kneeled and put his head down. If she had not cut off the Qi flow from his body, Tulpar was sure that she could hear the frantic screams of the man again.

‘’You may not understand what he feels the most, but I know what you both feel. And I assure you, for the damn sake of Feza. This one will be fine.’’ For what reason, she felt the need to comfort this pitiful master of boys? She knew the reason.

Her lands lacked the emotions of love and brimmed with hate. Murder and rape, burglary and betrayal, robbery and fraud; among all these crimes and sins, this show of affection by a human left her...nostalgic. When did her people, when did the beasts turn out like this?

‘’TRUTH-TRUTH-TRUth-Truth-truth-truth-tru...truth?’’ Ubel’s calls for the eternal search of human beings, the secret to the creation of all and mystery behind the soul, stopped after a long while. He turned around to look at Quan, covered in ice, and at Gaobun, who spilled tears of fear and blood while still muttering.

‘’Where is the truth?’’ Ubel’s eyes widened as he looked at the Tulpar’s eyes. He looked at his own reflections from the gigantic eyes for a while, then figured out where he was.

Then the pain rushed over, like his nervous system and Qi flow that returned back to its work. Another scream erupted from his mouth, now from the physical pain, and he fell down in his own blood. His arms and face and chest got covered in blood and his eyes felt weak. But one last time, among the gush of dozens of emotions and feelings, he looked up towards the Tulpar again, but this time not for his reflection, but for her intention.

‘’I will send you off,’’ She said and a mark appeared above her forehead. ‘’This will both guide and protect you, pilgrim and mortals’’ Gaobun trembled at the word of mortal, so did Quan, while the ice around him disappeared. Both looked crestfallen.

‘’Your wings...’’ Ubel whispered as the Tulpar turned around, ‘’Look lovely.’’

Tulpar kept silent as her spiritual mark engraved itself on Ubel, then left as she had come. Clouds rose from their bows and seas recovered their sanity. Crane let out the pitiful cry of freedom and Gaobun ceased his wretched act of self-implore. Quan only looked at the departing Tulpar, his eyes red and body weak, and sighed.

Then Ubel lost consciousness as his Qi broke apart as a whole, destructed, then returned back to a straight but wider circle, which grew in a moment of seconds.

Qi destruction he achieved at last, with a price too high for him to shoulder.

*********

After mending the wounds of Ubel with herbs and laying him down on the back of Crane, Gaobun turned to look at Quan.

‘’Senior Master...who is my junior?’’

Quan’s eyes widened in shock, either from the lack of brother or from the traces of breakthrough in Gaobun’s body. Fear was the first weapon of humanity, then came the technology, and last the cultivation. But which idiot said latter was better?

‘’I don’t know, junior,’’ Quan said, ‘’I also don’t know.’’

‘’May I inquire about the thing you used,’’ Gaobun sat down as well, right beside Ubel, then focused on Quan’s face. ‘’What made the Beast God stop at first?’’

Quan took out a small piece of paper from his ring, then sent it towards Gaobun who caught it. Looking down at the paper, Gaobun’s first reaction was to throw it away, beads of sweat gathered above his forehead, then ask in amazement. ‘’What kind of handwriting is this? It can suck souls out of body!?’’

‘’It can,’’ Quan nodded, ‘’I can hold it easier because of Elder Cinder’s approval. Or else, I would have left the world a long time ago.’’

‘’Approval?’’ Gaobun repeated,’’ Does this thing, this artifact belong to Elder Cinder?’’

‘’Unfortunately, wrong guess junior. This belongs to the second ancestor.’’ Gaobun didn’t know what he could say. For a piece of handwriting to survive several thousand years, it was not impossible. But for the aura on it to last ten thousand years, it was frightening.

‘’Then, is this Feza person...the second ancestor?’’ And why you carry that thing with you? He couldn't ask.

‘’No, I suppose not. But I also don’t know the language as well. What I know is, whoever can read this is either a monster or an ancestor, as even other elders can’t read what it is.’’

‘’Haah,’’ Gaobun sighed and looked at his pitiful junior,’’ Senior master, what will we do now?’’

‘’We will continue of course,’’ he said, and hope he won’t get scarred for life.

Like this, they continued their way towards the continent border, where met the Mountains Of Emperors and the Three Rivers Of Lords. It was such an ironic name, as there stood three huge sects and three different kingdoms. Some said this was to show the power, and some said it was to shame the mortals. But simple mortals, who had nothing better to do than survive to the next day, couldn’t care less about face and ridicule of others. They had this one life, then when reincarnated to others they would forget all about it. So there was no reason to not ignore these power hungry animals, these Immortals.

*********

‘’Ahoy! Ahoy! I’ve got you the best furs in the east! The freshest meat of the east, I repeat!’’ Amidst the cries of the beast merchant, Ubel followed behind the Gaobun. He led Ubel through a wide patch of farms and mills and shoved two pieces of cheese he bought from a random stall. ‘’Your welcome, young sir.’’ The merchant laughed and sent them off, maintaining the amiable smile of a trader and the professionalism of an experienced traveler. Even the small gestures and body language itself revealed how much effort he put into this line.

‘’This should make you feel better,’’ Gaobun said and slowed down a bit. They both wanted to measure the beauty and extravagant natural habitat of the Yardatafos, and actually had plenty of free time left before their jobs got assigned to them by the committee, so going around the city’s outskirts once or twice wouldn’t hurt much, Ubel assumed.

These wagons and merchantiles couldn’t get into the city for some safety concerns, or so he heard from the people around. Gnashing the hard cheese between his teeth, Ubel continued to tread the path towards the city entrance. Quan left them a while back, saying: ‘’The long road of Yardatafos is famous, exceptional for its long Merchant Route. Well, you should see with your own eyes as I’ll settle some matters. I’m going to meet up with you after getting done.’’

So, their predicament got quite simple enough.

‘’Ubel?’’ Gaobun called for him again. ‘’Oh sorry,’’ He responded, ‘’Senior brother, we don’t need to hurry anyway, right?’’

‘’Yes, of course. But...’’ Gaobun let out a deep sigh. ‘’I know you want to look see the things and people, but trust me, Ubel. Yadratafos is not only known by its Merchant Route.’’

‘’There is more?’’ Ubel looked, his mind absent, around. His excitement died off at that moment but got ignited again after looking at the huge carriage at their back. Adorned with a symbol of two golden clouds, pierced by a dagger and a bow, with the heavenly horses named after Creeks’ mounts pulling it up front, Ubel felt deep founded amazement.

‘’Lord has come, clear the way! Lord has come, clear the way!’’ Cried the wagoner and sped off into the distance without stopping at the gates. ‘’Lord sure loves attention,’’ Gaobun’s comment got approved by the masses. There were no souls on the wide roads and even if there were, the carriage would have no trouble passing through the road wide enough to contain four of them side by side.

‘’I though beasts roamed here, but seems like there are only familiars?’’

‘’Isn’t that expected? No beast is retarded, even if they are morons, enough to attack a city. Even the merchants here, most of them are in Qi Creation so small beasts have no chance to fight against them.’’

‘’Is that so?’’ Ubel’s lack of interest put out the last scraps of patience flame inside Gaobun, who ceased talking. He didn’t know how that sociable Boris and Theology maniac Yennefer could get along with this boy. He asked questions, they answered, and he didn’t listen. The same cycle, again and again, got him fed up already.

‘’I wonder-’’

‘’No you don’t!’’

After getting in front of the city gates, over ten meters in height and covered with well-fed purple iron, they paid greetings to the state protector with small gifts and got into the city. Some people gave intrigued glances but sought no harm. No one liked the bother that would come from the emblem of Cindersnow.

Paved roads seemed pretty greasy with eye and one could actually slide down the slope towards the city centre if wanted, while walking with ease was also possible, which was better for people. Many examples were the young local cultivators who sped down the slope but there was something different.

Ubel’s eyes focused under the feet of these young men and women, whose Qi flows were streaming towards the acupoints in the feet and released as a small circle. The little expenditure was evident as well as the boost of balance that made it easier for youngsters to slide. And they, actually, burst the Qi into a small point to flip and spin on the air, then land to the ground to continue sliding for a good hundred meters. They were, as expected from teens, showing off to their peers their agility and ability, but what mattered the Ubel most was the use of Qi itself.

They don’t use any breathing technique or flow pattern...is it caused by the normal breathing of the body? Or is it because of something else?

Looking back at the Ubel, Gaobun didn’t know whether to feel sorrow at getting ignored or joy from the lack of shock and fear from the young man’s horrible experience along the way.

Anyway, This won’t complicate things then. He thought to himself as well, and for once reached out with his hand towards Ubel.

‘’I’ve changed my mind, junior brother.’’

‘’...?’’

‘’Let’s look around a bit.’’