Ezekiel

My skill as a pathfinder can only keep me ahead for a short time in running from the 13 Hunters. Elite vampires from the clan of Lore, an Original vampire clan rumour claims has been in existence since before the formation of Zander the vampire territory world orbiting the black sun.

I follow a new path with a cladding of miasma and qi, using it to protect myself from being ripped apart by the currents that allow almost instantaneous passage between the imperceptible ley-lines and nodes travelled by ether between worlds. I move as quickly as I can changing direction, a very dangerous thing not flowing with the currents, but I have little choice considering who is on my trail.

I pass through the barrier between worlds as though a dying man given a second chance at life. I dive through one of the many fluctuations between worlds fleeing from my brethren pursuing me for the unforgivable crime of daring to try to leave the Lore and end my many years of slaughter. I had almost given up and faced the 13 Hunters when I felt the opening of a new path.

I pass through to the other side, a world I have never before visited that leaves me slightly disoriented with its stark lack of ether, but I am a warrior and I adjust quickly. Surprisingly the current only takes me here and no further, meaning I have nowhere else to run unless I run the usual mundane way.

The sun is bright out and already my skin is starting to blister but though I will be weakened I feel I can withstand its glare for another hour or two if need be. Three humans stand before me, all three of whom are wielding Uru forged weapons glowing with mana enchantments.

"Head back from whence you came!" The one at the front of the triangle says.

I give them a quick examination and realise the woman at the centre is the most dangerous by far but even she is no threat to me.

"I cannot," I give her the curtsey of a response even as I've already concluded that none are a threat to me. I give them a look of pity deciding they will be the distraction needed to get away from the 13.

I turn around and run at full speed away from the trio and past that ether path is not a viable option for me. Two of the three give chase but it doesn’t seem like they have much of a chance at catching me, I look around trying to assess where I’ve landed but all I see is orange rocky soil, short shrubs and not a tree in sight. I need to get as far away from the 13 as possible and I also need to find shelter, I slow down so as not to discourage the 2 humans in pursuit. I also need to get my strength back up and the two meals bringing themselves to me will have to do.

I look back at the woman still standing where the path I followed from Twilights End, she must also be a pathfinder otherwise how else would she know the path ends here? Why else post a guard?

*

Interlude

In key locations across the world of Gaia members of the Conclave group together to try and stop or slow the coming invasion from another world. Guarding many portal gates on the supercontinent of Pangaea armies stands with fortifications in place and planar spells years in the charging are primed and ready for use. Some of the invisible paths that connect the worlds where no gates were ever built are also guarded but instead of spreading themselves thin the kingdoms, empires and organisations allied together to concentrate their efforts.

Three Ascension Gates across Pangaea, one other on the continent of Azania and over a hundred paths that can be used by the few being with talent enough to travel by ley-line are watched and guarded. Many peoples and creatures of power across the world that have heeded recent portends also watch their gates

The gates open at the same time across the planet, across all 7 planets in the Rigal solar system. Each gate opens to an area on the mega planet Omega far in time and space. The membrane between universes bursts and Laws are broken as the energies of the worlds mix like they never before have.

Ether old and thick full of intent fill the smaller worlds to levels they were never meant to bare. Cross continental portals that had long since been forgotten into myth and legend light up for the first time in millennia from exposure to the energies they greedily soak up. Portals to other planets within the solar system are open to each other.

The Malanda desert is flooded from its connection to the Ama Sea on the water world of Aqueous, the sea itself losing almost half its water drank by the thirsty lands. Both places are left devastated with populations of both areas in different worlds reeling as their lives are changed forever. The darkness of Saanjh the Twilight world consumes the darkness found in the Underworld at the depths of Gaia are raided by the surface of Saanjh.

The sky over the Vorman Peaks opens to the sky of the gas giant Ceil, the raptors and other fliers of Gaia discovering they don’t have the supremacy in flight they thought they had yet they finding dominance on the land surface of Ceil. Ecosystems change in a matter of minutes, weather patterns take irrevocable turns, and people are lost while others discover new promising lands suddenly open to them.

Creatures long in their slumber wake and take deep breathes of the heavy energies that rouse them. Some of the Titan Mountains get up and walk for the first times in living memory. Ancient beasts crack and break the ground as they break out of the earth to walk about yet again. Elementals stir again in the world with so much mana in the atmosphere coming from all around. Some waking some being born some becoming possessed by spirits taking the opportunities or fleeing their own problems.

The continents move, invisible plates holding the world shift, readjust, find the new most stable position and the worlds reconfigure themselves to new parameters. In those movements the earth quakes, volcanoes erupt, tsunamis’ swallow the coasts, islands drown new lands rise, the world of man crumble. Many species with ancestral or territorial claims acknowledged by the world receive the least damage.

Some with enchanted buildings or special construction materials even have 2 or 3 building left standing to boast about. The world breaks and it happens quickly without any warning and half the quintillion lives on the planet are taken, some becoming completely extinct. Planar spells here and there shore up the land beneath some people’s feet, blood sacrifices and ancient treaties save some from complete annihilation. But all those actions are minor when taken against the massive scale of the destruction.

The supercontinents break, the sky above darkens with dust and soot. The whole world darkens completely in a matter of hours but still life persists.

People die swallowed whole by Gaia opening beneath their feet, they die crushed to paste by the falling of buildings on top of them. People die being trampled to death by some, eaten by predators, drowning in sudden floods or desiccating in sudden dryness.

But not all is woe and gloom for there is a chance, the remnant of all that survive the Breaking of The Seals gain. With the added mana men and women that have been in their bottlenecks for centuries suddenly burst into their next Awakenings. Old men and boys that have never even heard the term ‘awakening’ suddenly find themselves awash with power and abilities to shape their own lives. All slave seals are broken, all geases released, blood contracts frayed under the storm of ethereal energies that invade a world of a lower dimension.

Everyone and their mother gain something, some silly others interesting while many are just dangerous but all increase the survivability of the remnants that remain. Human, elf, daemon, dwarf, naga, demi-beast, beast, plant all gain something.

*

Zaraya

‘’Something is coming!’’ I yell to get the others ready and they are immediately alert, their enchanted uru staffs held ready to attack.

I smile grimly, I'm not much of a trainer but I think I’ve been a good coach to my disciples. I look at Suri, dedicated and loyal. Refusing to leave to get whatever extra advantage she could have gotten fro the trait ritual so that she can be here with me, and Nora here for her best friend and sister in craft.

A man, tall at about 6 feet 9 if not 7 feet tall but short for a Omegian cultivator appears at the horizon like a mirage. He runs towards us at speeds but suddenly the ley line ends abruptly and he finds himself materialising with a sudden crash into the dry dusty land.

He wears a sword on his waist; my senses don't penetrating his defences, looks to be a vampire, yes feels like a vampire as well and he’s starting to smoke in the sun. If he brings no friends with him a vampire we can definitely take out with the sun above us.

"Head back from whence you came!" I shout taking a threatening stance doing my best to assess the level of threat he poses.

He gets his bearings quickly before responding, ‘’ I cannot.’’ There is definitely no intention to retreat in his posture but there is worry and nervousness as he looks behind at something. I still don’t attack and neither to my students.

The problem is that if this is a cultivator then we really have little chance as chi is its own thing with its own rules that cheat what should be physically possible. Without chi myself I can’t sense his and I really don’t want to my students to die in a fools errand.

I take a breath and channel mana within my body buffing myself with increased speed and strength, a lightning bolt channelled and amplified by my uru quarter-staff blooms but I hold it as our opponent turns around and starts running. I frown but send the two after him as I sense something else coming down the path towards us.

The first person to tumble through gets my best Lightning Strike to the chest that knocks them on their ass. The second one blocks the next Strike with a naked hand, grabbing it out of the air and throwing it carelessly aside. Another two jump into existence, one immediately turning to chase after the first one to arrive while the others rush me.

I duck and block a sword strike but vampire speed can never be over exaggerated. Ignoring the gash on my side shoot lighting, fire and frost. Elements that should work well at slowing down my opponents don’t seem to manage to as the vampires cut through my defences cleaving pieces of my body.

I shoot into the air to getting away from encirclement but the persistent fuckers are on me like a pack of crows. They all wear black coats that where hiding their long straight swords, they all move quickly and act silently without hesitation. I use my staff as a fuci making casting easier and amplifying everything I’m dishing out but the 4 that have me surrounded show nothing.

I lash out with a scream, Cutting Air, Fire Storm, Lightning Strike after Lightning Strike. My staff a blur as I block and block then whack and whack and whack until I hear something crack but at this point I’ve been cut into ribbons and more of the vampires have come through and went straight for the first vampire still fleeing over the hills.

How unlucky are we to guard a pathway that these monsters use, how quickly I am overcome having achieved the 5th tier of existence and having tempered my bones towards eventually starting cultivation in my time in Omega. My war cry pierces their ears as I cast another Fire Storm. The droplets of molten fire burning through their coats but doing little visible damage to my assailants themselves.

Is this really how I die, the first casually of the first inter-dimensional exchange? I try to invade their minds as I fly around trying to get free of the encirclement whilst also beating at anything that gives me half a chance. When that doesn’t work I try keeping them at bay with two phantom arms and that actually works as they have trouble pushing againg the invisible psionic arms.

I’m bleeding from every gap in my armour which would probably have also failed had it not been enchanted uru. At least some my spoils from Omega have been worth something. I keep pushing them back until only one of them can face me at a time and I have a better time of it as I am armoured and my opponents aren't.

I do lose more fingers, lose a vambraces get more dents in my chest plate and lose teeth but I do manage to fatally would the blood sucker by stabbing it in the neck with a cursed dagger wielded by a phantom arm. Then another one is before me and I realise they were taking it easy on me before, losing and arm and a leg I can’t maintain the power of flight while preventing myself from bleeding out but the struggle continues until the world starts shaking. Or is that just my delirious imagination?