A desolate planet covered in dust with high mountains and deep canyons. This was the dust world.
Once it was covered with lush forests, grasslands, streams with clear water and full of living beings. Nowadays, the only thing you could find here was dust.
This world appeared to be dead. If you took a closer look at one of the mountain peaks, you could see something was moving.
Ziissseelll!!! Small streams of dust slid down from the peak.
Apparently, something beneath the dust tried to break free.
Telling the size of an object was hard in this place. There was nothing except the small dust grains to compare things too, no trees, no animals, no humans.
So, who could say if this dust slide was giant or small? Did it cover a human or maybe a gigantic dragon?
Finally, after some time passed, a head was laid free. It was obviously from a human male, not a beast.
Cough, cough, cough! Like thunder, the coughing of the human echoed through the land. It blasted the dust from his body and created storms everywhere. The planet was in absolute chaos.
Suddenly his body lifted up and flew into the sky.
He featured a charismatic figure. With one glimpse one knew, he was special.
The man looked up and saw ninety-nine sparkling moons hanging in the sky. Every single one glowed in its own color. It was a beautiful and mesmerizing view.
The light covering the dust world came from its own and the moons' glow.
There was no sun to see and the stars weren't visible because of the bright glowing moons.
HUUUMMMPP!!! The man took a deep breath. His belly grew bigger and bigger.
Piiieepp!!! A loud whistling came from his mouth. Another series of storms destroyed the land.
Following this, the glow of the ninety-nine moons intensified.
The man took another deep breath, but this time he didn't whistle.
He shouted, "Charming, Mad, and Evil come down here! I have a mission for you!"
The glow of three moons intensified further. Their colors were red, orange and blackish-grey.
Baannng! Baannng! Baannng!
With a flash of light, three figures stood in front of him. Two were male and one female.
One after another they kneeled and exclaimed, "Charming Dog reporting for duty, Master God!"
Charming Dog was the only female.
As her name implied she had a very charming appeal to her. She had smooth, long silver hair and a bright face. It was hard to imagine, someone wouldn't like her.
"Mad Dog reporting for duty, Master God!"
Mad Dog was completely different, his appearance was disheveled. Unkempt brown hair reached down to his shoulders. Still, no one would ever dare to underestimate him, because of the fanatic glow in his eyes. He was a simple-minded, faithful and trustworthy fellow.
"Evil Dog reporting for duty, Master God!"
Evil Dog, in contrast, had short black hair with silvery sideburns. He looked overall pretty neat. He had an arrogant look on his face, paired with a mocking smile. He looked like one of those well-cultured villains from movies. Those, who not only were feared by their enemies but their friends as well.
Every one of these three had their own character traits as their names implied. Those names were given to them together with their title as Dog. You might think this title was a humiliation but In truth, it was an honor.
If you read god backward, then the word you got was dog.
For those three could something related to their Master possibly be a disgrace? No! He was the most powerful being of this universe, who would dare to mock him.
"Stand up my Dogs and receive your new Mission."
The three of them stood tall again and looked him in the eye, but never longer than two seconds. They simply hadn't the power to look directly into them for a long period of time.
It was as if you tried to look directly into the sun. First, it is no problem at all but after some time your eyes start to burn, and you must avert your gaze.
These three Dogs, how the man named God called them, had a similar problem. It was as if the eyes of their Master were too bright for them to look at. They shined like the two brightest suns to ever exist.
So, they dropped their gazes and looked at his upper body instead.
"I secluded myself for the last one thousand six hundred years. Your power reached in this time greater heights. Gratulations!" He made a short stop. A smile placed on his face, he continued, "Your planets finally contain lifeforms with small intellect. Now the only thing left to do is waiting for them to develop."
The three gulped, they didn't expect that their Master would keep track of them during his seclusion.
"Master!?!", Charming Dog murmured with watery eyes, deep affection visible in them.
God exclaimed with his powerful and proud voice, "You think your Master would simply forget you? I am the Almighty God, that name is not just a name but a title as well!"
Mad Dogs fanatic eyes started sparkling with even more craziness for his Master. One day he would reach the realm of his Master. It was his biggest dream standing shoulder to shoulder with him.
Evil Dog had similar aspirations concerning his Master. He respected him simply because of the might he wielded.
They were God's followers called Dogs. They learned from him as his disciples. In exchange, they accomplished the missions, he set for them.
"You might not know about these things but in four hundred years..., the next tidal wave will come. Every new will be stronger than the last."
He came to a halt. What he wanted to tell them was a difficult topic for him.
"I never told you about this because you were simply too weak one thousand and six hundred years ago."
He let loose a deep sigh.
"Every two thousand years a calamity engulfs our universe. What that exactly means..., I won't tell you for now. Sometimes if you know too much, it can become a burden. If that happens your potential will drop and that is something, we can't risk right now."
He focused the three of them one after the other. He wanted to tell them one more thing but he couldn't. It was something that hurt his feelings, making his stomach arch.
He wanted to tell them that the others died during the last wave. The ninety-nine moons were fake. Only three were still in existence. The others were only illusions he created.
During the last Tidal Wave, the other ninety-six Dogs sacrificed their very lives to protect their universe, their home.
For those three they represented their family. Telling them that their family was dead was something he, God, could not accomplish.
A sad smile appeared on his face, his head hung down.
The first time in his life, he was a coward! They were not only his disciples, to him they were more like his children, his family! He couldn't cope with their reactions.
He thought, 'If they run away out of grief then he would be alone again! It would be like back then when there were no moons in his life.'
He got a hold of himself, pulling his thoughts together and putting a smile on his face.
He continued with his explanation, "The next four hundred years we have to do everything in our might to improve our odds. Your mission will be related to that. During the last wave, I had to sacrifice my weapon, the Morningstar.
It is a weapon as well as a planet constellation. We call them planetary constellation weapons. They are the strongest weapons there are. The number of planets refined shows the strength level, one star to nine stars. For notes, my morningstar has seven stars."
He was pretty proud of this. After all, the strongest weapon, which he knew, was created using nine planets. Many Gods of other universes were already happy using five-star weapons, so his seven star was top notch.
The three Dogs had many questions but they didn't dare to interrupt their Master.
Then Mad Dog opened his mouth, "Master, if you only have a seven-star weapon, how do you know then that there exist nine stars as well."
'Only seven-star,' God got immediately depressed! His beloved disciple, someone similar to a son, looked down upon him. What did he know, what seven stars represented?!?
Charming, being a great observer, hit Mad on the back of his head. A small bump was visible. Mad Dog lowered his head again and kept silent. He knew he said the wrong thing.
God harrumphed once and simply ignored the question. He tried to keep some of his dignity and didn't even bother telling his disciple more about nine-star weapons.
Continuing were he stopped God said, "Your mission will be to repair the Morningstar. That is easier as it seems! You will simply have to fuse in every one of the seven planets a strong soul, the stronger the better.
These souls will replace the old cores.
A stronger soul will mean a stronger core, a stronger weapon. The people living there are too weak right now. You will need to guide them from behind the scenes and allow them to become strong fast. Please note, that only if they struggle will their souls grow faster stronger."
Finally understanding what they had to do, all three of them nodded.
Charming Dog said, "Master... if I understand you correctly you want us to leave legacies and trials for the people there?!?
I see a problem with that. We three are specialized in our own technics and they won't be compatible with everyone. Is it possible for Master to give us jade slips with different cultivation technics?"
"Of course it is! I was already aware of that point and prepared these."
He swished his sleeve and three jade slips shot into the hands of Charming Dog and the other two.
"These are all the technics I know of, except for my own. That one is a secret! Here let me give you a little more. Technics alone have a natural boundary at some point you need treasures to become stronger." Of course, he didn't talk about armor or weapons. He meant medicines and natural treasures, who could help a person a lot with his training.
Time was the biggest enemy this mission had. Thinking about that, he took out something else. It was an hourglass.
"This hourglass my disciples, allows you to slow down time. It needs at all times at least one person to operate. If all three of you use your power to control it, the effect will, of course, be stronger."
He stood strongly, his back straight his eyes focused.
"Charming, you take this for now."
He threw the hourglass over to her and she stored it together with the jade slip into her spatial ring.
A spatial ring was an artifact that allowed you to carry many things with you. It created a space for you, you could use to store your belongings.
"Now go and leave this place. I will teleport you, using this array, directly to the Morningstar."
He swished with his hand through the air and the array activated.
HUMMMM!!!!
With a flash of white light, a circle appeared in mid-air. The circle's border consisted of many different runes. Creating a teleportation portal like this, was even impossible for Charming, Mad, and Evil. Only God their Master had this ability.
They kneeled one last time and shouted in unison, "Thank you for the mission Master!" Then they turned around and flew into the portal. When they were just about to disappear they heard a voice in their heads.
'I nearly forgot your compensation! The person with the biggest contribution will be granted a wish.'
The three were startled, shock clearly visible in their eyes. Then they disappeared, only to reappear in a completely different world.
Mission Morningstar had officially begun!