While he had his eyes covered from the blinding platform light, Amon felt the fabric of space around him ripple.
'Shit!' "Ning! Throw Ling towards the city, quickly!" Shouted Amon; however, he was too late.
The platform tore off the fabric of space and swallowed everything around it in a much bigger radius than the platform circular structure.
***
Feeling cold and wet, Amon opened his eyes to find himself submerged underwater. Panicking, he tried to kick himself up to the water surface, but the water he was under was not deep, it was only up to his knees when he stood up.
Breathing heavily and frantically coughing out the water he swallowed and entered his lungs, Amon was alarmed, the area he was in was poorly lit, with only one bright light source further away from him. "Ling! Ning! Annchi!" Shouted Amon.
He frantically looked around him. Before they were teleported, the girls were standing next to him; they could not have been thrown far from him. Abruptly the water near him split up as Annchi rose, drenched, and annoyed, standing on the water surface. She motioned at the water with her hand, commanding it to raise her sisters out of it. Gently the water lifted Ling and Ning out. They both started coughing violently on their own, expelling the water out of their lungs.
Annchi picked Ling up, holding her in her arms, and commanding the water out of her clothes. She did the same to Ning, controlling the water to allow her sisters to walk on top of it.
Wryly smiling, Amon pointed at himself, asking to be given the same privilege without voicing it. Annchi squinted her eyes at him and pointed her index finger at Amon. A jumbo jet stream of water exploded under Amon, carrying him high up, then letting him free-fall back down.
The water was not deep enough to break Amon's fall painlessly; his back received double hits from the water surface and the solid ground under it.
"That was not my fault, you unreasonable wretched old witch!" Yelled Amon after he got back up.
"What did you just call me?" Said Annchi with water swirling around her left hand.
"Stop it, please." Pleaded Ling in her sister's arm, clearly scared.
Sighing, Annchi let go of her anger and raised Amon above the water surface, drying him and allowing him to walk on the water's body.
"What happened? Why did the platform teleport us as it was repairing itself, we were standing outside it too."? Said Ning.
Amon smacked his lips and cleared his throat. "I don't know. It might have been just a malfunction. The platform was woken up after millions of years. Maybe its hidden black diamond overloaded the platform as it was being repaired, I really doubt what happened was intended by its architect."
Sighing, Amon extracted a candle lantern from his void. Using it, he inspected the water he was standing on. The crystal-clear water revealed black bricks under it, indicating that they were at a made place rather than something nature created.
"There is nothing here in this water pool, let's get moving, towards the light source up ahead." Said Amon, leading his group forward as they walked on the water surface, courtesy of Annchi's water law nobility.
"How far away did we get teleported?" Said Annchi.
"I did not sense an enormous amount of Source from the platform, so my best guess is that we are still somewhere in Vicia or a secret spatial domain within Vicia." Said Amon.
The group of four ambled, vigilant, and always looking around them for any danger. Soon, their ears picked on indistinct noises. As they got closer, the sounds got louder and clearer.
"Someone crying? Children?" Said Ning.
Amon motioned with a finger over his nose, shushing his group. With a low volume, he spoke. "Do not assume anything and stay vigilant."
The water level kept getting lower until they were no longer standing on water, but a solid ground made from black bricks arranged in circle patterns.
In front of them was a small burning fire pit, on top of it floated a rotating golden pyramid, no bigger than an adult human head. Behind the fire pit and the shining golden pyramid, stood a tall tree, rooted amidst the solid black bricks.
Amon placed his lantern down and motioned for the girls to stay still. Focusing on the children's muffled cries, he tried to locate the noise source. He walked forward, past the fire pit, and stood in front of the strange tree that appeared healthy despite the lack of any sunlight.
To his bewilderment, it appeared the sound of crying children was coming from the tree's bark. He kept staring at the tree, his curiosity overwhelmed the state of caution he was in.
Slowly Amon's right hand reached for the tree's bark, just less than an inch away from his fingertips touching the tree he stopped. Every hair on his body stood up, and the alarm bells in his head all rang at the same time, even his heart skipped a beat. Every fiber of Amon's body understood; if he touched the tree, he would not know how he died.
Slowly Amon retracted his hand from the tree and raised both hands in the universal sign for surrender. Slowly, he backed away from the tree, careful to avoid the fire pit and the rotating pyramid. He knew the danger was not coming from the tree, but above him, he did not dare raise his head, not out of fear, but rather to avoid a conflict he had no hope of winning.
The girls lacked the sense of danger that was instilled in Amon from a young age. The moment they felt something, all three raised their heads to look up. What they saw chilled their souls.
Two enormous tan eyes peered down at all of them, concentrated on Amon. The massive head that housed the two eyes was barely visible in the dark. The fire pit illuminated only a faint outline, which was more than enough for Ling to lose control over her bladder, wetting herself and her elder sister who was carrying her.
The giant creature blinked once at the odor that assaulted its nostrils. It switched its gaze to the pale child that was frightened by it.
Amon reached the girls from walking backward and stood in front of them. He stood motionlessly, not sure what to do next, aside from keeping his hands up.
After a while, Amon gave up. He let his hands fall, and he looked up to meet the giant tan eyes with his grayish-blue eyes. The creature's outline was enough for Amon to identify it vaguely. He never heard or seen an animal like it in this gigantic size, bigger than even his former Phoenix adult form. Amon had little to no doubt; he was staring at a Primordial creature.
The creature loudly snorted and started radiating a blinding white light. The light penetrated the small group of four, reaching for their spirit, aiming for their souls.
Amon knew what the Primordial creature was doing, and he welcomed it. There was no better way to inform the Primordial beast of what he was threatening than allowing him to view his memory.
The creature viewed the memory of the little group in front of it except for Ling, its radiance washed Ling's fear from her heart, cleansed her body, and clothes from what Ling did to herself and her elder sister.
The blinding light dimmed considerably, revealing a majestic white lion in his full glory as he was still radiating light, illuminating himself and everything around him. The Primordial Lion had two giant horns above his brows, curving backward, pointing at the imposing two white feathered wings on his back. His white mane added an elegant beauty to his otherwise terrifying nature.
With fear cleansed from her heart, Ling subconsciously spoke. "So pretty!"
The Lion smirked at her comment, revealing a sharp white set of teeth and canines. However, he soon lost it as he gazed at Amon intensely.
"Young one, you are putting too much trust in it. What you are expecting to happen if you die, won't happen. It will play differently from your current speculation." Said the Primordial Lion.
Amon frowned, not buying the Primordial Lion's words.
The Lion shook his massive head disappointingly. "For a young sage and the son of the current realm ruler, you are a fool. The moment it became your beating heart, it ceased to be a Prime Ethereal Treasure. You lack understanding of your current self or the beating muscle in your chest. Tell me, what does your heart desires the most but can never have on its own?"
"Life." Said Amon.
The Lion hmphed in agreement. "Then answer me this, if you die, will it die with you?"
Amon lowered his head, thinking deeply about it. "No, it won't."
"Why not? Is it not your beating, pulsing heart?" Asked the Lion rhetorically.
Amon stayed silent, not knowing what to say.
"The heart did all it could to merge with you, to become one with you, but it is not enough. The rest is solely up to you to accomplish. You two are not one and the same, not yet, not until you represent what it represents." Said the Lion.
"Then, the tug I feel on my soul every time I'm in danger?" Amon looked back at Ning. If he was wrong, then what danger was she sensing?
"Ah! I see I was not wrong about it killing everything around me if I die, I was wrong about why and how it will do it. The whole time I thought it would retaliate for me or try to protect my life, but no, all it will do is revert to what it was when I first met it. Starting with my new soul that it spent all those souls it collected to create." Said Amon.
"You have been given plenty of indirect hints already. You should have long realized this and more. Your heart's acts of modifying your Profound Ethereal Veins should have informed you that your body is incomplete. The heart will match you step by step, you do your part, and it will do it part until you two are one and the same, one life, one existence." Said the Lion.
"Senior, I thank you for your guidance. Have you perhaps heard of the heart or seen it before?" Said Amon.
"No. I have never realized such a law exists before viewing your memory, nor did I come across anything like your heart before. Even the Black Abyss did not exist when I was alive." Said the Primordial Lion.
"Huh?"
"I'm but a spirit fragment that remains in this world of the former monarch. Alexios, the Primordial Radiant Lion."
Amon was puzzled. "An extinct Primordial clan? I have thought all extinct Primordial clans were recorded in my ancestral mother archives, but I guess not."
The Lion growled angrily; a hint of a terrifying roar escaped his throat. "The impudent bastards, they dare even try to erase my clan from history after killing us all."
The wrathful Lion extended his paw at Amon, showing him something floating above it. The moment Amon laid eyes on it, the Heart of Entropy pulsed out loudly. Desire flooded Amon's senses. He reached out to it, but the Lion pulled his paw back and, with it, the blood droplet that was floating above it.
The radiant Lion smiled predatorily. "As I have thought. Young one, you need my blood essences, I will gladly give it to you, and everything else I have under one single condition."
Amon met the Radiant Lion gaze, anticipating him to state his condition.
"You will kill them all! Every last one of them, you will not even leave their eggs intact. The day you become Entropy is the day you annihilate the Dragons' clan and everything they hold dear. Swear it on your soul and law, and my blood essences and legacy are yours!"