Everyone wants to be Immortal. But when one achieves that goal, everyone asks themselves the same question: 'What do I do now?'
Some have an answer in the beginning, and some don't. Eventually, those who hit the ground running, slowly come to a standstill. Those who started slow eventually soar freely among the heavens. However, both types will come to a halt many more times than once throughout their existence.
I, myself, contemplated for a while about my next venture. Ultimately, I wanted to write my memories and give my fellow immortals something to keep them entertained. As I thought of the past, I came up with the idea to write my cultivation notes. Real cultivation notes. Not on a single sword art or martial skill. Not about some Dao or occupation.
My name is Orym Vamoria. Orym in the Elvish tongue means 'Ten Thousand Skills.' I'm going to write about how I've mastered them all. During my first life, a great martial artist had a saying: "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."
Tell me, do you think he would fear a man who practiced ten thousand skills more than ten thousand times? Haa, I wonder.
Anyways, the journey began long before I was born on the Chaos Serpent Planet. My journey started on a planet destroyed eons ago --Earth.
Pay attention because even the smallest life detail can affect your cultivation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On the planet Earth, June 20th, 2012, a part of the Praxis System, ruled by the same High Council that governed all of the Cosmos. My life had reached a new high as I somehow became the senior science advisor to the President of the United States of America. In all honesty, I gave my boss food poisoning and took his spot during this official world-changing event. However, I felt no regrets as I sat by the window in my hotel room overlooking the night-shrouded city of Rio De Janeiro cloaked in hours of rain showers.
It was the wee hours of the morning, and the sun had yet to rear its illuminating head. While I was putting the third glass of room-temperature whiskey to my lips, my phone lit up and began to vibrate for the seventh time that night. I couldn't help but groan and speak my thoughts aloud, "It's her again."
Chen Suyin, I had met her during my first year of college. She was a year ahead of me, but my life became surreal the moment I saw her. It took six months before she agreed to one date, and we were inseparable from that point on. But, unfortunately, fate is unpredictable, and we two grew apart to pursue our dreams.
Now, every time we reunited, it was a heart-wrenching experience that equated to a thousand deaths. Yet, the love between us never died, and once we were in the same vicinity, this intense attraction had a way of taking over our lives. The parting was where the pain stemmed from. I tried to steer clear of her as much as I could. However, after the seventh call and third glass of whiskey, I caved. Reaching to pick the phone up from the window seal, I answered with a heavy foreboding feeling.
"Jax…" she spoke with shock lining her voice.
"Suyin…" I replied.
"I've been calling you all night."
"I've been ignoring you."
Suyin tittered. "Always so blunt. You might hurt my feelings one of these days."
"I highly doubt it. So, what's up?"
"I know we don't meet, but this is serious. I need your help..."
My mind shook, and I was sober in an instant.
"Where are you?" I asked.
"I left Starline...I'm at the Cabin now, but they'll be looking for me soon." Suyin sounded scared and anxious. Entirely unlike the woman that I've known for more than a decade.
" I'm in Rio for the Earth Summit. Get to the airport, and I'll have someone waiting."
"Who?" she quickly asked, paranoid.
"Hector."
I then heard her exhale in relief. "Wait, what are you doing in Rio?"
"The Earth Summit…" I told her for the second time.
"You don't care about the earth, though." she giggled.
"Oh! Yeah, I'm the science advisor to the President right now." I explained, "Patrick got food poisoning."
Suyin went into full-blown laughter as she managed to say, "I guess he should be more careful with who he chooses to have dinner with."
I chuckle a bit as no one in the world knew me as well as my Suyin. I then tell her, " Hurry and pack. I'll call Hector now. Just get to the airport."
I wish I had said more to Suyin that night. I wish I had put aside ambition and pride to cultivate a longer, more profound relationship with more warm, loving moments. Then just maybe, she wouldn't have been alone.
On the third day of the Earth Summit, I got a call from Suyin's Parents. Suyin's father called out to me multiple times until he had no choice but to end the call. Unfortunately, her body was found in the river along with Hector's. I had no idea what her father had said afterward as I had fallen into a state of shock.
The next thing I knew, I was being pulled to my feet by security as they coaxed me back to reality. I absentmindedly reached into my suit jacket and pulled out the pass that gave me access to the section of the building I was in at the time.
Everything in the world became small and insignificant in an instant. Making my way back to the conference, I would inform my superiors of my departure as I had to get back to the states to make it to Suyin's Funeral and bury the person who killed her. As I moved, I began to look for tickets when I saw an email from Chen Bolin, Suyin's Father.
The message read: Leave Suyin's affairs to me, son. She has other things for you to do. She gave this to me, for you, the day she left to go to the airport.
Opening the attachment, I briefly read over the files from Starline Enterprise with disbelief until I opened the video and saw horror only witnessed in movies and tales from the time of the ancients.
~~~~~~~~~~
After the Earth Summit in 2012, the shadow of the world changed. It was no longer hidden wars and espionage. Cartel bosses no longer buried their money and corrupt Executives no longer hid their money in offshore accounts.
Beneath the noses of the mundane populace, every unit of currency was being funneled to a project known as Keystone. Within Keystone, there were mission directives. However, I was in charge of it all. The lead scientist designated Keystone.
The information that Suyin died for that year was put to good use. She had learned that the company she had been working for was keeping a world-changing secret. The aerospace company, Starline, conducted an experiment for deep space living. It was nothing special. Their space station was just the furthest station from the Earth, towards the sun.
However, one day a video journal was submitted, and the crew seemed to be going mad. That is until the crew's hallucinations became a shared hallucination, then began to kill them. Starline watched as the claws of an invisible beast shredded a man during a video log. But they had decided to hide the space anomaly when the captain of this space station submitted his journal entry.
Captain Donald J. Patrick was the first man to ever tap into power above human capability. The video log showed Captain Patrick blowing a hole in the space station with his mind before being shredded immediately afterward. Starline then sent a dozen more shuttles to continue the experiment until they learned that a new particle was emitted from the sun.
This particle changed the perception of human minds, allowing them to perceive another spectrum of reality. Think of it like the Astral Plane and Material Plane becoming one, using human perception as the bridge. Thus, the Ghost and Demons of legend suddenly became real. Though Mother Nature always finds a balance. The particles, known as the D-Particle, also changed the very fabric of our brains to combat the new dangers of the world.
Time went by until Starline predicted a solar storm in 2012. This storm would spread D-Particles all over the planet, and Starline's well-kept secret would then rear its head for all of humanity to see. Suyin thought the world should know what was coming, so she stole the files and fled. But she never expected the files to be worse than she initially thought.
Obtaining the complete record of the experiment, Suyin learned that the solar storm in late 2012 would only be a precursor of what was to come. While the atmosphere would protect us from most of the particles, only 0.5 percent of the world could be affected. Then, Starline predicted a solar emission that would whip out and crack on the planet like a divine lynching, sparking an apocalyptic event in 2021.
Since the day of Suyin's death, I've been working with the President on Project Keystone. The world's last hope was to flee to space. As long as we made durable ships to withstand the blooming powers of humanity, we could survive until ships transported us to the nearest goldilocks planet.
All of the world's brightest minds worked endlessly. We eventually created and improved Hypersleep, the fusion drive, world-shaking breakthroughs in hydroponics, and so on. I was a slave driver, but I worked just as hard right beside them.
In the year 2016, I had become the latest outbreak since the solar flare of 2012. As a result, I developed an extrasensory ability, enhancing my five senses, indirectly breaking my physical limiters.
In May of 2021, the last ark ship was constructed, and the world was informed of an expedition to Mars. But, of course, it was a lie to circumvent panic, and I gave the order to kill anyone who tried to reveal the truth. A raffle and a strict selection process were then conducted for what seemed like a month, but in reality, the strategy had started at the same time Keystone was formed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 18th, 2021: The Day The World Ended
The fusion drive of the massive spaceship rumbled, its thrusters resounded like thunder. I watched from the grasslands, a little over twenty-five miles away from the launch facility. I associated the sound of the take-off with the mythical Asgardsreiens riding through the thundering and flashing sky into a war to end all wars. But the truth is, those ships weren't going to war. They were fleeing extermination.
I looked over my shoulder and saw a group of people I led to the Loidas Plains, hoping to catch the last Ark launch. Though the sound of the rockets drowned out everything, I could still see the distraught and fear on everyone's face as they held their loved ones tightly. Some even wept when they thought about the fate that they had hoped to avoid by fleeing Earth. A fate that they had discovered only hours ago.
I didn't bother watching the Ark leave the atmosphere. I instead turned around and walked to my ivory-colored stallion. Mounting her, I eyed a lone building across the Loidas Plains, passed the launch facility.
"What are we going to do now?" Dr. Marie Violette asked, obviously upset about their current situation.
I stared at the brunette-haired woman, her torn clothing and filthy face. "We survived," I sighed, "We continue to survive."
I then pulled the reigns of my horse before breaking into a full gallop.
"Wait!" Dr. Violette shouted, then sighed before leading the group after me.
Marie and I, along with our survival party, were amongst the chosen. I had become careless and should have kept a tight hold on the operation to the very end. Unfortunately, due to my failure, one leak caused the dam to break. As a result, the Deucalion Ark, our assigned Ark, was attacked by outraged citizens. Along with their retaliation, they brought along the Daemons --entities that humans had begun to perceive as the D-Particle had been saturating the Earth for at least a week before the Arks launched. The Daemons had a hunger for humans, and they were utterly insatiable.
Stranded on Earth, I had to find another way to survive the world's end. Unfortunately, once the chosen survivors had been decided, the powers that controlled the world abandoned it completely. As a result, all survival plans were focused on the Ark Project.
This fact became evident once the last Ark launched. The power grid went into automatic shutdown, hoping that humans may return to the Earth one day. During the ride across the Loidas Plains, I suddenly stopped. I was over five miles from the bunker, and I could see the massive destructive arrow of Helios descending upon us.
"Come on, Son. We can make it." Chen Bolin spoke with conviction.
I looked at Suyin's father and her mother, Chen Meili, on the mare next to him. I nodded my head and said, "Push it to its limit. Five miles, five minutes. Jiayou!"
"Haa!" I shouted, kicking the stallion into gear. I knew the building was over five miles, but just maybe, we could make it.
I rode hard to the lone structure, not for my sake, for Chen Bolin and Chen Meili. The fates were with us as we arrived at the facility. A Keystone bunker survives on its own power. As I punched the code in, the pad flashed green as bold white letters appeared that read 'Welcome, Keystone.'
Rushing everyone inside, I could feel the heat of Helios's wrath. The great Sun Titan was intent to end us all. Pulling the door shut, the skin on my hand burned off as the metal door increased in heat. Running at top speed down the corridor, I flew through the second door as Bolin and Meili pulled it shut behind me. As I looked at them, I internally blamed myself for putting them in this situation. I was adamant about having them with me, and in the end, it turned out to be the most dangerous place to be.
Everyone audibly sighed as they all felt safe. Thankfully, only the highest Keystone personnel knew about the ten percent possibility of total earth destruction.
At that moment, I couldn't feel any pain as I pushed myself up and hugged Bolin and Meili. Failure, I felt like a failure in so many many ways.
"Maybe in the next life, we can officially become family. Not loving Suyin the way she deserved is my biggest regret." I whispered.
Meili giggled, and Bolin patted my back.
"Suyin loved you to pieces. I loved the way she smiled when she was with you. But we all know Suyin was just as stubborn as you. Fate is a mysterious thing. And unfortunately, fate chose to sacrifice your union to save humanity." Said Meili with brimming sincerity.
"And we are family." Said Bolin, "You are our son."
I couldn't hold back my tears as I squeezed them tighter, and the ten percent possibility became a certainty as it enveloped the world in the form of an astronomical spatial tare caused by the overwhelming energy of the solar emission. Then, in a single breath of time, everything was over. I couldn't save Suyin, and I couldn't save her parents, let alone myself.