A blinding flash of light and a deafening crackle. The ground rumbled beneath me as the smell of burned flesh filled my nostrils. This was reality. The searing pain roaring through my body confirmed it, but it was a reality that I couldn't hold onto even as I battled against the next lightning strike with all my Qi.
Instead, ever since the first lightning bolt struck, my mind has been flooded with visions. At first, I feared them because I thought they were omens of the end, but I soon realized that the life they showed me wasn't the one I'd lived.
Instead, it was a glimpse into the life I've yet to live.
A simple squabble between one of my cousins and a rogue cultivator at an Upper Realm festival over a potential bride-to-be.
The awakening of legacies from The Age of Demons, Soot, and Ice.
The sight of my cousin's corpse after another run-in with the former rogue cultivator now turned Xan Sentinel.
The collapse of Xi's Grand Barrier and my clan's desperate defense of our lands from the onslaught of the Demon invasion.
The transformation of a maiden of our tribe into a Lesser Demon and the disappearance of both the maiden and her sister. The hunt to silence the clan's shame. A battle over the corpse of one sister and the life of the other with a group of Xan Sentinels led by the former rogue cultivator who killed my cousin. The piercing anguish in my shoulder as a sword removes my right arm. As I'm being carried away, the lasting image of an angel fighting my clan mates. Her blade still stained with my blood.
The condemnation of my clan by the Xan Sentinels and the rest of the Upper Realm. The marching of the army of the Upper Realm. At the head of this army, the mentor of the Xan Sentinel, who killed my cousin.
The collapse of our lines as the armies of demons and men come crashing down upon us. Our last stand in the Ancestral Lands. The sight of my father with a sword through his chest. The wailing of my mother's water blades as they cut through the air.
The taste of blood in my mouth as I lay dying in a pile of rubble. My gaze was held by a pair of lifeless purple eyes. Living just long enough to witness the last act of our clan as the clan's grand formation plunges the world into darkness.
My body begins to tremble as the visions come to an end.
A prophetic vision, a gift from our god, Astaroth. A gift rarely given and spoken about only in hushed whispers for fear of angering the priestesses.
But why? Why me? What could Astaroth hope for me to accomplish against the coming onslaught?
My burnt body was grabbed by a pair of hands, and I was lifted. My mouth was forcibly opened, and a cool liquid was poured in. Sensing the Qi within the liquid, I hurriedly gulped it down. My consciousness began to wane as a pleasant warmth started to spread from my stomach.