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In a sky far from the lives and islands of the Skydwellers, there is a colossal Primal Beast floating in the sky.
This Primal Beast is made of stone and has the shape of a magnificent airship. It is so large that it pierces through the clouds, making it shrouded and difficult to find.
[IMAGE]
At the peak of this Primal Beast, two figures can be seen playing chess. One is a man dressed in an open black shirt and long black pants, adorned with a feather boa.
The other is a man wearing a long, hooded cloak, making it difficult for others to see his appearance.
"What's become of the plan?" the hooded figure asks the man opposite him as he makes his chess move.
"Nothing's changed. Everything is going as planned." the man replies casually.
"It better be. We've planned for so long for this. I don't want anything to mess this up!" the hooded figure says with a threatening voice.
"What about the Singularity?" the man asks as he moves a black pawn.
"No matter. We can deal with him later, after Lucifer's death." the hooded figure says with a smile, not giving much thought to the Singularity.
"Well, if you say so~" the man smiles at the hooded figure's attitude.
They continue playing chess for a while, discussing their plan, until the man accidentally knocks three white pawns that had been taken out of the chessboard back onto it.
"What are you doing?" the hooded figure asks.
The man looks at the three pawns for a moment before chuckling softly, "Hehehe, nothing~"
###
In another place that appears to be a research facility, there is a man with silver hair and six white wings on his back.
Upon closer inspection the man bears a striking resemblance to Rei, except for his pure and beautiful wings. He is observing a large sphere in front of him.
Within the sphere is a view of the entire Sky Realm, and the man is carefully examining it as if searching for something.
A few moments later, the man sighs because he cannot find what he is looking for. He then closes the sphere, and the entire view disappears.
"Still not yet..." the man murmurs to himself.
The man then looks back at his six white wings. "My role is winding to a close."
He can feel that his time is running out and that he will die sooner or later...
He has no problem dying for the future, but the issue is that his successor is not ready at all, and is too reckless and easily deceived by others.
"Sandalphon..." the man murmurs while looking at the coffee on his table.
But as he is thinking, he suddenly feels something that makes him quickly turn in a certain direction. "Distortion?"
He quickly uses the sphere again to search for the source of the distortion in time and space, but oddly enough, the sphere shows nothing.
It is as if something is blocking the sphere from functioning, or…
"Something happened that changed the future..."
###
Meanwhile, on Port Breeze Island many people are gossiping, specifically talking about an island that suddenly fell from the sky.
"Dear? I know you're in the middle of harvesting, but can we talk?" a woman asks her husband.
"Sure. Let me guess it's about that island that fell out of the sky, right?" The man can guess what his wife wants to talk about since everyone is discussing it right now.
"Yes. It's got me on edge." The woman is worried that the island they live on might fall as well.
"Hahahaha! Please, it's just a rumor. An island falling only happens once every few centuries!" Her husband laughs because such things only happen with small uninhabited islands.
Besides, Port Breeze has a Primal Beast so the chances of their island falling are very slim.
Elsewhere, others are also talking about the incident. A knight and a worker are talking to each other.
"Those rumors that've been going around are true. This island in front of us just started shaking as we flew by." the knight says in a panicked tone.
"Then it crashed straight down like a building losing its supports!"
"So, you're saying it lost its... ability to float, or something? I thought it was pretty normal for islands to start sinking over time. Never heard of one just crashing to the bottom though." The worker thinks aloud because, from what he has read it's impossible for an island to suddenly fall like that.
"That's what I've been saying! We've got to get the word out and stop this from happening to—!" But before the knight can finish his sentence, the whole island starts shaking violently.
"Wh-what's going on?" All the residents of Port Breeze start to panic, but fortunately the island doesn't fall, it just shakes.
###
Meanwhile, over at the Auguste Isles, esteemed magnates have gathered for a round of discussions.
Many important people from the Auguste Isles gathered in a room, including Sierokarte.
"Thank you all for coming. As you may have already guessed, we're here to discuss the so-called cataclysm rumors." one of the older men says to the group.
"Do you actually believe that cataclysm junk?" an irritated muscular man says to the older man.
"Oh, how audacious. And I suppose a merchant like you is the authority on fact and fiction?" another person taunts the muscular man.
Instead of discussing the falling island, some of them start arguing and mocking each other.
"Now, now, everyone. Let's put aside our differences for a moment while we enjoy a rich cup of coffee." Sierokarte says, trying to calm them down and instructing her subordinates to serve coffee to everyone.
"Yes, this isn't the time to be furthering self-interests. This is what we know. The rumors are true. Islands are crashing left and right." the older man says firmly, addressing those who were arguing.
After hearing the old man's firm voice, they stop fighting and sat back in their chairs.
They discuss what they knew about the catastrophe they were experiencing.
After sharing the information they had, they discover that other skydoms were experiencing the same thing.
"A trusted contact and scholar had informed me that the cataclysms began when the tetra-elements went haywire." one of them said.
The tetra-elements are comprised of Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth.
They continued sharing their information until they agreed to spread the word to all the islands and empires.
"Then I'll relay today's information to the Skyfarers." Sierokarte says to them.
"Excellent. If by any chance you know of a trustworthy crew that can secure evacuation routes, that would help as well." the older man says to everyone.
"Of course. I just need to reach the Grandcy—" Sierokarte began, but suddenly they all hear a voice.
"And what if those people were the cause of the cataclysms?"
They all turn toward the voice and see an individual wearing a hooded cloth that concealed their face suddenly appear there.
They also noticed they were carrying a blue sword on their back.
"Huh? We're in the middle of a meeting. Where are the security guards?" the older man asks, surprised by the sudden appearance of a stranger.
"There's no one else here except me." the person says arrogantly.
"Hey, could you fetch me a cup of that coffee? Must've lost my invite, but I've got a seat at your little roundtable too." they say to Sierokarte while pointing at the coffee.
"Who are you?" Sierokarte asks the figure cautiously while looking for a way out.
From the feeling she had, the individual in front of them is extremely dangerous.
"I'm an archangel, a being that inhabits the void between the skies and the heavens. Or so they say." the person said casually while resting their head on their hand.
"Archangel? What is that?"
But the person ignores Sierokarte's question and stood up from their seat, saying, "Okay, I'm calling this meeting to order. Don't worry! I'll keep it simple. The time for judgment has come. I wanted to do this as quickly as possible."
They then stare sharply at all of them, and soon red particles of light began to form beside them, merging into something with wings.
When the light faded, they see what had appeared.
It was a green orb surrounded by three red crystals, with wings and a halo above it.
[IMAGE]
"What do you think?" they ask them after the creature they summoned appeared.
"Is that a monster? It looks different from the usual monsters we see!" the older man says while staring at the creature.
Then the hooded individual snapped their fingers, and the creature fired a quick red laser that hit everyone, including Sierokarte.
"Ahhhhh!!!" "Yaaargh!" They all scream and start collapsing one by one.
But Sierokarte, thanks to her agility, only got grazed on her shoulder and managed to dodge at the last moment.
"There's a back door over here that leads to the soldiers' quarters! We can ask them for backup—!" the older man shouted while trying to stop his bleeding.
"Thanks for the coffee. I must say this is pretty good." the person said with a smile, then drew their sword which began to glow with a white light that filled the entire room.
Sierokarte who is on the floor after falling from the monster's attack, could only mutter while watching everything happen, "Vyrn... Lyria... Gran..."
Then everything became really bright and suddenly everything went dark.
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
###
On a small island called Zinkenstill, despite the widespread panic and incidents on other islands, everything here remained calm.
Since Zinkenstill rarely sees visitors, its residents are completely unaware of the events unfolding elsewhere. They continued their daily routines as usual.
However, in a certain part of Zinkenstill, three lights appeared in the sky. Shortly after the lights vanish and three people start falling from the sky.
"Kyaaaaa!!!" Orchid screams while clutching Rei whose eyes are closed.
"Rei, wake up!!!" Lyria shouts in panic, hitting Rei to wake him up as they fall rapidly.
With no time to summon a Primal Beast to help, Lyria could only hit Rei hard to try to wake him up.
Fortunately, her efforts were not in vain, as Rei opens his eyes and realizes what is happening.
But before he could process what is going on with the three of them, he quickly realizes they were falling and were about to hit the ground.
"What the—!!!" Rei immediately hugged Lyria and Orchid and using his wings to try to fly.
Unfortunately, it was too late. Although he managed to alter their fall slightly, they still crash into some trees on their path.
*Boooommm* Rei tries to shield Lyria and Orchid as they crash through multiple trees.
Eventually, they stop beside a lake.
"Hah… hah... Are you both okay?" Rei asked as he turns to Lyria and Orchid, who were still in his embrace.
"I'm fine..." Lyria says while looking at him.
"Me too..." Orchid replies while checking her doll to make sure she hadn't lost it.
After a moment, they all stand up and dusts off their clothes.
"This place..." Lyria says, gazing at the lake in front of them.
"This is Zinkenstill…" Rei recognizes the place immediately, as it was where Djeeta often brought him to swim after training.
"Zinkenstill is where you live, right Rei? But why are we suddenly here?" Orchid asks while looking around.
"I don't know... But what happened? Didn't we summon Akasha before?" Rei asks them both.
The last thing Rei remembered was Akasha appearing in front of him, and then they suddenly fell from the sky.
"What? You don't remember? There was a girl similar to me who suddenly appeared, said some weird things, and then after snapping her fingers, we ended up here." Lyria answers quickly.
"What!?" Rei was shocked by what Lyria said. If that was true, why did a future version of Lyria appear before them?
"Well, that doesn't really matter now... What are we supposed to do?" Orchid asks.
"Well, Zinkenstill is pretty far from Golonzo Island... —!?" Rei turns around and sees 12 black wings on his back, which made him stop speaking.
"What, 12 wings!? What happened!?"
"Rei? What happened?" Lyria asks when she sees his shocked expression.
"What do you mean?! Don't you see I have 12 wings right now?!" Rei asks in a panic.
"But when you summoned Akasha, you already had 12 wings." Orchid replies looking confused.
"What!?"