The Awakened Quarter of Cabur City was quiet that night.
The stars were a thin streak, as usual, running from north to south. Eight distinct stars shone especially bright, even through all the light pollution of the city of 12 million people.
In the centre of Cabur City, formally designated as City 42, was the First District, which housed the Awakened Quarter, as well as Verta, with it's underground vertical farms, and Centrium, Cabur's wealthiest quarter.
Despite the wealth of Centrium and the importance of Verta in providing food to Cabur and the surrounding villages, only the Awakened Quarter consisting of just eight square blocks, was surrounded by thick concrete and alloy walls.
These massive walls were not meant to protect the inhabitants from the world. They did not exist to keep out Breach Fiends and Awakened Beasts who ripped into the world from sky-towering portals and sought only destruction. These walls served a different purpose; they were to protect the city from the Awakened.
On the south-eastern parapet of the octagonal Awakened Quarter's walls, Senzo Bayne watched the sky with a cohort of young Awakened. His dark skin reflected the light of the blue streetlamps overhead. His dark armour seemed to suck in any remnant light.
By his side sat his girlfriend Tara, with her flaxen-haired head on his shoulder and her hands Intertwined with his. She wore a green mage's robe embroidered with golden thread while numerous charms with valuable gems adorned her fingers and wrists.
Closest to the couple sat the two knights, the Orren sisters. The eldest, Amrah, strummed a lyre while her sister Farrah held a delicate flute to her lips.
The tall and lanky archer, Sorro Wilkes, hopped around the short and broad healer, Charles de Klerk as the two of them imbibed more liqour than necessary or healthy.
The massive tank, Derred Soothe towered all of them in his bright silver armour. His brown face was flushed red from the liquor but his voice remained boisterous as he belted out an off-tune song.
He paused his singing and watched Senzo and Tara. Chuckling, he staggered over to the couple and knelt behind them.
"Oh Sen! You should have seen it! Tara's casting is the only reason we came out alive." He loudly proclaimed. "The lizard beast had four heads, two spat fire and two spat lightning! Amrah couldn't charge in and all I could do was block the lightning. Sorro, Haha, Sorro nearly shit himself when the beast began targeting him."
Sorro, hearing his name mentioned, felt compelled to defend himself. "Hey, you big troll. You know my Aspect has low defense. And at least I entered the main chamber, Charlie-boy was wounded and our best Knight had to babysit him."
Charles just chuckled drunkenly until Amrah raised her voice to defend herself, "Farrah is the best defensive knight, just to be clear. I beat her in 6 out of 10 spars."
The sound of a flute clunking over Amrah's head ellicited laughter from the group.
Sen smiled and looked to Tara. "I guess she had the right spells to counter the Hydra-type?"
Charles ambled over and laughed, "Did she ever! She must have cast a hundred Ice Pillars. I had to break like a ton of ice to pull out the Soul Ember from the corpse."
Amrah scoffed and stopped playing her lyre. She flicked her wrist and the lyre disappeared in a shower of cyan sparks that led to her navel.
"Don't get me started on the scales." She said, "The hide was absolutely demolished, we only managed to make a profit because the extra skulls were intact."
"Hey," said Derred, "We made it out, that's what's important. And we wouldn't have made it out if it wasn't for Tara. So here's a toast, to Tara!"
He raised his bottle, Charles and Sorro mirrored him with a theirs. Amrah and Farrah did not drink and opted to simply say, "Hear Hear."
Tara blushed deep red when Senzo placed a kiss on her hair.
"You're all corny, you know that, right?" She said, embarrassed. "I just did what I had to to save my friends. Plus, if Sen where there, he would have demolished it in a second."
Senzo chuckled, "Well you know I'm only D-Rank. I would have had to rely on my B-Grade armour, so it wouldn't have really been my win. You did that with just your Soul Strength."
Tara giggled and kissed Senzo sheepishly on the cheek. "Well if you put it like that, I guess I am awesome." She said.
Senzo reciprocated by kissing her lightly on the lips.
"Gods, you two are sickening." Charles said, fake gagging.
Farrah whacked him over the head with her knuckle. "Well I think it's sweet." She said sweetly, "Real love."
Charles rubbed his scalp while grimacing. He summoned the Awakened System and activated his healing Ability.
A neon green light suffused his head, soothing his mild pain.
"Wasteful." Farrah remarked as she rolled her eyes
"Why?" Charles said, grinning. "We're in the middle of Cabur, it's not as if there's any dange–"
In that instant a bright flash of light illuminated the sky. The illumination quickly bled into the heavens, turning the late night reminiscent of early dawn.
Each of the cohort summoned their weapons, believing one of the random Breach Portals had opened to one of the distant stars filled with monsters and terrors.
Sparks of light, in many different colours, coalesced into spears, swords, halberds and bows.
"Contact Home Base." Senzo said as a long black blade formed in his hands, absorbing the light around it. "Ask them what the fuck is going on!"
Before any of the cohort could establish contact, their Awakened Systems along with the Systems of every Awakened, on the planet and off-world, began flashing in incomprehensible text.
Words and numbers randomly scrolled before the eyes of every transcendent individual, from the lowly F-Ranks working in the Beast Farms and Ember Factories, to the Seven highest SS-Ranks who had all teleported to the highest building of Fedrar City, designated City One.
Finally, after many seconds of confusion, the sky grew dark once more, and the Awakened System synchronised in verbally and visually delivering a unique Message.
[CONGRATULATIONS!]
[ HAS SLAIN THE GODLING TY-DORO]
[THE SECOND GATE HAS SHATTERED!]
[DIMENSIONAL PASSAGE SUCCESSFUL!]
Every Awakened across the globe was puzzled at the message, but even more so at the ecstatic tone of the usually monotone System voice.
[MAGES!]
[THE MILLENNIA-MAGUS SYSTEM HAS EXPIRED]
[IT HAS BEEN A PLEASURE TO SERVE YOU.]
[MAY MONERA HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOULS]
[Goodbye! <3 ]
At those emotionally delivered words, a sharp spike of pain struck the minds and souls of every Awakened. From the highest to the lowest, they suffered excruciating pain.
Only the most powerful or the most ancient of Awakened felt what was amiss; centuries old masters wept as what felt like a layer of their very souls was peeled off their being.
They were the fortunate ones. They were strong enough that their souls were cohesive wholes, capable of maintaining stable form. Or they were mentally resilient enough to keep their explosive core identities compacted.
Many of the spiritually weaker Awakened simply popped like bubbles filled with crimson liquid as the layer that contained their explosive Soul Strength abruptly disappeared.
A guttural and animalistic scream pierced the night when Amrah popped and covered each of her companions with blood and gore. Most of it landed on her sister who had moved beside her.
Her twin sister's voice was scraped raw when she screamed at the sight of the inexplicable death.
Before the cohort could process Amrah's passing, Charles burst like a rotten melon, adding another layer of horror onto the traumatised young Awakened.
Senzo shared a desperate look with Tara. He discarded his sword to the side and held her in his arms. Before it reached the ground, the sword broke into purple sparks and retreated into Senzo's navel.
The normally seamless dispulsion took several seconds longer than usual, but none of the cohort noticed in their frenzy.
Senzo ran his hands through Tara's hair as she wept "We're okay. We're going to be oka—",
The words died in his mouth as he saw her skull deform. His scream for her name was echoed by Derred, but Senzo's ended with the bitter taste of Tara's brain in his mouth and shards of her bone puncturing his face.
Senzo froze with his arms seemingly hugging the air that was once the love of his short life.
He had known Tara for six years. A fulll third of the 18 he had been alive.
Now, she stained his face and hands and left an acrid taste on his mouth.
A joke.
It must all be a joke!
Yes! Exactly! Just a joke!
Senzo began to laugh even as parts of Amrah, Charles, and Tara dripped from his kinky-curled hair.
His laughter was mad and desperate.
Somehow in the middle of it, he had ended up knelt on the ground. He snickered and guffawed at the sudden and random nature of this particular joke.
He did not know who had made it, but their humour must have been particularly sadistic and skewed.
Such a person must have been so strange, strange enough that the only way to comprehend them was through the lens of pure madness.
The thought of going mad led Senzo to giggle.
A clear smack struck Derred's cheek and Senzo found himself roused from his triapse on the edge of insanity.
In the periphery of his vision he saw Sorro and Fetma hoist a disorientated Derred to his feet. The towering giant swayed before steeling his gaze at Senzo's direction.
Senzo found the threatening gaze confusing, until he realised it was aimed behind him.
«What is behind me?» He sluggishly thought.
Soon, his sparse combat training and rarely used reflexes kicked in, allowing him to clumsily activate his B Grade armour and roll towards his mentally battered comrades.
He stopped his roll and spun to his feet. What he saw then, shook his already fragile mind.
The creature before the remnants of the cohort was Divine.
It was an ethereal entity, a massive creature with a powerful head reminiscent of a lion's. Its mane was golden-white fire that trailed all the way down its spine and terminated on its magnificent wings.
Ten wings in total, with four wrapped around its humanoid body and six gently flapping through the wind, allowing the entity to float over the ramparts of the Awakened Quarter's south-eastern wall.
The creature was a Fiend. Though none of the cohort had ever faced one of the varied beings from beyond the Veil of reality, they knew this in their souls. They knew this the way all apes knew to fear falling, or all flames knew to fear the ocean.
It was simply natural to know.
Amongst the cohort, Farrah was the first to master her instinctual awe and speak: her voice brimmed with anger and shock.
"Was it one of you!? Did one of you Fiends cause this... this tragedy. Did you cause the System to abandon us... killing us?"
The golden-white, radiant Fiend quirked its head to the side. Its brilliant light ebbed and pulsed before shutting off completely, revealing skin that seemed to be a perfect meld of organic and metallic.
The creature continued to float quietly until Farrah and the cohort became convinced it was incapable of answering, when it finally did.
The Fiend answered in a voice that was not a voice as much as it was pure knowledge hummed in a tune that minds had no choice but to break down exactly as the hummer intended.
"A Fiend did not directly break the Second Gate. It was merely chance that a stone cast millennia back, rippled into Ty-Doro being foolish enough to fall to the man, Azure of Clan Jian."
Its wings stopped flapping, but it remained aloft and stared directly at Farrah.
"Your one answer has been provided. Leave."
Though the final command was easily delivered, its impact was startling. Farrah simply vanished in a flurry of golden-white flames.
"You bastard! You bastard! Did you just kill her!?" Sorro screamed madly.
The Fiend's leonine face managed to convey puzzlement. "Is that how you seek to use your question?"
"What?" Sorro asked, understanding yet to dawn on him.
Nodding, the Fiend spoke. "I did not kill Farrah Orren. I took her to where she will be most safe and most comforted. And after this night ends, nothing in this world can kill her. The same is true for you too, Sorro Wilkes." it turned its head to Derred Soothe, "and you Trystane son of Fazwyn."
Sorro barely had the time to sputter as the Fiend declared.
"Your one answer has been provided. Leave."
The Fiend's flames consumed Sorro, leaving only air in their wake.
The young man Senzo knew only as Derred stepped forward resolutely.
"You said no Fiend had a direct hand in this." he gestured to his surroundings with a cold expression, "Who is the Fiend you know to have had the strongest indirect influence in this outcome?"
Derred's eyes ran over the puddles that were previously Amrah and Charles, but he conspicuously skipped over the puddle that was Tara.
The Fiend nodded slowly. "The Fiend most responsible for all of this is the Ever-Burning Servant of the War God, Hallanderis. It is he who was crafted in the last embers of Iera's Starwomb and doused in the final dredges of Munel's life-giving semen. Jurra, who Serves only the Dead-God Hallanderis who is the Bastard Son of Life and Consumption."
Pausing, the Fiend seemed to scrutinise Derred, as if challenging him.
"I am he, he is me." The Fiend, Jurra, declared.
Derred cursed and began to growl. Before Senzo's eyes, Derred began to grow larger, and grey scales grew to cover his flesh. His form elongated and great tusks protruded from his mouth.
He lunged at the Fiend Jurra, but had barely taken a step when the outer dimensional creature spoke.
"Your one answer has been provided. Leave."
The orange flames about to be ejected from Derred's mouth seemed like a match beside the sun when the Fiend's own gold-white flames absorbed Derred's draconic body.
Senzo strongly doubted his sanity by the time only he and the Fiend Jurra remained standing on the ramparts.
The sudden shocks began to numb his senses as he remained face to face with the entity before him.
No! As Senzo's mind began to steadily reorient itself, it became clear that the Fiend did not stand face-to-face with him.
In fact, it towered over him, standing with one foot touching either side of the low railings of the city wall.
NO!
Each foot actually touched a different hemisphere of the globe, with the Fiend bursting through the atmosphere.
NO!
The Fiend was only marginally taller than the relatively short Senzo. In fact, the Fiend looked almost dimunitive.
Senzo clutched his head as the various interpretations of what should have been a simple 3 Dimensional entity.
The Fiend was from beyond Reality, space bowed to it, making consciousness incapable of comprehending it fully.
Senzo laughed madly as it began to make sense. This twisted Fiend named Jurra was He who had made this joke. Jurra was powerful enough to be the sadistic and mad ruler of reality.
Blood from his friends and the love of his life dripped over Senzo as he spoke to the Fiend, asking his one question.
"You! Jurra who serves War, Hallanderis. How do I kill you!? How do I pull you from your pedestal and crush you beneath my feet."
Senzo asked the question aware that the Fiend would likely never answer, and was instead likelier to crush him like an ant for his insolence.
This was, to him, the second best option. Second to Jurra's being bound to some divine contract or misplaced moral superiority and actually giving him an answer.
The Fiend, however, did neither of those things. Instead it began to circle Senzo, an act that found the young Awakened once more disorientated by the None 3 Dimensional nature of Jurra the Fiend.
After several long and awkward moments, Senzo stuttered out; "I-I said, HOW DO I—"
"Shh." The Fiend said simply, apparently focused on mindless day dreaming and looping around Senzo.
When it had completed its final rotation, the Fiend spoke to itself.
"Aah, that's why. The blood of a Conquerer. So Profaned and Venerated that it has affixed itself to the entire bloodline. The potency is due to his status. He is the last son who still bears the name, unbroken. Interesting. Very Interesting."
The Fiend's lionly eyes refocused on Senzo's face.
It took a single step forward and suddenly it was close enough for its fingers to brush his skin.
" I will not tell you how to kill me, instead I will give you the tool to do it. Yes, that could be considered an answer... of sorts."
As the Fiend said these words, purple sparks tinted with golden-white fire were pulled from Senzo's navel.
A wickedly sharp black longsword appeared in the Fiend Jurra's massive hand.
It was the same longsword Senzo had dispelled into his Soul Core.
With an almost effortless insertion, the black blade plunged into Senzo's heart.
"A Conqueror's Bloodline is fit for the Conqueror's Will. You will make a great carrier, I believe in you, fully."
The Fiend's face remained calm as it gently laid Senzo's bleeding form onto the ramparts.
Senzo did not weep as he died, in fact a frantic clarity shrouded him.
As he watched the thin strip of sky that ran from North to South, he saw a new addition in the heavenly oasis.
There, between the stars Vasa and Coixin, a new star had risen; a Ninth Star.