The 5 Year long journey: Final

Warning:

From here on out there will be scenes although not too explicit, will show some dark things.

As in the previous chapter where I gave a warning.

So please keep this in mind that I only write these scenes to add more context to this world.

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"Everyone has something they will never share, a dark secret. But the thing is, one way or another it will always somehow come out. The question is though when that day finally comes, what will you do?"

In an unknown time and location:

"So, the time has finally come? Seems like all those old monsters are awake. I wonder what their next plan of action will be?" whispered a mysterious-sounding voice in a dark void.

Location: Unending Primal Forest

Time: Year 15 of the Era of Change

Era: Era of Change

Somewhere deep in the Unending Primal Forest, there was an unprecedented number of animals of all kinds gathered.

There were so many different types of animals that filled this location of the forest that it would take a very long time to count all these animals.

Although even though there were so many animals gathered in one location, no sound could be heard, other than the occasional wind and the beating of the animals, nothing else could be heard.

If one looked closely enough one could see that the uncountable number of animals had formed an extremely large and wide circle.

In the centre of this circle, there was a large open area. In this area, were many large ponds. At these ponds, some various large boulders and trees surrounded the water. They all had a certain golden glow to them.

At the centre of this beautiful environment, stood many majestic deer. They too had a slight golden glow in their eyes that shined with majesty.

Their fur also radiated an ancient and powerful aura. As if to truly signify their magnificence, they had large silver shining horns that had a deep, purifying feeling to them.

Yet at the front of these deer, there was one that outshone them all. His eyes shined with golden splendor and majesty, so much so that the other deer eyes seemed like little lights compared to this deer's eyes.

His fur compared to the others, had archaic golden lines on them. These lines had a powerful and mysterious feel to them, which made others feel very attracted to them.

Additionally, the horns of this deer compared to the others was pure white. No blemish could be seen, they shined and glowed like stars illuminating everything in its presence.

Seeing that all those he had sent out returned with many other new and different tribes, the leading deer smiled and spoke with a majestic voice:

"Welcome my subjects to the "Anointed Forest", today is the day that shall be remembered for ages.

For this is the day something truly great shall happen," as the leading deer said this every animal started kneeling.

As they were then all in a kneeling position, the animals in unison shouted and cheered one name loudly, so loud that the earth around them shook and trembled,

"Beast King!!!"

"Beast King!!!!"

As this was happening the leading deer known as the beast king smiled.

The beast king did not know why he was chosen nor what the purpose was of creating this empire, but what he knew was that once they had a stable foundation, their empire would be unshakeable, and then there would be nothing in stopping him to find out the truth behind everything.

Unbeknownst to all the other animals including the beast king, there were a certain number of animals with a solemn expression. One of these animals was the ancestor Brutus.

The other animals were the other ancestors and their fellow tribe members.

Even though they didn't speak, one could see that these ancestors were somehow conversing with each other, without anyone else noticing, and as they spoke with each other about what to do about this new king of theirs, Brutus smiled maliciously and said to them:

"For now we shall follow this "king" of ours, and one day, when the opportunity arises, we shall see who will lead the beast-people...him and his tribe, or our clan." Following this the ancestors and all their tribe members became silent.

This marked the beginning of the first empire to appear in this era, although it would not be the last.

Somewhere else in the Unending Primal Forest:

In a dark and ominous hall, where no light was able to be seen, and only dreadful and silent darkness was to be felt. A raspy voice spoke:

"My patience number 175 runs thin! You know what happened to the previous numbers who failed me, no?

The only reason you are alive is that you recently reported on having a clue regarding the egg. Now, tell me everything about what you have found, otherwise...number 176 will be the next one to be standing in front of me." As this was said, a gulp could be heard and a fearful voice then spoke:

"Yes my lord as you command, I..." as the voice spoke, one could hear the fear and terror in the man's voice.

For his Lord was an extremely cruel person, who didn't hesitate in killing those who were not useful. Creating enormous pressure on his followers, fearing for every moment of their lives.

Location: River of Greed

Time: Year 15 of the Era of Change

Era: Era of Change

"Oye!!! you sad excuse for a master!! Where are you hiding!!!

Don't think that I won't beat you for that prank you pulled!!

Damn it!!! You better pray I don't find you anytime soon old man, otherwise...hehe!!!" said Temarr with an evil smile while chuckling.

As Temarr said this, he continued searching for his master in the surrounding area, not knowing his master was hiding not very far away. His master had hidden under a small boulder that had a little opening.

The opening itself was covered by a lot of vegetation making it seem from the outside that there was nothing below this small boulder.

As the old man carefully heard his disciple moving away in the opposite direction to where he was, the man took a deep breath and smiled.

"Hehe...little bastard, you think I didn't know you would want to beat me after that prank?

Hmph!!! This old dog still has a few tricks left in his arsenal, before he would fall to someone like you," thought the old man with a proud expression.

Sadly though, this didn't last, as the old man noticed the boulder that had shielded him was suddenly gone.

As the old man slowly turned around, he saw his disciple kindly smiling at him.

"Hehe...now my sweat and dear disciple, you wouldn't dare want to hurt this old man, right?" asked the old man with a nervous smile.

"Ah, my dear master! How worried I was! I thought I would never find you!

Now...why don't you come here and let me "help" you master.

Your body must be getting so stiff from old age, I would gladly help you "loosen" some of those stiff muscles!" threatened Temarr with a glowing smile.

"Uh..my sweet disciple, there is no need for you to do that, I'll be fine!!!" replied the old man with a panicky expression as he prepared himself to escape in any way he could.

"Ah...don't worry master I insist!!!" as Temarr said this, he ran to his master with an even brighter smile.

Following this, agonising screams of pain could be heard, accompanied by cheerful laughter.

Location: The Village of Springsteen

Time: Year 15 of the Era of Change

Era: Era of Change

Close to the ever-flowing and extremely large River of Greed, there was a once flourishing and large village.

This village was once extremely beautiful and magnificent, it even showed the potential in one day becoming a sprawling city.

Yet that was all in the past, for this once grand village was currently being raised to the ground. Fires could be seen all over the village. Buildings were falling apart, and the ground was becoming ashen black.

The screams of terror and torment could be heard from the citizens of this village. They had been tied up and brutally beaten by their captors, who carried out their deeds with malicious expressions.

All the citizens were weeping in grief as their home had been destroyed. They also cried for those they lost. The old and the weak were left to burn. Their excruciating screams could still be heard.

As the captured citizens heard this, they sobbed and shrieked even more, as they couldn't do anything to save them.

As their captors saw this they laughed and spat at the citizens in glee. For they were the strong and the weak had no choice but to suffer.

"Hehe...there are some very beautiful women here! I don't think the overseers would mind if we take some samples, he?" rasped a tall and muscular man with a face that looked like that of a toad with an excited expression.

As the other captors heard this, they all smiled in excitement as well and looked at the woman with lustful gazes. 

"I dare you to!

Let's see what the overseers say when they find out you touched their valuable products." threatened a man with a green mohawk.

"Peh...Vice-captain! You always have to ruin the fun don't you!!" said the toad faced looking man with irritation.

"Oh...then go ahead!!! Try it!! I just hope you don't expect the captain and the rest of us to defend you guys who couldn't control yourselves!" announced Colin with a provocative smile.

"You-!!! Fine! Boys, let's just bring them to the ship! We'll leave them alone for now!" called the toad faced looking man to the other men next to him, as he started dragging some of the captured citizens back to their ship.

"Sigh...Colin you know you just made them hate you, even more right?" asked the Captain as they came down from the ship.

"Captain...I...I have already given up so much of myself to survive in this world, I at least want to keep the last things I have left of what makes me human," answered Colin bitterly as he looked off into the distance.

As the captain heard this, he looked at Colin with a sad expression, while shaking his head.

For he knew Colin was too soft and wouldn't have survived that long if it were not for him. Colin was like a son to him, he had taken care of and raised him in the last ten years.

So, it wasn't very hard for him to see how Colin was struggling with a lot of thoughts and emotions.

"Let's get back to the ship. We have enough slaves to meet the quota of the main overseer.

Prepare the crew to return to the harbour." as the captain said this he slowly walked back to the ship.

Hearing this Colin sighed and shook his head preparing himself for the tasks he had to do.

Location: Foundation Faction Supply Base 34 H

Time: Year 15 of the Era of Change

Era: Era of Change

In an extremely large metal square holding, there was currently an intense battle underway. Around this battle there were thousands of corpses lying around. 

Most of the corpses wore red armour and had simply enhanced steel blades. Some of the other corpses had a huge difference in what they wore and the equipment they used.

Those left battling were no more than only 20 people.

Twelve in the red armour, which had a grey pattern on the armour.

Their weapons were enhanced steel blades, that had a certain white glow to them.

These men were the overseers of the Foundation Faction Supply Base 34 H.

Under the Foundation Faction, there were thousands of supply bases across the Unending Primal Forest, for the Unending Primal Forest was so large, that it seemed as if there was no end to it.

Because of its size, the Foundation Faction had spread out many Supply Bases in the areas they had explored, to continuously monitor the Unending Primal Forest.

The forest was very dangerous, and multiple times extremely dangerous beings had come from the forest giving the Foundation Faction many problems.

The biggest problem was though, was that even though there were many Supply Bases, they were extremely far from each other, making communication between them very difficult and slow.

The rebellious organisation used this to their advantage.

 This organisation was called the "Awakening of Freedom".

They had struck and destroyed so many bases of the Foundation Faction, that before the Faction could react, they had already lost ⅗ of their Supply Bases.

The Foundation Faction was enraged by this, but due to the disastrous earthquakes and explosions across all their areas, they had limited manpower to spare, to take down this ragtag organisation.

There were many other factions and organisations that also wished to destroy them.

The Unending Primal Forest was a mostly unexplored region, while the areas to the South of it although also extremely large and almost without end, were at least not as unknown as the Unending Primal Forest.

As the overseers thought about this, they couldn't help but become even more furious and strike back with all that they had at the enemies in front of them.

They had lost all their subordinates in the Supply Base and had no way of contacting the headquarters for reinforcements. If they didn't win here, they would die.

While thinking this, before the overseers could react a red beam materialised and cut through 8 of the overseers, effectively killing them.

"Hahaha!!! I would recommend you not to get distracted!" gloated the leader of the rebels.

This man had a ruby red armour on that glowed with a bloody aura. In his hands was a massive blood-red pickaxe that was able to smash anything that it touched.

"You-!!!" just as the other overseers wanted to reply, the other rebels attacked and quickly killed them.

"Phillip!!! This is no time to play around!" rebuked one of the rebels that were female with a furious expression.

"Sheesh...Tiana... I was just having a bit of fun! But fine, you're right! We can have fun later!

Get the 10th battalion to come and get anything they can from this base before we go to our next destination," ordered Philip with a serious expression.

"Ugh...now you're serious!" said Tiana with a not too happy expression.

"Of course! Why can't I have fun with my fellow knights?" answered Phillip while chuckling.

Hearing this the other rebels rolled their eyes at Phillip while smiling.

These rebels were the other crowned knights that led the rebellion with Phillip.

They all had different types of armour and weapons. Some held swords, spears, bows, and many other weapons they had gotten from the bases they had looted.

The knights themselves were also not all human, 2 of the knights were lion beast-people.

While one of them was a plant-based female humanoid. The other knights were human.

The crowned knights had 5 men and 5 women in their ranks. Currently, at this base, there were 3 men and 5 women.

Tiana was the most beautiful of the group of women, she had lush golden hair and a voluptuous body that left little to the imagination.

She and Phillip had a relationship that they thought they had kept hidden from the others pretty well, unknown to them through, most of the organisation knew it, and were gossiping about it.

If they knew, they would be very embarrassed, for they thought they were very smart in having hidden their relationship from the others.

Tiana was around 28 years old, although her appearance was much younger, and she looked like she was in her early 20s.

Most men and women in this era were the same, as their aging had slowed down to the point where they almost didn't age anymore.

Phillip had undergone a huge change these last few years. His appearance had become even wilder than before. His hair had now grown to his shoulders, which made him seem like a striking barbarian. His physique had also become more refined compared to previously. 

All the strength he gained, was expanding his physique and he was becoming more compact and constrained, becoming even stronger in the process.

Philips's mentality had also changed since his first battle in the canyons. After he had that first battle, Phillip had become more ruthless and reckless, which concerned his comrades greatly.

Phillip assured his friend he had it under control, and that nothing would come in their way to eradicating the Foundation Faction.

For it would still be a very long and hard battle before the Foundation Faction would be destroyed.

Thinking of this Phillip smiled and walked to the corpses of the overseers to get the spoils of the battle.

Seeing this the other knights did the same because currently, they had to make do with whatever they could find.

Unbeknownst to them though, someone had survived and was escaping. And through this happening, something entirely unexpected would happen for both the faction and the rebel organisation.

Location: Underground Mining Area 50-G

Time: Year 15 of the Era of Change

Era: Era of Change

In most of the tunnels, everyone except Steven, his group, and a few others had died. These tunnels were overrun by an Unending number of grotesque monsters.

Some had millions of spiders all rushing in a certain direction, while one tunnel just had one cute little puppy slowly walking in the same direction.

They were all heading to the surface. In one of the tunnels, there were still a few people left alive.

This group was that of the strange-looking man, they had suffered heavy casualties, yet they didn't give up, for the moment they did they would die.

Knowing this, the group continued to push themselves until they would reach the surface, for they all had a strong drive to survive.

On the other hand, Stevens group other than the 5 people that died the previous year, still were mostly fine. The atmosphere compared to the first group was much better.

They had much more enthusiasm and energy. This was mostly due to Steven as he had recovered from the losses of those they had lost, and once more brought life back into the group.

Moreover, they had gained one additional member on their way to the surface.

It was a very injured, dirty, and disfigured woman. They had found her when she was in a near-death state.

The group wanted to leave her where she was and carry on, but because of Steven insisting they take her with the group, he had no choice but to pick her up and take her with them.

The woman continuously woke up and passed out on their way, for she was in a very poor condition.

Therefore, because it was Steven's idea and as a punishment of the group, Steven was told to carry her most of the time.

Steven wasn't exactly happy about this, for even though he now had a strong physique, compared to the others it was nothing.

He often had to take breaks and rest, for his stamina just couldn't compare to those who had changed, especially where he now had to carry a woman on his back.

Steven was regularly made fun of and teased because of this, which in turn kept the mood of the group in a positive direction.

The mood of the group was also very positive because according to Xiang their self-proclaimed "Leader", they were extremely close to the surface.

Thinking of finally reaching their destination after so many years, the group couldn't help but get excited.

But if they knew what awaited them at the surface, the group wouldn't be excited about what was to come.

Following this, another year passed, and the journey they had all been on, was concluding.

And as they ended this chapter of their journey, a new one was already unfolding, making sure the future would never be the same