1 The Greatest Disciple?
The sun had long since set past twilight. Blackness swallowed the stars, the shapes of clouds but a shade brighter than ink. Looking closely, one might chance upon a stray twinkle within the cluster of grey altocumulus clouds. Far and wide, fog veiled the surrounding bushes along with the trees, who'd long since ripped through the blanket of white and amalgamated into the night. The only illumination lay past the forest of flowing fog. As it spilled over the edges of the boundless chasm, the fog was lit red, light shining from below.
The chasm had existed for millennia and the few names of those who had ventured within fit on a single gravestone, drowned in fog, near the drop off.
Resisting the fiery haze, a silhouette stood on a protrusion of the precipice, his lonely gaze mirrored by the depths below. His outline was still, but his right hand shifted slightly, clenching occasionally.
As smoothly as the fog poured, a second figure emerged on the crimson edge. A purple glow exuded from two crystal stars embroidered on his chest. He was bulkier than the silhouette on the precipice, and walked with slight apprehension, as if in the back of his mind he was afraid the man would leap into the chasm. However, his unbroken stride displayed apparent confidence.
"Hahaha!" Hoarse laughter thundered forth over the abyss and silhouette, along with those still shrouded in the forest. Dozens of people clad in black cloaks hid within the veil of fog, having claimed their spots amongst the bushes and trees, awaited their signal to strike.
"Give it up, Ruen." The bulky figure crossed his arms above the fog and gazed at Ruen with slight contempt.
"My brothers and I have you surrounded. You may be the most talented disciple from the Echelon, but against all of us, even you will suffer a loss today."
From the very edge of the precipice, Ruen casually turned to look at the figure before him. He swatted the air, spawning a whirlwind which dispersed the fog in the immediate area. A middle aged man stood with arms crossed and head held up high, showing off his two crystal purple stars proudly. Ruen's stare panned past him, and as if blind to the fog, traced the figures hidden amongst the trees. He sighed and turned back towards the chasm that blocked his path.
"I have been tasked with guarding this bead before even my life. As someone who lives a righteous and straightforward life, I will never waive this responsibility," Overlooking the chasm, his right hand gently gripped the Founders Bead; Seeming untrapped, he mused the mysteries of the chasm.
Seeing that his small provocation didn't get much of a reaction, the middle aged man laughed dryly.
"Very good, but I'm telling you now, if that bead doesn't end up in my hands soon, then leaving in one piece would be a pipe dream." He motioned with his hand.
"Men, get in position."
Leaves crunched and rustled as more than 20 figures were revealed. Each postured more viciously than the last. Stars could be seen embroidered on the chest of all their cloaks.
"Wait."
A word, hardly an echo of a whisper, and the group's movement ceased at once.
"Ah!" The middle aged man with 2 purple stars instantly dropped to his knees.
The 20 or so others who saw their leader drop to his knees also followed suit.
"S-Senior Munru!"
A man, looking to be in his late 30s appeared from behind a tall tree. He wore a white robe with 3 purple stars embroidered on it. Near the collar of the robe was a symbol in the shape of a four leaf clover. He looked flawless, save for a dark red cut, as thin as a needle from his right eye down to his neck and into the depths of his robe.
Ruen looked back and furrowed his brow at the white robe.
"What is an Orion elder doing here? Shouldn't you be guarding the Obelisk?"
Elder Munru merely smiled at this inquiry.
"With the emergence of Cota Nomida's crystal bead, the Obelisk can wait." He said flatly, making his way to stand slightly in front of the middle aged man with 2 purple stars.
"The Orion sure are bold, one less elder managing the Obelisk could make for one less genius found to enter into your ranks."
"That is true," as elder Munru spoke he noticed the fog was starting to reappear.
"But if our organization can get ahold of that bead in your possession, the strength of our forces could potentially multiply."
Hearing what this elder Munru had to say, Ruen knew that the Orion had probably borrowed the power of the Obelisk to track down the aura of the founders bead to locate him. Other than the Obelisk, no other treasure could have that capability. Escape the Obelisk? If it wants to find you, you can only be found.
Ruen eyed elder Munru, then looked at the hazy force of black cloaked assassins further in the back and laughed lightly.
"You lot may have tracked me down with the power of the Obelisk, but I know that each time you use its power it will need more and more time to recharge," He spread out his arms "How much longer will it take to recharge? Here's a different question; how far away are we from Orion's headquarters? For the Obelisk to find me way out here, millions upon millions of miles away on this lesser plane, I can only imagine the price you had to pay."
Elder Munru's eyes narrowed.
"Here's one more thing." Ruen's hand gently touched the ring on his left hand and a Talisman came out bearing a four square symbol.
Upon the emergence of this talisman, elder Munru's eyes widened into saucers.
"T-That's the Echelon's Galaxy talisman!" He instantly signalled to his followers. "Quick, ATTACK HIM!" His voice was no longer composed like it was earlier as his agitation reached a pinnacle.
"Alright men, get in position to attack!" The purple 2 star leader stood up and pointed at Ruen.
Ruen, who already expected this development placed two fingers on the face of the talisman and activated it using his elemental energy. A rift formed, large enough to fit one person, but was collapsing rapidly. It seemed the talisman needed a large supply of elemental energy to activate and it was a steep prospect to think Ruen could activate it alone.
Without any delay, Ruen jumped in and by the time the assassins and elder Munru reached the rift, it was too small for any of them to enter without risking fatal injury.
"F*CK! To think this kid had a Galaxy talisman!" The purple 2 star leader cried out and punched a boulder, causing it to shatter into pieces.
Elder Munru also had a bitter look on his face, but he quickly covered it up and said,
"This was outside of our expectations. Our intel spoke of the Echelon having used up their last Galaxy Talisman decades ago. Seems we were mistaken, the last one was just used…"
The black cloaked assassins all nodded their heads.
"I will report this to my superiors, you all will await commands from me in the future. Orion will get our hands on that bead in due time!" With that said, he disappeared from that spot in a hazy mist as if he was never there in the first place.
Seeing the capabilities of an Orion elder up close, the assassin leader shuddered a bit before recollecting himself.
"Alright men, you heard him, let's head back to our hideout, we can't let another defeat like this happen again!"
"RIGHT!" they all shouted simultaneously.
____________________________________________________________________________
At a faraway place, in a faraway galaxy.
There was a time when all of the continents on planet Sigmon flourished. Despite being the largest of them, Striyora alone had decayed to a mere husk of it's brilliant past. Over the course of a thousand or so years, the land of Striyora had taken a turn for the worst. From space, the entire continent looked scarred, with infertile and dead land etched in black across its entirety. With the land as sick as it is, the growing of crops had become near impossible. If that was all, life might still persevere, but it seemed this part of the world had been forsaken by it's world spirit. Without a world spirit to nourish a continent's land, impurities would overrun it and it's health would decline further and further until nothing on it could survive.
In all of Striyora, a single place was looked down upon by even the poor. Towns where water flowed brown and crops sprouted wilting still consoled themselves with a quiet mantra, at least it's not Coalfell. Coalfell was all mud houses and thatched roofs, with one exception; The School of Initiation was made from fine chiseled stone, decorated with various materials from neighboring villages. Usually in a village like this, the entire village ground would be ran by a village chief, however with the creation of the School of Initiation, the village chief was stripped of his power and privilege and left with only his title. Grasping at any semblance of power, he remained a figurehead for the School to use whenever convenient. With absolute power in their hands they could do whatever they want with the villagers lives.
Currently, the villagers are forced into endless manual labor for little to no remuneration and are treated extremely poorly by those School of Initiation disciples.
"Alright peasants, today I wanna see all these rocks here on this side removed, and those trees there as well, trunks cut and stumps removed. Understand?" He ran one hand through his thick hair, pointing with the other.
A man barely in his twenties stood on a small pedestal overlooking a crowd of child villagers. His curled red hair looked almost like an afro, and his face was full with freckles. He faced the crowd, noting the range of ages, the youngest looked about 8, while the oldest could be, at most, 17. Most of their faces were riddled with dirt and mud from poor living conditions. However, the curliness of this man's hair didn't stop them from nodding their head to his words.
"Good."
The curly haired man was wearing a School of Initiation uniform, which emphasized how proud he was to be disciple from there. The attire resembled a Tai-Chi uniform, except it was dark green in color and had a symbol for Initiation on the back. He also wore a white faint glowing band on his right wrist, symbolizing the School of Initiation acknowledged him as a disciple.
"If you kids don't already know, your old caretaker got promoted so now I'm here to look after you bumpkins," The more he talked, the more spittle flew out of his mouth and onto the crowd below. Some children even had to wipe their face from the bombardment.
"But don't worry, for a single one of you, it's your lucky day!" The moment he said that, he stepped off the small pedestal and picked up a piece of wood that was lying to the side. To the shock of the crowd he unfolded it and sat down. It was a wooden fold-out chair.
"A special one of you will be exempt from chores and shall massage my shoulders and complete other tasks commanded of you." As he spoke he reached into the depths of his uniform and pulled out a silk folding fan and began to fan himself.
Hearing the words of the man in front of them, the crowd of villagers were stunned.
A job that doesn't involve manual labor, oh my god!
It was at that moment, before anyone else could say or do anything, a boy ran forward onto the platform and took a knee near the pedestal right in front of the School of Initiate disciple.
What!? The crowd of kids were taken aback by how fast that kid got up there.
"This lowly one is at your command, master."
Lowly one? Go lowly one your grandpa, I want to be up there!
That was the general thought of the crowd. Working hard each day for countless hours with minimal rest. The rarity of getting a job designated to you that doesn't involve physical labor is one in a million, and for this potential job to show up before them right now, and to even have lost the initiative to get the job because of this kid, just what was happening right now?
The School of Initiate disciple inspected the boy before him. He was garbed in nothing but a ragged gray shirt and brownish shorts with black marks from mud and dirt. His dirty blond hair was relatively long and all over the place while his shoeless feet were half buried in the muddy dirt. The boy knelt there nervously, hoping he didn't bet wrongly that the man before him would recognize the worth of his amazing performance.
"Not bad, you have confidence and potential, alright, what's your name?"
"This humble servant is called Enzo sir."
"Good. From now on you can call me master Chung."
"Master Chung, I am at your command."
Chung smirked at how awesome it felt to be called a master. Ah, how great it is to be a disciple from the School of Initiate! Snapping out of his debauchery, he noticed the village kids were still standing around so he announced,
"Alright, with the lucky one found, the rest of you shall get to work. All teenagers make their way to the rocks and trees, all those who haven't come of age start digging holes for more rainwater to be built up!"
With that said, the kids withdrew one by one. As they left, the regret of being unable to go back in time to fight for a spot to become Chung's servant flooded their minds.
With the area cleared and everyone already off to do their daily chores, Chung glanced at Enzo and reprimanded,
"Why are you still kneeling? Get up!"
"Ah, yes master!" Enzo immediately stood erect with his hands firmly to his sides.
"Heh, although you're young, that just means your moldable. As long as you stay by my side and do a proper job, I could consider teaching you a few things as a bonus."
Hearing that he might have a chance to learn from someone of such high standing, Enzo was elated and his eyes sparkled.
"Hahaha," Chung threw his head back and laughed. It was obvious he had never had a servant nor a disciple before. Just judging by how he looked, he could have easily been someone else's servant not too long ago. Finishing his laughter, he gave Enzo a nonchalant stare as he leaned back further on his fold out chair,
"Alright pipsqueak, your first task won't be too hard. You see, I'm feeling a little thirsty right now, so I'll need you to go fetch my water jug from within my living quarters," As he spoke he fumbled around inside his pocket before pulling out a badge looking object.
"Ah!" Seeing what was pulled out Enzo exclaimed in awe. That's a School of Initiation identity token!
"Haha, seems you already know what this is. That's right, it's my guest identity token. This will allow you to enter into my guest room which is next to my personal room. Trust me, you'll know which room it is when you get there. Take this." He tossed the token to Enzo.
Catching the token, he was able to feel it's smooth exterior. It was his first time feeling something so sleek and polished. The School of Initiation was truly the place with the greatest resources in Coalfell.
"Alright take this map and get going, you have half a day."
