1 The First Millennium

"Testing, testing, one, two, three. Can these bozos even hear me?"

"You're floating half a kilometer in the sky with scampering citizens below you, what do you think, boy?"

"... so that's a no?"

"Fry 'em kid, they're runnin' away!"

Humanity had expected changes, breakthroughs and possibly their own self destruction from trying to create the best world.

But only few minds might have had even a fleeting thought of what the far future was really going to be like.

After a period known as the "Evolution Era", the planet Earth grew in size, the climate turned harsher, laws of nature, brutal to the point where even gravity was five times stronger than pre-evolution period, and of course, the animals were now far more dangerous and weirder than ever.

Among those animals were of course, human beings. But the most noticeable change in the planet, when one looked at the bigger picture, was the way it looked.

Taking a view from outer space, the big blue was now a big blue and purple.

Half of the planet was blue with wide patches of land, while the other vertical half was just a purple version of the first.

There was also a man-made revolving ring, rotating diagonally around the Earth.

The blue hemisphere was where the 'humans' resided, while the purple was for the Animats, aliens that have great resemblance to humans.

The Earth was strange, yes, but it was still home to the peculiar species living in it.

But even more peculiar than the super powered humans, the weird animals and the aliens sharing the planet Earth, was a four way hybrid.

And this hybrid just so happens to be the world's most wanted criminal.

———

Ursalin 5 city was more than the typical advanced cities on the human half of the planet. And this was due to it being one of the cities under a member of the most powerful groups on Earth.

The buildings were tall and had mostly the same white and neon blue colour, the roads were filled with cars and other vehicles.

On the ground, appearing after every one hundred meters apart, were tunnels running across every major road.

Those translucent tunnels were for pedestrians to use to get to the other side of a road with ease.

Vehicles would drive passed the tunnels constantly, but they just went through them and the people in the tunnels like there were no obstructions at all.

Inside one of these tunnels in particular, was a little boy who was staring inquisitively at the sky above, while the various vehicles passed through his body.

"Kyle! What are you doing?" A middle aged woman turned her neck around when she noticed that her child wasn't following her.

Pushing past the crowd moving through the tunnel, she got to the little boy and grabbed his hand. "Let's hurry home now, love."

The woman was about to pull the boy along with her when he suddenly asked a strange question.

"Mommy. Is that a dragon in the sky." He asked in a questioning childish voice.

"You and your wild imagination." The mother laughed.

"It's not summer yet."

The woman thought she'd look up while giving her son a little lecture, but as she did, her jaws didn't close and she was instead, rendered speechless. For far away into the sky WAS the enormous head of a dragon.

But that was it, it was just a head.

However, that didn't make the woman's heart beat any less faster. Because in the center of the dragon's mouth was a ball of charging black flame.

The dragon was incomplete, and it might not have even been real, but in this time and age, anything was possible. So it was better to be ready to run when things took a turn for the worst.

The mother and son's strange reactions naturally arose other people's curiosity. So following their eyes, the headless dragon began to garner more attention.

However, as more and more people looked into the sky, it was like the number of dragon heads were increasing in tandem.

One... Two... Three... Ten... Fifty... Ninety. The numbers didn't stop until there were more than a hundred heads staring down at the ground, ready to unleash their fiery wrath on the puny humans below.

The sun was obscured and the sky was black. It looked as if the world was about to end.

"Core, give us strength." An old woman muttered in fear.

———

"You are really going all out with this one aren't you?"

"It's been two years, so a little welcome back party wouldn't hurt, would it?"

Right below the impending clouds of fiery doom, a man stood straight in the sky, his feet firmly placed as if he was on an invisible surface.

To the panic ladened citizens, this man looked no more than an unimportant black dot in the sky. However, like now, this 'dot' compared to the massive population of Earth, was the only one who could wrought unmatched dread amongst all.

"You're organizing a welcome party for yourself? Tsk tsk, such desperation." A sarcastic voice sounded inside the young adult's head.

The voice spoke with the tone of clear provocation, however, Asher knew exactly what it was thinking.

"Let me out and I'll organize it for you."

That was precisely within the young man's expectations.

"Okay then. If I don't do it right, you help."

"Now you're talking!"

Asher crossed his legs as he sat amongst the clouds. Spreading his arms out in front of him, small black circles appeared and lined up under his palms.

"I've been working on this song for quite a while now..."

Asher stared down at the group of soldiers below, who had come to eradicate the source of the looming threat.

However, they had gotten to Asher when there was only one dragon above his head. Now that there were a few hundreds, they only stood in shock, and it seemed as if the group would crash like a house of cards should they be subjected to even the slightest touch.

And in this case, the touch wasn't slight in the least. As from even very high in the sky, the unfortunate group could hear his relaxed voice right beside their very ears.

That prickling, frightening voice was all it took to shatter any hope or fighting spirit they had left.

"You might recognize the tone since I played it in Canis before my two year hiatus." With an spreading calm that permeated into his surroundings, even cooling the air around him, Asher closed his eyes for more focus, and tapped the first of the black circles in front of him.

*Zwoop* BOOM!!!!!!!

A tunnel of black fire shot out of a dragon mouth, hitting and blowing up a building, not even sparing bits of gravel.

"Such mastery..." The voice in his head spoke with a hyping tone.

*Zwoop* BANG!!!

"Such precision..."

BOOM!!!

"Such magnificence!"

"The art, the tones, the stoic rhythm you make the earth sing... the scampering pests. Every movement of his fingers signal like multiple trumpets of Armageddon itself. However... something is lacking... there are no souls coming in."

Whenever a tunnel of fire shot down at a building, the whole circular area around it turned into a circular abyss in an instant. He was practically punching holes in the earth, perfect holes.

"Souls? I'm full!" Asher suddenly sped up the taps, swinging his black hair around like a true artist in the zone, making music that these people would remember for centuries.

And for sure, they would.

The general directly below Asher seemed more fearless than Asher would give him credit for.

Mustering everything he had, he choked out a couple of words.

"We... were raised with the mindset... that we might very well perish in battle, so if you think we're going to back away from just fear alone, then you're in for a shock."

It was true that never in their lives have they been faced with this much of a scary situation. But as soldiers who were trained for war, it didn't matter what situation they were faced with, as long as they were the ones in the front lines, protecting their precious citizens. They would gladly jump into such battles any other day, although with fear, but with a determined mind nonetheless.

Such was the way of the soldier.

Asher's eyes squinted as he smiled beneath his round collar, stopping his musical art for a second.

"Poetic words. But they make no meaning unless you bet your soul."

BOOM!!!!!!!!!

He tapped a center key, a big one.

"Life is an unfair gamble after all. Mortals can only stake one soul to win another, only to snuff it out, a waste. You mortals that waste don't know how good it feels to be... me."

"And what exactly are you?!" The general yelled.

Asher swiped his hands across the 'key board', shooting down multiple tunnels of flames at the same time.

"Why from your perspective general... I'm a god."

BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The black flames were like lasers, disintegrating even the specks of dust trying to escape his destruction. In several seconds, a thriving city had been beaten to an abyssal snake hole. No bigger, a dragon hole.

"That's curtains for now."

The black dots under his hands had completely disappeared now.

*Whoosh*

""Ah!!""

The men below soon got pushed into one of the wide holes in the ground, by an invisible force.

Asher stood up straight and tapped his pouch. "A sweet artifact and a butt-load of cash money for section 12. What a nice hoard. By the way, as that song to your liking, old man?"

The man in the sky was definitely not your usual larcenist.

He could recreate pretty much all of the technology created by both the humans and Animats and even make them better, so in the first place, there was no logical reason to steal.

'Logical' being the word of focus.

However, apart from his formed purposes, there were things he actually needed and could not create. And those things were Earth Core Artifacts (ECAs), one of the reasons he had appeared in Ursalin 5 today.

The artifact that was hiding in Ursalin 5 was too good to pass over, making him show himself once again to the world after a long time.

His process was simple: stealthily break into a place to swipe an item, make a big scene on the way out and then cause property damage, lots and lots of property damage.

But, this city deserved it. Their major source of income was pillaging from another unimportant city and using their people for reconstruction work.

This was an advanced technological city, use your robots you damn perverts!

"I'm still bugged about you not killing anyone though."

"Come on old man, there are guys from Section 12 there, so I couldn't take any risks."

"Or that Mina girl will kill you." Asher shivered in fear, hearing the Old Man say that.

"Anyways, let's get going."

*Shing*

Before he could turn around however, the sound of a blade cutting cleanly through the air sounded beside him.

Asher turned to look over his shoulder.

It was then that he saw a scary green dagger, being pointed at his neck. The dagger was so hot, it looked like it was about to melt any second because of the vapor bubbles that kept forming on its surface. But it didn't melt, in fact, the dagger was firmer than most.

"Stop there, you fugitive!" A green haired man said, holding his dagger in place. "I have come, to protect the good citizens of—"

*Pa!*

Asher suddenly slapped the man's head. "You know, from the colour of your hair, one might expect that you eat vegetables. But I only see a beefy brained man talking."

The man flew backwards in shock. "I..." He didn't know when Asher's hand had reached his head. He couldn't sense it even as an S-rank human? Impossible.

The man had just gotten to this rank a few days ago, feeling that he could take on anything in the world. Good thing Asher's head slap of wisdom had set his head straight.

In a care free manner, Asher walked past the man. "Tch. Trying to save a city that's already been destroyed. Go inside the holes and save the people first you idiot."

"Err... right!" The man yelled and then followed Asher's suggestion.

Asher was a man not even the most powerful forces on Earth had managed to get a grip on, the green haired man knew that he stood no chance. He had come here on impulse.

Asher looked at the green dagger he had 'borrowed' from the man but later threw it inside one of the wide abyssal holes. "Let's have that as a reward for if he chooses to be diligent." He would reward the man with his own possession. Asher fancied himself a kind man.

After some time, this 'kind' man suddenly realised that he had been standing in the air with his head literally in the hands of somebody else for a while now.

'Another one?' Asher thought. His head was held in the opposite direction of the person's face, but their fingers were slender, so 'they' was a she.

"Ooh, pretty!" The old man had also just realised they had no head on their shoulders.

What a pair of irresponsible jokers.