A tale from before: The Devout Heretic

About several hundred years ago...

"HAHAHAHAHAH! DIE YOU PATHETHIC MEATBAGS! DIE!"

"AHHHHHHHH!"

In a small city on the Radiant Feather continent, people screamed and ran as an all powerful Aether Lord rampaged and mercilessly slaughtered anyone who was in reach of his aether armament.

The crystal in his chest made it clear he was an aetherii, the symbol on his his helmet made it known that he was a warrior of the Omni-Void Emperor.

"DIE FOR THE SAKE OF HIS LORDSHIP! DIE FOR THE SAKE OF HIS GRAND ASCENSION!," the warrior screamed as he swung his blade and wiped out a thousand lives in an instant.

It didn't matter whether they were human, bloodliners, or even a fellow aetherii, this soldier of the Emperor just wanted to slaughter everyone in the vicinity.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAH-huh?"

The warrior paused in his revelry as the sound of a crying infant caught his attention. Laying by their side was the child's mother, injured and buried under rubble. She was trying to desperately reach for her babe.

"Wah! Wah!"

"Oh I just hate the sound of a crying child...but I love the sound they make when they pop!"

The warrior lifted a hand towards the crying child and fired off an arrow of aether that had enough power to annihilate a mountain.

"Look ou-GAH!"

"Guh!'

The arrow of aether flew through several people and buildings until it was only a foot away from the child...only for it to get intercepted.

"How unnecessarily vulgar."

"Huh?! Who-what are you?!"

A giant of a man covered in red tattoos had appeared as if by magic and had grabbed the arrow with hands as big as human torsos. The arrow suddenly looked and felt incredibly mundane in those massive hands.

With a derisive snort, the giant proceeded to crush the arrow and break apart the aether composing it. The fact it went out with no more than a sizzle, unsettled the Void Emperor Soldier.

"What?! How did you-"

"Forcas. What did I say about running ahead like that?," a strange voice echoed throughout the battlefield. It sounded as if it was coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. 

For whatever reason, the soldier suddenly felt incredibly small.

"Where did that voice-"

Tap

Tap

Tap

"Huh?"

Walking up to the giant's side in an incredibly nonchalant manner was a strange looking young man with a cane that had a very strange air about him. The soldier wasn't sure why, but he felt as if he was staring at wizened veteran or an incredibly old elder who had witness over a thousand deaths...no, like he had oversaw a thousand deaths. Overall, he just seemed...tired.

"Well, my son? Why did you rush ahead?"

"Forgive me, my lord," Forcas said while bowing his head and joining his hands together via his palms.

"I had to intervene, or else-"

"Or else the mother and child would have been lost," the tired man finished for Forcas, "well at least you did so for good reason. Now then..."

"Hold it right there! Who are you to suddenly show up and ruin my mood?! I demand satisfaction!," the soldier yelled indignantly.

Uncaring of the soldier's words, the man simply walked towards the buried woman and crying child in an calm and unhurried manner.

The child kept crying, scared and unsure of the chaos around them, while the woman herself reached towards the tired man.

"Please...save her and go...," the mother asked, disregarding her own wellbeing. She knew she wasn't going to be long for this world in her current state, and she'd rather her child safe then be the one to get them both killed.

"Hmmm."

Ignoring the woman's plea, the man lifted up his cane and pointed the end at the rubble on top of her.

[As is his will, become undone,] he said in a strange, echoing voice.

A small ball of light manifested on the cane's end before flying straight at the rubble and quietly merging into it.

CRACK!

Once the light completely merged with the rubble, thousands of cracks began to form on them until collapsing into piles of sand that was blown away by a mysterious wind. With the rubble cleared, the man could now see the sorry state the woman's legs were in.

"Well that won't do at all."

The man held out a hand, summoning a strange looking book that was covered from cover to cover in strange, squiggly runes that seemed to form a very inhuman face. With a delicate wave of his hand, he opened the book and tapped on a page.

"Buer, mine lending a hand?"

[Of course, I heed the call.]

The book shuddered for a bit before expelling from it's pages, a black gas that smelled of sulfur and ash. From the gas, a strange lion man that looked as if he had a wheel of goat legs sticking out of him like a body halo emerged. Despite his weird looking appearance, the creature had a soothing aura about him, like that of a veteran doctor.

As soon as he was fully summoned, Buer went over to the bewildered injured woman and the crying child.

"Tsk,tsk. Crying may be good for a baby's lung development, but now is not the time for it," Buer said as he stuck out his palm. A second later, a pacifier with a lion motif had appeared in his hand. Without much ceremony, but with great ease, Buer stuck the pacifier into the child's mouth.

"Here. This sucker not only soothes the soul, but it will nourish the foundation of your soul. Be sure to suck it thoroughly, though I'm not sure what abilities you'll cultivate in the future" Buer said before shifting focus to the mother. "Now for the more pressing matter."

Buer knelt down in order to get a closer a look at the woman's legs, an annoyed look on his face.

"Tsk, tsk. Broken femurs, shattered patellas, snapped tibias, torn tendons and a calcium deficiency! Those former parts are an easy fix ma'am, but you must increase your dairy and legume consumption. Fish is good too, but that's more for brain health," Buer chided. With his analysis complete, Buer proceeded to place his two paw-like hands onto the woman's legs and channel energy that didn't feel like Aether.

Click, clack, clang

The energy began to condense and form various strange mechanical limbs ending in various tools and hands, all originating from Buer's body.

[Damage verification: complete. Opening the Operating Theater,] Buer said in a strange voice as the rest of the energy formed a shelter to cover both Buer and the injured woman.

[Damage, minimal. Estimated time of completion: Enough to teach that rowdy killer a lesson or three.]

"Excellent," the man said with a nod.

"Hey! I heard that you miserable-"

"You know," the man interrupted, "You remind me much of myself from, as the playwrights would say, once upon a time."

"What are y-hnk!"

As man's attention shifted away from the woman and the strange lion man to the soldier, the warrior, for the first time this evening, was suddenly rendered silent.

For some reason, the soldier felt as if he wasn't being stared down by a warrior of equal measure, nor a monster of unrivaled savagery, but...as if he was being stared down by the embodiment of "judgement".

"Once upon a time, I had taken hundreds of lives for the sake of a higher power myself. I had done so because I believed it was right, that it was what he wanted...but I was wrong," the man told the soldier. "It is only now, facing warriors and monsters that fight, kill and die for an unfeeling lord incapable of empathy, that I realize the folly of my own bloody zealotry."

As the man recited these words, a strange energy around him began to develop around him, and the book in his hands began to glow an even stranger color. The sight of both caused unease to grow in the soldier's heart.

'Who...what is he?,' the soldier asked himself, unsure for the first time in his life.

The man extended the book towards the soldier, the strange energy that surrounded him, flowing into the book.

"Know that even if the heavens above do not forgive your sins, that I will."

"What the f-"

[Malphas, Halphas. Flap your wings.]

"CAW!"

A pair of crow-like demon men leaped out of the book at the man's orders, and charged towards the soldier.

For the first time in over a century, the soldier felt the fear of death.

"wE HEeD tHE cAlL!"

"NoW FaCe tHe KaIJin's judgement!"