The Unifier

The crowd had gathered, and there were thousands of them; some stood and some were seated on the sandy floor, like it was a spiritual rhetorical with a guru, like it was going to be their life-changing moment, with every single word that was about to be spoken. But no, it was nothing like that.

The village had been entirely burned to the ground after two whole days of nothing but pure carnage and the effects of war. Hundreds died yet again, and their swords and armor remained on the field. It had nothing to be called a village anymore. It would go down in the Realm's history as an important day. 

Yin Kang, their newly hailed God, stood in the middle of the circle with Vegas next to him and the three leaders of The Band of The Plateau, Wes Grand, Colt, and Neilus, beside them. 

"Listen carefully, kid; just take this and do as I said." 

A masked man among the crowd hands over a knife to a little boy and flees the scene. 

…

The crowd was getting louder and louder, but then it stopped immediately as Yin threw his hands in the air. Everyone hushed, and all eyes were on him. It was time for him to explain himself to the rest of the town's people. 

"As most of you might have known by now, my name's Yin Kang."

He spoke with his body posture straightened and with a firm stance. He was still the tallest of all of them. His voice projected to every single one of the people present there, though it was slightly deep and softly worded. His burning brown-black eyes captivated the crowd.

"And I'm a God who's a human." He continued. 

"But how?" A voice of concern from an old lady came from the crowd. 

"Well, I come from another planet named Earth, or should I say, another 'Realm'. It's a Realm just like this, with birds, animals, and people just like you all. We eat, fight, and sleep. And I died trying to save someone who I love." 

Vegas knew who he was talking about; it was Mei. Mei Chang. 

"Shortly after I died, I woke up in this dark hall..."

"Like a dreamland?" An excited kid tossed a question out of nowhere.

"Haha, yeah, something like that." Yin answered with a soft tone and then proceeded. 

"I started seeing the world that I lived in; I started hearing the people I knew right in front of me, but I couldn't see them; I…didn't know what it all meant. I was lost. 

At this point, people were writing down this revelation with intense detail and care. It was the making of a God. 

"And then suddenly I heard a voice. A voice that was talking in my ear, almost like it was one of the voices from my head."

The crowd looked at him in absolute awe, with jaws dropped, meticulously absorbing every frequency of his words and processing it in their heads. 

"And then the voice told me its name. It was…" 

A kid from the front side of the crowd jumped out and stabbed Yin in the heart. 

"AHHH!" The crowd gasped and screamed noisily. 

Yin looks into the eyes of the kid who was hanging onto the knife, which has penetrated through the chest, and smiles. He knew he was innocent and that he was ordered to. He slowly and carefully pulled the knife out of his chest and let the kid walk away with no questioning or inquiry. 

Vegas, this time just had her eyebrows lifted and herself stunned by the kid's courage. She wasn't bothered by Yin, as she knew who he was. 

The crowd witnessed it again in absolute dubiety: the impossible, the magician, the God—that was Yin Kang. 

"As I was saying, it was Xil, the All-Powerful. The God of Balance himself chose me as his vessel, and just like that, I was given a second life. To live as a God within a human."

"But why you? out of everyone from your Realm, Yin Kang?" An old man raised the question.

…

"Love." Yin answered softly as Mei's beautiful face appeared in front of him. 

The crowd broke out, hysterically laughing at him, while he stood there silently, shedding a tear. 

Vegas couldn't take it. 

"Shut ya'll dirty fuckin' mouths up befo' I kill you all!" Vegas yelled so loudly that even the forest silenced itself. 

The crowd knew it was a serious matter, and they went quiet immediately at her threat. 

"But it is true. Love is the answer to your question. And Mei Chang is her name; she saved my life every day. And I died saving her one day, and there's no regret in it."

He sniffles and continues.

"Xil wanted a strong will as mine for him to reclaim his throne as a God. He promised me that if I led him to victory, he would grant me any wish. And my wish is to get back home to Mei..."

Now it was the crowd that was crying for the broken God in front of them—someone who is so powerful yet so weak. 

"What about our Goddess?" A voice asked. 

"Ugh." Vegas smacked her forehead.

"I don't know anything about your Goddess." Yin admitted. 

A middle-aged man rose up from the seated crowd and proceeded to narrate the story everyone in the Realm knew.

"Many many years ago, Kontello Greyfold, our Realm's last king, had always praised and believed in his moon queen, who is now our Goddess. But no one believed him then, and then after he was slain in the war, The Elders took him up to that Plateau's peak and buried him, and the moon has changed its color ever since his death. We will never forget our Moon Goddess, who has blessed us for all these years and feasted on our food every night. We will never forget her for you, someone who came into our lives just yesterday." 

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" The crowd chanted at the man's reminder of the world's history.

Yin stood there in silence. 

…

"Has anyone gone up to his burial?" Yin raised a fair question. 

Now there was silence from the crowd.

...

"Good Goddess no! It's considered taboo. Besides, no one can go up there in the freezing weather. Some say it always snows there, and many who have tried never came back." 

"Alright then. Tonight I will go..." 

The crowd looked at each other with a frightening look. 

"No, you just can't do that! You…"

"Who's coming with me?" Yin didn't let him finish his sentence. 

"NO! YOU CAN'T DO IT!" The crowd yelled at him in harmony.

"He's a breathin' God, ya fuckin' trolls! I'm goin' with him." It was Vegas's voice that broke out louder. 

Yin looked back at her friend and smiled.

"We'll go." Wes Grand and his crew volunteered as well. 

"It wouldn't be fair if I only took my friends along. Some of you believers have to come along too." 

A man named Redyn and an old devotee of the Moon Goddess named Slinton both stepped forward on the believer's behalf. 

"All set then. Tonight, all seven of us will visit Kontello's grave, and each and every one of you here has acted as a witness, so there will be no one in denial." 

The crowd dispersed and waited for what could be a Realm-changing event. 

…