Change and Resolution

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(General P.O.V)

(5 months before the Celestial Attack)

Bellvedere jumped off the Snowtrotter, a large bear like creature that possessed an instinctual tactile control over ice.

It's large bulky form would huddle down and simply move by gliding through the snow like a wet soap on the floor. They scaled the large ice dunes that made up the Adenia mountain ranges easily.

Bellvedere's breath fogged in the air as he rubbed his hands together. The cold breeze this time of the year was especially bad.

Temperatures could go close to Absolute Zero, causing any other creature, beast or Sapient not close to the Great Essence to suffer a fate worse than burning...a cold so freezing it locked their souls in their bodies, never to rejoin the Great Essence.

Bellvedere heard the scrunching of snow from behind him, his father's own massive Snowtrotter looming over Kalu, Bellvedere's Snowtrotter.

His father walked up to the younger man as they stood at the edge of the cliff, the family's ceremonial altar at the very edge. Past that was a sheer drop to the bottom. The sleet and ice buffeting the rocky structure hid most of the ground below from view.

The sound of rushing water was however very evident, even this high up. The Stream of Life, coiled around the ranges, splitting off into a web of tributaries, stretching from the south to the north to the south again, across the whole world.

The river was very important. Apart from the shores and banks being the only place that plants could grow, it was also the most convenient way to travel.

Different from it, was the Stream of Souls. An icy blue stellar river that flowed through the skies, protecting Adenia from the scorch of the Unknown. It also housed the souls of Adenians, Bellvedere's ancestors, forever watching over Adenia.

On a normal day, below the mountains all anyone could have seen when looking up at the sky was a shroud of mist, covering everything. Then at night, the mist would open up, revealing a river of blue starlight, flowing gently above.

This was Bellvedere's first time in the Adenia mountains. He had reached his majority. 18. It was time for him to commune with the great essence, lest his soul be lost in the great unknown upon his death.

The Adenian's had worshipped the Great Essence from time immemorial. The Great Essence was the life giving source. It was the mouth and the source of both the Stream of Life and the Stream of Souls.

"Bell."

He heard his father call out, already moving to set up camp.

The teen blinked. He had gotten distracted by the Altar.

"Yes, Father?"

He answered.

"Come here boy. There will be enough time for streamgazing later."

His dad was a tall man, with a great white beard. His pale white skin and cold blue eyes was a feature that was shared by Bellvedere.

Despite his intimidating nature however, his father was a soft spoken person.

Bellvedere turned and walked towards him. They needed to get the Tent pitched up before the cold became too unbearable. Adenian he might have been, but he wasn't covered by warm far like Kalu.

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Bellvedere woke up with a frown. Something wasn't right. Was the roar of rushing water from the Stream of Life supposed to be this loud? Apart from that, why was everything else so quiet?

A cold dread washed down his spine. Kalu's breathing was always loud. At night when little else was going on, the sound was supposed to be very notable. So what was with the silence?

He put on his heavy coat and snow boots, before unzipping the flap of his tent. A cold breeze immediately hit him. He closed his eyes, going back inside the tent to put on his hat.

Then he was out of the tent...and gasping.

"The sky...it's crying."

The teen muttered to himself in surprise. The Stream of Souls had patches of it missing, the holes revealing pinpricks of tiny stars past the river.

Bellvedere blinked as he bore witness to the souls, blue spheres of light descending onto the mountain ranges. It was... beautiful and terrifying.

The soft crunch of feet on snow made him look towards the Altar. In the light provided by the stream of souls, Bellvedere watched as his father walked towards the ceremonial Altar.

"Dad?"

The teen called out, surprised as his father removed the warm top layer of clothes he was dressed in, dropping them to the snow covered ground.

"Do not be afraid, Son."

His father assured him in a warm tone that was different to what Bellvedere was used to, from him. He finished stepping out of his snow boots and pants.

"The stream of souls...it calls out to me. To us."

The older man advanced, the only item of clothing on him being what covered his private parts.

"Father!"

Bellvedere ran forward, feet sinking into the layers of snow, slowing him down.

"Stop!"

His hand reached out just as his father arrived at the Altar and looked back.

His blue eyes seemed to see deep into Bellvedere's soul, radiating a sacred light that told of purpose and fulfillment. The teen stopped suddenly, both of them maintaining the eye contact across the distance separating father and son.

"Dad..."

Bellvedere called out, unsure. That same familiar dread washed down his spine.

"Come boy." His father offered a hand.

"Join me. Let us fullfil the communion with the great Essence. Let us fullfil our destiny."

Behind the older man, the blue spheres of light descending, changed into phantoms of past Adenians, Bellvedere's own familial ancestors, levitating, offering.

"Come."

The word made Bellvedere's mind shake. He...he didn't want to take that step forward! He didn't want to take any step forward.

There was no end. That's how it begun. Because he wanted to be special. Because his life had been empty after breaking up with his girlfriend. Because he had lied to himself.

"No..."

He muttered.

"Foolish boy."

His father's voice reached him just as the snowstorm around them became even more violent.

"How long will it take for you to understand. You cannot change the past, you cannot deny the present and you cannot hide from the future. Nor should you seek to. Like water, always flow forward."

This time the voice wasn't his father's.

This time the voice was his.

Bellvedere felt his mind begin to stretch apart.

Then there was a rumble as the Altar his Dad was on started to break apart. A crack ran out from Bellvedere's position to the edge of the cliff.

A groan escaped the teen. His head. He didn't want to go Back!

"Boss?..."

Someone called out from the unknowable darkness.

Bellvedere slammed a hand onto the icy ground. Something stirred from within. The snow begun dissolving. The ground begun melting. Everything...sank to the floor in a sludge of water and mud.

"Meld with us...with the Great Essence..."

Like echoes from a dying flame...his father called out one last time.

His hand, the same hand that had protected Bellvedere, taught him how to hunt, taught him to ride a bike, how to tie a shoe, how to pitch a tent...it too dissolved into the air, like a fever dream, he watched his father's form shimmer before his essence joined the Stream of Souls above.

Bellvedere rose to his feet.

He was all alone.

His father was gone.

Kalu and the other Snowtrotter as well. Why? Why did 'HE' want him to leave this peace? He trudged forward, shaking with anger.

One foot was placed before the other. One step at a time.

Soon he found himself on the edge of the cliff, the remains of the Altar around him. He looked down into the abyss. And it stared right back.

Bellvedere sighed, his whole demeanor changing. He sat on the ground, his legs crossed over the other.

"I guess I can't keep lying to myself anymore."

He muttered, looking up at the soul filled sky.

But now he knew what it was.

The Stream of Souls and the Stream of Life combined to form the whole. Existence and it's engine.

Life.

Time.

The mysteries of water.

The real trial however had not been to remember. A part of him always did know that all this was nothing more than a test created by the Avatar system to help him ascend into his water divinity.

He held control over ice, mist and blood. Over water.

This test was one to see if he could take the chance again. If he would jump into becoming what he had already become.

If he could let Time move as it always did...forwards.

If he could let Life do what it always does, live.

If he could accept his Destiny as something to aspire to, not to dread.

If he could let go of the child that had held on to dreams of making it as a star, for his destiny was much more incredible.

The boy stood on the precipice of the same decision. Choose to stay behind in this unchanging cold world, or like ice...melt under the pressure and heat of expectance and the unbearable weight of infinite potential.

Metamorphosize into life giving water, forever unobstructed.

Bellvedere looked up at the Great Essence. The rest of him. He was but a tiny part of what Aden Strong had become. He was the boy before the man, the god, the Entity.

He closed his eyes and smiled.

Then he got to his feet and took a step into the cold empty air. Instead of falling into the dreary abyss, Bellvedere...flew.

(Authority acquired: Change.)

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(Elsewhere)

Chaos looked up at the sky from his throne. He had replaced Aden's Homunculi Puppet. The Prima needed his entire focus on creating the Dimensional Power Reserves he had promised the Ancient One.

That massive undertaking had likely been Aden Strong'S Magnum Opus.

Using the realm of Energia as a base, four new realms connected to The Avatar's own Throne of Divinity had been created. The Throne of Divinity was a fancy name for the huge intimidating Throne Aden carried around in his personal space.

The creation of the realms was simply Aden taking a long ass break in the Dark Dimension and simply letting out all the energy he could out into the surroundings.

He had chosen the Dark Dimension because it would have caused the least amount of problems if it was destroyed. Most other dimensions were too connected to Earth to risk the chance of massive amounts of Elemental Energies rushing through the borders of the realms.

In the ashes of the Dark Dimension, 4 new realms of power had been born. Interdimensional reserves of prodigious power.

The Realms were Fire, a dimension that was nothing but zones of different colored flames, regions of subskills and mysteries like Aden's own understanding of what Flames were. He had also included the essence of the Authorities.

Each elemental plane was the same. Even including the latest one, Earth.

But it had only been possible because of the Earth Advancement Trial.

Chaos could remember the feelings that had filtered through his bond with Aden while the latter was going through the Trial.

That particular trial, being the last one of the Four had been crazy.

(Earth Advancement Trial)

Aden breathed in and out, meditating at the middle of the core of the planet. His body both existed at the center of the superheated metallic ball and also didn't. It was an ability he had gained while meditating in such extreme environments.

He had melded his consciousness with the Earth. He had experienced it's birth when the Solar System had been nothing but dust and flames.

Through the cycles, his spirit had persevered. This trial was different from any other trial before it. He went in knowing exactly what he needed to do.

However, a billion years was too long. Billions of years, spent actively understanding himself or rather, Earth.

4 billion 600 million years ago, the dust gathered into a rock. A rock that pulled more surrounding matter to it, a massive sister planet called Theia colliding onto its surface.

Theia lost most of it's mass to me. She became the moon.

4 billion 300 years ago, asteroids keep on bombarding my form, deforming my shape, granting essential nutrients for life. I am forged anew.

4 billion 100 years ago, an asteroid carrying a tiny tiny amount of water crash lands onto my surface.

3 billion 300 years ago, I am a snowball, floating around a young sun, caught in its influence. My inner core surges with heat. The heat releases to the Atmosphere.

The Carbon dioxide released melts my outer layer, the Icebergs, releasing a large amount of Oxygen into the air.

2 billion 700 years, I feel life from my sister...Mars, she thrives with life.

1 billion 100 years, Mars is silent. I forge on, the Atmosphere thrives...

And then life forms...

I stand in empty space, watching the Earth. Then she decides to speak.

"Don't you understand it now? It's been an Eon."

She bemoaned.

"Billions of universal cycles. It will never change. It has no meaning. We are like a leaf when it falls from a tree. Some get to soar in the wind, others don't."

She spoke of meaninglessness. Of existence existing solely because it could. That was the Crux of it.

My chest inflated with Breath. The wild lion packs of the Savannah roared, a bear in North America chased after a deer, a volcano erupted in Europe.

"That's what you don't get, there doesn't have to be a grand reason behind it."

I added.

Theia, the moon snorted. I chuckled.

"Each time I watch it, from beginning to end...it never ceases to amaze me."

I breathed out, another chuckle following closely behind my lips.

"Throughout each cycle, Earth is born through fluke, chance happening. Yet, every single time it does happen, Life thrives. No matter what, she thrives. Her will strong. She treks on like a mad bull."

My 'sister' was silent as I stretched out my hands.

"Unyielding."

I breathed out.

(Authority acquire: Adamance.)

( Congratulations!!! You have completed the Advancement Trials! )