Final edge sect

White sheets of ice spread across the horizon, the winds picked up the loose snow twisted by the wind and spread across the frozen landscape.

Life could seldom be found in such a place.

In all directions life would be hard to come by, only near the coasts would one encounter life.

Heading under the ice nothing but frozen water along with remnants of small microbes could be found.

Heading twenty-seven-hundred meters under the ice an environment unlike any other in this icy hell could be witnessed.

Flowering fields, towering trees, warm winds, endless sunshine with a white sky, this was a shangri-La on earth.

A holy land of spiritual cultivation.

Surrounded by 400 meter tall ice walls, this land was fully isolated from the outside world with no entrance or exit.

Circular stone buildings littered the landscape, some reached several stories high while others instead dug into the earth as the building's were turned inside out and buried.

Winding paths lead to each building with figures walking to and from each building, some in a hurry others walking at a relaxed pace.

Among these buried buildings in one of the many stone rooms a boy lay on his stomach collapsed from exhaustion.

His eyes were shut, his body limp, one would think that the boy had passed away in his sleep.

Soon the boys eyes started to shift causing his body to shift into a more comfortable position.

The boy opened his eyes slightly before closing them again unable to wave off the exhaustion.

Suddenly realizing the situation the boy opened his eyes wide and sat up.

Looking around the boy saw the simple room he inhabited, it was a simple gray stone room.

One rectangular window, one door archway with a cloth to act as a door, and a high ceiling with a white stone at the peak.

On the floor of the room several grass mats lay near each corner of the room.

Two mats were empty while on the 3rd another child slept on top, while the final mat the boy being himself sat atop.

The boy remembered what happened after the older woman took them away in a flash of light.

They had arrived in an underground chamber lit by glowing stones before being led away and split into several groups, his group arrived in this building and was assigned a room.

He was further grouped with three others but did not have a chance to interact with them collapsing on the floor unable to carry on further.

"Hey... Hey are you awake!?" he tried to talk to the other boy but got no response.

The boy then tried to get up to take a look around when a piercing pain assaulted his body, he fell back down wincing in pain.

Looking at himself he realized that his body was in bad condition, scabs and bruise's on his legs, arms, shin's and elbows.

The worst pain came from below his feet, his soles torn with deep gashes that would draw blood should he walk for too long, this could take several months to heal in the best of circumstances as for him who owned no shoes nor had ways to treat his injuries this could turn deadly.

'I should get up slowly, I'm here, it should be safe... I hope'

Bracing himself against the wall he got up while fighting the pain.

He slowly made his way out of the room pulling the cloth door to the side and peaking outside first before exiting fully.

Outside his room a walkway with other rooms scattered about made a full circle, several stone paths and steps leading to upper and lower floors could be seen.

He walked to the edge looking down to the lower floors, more rooms and more stone steps leading further down could be seen, looking up there was no dome or roof to be seen, the light, wind and rain could get in without hassle.

Truly it was an underground building conical in nature leading down, with each layer being one story tall with less and less room's the further down you went and likewise less sunlight

The boy saw a few others outside also looking around trying to interact with each other or those around them but there seemed to be a language gap so most tried their best to gesture to each other instead with mixed success.

Just at this moment a voice spoke to all the inhabitants in this building, again they could hear the voice speed inside their head making them all wonder where it came from.

"Children it is time to get up, you have five minutes to make your way up to the training center"

Hearing this the surrounding children looked around at each other before walking to the nearest stairway leading up the conical pit.

Any sleeping children woke up in confusion quickly getting their bearings or trying to.

"The last five to arrive at the training center will be cleaning for four hours, you have 3 minutes left to get here!"

The voice repeated, now adding some incentive to get them moving.

Some kids started rushing causing others to speed up their own pace and clash with others, those that just woke up saw this and rushed themselves even if they did not know exactly what was happening.

Some tried to ask but again the language barrier got in the way.

Within 5 minutes most children made their way up and stood a few steps from each other.

The top of the pit being simply an open field surrounded by trees while the field itself was simply patchy grass, several lights could be seen far in the distance along with the peaks of several buildings.

An old man looked down on them from above.

"Dare to hide?"

With a wave of his hand several timid children hiding inside their rooms floated out from below, he placed them down at the side just as quickly as he trapped them.

Some children were crying out, they didn't know what was happening.

"Good! now that we're all here lets begin the orientation"

Several small lights floated out from the sides, the children watched in awe and fright as a light show presented itself before them.

'heh so easy to distract them'

"Children, today all of you have officially joined the final edge sect a place of magic and wonder, a place that will be your home and family, a place where you will learn how to do this"

The man continued to showcase what he could do to entice the children.

Fire shot out from his hands, water floated in the air, the wind picked up, objects floated around, and cloth turned into birds flying away into the distance.

To the average adult he might seem like a clown or an aspiring magician but to the children this was magical.

Each child had their own thoughts in the end but the vast majority were impressed.

"All of you here have been chosen, chosen because you desired something else from life, because you seek adventure, chosen because you wanted to escape from your current path, each and every one of you chose to walk for three days in the frozen tundra without turning back to prove your desire for change and here you can realize that dream"

He waited for moment for the children to digest the information as best as they could

"We ask you now, to choose. Stay and realize your dreams, or give up your only chance at realizing them"

The man pointed to his left, a stone platform similar to the one that brought them here appeared.

"You have One hour, if you choose to leave, your memories of this event will disappear and you will be returned from where you came never to return and likewise your magic will disappear forever"

"If you already know you want to stay follow me, I will take you to register as an official member of our sect. It is a big choice... one you may be too young to make now but you will not get another chance like this in life, sometimes life only comes at you once" he face took a gentler tone and his eyes looked softer.

Saying so, he flew down standing in-front of the children before turning away from them taking a step to the path ahead.

'What do I need to think about, I came here to change my life' the skinny boy knew what he wanted, even with his injuries he tried to catch up to the old man.

Not just him but many others had no reason to think about this, they wanted to live in a magical world away from the life they lived before.

Soon a flood of children followed after with a few stragglers truly thinking about it.