Prologue

It shall be then, when the black sun falls from the sky, the false sister shall forth the closing of an era, and the advent of eternal darkness. There shall be no light, no dawn, the fire of mankind will dim along with your cities and towns.

The darkness is coming, and there will be no salvation.

Qian Lei, current vice chief of the Golden Celestial Sect, woke from his slumber with a start. His back drenched in cold sweat, he kicked off the covers of his bed. He brought his hands up to his face, sobbing soundlessly. He knew what he had to do.

Picking up a cyan sword on his ornate nightstand beside his bed, he slipped out of his bedchambers and into the halls of his manor silently. He wandered down the empty, candle-lit hallways. The handle of the sword felt reassuring. Familiar. Yet even holding it could not stop the hand from trembling.

It took him a full minute to reach the bedroom of his youngest daughter. Bing Anxi. The most talented of his three daughters, at just the tender age of ten, she had shown remarkable talent in calligraphy and talisman creation.

He slid the door open carefully, so as to not disturb her sleep. There she lay on her bed, his most beloved daughter. Painted dolls and wooden toys were strewn all over the floor. How nostalgic. He had carved them, and his wife had painted them.

"Forgive me, my daughter. I must do this; for the good of the world, this must be done," he whispered, inching closer to his daughter, his sword raised high into the air.

"Are the nightmares back?"

Qian Lei turned his head at the sound of his wife's voice behind him. She stood at the threshold, a transparent shawl draped over her night clothes. She had a grim look on her face. Understandable. Here he was in his daughter's room with a sword raised above her sleeping head.

"You will never understand… I must do this."

"These nightmares are tearing you apart, Qian Lei. This isn't like you. I know you've stopped loving me… but if you have any love left for our children, please spare her. We can try again for a boy, I swear to you, I will give you a suitable heir," she begged, dropping on all fours, prostrating before her husband.

"What? Heir? Is that what you think this is about? This isn't about that- This… is my daughter… I'm… trying to kill my daughter? This is our daughter, and I'm trying to kill her? We made her together, we made these toys together…"

Qian Lei sank to his knees, tossing his sword away. "I must stop them. They're out there somewhere, the darkness. For the sake of our children and their futures."

"Where will you go?" she asked, back on her feet.

"I can't say, but I know it's out there," he said, embracing his wife. "They're out there, and it's up to me to stop them."