The ordinary, the clueless and the ignorant know nothing.
Nothing about the eternal truth that is hidden by the skies.
Nothing about the infinite "fruit" borne of the branches of the formless tree.
They don't have a single idea how breathtaking and incomprehensibly terrifying the cosmos are. How a single world is just one of many.
The skies are merely a border for worlds thriving with life to hide against the star-extinguishing calamities and world-ravaging warriors.
In the hands of such fearsome might, most worlds meet their end by suffering an instantaneous destruction.
So, it seems what exists beyond that border is the inescapable and inevitable grasp of death that is "fate".
This is all to prevent millions of innocent lives from falling into the ever-consuming abyss and becoming one with the twisted abominations.
Because, within the vastness of the cosmos, there lurks an endless, colourless sea of reversed space and time that warps all things, the origin of entropy.
It is called
Simultaneously a miracle and a disaster, born from the hands of the Creators, and the source of endless and irreversible catastrophe.
An abyssal sea that is weighed in the palm of the Creators and imposes an equilibrium on the opposite side of all of existence, akin to a small, bronze coin.
In the same way, the cosmos is but a formless tree of light, where the great boundary of worlds hang like fruits from its golden-white branches.
Most star-faring civilizations give this tree of light a name.
The Tree of Worldbearing.
Protecting the worlds, it is the sole defense against the unestimable evil contained in that Shattered Void.
That formless tree is also where all worlds exist in harmony, with each "fruit" born at the beginning of time, cultivated in "cosmic soil".
But, before the star-faring civilizations came to rise, nobody knew about any of this.
Not the existence of the formless tree. Nor the calamities that lurked in the sea of abyss.
But, as the cosmic scale tilted, the existence of powerful warriors and immortals soon brought with them the emergence of these factions.
In the end, this was a foreseeable outcome, and the Creators knew of this since the beginning.
They were the law-makers, after all. The celestial deities that far surpass all of existence.
They were the most Almighty and most High, emboding total concepts from a far higher dimension.
The concepts they embodied were spread throughout the cosmos at the beginning of time, and established their unearthly presence within all of creation.
It is due to this that they are simply known as supreme deities beyond understanding, those who voyage and traverse stars and carry fickle worlds in their palms.
Only with
And, those who have experienced such a horrific revelation refer to themselves as
Those enlightened beings were also most likely the ones behind the rise of ancient and modern space-faring civilizations.
Most of them ascended long ago, beyond the values that humans place on fickle things like emotion and symbolism, and instead sought to align themselves with the ultimate purpose of the cosmos.
But, some others stepped in the direction of more foul and destructive tendencies.
Either way, the birth of more… "extreme" Heralds was inevitable.
"…Extrapolating the fate of world-dwelling humans is exhausting…"
"But with the "exception" now in our hands, I guess there is something to be gained out of this process after all."
"I hope that he will find his true destiny among the stars… and eventually help us in our goal."
"To lay out the "true design", woven in the fabric of the cosmos itself."
<…>
In the wider cosmos, there exists an armada of aimless destroyer battleships and floating weapons of mass destruction.
These were the foot-soldiers of the Mieshi Jiaotuan, a unknown cult obsessed with the beauty of annihilation.
They worshipped the power to end all things.
They destroyed and conquered ceaselessly, and they enjoyed unleashing catastrophes in the form of a domino effect, toppling worlds with small and sudden but calculated moves.
Once upon a time, that organization targeted an entire world for the sake of an unknown goal, causing the eyes of most of the known cosmos to, likewise, fall on that particular planet.
Verifude, that planet was called.
It was during that time period on that planet that armies fought desperately against the threat of permanent destruction from a completely unknown terror beyond the skies, and nearly all hope was lost.
But, as if heeding their waning call, a single man wielding "hope" slashed through the encroaching forces of destruction.
It was the sudden arrival of a "blind swordsman" who called himself the Moonshine Blade.
A blinding flash of annihilating light forged from pure intent came from his blade and warded away the wrath of the destroyers, and finally allowed the
However, Verifude was in bad, bad shape by then. Only around ten cities remained standing, and even they were clouded with smoke.
The methods of the Mieshi Jiaotuan than expected. They had the ability and resources to take on three worlds at a time, but instead relied on infiltration to slowly devastate their targets. A slow death was what they preferred.
It was in this way that they could siphon any lasting remnants of hope from all whom they laid their eyes on.
And, even if they did survive the onslaught, there was no promises that some members of the cult didn't slip by unnoticed.
But despite that, Verifude was too exhausted of their resources to check.
Not long after arriving, the Alliance built a firmament around the entire planet, and opted to reveal the existence of the cosmos to them.
But, seeing as how dangerous just one organization could be, the supreme leaders of Verifude begged for the Alliance to help shut off all contact with the cosmos from their planet.
It was a wise move, considering how the Mieshi Jiaotuan could infect worlds like theirs with their influence.
And so, it was done, but the blind swordsman said the words:
"If you truly think your planet will be able to live in peace from now on, do not regret your choice."
"As planet-dwellers, your fate can be changed, unlike us Heralds."
"We are merely pawns of the Creators, while you all wield the power of obscured fates."
"But, if you ever change your mind, beckon the words, "Sheer Blade Splitting Darkness", and I shall "free" your world in an instant."
As he said, trillions and trillions of lifeforms living within worlds were permitted to write their own fate, until they finally surpassed the wall that is their inevitable demise.
In a way, this meant that as soon they were capable of causing ripples across the cosmos, they more or less became pawns for the divine.
But, even though the supreme leaders of Verifude listened attentively to their saviour, they had no intent in leaving their world exposed to the dangers beyond.
And so, they remained inside the firmament, and as generations passed, they hid this truth from the rest of the lands.
Thousands of years passed since then, and the world changed greatly.
But even with the Firmament active, during the
That sage was one of ten sages that pursued immortality and practiced "meridian-shaping techniques" and spiritual arts for a millennia to gain earth-shaking power. But, that was a thing of the ancient past.
In this era, "power" most likely referred to political strength and authority, so actual power in form of surpassing the true human limits was unimaginable, and therefore ridiculed.
Since their introduction into the wider world, they were known as madmen that chased legends of the past, hoping to reveal ancient secrets buried upon layers and layers of dust that would hopefully lead them to a greater truth.
But, unlike what anybody expected, it seemed they did uncover a "truth".
One of those sages performed a dance in front of the whole world and tore an infinitesimal hole in the firmament, leading beyond the sky, and revealed the existence of the cosmos.
And, in that way, the truth finally became exposed.
Of course, the firmament immediately patched itself up, but the damage was already done, and epochs that ushered in a land of martial practitioners and truthseekers came after.
And, ever since, those Ten Sages who wished for truth and ultimate power became known as the Heaven-reaching Immortals, the strongest and most knowable masters in the world.
More and more sages added to their numbers, until the grip that mere political power had on the world was no more. Only two people became "Immortals" with the sole power of influence and conniving words.
But, as all this happened, long after the skies was torn and the fate of the world was changed, a poor boy near a small Northerneastern village was discovered, frozen in ice.
That boy had the potential to become one of the most luminous stars in the night sky.