"When the world burns, only the one who can hold every flame shall rebuild it."
The inscription glowed faintly across the wall of the Temple of Scales — words carved long before mortals learned language. Beneath those letters, the 'Source Crystal' pulsed like a dying heart, its light fading with every quake that tore through the sky.
Outside, the heavens were splitting.
Mountains drifted like islands in the air. Rivers boiled. Dragons roared as their wings shredded through storms of molten stone. The 'Three Energies' — Qii, Mana, and Abilities — collided across the land like gods in battle.
And the world screamed.
At the center of it stood "Aelion", the last High Dragon of the First Brood. His silver scales were scorched black, his wings torn, yet his eyes—burning gold—still carried the calm of eternity.
"Your Highness!" a young dragon cried, half-crumbling as his body flickered between flame and mist. "The Mana rivers have turned against us! The Abilities—"
"They were never ours to command," Aelion said quietly. "We took what the Source warned us not to touch."
He raised a clawed hand toward the sky, where three colossal orbs of energy circled each other: one deep red (Qii), one azure (Mana), one white (Abilities). Each pulsed violently, tearing chunks from the atmosphere.
The dragons had tried to harness them all — to unify power itself.
And failed.
The elder dragons had long believed themselves as 'the bridges' of creation — beings who could hold every energy in harmony. But greed had infected them, and now? harmony had become annihilation.
The young dragon fell to his knees. "The council begs you, My Lord. Seal the Source! And, End this madness!"
Aelion's gaze softened. "To seal it, we must lose it."
He looked down at the relic embedded in his chest — a crystalline circuit, pulsing with three lights. The [Prototype System], the first of its kind. A gift from the Source. A mechanism meant to 'balance' the three energies within the dragons.
It had failed to contain the flood.
But maybe… it could 'store' the truth.
Aelion turned toward the altar, where the Source Crystal trembled. The temple walls cracked, light seeping out in ribbons. He pressed his claw against the relic, merging it with the Crystal.
[SYSTEM CORE DETECTED.]
[INITIALIZING SAFETY PROTOCOL — BALANCE RECONSTRUCTION.]
[ERROR: STABILITY BELOW 1%.]
The mechanical voice echoed in his mind — cold, absolute emotionless.
[NEW DIRECTIVE: SEEK HARMONY. FIND ALL SUBSYSTEMS.]
Aelion whispered the words aloud. "Find… all Subsystems?"
[AFFIRMATIVE. OBJECTIVE: COMPLETE THE CYCLE.]
He smiled faintly, despite the collapsing world. "Then let it begin again."
The System's light expanded, burning symbols into the air — fragments of data scattering like shards of starlight. Each shard carried a spark of power, drifting toward the far reaches of the collapsing skies.
Those shards would fall to other worlds. Other lives.
[SYSTEM BACKUP: COMPLETE.]
[HOST VITALS CRITICAL.]
[TRANSFER AUTHORITY — STANDBY MODE.]
Aelion's wings unfurled one last time. Around him, the dragons roared in despair as the world broke apart. The Source Crystal dimmed completely, sealing itself beneath layers of stone and silence.
He looked up, whispering to the fading sky.
"If any world yet remembers us… seek the Balance we lost."
Then the world turned white.
---
[SYSTEM REBOOT: STANDBY MODE INITIATED]
[Awaiting new host...]
---
Thousands of years later… a heartbeat echoes in a forgotten cave.
[SYSTEM ONLINE.]
[NEW HOST DETECTED.]