(ROUGH DRAFT) Endless Sky ~Elemental Chaos~

Epilogue

It took many years to get where he was today. Shifting and changing the layout of the planet.
Timeless was traveling when he found a dying planet, pollution intoxicating it's very core. Rotting it from the inside out.
While the creatures of the planet died, the elements found life. But only temporarily. Kicked out of the dying planet in hopes something cam survive of it. By the time he'd reached it, most were dead. The elements of light and dark were gone, so were most of the ice and wind elements.
It hurt Timeless to see them suffer.
So he vowed to help them.
With Harold on the run and no signs of any gods, Timeless had a lot of time on his hands.
He'd managed to make a temporary home for the elements, good enough so they can last a bit longer.
While they were there, Timeless scoured the multiverse for the perfect planet. One that he can change without risking the lives of anymore creatures. A peaceful place, so when the elementals do move in, they won't be harmed.
After the events of their last home, none of the elements can return to any cores. They were stranded on the surface, so he tried making something for each one.
An enclosed lava cave for the fire elementals, traps in heat and doesn't affect the ones above.
Timeless thought about a volcano at first, but didn't want the risk of it erupting. So a cave would have to do.
There was an ocean nearby, so he made an attached a lake to it, just so the water elementals has a choice on which one they liked better.
Ice elementals got a land full of permanently frozen ice, to stay cool even in summer. A mountain for the wind, more lush and fertilized forest for the earth. The electric being more difficult, but Timeless managed another mountain with a forever circulating thunderstorm.
Everything looked perfect.
He rehomed all the elementals and stepped back, expecting them to flourish... But they didn't.
The elementals couldn't get used to the new planet, it was rejecting them.
All Timeless managed to succeed was slow down their extinction, but not sptop it.
He had to think of something else.
It was a wild idea, but Timeless just had to make it work. Fusing the elements into a creature.
He thought about humans, but fusion would kill the soul to replace it with the element. Timeless needed an animal. One that can thrive in the wild, keep their home healthy, independent when needed.
A familiar blue face flashed in his mind, making his heart ache on what he'd lost.
Cats, Timeless would use cats. While caninies can be just as good, he'd just preffured cats. An important part of his life had to do with a cat.
So off Timeless went. Scouring once more for the perfect hosts. He knew it was wrong to kill on creature to give life to another, but it was for a good cause.
When Timeless found the cats, they were already overrunning the planet they were in. Big, vicious, and dangerous.
Perfect.
He trust the elementals wouldn't retain the personalities of these beasts, instead just inherit the body.
Maybe they would still be able to transform, just like the creature on which their body came from. Doubtful.
Any magic capabilities will be lost, replaced by the element.
The fusion was a success. The elements thrived, they were finally happy.
Timeless left them a gift, telling them whenever one were to die. Return them to the shard, it would keep the planet stable and protected as well as itself.
It was a win win. Timeless saved a shard from Harold and the elementals get a new home with better lives.
But that didn't last long.

"Hello?!" Timeless cried, the forest deserted. He couldn't find a single earth elemental. "Where did they go?!"
Timeless felt panicked and afraid. All of his hard work, gone.
There was no traces of a struggle, no blood or bodies. All the earth elementals seemed to have vanished out of thin air.
"Maybe they're all visiting someone else?" Timeless tried guessing, running to the lake. It wasn't like the elementals to completely desert their homes. Even when visiting, only at most half the cats would leave.
"Creek? Salmon? Anyone?" Timeless called out, heading to the foliage and slipping inside.
Empty.
The fresh water elementals weren't here.
Timeless was really worried now. Something had happened. He ran down the stream for the ocean, hoping to find something.
Once there he dove into the water and quickly found the current, pulling him to the underwater cave and shoving him to the surface. Timeless had to make it when the elements became cats, as well as a hidden lake near the fire elementals. It helped them live.
But there was no cats here. Even with the glowing algae on the rocks, Timeless could tell the small cave was deserted as well.
"Abyss..? Clam..?" Timeless got out of the water, feeling lost. He'd grown attached to the cats that lived here, visiting often, but now they seemed gone. Erased from the surface of the planet.
Timeless hurried to the hole in the wall and dove in, knowing it carried a current that led him out. Splashing into the water below, he was yanked out of the cave and shoved up.
Timeless erupted from the surface of the ocean and swam back to shore, soaking wet.
"Something happened, they're not here! None of them!" He worried, opening a portal and cheating his way to the fire elemental cave. It also turned out empty.
"Dammit! Where are they?!" Timeless cried, his voice echoing as the lava pool bubbled.
Growling in worry and irritation, another portal was opened, hopping to the wind mountain.
No surprise to him, empty. Even when Timeless ported to the electric mountain, it was also deprived of cat life.
At this point, he'd come to terms on his loss. There was no way every elemental could be at the arctic land. If all the cats wanted to meet up for some kind of gathering, the central clearing would be the best place to do that. Plenty of room, moderate temperature, the most respected area in all of the element land.
But Timeless went to check anyways, the cold freezing air stinging his face. As expected, like every other home, there was nothing there.
Every elemental cat was gone.
Timeless choked out a sob, portalling back to the clearing and falling to his knees.
"The shard was supposed to protect them! Why are they all gone?!"
He stared at the shining green grass, reaching out his soul for the connection.
A glowing white orb rose from the ground. Timeless stared at it.
"It's still here... None of this was Harold's doing... So why are they gone..?" He felt tears fall from his eyes.
"Why..?"
Timeless spend countless years making sure each shard he found was stabilized and hidden. It's essence dangerous and toxic to life when unstable.
But when used correctly, the shard can hold immense power.
That's why Timeless keeps them separated. To prevent those who want to bring them together and harness the magic for themselves.
He couldn't trust himself to not lose any, not after the first incident.
"Where did they go..? The elementals?" Timeless asked the shard, knowing full well it wouldn't reply.
He tried looking into it's energy levels, wondering if they somehow all died.
Nope, there was only a few elementals who died. No nearly as much as the population he'd last seen.
The elementals weren't dead, they were only missing.
Either they left for some unknown reason, or was taken away.
Timeless put the shard back, getting back to his feet and looking around at the pillars.
He'd remember carving the patters into them with his own hands, the little elemental orbs watching it with awe.
Timeless felt his heart ache at the memories. He'd lost so much.
"I'll fine you... All of you... You have yo be out there somewhere!" He cried to the sky. "I'll bring you all home! Where you'll be happy! No more suffering!"
Timeless got up, fists clenched.
He had a long job ahead of him, first being to search the entire planet. Maybe the elementals had decided to explore and gotten lost. He'll find them.
But Timeless never did, in the years he spent searching. Not once did he find even a trace of a cat. His efforts wasted.
Timeless had forgotten about the small world he'd created, under the impression it would have collapsed when the elementals left. Not realizing the elementals were convinced to go back. Convinced to go back creatures Timeless himself stole from, the beasts he'd found, he took, he essentially killed to give the elementals a second chance.
Zeru's ancestors were cunning, revenge was on their mind when they noticed so many cats vanish. They tracked down Timeless and followed him, tracing the portals he opened.
When the perfect moment came, they came full throttle. Altering the memory of the unexpecting prey, pretending the other place was better. Taking them away.
They wanted to ambush Timeless when he returned, only to be left alone. The blond human never coming back.
For years they waited, years he searched.
But it only brought disappointment.

Timeless stood in the central clearing, haven't aged a day in over a hundred years. He felt hollow listening to the crickets of thr night chirp, knowing all the cats that once lived here are gone. Been gone for many years.
"I tried..." Timeless sighed, tears in his grey eyes. "I really did... I'm sorry," he apologized, looking up at thr stars.
"I can't keep looking, I have to go back to work. I can't let him get ahead of me, I'm sorry,"
A small breeze flowed past, rustling the leaves around him.
"...I'll leave the shard here... Just by the off chance you all come back on your own, or I do manage to find you," he said, staring at the ground. Knowing the power it possesses.
Timeless sighed, taking one last stroll through the woods. They've grown a lot, but the shard had prevented them from overgrowing. Keeping the world in a similar state it was over a hundred years ago.
Timeless felt proud of his work, even if it all flopped in the end. It was fun while it lasted.
One last tour.
He portaled to each home, admiring his work and sulking at his failure.
Once done he headed back to the central clearing, pulling up the shard to direct the pillars down. If anyone were to pass by, it would only look like a normal natural place. No odd manmade pillars attracting attention.
Only he or an elemental can bring them back up, just in case either would return. The shard was safe here, there was no point for Timeless to take it.
"Goodbye..." He said solemnly as the glowing white ball descended back into the ground.
"Maybe this might flourish again..." Timeless opened a portal and left, not knowing when he'll ever be back.
If he ever came back.