There are stars that bless kingdoms.
And there are stars that end them.
The wise pray never to see the latter rise.
For when Heaven sends such a sign,
it is not to warn.
It is to conclude.
The Ancient Immortal Realms—current times
Fuxi fumbled in the dark. The ancient God of Culture had lit a torch before he crossed the barricade, but it extinguished as soon as he entered the frigid realm. As if even Light abhorred this place. As if even Hope had abandoned it.
Not until He returns. Not until everything you have taken from him is returned. Not until you have paid for what you did to him.
You will pay. All of you will pay.
Cold—the ineradicable kind, the kind that brands itself within memories and time—surged through Fuxi, and he shivered uncontrollably.
I am sorry. I am so sorry. I never expected...
He tripped over a loose stone. Forcing himself upright on trembling legs, he shuffled forward, hands outstretched, feeling his way through the darkness. At last, he reached his destination.
Peering through the deep, deep black, he could barely make out the jagged silhouette of the mountain, the murky outline of the yawning cave. A surge of hysterical laughter burst from Fuxi: part desperate hope, part sheer desperation. And he kept laughing as he staggered clumsily into the interior that was as gelid as the world outside.
Kept laughing until he reached the roughly constructed altar in the centre of the cave. Kept laughing as he dropped violently, painfully, to his knees and dug through the soft, sticky soil. Kept laughing as he reached into the hole and took the oracle out and flipped violently through it.
Kept laughing until he reached the page. Until he read what was written.
To summon the Calamity is easy; to send it away is hard.
請煞容易，送煞難
When this star descends, disaster is certain.
此星降世，定迎災滅
When this sword meets the light, it must see blood.
此劍見光，必見血
Blood will form rivers; corpses will rise into mountains.
血成河，屍成山
The present realm must perish; the reigning Emperor will fall.
現界須滅，現帝必敗
The previous Emperor awakens. The previous Emperor returns.
舊帝甦醒，舊帝歸
The laughter stopped.
Then, just as suddenly as the wild laughter had started, the tears gushed forth, the tremors seized him. Uncontrollable and raw.
Heavens. Heavens. What had they all done?! What had Tian-Di done?!
Fuxi slumped onto the ground, the weight of all they had done those years ago pressing him down.
One wrong decision, one tangle in the thread. That wrong led to more wrongs, and one tangle became two, four, six...
YOU ARE READING
A Love Beyond Time
Fiksi Penggemar"Sagiri." Shion turned to the young lady beside him, a soft smile of quiet bliss and wonderment adorning his handsome face. "Have you ever, ever imagined that things would turn out this way when we embarked on that assignment to Shinsekyo those year...
