Nine Paths of Asura-Original Wuxia

Chapter 11-Pillarfall and Unexpected Chance

In a room hidden inside the wall of a sheer cliff, there hung above the clouds, a screen made of white mist. On it were fantastic portrayals of events in a city, a town, and all manner of life. The ocean, the desert, and even the moon flashed by, perhaps a good portion of the world would be shown in due time. However, then the screen crackled-out. The all-seeing magic dispersed, as the misty screen's center was stabbed by cold metal.

A black sword penetrated a maid's silken chemise and opened a hole in her heart, thrusting her body through the rapidly fading screen of mist. The stunning vistas were shattered by her passage. Soon, the room was plunged from vibrant life, into darkness. As the woman died, she painfully smiled, enjoying the thought that her death was always part of the plan.

"You know the Mistress will never let you go! Not after what you've done here!" With a weak moan, she slid down. On the floor, she stared feebly at the ceiling, the smile fading. Her life was all but spent.

A white-robed man took back his sword from her chest and laughed without a hint of real mirth. Crimson stains slowly dyed the front of his shirt red with spreading blood.

"Let me go? As if I care about her punishment! When I'm done with this world, there won't be anyone left who can hold a hand higher than mine! The Mistress of Fate has always taught that she controlled everything, but tell me, after all these years, why is it that you lie here dying, and I stand here delivering your eulogy? Why is it that the lands, which you oversaw, are free of your cursed influence now? Man need not be born in chains at all. All that needs to happen...is your END! I will not be stopped by Gods, nor Goddesses, and certainly not by men or women. I will show you all what the true order looks like, and it is in no way so random as to allow the Mistress of Fate to have free rein over creation! It has been done before, and I mean to do it again. Man will be set on the proper path!"

"If we were to cut our ties...perhaps we would be immortal..."

It was hard to understand what the woman was saying. Perhaps the man didn't even catch all she was saying...

"You wish to follow in his footsteps, but you don't even know the beginning of his intent. You will see, when you meet the Mistress, remember what I told you and remember that I am laughing in the next life. You remember the words of The Unbound One. But do you remember how his dream ended? The destruction of an eons old age and the loss of millions of souls." She managed to choke out a few last words with her dying breaths.

Then her smile faded into the stiff mask of death.

The man tried to retort to her words but it was too late to have the last word. She was already dead.

"I'm sorry. But so long as the Heavens do not fall, nobody will see past the clouds in the sky. Nobody that is, except dreamers. This is my dream! As for Madraeyal... Madraeyal is not dead."

The man walked out. Whether he truly had regrets or not, there was no one to say. As he walked out, the cavern nestled inside the cliff, began to collapse. Towering spires and age old architecture fell indiscriminately. The entire cliff shook. Then the tip of the bluff crumbled off and left nothing but broken dreams.

While there was no one left in the room by this time, the screen of mist which had been shattered when the maid was tossed through it, displayed one last broken image. Somewhere, between the cracks in the shattered mist, a small province was shown, and in this province miraculous things were happening. An old man with kind hands stumbled upon a crying child clutching the bloody hands of its dead parents. Perhaps the old man took the child in. The screen flashed mercilessly onward without showing. A bright-eyed youth entered the service of an army, perhaps he was successful. A princess was locked in her castle, perhaps she escaped. Some man found true love, perhaps he was successful in keeping it. Each scene comes faster than the last, and the screen expends itself by the end, unable to show more as the rocks pile down. In reality, the cliff upon which this cave was contained, was a pillar holding up the Heavens. Now that it's master was dead, it could sustain itself no longer an crumbled to pieces. Yet despite such a catastrophe happening high above the skies, nobody living below noticed. It was like an invisible barrier blocked all the mortal's sight and hid the destruction of the Heavens.