Prologue

  The palace of Eripo, Goddess of Earth, rose like a mountain carved by the careful hands of time. Only, mountains didn’t glow with veins of living jade. Nor did they sing with the low hum of planetary ley-lines. Her palace was alive, every stone was grown rather than quarried, and every wall layered with ancient runes that whispered the forgotten secrets of the soil. It stretched endlessly into the ascendant skies, its highest spires vanishing into slow drifting constellations of floating stone and golden dust. Here, in the realm where mortals could not tread, Eripo cultivated.

  She sat cross-legged upon a throne of crystallized obsidian, her breathing so still she could have been mistaken for dead. Around her, the ground pulsed. Green-gold rings of aether orbited her form, each ring condensing down in tiered circles one after another. Sheer spiritual pressure pressed on the aether itself, forcing it into a dense liquid while it still floated in the air, and then fell into Eripo’s poised hands. With every breath, the shimmering droplets of impossibly concentrated energy sank into her skin, weaving into her essence, her very soul. Her custom gathering technique drew not only from the realm’s ambient aether, but from the ground. Every grain of soil, every root, every pulse of the rock and stone, every crystal and mineral settled down far below. They all shared their blessings with Eripo.

  The doors to her inner private cultivation room opened with the sound of stone against stone, raspy and coarse, despite the fact that no mortal hand had dared touch them. A figure entered, kneeling low. Even here, where every servant was a being who could shake worlds, they knelt as though the weight of the heavens pressed them down.

  “My Goddess,” the servant’s voice barely above a breath, “forgive the intrusion. I bring news from the Tower of Light.”

  Eripo opened her eyes, gemstone green orbs that glowed faintly in the darkness of the chamber. Her voice was soft, yet it rippled through the hall like an earthquake. “Speak.”

  “Her Illuminate, the Goddess Beldia,” the servant said, forehead still touching the floor, “has stirred. Her tower blazes once more. It is the first time in centuries.”

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  The spiraling rings of aether around Eripo flickered. She rose, her presence swelling until even the air seemed to bow. For a long moment, silence reigned supreme. “…So she wakes at last,” Eripo murmured to herself. Her expression softened ever so slightly. “And still, she carries her guilt, does she not?”

  They all did. Even now, after centuries long past, the memory of that day lingered. A memory that left a mental scar many times healed over, metastasized. They all mourned what had been lost, each of them. But Beldia’s grief, there was no doubt that hers had cut the deepest, carved into her like a festering undead wound that stubbornly refused to give in.

  Eripo dismissed the servant with a nonchalant wave of her hand. The Fifth Tier cultivator, who would have been hailed as an unshakable supreme being back the mortal worlds, backed away, grateful to have been allowed to leave with their connection to life left un-severed.

  The Goddess ended her cultivation, the coiling rings of aether orbiting her body suddenly dissipating into the air like heavy smoke. She rose and began to walk through her palace, her every step resonating with the very floor.

  Everywhere she passed, beings of terrifying power fell to their knees. All pressed their foreheads to the floor as her path crossed theirs. They whispered prayers, or offered reverent greetings, but she ignored them all. Here, power was commonplace, Supreme Aegis’, Celestial Generals, Lords and Ladies of countless lives, yet only six mattered in this realm. Six higher deities, siblings of sort, who had been the first to step into the ascended lands.

  Reaching the highest balcony of her stone fortress, Eripo stepped to its edge. From here, the impossibly beautiful view of the Ascendant Realm unfolded in front of her, showcasing an endless ocean of divine energy. The tranquil landscape was dotted with the thrones and fortresses of the gods, tucked into terrain. Among groves, shorelines, or mountains across its near infinite expanse.

  She extended her senses, piercing the veil beyond. Her gaze reached out to one of the worlds far below. The connection to her planet shone bright in her mind’s eye, and the network of faith-fed energy flowed exactly as intended. The world was stable, the structures they had built still serving their purpose.

  But her eyes were not on that world for long. Slowly, she turned her gaze to the radiant spire which situated itself far across the realm. The legendary ‘Tower of Light’. There, the divine aura of her sister, Beldia, shimmered faintly. So it was true that she was no longer dormant.

  Eripo smiled, the expression was faint, but warm.

  “It’s been far too long, sister,” she whispered out over the endless sky. “Perhaps… it is time I paid you a visit.”