The Primordial Record

The walk to the Mountain of Mourning was an enlightening one for Rowan because overhead the heavens were different, there were ten suns above, five were bright and five were dark, and they split reality in two.

In the north was total darkness, held totally by Calamity, and in the south was light, held by Ascendants. In this time the ten suns never set, their power kept everything in balance, and in the center that divided darkness and light was a region of twilight on which there were ten massive mountains.

Five of the mountains belong to an Ascendant power and the other five to Calamity. During this time there were five massive Ascendant Lines, all descendants of the Ascendant Suns, and they created kingdoms to foster new Ascendants for their bloodline.

Resembling a volcano, but with the top of it flat and with a circumference of a thousand miles, this massive mountain and the other mine could be seen rising into the clouds half a world away.

Shisu was the prince of one of the Ascendant kingdoms, called the Ganem Kingdom, after the Ascendant Sun, Ganem, whose light shone directly over the continent.

Shisu walked slowly, the palace was built directly under the Mountain of Mourning, this twilight mountain directly belonged to the Ganem family.

There were thousands of paths that led to the top of the mountain, three were reserved for the royal family, and as Shisu looked to his side, he could see on those thousands of paths were people, their numbers unknown, all flocking towards the top of the mountain, and because the people from all over the kingdom had been coming here for months, the top of the mountain had already been filled, and it was the massive pathways that were now being filled

up.

Some of them saw Shisu on the royal pathway, and the news spread across the people. Soon a riotous cheer rose that kept spreading and spreading until the Mountain of Mourning shook under the cries of the people for their noble prince.

Shisu shuddered in disgust, 'Maggots, worse, brain-dead maggots. How could I share similar roots with these versions, how can they breathe the same air as me?"

"My prince, are you okay?" Elves the general who came to bring the prince up the mountain looked at him in concern, but deep in his eyes, Shisu could see the suspicion inside of them and this made him curious and amused at the same time, of everyone here, apart from his mother, only the sack of hard meat seemed to peer a bit into the true thoughts of Shisu.

Shisu smiled at him and nodded before bringing one hand to weakly wave at the people cheering him, which brought a further round of greater commotion. His other hand hidden behind his back was squeezed so tightly that it was bloodless. Elves who were by his side saw this and he felt cold sweat down his brows, Shisu looked at him again and smiled, and the general knew that this boy had deliberately revealed the sickness in his heart.

Elves did not know if it was his imagination, but deep in the eyes of the prince he had seen red flames, that shone briefly before they disappeared, but he knew that the prince was supposed to be talentless when it came to Aura manipulation, and except for his great intellect he could not wield Aura.

His feet became frozen to the ground as he watched the frail prince follow the royal pathway up the mountain and he felt sick to the stomach. Something was not right and he could not point his fingers at what was wrong, if Shisu was no longer striving to hide the darkness in his heart then he must have reached a sort of threshold.

This detail felt very important and Elves felt that he was before a crossroad, and his next decision could either save or doom his entire world. Such a thought felt ridiculous but at this moment it did not seem like that to him.

He looked up only to see the prince had somehow made it nearly to the top of the mountain, and if he was not mistaken, his steps were steadier than usual. Elves did not think he had been lost in thought for that long and wondered how the prince had made it up to the top in record time when even with the magic embedded in these stairs, it would take hours.

A sudden panic seized his heart and Elves clutched his chest, and without thinking he began to run, knowing in his heart that he could not let Shisu reach the top of the mountain.

"Ascendant Sun, Ganem, give me strength. I do not know why my heart is about to break, but I know that there is a rot in the heart of Shisu. I shall kill him today, kill one of your great bloodlines, and whatever happens to me, I am willing to bear the consequences of my actions."

He put on speed and raced up the mountain, beginning to discard his armor, they were for defenses alone and they slowed him down. His panicked rush to the top was beginning to draw attention, but he did not care.

Except for the royal family, everyone else was forbidden from gaining a Natal Treasure, and Elves had secretly obtained a Natal Treasure in the past, and no longer thinking of hiding it, a pair of golden boots appeared around his feet and he sped up the stairs leaving a trail of silver flames behind him.

No longer caring if he was torn to pieces after it was all over, Elves reached the top of the mountain and his emergence was so loud that it drew the attention of the people around him, and because he was following the royal path, he arrived directly at the foremost area of the Mountain of Mourning where the royal family gathered.

Thousands of guards and the members of the royal family turned to him, including the king who first appeared surprised and then stunned when he saw the flash of gold and silver flames around the legs of Elves.

Elves looked around widely, not even hearing the angered cry of the king calling for his arrest and near immediate execution. His eyes finally fell on a slight figure standing by the side of the king, a slight smirk on his face and that peculiar red glow he had seen hidden inside his eyes, and Elves knew he had been tricked, somehow his judgment was clouded and he had made a mistake.

Roaring in anger and fear, Elves shrugged off the guards who had surrounded him and were attempting to subdue him. He drew his weapon, and began to charge toward the prince,

"Traitor! He is attempting to assassinate the king, stop him!!"

A loud cry erupted from the guards and they buried him under a tide of bodies. Elves' sword moved in a blur hacking bodies and shoving men aside as he was unknowingly screaming aloud, "He is going to kill us all, dear Ascendants in heaven, help me, he is going to kill us

all."

Shisu watched with a red glow in his eyes as Elves was butchered to pieces, the vitality in this general was ungodly, and he reached closer to his position than even Shisu had anticipated, drawing a slight trace of concern in his heart for a moment.