The woman floated in the sky, looking down in horror as the Metal Giant rose from the blood-red mountain. The grinding of metal and clicking of gears echoed across the world, sounding like the screams of millions of lost souls. The Metal Giant stepped from the top of its peak, and its many sword-like legs pierced deep into the earth, stripping and draining it of life, as thousands of waving, silvery tendrils scoured the sky of clouds.

The Metal Giant Roared again, and thousands of tall, steel pillars rose from the ground. From the pillars' tops, an endless stream of fire and destruction rained on the world, burning both newly build, shining cities and ancient, impenetrable fortresses to the ground. All around, she saw people screaming, running... burning. Ancient Cultivators tried to hide behind their Formations and Great Walls. But the fire ate away at their defenses until they, too, crumbled. Great Mages stood on the branches of their "World Tree," slinging spells and curses at the Metal Giant, but to no effect. The Creature gave another roar, and a pillar of black flames fell from the sky, utterly consuming them and their Tree.

Even the 'gods' descended from their City beyond the Firmament, but they too fell, one by one, their power used to fuel the Giant as it rampaged from atop its mountain. Again, the Metal Giant roared, and from the Mountain crawled millions of tiny metal men. The metal men marched across the land, never tiring, never sleeping, slaughtering everything that crossed their path. Like a silver wave, they washed over the earth, filling the cracks and crevices that the great steel pillars could not reach with their fire.

Those that tried to hide, those that tried to resist were crushed beneath the wave. Yet some did neither, but rather bowed down to the Metal Giant, begging it to spare them. The Metal Giant roar again, and the people who bowed down transformed, becoming metal men themselves, adding their numbers to the slowly growing hoard. Still, it wasn't enough; the Metal Giant seemed to be insatiable; it wouldn't stop until everything in the world had bowed... or burned.

One last time, the Metal Giant roared, and the very world seemed to scream. Thousands of beings rose from the ground, beings made of fire, water, earth, and air. As one, they cried out in sorrow and pain, and then it happened.

The Firmament, which for countless Eons had stood immutable, cracked.

The cracks started off small but soon grew in size and number as the Elementals' screams increased as well. Soon, the entire sky was filled with spiderweb cracks, and the Firmament as a whole began to tremble. The woman stared, her mouth agape as tears streamed down her wide eyes. She shook her head and fell to her knees, mind unable to process what it was she was seeing. It was then that the woman felt a strange sensation like she was being watched.

Her eyes fell from the sky and turned to the Metal Giant's direction. Her gaze didn't linger on the Giant but instead turned to the Mountain itself. There, covering every inch of the mountain, millions upon millions of faces stared back at her. It was then that the woman realized the Mountain was no mountain of stone and rocks; it was one of corpses. Millions of faces stared directly at her, some filled with bitter hatred, others with unending sorrow and confusion, and still others grinned a dark and malicious grin that stretched from ear to ear, as if seeing some foul criminal finally meet their end.

The woman found herself unable to turn away from the eyes staring at her, only slowly back away, the tears unending as she shook her head in both fear and regret. Suddenly, there was a loud cracking sound, and pieces of the Firmament broke away. Restrained no longer, the very Sun itself seemed to roar along with the Metal Giant as it flared to life.

And the entire world burned.

Amari Mitsuko awoke with a bloodcurdling scream.

She shot from her meditation to her feet, eyes wide as they darted around the room. Her breath came in shallow drags as her cold, clammy skin was soaked in sweat. The meditation room door burst open as several similarly Nuns rushed into the room, weapons ready.

[Guard Captain Nun]: "Abbot Amari! What happened?!"

Amari Mitsuko stood in silence, trying to calm herself down. After a long moment, the woman stood straight and looked towards the guards with the stoic and calm expression she was famous for.

[Amari Mitsuko]: "Everything is fine, Captain. Just a small mistake in my meditation, nothing to be alarmed about. Return to your post."

The Guard Captain stared at the Abbot with doubt, not missing the woman's pale, sweat-slick skin, nor the slight tremble of her hands beneath her robe. That must have been some "small" mistake. Besides, since when did Amari Mitsuko, of all people, make "mistakes"?

[Guard Captain Nun]: "But Abbot, I..."

The Abbot simply raised her hand and silenced the Nun.

[Amari Mitsuko]: "I said I am fine. Do as I say."

The Guard Captain hesitated for a moment more before bowing and ushering the other guards out of the room. When the last Nun had left, Amari Mitsuko let out a deep sigh.

[???]: "Was it the same dream as before?"

The Abbot looked up to see a young, pale-skinned woman in a stylized Monk's robe. She leaned up against the door frame, her arms crossed, as vibrant, golden corkscrew locks fell across her cute, if babyish face.

[Amari Mitsuko]: "... Isabelle. I'm glad to see you've returned. Do you have any news?"

Isabelle Sundkvist, Spymaster and Elder of the Shanti Oni Monastery, as well as the Abbot's right-hand woman, gave a dramatic sigh and threw herself on the bald monk woman, clinging to her and whining in a childish voice.

[Isabelle]: "Miiiitsukooo!! It was terrible! All those old, smelly priests and their Elemental Fetish! Please don't make me go back there again! I'll even put up with Medved and his merry band of freaks before I go back!".

The Abbot looked down at the whining woman with a frown and spoke with a commanding voice.

[Amari Mitsuko]: "Isabelle..."

Isabelle slid to the floor and remained silent.

[Amari Mitsuko]:"....."

With a sigh, Isabelle stood and dusted off her robe before giving Mitsuko a pouting look.

[Isabelle]: "*sigh* Fine. You're no fun recently, Mitty. To answer your question, No. They defiantly know something, though; all six temples are in a buzz. But they're super hush-hush about whatever is going on. Not even I could find anything out. The Earth Temple has even gone into complete lock-down. Though I guess, that's a given, since it seems Jīshí was the first to find the Artifact."

[Amari Mitsuko]: "What of the other Primas?"

Isabelle shook her head and shrugged.

[Isabelle]: "Not a clue. Like I said, hush-hush. I'm not even sure if Jīshí has even spoken to her siblings in... well, centuries now. Hell, she barely makes contact with her own Temple anymore. I'm not sure if they're somehow involved with what's going on or if they're just reacting. Doesn't sit well with me, though. This kind of 'not knowing'..."

The Abbot went silent and started to pace around the room, lost in thought. Isabelle stood there, examining her nails in silence. After long years the woman knew when Mitsuko got like this; she was oblivious to the world. After a long moment, the Abbot sighed and returned to her meditation mat.

[Amari Mitsuko]: "Be prepared to head out again soon. We've got word that the Mana Addicts have issued a Summons. I want you there. For now, though, head home and rest up. And welcome back."

Isabelle cheered and hugged the annoyed woman again before standing and skipping towards the door. She stopped at the frame and asked in a serious voice, not even turning around to look at the Abbot.

[Isabelle]: "... You never answered my question though, Mitsuko... was it the same dream?"

The Abbot was silent before answering in a low voice.

[Amari Mitsuko]: "...Yes."

Isabelle leaned up against the door frame and asked, half to herself.

[Isabelle]: "What does it all mean? This dream... How long has it been since you first started having it?"

Mitsuko closed her eyes and sighed.

[Amari Mitsuko]: "As...long as I can remember."

Millennia. Even before she had started Cultivating under the Abbot of the now disbanded "Firmament's Foundation Monastery."

Isabelle twirled around; for the first time, her baby face marred with real worry.

[Isabelle]: "But why now?! What does it mean?! I thought we finished this with the City o..."

The woman croaked and coughed up blood as the restriction rune on her throat, flared to life.

The Abbot looked at the coughing woman and shook her head.

[Amari Mitsuko]: "I don't know. I thought it was over as well. That's why we did what we did. Why we convinced the previous Abbot to do what had to be done. We couldn't let these things come to pass, no matter what it costs. And yet, even after a sea of blood was split, nothings changed. What did we miss?"

Isabelle shook her head and answered back, her voice a little hoarse as she rubbed her sore throat.

[Isabelle]: "You tell me, Ms. Prophetess. But I don't like it. If we DID miss something or someONE, then things could get very complicated or both of us. My hands are far from clean, but that doesn't mean we can just let this happen. Mitsuko, we... we might need to tell someone. If worse comes to worst, this is beyond either of us."

Amari Mitsuko looked down into her hands; the powerful and mysterious Abbot of the Shanti Oni Monastery disappeared. In her place was the frightened little girl, abandoned by those who couldn't understand her power, that a little blond-haired street urchin and her older brother had found so long, long ago.

[Amari Mitsuko]: "I... no, not yet. We can't burden anyone else with this. Not again. Double our patrol squads. I want as many resources as we can siphon going towards searching for the Artifact. If even an ant whispers about a rumor he heard from cousin's friend's brother, I want to know about it."

Isabelle simply nodded turned to carry out the order.

As she turned to go, however, the Abbot called out to her again, her voice once more commanding,

[Amari Mitsuko]: "Oh? And Isabelle? I believe I've spoken to you about our dress-code before..."

The baby-faced Spymaster stiffened before making a mad dash for the hallway.

The Abbot didn't even bother to stand; she simply waves a hand in the air.

Another bloodcurdling scream filled with sorrow once more echoed through the halls of Shanti Oni Monastery, then silence.

A few hours later, the young Initiates, sent about their daily chores of cleaning the halls, would question among them themselves where all the strands of golden blond hair had come from.

On a certain Mountain range in the Northern Skybreaker Continent.

[Alpha] - "HAHAHAHA! VICTORY!"

Alpha raised the small sliver of metal into the air in triumph.

He was surprised to hear a slight jingle and see a small blue box pop into view, as he did so.

Congratulations!

You have Obtained: 'Unknown Metal Fragment' x 1!

You've gained 100xp!

You've gained 1 Level!

Alpha stared at the sudden window in front of him before sighing and dismissing it from view.

[Alpha] - "Stop screwing around! I have work to do!"

As Alpha turned his focus back to the metal fragment, a certain Targeting Sub-AI sulked in the corner of his mind.

Getting back to work, Alpha focused his sensors on the fragment and ran several rudimentary tests. His equipment might have been primitive compared to what he usually worked with, but now that he had a small enough sample perform spectral analysis, he could start making plans.

It seemed the Biometal was mostly comprised of Copper (big surprise) and was alloyed with a blend of iron, zinc, tin, and carbon, all held together by an interwoven lattice of organometallic compounds that basic biology (and chemistry for that matter) said shouldn't be able to exist. The whole thing was permeated with the strange radiation that he kept detecting when anything went...funky, around here as well.

All in all, the alloy was unimaginably durable, able to withstand temperatures nearing the core of a planet, and was one of the most conductive substances he'd ever seen (now THAT gave him some ideas). It might not have been as impressive as some of the military-grade metals and alloys the Federation had access to, but its properties would have made it a hot seller on the Civ market.

The best part, though, was that the metal seemed to react to OTHER metals around it. Specifically, it could absorb and assimilate other metallic compounds into its structure, similar to cold welding. Strangely though, this seems to only be possible when saturated with the strange radiation. Once the radiation dissipated, the metal would no longer accept any new material.

For now, though, Alpha's plan was to use this small sliver to fashion a cutting tool. Once he had a means to reliably cut and shape the metal, it would be time to get to the fun part.

It was time to Level up!