•••

At the top of a floating celestial island lay a quaint wooden hut covered in bright green ivy. The cabin was inside of a small cave, with massive waterfalls cascading down into a pond in front of the shelter. Long lines of light vistas shone through openings of the cave, making a small adorable figure’s bright blonde hair all the more prevalent and lustrous.

This hut was the Pinnacle Elder’s, Astrallis’ master, humble abode. The long line of vistas was, in fact, the concentrated essence of the stars, gathered by an array placed by the Pinnacle Elder; this array was made specifically for Astrallis. Astrallis’ master used the most recherché of natural treasures, to gather the purest Astral Qi from the heavens. The gathering and formation of Qi are no longer important for the Pinnacle Elder’s realm; the Pinnacle Elder must now rely on comprehensions of the Primordial Way for further advancement.

“Astra’er, in the future you’ll be able to absorb essence from the Stars, Nebulas or anything relating to the Astral.” The Pinnacle Elder dotingly looked at one of the only joys he had left in life.

Looking towards the sparking magenta coloured eyes of the child seated at the centre of the array the Pinnacle Elder continued to expound.

“Currently you are not able to absorb this Qi, but I’m hoping that you’ll be able to garner some insights into the esoteric laws of the Astral Qi, and break through the final barrier – the pericardium”.

Astrallis nodded in response, not yet understanding the significant sacrifices the Pinnacle Elder has made for him; many of the treasures used for the array came from the Pinnacle Elder’s stash and using a little-underhanded bureaucracy he also managed to garner some riches from the Sect’s treasury.

Once Astrallis travels around the thousands of empires in the Augustin world, he will understand how fortunate he is, and engrave the kindness of his elders within his heart forever.

“Can you increase the intensity, Grandpa Doehring?” Asked Astrallis respectfully, but with a hint of eagerness.

Pinnacle Elder smiled and waved his hand in response to Astrallis’ question, Pinnacle Elder insisted on being called Grandpa by Astrallis. Doehring has never had any descendants, because of this, Astrallis means the world to him.

Responding to the wave of Doehring’s hand, the dark silver characters on the hexagonally shaped array began to rise and fall in intensity – much like a heartbeat – while smaller interlocking hexagonal shapes at the centre of the display started to spin systematically. The array instantly created disturbances in the surrounding atmosphere of the Ancestral Hall Secret Realm. Ethereal fairy-like creatures began to dance around the floating celestial island.

•••

Many younger disciples, who are allowed into the Secret Realm for a certain amount of time, looked towards the nymphs dancing around the floating island with reverence in their eyes.

“The Pinnacle Elder must have invoked an arcane runic array formation to create some disturbance.”

“As expected of the great master, one of, if not the strongest being on our planet.”

“My master told me that there hadn’t been any movement on that island for multiple centuries, it all changed when Astrallis Ether became his disciple,” Stated another disciple.

“Apart from the heaven-sent talent of junior-brother Astrallis, the baptism of Primordial Laws that the entirety of the Ethereal Grotto received as a result of his unorthodox birth is a kindness hard pressed to reciprocate,”

“During the time he was in the astral cocoon, with the Vita Fairy, formed by the Astral God we all experienced a nine-month-long baptism of laws. With this baptism, the strength of the sect has moved up manifold, everyone either formed new comprehensions or broke through to a greater realm. We are not the weakest of the four Holy Grounds anymore,” Stated a scholarly looking disciple.

“But, it is understandable why we were the weakest previously. In the first place, the population of our sect is less than half of the other Holy Grounds, due to being the most reclusive of the four. We simply do not need to expand our territory further, as the mountain range has all the resources we need. But, there are important benefits of our small demographic - we all have strong familial bonds. There has never once been a case of deserters or people with wicked thoughts within the grotto. A sect with a large population simply can’t have this.” The scholarly looking disciple further expounded with pride.

“That is the way.” The other disciples agreed in unison.

•••

Back in the floating island, the stream of astral vistas increased in intensity, at the same time the esoteric value of the essence surged manifold. Although many of the principles present in the laws are beyond the reach of Astrallis, just a glimpse of insight into the Way of Astral is all it will take for him to break through into the Qi-Gathering Realm.

The Pinnacle Elder had no idea what benefits Astrallis would receive when breaking through into the Qi-Gathering Realm, all he knew is that it would significantly impact Astrallis’ future achievements.

Inside Astrallis’ soul-space[1], an infinitely-small naked replica of himself sat, suspended-in-animation amidst the desolate void, pondering on the Astral Qi.

Gradually a disturbance formed behind the golden-angelical figure.

Two separate clusters of essence gingerly formed, one a blinding white the other a burning red. These two different Dark Nebulae expanded their intake of essence, seemingly competing against each other, sucking in all the light around them.

Each using a different method in which to absorb essence, but both at the same speed. In unison both clusters of essence invoked a raging tempest amalgamating into a ball of intense zealous energy; one small and pure white, the other large and red but lacking a solid hold of the firmament.

One White Dwarf Celestial Star.

One Red Giant Celestial Star.

A cosmic explosion of energy occurred between the centre of the two Celestial Stars.

Two scintillating beams of energy struck each other head-on, one elegant and refined the other tempestuous and colossal. One red and another white.

The two stars fought for hundreds of thousands of years; gradually the red beam began to fade intermittently; the white beam’s impetus was forever staying stable in the celestial heaven. Over the aeons, the stars had slowly formed sentience and further control over their power. The white beam of light forced the red beam back till there was nothing left to stop it.

The White Dwarf Star sent a last final resonance towards the Red Giant, “Quality will always trump over quantity; you may have had the largest amount of energy, but I’ve always had the most power.”

Realising it’s follies the Red Giant used its last dying dregs of energy to form multiple blackholes around itself, an innate feature of a giant star.

But how would the White Dwarf Star allow this to happen? The White Dwarf Star blazed with ever-growing white light and tore through the Red Giant, extinguishing its last vestiges of sentience, but not before it sent off a final resonance, “If I’m dying then we’ll go together”.

The White Dwarf Star was gradually pulled towards the black hole as the suction power was too intense.

As a last resort, the White Dwarf Star sent out its most potent attack, a terrifying beam of the pure essence with traces of Astral Qi inside, shot towards the blackhole sundering the black hole in half.

The black hole, not wishing to be destroyed, instinctively attached itself to the White Dwarf Star and surrendered itself to it. The White Dwarf Star, tragically dim, accepted the subservient blackhole and amalgamated with it.

The remnants of the black hole formed a celestial ring around the White Dwarf Star; this ring had nine miniature black holes absorbing the essence around the White Dwarf Star at a speed manifold to that of the previous unamalgamated White Dwarf Star.

This new White Dwarf Star broke through from its tribulation and formed a monstrously sizeable humanoid figure. The only distinctive feature of this figure was the bright, surreal golden-hair, the rest of the humanoids figure was shrouded in a misty haze.

While all of this was going on, Astrallis looked on, comprehending the profundities and the esoteric values of this incorporeal of creation and harbinger of death.

The indistinctive incorporeal form appeared in front of Astrallis. A jarring juxtaposition in size ever present. Its forefinger reached out and gently touched the front of Astrallis’ forehead.

At that moment, the experiences of this colossal battle of life and death coalesced into a small pure white small star around Astrallis, with a celestial ring enclosing it, and miniature black holes forming around it.

The incorporeal figure looked on; it’s golden hair brightening in approval.

The incandescent white star moved to the front of Astrallis, just below his navel, and entered him.

•••