Kevin had experienced pain. The mortal one, as well as the spiritual one. To him, pain was simply an illusion which could be ignored and forgotten. Experiencing it, and then crying over it was a waste of time. But this time was different.

Piece by piece his soul was being ripped away from his body, as he watched his flesh disintegrating. His nascent soul couldn’t help but stare, as the immense energy released by the crystal slowly eating away at his body, turning it into dust. At the same time, the energy pierced him and the pain was nothing like he felt before. The pain shot through his very core. It was direct and brutal. Like a thousand hot knives being stabbed from inside or a million ants eating him. He couldn’t scream. He couldn’t cry. He couldn’t express. He felt trapped. He felt oppressed. He felt suffocated. He couldn’t do anything but wait, and watch. Watch as his body was being eaten away. Watch as his soul was getting stabbed and twisted. Wait and watch the agony of losing everything. His dreams were crumbling before him. Hope was shattered. His very dao heart was breaking, piece by piece. All was lost. He was dying.

The pain continued for what felt like an eternity. Time had long lost meaning to him, as he slowly numbed to the pain of death. He was indifferent to it. He was simply waiting for death to free him from this agony.

Time kept flowing. Minutes, hours, days, years had merged into an endless eternity.

In a small corner of endless space, a body was floating. Its features were fuzzy and unclear. But if anyone would come closer, they would notice the dull foggy, grey and white color - that of a soul. The soul kept on floating through endless space gradually moving towards a large wormhole. A thin energy barrier of unknown origin kept him safe from getting shredded by the powerful space storms. But the barrier was also slowly absorbing energy from space and refining the soul. Bit by bit, the soul was crystallizing. Small pure white crystals were forming over it and slowly spreading inside.

After few years, the soul couldn’t be differentiated from a large block of a beautiful crystal. The foggy white and grey soul was now a beautiful piece of crystal which very much looked like a man. It was so beautiful that it could only be sculpted by a god, for the Heavenly Emperor himself.

But on observing minutely, we would realize that the crystal was contracting. Slowly – Slowly, the crystal was decreasing in size. Small chunks of it would merge with each other, turning brighter and brighter.

Almost a century had gone by since the incident at the Immortal Estate. The floating soul had already shrunk from a meter and a half to a fist size piece of a circular crystal, radiant with bright white light which pierced through the empty darkness of neverending space. It was like a small sun, trying to light up everything in its path as it slowly approached the wormhole.

The barrier had long since vanished, and now space storms and such were battering it, trying their best to exterminate the foreign entity. But the same storms were slowly polishing the crystal into something more beautiful and more divine, like a master sculptor’s final touches.

Days rapidly passed by as it kept on moving faster and faster, getting attracted towards the wormhole’s gravity. And finally, eleven days later, it broke through the wormhole barrier entering its gaping maws and vanishing in the space-time.

Few googol light years away, was a large wormhole. It was hidden from the eyes and senses as it stood between folded space and time. Suddenly, a sun-like object escaped from the wormhole, piercing the space-time folds as if a hot knife slicing through butter, towards the world of Titania.

In a small forgotten corner of Titania, over the mountain range of Tedeum, the sky was ripped apart as a star fell. Blazing like a ball of fire, it fell over the Forest of Loputan as it announced its arrival. The earthquake followed by flattening several hundred miles around it. Large swathes of forest were reduced to ashes, while the mountain it covered burned like the Forges of Vulkan. The tall mountains and the green forest kept on burning for days and days, illuminating the southern sky orange. Molten rocks and metal flowed like a river, onto the planes, burning everything in its path. Millions lost their home as town after town, village after village turned into nothingness. Land planted with several acres of crops and herbs turned to nothing but lava, while the rest got covered in ashes of the dead and burnt. The ashes from the disaster, were no better. They buried everyone alive. The released poisonous fumes did the rest. Spreading over several miles, it poisoned the living and slowly killing them. Meanwhile the lava kept on flowing as the mountains kept on melting, turning the small flow of lava to a mighty river.

The neverending flow of lava finally forced the Heroes of The Empire to take action. They called forth their elements, trying to control the flowing river of hell. Water Mages summoned rains, while Wind Mages called over storms to cool the river down. Earth Mages created earthen barriers taller than hills to stop and divert the lava flow. Fire Mages with all their power tried to force the lava into obedience. Light Mages did their best in healing everybody while offering soothing words to the almost dead, while their counterparts Dark Mages, prayed and guided their souls to the River of Reincarnation. Mighty Swordsmen slashed the earth apart creating cliffs and hills to control it, while the Elven Bowmen called upon nature to turn their arrows into Immortal Forests.

Despite all their attempts, the River Of Hell, as it was named, didn’t stop. How could it stop so easily? From the very depths of space, it’s source had fallen, burning as hot as the sun itself. The humongous amount of mana in it further burned the earth around it.

Finally sacrificing their lives, they summoned the Gods themselves. Ruler of Elements and Controller of Heavens, the Eleven Gods finally stopped the River Of Hell, by summoning a storm larger than ever seen before. Rain fell for ten days, followed by Ice and Hail for another ten. Finally, the Burning Mountain cooled, and the River stopped. It froze under the ice and slowly turned into rocks, the only remnant of The Disaster Which Burned The Earth.

Days after it cooled, it saw a rush of Adventurers and so, who scoured the burnt earth for The Fallen Star and treasures which belonged to deep earth. But all their efforts were for naught. The mountain made of rocks and ores had been replaced by mountains made of metal, gems and cooled magma, which covered the burning crater and kept away all the trespassers. The treasures of deep had already melted or flowed onto the plains in The River Of Hell. Despite all this, adventurers kept on coming, and a few lucky ones did find gems or molten metals which were worth more than their lives.

Years passed by and the Burning Mountains were gradually reclaimed by forests, which were thicker and greener than the old ones, as new saplings grew on the corpses and ashes of the old ones. It was further infested with beasts and monsters who took over it due to the absence of humans. The plains were again taken over by humans, who enriched themselves on the newly formed volcanic plain. Miners found gems and metal closer to the surface. Farmers grew richer crops on the black volcanic soil. Business slowly increased as population increased, and slowly the City of Fire took birth. Spread over several miles, it wasn’t the largest nor the richest city in the Empire, but a haven for adventurers and hunters of all sorts. The humans tried taking over the foothills, but continuous attacks by beast hordes and monsters made them drop their plans. Foothills became the buffer zone dividing humans and beasts. Adventurers, Mercenaries, and Hunters would venture into the forests for beast skin, cores and claws while searching for Metal Ores, Gems and Mines.

Slowly a century had passed by as the common masses forgot about the disaster and moved on. Unknown to them, deep into the mountain, the falling star finally regained consciousness.