Book 1: Chapter 21

“Kara!” Unable to hold back his emotions, Baccaus flung himself towards the golden glowing figure. Baccaus tried to embrace her but felt himself grasping at thin air. The golden glowing figure’s body bursted into motes of light then reformed shortly after.

“I’m sorry, Baccaus. I am so sorry.” The golden glowing figure gave Baccaus an apologetic look as several more tears silently slid down her cheek.

“No, don’t be!” Not even checking to see if what stood in front of him was real or fake, Baccaus lost all sense of rational thinking when it came to his beloved. “I am okay. Don’t cry Kara--tell me what’s going on. How did you come to be here? Am I seeing things? Is this a realm where the dead goes?”

Kara wiped away her tears and smiled at Baccaus. “How you came here, or even how I came to be here, I do not know. All I remember were my final moments in life and as if blinking, I woke up in this darkspace. I, I do not even know if I am real.” At this point Kara sighed before continuing. “At first, I was confused and a bit scared. But then I grew curious and began to marvel at the wonders that this darkspace holds; what it is. You see, this whole darkspace is beyond the sky and clouds. It is the legendary realm that the wizeneds refer to as outer space.”

“Outer space?!” Baccaus was shaken. Outer space was a place where even dragons could not reach. It was a legendary realm that had always remained a mystery. Outer space was a place that those of the highest ranks in Nakrul sought to visit because of a record written down in the book of the wizened:

2017 B.I. (Before Invasion) all the elements gathered and the laws are reinforced. The sky drew close to Nakrul. Mountains pierced the sky. The sun closed its eyes. Darkness. Darkness. Darkness. The Legendary Saints and perfect elements have transcended spacetime, reaching a higher plane of existence. They have gone into the stars. Left behind are two words by the saints: Follow Us.

Because of this record, the ultimate goal of mages and high ranking beings alike is to reach the legendary outer space. However, it has been a long time since anyone has made any progress on this goal. In fact, much less reaching space, it has been a long while since anyone has been able to traverse pass the rocky mountains that seem to imprison all of Nakrul’s life forms. By now the endless sea abundant with water elements as far as the eye could see had simply become a simple myth.

After his initial shock Baccaus said: “Are you sure about this, Kara? If it is outer space then what marvels are out here that the Legendary Saints of old would beckon us to follow them?”

Kara shook her head and replied: “I am not entirely sure what mysteries lie here in outer space, but there are a few things I have discovered. First, there are absolutely no elemental particles here in outer space at all. There are only the four saint elements here: Space, Time, Life, and Death.”

Baccaus nodded as he had realized this point upon entering the darkspace. He didn’t think much of it until now, but it really was odd that no other elements were present. Even in extreme environments or specially designed pocket spaces, traces of other elements would be present but here not even a speck of the other elements were present!

“Second,” Kara continued as she observed Baccaus’ pensive look, “Time move at varying speeds here and it is not consistent with the timeflow that we know of on Nakrul. I know this because I can feel the life particles decay exponentially faster at times and likewise feel their decaying process slow down to a crawl at times. There seems to be no pattern to these fluctuating periods of time but time is mostly in a slower state here compared to the time in Nakrul.”

Kara paused but Baccaus did not say anything so she continued. “Third, I found that the space here is also affected in that it’s not completely stable. The space here is not in danger of collapsing but it warps from time to time, making traveling a short distance longer than usual and traveling a long distance shorter. Of course, this doesn’t happen all the time but it’s happened enough time for me to realize this.”

“Fourth,--”

“--Kara, how long have you been in here for?” Baccaus interjected with the question that has been gnawing at him for a while now. “You said time here is different, so how long have you been in here for? Since the time your spiritual core essence merged into Cyil’s body it’s been three years in Nakrul. If time usually moves at a slower rate here then you shouldn’t have been here long, right? All by yourself...”

Kara saw the worried look on Baccaus’ face and she smiled. “Since I woke, I can say with a degree of confidence that I’ve only been in this place for a short while.” Kara had actually been in outer space for 13 years, but she wouldn’t tell Baccuas that, lest he worry even more. Not to mention, although 13 years wasn’t short for a mage it wasn’t too long, too considering they could live for several hundreds of years.

Baccaus frowned, but didn’t press the matter any further with a smiling Kara in front of him. “We have many things to discuss, Kara. This boy named Cyil and why your spiritual core essence choose him. And many other things. I want to tell you everything since that time.”

Kara continued to smile and once Baccaus finished speaking she faintly said, “let’s do that, Baccaus. But first I have to tell you something vastly important.”

At this point Kara’s gaze turned serious and her smile was replaced with a frown. Before Bacaus could say anything Kara continued. “When I awoke here, I found that I was not the only one here. In fact there was something--someone--here long before me and that entity calls itself the Death God!”

“A god?” Baccuas mumbled in utter disbelief. “Gods are those who have reached beyond rank 10 and stepped into the realm of godhood. No one knows where gods disappear to after reaching godhood. They just simply vanish. The book of the wizened has only recorded 4 instances of a person reaching godhood: Megomn, god of water. Rimos, god of wind. Ronas, god of light. And finally, the most recent one is Ekdis, god of earth. There has simply been no instance of a saint reaching godhood, much less a Death god. That would be terrifying.”

Kara shook her head. “I understand, what you mean. This entity is definitely not a god of Death, but is something infinitely close to reaching godhood. Its form is similar to mine right now, meaning it is in soul form. This should be the soul of a Death Saint who has lost their physical body, yet has still manage to keep a shred of their soul alive. As for who this Death Saint was or how they managed to keep a shred of their soul alive to bring here, I do not know because this entity only appears as a gray mist.”

Hearing the description ‘gray mist’, Baccaus instantly thought of the gray mist Cyil mentioned after his first time meditating. Consequently Baccaus also thought of the darkspace Cyil described and the eerie similarity between the place he was in now and the place that was described by Cyil were startling! Could there really be a connection? Such a coincidence? Baccaus thought up to this point and began to believe in his conjecture.

“By any chance,” Baccaus began, apprehensive about the answer he would get, “did you see a little boy, no, a young man enter this dark space and meet with that gray mist?” Baccaus felt that there was a low possibility but he had to ask anyways and to his surprise, Kara gave him a startled look.

“Yes I did! It wasn’t too long ago, too. I was following the gray mist around and trying to communicate with it, when it suddenly darted away. Seeing as the gray mist hadn’t responded to anything except repeatedly telling me its name I quickly followed it and found that it was swallowing up a young man. The gray mist was not exactly harming the young man but I could sense the vicious intention behind its actions and was about to intervene when the man woke himself up and dispersed the gray mist. After that, I smiled and tried approaching the man but he took a step forward and simply vanished.”

Kara said everything in one breath and the excitement inside of Baccaus grew as she recanted her own experience. It was an exact match with Cyil’s own experience!

“Incredible,” Baccaus couldn’t believe it. Such amazing things was unheard of! How in Nakrul did this come to be?! Baccaus couldn’t make out how this could have happened. He knew this was an astounding discovery but Baccaus remembered that he had other matters he had to take care of.

“Kara, quickly, how do I get out of here? That young man you saw, he’s called Cyil. Right now he’s in enormous danger. The Lightning Emperor is after him so I need to get to him right now. I do not know how I ended up here but I need to leave to save him.” A pained look was on Baccaus’ face. Perhaps he would never want to leave this place if Cyil was not in danger, but as the matter stands he had to get out.

“The way to get out…” Kara shook her head. “I do not know of any ways to get out. There is only endless darkness in this darkspace. I’m sorry Baccaus.”

Baccaus sighed. He wasn’t upset that Kara didn’t know. Rather, he was secretly a bit happy because he could spend more time with Kara if this was the case. “I felt a powerful shockwave some time ago. I was heading there when I ran into you.” Baccaus smiled. “I’m glad I chose to follow that shockwave to its origin. Kara, do you know what caused that shockwave or where it is?”

“It’s the gray mist. I was following it when it suddenly condense and as if excited, the cacophony of voices began to shout: ‘I’m free, I’m free at last’.”

“Free?” Baccaus asked in surprise. “Were they sealed here?”

“They, it, he, I am not sure but after a short while of condensing, the gray mist had become a solid gray crystal that stopped moving.”

“That’s odd. Have you tried to see what the crystal is?”

Kara shook her head. “I could not even approach the gray mist much less the gray crystal. There seems to be a force that doesn’t let me approach it.”

Kara had accurately surmised the cause, but she didn’t know that the gray mist also could not approach her, too. Otherwise, it would have attacked her long ago.

“Can you take me to the crystal?”

Kara nodded and led the way. Baccaus followed, staring at the back of his loved one, his head fell in turmoil and heart in chaos...

Soon, Kara and Baccaus could see a tiny gray speck faintly glowing off in the distance. Kara stopped. “This is as far as I can go.”

Baccaus nodded and took a step forward so that he was standing next to Kara then he took another step forward and nothing happened. He was not repulsed backwards or rejected. Baccaus glanced back at Kara and she said, “be careful.”

Baccaus nodded once again and assured Kara. “I’ll be back soon.” With those words being said, Baccaus flew at a steady pace towards the gray crystal and left Kara behind.

As Baccaus drew closer to the gray crystal a feeling of despair began to creep on him from all sides. The feeling grew so that it soon became physical pressure silently attacking Baccaus. Despite the increasing pressure, Baccaus maintained a calm face. This much pressure could not shake him and would at most force him to divert extra attention to guarding his mind.

Quietly, Baccaus approached the floating gray crystal while thinking of all the things it could be. Baccaus proceeded smoothly until his eyes widened and he viciously accelerated towards what he had seen in the gray crystal. Baccaus couldn’t believe what he saw. From afar he couldn’t see it clearly but as he had approached, he could now make out what was in the gray crystal. There was something encased inside of it and it was none other than the person he needed to save, Cyil!