The sun shone brightly, despite the fact that it was early in the morning. The birds were happily singing, and most animals were enjoying the abundant sunshine. Only the humans were running about, hurrying to places of work or going about running errands and so on.

There are five known continents on planet earth, which are habitable. Of these continents, two of them are cold to the extreme, one located in the northern hemisphere and the other in the southern hemisphere. The remaining three continents are the largest, and these are Laodicea, Euphrasia and Symirca. Laodicea is in the western side of the planet and Euphrasia is in the eastern side, from Symirca’s perspective anyways. Zimikhstan is located in Laodicea, and Aloha Island is under Euphrasian jurisdiction.

Now in the Euphrasian continent, in a country called Tibet, there is a monastery hidden in the mountains, away from prying eyes and worldly distractions. In the monastery, a monk was sitting on a mat with eyes closed, chanting a mantra. He looked middle aged, but he radiated a youthful vitality and a holy air that made one want to prostrate before him.

“Namo amitābhāya tathāgatāya tadyathā...” he spoke, before stopping and then sighing. He stood up and then left the courtyard, before appearing in front of a young monk who was waiting for him outside the courtyard.

The young monk bowed in greeting, but the middle-aged monk motioned him to stand up.

“Sacred Abbot, we have found the immortal”, spoke the young monk.

“Ah, that is great news. Why then is your countenance sullen, my child?” asked the abbot.

“The immortal appears to be an automaton.”

The abbot appeared to be thinking about something for a few minutes before speaking, “Is that so? And the prophesied apprentice?”

“Well...” the young monk hesitated, “The young man is only fifteen years old. He is still too young and inexperienced.”

“That could be a problem”, said the abbot, as he stroked his chin. He continued, “The prophesied time is almost upon us, and yet we do not have any defensive measures against it. Amitabha! Where is the immortal?”

“He is resting in the recovery room. We do not know when he will wake up, or if he will wake up at all. Sacred Abbot, we found someone else on the trip.”

“Oh, where is she?”

“She is waiting for you in your old courtyard.”

“Is that so? Let me go and see her then”, replied the abbot as he started walking down the hallway.

The young monk followed without saying a word, while the abbot seemed to be pondering on something. The two walked for some time before arriving at a courtyard, which was decorated with lotus flowers. The abbot knocked on the door, before it opened, revealing a girl with a blue dress and black hair. She had long black hair, which was tied neatly at the back. As the abbot walked into view, the girl gave a slight bow.

“Come on my child, no need for formalities. Oh, your hair has grown quite a lot. How have you been?” asked the abbot.

“I have been well, Sacred Abbot. How have you been faring ever since the incident?” asked the girl. Her eyes were black and whenever she stared at you, it looked as if she was looking deep into your soul.

“It has been quite difficult, but we have been enlightened and taken the steps towards a greater path”, replied the abbot as he went inside the courtyard.

The young monk bowed towards the abbot and the girl, before leaving. The door closed as the young man left.

“How has been your journey? Did you find what you were looking for?” asked the abbot, as he sat down.

The girl sat down next to him as well, before answering, “My journey has been well. I have been blessed with a helper and this has made the journey a lot easier. I found a boy.”

“Oh, is that so...” said the abbot, with a loud laugh that echoed in the empty courtyard.

“I don’t mean it in that manner, Sacred Abbot”, quickly corrected the girl.

“I know what you meant my child. I just wanted you to remember that you are no longer bound by our rules. When they came and took you away, we made a promise that we would let fate from the [heavens] run its course. If you decided to forget our teachings, we would not exact any punishment nor would we seek to disturb your life...”

“But--”

“There is no need. Currently there are pressing issues that need our attention. Fighting over worldly possessions and treasures is not our way. Remember the prophecy everyone was taught during childhood? It is about to be fulfilled!”

“What?! But how? And when?” asked the girl, quite shocked.

“Come with me, I have to show you and the boy something”, said the abbot, rising up.

The girl followed the abbot as they walked from the courtyard, into the dimly lit hall.

“Why him? I’ve been sent to protect him and I don’t even know why! What makes him special?”

“You will understand soon. Be patient my child”, replied the abbot.

They arrived at a room and upon opening it, waiting inside was Michael, Marjory and Ryan. All of them looked confused, with the exception of Ryan who was pacing back and forth.

“Would you mind explaining what you were doing at my house, Cora?” shouted Ryan, a bit angry.

“Good morning Engineer and Mrs. Avariz, I know you must have a lot of questions, but all will be answered in due time. Ryan, would you like to come with me? I have something to show you”, spoke the abbot.

“What is it?” asked Ryan.

“The future, and the past”, replied the abbot, with a smile.

“What about her?” asked Ryan, pointing at Cora who simply stood there looking downwards.

“She is part of the future, and so are you”, replied the abbot, as his smile widened.

Ryan became even more confused but ended up following up anyway. He had arrived home from his training routine, only to see most of the farm destroyed! At first, he thought he had have been lost; after all, he had been travelling ten meters with every step he took. However, he then saw what had been the barn and what remained of their house. This was when he was convinced that this was his grandfather’s farm.

As he walked around the smoldering remains, he ended up between two monks, a girl wearing a spandex suit and two robots. One of the monks seemed to be talking to one of the robots, and they reached some sort of agreement. The robots left and they took an oval shaped robot, which was badly damaged. Behind the monks, there was Myra, who just stood there motionless. His once pale blue eyes were completely dark, with no light emanating from him. The other monk who was holding the staff vanished, leaving the one with prayer beads.

The remaining monk explained what had happened, causing Ryan to be confused as well as to panic. The girl in spandex took off her mask and Ryan recognized her immediately! She was Cora Waterline, the girl who had transferred to her school! Before he asked what she was doing, the monk grabbed him and vanished! When he came to, he was in a room with his grandparents.

His grandparents explained everything in more detail, well, according to what had happened to them anyways. Even they had been confused when the army attacked, and when had been betrayed by George and June. However, what had caused them even more surprise was when a vortex appeared behind them and sucked them in, leaving them on Cloud’s peak. At first, Michael thought he had been dreaming, after all, he had woken up too early. However, Marjory had pinched him hard enough to convince him he was wide awake.

“What do we do now?” asked Marjory as Ryan left with the abbot.

“I don’t know. I guess we have to relocate somewhere”, replied her husband, with a sigh of regret.

“But where would we go? Derik had bought Aloha Island for you, remember?”

“Well, there’s always our home in Megapolis, we could go there”, suggested Michael.

Ryan walked behind the abbot, who was walking quite slowly. As they walked, Ryan’s anxiety mounted. Everything that had happened had left him more on edge than before. Finally, after taking various turns and stairs going downwards, the arrived at a room that had designs of lotus flowers on the walls.

“I am sure you have many questions to ask”, began the abbot.

Inside the room was a simple mat and a scroll enclosed in a glass container. There was also a mural displayed on one of the walls. Aside from those items, there was nothing else.

“Who are you? And where are we?” asked Ryan.

“I am called Heavencloud, and I am the abbot of this monastery. We are part of a society called the Order of the White Lotus. Right now we are in Tibet”, replied the abbot.

“Wait, Tibet? I was in Aloha Island less than an hour ago!” said Ryan, clearly shocked.

“You have started practicing cultivation, have you not?” asked Heavencloud.

“Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, we have teleportation talismans that can teleport the user to a marked place from here and vice versa. That was how you came here.”

“So why am I here?”

“The Order of the White Lotus is an interplanetary society whose sole mission is to fight any injustice against non-martial artists. Five thousand years ago, the monastery’s founding abbot came from the planet of the Celestial gods. He stayed on this planet but because he found the ki was too thin, he found it difficult to cultivate using conventional methods. Thus, he created a method that helped him to cultivate and break through realms,” he paused.

Ryan was a bit shocked to hear this story. He didn’t believe the middle-aged man in front of him was lying.

“The founding abbot was in secluded meditation one day, when he saw a vision. The vision concerned the future of the planet, and after using various divination and augury techniques, he found out that there are specific events that were to happen to signify the destruction of the planet. He then wrote down the details in the scroll. From that moment, our mission has changed. We were then tasked with finding and nurturing the seed of hope.”

“You still haven’t explained why I’m here...”

The abbot sighed deeply before continuing, “Be patient child, we are getting there. As we went about cultivating, we discovered a belt where ki was much stronger than every other place. However, some misguided individuals from a certain organization started building factories for manufacturing weapons right on top of the belt! That organization is called Cerberus, and I believe your father was part of it.”

“Wait, what? What makes you so sure?” asked Ryan, with mixed emotions. He didn’t know whether to be sad or angry.

“We performed our own investigations, and we found out that your mother is part of an organization of assassins called Sky Haven. The organization is part of Cerberus, but we do not know the reason for your father’s death. Since they were part of the same organization, there should not have been a reason for them to kill him.”

“You’re lying! Why would my mother kill my father? As far as I could tell, she loved him. She wouldn’t do this!” exclaimed Ryan, now he was angry.

“I didn’t say your mother killed him, did I? I simply said she is part of an assassin organization, which killed your father. Anyway, those are simply personal matters, which I believe require more investigating, and that is not our main concern right now. The entire planet is in trouble, so we have to make sure we are prepared for what is coming next.”

“Wait, you said ‘she is part of an assassin organization’... She’s dead. It was confirmed that she’s dead! That means whatever you’re saying is wrong!”

“She’s still alive”, said Cora, with a sigh of regret.