《Astral: Into the New World》Special Chapter: The Astrals
Advertisement
Astrals are an essential part of the Kingdom's military tradition, known as the Knights Hunting Season. It’s a yearly event held in the most powerful kingdom.
Astrals are known as outlanders or travelers from another world, who are separated from their original body and achieve new abilities known as astralis. The ability to self-heal in a short period, and have extraordinary flexibility. These potentials are lesser than the natural abilities of scaled people which makes them the perfect prey for the hunting season. They are weaker but will not simply die and are also potential fighters. However, not all Astrals are separated from their original body or travelers from another world. Astrals are also the descendants of previous travelers who use the forbidden portals to transition their physical bodies to astral form. These descendants are exempted to take part in the bloody hunt only if they did not inherit the gift of self-healing.
But long before Astrals become preys, and before the portals are being destroyed and forbidden, let us know how they became.
Thousand years ago, scholars and magicians built the secret portals beneath every citadel of each kingdom hoping to access the other worlds. The portals are a success but it never became a gateway to another world, instead it became the first teleporting medium across every kingdoms. The discovery became the easiest door to invade another kingdom which leads to the first known War of Kingdoms. Not only did it bring chaos but also brought an unforeseen power, the power to separate the body and the soul without dying. Therefore, the astral was known before as the new soul, a duplicate of the physical form only it was more than a physical body. And during that bloody war, soldiers line up to pass through the portals and duplicate themselves and even gain the ability of Astrals, the self-healing & extraordinary fighting ability. Thus, even with countless lives that suffer and died during that War of Kingdoms, more have survived. But they never knew one thing during that time, that once the physical body dies, the astral dies.
Advertisement
After the war, the 13 Kingdoms never really reconcile, but peace was brought upon all lands by the rules of the true conqueror, the winner of the war, known as the Noble Kingdom. For the peace to thrive, the Noble Kingdom orders its people to destroy all the citadels, and portals beneath them, and kill all the scholars and magicians that built them. Since then, the War of Kingdoms was put to last, and magic slowly fades. However… astrals… the remaining trace of that history are yet to be erased, and portals… some of those portals are mysteriously appearing…new ones, new portals that none has dared to touch for more than hundreds of years.
But as the Kingdoms and their people continue to evolve, the quest to hunt for blood and fights grows immensely. Then it begins with a seasonal fight called the Kingdom Rank, which occurs every 3 months of the year. Each Kingdom chooses its best killer, a single fighter that will determine their kingdom's rank among the 13 Kingdoms. Later, the rules austere, because only Astrals are fighting, and they hardly die, hence they let their physical forms joins the fight. It became a sport for less than a decade and was terminated because participants are all soldiers in their astral forms. And the majority of the kingdoms refuse to sacrifice their soldiers, no more. So, another game was formed, they called it the Academy. Unlike the previous hunger game, this annual event is the use of collective ingenuity or the participation of people to rebuild and remodel their Kingdoms. And all the kings will have to judge respectfully and acknowledge the community who has the best Kingdom building and will be reigned as the new Noble Kingdom which may or may not maintain its title until a new game is formed. This particular event, replace the consecutive title holder of the Noble Kingdom since the war, and the following fighting tradition. The new Noble Kingdom, however, was dethroned immediately, belittled, and disrespected because they are of a small community and is never been known even before the War of Kingdoms. Thus, the major population decided to bring back the vicious game- a fighting. They brought back the Kingdom Rank, so then Astral soldiers are dying one by one and the astral kind became rare, almost gone.
Advertisement
The fighting tradition was banned later on to avoid military casualties. But the current Noble Kingdom still aim to eliminate a trace of magic, particularly the astrals. The gifted descendants of their soldiers who used the portals to win the War of Kingdoms 500 years ago became their new target. Together with other astrals who came from the newly emerged portals, especially known as the summoned and little is known about them. Nevertheless, all astrals are hunted not for fighting games anymore but to become the perfect subject to hunt as part of military test to select the strongest knights.
Advertisement
- In Serial15 Chapters
Penance's Pursuit
This future sci-fi fantasy follows the progression of a few main characters as they navigate their unique spheres of life in the year 2242. The story focuses heavily on themes of guilt, personal failing, and penance. The conflict revolves around two main concepts: Man vs. Himself (Internal conflict) and Man vs Man (External conflict). The internal conflicts focus on many of the characters' inner demons and how each of them deal with the scars of the past. The external conflict centers around a mysterious criminal organization called Nexus that conducts human trafficking. There are three groups of main characters. The first group belong to a vigilante mercenary organization called Ab Aeterno. Titus, Venna, and Benjamin are Achilles team. This team is a part of Ab Aeterno's special forces branch which is designated Demon Stalkers. Their goal and mission is to perform assassinations, abductions, and destabilization operations on criminal organizations throughout the solar system. Their current mission places them directly in the path of Nexus. Titus interacted with them in his past and they seem to have unlimited reach, resources, and power. As the team faces this threat, old wounds will surface and dangerous connections to the past will emerge. The second group of characters are on the Mars colony. Randal Page is an analyst for a talent scout company on Mars. He is faced with the reality that the company he thought he was working for is in fact Nexus. His story centers around his coming to realize the duplicity of the company he works for and then his response to the startling realization of his own ignorant involvement. Also on Mars is a woman named FaRarra Njokko. She is a Nexus sex slave in a brothel on Mars and is known by the stage name of Stardust. She is striving to escape when her path crosses with Randal. The final main character is Preston Coretel. He is a monk with a mysterious and shady past. He is on the run from Nexus in more ways than one. He is seeking sanctuary on an abandoned monastery space station in order to avoid agents of Nexus and to atone for his previous involvement with Nexus.
8 213 - In Serial56 Chapters
The Pianist || MYG || ✔
World famous pianist Min Yoongis life fell to ruins after the death of his wife. .Despite his guilt, he couldn't keep away from the piano, but could not bare to touch it..This is the story of his journey on once again learning how to love.©chimchimicorn
8 479 - In Serial17 Chapters
Coralie and the Stupid, Cursed Pendant
Coralie Hugh is doomed to have terrible luck around magical artifacts. When a cursed pendant makes its way to her father's shop, it drags her on a bizarre journey to confront her painful past. Now she must face an arrogant necromancer, a vengeful demon lord, and a small legion of reanimated oddballs in a creepy basement before she can find her way home.
8 189 - In Serial8 Chapters
A Thief and a Prince (Inspired by Aladdin)
Nico is Prince of Atlantis. Percy is a lowly thief who is mourning the death of his mother. When Nico gets bored of the Palace life, what will happen when he meets Percy? Will Percy be enough to capture his attention. A Nicercy fic. Boyxboy. Don't like, don't read. Rating may change in upcoming chapters.NOTE: COVER NOT MINE, FOUND ON GOOGLE
8 149 - In Serial74 Chapters
Sara's (not really) Fabulous System Armageddon, Book I: The World Ended at Rush Hour
Planet Earth, Monday, October 7th, 2019. 18:30 * * On a fateful day, during rush hour in eastern North America, Heavens and Hell crumbled and fell from their higher dimension on Earth. It came from "above" but not the same above we regard in our tridimensional Euclidean reasoning. No, it came from "above" as in from a higher dimension. Bits and pieces of those places fell on Earth from all directions, this time in tridimensional Euclidean space. Satellites, the ISS, and space debris all were wiped clean from orbit. Even those that didn't crash with the falling debris were knocked off orbit by the shockwaves. On the ground, power distribution lines were disrupted and most power facilities were left abandoned by their dead staff. Most of these had emergency shutdown routines that engaged in a few days. Some others had a survivor among their staff that followed protocol and activated their SCRAM switches, stopping the power plant. Long-distance communication disappeared the internet along with it. The world was plunged into technological darkness. Nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand human beings perished immediately in the pulse of magical energy from the torn spatial boundary. Spirits were rent asunder and vanished, their fate neither salvation nor damnation, only oblivion. The criteria used for this culling was latent magic potential. It didn't discriminate against education, gender, age, or ethnic group. But of the around seven million survivors, most would meet their doom moments later. Those on moving vehicles, like the ones driving on highways suddenly had to contend with high-speed uncontrolled cars and trucks driven by corpses. Trapped in their vehicles and helpless, they became part of the long snake of crushed metal. Very few survived. Those in the air or out in the sea were alone and probably unable to control their rides. Airplanes crashed, and ships kept their course or drifted away, depending on their autopilot. Several ended their own lives in utter despair after seeing their loved ones die in front of them. Another large group would die at the hands of other survivors. Violence and aggression became the norm. Only a few sparse pockets of not-so-sane survivors managed to band together and cooperate for the sake of mutual survival. The sole survivor in a five-over-one apartment building in Georgia, a girl became the keystone to humanity's survival. Sara's fabulous System Apocalypse had just started. She has only one remark. It was anything but fabulous. * * Updates every Wednesday and Sunday. Cover V2 credits: CC-BY-SA Midjourney Cover V1 Credits: Consumed, Jennifer Hansen.jpg (CC BY-SA 3.0) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Consumed,_Jennifer_Hansen.jpg John Martin (public domain): - The Great Day of His Wrath - The Last Judgment - Le Pandemonium
8 87 - In Serial7 Chapters
Journey of Fate
When Alda is first presented with her wyvern companion, she has no idea what she's supposed to do with it. However, Alda soon discovers that the wyvern is not just any being; it is a player of great importance, and her journey will be fraught with danger. Along the way, she will form a close bond with her wyvern companion, and together they will face challenges that neither of them could have anticipated. Ultimately, Alda will discover that she is capable of far more than she ever thought possible, and that the bond between her and her wyvern is stronger than she could have ever imagined.
8 171

