Four moons, one red, one blue, one white and one black shone in the night sky above a certain clearance in a certain forest. The woods were located on the southern side of a floating island.

The island hovered way up in the sky, so high the ground couldn't be seen at all. It also was a sacred ground, a place that was told to exist in many legends and myths: it was none other than Worldlords Floating Island, the island where the four Divine Kings resided!

In the clearance, a bonfire was lit and two people could be seen close-by: they were a young boy, no more than a child still not in his teens yet, and a young woman in her late teens or early twenties.

The young boy had sparkling, blue eyes and long, black hair. He wore sky-blue robes which exalted his beautiful blue eyes even more.

His eyes were now open wide and didn't blink at all as he watched the beautiful girl dance near the fire.

She had red skin, long, crimson hair, pure and dazzling red eyes and two rows of perfect, white teeth. On her cheeks were white markings of spirals and a lock of her hair was tied into a long braid that fell in front of her right eye.

A single golden feather dangled at the end of the braid. It looked like a pendant and shone with a warm golden light.

She wore a loose white undershirt, a pair of black loose pants, tightened around the waist. She had a generous figure: her bountiful chest perked up beneath the shirt while her rear end was enough to make countless grown men drool after a single glance.

She wore an anklet from which dangled beautiful green and blue precious gems that twinkled and emitted beautiful crystalline sounds whenever the girl's leg moved.

She was dancing beautifully and beads of sweat could be seen on her forehead and on her exposed arms. Still, as she danced, the fire seemed to dance with her, swaying left and right, up and down...

The girl's dance moves were really strange: each step seemed to be made according to a specific scheme, with each movement done in a way to ease the execution of the next. It apparently had some kind of order as it was so perfect it couldn't possibly be random, yet one could only guess where and how the girl's body would move only when it had already done so.

She made ninety nine steps, and then her body relaxed for a moment before resuming the beautiful dance that seemed to be able to shake the heavens the more her feet touched the ground.

At one point, the boy smiled widely and clapped enthusiastically "You are so good sister! You dance so well! You look so happy and beautiful when you dance like that!"

The girl stopped dancing and blushed as she wiped away her sweat and removed a strand of hair from her mouth. She then tucked the long braid, which had fallen in front of her right eye during her dance, behind her ear. She grinned at the young boy and latched her arm around his neck, grabbing him into a headlock.

"Why, thank you Ling'Er! Now, now, aren't you just such a gentleman!" She chuckled and messed up his long, black hair with her hand.

The boy pouted but didn't try to free himself. He then looked up as his eyes brightened.

"Sister... can you teach me that dance? It was beautiful!" The boy innocently tilted his head and his eyes sparkled. The girl seemed to hesitate for a while but then grinned and nodded "Sure!"

She helped him up "This is a dance which I created! In this dance, you become one with the flame. As you can see, the flames burn, rise and fall seemingly at random, and although the speed constantly changes, it is all within a certain limit! The fact that there is a limit means that it is not random!"

She lifted a finger and then explained "If there is a finite amount of possibilities, it means that there is a way to predict what would come out next! Taking into account the condition of its surroundings, it is possible to narrow down what a flame would move like and thus imitate it!"

She explained enthusiastically "Every movement is not random, but follows some sort of law! I stared at the fire for a long time and noticed this! And then... I created this dance!"

"Each movement is done so that the next step will be executed even faster! In the end, if you keep going even faster and each step is made so that the next would be even easier to make than the previous, you will move so quickly and smoothly that you will resemble a flame!"

The boy furrowed his brows and his expression darkened "So difficult..." his eyes lit up "Sister is so smart, to be able to understand all of that!"

"It is not that difficult, it just needs practice!" She smiled and lifted her right foot "Here! Look!"

She twirled in the air beautifully, her feet moved nonstop, arranging their movements so that the next step would be done much more easily than the previous: her figure could be seen clearly, yet could not.

It was as if she was leaving behind flaming afterimages, except they also danced with her. They did not seem to disappear, as the movements were so smooth that countless afterimages were created and then imposed on those that faded away, making them look like what was created was a single afterimage all along!

It was as if the flames had come to life, which made the dance even more hypnotizing and mesmerizing than it was before.

"Go on, try it!" The girl smiled as she danced near the bonfire.

The boy tried to imitate it, but failed miserably as he fell on the floor after a few steps. The girl burst into a laughter that sounded as if thousands of pearls were falling into the ground, that was how much beautiful her laughter was.

Meanwhile, the boy pouted "Ouch! Sister is so good, I cannot do it!"

The older girl smiled warmly and threw herself down on the ground. She crossed her legs and then pat on her thighs "Don't worry, you will get it one day! Come here!"

The child's eyes brightened with determination when she heard the girl's encouragement. He walked towards her, muttering to himself about how he would definitely be able to do it as he sat in her lap and closed his eyes.

The girl then proceeded to comb his messy, long, black hair into beautiful braids and she laughed when the child told her a few jokes and stories he had read in books his first, second and third siblings had gifted him.

"Now that I think about it, I've still not given you a gift for your birthday! What would you prefer? A book? But I gave you a book last year when you first woke up..." she sighed and the boy in her lap shook his head "I don't need a gift! Tell me some stories! Pleeease!!!"

"You really like stories, don't you?" The girl's eyes brightened and she grinned "Alright! I will tell you the very best story there is!" She caressed the boy's head and told him countless stories that she came up with on the spot, exhausting her imagination and knowledge to make it as original, funny and entertaining as she could.

At some point, the child would ask for some explanations and the girl would smile and kindly tell him whatever the boy wanted to know. The scene was absolutely heartwarming, if someone were to interrupt it, he would probably be cursed by the heavens.

That was probably why the three people hiding in the woods couldn't help but look and not interfere as they smiled bitterly when they saw what was happening.

The figure of a woman leaned on the trunk of a colossal tree. The woman seemed to be in her late thirties, yet her exotic and somehow feline traits made it difficult to guess her real age. Her figure was generous, although not quite on the same level as the girl with red skin next to the bonfire.

She had white whisker marks that stood out on the dark skin of her cheeks. She had long white hair that had a slight black hue here and there, resembling black stripes. Her eyes were completely white and she wore a white tribal dress with animal bones adorning it.

She extended her left arm and a bird with black and golden feathers landed on it. It was absolutely astonishing, resembling a feathered dragon and emanating a huge pressure that could make the clouds churn, the land crack apart and the heavens surge.

Yet, that powerful entity was nothing but a small pet in the woman's hands. It was as if he was but a mere subordinate, yet he harbored no malcontent and instead looked very happy to serve such a person.

The girl smiled and scratched the bird's neck as it rubbed its beak against the woman's nose lovingly.

She turned and looked at a bald man who was silently standing a few meters away from her. She patted her shoulder and the bird immediately obeyed, jumping from her left arm to her right shoulder.

She approached the bald man: he looked like a man in his young twenties or even late teens, had bright yet complex blue eyes, that seemed to contain all the rivers and oceans in the world.

An azure dragon had been tattooed on top of his bald head: it went all the way down his bare back and apparently continued below the clothing as it appeared once more way below, twisting around one of his ankles.

He only wore few garments: one was a pair of pants that seemed to have withstood the test of time and emanated an aura of rot, yet did not dare to, as if it wouldn't be able to rot in the presence of such an Heavenly Being.

Another was a pair of worn-down, green, bamboo sandals. They did not seem special at all, but few knew just how much of a godly item they were: they could in fact teleport the wearer from a water surface to another, as long as no ripples appeared on the surface!

He also wore countless necklaces and bracelets from which dangled a countless amount of perfect, sharp, white teeth. They were all simple teeth, and yet their aura was also one that could rock the land and summon lightning.

It couldn't even be imagined the power of the owners of those teeth, let alone the one who had supposedly killed them all. For some reason though, the teeth seemed to fear the bald youth and tried their hardest to contain their aura and act like good, harmless teeth.

The woman approached and smiled "They are so cute, aren't they, Little Three?"

The bald youth's gaze grew warm as he looked at the red woman together with the young child. He nodded "To think that we had made the right decision by saving that human..."

""Right Decision? Saved that human?"" A tall and burly dark skinned with white hair scoffed and two voices, one low and powerful, the other one high pitched and slithery, superimposed each other

""We did no such thing. It was Hong'Er, and her alone who acted at that time, we simply stood still and watched as she saved him from a destiny worse than death...""

The bald youth's face darkened as he sighed "That is right... And now she is happy. Much happier than she has never been with us before, you can see it simply by looking at her..." He shuddered "I wonder what would have happened had she not met him. I fear she might have lost her reason to live then, after she received the news that her mother, Lady Phoenix, had died... It had already been centuries, millennia even, but she had been on the verge of breaking apart ever since the , without showing any sign of recovery..."

The bald youth looked at the young boy lying in the lap of the red skinned woman, affection and appreciation could be seen clearly in his eyes "It is all thanks to the child that she looks so well now. I really do not know how to thank him enough"

As the three of them spoke, the red girl was laughing as she tickled the boy in her arms, oblivious to the three other people who were watching them.

The woman with the bird on her shoulder shook her head "Yeah, I know that, and I feel thankful towards the boy. But... is this truly alright for her? I mean, he is a human. Won't he just die in the future and scar her forever? Who will prevent her from breaking then? And there is also the problem of that prophecy... Elder Brother, when will we remind her of the Prophet's prediction about that person who could very well be that boy?"

The dark skinned burly man shook his head ""Let's just leave them alone for now. Even if only to leave a smile on her face for as much time as possible, We think we should let them do as they please. When the problem shows itself, we will deal with it then"" he lifted his head and looked upwards.

""Let their illusion of happiness go on for a little longer. After all, this is merely a dream, that a human and one of the Divine Beasts would get along like siblings is but an illusion that time will slowly unveil. Let them bask in happiness. Who knows? This dream might even turn into a good one, a pleasant memory that she would be able to wander in when she feels alone...""

"Or a nightmare that would keep her awake at night..." the woman sighed with emotion.

The bald youth and the burly man stood silent. The sound of the fire crackling and the snores of a child and a young woman could be heard in the clearing as the two fell asleep.

""Enough!"" Finally, the dark skinned man scoffed ""We should let her do as she wishes. She is, after all, our Fourth Sister! She is none other than Ren Hong, she is the Fourth Divine Beast, the Divine Fire King, the Vermillion Bird!""

...

"... No... Stop..." Cheng Hao grabbed his head as the woman's figure appeared in his memories over and over. His mind wavered as he struggled to keep those images out of his head but then he lost control...

A bright red light appeared in his consciousness as his mind... Began to crack!