Lucian thought about everything that he did so far. He pulled out an orb, the same kind Ren had and injected a bit of qi within the orb. He looked through his own memories, seeing if he could get any hints of what is to come and what might repeat itself. ‘Dammit… Why is it every time I try to make things right, everything goes wrong?’ he thought to himself. ‘I still don’t know how the bad things will hit us or when…’

Now that he thought back to his deal with the heavens, the residents and those in power were a little too eager. The contract with the heavens… the heaven’s will. Under its decree, everything would bend to its order.

“Heh… You’re trying too hard Lucian.” A figure over coated in pure white appeared floating in the sky. Layer by layer, the white coating shed itself from the figure and the person underneath could be seen. “Still don’t know whose side to take eh?”

This person wore a long coat, with a button down shirt and slacks. At the bottom of his feet were sandals. From head to toe, his entire attire’s color were black. The only contrasting appearance the overseer of the heavens had were his twelve white wings. His majestic aura would make any person bow in reverence.

“Oh? Is that you Urian? Well god d*mn, I guess I am trying too hard. Must be having the good life as good up there eh? Nice to see you again.” Lucian put on a smile to greet his old friend. “How’s life for the past billion years or so old friend? Evolution sure changes the world a lot.”

“Evolution you say? Ha. You haven’t changed at all even after a billion years. Foul language when happy because you don’t know how to express your happiness. You became a scholar to fix that bad habit of yours but …”

“A few billion years seems like a blink of an eye… Heh… Well, time does flow weirdly in some places. In our home world, it would be a billion. Here, maybe a million if not a few hundreds of thousands of years. You know what I mean. Weird ass worlds with different flow of time. Though I am a legend of the heavens, I can only employ less than a thousandth of my strength. I feel so useless…”

“Come with me Lucian. We have a lot to talk about” Urian touched Lucian on the shoulders and the two flashed away up the planes.

*WOOSH*

9th higher plane… on the ninth heaven….

Urian teleported Lucian and himself all the way up to the ninth plane. Infront of them stood a gate that was nearly identical to the Door of Destiny that Jin walked through. Constructed of heavenly materials, every detail of this gate was alive!

*Creeeeeeak*

As the door opens itself for the overseer, beyond the door were people waiting to welcome him. Saints ranging from caretaker to paragon lived here including some gods. Mostly paragons were stationed here as it is one of the highest levels of the heavens.

“Eh?”

Standing next to Urian was a face they didn’t want to see.

The murderer of 81 paragons, the person whom they once respected, the once… most powerful saint of the heavens. “L-Lucian!?”

Out of the many stunned welcomers, an exquisite woman of peerless beauty with blue hair and sea-green eyes stood out to indiscriminately greet them both. “Overseer. Ex-Legend”

Urian frowned at the level of respect they had for Lucian even if he was an ex-saint of the heavens. “Is this it!? Even with me present, all of you should at least save some face for me! He was once a part of our family as well!”

“Ha ha… It’s alright Urian. I’m nothing more than an outcast now. It’s-“

“Idiot! How is it alright!? Being treated like this is exactly why you were casted out of heaven in the first place! You never wanted to fight back and thus you gave them a reason to cast you out! It also because no one respects you! At least know when to draw the line and fight Lucian! Ugh…”

Lucian knew what Urian said was partly true. If he had tried to reason with the people of the heavens all those years ago then things could’ve been different. “Maybe Urian. Maybe… I don’t care about it right now. All that is in the past.”

“…” Urian gazed at everyone else around him and snorted before leading Lucian to his residence.

“!” The people didn’t expect this. They thought that the enmity between him and Lucian was still strong.

“Everything will soon disappear in the sands of time. I guess that is how the hate between the two disappeared as well” one of the paragons said.

Before, there were one thousand and eighty paragons that served the heavens. At present, there were only ninety paragons of the nine hundred and ninety nine paragons.

Paragons are one of the strongest beings in the heavens that serves the gods. They are also one of the most loyal saints that could ever serve the heavens as well.

Their strengths could rival some of the gods themselves. Yet they chose to serve the gods and heavens because they are dedicated to helping people in the nine heavens. As compensation for their service, they are bestowed privileges that many would dream of.

Privileges such as multiple lovers. Love was originally forbidden in some parts of the heavens because love complicates decisions making. Paragons are a different story when it comes to love. They are generally the lovers who are able to handle their lovers. Be it one or hundreds, that paragon would be able to satisfy all of them. With the help of heavenly energies, they would be able to go at it almost endlessly.

Other privileges they had is being able to develop multiple qi pools and possibly a second or third qi plane. Qi pool and qi planes are vastly different. Qi pools exists within the same plane as their original qi pools. The purpose of a second qi pool is to allow two different types of qi to co-exist in the same qi plane. Within time, they would be able to fuse together to further strengthen themselves.

The difference between a qi plane and a qi pool is a qi plane defies the laws of the heavens. A second qi plane is like following the idea of possible existences. With a second qi plane, the different types of qi energies would be able to fuse together with less difficulty and still keep the original qi separated.

With benefits like this, who wouldn’t want to try to aim to become paragon? Some saints trained for hundreds of thousands of years and still they have yet to reach messenger level. If we really look at the system of the heavens as of now, one would think it is more like socialism, a fused system of communism and capitalism.

This is why Lucian wanted to fix the heavens. But he cannot do it with the restriction placed on him. His power originally was far above the others and truthfully surpassed the overseer’s power a long time ago. But because he gave up his qualification of being overseer, he also had to give up most if not almost all his power as a legend of the heavens. The heavens themselves rejected Lucian because he was too human. Once someone reached paragon level, they should be devoid of almost all emotions because they experienced too much.

‘But Lucian… he still cares too much… Why?’ Urian thought.

Once Urian and Lucian reached the residence of the overseer, two giant balls of light swallows the two and teleport them inside to a large dining hall.

Everything inside the dining hall shined as bright as the sun. Hundreds of dishes were prepared for the two to talk things out while satisfying their stomachs.

Urian sat on one far end of the dining table with Lucian sitting at the other end. The distance between them was about ten meters by five meters worth of food.

“Lucian… Don’t be shy now. Eat. I ordered all the chefs to prepare their finest dishes just for you” Urian smiled brightly.

On the other side of the table, Lucian weakly grinned. “T-Thanks Urian. At least one person is able to say hello to me without bearing their fangs at me.”

Urian took a bottle of champagne and popped it open. The aroma was so strong that it filled the dining hall within seconds. A long stream of fizz flew across the dining table and splashed onto Lucian’s face. “Eh. Heh Heh. Sorry. Well, we’re friends right? Like it? It was preserved for a thousand years. My finest wine bottle in a long time. How does it taste?”

Lucian reaches for a nearby napkin and wipes away the wine. “Just like the time when you, me and Eruhiyo ate a few hundreds thousands of years ago. ‘Cept that time you popped the wine bottle and hit Eruhiyo in the eye with the cork. Heh… he was so angry, he brought out your mother’s wupping stick to beat you. Haha. That was the weapon that could punish a god like you.”

“Eruhiyo… Oh man… Don’t make me remember that. I thought it was my mother coming back from the origin just to spank me. I kinda missed being a human… Or the times we were training to be saints. … Do you remember the time when we were kids Lucian? Back then… we were just spoiled brats following the footsteps of our parents. They became high saints and thus we were able to learn the way to sainthood better than others. We were privileged. Destined to be something great. From then on, our parents would do whatever it took to bring us up to sainthood. Your parents would spoil you with everything from cultivation resources to love. Even in fights, they would help in some way. Doesn’t that sound like a certain someone’s way of raising their reincarnations?” the overseer mockingly smiled.

“Spoiled me? I think your memories a mess after being an overseer too long. Most of the time, it was my parents that forced me to collect those spiritual ginseng to cultivate. Just like the one time I was thrown into the black hell tiger’s den just to steal the cultivation resources for the both of us dammit. Don’t you remember? You took over half of it!”

“That’s because I was the one fighting the bloody mother tiger for hours. You were the slow f*ck that couldn’t collect fast enough and I nearly lost my life and my spine! Look at this arm! I still got bite marks from that woman!” Urian grinned and rolled up his sleeves. “We can talk about old times as much as we want but that is not why I brought you here.”

“Oh? Are you going to lend a hand in helping Jin to become a saint?” Lucian was joking around. To

Lucian’s surprise, Urian nodded. “Yes. Yes I am going to help Jin become a saint. In a way everyone can approve of his sainthood.”

Lucian’s eyes lit up like fire. “Really!? You’re not lying right!?”

“No lie. But it also depends on how you take it.” Urian scoffs.

“…. I don’t like where this is going… What do you mean? You are going to help Jin right?”

With one sweep of Urian’s hand ½ the food on the table vanished into his stomach. “*Munch*Munch*Munch*GLUP* See, I’ll have to explain things to you. The will of the heavens that brought Jin back… it was all a lie to test him whether or not he was worthy of becoming a saint in the heavens. The democratic vote of the heavens that wanted the darkness to come back was ninety percent. So… I’ll have no choice but to kill off our little paragon of light as kindness.”

The excitement on Lucian’s face died off and an immense pressure fell on the entire residence of the overseer. “What is the meaning of this!? What are you trying to say Urian!? I gave up my qualifications of being an overseer to you long ago. I devoted nearly my entire life as a saint just to protect the heavens. I offered up my shield of imperial defense, the eternal, to the heavens when I ask for Jin’s redemption and return. The deal was to make Jin a saint through the will of the heavens so that he can’t ascend beyond paragon level!”

Urian really didn’t like hiding things from Lucian. They were old friends. His soft side got the better of him and spilled the secrets the heavens hid from Lucian. “Let me ask you Lucian…. Did you really think that his death at his graduation was by heart failure? Did you really think that the heavens wanted another paragon? When he lost his tin can, sorry, Titan system… he found his way to sainthood. Even before he became a saint, he was already… how do you say it… Over powered?”

“!? Over powered!? Fear that power will corrupt power!? Is that what this is? It is not over powered if that strength is earned with blood and sweat! I made this clear a long time ago!” Lucian growled. “If a person grows stronger through hard work and training, then they naturally become stronger than what they were before they trained. Have the people in this world turn mad!?”

Urian explains. “Yes. You and I may see it. But others can’t. Not unless Jin proves himself. If he doesn’t prove himself to the people of the heavens, then he won’t be able to become a saint no matter how hard he tries. I’ve tried convincing the people but because Solitude hid Jin’s past from the heavens, almost everyone rejects the idea of having another paragon. You know what a paragon represents. They see that Jin is just another corrupt demon in human skin who could possibly corrupt the heavens and destroy us from the inside out. Can you hear their voices? They don’t wish for a paragon. They wish to prevent a calamity.”

Finally realizing the intentions behind Urian’s words, the pressure lifted itself. “From the very beginning, Jin was not meant to become a saint was he?”

“Finally seeing it? Remember the story of the deal between god and the devil? The devil once said, ‘I’ll make you a deal god. If this man is still faithful to you, even after losing everything in the most horrible way possible, then you win and I shall never again bother the people of this world. If he does become corrupt, he will become the anchoring vessel for my kind and we shall run rampant on this planet with only the people of this world to stop us. The heavens cannot interfere.’ In the end, the god accepted the deal. This god was the overseer before me. And do you know the result that he told me? The devil indeed won. But do you know what he learned after that disaster? The real miracle comes after the darkest night. People needs these types of miracles to keep on believing in the light Lucian. So let go of Jin. His body was meant to be the anchor from the beginning anyhow. His original self already became a part of ‘Solitude’ already!”

“You break my heart Urian. Every last one of you… Can you at least tell me how his life will end?” Lucian pleaded. This was what Lucian meant by the unfair hands of fate. So many times did he witness his friends and family die. But moreover, Lucian saw how his reincarnations like Ban and Ren died. Ren died in a world full of discrimination and was influenced by it. Ren could never let go of hate because of how he lived.

Ban was a similar case. No one loved him at first. But as he grew, he found many people to love only to lose them in the most painful way possible for him; they all died in a massacre… the deaths of all forty nine of his wives and his family at the same time drove him to the edge of depression and fear. Ban shut himself within the suit because of the fear of being hurt. Fear of trying to recall his memories. His appearance as a human only reminds him of how powerless he was. Only when he sleeps will he remember the good times. “I just wanted Jin to live the life he deserved…”

Seeing Lucian like this, Urian sighed in his heart because Lucian always was soft hearted. “… In the time of seven days… Jin will die at the hands of the twelve paragons the heavens sent to ensure his death.”

“…Is that all?”

Feeling sorry for Lucian, Urian waves his hand and a screen appeared. “…… On the first day, he will also find twelve people to love. After he finds his lovers, the people from the Union will gather all of the rulers around the 12 continents on the second. The third day, Jin who holds three titles, will be stripped of two and so two more underworld rulers will appear. A total of eighty one underworld rulers will appear in one spot to eliminate him. All of his old enemies will gather together as well. On the fourth day, when he fights, he will not win because each and every one of them is his greater. Every single one of these rulers are… reincarnations of the paragons you killed in the past and they are out for vengeance. On the fifth day, this will truly be the dark world he once lived when he was… little. By the sixth… they will bring out his friends and family members one by one to slaughter and let Jin see them painfully die. The women that he loves will be ravaged, the men… will be beheaded. The little ones…. will be fed to the demons that will soon appear. By then, he will lose all his faith and become corrupted. Not even his past selves or even the people sealed inside him will be able to prevent this. Not even his original self. By the time you arrive Lucian… he’ll… fall back into hell once more. How far he falls depends on…”

A large white shadow engulfed the whole dining hall. “So… All the happier he is, the further he will fall…” A long and slim katana materialized itself and floated right beside Lucian, already unsheathed. “I see… It’s really… heart breaking… I won’t make it right? I’ll take my leave right now.”

“What are you trying to accomplish Lucian by using that blade? I told you already. There is nothing you can do. If you fight here, then that will give the people of the heavens all the more reasons not to let Jin become a saint let alone a paragon. If you kill people up on the heavens, our forces fighting against Arcadia, the false heavens, will be weakened greatly.” Urian reasoned with Lucian. “Isn’t it better if you just let everything go?”

“Hold up Lucian… Don’t be too hasty now…” Ban, in his panda suit, suddenly appeared behind Lucian. “We still haven’t asked all the details from this overseer yet.”

“!? How did you get into my residence!?” Urian’s face became extremely dark. He never heard of such abilities from Ban before.

“Don’t be so surprised Urian. We all had time to improve and hide our secrets. Just like a certain overseer of the heavens.”

One by one, many more of Jin’s reincarnations surrounded the overseer. “What is the meaning of this? What are you trying to do? A Coup D’etat?”

The Assimilator snorted and snapped both of his fingers on each of his hand. Two long spears mounted on a large cross bow menacingly aimed themselves at the overseer. “I should be asking you that. Where are the rest of Jin’s memories!?”

“I don’t know what you mean by that! Didn’t you guys seal his memories!? Aren’t you the ones that have it!?”

*Boom* Ban threw away his suit. The armor that held his powers back was gone just like that from the burst of pure anger. “If that is true, then why…. Why doesn’t most of of his memories make any sense!? At first glance, everything flows smoothly. When reviewed over and over again, there are more contradictions and loop holes than the black holes of the nebula!? The only valid memories are the ones when we met him!? I think… you actually have the rest of his memories. What is it that makes you scared of Jin so much? Even we don’t scare you as much when we were alive.”

“!!! Are you for real Ban!? I don’t think Urian is lying. He’s the oldest friend I have. I think I would know when he is-”

Ban glared fiercely at Lucian at the naivety. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me. Which is why I brought the seven gods of time that even the overseer is afraid of. Isn’t that right?”

The movement of the world slowed down after Ban’s words. The only time that moved was inside the residence of the overseer. Even the overseer couldn’t believe his eyes. “Chronos… Aion… Urd… Skuld... Belldandy… Fayte and… Moirae… Even you!?”

Seven extremely tired gods chained up were dragged by fifty different reincarnations of Jin.

The Assimilator evilly chuckled. “Heh heh She wasn’t cooperative at first. When Moirae first came to us, we had a suspicion that something was wrong. Of course, it took like twenty of us to hunt her down and interrogate her.”

“But to do that, wouldn’t your soul be wandering the streams of time for nearly thousands of years? Even so, if you touch the stream of time, you could be tossed into a different time and place! You don’t have anyone to be anchored to. The anchor needs to be alive, relatable, and strong! The qi that anchor has must also be those of ancient qi practitioners. There are also many requirements to be an anchor as well! Who in this world could… Wait… don’t tell me. The anchor…”

“That’s right stupid! The stream of time only alters the perception of time! When a soul don’t have an anchor, the stream of time will show the soul his or her memories and future to jumble up the soul’s awareness of the real flow of time. Who is alive, strong and is almost the same as us!? jin fits these requirements perfectly thanks to Lucian being a full blown idiot of making him the ideal anchor. First time you did something wrong, right! Haha!” The Assimilator smiled at Lucian. “We’ve also found a few new… evidences that the traitor that died… had some powerful relations… with the ruler of Arcadia. He just so happens to slip some words out when I ripped his soul.”

“…” Urian became deathly quiet.

“Do you know what happens to the souls that I touch?” Assimilator asks every person in the room. “I read their memories. Past present and… future. If they have a future that is.”

The grim-faced Urian smiled and his right eye twitched. “ha ha… You can cut the guessing game now Assmilator. I know what you are saying. But you have no proof other than words right now. Those time gods? I know them best! Even Moirae won’t really help even if you did ‘Interrogate’ them really well. All this is just to corner me. Everything you guys are saying is just full of sh*t!”

“… You always had a habit of twitching your right eye when you lie Urian.” Lucian pointed out in low volume. “Everyone… leave…”

“!!! You sure Lucian? This is the overseer we are talking about. We need him to-”

“LEAVE! NOW!” Lucian roared. “Under the oath of the legend, I, Lucian Sol Elanor, swear to the true heavens above to do everything in my power to purge the heavens below of all corruption! I ask the true heavens above to watch and judge me on your own accord!”

Burning the air and the heavenly energies around them, Lucian’s qi pierced the ninth heaven all the way to the 10th upper plane, catching the attentions of the residents above.

Up on the tenth higher plane lies the true heavens. Strictly speaking, only those who are beyond paragons are allowed up on the true heaven. Thus, there are saints that are even stronger than gods are up on this higher plane. They usually don’t care about mortal lives. They were already busy with their own problems.

Imagine world creators fighting to prove whoever's world is better. That was their usual problems. They would watch as their world create their own saints, paragons, overseers and even small gods. Then they would compare the two.

Everything was a game to them at this point in life. But even games has to have their own rules.

If they intervene too much, the world they made would either collapse or erase because it was considered cheating by other world creators. Which is why they made the heavenly system.

The systems would differ from creators to creators. The power of law was in their hands. So it is better to think of them as computer programmers or story writers to do whatever they wish.

In the world where Jin and the other resides, the system is extremely complex.

Generally, normal saints are not a match to caretakers as messengers are not equal to embodiments of light. Paragons are only the near equivalent to gods. Only under special conditions will the lower saints will be able to beat the higher saints.

In order for a normal saint to beat a caretaker or even a servant of the heavens, they would have to overcome two things. The first is qi capacity. The second is quality. Servants generally have two times the amount of qi than a normal saint and the quality of qi is purer. So they could last two to four times longer than a saint. This is just taking out intelligence and battle prowess out of the equation. But these two usually means nothing in a battle between saints which will be further explained later.

In order for a paragon to defeat a god, the paragon had best be prepared to lose his or her life. A god is the equivalent to nearly two paragons. Paragons and gods have qi planes and qi pools. The maximum qi planes paragons and gods can have is three or else their body and souls won’t be able to take it. They can have as many qi pools as they want just as long as their qi planes can hold them. What truly separates paragons and gods is where they pull their qi from. Paragons and gods can communicate with the heavens and everything in existence to borrow qi with a few exceptions.

Unlike paragons, gods can naturally pull energy from the faith energy people have. Paragons can pull energies from the people but that faith energy can only belong to the gods. The longer a person believes and more faithful they are, the purer their qi.

In the long run, paragons will lose against gods unless they figure something out to counter the external sources. If a paragon fights against a god one thousand times, he or she would only be able to win seven of those fights. Six of the seven fights that he or she could win are miracles.

There are saints who surpassed their own limits and ascended far beyond paragons. These saints are given different titles rather than just the general names. Such rarity only happens once in a hundred thousand years if not a million. The system for these people are much more complex and will not be discussed as of now.

Legends are a different story. They are outside the systems of saints and gods and titles. Only twelve legends exists and Lucian is one of them. These legends are the ones that protects the balance of the world just like heroes do. In some ways, they are stronger than even tens of gods put together. But... whoever said that the overseer was a normal god? He is the equivalent to twelve gods himself.

Yet, with great power comes great restrictions. In many ways, legends are weaker than a paragon or even an angel of light. They cannot draw on faith energy. They are unable to even use a hundredth or a thousandths of their true power or they will really break the system. If they do, the people of the tenth heaven will rain down judgement on them.

Legends are hidden balance holders behind the general identity of a saint whether they are low humans, normal servants of the heavens or even paragons. They are like the heroes of a story but with more burdens and comes out only when it is really necessary. They could not even come out at all if they don't feel like it. Only the bearer will know if they are a legend of the heavens or not. As for who bestows it, that is a different story.

So if a legend fights with a paragon, ten out of ten times he or she will be able to win against them three out of ten times if they are lucky. If the legends of the heavens fights a god, they must have a good reason or else they will get their ass handed to them every single time.

This situation was actually one of those good reasons to use the legend authority. The traitor that runs the false heavens is not only powerful, he is an overseer. Once a legend invokes his or her authority, usually the other legends will follow shortly to investigate.

“Oh great. He is invoking his authority as a legend now… This isn’t going to be pretty… EVERYONE! RUN!” Ban commanded. He teleported as many people as he could safely. Those who were not teleported by Ban did their own teleportation but didn’t go as far as Ban did.

“One of the Legends of the Heavens… Ironic. You were casted out of the heavens for abusing your powers. Now… you are doing the same thing again. Hell, you are also trying to make your reincarnation replace you. There’s no point. This entire story… it was meant to take everything from him. This is what the people decided! They want a dark world! Don’t try to save him Lucian. It’s a sad attempt by a sad saint who once served the heavens you know.” Urian said as he finishes the last bread on the table. “I really did want you back on the same side. Seems like we can’t see eye to eye anymore. Fine. I admit it. I am the one behind Arcadia. And do you know why?”

The light within Lucian’s eyes froze and his skin color changed from white to grey. “Do you know Urian? Not only I was a legend of the heavens, I was given the position of ‘Bearer of Light’. I did my best to lead people back to the righteous path. When I killed the eighty one paragons, I did it because I had no choice. We had neither proof nor solid arguments against them. Thus I was stripped of my position of bearer. Maybe you didn’t know… Maybe you did. Maybe you planned out my fall. Even the woman I loved threw herself down to hell as the price for my actions. Through her actions… I was allowed to travel through the planes as I pleased in peace. Ban and Ren also followed my footsteps as legends as well…”

*Sheeeeen* The katana that was unsheathed, broke into three pieces: Hilt, guard, and blade. “Did you know? After Jin lost his Titan system, a saint from the lower planes came to Jin’s planet? That saint threw every single souls of his entire family into hell and he was trying to find another way to regain and protect his family? I met Jin on one of my travels with Ban and Ren to save my lover… He was only seventeen at the time…”

“And? So what? Does it make any differences? The people of the heaven still won’t accept him” Urian emotionlessly said.

“Do you even know the last words he said before his original self became Solitude?”

“… Of course I knew anyway. I am still the person holding onto Jin’s memories… I know what is down below hell as well…”

“He said to me, while I was holding his family’s souls and many others including my lover’s soul, ‘Take care of my family and gramps… especially gramps… He suffered too much… See you gramps… Oh and one last thing. Do I look brave to you gramps? I only wished I could become the hero of your dreams.’ I never would have imagine that he was one of my reincarnations. I thought it was all a coincidence...”

“I’ve heard enough Lucian! Do you want to know another thing? I was the one who ordered the saint to toss Jin and his family down to hell! It was because I couldn’t bear to see you suffer trying so hard to save your lover. I knew you weren’t able to save her anyhow because one person needed to stay down there! It was either you or him to stay behind! I thought you wouldn’t mind if one of your reincarnations dies. I thought you would just move on if you just had your lover. But it seems like I was wrong. All I am hearing is just a sniveling cry baby who never grew up! *Humph!* Soon all the other legends will come. Maybe a few paragons. But those beyond paragons will definitely come. When they do, whether I am dead or not, you will be the one to suffer eons while I get to reincarnate!” Urian spread out his god-like power to cover the entire ninth plane.

The sky was no longer bright and sunny. Heavy rain clouds congregate above and around the two ancient saints. Violent howling winds clashed together and thunder rumbled within the clouds above. Millions and millions of heavenly lightning spiral downward combining into one huge mega bolt, aiming to strike Lucian.

As a response, the katana Lucian controlled flew upward and redirected the lightning bolt to another direction. The lightning bolt continued to spiral down through the upper planes all the way to the third upper plane where the third heaven was.

In the peaceful third upper plane, no one had suspected a thing would happen. Heaven was usually a peaceful place where everyone could enjoy paradise until they reincarnate. There, a messenger was enjoying himself a few new saints that recently ascended to the heavens. He took advantage of their new status and invited only the willing ones to do a large party with the occasional extra fun on the sides.

A warning message alerted everyone that a lightning bolt from the ninth plane was coming. Such a message was rare and so he didn’t believe it. He was still in a middle of a rare consummating session of six.

“I think we should leave guys! I heard that a huge lightning bolt is going our way!” a person burst in to warn them once more. But the six of them didn’t listen. The person was only a servant of the heavens! Why should a messenger listen to someone of such low status?

“Such lightning bolts only comes once every ten thousand years! Besides, in the past thousand years, only one lightning bolt came down that far and that was when Cyan was here. There is no way another one is coming down for at least another nine thousand! Go away! If you bother me for such a trifling reason, I’ll come over there and twist your head! *Grunt*grunt!* GO!” the messenger roared.

The servant of the heavens felt degraded and worthless after being yelled at and so he went away meekly.

Dejectedly walking down the streets of the heavens, he told himself never to warn people of such things again. He looks up at the sky and wondered if there really was a lightning bolt coming down and if it was that much of a problem. His eyes squinted because he thought the sun in the third heaven was glaring in his eyes. But that was not the sun. That was the intensity of the lightning. It was so strong that it rivaled the energy of the sun in the third heaven! Fear overwhelmed the servant. Crackling down from the skies, hundreds sonic booms rang out. The lightning split apart into hundreds of bolts like a spider web.

*BOOM* BOOM* BOOM* BOOM* BOOM* BOOM* BOOM* BOOM* BOOM* BOOM* BOOM* BOOM* BOOM* BOOM* BOOM* BOOM*

The servant of the heavens was about to die. One of the hundreds of bolts was coming after him as if it was alive!

“Get the f*ck out everyone!!!” Eruhiyo’s body flashed through the air, saving as many people as he could. When he saw the shaking servant of light, anger exploded from him because he was about to do something he was going to regret. He infused his cane with metal properties and threw his cane all the way up. The divided lightning bolts, instead of splitting out even further, came together because the cane conducted all of the electricity in the sky. In a split second, the pillar of energy blasted a crater through the third heaven and all the way down to the first lower plane almost touching the entrance to hell.

For one long minute, the lightning bolt stayed like a pillar of destructive light, to burn the image into everyone’s mind. Eruhiyo only hoped that his cane would last long enough to protect everyone.

An idiot who recently reached sainthood was curious and threw random object at the pillar of light. It was a shame that the object he threw was a pen.

“NO YOU F*CKING IDIOT!”

“Eh?” The pen was made out of metal and inside were liquids. You could already guess what happened to the lightning bolt. The lightning bolt divided into two once more.

*WOOSH*

A man in a panda suit flashed all around was able to make it in time to rescue the idiot out of the way. He used two hands to bend space itself and redirected the lightning bolt back down.

Though the man in the panda suit saved the idiot, his panda suit was ruined because the lightning grazed and fried his suit. This person was none other than Ban.

“T-Thank you” the saint begins.

*poooooot*

Ban was so angry that he farted in the new saint’s face. “… M*th*r f*ck*r! That was my only good suit! I just fixed it too! The materials were expensive! Next time I see a r*t*rd do that, I’m throwing them into the lightning! Got that!?”

I don’t know what is more unfortunate though. Surviving death by lightning or surviving Ban’s fart. Both of them could kill. Both of them are deadly.

Eruhiyo blinked a few times before gasping in shock. “Ban!? You controlled the flow of that lightning!?”

“Don’t get so happy yet… This lightning could-”

*BOOM* a lightning bolt split from the pillar and destroyed the party house the six were in. Inside, five new saints died including the messenger.

“… still be shooting off sparks and the like…” Ban sighed.

“What’s going on up there!? Why is there-”

Ban placed his index finger over his lips to tell Eruhiyo to shut up. Taking the hint, if such things were to be hinted by Ban, he immediately shut up.

Back up in the ninth plane, every being within a thousand mile radius ran for their lives. The weather grew worse and worse with every move Urian and Lucian made.

This fight wasn’t like the fights saints did in the past. It was modern warfare!

Urian was a master of the elements. ‘Control the flow of his movements with lightning and water, seal off his escape routes with fire and blades of wind making tornados of fire, encase him in unbreakable earth and steel of the highest density!’ He was always preparing for the next moves knew how to use each elements to their fullest.

Lucian couldn’t use elemental spells like Urian. His only good skill is his white shadow. His talents in other areas such as elemental spells weren’t really that good. He was basically a swordsman of one weapon and one art-style.

“Your white shadow arts is just a decrepit skill born of the sin of gluttony! The amount of qi needed to use it is too much! Even if it can consume almost anything and break it down to the very basic molecules and qi, it doesn’t mean anything if it drains you more of your energy to use it than it regenerates for you!”

Lucian knew that Urian was right. What he was doing wasn’t really fighting. He was buying time. Time for his trump card to come out. ‘But it’s too slow!” Lucian wielded the white shadow and meld himself within the light. ‘The white shadow can consume things. But its other function is to reflect as well. My white shadow can reflect both qi and light! Let’s see if he can find me now.’

*Bang*Boom*Bang*Bang*Crash*Boom*

“You can run Lucian! But you can’t hide from me for long!”

Lucian sensed all of the energies from the first upper plane to the ninth flowed into the god’s body. Streams of pure white energies from so many different people empowered their overseer.

Urian concentrated ½ the qi he received and spread them out like divine sense. “! So you were there!” Once his qi came in contact with Lucian, it acted like a tracer. There was no way for Lucian to hide now! Gathering the rest of the qi he received, Urian compressed it as much as he could and aimed at the tracer he laid on Lucian.

*Ruuuuuummmble* Rummble*Ruuumble*

“That move could proabably destroy ½ the heavens and some sectors…”

“I don’t care how long it will take to repair the ninth heaven! This is good bye Lucian! The ultimate move that I’d developed over hundreds and thousands of years! Be careful, I think you know the law behind most of my moves!”

Lucian’s teeth grinded at each other. The katana was almost done transforming. From the beginning, Lucian had to break his katana apart in order to bring out its best form to deal with Urian. ‘Guess I really have to use this!’ With one hand, Lucian was calling out to something and was drawing a mystical sigil from ancient times with the other hand with his own qi. “Eternal! Come to me! I am your master!”

‘!!! He can’t be! If he is, I’ll have to let it loose now!’ The incomplete technique was employed by the overseer with a flick of a finger.

‘HA! He fell for it!’ Stopping the chant, Lucian finishes the sigil and took the blast of energy with his full body. *Boooooooooom* “GAHHHH!!!”

From far off, Urian could see the damage his move done. Lucian’s body became charred by the blast and almost unrecognizable. “*Huff*Huff* “Good bye Lucian… You were my closest friend…”

“Hahahahaha… The hell you talking about… Ultimate move my ass. Just another damn laser!” Lucian’s charred lips said. The sigil that he drew activated a long time ago and his burnt body regenerated at superhuman speed while taking the ultimate move. Even now it was healing him. Once he was done healing, Urian saw that Lucian was holding onto an object in his right hand. “I was waiting for my katana to do this!”

“… I guess I’ll have to blow another hole in you then!”

“You are gonna have to wait. In its final form, the katana is actually a pen. A very dangerous one. Take a good look at its power.” Lucian took the pen and scribbled the words in the air, “By the power of the legend of the heavens and the one who wields the ‘Alpha’!, strip this god, the overseer, Urian of his authority!”

Chains from the tenth heaven descended with lighting fast speed. They bound the overseer in an unbreakable hold.

Lucian continues to write while ignoring Urian. He reads his words loudly, “Under my authority, strip this saint of his sainthood. Under the article 96 page 5 clause 1 of Balance, the overseer is punished for traitorous actions. He shall be re-living his life as a human once more! He will know starvation! He will know thirst! He shall learn what it means to be human before being perfect! Only when I deem him fit will he come back as an overseer unless I see a more befitting candidate!”

From Urian’s body, large syringes protruded out of his body and drained all of his cultivation right down to the last drop. “!!! Y-Y-You! You were a world creator!? Impossible! You couldn’t have broken through! There is no way that you could ever broke through the cycle! Only a world creator has that ability! And he only appeared once in our records of the heavens! You would also need his approval to become like him!””

“No. I am not a world creator. Remember when I killed the eighty one paragons? The world creator was so impressed with my sacrifice, that he gave me this pen. Whatever I write, everything will be absolute. An absolute command. Everything in this world has to obey this pen. I never wanted to use it because I always thought the world would not need such a thing…” Lucian flatly said. “The user of this pen cannot kill with it. He must be thinking about the good of the world while using it. Lastly, he must follow the laws of the world and only use it in dire times. Otherwise, even if it transfer to another person as an owner, it will become a normal pen. I believe this is one of those times. Of course, this pen has a will of its own so it’s hard to use.”

“!? If you had that pen, then none of this would’ve happened! Do you know how hard my life was an overseer!? Do you know!? You could’ve helped me! The heavens would’ve been a better place if you had!” Urian wailed. The side Urian never expressed in his entire life as overseer finally came out.

“If only you became god Lucian! If only you became the overseer! I would not have to live like this! Every day, the people of the heavens would think I’m the worst ruler in history while the rulers are worse than me! Every day, I am ridiculed for the sh*t they cannot accomplish! They want to be like a hero. Have lots of women, be lucky, and strong! I… *hic* I don’t even want to be an overseer anymore…”

Lucian dully watches his old friend Urian cry like a baby. “To be a really good ruler Urian. You can’t provide too many things for others. But you can’t turn away from people who needs help. I can do the latter but I could never do the former. As for being judged as who is the worst overseer, I think that is left to history. If people lives flourished because you watched over them in the annuls of history, then you are undoubtedly a good ruler regardless if someone writes that you are the worst ruler and maybe over half of your people agrees, then leave it to them. All they see is the outside of the story. In my eyes, you are the best overseer they had. Well, unless you count the many times the other overseer were a bunch of good for nothings that is.

I saw how you ruled Urian. For every one mistake you’ve made, you made up for it with ten more good. For the ones you couldn’t make up, you pushed forward splendidly and brought more people happiness than anyone else ever could.”

*Drip*... *Drip* If these were the words of praises by his subordinates, none of it would mean anything. He could be told that he was the best and he would still not believe it. What was different about this is the one who tells him this is someone who he can relate and trust. ‘What have I been doing all my life?’

Sometimes, all it takes is the right person to say the right words at the right time to set a person on the right path. “Hehehehehe… *hic* Seems like I’ve made another mistake haven’t I Lucian? W-What should I do to make it up?”

Lucian’s gaze of dullness became the friendly and soft gaze he normally wore. Lucian finishes the last words and said, “Come back when you feel like you’ve redeemed yourself after a thousand years or so. I’ll be waiting once more. This time, the overseer will be me.”

“!? Y-Your taking the position as Overseer?”

“Not like I have a choice. This is also another requirement of the pen. Never did want to become overseer. Now I gotta take your sh*t and somehow make it good. A real pain you know?”

“… Heh… Seems like this time, you’ll be cleaning up my mess eh Lucian?” Two arms from the 10th heaven gripped Urian by the neck another arm phased through his body and took a hold of his soul.

“Yep. Rest well Urian. I might need to sleep after this long and hard battle. I invoke the punishment onto the Overseer!” *Snap*

*RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP*

Lucian took one last look at his friend’s soul before throwing it back into the reincarnation cycle. “*HUUUUUUUUUUUUURAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

Feeling extremely weak, Lucian called out any name out of instinct. ‘ …. Damn… I feel terrible now… Hey… Ban. Ren. Are any of you there?”

Jin’s original self, Solitude, got to Lucian even before Ban did and carried Lucian in his arms. ‘That battle really took a lot out of him.’ “I’m always here. People just don’t notice me.”

“You don’t even make a damn sound… I knew we couldn’t seal you up. Playing dead and sh*t… Whatever. Tell everyone in the heaven this, ‘If you want proof that he deserves to be a paragon, I’ll give you the damn proof’ When you get back to… yourself… He is going to relive his story to prove it to everyone that he is worthy of being paragon. Will there be a problem?”

“…None.”

“Ah…. Invoking the legend is also deteriorating my body… Go and send help to save your… My reincarnation. They-”

“I got it.”

“Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Such a short and simple person. No fun. Night then….”

“Night. I’ll leave you in Ban’s hands then. You should really thank Moirae. It seems like she still has lingering feelings for Ren.” Solitude said while carrying Lucian down the upper planes. “Sad to say… It's too late. You’ve fought up here for seven long days without the real perception of time… It's all because you didn't want to harm your friend... Heh... It's time to bring this long prologue to an end...”

________________________________

Down the nine plane did Solitude slowly go.

Wherever he went, eyes filled with dark intent and fluctuating emotions watched him.

Saints of all levels within the heavens saw him carrying Lucian down from the ninth plane.

Though the skirmish between Lucian and Urian was over, no one knew what happened except for the ones who were up there.

Everyone was more curious as to how Solitude actually got up to the ninth heaven.

Each heavens is protected by a barrier that melts both demons and malicious invaders who desire to go in. Those who were not welcomed would get a few warning strikes before being erased from the face of life.

The only way to bypass the barrier physically is to go through one of the four gates each heaven has.

Provoked, the gates would send out an avatar that will battle and decimate any intruder. The gates themselves had the strength equivalent to embodiment of light from the first to the seventh heaven. From the eighth to the ninth, the gates had the power rivaling the paragons. The reason why they rival the paragons is because from the eighth to ninth heavens, they were made by the gods. From a part of their body, the gates inherited some parts of the god’s power.

Solitude is considered as one of the malicious invaders even though he was also one of the legends of the heavens. Everything seemed impossible when you would think that Solitude himself would be able to get up with his strength being significantly restricted.

If someone made Solitude into an enemy, it is the same as digging himself into a grave.

Solitude had no enemies but his enemies saw him as one.

When fighting someone who has nothing to lose, and cornered like a rat, that person will exert powers and skills similar to those of mad geniuses.

He was someone similar because he has nothing to lose. What is worse about Solitude is that he is not only a legend of the heavens and a daredevil, he is the ideal opponent for losing and winning. When he wants to win he will become an opponent that no one can beat alone. When he wants to lose, he’ll make sure his enemies goes down with him but a heck lot further into the mud of loss.

Everyone stayed as silent as possible. Those that were smart enough stayed silent because they rather not know about what happened on the ninth plane. The speculations they had was endless and for all their knowledge, Solitude could’ve been the one who conjured the mega bolt that shot through the nine heavens.

Those that weren’t smart, didn’t want to say anything at all. Ignorance is bliss and they wanted to keep it that way. They left the thinking to the smart people.

Then there are people who just didn’t care and talked to him casually. Ban was one of those people. “Hey there Solitude. Seems like Lucian overworked himself there by invoking his Legend name. … Is he okay?”

Everyone was shocked half to death. Here they are, having no desires to strike up a conversation with a possibly mad legend of the heavens and yet Ban just talking like he was a friend. Solitude was known to have no friends!

Ban blankly stared at the sleeping Lucian. Even Ban knew the consequences after activating the legend names. Lucian could either wake up and be extremely weak for a long time or not wake up at all for as long as a century. “…What now?”

“To the end of the Prologue.” He kept things short and simple. “Jin will die but not the way people desire it so.”

Six gods of time and fate came up to the two and said, “Someone casted a time-shift type of spell. We’ve already dispelled it. If you want, we can rewind time and change everything. So just leave us alone for the next hundreds years or so….”

“Yeah…. Alright…” Ban nodded.

“You can’t do that! That’s wrong! Didn’t everyone voted and decided that he was going to die?” one of the saints who over heard this got the rest of the silent onlookers to finally speak up.

“It’s not fair that he gets to redo his life and becomes a saint easily! I had to work my butt off to get to this point!”

“Do you know what I’ve done to get here!?”

“We had to work harder than anyone! There is no way we’re just going to let someone like him become a paragon that easily!”

“I say we have another vote if you guys want to change everything!”

If you ever truly lived life, you would know there is no such thing as a second chance at the same opportunity. Opportunities are like lightning. They don’t usually come by twice.

For the saints that trained all their lives to just achieve sainthood, it was simply too unfair!

In their beliefs, they were the hardest working people to achieve sainthood.

On the inside, Ban wanted to invoke his legend name as well. But because these people were not all powerful balance breakers and were all of different levels, he couldn’t! He would sometimes think that heaven was just as corrupt as any world was. ‘So much for the good angels in the skies stories… Now this is how you know some democracy failed so many times in history… eventually, the people became corrupt… It doesn’t even work in heaven!’

Solitude didn’t care for the complaints of those around him. Unburdened by the pressure of society, Solitude walked way saying, “No need to fix the karma that is already and is constantly being sown. It can never be undone no matter how many times you want to turn back the hands of time. If you can’t accept, then all I’ll have to do is prove it to you people. In one hell of a way.”

He reaches the door that leads to the material plane and stares dully ahead.

Next to the door was Moirae, waiting for him.

When she first appeared, she was acting the entire time, trying to warn the others that a major disaster was about to befall on Jin. Jin would’ve been slowly corrupted until the last day. At the very last day, they would flood his body with qi to reach saint hood while still corrupt and then kill him.

The difference between a corrupt and clean soul is power. Clean souls that ascend to the heavens are able to purer qi even better. Corrupted souls are able to convert other souls to follow down the dark paths. In addition, it is technically stronger than clean souls because corrupt souls sees no value in honor while fighting. Pretty much the same as people. Everything would’ve happened smoothly if Urian hadn’t brought Lucian to the 9th heaven.

“It seems like most of the things I’ve done will change the prediction of the Overseer.”

“… Do you regret it Moirae?”

“… I don’t know. Sometimes, it just hurt so much knowing Ren hates me that I don’t know what to do to make it up”

“Tell him the truth? Has been some time. Even a strong guy like Ren needs someone.”

“The living personification of lonliess is telling me this… Do you even have your own identity anymore? Do you… even know who you are?”

“… I don’t…”

“Has your heart gone cold from hate?”

“No”

“Is there anyone you care about anymore?”

“…..This is getting off topic…”

“What about love?” Moirae asks. A strange softness surfaces upon her eyes. The eyes of a woman. Her words may’ve been for Jin, but they were somewhat indirectly aimed for someone else other than the one standing in front of her.

Her words made Solitude recall some old thoughts. A hidden poem that Lucian once told him that Ren wrote during the days he was still in love with Moirae. He recites it by memory, “… Though shadows clouds the memories, a single spark will set alight those forgotten shrouded memories of old, and ye shall remember that night as clear as day when you confided to the true love of your life, no longer lost in the mundane rivers. Even when severed, sentimental sentient significant souls, separated soullessly, silently stays sincere. Unknowingly waiting and wailing, tirelessly transversing, transcending the timeless trails of trials, in hopes to the reach that one day once more no matter how dirty those hands will become. We’ll meet again.” *WOOSH*

AN: Extremely tired. Have mid-term this and next wee.. Didn't have enough time to edit the chapter. Nuff said. I'm dead. Night. [th_096_K.gif] [th_085_.gif] :sleeping: