Finding the origin of an ordinary crystal is extremely hard. Something easily confirmed by staring at the orientation within to see no uniform expansion, this is usually observed as impurities or flaws in the crystal. However, some crystals grew in such a structure that no orientation flaws can occur, though other such problems resulted in lacklustre quality. Such things are single-crystals where the original piece is slowly built upon through deposition of new material on top.

All of this points to an easy solution. Just follow the orientation lines on all sides to a point where every part converges. And while a slight nuisance as he avoided mining into the mountain, Akevorax dug into the charred stone below to find that ‘egg’ not too far above.

Maybe just 100 metres above the mountain’s base laid that piece of sky blue crystal for which everything converged on. And it was here that he realised something strange, unexpected in every capacity.

The core of this mountain also possessed some intent. While far from decisive and impactful as the lightning’s, the intent here focused entirely on sustainment and timelessness. But because the will behind it was so weak, only a small region of crystal around the core infused with this intent. Barely a tenth of a metre. Furthermore, even as his mana swept over the mountain, it didn’t lash out or warn him like the lightning above. Somehow it emitted an ageless experience which completely ignored the pounding of a child from above.

He truly couldn’t imagine the lightning being older between the two…

However, finding the crystal gave him a very great method to trace its age. Something commonly used by those versed in great languages but so far hadn’t proved of any use to him. And in Draconis, its simplest form came as a three word spell.

Time Seeking Origin, three words with an unfathomably deep meaning, but also perfectly understandable.

One did not need to grasp the word Time precisely, as this spell revolved around Origin instead. As long as the visualisation made use of Time then it could be cast rather easily. Though, that still left two words to figure out. What did it mean to ‘Seek Origin’?

Well, he already made that clear, didn’t he?

Akevorax came to uncover the source, he wished to understand which of the two powers came into existence first. He already sought an origin. And the reason he came beneath the mountain of crystal instead of trial and error filled with fraught as he failed to cast the spell… Nothing about the spell proved all that difficult to understand. On paper at least, he trusted his gut-feeling on the suitable visualisation and tried it now for the first time.

His heart stilled, the heavy beats like the imminent drums announcing death, or a cog’s tick as it reached the end of another cycle. Everything pertained to a beginning and end, time measured both and ensured that one always transformed into another.

Akevorax, with clear thoughts, said, “Samtoz lacrizdum Krebarro.” Once the sphere of golden rings appeared, his words correctly pronounced, so did the image in his heart, and a deepened glance into the fog-filled dimension began.

To seek origin was to seek knowledge, a domain of research and diligence. Something he willingly and explosively took on for the past three days without end, not a single moment spent on sleep… Although, it’d be a lie to say he absolutely never rested.

But that didn’t dismiss his desire to find answers. To then claim Seeking Origin revolved around the results? A farcical idea.

Only the action and intent mattered, to diligently research and compile, test and interpret, until an answer is found. Therefore, Akevorax’s visualisation was nothing created through overthinking of careful deliberation. The memories of his last few days replayed in front of his eyes, with a clear-sighted intent throughout. To discover what happened long ago in a time far outside his own.

He sought an answer separated not through space, but time.

And while not a truly perfect visualisation as he did not perfectly represent one who researches and studiously searches, it did the job well enough.

Time Seeking Origin produced an oscillation so miniscule across the foggy dimension, that he didn’t even see the slightly denser fog at the point his spell activated. This dimension, bound to time and illusions, so rarely changed or moved because the stability of time was second to none. Changing time required unprecedented power, therefore sending messages back or forth was a domain already limited to supreme tiers.

But a way to pluck a single moment from the everpresent river of time? Just to find a single answer?

These three words could do that easily enough. If anyone above master tier wished to hide a battle, destroying their traces in time was the first measure taken by all. Not all traces vanished, understandably, but from a clear image, the person’s identity fell to nothing more than a number. And that clearly didn’t matter. Without stature, abilities, power, and so forth, a single number meant nothing. But not so much for those who researched. A single number could be the lone missing piece of a puzzle. And when Akevorax dated both that first piece of crystal and the unseen perforations above, he received a key missing piece.

The crystal appeared 120 million years ago, and the perforations roughly 121 million years back.

Without a doubt, the lightning came first. Or did it?

This only proved that the elements sufficient to fire off such bolts came before the mountain’s lowly starting point. So Akevorax went back to his thoughts and figured out something else…

But an interesting fact, nothing stopped a search for the first implementation of intent. And he quickly waited until another bolt came down to test and compare the desires shown by both mountain and lightning. That’s where things became very interesting.

The mountain’s intent first appeared 118 million years ago. Yet, the lightning only began its maddened spree roughly 90 million years back.

He always said the latter was like a child, but the 28 million year age gap was far above anything he expected.

“No, hold on… How have these two been at this for 90 million years? And why did it create an intent so much earlier than the other? Besides, where is this intent even from? Nothing here has a Soul or Mind.” While the newfound results improved Akevorax’s mood greatly, his confusion hadn’t lessened in the slightest from this revelation. Though it really made one wonder how you could be so petty or obstinate to hold onto such thoughts for so long.

The possibility for both Souls or Minds were zero, unfortunately. While soul forms broke the laws by force, considered an oddity of nature, the same could not happen with Minds. Not in this sort of sub-realm at least.

If it were something like the lunar realm, or any place filled with psychic elements, then similar creatures born only with a Mind can exist. The green luminescent creatures he saw in the lunar realm were examples of this!

He now had to question this ‘fundamental’ knowledge. Which part was incorrect?

Could you indeed create intent without a will? Or perhaps Minds still formed under rare processes even without psychic elements? Maybe a method of Soul creation outside of soul forms also existed…

He could’ve sat and questioned these things all day long. But before that, he returned to Adret after a day of ignoring her entirely, not that she ever called him back. She no longer sat within the phoenix flames, lying beside it now, and built her Adept Mind Palace as a means to pass time. Additionally, because of the boost in psychic power, she could pay attention to the real world at the same time.

Making an effort for once, he told her, “Your repairs are done too, now I just hope this doesn’t take me the full week.”

Her head turned slightly, a sarcastic response backed up by similar words, “Look at you finally caring about it.” Adret snorted before opening her eyes to stare at the mountain peak and dark clouds overhanging it at all times. Something about the situation filled her with a sense of dread, but she couldn’t grasp where it came from. Perhaps just the level of power sent sirens off.

“Have you sensed anything like a Mind or psychic power from anything over there?” Akevorax immediately checked as she stared.

“Nope. Not a single hint of that… But the emotions are so raw. I’d be careful to even declare it a sentient thing, all its behaviour feels more like a reflexive action.”

Adret felt things in her heart but couldn’t put them into words no matter how hard she thought. The emotions felt from that lightning were simply so extreme that nothing made sense, empathy alone cannot connect to truly opposing identities. And that pure desire for destruction went against all her life’s experiences for years. As a lunar being, she disliked its presence.

“Is this similar to what the dark sun manifests?” She mumbled to herself in thought, unrelated to Akevorax’s matter. She too came to terms with the duties and war imposed on her, just as many others with a lunar bloodline.

“Not a Mind… No presence of a Soul… So does there exist another way to create intent? A tiny crystal obtained it in just a couple million years, but the lightning with an infinite power source required over 20 million. This is so fucking stupid.”

Out of direct leads, Akevorax thought for a while longer before his tests continued once more.

* * *

A month passed since the dreaded war began in a rather anticlimactic fashion too. On a grand scale, it was rather disappointing for anyone listening in, but those on the frontlines claimed the opposite at every turn. Some fools falsely rumoured that they entered a stalemate already.

But that just wasn’t true.

The roughly 40 days of combat thus far marked the end of the prologue.

No real combat started yet, a laughable fact given that estimated death counts on both sides sat at 2.3 million. At first the number inflated at incredible paces as the rushing eternals more often fell like flies to the beams of light… But after two weeks the sabotage began.

Every single night, groups of shadowed eternals either rushed into barely guarded cities to slaughter their defences or directly attacked major defensive points with any means necessary. To add insult to injury, from the woodwork came out spies planted above ground. Many believed that 10 betrayers out of a 10,000 large battalion meant nothing, but the way each spy destroyed hundreds of arrays, and potentially killed just as many good soldiers, only led to internal stresses.

Constant alertness led to exhaustion, but people pushed through it to reduce cases of sabotage as any offline arrays weakened their defences. Exhaustion led to sloppiness from there. And all of it culminated into the next nightly plan implemented by the eternals afterwards…

Send assassin deathsquads. Every night.

“You asked to see me, Commander Clessant?” At the half-open tent flap, a younger man stood attentively outside, his voice carried in to see the clearly ageing military leader sitting at a desk. While both uniforms appeared identical, the higher-ranking man clearly wore additional armour acquired himself as well as a metal star on his shirt collar.

His head didn’t move as both eyes trailed the desk surrounded by both paperwork and magical devices filled with more paperwork. The commander replied in his gruff voice, “Come inside, Array Master Pale, I don’t have time for pleasantries.” He waited momentarily as the young man took an immediate step inside and appeared beside the Commander. Now closer, he continued, “From now on, we utilise the two-way barriers at night.”

Not too far behind, the previously calm young man with a patchy beard frowned before hiding such a face. The decision went against reason given how destructive the night raids ended up.

The manager of all arrays for this Well of Darkness, Remmigan Pale, disagreed with such a decision immensely. “With all due respect, if we trap them, wouldn’t it encourage killing as many as possible before suicide?” Hardly a new argument given they hosted a meeting about this exact decision two weeks ago. What suddenly changed the Commander’s mind?

“Losing a hundred every night is already too many. They’re attacking the veterans too, mixing in high-value targets randomly so we never know exactly where they strike.”

He’d seen it almost every day now. How men and women across the camp think to themselves ‘Just 1 in 100, my odds are perfectly fine’. Only to never expect they’d end up on the receiving end of an explosive or blade, worsened by the fact this daily occurrence violently trod on their morale. Over 3,000 soldiers died per Well, thus far. And these humans mattered quite heavily to the war effort.

If numbers stayed this high, the defence line inevitably crumbled.

“I agree there, Commander… But I fear trapping them at night is giving eternals exactly what they want,” Pale replied with a jittering concern. While not his place to reject orders, the role of Array Master very clearly required expert advice on all array-related matters.

And this was sort of related?

The man grasped at straws before finally accepting the order. An easy task to achieve in an hour or two, but would it come back to bite the soldiers here or not?

Pale firmly paced out of the tent, not visibly troubled, but clearly a bit agitated given their irregular steps. Meanwhile, Commander Clessant turned his head momentarily to see the leaving man only to huff briefly right after. His voice quiet and barely audible within the tent but completely silent to those outside, “You must really treat us as idiots. Or maybe it is a double bluff?”

He leaned back in the cushioned chair gently. Not sure of what to think, but already so tired of the long months ahead of him. Who knew when they’d actually break through the Wall of Light?