Primordial of Steel

It was already Saturday and my body felt like complete shit under the shining orb of torment in the sky.

My clothes were dirty with sweat and blood from the scorpions I had slain, so much so that I thought that if someone saw me they might think I was some kind of sand specter and run away.

In contrast to my sorry appearance, my master was still squeaky clean and there were no signs of fatigue on his face, nor was it showing in his gait.

I wasn't even sure if he had slept during the nights, something that also could be said to be a torturous experience. Even if the days were hot, the nights were cold as winter, and having to sleep on the sand without any cover was horrible.

During our little trip, I had almost started to doubt that there even was an old friend that we were going to visit. It was something of a cliché but it had gotten to the point where I was thinking that the journey itself was the goal.

My mental state had already recovered quite a bit, having been forced to preserve my energy as much as possible to get through the days.

"Three scorpids, one of them is a mutant."

My master didn't even stop walking this time, he just opened his mouth to tell me what I was about to go up against as he kept on going.

*Crzzt!*

Before they even emerged from the sands, I activated [Discharge], conglomerating lightning in my left hand, while I held Khanda in my right.

"Krik!"

A couple of seconds later, three scorpids were standing around us, two ordinary and one with fiery red plates, showing it was a mutant wielding the fire element.

*Crackle!, Boom!*

Not letting them fire their projectiles I shot a big orb of purple electricity at the mutant, instantly ending its life. "Krikkik!", the other two monsters weren't too happy with their bigger brother falling, thus they instantly launched stones toward me.

*[Wings of Thunder], [Lightning Step]*

Closing the distance to one of them with a step, while simultaneously bringing out my wings, I let them enter my opponent, paralyzing it with a steady flow of electricity. Knowing I wouldn't have time to charge another attack before his friend would come to his rescue, I raised the output of my wings using [Discharge].

Another enemy fell down, at the expense of my body which was now on the verge of giving up.

"KRIK!"

A claw flew toward my ankle, *Clack!*, grabbing nothing but air as I quickly jumped backward.

*Crackle!*

One last attack, stabbing the head of the scorpid with both Khanda and Nandaka, ended the fight, with me emerging as the one victorious.

However, as soon as the fight ended, my already weary body also fell down to the sand, having nothing more to give.

"Master, I don't think I can keep going. My body seems to have reached its limit."

Somehow it wasn't as painful as it usually was when I had overused my skills, it was more like my body was overtaken by pure fatigue, as if my pool of energy had been depleted completely.

Turning his head, he looked down at me with a smile, "It's okay. We have already reached our destination, after all."

A bit confused at his answer, as we were still in the middle of the desert, I could feel my brows rise, "What destination?"

*Brrrmm*

Suddenly, a loud rumble could be heard, and the dunes of sand started vibrating. More specifically, one smaller dune in front of us slowly started to dissipate into the ground.

Instead, a staircase leading down into the ground appeared, taking its place.

When the rumble calmed down, an unknown force lifted me off the ground and carried me behind the principal who had already started walking.

The entrance was pretty much just a stone tunnel, only lit up by a small flame that my master held in his hand.

However, as we descended to the bottom, the tunnel ended and we were met by a mind-blowing sight.

There was nothing that would point to the fact that we were in a cave anymore.

We had entered a large picturesque temple. Large columns stood in two rows and the walls were covered in majestic carvings, displaying wars and mythological creatures of old.

Still, what lay at the room's very end was more impressive than anything else.

Large silvery feathers, all seemingly sharper than the sharpest of swords, accompanied by a huge beak with azure markings in the form of flames.

The master's old friend was in actual fact a huge iron phoenix, bigger than a large truck.

As we approached its big head, still lying on the ground with its eyes closed, a voice rang out directly into our heads.

"-Is that you, Lionheart? Why have you come here again?"

In contrast to the mental communication that the creature in front of us used, my master used his physical mouth, "I am here with my disciple. He has some worries about the possible futures, thus I thought you might be able to help."

At this point, a huge eye opened up. The eye of the giant bird was completely white, with no pupil present.

"-So this is the heir to Druk? That crazy dragon has done something absurd again..."

His feathers rustled a bit, "-So you have seen a couple of futures then? How many have you gotten to see?"

Still flying in the air, I tried to look as dignified as possible when I answered the creature, "I have seen two possible futures, both of which ending with me losing the one most important to me."

"-I see. Well, as you seem to have a multitude of possible branches of time, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Most likely you have gotten to see these as a favor from the old one so that you can avoid them."

"The old one?", I couldn't help but be confused by his words. Even if it felt like a good thing that the most likely explanation for my visions was that someone wanted me to avoid them, I couldn't help but be suspicious that there was someone who was pulling the strings.

"-The old one is the creator and supervisor of this world, the one who has granted all of us primordials the privilege to tamper with the flow of fate. He is what you might call God."

Things started to get even more confusing. It had already been confirmed that gods and goddesses existed in this world, but according to the bird, there was supposedly something that stood above all of these?

Seeing my confused expression, the bird started to explain,

"- This world is based on one simple philosophy, the flow of fate and the individual's influence over it. This is the true face of what we call mana. Mana is, in essence, the power to change the laws of the world, and by extension, change one's own fate. In the beginning, there were only five primordials, these are what you might know as gods. Theia, the goddess of light, Aed, the god of fire, Ezili the god of water, Stribog, the god of wind, and Enten, the god of earth. They are also the ones who guides this world and are the primary conductors of the flow of fate."

It wasn't unexpected that the five primordial gods would have authority based on the five elements, but that created another conjecture in my head, "Then there should be four primordial creatures related to the combined elements?"

"-Correct. You are already aware of Druk, the dragon of storms, the one holding authority of the combined elements of fire and wind. I am also one of the primordial creatures, holding the authority of steel. We are free from the flow of fate, but there is an unspoken rule that we should not interfere in the matters of mortals."

It was pretty interesting hearing about this, getting to know some of the truths in the world, but I was still failing to see the point. Fortunately, my master seemed to have understood my situation, "The reason why we came here, young hare, was for you to realize that the flow of time is dynamic, something that you can influence by gaining power. The laws of our world are based upon the choice of the individual, and mana is the absolute proof of this. Even my Inherent Disposition can't determine how the future will play out, that's why it just gives me a knowing of what could or should happen. What this means is that even though some things are predetermined, due to the actions of the gods, the choices of the individual can still have a major impact on one's future."

My head was a mess from all the information, but, in the end, I did find a sense of comfort in knowing that my knowledge of fate had been distorted since the beginning.

However, "Couldn't you just have told me this at the academy?"

There had been no reason for us to journey through the desert for days on end just for him to tell me this. Even if it had been interesting meeting a primordial, there had been no actual meaning to it.

"Well, there is also another reason why we are here. As you are the inheritor of Druks legacy, there is another truth that you need to know."

Letting the old man's words act as a trigger the phoenix started to talk once more.

"-As you said before, there should be four primordials of combined elements, but in reality, there are five. One of us is an extreme outlier and the reason why war is inevitable for you humans. He is the one the demonkind worships, as well the primordial beast of darkness, Erebus."