Prelude: The END.

Tang! Tang!! Tang!!!

The sound of a sword and a spear clashing together reverberated.

"Damn it all. Get the fuck out of my way." The man holding the sword yelled, but he got no response.

He lunged his sword in the direction of the other man, but it was parried. The spearman, seeing an opening, swung his weapon in, piercing his opponent's chest but narrowly missing his heart.

"Why?" The spear holding guy asked.

No response.

"Why did this have to be like this? Why have all of you destroyed our cosmos? What did we do wrong? Not a single soul is left, not even children... You all destroyed everything. Tell me, why? Just why?"

The man with the spear muttered to himself as he observed the battleground.

The sky and the earth were dyed crimson. An endless amount of corpses spread across the landscape like an ocean could be seen. The putrid smell of blood and death surrounded the battlefield.

The man holding the spear looked around in a daze as he remembered his old memories—the memories of people smiling and living their lives.

In sharp contrast to the devastation and destruction here.

Tears of blood started to come out of the man as he questioned, "Why?"

HAHAHAHA!

The swordsman started smirking as he plunged his sword towards the spearman, but he missed.

"Well, you see, our [Cosmic Lord] needs the source of your cosmos so well... I guess you understand now, don't you?" He stated as his wounds began to heal. He began to thrust his sword yet again.

The spearman blocked the sword and increased the distance between them.

"You should give up. Our Lord will arrive soon, and you won't be able to fight him. We will take the [Cosmic Source] at any cost." He continued as he looked at his adversary.

"You should join us. With your capabilities, our Lord will definitely accept you."

The swordsman got no response to his proposal, but he still smiled as he stared at his foe, whose face looked like broken glass.

The spearman inhaled deeply, wiped the blood and tears from his face, and tightened his grip around his spear, as though he were prepared to fight once more to put an end to this never-ending battle.

"You will not get it as long as I am alive." The spearman said this with determined eyes.

He closed the distance between them and increased the speed of his attack as he swung his spear, but was blocked. He persisted and increased the ferocity of his blows; he kept swinging his spear, making it more difficult for the swordsman to continue defending it.

It looked like the battle was coming to an end.

Just as the spearman was going to stab the head of the swordsman through an opening he created...

His eyes lost their focus for a moment!

Upon looking down, he discovered that a claw was protruding from his chest. He realized that it had penetrated his heart from behind!

Puuuuu... Cough! Cough!!

Bleugh! Cough!!!

Blood spurted out of his mouth!

He glanced at the swordsman in shock for a moment, then attempted to turn around and look back.

He simultaneously heard the swordsman say, "My lord."

As he turned around, the spearman noticed a face. He felt as if a primordial beast was looking at him with eyes of indifference.

The man had a good appearance; his hair was dyed gray, his eyebrows were also dyed gray, and his pupil was golden with a hint of black in the middle.

The spearman could not see very well, but he could tell that the man who appeared to be the lord of his enemy was grinning.

He smiled in amusement, as if this were just entertainment for him.

The Lord pulled back his hand and his heart with it.

The spearman tried his hardest to control his feelings, but he was unable to suppress his fear and anger towards the man.

There was nothing ethereal about the man in front of him. He appeared innocent enough, yet it was as if all of cosmos were staring right at him.

He realized...

The spearman staggered and attempted to make his way to the nearest rock for a seat. He struggled to catch his breath, but by then he knew that his time had come and began giggling uncontrollably.

It was his destiny to die in this battle and lose, just as the seer had foretold. He closed his eyes and accepted his fate.

"Y-You destroyed everything to get it and to create that, didn't you?" The spearman opened his eyes in defiance and uttered.

His words froze the smile on the Lord's face, while the swordsman's face turned ugly.

They came to the realization that their opponent was aware of their plan and that it was no longer a secret.

The spearman ignored this and continued, "You... Y-You will never get it... *Cough!* *Cough!* Y-Your desires will never succeed, and someday y-you will face an opponent who will give you the same, no, a hundred times more despair than you caused us.

Our entire cosmos was turned to dust because of you, and I pray that someday the same will happen to you. *Cough!*"

"Where is it? Shadow." The swordsman inquired with a tinge of impatience. However, he was met with silence.

He looked towards his Lord and pleaded, "Lord, please enlighten this one."

The man who had been silent this whole time as if enjoying a show finally showed a frown and said, "It's with him."

"What? How is this possible?" The swordsman was flabbergasted.

"Well, it doesn't matter anymore since my Lord is here; I am sure you will get it."

The Lord walked towards the spearman, the last survivor of this entire cosmos—the man who was once titled Shadow!

Shadow looked at the beastly man as the Lord moved his left hand towards the back of his head and then looked straight into his eyes with an emotionless gaze as he avowed:

"I will have it. The [Ephemeral Heart] will be mine. At any cost!" He moved his right hand towards the right chest of Shadow and started to channel his energy towards it.

Shadow's body began to tremble as he felt the sinister power surging all around him.

The Lord gently pressed his hand into Shadow's right chest, but...

He couldn't feel anything, or rather, his hand couldn't pierce through. He tried again, but nothing happened. He was about to try again when suddenly...

HAHAHAHA!

He heard a maniacal laugh.

He was still processing what had happened when Shadow's body began to glow, and he heard his accursed voice again.

"With my very life as compensation, I ask the [Infinite Void] to give the source of this fallen cosmos the power to traverse the path that shouldn't be crossed.

My body shall become its base, while my soul shall be its fuel, and hence shall it bring this END to a new beginning."

The red sky suddenly turned pitch black, and a pressure descended that completely froze everything. Even the man who had been indifferent until now turned pale as if he had seen a ghost.

The swordsman instantly passed out.

"Alas! I won't be able to see you utterly destroyed. But remember, one day the same shall fall on you." Shadow declared with an abhorrent smile as his body turned dust and the [Ephemeral Heart] finally came into existence.

It was in sharp contrast to an eternal existence such as the cosmos.

This was not a mere [Cosmic Source] anymore. It was something much greater.

The Lord attempted to move his body in an effort to grasp the [Ephemeral Heart], but the pressure of the [Infinite Void] prevented him from taking any action.

The [Ephemeral Heart] turned into a ray of light as it vanished into the black sky, leaving behind a dying cosmos, the unconscious swordsman, and the utterly enraged and unwilling Lord.

AAAHHHHH!

An enraged roar of the Lord echoed out and disappeared into the void. The pitch black sky turned red again, and the cosmos started to disintegrate, as if it were disappearing from existence.

The Lord turned indifferent again as he picked up the unconscious swordsman and voiced indifferently, "I will get it back... At any cost, it will be MINE!"

He opened a portal and disappeared into it.

As for the [Ephemeral Heart], it began to traverse the [Infinite Void], and it was yet to be known what would come next...

A new beginning or an unsettling end?

.....

Author's Note:

>> This is an original work that I am writing from the ground up. I am using my imagination and mixing it with my reading preferences to create a fantasy/cultivation type novel.

>> I hope you guys read at least 50 chapters before deciding to quit, because I am sure you will end up liking the story quite a bit.

>> This is the prelude to the main story, and there will be another chapter in the prelude. So stay tuned!

*****