The Myth of Creation

The Chain Breaker was sailing across the bloodred expanse of flowing water. Under the blazing crimson sky, no mystical force seemed to be influencing it… and yet, its course was being set by someone other than the person holding the steering oar. The ship was being pulled toward the lost temple of Fallen Grace.

Someone or something was influencing the future, steering the Chain Breaker toward the lost temple.

Like Cassie, Raphael also sensed something was amiss, thanks to his ability, [Seer]. Just as Fate could influence Destiny, Destiny could exert its own influence, allowing Raphael to perceive the interference.

On the deck of the ship, four Masters prepared for battle.

Sunny, wearing Weaver's Mask, broke the silence.

"How do we even fight an enemy who can influence the future?"

Both he and Nephis turned to Cassie. The blind girl frowned slightly.

"...How should I know?"

Who else would know but her?

'…Maybe Raphael knows since he can see the future too.'

Sunny hesitated for a moment before speaking awkwardly:

"Wouldn't a person who can perceive the future know best how to kill one of her own kind?"

The blind girl shifted slightly, then turned to face him. After a brief pause, she smiled faintly and asked:

"What, haven't you thought about how to kill someone like me before? A lot?"

Sunny coughed.

"...Never crossed my mind."

Cassie laughed.

"It's like Nephis said: her power must have limits. Say she can alter the path of one arrow… then, hit her with two. If she can alter the path of a hundred arrows, hit her with a hundred and one."

Sunny nodded, then turned to Raphael.

"Do you know another way?"

Raphael smiled.

"Actually, I know more than one."

Sunny raised an eyebrow and muttered, "Please don't tell."

Raphael smirked.

"Well, you could create a future that ensures her death, no matter what she does… or, you could render her ability useless."

Nephis, still clad in her white tunic, looked at Raphael and asked:

"And how do you do that?"

Raphael shrugged.

"It's simple, really. Just as Cassie sees the future through Fate, the Defiled Sybil alters the future through Fate. To make her ability useless, you'd need to sever her connection to Fate."

Cassie raised an eyebrow.

"And how would you do that?"

Raphael grinned.

"I can't tell you that… you know, it might come in handy someday."

Cassie smiled at him, and he returned the gesture.

Sunny watched them and sighed.

'What happened between those two?'

With that, he headed to the bow of the Chain Breaker. Soon, the ship slowed down. Reaching the drowning island, it scraped gently against its surface and came to a halt. Just like before, everything seemed calm… there was no movement in the wild garden of black flowers, and no abominations lunging at them from inside the temple. The breached walls stood precariously, gaping with ominous darkness.

It was as if something was inviting them to come inside. Summoning his cursed sword, Sunny grimaced and jumped down, onto the sinister shore.

'Since we're invited, let's not make the host wait too long...'

———————————————————

Inside the great hall of the lost temple, humans, abominations, shadows, and echoes clashed in a chaotic melee.

On the left, a towering figure, three meters tall with four arms ending in sword-like bones stained with golden-hued blood, stood out among the combatants. The figure wore a black onyx armor of scales, its head concealed by a dragon-shaped helmet.

The Titan lunged forward toward a humanoid abomination with powerful black tentacles instead of legs.

With its upper left arm, the Titan aimed a lethal slice at the abomination's neck, but somehow, the strike missed. The Titan immediately thrust its lower right arm toward the abomination's chest, yet at the last second, the creature moved backward, narrowly evading the blow.

From the waters beneath the abomination, a blood spear surged upward. At the same time, the Titan launched another assault from the front. The abomination had no escape—its death was inevitable.

The blood spear pierced its chest, and the bone sword cleaved its neck. The abomination fell lifelessly to the ground, joining the bodies of its slain kin.

[You have slain a Corrupted Demon, a Drowned Warrior.]

The Titan turned its gaze forward.

Ahead, a blond woman faced off against a vaguely humanoid abomination. The towering creature was grotesque and gaunt, its body encased in the remnants of a rotten crimson dress. Its tar-like, glossy black skin gleamed under the dim light. Tentacles had replaced its limbs, and its monstrous head split apart to reveal a wide, bestial maw.

A tentacle surged from the abomination's rotten dress, aiming to crush the blond woman. At the last moment, she dodged with remarkable agility.

Raphael, observing from a distance, whispered:

"Five thousand, three hundred and eighty-two."

The fight between Cassie and the Defiled Sybil raged on. Raphael watched as Cassie died in his visions, hundreds of times over.

While observing, he came to a realization.

"It isn't that she alters fate or changes it. It's more like she guides fate toward one of the possible outcomes."

When the Defiled Sybil was attacked, she guided fate to the outcome she desired. Raphael saw Cassie perish again and again, each death more gruesome than the last. He considered intervening but smiled instead.

He had already seen the inevitable—the death of the Defiled Sybil. No matter how the future twisted, every path ended with her demise at the hands of the blind woman.

In front of him, Cassie finally moved. 

A split second before, she had been frozen like an ice sculpture, but then, abruptly, she was already in motion. Dashing forward with stunning speed, the blind girl danced between the surging tentacles, somehow avoiding each inescapable and lethal strike.

The blade of the Quiet Dancer flashed once, and Cassie was suddenly behind the monstrous Tyrant. 

The sybil swayed slightly. 

Her tentacles grew still. 

Then, a thin stream of crimson blood flowed from a small hole in her neck. As the invisible ripple spread through the flooded hall, the Defiled oracle swayed once more... 

And toppled into the seething black water. 

With the death of the Defiled Sybil, the battle turned. No longer guided by fate, the Drowned were far easier to defeat.

Raphael ran to another part of the battlefield and swiftly killed one of the Drowned.

With Raphael joining the fight against the Corrupted Devil, the battle ended swiftl

———————————————————

Killing the last Drowned, Raphael's body began to shift, gradually returning to its normal form.

He walked toward Cassie, who was clutching her head, and smiled.

"Not bad, Cassie. You actually only died six thousand and thirty-four times."

Cassie's body twitched as she raised her gaze to Raphael.

"You... were counting?"

Raphael didn't answer directly and simply shrugged.

Beside him lay a pile of Transcendent soul shards—no fewer than three hundred, gleaming faintly. To him, it looked more like a pile of trash.

As a Titan, Raphael had no use for them. His Titan core had been filled long ago. Deciding to give the shards to Nephis, he joined the cohort, all of whom were resting while Nephis absorbed the shards.

Sunny glanced away from Nephis and looked at Raphael.

"By the way, how did you become a Titan? From what I know, you had a Sacred Aspect with no more than two hundred soul shards."

"Do you really want to know?"

"Sure, why not."

Raphael remained silent for a moment, then sighed.

"When Nephis and I entered the Second Nightmare, I was summoned into the body of a prisoner. Humans in the Underworld were nothing more than bags of meat, destined to be eaten. I was no different and was bought by one of the Underworld's nobles. They planned to serve me at a banquet. But when the chef noticed my body regenerating, he informed the Count. Following the Count's orders, I was sent to the Royal Castle where Nether once lived."

Raphael looked at the group and chuckled softly.

"There's no need for sympathy. It all happened long ago."

Sunny sighed. He understood more than most. He had died thousands of times fighting against the Nightmare, even if he couldn't remember all of it.

Raphael sighed and continued.

"When I woke up in the Royal Castle, I found myself in an experimental room. That's where I met him—Mohg. He was a Sacred-ranked being, but also a scientist. His research was dedicated to creating a body capable of withstanding the bloodline of Nether. And I, an Immortal, was his perfect test subject."

Raphael paused and looked at his trembling hand. Clenching it into a fist, he gritted his teeth and pushed on.

"Mohg experimented on my body relentlessly. Because I was Immortal, he didn't care about my safety. He crushed, destroyed, and obliterated my body, soul, and mind thousands of times. One of his experiments involved injecting soul shards into my body. Since I had a Sacred Aspect, my soul couldn't create more than one core, so both my soul and core was destroyed. But when my soul regenerated, something strange happened—my core could hold more shards.

Seeing this, Mohg continued. He shattered my soul core thousands of times, always pushing the limits. Then, he gave me Nether's bloodline. After that, I found myself in the Nightmare Spell."

Raphael took a deep breath.

"When my Aspect became Divine, and with the massive number of soul shards in me, seven cores were created. That's how I became a Titan."

Sunny looked at Raphael and sighed. He wasn't good at offering sympathy.

"I don't know whether to call you lucky or not."

Raphael chuckled at his words.

"You could say I was both. Always remember—every bad thing that happens to you brings something good in return. And the opposite is true as well."

Nephis, who was focused on consuming the soul shards, glanced at Raphael. Her gaze carried a hint of sadness.

'Here I thought my Second Nightmare was terrifying…'

She now understood why Raphael had attacked her back then. In his position, she might have done the same.

Nephis shook her head.

'No. I would've lost my mind long before then.'

After half an hour of silence, the cohort resumed their journey deeper into the temple.

Raphael's gaze lingered on the murals depicting the myth of creation. Of course, he knew most of it was incorrect.

From his right, he heard Sunny mutter to himself, "But where do the Daemons and the Nightmare come into all of this?"

Raphael glanced at him and asked, "Do you want to know?"

Startled, Sunny raised an eyebrow. "You know something?"

Raphael nodded.

"Well, what are you waiting for? For the Spell's sake!"

Raphael shrugged and walked toward one of the murals. Sunny, Nephis, and even Cassie focused their attention on him.

"It's true the gods were created from desire and fought against the creatures of the Void. But what's wrong is the claim that the gods won. They didn't. They lost. To save existence, they attempted to seal the Void. However, something went wrong during the sealing process.

The gods could have stopped, but they didn't. For the first time, they sinned—creating their Flaws. Once perfect, the gods became imperfect, giving birth to the Law of Imperfection."

Raphael turned to Sunny and asked, "You know who their Flaws are, don't you?"

Sunny nodded slowly. "The Daemons…"

"Yes. The Daemons were born from the gods' sins. When the Daemons rebelled against the gods, both the gods and Daemons perished. Only one survived—Weaver. With the death of the gods, no one was left to reinforce the seal, and the Void began to break free."

Sunny's face turned pale. If what Raphael said was true, the Void—something even the gods had lost to—was breaking free. When that happened, humanity would perish.

Nephis, lost in thought, turned to Raphael and asked, "So, are the Nightmare Gates appearing because the Void is breaking through the seal, which is our world?"

Raphael looked at her and replied with a question: "Why do you think our world was the seal to begin with?"

Nephis blinked, caught off guard. "I… don't know."

Raphael sighed. "Do you remember what I said when I killed Madoc?"

She stiffened. Of course, she remembered. She could still hear Madoc's screams echoing in her ears.

"'Is it because you were born in this world? The world of the Goddess of War?' That's what you said," Nephis replied.

"Exactly. There are seven worlds—or realms, if you prefer. The Mortal Realm and six Divine Realms, each belonging to one of the six gods. The world we live in is the realm of the Goddess of War."

Sunny nodded, understanding at last why humanity always turned to war when faced with conflict. It was their nature.

Cassie tilted her head toward Raphael. "Does that mean King Daeron was from one of the Divine Realms?"

"Yes. Daeron was a native of the Storm God's realm."

Sunny was too overwhelmed by the revelations to ask his usual barrage of questions. But then he remembered something. He looked at one of his memory runes and summoned its description.

Memory: [Crown of Twilight]

Memory Description: [There was a king who ruled over a dying land. The king was valiant and wise. Refusing to embrace despair, he thought of an audacious plan, gathered his companions, and braved the endless desert to enter the Tomb of Ariel, where the Great River flowed endlessly from the future into the past. Thus, the valiant king became a guide who guarded his people in their nightmares.]

Sunny reread the first sentence.

"There was a king who ruled over a dying land…"

What did the Nightmare Spell mean by "a dying land"? Did it mean the inhabitants died… or that the land itself had perished?

Sunny didn't know the answer, but someone might. He looked up at Raphael and asked, "What happened to the realms?"

Raphael's sad smile made Sunny's heart sink.

"They were all devoured. The Dream Realm consumed every Divine Realm. Only the realm of the Goddess of War remains."

'Ah… is this why the Sovereigns stopped people from Transcending?'

Breaking the silence, Cassie asked, "Then… is our world next? Will the Waking World be devoured soon?"

Raphael shook his head, offering them a brief moment of hope—only to shatter it.

"No. It has already begun. The Chain of Nightmares… America and Europe. Those two regions no longer exist in the Waking World; they've been devoured by the Dream Realm. Antarctica will be next. Eventually, all of Earth will follow."

They sat in silence for several minutes. Sunny clenched his fists, cursing inwardly. He looked at Raphael and asked, "What about the Dream Realm and the Daemons?"

Raphael sighed. "That's for you to figure out. I've given you enough hints."

With that, Raphael walked ahead of the group. After a few steps, he stopped and looked back at them.

"If you figure out the Sin of the Gods, everything will become clear."

And with those words, he continued onward.

After a few minutes of silence, Nephis sighed and turned to Cassie and Sunny.

"Let's go. We don't have time to dwell on this now. We'll discuss it when we're out of the temple."

The two nodded and followed her.

They moved forward, entering what appeared to be a destroyed library. Most of the books and scrolls were ruined, their remains submerged in stagnant water.

In one corner of the room, Raphael stood near a cracked wall. Taking a step back, he clenched his fist and struck the wall with precision, revealing a hidden passage.

He glanced over his shoulder at the group. "When you're done here, come find me."

Without waiting for a response, he stepped into the concealed chamber and disappeared into the darkness.

Hidden behind a false wall was a small circular chamber. There was an altar in its center. There was a staff of pristine white wood laying on the altar, untouched by dust or dirt. Both its ends were encased in a beautiful weave of bands of polished gold, with a single radiant gem… no, a crystal… crowning the top.

The rough crystal was easy to identify as a soul shard of a rather high Rank. Supreme, perhaps, or even higher.

Raphael waited silently until, moments later, Cassie entered the chamber. She walked toward the staff.

She went forward and picked up the staff and held it carefully. After a few moments, the soft radiance of the soul shard crowning the relic swirled, growing more intense on one side. 

Sunny blinked. "What did you do?" 

The blind girl suddenly seemed a little embarrassed. "Uh, I just... sort of... thought in my head, "Miss Guiding Light, can you guide me to Wind Flower, please?""

Raphael clapped his hands, drawing their attention back to him. "Now that we have what we came for, it's time to leave. The battle caused too much damage to this temple."

As if to punctuate his words, the ground beneath them trembled violently.

Nephis nodded somberly. "Should we hurry?" 

Sunny hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. A swarm of sparks rose into the air, slowly forming into a familiar alloy chest. "We probably don't have much time before this entire place sinks. Let's just load everything into the Covetous Coffer… we can continue studying the slates when we're safely back on the Chain Breaker."

Working quickly, they gathered what they could and threw it into the Covetous Coffer before bolting from the library.

Reaching the great hall where their battle against the Defiled Sybil took place, Sunny called Nightmare and turned around and grabbed Cassie by her thin waist. "Excuse me…" 

Effortlessly lifting the delicate girl, he placed her on the dark destrier's broad back and gave Nightmare a silent command to reach the surface as soon as possible. "You better hold on tight!"

a moment later, both of them were gone in a burst of wind. All that could be heard was the sound of adamantine hooves ringing on stone in the distance, and a short shriek.

Sunny didn't waste any time. He turned to Nephis, grasped her hand firmly, and pulled her into the embrace of his shadows. Together, they vanished.

That left Raphael alone in the great hall.

His face twitched. 'That bastard…'

Letting out a long-suffering sigh, he channeled his essence, accelerating his blood flow and fortifying his legs muscles. With a burst of speed that doubled his usual pace, he dashed forward, narrowly escaping the collapsing temple.

Outside, Raphael slowed to a stop, his sharp eyes landing on Sunny and Nephis. Their hands were still clasped.

'Are they seriously flirting after leaving me inside?!'

He walked up to Sunny, placing a heavy hand on his shoulder. Leaning in, he whispered, "I'm going to remember this."

Sunny stiffened, his body betraying his unease.

Raphael walked toward Chain Breaker and leaped onto it's deck without wasting a single second.

The other three followed, and just as they did, the drowning island resounded with a deafening crack, and split apart. 

Exhausted, the cohort decided to rest for the night and gather their strength. Tomorrow, they would set sail once more.

The information they had gathered provided crucial details about the nature of the place where Jet and Effie were—a floating island in the middle of a whirlpool. The whirlpool itself was not the issue—it was the abyss lurking beneath the island that posed the real threat.

As the group bid each other goodnight and retired to their quarters, Raphael remained on deck. He had no need for rest.

Standing alone, he gazed up at the night sky.

Soon, the darkness shifted, and the heavens turned a deep crimson…

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Phew… it's the first time writing a chapter more than 3k words with out copying a lot making it the longest chapter I wrote, I hope you like chapter.

Leave a review on this fanfic, chapter and some power stones, so more people can read it.

See you again next time👋