Ep 10 - The Spirit Who Forged Heaven
The climb was merciless.
Mount Sheng towered above the clouds, a spine of ancient stone etched with glowing runes older than memory. Its slopes burned with cold fire, frost that bit like knives and winds that howled like lost souls.
Mingyao gritted his teeth and pressed forward, his body aching from days of battle and flight. Yanshi followed silently, her eyes sharp, while Liuxian moved ahead, scouting shadows like a ghost.
"This mountain…" Mingyao said between breaths, "it's alive."
Liuxian glanced back, voice low and calm. "The runes respond to your blood. It knows you come."
Yanshi's gaze flickered to the carvings glowing faintly beneath her fingers as they rested on an ancient stone pillar.
"Spirits once walked here," she murmured. "Before gods, before demons. This was the cradle."
Mingyao swallowed the rising storm of questions and doubts. At the summit, waiting in the hollow of a shattered peak, was the one he sought—the last Spirit who helped forge Heaven itself.
---
The air thinned as they neared the summit, their breaths ragged and voices faint against the mountain's song.
In a cavern carved from starstone, bathed in silver light from an unseen moon, sat Shiye.
Her form shimmered—neither fully corporeal nor ghostly—like smoke caught in sunlight. Eyes deep as voids met Mingyao's with an ancient wisdom.
"You have come far, Child of Both Suns," Shiye's voice rippled like the wind through branches. "And yet your journey has only just begun."
Mingyao bowed his head, weary. "I need to know why… why fate itself is broken. Why the throne of Heaven is empty. Why I am hunted like a curse."
Shiye's gaze softened. "Because the cycle of fate was shattered. Not by accident, but by design."
She gestured, and the cavern's walls shimmered, revealing visions:
A throne forged from starfire, gleaming with divine light.
A shadowed figure reaching out, touching the throne.
A ripple—like a tear—spreading through time and space.
"A hand reached where it should not have," Shiye said. "A god or something beyond, who erased the weave of destiny."
Mingyao frowned. "Why? Who would do such a thing?"
Shiye's eyes darkened. "Because fate, as it was, served only to bind. To trap souls in endless cycles of birth and death, war and peace, hope and despair."
She moved closer, the light around her pulsing.
"The throne sits empty because it cannot hold what once held it. The threads of the future were severed. The heavens await a new weaver."
Mingyao's heart thundered.
"Then what am I? A key? A weapon? A savior?"
Shiye smiled—both sad and radiant.
"You are all these. And none."
She stretched out her hand, and a glowing sigil hovered above her palm.
"This mark is the last fragment of the old fate. It calls to you because only you can rewrite the future."
Mingyao hesitated.
"What if I fail?"
Shiye's voice grew soft but fierce.
"Then the skies will burn until nothing remains. But if you succeed… a new dawn will rise from the ashes."
---
The chamber pulsed with energy as Mingyao reached out, fingertips brushing the glowing sigil.
Visions flooded his mind.
He saw the heavens split by war.
Demons and gods locked in endless conflict.
The rise and fall of empires.
And beneath it all—a hidden hand, weaving and unweaving the threads of destiny.
---
A sudden tremor shook the cavern.
Outside, the winds screamed a warning.
Yanshi and Liuxian exchanged sharp glances.
"The guardians have found us," Liuxian said.
Shiye nodded.
"Fate may be broken, but its keepers remain vigilant."
The cavern's walls shifted, revealing spectral warriors clad in star-forged armor, blades crackling with divine light.
Mingyao stood, the sigil blazing on his palm.
"Then I will fight."
---
The battle was fierce.
Light clashed with shadow.
Steel met flame.
Mingyao moved with newfound strength, his powers flowing like rivers of fire and light.
Yanshi danced through the fray, her blade a blur as she struck down those who sought to bind them.
Liuxian fought with calm precision, cutting through enemies with deadly grace.
Together, they pushed through the tide, reaching the cavern's heart.
There, the spectral leader confronted Mingyao.
A towering figure with eyes like burning stars.
"You defy the will of Heaven," it thundered. "You will not rewrite what is eternal."
Mingyao met its gaze, voice steady.
"Fate is not eternal. It is what we make."
He raised his hand, the sigil flaring like a sunburst.
The warrior recoiled, then vanished with a final scream.
---
Silence returned.
Shiye smiled.
"You have taken the first step."
She turned toward a glowing portal, its edges shimmering like liquid glass.
"Beyond this lies the path to the throne. To the true weaver of fate."
Mingyao glanced at Yanshi and Liuxian.
"Are you with me?"
They nodded.
Together, they stepped through the portal.
---
Light engulfed them.
When it faded, they stood before the Throne of Heaven—empty and silent.
Mingyao approached, the sigil burning bright on his palm.
He reached out, and the throne responded, flooding the chamber with radiant energy.
A voice echoed—deep and ancient.
"Child of Both Suns, the hour of reckoning is upon you."
Mingyao's heart pounded.
He was no longer just a boy caught between worlds.
He was the last hope.
The last key.
The weaver of a new fate.
---
The skies outside burned red once more.
But this time, the flames felt like a promise.
A beginning.
To be continued