Prologue: Mount Karma (Chapter 1)

Humanity had been discriminated against and enslaved for centuries. It may be because they are the weakest race on the planet. What good are they but to be slaves? In recent years, one faction of the war started ‘The human right moment’. Explosions! Wars and famines, every faction fighting for leadership and power, call it world domination. It was the beginning of dark times. Or should it be called spring of terrors that are to follow? Everything that happens, everything that will happen, sprung here at this moment.

Conflict and confusion of war can be dreadful for many, but for a few, it can be an opportunity to invade impossible places. ‘The Last Page’ only remaining page of supreme grimoire tells a story; story of a cursed place hidden within ‘The Great Black.’ It was a place entrusted to guard an artefact of power. A power that could grant any wish, absolute reign if you so desire. Believing such a legend, a team of men sought out for that forbidden place. The place is called ‘Mount Karma’. A place so dangerous that even the most powerful of them could never return once they have crossed the event horizon. No matter the consequences, there are always fools who put their hands on something they don’t understand.

***

“I thought everyone dies the instant they enter the event horizon; how come we are still alive?”

“Naomi is right. Not only that, there is no storm. Does that mean lore is incorrect?” That was Justin.

“The stories are all true. I have researched every history book about the place. There was only one survivor from a certain group who has entered this place throughout history. He was a human, like us. Do you understand where I am going? The curse only works on the creatures of grace. I learned that through his logbook, which I stole with the page. That’s why we are still alive because the artefact was always meant for us humans,” Heath explained with a soft and slow voice. He always had such a soothing voice, even when he was rude or angry.

“Have I not told you this before. I thought I did before we crossed the event horizon,” Heath continued after a brief pause.

“No, you haven’t, Your Gracefulness,” Zach said with a sly grin, giving a sarcastic bow. “Why did this idiot have to be our boss?” He muttered. Heath believed he wasn’t supposed to hear that.

“Ohh… honey! I love it when you talk like that,” Heath said, kissing Zach on his lips.

“Wait, wait! Even if that is true, why hasn’t anybody else found it before?” That was Phil.

“Isn’t it obvious? Every entrance used to be heavily guarded by them, and slaves are cowards,” Sam replied, squatting and jumping around.

***

They weren’t the only ones aiming for the ‘Mount Karma.’ A woman wearing a pitch-black suit from head to toe, carrying a suitcase, was just about to enter the event horizon. She was standing in front of a dome, so enormous, so dark -she thought the darkness would swallow her whole.

“Holy mother of frack!” she screamed her lungs out as she crossed the event horizon. “Am I dead?”

“I’m still alive, yay.” She said, nodding left and right, sweating all over. “Ah-Phew! That was the scariest second of my life.” She looked at a device in her left hand. “the signal is coming from straight ahead,” she muttered and began her journey.

***

Heath’s group walked and walked, but there was nothing but snow-white sand. The sun never rose. The sky was always dark. Still, everything was as clear as day, and it was as hot as any other desert.

“The air is getting heavier and heavier, deeper we go. No wonder all the slaves died. They cannot survive such an environment like this,” Sam Said.

Heath scooped up a handful of sand and grinned at it. “I understand it now. It’s so simple that it is almost laughable.”

“What are you talking about?” Sam cocked his head.

“I think he’s losing it,” Naomi grinned.

“Look,” Heath showed the sand in his hand to them. “This is the reason they all died,” he added with excitement.

Everyone stared at Heath with a confused face which said, “Hun!”

“This is the sand that is used to make grace blockers. Radiation from this sand can block the flow of grace. Unlike us, that much radiation would be extremely poisonous for the grace users, killing grace users almost instantly. Does that answer your confusion?”

Everyone nodded.

They continued on their journey to ‘Mount Karma.’ They travelled for more than a month. Because of the low supply of food and water, almost everyone had died. The remaining thirteen of them finally reached ‘Mount Karma’.

It was not a mountain at all. It was a black monolith full of holes. The word ‘Mount Karma’ was inscribed on it. A golden goblet was hovering above the monolith, glittering in the light, which seemed to come from nowhere. Sam tried to climb the monolith.

Climb down off me at once.

It was an angry and echoing voice. Heath could not pinpoint the source of the sound. Though the logic said that, it was coming from the monolith.

Sam gave a start, toppling on the sandy ground. “O-Gosh! That startled me. That wasn’t funny. Which one of you did it?” Sam snapped, straightening himself and dusting his back.

Foolish child! It is I, the great monolith.

Heath knelt kissing the sands beneath him, “O-great monolith, we are here but for one purpose for you to grant us our one wish.”

My children, it is not within my power to grant you your wishes, for I was forever cursed by a great evil. But fret not my children, I can give you a gift to save this world. Is it not your true desire...?

“Why do I feel like there is ... but coming?” Naomi said reluctantly.

But my children, I have one condition…

“I knew it! His way of talking was eerie, and there are always conditions…”

“Worry not, my children. I will not ask what you cannot give. I have thirteen stories I wish to tell you. One for each one of you.”

After hearing their stories, all of them reacted simultaneously. “Yes.”

The goblet got separated into thirteen smaller goblets and hovered in front of their faces.

Thank you! My children for accepting my humble gifts. Thank you. You shall be saviours of humanity. Drink my children drink, and you shall attain my gift.

Each one of them gulped the water from the goblet floating in front of them. Abruptly, a bolt of purple lightning boomed and struck the monolith. The flash hurled all thirteen of them into the air. Burning pain coursed through Heath as he fell. Even with the pain, he managed to stand up. His ears were still ringing because of that boom, and his sight was blurred, he realized, as he looked about for his friends.

First, his sight returned and then his hearing. The monolith was no longer there. It had vanished. There were burns on his both arms. His charred flesh from all over his body dropped like molten tar and vanished before it hit the sand. His arms were completely healed. There was no sign of burns as if it never happened. It happened so fast that the pain vanished in a blink.

Frantically, Heath searched for Zach. He found a charred body completely black. Somehow, he knew it was Zach. His beloved Zach was dead, how could …

Abruptly, the charred body began to boil. Molten black liquid oozed away from the charred body, exposing the white skeleton. Flesh grew over the bones. And there he was, Zach, eyes open, completely healed as if he wasn’t a charred body just a minute ago. Shocked and happy at the same time, he embraced Zach, tears dropping in his eyes. “You are alive,” he whispered. “You are alive.”

“What? What happened?”

***

“So? This little thing was giving off that cosmic radiation? What are you?” The mysterious woman muttered.

It was a bright Violet gemstone. She picked it up and stored it inside a led coated case. As she tried to stand, she struck a hard wall. She yelped.

“Bloody hell, that startled me?” She cried.

The wall was a middle-aged man carrying an oddly shaped crooked staff. “What is a woman like you doing at a place like this?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” she replied. “Not that you are a woman.”

“I have been picking up strange signals, so I came here to investigate it. But the signals suddenly vanished. So strange.” The man scratched the back of his head.

“Yeah! Weird, right?” she said, making a clueless voice.

“What’s that! In your case, I mean?”

“Well… ha-ha-ha..., it’s nothing, absolutely nothing.” She grinned nervously.

Rumble! Crackle! Boom!

Their conversation was cut short. The noises grew louder and louder, the ground was dancing in madness, and the dark sky flashed brilliantly with forked lightning. The lightning and thunder echoed from everywhere, and the black sky cracked open, and the world was upside down. Everything around them warped and twisted.

Space was folding within itself. Even the lightning seemed to warp within itself. It seemed like the end of the world. With a brilliant flash of light, that madness stopped, everything stopped for a moment. There was no breathing, no heartbeat, there was no life or death, there was only emptiness. The woman found herself and the man stranded in an iceberg, shivering to their bones.

***

A few weeks after the event within ‘The Great black’, the trajectory of the war shifted in a different direction.

The war ended after the arrival of a certain man. No one remembered what had happened. Twelve of the alive gifted remembered, but they never talked of it.

The war which no one remembered was named ‘The Darkhour’. Generations had passed as civilizations rose, and they fell. The time of three great powers has arrived, and evil is on the brink of awakening again.