Prologue
_ Warring Skies _
There are several realms that lay dormant in the universe, Warforge was one of such realms. The universe thrived in its dormancy as it was the realm of war for the gods, but now, now it was active, brimming cosmic and divine energies on a scale never seen before. Gods were battling, an entire pantheon was at war.
Dark cloud loomed over the ancient battleground as the gods clashed. The air crackled with the intensity of surging divine power as weapons clashed, echoing through the ether. At the heart of the battle field, lightning rained down, creating a dome of white light, momentarily bringing the warring gods to a standstill at the brilliance of the powerful light, but almost as quickly as the dome formed, it vanished, revealing two bodies, one in a pool of blood with the other standing above the motionless body. He exuded an aura of immense power and authority, as expected of the King and ruler of the Alusi, Kamalu.
He looked around, destruction and chaos engulfed everything as far as the eyes could see, and he could see everything for miles. In his hands sat a silver orb, and in that orb sat the victory of his people, but now he had to make a decision, a hard decision. Flee the battle to ensure their victory but leave his people to die without a leader, or stay and fight in hopes that his presence would ensure their victory.
He could feel the gaze of his opponents burning through his hands, settling on the silver orb in his grasp. It seemed that his hope on the relic had given it so much divine power that the enemy had sensed it. At this point, they wouldn’t want to know why, but as long as the faith of the King of gods was in it, they would want nothing else other than to destroy the object of his faith. They had made the decision for him.
Without wasting another moment, the King took to the skies, burning through it like a hot white stream of light. He was easily the most powerful being on the battlefield, and although their overwhelming number might over power him, he was confident that none of those lower gods could match his speed nor the force of his power to be able to bring him down. Warforge spanned millions of miles, but like lightning, he was tearing through the distance in seconds. All he needed was to leave Warforge, ensure the relic was duly delivered as he was instructed, then he could return to war, but before he could reach the end of the vast realm, he felt it before he could sense it coming, a blast of destructive and demonic energy collided with him, sending him hurtling down like a falling star.
The entire realm quaked as the deity fell to the ground. The gods who were chasing after him had been torn apart by the resulting explosion, a testament of his great power.
“I never thought I would see a day when the great Kamalu, the World-Razer himself, would flee a battle,” a voice echoed as the cloud of dust and energy cleared up. “What would your people think of you? The Father of the Alusi… shame on you Kalu.”
Kamalu raised his head. He was in a crater that looked like it could be a decently large lake if water was put in it. His white robe was still as white as light despite the dirt all around him. After confirming that the silver orb was still in his grasp, Kamalu shot out of the crater and landed at the edge. His interest had been piqued. Who had the power to bring him down? It had to be the leader of the infidels. Kamalu frowned, he wanted to meet this god, he wanted to kill him.
“Show yourself coward!” Kamalu gritted his teeth as lightning sparked in his eyes.
“Coward? I’m not the one running from a fight, am I?” came the reply from the other end of the crater.
Kamalu raised his head and try as he might, he could not recognize this being. His opponent was clad in a black overflowing robe with a cloud of darkness covering his feet. His chest was left bare, showcasing the bizarre tattoos that Kamalu couldn’t read.
“Who are you?” Kamalu said and balled his fingers into a fist.
“You do not recognize me? Well, it has been a few millennia, perhaps this would ring a bell World-Razer, ‘I am the Chaos of the world’,” the cloaked being said with a deep ethereal voice and shot at Kamalu, a burning axe in his hand.
Kamalu, the World-Razer, didn’t stand on ceremony as he shot at his opponent, a spear materializing in his hands.
Both gods met in the middle, their weapons clashed, unleashing a shockwave with raging energies that tore through the grounds of Warforge for thousands of miles, turning the rocky surface into a field of lava with pieces of land floating around.
Kamalu stopped himself from rolling too far away and looked at his tumbling opponent. ‘I am the Chaos of the World,’ that statement rang a bell, but he couldn’t believe it..
“You can’t be Chaos-Bringer, he is dead, and that axe, isn’t that…”
“Yes, it belonged to the god of death, but like I said, I am the chaos of the world, the Chaos Bringer, and now the gods shall fall to that chaos.”
Not giving the King a moment’s rest, the tattooed god, the Chaos Bringer, shot at the distracted Kamalu at impossible speeds.
Kamalu didn’t even see it coming, one moment he was trying to figure out who this imposter could be, and the next, he felt the force of meteor slamming into his chest. The air crackled and burned from the sheer force of the attack, but that wasn’t all. The imposter had only softened him up for the main attack. A black orb of energy was unleashed upon Kamalu almost immediately in quick succession.
Everything went dark in the realm as the orb hit Kamalu, sending him millions of miles away.
Kamalu hit the ground hard, nothing could stop his tumbling might. Mountains crumbled, oceans vaporized, forests faded away as he hurtled through the vast realm, until he came to a stop at the foot of a mountain.
‘What is this power?’ Kamalu was beyond astonished. His white robes were rags now and he was bleeding almost everywhere as he staggered to his feet. He should never have stayed to fight. He should have known that anyone capable of bringing him down would be capable of keeping him down. He had underestimated his opponent. He turned his attention to the orb in his hand, He had been instructed to deliver it out of Warforge, out of the realm of the gods, to take it to a specific Dibia, an oracle of the gods. His failure to do that would mean total defeat.
“Is that hope I smell?” the imposter’s voice rang out. “I will not kill you Kalu, not until you are bathed in and dripping with despair,” he said and swung his axe at Kamalu, but Kamalu reacted quickly.
With a quick spin, he dodged the strike, grabbed the imposter’s arm and whispered, “You shall know the full might of the World-Razer.”
With that, he pulled him in and sent him straight into the mountain with a headbutt. Giving him no time to recover, Kamalu raised his hand and the dark clouds vanished as a massive orb of white light appeared in the air. Bolts of lightning, radiant and impatient, hungry for motion had been trapped in this moon sized orb, raging, waiting to be released from their prison.
“Die imposter,” Kamalu’s voice was soft and calm, but it reverberated across the realm with a thunderous might, and in its wake, the massive orb in the sky let lose its content, lightning, streaming out like a pillar of light.
The tattooed imposter had just forced himself out of the mountain. He didn’t even it coming, but he felt it as it struck him. His scream of pain was loud and covered miles as the streaming light forced him into the ground, drilling him deep into and beyond the core of the realm. The sheer force of the attack reduced the mountain to nothing but rumbles.
The realm was filled with the brilliant light of the World-Razer’s attack which poured out ceaselessly. Kamalu exhaled and turned his attention to silver relic in his hands. “The war has been won my friend; do I still need to do as you requested?’ Kamalu asked, not expecting a reply, but he got one.
“Oh, the war is far from over,” the reply came from behind him. “The Chaos-Bringer wouldn’t be so easily defeated.” It was the tattooed imposter, leader of the invading army.
Kamalu could feel his strength wavering, he had performed a great feat earlier on when he created a dome. Taking and sealing the essence body of a god was tasking enough, but doing that for two gods? He needed to rest, but this imposter, this Chaos Bringer was not going to let him have that rest. Kamalu knew that at his current might, he would most likely lose this battle, and losing the battle would mean they will lose the war. He had two options, and both of them would result in his death.
The Chaos-Bringer raised his axe that burnt with a chaotic light, the lightning attack had razed his garment and charred his body into mutilation. He brought it down with all his might, digging his way into Kamalu’s shoulder, tearing through the god’s skin. The blade of his axe sunk halfway through Kamalu’s torso.
The Chaos-Bringer panted heavily and let go of his axe. Slowly he turned around as Kamalu dropped to his knees, head bowed.
“Great Kamalu, Father of the Alusi, killed by a nobody, that would be a shame to your name,” the deity chuckled, but Kamalu didn’t move an inch, he didn’t groan, it was like a preoccupied husband ignoring his nagging wife, and the imposter hated it.
“What is that?” Chaos-Bringer quickly stepped back as he noticed a glow in Kamalu’s hand.
“My hope, your defeat,” Kamalu raised his head with a weak smile. He looked withered, with almost no life let in his being, but with the last energy in his bpdy, he turned around and flung the glowing orb far into the horizon, ignoring the axe sticking out of his body.
The imposter immediately realized when just happened. Kamalu had just infused the orb with his essence body and hurled it away and out of Warforge. He wasn’t sure of what Kamalu intended to achieve, but he wasn’t willing to find out.
Darkness swirled around his hand and a bronze bow materialized in his grasp. Holding the string, an arrow appeared in it, but it was made out of pulsing darkness. The Chaos-Bringer took aim, it was the same method he had used to bring the fleeing Kamalu down, but before he would let go, Kamalu’s spear flew in out nowhere, burning with lightning. He sensed it coming, but it was fast, too fast, and the next moment, he had a hole in his chest.
“You have lost imposter,” Kamalu smiled as he felt life slip away from his fingertips, but just before he would give in, he saw the arrow made of darkness take flight as the imposter dropped to his knee.
It ripped the very fabric of space apart as it moved, seemingly unstoppable, and in seconds, an explosion erupted in the distance as it struck its target.
“Despair in your failure great Kamalu,” the imposter said weakly as he used his bow to support himself. “The reign of the gods has been brough to an end.”
