An unexpected turn of events: Part 2

"Keep on going, even if the world falls apart around you. For even if it is only one person who keeps on going, that person will inspire others... to keep on going as well."

-Anonymous

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In an unknown time and location:

It was around mid-afternoon somewhere at a seemingly unending land of fields.

The sun shining in the fields and it gave them a beautiful golden colour. In these very same fields, there were around 25 humanoid figures. The appearance of these humanoid looking people couldn't be seen. One could only see a foggy outline of all the people gathered in the fields. At the moment, only the loud laughter of one of the figures could be heard.

"Hahaha...welcome...my old friends!!! Finally, we have awoken; finally, we have returned!!! We shall once more rule the world!!!" as the male-sounding figure said this, the other figures also started laughing ominously. Seemingly not having any good intentions for the people of this new era.

Location: Unending Primal Forest

Time: Year 16 of the Era of Change

Era: Era of Change

Deep in the forest that was seemingly unending, an exciting scene was unfolding. An old man accompanied by a young man with a little moose next to him stared thoughtfully at a large, muscular yet kind-looking man who was not too far away from them. Behind the burly man was a large group of people who had all sorts of weapons and armour on.

They seemed to not have anything in common if it were not for the fact that they all were smiling bitterly at the muscular man. They felt that the people in front of them didn't have any ill intentions.

While the young man observed people in front of him, the little moose next to him started to rub its head on his leg. Due to the little moose having quite large antlers despite its small stature, the young man felt piercing pain on his leg as the small moose's antlers wounded it.

The young man, he stared at the little moose with rage-filled eyes, yet the moose didn't understand the man's expression and thought he liked it. Therefore, he rubbed his head faster and even harder on the young man's leg.

Seeing this, the young man couldn't help but want to throw away the little moose, yet something in him couldn't help but feel wrong and prevented him from doing that. The young man saw that he wouldn't be able to do anything, he turned his attention to the old man next to him and whispered:

"Oye old man, what do you think about the people in front of us?" As the old man heard this, he looked at the muscular man in front of him and smiled, saying, "Phillip, is it? Nice to meet you. My name is old and irrelevant, but the young lad in front of me is Temarr. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

While the old man said this all formally and charmingly, Temarr stared at him with a disgusted expression.

He knew his master had something planned when he acted this way, for the old man acted this exact same way when he woke up from his coma.

As Temarr was thinking of this, he heard the old man's voice in his head: "Temarr, just trust me, I have a feeling this, is something we cannot afford to miss." Hearing this, Temarr became extremely serious and slowly walked to Phillip.

Behind him, the little moose directly followed while excitingly jumping up and down. Phillip cracked a smile and also slowly walked to Temarr.

As they both stood in front of each other, Temarr stared at Phillip with a sceptic gaze, but he then shook out his hand and said with an incredibly awkward and forced smile:

"As the old man said, the name is Temarr, and you called yourself Phillip, no? Ni… Nice to meet you," said Temarr while trying to hide the intense feeling of disgust he was feeling at the moment.

This reaction though didn't escape Phillip's attention and made him smile even brighter.

Following this, he shook Temarr's hand and said: "Now that we've introduced ourselves, let us get down to business, no?"

At this moment, Phillips companion appeared one after the other out of the thick and large vegetation. As the old man and Temarr saw this, their gazes became extremely grim, as the number of companions behind Phillip was so many that it was at least over 200 people in front of them.

Once all of the people behind Philip had come forward; Phillip's expression became ice-cold and grave as he spoke:

"Now I have a proposition for you two. My men and I need a guide to take us to the Foundations Factions harbour somewhere in this area. You can take us there and be rewarded, or you can die right here and right now." As Phillip said this, a violent red aura spread out from where he stood.

This aura was so powerful and volatile that Phillip's companions had to grit their teeth to not pass out from the overwhelming presence they were feeling coming from Phillip.

When Phillip looked at the old man and Temarr, he was shocked to find out they weren't affected at all. Phillip's eyes became red and hazy, and his expression became that of a wild smiling ghost.

Temarr prepared himself mentally and physically to get ready to pick up the little moose and the old man and run as fast as possible away from Phillip and his companions.

Yet before anything could happen, a beautiful blond-haired woman walked up to Phillip and punched him in the gut.

This woman was Tiana.

Because of being stuck in the stomach, Phillip's hazy and red eyes calmed down and returned to their normal colour and form once more.

"Ow!!! Why did you do that, Tiana?!" shouted Phillip in pain as he glared at Tiana.

Hearing this, Tiana rolled her eyes and spoke: "Phillip, remember we need alive guides; it won't do us any good in killing them."

While saying this, the others behind Phillip nodded to what Tiana said. Phillip sighed in defeat and turned his attention once more to the old man and Temarr.

"Now will you help us and be rewarded, or are we going to have a problem?" asked Phillip completely avoiding what had just happened, while smiling mischievously.

Just as Temarr wanted to answer him and tell Phillip that after what had just happened he could forget it, the old man stepped forward and spoke:

"Of course, as long as you keep your word, we will gladly help.

" Seeing that it would be of no use for him to say anything else, Temarr resigned himself to keeping quiet and observing the people behind Phillip. Upon seeing that the "negotiations" were successful, Phillip smiled with satisfaction.

Throughout the unfolding of these events, no one noticed that something was observing them from far away. It was a large black eagle with radiant red eyes flying high in the air right above Phillip, Temarr, Tiana, and the old man.

As the eagle continuously spied on the situation below it, suddenly it saw the old man staring at it with a smile. The eagle was overcome with fear as it tried flying away. After trying to fly a short distance, it noticed it could no longer move and that it was plunging to the ground.

The eagle realised that it would most probably not survive, and it suddenly released a dark blackish aura. This aura was shot toward North/West at a speed so fast, that only very powerful people could see it and maybe stop this aura.

The old man was astounded by what he saw, but before he could do anything to stop the aura, it was already too far away. The old man sighed in frustration as he thought of the future problems that would await them because of this.

The other people around the old man noticed how he was looking into the sky and sighing, they too looked into the sky and were shocked to see a black eagle falling to the ground.

Before they could react, though, the old man quickly jumped 10 meters into the air and caught the bird and then quickly landing. He stared at the black eagle with a vindictive smile which in turn made the eagle very uncomfortable and fearful, wishing it had rather died than be in the hands of some creepy old man. The old man observed the little moose hiding behind his disciple's leg.

While thinking about what to do the eagle, he suddenly came up with a "brilliant" idea!

"My dear disciple, seeing you have such a great affinity with animals, why not take care of this eagle!?" exclaimed the old man with a wild-looking smile.

"You old fossil! Don't you dare!" Temarr shouted in rebellion, but he suddenly discovered a traumatised eagle in his arms. Fighting to shake the eagle out of his arms, he suddenly realised that he couldn't get his body to throw it away.

Seeing this, he became furious and glared at the old man.

"Oye old man! What did you do to me?!" shouted Temarr with exhaustion as he felt like his day was a never-ending day of "surprises".

"Oh, my dear disciple, what do you mean? I am only trying to help you, no? Didn't you just get a new power?" said the old man with a mysterious smile.

Temarr's eyes widened in shock, he hadn't expected his master to already know what had happened to him. He reminded himself to not underestimate the old man anymore, for who knows what other secrets the old man was hiding.

Phillip raised his voice and spoke:

"Uhm, not to bother or anything, but we are on a tight schedule, so I would appreciate if we can get moving." said Phillip with a severe expression, since he had noticed what type of eagle that was in Temarr's arms.

This black eagle was typically used by high ranking observers in the Foundation Faction.

The eagles have abilities that allowed them to share their memories with their owners.

Although only pure-breed black eagles had these abilities and in accordance, only influential people could tame and control these eagles.

Seeing that the eagle in Temarr's arms was such an eagle, he knew that they were fated to meet a high-ranking observer eventually on their way to the Foundation Factions harbour and that their arrival was no longer hidden.

Thinking further about this, Phillip realised that the Foundation Faction had already been awaiting them long before the observer was sent out.

Meaning that there was either a spy in their ranks or that the Foundation Faction had many more hidden cards that they hadn't shown yet. For it was impossible for the Foundation Faction to find out about them so quickly coming to this specific harbour out of the hundreds of other docks of the Foundation Faction.

Even if someone of the Foundation Faction had survived from the previous battles against him and the Crowned Knights of Freedom, it would have been almost impossible for one to survive on their own and two to arrive at the harbour so quickly and give them enough time to prepare.

Phillip had a bleak expression, for any of the two options were not good. They couldn't afford to have a traitor in their midst at the moment, and if the Foundation Faction still had other cards to play with, that could only mean one thing, they had damaged the Foundation Faction to such an extent that they could no longer be ignored and actually decided to deal with them rather than having all of their attention on dealing with the other rival factions.

This was terrible for the Crowned Knights of Freedom. Phillip signalled the rest of the people behind him to get ready to leave. Seeing that Phillip was serious about them leaving, the old man and Temarr prepared themselves as well for the journey that lay ahead of them.

Location: 20 km North-West of Phillips and the other's location (Unending Primal Forest)

Time: Year 16 of the Era of Change

Era: Era of Change

Around 20 km North/West of where the eagle had been captured.

Many large and tall trees were as tall as skyscrapers. In one of the trees, there were many vines, they were extremely thick and had an intense green colour, representing their abundant vitality.

Suddenly, the vines became as grey as ash, and then they disintegrated into fine dust being blown away by the wind. Behind where the vines once were, was a man in a pitch-black cloak, no visible feature could be seen other than two glowing red eyes staring with fury off into the distance.

"Damn Damn them!!! How dare they touch my Rene!! I'm going to tear them apart!!" As the man said this, he prepared himself to move to Phillip's and the other's location.

Yet just as he was ready to move, he felt like he couldn't breathe anymore.

"Hugghhh- …What- ..." The man was slowly choking to death. Another black-cloaked man with brilliant green appeared next to him.

"Now, now, operative 29. I wouldn't be so hasty. We shall wait till they arrive; we wouldn't want to scare them now would we?" asked the man while laughing ominously.

"No… Sir…" as the man in the dark robe with shining red eyes, said this, he could suddenly breathe once more.

Gasping for air the man dared not show his anger to the other robed man next to him, fearing he would kill him. For the man next to him was a high-ranking observer, and if he wanted, he could kill him instantly.

Following this, the two men in black robes waited for Phillip and the rest to slowly come in their direction, for they were in the same direction of the Foundations Factions harbour, which Phillip and his comrades were heading to.

Location: Mountain of Clouds

Time: Year 16 of the Era of Change

Era: Era of Change

Four years had passed since Melisandre had come with her and her allies tribes to these mountains to set up their new home. In that time, it took them 2 years to finally find 12 suitable peaks for their tribes.

They needed 10 Peaks for each individual tribe, and they needed to be big enough for future expansion. These peaks also required to have abundant elemental energy. It was necessary to advance in training their abilities to protect themselves and enhance their descendants' bloodlines.

Secondly, it was also needed for the resources to be elemental materials to build structures that could withstand the harsh environment and energies of this new world. Due to beast-people having a natural affinity with nature, they could sense locations with potent sources of elemental energy and resources much easier than humans.

This didn't make it any easier for them to process these resources compared to humans, on the contrary, it might even be more challenging for them. Because, beast-people were a relatively new species, and they all had their individual strengths and weaknesses according to their tribes, their knowledge of how things worked and how to make things were extremely limited.

Humans, on the contrary, even though they weren't as strong as beast-people, had a much more extensive knowledge base than the beast people. As humans already had established languages, social structures, societies, morals and many other advantages.Although, due to the Awakening, many of these things were made irrelevant. This though still didn't change the fact that the humans had an advantage.

Therefore, these last decade beast-people have actively collected information about what human society was once before the Awakening. So that they too could learn and implement it in their tribes. Some though had better results and progress than others.

For example, Melisandre and the other ancestor's tribes were in one of the most successful and advanced clan in this regard. Because of them having had an unforgettable experience that no other beast-people had. This is a story for another day, for the clan has been split, and the destiny awaiting the two sides is widely different.

Therefore, Melisandre's side took two years to pick the best peaks they could find for their tribes because it is extremely vital for their tribes and descendants' future.

The other two peaks were to be used as the ancestors' peak and as the central gathering and processing location of their tribes. Take it as a tribal communal, governmental, economic centre, in its very primitive and beastly form.

They used the two other years to slowly carve out the foundations in the peaks and create large and thick stone bridges and platforms connecting all the peaks to each other.

At the moment, though the building was still in the beginning phases, one could see that once they were finished, it would indeed be a spectacle to witness. At the bottom of these twelve peaks, the ten ancestors had gathered, and they were all contemplating about something very serious.

They were thinking about the name of their new home. This was not an easy task, and many things had to be considered when choosing a name for the place they now called their home. This was a dangerous world, and any sign of weakness would be used to harm you by this world, that's why it was imperative for them to have a strong name, but not too strong otherwise they would risk people paying more attention to them than needed, causing unnecessary stress and problems for the ancestors.

As this was happening, Melisandre suddenly got an idea for what they should call their home.

"I have an idea!" exclaimed Melisandre with excitement.

The other Ancestors smiled sadly, realising that their fellow ancestor and friend was giving her best, despite being overcome with grief and fear towards not knowing if her grandson was alive or not.

"What's your idea, Melisandre?" asked Hiot, the ancestor of the squirrel tribe with a bright smile.

"I think we shall call our home the Ascending Cloud Peaks!" said Melisandre with bright, sparkling eyes.

Hearing this, the other ancestors cringed, but they dared not show this on their faces as to not offend Melisandre.

Although, when they thought about the name, they accepted that they didn't have any better ideas for a name. Realising this they conceded defeat and accepted Melisandre's vision despite the name not really giving a presence of strength. But to them, unity was much more important than such petty things as strength.

They didn't know why they felt this way, for it was definitely not a normal thing for the other clans and tribes. The only answer they could think of why they were different; was because of the boy they saw so many years ago. This boy was different, something special in this world, and he without knowing it changed them.

That is why they put so much importance in finding him once more, for he was their benefactor, and they couldn't allow any harm to come to him. The other side of their split clan though only saw the boy as a tool to advance themselves and once used could be thrown away.

This was also one of the reasons why the clan split. Thinking of all these things, the ancestors with unparalleled vigour set up a golden sign which had crimson red words in a strange beast-like language, which said:

"Ascending Cloud Peaks"

With this, their new home's name had been established and without knowing the ancestors chose a name that would be widespread throughout the world many years later.

Location: Unending Primal Forest

Time: Year 16 of the Era of Change

Era: Era of Change

Somewhere in the Unending Primal Forest, a man with a dark black robe was currently sitting on a large boulder while contemplating what to do. This man was number 175, he was luckily still alive, although who knew if this luck would last any longer if he didn't find the target soon. For his leader had become extremely impatient and trigger-happy, not even blinking when he killed his subordinates.

Thinking of this number 175 was drenched in sweat. He didn't really know what to do.

The clues he had found didn't really help him much because the terrain had changed so much in the last 17 years. The world they were living in was no longer what it once was, it was continuously evolving and expanding rapidly.

Making it very hard for organisations to structure themselves in an ever-changing environment. Only with some specific and extremely rare equipment could an organisation get an accurate layout about their surrounding area. But even then this device had a limited range and couldn't always accurately show how the terrain and environment had changed. These devices were usually only in possession of mid to high-ranking sects, kingdoms or empires.

Factions could only dream of getting their hands on such devices. Luckily, the mysterious organisation that number 175 was in had such a device, allowing him to get a somewhat accurate view of the surrounding terrain.

This still didn't help him much though, for most knowledge about the terrain, cultures, and civilisations of the past were generally lost. As he was depressingly thinking of this, the man suddenly sensed something. He sensed something very far away from him, and only because of his abilities was he able to pick up on something.

He sensed a similar presence to what he felt at that castle at the River of Greed. More specifically, it was at a boat. He couldn't see or sense much else, but what he knew is that it was a clue! A clue that might help him live a little bit longer, rather than die an agonising death.

Thinking of this, he quickly headed to the ship at rapid speeds, that if an ordinary person were there, they wouldn't even notice him, due to him moving faster than what a human could perceive.

At the River of Greed:

The boat was actually a boat of the Foundation Faction. This boat was the boat Steven was once held in for a week. Meaning Colin and his fellow crew members were at the moment on this boat. The last few years they had been capturing thousands of slaves for the Foundation Faction, and this time they had captured the latest batch of people and were bringing them back to the harbour.

Colin slowly cracked throughout the continual, capturing and enslaving of innocent people due to the immense guilt and shame.

Accordingly, he pulled himself back more and more to his cabin and interacted less and less with the crew, to the point where he was almost like a ghost on the ship. Many of the crew members due to having a strong dislike of Colin started complaining about Colin's behaviour to the Captain, saying he wasn't doing his job as the vice-captain properly and he should be removed.

Suspiciously though the next day the crew members that had gone to complain had mysteriously disappeared, as if they had never existed. When the other crew members asked the Captain what had happened, he answered simply by saying:

"They got the answer they were looking for". When the crew members heard this, they were petrified and didn't dare mention Colin or the other crew members anymore, because of them fearing they would also mysteriously disappear.

As a result, nothing much other than Colin practically, always being in his cabin had changed.

That was until suddenly a man landed on their ship. This man had a dark black robe on, his appearance was not visible. Although the presence that the man was radiating made the crew members feel that this man was extremely dangerous.

This man said nothing, he only swept his gaze across the entire deck as if he was looking for something. Suddenly the man stopped where the cabins were as if he had found what he was looking for. The man slowly started walking to the cabins.

None of the crew members tried to stop him, knowing if they interfered they would definitely die. Just as the man was about to reach the cabin's entrance, a tall, stoic looking man blocked his way.

"Can I help you?" asked the Captain as he stared at the man in front of him. Seeing that there was actually someone who dared to stand against him, the man smiled and removed the hood from his head. What was to be seen was that this man was extremely handsome.

He had beautiful white ashen hair and two radiating silver eyes. His face seemed to be made of marble, as it had a smooth appearance to it. The man smiled and then opened his mouth:

"Ah, I've never had someone oppose me! What a great feeling! As a reward, I will not kill you, now get out of my way!" said the man with a charming smile. Hearing this, the Captain frowned and suddenly reached to his side to get his weapon ready. As he saw this, the man known as number 175 was filled with excitement.

"Hahaha!!! How long has it been since an ant has dared fight against me!!! As you wish, then brave little ant! I shall spar with you!" saying this number 175 slowly walked to the Captain with an ominous smile.

Thinking that he would have some fun playing with the little ant in front of him, he chuckled and looked at the man's expression.

He was shocked to find out that the little ant in front of him showed no fear and was charging at him with some weird barrel looking weapon in his one hand and a golden shining dagger in the other.

Seeing that he might have underestimated the little ant number 175 mentally prepared himself to not underestimate the ant in front of him.

As the battle started, further into the depths of the ship in an isolated cabin, there was a man with long unorganised green hair lying on his bead. The man was Colin, and he seemed to have nothing better to do than lie on his bed and sleep.

He was too exhausted to be awake and deal with his guilt, shame, and depression. He was suddenly awoken though due to feeling an explosion on the ship. The blast sent tremors throughout the entire boat and practically threw Colin out of his bed.

"AGHH!!!" growling in pain, Colin slowly stood up and rubbed his back that was currently aching, as his fall was not very pleasant. Thinking of what could be going on, Colin went to his cupboard, put on some fresh clothes while preparing himself to quickly go to the deck to find out what had happened and then return to his excellent and comfy bed.

He headed to the deck, but suddenly stopped at the cabins' entrance as he saw something shocking. He saw his Captain lying on the floor in a pool of blood and an extremely handsome man that was riddled with wounds and burn marks, healing so quickly that after a while it seemed like he hadn't even gotten a scratch.

Despite feeling an immense pressure coming from the man not too far away from him, Colin still ran to his Captain in front of him.

"Captain!!! Answer me! Are you okay?!" as Colin panickily shouted this, he saw that his Captain was still breathing, and it seemed that his wounds were extremely slow in healing.

As he realised his Captain was not dead yet, and if he received proper care, he would quickly heal himself back to full health, Colin sighed with joy. Sadly, before he could do anything else, he was picked up by the man who was suddenly behind him.

The man then choked Colin while glaring at him with extremely frightening eyes. This continued for a while, Colin was slowly losing his senses and felt like he would pass out and never wake up. Just before that could happen though, the man then dropped Colin.

"Cough!!!" Colin coughed violently as he tried to gather his breath and senses. The man didn't give him much time to do this, though, as he then squatted and stared Colin directly in the eyes.

"Now you pathetic little ant, you will answer my questions, or I will kill your precious Captain in front of you and slowly torture you till you answer me. So, I expect you to be cooperative, no?" saying this the man gave a bright smile which disturbed Colin to a great extent.

Having no other choice though, Colin prepared himself for what was to come.

Location: Underground Mining Area 50-G

Time: Year 16 of the Era of Change

Era: Era of Change

Steven and the others were almost at the surface. They couldn't wait to finally be out of this hell-hole they had been in for the last 5 years. They had suffered a lot of losses, but this didn't stop them from giving up. The primary reason was Steven. Steven was the weakest of them all, yet he kept moving forward despite all the challenges he faced.

This was especially the case, as he had to care for a woman on his back for a long time, without getting rest. Steven still managed to have a positive outlook and continued to be the group's soul as his personality truly moved everyone.

He was weak, cowardly, and he had many other faults. Yet despite this, he could shine with his other great qualities and make people overlook his flaws.

This inspired the others to not give up and carry on. For if a weakling like Steven could continue, while being burdened in these circumstances, they had no excuse to give up, due to all their advantages.

As they were thinking of these things though, they didn't notice that not too far away from them, was a rotting corpse approaching them while smiling with its maggot filled mouth.

Following this, many events were happening worldwide, yet they were all somehow connected with each other. And one day they would all collide, making great tales and forging legends that would be told for millennia.