1 Prologue- The End

The city of Amravati never felt more alive.

The morning sunlight slanted over to the rooftops of the tall, majestic buildings and fell onto the paved streets that welcomed anyone who walked them. Day traders stood beside their wagons of cauliflowers and tomatoes and turnips, cutting the droning city buzz with their high bellows to draw customers.

Children giggled and chased after a mimic who had dressed as the divine lord Shiva waving his trident in one hand and rocking his kettle drum in the other. A small group of human scholars crossed the street, arguing heatedly about a passage from a scripture. In the courtyard of a temple, beautiful apsaras danced to the heavenly music of their husbands, the gandharvas. An audience of gods looked on and showered praises on the performers.

A few doors ahead, young agni asura pupils practiced sword fighting under the watchful eye of their human guru. Outside the establishment, a god rode his crocodile towards the city market, and alarmed people in the crowd quickly stepped aside when they saw the crawling animal.

Two serpent demons with human bodies and snake tails whispered to each other, while regarding the people from a corner of the street with their slit yellow eyes. On the other side, a shapely asura maiden washed her garments by the well, while a young human male tried to woo her with his sweet words.

Suddenly, there was a crackle in the air. The bright gold sun started to turn red. The cottony morning sky transformed into a purple blanket and a distant rumble filled the air. When the citizens looked up, they saw the far sun quickly grow into a massive ball of red fire. In a matter of seconds, the cheerful morning crowd turned into a chaotic mob.

People fled in every direction, screaming and crying, while others stood in place and prayed loudly. The humans prayed for gods, the gods prayed for higher gods, and the asuras conjured their air weapons, ready to face the calamity that was quickly approaching them.

The place soon turned into a well of burning heat. Red hot embers rained from the sky, scorching both the mortals and the immortals. Fires broke out in every corner of the city, swallowing the small timber and mud houses and the giant palaces alike. Wells and ponds dried out, and the water turned to vapors.

Thick smoke filled the air, and the shrieks turned into sharp gasps and coughs. Those who did not succumb to the smoke wailed in agony as their skin charred and melted away into ashes.

The earth began to shudder, and from the cracks in the ground, claws and feet burrowed out, followed by the rest of the bodies of the afflicted souls, faces eaten away by sickness, boils and sores covering their skins. They snaked through the burning city, devouring anything that had not died yet, tearing them apart limb by limb to sate their hunger.

A deep chasm appeared in the dark purple sky with the shatter of a thunder. Mounted on a white horse, an enormous divine being came out through the great divide. The being reined up beside the divide, waiting and watching, as every being, alive, dead, or undead, got pulled into the chasm in the dark sky, followed by the rest of the objects on the earth, from giant rocks to the littlest dust. The last to be swallowed by the chasm was the great divine being itself.

In the end, nothing else remained but a tiny scar where the earth was, and it floated around in the endless void like a weightless leaf.

A pair of dark, grey eyes flew open and regarded the surroundings with fear and alarm. It was still bright and warm, the sun softly glowing in the sky and the gentle breeze rustling the leaves of the ancient oak.

The old sage who was meditating under the tree jumped to his feet and quickly took off down the dirt country road that ran through the fields and led to Amravati, the capital city of OneRealm.

"The end is near," the old man muttered to himself in a tremulous voice, "he must know. It is almost here."