1 Anacrusis

A body with open wounds - burns and lacerations patterning their body like a violent quilt - lay near the Inul River, out in the open of the castle that owes its namesake to the river.

The first person to find the body was a footman who assumed this person was dead, given that so many wounds shouldn't be survivable. So, he went to the butler of the Silent Melody family and the two of them went back to pull the body out.

When they returned, the unconscious body was not on the brink of death, but instead lay in the shallow waters bleeding from shallow wounds and taking shallow breaths. They were no longer in critical condition, and it was discernible where they may have come from.

The Butler was somewhat aggrieved at the exaggeration of the footman whilst the footman was shocked at the timely healing when he reported the body, but even more shocking was the fact that the person seemed to come from the Southern Continent instead of their Northern Continent, in which the Inul River meanders through a small portion of it.

They didn't even look like they came from there, however, as their dark skin was the only feature somewhat similar to the people of that continent. Their silver hair and silver eyes, however, were not native to anywhere, and gave the doctor great interest when the old woman learned that the hair was not dyed.

This body was borne into the age of cultivation, machines and steam, and yet it was also borne into the age of monsters and fear.

And… because no one knew what they were, they were taken care of with wary hands, even as they refused to wake up for weeks.

…

Elsewhere in the world, a similar phenomena occurred in the Skyward Continent and a small island on which sits a volcano.

Clouds coalesced and then split to reveal a nymph who held a gum-do made of solid aerial qi and embers rose and then were blown away by a wind to reveal an ifrit who slumbered.

But this story is not about them yet.

After all, there were six continents; Southern, Northern, Central, Chasm, Skyward, and Lost. But this only applied to the Mortal World Layer.

And as these three sleeping creatures (each unfathomable in their own way, struggle to survive and grow) end up choosing their own fate, the world will likely change, just as when Prometheus brought the world fire eons before.

…

Perhaps as the three slumber and recuperate, a story would be nice.

…

In a court of marble with banded gold accents, three figures knelt in front of a throne made of pure skies. Each of them was a different creature, an imoogi, an ifrit, and a nymph. Each of them owned a domain in the Heavenly World Layer, and each of them embodied a natural force found everywhere.

The imoogi, Ourayo, a fluid deity of rivers and stories. They constantly change like a river and yet they're as playful as a burbling stream. And yet, they desire more, they desire something. A story, an epic, a saga. They betrayed the Heavenly Court because it gave them that story.

The ifrit, Nilith, a creature of embers and breezes. Her domain is the slow fire and the gentle fuel that brings about destruction. She is warm and inviting, unlike her domain, and she is loyal. Like a fire, she wants fuel, and like the gentle breeze, she is unpredictable and can wish to warm someone's day or turn into a typhoon. She betrayed the Heavenly Court because among the three of them, she had the most to gain.

The nymph, Achilen, a spirit of clouds as they're cute and endearing, or supermassive and imposing. They're the manifestation of the fruits of the sky and natural forces, and yet they hold no power over the forces, and could only watch as others manipulated their domain. They betrayed the Heavenly Court because they craved to claim the throne of the Sky.

And the three of them were cast down from the Heavenly World layer to the Mortal World layer without mercy. They were forced to suffer the punishment of living among the humans they so longed to assist - they were given to the mercy of humans who wished to become gods. And these are the same humans they granted qi and cultivation.

All their suffering is of their own doing.

And yet this suffering is an opportunity to reforge these three to create beings capable of ascending to the ▭▭ World Layer.

No one has yet succeeded, but the Sky King Oen wondered if perhaps the three traitors could.

But then he chuckled and threw some lightning down into the sea because he found the thought amusing.

How could such weaklings succeed where he failed? And if they did, he swore on his eyes, heart, and sword that he would give his throne to the ones that made him wrong for the first time in his very long life called 'nigh eternity'.

He laughed louder this time, and heavenly lightning struck down by means of pillars of light within the Mortal World Layer.