Zero Potential: Interlude II (Patreon)

Interlude II

Off in Galandria, the land known of the devout Seers, Sister Huang one of the now six heavenly maidens, watched on as the crystal ball, the sacred relic from the Gods. An item so old that its exact nature and origination had long since been lost to time had slowly glowed darker and more compact with malevolence over the past month.

Then just as everyone expected the best to happen, for the champion of light to be reborn stronger than ever, there was a problem. The power they had available to summon forth the new champion was the weakest it had ever been. While Sister Huang never witnessed the last ritual, there were words that it had been the weakest in years. Then this summoning was even worse, even accounting for the death of the matriarch, the power available to the devout Seers was clearly waning. Yet, there was still hope.

At least that is what Sister Huang told herself, then it happened. Just as hopes for finding another Seer to help ease the burden of the heavenly maidens was beginning to pick up traction as a few Seers had been identified through scrying as having awoken their bloodlines. That is when the unthinkable happened.

The sisters were doing a seance, using the power of the great crystal ball to help identify who the newly awakened Seers were. That was when the crystal ball shattered.

Crackle.

The orb that had served as the beacon of hope for all humanity for countless centuries and millennia had shattered.

Hissing-vapors.

As it shattered, the gas and pressure that had been building up within the orb for centuries had finally found its release.

Whoom.

Just when things didn’t seem that they could get worse, there was an intense wave of feedback as the psychic pressure that had been channeled to an intense point, trying to find one of the newly awakened Seers, came bounding back.

The reverberating wave of psychic energy was so intense that it felt like an explosion attacked Sister Huang’s mind.

Cries.

“Why.” The sisters were crying. Sister Huang herself felt an intense pain coming from her eyes, as there was clearly a thick gooey liquid that was pouring down Sister Huang’s face, from her eyes and nose.

Then empowered by the feedback, Sister Huang felt the flood gates open within her mind. Suddenly she felt the power of history rolling through her mind. She saw the beginning of the order, the minute the Gods created the orb of destiny and gave it to a proxy to ultimately be delivered to the first Seer of the order. She the saw further back and parts in the future in equal measure.

Sister Huang saw how the teachings had been lost on how to fully awaken as an Oracle, the penultimate of being a diviner. In this moment she realized that the Gods were granting her the chance to become an Oracle. A true Oracle, the first true Oracle the order would have since its creation. While other Matriarchs of the order claimed to have this level of power, Sister Huang now knew that such statements were a lie. The desperate grabs of women at the end of their lives. Women who wished to provide honor and prestige to the order that had long ago achieved its purpose.

The being of supreme evil had long since held dormant. Those that were heralded as the heroes were only turned upon later on, when they sought to use their power to establish a new and better order.

Over time the sisters of the order grew complacent with this status, giving in to temptations, wishing to curry favor with the current and future kings. Thus, the old heroes were eventually listed as the new supreme beings of evil. Only to either be erased from history, or finally slain by those they once protected.

What was worse, the order had been wasteful with their power. Rather than retaining the power of generation upon generation, that power had gone into maintaining the status quo.

That was of course when Sister, now Oracle Huang had her third and most impactful vision, this one of the actual future.

Cold chills.

The icy breath of the grave breathed down Sister Huang’s neck as she saw the true being of ultimate evil beginning to awaken from its millennia long slumber. Rather than having kingdoms ruled by descendants of the first hero to call upon. Now the order was only a mere shadow of its former glory. Looking around, Sister Huang noticed the dead and burnt bodies of her former sisters laying motionlessly on the floor.

They had all been judged, and for some reason only Sister Huang had been spared the cleansing of the Gods.

There was still hope, the new Hero had been chosen. This Hero had apparently been exceptionally blessed by the Goddess of Fate and Fortune. The only problem was that she was far too young to actually do anything to prevent the Being of Supreme Evil from actually awakening.

Gasp.

Sister Huang, let out a gasp of air, as the visions formed by her breaking through to the Oracle stage had finally ended. In her mind she knew that if she but focused on a singular event, she could force a vision, but such gifts of insight would cost her days and ultimately years of her lifetime if she pressed too hard.

Now, Sister Huang realized that she would need to do more than lead from the distant sidelines. Now she would need to lead the order back to mainland, as Sister Huang knew that it would take everyone uniting once more to actually vanquish the rising menace.

***

Three thousand miles away, a hooded servant and one of the newest, yet still most capable of Immortals stood at the doorway to the great catacombs.

The catacombs, once lost to time held the key to the awakening of the ultimate darkness.

The immortal waited until the full moon rose, then puling out the sacrificial dagger, she held up the blade, letting it absorb the ambient light of night. Then once the blade glowed with an ominous green hue, the hooded servant drove the dagger deep into her outstretched hand.

Blood began dripping down from the blade, not much, as it is nearly impossible to get an Immortal to bleed for long, yet the sacrificial dagger had been enchanted to do just such a feat. The dagger once wielded by the first hero, a weapon that was used to stab into the heart of the being of supreme evil was now the very weapon that would assure his resurrection.

Drip, drip, drip.

Blood hitting stone over and over again. The cursed blade was so long that even sticking through the hand of the blade extended. Even while coated in the blood of the Immortal, it was still long enough to have dry patches visible. Those dry patches worked perfectly on absorbing ambient moonlight, drawing in power causing the wound that was inflicted on an Immortal. A being capable of healing from any wound, right now, the wound would not heal. It would take the acolyte a full month to recover from this grievous injury, but her sacrifice was worth it. Just as the sacrifice of every Immortal before her had also been worth it, as each drop of blood spilt brought the purpose of their cause and purpose one step closer to fruition.

Drip.

Rumble.

The ground shook, as the next drop landed. Just a minor tremble in the ground, but it was clear that the centuries and millennia of hard work, first finding the hidden gravesite where their master the being of supreme evil had been buried. Then the finding of the sacred dagger used to slay the dark master. Then finally the sacrifice after sacrifice of each Immortal over the sacred ground, now finally began to pay off as the acolyte could almost swear she could hear the distinct sound of a beating heart deep under the ground.

Thump, thump, thump.

Drip.

Thump, thump, thump.

Now her sacrifice was rewarded, each painful drop seemed to spark new life into the body of the their master. Soon their time to rise from the darkness and assume their true roles as leaders of the world would be fulfilled, as now it was only a matter of time before the master would once again rise to reclaim his destiny as ruler of the world.