章 1: Prologue- A Colorless World

The world was in turmoil.

The multi-colored sky which was usually clear, apart from the few flocks of flying creatures, was completely covered. The 81 celestial bodies surrounding the sky since times immemorial could not be seen!

It was completely filled with a dark blanket. The reddish-blue lands were also similarly covered with a dark blanket. Looking closely, one would see that this blanket was actually a great horde of creatures

Billions and billions of lifeforms, both in the sky and the lands could be seen rushing in a certain direction. Creatures varying in sizes, species, and even life cycles, could be seen running. From as small as a few centimeters in length to humongous creatures standing thousands of feet tall.

Even prey and predator were running together, not caring about their natural enemies. In the direction in which they were heading, was an enormous castle. A castle of such scale that it could be seen from thousands of miles away.

All creatures running for a while suddenly came to a stop. They were still looking at the castle, seemingly wanting to rush towards it, but still held back. Looking in their eyes, great reverence could be seen. The same reverence one would have, looking at one's ancestor.

They stopped at a distance of 5 kilometers from the base of the castle and suddenly began howling. The combined howls of billions of creatures roared throughout the infinite world and resonated among the cosmos!

Zhisst!

Suddenly, a sharp sound tore through the screams of all the creatures. Looking up, a large crack could be seen in the sky. Seeing this, all the creatures turned back towards the castle and seemingly begged someone.

The crack in the sky slowly started expanding side-wards and a greyish-black color started spreading. One of the creatures flying in the sky got caught in the expanding crack. It screamed out in pain and fell down to the ground.

The creatures on the ground immediately moved back and created a circular space with the flying creature in the center.

"ROAR!!!" it was painfully writhing in the ground and wailing out loud.

All the remaining creatures looked at this scene with absolute fear in their eyes. They could see that the greyish tinge had spread onto this creature and its body was slowly losing all its color.

Its large body was slowly getting smaller and smaller as the areas where the grey had spread, was dissipating into nothingness! The area in the sky was also dissipating into nothing, giving birth to a hazy black fog, behind which nothing was clearly seen.

There was absolute silence in the air!

All of them turned back towards the castle, waiting, but not daring to cross the distance.

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The castle stood still in silence, giving off a feeling of absolute power. Its towering walls extending thousands of feet up into the air, seemingly connecting the earth and the sky. Inside it, hundreds of rooms were laid out in a non-symmetrical fashion. It gave people a mysterious, yet dangerous feeling.

Huge pillars whose total heights could not be seen were placed everywhere. The pillars were unadorned and were completely plain. The stone floors were smooth with no obvious marks. A thick layer of dust was prevalent in every single inch of this magnificent castle.

Heading deeper into the castle, one would notice that there was absolutely nothing in here. No carpets, lamps, furniture nor any people!

Nothing except dust!

The walls themselves gave out a dim yellow light.

If one did not know better, they would think no one lived in this castle. Yet a frightening presence could be felt in the air. This presence came from deeper in the castle, giving off a sense of domination and indifference.

At the very center of this majestic castle was a huge hall. The roof of this room couldn't be seen and there was at least a kilometer of the distance between the two walls on the sides.

An extremely large array written with an unknown substance covered the entire floor. Dozens of mysterious and ancient languages filling the gaps between the array. These words were giving off a faint feeling of suppression and were distorting the space around them. Thousands of such words covered the gaps, throughout the array.

In the center of the array, two figures could be seen.

A woman was lying on the floor with a man sitting next to her. The woman was covered in dark gold robes, while the man was covered entirely in black. None of their faces could be seen, except their eyes. One pair golden while the other was black.

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"It has begun. The ritual was completed successfully.", said the woman.

"With this, the Rules have begun resetting. Not even 'They' can change the outcome." she continued.

"Making the 'great' me work for 'Them' for free, They sure are gutsy. This will show them, Humph!" she snorted smugly.

"Hey! Say something!" she looked towards the man angrily.

The man just sat there looking at her, not bothering to reply.

"Say, are you perhaps sad that I'm dying. Hehe are you perhaps crying?" she said giggling.

"Perhaps you are finally regretting not paying attention to me all this time. Don't worry we still have some time, go on cry loudly, hehe." she continued.

Looking at her giggling face, the man replied.

"I don't have any more tears to shed," he said. His tone was completely emotionless.

"Humph! You're no fun, can't even read the atmosphere." said the woman, obviously angry at the man's reply.

The array which was silent till now started rapidly fluctuating with light and energy. The words on the floor also started glowing with various colorful lights. The room was filled with obvious splendor.

Suddenly, the air above the woman started shaking fiercely and started distorting. A black portal was starting to take shape and was furiously absorbing all the energy.

Meanwhile outside, all the creatures, the land, the sky, and even the walls of the castle have lost their color and had dissipated completely.

"You need to leave now. It would be a shame if the plan were to fail now." the woman said seriously, no longer joking.

"Oh and don't forget to take my crystal. Very important stuff." she continued.

The man nodded at her and took a step towards the newly formed portal which had now calmed down a little.

"Che! He's not even bothering to look back at me." she clicked her tongue furiously.

"You better not mess up my plans!" she screamed towards him as his body completely stepped into the portal and disappeared.

The space around the woman had mostly dissipated the grey color had stuck onto her.

The woman looked at herself, as she saw the grey tinge spreading onto her body. She was also slowly dissipating. Surprisingly she hadn't screamed in pain. Even her eyebrows had not furrowed. Her eyes showed a feeling of satisfaction as her lips curled into a smile.

Looking back at the spot where the man had disappeared into she thought to herself.

'It's finally going to begin.'

'The fate of all of us depends on you.....Lucius." she said as she closed her eyes for the final time.

Everything in existence had completely faded away!

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