《Sol - Lord of Fire》 Prologue Prologue I lived for countless years I had countless names I saw the rising and the collapse of empires and nations I saw uncountable deaths I observed the universe forming itself. I have seen planets and stars perishing I watched the human race birth, growth and their departure And now I am dying¡­. It seems like my long, long, long life it¡¯s finally coming to an end. I am really tired¡­. At the beginning I illuminated the desolate universe, warming the cold planets around me But now, I am so weak that I can barely warm myself.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. It¡¯s quite funny; the Great Sol that humans revered for thousands of years is in this state Anyway¡­I am really tired, I think that I should rest. It¡¯s a pity that I couldn¡¯t do more for my children¡­ Speaking of that, where are my children? It¡¯s been millions of years since they left, and they didn¡¯t visit me, it makes fell quite sad...and alone. They should be well¡­After all they are my children, the Children of Sol But it¡¯s quite sad¡­they didn¡¯t come to say good bye in the end. Anyway¡­I think it¡¯s time. Looking around for the last time I could see the dark universe and my friends who followed me for countless years. Unfortunately they didn¡¯t have consciousness like me¡­I don¡¯t know why, I tried to speak with them but to no avail. My life was slowly coming to an end, suddenly an inspiration hit me. ¡®I wish to shine one last time¡­Illuminate this dark abyss like in the past.¡¯ Manipulating all remaining energy into a last and inspiring feat, I concentrated all these and energy in one point and released it all at once. I could feel my body burning with energy, illuminating the dark abyss till I could see. ¡®Are you seeing my children? This is my last gift for you¡­ I hope you all can see this, this is my tribute¡¯ I could feel my life slipping away, my light was being extinguished and retracting. ¡®This is not enough, I am the Great Sol...I will show my children that I am still looking out for them¡¯ Exhorting all my strength, my body suddenly exploded in a proud and beautiful light, this light seemed to extend through the entire universe in a unique way, illuminating every part of it. My body was vanishing at an alarming rate, and suddenly I lost consciousness¡­.everything was black¡­as if I reached the end of the Universe. Chapter 1 Chapter 1 The endless darkness, I was already used to it¡­ I lived my whole life in the Vast Universe, but there I had friends, I could see other stars, I could see life and death, I could feel the space and time, but here¡­I don¡¯t feel anything. I don¡¯t feel my body, I don¡¯t feel the time, I don¡¯t feel the space¡­Just an endless void, where the beginning and the end don¡¯t exist. I don¡¯t know how much time passed since I died¡­. One year? One-hundred years? A thousand years? Billions of years? Since I came here, I can feel that I am separated from my Universe... the Universe Laws don¡¯t exist here too, but there is something strange in this place. After some time I observed that millions of unfamiliar particles were being attracted unconsciously by me, I didn¡¯t know what was happening¡­ What are these particles? After countless hours or maybe years thinking about it, I just let it go¡­Furthermore what can I do about it¡­I don¡¯t even have a body So I just stood still, recalling all my memories. ---x--- I don¡¯t know how many years have passed¡­but finally a change occurred. A light penetrated this void abyss, filling the void with a bright golden color. All this light suddenly shrank, and concentrated in one point forming a Bright Golden Door, engraved with Red hieroglyphs that seemed to narrate a history, like a book. Analyzing those hieroglyphs and engraving everything in my soul, I couldn¡¯t comprehend everything on the door, but something I was sure¡­ this thing taught about something called Cultivation. ¡®*Requiem of fire*¡­this should be its name. The art is divided in several parts; the first part is about forming a heavenly body¡­ the first step to create the body is to achieve the emptiness state and then attract Heavenly essences, molding the body the way you want with it¡­Heavenly essence? What the fuck is that?¡¯ This is a new word for me¡­I never heard of heavenly essence in my long life and I should add that I lived for countless years. Hm¡­but this emptiness state I heard about it, the humans back then meditated to achieve this state; I should be able to do it.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Concentrating, I started to clean my mind of needless thoughts and slowly I sank into a strange state where I felt nothing, but at the same time felt everything. An odd but addictive feeling took control of my mind, making me go deeper and deeper in this state. Suddenly I could feel those strange particles, but this time I had a clearer sensation of them, as if I could touch them, bring them towards me, and so I did. Focusing my thoughts on these particles, I slowly pulled them to me, when it entered my body I felt an ecstasy sensation. My current form was like a thought that passed through space and time. I didn¡¯t have a body, but after absorbing these particles, I could feel a body slowly forming. This body was like a ball of energy. ¡®This should be the Heavenly Essence¡­ According to the manual, after collecting enough essence I just need to mold my body¡¯ Discovering what the Heavenly Essence is, I deepened in the emptiness state, losing track of time, while slowly absorbing the essences. -x- After what seemed billions of years, an electric feeling passed through my body, indicated that I had enough essence to form a body. ¡®Now it¡¯s time to form a body¡¯ The first form that came to my mind...Humans, my children, although it has been uncountable years since they left me, I always thought about them. Focusing all my attention on this step, cautiously I imagined a form in my mind. Slowly a body started to form besides me. It had 1.8 meters high, tanned skin, a long silk golden hair and its eyes held a bloody red color, like a burning flame, you could even see it shine in this darkness. ¡®This should do...¡¯ With my ball form, I dived between the eyebrows of the body, and finally I had control of the body, opening and closing my hands, so that I could familiarize with this new body. After getting familiar with the body I looked at the Golden door, trying to understand the next step, those red hieroglyphs seemed to be alive and pulsing, as if waiting for something, but I couldn¡¯t do anything about it. After some time analyzing it, I finally comprehended the second step. ¡°It seems like I need to forge ¡®blood¡¯¡± This step is similar to the first step; I need to forge the blood with Heavenly Energy, condensing it in my blood streams. According to the manual, this second step is named *God¡¯s Blood* and the first step was named *Building God*. ¡®Interesting¡¯ Closing my eyes, I entered the emptiness state and attracted the energies into me. Strangely this time it was faster than last time. ¡°Maybe this is happening because I have a body now¡± Directing all the energies into my body and condensing it in liquid, then injecting every drop of it in my blood streams, strangely the blood turned up golden, like my veins. I lost track of time again, and dived deeper in nothingness letting this strange feeling guide me through every step. --x¡ª After what seemed millions of years, I opened my eyes. The view was the same, with a slightly difference¡­ the hieroglyphs on the door disappeared. Despairing I stood up and came close to the door, to analyze where those damn thing have gone. When I was a few feet away from the door a suction force appeared, pulling me towards the door. ¡°Someone¡­.Save us!!!¡± Suddenly I heard countless voices and thoughts that passed through the door and seemed to infect the space and time; these voices mixed countless mixed feeling like: despair, loneliness, hatred, etc. Hearing this voice a strange feeling struck me, as if I recognized it from somewhere, and it was implanted in my soul, to never forget. ¡°My Children!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!¡± Yes, I recognize them¡­.they are my children!!! Without much thought about it, I dived into the door¡­leaving behind the dark abyss that I dwelled for countless ages. ¡°I will save you¡± Chapter 2 Hello guys...so, just note that english is not my native language, sorry about the spelling mistakes. Please bear with me! ________________________________x_________________________________________________ Chapter 2 Passing through the door I felt space and time running again, revolving backwards and forwards at the same time In front of me the space and time distorted, forming a dark spiral like a water slide. In this dark spiral I could feel myself moving at an alarming speed, millions of times the speed of light, piercing the space itself. The pressure in this space was too much, if not this spiral helping me block the majority of the pressure, my body should have exploded in million of pieces. Cracks began to appear on the surface of my skin, and my internal organs began to bleed too, forcing me to cough blood, but due to the pressure my bones and muscles were becoming tougher and stronger. After some time, my body finally adapted to the pressure, and I could easily travel inside this space, but I didn¡¯t try to leave the spiral because I could feel that this passage was keeping 99% of the pressure out. -----x---- I don¡¯t know how many time passed, since its quite confusing the to track the time here, but finally I could see the exit. A Golden door appeared in front of me, the only difference from previous door, was the hieroglyphs. This new door didn¡¯t hold any hieroglyphs, just a plain and simple Golden door. Speeding through the dark space, my heart was beating faster and faster, as if I found something long lost. The image of the door became clearer and clearer, and finally a suction force pulled me into the door, helping me pass through. --x--- ¡°Damn¡­my head hurts¡± After passing though the door, I appeared in a big cave where the only source of light came from a circular entrance in the ceiling, and the Golden door disappeared. Looking around I spotted a lake with pure and crystalline water. When the light meets the crystalline water, it created a breathtaking view, illuminating a part of the cave where stalagmites and stalactites encountered each other.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Where am I?¡± Suddenly I heard the voices again¡­ ¡°Someone¡­please help us!!!¡± ¡°I can¡¯t take it anymore¡­.¡± ¡°I wanna die¡± ¡°AHHHHH!!!!¡± ¡°Wake up mom!!Mom, please¡­don¡¯t leave me alone¡± ¡°Don¡¯t hurt me, Please!!¡± Thousands upon thousands of voices sounded in my head, some of them begging for help, others begging to die, others filled with hatred.. Feeling those many different feelings at the same time, my heart felt so much pain that I unconsciously cried, but slowly my heart filled up with hatred. ¡°Who dares to abuse my children?!!!!!¡± Kicking the ground I jumped towards the ceiling, creating a deep crater where I stood, and flying upwards. I passed through the entrance like a missile drilling the air. In the air I could see a forest that spread thousands upon thousands kilometers, it was so long and wide that I couldn¡¯t even see its end. Losing the force I started to rapidly fall, the ground was getting nearer and nearer, so I prepared for the impact. *BAANNNGGGG* When I fell, a 1km crater opened on the ground, but I walked unscathed from the crater¡­ ¡°Now that I thought about it¡­I am naked¡­shit, I can¡¯t meet with my children like this¡­ ¡° Manipulating the Heavenly essence, a simple white robe slowly covered me. Engraved on the back of the robe, stood a red sphere with bloody red rings around it, this sphere seemed to be alive as it slowly pulsated and the rings rotated around it. After wearing my garments, I focused all my attention on finding the location of the thoughts and after some seconds I finally found it. After confirming the location, I dashed through the forest at an incredible speed, faster than even a sport car, every time my foot entered in contact with the ground a small crater appeared. ---x--- ¡°I have been running through this shitty forest...for days, and I still didn¡¯t find the exit¡± It¡¯s been three days since I came to this world, I have been following the direction of the thoughts all this time, but I still didn¡¯t find it. During these days I didn¡¯t find any sign of animals¡­This is certainly strange, since this forest is too vast and it should have countless animals. I haven¡¯t stopped any time, I have been running three days straight, and I have to say¡­I am really mentally tired. While I was distracted, my sense of danger kicked in, and without much time to think I threw my body to the right side, evading the danger *BANG* A two meters lance passed millimeters from piercing my head, and drilled into the ground, standing proud there. ¡°HAHAHA¡­A human insect¡­It seems like we earned some money guys¡± Suddenly a male voice sounded through the forest, this voice held a maliciously and amusing tone, as if he found the most spectacular thing in the world. ¡°And he is quite pretty¡­we should sell him to the slavers for quite some cash¡± From the forest slowly a figure came out, he had 1.9 meters tall, red hair, muscular body, and his face was filled with scars, with a cold smile plastered on his face. Behind him five more figures appeared each one of them had similar red hair, but different characteristics like beards, scars, long hair, but one thing they all held the similar and disgusting smile plastered on their faces. But about one thing I was sure¡­.They are similar, but they are not humans.