The Warrior watched Raden as he sat upon the lonesome edge of the precipice. Raden remained motionless as he meditated in silence. The sun was just dropping over the distant mountain range, coloring the world in various shades of purple. The snow-capped mountaintop of Mount Iwai was the highest point in all the empire. It was here that legends told of the beginning of the Renzai Empire.
The Sun God had fallen in love with the Moon Goddess, mesmerized by the beauty of her celestial aura. He chased her for countless ages, always unable to catch her, until that one blessed day. The sun and moon became one and cast a shadow over the whole world. From their union, millions upon millions of children were born, scattered to live and illuminate the night sky and accompany their mother. Today, we can still see their heavenly presence as stars staring back down on Eos. As more celestial children continued to be born, one child named Renzai, compelled to beget his own family, decided to leave the heavens and begin anew on the world below. He was said to have come down in a flaming comet. The impact from his arrival shifted the landscape of Eos, causing mountains, oceans, and rivers to form. Renzai took on the form of the first human and started his new life on Eos. It is his descendants that the people of the empire claim their genealogy to. A holy people destined for holy glory. To many of the empire it was simply a myth, but to a select few, it was a reality. Sitting before the Warrior, Raden was evidence of this truth. Their savior was here; Renzai had been reborn.
The Warrior observed the chaos consuming Raden. His body remained completely still, but the ever-changing aura he projected was in turmoil. Bright cardinal flames burst forth sporadically, interspersed between moments of peace. The first markings appeared shortly after sunset last night. The symbols of the Ancients flowed throughout Raden’s skin. Rippling across his arms and chest, his body giving off the translucent appearance of water. More symbols surfaced as the night went on. It was well past midnight when Raden’s body was completely covered by them. Everywhere but his face was now camouflaged. Raden remained that way until early morning when the next phase of his evolution began. The mark for chosen appeared on his forehead. Lines flowed out from the symbol, connecting with the ones on Raden’s neck. A burst of a light coursed through every tattoo etched into his skin. They shifted and formed, as if his body had been wrapped in a hundred million slithering serpents. The markings finally merged together and solidified into place.
Streams of smoke emanated from Raden’s body and the aura surrounding him disappeared. Concerned that something had gone wrong, the Warrior urgently made his way over, but that’s when Raden turned around abruptly. His eye patch had burned away, and his left eye glowed a brilliant scarlet now. Light poured out of it. His entire demeanor had changed. His hair was slicked back, wisps of smoke drifted about his head. His body appeared more muscular. There was a gravitas about him that was hard to deny or resist. Raden slowly stood up, his muscles still sore from the training. He stared into the sky; perhaps he was simply gazing at the beauty of the early morning dawn, or perhaps he was talking to his heavenly family, reunited after so long. It was the latter that the Warrior preferred to believe. As if thinking the same thing, Raden’s hands began to shake as fire engulfed his forearms. He thrust his hands upward, and released a grand fireball into the sky. He stumbled back, falling to one knee, sweat covered his brow, but a smile appeared on his face as he watched it rise high into the sky, magnificent as the sun. The Warrior watched in awe as it continued to rise beyond Mount Iwai. Suddenly, it violently exploded, showering the mountain range with heavenly crimson, melting the snow-capped mountaintops, revealing the virgin earth below.
Raden made his way towards the Warrior, his feet burning footprints into the ground. He was only a few feet from the Warrior when he suddenly felt dizzy; everything went dark as he collapsed.
The Warrior reached out and caught Raden before he hit the rocky ground. “Your training is done for now, child. You have done well. Very well.”
Raden closed his eyes, allowing sleep to take over.
Raden dreamt he was stranded out in the middle of the Great Sea, drifting about aimlessly. It was eerily silent, just the gentle sound of lapping water filling the cool night air. Suddenly, he heard the distant neighing of a horse. The neighing grew louder and louder until Raden awoke with a startle. He slowly opened his eyes, squinting at the snowy ground beneath him. He lifted his head and saw the head of a horse to his left. He looked to his right and saw the horse’s tail flickering back and forth. The awkwardness of the situation began to dawn on him. He was bent over the saddle of the horse. The rhythmic gait of its walk induced a feeling of buoyancy in him. He was straining to right himself on the horse when he noticed the Warrior just ahead of him. Despite the freezing cold temperature at the top of Mount Iwai, Raden didn’t seem to notice it. Raden understood why he wasn’t affected anymore: Fire burned inside of him, he had become fire personified. But the Warrior, still only wearing his tan robe, didn’t seem to notice either. There’s much to him that I still don’t know, thought Raden.
“How long was I out?” asked Raden as he wiped his eyes clear.
“About four hours. I figured you could rest as we headed back to the city.”
“Thanks… I guess… my back is killing me.” Raden twisted his body, trying to loosen it up.
“Well, I couldn’t really sit you up as you slept. You’d fall off the horse.”
“Yeah, that’s probably true.”
They rode in silence for a while, Raden observing the Warrior from behind as they continued on their journey. Questions were beginning to form in his mind; he wanted to know more about this mysterious member of the Ministry of Transcendence.
“Why is it that you were placed in charge of my training, and not the Prophet, or the Judge, or any of the other Ministers?”
“I am… let’s just say… I was the most suited to help you in this endeavor. Did you want to talk about what you experienced, child?”
Raden thought for a moment, unsure where to start. “I was drowning.”
“Describe the experience to me in detail.”
“I was drowning in a lake of fire. Despite the glowing flames, everything was pitch black. I couldn’t breathe, until I realized my skin…”
“What of your skin?”
“It was not skin, but rather scales. I was able to breathe through my scales.”
“What else did you see?”
“I had visions.”
“Of what?”
“I saw moments. The most important moments of my life flashed before me. And then I saw Kimi; she appeared and spoke to me. But it wasn’t her voice that I heard, it was the voice of something… greater.”
“The voice of the One perhaps?”
“She said—”
But the Warrior cut him off. “Whatever she said was for you, and you alone, Raden.”
Raden thought about Kimi’s words. How he was the chosen savior of their people. How he had accepted the responsibility of bringing peace to centuries of warfare. He was going to tell the Warrior anyways when the Warrior started.
“Have you ever heard of the legend of Cayo?”
Raden was caught off guard by the comment.
“Umm… yes, I know the legend. He was one of the legendary warriors of the First Great War. He was said to be one of the founding members of the empire.”
“Yes, that is the story that our people are told.”
“What do you mean, are told?”
“Raden. What did you find on your mission to the Vicedonian territories?”
“I discovered the Vicedonians were in possession of a supposed Candidate.”
“And what do you make of your newfound powers? Your new… let’s say role in our empire?
“I am…” the word got caught in his throat, but he knew it to be true now. Especially after everything he had gone through. “I am… a true Candidate.”
“Correct. You are, in truth, not the first Candidate the empire has ever had.”
/> The Warrior’s words took Raden by surprise. The Prophet had mentioned other false Candidates appearing throughout history, but never did he mention one belonging to the Renzai Empire. If so, why hadn’t the wars ended long ago?
“I was with Cayo when his powers revealed themselves. Much like you, he was gifted with the blessing of fire. It was at the Battle of the Twelve Kings during the First Great War. Like you, he decimated the enemy with an attack that he could not fully comprehend. I took him to train in the same place that you just did.”
“What happened? Why is this part of his story never talked about? He is more than a legendary warrior. The One chose him. His full story needs to be heard by the people.”
“No, it does not. Let me finish. I took him to train in the same place where you did. Everything happened much the same way. He felt the sensation of drowning. He had visions of his life flash before him. But when the moment came for him to be marked by the Ancients, things did not… end like you.”
“What happened? What went wrong?”
“When the marking for chosen appeared on his forehead, it only appeared for a moment. When it disappeared, his body began to harden. He turned into wood right before me. The end of his life is something the people do not need to hear.”
“But why did that happen? What did he do differently than me?”
“He rejected the offer presented to him by the One. Much to the dismay of many people if they heard this, but the One is not a completely benign being. Even the One can be offended, and when Cayo rejected the offer, he was punished accordingly.”
The gravity of what the Warrior had just told him weighed Raden down like a stone boulder. The legendary Cayo had actually been a Candidate as well. He had just gone through the same experience as him, but did what Cayo could not. However, there was something that was still bothering Raden about the Warrior.
“How was it that you trained Cayo? He was alive during the First Great War, which was ages ago. Just how old are you?”
“I’ve been around for a long time. Longer than you need to know.”
“How did you know that Cayo experienced the same thing I did, if he died during the training?”
The Warrior stopped in his tracks. He looked up into the sky and watched a nighthawk soaring above them, disappearing behind the tree line. The Warrior turned towards Raden and smiled. “We should hurry back, Kimi is waiting for you.”
Chapter 43