Of Men Made Gods

Epilogue

  A Beginning

  1 A.A.

  WHEN THE FIRST rays of the morning sun bloodied the eastern sky, the ground moved. The morning rang with thunderous cracks as the three hills and all the land between them holding a city in its center began to rise up to the swiftly vanishing stars. No movement of frightened animals disturbed the air or the ground as the huge piece of earth lifted up intact with impossible ease.

  Once it reached a certain height, the whole edifice ceased moving. The world was almost devoid of sound as it witnessed the odd thing happening in its midst. It seemed to hold its breath as if it was waiting for the next strange thing to happen. In the sudden silence, the only things that could be heard were the agitated wind and the sounds made as loose red rock and soil rained down from the land in the sky.

  A moment later, the hovering structure began moving again, starting to head away from the rising sun. The air screaming ceaselessly in its steady passage, as if the unnatural thing was tearing through it, the island in the air moved deeper into the darkness.

  Soon, the floating land was far away from the place it had been when yesterday's night dawned. And when the sun finally rose high enough, it shone not on hills or a city but on a crater made of red earth; a crater that marked the end of a time. The white disk rose on the first day of a new eon, its golden rays caressing a red land which marked the dawn of a new era with its very creation. An era that would come to be known as the Age of Ascension.

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