Have you ever wondered how the world was created? Christians believe that God created the world and humanity. Scientists claim that the universe was created from the Big Bang explosion, and then planets were formed, and so was life. Many different theories were given and many different beliefs were spread. However, let me tell you the “truth”. You can decide for yourself whether you should believe me or not. After all, this is just another tale.

Once upon a time, there was a man called The Great. He possessed an enormous amount of power, and single-handedly created the world.

Many refer to him as God, but I would like to call him The Great. Why? Because, The Great is the creator of everything, including gods. Calling The Great ‘God’ is not enough. He deserves better.

First, he created a home, the beautiful planet Earth. Then, he brought life to it; all sorts of animals began to appear in the picture, from terrestrial animals to aquatic animals. It was a lovely sight of Mother Nature, yet he was not satisfied, for the picture was simply too basic and monotonous. Peace is an incredible thing – in fact, some would even consider it a luxury. However, if peace was gained by an overly repetitive setting, would one still call that living? Life isn’t like a clockwork. It never was and never will be. For this reason, The Great decided that there should be a creature capable of inventing new things without his help. This means they need intelligence. Check. To create things, they must be able to grab and manipulate things. Check.

“Hmmm…” The Great hummed. He was lost in deep thought for this certain creature he was about to make. “Aha! I know," he said, grinning. “I’ll use the primate as a base. Umm… alright, let’s take the gorilla.” He picked swiftly among the list before him. In that instant, a holographic image of a gorilla appeared before him and rotated slowly. 

The Great stared for a while and frowned. “Stand up,” he commanded and the gorilla immediately stood up on two feet.

“Walk,” he ordered, and so the gorilla did. However, the folds between his eyebrows never ceased.

That looks weird, he thought, seeing the awkward gorilla walking on two feet. “Okay, stop. Stop!” he said with dismay.

The Great continued to stare at the animal and wondered just what kind of supreme creature could he create from a gorilla. 

It needs to be smart. It needs to be beautiful. It needs to be... majestic. Marvelous. Magnificent! 

After a moment of silence, he took a deep breath and pulled up his long sleeves as he began to do work with his beautiful magic.

“Stand up. Smaller belly. Slender arms. Stronger legs. Smaller skull, but bigger brain.” He looked at it proudly before frowning again. “Oh my, the face. Ugh. Smaller jaw! Forehead, forehead, forehead! Damn, I almost forgot.” He sighed with relief.

“Longer neck. Longer legs. Smaller ribs. No need for such a big chest. Oh yes, beautiful.” He breathed out heavily, exhausted from the excess use of magic.

He then settled down on an invisible chair and leaned his face – hidden inside his hood – on one of his hands. He stared at the creature again, before commanding, “Duplicate. Female. Male.” A white light shone from the tip of his index finger as he swayed it side to side, creating two exact copies. 

But they don’t look much different… 
 
“Ah, I know!” he grinned victoriously.

“You," he pointed at the female creature. “More boo— I mean s! Bigger. Bigger. Bigger!! Okay… too big. Smaller. Ah~ just right. Perfect.”

“Now, you.” He pointed at the male creature, “You need something down there. Okay, good. You will know what to do with it when the time comes. More ual desire,” he said with no interest, “oh, and more strength too.”

“You.” He turned back to the female creature. “You will be in charge of giving birth. It’s painful, I know. But at least the male will find you food.” He smiled apologetically as if the female was protesting him.

“Okay! Finally, it’s done. Now show me something interesting.” The Great said as he waved his hand in the air and the creatures immediately appeared in the picture.

“I shall name your race ‘Human’. Good luck… with life!”

After a few hundred years, when human colonies were established all over the Earth, The Great decided that it was time for an even better race to step in and control the world for him. With the surge in population of all living things, the balance of the world was getting disturbed and The Great was having a hard time handling everything by himself. Thus, gods were created to help him.

Gods were essentially humans themselves, except that they were given different elements of power by The Great and lived in a parallel world called Paradise, at times referred to as Heaven. Humans that were chosen to be gods are called The Chosen Souls. Human souls do not perish. They were created by The Great and recycled over and over again (and sometimes stored away due to overpopulation). Thus, reincarnation exists. Every millennium, human souls, chosen upon creation, take turns to be gods, whose powers were second to only The Great, their creator. Their job was to govern their own given elements and, above all, to look over humanity.

Nevertheless, one thousand years was too long for a lifespan. The Great then split The Chosen Souls up into multiple groups. Each group would take turn to govern the given elements for six hundred years in Paradise. Though there would be a certain time when two groups existed at the same time, in order for the previous gods to hand over their power and show their successors how to use the power. This training period would last for a hundred years. This means, except for the first generation (which was trained by The Great himself), each generation would have one hundred years of training with the previous generation and one hundred years of teaching the next generation during their six hundred year lifespan as gods.

The world’s balance was regained in no time with the existence of gods. Paradise, their home, was a whole new world that betrayed all the physics laws that existed on Earth. Here, gravity was easily defied by gods. They lived on, whether or not oxygen was available, be it under the water or in outer space. As their lives were necessary for the world’s balance, The Great had eliminated almost all the obstacles that would get in the way of their lives.

Almost. I repeat, almost.

If there was water, there must be fire. If there was day, there must be night. If there was Yin, there must be Yang. Therefore, if there was life, there must be death. Yet, gods were immortal. In fact, they couldn’t even take their own lives if they wish to. They must live on to fulfill their duties till the end. However, they could still die, that is, if they were killed by a god whose element was their opposite. This meant the God of Water could only be killed by the God of Fire and vice versa. No matter how much the God of Air hated the God of Water, he or she could never kill the latter. Only opposite nature gods could kill one another. Due to this law, all gods often avoided their opposer to prevent any possible quarrel that would lead to one another’s death. Although there were some exceptions, where opposite element gods got along with each other well. Having said that, whether that lasted long or not, no one knew for sure, thus it was not recommended to get too close to one another.

The Great decided to reset the date when he introduced the new race ‘God’ and their alternative world to his existing universe. The day they were created and sent down to Paradise marked the year of 0. Everything was peaceful and quiet until one day, in the year of 5XX, when the worst scenario had happened. 

[Year 5XX] 

“Hey!”

“Hmm?”

“Have you ever wondered just what is behind that secret door?”

“You mean the one deep inside the Holy Palace?”

“Yeah! The Great locked it away a few years ago. He kept warning us that we must never open the door.”

“Ah… What about it?”

“Aren’t you curious what is inside?”

“Nah, not really. Whatever is in there is none of my business. The Great is probably playing a prank on us again anyway.”

“Talking about that! I can’t believe he actually shut away all of our powers for a day. All of us were panicking and wondering what we have done wrong.”

“Then he suddenly appeared, revealing that it was just a ‘joke’. How amusing.”

“I know, right?!”

“…Sigh.”

“…”

“…”

“Hey.”

“What?”

“Do you think he is testing our courage this time?”

“Courage?”

“Yeah, you know, like who dare to disobey his order and open the door. I mean, why would he lock whatever that is in there in the palace in the first place, and then tell us that we cannot open it? He could have just hidden it away in a different world and we wouldn’t know anyway.”

“Breathe. Take a break. No one is going to die if you stop talking.”

“Gezz, just answer me!”

“Well, you’ve got a point. Nevertheless, I’m sure he has his reason.”

“Do you want to try opening it anyway?”

“Don’t try to tempt me. Leave me out of troubles, you troublemaker.”

“Tch. What a conceited person.”

↭↭↭↭↭↭↭↭

Two months later, the same gods met again. 

“…Mind telling me why we are here?”

“Hehehe. I have been trying to break the seal these past two months but it’s too strong so…”

“Are you freaking serious? The Great will—”

“Stop talking about The Great this, The Great that, will you?! Have a little bit of courage, you coward.”

“Coward? Coward, you say? You must be nuts. That challenging personality of yours burnt down the precious Garden of Life. Then you went and chased after the God of Fate’s pet and killed it in the process. Don’t you know how many times she came to me with anger, pressuring me to end your life? If I weren’t your best friend, I would probably have ended your life already. Don’t tell me I’m a coward. Look at yourself and the troubles you caused. Don’t get me involved in this. If you want to die that badly, then go ahead and destroy the seal, or I can end it for you; after all, I am the Earth and you are the Air.”

“Are you seriously saying that, Sunggyu? You want to kill me?”

“Yes, I am. I’m dead serious this time, Woohyun. I’m so sick of cleaning up your messes and being pressured into killing you no less. Let me have a break or let’s have a one-on-one battle. My patience is running out.”

“Fine, bring it on! I am not afraid of you!”

And so a fierce battle occurred right in the middle of the Holy Palace. The impact was so powerful that it shook the entire palace. Many other gods and goddesses had attempted to stop the hot-tempered and the equally stubborn god from fighting but to no avail.

“O the mighty spirit of the Wind,

Heed my call.

Pierce through the immobile air

At the speed of light,

Penetrate my foe standing before thee.”

Woohyun, the God of Air, chanted his spell as he raised up one of his hands in the air and a faint image of the Wind spirit, in the form of a male child with a mischievous look, appeared right above Woohyun’s head. The hot-tempered god struck down his arm at the other and immediately the spirit blew out a gush of invisible deadly sharp winds at Sunggyu, who repelled them with a barrier made of soil. The winds left countless deep cuts on the thick wall. Woohyun clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“Heed my call,

Present thyself before me,

Lord of Earth.

Shower thine enemy with vigorous rocks of death.”

Sunggyu calmly chanted his spell with a low voice. With his arms in the middle of his chest, he formed a diamond shape with his hands. A brown light slowly emerged from his hands and millions of rocks of all sizes appeared in front of him. Sunggyu smirked at Woohyun’s surprised expression.

“FLY!” he commanded loudly, his voice thunderous. The brown light dispersed and the rocks instantly attacked Woohyun at an impossibly fast speed. Though it was not as fast Woohyun’s winds, the sheer number of rocks flying toward him was more than he could bear, not to mention the weight. He struggled to defend against them with his invisible shield of air.

“What’s wrong, God of Air? Too much for you to take?” Sunggyu mocked with a smirk tugging at his lips.

Woohyun glared at him. “As if! This is nothing. Get ready for more, dirty earthy Sunggyu,” he retorted.

The two exchanged blows, one after another until they were exhausted; still, neither was willing to give up as their fight only got fiercer and faster. Unexpectedly, their powers had accidentally broken the seal on the Forbidden Room with the overwhelming energy released. What was in there, no one knew, but a ball of light and a ball of shadow could be seen escaping the room at the speed of light, together with menacing cries of pain at a high-pitched tone that could bleed one’s ears. Everyone was stunned at the situation; even the God of Earth and Air stopped their fight at the appalling sight. Before anyone could even grasp the situation, the Holy Palace began to collapse at a rapid pace due to the shock of the broken seal. Paradise, a world that was meant for perfection, was now deteriorating rapidly due to the breakdown of the Holy Palace, its heart. Without the support, Paradise was in danger of vanishing. As the result of this madness, Earth began to suffer from a series of all sorts of natural disasters and the death toll was at its peak. All the gods and goddesses were panicking; some desperately and futilely tried to preserve the Holy Palace, knowing that their powers alone could do nothing at all.

“Come on! Do your best to contain the fallout!” 

“I AM doing my best!” 

“This is a catastrophe! How did this happen?!” 

“Urgh! Try harder!! I'm dying here!” 

“Ya! You think you're the only one trying? Shut it!!” 

Despite their efforts, their power and stamina had a limit and soon the gods and goddesses were seen falling on their knees due to exhaustion. The colors that were emitting from their power soon disappeared one by one, signaling that they could no longer put their power to use. 

“Damn it! What are we supposed to do?!” A god angrily slammed the shaking ground with his fists, his voice shaking with desperation.

In the midst of the hysteria and hopelessness, The Great appeared in a black hooded coat that covered up his figure from head to toe. No one knew what he actually looked like, except the fact that he too took after the form of human and could possibly be a male judging from his deep voice. Upon his appearance, right in the middle of the now shattered palace, everyone instantly became quiet as they got down on one knee with their head bowed down low. The hysteria was gone in a flash thanks to his magnificently powerful presence. Perhaps it was because they were relieved that The Great had appeared to help them; however, at the same time, they were shaking in fear upon the obvious enraging atmosphere surrounding him as he floated above them. Ignoring the fallen palace, which was collapsing at a rapid rate, The Great remained in silent still, while all the gods and goddesses were on their knees, fretting at the sight. The silence was killing them slowly as the tense air felt heavier and heavier each second. After what seemed like an endless wait, The Great finally lifted up his right hand on the side. With his palm facing upward, he slowly formed a fist. The palace immediately stopped crumbling down as his fingers were wrapped tight. Stunned by his capability, everyone looked around in awe as they remained in their position in front of The Great. Suddenly, The Great swung his arm up in the air violently and a white light shone from his fist. The light was soon broken down into small particles and burst out everywhere in the palace. With that, the Holy Palace slowly rebuilt itself and Paradise slowly gained back its stronghold and the disasters on Earth soon ceased.

Before the gods and goddesses could cheer in happiness, The Great spoke up for the first time with an intimidating voice, “God of Earth and God of Air, step forward!” he ordered.

The two said gods glanced at each other nervously before standing up reluctantly in front of the menacing figure above them.

“God of Earth in the form of the human named ‘Sunggyu’ and God of Air in the form of the human named ‘Woohyun’, do you know what you have done?”

The answer was obvious, yet, neither of them could utter a word under the supreme pressure. They stood there in silence with their heads down, indirectly pleading guilty as they shut their eyes and bit their lips anxiously.
 
“All this time, as I observed from above, I thought that your friendship was admirable. Two gods with opposite elements and contrasting personalities manage to become the best of friends. You two are an example of great friendship. I was pleased despite the trouble you two have caused.” The Great said in an ominous tone. “However, today, I was utterly disappointed by the two of you. How dare you fight in the Holy Palace? Your death is none of my interest, but not only that you dared to fight in the Holy Palace, you also opened the Forbidden Room!” His words became heavier to the listeners and his anger caused a strong wind that could almost blow the gods away.
 
When the wind calmed down and The Great rose up both of his hands towards God of Earth and God of Air, everyone knew that nothing good was going to happen. A white light shone from his palm and soon surrounded the two gods, twirling around each them like a hungry python.

"Hark! Hark now!

Mark my words, insolent creatures.

O how I regret thy existences; marry I do.

Aye, time canst not be reverted verily.

Hereby, the punishment thou deserve.

For lifetimes thou shalt find each other,

Love one another,

But I,

I wilt make sure thou wilt not have

A happy ending."

The language of spell could be heard. The white light intensified until it was almost blinding as The Great spelled his curse. The sound of the two gods groaning in pain could be heard as clear as the day as if they were fighting against the curse. In the midst of all the chaos, some had thought that they faintly heard the two, the God of Earth and Air, exchanging their sorrowful last words, though they could not comprehend them due to the overwhelming noises.

“I’m s—”

“Ther—thing—say” 

“I—”

As much as they want to help, the power of The Great was too much for them to bear. The Great, who was usually calm and kind (and at times, mischievous), had never been this furious. They didn’t even dare to utter a word, never mind going against his decision.

Once the light faded away, neither The Great nor the two gods were anywhere in sight. The Holy Palace was back to normal and the Forbidden Room became a beautiful garden inside the palace, now known as the Holy Garden. It was the most beautiful garden by far in Paradise with an alluring and majestic water fountain in the center. As the gods stepped in cautiously, in front of the water fountain appeared the next generation of God, their successors, one by one. As they continued to pop up in the form of young children at the age of 10 to 11 years old, The Great’s voice could be heard from above.

“The next generation has arrived in Paradise. Find the child assigned to you a hundred years ago. I hope that you all will do a great job in training them.”

“What about the child of Earth and Air?” one of the gods asked.

To answer the question, two small fairies came forth from the fountain. “We will be the children’s guidance and lead them ‘till the end of the training period,” they said in unison as they settled next to the children mentioned.

And so everyone returned to his or her place with the fated inheritor and Paradise regained its peace, but the question remained unanswered still.

What will happen to the God of Earth and God of Air?

Awakening begins.

Count: 10 11 

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So erh... there's the prologue. I hope I have explained the setting well haha. Until next time~ 

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