Their armies stretch from the left side of the nd to the other, going for as far as the eyes can see. The sea's waves are trying to climb the sides of this nd. Their spears, swords and arrows, are all darkened by a metal cursed with bsphemous forces. Their roars and screams, set terror in the human heart. Red, purple, green it's their skin. Some have more limbs than others, while some have eyes shaped oddly, reflecting their urge to destroy all that is good. Sizes one can only remember so many of, given that some are flying, some are walking and some are crawling. These are the demons standing in front of them. Leading them are, as they're called, Princes. There are nine of them, but only five are present, as the other four are leading armies elsewhere.

  Opposite of them stand the armies of all that is good, even humans amongst them. Lightborn, Sunborn, humans, sollims and more are forming ranks. The demonic armies advance. It is the day of a war that is going to change this beautiful world forever. A war that brewed in silence for decades, now baring its fangs at the world. It was something that he, who led his race beyond the light's reach, he who made the City of Stars and wields Darkbane, could have never foreseen in his long, long life.

  He stands on his right knee. His limbs and neck are long. On his neck, his bright, shining hair rests, then falls in long strands, much like that of his siblings. Light is pouring from his glowing eyes, some sparks erupting at the corners. His skin is dazzling with light, the light swelling deep inside of him, trying to contain itself.

  He pces his hand on the earth beneath him, his palm feeling the warmth he once felt. The bdes of grass run between his fingers, as he looks at them, swaying with the wind. He clenches his fist, earth filling his hand, then, he lets go of it, raising his hand. The view of the incoming doom, makes him sad at what is about to unfold.

  His time to lead them into the uncertain future came along once more. This time though, it wasn't just his siblings that he must look for, nor just a home he must protect. He has to lead all these beings. His failures, his successes, none matter now and will never do, not if they lose.

  His body lifts off the ground a bit, for he must pray ‘Creator. Lamines. I beg of you, guide me today of all days, for I must protect all that you allowed me to have.

  And if I fail, protect their souls in my stead, for I can only bear so much,’ he asks of his Creator. His feet meet the ground, he straightens himself. He stands taller and stronger than all present. Yet, he feels so weak in the presence of this threat. "Can you see this? Brother, sister? They want to consume us, destroy us. It's not so different from when we started, is it now?" he tells himself, thinking of a distant past, as he lifts his face to the sky, his long hair blowing into the winds in waves.

  Everyone is watching him. Tens of thousands of warriors, heroes, brothers, sisters and Ascended Beings, they are all watching him. His loose clothes flow with the wind and his hair. The orb made of gems, Darkbane, appears in his right hand. His eyes now rupture with sparks and light. His body starts to produce a strong glow, the light inside of him swirling and fighting to get outside, empowering his very being. The ground itself can't contain all this energy, nor does the air, as he lifts himself off the ground, it starts to crack, the air filling with the energy, lifting small things off of it; his orb produces a sinister, dark light.

  Amidst the view of the looming threat, those behind him ready for his command and the overwhelming sense of power within him, he closes his eyes. A frown follows trying to remember something from his old past. "I remember it. The day I felt it all. The world around me, the freezing nd below my feet. Everything that followed… once I stepped outside the light..."

  Year 6000 FT (First Time)

  "Where am I?" the speck of light asked.

  "Inside the light." a voice answered.

  "Who are you?" the speck of light continued.

  "That which made the light." it expined.

  "Who am I?'' It's mind filled with more questions.

  "That which you want to be." the voice answered once more.

  Their conversation sted for an endless amount of time if you were to be inside. From the outside however, not so much time passed. During their conversation, the speck of light named itself Kilon. The voice was named the Creator by Kilon and, through his questions, Kilon formed himself a body. His body was the only "thing" that the Creator helped with, as if it had a clearer vision for what it was supposed to be. Although Kilon didn't like it at first, with some alterations, he felt good about this body of his. Once he didn't know what to ask anymore, he simply wondered.

  "What's beyond the light, Creator?"

  "I cannot tell you that Kilon."

  "Why?"

  "It is for you to see, not for me to tell."

  "I don't understand."

  "If I were to tell you what is outside the light, could you imagine anything besides the light?"

  "So you're saying there is more than light."

  "Yes, there is."

  "But I can't understand or even fathom, because all I saw during my time here is the light."

  "Correct, my wise son."

  His mind was filled with questions once more, a rge sense of wonder added to it. What could lie beyond these weaving strands of light? Were there more kinds of light? What could possibly be more than light? He couldn't contain his curiosity. So, he tried to escape from the light. At first, it proved hard to move, he had to learn it all by himself. But slowly, he started to understand how to use his body. The way it was built made more sense to him, and offered him the opportunity to finally reach the edge of this beam of weaving lights. Which felt akin to swimming through thick yers of cloth, stretching like rubber, yet fluid like water, but able to breathe through.

  His fingers first protruded outside the light that enveloped him. When his fingertips reached the outside, he felt a new sensation. It scared him at first, but once he understood that no harm came from it, he pushed once more his fingers through. This time, he could feel it more clearly. It felt as if the feeling which he had inside the light, that of warmth, was stolen from him by the outside, the cold. He had to wonder if the outside could extinguish him, as it took away from the feeling he had inside the light. The sense of loss, however, was betrayed by his sense of wonder. There wasn't anything to find inside the light. Beyond it though, there was something new.

  So, he pushed his whole hand outside. He let it stay there a while, then brought it back in. It was still there, so he didn't lose any part of him, but the mere sensation inside the light. He gained confidence that he could get out.

  It was a slow step, his foot barren as it was, felt a tingly sensation, the cold running from the ground, up to his feet some, the nd beneath being of cold stone. Once his foot rested onto the ground, he pushed against it. It was new for him, this way of walking. He, however, adapted quickly and pressed his foot hard against the stone and brought his body forward. Excited to see what is outside, that his foot can't see, he pushed his whole body through the edge of the beam of weaving lights. The lights, at first, didn't want to let go of him, they seemed to possess a conscience of their own. But with a bit of a struggle, each strand of light attached to his body, snapped away from and within him. He was to fall as the lights let go of him, if not for him already knowing how to use his feet.

  Outside the weaving lights, that went to the ground and up from it into the starlit sky, Kilon saw the nd beyond it, taking his first step outside the light. He saw what he called the Light. Within its range, many groups of these light beings. Beyond them, something constantly moving and swirling around blocked his view, that was a blizzard, constantly sweeping winds around the Light. He didn't understand at first what these beings were, not until he looked at his body. He saw his long, slender limbs and felt his long neck, covered by a skin which emitted a white glow. He grasped at his soft short hair, which was glowing brighter than his skin and looked at all of it through eyes which shone lights of their own, at the corners, small sparks erupting. Pcing a finger inside his mouth, he could feel the teeth, which, even though he couldn’t see, were almost transparent, the bone-like structure seemed fragile, which wasn’t true. Light wasn’t emanated from inside, so it was a pure white, while the tongue could barely be felt, which made a Lightborn’s speech soft if no emotion was behind.

  The Creator told him of these beings. They were those like him, made from the Light. His many siblings, he was told, could help him understand what is there to be known about the outside. Looking at some of them, he saw that they were slightly off the ground, their hands open and their eyes towards the Light. They were praying. Kilon noted their behaviour in his head, he didn't know what they were doing, but he was curious nonetheless.

  When his siblings took notice of him emerging from the light, a part of them stopped their prayer and came closer to meet him. When the prayer ended, their feet met the ground, and Kilon noticed that they were shorter than him, about a head or so. Kilon also observed that some of them had a different glow to them, some were a bit more red and orange in their glow, while others more blue or white like him. He could see that there were fewer like him, a pure white or of a blue hue.

  "Abida! Faiah uno Tihal!" said one of the Lightborn. Another added, "Cata ede hemar arti?" Kilon couldn't understand them, but he could tell that they were speaking the same tongue between them.

  "Yes, I am happy to see my siblings as well," Kilon said softly, but they couldn't understand him. Kilon noticed that. He thought that, while inside the Light, he spoke a tongue of his own, and so, his siblings must have spoken one of their own. Which was confirmed by his siblings, who were trying to teach him the nguage they've developed between them while waiting.

  Kilon quickly adopted the new nguage. And, although the Lightborn were made to be the wiser, it still came as a surprise to them how fast Kilon was at learning. After they were able to communicate, Kilon learned about each of his brothers' and sisters' experiences inside the Light, what they asked the creator, and what sort of wisdom was bestowed upon them.

  Through his brothers and sisters, Kilon was learning more. The dangers of walking into the blizzard, that they called the Light, the Link, as it connected all of them and made them, that there are odd beings, unlike them, into the blizzard that would come at times. Yet, he felt limited. While the knowledge of his siblings was invaluable, it also didn't contain anything about the world beyond the light. He wanted to know more, but what his siblings warned him against, was undisputable. Large, unseen creatures, weather so harsh it could kill you in mere moments, and the rge unknowns that couldn’t be seen. The Link was what protected them all, offered them shelter, energy and light to see around. If you stepped outside its range, only peril would follow.

  Kilon was frustrated at the idea of being stuck so near to the pce he wanted to venture beyond, yet he couldn't deny the facts, the Shivering Lands were just too harsh for them to endure without guidance.

  Year 6004 FT

  The Lightborn do not age. They were made by design to st longer than anything, for they were made to tame and understand the world. No being that couldn’t see the world like a tree does, along the ages, or like the kes, which only slightly change with time, could fit the task. The Link provided them with the nourishment to not age, die of hunger or injury. Water, unlike the flesh beings, was not necessary, for they were made of light, and light doesn’t have needs, except for energy.

  While the years have gone by, no more Lightborns have emerged. Only some here and there one year after Kilon emerged, while those prior to him, were given birth only weeks, at best months from when he got out.

  Some Lightborns have tried to escape the hellish environment. Futile efforts though. None had the endurance to go more than a dozen metres, to then return, or were seen dead not too far off the Link's reach, killed by some unseen beast. Some creatures passed by at times, enough to be seen within the blizzard. So a few Lightborn thought they could bait them, even if they never were taught how, they still tried. Again, meaningless attempts. Even if they knew how to bait such creatures, the creatures would be terrified by the Link. Which could be described as a pilr of fire to these beasts, due to the lively nature of the twisting and weaving lights that constructed it.

  Kilon, after these years, was called an "odd" one. From the day he was born, he was different. His glow was stronger, his body taller and his mind sharper. But not like this. He spent his first weeks studying the surrounding area of the Link. He even stepped outside, tried to make a run for it, almost dying a few times for it. Then he tried the ground, dug beneath, to see if it did anything, nothing. Then, he turned his attention back to the Link. He studied it, tried to understand it. It provided them with energy, nourishment and warmth. What if he could take those aspects with him? It was worth trying, given that time wasn’t an issue and there was nothing else to do.

  It was months after he was born, when he first tried to reach back for the lights which were attached to him. He thought that, if those lights were what made him, maintained him, then they could support him as well. Not a bad thought, the only issue was, the huge complexity behind it. These lights, they didn’t want to attach back to him, the original ones were lost amidst a seemingly infinite amount of them, that were changing constantly. So, in order to attach one back, he would have to learn how to catch one. He first tried to find a pattern, see for the ways they act, but none could be found, or there were too many variations of it. This was a conclusion he arrived at two years after he began studying it, at which point, his siblings grew worried for his mental state.

  Some Lightborn were more rash in their behaviour, the need for stimuli, much more needed. Those were some of the earliest ones to emerge. They would go ‘insane’ by some degree and just rush straight into the storm with no prior warning. The others were worried that Kilon may lose his patience as well and run into the storm without concern for his safety. But that wasn’t how Kilon looked at things. He was rational, calcuted and sure of himself. It was just that his methods were less conventional, which in turn, allowed him to progress unlike any other.

  The following two years, he focused on trying to find the ‘nature’ of the light. Instead of trying to find the ways the lights were acting, he wanted to see how they reacted. Be it to his own light, flesh, words or otherwise, he would stimute the lights in various ways, see what they liked. Then, during the fourth year after his emergence, one light reached for him. His hand inside the Link, felt it. First through his fingertip, then slowly through his arm, and then through his whole body. He pulled his hand out slowly, he didn’t want the light to snap away. It didn’t, for both him and the light wanted to stay together, no longer just one.

  With this discovery, he felt eager and excited. ‘The path which leads forward, has opened thus’ he thought. Stepping away from the Link, the light followed him, climbing through his body until it reached his head, from where it went to the sky. Kilon then approached his siblings, to show them his findings.

  Kilon, shortly after, started to tell everyone to gather closely to him. There wasn’t much space to move around, but enough for each of them to have gaps of a few metres inside the light emanated by the Link. They didn’t have anything better to do, so of course everyone gathered around, their interest piqued by what their brother, who acted really odd as of te, had to say.

  He prepared his voice, nothing came out when he tried to speak though. Even though they were his siblings, it was still hard to talk in front of thousands, a sense of embarrassment washed over him for a few moments. Then, it went away, his excited thoughts finally mustering the proper voice for him to speak.

  “Brothers! Sisters!” Kilon first shouted, his voice a tad strained by the first attempt. He paused a little, then the courage surged once more, and with it, more power in his voice. He adjusted the shout into a powerful, almost thundering, voice. “Throughout the past countless suns I have explored and ventured my mind between the endless, twisting, convoluted strands of light which form the Link,” every single one of them were even more curious, ‘perfect’, he thought. “Today, be it by the will of the Creator or due to my efforts, or both, I managed! A discovery which may lead us outside this frozen captivity!”. His words echoed, not a single whisper could be heard, with them, shivers ran down the spines of the thousands of Lightborn present.

  ‘Outside?’ one thought, ‘Is that possible?’, many were doubting, ‘Me too!’ many other wanted to. Kilon watched over them, his eyes gncing from side to side, measuring their expressions, see if it gave them the hope he wished for. ‘Looks like I succeeded,’ he thought. Then, in order to put those which betrayed their doubts with squinted eyes and frowns upon their faces, he closed his eyes, and felt for the light. There it was, inside of him, throughout his body, making him feel empowered, alive, yet some slight strain upon him, perhaps due to the continuous flow.

  The others were watching him, curious, confused, as he stood still with his eyes closed. Kilon wanted to show them some unshakable, solid proof that what he stated, can be accomplished. So, once his mind adapted to the flow and acknowledged it as part of him, much like an eye or finger, it moved how he willed it. Slowly opening his eyes, sparks started to erupt and flow out of his corners, the light within him barely contained, his skin starting to emanate a stronger glow. The others were watching in awe how, in front of the Link, which shone brighter than anything, Kilon seemed to match its glow. With a fsh within their heads, a memory of when they were inside the Link, where nothing but light existed, and their bodies seemed to blend in with the countless, twisting lights, seemed to hit them at their core. A familiar warmth, which they could trust that it would remain so no matter how much time passed, something their being could hold as true. They saw that in Kilon also.

  “This, my brothers and sister, is what can take us out, allow us to travel beyond the merciless cold and into the, perhaps, harsher, yet more exciting world,” their eyes, minds and bodies were following him. He who shone brighter than anyone else, he who had the rights to these words, he was the one they wished to follow. Kilon could tell that both their minds and bodies were with him, but not every single one of them, no. There were a few that looked at him differently, one which caught his eye first, was one of his sisters.

  "And how do we know that this is not only meant for you?" shouted his sister, Manna. She stepped up to him, her head standing taller than a lot, but there were some others taller still than her. "A lot of us saw the day you got out of the light, taller and brighter than most. It only makes sense that you can also imbue yourself with the light. The years which you spent also, how do we know that the Link didn’t forsake us, for we didn’t spend time with it like you did?”. Her face was behind only a few other heads, turned towards her and Kilon, trying to figure which to focus onto.

  "I cannot know if it will work for you too, dear siblings," Kilon spoke in a soft tone, this time with more care for his words, as he saw the uneasiness in his siblings' eyes. "But, unless we try, what else is for us? Will we pray until the end of times? Will we spin in circles until our minds shatter and we venture beyond the light?" he asked, this time firm in his words and determination taking over him.

  Manna wasn't convinced "Can you prove it? That this way of yours can work? For all we know, once you or us step beyond the light's reach, we'll die to the cold, the beasts, or the sky's fury.". Her voice was sceptic, yet her eyes wanted to believe that there was a way for them to leave this pce.

  Kilon could tell by looking in her eyes, that those questions weren't mispced or unwarranted. Plenty of their brethren had died trying to reach a pce beyond the light. He pondered, his thoughts were flying in his mind like they usually did, but this time, with the aid of the light, so much faster. Moments turned into stretched scenes, and the movements around him, so slow that he thought he could catch them, but his movements were no faster. A power of the light which was used by his mind much like it did when he was still inside the Link. It was a feeling which he almost forgot, renewed in these moments. So, with an accelerated process of thinking he long forgot about, then stopped voluntarily that time, he proposed that "I alone will venture beyond and return. And I won't simply step out, I will spend five suns outside, I will kill one of the rge beasts and tame the sky.". All of which were high promises. Everyone knew that, and yet, they all had a sense of hope that this could work somehow. Maybe because this was their only possible way out, and for it to not work would mean only dread and doom. Perhaps because it was him who promised these things, the only one who shone brighter than the rest, stood taller and wiser, that it helped them believe his words.