The Dawn of the New World

*Pop*

It didn't sound much different from a balloon being popped. The envoy's head exploded like a watermelon, painting the surroundings with brain matter and other fluids.

The memory stopped there. The grand priestess jerked to look towards Jin Wang, obviously asking for an explanation.

Jin Wang reached out seeking to touch the water's surface but the images disappeared when he got close.

*Sigh*

He was alternately downcast and delighted, becoming more melancholy as time went on.

"It was at this moment that I realized that this guy, that was not much older than me, was many leagues stronger. His strength exceeded even my own father's who was the strongest being I had ever known."

"And the worse part was that I had heard of his exploits before but for some reason, I always imagined an old man. Yet right in front of my eyes, this ordinary-looking stranger had laid waste to the Blessed Envoys that almost crippled my father in a matter of minutes."

"As I sat on the cold floor watching it all unfold, I recalled the stories of that insatiable human that had the audacity to call himself the "Emperor" in the face of the Old and the New Gods. And back then he was not the ruler of a specific place or people either. It was just a title he chose to stay defiant in the face of the oppressors. Since titles like that were reserved for other, more powerful races, not the likes of us humans."

"For people like us that had always been seen as less than others no matter where we went, it was a symbol of hope. To the younger generation, including me, his very existence was a call to arms."

Another memory started playing, this time showing various battlefields one after another. It showed the Sovereign of Swords in the center with the Emperor to his left and Jin Wang to his right. But then the people around them started increasing until there were too many to even count.

"For a long time it was just us three. We traveled across the stars, jumping from one world to another in search of like-minded individuals. And slowly more and more joined our ranks. From just three we went to 10 to 100 to 10,000 in the blink of an eye."

"To those that were in the inner circle, the 'Emperor' was more than just an empty title. He used to say it was a symbol and anyone can 'become' him if need be. That was the whole idea behind the title, it was never supposed to be just one man."

"But....we all knew no one could replace him. I had seen him tame heavenly lighting, traverse the most dangerous places in all of the Ten heavens and Nine hells unbridled and unrestrained, defiant to the last moment. How could we replace someone like that?"

"He was our friend, my 'best friend' even, or so I thought. He alone was responsible for giving birth to the first Age of Heroes the core worlds had ever witnessed. He kept the others at bay while giving all the credit to 'Sovereign of Swords'. And slowly, over time, his name became synonymous with Sovereign of Swords until people couldn't distinguish between the two."

"All his accomplishments were recounted as that of the Sovereign. The existence of the Emperor became the talk of legends before soundlessly passing into myth."

"In less than 3,000 years he reached the height of notoriety before successfully expunging his own existence, until even the ones that called him brother failed to distinguish fact from fiction. He distanced himself from us as time went on, interacting only with the Sovereign until even he stopped hearing from the Emperor."

"History buried him and the flow of time wiped away all traces of his existence. There were times when I doubted even my own memories. Was he ever real or just a figment of our imagination that was cooked up to give us hope? Someone that never faltered, never betrayed anyone, and exceeded everything that was expected of him."

The memories kept changing to provide some much-needed visual stimulus to the story. From scenes of various battlefields to ones of camaraderie, the grand priestess felt like she was experiencing them herself since everything was told from Jin Wang's point of view.

"But time is a cruel mistress. I lived a long life, buried too many friends and outlived everyone I loved. I simply could not continue fighting any longer. I had gotten old and weak, both body and mind. The people I started out with were almost all gone, only the Sovereign was left and he was far too busy managing this empire we had created."

"So I took my leave and lived the last of my days in a secluded mortal world where no one would ever find me. Sometimes I even pitied myself, a lonely old man living in the middle of nowhere, on nostalgia and no small amount of regret."

"But near the end, on one rainy winter's night, someone came knocking on my doorstep asking for refuge from the cold."

"I opened the door and lo and behold, it was him again. The Emperor in the flash! A little older, a little thinner, much more somber, and somehow even more tired than I was. I think that was the first time we really talked then and got to know each other. And it was also then, after so many millenniums of fighting together, that he finally told me his actual name."

Jin Wang paused, waiting for the scene on the water's surface to change. It showed a small room with a burning fireplace with two chairs in front of it.

The grand priestess gazed at the scene but no matter how hard she tried to look, the 'Emperors' face was always shrouded in a cloud of black smoke, hiding all his features.

"Do you remember it? His name?"

This old woman looked like a small child as she impatiently waited for Jin Wang's response, which was not up to her expectations.

"No. Just like his face, I can't remember much about his appearance. I think it was some type of powerful magic to keep his identity secret."

The grand priestess appeared to be unsatisfied by the answer but he didn't give her enough time to complain.

"I asked him why he left the way he did, why he gave up all the fame and power. He said, "We all have a role to play, and this is mine. I want to see if I can change fate." But it would not be for many ages that I would come to understand what he meant back then."

"Either way, before the sun rose that day, I had already died."

The scene changed again to an old man being buried under a dead tree.

"Did he kill you?"

Jin Wang nodded, "In a way. He offered me something I couldn't refuse-"

The scene transitioned to that of a newborn.

"-Another life. Or a great many other lives.. He helped me break free from the 'great cycle', giving me the ability to reincarnate with all my memories following every death."