Lord of the Karmic Fate

Standing at the edge of an eternal mountain from where the sea of clouds could be seen below and the eternal starry sky above, Etia gazed into the distance with a nonchalant expression, her beautiful colorful hair waving behind her back from the gentle breeze.

"Goddess Etia..." suddenly, appearing out of empty air, a figure wearing a black cloak and a mask that represented an eerily smiling clown knelt on the ground.

"Have you found him?" without turning around, Etia asked quietly, her voice for some reason covered in coldness.

"I have tried to find his whereabouts, but ever since that time it is almost as if he had been swallowed by the void."

"Not even you were able to find a trace of him after such a long time?" Etia shifted her head slightly to the side, barely revealing her deeply scowling face.

The masked individual lowered his head scarcely and sighed, "I fear it seems so..."

Upon hearing those words, Etia fell into silence and shifted her gaze back to the front, staring at the endless sea of clouds right in front of her.

Then, a long while later she sneered coldly and began to mumble;

"You are truly a pain in the ass, Leion."

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Surrounded by endless darkness while sharp and thin threads drilled themselves into his eyes from all directions, Raven floated in the emptiness with a motionless body and empty mind.

It seemed he had lost consciousness.

After enduring the seemingly endless misery for several hours, which was a great achievement considering the amount of pain he had experienced during that time, he became senseless.

...

'What... What is this place? Where am I?' standing in the shade of a small tree, Raven looked around with confusion.

He felt puzzled not because he was dreaming despite not having the ability to sleep for months in that darkness-swallowed void, but because this dream was not his!

Everyone knew if one dreamt then their dreams would contain at least one component that was familiar to them. However, the spot he was standing on and the environment around him... Everything around him was foreign yet for some reason it made him feel as if he had been here before!

'Then perhaps a memory?'

No, it was not a memory. If it would have been then he could have at least recollected a small detail, a little piece, but there was nothing like that. Except for this familiar feeling in his chest, he was pretty sure this was not a memory.

'Then what is this exactly?' Raven felt even more puzzled which grew even stronger the moment he heard a soft cry from behind him.

'Huh?'

Turning around as he was currently standing at the edge of a cliff, Raven opened his eyes wide and raised his head, almost forcing himself to fall into the abyss behind his back.

Before him, a massive tree stood proudly in the center of the mountain peak, its size nothing he had ever seen before.

Its top literally reached the stars above, its colorful leaves on its branches shining as if they were stars!

'...Beautiful.' was the only thing Raven could think before the soft cry resounded once again, attracting his attention toward the bottom of the tree's trunk.

There, two individuals, a glamorous young man and an unnaturally gorgeous young woman sat beside each other, the former holding a newborn while the latter leaned against his shoulder, both looking at the crying baby with affection in their eyes.

'Who are they?' the confusion in Raven's heart became stronger and stronger while another emotion, from somewhere deep within his heart, slowly began to break onto the surface.

It was... sorrow?

Raven didn't know for sure. The only thing he understood was that for some reason he knew those two despite never meeting with them ever in his life.

While Raven struggled to understand what was really happening at the moment, suddenly the young woman moved and caressed gently the baby's cheeks, earning a delighted giggle from the little tot.

However, deep within the young woman's eyes who seemingly had ears akin to a cat and hair as white as a snow, Raven could spot sadness and reluctance.

"I don't like this... What if he fails to succeed?"

Upon hearing the question, the young man's passionate smile dwindled a little before he sighed.

"To grow stronger and evolve into something even greater, there will be always the risk of failure."

"But not here... The risk we are putting him out now is insanely high! He can die and you know that too!" she said.

"We have no other choice." the young man sighed and said, "We, who have already touched our potential, formed our Cores, and had our True Bloodlines unlocked, becoming True Gods, are chained by the shackles of this world and the "absolute" law sanctioned by that bastard."

"If we wish to regain our freedom, then we have to risk everything and believe in him."

"And what if she finds it out?" the young woman glanced up at the young man, her eyes flickering with worry.

The young man looked into the silver eyes of the young woman beside him and after a while, he laughed softly and said;

"She will definitely find it out, there is no doubt about it."

"Then-"

"However, it will take her time to figure out completely what we are trying to do, and when she does, it will be already too late. She will be not only bound by her own rules in her own game but also by our oath."

"And what about that bas-"

"He won't do anything. In fact, he will be more than glad to enjoy the show, knowing there is nothing in existence that can possibly beat him."

"However, he is very wrong because there is one thing that stands above everything, something that even he cannot control... Fate." he quickly added with a grin.

"Are you really this confident that he will succeed in grasping something we couldn't for eons despite our powers standing the closest to it?" the young woman asked calmly, her eyes full of doubt.

"I am more than confident. After all, it is our blood that runs through his veins." the young man smiled before he added, "And for that reason..."

As he reached that point in time, suddenly a third figure appeared in front of him, immediately causing Raven's pupils to shrink to the size of a needle.

It was an incredibly beautiful woman with silver hair.

"You know what to do." the young man gave the baby into the hands of the silver-haired beauty, who after looking at the newborn nodded and began to walk away.

As for Raven, he raised his hand and wished to yell, however, just before he could have done so everything around him vanished and was swallowed by darkness.

And a second later, his eyes snapped wide open.