Three brother gods reigned over a domain of monsters and beasts. Blood, Darkness and Light were the brothers' three, their power forming a holy trinity unrivaled by any other. Their dominion was directly adjacent to the human realm, no contact had ever been made between the two dominions, until.
Liet a spritely godlike being ran in youthful glee through the estate, Kharys bleeding Red and Orphee of the Darkness were his extraordinary brothers.
It wasn’t easy to stand out standing beside them, yet Liet still wanted his own glory, Kharys was a fighter, no challenge was too big and no creature too strong, not even those that were a thousand times larger than him would stand a chance against him.
Orphee was genius in its purest form, he was a master tactician and no new enemy caught him by surprise, he played mind games with the wisest, oldest and most brilliant of them all. Even being a young god did not stop Orphee from taking on these challenges head on.
And lastly Liet himself did not consider himself anything special, his intelligence was just so, and his strength just enough to survive. But his defining feature was not even particularly one of his own perfection. He was the strongest source, his power was limitless and intense, it was light energy of the most natural form and to that effect he was the energy with which their realm moved. Liet the lightbearer.
He was empty, and entirely too bored of it, there was nothing exciting about being worshipped, nothing entertaining about having no equal. So everyday aside from the rough terrains of their land, Liet explored and tried to find anything exciting.
While he left his brothers to lead, it’s not like they noticed or minded much.
Liet ran through the barracks where Kharys was mutilating a beast for sport as onlookers admired his handy work. He basked in their adulation. Liet with his white flowing hair ran through the grounds chasing a ball of energy that was going haywire from being too concentrated.
Their subjects, gory mangled creatures, looked from Kharys to Liet’s power careening past and bowed. Kharys turned his tall and muscular body to where they faced and saw his little brother Liet. He scoffed at what Liet was up to.
Liet bowed to his eldest brother and Kharys who was a boarish like beast himself with three large horns adorning his forehead like a crown bowed in return.
Liet ran off, in the gardens was Orphee surrounded by scrolls and he was casually reading them, Orphee was lithe and as long as a vine, with wry fingers and a smooth body. He had long pitch black hair and skin a charcoal sickly greyish black.
Orphee was quiet and only spoke when necessary, he saw Liet reaching for his orb stuck in some branches of a shrub. He kept to it but there was no use.
Orphee orchestrated the shadows of the bush to push the orb out of the bush, as soon as it was free it went springing out of the estate walls.
Orphee chuckled at the despair on Liet’s face but said nothing returning to his scrolls.
Liet got back on the chase, he ran through the villages and the creatures dared not look at him. He sprinted for so long he didn’t know how far out he had gotten but the place was devoid of life.
The place was boggy, green and vile. He was not sure what part of the city this was since he barely ventured this far out of the estate without escort. He caught a glimpse of the orb looping towards an old tree in the middle of the swamp.
His powers have never acted out this way, they seemed almost drawn out to this place. He rushed for it hoping it did not hit the tree because he did not know how much damage such a concentration of his power would do.
As the ball hit the tree a flash of light sprung from the tree and Liet was falling into it. He never felt the tree but instead found himself falling into soft grass.
Once a very long time ago in early Jatan of the human realm, a young maiden took a stroll through the woods and came across a beautiful stream of water.
The maiden was from the nearby village but lived on the outskirts of it. She was called a dark child because from a young age she would exclaim happily into nothingness and converse with entities that were not visible to others.
As she grew, orphaned at a young age, she was outcasted by the rest of the villagers for being evil. So she spent most of her days alone, exploring the forest and surrounding mountains.
She collected wild fruit and herbs that were medicine that the villagers were too afraid to acquire on their own or didn’t know about them to begin with.
She became useful to them in that way, even though they didn’t want her in their village they still entertained her being close enough that they could buy herbs or exchange the medicines for clothes and food.
That was how she lived. It was extremely lonely but she tried not to be too sad, she still had the spirits of the forest that taught her of the herbs in the first place.
They noticed however how lonely she was and opened the portal that the young god fell through trying to find her a compatible union. The one who her soul called out for.
As she bathed in the stream, she did not notice the new presence in the vicinity.
Her skin was tanned from walking through the woods all day, her hair was long silky and black. She had many scars adorning her body and her frame was average but slightly built due to the rough work she did.
She washed herself quietly until she heard shuffling coming from somewhere in the bushes nearby, then a ball of light came speeding up to her.
It barreled towards her disappearing into her body with a force that knocked her roughly into the water leaving not much time to react.
Someone rushed to the edge of the stream and peered into the water, they extended their body searching with their eyes darting back and forth.
The maiden, Yan, looked up from under the clear blue water. This person had a strong presence, a thick neck and strong jaw from what she could see, but most of all he made her heart ache deep within her.
She didn’t notice she was running out of air and when her lungs couldn’t hold out, bubbles escaped from her nose and she came out of the water spluttering. The person didn’t even flinch.
She came out right in front of him and his face was merely inches from hers. He turned his head downwards slightly to look directly at her.
They remained in a stunned silence of each other but each for different and complicated reasons.
The ache in Yan’s heart continued to grow the closer she got to Liet, she slowly drew closer and closer to him and he didn’t move an inch.
Yan had never experienced being this close to anyone, was it supposed to feel this painful being even mere inches apart.
She placed her lips to his and Liet’s eyes widened wondering why he didn’t want to move away from this creature’s soft ministrations. Aside from that, the moment she placed her lips to his she began to glow with his light.
Yan quickly realized what she was doing and pushed herself away from him embarrassed by her actions, the glow of light disappearing.
She rushed back to get dressed and looked back at the person on the other side of the stream still seated where she left him. He wore strange garments. Loose fitting pants and a coat with rich looking fabric black and golden in color, contrasting his white hair tied in a ponytail with two long strands parted in the middle on his forehead.
He had not said anything and now she worried if he was hurt, he didn’t look injured, maybe poisoned or hungry. Yan hated being hungry so she cautiously beckoned for him to follow her.
Liet was confused but stood and followed her regardless, more curious than he had ever been in his life.
They ended up outside a very shabby cabin and she motioned for him to sit on the wooden porch. He did, she brought him some food; fruits, meat and sweet bread she’d baked herself.
Liet looked at it curiously and Yan looked at him and then back at the food, maybe he didn’t trust the food was safe to eat so she picked at each and ate first showing him they were alright.
He raised his brow at her funny behaviour, he’d never seen a creature such as this, it was the softest one he’d ever met, it gave off absolutely no sense of danger. He took the strange food and began to eat it. First he bit into the fruit but he spit that out immediately, then the bread but spat that out too, the food was vile, his eyes aghast at the creature. Was it trying to kill him?!
Then he took a bite of the meat and that appealed to his taste immensely, it tasted similar to what he usually ate. His sharp teeth ripping into the cooked flesh.
And that is how a quiet companionship between the two began.
He visited her all the time and she showed him her world. He started to spend more time in Jatan so much so that he became well known.
Most people thought he was human, so his feats of average strength and intelligence in his own world, here, seemed so great and caught the ears of the emperor. He was called for, having learned their language fairly quickly with Yan’s help.
The nation was one at war and the emperor asked Liet to be a commander much to Yan’s dismay.
“What if something unfortunate befalls you, Liet?” She asked him as he was swinging his sword outside her cabin where she sat on the porch.
Liet had learned to pick up worry in her voice and had found he disliked when she worried about anything.
“What could possibly happen to me, I am stronger than any human ever born.” Liet stated as though she should know this already.
“You underestimate humans, we never think ourselves too strong to be defeated so we grow. Do you truly think you have reached your full potential?”
“What use has a god for evolution? What could I possibly learn from those weaker than me.” Liet replied, offended by her questioning his strength which he questioned all the time.
Yan started quietly, “Fear, courage, love?”
“Why would I need to be afraid? I have no use for that, I always win. Why must I be courageous? And love? What does love even look like? Why is any of this important Yan?”
“Even if I told you you wouldn’t understand. Go, go and fight your wars. But, you may not always find me the same way each time you return, Liet.”
Liet couldn’t understand why she was speaking this way but didn’t think too much about it. So he went on many campaigns and was victorious in every single one for many years.
Until he started to only face defeats, this devastated Liet because he could not understand what was causing this. The world had changed from fighting with swords with more advanced weapons faster and more dangerous. The terrains became difficult to master because Liet never tried to learn them, in short he didn’t evolve and this led to the last straw where he lost his arm in battle.
It had been years since he had returned to the cabin where Yan was, he missed her soft way of speaking and the way she patiently taught him things. He knew he missed these things when at war no one would approach him because he was too strong. They either envied or hated him, Liet didn’t care but it contrasted sharply with how sweetly Yan treated him and on days alone he yearned to return to her but he didn’t know how. If she still wanted him to.
When he returned though, the cabin was desolate, and Liet panicked thinking the absolute worst.
Had the war gotten this far? Was Yan alright? Was she alive?
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