Year 4097, a hundred years after humanity first discovered the existence of what they named “Earth’s Core”, a hundred years of extreme searching without a method to follow by, finding and learning the small number of Earth’s Cores that were found within their borders, the hundred years with the highest records of theft and a.s.sa.s.sinations since the move to New Earth, ninety-eight years after the first human to possess the power of an Earth’s Core was murdered, the full report of the Earth’s Core’s research were published to the general public.
The first thing to amaze all avid readers was the report’s opening phrase, which was a quote of its lead researcher: “The Earth’s Core is mysterious”. Many were stuck on these first words. A hundred years of research and the end results starts with the word “Mysterious”, “How could that be?” many asked puzzled. The only ones who were not surprised and didn’t pay much attention to the opening phrase were those who knew how difficult it was, and still is, to find the Earth’s Cores.
Continuing was a comparison of the Earth’s Core to the common Sun Stone. After digging an Earth’s Core and removing its earthly cover a various earth tones small sphere, eight to fourteen centimeter in diameter, will be all that’s left. The surface of the sphere will be tougher than a diamond and smoother than a pearl. Much like the six centimeter in diameter Sun Stones and larger, there are no known methods of harming the Earth’s Core with external forces, making it the hardest substance of any size known to man. Microscopic examination on the light brown mist inside the Earth’s Core represented a breakthrough that allowed a higher understanding for why Nature supply the Earth’s Core and Sun Stone, crystals of the same family as it appeared, such a hard surface. They were meant to contain extreme forces!
First was the Sun Stone, its brightness made it easy to find and so it was thought to be more common. In it a sun like energy is contained, also able to project healthy rays of radiation that in the last thousands years helped human’s cells evolve to a stage where most diseases do not affect them.
Second was the Earth’s Core. Growing inside the earth it was clearly harder to find than the Sun Stone. Furthermore, of fear from Nature’s respond, humanity had to hold back from turning New Earth upside down when searching for Earth’s Cores. Eventually only a handful of Earth’s Cores were mined within humanity’s borders. Speaking about the mist inside the Earth’s Core, the one word all the researched agreed upon unanimously was “Peculiar”. Access to the mist is possible only when one become attached to the Earth’s core in his or her possession. The Earth’s Core would enter the owner’s body and settle itself in the infinite s.p.a.ce of the lower dantian, a few centimeters below the navel. There, if done properly by meditating, the holder of the Earth’s Core will contact the mist inside the Earth’s Core and use it to break the now to be describe as “Sh.e.l.l”. The more cracks appears on the sh.e.l.l the more mist can leave it. The mist will then go through the Earth’s Core holder’s body and strengthen its internals, then go past the bones, skin and hair and make them stronger and flexible as well, and end up entering the body again. The cycle will continue for twelve times until the mist will settle in the dantian and repeat the process, the same number of times, for each new crack the will appear on the Earth’s Core, but with greater amount of mist. There are also speculations that the Earth’s Core will also increase its holder’s life span.
“CAUTION!” The word was emphasized and a warning followed, explaining that if one avoids meditating early after the Earth’s Core enters the body and instead, at some point in time, the dantian will suffer shocks the sh.e.l.l will break on its own and the first cycle of mist leaving and entering the body will start, accompanied by unimaginable pain to every part of the body and a great loss of blood.
The one before last part of the Earth’s Core’s report was the most astonishing. When the number of cracks on the sh.e.l.l will reach a certain amount, the sh.e.l.l would then crumble and will merge with the mist, increasing its volume and purity two folds, also changing its color from the previews dark brown to bright white. After This breakthrough, the holder of the now complete energy form of the Earth’s Core, which now shall receive the t.i.tle “Core Breaker”, for further advancement, will have to continue practicing by cultivating the mist energy through meditation.
Finally the last part of the report stirred the heart of every human who read it for good or for bad.
“CAUTION!” For the moment, within our, humanity territory, the act of mining Earth’s Cores has been unanimously declared as illegal by the United Governments of New Earth. Therefore, a severe sentence will be given to anyone caught handling Earth’s Cores without the consent of the UGNE.
Reading that last part many understood at once. The UGNE didn’t forbid entering the beasts’ territory and mine there. And because the interaction with the beasts was limited to only two cases since the move to New Earth, one being when the two sides met and agreed upon their boundaries, second was the event that took place a hundred years ago near the Taltalon colony which less than fourteen people were present at and after some time its matter waned out of growing disbelief, no one knew how the beasts evolved over time apart from the heads of the UGNE.
Thus, just like the rush for gold millenniums ago, began the rush for Earth’s Cores. As if forgetting or just ignoring the initial agreement between two species, herds of humans invaded the beasts’ territory using old age technology as firearms for protection, simply because since moving and adapting to New Earth the number of advancement in any field reduced to a handful in every hundreds of years – experts claimed it was because of the fear to anger Nature since the a.s.sumption that humans brought upon Nature’s decision to change its rules thousands of years ago couldn’t be completely denied.
Strong men and strong women entered beasts’ caves like a wave that topple anything on its way. Within two weeks hundreds of beasts were driven from their nests and burrows in the caves that marked the outer parts of the beasts’ territory as trees were cut down and heavy power tools that were charged by Sun Stones’ radiation shattered the earth. The results, which made humanity thrilled, were tens of Earth’s Cores in just a few months. On the other hand, the senseless destruction led to thousands of beasts to lose their homes and the deaths of at least a hundred who tried to protect their own.
After the UGNE has officially grabbed control over the quest for the Earth’s Cores it announced it as just a research expedition, to cast the worries of those that didn’t support entering the beasts’ territory. A year has pa.s.sed, the UGNE possessed now, roughly, five hundred Earth’s Cores and under it served thirty to forty Earth’s Cores holders. Over this past year, although the number of casualties increased on both sides, humanity had the upper hand since from the beginning their numbers overpowered the beasts’ ten to one, and by now almost half of the outer caves of the beast’s territory were annexed. Humanity seemed to be on the rise, no longer after just Earth’s Cores but also every natural resource they could get their hands on, even a market for the different kinds of beasts that were killed was opened, encouraging people to continue the ma.s.sacre.
In the middle of the second year, a sudden death of over ten thousand men and women in a single night brought the expedition to a halt. The UGNE sent a unit of seven of its Earth’s Core holders, one of which was a Core Breaker, to the place where all its workers died. There, according to the report of the only two that got back, they encountered three beasts; one was an over three meters tall horse with red mane and black scales, second was white feathers blue eyes eagle with wingspan of over ten meters and the third was a one meter tall, more than half a meter wide, green ape with a crown of yellow feathers growing from its third eye.
The three beasts launched a surprise attack, killing instantly two of the seven members of the unit. A third one was saved by the Core Breaker, who then started fighting with the green ape which seemed to be his equal. The remaining four members paired and went to fight the other two beasts. All side fought equally for a while, but then changed for the worse. The five members of the unit were caught in a formation that the three beasts have set. Forcing the Core Breaker to take the full blow of the formation slowed him down enough for the black scales horse and the green ape to perform a joint attack and kill two more members of the unit. Realizing his chances for survival are slim, the Core Breaker, which was the unit’s leader, commanded the remaining two to escape and inform the UGNE of what has happened.
When the invasion began the UGNE stood back and waited to see how the beasts would react. When nothing happened they decided to act, partly because they wanted to heighten the progress of the Earth’s Cores’ search by organizing and leading the different parties properly. Hearing the full report, the heads of the UGNE were not moved greatly by the appearance of the three beasts, only that they encountered them too early to their estimation. That is, in the outer parts of the beasts’ territory.
They have long suspected that the beasts were aware of the Earth’s Core’s existence long before humanity. As to why they never used their power to take over all of New Earth even though their territory was smaller than that of humanity’s, the UGNE believed that it was because of the beasts’ nature. No matter how they evolved they are not humans.
The thing that bothered the UGNE the most was the loss of the Core Breaker. A being such as him in their forces was rare. Backed to a corner the UGNE reevaluated every man and woman in its forces and depleted its stack of Earth’s Core by creating an army of Earth’s Cores holders. In addition to the new army, the UGNE offered an Earth’s Core to any new recruit that will be found fit to receive one and promised, to pump up those that did not or will not receive, that if they will achieve their goal, in the future every man woman and child will be able to possess an Earth’s Core for a nominal fee.
For twenty seven full years the UGNE halted its advancement in the beasts’ territory, recreating its army with the power of Earth’s Cores. For all this time there was no retaliation coming from the beasts and so the UGNE acted with caution as it continued to mine Earth’s Cores. As the new army was near perfection it numbered ten million soldiers, Hundred thousand of which were Earth’s Core holders and less than a thousand were Core Breakers.
War broke in the underground word, New Earth. As humanity led with greater numbers, the beasts led with superior bodies and much more years of experience utilizing the Earth’s Core’s power. Not to mention that any of the Core Breaker level beasts demonstrated intelligence equal to that of humans.
The war went on for centuries. Sometimes humanity pushed back, sometimes the beasts, but the battle ground never left the first two-thirds of the beasts’ outer territory, the humans could not advance any further and the beasts never tried to cross the border of two species.
800 years of war. The UGNE had to, for the first time, pull back its forces on its own and pa.s.sed the beasts’ side a request for a cease fire, hoping that it will accept it. After so many years of war its forces numbered three million soldiers, twenty thousand Earth’s Core holders and three hundred Core Breakers, while the beasts remained resilient as ever. A response didn’t arrive, but the beast ceased their attacks on the human. After seven days, two figures entered the UGNE’s army camp, camp three seventy-two, and sparked a furor, mainly because one of them was fifty meters long and they both came from above without anyone noticing. The two were lizard type beasts, the bigger one looked like a green scales dragon with purple mane, two silver horns and green eyes, the other one was humanoid, around two meters tall with crimson scales covering its body and two silver horns come out from the sides of its lizard head.
The humanoid lizard jump down from the wingless back of the dragon. Without opening its mouth it pa.s.sed a telepathic demand to all the presence soldiers. “Bring here your leaders”.
Feeling the two’s unfathomable auras, only one soldier, a late phase Earth’s Core holder, could keep his senses straight as the rest of the troops fell down to the ground, clenching uncontrollably in fear. Panting for breath, that middle age soldier opened his mouth. “Please wait”, he sounded like he was begging and set off running to the main camp.
Running in his top speed, it would not be an exaggeration to say that not just his life but also all of humanity’s depends on it – which was in this case probably more than just a saying. Don, the middle age soldier, reached to the main camp, camp zero zero one, which was located at the border of two species in the western caves, after twelve hours of running. Without stating the purpose of his arrival he pa.s.sed the camp’s gourds, scanned the surroundings with his aura and hurried to where he felt were the gathering forces, the army’s Three Generals.
The Three Generals served in the UGNE since the creation of the Earth’s Core army. All three came from different backgrounds; one was the son of a great colony leader, second was the daughter of a UGNE’s official and third was the son of a widow who remarried with a farmer. The three got to know each other during their battles and became closer by changing points in their training. Eventually they toast for brotherhood and sisterhood, becoming not just for one another, but also the whole UGNE’s army’s pillars of support.
Having nothing to do but wait for orders after the last one for a cease fire has been given; the Three General spent their time in the company of one another. Two of the generals engaged in a game of chess while the third was busy writing a scroll when Don barged into their tent. Feeling the cold gaze of Third General, Don immediately bowed. “Lieutenant Colonel Don Hakate stands, forgive this one for his rudeness, Three Generals. A great deal has happened in my camp, camp three seventy-two, and so I rushed here indiscriminate”.
“Speak”. Second General played her move on the chess board and said.
“Yes, Second General. Half a day ago two mighty lizard type beasts, one dragon, one humanoid entered our northeastern camp and demanded a session with its leaders”.
“Oh…” Second General commented, impressed and returned to the game as Third General finished his move.
Don continued. “Since our camp’s first and second commanders were not present, I was the next highest ranked soldier. I’m ashamed to say that even I, a late phase Earth’s Core holder, could not measure the opponent’s strength and as a result lost my cool…”
“You seem to be doing pretty well in our presence”. Third General said.
“Stop teasing him”. Second General snapped. “Big brother is writing a new scroll. Let’s hurry up and listen to the boy’s story and be done with it without further interruptions to big brother”.
“Right, big sister. I should apologize to big brother later”. Third General said sincerely, yet still smiled. It was always funny to see his big sister disguises her maternal instinct towards young soldiers with excuses. He turned to Don, “So you felt the need to inform us three… How did the two beasts react?”
“I asked of them to wait. They didn’t respond but I sensed their approval. That is all”.
“Okay, there is no need for you to go back. Rest here and keep what you told us to yourself”. For the first time First General laid down his brush and joined the conversation.
“Yes, Three Generals”. Don bowed and left the tent.