Ethera: Tale Of A Legend

As he threaded slowly and softly, his mind waa occuppied by the possible fate of his clan in the event of his demise or dethronement. His clan wasn"t strong enough to survive such an outcome. They had become much more stronger since he became the supreme ruler of the Tartarus realm, but not exactly the result he was looking for. This could all change with a new supreme leader. He could still, clearly, remember the pains of the past of his clan and was sure they would experience the same fate if he was to die.

He could feel the approach of another deity of a gigantic nature, far beyond his level of power. He never knew there would be the coming of a deity that would give him a sleepless night in the Tartarus realm. Even, in the whole of the Underworld, not many could threaten his life. Yet, lord Deggorath could sense the pulse of an absolute power from this deity with the traces of the deity"s claim to the Tartarus deific line.

If not for the law about ruling deities, he could have simply decided to walk away from the throne. Walking away meant his clan would have to go back to the bottom of the clans in the Tartarus realm. This was a position he didn"t want his clan to be in. Yet, he had the feeling he could die if he stayed and encountered a dangerous deity vying to be the new ruler of Tartarus, he could be loose his soul and brought the destruction of his clan.

In this case, he could feel how right he was. So, he had to try as much as possible to prepare his clan.

And, one of his clan members, was this young girl who was now walking beside him. He was there two days ago, at the conjecture where she had her awakening rite and saw the preceedings. Her soul had aligned with a dangerous path that could easily be the end of her. However, if she could successfully walk the path, there would be true immortality for her which would benefit her clan eventually.

Despite all the optimism he might be having about her, he knew this was an almost impossible endeavour.

However, he would try his best for her to be successful. Therefore, he had informed Ethera"s parents of his visit and that he would be here, specifically, to see her in training. No mentioning of this to Ethera beforehand. Hearing this, they knew their daughter was in for a serious training predicament, but not everyday a supreme ruler would come to pay a young deity a visit. Yes, they were relatives, but it was still a mighty honour to receive his visit.

He had been watching Ethera"s training this morning since he came purposely because of her. In martial arts, she was at the crude stage. She had no named technique yet since she had to find a technique that soothed her path of Twin-Realms. Nonetheless, her raw combat power and spirit, were of highest rate when compared to her young age.

From now on, there would be a lot of work for her to do, but the potential was there. Her major problem was in the area of soul advancement. To cultivate her soul, she would need the essence energy crystals. He had heard from his reliable sources that a deity of the Twin-Realms, would also have to use chaos energy essence crystals along with the writ energy essence crystals, at the same time.

As a supreme ruler himself, he could simply craft the chaos essence crystals from his own energy essence. Although, he could only make one in a day, there shouldn"t be too much problem in creating a number of the chaos essence crystals.

The problem was finding the writ[light] essence crystals, since they were only crafted by a supreme deity like himself. He could try to purchase them, but they were extremely expensive and rare to find. His own Furians had used the whole of the day before in searching for the writ essence crystals and could only show a couple of the crystals as a result. With a shake of his head, he sighed inwardly.

"If only he could find more. Then, maybe..."

While walking forward together, Ethera glanced in silence at lord Deggorath who appeared lost in deep thoughts. She had decided to maintain her silence while they continued moving slowly ever forward.

Yet...

Sometimes, she couldn"t help but wonder about her second uncle. Despite being her second uncle, this was an extremely powerful figure in the Underworld. Only few could actually threatened him in the Underworld. So powerful, yet, so troubled. Since they left the training ground, he hadn"t said anything to her but troubled expression was apparent on his face.

What could be troubling her second uncle this much? Was he annoyed with her training?

Ah, she rembered the look on his face back at the training ground. Could it be that he was disappointed in her performance? Well, who wouldn"t be. .

All these because of her.

In a dereft state of mind, Ethera"s tight grip on the wooden spear was beginning to have effect on it, which caught the attention of lord Deggorath. He looked at the expression on Ethera"s face and gave an inner smile which lightened his mood. She had a determined look which was necessary in the deity world. But, determination alone couldn"t make all the difference. Her path to true immortality had been sealed. There was nothing she could have done better with that, except to make the best use of what she got.

"You did nothing wrong, child. We are simply the subjects of the cosmic fate."

He stopped and stared at Ethera before letting out a soft breath. Despite her fixed path, she could really do something about her martial arts in order to survive, from now on.

"You are strong, yet, weak. Though, stronger than I thought. Nonetheless, your weakness is great. Hence, you need to continue working harder to overcome your weakness. Or, at the least, cover them. Only then, can you have a chance in this world."

With grave determination on her face, Ethera nodded her head in some sort of relief. She had a weight lifted off her shoulder knowing thst her second uncle wasn"t that angry with her. His words, the words of a realm supreme, were actually like a mighty source of motivation for her. They were the echoes of the words of her parents to her everyday.

"Yes, uncle. I will work harder. I promise."

"Hm."

Lord Deggorath nodded back in response before resuming his slow walk towards the manor. A small distance in, Ethera"s parents came into view. Though, they had been watching the whole scenarios, apprehensively, with their divine sight from the entrance of their manor, they acted surprised and delighted to see them. They had nothing to complain about since it was in their daughter"s interest, anyway. She would need all the training she could get. If not, she could easily take a journey of reincarnation.

Giving him a slight bow, Hargoven and Amarodia, formally announced the arrival of Lord Deggorath into their manor.

"Lord Deggorath."