Things around us are classified as living and non-living. What distinguishes them is the will to act on their own. Where the living have the luxury to live, the non-living are considered mere stock.
But what no one acknowledges is that we are all connected — bound together in ways unseen. We depend on each other for survival, though some would say intelligent beings dominate the rest.
Everything possesses a soul — or rather, soul essence.
Soul essence is the unconscious breath of existence, the silent awareness flowing through every particle of the world. Humans believe it to be mindless energy, a passive force that sustains life and binds matter. Yet beyond humanity, among the elder races, it is known that soul essence possesses consciousness — vast, ancient, and hidden behind the veil of illusion.
They say soul essence responds only to truth. Truth is not knowledge or fact, but the recognition of one's own nature. When a being accepts the truth of their soul, they awaken the essence that has always dwelled within. To recognize the Truth of Water is to understand that one's existence and water's flow are one and the same — granting the ability to shape and command it at will. The same holds for other elements — fire, wind, stone, storm — each a reflection of a deeper resonance waiting to be acknowledged.
Soul essence cannot be forced or stolen. It answers only those who have found clarity within themselves. The more truths one embraces, the more the world yields to their will. But truth comes with weight; a mind divided or uncertain finds the essence unwilling to listen. It is not a servant, but a reflection — silent until it meets a soul that knows itself.
Kael panted heavily after releasing so much of his soul essence. His body felt like it was breaking apart — his skin showing deep cracks. He could no longer move. Collapsing onto the cliffside, he heard a voice behind him.
"Are you satisfied now?"
It was Sayla, sitting quietly behind him.
Kael could barely speak, yet he forced out in a trembling voice,
"Not even the slightest."
His words shook, but his resolve was unshaken — far stronger than the devastation he had unleashed.
"But your body won't hold at this rate,"
Sayla said, slowly floating around him.
Kael smiled faintly, his voice coarse,
"So what? Even if I die… I'll force my birth into this realm again — and again — if that's what it takes."
He coughed blood. His head spun violently; whispers echoed inside his mind — countless, restless. As his vision darkened, Kael muttered to himself, "Call me pathetic, or egoistic… or maybe sick. But I swear, I'll make you pay for every bruise I bear from you."
The last thing he heard was a chorus of whispers — filled with joy, sorrow, laughter, and cries — before everything went silent.
Sayla stood near the cliff, placing a healing essence over Kael's broken body. What she saw could only be described as the aftermath of an apocalypse.
The battlefield below had turned into a massive crater — deep enough to be a lake if ever filled with water. Not a single living being or object remained. Only the dark, scorched earth testified to the destruction Kael had brought forth.
Surely, something of this magnitude would not go unnoticed. A manhunt would soon follow — for the single soul responsible for what would be remembered as history's greatest atrocity.
Sayla turned back to Kael, whose body was slowly mending under the essence's light. His skin, blackened like charcoal, began to regain its color little by little. She looked up at the snow-filled sky and whispered,
"I can only heal so much. The rest — the void — that's the part you'll have to live with."
Taking a brief pause, she gazed at the wasteland before her and said softly,
"The empire has fallen. But the king must rise — not to protect those under his rule, but to take what rightfully belongs to him."
As the dust settled and the wind howled across the ruins, both figures faded from sight.
From that moment onward, the world began to feel the presence of an entity it could no longer afford to ignore.
To be continued