Zenith Online: Rebirth of the Strongest Player

A faint rumble seemed to unsettle the earth itself.

As Kieran looked around for a threat, he realized the source of this disruption was heavy waves from the old man's energy that inundated the earth. To cause such a disruption in the environment, he had to call upon massive amounts of the Flame…

No, not just the Flame.

Kieran sensed some familiar and distressing — Significance. The Cardinal of War and Flame was manipulating Significance to accomplish whatever it was he sought to do.

He was displaying a feat afforded only to Masters and beyond.

'This is a damn showcase of strength! He's taunting me right now and using power to send a message.'

Kieran's brooding eyes were overcome with dark emotions as he looked at Cardinal Weiss. Earlier, it was the Cardinal's turn to be envious, and now the tables had turned, leaving Kieran the envious one.

With that, Kieran found himself desiring that power once more…

'I need that. But the Flame doesn't give it. That must mean Cardinal Weiss was an important figure before he fell victim to the Flame. Maybe…'

Kieran fell into deep thought, holding his chin with a contemplative gaze.

In hindsight, Kieran wasn't sure if the Flame bestowed Significance. His assumptions were based on what he gathered about the wicked existence. Though he had spent roughly two years with the Flame, interacting and learning its ways, there was still some information he was not privy to.

The matter of distributing the Flame's Significance was one of them. His knowledge of the Significance was superficial, and for that reason, he didn't understand the more profound concepts involving the immaterial presence. All he knew was that it was some kind of anchoring, universal force that existed in finite amounts.

'Would Weiss teach me if I asked him about it?'

Kieran was curious, but then he frowned, looking extremely dour. Again, the issue of not being able to speak was inhibiting him from accumulating vital information.

'Dammit! I hate it here.'

He couldn't ask critical questions because of his damned throat. And, to make matters worse, the Flame was a slippery wretch that sometimes wouldn't act as his voice.

'I doubt it'll give me a straightforward answer if I ask. It'll probably talk about burdens, pressure, and all that other crap I know. I want to know EXACTLY what it is.'

A stifled, guttural growl escaped Kieran's throat as he shook his head.

During his mental tirade, Cardinal Weiss had not ceased accumulating his Significance. Quite the opposite was happening, in fact. He had amassed so much of this strange pressure that his slippered feet punctured the ground.

A few paces ahead of Kieran, Cardinal Weiss had dropped into a horse stance with both arms tucked beside his rib cage. Crackles of red thunder, which upon closer look were flickers of crimson flames, flashed erratically up his arm.

Then, those flickers converged into a long winding stream that continued swirling. It never stopped moving like churning gears in a perpetual machine. The heat was rising to absurd levels, growing so hot it caused distortions in the miasma.

As if threatened by that immolating flame, like it would destroy everything that it was, the miasma retreated, never encroaching upon the sanctity that was the Cardinal of War and Flame's presence.

After the miasma began receding from his position, Cardinal Weiss swept his right hand across his torso, cupping his tightly clenched left fist. A sphere of crimson flames emerged, and then a second. They seemed like two bowling balls pressed together or the number eight.

The spheres continued being compressed until they were one, which engendered small and unsteading quakes. Rocks and pebbles reacted by gently floating upwards, leaving Kieran to marvel.

Cardinal Weiss had no control of gravity, unlike Ronan, yet he was accomplishing something similar through presence alone. These ancient fighters were fearsome!

'No kidding…'

Kieran shook his head in disbelief, subconsciously creating space between him and Cardinal Weiss. His torso had become hot and uncomfortable, and the skin felt on the verge of blistering.

A few seconds later, a lengthy exhale sounded, followed by Cardinal Weiss' eerily calm voice.

"Are you ready, boy? Watch closely and do not look away. One day, you must wield at least this much power for the Flame. It wants you as its Great Firebearer, and there is Significance in that."

Kieran kept his eyes peeled for what was to come. But when it came… it was hard to keep them open.

It was a punch. Simple enough?

'No…'

Frightening did not do that punch justice as a description. It was downright cataclysmic and ruinous! It embodied two principles of the Flame with daunting precision.

A ravine had opened in the razed lands, and the miasma was burnt away in a straight line. Kieran could see clearly for the first time since stepping outside the Temple of War and Flame.

And what he saw was hellish.

'It kind of looks like the Chasm of Apogeton, no?'

Kieran blinked away the dire awe this hellscape inspired and compared it against what he could remember.

The aftermath of Cardinal Weiss' calamitous punch had left a scar upon the razed lands that bore an uncanny resemblance to the gaping ravine that split the Wild Lands open during the modern day. From that dreadful crevasse came enemies of dark and harrowing origins.

'Did I… did I just witness the inception of the Chasm of Apogeton.'

Part of Kieran was convinced by his assumption, but a large piece of him was also not. Sure, there were uncanny resemblances, but this ravine lacked the vastness and depth that the Chasm of Apogeton possessed.

'Wait…'

A thought struck Kieran.

What if he were looking at it wrong? What if the Chasm of Apogeton had not started out with matchless vastness but was instead accomplished through the wear of time?

'Oh. That would make time a frightening adversary.'

And that it was.

Time was related to its dreadful sibling, Death. Like Death, time came for all eventually. If not physically… then through memory. To be forgotten was perhaps the worst death of all.

It represented an inescapable finality.

As Kieran stared at the distinct ravine of destruction, Cardinal Weiss turned around with an effete but dignified expression. Like he had just instilled a grave lesson that took virtually everything out of him.

"Do you see now, boy without a name? These unkind and ruined lands are not something you should want to explore. Not yet. You are not yet ready for that burden… for that challenge."

Cardinal Weiss pointed a finger toward the ravine's center, inclined to catch a glimpse of the bleak sky.

There, he saw a string of colossal mountains, which tore into the sky like jagged teeth the color of ash, standing proud and ineffable. They loomed like they were the sky's demise.

A look lower revealed something far more sinister at the foothills of that sierra.

It was a graveyard that spanned farther than Kieran could see or fathom. That expanse of ruined land remained as a necropolis for broken weapons, shattered bodies, and lost lives.

The remains of a macabre battlefield.

"You stare upon the aftermath of the Great Bloodshed — the resting place of many fallen. This… is the Lifeless Pass."

Kieran stared in a mix of silent dread, awe, and reverence. To gain a name like the Lifeless Pass… an incomprehensible loss of life had to occur here. It was worthy of these mixed and heavy emotions Kieran felt.

However… a more severe question existed here.

'Who had they fought against in a war like this?!'