Many in Letwen believed there is only one Ancient Truth. The sightings of Ancient Truth dated back since the world was born. However, they were wrong, there were four of them before Diacrofia. Diacrofia, being the current Ancient Truth is the only one who achieved the unachievable, and thus he is the last Ancient Truth there will be.
The First
He was the first one to start writing histories and witnessing events happening in Letwen. As time passed, beings below slowly created their own country, tribe, language and signs. Watching them learning was one of the pleasures he had. The First have a book recording all the notable or significant beings. They could be a leader, a peasant, a slave or even a child.
He created a foundation of what Ancient Truth is now. There was a very thick book, named the Book of Flowing Time. It was fill with predictions, or one could say, Prophecies. With The First's mystical power, he was able to write down words which will sooner or later become true. It is a book about the future, a very distant future and he was still writing it as days passed. The Prophecies were not long, they were mainly only consist of two sentences or just one simple phrase.
As centuries passed by, eventually, he knew his time would end. Unlike what legend says, Ancient Truth is not immortal. He set out to find his successor. After months of searching, he found Theto.
Theto was an independent and stern soldier in his mid 20s protecting his country Lakos(an ancient country which is now long gone). The First came to him when he was practicing alone in the forest. Theto was shocked in disbelief but quickly lowered his head in respect. His behaviour surprised The First because he was expecting questions or fear from him.
＂Were you expecting me?＂
＂I have always seen a white and cold place in my dreams. And I could see my lord frequently, replacing my reflection in the water.＂
＂I am not your lord, Theto, but a fading existence. Would you let go of your life down here and come with me? ＂
The First put both of his hands on Theto's shoulder, beckoning him to look straight into his bright amethyst eyes. Theto considered for a brief moment, and with a determined look, nodded. ＂I will.＂
With his powerful wings, The First took Theto to his cottage very quickly. Once Theto is ready to learn, The First taught him everything he knew, including the existence of the different dimensions. While teaching, he also continued to write down details of the passing days and history of Letwen, and also recording down important events that had happened in other dimensions.
Four decades passed, but Theto did not age at all under the protection of the First. He helped to expand the cottage and building shelves, not forgetting to master his sword skill as well. The First taught him self-control, focus, concentration and various important skills needed to be an Ancient Truth. He also started writing an account of all that had happened in Letwen, focusing on different events.
There comes the day, when The First realized his energy depleting rapidly. The dimension draws his life force away, indicating his death, and also to extract all the knowledge from him. He resisted, knowing if the knowledge is spread amongst the worlds, it would create a swirl of confusion and greed from the beings in them. He knew well a large number of worlds contained dangerous beings who could easily overpowered the other worlds. It would mean chaos again.
He stood calmly in the large space of the library and called Theto to his side.
＂I know this will be a gruesome experience. But it is necessarily. Do not forget yourself.＂
The First said and put both his hands on Theto's shoulder, just like the first day they met.
＂What is it? What are you going to do?＂ Theto had fear in his voice, he had no idea what was going to happen for The First never told him about his approaching death.
＂I am going to give you all my knowledge, as well as my memories and experience. It is easy to be lost in the vortex of memories, but I had trained you and I am confident.＂The First smiled kindly. ＂I hope you will not forget me, as a person...I leave this all to you.＂
＂Where are you going? First!＂ Theto hold onto The First's arms, the first time he had ever touched him after all these years. ＂What is happening!＂
Right at that moment, The First poured all his life into Theto's until there was none. Before his last bit of himself was gone, he put the sleeping, or perhaps struggling Theto gently on the ground.
＂Take the history with you, and protect the knowledge.＂
That was his last words and he slowly crystallized.
The First was gone.
What Theto did next was not special or extraordinary, he continued to do what he was meant to do; writing, recording and categorizing. At the same time, he started to expand the cottage, and slowly it became a two story house with an ever amassing library.
Theto realized The First's mistake. He hid the truth of what will happen if the time had come, and it is important. Theto had decided to let his successor know that.
He also found out The First had secretly constructed different time dimension around the house's area, and he knew how to increase its efficiency. With that, the first two rules were created.
Rule 1. The time dimension cannot be deactivated or destroyed.
Rule 2. The room with crystallized elders are to be protected from any other beings with the life of the current resident of the house.
Theto wrote it down in the black covered book, knowing well he did not have to do it. He respected The First's conviction to write everything down and he will follow it.
He was the one who named himself Ancient Truth. It was not an attempt to create a title for himself out of pride, it was just his own way of expressing the being he was.
The beings below began counting the years. They were 5460 years late, and Theto noted it down. Thus the difference of years in Ancient Truth's calendar. One is TY, meaning True Year, another is CT, Created Year. From then on, the books written by Ancient Truth contains two different years.
Theto continued The First's name collection of significant people. He noted down possible successor, and kept a good eye on them.
There was a time around TY 10000 when a large scale poverty and drought rapidly spread out. The sky was bright for a year without rain and the sun shone fiercely. Water in the ponds and lakes eventually dried up and rivers became only a small trail of water, which beings below fight to gain control of.
Theto frowned at the dying mountains around him. The ice and snow slowly melted into water. Beings below found out the mountain range he lived in and a large group of them began to shift at the bottom of the mountain, cultivating the melting ice and survive on the water. As much as he was willing to provide them, he could not risk showing himself to them. So he did what he could, creating snowstorm with most of his power for the mountain to provide snow and also to prevent unknowing people to stumble upon his sanctuary.
However, the act caused him too much and he lost his strength. He became extremely feeble, and was unable to carry heavy objects like he used to. The snowstorm rages on and on, and soon he realized the snowstorm he caused was a severe blizzard and it caused whiteout. Calling upon such unnatural phenomena was the greatest mistake he had done, and also the greatest protection he had created.
Beings below ventured into the mountain range and eventually returned, not being able to advance further because of the strong wind and cold temperature, named it the Windy Range. And that was how the name came about. They survived with the water, and many thought there was a great existence up there who helped them. Minstrels and travelers began creating rumors that were manifested into legends and old tales.
After the crisis, people started to leave the small settling to somewhere with a better terrain and communications for trades. Hence, the settling was abandoned, and it was once named as the Savior's Cradle.
Theto found a warlord around the age of 28 as his successor. It was not an easy task to convince him for he had too many things to hold onto and a war to commit to. Theto gave him 5 years to prepare himself and he won the war in exact 5 years. He did not have a family then and that was one of the reasons Theto chose him. Zaknight was his name, and he preferred Zak.
Different from Theto as a soldier, Zak possessed incredible strength, vitality and knowledge about war strategy. He learned quickly from Theto and was very keen about the worlds and the time. Theto knew he did not have ambition to conquer the worlds because he fought for a land for his people to live in, not for blood or his own selfish desire. Additionally, a strong Ancient Truth was needed in the approaching future.
Zak had been a very active and willing student. He helped Theto with a lot of chores without any qualms which interests Theto. Zak was surprisingly a very good mannered and easy going character. He laughed very loud and really enjoyed the time they spend together. He had very beautiful writing as well.
A week before his death, Theto sat down beside the fireplace and called Zak in.
＂It is time I tell you about my impending death.＂
＂Your death? You die? But you never changed!＂ Zak's eyes widened with confusion and shock.
＂Yes I do, and I am going to give you all my knowledge and experience.＂
＂But how? Why?＂
＂We Ancient Truths are not immortal even though time had kept our body healthy and our face smooth. We do not die because of old age, we die because it's the cycle of the dimensions and they call to us once in a while. They will attempt to extract all knowledge and life from us and we cannot defend or resist it too long. The best way to protect our identity is to give everything to the successor.＂
＂But won't they try to assault the successor as well?＂
Theto thought for a moment, ＂That is a good question. The First never thought about that and neither do I. I suppose you will find it out yourself.＂Theto laughed.
＂Stop being so optimistic Theto, you're dying!＂
＂Ah, but I'm really not. I will be a part of your memories and experience. And trust me, you will find it hard to maintain your identity while you struggle to be yourself. But, I believe in you. ＂
And that was that. Theto refused to say anymore because it will not change anything and Zak gave up.
Theto lived the last week writing about the blizzard he created and how he was not able to call it off. He wrote about all the creatures that are now extinct and how they used to live. It was a great contribution to the library.
Zak assumed Theto's role and continued where he had left off. Theto checked on his writing and approved. On the last day, Theto did the same thing The First did to him.
＂Take the history with you, and protect the knowledge.＂
Zak lost conscious as predicted and Theto crystallized with a content smile.
Theto the Second was gone.
Zak left the house frequently and personally did not liked the idea of sitting in a room just to write. So he made various appearance in different places. Most possibly the sightings of Ancient Truth that had been passed down by mouth and now a legend was Zak's doing.
It was around this time that the dimensions started to create Trespassers. Beings from the distant and different worlds were bestowed a strange power to be able to enter other worlds if they meet certain requirements. This was foreseen by The First long time ago, but it did not happen until Zak was the Ancient Truth. The Trespassers were normally aggressive or dangerous beings. Since there are so many worlds, it is no surprise that any kind of character with any shape or look will appear.
While Zak left the house, one of the strongest Trespasser, Bioroid barged pass the Door. It was a sentient machine created from the world Fex. It was equipped with ammo, steel armor harder than diamond, missiles, flame thrower and various kinds of knifes. It was a machine shaped in the looks of a human. It went berserk and smashed the wall around the room. Zak immediately sensed it. When he got back, Bioroid nearly destroyed the library. Zak protected the library with all he could do. It was a tough battle because Zak needed to prevent bullets and fire from reaching the library and also to dodge and attack Bioroid at the same time. With great effort doing many taxing tasks at the same time, Bioroid was cornered back in the room where the Door were.
＂Y-yeaaar-ning-of-t-t-the-07122351-bea-aast-d--des-pe--raaatee-t-to-kiiil--Creator.....＂
It was sent to a Dead World by Zak right before it blew itself up, attempting to kill both Zak and it.
Zak looked at the Door with a pale face.
Rule 3. The current resident is forbidden to leave the mansion except for the time needed to search for a successor.
It was a sensible rule, Zak thought. Ever since Trespassers appeared, the Door must be guarded even stricter. If it was not for Zak's prowess in battle, Letwen would be destroyed by now. Hence, The Candidate, a log keeping names of Trespassers and future Trespassers and their details was created. There were not many, only four at that time. Namely, Bioroid, SanityDebris, ????? and ????? (to be unlocked). All of them have their unique abilities and strength, and not all of them are dangerous though Zak kept in mind to be wary of them. He spent time enhancing the structure around the house, and expanded it.
-To be continued.
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