Chapter 1: The Year the Sky Changed – 2061
The year was 2061, and the Earth had long passed the threshold of petty nationhood. Borders were erased by necessity, not idealism. It was not war, nor peace, but something beyond—entropy.
As climate shifts, artificial intelligence revolutions, and space colonization surged forward, old governments crumbled beneath their own weight.
From their ashes, a new global council was born. They called themselves The Harmonious Assembly of Terra, a unified planetary governance designed to carry mankind into the Inter-Tel Age—the age of interstellar communication, travel, and, hopefully, peace. Mars had been colonized, the Moon terraformed. Saturn's moons were next.
Yet, on the edge of Saturn's orbit, a discovery threatened everything.
A team of government-backed explorers, operating under codename Chronos Point, unearthed an object not found on any record, chart, or sensor. Buried in an asteroid with no origin traceable in any databank, the object radiated an unknown frequency of energy—not radioactive, not magnetic, not gravitational. Something else entirely.
The object floated, five small crystalline tree-like structures branching in interlocking unity, as if they had been designed by intention itself. Each of the five emitted faint hues—crimson, sapphire, emerald, silver, and gold. Fire. Water. Earth. Air. Lightning. Elements, in the old Earth sense.
The Harmonious Assembly declared immediate classification. But the whispers had already begun. A few fringe voices called it "The Legacy Core", and others, more extreme, said it was proof of a Prime Civilization, one that came before.
The Assembly turned to its finest: scientists, theorists, and mystics alike. One of them was Dr. Keiran Althaeus, a quiet soul with average looks and brilliant insight.
He never sought power, just understanding.
They experimented.
They modeled simulations, quantum harmonic tests, neural resonance trials. And on the final stage of experimentation—when they sought to channel the energy into artificial cores for sustainable interstellar gates—it happened.
The core pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Then, detonated.
The explosion did not merely annihilate the station. It rippled across systems, folding space, time, and essence.
Planets blinked out like dying stars. A chain reaction had begun. One by one, stars collapsed, galaxies unraveled.
Only one thing remained.
Dr. Keiran's body was destroyed—but something of him remained.
His soul, freed by the core's essence, was drawn into the Legacy Core itself. In that timeless moment, as the universe screamed, the soul merged with the object.
And then, silence.
Time passed. In a corner of a new reality, something stirred. A spark.
A fetus in a womb. Born not of this dimension, but carried into it.
Origin World – Year 3007
A realm unlike any other. Unlike the shattered galaxy Keiran had once known, this universe was vast, layered in trillions of lower worlds, millions of middle worlds, thousands of high worlds, and the fabled Thirty-Three Peak Realms.
Above them all, shrouded in myth, was the Transcendental Plane. Home of the 13 Transcendent Beings, entities beyond cultivation, time, or concept.
No one knew if they truly existed, or if the Origin World itself was their creation.
Here, Keiran would be born again.
He was named Riven Althaeus, a child born to one of the most powerful noble houses in the Skyfire Domain, part of a middle-tier world called Zeloria. His mother, Lady Caelira, was a strict cultivator with high expectations and little patience. His father, Lord Daren, was warm and wise, his love often hidden behind duty.
His two older brothers, Kael and Thorne, were protective yet competitive—both geniuses in their own right.
His grandfather, High Patriarch Vhalor, was a legendary cultivator, so busy with inter-world diplomacy that Riven barely saw him. But his grandmother, Lady Nyss, was the opposite: doting, sweet, and infamously overprotective.
They never knew he carried the soul of a man who had witnessed a galaxy's end.
Nor did they know the five-element Legacy Core had fused with his spiritual root, forming something unseen even in the highest worlds—a Divine Elemental Nexus.
At birth, the Nexus appeared behind him like a phantom image: five trees of light, linked like veins, each humming with ancient energy.
Yet he was tested and declared... average. No divine bone.
No high-grade spirit root. Nothing remarkable.
The Assembly's agents—hidden even here—had quietly erased all records of Dr. Keiran's past life, compressing his old family, removing attachments.
His destiny was now reborn and cleansed.
But he remembered everything.
The explosion. The pain. The awe. The transcendents. The voice he heard in the void whispering:
"You have glimpsed the Forge of the Cosmos. You are its vessel now."
At age ten, Riven had yet to awaken his cultivation path. But the five trees in his dreams glowed ever brighter, and with them came visions—of worlds collapsing, of energies beyond comprehension, of two faces that would define his fate.
One was a calm, poised woman with eyes like starlight—Elysia Rae, a prodigy of the Sword Academy.
The other, a wild, chaotic girl who laughed during battle, danced with lightning, and sang to monsters—Kara Vynn, a mad genius with no allegiance to anyone but herself.
They had yet to meet.
But the legacy had begun.