There was once a famous tale around in this world, the tale about the Mighty Eagle who dared to touch the sun.
There was once a mighty eagle who stand up proud, invincible under the sun.
His presence and aura is extremely strong that all the birds he has met, either shivers in utter fear or bows down their head to pay their respects to him.
An eagle, that remained undefeated for many, many years over the skies, acting as the mountain's inheritor as he alone is an apex predator.
However a fated meet occurred between the light sparrow, and the mighty eagle.
The sparrow introduced himself as 'Ego' and approached him with a warm tone.
"Oh great mighty eagle! You have been undefeated and always have the highest position above the skies and whenever the birds sense your presence they cower away in fear!"
The mighty eagle listened to Ego's ramblings, it was all bombarded with flatteries and compliments about his strength, power and invincibility.
Ego then brightened up and suggested to him with a gentle tone.
"Since you have conquered the mountains and skies altogether, why don't you conquer the higher level? The mountains and skies may be big, but it pales in comparison to your full potential! Its a cage that keeps you locked in from achieving greater power!"
The mighty eagle then listened intently to what the sparrow has to say next with a furrowed brows.
Ego then said with an excited tone "The heavens! How about you ascend further and conquer the heavens?"
The mighty eagle thought that this was an unexpected idea, and then looked up towards the skies with his eyes as sharp as a dagger that pierces through anyone's very soul.
He then noticed a 'being', a 'being' that shines brighter than him! And additionally was much more higher and bigger than the skies!!
It was the sun!
The sun that burns brighter than him, and it looked like it was on the same level as the heavens!
The mighty eagle was clearly offended by the look of the sun in his eyes, the sun was clearly looking down on him.
He then looked at Ego with a smile and then said.
"Well then, I shall take on this duel!"
He then spread out his colossal wings the looked like it can cover the whole land with darkness, and in a powerful blow, shot himself up towards the skies to challenge the sun.
He fly higher and higher...
But when he gets even nearer and nearer to the sun, he can feel an intensified heat spreading towards his body little by little.
"Hmph! This sun think I will falter? My body may be battered but it can not hurt my spirit!"
He said foolishly as he gets closer and closer to the sun, but before he knew it, his wings started to burn immensely.
"What?! Impossible!"
He doesn't care if any parts of his body is battered, but when the wings is damaged, it hurts his pride as an eagle who had once conquered the skies and has now come crashing down to the earth.
The once mighty eagle fell down with a loud screech and a fully burnt body.
He died due to the heavy impact, and the surrounding carnivorous animals surrounded this body and began feasting on it...
....
"Here it is!! The chieftain's first child has been born!!"
Everyone gathered around the infirmary to greet this newborn baby with happiness on their faces.
This was the first son of the Chieftain, Clayrus.
Upon seeing his first child ever, of course he would be overjoyed and nurture it with a plan to train him to become the next Chieftain of this remote village.
Chieftain has a great love and care for the village, he was a social butterfly to many others, he interacted with them and as the Chieftain of the village, he helped some of the people all around him and had a good reputation.
However, his son was born stoic despite being young, unlike his father, he had only few to no interaction with other people in this village and only gave them a cold glance in return whenever some tried to communicate with him, making him not really likable as his father.
Because to him, socializing doesn't matter to him, its a great disadvantage that might hinder his goal and ambition to become stronger and better than anyone in this village.
Due to the fact that his father, Chieftain hired many guards to train his son with a large sum of money wasted for him just to nurture his son well.
Luckily it paid off.
Clayrus was a very fast learner in terms of pure combat skills, and whoever dared to challenge him were instead trampled down into the ground beneath his foot while still maintaining his indifferent and stoic expression, he was the rising star of the village, a newborn genius!
Recognizing his strength, the Chieftain knew that his wasted money wasn't wasted for nothing at all! And can only imagine his son being the next little Chieftain for this small village.
However, Clayrus thinking wasn't indifferent to his father, to him, his goal was even wider, he thought of himself as the best in this village in terms of having complete combat power over everything, he has an internal overwhelming ego beneath his heart.
Which this resulted to his grand ambition to someday, when he grow up, he will leave this village and go out on a journey and challenge stronger fighters that roams beneath the lands and even has the fantasy to surpass all of them! Leaving a trail of bodies in his wake..
Especially when he realized that their place was just a mere island that floats above the sky, he was extremely dissatisfied with this revelation, like an eagle trapped within a very small cage and is forced to only eat few seeds, he feels like by staying in this island wastes his time by a miles, and the potential he had thought to himself is forcefully locked within this very small cage!
Year passed slowly and the four seasons continued to flow, when Clayrus is finally grown up and Chieftain already had two more kids.
Clayrus ordered his father to come outside with him to discuss about important matters with him, and finally told about his future plans to him.
"Father, tomorrow, I will leave this village and venture on my own!"
"Eh? Why? But didn't you find enjoyable staying in your home village even more, besides! You even promised me that you will become the next Chieftain that is pledged to protect this village!"
Clayrus chuckled silently, "Those are empty promises, father...I said those words when I was young as to make your money much more worth it, and in fact, a big lie so that you will focus more on your expenses to me to train me even more harder.
Because in actuality, I want to explore the lands beneath us, and find even more stronger opponents to prove that I am much more superior!"
Chieftain were a bit shocked by this, of course there is no guarantee that he will actually grant his promises, but to him, he wants them too! The chieftain wanted his village that he had nurtured for years to have an even stronger and better protector to fight of against criminals and thieves that attempts to steal the Ancient Skyline Ball from the altar!
Clayrus looked at his father's expression turning solemn and continued, "As to the reason I'm telling you this is that to let you know that, as a grown up, I already have my own dreams and ambition, this small village may have taught me valuable lesson about fighting, but those are just the pieces of it, I wanted to explore all of it! And become even stronger!"
He then pointed at the skies and to the sun
"And for that, father...I want to fly higher! To play with the skies and touch the sun!!"
The moment Chieftain heard this sentence come out of his son's mouth, his face turned ugly and then glared at his son.
This son he had raised, was too prideful and egoistical for his own good! He had remained undefeated in the arena of new generations for many years and now he is now up his own ass even attempting to look down on all of them, that's the reason he beat some of his opponents mercilessly and ignored all of the kids who tried to be friends with him back then! He is a full-blown narcissist!
The Chieftain then said with a voice of authority, "However, there are conditions! Tomorrow you will have to duel with me! If you win, you may do as you please and continue with your goals. However, if I win, you must become the next Chieftain of the village for the future! Those are our deal for each other as a father and son! I can't let you fly higher or else you'll get burned!"
Clayrus upon hearing this, immediately accepted the duel between his father, because even he is wondering how high is his skills already compared to his father?
Tomorrow morning, in the dawn of the day, two significant fighters stand on both sides of the arena.
They are Chieftain and Clayrus, their eyes locked at each other both determined to win this fight.
When the fight begins, its extremely intense, the two fought for a very long time! It was seemingly the longest fight ever in this village!
The villagers can see both of their superior fighting skills within each other. They were like rivals both having equal strength!
Like a lion and a tiger having a fight to the death.
As the fight dragged on, it seems they now know who stand victorious within the match.
It was still the Chieftain who won with superior skills!
However, Clayrus on the other hand, is now laying down on the ground, defeated and unconscious.
The Chieftain rushed towards him, holding the unconscious of his son while looking at him with concern, "Sigh...I told you didn't I? If you fly too high, you'll get burned..."
Clayrus was then sent to the infirmary as he slept for 2 days and 2 nights, for those last 2 days, his family is the one looking out for him, and then, just before he finally opened his eyes in the middle of the night, he then looked around and saw no one there, and he is already in his room..
"How long have I slept?"
He then looked out on a window and saw that it is already midnight, the thousand stars are shining brightly at night and greeted him at his wake.
He couldn't help but gritting his white teeth by the thought of who knocked him down, he knows that his father just wanted to teach him a lesson, but, the promises he just made with his father are empty promises, he lied again...
When the time is ripe, he removed the bandages all over his body and grabbed his heavy backpack that he had already prepared beforehand, even if he loses, he will still think of leaving the village and going out the lands.
He then sneaked out of the house where everyone is asleep and went outside to be met with cool and fresh air breeze, he can just smile at this thought of finally getting out of the floating island.
"The cage that I have been locked in, I finally have the key to escape such predicament!"
He then looked at the far distance and smiled coldly.
"Now, I shall soar up to the skies and reach the heavens!"
The journey he has begun in this way.
The guards that has been staying up all night to guard the big ladders has been knocked by Clayrus.
"Go to sleep..."
And then went down on the big ladders and set up on a new journey to the land.
And now currently, when he finally returned after many many years to steal the Ancient Skyline Ball, every time he looked at the floating sky island, he had thought of his time where he felt caged in that small island, and so attempted to destroy it successfully, he didn't want to look at it feeling nostalgic, instead, he wanted to just throw it in a trashcan and never see it again..
As he floats to the sky, he looked back at the crumbled down island and smiled coldly.
"Such lowly thing doesn't matter to me anymore, but too bad, I have to cut the Ancient Skyline Ball artifact just to erase that one certain person that is crucial to my past self, but who cares now? Its all in the past and I'm ready to throw it away..."
....
Back on the ground, the random dude while packing his stuff up and just witnessing the floating sky island crumble down at his feet, even the boy too felt awe when he witnessed it crumbling down to the earth, it seemed to meet the metaphor: 'The sky came crashing down to earth' or 'The two earth collided with each other' but in a literal sense.
But on the skies, he saw something, a man floating above the orange sunset and to him, it seemed like the man is floating towards the sun.
The thief's hood is now off, and his face is now to be seen in front of townspeople
"Wait isn't he the eldest son of the Chieftain?!"
"That's Clayrus?! I thought he was long dead for now! But to think he came back to us and let alone be the one who destroyed the Ancient Skyline Ball"
The random dude looked at the island that crumbled down and then back at the floating Clayrus above the skies,
"So it was you huh? Clayrus?! That aloof kid back then!"
He said as he gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, "I won't forgive you for destroying our homeland! Your pride has gone too far this time!!"
The boy looked at the floating Clayrus above the skies and just felt in awe by the scenery that's been happening in front of his eyes, but at the same time, he felt a bit familiar on this scene, the flying birds of the sky, wasn't that supposed to be how the boy wishes to be once?
He then grinned with admiration.
"Clayrus, huh?"