“There comes a time when you have all three, Dreams, Talents, Effort, yet Luck dooms you from the start.”

 

“Luck is an outside force imposed on us by Reality.”

 

“Sometimes it is a Tribulation to be passed for the Journey forward.”

 

“Sometimes it is the Punishments of the Past that caught up to us.”

 

“However, on rare occasions, Luck is just Pure Malice inflicted upon you, not of your choosing.”

 

“What form Luck takes depends on a lot of things, but it mainly depends on the Individual.”

 

“However, deny the existence of Luck, and you're in for a harsh treatment.”

#9 Quote - Book of Races and Species

*

 

Li’On Domain - Temple of the Oracles

A Golden blur rushed by buildings of grandeur.

 

If it were in the middle of the day, when the sun shined down its glory, the majority of the beings living in the city would be hard-pressed to imagine, let alone see or feel, the passing of this Golden blur.

 

However, as its night and much closer to midnight when the light of the Moon shone the brightest, only the occasional Li’On on night duty patrol could have witnessed the Golden blur.

 

Yet, even if they had, they would be even more hard-pressed to understand that their Prime Li’On had passed them.

This remarkable specimen of a Li’On was big, strong, agile, and powerful. In both Spiritual and Political might.

 

He was the PRIME that stood at the top of the Li’On Pantheon. 

 

He was the one that ultimately decided if something was a Yes or No, in regards to their species.

 

Now, the same individual that all Li’On looked up to had an expression of Dread on his face. 

 

But under that emotional face was one of puzzlement because all he knew and felt was an unmistakable urge that something very wrong was happening and that it was his duty to make it right.

He'd felt this very same urge before, but never this strong. 

 

At that time, he had imagined it being his Instinct telling him what and where he should go, but now, at this moment, he knew otherwise.

 

It wasn't his Instinct. It was something else that influenced him, and he had an idea of what it was now that he calculated the destination of the urge.

 

The Temple of the Oracles.

Passing by some Guards on the ground, he stopped for one moment to check them out. 

 

They were knocked out but relatively fine. 

 

Only after he entered the Temple and saw more of them in a similar situation did he ignore them and focus on the urge telling him he was very close to the epicenter of it all.

 

Within moments, his eyes made him recognize where he was going. Within moments he entered the very same chamber, his mind calculated to be the origin of the urge.

His body stopped right at the entrance. His eyes glanced around the chamber, and three things immediately came to his attention. 

 

The first was the Twin Suns, a pair of remarkable brothers. Both of them just stood there with no apparent injuries. The only thing special about them, at this moment, was the glazed eyes staring into the distance. 

 

Yet, despite seeing them like that, he did not instantly bother them. Maybe they were under some spell, but the Instinct inside him told him otherwise, so he ignored them.

The second thing catching his attention as he stared inside the Chamber was the White Flame Tornado that had fully engulfed the Giant Diviner Mirror, which got passed down since the very first Oracle came into existence.

 

The third thing that caught his attention was a beast encased in the same White Flame only this one was far more condensed. 

 

Fluid but solid. His mind reminded. 

 

Those characteristics he was very familiar with because all Armaments started that way.

“This Honey Badger gives not one FUCK. He takes what He Wants.” 

 

It said in a dichotomy of high and low pitched sound before jumping into the White Flame Tornado, without any repercussion.

What came next, in the same instant, was a wailing scream that reached not his physical ears. 

 

The wailing originated from a Spiritual level. 

 

At the same time it appeared, the urge inside him spiked in intensity. 

 

It urged him to do something.

 

It urged him to get rid of the beast with the White Flame Coating, and most of all, IT urged him to get rid of the White Flame Tornado.

Yet, the Prime of Li’On moved not one muscle. 

 

In the same instant, the urge spiked in intensity, and a different Instinct awoke inside him. 

 

It spoke of danger, yet the Instinct warned him not of the White Flame Tornado or the beast that entered inside it.

 

No, it warned him of the Golden Mirror, the treasured Ancient Artifact of the Temple of the Oracles. 

 

It warned him of the Artifact that was made to protect the Li’On.

 

It warned him of the Artifact that had led his people through numerous disastrous times.

 

It warned him of the Artifact that would have led his people towards safety in the future as well.

 

Yet, now his Instinct was telling him to stay his hand and do nothing.

The urge spiked once more, but Discipline forged over a long time hindered those urges from happening.

 

However, in truth, it was the Spiritual Discipline that held him back from interfering. 

 

At this particular event, the Spiritual Discipline represented the accumulation of this Li’On stuck at the peak of the 4th Stage of Ascension for a long time.

 

That Spiritual Discipline was sensing something he could not feel consciously, yet it had always been there. 

 

He just never noticed it. At least, he could not before the Golden Mirror wailed Spiritually, as it currently was.

Could it be that the Golden Divination Mirror is alive? 

 

His mind questioned, but he did not have the time to ponder as the White Flame tornado increased in intensity, as if a giant pile of wood got added into the mix.

 

In the same instant that it happened, the urge projected into him from the Giant Mirror lessened, only for his Spiritual Instinct to sharpen that much further, and when it did, he felt it for the first time. 

Before this moment, The Prime Li’On, felt as if he had lived his whole life in darkness. And now, after millennia of hard work, a Light manifested at the end of this darkness. 

 

A Light that pointed him a way forward. 

 

A Path locked to him so far. 

 

A Path every other Pantheon possessed but his. 

 

The Light showcased to him the Path to Divinity.

All his life, he had been told the Golden Flame was a Blessing to the Li’On.

 

A Blessing that brought forth both Destruction and Creation.

 

A Blessing that brought forth untold prosperity in both Crafting and Battle Prowess.

 

A Blessing that turned into a Curse when he reached the peak of the 4th Stage of Ascension. 

 

A Curse because no matter his Effort, Talent, or Dreams of achieving what no Li’On before him had achieved. 

 

It all meant nothing as he could not achieve it, and now he knew why. 

 

Why He Opt’Li Prime of Li’On, never succeeded.

Of course, he could not. The Path to Divinity from the start was gone.

 

Anger and Rage manifested instantly inside him as an Artifact had dared to hinder his Ascension, but then he swallowed those emotions. 

 

Now is not the time for emotional decisions. 

 

Opt, think for a second before you make the ultimate decision.

And that was what he did for a few moments. 

 

That was also when he realized that while the mirror kept him from further advancement, it had also safeguarded his People all this Time.

 

Eternal safety with no further advancement? Or further progress by throwing out my People to an uncertain Future?

A few more moments passed before the Opt’Li Prime of Li’On made a decision for all the Li’On in existence.

 

The Golden Divination Mirror brought us Safety and Time. 

 

Safety and Time to prosper, and become the Strongest Pantheon on the Central Continent. 

It is Time to cast off the Shackles of the Past. 

 

It is Time to embrace our given birthright as the Rulers of the Central Continent.

Nodding to himself, The Prime Li’On relaxed and ignored the Spiritual wailing as the White Flame Tornade did whatever it was doing while he focused on the Twins beside him.

 

It did not take him long to realize that the Twins were in a state of Enlightenment, so he ignored them and focused on the White Flame Tornado.

Time passed, but not too much when another change occurred. 

 

It came not from the Tornado that once again increased in intensity. 

 

It came from inside him as if something had snapped. While he was not sure what it was, he knew, without a doubt, it transpired because, in that same instant, a whole new world opened before him.

 

It stretched his senses, and he entered a state of Enlightenment.

Meanwhile, inside the White Flame Tornado, Mir, while possessing a poor innocent female Honey Badger, had his front paws stuck to the silver surface of the Golden Mirror.

 

He was straining himself and his Dream Realm by burning all the strings around the Golden Mirror. 

Beside him, the Old Diviner was on the ground, barely breathing, as his hands unconsciously clutched his head. 

 

As the Individual that is the closest tied to the Golden Mirror, the after-effects he felt could not even be compared to anybody else.

 

Every time one string snapped, it was like a bone snapped inside him. It was a Spiritual Pain, but that did not diminish its existence. In fact, it increased the Pain he felt. 

 

So when the Time came, and the majority of the strings snapped, it proved far too much for his old and frail body. And an uncomfortable Death reached the 7th Head Oracle of the Temple of the Oracles.

Mir, on the other hand, was ecstatic. Every string that snapped eased the load upon his Dream Realm and the Flames used for the burning and snapping.

 

When half of them were gone, he barely needed to do anything. However, his commitment to the job never vanished. 

 

When 70% of the strings snapped off, he prepared himself for the heist of the Millennia. 

 

80% snapped, and he pulled on the whole Dream Realm instead of the individual parts.

 

90% snapped, and from his feet, a shimmering effect appeared. 

 

The shimmer contained lots of colors, but the colors were unimportant. What was important was the fluidity that enveloped the altar on which the Giant Mirror stood. 

 

A moment later, the altar began to sink centimeter by centimeter as the shimmer reached the same size as the altar and the Golden Mirror.

100% 

 

All the strings snapped off. 

 

The ends tied to the Golden Mirror remained attached to the mirror. Where the other parts went was of no concern to Mir. No, his commitment was on pushing the damn mirror through the tight entrance to his Dream Realm.

 

At first, it was fine as the altar went through. But when the widest part of the mirror got stuck on the edges of the shimmering portal, no amount of urging on the Dream Realm to widen the entrance worked.

 

It was as if he had reached his current limit.

 

Tilting his head this and that way, Mir came to a simple conclusion. 

 

With precisely controlled Intent, his paws attached themselves to the last half of the mirror, and he climbed on top of its golden round frame. 

 

Once on it, he carefully balanced himself on two legs, for a moment, before jumping up into the air and banging down on the golden mirror frame with his weight. 

 

Or better said the weight of the female Honey Badger, in this case.

Squish. 

 

The mirror inched a tiny bit inside. Feeling it happen, Mir nodded in glee and jumped again.

 

Squish.

 

Once more, it inched a tiny bit.

 

Squish. 

 

“Get”

 

Squish.

 

“Inside”

 

Squish.

 

“You”

 

Squish.

 

“Piece”

 

Squish.

 

“Of”

SWISH.

 

Golden Mirror, Mir included, slipped through the shimmering portal.

 

The moment they vanished out here, in Reality, the shimmer vanished as well. 

 

The White Flame Tornado that had burned with Flames began to slow down as it slowly peppered down over the seconds its fuel supply vanished.

Opt’Li, the Prime Li’On, returned from the Enlightenment when the mirror vanished. 

 

He knew without a doubt that it was gone. However, whether it got destroyed or not was a question that had to wait for the White Flame Tornado to vanish. 

 

So when it peppered out. All Opt’Li saw was a wide circle of torn formation glyphs that symbolized a tornado once visited this chamber.

 

The mirror was gone. Not one debris of its destruction was left behind. 

 

If it got destroyed in the first place? His mind reminded him.

At least, those thoughts remained for at least a few moments before a tiny shimmer appeared right where the altar and the mirror used to be. It stayed there for a few moments before something flew out of the shimmer before it vanished once more.

Prime Li’On watched as an old Li’On plummeted from the air back to the ground, right where the altar and the mirror used to be.

 

With a few steps, he was beside him.

 

“Dead.” Became his first words to be spoken, but that mattered not, for the currents of today's event were not over.

The Golden Mirror had been the focal point of all Destiny/Fate/Karma generated by the Li’On species. 

 

Being the regulator of Destiny/Fate/Karma, it used the ebbs and flows of the Individuals connected to it on such a large scale that few could imagine the immense shadow it left behind. 

 

The bulk of the Potential Momentum, generated by the ebbs and flows of every individual Li’On, is used to protect the species.

 

Of the remaining Potential Momentum, a small part is utilized for Individuals that showed promise. It guided them towards a future in which they reached their maximum potential or at least the maximum they could exert without endangering the mirror's supply.

 

The last part was used on itself, as that was how it gained Sentience, although none knew of it. 

 

Not even the Head Oracles that used it regularly.

So, what would happen to all that Potential Momentum now that the Artifact was gone? 

 

There were two possibilities. 

 

First would be that all the momentum the Individuals possessed would either vanish into the background ambiance of the World or return to the Individuals in question. 

 

However, that would only happen if there was no intervention. Hence, in today's event, the second possibility occurred.

Above the sky of the Li’On Domain and the Temple of the Oracles, The World’s presence appeared. Its perception began to narrow down on itself when it felt the disruption in the natural rhythm of its working self.

 

With predetermined protocols left behind by previous Divinities, The World recognized the disruption. 

 

IT recognized how it happened. However, in this case, IT could not see why it happened.

 

Not that it mattered to IT. 

 

The World only cared to scratch that Itch that just appeared. 

 

With its perception narrowed down, it recognized the optimal configuration and shifted all that free-flowing momentum into one direction. 

 

Once the Itch was scratched away, in a manner of speaking, The World’s perception began to dilute again before ultimately vanishing moments later.

However, on the ground, inside the Temple, a different story unfolded. 

 

Opt’Li, The Prime of Li’On, recognized a new sensation for the first time.

 

It was pervasive yet barely perceptive to his senses.

 

“Is this Divine Energy?” He wondered as he immersed himself in the sensations. 

 

However, the jubilation of wonder interacting with the new sensations could not hide the Hunger and naked Ambition of Conquest manifesting inside the Prime of Li’On.

 

“I should thank that beast. However, it did the Deed. What did it call itself again? Ho Ney Badg er?” 

 

Not understanding how the name went, as he was unfamiliar with either word, he cared not if he got it wrong or right. 

 

He just decided to follow his instinct.

 

“Ho’Ney Badg’Er”

 

*

 

Dream Realm - Ho’Ney

 

Mir, Transcendent, and Realm Maker stared at the impossibility in front of his eyes.

 

The Giant Golden Mirror he had put all his attention into ‘Acquiring’ defied his current understanding. 

 

His true physical Honey Badger head tilted left and right, up and down, as he examined the mirror that somehow took up half of the Dream Realm with just size alone. 

 

It defied almost all proportions he knew off.

 

“Either the mirror was smaller in Reality, or my Dream Realm is smaller than I thought?” He said to himself, now that he had figured out how to project his voice no matter the physical body he possessed.

The only reason the mirror had not already disrupted the natural flow of his Realm was that it was somehow out of phase with his Dream Realm. 

 

Nodding to himself, he remedied his experiences so far and tried his best to use the wonky Rules and Laws of Space his Dream Realm possessed and have the Mirror shrink.

 

Moments later, with some experimenting under his belt, the Mirror began to shrink inch by inch. Until it no longer consumed half the Realm. 

 

The mirror, actually, appeared to possess the same size as it once did in Reality, only without ever, actually, changing its own parameters.

 

The next thing Mir did was to infuse Auril inside to adjust its existence to the Realm. 

Time passed. 

 

The mirror drank and drank from Mir’s Auril without ever showing any hints of the storage capacity it possessed.

 

Seeing it happen, Mir just continued, as his capacity to generate Auril was limitless. He simply cared not for that amount it could store. 

 

No, his limits were on the amounts generated per Time spent doing it.

Time passed, and no end was in sight. 

 

Mir gave up on the endeavor temporarily and shoved its potential use for the future. After all, he had all of Eternity to find the mirrors Powers and Limits.

 

Still, he couldn't leave the mirror to stay where it was now because it stuck out like a sore thumb to his perception.

 

“Umm… where do I place you?” Mir asked himself before he remembered what the mirror had been probably doing its whole life. 

 

For a few moments, his perception stuck on every aspect of his Realm. Then he eliminated, piece by piece, beginning from the bottom of the Realm.

 

His mind stuck the longest on the Galaxy Core, the center of his Realm, but ultimately he shook his Honey Badger head and focused on the Nebulas at the top of the Realm.

With a thought, he and the mirror found themselves in the middle of the cloudy existence representing Potential Chaos. 

 

Once there, Mir reconsidered his approach before just dumping the mirror in the center.

 

“Lodging problems can wait. First, I have to deal with the female Honey Badger.”

With a thought, he returned beside her unconscious body.

 

“What should I do with you?” He asked himself before a thought came to him. “I should probably give you a name first.”

 

“Mmm, I suck at giving names to anything, so I should stick with simple and easy to remember.”

 

“Mmm, Ma… Me… Mi?” Shaking his head at the terrible start, Mir took into account the events that happened to the female Honey Badger, and the name just came to him. 

 

“Since you're the first to receive my full presence, this makes you magical, in a sense.” Mir reasoned. 

 

“I think Magi would be an apt name for you. Don't you think so?”