“The creation of earth is by fire and by redemption.”
We have brought the end upon ourselves. The devastation around us is a product of human greed and there is no way out from this. The forces of chaos consume this land, with their flamethrowers and their weapons of mass destruction. We called out to them to create this unspeakable destruction within our land, within the place we call home. Now we watch them consume whatever’s left and what they cannot consume, they destroy.
First there was us then there was them.
The Black Legion is what we call them. The legion of metal, the legion of annihilation, the legion of fire incarnate. There was a war before in which they sparked out from. The war of the ages.
The legion was the damning soul of a forgotten nation. The nation that lived by greed and lust. The nation that carried itself with pride and hatred. It is our fault that they came into existence; they used to be slaves of our nation for years on end. We had not realized how smart they were, how manipulative they could be from such a small position. Then one day, they broke the chains that bound them. They all reunited and brought upon a rebellion that no one has ever foreseen. Then when they succeeded, they brought in so much wealth upon themselves. And with wealth came power and with power came corruption. And as the defeated force, we only succumbed towards their hateful intentions.
Then they created monsters to protect them, monsters of metal and fire. They created a black army equipped with weapons that only burn and aimed to destroy. Their pride was within their force, their greed was within their machines, and their lust was within their hearts. They continued to harvest without revitalizing the earth, they continued to destroy with no means to create, and yet we let them, because we became a part of them.
Us, the citizens of this mighty nation. Us, the weaklings. Us, the feeble. We gave them production to destroy our world, we gave them the money to fuel their greed, we gave them our bodies to satisfy their lust. But we saw their unspeakable horrors only years after. It is only then we realized that it us not only us they have defiled, but also our world. Our innocent and loving world. When we had then realized that we didn’t want them to destroy our world, we had let them push us for far too long. So we fought, we started a war that we couldn’t finish.
The war of the ages. The war that burned our world down.
Once they knew of our rebellion (because this time we were the meager ones and they were the strong), they manufactured their weapons and machines twice more. They created facilities that only created more of their weapons. They started to destroy what they couldn't use. They brought on the winter that lasted for centuries, a winter that was endless.
The war only harnessed the worse things in life. Anger, hate, betrayal, all of these were present; and yet we raged on. It is only in the end when we realized that we only fueled them even more. Only then we realized that they were fed by our anger, by our hate, and by our betrayal. We lost slowly and surely. We couldn’t win the rebellion. They made sure to take pride from our loss, to finally close the circle, to let everything end with us. But we fought on... even if it was inevitable.
Our capital was turned into ashes. They entered with an overwhelming force. A force with only one sole purpose: to decimate whatever stands in front of them. I watched as our final forces crumble against the fist of the great Black Legion. I watched as children and women were burned down in front of their families. I watched as they took everything that was ours. I watched as they took our earth.
It was the creation of their earth and it brought upon a new age.
It was the Age of Black. There were only grey ashes and black skies. We went from citizens to slaves. We felt what they had felt ages ago. We were inferior and we have always been weak.
The Black Legion created the Harvester. It was a symbol of their power and might, a metaphor for the upcoming destruction that they will soon make. It was a massive building that harvests the life essence of our world, from the crust, to the mantle, and then to the core. Once we saw that demonic machine, we realized how our sins brought destruction into our world. That it was too late.
We became slaves of the machine. There was only winter around us, a winter that did not drop a single snow flake, but dropped the black ashes of our world. We can no longer see the greed within our invaders eyes, we can no longer see their lust nor their pride, all we can see are lenses that aimed to destroy. Lenses from their masks that reflected our own faces.
“Will there ever be spring?” my child asked me, his face filled with grease and ashen snow. He had never encountered the beauty of spring. The vibrant color of the sun and everything around it. I was lucky to experience it in our world before, in a world without the Black Legion.
“As long as there is hope, there will be spring.” I said, as I washed away the grease from his face and the ashes from his body. There is hope and I could still see it in my people’s eyes. There is still a force fighting the legion. Even if they’re scattered, they will find a way to save us, to redeem us all.
...
The alchemist of green was the sole survivor from all the alchemists of our world. The Alchemists were scientists of the elements, aimed to research and to profound our knowledge. When the Legion took control, they were wiped out one by one. The Green Alchemist was the alchemist of purity, the alchemist of the earth. He told us that if we don’t get rid of them swiftly, that hasten destruction of our world. We didn’t heed his counsel. We only saw one way out of the problem and that was through fighting.
“If you don’t want us to fight, then what other alternative is there?” one of our leaders asked with fury in his eyes. The Alchemist stared at him in a humbled stance.
“Find the Ancients. Let them revitalize the earth and the earth will fight for itself,” he replied. The leaders of the round table only laughed.
“Are you mad? The Ancients? They are a myth! They don’t exist,” one of them said.
That brought anger in the Alchemist’s eyes. They do not know what they are saying. They choose not to believe the one force that could save us all.
