The moon hung high in the sky. For most Astorians, it was time to sleep. It was simply how it was. The night was a time of rest.
Not for one such soul. He was on the breakthrough of something big. Something no one else had done before. If it had, it was already lost to time.
His name was Alastor Whitemane, and this man was a wizard. Crafty, powerful, tricky even. Most of all, he was a thinker. Always wanting to improve on his arcane arts.
However, this one was not of the arcane. It was something much more pure. Magic, even in its simplest form needed a catalyst to start. A staff, a mask, words and incantations, nature, natural energies. That sort of thing. More often than not, can fail.
Alastor, a great mind such as himself, didn't think too highly on magic even being a user of it. It could easily corrupt, destroy, devour, and change. Loosely based on rules on those that came before. Many of things came from trial and error, some lost their lives because of it.
Alastor wasn't well known like some other great warriors, great kings and queens, wizards and witches alike. Only a handful of people knew him at all. Most only remember him by the black cloak and hood. Some thought him Death, a Warlock, or something as equally terrible because of his clothes.
That was fine with him. He kept to himself in this great nation he was born in. He wasn't someone noble born, he was a commoner. He didn't seek out to make a name for himself. He didn't want to be remembered in the annals of history. He only mattered to himself.
Regardless, Alastor sought out other energies. One that was more pure and wholesome. Clean but malleable. Something that couldn't be corrupted nor destroyed. A energy above all others. Something that preserves instead of fades. An energy that everyone draws breath from.
Ethereal energy.
Most people had this misconception that anyone powerful or not could access it. The Astral Plane, a place of rich, unrivalled energy. The place of life. A realm of pure, clean life energy. A realm that was untouched by all walks of life, born or not. It wasn't open to outsiders. Only unborn souls have access to this place, to bathe in its energy. To drink deep in the vast and infinite.
The energy that gave birth to everything and it's lesser counterpart, ambient energy which could be shaped into anything.
Alastor was only interested in trying to tap into this untold, infinite reserve of wells that spawned before life had a chance to begin.
It's energy was not magic, could make magic but ultimate wasn't. It was something much more precious, unperverted by beings who came after.
So it was here Alastor sat for 40 days and 40 nights, atop this summit. The special thing was about this mystical place, it was closer to the afterlife than anything else in this world. Only sensitive souls could feel the abstract, waxing energies that existed between life and death. Aptly named Astral Summit, from it one can feel the natural energies of the world, the people, those of the living, those of the dead. How they mix together and blend together. Each one was important yet most beings will never know it's existence.
Even those who deal in magic knows basic understanding of these energies, it didn't matter how powerful they were. There were so many untapped potentials in these energies that Alastor took lifetime, after lifetime to figure it out. Even more time to really fill his knowledge with it. Countless eons passed for him, he was no longer human nor could be called one. Even though he has experienced death. He knew how to cheat it by rebirth. Not by the ashes of Phoenixes but by transferring his soul from one body to another by birth.
In this time, he was birthed by lowly humans named Zidane and Yennefer Whitemane who mainly dealt with horses. Retired from war and settled down to have a family. He had a sister, her name was Meia Whitemane. A young maiden of war, who unlike Alastor wanted to follow in the footsteps of their parents. Alastor often remarked that she was destined for great things while his path was different but they would be eventually coming together at a crossroads to the same destination.
It was here that Alastor sat, he didn't have a thought in his head to do this before. He didn't know what changed this time around. He knew that there was some form of higher energy out there but he didn't have a name for it. No proof of its existence until this time around at life.
He knew not where the name came from but he called it just that. Although that wasn't all, something was inherently strange about this rebirth. It did not feel the same. Running it over and over many times in his head, well, something didn't make sense. At least not to him it made sense. He barely could remember it. His soul drifted into a place unknown to him. He felt it, breathed it in, his soul remembered it. It was the most intense feeling he had ever felt. It was so warm, so comforting, not addicting. It felt alive. It felt calm but excitable at the same time.
He couldn't describe it in one word. He had many emotions for it. Breathtakingly radiant. Remarkably beautiful. Impossibly pure.
Even then he couldn't really place how it felt. It was overwhelming to think about, it was all his mind thought about. His very soul.
As soon as it was so, he sat here. To gather his thoughts. To connect with a plane out of this realm of existence.
He couldn't do it with his body. He had to do it in spirit. His body was too unclean to enter but his soul was not.
He was use his body as an anchor to come back, to not drift within a forbidden place for too long lest he stay one of the dead.
"This is it. If I do this, I will never be the same again. More than I already am. I will be forever changed and there will be no going back. I will be surpassing mortal limits and touch a place not even gods have entered, if there were any. It's not if I have the purity or the willpower to break through the barrier but..." he whispered to himself.
Upon that star filled summit, his body began to float, his soul beginning to separate from his body.
He closed his eyes, focusing to keep the link between his body and soul.
"Will I have the willpower to come back to life after getting there? Would I have the strength to want to come back? It's unpresidented. I'm walking in with nary a plan, on blind faith alone. If I do one thing wrong, I won't be coming back. To forever drift in a world as an incorporeal until the end of time. All powerful, All knowing, but nary a soul to share it with." his words echoed in his head.
His natural eye color of green was starting to fade and being invaded by a foreign power. It closed around his body. His soul being sucked out of him by a mystical siphon though it seemed nothing more than a dim light.
However, he could see it. It was a hand, invisible to the eyes of mortals but infallible to the spiritual eye.
"I need to do this. I've been spending countless lives to understand it. There's nothing more to this than walking through the door."
This hand severed the connection with his body and began pulling him through creation. It was unlike what he had ever been conscious of.
"All I have to do is say her name. The Entity of Life.'
It was then the wizard shot a tether of energy coming off the hand in droves back to his body, giving it back life. His body drunk deep of the energy and used the ambient energy around it to strengthen the connection to his soul. It's distance was infinite, no matter where his soul went, the body can find it and pull it back but only if the soul had enough willpower to want to come back to it.
He shot his eyes wide open. "Aetherius. Mother of Souls. I ask for your permission to understand the world you guard. To drink deep and fill my soul with it's knowledge. I will bear any price I need forthwith. I ask of you, as a being who wants nothing more to than this. Allow me this as I'll be the first and only person to bear this responsibility. I won't betray your trust nor will I misinterpret. Share your will to me and it will be done. Become one with me and show me a world I never knew existed. A realm beyond realms. A pure, true existence!" he yelled into the void.
Suddenly, all movement stops. The hand disappears but two hands now touched his back and a face smooshed into it.
"You have sought me out. You have found me. You shall have your wish granted. Even though I cannot forgive you for cheating death, I will have you pay the price for this boon. Magic has no power here, it is perverted, unclean, dirty, and steeped in corruption." the voice said, it was female.
Alastor knew not to look back. Do not look at her form, listen to the words or be forever lost.
"You are the first. The first of the seven.
You will become the Champion of Life.
You are me, and I am you.
Our souls are now bound to each other.
You are the only soul to have this right and I grant you the only soul to bear to take it.
If it's knowledge you seek about our world, I shall give it.
You are not to come back to the mortal world for 1,000 years.
Time flows much faster in the Astral Plane.
In your mortal world, only one will go past.
You will forget/I will destroy/ I will cleanse this power of magic to your body.
It is our body now and it will be pure.
This knowledge is for you, and you alone.
Speak it to no one/It will not be written/It will be silenced from mortal eyes and ears.
Do you accept, Champion?"
Alastor knew he had to take it, there was literally no downside to this. It didn't seek to destroy what he already was but to strengthen, nurture, and grow his mortal soul. He knew it already, there would be no going back. He could've stopped anytime he wanted. He didn't want to. Didn't need to. He had gotten what he wanted. This was the endgame for him. The price he gotten, others could not do but he could. Because he was ready for this. So with a smile, he put his hand on hers. He spoke his words true to her.
"I accept."
That was all that needed to be said. Aetherius appeared before him and hugged him. Her body radiated with such brilliance. Of every energy he ever came in contact with. They twisted together in perfect harmony. It was simply amazing to him. He knew most of them to be very violent. Was the result of magic? To his, he hugged her back. The sheer strength of her soul, her existence disappeared into him. His soul no longer had a gender, however, because of his own will, he chose to still be a male. However the features were forever changed, he too looked flawlessly beautiful. Everything that could be considered a flaw was phased out and what was left? A perfect existence.
She appears before him again, this time in her own body. Now, he was in his. His actual body. It didn't reflect what his inner soul looked like however he had forgotten every magic he had ever learned. Instead, he'd be able to mold ethereal energy to anything he wants and plenty more she'd have to teach him. She grabbed his hand and she pulled him away, leaving the world of the living behind for a while.
To learn what he had been searching for. He let her do as she wished, she seemed happy enough about it. He wondered had he truly been the only one who sought her out? He didn't know, he didn't think he needed to know. For now, all there was left was learn of a realm beyond.
