The False God

Hello there! It's been a minute.

This is a Reboot of EUTW, which is being retitled as- well, you already saw it, "The False God".

I'm certain that almost no one from the original time that I've posted the story is still on the platform (except Sey ❤️) but I still am posting this because I've been working quite hard on it. This is, of course, the first of many installments. I'm so sorry for how slow they come out- I've been dealing with a lot of stuff lately and barely have time to write. But I will, because this series is something that's pretty close to my heart. Enjoy!

Once, there was liberty.

—

As the Seven Divinities descend upon the world of Soulle, evening breaks and night falls. The immortal gods and goddesses do not know this will be their final battle.

—

A pair of navy blue eyes gaze upon the stars. They move with the expertise of a trained soldier, tracking a falling comet. Young and naive, this particular soldier will soon have to face the destructive consequences of their clan angering the Impetuous Gods.

The lonely scion twirled their sword with a dexterity unmatched by anyone they knew…or have known. The hood of their admittedly ragged robe, unfit for a member from a royal clan, falls down as they tilt their head to continue following the star. Their hair is black with the slightest hints of amber. 

Circumstance is a funny thing. 

As the first of horrors begins to invade their clan, a young child is forced out of his home.

As screams begin erupting from the only place they thought of as safe, four friends, barely teenagers, are initiated into their new squadron. They are Elementals.

As they leap up to their feet and run into their clan, their home, the Guardian of a prestigious Shrine dies. He is succeeded by his daughter, who is now an orphan.

As Luck and Fortune began playing their twin hands of cards, let us spin through time and see where these seemingly coincidental occurrences take us. Whereas once the immortal Divines perished, let us see where their wills live on.

—

In three forgettable seconds, he had disappeared. 

There wasn’t even time for a goodbye, or a warning, or even a sign. His body just melted from existence. He was there, right in the middle of trying to calm everyone down from an argument one moment, and gone the next. There was no bloodshed, no harm done to Team Arrival’s designated peacemaker. 

Asher Qiu had vanished. 

There was a collective shout from his teammates, all of whom were jumping up from their former positions except one. The argument which had left a desk overturned, a wall split in half, and many shattered glasses was immediately erased from everyone’s minds. 

“Asher-!” 

Gale had lunged forward, as if attempting to grab his friend and teammate’s hand. Cascade was in the middle of sending a tendril of water to grab Asher as well, and Phoenix was right on her heels, sliding onto the floor where Asher had just stood in an attempt to piece together some information about where he had just gone. The sinking feeling that lay deep inside her heart grew. She knew that there would be no evidence of where Asher had gone from the moment he melted away. 

Only Hunter, the resident pessimist, stood in the same corner that he was standing in before, arms crossed,

“He was right here…” Phoenix murmured softly, her naturally Elven-borne soothing voice slightly hoarse. She sounded as if she was trying to comprehend what just happened.

It took all of Gale’s willpower to not punch the wall in frustration and in confusion. It was so unusual for him to even think about doing something like that usually- it seemed that recently his temper was getting shorter and shorter. “Someone must have taken him. It’s impossible to have anyone- anyone disappear that fast unless a Light user distorted the visibility.” 

“But- there hasn’t been any activity from unmarked element users or R.O.O.T. in ages!’ Cascade yelled, even though she was right next to Gale, who covered his eyes in annoyance. Cascade’s vocal cords could silence a whole room, and she was somewhat known for it. 

“Well, maybe now they just decided to be active.” Gale, who had been eyeing the spot that Asher had just stood on, saw Phoenix flinch as Hunter finally spoke, for the first time since Asher had gone. The black-blond haired boy uncrossed his arms and walked into the center of the slightly destroyed room.

“Huh?” Cascade said, not understanding. As the youngest member of the team- only one hundred and eighty two Lunations old, she was prone to misunderstanding things that weren’t straightforward or direct. Gale could empathize. As Elementals, they never had the chance to receive a proper education before being trained as soldiers to aid the Omni-Sect in the unceasing battle against R.O.O.T. Cascade’s confusion earned her a signature eye roll from Hunter, to Gale’s silent dismay. He suppressed the urge to mimic Hunter- now was not the time for impatience and sarcasm. Phoenix remained on the ground, her eyes lowered but her pointed elven ears sticking straight up, signifying that she was listening. 

“R.O.O.T. just decided that capturing Asher would be their first activity.” 

Gale opened his mouth to reply, both as the de facto team leader and to correct several assumptions Hunter just made, but before he could, the ground gave an enormous roar and sent Cascade to stumble into the wall opposite Gale. Hunter made a motion to try and run to the control panel that was stationed in every Sanctuary, backup or not, but before he had the chance to do so, the ground cracked wide open in a way that seemed to bend logic and reason. splitting straight through the layers of Earth in a eerily similar way to the Quake that had destroyed The Puppet’s home. 

The last thing Gale and Hunter heard was Phoenix's terrified shriek for help as they plummeted down into the Ither. 

—

Gale blinked open his eyes. 

He was lying, face down, on a shimmering sea of turquoise grass. Gale’s head felt okay, so he wasn’t in danger of a concussion. His left arm felt fine as well, but he couldn’t feel his right arm at all. This wasn’t good. His dominant hand, the one he used to fend off enemies, was broken. This wasn’t good at all. He could barely manage a Hurricane without his right hand broken- how would he be able to even protect himself like this?

He forced himself to not just think of his own problems. His team’s Sanctuary had just been torn open by the most violent Quake he had ever been witness to, and they were not around him, signaling that they had been thrown into a further place than he.

Any thought further than that, he dared not to have. 

Gale painstakingly lifted himself up from the floor with his left hand. He gazed up, but, to his shock, couldn’t see any remains of his team's former Sanctuary. Instead, he saw an incomprehensible vast forest that was made of pure gold and seemed to breathe gently, as if it was alive, which was very much possible. Immediately he knew where he had landed. The sight reminded him of his childhood, back when he wasn’t an Elemental and still had an education. His mother had read to him about this forest.

He just didn’t expect to visit the Flaxen Forest in this way. 

The turquoise grass flashed red, and Gale instinctively whipped his head around. No matter what, he was an Elemental first and a reminiscer… later. He narrowed his eyes as a hooded figure approached, though he could tell by their crouched position and cautious movement that they were as wary of him as he was of them.

He opened his mouth to speak and realized that he couldn’t. The fall must have impacted his vocal cords in some way, because he could only mutter a feeble exclamation before turning completely silent. The figure had paused in their approach, possibly to see if his Element was activated through voice, but quickened their pace and lunged at Gale with a small dagger once they realized that it wasn’t.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, Gale thrust himself off the ground and ducked below their outstretched weapon, then turned around and hurled a gust of wind at them, just to unbalance them. They fell back, and their hood did so as well, revealing that his attacker was… a girl?

The surprise reflected in the girl’s expression couldn’t balance out the gleam of her shockingly pale eyes. Her blonde hair flew erratically around her face, filling out the areas that her hood once did. She seemed to try and regain her footing but failed and tripped backwards again. Gale took advantage of this to grab her arm and turn it so that the dagger was pressing against herself, once again ignoring the stabs up pain that shot up his arm. 

“Who… who are you?” He muttered coarsely, realizing that his mouth was now filled with the copper taste of blood. Interesting. It just took a bit of physical simulation to get his vocal cords working again. He didn’t relax his grip on the girl’s dagger- she had just tried to kill him.

The girl’s expressive eyes showed not fear or intimidation, but intrigue. 

“That was a fast reaction for someone whose arm was broken.”  She said nonchalantly, as if she wasn’t being held at knifepoint at the moment. “You must be one of those Elementals in a team then, huh?” 

Gale blinked. “How did you gu- How would you know?”

“I used to be part of one.”

This girl certainly didn’t keep anything hidden from him. Gale blinked again, trying to figure out a way to reply. “Interesting… reply?”

She snorted and tossed her head, her golden highlights shimmering as she did so. “It’s not like I have anything to hide. Until you, probably.” Her eyes narrowed. She was correct, he realized. Gale did have much to hide from her. 

Gale let her go. She rolled her shoulders and hand. “Your grip is extremely tight, by the way.”

“You just tried to kill me. And you still haven’t answered my first question.” 

“You can’t blame me. I was testing your mettle. Anyway,” She continued, not letting Gale interrupt, “I’m Nela. Nela Lumis.” 

Gale quickly went through the list of registered Elementals in his mind. He had no recollection of a “Nela” in the list. He was beginning to regret letting her go now- what if she attacked him again? He was in no state to defend himself again. 

Nela seemed to think otherwise. “Don’t worry. I won’t attack you again, if that’s what you’re tensing up for. I couldn’t even touch you while you were unprepared, on the floor, with one broken arm, what makes you think I’ll be able to overpower you while you’re alert?”

“You’re perceptive.” Gale commented, unsure of whether or not to relax. “Are you an Elemental?”

“Hm. Maybe you’re the perceptive one. Yes, I am, why’d you ask? You still haven’t told me your name, by the way.” Nela added, swinging her dagger around thrice before throwing it up, catching it, and putting it away. Gale studied the way she held herself more closely. She didn’t have the typical bruised knees and scars on her hands that deemed her an Attacker or Defender elemental. And from the way he was attacked earlier, she couldn’t have been a Supporter or Healer either. Nela Lumis was a Stealth Elemental, which could mean one of two things.

“I’m Gale. I figured you could be one. Light, am I wrong?”

Her eyes flickered. “Correct again. You must be an Elemental too, from the way you just assessed me.”

“Nothing escapes you, huh?” Gale said, mentally going through his options at the moment. He could tell her about his element and confirm that he was an Elemental, or he could keep it a secret from her.

The sensible choice would be the second one. But there was an air of unconcern around this Nela character. She didn’t seem to really care about him, only about the process in which she figured out things about him. 

“I am an Elemental. Wind user. I was the- well, leader of my team, Arrival…” He trailed off, only snapping back to reality when he heard Nela spit on the floor.

“What’s wrong?”

“I used to be part of an Elemental team.” A shrug on her part. “Let’s say we didn’t have the most friendliest of disintegrations.” She had turned away from Gale to say this, so that Gale couldn’t probe a guess at what she was truly feeling from her eyes.

“...I see.”

“Yeah.” Nela replied, turning back to him. “Now isn’t the time to get caught up in thinking about those losers, though. I need your help with something. Follow me.”

“Wait-” Gale began, thousands of sentence fragments appearing in his head as Nela turned on her heel to begin walking. What could he say? He needed to stay here? For who? He needed to wait for his team? She had a mediocre enough opinion of him already. 

He could follow this girl who he had just met, or he could stay in this small plain of grass, waiting for… anything. A sign of someone, anyone from his… possibly now former team to appear out of thin air.

Gale ran after Nela.