LONE: The Journey Beyond-Prelude: The END.

Tang! Tang!! Tang!!!

The sound of a sword and a spear clashing together rang out.

"Damn it all... Get the fuck out of my way." The man holding the sword shouted, but he got no response.

He swung his sword towards the other guy but was parried back. The guy with the spear saw an opening as he thrust his spear towards him, stabbing the chest of his enemy, narrowly missing the heart.

"Why?" The spear holding guy asked.

No response.

"Why did this have to be like this? Why have all of you destroyed our Cosmos? What did we do wrong? Not a single soul left, not even children... You all destroyed everything. Tell me, why? Just why?"

The spear holding guy murmured as he looked at the battlefield.

The sky was dyed red, the ground was dyed red. An endless amount of corpses spread across the landscape like an ocean could be seen. The putrid smell of blood and death surrounded the battlefield.

The man holding the spear looked around in a daze as he remembered his old memories—the memories of people smiling and living their lives.

In sharp contrast to the devastation and destruction here.

Tears of blood started to come out of the man as he questioned, "Why?"

HAHAHA!

The swordsman started laughing as he plunged his sword towards the spearman, but he missed.

"Well, You see, our Cosmic Lord needs the source of your Cosmos so well... I guess you understand now, don't you?" He said as his wounds started to heal. He began to thrust his sword yet again.

The spearman blocked the sword and increased the distance between them.

"You should give up. Our Lord will arrive soon, and you won't be able to fight him. We will take the Cosmic Source at any cost." He continued as he looked at his enemy.

"You should join us. With your capabilities, our Lord will definitely accept you."

The swordsman got no response to his proposal, but he still smiled as he looked at his enemy, whose face looked like broken glass.

The spearman took a deep breath and wiped the tears and blood from his face as he tightened the grip around his spear, as if ready to fight again to end this unending battle.

"You will not get it as long as I am alive." The spearman stated with resolute eyes.

He closed the distance between them and increased the speed of his attack as he swung his spear, but was blocked. He still persisted and continued to increase the force of his attacks; he continued to swing his spear, making it harder for the swordsman to keep blocking it anymore...

It looked like the battle was coming to an end.

Just as the spearman was going to stab the head of the swordsman through an opening he created...

His eyes lost their focus for a moment!

He looked below, only to see that a claw was coming out of his chest. He realised that it had pierced his heart from behind!

Puuuuu… Cough! Cough!!

Bleugh! Cough!!!

Blood spurted out of his mouth!

He looked at the swordsman and then tried to turn around to look back.

At the same time, he heard the swordsman say, "My lord."

As he turned around, the spearman saw a face; he felt as if a primordial beast was looking at him with eyes of indifference.

The man looked handsome; his hair was dyed grey, the same went for his eye brows, and his pupil was golden with a tinge of black at the centre.

Although he could not see thoroughly, the spearman noticed that the man who seemed to be the lord of his enemy was smiling...

Smiling in amusement as if this were just entertainment for him.

The Lord pulled back his hand and his heart with it.

No matter how much the spearman tried to keep his emotions in check, he just could not control his anger and his fear towards the man.

The man in front of him had no aura around him. He looked harmless, but at the same time, it felt as if an entire Cosmos was directly glaring at him.

He realised…

The spearman stumbled and tried to walk towards the nearby rock to sit. He tried to find some breath, but he already realised that his time had come and started laughing hysterically.

"Y-You destroyed everything to get it, to create that, didn't you?" The spearman's words froze the smile on the Lord's face, while the swordsman's face turned ugly.

They realised that their plan was no longer a secret and was known to their enemy.

The spearman ignored this and continued, "You... Y-You will never get it... *Cough!* *Cough!* Y-Your ambition will never succeed, a-and someday y-you will face an opponent who will give you the same, no, a hundred times more despair than you caused us.

Our entire Cosmos was turned to dust because of you, and I pray that someday the same will happen to you. *Cough!*"

"Where is it? Shadow." The swordsman inquired with a tinge of impatience. But all he got was silence.

He looked towards his Lord and asked in confusion, "Lord, please enlighten this one."

The man who had been silent this whole time as if enjoying a show finally showed a frown and then stated, "It's with him."

"What? How is this possible?" The swordsman was flabbergasted.

"Well, it doesn't matter anymore since my Lord is here; I am sure you will get it."

The Lord walked towards the spearman, the last survivor of this entire Cosmos, the man who was once titled Shadow!

Shadow looked at the beastly man as the Lord moved his left hand towards the back of his head and then looked straight into his eyes with an emotionless gaze as he avowed:

"I will have it... The Ephemeral Heart will be mine. At any cost." He moved his right hand towards the right chest of Shadow and started to channel his energy towards it.

He slowly put his hand into the right chest of Shadow, but...

He couldn't feel anything, or rather, his hand couldn't pierce through. He tried again, but nothing happened. He was about to try again when suddenly...

HAHAHAHA!

He heard a laugh.

He couldn't process what happened, but then the body of Shadow started to glow as he heard something again.

"With my very life as compensation, I ask the Infinite Void to give the source of this fallen Cosmos, the power to traverse the path that shouldn't be crossed.

My body shall become its base, while my soul shall be its fuel, and hence shall it bring this END to a new beginning."

The red sky suddenly turned pitch black, and a pressure descended that completely froze everything, even the man who had been indifferent until now turned pale as if he had seen a ghost.

The swordsman directly lost his consciousness.

"Alas! I won't be able to see you utterly destroyed. But remember, one day the same shall fall on you." Shadow declared with an inhumane voice as his body turned dust and the Ephemeral Heart finally came into existence. It was in sharp contrast to an eternal existence such as the Cosmos.

This was not a mere Cosmic Source anymore. It was something much greater.

The Lord tried to move his body to catch the Ephemeral Heart but was not able to do anything because of the pressure of the Infinite Void.

The Ephemeral Heart turned into a ray of light as it vanished into the black sky, leaving behind a dying Cosmos, the unconscious swordsman, and the utterly enraged and unwilling Lord.

AAAHHHHH!

An enraged roar of the Lord rang out and disappeared into the void. The pitch black sky turned red again, and the Cosmos started to disintegrate, as if it were disappearing from existence.

The Lord turned indifferent again as he picked up the unconscious swordsman and voiced indifferently, "I will get it back... At any cost, it will be MINE." He opened a portal and disappeared into it.

As for the Ephemeral Heart... It started to traverse the Infinite Void, and it was yet to be known what would come next...

A new beginning or an unsettling end!

…..

Author's Note:

>> This is an original work that I am writing from the ground up. I am using my imagination and mixing it with my reading preferences to create a fantasy/cultivation type novel.

>> I hope you guys read at least 50 chapters before deciding to quit, because I am sure you will end up liking the story quite a bit.

>> This is the Prelude to the main story. And there will be another chapter in the prelude. So stay tuned.

*****