A sun.
Illuminating the crimson desert beneath and the sky above, stars slowly disappearing—but I am sure that they are still there. Gold shards in the sand glistened brighter, making it harder and harder to glance at them.
Seeming a bit more grim than before, it was decay... all of this gold—it all came from a myriad of corpses.
I am not in that world.
Not in the one I transmigrated to a year ago, the one which gave me another chance to live on after my death as Eric.
This is not a memory either.
Neither is this just a trial similar to Nightshade Sanctum or Ellora's Veil.
This Kushret is not in my world.
"Answer me this," I held my breath, "how many Gods are there?"
Nubira's brow creased. "One."
He replied—he doesn't know... just like I didn't a year ago.
He's oblivious.
He's just another Erik.
"Fine."
It was too much to process in a single moment, so I took my time with it and let silence do its job. Once enough of it had passed between us, Nubira murmured softly,
"The sun is up... we should walk toward the heart of Kushret."
I complied without any questions. Blaze and I had thousands of questions, just like me, but neither of us went ahead and asked any of those.
It was like we were waiting to know more before doing anything—but to a certain extent, I knew more than what I was hoping to get out of Nubira.
We walked. Once in a while, Nubira would silently gesture, and the dunes of sand would part, making a way for us to travel comfortably.
I grew impatient after a while, but before I could say anything, he did.
"Once I became the chosen one for my lord, he gave me power to wield... and to guide every soul to the heart of Kushret for their purification."
"I did that for so long that I don't remember when it started... but I did it willingly, and earnestly."
"I saw my empire perish, then another one rise over its remains—a cycle that repeated over and over."
Nubira's eyes grew cloudy as he reminisced.
"There used to be a small village here, right where we are now." He walked a bit ahead.
Around me was nothing but an endless expanse of crimson desert. The ratio of gold specks to sand was higher than ever here, so I could guess what happened.
"It was beautiful... people going on and on about their day. Once in a while, there would be a festival—for a god." Nubira looked at me. "Their god... not the true one. But I never corrected them. After living through eons and more, I had gotten numb to the desire to guide people to a path where they would worship my lord."
"It was futile, even. I had seen countless like them be born, live, and then vanish."
"It was the same thing over and over, and somewhere along the line, I became the god that they worshipped. It was exhilarating... but I got over that soon enough too. It was a world full of mortal creatures of all kinds."
And then he stopped.
"What happened after?" I asked out of curiosity.
Nubira blinked, and molten gold moved in his eyes. "Avarice... took over."
I raised a brow.
"This place, in its true name, is Kushret... but by the time of the last kingdom, they called it Opal."
"Over the land of Opal, the Last Kingdom had a visitor... Avarice."
"Avarice was a youthful man, his words laced with wisdom and insight. He got himself wedded into the royal family and soon became the king of the Last Kingdom."
"He soon got his hands over a budding magic spell—whatever he wished would come true. If he wished the dead to walk again, it would happen. If Avarice commanded rain over these dunes of sand, it would pour."
"Only one condition... he needed gold."
Nubira crouched and scooped a handful of sand full of gold. "Soon, the palace was filled with gold. The Seven Kings from all over Opal would flock to him—and then wish for what their hearts desired."
"Avarice, on the other hand, felt like a god. Why would he not? He could wish people out of death and back, he could heal or curse anyone... what was he, if not a god himself?"
"But to him, over that feeling of preeminence, was his desire for this shine."
He wanted gold, since unbeknownst to the world, it was his only way to keep on living.
"Avarice's spell demanded that... for him to consume gold. And there was no limit to how much—it is just that there was not much of it."
"So the frenzy began. The Seven Kings—each of them offered their gold to Avarice, but it was not enough, nowhere near what he wanted, so he spurned them over and over."
"A war erupted. A gold rush began as they all started slaughtering each other for the remaining gold they had. The war ended, and only one king stood... it was already too late."
"Avarice had fallen to his own greed. The spell consumed him, and his death marked this land of Kushret with the curse of greed."
"Over the land of Opal, all one would desire was gold—to which they'd kill or be killed in hopes of achieving what Avarice had."
Nubira paused. "They all died. Neither did they inherit the spell, nor get over their mad infatuation with this piece of rock."
"Turning a once land of prosperity into a desert of gold," Nubira sighed, as if disappointed—but somewhere, there was a tinge of sadness.
"It's just... I did nothing. I stayed away, hoping it would just be an end to one era and the beginning of another—but I was wrong. No man was born, nor was a kingdom built... everything just halted."
After that, Nubira did not speak. He stood still, as if waiting for me.
"What happened after that?" I asked almost immediately. I wanted to know more, because now I could draw parallels between Nubira and me.
Nubira looked straight into my eyes. "I called upon Lord Geb..."
In the few seconds of pause that he took, it felt like thousands of thoughts went through his head before he landed on a particular one. "He did not heed my pleas."
"Later that night, I looked up... and the sky was taken from me too." He pointed above. There was nothing but clear sky, but I know what he is referring to—those falling stars.
"And how long ago was that, when you called for your lord's help?" I asked.
Nubira blinked, and for the first time, those blobs of gold stopped staring into my soul. "I don't remember."
