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Knights and Dragons
Much has been made about the physical part of the universe. It had seen many changes since the time before the creation of the universe. Yet despite it's importance, the dimension of energy, which had sparked the changes in the physical universe, had been mostly ignored. Within that dimension was a vast current of raw energy. Within the confines of its own dimension the energy was volatile, but of little danger as it cascaded onward. It was only when that energy made contact with space beyond its dimension that it posed a threat. For the energy was volatile, powerful and mutagenic in nature. Contact with matter led to a spontaneous and unpredictable change in that matter. It was only when utilised by experts such as The Creator or his Celestials that the effects of the energy could be directed. Fortunately it seemed that despite the occasional breach between dimension, the energy remained tightly controlled within its own space.
To living beings the energy was particularly dangerous. It could completely disrupt the workings of the mortal form and was often lethal. Those beings that occupied the higher dimensions had partially succeeded by trapping the energy under extreme pressure and condensing it into the form they could consume, but the ability to touch and control such forces was beyond the population of the lower planes. Instead, they had shown the ingenuity that the lower races would become known for and cheated. Instead of trapping energy inside objects, they instead trapped the energy inside dimensional pockets inside the objects - for it seemed that dimensional engineering was far easier than creating such objects from scratch.
In the early days following the departure of The Celestials, such methods were not available. It was a period when the continued existence of those left behind was not a certainty. The seals holding back the entities within the higher dimensions from preying upon the lowest level of existence allowed the young races to come together and change the laws of nature within their dimensional plane to something that suited them. But before that occurred, there had been other threats to consider.
The Celestials had been charged with the task of overseeing the creation of the universe and priming it with the early forms of life. It was a task that they had fulfilled. To accomplish such a feat they had considered as many factors as their limited minds would allow - for despite their intelligence they were designed to favour hard logic over imagination. They had attempted to create a balanced existence where they believed life would have the greatest chance of survival. They had failed to notice that despite their best efforts some denizens of the higher planes of existence remained, hidden in the dark places. And some of those beings had been servants of the Dark One.
When The Celestials departed they unknowingly allowed a powerful threat to remain behind, unrestrained by their edicts. The creature was a being of unmatched power that took the shape of a multi-headed dragon. It was known as Vitara, but like most of its kind that was only a name it had chosen to present to the cosmos - for like many such beings, the knowledge of its true name was a dangerous first step towards vanquishing it. It had bided its time, hiding away as The Celestials had worked, awaiting their departure before feasting upon the defenceless stars. The dimension The Celestials had left behind had no means to protect itself from a being such as Vitara, a demon that consumed the life force of worlds and transformed all in its path into a chaotic mass of destructive energy. With nothing to stop its rampage, the beast's power grew stronger whenever it feasted.
This was not an ordinary beast. It had been a personal creation of the Dark One, imbued with many abilities and capable of drawing upon the power of its creator. And while the Dark One had been imprisoned at the very depths of existence, unable to use his powers, his will remained, pushing his creature to break free from where it had been trapped during an earlier battle.
World after world was drained of life as the demon crossed the many galaxies. It not only destroyed the primitive beings that had emerged on a few select planets, but fed upon the power that The Celestials had placed within each world to support and encourage life. As the demon soared through the cosmos, it left behind a trail of dead worlds. Fortunately, The Celestials' need to have a balanced universe had created safeguards in case such a threat should arise. It was not a simple balance of creating a equal to counter the threat. Instead it sought a champion that would eventually defeat the demon and then with time allow the universe to heal.
While The Celestials had sealed the mortal realm to allow it to evolve to a point where it could fight back against predators from the higher dimensions, there were dimensions they could not seal. Some dimensions had been created before The Celestials had been sent out upon their mission when The One had first cast out the seeds of creation. Such dimensions were connected to focal points within the young reality. And while The Celestials could access such dimensions and manipulate the forces inside, they were unable to strengthen the barriers between them and other dimensions.
Whenever the Celestials had encountered one of the seeds that had been sent forth by The One, they had adapted it to survive away from direct contact with Him. Controlled breaches had been made between the energy dimension and the physical universe. This allowed some energy to permanent feed into the transformed object, granting it the potential for spawn and maintain life. The Celestials were skilled at determining the type of energy that could cross the dimensional walls - for the energy within the dimension took on numerous forms with variable properties that made some forms useful to the sustaining of a liveable environment and others lethal. Skilled manipulation isolated three types of energy: magical energy, psychic energy and spiritual energy as they would one day be called. In the same way that a healthy human required a mixture of fat, carbohydrate and protein to function properly, so the three forms of energy helped to maintain the functioning of reality's ecosystem. There were of course more potent forms of energy, those The Celestials had been wary of as the most potent energy was something that even the builders of existence treated with caution it seemed; such energy was highly disruptive, more so than magic. When left alone, magic, psychic and spiritual types of energy were altered by the environment outside of their native dimension. Over time the energy turned slightly stale and slowly transmuted into something resembling matter. That matter had been found in places across the universe as small fragments of crystal; The Celestials had even used some of those fragments as a means of enhancing the cores of planets.
The world of Zeo was different than most planets because it had been formed backwards as part of an experiment to see if planets constructed in such a fashion would prove more successful. Instead of creating the planet and then implanting a fragment of crystal, The Celestials had instead positioned a crystal and built a planet around it, trapping the crystal at its core. The results had been promising, but had been stopped when The Celestials discovered that the crystal had continued to grow in size after the planet had formed, meaning that the world was still connected to the energy dimension and was effectively leaking energy perpetually into the physical universe.
Life did not emerge on Zeo for a long time although the energy leaking through eventually caused the lifeless planet to evolve into a primitive life-form. It did not possess thoughts of its own but had been shaped by the collective thoughts and feelings of the living beings on the worlds around it. And while it could not truly think, it was capable of responding to a threat... or a plea for assistance.
But how does a planet, even one connected to a massive pool of energy respond to a cry for help? The energy needed a conduit through which to work. And so the limited intelligence that had evolved within the dimension reached out to find a suitable avatar for its power. On a primitive world it found a young knight defending a family from bandits. The energy somehow decided that his actions made him worth to be their avatar.
The young man was drawn to Zeo and shown the danger Vitara represented. Although the power could not speak, it conveyed its wishes and from his response, confirmed his agreement to become its vessel. And so his body was infused with raw power, changing him from flesh and blood into a being of light and energy. He became the first champion of the mortal plane, starting a legacy that would continue far into the future and inspire many stories of the heroes fighting demons.
The noble warrior and the dragon met in combat and though the knight was powerful due to the power he had been granted, the beast was older, more experienced and had access to the energy it had stolen from millions of worlds. Their battle seemed endless as they moved across the universe and the knight became aware that his time was growing short - for the energy he had been granted was more than his body, mind and soul could withstand for such a long time without burning out. It was only as he realised his end was near that the knight's prayers were answered and he saw an opening. The knight took the opportunity, sacrificing everything that remained of the person he had once been to destroy the threat, ending its evil rampage.
But while the dragon thrashed about in its death throes, the knight realised that his work was far from over. Vitara had caused unimaginable damage to millions of worlds. The energy it had stolen was the raw power of creation, which once corrupted by the demon became chaotic and destructive. As the demon was torn apart from the fatal blow it had received, the energies it contained were unleashed. The untainted power of creation left behind by The Celestials was absorbed into the body of the knight where it mixed with the other energies that now dominated his being. The corrupted energies leaked into space where they solidified into a green crystal sparking with dark energy; when the beast's body exploded, the Chaos Crystal was blown far away.
With Vitara seemingly gone, the knight was no longer needed. It knight travelled from dead world to dead world, replacing the energy Vitara had stolen by placing a part of his body inside the damaged cores. And as he travelled and reversed the damage the demon had caused, he gave more and more of himself, until very little remained. In the end, it had taken almost all of the spiritual energy The knight possessed, but his task had been completed. The worlds he had visited would recover in time and he expected them to bring forth life as The Celestials had intended. But it was likely that any life that emerged would be tainted by the wickedness of the dragon's attack and the nobility of the knight's sacrifice.
With his task complete, The knight returned to Zeo. He had expected that with his work complete, he would die, but the power that had supported him in his quest refused to let him pass. Vitara had proven there were dangers in the fledging universe that threatened its existence. The fledgling races required protector until they grew strong enough to take on the responsibility themselves. The Power chose the knight to fulfil that role, but seemed to recognise that he had used up much of his life force restoring the worlds Vitara had savaged. His original form had burned away after a short time of agreeing to fight the beast; he was barely capable of containing what remained of the potent energies he had absorbed. Some energy leaked into the world around him, solidifying within its crystal core, despite his efforts.
What little remained of the knight's essence was transferred into the energy dimension and soon became a part of the dimension's growing consciousness. Beyond the boundaries of that dimension, his connection to the world that he had left behind upon his supposed death remained. And as the power continued to flow, so a part of it fed into the crystal core of Zeo and throughout the millions of years that followed, the energy within the crystal increased and the crystal expanded to contain such power.
But it was not just the crystal that was connected to the potent life-giving energies of the knight's new home. The planets he had healed remained connected to his life energy and through it the dimension he now resided. Just like the crystal, those worlds would continue to receive energy, causing them to evolve and attract life. And all of them had been connected to a single dimension filled with power. The evolution that The Celestials had been wishing to see would now begin.
Many years would pass before the planet Zeo was rediscovered. By that time its core had grown so powerful that its existence could no longer escape the notice of those seeking power. Wars were fought to possess it and unlock its secrets. The violence grew until a wise leader came to understand that as long as the planet remained accessible, the fighting would never end. And so a new alliance was formed and walls were created around the planet, placing it inside its own dimension where it would remain until its power could be tempered and the people of the universe grew wise enough to understand its real value. When the task was complete the alliance would return with only a small fragment of the crystal core. It would be presented to an order of monks in the M-51 Galaxy and would start a legacy all of its own. But that is another story.
And far away in another part of the cosmos the dark remnants of Vitara's power had condensed to form another crystal. Unlike the one created by the knight, this crystal pulsed with the corrupted energy of a fallen demon. Its power could best be described as chaotic. And over time it too had grown larger. From time to time its unstable structure would fracture, ejecting a fragment of crystal into space where it would fall into the hands of an unsuspecting victim and unleash chaos and destruction in the name of evil. For existence had been crafted in a way that would ensure that it remained balanced regardless of the dangers such balance posed.
End of Part
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