Fleabag accompanied the Starmaster to the back of the Lunar Temple. On the way there, the young catboy couldn't stop gazing at the wonderful architecture and the unexplainably high ceiling. He looked at the carpets across the main pentagon-shaped room.
"What are these about?" he asked.
The old man stopped for a second, and then answered:
"These tell the story of our known world. After the first universe was shattered and recreated by the Ultimate, only a chosen few made it through. The strongest became Gods, and the wisest became Spirits. For example, on that glass pane, you can see the depiction of what used to be the strongest God we know, the Dragon God."
He stared at it. It was a picture of an incredibly muscular bearded man that wore brown gauntlets who wore a red chestplate. He had a maniacal smile filled with shark teeth. From his shadow rose a humongous orange dragon which was spewing flames all over a city.
"But thankfully, his powers have been locked away long ago." continued the old man. "The only viable threat nowadays is if Royland the Demon God returned."
On another carpet was the picture of a hellish underworld. There were endless seas of magma and lava dotting about and a redstone bridge that arched between two islands. From the sea was emerging an enormous monster. Only his top half was shown, as his bottom half was sinking under the lava. It had a horned bare skull, sharp clawed hands and a metallic dark blue torso.
Fleabag noticed that the Starmaster was already outside, so he ran behind him.
The back of the Lunar Temple was no different from the front. They were facing the flat, uninsteresting eastern wall. In front of them was a large empty crater. The Starmaster tossed a wooden sword at the catboy.
Behind him, he summoned a mannequin-like body made out of pure light. It looked exactly like a hologram of a man without a face. The mannequin had no face or special features, and held a sword in its hand.
The Starmaster pointed at him.
Fleabag tossed himself with all his strength at the silverlight hologram. He slashed in every direction and very quickly, but couldn't land a single strike. The hologram person was too swift, and managed to evade every attack that Fleabag made. Hours were spent on the face of the moon sparring fruitlessly until the catboy, exhausted, asked the old man.
"Why can't I hit him? It's been a long while! It must be the sword or the atmosphere..."
The old man raised his palm in front of Fleabag.
"Slow down. You're being too rough. Try approaching it with tactic and cunning instead."
Fleabag remained for a moment, and let that advice sink in. Unlike most of his kin, he was very quick to learn things, and his natural swiftness accentuated that even more.
He stopped to observe the hologram figure. It twitched as sparks of light subtly springed from within it. Suddenly, now that Fleabag decided to slow down his pace, everything was a lot clearer. The mannequin had no face, yet he could feel its stare. He observed its limbs: the legs, the arms, and even the neck. He took his time to aim properly, and planned accordingly on every second step and the hundred steps after it.
The catboy pounced a few meters over the silver mannequin. At that moment, in the middle of the airless void of space, it seemed to him as if time was slowed down. His body flowed like water crashing from atop a mountain. His muscles pulled on the wooden sword as lowered his arms. Once again, just like all the other times, it jumped to the left side. Overcome with his failure, the catboy lost focus.
Fleabag ended up falling flat on his face.
"Don't feel bad. You can still try again."
The catboy woke up and firmly grasped his wooden sword.
A full month passed, and Fleabag was not able to touch the silver mannequin. The catboy slept in the temple with the old man and trained as hard as possible.
One day, he rounded up the courage to ask the old man for even more tips.
"Why can't I land a single strike on that doll? Maybe it's because I'm such a failure at life!"
The Starmaster sighed.
"No. It's because your mind is still clouded. But since you took the effort to ask me, I guess there is one way I can help you."
Fleabag sat down in front of the old man and twitched his ears. The old man continued.
"On a red planet, a distance away from here, is a magic spring that will grant you endless power. Once I make sure your body is ready, you will be able to reach it easily."
Fleabag was very excited. After thirty days of pain and frustration, the old man would finally give him the strength he dreamt of! They both slowly walked to the crater on the back of the temple.
The old man gently grabbed Fleabag's shoulder and imbued him with power. His body glowed in silver as he felt a tremendous strength radiating from it. He stood up. For some reason, he felt now much lighter, as if he was weightless, and he could move around without feeling any effort.
"I converted your body, and now it's made out of pure light. You don't need to breathe or eat anymore."
Fleabag looked a little worried.
"Don't worry, you can still feel pleasure, but you won't feel pain or die from natural causes."
Phew!
"Now, you are ready."
The Starmaster took Fleabag back to the temple. They walked through a door and climbed a spiral staircase up the tower. Once they reached the top, the old man pointed at a red dot in the black void of space.
"Is that the planet?" asked Fleabag.
"Yes. Now you're going to go there."
Fleabag was perplexed. The planet was countless of kilometers away.
"...How will I be able to do that?"
The old man pointed at Fleabag's knees.
"Just do it! Jump!"
"Jump!?"
"Your body is made out of light, now. Have you even known how acrobatic champions tend to gain a few inches to their jump height when you motivate them? Now, with your new physical properties, you'll be able to gain not only inches, but several thousand kilometers to your jump height! Just visualize the endless strength and power that you will be able to find in that planet and do it! It's called the Lunar Dash, and using the "
Fleabag stared down. Will he be able to do it?
Suddenly, he decided to leave everything behind. He bent his knees and clenched his fist. Then, with one powerful thrust, he pushed his legs onto the ground and jumped.
"Lunar Dash Activate!!"
By the time he had known it, Fleabag was floating in the middle of space. It wasn't really floating, he felt a strong and powerful thrusting force coming from his legs, as if he was endlessly jumping. He felt as if a hand was pushing him towards the planet. He looked behind him and saw the Moon shrinking in size incredibly fast. He looked in front of him and aimed at the red dot. He wasn't able to control his dash, but his entire body was enveloped with a silver glow and left behind him a trail of light just like a comet. He kept drifting in the void of space.
It was cold.
It was lonely.
It was silent.
He closed his eyes.
أنت تقرأ
Swordsman's Tale - Kenshimonogatari
الخيال (فانتازيا)My main story, and my most developed universe, probably the scale of Warcraft or Touhou. It tells the life of Fleabag and the Dragonlord, and how they defeated the evils and reshaped their mystical world forever.
