Kotabahara: The City of God

If men were called gods

“I’m Dungan.”
So said the shining man who descended from the heavens. His arrival was quite a spectacle. Before his giant metal cube appeared above our heads, this neglected kingdom called Kotabahara was nothing more than a refuge for exiles like myself. Not that a lot of them find this place. There were but a handful to reckon with, especially because no maps today even mark the area. In fact, this kingdom no longer resembled the richness of being once the City of God, or so how its name was translated. Nobody really knew where Kotabahara is.
“Have you not noticed the enduring features of these towers and walls? Surely you know.”
As my fellow exiles look up with their mouths wide open, the floating man happily boasted about Kotabahara like it was his own creation. How should I know? I may be the longest one residing here since its fall, but I do not see anything special with towers that gather no rust, or walls which suddenly arose when he arrived. And for some reason, he saw right through me.
“How dare you doubt me, I who transcended galaxies and generations?”
I get it. You are some great being, and this was some great kingdom, but for an exile like me? Apparently, he did not really need my response.
“No matter. Dungan has come to retake this city and this world. I will make it great again!”
Okay… But what about us? Or so I thought I said, but no words came out. It was as if the voice was sapped out from me. Suddenly, with a snap of his fingers, the walls rose even higher, converging at the cube to create a large dome that blocked everything. It was dark, and only his gleaming figure served as our light, until the cube itself shone red.
“Sa Kotabahara magwawakas ang lahat, sa Kotabahara ang bago maitatatag.”
What is that language? In all my travels, I never heard of such words. When I saw what was happening, I figured it was some kind of spell. The red light emanating from the cube soon traveled with extreme rapidity through the walls’ patterns, forming a sort of observatory which showed the constellations. But with another look, they did not seem like constellations at all. If they were, the stars were not in the right order, and there were too many lines to even recognize any. When I looked around, tongues of fire burst from the chests of my fellow exiles, and their flames found their way up to this so-called Dungan. All of them, except me.
“I see,” he smirked, “The city has chosen its heir.”
Suddenly, I regained my ability to speak, albeit my voice changed pitch at the moment I did, “What heir?!”
He swirled as he slowly went down to the ground, “Do you think it’s coincidence that you found Kotabahara before all of these exiles did? No, and you’ll soon find pure reason.”
From there, I blanked.