rogue_5

Wariness ultimately triumphs over anger and foresight. The final choice of the True Lung is to not flash the blades of Yan at the bestial Sui.

This reverence is soon rewarded.

The people of Yan are able to traverse the entirety of the land, hunting and sacrificing every Feranmut they find in the name of their god. Between the freezing icefields and the burning sands, there flies only a single banner.

But it does not stop there.

Sui senses humanity's discontent. It understands why it came to be, for they are creatures bound by blood and emotion. When Its thoughts caused some of them to be erased, it was only natural that the flame of vengeance burned bright within their hearts.

It had bestowed Feranmut-slaying spears unto man, knowing there would come a day that those spears would be pointed at It. It had seen the cold light shining off their points before, and It would not afford humanity a second opportunity.

Its past experiences had given It inspiration. Before conquering Its oceanic kin and the inheritors of prehistoric man's legacy, Sui decides to first solve Its own problems.

Prehistoric humanity had once combined their cells with those of Feranmuts, creating the race known as 'Elves'. It had not partaken of this union, and so had none of these creatures to accompany It.

A slumbering Feranmut can still know of all things, for the 'Feranmut proxies' born during this time can observe and understand things in Its stead. Once the Feranmut awakens, all that belongs to It shall return to their source.

What It needs are not elves, nor proxies. The growth and development of humanity is beyond even the causality-transcending power of the Feranmut to contain. Its fallen kin are proof enough of that. So why not present Its body as a gift to them?

Yet another True Lung, yet another hunt, but this time, their target is the god who bestowed power unto them.

Rivers of blood flow, and corpses are strewn across the land. Yan has paid a heavy price. But in the end, they are victorious.

The body of Sui is offered up in sacrifice, just as Its former kin were. But the one accepting the offering this time is the King of Mankind.

All is according to Sui's plan.

Humanity believes they have overturned the mountain squatting atop them, overcome that temperamental supreme power pulling their strings. They believe they have grasped onto freedom.

Its head is severed and kept as a memento, Its bones are used to construct nomadic cities, and the masses feast upon Its flesh. Every part of It that existed upon this land is partitioned by humanity.

And so It lives on, within the body of every human.

After a millennium of both peace and turmoil, Oripathy is eradicated, Feranmuts are extinct, the ocean is conquered, and the races live in harmony. As a civilization, this is Its golden age, one grand enough to suffuse the hearts of each of Its members with hope for the future. With the starpod destroyed, humanity steps from its cradle for the very first time, and ascends to the twin moons. Every 'Terran' feels irresistibly drawn towards theories about the future and what lies beyond the star-strewn sky.

As for those few who have survived from that prehistoric age—Friston, the Doctor, Kal'tsit—they do not understand how humanity, as it is now, is able to break free from the Observers' confinement, and avoid the extinguishing of all life.

Of course they could not understand.

What they see is individual and collective, society and civilization.

Not even the greatest minds of the era would have expected that they live within the body of Sui.

The basic units that once formed the bodies of Feranmuts have been replaced by 'humanity'. What is known as the realm of Yan is Its body, transcending cause and effect.

As It had never been truly destroyed, then in this foreseen future, It will be eternally unassailable by the destructive logic of the Observers.

In this one aspect, It has surpassed all life! Now, Its body shall expand to fill the entirety of the universe! It shall grow, and grow, until existence meets with nonexistence, the finite touches the infinite, entropy's increase collides with its decrease. When that time comes, It will be but one step away from ultimate victory!

This is but Sui's dream, Sui's imagination, Sui's arrogance.

Wang turns this absurd delusion into an obstacle for the rite-takers to deal with, so that this dangerous, ambitious dream will be shattered at the hands of man.