Long ago layed a kingdom on the very center of a large island. Only the island wasn't on Earth; it was in the sky, invisible to everybody who entered the fog of the ocean which protected the island from the people below.
In the land of Heiwanari there lived people with extraordinary powers, and everybody that ever lived on the island lived together in peace, harmony, and tranquility. But a powerful resistance, called the Shadow Stance, wanted to rule all of Heiwanari, with only the strong and wealthy wielding power of darkness, and the weak and average with none. After the king and queen of Heiwanari tried to convince the Shadow Stance that their hatred would be their eventual downfall, the Shadow Stance's anger was only further fueled, thus making them more motivated to take over all of Heiwanari, the world, and eventually, the universe.
The one way that Heiwanari could protect and save themselves with in times of danger was the Order of The Elements, a group of eight warriors that controlled one of the elements. Four warriors each had one of the main elements while the other four had possession of one of the secondary elements. The main group was made up of Prince Artemis (who controlled water), Prince Akora (who controlled the wind), Frea (who had control of the earth), and Konen, who held the power of fire.
The secondary warriors were women, in contrast to the main warriors being men. These warriors were Princess Mayumi (who controlled ice), Galatea (who was the element of aether, giving her psychic powers), Meilin (who controlled lightning), and Siria, who controlled the power of metal.
However, when the group used their powers as one to try to stop the Shadow Stance, their powers failed, and they were too late to save their kingdom. The Shadow Stance began taking over the kingdom, stopping at nothing to get to their desired hierarchy.
Prince Artemis stood inside his castle, watching the horror that took place upon his kingdom. He was the first of two sons that would take over the kingdom one day, but it was obvious that it wouldn't be coming any time soon.
"Artemis," a gentle yet frightened voice came up to him.
"Mayumi," Artemis spoke, shocked that she would be here in this position beside him. "I told you to go wait with the others in the sanctuary."
"I know," Mayumi said, putting her hand on his. "I just wanted to be solely with you, since these might be our last moments here."
Artemis nodded and looked back to the horizon. Nothing but Shadow Stance warriors as far as the eye could see.
"We might not even have much time left…." Artemis sighed. "We should get back to the sanctuary."
Artemis began to walk past his fiancé, leaving her to wonder why he has decided to call up the Order of The Elements in the sanctuary. Mayumi followed Artemis into the secret underground sanctuary that not even the castle workers knew about.
The two went downstairs into the sanctuary, where the light from the outside shone upon the warriors and the positions of the circle that they were in. This circle was known as the Elemental circle, where the Order of The Elements would gather in their corrective spots on the circle and unite their powers as one to defeat whatever was threatening Heiwanari. However, in this situation, they couldn't call upon their powers again, since combining their powers took a lot of energy. This meant that they only had one shot to make things right, which they failed to do in this instance. Artemis and Mayumi went over to their spots on the circle before announcing Artemis' plan.
"Why have we been called back here?" Konen asked angrily. "We've already tried the Elemental Ritual, so why do we have to perform it again?"
"I have not called you all here to recite the Elemental Ritual again." Artemis explained. "I've called all of you here because I need to tell you that I've come up with an idea of how we can defeat the Shadow Stance. We're going to have to sacrifice ourselves."
Everyone was in shock at Artemis' idea at this point.
"And why should we?!" Konen exclaimed. "How will dying stop the Shadow Stance?! That'll just prove how weak we are!"
"Konen!" Artemis shouted, which seemed to stop Konen from talking at the moment.
"As I was saying, we will sacrifice ourselves. However, we'll perform the a spirit ritual just before giving ourselves up. That way, our new selves from the future can stop the Shadow Stance."
"But," Siria asked. "How will that help in the war against the Shadow Stance?"
"And for that matter, will we still be able to keep all of our past memories? And how will our future selves know about the danger?" Frea asked along with Siria.
"That's why we'll only send a copy of our spirits. One copy will go to the future and the original copy will stay here to help aid our future warriors in the struggle." Artemis answered. "And as for this being a part of my plan, I have a very strong feeling that in the future, the resistance against the Shadow Stance will be stronger."
The others nodded in agreement to the plan, and began charging their power, one color of each light representing each warrior it came from. Then the warriors recited a spirit chant, which goes as follows:
Spirits of the Order of The Elements we are,
To copy our spirits into two for the struggle.
Send one copy to the future and to find new suiters for our grand powers,
And keep one here to help the new warriors become stronger.
We pray that our new bodies can fing the strength to overcome the Shadow Stance.
And pray for our souls as we enter the spiritual plane, to live out our eternal lives forever,
And to assist the new generation.
The warrior's lights began glowing, and the lights started moving away from their bodies, creating carbon copies of each individual warrior in spirit form. The spirit forms of each warrior of the Order of The Elements then shrunk and turned into see through spheres of color and flew out of the sanctuary with rapid speed./P
The warriors looked up at the one half of their spirits leave them. But then, something else entirely got their attention: an earthquake caused by the Shadow Stance, which meant that they were invading the castle. Debris and concrete began falling down upon the eight warriors. They all tried to escape the room, but they were surrounded by both the fallen concrete and the swarms of Shadow Stance minions, which some were no match against the Order of The Elements. However, the minions kept coming by the hundreds. Everything was hopeless and bleak for the already weakened Order of The Elements as they were being defeated, strike by strike. All the warriors could do now was fight them off as well as they could, and hope that the other half of their spirits would find suitable people to wield their powers, and hope that those warriors would discover each other and their powers, and quickly.