Prologue: Color

They will see the world change and alter before their very eyes. They will witness the unleashing of a power that can make or break a new land, bring about absolute peace or churn with the iron-hard ruthlessness of endless war. The ones who dared to save the world will tremble as the abilities returning beneath the surface of the earth awaken the Ancient.

They held such a plethora of colors.

Within their souls and within their minds it swirled. Adepts all brimming with life and color the presence could not rightly fathom dared to defy fate. No, not all…

The boy with blue eyes had admitted his place freely and then betrayed those orders later. The one who turned him was almost devoid of color. His soul was dark and bitter. Directed towards the world and towards the heavens themselves. A cursed, sacrilegious boy who saw fit to strike back and fight back against the very gods. He would soon understand the ironic fate that awaited him…and despise himself because of it.

But how should the traitor fare? Well, he also had no choice but to accept the fate he'd laid down before his feet since the very beginning.

The only issue was the wildcard. The master of water who'd nearly outpaced everyone and almost stole a legendary power before it was transferred elsewhere, vanished and gone. He would be a nuisance.

Perhaps the man of the icy north was even great enough of a threat and an unpredictable factor to warrant his elimination. But no…in the end, he must also learn to embrace destiny or suffer in the attempt to flee it.

{-}

Crouched in the shadow of a deep crevice at the foot of a mighty mountain, a young man with long, pale-blue hair breathed slowly to recover his energy, one hand poised on a bleeding shoulder and glowed faintly. He jerked with sharp spikes of pain as the Adept healed his injuries, the lack of energy forcing him to utilize more crude and imprecise methods, causing him to stitch his wounds together with a humiliatingly scarring technique. Normally, the Adept's powers would make fixing gashes a snap, and had taken no challenge in molding cuts and tearing lacerations back into seamlessly unmarked skin once more.

Now there was a good chance these marks would not completely heal, even should he regain a good measure of his old abilities back. Ah, no matter….The blue-haired man thought to himself faintly, shrugging off another bout of white-hot agony that sliced through him as he reasoned that having a few scars was far more preferable to being a corpse. And yet, the fact that his dream was snatched away at the last second was nothing short of painful, even without the bloody wound on his side.

That clever snake… The water wielding man hissed as he struggled to close his gash with fingers trembling due to blood loss, He's almost as bad as me in that regard. After a few moments of tense silence, in which the crimson liquid finally ceased its relentless dripping, the injured man grasped the crumbling wall behind him with one searching hand in the darkness and pushed himself to his feet. At first, he glanced over at the crowd near the ruins of Vale as if in inclination to head there, paused, and shook his head quickly and taking a few steps backward. The Sun had been taken beyond his reach.

It wasn't hard to divine the Wise One's intention for giving the power to another…which was primarily to move it somewhere that 'others' could not steal it. After all, there would be no point in giving Alchemy to Isaac if the guardian wasn't assured that it would be safe with him.

…I don't have a choice. I'll have to draw from another source if Golden Sun is barred… It was theoretically possible…after all, if the Sun was the only core element of Alchemy, where would our Psyenergy be fueled from? Our powers are a downgrade of Alchemy, so they must stem from a source similar to the Sun… And that will be my ticket.

But there isn't much I can do now… He looked over the newly healed injury and the more-important issue of his weakened abilities, knowing that he'd need some time to recuperate and recover. However, there was also the problem of that suspected warmonger growing in power to the south. There's no doubt in my mind that the new regent of Tolbi will come calling soon…

Two Years have since Passed…

The beginning's a bit unnerving in some ways isn't it? Never fear, all should be revealed.

R&R please!