First of all, thanks to everyone who's checked out the story so far. It was a lot fun finally putting a story I outlined over a year ago to paper. There will be frequent "teachings" from the Shaolin Monk to provide the backstory needed for everything to make sense. I'm thinking of moving this piece over to the general MK area because Kratos doesn't really have a speaking part in this story (he will if this piece is successful enough) and most of his material is mentioned during the teachings.
This next chapter starts the actual story of The Gathering upon the new realm. It is the 570th Gathering which according to the Shaolin Monk's teaching would be about 1700 A.D. on Earthrealm.
As always I own none of the characters I plan on using, because if I did I would be a millionaire.
Much like the growing of crops, the growth of the new Universe takes patience. Each realm reacts to the Kamidogu in different ways giving the realms their own unique character. The Dragon God and his disciples the Elder Gods make sure to carefully plan which realms are ready to be gathered upon. The realm that other realms will be descending upon in the upcoming days was chosen ten Dragon Years in advance and so will the next realms to be decided upon afterwards.
For these realms are more significant than "Gift Realms" or realms received as wedding gifts for a new king and queen or as rewards for ruling appropriately, those realms were created by mixing the Kamidogu from the Dragon God and the essence from the current realm of the receiver to create a new realm. Gift realms are created more as an expanse of power and do not rely upon the pure use of Kamidogu much like the "Pure Realms" like the one that will be the site of the new Gathering. Therefore Pures that come from Gift Realms are not as powerful as Pures from Pure Realms.
To have a Pure Realm under your rule gives a God a tremendous amount of power. The ability to create Pures that are far more powerful than most of the other realms gives The God much more respect in the Universe and a well-protected, well-developed pure Realm provides a much smoother path to reaching the status of Elder God than doing it using a slightly muttered Kamidogu version of a Gift Realm.
In the skies of the newly developed atmosphere of the realm portals begin to open, through these portals massive structures fall through the portals and onto the cooled crust of the realm. These structures are massive temples built by mortals to house the God, Protector, Pure, and their servants during their time on the realm. To most of the Gods partaking in the Gathering this portion of the journey is the most stressful, none of the Gods know what type of surface the portal will open up to. They hope that it will be a nice stretch of flat land so that the temple will land safely in the right direction. Unfortunately this realm is a mountainous one and the realms that don't correctly navigate their temple will see their temples land on the sides of steep mountains and roll into the valleys upside down or completely destroyed. Nothing is more embarrassing than showcasing the greatness of your realm with a dilapidated temple. To prevent this issue Gods are using all sorts of methods to make sure their temple remains as pristine as when it as finished.
As a new portal opens up thousands of dead mortals fall through the portal first the God can then observe what happens to the mortals and find the appropriate place to land. Other will use living slave mortals to maneuver around and create a makeshift landing pad for the temple, the crushed bodies underneath provide a safe cushion for the temple's descent. These realms still believe in the ways of the Old Universe, where mortals merely exist to serve the Gods, not the other way around which is the way of the New Universe. This old thinking prevents these Gods from maintaining enough power to become Elder Gods. Other realms that have not developed enough to be significant factors at this Gathering don't want to waste the precious resources of their realms to create temples and simply set up elaborate tents instead. The Gods that choose this sensible path will no doubt be mercilessly mocked for their choice, and other Gods will see this as a sign of weakness and will make plans to invade the realm at a later time. These "Tented" realms will be sure to make steadfast work of creating alliances to help draw off the attacks.
A newer and larger portal opens and through the realm's sky and through this temple large bolts of lightning strike down upon the crust of the new realm. The large limestone temple falls through the opening of the portal and quickly descends upon the realm. Lightning continues to strike around the temple acting like bumpers jolting the temple in different directions until it finds a safe location to land. The lighting strikes become more frequent to slow the temples descent until finally the temple lands softly onto the surface. This temple is the temple of Earthrealm one of the earlier realms created in the new Universe, and it's current protector is Raiden who harnesses the power of lighting. His pure Liu Kang is considered one of the few favorites in the tournament.
The last and largest portal opens this temple is made out of solid gold as it descends slowly and carefully to its reserved destination, unlike the rest of the temples that come to the new realm this temple will return to its realm of Edenia for it is the temple of the Elder Gods. With the Elder Gods' temple securely in place in the new realm this signals that The Gathering has finally begun.
The first night of The Gathering begins the Festival of Light. Every realm will place torches in front of the entrances to their temple. The torches are lit to symbolize that the realm is represented and is partaking in The Gathering festivities. The lighting of the torches also symbolize an agreement of a truce between all the realms that none of the realms partaking in The Gathering will be attacked while the Gathering takes place and that all mortals currently living back on the realms will be safe. Those that travel to the new realm and forget to display torches, light their torches, or have their torches extinguished will have their God, Protector, and Pure imprisoned in Netherrealm until the completion of the Gathering.
"Vaeternus!" A guard of Edenia calls out.
The God of Vaeternus, Countus a Vampire like God exits his temple, along with his Protector, and Pure.
"You're torches are not filled with fire! You must leave!"
"They were lit, we lit them ourselves!" Countus claims, he looks out at his torches and sees that they have been smothered, "I have been tricked!"
"You are too foolish to have safe passage to this realm, you must leave!" Suddenly three fiery portals open up underneath the three representatives of Vaeturnus, they portals drop them into Netherrealm, fortunately for Countus and his Protector their safety will be insured due to their immortality, but unfortunately for their pure a young teenaged girl her mortality cannot handle the flames of Netherrealm and she gets consumed by fire, she screams in agony for minutes before his finally turns to ash.
To prevent other realms from distinguishing their torches most of the realms have sentries that guard the torches day and night to make sure the fires stay burning throughout The Gathering. Once the guards of Edenia successfully tally all the realms in that exist in the new realm, a large gong is sounded five times and a portal opens in the skies once more, dragon fire from the Dragon God bust through the portal and lights the torch of Edenia ending the Festival of Light. At the end of the festival with the truce finally intact the representatives of all the realms now leave their temples and begin to mingle amongst themselves. Much of this time is spent negotiating amongst all the Gods for protection or finding a champion to represent them in the tournament instead of sending their own Pure to be sacrificed to a stronger one.
For the first time in a Dragon Year Raiden walks alone among all the masses that converge around the Temple of Edenia, much like many of the representatives tonight he also is discussing business but in a different manner. Raiden is the Protector of Earth, but his God, Onaga, wants nothing but to destroy Earth. Fortunately for him the Elder Gods would not tolerate one of the most valuable realms to be destroyed without their protection. Unfortunately for Raiden there is reward for a God who's Pure wins the tournament. That God can make a declaration and the Elder Gods are disallowed from intervening. Which means if Liu Kang wins the tournament, Earth will be destroyed, Onaga also has better odds of getting his wish because he is also the God of Outworld the second most powerful realm besides Edenia, and since Edenia does not champion a pure for the tournament, Onaga will most likely have the favorite to win the tournament at his fingertips along with Liu Kang. If Earth is going to survive Raiden must find a way to strike a deal for its protection and the most likely person to strike a deal with is also the person that he despises the most.
His mood quickly changes when he finds a raven haired princess wearing a dark blue silk robe that matches the darkness of her eyes. She is Kitana Princess of Outworld and daughter to Onaga. Raiden smiles her beauty brings a calm to his tenseness, "So what does the simple one say?"
Kitana sighs, "Your brother," she focuses her cobalt eyes into the flicking eyes of Raiden, "He sides with Onaga."
So there are many rules in this new Universe. So if you have any problems understanding the rules leave a comment and I will answer it for you. Also, leave a comments anyway, all writers love critiques on their work.