Below the Veil of Darkness, where the veil was thi and glimpses of the heavens beyond would grace the world, erfect sea of clouds that dehose small gifts to those underh its seemingly infinite reach.

  The Southern Cloud Sea bhe upper southern hemisphere iual darkness even more plete than the Veil of Darkness above.

  Another sin of man from the Last War.

  Atop this vast perpetual sea of white cotton peeked a single human structure of steel and magic, the tallest man could currently build to be a closer to the elusive light.

  Of the three Gate Cities that y uhe Southern Cloud Sea, only the Luna Family of Luna Gate City had the wealth and influeo pierce the clouds.

  The very top level of the majestic Tower of the Stars en to the heavens, protected by powerful rune barriers. Motes of soft magical lights danced with the summoned breeze of purified air within that belied the true dangers of the poisonous winds outside.

  There were rare new species of flowers and trees that had been artificially developed by their Family that could only survive under extreme care and fortune and fountains and pools spouting streams of magical waters that danced in perfect sync through the air, creating a fantastical picturesque se of a magical paradise sitting in the clouds.

  In the ter of this beautiful Sky Garden, where only a ferivileged access, was a crystal desk where a graceful beauty with long, flowing silver hair sat with an imposing elegance.

  She wore a regal dress of crystals and magical threads that only served to atuate her natural beauty and poise.

  On her pale and delicate wrists, her favorite silver bracelets, covered in hundreds of minuscule rune inscriptions, chimed with her gentle gestures as she ehe st ands on her dispy.

  Her perpetually aloof, deep silver-gray eyes showed a rare focus that her followers associated with moments of great importance.

  And it was.

  It was a momentous day of great excitement.

  So extreme was her anticipation that she had cleared her schedule for the day by force, something she had never done before that was bound to have offended many. But they were not important, so she cared little.

  Seeing that the time was near, Celestia Luna, the ower Master of The Tower of the Stars and Guild Master of the renowned Heavens Pierg Guild, straightened her posture and, with a profound dignity, raised her voice to call out, “Bitches! It’s starting! Where the hell are you?!”

  Suddenly, figures began emerging from all ers of the Sky Garden.

  Cries of “Here! Here!” sounded out like the call of little chicks responding to its furious mother as a group of powerful people gathered with childish excitement.

  “Shut up! It's starting!” Celestia gave a final shout that returned her treasured silence before hurriedly activating the primary dispy. The motes of light dimmed out of existend all the streams of water arg above moved out of the way as the sky became their s. People began taking out fy seats or ying out in bs. Snacks and drinks that magically materialized were passed around in eager silence. Don't piss off the boss and everyone could have a good time.

  The members of the Heavens Pierg Guild were greatly amused by their cute Guild Master. She had bee to join the group, but had immediately taken leadership once she had.

  The Silent Sculptor was, at first, a favorite streamer among some of the younger guild members that sought fort from their grueling training and the stant dahey faissions.

  The Silent Sculptor soothed their weary souls without saying a word. He would take muerials and transform them inteous works of art. The entire process was a magical experiehat leasure to watch. His masked form as he worked magic with his hands and tools held so much charisma that he had began captivating more and more members of the Guild till even their Guild Master had been caught.

  When Tom had casually introduced his leader to the stream, nobody had expected her sending out an official guild annou prog herself as the official president of the Silent Sculptor's Fan Club.

  Every member of the Heaven Pierg Guild found they had been forcefully enrolled in a club that had its own clubroom in the coveted upper levels of the legendary Tower of the Stars. The walls were covered in photos and looping vids of every streaming session that had ever aired with illegally fabricated replicas of all the sculptures proudly dispyed in personal pedestals with dedicated spot lights.

  Tom had cold sweats when faced with absolute obsession. He really hoped nobody outside of the Tower found out about this. Her obsession aside, just the illegal replicas could nd her in actual trouble.

  Digital ownership ws were no ughing matter in their world. Even the S Rank Families could be liable fal sans. Although small, the trouble would still tarnish the Luna Family name.

  When broached, Celestia scoffed at his petty s and said that as a true follower of the Silent Sculptor she was merely creating a ter of appreciation so that more people could learn about his greatness and that she knew with all her heart that the Silent Sculptor would approve.

  She had said that instead of w about something so nonsensical; they had to battle the True Enemy. The forces of darkhat hide within the shadows. The angry sea of trolls must be battled aed. She would no loolerate the intrusion of the barbaric scum that had polluted the sacred Chat.

  Because of them, it was impossible to discuss with the other believers in peace.

  She and the most devote began an all out war in the Chats and her artillery was the massive donations she would drop. She didn't even pay Tom that well.

  Now, almost every one of his live streams was dispyed in the sky for the elite members of the Guild and fan club to enjoy together with the Guild Master. The days she was forced to miss a live stream meant that hellish torment would befall the guild members, so an unspoken agreement had been formed to never hihe Guild Master in her viewing pleasures.

  When the annou for the Unmaski where received, Tom had thought his leader was having a stroke. He hoped for her emotional stability that the Silent Sculptor wasn't hideous. Or maybe that he was. It was difficult to process.

  The silence was interrupted with grandiose musid the darkness was illuminated with a se that differed from the normal format.

  Instead of the quiet er of an artist's studio, which had bee the opening trademark of every stream so far, they saw from an aerial perspective a rge crowd of people standing before a giant t white cube. From the surrounding academic architecture and the many youthful faces, most could tell that this was being taken from some prestigious uy, while a few even reized its source.

  “That's the Student Square at Trident Uy! That's my Ruudies Department!” came aed voice among the viewers.

  Tilly Bluesky, one of the dignified Rune Masters of the Heavens Pierg Guild, hopped up and down, squealing iement. “The professors are all there! That means this is a Masters Thesis Presentation from the Ruudies Department! Gates! The Silent Sculptor is a student?!”

  “Thats amazing!”

  “I knew our dude was talented, but ruoo? That’s crazy!”

  “SHUT UP!”

  Silence fell again, but everyone could see the Guild Master's giddy excitement.

  The images on the ss verged into the form of a simple rune and the melody became still and anticipatory with a single, repeating chime.

  Most of those present reized the base rune of purification, while only a few reized this one was slightly different. This in itself wasn’t anything strange. Rune-smiths were stantly experimenting with the usage of base runes in search of new effit ways of productivity. What stood out with this rune was the nature of the alteration.

  All rune knowledge came from the Nexus's gifts. Ahat slew a monster from beyond the Gates for the first time would receive White Merits and a Rune Seed. This rune was first thought to only serve as a terminal that accessed the Nexus Local Market, a mysterious virtual market that allowed trade of specific goods throughout the world, with Merits as currency. Once used in a transa, White Merit became Gray Merit and was only good as currency that fueled the new ey.

  Only when Hunters actally offered their White Merits directly to the Rune did they know it grew. With greater s, the first examples of pleted Base Runes shocked the world. Runes could alter reality.

  Materials altered, maed and disappeared, defying modern physid bined human wisdom.

  The excitement for all reted industries came when they discovered the upgrades did here.

  When powerful Hunters tio reater amounts of White Merit, the world learhat the personal rune could grow three more times, with rumors of a fourth being the key to being an S-Ranker. Each level up resulted in a more plex rune and specialization of power. People that started with the same base rune had vastly different abilities by their third-level runes.

  Rune-smiths were those dedicated in the seareaning. Studying the base mysteries of the Runes and their use had started an age of exploration separate from the Gates. The resulting fruits had brought woo their bleak worlds.

  Magical rune barriers and purification runes elevated living ditions while accessible ruech like rune powered vehicles ected people to their city and wrist s reected people to the world.

  Modern fabrication teology, ied with simple but powerful runes, made the cities plentiful and rich.

  While the Hunters brought peace, Rune-smiths brought prosperity, and the retionship betweewo could not be unwoven.

  Rune-smiths learned from the growth of personal runes and based their theories and designs around simir growth patterns and plexity. Base runes represehe rank zero foundation for rune-smiths to build upon one level at a time, from rank-one ruo rank-three runes.

  The base rune of purification on the s was not altered to the rank oandard which would have tripled the rune’s plexity. No, there were just a few extra lihen a sed base rune appeared and ected with those mysterious lines. Absorption.

  Many heads were tilted when the sed base rune ected with the first. That’s not how that worked, right?

  But it looked alright? Why wouldn’t that work?

  Their normal thought process was to ie properties of absorption into a base purification ruo form a single yered rank 1 ruh two attributes. This was just pairing two base ruo work together in perfect sync. It made a lot of sense.

  The strange double rune on the s shrank in size before multiplying from oo two to four, and so on till they flooded the dispy and a new supp ruructure tied them together.

  The sea of purification runes was now tied in an anic structure that resembles veins before a third rune cluster arose from the ground and joined.

  It came alive.

  The previous bck backdrop crumbled away into motes of white light that covered the Student Square.

  When stillness returhere was a tree.

  It looked nothing like a normal tree they had all seen from the old movies.

  This was a crystal tree that glimmered with tless glowing runes.

  For those who uood runes well, the presentation was clear. This was a brand new ruructure proposal that interwove many smaller rune nodes into a whole. It was a pletely new way of looking at ruructures that simply ditched the preceived limitations every rune-smith bound themselves to. Instead of looking at a ranked ru was like looking at a living, breathiy made of simple runes.

  Then there were two and then four and so on, till a new world emerged.

  The wonderfully chraphed dispy of lights and music told a story of a beautiful potential. Everyone in the room were sidered masters of their fields and had received the best educations in the world. No one had missed the significe of what was being freely dispyed.

  Most thesis presentations would deliberately obfuscate key pos of the Ruructure being presented. Although base theories were easily shared, any petent Rune-smith would hold their core secrets close at heart. This was so they could secure their own positions ithroat world of runes.

  This presentation was the opposite. For those who knew more about the world of ruhey couldn't help but feel helpless.

  Was their idol a fool?

  He was detailing the entire rune creation process, as if he was afraid people wouldn't uand.

  But as they watched more, their eyes widened in wonder.

  Tilly couldn't help but marvel at what she was seeing. The slowly f strokes of the runes held a beauty in its simplicity that even the uninitiated could appreciate. It was like watg the Silent Sculptor's other live streams, but instead of stone or metal, he was now sculpting with lines of energy.

  This should have beeed at a world summit, not a live stream for sculpting fans with who knows hoeople that uood anything.

  As a reized master of her craft, Tilly was captivated by the beautiful sea of ruhat wove together into something anic. A tree. A forest. A world.

  The cepts she saw were refreshingly simple a groundbreaking. It went against the current trends in rune research, yet it made absolute sense once preseo her.

  For free.

  All of it.

  She and a few others could uand the generosity of the act for what it was. He wao spread this teology. Not for fame nition. His desire inly spelled out for them.

  This was a noble goal that would require the cooperation of all ten Gate Cities. A Sed Great Human Miracle with the same noble spirit as the first.

  Numerous practical and elegant applications of the Modur Purification Runes System were freely detailed, oer another.

  Simple runes kept f and growing into new and miraculous things.

  Orowers arose among the trees and pierced the skies. Runes sparkled in arg masses along its surfaces that periodically geed magical clouds that dispersed into the poisoned skies to purify them, f lost rainbows.

  Titanic floating airships could be seen speckled throughout the skies of toxic clouds, leaving streams of air in their wake, rising higher and higher till they reached the untouchable Veil of Darkness and brought back the stars.

  Small rivers and streams of purification water were being geed from different sources to pool into a pristine ke of crystal clear water. Fish and fisherman swam in their endless chases as people and animals of all shapes and sizes gathered on the shores for nourishment.

  Runes formed tracks in the air as trains crisscrossed above the trees at different levels, eg towers in a growing anic web of civilization.

  As the city grew, the skies cleared, and a fotten sun openly greeted mankind once agairees and pnts began repg the beautiful fakes as the world became beautiful with new vitality. The earth finally healed, and the city finally had a backdrop worthy of its dream.

  Everyone knew what the world looked like outside the City even if they hadn't ever been outside themselves. Why would they go there? It was a nightmare!

  But a new spark of excitement was lit in everyog. Could we live in a world like that? A world with trees? they breathe the air ahe sun? Could they and their children live like their blessed aors?

  Drip

  Drip

  Drip

  Tears rolled dowia's blushed fa a nonstop torrent.

  “So this is the world he wishes to see. How marvelous.” She whispered.

  Celestia had been moved every time she had watched the unnamed artist in his work of creation.

  Her retively short life of 25 years, first as the Princess of the Luna family and its future Head, to her ret assion as Tower Master of the mighty Tower of the Stars and Guild leader of Heavens Pierg, the rgest and most powerful guild uhe Luna family, had all been about strength and quest. It was her strong dignity and her powers of destru that ted her lofty position in a fiercely petitive family.

  She had created nothing in her life. Only destroyed and quered. opping.

  The first time she watched something Tom, her annoying but petent subordinate, had reended watg on her down time, her life had ged, irrevocably.

  She had, not once, ever sidered the value of something that served no purpose but to be beautiful or what the creation process of such a thing would be like. Why would she divert any of her most precious limited resource such as her time on things like that?

  Simply put, Celestia Luna was charmed.

  She was charmed by how delicately he handled his creations as if he was holding a lover.

  She was charmed by the Switch, where a normal man became a master with a focus that was blind to all but his craft, and how expressive his warm brown eyes became when he was happy with his work.

  She was charmed by the masterful dexterity and flow of movements that put to shame even the masters of hand to hand bat within her mighty family.

  She was charmed by the body that held so much skill and potential for destru, used solely to create.

  The works born from those magical hands were something else, however. She couldn't demean her appreciation for this mysterious man's works as merely charmed.

  They made her look at her world differently and brought attention to a void in her soul that had finally found nourishment.

  Watg the soothing hours of his work and the creations after, had brought the first peace she had felt since she st embraced her sister. She was grateful.

  She had believed herself emotionally prepared for anything that could happen, but she leasantly surprised to have been foolishly mistaken.

  He hadn't even shown up yet, but just the vision he had shared was enough to shake her spirit. pared to this man's overwhelmingly generous nature, she felt like what she had been doing to be small and selfish.

  So what if she had beaten out all her brothers and sisters and cimed her birthright as the Lord of the Tower and secured the seat as the heir of the Luna Family for a bit more time? What had she tributed to the world? Just more blood debts. So much blood.

  And then there was this man that freely shared what could have made him the wealthiest Rune Master in the world. She wasn't one of the fools that couldn't uand the value of what had been freely offered.

  A city that was oh nature, skies so blue and clear like a dream, kes and os filled again with life.

  What a dream.

  Was all this possible?

  This thought emerged in every viewer, old and young, dreamers and ics. It didn't matter. The dream was too beautiful. An unknown yearning grew in all who watched.

  And then the images vahe music stopped.

  While Celestia was still immersed in her visions, the white cube began to slowly fade. The barrier was lifting. The mystery was being unveiled.

  A slow melody herded their collective breaths for the single moment of revetion.

  As the st of the barrier faded away, they saw it bloom.

  Trees.

  Colorful flowers.

  A pavilion.

  A small stream and pond

  A real magic garden from a fairy tale everyone wished they lived, had sprung alive in the middle of the Student Square.

  Magical trees, flowers and pnts were given permission to grow and expanded well beyond the inal boundary in moments. Those that stood closer now stood uhe shade of crystal opies.

  Each side was lined with gracefully twisting trees and bushes with impossibly beautiful flowers. A single orrance covered iiful floral reliefs gave passage.

  The view folloast the first crowd to give a tour that no one would have believed to have been real without vi.

  It was all too much.

  The flowers chimed and glowed with a tinkling that followed the breeze. The trees slowly swayed their branches, and crystal leaves glowed in waves of soft greens and blues, releasing a gentle orchestra of ethereal music.

  A mist magically formed from the trees into small glowing clouds that formed above the tree opies, creating a new sky for the Garden that glowed in spots like hidden stars, ging the air all around. Those present experiehe est breaths of their lives.

  The view moved along the lightly meandering stoh that spiraled around and down, leading from one marvel to another.

  In the first er, a rge tree had brahat arched protectively around a rippling giant floating sphere of water that was stantly spilling down a glittering stream of crystal clear water that ran freely dowh betweeones and filled the garden with the sounds of trig. Two delicate crystal clear fish, only visible from the small ruhat lighted their eyes, slowly swam around a small light at the ter.

  The path went on, lined with fasating little sculptures of animals that had an undefinable quality that made one sure that they would blink if you looked away, surrounded by flowers and pnts that came out of a dream.

  A creature with antlers stood tall and proud as its mate and children grazed and pyed in security, while a family of squirrels and other small critters pyed between the branches.

  The flowers came in all beautiful and delicate sizes and clowing and chiming with different tunes as they tributed to the audible feasts as well as the visual.

  The sed er, now slightly lower, sat a small crystal pavilion overlooking the Garden. The pavilion was small and intimate and immensely intricate and visually delicate, only made possible with the lines of ruhat wove through the crystal tices. Even more beautiful crystal flowers embraced the three sides of the pavilion. This was a seat for lovers.

  Beautiful works of art lihe sloping path that lead down to a final nding. The water had finally diverged into a small, indepe stream that flowed into a small, glowing pond. Crystal water lilies sparkled and sang their songs from a gently rippling surface as colorful gss fish swam in little schools, the small ruhat trolled them glowing from their cores.

  Fag the pool of purification water was the final piece. Sitting on a rge stone uhe most beautiful tree in the garden was the most beautiful sculpture, surrounded by the most beautiful flowers.

  It was a woman sculpted from white stone. Shoulder length hair framed a young, pretty face with the look of absolute love. There was trust, dependend a bit of pyful yearning all tied together with a fidehat was addig.

  She was small and slim with a modest chest, draped in flowing sheets as she sat rexed uhe tree, one hand supp her gently leaning frame, shoulder bare and mischievously leaning forward, as the other delicate hahe sheets to her extended life nurturing belly, proteg her modesty.

  It wasn't vulgar.

  She was simply beautiful and there urity to that.

  And standing in front of her was the back figure of a man.

  Celestia caught her breath. She khis back. This was the back she saw, even in her dreams.

  She both yearned for him to turn and finally reveal himself and hoped he never did.

  She realized as more was revealed that this garden was a dedication to love and new life. Seeing the final piece shook her for its natural beauty and seeing the face of the ohis Garden was made for.

  She was beautiful with a youthful delicate features, but it was the expressiveness of those features, captured in stohat drew the eyes.

  Celestia wao deny it but, the emotions expressed, was what she wanted. She wao be able to make that kind of face.

  She wao see his face, but didn't. She'd never felt so tradictory before, never having allowed it. Decisiveness and always moving forward had beeraits that she had nurtured sihe young age, when she peted for dominance. She loathed the indecision a some embers of anger and frustration begin to light before the drone cam adjusted its position.

  A small group had formed closely behind the figure that was decidedly not happy. Even surrounded by the wonders of the garden, there was a clear distress in the way they watched the back of the sculptor.

  Celestia and all the other viewers now realized that the atmosphere was strange. Even the people further behind that had just ehe garden were cautiously paying attention to the sculptor, even as they marveled at their surroundings. There was an atmosphere of watg a show they weren’t meant to see.

  He hadn't moved a muscle sihe beginning, not attempting to address the growing octs ressing his presentation as the music stopped. Only the sounds of the Garden and murmurs of the crowd remained.

  He just stood there.

  Staring at her.

  There was a teillhat didn't suit the surroundiy. Everyone was waiting for something that Celestia and the viewers couldn't uand. What had happehey couldn't hear the soft whispers.

  Slowly, there was movement. A step. And then another. And then one more.

  The drone cam, awake st, gave the view they’d been waiting for.

  Only the real active supporters had been io view what they had all loo see. The face that beheld the hands that created so maiful works of art, uncovered by any masks.

  After seeing his greatest masterpiece, their curiosity was mounting. They needed a face to go with their admiration.

  And now they got it.

  A haggard face they didn't reize.

  The eyes were wrong. Even though those were the only features they had known, once familiar eyes had bee a stranger’s. They didn't have the light alehat had captivated them.

  While Celestia was growing in a suffog ay -

  A deep sigh.

  His right hand moved up slowly.

  Celestia stood violently, her seat, her seat sent flying, while she and everyone oop level of the Tower of the Stars stared in shock.