Nothing Can Carry the Will of God

"She has escaped?"

"That cannot be. How could she possibly have gotten out?"

Eli swept a sharp, piercing gaze over the people gathered in the temple. "Someone has betrayed me."

His suspicious eyes swept over them one by one, some charged with guarding her, others with keeping watch on her.

"Kill them."

The ones being dragged away screamed, "My King, we didn't do it, we swear we didn't!"

"We saw a figure, and then, and then we just fell asleep!"

"It isn't our fault!"

"It isn't our fault!"

Eli had no patience left for their excuses. A king needed no proof to kill. A single line, I suspect you, was more than enough.

Eli finished, and pointed at the two priests of God. "You are of the royal line. Which of you two let her go, I have no interest in learning. But I will give you both one chance now."

"She slipped out of your own hands. You will be the ones to bring her back. If you do not, your families and your children die with you."

The two priests of God trembled all over. "My King, we will bring her back. Without fail."

A minister stepped forward to soothe Eli's temper.

"My King, she is only a woman. If she has fled, then she has fled. We need only choose another of the Xilong family in her place."

Eli only laughed. If anything, he thought her escape had handed him a good opportunity.

"No one of the royal line is to be taken lightly. Still less the heir to the Sky Temple itself."

"Where could she possibly run to?"

"Only to the other three Royal Bloodline families. No one else would dare shelter royal blood."

"And that makes it the perfect chance to sound out where those three Royal Bloodline families truly stand."

Eli summoned his three sons, and commanded three Ruhe Beasts to answer to them.

He sent his sons out, each at the head of an army and a Ruhe Beast, each bound for the city-state of one of the three Royal Bloodline families, to track down wherever Star had gone.

He wanted to see who would dare take her in.

That would give him his excuse to strike at them, and with any luck a chance to reclaim yet another Ruhe Beast in the doing, and shore up the power of the King of Yinsai.

What he had never once imagined was that a terrifying mythical life walked at Star's side even now.

The land lay desolate. As far as the eye could see there were great tall boulders, and those twisted, monstrous stones loomed in the darkness like rows of terrible demon shadows.

Star and a small group of the Xilong family had fled here, meaning to rest a while before setting out again at first light.

In a single night, she had gone from a noble of the royal line and a divine servant priest of the Sky Temple to a fugitive of the Yinsai Kingdom.

Only yesterday she had possessed everything. Now she had nothing left at all.

"Father!"

Star sat curled around her knees, weeping in a corner hidden behind the rocks.

She did not dare show weakness before the others. She was, now, the one pillar the whole family had left to lean on.

Polo leapt out from behind the rock, half his body showing.

"What are you crying about?"

Star jumped, startled, and hurriedly wiped at her eyes. "I'm not crying."

Polo drew closer, stepping out from behind the stone.

"Don't bother wiping. I saw the whole thing."

"You're crying."

Nothing in the world bound Polo, and he had no real understanding of what grief even was. To him the world seemed a place brimming with joy.

Star stopped trying to hide it, and admitted the truth.

"My father was killed by the King, and I don't even know what to do."

"I really am weak. Really, truly useless."

"I don't even know where I'm supposed to go tomorrow."

Polo could not understand this at all. "If it really hurts that much, then go and defeat that king!"

"Make him pay for everything he's done."

Star lifted her head. "That is the King of Yinsai you're talking about!"

Polo drew himself up straight. "On your own, of course you couldn't. But you're not on your own now. You have a companion, and a Dream Sovereign of overwhelming power at that."

"Messenger of God Yinsai, courier of illusion and dream..."

"Clever and wise Polo."

That whole string of titles, too many to even remember, left Star utterly baffled, though Polo seemed to work himself into a fever of excitement just from saying them.

"That's right."

"This is what an adventure really is! This is a great epic, a hero's own story!"

He spun in a circle like some magnificent dancer. This was how he liked to show the joy he felt inside, but this time, dancing alone did not feel like enough.

The golden robe he wore bulged out into something like a hand, caught hold of Star's, and pulled her spinning into the dance with him.

Beneath the starry sky, the two of them danced together in the moonlight.

"Star, let's go and beat that king together! Let's set out together on a vast, magnificent adventure!"

Polo loved chasing after thrilling, novel stories, and he despised a life that never changed, a life bound and confined.

Star, still utterly bewildered, left the rhythm and the steps entirely to Polo.

But it did feel lighter this way, and the fear that had gripped her heart eased little by little.

Polo was right, she thought. Her father could not be allowed to have died for nothing.

"I will make that cruel king pay the price."

Polo had fallen asleep, curled against Star's side like a small child.

Star tilted her head and looked at him.

"A messenger... of the divine?"

She had never in her life seen anyone like him.

Was this truly what someone from the God-Given Land looked like? And what was that place, that it could leave a person without a single worry in the world, so wonderfully happy?

In his dream, Polo met God.

God allowed him an audience, and let Polo wander into God's own dream.

The dream God dreamed was nothing at all like Polo's own. It was endless high towers, and a city stretching on and on to the very edge of the sky, and its people held dominion over the sky, the earth and the sea.

They had even turned their gaze upward, toward the stars above their heads.

A miracle.

Divine power.

Neither word seemed enough to describe such power.

Polo stood at God's side, struck utterly speechless.

Could a people so powerful truly exist? Was this the divine race spoken of in legend?

"This place... is it God's world?"

God stood atop a tower of iron, looking down over the ceaseless flow of traffic and that city of countless millions.

He sank into thought and memory, as though only by returning to it again and again could he keep himself from forgetting who he was, and where he had come from.

God said, "It once was."

Three words, and within them lay endless years of hardship and wistful sighing.

He stood now upon the Earth itself.

And the distance between himself and his homeland was measured not in light years, but in a hundred million years.

Polo understood only half of what he had seen. After a moment's daze, he spoke up to God.

"Oh Great God, Your messenger has found someone. She will surely create a true god-descending technique!"

"She's a genius, a genius who can create a divine technique of her own!"

Polo rattled on and on, like a child showing off a sandcastle he had built, or some toy of his.

God did not pay him much attention. In truth, he had never once expected Polo to find him any answer at all.

"Polo, there is nothing in this world that can bear the will of God."

The difficulty of it did not discourage Polo in the least. He held to an unshakable optimism about everything still to come, and a heart full of hope.

"This is only the beginning."

"Polo will surely find it! After all, Polo is going to travel this whole world together with God, as His messenger."