Art Of Divinity Cosmos: The Beggining of All

Behind her, Beatrice, Leona, Aiden, Finn, Heather, and Madeline followed closely. The other people from Hombre Libertad Alliance had come this far, surviving the battle against Grimlott Gobbler and uncovering the hidden truth of this world. But now, they stood on the edge of something far older... and far more dangerous.

The walls were carved with ancient scriptures and strange symbols glowing faintly with golden light. Aether ran her fingers across the carvings, feeling a strange warmth flowing into her veins. It was ancient Magia... pure energy that hadn't been touched for centuries.

"This place... feels alive", Finn muttered.

"No", Beatrice replied softly. "It's not alive. It's watching us."

As they stepped deeper into the temple, the path split into three corridors, each leading to unknown darkness. The sound of dripping water echoed from the left, while faint flickering lights danced from the right. The center path, however, was shrouded in complete darkness.

Aiden stepped forward, scanning the ground with his Vault Boy's radar sensor. There's a strange energy signature ahead. Something ancient... but not hostile.

Aether's eyes narrowed. "Then we move forward."

They chose the middle path, stepping into the shadows that seemed to swallow their presence. The deeper they walked, the heavier the air became, as if time itself had slowed. The walls were covered in strange, circular patterns and ancient mechanical gears that faintly resembled technology from the ancient times.

Leona whispered, "This... this isn't normal magic. This is..."

Ancient Vōstras technology, Aether finished her words. This place holds the secret of how magic and technology once became one.

Suddenly, the ground trembled slightly as a trap mechanism activated. Large stone pillars shifted from the walls, closing in from both sides. The ceiling began to descend slowly, threatening to crush them.

Finn cursed, "Oh, come on! I thought this only happened in Indiana Jones!"

Aether raised her hand, focusing her Alteration Magic: Clairvoyance, this magic is already mastered after she unlock perk in another dimensions before. After that, she reinforcing her body and increasing her reaction speed. With a swift movement, she dashed forward, avoiding the falling pillars and reaching a strange ancient console embedded in the wall.

Her Vault Boy's interface scanned the console, detecting ancient energy flowing through it.

"Analyzing... Source: Unknown Magic Energy."

Without hesitation, Aether placed her hand on the console. The Vōstras Flow surged through her veins as if recognizing her as one of its own. The symbols on the wall glowed brighter, and the mechanism slowly halted.

The group gasped in relief as the ceiling stopped just inches above their heads.

"Holy sht...*" Finn muttered. "Remind me never to enter an ancient temple without Aether again."

Aether ignored him, her cold gaze fixed on the path ahead. What she felt was more than just controlling ancient technology. It was as if... something was guiding her. Something... familiar.

"Do you feel that?" Leona asked. "There's... something deeper inside this place."

Beatrice stepped forward, her noble and calm demeanor hiding her curiosity. The scriptures speak of an ancient source of Magia... one that existed before the world fell to nuclear fire. This place... holds the origin of all magic.

Aether's eyes narrowed. Aetherius whisper to aether "This is it, Aether. The origin of all Magia or you can call Magic in your world languages. He is the Auranth."

They reached the heart of the temple—a massive circular chamber filled with ancient machines and glowing blue crystal cores. In the center stood a monolithic statue of a woman, holding an orb of pure light in her hands.

The walls around them depicted an ancient story—a woman who held the power of creation and destruction, a being who controlled both the light of Magia and the dark flow of Vōstras.

Aether eyes widened in disbelief. "The Lady of Auranth... the first wielder of magic."

Aether stepped closer to the statue, her chest faintly glowing with the light inside her heart, something that only appeared in moments of great danger. The orb in the statue's hands responded to her presence, pulsing with ancient energy.

Suddenly, a whisper echoed through her mind. It was Aetherius, the mysterious voice that had guided her since she escaped the Void Dimension after losing her best friend, Remi.

"Do you understand now, Aether? the voice echoed. This world was never meant to be balanced between light and darkness. It was meant to be whole."

Aether clenched her fist. "Then why do I feel so... broken?"

No answer came...

As the group examined the chamber, Finn discovered an ancient mechanism beneath the statue—a puzzle lock that required combining Magia and technology to activate.

"Let me handle this", Madeline said confidently, stepping forward with her Conjuration Magic to summon a mechanical phantom to interact with the ancient gears.

Meanwhile, Leona used her Alteration Magic: Detect Life and Source, revealing hidden energy lines that flowed through the walls like veins of Magia.

Aether, however, stepped back and closed her eyes. She reached deep into her Vōstras Flow, allowing her senses to extend beyond the physical. In her mind's eye, she saw the hidden patterns and ancient scripts guiding the energy within the temple.

With perfect coordination, they activated the mechanism, and the ancient gate slowly opened, revealing a spiral staircase descending into the unknown depths of the temple.

Beatrice smirked. "I never thought I'd say this, but... we make a damn good team."

Aiden grinned. "Yeah, until Finn accidentally triggers another trap."

Finn rolled his eyes. "Hey, that happened once."

The group laughed softly, but Aether remained silent, her eyes fixed on the darkness below. The true secret of the Auranth... the origin of all Magia... awaited them and deep within her soul, Aether knew that whatever lay beyond this gate... would change her forever.The wind howled like a mourning spirit as the group reached the edge of the crumbling cliffside, where stone pillars—weathered by centuries—stood like sentinels before a structure untouched by time: the Sanctuary of Light.

Unlike any temple or ruin they had encountered before, it breathed silence. Not a single sound echoed from within the archways. No birds dared fly overhead. No dust clung to its white-gold walls, as if nature itself had drawn a boundary between the world and this sacred place.

The gate stood closed—unmoving, seamless, with no visible mechanism. Upon its frame were engravings neither ancient nor modern, shimmering faintly in light invisible to ordinary eyes. The architecture melded divine precision and surreal dream logic: curves spiraled into straight lines, geometry that bent perception itself.

The group from Hombre Libertad halted, momentarily stunned.

"This…" murmured Heather, brushing her fingers against a pillar that hummed with arcane warmth. "This is beyond anything our maps indicated."

Finn, ever the skeptic, squinted. "You're telling me we came all this way, fought off that Grimlott Gobbler bastard, just to be stopped by a fancy slab?"

"It's sealed," Leona confirmed after a brief examination. "No signs of mechanical entry, nor magical locks I recognize."

"Then how do we open it?" asked Elena, her usual cheer subdued. Her bright eyes scanned the stone, not for solutions—more as if sensing something watching from beyond it.

Aether stepped forward. Silent. Calm. Her eyes—icy, unreadable—locked onto the gate.

Inside her chest, something stirred.

She inhaled. And the world dulled.

No sound.

No movement.

No breath from the wind.

Time itself hiccupped.

Aether closed her eyes and reached inward—beyond flesh, beyond mind—into the well of soul where Aetherius waited.

Silence... then:

> "When light denies the worthy and shadow cloaks the truth, seek not the path laid before you, but the silence between your steps. For only the unseen may pass the unseen."

Aether stood motionless, digesting the riddle. It echoed in her bones like distant thunder.

Aetherius continued, her voice soft as starlight:

> "The gate is not locked by stone or spell, but by perception. Bend not the world—bend the way you walk through it."

And like a thread pulled taut, reality snapped.

The gate vanished—not crumbled, not opened. Simply ceased.

From the perspective of her allies, Aether had not moved.

But within that moment—within the span of a single heartbeat—she had walked through the gate without taking a step.

She reappeared before them again, standing now beyond the sealed archway. Light bathed her form, golden and gentle, like dawn over still oceans. A voice, deep and cosmic, yet intimately near, rang out from the air around her:

> "The Sanctuary recognizes your name, Aether. You alone may enter."

Gasps followed.

"Wait… What the—" Aiden's hand went to his Vault Boy, its scanner flickering with static.

"What just happened?" Heather murmured, half drawing her rifle.

Beatrice squinted. "No footsteps. No spell. No reality displacement. That's not possible."

"It's not," Leona replied, awestruck. "It's transcendence."

But confusion followed quickly. Finn, frowning, spoke aloud what they all felt:

"Why her? No offense, Aether, but what makes you special enough for some glowing voice to roll out the red carpet?"

Aether didn't respond. She only stared at them with that half-frozen expression—somewhere between sorrow and serenity.

"It's a riddle," Elena muttered to herself, eyes wide. "She solved something."

"But we didn't hear anything," said Heather. "She just stood there!"

Beatrice stepped forward then, arms crossed with a smirk like someone who knew the ending to a story no one else did.

"Let's not pretend we're surprised," she said. "This girl's survived nuclear bunkers, mutant monstrosities, near-death battles, black-market trap merchants, interdimensional dissonance, and you lot on a daily basis."

That earned a half-hearted chuckle.

"But more importantly…" Beatrice turned serious. "We all knew from the moment we met her that there was something off about her. Not in a bad way, but... different. You can feel it. That pull, like gravity around a star. She doesn't bend to the world. The world bends to her."

Elena nodded slowly. "She's not chosen by us. She's chosen by something else."

Finn scratched the back of his head. "Still. Creepy as hell."

Leona added, "This isn't about worth. It's about alignment. The sanctuary resonates with something in her. Soul? Signature? We can't fake that."

Aiden, despite his skepticism, sighed and folded his arms. "Fine. Weird magic door lets the ice princess in. But what if she doesn't come back?"

Aether finally spoke. Her voice gentle, almost motherly.

"I will return." Then, a brief pause.

"If I don't… burn the sanctuary down."

"Wait, what?" Heather barked a laugh.

"Let me guess," Finn grumbled. "She's kidding, right?"

Beatrice chuckled. "You'd hope."

They stepped back. The light that marked Aether's presence glowed brighter for a second, then pulsed—gently—and vanished as she entered.

Only then did they realize…

…none of them had blinked.

And yet minutes had passed.

Time had bent. Just like space. Just like logic.

As if Aether was now walking not just into a building, but into a truth no one else could see.

And behind her, the gate sealed again. Not with force. Not with magic.

But with understanding.