In the grim darkness of your gacha rolls log of the 2157 AE. There is no winning.

But before that, before all went to such bad luck, one was particularly unfortunate to have attracted the attention that they would not have wanted.

Such man would rose to one of the most wealthiest positions in the entire Cosmos, yet also became a #1 enemy to many as well, yet he could not bother to deal with them, as his luck, which he would assume, is terribly bad.

"The locals refused our offer to buy their lands with 30 billion credits and a 20 years free interstellar travel, what is your order, my master?" - His disciple asked him through a communicator, while he was sitting inside his office, unamused of the situation unwrapping.

"..."

He was quiet for a moment, but then he ordered. "Keep increasing the price. Violence shall be our last resort."

He sighed after he saw it on the monitor.

The smirk on the disciple's face. That one damn familiar smirk that he wished to have been able to wipe from his memories, he wished to liberate himself from this.

He was all too familiar with what is going to happen next, yet completely hopeless against what is to come.

He is not in charge of his own fate. He is not his own master, he is just a puppet, not to the IPC, but to those who yearned for joy and laughter.

"Understood~"

The sadistic voice of his "disciple" came out, as usual, which was followed by a gruesome command, which he had given.

"I will tell them to release the Life Eater virus onto the atmosphere of Eastaban right away~ Have a great day, my master~"

He did not remember taking in a disciple, but then, he has one, by one unexplained reason, he felt as if the Aeons beyond have played with his life all along, sending him not an angel nor a devil, but a Masked Fool... Perhaps this is the work of Elation?

He sighed again, this time turning off the monitor and faced away, looking outside at the window.

Was it really the right choice to abandon the ways of the Nameless, to join the Preservation's fanatical followers? Who does not worship the Amber Lord's way of Preservation, but only for profit and credits?

He wished he hadn't made that choice, or in the least, he wished he was still in charge of his own fate, only then could he be proudly calling himself as a former Nameless, the one who followed the Will of the Trailblaze, not some half assed piece of shit... or some would prefer to call him, a fraud.

The man, Oswaldo Schneider, could not change anything, it has all been planned out, and there is nothing he can do but to embrace it...

"Sir."

Someone began knocking on their door, to which he pressed the button to allow their entrance, and there came one of his secretaries, who had been brainwashed and powerless against the Fool's tricks as well. This time, she looked a bit confused and panicked.

"Sir, there are a bunch of infants and orphans demanding to fight you outside!"

— — — — —

The Path Space was raining, Stelle was trying to stop the room from getting flooded by scooping all the water outside, while Acheron was sitting there covering herself with her umbrella, as Akivili, the Aeon of Trailblaze sat motionless on the couch.

"Sob. Sob. Sob. What do you mean the 10/10 hot baddie, that I would smash again the moment the reenter the stage of the Cosmos, have fallen?" - Akivili asked.

"Well- It was only a rumor! No actual sources or relevant information confirming it yet!"

"Yet you said the Mirror Holders are all working on their own thing to resurrect her, and the Knights of Beauty all have fallen to their lust for power, one by one. If the Beauty was still around, none of them would have bothered to do it anyways."

"Y- Yes! But- can you at least please stop crying?"

"I am not crying. Evident by tears not flowing out of my eyes."

Okay, first of all, Stelle still can't see the face of the Aeon, so she can't really tell if Akivili was crying or not, secondly, whether or not Akivili is crying, it would have been masked by the ongoing indoor rain anyways!

"Okay, let me stop. Just give me some time."

"No! How about I distract you with some lore?"

"Lore? What could there possibly be more to tell me about, my child?"

"There is still lore... One of the biggest and most significant pieces of the universe... I introduce to you, the High Cloud Quintet."

"Oh [Trailblaze profanity]. It better be good. Or else this rain won't stop."

Acheron just sat there munching some cake.

"Well they are a group of special and incredibly powerful individuals that once came together to push back the Denizens of Abundance's assault on Xianzhou Yuque, which was one of the first great achievements of the group in their history as well. Basically they are a group of great friends and potentially be a great heroes group to the Xianzhou as a whole as well, led by the former Sword Champion of the Luofu, Jingliu herself."

"I required visual information." - Akivili said.

"Ugh fine." - Stelle quickly whips out her phone and typed aggressively with one hand before passing her phone to the sobbing Akivili.

"Uhhh... kinda hawt though, smash." - Akivili folded under zero pressure.

"Oops, wrong picture, you could wipe to the right..." - Stelle said as she was busy scooping the water out of the room.

"Yeah definitely a smash." - Akivili said, and then the rain stopped.

"Anyways, she was the former Sword Champion of the Xianzhou Luofu, she possesses an unmatched swordsmanship and an indomitable willpower equal to that of an Arbiter-General."

"So why isn't she a general then."

Acheron took Stelle's phone which was passed over by Akivili while she was munching, and saw Jingliu then whispered to herself... oh, her...

"Well I don't know. Anyways, the group has 5 members in total, all of which are really good friends to one another. First being Jingliu, most likely the leader, then comes Yingxing, just an average short-life human who is a really well renowned weaponsmith, he is the one who have made weapons for the group for a while and some of which are still used to today. Then we got the High Elder of the... how to say their name again... weird dragon horned people, which at the time is known as Dan Feng."

Akivili searches up the picture using her phone.

"Huh... This Yingxing dude looks like he's about to die at any moment due to old age, is his back and hip still working properly at the time? Has he ever gotten knee surgery?"

"This Dan Feng dude, looks familiar somehow, and damn, if it wasn't for his facial structures, I would have almost said smash."

"... Anyways... Aside from these three, the other two are Baiheng, one of the best starskiff pilots from Xianzhou Yaoqing who is known as the The Starskiff Killer."

"Damn. Imagine the irony, when piloting the starskiff thingy and shot down those same starskiff so much that she was called a kille-"

"No no, that actually has nothing to do with her killin- shooting down other Starskiffs, she has gotten that title because of the number of times she crashed her own Starskiffs."

"...is she dead?"

"Huh- uh why would you want to know?"

"Is she dead now?"

"...uhhh yes."

"Just as I thought. Time to see-"

"Cute. Headpats must give. Also smash."

"..."

"Anyways, who is the last?"

"Oh right it's Jing Yuan. Yes, the same longest serving general, the master of the Lightning Wielding Thunder Clapping Spirit Squashing Lord who does aura farming a lot whenever he has appeared in the story. This is before he became the general and even unlocked his aura farming passive, he was just a Cloud Knight Lieutenant at the time, also being the disciple of Jingliu, you can say that he is the final to join the group."

"So the whole racism thing either didn't exist with them, or the Xianzhou wasn't really racist back then I see. And then of course child fighters are already a thing for them." - Akivili said. "Anyways. Continue."

Acheron continues munching as she listens.

"Well out of the 5, Jingliu was the strongest of them all, in fact, here's a funny story, she actually fought Dan Feng for many years without a definitive result, that is until Jingliu herself slashed the ocean in half, kinda exposing his home."

"Damn."

"She was also the one who captured Hoolay."

"Speaking of which, Whoolay in the Wolfhunt Operation again?"

"...Haha. Anyways aside from those, she is said to have personally gone and defeated the Feather Guards, Iron Cavalry of the Houyhnhnm and countless other Abominations of the Abundance, all of that while not at the peak of her power." - Stelle explained. "Probably at the time in the whole Xianzhou Alliance, her power is just right behind the Emanators of the Hunt, it is unclear whether she was given any blessings from the Hunt THEMSELVES, but she surely was one of the most powerful figures back then."

"Sounds interesting..." - Acheron mumbled.

"Anyways, Jingliu although is indeed the strongest, she wouldn't have been able to pull out much of that stuff if she was alone, her friends in the High Cloud Quintet all are excellent individuals, together as a group, they were able to rescue Xianzhou Yuque and defeat Ketu Mirage, the living planet, destroying the Flagship of the Eternity's Fists fleet, an alliance of the Abundance and the Destruction, even going as far as to lead the speartip of their forces on a heavily influencing Abundance world, fought there for a whole month without reinforcement and supplies whatsoever and returned to the orbit after destroying the Cult of Star Devourers before they were able to make direct contact with Yaoshi THEMSELVES."

"Seems like a bunch of interesting feats, if I can understand like, half of the things you mentioned. Like what in the ninja is the Iron Cavalry. But regardless, I guess they are irrelevant, tell me more, what has become of the group?"

"Well... Really, really... Awfully really bad."

"How bad?"

"Well... It all started out with... Well if I recall it correctly, the long standing rival of the Xianzhou Luofu, Emanator of Abundance, Shuhu attacked Luofu after gathering for themselves a massive army which came somewhat as a surprise attack, it was very devastating for Luofu at the time and to make matters worse, Shuhu somehow had their hands on a Stellaron which greatly boosted their healing capabilities, making them nearly unkillable."

"So the Stellaron, while act like a nuclear reactor, it also works like drugs."

"Anyways... Dan Feng was the first to go up face to face against the Emanator as recorded, but was no match against the might of an Emanator anyways and got smacked down like a fly in less than a few seconds..."

"Talk about being a High Elder, I guess Long can spend several Amber Eras explaining why not allowing his kin to breed and repopulate is better than making them strong enough to lift a boulder."

"Yeah but then the spotlight was immediately taken by Jingliu, she, well, if I recalled correctly, once again, she wasn't even confirmed to have any blessings of the Hunt, only something called the Esse Core, which all Xianzhou natives possesses, but hers was unique, it was, well, at the moment probably the one at the highest level in the lore, she did not only managed to go face to face against Shuhu for a few minutes but injuring them enough that the only thing keeping them alive was the Stellaron boosting his healing capabilities."

"So did she somehow level up again and kill the Emanator for good? Theoretically, at least, during my time, the cases of Emanators being killed by someone below them is extremely rare, I think I do have one recorded somewhere, I will find it later."

"No... The battle was somewhat a stalemate, as Jingliu was holding back Shuhu just enough for the others to battle the Abominations and then Baiheng sacrificed her life for her friends, basically driving a blackhole into the battlefield eradicating all the enemies and perishing in the process, only leaving behind a few strand of hair and blood, but Shuhu was forced to retreat after that."

"I will ignore how Baiheng managed to drive a blackhole into the battlefield, but tell me, did it all start to go to [Trailblaze profanity] after her death?"

"Yes... Well, Baiheng was a valuable friend to them all, especially when Dan Feng was the High Elder of the... dragon people, and has this thing called the Transmutation Arcanum which can kinda mess with the genetics of the whole species, he used that with Yingxing bringing over the flesh of Shuhu to attempt and revive Baiheng."

"First of all. I get where they are coming from, they want their friend back but can't they discuss it with some other people? Secondly, why use the flesh of your enemy?"

"Because it contains the Abundance power?"

"...continue, my child."

"Well, the ritual went horribly wrong, Dan Feng got smacked again by the draconic abomination that was supposed to be Baiheng going on a rampage."

"Okay. First, that Dan Feng dude got smacked by the Emanator Shuhu, fair enough, but he couldn't have stood up to do something afterwards? And then he got smacked by his friend, what is he, another fraud?"

"Well Yingxing kinda got mutated with the flesh of Shuhu and also got mara struck in the process, basically making him mad while making him immortal at the same time. Jingliu arrived at the same time, witnessing the tomfoolery committed by her two friends and seeing the thing that was supposed to be her friend rampaging throughout Luofu pissed her off too much to the point she got mara too, she had to cover her eyes to keep herself under check, and then, her Esse Core broke through the previous limit and she then reached the peak of her power, and ended the abomination in one strike, which also marked the end of the Quintet."

"..."

"One year later Jingliu finally succumbed to the madness of mara and was dealt with by Jing Yuan, most said he killed Jingliu but somehow she survived and was banished from the Xianzhou Alliances with Yingxing, her name was erased from all public records as well, it was also during this time that Jingliu taught Yingxing the way of the Blade and killed him over and over again to try and grant him the mercy of death but to no avail, while Dan Feng was imprisonment for committing such a grave crime that he was forced to go into another reincarnation, and then was eventually exiled from the Luofu as well."

"You know, not seeing the Jing Yuan dude being mentioned throughout this whole rollercoaster of disaster somewhat relieved me, but it was also sad, knowing that dude probably saw it all unfolding before him but he cannot do anything himself." - Akivili said. "Well, I get it, nothing last forever but this one is like... the worst one ever."

"Well they do eventually meet again..."

Stelle then goes on to tell Acheron and Akivili about the High Cloud Quintet's reunion following the Stellaron Crisis on Luofu...

— — —

Or, otherwise known as the best journalist from the BFF, has just finally uncovered one of the most shocking news regarding the mysterious vessel that has been blowing up IPC ships recently...

"I can't believe this... the whole Garden will... no... not just for anyone, but for the whole Cosmos, this news will be shocking to everyone! This is why I signed up for this! Amazing!"

Akivili has returned!

A/n : Important announcements regarding the future updates of this story

Alr so it's been a while since this story started and now it has reached 11 chapters, for now, I will be honest with you guys, I ran out of lore and stuff to gossip about in this story and my next semester has just started today so maybe my update frequency will decrease significantly but i will still try to upload with the same quality of writing

also would you guys like it if some of the lore sessions are just kinda the bs things i made up and then have akivili narrates it

also what do you guys think about an animation for this series? (i can work with that in the mean time as the lore content is out)