Immortal Ascension Tower

g as the summer bug struggled to wash ashore. The weary tree disagreed, reminding the drowning bug of the catastrophic landslides, of the droughts that silently reaped, and of the ruinous lightning strikes that laid waste as they roared. If anything, the cypress argued, they should be wishing of a life as a mountain deity.

Unbeknownst to them, the howling winds carried the voices of the summer bug and the cypress. At the mountaintop, its elusive god lay weakly on His side, as He bled profusely from a horrifying gash. While golden ichor spilt from the grievous wounds, He secretly envied the trees and the summer bugs who knew nothing of the world. He loathed how He, who had defended and cared for all beings of the mountain, was to become but dust alongside them. He abhorred the meaninglessness of the world that distinguished not between a summer bug, and a primordial god.

In His rage, the winds picked up and a deluge swept the mountainside.

The summer bug that had just taken shelter underneath some foliage was washed away.

The cypress, too, was singed by lightning. Its trunk snapped in half, its insides charred black, still steaming.

The tiger god at the mountain peak growled His last. So unwilling He was to be reduced to mere dust, that He encased himself, and the peak of verdant trees, in perennial ice.

Like so, the Waves crest had overcome and drowned them all and together with them, their woes, stories, and sins.

A lone being witnessed it all happen while on a lonesome journey. He silently judged and condemned the cowardice of power and cruelty without repercussion.

He travelled and wandered his whole life, taking in the selfishness of all beings in the face of Natures abhorring apathy. And unbeknownst to him, a world lacking Justice scrutinised him back as he spent even his last days in relentless travel.

On his last night, the Gates of the Underworld chose their Judge.

The Eyes of Yama came to the solitary existence that weighed the summer bugs and the mountain deity on the same scales.

A secret Path opened up, only visible to him. And just as he had shed life with every footstep in life, he now shed his frail mortality as he descended those steps into the world beyond.

Like so, wearing that mortality as a cosy cloak, he was guided to the Underworld, where its Gates opened, and his throne awaited.

[Redacted] thus became Yama, King of Hell.

From that moment onward, his very existence was elevated, making him one of the most feared Primordials of all Planes.

The demon has since settled in the Underworld, where all souls pool after meeting their demise. Hed seldom thread outside his realm, spending his time scrutinizing those whod reach its Gates and presiding over the cycle of life and death.

From the very start, he firmly refuted the moniker Emperor, but all agree that if there was ever anyone who had come close to the Four, itd have to be the lone Fifth that governs over death.

[…]

End of ”Lord of the Underworld ”, an excerpt from ”Records of the Olden Era ”, the historical masterwork penned under the combined efforts of a thousand nameless scholars.