Illuminura awoke to find herself in a frozen world. She hissed and growled in agony as every ounce of her body throbbed with pain. Most of all her brain ached more now than it had ever in centuries of her long life.

For hours she struggled to move at all, let alone climbed onto her feet to stand. It was as if she had no strength left within her body. With no powers to call on either she found this to be a new hell. In torment, she was forced to crawl.

She loathed this and utterly loathed herself for allowing such herself to fall to such a pathetic level. A godlike celestial forced to crawl like some human baby. It was pathetic and nothing short of a disgraceful embarrassment.

In the morning hours of the next day, she flexed her legs and found strength enough to stand. Like a youngster who stood up for the first time, she revelled with joy as she took her first clumsy steps forward.

That afternoon she reached a cliff edge and found the cliff barely taller than a human. Looking around she felt vulnerable in her current state. She believed it a shallow drop that can be survived.

With a gentle hop, she launched herself onto the plateau bellow. She hit hard on the earth below. The sound of crackling bones heralded a flood of excruciating pain in her mind. She screamed as she gripped her left leg.

Wide eyed she panicked and shivered uncontrollably as she felt her foot swell and pulse with insurmountable pain. Unable to walk she resigned to lie where she landed and wait for her regeneration to kick in.

Considering all that had happened and her immense hunger she would not be surprised to find her reserves of power depleted as well. Malnutrition would do that to a celestial.

She despaired as she thought herself pathetic even given her situation. She gritted her teeth as she cringed and began to weep as she stared at the snow she laid in. Now weaker than a mere human she loathed herself.

The cursed feelings of hopelessness and self-loathing plagued her mind. Her own thoughts teased her with terrible cruelty as she pondered upon without end. They conjured up paths of logic that ruled her a failure.

They declared her useless in her current condition. As she angered they declared her mindless. As she calmed they called her spineless. Soon the collective torment pound in her very mind like a disease.

She shut her eyes, ground her teeth together and gripped her head. As these thoughts plagued her soul. She collected her will to purge the plague from her mind and strained to clear her normally clear mind.

"Enough!" She roared as she released a shock wave that shattered stone and shook the earth.

She looked around and the thoughts calmly ebbed away. Her power was still hers all that was truly damaged was her pride. Her pride as a celestial, her pride as one of the most powerful beings to walk the earth, that had been what was broken, cracked open and torn away by the vile beast she battled.

She found her resolve to return and resigned to focus on survival. She reflected on old lessons learnt centuries ago while training the great training schools on Luna. One lesson would prove useful right now.

As she tried to stand she put weight on her injured foot and collapsed as a flash of pain struck her. Then she resorted back to crawling to the cliff face. This was still shameful, a shameful thing for one so high born such as her to be brought so low as to be forced to crawl for her life.

As she reached the cliff face she took one of the many rocks broken off of it. She opened her mouth and strained. Focusing on achieving a complex method she grew short of breath. She broke in a fit of panting and then tried again.

Back then the challenge had been to restraining her power to achieve this. Now it was summoning enough of it to do so. Such was the condition of her broken body.

She bid her time as she focused on feeling her teeth and her jaw. She pictured them and focusing ever harder upon them. Eventually, she felt her power flow ever so faintly once more as her teeth glowed with golden light.

She lifted the rock to her mouth and bit it. She cringed at its disgusting taste but pushed herself to chew it up and swallow. It has been terrible on her tongue yet she teared up as her heart swelled with gratitude. She gathered more rocks and consumed them all until her belly was full.

Celestials did not have many of the organs that humans do. Instead, their stomachs were thrice the size of a normal human's one. It is instead a biological fusion reactor with the power of a small sun.

Any matter that enters it is atomically broken down into radiation and then built back up again into whatever the body requires of it. Primarily this is food and waste but will include anything that is eaten by the celestial.

The memory of that particular lesson shone clear as day mostly because of the terrible taste of many a foul substances and materials that filled her stomach in the learning of it. She smiled as she crunched down on a rock, her foot even healed without her noticing.

Like a weight lifting from her shoulders, she realised a simple truth. Twas her pride that was hurt nothing more. Wounds heal but the mind must be maintained. With this in mind, she marched on with revitalised vigour.

The sun rose high as time passed and Illuminura laboured on and on lowering herself down the titanic mountainside. Soon it hid behind a vale of mist as she went ever lower. She may have climbed some hundred meters down but she felt like it had been a mile in her weakened state.

Eventually, she found flat ground through the mist and let herself slump against the cliff face. She panted in exhaustion and watched her surroundings. She grew frustrated having lost her ability to open her mind and see life once more.

Anger boiled within her gut as she found even her sharp eyes couldn't pierce the mist. Smells of all kinds hit her; the stench of strange swampland filled her nostrils. She ground to a halt as she felt she lost her way.

After a while, she decided to pick herself up and advance. Nothing shall deter her, nothing shall stop her, she is a celestial and nothing can stop her. At least that is what she told herself as she slogged through what soon appeared to be marshes.

Sheltered by the tall cliffs on all sides this ecosystem thrived in the lowlands and stretched on for an unknown amount kilometres but a celestial is ever so stubborn. She carried on for hours with no end in sight.

Soon she felt like she was being watched. As hours passed by the unyielding feeling itched at the back of her mind. Still in her weakened state and keep the power of her foes in mind this made her ever more anxious.

It was not long before Illuminura jumped and twitched at every sight. She grew very fearful that she was now helpless against the manner of creatures that earth harboured in this age.

The water dripped, drizzled and splashed with every movement in this expansive marshland full of life. She held her guard up and carried on. Frustration bloomed in her mind once again as she realised she lacked even the power to form a simple blade.

As time passed she distracted herself with thoughts of the past and thoughts of future plans. Soon her mind turned to what go her here, the Siege of Loknar Fortress.

She knew that the establishment of Nova City would be a delicate procedure that allowed no interruptions. Yet despite knowing full well that the celestials plan to extend their territory far beyond the simple borders of Nova City she doubted the wisdom of her actions.

Illuminura understood that in the heat of battle it is easy to lose perspective but why did the battle have to commence in the first place she wondered. So she talked on as war raged all around her. A war that was not hers but made her think of her own one differently.

She had been under orders that any and all possible threats to Nova City be swiftly destroyed. That had been her task and she was suited to it with her telepathic vision. She did her duty yet now doubt arose in her mind. She forced the doubt out of her mind and walked on.

Her mind, on the other hand, had other ideas. The doubt still remained. Why did Arvarius order any and all possible threat be swiftly destroyed she wondered. She pondered the reason behind the siege of Loknar Fortress.

The questions plagued her mind. She considered the alternatives. Perhaps negotiations could have sufficed. Perhaps allies could have been made of Clan Loknar and a sense of comradeship built with the defeat of the minotaurs.

She pieced together the many stolen memories she held within her mind. She considered and reconsidered everything that had happened since the United Forces landed on earth. Starved of a definite conclusion she thought of it ever more as she wandered through the marshes

Soon afterwards the world around her echoed with squeals, clicking and all manner of sounds as shadows rushed about all around her. She became agitated as she wondered what kind beast lives in such an environment. Their boundless movement seemed to break up the fog as they dashed about on tiny feet.

Through the fog appeared many creatures sprinting about and picking fights all over the place. There seemed to be two distinct factions fighting for supremacy. Perhaps this was contested land. Perhaps some great wrong invoked the wrath of many.

They rushed about often finding an enemy and clashing in some brutal war. Illuminura was frightened as two beasts clashed to her right and to her left another fled while two chased it down.

These were small creatures that Illuminura walked passed, they took little interest in her while their foe still stood on the field of battle. As such she walked passed for several stressful minutes as all around her these creatures bit and clawed at each other.

One squealed in torment as it was savagely torn apart by its foes. On the ground, it wailed in pain as three enemies gutted it. Its despairing face was a testament to their remorseless nature. Such was life on earth nowadays.

All around her an awe-striking spectacle took place. Two of these beasts spun and pounced about as they tore into each other. Another locked onto the neck of his foe and held on until its beak pierced the throat.

This is what earth had become underneath all its natural beauty. It was a relentless brutal arena where survival of the fittest was the one supreme rule. It was a cold, heartless world, born out of mere necessity and nothing more.

Such was the speed with which they fought at that amidst the thick fog she could barely make out what they looked like. What she could see was that they were bipedal creatures with long thin tails and armour that shimmered in the darkness.

It seemed that the fight had escalated into a pitched battle as more and more creatures waded into the fight. The brawls swelled as dozens piled on to aid their comrades in the bloodshed. Yet they all still overlooked the silver and gold giant standing amongst them.

Soon one fell from a great height and landed in front of her. Akin to an ancient creature known as leaellynasaura in appearance it was three feet long and two tall. It was a streamlined creature with a natural layer of silver colour scale armour.

Battered, bruised and bloodied it died where it landed. Atop of the rock, its victorious counterpart squealed into the air in triumph and all around Illuminura, his pack squealed in chorus while the losers of this bout fled.