There was no triumphant cheers, only the low sound of thousands of hooves and the rustle of leather and felt. Temurel, his face etched with grim resolve, rode slowly along the silent lines of his warriors. Beside him, the chiefs of the Tagh Boru and other clans sat astride their mounts, their expressions hardened by sorrow and fierce defiance. Their ancestral banners, though fewer in number than the massed standards of Baghatur's Huna, snapped tautly in the evening breeze, symbols of an older loyalty. These were the true Left Wing, the northern clans who knew that patricide was not merely a transgression against man, but a profound violation against the very core of Tengri's order and the sacred ancestral lineage.
"Why did they let us go, Kirisen? What were you doing that night?" Temurel asked, looking into my eyes.
"I just bluffed them while showing my skills, nothing more," I answered, without adding any details.
"Did those skills of yours include the lightning, my brother?" Temurcin also questioned me.
"It was just a coincidence that made it even more believable, right?" I added with a smile.
From a distant, Baghatur's scouts watched us, they dissect every detail of this exodus, every defiant face. The air crackled with a palpable tension, thick as a winter fog, the unspoken threat of a sudden charge hanging heavy.
The Left Wing turned their backs on the fertile bend, on the receding warmth of the setting sun. They faced the vast, inhospitable expanse of the north, a direction that promised only hardship, but also unyielding freedom. The rhythmic clatter of hooves, the creak of leather, the occasional low whimper of injured ones.
Temurel paused briefly at the head of the column, his gaze lingering for a moment on the distant, unmoving silhouette of the scouts. "Let them watch," he muttered, more to himself than to the grim guards beside him. "Let him watch what honor costs. This land may be his now, but the true spirit of the Eternal Blue Sky travels north with us. We will not be broken. Not by his tyranny, and not by the ice."
Then, he spurred his horse, leading our people away from the tainted plains, into the encroaching shadows of the vast, unforgiving steppe, embracing the bitter promise of autonomy.
We might have to seek shelter at the Ancient Mountain of the Tagh Boru. It was too hard for all of us to cross the high mountain passes in the winter. As we traveled north toward the Great Lake, their scouts still followed us until we almost reached our elder clans' territory.
The messenger of the elder clans met us at the edge of their land, bringing news from the Altin lands. After I heard the news, everything went white and blank. No images, no sounds, no smells, no tastes—all my senses vanished. Then, I heard the voice of Aycecek: 'Please Stop!'
It was actually the sound of her family, who were trying to stop me from killing Azhdar. My awareness snapped back, and I saw that I was gripping his neck, lifting him off the ground. I immediately dropped him and, looking around, asked what had happened. Many Zaravani men were dead and burnt, some with twisted or broken limbs. There were also many burning marks on the ground, just like when I woke up at the Sacred Mountain.
"Are you back to your senses, Great Sky Wolf?" Iron Hand asked me, his open palms raised toward the sky.
"What is going on right now!? Do we have an enemy?" I demanded, desperate to clear my confusion.
"It was your doing, Great Sky Wolf. Please stop your anger." Temurcin replied with a tone of deep respect.
"Aycecek, your wife and my daughter, is dead." Temurel spoke, his eyes filled with sorrow. "Zarir and Kara Yulduz suffered heavy injuries. They said Atashan was leading men who were disguised as Zaravani. They burned Hemp and Berserk Herb while our people were sleeping at our autumn campsite. This disoriented our clan, many fell to their weapons or by fire and smoke."
"Great Sky Wolf, please stop! We are not the enemy. My son, Atashan might be a hot-headed fool, but he would not harm his own kin. Please wait until we have investigated what happened. If he is at fault, I will kill him myself!" Azhdar pleaded, his voice strained.
"Please think about our people. This is not a time to fight among ourselves. Let us ride to our homeland first," Temurel told us.
We continued toward the Ancient Mountain while the Zaravani tended to their dead.
What they didn't know was that I didn't have any memory about what had happened. It felt like someone else was controlling me, and I didn't like that. Perhaps it was a protective mechanism to prevent me from being overly traumatized.
They setup a small yurt for me up in the Ancient Mountain, their sacred place. With what happened, they might believe that I'm truly a Sky God, not just a mere messenger anymore. If I were the one who saw all of my actions with my own eyes, I might believe this story too.
As things settled down a little, Temurcin decided to tell me what really happened, after he'd seen me back to my old self. "When you heard the news, a searing bolt struck you. Your body became pure, crackling energy itself for a while, before it started to materialize again. Then you rushed to Azhdar, many Zaravani men tried to protect their leader. You broke their bones like a dry stick, and called upon celestial lighting to burn some. If you hadn't come back to your senses, I think all of us might already be dead by now. Even our mightiest warriors were tremble in fear! Are you really the Sky Father, Kirisen?"
"I don't know what to say. I know as much as you told me, my brother," I answered, lost in my own thoughts. What should I do next? What's going on? Is any of this real? My head swirled with questions without answers, but my heart was empty and numb.
But in that moment, a strange thing happened. Some started giving offerings and worshipping me out of fear and respect, which was worse than I'd imagined. I didn't even know anything about my newfound power or how to control it, but they were worshipping me anyway.
I needed to get out of this situation and learn the truth about Aycecek's death, so I decided to go back home before the winter got worse. Temurcin and Azhdar wanted to come with me too, so we would travel with a few trusted warriors. Temurel, who needed to lead the Left Wing, would have to stay until the winter passed.
Our small band turned our horses north. The rhythmic clatter of hooves on frozen earth, the creak of leather, and the occasional low whimper of the less fortunate who hadn't survived the ambush were the only sounds piercing the crisp air. Winter's grip had tightened, already dusting the plains with a fine, persistent snow that promised deeper drifts to come.
This journey was a grim race against time and the elements. The high passage in the winter was the worst. Snow lay deep in the ravines, erasing paths and turning slopes into slick, dangerous inclines. The horses strained, their breath pluming in the frigid air, while the men dismounted frequently to lead them, their own faces chapped and reddened by the cold. Azhdar, still pale from his ordeal, moved with a quiet, desperate resolve, his eyes scanning the horizon not for threats, but for answers, for any sign of his wayward son. Temurcin still maintained his distance from me, his gaze occasionally straying to me with an unnerving mix of awe and apprehension.
I felt little of the cold, though. Aycecek's death was a fresh wound, a chilling emptiness that eclipsed the biting wind. Her name still echoed in my mind, and with it came the bewildering horror of my own actions. The idea of being the "Sky Father" was a crushing weight. I felt no divine power, only a terrifying, uncontrollable force that had erupted from within or through me, leaving destruction and a blank void in its wake. I had to know the truth, not just about who truly killed my wife, but about myself as well.
Weeks later, the towering, snow-draped peak of the Sacred Mountain loomed before us, its familiar contours now stark and imposing against the vast sky. It was our sacred place, a beacon of guidance for generations. But now it felt heavy with unanswered questions. We dismounted, exhausted. The journey had tested our limits, but the true challenges lay waiting for me inside that quiet, sacred peak.
I rushed to where Aylaqun was and spoke my mind. "What's going on? Where's her body, Mother-in-law?"
"Please calm down, my son-in-law," Aylaqun answered me and gestured with her hand. "Let me introduce someone to you first."
I was totally shocked by that person's face. She looked exactly like Aycecek, but with long blonde hair and a shaman's dress crafted from deer hide. "Are you really Aycecek? What happened to your hair?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I had checked her body before, so I looked like her so much." she replied with a somewhat strange answer.
"This is the White Deer, our shaman friend from the north. I will leave you with her, I already told her about what happened too." Aylaqun spoke, then left.
Her face had already changed by the time I looked back at her. With blonde hair and blue eyes, she almost looked European to me.
"My real name is Cynthia Bjork. Please call me Cynthia. I also came from the future," she talked to me in English.
"I'm Kris Wu. What!? Are you speaking English to me right now?" I asked with a shaking voice.
"Let's sit and speak in somewhere private." She snapped her fingers, and suddenly we appeared in a white futuristic office. "Would you like a coffee or tea?"
"What... what are you, really? Are you the one who engineered my body?" I peppered her with questions.
"That's too complicated for a first question. And no, I'm not your engineer. Let's talk about what happened with Aycecek first. In short, the Huna tricked Atashan into leading them to your autumn campsite. They told him that the Tagh Boru had betrayed the Confederation and offered to help him take Zarir back to his clan. They even used the Zaravani's smoke tactics to disorient them. Aycecek tried to protect Zarir when they attacked. Kara Yulduz, who was with Aylaqun at the time, rushed to help the girls. They got injured badly, but Aycecek was weakened because of her pregnancy. I think the Huna were trying to break the alliance between your tribes by killing Zarir. This news was verified by the Moon Maidens," she briefed me from behind her desk.
"She's pregnant!" I yelled and collapsed onto the chair that suddenly appeared.
"Please calm down. The child is safe for now. By the way, it's a girl," Cynthia said, her words still strange.
"What do you mean? My child still alive?" I confused.
"That takes us back to your question: What am I? Let's say I am the one they call a god, just like you and your child." she said, something even weirder than before.
"A God!? I am really a god? What are you talking about?" I shocked.
"I think you already know it, Sky Wolf. All your power and body are not something a human can have." she told me, confirming my suspicions.
"But how did I become one? And where is my child?" I kept asking.
"There are many paths to ascending to godhood. Hmm, where should I start? Do you know that human minds can alter the reality? If you want something hard enough, you will do everything to make it happen, right? When everyone believes in you and your deeds so much that they think you are truly doing something just because its suits your character, and then one day someone declares you a god and everyone believes it—that is the easiest and silliest path to godhood. Some cultivate their minds to upgrade themselves, while other paths feed on feelings like fear, hate, or respect. Many feed on cosmic power, natural energy, or even the life force of other beings. Increase their power and status until they achieve divinity and become Gods. There are many gods or spirits that are born from human beliefs. They even have many variations of just one god, because of how differently believers see their god. That's the general idea," she explained in detail, then asked. "So, what did you do in your past life? A job, a hobby, or anything you liked to do? And what was the last thing you remember before being here?"
"I was just an ordinary office worker. As for my hobbies, I practiced some traditional Chinese martial arts alongside modern ones, and I taught myself the basics of many languages out of curiosity," I answered plainly. "And the last thing I remember before I got here... I was thinking about a silly theory from old Siamese and Thai textbooks. It suggested that Tai-Kadai people came from the Altai Mountains, and I was trying to answer a follower about it."
"Follower? Can you explain more about that?" Cynthia asked.
"I had an online identity where I challenged people to send me questions, that I'd answer them. But in reality, it was just my way of learning about topics I wasn't even interested in, simply to satisfy my curiosity and learn more," I replied.
"Are you some kind of AI personal assistant or something? Anyway, I've got a rough idea. I think you already had believers, faith, and divinity before you got here. And your power might be really different from what Aylaqun told me," she concluded. "Alright, let's move on to the next topic. Right now, I've already treated Zarir to ensure the alliance of your tribes. However Kara Yulduz, Aycecek, and your unborn child's lives are still hanging between two worlds. I can offer you, a help within all my power with something in exchange. So what do you say?"
"Really!? You can really help them? Please treat them now!" I asked urgently.
"Don't take this lightly, Mr. Sky Wolf. In exchange, you have to be my partner in crimes of eternity. And for Aycecek, someone already took her soul away. All I can do now is keep her body in here, 'The White Room' my very own personal space, to separate her body from reality and stop the decay," she explained.
"I'll take it, eternal or whatever, please help them right now!" I cried out of joy.
"That's the spirit!" Cynthia said, clapping her hands. Then, Aycecek's and Kara Yulduz's bodies rose from the floor on two white platforms that acted as operating tables. "Let's start with the less complicated case. Kara Yulduz's body is almost at its limit. We need divine power to perform this miracle. As she's your follower now, I'll need some blood from your heart to nurture her body and mind. Are you afraid of blood?"
"What do you mean, 'from my heart'?" I asked, shocked.
"It's just like I said, literally. We need your blood now!" She replied with a scary smile. "Now stay still; it's not like you, a god, are going to die from this act."
Then Cynthia cut open my abdomen with her index finger. "Please give me a permission to take your blood."
"And how do I do that?" I asked.
"Just think about it seriously, or speak it out loud with all your intention," she told me.
After I gave her a permission, she magically cut through my heart tissues, controlling my blood to slowly flow in the air and get into Kara Yulduz's mouth. It might just be my imagination, but I think her face instantly got more color. Before I realized my wounds were already healed.
"Now that she's stabilized. You can ask your shaman to call her soul from the Spirit Realm later. But with this, she's become your first true disciple. She's a demi-god who depends on your divinity right now," she explained. "Next is Aycecek. Her body's already stabilized, but since her soul has been taken away, things are a little complicated. The source of power that stabilizes her is your child, the goddess. We have to separate them and give some power to maintain her body. We need some divine energy for Aycecek and a surrogate mother strong enough to carry a goddess."
"Can we use Kara Yulduz? She's already a demi-god, right?" I asked.
"This might be a little confusing and hard to understand, but let's just say her soul is a hawk, not a wolf, just like yours and your child's. Let me think a bit," she said, pondering.
"What about you? Can you carry the child?" I asked again.
"Sorry, but it's the same as Kara Yulduz's case. My soul is in the form of a deer. Hmm... you guys keep your wolves here on this mountain, right? Can you call upon them? We need the alpha female of this pack." she requested.
"We need to prepare some meat first. Can you let me out of here?" I explained.
"That's not necessary. Just call them with their song, and intensely imagine her image or think about her strongly. Have you even seen her yet, the alpha female? If not, then focus on the ideas of the leader and the wolves," the White Deer guided me.
With a few attempts, I finally summoned her. A wild spirit of the mountains, untamed beauty, a living tapestry of the midnight sky. She was an exceptionally robust specimen of her kind, notably larger and more powerfully built than many other females, her lean frame sculpted with corded muscle hidden beneath the luxuriant density of her dark blue fur. Her head was broad, her muzzle strong, leading down to a deep chest that spoke of immense endurance across vast territories. But it was her eyes that truly held the gaze—like intense, piercing golden moons, ancient and unwavering, they seemed to miss nothing, reflecting a profound intelligence and an instinct honed by countless seasons.
"Great! She's almost ascending, she can be your Divine Beast. Do you consent to accept him as your master? Do you have a name yet?" she looked at the wolf and spoke by herself. Then asked me, "Sky Wolf, please name her now."
"She looks like the darkest part of the night sky to me. I, Kirisen the Sky Wolf, name you Midnight Blue, and I ask you to continue to be the spirit of the Sacred Mountain!" I announced.
"It's an honor to be named by you, Great Sky Wolf. From here on, I, Midnight Blue will follow you till the end of time," she pledged her allegiance to me.
"You can talk?" I asked.
"I'm just conveying my thoughts to you, my lord," she answered.
"Alright, let's get ready. Please give her a part of your power, let her sip a few drops of your blood. I will take the goddess out of Aycecek, and then I will take care of Aycecek by giving her my divine energy because the shape of her soul is a horse, which is closer to a deer than a wolf. So you have to take your child to your divine beast's womb by yourself, just focus on the feeling of holding her soul. With both of them having your power, your child will easily slip into the womb," she told us the details.
After I gave my blood to Midnight Blue, Cynthia sat still at her desk for a while, she looked focused. Then she stood and chanted some kind of mantra in a language I'd never even heard of. In a flash, she was dressed in white deer pelt, adorned with antlers on her head, and wearing a shiny metallic necklace on her neck. Now she looked like an albino person with bleach blonde hair.
"This is my true form, Sky Wolf. Look closely, be a witness to the birth of the Goddess!" her voice echoed.
She danced around, jumping like a young doe. Then she reached out, and a white shamanic drum and drum beater appeared from thin air. After she gave a rhythm to her drum, everything in the room disappeared except for us and Aycecek on her platform. I felt the ripples of the drum's rhythm in the air, while Midnight Blue looked frightened. I patted her head and looked back at Cynthia. The White Deer started to beat the drum and dance around Aycecek. The rhythm intensified, then stopped with the loudest beat. She put her drum set away, and it vanished just as it had come to her. She put her hands on Aycecek's belly and began to connect to the womb. Cynthia reached in and touched my child's soul, and took it out. A bright small orb of light floated between her hands.
"Take her soul and put it on Midnight's womb. Not literally, but just imagine it. Come here fast, her power isn't synchronizing well with mine! Just move her steadily, okay?!" Cynthia yelled.
I took the soul in between my hands, then it seemed like things around us suddenly calmed down. I moved slow and steadily, and imagined that I really did put that soul inside Midnight Blue's womb. After a flash of light, Midnight Blue lay down, and Cynthia and her clothes were back to normal.
"Operation success! Can you give me the honor of naming your child?" she asked.
"Of course, you are the one who performed this miracle operation, Dr. White Deer." I gave her permission.
She touched my divine beast's hair then said, "What's the word that means dark blue in your tribe language?"
"It's Asena, I think." I replied.
"Oh, it's really close to the Western Tribes' word. Let's name her 'Asena' after her wolf mother's fur then. Now I, Cynthia the White Deer, name you Asena the Blue Goddess!" she named my child and continued to explain, "She'll fully develop in a month's time, but if Midnight Blue gets more of your power or receives some faith from your believers, our Goddess will develop faster."
"So what do we do until then?" I asked the White Goddess.
"I don't know, maybe it's time for you to learn to become a father, I think. And we need to prepare for the staged arrival of me, the White Deer," she started, talking about our next plans.
"What do you mean, your arrival? How did you travel here anyway?" I questioned her.
"I teleported here," she answered with her silly smile. "Anyway, let's get out of here first."
She snapped her fingers, and we were suddenly back on the Sacred Mountain, surrounded by a white, hushed scenery, and found Kara Yulduz in my arms. We might have to leave Aycecek in Cynthia's personal space, but there was still hope—a tiny spark in this White Winter, yet warm enough to help me get through.