Five Centuries Ago...
BOOM!!
An explosion shook the ground, reforming the terrain, rising mountains and digging valleys in what was once flat ground. Buildings were in complete ruins, pieces etched into the ground, and people cried out in pain.
High up in the sky, a figure stayed suspended silently. His black clothes blended into the night sky, with only the sharp glint in his eyes giving away his location.
Bishop, donning his priest robes, picked himself to his feet, as did several others dressed similarly who were also in a deep valley that had just formed with sheer physical force. He quickly wiped away the blood dripping from his forehead, only succeeding in smearing it across his dirtied face.
His eyes spewed pure hatred as he gazed up at the man in the sky, his voice a booming sound that reverberated across the mountain faces.
"Noah Blackwell!!"
The younger Noah chuckled, his face twisted into a grin, "Yes..." his voice did not strain, yet it carried far and wide for all to hear his unrestrained contempt, "I haven't grown so old that I forget things, I know my own name"
Bishop took a few limping steps, and then fell down to one knee, dust settling around him as his injuries flared up. He spat on the ground, embodying wrath with every minor movement.
"Noah Blackwell!" he screamed again, "One day! You shall kneel over, powerless to stop a calamity from taking everything from you!"
His curse lingered in the air, only for a light chuckle to cut right through the heavy silence.
Noah sneered, "Oh Bishop, my dear friend, do tell me, what sort of calamity could possibly affect me?"
He pointed his ungloved right hand at a particular mountainside, where a large glass capsule could be seen lodged within. Broken wires and tubes were strewn about, and a single floating severed arm was inside the capsule.
"Do you really think a small part of a corpse could kill me? An immortal being?"
A faint golden glow emanated from the arm, as if it were some holy relic. The pulse felt nothing like that of a corpse's, and more like it was something living, something breathing and perfectly healthy.
Without warning, four star cores of different colors flew out of the rubble. They attempted to flee, flying in different directions. Noah merely snapped his fingers, causing the world to turn black and white for an instant.
Reality seemed to shift into a new plane of existence, before breaking down and shattering.
The sound of glass shattering faintly reached his ears as the escaping star cores turned into hundreds of tiny pieces, unable to transform into Soul Windows that would leave swaths of land changed and likely uninhabitable.
"128 points," Noah said softly, yet it was loud enough for all to hear, "Those were four Saint-Supreme existences you killed for your sickening experiments"
He pointed a finger at the capsule, his tattoo flashing, "Allow me to erase your stupid dreams"
Bishop jumped to his feet and reached out a desperate hand, "No!"
A flash of darkness struck the capsule, prompting it to implode on itself. The arm inside was torn to shreds. Starting from its skin down to its bones, the arm disintegrated completely. Any hope for recovery was swiftly destroyed
Noah lowered his arm with melancholy, "Goodbye, old rival..."
The priest grit his teeth together so hard that his molars cracked from the pressure. He willed the last remaining bits of power inside his 64 point star core to move.
Bishop spun around and waved his arms wildly. Water from the clouds condensed overhead, forming a raging torrent of waves until the sky looked as if the oceans had inverted. A storm brewed overhead, electricity crackling into swirls of destructive power.
The priest then clasped his hands together as if in prayer, entering a state of deep concentration as thunder roared in the distance.
Noah looked up at the sky in amusement, watching as the tides condensed into one supermassive whirlpool above him, electricity crackling with each revolution.
"Die!!"
From the center of the whirlpool, water gathered and surged downwards, taking on the form of a lifelike dragon. Water hardened into scales, transforming into icy talons and horns that adorned the head of a mighty water dragon.
With a roar of thunder, the dragon dived at Noah, jaws widened to swallow the man whole.
Noah allowed himself to be swallowed by the dragon, his body turning into nothing more than a dark blot in the tumultuous waves.
A flash of blue light glimmered in Bishop's hazel brown eyes, "Crush him!"
The dragon collapsed in on itself, becoming a spherical mass that churned with electrifying intensity. The sphere trembled as it attempted to condense, trying with all its power to crush the monster it contained.
Without warning, the trembling stopped, and Bishop could only look in horror as blackness spread from the center of the sphere, like adding too much ink into water, until all the water turned into a pitch black color.
Dripping down like tar, the viscous fluid slowly shrunk down, until the completely unharmed Noah was revealed. He shook his head, slightly disappointed.
"Oh, Bishop, you never learn do you?"
This time, the man fell to his knees completely, the feeling of defeat radiating from his body, etched into his face. He no longer possessed any energy to cast an attack of that magnitude again.
"You win," he muttered under his breath, though he knew the Harbinger could hear him, "You've ruined the resurrection, what more can you do?"
Noah smirked, as if accepting a challenge, "What more can I do?" He placed a finger on his chin as if in thought, "Let me think..."
"Ahh... I know..."
His right hand made a clawing motion, and the moon tattoo glowed a purple light in the night. The clouds in the sky swirled, a dark shadow hidden above. Bishop could only stare as a mountainous hand of darkness descended.
Like the Hand of God, the darkness descended, a shadow darker than the night. The surviving members of this Holy Sanctuary branch could only watch as the hand enveloped them, shrouding them in eternal darkness.
Noah grinned, showcasing his perfect teeth, "Rest for a hundred years, and maybe you'll clear your heads"
He casted a disdainful look to the palm of darkness, unmoving and unchanging as it covered the entire mountain range preventing any sort of escape. Hundreds of the Holy Sanctuary's experts, including several Divines like Bishop, had been sealed away in the darkness, unable to resurface.
...
Back in the present moment, Noah chucked slightly as he remembered his past antics, a direct contrast to Emerald's worry.
He patted her head, making her face flush once more, "Don't worry, the Holy Sanctuary is the least of our worries. Trapping their strongest Awakeners for a hundred years is enough to set them back a thousand"
This eased the woman slightly, though her worried face remained. Such large movements involving this many powerful entities is uncharacteristic of the current Noah. Only something at the scale of the War over Fate had garnered this much attention.
Unconcerned, Noah merely looked at the sky, a satisfied smile reaching his lips as if something had happened.