Appearence โข Dan Heng is a tall, slender young man with blue eyes, fair skin and black hair. He wears a black turtleneck along with a white and teal-colored coat, with gold and smoke-styled accents and a piece of jade armor on his left shoulder. He wears gray pants and black high-top shoes with white soles, as well as an oriental-styled jade tassel earring with a lace connected to his other ear.
Character Story 1 โข It's just another extremely average day aboard this giant ship. The markets have just opened and the morning dew is still fresh, but the young man crossing the street has never seen such a sight. Before he manages to notice all the differences between the actual city and its descriptions in books, he is immersed in savoring the warmth of the sun on the back of his neck. It is his first time seeing his own body clearly. This body belongs to him. It belongs to this current name. When he arrives at the port, the escorting soldier removes the last of his shackles. He walks forward without looking back. He can feel, ever so faintly, several pairs of eyes gazing at him from within the city. Eyes filled with hatred. It isn't until the spaceship takes off that he turns his head and takes one final look at this place. It really is a magnificent and grand spaceship โ just like the books say. He only glances at it once, then turns his head away to where the stars shimmer dimly and an uncertain future lies. He looks out in silence.
Character Story 2 โข He steps off one IPC spaceship, then boards another. He'd never even heard of the ship's destination, but that doesn't matter. There is nowhere he particularly wanted to go. His only goal is to get as far away as possible from his past, from his "home." On these spaceships, people come and go all the time. None of the IPC crews care who he is, so long as he can work. He has changed his appearance and might no longer be recognized, but he knows that same power still lurks within him, unable to be shaken off no matter where he goes. This power drags him down, slows him, tries to overwhelm him, and makes him unable to escape his past. He has to be careful. But he still can't shake off the man with the beastly eyes. If others in his homeworld felt hatred toward him, then that man only has a killing intent toward him โ even the spaceships he had traveled on were all annihilated. That man had died before him, but would reappear soon after. Outside his homeworld, there's a larger world where anything is possible.
Character Story 3 โข He boards another spaceship, and the passengers are all wearing different masks. He nearly has his memory stolen, and is forced to listen to a lecture that sounded like mad ramblings. He knows that huge monsters prowl upon this route, but he could only find a way toward survival by traveling along the most dangerous of roads. He defeats the huge monsters and disembarks at the next port. He thinks he could remain undetected among the countless ships, but he is stopped by a redhead woman. She salutes him in thanks, saying she is with one of the ships he had rescued. He is about to turn and leave when he sees a parked train beside the redhead woman. "Where's your next stop?" "...Haven't decided yet." "Then would you like to board our Express?" "..." "We're retracing our previous journey. There's so much to see all over again. We need a guard... And an archiver." "..." "You can get off any time once you made up your mind on where to go." "Alright."
Character Story 4 โข He rubs his eyes, realizing it had been too long since he had such a good night's sleep. He considers himself as only staying temporarily and refused the room specially prepared for him, making a simple bed on the floor of the Archives. However, he stayed up all night reading the data bank. At some point, he'd drifted off to sleep. He opened the door to find the conductor standing there, reprimanding him for staying up late โ Otherwise he'd miss out on a piping hot breakfast and would've wasted the care put into it. He nods and the conductor quietens down in satisfaction, wobbling as they lead him into the passenger car. The redhead woman โ who he now knows is named Himeko โ flashes him a smile. The brunet man to the other side โ Mr. Yang โ remains silent despite appearing to have many questions on his mind. Before he knew it, he'd spent many a morning just like this. The process of re-visiting the route is not easy, mostly due to the numerous roadblocks caused by Stellaron. Sometimes, they would encounter the huge monsters he'd defeated before. They even found an enormous chunk of floating ice โ encased in which was a living girl. That's why he wasn't very surprised when he detected that the (boy/girl) named (Trailblazer) has an actual Stellaron sealed inside (his/her) body. The Express's journey will continue on. Is there anything beyond the realm of possibility?
Appearance โข A tall, slender young man with black hair, fair skin and blue eyes with red eyeliner. As a Vidyadhara he has sharp ears, as well as teal horns like those of a Chinese dragon. His attire is a white sleeveless shirt with a cutout on the chest, with long, detached sleeves that have gold and teal-colored accents. He wears black fingerless gloves and a teal sash with a teal seal surrounded by golden leaves. His pants are black and his long knee-high boots have white and golden accents.
Character Story 1 โข In the dim abyss devoid of light, he seemed to have returned to the insides of a Vidyadhara egg, being ceaselessly churned in tumultuous waves and elusive dreams. He dreamed he was standing before a sacrificial altar, dancing and chanting. However, the songs and gestures were mere facades. The light emanating from his eyes and the storm roiling in his blood were the true forces at play. Casually, he wove the misty and foggy tide in Scalegorge Waterscape, sealing the maddened and frenzied "dragon" into the propagating giant tree. As the echoing roar streamed up into the heavens and dissipated, Scalegorge Waterscape will continue its peace for centuries more, and his duty was over. The ceremony ended, and he turned to look behind him. In the blink of an eye, the stairs he had stepped down from had become full of standing dignitaries with draconic horns and dressed like royalty. As if they were mirages in a mirror, each of them turned and their sleeves swirled with the motion, ready to leave one after another in a meticulously calculated arrangement. Innumerable, they formed a staircase to the sky, stretching into the never-ending spatial void. The faces of all these people would greet him every morning in his dressing mirror โ That was his face. No, it was the face of the primordial, the original, the very first high elder. He smiled bitterly and covered his face with his palm, as if ascertaining whether he could tear off this mask and return it to its true owner. He could not.
Character Story 2 โข In the dim abyss devoid of light, he seemed to have returned to the insides of a Vidyadhara egg, being ceaselessly churned in tumultuous waves and elusive dreams. He dreamed he arrived at the battlefield like the descent of a god. He hovered with the clouds โ the military formations below him were tiny as ants, and the airborne chariots and starskiffs were moths destined to die in a flame. Such were the lives of mortals... Was this the viewpoint of a dragon? A sliver of hubris rose up and plunged his heart into emotionless and icy detachment, and he hurriedly cast his gaze toward those with whom he had fought and shared liquor: The pilot who zoomed past did not care whether the formation was orderly. She shot at will, letting the arrows filled with blazing fire fall on the storming borisin foot soldiers... Along the direction pointed out by the starskiffs, a white-haired swordswoman spearheaded into the fray ahead of the entire army, dancing with her sharp blade. She dashed between flashes of metallic light, her actions too sharp to even let her allies come near, reducing them to merely supporting her from behind... On the other hand, the Cloud Knight Lieutenant who used to chat and laugh with the dragon contained his languid indolence, holding his devastator glaive in hand as he stood with his men to repel the borisin pawns attacking from the battlefield's wings... And behind the main host, the military engineers who marched with the army were adjusting and testing giant aurumatons... perhaps that exceedingly arrogant craftsman was now working at full speed, for these machines hundreds of feet tall are specialized weapons designed to counter the mechabeasts... Then, he saw the general of yesteryear, Teng Xiao. He was enveloped in golden lightning like the avatar of the Reignbow, plowing through the enemies' rows of war beasts with his divine mirage... The devastated borisins began to flee. He knew it was time to carry out the duty entrusted to him. So he let go โ letting his consciousness disappear in storms and hails, letting thunder roar for him, letting tsunamis rage for him. He floated on top of clouds, watching the enemies getting swallowed by the watery abyss, and watching the land behind him. Many humans, Vidyadhara, and Foxians were eternally left there, unable to lay their eyes upon their home ever again. The dragon heart told him that it was but a small speck of dust brushed away from the world. Wars come with a price, but life will always thrive once more โ the Vidyadhara are not the only branch of Long's Scions. However, his human heart ached for those comrades who, like him, had warm flesh and blood, and for those mortals who might have lived longer but now could return home nevermore.
Character Story 3 โข In the dim abyss devoid of light, he seemed to have returned to the insides of a Vidyadhara egg, being ceaselessly churned in tumultuous waves and elusive dreams. He dreamed that he parted the ocean's waters and came to the palace ruin depths, burying the remnants of his old friend's hallowed blood, or creating a new life that had not been seen for millennia โ or, perhaps, those two actions were one and the same, an unattainable desire that could not be carried out for long years in the past, a final straw that broke the gargantuan dragon's back. The craftsman was covered in blood and wounds as he guarded the dragon with a sword in his hand. He urged himself to commit to the decision. "Shuhu is dead... we won, but how many more victories can we manage to achieve? How many more prices like this must we pay?" "Look, the Ambrosial Arbor still stands. So long as it is alive, the monsters... they can come back again and again. The war of the Xianzhou natives, Foxians, and Vidyadhara against the abominations will never end." "Yes, none of us are special! Each of us has only one life, sacrificing for this, dying for that... it's all our own choices. Just like how she chose to save you and Jingliu... just like how she chose to let more people live on!" War, and the lives that expired in the war, were living beings just like him. He shut his eyes wearily, remembering their faces, and made up his mind. "If there's a chance... we will also choose to let her and more people live on. We, the Vidyadhara, have our own way of salvation. I can give it a try." Like an out-of-body experience, like a dream within a dream, he returned to the moment before his sense of self disappeared. With a cold and emotionless mind, he observed himself turning into a dragon, entangled and fighting claw-and-fangs against that bulb of shapeshifting shadow of flesh and blood. In an illusion seen on the verge of death, the emissary of the god showed him an unsettling, beautiful scene โ the stars pulsated and sang hymns like red blood cells, and the universe descended into an abyss of flesh and desires. The dragon heart beat to its limit, raising its fangs, breath, and fury โ however, no matter how mighty it was, a "lifeform" cannot defy the true body of god of life's envoy. ...Until a starskiff ran everything through like an arrow shaft. He saw that girl crawling out of the ruins with great difficulty, lifting a "sun" of absolute darkness in her hand. In that fleeting eternity, he saw her hand disappear, saw her face disappear, and saw HER disappear โ That item had ground everything around it into the finest dust and dragged them into a vortex of raw power, including that girl. A tuft of hair and a few drops of blood fell to the floor as evidence of her existence. Those were the only traces she left.
Character Story 4 โข In the dim abyss devoid of light, he seemed to have returned to the insides of a Vidyadhara egg, being ceaselessly churned in tumultuous waves and elusive dreams. He dreamed of the Dracocatena Nails being staked into his body, and chains of corallium winding around him to hang him in midair in the Shackling Prison. He dreamed the elders coming and going to interrogate him about the truth of the Arcanum and the whereabouts of the dragon heart. He did not speak. He dreamed of the Judges coming before him to read their decision and wanting to sentence him to death. He did not speak. He dreamed of the white-haired Cloud Knight Lieutenant coming to visit him and bringing him news of the Lieutenant's negotiations. The Vidyadhara did not permit him to die, nor did they permit him to leave. He did not speak. He dreamed he was raising his cup to drink with the others again, that he molted off his scales, and that he returned to the egg, and became someone else. He dreamed many, many things, like a never-ending immersia entitled "Self." Following the immersia was an even clearer but unreachable illusion. He saw himself being exiled. He saw himself boarding an express. He saw himself running into the endless stars, never looking back.
