Ascension of the immortal Asura

"Me?" John exclaimed, his voice full of surprise. "Why would I be part of a prophecy?"

He had never expected that the prophecy Thunderzen was mentioning would be directly related to him, or about him. Such a thing was behind his wildest thoughts, as he had considered prophecies myths just a moment ago.

"How do you know it's about me? Couldn't it be about someone else?" John asked.

"As I said, prophecies are almost impossible to read. Even if you have the talent to do so, they are often up for interpretation, and can be easily misread. However…" Thunderzen replied as his gaze shifted to the Grand Elder.

"When the golden tempest fades and the bloodrops fall, eight stars shall illuminate the world, announcing his arrival for all; The Asura of Annihilation," the Grand Elder said, his words seemingly reverberating through the massive chamber.

"Or that is as close to our language as I can put it," the Grand Elder clarified. "The language of prophecies is very…complicated, and hard to put into a common tongue. There is a bit more to the prophecy than that, but it can be summarized as such."

The words uttered by the Grand Elder echoed in John's mind as he replayed them.

'Golden tempest? Blood drops falling? Eight stars?'

His mind replayed those words as he tried to make sense of them, before his eyes widened slightly as he potentially understood a part of it.

"The golden tempest…and the blood drops…could it be the Yuan Continent?" John asked Thunderzen.

"It is as you surmised," Thunderzen replied, impressed that John put some of the clues together so fast. "The golden tempest was the perpetual storm, the golden whirlpool of energy that surrounded the ancient city," Thunderzen confirmed.

"Then the blood drops?"

"Yes, that alludes to the Bloodfiend Sect," Thunderzen confirmed again. "When we first read this prophecy, the only thing that matched the golden tempest of this entire world was the energy storm. There were a few other clues that led me to the Yuan Continent, but with the Grand Elder's help, we were certain that the arrival of the Asura of Annihilation would occur there," Thunderzen explained.

"After confirming the location where the Annihilation Asura would appear, I let my brother take over for me as Sect Leader of this sect while I established a branch sect there. The hope was to monitor the continent, and eventually find the one the prophecy spoke of. With how much time had passed since I set out on this mission, I had started doubting the veracity of the prophecy. However, the mission was too critical to give up on, and it eventually bore fruit.

The eight stars shooting through the sky, announcing the arrival of the 'Asura' of Annihilation only confirmed the suspicions I had about you early on after you made a name for yourself. After your performance in the Bloodfiend Sect, I was certain it was you, but the talent testing steps truly confirmed it to be you," Thunderzen said, his voice the only sound in the chamber as everyone else was dead silent.

John's thoughts shifted to the beams of light that had appeared when he reached twenty steps, eight in total. At the time, they truly appeared like shooting stars, and his name had been etched as "Asura" on the testing tablet.

With all these things lining up, John no longer doubted Thunderzen's words regarding him being the focus of the prophecy. However, he still had many questions regarding everything he had heard.

"While everything you say makes sense, one thing doesn't," John replied. "Why would finding me be so important that you went through all those hurdles, even relinquishing your status as the true Sect Leader of the main Heavenly Lightning Sect? Surely there's more to the prophecy than you're telling me at the moment. Just finding someone called an Asura of Annihilation wouldn't be so important as to move to a backwater continent and put everything else on hold?"

His gaze shifted to his master who stood to the side, whose expression was mostly emotionless, but a very slight surprise was evident on her face. It was apparent that she too knew nothing of this prophecy, and was learning about it for the first time.

Thunderzen sighed lightly, not surprised by John's reaction, as finding out such a thing would be shocking to anyone who heard it. He remained silent for a moment before explaining further.

"That is because there is more to the prophecy, far more," Thunderzen replied. "You are not the only one mentioned in the prophecy, and more specifically, not the only 'Asura'."

"What? There's another Asura?" John asked, shocked at hearing this.

He was not surprised about hearing that he was considered an 'Asura,' as he cultivated the Immortal Asura Tome, and had an Immortal Asura Body. However, for someone else to be called an Asura was not something he was expecting.

The origins of his Immortal Asura Tome were incredibly unique, and he was sure that similar legacy did not exist on this world, as his was made personally for him by his mysterious father. Unless there was more to his Immortal Asura Tome than he knew, John was unsure of how someone else had received the name of Asura.

"We do not know who the other Asura is. In fact, much less is known about that Asura than you," Thunderzen replied. "The prophecy was able to roughly dictate where you would rise from, which allowed us to find you. However, it says absolutely nothing about the other Asura, almost as if the other Asura was shrouded from the sight of the one who made the prophecy," Thunderzen explained. He pushed for a moment to let his words sink in before speaking up once more.

"The only thing we do know of this other Asura is the name by which the prophecy calls them."

"And what is that name?" John asked after a moment of silence, and silence filled the chamber for a short while more before Thunderzen replied.

"The Asura of Anguish".