Weapons of a More Civilised Age: P'an Ku

P'an Ku

...The lighter components, such as clouds and wind and azure, rose to become the sky. The heavier components, such as iron and weight and deep places, fell to form the world.

P'an Ku Cuts the World

This new form of the Void was more helpless than any it had taken thus far. "I will not permit this decrepitude!" suggested P'an Ku. With blows of First Conception, he cut the world into ten times a thousand parts, which moved apart in eight directions, until only the dark web of Existence-Hating Radiance remained. Eager to destroy all the things that are, it pursued! Doing so, its hollow components, such as blackness and silence and radiance, spread between the ten thousand things to make space. "A hero like me has no equal!" P'an Ku declared. Immediately, he set to constructing a mansion to house his glory.

Two aeons passed, and P'an Ku looked out; he saw the winds and the clouds. "Whence comes this vapour?" said he.

Five aeons passed, and he felt a coolness in his lips. "So!" he observed, "the world is cold."

Nine aeons passed, and he heard the dragons breathing. He entered his mansion and shut the door, because now he understood that the Void had found him, had caught him, had settled in his mouth and leached the energy from his breath.

P'an Ku Sleeps

"I could tend to the parasite," P'an Ku commented, "but then who will complete my home?" He spun his axe...