章節 364: Bonds, Old and New
When Vahn awoke the next morning, his mind had turned a lot calmer and he could feel the pleasant warmth of the girls spreading through his body. During the night, perhaps because he kept his room relatively cold, Lefya had snuggled up closer to him with a somewhat silly expression on her face and it made Vahn feel a pleasant feeling in his heart. Tiona had somehow been ripped from him and was currently sprawled out in a very unladylike manner and Ais had taken her spot and looked like a flawless doll with her fair white skin, beautiful golden hair, and impeccable facial features. Vahn could imagine her somewhat slowly peeling Tiona away from him through the night before sneakily moving across her body and it made a smile appear on his face.
Perhaps she had never broken the habit, but Fenrir woke up nearly at the same time as he had before turning her head up at him with her slightly glowing scarlet eyes in an inquisitive manner. Vahn scratched the back of her head affectionately and said, "Good morning, Fenrir. Let's have another interesting day today, shall we?" Fenrir nuzzled up against his chest while enjoying Vahn's caress as she said, "Lot's of new people...Fenrir will do her best. Be happy, Vahn, Fenrir will protect you." Vahn chuckled lightly at Fenrir's words as the other girls around slowly woke up after hearing their conversation. Since they ventured into the dungeon, they were all used to waking up early like the majority of Adventurers within the City.
Ais opened her eyes without moving and stared at Vahn's face for a bit before saying in a quiet voice, "Good morning...Vahn...do you feel better now?" Vahn nodded his head before he felt Lefiya pull herself away from his body quickly with a squeak. He looked over and saw the bashful elf covering her face with both hands with her face nearly glowing from how red it was. She opened her fingers slightly to look back at him with her dark blue eyes and said, "I-I-I'm sorry...I didn't mean to...uuuuuuuuuuuh~." Vahn, curious about her reaction turned his eyes to where she was looking and saw a rather large drool stand on his light grey tunic where she had been resting her head. Reaching out his hand, Vahn gently stroked Lefiya's head and made her face turn a deep crimson as her ears waggled up and down without avoiding his touch.
Tiona woke up as well and almost immediately bounded up to her feet and stood on the bed as she pointed down at Ais and said, "Eeeeei!? Ais, you're sneaky~!" Ais looked up at Tiona with a plain expression on her face before turning her head in a somewhat coy manner and muttering, "I wanted to sleep next to Vahn...it's better to take turns?" Ais looked back to Tiona with an 'innocent' expression that made the Amazoness laugh playfully before tackling Ais with open arms and rubbing their faces together as she said, "Aaaah, I can't be mad at you Ais, you're too cuuuute~!"
After everyone had awoken, Vahn helped Fenrir get dressed while the other girls returned to their room on the second floor to change as well. Since she was going to be doing her morning training, Vahn helped Fenrir change into her combat attire after helping strip down her previous clothes. Unlike how she acted in the past, Fenrir obediently worked together with Vahn so it was easier for him to help her get the garments on her body. She still didn't like clothes all that much, but Fenrir was fond of wearing the things Vahn had given her. The other outfits she wore were so that others would spoil and compliment her, but she still preferred the 'cute' clothes Vahn 'made' for her through the system shop, even though she didn't know of its existence.
A few minutes later, Vahn went to the back courtyard and there were already a few people gathered to conduct their morning training routine. Daily practice was one of the most important things, especially when you were just starting out. Even when they ventured into the dungeon, the girls still woke up early in the morning to do an hour of training before taking a bath and enjoying a hearty breakfast.
Seeing Vahn's arrival, everyone present gave him a morning greeting and Vahn felt a bit of warmth in his heart to fight against the freezing cold air as he returned their greetings. Fenrir went off to train with Aki alongside Emirua, Maemi, Tina, and even Shizune. She was wearing a similar tight vest and short to Tina and Vahn suspected she had probably borrowed the clothing for training. Even though they were still too 'young' to enter the Dungeon, it didn't stop the two from building up their foundation for future growth. Even Milan and decided to train a bit and was sparring with Mikoto in order to hone her skills that had become a bit rusty with time.
Not long after Vahn sat down to meditate, Tiona, Ais, Lefiya, and Tione, all showed up in the backyard and watched the other girls train for a moment before walking over and taking seats near Vahn. Turning his head, Vahn asked, "Do you not train in the mornings?" Tiona was the one to answer his question as she said with a smile, "Amazons might spar every now and then, but we do all our training in actual combat. Ais used to train hard in the past, but after he strength stopped increasing rapidly she focused more on killing monsters instead. As for Lefiya...ehehehe, she is super lazy ya know~?" Hearing Tiona's words, Lefiya pouted and said in a blaming tone, "Tiona, don't say such cruel things...I just focus more on my magic development and elves don't have strong bodies like Amazons..."
Tiona laughed at Lefiya's pouting face before bounding over and hugging her from behind and saying, "Ayaya, don't be sad Lefiya, I was just teasing you~!" Vahn smiled at their interaction and he thought the way Tiona associated with people was very refreshing. She was always so bubbly and vibrant and Vahn was happy they would get to spend more time together from now on. Her presence, alongside the other girls in the Loki Familia, would also serve as inspiration for the other girls since they were more than just a little stronger than the girls in his Familia.
Remembering the small training arc in the manga between Bell and Ais, Vahn turned to the taciturn girl and asked, "Ais, I was wondering if you could help Haruhime train every now and then. She might just be Level 2, but you'll be surprised at her strength." When Ais gave him an inquisitive look, Vahn pointed at Haruhime and continued, "Looking at her now, It's hard to believe she has only been training for a few weeks and was initially just a Level 1 with almost no parameter development." Ais looked at where Vahn was pointing and saw a familiar girl that she had met in the past during Vahn's duel with Tione. She hadn't known about Haruhime's growth but, hearing what Vahn had just said, she began watching Haruhime with a serious expression of interest on her face.
After a few minutes, Ais asked, "She is Level 2 now...? You helped her?" As a Level 5, Ais could easily see through Haruhime's strength and knew it shouldn't be so easy to become stronger in such a short period of time. Even she had taken nearly a year to reach Level 2, and her talent wasn't the type of thing that could be taken for granted. Vahn, hearing Ais's question, nodded his head but said, "I watched over her, but her growth is entirely related to her own efforts. Without the desire to grow stronger, she wouldn't have gotten to this point as quickly as she had. Though she might have the benefits of my 'flame seed' and my [Mentor] skill, she still put in the effort and has created a small miracle on her own."
Ais turned her attention back to Haruhime who was fluttering about in an elegant manner while training with Ryuu. Even though she was two levels lower than Ryuu, she was strangely able to put a little pressure on the veteran Adventurer and Ais was very interested in her growth. She believed Vahn's words completely and knew that Haruhime must have put in effort greater than her past self if she had gotten this far in such a short period of time. After a few moments of contemplation, Ais stood up from the ground and walked over toward Haruhime and interrupted their training in order to see for herself how capable Haruhime was. Ryuu turned her attention over toward Vahn and saw him nod his head before having Ais take care of Haruhime's training for the time being. Haruhime got fired up and put in even more effort as she 'sparred' with Ais who spent most of her time just deflecting Haruhime's attacks with relative ease.
Seeing that Ais was getting involved in the training, Tiona asked in a playful tone, "Tione, should we help those two get stronger~? They seem like the type to fight based on their instincts and I think it'll be good for us to get closer to the other set of twins, ehehehehe~." Tione had been watching everything happening silently before nodding her head in a curt manner after hearing Tiona's words. Vahn was grateful they decided to take the initiative to interact with the other girls but it seemed like Lefiya took a bit of a mental impact at being the only one left out. Seeing her behavior, Vahn decided to extend a helping hand to the flustered elf girl and said, "Lefiya, why don't you try talking to those girls over there..." Vahn pointed over toward where Naaza and Preasia were sitting together while they watched Lili perform a strange training of her own. She was wearing a relatively small training outfit that consisted of what looked like a mesh sports bra and a pair of small red shorts. She was upside down supporting her body on her fingertips as she very slowly moved her body into different positions without losing her balance for an instant. Vahn could see the lines of her muscles and was impressed with the control she showed over her own body that was producing steam because of how cold it was outside.
Lefiya looked over for a few moments before blankly staring at Lili's 'intense' training methods. Since Lili was a very 'small' girl, being a Pallum, it was a strange sight for Lefiya to see someone her size putting in so much effort to improve their physical ability. While she was hesitating, Lili's body underwent a sudden change as a magical light shone and she spontaneously grew a fluffy tail and ears like a chienthrope without losing her balance. Lefiya made a slight, 'Eh?' sound before watching as Lili's body glowed against, this time with a pair of rabbit ears and a small tuft of a tail popping out of the exposed skin above her shorts. Vahn noticed Lefiya's reaction and said, "That's Lili's unique magic, [Cinder*Ella]. She can use it to mimic the racial traits of other races and has even gotten to the point where she can copy animals. I've even seen her turn into a small rabbit in the past...hahaha." Remembering the adorable rabbit version of Lili, Vahn started to laugh in a humorous manner.
Hearing Vahn's explanation, Lefiya said in a somewhat serious tone, "Transformation magic is one of the rarest and most difficult magic to develop...incredible." Without saying anything else, Lefiya stood up before dusting off her dress and trotting over to where the three girls were. Vahn could see the intrigue on Lefiya's face and it caused him to smile contentedly. He hoped that a girl like Lefiya would be able to help Lili open up more. Since Lefiya was an incredibly talented mage, she should be able to help Lili understand her magic better and the two should develop as friends, especially if Lefiya told Lili that he had asked her to come over. Lili was actually a very smart girl, she had to be in order to survive, so she would be able to infer that he was trying to help her get along with the other girls.
As expected, the moment Lefiya walked over, Lili pressed off from the ground with her hands before listening to Lefiya's explanation. Moments later, Lili looked over and Vahn showed her a gentle smile before nodding his head which made the small Pallum girl sigh before showing a somewhat awkward smile as she started talking with Lefiya. Vahn continued to watch them for a while and noticed that, after they exchanged a few words, Lili's expression turned more natural and she seemed to enjoy the conversation she was having with Lefiya. Naaza and Preasia were also involved and Vahn nodded his head in satisfaction seeing the auras between the four girls stabilize and mesh together a bit. Though he hadn't arranged for Preasia to get close to them, he had mentioned to Naaza the fact that she wanted to learn compounding and mixing. Naaza probably approached Preasia on her own initiative and exposed her and Lili to each other naturally since the two girls often spent time together ever since living together at Tsubaki's. Vahn was hoping that, through interacting with more people, Lili's heart would slowly start to heal and she wouldn't treat people so distantly.
After the training session came to an end, Vahn decided to address everyone and told the twins that they would be putting off their three-day excursion until the Monday of next week. Since everyone was supposed to have the weekends off, Vahn didn't want to take them into the dungeon on a Thursday as it would eat into their free times. He also wanted to take a short break himself to deal with all the changes that were happening within, and around, the Manor. Vahn encouraged everyone to get to know each other better over the next few days and said he would call on them if there were any matters that required their participation. Most of them would still be venturing into the Dungeon and Vahn asked if the girls from the Loki Familia, specifically Tiona, Ais, and Tione, could accompany them and help guide the girls' training. Everyone was much more understanding than Vahn expected as they all easily consented to his decision.
When Vahn had finished his explanation, the entire group made their way to the baths and Vahn's mind blanked for a short moment when he remembered that he would probably be bathing with even more girls now. It even turned into a bigger situation than his mind anticipated since, after learning that the wall was going to be torn down anyways, the Amazon sisters decided to take it upon themselves to open a large hole in it. With nothing to 'bar' their entrance, everyone ended up on the men's side of the bath, including the girls Vahn had been 'distant' with. Emiru, Maemi, and Preasia all stared at his naked figure with various degrees of blushes on their faces and Vahn felt especially uncomfortable with the unwavering gaze of the sheep girl.
Fortunately, he was able to distract himself by helping tend to other girls like Fenrir and Ais. One unexpected thing, which also helped Vahn calm down, was when Lefiya offered to help wash his back with a fierce blush on her face. Vahn realized she was trying her best to open up to him and it made him feel happy as they created a small congo line where he was washing Ais's back while Lefiya washed his. He also suspected that Lefiya had made her offer because she lost the 'right' to wash Ais and decided Vahn was the next best option.
After the relatively chaotic bath, everyone got dressed together before making their way to the dining room and enjoying a lively breakfast. Syr had stayed over the previous night and had taken charge of the kitchen before helping the other girls, specifically Milan, Tina, Shizune, Emiru, and Maemi, make breakfast for everyone. Vahn had been looking forward to the new menu but what showed up before him was rather...unexpected. Though Syr had helped prepare the food, the only person she made anything for was Vahn himself.
What ended up in front of him was something that didn't look quite edible and Vahn had the peculiar realization that he couldn't even describe what the dish looked like. It was like when he was looking at something about his Soul Tier and was simply incomprehensible. Under the watchful eyes of Syr, Vahn 'happily' ate the food and discovered that it didn't actually taste bad. Everything, including the texture, aroma, and flavor were all somewhat difficult to describe but Vahn knew it wasn't 'bad' somehow. Since it wasn't difficult to eat, Vahn showed a polite smile and thank Syr for her efforts before scarfing down the entire meal as she smiled happily at his 'praise'. Since she could easily read Vahn's expression, Syr knew he didn't actually think anything bad about the food and this made her feel happy since the reaction of most people was less than 'receptive'.
After breakfast, Ryuu escorted Syr back to the Hostess of Fertility in order to help the girls start moving. Vahn offered to come along to carry the luggage, but Syr politely declined and told him to relax a bit since she was worried he was pushing himself too hard. After sharing a short embrace with the two girls, they departed through the early morning mist as Vahn sent a mental command to Fafnir to have it follow the two girls to protect them. The incident last night was still fresh in his mind and Vahn was concerned that some people might heckle the two girls after seeing them exit through the front gate. He also decided that, when construction started on the Manor, Vahn would have several 'emergency' exits built into the underground that would connect to the surrounding Manors of the Alliance. This would allow them to move about freely without drawing the attention of anyone on the surface.
Soon after Ryuu and Syr left, the other girls started splitting up into three different parties before heading off to the Dungeon for their daily training. The first group consisted of Ais, Haruhime, and Mikoto since they seemed to have bonded a bit after their earlier training. Group number two was comprised of Tione, Aki, Emiru, and Maemi while the final group consisted of Tiona, Naaza, Lili, and, surprisingly, Milan. She had decided to start making an effort to become stronger and wanted to polish up her skills in actual combat while also watching over the somewhat 'troublesome' girls of the third group. As for those that stayed behind, Fenrir didn't enter the dungeon because Ryuu was with Syr. Riveria and Lefiya were also planning to stay back because Riveria wanted to discuss Vahn's research and also talk about their future training regarding magic.
The final 'stay at home' group ended up consisting of Vahn, Riveria, Lefiya, Fenrir, Preasia, Tina, and Shizune. Hestia was also home, but she liked to laze around until it was nearly time for lunch unless there was something going on that required her attention. She just stayed up in her room talking to the other girls on the network to pass the time while munching on snacks that she had received from Vahn. As for Vahn and the rest, they ended up all gathering in the library in the west wing and helped Riveria reorganize things to change the layout into something similar to a school before everyone sat down for her 'lecture'. Rather than sit around with nothing to do, the girls decided to attend Riveria's lessons with Vahn in order to increase their own understanding of magic. They also wanted to be able to help with his research if possible since it would allow them to spend more time with him.
Riveria didn't see a big difference between teaching one person and teaching a group since, as long as they listened properly, it didn't require any additional effort. She had Lefiya acting as her assistant and used a blackboard that Vahn had set out for her to start her introductory lessons on magic starting from the history of magic itself which dated back to the Age of Heroes. There are four documented ages in history, which included the 'Age of Myths', 'Age of Darkness', 'Age of Heroes', and the current age, which was called the 'New Age' since there had yet to be anything to define it. Many people were beginning to refer to it as the 'Age of Adventure', but that would be for future scholars to decide just as they had determined that the 'Age of Heroes' ended nearly a thousand years ago when the Tower of Babel was used to seal the dungeon after Albert Wallenstein, the Hero King, failed to defeat the One-Eyed Black Dragon, which was then simply known as the Black Dragon...
(A/N: Alternate Tites: 'Relaaaaaaax','Vahn relaxing at home while the girls enter the dungeon, kappa',Riveria-sensei's Lecture Begins...'
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Einlion
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章節 365: History
The 'Age of Myths' was defined as the period in history dating back nearly six-hundred-million-years ago. It was a time when the world was a singular plane and gods freely roamed the nearly infinite landmass of the primordial land known as Aiua. During the Age of Myths, the gods suffered no restrictions to their powers at all and many possessed a singular Divinity which gave them absolute influence over a set of laws. By working alongside each other, they were able to create hundreds of small worlds that were populated by strange and wondrous creatures. As even the gods had yet to understand the meaning behind their existence, they sought purpose for themselves through their creations and endeavored to create a nigh-infinite number of entities as a reflection of themselves and the Divinities they embodied.
For several million years, other than some small interaction with each other, the gods, which would later be known as the 'Primordial Deities', kept themselves busy with their own creations without interfering with each other. However, this would not always be the case as there were several gods that began to lose interest in their own creations that were limited by their Divinities. They sought stimulus through observing the creations of others and began to form relationships and bonds with like-minded gods and goddesses. After nearly one-hundred-million-years had passed, the gods had split into several groups of varying sizes and combined their Divinities to make entire worlds in their image. Unfortunately, none of the creations of the gods were entities that possessed a soul, nor were they truly sentient.
Though they could create life in an endless variety of forms, it wasn't truly 'alive' in the same vein as the gods saw themselves. Everything they created was simply 'temporary' and they grew bored of it quickly. Since there were no new gods being born, it got to the point where several gods began to lose their sense of 'being' as there was no true stimulus, just fabrications they had made to distract themselves. Though they found companionship in each other, even this became a temporary reprieve when taking into consideration concepts like eternity. Some gods even grew desperate and tried to destroy the primary shards that represented their Divinity in order to escape the endless monotony of their lives. However, regardless of the power they wielded in creation, they were unable to destroy the Divinities that gave them their power.
A great divide occurred between the Primordial Deities as many began trying to find way to enter long slumbers, while some even made an effort to break free from the constraints of the world entirely. Some believed that, because there were powers behind the scenes that allowed for their existence, there had to be a way to interact with, or even break free, of them. The leader of what would later be known as the Discordant Gods were two Primordial Deities named Nyx and Erebus. They gathered a large number of Primordial Deities with Divinities relating to Darkness, Yin, Time, and Destruction. The mission they had set for themselves was to either find a way to discover a means of 'True Death' for the gods, or the find a path to break free of the constraints of the world they were unjustly born into.
Opposing the Discordant Gods were the two Primordial Deities known as Ouranos and Gaia. They led the group of gods that were most heavily involved in the 'creation' of things and directly opposed the Discordant Gods who reveled in destruction. Because of the fundamental differences in their nature, the two sides weren't able to come to a compromise and there were several instances where they would clash against each other which resulted in realm-wide devastation in the worlds they had created previously. Even though their creations didn't possess 'True Life', it was still very demoralizing for the Primordial Deities of Creation since their opposition of the Discordant Gods inevitably lead to the destruction of the things they held dear.
Throughout the fighting, Ouranos continued to watch over everything as an objective observer and tried to mediate between the two factions since he considered it his duty to do so. He controlled the principle Divinity of Space and, alongside Gaia, they were the two responsible for the structure of the current realm. Gaia grieved at the devastation wrought by the Discordant Gods, but Ouranos advocated that both Life and Death were necessary and that the world must maintain a balance or it would stagnate and lead to the propagation of the monotony that was so trying for many gods to bear.
For nearly seventy-million-years, the two sides continued to clash until the entire realm, and all worlds contained within, had been devastated to a point where many worlds couldn't sustain life in any shape or form. Many of the gods that possessed Divinities related to creation simply gave up creating new things because it was always painful when the Discordant Gods inevitably destroyed them. Though it might have been something to celebrate since they had technically won the fight, the Discordant Gods began to fight amongst themselves after there was nothing new to destroy. Without having new things to ruin, many of them began to lose their minds and even tried to force the creation gods to make new things without any success.
Seeing what had become of their forces, Erebus and Nyx finally tried to compromise with Ouranos since he had always advocated the necessity of both sides. However, when they finally went to him, Ouranos simply stated that it was the right of all gods to choose to use their power at their leisure. Though they had taken sides, there were no entities above others and everyone had the same rights to choose how to live out their eternities. Ouranos told the two that, if they truly wished to reconcile with the gods of creation, they would have to show it through their actions and come to a compromise. Since it was the Discordant Gods that caused the problem, it was their responsibility as gods to clean up the mess they had made. If they truly desired 'change', they needed to focus less on destroying things mindlessly and proactively contribute to maintaining the balance lest they invalidate their own purpose.
Because of their pride, Erebus and Nyx weren't able to agree with Ouranos and they continued trying to find a way to force the other gods to do as they willed. However, though they all controlled various different laws, all Divinities were fundamentally equal in power. No matter how hard they pressed, the gods of creation simply shrugged off the various different attacks, schemes, and plots that had been created by the Discordant Gods. The gods of creation knew that, without their creations, the Discordant Gods would eventually break down and it was much easier to tolerate creating temporary existences than trying to preserve things just so that others could destroy them later.
As expected, the Discordant Gods broke down long before the gods of creation since, without a way to express their Divinity, they quickly began to deteriorate and there were several that had retreated to distant regions of the realm in order to try to seal themselves away in solitude. Unable to persist with their old methods, the Discordant Gods approached Ouranos and Gaia and undertook the first vows. They swore to uphold the balance between creation and destruction, but only if the gods of creation helped pursue the concept of 'True Death'. There were several Primordial Deities that had started to turn catatonic as they were unable to express their Divinities. Ouranos agreed to their terms and the two sides came to the first meaningful compromise in history.
After the vows were officially made, there was a drastic change in the nature of the realm itself and both sides felt the echoes. All of the Primordial Deities that were part of the vow suddenly became much weaker as their Divinities began to nourish the realm together in a manner unseen since the dawn of the Age of Myths. The Primordial Deities didn't understand the changes at first and went about their duties as normal until a goddess named Nuwa created a small creature that was a peculiar existence compared to anything she had created before. Unable to understand what was unique about the small, six-legged creature, Nuwa showed her creation to the other Primordial Deities and they quickly discovered the incongruity in the creature. Against all expectations, the small, six-legged, nine-eyed, bulbous, creature possessed the first 'mortal' soul in all the realms. Unlike the temporary creations of the past, this creature was capable of rebirth and, as long as the cycle of creation and destruction was balanced, would continue to be reborn infinitely in various different forms.
Spurred by Nuwa's 'discovery', the creation gods entered a mad frenzy of creating new worlds once again and noticed that the majority of their creations were still 'normal' and only a few possessed souls. Dissatisfied, they began working alongside the deities capable of creating 'True Life' and contributed their Divinities to create a variety of different entities as all the Primordial Gods began to watch their creations in interest. Even the Discordant Gods were satisfied with the changes in the realm because, even without them having to act personally, destruction was wrought by the creatures that were created. Because they possessed weak souls, the creatures were capable of evolving over time and repeated and endless cycle of death, rebirth, life, and eventual death once again. Since life evolved in many unexpected ways, the gods were no longer 'bored' and proactively watched over the various different worlds with interest. Whenever the monotony got difficult to deal with, the only thing they had to do was introduce new variables and watch how the creatures within the worlds would react and change under the new stimulus.
By the time nearly three-hundred-million-years had passed, there were more than a billion different worlds within the realm that were visited by the various different gods of creation and destruction. Now that things were balanced, the realm had stabilized a lot and most of the gods found purpose in observing the changes within the world while only taking action whenever they wanted to see what changes would occur from their interference. However, this turned out to be a temporary peace as the Discordant Gods that had fled to the distant corners of the realm began to return. Unlike their old selves, they had changed into monstrous creatures far removed from the immaculate existence of the other Primordial Deities.
From the moment the first god returned, the gods of creation and destruction noticed a drastic change within the realm. One of the strange, tentacular, gods began to rampage and destroy several worlds that had existed for millions of years without a single thought. When other gods tried to approach the inconsiderate god to reason with them, the monstrosity lashed out at them and, for the first time in history, a god was killed. A stir occurred within the realm amongst all gods because they were all omniscient and had immediately learned of the incident as it happened. It turned out that, after their compromise which brought balance to the realm, the excess power had been absorbed by the slumbering gods at the edge of the realm. Though their Divinities had warped into something chaotic, almost unrecognizable, they were much stronger than any of the other gods within the realm.
During their emergency meeting, these returned gods became known as the 'Old Gods', because they still had the incredible power that Primordial Deities possessed before the compromise a hundred million years prior. Though there were several that still sought 'True Death', the gods of destruction were unwilling to seek assistance from the Old Gods due to the fact they were not simply killing the gods they struck down, but they were absorbing their Divinities and imprisoning the essence of their victims inside of themselves. If they weren't stopped, the Old Gods would eventually consume all of the other gods and bring absolute destruction to the realm. Many began taking up arms to oppose the Old Gods, but Ouranos continued to observe the events in solemn silence as they transpired.
A long war was fought between the gods of the realm, both creation, and destruction, against the Old Gods that sought nothing but chaos, destruction, and the propagation of madness. In the resulting conflict, nearly all gods were destroyed and assimilated by the Old Gods before they were eventually defeated when Gaia, Erebus, Nyx, and the god of Light, Aether, sacrificed their lives by fusing their Divinities together in a desperate attempt to save the realm...When asked about his decision to not interfere at the end of the long war, Ouranos would remark to his fellow god who was on the verge of death, "Life and Death, be it mortal or god, these are both necessary for the world to change and move forward. Had I died in the conflict, that would have been my fate...I will continue to watch over this world and maintain this realm, so go peacefully my old friend..." With these parting words, Ouranos held the body of his longtime companion Gaia as her body dissipated into oblivion...
By the time the war had concluded, there were only seven Primordial Gods remaining including Ouranos, Nuwa, Brahma, Tiamat, Amenominakanushi, Ymir, and the enigmatic Tartarus. Using their powers, they endeavored to restore the realm to stability before consuming the majority of their own Divinity to reverse the devastation that had been caused by the Old Gods. They were able to turn back time nearly to the point before the first conflicts between the gods of creation and the Discordant Gods in the past. Though they were unable to revive the dead gods, they were able to return the Divinities to the realm before shattering them into smaller shards to increase the stability of the resultant realm.
Because there weren't enough gods to keep the worlds from destabilizing, they split the realm into three different states before sealing the majority of all Divinities within the new realm that became known as Heaven. As time passed, the fragments of Divinity regained sentience and this resulted in the creation of the first generation of gods in Heaven. Not all the Primordial Deities stayed in Heaven though, Nuwa and Tiamat both remained in the old realm of the gods which became known as Hell. Tartarus had sacrificed her own body, while retaining her Divinity, to become the bridge between the three realms while her main body became the foundation of the mortal world. Ouranos, Brahma, Amenominakanushi, and Ymir remained in Heaven to guide the new generation of gods to be better than their past selves while teaching them to cope with the various fragments of Divinity they possessed.
The period of time after the Age of Myths came to an end was known as the Age of Darkness, since there was not a single entity within the mortal world that drew the breath of life. All of the souls that had been created in the past were still within the cycle of reincarnation, but there were no gods to breathe life into the world for a very long period of time. By some strange twist of fate, Nuwa was the one to come up with a solution to the problem as she used a large amount of her power before feeding it through Tartarus and into the Mortal World. She nearly exhausted all of her Divinity, but various creatures began to appear in the surface world with a single sentient species that became the progenitors of all humans.
With the birth of primordial man, the gods within Heaven gained a new purpose and began following the path of their ancestors and working to regulate things within the mortal world and ensure the continuation of life and propagation of the human race. Unfortunately, since Nuwa had been unable to control her power through Tartarus, the strongest creatures on the surface were not humans. In fact, due to their weak souls, humans were one of the weakest species in the entire world and were easily killed without Divine Intervention. Worried that humanity would be wiped out, several gods worked together to speed up the development of the more docile creatures in the mortal world and eventually created the entities known as spirits. Because they possessed a small portion of the power of the gods, the spirits were incredibly powerful and even possessed a certain degree of immortality. Representing the gods in the mortal world, the spirits went to the aide of humans and thus started the Age of Heroes as Humanity fought alongside Spirits to reclaim the surface.
Though spirits weren't supposed to be able to bear children, fate seemed to be whimsical as there were several humans whose souls increased in strength over several generations and they eventually managed to impregnate several spirits over several millennia. This was how all of the races that are currently present in the world came to be, the result of the bond between humans and spirits. As for the High Elves, who pride themselves as the 'Descendants of Spirits', the only thing that made them truly unique was the fact they had performed selective breeding early on to ensure the purity of their bloodline to cultivate the power of miracles that was used by the spirits, which would later be known as magic. The High Elves weren't the only species to develop a unique culture since the majority of the races were inhabitants of specific regions and didn't spread from them for several thousands of years. By the time the various races began to interact with each other, their common ancestors were no longer important and they focused more on the differences between the races than their shared qualities.
Not long after the surface had started to become peaceful, the various different descendants of primordial man began to wage war against each other for superiority. Disconsolate about the state of the world, a large number of gods began to pressure the Primordial Gods, who were then known as Elder Gods, into coming up with a solution. Ouranos initially resisted but, after recalling his 'failure' in the past, decided that his resistance against the gods was actually going against the principles of allowing change to occur in the world. He decided to use the ancient bridge created by Tartarus to establish a pathway between Heaven and the Mortal World, but one that could only be used after the gods underwent several vows to restrain their power.
Ouranos descended with the first batch of gods, which also included several first and second generation gods and goddesses such as Odin, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Amaterasu, and a plethora of others. The spread throughout the mortal world and sought out champions to continue the fight to reclaim the surface while also trying to put an end to the strife between the different races. Ouranos found a human with a powerful soul named Albert Wallenstein and bestowed him the first Falna, the blessings that humans received from gods to break the limits of mortality. With his allies, including the spirit Aria, Albert traversed the continent that became known as Eden and helped to resolve the differences between the various species while eliminating the powerful monsters that still roamed the surface. It wasn't until Albert's death against the Black Dragon that the Age of Heroes came to an end.
With his death, the Tower of Babel, which had been constructed in Heaven to act as the anchor between the Mortal world and Heaven, was brought down to Eden to act as a seal to cover the living Dungeon where the now One-Eyed Black Dragon fought its climactic battle against Albert. Drawn to the Heavenly tower that had appeared in the mortal world, representatives from every race began to gather around the tower and this became the foundation for what would one day be known as the City of Orario. True to his neutral nature, Ouranos declared the City to be a sovereign nation that accepted all races in an effort to draw new heroes to the City in order to challenge the Dungeon and eventually grow strong enough to defeat the dragon sealed within its depths. For the last 997 years, Orario had continued to develop and had become the central power within the entire continent and had now grown to the point that it was unrivaled within the world...
(A/N: 'In the beginning...','Ouranos, the Eternal Watcher','Perpetuation of the Natural Cycle...')
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