The Burning World, the Pale Giant

As dusk deepened, a lonely figure sat alone in the cold wind atop Hot Spring Pass, clutching a golden sheep plush in her arms as she silently gazed into the distance.

Her crimson eyes resembled beautiful gemstones, or a planet burning red.

In a daze, those silent pupils seemed to take in the vastness of the cosmos, while within the profound darkness, everything appeared to sink into the loneliness of eternity.

Until a blue planet came into view...

A meteor fell from the dawn sky, a streak of light cutting across the river of the black heavens.

Friction with the air caused dense, boiling ether to bloom with dazzling brilliance in the night.

Countless lives looked up.

They watched the alien comet race across the sky.

The view of a planet gazing up at the heavens was frozen in place, like an unchanging oil painting.

The living beings beheld that breathtaking sight, mistaking that instant for the eternity of the universe, marveling at the tear-like meteor and feeling deeply moved.

Yet those tiny, lowly beings did not know that it was the Star Shard that would soon bring an end to their world.

The next moment.

White terror stretched across heaven and earth, arriving from the sea of chaos before finally reaching the shore.

The earth was burning.

The world was burning.

Everything that could be called "civilization" was trampled and destroyed.

Sentient beings were not even permitted to be subservient.

Countless star-like fragments, like phosphorescent powder, scattered from the White Giant. The contaminated animals suffered unbearable pain, their bodies becoming grotesque and enormous before they collapsed and perished amid endless destruction and venting.

"It came far too quickly." The prophets trembled.

"There is only one path: battle." The rulers rose to fight.

"Everything is already too late." The scholars