During the Abyssal War, in a Tier-Five world called Ether.
This world was shrouded in eternal night all year round. Even so, different civilizations still blossomed here. At first, it was the diverse nocturnal plants that gradually brought life to this place. As time passed in the astral world, intelligent life eventually appeared: a night-dwelling race known as the Koken.
The Koken had light-gray skin, somewhat long arms, sparse transparent down covering their bodies, and hair like shiny, slender cables. Their most distinctive feature was their eyes—clear, deep-blue pupils that gleamed in the darkness.
The Tier-Five world called Ether was more commonly known as the World of Eternal Night. It produced many unique resources. Some of its rare ores, supernatural properties, and various wondrous plants all possessed the three traits of night, life, and faint light. Once these already versatile supernatural properties were combined, their value soared.
Because of this, the "world keys" that allowed entry into the World of Eternal Night were extremely valuable. Such highly valuable world-key items were uniformly known as tickets among the major Paradise factions.
Tickets naturally had different grades, from Level 1 to Level 5. The higher the level, the greater the value. The world key to the World of Eternal Night was roughly Level 3.8.
At this moment, within the World of Eternal Night—the Silent Forest.
The Silent Forest, filled with glowing plants of many different colors, possessed a fantastical beauty. Deep within this dark, luminous woodland, where beastly roars occasionally echoed, an ancient tree resembling a giant tree-man towered a hundred meters high. No vegetation grew within several hundred meters of it, as if all other plants feared its existence.
And they had every reason to fear it. As one of the strongest beings in the World of Eternal Night, Tree King