Civilization's Past

"You scared me to death, I almost lost my life!"

"Damn, we actually have a real 'mage' here!"

After passing through the dark and damp giant drainage pipes, they arrived at a hidden coastline on the other side of Scrap Iron Avenue. The teenagers who had escaped death breathed a sigh of relief and then turned their shocked and complex gazes towards Rosaline, who was walking at the front.

They were all elite students from Black Tower Middle School, so they naturally knew how incredible such a level of spellcasting was. Even the senior students in their third year couldn't have led them to escape head-on in that situation.

"Can you keep this a secret?" Rosaline winked at them and made a shushing gesture.

Hans, Mary, and even Brielle nodded busily. They had been scared enough today, and their only thought at the moment was to get back to their safe houses immediately.

"That damn Vicious Dog Gang, they even made me lose my puppets. I'm telling my parents when I get home, I'll make them pay..." Brielle muttered resentfully.

"What now?" a small follower asked timidly, looking around the dim coastline uneasily.

"Let's keep moving. We're still too close to this place, we need to lay low," Hans said.

This route was discovered by Rosaline's three-person team during a recent exploration, leading to an old seaside village. Hardly any gangsters or tourists went there; only a few scattered elderly people lived there, waiting for their lives to end.

To escape the pressure from the gangsters, the six of them went deep inland and soon saw a wooden house by the sea. An old man with white hair was fishing nearby. Seeing them, he smiled and nodded.

"Grandpa Watt!" Rosaline waved, her movement and voice startling a few seagulls.

When they got closer, the old man named Watt squinted and smiled, "Oh, brought new friends. Coming to catch fish again today? Or do you want to eat 'Crispy Grubs'?"

"No, no... no need," Rosaline quickly refused. The "Crispy Grubs" mentioned by old man Watt were actually plump white grubs native to the area, as thick as two fingers. When roasted, they would shrink and become a crispy food with a salty taste.

Apart from the old people on Scrap Iron Avenue, very few young people in the Blackwater District would eat such a terrifying-looking thing, not even daring to try it.

"Crispy Grubs? Are you... an old-timer, an aborigine?" Brielle asked in surprise.

Two hundred years ago, Ish Island had an island nation called the Ish Kingdom, inhabited by local natives. Their most obvious characteristic was slightly darker skin than mainlanders, and they had developed local foods like "Crispy Grubs," along with a unique culture and beliefs.

But later, with the colonization by the "Great Eden Empire," the natives were massacred, with less than one in ten surviving. Much of the existing history and culture disappeared during this process, becoming dust crushed under the wheels of history.

Of course, later in the development of civilization, the regime of the Great Eden Empire had been overthrown, and it was now the New Eden Commonwealth, at least on the surface a democratic country.

Watt smiled and nodded, unbothered by Brielle's impolite address, "Here, and around Scrap Iron Avenue, the descendants of the Kingdom should all be here. Some have moved to Grayport City, and to Luya City behind Mount Ish, though I'm not too familiar with those places."

Just then, one of Brielle's followers suddenly pointed in a direction and said, "What's that?"

They all looked over and saw an entrance-like place at the bottom of a cliff.

"Oh, that's the 'Tidal Church'," Watt said.

"Tidal Church?" Rosaline, Hans, and Mary showed surprised expressions. They had been here two or three times and it was the first time they had seen it.

"It used to be a place to worship deities. It was hidden during high tide and could only be entered during low tide. Now it's a ruin, and besides archaeology enthusiasts, hardly anyone comes," Watt chuckled.

"What god?" Mary asked. Most of the residents of Ish Island had no religious beliefs, but in the Origin Civilization, there were quite a few well-known religious forces, such as the "Mind Temple" on Silver Mirror Continent and the "Tree God Church" on Emerald Continent.

"It was called the 'God of Twilight.' In the current mythological system, he would be considered a demon god, but the islanders at that time believed he was the embodiment of death and rebirth, so they had been worshipping him since the tribal era. The history is probably several thousand years old," Watt said. "But I don't know the specific details, I only saw it in a documentary. This happened a long time ago."

As he spoke, a trace of reminiscence appeared in the old man's eyes, as if he could see people entering and exiting the Tidal Church countless years ago, performing orderly masses. At that time, the "Magic Revolution" led by magitech had not yet begun, Ish Island had not been invaded, and the ancestors lived on this island, peaceful generation after generation, without conflict, like a paradise.

Rosaline and the others stayed with old man Watt until evening. They were almost discovered by gangsters midway, but thanks to Watt's intentional misdirection, the gangsters did not find the teenagers hiding in the woods and soon left.

In the evening, after returning home with Hans and Mary, Rosaline returned to Room 1809 and recounted the day's events to her teacher in detail. Finally, she asked expectantly, "...How was it, teacher? My performance today?"

"Arrogant, reckless, and without regard for consequences," Ivette said frankly. "Also, next time, notify me immediately. Even if this is a dream, if something unexpected happens, I can't guarantee your safety in reality."

"But! But I think I did a perfect job, teacher." Rosaline was unconvinced. She truly didn't believe anyone else could have done better than her in that situation.

"But if you had notified me, I could have used you as a springboard, using the network port to hack into the chips in their bodies, causing various interferences, or operating nearby vehicles to ram them... Wouldn't that be safer than you directly dodging bullets on a hoverboard?" Ivette retorted, her tone carrying more severity than her usual calmness.

Rosaline fell silent immediately. She opened her mouth but couldn't refute it—there was no doubt that her teacher was right, and she knew her teacher had such abilities. But at that moment, she just felt it was her time to shine and didn't realize the hidden risks and foolishness behind it.

What made her feel even more embarrassed and ashamed was that since returning, she had been eagerly awaiting her teacher's reaction, imagining her being greatly surprised and shocked by her student's growth, but it turned out to be all her own overestimation.

After a long while, she finally recovered and said hesitantly, "I'm sorry, teacher... It was my fault..."

Ivette hummed, saying nothing more. As someone with a cool persona, she had already said quite a bit, believing it was enough to reprimand this 12-year-old girl and prevent her from entering her rebellious phase too quickly.

After dinner, thinking about the past of the Tidal Church that Rosaline had told her, Ivette opened the holographic screen again and began to collect information.

Since her search for information on the Silent War was unsuccessful, she shifted her thinking. She speculated that the apocalypse might not have been caused by the Origin Civilization itself. In a world with magic, gods might not be nonexistent.

What if a god was simply in a bad mood and decided to bring about the end times?

Then, after searching through research on mainstream religions and myths, Ivette suddenly made a discovery.

It was a free literature study that elucidated the similar existence of deities like the "God of Twilight" in various cultures of Origin Star.

For example, the world-destroying demon god "Twilight's End Lord" in mainstream mythology, and the "Source of Destruction," "God of the End," "Elegy of the Apocalypse," etc., translated from some continental myths, were all similar settings.

And the very similar point was—these demon gods, single-handedly, destroyed God's heavenly kingdom, the "Garden of Eden," in their respective myths, forcing newly created humans to hide and survive in the harsh earthly world.

Of course, the descriptions weren't entirely like this, but the plot was roughly the same.

The reason for such high similarity in the storyline, according to experts in history and mythology, was that these legends were highly related to the ancient civilization period thirty thousand years ago.

The Origin Civilization knew very little about that prehistoric civilization from thirty thousand years ago, only being able to find faint traces from a few fossils, believing it to be a period of high magical element abundance, with colossal dragons soaring through the sky and terrifying monsters walking the earth.

Back then, humans could become powerful mages with just the Meditation Method, protecting their tribes and even establishing kingdoms with their personal abilities.

However, later, for reasons unknown, much like the age of dinosaurs on Earth, all the creatures of that era perished at a certain point, and the world entered the Age of Dharma Decline along with them.

This massive, mysterious, and bizarre historical turning point gave rise to demonic god figures like the "Twilight's End Lord," who descended like a mechanical deus ex machina.

And the so-called heavenly kingdom, the "Garden of Eden," was the most longed-for and beautiful spiritual solace for the people of the Age of Dharma Decline, who yearned for that high-magic era rich with elements.

"A turning point... could it be that the ancient civilization from 30,000 years ago was also destroyed because it encountered a mysterious 'apocalypse'?" Ivette murmured to herself, feeling like it sounded like a fated cycle.

The second update today will be later.