The Material Realm had once been a vibrant world covered by oceans and greenery.
However, due to a calamity in ancient times, the Material Realm's landscape had undergone tremendous changes. The oceans had shrunk, the land had drifted apart, and now vast stretches of lifeless Wasteland were all that remained on its surface.
There was no ordinary vegetation here, only plants adapted to extreme water scarcity struggling to survive. There were no proper animal communities either, only insects that dug through the soil for food, along with small creatures that preyed on those insects. Native large animals were practically nowhere to be seen.
Worst of all, even though the environment was already this terrible, countless Aberrant Beasts still lived upon this seemingly cursed land. They devoured every living thing they saw, even dead matter. Like harvesters, they reaped and licked clean this barren land again and again.
No humans could survive here. Anyone who tried to conquer this endless Wasteland was considered a fool, and most of them ultimately ended up in the mouths of Aberrant Beasts. To survive, people had no choice but to gather in cities for warmth and support. With the Kingdom's help, city after city was eventually established, and people lived by relying on them.
Of course, to this boundless Wasteland, those were stories from a very long time ago.
On a high slope far from human cities, deep within the heart of the Wasteland, a white castle had risen at some unknown time.
The castle looked as though it had stepped out of a fairy-tale book—pristine, orderly, and magnificent. Around it stretched a vast grassland, and beyond that grassland stood a small human village. Some humans lived in this paradise-like land, farming, herding, raising livestock, and living peaceful, contented lives.
If someone asked these humans