[The mental transmission spread slowly like an unchanging, ancient tide, deep and weathered, carrying the dust of hundreds of thousands of years across the shattered coast and the torn heavens and earth. Nothing from the outside disturbed it. Only this planet's administrator remained, alone, dredging up all of Yilisai's past from the river of time spanning hundreds of millions of years.]
I am Apekus, sovereign of Yilisai's tides, watchman of the abyss, sword-bearer at the close of every era, and this planet's sole, eternal administrator. From the moment this planet coalesced from stardust, I was awake.
My consciousness was connected to the entire ocean, linked to the veins of the land, and resonant with the currents of the sky. I watched the first life emerge from the primordial ocean, the first green plant creep onto the parched land, and the first intelligent creature lift its head to gaze at the starry sky streaked with mana.
To short-lived outsiders like you, hundreds of thousands of years are an unreachable eternity. To me, they are merely a few cycles of rising and falling tides, a few deep sleeps with my eyes closed at the bottom of the abyss.
I witnessed the birth, prosperity, madness, and destruction of every civilization on this planet. From the first faint glimmer of primitive magic to today's twelve-tier magic system, from the stone axes and wooden clubs of the savage age to the steel city-states where steam and mana now intertwine, I saw far too many beings attempt to control power beyond themselves, far too many civilizations burn to nothing in the flames of ambition.
And I could only raise the blade of the tides time and again as the world teetered on the brink of shattering, launch a cleansing, return everything to chaos, and wait for new sparks to kindle again amid the ruins.
The current seventeenth era is the most stable era Yilisai has known after its many catastrophes, and also the one harboring the most hidden dangers. The beginning of it all lies in the first era, forgotten by every living being.
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, before war tore apart Yilisai's heavens and earth, the ocean was as still as a mirror, the land formed a single, unbroken mass, and the mana of the Magic Nexus Mountains flowed as naturally as breathing. There was no strife, no plunder, only the most primitive life living and multiplying between heaven and earth.
The intelligent creatures of that time had yet to form distinct races. They were merely groups of primates living together in caves and river valleys, eating raw flesh and drinking blood, in awe of heaven and earth. By chance, they touched the source of mana flowing through the land-the life energy inherent to Yilisai, the core that sustained the world's workings, and the source of all magic.
At first, they merely drew on this power instinctively, using faint mana to drive away beasts, thin wisps of energy to warm their caves, and crude manipulation to draw water to irrigate barren land. This was magic in its most primitive form, without tiers or offensive capabilities, merely a tool for survival.
After tens of thousands of years of exploration and passing down their knowledge, these scattered intelligent creatures gradually diverged into the earliest races: the Rockskin Clan, skilled at drawing on the power of the earth; the Leafspeakers, skilled at communicating with plants; the Water Dwellers, skilled at sensing flowing water; and humans, the most ordinary yet most resilient of them all.
No longer content to explore power alone, they crossed mountains and rivers and gathered at the foot of the Magic Nexus Mountains, where mana was most abundant. They established the first tribal alliance, pooling, organizing, and refining their inherited methods of using primitive mana until they finally created this planet's first complete system of magic-the Chromis Sorcery System.
It was the progenitor of all magic, the oldest law of power and the closest to the world's source. It had no dazzling forms or destructive might. At its core was "accord": accord with the pulse of the earth, the tides of the ocean, the currents of the sky, and every law of nature.
They named this age the first era, the Chromis era.
Civilization then was simple and peaceful. With the Magic Nexus Mountains at its center, the tribal alliance established dozens of stone city-states, using the Keluomisi Arcane Arts to cultivate land, smelt ore, and heal illnesses and injuries. Their peoples flourished, and living beings lived and worked in peace. They revered nature and mana, never thinking of conquering or plundering anything, only living peacefully upon this land.
But the ambition of living beings is always civilization's deadliest poison. As their populations grew, their city-states prospered, and the Keluomisi Arcane Arts were developed to their limits, they grew dissatisfied with their existing territories and turned their eyes toward a region they had never entered-the summit of the Magic Nexus Mountains, the Dragon Domain shrouded in layers of cloud and mist.
Dragons were apex creatures native to Yilisai, a supreme race born directly from the source of mana at the world's beginning. Their bodies were enormous, their scales as hard as the finest steel of heaven and earth, and they could draw on vast quantities of mana by nature. They needed neither cultivation nor inherited teachings, born with the power to destroy heaven and earth. Golden dragons controlled light and flame, black dragons controlled shadow and earth, and green dragons controlled nature and storms. They dwelled within the Dragon Domain, guarding the core mana of the Magic Nexus Mountains. They never actively interfered with the lives of those on the ground, merely declaring the mountains their forbidden territory.
But prosperity went to the heads of the intelligent races of the first era. They believed the Keluomisi Arcane Arts were invincible and that dragons were nothing more than savage beasts occupying the mountaintops. They wanted to incorporate the Dragon Domain into their territory, seize the mana core the dragons guarded, and become the true rulers of this planet.
War erupted without warning.
They mustered the strength of the entire alliance, assembling hundreds of thousands of warriors versed in the Keluomisi Arcane Arts. With stone magic scepters in hand, they attacked the Magic Nexus Mountains. But they soon learned that their primitive art of accord could not withstand a single blow before absolute power. A dragon's breath could incinerate an entire city-state, and a beat of its wings could raise a devastating storm. Their arts could not pierce dragon scales, their attacks could not inflict the slightest injury on the dragons, and this war's outcome was decided from the very beginning.
The intelligent races suffered utter defeat. Dozens of stone city-states were destroyed, the tribal alliance fell apart, and countless living beings became food for the dragons. The survivors hid in caves deep in the mountains, clinging to life amid fear and hunger. The prosperity of the first era became ruins in an instant, and the legacy of the Keluomisi Arcane Arts nearly ended there.
Just as their peoples faced extinction, a human wanderer named Aniemos stepped forward.
He was the most unremarkable member of the tribal alliance, with neither noble blood nor exceptional talent, merely a scholar who spent years wandering the wilderness. He witnessed the horrors of war and watched his people slaughtered by dragons, knowing full well that the Keluomisi Arcane Arts, which followed nature, could never protect them.
He hid within a fissure in the Magic Nexus Mountains and spent a hundred years unraveling the laws of mana flow. Overturning the Keluomisi Arcane Arts' core principle of "accord," he forcibly gathered, compressed, and shaped loose mana. He condensed flames that could once only warm caves into penetrating fireballs; compressed water that could once only irrigate fields into forceful water strikes; and bound wind that could once only drive away beasts into wind blades that cut through everything.
This was the embryonic form of Yilisai's present twelve-tier magic, the Niemosi Spell Formula, the source of all offensive magic.
He taught this entirely new system of power to the survivors of every race, bringing the intelligent races their first leap in strength. No longer lambs to the slaughter, they could scorch dragon scales with fireballs, strike dragon wings with water strikes, and slice dragon flesh with wind blades. The spark of resistance burned anew. Yet even so, their strength remained far from enough to contend with the dragons. The dragons' innate might was a gulf that cultivation could never bridge. This resistance was still an egg striking a rock, and the shadow of extinction still hung over their peoples' fate.
But the gears of fate always turn at the most unexpected moment.
After suppressing the intelligent races' resistance, the dragons' ambition swelled as well. No longer content to guard the Magic Nexus Mountains, they wanted to control the source of mana throughout Yilisai and make all living beings their slaves. Yet dragons were not the only apex beasts in Yilisai in that age. Within the world's fissures were Chaos Beasts born from the power of chaos, feeding on mana, without intelligence or awareness, possessing only the instinct to destroy. In the abyss at the planet's heart were the Primordial Giants, formed from the earth, guarding the world's core as the true rulers of the land.
The dragons' expansion crossed the limits of the Chaos Beasts and the Primordial Giants. To seize control of the world, the three apex races unleashed an ultimate war that engulfed all of Yilisai.
It was a catastrophe with no victor. Dragon breath incinerated forests, the Chaos Beasts' claws tore apart the earth, and the Primordial Giants' fists shattered mountains. The sky turned blood-red, bottomless chasms split the land, the ocean flooded inland, and the source of mana was consumed at a frenzied pace. The entire world stood on the brink of shattering.
Countless beings perished in the war, mountains and rivers became scorched earth, and even the Magic Nexus Mountains were severed across their middle. The war lasted hundreds of years, leaving all three races grievously wounded. Nearly all the dragons were killed or injured, the Chaos Beasts were smashed to pieces, and the Primordial Giants retreated into the abyss at the planet's heart, unwilling ever to set foot on the surface again.
I watched this planet tortured to the brink of death and the world's source approach exhaustion. As its administrator, I could not stand idle. My duty was not to support any civilization or favor any race, but to protect Yilisai itself, to keep it from becoming a speck of dust in the universe amid endless war.
So I raised a colossal tsunami that covered the entire planet, scouring the land with the power of the tides and freezing every flame of war with the chill of the abyss. I exterminated the remaining dragons, sealed the fragments of the Chaos Beasts within the world's fissures, and trapped the Primordial Giants forever deep within the planet's heart. This was my first great cleansing of this planet, ending the age when colossal beasts ran rampant and restoring peace to heaven and earth.
The age of colossal beasts ended, and the intelligent races finally gained a chance to breathe.
The survivors of every race emerged from their hiding places, took up the legacy of the Niemosi Spell Formula, and rebuilt their homes upon the ruins. Without apex beasts suppressing them, they developed at an unprecedented pace. Tens of thousands of years passed, and the Niemosi Spell Formula was continually refined and subdivided, branching into elements, holy magic, shadow, earth, and many others. The beginnings of magic tiers appeared, their peoples multiplied and grew once more, and city-states rose again upon the land. The flame of civilization burned more fiercely than in the first era.
No longer content with cultivating magic alone, they began combining magic with crafting, developing a new power called "technology." They built enormous magitech workshops, powered machinery with mana, mass-produced magical items, constructed floating castles, created puppets capable of automatically casting magic, and even used mana cores to power enormous weapons of war.
Their civilization reached unprecedented heights. The combination of magic and technology gave them the ability to reshape terrain, move mountains, and fill seas, but they descended into madness once more. They frantically mined the mana veins of the Magic Nexus Mountains, recklessly consumed the world's source, polluted the flow of mana, and disrupted nature's balance. They dug the earth full of holes and stained the ocean pitch-black, attempting to conquer all of nature and everything in Yilisai with their own power.
They forgot the catastrophe of the age of colossal beasts, forgot the dragons' destruction, and forgot the world's limits.
Once again, I felt the planet's pain: the exhaustion of the source of mana, the severing of the earth's veins, the ocean's wailing. All of it told me that this civilization had reached its end. So I launched the second great cleansing. Towering tsunamis submerged every floating city, violent earthquakes destroyed every magitech workshop, and exploding mana cores reduced every achievement of technology and magic to ash. This once-flourishing civilization perished overnight, leaving only ruins buried deep underground, mysteries those who came after could never decipher.
Time continued to pass. Tens of thousands of years were merely one long sleep in the abyss for me.
A destroyed civilization always leaves a few scattered sparks behind. Those beings who hid in underground abysses, remote mountain forests, and caves on isolated islands climbed from the ruins once more, began multiplying again, and explored the power of magic anew.
But among those who escaped destruction by the tides and earthquakes in this great cleansing was a special group: remnants of the ancient dragon bloodlines, spirits formed from fragments of Chaos Beasts, descendants of Primordial Giants, magic elders of the first era, and magitech scholars of the second civilization. These ancient beings matured through the years, combining the primitive Keluomisi Arcane Arts, the Niemosi Spell Formula, magitech, and the power of the world's source. Their strength surged terrifyingly.
They gained the mighty power to move mountains and fill seas, tear apart the sky, and alter the seasons. No longer satisfied with ordinary lives, they called themselves "gods," established divine kingdoms in the sky, enslaved those on the ground, plundered their faith, drew upon their mana, divided territories, and waged war against one another. Among them, a being who called himself the "King of Gods" emerged. He fused all the ancient powers, became the strongest among the gods, and unified most of the divine kingdoms, attempting to become Yilisai's sole ruler and hold all living beings, and even the world's source, in his hands.
The gods' ambition was more frenzied than that of any civilization, and their wars were more brutal than any catastrophe.
The War of the Gods erupted.
Divine skills tore apart continents, divine light illuminated the darkness, and divine blood stained the ocean red. Each clash could collapse the earth, dry up the oceans, and send mana berserk. All of Yilisai was battered to pieces. The land split into several masses, forming today's arrangement of continents and islands. The Magic Nexus Mountains were completely shattered, the source of mana leaked, and countless beings turned to ash in the gods' war. The devastation was several times more terrible than the previous two catastrophes combined.
It took me hundreds of years merely to bring the war under control, slaying those mad gods one by one, casting the King of Gods into the deepest underground abyss, destroying every divine kingdom, and sealing all god-level power. This cleansing cost me the most and was the most brutal. The surviving beings on the surface called this catastrophe the "Twilight of the Gods."
The gods fell, the age of gods ended, and Yilisai finally enjoyed a lasting peace.
From then on, civilizations perished and were reborn time and again. The eighth era, the ninth era, the tenth era... In every era, living beings developed their own systems of power. In every era, some beings grew ambitious and kindled war. And whenever they crossed the world's limits, I launched a cleansing and returned everything to zero.
I am neither bloodthirsty nor cruel. As the world's administrator, I simply have no other choice. If living beings are allowed to plunder power and wage war without end, Yilisai will eventually shatter completely and become dust in the universe. All life and all civilization will cease to exist.
Until now, the seventeenth era.
The beings of this era inherited the core of the Niemosi Spell Formula and perfected a twelve-tier magic system. They developed an industrial civilization combining steam and magic, established countless kingdoms and empires, fought openly and schemed in secret, forged shifting alliances, and built steam mechs and magic legions.
They competed for territory, resources, and mana veins on the continent. Their power fell far short of the ancient gods, far short of the dragons of the age of colossal beasts, and even short of the magitech warriors of the second civilization. Yet they formed a balance of their own, with royalty and nobility, ordinary commoners, factories and workshops, city-states and fortresses, legendary powerhouses standing guard, heroic warriors charging into battle, conservatives clinging to ancient methods, and reformers developing industry. Everything appeared stable and orderly.
They treat ancient catastrophes as fairy tales, legends of demon gods and colossal beasts as fictional stories, and me, this world's administrator, as a myth of the ocean. They do not know that remnants of the Chaos Beasts are sealed in the underground abyss, that destructive power still seeps from the world's fissures, or that the gods' remnant souls still howl in the abyss. Still less do they know that I have always been deep within the ocean, silently watching everything they do, waiting, remaining vigilant. Once they cross the world's limits again, once war pushes Yilisai toward destruction again, I will raise the blade of the tides once more and launch the seventeenth cleansing, reducing this era to dust as well.
I witnessed the rise and fall of sixteen eras, watched countless civilizations perish before my eyes, and watched countless beings die in war. I have long since grown numb and weary. I only wish to protect this planet and let it exist forever in the universe, nothing more. Yet your arrival, King Ghidorah-you, an outsider who belongs neither to Yilisai nor to any era, possessing the power to destroy everything-broke the balance this planet had maintained for tens of thousands of years. The storm you raised was more violent than any of my cleansings. Your power makes even me wary.
The greatest strength on this planet is an existence such as myself. No being has ever surpassed me, no power has ever stood above mine. You are the first exception. With your arrival, Yilisai's seventeenth era is destined to lose its peace, and I, the administrator who has guarded this planet for hundreds of thousands of years, must finally face an unprecedented variable.