Chapter 126 | The Vampire Princess Later Drew the Holy Sword

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A very long time ago, at the edge of the world, there existed only a lonely young girl.

She possessed the Authority of 『Creation』 and was capable of creating all things. Later generations called her the Creator.

Unable to bear the silence and loneliness, she used herself as a template to create the Human Ancestor—the divine envoy who opened the world, Promia.

The Human Ancestor spent hundreds, even thousands of years together with her. During that time, the Human Ancestor taught her the meaning of 『happiness』 and 『joy』.

And so, she continued to create the ancestors of the other races.

The Ancestor of Demons—the Demon of Finality and Twilight, Lilith.

The Ancestor of Elves—the King of Forests and Earth, Lucien.

The Dragon Ancestor—the Dragon of Stars and Destiny, Aestella.

The Ancestor of the Winged—the Mother of Heavens and Arts, Elusia.

The Ancestor of Beasts—the Beast of Life and Procreation, Tara.

She bestowed a rib upon Tara to multiply all beasts.

She bestowed hair upon Lucien to build the woodlands.

She bestowed tears upon Elusia so that she would be brimming with emotion and gain endless artistic inspiration.

She bestowed a baby tooth upon Lilith to forge bonds of blood.

And she bestowed 『Creation』 upon the Human Ancestor, making her a proxy holding equal authority.

Afterward, the forging of the world began.

The Ancestors used their imagination to create this world.

They made requests to the Creator or the Human Ancestor, who would then use 『Creation』 to craft Authorities according to those requests and distribute them to each race.

The Ancestor of Elves received 『Nature』.

The Dragon Ancestor received 『Destiny』.

The Ancestor of Demons received 『Darkness』.

The Ancestor of the Winged received 『Sky』.

The Ancestor of Beasts received 『Earth』.

However, the Creator lacked the ability to distinguish right from wrong, for she unconditionally doted on every single one of her children.

Thus, the Human Ancestor received 『Destruction』.

As the divine proxy, she wielded both 『Creation』 and 『Destruction』.

After distributing the Authorities, if any flaws were found within them, the Human Ancestor would use 『Destruction』 to destroy those Authorities.

Yet during the process of forging the world, the Creator discovered something.

The creation and usage of Authorities were not without cost.

An equivalent exchange—the more miracles there were, the more disasters followed.

The Creator quickly realized that because they were engaged in the grand undertaking of forging the world, disasters were erupting all across it.

To deal with this situation, the Creator fashioned the 『Abyss』—an Authority that bore all the malice and calamities of the world.

Not wanting her children to worry, she concealed the truth and bore the Abyss alone, consuming its calamities herself.

In this manner, after a long time, the construction of the world was complete.

She then reclaimed the Authorities she had bestowed upon the Ancestors.

The reason was that the Authorities would create too wide a gap among her children.

And since every child was worthy of love, she intended to personally erase the divide brought by the Authorities.

The power of Creation and the Root Language that defined all things were to be kept entirely in her own hands.

And this was the root of the Creator's flaw.

What she desired was an unchanging world where only the population continuously grew.

She loved every child equally and longed for her family to grow.

The present world was already wondrous enough; it required no further change.

In the course of the Human Ancestor destroying Authorities, far too many tragedies had already occurred.

Thus, as long as all power was taken back into her own hands, such tragedies would never happen again.

This action aroused widespread discontent, yet no one dared to rebel.

Except for the Human Ancestor.

She had always considered herself the eldest child and the Creator's first friend.

Even when facing the Ancestors of other races who held equal status and strength, she still looked down on them from the bottom of her heart.

She believed she was a special existence to the Creator—after all, she was the one who had taught the Creator what happiness was.

But she was wrong.

The Creator showed favor to no single individual.

And now, she even intended to strip away the Human Ancestor's Authority.

And so, under the temptation of the serpent god, the Human Ancestor united with the other Ancestors and launched a rebellion.

The Ancestor of Demons and the Ancestor of Beasts denounced her actions as no different from betrayal, choosing to fight against the Human Ancestor in that rebellion.

Guided by destiny, the Dragon Ancestor chose to remain a bystander.

The Ancestor of the Winged descended into madness after having her endless inspiration stripped away, while the Ancestor of Elves was consumed by the sense of loss from losing his power.

Thus, among the Six Ancestors, one stood by as an onlooker, two chose to support the Creator, and the remaining three launched the rebellion.

The Ancestor of Elves was tasked with keeping the Ancestor of Demons in check, while the Ancestor of Beasts held back the Ancestor of the Winged.

The Human Ancestor, meanwhile, faced the deity directly.

No one knew what precisely took place in that battle; they only knew that in the end, the Human Ancestor stole the First Fire, banished and sealed the Creator in a location known to no one, and caused Authorities to scatter across the world.

The Era of Strife had begun.

The Ancestors began to fight among themselves for the Authorities.

As the proxy wielding the triple Authorities of 『Fire』, 『Creation』, and 『Destruction』, the Human Ancestor became the first target to be hunted down.

Once the Human Ancestor was severely wounded and her whereabouts became unknown, internal fighting broke out among the races.

By then, the Ancestor of Beasts was dead, leaving the beast race in a miserable plight. The Ancestor of Demons, fueled by hatred for the Ancestor of Elves and the Ancestor of the Winged who had participated in the rebellion, launched a war deep within their territories.

At the same time, due to the lingering legacy of the Human Ancestor, humanity held an extremely low status on the continent. They were deeply loathed and hated by the demons, to the point of being swept into the reach of their attacks.

Thus, the Human King stepped forward, establishing the original Storm Empire and leading humanity in resistance.

Afterward, under the guidance of Dante the 『Scribe』, Beatrice established the Church of Radiance, spreading the faith by bestowing holy light upon others. This allowed the Church to stand on equal footing with the Storm Empire founded by the Human King, becoming a primary force in resisting the demons.

The Mage Tower was also founded during this period, but man-made spells at the time were extraordinarily inefficient and could not engrave runes as they do today. Thus, it was mostly viewed as a niche discipline that might prove useful in the distant future.

Infuriated by humanity's counterattacks, the Ancestor of Demons cursed a stronghold of the Storm Empire, stripping it of all vitality until there was neither water nor plant life, leaving behind only a sea of sand.

This location later became the capital of the Sand Empire.

Just as the fighting reached its peak, the Black Tide began to spill forth.

After the Creator was sealed away, the Abyss was left abandoned somewhere in the world.

Unmanaged and uncared-for darkness, combined with the Ancestors' overuse of Authorities in their struggle for power, caused the Abyss to fester further.

By the time everyone realized what was happening, the Black Tide had grown into a calamity capable of destroying the world.

Taking advantage of the situation, the Ancestor of Demons, who was at a disadvantage at the time, joined forces with the Black Tide to launch a counteroffensive against the Church of Radiance.

This act sparked opposition among many demons, but the Ancestor of Demons, driven primarily by vengeance, stubbornly insisted on having her way.

The demon who would later be known as the Demon King announced at this moment that the demon race was revoking the Ancestor of Demons' status as a demon, leading the demons to stand together against the Black Tide.

Several key figures who made outstanding contributions in this war, along with the already powerful demon factions, later formed the Ten Royal Courts.

On humanity's side, because the Black Tide could devour holy light and magic was monopolized by the Dragon Clan, a large number of believers at the time were forced to rely on mechanical creations as their method of fighting. This planted the seeds for the rise of Esperfite—a nation worshipping machinery—at the end of the Era of Dragon Sovereignty.

However, the more direct cause was the appearance of that man.

Arkham, the wielder of 『Strength』.

He imbued machinery with power and formed mechanical units. Emerging as a dark horse, his forces briefly replaced the Church of Radiance and the Storm Empire as humanity's main bulwark against the Black Tide.

Yet the threat of the Ancestor of Demons remained.

Thus, Dante united the various factions of that era to forge the Holy Sword, entrusting it to the Hero chosen by destiny—the 『Spear of Radiance』—to set out and slay the Ancestor of Demons.

In the end, at the cost of his own life, the Spear of Radiance struck down the Ancestor of Demons.

With the Abyss still spilling over, Dante used 『Record』 to reveal to everyone how the Creator had resisted the Abyss.

Arkham then submerged his physical body into the Abyss, using human willpower alone to fight the Black Tide and suppress its core, while the remaining forces joined together to subjugate the Black Tide, completing its containment.

With this, the Era of Strife drew to its close.

The races reached an agreement: whenever faced with the overflowing Black Tide, they would temporarily set aside all hatred and unite against the common foe.