In the Year 3470 of the Great Expansion, The Empyrean Palace stood as proof of humanity's achievements. Made entirely out of white and gold, the symbol of wealth and power, the palace stood proudly in the heart of The Capital. The bright rays of sunlight from the three suns shining down on the planet only served to amplify its grandeur, making even the residents of The Capital stop and look at it in awe.
Today, the colors looked slightly dulled.
The Empyrean Kingdom was besieged by monsters from every single corner. It started like any other threat, reports of a monster tide in an outer ring planet. A team of platinum-ranked hunters was dispatched to deal with the threat. When the hunters returned battered and bruised, bringing the news of multiple tides magnitudes worse than what was suspected, it earned the undivided attention of the Guilds. Unfortunately, by then, it was already too late. Far too late.
****
Inside the palace, King Blaine sat on his golden throne. With long reddish brown hair and a chiseled face, the king possessed enough charisma to sway entire countries. Over 6 feet tall with broad shoulders, his attire only displayed his muscles more prominently instead of concealing them. Next to him sat the queen to his title of king, Queen Martha, and their two daughters, Princess Rose, and Princess Lara.
A long yet simple black table sat in the throne room, modified for the occasion. The table, while outwardly unassuming and thoroughly out of place in the confines of the palace, was the most advanced variant of the Military Grade Projector. Many planets and the traveling routes between them were displayed. From green to red, the colors symbolized the extent of danger traversing them. The Capital was in the middle of the map whereas all the other parts of the empire were situated around it in spheres.
The kingdom had first expanded in spherical rings around The Capital to achieve complete control over these areas before expanding further. As there had been no signs of civilization even on habitable planets, the nascent space kingdom took it upon itself to claim all these territories and resources as soon as reliable methods of space travel presented themselves. Without anything opposing their expansion, the era was named the Great Expansion. As the empire expanded in every direction, it formed the inner ring. The inner ring was where humanity had the most control and was the most densely populated. All important organizations and guilds were situated in the inner circle.
As the expansion continued, more and more planets that were habitable or could be made habitable were found. But the further they got from the inner circle toward the north and east of the capital, the more dangerous the planets and space between them became. By the year 2900 of the Great Expansion, the world got the shocking news that their civilization existed inside a comparatively lower mana density region of the universe.
Today, Red defined those two sides in the projection. The Limitless Tide came without warning and descended upon the empire like a storm. In just a handful of years, the tide was dangerously close to the outer ring. The more intelligent monsters were claiming more and more planets, infesting them with dungeons. As all living beings produced mana in some capacity, monsters banding together led to a sharp increase in mana density. This led to the birth of more dungeons, and more monster waves.
“My liege,” a general sitting on the other side of the table said.
King Blaine looked at the man sitting across him. One of his most excellent strategists and trusted aides, he had seen him grow up into a fine man from a young age. “Start the report.”
“By your will. The scouts have detected no abnormally large movements from within the tide recently. The detection technology that the Manatech Institute introduced has been a resounding success so far. It has allowed us to track all but the most stealthy and camouflaged monsters with ease. Three Elite squads from the trailblazer department have been transferred to Asora, Vemia, and Nil, which were hard-pressed for reinforcements. The Tide is expected to keep moving toward areas where the population is not as densely packed. More and more measures have been deployed to detect and eliminate those pesky Astral Walkers which keep opening gates to new planets,” the general's face finally showed some emotion when he said the last part. “The evacuation of the outer ring is progressing smoothly. It will remain focused on the planets closest to the tide.”
The king let out a barely noticeable breath that could only be detected with very high Attributes and perception, “Good, that is good. It is about time things start to stabilize. The people have been anxious for good news. I think it’s time we show them something worth remembering.”
Queen Martha shifted slightly by his side, a small smile formed on her face, “What are you thinking of, dear?”
King Blaine revealed a bright smile, one carrying all the weight of his charisma that could charm any crowd. “Contact Magus Nathan and Guild Master Kenny. We are going on a trip.”
Even the generals and the princesses couldn't hide their excitement hearing this. To everyone present, one of the strongest adventurers of their generation had just declared to march against the tide. Queen Martha, who knew him all too well, saw the excitement in her king's eyes. The excitement to finally throw himself into battle, to stand against the hordes plaguing their kingdom, to be one with his skills and classes again. Like the good old days when their team was still amassing strength, going around and making a name for themselves under false identities. But this was different.
The Empyrean Spearhead was officially going to stand up against the tide.
****
The king and his team went from one frontier to another, completely decimating large parts of the observable tide, giving the soldiers and adventurers alike breathing room. The residents of each planet the king visited were left thoroughly enamored by his and his team's prowess. By the time they left, the Hunters Guild saw a staggering increase in the amount of people registering.
****
The Endless Tide only got worse. The name slowly morphed over the years. It went from representing the avenue of fame and power for those brave enough to challenge it to the inevitable march of doom. In 3512, the only part of the empire remaining was The Capital. Billions of people were evacuated and moved there. It currently represented the strongest force humanity had to offer.
It also represented the last.
King Blaine stood on the terrace at the front of the Empyrean Palace. Alone. The Endless Tide had taken his wife away from him a couple of years ago and was now threatening The Capital, the heart of the inner ring. Thinking about the Queen made his facial features contort into an ugly yet impotent rage for a moment, thinking of how their arrogance and negligence of the threat, treating it like they were infallible, had taken something so important away from him. But he quickly schooled them. He had to be presentable as a stalwart and a strong king, after all. A General and her two aides entered the balcony room, “Sire, it's nearly here”.
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The king nodded and walked up to the device perched on the balcony. It was a complex Manatech device that was supposed to project an image of him above the palace and amplify his voice enough to travel throughout the capital. The palace grounds and the lands facing the palace were supposed to be full of people, his people.
But that day, there was no one. The palace grounds, as far as he could see, were lifeless and almost empty. There were going to be no people witnessing his speech in person. There would be no ear-shattering cheering or sky-high morale. The damned tide even took that away from him. But still, he stood at the balcony, addressing his people one last time.
“For over 3500 long years, we—”,
A telepathic connection reached him at the exact moment something massive entered the atmosphere of the planet. The monster had arrived far faster than they predicted. It was wholly on fire and descending with meteoric speed, on course to crash just outside the walls of The Capital. Its descent was loud enough to deafen anyone within hundreds of kilometers. After a minute that felt like an eternity and a second simultaneously, the creature made contact with an ear-shattering explosion of dust and debris.
The shockwave reached the palace in a few seconds, unable to faze King Blaine but damaging many buildings and even cracking the palace walls in a few places. Before the dust cleared, more information reached him.
“Sire, it is an unidentified monster. Appraisal scouts are on their way to get anything useful against it.”
There was a pause. “Sire, it identifies as something called a Dragon. It is outside of our level identification range.”
“What do u mean outside of range?”
“... It is above level 750. Identify returns five marks. ”
…
…
“Assemble at the wall. Prepare for the final stand.”
****
When the battle against the endless tides started going from bad to worse half a decade ago, the most prominent researchers of the Manatech Institute started developing backup plans in case the Kingdom fell. The most agreed upon plan, thus the most focused, was to create a transport ship that could travel stealthily and extremely swiftly.
Hyper-efficient stealth evacuation ships were developed to cover extremely vast distances, utilizing mainly mana. Powered by mages leveled 200 to 350 and equipped with large food stores and daily-life facilities, these ships were capable of moving large populations. The next task was to find suitable planets to send these refugees to.
To that end, two different planets were discovered. The first planet was similar to The Capital, opposite in direction to the advancing tide, and extremely far away. The second planet, however, couldn’t be more different. The planet, aptly named “Monarch”, was impossibly large and diverse. While it was most certainly possible to survive and thrive on it, the planet was so extremely big that it would take centuries to fully explore the surface with the technology the refugees would be taking with them. But all of that paled in comparison to the main issue.
The planet was discovered deep inside the higher mana density region of the universe.
Attempts were made to possibly find the cause of the Endless Tide and eliminate the threat once and for all. The observations led to nothing but monsters from countless dangerous planets assisted by Astral Walkers besieging the Empire. By sheer stroke of luck, one of the scout drones discovered a planet so vast that it kept getting errors in its readings for the estimated size, which it then gave up to record the surface phenomenons.
As the drones were designed to be as fast as possible and completely self-sufficient, the first of them was sent out only two years after the tide made itself known. With the equipment necessary to capture and analyze light-based feedback, the drone made it to Monarch and back in thirty years.
****
More than a dozen ships to evacuate the remaining humans were born of the combined genius of many artificers. With one exception. One of the ships was far smaller, manufactured to be exceptionally fast and unnoticeable. The ship was responsible for carrying the volunteers to Monarch, letting them start a new chapter of their life on the miracle planet.
In the heart of the ship responsible for carrying refugees deep within the high mana density region, dead silence reigned in the control room. From the Captain to the janitor, everyone was anxiously waiting for the, potentially, final words from The Capital. The atmosphere remained the same for a few minutes before the speech began, making everyone straighten up and lean slightly forward, intent on not missing a single word :
“For over 3000 long years, we—”
Everyone in the control room was bewildered, caught completely unaware by the abrupt ending of King Blaine's speech. For a minute, the audience held their breath, hoping for some words of encouragement or potentially good news. Nothing came. The device responsible for carrying the speech to the ship was utterly silent and remained that way for fifteen minutes. Then, abruptly, all the lights turned red. The main projector changed to display only a few words:
“Code: Red-Black.”
“Initiate Project: Monarch.”
****
27 years later
Far away from the Empyrean Kingdom, a giant planet was currently orbiting two suns in all its glory. With three moons revolving around it at all times, its appearance grew even more awe-inspiring. On this peculiar day, an extremely stealthy and lithe spaceship stopped at the edges of its gravitational field. The ship currently housed around 117,000 people. They were all tense, waiting for any good or bad news.
Almost no part of the ship's outer hull looked undamaged, giving it the appearance of an antique that belonged in a museum more than space. Stopping for repairs on different planets for months on end, the ship was still functional enough to proceed.
“The records are still accurate, the plains and river near this forest are ideal for landing and securing a perimeter immediately. The mana density similiar to the empire means that the threats should be manageable. The dungeons that have formed are at a decent distance from the landing spot. All in agreement to start preparing for landing?” The captain asked everyone in the meeting room.
As the vote was underway, a sudden commotion drew everyone's attention toward the doors of the meeting room. Several immaculately dressed researchers followed their much less immaculate colleague with messy hair and dark bags under his eyes. Even more amusing was how he carried his research pad, holding it in front of him like some great treasure. The room quieted down to witness whatever happened next.
“Captain! The reports are undeniable. There have been several sightings of massive winged beings with four legs already in the extremely tall mountains on the far end of the planet. If our last records are to be believed, these are the same creatures our king faced. The same ones that made him signal the evacuation immediately upon identification.”
Nobody made a single sound, but this time, everyone was shocked into silence. Slowly, all heads turned toward the Captain, who also held the highest authority on the ship, waiting for his decision. The Captain himself was staring at the messy-haired researcher, considering if he should strangle the idiot for saying this in front of everyone or praise him for his early warning to prevent a catastrophe. In the end, he did neither and ran his hand through his slightly graying hair and proclaimed in a solemn voice:
“Welcome to Monarch.”