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Prologue, Part 2

Angelus continued his downfall, as if sinking into a swamp like a dead and decaying cow that has infected the entire swamp with its poison. During this time, the role of the "Father of Creation" was also quite unusual. After creating Angelus and banishing it, he seemed to fall into deep regret. Compared to his enthusiasm during the creation, he became more distant and even secluded himself. Even though Angelus had already left thousands of descendants, the "Father of Creation" could easily wipe out its tainted bloodline with his power, but his disappointment with the imperfect creation and himself caused him to become completely indifferent, even to the point of ignoring the interbreeding of his creations and the proliferation of hybrids in the world without any intention of intervening. We can say that at this time, the "Father of Creation" did not even care about his own "life" (if we can call it that). He did not care about his own demise, "even if ants were crawling all over him (quoted from "Requiem Rite")."

This period, known as the "Age of Ignorance", continued steadily until a coincidental event occurred and humans opened their eyes and saw the world around them, as well as themselves. At the end of the Age of Ignorance, the human progenitor Angelus had long disappeared into the vast ages. However, his countless descendants took over the process of rewriting history.

Some say that in the barren mountain top, others say in the bottomless abyss, a group of primitive pioneers discovered a terrifying corpse. The "Requiem Rite" describes this corpse as having a monstrous appearance, being a giant, and having a body that seems to have existed for thousands of years, with lizards nesting in its dark eye sockets, while its muscles have not yet separated. Even though the primitive people lacked consciousness, they still had an innate awe of the nameless entity and cautiously carried the dried corpse to the gathering place of the priests, and sent messages to summon the wizards from nearby villages, attempting to converse with it.

The remains of the giant had been silent for hundreds of years. The wizards had passed away, their disciples had grown old, and their grandchildren had finally received a divine revelation. This was also the first time that humans had directly spoken with their creator since Angelus. The giant referred to itself as the creator of creators, "Father of Creation", and told the wizards about its creation of "Nirvana", as well as the various processes of life and non-life in the universe. "Father of Creation" also mentioned its son, Angelus, and the rebellion that resulted from its hatred towards him. The wizards worshipped and asked "Father of Creation" if he regretted it. The giant's remains shed tears and expressed its willingness to reconcile with Angelus' son, the "Maledictus", and to hand over "Nirvana" to them. Finally, "Father of Creation" proposed a deal: he asked people to cremate his remains and in return, he would bestow upon them the "Holy Wisdom" they lacked.

As soon as rumors of the deal spread, it quickly caused a division among the people. Most tribes believed that this would make people finally "complete", thus fulfilling the legacy of their ancestor, Angelus. However, some tribes clung to the teachings of their ancestors and feared "Father of Creation", warning of the dangers that self-awareness would bring. After lengthy discussions, the minority was deemed heretical and expelled from the council. The giant's body was consumed by a raging fire. The people and the environment that nurtured them were separated. People finally understood the blessings and curses they carried and their unique position in " Nirvana", marking the beginning of the "Age of Awakening".

As for those who were expelled as heretics, many had already committed suicide on the night of self-awareness, and the remaining became the current " Requiem Sect". They believed that other Maledictus had fallen for Father's trickery, for he still harbored hatred towards humanity. They believed that self-awareness was not a blessing but a curse, and the so-called gift was nothing more than poison disguised as honey.

Anyway, unlike the poverty and short life of the ignorant age, "Holy Wisdom" indeed brought a new face to the awakened age. The Maledictus people realized that due to long-term isolation, they could no longer view their distant relatives as siblings. Writing was injected into civilization like spring rain, condensed in cities, overflowed in the form of war, and converged into a river named prosperity. The rulers changed the world with their own will, and people were no longer "passers-by of nothingness", finally becoming masters.

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However, people soon discovered that with the increase in population, new forms of death appeared in the world, such as famine, plague, war, etc., but there was no god to hear their prayers. Angelus disappeared without a trace, and the "father of Creation" also left them. People urgently needed new gods. Perhaps in the darkest night, humbled people remembered that they - the Maledictus people - were the offspring of Angelus and the creation of the " father of Creation", and they were also descendants of the gods. Although they had been interbreeding with other lower creatures for a long time, there was still a trace of divinity in their bloodline. Since everyone is a seed of God, perhaps a way can be found to reinvigorate one's divinity.

Scholars employed by the obsessed nobles soon discovered that although people are seeds of God, there are also good and bad seeds, and why waste nutrients on "dead seeds"? They hypothesized that the more interbreeding with various living or non-living secondary creatures, the more impure the bloodline, and the more diluted the divinity. On the contrary, if one has a pure Maledictus bloodline, there is potential to become a god. As soon as this was said, it immediately caused the nobles to follow suit, using the management of their offspring's marriage partners as a family motto, and even raising their children in deep palace fences for breeding with other noble children. This livestock-like breeding method became popular, to the point where there would often be two branches in a noble family: one could freely marry, and the other was responsible for becoming a "god seed." The latter had a high status but lacked the ability to manage affairs, so family affairs were often led by the former.

On the other hand, devout sectarian leaders advocate abandoning desires that lead to impure bloodlines, in addition to advocating for pure bloodlines. Therefore, they first use fragrances to put boys to sleep and collect their initial semen through test tubes, which is then injected into noble girls who have just started menstruating. Afterwards, because the boys lost their sanctity, and the cost of preserving their noble bloodline was too high, they were abandoned or hastily killed, or even sold as prostitutes to support their families or appease the people. As for girls, since giving birth only brings pain and no pleasure, the more children they have, the more sacred they are considered. Therefore, girls will soon die early due to constant childbirth.

After generations of selection, the divinity in the "god seed" bloodline has become more and more concentrated. Compared to the surrounding world, it seems like time is flowing backwards. They are becoming more and more like Angelus and the "Father of Creation" (the god seeds exhibit more and more features of fair skin, blond hair, and green eyes, which is also the basis for later speculations about Angelus' appearance). However, even so, it is still difficult for the god seeds containing abundant divinity to sprout, and the long-awaited gods are still nowhere to be found.

From towering cities, deep ravines, to gorgeous arts and exquisite objects, unimaginably cruel wars, incredibly heinous punishments, and even the original sin of making mortals into gods, there is no doubt that the weak human hands hold great power. Because it was the final work of the "Father of Creation", humans have reason to view Angelus' original sin of interbreeding with inferior creations as a taboo. Therefore, only when humans are desperate do they think of seeking possibilities among inferior creations that they have long neglected and looked down upon. After failed attempts to make gods, scholars turned to historical records and found that long before Angelus opened his eyes, the stars, sky, rocks, water, fire, plants, and animals created by his Father had already spread throughout the Nirvana.

It took humanity a long time to dare to imagine that if humans had divinity, other creations could have it too, and it took even longer for people to accept this viewpoint. But with today's perspective, we can see glimpses of this in ancient myths and legends, such as the "Father of Creation" demanding to be burned by fire. If fire were impure, he would not make such a demand. And among all the creations of the "Father of Creation", only humans were clearly shown to be hated.

Humans are the only creations cursed with a short lifespan. This has given scholars the longing to embark on a quest for knowledge in their limited lives, and has also given them hope that other initial creations still exist today, unlike Angelus.