I woke up to the unceasingly annoying beeping of my alarm, before I desperately leapt at it as I tried to hit the stop button, only to swipe the empty air a few times before I managed to finally turn it off. I got out of bed and went to pull my clothes on, before rushing out and eating a quick breakfast. As I was eating, I snatched a look outside, seeing more forces mobilizing, before rushing to work after throwing my shoes on. As I was pulling out of the driveway however, I got a text from my boss, saying "Work has been... shut down for today. It's happening. Good luck, and I hope to see you all on the other side... god bless our souls..."
I simply sat there looking at my phone for a minute, before sighing and walking back inside and heading to my computer room to while away the minutes to nuclear annihilation. I opened a locked drawer, checked to make sure my Glock 18 was loaded, and set it beside my keyboard before hopping onto Discord to say one last goodbye to all of my friends. I then hop onto our Minecraft server, and simply start building randomly, before deciding to go to the End to meet everyone else before jumping into the void before we all get off. We all quietly said our final goodbyes, before leaping in and leaving after dying. I got off, and picked up my Glock before heading to the window and standing there looking out before I see a brief, blinding flash of light, a wave of horrible burning heat, and then nothing.
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The Mana wars. A horrible event, caused by Ḥ̷̢̧̻̼̹̬͉͍͇̉̃̀̽į̸̡͙̲̣̘̹͓͎̖͉̭̃̒̈́̓̽̈͜͠m̵̻̝͉̜͉͕͇̜̱͎͕̲̽̾̇̈́̀̽̀̏̓̏͝, and only stopped when every other Mana using being banded together to perform a spell to banish Ḥ̷̢̧̻̼̹̬͉͍͇̉̃̀̽į̸̡͙̲̣̘̹͓͎̖͉̭̃̒̈́̓̽̈͜͠m̵̻̝͉̜͉͕͇̜̱͎͕̲̽̾̇̈́̀̽̀̏̓̏͝. And yet, that was all they could do. Throw Ḥ̷̢̧̻̼̹̬͉͍͇̉̃̀̽į̸̡͙̲̣̘̹͓͎̖͉̭̃̒̈́̓̽̈͜͠m̵̻̝͉̜͉͕͇̜̱͎͕̲̽̾̇̈́̀̽̀̏̓̏͝ into the Void, create the Bedrock above it, and pray that H̷̙̳̗̥͇͕̭͕̓ê̸̡̨̥̖̥̜̰̹̝͉̖͚̪͂̇̽̌͆̔ never escapes.
However, it came at a price. Most books with the knowledge of Mana and how to use it, safely or not, were lost, and only the most powerful and durable books survived with simple damage. And thus ended the Age of Mana, and the prosperity it brought. All the races regressed. The Terrans were reduced to spiteful and greedy savages, waging war against everyone outside of their own Kingdoms, using their knights and cavalry and longbow men, bringing hate wherever they went. The Elves returned to their forests and their caves in the mountains, refusing to interact with most of the races other than the Dwarves. The Dwarves dug into their valleys and their ravines, closing all of their buried strongholds to the outside world, only to trade with the Elves and none else.
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The Beast-Kin tribes all returned to their northern hunting lands, refusing access to all but their own people. And the Dragons all seemingly ceased to exist, with the stories about them becoming legends, before eventually becoming near myths. The War Constructs from the Western Lands all returned home or hid, and the various Demon races fell back to the Nether, never to be seen again, except with great unluck. The Covens of Witches disappeared into their swamps, never to use Mana again, resorting to brewing their potions resentfully.
And then the undead appeared.
It started simple. Necromancers and Witches banded together, exhuming the corpses of ancient and buried Mages, so desperate to bring Mana back to the world that they did the most horrendous act to date after the Mana Wars, an used Void Mana infused potions to create the first Liches. They paid dearly for their mistakes, but brought a horrible curse upon the lands, in the form of the undead armies of the Liches. They created a plague, capable of infecting all and would turn them undead. And they began raising all the corpses they found, no matter their state. From skeletons missing their limbs, to the freshly deceased, none were safe. However, after great effort from a band of Terran, Elven, and Dwarven heroes, they managed to kill the Liches.
Sadly, it wasn't enough. The undead remained, and while their plague was weakened greatly, and made far less lethal, the dead continued to rise on their own, and the hordes of the undead continued to roam the lands aimlessly, hiding away when the sun comes up, before returning with the fall of night. And what is worse, is that it spread everywhere. From the deepest caves to the highest cliffs, and even to the Nether, nowhere was safe from the plague.
But the killing of the Liches did help. And while more cities fell, and more Kingdoms were snuffed out by the endless, shambling swarms, Civilization survived. Barely, but it did. The Terrans built tall walls around all their cities, the Elves grew their trees thicker and closer, and the Dwarves sealed off their contaminated mines. Civilization went on, gradually forgetting the details of Mana, the Mana Wars, and even the undead plague that threatened them all. However, not all forgot. The few remaining, if greatly weakened Mages, remembered. They recorded their fading knowledge, and taught the few they could find with the potential to use Mana.
The Holy Empire continued on, acting as all other Terran Kingdoms, but they too remembered, and they too prepared. They taught their Priests the art of Light Mana, which they believed to be the Anti-thesis of Void Mana, and they prepared their Holy Knights in case of more Liches coming into the world. The Adventurers Guild trained all their Mercenaries how best to slay the Undead, and what symptoms of infection to look for. And thus, the world fell into an uneasy, somewhat peaceful time.
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I opened my eyes, only to see nothing. I moved my body, only to feel nothing. I screamed, only to hear nothing.
And the nothing screamed back.