It had been a week and Eridel had accomplished many things.
First, he had finally created the human race. In each continent, you would find 40,000 humans, each split into groups of 4 and placed in the 4 directions; North, East, South and West.
Naturally, a lot of them had already died.
Humans were a race that relied on knowledge when they had no strength. But what knowledge could they have with a 6-7 day long history?
It was especially perilous for the Humans in the East of the Central continent, after all, that’s where all the big shots were. The Eastern Forest. In fact, of the 10,000 humans there, only 6000 were left.
It was mostly the doing of the snake clan, the domineering hooligans of the East.
Wherever they rolled, everyone else fled. When they said yes, no one else dared say no. Whenever they occupied territory, no one resisted.
The snake clan was unrivalled under the heavens…
Or so they thought.
When they arrived at the center of the Forest, seeing the bountiful resources, they didn’t think twice before trying to occupy the place. They didn’t yet understand the concept of ‘resources’, but they did understand that consuming things filled with ‘energy’ would increase their strength.
So seeing so many treasures filled with energy, they didn’t hesitate at all. Would the owners even fight back?
But their thoughts were shattered when they felt the behemoth-like pressure that suddenly arose from behind them. And before they could even turn around to confront the issue-
CRASH!
Blood spattered and bone pieces flew out. Some even severely injured other snakes. Looking back they could actually see that one of their brothers had actually had his skull stomped into paste!
But what was even more terrifying was the gigantic elk that stood imposingly above their slain brood member.
Drako and Lily didn’t even think twice before fleeing. Jörma wasn’t actually there, after an accidental cave-in that occurred in one of her adventures, she usually sent one of her fellow snakes to a location she wanted to enter, if she hadn’t already been there before.
What happened next terrified the rest of the snakes to the point of severe PTSD. A ghastly scene they will never forget for the rest of their life.
Half of them were massacred!
Ever since then they didn’t dare tread to the center of the Forest, and when they saw any other elk, even a baby one - they vanished at top speed.
In fact. Dodo could have killed the entire race. But he was the ‘Guardian’ of the Forest, not the ‘Executor’. He only killed them to that extent because of their unscrupulous ways. Now they would think twice before arrogantly invading everywhere.
Now back on the situation of the Humans.
It was much better in the West. The dragons were still all sleeping, and other animals weren’t all that fierce. So they managed.
If you could call moping around like zombies ‘managing’.
It couldn’t be helped. They had no purpose, and they had no hunting skills. They could only take notes from herbivores and eat plants to survive. Humanity was the lowest of the low.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
But Eridel didn’t care in the slightest. All enlightened species went through this phase. The process of struggling to survive will ultimately help their descendants. Their descendants will learn from the past failures of their race and rise above their predecessors.
Eridel had much more exciting things to worry about. 2 main projects. One would be pretty quick, the other would take a very long time. By mortal standards anyway.
The first thing he was going to do was to finally awaken magic energy in the planet.
He was quite excited about this because he would be the first World to awaken magic energy so early. There was a chance that this was a requirement for his goal in becoming a World that surpassed the Laws.
‘A roughly 10,000 year old World is awakening magic energy. Completely unprecedented. But… this World is ME so what else could be expected?’
Eridel’s hubris knew no boundaries.
‘Alright, here goes nothing…’
Eridel focused his attention on his core. It looked like a spherical grey coloured pearl that had the diameter of 10 metres. It was very smooth and had a prominent sheen on the surface. But… that was it. It was quite bland.
Eridel ignored the docile-looking-ball of destruction essence that sat trapped beside his core and peered into the inner workings of his core.
And what he discovered made him pause.
He discovered… nothing. Well, nothing that could help him activate magical energy.
‘How annoying…’
2 hours later he still couldn’t accomplish anything.
‘Could it be that I have to wait like ‘everyone’ else?’
Awakening magical energy was like going through puberty. A process that could not be controlled. A process that started whenever it wanted to. A process that could also never be reversed.
When you started growing hair on your chin, no matter how much you shaved. It would always come back.
With magical energy, when it appeared, it would only keep growing. But of course… there were horrifying situations that did the opposite. But that’s for another time.
‘Will I have to sit and wait…? Again?! NEVER, I REFUSE!’
Driven to near madness by the possibility of stagnation, Erridel decided to do something drastic!
He actually summoned forth his Primordial Essence of his soul and actually shoved it into his core!!! MADNESS!!! DOES HE COURT DEATH?!
A golden light began to emerge from the center of his core like a lone star surrounded by the vast cosmos.
The golden light grew bigger but it was at a snail's pace.
Eridel watched with trepidation as he continued to flood his core with more and more of his essence.
CINK!
A hair-raising sound was heard that sounded suspiciously like broken glass.
Looking at the small but visible crack on the side of his core, Eridel was filled with fear for the first time in centuries.
His core was damaged.
Consequently, the Laws of Destruction slowly began to form, just like before when this planet was nearly destroyed the first time.
This would spell the end of most World’s but Eridel was here. So how could it accomplish anything when it failed the first time? He unhesitatingly vanquished the essence that didn’t even have time to form yet.
He didn’t even have the attention to think of containing it in his already trapped ball of destruction essence. He was just too nervous and he didn't dare to be distracted.
With haste, he quickly healed the crack.
He contemplated stopping the entire process but his irrational hate of stagnation took control of his actions again so he persevered.
10 days passed and half of his core was filled with the golden light, but in no way was it an easy process.
His core would frequently fracture and each time would be bigger than the last. Naturally, the Laws of Destruction that erupted were denser as well but they still vanished before any harm was done.
If Eridel could sweat, he would be drenched by now. Not from exertion, but from the nerve-racking process that was happening before his ‘eyes’.
Thinking of the chance of possible self-destruction, Eridel started to become dangerously furious.
‘Why should I be destroyed just because I want to become greater? Is this what it means for man to propose and god to dispose? Why…? WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO YIELD?! WHY-’
CIIIINK! CKK! Ck! k!
Half of Eridel’s core splintered.