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Prolog

Far in the background, the flying castles that once symbolized the pinnacle of magehood crumble into embers, their majesty reduced to rubble. Victor Everstone hovers above the ruins of his childhood home—a sanctuary that witnessed the laughter of his children and the demise of his beloved, a woman of unparalleled power and gentle grace.

"Daydreaming, are we, Everstone?" The voice cuts through his reverie, laced with a legendary aura that radiates sheer power. Valarie stands before him, her presence a testament to a system that grants might at the expense of blood.

Victor's gaze, filled with a mix of sorrow and defiance, meets hers. "Just reminiscing, Valarie. Reflecting on a time before our fates were entwined with this 'System'—the musings of a 'fossil' soon to be forgotten. A time when the laughter of my children echoed through these halls, and the gentle grace of my beloved filled every corner of this sanctuary."

With a subtle gesture, he infuses realm magic into his eyes, the glow casting a stark contrast against the devastation. Through this enhanced sight, he watches the last of the mage families vanish through the portal he had conjured, their escape a flicker of hope amidst despair.

Valarie's confidence falters momentarily at the sight of his eyes transforming to a clear, radiant white. "Identify," she commands, though she knows the attempt is futile. The System responds as it always does when confronted with the enigma of realm magic: System Error. Skill cannot be identified. Target is a realm mage. Destroy at all costs.

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"Well, Everstone, it seems our finale approaches. Do you see it—the broken staffs plummeting to the Earth? A fitting end for your kind. Isn't it peculiar how, in death, you're reduced to mere remnants, just like the creatures you sought to protect? Noting but Realm Points for Users to grow in power," Valarie's voice is tinged with a macabre delight, her anticipation of the ascent to the pinnacle of power with Victor's defeat palpable.

Yet, in this moment of apparent triumph, Victor's resolve hardens. With a solemn nod to his ancestors and the future he's fighting to secure, he channels the last of his power. The air shivers, the fabric of reality tears, and a portal to Earth—a beacon of salvation—yawns wide behind him.

As Valarie lunges forward, driven by her thirst for victory, Victor counters with a burst of realm magic, not to harm but to delay. In that sliver of time, he steps backward into the portal, his eyes locking onto hers one final time, a silent vow that this is not the end but a beginning. A beginning of a new era, where the mage families will rise again.

The portal seals shut with a resonant hum, and high above the untouched soil of Earth, seven staffs shatter against the barrier between worlds. They fall not as symbols of defeat but as seeds of a new legacy. Each staff, belonging to a leader of the mage families, embeds itself into the ground. Their sacrifice enacts a grand sealing magic, concealing this realm from the predatory eyes of the System.

In this new world, though starved of their full might, the mages' descendants will grow resilient, mastering control over the subdued magic of Earth. Hidden from the System, they prepare for the day they will reclaim their heritage and fight back.

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