After the sealing of End, the world continued on, the demons continuing to wreak havoc while the orcs were building their new society, using their human slaves to build the first orc cities. These cities soon sprouted all over Occasus with the exception of land that was once Athera’s Capital. It was uninhabitable due to the power of End which still irradiated the earth, causing all who entered it to die a slow and painful death. And although they could see the strange city at the center of this dangerous area, they never tried to enter it.

Meanwhile, the humans and elves had retreated to the South, forced to live on the sea on great cities of wood, floating on the seas where the orcs couldn’t use their overwhelming numbers to conquer them. And as for the dwarves, they sealed themselves in the mountains, the orcs soon forgetting about their existence and the demons leaving them alone as Agleon’s Crystallum personally came to the dwarves’ defense. The dwarves had always been blessed by Agleon and in turn, they did their best to take care of her so was determined not to let them down.

Meanwhile, the demons had now focused their attention on Ortus although the Saurians and the limitless hordes of the Crimex were more than enough to keep them at bay. It was then that Night made her personal entrance onto the surface of Agleon, causing a great portion of Agleon’s surface to be covered in perpetual night. She then set about conquering Ortus, slaughtering the Saurians and exterminating hordes of Crimex all with a wave of her hand. But the Saurians did not submit to her power, instead believing with religious fervor that their patron dragon will protect them.

And after the attack by Night, their patron dragon could no longer bear to stay on the Moon, spreading her majestic wings and soaring through empty space and into the atmosphere of Agleon. She hurtled through the atmosphere like a meteor, roaring with righteous anger. The might of a True Dragon was nothing to laugh at, even the fragmented End would have trouble facing against such a creature who was personally designed by Darkness, back when Darkness did not yet have a measure of how powerful a creature should be. And so the True Dragon clashed with Night, the Saurians rallying behind their god and slaughtering the demons.

And as all this went on, the Seed that the Surveyor had left behind continued to collect energy, protected by the invincible Teryo. Years turned into decades and those decades morphed into centuries, nearly a millennia having passed since it had first been created. In that time, the True Dragon had defeated Night and decided to rule over the Saurians. In temporary defeat, Night retreated, she had underestimated the power needed to conquer this world. She had originally thought that a mere millionth of her strength was enough. But her defeat itself was no matter, this defeat was one among thousands of victories for even now, tens of thousands of worlds were being corrupted by her. Her power had been spread too thin, she wouldn't focus too much on this defeat.

As for Auster, it had remained relatively fine throughout the entire ordeal although it would take time to replace the losses they had ensued. As for Occasus, it had completely fallen to the Orcs, the dwarves were of no threat to the orcs and had no intention of bothering them and the Alliance—the motley group of humans, monsters, and elves that had managed to flee from the orc empire.

It was during this final year that things finally began to calm down. The Orcs had firmly established their rule, the True Dragon brought peace to Ortus and Auster was busy rebuilding its great army. Truly, it was a shame that it had taken so long for the Seed to awake. And after an uneasy peace was reintroduced into the world, exactly one thousand years since the creation of the Seed, the Seed awoke and the new Surveyor opened its eyes. Of course, it did not possess eyes but the eyes it was talking about were the observers that its previous self had placed, accessing all the information that they had witnessed in the millennia that it had been sleeping.

Once it had the necessary information, it then made its way to the place where End had been sealed to make sure that she had not escaped. It did try to communicate with the previous Surveyor but, of course, there was no response. So it could only assume one of two things, that the Surveyor was dead or that it had sealed itself along with End. So it stood outside the palace, scanning it to make sure that End was indeed within. But it found no sign of her and it immediately entered to investigate, only finding the shattered remains of the Shard. This of itself was of no importance, it could always rebuild it, the problem was that the previous Surveyor had placed its consciousness in here, meaning that it has either moved or was killed.

The latter was more likely and with this knowledge in mind, the Surveyor once more connected with its observers and the shadows of Agleon, looking more closely this time. If End had escaped, it had to find and seal her properly. It hadn’t found any sign of her, but as it looked closely, it found several areas that were suspiciously empty of shadows, like the home of the elves. It checked on these areas, having to personally enter as it could not access the shadows of these regions for some reason. This may have been because it was far weaker than it was in the past but there was something else, the powers of various deities guarding these places.

But none of these barriers could stop it from entering personally and it did so, carefully searching for End. On its search, it discovered many new creatures that it recorded in its Library, although it didn’t spend too much time doing so, the matter of End was far more important. It continued on this search until it came across a barrier that was not created by a deity, rather it was of human nature that was slightly tainted with its own energy. The Surveyor was confused, it had not been privy to what had happened within End’s prison and did not know that Ieros had been re-created. So it went to investigate, adopting the form of the Sentinel.

It began to search, spending about fifteen minutes before it found a log cabin. It went to investigate and saw a man working in a small garden in front of the cabin. To the Surveyor’s surprise, it was Ieros but it did not have time to think of such things, sealing End was of top priority. The Surveyor easily managed to sneak past Ieros and entered the cabin, seeing a rather strange sight. It had found End breastfeeding a baby, her face filled with motherly love. The Surveyor was unsure as to how to respond to this, spending a few moments thinking on various courses of action, End noticing his presence within those few moments. She immediately stood and took off her glove, her right hand blazing with destructive energy as she glared at the Surveyor.

She demanded, “What are you doing here!?”

The Surveyor replied, “To complete the seal.”

She relaxed slightly, but did not completely lose her guard, “Why now?”

The Surveyor answered, “Because I have just awoken, it has been half a day since I’ve become conscious.”

She was momentarily confused before chuckling, “Ah, I should have known that my brother was not as foolish as to seal himself with me.”

The Surveyor replied, “My other self did seal itself with you, I am merely a copy of it, retaining the memories he possessed before he sealed himself away.”

End shrugged and said, “Well, let’s get it over with. This power of mine has been getting in the way of my new life so I’m glad to be finally rid of it.”

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The Surveyor nodded, “Then I shall begin.”

It then began to create the necessary amount of the Absolute Mirror, creating a sheet the size of A4 paper. It then wrapped the material around her hand, the Absolute Mirror fusing with her skin. The seal was now complete but the Surveyor did not leave just yet, it now deemed End’s children to be the greatest threat now.

It then said, “I will have to seal your child as well, all of them.”

End held her child protectively, saying, “Ieros already sealed their powers.”

The Surveyor said, “The works of mortals always fail in the end. Only when I seal them can I be sure that they will not become you.”

End was still wary but finally held out her child, saying, “But if you hurt them-”

The Surveyor said, “You won’t be able to stop me if I wished to do so. Don’t make baseless threats.”

End grew angry but held her tongue, glaring at the Surveyor as it reached out a shadowy hand. The child grew silent as it saw the hand approach, squirming with discomfort as the Surveyor’s hand made contact with her forehead. She was about to cry but suddenly stopped as the cold, uncomfortable sensation was replaced by a warm, pleasant one. She burbled happily as the Surveyor searched for signs of End’s power, finding Ieros’s seal. It was a good seal but not good enough, this seal had not taken into account how this child’s strength would grow over the years.

So the Surveyor fixed that, creating two hundred and sixteen interlocking seals that would work together as one, each one independent but also able to support and amplify the strength of the other seals. As the power of End was no longer pure but diluted, the Surveyor could get away with just using regular seals.

With this finished, the Surveyor asked, “Do you have more children?”

End was about to answer when the Surveyor added, “Answer truthfully, should I find one who possesses power akin to yours, I will kill them immediately.”

End glared at the Surveyor and then said, “Yes, my daughter, she’s out foraging for herbs and should be back in a few hours.”

The Surveyor nodded, “Then I shall wait.”

It stood still and for a few moments, End debated whether or not she should let this happen.

Finally, she said, “Could you at least adopt a more human form? My daughter would probably be frightened by your appearance, not to mention that my husband may try to attack you on sight.”

The Surveyor nodded, “Yes, that is a logical course of action.”

So saying, the Surveyor began to morph into a more solid form, taking on the appearance of a middle-aged man with black hair with streaks of grey. Clothed in black and silver robes, he took a seat at the dining table, his silver eyes attracting the attention of the baby. She oohed at them and outstretched her small hands as if seeking to touch them while End quietly caressed her cheek. Drawing her attention away from her child for a moment, she returned her gaze to the Surveyor, her eyes tracing over the Surveyor’s face.

Finally, she said, “You look a lot like Ieros.”

The Surveyor nodded, “Of course, he was the first human I created, this is merely an improvisation.”

End laughed, “I still prefer my Ieros.”

The Surveyor said, “That is your preference. I merely made a more logical solution. Ieros’s body, although quite good at channeling, hasn’t reached its full potential. This body of mine has matured properly and will be the perfect conduit for my power. This is what Ieros would have grown into if you hadn’t come, alas, you did and I, rather, my previous self was forced to seal you away.”

There was once more silence and the Surveyor took the time to organize the information that it had collected from its observers, transcribing them into books. His silver eyes, whose glow had slightly dimmed, were completely focused on writing, the silver pen that he had leaving ink in the grooves the pen pressed into the paper. Each movement was flawless, meticulous, and methodical, words blossoming onto the pages while memories of events were forever frozen into images on paper. End was curious and decided to pull up a chair next to him, watching as he penned down various events that the observers had recorded.

She watched, watching as stories of harrowing escape, courageous sacrifices and surrendering one’s hope; she saw how the humans and elves banded together to form the Alliance, creating vast cities of wood to float on the seas. And she also beheld the terrible orcs, brutally efficient in their hunt of humanity, killing those that resisted while capturing those who couldn’t escape. She saw how they enslaved them, turning them into mere cattle for future food and entertainment, becoming mere toys for orcs. She also saw how the orcs had the humans build their first cities, countless human laborers forced to work on these large structures, many often dying from exhaustion and starvation.

Those that survived were then sacrificed to please the orcs’ god, Korbus, the God of Blood. And then there were the hardy dwarves who sealed themselves up in their mountains, forever spending their days within their beloved tunnels. She also saw the True Dragon’s battle with Night and how Night was forced to withdraw, witnessing the might of the Saurians who met slaughter with slaughter, killing three demons for every Saurian that fell.

And just like that, three and a half hours passed in which the door opened to the cabin, the shadow of a young woman entering the house.

Brought back to reality, End smiled at her eldest daughter and stood, introducing the Surveyor, “Silren, this is my brother, Erus, Erus, this is Silren, my daughter.”

The Surveyor closed the book and placed it in its library, returning its attention to Silren.

He bowed his head in greeting and said, “Hello Silren.”

Silren respectfully returned the greeting, “Hello uncle Erus.”

At this, End chuckled while the Surveyor remained still.

Finally, it stood up and said, “I’ve come to reinforce the seal on your powers, once I have done that, I will leave.”

Silren was confused and looked to her mother for confirmation which End gave.

Somewhat reluctantly, Silren asked, “Why? Father already did a pretty good job.”

The Surveyor then stood, saying, “You do not know just how terrible your mother’s power is. If my brother had not sealed the majority of her power, Agleon would not even exist. That very same power exists within you and must be sealed properly. Your father is a smart and powerful man but he is still young in the ways of magic. I will be able to make sure that your power will be properly sealed so that it will not endanger the world or you.”

Silren was suitably chastised and the Surveyor set about sealing her, standing up and making its way towards her. She held her breath as it approached, closing her eyes as the Surveyor raised a hand. It then placed an index finger on her forehead, the Surveyor analyzing her body. It seemed that End’s power had been sealed in childhood so it hadn’t grown much although the seal was already strained. Counting the girl to be fortunate, the Surveyor set about reinforcing the seal, once more creating two hundred and sixteen interlocking seals.

Once it had finished, it withdrew its hand and thanked Silren for her cooperation. It briefly thought about creating another building like the palace in order to keep End in one place but finally decided against it. It would only serve to be a waste of energy as it knew End’s family would serve to be her greatest chains.

So, with nothing else to do here, it bid farewell to End, “Goodbye End, it may be harsh but I hope that this is the last time the two of us meet.”

End smiled sadly, “Yes, I... I think that’s for the best.”

It turned to leave and End seemed conflicted, finally blurting out, “Well since this is the last time we’re going to see each other, would you like to stay for dinner? I mean, I...”

She drifted off as the Surveyor turned to look at her. She waited nervously for its reply, her eyes holding a sad and hopeful gaze. The Surveyor meanwhile thought of the pros and cons, finally deciding that there was more benefit to stay for dinner than to leave. It could use this as a chance to find out more about End’s sudden change and what exactly happened to the previous Surveyor.

Having decided, the Surveyor then fully turned to face her and said, “Well there is no reason for me not to accept so I might as well.”