A Troubled Child
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Pandora was always the intelligent one, some would even say the best of the best ever since she was young, when she could still enjoy the embrace of her two parents and the protection they provided.
But all good things must come to an end, her parents had long since passed, they were already on their deathbed when cultivation became a thing. Now she was all alone forced to take her parent's position as the ruler of her race.
But that was many years ago, too long to even count, now the world was much more diverse, there were your cultivators and mages, but also other forms of magic like the goblins shamans who combined cultivation and elementals, taking in elementals as part of their souls and fusing into one.
Elemental Spirits as they've come to call them, each spirit has different abilities leading to most shamans being very diverse, except for a few families. They've even evolved away from their dirty disgusting goblin cousins into a self-dubbed superior race, they call themselves the Noi. A mix between their goblin past selves and humanoid current selves.
They're the Nylon's, they've never forsaken their ancient religion, still believing ice dragons to be gods among gods. But with the awakening of ancient dragon sub-species sects broke off worshiping specific dragons.
They've even tied themselves closer to dragonkind, even going so far as the change their system to fit them better. Their system involved their dragon blood and dragon gods, their gods would bless them and they would slowly turn into the noble dragons themselves to serve them, but they could not keep the form for long.
The humans were under the sanction of the 5 great immortal sects, each one representing an elemental affinity with a close connection to their respective elemental realms.
The elves on the other hand almost completely vanished, it was odd but for someone of her standing she knew exactly the reason. They kept to their Forest Realms and completely cut off contact with all but the great factions. It was hard to say exactly what magic system they've adopted but intel suggests an even more primal and naturalistic magic when compared to the goblins turned Noi.
From what she could tell such magic severely damaged them in ways even the divine cant fix. She believes this is why they choose to hide.
The undead were the opposite, their ruler still holds a grudge for the living but it does not blind him. He took the position of Undead Emperor and started to lead the undead into some sort of barbaric civilization. They grew off of death and destruction so they would be ever so thankful to participate in any wars. They became mercenaries and they were good at it too, but that didn't stop most races from banning their manpower, anytime they got involved both sides would lose too much and quickly go extinct, joining the ranks of the undead.
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And lastly their kind, as angles born from the very blood of two Divines they were a unique bunch. Their beauty surpassing that of most elven kind and their magic not too far behind. They did not embrace cultivation like most thought they should but kept true to themselves.
Their strength came from their divine blood, so they strengthened that connection, deepened it to a whole new level. They evolved with their blood and already they had a sprawling system of their own with a multitude of paths to take.
As the ruler she forged a path of her own only she could take, already she was a Celestial Arch Angle, her six wings represented her understanding of Heavenly Dao, each being representing a Dao she understood.
The demons too kept their old system but with a few tweaks, they fused a greater Heavenly Dao into their twisted bloodline, forming a new Dao they called the Dao of Oaths.
Any and all who swore Oaths to the Realm Tree would fall into their grimy hands, and as such, they were able to keep up with the angels. But the chaos they cause always seemed to give her the worst of headaches.
"If only their kind could just disappear..."
Recently they have been a lot more brazen with their deals, already they have gambled and won many realms and added them to their faction. At this point, they'll soon break the balance of the world.
"If only mother and father were here to help..."
Pandora was all alone within the great temple of Heavens Wrath, a duel religion worshiping both Eros and Wisp as their patron Diety.
"If the balance is really thrown off then I have no choice but to use that to keep the balance..."
Her gaze focused on an unassuming crystallized drop of liquid, a memory popped into her head of a day-long past.
• • •
"Pandora, you will soon take over our place as ruler, if ever comes a time when the fragile balance between the great factions were ever to be threatened then it is up to you to fix it..."
Tears welled up and a young Pandora hugged tightly onto her parents, gone was the aloof aura of the mature Queen.
"Don't say that I've heard in the human realms that a new system has resurfaced, it's able to prolong life and even few can become immortal."
Lux and Elizabeth gazed at their daughter and sighed, their time has already long passed and all that was keeping them from returning to the embrace of the Realm Tree was their very stubborn daughter before them.
"Now is not the time sweat heart," her mother's gentle voice resounded through the white space that surrounded them, already she had forgotten what it looked like back then.
"Just promise me you’ll remember..."
• • •
"I promise..." Within her mind, a voice both familiar and unfamiliar echoed, a much more childish voice than her own.