Elas's head snapped up. "How did you know about that?"

Damien sighed. He'd already given an explanation to Keilan and wasn't thrilled to have to start again. But it couldn't be helped, so he began summarizing the brief altercation that had occurred and the accusations that were spewed. He'd already explained such to Keilan.

"So, is everything true? Was there an empire that spanned this world? And why do they not exist anymore?"

Elas raised his hands to stall the flood of questions that was threatening to flood out of Damien's mouth.

"One at a time," Elas said. "Yes, to your first question. The answers to the rest are pretty subjective, seeing as the only people who know the true, unspeculated version are the Great Families and the Spirit King Cultists." The man sighed. "And you know how well the outcome's going to play out if you approach any of them for answers. But fortunately for you, we've – my organization – also been able to put together a story from the bits and pieces scattered around."

Damien shrugged, that was good enough. "So it's true then? Solaris wasn't the progenitor of the great wars?"

Elas laughed. "Not by a small margin. You have to understand, our world wasn't always like this. Once, Ra, the World Spirit, was a Spirit King level being. World Spirits, from the knowledge we've been able to scrounge up, aren't all almighty or completely impenetrable. With numbers, they could be overwhelmed and even defeated."

"What's that got to do with the Great families?" Keilan asked.

"What I'm saying is that, likewise, when the World Spirit had still been in the realm of Spirit King, there were also Spirit King individuals, and they were not always restricted to outer space."

"They lived on the planet," Damien realized. "Why didn't the World Spirit evict them, then? It should have been capable of doing so."

Elas smiled. "You see... Power is a fickle thing, no matter how great yours is, if armies of equal rank individuals descend on you, your power will become worthless."

Damien, understanding where Elas was heading, asked. "How many Spirit Kings were there?"

"Enough that the planet would have literally been split in two if they had come to blows."

Damien took a deep breath, his mind struggling to digest what had just been said. "Gray?"

[Your friend speaks true. World Spirits are certainly powerful, extremely so. Their two levels of existence – their will and literal planet-level energy well – make them into an effective behemoth in nigh impenetrability and raw power. No Essence wielder is capable of single-handedly taking on a World Spirit of equal realm.]

"Because of their their 'impenetrability' and 'raw power'?"

[Not only that. Taking on a World Spirit is the equivalent of fighting more than a dozen Essence wielders of equal realm. World Spirits lacks the great mobility and certainly the pure destructive offensive capabilities of Essence wielders, but the sheer defensive capabilities of the World Spirit would leave both your willpower and energy well drained more than half a dozen times before you can even break through their shield.]

"You said they lack offensive capabilities. What of the Sentinels, then, aren't they offensive techniques?"

Gray chuckled. [I never said they completely lacked offensive capabilities, what I meant was that, compared to the average Essence wielder of equal realm, a World Spirit will always lose in the offensive.]

"So they make up for their deficit in offensive capabilities with more than average defenses?"

[Far more than average. Now, pertaining to their offensive capabilities, that's where the Sentinels come in. Like fleshcrafters and all sorts of invasive types of Essence wielders.]

"Invasive types? What are those?"

[Essence wielders who specialize in concepts like Soul, Mind, and Blood, are commonly termed as invasive wielders.] Gray's voice then took on a warning tone. [And heed this warning: Do not battle their ilks without prior preparations. There are fates worse than death.]

Damien, seeing as the warning came from Gray, couldn't help the uncontrollable shiver that briefly crossed his spine.

[Now, to get back on topic. Sentinels make up for their creator's lack of true offensive powers. They are the hammer to their World Spirit's shield. Do you get me now?]

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Damien nodded. "I understand what you're saying. But all your explanation did was make them more powerful than a bunch of Spirit Kings could handle."

[Sure. But do understand that the explanations I'm giving you are factoring the personal powers of the Spirit Kings in the average tier. If half a dozen elite tier Spirit Kings attack a World Spirit, it would undoubtedly fall.]

Still unsatisfied with the answer but lacking the time enough to fully go into detail, Damien turned his attention back to Elas. "Do you by any chance have an estimate of the Spirit Kings' population then?"

Elas, who had also taken the time to digest some things, came to. "Sure, somewhere between ten to fifteen. Now, we haven't been able to fully narrow it down, but from what we were able to accumulate over centuries of research, we placed their numbers between those two numbers, presently great families included.

"Now, to continue. The Empire, then, a Mega civilization that spanned the entire world, was, undoubtedly ruled by a Spirit King Emperor of supposedly great power.

The other Spirit Kings were installed as pillars of the Empire — I assume that's where Solaris copied the power structure upon which he built his Empire's foundation. The only difference between both is that one Empire's pillars were stationed on every continent, acting in their role as literal pillars who held everything up and prevented chaos from breaking up in their respective assigned sectors. The pillars of Solaria are just a tiny fragment of those, with their powers drastically limited to a fraction of the Greensend continent."

"So, what happened to the Empire?" Damien asked.

"Greed."

"For wealth?" Keilan raised his eyebrows. "I can't imagine what figures like that would still need monetary wealth for."

"Oh, there're still ways money can greatly aid powerful figures like them," Elias laughed. "But no, I wasn't talking about money."

"They wanted more power?" Damien guessed.

"You can say that. But truly, they simply no longer wanted to be under the heels of anyone, anymore.

"You should understand this far more than me that as one grows more powerful, you become more averse to the thoughts of being under the authority of someone, especially someone of the same realm. Wasn't that the reason for your back and forth with Solaria for almost a decade, now?"

Damien agreed. Since his first taste of true personal power, he'd become so enamored with his power that over the years, as he grew, he'd slowly become loath to allow someone else to take charge of his life. That was why when the kingdoms on the continent had finally taken notice of him and had come knocking, he'd refused.

Of course, that had started the problematic issue of hiding from them when they'd eventually become forceful in their bid to have him.

"The pillars, some of which were the Great families you see today, decided to separate from the Empire and vie for control of their respective sectors. You should know how that went."

Damien pictured it. An Empire as great as that, whose subjects suddenly turned dissident, taking a vast chunk of its territory along with them as they left. He shook his head.

'No ruler will ever stand for that'

"The Emperor, and the Spirit Kings still loyal to him, instead of being the ones to curb such national unrest and bring the ones responsible to heel, suddenly found themselves on the defensive."

The small green orb of wind which had been revolving around Keilan's finger for a while now, dissolved as the man turned to Elas in surprise.

"Yes," Elas smiled. "I was also shocked when I read about it too. The great families, taking advantage of the Emperor's minute indecision, descended on the capital in great force. Of all the locations where battles broke out, the capital, which was located on the Redlands, by the way, saw the greatest level of destruction by far. It was completely razed to the ground, nothing remaining but the ashes of the capital, literally."

"Solaris said as much, although he did blame the warped nature of Redlands on their heads. I see now that he was right," Damien acknowledged.

Elas nodded. "I admire that man's level of diligence. For all his faults, he doesn't slack in the achievement of his goals, not like some of the others. What took us multiple centuries, he was able to gather in little over a single century

"I don't think even you can fathom the level of death and destruction that occurred in that time. An entire continent filled with billions of people, all completely destroyed in a single day. It was completely assured that that area would forever become warped as a result of such atrocity."

"So, what happened next?"

"What else?" Elas shrugged. "Once the capital was destroyed and the emperor killed, the others dissolved into chaos, with every man for himself. That made them vastly easy targets for the great families to descend upon, especially as they were all allied in their single goal.

"It took years, and a literal bloodbath, but eventually, the great families won. The end."

Damien didn't ask why the great families Spirit Kings were longer residing on the planet again. He knew why: the World Spirit was already an Ascendant Realm being. No Spirit king would be fool enough to go against that.

***

When Damien stepped out into the main bar, with Elas accompanying them, his spine straightened as he came face to face with the lady, a little smile gracing her lips as she took notice of his reaction.

Damien's cheeks reddened as he heard Keilan snicker behind him.

'Traitor. I'll have my revenge someday.'

Elas, elite intelligence gatherer that he was, also didn't fail to notice the reaction Damien had to the lady, a poorly hidden grin on his face as he turned toward Damien.

"Ahh, I see you've met Lena," he gestured toward her. "Lena, this is Damien and his brother, Keilan. I hope you have been a gracious host toward our visitors?"

Although she tried to hide it, it was easy for Damien to detect the brief confusion that crossed her face as her eyes flickered from Damien to Keilan, no doubt mentally questioning their lack of resemblance.

Being the best gentleman that he was, Damien quickly stretched his hands forward. "Nice to meet you, Miss Lena?"

Lena smiled. "Lena is just fine, thank you. And the pleasure is all mine." She shook his hands. "Forgive my prying, but I find myself intrigued how you both met Elas, here."

Elas, the great talker that he was, immediately snatched up the conversation before Damien could answer. "You see, once upon a time, there were two little boys—"

But he didn't get the chance to finish his sentence because, just at that moment, a horror-inducing aura settled over the entire bar, over the entire town.

And then the world exploded.