The Dark Era.
This time period was defined as everything before the Divine Year, and just as it sounded, it was a very negative period. It was quite literally humanity’s darkest days, where every day was a struggle to survive.
On Inis, monsters stood at the top of the food chain. While they couldn’t match up to human-level intelligence, their superior physical prowess and overwhelming number advantage heavily swayed the scales in their favour.
Humanity couldn’t withstand their frenzy. The unending waves of monster attacks pushed humanity to the brink of extinction many times. Humanity did its darndest to survive, fighting, fleeing, and putting as much distance between themselves and monsters as they could. Still, no matter what they did, it was only a matter of time until all were eradicated. But this wasn’t meant to be, as the arrival of a certain group stopped this from happening.
Raiken, Tora, Yupeon, Verdin, and Atanosian; these five super beings were collectively known as the Five Divines, and they were recognized as Gods of this world.
Reading that there were Gods, Rei wasn’t surprised.
Gods and religion had a profound influence on the shaping of history. He knew to expect such things in his dive. What he didn’t expect was the certainty by which people, not just religious people but even scholars viewed their existences and actions.
The modern world was mostly secular, and yet if one asked a thousand people on the street whether the Five Divines had actually existed, all thousand people would tilt their heads, give you a look like they were looking at an idiot and say, “Of course.”
This wasn’t an example of the ignorance of the masses. Rei, after taking in everything, felt that it’d be stranger if the Five Divines didn’t exist. Unlike many Gods in his own world, the evidence for their existence was a mountain high.
There were many theories regarding them and their arrival. The most prevalent idea is that they came from outer space from somewhere else. To the Radiant Church, this somewhere was the moon, which they dubbed the Heavenly Plane. According to their holy book, the Five Divines had heard the prayers of humanity and descended specifically to aid humanity in their time of need. As with everything else, this was also brought into question.
One theory challenged the idea of descent altogether. It claimed that the Five Divines were actually humans who had been hit by a small-scale Zenki Ripple and became the first psionics. This claim was backed up by the fact that the elemental powers the five super beings were noted to possess resembled those of the Mimic class. Whether they were psionics or not couldn’t be confirmed. What was certain though, was the fact that they were definitely Zenki users.
The question then naturally arose; how do they compare to humanity’s strongest psionics?
If one believed the stories, then it wasn’t even a competition. Raiken’s lightning tree was said to be seen by all of Inis and Tora’s second sun staved off night for three days straight; these two feats alone dwarfed anything humanity had shown.
However, these feats weren't taken at face value. A single wonky link in a game of broken telephone could skew the truth. With ten thousand years of separation, the academic community took these accounts with a pinch of salt.
Not wanting to get tangled in an infinite sea of threads, Rei’s mind moved down the most accepted route.
After ‘descending from the heavens’, the five had seen humanity’s plight and for ‘some reason’ decided to help them in their time of need. And help they did.
Inis’ monster population was estimated to fall by over ninety percent at their actions. With some breathing room to grow, humanity was allowed to prosper in a way it had never before. The Divines' intervention didn’t end there though. They imparted knowledge, gave gifts, and even actively aided in humanity’s civilization-building. Most of these came from Raiken, the leader of the Five Divines, said to be especially affectionate towards humanity.
With their help, humanity bloomed brightly, brighter than it ever had.
The light didn’t shine forever; it was called the Divine Year for a reason. After a year's time, they left, said to ascend into the heavens, leaving dazzling streaks in the sky on their way up.
The streaks weren’t the only thing they left in their wake. The actions they took, the ideas and concepts they imparted all left a profound effect on humanity’s fate, and even ten thousand years later, their mark on humanity remained visible. The most obvious one was Inis’s common tongue, Valerian, which was said to originate from the language they spoke to each other.
‘Gods or not, they’re humanity’s saviours. I wonder if they’re still alive or whether we’ll see a return?’
This question had passed through billions of minds. The answer remained unknown. To date, some ten thousand years later, they had yet to make a reappearance in any form. The Radiant Church Popes' claimed to have direct access to Raiken's words and commands, though this claim wasn't accepted by the academic community.
‘Mm, this is pretty good,’ Rei thought as he tasted the newly added cookies. ‘The Mental Space has too few delicacies. After we sort out this Red Star issue, we should correct this. Mmm, yes.’ Nodding to himself, Rei continued down the mental journey.
With the Five Divines gone, humanity was once again on its own. Still, the atmosphere in the immediate aftermath was hopeful. Using the blueprints the Five Divines laid out, humanity continued to advance. It was much slower than before, but they made progress.
In time, monsters once again became a problem. Monsters reproduced and grew very quickly. Their numbers quickly began climbing and their ceaseless attacks continued. But humanity didn’t crumble as it had previously. Now more numerous than before and armed with knowledge and improved weaponry, things weren’t as hopeless. Still, humanity’s progress was greatly stifled. It was a back and forth tug between monster kind and mankind, and then mankind and itself. It wasn’t as dark as the Dark Era, but it was still a dim period nonetheless.
The most important thing to come in the Divine Year’s aftermath was the Radiant Church.
The Radiant Church was a religion based on the Five Divines. With no doubt of their existence or powers, the masses naturally took to this new religion. All other religions and their Gods were driven into obscurity as the Radiant Church rose to prominence. Very quickly, it cemented itself as humanity’s one true religion.
Over time, it continued to grow. As it did, many additions were made to the initial ideas. Things like hell, heaven, angels, demons, and sin were added. The ideas matched a lot of what Rei understood about his world's Christianity, though it was far from one to one.
One similar thing was the splits. The Radiant Church fractured into many different branches, each believing their variation to be the correct one.
The long and brutal Holy Reformation Wars came as a result of these splits, and for the first time in history, the human on human conflict was greater than the human on monster conflict.
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‘So foolish, honestly.’
He took a sip to cleanse the bitterness on his tongue. Not wanting to linger on that bit of history, his mind leapt thousands of years into the future.
Year 8001 of the Divine Calendar. This date marked the birth of Caelus Bucculeius Bellus; the man who would go down as humanity’s True King.
Reading about this character, Rei was reminded of the articles written about him. But there was a difference. If the floweriness in the articles about him was akin to a bouquet, Bellus’ tales were an entire flower field.
He was said to be capable of besting a dozen elite soldiers, possess a mind that could outwit a hundred sages in a debate on any topic, charming enough that a single wink could capture the heart of any maiden he desired…the list went on and on and on. In short, he was the very pinnacle of humanity, excelling in every area.
It was ridiculous to read and yet, given what he ended up accomplishing, Rei believed that he would need to be at least this impressive to pull off everything he did.
No coincidence, no story.
Caelus’s tale embodied this concept.
His parents had abandoned him; leaving his infant self in an alleyway in the slums of Ivora. His cries echoed out loudly, yet regardless of how loud, it fell on deaf ears. The inhabitants of Ivora had long grown numb to that sound and ignored him. Still, he continued to cry and cry and cry, and then his persistence paid off, for while the slum dwellers had ignored his plight, Evron Dorella didn’t.
Evron Dorella was a High Sage of the famed Society of Sages. Unlike many of his peers, he enjoyed travelling and experiencing the world. His travels led him to Ivora. Upon hearing the sounds of crying, he halted his carriage and approached the alleyway.
Laying his eyes upon the young Caelus, Evron’s eyes flickered as he caught the other's mismatched eye colours. His left eye was a majestic gold while his right, a void-like black. The scholar was baffled; his vast wealth of knowledge gave him no answer to the sight before him. Heterochromia and its effects were still a foreign concept to the scholars of his time.
The unknown before him stroked the scholar's soul. Instead of sending Caelus to the Noime Mountains, the home of the Society of Sages, he decided to raise Caelus himself while studying what these striking mismatched orbs meant. This was how Caelus came to be adopted by the High Sage.
The two travelled together. Very quickly, Evron was made to realize how special the infant he picked up really was. At five months old, Caelus began speaking. At nine months, he was proficient in Valerian and at age two, he had learned three additional languages to a native level. Language and speaking were just the beginning.
Astounded by Caelus’s mental prowess, and eager to know their limits, Evron doused him with knowledge. Still, no matter how much he poured, Caelus’s mind was as void-like as his right eye. He absorbed everything.
Evron would watch in amazement as Caelus entered a library, quickly flip through every book then walk out. The High Sage tested him every time he exited, and every time, he met with the same result. Caelus not only memorized everything perfectly; he also understood it perfectly, and could even apply the knowledge flexibly and creatively. People like Caelus were the reason the later Naturals, were known as Naturals. His genius was akin to magic.
Observing from close by, Evron was smitten. He rejoiced at his past self’s decision to pick up Caelus that day. Caelus’ impressive feats had earned Evron’s admiration and affection. Caelus too adored his foster father. With him later remarking in The King’s Chronicles that his time spent with Evron, was among his happiest days.
Caelus aged like fine wine. More of his talents became apparent as time passed by. Like a black hole, he continued his rapid absorption of knowledge, taking in everything around him.
The pair travelled from country to country, all across Inis, experiencing life in its many forms. It was during these travels that the grand goal Caelus would dedicate his life to, would form in the young man's mind.
He hated irrationality. The pointless suffering, the infighting, the foolishness, the misery that was created by the ignorance of mankind disgusted him. He wanted it to change, yet knowing history well enough, he knew it wouldn’t naturally work itself out.
And so, his fourteen-year self placed this heavy burden upon his shoulders. He would be the one to make this correction, to guide humanity towards the path of prosperity and enlightenment.
Humanity united under one wise ruler was his solution. And he intended to be that ruler. This decision wasn't made out of any lust for power. Rather, he just believed himself to be the only one able to serve this role.
Having this idea in mind, he set out to accomplish it. He relayed his intention to Evron. The High Sage fully supported his decision. He had hoped that Caelus would use his talents for the betterment of the world, so Caelus's goal was a welcomed prospect.
Separating from his foster father with a heavy heart, Caelus enrolled in the famed Martial Temple. He spent four years here, enduring the harsh and gruelling training regimen, mastering various armed and unarmed martial arts. His skill was said to be peerless. He was recorded to challenge and defeat the Martial Temple’s Elite Ten and even Tobov Isera, the legendary Martial Grandmaster and Head of the Martial Temple.
These feats put him on the map. Through the Martial Temple, his name was spread far and wide, an intended aim. With his fame and individual martial prowess achieved, Caelus set off on a recruitment journey. Moving from place to place, he spoke of his vision and made his grand promises of prosperity.
Many mocked him, but many more took to his ideas. It was big, unrealistic, and yet the masses couldn’t help but yearn for it. Helping these ideas along was Caelus himself. He was charismatic, incredibly intelligent, and radiated an aura only special people could. Like moths to a flame, people rushed after his footsteps.
He accrued followers from all walks of life and the Bellusian Army came into existence. It was diverse; men and women, young and old...Caelus enlisted all of humanity to his cause.
One of the things Caelus most emphasized was equality. One’s sex, age, the colour of their skin, hair, eye colour, sexual orientation, shape, size; to Caelus, all were irrelevant. No matter the combination, one’s worth as a human remained the same.
This stance would greatly affect the policies he’d employ after becoming king.
The preparation phase took five years. Ready, a twenty-three old Caelus initiated what would later become known as the Greatest Conquest.