Forsaken Priest of the Hero's Party-Chapter 26: Interlude 2 - The Visitors Beyond the Stars

Numerous cycles have swept through this world. He couldn’t know how many.

To the despairing Ancient Demon King, time had lost all meaning. The lifespan of the Demon King who transplanted a piece of the Primordial in his body was almost endless. Just as the Primordial.

As such, time had become a meaningless concept to Gellie.

In the end, the Primordial will, as always, start the cycle. And the Primordial, will one day, end it. There is no meaning to the process.

Since both the beginning and the end are already predetermined, existence holds no meaning.

All life originated from the Primordial and their behavior patterns were remarkably identical. Intelligent species hunted or domesticated non-intelligent species, and banded together to confront other intelligent beings.

Sometimes, these intelligent beings try to rely on something else. That belief, that faith created the existences known as Gods.

-Grimudo.

The pitful existences that were born from the belief of intelligent beings, deluded themselves, thinking they were the rightful owners of this world.

Unable to save even a single believer from the apocalypse, they called Grimudo the Ancient Demon King.

-You are the evil of this world.

*So be it.

A world created by flesh.

A world that will one day, return to the flesh that was made from.

A cycle repeated without changing even once.

Where in this world do good and evil even exist?

Survival. Only the struggle for survival exists. The primordial being sought its own growth and survival, and countless intelligent beings also floundered for survival.

Grimudo did not deny that he himself was the Demon King. Because he was born an intelligent being, but was the most hideous traitor who sided with the primordial being.

-Grimudo! Our Liege! The one who defied the gods!

So he did not think of himself as someone to be worshipped either.

-We shall follow you!

Those abandoned by the gods. Those who were cast out for defying the will of the gods.

Those branded as ‘Evil’, shunned by the divine, began to worship him.

But Grimudo ignored them. He may have been called the First Demon, their ancestor. But no amount of fear or adoration ever reached him.

Those who call him an enemy will not endure the cycle, and those who worship him as the Ancient Demon King will also be the same.

But as he closed his eyes and plugged his ears like that, several changes simultaneously descended upon this world.

Shorter-lived than elves, frailer than orcs, with less stamina than beastkin, worse martial arts than valkyries.

Encompassing the weaknesses of them all, but also able to encompass the strengths of them all,

A newly born intelligent species suddenly came up with an idea.

One day, someone pondered while looking at the beastkin.

The beastkin have a poor affinity with magic. But they can use mana to strengthen their bodies.

A nameless human once saw a beastkin manipulating his mana in such a way and thought...

-Huh? Can we do that too?

On another day, someone else fell into contemplation while observing the elves.

Seeing them use mana to shape their surroundings and command the elements, the humans suddenly had enlightenment.

Those ‘realizations’ or ‘enlightenment’ accumulated in Human history gave birth to something known as ‘Martial Arts’.

From then on, humans were able to surpass the many races by using these ‘Martial Arts’.

Unlike the old intelligent beings who had to rely solely on the gods and their innate abilities,

They became able to cast off the shackles of their origins depending on their training and efforts.

Some were content to simply master the arts of mana, while others went deaper, either by discovering new ways of using the mysteries of the world, or by creating a never-seen-before power or technic.

When these individuals called Masters came to the forefront of history, Grimudo remained silent.

Whether they were Sword Masters, Spear Masters, etc...

When compared to the Primordial, they were still less than dust.

Grimudo thought these people were simply one ephemeral flower born amidst countless cycles.

No matter how splendidly a flower blooms, it is natural for it to wither when the time passes.

“An Ancient god?!”

The elves were the first to reject Grimudo’s common sense.

They achieved their first victory of sorts in the battle between primordial beings and intelligent beings.

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Although they did not inflict any damage to the primordial being, just surviving was a victory more precious than anything.

“Unbelievable. Was that truly real?!”

An ancient god whose name is unknown answered the prayers of the elves during the time of the cycle.

The seed it bestowed grew into a tree large enough to cover an entire city, protecting all the elves from the cycle.

It was the moment the existence of the Ancient Gods was proven, and the moment Grimudo’s common sense shattered.

Just like the Elves, some beastkin managed to survive the Cycle.

Remarkably, the practice of ‘Martial Arts’ also survived.

Needless to say, the surviving races neither knew nor could record the events of the previous cycle.

But over thousands of years, they rose from ruin. They once again formed a civilization and began to prosper.

However, what caught Grimudo’s eyes was not such things.

Just as in the forgotten past, when an Outer Existence, known as the Primordial Being visited the planet of Pyros,

Traversing the vast cosmos another guest came from beyond the stars.

They came to this land after seeing the jewel of intelligence that rarely blooms in the universe.

-People of this planet. Do not fear. We have not come with ill intentions towards your kind.

Dragons.

The greatest transcendent species that can hardly be called mortal.

The only species in the world that did not originate from the primordial being. They came to Grimudo from beyond the Milky Way.

-Our objective is the protection and nurturing of intelligent species. We were traveling the universe for that purpose.

-You seem rather strong. Are you perhaps the representative of this planet?

Grimudo shook his head. He was only a representative of himself, not of anyone else.

The existence of dragons from outer space was a surprise even to him. The Ancient Demon King, who was a scholar before becoming a demon king, felt a growing interest in the existence of dragons.

So he suggested sharing knowledge with each other.

The polymorph method developed by Grimudo was passed on to the dragons. They modified the method to hide their huge bodies and transform into humans or other races.

Moreover, Grimudo told them everything, including the history of this star and the existence of the primordial being.

In return, the dragons taught Grimudo their knowledge of magic.

After analyzing the situation, they realized that this star was not as friendly to life as they had thought.

-How can this be? Are you saying this entire North Pole is the ancestor of all life on this planet?

-What do you think? Can we destroy or seal it?

-Impossible. Let alone destruction. It doesn’t make sense to say we can defeat a life form of this size, and even if we had the ability to do so, do you think it would meekly let itself be exterminated?

The primordial being was too large and gigantic. Even if the dragons somehow gathered enough power to launch an attack and destroy it, there was no way it would die meekly.

If the primordial being even rolled its foot once, unspeakable disasters would occur across the entire planet.

They needed to defeat the primordial being to stop the cycle and help the creatures, but what would be the point if the creatures on the ground went extinct in the midst of the battle?

No, to begin with, the idea of killing such a being was absurd. Even the mighty dragons found it hard to touch it recklessly.

-Sealing is the same. If we can’t seal this huge thing all at once, it will surely struggle and resist. Then, in the worst case, this planet itself may become a place where life cannot survive.

-We had high hopes for this planet, but it’s unfortunate.

-But you never know. Maybe one day they will stand equal to us.

-Let’s at least teach them magic before we go. Then we will have done our part.

The dragons approached those whom the world called demons and rejected, and passed on the power of magic to them.

The dragons favored the demons, even though they passed on magic to all other races as well. Some dragons were so engrossed in polymorphing that they even had children with demons. As a result, some dragons remained until the time of the cycle to witness the rise of the primordial being.

-Unfortunately, the creatures of this star desire unity rather than self-respect.

In the last cycle, which people today call the day the ancient kingdoms fell,

A few dragons with lifespans long enough, though not comparable to the primordial being, directly witnessed the scene. They had the idea of saving at least a portion of the surface races if not all of them.

-That’s their prerogative.

-We merely respect it.

-As dragons, we cannot impose our values on other creatures.

Yet, no matter their intentions, the instinct to return was too strong to be suppressed by reason.

Even if one could resist with reason, the body ardently desires to return to the primordial being.

Just as a person who has taken drugs once cannot quit, it is nearly impossible to go against the instinct to return with willpower alone unless one’s mental strength is truly immense.

The number of those who lost their minds, wore ecstatic expressions, and charged toward the harvesters could be called the absolute majority. More than half the population smiled and let themselves be eaten by the harvesters without even swinging a sword at them.

The dragons watched all this unfold and left the star.

Demons, beastkin, and all other intelligent beings joined hands and were eaten by the harvesters.

Even the undead were no exception. Even those already dead could not escape the bondage of the flesh.

In a sense, it was no different from choosing the primordial being. At least, that’s how the dragons interpreted it.

The dragons could have defeated the harvesters, who were not the primordial being itself but merely a part of it.

But because they were dragons, they did not interfere with the people’s choices. These great species considered themselves unnecessary to this star and left Pyros.

Witnessing all this, Grimudo was neither disappointed nor discouraged.

He had already fallen to the pits of despair long ago.

He couldn’t get any lower than this.

For this man who had been in despair since the forgotten times, there was not even a place to retreat.

There was no place to fall further, no place to sink deeper.

No Hope remained.