Chapter 55: History (Part One)

Eight thousand years ago, the human world was ruled by sorcerers. These beings, possessed of extraordinary abilities, wielded power beyond imagination. A monstrous horde of thousands of goblins could be obliterated with a mere flick of a sorcerer's finger. Under their leadership, humankind claimed territory after territory, leaving the other races of the continent with little means to resist. In truth, the lands of the present human world are inherited from the Age of the Chosen, though much diminished.

In that era, sorcerers were obsessed with the study of myriad powers. To obtain diverse experimental materials, each gathered followers around them to serve their needs. Sorcerers cared little for the governance of ordinary people; their only desire was to acquire ever greater power. Thus, they delegated the management of the common folk to humans gifted with elemental affinity—these were the knights.

Thus, groups emerged: sorcerers as leaders, knights as administrators, and commoners as servants. These groups established city-states, each governed by three to five sorcerers, hundreds of knights, and tens of thousands of commoners. Sorcerers showed no interest in worldly authority, residing in lofty wizard towers to pursue their researches. The affairs of the city-states fell upon the knights, who gradually became the rulers of ordinary humans and began to call themselves nobles. Yet one thing they never forgot: to fulfill the demands of the sorcerers.

The inheritance of sorcerers' power differed entirely from the hereditary bloodline of the knights. Sorcerers awakened randomly; one never knew when a lowly beggar might transform into a mighty sorcerer, as if chosen by the gods. Thus, sorcerers referred to themselves as the Chosen.

Whenever a Chosen appeared, the nobles of the city-state would respectfully invite them to the wizard tower to receive guidance from other sorcerers. A city-state cut off from sorcerer inheritance lost the foundation of its existence. The monsters of that time were far stronger than those of today; dragons roamed unchecked, and only sorcerers could repel these greedy reptiles.

Curiously, no knight ever awakened the powers of a sorcerer. Yet this did not undermine their ruling status, for their descendants were born nobles. Sorcerers' offspring were not so fortunate: once a sorcerer died, their family quickly lost its status. This left living sorcerers dissatisfied, but their children truly lacked power. Even if sorcerers wished to care for their colleagues' progeny, how many generations could they support?

Until a great sorcerer named Andrew invented a ritual that could help sorcerers' descendants awaken their gifts. This ritual was the Blood Sacrifice.

The advent of Blood Sacrifice caused a great stir in the world of sorcerers—there were opponents and supporters alike. Soon, sorcerers discovered that Blood Sacrifice not only helped ordinary people become sorcerers, but also enhanced the power and longevity of existing sorcerers.

The Blood Sacrifice ritual became unstoppable.

In city-states where Blood Sacrifice was practiced, the number and power of sorcerers grew rapidly. Other city-states could no longer sit idle. Blood Sacrifice swept across the human world, engulfing the entire Northern Continent and affecting all intelligent races.

Sorcerers conducted Blood Sacrifice using various creatures, discovering that dragons, elves, humans, and barbarians yielded the best results, while orcs and monsters produced strangely poor effects.

Thereafter, under sorcerer leadership, humanity waged wars against the other races. Countless lives withered away, yet the sorcerers only grew stronger. When the other races united to resist, they despaired to find that human sorcerers were now invincible.

The result: mighty dragons fled to other realms, elves vanished into the Endless Forest, their whereabouts unknown, and the tribal barbarians were completely exterminated in the Northern Continent. This situation persists to this day.

With the last barbarian sacrificed, sorcerers turned their gaze upon their own kind.

Power was like a drug, poisoning the minds and humanity of the sorcerers. No longer did they consider themselves part of humankind. They began to use human Blood Sacrifice.

At first, they used condemned criminals from their city-states. But the situation soon spiraled out of control. Newly awakened sorcerers, in pursuit of power and influence, became ever more reckless, sending innocent commoners to the altar—dozens, hundreds, thousands. The largest Blood Sacrifice killed a hundred thousand civilians.

Soon, sorcerers found their populations dwindling. They began to raid other city-states for sacrificial victims.

Thus, wars broke out among the sorcerers themselves.

These wars were cruel beyond imagination. In some city-states, before being conquered, sorcerers would sacrifice the entire population, gaining immense power to counterattack or escape.

Humanity teetered on the brink of extinction. Knights were not spared. Eventually, some began to resist the sorcerers, but to no avail; resisters, whether commoner or noble, were sent to the altar. Sorcerers ruled the surviving humans with even greater brutality, like wolves eyeing a flock.

At this moment, Enoch appeared. The tailor's son claimed he was called by the Lord of Radiance to purify the progeny of demons—sorcerers—and liberate all humanity.

He broke alone into his city-state's wizard tower and slew every sorcerer within. Afterwards, he founded the Church of Radiance and began to eliminate sorcerers from other city-states.

At first, sorcerers paid Enoch little heed, assuming he was but another awakened Chosen. Yet soon, they were terrified to discover that Enoch’s power was unfathomable, deep as the abyss and vast as the sea. He possessed a golden horn capable of summoning twelve radiant angels to aid him in battle.

Within a year, one wizard tower after another fell to the Church of Radiance. Hundreds of sorcerers were purified. Countless commoners flocked to Enoch, forming a massive army that declared war upon the sorcerer world. The knights, however, stood by indifferently, for they knew well the strength of the sorcerers.

Faced with pressure from the Church, sorcerers abandoned their internal wars and united to launch an assault. Led by thirty-four legendary sorcerers, their army annihilated the Church’s forces. After slaying fourteen legendary sorcerers, Enoch had no choice but to flee.

Enoch realized his defeat stemmed from being held back by sorcerers of the legendary domain, while the Church’s commoner army was no match for the knights and was swiftly destroyed.

This made him understand that defeating the sorcerers required the knights’ strength. But how could he persuade the knights to rebel against their masters?

Enoch prayed to the Lord of Radiance, who answered him—and changed the laws of the world. The world was never the same thereafter.

From that day forward, sorcerers’ supernatural powers were greatly weakened, Blood Sacrifice lost all effect, and Enoch’s divine arts were diminished as well—yet the knights’ abilities remained unchanged.

Thus, the balance was broken. When the knights realized sorcerers were no longer invincible, they finally united behind Enoch and raised their blades against their former masters.

Under the combined assault of the Church and the knights, sorcerers suffered crushing defeat and scattered. The last organized sorcerer army fled south of the Golden Water River, but Enoch pursued them. Under attack from the twelve radiant archangels, they were utterly annihilated. The destruction of this army marked the end of the Age of the Chosen and the beginning of the Radiant Era.

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“Your Majesty, this is the first chapter of history Edwin told me. What have you discovered?” Victor asked the king.

“My lord, this history must have occurred between eight and seven thousand years ago. From its contents, we can distill several key points.”

“First, humanity was a dominant race at the time, owing entirely to the existence of the Chosen. Though the source of their power is unclear, it was essentially the application of supernatural forces, so that age could be termed a high-magic era.”

“Second, the turning point for humanity was the invention of the Blood Sacrifice ritual by a great mage named Andrew. Yet all rituals require a recipient, so this is not an invention, but a transaction. The parties are human sorcerers and a supernatural being—or a group of such beings.”

“The transaction involves sacrificial offerings and supernatural power, and these offerings are highly socialized, intelligent creatures. According to the soul theory of the Alchemical Empire, the more intelligent a being, the more complex its will. Thus, I surmise the supernatural beings sought the souls of intelligent creatures!”

“The form of Blood Sacrifice supports this. Life is forcibly ended, and soul fire and the will aspect are extracted in their most complete state. For wise beings whose soul fire fades naturally, mental attributes weaken, their will aspect slows or collapses, manifesting as amnesia, dullness, and apathy—signs of aging.”

“Third, since Blood Sacrifice is a transaction, the parties are equals. My lord, do you know what this implies?” The king turned to Victor.

“I’m still not quite clear…” Victor had an inkling but it was shrouded in mist, impossible to grasp.

“My lord, it means these supernatural beings are fundamentally the same as humans. They may differ in form and power, but must share the same origin—perhaps even a common ancestor,” the king replied calmly.

“Wait! You’re saying demons share an ancestor with us?” The king’s words struck Victor like thunder, leaving him stunned.

“My lord, whatever these beings are called, one thing is certain: they are not more advanced than humanity. Would you trade with ants, my lord?”

“No, I wouldn’t trade with ants. But I would trade with free folk, when my power is lacking—like Bael from Lakeview Village,” Victor murmured.

“But how does this prove supernatural beings share our origin?” Victor pressed, his mind muddled.

“This can be seen from the inheritance of sorcerers' power. Sorcerers were the wielders of supernatural forces—perhaps they too are supernatural beings. Yet all sorcerers awakened naturally, so we might call them Awakened.”

“Thus arises a question: is the supernatural power of the Awakened bestowed, or is it their own potential?”

“On the surface, Blood Sacrifice allowed ordinary people to become Awakened, and gave sorcerers greater power. This seems like a gift of mighty power, but it’s an illusion.”

“It’s illogical!” Victor shouted inwardly. “It doesn’t fit the logic of an equal transaction!”

“If power were bestowed, these supernatural beings would have no need to trade with sorcerers. They could simply grant it to ordinary people, or other races, and rule the world, harvesting all the souls they wanted!”

“But they didn’t—because they couldn’t! It’s a fraud! They deceived humanity! It’s not a gift, but an activation—they triggered human potential, making ordinary people Awakened. Because this power is innate to humanity, they cannot control or govern it, only lure humans to conduct Blood Sacrifice.”

“And the reason they traded with humans and not other races is because they couldn’t. Either other races lack this potential, or these beings cannot trigger it. Yet they can enhance human sorcerers’ power! This proves they fully understand human supernatural abilities. They… share our origin!” Victor finally understood the king’s meaning.

“But why can knights not become Awakened?” Victor asked the king in confusion.

“That question can’t be analyzed further without more information. Perhaps knights are themselves Awakened, but that hypothesis has many contradictions. For example, why does the Church purify Awakened but spare knights? Why were knights unaffected when the world’s laws changed? So, there is yet no answer,” the king replied.

“Very well. Continue your analysis,” Victor instructed, having only intended to confide in the king to relieve his stress, never expecting such a wealth of insight.

“Fourth, the turning point in the war between sorcerers and the Church was the Lord of Radiance altering the world’s laws, shifting the high-magic era to a low-magic one and stripping sorcerers of most of their power, thus ending the rule of the Chosen. This is fact, though the process warrants discussion.”

“The Lord of Radiance is also a powerful supernatural being, but like those… ‘demons,’ is unable to intervene directly in this world.”

After some thought, the king decided to call these supernatural beings demons, as it fit human sentiment.

“Otherwise, the Church’s army would not have suffered defeat! So, the Lord of Radiance is stronger than the demons, but not by an order of magnitude. If He truly could change the world’s laws, why did He also weaken the Church’s supernatural powers?”

“I believe the Lord of Radiance did not rely on His own power to change the world’s laws, but used a special device—or perhaps this was a natural evolution of the world itself! The change affected Him as well, which proves He is not as supreme as the Church claims.”

“Moreover, the Lord of Radiance did not intervene when other races faced extinction, but did so when humanity was on the brink. This suggests a deep connection with humanity—perhaps He is humanity’s protector, or humans are somehow special. One thing can be confirmed: His purpose is entirely different from the demons. He truly protected humanity.”

“As for His specific aims, no analysis is possible yet,” the king concluded.

“Do you consider the Church of Radiance just?” Victor asked, his gaze flickering.

“From the perspective of all humanity, without question. Regardless of their motives, they saved humanity from extinction and protected the weak from slaughter. These are facts.”

“So I’m the villain, then? I joined the lords’ faction.” Victor smiled bitterly; the White Tower faction was formed to resist the Church, and thus opposed the majority.

“My lord, humanity’s justice is not your justice—just as that gardener who was purified. He was an Awakened by birth, not a criminal, yet the Church crushed him mercilessly. To him, the Church is evil.”

“Then what do you think is the Church’s true purpose in purifying the Awakened?” Victor asked.

The Church was resolute in its treatment of sorcerers, publicly declaring them the progeny of demons, inherently evil and a threat to humanity. Sorcerers, even infants, must be purified—one of the Church’s two core tenets.

“One purpose is clear: they seek to sever the connection between demons and this world. The first to connect with the demons was the naturally Awakened great sorcerer Andrew. I believe the power of the Awakened grows over time, until they can communicate with demons. Thus, the Church will never allow sorcerers time to mature—even innocent infants must be purified. Strategically, though ruthless, it is correct.”

“For the sake of the majority, threats are eliminated at their inception. It seems righteous, but it results in bloody tragedies—merely because of uncontrollable awakening, even if they are devout followers of the Lord of Radiance?” Victor sneered.

“My lord, that is reality. Faced with threats, you too would extirpate them at the outset.”

The king’s words left Victor speechless; he himself had been ruthless with threats from the free folk.

“If one day, I threaten the safety of all, should I submit to execution?” Victor murmured, feeling powerless.

“My lord, should that day come, follow your instincts.”

The king’s words brought a newfound depth and focus to Victor’s eyes. He laughed softly, “Follow my instincts? Well said—just like Blair and her brother from the Pantheon.”

“My lord, I await your next recollection of history.”