Zerrick sighed, a look of melancholy vivid on his face as he continued, "That day, a newborn race destroyer secretly invaded our world. We don't know it did it, but I presume it somehow latched onto a spaceship that went to explore for more resource planets even though we had several hundreds of resource planets under our belt. After getting here, it infected this very forest. As the infection spread, it took control of all the trees and beasts of this forest, and then it started corrupting the twilight tree, an entity at the level of a sublime Emperor but more terrifying than one. It succeeded in wiping out the latter's consciousness, becoming the new host of the twilight tree. Then, with its ability to infest literally every living being and water source, it set its plans in motion. It intended to make everything in the world its puppet. We, of course, fought ferociously. Dozens of sublime fell along with the moons, minor planets, and stars. And we ran our resources planets dry, leaving them desolate. Until finally, we succeeded in sealing it. But the damage that the war spanning hundreds of years did to the main world was too much. Most of the small world surrounding it shattered. The main world itself lost 9-tenth of itself, leaving only a single piece of land. The Ash Grey world you see today is the last remaining piece of the glorious world of the days long gone. And this small world is one of the last three small worlds left around it. The cause of our downfall, the downfall of an entire high-grade civilization, was the black calamity, a race destroyer that started as a mere parasite!"
Zerrick gritted his teeth.
Elliot could see immense hatred, regret, and self-blame in the odd man's eyes.
Zerrick hated the black calamity for destroying their great civilization, but he hated the King, feudal lords, and powerhouses of old age that took too long to find out that something was wrong with the twilight zone.
He regretted his childhood and teenage years. He took everything for granted, never fighting to achieve his goals and always being too lazy to do anything. As he was the son of a feudal lord, what work did he need to do? He could be a salted fish for the rest of his life and laze around; at least, that was what he thought before the start of the black calamity. The consequence of his actions was that he was too weak when the black calamity started to take over the world.
He blamed himself for taking too long to grow, for losing all his comrades in order to seal the black calamity.
The worst part of it all was that they didn't manage to kill it, only seal it.
"Is it possible for something to be so powerful that even dozens of sublime emperors failed to kill it and only managed to seal it? Just what the heck is it? How could it be so terrifying?!"
Elliot felt a chill in his heart after hearing about the black calamity. He found it hard to believe that a mere parasite could actually overthrow a high-level civilization all by itself! If it had targeted Earth, humanity would have already ceased to exist.
<br/>"It draws vitality from the planet itself, so no matter how many times you harm it, it just needs to suck the planet's vitally to recover. There is only to kill it, one way, and that's destroying the world itself, which was at that time, theoretically not possible even with all the sublime emperors and war machines combined." Zerrick explained to Elliot.
"What about now?" Elliot asked.
"I have found a way to put an end to it, but I need the help of a powerful sublime emperor. None of which exist around here, and even if I go to the territory of other high-level civilizations, they will not only refuse but vaporize the Ash Grey world and the leftover small worlds, all to make sure the black Calamity wouldn't spread outwards."
In the vast universe, everyone was fighting for benefits. The richer a person gets, the more dirty tricks he would play to make himself richer. Civilizations followed the same mentality. While there might be many Samaritans fighting for other civilizations, fighting to eradicate hidden threats, most civilizations are likely to join hands with such threats to make profits.
Most of the high-level civilizations with sublime Emperors at the helm were like that.
Elliot felt as he had met his long-lost brother.
He was talking about killing him but was still smiling.
He was a psychopath! A mentally ill bastard who should be behind bars or confined in a mental hospital!
As smart as he was, he knew he couldn't win against the latter.
"I understand." Elliot took an oath before breathing into the lamp. It lit up in a pale green light, and then he returned it to Zerrick.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om