…Once, there was a nation known as the Golden Empire Imperium.

It was the name of a colossal state that extended its territory to the very ends of the remote regions. The prosperity it radiated, adorned in gold and silver, was said to illuminate the entire world.

The source of the empire’s power, which even conquered unreachable high mountains, ocean depths, subterranean realms, and even the skies, was the infinite magical energy that coursed through the earth—namely, the Dragon Veins. The Golden Empire Imperium possessed the technology to extract and crystallize the power of these Dragon Veins.

The crystal, later known as the Philosopher’s Stone, held a high concentration of magical power, capable of sustaining the lives of a million cities with just a fist-sized piece. The Golden Empire Imperium produced these in thousands, millions, and tens of millions, constructing an unparalleled global empire.

A miraculous nation that continued to produce seemingly infinite magical power.

The inhabitants of the Golden Empire Imperium believed that their empire’s glory and prosperity would last forever.

—Such a fairy tale couldn’t possibly exist.

Even if it appeared infinite to human eyes, the Dragon Veins had their limits. Exceeding these limits and over-exploiting them naturally led to a depletion of their power. And if extraction was increased to compensate for this depletion, eventual exhaustion was inevitable.

The power of the Dragon Veins was the very power of the earth itself. If it were to be depleted, the earth would turn into a barren wasteland, devoid of even a single blade of grass. All life would be lost, and a desert of death, incapable of bearing life for decades, centuries, would cover the land.

Just as spirits dwell in mountains, rivers, plants, and in the elements of earth, water, fire, and air, spirits also reside in the earth. These are the Star Spirits, fundamentally different from the Earth Spirits, Gnomes, and akin to the very essence of the world itself.

However, Star Spirits are on a completely different level of existence, making it unreasonable to compare them with other spirits. Even the most skilled spirit users cannot command the Star Spirits. Only a handful of exceptionally talented individuals might be able to barely hear their voices.

Nevertheless, the Star Spirits certainly existed and wished to continue existing.

Thus, they warned the humans who continued to steal the power of the Dragon Veins. Sometimes with a voice, sometimes by shaking their very bodies.

If the power of the Dragon Veins were to be exhausted, the humans living on the surface would also perish. If they understood this, they should have ceased their suicidal exploitation.

However, this assumption or expectation was betrayed.

It’s not that the warnings weren’t received. Some spirit users indeed heard the voice of the Star Spirits and conveyed their message to the people. At the same time, there were those who argued that the frequent natural disasters were the consequences of excessive Dragon Vein extraction.

Yet, the exploitation did not stop. More accurately, it could not be stopped.

By then, life on the surface had become dependent on the power of the Dragon Veins, and relinquishing this power was synonymous with abandoning civilization. There were hardly any who could let go of their current way of life to avoid an uncertain doom.

At this moment, to the Star Spirits, humanity had become parasites. Creatures driven by desire, eating away at their host, leading to their own inevitable demise along with the host.

—When such parasites infest one’s body, what hesitation should there be in removing them?

◆◆

“—Guh!?”

The moment the Pope pointed out the being he referred to as a dragon, a strange knowledge suddenly flooded my mind.

I was tossed about in a torrent of information, much like the past scenes occasionally shown by Soul Eaters, but amplified many times over. A groan of agony escaped me involuntarily.

Overwhelmed by its horridness, I instinctively covered my mouth to suppress the nausea.

“What, what was that just now…?”

Muttering so, the Pope, who had been staring at me intently until then, quietly responded.

“The reason why the Star Spirits fell, why the dragons grew to hate humans, and why the Light God Temple came to revere the Mythical Creatures. The Mythical Creatures don’t attack humans without reason. They are the sinful products born from human arrogance and disrespect. To oppose the Mythical Creatures is to compound these sins.”

“……Hmm.”

Hearing his words, I pursed my lips.

I didn’t understand or agree with the Light God Temple or the Pope’s views. However, if everything I had just glimpsed indeed happened, it seemed understandable why humans were hated.

Probably, it was like when I was swarmed by countless maggots in the King of Flies’ nest. If such an ordeal were true, it would be perfectly natural to decide to kill every last maggot.

In that sense, I don’t feel anger towards the Star Spirits—the dragons.

—Well, that doesn’t mean I’m willing to be quietly killed by dragons or Mythical Creatures. Even if the people of the Golden Empire Imperium, who greedily consumed the Dragon Veins, deserved to die, it’s a separate matter for those who live in the present.

As I said this, the Pope nodded with a somewhat sorrowful look.

“That’s correct. There are sins, and there are punishments, and then there is forgiveness. If the Golden Empire Imperium, who committed the sins, had accepted their punishment, people could have been forgiven. However, that did not happen in reality. The Golden Empire Imperium, on the contrary, waged war to defeat the Mythical Creatures and, by extension, the dragons. And, regrettably, the victor was the Golden Empire Imperium.”

The Pope explained that the Golden Empire Imperium originally had no chance of winning. Their army was equipped with ancient armaments made using the power of the Dragon Veins, but it was ultimately borrowed power.

They couldn’t possibly match the true manifestation of the Dragon Veins’ power, the dragons, and the Mythical Creatures. In fact, all the Golden Empire Imperium’s army managed was to momentarily halt the advancing Mythical Creatures, and the outcome of the battle seemed obvious to anyone.

Yet, in the end, the Golden Empire Imperium emerged victorious because some Mythical Creatures defected from the dragons to side with humans—the Pope’s gaze as he relayed this was chillingly cold.

“Some—no, to be precise, just one Mythical Creature turned everything on its head. I don’t know, nor do I want to know, why that Mythical Creature rebelled against its mother, the dragon. But the fact remains. That Mythical Creature slaughtered numerous kin and eventually killed the dragon, sacrificing itself in the process. Only the humans of the Golden Empire Imperium were left.”

However, the Golden Empire Imperium, having suffered enormous damage in the battle, no longer had its former national strength and could not maintain its political system. In that sense, it was a Pyrrhic victory.

After sealing the dragon holes gouged into the earth, the Golden Empire Imperium dissolved as if melting away, and its name never appeared in history again.

It seemed everything had ended—yet, the earth, the very body of the Star Spirits, remained. Their rage against the death-bringing parasites nesting within them had not subsided.

Far from subsiding, the hostility towards humans simmered and blazed under the seal, growing into a fury resembling a curse.

When the flame of this fury overpowered the seal and overflowed from the dragon holes, seven hundred years had passed on the surface…