47. Past and Present[1].

"In ancient times when a child was to turn adult, they were sent to a test which used to make the child recall its fears.

Childhood traumas, fears, accidents, and memories affect the future of the person.

Distrust, dishonesty, instincts, and anxiety are the byproducts of these things.

I need to find the particular fear inside you. Only then will I be able to help you build your foundation.

You are free to hate me for this but, I have to do this.

Hope you want to fall in the endless darkness."

Without explaining anything further she flicked her fingers, causing Neel to lose consciousness.

***

"Malcolm, has there been any news about that dead player?"

Inside the office of the INDRATH Company, director White asked.

"No news. I even sent my news brokers but to no avail. Either this death was a system failure or…"

Malcolm didn't complete his sentence.

"You are thinking the same as I am, right?"

He asked White.

"Hmm… could it be that we are not the only one working for 'Lord' or some bigshot has got a wind of our plans?"

"I don't want to sound paranoid, but not a single one of our men was found when they went to gather information on these six areas."

Malcolm said and took out a paper.

"These are the six places where all 'Neel' named people were found."

His voice was filled with anxiety.

They were parasites, dependent on their lord right now.

If they were to be tossed aside like the curry leaves, then their faith will be worse than a dog.

They were against the 'god faction' and somewhat against the demon faction. Opponents who are too hard to deal with.

Hero and anti-hero factions were nowhere weak, but…

They cannot fight with immortals and the beings that can destroy planets with a sneeze. (Like a certain caped baldy!)

They had taken the gamble because they knew that their Lord's boss was a strong being, but if the support was to be removed, then they were nothing more than flies.

Plap-

Malcolm stopped his thoughts with a tight slap on his face.

"Should we make some plan for backstabbing or something?"

He asked with a wry smile on his face.

"Do you think our backstabbing matters to those giants? We are already in their pity for resources. If not for the need of 'humans' we were already given to death."

White opened a scroll while talking with Malcolm.

***

System News: The planet execution list will be shared after four fortnights of the 'Sun God palace'.

There will be a total of thousand planets from each galaxy that will be executed.

Reason: Unhealthy environment for mortal beings, saturated or unused Spiritual energy, lower existence value, etc.

Status

Planet: Earth

EV (Existence Value): 23 billion.

Rank: 105803

Execution rank: NA. (yet)

Situation: Spiritual energy oversaturation, Unhealthy environment, useless mortals, low cultivation.

Cultivation Rank: Unranked.

***

"Fuck…"

This was White's reply after reading the scroll. Beads of sweat flowed over his forehead.

A chill ran down his spine.

'F-five Billion!!!! We are closer to execution by a thousand planets!'

"Are tables turning around or is someone doing this on purpose?"

Malcolm facepalmed and questioned.

"I never thought we will fall by 5 billion."

And the deadly silence continued.

***

This was an event. This is called the execution festival.

This happens every 'Sun God Palace' year.

Although a thousand planets from each galaxy may sound a little too less, it was the planets where living beings were developed or considered as developed.

This exponentially reduced the number of planets.

Spiritual energy was something that held a lot of value in the system of life and death. If not used or overused, the system of life and death declared these planets as heretics and were executed during this festival.

These planets were placed for bounties, and the one to win it gains half of the total spiritual energy of that planet.

It may seem to be a not-so-special thing, but a thousand planets from each galaxy where mortals were considered developed according to the age of the planet.

And right now the planet earth was courting death.

After the execution, the souls are not sent to the cycle of reincarnation, but to a world where their souls will be punished for a specific amount of time.

Every faction wanted to be the one who rules this system. And the god faction was currently leading.

This system was created for the three, creator, maintainer, and destroyer to make their workload easy by the previous 'Indra'.

But then many questions arise.

Who is Indra? What is it that he wants? What is the history of this 'World'?

What are primordials? What is power?

And the answer was…

The firstborns of each race are called Primordials.

Each race was ruled by these primordials. God race, demon race, mortal races, and dragon race.

Primordials decided to establish peace among each race.

The reason?

The world was newborn, so the power was yet to be discovered. Every race cannot be always just fighting for the rule, instead, they required time to become powerful.

That was the reason they established the peace treaty.

And things were going well for every race, the power struggle was reducing and each race was interested in creating its power.

Dragons took lead in this power race, dragons completely avoided all other races and focused on their establishments while keeping their guard up.

Potions, domains, and new technology was discovered by the dragon race and they isolated themselves from the world.

Everything was going well, for all the races, gods, demons, mortals, and immortals.

Cultivation was discovered and mortals started breaking their limits.

The human race was the leading race in this.

But every good time has to end, as it is said,

"This time will also pass…" And that happened eventually.

The result of the rebellion was 'factions'.

In medieval times, when the mortal world was just to discover true power, four factions were born.

God faction, demon faction, hero faction, and anti-hero faction.

What were factions?

The factions were the rebellious newborns. Those who didn't want to follow the Primordials, those who wanted absolute rule, and those who were hungry for power were the newborns who created factions.

God faction was led by seven by six ancient gods (Secondborn/ second generation) and one primordial, 'Indra', the one favored by the maintainer. Don't misunderstand. 'Indra' is not a person. 'Indra' is a throne, a cursed and corrupt throne. And the person who sits on this throne gets absolute authority over all the gods, except for the creator, maintainer, and destructor. Not only that but also some gods themselves are immune to his order.

And one primordial took this throne and named himself with the throne, 'Indra' the Emperor of the gods.

The one who rules all the gods. One attack with his Vajra and no one can save their souls getting destroyed from it. 'Airavata' is an elephant with seven trunks, his familiar. His throne 'Indra' is the most authoritative.

Because his and his throne's names were the same he is called 'Dev-Indra'.

This primordial took over the god faction.

Why?

Because he wanted absolute rule over every single race.

Being primordial was making him bound to that peace treaty so he created a rebellion and made a faction.

But not everyone was happy with his decision, 'Surya-Deva' the Sun God, another primordial, broke through and created his own family.

Some other primordials, Jal (Water), Prithvi (Earth), Vayu (Air), Agni (Fire), and Akasha (space) decided to become bystanders and remain as primordials. Ignoring Dev-Indra's actions and not following his authority. Just to keep watch.

As the five elemental gods decided not to partake in 'Dev-Indra's' power struggle, he took over their children.

Ice, land, wind, plasma, and lightning.

Once the faction was created, the peace treaty was thrown in the trash.

However, noticing the god faction's creation the other races also immediately played their part and broke the treaty.

Demon faction, a faction created by many pure-blood demon races and sub-races.

The hero faction was the justice-driven faction, any race who was justice oriented joined this faction.

The hero faction always saw things as good or bad. Anything that was against their morals was bad, no matter how unreasonable they were, they liked to play the hero, so they created the hero faction.

Those who were unhappy with the remaining three factions got together and created the anti-hero faction.

And that's how four factions who continuously fought for the absolute rule were born.

Now, what about those who were completely uninterested in these four factions?

Simple.

They created their own powerhouses.

And four powerhouses are equal to or even greater than these factions.

Family one, a family which holds the most destructive power the 'Veldard' family.

A dragon-born family. The direct descendants of dragon emperor 'Ryu Veldard'.

The second family is the Scarlet family. This family is strong as well as it holds almost all the resources in this world. You can also call it the richest family in this universe.

Another dragon-born family.

Then comes the Moon family/faction.

Those who rule the moon.

The most beautiful family, and a family where incest is allowed. They are said to be invincible on the moon.

The fourth and the most horrifying family.

The Surya family.

The dark horses, nobody ever expected to be born.

They have both power and resources, but, they trust no one.

And that's how it is.

The power in this world.

***

[A/N: This and the next chapter will be the history of this world, the history of Neel, and an overall idea about the world.]