On the brink of extinction

Luther nodded as he recalled the rebels they had fought previously.

There had been only one Energy Core Formation expert and six Energy Condensation experts; the remaining rebels were all not Supers.

So there was a reason for that?

'The truth is; our planet is dying! And it's not even a secret anymore. Trivasun now has to import aether from neighboring planets as all our energy reserves have fallen to critical levels!

The energy concentration has fallen so low that it is difficult for Supers to advance; that is why even Ascendant Stage Supers are a rarity.

Look around you, all you see for miles is red dust, a hot dry desert!

Two hundred years ago, this place was a lush forest, filled with greenery, lakes, bustling with life!

Our planet experienced an apocalypse more than a millennium ago, even when we had aether mines.

With it, we were able to bounce back and recover quickly but now, if another apocalypse happens, no one knows if we'll be able to survive!' Naz's face turned sorrowful.

Luther gasped in shock.

The situation was that serious?

According to Bernoni, once a planet was elevated to Level 1, it would gain sentience and also give birth to new energy, aether, which could be used to create Espers and Pugilists.

How low did the energy reserves of the planet have to be that they were now importing aether from other planets?

This was akin to a rice producing country like Vietnam importing rice!

Or a country with water bodies importing water!

And the extremity of the situation could be seen everywhere. If the red desert had once been filled with greenery and life, then it meant that the planet was truly doomed.

Trivasun had experienced a first apocalypse even while having Espers; they had bounced back then but now the situation was unclear.

What did it have to do with the rebels though?

As if sensing his inner turmoil, Naz continued his narration. 'The rebels are the cause of all this; reckless mining, illegal extraction of aether and other crucial energy sources.

Those bastards have doomed us all with their greed!

Instead of them to learn a lesson from what happened to us a millennium ago, the apocalypse the planet faced which rendered a quarter of the planet inhabitable, they continue to ruin our home, leading us right into the arms of a second apocalypse!

Now, it's extremely difficult to become a Super in Trivasun.

King Selen VI, the ruler of this planet, has thus declared war on all the rebels who despite multiple warnings, kept wantonly mining energy.

We'll kill them all before they destroy everyone on this planet!'

'So that's why… now that I think about it, compared to the technology I've seen on Bernoni's spaceship, all the ones here seem to be archaic models… they've regressed.'

The apocalypse probably set them back all the way to the feudal era!

And just when they were able to painstakingly make a comeback and things were looking up, then their energy levels hit a red.

The rebels didn't care about the future; in fact, they were sacrificing it for short term gains!

What they were doing was literally killing the goose that laid eggs of gold; if aether and other energy resources were properly managed, the whole planet would benefit greatly.

But the rebels thought otherwise.

This insane callousness reminded Luther of his home planet, Earth.

Over the past few years, government leaders, UN, WHO and other global authorities had been harping on global warming and pollution.

So many species were on the brink of extinction with some even extinct.

Places like Africa were doomed, never to develop due to the degradation of the planet and continent by illegal mining of resources.

Daily release of toxic, noxious fumes bordering radioactivity, were constantly released by factories.

Natural virgin forests, lakes and rivers, about to be destroyed, or even in the process of destruction.

All these was sending the planet on a downward spiral, a way of no return!

The moment the ozone barrier dissipated and the solar flares struck, Earth would be doomed to the vicious cycle of rebuilding civilization over and over again, just like Trivasun.

And unlike Trivasun which was unified under the rule of Selen VI, giving him the power to instantly mobilize armies to attack rebels, Earth didn't have that.

What a joke, there were close to 200 countries on Earth, all having their heads of states and rulers. In terms of world unity, there was none!

Even if the UN wanted to mobilize peacekeeping forces to combat the menace of pollution, they would be unable to make headway and be resisted fiercely by some governments.

And the various corporations and factories hadn't even been brought into the picture.

Knowing how greedy they were, there was no way they were going to stop polluting the environment as that would financially cripple them.

Most had even made plans to move to the moon or the International Space Station, in case Earth faced the apocalypse. That way, they would survive.

But what of the common people?

What of the billions of people on Earth who couldn't afford moon bunkers?

Were they just going to be doomed to suffer and die while the culprits moved to space?

An advanced planet like Trivasun had experienced their first apocalypse over a thousand years ago, despite having aether and other energy resources to create Supers.

They had managed to bounce back but now, all their efforts were almost for naught, due to a few greedy people who cared about their wealth more than their race.

All such people had to die!

Luther's eyes turned bloodshot and he clenched his fists.

He could never allow Earth to become like Trivasun. He would do everything in his power to ensure his race didn't suffer the same fate!

Naz nodded and said, 'It's good you understand Luther. So whenever you kill rebels, know you're saving our planet from the jaws of extinction.

Best we get rid of them all before they destroy us.

We can't afford another apocalypse again.'