Chapter 392: Guardian of the World (1)

Grateria was quite busy after first becoming the guardian of the world. Humans and elves were far too weak in the face of nature's wrath.

Even a slight shift in temperature, a slightly stronger wind, a bit less rainfall, or a few meteorites falling from the sky could threaten the very survival of their races. In those days, he had to take to the skies every few decades just to fulfill his duty as a guardian.

When was that, again? Tesranach, seated upon the Throne of Ashes, reached back into his memory. Thousands of years ago? I don't think it's been ten thousand yet.

As civilization gradually advanced, Grateria's duties became easier. Crises no longer came every few decades. Or rather, crises still came, but there was no longer a need for his intervention. By then, humans and elves could handle such matters on their own.

At last, he thought he could rest easy as a silent watcher, and he was pleased. But that peace was short-lived.

A new problem arose. Humans and elves became the danger to the world. They had grown strong enough to withstand nature's fury, and in turn began to inflict fury upon nature.

It was absurd, but he still flew diligently. Thankfully, instances where humans or elves pushed the world into crisis were rare—only once every few centuries. When the world was in peril, he would rise. When it wasn't, he slumbered peacefully in his nest.

It was a satisfying life, until the day a true crisis appeared. With a sigh, Tesranach rested his chin in one hand and furrowed his brow, recalling the greatest threat to ever shake the world. Karnak, the human Monarch of Death...

***

In the distant past, long before Grateria was born, humans and elves had yet to diverge as distinct races. It was a time so ancient, only dragons and hairless apes who walked upright and spoke, the Ancients, existed as sentient beings.

Necromancy was a power devised by those Ancients. All the pain and fear of life led naturally to the fear of death, and so they sought to master it.

Groundless superstitions and delusions evolved into rituals, and over time, those rituals developed into methods of manipulating death itself. They built great altars, preserved the dead from decay, and believed the world beyond death was truth, while the present world was but a fleeting illusion.

However, as the years passed, the Ancients' magic began to shift. It was not natural for living beings to fixate on death rather than life. New forms of sorcery emerged, ones that sought value in life, not death.

And so the Ancients began to branch off. Those who strove to change the world and move forward were called humans. Those who adapted and chose to remain became elves. Those who dug deeper into the world were called dwarves.

As humans and elves diverged and civilization advanced, the shape of magic also changed. The magic that once relied solely on instinct began to take form as a formal discipline.

They gained power by serving divine beings, by diving into their own inner selves, and by harmonizing with the world to bring about change.

Unlike necromancy, these new powers did not require harm to others. They did not burn other souls, defile corpses, or consume human flesh. They could grow stronger without shame.

In the face of these new powers, divine arts, aura, and magic, necromancy rapidly fell into ruin. Death came to be seen as a profane truth that must not be faced. Those who once conducted burial rites fell from high priests to the lowest of castes.

And so, necromancy faded into obscurity over long centuries. Now and then, a human who had mastered the forbidden art would appear. But they never had any real influence. They were too weak.

Even so-called demon kings could at most shake a kingdom or two. No matter how wildly they rampaged, they were no more than localized disturbances. Meanwhile, the strength of humans and elves had already reached staggering heights. They could handle such threats on their own. There was no need for Grateria to intervene.

Besides, humans killing and being killed was a common affair. They were beings who would always be born again and thrive again, no matter how much they were slain. Intervening in such trivial matters could in fact disrupt the world's balance. So he watched from afar.

Even when someone calling himself the Monarch of Death stirred the continent into chaos, even when the entire world spat hatred and fury upon the name Karnak. To the dragon emperor, it was just another ordinary day.

***

Even while Grateria slumbered, the shadow of death crept steadily over the world. The human population continued to decline, as did the number of elves.

Even the mighty dragons began to dwindle. Human kingdoms fell, elven alliances fractured, and dragons died one by one.

The change came far too quickly. In little more than a decade, the world was swallowed in darkness. At last, Grateria made a decision.

He could no longer stand by and let that being, the so-called Monarch of Death, run unchecked. At this rate, the world would soon cross a point of no return. He awakened and rose into the sky.

But by the time the dragon emperor revealed himself to the world for the first time in centuries, even the human empire had already perished. The martial kings, the archmages, and the Church of the Seven Goddesses had all fallen into the hands of the Monarch of Death.

Accompanied by brainwashed subordinates, Karnak and his right-hand man, Varos, encountered the massive dragon looming in the heavens. And they made a commotion.

"Oh my! Young master, what in the world is that thing?"

"I've no idea. Where the hell did that monster come from?"

"Are we really supposed to fight that?"

"And what if we don't? You got a way to run from it?"

"Nope."

Their words and attitudes were astonishingly frivolous. It was baffling how men of such character had come to wield such tremendous power.

"O mortal who has broken the balance of the world..."

Even as the dragon emperor issued a solemn warning, the men remained wholly unserious.

"Does he have something stuck in his throat? What's with the pompous act?"

"Still, gotta admit, it does look cool."

Naturally, Grateria felt a flicker of anger. "Truly wretches. Not even worth speaking to."

The dragon emperor's breath ripped through the air, and thus began a vast battle that shook the very heavens and earth.

To his surprise, they were strong. They were stronger than any Grateria had ever encountered in all his countless eons. It seemed refinement of character and sheer strength had no connection whatsoever.

But still, they were not strong enough to stand against the Guardian of the World. They summoned all death and darkness, piled corpses into mountains, and turned oceans into blood in resistance, but in the end, the Monarch of Death fell short of the dragon emperor's might.

After a grueling battle, Grateria emerged victorious. And, as dictated by the laws of the world, he moved to act. "Now, depart for the afterworld."

Thus, Karnak and his loyal vassal Varos were slain. The problem came after.

***

As befitted the master of death, Karnak's soul managed to flee Grateria's notice even in death.

Some time later, he reappeared before the dragon emperor as something entirely different.

It was a nightmare made real. "Wh-what in the world is this...?"

Grateria trembled at the sight of a massive skull radiating a dreadful blue aura. Living Karnak had been manageable. But dead Karnak was entirely different.

He returned as a being of death and darkness incarnate, the Astra Shunaph. He possessed a power even the dragon emperor had never known. This was a monstrosity whose existence exceeded even Grateria's vast wisdom.

"How could a mere human come to possess such power?"

At Grateria's horrified cry, the blue skull sneered. "What's so strange about that? You, just a mere dragon, came to possess such power yourself."

"You insolent fool. Do you dare compare yourself to me?"

"Guess you don't know this, but people who say things like 'insolent fool' or 'mere this, mere that', they never do too well. You've lived all these years and still haven't figured that out?"

In truth, Karnak himself often used such phrasing. But if it could get under the dragon emperor's scales, he'd say anything.

Thus began a dreadful battle that lasted three days. The skies split apart. The earth caved in. The seas dried up. The terrain changed. The climate shifted. It was a merciless clash that reshaped the world.

In the end, the victory went to the Monarch of Death. The being who had guarded the world for thousands of years kneeled before a single human.

"Wow, you really live up to the name. I can't even kill you for good." The blue skull sneered down at the fallen Grateria. "Well, I'll just kill the body, at least."

Dark power consumed Grateria's mind. His body lost all vitality and became steeped in necromantic energy. He lost his reason and became a beast once more.

The dragon emperor ceased to exist. All that remained was the loyal servant of the Monarch of Death, the Death Dragon, Grateria.

From then on, he followed the Monarch of Death's commands and turned the world into hell. As one of the dead, he created more of the dead, for the dead.

It was a horrific fate. And what made it even more horrific was that he didn't even realize how horrific it was.

Time passed, the world changed, and the continent became a land soaked in death. It had been so long that the number of dead walking the land outnumbered the living.

But to Grateria, now a death dragon, the passage of time held no meaning. Devoid of reason, stripped of self, it was as though none of it had ever truly existed for him. When he finally awakened again, over a hundred years had passed.

The sight that met Grateria's newly awakened eyes was something beyond imagination. "What is this...?"

The sky, the land, the sea, space, and time itself, everything was collapsing.

***

A purple sky swirled in a vortex. Beyond it, fragments of the heavens shattered, vanishing into the twisted space beyond. The earth crumpled in on itself. At its edges, the land burned away in the desiccated flames of time.

Had this been an earthquake, a volcano, a tsunami, Grateria wouldn't have been surprised. Such disasters, he had lived through countless times over his long life. But this was no mere natural catastrophe.

The world was already dead, and now even that death was unraveling. Grateria stirred. He forced his death-frozen body to twist and lifted his massive head. What is happening...?

He struggled to grasp the situation. What in the world has occurred?!

He reached out to feel the flow of the world, to trace the paths of power, seeking answers. At last, he sensed something. There was a massive rupture in space and time. Reality itself was being pulled into it before vanishing.

How could this have come to be...?

He strained to flap wings that barely moved and slowly lifted into the air. Once airborne, he could see. He had awakened in a vast, unidentifiable crater.

Why he had been there, he didn't know. Perhaps it had been one of the places where the Monarch of Death usually stored him. He left the crater and flew toward the rift in time and space.

The world he saw for the first time in over a century was horrific. There were no signs of the living. Only the dead remained. With a heavy heart, he continued to fly, until a massive city came into view.

No—could that even be called a city? If it was a place populated solely by the dead, graveyard might have been a better word.

That place...

Something stirred faintly in his memory, memories from his time as a death dragon.

"Necropolis..."

This was the capital of the dead empire, Necropia. This was the greatest city, and tomb, built by the Monarch of Death, Karnak.