Alma 152 Age of Chaos

A massive, blood-drenched battlefield lay before them. The deep crimson sky above them churned in fury, responding to the collective thoughts of the thousands of Chosen in the area. Their combined, subconscious wills and emotions — untrained and impure minds — had influenced the world around them for dozens of kilometers around them. 

This was why Ancient Mulian warrior-philosophy was centered around the cultivation of an internal Balance within the individual warrior. When entire armies of psychologically undeveloped soldiers in possession of Anima fought, it would always result in long-lasting and oftentimes, permanent damage to the environment. 

The Chosen of the gruesome battlefield before Reed and Lu'um had unconsciously warped the area around them into something uninhabitable. Worthless, barren soil and dark, stormy clouds were that had remained of whatever had once lived here. 

Human and Avunian corpses littered the no man's land as far as Reed could see. Giant, wrecked warships jutted out in the hellscape like jagged, flaming mountains made of metal. Military equipment laid strewn about in abundance, all of it covered in a thin patina of dried blood and rust. 

There was nothing left that could still draw breath. All that remained of the recent battle was another graveyard of horrors.

Even for Reed, who had already seen much of war and its evils, the feelings that had risen from seeing the carnage had not been lessened. It was such an awful sight that it had evoked feelings out him even in his emotionally numbed state. 

The smell of thousands of still rotting corpses was beyond description. Reed dry-heaved reflexively but caught himself before he spilled out his lunch and swallowed back a mouthful of something truly vile. 

He grimaced not at the taste of what he had swallowed back down, but at the realization that he was getting better at handling these types of horrific situations. That he was slowly but surely becoming accustomed to the damnable stench of death and rot. 

"They were all Chosen, weren't they?"

"It goes without saying. Most of them weren't very special though, so it wasn't as if the losses were that great. A vast majority of these souls were contenders." Lu'um pointed at the burning warships. "I wager that they were worth far more than the fodder in the eyes of the commanding officers during this time period..."

Her voice was trailed off as if she had little interest in the topic. She was primarily focused on navigating them through the tangled stretch of unbound spacetime in one piece. 

Reed wanted to challenge her claim but knew that she was probably right. Not because he understood her reasoning. He didn't. His realist mindset told him that there was nothing to be gained in challenging someone with her level of knowledge in an argument. 

The correct course of action was simply to not engage and accept what she had said. 

"...Disregard for life? Aren't your people all about the preservation of life? Where's your compassion for the dead? Does this mean nothing to you at all?" said Reed. The words came out of their own will, despite his efforts to stop them.

Lu'um laughed and said, "I have watched the light of entire galaxies fade into the cold darkness, my love. Seen the Infestation leech the life out of a multitude of parallel universes my people have carefully tended to and protected for ten thousand generations. 

If you think that this tiny battlefield will draw some form of emotional reaction from me, I am going have to disappoint you this time. 

In fact... Why don't I show you the truth about this world that has been kept from you?"

She stopped walking, looked around the haze of shattered spacetime, and then pulled Reed along into a fragmented piece of history. 

A city formed around them, suffused with smoke and fire and ash. Screams and pleas for mercy rang out into the night, but no one would ever hear them. Mortals called out for one another as they searched for their parents, lovers, children, and friends amidst the chaos that had ensued. 

It was a raid. 

An attack on a city full of mortals for their resources. In this case, the raiding party had come for food, people, valuables, and the Animcore that served as the generator the entire city. 

Reed looked around in a flurry and said, "...W-What the hell? Where are we? What's happening here?" 

Lu'um brought Reed close to her, pulled him along the burning city, and said, "I think it's time that you learn about this world's... rich and forgotten history so I brought us here, my dear. 

Welcome to the Janu-al, one of the many mortal cities that were established sometime after the events of the Great Barrier War. Give or take a couple hundred years, if my memory hasn't failed me yet." 

Some despaired over their future, some took up arms against the invaders, and others simply ran out of the city into the dark wilderness. It was a portrait of pure madness, inhumane cruelty, and suffering. 

Reed watched in horror as mortals were dragged off into large, militarized hover-carriers, never to be seen again. Men in armored suits came around and looted everything of value from the city with gleeful expressions on their faces. 

Up above in the sky, a single figure watched everything proceed silently as he carefully observed his surroundings. When he detected a surge in Anima, the man threw out a blade of hard-light and deflected the assassination attempt that had been made on him. 

The rat had come out — the Chosen who had created the city — ruler of the city of Janu-al.

Lu'um pointed at the fighting Chosen and said, "A battle for succession, as you can see. Winner takes all. Whoever survives gets to claim everything below — the city. 

That's how it was back then. Mortals were akin to cattle for Chosen of the past, to be ruled over, and played with at one's own discretion. Each Chosen was his own King and had their own kingdoms to rule, these rudimentary city-states, like Janu-al." 

She whispered in Reed's ear, "They were warlords. Tyrants who abused the power that had been granted to them for their personal benefit. 

The Will of the World was weak back then and had been under the enormous stress after the Great Barrier War. It could not keep check of its Chosen in its weakened, slumbering condition.

I'm sure you can guess what happened afterward, hm? Mortals granted an almighty power and left without any supervision after a particularly terrible event like the Great Barrier War, which had thrust the continent into a heavy period of depression and hopelessness? 

What could have possibly happened then?" 

A blade of light cut through the night and then a figure fell from the sky. The defending Chosen had lost. His severed head plummeted toward the ground and fell right in front of Reed's feet. 

It was a young man, no older than Reed. His delicate, thin visage would have been charming had not been ruined by the warped, distraught expression on his face. 

"He was one of the better Chosen. His city was peaceful and he ruled fairly, which was one of the reasons that so many mortals flocked to this city. Ironically, that surge in popularity and by extension, resources, was why the other Chosen had attacked the city. 

His kindness got him killed. Truly tragic, don't you think?" 

Lu'um pulled Reed and along. They drifted from one point to another as Lu'um continued to show and explain to him a myriad of terrible, unspeakable things. 

"This is the part of history that has been kept from you and every other person in modern times. 

You have been led to believe that the Unification Wars were a terrible evil that later followed an era of perpetual peace, but the history books never seemed to mention what happened in the period before the Unification Wars and after the Great Barrier War. 

For the Four Empires, this period of time... this Age of Chaos, is something that can never be revealed to the world. 

Nearly a thousand years of oppression and terror for mortals, my beloved. Can you even begin to contemplate that? Your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, so on and so forth for a thousand years. 

All living under the heel of some tyrant, fearing the wrath of the demigods who ruled them. 

And yes, while some of the Chosen were indeed fair, compassionate, and just, they were few and far in between the hordes of scheming contenders and their lords, the "conquerors" of Mulia." 

Reed's suddenly turned around and said, "...You mean that—" 

"They were called conquerors for that very reason, dear, despite the nonsensical hogwash they give out nowadays about the etymology of the title. 

'Conquering spacetime?' I've never heard of a stupider reason. 

Contenders, too. As in, little rats contending for the position of their lord's right-hand man. 

Too weak to create their own kingdom and play with the big boys, hence their decision to cling to the leg of someone more powerful than them." 

Reed fell silent. Why had Lu'um decided to show him all of this? 

He didn't know what to think anymore... 

Chapter end