Chapter 396: Transcendence
Exploring the Ark had been a profoundly complex experience for Lyriel. More than a physical challenge, it was a mental ordeal, with her thoughts swinging from one extreme to another. Her past as the last leader of her planet, witnessing the ultimate sacrifice of her family, friends, and subjects, all to ensure her survival weighed heavily on her consciousness. The Ark had always represented the last sliver of hope in an otherwise unforgiving universe, but even that had been taken away, leaving her practically rudderless.
After millennia had passed, she still clearly remembered the final days of her civilization’s collapse, replaying them over and over so that she could never forget, whether she wished to or not. The images always came back to her when her thoughts were idle, when she was stressed, or when she was exhausted, repeating the worst experience of her long life ad infinitum.
The smell of sulphur, the scorching embers in the air, and the stinging atmosphere that ate at their wispy souls were fresh in her mind. That’s why she had so much trouble standing up to the first demons in the tower, why she lacked any confidence in opposing an Icon, and why she still wanted to oppose the forces of mana so badly.
She was already mentally broken, unable to heal from the unimaginable damage she had previously taken as she reopened the scars time and time again. Her memories dominated her thoughts and reduced her to a panicked coward that would keel over rather than fight when faced with the living embodiment of her losses.
Back during the fall of her kingdom, the assimilation had already reduced her planet to a single settlement. They were hidden within their most ancient of forests before the Eradication Protocol even began. That final city had developed into an incredible stronghold of gleaming marble and living wood, one that should have lasted into the ages.
It was the fiery stone and blood demons that successfully tore it down. They were the same demons that sought to permanently remove her from the Ark. They were the demons that occupied the false sanctuary of the Exiles where her hope had completely died. She detested them and all the other forces of mana.
The civilization shard stood at the foot of their world tree, with her palace embedded in its crown, and an entire city winding on shimmering roads toward the base. Thousands of years of harmonious peace barely prepared them for the competition promoted by the assimilation, but in the end they had rallied with a greater population than nearly any other integrating species could boast. If not for the Eradication Protocol, they would have entered the galactic community like a dazzling gemstone with nearly a million survivors united in the glory of overcoming a true ordeal with unprecedented success.
Her people spent more than a century systematically power leveling her and her queen mother, funneling levels and hope into their leader with Lyriel at her side. When the time came to face the forces of mana, the people were still the ones who manned the front lines, understanding that their efforts had been for naught.
They recognized the unwinnable nature of the Eradication Protocol, and placed their last bit of faith in Lyriel specifically, shielding her alone, promoting her to their ultimate treasure. In the same way she had placed her hope in the Ark, they had looked to her for the future salvation of their spirits.
It only took 33 days for the demonic armies to annihilate them all, the corruption sweeping through their territory and burning the people from the inside out before their Monolithic Destiny revealed itself to deliver the final blow to their brave queen. Lyriel would have died as well had she not been hidden away by the efforts of her subjects, allowing her to survive an extra few days by herself in the corrupting atmosphere as it fully engulfed their planet.
Had it not been for the Exile that had warned them of the Eradication Protocol just a year before the end fulfilling their vague promise and evacuating her from the planet as soon as the failed integration completed, she would have perished as well. Though her body lived, her soul died with her people.
Ultimately it was thanks to their sacrifices that she lived long enough to be pulled from the carnage, but she existed with an incredible burden forever more. It was only bearable as long as she clung to her dream of completely destroying mana. She had to do it, for her sake, for her mother’s vengeance, for the sacrifice of her people, and for the memory of her previously peaceful planet. It was mana that had destroyed their harmony, its activation ruining everything, and its existence the root of all evil.