I accidentally stepped on a bone as I walked through this place.
Like the chamber we had descended into before, this place was dome-shaped, but far larger.
Large enough to hold an entire army beneath its towering ceiling.
As far as the eye could see, white lifeless skeletons covered the gray floor.
But what drew my attention wasn’t that.
It was the murals covering the curved wall...
Beautiful murals, filled with color and life, as though they had been painted on the brightest day imaginable.
"What... what the hell is this place?" someone’s voice echoed out, but I ignored all sounds as I stepped forward.
With each step, the images became clearer, and the shadows retreated from their gleaming surface, revealing every detail.
I felt my stomach churn as an inexplicable nausea rose within me.
And there, I saw what appeared to be a city...
An enormous and breathtaking city...
It looked like an ancient legend forgotten long ago.
Ornate domed buildings stretched toward the sky, each resembling a small palace built in a beautiful and unique architectural style.
Roads ran between them, while bridges connected them high above in the heavens.
And in the air floated countless other platforms and buildings, as though something was keeping them suspended there.
Everything was a beautiful blend of white, gold, calm gray, and various other colors.
Clear waters flowed through the city, forming small rivers, while trees and plants grew everywhere, bringing life to the landscape and creating magnificent gardens.
Behind it all rose a colossal palace that seemed to touch the heavens themselves, with the sun resting directly above it.
Whether it was the arches that shaped it or the towers floating around it, everything formed a sight that sent chills down one’s spine.
To my eyes, it all looked as though it had been painted by a passionate artist who had dedicated their entire life to it.
And amidst all of that, the city’s inhabitants moved about here and there in human forms.
No...
They were humans.
I could almost swear I saw smiles and laughter on their distant faces.
"I don’t understand... what does this mean?" Izel passed by me, her eyes fixed on the scene before us.
Beneath the mural, beautiful and orderly lines flowed together to form several words.
"Arcadia."
The echo of my voice spread through the vast chamber.
"Arcadia?... What does that mean?" Elliot asked from behind me.
But I ignored him, my gaze drawn toward the remaining words.
"From here we came, and to here we shall return."
"Our world, and also our first homeland... Aetherion."
My eyes locked onto the elegant text and refused to leave it as I continued reading.
"Whether it was knowledge, power, or authority, we possessed it all... In this vast universe, we stood at the pinnacle of races. Only a few were our equals."
"We were never without flaws... No, we had many of them. Yet under the Sovereign’s rule, we were one."
"Yes, we were born more fragile than most creatures, but we learned faster and grew faster... Most importantly, we adapted to everything and evolved."
"We fought wars and won them, rising ever higher until our world became an anchor for other races."
"Under a single ruler... we were one."
"Whether it was the first Sovereign or the last, each led us forward in their own way."
I continued reading the beautiful words until I reached a new image on the right.
There stood a hall that could not be described with words.
And at its end rose a single throne that made every throne in the world look like nothing more than outdated wooden chairs.
But no one sat upon it.
Only numerous figures stood on either side, their faces unclear, each bearing a resemblance to the others.
And beneath that image, the writing continued to flow without pause.
"There were no struggles for the throne. Not because it wasn’t tempting, and not because we were the most united and harmonious people... of course not."
"It was simply because no one else deserved it... Only they did, from beginning to end."
"So even until that day, we were still one."
I stared intensely at the next words, my tone unconsciously changing.
"The day existence became distorted and its balance shattered for the first time since the dawn of history."
I turned my head, following the line of images that changed continuously.
This time, instead of the city or the magnificent palace, there was another scene...
What appeared to be a battlefield...
No, its aftermath.
An entire world stained red, with strange corpses piled together into mountains that nearly touched the sky.
"From here, everything began. We didn’t understand it at first because it wasn’t the first time an entire race had been wiped out in a single stroke."
"History had already recorded things like this... and that world wasn’t anything special."
"But by the time we understood what had happened, it was already too late... Many races followed, especially the weaker ones that desired power."
"Some called it the One from the End, the Supreme and Purest Existence, the Light, and also the Darkness... It had countless names and titles without end."
"Many of them contradicted one another, but there was one word shared among them all."
"The Devourer."
"We thought it was another existence around Rank 8, and the problem was that it always had ways to escape and stay beyond our sight."
"But we were wrong... Not only us, but everyone in the Pantheon."
"Because before the Pantheon found a way to deal with it, something happened that no one could have imagined."
"Something that had not happened since the dawn of history."
I hesitated as I stared at those final words because they sent a chill through my body.
"The First Ones, ancient beings as old as the universe itself, living outside the laws and bearing no connection to existence... and also serving as the pillars of balance... but."
"But that thing slaughtered one of them."