[A/N: Before you start reading this chapter, I just want to clarify that some of the events and details in this chapter are canon, while others are headcanons created to fill in gaps where information is unavailable, and some parts are also entirely fabricated by me to fit the story I'm trying to tell. So, please keep that in mind as you read this chapter.]
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A long... long time ago...
In the far, far past, before time itself had even begun to flow, 'It' drifted through the World of Death. There was no beginning, no ending, and no passage of time to measure its existence. It simply was, floating through an infinite nothingness with neither purpose nor desire, utterly aimless and without destination, slumbering as though lost within an endless dream.
Then, like a tiny sprout slowly taking root within the soil, a Will was born from the 'It.' It possessed neither a physical body nor any perceivable form. It was everywhere and nowhere at once, like a dreamer existing within their own dream. It was omnipotent, wielding power beyond comprehension, and omniscient, possessing knowledge of all that was and all that could ever be. In essence, it was the world itself, perfection made manifest, complete in every conceivable way and lacking absolutely nothing.
Yet, that perfect existence soon became something monstrous to the omnipotent Will. A part of it grew weary of the unchanging eternity, of existing in a world where it could perceive everything and yet experience nothing truly unexpected. And so, diversity was born from two conflicting Wills. One yearned for freedom, longing to experience change and discover the unknown, while the other chose to endure the loneliness, fearful of what an ever-changing world might bring. Thus, the Will divided, manifesting as Ivaragé and Veldanava... the Destroyer and the Creator, Yin and Yang.
But with their separation, their dreamlike sense of omnipotence was gone, replaced by the ever-changing "World."
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While drifting through the endless nothingness, Ivaragé began to wonder how long it had been. How long had she been alone? How long had she been waiting? The questions circled endlessly within her mind, yet there was no one to answer them. She kept asking herself why her other self had abandoned her, why he had chosen to leave her behind. A deep, tormenting longing gnawed at her very being, urging her to reunite with him, to once again become one with the other half of herself. But alas, her other half never returned. He simply continued on without her, leaving Ivaragé to drift alone through the solitude of the endless void.
Before long, that longing began to twist into something darker. Anger. Hatred. And, eventually, an overwhelming need for destruction. Her anger was directed at her other self, the one who had abandoned her and left her to wander through this suffocating nothingness alone. Her hatred was directed at the "World" he had created in her absence, a world that had taken him away from her. And above all else, there was the desire to destroy everything he had created, to tear down the world that had stolen him from her and reduce it to nothing. If she destroyed it all, then perhaps there would be nothing left to keep them apart. Perhaps, once everything was gone, the two of them could finally become one again.
Eventually, that hatred crystallized into a single, unwavering determination. She would move. She would find her other half. And she would become one with him once more. As that determination took root within her, Ivaragé's newly awakened Will began to manifest a form of its own. From that Will, a monstrous dragon was born, an incarnation of pure destruction whose very existence embodied the destructive half of the primordial whole.
And so, the Dragon of Destruction, Ivaragé, began her search for the one she longed for most, as well as the world her other half had cherished above her. Eons upon eons passed, yet Ivaragé never stopped searching, for time was nothing more than a fleeting concept to a being such as her. Then, at last, her persistence bore fruit. In a single fleeting moment, she sensed something... a boundary separating the realm of nothingness from the world of her other half's creation.
'Found you...' A manic smile slowly formed across Ivaragé's face, looking even more terrifying against the monstrous dragonid features of her current form as she launched herself toward that familiar presence.
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Finally, after breaking through the barrier separating the two worlds, Ivaragé found her way into the Cardinal World. She descended from the void and landed on solid ground beside a bustling human civilization, causing an immediate and catastrophic commotion. The sheer impact of her landing shook the surrounding area, sending buildings trembling and debris flying as terrified humans fled in every direction. Screams echoed throughout the streets as people desperately tried to escape, completely unaware of what had just descended upon their world.
Meanwhile, ignorant of the effect her presence was having on the world around her, Ivaragé looked around before frowning in dissatisfaction. She couldn't find anything worth noticing, let alone anything that could have possibly interested her other half enough to choose this over her. However, just then, something caught her eye. A small, white-haired girl was standing beside her enormous feet, trembling uncontrollably. She looked completely terrified, too shell-shocked by the dragon's sudden appearance to even think about running. To Ivaragé, however, the girl was nothing more than an unfamiliar and insignificant creature that happened to be standing in her way. So, without giving the matter any further thought, Ivaragé did what came most naturally to her. She invoked Primitive Magic: Primordial Flame, unleashing a torrent of purple flames that engulfed the little creature while, subconsciously, the dense magicules within her body began spilling into the surrounding environment, directly affecting the civilization beside her.
The effect on the civilization was immediate. The sheer density of magicules pouring from a being of Ivaragé's magnitude descended upon the humans like an invisible natural calamity. Their bodies simply could not withstand it, and within minutes, the once-bustling civilization had fallen silent, leaving nothing but death in the Dragon of Destruction's wake.
Then, without even sparing a glance at the calamity she had caused, Ivaragé took off and continued flying aimlessly, her incredible speed destroying settlements in her path while her uncontained aura claimed countless lives. Wherever the Dragon of Destruction went, death and destruction followed in her wake, leaving the once-thriving world scarred by her passage.
However, her rampage soon came to an abrupt stop... or rather, it was forcefully brought to a halt by a group of winged creatures that descended from the heavens and appeared directly in her path. Angels, they called themselves, and they immediately began berating her, especially the one at the front, who seemed particularly aggravated by Ivaragé's very existence, evident in every venom-filled word he spat at her.
Ivaragé, however, couldn't have cared less about them because the moment these winged creatures arrived, she sensed the strongest essence of her other half within them. That meant he was aware of her arrival... which meant he was watching her. The realization filled Ivaragé's heart with immense joy. However, a moment later, that joy turned into unbearable anger when she realized that despite knowing she had arrived, he had sent his creations to contain her instead of coming to her himself.
Immediately, whatever fragile restraint her newly awakened consciousness possessed finally snapped. Feeling as though she had been wronged by her own other half, Ivaragé unleashed her unbearable and uncontained rage upon the angels who had come to subdue her. And so, the historic battle between the Angels and the being who would one day be known as the World-Destroying Dragon began.
The battle raged on for years, with the angels faring surprisingly well against a being of her kind, though not without suffering heavy losses. Three of the Original Seven ultimately lost their lives during the battle. However, some time later, reinforcements arrived in the form of the Primordial Demon, Guy, the Fairy Queen, Ramiris, and humanity's first Hero, Rudra, all of whom immediately joined the fray.
Meanwhile, on Ivaragé's side, the more beings carrying the essence of her other half arrived on the battlefield, the more resentment and insanity consumed her mind. Every new arrival served as another painful reminder that Veldanava was aware of her existence, yet still refused to appear before her himself. Unfortunately for the allied forces of the Cardinal World, the more Ivaragé fought, the angrier she became, and the angrier she became, the more of her sanity slipped away, and the more her sanity deteriorated, the more destructive she became.
Until finally, the creator of the world could no longer bear to watch Ivaragé's rampage and the suffering it continued to inflict upon his creation, and he finally decided to confront his other half himself. On the other hand, what should have been a joyous occasion for Ivaragé failed to even register in her mind because, by the time Veldanava appeared on the battlefield, all of her sanity was gone, consumed by madness and a mindless hunger for destruction.
So, when Veldanava witnessed the state his other half had fallen into, he felt an immense sense of helplessness, pity, and guilt. He felt helpless upon seeing what things had become, despite Ivaragé being his own other self. He felt pity for the state she was currently in, reduced to little more than a mindless beast despite being an entity on his level. And above all, he felt guilt, knowing that he was partly to blame for Ivaragé's current state. Though he had never intended to hurt her, at the time, he had believed that leaving her behind in that primordial nothingness was the better choice, both for her and for the path of creation he had chosen to pursue.
Still, no matter how much he regretted his actions, he knew he could not allow Ivaragé to continue existing in the Cardinal World and run amok, causing endless destruction. So, the next moment, with nothing more than a swipe of his finger, a massive pillar descended from the heavens and crashed down upon Ivaragé, causing her to let out a pained, ear-piercing wail. Ivaragé continued struggling beneath the pressure of the golden pillar, fighting desperately against it until, after countless pained shrieks and desperate struggles, everything finally fell silent. The World-Destroying Dragon collapsed unconscious onto the ground, and with her fall, the world-ending catastrophe finally came to an end.
After the grueling battle, Primordial Red circled around Ivaragé, watching the Dragon of Destruction, who had pushed the strongest beings of the world to their limits and forced the god of this world himself to appear, with keen interest. The Fairy Queen conversed with her spirits, assessing the damage that had been inflicted upon the world. The First Hero stood quietly beside his teacher, while the Angels immediately knelt before Veldanava, awaiting his next orders.
Meanwhile, Veldanava stood there quietly, lost in his own thoughts as he wrestled with a grave dilemma, wondering what he should do with Ivaragé. Neither destroying her nor allowing her to remain in the Cardinal World was an option. After all, despite being little more than a mindless beast, Ivaragé was still an existence comparable to himself, and he was unwilling to simply destroy her. As for the Cardinal World being uninhabitable for her, that needed no explanation.
Of course, there was another option. Veldanava could simply choose to merge with his other half and suppress her primitive Will beneath his own, restoring their existence to a single being. Yet the compassionate and guilt-ridden part of him could not bring himself to do so. He could not bring himself to erase what remained of his other half simply because she had become a mindless beast. But neither could he allow her to continue rampaging freely. And so, Veldanava finally made his decision. He would transform the primordial nothingness into a separate realm and seal her within it, hoping that, given enough time, she might one day develop sentience and awaken an ego of her own. It was a hope born from compassion, but also a selfish gamble, one that he was willing to stake the future of the world upon.
When he explained his idea to the others, he received the responses he had expected. Guy had little interest in the aftermath of the battle and simply left the battlefield, while Ramiris and Rudra raised no objections to his decision, trusting his judgment on the matter. However, much to his surprise, one of his closest and most trusted creations, Feldway, voiced his dissatisfaction, urging his creator to reconsider and purge Ivaragé from existence.
However, having already made up his mind, Veldanava was not swayed by Feldway's words. Instead, he tried to make the General of the Seven Angels of Origin understand the importance of hope and second chances. How much of that lecture Feldway truly took to heart, Veldanava could not know. But when Feldway offered no further objections, he took his silence as acceptance and assumed that he had managed to make his first creation understand his point of view.
And so, Veldanava finally transformed the Primordial Nothingness into a stable dimension before creating a colossal structure named Spooky Palace and sealing Ivaragé within it. He did so with the hope that, one day, his other half would awaken a Will of her own, allowing him to finally speak with her as equals, show her the world he had created, and perhaps share with her the joy he had found in creation.
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Some time later, Ivaragé awoke, still trapped within her mindless, destructive state. However, what greeted her was not the Cardinal World where she had lost consciousness, but an endless white expanse stretching as far as the eye could see, devoid of anything resembling life. Yet at that moment, she lacked the capacity to recognize the difference and simply resumed her rampage, trying to tear through the eternal emptiness.
Meanwhile, as time passed, Ivaragé's very existence began to affect the new realm, proving that even the prison created by the Creator God himself could not completely suppress the dark, oppressive magicules constantly radiating from her. Slowly, those magicules seeped into the once-serene dimension, transforming it into the bleak and hostile realm it would eventually become. At the same time, her influence created the conditions for new forms of life to emerge, giving rise to the races that would eventually come to be known collectively as the Aggressors, including Cryptids, Insectoids, and Phantoms.
That, however, had nothing to do with the prisoner sealed within that realm, as she continued raging inside the Spooky Palace. But with nothing to actually destroy or fight, the madness and rage clouding her mind gradually began to fade, and after an indefinite amount of time, she finally calmed down, and little by little, her sanity began to return.
As clarity returned to her mind, Ivaragé felt disoriented and confused, unable to remember how she had arrived in this unfamiliar place. However, that confusion soon faded as the desire to reunite with her other half returned once more. This time, however, she could feel his presence all around her, and it didn't take long for her to realize the truth. She had been imprisoned once again, and this time, it was her own other half who had sealed her away.
This realization soon reignited the volcano of rage that had only just been extinguished, along with all the other emotions that came with it like envy, sadness, and loneliness. But this time, she did not surrender to her anger and become a mindless beast once more. Instead, she kept asking herself why her other half had abandoned her yet again when she had gone so far just to reach him. Why had he imprisoned her? Did he despise her? Did he no longer desire to become one with her as much as she desired it? Did his creations mean more to him than she did? No matter how hard she tried, she simply could not understand why he kept rejecting her.
Ivaragé kept repeating those questions to herself for a long, long time, but no matter how much she pondered them, she could find no answers. Eventually, she grew tired of turning the same thoughts over and over in her mind and decided to approach the problem from a different angle. She transformed her monstrous dragon body into the form of a white-haired child, resembling one of the little creatures she vaguely remembered seeing in the world her other half had created.
In her mind, she came to a simple conclusion. Instead of continuing to search for answers to the questions that tormented her, perhaps she simply needed to become like one of his creations. If she looked like them, perhaps her other half would finally accept her just as he had accepted them. So, after assuming the form of a little girl, she waited patiently for him to visit her, filling her lonely days with dreams of the moment when she would finally reunite with her other half.
But as they say, time is a cruel mistress, indifferent and impartial to gods and mortals alike.
After all, time taught the Creator God the value of bonds, the beauty of love, and the satisfaction of living as something closer to a mortal than a god, ultimately leading him toward his own death. That same passage of time, however, slowly twisted Ivaragé's hopeful anticipation of their reunion into madness.
As more and more time passed in the outside world, the feeling of abandonment continued to grow within her heart, fueling the destructive core of the World-Destroying Dragon and steadily eroding what remained of her sanity. This deterioration soon became evident in her appearance as well. Her once-neat white hair became increasingly frizzed, her eyes widened unnaturally, and a perpetual, manic smile spread across her face, looking absurdly out of place on the innocent visage of a young girl.
But fate was not yet finished playing its cruel game, and one day, the Creator God perished at the hands of his own creations. At the same time, within the confines of her prison, Ivaragé would never understand why she suddenly felt an excruciating pain tearing through her, why tears streamed down her face, or why it felt as though someone were ripping her heart apart. She would not understand where the pain came from, nor why she felt the sudden sense of overwhelming loss. And soon, even that feeling would fade from her conscious mind, buried beneath the madness that had consumed her, and she would return to feeding her destructive urges, continuing to wait for her other half to come for her, no matter how long it took.
And Ivaragé would wait for a long, long time while the Cardinal World she had once seen was changed beyond recognition. She would never know of the game between a Hero and a Demon Lord. She would never know of the rampage caused by the last precious treasure of her other half. And she would never know that the once-feared existence known as the World-Destroying Dragon would slowly fade into myth, then into a bedtime story told to children, and finally into a forgotten tale remembered only by the ancient beings who had witnessed it firsthand.
Until today, when the gates of her prison would open once more. But this time, they would not be opened by the other half she had desperately waited for. They would be opened by an eccentric, blue-haired man with a daring and utterly ridiculous goal in mind.
To be continued...
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Illustration: Ivaragé