10,000 Years ago, the world Althea was like any other regular world, humans lived their lives believing that they were the only intelligent species in the world..
But then, came the age of evolution…
Althea's awakening was not the result of some alien invasion, dungeon gates opening, or demon portals spamming like no tomorrow..
No, the world's will simply gained consciousness, and with that, the planet was integrated into the wider universe as a whole…
This integration brought about the presence of the raw energy known as essence…
And with the arrival of essence, the illusion shattered…
THEY appeared, the supernatural races, races that existed on the planet since before its consciousness went into hibernation…
They couldn't survive without a superior form of energy and thus, sealed themselves…
But with the world's awakening, they stirred up…
Now suddenly, humans were no longer at the top of the food chain…
Their multitude of lands were conquered one after the other, until eventually they found themselves huddled into one single continent….
The situation looked dire, with races like elves, beastmen, dwarves, and the worst of them all Dragons….
Humanity teetered on the brink, but like they've done since time immemorial, they adapted, the various nations and empires all joined together, their smartest minds working…
And in just 10 years, they produced results…
Essence powered technology, essence bombs, essence exosuits, and the crème de la crème, MECHAS…
All technology meant to use the energy that seemed incompatible with the human physiology, now bent through science and technology…
With this breakthrough, humanity countered, they pushed, with mechas wielding essence powered plasma blades capable of cutting through dragon scales, the war was no longer one sided, humans were no longer just prey…
This state of push and pull continued for over a century until a change finally occurred…
The world's awakening was a natural occurrence, no external influences involved, it gave the supernatural races the environment to grow and consolidate their power..
But it wasn't the supernatural races that got the best of this awakening..
No, that privilege belonged to the BEASTS!!
For although the bloodlines of those supernatural races granted them some form of control over pure essence, the beasts used essence like it was an extension of their will…
They were the darlings of the world, cradled and catered for…
They struck hard, mercilessly…
A newly founded kingdom on the dragon isle continent was exterminated by a beast tide so horrible it took only an hour of that stampede to wipe them off the face of the earth…
And that was just the beginning of the nightmare…
Essence flowed through beasts like blood, empowering them, driving them, they knew nothing but destruction, destruction, and more destruction..
They were the culling of the races by the planet herself…
They tried, the supernatural races tried, and failed miserably to defend their newly acquired lands, as they could only watch helplessly as kingdom after kingdom, city after city, was reduced to ruins..
But then, they realized that the humans were still holding their ground, their technological devices, powered by pure essence, seemed to have an exceptional effect on the beasts..
And so, a truce was called…
Dragons, elves, beastmen, dwarves and humans…
The five races decided to band together, for the humans themselves knew, with how fast the beasts were evolving, it would only be a matter of time before they too were run over…
So the five races came together, the most brilliant minds of all races pitting heads together to come up with a solution…
The supernatural races gave their knowledge of how to control and manipulate essence, and the humans pitted forth their methods of transforming essence into power for their weapons…
Research after research, and the result's started showing..
The masterpiece of essence engineering, they called it…
An Essence Nuke…
An explosive device capable of reducing swathes of land to nothing…
And it worked, terrifyingly so..
Cities and kingdoms were liberated in days..
A single Essence nuke and voila, beasts reduced to nothing…
It was exhilarating, they could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel…
But before that thought could settle, before the reliefs could settle…
It appeared, a beast of the end, what they called back then A CALAMITY BEAST…
It appeared as if spawned by the world to spite the hopes of the people…
A monstrosity that looked like a horrible cross between an aligator, a lion and an eagle…
Magnified to the size of dwarfing mountains…
It shrugged off Essence nukes as if they were nothing more than pixy dust..
And when it struck…
The reason they called it a calamity became clear..
In one night, it erased over 90% of the dwarven continent, immediately making this supernatural race an endangered species…
That strike struck cold into the hearts of all the planet's inhabitants…
They sent everything, bombs, people, whatever they could throw at it, but nothing, absolutely nothing worked, it shrugged off all their attempts like nothing..
Until, the first being awakened…
The bright minds of the major races, upon realizing the cold truth that technology had no effect, realized one simple truth, to combat monsters, you'll need monsters of your own, so they put heads together, studying the energy known as essence, they couldn't control and use it as effectively as the beasts, but what if they could convert it..
After all, Essence was just another form of energy, and energy can be converted from one form to another..
They already did it with their technology, they should be able to do so again, but this time, into a form of energy usable by humans and altheans in general..
And so, experiments after experiments ensued until the first ever awakened was born…
Solaris Silverstein!!
A young beastwoman, a lion woman, to be precise..
She awakened an energy called mana, and with her already decent attunement to essence, control came easy, and with control came growth..
Her surge in growth was staggering, in just over a decade , she was capable of wiping out nests filled with low-mid level beasts…
And with this breakthrough, the experiments became easier, after all, the first steps were always the hardest, so with ample essence empowered beast meat, and materials, the experiments became more manageable, and then He appeared…
The first ever prana(aura) user..
And the first ever practioner of the aura pathway..
Thaddeus Agares!!!!
A/N: you know, I never understood why authors tend to solicit for powerstones and reviews and comments whenever they publish chapters, until I started this book.
Honestly, sometimes it feels underwhelming just typing words and trying to bring a story you pictured in your head into text for others to enjoy with you, only to feel like you're publishing to brick walls…
It's like, those comments and power stones are proof that people are actually reading, actually enjoying it, sharing in the vision you have.
But when you come to see no reactions, no responses no anything, to sit down and write anything becomes tiring, bringing your story to life becomes a chore, instead of something you should enjoy doing..
I spend most of my day outside, and only ever have time to post at night, so you can imagine how underwhelming it feels to come back, open your app, eager to publish your next chapter, your next vision, only to see zero reactions, like you're publishing just for yourself, it's been a week since this book was up, and I've only received 6 powerstones, bless the souls that showed me appreciation, but it's underwhelming, and worst of all? I can't even know where I'm doing it wrong or right since there aren't any comments or reviews..
I almost didn't even feel like publishing anything again today, cause the reactions are underwhelming…
Just had to get this off my chest..
Thanks for reading all the same…
To those three who showered me with their few stones, I love you..
To others, I'm soliciting your support, comments where I'm doing it wrong, reviews, power stones, let me know I'm not just putting words out there for myself…..