"Next, close your eyes, relax your mind, and try not to think about anything. Empty your thoughts."
"So mysterious! Are we going to meditate?"
Although she said this, Cyra still followed along and closed her eyes with us.
"Ready?"
After a while with no movement from Elara, I couldn't help but open my eyes. To my surprise, I was floating in the sky and the others were nowhere to be seen.
"What's going on?"
"Wah! How am I in the sky? Where are Feliciana and the rest?"
I suddenly heard Cyra's voice, but I couldn't see her.
"I'm here! Where are you?"
I quickly called out and then heard Elara's voice coming from somewhere unknown.
"Don't panic! This is an ancient light magic that can preserve memories. I'm using it to replay these memories in your minds."
"So the scenes we're each seeing now are identical?"
I was starting to understand a little.
"Correct! These are real memories from our ancestors thousands of years ago."
"Got it, so it's like we're watching a first-person immersive video!"
Nicolas drew on a simple metaphor.
"If these are the memories of an angel ancestor from history, what is the situation we're seeing now?"
I realized I couldn't control my body or perspective, but not long after asking, the view started moving on its own. Clearly, the perspective's owner was flying at this moment.
"These are Founder Liana's memories. At this point in time, neither angels nor demons had been born yet. The location is the outer main world."
Elara explained. I wondered what Nicola was thinking since these were essentially her memories of her previous life.
The Eldoria continent of the past looked very barren, with brighter light. Maybe because we were in a landform like the Dark Lands. As far as I could see, there were only rocks. No traces of greenery.
"What's that?"
Not long after starting to fly, I could see a gigantic glowing object on the horizon. Squinting, it seemed to be twisting and changing.
Elara didn't answer right away. As we got closer, I finally saw that the shining thing was a giant. It kept changing shapes, sometimes human, sometimes a twelve-winged angel, sometimes into rocks and trees - very bizarre and terrifying.
Although I knew this was an illusion, the visual pressure felt very strong. Whenever it shifted into a human or animal, deafening roars could be heard. I even heard shocked cries from Nicola and Cyra.
"What the heck is this thing?!"
"This is the true god that once existed in this world..."
Elara's voice explained, giving us a brief history of this so-called god.
"In the ancient main world, after a period of extreme dark element depletion, the huge imbalance between light and dark meant nature could not adjust in time. With no restraints, the light element became too abundant, forming a self-aware consciousness - the God of Light, Beluto!"
As she finished speaking, Beluto seemed to notice Liana and shot a beam of dazzling light at us.
"Beluto can freely control any light element. Unlike us angels, it can control light elements both inside and outside its body. It can also use light elements to create a body, which you see as this 'giant'.
"That beam is a unique attack. It wouldn't harm Liana, but back then it nearly wiped out humans."
"It doesn't seem to move too quickly. Other than being big, it doesn't look too hard to deal with. How could it cause such disaster?"
I still didn't understand. After the beam, Liana seemed unhurt but I could feel her experiencing intense headaches.
Seeing no effect, Beluto stubbornly fired more beams. When those failed too, it went berserk. The 'giant' charged at us.
"Seems not very smart for a god. Is its IQ very low? How could something like this destroy humans?"
Cyra mockingly commented as the attacks were completely missed due to Liana's evasion.
"I don't know why it lacks intelligence, but that's likely why communication was impossible. But don't underestimate the threat because of that! As I said, the 'giant' is just a toy it created. Its true form is only a consciousness, or soul, without a physical body..."
As if to prove her words, the 'giant' suddenly vanished into white specks like angels do when killed, after repeatedly missing its attacks.
"Did it give up? Doesn't seem that powerful..."
I cautiously asked. But before finishing my words, the light intensity around us increased dozens of times in an instant, too bright to keep my eyes open.
"This is when it truly went berserk. The light is a worldwide attack, intermixed with dangerous mental corrosion. In other words, the light of the entire world is its body. Unless hiding indoors or underground, humans couldn't survive."
As Elara finished explaining, the light soon returned to normal. But Liana no longer seemed unharmed. Although still floating in the sky, I heard heavy breathing.