Each of the kismets reacted differently to the revelations bestowed upon them, posing an endless stream of questions that pulled the discussion deep into afternoon. Professor Aionia answered each question as fully as she could.
"All this time at Aeternitas... you were the Encarnacion? Holding that torch and mantle which stretches back to MITHRA himself?" asked Elwin, gripped by both astonishment and loss – a yearning for the world which must have been, which must have been far greater than theirs.
"Yes," Professor Aionia answered, solemnity upon her face. Elwin was barely conscious by the time the professors came to his rescue, so he could not witness the full extent of their prowess, especially his Tanaar's, against the demon – all he remembered was being in his Tanaar's arms, then Professor Irina's, a blinding flash of light and thunder, and the demon shattering to pieces. But Isaac, Katherine, and Mirai could fully recount the power that Professor Aionia – Encarnacion Aionia – wielded. With such a power, she stood at the pinnacle of nearly everyone they could conceive, far beyond the other Masters of the Mahamastra. She could use that power to demand a life of respect and luxury, and use that power to destroy or dispose of anyone who disagreed with her ideals, perhaps even wrest control of the Grand Armée. She could even overthrow the Republics and crown herself Empress, and very few would dare challenge her divine authority.
But Professor Aionia did not do any of these things. She dedicated her life to teaching her Artens at Aeternitas as a humble professor of experimental philosophy. There was not a trace or hint in her conduct that betrayed the magnitude of power she wielded, nor vain delight in possessing such secret strength. It was quite the contrary; when Professor Aionia answered 'yes' to Elwin just a moment prior, there was no revelry or delight on her countenance. There was a sorrow of deep melancholy instead.
"Why didn't you tell us?" spoke Katherine, her voice soft and pensive. "Why didn't you tell us earlier?"
Professor Aionia replied. "To know that the Encarnacion exists, one must also know why the Encarnacion exists. The Encarnacion is not a creation of humankind's virtue, nor is it the product of their ascension; we are rather the greatest proof of humankind's folly, for we exist and arose because of the oceans of blood spilled on that great ultracontinent by the failure of mankind. We arose because we had to battle against the King of All Ends, for without us, all mahn and frhi would perish, and so would have been those who lived in the continent now ruled by the Empire of Jin."
"The ultracontinent..." Elwin trailed off, shaking his head. "So all you told us, all you sang to us in the dream just now, did really happen? That before all of this, our Republics, before the Empire of Jin and even Avan, there was – were – mighty civilizations spanning a world-continent?"
"Correct."
"And back then, before the Aeterii came, we humankind touched even the heavens?"
"Yes."
"We even stepped on the – on the Moon?"
"And explored the other planets of our Sun, seven-thousand-and-one-hundred years ago."
Hearing it all, Elwin felt as if a part of his past he didn't know he had was torn off and cast into the sea. "Did... any of the people who went to those planets... did they return?" Elwin inquired shakily, the vision of his departing father surfacing like a nightmare once again.
Professor Aionia slowly shook her head. "A few did. But many did not, because the first salvo of the Millennium War between humanity and Aeterii consumed each and every nation."
"But they still could've used the power of the Mahamastra to return, right? Or at least... live there? They didn't perish, did they?"
"From the last of the armonion transmissions the explorers sent, it appeared they attempted their hardest. There is no planet around the Sun that is friendly to life except our Earth, but they still managed to raise potatoes and simple crop in airtight greenhouses from the seeds they'd brought for research."
"So they would have survived!"
"Yes. But they were too few in number to sustain a new generation there without disease. Before the War, there were discussions between the many empires about establishing a colonia on those planets once the explorers returned. A colonia for all humanity. But when they were invaded by the Aeterii, the War embroiled every empire; the spirit of unity that looked to be in their grasp fell to pieces. Each turned inward to their own nation in the face of survival, and could spare no hands for the explorers who had embarked."
The kismets listened with their mouths agape. Elwin's heart began to throb, raw with the realization that long before their present, long before any of them had lived, all of mankind had nearly grasped divinity – but now, practically none of their achievements remained, no one to witness the songs that they once sung to the sky.
"And what of... what of Emperor Yanasura? And his Empire, which had restored to us the glory that we once held?"
"We who live on Mythrise and Jin are his only remaining legacies," Professor Aionia sighed, her heart stung by a greater degree of measure. The line of the Encarnacion – starting with Ahura and Mithra – began from the scion of the last Knight of Yanasura, after all. To be the last knight when the Empire fell around him and humankind was annihilated and enslaved by the Aeterii, and there was nothing he could do...
"But surely there must be remains of legend, right?" asked Mirai, leaning in. "Surely Emperor Yanasura's great cities and monuments still survive somewhere."
"And the discoveries and technologies of his Empire!" added Elwin, thinking back to his father's archeological expeditions. Most of them were to the Empire of Jin as well as Avan, but his father had been searching for the remains of the lands of Yanasura proper, for he believed the lands of Avan – which people claimed were the remnants of the ultracontinent – did not hold the profoundest of secrets...
"And Emperor Yanasura's achievements in medicine, and in fields like law!" Isaac chimed in, eager to hear what had been; how humankind helped one another and united as one under his banner. "Are they all gone? Are we certain?"
"Or were they made in the first place? Especially when he would have had to spend a lot of resources on war and conquest?" Katherine asked, narrowing her eyes.
"It is indeed true that Emperor Yanasura's creations were luminous," answered Professor Aionia, closing her eyes to wade through the hazy memories of the Last Knight. "Perhaps more luminous than the first civilizations of humankind further back. Before Yanasura, humankind had never been unified as one. This meant that humankind before the Aeterii invaded were fractured nation-states, where cooperation would have been too transient and visions of the future too many. Their disunity would have meant that humankind could not realize its pinnacle."
Professor Aionia continued, her eyes still shut.
"But Emperor Yanasura showed us a vision of what could be, and brought it into reality. All mankind was united under one banner, a single flag. No matter your place of birth, the manner of your looks, the way of your speech, the colors of your hair or eyes, no matter what Maht you were granted by the FOUNDERS or the Mahamastra you wielded, you were human. You were equal in the brotherhood of man. You had a duty to protect and defend one another."
A deep warmth began to rise from the hearts of the kismets.
"Civilizations before his time had divided themselves over such lines so frivolous and inane, making humankind fight humankind. Under Emperor Yanasura's time, this no longer had to happen," she explained.
"As it should be!" Isaac nodded his head. "What else did the Emperor accomplish?"
Professor Aionia made a minute smile. "He also abolished the systems of prejudice and division based on blood-ties that had confined people to singular destinies. Before his time, if one was born holding a shovel, one would die holding a shovel. If one was born into a family of peasants, one would die a peasant. Even if one worked hard, even if one was a genius, the circumstance of birth denied one the chance to climb to higher positions. You can imagine what terrible consequence this produces."
"That they wouldn't be able to contribute towards a better future," answered Elwin. "And the world wouldn't be able to see a great inventor, or a great physician, just because the children who could be were... born into the wrong circumstance," he summarized, looking to Isaac.
"And poets and artisans too," Mirai chimed.
"And great peoples of commerce who build great things," added Katherine. "I'm beginning to see..." she trailed off. "Right now, in our Mythrisian Republics, no one – or at least very few – are denied the opportunity to speak their mind, invent new things, or start great endeavors. It is possible to start out with only lint in your pockets and still manage to become, well, like my father as he did," Katherine elaborated. "Do you mean that this freedom of possibilities which we take for granted is a part of Emperor Yanasura's legacy?"
"You are correct," replied Professor Aionia, nodding.
"How exactly did he abolish those prejudices? What did he replace them with?" asked Isaac.
"He proclaimed that the circumstances of one's birth should not be allowed to chain one's future; rather, it is what each person does with the gift of life that should matter the most. He reformed the systems of governance so that it would recognize people for their merit, such as diligence, ingenuity, courage, and loyalty, giving each person a chance to climb high. Everyone in the Empire, no matter their blood-ties or their origin of birth, could prove themselves and become great. They could be loved; they could be rewarded in the form of better positions and professions they could achieve, a mobility upwards so to speak. And from the most meritorious and loyal of individuals, the Emperor drew those who would administer the Empire under his command. Many who graced his council came from places and circumstances that older kingdoms would have considered low."
'You too, can become great.'
Elwin had always believed in that mantra; it was that which carried him through his first year at Aeternitas and gave him the motivation to win the tournament. Only now he realized that it found its origin from this Emperor – what a thing he has been taking for granted! He couldn't conceive of a world in which such efforts, all of it, would go unnoticed.
"So he wasn't all about war or conquest then! As his deeds later would imply!" Elwin exclaimed, eager to share his epiphany.
"Therein lies the tragedy," Professor Aionia answered, her voice solemn. "For Emperor Yanasura was a radiant administrator and builder of civilization, but also a conqueror and destroyer of the highest calibre. He could not stay his hand against the Aeterii, driven by the poison of vengeance and fear, and this led to the demise of everything he'd built."
"What did he make, other than the new system of merit you mentioned, professor?" inquired Mirai.
"A unified currency, and a system of standardized measures and weights that facilitated commerce and credit. Having these foundations, humankind prospered in trade and in experimental philosophy. Glittering cities of lustrous spires, and ziggurats the heights of mountains housing millions of inhabitants, came into being; mighty roads and networks of sophisticated transport connected one end of the Empire to the other, in a distance spanning ten thousand miles. An ordinary traveler could traverse half of the length of the ultracontinent – the size of the Empire before it fell – in just a few days."
"Ten thousand miles in just a few days?" Elwin trailed off, calculating the numbers in his head, "That'd be thousands of miles per day – something like the distance from Heian to Cita de Lumière covered every single day," he gasped, looking to Mirai. "There is no train that goes that fast... perhaps a skycraft could do it like Katherine told us before, but it's expensive and not everyone can afford it..."
The more they thought, the more the past achievements of humankind made themselves more luminous. And becoming more luminous, they cast greater shadows in their thoughts: all such achievements were utterly lost, perhaps never to return.
A deep, roiling pain began to skewer Elwin's heart.
"And we... we squandered all of it...? Thrown away all of our stories, our achievements...!? How?"
"The Emperor as creator was also its unmaker," Professor Aionia declared, head held low. "He could not envision a world in which humankind and Aeterii could live together, for we humankind held too deep a wound against the Aeterii's treatment of us. He invaded the Aeteriite dominions to utterly and permanently expunge them from the face of the Earth, because he held the belief that no human would truly be free until the threat of the otherkind were removed. But alas, in their desperation against Emperor Yanasura, the Aeteriite divinities unleashed the world-serpent Mahazduhum from its prison beyond the Aether..."
"And ended up destroying everything that the Emperor had built..." Katherine trailed off, solemnly shaking her head.
Elwin pounded his anguished fist into the mattress. He wasn't going to have it. Not the world as it currently stood - tarnished and fallen so low.
He had to voice his thoughts.