Bonus chapter ~
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7,000 years ago, the Omnipotent Bahamut, a creator deity with power over creation and destruction, created the Sky Realm.
6,000 years ago, humanity rebelled against the Omnipotent, who was then defeated and split in half, becoming the Sky God of Destruction and the Star God of Creation.
The Sky God stayed in the Sky Realm, while the Star God left for another dimension, creating the Astral Realm.
The Astral Realm is a world that embodies creation and lacks the concept of destruction. Nothing can die there, and it is implied that it doesn't even have an afterlife. It is a beautiful, perfect, eternal realm, but also stagnant and unchanging because evolution requires death and loss.
Nothing can be born in the Astral Realm, so the concepts of children and family are foreign. The Astral Realm is also an imperfect copy of the Sky Realm, which is why Astrals like Lucilius and Beelzebub are stated to be inferior clones of Skydwellers like Sahar and Shalem.
The Astrals are technologically advanced immortals with incredible magical abilities capable of manifesting gods known as Primal Beasts into the world as their servants. They are fascinated by and envious of the Sky Realm because they desire the power of evolution for themselves.
2,000 years ago, the Astrals invaded the Sky Realm. When humanity defeated the Omnipotent, its "death" throes shattered the Sky Realm into thousands of small floating islands and caused widespread famine, leaving humanity isolated and vulnerable. As a result, the Astrals easily conquered and enslaved humanity. They built research laboratories and created Primal Beasts to study evolution and planned to expand into outer space and explore the solar system.
To their shock and horror, the Astrals learned that if they became too comfortable in the Sky Realm and allowed it to "corrupt" their bodies with the metaphysical concept of destruction, they acquired both the ability to die and the ability to reproduce. This is why a few Astrals have been known to marry and have children with Skydwellers and to die within the Sky Realm; they effectively adapted to and became "citizens" of the Sky Realm, becoming mortal.
500 years ago, humanity rose up once again against their Astral oppressors. The Astrals were inherently much stronger and virtually unkillable like Lucilius who survived thousands of years as a decapitated head, but humans embodied the concept of evolution and were far more adaptable and capable of growing exponentially in power.
Humans forged legendary weapons such as Revenant weapons, invented new fields of magic such as alchemy, and turned the Astrals' own technology and Primal Beasts against them. Humanity eventually won and banished the Astrals back to their realm. Only a few Astrals were allowed to stay behind, such as the former king of the Erste Empire, who is implied to have betrayed the Astrals and sided with humanity in the war, and his brother Loki.
I also mentioned the name of my body to them... Lucilius, the head researcher of a research lab. His unequivocal genius and transcendence led to many breakthroughs that would shake up the world, especially when he created the original Primal Beasts.
And this is one of the reasons why I can control Primal Beasts so easily.
Then there is the Supreme Primarch, Lucifer... One of the very first Primal Beasts ever created and the most powerful Primal Beast the Astrals ever created besides Akasha.
And how Lucilius killed Lucifer, took over his body, and became an Astral with the power of the Supreme Primarch.
I stopped telling them the story about the Astrals and Lucilius, allowing them to digest what I had said.
They all looked serious and deep in thought for quite some time.
I didn't know how long we sat in silence at the table until finally someone spoke up.
"That's a lot to take in... I never knew there was so much history about the Astrals like that," Katalina said while rubbing her temples.
"So, what about you, Rei? How did you wake up in this world and suddenly have an Astral body like that?" Io asked me.
I could only shake my head. "I don't know about that either... While I was asleep in my world, I suddenly woke up in another place and then met Djeeta and Vyrn," I said while glancing at Djeeta and Vyrn.
"Yeah, but I'm still glad you're here, Astral or not, because of that we could meet each other," Djeeta said to me with a beautiful smile.
"Hmm, me too. I don't really care about the reason but thanks to that I got to meet you" Lyria added while nodding quickly.
"Thank you, both of you," I said to them with a smile, feeling happy to have met them and everyone else.
When I first woke up in this world, I felt very worried because there are so many overpowered beings that can easily destroy the universe...
But with Lucilius and Lucifer's power, I'm confident I can protect everyone with their strength. Plus, if I gather many Primal Beasts to enhance my power.
The important thing is Akasha. I must obtain it no matter what...
"Hmm, I see... Your story is truly unexpected, Rei, but I'm glad to see you can be honest and share it with us...
...I also don't really care whether you're an Astral or not. Even though at first I was suspicious about why an Astral like you would join this crew, after hearing all of this, I understand," Rosetta said to me, her expression softening into a smile.
Suddenly, Rosetta stood up still smiling at me and started walking around the dining table towards me.
"Whoa, look at that," Vyrn said, pointing below Rosetta.
Everyone started looking at Rosetta's feet because with each step she took, roses bloomed around her footprints.
"Roses?" Lyria said, confused.
With each step Rosetta took, her appearance changed: red roses bloomed in her hair, and a crown of thorns appeared above her head.
[IMAGE]
Once Rosetta is in front of me, she smiled down at me as I just sat there looking confused at her. "Let me give you something for your honesty," she said and then lifting my chin with her hand so I looked into her blue eyes.
Rosetta then leaned in and kissed me on the lips.
"!??" Everyone else looked shocked at what they had just witnessed.
"Wha-wha-wha-wha-wha," Io is so shocked that she's struggling to speak.
As Rosetta did that, I could feel her power flowing into my body.
The power of the Rose Queen is a strength that can easily charm someone, along with her highly efficient ability to control plants.
We stayed in that position for a while because Rosetta needed time to transfer her Rose Queen powers to me, and everyone else just stared at us with wide-open eyes.