Looking at the hieroglyphics in the book, Kai continued reading.
....
"If you've gotten here, thousands of years have likely passed in the outside world. Perhaps much has already been forgotten and erased from history.
You may be my heir, so forgive the old man's long introduction. So please read carefully what I have to tell you.
If civilization survived, then what I'm about to tell you may seem surprising to you. But you must believe me.
Astral Grad was not our primary residence. It is only our refuge. We were forced to flee here decades ago, fleeing a calamity..."
....
- What? This city is only a refuge, not a major city? Then how big was the Emperor's power? It seems I underestimated the magnitude of the events happening in the past..." Kai said to himself, "It seems Fabian was right, something terrifying was happening in the past. - Remembering Fabian's words about the catastrophe, Kai spoke.
....
"A hundred years ago, very strange things started happening to the world. The weather was changing uncontrollably, and the energy was coming into turmoil. This situation grew worse and worse over the years.
Sometimes rifts in space opened up, or collapses of energy that destroyed mountains, cities, and thousands of beings vaporized in the blink of an eye.
This whole situation had reached such a scale that even the wars between the different forces on the continent had stopped. Even my Astral Fire Sect stopped their war with the Demon Land. You should realize the magnitude of this event after the following words. Before the catastrophe began, the war between us lasted for half a millennium!"
....
- So that's what those murals on the castle's facade depicted! - A picture was slowly beginning to form in Kai's mind.
- But what could have been the reason for their reconciliation? What events had happened in the past? - Kai wondered.
....
"All the rulers of the ruling powers of the continent came together to solve this problem. But there was nothing we could do...
We explored every corner of the continent, searching for the cause of what was happening to our world. But the longer time went on, the more disasters occurred in all places. Even a few large cities of my Astral Fire Sect were wiped out.
The sudden collapses happened lightning fast, no defense arrays, no countermeasures helped. There was nothing we could do! Even the Demon Emperor, who was equal to me in power, disappeared along with the main city of Demon Land after another collapse.
After that, I realized that everyone on the continent was powerless against the impending apocalypse. I realized that one of the options was to go to our refuge deep underground. But alas, it was impossible to move everyone there.
As the Sect Head, together with all the Elders, we gathered the strongest and most talented people from our ranks and sent them to Astral Grad.
But I couldn't afford to hide while all my other followers were dying on the surface. So leaving everyone below, I traveled back.
Together with the other old men, we persisted in trying to find a way out. An incredible number of people were constantly dying. At one point, we all even had to band together and gather all our strength in one place to fortify and resist.
Decades later, nearly three quarters of all living beings had passed into oblivion.....
And one ill-fated day... There was a collapse of incredible proportions.....
The earth split everywhere, the oceans split in huge waves, lightning so powerful it could incinerate entire cities. It seemed as if God had decided to destroy the world. We were absolutely powerless before such a huge force. At that moment, everyone realized it was useless to resist.
I tried to save as many lives as possible. But alas, one day, almost all of my followers on the surface had already been wiped out. I decided then that I should return to Astral Grad and hope that we could wait out this apocalypse. I hoped that we would have a chance to revive civilization in the future... But alas, I was mistaken..."
....
- Oh my God!" Kai shouted.
- Did something like this really happen once! How could life even survive and try to evolve again? - Kai was in complete shock.
Right now, the entire current civilization, seemed to him blissful that they lived in a world that they absolutely did not understand. Even all history seemed to be taken lightly now. Surprisingly, almost all of Fabian's assumptions were accurate!
"What was going on in Astral City? Why did the entire city die?" - Kai suddenly wondered and quickly continued reading.
....
"Thus, time slowly passed... Five years... Ten years... Twenty years... But alas nothing happened.
My power level allowed me to occasionally make cautious forays to the surface. Unfortunately, all I saw there was an ash heap where energy collapses and spatial rifts were constantly occurring. The energy was in complete turmoil, even I found it difficult to stay there for long. Each subsequent attempt only made me more desperate.
Astral Grad is a refuge and it was not meant to live a long life in isolation from the outside world. It still needed supplies of food and other things from the outside. But at that moment, we were all prisoners trapped here...
Even with the introduction of birth control, and the subsequent ban on reproduction... Food became scarce. Although we martial artists didn't need so much food. But still... People began to die....
If civilization survived, I can't know what life is like now. And what I write next may seem wild to you. So before I continue, I'll explain the tradition of our sect.
We were called the Astral Fire Sect because we all specialized in alchemy. And our tool was Astral Fire! However, this fire was only given to the strongest and most dedicated members of my Sect. The full name of our fire was Astral Sacrificial Fire!
It was born in places where countless lives were sacrificed... But we were not an evil sect. Our people had a tradition. When a sect member's life was nearing its end, he would voluntarily go to our special zone and sacrifice his life. In this way, we could generate an Astral Sacrifice Fire once every hundred years and give it to the most deserving Alchemist.
Now that you understand our traditions a little more, I can continue. When all the people in Astral City realized that at this rate, the entire city would slowly die in a dozen years... Everyone decided to end our history according to our traditions.... by willingly sacrificing their lives!
They all came to me and asked me to fulfill this sacrifice. As the Head of the Astral Fire Sect, I had to do it myself, putting a proud and majestic end to our existence...
That day, my Astral Sacrificial Fire devoured everyone. Gathering all souls and uniting them in my fire as a symbol that we had not submitted to fate and nature. Even the Apocalypse couldn't destroy us, we passed away willingly, and with our heads held high!
In the end, I was the only one left, continuing to wait for the possible end of the storm in the outside world. In my realm, it had been a long time since I needed food and sleep. As long as I could absorb energy, I could still last for a long time."