Eden

Bang!

Tossing Wendel's body away, Joshua ordered the AI with a voice full of pain.

"AI, stop the transformation now!"

The tentacles receded and fused to form his left arm. It was only an instant but Joshua felt that the remaining energy in his body that made him conscious was suddenly spent.

The pain and the fusion of the two souls already made Joshua unable to stop himself from losing consciousness. He was not in the right mind to think about if he was really safe before passing out.

Joshua was dreaming while he was unconscious.

In his dreams, Joshua saw himself talking animatedly to a man about his dreams. He said to the man, "I will go to Eden, Father! I want to witness the glory and grandness you always tell me! I will walk the path to Eden like how you did!"

He heard his father's encouragement but he did not see the pain in his eyes. His father knew that the path he chose would be paid for by tears and blood.

The dream continued and Joshua saw himself crying and reaching his hands to his father. Someone was carrying him and dragging him away from his father. His father was smiling at him and he said that he believed that he could reach his dream. His father turned back and faced a mob of beasts as he transformed into a werewolf covered with violent wind and lightning.

Joshua saw himself next in different places. He was laboring and working. The cheerful child was now quiet and gloomy but a strong will suffused his eyes.

After some time, Joshua woke up from his dreams. There was confusion in his eyes like a person not sure about who he was. A couple of minutes later, he was able to make sense of everything.

He was Joshua but the memories of Yeshua fused with him. The owner of the flickering star was already dead. His soul only contained his memories and emotions.

Yeshua Solus was a man around twenty years old the same age as Joshua. He was an orphan and he worked hard to save money so he could buy a genome potion. To fulfill his dreams, he needed strength, and becoming an Alterer was the only way.

Alterers were humans who could transform into humanoid beasts called Alter Beast after drinking a genome potion. Alterers were able to wield the power of nature. They could traverse the wilderness that ordinary humans could not enter since they could fight spirit beasts.

Spirit beasts existed in this world. They were the descendants of mythical beasts. They were also dangerous and powerful. The genome sequence inside their genome crystals helped them to control the power of nature and only Alterers could fight them.

This was the reason why Yeshua was doing his best to buy a genome potion.

Yeshua wanted to walk the path to Eden, the cradle of humanity. It was the center of the human domain where the humans once defended their right to live from the onslaught of the spirit beasts. From this place, humans prospered from a simple tribe into becoming lords of the land.

According to the knowledge that Yeshua's father taught him, humans were born as spirit inept creatures. They could not interact with the spirit particles in the world.

But during the Raging Nature Era, the disorder of the natural laws not only caused disasters and calamities but also made some humans awakened their spirit sensitivity.

They were able to study the beast crystals and turn them into potions. Using the power they got, the humans carved a place in this dangerous land that would be later known as Eden.

However, as humans multiply, the need for resources made them explore the surrounding lands. As they explored and discovered, they also grew apart and formed groups among themselves. By this time, the disorder of the natural laws already subsided.

Time and distance affected them as they created their own organizations and clans. Humans were also beasts. They were greedy, gluttonous, and violent. They indulged themselves in foraging resources. They even fought among each other.

But afterward, the real owners of the lands awakened from their slumbers. The mythical beasts were gone during the Raging Nature Era. As the strongest spirit evolved creatures, they were the most affected by the disorder of the natural laws.

The mythical beasts led the spirit beasts in slaughtering the humans who were killing spirit beasts and stealing their powers.

A great war between beasts and humans happened. But the humans were devastated by the numbers and strength of the spirit beasts. The mythical beasts exhibited powers that they could not fathom. They were like gods bringing judgments to sinful humans.

The humans were pushed back until they reached Eden.

In this war, myth level humans were born and led humanity in their despairing predicament.

The black turtle became the first bulwark of humans against the mythical beasts. It was followed by the greatest warrior of that time. He turned into a giant with hundreds of arms as he vowed to protect humanity.

The monkey king, the wolf that could swallow stars, and the lion that shone like the sun next appeared. Then, other myth level humans followed.

The war only ended after the appearance of the strongest human that tipped the balance of the battle. The mythical beasts were forced to stop the war that gave the humans a chance to breathe.

After the Great Beast War, the myth level humans who were also known as the Human Elders formed a council to unite humanity in defending the human domain against the mythical beasts and spirit beasts.

From Eden, the humans built cities after cities and gradually took control of the place in the continent that would be known as the human domain. Then, Eden became the center of the human domain.

The United Human Council divided the human domain into seven kingdoms to be governed and managed by the Seven Palaces. Each kingdom corresponded to forbidden areas where mythical beasts existed.

The myth level humans would stay most of the time in their kingdom capitals to guard against them. Their existence became deterrence for the mythical beasts.

Even so, the continent was still full of spirit beasts. There were beast kingdoms, beast legions, beast hordes, beast armies, and beast tribes in every place. There were times that beast tides would engulf cities and kill humans.

And so, Alterers were the only humans who could fight against these beasts.

For Yeshua, becoming an Alterer would not only help him go to Eden but would also give him the strength and power to protect himself in this dangerous world. Remembering how powerless he was during the beast attack that killed his father, Yeshua vowed to become strong.

After that beast attack, Yeshua stayed in a different city. Red Wood City was a grade 1 city under the Dream Palace. The Dream Palace was one of the Seven Palaces that managed the area around the Black Silk Forest. Together with the Slithering Palace, they administered the territories of humans in Southern Barren.

In this city, Yeshua worked hard doing all kinds of jobs such as cleaning and collecting garbage. He even went to the outskirts of the forest to forage herbs that he could sell despite the risk. For a child who lost his father at the age of ten, it took all his determination and will just to survive. However, Yeshua still strived for his dreams.

It was just a pity that before Yeshua could fulfill his dreams he was kidnapped and died during the cruel experiment of the heartless genome scholar.

So Joshua realized that he was now Yeshua in this dangerous world.

"Speaking of dangerous…"

Joshua remembered that he was still lying naked in a place he did not know if safe. Moving his body that still felt sore and weak, he observed his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that he could not see the corpse of Wendel!

Joshua was alarmed. He hurriedly looked around him but he could not found anything.

(Come on, Death. Are you not done with me? Let just be friends, okay? There's no need to be clingy. Actually, let's just forget each other!)

Joshua carefully observed the room. Then, he noticed that there was a pool of black blood with bits of pieces of different things mixed and melted with it.

"Don't tell me this is that man? That attack sure was strong!"

Joshua was shocked by what he discovered. He realized that the attack he used to kill Wendel was not only strong but also poisonous. The corrosive poison melted the corpse and everything on Wendel including his clothes and all his items.

Joshua could not help but sigh. "This world really is dangerous."

Although he thought that no one came while he was unconscious, Joshua was still not sure if he was safe so he dragged his body and carefully moved around the place.

After a while of looking around, Joshua found out that he was in an underground room. Though it was below a simple and crude house in the outskirt of the city, it was around more or less ten meters.

Joshua did not know how the genome scholar dug the whole place and hardened the walls and the floor but according to Yeshua's memory, there were Alterers who had earth abilities.

Joshua already wanted to leave the place but he remembered that the AI reminded him about collecting information that could help it in analyzing the mysterious shard.

Since Wendel was a genome scholar and he was the owner of the shard, maybe he had information that could help the AI to understand the shard. Also according to Yeshua's memory, genome scholars studied genome sequences.

Maybe the information Joshua would get from Wendel would help him to further understand this world.