Prologue

The year is 2063, The world has long forgotten its old ways, most modern day technology has been long rendered obsolete. Humans have advanced and have begun to explore new worlds, establishing colonies as they go. This sudden technological surge was due to contact with an extraterrestrial humanoid ant like species. No official name has been given to these humanoids and little is known about them. The only ever contact that has been made with them is when a presumed scouting ship landed on Earth carrying two of these creatures on it, both of them carrying black tipped spears. The two of them alone wreaked havoc on the earth, however unlike the movies which had portrayed aliens as mindless creatures with no goal, these two specifically targeted military bases and nuclear silos. While firearms had no effect on these creatures, one of the last nuclear warheads was able to strike them, weakening their exoskeletons to the point where a brave soldier was able to grab their weapons while they were down and killed them. These weapons were then taken to a lab for study while the ship that they landed on was examined. They found tens of thousands of different sizes and colored crystals which all exuded an aura, although some were stronger than others. After multiple attempts one of the crystals energy was finally absorbed but not into a machine. These crystals weren't a power source like many thought, instead the energy inside them when absorbed by a humanoid allowed them to manipulate elements. This energy was later dubbed elemental energy. Through years of study and with the help from the ant's technology, humans were able to figure out how to craft un-attuned crystals however they were unable to replicate the elemental essence. The good news was that, the humanoid ants were able to either. From information gathered from the onboard database, the humans realized the only known way to gather this essence was to extract it from elemental beasts.However, like the crystals, the elemental beasts power varied. Some of the weakest elemental beasts only gained the base stats given by their element, while the strongest of beasts could completely manipulate their element. This remained true for the humans as well. However the main difference between the Humans and Beasts were that the humans could grow stronger while the beasts could not. The reason for this is that, no matter how many weaker essences were absorbed, the amount of elemental energy would not change. Meaning that in order for a beast to get stronger it would have to kill a beast that's elemental power exceeded its own, and the difference between tiers was significant. However humans on the other hand would be able to purchase higher level elemental crystals and absorb the higher level essence therefore changing their level. However the human scientists also discovered a different type of crystal on the ship. The first difference they noticed was that these crystals still carried elemental essences however they could not be absorbed. The second one was that the chemical structure of this crystal was different from the first crystal but it was similar to the chemical structure of the ant's weapons. From there the scientists concluded that there were two types of crystals that could be used to store element essences. The first one, which has been properly named 'Power Crystals' was used to store elemental essences in which could later be absorbed into a creature and turn into elemental energy. The second type, named 'Material Crystal' was used to make elemental weapons which amplified the power of elemental attacks. The main difference between the two types of crystals other than the absorbing of elemental essences, was that while the Power Crystals could be reused once all the power was absorbed, the Material Crystals could not. After another few years of research the scientists were once again able to replicate the base Material Crystals. While the study of the Crystals was happening a different study was also occurring, which was reverse engineering the ship and inspecting the rest of the technology within it. This included the ship database, which contained a shit ton of information. This included information about hundreds of planets and colonies which confirmed the presumption that this was indeed a scouting ship. Included in the database and the ship's cargo was information about what humans have dreamed of for decades. Teleporters. The teleporters were used to move from the ant's home planet to their already established colonies, while scouting ships like the one that landed on Earth were used to find inhabitable planets. Using this information the humans began to construct starships and replicate the teleporters. They began, for the first time, to leave the solar system and set up colonies outside of Earth using the power crystals to protect these colonies and capture more essences in both crystals. However, humanity knew that eventually humanity would have to go to war with these ants. Therefore, they made a council with eight people on it. This consisted of the head of the eight biggest families and the supreme commander of the military. They were each given the eight strongest crystals found of the corresponding eight elements which were, Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Ice, Lightening, Light and Darkness. This council was dubbed 'The Council of Eight' for obvious reasons. Two decades after the ship was discovered humanity has established several dozens of safe colonies, making living expenses more and more affordable, but the living cost on Earth rose. Mandatory conscription were enacted to prepare for this incoming war, an ever looming threat. The tension between the Council of Eight grows daily. It seems like the world is on the brink of another civil war...