42 In the Beginning

The universe, as we know it, used to be a mere void in the Islands of the Blessed.

What you see now has never existed—the planets, the stars, the moon, the earth. There was no life, only emptiness. No light, only darkness.

One day, an Eternal God had an idea no other divine being have ever come up with: to create a life aside from the ascended. It was a secret the Eternal kept hidden for eons—nothing but a plan, a frivolous idea from his imaginative mind.

The Eternal knew it was impossible. How could you create a universe from nothing? Even they couldn't understand how they came to be. They were a perfect example of a spontaneous event. One minute they don't exist and the second, they already do.

But he was an Eternal. He might not have the ability to change what they were or understand their very existence but he had the means to control and create far more things smaller than them.

Many of the believers said the Eternal created the world because of love but the truth is, it did not have anything to do with it. In fact, the Eternal shaped the universe into what it is now out of boredom and curiosity of what it feels like to have other beings other than the deities he already knew.

The universe, no matter how vast it may seem, was just as small as the size of a round aquarium in the Eternal God's eyes. Truly, the difficulty of creating it never crossed into his mind. After all, everything was just as infinitesimal as the ants you see crawling out in the corner.

His first attempt at making billions of galaxies, stars and planets were successful. It didn't have to undergo another trial. The Eternal liked what he saw and so he continued without His brothers and sisters' discretion. It was ethereal, wondrous, a beautiful sight to see.

But it was still too empty.

So he started adding beings. This time, the Eternal failed for more than he can count. He took a glass ball, creating the same world, and formed beings akin to their figures and faces. For numerous times, he tried to perfect the experiment, creating thousands of dimensions in the process.

Still, it was a failed attempt.

Until one day when he decided to make beings to occupy a single world, the Arde Terra consisting of land masses, chiefly the continents of Preinebeon, Ureon and Xiuzareon. That way, he wouldn't need to add beings in every part of the universe. They're only goal was to multiply and use magic in sakes of discovering other worlds and inhabiting it.

The Ikigais were the first beings to ever live the earth. Seeing that multiple needs had to be addressed, the Eternal created three Legions to make life easier: the Soldadori, Voloki, Mortali and its sub-legions.

The Soldadori were known for being the builders, creating something from nothing with only their hands and magic. The world used to be empty but the Welthars filled it with homes and simple devices not known centuries ago; Elementals to make potions in maintaining balance; Strallars, though not literal builders, have built a passage of time by seeing events that have not happened in the present.

The Voloki, the believers on the power of nature, enabled Ikigais to live prosperously. Fuluminers to control the wind on journeys at the sea and capture birds flying on the air for food; Valirs to summon water for crop production and siphoning fishes which they could eat and; Incenders to generate fire when cooking food and for warming their homes.

And Mortali, the Legion of the Corporals, who aided every being in their way of living. Helbreders to heal and Illusionis to serve as their only source of entertainment, making a thing appear inside a person's mind as if watching a show from their very eyes and making a thing disappear in times of threat.

They were created for very simple reasons.

The Eternal called those who were specialist in magic "Elders" and the practitioners "Members of the Ministry".

There, he realized how perfect his creation must already be. Everyone was in perfect harmony, at peace knowing they could do almost anything.

But a moment came when the Eternals found out about this secret. The Jury didn't take the betrayal kindly and the Eternal was forced to descend upon the Islands of the Cursed to live for the rest of his life as the Undying.

It was a law that should have never been breached, a selfish move all for the sake of boredom and curiosity. No Eternal should have created something that cannot be undone but there was nothing left to do. It was already there.

On that same time, the Ikigais were already using their magic against each other, killing and slaughtering for greed and in hopes of overpowering the other Legions. The Eternals saw this and thought it was too much. Power has overruled the earth and there wasn't any balance anymore. So without asking the Undying, the original creator, they created humans.

The ones with no powers, no special abilities, nothing. The Eternal Gods thought it would fix the creation their brother had created. They were harmless and they brought back the world's freedom from strife.

However, it was only a moment of time, after a few years, when most humans found the Ikigai's magic too strong for the world, calling them heretics and worshippers of the Undying. They started killing the Ikigais, their magic slowly fading. The Ikigais had no choice but to work together like how they used to be when they were first created.

It was a war that lasted for centuries, a fight for the land and their life. But humans had the upper hand. While the Ikigais depended on their power, humans created weapons they have never encountered in their whole existence. Oblivious to what's happening, they lost the fight. Most of them died, scattered in different continents of the world, hiding in fear.

The humans coveted their most sought victory. They started ruling the world, removing the Ikigais out of the map, erasing any memory of them in history until they were nothing more than a myth.