The Dark Prevailed

"Who.. are you?" Lucas' mouth was gaping wide.

Although the angel had a beautiful visage, and an amiable expression to display, Lucas still felt a massive amount of fear as the figure slowly approached him. An instinctive reaction to facing someone who was clearly out of his league- an otherworldly being.

As shocking as the entire situation was, Lucas knew that his excitement prevailed over anything else he had in his mind.

The possibility of this being the end to his eternal suffering. Was he actually going to be granted a chance to properly live now?

Whoever this angel was didn't matter. All Lucas knew was that he was sick of the world cycle he was trapped in. He would do whatever it takes to escape it.

"My apologies. I forgot to introduce myself because I was just too thrilled! My name is Regina, a First Class Angel serving under Goddess Lysia's rule."

'Lysia?'

Sensing Lucas' total confusion, Regina calmed down and organized her thoughts. Where to begin with her explanation.

"First of all.. Do you know this world's name?"

Lucas shook his head.

"This place... is one of the lesser worlds the Goddess created, called Eredith. It's part of a series of realms all connected to the Tree of Origin, Eve. Although you may recognize the Tree of Origin that exists in the center of this world and call it by the same name, it is by no means the original one, but rather just a branch that sprouted from a seed."

'I knew there were worlds outside of my own, like the Players' home, but to think that mine was just a lesser world..'

Lucas had only known about his own realm, and it was already an unimaginably vast place for him, who wasn't even allowed to step out of his home.

Regina then began to thoroughly explain some details that shook Lucas to the core the moment he digested it.

'Lysia' was the name of the Creator of the Worlds- a being who existed in the Upper Realm and was tasked by Eve to propagate its seeds. To give birth to life. Eredith was one of Eve's seeds.

Eredith wasn't originally like this. It used to be a completely fine, normal realm, linked with the true Eve. It ran properly, and the concept of being 'deleted' and 'updated', like what Lucas experienced, was not supposed to be a thing.

However, one day, the Goddess Lysia found out that the seed connected to this realm had been corrupted and tainted with an external force. In simple words, it had been hijacked without anyone realizing it before it was too late to do anything.

As of right now, Eredith was no longer under the reign of Goddess Lysia, but rather this unknown being who tampered with the laws of the world as they liked. They did not do anything to the original inhabitants, but rather introduced a new system into it.

A survival game based around Eve, the Tree of Origin.

Individuals called Players would be summoned from another world. Eve, which was supposed to give life to the world was altered by them into a tower with floors that totaled up to one hundred.

These Players were tasked to clear the challenges this tower had in store. With each floor, as the difficulty increased, the rewards skyrocketed.

To be able to orchestrate something of this caliber, it was definitely the work of a creature no less than a the Goddess herself, a Supreme Deity.

To this day, their reason for doing it was unknown.

Nonetheless, it threw the entire Upper Realm into chaos.

In the first place, the perpetrator's identity hadn't been found out, so they didn't know where to begin to fix this problem. They were still able to enter this realm with no problems as well, but were rendered incapable of making changes to it.

This led to the world being declared as an 'abandoned site' temporarily until they were able to find out more about the case. However, no matter how much time had passed, their efforts were wasted as they couldn't make any breakthroughs at all.

Regina had an unsightly expression by the time she finished her storytelling session.

"...So basically, you guys fucked up, and abandoned us because you didn't know what else to do? How useless were you guys, that you couldn't even manage your own creations?" Lucas tightened his fists.

For Lucas, who had suffered for thousands of years being trapped in the world as a puny character, this reveal was worth nothing more than adding fuel to the flames of anger inside his heart.

"..Hey, to word it that way is a bit displeasing. It's not like we haven't tried regaining control, but.. even after Goddess Lysia tried her absolute best, nothing could be done."

Lucas gritted his teeth.

The situation was worse than he thought. He looked up and met the angel's striking golden eyes.

He was certain. Certain that he didn't want to let the years he had suffered for all go to waste.

"So, if you brought me here, then there must be something that you could do for me.. for the world.. No, to beat this fucker who caused all this up, right?"

He wanted to break free from his restrictions. And to do that, he believed that Regina- No, the Goddess could help him.

Regina nodded with a determined look, having lots of things to tell him.

Lucas, who was familiar with being disappointed over and over again didn't have much confidence this time around as well.

From Regina's stories, it seemed like there was little chance that they could regain control if even the Goddess couldn't do it.

But for him, the most important thing wasn't hope. It was freedom, the ability to grow and evolve as a person, not being chained up to the small potion shop he was bound to.

Wherever this angel's guidance would take him to, he would have to see it with his own eyes before backing away.