Destroying the Magic Seal

[14 years later.]

In Arizona, the United States of America, there was a classified research facility.

Doctor Goldrobbin was the leading scientist for a project that sought to create a perfect seal, one that could store far more energy than what was previously known, possibly an infinite amount if perfected. It was a game-changing storage seal that promised to revolutionize the world in the same way the atomic bomb revolutionized warfare.

As they were making the final tests on the seal, suddenly the roof of the laboratory was torn off its foundations by an enormous pair of limbs.

"Mwahaha! It is I, the Ruler of Giants!" A figure yelled from on top of an enormous hand made of clay. He was riding his golem.

Scientists pulled the alarm, and soldiers rushed in, activating their guns and their seal powers to stop the Ruler of Giants.

The clay golem held up a hand, blocking the projectiles, and swatted the soldiers away.

The Ruler of Giants laughed maniacally, "Your efforts are futile in the face of true power. I will take your infinite spiritual energy storage and place it into a new golem, allowing me to take over the world."

After sending his giant pet to distract the soldiers, the Ruler of Giants swooped down. The seal was a box-like object the size of a car. It was in the center of the room, surrounded by other machines. He swept away the unnecessary components with a seal power, then placed his hands on the mesmerizing seal.

"No! You mustn't move it!" Doctor Goldrobbin hastily called out. "Although it may be an infinite storage, it is far from complete. As it is now, you can only interact with it via inanimate seals and even then… you cannot even put energy inside."

"Then how do you explain this port? Clearly it is an intake and output for spiritual energy."

"That is a preset we specifically incorporated into our design to prepare it for its final phase, human integration. However, we are decades away from that point as we cannot yet take an inanimate seal and place it inside a human being! It's simply impossible… Yes! You are not the only one who is disappointed. We all have to wait for the technology to be developed and for research to become more advanced… Uh… Ruler of Giants?"

The Ruler of Giants didn't respond. He was perfectly still, as if frozen in time.

"That's an interesting proposition," Wu Bao's voice spoke from everywhere at once. "Fortunately, for me, I have the technology already."

Space itself warped as Wu Bao's figure appeared from the folds of reality. A storm of pure spiritual energy descended on the research complex as the man seemed to do the impossible, fueling a multitude of seals with the energy in the environment rather than his own dantian.

Invisible forces brought each of the researchers toward the man at the center of it all. One by one, he touched their foreheads, including the Ruler of Giants, and they fell asleep.

"Who are you?"

Wu Bao thought about it for a moment. "Someone who was once broken by a seal. Now I will break every seal."

An invisible hand wrapped around Doctor Goldrobbin, dragging him toward Wu Bao.

Powerful laser beams had no effect; a shield like a checkerboard appeared in front of him. Ice with the coldness of absolute zero didn't make him shiver; a seal activated inside his body, heating his blood. A scorching sun attack didn't make the monster called Wu Bao break a sweat; yet another seal cloaked him in ice armor, preventing his demise.

Suddenly, the Ruler of Giants seemed like a child.

Doctor Goldrobbin was stripped of his seals.

When he woke up, the company's infinite energy storage seal was gone, the building and all the research inside was destroyed, and he himself was powerless.

How unfortunate for him. His organization was targeted by that man, that calamity, who could overturn any powerhouse in the world in the blink of an eye. The calamity usually kept to himself, and Doctor Goldrobbin had finally thought he was turning a blind eye to their research. He was a fool.

Wu Bao was simply waiting for them to finish.

***

One year later, Doctor Goldrobbin was unemployed.

Without any seals, no one would take him seriously anymore, even when his knowledge far outpaced everyone else. They simply didn't care to listen to a weakling.

He bit his lip in regret.

"All those years I spent buried in my research, I was unaware of the plight in our society. I even perpetuated the cycle myself with that genius orphan I found once. However, he was too weak, so I didn't bother with him. Now the heavens have exacted retribution for my deeds. I have known humility."

Goldrobbin looked out the shabby window of his run-down apartment and saw some powerful young masters pummeling someone. The poor guy must've offended them somehow, or maybe not and they were just looking for a fight.

He could only grit his teeth and close his eyes.

Then something happened in the environment.

The blanket of spiritual energy that wrapped around everything and everyone, suddenly vanished!

As the young masters expended all the energy in their seals, they realized afterward that they weren't recovering. They blamed it on the man, and started hitting him again, but the man stood up.

Without their seal powers, the young masters were just fat baboons.

The young masters tripped over themselves as they ran away.

As the minutes turned to hours, the hours turned to days, and the days turned to weeks, Goldrobbin noticed that the spiritual energy never returned.

There was a theory regarding the world as a whole. In modern times, researchers studied the phenomena of ley lines, places in the world where spiritual energy was inexplicably denser. On a small scale, the ley lines looked random, and could be mistaken for a simple oddity or blessing from heaven. But from a planetary scale, a pattern emerges.

The ley lines looked like a giant array of spiritual energy repeated in endless and unbreakable loops, woven through the earth and even extending to the other planets of the solar system. Arcanologists collected this new knowledge and proposed a theory.

The world itself was under a seal.

Someone might ask, why would this be? What function would the world seal possibly serve?

One must remember the most basic purpose of a seal: to trap and harness spiritual energy.

If such a seal were to take a hit from an asteroid and become damaged beyond self repair, it could mean the end of magic, spiritual energy, chakra, mana, or whatever else people call it.

Perhaps someone had broken the magic seal!

It was heresy of the highest order and it would spell countless years of bloodshed as the weak people took advantage of their equal footing and rebelled, yet Goldrobbin shed tears of relief.

He could only imagine one person capable and insane enough to do it. Only now did he realize what the man meant by "every seal."

It made sense now. That man even had the tools to do it. Truly, Wu Bao was an absolute calamity, but also a man of selfless morals.