Prologue

On a faraway planet, billions of light years away from Earth, stood a powerful kingdom named Instilia. A kingdom that was well among the top strongest nations of this world.

The world's architecture and architectonics were medieval. The people would use gold, silver, and copper coins as international currency to trade for food and goods. But this was the main reason why this world's economic situation was doomed.

Gold, silver, and copper were the only raw materials that made up this currency. After these coins have been manufactured, they would go through the troubling expense of branding the coins by international law to avoid counterfeits.

But nothing in the universe was infinite except for the universe itself. Therefore, raw materials such as gold, silver, and copper would soon disappear from the world.

Such a weak economy would fall with the slightest force from an outside factor, yet the world's economy had no signs of destabilization even after centuries.

This was because of an unmovable factor called mana. With mana, it allowed humanity to wield magic. With magic, anything became possible.

No man would need to chop firewood to cast warmth to their home as fire magic neglected the need for this manual labor. No man would need to fetch water out of the well as water magic overlooked the use of a manual. So on and so on. The point was made.

But this brought a new change in the food chain. The individual strong raised to the top of the food chain whilst the weak remained at the bottom, at the hands of the strong.

That is why in this world, strength is everything. Strength gave you authority and riches.

This is precisely what Jhual Hermy, the new monarch of Instilia, wanted. Power.

Right after taking the throne, he ordered the magicians to prepare a powerful portal that would link up a gateway to a different world.

On the other hand, Jhual gave the important task of creating a dreadful disease to the top researchers in the nation.

Then quickly came the fateful day. Jhual and his attendees, along with a group of four magicians dressed in black cloaks, secretly left the wall of their kingdom and traversed the plains on horseback.

But their journey was quick. They had only traveled to where there was no civilization. Not even a soul of a wild deer was present in the area, but despite this, Jhual still seemed to be wary of his surroundings.

Jhual stepped down from his equine, and his attendants and magicians followed his lead and also stepped down.

"Is the sight clear?" Jhual spoke in a low tone.

"I will put up a barrier that prevents any from..." A magician, seemingly the leader of the rest, began speaking but was quickly interrupted by Jhual

"Just get it done." Jhual waved his hand.

"Yes, sir." The magician bowed to show his respect and moved to an open patch of grass. There he reached into his robe and brought out a talisman in the shape of the sun.

The magician then tossed it up into the sky, where it exploded, causing thin threads of mana to surround everyone. If anyone from the outside were looking, it would seem that Jhual and his magician had disappeared into thin air.

"Start immediately now," Jhual ordered.

"Yes, sir."

He rounded up the rest of the magicians into a circle and began chanting.

At that moment, the wind began picking up as mana became concentrated at the center of the magicians.

Jhual himself began backing up while his arm shielded his eyes from the intense winds.

In all that could be noted as a crake in space, a door-sized portal with the color of the endless universe appeared before everyone.

They had finally cast the portal, which quickly affected every magician who performed it. Furthermore, it took an enormous amount of mana to perform correctly.

Just to complete this one ritual Jhual had rounded all of his top magicians.

"Good job," Jhual spoke and took a vial from his clock and placed it onto the hands of the head magician. "Throw this inside."

"A-as you wish, lord." He bowed and began heading toward the portal. Though he was the head magician of the royal family, the sheer amount of mana poured out of the portal was suffocating even to him.

Just as he was about to toss the vial into the portal, he stopped and stared at the vial for a brief moment.

He knew of every consequence this very vial in his hand would bring. He knew that it would kill millions, if not billions. After all, he was the one who made it.

His hand quivered. His body became heavy, and he knew he didn't want to do this. But he had to.

But nothing has changed. From the time he was making the vial till now.

After all, he was just the weak being feasted on.