Seclusion

Atop a large mountain, whose unimaginable peaks piercing through even the very clouds themselves… At its summit a tall dark green, almost black contoured humanoid figure stood tall, looking down at the world, like if he was its undisputed ruler.

In a way, he was right. Having dominated both the endless plains of lands, the dense jungle forests… the deep dark trenches of the oceans and even the very sky itself, this being, this creature was the true Apex, the real Zenith of the primordial, Jurassic era.

An endless, immortal existence, whose existence has started long before this war, and most likely will continue on, long before it was gone. The cursed, wretched non-ending cycle of life, that even death never dared to accept fully into its embrace.

Standing alone at the ledge, Aziel looked down upon the world, finding its colors gradually turning bleak, grey. The colorful life of the fearsome, violent reptiles was gone evolution stepped into a direction that he wasn't sure if was worth its attention anymore.

Humanity, -at least that's what Aziel has concluded after his relatively short, 3 months experiment-, has shown its head once again. Like a plague, a sturdy bacteria, that you just couldn't get rid of, has shown up in this world once again.

Though they were just taking their first steps in history, Aziel was sure that with time, they will be as much of a dominant, arrogant, and destructive species as they were back on Nova.

They call demons and devilkin as the spawns of evil, the very embodiment of sins, yet compared to themselves, even the vilest of these demi-kins were nothing, they paled compared to the most average of them.

They were the true evil, the real corruption on the face of every realm. The real embodiments of all the sins. Murder, Raid, Pillage, R*pe, Theft… Whatever you could imagine, they have done it.

Joke of it, they even did it to themselves! Kingdoms battling against each other, rulers scheming against each other, coveting the treasures of each other…

'Wonder what they would do in a world like this… Where there's nothing else to dominate, nothing else that could step up against them. Will they turn against each other, be the proverbial snake that bites off his own tail and dies to his own stupidity?' He mused, looking down.

His gaze, having mutated many times, completing many iterations of evolutions already were much keener than that of these primitive primates or even any other species this world had to offer for that matter. Whilst normally nothing could be seen from a distance of thousands of meters and even a layer of clouds standing between him and the target of his piercing eyes, Aziel's eyes could clearly see a particular tribe of hairy bipedal monkeys as they continued on with their lives.

The tribe of humanoid figures didn't seem to be too bothered by the loss of their 'pet', barely even registering the loss. If anything they felt slightly annoyed by the wailing, sobbing female.

They returned to their original lifestyle barely an hour later, grouping up in two. One part of the most dominant males and lately some females as well, going out to hunt for some game, while the weaker ones doing their best to forage some fruits, seeds, and whatever edible and nutritious they could gather.

For Dinah, the woman whose heart have now been broken twice and lost someone she held dear once again, she was like an empty shell, a hollow empty husk of her former self.

She refused to move, staying at Aziel's leather 'bed' for the entire day, sitting whilst holding her knees close to her face. She sobbed, wailed… it was clear she did not find any reason for this continued suffering of life any more.

As the days passed, surprisingly to even Aziel, her sorrow didn't seem to ease. Her mourning never stopped, her reason for a living seemed to leave her completely at that point. She never left Aziel's bed, refusing to take a step away, afraid to lose this last bit of his lingering scent, if she did so.

Watching her wailing and grieving, broken completely beyond repair, Aziel couldn't help but frown. For the first time, he felt something else than the coldness in his heart. Yet he did not do anything, he stood above everything, removed from the events of this world.

Eventually, he made up his mind. Though he felt a bit of regret for Dinah, after all, it was him who tormented the poor woman twice by now, he decided to move away and focus on himself for a while.

There were many tasks that needed his full attention, that needed prolonged seclusion. He needed to first stabilize the many essences inside his body, give some attention to the swirling mass of prehistoric essences and finalize their fusion into one singular orb of the essence. Though he did start this task, he was far from completing it.

Also, he needed to spend some time focusing on uncovering the mysteries of this strange new source of energy. This [Aether] that after so many years he still has not fully comprehended… the very source of the world itself.

And finally, as the last step to complete his seclusion and mark it as a success, he had one last task. Once he mastered both previous points and was finally reach at least a basic understanding of this world energy, this [Aether], Aziel needed to fuse the main, central orb of essence holding the very core of his soul, the source of his eternal existence, [Essence Restitute] and merge the two separate parts into one.

He was no longer in Nova, this world was unlike his previous one. The air wasn't filled with mana, there was seemingly no separation from nature's elements. Here, from what he had seen, you either could master all elements or perhaps you had no access to them at all.

All in all, he needed to step away from the world, and focus on himself. He needed to spend some time, analyzing the root of this world, and working on mastering it. Only that way could he step up firmly to the top, and lord over everything.

Only then could he start taking steps in finding a way to return, to finally enact his vengeance on all those that betrayed him and caused his banishment.

...

Taking one last look at the sobbing female, Aziel sighed heavily and turned away. Though he could feel the stabbing pain in his heart, he decided to ignore it.

He looked at the cave entrance he carved from the mountain top, and after one last sigh, he walked in. The rocky surface suddenly shattering behind him, it closed off, secluding him from the happenings of the world.