He didn’t know how many cycles had swept through this world.
Time meant nothing to the despairing Demon King. The Demon King, who had been implanted with the cells of the Primal Body, had a lifespan close to immortality, just like the Primal Body itself. That endless time was utterly meaningless to Gelié.
In the end, the beginning was always created by the Primal Body, and the end was also taken by the Primal Body. The process held no meaning.
In a world where the beginning and end were already decided, what meaning could the middle possibly have?
All living beings originated from the Primal Body, and their behavior patterns were surprisingly identical. Sentient races hunted or domesticated non-sentient races, and they banded together to oppose other sentient beings.
There were times when they couldn’t rely on their own abilities and sought to depend on something else. That faith and belief repeatedly created beings called gods.
-Grimudo.
Born from faith, yet deluding himself into thinking he was the rightful master of this world.
These pitiful beings, who couldn’t even save a single believer from destruction, called Grimudo the Demon King.
-You are the evil of this world.
So be it.
Or not.
A world created by flesh.
A world that will return to flesh.
A cycle that has repeated without ever changing.
Where in this world do good and evil even exist?
Survival. Only the struggle for survival exists. The Primal Body sought its own growth and survival, and countless sentient beings flailed for survival as well.
Grimudo didn’t deny that he was the Demon King. Though born as a sentient being, he was the most vile traitor who sided with the Primal Body.
-Grimudo, our idol who defied the gods!
Thus, he didn’t consider himself a being worthy of worship.
-We, the Luxmir faction, will follow you.
Those abandoned by the gods. Those who defied the will of the gods and were cast out.
Even when those branded as ‘evil’ and struck by Divine Power began to revere him, he completely ignored all that adoration. He was called the pioneer of the Demon Race, but no fear or worship ever reached Grimudo.
Those who called him an enemy wouldn’t survive the cycle, and those who worshipped him as the Primal Demon King would fare no better.
But as he closed his eyes and covered his ears, several changes simultaneously descended upon this world.
Humans. Shorter-lived than elves, weaker than orcs, less physically capable than beastmen, and inferior in martial arts to valkyries.
A newly born sentient race that suddenly conceived an idea.
One day, someone looked at the beastmen and fell into thought.
The Beastmen Race isn’t adept at using magic. But they can enhance their bodies using magical power.
An unnamed individual thought, watching them handle magical power through what’s commonly called Water Technique.
Couldn’t humans also handle magical power in a similar way?
Another day, someone else looked at the elves and fell into deep thought.
Watching them use magical power to elementalize their surroundings, they suddenly realized something. That realization, accumulated over human history, eventually manifested as martial arts. Those who could explode and compress their magical power to create Power Techniques emerged.
Unlike the ancient sentient beings who had to rely solely on their innate abilities and the gods, they could now break free from their inherent limitations through training and effort.
Some stopped at creating Power Techniques, while others infused their own imagery to create unique Power Techniques.
When these individuals, called Masters, stepped onto the stage of history, Grimudo remained silent.
Whether Sword Masters, Spear Masters, or Polearm Masters, compared to the Primal Body, they were still mere insects, no, specks of dust.
He thought of this as just another fleeting flower born within countless cycles.
No matter how brilliantly a flower blooms, it is only natural for it to wither with time.
“An Ancient God?!”
The elves were the first to defy Grimudo’s common sense. They achieved their own victory in the battle between the Primal Body and sentient beings. Though they didn’t inflict any damage on the Primal Body, surviving alone was a priceless victory.
“I can’t believe it. Did such a being truly exist?!”
An unnamed Ancient God responded to the elves’ prayers during the cycle.
The seed it bestowed grew into a tree large enough to cover an entire city, protecting all the elves from the cycle. It was the moment the existence of the Ancient God was proven, and the moment Grimudo’s common sense shattered.
Even as the civilization now called the ancient civilization crumbled and was buried in the cycle, humanity and the martial arts they invented survived.
The elves, a saved race, needless to say, and even the beastmen survived to some extent. They neither knew nor recorded what caused the ancient civilization’s destruction, but over thousands of years, they rose from destruction, rebuilt their civilization, and began to thrive once more.
But what caught Grimudo’s eye was not that.
Long ago, as the Primal Body visited the planet Pyros, another guest arrived from beyond the distant sea of stars.
They came to this land, drawn by the rare gem of sentience that blooms in the universe.
-Natives of this land. We come with no ill intent.
Dragons. Not gods, nor Ancient Gods, but beings far beyond mortals.
A species not originating from the Primal Body, perhaps the only one of its kind in the world. They came from beyond the Milky Way to find Grimudo.
-Our mission is the manifestation of sentience and the flourishing of civilization. We have traveled the universe for this purpose.
-You are truly a powerful being. May we consider you the representative of this planet?
Grimudo shook his head. He was only his own representative, no one else’s.
The existence of dragons, extraterrestrial beings, was astonishing even to him. Before being a Demon King, he was a scholar, the Primal Demon King, and he felt a growing interest in dragons.
So he proposed they share knowledge.
Grimudo’s polymorph method was passed on to the dragons. They modified it, allowing them to hide their massive forms and transform into humans or other races.
Grimudo also told them everything about this planet’s history and the existence of the Primal Body. In return, the dragons taught Grimudo the power of magic. They realized this planet wasn’t as life-friendly as they had thought.
-This can’t be. The entire Arctic is the ancestor of all life on this planet?
-What do you think? Can we destroy or seal it?
-Impossible. Destruction is out of the question. It’s absurd to think of defeating a life form of this size, and even if we had the power, would it just let us?
The Primal Body was too vast and immense. Even if the dragons gathered enough power to attack, it wouldn’t just die. If the Primal Body so much as stumbled, unimaginable disaster would befall the entire planet.
To stop the cycle and help the creatures, the Primal Body had to be defeated, but if all life on the surface perished in the process, what would be the point?
No, the very idea of killing such a thing was absurd. Even the mighty dragons hesitated to intervene.
-Sealing is the same. If we can’t seal it all at once, it will surely struggle and resist. In the worst case, the planet itself could become uninhabitable.
-We had high hopes for this planet, but it’s a pity.
-But who knows? Perhaps one day they will stand on equal footing with us.
-Let’s teach them magic before we go. That way, we’ve done our part.
Originally differing in race, ideology, and thought, those who followed Grimudo abandoned their original races.
The world called them the Demon Race and ostracized them, but the dragons approached and imparted the power of magic.
They taught magic to all races, but the dragons favored the Demon Race. Some dragons became so enamored with polymorphing that they even had children with the Demon Race. Some even stayed until the time of the cycle to witness the rise of the Primal Body.
-Unfortunately, the creatures of this planet desire unity over self-preservation.
The final cycle. On the day now called the fall of the ancient kingdom by current people, a few dragons, long-lived though not comparable to the Primal Body, witnessed the event firsthand. They considered saving at least some of the surface races.
-If that’s their choice.
-We can only respect it.
-Dragons cannot impose our values on other creatures.
But the instinct to return was too strong to suppress with reason.
Even if one could resist with reason, the body yearned to return to the Primal Body.
Like a person who can’t quit drugs after trying them once, resisting the instinct to return with willpower alone is nearly impossible unless one’s will is exceptionally strong.
Losing their minds, with ecstatic expressions, the majority rushed towards the Reapers. More than half the population willingly let themselves be consumed without even swinging a sword. The dragons watched all this and left the planet.
Humans, demons, beastmen, and other sentient beings all held hands and were consumed by the Reapers.
Even the undead were no exception. Even the dead couldn’t escape the bondage of their flesh.
In a way, it was as if they had chosen the Primal Body. At least, that’s how the dragons interpreted it.
The dragons, who were neither the Primal Body nor part of it, could have defeated the Reapers.
But as dragons, not surface dwellers, they didn’t interfere with the people’s choices. These great beings considered themselves unnecessary for this planet and left Pyros.
Watching all this, Grimudo was neither disappointed nor disheartened.
Sunk so deep, there was nowhere left to sink.
For this man, who had been in despair since ancient times, there was no retreat.
No place to fall further, no place to sink deeper, no place to become more profound.