Darkness! Endless darkness shrouded the multiverse.
As the energy core of the myriad planes, the sun of the gods' world had undoubtedly played an极为 important role in the growth of all things.
In just a few days after Leilin devoured the sun, temperatures across the myriad planes plummeted simultaneously. Before long, they dropped below zero. Darkness accompanied by cold swept through the entire multiverse without warning.
The impact on the Prime Material World, situated at the very core of the multiverse, was even more terrifying.
Without the sun's radiance, all vitality in the world fell into a terrifying standstill.
The gods had lost their greatest source of energy and could not take in all their Prime Material followers. Those survivors who had been living in the Prime Material World came to call this era — the Age of Darkness!
An era filled with death and solitude, where hunger and plague ran rampant and ordinary people had not a shred of hope!
With the sun's devouring as the beginning of the Age of Darkness, the Prime Material World was transformed into a frozen hell of cold and ice within three days. After a month, vast swathes of vegetation had withered and died from lack of light. And after a year, when all stored food had been exhausted, famine had already swept across the entire world.
Yet even the most humble and insignificant life possessed a resilience that was nothing short of astonishing.
Under these extreme conditions, countless creatures still survived in the darkness like weeds, continuing the somber tale of civilization and savagery. As the pinnacle of all living things and the favored children of the gods, humanity was no exception.
Year Five of the Dark Era. The former location of Faolan Island.
A teleportation gate leading to what had once been the underworld opened, and Leilin's figure emerged.
Though it was only an incarnation, the majesty of a Rule-level existence still sent tremors through the entire void.
"Has it already come to this?"
With a sweep of his divine sense, the entire former family estate materialized in Leilin's sea of consciousness.
Compared to the once-thriving southern jewel it had been, Faolan Island was now filled with deathly silence. The gray-white marble walls were covered in dust and mottled marks, and here and there, bared white bones could be seen on the ground.
There was no longer a single trace of human habitation or activity on the entire island, and even the number of ordinary creatures that had survived was exceedingly scarce.
"Squeak, squeak..."
Several dark shadows scurried out from a pile of dry bones, blinking their thumb-sized green eyes like two emerald flames in the darkness, fleeing rapidly into the distance.
"Mice?!"
When it came to creatures so fragile they posed no threat to him whatsoever, Leilin never hesitated to show a measure of kindness. Otherwise, even the faintest radiation from his body could have wiped out every living thing on the island.
"Changes forced upon them to adapt to the environment?"
Leilin activated his Chip and quickly recorded the physical dimensions of those mice. Compared to their pre-Dark Catastrophe counterparts, they were clearly more than ten times larger.
Their fur had shifted from black to grayish-white, wrapping their bodies in a thick layer that obviously served an insulating purpose.
"The rate of mutation is far too rapid... It's only been a few years. Is this the influence of the world's laws? The gods' will must not wish for the complete extinction of the Prime Material World after all..."
Leilin let out a sigh.
The evolution of life normally required hundreds of thousands, even millions of years of accumulation, determined by nature's process of natural selection.
But with the formidable power of the gods' will — even one that lay dormant — it could cause a qualitative shift in nature's random probabilities, driving creatures to evolve in planned directions suited to their environment.
And since mice had short reproductive cycles, the changes were already strikingly apparent.
"By that logic... microorganisms and bacteria have probably already fully adjusted and adapted to the dark environment's changes, while humanity's awakening would be somewhat slower..."
From a single island, Leilin could already broadly understand the patterns of the world's transformation.
"The gods' attention... has also begun to intensify. It seems they've adjusted to the changes in their divine kingdoms..."
Leilin's devouring of the sun had never been as simple as wanting to wipe out a single Prime Material World.
Each world in the multiverse had its own unique operating laws, and the world formed by the sun was one of the most critical gears.
But now, Leilin had directly extracted that gear — the equivalent of pulling out a supporting pillar from beneath a stack of building blocks.
The position of the entire multiverse would undergo strange shifts, spatial coordinates would change violently, and the gods' divine kingdoms were no exception.
The loss of the sun and the shifting positions of their divine kingdoms had been enough to throw the gods into disarray, leaving them unable to pay attention to changes in the Prime Material World.
But now, they had clearly readjusted, consolidating their base by migrating portions of their followers. They were beginning to attempt counterattacks.
It was against this backdrop that Leilin's incarnation had come to the Prime Material World, beginning an on-the-ground investigation of the changes brought about by the Age of Darkness and the remnants of the gods' influence left here.
"Desolate... utterly desolate..."
Leilin's incarnation instantly suppressed all his aura, appearing as nothing more than an ordinary mage, and began flying toward the continent.
Traversing the vast and treacherous sea, even in this cradle of life, the soul signatures Leilin detected were pitifully scarce, their strength reduced to the faintest limits.
Even Leilin, the very culprit behind it all, could not help but sigh at this sight.
Of course, his pity ended there. Given the chance to do it all over again, he would likely make the same choice.
For Wizards, only fallen True
…
The Continent.
The dazed survivors had no idea about the terrifying changes that had occurred over the ocean — or even if they did, they gave it no thought.
By now, they had gone completely numb, their minds occupied with nothing beyond the struggle to survive.
Civilization had been forgotten, and savagery gradually gained the upper hand.
The magnificent and brilliant civilization of the entire Prime Material World had been utterly destroyed in a mere handful of years, leaving behind only humans who seemed like walking corpses.
"I'm heading out!"
Dorlan tightened the cotton padded jacket and leather armor on his body.
The filthy leather reeked and was covered in mottled marks, yet it had been polished to a shine. The cotton jacket was covered in densely stitched patches and wrapped tightly, giving Dorlan at least a sliver of warmth in the freezing wind.
"Come back safe!"
A voice came from the low-ceilinged room, and behind the door, a pair of beautiful eyes filled with concern peered out.
Under that gaze, Dorlan felt his whole body fill with strength and determination once more. Before regret could begin to take root, he left the woman in the room and strode outside.
Whoosh...
The cold wind howled. Thick layers of icicles clung to the surrounding walls, making Dorlan long to return to the warmth of the room.
But the gnawing hunger in his stomach quickly reminded him that if he didn't bring back enough food, not only he but also the person who was always waiting for him would be claimed by famine.
"Damn it!"
Dorlan cursed under his breath, gripping his only valuable possession — a fine steel longsword that gleamed with a cold light — and strode outward.
Ever since the Dark Catastrophe, he had been living a life of constant wandering and hardship.
More often than not, Dorlan thought he was merely trapped in a nightmare — only the dream had lasted far too long, long enough to bring him to bitter tears.
Back then, through a bit of luck, Dorlan had stumbled upon the secret of the Light-seeking Bugs, escaped with his life from the outermost edge of the crowd, and even managed to salvage a weapon from a dead Temple Warrior — the fine steel longsword in his hand.
Unfortunately, after his escape, the last of Dorlan's good fortune seemed to have run out.
At the beginning of the Age of Darkness, supplies were still relatively plentiful. Even though farmers had lost all inclination to work the land, the previous harvests were more than enough to feed the remaining few — even with waste.
Dorlan had once swaggered into an abandoned village all by himself and plundered an entire stockpile of wheat — enough to last him a month.
But those good days were gone for good.
After the horrific famine came plague and insect-beasts in succession, claiming batch after batch of human lives.
Dorlan had joined several groups of wanderers, but none had ever lasted more than a month. Plague and famine kept claiming the lives of the few who remained, and the insect-beasts had grown cleverer, preferring to attack large human groups.
What chilled Dorlan to the bone even more was that the green Light-seeking Bugs, which had been terrifying at first, were now considered the lowest tier among these swarms of monsters. These horrifying insects seemed to have arrived in the world alongside the darkness, and their strength was still increasing. Dorlan had once witnessed a creature two full stories tall — like a monstrous red flame aphid — bite a high-ranking Knight from his group clean in half!
It was after that incident that the grievously wounded Dorlan survived several more brushes with death before finally settling down here.
Still shaken, Dorlan glanced back one more time.
The area he had just left was the common district of this settlement. It looked like a vast refugee camp, but all the buildings shared one trait — exceptionally thick walls, with windows that were either tiny or nonexistent.
Densely packed barriers bristled with thorns and barbed spikes, making the residential area look like a small fortress.
And that was exactly what it was. After the insect-beasts had broken into the settlement, these survivors had been forced to fight for their lives behind these defenses. On the rooftops of some buildings, the blood and remains of those disgusting creatures could still be seen.
At that moment, accompanied by the desolate sound of a horn, more and more warriors emerged from their buildings, converging into a stream along the road.
The atmosphere turned heavy and somber. The faint sounds of women weeping could be heard intermittently.