Chapter 117: Gaia, Shattered and Reforged
Long ago, when the fires of the Origin Battle had dimmed, and the multiverse lay in ruins, the Emperor arrived on a wounded world. A planet still smoldering with celestial ash. A place scorched by divine arrogance and ambition.
It was called Gaia.
But it was not the only one.
The Emperor had made many such planets in this sector of reality each a Gaia, seeded from fragments of the Origin Plane. Each born to be a sanctuary… a chance to begin again.
But this Gaia Earth was different.
It had been touched.
What the Emperor found on Earth was not a sanctuary, but a graveyard. A battlefield drenched in the afterbirth of a war not meant for mortals.
The divine had fought here divine beings. Odin, Ra, Nyame, and many others had built their divine territories around the planet. From within those floating realms, they bred mystical races Elves, Dwarves, Giants, Celestial Beasts to prove their divinity, to craft beauty from power.
But when war came, And the planet paid the price.
Left behind were monsters, remnants of failed creations and corrupted divine energy. The world's crust cracked with unstable leyline eruptions. The air vibrated with wild mana. Storms of time and memory raged through the empty lands.
It was barely inhabitable.
He gathered what remained of the divine-crafted races the proud Elves of Alfheim, the stoic Dwarves of Nidavellir, the cunning Fae Tribes, the various winged or scaled hybrids bred for war or worship.
They were not at fault.
But they were dangerous.
Their very nature was saturated with divine law. Even if they did not mean to, they could corrupt the restoration efforts.
So he locked them away.
He took the floating divine territories fragments of pocket realms left behind by the gods and sealed them in the Void, suspended above and around the Earth. Hidden, disconnected, but still present. Each containing the mystical species, the ancient treasures, and the relics of forgotten myths.
The Emperor's plan was patience
"When Earth evolves… when it heals and regains its worthiness… then the sealed Divine Territories shall rejoin with her, expanding her size, power, and spiritual stature."
Then, he turned his gaze to the humans.
Scattered, war-torn, and weakened yet still alive
They were not ordinary. Many bore the blood of divine beings, or carried dormant genes of Origin Races that had otherwise been wiped out. Some were descendants of those who fled the Battle. Others were experiments left to die.
The Emperor did not seek worship.
He brought fire and storm down upon them not to destroy, but to forge.
From the strongest lineages, he gathered workers and warriors. He gave them tools, instructions carved in golden light, and bound them by oath and law.
He made them build more Pyramids
Each pyramid was inscribed with laws pulled from the Origin Plane itself.
"These will hold the world together," he declared. "They will absorb the chaos, refine the Origin Mana, and nourish the core until Gaia can awaken once more."
To protect what remained, the Emperor enacted one of his greatest feats:
He wrapped Earth in a veil a bubble of interdimensional camouflage, powered by the Locus and anchored through the pyramids.
It prevented scanning from divine eyes.
It blocked astral and multiversal interference.
Outside, Earth became a dead zone. A forgotten world. Not worth a second glance.
Inside, life endured.
Above the bubble floated the sealed Divine Territories hidden in the void. Waiting for Earth to be reborn.
When the Emperor scanned Earth a final time before departing, he sensed something unexpected.
The Laws of the Origin Plane the same laws that formed time, gravity, soul, and divinity were beginning to awaken.
Sentience.
Choice.
Earth, being forged from fragments of Origin, had inherited their echoes. And the energy left behind by divine battles had begun to birth consciousness from these laws.
But along with awakening law came risk.
Many ancient divine treasures weapons, artifacts, and relics from the gods' own hands still remained scattered. Some had become wild, others dormant, others still influential without anyone realizing.
The Emperor could not let such volatile power roam.
So he sealed them, locking each one behind a layer of world-law. Many were buried beneath mountains, oceans, or deserts. Others hidden inside myth or legend.
Some could only be found when Earth itself willed them to be seen again.
With everything in place:
The pyramids built.
The divine races sealed.
The gods' territories suspended.
The treasures locked away.
The Emperor left.
He would go on to restore other worlds, hunt down divine traitors, and enforce the Balance across the sector.
But Earth Gaia was his secret masterpiece.
A world left to grow organically, without divine dominance.
A world meant to one day birth its own divinity.