Godly Heaven. Heavenly Palace of Salvation.
In the vast, magnificent throne hall seemingly built for giants, crafted from gleaming white marble and towering pillars, appeared the Creator God of the Grey Dwarf's galaxy in his human form—only dozens of meters tall, yet still far larger than usual.
After his appearance in the throne hall, Asher's size grew further to a tremendous scale, fitting the grand, solitary throne of a giant and the gigantic, brightly lit throne room.
Finally, his garments dissolved into white, star-dust-like particles and were replaced by a splendid white robe, while a divine light veiled and obscured his face.
With an imposing posture, the Creator God seated himself upon his heavenly throne and rested his arms on the armrests in a domineering pose.
As soon as he opened his eyes, there was no ordinary gaze—rather, the whisper of the cosmos itself revealed itself.
Amid dark lashes swirled a galaxy, spiral-shaped, luminous, profound.
Where once the pupil might have been, now circled a sea of stars—endless, silent, majestic.
A single look was enough, and one would sink into space, time, and creation.
Hm~ He sat thoughtfully, still as a stone statue, seemingly lost in contemplation, until he sent a mental message and summoned a certain person.
Shortly thereafter, the two great doors to the throne hall opened, and a small yet sturdy and proud figure appeared.
A seemingly young man, but with mature features, golden hair like the finest and clearest gold bars. His body adorned a splendid knight's armor decorated with gold, and upon his head rested a modest yet impressive golden crown, resembling a laurel wreath, and a long sword hung at his waist.
The hero and "King of Knights," Arthur Pendragon.
Arthur had quickly appeared in the throne hall after being called and seemed like a tiny ant in the enormous hall, smaller even than Asher's ten fingers or fingernails.
Upon arriving in the throne hall and admiring, for a moment in awe, the imposing, divine figure of his Creator on the throne, he knelt respectfully and dared not raise his head.
"You have summoned me, Master?"
Asher did not answer immediately. He merely raised his right arm from the armrest and calmly waved his hand.
In response to his action, a spark of divinity gathered in the middle of the throne hall, from which a basketball-sized, golden, scaled egg appeared directly at the feet of the Knight King.
It was the egg of a mystical beast, which Asher had seized from the Abyss, taken from the elf, and brought back.
Then Asher's distorted voice resounded in a lofty tone: "Take it; it is a gift I happened to acquire. You can hatch it and raise it as a capable partner; it should bring you great benefit!"
His voice was utterly indifferent, more resembling an order than a gift.
Asher had a good reason for choosing to entrust the mystical beast's egg specifically to Arthur.
As Creator God of a galaxy, he had, thanks to the World Shop and the exchange of faith points, the ability to create and raise mystical beasts himself at any time, making the possession of such a mystical beast somewhat less extraordinary for him.
This, however, did not lessen the significance of the existence of mystical beasts and the possession of the egg of a mystical beast.
A mystical beast, through the immortal energies it radiated and its incomparable innate talent in its respective domain, held the potential to rival Creator Gods themselves and the chance to achieve greatness.
This was, of course, also one of the reasons why the two parties—the human man and the elf woman—had fought so fiercely over the possession of the egg.
With such an egg, one would be able to raise a loyal and potentially powerful partner, thereby inevitably improving one's own strength beyond compare. Their partners could even become stronger than their masters and, in times of need, defeat powerful enemies for them.
But I digress.
The reason I give the egg to Arthur is that, among the four heroes, as a knight, he was more oriented toward direct confrontation, and unlike Achilles and Siegfried, whose abilities focused on fighting many enemies, like entire armies or hordes of monsters, he specialized mostly in one-on-one combat, man against man, and training warriors.
A partner, like a mystical beast that he raises and trains himself, would therefore be perfect for him and complement his strength well, not to mention that I currently face no great threat… ahem, and can summon a partner myself at any time.
Asher thought inwardly and did not worry too much about handing over this egg to the Knight King, of course purely out of precaution (wink).
Arthur gazed in awe at the golden, shiny, scaled egg and after a moment reached out hesitantly, yet with due respect, almost as if holding a fragile egg in his hands.
He knew it would make no sense to refuse this gift, only to avoid being offensive—and it would have been more offensive to reject such a direct gift.
"Thank you, Master, I will take good care of this egg and raise it to become a warrior loyal to you."
Asher nodded in agreement, his facial expression hidden behind the dazzling light, and signaled the Knight King to leave the throne hall with the egg.
Silence returned to the throne hall after Arthur had disappeared with the egg and the Creator God now remained alone on his great throne.
Well, I am somewhat curious what will come from this egg… after all, it is a mystical beast and moreover from the Abyss. What kinds of creatures might exist there besides demons?
Asher finally ended his train of thought and turned to something else: the development and progress of Heaven, then Hell, and finally his mortal world, Gaia.
During Asher's time in the Abyss and the past hundreds of years, the Godly Heaven and the endless War Hell had not undergone significant changes, only a few inevitable developments.
After some angels grew stronger and developed, several more archangels appeared in the Godly Heaven.
The current number of angels, which at the beginning had been far fewer than the demons, had now surpassed millions, while there were now a few dozen archangels.
The population of the endless War Hell, on the other hand, had also risen sharply and was nearly five times the size of Heaven's. Likewise, more and more powerful demons appeared in Hell and continued their daily lives.
The endless War Hell now also housed two demon princes and four demon dukes, half a dozen counts, and many aspiring barons. Yet their fighting strength continued to rise, to Asher's delight.
The battles in the endless War Hell had continued without sign of end. Demons fought one another, smashed each other's heads, grew stronger, died, and were reborn.
It was an endless cycle of fighting and had become an everyday occurrence in Hell, with battles always somewhere to be seen—from weak mayflies clumsily brawling with fists to high-ranking, powerful lords destroying entire landscapes and displaying terrifying abilities capable of wiping out whole civilizations.
After Asher checked the two independent realms responsible for Gaia's afterlife and saw little interesting change, he turned back to his main source of income, the mortal world Gaia.
It was perhaps still the only inhabited world in the Grey Dwarf's galaxy, but this was not to remain so in the future.
Throughout the galaxy, after the first creation, or the Big Bang, after Asher's awakening as Creator God, stars and planets had appeared, and slowly but surely, growing planets emerged in the vast galaxy, which would someday become habitable places and give rise to life.
Whenever his gaze from his throne in his heavenly palace fell upon the mortal world, it quickly darkened, showing displeasure and a multitude of other downcast emotions.
Even at first rough glance, Asher could see that something great had happened.
"Haah~" A disappointed sigh escaped his lips and echoed in the empty throne hall. So it has indeed come to pass—and so quickly at that…
During the nearly three centuries, great changes had taken place on Gaia. But to put it briefly: Gaia was facing its downfall.
Gaia was currently plunged into great chaos. The dwarf race had been nearly exterminated over the centuries. The elves were enslaved by humans, and their former homeland, the Elven Forest, had been burned down. Even the once-prominent Church of Salvation was destroyed and forgotten; only a few still remembered that the faith had ever existed.
How? The dwarves exterminated, the elves enslaved, and the faith in the Creator, the god who brought salvation, shattered and forgotten by humans. But how did this come to be at all?
After the appearance of the third Saint on Gaia—the hero who defeated the King of Beasts, Ananta, the seemingly invincible monster that destroyed entire kingdoms and armies—peace had reigned for a century once again under the leadership of the church, controlled by the three Saints.
However, in the 268th year of the redeemed Saints, the alliance between the elves and dwarves, which had been strong and steadfast for several centuries, suddenly and out of nowhere dissolved, marking the beginning of everything.
The dissolution of the alliance came extremely suddenly and in a most unexpected manner.
Not only did the alliance suddenly break apart, but the dwarves simultaneously dealt the elves a fierce and unforeseen blow, destroying several of their cities and villages with their massive army.
The dwarves' sudden act of hostility came out of nowhere and declared the end of their alliance with the elves.
No one could understand what had happened, why the dwarves suddenly turned against their long-brothered friends, and the elves understood even less as they faced the brutal campaigns of the dwarven army.
The dwarves. One of the most peace-loving races in the entire universe. They were a race skilled in forging and craftsmanship, blessed with endurance and physical strength to match. But that was all—they loved forging, designing new technology, and drinking, never fighting.
So it was an unforeseen miracle that such a race would simply start a war, for no reason. There had to be a cause.
And so it was.
Once, the dwarves, entrenched in a vast mountain range, interconnected mountains they called home and had already shaped into a great underground kingdom, discovered a dark power.
It was a power unlike mana, the holy power of angels, or even the divinity of a supreme being or Creator God.
This power the dwarves found within their mountain resembled more the demonic power of demons, filled with evil, vengeful, and dark energy that robbed the dwarves of their minds and reason.
The then king of the dwarves, who inherited this power and passed it on to his subjects to build a vast and mighty army, gained tremendous power from it.
To wield this power, however, he had to pay a great price and lost himself to madness, greed, and wrath.
From then on, he seemed consumed by nothing but these emotions and malevolent desires, acting only as this dark power commanded and showing him illusions of wealth he could achieve with its power.
But not only the king, all other dwarves exposed to this power were corrupted and reduced to nothing but bloodthirsty, mindless combat machines.
Thus, the dwarves, consumed by madness and greed, attacked the elves and destroyed their alliance.
Only a few years later, a vast army of dwarves—tens of thousands of riled-up, bloodthirsty dwarves—left their mountain and marched southeast toward human territories with the goal of conquering the entire world and seizing all treasures and lands.
It took only a decade for the dwarves to have already overwhelmed and conquered half of the human territories.
In every battle, the dwarves overwhelmed their enemies with overwhelming troop numbers and manpower.
During one of these many battles, in which the Saints also participated to protect innocent citizens, the king of the dwarves managed to defeat and kill the Saint and dragon slayer Ethan.
His fall was a tragedy, not only for the humans but for the entire faith of the world.
In the 290th year of the redeemed Saints, humans saw no other option but to join forces with the elves against the dwarves.
The dwarves possessed too great a power, and their madness made them all the more unpredictable and dangerous, such that even one of the mightiest human warriors had fallen to them.
Fortunately, the elves quickly agreed to an alliance of the two races, fearing that they too would eventually be attacked and ultimately destroyed by the dwarves, as after the dwarves' sudden strike, they had become the weakest of the three races.
The alliance of humans and elves finally managed, with great effort and many sacrifices, to push back the dwarves and even kill their king.
However, during this achievement of the alliance, both Saint Maria and the then king of the elves died in battle.
In the same year, the human kingdoms once again divided into many small, isolated realms and territories.
A decade later, most of the dwarf race had been almost completely wiped out after their defeat in the war. Only a few hundred dwarves remained, hiding from the world and struggling for survival.
At this time, humans began to raid and enslave the weakened elves.
Due to frequent and escalating conflicts between humans and elves, even the Elven Forest—the long-standing home of the elves since the dawn of creation—was burned down.
Such a thing was done by humans after only a few years, something that even the dwarves had failed to do with their sudden assault.
This only showed the cruelty and ruthlessness of the human race.
In the 311th year of the redeemed Saints, the last living Saint of the Church of Salvation, Kronos, died from an assassination planned by several nobles for whom he had been a thorn in the side for their future plans and ambitions.
With this, the world Gaia began to usher in the era of downfall.
Most humans who witnessed these changes and developments in the world might call it sad and regrettable, yet not so intense and far-reaching that it would cause the world's end.
In this case, however, it was different.
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