"There are Six Empires... My Lord." Starla bowed her head, her voice carrying a quiet reverence as she spoke before Aether, who sat stiffly on the bed with a confused expression tugging at his face.
His fingers curled slightly against the sheets, betraying the unease that stirred beneath his composed facade.
Nyx and Nightfire stood close beside him.
After revealing the truth about the sixth empire to Aether, Nyx had brought Starla forward to explain the situation in detail.
"I... I don’t get it. What do you an by six Empires? Haven’t there only been five since ancient tis?" Aether’s frown deepened.
Starla frowned back, her eyes narrowing with sothing between sorrow and expectation. "I thought... You at least rembered it, My Lord?" Her tone wavered slightly, not accusing but wounded, as though she had clung to hope he would recall.
Aether blinked.
What was she talking about...?
Then the lie he had once told her clawed at his thoughts.
He had claid to be her king reborn, the sa ruler she once knew.
Shit!
Clearing his throat, he forced composure, "I an... I rember... most of it," he said at last, shrugging with indifference.
Starla’s lips pressed into a thin line as she frowned slightly, her disappointnt showing despite her effort to hide it.
Aether coughed to break the silence, leaning forward. "Anyway, now I really need to know," he said, "Tell what you know."
Starla inhaled slowly before shaking her head. She raised her fingers as if counting sothing carved into her very soul.
"From my knowledge, I am pretty sure there were Six Empires..." Her gaze shifted toward Nyx, steady and grave, before she added, "As My Queen inford before...
Aerionis Zephyra... A place where Air is prominent, where nature-loving creatures dwell in harmony with the skies and winds.
Aquaris Naiadae... A place where Water reigns supre, and only those born of the currents and depths, the underwater creatures, may inhabit.
Pyra Fulgur... A place where Fire dominates, a burning world that only Dragons and Phoenixes endure.
Elysiumis Aurora... A place where Light governs, where only Angels, radiant and pure, are accepted and allowed to inhabit.
Umbrionis Void... A place where Darkness thrives, a realm of irrational beings, creatures that the mind struggles to comprehend.
These are the ones that you have seen only, right?" She turned her eyes on Nyx as if searching for confirmation.
Nyx inclined her head slightly in acknowledgent, and Aether gave a small nod in agreent.
Starla’s expression turned thoughtful, her brows tightening as her voice dropped lower. "I see..." She nodded her head slowly, then straightened, her face sharpening with a seriousness,
"I am not sure what might have happened to the sixth one, or even how it vanished after my death. I was trapped in the cave for so long, a prisoner of silence and stone, until My Queen released ..." Her words trailed into a heavy pause before she continued, "It went by the na, during my era,
Gaius Terravita... A place... built by Dwarfs only."
Aether’s frown deepened at once,"Built by Dwarfs?"
Starla nodded, her voice unwavering. "Indeed. Unlike the other Empires, this one was far more unique than all the others..." Her eyes lowered slightly, shimring with mory, then wavered as though what she recalled pained her.
"They called themselves... Mother’s First Creation... the only Humans, and the Origins of every other being."
Aether’s face paled, his lips parting slightly as curiosity and unease mixed. "Only Humans? Origins?"
Starla nodded slowly,
"Mother’s First Creation... Humans were the basic foundation of all others... like us." She motioned to herself, then toward the others, and finally to Aether.
"They were the pure human creatures, unlike us... who were modified versions of them."
Aether’s face drew into a deeper frown. ’Modified versions?’ he thought, "Then what happened to them? Where are they now?"
Starla only shrugged, "As I ntioned, I don’t know... I didn’t even know they disappeared until they ntioned." She slowly lifted her hand, pointing toward Nightfire and Nyx.
Aether leaned back on the bed, his body sinking into the sheets as his thoughts tangled into a storm. His mind muddled with countless fragnts, trying desperately to connect the scattered dots he had seen so far.
His Previous World’s Language.
His Previous World’s Technology.
His Previous World, sohow linked to the current one... yet it still wasn’t making sense.
At first, he thought the evidence—his language, his knowledge of technology—was proof that soone else had been reincarnated here, much like him... well, similar to him at least.
But this... this was different. If what Starla said was true, then his world itself had been entwined with this one. It wasn’t just a coincidence. It wasn’t just reincarnation.
It was a direct link, a bridge between realities?
The possibility chilled him.
So... sothing had happened after his death?
Had his previous world changed, shifted, and caused this strange overlap?
Was he, in truth, reborn into a modified Earth?
But... didn’t his Log say his soul had been severed from the real one?
That he was ant to live within the Earth as a separate shard of himself?
If that was so... did that an he had been living in two tilines simultaneously?
A Past Earth, as Aether...
And a New Earth, as Ether?
But how?
So that ant... the people who ca, the ones who kidnapped others—were they humans?
If so... then where were they now?
Fuck!
With so little information, with so many pieces missing, he couldn’t understand what the hell was going on anymore!
The more he thought, the more the puzzle twisted into sothing unbearable.
"Wait... if you knew all this... just how freaking old are you?" Aether asked in a curious and surprised tone.
Starla only shrugged again, "I don’t know... I didn’t count my days in the cave... maybe thousands... or... ten-thousands... I am not sure."
Aether’s throat tightened. He gulped hard and turned toward Nyx. But Nyx only gave the faintest shrug, her expression unreadable, as if she truly didn’t know anything about this either.
After all... she only wanted her family, right? Who cared about the finer details of a broken history?
Who cared... except him.
Aether pressed his eyebrows together, his thoughts racing again. "So the palace in the Pyra Empire... and... that elephant, and the other tallic wolves and creatures... created by them... ah." His words slipped out, half-muttered, laced with a thoughtful expression as he tried to piece the impossible truth together.
Aether nodded inwardly, as if trying to convince himself that sothing about all this made sense, though another part of him resisted, refusing to accept it.
So why were they suddenly appearing now? What force had awakened them after all this ti?
Was it because of The Beginning—
"Wait!" Aether flinched as a spark of realisation struck, connecting fragnts in his mind like lightning.
"The Beginning... the origins... was it aning about them coming back again?" he muttered, surprise and thoughtfulness.
___
[A/N: Images of Empire and how it ford are in the comnts section check that]
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