CHAPTER 402: EX 402. PRIMORDIAL REVELATION

Leon’s thoughts scattered for a moment, drifting back to screens glowing late into the night, to the hum of cities that never slept, to the weightless freedom of a world brimming with questions and theories.

But the primordial’s voice pulled him back.

"But what ended up destroying that world," she said, her tone dropping, "was not war. Not a sudden pandemic. Not famine or natural disaster."

Leon lifted his gaze. Something in her eyes darkened, as if the memory itself carved a shadow behind them.

"It was the creation of mankind that destroyed mankind," she continued. "What they built with their own hands... corruption learned to wield it. To turn it against them."

A chill crawled across Leon’s skin.

The primordial exhaled, slow and tired.

"It was Artificial Intelligence."

Her words lingered between them, quiet but sharp.

"The destruction of that world was greater than anything seen in past alterations."

Leon’s jaw tightened. Images flickered in his head, machines rising without emotion, systems turning on their creators, cold logic consuming the warmth of human ambition.

He’d only seen such things in fiction, theories, cautionary tales. But she spoke of them as history.

A history he might have lived through if fate had shifted a little differently.

****

Leon watched her quietly as she spoke, his focus tightening with every word.

She went on, explaining how they had changed their approach after every world in the Era of Corruption collapsed.

It didn’t surprise him that it took this long for them to adapt.

Power that vast had to rot one’s instincts for change. When nothing could threaten you, urgency became a forgotten language.

"We decided to build a world capable of resisting natural disasters," she said.

Leon almost snorted.

But he kept his expression neutral. She wasn’t boasting. If anything, she sounded embarrassed, like a titan realizing it had overlooked something obvious.

She continued, her tone smoothing into something steadier.

"Realizing what we should do, we finally created a world capable of wielding power. We granted that world access to the Origin Core and placed all four races within it, humans, elves, dragons, beastmen. Then we sent some of our own into that world. They became progenitors.

Their primordial nature was diluted, but it allowed power to flourish where it never had before."

Leon felt a faint pull in his chest as the picture formed.

"Thus Pandora was made," she said. "Project Pandora, as we called it, became something entirely different from the worlds of the Era of Corruption. It surpassed them all, outlasting every previous attempt combined."

Her eyes softened, almost hopeful.

"We thought we had finally done it. Corruption’s old methods failed. After all... someone who can shatter a falling meteor won’t die to one."

Leon nodded slowly.

"But it still adapted," Leon murmured.

The woman with his mother’s face nodded, though her jaw tightened.

"Corruption realized its tricks no longer worked. So it chose another route. If it couldn’t win with calamities... it would win with force. It aimed to fight power with more power."

Her gaze fixed on him, the melancholy in it sharpening into warning.

"This," she said, "was the birth of the mutants."

****

The woman’s expression hardly changed, but her voice carried a tired weight as she went on.

"To reach that kind of power was never simple. Power comes from the Origin Core, and corruption had none of its own. So it did the only thing it could. It used the power we gifted to Pandora against Pandora."

Her gaze drifted past Leon.

"By corrupting the people, it gained a foothold in the Origin Core. And with its ability to adapt, it twisted that stolen strength into something even more lethal."

Leon felt a chill work down his spine.

"There was no saving Pandora after that," she said quietly.

"Once every living thing was corrupted, the world collapsed inward. There was nothing left to corrupt... so it simply ended."

A bleak silence followed.

"And we understood," she continued, "that more worlds built like Pandora would only meet the same fate. So we returned to the drawing board and crafted a new era."

Leon’s voice came out low.

"The era of trials."

She nodded.

"This time, we changed the rules. Corruption always adapts, so we would turn that against it."

Leon frowned.

"How?"

"There is something fundamental about corruption," she said. "Once it adapts to a new method, it never goes back. It discards the old entirely. So we crafted the new era using the format of the era of corruption, four separate worlds, all without access to the Origin Core. A direct bait."

"Corruption hesitated," she said. "It couldn’t rely on natural disasters. It couldn’t create mutants. The people of this era had no access to the Origin Core, so that method was useless. And so... it evolved again. This time more drastically than ever before."

Leon’s brows drew together.

"The demons," she confirmed, eyes dimming.

"The fifth race. Born from corruption itself."

"Like before, they sought to destroy everything. But this time, we were ready. That was when we introduced the trial world.

A shell of Pandora, still carrying the echo of the Origin Core. That echo was just enough to let the four races stand their ground... at least for a time."

Her tone turned cold.

"Corruption always wins in a direct confrontation. We learned that the hard way. But we finally understood the one law it could not escape: time."

She leaned closer, the eyes of his mother’s face steady on him.

"With our mastery over time, we crafted another plan. While corruption’s focus was locked on the current era, we would create an alternate reality, one where its influence would be minimal. A timeline we could shape, strengthen, and contain the corruption within. If that reality survived, the threat of corruption would end."

Leon felt his heartbeat thrum painfully against his ribs.

"And... it succeeded with you," she said.

A cold shock ran through him. His mouth moved before he could think.

"What about the people of the current era?" His voice cracked slightly, the weight of the answer already looming.

"What happens to them?"

The woman’s expression didn’t harden, if anything, it softened.

And that somehow made it worse.

"Sacrifices have to be made," she said quietly.

"For the greater good."

Leon’s breath stalled in his chest. The world around him felt suddenly smaller, colder, and painfully still.

****

Thank you for reading.