The Rise of the Black Plain

While avoiding looking at that strange statue, the beings in the surroundings were sweating coldly, taking slow steps as they scanned the surroundings.

Some of them avoided entering the buildings, hoping that someone would do so and show them the consequence of entering one of those buildings. But others were slowly approaching those buildings that they considered less dangerous.

The buildings there resembled those of humans in some ways, but they also had unique characteristics.

The streets did not have enough space for carriages to pass, just enough for pedestrians to walk through. At the same time, there were many squares, where there would always be a statue in the middle of it similar to the one above, and well-kept green lawns. Still, there were no signs of people maintaining the place.

Most buildings had oddly shaped roofs as if they were antennas pointing to the sky. But the walls and floors of the whole area seemed to be made of a kind of substance that could change shape at any moment.

How this could happen, no one there knew, but everyone had this feeling that the surrounding environment was in one shape now but could quickly look totally different.

Someone finally mustered the courage to enter one of the properties there, which strangely followed a building pattern that others would later see around several of those squares.

Inside this kind of property, which appeared to be residential, there would only be one large bedroom, a living room, and a kitchen. Nothing else, such as a bathroom or an office, much less a recreational area, could be seen in this construction model.

The internal areas were minimalist, and apart from a few pictures and common items, nothing else could be seen there.

One of the beings first entering one of these areas saw a picture of two beings together, a woman who looked human and a tall, strong man at least 50% bigger than the woman next to him.

The man seemed to have a neutral look on his face, while the woman smiled as if she was fulfilling her dream.

Looking at that, that being of the sea felt a flood of emotions in its being, as if it could understand what was happening at the moment this painting had been made.

'I feel as if something terrible is happening...'

Gulp!

'This woman submitted to this man, even though her death was guaranteed...

As for him, he did what he could not to disappear.' It didn't know whether to feel more sorry for the woman or the man.

From what it felt when it saw that image, both of them had died. But they had both accomplished their goals before dying: to leave something behind.

This beast looked at the woman's belly, which seemed a little larger than normal, and felt like it could hear a heart beating.

Amid these feelings, it felt as if the world around those two was ending, feeling the strangely strong energy there diminishing with each breath.

As it put itself in the shoes of those people in the image, this marine being pondered what would happen if the spiritual energy and laws of the Spiritual World began to continuously diminish at the same frequency as what had happened in that representation.

'If that happened, in a month, Demigods wouldn't be able to get stronger, and in a year, no one would be able to reach level 50 anymore when starting their cultivation journey in this world.' It swallowed its saliva and clenched its fists.

"What does all this mean? Is this a prophetic vision of a chaotic future?" It wondered aloud.

"Maybe it's about the past?" Another being wondered as it felt the same in another area of this city. "The ancient history of our world goes back only to 10 million years ago. Before that, not even the oldest tribe of the Spiritual World, the elves, knew about what happened before that.

Could it be that the spiritual energy suddenly declined in the remote past and then increased again?" He wondered, catching the eye of a mollusk near where he was standing.

"Impossible! Nothing would last that long. That can't be about the past. It can only be about the future!' That being who loved history more than anyone else thought about it, longing for the shocking winds that fate held for them all.

But in another part of that island, Minos had a somewhat different opinion than those beings!

...

After leaving the previous room, Minos climbed many flights of stairs and reached what appeared to be a large underground chamber, where a gigantic tomb lay in the center of it.

This tomb was 45 meters long, 10 meters wide, and had a pyramid shape, with its highest point at a height of 20 meters from the corridor Minos had just reached.

Minos wanted to float over that area to see the top of the pyramidal tomb, but he strangely could not float over that area.

But while having a very strange feeling, he saw the tombstone of the one supposedly resting there.

'Here lies Fah'um of Dunov.

He died after the Great Devastation, sleeping in his bed.

He had ten children, of whom one avenged.

His soul collapsed along with the end of Ponvuter's life energy. He was the last member of race 99 to live on Ponvuter.'

After reading that, Minos saw a side staircase leading to the highest point of that pyramid.

He climbed it with some difficulty, feeling as if the gravity there was much stronger than in the surroundings.

Nevertheless, he managed to reach the top of it and see that the pyramid seemed to be made of glass when viewed from above.

When he looked through those glass walls, he could see a mummified body as large as some of the giant bones in the Spatial Kingdom.

Seeing that, Minos opened his mouth, and his eyes trembled at the possibility in front of him.

'That... That's a member of that race?'

Gulp!

He felt a shiver run down his spine, for the first time encountering a being from the prehistoric of this world and reconsidering everything he knew about the Spiritual World.

'H... He, he is one of the... If that's true, then what's with those letters? Ponvuter just happens to be the Spiritual World. But how could 80% of it be over?'

As he wondered, Minos remembered a conversation he had with Laura many years ago in the Endless Snow Mountain Range.

'They self-destructed...'

"Can't it be that the Spiritual World is the result of what's left of Ponvuter?"

...