Minutes earlier...
'Zydrax, wake Elisa up. we need to reopen the portal'
[I can't do that]
'What? Why?'
[You saved her from utter annihilation, but not entirely. Part of her head scalded by flames, and I don't think she'll be using her right eye anytime soon]
Ezra's head dropped.
[Even if we woke her up, she's in no condition to open a portal]
'Zydrax, help me get up'
[Joining them wouldn't be of any help] Zydrax replied. [If we don't find a way out of here soon, you will die]
'Are you suggesting-
[Yes, I will boost your strength and you run faster-
'No' Ezra shut it down.
'That already failed' he said, his thoughts clear. 'I'm not abandoning them a second time'
[Then you will all die] Zydrax replied.
'Then so be it. I wouldn't be able live with myself if I ran away now'
How would he hold himself as a person if he abandoned his subordinates and fled every time he faced a stronger opponent.
The first time already had him feeling inherently pathetic, he wasn't doing it a second time.
Barely on his feet, Ezra keenly watched the fight.
[You have no chance of beating him as you are now]
'I don't believe that'
He'd hurt him once. He could definitely do it again.
Now, the situation irked Ezra in more ways than one.
Especially Zydrax's attitude.
'For someone claiming to be Orion's guardian, it is disappointing that you propose fleeing in front of the enemy'
'It was my mistake hoping you'd be able to do something'
[...]
Zydrax wanted to say something but didn't.
Shaking off dust, Ezra inhaled and then stood upright.
Closing his eyes, he examined his internals, the well of energy and streams of mana within him.
Ezra was far from actualizing his full potential, and he knew it too.
He focused on Alvarach, visualizing his previous attacks.
From his speed to the sharpness of his claws, absurd casting speed, not to mention the fire he kept repressed.
Little by little...
Crackle*
Small sparks of lightning began forming on the outside of his skin.
Ezra's words hit Zydrax like thunder and kept echoing.
Zydrax felt even more pathetic, from the mighty being he was once, reduced to a guard to such a worthless planet.
Now, he'd turned so weak he was being talked down to by an existence yet to step even out of his planet.
It was the height of humiliation.
But after so many centuries, Zydrax wasn't shaken.
He knew what he was doing. He had a plan and was following it to the letter, he knew the possibilities and see effects far farther than Ezra could possibly imagine.
But Ezra didn't, and he couldn't force him to.
The leftovers from his astral form were about to perish when it encountered Orion.
Being such a weak planet, Zydrax was initially displeased, but with no other option, he assimilated with it.
In doing so, he came less of a living being and more of a conceptualized one.
A being spawned from the universe and bounded by its rules.
Zydrax was then sealed to the planet, incapable of separation as his consciousness became the world's will.
He cursed in utter damnation, plans to recuperate and then head elsewhere were ruined.
But as a being of his level, he was quick to calm down.
All things remained possible so long he remained alive.
In that case, things were not so bad.
Zydrax was quick to note that he'd come to Orion just a few centuries after its birth.
While initially displeased, he'd later learn that this had been one of the reasons he was able to survive at all.
If his astral remnant had tried to inhabit a developed planet, the residing will would have fought against his domination and in that scenario, chances of his remnant being destroyed were quite high.
As a baby planet, Zydrax's watched and guided its habitants, prompting unmatched growth in all areas of life.
The more time passed, the more laws of conceptuality ingrained into his being.
After multiple centuries, his origin was restructured and he became a true conceptualize being, as if created that way.
As a result, he lost the strength he accumulated and any way to regain it. But gained new strengths.
It was also the moment the flames of revenge seething within drastically cooled.
While he didn't forget and dare not forgive, like his being, his entire plan had to be restructured.
For he could no longer take that revenge on his own terms, he'd have to use someone else, and that's how he raised the inhabitants of Orion.
But he didn't know until later that his conceptualization had given away Orion's location.
Soon after, the first demon invasion occurred.
His efforts shone as Oranians pushed them back.
The problem came afterwards.
Many of the inhabitants surpassed his expectations, reaching planet rank before the designated time, and that would call for serious trouble.
Then, he picked out the most favourable few and approached them, but none of them was willing to do his bidding.
Having lived lives of constant battling, they valued their freedom above all else, to become the proxy of another being was beyond them.
Moreover, he needed them to pause their advancements for at least a few millennia, and in essence, as long as he told them too.
This, to such people, was even more absurd than the first proposal, and they rejected without a second thought.
This made Zydrax angry, extremely, his efforts were about to go down the drain, and not only that, should a plethora of them exceed planet rank, they would call down a force beyond their wildest dreams.
As a being who once stood close at a level only looked down by the peak hegemonies of power, he would never let himself be enslaved.
No, should he be discovered, the life of all Oranians would forever change.
So, after careful deliberation, he took a most drastic step...and wiped out the top two classes of power!
Transcendentals and Mythical ranks!
Late-stage Grandmasters were wiped as well.
Moreover, in the process of trying to resist, Grandmasters died in droves as well.
Not only that, ninety percent of scrolls containing methods to rise to such ranks were destroyed and the many artifacts were hidden, many destroyed.
It was the end of Orion's golden era, the event later dubbed as the Great Devouring.
And it happened in the span of a day!
Landscapes underwent massive changes.
The day after this event was the most confusing for Oranians.
Where, lest a few, the top ruling powers had died, leaving not a corpse as their bodies burst into showers of mana.
What followed was an era of untamed Chaos, and the reorganisation of many things.
Most of the powers in today's Orion took Origin in that era.
For conceptualized beings, every action prompted bigger effects, and in this case, his drastic actions prompted drastic consequences.
Zydrax was immensely weakened, and his ability to act or impact Oranians was heavily restricted.
He'd expected backlash, but when it came, he realized he'd underestimated the cost of his actions.
Zydrax didn't regret his actions though, they had to be done.
The restrictions made sure Oranians had far more freedom to develop naturally.
For that reason, he was unable to do things as he'd planned, which was to groom a few into top powers for his bidding.
Normally, he would be unable to do anything to the inhabitants, but with the vast knowledge he had, he was able to bend the restrictions, but only slightly.
As a result, he had to settle with picking a single entity to groom to the transcendent level, and most importantly, it couldn't be unyielding like its predecessors.
It was a gamble with a very slim success rate, and as such, Zydrax pulled all stops.
One, he wouldn't pick Grandmasters or Masters, those were more prone to arrogance.
He also wouldn't pick any less than adept rank, they had to have a sense of survival and inherent ambition to be of best use.
As a being living more than a millennium, he was happy to wait, and as such, was picky.
That backfired when the demons began resurging.
Someone, somehow made contact with a demon, and soon, the demon cult was formed.
With his abilities thoroughly restricted, Zydrax couldn't simply wipe them away.
Moreover, he couldn't directly converse with more than one person at a time, and once he did, till the person died, he couldn't talk to anybody else.
Worse, Orion hadn't shaken off the effects of his last stunt and was incapable of thwarting mythical rank demons should they emerge.
With no one worthy in sight, Zydrax moved to stop it himself, forcing a battle of attrition where he blocked their attempts to open a portal connecting the two places.
But there was a problem.
The laws restricting him couldn't be reasoned with, they couldn't tell he was thwarting an enemy from invading.
So he couldn't directly wipe away demons either, all he could was to stop them from entering by directly wrecking any portals created.
Only, like him, the inhabitants could also think.
Forcefully closing the portals required energy on Zydrax's part, the same amount used to create it.
Under Alvarach's guidance, they drew a magic circle covering Lexon as a whole.
The circle sucked the soul energy out of anything that died within it, and transported that energy onto one spot-the small crystal held up above the blood pool-which would act as a catalyst to open the portal.
Zydrax realized their plans, but now incapable of direct intervention, there was nothing he could do.
Days passed with the crystal more and more soul strength, creating a sense of crisis for Zydrax.
If their invasion was successful, it would ultimately lead to the outcome he most dreaded, the one he wiped out Transcendentals to prevent.
Worse, in lieu of his very picky attitude, anyone even remotely close to the required standard was dead.
In such bleak times, a ray of light shone.
Literally, a beam of light appeared in the night sky out of nowhere.
He deducted the object's identity with the energy it gave off only to be shocked.
It was the actualization of a Great wish.
But the item capable of bringing it forth didn't exist in Orion-so where did it come from?
From that moment, it held Zydrax's attention, and he watched it land into the chest of a baby.
Since then, he'd been keeping an extra eye on Ezra.
At all angles, the boy was anything but normal, he surpassed Zydrax's expectations-which was hard to do-multiple times.
Then, the more he looked, the more he saw similarities between the old him and Ezra.
The drive for revenge was most palatable, as was the drive to end his enemies.
Then, his ability to scheme so masterfully.
Without knowing, Zydrax was drawn closer to the boy.
Still, he didn't make a move.
He had to ensure his character, and having waited so long, he could certainly wait a bit more.
About the same time, the demons began knocking harder, drawing away his attention.
