[We have reached 500,000+ views in a year and four months!
Honestly this is unexpected but to those reading this novel, I am thankful for getting this far. Just so you know, this is barely half of the lore. There is still a lot of arcs coming and this has given me the motivation to go on. I thank you for reading The Ingenious Aeterium Prince. I hope you will continue reading this. Now then, as a gift, it's time to reveal something special for those who have followed the story since the beginning.]
"When I enrolled in Minafallen Academy, I wasn't simply tested on knowledge or combat capability. The Academy uses forced experiential evaluation. Seven trials were conducted inside a Timeskipping Event. You're sent into a historical fracture point and evaluated based on how you alter it. I was sent to this colosseum but not as it is now. I think this place was called Anes Panara? It was operational, using blood sport as civic entertainment. The first test was combat qualification. I was forced into the arena."
"And Arletta?"
"She wasn't Arletta yet. She was known as Minafallen. She was the champion gladiator. The Academy intentionally placed me against her.nWe fought. She was meant for survival but she was still constrained by the rules of the arena. I defeated her and instead of killing her, I offered her a choice. I made her my first subordinate."
Asenane absorbed that information. This was the first she was hearing of it.
"Once we exited the arena, the second test triggered. We were directed toward a volcanic region near the colosseum. There was a creature nesting there called a Lavalouse."
"A what?"
"A parasitic magma organism. It destabilized the mountain's core. If it was left unchecked, it would have erupted the entire region. I killed it. After its termination, the Academy System materialized an artifact as reward that absorbed the entire lava mass of the volcano. The artifact was shaped like a black pulsating egg. It radiated heat but internally contained the magma."
"That was only the second test."
"Yup. The third test activated once we descended. We were being tailed by colosseum guards. The Academy required elimination. I killed them with Arletta. Now that I remember, I called her Chainless back then."
That name was old. It made him realize just how much time passed.
"The fourth test required structural destabilization of the colosseum system itself. I had to free every hostage and gladiator still imprisoned. That night, before we initiated the operation, my Memory Implantation and Extraction activated during sleep. That ability has always reacted unpredictably. When I extract a memory, it doesn't isolate the target cleanly. I see more than intended."
"And that's when you saw Arletta's life?"
"Yes. I saw her childhood, her capture and how she became Minafallen. And when I used Memory Extraction on the guards back then, it triggered that memory. It always does, even now. That's how I obtained memory fragments of Vasreveilder Nov Aeteria's Omniscient when I entered the Hidden Citadel."
Asenane was speechless.
"Arletta and I formulated a plan. Direct combat against the entire colosseum infrastructure would have resulted in mass civilian casualties. So we prepared with runic destabilization. I used an enchantment of my Codex, Veil of the Ingenious Prince. We operated invisibly through the colosseum's underground, carving Explosion Runes into stone. The next morning, I entered the arena voluntarily."
Her eyes widened.
"You what?"
"Yeah, I initiated a speech. It wasn't heroic. I targeted the slaves. I made the gladiators see what they had normalized. When the Runes detonated, the entire containment network collapsed. The slaves and gladiators fought back. The overseers fell. The gates were breached and we evacuated into the forest."
It was the same forest they stood in now. He gestured around them, remembering how he was thanked by the old man leading the slaves and gladiators. He also remembered giving him the egg.
"I gave them the artifact from the Lavalouse."
"You just… handed it to them?"
"I believed it would protect them."
"From what?"
"External suppression. Also, I didn't trust it. I did not fully understand the artifact's long-term effects so I just let them have it."
"And Arletta?"
"She chose to follow me. She came with her wolf too. It's been a long time since I've seen her with it. Biolumine likes it. Wonder where it is now."
That detail felt almost absurdly gentle against the rest of the revelation. Asenane stood there, absorbing everything. The seven trials, the arena fight, the volcanic kill, the artifact, the execution of guards, the mass liberation, the runic sabotage, the revolutionary speech, the exodus into this forest...
"So the tribe was founded by freed gladiators and slaves, empowered by a volcanic artifact you didn't fully understand. What about the tests?"
"The tests stopped and we ended up at the Seventh. It was me facing Natas, the Omniscient of History. He's the keeper of this world's timeline, the one who weaves the threads of what was, what is, and what might be. Or at least, that's what he said. When I got there—teleported or pulled or whatever divine bullshit it was—I found myself in this massive chamber deep underground or in some pocket dimension."
"There was this tall, thin humanoid standing in the center. And beside him was this enormous sphere, pulsating faintly. The humanoid was the subordinate of Natas. He said to me and Phaenora that the sphere is called Sphere Natas and it holds the power of Creation.'"
He stopped abruptly. Then, a low chuckle escaped his lips.
"Fuck... now it all makes sense. By the Primordials, how did I not see it before?"
"What? What makes sense?"
"The sphere... when we—when I—approached it in that chamber, it was connected to thousands of tubes and wires snaking embedded into the walls, the floor and the ceiling. It was like veins in a colossal heart. And every few seconds, this dark green energy would pulse through them, surging out in waves. The humanoid explained it all. It was the foundation of the Academy System. The thing powered everything."
"The Academy System? The one that... wait, go on."
"The Academy System takes the bodies and souls of any living being killed by the Minafallen Students and converts them. It turns death into power. Artifacts are forged from essence, physical bodies are strengthened and ranks are enhanced by it It was the backbone of the First Epoch Cycle. It's how we survived the chaos back then. Natas said his role was to maintain the world's history. But then he looked at me and said that whatever happened was predestined. The people I saved would grow into a massive civilization and become known in the legends. It all makes sense now. I've always wondered why Natas' Omniscient Academy System was powerful enough to pull off feats that not even Phaenora could touch. It's because he has the Split of Creation. The humanoid said it outright. The sphere holds the power of Creation. And that sphere..."
Asenane's eyes widened. Her hand flying to her mouth as she finally realized it.
"The black sphere, the one you gave to the freed gladiators back then, the artifact that helped them escape and build their future, that's... that's the same sphere you saw in that chamber. It's Sphere Natas itself."
Vastarael nodded slowly with a grim smile tugging at his lips.
"Exactly. Someway somehow, Natas got his hands on it. Or maybe he always had it. The gladiators took it, built their civilization with its power and then what?"
"Darling, if the Split of Creation wasn't in the volcano like we thought then that means..."
Vastarael threw his head back and laughed but there was no joy in it.
"The Lavalouse. It was the Split of Creation all along. It must have been infected by the Krepsuna Virus and twisted into that monstrous form we fought. Now everything makes sense. The power it held, the way it warped reality around it, that wasn't just viral corruption; it was Creation itself but corrupted."
He sighed and faced Asenane with a smirk.
"My own endeavor caused everything to happen. I caused my own Timeskipping Event."