A thousand years ago, the world was set ablaze by a war that would shape the very foundations of history. The Demon King—Acronis, the so-called Demon God of Chaos and Destruction—unleashed his fury upon the mighty human empire of Verdun. His empire, the dark and brutal 'Arrbas', was forged in blood, hatred, and absolute dominion over the monstrous legions of the nether realms.
Before the war began, Acronis gave the Emperor of Verdun a chance to surrender, to kneel before the rising tide of darkness and destruction.
The man who stood against him—the last true sovereign of Verdun—was known across the lands by one title: 'The Godly One'. An emperor born of celestial mana and revered as half-divine, half-god, he chose resistance over submission, and with that choice, the Great War began.
What followed was a cataclysm on a scale that defied imagination.
Entire continents crumbled. Oceans boiled. Stars fell from the sky.
And in the end, both monarchs—the Demon King and the Godly Emperor—perished on the battlefield, locked in mortal combat, their deaths marking the end of an era.
But only one of them left a legacy that still threatens the world.
Before his demise, Acronis poured the last remnants of his soul—his hatred, jealousy, and thirst for destruction—into his final creations: The Primordials. Born not of flesh, but of chaos incarnate, these monstrous entities became his will made manifest. A parting curse upon the mortal realm.
Today, only three Primordials are confirmed to still exist, slumbering across the continent in three cardinal directions—each one a world-ending threat in its own right.
To the far East, nestled beyond the Central Rim and near the Neverending Oceans, lies the lair of Jormungandr, the World Serpent. Emperor of the Oceans. An ancient leviathan so vast, it coils around entire continents like a constrictor around its prey.
To the North, high above the frozen peaks, rages Vajra, the Storm Emperor. A being of eternal lightning and thunder, whose breath can shatter mountains and whose presence disrupts the very climate of the world.
To the West, buried beneath scorched ruins, slumbers Quetzalcoatl, the Emperor of Destruction. Said to be the most volatile of the three, its passing alone can cause earthquakes, and its roar can shatter the skies like glass.
Each of them is powerful enough to annihilate civilisations alone. They don't need to cooperate. They don't need armies. Their existence itself is a disaster.
The ancestors of the current empire, in the aftermath of the Great War, managed to subdue these beings—not by killing them, for that was impossible, but by putting them into deep hibernation, sacrificing countless lives and wielding magic now long forgotten.
But they were never truly gone.
Only asleep. Sort of hibernation, the Great Bear species are famous, known for.
And now… the first of them has awakened.
No wonder the mana beasts in the Beast Rims are acting erratically. No wonder they're fleeing their dens, dungeons and appearing in strange places, attacking our adventurers and hunters, myself included, without provocation.
They can sense what we can't.
They can feel the awakening of the ancient gods.
Jormungandr is stirring.
And that changes everything.
Another library of mysteries has just opened up in front of me—another ticking time bomb wrapped in ancient prophecy. And I'm supposed to care? I don't know. I glanced sideways at Dargan. Do you even understand what this means?
Like beasts, humans are bound by a ceiling—a limit to how far our strength can go, though unlike beasts, we've got our strength mapped out, like a system.
That ceiling is known as the Saint Stage—the final realm of Human strength. But even within this stage, there are layers, steps. The journey is not simple.
It goes like this...
First and foremost, comes 'The Cleansing Phase' (F to SS Rank)
From the moment a child truly awakens their dormant mana core, they enter the first phase of growth: Cleansing.
In this phase, the mana core is filled with impurities—traces of waste mana, residual energy, and spiritual dirt that hinder growth, efficiency and limit the amount of mana we can store inside, while also affecting the process to absorb and purify mana. As one ascends from F-Rank to E, then D, C, all the way to SS-Rank, your core is being purified. Layer by layer. Stage by stage.
The ultimate goal? Reach a point where your mana core becomes pure, efficient, and stable, without a single particle of impure mana.
When a person breaks into the Saint Stage, the core shrinks—about the size of a baseball—signifying that it has been completely refined. This purified state is the foundation for true evolution.
But here's the twist... For elemental users—like Mercy, Sara, and Lav—the Saint Stage is only the beginning.
For people like me—those without affinities—it's the end of the line, the endgame.
The Upgradation Phase... Once you become a Saint, there are no more internal layers to cleanse, to break through.
Instead, you must build external layers of your own elemental mana—like a fortress around your core. Each layer of your own elemental mana, moulded into pure form and wrapped around the purified core, which has now become an elemental mana core.
This is called the Upgradation Process.
Each layer added increases the core's capacity, output, and resonance with the environmental raw mana, which one must absorb before converting it into their own elemental mana. As these layers grow, the core returns to its original football-like size, only now it's not bloated with impurity—it's fortified with pure elemental power of an individual.
This phase ascends from: 1st Stage Saint to the 2nd, 3rd, all the way up to the 7th Stage.
The difference between a 1st Stage Sanit and a 7th Stage Saint?
The difference between an elite soldier and a walking catastrophe.
And me? I can't even start this phase, once I enter the Saint stage, my mana core will still remain the same, with no impurities of course, but the crucial step, which Mercy, Lav and Sara will go through which is converting their entire mana core, from a raw mana powered core, to their oen Elemental mana core, cannot be done by me... because I obviously lack an element to do so.
No affinity. No elemental resonance. No path forward.
My core doesn't grow in the same way. I don't evolve, I simply cannot, therefore I adapt. Rapidly, instinctively—but that road has no Saint stages, except 1st rank... if my connection and potential allow me to, though No future mapped out in neat little layers.
I'm not made to ascend like them.
I'm made to survive what's coming.
And my best chance?
Reaching the Saint rank.
Not for glory. Not for revenge.
For survival.
Because I can't protect anyone—not Lav, not Sara, not even myself if I don't have the strength to stay alive.
But the cruel truth? I can't ascend like the others.
I've gone over it a thousand times. The reason non-elementals like me can't break through… It's not just unfair. It's deadly.
Unlike elemental users, whose mana is intrinsically tied to their core, to their soul itself, mine is raw. Foreign. Half-owned.
I don't govern it. I borrowed it.
And raw mana, without a soul-bound element, can't be fully controlled. If I were to reach the Saint stage and attempt to construct pure mana layers over my core, like they do…
It would collapse.
Not quietly.
Violently.
A full detonation. One strong enough to wipe out cities—maybe all seven sister cities and even the Lunar Walls along with them.
That's why Saints undergo the True Elemental Manifestation the moment they ascend. A brutal, excruciating ritual where they realign their cores—shifting their very essence—to fully embody their innate element. Only then can they safely begin constructing the outer layers that define Saint advancement.
I don't have that luxury.
There's nothing to align with.
My mana isn't mine.
That's the truth I live with, every damn day.
I glanced at Sara, whose aura shimmered faintly with wind mana—elegant and wild. She'd likely reach A-rank in a few weeks. And then? The Saint rank would be within reach.
"Soon, you'll ascend," I thought bitterly, watching her.
"While I stay here... in the dirt."