Past Arc 20
People walked with heavy steps, avoiding the pile of rubble.
Leading the way was a man in a suit that, under normal circumstances, would have been kept clean, now soiled by dust.
Those following him were similarly grimy, their faces drained of vitality.
Peace had prevailed just yesterday.
It had vanished abruptly on this day.
Buildings lay flattened, roads overturned with the earth beneath, and weapons that had fought desperately to halt the destruction now lay scattered as scrap.
Amid this hellish scene, one figure stood out starkly: a dragon, impaled as if driven through a high-rise apartment complex.
Similar scenes were appearing across the world.
Dragons, suddenly turning their fangs against humanity.
Faced with their overwhelming power, humanity had little capacity to respond.
Even weapons developed under Potimas’s extensive use of MA energy proved incapable of countering dragons.
Despite their performance far exceeding previous models, such weapons could only delay dragons for a brief moment.
Yet, in terms of reducing damage by buying just that brief window of time until Sariel arrived, the weapon held purpose.
The weapon itself, however, was an affront to dragon pride.
The reason dragons had suddenly turned on humanity was gradually becoming known.
The truth about what MA energy truly was.
Learned directly from the mouth of a dragon — a killer by nature.
At first, the upper echelons of the nations that had promoted MA energy attempted to conceal this fact.
Yet, in a world where communication networks had advanced, such silence could not endure.
The truth gradually spread.
Even so, people could not abandon MA energy.
Not when protection from the threat of dragons was required.
Before the power of dragons, human capability was limited.
But limited did not mean zero.
Ironically, the very few means available necessitated the use of MA energy.
And so, they waited.
For salvation in the form of Syriel.
Alongside the revelation of MA energy, word spread that Syriel’s existence would aid humanity.
Only Syriel could oppose the dragons.
And the only resistance people could offer was to buy time until Syriel arrived.
Still, the damage was severe.
Numerous cities were destroyed. Many perished. Survivors lost their homes.
They learned the truth firsthand.
The embodiment of an unreasonable power, the dragon—its mercilessness.
The despair that no human could resist.
Two entities that opposed that despair.
One was Syriel.
The sole being capable of opposing the dragon, humanity’s savior.
The other was Potimas Haifenas.
The discoverer of MA energy, and the architect of this current state.
Thus, he had anticipated this crisis and had prepared in advance for resistance against the dragon.
Potimas fully understood the nature of MA energy.
He knew precisely what would result from its use.
He had also predicted the possibility of the dragon or Syriel initiating sanctions.
To prepare for that eventuality, Potimas had advanced weapons development.
Amidst his original pursuit of eternal life, he distributed weapon schematics across nations.
Then, the nations would manufacture weapons on their own.
Having gained access to M.A. energy—endless and inexhaustible—each nation began developing weapons in competition with one another.
To gain an advantage over other nations.
Potimas was internationally wanted, yet the knowledge derived from his mind held value.
Thus, nations secretly supported Potimas, in exchange for partial access to that knowledge.
Unaware they were dancing on the palm of his hand.
And so, the Anti-Deity Defense Grid was constructed.
If Potimas had miscalculated anything, it was that the Dragon would move sooner than expected, and that he had underestimated the Dragon’s combat strength.
Potimas had assumed his own designed weapons, while unable to defeat the Dragon, could at least hold their ground.
Yet, in reality, they could not even buy time.
That was only meaningful because of Syriel’s intervention.
Without Syriel siding with humanity, the outcome would have been nothing but annihilation.
Left unchecked, he would eventually be killed by the Dragon.
The urgency of that threat drove Potimas to intensify his research beyond anything he had done before.
He had never been lax in his work.
Yet, the dread of imminent death shattered the fragile constraints of reason within Potimas, driving him toward more grotesque experiments.
And so he reached it.
He reached it—too late.
A method outside the laws of nature: converting living organisms into MA energy.
Using MA energy extracted from that process, Potimas conducted an evolutionary experiment—on himself.
A method different from any evolution before.
By focusing evolution on lifespan extension, Potimas succeeded in achieving a lifespan far exceeding those of previous evolutionary stages.
In later generations, evolved into the race known as elves.
Yet, even with extended longevity, the looming threat of dragons remained intact.
Even if Syriel slew several dragons, humanity would perish before all dragons were eradicated.
Syriel was one against many.
Having completed the calculation, Potimas chose not to resist, but to flee.
Evacuation to space.
Preparations advanced steadily.
Yet, fortune or misfortune, Potimas never launched into space.
Before that, the dragons disappeared.
Their MA energy drawn from the stars, completely stripped.