Dreadwolf, Lord of Runes

Aelia, Anna, Mira, and Lyra panned their gazes between each other for a moment. They simply weren't sure where to start. Fortunately, Kane helped them out. "Just tell me about the history first, go as far back as you can, and then just tell me what you know until we reach current day and age."

They once again shared some glances, but then Aelia nodded and took the word, "Alright… We know there was once a great war being waged between immortals, presumably our ancestors. We don't know why, or between who, but supposedly, that war left our world of Eldovar in ruins."

Kane quickly noted the name Eldovar in his mind, as apparently being the name of this world. 'Although, if Primaterra really is the only landmass, perhaps there's not much difference for me,' he thought to himself.

Meanwhile, he nodded for Aelia to continue, "All other landmasses sank to the bottom of the great sea, leaving only Primaterra behind… or so we thought?"

At that point, she raised an eyebrow at Kane, who still claimed to be from another continent, but he simply shrugged with a small smile and motioned for her to move on.

So, she did, "Anyway… We don't know how the war ended exactly, but the immortals then lost both their immortality, and their knowledge. They left behind great relics like this one," at that point she gestured around her, "but forgot how to build or operate them."

Kane nodded along and frowned, before adding his own perspective, "Or perhaps everyone who knew simply died in the war?"

Aelia shrugged, "Maybe, but there's likely more to it than that."

Naturally, that got Kane's attention as he raised an eyebrow, "Oh? How so?"

Naturally, Aelia and the others were confused about how Kane was supposedly from another continent, despite knowing nothing about Eldovar's history, but they knew better than to ask. Kane didn't care about their doubts, either.

So long as this was the only story they knew, it was the only story they could tell if someone ever broke through the mark to force them, and that was the most important to him.

So instead, Aelia answered his question, "Because when I say our ancestors lost their knowledge, I don't just mean no one remembered, I mean there was no record of anything left behind. Any data or information about the time before the end of the war was simply erased."

Kane frowned and turned to the holographic Ella, "Ella? Is that true? There's no information about this facility's history, or how any of it actually works?"

The elf-turned-AI nodded with a frown of her own, "I haven't done a deep search yet, but I do believe so. The mainframe's operating system has basic information about functions and operations, but that's it. And even that data is corrupted in many places, although I suspect that's simply a consequence of time."

Kane turned thoughtful as he nodded, "Sounds like someone deliberately wiped that information. But by who? And why? Was there a victor in the war who did so and then disappeared, or was it the creators themselves, who noticed the destructiveness of their technology, and decided to bury any knowledge of it?"

Aelia shrugged, she clearly didn't care much about it, "There are almost as many theories as there are people on Primaterra, but no one with any proof. To our knowledge, anyway."

Kane scratched the stubble on his chin as he internalized the new information. Then, he asked, "So, how long ago did all this happen?"

"No one knows for sure," Aelia answered while shaking her head. "Supposedly, the end of the war was followed by a time of chaos on Primaterra that we now refer to as the 'dark ages'. Very little record exists of that time, but we do know it ended many thousands of years ago when Primaterra began to be stabilized into several different kingdoms."

Hearing that timeframe, Kane felt forced to blink in confusion, "Wait, thousands of years?" he uttered in partial shock. "Are you saying you've essentially remained unchanged in that time? Hasn't anyone tried to figure out this technology?"

Before Aelia could answer that question, the holographical Ella frowned and asked another one, "Before you answer that, could you tell me what the highest stage Mystic is that you know of?"

Aelia raised an eyebrow and panned her gaze between Ella and Kane, as if wondering who to answer first. Fortunately, Kane helped her out, "Answer Ella's question first, I'm curious, too."

So, she turned to Ella with a strange expression, "Fourth stage, of course. Why? Were there more stages on your 'continent'?"

The scepticism by which Aelia now treated their claim of being from a different continent didn't go unnoticed, but it did go entirely ignored. Her words did, however, appear to confirm Mána's claim of this being a second phase world, although that only brought more questions. Like why this world did have aether crystals.

So, rather than engage with that, Ella asked another question, "So, let me guess, there have actually been people that have tried to figure out how to recreate this technology, but they've been unable to figure it out, right?"

Aelia narrowed her eyes slightly, as if debating whether or not she should call out Ella for ignoring her question. The others, even Anna and Lyra, now also looked far more sceptically at them. It was quickly becoming an open secret that their story about another continent was bull.

In the end, however, they took the non-confrontational path, when Aelia scoffed softly, before nodding, "Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of fear about this technology as well, because many people believe it was to blame for the war that nearly destroyed our world. But, supposedly, there's also plenty of people who've tried and failed to replicate it."

Kane now grew even more confused. 'There's no way a world spends thousands of years without any significant technological advancement, especially when they're already surrounded by all this advanced tech… right?'

Before he could ask that question out loud, however, it was the doll-sized Ella on his shoulder who realized his confusion and gave an explanation. "It's because of the world's phase, Master."

Kane turned to her, and indicated for her to continue.

"A world's phase doesn't only limit the stage Mystics can reach, it also limits any other form of power to that level," she continued thoughtfully. "Essentially, it's the fundamental laws of the universe that are stopping these people from understanding the technology here."

But Kane frowned, and shook his head, "That still doesn't make sense. Those immortals, or ancestors, or whatever, they lived here, too, correct? So how did they create this technology then?"

"Well…" a thoughtful, yet hesitant Ella muttered. "I think everything could be explained if we assume this world was once in a higher phase, but then was somehow regressed after that immortal war…"

Kane blinked, but he wasn't too surprised. He'd only recently learned about world phases to begin with, so he didn't really know how it worked yet. "Okay… That's probably not usual, right?" he asked, curiously.

Ella instantly shook her head and shrugged helplessly, "I've certainly never heard of it, Master, but you should probably ask Lady Mána about it. All I'm saying is that it would explain everything. Including the aether crystals."

But before Kane could ask anything else, Ella decided to confuse the issue even more. "But that's not all that's strange about this, because, to my knowledge, the only thing a world needs to advance to the next phase is time… and thousands of years is far too long a time to remain in the second phase."