A Background Character’s Path to Power

"Can you tell me why?"

I asked, settling into a more comfortable position among the bone fragments. Because I had a feeling this was going to be a long and important conversation.

Zephyr glanced at me for a moment and nodded slowly. "Since Master brought you here, he probably wanted you to hear it as well."

He was quiet for a moment, organizing his thoughts before speaking again.

"Do you know about the Void Cascade?" he asked, his voice taking on a more serious tone. "It happened during the late Convergence Era, just before the great Fracture."

I shook my head.

The name was completely unfamiliar to me, though something about it sent a chill down my spine.

"I thought so," Zephyr continued. "It's not something they teach in academies or mention in history books. Most records of it were deliberately destroyed or sealed away."

"This place... It's one of the scars left behind from that event."

"Scars?" I echoed, my fingers unconsciously tracing the faint outline of my sword. The word seemed too simple to capture the horror behind it. But then again, there's no need to always use complicated words.

"That's right, scars. And there might be more places like this, deeper, more hidden ones that even Virion hasn't discovered yet."

I nodded, but he still hadn't answered my original question. "Is this why it's a forbidden zone and hidden from the world?"

Instead of answering directly, Zephyr turned the question back on me. "What do you know about the eras?"

"The Eras? Are you talking about the history? If so, I only know what was written in the books." I replied.

"I know, just tell me what you know, and then I will know where to start and what to speak," Zephy replied.

"Alright, if you say so," I nodded and recalled the info I read from the history books. "Alverria has five known eras. First, the Primordial Era, when the world's foundation was established, or so it is believed. It's shrouded in myth, with only a little knowledge available. Guess the primordials didn't share much with the world."

Zephyr gestured for me to continue.

"Then comes the Titan Era - age of colossal beings, massive wars that shaped the continents. It's said that most of the mountains we have today are the petrified remains of their battles, and the canyons were carved by their weapons."

I paused, thinking. "Then, one day, they just... vanished. The books don't say why, only that their presence slowly faded from the world. It was as if their time had simply passed. But I doubt it was that simple."

Zephyr's expression remained impassive, but he gave a curt nod. "And after that?"

"After that was the Convergence Era you mentioned," I continued, recalling how confusing and familiar it sounded. "It was the age when the world began to bleed. The book described it as a chaotic period when the boundaries between Alverria and other realms became unstable. They say it was the 'Great Convergence'—when other worlds attempted to merge with ours. And ancient heroes stopped it through a 'heroic' battle." I shrugged. "I guess the Void Cascade you mentioned must be this, right?"

"Mmm..." Zephyr nodded. "That's the sanitized version they feed the masses. But the truth..."

He paused, looking directly at me.

"It is far more complicated... and far more terrifying."

Why does that sound like the prelude to every horror story? I thought, my pulse quickening. And why do I get the feeling I won't like where this is going?

"Actually, I was just like you in the past, believing the fake history they taught us. Until..." his voice dropped to a whisper. "Until Master told me everything, the actual truth, himself."

"According to him, the Convergence wasn't just a simple grand heroic battle against the other worlds, but it was more of a natural or deliberate cosmic phenomenon. Multiple realms drifting towards ours due to dimensional currents beyond anyone's control."

A cliché one, but it sounds logical... and damn scary as well.

"Alverria began experiencing 'convergence points' where other realms would temporarily overlap with our reality. People could walk through a forest and suddenly find themselves in the Ember Dominion, or step into a cave and emerge in the Crystalline Expanse."

He paused, a grim smile on his lips. And were those the names of the other worlds? Probably.

"But some of the most powerful Resonators, Rulers, and Scholars of that era became terrified of a permanent merger. They couldn't accept sharing their world with beings from other realms, especially..." He glanced meaningfully in the direction Virion had left. "Especially the Abyss."

"It was the closest to achieving complete convergence," Zephyr continued, his voice growing heavier. "Unlike the other realms that overlapped temporarily, the Abyss began to... seep in. Slowly but permanently."

I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the Wastelands' air.

"At first, it was just small patches - areas where the ground would turn black and nothing would grow. But then people started disappearing. Not just killed or taken... but gradually fading away. First, their memories would become hazy, then their physical form would grow translucent, until eventually..." His grip tightened on his saber. "They would simply cease to exist, as if they had never been born at all."

He paused, letting me digest the info.

"...The Abyss doesn't destroy things like fire or a blade would. It consumes them - breaks them down into raw potential and feeds on their very existence. And the more it consumes, the stronger and the hungrier it becomes."

"...So, that's why those powerful figures decided to act," I said, beginning to understand the scope of the threat.

"Exactly. They performed the Dimensional Severance - a massive ritual designed to forcibly tear the converging realms away from Alverria." Zephyr's expression grew increasingly grim. "But they underestimated what they were dealing with. The Abyss isn't just another realm - it's a force of entropy itself, guided by entities that have spent eons perfecting the art of consumption."

He gestured to the cracked obsidian beneath us.

"When you try to sever a connection with something that feeds on severance itself, you create wounds that can never heal..."