Ch.417The Path to the Arcadia Continent (1)

# The Arcadian Continent. The 12th discovered among the 13 continents found by Earth’s refugees.

Like all other continents, this one also has four famous landmarks.

The capital of the Bereshit Federation. Celestia.

After the Era of Extinction began, it became the capital of a federation formed by surrounding cities banding together for survival. This capital was designated as a landmark due to its symbolic significance as the first system larger than a city-state to emerge after the fall of the Empire, despite its formation being driven by survival.

Thus, Celestia, the federal capital, was designated as a landmark for being both a symbol of the union of 17 cities and the birthplace of great achievements, holding this title for 900 years. Though this might seem somewhat forced, “great achievements” can be interpreted in many convenient ways.

The Ferdinand Coastline.

This coast is where Nariakira Saburo, the founder of the Empire, ascended.

Four years before the Imperial Era, the United Human Forces were fighting desperately to defend Centrum, humanity’s greatest stronghold, while monsters of darkness gathered on this coast to annihilate them. The Ferdinand Coastline was vast and flat, making it ideal for assembling large forces, and its northern orientation—facing Centrum—made it the site of a massive battle between the United Human Forces and the dark monsters.

The number of soldiers gathered reached 1.4 billion, with supporting forces numbering 2 billion more, making it a colossal battle. Nevertheless, the monsters, numbering 40 billion, withstood the fierce attacks of the United Human Forces, sinking human battleships one after another. When only a few hundred million survivors remained, Saburo finally shed his human form and ascended as the Sun.

Instantly, the monsters of darkness turned to ash and dust, vanishing without even a scream. His adopted son, Nariakira Ichika, who had been serving as deputy commander of the United Human Forces, quickly took command of the remaining troops, sorted the casualties, and secured the coastline.

Naturally, it was designated as a historical landmark during the Imperial Era and has firmly maintained that status throughout the 1,200 years of the Era of Extinction. Even with the decline of the Yangwol Order, no one could deny that the Sun had saved humanity.

The Ezekiel Gorge.

Moving on to the Four Great Gods, this gorge is the first place where a human received divine selection and ascended as an apostle. Here, a devotee of Karyl engaged in a fierce battle against an Imperial armored division, ultimately succeeding in annihilating the entire division single-handedly. For this feat, the devotee became the first Crusader, and thus began the countdown to the Empire’s downfall.

While this might not be a pleasant place for Viktor, it certainly lives up to its reputation as a religious landmark.

The Shangri-La Wetlands.

This is the most beautiful landmark, where brown reeds grow from muddy wetlands, migratory birds form processions, and beautifully curved hills blend together. Due to its unique location and seasonal winds, flowers and grasses of all four seasons grow here, prompting ecologists from the Arcadian Continent to visit dozens of times a year to take photographs, collect samples, and write papers.

*

Now, let’s shift our perspective to examine the current state of the 13 continents.

“Disperse! Disperse!”

BOOM! Ratatatatat!

“Get down!”

It would be a lie to call this world peaceful, but since the Master of Fervor began walking these 13 continents, the world has once again plunged into a global war. The reason, of course, was faith, and the purpose was either unification or division.

“Hail to the Master of Humanity! Not even a single crack shall exist in the newly forged Empire!”

“Drive out the invaders! This land is our home! Fight with your lives!!!”

No matter how devout one’s faith may be, it cannot justify invasion. No matter how noble the ideal, if the process is ugly, the desired ideal can never be reached.

Can those who gather armies and invade nations simply because they do not accept the Sun truly be called good? Can those who fight to protect their sovereignty and national rights without surrendering be called evil?

Ask a hundred people and you’ll get a hundred different answers—proof that humanity remains divided.

The Sun is heading toward the twelfth continent, and those living there must endure constant fear of requisitions and massacres. The number of adventurers has exploded, and countless settlements and villages have been established to escape the war, most of which have been annihilated by the hands of monsters and fellow humans alike.

Even if God is merciful, the priests who interpret His gospel are bellicose—proof that humans cannot fully understand the divine.

But what does it matter? If a being could be fully understood by humans, it would just be an extremely powerful human, not a great deity. A being whose mere existence stains humans with madness and fanaticism, a transcendent form whose existence is its own proof—that is the god humans accept.

“Kill the heretics! Burn the unbelievers! Overthrow the oppressors! The time has come to return what we’ve endured for tens of thousands of years!”

“It’s time for revenge!!!”

The suppressed Yangwol Order was merely the catalyst.

Social misfits who simply wanted to watch the world burn served as kindling, but those who actually set these continents ablaze were the extremely impoverished who had been marginalized and silenced.

Whether they were truly so poor they couldn’t afford even one meal a day, or whether they had no material problems but writhed in relative deprivation, ultimately, for those destined to be endlessly consumed as lubricants and cogs to maintain the vast system of society, how they died wasn’t a major concern.

Therefore, most “wars” couldn’t truly be called wars. They were more like a mixture of revolution and riot.

Naturally, with 10-30% of a country’s citizens effectively becoming the enemy, no nation remained intact, no city unscathed.

Even small villages experienced horrific serial killings, making it no exaggeration to say that nowhere in this world was safe. This was a problem of social structure even before it was a matter of faith, which is why, except for the few countries that quickly caught the signs (such as explosive increases in crime rates and social unrest) through the Yangwol Order’s tremendous growth and established countermeasures, all were inevitably swept up in the chaos.

Additionally, with anti-Sun alliances like the Shadow Alliance emerging into the open, the cold war instantly expanded into a hot war. What had been a staged game turned into a real all-out war, blocking roads and disrupting the flow of goods, causing prices to skyrocket.

As a result, people flocked to become adventurers to make a living without paying taxes. Naturally, these desperate people had neither the time nor leisure to acquire professional knowledge, so the rookie adventurers who boldly set out often ended up in conditions that prevented them from ever adventuring again.

With the increase in corpses, the undead began to proliferate, and as people abandoned farms, the populations of wild animals and the monsters that fed on them exploded. The military, busy dealing with riots and invasions, couldn’t intervene, and the Adventurers’ Guild, half-paralyzed by the influx of people, couldn’t dispatch adventurers in time.

In this age of chaos and collapse, cities and landmarks loyal to the Sun, along with mega-corps led by Turianic Industries, began to step forward.

Landmarks that had sworn direct allegiance to the Sun and received its authority began to draw people in like black holes, using their overwhelming diplomatic advantages and large floating populations. Mega-corporations like Turianic Industries accepted these people as labor, paying them wages that allowed for minimal human dignity.

These places became sanctuaries that no one dared touch because they were directly protected by the Sun. Those who headed to these places could receive safe protection. If anything were to happen to them, they would directly experience the Sun’s wrath.

Regardless of why secular nations fought among themselves, one thing had become clear.

The era of ambiguity was over. Submit or resist—only these two choices remained.

And those without even the power to choose would simply bow their heads. The Sun would soon illuminate the world of 13, and nothing could hide in the shadows.