"Sigh... You still don’t believe me."
Malcolm sighed again, seeing the disbelief still written all over Lucien’s face.
Since it was clear his grandson wouldn’t believe him with words alone, he simply stopped trying to prove it and continued from where he left off.
"So, that was how our world, Soren, looked back then. At that time, magic was at its peak, and the world didn’t look anything like it does now."
Malcolm paused, then looked at Lucien.
"You know about the Order of Ranks, right?"
"Yeah. As far as I know, there are eight ranks in this world: Initiate, Apprentice, Invoker, Arcanist, Weaver, Lord, Sage, and Realweaver."
Lucien nodded confidently. Malcolm nodded and simply continued.
"That’s correct, but it’s not the full picture."
He turned back toward the globe and spoke in a solemn tone,
"At its peak, Soren had four additional ranks above Realweaver:
High Sovereign, Elder Archon, Celestial Regent, and Eternal Paragon."
"Even our Goldveil family once had someone at the peak of the Celestial Regent realm. Otherwise, how do you think we managed to own an entire continent by ourselves?"
Even though Malcolm knew Lucien didn’t believe a word of it, he still told him everything, just as it was.
"It was truly a peak period for both Soren and we Goldveil family."
"However, although the world was at its highest point... its fall was also destined the moment that thing appeared."
Malcolm paused, a complex expression flashing in his eyes.
"The World of Origin?"
Lucien guessed it instantly. After all, whatever Malcolm was talking about clearly no longer existed in the present.
"Yeah, that’s what it called itself, right? It’s not wrong, though."
"After all, it did manage to swallow Soren’s Origin the moment it appeared."
The hatred in his voice was palpable and deep. Like he carried a personal grudge against this unknown world that had destroyed everything.
"Didn’t you ask why we’re now, if we really once owned an entire empire?"
Malcolm suddenly looked at Lucien with extreme seriousness, then turned back to the glowing globe and waved his hand.
"That’s because, as soon as that World of Origin appeared, it directly swallowed half of our world."
Suddenly, the beautiful rotating globe stopped dead in its tracks.
Then, without warning, Lucien saw half of the globe was instantly devoured by an encroaching darkness, like ink spilling across parchment, clouding the lands below.
In moments, the continents of Dravarn (realm of dragons), Vael’Tor (land of elves), and Eryndor (land of magic) were consumed; swallowed whole by the spreading void.
And alongside them, Velatrix, the once-shining merchant continent, vanished without a trace.
Where their brilliance once glowed, now only emptiness remained.
Lucien watched in shock as the remaining continents trembled at the edge of the darkness, fractured and partially covered.
The creeping shadow didn’t seem to stop as it continued to spread, breaking the surviving lands apart like crumbling stone. Only, the pace got a lot slower.
"Four continents disappeared completely from the face of Soren, while the remaining ones were partially engulfed. Not a trace of the vanished lands remained."
Malcolm’s voice faltered slightly as he recalled it.
"...No ruins, no echoes, nothing. It was instant annihilation. Heh... not even a sliver of resistance."
Lucien could feel the extreme helplessness in his grandfather’s tone.
After all, a force powerful enough to devour an entire world in an instant—
Even Lucien felt a chill just imagining it.
This wasn’t Earth. This was a magical world.
Lucien was sure that Soren had its own consciousness, rules, or governing force.
Otherwise, how could it regulate those living within and bear the weight of so many powerful beings?
And yet... it still vanished. Swallowed by that shadowy void without even putting up a fight.
No resistance. No trace left behind.
One could only imagine what kind of overwhelming power that would take.
Malcolm’s nervousness wasn’t unfounded.
"Fortunately or unfortunately, I was on the Carag Continent at the time. I missed the event by a hair’s breadth."
Lucien saw a rare emotional shift in Malcolm’s face and didn’t interrupt.
He silently turned his gaze to the globe before him.
He saw that the beauty that once defined the world of Soren was now gone, replaced by a scattered mess of broken landmasses.
Although it was just a projection, he knew it was a true representation of today’s world.
Now that he looked at it, the only place that remained relatively intact... was Carag.
’Once a minuscule and low-ranked land... now the safest in the world?’
Lucien thought in quiet amazement.
Then, his eyes were drawn to shadowy masses spurting from multiple locations on the remaining lands.
’Is that... the dungeon?’
Now that he looked more carefully, he noticed the shadows were appearing at random places, rooted in the land and seas, and slowly encroaching outward.
Although he wasn’t clear, he felt that it likely represented the dungeon he had entered before.
Malcolm saw him focusing on the shadows and asked.
"Yeah... they’re dungeons, right?"
"You guessed right. They’re the same kind of dungeon you just entered."
"Hmm... so does that mean... dungeons are eating this world?" Lucien asked while placing his finger on his chin, thinking.
To him, that’s exactly what it looked like.
But then Lucien suddenly felt confused.
If they were so dangerous... why were people still using them for wealth and power? Shouldn’t they be trying to destroy or seal them instead?
"They can’t be stopped, if that’s what you’re thinking. And yes, you can say they are slowly eating the world, bit by bit."
Malcolm’s voice came again, a little grim, clearing his doubt.
"At least... that’s what I used to believe."
But suddenly, his tone shifted as he reached into his ring, pulling out a slender crystal prism shimmering with shifting runes.
"Until I managed to enter that Domain Dungeon: Shadow Kingdom."
He caressed the Circle of Nobility and reminisced about what he had experienced there.
"Is it because you learned that the Shadow Kingdom was once its own world before being swallowed by the World of Origin?"
By now, Lucien had pieced the clues together.