Suddenly, Elizabeth raised her hand.
"Are Spirits completely gone? I mean, the original races of Spirits?" Asked Elizabeth.
"No, not all of them. The original Spirit Races remain even now, there are some survivors. Some of races that came afterwards are their descendants." Said Hector.
He knows a lot about history for being such a burly guy that just swings a sword, I guess I shouldn't had judged him based on his appearance.
"Which were the original tribes?" Wondered Elizabeth again. She seemed to like to interact with the class a lot.
"Right, I was about to say that but I got too into the whole demon invasion…"
Hector quickly began drawing over the board, he was also a good artists, surprisingly.
"At the beginning, the Holy Spirits embodied each element of the world. However, alone they couldn't take care of it. Therefore, they decided to create the Spirit Tribes… The Gnomes of Earth, the Salamanders of Fire, the Undines of Water, the Sylphs of Wind, and the Dryads of Nature. These five tribes were the greatest and largest of them all, covering the land.
There were also other Tribes in between, they were more secretive, such as the Hypnos of Dreams, or the Shades of Darkness… However, they were all unified to serve the Holy Spirits in their own ways, protecting the elements of the world."
Hector drank some water before continuing.
"So, kids, what do you Spirit Beasts were then? Someone has an idea?" He wondered, asking everyone.
"Protectors of nature?"
"Maybe they ate them?"
"A bit of everything." Laughed Hector. "But they were also protectors of nature and the elements, alongside giving the spirit tribes with food and materials. Spirit Beasts still exists in some places of this world, they're incredibly strong compared to monsters, and the materials you can get out of their carcasses are top tier.
Imagining the prehistoric world filled with these creatures roaming around… It was a truly rich era."
Hector quickly sat down, looking at everyone with a sharp gaze.
"However, all good things have to come to an end." He said. "As I said before, a disturbance happened, or something. Several research have their own theories, but it is hypothesized that the Demon Towers spawned around the world once a strange disturbance happened, something that not even the Holy Spirits, our gods, could stop."
"That's the Great Demonic Catastrophe, right?" Asked Elizabeth. "My Master once told me about it! He said that Spirits weakened, and the world began to be filled with Demonic Energy! Also Demonic Portals opened directly leading to the interior of the Demon Towers, and Demons began coming out in large numbers…"
"Indeed. You're really impressive, young girl. You're not a Saintess candidate for nothing, they taught you well in the church." Hector smiled. "When the Demons invaded, the Spirit Tribes tried to fight. Wars lasted thousands of years, they struggled until the last moment, until everything was finally taken over… This Era was also the birth of Monsters.
Several Spirit Beasts, which were often peaceful and only fought if provoked, mutated with the power of the Demonic Miasma brought by the Demons, turning into Monsters we see today."
So that's the origin of monsters, huh? I suppose that's why they still have a Spirit Orb even when they're just called Monsters.
"Monsters have Spirit Orbs as the last reminder that their ancestors were once Spirit Beasts." Said Hector. "Spirit Orbs are a rich resource we use for our own growth and the magic tools we use every day."
"Y-Yeah, i-in the dwarven country where I come, we use Spirit Orbs as fuel for our machinery and f-factories…" Alberta said.
"Indeed, Dwarves are the ones that had advanced the most in magic technology, their help to fight the Demons has been great." Said Hector. "However, little girl, do you know the true origin of your tribe?"
"O-Origin? A-Ah…! I-It is said that we descend from Gnomes and Salamanders!" Said Alberta.
"Indeed, most of the current races of this world descend from the Ancient Spirit Races!" Said Hector. "By tracing back bloodlines and all history from the beginning, researchers were able to investigate and find out many things, one of them is that our current tribes descend from ancient tribes that slowly lost their spirit power but retained certain characteristics and strengths."
"Dwarves descend from Gnomes and Salamanders, combining both their strength and affinity with earth and fire."
"Elves descend from Dryad and Sylphs, combining their gracefulness with a great affinity with wind and nature, most of the time."
"Beast-kin tribes are said to descend from a combination of several spirit tribes due to their wide variety of shapes and appearances."
"And lastly, humans, which compose most of the people in this classroom, we all descended from Shades and Luminarias, the Tribes of Darkness and Light. Pretty interesting, huh?"
"Wow… our ancestors are those tribes?"
"Is this why we can wield light magic so proficiently?"
"And dark magic too!"
"Though I have fire magic…"
"Anyways, it doesn't necessarily mean we always have the affinities of our ancestors. After all, through thousands of years, tribes mixed with one another constantly and new affinities surged constantly." Laughed Hector.
"However, even when the new tribes, more adapted to a world filled with demonic miasma than the original spirits, fought against the demons, they were unable to win… for many years, we suffered countless defeats, there was as time the entire world was going to be swallowed by darkness…"
"Because of this, the Holy Spirits put their last effort and granted all of us with the power of Talents and the ability to draw strength from the creatures we defeat. We were able to develop Skills and Magic more easily as a result. People started being born with Talents and new strength.
And the tables were finally evened… only for a few eras before the demons came even stronger than ever as more demonic towers emerged. Everything was hopeless…"
"But then, they appeared… the heroes."