Chương 14: THE WORLD

Nestled in his mother's arms, Elias presented the picture of an innocent child, mesmerized by the gentle sway and the soft cadences of her voice. Outwardly, he was just a toddler, secure and content. Inwardly, however, the mind of Ethan churned, processing not only the recent, earth-shattering event of his explosive awakening but also the vast, overarching knowledge of the world he now inhabited.

He was no longer Ethan Aquah, he was Elias, son of Lord Alaric and Lady Elara; he was a being of eternal life, marooned on a planet he now understood intimately, a place far more complex than his toddler body could ever outwardly convey. This world, this Earth, he read, before he blew up the library, was not a singular, unbroken landmass, but a tapestry woven from five distinct continents.

Aeridor, his current, unwilling home at the center; The sun-baked, ancient deserts of Khemri to the North-West, renowned for their arcane secrets and enigmatic rulers, a land of shimmering oases and hidden lore; The misty, ancient forests of Silvan to the far South-West, home to elusive peoples where the trees themselves seemed to hum with old power; And the rugged, volcanic islands of Ignis to the west, inhabited by hardy warriors, a place of fire and unyielding stone.

Each possessed its own unique climates, peoples, and, crucially, different ways of perceiving and interacting with the pervasive energy known as Flow. The sheer diversity of it all was daunting, especially for someone who now had infinite time stretching before him, potentially filled with endless exploration of the ways he could successfully end his life or, worse, he thought, boundless boredom after failing woefully.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Beyond these four primary landmasses lay the Northern Continent. It was a giant mass of ice that had such high Flow density and extreme cold that it was considered impossible for anything to survive there. Still, Legends spoke of forgotten civilizations and untold l power sealed beneath those desolate, icy plains, drawing the occasional intrepid explorer or desperate exile.

Though those who tried to verify these legends by going to the continent never returned or never returned the same. There was no continent of landmass in the south pole. Only a perpetual storm that had been blowing for several ages. Elias, with his immortality now saw these as places he could go to find newer ways to die if he could do so in any of the other four continents. Elias's home continent, Aeridor, was itself a land of remarkable diversity.

Stretching from the temperate forests and rolling hills of the south to the craggy, snow-capped peaks in the north and the sun-drenched savannah in the east, Aeridor was generally considered the heart of human civilization. It was a continent where the delicate balance of power and influence was meticulously maintained, a crucible where great nations had risen, flourished, and, on occasion, tragically fallen, their histories etched into the very stone of ancient ruins and whispered among the oldest trees.

To Elias, trapped in his small form, Aeridor was both a familiar cage and an endlessly expansive, suffocating prison.