Chương 407: Chapter 408: An Epilogue of Trees and Sanctuaries

After the death of Miria, the other three heroes died of old age shortly afterward. The deaths of the four heroes sent the great sanctuary into grief. Since they died of old age, their deaths had been expected for years - but many people mourned the loss of those who had given the Sanctuary a new path forward. The entire sanctuary held a day of mourning each time one of the heroes died, and almost everyone old enough to talk understood that by the time the fourth hero died, an era had ended.

At each hero's funeral, the people of the sanctuary thanked the heroes for the sacrifices they had made for the sanctuary. They also thanked the heroes for their contributions to the sanctuary, and the future they had paved the way for with their research and their magic. Statues of the four heroes were placed across every corner of the sanctuary, so that even in ten thousand years, people would still know what they looked like and what they had done for the sanctuary.

There was one oddity that occurred shortly after the death of the final hero. On that day, all of the members of the council received a letter - an unopened one, sent by all four heroes. At first, the council members thought these letters were some kind of twisted joke - after all, the four heroes who had rebuilt the sun were dead. However, after some checking, they realized that these letters had been sent by the four heroes - they had simply been instructed to never be delivered until the heroes were dead.

The next thing the council thought was that the heroes had sent them a list of last wishes. Perhaps it was an embarrassing wish, or one that the heroes had simply been unwilling to make public for another reason. There were even a few council members who got worried, thinking that perhaps there was some kind of last-minute issue with the artificial sun that the heroes hadn't had time to fix. The moment the members of the council read the letters, their expressions all changed.

The letter instead detailed what had been done to their world. The letters talked about the multiverse, the Market, the suspicions the heroes held towards the 'true' past of this planet, and almost every single detail related to Miria, Sallia, Felix, and Anise's journey so far.

It contained information about other dimensions the heroes had been to, what those worlds were like, and even information about other potential multiverse-level threats that might someday invade their reality - such as the Worldstriders, who had fled their home dimension, or the great eye that had probably destroyed the group's second world. This letter threw the council into chaos.

Most council members had always thought that the heroes of old had been benevolent, kind figures who stood up for the safety and prosperity of the world. To learn that all of that was built on the back of a lie was shocking. Following that, the council spent nearly two weeks debating what to do about this revelation. If they opened up this information to the public, they would tarnish the names of heroes forever. That made some sense - after all, a great wrong had been done to the people of this dimension.

Furthermore, if another group of runaway Market members ever reincarnated in this world, they could use the trust people had for them in awful ways. At the same time, most of the council was reluctant to tarnish the names of the four heroes, who had given this world a path forward and had even told them the truth. Worse, if the image of the four heroes was ruined, people may one day question the artificial sun itself - which would be catastrophic.

The artificial sun was the heart and soul of the super sanctuary, and the very object that had rescued the sanctuaries from inevitable decline and destruction. If people began to doubt it, and refused to keep fueling it with essence, or tried to destroy it out of anger, it might bring the sanctuaries down. Even if that wasn't likely, the council felt it was still a potential risk for the far-off future - one they weren't necessarily eager to take.

Who would want to leave even the slightest chance of their civilization's future being cut off? This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Eventually, the council decided to simply ignore the message. The Market had done some truly horrendous things to this world in the past, but the four heroes had done everything in their power to make things right. The council didn't want to ruin the image of the four heroes, or leave any risks for the future.

That didn't mean the council did nothing to ward off potential trust-abusing heroes of the future, though. The council began to encourage people to focus on the four heroes, and placed far less historical emphasis on other heroes. This wasn't that difficult, since the old era of heroes was long in the past. With some educational reforms, the council managed to shift the school system to favor Miria and her friends as the four 'true' heroes, while the other heroes that came before were regarded as lesser knockoffs.

The council also started to ensure that education emphasized the future, and how it was in the hands of all citizens - not heroes. This ensured that in the future, new Transmigrators would have a much harder time taking advantage of the world's social customs, while still honoring the actions of Miria and her friends.

As centuries passed, the idea that Miria and her friends were the 'best heroes of all' or the 'only true heroes' picked up a great deal of steam, and became one of the entrenched history philosophies taught in schools and discussed among academics. The Artificial sun continued to bring prosperity to the Sanctuaries for centuries to come. Year after year, the people of the sanctuary worked to grow the Sanctuary, grow the artificial sun, and fend off the great hive that lurked on the surface of the planet.

It took two centuries after the death of the heroes for the first new sanctuary tree to grow, but its growth truly marked the beginning of a new era. For the first time in millennia, a new tree had been born, ready to carry a new island into the void or reinforce the existing sanctuary. This tree took the place of the tree that was lost during the ten-bell raid that erupted right after the creation of the Artificial sun. From there, the super-council of the sanctuary embarked upon a new path.

They started work on fueling the essence needs of thee more sanctuary-bearing trees. While another ten-bell raid erupted partway through their work, the sanctuary now had the critical mass of trained, high-essence mages needed to fend off even a powerful and dangerous enemy. Thus, even ten-bell raids couldn't pose a threat to the sanctuary as long as the scouts alerted people quickly enough. Millennia continued to pass by, and the Sanctuary continued to flourish and grow.

More and more sanctuary trees grew, and singers continued to sing more dirt, stone, and wood into existence, ensuring that every tree had an island fragment of its own to carry. As time passed, lives became more prosperous and raids became less and less of a danger to the recovering civilization. While hope of retaking the world beneath the flying trees remained a distant, near impossible hope, people built a new life on top of the flying trees high in the sky.

For millennia to come, people praised the four great heroes who had changed the course of history and saved the world.