250 years after the announcement, the first of the golden generation reached the Fifth Realm, and that was when things changed for the Archmages and Ancestral Mages.
By now, High Mages and weaker felt their world calm down as all these geniuses had all either already claimed their lands or left them behind.
For them, the most chaotic time had passed, and everything returned to normal.
310 years after the announcement, a terrifying wave of power washed over the world, and all the geniuses noticed.
The Mana of the world had been displaced just now, and the composition of Mana had changed drastically.
The majority of Mana had been replaced with Elemental Mana for several minutes before the Elemental Mana converted back into Neutral Mana.
Many mortals died.
The weaker people had no idea what had just happened.
But the powerful High Mages and stronger could guess what had happened.
Yet, seriously considering this guess felt to them like they were going insane.
Somewhere, a powerful Spell had been destroyed, and all the Mana gathered in the Spell had washed over the world.
But how powerful must such a Spell be to scatter across the entire world?!
Did powers on this level even exist in the world?!
In the center of the world, the Mage Lords, Mage Kings, and Mage Emperors looked with terror at the hill.
Their ultimate weapon had just been destroyed!
But how?!
This Spell had been so powerful that it could even kill a God!
Despair.
True despair.
There was nothing they could do anymore.
When Shang saw the faces of all the Mage Lords, Mage Kings, and Mage Emperors, he chuckled a bit.
But then, he realized that there was probably no way for them to try something even more incredible, which kind of put a damper on things.
That was when Shang decided to change things a bit.
A couple of minutes after the wave of Elemental Mana passed over the world, another wave appeared, but this one was even stronger, and compared to the last one, this one was made with Neutral Mana!
In an instant, the density of Mana across the world had multiplied manifold again.
In fact, the density of Mana had reached unprecedented levels.
The golden generation realized that something monumental had happened, and they felt their familiarity with Mana increase even more.
Yet, the older Archmages and Ancestral Mages realized with horror what had happened.
None of them could reach their leaders anymore!
All their leaders had been Mage Lords!
The world realized the true impact of what had just happened only several days later.
There were no more Mage Emperors in this world.
There were no more Mage Kings in this world.
And there were no more Mage Lords in this world.
Every single Mage Lord, Mage King, and Mage Emperor had died, except for the Archivist, Gregorio, Abaddon, and Kali.
A bit later, another wave washed over the world.
Shang had reached the Late Sword Emperor Realm.
At this moment, the Clouds and King Contenders of the different areas of the world realized that the entire wealth of their old leaders was up for grabs.
Yet, all this wealth was guarded by terrifying Magic Circles and defenses.
As of this moment, the Peak Ancestral Mage Clouds were the most powerful people in the world, essentially.
Absolute chaos erupted.
The knowledge of the past had been cut off.
Legendary Spells and techniques had been lost and were now buried inside inaccessible ruins.
'This should spice things up,' Shang thought with a chuckle.
A new golden generation appeared, and the old golden generation grew even quicker.
500 years after the announcement, there had even appeared three people with a sixfold Spirit Sense.
The sheer density of Mana made it many times easier to comprehend Concepts.
Without this extreme density of Mana, these three people wouldn't even have fivefold Spirit Senses.
They would just become normal Clouds.
Eventually, Mage Lords appeared again, but they weren't the only ones.
There were also Warrior Lords, Weapon Master Lords, Beast Tamer Lords, and even Domain Controller Lords.
The Mages had lost their supremacy.
Naturally, most people kept to their own Paths, and wars between different Paths returned to the world.
When Shang saw how things developed, he became quite interested.
Sure enough, watching such a world was much more interesting than watching a world filled with nothing but Mages.
Warfare, chaos, exploration, treasure, ruins, trials, mystery, progression, and so on all returned to the world.
The Mages had completely mapped the world out back then, but now, the world was up for grabs again.
The wild age of exploration and adventure had started!
Shang enjoyed watching the world.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end.
Eventually, 1,000 years had passed since the announcement, and it was finally time.
Shang hadn't absorbed enough Abominations yet to reach the Peak Sword Emperor Realm.
So, he simply summoned several Abomination Emperors and absorbed them.
For the last time, a wave of power washed over the world, its power unmatched.
After Shang's breakthrough, he realized something.
The weight of his existence was straining reality itself.
Just by existing, the world was having tremendous trouble keeping reality in one piece.
If Shang decided to add even more mass to his existence, a permanent black hole would appear in reality.
This hole would consume all the Mana until there was nothing left.
Naturally, this wouldn't help Shang and his group.
So, Shang decided to stop the Abominations from appearing.
The Abominations still wanted to appear in the world, but they couldn't resist Shang's commands.
For the first time in forever, not even a single Abomination appeared in the world.
Yet, this moment, which should have been a cause for celebration, represented doomsday.
A couple seconds after Shang's breakthrough, three people appeared above him.
Gregorio, Kali, and Abaddon.
The 1,000 years were up.
It was finally time.
Today, all life on Aterium would cease to exist.
Far to the south, the Archivist watched the world with worry.
However, there was also curiosity in his eyes.
After all, the Archivist was curious like any other human.
And he also wanted to know if he could comprehend the legendary level six Concept of Death.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m