Giant Dragon Lord: Starting from Daily Intelligence

Raylo walked to the edge of the floating continent, a bottomless void beneath his feet.

The view from here was incredibly vast, and also incredibly... hopeless.

The entire world looked like a shattered sandbox.

Countless continental fragments of varying sizes and shapes floated silently against the pitch-black backdrop of space.

On some fragments, the faint outlines of cities were visible. Their soaring spires were broken and their magnificent walls had crumbled, everything shrouded in a deathly silent dust.

On others, one could see dried-up riverbeds and winding rift valleys that looked like scars upon the land.

Raylo even saw a vast, frozen ocean that had been violently torn from a continental plate. The seawater was solidified in bizarre shapes, and within it, he could just make out the shadows of what appeared to be massive Sea Beasts, sealed in the ice.

It was a doomsday vista, so magnificent it was suffocating, yet so desolate it made one’s soul tremble.

Here, there was no life, no sound, no wind.

There was only eternal silence and slow decay.

"Here..."

"...is already a tomb."

Mage Wendel remarked with a sigh.

"No, this is not a tomb."

Mage Delin opened his eyes.

"Tombs are for burying corpses, but here... there are not even corpses left."

He slowly shook his head, his tone grave.

"The Source of this world has been taken."

"The World Source?"

Raylo turned to face Mage Delin, repeating the unfamiliar term.

He had seen scattered and vague mentions of it in certain ancient texts, but the concept had always seemed too ethereal, like a myth or a Legend.

But now, Mage Delin spoke with such a tone of absolute certainty, linking it to the devastating vista before them.

Mage Delin looked up, his gaze sweeping across the silent void and the floating remnants of land.

"The World Source is the foundation upon which a world exists and develops. It is the sum total of all Laws, the fount of all matter and energy, and the proof that a plane possesses ’life.’"

"You can think of it as the roots of a great tree. Only with roots can a tree draw nutrients from the earth, grow, and bear fruit."

"And only when a world has a Source can it give birth to life, evolve civilizations, and allow Life Energy to cycle without end."

Mage Delin’s words were like a key, unlocking a door for Raylo to an entirely new realm of understanding.

"A world without its Source..."

Raylo said softly, looking at Mage Delin.

"...will slowly wither and die, just like this?"

"Not ’slowly wither.’"

Mage Delin shook his head, correcting him.

"It is an instant death sentence."

"The moment the World Source is ripped away, all the rules of that world lose their foundation. Continents shatter, oceans boil away, the sky falls, and even time and space become unstable."

"What we are seeing now is merely its corpse, slowly rotting over the vast expanse of time since its death."

Master Barnaby, listening on the side, was dumbfounded. He adjusted his Alchemy Glasses and muttered to himself.

"Incredible... What... what kind of Power could possibly ’snatch’ a Source from an entire world?"

This was the very question Raylo wanted to ask.

"Another world."

Mage Wendel suddenly spoke, his voice ice-cold and stiff.

"In a war between worlds," he stated, word by word, "the winner... takes all."

Mage Delin was silent for a moment before finally nodding grimly.

"Yes."

"When the civilization of a plane develops to its absolute Peak, and its strongest powerhouses have reached the limits of what their world can offer, they discover that they can no longer advance by relying on their own world’s resources."

"The path to a Higher Tier is completely sealed off."

"And so, they turn their gaze to the other worlds scattered throughout the Endless Void."

Mage Delin’s words made Raylo’s heart skip a beat.

A chill shot straight up his spine.

"Invade, conquer, and then... plunder."

Delin’s voice was terrifyingly calm as he revealed an exceptionally cruel truth.

"They plunder a world’s every resource, all of its life, and the ultimate prize—its World Source."

"For those powerhouses who have reached the Peak, absorbing a complete World Source is the fastest shortcut to break through their shackles and advance to a Higher Tier."

"It is also the most barbaric, most bloody, and most efficient path."

Raylo understood.

’This so-called Doomsday World...’

’This place is a battlefield!’

’The remains of a defeated world!’

"Correct," Mage Delin affirmed.

"This world’s will has perished. Its civilization was destroyed, and its World Source was taken by the victors as a prize to forge several, or perhaps even more... Tier Seven World Destruction Level experts."

Raylo’s mouth went dry.

’Today, I finally realize how small my worldview has been.’

’The real chessboard isn’t this Continent, or even this world.’

’The real game is played between the infinite planes!’

’And the birth of those lofty Tier Seven beings was built upon the bones of an entire world!’

Long after Mage Delin’s voice faded, no one else spoke. The void remained deathly silent.

Words seemed utterly inadequate at that moment.

Tier Seven World Destruction Level.

The bones of an entire world.

These phrases weighed on everyone’s heart like the heaviest of mountains.