Sofia yawned as she idly petted her moth companion. She was sitting through another boring meeting between Austin and the various heads of the village. She knew her role here was important, as she was the only one who could summon Austin and was their main way to communicate with him. Which was a really important thing considering all the chaos currently going on just outside the weird dome thing Austin had set up around what was left of the village.
But the meetings were so boring, heck, her lessons with Catharine and Austin were more interesting then this. Even the annoying ones, like math and reading. Sophia and Catherine were both really shocked when they discovered Austin was somewhat of a scholar and apparently had knowledge of humanity's past predating even the ancient records of the elves. Though she found it odd when he rather reluctantly admitted that he didn't know how they ended up in this world. Sophia was still having a hard time wrapping her head around to the hole there being more than one world thing. Of course, she knew the stories from the church, and Catherine was more than willing to tell Austin all she knew of humanity's history according to the records of the church.
In ancient times, the elves, the dwarves, the orcs, and all the other races had willed magic into this world. By using the great seeds of the world trees in the north and the South, they filled the world with magic and great artifice. Dwarves carved entire mountains into massive cities of art and culture. Orcs ward amongst the heavens in floating castles, massive airships, and the orcs fought with reckless fervor, driving back the greatest beasts of legend and terror. That was until the metal demons came, unlike those that came through the tears in reality, that hunted and corrupted all they came across. These demons descended from the heavens in a massive metal fortress. It took the combined might of the elves, the orcs, the dwarves, and all the lesser races, and even a few gods, to stand against them. In the end and at great cost, they finally managed to defeat the metal demons by sacrificing a world tree seed to destroy the grand fortress, bringing about the corrupted World Tree in the east. However, amongst the wreckage of their great fortress were found thousands upon thousands of slaves. Not elves, not dwarves, but humans. With no connection to magic, and so feeble they would never have survived the harshness of the world. They were then taken in by the survivors to help rebuild their destroyed nations. Austin seemed very unpleased by the story, calling it biased propaganda and other nasty things to the point that Catherine had to stop him before he committed actual blasphemy.
Annoyed Austin simply dispelled his form, only returning a few hours later in a much calmer state. He then laid out what he believed and understood what happened. It was his belief that most likely the metal demons were some form of slaver races that had taken advantage of a Great War that had wiped out humanity amongst the stars. The very same war he had fought in centuries ago, and while it was likely true that the humans back then couldn't use magic as magic was a very foreign concept to Austin altogether, they were far less inept and weak than what the stories had betrayed them as. Most likely, they had simply come across injured and malnourished slaves. Without their technology and tools that humanity had spent centuries building, the humans were likely in no state to resist being conquered by the same people who defeated their captors. Thus leading to humanities' lesser status in the current state of affairs.
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That last bit had actually really baffled Sophia. Had they really been some great people once, ones that held entire worlds all on their own. But if what Austin had said was true, and he was actually even created by them. Humanity had to have once been so incredibly powerful and strong. She just couldn't wrap her head around that. If they were from some incredibly strong and intelligent race. Why were her brother and father sent to fight? Why was her sister kidnapped, and her mother almost died due to a lack of medicine almost a month ago? Why just why!?
Austin had done his best to explain to her that while humanity had once been strong and great. They had faced a great evil, and instead of yielding like so many other worlds and races had, they had fought against it, and they had been made an example of for it. By wiping them out, or at least he thought they had. But with the people on this world and Austin's knowledge of their history, as well as all the tools and artifices he could make, like the shield and his metal animals. He was working to restore them to their former glory.
Though he did admit it would probably be best to try and locate another habitable world and move the majority of the human population there. As this world clearly was already inhabited with several races who likely wouldn't be too happy by a sudden resurgence in humanity's power. Though he admitted that it would be many, many years before that would have to be worried about. It would likely be Sophia’s children or even her grandchildren's problem, not hers.
But for now, they need to focus on dealing with the dungeon. As the longer Austin was trapped fighting it, the longer he was stuck in the valley. Austin had tried his best to explain exactly what needed to be done, but a lot of it went over Sophia’s head, and even Katherine says she couldn't really simplify it much better. But apparently, Austin was physically stuck underground and was very badly injured, and he couldn't focus on healing himself until he was sure they were safe.
He had to put a lot of his energy and resources towards fighting back the dungeon instead of making himself better. He had slowly been healing himself with whatever he could spare, but most of it had gone towards rebuilding his ability to fight better rather than actually fixing himself.
Once he fixed himself and regained his power fully, he could start doing incredible things. But that would apparently take a long time.
Sophia was snapped out of her Daydream about some of the things Austin had described and shown to her for his plans for the future. When her name was called and she focused back on the meeting at hand.
