{Target ‘World Tree’ Destroyed}

 

“Very good, collect the world essence”

 

{Processing…}

 

Below the 3 kilometre long spaceship that blocked out the sky, thousands of elves screamed and cried for salvation. They witnessed a greenlight leave the spaceship and scan the world below for a few moments before returning.

 

{Error, World Essence Missing…}

 

{Large Energy Signals Detected Off World… Tracking… Location Found}

 

“Show me”

 

On a table in the middle of the ship's bridge a hologram showing the universe appeared.

 

The universe is named A75HD-12 is the universe the System currently controls, on the map the B-12, A-780 and U88 sectors were colored red to show that battle was currently taking place. The System was currently fighting off undead forces in three solar systems across its universe.

 

On the map a location marker appeared only 1000 light years away from the U88 sector, the planet was named ‘Earth’ and was registered as being ‘under development’ which means the system has not been fully integrated there yet but had some influence. 

 

The being that was looking over this map was a 3 metres tall humanoid made of pure blue energy, the energy was contained with floating pieces of metal that were bound together with chains.

 

The being was better known by the rebels as an ‘Enforcer’. It was created by the System with the desired knowledge. This particular Enforcer is an old model that was created hundreds of thousands of years ago. Because of that it doesn't participate in active wars but instead hunts down rebels. 

 

Newer models of Enforcers can move quickly across the galaxy and have enough power to solve most issues by themselves, but this old Enforcer doesn't have those capabilities and instead needs this large ship to have the necessary firepower and speed.

 

The distance between its current location and ‘Earth’ was 70 billion light years. That would take his ship around 10 years if it moved at max speed. 

 

The Enforcer then asked the ships Ai “Do we have enough mana to make this journey”

 

{Calculating… No Captain, after firing the weapon we are down to 20% capacity, we need at least 50% to make the journey}

 

“Very well, gather the mana batteries from below and we will begin our journey to Earth”

 

{Affirmative}

 

***

 

An elderly elf lay on the ground and stared at the sky in horror. The World Tree was the way the elves passed down knowledge and also had offspring. With the World Tree destroyed, even if the Enforcer left the elves would cease to exist on this planet in a few hundred years.

 

Through the World Tree’s knowledge, the elves had rid themselves of the system's control and done magic without its help. 

 

They learned that the System needed mana, which only comes from planets (There is no mana in space so mana stones are used as fuel sources for galactic travel). The planet's ego would never allow itself to be drained of mana willingly, so the System pretends to help inhabitants of worlds cast magic. In reality the System will help cast the spell but in the process it will drain the users ‘mana pool’. The idea of the mana pool was created by the System, in reality there is no such thing. Mana is endless so long as the planet is alive. It's like Oxygen in the air. 

 

The System takes a large cut of the mana used for any spell as payment for helping with the spell casting process. If it was just this then the System wouldn’t be so hated.

 

The System hates peace. If a world is at peace then there are no wars, if there are no wars then combat spells (the most mana intensive) aren't being utilised. There is also a risk that a world could become too developed and start to fight back against the System. The solution is to either manipulate wars to happen or outright destroy worlds.

 

This is why the elves have been fighting against the System for the last 100 thousand years. Because of the World Tree, every generation’s knowledge is passed onto the next. A generation many years ago learned of the dark secret and since then every elf that has contact with a World Tree has become an enemy of the System.

 

The elderly elf watched as the sky filled with drones, they descended like a swarm of vultures and picked up the screaming elves around him. The elf shot spell after spell but there was no end to them. Eventually he lost concentration for a moment and was captured. Spell casting was a very hard process and losing concentration for a single moment can cause the spell to fail. 

 

The elf was brought into the large ship and placed into a pod of green liquid. The elf knew this would be his prison till he died. Tubes connected to him and he felt his consciousness slip into a dream.

 

Slowly mana was extracted from his small mana core and sent towards the rest of the ship.

 

{Mana batteries ready}

 

“Then begin our journey”

 

{Affirmative}

 

The colossal spaceship slowly rotated in the sky before shooting off in a certain direction.

 

Earth…