1 Birth of the King
Year 6899 of the Calendar of the World Tree.
The World Tree towered over the horizon in the center of this chaotic world like its mighty ruler ever since its earliest days. Its unfathomable canopy hovered over the lives of the billions—no, trillions— of beings underneath. Meanwhile, its gigantic roots filled the lush undergrowth with life.
On one of the uncountable, far-reaching roots, there was a purple flower that all of a sudden, bloomed in an indescribable, yet ethereal way...
A massive male ape with a silver back approached with his harem of females, soldiers with black backs, and several younglings.
His nose sniffed the wild scents in the air, wanting to exercise caution, for his group's life and death depended on his every whim.
To his surprise, a new, intriguing sensation entered his untamed nose. It was pleasant to a point he's slowly backing away from whatever it is. Even if he is just an animal, his instincts knew the rules of the World Tree's undergrowth: Pleasant things are a ticking time bomb.
But hasty movements from far away made him and his group stop, and lay low into the dense foliage.
Humans. Despicable humans.
They're at it to wreck our lives again.
The silver-backed alpha male scanned the surroundings and found a troop of human soldiers— of course the gorilla doesn't know how to count— but he realized that he had more soldiers behind him than them.
As the small detached force of humans neared the glistening flower, they let out a loud yell of triumph. "Yes! We found another one! Another loss for those animal bastards!"
The gorillas hiding in the dense underbrush didn't understand those words, but they knew that yell all too well.
It was a yell of triumph.
Triumph at the expense of another.
Triumph at the expense of them.
The silver backed alpha's eyes turned ferocious. He punched the soil with his right fist, as a signal for the ones at the back, to prepare for battle. They moved like they weren't gorillas, in complete silence, fully camouflaging themselves into their environment as they encircled the band of detestable, unknowing humans.
Then, as the final gorilla got to his position, the silver backed gorilla roared in a way he never did before— a roar that awakened one's primal fears.
Then, everything became a mess of flesh.
Like a bow launched from an arrow, the gorillas jumped the humans without much regard for their own safety. It was as if these apes did not care about their own lives as long as they could take the invading humans down.
The human soldiers on the other hand were shocked at first, but managed to activate their runic weapons using their own mana to retaliate at the right moment.
The apes don't have any weapons but their limbs, their heads, supreme physical advantages, and their carefully honed instincts. Some of them had already fallen after either the initial shots from the human runic guns, or the first slashes of the runic swords.
But it was too bad for the humans, who thought they'd gained the upper hand, that one of the gorillas had the supreme intellect, and raw physical prowess needed for a skirmish like this.
The unyielding roar of the alpha male resounded over the battlefield, as mana infused bullets flew over to cut him off. He aimed for the man at the back of the group, who wielded two ornate sabers in front of him with both hands, glowing with auric energy. He spoke in a language the gorilla never understood, and stood with his back facing the flower.
The gorilla's massive hands swung at the man, but as the head soldier moved one of his empowered sabers to block... he saw that the gorilla's eyes were filled with bloodlust... and a burning killing instinct.
The commanding soldier knew that his fate was sealed.
It all ends here.
He knew in an instant that this gorilla had the capabilities to be an unstoppable force after his Ascension. Sigh. He won't be there to see it.
The silver-backed gorilla's fists met the blunt side of the blade, and shattered it along with the soldier's face. It wasn't enough for him, as he rhythmically pounded the unconscious man's chest until it caved in and blood oozed from all his orifices. He then maniacally ripped the body apart like it was nothing but a piece of paper.
After beating down who he thought was the enemy's alpha, he turned around and scanned the battlefield.
All the enemies are dead, at the expense of a few of his friends and family.
He then held the remaining blade still filled with its now dead owner's mana, and used it to separate the flower from its stem... before plunging it to the decapitated man's neck.
In that short moment where the flower separated from its stem, it underwent significant change. It grew even more petals and a brighter purple hue.
It was a flower that awakened his every instinct as an animal that lived its entire life beneath the greatness of the World Tree. He felt a jolt inside his head, and by the next moment, he knew what to do with it, like it was coded into his ape genes.
It was like the flower told him everything he needed to do.
The entire flower was bigger than the already massive gorilla's face. Since it also had a lot of petals, he plucked one and threw it into his mouth.
The blood stained gorillas at the back, and the rest of the females, saw their alpha brimming with intense light after it entered his system...
His second in command rushed in, took a petal, and swallowed it as well like a loyal friend. After a few seconds, he was also shimmering the same way their leader was.
The rest of the gorillas followed suit, in a show of trust.
However, everything was all in the will of the World Tree.
A massive downpour drenched the forest in life saving rainwater. This part of the World Tree's underbelly became shrouded by an eerie mist as well, as if sending the animals in the area away.
Inside, the foggy mist... the corpses of the dead humans and gorillas rotted with incredible speed and returned to the World Tree. The blood spilled became nourishment, and the bones became part of the never ending cycle of life.
The only remembrances of the battle were the ripped clothes of the human combatants, one of which with the symbol A emblazoned on its chest pocket.
The gorillas dazzled for a time, until one by one, they emerged looking completely different than what they were before.
The silver backed alpha was the first to walk out of the mist like the very abomination he so despised. Walking on two limbs, noticeably leaner, and with the rare capability to harness mana. His eyes looked down on what he had become with boiling fury.
He had evolved.
He became human.
