The System Awakens: Rise of the Champion - Chapter 260

Capítulo 260: Chapter 260: The Wonders

“What the heck are these? Are they corpses?” Victoria, Damian’s aunt asked, staring at the dozens of casket-like metal chambers lining the hall.

Each chamber had a top panel made of transparent blue glass, though calling it glass felt wrong.

The material was clearly something far more advanced, faintly glowing with an unnatural sheen.

There were at least two dozen of them, arranged in neat rows.

Every chamber contained a corpse.

The bodies inside were humanoid, yet unnaturally tall.

Beyond that, it was difficult to discern any defining features.

Their flesh appeared completely drained of blood, dried and shriveled, and their skin was deathly pale, almost vampiric in appearance.

Yet Damian’s vampire wives immediately knew something was wrong.

They were certain these were not vampires.

A dead vampire would never leave behind a corpse.

Any injury sustained by a vampire would regenerate within moments, and an injury severe enough to kill one would obliterate the body entirely, reducing it to scattered remnants.

But the bodies within these chambers were intact.

There were no visible wounds.

No signs of battle.

No destruction, just perfectly preserved corpses, sealed in silent stasis.

Along the walls on either side of the hall stood rows of shelves.

Hundreds of glass bottles rested upon them, made of the same transparent material as the chambers themselves.

Inside each bottle was a thick, dark red substance.

Blood.

“They are not vampires,” Damian said calmly. “These are the corpses of a fallen race, the ghouls.”

“The ghouls?”

The vampire wives and the werewolf wives in particular reacted sharply to that name.

Their expressions darkened instantly as memories of the legends and stories surrounding the race known as ghouls resurfaced in their minds.

They knew exactly what ghouls were.

“What are ghouls?” someone asked.

Unlike the vampires, werewolves, goddesses, and members of celestial races such as Damian’s family, many of those present had never even heard the term before.

“Alongside vampires and werewolves, the ghouls were the third race,” Countess Tiana Valthryne explained as she examined one of the corpses more closely. “Together, the three were known throughout the universe as the Creatures of the Night.”

Not only that, ghouls were widely considered the strongest of the three.

Some even believed they were an evolved fusion of vampires and werewolves.

That belief, however, was false.

The ghouls were a completely separate race.

Sharing the title of Creatures of the Night did not make the three biologically or spiritually related.

Their only true connection was their origin.

All three races evolved on worlds where night was the dominant state of existence, or where daylight did not exist at all.

These worlds were governed by the World Tree of the Night, Reiya.

The ghouls possessed extraordinary regenerative abilities rivaling vampires, powerful physical bodies, and primal instincts akin to werewolves, and a unique racial ability entirely their own.

“The ghouls went extinct a long, long time ago,” Countess Akira Kaminari said quietly.

“They did not go extinct,” Reiya corrected, her expression turning wrathful. “They were exterminated by despicable invaders when they attacked one of the worlds I governed.”

Silence fell over the hall.

No one questioned her words.

They all knew how painful this subject was for her.

“These corpses are all that remain of the ghouls,” Damian said. “I have been using magic to preserve their essence, hoping to someday bring them back from extinction. But every time I tried to begin the research, something always got in the way.”

“Are you going to resurrect them?” Amaya asked curiously.

“No,” Damian replied with a sigh. “Resurrection is not possible. Once a soul enters the cycle of samsara, it cannot be reclaimed. I could restore their bodies to peak condition and even restart their hearts, but I cannot return their souls. That is simply how reality works.”

He paused, then continued. “Now that I have obtained all my abilities and become the Primordial Progenitor, I finally have the authority and power necessary to bring them back from extinction.”

“Then why not use your predation?” Sia Milvyra, one of the werewolf wives, asked. “Why not devour their racial essence from the blood and evolve into the Progenitor of Ghouls, like you did with the other races?”

“It’s not how it works, but I can understand why you would assume that,” Damian said with a small smile.

“You see, the race comes first, and the progenitor comes second, only when one of the race’s many populations evolves into one, provided everything falls into place,” Damian explained slowly.

“Oh, I understand,” Lea Morvain clapped her hands. “To become a progenitor of a race, the race must already exist. And since the ghouls were… exterminated, there are no ghouls left for you to become the progenitor of.”

“It’s exactly as you said,” Damian nodded. “I can’t become a representative of something that doesn’t exist in the first place.”

“There are certain requirements and rules even for a progenitor to be born,” Damian continued.

He raised his hand, palm facing upward, and in the next second, an invisible force manifested.

It pulled all the corpse chambers and the bottles containing their racial essence free from the bodies.

Everything flew toward him, shrinking as it did so, before disappearing into his hand and becoming stored within his spiritual space.

“I’m taking care of it…” Damian said as he looked at Reiya. “Rest assured, I’m bringing them back.”

“I know you will, brother. I never doubted you and never will,” Reiya replied with a small smile.

“If you successfully bring the ghouls back from extinction, I calculate that it will restore a major portion of the universe’s reduced providence, greatly accelerating the resurgence,” the Primordial Beginning said.

“I know,” Damian nodded. “And it’s not just about the resurgence. Ghouls were part of the creatures of the night. Without them, the creatures of the night are incomplete.”

Damian then turned his gaze toward his vampire wives and werewolf wives. “You might not feel it, but without the ghouls, the providence your races should receive from the universe has been reduced by two-thirds.”

“The natural order of the creatures of the night has been broken. Once the ghouls are reestablished, the natural order will fix itself, and the potential of all three races will be restored to its peak.”

Providence was vital for any race to flourish and develop.

It was something that flowed systematically from the universe itself, a singular, incomprehensible force that provided races with luck, karma, and alignment with the natural laws of existence.

For a race to receive providence, it had to exist within the natural order.

Even the disruption of a single part of that order could cause providence to take a severe hit.

Providence also worked in cycles.

As a race flourished under high providence, the cycle of birth, life, and death, and everything bound to those three stages, became stronger and more stable.

Vampires, werewolves, and ghouls together formed a complete natural order as the creatures of the night.

When the ghouls were exterminated, the providence meant for the creatures of the night suffered a devastating loss, reducing it to two-thirds.

It might not sound like much, but it was catastrophic when one considered that this providence was meant to sustain races with populations numbering in the billions.

“Not just that… I can feel it myself, the providence that comes with the restoration of the ghoul race. It should be enough for the Wonders to reemerge into existence,” Damian said with an excited smile, something rare for him, as he was not someone who easily showed excitement or surprise.

“What do you mean by Wonders?” Lillian asked, confused.

“You don’t know what Wonders are?” Amaya asked, staring at Lillian as if she couldn’t believe it.

“We don’t know either…”

Others also admitted.

Except for the goddesses and the Celestials, no one truly knew what the Wonders Damian was referring to.

“You guys seriously don’t know?” Amaya muttered.

Among the group, she was the only one who seemed familiar with the concept.

“Well, you are kind of obsessed with learning about all sorts of things. Not everyone is as studious as you, Amaya,” Lillian said with a shrug.

“Why don’t I let my dear Amaya explain it to you all?” Damian said with a small smile.

“Yes!” Amaya beamed sweetly as she began.

“Wonders are magical, sacred beings born as creatures of belief. They embody ideals, symbolic and cosmic roles, representing balance, conflict, and everything in between. They are beings not of power, but of authority.”

“Nicely said, my wife,” Damian said, patting her head.

The gesture made her immensely happy, as evidenced by the wide smile and the redness spreading across her face.

“It’s exactly as she said. I can’t believe you all never learned anything about the Wonders. I expected this from Elfie or those from the human worlds, but not from you,” Damian added, shaking his head.

“Yeah, being studious is looking pretty good right about now, isn’t it?” Amaya grinned, glancing at the other countesses.

They responded with glares, especially Kathryne, whose jealousy was obvious after seeing Amaya receive praise from their king.

“She’s kind of right. While I agree with your obsession to grow stronger, you should also pay attention to understanding how the world around you works,” Damian said, nodding in agreement with Amaya, which only fueled her inner joy.

“Anyway, the Wonders are the purest beings in both essence and nature within the universe,” Damian continued.

“You could say they are the purest mythical beasts, possessing all the good of divine beings, yet none of their flaws. They are my favorite part of the universe. I love them.”

“The Wonders are similar to the Primordials. They have no birth or death. They simply exist. However, as universal karma was continuously damaged, they became inactive,”

Damian went on.

“As Amaya said, they are beings of authority. Their purpose is to guide and watch over the intelligence that develops within the universe. They govern things like cultivation, energy, growth, rain, everything that supports life’s flourishing. They are truly the purest beings,” Damian explained.

“They work closely with the World Trees, and within the universal hierarchy, while they are beneath the World Trees, they stand far above gods and Celestials.”

“Although you may not know them as Wonders, I am sure you have heard of them in other forms,” Damian said, turning his gaze toward those from the human worlds.

“On Earth?” Ana asked.

“You have heard of zodiac signs, right?” Damian replied.

“Yes, zodiac signs. Wait, are zodiac signs based on the Wonders?” Yuki asked, surprised.

“Yes. Although the predictions associated with zodiac signs are inaccurate, the zodiac itself is indeed derived from the Wonders,” Damian confirmed.

“Does that mean there are twelve Wonders?” Maria asked.

Though religious, she had never believed in such things, but that never stopped her from learning. Knowledge itself was never bad, as long as it was not misused.

“No. That is another misconception,” Damian said.

“There are many Wonders, not just twelve.”