The Golden Planet had been special since the very moment it was born.

  Unlike ordinary worlds, it awakened a will of its own—one that was neither human nor beast, but something closer to a heavenly consciousness.

  This planetary will felt no attachment to good or evil, nor did it care about the life or death of the beings living upon its surface. To it, all forms of life were merely part of a long, continuous process of evolution.

  A world overflowing with magic—so powerful that even demigods were unable to influence it, no matter how completely they unleashed their strength.

  Even the aftershocks of a divine-ranked battle, weakened by the dimensional crystal barrier, struck the planet directly.

  The planet did not shatter, but its entire surface ecosystem was wiped out.

  Endless seas of molten lava spread across the land, enough to suggest that even the planet’s core had been pierced.

  “Yet even so… humanity survived.”

  After thirty thousand years, humans once again multiplied and built a primitive civilization atop the ruined world.

  Ten thousand years ago, a demigod forced his consciousness deep into the planet’s spiritual domain. From that moment on, another will began struggling with the Golden Planet for control.

  To protect its sovereignty over the Golden Star Planet, the planetary will made a desperate decision.

  It would create a Chosen Child.

  A child it would nurture—guide—raise into a god.

  Because in its understanding, only a demigod could stand against another demigod.

  Time flowed on.

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  Ten thousand years passed in silence.

  According to the calculations of both the Planetary Will and the invading demigod, the Child of Fate was only three years away from completing its gestation.

  And then—

  A faint distortion rippled through space.

  A flickering sphere of light descended from beyond the void and fell toward the surface of the Golden Star Planet.

  The planetary consciousness immediately noticed it.

  Though it had existed longer than any living being on this world, it possessed no true sense of time.

  Still, the sight before it felt… familiar.

  Ten thousand years ago, a demigod’s soul had descended in the exact same way.

  That human had gone on to grasp the Laws of Sea and Darkness, ascending to demigodhood.

  Remembering this, the Golden Planet reached out.

  It attempted to pull the sphere of light into its own consciousness space.

  The glowing sphere looked small—fragile, even—but its presence was unbearably heavy.

  Moving it required enormous effort.

  At last, the planetary will succeeded.

  Thankfully, no heavenly gaze noticed the act.

  The flow of time inside the planetary spiritual consciousness was entirely different from the outside world. Unless something truly critical occurred, no one could monitor this place continuously.

  Within the consciousness space, the sphere of light seemed to relax.

  Its radiance slowly faded, revealing the form of a shattered human soul inside.

  The planetary will attempted to communicate, linking its thoughts to the figure.

  Only faint, fragmented responses echoed back—from the depths of the subconscious.

  A realization followed.

  The being that carried this soul…

  It, too, was from another world.

  And more importantly—

  This soul was special.

  “Why not merge it with my chosen one?”

  “Perhaps… something unexpected will be born.”

  The planetary will did not think in complex schemes.

  Truthfully, it had never been fully confident that the Chosen Child alone could save it.

  After all, it was about to face a demigod who had coveted this world for ten thousand years.

  Now that a new variable had appeared…

  It chose to gamble.

  The result exceeded expectations.

  The fusion was perfectly successful.

  The soul nurtured by the planetary will for nearly ten thousand years was extraordinary by nature. Under normal circumstances, it should have resisted any fusion.

  Yet the remnant soul from another world lived up to its reputation—an existence capable of retaining its identity even amidst violent spacetime turbulence.

  With this soul acting as a secondary vessel, the fusion was completed in just two years.

  One full year ahead of schedule.

  Afterward, the planetary will decided to allow the fused soul to continue absorbing nourishment for another year.

  Then, it would be born into the human world through the natural cycle of reincarnation.

  This birth would occur after the Child of Fate returned to humanity.

  Far below—

  A man and a woman, bound by unspoken feelings, lost all reason after an accidental meeting of eyes and a brief, unintended touch.

  Their bodies drew closer.

  And within the woman’s womb, a new life quietly began to grow.

  They did not know that inside the infant they would name Urael, a soul was slowly awakening.

  The memories on the surface had been swept away by the chaos of time and space.

  Yet the habits of learning, reasoning, and thinking—formed over countless years—remained.

  Having just been born, the baby cried several times, overwhelmed by his fragile body.

  Soon, only rhythmic human voices echoed around him.

  Where… am I?

  Is this still Earth?

  The thought surfaced faintly—

  Then faded.

  The soul fell asleep once more, needing time to adjust to its new body.