A decade later, Intayan erged as a dominant global power.
The region most affected by this shift was the conflict-ridden continent of Fritz.
Given its proximity—separated only by the Yruvhan Sea—Fritz struggled with educational setbacks, particularly in mathematics.
Seizing this opportunity, Intayan directed negotiations to its advantage.
One day, a politician stationed near the border beca intrigued by how a war-torn land like Fritz could still afford expensive goods. His curiosity led him to an unusual discovery—a mining operation.
A small coastal nation called Sylabyss thrived solely on exporting a resource known as Ethereum.
This rare mineral was the key to their survival, preventing outside forces from disrupting their fragile defenses.
Ethereum’s value was so imnse that its trade earnings nearly matched 75% of Intayan’s profits from comrce with Fritz over the past decade.
Ethereum, a pale-red tal, could store vast amounts of mana from different sources without destabilizing or overflowing. Intayan imdiately recognized its potential.
In 250 Post-Diaspora, Intayan proposed an exclusive trade deal to Sylabyss, offering triple the current market price for Ethereum.
However, what seed like a straightforward negotiation turned into a heated standoff.
Many Sylabyss citizens were descendants of failed Intayan immigrants.
Worse yet, these immigrants had joined a moderate faction that opposed Intayan’s aggressive approach to handling the Holy Confederation.
Tensions escalated to the point where weapons were drawn.
At the height of the standoff, a high-ranking councilor from Sylabyss, Shaevira, made a bold counteroffer: either Intayan paid twenty tis the asking price, or its war cris during the Holy Confederation invasion would be publicly exposed.
Realizing the negotiation was going nowhere, Intayan withdrew—but not in defeat.
After all, it was the world’s leading power, while Sylabyss was nothing more than an insignificant speck in its vast domain.
Still, Intayan was not one to resort to brute force unnecessarily.
War was costly and inefficient. Instead, it chose a subtler approach.
Sylabyss had no real industry beyond Ethereum mining.
Its soil was infertile, and its coastal geography, combined with saline water conditions, made livestock farming unviable.
The nation relied almost entirely on seafood for sustenance, leaving it vulnerable.
So, Intayan initiated an embargo.
Any nation that wished to continue trading with Intayan had to sever all ties with Sylabyss.
In return, Intayan offered a 30% reduction in transaction fees, compensating for Ethereum’s versatility with economic incentives.
The effects took five years to fully manifest.
As Sylabyss’ primary export, Ethereum, lost its market, essential goods beca scarce, and inflation soared.
Poverty deepened, overpopulation beca a pressing issue, and the nation’s declining living standards led to shorter lifespans and rising depression rates.
This prolonged suffering bred resentnt, but internal divisions kept hostility unfocused.
So blad the incompetent high council, while others directed their anger toward the unseen hand across the sea.
Mass migration ensued, and Sylabyss lost its most capable citizens.
At this mont of chaos, Intayan delivered its final blow—covert infiltration.
With security crumbling, Sylabyss could no longer screen its immigrants.
Around 100 individuals entered illegally, and half of them managed to rise to influential positions, redirecting public hatred entirely toward the ruling council.
From there, Intayan simply waited for Sylabyss to collapse from within.
Within months, a powerful rebel faction erged, growing strong enough to challenge the governnt.
When tensions reached their peak, Intayan contacted the rebels, offering weapons and supplies in exchange for the sa trade deal Sylabyss had rejected half a decade ago—but this ti, on equal terms.
The rebels, mostly uneducated Fritz commoners, accepted without hesitation.
With newfound strength, on a damp and rainy evening in 256 Post-Diaspora, the rebels launched an all-out assault on the Unity Palace, aiming to overthrow the ruling governnt.
However, things did not go as planned.
Among the royal guards stood a formidable woman nad Naethala, a warrior blessed with divine power.
Her lineage traced back to a legendary female knight who once served The Great Rhaomak, long before the Second Extinction.
Even before her rise, Naethala was said to radiate holiness—her calves glowing with an ethereal light.
Seeing her potential, High Councilor Aezhin sought to wed her, but she chose celibacy and devoted herself to the path of the knight.
When the palace ca under siege, Naethala was its first and fiercest defender.
She transford the grand towers of the palace into unbreakable fortresses, fortified by divine blessings.
Intayan’s shock deepened when rebel forces were ambushed by sothing airborne—not an object, but a soone.
It was a special unit, led by Naethala herself.
What had happened to the Holy Confederation’s remnants now befell the rebels:
One division of elite warriors annihilated an entire battalion.
Outnumbered, they compensated with sheer quality.
The war raged on for three years. Both sides suffered, but the rebels bore the brunt of the losses, particularly as Intayan began scaling back its support and selling supplies at exorbitant prices.
By 260 Post-Diaspora, both factions agreed to a ceasefire, leading to Sylabyss’ division.
The governnt retained Eastern Sylla, while the rebels controlled Western Sylla.
As part of the agreent, Intayan gained unrestricted access to Western Sylla’s Ethereum mines. However, war debts and supply costs forced the rebels into financial ruin, turning trade into exploitation.
Naethala watched in dismay.
The ceasefire, ant to last five years, was broken early.
Western Sylla was invaded.
Intayan, refusing to let its puppet state fall, deployed military forces for covert operations.
But the informants sent to scout the enemy returned with disturbing news.
They had witnessed the initiation of Alcatraz.
What made the situation even worse was that Intayan received worrying news from another front: the Sarr forces, led by a descendant of Rhaozhekar, were advancing in massive numbers and were now nearing the coastline.
Faced with this new threat, Intayan’s reinforcents were recalled to deal with the Sarr army first, forcing them to abandon their previous engagents.
Naethala, realizing that her bluff had worked, no longer held back.
The invasion of Western Sylla proceeded with remarkable ease, and before even six months had passed, Sylabyss was reunited into a stronger and more unified nation.
In the years that followed, Sylabyss underwent a transformation, eventually being renad the Keteocracy of Sylabyss, where the succession of power was determined through a matrilineal system.
Naethala herself was declared the first High Saintess, the supre ruler of this newly ford nation.
Although Naethala had decreed that every future leader of the Theocracy must take a vow of celibacy, this tradition was broken as early as the second generation.
While the selection of each High Saintess was officially decided by a supposed divine mandate, in practice, the title was almost always passed down to those with familial ties to the previous ruler, ensuring that power remained within a select bloodline.
Naethala rebuilt Sylabyss through her mysterious and revolutionary Creation Magic—a newly discovered form of magic that defied conventional understanding.
Creation Magic could generate complex, fully ford manufactured goods,
This magic, along with Flying Magic, was soon classified as an anomaly—a phenonon so rare and potent that any nation that managed to master its secrets would automatically ascend to the status of a superpower.
Though geographically smaller than many of its neighboring countries, the Theocracy of Sylabyss rapidly beca the religious and ideological center of the Fritz continent.
The influence of the High Saintess grew to such an extent that even the kings who ruled the continent had to seek her blessing before holding their official na-giving ceremonies.
anwhile, Intayan remained just Intayan.
The supposed Sarr invasion turned out to be sothing entirely different—it was, in fact, a mass migration.
The Magical Creatures that had long inhabited Union continent had grown extraordinarily powerful, to the point where they had begun encroaching upon human settlents.
Sarr —once thought to be an impenetrable natural fortress—were now under siege by terrifying colonies of ancient fish-like creatures with tentacles, monstrosities unlike anything seen before.
Even traveling across the continent had beco an overwhelming challenge, as danger lurked in every shadow.
Being a calculating nation, Intayan was unwilling to offer sanctuary to those who had once been its enemies without a price.
So of the noblen who governed the coastal regions, rather than seeing the Magical Creatures as threats, instead viewed them as a scientific curiosity—an opportunity for study.
They imposed a strict requirent: any immigrant seeking refuge in their lands had to provide samples or body parts from the Magical Creatures as a form of paynt.
If they failed to do so, they were given only one other option: slavery.
Terrified and desperate, many immigrants chose to beco slaves rather than risk encountering the horrors of the outside world.
To so, this decision was nothing short of foolish and short-sighted. At least, that was how Dahr saw it.
Arriving in Intayan at the age of ten, Dahr felt nothing but regret and sha over his family’s decision to surrender so easily.
He had grown up listening to grand tales and sacred hymns about the Holy Confederation—about the greatness of their revered and supposedly immortal leader, Rhaozhekar.
To him, Intayan was nothing but a cursed and defiled land—a place unworthy of his people.
This was the land where his ancestors had bled and suffered.
This was The Land That Wept.
A land of endless sorrow and enduring pain.
As he looked back at his ever-smiling siblings and his parents, who constantly urged him to be grateful for their "safety," Dahr felt sick to his stomach.
And so, when his father grew too old to travel, and when his older brother succumbed to a vicious malaria outbreak, Dahr made his choice.
With his head held high and his heart burning with pride, he stepped forward—returning to the land of his birthright.
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