Life is born, grows, learns, eventually declines, and finally dies.
This is the natural order of existence—an immutable cycle that cannot be changed.
Human beings are creatures that learn and think.
The endless war lasted for fifteen centuries before ending in the defeat of all living beings.
Later historians would come to call it The Mythic War.
With its conclusion, humanity entered an age ruled by those known only as the Rulers.
During the war, mankind achieved countless technological breakthroughs.
Humanity charted courses across the infinite cosmos, witnessing innumerable civilizations, species, and worlds.
And throughout it all, they continued their war against the Rulers.
But now...
They could no longer fight.
Humanity lived only as slaves.
As toys for the Rulers.
Men were forced to kill one another for the amusement of their masters.
Women were reduced to slaves of lust, compelled to endure every form of degradation imaginable.
The men died in endless slaughter.
The women chose death by their own hands.
In a world where death had become the only form of freedom, the human population steadily declined.
Fearing the loss of their entertainment, the Rulers began manufacturing human beings artificially.
At first, men and women were separated and forced to reproduce naturally.
Children were born through ordinary conception.
However, the Rulers eventually concluded that allowing life to develop inside a mother's womb for such a long period was hopelessly inefficient.
They constructed orbital factories dedicated solely to the mass production of human life.
From the outside, these colossal structures resembled celestial bodies covered in liquid metal.
Within them, sperm cells were cultivated, fused with artificial ova, and fully grown adults were manufactured in only a matter of hours.
The Rulers called these facilities Plants.
Through them, humanity's population exploded once again.
But their fate never changed.
Every newborn entered the world only to become another slave.
Eventually, humanity abandoned the will to think.
They surrendered the desire to live.
They came to recognize themselves not as people, but as tools.
Yet there were still those who refused to surrender.
Humans who escaped the Rulers.
Who hid.
Who continued to fight.
Who continued to think as human beings.
They waited.
They waited for the appearance of the Messiah—
The one who would change the world.
The one who would restore a future where humanity could once again live as human beings.
[The Plant]
End