Legendary Vampire in the Apocalypse
Chapter 38: Gaia’s Awakening

Chapter 38: Gaia’s Awakening

"This world might have awakened, however, it is only barely beyond being mundane since the event of the Akashic Records’ descent. Prana has begun to pulse through it, but the world has not yet finished adapting to its presence, and the Akashic Records did not cause this process of awakening."

As she began her explanation, once the jug had chilled enough, he lifted the spoon out and briefly tasted the liquor that remained over it.

His brows had furrowed despite the softening of its flavour from the vermouth because of what she had said last.

’If the Akashic Records didn’t cause it, then what did?’

As if she had read his thoughts, she immediately went on to say:

"The world itself solely causes its awakening, although perhaps more specifically, it is by the positive and negative world trees of the world. The Akashic Records as an existence can only loosely be described as the collection of memory in existence.

It is fundamental to everything; however, for the connection with it to be formed in such earnestness that interaction with it becomes possible, the world itself must be connected sufficiently to prana and, by extension, the spiritual and astral planes of existence.

Thus, the role it plays in what has happened is only a supportive one, merely being the existential acknowledgement that this world and its inhabitants have in earnest begun maturation and ascension. The Chronicle we all see is only its presentation to us of the information tied to each individual, without any true functionality to it besides that."

By the time that she had ended her explanation, Dion had finished filling her glass.

However, he didn’t pass it over immediately.

He had paused in his reach for the orange. His brows had furrowed deeply.

"So the zombies and the gnolls are..."

"Consequences of the negative and positive world trees. One is responsible for the world’s nature of degeneration, and the other, life, and together they maintain the world’s natural balance."

"And the world trees have gone out of their way to curse humanity to become zombies, and for monsters to appear towards the end of natural selection?"

Anastasia slightly shook her head there.

"While I cannot truly speak for the intentions of Gaia’s world trees, one thing I am certain of is that their influence is not so arbitrary as to merely force extreme natural selection. This is only an assumption of mine from the basis of observation."

There, her hands rose, gesturing towards the room, and he could tell she was also gesturing beyond it as well, to the wider city and world.

"However, the humans of this world are the only ones who have been transformed into zombies, leaving the animals untainted. From how they speak, they are clearly the dominant race of the world, and I believe there must be many more cities as big, and larger than Lullin, brought about by their innovations. And towards the end of these creations, they have torn ceaselessly through the land."

Anastasia grimaced faintly, her gaze slightly distant from him, as she continued, "The air is clotted rotten with pollution because of them. This contamination has further worsened the condition of the world, and mind you, the existence of the world trees is directly tied to the health of the world. They shoulder the suffering it endures."

"...So you think it is a culling."

Anastasia faintly nodded, confirming, "Just as much as that, I would not be surprised to eventually discover that Gaia should have awakened hundreds of years ago, but the world trees simply could not because of how humanity had so torn from the vitality of their planet.

This is to say that this phenomenon serves the greater purpose of ensuring humanity cannot hinder the world’s maturation any more than they already have. And thus, rather than calling it culling, it would be more precise to say they may have taken this direction to restore balance to Gaia’s health."

"...You mentioned that this is only the first awakening. Do you have any idea when the next stage will begin?"

"That, I regret that I cannot tell you." She shook her head. "A world does not awaken according to the passage of mortal days. It may take weeks to months and years, or potentially decades if the damage that has been done to it has been that severe."

That answer did not help him as much as he had hoped, but at least he now knew that there would be another stage. It meant that surviving what had already appeared was not enough.

Whatever strength he gathered now would have to prepare him for what came after, and thus, it only solidified his plans for the future.

’World trees, planes of existence, consequences of human industrialism... the way that she’s saying it all, not only could this world have potentially awakened sooner, but couldn’t there have been a reality where zombies and monsters don’t appear at all, and we all just begin awakening whatever the more gentle way should have been?’

Dion’s gaze had faintly unfocused from Anastasia in these thoughts, and he really, seriously had a part of him that wished that this reality was better than what he was living now.

Then his attention refocused on her. Without everything that happened as it had, would he have still been able to bring her, and potentially the others here?

He didn’t want to bet on it...

’Wait... the records don’t do anything but present the information to people?’

"It seems there is something different about the way that the Akashic Records interact with this world from how you know it should."

Anastasia’s brows furrowed the moment he said that.

Dion began to begin explaining what had happened since he woke up in his apartment, specifically about how the chronicle would inform him of how he harvested essence from the zombies that he killed and the gnoll.

Then he spoke about the essence saturation pluses that he had gained and could redistribute, or how they would be freely distributable.

By the time he was done, the confusion on Anastasia’s expression had fallen away and been replaced with a calm one of understanding.