There are many accounts of the final battle of the First Emperor of Humanity.
Some exaggerate it beyond belief. Others fail to capture even a fraction of its true scale.
If one could speak to someone who had witnessed it with their own eyes, perhaps the truth could be known.
But that is no longer possible.
No species, other than dragons, lives beyond a thousand years. And finding a dragon now is like finding a diamond in a heap of trash—not impossible, but highly unlikely. Finding one old enough to have witnessed the end of the greatest emperor of humanity… that is even less likely.
Still, there exists one text that is widely believed to hold some truth.
A record of his existence.
Of his conquests.
Of the end of his journey.
Its name is Elnata.
No one knows who wrote it.
But if the text is to be believed…
then the story goes like this—
Destruction stretched in every direction.
Great works of architecture lay in ruins. Forests were uprooted. Mountains had been torn apart. For miles and miles, there was nothing but devastation—as though the wrath of a god had descended upon the living world.
But this was no act of divine judgment.
It was the result of a battle between two of the most powerful beings to ever exist.
The Emperor of the Black Dragons—Hashin, a creature said to rival even the gods.
And the First Emperor of Humanity—Ray Star, the child of the stars.
This battle is known by many names across different races. Each tells it differently, shaped by their own beliefs and histories.
But the most widely known name is:
The Battle of the End.
Because neither emperor returned alive.
After this battle, many things changed.
But two events stood above all others.
The first—after a thousand years of struggle and oppression, humanity was finally united under a single banner. From this unity, the Golden Order was established, a force that still stands today as the foundation of humanity's strength.
The second—the Black Dragons, once the strongest species in existence… were gone.
All of this is true… to some extent.
But one thing is not.
The First Emperor of Humanity did not die.
…He lived.
How do I know?
Because—
I am him.
The First Emperor.
Ray Star.
When I first opened my eyes, I couldn't believe it.
I remembered clearly—I had used my origin essence to fight and bring down the Dragon Emperor. I had died.
So how… was I alive?
And not just alive—reborn in the body of a child, in a run-down orphanage in the countryside.
It has been five days since I awakened.
Everything I knew is gone.A thousand years have passed since my death.
People now worship me… as if I were some kind of god.
Though, if they truly knew what gods are like—they wouldn't.
Well… that's something for another time.
It took me two days just to accept my current situation.
And honestly…
I prefer this.
More than being an emperor.
In my previous life, I was always at war. Always conquering. At the beginning, I had my reasons—like everyone does.
But after a while… it stopped mattering.
It became a burden.
Something I had to carry until the day I died.
I never got to live a normal life.
I was born on a battlefield.The battlefield was my home.
My lullabies were the war cries of soldiers… and the roars of dragons.
My friends were monsters, drenched in blood.My brother and sister—my sword and shield.
And my father…
He was a good man.
I never met my mother.
She died while giving birth to me.
I was my father's only child… and he loved me dearly.
And I loved him.
Even in a world filled with war at every corner, there was still a place for care… for warmth.
For home.
He taught me everything I knew.To me, he was my entire world.
And for a time…
I was happy.
Until the day everything changed.
My father was gravely injured in a battle against a Black Dragon.
Half of our army was wiped out.
And the reason?
The dragon did it for amusement.
That was the kind of world we lived in.
Black Dragons stood at the peak of all races.And humanity… was divided.
Scattered across kingdoms and territories, weakened by its own conflicts.
We were easy targets.
My father's final moments…
I still remember them clearly.
With what little strength he had left, he said:
"The future of humanity… can only be secured if we stand as one."
Those were his last words.
That day, I made a vow.
To fulfill his wish.
To unite humanity.
And to kill every last Black Dragon in existence.
And I did.
But somewhere along the way…
I lost myself.
Revenge consumed me.
I lived only for that purpose—
Until the day I completed it.
And died.
I never cared about titles.
Or status.
People followed me anyway.And somewhere along the way… they began calling me the Emperor of Humanity.
But I never cared for it.
What I did care about…was what I never had.
A normal life.
Many people dream of becoming someone like me—the First Emperor.
But in my own eyes…
I was nothing more than a man who lost himself.
For some reason, I've been given another chance.
I don't know who gave it to me.Or why.
But this time…
I won't waste it.
This time, I'll live a normal life.
I'll grow old.
I'll have friends.
And maybe…
a family.
"Hey, Ray! What are you doing here? The sun's setting—let's go back. Miss Sen will scold us if we're late… and I really don't like it when she's angry."
This was a friend of the body I now inhabit.
We both lived in the orphanage, run by an old woman everyone called Miss Sen. Her real name was Anis Sen—a fallen noble. In this world, only nobles carried surnames.
The name of this body… was also Ray.
And the boy shouting at me—
his name was Ken.
"Yeah… let's go."