Chapter 16: Chapter 11 Oath
After signing the oath of Miracle with Farosa, it seemed they could trust each other.
"What on earth happened?" Hiding deep in the cave, Farosa was still concerned about the history Xu Yang had promised, "Why has the world changed from one controlled by Witches to one dominated by corporations?"
"It's like this..." Xu Yang confirmed the safety of this part of the cave, and only after making sure there were no traces of anyone outside in the darkness, did he slowly begin to recount history. The bloody past between Witches and corporations surfaced in his mind, "The corporations and Witches had fought three wars altogether."
"Oh!" Farosa was extremely curious.
"Our history books start from the Industrial Revolution, which was a massive technological advancement. With the development of science, various corporations emerged and new regions such as New Taixi State, Agave Continent, and White Elephant Continent were discovered."
"What are those?"
"Huge tracts of land, separated by the Great Ocean before the shipbuilding industry flourished."
"The ocean? That's frightening, the venerable gods originate from the ocean."
"It is said that the Witches did indeed revere the ocean at that time, so only Humans dared to cross it courageously. A massive migration took place, and they gained the resources of the New World. Corporations first traded spices, then started to capture and sell slaves from the uncivilized continents. Gradually, the corporations' economies prospered, and technology became more advanced with higher levels of technical development."
"So it's 'technology' that changed the face of the world... I saw mostly strange things after opening my eyes, things I had never seen before."
"That's right, as technology progressed, the corporations gained the confidence to dispute territories with Witches, and various scales of conflicts broke out incessantly. Such contradictions continued until the Witch Wars finally erupted. In the first war, corporations used ironclad ships and cannons; in the second, armored vehicles and aircraft carriers, all of which were the latest in warfare technology but still could not overcome the Witches."
"Because the Council could change reality," Farosa said, "the Council always reserved one or two seats for Reality Manipulators."
"Yes, with the corporations' failures in two wars, they realized they had to cultivate their own Witches to win. As victors of both wars, the Witches' revenge directly led to the death of nearly one billion people, a slaughter that nearly eradicated half the Human population from the earth."
"It sounds like Humans are too weak."
"Weak, beaten, and reflective, then came the turning point. The massacre by the Witches led to an unprecedented wave of vengeance. People gathered under the extremist leader Gillian Seiko. Gillian was first a speculator and then became adored by most people. He defeated his opponents in the civil war and then took the lead in forming the Corporate Alliance, even forcing the companies to put aside their grievances."
"The corporations also had Witches."
"And they used Witches more effectively. Farosa, a Witch who could accelerate the growth of plants, was only a royal gardener under the Council, but in the hands of the corporations, she became a great asset to agricultural progress, able to complete breeding and selection in a matter of days, producing high-yield crops that could feed tens of millions. There are many more similar cases."
"Back in our time, Witches who liked to help Humans were seen as failures."
"So your era has passed. On one hand, Gillian tried every means to attract those Witches who were not well-regarded within the Council, and on the other hand, he carefully educated and controlled the Witches born within his own territories so that they would identify more with the corporations than the Council as they grew up."
"How could the Council just sit and wait for doom?"
"Of course, they didn't sit by idly; they thought of many ways to restrict corporate development, constantly attacking and plundering. Gillian also gave way time and again, even disbanding most of the military forces and sinking many fleets to show a harmless side, in exchange for a breather. Then... Gillian concentrated the power of the major corporations to secretly breed their own Reality Manipulator, Eve Anak, perhaps the strongest ever in terms of changing reality, said to be capable of making things happen with her words."
"She just served the corporations like that?"
"Under Gillian's design, a control chip was implanted in her head, and this was the first application of Human Enhancement Technology." Xu Yang lifted his right hand, showing Farosa the scorched metal marks on it.
"You too..."
"Everything implanted comes from that earliest control chip. Instead of calling it Human Enhancement Technology, it might as well be called Human Control Technology."
"Then what happened?"
"Gillian pretended to negotiate with the Witches for lasting peace and convened a world conference, assembling many outstanding Witches and corporate representatives. On that day, under Gillian's coercion, Eve uttered the historic words that altered the course of history: 'All Witches lose their Magic Power.' Immediately afterward, the corporations slaughtered all the Witches who were present at the conference, and they were powerless to fight back."
"A Reality Manipulator used by Humans..."
"Since childhood, Eve had been indoctrinated by the corporations, and thus she was loyal to Humans. After her spellcasting, the Witches' powers vanished, and the corporations quickly marched in, hunting, slaughtering, and purging a large number of Witches. The third Witch War erupted abruptly and ended just as swiftly, without any substantial resistance."
"..."
"Many Witches on various lands were killed, with none surviving; the Fury of the people was thus unleashed. Countless Witches suffered extrajudicial killings and were murdered or executed in the most brutal ways. The slaves in the Witches' estates also rose in revolt, taking their revenge on the Witch slave owners with the most Maniacal methods. Even the Witches who usually did Good were slaughtered in the tide of the Witch hunt. However, even the Reality Manipulator's magic disappeared over time, and 14 days later, the Witches' powers all returned. But by then, they had suffered the heaviest of massacres, a systematic genocide."