2192 - Necrofortress Galaxy
The records of the Necrofortress Galaxy were his hope for understanding his powers… but he did not find much.
In truth, the Necrofortress Galaxy is neither an artificial galaxy nor a Behemoth galaxy in the conventional sense.
The Necrofortress Galaxy is a natural galaxy containing millions of stars and tens of millions of planets, scattered randomly, and its size is comparable to that of an entire star field.
The records state that its formation began when someone tampered with the Path of Death and reached a high level within it. That person was called Mortix, also known as the Angel of Death.
Mortix, the strange and unique mutant of his kind, used a secondary law of the Path of Death until he reached the peak of the Nexus State with it, and he is the only one in history to have achieved such a feat.
He is also the only one in history to have incurred the hatred of all living things.
Mortix explored his power and his great affinity for death by experimenting on living beings. The stronger he became, the more horrific his experiments grew, and the greater the number of his victims.
But no one stopped him, no one could overcome him, and those who could kill him did not wish to approach him… the price that one might pay to deal with a user of the law of death was one that no one ever paid.
So Mortix continued his tyranny and corruption until he took the step and became a Monarch over that Minor Law.
However, he did not form a specific force or begin gathering an empire for himself. Instead, he moved from sector to sector, spreading his corruption and planting the seeds of what is now known as The Undead—the only beings he loves and who love him in return, his army.
His army, which began to stir its seeds to destroy the remaining creatures on those planets or turn them into Undead as well.
His existence became dangerous to everyone, especially during a period of flourishing powers that had not yet known devastating wars. So they complained to the supreme ruler of the universe at the time… Athena.
After the collective complaints and news of the escalating atrocities, even Athena, who used to trample Behemoths underfoot, grew angry.
That person was not gathering wealth or glory, nor was he doing what he did for any purpose other than entertainment. He was going to destroy the perfect universe in her eyes just to satisfy himself.
So she ordered her followers to arrest him.
And when they failed to get close to him, she went herself to his then-random location and slapped him.
Thus, his story ended.
Or so everyone thought…
The site where Mortix was *killed* — if that term can even apply to such a being — transformed into something resembling a vast graveyard. The Aura of Death covered it and spread, as if the Path of Death itself was bidding him farewell in its own way… yet some said it was a technique or curse he had prepared before his death.
All the surrounding planets began to wither, and their creatures turned into the undead. In a single day, what was once mortal became a universal catastrophe. Those who did not flee quickly enough suffered a touch of harm… and this circle continued to expand until it encompassed the Natural Galaxy within whose borders he was killed, and it could expand no further.
After thousands of years of slow expansion, every creature in that galaxy transformed into things neither alive nor dead — things more hideous and terrifying than ghosts, especially the weak among them.
As for the strong inhabitants of that galaxy, they retained some of their awareness and began to grow accustomed to their new lives and the new training system they were discovering together. After all… their Energy Gathering Center had died.
Then they chose for themselves titles and roles, not based on their lives before the transformation. Everything was determined by their current power and level of awareness.
Very slowly, that dead galaxy that everyone avoided began to grow, acquiring borders, an army, and leaders with defined roles.
This became even more well-known when the first wave of Space Beasts arrived and attacked that galaxy by chance—after all, they wanted the planets themselves and cared nothing for the living or the dead upon them.
At that moment, the galaxy's leaders, generals, and Death Eaters emerged and confronted the Space Beasts in all their ranks. Some say they fought them with even greater ferocity than the living powers!
Thus, everyone turned their attention back to that galaxy…
Some did so out of fear of that strange entity, yet no one made a move—first, because their numbers were immense, and second, because they had shown no expansionist intentions.
Others saw it as an opportunity to escape the boundary of one hundred thousand years. Those individuals were powerful and clearly possessed awareness, so why not join them? They went there, greedy to also transform into The Undead and prolong their lives… and so the numbers of The Undead in that galaxy increased even further, especially the powerful among them.
No one officially named it, and no one spoke on its behalf—it had no leader. It was a black spot in the universe formed by the whim of a single person… yet everyone came to know it as the Necrofortress Galaxy.
It is a fortress against both the living and the enemy alike. Whoever enters it is safe… but must they be dead first?
That was all Caesar had gathered from reading the records—all of it ancient history. No one had ever attempted to enter the planets of the Necrofortress Galaxy to study what was happening there in greater detail.
The only thing he had read was that the powerful fortress generals absorbed a certain energy that made them stronger. It was not natural energy, nor life energy, nor soul power… but something entirely different.
No one knew or understood what it was.
Whatever the source of that energy… it seemed there was an abundance of it in that galaxy.
Their power increased dramatically—to an extent that the other powers did not wish to study or even contemplate.
They only hoped… that they would remain as they were, lurking in their places forever.