The planetary war had little to no actual impact on most people as the battle tactics evolved and satellites took care of the information gathering.
Even the arrival of the second wave didn't shake the world as much as the first wave did.
People were just too busy exploring the side of mana. Research was being done and shared in real time across the now humongous Earth.
Mana beasts and humans even arrived at a tacit understanding. Humans weren't able to gain much from killing mana beasts except some battle experience, and only the ones on the dark side actively made trouble to make their relationship tenser.
This soon changed as the targeted attacks enraged the mana beasts and a massive reform began. Out of nowhere, the unorganized mana beasts began creating their meet up places.
And they had killed a ranker of the dark leaderboard. This change had also given humans a new competitor on the karma rankings.
A mysterious mana beast with the initial H had taken up a firm 9th spot and over the days as it took revenge, it went all the way up to the 4th place.
Furthermore, mana beasts began their assault on the invaders, though most of these were done by avian types of mana beasts.
The invaders didn't sit still, and with the arrival of wave 2, their command solidified. This brought a new type of tactical warfare.
An aquatic one, something that humans weren't yet ready for and didn't even consider doing much yet.
A good reason stood behind their decision as they believed that the deep waters hid aquatic beasts more powerful than any other being on land.
They soon proved their suspicion right when during one of the battles a suspected sovereign of the ocean made its presence known as it summoned a huge mana enforced tsunami that swept through at least 100 thousand of enemy troops.
Damaged most of their infrastructure and shattered a large chunk of ice which held their base on the North Pole.
These great news were accepted by humans and mana beasts alike, though their attempts to contact the ocean, no matter the place, returned with a minimal result.
The invading side had enough as they had to destroy the enemy's momentum otherwise they would enter a stalemate, which although they didn't mind, would eventually lead to their already quite developed world gathering even more power.
A demon equipped with armour swept through any kind of opposition before a ranker on the positive karma board appeared and barely fought it off.
A total of 1032 casualties, the majority of the entire war. With the oppressive momentum gone and the enemy army fuelled up with high morale, they unleashed a scale invasion.
Both the Southern and Northen Pole found themselves in a state of emergency as their enemies attacked a checkpoint with all of their power, abandoning other posts they spent months getting control over.
Humans didn't dally and soon enough, they reinforced the attacked checkpoint. The Northen side had barely blocked off the invasion and destroyed most of the army, except their general, who had managed to breach their defense and entered the world.
All satellites and humans were on high alert trying to find traces of him with no real results.
The Southern side wasn't much better off as the battle, although won resulted in a death of a ranker. On his last breath, though, he managed to kill the opposing general, completely halting the progress of the Southern invasion until wave 3.
It taught harsh lesson to humans as they began taking this much more seriously. Magnus Fjall even made a move as he eradicated the entire Southern Pole army and created a blockade ready to massacre the incoming wave 3.
With the stable Southern side, they allocated more resources to the Northen side as they killed off most of the enemy, leaving their final outpost ride outside the Northen gate.
Cost of such temporary peace was quite high, but it gave humans plenty of time to develop new strategies. Multiple plans to blockade off at least one side with the intention to destroy it at once before reinforcing the other side was quite an accepted idea.
The technological branch received much more funding and manpower as they tried to create weapons and defense capable of taking care of their enemies without the burden of human lives being lost.
With such a decisive victory, a burial was held, and they had built a new stele on both Poles.
Those steles recorded a valiant sacrifice of every warrior fighting for peace on the main continents. And sure enough, the progress wasn't at all slow with a genius person making a huge breakthrough.
A professor in chemistry who became obsessed with creating minerals, metals, etc. through pure mana discovered a way to turn the invading bodies into mana stones.
For now, the spell was in its early development as it took a lot of energy just to convert a single goblin, however, humans, especially the Five Lords of the North, saw an unprecedented potential in it.
This split the technological branch as neutral organisations focused on various types of researched began to grow all over the world.
The sheer investment the Five Lords of the North gave to the development of their nation in order to catch up with Beacon city was working.
Most people didn't realise and saw that the Beacon city was just bathing in its glory of being the first, only to fail to see that the entire island was setting up a foundation.
However, that was going to shine years into the future as the Five Lords of the North gathered enough momentum to be called on par with the now called Beacon island.
Meanwhile, the tension was quite high as the enemy general seemingly vanished from this planet and the satellites could not find and good leads.
...
[Sophia]
A few drops of water landed on her face as her eyes wriggled themselves open. She wasn't dead, and yet she didn't feel any better.
Mixed feelings brewed deep inside of her, as she had felt the condition of her body. It was miserable and yet much better than she remembered it to be.
Her mana was once again restored to full as she urged it to heal. While waiting, she looked around herself to see where she ended up.
A small cave barely capable of housing her once she stood up had stretched seemingly for miles. She also noticed tunnels leading to god knows where.
She decided to not think much about it and she opened her system interface and checked the time. 2 whole months had passed as her body froze.
Her body moved to the chats on instinct to see what others' thoughts. And yet there was almost nothing. Her subordinates had replied to her message and the only one somewhat active was Magnus with the occasional teasing remark.
A tinge of pain appeared in her heart as dark thoughts were full of accusations, questions like Why had everyone forgotten about me? Are they doing well now that I vanished?
Furthermore, her battle with the feathered serpent once again appeared in her mind as phantom pain encased her body.
She looked at the place where her arm used to be. Only a stump remained. Even if she knew that Magnus could probably conjure out a way to restore her limbs, a desolate feeling was all that was left.
Even those 'feelings' she inherited so so clearly from her past self were being questioned in full. Unbeknownst to her, as she was breaking down and sobbing, something gentle had touched her leg.
A family of moles, even when blind, could see her pain and tried to comfort her. A warm feeling enveloped her as she played with those moles to distract herself from herself.
Month passed by and she got used to her new life. It wasn't adventurous, full of action scenes which would blow anyone's mind.
She didn't even use much of her mana except for giving her body nutrients it needed to grow.
She just followed the family of moles around. Their human like antics as their young played around. Those solitary animals were so much more connected and in harmony than social creatures, like humans.
Humans who thrived through civilizations had long lost this feeling of innocence. She knew that she was just using them as a distraction from herself and her problems, but the honey was just too sweet.
Majority of their time was them finding food which was quite abundant. Sometimes they dug deeper and deeper only to hit their limit before they waddled back, only to try the next day.
At first, she thought it was some kind of weird hobby, until one day. Those countless holes which ended at the same depth were suddenly conquered.
The moles didn't shine with some kind of divine radiance indicating their breakthrough, nor did their mana explosively increased or condensed.
They simply just broke through. Sophia was confused for a while. How could they remain so carefree and yet get stronger without tearing their flesh off just for minor improvement?
This confusion lasted more and more months. She observed the moles intently, and they already recognised her as one of their own.
And then she just understood. She wasn't enlightened, nor had she created some deep philosophical answer to her problem.
It was there all along, and it was something she regarded as her enemy. It was time. She raced against it to gain the most power she could as soon as she could.
During those times she had fallen into a trap, the river of time swept her up and carried her through her life.
She then began to meditate, and she asked herself questions.
What was her identity? A girl thrown into a vicious world just to be 'blessed' with memories of her alternate self? Or was she someone who had her emotions in harmony with her inner self?
Did she even love Magnus like she thought? She didn't know and yet the feeling of urgency was no longer there.
So what if she loved him or not? She would find out. Maybe those were just her delusions. After all, he never returned those feeling to her alternative self.
So why should she struggle? Why take such an emotional burden just because of the past that didn't even happen?
She no longer denied what she was just so she could become a lover of someone that she didn't even know well.
Power? It was something she liked to gain because it fulfilled her, not because she wanted to chase a shadow she might never even catch.
Perhaps she was wrong, but so what? She would learn, use time as her ally as she grew steadily with one step at the time.
Her domain, which she didn't activate, was no longer taking her mana, nor was it active with her conscious side. It was there, like part of nature, that she had thrown away for meager gains.
She still played with the moles and even began digging her own holes to see her progress, progress fueled by her own motivation.
Time slipped through her hands as she grew in power like never before. It didn't taste sweet. It was like water without taste and yet something anyone could enjoy.
'It was time to return.' She thought as she marked those moles, her closest family she had in the entire world.
The moles themselves, although disheartened, were also happy for the lost member of the family found her way again.
She could speak with them. How? Didn't matter. She bid them goodbye as she crawled up through one of the tunnels to the surface.
Light of the sun hit her face as her carefree smile brightened up the world ever so slightly.
Life is a constant struggle, and there was no permanent cure for it. Maybe death counted as one, but would it be considered as living?
A notification appeared as she felt ready to tackle that struggle head on, be it for a day where she might suddenly die or for eternity.
[Wave 3 had arrived! The gates open once again, defenders beware!]