Why reincarnate as a useless skeleton?

"Okay, it's stuff from the age of legends and the 5th age... But I don't understand. What would be the problem?" Runan asked, being unable to understand what it was his friend was trying to tell them.

Not too surprised by this, Zarich made room on the table, pulled out a large roll of paper, and spread it over the center of the table. On the paper were several graphs with arrows that began descending at the beginning and then ascended near the end.

"Since classes started I've been coming to the library as long as I could. Going through documents and comparing records. In the end, I made these graphs." Zarich explained.

According to what he said, each of the graphs represented a different thing, but all the events were within the same time period. They mainly showed the number of high-level monsters and the number of magic users or aura users there were from the end of the last age to the present.

"As you can see, at the end of the 4th age the amount and level of monsters, magic users, and Aura users were slowly declining over time." Zarich said as his index finger traced the descending line of the graph. Then, he stopped at a point where the arrow stopped falling and began to rise.

"But that changes here! Since almost a century ago, the number of monsters from higher realms began to increase, as did the number of magic and aura users. And not only that. The number of lost ruins and hidden realms found in the last century also increased!" He exclaimed.

This last thing Zarich said left everyone quite surprised.

The ruins and hidden realms were mysterious places that belonged to ancient fallen civilizations, whose magical technology was far superior when compared to today.

All sorts of treasures and rare resources could be found in them. From spell formulas and meditation techniques of high levels to magical artifacts and their methods of crafting them.

But even though they were distributed all over the world, these places were not easy to locate. Finding them was more a matter of chance and luck than logic.

"Now that's weird... Wait a minute, what are these two marks near the end of the graphs?" Thalia asked, looking more closely at the paper on the table.

Before answering, Zarich rummaged through the pile of papers on the table, pulled out a green notebook, and handed it to Thalia.

"Those two marks on the graph represent the anomalies and major cataclysmic events of recent times, everything is noted there. It wasn't easy to collect all that, I even had to ask the Crescent Moons Guild for help to complete that." Zarich said, adjusting his glasses.

Thalia began to turn page after page of the notebook and the more she read, the more surprised and scared she became.

Each date marked in the notebook dealt with a different catastrophe or unusual event. From the appearance of horrible sea creatures, cities destroyed by dark churches, the awakening of ancient dragons, among many other things.

Some were not so bad as they had to do with things like great advances in magical technology, archeological discoveries, many wizards who had managed to ascend to higher realms in recent years, or the increase of divine magic users along with other topics related to the Great Churches of Creation.

Thalia continued reading the notebook until she stopped short, she had realized the significance of one of the marks on the graph.

"Zarich... This... Are you sure?" she asked with a tone of disbelief and passed the notebook to Enid to look at as well. "According to your research, the major events happened between the years 20,109 and 20,110. Just when..."

"Just when we were born." She was interrupted by Lieon who had been reading the rest of the documents and reviewing Zarich's graphs. " Or better said, right when we came to this world."

"Exactly, Lieon. The most notable events of the last few years occurred in the months we were born or shortly thereafter. Mostly good things, though. However..." Zarich paused and pointed with his index finger to the second mark on the graph, which represented the most recent events.

"...Approximately about 8 or 9 months ago, multiple catastrophic events occurred and since then the forces of the dark churches and evil cults have been in constant motion. Although I don't know the cause." said Zarich.

"Whatever it is, it is clear that we are involved and not exactly indirectly." Enid said while still flipping through Zarich's notebook.

Her words did not go unnoticed by the others, but no one tried to deny them as they were sure they were true.

The fact that all six had been born in the same year and that those great events occurred at the same time or shortly thereafter may have been mere coincidence.

However, all six were born as the sons and daughters or successors of great emperors. In addition, they had been blessed by the gods and possessed the memories of their past lives along with the system.

All of that couldn't be a mere coincidence.

"Well, I guess this confirms everything, although even if I hadn't seen this it looks like something big is about to happen." Lieon said, in a thoughtful tone.

"Do you even know anything about these events?" Runan asked.

"Not too much. But I heard some things from my mother and the priests of the Church of Sunlight. The number of Dark Forests on the continent have been increasing exponentially in recent months along with the number of undead."

"Dark Forests?" asked Cassius.

"They are places contaminated with necrotic energy. There necromancers and undead can use all their power without worrying about solar energy." Zarich explained.

"Exactly. But that's not all the Church of the Living Corpses has been doing. I overheard a conversation between my uncle and my mother a while back and apparently, one of the fourteen True Blood Ancestors was revived on the Southern Continent." Lieon said.

Suddenly, a shadow fell over the room and everyone felt a chill. The mere mention of those ancient creatures that had wreaked havoc throughout the world made even those who had lived in other universes feel fear.

"The True Blood Ancestors? I thought those monsters died at the end of the vampire wars over 70,000 years ago." Thalia said in surprise.

"Well, it looks like they're not 'dead' anymore. Last month my uncle tracked the Church Necromancers to some ruins on the Southern continent. Unfortunately, when he arrived the True Blood Ancestor had already been released from his seal and escaped. And from what I hear from the conversation, there may be a few more of them left and if they are released not even my uncle would be able to face them."

This last thing Lieon told them surprised and frightened everyone.

Lieon's uncle (although he wasn't his uncle since they weren't related and he had lived for over 500 years) was known as "The Golden Phoenix", the only God Rank mercenary in the entire world and who was also the closest person to ascending to godhood in the last 20,000 years.

"That doesn't sound encouraging at all. Plus The Church of The Living Corpses is not the only one that has been moving." Said Enid " Before I came here I heard rumors that the Church of the Deadly Plagues had been spreading throughout southern Gamidir despite the efforts of Aurar's troops and the Whistlers to stop them."

"The Whistlers? Who are those?" Thalia asked.

"Oh, they're something like my country's intelligence service. They are in charge of gathering information among other things." Enid replied.

Not many people from other kingdoms knew about the Whistlers, but they weren't exactly a secret so Enid didn't bother telling her friends who (for some reason) she trusted even more than her family.

"Come to think of it..." Cassius said. "The draconid beasts in the west of the continent have been getting more aggressive lately. My sister and some other people I trained with thought it was the work of the Church of Absolute Destruction, but I didn't think much of it. Until that Volcanic Elder Dragon..."He couldn't finish speaking.

The Volcanic Elder Dragon Awakening incident had been a severe blow to the Great Kandram Empire. The creature had destroyed many towns and cities before it was stopped. The death toll was several hundred thousand among whom were many of the mighty warriors of the empire.

Even The Dragon King, Cassius' father and ruler of the empire, had been severely wounded in battle and had been bedridden ever since.

Although Cassius retained the memories of his past lives, so his mind was much older than his body, he became attached to his new family in this world and actually saw the Dragon King as a father figure.

So the fact that his father had been left in that state was something that both saddened and infuriated him.

"It's not just The Five Great Dark Churches that are getting agitated." Thalia added. "The tribes and sea beasts have been sinking a lot of ships this past year."

"It's certainly too many things mixed together. Even the Daivolks on the Northern Continent resumed their attacks since the new 'Lord' ascended the throne two years ago." Zarich said with some trepidation.

At that moment, the shadow that had fallen over them became darker, heavier, and more suffocating. Suddenly, everyone felt and realized that the world was changing too fast.

For a brief moment, they were all able to imagine, see and feel hundreds of events that had happened and those that would happen.

Cities were besieged and destroyed by hordes of monsters, armies of the dead rising from their graves, withering everything in their path, and plagues spreading across continents.

A spiral of unstoppable chaos, death, and destruction, like a bottomless abyss. And sooner or later they too would be caught up in that spiral.

"I think everyone is forgetting something very important." Runan said and everyone turned to look at him. "It's almost 10:00 P.M... And I still didn't finish my algebra homework! How am I supposed to finish it before lights out?" he said in despair as he scratched his head frantically.

An Imperial University rule was that lights out was at 11:00 P.M. and that all students had to return to their rooms at that same time or there would be consequences, with no exceptions.

So they could only be in the library for another hour.

At that moment the tension in the room dissolved in the air, everyone relaxed a little and some let out a few laughs. Quickly the shadow that suffocated them seemed only a passing bad memory, already very distant.

Even if some terrible event was happening in the world, there was nothing they could do about it at the moment. What they could do was try to prepare themselves to deal with future events.

But they would cross that bridge when the time came.

The six of them were in the library studying and helping those who had homework to do until it was time to go to bed.

For that night they all forgot about their problems and worries, sleeping comfortably and peacefully until dawn came the next day.

However, despite what they had discovered, none of the six could have imagined that in the darkness of that very night, sinister forces were on the move, and with them came a new era of change and chaos.