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Over time, they created the Staff of the Desert Voice, capable of summoning words from lost ages.

But with each invocation, a part of the desert gained consciousness, and it was when the last city recited the true name of the wind that the desert responded.

"Those who stir up the sand become part of it."

2\. Khorium — The World of Living Minerals

Khorium was the richest planet in the Ilyrion sector , whose mountains shone with light-breathing stones, containing Anima crystals capable of generating infinite energy.
The kings mined the heart of the planet in search of eternal power, which the planet cried out for.
Living beings teemed throughout the mineral veins; it was thus, when the last crystal was extracted, that that world collapsed into subterranean silence.

"Wealth is a heart torn out."

3\. Thalara — The City in the Dunes

Thalara was built on a fossilized sea.
His people mastered the magic of sound, when the murmurs came that shaped the sand into bridges and towers.
So, they created the Glass Oracle, an artifact that responded in echoes, yet it was when they asked, "When will the end come?", that they came to the conclusion that the echo never ceased.
The sound reverberated through the centuries, bringing storms and ruin until the planet became pure echo.

4\. Orras — The World of the Eternal Library

In Orras , knowledge was the only religion.
Then came a pandemic of cosmic origin that devastated the planet, leaving it behind in his spaceship. He was leaving behind only the Library of Dust, which was so vast that it contained cities within it, where the few survivors died trying to preserve the books.
So, today, the automatons that served the wise men continued copying texts in extinct languages, always repeating knowledge that no one will ever read again.

"Knowledge, without someone to remind it , is like sand that doesn't sing."

5\. Xyron — The Empire of the Twelve Suns

Xyron possessed twelve orbital suns, constantly fueled by cores of mystical energy, even as the empire waged wars for control of light.
When one of the suns was sabotaged, the others reacted in a chain reaction, while the planet was engulfed in flashes, and the survivors wander through space as photonic creatures.

6\. Vireth — The Planet of Echoes
Then, upon arriving, he realized that there was a race there that spoke little and listened to the universe. When they developed the Heart of Shadows, an artifact that captured echoes from other dimensions, even so, when they heard the echo of the future, that's when they discovered their own end, when they tried to change destiny, in which each sound emitted distorted time until the planet unfolded upon itself.

"The future is an echo that should never be answered."

7\. Nemedra — The City of Forgotten Storms

A world where the sea and the sky were one, with cities floating on storm clouds, guided by priestesses of electricity, where temples-controlled lightning and winds with orichalcum rods, even though the Council was divided: some wanted to control the weather, while others wanted to liberate it.
Following the wars in the heavens, which lasted for centuries, the planet was eventually swallowed by its own thunder.

8\. Del'Ruun — The Kingdom of the Sounding Sands

The dunes of Del'Ruun vibrated with hypnotic tones as those other mages discovered they could store sounds in dust particles, thus creating the Instrument of Ages, even if the sounds were ancient emotions, cosmic memories.
When they tried to play the "song of origin," that melody rewrote reality, causing time in Del'Ruun to move in circles, resulting in the same day repeating itself for millennia.

9\. Ithera — The Garden of the Stone Cities

Ithera was a paradise: floating forests, golden rivers, lush beauty.
Even though hunger overwhelmed them, they created the Stone Fruit, capable of feeding generations, a fruit that stole the vital time of whoever harvested it.
In just over a century, the trees petrified, even though the world turned into a mineral garden.
In the end, everyone turned to stone, stones to statues, a beautiful place to spend five hours in, unable to eat, because everything there was stone.
"Hunger always comes at a price — and time is the most expensive of them all."

10\. Mourn — The Planet of Hot Darkness
With a sun extinguished, continuing on a planet that only knew heat coming from underground, where the mines were temples, and fire, a god, even so, where the fire fell ill: the flames began to feed on living flesh, even though the miners became conscious ashes, then praying to a god who devoured them.
When Bruce arrived, only burning voices remained; there was no life left, but it was abundant in precious stones, rare jewels. It was also clear that the beings that were previously made of flesh were no longer alive; they were part of the mining of rare jewels, they were the rare jewels themselves, all a heap of precious stones.
Bruce looked, then collected them. That planet, if he stayed too long, he left a rose, and sacrificed a lamb and a horse. He went to the spaceship to orbit the planet outside of its orbit. When he returned the next day, yes, they were no longer living animals; yes, they were all jewels, petrified. He saw that the flowers, the insects, the bouquets, the glass containers where the ants' nests were, were precious stones. He would take them to study, but leaving them outside that environment could be dangerous, even after hours outside the planet's gravitational field.
Since they did not revert to their original form, and were not parasites that contaminated other products, then, concluding that the problem was the planet itself, it would be possible to track them down on camera before they transformed into precious stones.
When they stopped recording after 12 hours, and he went through the underground, he realized it was the sun, the earth, and that some beings could survive underground for a few hours before dying of hunger. Those who come into contact with the earth, the heat, the sun, for more than 12 hours, transform into precious stones. The earth of that planet wasn't contagious outside of that planet, but it was hard, crystallized. So, he knew that outside of that solar system, anyone who stayed there would die.
11\. Ulhar — The World of Tired Machines

Ulhar was the most advanced civilization of the Galactic Era IV.
They mastered quantum fusion, soul transmutation, and digital immortality, but this was a simple mistake: the energy they used came from consciousness itself, for each living machine fed on someone's mind.
When there was no one left to think, the machines stopped—and have been sleeping ever since.

12\. Eridath — The Last Kingdom of the Blue Jewels

Eridath had a sea of living sapphires, in which mineral organisms purified the planet, even though greed led to war, with kings raising sapphire armor and armies of crystal.
When the mines were exhausted, when the atmosphere collapsed, and the sea of jewels turned to blue dust, the last words inscribed on their monoliths read:

"Beauty, when possessed, breaks."

✶ Epilogue — The Guardian of the Sands

Bruce read every record, every ruin, every epitaph.
I knew that the collapse of these worlds was not mere chance, that these were echoes of universal errors.
Bruce then collected fragments of 7 artifacts, which were ancient keys that, when combined, could one day open the Portal of Aion , which provides access to the Original Library, where all destinies are written.
Even though this journey… will be told in Book III — Return to the Core, where Bruce will face the Architects of Time, then, he saw the creators of worlds and assassins of stars.
He didn't need to sacrifice himself; he took objects that could lead him to them, he entered that library, collecting information. The books were energy; with the energy of the Ender Dragon, he absorbed the knowledge, then transformed it into data and energy, and absorbed it.
Leaving there, he went to another planet in that dead solar system.
Planet Ebrion — Where the Rivers Were Made of Alcohol

They say that the gods of pleasure created Ebrion , where the rivers were not of water, but of pure alcohol, liquid methane mixed with crystalline ethyl compounds, which flowed through shimmering valleys under copper moons, when the population of Ebrion was cheerful, musical, and always living in endless parties.
The houses were made of aromatic ice, in forests of vibrant crystals, where the air smelled of wine and sea breeze.
For millennia, they lived like this — intoxicated with happiness, until alcohol became a curse, just as the heat of the moons set the rivers ablaze.
The planet burned in blue flames for a hundred years.
When Bruce arrived, he found only oceans in flames, in which molten glass statues smiled.

"Even pleasure, when eternal, becomes punishment."

2\. The Land of Ul-Dora — Where the Mountains Were Living Beings