Quote Originally Posted by Erendis View Post
But why would creation magic drain aether from the planet when they use internal resources?
Zodiark has been established to use the Aether of other beings to fuel his actions. The things he does are so powerful, and so wide in scope that no single individual could possibly have enough internal reserves to fuel them, even with self-sacrifice. The sacrifice of others - BILLIONS of others, or even more depending on what the population of the world was at the time the Ancients enacted plan Zodiark - is par the course for Zodiark. Emet made it plain, too, that while the Ancients cooperated and gave up their lives willingly in order to summon Zodiark and save the world, cooperation of the ones to be sacrificed isn't actually necessary, since they planned on using the new life of the planet to bring back the sacrificed Ancients.

Prior to Zodiark, all known uses of Creation magic did not use external resources, because they were small enough in scope that individuals could comfortably fuel them from their internal resources alone. The Zodiark plan was a desperate and experimental one, but it did work. It also laid the groundwork for modern-day Summoning, given that the Sundered races do not have enough internal Aether to summon without depending on external resources - usually crystals, but sometimes living sacrifices, as well.