Lady of Gold

A great sorceress that was close friends with the world serpent that held up the skies worked with the serpent to keep the floating islands of the celesi aloft high above the clouds. The ambient magic of the serpent herself powered the crystals that held the islands in the sky, but when the Demon King and his twelve Princes hunted the world serpents, the time for the sky serpent to be hunted was inevitable. As the sky serpent died, her magic that held up the islands dispersed but not before she gave her sorceress friend a piece of her crystalline heart, thus making the great sorceress into a goddess.

The great sorceress worked quickly to find a new way to keep the islands afloat. She tirelessly went between powering the crystals with her magic that was now joined with the magic of the sky serpent so that the islands did not fall to the ground below to trying to engineer a new way to keep the islands perpetually floating.

The technology she created was a type of magical battery that could power the crystals, however she could only reach the conclusion to use herself to power the battery since there was no other who could be found quickly enough to assist with the battery keeping charge. The great sorceress sacrificed her life as the power source and vowed that she would continue to do so as she returned in her next life since this was her responsibility. This great sacrifice and the battery that could power the sky crystals were revolutionary and meant the islands and the people that reside on them were safe from certain doom.

However, over time this sacrifice became twisted. After a few lifetimes of being sacrificed to power the battery, the great sorceress no longer wished to simply be grown and cultivated to be a power source. The people who originally knew her vow to continue helping her made the decision to no longer tell her reincarnations about their fate to die so that others could live, not even when they were forcefully being held down onto their deathbed. Centuries have gone by and the sorceress is continuously sacrificed once their magic becomes full bloom. No one has tried to improve upon the battery so that the sorceress need not be sacrificed anymore. They simply continue to kill her for their own wellbeing before she has a chance to see the world and know why they are keeping her in such a gilded cage as they hold her to a vow she does not even remember.