Lore

Prologue: Mythology
In the center of the continent, there lies a mysterious castle which was sealed by a very big and heavy lock. It is said that the one who can unlock the door will have the ability to overwhelm the world.

Years passed, none could get in until one day, the very day this story commences.

A young man arrived in this location by sheer accident. Having noticed this arcane castle, he felt quite excited at first but he didn't try to open it with lots of keys, or to make lots of keys to open it as those others had done before. Instead, he stood in front of the castle in silence, and fell into a state of pondering meditation for a long time until the sunset. When the last rays of sun faded away into the night sky, he suddenly drew out his sword... With an elegant radian, the sword chopped the rock into two pieces in a flash!

He went into the castle, leaving these words behind.

"Justice and Strength, lighten my path!"

Years later, a certain name famous with humans as well as the Demon: Agress the Great

Chapter 1: Genesis
In the beginning, he created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And his soul moved upon the face of the abyss.

Then he said, let there be light, and there was light, and divided the light from darkness. He named the light Day, and the darkness Night.

His fury burst out into flames so there could be fire, and his tears formed into the ocean.

...

There are too many stories and legends about him, the real god of this land, Cronus!

It is said that all the deities are also his masterpiece. Let's keep an eye on them: Gaea the earth, Sara the light, Orichi the chaos, Cold the warfare.

Having told the deities to protect the Elder Crystal as well as not to leave the Hirus Mountain, the great creator fell into a deep sleep.

Chapter 2: The Demon
We have no idea how our races formed except the demons! They were born from evil.

Lord Agress

How time flies, the living things have set up their civilization in the world created by Cronus. A Long period of evolution makes them qualified enough to live in this land. But the deities in the Hirus have felt depressed. Awarded with endless power, born with countless wisdom and strength, situated on the top of all living things, they are not allowed to cast their abilities but have been made silent by the power of Cronus and the Crystal.

At last, several of them rebelled. They turned against the peaceful deities and Cronus in the name of chaos. A fierce fight broke out between the deities. At last, Orichi was defeated. Although he was a loser, a god can't be killed in that way, so he and his followers swiftly intruded into the world of humans and other races. This was the dawning of a new era, the era of Demon.

Owing a power no less than deities and a life much longer than human, the Demons obviously considered themselves as the masters of the land. So they desired the whole world, and launched a campaign against the human beings.

"The ancient evil survives, die, mortals! The world needs a more powerful leader."

That was the slogan of the demon army.

And this war is titled TERMINATION in history.

Chapter 3. Darkness
The stupid always says: Pain past is pleasure. But it is really a jeu de mots. How do you know when it will pass? But what please me a lot is to conquer any places in my sight.

Orichi the chaos

After the Termination Campaign, the world fell into the shadows cast by the vile demons. The descendants of Orichi never cared about their human slaves, only considered them voiced tools. Not only did they treat them poor, but also deprived them of sleep and food! As a result, countless slaves died silently in their work, and their bodies brought nourishment to the soil they worked; so the plants grew well at that period.

To everyone's surprise, the Demons ordered their slaves to work for nothing, neither for fortune nor construction, nor desire, they just wanted the slaves to work, the reason for their work was to simply work. For example, they would tell the slaves to build a magnificent palace, but it could be dismantled a few days later, they ordered the slaves to kill each other just because they thought it was funny. Whatever, they didn't try to exterminate the other races, instead, they encouraged them to breed.

"All we do is just as you did towards the pigs. You human kill pigs, eat pigs, slaughter other living things that you consider less significant, this all done for fun. Now the game still goes on, but the player has changed, as we have taken your places, we demon are much more professional! As we are more environmental, we've kept you alive, and 'planted' many trees around the world, but you human just eliminate countless living species for money or other reasons and cut trees for your building. At this certain point, we are not really the Demon or Evil things as you've thought in this world."

The Demon were so tough, born with no equal, none could be their opponent. So humans surrendered in the end. With high speed of reproduction, they soon became the largest species on the continent. Like a plague upon the earth.

"Our ancestors were great, they'd endured the heaviest work without a word. Not any race but us human could be so iron-minded."

"So, we called the human race the STUPID. We cannot find slaves more stupid than they are! Naturally, after all, they lead a short life, they don't have time to form a wise enough idea to liberate themselves. Whatever, a slave's desired living matches slave's, or, he could not be a slave.

Until one day, a slave ran out of his camp by accident. It is said that he found a note entitled Poem of Saint, in which he learned a lot.

"From that book, I know that I am not a slave, we humans are not destined to be born as mere slaves! We should fight, fight against the Demons for our freedom!"

With these words, he plunged his sword into a guard's heart. Green blood burst out, the guard fell down, dead.

"So, I know that the Demons can be killed. They are not gods, they are not undead! They could be defeated by our own hands! I will prove this by my sword, my mind, and my justice! And me, should be the lord of all the human beings, I am the hunter of Justice!"

The demon considered this tiny slave, Agress, nothing serious, but for the dignity of demonship, they killed his families.

Although Agress was a tiny slave, what he had owned was not as humble. The demon was not as wise as god, they should consider the question carefully, how dare a human slave kill demon guard? Who had awarded him the brave and the power? Unfortunately, they are too proud of their power.

As a result, things turned to the other side no later than one year.

Chapter 4: Alliance
"For the peace of Cronus, for the freedom of the living things, attack thee!"

The first campaign broke out between the Demons and the ruled humans. Demons paid nothing to the slaves as they formed an alliance, so they paid warriors' lives instead. The alliance soldiers had obviously been blessed by the arcane NOTE and became outstanding in fighting.

What the demons should regret was not only their loss in this particular battle but their long centuries of lax life debilitating their battle power. It did not take a very long time for the alliance to reoccupy most lost land.

"The demons are gone. We are the rulers of the world! Let's get all we've lost back!" The resulting sudden freedom caused factions to form believing in various different ideals of what the next step the human race should take. The fighting broke out quickly and spread across the lands again.

"They must be mind controlled by the Demons! I should turn to Hirus for the antidote!" Agress said. But was there time for him to do this?

The winners fought against each other and completely destroyed many cities built by their own hands, they killed the ones they had loved the most for some weird reasons, they even dragged other races into their battle. Finally, some chief turned back to the demons for help!

"At last, we shall have our revenge! Humans are stupid; even they have owned an awesome power by luck!" The demons struck back with a vengeance and quickly came to rule the continent again. The whole alliance was completely in tatters. The chief who asked for help had his head cut off and hung up at the top of the capital for 7 days.

This became known as Dusk Dirge in history.

Chapter 5: Survivor
"I live to serve the light. I was born to cleanse this land!"

With an amazing will power, Agress survived from the dagger of the demon killers. After that he set his mind to make his way to Hirus.

"I am not alone. Gods will stand with me! They should be waiting for me urgently, I shall not be late!"

"Thank you my lord! I owe you a lot, without you, without your note, I could not go even further!"

"We have defeated the demon once, we will do better next time."

"I shall not waste my time in relaxation or hesitation! Justice shall be swift!"

Where there is will, there is a way.

Agress finally reached the holy land, Hirus!

Chapter 6: Holy Land
To Agress's disappointment, not even a deity would like to meet him seriously.

"Don't you understand? We are gods, you are a humble human. We were born without equal, you have no chance to talk with a god." "The Note? It is called Saint Note in our realm, a quite funny thing, isn't it? You can cast spells to kill the demon, that means my experiment has won in the end! We have viewed your excellent performance from the heavens. That is great, you served us well! Go on pleasing me, maybe I will consider to write a better note for you!"

"Thank you for your splendid deeds and wonderful speech. To tell you the truth, you've made my eyes filled with tears! I haven't cried for a long time. A very good story actually, now I can write a much more endearing tale due to your endeavors!"

"I don't think we have any relationship with you, pay close attention, you're a mere human! To help a human I would lose face."

"You are truly a good guy, you've tried very hard to accomplish your mission. But I can't help you this time as you've made some mistakes when casting the spell in the note, and caused trouble to our Hyper Race."

That was the dialogue. Suddenly, Agress noticed that the alliance was not mind-controlled by the demons Instead, they received their own free will, the wicked minds became deeply buried in their souls and hearts. At this point, there was no major differences among the demons, deities and humans.

Chapter 7: Ambition
"Time to go back to Hirus!"

Lord Orichi was not content with just ruling the continent, he wanted all he could see to become his slaves, including his former friends, all the deities, and his creator, the real god, Cronus.

The deities took this as a joke.

"What a great mind our dear friend has! What the hell has happened over these long years! Such funny and interesting things keep occurring again and again, I can't help laughing!"

"They are not deities any more, even though still deities, they should be defeated again. We have proved this rule thousands of years before! And the demon creations could even be killed by mere humans!"

"Let's keep our eyes on them but don't try to destroy our toys in a hurry."

A few years later...

"What? The God of war has been killed! Impossible! How could the demon kill a deity? Even we cannot kill each other, or you, Orichi, would have been killed thousands of years ago!"

"Hmmmm, my dear friend. You can't imagine how the world has changed. You childish guys have stayed in this land for so long, you don't really understand what we have done!" Orichi took out a note, a dark note, written with lost runes.

"This is called Asubita morte exstingui Note. Vengeance is near! Death to you guys for our great demon race!"

With a clack of great thunder, light coursed down through the heavens upon the holy land, all the deities felt their immortal coil snap; they could not endure the high heat, died and transformed into smoke, disappearing soon after, leaving only smelly gas alone.

"At last, we shall have our revenge!"

That was the second time when Orchi the chaos spoke these words. And it was the last time, too.

The spirit of Cronus sealed in the Crystal charged his whole strength and mind to give Orichi, his son, the deity of chaos, the demon emperor, the most minded creature in the world, a fatal attack! Orichi faded away with the broken Crystal, as well as the subita morte exstingui Note and Saint Note.

...

This campaign was called Shattering in history.

Chapter 8: Aurora
Without the great leader, the demon army could not stand against Agress the great. The Demon Empire collapsed in the end!

Although not undead anymore, the demons couldn't be eliminated totally. They spread into every corner of the world and made an evil plan to intrude the world again.

But after all, the war had ended. Well, as long as everything was being put into place. Agress the Great, the man was the last survivor of the ancient times. He was left to fulfill his destiny. The ancient order had been no more. Deities had become legends and then faded from memory. There was only Agress the Great and, people had to admit, they all believed in him as a savior.

It is said that all the Eudemons were formed in the great Shattering. They are probably the spirit of the deities, and the fragment of the Crystal formed the Eudemon Crystal. This time, they will help the humans with heart and soul in order to restore their godlike ability, but this time, they could be hurt as well as, KILLED!

There are no gods anymore but the endless story between humans, deities and demons goes on...

Chapter 9: Darkness Falls
''As reality and fantasy are endlessly intertwined, so light and darkness are eternally bond to the other. None under the almighty sun shall stand alone.''

 Elysium Proverb

One year after the collapse of the Demon Empire, parties were still held across Cronus to celebrate the victory of humanity. Everywhere, people drank and danced deep into the night. No one noticed the cloud of darkness meandering out of the farthest corner of the continent and moving towards the capital of the Demon Empire. Its movement was slow but sure, and its darkness intensified with each second passed and each inch gained. After one such night of drunken revelry, the giant crystal crucifix of Saint Laurent Church de Cronus was discovered hanging upside-down with the bodies of the twelve priests guarding the holy crucifix nailed to the four walls of the antechamber with massive bone spurs. Blood drenched what was a holy sanctuary.

This heinous blasphemy against the gods rocked the entirety of Cronus. The distinctive bone spurs used in the massacre led the investigation straight to the doorstep of the Brothers of the Silent Hand, a known organization of shadowy assassins whose only moral compass is the gold in their pockets. Soon, the hunters became the hunted as the Brothers were sought out and made to pay for their presumed crimes.

Amidst this confusion and violence, Aggress the Great, Hierophant of the Holy Order, called together his disciples and announced the Silent Hand had nothing to do with the atrocity at Saint Laurent and called on all believers to stop the senseless violence. When asked about the true criminals responsible for the slaughter of Saint Laurent, Aggress simply turned to the sky in silence, his eyes heavy with doubt and fear.

In this uneasy silence, a miasma of death began creeping across the land. Eudemons were rounded up and exterminated, preachers, guards, and even adventurers died mysteriously in their sleep. The only common link between the victims; an upside-down crucifix hung on a nearby wall.

The land of Cronus fell into a state of terror unknown since the Demon Wars. To make matters worse, unprecedented disasters began occurring all over the world; locusts, floods, hurricanes, and plagues ran rampant over the land and brought Cronus to its knees. Though many were convinced these calamities were the result of something rotting in the heart of Cronus, even the sages and soothsayers of the holy mountain were helpless in divining the nature of these disasters.

When the survivors of these cataclysms spoke about their experiences, the same word invariably came up: "darkness". Indeed, darkness fell upon all of Cronus in those days. All the faithful could do was huddle in their homes, and pray for the first light of dawn.

Chapter 10: Glimmer of Dawn
Whenever Raymond Darr recalled the scene where he first met the captured senior demon scout, he always got the chills. As the Captain of the Cronus City Guards, he was the man responsible for collecting the baron from the frontlines and interrogating him.

"He was about twice as high as a normal human, more muscular, with flexible limbs that could change shape at will. His body was covered with hard scales, able to instantly change colors to blend in with his surroundings. His blood red eyes were so imposing that I barely dared to look into them. He was bound onto a grand iron post with huge chains engraved with the most powerful ancient runes of holding, designed to tighten the chains whenever the prisoner struggled. Even so, I still felt like he could kill me any second.

The scout seemed to be prepared for our interrogation techniques. He would not talk.

For days, he refused to open his mouth. So we stopped providing him food.

Finally, after 2 months of fasting and daily questioning, the scout broke.

His confession arrived on my desk today. I could not believe my eyes. The Demon Empire's nefarious conspiracy to retake Cronus literally took my breath away.

Their detailed assassinations and meticulous instigations aimed at thwarting humanity's belief in the gods of Hirus were executed to perfection. More was on the way.

Agress must know.

I can not delay. Cronus can not afford it."

--- Excerpt from the journal of Raymond Darr, Captain of the Cronus City Guards.

A ray of sunshine flashes over Hirus Mountain as the transient aurora borealis over Icy Land fades. Night has come again.

Saint Lauren Church stands mute under a dark red moon; before it is a land tortured by turbulence and destruction.

The world teeters on the brink.

Chapter 11: Dark Star
THE EXILES OF OLD SHALL RETURN

THE FLAMES OF VENGEANCE SHALL BURN

BEWARE THE HERALD OF THE SKIES

A DARK STAR ON THE RISE

--- Deathbed Prophecy of Emperor Hilmoore III

After years of exile beyond the borderlands, followers of Orichi the Chaos resurfaced and snuck back to Tartaros, capital of the Demon Empire. They've waited too long, hungering for what they had lost. This time, they brought back the Dark Crucifix that was hidden beneath the deepest trench of the Defile Sea. It was forged by Orichi himself eons ago. In his wickedness, he broke the ancient commandments and channeled unspeakable destructive power into the Dark Crucifix, endowing it with a dark power as unparalleled as that of Orichi. Shortly after the Termination, it was sealed by deities with blood of unicorns, buried beneath the Defile Sea.

The Undead Demon King, Emperor Hilmoore III, convened all demonic mages from every corner of the continent to the wrecked Arcane Tower to find out how to unseal the power of the Dark Crucifix. Day and night, the Arcane Tower was lit with a surreal light.

When a stream of incandescent violet light shot through the top of the Arcane Tower, the entire Demon Empire awoke in celebration. Ancient gears of war hummed and began turning for the first time in millennia. The Demonic populace clamored in excitement. They were convinced the fate of humanity was sealed. The gods themselves could not stand against them now!

As Emperor Hilmoore III reviewed these forces of evil, he grinned and commanded, "Let the hunt begin!"

Chapter 12: New Divide
The wind howled across the plains of Cronus like a banshee of legend.

This night, royal Astrologers across Cronus registered the same celestial phenomena.

When the night was still young, a red moon appeared indistinctly behind a bright full moon. As time went by, two moons travelled through the sky together, one overlaying the other for a while and then shifting positions. It was as if they were in a tug of war for prominence.

What could it mean?

They contemplated and consulted numerous ancient volumes in hopes of finding the reason for this new occupant of the skies. They found it.

Recorded in a nameless book of Hirus history, two moons appeared on the night before the Dusk Dirge. It manifested the waning of light and the rise of demonic forces. The next morning, the sun rose over a broken kingdom.

The very earth shook with the roars of the Demons forces just over the horizon.