1,000 years before the main story
That night, the sky above Aurelia did not display its usual stars. Since sunset, something strange lingered in the night air. Archmage Valerius stood on the balcony of the Aether Tower, his ancient eyes—which had witnessed three centuries of civilization—now gazing at the unnatural darkness above the city.
Aurelia, the Golden Capital, was the pinnacle of human civilization. The city boasted towering crystal spires, clean and orderly streets, and citizens who lived in prosperity. Here, magic was not something to be feared, but studied and revered. Archmages from all corners of the world gathered here, sharing knowledge and maintaining the balance of Aether.
But tonight, all of that was about to change.
"Valerius." The voice came from behind him. Archmage Elara, his companion of two hundred years, stood at the balcony door with a face full of worry. "You feel it too, don't you?"
Valerius did not turn around. His old but still powerful fingers gripped his crystal staff tightly. "The Aether... is moving strangely. It is as if something is pulling it from the outside. From a place that shouldn't exist."
Elara approached, standing beside him. Her white hair fluttered in the strengthening night wind. "The Elders have sensed the same thing. There is a disturbance in the Dimensional Veil. As if something is trying to pierce through from the other side."
"From the other side..." Valerius repeated the words softly. "Do you think this is what I have feared all this time?"
Elara did not answer. She didn't need to. Both Archmages had studied the same ancient texts, the same prophecies, and the same warnings. About a realm of darkness separated from their world. About the Void waiting to swallow everything.
And then, the sky tore open.
Not literally. There was no roaring thunder or lightning. But at a point above the city, darkness began to gather. A pitch-black darkness, blacker than the darkest night. A living, moving darkness, pulsing like a newly beating heart.
"By The Creator..." Elara gasped, stepping back, her eyes widening at a phenomenon she had never seen in her three hundred years of life.
Valerius raised his staff, and a golden light radiated from its tip. "Sound the alarm! Evacuate the citizens underground! I will try to hold this off!"
Elara ran into the tower, her voice echoing evacuation orders through the communication crystals. Below them, the once-peaceful city was now thrown into panic. Soldiers ran, mages began forming defensive formations, and citizens rushed toward the shelters.
But it was all too late.
From that hole of darkness, a figure slowly descended. It stood over three meters tall, its body made of solid darkness. Its eyes were merely two glowing red dots, and when it opened its mouth, the sound that emerged wasn't words, but a scream that pierced the soul.
"I AM MALACHAR," The voice did not echo in the air. It was heard directly in the minds of every living being in the city. "AND THIS WORLD WILL BE MINE."
Valerius gritted his teeth. He channeled all his power, the accumulation of three hundred years of study and practice, into a single attack. "NO!" he shouted, and a blinding golden beam shot toward the figure of darkness.
Malachar laughed. His laughter echoed throughout the city, full of mockery and arrogance. He raised one hand, and the golden beam... stopped. As if caught in mid-air, it then faded into nothingness.
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"Human power," Malachar spoke again, his voice cold and condescending. "Weak. Limited. You have no idea what you are facing."
Valerius fell to his knees, gasping for breath. The attack had drained almost his entire reserve of Aether. But he did not give up. In his mind, he began to form a formation. The most dangerous and complex formation he had ever learned. A sealing formation.
"Elara!" he shouted as his companion returned to the balcony. "I will seal that portal! You must help me buy some time!"
Elara nodded, her face pale but filled with fierce determination. Together with the other Archmages who had gathered, she formed a defensive barrier. Blue, green, and white Aether lights enveloped the Aether Tower, creating a shimmering barrier beneath the moonlight.
Amidst it all, Valerius began drawing runes in the air. Each rune required absolute concentration, and any mistake could be fatal. Sweat poured heavily from his forehead, but his hands remained steady. Rune after rune appeared in the air, gleaming with increasingly bright light.
"YOU TRY TO SEAL ME?" Malachar turned, his glowing eyes glaring at Valerius with burning fury. "FOOLS! I CANNOT BE DEFEATED BY HUMANS!"
The giant demon raised his hand, and from the hole of darkness above him, thousands of smaller creatures began to descend. Shadowspawn, the vanguard of the demon army, attacked the city ruthlessly. They burned, tore, and destroyed everything in their path.
Valerius ignored it all. His focus was solely on the final rune he had to complete. With a final cry, he finished the formation.
"Seal!" he shouted, and all the runes shone with a light so bright it was blinding.
The hole of darkness trembled. Malachar roared in anger, his body halted in place. The seal successfully closed a portion of the portal, forcing the giant figure to retreat.
"THIS IS NOT OVER, HUMANS!" Malachar roared from behind the shrinking portal. "I WILL RETURN! AND WHEN THAT HAPPENS, THIS WORLD WILL BE DESTROYED!"
The portal closed completely. But the damage was done. The beautiful Aurelia was now burning in various places. The Shadowspawn that had managed to slip through were still roaming, attacking anyone they encountered. And worst of all, Valerius collapsed to the floor, his body limp, his power completely drained.
Elara rushed to his side, her eyes welling with tears. "Valerius! Hold on!"
Valerius smiled weakly. His wrinkled hand reached up, gently touching Elara's face. "Elara... listen to me. That seal will not hold forever. Malachar will return... maybe in a thousand years, maybe two thousand... but he will return."
"Do not speak like that! You will live! We will find a way to defeat him!"
"There is no time..." Coughs wracked his throat. "But there is one thing... a prophecy... that one day, there will be born someone... who can defeat him..."
Valerius began to chant words in an ancient tongue. The words did not come from his memory, but from something deeper. A vision he received in the final seconds of his life.
"From the fertile soil, from the lowly people, Will be born a warrior with a pure heart. His sword will blaze like the first dawn, Ending thousands of years of tormenting darkness. He will lose much of what he loves, But from that loss, he will find true strength. And when the last blood is spilled on the highest peak, The world will see the light for the first time after centuries of darkness."
"Memorize it, Elara. Pass it on to the future generations. So they may know... that there is hope. That this darkness is not eternal."
Valerius's eyes slowly closed. His breathing stopped. But there was no blood remaining. Slowly, the ancient Archmage's wrinkled body began to crack, emitting a blinding golden light before finally shattering into dust of Aether that blew away in the night wind.
Elara fell to her knees, desperately trying to catch the dust with tear-filled eyes. She suddenly realized that the figure speaking to her on the balcony was nothing but a Magical Projection. Valerius's true body had descended deep into the earth's core to act as a sacrifice to seal the portal directly. And seeing this projection shatter... Elara knew her companion would never return.
Above them, the sky that had been dark now showed a glimmer of light. The seal was working, forcing the demons to retreat, but the burning city below continued to blaze. The night that had once been peaceful had turned into a night of death and destruction.
That night, the Golden Era ended. The Era of the Fracture began.
And the Thousand-Year War began.
A thousand years later, in a small village named Greenwood, a young boy was born to a family of poor farmers. He did not know that his destiny had been written since the night the sky tore open. He did not know that Archmage Valerius's prophecy awaited him.
His name was Kael.
And this is his story.
— To be continued in Chapter 1 —