Year 3438AW, Ferasi Royal Palace

“Announcing her Royal Highness, Princess Abigail” a loud voice boomed through the doors.

The 36 year old, Abigail swallowed as she watched the huge golden doors get drawn open by stiff faced guards. This was her second time meeting the King, her father, and she was very nervous.

The opened doors revealed the breathtaking view of a majestic hall. Even though this was her 3rd time here, she was still a bit stunned. She glance down at the bright red carpet, lined by numerous nobles that led to the throne of the King.

They spoke in hushed whispers obviously giving her some sort of evaluation. Abigail looked like a non-cultivating 14 years old despite her age which was understandable. She was an advanced mage already, making her a genius of her peers.

She wore leather armor and held a wooden staff with a crystal embedded on it. She walked forward, with calculated steps, not raising her head and every step feeling extremely heavy to her. At an appropriate distance from the throne she knelt, her right arm across her chest and spoke in a loud voice, “First Lieutenant Abigail Salvador reporting!”

“Raise your head” a soft voice, obviously female, spoke after her.

Abigail did not move. She didn’t dare to.

“Raise your head” a cold voice male rang out and immediately Abigail’s head shot up. Her eyes met the eyes of the King because of that swift movement and immediately she could feel her mana grow restless. His eyes were almost like an abyss threatening to suck her in a swallow her whole.

She turned away so fast she almost gave herself a whiplash. She found herself looking into the soft eyes of her elder sister, Mayenne Salvador. Her elder sister looked very gentle, with her long black hair reaching her waist and her red eyes were ever so soft.

The color red always has a domineering quality to it but it never on May. Abigail suspected that even when May was in battle, she looked just like that. That didn't mean Mayenne was kind in battle, no; May was like Father in battle. Decisive, swift and cruel. But Mayenne was also the most caring but strict person Abigail had ever known. And as a princess, she knew a lot of people.

Abigail’s inner restlessness calmed down at once after she locked eyes with Mayenne and she smiled internally, Elder sister May always has that effect.

She slowly turned her head back to the throne but did not dare to raise her head enough to look into the eyes of the King. Even without looking into his eyes, his aura alone was stifling and she found it a bit difficult to breath.

“Your Majesty, I think you’re scaring her” A sinister voice chuckled. Abigail glanced at the exquisite shoes which lined the feet of the Queen, Bithrya.

The queen’s voice and look had always a sinister quality to it, for as long as Abigail had known her. The queen herself was quite nice to people she liked but to those she hated, she was the worst person in the world.

Abigail had heard numerous times that her mother was once the gentlest person you could ever meet. In 2490AW, her father finally became a warlock, an existence that dominated the continent of Venoth, which was also called the Elven continent.

However as he had been extending his lifespan using pills and elixirs, it was inevitable that the breakthrough almost killed him. The man was incapacitated and the Queen had to rule for 509 years making people actually think the King was dead.

Dealing with devious plots and nobles had turned her mother into a worse copy of her father and even after she was no longer ruling, Bithrya remained the same.

“How was the subjugation?” the King asked. His voice had a silky but terrifying quality to it and Abigail had to stop herself from shuddering.

“It went well, Sire. All the rampaging demons were exterminated” Abigail said respectfully.

“Average level of the demons?”

“Mainly fighters of rank 1-2, Your Majesty”

“No rank 3’s?” he confirmed.

“Yes, Your Majesty” Abigail nodded. If there had been a rank 3, she wouldn’t had made it back in one piece even if she could still kill the thing.

Demons were ranked from 1-9. Rank 9 demons were pretty much legends and would most likely wipe a kingdom off the map. Dual users had it easier to fight demons but demons were crazily strong. Some demons were monsters corrupted by dark mana, others were people corrupted by dark mana and others were created in the Lucic realm and set free on the Vetranos. One couldn’t know, they looked all the same. The ones made from people corrupted would regain their clarity when they became devils but before that it was impossible to differentiate.

The Lucic realm was Yama’s domain and he would release demons on a whim. The gods and goddesses never did anything to stop him but they did instruct their followers to hunt down demons. Abigail didn’t know much about higher beings but she was pretty sure that 6 of them could definitely deal with Yama, no matter how powerful he was rumored to be.

6 because Nerphia never involved herself in their conflicts.

According to legend, the other gods and goddesses fought with each other countless times. The mortal realm had also been destroyed countless times before they finally decided to just sit down and watch instead of coming down on their own and blasting everything to smithereens.

And Yama was never ganged up on during these wars and not because it would be crass for gods and goddess to do such a thing. He was usually on the side of Bermia… well according to legend. It’s not like Abigail was there or anything so she didn’t believe her goddess would side with such a revolting god.

“Good” the King said and descended into silence. Abigail knelt there not moving, waiting for his next instruction.

“You think demons are quite easy don’t you?” he suddenly said.

Abigail was stunned. What sort of question was this?

For a beginner mage, demons were obviously hard but for a skilled and advanced mage like her, there were very easy to kill. Well, the ones her rank were easy so she didn’t really understand all the hype about demons and their fearsomeness. But Abigail didn’t think she should say that. That was asking the King to put her head on a stick.

“Nothing is impossible with the grace of Bermia, my Liege” She responded politically.

Suddenly his aura intensified and Abigail found herself almost choking. She was downright terrified. It wouldn’t take a genius to know he didn’t like her answer.

After stifling her for a while, the aura rescinded slowly and she couldn’t help but take huge gulps of air. Her hands shook feverishly while she held them to try to curb it. She didn’t dare look up to see his face.

“His Majesty, Late King Aiagez died. My father died. Why?” his voice boomed coldly.

Abigail audibly gulped and couldn’t find her voice to answer.

“A demon” Bithrya’s solemn voice could be heard.

“No matter what, never underestimate a demon. No matter what!” he screamed furiously.

The nobles had already kotowed, unwilling to face his wrath. The wrath of a warlock was not something they could handle.

After a seconds, he visibly calmed down and added, “Especially an enraged one”

“I was of the belief that demons were enraged all the time” Bithrya mumbled.

“Queen!” he turned to glare at her.

She gave a fake cough and looked elsewhere. There was no reaction to the King and queen’s bickering. It happened often enough.

After that, there was not a sound heard in that throne room. The nobles seemed to have stopped themselves from breathing as you couldn’t even hear that.

The silence persisted for an unknown amount of time before the King spoke again, “Go” he growled, “Get out of my sight”

Abigail jumped a bit and nodded her head stiffly. She performed her dismissal rites to the King and Queen and moved to leave the room. She didn’t turn around to leave –you never turned your back to the King.

“Your Majesty” Mayenne called startled at his abrupt dismissal of Abigail, “She’s still very young and inexperienced”

“That’s nonsense. Young and inexperienced is no excuse for that behavior. She belittles everything we stand for. Those things are the rise and fall of Kingdoms!” He roared furiously.

Abigail jumped visibly this time and quickened her backwards stepping out of the room. The gold doors opened before she reached them and shut immediately after she left.

Mayenne looked at her furious father and sighed. The whole Kingdom had watched as the late King had fallen together when a rampaging devil emerged in Ferasi years ago. The casualties that day was like mountains and nobody ever belittled a demon, especially devils, after that day.

Abigail had probably heard the story but she mainly looked at only devils to be terrifying, not demons. Like many others she saw them as two different species but demons and devils were one and the same. The vast difference between the demons of rank 1-6 and 7-9 was like the divine realm and the mortal realm –incomparable.

“I understand, Your Majesty” May conceded, “I’ll talk to her”

“Since she thinks they’re so easy, why not send her to subjugate a rank 4 demon. Of course when she’s of the minimum rank” Bithrya spoke her thoughts.

“Mother, I don’t think the goal of these subjugations is to send my sibling to her death” May spoke viciously.

“Oh please, if you baby them too much, they become like that. Thinking the world is beneath their feet” Bithrya snarled.

“That’s WHY,” May paused for effect, “I said I’ll talk to her”

“Your Majesty?” Bithrya didn’t answer her and turned to her husband by her right, “Well?”

The King rubbed his chin in silence then ever so slowly, a vicious smile blossomed on his face. The nobles looked to each other, speaking with their eyes. They seemed to come to an agreement and chorused, “Long Live the King”

***

Year 3717AW, Sectu, Ferasi Colosseum Arena

Zorai took in the view in front of him. It was a view he never thought he’d see but there he was. Standing in the platform where the usual audience of blood elves sat. It was suspicious for the colosseum officials to suddenly ask them to watch a show but he wasn’t going to refuse.

Mostly because he’d very likely be put down if he did. He filed out with his ‘group’, a ragtag pack of people who stayed together because they had mana. The people who he knew had mana in the Arena were so ‘many’ that he could actually count them with his hands.

Zorai was one of those people fated to never use Ki… not that he cared much. Many people either had one or the other and he had luckily grabbed the ‘good’ part. The fact that he had mana was why he was still alive till this day. And also because of the underhanded tricks he was fond of using but everybody used those.

“You’re not coming?” a short Elf-lurkan boy, known as Qivry asked him.

“No” Zorai whispered. He was trying his best not to move away from the huge adamantine doors. If shit hits the fan, he needed to be able to bolt. And as a mage his natural speed stunk so this was his only choice. So he stayed a bit far away from the doors that led back underground but close enough to reach it in seconds.

Qivry shrugged not caring much and walked away with the other people in his ‘group’. They didn’t seem to care very much about being together.

Zorai intently scanned the place for death traps. There was no way in hell, the colosseum officials were trying to get them to enjoy themselves and he knew it. Everybody knew it.

But what exactly they wanted from the slaves was unknown.

Suddenly, a clack sound could be heard. Zorai recognized it as the sound from the elevator that usually brought them into the battle arena. He didn’t realize the audience actually heard that sound.

The metal gates rumbled and began to slide open. Zorai raised a brow, were they really about to watch a ‘show’?

He shook that thought out of his head immediately. There was no way that would happen. Only an idiot would believe that.

Out of the metal gates was a woman. She looked tall and shapely. Her hair was a beautiful honey blonde and from what Zorai could see her eyes were blue. It was such a rare combination that if he’d seen her before he’d immediately know her name. From what he knew, it was mainly high elves had that combination of color.

She wore a tight smile and the soft wind blew her hair, caressing her face. He wondered why she left it long. Long hair became a weakness in the colosseum so people always cut it. Perhaps it never inconvenienced her before? Or were all her opponents such dimwits that they never realized her hair could be used against her.

Almost as soon as he thought that she pulled up her hair and pinned it up in such a way that the thing didn’t even wobble. This movement revealed her long elven ears but judging but the fact that she had no diamond on her forehead, her elven side wasn’t dominant. Zorai figured she was a half as she had the ever permanent gray strand of hair in the front of her hair.

Well, that works too but I’m pretty sure it would unravel in battle or did she find some way to make that not happen… I don’t get it. Cut the fucking hair.

Zorai was just bitching on her hair because he had to cut his to get away when an animal caught him by the hair in his earlier days in the colosseum and almost snapping his neck because of it.

She also wore a body fitting jumpsuit that Zorai was sure cost a fortune in the underground market.

She must be a challenger, he figured. Soon enough his thoughts went to the real crux of the matter. She had to be the ‘show’.

But all she was doing since she got into the arena was look around with a confused expression. If anything, she was just as confused as he was. Maybe she didn’t get the memo to get up here?

He scanned the audience of slaves and from the expressions he could read, they didn’t really get what was happening too.

He audibly sighed and was startled when the opposite metal gate began to open. His eyes narrowed. They were releasing a monster apparently and the barriers that usually protected the audience sitting was down.

Obviously. Why would they protect slaves?

He waited in tense silence but no monster came out. Then men dressed in imperial armor depicting the black and red insignia of the Ferasi Kingdom walked out. They kept filling in, leading a cart that was being pushed by 5 able bodied men wearing only khaki shorts and showing off their sturdy chests. They didn’t seem to be putting any effort into pushing the cart so Zorai wondered why they were all pushing it. It looked like only one of the men could do the job.

The men paused in the middle of the colosseum and Zorai counted 50 imperial soldiers and couldn’t help but gasp. Blood elves were unable to use Ki so these men had to all had to be mages, right? It was terrifying to see so many mages in one place.

Zorai was obviously one of those people who thought blood elves were all Ki-less. Regardless, he was terrified at the fact that he was faced with so many mages and even more terrified at an empire that could command this many mages.

One could imagine the feeling of the girl below who most likely had the same misconception as Zorai.

The cart was covered in a thick black sheet of clothing and only the bottom of the cart could make it identifiable. The sheet had a black point in the middle signifying it was suspended on a pole most likely nailed to the cart.

Zorai was curious but at the same time, not curious as to what was under the sheet of clothing. He didn’t have to wait long as the men unraveled what was under the sheet.

It was a beyond bloodied man. His face couldn’t be seen from all the dark brown blood that coated his body. His red hair was barely discernable and he looked fairly emaciated. He was bound, neck, waist and legs to the pole and his hands drooped uselessly by his side. The ever magical gray strand of hair seemed to shout out even more due to his appearance and wasn’t bloodied in the slightest.

Zorai came to the obvious conclusion the man was dead. Big whoop. The show was a dead man on a stick…really? Zorai rolled his eyes then he realized he’d forgotten about the girl and turned to her.

She was the perfect definition of frozen in shock. Zorai at first thought she was frozen at the sight of a dead man but that would be ridiculous. She obviously wasn’t a new savage so there was only the possibility that she knew the man.

But that too would be ridiculous. Why on Vetranos would imperial soldiers… actually wasn’t the man a colosseum slave? Then it would make even less sense for them to stick him on a pole and try to send the poor thing into grief?

Zorai laughed at his thoughts. Poor thing, huh? Who knows how much blood this particular ‘poor thing’ had shed?

She stirred and her mouth moved. Being a few feet away from her, he definitely couldn’t hear her words.

“Luken...” a broken voice floated into his ears. She had infused her words with Ki or was it mana? He couldn’t quite tell.

She stepped forward shakily, “Lu…”

She stopped walking, “No…it can’t …”

She suddenly dashed towards the cart and surprisingly the imperial guards and the able-bodied men jumped back, giving her space.

She climbed onto the cart, tore to ropes that bound the dead man and shook him fiercely.

“Luken!” numerous cries of this name boomed through the arena.

Zorai clicked his tongue and wriggled a pinky in his ear. She was fucking loud.

Soon enough, the tears and snot that flowed out of her began to offset her speech and all Zorai could hear was incoherent babble.

At this points the imperial soldiers who had been froze in place suddenly moved. They had entered a circular formation when Zorai hadn’t noticed. Their swords moved in unison, all stabbing towards the girl.

The impalement of 50 swords was ghastly and there was no more sounds from the girl.

Zorai was surprised all 50 actually fit. Damn, that had to be some skill. His life goal when he left this place was to massacre every blood elf in existence. It was a nice dream of his that wasn’t unique to him at all. Despite his life goal, he could still see that the commander of the soldiers trained them for that particular impalement.

He heard no clang signifying none of the swords actually met! He really would like to meet this person. Then kill them if they were a blood elf which they 99.99% were.

During his brief interlude, the girl had flopped to the floor still, leaving the dead body of the man on the cart and Zorai noticed an oddity. The imperial soldiers had odd expressions that from what Zorai could get from his mediocre face reading ability, they were confused about the outcome of that particular impalement.

…are they stupid? They made a kebab out of the human-elf girl, I can’t fathom what exactly they were expecting. Zorai stared incredulously at them.

It wasn’t only him, almost all who saw this play out had similar expressions. The whole colosseum descended into awkward silence.

“What the actual fuck?” an annoyed voice broke the silence. That was the trigger to the loud clamor of discussions that followed.

Zorai had no one to talk to so he just stared at the still confused soldiers. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, couldn’t read their mouths either.

He saw a movement at the corner of his eyes and his eyes travelled to find the impaled girl rising, the swords still stuck inside her making for a peculiar sight.

“Holy mother of Bermia” someone exclaimed before Zorai could. The sight of the standing girl made everyone’s hair on their neck stand. They was no way she should still be alive.

The imperial soldiers had shocked expressions on their face, something Zorai didn’t expect. It would seem this was something out of their expectation.

Well, the sight of the dead rising would shock everyone but a corpse puppeteer. Suddenly, a low growl could be heard, rippling through the colosseum.

Zorai’s battle sense kicked into high alert, telling him to run. He was confused. Nothing was happening and yet his battle sense was behaving erratically. No wonder they say battle sense was untrustworthy before one became a warrior.

The growl sounded again, much louder than the previous one. Zorai tried to suppress his instinctual response of fleeing as his curiosity at this point was much greater. He moved forward a bit to see better. Where exactly was the growl coming from exactly? He couldn’t see any monsters.

Suddenly a baleful aura assaulted the whole colosseum and Zorai found himself rooted to the spot unable to move further. He watched in mixed fascination and horror as the girl suddenly began to change.

The energy force around her distorted, gaining a purple hue and her purple… purple?! Zorai went wide eyed.

Her purple mana went wild and one could see her skin get visibly darker every second. She grew even taller than before and her body lost everything that made it feminine. Her eyes were simply yellow orbs and her ragged skin was a jet black.

Her once dainty hand spotted ferocious claws and the purple aura around her was simply vile. The imperial soldiers seemed to be in the same situation as Zorai, unable to move.

Her jaw opened wide and a loud growl was heard revealing her non elven set of teeth and the only word that came to Zorai’s mind was… demon.

The demon moved with such speed that Zorai’s eyes couldn’t follow. The able bodied men who had been immobile since they pushed in the cart finally moved. They all attacked it at the same time, their Ki covering their bodies in a defensive measure.

Warriors! Zorai shuddered. Everything that had happened the past few minutes were a bit hard to digest.

But he couldn’t help but think they were stupid. The fact that they were bare-chested meant they had no armor to protect their hearts. If that wasn’t idiocy then what was? Due to the situation he was in, the reality that blood elves were using Ki hadn’t clicked yet.

There were flashes of darkness from one point to the other and each flash resulted in blood and gut being flung around. The demon effortless ripped the imperial soldiers from limb to limb and even though Zorai couldn't see it's face right now, he was sure the demon would be happy as it killed so many.

Zorai decided that he couldn’t stay here anymore, something he definitely should have decided earlier. He moved backwards wanting to leave and noticed that the doors with which he used to enter had been closed at some point. And he didn't notice because of the situation in front of him.

Shit, he cursed. He looked at the battle which was taking place down there. It was more like a one sided slaughter. As the demon fought, the swords which were inside it were flung around callously, often impaling an imperial soldier.

The men in khaki were also fighting it and against these men, the demon seemed to have some difficulty. An encirclement of 5 warriors was not an easy thing to shrug off after all. Something Zorai was glad about.

If they could kill it them his life was ok for the meantime. Otherwise it would definitely kill them next as the colosseum officials had apparently decided to offer the slaves to the demon as a snack.

Well, relative snack. It did try to eat one but spat it out after. Apparently the taste wasn’t to its liking. Zorai had no elven blood though so things didn’t bode very well for him.

Zorai noticed that the only reason the demon couldn’t break out of the encirclement was because the men could keep up with its speed. Perhaps that’s why they wore no armor?

It didn’t take long before the men in khaki had suppressed the demon and it was unable to murder any more imperial soldiers around. The imperial soldiers numbered less than 20 at this point and these people were not unharmed. The demon had lost this battle but the kingdom didn’t fare well either.

At least that was what Zorai thought until the vile aura that was the demon’s intensified. The once purple mana aura turned jet black like its skin and it was impossible to make out the demon’s figure due to the thickness of the aura.

It let out a huge roar revealing a set of black jagged teeth. The pillars of the colosseum shook in response and the bodies of some soldiers and some of the slaves directly exploded. Zorai fell to the floor sick to the stomach. He felt his mana rampaging around inside of him, threatening to blow him into pieces too. He tried to calm it down, and even after it did he had a lingering fear in his heart.

He glared hatefully at this demon and finally decided to cast a spell and perhaps put the demon down. An enraged demon might not realize an incoming sneak attack, he figured but then realized that none of the essence were heeding his call.

This meant the intensity of the demonic aura was too much for the essences to listen to him. This was exactly why beginner mages were instructed to never fight a demon. Not like Zorai knew that.

He thought the demon had corrupted his mana or even him. For the second time this evening, Zorai was scared for his life. The beautiful radiance of the setting sun contrasted with the terrible visage of the demon making it even more terrifying.

He shook in trepidation as he watch the chaotic demon tear through every living body around him and was barely harmed. The injuries it took earlier were nowhere to be found and with every breath it took, a feral growl followed, sending shivers down the spine of everyone around.

Blood and gut were strewn everywhere, the once brown platform a deep red. No one but the demon stood.

The colosseum slaves had picked themselves up by now and had readied their weapons and spells. They all knew who the demon was coming after next.

The demon turned to them slowly, its yellow orbs that served as its eyes seemed to be shining in the black background of its body. And for the first time ever, it smiled. It smiled and its now oddly white, human looking ginormous teeth were shown.

It smiled.

And disappeared.

Zorai’s face felt warm and a beautiful hue of blood red clouded his sight.

That was the last thing he saw before he felt a bone searing pain and everything went black.

On top of the roof of a building, meters away from the colosseum, a bald girl with a fox mask watched all of this in absolute silence.