Dawn- An age of Darkness

It had started five thousand years ago.

A girl was born.

And the first thing she saw was her mother being murdered in front of her. 

She screamed; her screams reached the heavens but no one came to her rescue: not even the god who sired her. She cursed the world- she cursed the land, she cursed the people and seeing her desperation and rage, a demon responded. Not the gods, nor the angels: but a demon. A demon born from the sins of mankind- the true demon. A demon that came from another world. 

The girl- though she couldn't even move- offered the demon her life in exchange for revenge. 

The demon obliged and formed a pact- a pact that would last five thousand years. At the time, the girl did not understand that perhaps innocent people; and maybe people that aided her mother escape; and wished her well, were also part of the country. But it was too late and the whole country was wiped. 

The demon at first laid low and waited for the right time, planted the seeds… and waited… and waited….and in time… he become the greatest threat to the world- at least according to its residents. 

***

Ve saw it. 

Her eyes shimmered as she witnessed how Daarc and the emperor clashed. She wasn't quite conscious and she couldn't really move. The pain was too much. 

Alisa had arrived and she was holding her tight- but Daarc was losing and she knew it. 

Maybe it wasn't a great idea to stay here and Ve knew it. But she loved the man, and she didn't want to abandon him. She'd lost her mother to time. She'd lost her father to jealousy and deceit… she didn't want to lose this man- her first love too.

And as Alisa made the effort to bind the emperor, Ve hoped- she hoped for a future where she and the rest of them would be happy- where she'd be together. Where they'd be together. 

But that's when everything crumbled. 

The emperor had impaled Daarc and- though Alisa lied her on the ground and ran for him- she too got herself killed, just like that.

Biteria was struck by lightning- not moving.

Everything just crumbled, and just like her past, she again lost everything she held dear. 

Ve couldn't bear it. She couldn't be any help and she couldn't do anything… her eyes watered up slightly- but it was all over: she was powerless. 

Tears streamed down as she watched…

She passed out the very next second. 

Whether she'd open her eyes ever again- she didn't know. 'Next time…I'm not-'

***

"ARGH!" Daarc screamed as the tears streamed down his face. 

He didn't know how he'd move his arm but he was going to move it no matter what. He only had one arm- and he couldn't even move it. 

Alisa's lifeless body was next to him and her lifeless eyes were on him.

The vampire, Sorain had dug into Alisa's chest and tore out a crystal- Alisa's core: her almost cold blood splattered. 

The core of a demigod. It was perfectly spherical and blue. Almost like the stone of Damsel- just much, much more refined. It was her life itself. 

"ARGHHH!" Daarc tried his best- but he couldn't move. The stones on his wrist didn't shower him with their light. The pendant was broken and it leaked water beneath him but it also didn't give him light.

"HMM? THIS PENDANT?" The emperor's eyes lit up. "BUT IT WON'T SAVE YOU." He still kept his foot on Daarc's chest and gradually moved his sword up, savoring Daarc's agony. 

There were three shards right next to Daarc. The broken shards of the mystic blade. 

"But-" Daarc breathed hard. He couldn't take in oxygen and he couldn't really feel anything anymore. "I will kill you." He said the words calmly and carefully. It was hard to imagine, just a second ago he was in so much agony but now he looked so composed. 

"Oh?" It piqued the emperor's interest. 

Daarc picked up a shard- the bottom shard that was still attached to the handle of the sword- with his still attached arm and sliced it through the emperor's leg. He could move his hand.

"WHERE DO YOU GET SUCH POWERS?" It was puzzling, and also interesting. The emperor was intrigued. 'Perhaps-'

Even on the verge of death- he managed to almost rip the emperor's leg off: if the sword wasn't broken, he'd have probably cut through the leg completely. 

His own light flickered and so did the light from the stones…

The broken shards of the mystic blade all flickered and it was almost like they had formed a connection with Daarc through a rather transparent cord.

But Daarc wasn't done. He was being sucked by the water below him- the same water that came from the broken pendant, the same water that constantly mixed with his blood and drew in the remnants of mana from the air and his blood. He couldn't move from the water puddle but he'd grabbed the leg of the emperor. 

And he glowed.

This time, all the stones gave him light- every single one of them, even the ones that weren't supposed to: no, he made them give him their light. The colors meshed; he made them mesh. He wasn't human anymore. 

The emperor's feet started to crystalize. The combined mana of all the stones and the gods- it was pure godly mana and with Daarc's own mana- the power was too great and the moment the mana touched something else- dense crystals formed. 

Matter decayed.

Daarc started to sink. 

"ARGH!" the emperor screamed- he was in pain- severe pain. 

"Scream, wail, writhe." Daarc wasn't conscious anymore. He'd long been dead. Because of the curse, he was still moving- but he was not among the living anymore. He was an undead- an undead that could withstand holy mana- his mana: an undead with burning red eyes and only one passion: one reason. "I WILL KILL YOU, YOU FILTH! I will kill you! I'LL KILKL YOU.. AKISLL KILL KILL !" A husk!

But he still couldn't move. And he was being sucked into the water more and more. Watery hands were pulling him down. 

He was already well beyond his body's limits too. 

The emperor's legs were being consumed by the crystals and it was spreading like an infection. He gritted his teeth and tried to slice at Daarc, punched him but nothing worked. Daarc just didn't budge: he was gone and he didn't feel any pain. He was but a husk now, waiting for revenge. In the end, the emperor sliced his own leg and broke free.

"My lord!" Sorain caught him before he fell on the ground. 

The emperor grinned. "Anverosa and the daughter of Damsel sure played us dirty."

Daarc wailed around, he was a mad animal- reason was dead to him. He'd lost everything and he just wanted revenge. And he wanted it now!

But- the watery hands just dragged him down, and within a second, he was totally submerged in water and the puddle ceased to be. All that was left were two shards of the mystic blade and his broken pendant. 

The emperor sighed. "The seeds are sown." He looked over at the fallen girls and his hand- the core. "And that makes all the cores."

"But my lord- was it really necessary? With this core, it should have been enough, but now- Your leg…"

"The world will be destroyed whether we like it or not- if perhaps this doesn't work then the human-" He laughed hard as he regrew his legs with magic: they were far from being like his original legs. "To think, I'd fall so low to put my faith in a lowly human." He laughed again- no one was conscious to hear that terrifying laughter. 

His leg wasn't being healed like he would have liked it to. And even now, he couldn't bear the pain. The pure mana of so many gods wasn't something even he could deal with, at least not without writhing in pain. 

But he was the emperor- the emperor of the demons. He couldn't just show weakness in front of his loyal subject. 

Sorain smiled. 'But we all were lowly humans my liege..' He didn't dare utter those words.