Chapter Text
It was a calm autumn day in the Village of Carne. Enri Emmot, a humble teenager working in said village was sorting out the harvest of the season alongside her little sister, Nemu Emmot.
It was getting harder and harder by each day to meet the demands of the Re-Estise Kingdom and Carne Village was in a tough spot. The small village was located quite far away from the Kingdom's Capital and very close to the border with The Imperial Empire. The distance was far enough that sending a request would take at least a few days. The Villagers had hoped to ask the tax collectors to lower the taxes, and every time they have responded with a calm demeanor and reassured that they would tell their worries to the king and everything would be fine.
However things were not fine, they never were. Every year the villagers would eat less and less, weakening little by little each day. Villagers hoped that everything would turn around in due time. Enri was young, but not a fool. She, unlike the others knew that things were not getting any better and it was only going to get worse. She thought about hiding and saving more food but the tax collectors were proven to be unkind to those who did that.
She had a friend around the same age that was taken in shackles to the capital's prison for it. Her stomach grumbled, she was truly desperate, she had only survival in her mind these past few weeks and hoped that at least in this harvest the Kingdom would lower the taxes. The villagers were not looking good at all. And she was not going to put her Alchemist friend Nfirea in a tough spot either. Shaking those thoughts, she pulled the roots of the wheat harder in frustration.
600 years ago, The Six Great Gods have saved humanity from the brink of extinction. The Gods however, like any other mortal, died from old age save for one, Surshana. He was an Undead, a being that had no life-span. However he too, have died 500 years ago after the Eight Greed Kings arrived and conquered the world. Sensing the world was in danger, Dragon Lords have finally shown their faces and fought the Greed Kings.
After the war between Dragon Lords and the Eight Greed Kings, Dragon Lords had severe losses and had to stay in hiding for decades until the Eight Greed Kings started their infighting. In the midst of chaos, Dragon Lords have chosen an opportune moment and destroyed what is left of the Greed Kings.
To this day, there were no more Gods to show up. Dragon Lords have also gone silent and the world was finally stable, or it was supposed to be. However this also meant to most that they were left alone, forsaken. The Gods were dead, Dragon Lords were in the hiding and nobody would hear their plea as the inhabitants of this world destroyed and exploited each other.
There was however, still one god. No, an entity to pray to. One that terrified even the Gods, Kings and Dragon Lords. The one who stood above all other existence, The Shade Lord. It is written in the Holy texts left behind by the Six Great Gods and records of the Eight Greed Kings. It is said that he is sleeping to this day, that he is in the underground where there is no light, that he would find a vessel suitable to walk through the world of mortals. He is described as an abomination with eight eyes that could swallow even the sun in it's embrace. It sounded like his arrival would be the doom of this world.
However he was also the only deity left. Dragon Lords were absent from the world since the Eight Greed Kings, nobody really knew where they were or what they were doing today. While some were in belief that they are alive and well, majority believed they had kicked the bucket long ago.
Although Enri didn't know the whole history, she heard enough tidbits of information to get an idea about the Lord and a few things she noticed during the last couple of days to confirm in her mind that Shade Lord was real. In fact, she started believing in it quite recently. For some reason for the past few days, every shadow she looked at gave her a really weird feeling as if something was watching her. She at first believed that she was simply tired or hungry but after a whole day of debating in her mind she decided to trust her instincts and believe in the Shade Lord.
She didn't know why she believed the Lord herself, maybe she was desperate? Clutching at whatever power could help her against the ruthless Kingdom who were supposed to keep them safe. Could The Shade Lord even help her? Would he help her? She didn't know, but decided to believe and pray anyhow.
"GYAAAAAAA!" a scream reached her ears towards the entrance of her village.
"Eh?-"
"Onee-chan?" her little sister said in a worrisome voice.
"Stay with me, Nemu." She held her hand.
The fields were a bit of a walkway away from her home but it took her only a few minutes to walk back to the village. On her way, she heard more and more screams and the smell of iron reached her nose. Her pulse started to accelerate, in her mind she only thought about the rest of her family, her mother and father who were still at home getting ready for winter. She grabbed her little sister in her arms and ran like her life depended on it. She hoped it was all for naught and she hoped that she was dreaming, but it wasn't a dream. She saw her neighbors getting slaughtered by soldiers and smelled the ash as their fields were set on fire.
Upon reaching her house she saw her mother on the floor with blood on her back, dead, right in front of the door of their house. Her father was pushing away a soldier wielding a sword that she recognized to be the Imperial Empire's soldiers. His father spotted Enri running towards him from the corner of his eye.
"ENRI! RUN! HURRY UP AND RUN AWAY!" he yelled before the soldier finally got his sword into her father's back.
Terrified after watching her father's life leave his eyes, Enri had no other choice but to run away from the village. She didn't even look back and ran as far away as she can and into the forest of Tob, a forest where many dangerous animals and monsters resided. She heard footsteps behind her, but didn't trust to turn her back. One moment and she might lose her and Nemu's life. Her weakened and hungry state didn't help much either.
After running for what felt like eternity, she saw something truly out of place. "A temple" is all she could think of after seeing what was in front of her.
"Where's that bitch!?"
"I heard them, there!"
She heard her pursuers getting closer. She quickly bolted inside, ignoring the text that she couldn't read at the entrance.
After opening the giant door and closing it behind, she saw an enormous black egg. It had a huge hole in it. She was intimidated by the sight but looking around she saw no other way but to move inside. She slowly stepped in and gasped in horror at the sight.
A being that she couldn't identify was chained up and hanging in the middle of the room. The entity had two giant horns that protruded from it's face. It had two completely hollow black eyes and a small crack in the middle of it's face, splitting it's face in two. It was wearing a metal cloak and a weird sword was embedded in the stone right under him.
Enri also spotted two metal doors behind both left and right side of the entity. She wanted to stay as far away from it as possible and was terrified that this thing would spring back to life.
"Nemu, be quiet, hold onto me." She whispered to her sister, watching the entity intently as she hoped she was not heard by it.
"Mm." Nemu nodded and gripped her older sisters clothes harder.
She hugged the wall and slowly made her way towards the door, constantly watching the entity as she did. Her hand slipped and she fell.
"Hyah!" her little sister blurted out.
They both watched the entity in cold sweat, was this it? The end of their lives? But the entity didn't move an inch. It was still hanging in the middle of the room.
After confirming that it didn't move, Enri looked at the wall again, but this time she spotted a small spot, a small crack that she didn't see there before. Weird. She thought, but she also felt like she had no other choice. The crack was big enough that they could hide and hopefully she could leave after confirming that their pursuers gave up on them. So she went in through the crack with her little sister and both laid low, controlling their breathing and trying to calm down.
She heard a metal door creek, She mused it was the same door that lead into this entity's nest and gestured to her little sister to keep quiet.
"W-What in the hell is this place?" she heard a man speak with a worried tone.
"I don't remember this being here back when the scouts returned." another man spoke angrily.
"Useless fuckers, can't even scout around a small village!"
Enri heard their footsteps get closer and closer.
"Woah! Would you look at that! How much are you betting that the Cardinals would pay for this?" one of them said in wonder.
"Uhh, I-I don't know.. t-this place gives me the creeps man. M-Maybe we should g-go back? It's just t-two p-peasants." stuttered the other, worried.
They were finally in view, two men, wearing the Imperial Empire's armor with a sword by their belt.
"What? You're scared it'll come back to life? Look at it, it's slimmer than our training poles!" said one of them in a sarcastic tone while the other simply grunted.
"Well, it's safe to say they are hiding behind either one of these doors.. aren't. You. LITTLE. MISSIES!?" he said as he increased his volume with each word with a sadistic look on his eye.
"M-Man, lets just kill them and g-get out of here."
"You're such a pussy, you know that?"
"S-Shut up."
"You take the left, I'll the right."
"Uhh, y-you sure about s-splitting up?"
"What? THEY'RE TWO COMMONER VILLAGERS! Don't tell me you can't handle a teenager and a fucking kid!" He shouted.
"Fine, Fine!" He shouted back biting his lip and gaining a bit more courage.
One in a leisurely pace and one in a wary stance, they both approached the doors. One with sadistic glee, the other with uncertainty.
"Little piiig, little piiig, let ME IN!" He said as both of them grabbed the door handles.
CLINK
The room temperature immediately dropped to a dangerous degree. Cold sweat formed on the temples of both men. Even the one who was joking around felt his heart jump out of it's place.
Enri saw that one of the chains holding the being just broke free. She looked at it's face, a faint orange light surfaced in it's hollow eyes.
CLINK
CLINK
CLINK
One by one, all the chains holding it ripped free as it's eyes turned bright orange. It fell on the ground.. and grabbed it's sword...
"..."
For what felt like an eternal pause, the men simply stared at the being in shock. They had a hard time breathing as if the time was frozen and they couldn't move.
"..."
OOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA it screeched, and it shook the entire temple.
The soldiers sloppily took their swords out of their scabbards and got ready to fight. But the being didn't attack them, it attacked itself.
It plunged the sword deep into it's own guts while screeching bloody murder and it stabbed.. it stabbed.. over and over as an orange liquid fell from his guts and splashed on the ground. The liquid melted the stone where it splashed like it's nothing.
Both Soldiers, bewildered by such action gave opposite reactions. One got out of it, stood his ground and attacked the being while the other whimpered as if he was stuck in place.
The being suddenly lunged itself forward and split the sadistic knight into two in a single blow. Blood gushed out of his stomach as he fell on the floor. He could feel his own blood filling his throat. His vision getting darker and darker, while he breathed slower and slower. His eyes finally lost color and he died in a small pathetic choke.
"Hiii! M-Monster!" the other knight shrieked as he fell on his back, still pointing his sword towards the being, before his vision turned orange.
Enri and Nemu witnessed in fear as the scared knight melted into blood and bone by the orange liquid still bleeding out of the entity. It stood up. It stared at the wall, it stared at them.
Enri and her little sister whimpered in fear as it stared at them. Watching.. waiting..
"Looks like my brother is awake."