Prologue: The Tale
Prologue: The Tale
---
There was once a Kingdom.
The Kingdom of Filenians.
It was known for their strength in battle and unyielding power, they were also very peaceful, with many friendly connections to other kingdoms far and beyond, however, they despised with every fiber of their being, one thing.
The Rubies.
They called the Rubies the Heartstones of the world.
One held Life.
One held Death.
And the last was said to hold Peace.
All three gave energy, too much of it.
One defies life, everything lives for as long as it does, nothing ever dies, nothing ever gets sick, nothing ever gets to experience a true rest.
The other gives death, a full removal, everything disappears like a magic act, whoever gets close will never be heard from again.
Both are counteracted by the one that keeps the balance. The one that keeps the peace.
The balance was perfect, infinite, and unbreakable.
However, when war consumed the land for the thousandth time, the kingdom demanded a sacrifice, one to push the others away.
Someone had to pull the Ruby of Peace from its altar to "Give life to those who deserve it, and bring death to those who trespass on them" It may have sounded heroic, but it was nothing more than a ploy, a scheme to grant them immortality.
They chose a man named Rendea, not because he was strong, not because he was wise, but because he was expendable.
He was a frail human, thin as a shadow, with hands that had never held a weapon and eyes that had seen too much suffering.
A man the kingdom assumed would die quietly once the Ruby devoured him. A man who'd bring upon a brand new era, one filled with happiness and joy
But that was their mistake.
Instead of Happiness and joy, they received Malice and Chaos
When Rendea touched the Ruby, Peace screamed.
It felt the raw wound inside him.
His grief.
His loneliness.
The decades of silent pain the world ignored.
And Peace could not contain it.
It festered.
Cracked.
Mutated.
The Ruby twisted itself inside out, breaking into pieces and reforming itself into something more than just a Ruby.
It changed everything around it, absorbing power from across the nations, turning serenity into Chaos, and Rendea into its unwilling vessel.
The balance broke, now instead of weaving the power of the two crystals that it was counteracting, it now accepted both, increasing its power to an extent unknown to humans at that time.
When that same power was unleashed, the Ruby gifted Rendea a new life.
A few small fragments of the Ruby penetrated Rendea's thin body, forcing itself into it.
Making his skin turn pale, veined with a violet light.
His body started to crack, snapping like twigs, muscles started to break and be reformed, his eyes, now painted in red, could see far beyond any human ever could.
He tried to scream in pain as it happened, but he didn't know he was already screeching.
And finally, three horns started protruding from his skull, the noise from his skull breaking was so painful, his ears almost bled.
And when Rendea rose from the altar, the world felt his presence and trembled.
Because now, Peace was no longer found.
Humanity has made their decision.
Now was the time for Chaos.
---
For centuries, Rendea stood alone in a realm warped by his very existence.
The kingdom that had offered him up as a sacrifice now screamed his name as a curse.
The Demon Lord.
The monster who "destroyed Peace..."
The nightmare children were warned about, the tale people say to travellers to dissuade them from going near the Demon Realm.
And Rendea, weary and unapproachable, let the lies spread.
Not out of malice.
But because he had no reason to defend a world that had already labeled him inhuman.
The Demon Realm grew around him, twisted forests, shifting stone, beasts
born from human desire.
Demons, they called them.
Monsters born from their own sins.
How fitting.
That they fear the very thing they made.
---
Generations passed.
Kingdoms rose and fell.
But one legacy endured or rather, a convenient lie.
That One day, a Hero will rise to defeat the Demon Lord.
And so they forged one.
They took a random child from an Orphanage, and branded him as their savior.
A single boy.
A child that they selectively trained throughout decades, shaped through brutal trials, molded to be the answer to a problem that humanity refused to admit it created.
He became everything they wanted:
Unbreakable.
Righteous.
Fearless.
A Hero.
And he marched into the Dark Realm alone.
He cut his way through demons and landscapes twisted by Chaos.
He endured storms of corrupted essence that shattered mountains.
He fought through day and night, all for the purpose of defeating the Demon Lord, and restoring peace to this world.
All to defeat the Demon Lord and bring peace to all the lands.
He eventually stood at the threshold of the shattered altar where Rendea waited.
Beside it was Rendea's Castle, a large and ominous monolith that stretched far beyond the human eyes.
The hero worked his way through, each corridor.
And eventually, making it into the Throne Room.
Where Rendea sat, gazing at the young Hero like he was merchandise.
And Rendea saw himself in the boy.
The same power.
The same gift.
The same curse that the Ruby engraved within him.
Absorption.
The power to devour attacks, powers, and energy, to become stronger from the world's malice.
And this boy was born.
Nay, he was made to have that power.
But even when the Hero had the same curse, one truth remained.
Rendea had absorbed many powers, from many foes and trespassers for centuries.
The Hero had trained for only two decades.
Their clash lasted less than a seven minutes.
The Hero's greatest strike vanished into Rendea's hand like dust swallowed by a tidal wave.
His strength was drained.
His will had broken.
And his purpose crumbled into dirt.
Yet he never gave up.
Despite his desperation, and determination, the Hero understood.
He had never been destined to win.
He had been destined to repeat the sacrifice.
He collapsed at Rendea's feet, trembling, not from fear, but from revelation.
The kingdom had lied.
The Demon Lord had not.
---
Rendea looked down at him, cold but melancholic.
Or perhaps it was not Rendea.
but the Ruby.
A whisper echoed through the Realm:
"Give him what he has lost... And shape him into what comes next"
Not an Avatar.
Not a replacement.
An Agent.
A successor for the day Rendea finally disappeared.
The hero had passed out from his injuries.
And so the Chaos reached into the Hero's dying core and rewove it.
His flesh paled into soft violet. Veins glowed like molten amethyst.
His hair grew more, turning into ashen like color.
A single horn pierced through his skull.
His heartbeat synchronized with the pulse of the Ruby.
When he awakened, he was no longer the kingdom's Hero.
He was something more.
The Demon Prince.
The heir of Chaos.
And for the first time in centuries, Rendea spoke with something close to warmth:
"Your story doesn't end here... Child... You will Succeed me... Where you like it or not..."
The book closes on the old tale, and opens to the one that begins anew.
