Chapter 01! The Demons.
Hartur Samel stood before the stone window, watching the horizon that still smoldered even after so many years. The world had never stopped smelling of ashes. Sometimes he believed the wind did it on purpose, just to remind him.
Hestina approached in silence, her armor still stained with dust from the morning training.
You are thinking about them again.
It was not a question.
Hartur took a deep breath before answering.
It is impossible not to think about them. Everything that exists out there carries their name.
The Gyyos.
The very sound of that word seemed to tear through the air. It was not just a name. It was a sentence, a collective memory carved into the skin of the Earth.
Hestina crossed her arms.
The bards tell stories as if it were all a distant past. As if it were legend. But we know it is not.
Hartur turned to her, his dark eyes heavy with something that mixed anger and exhaustion.
It is not legend when you grow up hearing screams on the walls. It is not legend when our father’s body came back in a sealed coffin.
The silence between them grew heavy.
The Gyyos Demons had not emerged like common monsters. They did not come from shadowed forests or forgotten caverns. They came from the world itself, an ancient race, intelligent, organized, and cruel in their own logic.
Annyxa Samel, the Queen, used to say that the Gyyos were an open wound of creation. They were not born only with supernatural strength, but with something worse. Consciousness. Strategy. Time.
She entered the room without announcement, as she always did.
You are talking about them again.
Hestina inclined her head in respect.
Mother.
Hartur inhaled deeply before turning to her.
Anny.
The Queen did not take offense. She preferred it that way. The weight of the crown was already enough.
She walked to the same window, positioning herself between her children.
The Gyyos existed long before Samel was a kingdom. Before there were even human crowns worthy of the name. They called themselves guardians of something they never fully explained.
Hestina frowned.
Guardians who burned entire cities.
Annyxa nodded slowly.
Yes. Guardians who decided the world did not deserve to continue as it was.
The Gyyos believed humans were transient, fragile, chaotic. To them, the Earth needed to be purified, rebuilt under an order only they deemed correct. They did not destroy for pleasure. They destroyed out of conviction.
And that made them even more dangerous.
Hartur clenched his fists.
Conviction does not justify massacre.
It never has, my son.
Annyxa rested her hand on the stone ledge.
For centuries, the Gyyos marched like an unextinguishable fire. Kingdom after kingdom fell. Alliances were formed, broken, remade. None endured. None were enough.
Hestina spoke in a low voice.
The ancient maps show twelve great human kingdoms.
Annyxa nodded.
Twelve. All destroyed. One by one. Some resisted for decades. Others for only a few years. None survived.
Hartur turned abruptly.
Except Samel.
Except Samel.
The word echoed like a challenge thrown at destiny itself.
The Gyyos surrounded Samel three times. They tried direct invasion, prolonged war, infiltration. They failed. Not for lack of strength, but because something here resisted in a different way.
Annyxa looked directly at Hartur.
Your father believed it was not only walls or swords. It was unity. It was the refusal to become what they expected us to be.
Hestina let out a bitter laugh.
Even so, they killed him.
The air grew heavy.
Hartur felt his blood boil.
They killed the King of Samel. My father. The man who believed in mercy, even for demons.
Annyxa closed her eyes for a brief moment.
And that was exactly what the Gyyos could not forgive. Mercy was always seen by them as weakness.
Hartur stepped forward.
Then we will show no mercy when they return.
They always return.
The Queen’s answer was calm, almost sad.
Hestina walked to the center of the room.
But now they say few remain. That the Gyyos bloodline is fading.
People say many things when they are afraid.
Annyxa unrolled an ancient parchment on the table.
The most reliable records indicate something different. The Gyyos do not multiply like humans. They endure. They live for centuries. A single bloodline can sustain an entire war.
Hartur scanned the parchment.
This speaks of a royal lineage.
Yes. The original Gyyos lineage. The one that led the first destructions.
He studied the symbol etched into the page.
They call it the lineage of the black heart.
Hestina grimaced.
A fitting name.
Annyxa touched the symbol carefully.
Not everything is as simple as it seems. The Gyyos believe emotions are defects. Love, compassion, empathy. They train their children to suffocate such things.
Hartur raised his gaze.
So there are no exceptions.
The Queen hesitated for a fraction of a second. Too small to go unnoticed by an attentive son.
Rarely, stories emerge.
Stories?
Stories they try to erase themselves. Gyyos born different. Who felt things they should not.
Hestina laughed, without humor.
A demon with feelings. That sounds more dangerous than any other.
Or more human than we would like to admit.
Hartur felt something strange in his chest, a discomfort he could not name.
If that is true, why have we never seen one?
Because they do not survive. Or because they learn to hide.
The wind struck the windows, making the torches tremble.
Annyxa drew a deep breath.
Samel is the last human kingdom because it became the last symbol of resistance. As long as Samel exists, the Gyyos will never say they have won.
Hartur walked toward his mother.
And as long as a single Gyyos still breathes, I will never say it is over.
She touched his face with tenderness.
That is why you are the heir, Hartur. Not only for the hatred you carry, but for your ability to feel its weight.
Hestina watched them both.
So the war continues.
It has always continued.
Annyxa rolled the parchment closed.
But every war begins long before a sword is raised. It begins when two worlds believe they can never touch without destroying each other.
Hartur turned back to the window once more.
If it depends on me, they will learn that Samel will not fall.
Somewhere beyond the borders, far beyond the ruins of the ancient kingdoms, something ancient breathed. Something that did not fit the stories of absolute hatred. Something that carried a heart the Gyyos refused to acknowledge.
And destiny, silent and patient, was already beginning to draw closer two names that should never walk side by side.
F4BRIZIOF!
