The silence of the forest was suffocating, heavy with the scent of pine and the lingering metallic tang of last night's slaughter. I sat on a jagged mossy stone, my mind a whirlpool of unanswered questions. I couldn't take it anymore. I turned inward, shouting into the hollow void where Night resided.
"Alright, enough with the riddles!" I roared. "Who were those demons? Why were they so unnaturally strong? And why—out of everyone in this miserable world—was I chosen? Why is my soul this heavy, blue-tinted anchor?"
Night's presence flickered, his voice emerging with a chilling gravity. "Those demons... they were likely Commanders of the Demon Lord's Vanguard. But their power had been 'tampered' with. They were infused with something ancient, something that shouldn't exist in this era. That is the mystery we must unravel."
"Demon Kings? Commanders?" I barked. "If they have such overwhelming power, why haven't they wiped out humanity yet? What is the purpose of your existence? Why are you linked to my childhood?"
Night let out a hollow, haunting laugh. "Oho... so many questions, Reyansh. Almost every answer leads back to a single truth. But tell me, are you ready to hear it? It sounds like a Fairy Tale, but it's the blood-soaked foundation of this world."
"I don't care if it's a fairy tale or a nightmare!" I snapped. "I don't have time to play games. Give me the truth."
"Once you hear this," Night's tone turned deadly serious, "there is no turning back. This knowledge is a burden shared only by the 7 Heroes. Since you have become my host, my vessel, it is your birthright... and your curse."
The Epoch of the Two Goddesses
"Hundreds of thousands of years ago," Night began, his voice echoing as if echoing from the dawn of time, "the world was a playground for two supreme entities. The Goddess of Fairies (Light) and the Goddess of Demons (Darkness). They ruled their respective realms with absolute authority, but divinity is never satisfied. They hungered for the entire Earth."
"The war between them turned the world into a slaughterhouse. To break the stalemate, the Goddess of Demons reached into another dimension and summoned a Hero. She bestowed upon him her dark divinity. That single man, a mere human originally, slaughtered 80% of the human population. Cities were turned to ash; oceans turned to blood."
"Seeing her worshippers—the source of her power—dying out, the Goddess of Fairies also summoned a Hero from another world. When he arrived, he looked at the Goddess and asked a single question: 'What is in it for me?'"The Goddess promised him anything his heart desired. The clash between these two Heroes was cataclysmic. The impact was so immense that the Earth itself was on the verge of shattering. In a desperate move, both Goddesses fused their entire divine essence into their respective Heroes."
The Forbidden Contract
"In the end," Night continued, "the Hero of the Fairies emerged victorious. But here is the part history books forgot. The two Heroes, tired of being pawns for celestial beings, made a secret Contract. No one knows the exact terms, but the impact was clear. The Goddess of Fairies was overjoyed, expecting eternal rule, but the Hero turned to her and said: 'You promised me anything. I want this Earth. I want both of you to leave this plane of existence and let Humans and Demons live their own lives.'"
"The Goddesses were forced to leave the physical world. However, they were cunning. Before they vanished, they signed a pact with the Heroes. They could never return to Earth in their true forms, but they could still influence it. They could manipulate events, corrupt souls, and eventually 'reclaim' the world through their chosen avatars. To counter this, the Heroes established the 7 Heroes system to protect the balance. I was part of that system... until 150 years ago, when the Rank 5 Hero recorded these truths."
The Soul Fracture (The Awakening)
As Night finished the tale, a sudden, violent throb vibrated in my skull. It felt like a mountain was being crushed inside my head.
"O dear... O dear..."
That voice. The same chilling, sing-song voice I heard when I died. My memories—the cold hospital bed, the sound of the heart monitor flatlining, the darkness of my final moments—began to replay with agonizing clarity.
"ARGHHHHH!"
I collapsed, clutching my head as if trying to keep my brains from leaking out. My soul felt like it was being stretched across a rack. The sheer weight of the history Night had revealed was colliding with my own fragmented memories. It wasn't just information; it was a physical force tearing through my consciousness.
"Reyansh! Stay with me!" Night shouted, but his voice was drowning in a sea of static.
My soul... I could see it. In my mind's eye, it was no longer a solid orb. It was cracking. A brilliant, terrifying blue and black aura began to leak from the fractures. It felt like my very essence was exploding.
BOOM!
A massive shockwave of Azure energy erupted from my body. The blast was so violent it vaporized the grass and sent the surrounding trees flying like matchsticks. The earth groaned under the pressure of my soul's release.
As the dust settled, the forest for fifty meters around me was a flattened wasteland. I lay in the center of the crater, my body smoking, my mind shattered into a thousand pieces. I was unconscious, but the Azure aura continued to flicker around me like a dying star