Athánatos [English]

Year 629 A.D.

Continent Ouránios, in a small kingdom in the east there was a village of farmers and hunters, in this village there was a girl watching how the other children played while she was locked in her house with her whole body covered with bandages, sitting on a kind of chair with wheels made of wood.

This girl had an empty look in her eyes, they were yellow a rarity in the whole world, she also had a condition that did not allow her to stand up and if the sun touched her she would get giant blisters.

Because she was always alone, her mother had found her daughter talking to herself many times, however she only thought it was child's play and that she was imitating the children playing outside, that made the woman sad.

She had learned to read by herself, and thanks to this she could read all the books her mother brought her. She spent all her days alone, when it was daytime she had to be locked in the small basement so that the sun would not even shine on her, and at night she could not go out because her mother, when she was not working at the bar in town, had to attend to her customers who came to her house.

Her mother was a beautiful woman, so beautiful that if a high ranking nobleman passed through that town and saw her he would want to have her as his concubine. Her beauty had brought him trouble many times, but it also brought him clientele, something that helped him to keep his lovely daughter alive.

One day he found a book on magic carried by a peddler.

Having anything to do with magic was strictly forbidden in the whole continent and anyone related to such a thing would be executed by the church, accused of being pagans or witches who attempted against the authority of Ignis the one and only true god.

The beautiful woman covered her face and stealthily bought the magic book. Her 9 year old daughter was smarter than her, so maybe with magic she could find a solution to her illness.

That day when she returned home she gave the book to the girl, she was very happy, but she could not show it, because she could not move well and her face was full of bandages.

The little girl read the book an infinite number of times. She used everything she learned from the book, and in only three years she knew how to cast spells, incantations, magic with the main elements, how to combine spells, created new spells, learned to read some runes that appeared in it and knew how to make potions. However the book was not specific on some things, and so he had to figure it out on his own.

But nothing in the book said how to cure diseases.

However she was able to stand when she helped herself move with a cane and had the wind help her keep her balance. It was very advanced magic, but the girl didn't know it.

Since then the girl was able to start helping her mother with things like cooking and cleaning. She was also teaching her to read, even some children from the village were studying with her in the basement of her house.

Her life was getting better and better and the girl believed she could be happy for the first time since she was born. But...

One day the peddler returned to the village, but he came back with a new mission that was not to sell his products. It was to get the most beautiful slave girl.

The peddler had been enchanted by the body of the lady who had bought the magic book from him, almost as if he had been enchanted.

This man managed to find the woman, and told her <Be my slave or I will give you away to the church in the nearby town, and not only you will be executed, but your daughter as well>.

The woman was frightened, if she became a slave she would no longer be able to work to get food for her sick daughter, but if she refused not only would they kill her, she was in a dilemma. Nervously she ran home, she could not abandon her daughter. However when she arrived she saw something horrifying, something she could not even have imagined, in front of her she saw her beloved daughter lying on the floor, without her bandages or any clothes. Standing over her were two men who were dressed in cogullas of the Ignis religion.

The woman shouted that they should leave her daughter alone, that she alone had the idea of buying the book of magic, that the girl did not even know of the existence of that book.

However, the men did not listen to her words.

The girl was crying and screaming inconsolably.

The men began to laugh when they touched her thin and fragile body that looked like it was going to break at any moment.

Taking a step forward the woman could not follow, two men grabbed her from behind.

When she turned around she saw Templars, the executioners of the church.

She was pushed to the ground and then raped by them while they beat her and insulted her for being a witch.

When the woman was about to be unconscious they left her alone, and the worst followed, what she feared the most... they went after her daughter.

The woman saw how they raped her innocent daughter, who never did anything wrong, who despite the fact that she had many problems never complained, but made an effort to solve them.

The Templars and the two Ignis fanatics showed no mercy, despite the desperate crying and pleading of the girl they did not stop.

The hell lasted for two days straight, the girl fainted countless times and the woman begged them to leave her daughter alone.

Then they bathed and fed them, and then tied them up in the town square and let travelers or villagers play with them.

All the days the girl was in the town square the sun did not rise, there were clouds over the whole town.

The peddler was hanged a few meters away from them for being a heathen.

They were the example of what happened if you opposed the Religion of Ignis.

At some point the girl stopped crying and screaming, her eyes were empty, they had lost their luster, her tears dried on her cheeks.

The woman had been beaten to death by those who previously could not afford her services. Many women beat the woman as she insulted her for messing with their husbands, those being the ones who paid for her services. However, that did not matter to them.

The people that the girl saw through her little window and thought were wonderful people today had not only abandoned them but made fun of them, the children who used to learn to read with her now threw stones at her, old women coming back from shopping spat at them, old men who had no homes and lived on the street lay on them, touched them, licked them, gave them little cuts on their bodies and satisfied their carnal desires.

Thinking about what she must have done wrong, the girl looked at the horizon.

They were frightened by the smell of the corpse of the man who had been hanging there for three days, during which the Templars tried to keep the two heathens alive by giving them minimal care.

She did not know what she had done wrong.

"I just wanted to be able to walk like the others..."

"I just wanted to be able to play with other children..."

"I wanted to go shopping with mom..."

"I wanted to walk under the sun... that was my fondest dream..."

"I wanted to be able to be able to work so my mom wouldn't have to suffer anymore..."

"I wanted to take care of the farm that dad had left for us before he died..."

"I wanted to be able to smile without being in pain..."

"I just wanted to be happy..."

As the girl thought about what she might have done wrong, something inside her was breaking.

*They are to blame*

"You think so too?"

*? I agree with him too?

*That's right, all four of us know it's their fault*

"You three agree... I guess you're right, what should I do?"

*Kill them*

*♪ Exactly, you have to kill them. ♪

*Kill everyone who is allied with the religion of Ignis*

"Just them?"

*No, kill all those who try to harm you*

*♪ You must have your revenge ♪

*We'll be with you*

"You won't hurt me?"

*♪ No, we'll back you up ♪

*♪ That's right, we'll be there for you ♪

*♪ The four of us are one ♪

"♪ Then... I'LL KILL THEM ALL ♪

*♪ KILL 'EM ALL ♪

*♪ KILL 'EM ALL ♪ ♪ DON'T LET THEM LIVE THEIR LIVES ♪

*♪ DON'T HAVE MERCY ♪ COME ON, MOM ♪ THEY DON'T DESERVE TO LIVE ♪

*DESTROY*DESTROY*DESTROY*KILL*THEM*KILL*THEM*KILL*THEM*IF*KILL*THEM*NAM*DESTROY*DESTROY*KILL*THEM*OR*DESTROY*KILL*THEM*MORE*ACR*AL*OSMA*TA*MAT*A*TA*S*I*N*P*I*E*E*D*A*A*D*D*

With a wave of heat, the fire began to burn from around the central square.

And so, something broke inside the girl.

In the following decades every city with a church that worshipped Ignis was destroyed and all knowledge of magic they had disappeared from them. The east of the continent was razed to the ground, only ruins were left from the flames that burned dozens of meters high.

Everyone who went to see what was going on disappeared, be it armies, spies, assassins, merchants, or those on pilgrimage to the holy land of Ignis. They were the example of what happened if they opposed the witch.

When hundreds of ravens flew over a city it would burn for weeks and in nearby cities the ravens would drop charred limbs of people. After this the ravens were seen as an evil omen.

It was the greatest massacre in the history of mankind, and one that no one knows exactly why it began.

It was rumored that a witch of old had awakened to cause evil and destroy all the innocent people who served the one God. Until then there was no one left who worshipped Ignis, some abandoned him out of fear, and those who did not were food for the witch's crows.

And after three decades of genocide, when the last cities announced that Ignis was no longer worshipped the witch disappeared.

Rumors say that she went to another continent to cause chaos, others say that the church that follows the God Theos purged her raising to fame this church and getting more followers all over the continent, and so several rumors spread.

The religion of God Theos cursed the nickname that was given to the witch, making the world tremble when hearing the name Korákia Mágissa.

If you mention her name aloud you will be severely punished in most kingdoms of the continent. They may even confiscate your property or sentence you to prison.

All for the futile attempt to make the world forget that name. A name that was recorded in the history of mankind, a name that is rooted in death.