The Story of Vermilion [Final Prologue

After centuries of war against the goddess of light, fate made its decision in the valley of an ancient elven empire. After centuries of a battle that unilaterally claimed millions of lives, the goddess of light emerged victorious.

Of the nine primordial gods, few remained to fight. Among these few, Ura'an, the goddess of life, was one of the last to be defeated. Transforming twelve of her angels into divine artifacts, the goddess of light sealed Ura'an in the place that would later come to be known as "The Valley of the End." Her punishment for going against the purposes of the goddess of light was oblivion, the worst possible punishment for a god.

Long before that, the god of beasts, Fenrir, had already been brutally killed in a battle against hundreds of angels. This battle was to prevent the death of Yïe, the goddess of order, who followed her protector soon after.

While the world was turned upside down with carnage and pain, Fäė, the goddess of chaos, sat on her throne in her demi-plane, observing everything with disinterest. She did not care about what her siblings and mortals were doing, nor was she interested in interfering with the chaos of events.

Since she had kidnapped Dalion, for whom she was extremely obsessed, he was all that mattered to her, and the feeling was reciprocated in a completely distorted way. However, Fäė was not the only one who refrained from getting involved with what was happening in the world.

Yggdrasil, who was supposed to govern events, also had no interest in that centuries-old war. She was the creator of Vermilion. She was the queen of the world, the one above all, yet she did nothing. Since giving birth to the fairies, glorious timeless creatures born from her passion with Ura'an, Yggdrasil hadn't even glanced at the world.

As long as no fairy was harmed in the carnage, the goddess of creation would not act, and everyone avoided the fairies on the battlefields, even when they were a third force killing only for fun.

In the north of the world, Gridart, the giant god of war, who had made a pact with the goddess of light, finally found someone worthy of his strength. However, the god of war himself was not worthy of the strength of his adversary and had died by the blade of the one who betrayed the goddess of light, Lucifer.

Finally, in the last attempt at resistance, the god of darkness, Gehenna, along with the four apostles of life, the saints Ytria, Nemo, La'anan, and Gion, advanced against the army of the goddess of light in a life or death gamble and lost.

During the clash against the three archangels, Gehenna was killed, and his divine spark was shattered so he could never resurrect again, for he ruled over darkness, and in darkness, death meant nothing.

After the death of the god of darkness, the apostles had no chance, but they were spared. The goddess looked at the apostles with cold, merciful eyes. So she looking at her children and said, — Let them go. They are merely mortals and do not know what they do. — After saying that, the goddess disappeared in a beam of light.

With the goddess of light's command, the angels began to retreat, but they returned when they perceived what one of the apostles was about to do.

Desperate, Ytria, the kindest and happiest saint among the apostles, committed her greatest mistake and threw herself upon what remained of Gehenna, absorbing the fragments of the god of darkness into herself, only to be consumed by the darkness.

Enveloped in the darkness of the dead god's powers, Ytria became a dark and twisted creature, engulfed in pain and despair. After all, Gehenna, despite having been a gentle god, was nothing but a concentrated existence of all negative feelings. It was all too much for a mortal to bear, even one blessed by Ura'an.

The army of the goddess of light, seeing what Ytria was becoming, advanced against her, only to be reduced to mere hundreds, for there was nothing more powerful beneath Yggdrasil and Fäė than a mortal soul touched by a divine spark.

At that moment, Ytria was the third most powerful force in the world, even though she had become a weapon that could go against the goddess of light. The other holy apostles could not bear to see sweet Ytria transformed into a monster.

Furthermore, in that place, on that battlefield, there were many who could still be saved, and they knew that with the emergence of a force that could and would go against her, the goddess of light would not stand idly by. They immediately understood that if they wanted to save as many lives as possible to fight again, they had to stop Ytria, and so they did.

Gathering his last strength, Gion, the only new human, a race created by the goddess of light, among the apostles, invaded the ley lines of the world, the place where the power that only Yggdrasil could control lay.

He had an exceptional understanding of the power flowing through the veins of the world. He knew that after doing this, nothing would be normal for him anymore, and yet he did it.

Sacrificing his mortal body with the help of Nemo, Gion created a cocoon of mana around Ytria, who continued her brutality not only against the angels but against every living being she encountered.

The cocoon soon took on a crystallized form, like a coffin, trapping and suppressing Ytria. However, it was already too late, and as this happened, the goddess of light had already rendered her verdict by unleashing a tower of light across the entire continent. It was as if she was saying that no one else would be saved.

But La'anan had already anticipated this. He was the most altruistic apostle among the four. Even before the goddess rendered her judgment, he had already begun his action for the survival of as many people as possible. Using his life and soul energy as fuel, he raised a great shield of pure magical power around the entire continent, and at that very moment, the sky turned completely white.

The goddess's light fell upon the continent, which was covered by La'anan's shield, creating a force that pushed down and created cracks all over the shield.

La'anan's shield was not strong enough to fully stop the goddess's power. He knew that if he didn't act quickly, everyone would die, and he couldn't count on the help of Gion or Nemo. The two had used everything they had to stop Ytria and were lying near the crystal cocoon.

In addition to everything, La'anan had little time left. His body was crumbling as if made of sand, and gradually his mind was becoming clouded by nonexistence. He could hardly remember why he was doing this anymore, but his heart told him it was the right thing to do.

Then, with few options left, he diminished the shield, concentrating his power in a somewhat smaller area but still large enough to be called a continent. He spent the rest of his life and time enveloping around sixty million square kilometers of the continent in his shield like a snow globe. That was the power of a mortal soul.

In the end, when the divine light subsided, La'anan no longer existed, and the largest continent in the world had been completely erased, leaving behind only what La'anan had protected by sacrificing his existence.

However, the danger had not yet passed. Everything remaining around what was left of the largest continent in the world had nothing to support it on the surface and was about to be swallowed by the sea. Gion and Nemo looked up at the sky and then gazed toward where their goddess slept sealed.

The two remaining saints had completely lost faith and hope. All that remained was a final glimpse of the starry sky and the warmth of each other's hand, or so they thought. They didn't know it yet, but they were not alone.

Haldïr, the dwarf god of fire, who had chosen to turn his back on it all and close his eyes to the atrocities of the goddess of light. He had a reason to remain neutral. He knew the purposes of the goddess of light and saw them as noble, understanding that this was the only way to make a noble dream come true.

Furthermore, Haldïr was the weakest god among his siblings. He didn't have many followers, and he didn't want them either. He couldn't go against the goddess of light even if he wanted to.

However, the moment he saw the goddess decimate even those who were not fighting in that war, he could no longer remain absent and acted to save the mortals who still remained in that part of the continent saved by the sacrifice of a great man.

To prevent it from ever risking sinking into the sea again, the dwarf god grabbed the continent with both hands and threw it into the air. His plan was to make the continent fly, and so he did by merging with it, thus giving birth to the floating continent called "Kastigo."

After that, the world entered another era of peace. The goddess of light had spent much of her power during the war, and her last action had cost her dearly. So, to recover, she entered a deep sleep, being protected by her children.

Gion and Nemo were terribly debilitated after dealing with Ytria, but there was still work to be done. After resting for a few days, Gion covered Ura'an with a strong protective magic because he knew she couldn't protect herself.

After taking care of his goddess's protection, Gion gathered what remained of the demons and high humans and helped them travel to the frozen continent ruled by Lucifer and his rebel army. He had to ensure that the two races would be safe because if Ura'an was never freed, there was still hope in her son with Gehenna, Baal.

Nemo, in turn, gathered what was left of the elves and hid while the halflings, draconians, and humans and half-giants started new settlements, villages, cities... A new life. Meanwhile, even sealed, Ytria remained awake and, after clearing her mind, understood what had happened and what she had become. She knew that if she continued in this world, in Vermilion, she would become an existence that would try to consume the world. She couldn't allow that to happen.

To prevent her fear from becoming reality, Ytria enveloped her own soul with the divine power inherited from Gehenna and, while leaving her living body, transferred her soul to a world that would have little or no magical power. Obviously, she wasn't sure what she was doing or if it would work, but she had to try. This would be her only chance to absorb and merge the three fragments of Gehenna's divine spark.

Much later, in a world with advanced technology and no trace of magical power, Monica was born, grew up, and, knowing that she had another world that needed her, she learned. Over the years, she discovered that this world was not devoid of magical power. In the history of this world, there were many powerful wizards and even gods, but that was a story of millennia and none of it existed anymore.

However, she did not lose faith. She continued studying until she discovered that mathematics and science worked the same way as magic, but could only be put into practice with technology; it was different but the same, and realizing this, she had the idea that she could change the course of the war in Vermilion.

Over the years, Monica studied using the education system of this world to gain the resources necessary to implement her plan, and along the way, she encountered two obstacles. During her time in college, she realized that her plan to transfer "soldiers" to Vermilion was actually a plan for genocide, and because she had been in this world for so long, she had absorbed the ethics of the society around her. This made her recoil for a few years until she made the decision that Vermilion was more important than her guilt.

Months after resuming her research, she encountered her second obstacle, love. She never thought that love for someone would make her deviate from her path, but it happened. She continued studying, but with less zeal. Years later, she graduated, married, had children, and loved that world even more. Her plans became increasingly blurred in her mind, but over the years, her focus returned, and finally, her plan was put into practice with the launch of Kastigo Online, which would become the greatest game in human history, and once again her plans were delayed by love.

Her sons, Rodrigo and Arthur, at fifteen, started playing the game that had been programmed with the goal of being a large magical transfer circle that would use the souls of billions as fuel. She couldn't do this knowing that her beloved sons were at risk of disappearing from existence.

So, hoping that one day they would tire of the game, she waited, and eight more years passed. She thought they would tire of the game, but they made careers out of it and only stopped playing when their lives ended prematurely.

With the deaths of her children, she had no more reason to stay in this world. She loved her husband, but not enough to give up her world. So, on September 18, 2075, during an event in one of the game's starter cities that brought together more than thirty million players, she set her plan in motion.

On that day, the world stopped with the death of thirty-four million, six hundred and twenty-five thousand and forty-two people killed while playing a game that was supposed to be harmless.