1 The Beginning (1)

About 3,000 years ago, nine cosmic beings of the universe united to craft Endora, a world of untold magic and evolution. Within each of their essences of life, the beings provided the empty world all kinds of plants, animals, humanoid races, magical materials, and landforms.

The Nine each took a piece of their souls and merged them to grant the world of Endora new power; the ability to develop life and grow as they once did. Shortly after, the many living species began thriving all across the world of Endora. There were a variety of races; humans, dwarves, elves, giants, fairies, and many more to come.

In the beginning, everything grew peacefully on the surface of Endora. It wasn't until centuries later, that the Nine learned when crafting a coin of value; it always will have two sides.

The age of prosperity exponentially rose as the many races of the Nine grew together on the surface; but another type of life secretly grew beneath them with a growth rate that mirrored their own.

There was a form of species the cosmic beings did not know would also flourish from the underside of Endora's lands. A type of creature born out of their jealousy, their anger, hate, and many other negative flaws; they were called 'Demons.'

The Demons had stayed deep beneath the soil and plotted to devour the over world through destruction and death in the cover of night. After gathering for centuries, the many forms of beasts and monsters they took on were ready to eat. They discriminated against no one as they devoured all forms of man, woman, and child from wherever they could find them. By the time the sun rose, they'd be in the back in the darkness while the survivors on the surface awoke to the aftermath and only feel sorrow.

Though the demons were born of the corrupted pieces of cosmic power, they simply acted upon their innate desire to consume like it was their sacred duty. Nothing could stop them from achieving that goal, not even death. The many types of demon species would leave even more of their offspring underground to carry out their goal of devouring in the future. It was an endless cycle of killing, breeding, and dying on repeat.

The cosmic beings were at a loss on how to save Endora from destruction. Eradicating the ground beneath Endora would only destroy everything they worked so hard to create. Until one day, a group containing a few members of the races born from Nine had begun praying to the cosmos for help. They called themselves 'The Council.'

When the Council prayed, they did not ask for the power of revenge or death. Their requests did not plead for maleficent power to slaughter the opposition. They simply asked for the power to defend and save one another from the Demons.

The Nine came down to Endora as physical beings and introduced a resolution. Using the last of their divinity, they committed one final act of power and planted a tree.

That one tree that would one day grow alongside each and every living being on the surface. That one tree would produce seeds that allowed powers to continue rising inside each new generation of the Council's individual races.

After they planted the ever growing tree, the Nine vanished from Endora and could never returned to the grand statures they once held in the cosmos. Very few knew what happened that day, but the results drastically changed the world. The races of the Nine began channeling newfound powers and skills they never imagined possible to fight back against the Demons.

Eventually the tides turned and the monsters no longer pushed for the surface, instead they dove deeper into the ground to hide from the ones they once considered prey.

Nearly two thousand years past since then and the power of the Nine still kept the surface alive and well.

Until someone managed to take a piece of that power and fed it to the Demons.

*****

A dark and cloudy day fell upon the city of Teramore. The stone-brick buildings had all of their shutters closed and the orange lights peeking out was the only indication that they housed life.

Very few people would be seen walking in and out of the streets, the cold wind's bite made them think twice about remaining outside for too long.

It was that time of the year where the cold of winter slowly crept over the little city. In just a few weeks, the people of Teramore expected snow to fall just as it did every year. None of this was strange for the citizens, they always were ready for oddities of the seasons inside its region.

Yet the strangest thing was occurring just outside of the city limits. Out in the valleys that overlooked the entirety of the landscape and it's people, a single tree grew on the top of the hillside.

Beneath that tree laid a boy no older than nineteen. The relaxed expression he gave while dozing under the tree was out of place in terms of the weather. The cool air made it very frigid, but he appeared to be content in the conditions.

In fact, he laid there like he was sunbathing on a cool summer evening. He dreamt happily with a slight curl to his lip, giving a mischievous look that anyone could plainly see was practically his natural expression.

He would have kept on dreaming till the end of time, except a disturbance to his sleep was now imminently close.

"....Galahad…" Whispered a small and feminine voice.

Only the soft rhythmic breathing of sleep could be heard; the source of the voice grew closer to him.

"Galahad…" The voice grew less quiet and more firm.

No change. The little voice then cleared her throat.

"Galahad!!! WAKE THE HELL UP!" She screamed with no more patience in her tone.

The boy shot upright into a sitting position with one hand up and the other instinctively grabbing at the short sword sheathed at his hip. His green eyes darted around trying to assess the evil threat that dare comes to interrupt his afternoon nap.

He spotted to his right side a petite girl encased in dark leather armor and boots with a white, heavy jacket over top, she was staring daggers at him. They were almost as menacing as the actual daggers she had strapped to the back of her belt.

The two long daggers were sheathed, but the black grip handles sticking out of the sides seemed ready to make a move at him.

'It would appear I am in the most extreme of danger, I must tread lightly.' Thought Galahad.

Some may find it funny that a 1.6m (5'5") tall girl would intimidate a boy who was nearly 1.8m (6'0"), but if they met her, they'd soon understand his reasoning.

He quickly ran his hands through his black hair to toss out twigs and leaves that had roosted there. Galahad stood up and immediately looked down at the terrifying girl who was a head shorter than him.

Galahad smiled brightly at her and spoke, "Well good morning Trista, as you can see I was busy practicing manipulation of internal mana.

She squinted her big blue eyes at him with an obvious look of no belief. She knew him all too well and his tendency to doze off in various places.

"It's already long past midday," Trista corrected, "Everyone else is already at the gate waiting for you."

Trista crossed her arms waiting to see how he would react to her statement.

Galahad seemed unfazed, he kept on smiling and said, "In that case, it's best we get a move on." He grabbed his bag off a tree branch and started walking past Trista.

She furrowed her eyebrows at his nonchalant response. She wanted to see him squirm at the pressure, but the response was clearly not what she was hoping for.

Trista thought to herself. 'Could it be he isn't scared of me? No, impossible, clearly he is just delusional and too empty-headed to notice my anger.'

After a few steps, a blue hue started to grow around Galahad.

Trista quickly noticed and asked, "What are you doing?"

He turned his head towards her to reveal a mischievous smile spreading across his face.

"Just testing a new party-buff skill I've been reforming."

She stopped and pleaded, "Oh gods no, please don't, not again."

The fear in her voice was much different to the menacing act she put on a second ago. Sadly her honest pleading fell upon deaf ears.

The blue hue shot a thin cable of mana out towards Trista and connected to something residing within her chest.

She tried blocking with both hands in front of her, but mana tethers were impossible to avoid at such a close range. The magical energy of Endora was easily capable of passing through any solid objects to manipulate the surroundings.

Trista looked down at the buff spell he just used and then raised an angry face up at him.

"What would you have done if the spell failed?" She shouted. "Don't go wrapping me to your insane tests, one of these days, you'll get us killed."

Galahad put his hands up in defense and explained, "Hold on, I would never do such a reckless thing. Mr. Thorne and I tested this thoroughly the other day." He smiled and leaned his head to the side, "It's a perfectly safe spell that will help us in many future situations."

The glint in his eyes showed Trista that he wanted to put in a bit of showmanship. She rolled her eyes and gave in.

"Fine I'll bite, what's the buff do? Attack? More defense?"

His mischievous grin grew slightly wider with each wrong answer. After a few more guesses, he came clean.

"Ha ha, I would like to bear witness to my newest skill of the Support Mage class; it's called 'Hastening Step,' now observe."

Galahad proceeded to book it full speed in the direction Trista had just came from.

"What the…" she stood there stupefied for a moment, then ran after him. "That jackass is gonna leave me behind."

Trista was somewhat irritated with Galahad's early behavior, now she was getting truly annoyed. The feeling of annoyance began to fade however, as soon as she caught up to him.

When they ran across the grass fields of the valley; she didn't realize how fast they were actually going. It was not until the blurs of the city streets began passing that her mood started to change.

Moving at top her speed, Trista's Assassin class agility would never get to be this fast. Yet somehow she was still increasing speed with every step while chasing after Galahad.

They dashed through the city at double their original speeds. Their movements were only a blurry streak skimming through the maze of street corners and buildings.

Galahad's mischievous smile began to unconsciously grow across Trista's lips. She started to enjoy the high velocity winds that were whipping her dark, brown hair all about.

The game of catch up died and became more of friendly dash between the buildings while simply enjoying themselves.

'This is fantastic, although I'll never admit that to him, he's got a big enough head as it is.' Trista thought to herself.

Within a few minutes, Galahad and Trista made through the city and to the front entrance of the Gate. The tall stone spire on top of the gate could be seen from blocks away, its placement was dead center of the city. Once it was in sight; the sprint started to change into a run, then a jog, then just a brisk walk.

Trista followed up from behind Galahad and punched him in the shoulder.

"How long have you been keeping that speed boosting spell from the team?" Asked Trista. Her voice did not contain the anger of just a few minutes ago. She was excited to see everyone else's reactions to a buff that doubles there speed in combat.

"Not long." He said, "I've just been talking theories about spells with some of the other Magicians and Mr. Thorne to get a good grasp on it beforehand."

"Well you still could have told us too." Pouted Trista.

"And ruin the surprise? Nah, this is much more entertaining." Galahad smirked. "Come on, let's show everyone before we start the dungeon crawling."

He motioned Trista over and they walked up to the Gate of Teramore's dungeon to meet up with the rest of their friends.