1 The letter and the ring

On a mountain stood a lone temple. It was quite big and ancient looking, but it could be seen that it was taken care of.

Behind the temple a young man could be seen kneeling in front of a grave, silently mourning for his relative.

"Grandpa, I won't pray for you because of our family's belief, but I still hope you can find peace in your afterlife. Thank you for raising me all those years, you taught me everything I know and are the only relative I ever had.

I promise you I will follow your teachings when I go leave in the city, I hope you will be watching me. I love you, see you never."

The young man got up and revealed himself to be a young adult about 23. He had a tall and lean body, muscles that weren't big but concealing hidden power. But the most impressive feature of his would be his hair.

Although his high cheekbones, sharp chin and small eyes made him look like a handsome but refined scholar, his hair took all the light.

They were of a very deep blue that would almost look black at first glance, but once you begin looking you would be unable to look away as the hair would give the illusion they change color, getting a lighter blue.

They were attached in a bun, enhancing his scholar look.

Once he got up, the young man entered the temple and moved to the shrine. It wasn't dedicated to any God but to his ancestors as his family always believed Gods doesn't exists.

The young man reached his hand behind the shrine and took out a small sized box. He put it on the ground but did not open it, as he knew the moment he did, then it would mean his only relative truly died.

He eventually resigned himself and opened it, not knowing what to be faced with. He was surprised to find a ring, but the letter beside it was expected.

The young man first took the ring and inspected it. It was really ancient looking and was very well made, a real work of art. He was impressed by it because it obviously was more than a few decades old and yet the craftsmanship to create it is just… amazing.

Despite the lack of space for the ring, many carvings were on it representing a man facing off a dragon.

The young man tried to put it on his finger and was pleased to see that it was a perfect fit. Next he looked at the sealed letter and opened it, revealing it's contents:

"Mark, if you read this then it means I am dead. I don't know how old you are now but if everything went fine then you should be in your twenties. Right, I knew I was dying, as well as the approximate date.

If you wonder how, then brace yourself as you will get your mind blown. I think you owe to know our family's history, after all you probably are our last member.

Our family is very old, probably one of the oldest still existing, very few remains. We were a clan at first, a clan that started even before the known human era. That's right, our clan is older than humans. Well to be honest our ancestors weren't exactly humans, but I don't don't much about this.

But back to our origins, we lived along with other clans in the Jurassic. Right, the dinosaurs. Pretty old, aren't we? But the thing modern people don't know about that era is that the dinosaurs weren't the dominant race. They were only cattle for the true rulers, the Mythical Beasts.

Back when our ancestors and the other first 'humans' arrived on Earth, the planet was populated by legendary monsters such as dragons or phoenixes to name a few…

Back then all of humanity gathered in 8 clans, our clan being one of them. The 8 Heavenly clans fought against the Mythical Beasts for ages before finally eradicating most of them or enslaving them.

How, would you ask? How can humans fight against those without technology? Good question. Before civilization the world was filled with something called Chi, a mystical energy that flows in every living being and that can be used to get stronger.

Before humans were able to cultivate their Chi and become stronger while creating artifacts defying laws of physics. Actually, latter in the future in school you will probably learn that dinosaurs were eradicated by either a meteor or a giant volcano. That's wrong, that was the last stand from the Phoenix clan who gathered and burned the world in revenge.

To be honest, many more things happened since then, but I don't really have the space to write them here. If you are really curious then you should be able to discover our history by yourself.

But that is not the purpose of this letter. I wrote this letter not to talk about your past, but about your future. Back then a certain Patriarch(leader of the family) who was proficient in fate reading gave us a precious information about the future. According to him, you, Mark, is destined to big things, to become the True Demon.

As scary as it sounds, I can't help you except by training you as best as I can. As for the True Demon, according to our legends, it is the ultimate warrior of our clan. I found it hard to believe because of the lack of Chi in recent days, but I couldn't take any chance and thus trained you in our sword techniques.

I know it's a lot, and you must have a lot of question, but I can't help you anymore. Follow my teachings, never hesitate, and you should be fine. Finally, beware of the 7 capital cities of heaven and of the False Gods."

"PS, put a drop of your blood on the ring."

Mark finished reading the letter, and read it a second time. And a third time. Then Mark sat on a nearby chair and put his two hands on his face.

Mark stayed like that for a bit before dropping his hands and looking at his ring. Mark had a blind trust toward his grandpa so he wouldn't doubt him, but this was too overwhelming.

Mark got up and went to find a needle. He cleaned it slowly and then pierced his index. Blood slowly got out and Mark pushed his finger on the ring.

Like magic the blood got absorbed by the ring and Mark could swear he saw one of the carvings move. But he didn't have the time to dwell on that because he felt something new.

A new connection, with the ring. He could feel that it had a space in it, a big space, and it wasn't empty.

It was very strange, Mark could clearly see his surroundings, but it was like he now had another eye in a new space, and he could see two different scenes at the same time.

Inside the ring was a credit card, two short swords, what seemed to be a light armor and a piece of paper. Mark tried to interact with the paper, and it magically appeared in his hand.

Awestruck by what happened Mark stopped focusing on the ring and his vision of it was cut, but the connection was still there. Additionally, the paper didn't disappear and stayed in his hand.

On it there was a phone number, and on the other side Mark could recognize his grandfather's handwriting "Call this number to live in the city. I taught you how to use the credit card."

Mark did not waste time and went to the only phone of the house, an old fashioned one, although Mark didn't know that…

Mark called the number and the call was immediately received.

"So the old man died?" Mark was surprised but still answered "He died during the night. Who are you?"

The voice on the phone said "I'm a friend of the family. You don't need to know my name, we won't talk to each other normally. Just know that I have gotten you a house, an ID and made you enter Empire State University. Everything has already been taken care off, a car will come to pick you up in ten minutes."