Prologue

"My name is Maita Shadowcraft!" shouted by a young girl lying on the ground of some unknown dark labyrinth. Her only source of light was from the pages of a pitch-black book that was hovering in front of her vision.

"I'm a man! And I won't be taken over by this damned female alter!" she shouted again followed by continuous cough as bloods spilled from her mouth with every cough she made.

Maita remained lying on the ground while still coughing blood as she tried to raise her hand and reach for the book in front of her.

"Just a little bit mor-..." were her last words before she finally lost all her grit and finally pass-out.

[Ding!: All requirements fulfilled... Hidden second phase of awakening will now commence...]

...

A thousand years ago, this world underwent drastic changes... It all started from a single spatial rift that appeared in the middle of the largest city in the world.

On the first day of its appearance, the world made an uproar and many theories and speculations were made, but not a single soul could confirm the true reason for its mysterious sudden appearance. It was because, the mysterious spatial rift seems like it doesn't belong to the material, world and as for what reason did they said that? It was because no man or even special tools could touch or even make the slightest reaction out of the mysterious rift.

Days passed and other rifts like the first one appeared randomly all over the world; people were curious and scared at the same time, but they couldn't do a single thing, and the majority of those living near the rifts just chose to move away from it for safety precautions in case something unexpected happened.

Military forces were also dispatched near the rifts to observe and survey the rifts and report if any changes occurred.

The sun set, forty (40) days later after the first rift made its appearance...

The sun was extremely red in colour that day and the clouds suddenly turned dark, followed by the shadow of the moon suddenly covering the sun that resulted in an eclipse. And in the next moments, only screams of horror and the sound of non-stop firearms could be heard as an overwhelming number of monsters came swarming out of the rifts that were still dormant a few seconds ago.

The Human civilization resisted, but the military forces of each country didn't last long and collapsed after just a week of non-stop defense.

The government couldn't do anything. Even the alliances they established were easily demolished by the overwhelming strength of monsters that came flowing like tidal waves, trampling everything in their way.

The human population continued to decline, and eventually only 20% remained after just forty (40) days...

But then...when the remaining of humanity were ready to accept their deaths and in the brink of extinction, a glimmer of hope appeared...

At exactly 9pm, 80th day after the appearance of the first rift to ever manifest in the world, all people above 14 years old heard a monotonic voice in their minds...

<[Commencing... binding of 'Grimoire']>

[Ding! all grimoire were now bounded to their respective chosen hosts, raise your right hand in order to summon your 'Grimoires']

After the message was delivered, some tried what the voice in their minds said, and after doing so, a floating book suddenly appeared in their visions and most were startled, but soon after, the pages of grimoires glowed and information about how to utilize it surged inside people's minds.

Each of the grimoires have a contracted otherworldly beings bound in it and it would follow the commands of its owner with absolute loyalty and obedience.

The owner of the grimoire would also receive some buffs and will be able to utilize some of their contracted beings abilities and prowess to some extent.

The contracted beings could also evolve to a much higher tier after meeting the requirements, mostly in a form of quest and the most common requirement were slaying monsters.

Humanity, with their newly found prowess, fought and resisted the monster invasions and started to rebuild civilization from the ruins.

Till this day and age the threats from the monsters still exists but we now have the upper hand thanks to our brave ancestors who fought the monsters in the early invasions even though against the odds they still managed to avoid extinction...

(RING!...)* (RING!...)*

"That concludes today's introductory lectures, don't forget to do your homeworks you will pass it to me tomorrow morning at 7am... That's all for today, class dismissed." said the man dressed in long grey coat with monocle; he has dark grey hair and Ice grey eyes that was rarely seen because of his fox-like facial expression that he always wear, he was at least 5'9 in height and his muscles seems lean but not bulky, and his age was around 22-25 years old. He was about to leave to classroom after the students exited, but then he noticed something, and stopped in his tracks.

"A Shadowcraft..."

He mumbled in a low voice that only him could hear while looking towards an empty seat on the higher columns of chairs at the back of the classroom.

He was about to take a step forward towards where his gaze fixated, but organising his thoughts he withdraw his right foot that was half-step on the ground and said, "forget it" after saying those words he quickly turned around toward the door's location and finally exited the classroom.

(Yawn!...)*

"Oh, is it time already?"

A voice could be heard inside the classroom, but no soul could be seen there, before shadows formed a humanoid-shaped entity sitting in the chair where the man in the grey coat gazed upon earlier.

The shadows slowly disappeared, revealing a pale-skinned boy with black hair and glowing crimson red eyes before they turned pale-yellow, and then black. The colour changing of his eyes stopped, and it was as black as the void that made him look emotionless.

"Oh right! Today is Luna's coming of age ceremony! I need to buy her a gift before I head home or else..."

The boy didn't finish his sentence, and speedily dashed out of the empty classroom.