Prelude

Marmora Hills

9th silent full moon night

NRE 1066 (New Revival Era)

The air of obscurity was flowing through the abandoned area of eastern Marmora Hills. The night was neither chilly nor stuffy. Just right for a stroll. Moon goddess was showering the divine light on this forsaken midnight in attempt to aliven these rigid rocks.

As if to fulfill the blessing, a group of people entered the vicinity of this uneven rocky plain. Three people holding excavation tools were following the group of armed strangers. That group looked like mercenaries. Wearing dark overcoats and concealing their faces with thier large stature added to the intimidation for those three labourers.

"Which place did you say again, Narfi?" The man leading the group asked.

"It's an ancient holy place. An altar or shrine or something." The man walking beside him answered.

"Have you passed by these hills before?" The man inquired again.

"No. But Bob has scouted the area in the morning. So, there should not be the problem of losing the way. And the height of rocks is also not an issue." Narfi was annoyed by his inquiries, but considering his high price in association still answered calmly.

The man nodded understanding.

"Have you ever wandered to this area, Mirage?" Bob asked from behind, hearing his name being mentioned.

"Nope. But I sure have visited rainforests of Fabula and grassy plains of Candentia." Mirage sighed, remembering the journey.

"Wow. That's awesome. I have heard so many stories about rainforests of Fabula. Some say that elves resided there before the beginning of revival era." Archie rebuked inbetween.

"Hmph. Those are mythical creatures. Do they even exist? They are myth. So, let's let them stay myth and speed up the work." Narfi was at edge after hearing the gossips by his teammates. This expedition was important and could earn him the world. And that is why he accepted working with that loner Mirage. Otherwise, doesn't he have his own team? Why would he accept some outsider to share his pie? His employer clearly stated that the wages would be divided between the ones coming out alive.

After scouting in the morning, Bob hired some labourers from the nearby town. Hearing that they were going to visit rock hills, some labourers refused right away. Well, they were not that lacking in money. The three present were sweet talked by Narfi with extra dividend.

The group reached to the edge of the rocks. There was a deep valley ahead. The rocks here were slightly slippery. Bob turned on the flashlight to catch the depth. But what they found was total darkness.

Tirrr.

The noise came from behind him. Bob was startled. Thanks to the years of bizarre experiences he settled down quickly and turned around away from the edge of the cliff.

It was a compass held in Narfi's hands. It looked antique at a glance. Bob and Archie remembered that their employer handed this to Narfi. They identified this as a piece of trash. And that piece of trash was now glowing in the darkness of the night and twittering like crazy.

"What's this. This looks like a magic compass." Mirage spoke.

"Uh. I don't know. Client gave this when he hired us. We thought that this was some garbage. It came alive when we reached here." Narfi hurried to explain. Fearing that others would figure out his plan of earning the whole pie for himself.

Mirage took a deep look at this mouse faced man. He actually did not want to come with these people. But the order from the higher ups stranded his freedom in this mission. Fallen Regiment had started acting up again after laying down for a year. He remembers the attack last time. Thanks to a doctor passing by that night he could keep his precious life.

According to the calculations of the council, there is a Cosmic Disk buried in the rock plains. This Cosmic Disk is a celestial artifact. just like Serpent star of Naga species. The celestial energy of Serpent star is almost exhausted and can grant a last wish before perishing. But Cosmic Disk is not a blessing unlike Serpent star. It is pure artifact smelted by remnant of the dark energy of the dark lord Balaam after the Great War. The slain dark lord left the chaos energy which wrecked havoc. So the great witch Arcadia pulled out the ancient altar of the heavenly being and smelted the precious marble with chaos energy and sealed it with an entrapment array.

Now, the council of superlatives is worried that the followers of Balaam have gathered under Fallen Regiment and are desperate to release the remnants of their lord. Mirage is an assassin grade warrior entrusted by the council to follow the actions of Fallen Regiment in real time. Right now, because of the direct order he had to join the mercenary team, which the Regiment had hired to find the Cosmic Disk. He was surprised that Regiment provided Narfi a magic weapon, a very valuable one at that.

The group looked at the now silent, lifeless compass.

"It seems here. In the canyon." Narfi mumbled, seeing the compass pointing the edge of the cliff.

"But how will we go in there? We can't even see the depth from up here. It looks bottomless." Archie said while asking Bob to flash the light there.

The labourers were to stupified to say anything after spectating the marvel of compass.

"How about you fiddle with that compass some more? It may have something." Mirage reminded. Narfi narrowed his eyes at this loner. But looking at his genuine curiosity he let go of his doubt. Well, as far as he knew, Mirage was never interested in anything other than his mission points. How could he know about magic weapons?

"Let me check." Narfi fiddles here and there. Rubbed the edges of the rough scrap. But nothing happened.

"This fu*king piece of trash..." He was annoyed at the piece of scrap which his employer gave. Couldn't they give something more useful? He was afraid of dying, you know? Money can't buy the life.

"Losers. Can't they give something else? Even after paying astronomical price, they give a scrap of metal for help without any guidance..." He slapped the compass a few times, but the damn thing did not even budge. In annoyance he threw the thing with all his might.

"Boss..." Bob and Archie shouted.

Boom.

"Aahh..."

In a blink of an eye they were sucked into the abyss by a huge force.