Chapter 1: History of humanity

"Did you hear what happened near the Mendeley river coast last night?"

"About the Fire demon causing so much trouble for the past months that was exterminated by a Magus... This type of news doesn't really surprise me these days, demons are showing their heads more and more as the years go by"

"This time it's different, the Magus that killed him defeated him with one blow!"

"Woah, that's impressive indeed... but who was the magus?"

"We don't know, the Magus vanished as soon as he killed the demon, so the media didn't have time to get a picture of his face,"

Two middle-aged colleagues were having their morning breakfast in a cafe before going to work. They were discussing the freshest news which was the death of the fire demon.

In Raven city, the capital of Ethris, the morning news was only focused on that, a mysterious Magus that killed a fire demon in one blow. People wouldn't normally be impressed by this type of news because demons are killed every day, however, a demon getting killed in one blow? That was some news that didn't pop up every day, especially in a capital populated with powerful demons.

Demons are the main threat to the human race since their emergence more than 3 centuries ago. During the time of the appearance of the first demon, humans were generally weak and were still discovering the world and its countless materials.

Demons' strengths were greatly superior, and the demon monarch, who is said to be the first-ever demon to emerge was considered the strongest of them all. His destructive power was unrivalled, compared to the human race whose strongest men could barely reach 1% of the weakest demon's power.

The demon race made considerable progress in wiping the human civilizations until only two were left, Ethris, and Song kingdoms.

It seemed like everything was over, and the human race was on the brink of destruction until a glimmer of light, a key in the thick darkness surrounding humanity emerged at the most desperate time. The key to saving the human race from their demise was Ether.

Ether unlocked a new possibility for a few humans to reach the same power level as demons. With this power, the humans created a group of individuals called the magi.

Everyone has Ether inside of them, and it is the force that a magus uses to cast his powerful spells. The part which makes magi different from normal people is the fact they can take full advantage of all the assets the brain gives them. If ones unlock that part of the brain, then they surely have that ability to control Ether.

For people to know whether they control Ether or not, they simply use a green shiny magnetic crystal called Etherium. Etherium is only a physical state in which Ether is. If one stays near the Crystal, it will move slowly in his direction, for it has felt a magnetic field in him, which is Ether.

However, the amount of Ether someone can use in a battle is limited, and one cannot deplete all his Ether at the risk of damaging oneself or even worse dying. This is why, someone can be naturally born with a limitless amount of Ether, or one can be born with a small quantity.

Despite being talented with a large amount of Ether, if you cannot control, it, all this power is given for nothing. Even the one with the weakest amount of Ether can beat someone if he controls Ether better.

With their newly discovered power, the humans avoided destruction, sealed away the most powerful demons in artefacts and hid the artefacts in places out of reach of anyone naive enough to try and awaken the demons, until today...

As of the year 2095, human civilisation has greatly advanced in technology and in understanding the demons and the power they have.

In the advanced capital, Raven city, the streets were filled with cars forming a large snake along the road, and large buildings surrounded the streets including restaurants, and cafes while pedestrians were minding their own business and heading to wherever they had to be. This was the business district, and one of the safest places, because most of the Magus guilds are situated there.

Raven city's reputation is mainly based on the advanced business district they possess, however, the Ether was discovered in the small city of Tyggstral.

Tyggstral is the most historic city in human society and the place where Ether was first discovered. The city was named after the battle of Tyggstral, the one which opposed the Magi to the Demon lord and his army.

This small city is not as developed as Raven city, however, the Great museum marks the symbol of the city, and possibly the whole nation.

The museum is in the heart of the city and is an old building mostly resembling a castle. That is because the building before becoming a museum was the royal castle of the Stuart royal family. However, after the complete annihilation of the royal family, the people decided to turn the Stuart castle into a national museum as a way to commemorate the royal family.

In this museum are stored the most precious items, such as various kings' swords, different historical artefacts, and scrolls.

Thousands of people visit this place daily, and many schools organise school trips to the museum mainly to teach them about the history of humanity.

"Could someone remind me what this artefact represents?"

A group of young people, all between the ages of 17 and 18, were gathered around a display case made of thick glass within the museum.

To prohibit the public from accessing the display case, a stanchion was built around it.

As for the content inside the display case, it was only a floating small black marble that was rotating around itself.

One woman with brown hair who was slightly older than the others was present. She sported a well-ironed black suit, crimson lipstick, a ponytail, and black square-framed eyeglasses. She was the one who asked the question concerning the marble.

Amongst the Youngers, no one lifted their hand for the seconds that passed after the question was asked.

"If no one is going to volunteer, I'm going to start picking names!" the ponytailed woman exclaimed.

Right after, in the crowd, a small groan of pain was heard before one of them decided to raise his hand.

"Yes, Caleb go on,"

The one who raised his hand was a medium long straight silver-haired boy with a necklace that had two silver rings on it and round thin glasses. He was a skinny boy, however, wore a white shirt that was clearly too big for him, and grey jogging.

Just by the looks of it, it was clear that he was the loser of the class and had few friends.

"It is the most recent item discovered in the 1960s, in Tyggstral," the boy said in a frail voice, "It was found near the location where the battle of Tyggstral had supposedly taken place, and the marble was shining light blue when it was discovered, however, throughout the years, the marble lost colour and glow to a point it has turned peach black,"

"Thank you, Caleb," The woman smiled at the boy before turning back to the artefact,

"Just as Caleb said, this is the most recent discovery and had lost its colour throughout the years, however, one thing it hasn't lost is its energy (Ether), which is why it is rotating around itself. You will learn this in further depth once you go to university, or decide to pursue your career as a sorcerer."

There was a few seconds of silence before the woman restarted speaking,

"Well then, shall we keep on?"

The group followed the woman who appeared to be their professor. They were moving to another room in the museum, but a student decided to skip the store and explore the museum on their own, that student being Caleb.

Caleb was an 18-year-old orphan that was adopted by a couple at the age of 4 years old. He was too young to remember anything about his parents thus he doesn't feel any sadness or need to discover what happened to them, however, it is said that the only thing his parents left him were the two silver rings attached to the necklace.

"Let's see... where is that relic?" Caleb whispered.

His voice was frail, and he was a clumsy person, and this fooled many into thinking he was potentially transgender, while in reality, he was just a weak and shy boy.

"Ah, there it is, the Nirvana relic!" He exclaimed walking toward a rectangular-shaped object.

It appeared that amongst all the other artefacts and relics in the room, this object was the one people were the least interested in.

Caleb's eyes were shining bright when he saw the relic and immediately after reached for his bag and took out a small diary and a pencil. He then started to draw the relic in his diary at every single angle drawing out even the smallest details.

The relic was apparently made of Etherium iron, a dark brown material, and there were weird gibberish inscriptions on the corners of the relic.

He was nearly done with his drawings, and he was writing the gibberish inscriptions until he realised something odd.

"Oh... wait a minute," He reached for the two rings on his necklace and looked at the side of each ring.

Just like on the relic, there were similar inscriptions on the side of his rings. They weren't the same, however, they had the same characters, which was really weird.

Suddenly, as he was staring at the inscriptions on the rings, the writings started to glow white, and the ring was getting hotter and hotter. As he looked up, he realised that the relic's inscriptions started to glow too.

He started to stare at the relic more intensely, and at a point, he could hear a voice whispering.

"Henumans, figreoe umss figroem tolhesoe cwhains, atnad yaioyu wrilol beoe rinewardead writph umnlimitead pooweer. Tolhoe rinineg ipss tolhoe kaey, tolhoe rinineg ipss tolhoe kaewy tolorn tolhoe doooer wrhicph wrilol lletat umss figreoe. Wroe noeead yaiou, atcceptat umss ipan yaiouer saouol atnad beody, atnad wroe wrilol gaivoe yaioyu llimitlesss pooweer,"

The whispering kept repeating the same phrase, and it was as if these phrases were attracting Caleb, as he was getting closer and closer to the relic.

The relic was only protected by a thin glass, meaning anyone could get as close as possible. Caleb's blue eyes were showing no sign of emotion or thought as he got close to the glass protecting the relic, and was now reaching for it.

Slowly, his hands were getting closer and closer to the relic until only a few 3 to 4 centimetres separated them.

"Bewy tolhoe atlmightwy doemoan llord, ei atsakk figoer yaiouer satrength, tolransfeer muwy saouol ipan tolhoe rining, atnad lletat tolhoe beowy beoe tolhoe kaewy tolorn tolhoe rinisoe otif tolhoe doemonss"

The whispers had enchanted something else for the first time after repeating the same thing nonstop.

Right after that, the whispers stopped, and the inscriptions on the relic stopped glowing and slowly faded away.

Caleb, who still had his hand a few meters away from the glass regained his senses and his eyes once again came back to their normal state.

"What was that?" Caleb whispered touching his forehead because he was starting to have a headache.

He looked at the relic once again and realised that the inscriptions on the relic were gone somehow.

Caleb frowned and looked closer at the relic confused as to how inscriptions that were clearly glowing a few seconds ago disappeared all of a sudden.

"Does that mean the inscriptions on my rings disappeared too?"

He reached for his rings and once again looked at the side of the rings, and surprisingly, the inscriptions were still there, but the pattern was completely different.

"How in the world..."

Before Caleb could even have time to think of why the inscriptions on the ring somehow changed he heard someone call his name from behind.

"Caleb!" It was his professor calling out for him, "You can't be going to god knows where every time you feel like it!"

"Please forgive me, Ms Mont," Caleb said lowering his head as a sign of respect, "I have been wanting to study this relic for a while and selfishly decided to separate myself from the group,"

Ms Lance took a good stare at Caleb and then sighed.

"Listen, Caleb, I know its hard for you to find friends, and I'm conscious that I, your sister being your professor too doesn't help in that, but I need you to stay strong, this is the last week before you graduate and pursue your life in a university. I just need you to be strong just like you have been since the beginning of the year,"

Lizz Mont was Caleb's step-sister and was 23 years old. Due to her great intellectual ability, she graduated earlier than the average and managed to get the highest degree at the age of 21. From that age, she pursued a career in teaching, thus the reason she is her little brother's history professor.

Caleb was staring at the ground and had a depressed expression on his face. He lifted his head and gave a frail smile at his sister to reassure her.

"Don't worry Lizz, I know that already!"

Liza smiled and hugged Caleb as strongly as she could, "C'mon, we're about to leave the museum... and is that my pencil you're using?"

Caleb attempted to move the pencil away from her sight, and gave a nervous smile as he looked away,

"Yeah, I found it on the table this morning..."

Lizz then showed an annoyed expression as she slapped the back of Caleb's head, and kicked him to move forward.

"Go join the group you fucking prick!" She exclaimed in an annoyed tone.

As they left the room, the museum announced its closure in a few minutes, and the visitors started to head out of the room.

Once the room was empty, a thick dark smoke appeared above the relic Caleb was studying, and in a matter of seconds, the dark smoke swirled around the relic and started to materialise.

It first took the shape of a full-grown male human, before, the smoke started to thicken even more until it turned into a completely different material.

The material was a gluey dark green paste, which was shaped into a human, and abruptly, the unknown thing opened red demonic eyes. It was now clear that the thing in front of the relic was a demon.

The demon that was at least 2.50 meters tall crouched to look closely at the relic. After a few seconds of contemplating it, a large and terrifying smile came up the demon's face showing all of his sharp razor teeth.

"The seal of the Dark Demon has been broken!"