Fateful Encounter

Two thousand years ago a war broke out between the human world and the terrifying demons of hell. The demons descended like a hoard of butchers thirsty for human blood, killing and gutting humans like cattle.

Darkness descended on to the world like an unending cascade of murky blackness and all the light hid away from the gloomy bleakness of the ash grey land. The sun was eclipsed by the ever present blood colored moon that portrayed the unending bloodshed caused by the war.

Only the smell of blood and fear could be felt in the air. The woeful cries and shrill screams of the victims resounded across the land followed by the somewhat less frequent but more hysterical laughter of the demons who lived their lives for such ghastly moments.

Demons ravaged the land and only brought endless destruction and pain for the humans who were destined to be their victims. Some humans who feared death alleged themselves to the dark side in order to survive instead of uniting with the rest of the humankind.

This weakened the human forces further and strengthened the demonic side even more bringing the gap between the two races further and further apart; not to even mention the psychological pressure, the fear, the resentment and the hopelessness that continued to chip away the will to fight among the surviving humans.

Only someone who could stand on the side of justice and could fight for the weak in such desperate times could be regarded as a hero regardless of his previous actions, affiliations or loyalties.

Just when everything seemed lost and humanity was at the precipice of destruction, a hero was born from the most unlikely group of them all; the demons...the enemies of humanity.

The most powerful general of the demonic army turned his back to his home and his people and sided with the humans after he saw their potential and their penchant for goodness unlike the perpetual evil that flowed through the veins of the demons.

With his powerful sword "The Force Edge" in tow, he laid waste to countless demons who had invaded into the human world. He forcefully stopped the invasion through a merciless massacre of the demons and succeeded in stopping the Demon King Mundus from opening a portal to human world.

The Demon King Mundus was furious that his own trusted general had betrayed him to help humans who were no better than ants in their eyes. Before Mundus could retaliate and send additional forces to the human world, the dark knight who was the savior of humanity struck preemptively.

He used his sword and "The Perfect Amulet" to seal all the passageways to the underworld including the Temen-ni-gru, the tower of the unholy. He used his own blood and the blood of a brave human priestess to consecrate the name of the angels known as the seven sins. Being a demon himself, his connection with his own power was cut-off and he was forced to seal away the rest of his prowess in the underworld.

He sacrificed his own power to save humanity and in order to stop the evil from ever invading again, sealed the gateway between the two worlds for all eternity.

Humans are forgetful creatures. No matter how much good you do for them, they will eventually move forward while you will either be turned into meaningless history or a myth that is so far from reality that no one will ever care to take you seriously.

The same happened to the dark knight who fought against the king of the underworld and his legions alone for the peace of the human world.

He was soon forgotten, doomed to be a wanderer stranded in a strange world for eternity while fighting for the ungrateful who didn't even remember his kindness and his sacrifice.

The name of that dark knight was Sparda, the same person that our Order of the Sword worships as our faith and our master. We will remember, even if the whole world pretends to forget. No one can make us forget the benevolence of the heavenly demon Sparda.

"This is it; now go to sleep and don't you dare say 'once more'," said Beatrice with feigned anger and a slightly higher tone to frighten the children into going to sleep. She had now become an expert in lulling them to sleep after having done so for more than 2 years.

She knew if she gave in even a little then she would have to repeat the same story all over again. Although she did not mind doing so, she was afraid the children might not be able to get enough sleep if it was too late into the night.

Beatrice despite having been born a noble in the famed Fortuna city had been living as a caretaker of children all because of her own ambition.

Due to her firm belief in Sparda that bordered on the verge of obsession, after countless struggles and numerous near-death experiences she succeeded in joining the Order of the Sword as a faithful believer.

She was only given odd jobs at the start but she was content in having reached closer to her goal of finding the traces of Sparda.

Telling the story of Sparda over and over to these children was also a kind of reminder to herself. She never wanted to forget her reason for coming to the Order.

Although she looked like any other believer in the order, her eyes gave away the bone-chilling iciness and the tyrannical arrogance hidden deep in her bones.

She had an almost fanatical wish to see the power of Sparda with her own eyes. This fantasy of hers had led her to the Order and she was just playing her part until she found a way to realize her delusions.

After an unending wait of 3 years, the opportunity drifted past her. A certain hooded figure hugging his chest walked past her on the crosswalk. It was unknown whether he was just feeling cold or apprehensive towards the world since he was trying so hard to hide his identity.

Seeing the weak outlook and the simmering determination in the eyes of the hooded youth, countless gears clicked into place in her mind. Without wasting a single second more to think, Beatrice turned around and madly ran towards the youth to intercept his path.