Prologue

Eons ago, this world was created by the gods. They made a continent and surrounded it with a great ocean. They made life; animals, plants, humans, every living thing was created by them. However, even gods are bound by universal laws. Laws they ignored in creating the world. For whenever something good is created, something evil must also be made. The gods wanted a pure world, free of all evil things, so they purposely neglected to create evil.

But the laws of the universe could not be denied. Because the gods didn’t shape the evil energy they unknowingly created, it chose a form for itself. It manifested itself as a bloodthirsty but intelligent species, a multitude of species actually, which were called demons. The demons had either a better physique, or stronger mind than humans, which allowed them to use powerful magic or brute strength to fight.

One kind in particular dominated the demons. The Crimson Demons were the strongest, fastest, and most wicked demons alive. They fought everything and everyone, but they were intelligent. They quickly claimed leadership of the demon hordes, slaughtering those who opposed them. Then they turned against humanity, and enslaved it. Of course the gods did not allow this and fought back, using their divine powers to battle the demons. But the demons were too great in number and managed to steal the two most powerful weapons the gods had: The Light Blade and the Sword of Darkness. These two swords were the key to all creation, governing light and darkness, the two elements that form all existence. With the swords, the demons destroyed the gods.

The demons could not live in peace, however, and started a war amongst themselves, led by the wielders of the legendary swords. Over the years, they clashed many times, each time scarring the landscape. Eventually, the demons fought a final battle in center of the continent, using all their power. The enormous aura of energy drew the Crimson Demons to the battle, so that eventually, near the end of the battle, most of the demons were gathered at one point, in a huge war where everyone fought for themselves. The demons who wielded the legendary blades gathered all their strength for a final assault and struck out, clashing directly against each other.

The explosion was strong enough to shatter the continent into four large landmasses, with a multitude of smaller islands at the center. It raised mountains on the outer edges of the four continents. The two swords were blown to the west and east continents, and disappeared in the shifting landmasses.

Most of the demons were wiped out in the explosion, since they had gathered at the battle. Those that remained gathered on the west continent, and used powerful magic to seal their demon shapes and powers save some basic fighting spells into a sword. The reason for this was that now that the demons were mostly dead, humans started hunting them down to reclaim control of the planet. The Crimsons in particular were hated deeply. Becoming human was their only choice. They became known as the Demon Hunters, seeking out other demons and offering them life as a human without real powers, or to be vanquished and completely absorbed in the Demon Blade. In time of great need, the leader of the Hunters would use the power of the blade to become a demon once more, with the power of all demons that the sword held. However, over the years the clan lost the ability to actually turn into a demon, and used the sword just to gain extra strength.

This sword, with the Light Blade and Sword of Darkness, became known as the Ancients. Eventually, most demons either died or decided to seal themselves in swords for humans to use, following the example of the Crimson Demons but not necessarily giving their strength to the Crimson Demon blade. Instead, they used other swords, sealing in only themselves, and becoming unable to absorb others. The humans wielding demon blades became known as Gladiators, and they fought each other in spectacular duels to make sure no one would forget the demon wars.

Of course, humans fought wars amongst each other as well, and many Gladiators became mercenaries. Now, there is mostly peace in the world. The continent of West is the most powerful of the four, and the Kingdom of Sceldrum, with its powerful army, keeps things quiet. However, darkness stirs in East. How long will the peace last?