End of Volume Three: Preface to Volume Four
The world had turned upside down. Truth had been revealed, only to be twisted, buried, and forgotten. The coalition's battle scars ran deep—not just on their bodies, but on their hearts. They had fought for the voiceless, only to watch those voices drowned out by the roar of old fears and new lies.
Yet in the quiet aftermath, as the world hurried to move on, the coalition found a new purpose. They were no longer just seekers of truth; they were guardians of the forgotten, the misunderstood, the ones the world had cast out in its desperate need for certainty.
As night faded to dawn, they understood: their journey was not about vanquishing evil, but about understanding what it truly meant to survive. The devil the world feared was not a horned figure in the shadows, but the reflection of every soul who endured, who refused to disappear, who dared to live.
And so, as the old world spun on, the coalition prepared to step through a new door—one illuminated by the promise of hope, and the courage to see the world as it truly was.
Volume Four: Introduction
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
—Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus
For centuries, the world searched for devils—monsters lurking in the darkness, scapegoats for its deepest fears. But the truth was hidden in plain sight. There was no ancient evil, no supernatural foe. There was only survival—raw, relentless, misunderstood.
The devil, it turned out, was nothing more than "lived" spelled backward. The ones who endured the storm, who bore the weight of exile and suspicion, who survived when the world forgot to care—these were the souls branded as outcasts, as threats, as devils.
Now, as the coalition stepped from the shadows into the uncertain dawn, they carried with them the stories of the tempest-tossed. They were the lamp-bearers at the golden door, refusing to let the world forget those it had cast aside.
This was not just a new chapter. It was a new beginning.
A promise that no one would be left behind—not anymore.
Volume Four begins…