Year 950 of the Divine Calendar
Silent Domain of Minagi, Northern Mountain Range of the Dark Continent
Six years had passed since Minagi, one of the Six Ancestresses, vanished from the battlefield.
In an era where every breath of power was needed, her unexplained withdrawal stirred an uneasy silence among the monster ranks.
Not even Tamamo, the one most aligned with her way of thinking, knew the reason.
The Monster Queen, still free but isolated, had not been granted an audience since then.
In that time, the world changed little.
But in her hidden refuge—Minagi had changed everything.
Foras was six years old.
His small body concealed an intensity Minagi could not fully understand.
He was a male monster, something both the biology and magic of the world deemed impossible.
On the rare occasions male offspring were born of monsters, they emerged as humans with diluted monster blood: minor enhancements in physical or magical attributes, but never a shift in species.
Foras was different.
A true monster—with a male body.
He had retractable claws, a scaly tail, fragments of natural armor covering his back and hips.
Traits clearly inherited from Minagi.
His energy was a twisted fusion: dark mana fluctuating erratically, mingled with a faint but present flow of life energy—what in his previous world was called ki.
At six years old, Foras began to dream.
They weren't fantasies.
They were memories.
But fragmented. Distorted. Incomplete.
Fire. Invasions. Soulless inhuman creatures that consumed everything.
Men and women fighting with techniques powered by life itself—his life.
And finally… a white flash. Then, darkness.
He didn't know what any of it meant.
Only that it didn't belong to this world.
By instinct, he sometimes mimicked gestures or breathing patterns—
small exercises that gave "order" to his mind.
Without realizing it, he was practicing the most basic forms of his lost ki techniques.
But the dark mana interfered.
When he tried, he suffered migraines, nausea, vertigo.
Using ki in his current state was like trying to align the sky and the earth.
And yet… he never gave up.
From the moment he was born, Minagi had watched him with a mixture of guilt, fear, and obsession.
"What are you, Foras?"
"An abomination? Or a message I haven't yet learned to read?"
She didn't know his soul came from another world.
Only that her son behaved like no being she had ever known—
not even among the artificial monsters created by Alipheese I.
There was a will inside him.
Something that fought not to lose control, day after day.
When he slept, his body twisted and turned.
His skin shimmered with a flickering dark aura.
During those moments, Minagi could only keep her distance.
If she woke him, he remembered nothing.
But for a few brief seconds… his eyes became those of a warrior filled with despair and war.
And that deeply unsettled her.
Heart of the Dark Continent
"It's been six years," said Kanon, her expression grim.
"Minagi has not answered the summons of the Throne. The Queen remains silent. But this… cannot continue."
"She hasn't been wounded. We'd know," said Saja, seated on a platform of ice.
"Something holds her back. Something powerful. Or personal."
Tamamo, not yet bearing the burden she would one day carry, lowered her gaze.
"I've felt it. Something anomalous dwells in her domain. Something that vibrates outside the natural order."
"A sealed weapon?" asked Hiruko Kanade, intrigued.
"No," Kanon replied.
"An existence. A soul."
None of them voiced it aloud,
but they all shared the same thought:
Did Minagi give birth?
And if so…
why was she hiding it?
Meanwhile, perched high upon a stone ledge above a cliff,
Foras trained.
His movements were clumsy, yet deliberate.
Deep breathing.
Unstable stances.
But every time he closed his eyes, something within whispered:
"Know your center.
Breathe into it.
Align your body with life."
But reality was cruel.
His life energy leaked.
His dark mana swallowed it like a swamp.
Every inch of progress came at the price of pain.
And still… he didn't stop.
At night, he stared at the stars.
And in his mind, a single question pierced through him like a spear:
"Why am I here?"
Minagi watched from afar.
Unable to approach.
Unable to give him an answer.
Far from there, Alipheese I still walked the veil of her own destiny.
She knew the end of the war drew near.
She knew light and darkness would soon collide again.
But she didn't know…
That a different spark had been born.
Neither of light.
Nor of darkness.
But of something foreign.
An anomaly named Foras,
the impossible.