In this world full of mystery… the manifestation of knowledge leads you to madness…
There was a man called Dieyon. He had messy black hair tied into braids at the back, his right eye blue and the other green. He wore an open black leather coat. Beneath it a gray garment showed as if it were an armor decorated with strange lines.
He was walking in a white mist that surrounded him from all directions, like a black wolf surrounds its prey… True, his eyes were colored, but they were lifeless.
His walk was steady, he did not turn or even glance to his side… and after seconds of that unknown march,
Dieyon stopped moving suddenly, the mist contracted, and the mysterious formation of the place appeared. The ground looked like a sea reflecting the sky, which was occupied by white and black clouds.
And the terrifying thing was that giant black pillars were emerging from the sky, but they did not reach the ground… and the black hole moved at a terrifying speed yet it appeared still as it stared at Dieyon.
A group of giants appeared on the path — nine in number — carrying swords made of stars and their eyes swam with galaxies.
They looked with scornful anger at Dieyon who was walking with a golden aura coming from under his feet, and he wanted to reach a colossal golden trunk from which a cluster of leaves branched.
There was a person standing beside it, placing his hands on his eyes that were flowing with blood, his hair long and blond, wearing a priest's black vestments.
Dieyon stood before him at a short distance and his eyes changed in terror to gold… the mysterious priest smiled a strange and frightening smile, and spoke in an august voice:
"The world moves in the opposite direction… reaching for what you desire makes you a fool amidst the existence of the heretica and the Great Ones who watch in silence."
He continued in the same tone:
"The trunk is the foundation of the world, it is the true connection… if it is destroyed the world will turn into eternal hell, chaos will occupy the place, just as the strong occupies the weak."
Dieyon looked up toward the pillars, and said in a cold tone:
"Is the catastrophe of destroying the trunk the same terror as the catastrophe of Zolthars, the demon of cosmic chaos?"
The priest moved toward Dieyon, as if he had been waiting for that question… he answered him in a terrifying voice:
"Envy, greed, and jealousy… if a person possesses them he will turn into an entity that devours everything before him, like Zolthars."
"And your question — how dangerous is the catastrophe of destroying the trunk?! It is closer to the end of the world… the catastrophe that Zolthars committed was merely a branch burned by fire by mistake."
Then the priest changed his way of speaking; it became soaked with horror as he told him:
"Do you want to destroy the trunk, O two-faced one?! Through your eyes that have lost life, not only is the trunk your target but all life on Earth."
Dieyon opened his palm and drew forth a gigantic golden sword; its blood flowed onto the ground, and his eyes looked angrily toward the trunk:
"Life has no meaning after losing it… I became without feelings, humans do not need peace at all, because they took it from me."
"The two-faced one… will bare the heretical side of the two faces…"
The place where he was shook, a pitch-black chest emerged from Dieyon's body… a gigantic fissure opened inside his chest and belly, and a dark straight line appeared cut by three vertical and horizontal lines.
Three arms appeared on the left side wearing a dark leaden armor, and one hand on the right side where there was no armor.
His head turned into a dark fireball….
Dieyon rose upward while swinging the four swords in his hands rapidly, so much that the giants bowed before his presence. The priest began smiling as he watched this majestic sight and said:
"A lord of Aspect… 'Destroy this world we are in; let the fires of darkness burn everything.'"
Dieyon opened an enormous oval void, and from it a sword of fire emerged and slowly headed toward the trunk.
A terrifying smile was drawn on the priest's lips, blood gushing from his eyes as he said:
"Destroy everything for her… this world does not deserve bliss, they are all guilty people, burn them as they burned her."
"AAAA, May chaos… take the World."
"May chaosssss… take the World."
Then the giant sword launched toward the trunk, causing a great explosion that slaughtered everything before it.
"It seems the scene repeats itself before you more than once… O two-faced one, when will you decide your fate?"
After the contraction of truth, you will realize the value of power when it slips away from you…
"From a prince over a kingdom to a prince of nothing."
_______
"It hurts so much…"
The happiness that had manifested that night vanished like passing dust. Dieyon felt pain — a pain that sliced him into pieces — but he tried to sense where it came from.
"It's like a fire devouring my body, but the pain is very close."
Dieyon moved his hand; it was heavy and a pile of stones lay on it… He ran his hand over every part of his body until he reached his neck — it was severed.
He gasped sharply, his voice terrified:
"My head is detached from my body?"
The pain burned him so intensely that he screamed with everything he had… but not outwardly; it was inside him.
"How did this happen? I don't remember anything at all… if I'm in a dream, it feels like I'm drowning in it."
He touched the place of the cut and immediately pulled his hand away, shaking it, saying in a frightened tone:
"And there was a volcano inside my neck, it burned me when I tried to touch the wound… no, I'm not in the dreamworld, this is a horrifying reality."
"I never thought I would die in such a terrifying way… or can I even say that I'm dead or a person being tormented?"
While in fear and anxiety, Dieyon felt the flames burning his neck again. He squeezed his eyes tightly; though he tried to open them, the pain forced him.
Black threads emerged from his neck, connected to his head, and the severed part was stitched back to the body…
Dieyon partially woke, gasping hard as if he had been at the bottom of an ocean searching for any way to reach the surface and breathe.
He placed his trembling right hand on his neck; there was a collar surrounding it…
"Am I imagining things or are there some threads that restored the severed part?"
He lowered his head slightly to steady his breathing, then raised it and opened his eyes slowly; his expression was one of utter astonishment:
"But first of all… where am I?! This isn't my room?"
The room was somewhat large… a large bed, a bookshelf near the door opposite the bed. A window through which moonlight passed. A mirror beside the bed, with some broken pieces in it.
Dieyon rose from the bed, trying to remember anything, but his mind refused to help…
"What a worn, old room — who could live—"
He did not finish his sentence before a sharp headache struck him, forcing him down to his knees… memories poured over him like rain.
"Dieyon, son of the second emperor known as the nameless saint, and his mother is Mirana, the priestess of the Cathedral of Storms, and he has a brother nicknamed Alpha…"
"He resides in the kingdom of Lucia on the continent of Askana… the kingdom of Lucia is considered one of the strongest across the continents because of the emperors who ruled it: Zero, the First, and the Second. And the servants under them who are called the foolish sovereigns."
An image of a gigantic palace on a mountain piercing the clouds appeared, and it was burning…
"The palace was attacked; the nameless saint and his wife were killed, and his brother was kidnapped by the foolish sovereigns…"
"And Dieyon was among those who were killed, whose body was thrown from the summit of the mountain called the Mountain of Emperors."
The headache vanished, and Dieyon began to breathe normally again. He leaned against the wooden bedframe, wiped sweat from his face, and moved his lips in a fearful tone:
"I remembered at last — the foolish sovereigns, the sons of whores, they killed my father and mother… and they kidnapped my brother, and they killed me as well."
He looked at his hand and gripped his neck again, saying:
"It seems I somehow returned to life… and that means something…"
He stood up and approached the mirror, looking at his reflection whose face was swallowed by fury and hatred.
"It seems someone has given me another chance… a chance for revenge."
He turned on the tap, wiped his face, and a faint golden hue glimmered in his eyes, so subtle that even Dieyon could hardly notice it.
"The foolish sovereigns will pay the price for betraying my family and the kingdom as well."
While he looked into the mirror, he noticed a person behind him leaning at the doorway, head bowed…
Dieyon turned quickly, but found no one behind him. He grabbed his head and muttered softly:
'Have I begun to imagine things? I noticed someone—'
He did not finish his sentence before a calm voice interrupted:
"It truly is a miracle…"
Dieyon looked to his left and found the person himself, sitting on a wooden chair beside the bookshelf. His hair was blond, his eyes green, and he wore a black priest's robe.
"To fall from the Mountain of Emperors, your head cut off, and then to come back to life… such traits belong only to the sons of emperors or the accursed, is that correct, Dieyon?"
He smiled a mocking smile as he looked directly at him:
"I don't know who you are, but it seems you hold some important information… are you one of the dogs of the foolish sovereigns?"
"Oh, what a harsh way to treat the one who saved you." He said it with a sorrowful expression, then continued:
"Also, for your information not all dogs are traitors; some of them guard you to their last breath."
"And I am nothing but a simple ruler of a small village. I found you near the village with your head severed, and I saw in you a resistance to death and a love for life."
Dieyon was stunned and spoke to himself:
'It seems there is a village under the mountain where this priest is from… but weren't the areas surrounding the mountain deserted?'
"What are you hinting at? Can you step away from the riddles?" Dieyon's expression questioned, as he took a defensive stance.
"What I want to say is that I know what happened to you and the ruling family… and I also know that the foolish sovereigns betrayed the kingdom." The mysterious man spoke in a tone of knowing, as though he were playing on Dieyon's nerves.
He continued:
"I am someone who wants to overthrow the rule of the kingdom of Lucia, to kill the foolish sovereigns… after the disappearance of Emperor Zero the kingdom became rubble."
"Even your father could not restore things to normal because of the internal upheavals caused by the sovereigns."
'The one in front of me is by no means an ordinary man; he seems to hide many secrets and possesses a great deal of information,' Dieyon murmured to himself.
'And it seems his coup targets only the sovereigns and not my father… he appears well aware of how to manage the details of an uprising.'
"What I understand from your words, which seem like a scattered riddle, is that you plan a coup and want to target the sovereigns."
"Very clever… and a coup needs powerful people, which is why I have gathered an amazing group of those who bear grudges against the kingdom — people who lost dear things to the sovereigns or even the emperors." The mysterious clapped as he spoke in a steady voice.
mysterious stood up, extended his right hand forward and smiled lightly as he said:
"Dieyon, what do you think about joining Vowless… and bringing down this heretical rule."