The night's full moon shone on a boy dashing through the snow-covered forest, its shower wiping away any traces of his footsteps as he ran. His pace rapidly increased as his eyes darted around in search of surrounding landmarks.
He staggered repeatedly before making a sharp turn to his right. His exaggerated movements and heavy breathing gave away the amount of time he'd been running.
The forest helped his cause no more than his exhausted body; the recurrent appearance of the same trees at equal walking distances made it impossible to distinguish any place in the entire forest.
Anything on level ground capable of being used as a landmark had been completely buried in the snow. The thick fog which filled the forest all year round and the unrelenting flurry of snow meant that it should have been impossible for him to discern his exact location.
But he'd been here before. More accurately, this was a place he was familiar with by heart. He'd come here an uncountable number of times during his early childhood years, but the sheer size of the forest had left him unable to explore even half of it.
He'd mapped out a mental image of the forest that only included his path from the entrance to his destination. In other words, he'd considered the direction he'd follow, how long he'd run, the number of turns he'd have to take, and the number of trees before each turn. His movements until now had been based solely on that knowledge.
At the moment, his previous preparations seemed to have amounted to nothing. A horrible feeling crept steadily into his chest.
A scenario where he had miscounted the number of trees before turning was slowly becoming more than a possibility in his mind.
He couldn't turn back now. He'd come too far for that. Now wasn't the time for him to be stricken with fear. Now wasn't the time at all.
He ignored every ailing scream in his body and every warning from deep within his mind, steeled his resolve, and pushed forward.
If he was wrong, all that would become of him was a corpse—a pale, freezing corpse in the middle of nowhere.
Even while dashing full pelt through the snow, his eyes couldn't escape the beauty of the frozen canvas around him. But he could only move forward. The scenery around him should have meant absolutely nothing in his situation, but the appearance of a cave-like silhouette some hundreds of meters in his intended direction meant he had arrived at his destination.
His fears were temporarily overcast with joy. His pulsating mind became slightly more silent. And for the first time, he was able to notice the beauty of winter's touch on the forest as far as his eyes could see.
In other words, he had guessed correctly.
After turning left and moving a few meters, he arrived at the cave's entrance and stopped for sixty seconds to recover from exhaustion.
The cave was simply a gigantic twenty-foot sphere-like rock with a hole on one side that served as the entrance. The cold temperature was enough to make the cave's entire exterior resemble fragmented ice-like crystals.
The entrance was a nine-foot-tall circular hole with a width double its height. The roughness and disarrayed patterns around the edges of the entrance gave the impression that the hole had been carelessly broken through rather than carefully carved out.
The inside of the cave was pitch black without any source of illumination; not even an ounce of moonlight made it through to the cave's interior.
He reached into the pouch at his left side and immediately took out a photeina stone, a type of hexagonal rock that emitted light and increased its illumination in accordance with the amount of darkness around it. It emitted light similar to the color of its surface; his photeina stone, being semi-transparent, emitted white light.
He swiftly took a couple of steps back to increase his momentum, made a quick run-up, and threw the stone into the cave as far as he could.
It landed close to the cave's center and quickly began to emit bright white light. The inside of the cave immediately became fully visible; its walls and ceiling were covered with nothing but ice. The floor had inevitably suffered the same fate.
He hurriedly made his way toward the cave's center and saw the symbol inscribed on the ground. There was also a wooden chest as large as a man's two hands next to it. He shot it a glance and put both hands on the floor.
"Great, she prepared an escape route."
Suddenly, a transparent energy coated both his hands. He drilled into the frozen floor and began inscribing a different symbol beside the one already on the ground.
It was a large spiraled circle with sharp-looking strokes extending from each side.
He picked up the wooden chest and carefully pried it open, revealing crimson-colored blood seeping halfway through it.
He emptied the entire container of blood onto the circle he'd carved into the floor, and suddenly the lines began glowing bright purple. The space around it became hotter, melting the ice-coated floor underneath.
"It's working."
Southern Eden, Zienna
A white tavern rested upon the hills of Zienna's border. It was a two-storied cylinder with two windows circling each floor and a brown square-like rooftop.
Travelers leaving or entering would stop by for quick refreshments.
The tavern keeper wore an apron in the kitchen; cooking utensils and ingredients were piled up on the larder in front of him.
He was a yellow-haired boy no taller than a ten-year-old. He looked toward the window and whispered something under his breath.
"Someone's using it."
Northern Eden, The Forest of Silence
Two figures floated thousands of feet above the frozen cave, observing it with killing intent directed toward the boy within.
They both wore fitted body armor coated in white with a red cross. Their helmets resembled human skulls forged from steel, their only openings being the oval-shaped eyeholes that allowed them to see. Their black capes fluttered in the wind behind them, each bearing a white cross on its back.
They now served as assassins, soldiers from the Kingdom of Museum. Their presence was currently hidden above the skies.
"You can sense that, can't you? There's something going on down there. We should kill him and get this over with," the first one said.
"Calm down. This is exactly what Alveron wanted to see. We need to determine if the House of Genesia still has anything up its sleeve. Our objective is to find out what cards they have left to play; killing their heir was always going to come after," the second one replied, sounding more composed.
...
Within the cave, the purple light shining through the symbols steadily became brighter, constantly melting the floor in the process.
Suddenly, an image of two armored men flashed through his mind.
"They're here, as expected."
"Should be about time."
Raising his right arm toward the symbol, he shouted:
"Come forth, me—"
"What?"
The symbol instantly disappeared.
A yellow-haired boy stood in front of him, seemingly appearing from absolutely nowhere.
Thousands of miles above the cave, the soldiers noticed the anomaly.
"Someone else has entered the cave."
"Impossible. No one else made it to this point. Or are you saying they somehow escaped our line of sight?"
"I don't know. Where do you think the previous surge of magical energy went? And somehow a different one, even more powerful, is beginning to fill this entire forest."
"Weren't you the one who said we should see what cards they have left?"
"I did, but this is dangerous. Someone from outside Arcadia might be helping them."
"That means Alveron's suspicion has been confirmed?"
"Yes, most likely. We move now."
Inside the cave...
"It failed! I need to get out of here! Who the hell even is this kid?"
He didn't have time to consider any of this. The summoning had failed. He had to leave now, or his corpse might not be intact later.
Using his right arm, he transferred his magical energy toward the teleportation circle at the cave's center. It quickly glowed yellow and caused ripples in the space around it.
"No, you won't."
Just as he attempted to escape, one of the soldiers appeared behind him instantly, attempting to cut off his head.
The soldier was immediately sent flying out of the cave; he couldn't even be seen anymore.
"Now then, now then, now then. Could anyone explain to me what's going on here?" the yellow-haired boy interjected.
The soldier had been sent flying away with a simple wave of his hand, leaving the other assassin waiting at the entrance in shock.
The yellow-haired boy fixed his gaze on the symbol cast upon the surface of the melted ice.
Turning his attention toward their target, he spoke.
"A teleportation circle and an otherworldly insignia. Do you understand the magnitude of what you were about to do?"
An image suddenly flashed through his mind.
"Dammit, he's escaping!" he shouted.
"He left ten seconds ago. He'd been listening in on our conversation the entire time."
"This is a setup."
He gathered a lump of dark magical energy into a tiny sphere in his hand.
It levitated and pierced through the air, instantly tearing through the leg of the escaping soldier.
"Did it reach him?" the boy thought, gazing upon the yellow-haired individual with a mixture of reverence and fear.
"Tell me, kid, is your surname by any chance Genesia?"
"Yes."
"Whoever sent you here knew I'd come. The summoning ritual was bait for me to swoop in and save you."
"That's it. I can use him."
His mother, Agartha Genesia, had given him a simple instruction:
"Go to the cave within the Forest of Silence, attempt the summoning ritual, and you will encounter a powerful nightmare."
He initially thought she meant he was supposed to directly summon one, but that assumption had incidentally been proven wrong.
"That's fine by me. Great demon, assist me in my cause. Alveron and his men must be eliminated. They're planning—"
"Don't call me that," the yellow-haired boy interrupted. "I have no reason to help you any further."
"This affects you as well! Alveron plans to use the Sword of Light to commit mass genocide on a scale never before seen in creation's history!"
"The Sword of Light? There's been no record of anyone ever using it for thousands of years. No one in the world even knows where it is. Therefore, I have no reason to believe what you're saying is true."
The yellow-haired boy's tone had become harsh and serious.
"I have the Aletheia, a power that allows me to see the records of every living thing in this world. That's how I knew you were a nightmare. Otherworldly beings don't originate from our world, so I'm incapable of seeing their records."
"The Aletheia? So you're the heir of Genesia, huh? That explains a lot."
He continued.
"Alveron plans to use the Sword of Light to wipe out every race aside from humans. But it can't be activated by the power of a single person; he intends to use the lives of people outside Eden as fuel. Once activated, all he has to do is make a single wish, and every race aside from humans will cease to exist."
"So what exactly are you suggesting I do?" the yellow-haired boy replied.
"I want you to help me kill them. Every person who originates from the royal House of Xenodia is a threat. Alveron and his lineage must be eliminated. That is the only way to save creation from the catastrophe that cursed bloodline is about to unleash upon it."
The boy's eyes were filled with killing intent. The firmness of his voice showed that he meant every word he had said.
"Your true intention is to take over as ruler of Eden, isn't it? You people over at Genesia resented Xenodia's rule, but you couldn't start a war over nothing, now could you? Now Alveron has given you the perfect reason to move against Xenodia."
The yellow-haired boy laughed softly.
"Fine, I'll accept your request, but I have a condition."
"Name it."
"I'm afraid it's too early for that. I'll inform you in due time. Think of this as a slight exchange; the coming days will bear fruit on my side of it."
"Whatever your request may be, it is but a small price for salvation."
"Salvation? Don't make me laugh. What's your name, kid?"
"Vartravius Genesia."
"I'll call you Vartra. I'm Morian."
"I'm looking forward to our victory, Morian."
Vartra's mission had been set in motion. Xenodia had no idea what was about to hit them.
"Yes, I look forward to it as well."
Fifteen years later...
"On this day, Vartravius Genesia, the liberator of our nation, has become the ruler of Eden!"
"Long live King Vartravius!"
"Long live King Vartravius!"
"Long live King Vartravius!"
The people shouted until their lungs could no longer bear it.
Their country, Arcadia, had become the imperial core of the strongest world power in the modern era. The war raging across the continent had ended with Arcadia as the sole victor.
Eden was reborn under a single ruler.
War was no more.
Nations across the sea did not dare attack them.
A peaceful coexistence with the other races had been achieved.
Humanity's first world had become a utopia.
"It'll soon be time to uphold your part of the deal, Your Majesty."