The throne-room was shaking.

“Why do we even have a throne-room? It’s not like we have ever used it officially,” thought the young man in the green robe. “I bet the first of our order thought, that such a big palace should have a throne-room.”

As this and similar thoughts went through his head the throne-room shook from time to time. The young man seemed not to notice this shaking or he simply didn’t care for it. He was just sitting on the throne and was thinking about whatever he wanted.

After a while, the entrance door started to shake slightly. The young man stopped thinking about the color of the carpet and looked up at the entrance.

“They’ve finally come” was his only thought.

The next moment a loud explosion resounded and the two doors which formed the entrance flew right into the middle of the throne-room. As soon as it happened four figures ran into the room.

“Into formation!” one of them yelled.

The young man in the green robe looked on the intruders with a completely serene face. The group consisted of two women and two men.

In the back was a man in a white robe on which a woman was sewn on. The woman on the picture was quite beautiful. She had long black hair and blue eyes so bright, that they were nearly white. The man who wore the robe was young. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and very soft looking skin. In his hands, he held a staff made out of white wood.

“Great… A priest. Exactly what I wanted to see in my last moments of life”, thought the young man on the throne frowning. He then changed the target of his gaze.

In the middle of the formation was a woman. She was already quite old. She had very long gray hair tied up behind her back and was wearing a blue robe. Her face was already full of wrinkles and her lips had a few cracks. She had dark brown eyes. When she and the man on the throne crossed gazes he could sense a kind of indifference in them.

“A mage. And a pretty decent one. She has opened 3 different kinds of gates. If I’m not wrong she should have opened the fourth gate of earth, the third gate of water and the third gate of darkness. She should be considered as one of the most powerful mages in the world. Her eyes… She has already accepted her death. Most likely she has come to sacrifice herself to defeat “the devil” and bring the next generation a safer world.”

The young man on the throne smirked as he analyzed and finally looked at the people in the front. On the left stood a knight.

The knight was wielding a sword and shield. On the shield was the exact same image which was on the young priest’s robe. The young man on the throne could not see the face of the knight because he was wearing a helmet.

“Why are they painting the face of the goddess upon their shield? Aren’t they concerned about the fact, that the weapons of their enemies are hitting her face?”

The young man in green wasn’t overly concerned with these people. At last, he looked at the last person of the group. For the first time since the intruders came in surprise plastered his face.

The last person was a woman young enough to be called a girl. She has long black hair, with quite a few red streaks in it. Her armor consisted mostly of leather which was colored in a gray color. The most peculiar about her were her eyes. They were not in different colors, like the young man’s on the throne, but she had a very peculiar iris. It was not even the fact, that the iris was fiery red, but the addition of a weird darkness which was on the outer part of the iris. It was constantly moving as if it was trying to reach the pupil.

The man on the throne knitted his brows.

“She is… What is she? She is definitely not human. The aura she gives off seems to be the one of nature, but I can’t determine the element.” The young man moved his head into the direction of the strange girl in order to observe her better.

“Can it be, that she is a lower elemental? No... Not the right aura. A spirit? Yes, I think it’s something like that, but not quite” the young man was trying to figure out what kind of existence the girl was.

The group of intruders noticed his interested gaze. The old wizard chuckled and said in a voice which sounded much younger than it should be.

“Fai my dear, it looks your beauty has even captivated the dark devil himself”

The girl smirked and answered with an indifferent voice.

“Let’s hope not. If we are defeated by him, then a fate worse than death awaits us. After a while, he will kill you guys, but if he took a liking to me than my torture will continue until he grows bored with me”

The old woman looked at the girl named Fai and said with a determined tone.

“Don’t worry child. Should there be no chance of winning or fleeing, then I will end your life immediately”

Fai looked gratefully at the old woman and nodded.

The young man abruptly raised his hand and extended his index finger.

“He is drawing a magic circle! Everyone prepare! Fai, try to slice it if you can! Ryner, shield us!” sounded the dampened voice of the knight, as he prepared to meet the attack with his shield.

“The door was open. There was absolutely no necessity to break it open like this” sounded the voice of the young man, as he pointed at the broken door.

The group was at the loss when the expected attack didn’t come, but what really shocked them was the demeanor of the one they came to kill.

“SILENCE! Do you even know why we are here? We are here to kill you” shouted the knight.

The young man looked completely shocked at him.

“You mean, you are not here, to marvel at the beautiful color of the carpet?” he said in a disbelieving voice. His face changed back into indifference when he continued ”I have accepted the fact, that I will die today and I even have great news for you. I will not resist. I mean I still have enough power to slaughter you and maybe two other groups. But am I at the moment strong enough to fight against the army, which is preparing to storm my palace? I am not. The ritual cost too much power, so I decided, I will not kill you. If I kill you, I will just bring grief to your family and friends. In addition, I am not like the shit-church, who proclaims to be the protector, only to rob one in the next moment.”

The knight was shaking in fury when he heard the words of the young man. The priests face also showed an unhappy expression. The two women on the other side looked indifferently. The young man on the throne seemed amused by the reaction of the knight.

“Just another fanatic. But the priest is able to suppress his anger. He has quite the control over his emotions.” A hint of respect flashed across the face of the young man when he thought that.

“IF YOU’RE NOT RESISTING, THEN YOU SHOULD DIE! TYLER, LADY SOLANA!” The knight roared in complete rage. As soon, as he finished speaking, both the priest named Tyler and the mage named Solana started to draw magic circles. It was clear, that this group traveled quite a while together and that they had already a decent coordination. In an instant the magic circles were complete and two different kinds of power flowed into the knight. From the priest the power of light and from the mage the power of earth.

“The power of earth makes this moron extremely heavy and hard, while the power of light gives him speed. If he were against a normal opponent, then he would have an advantage. Too bad I’m not a normal opponent.”

Just as the young man finished thinking the knight madly roared and rushed madly at him. His speed was so fast, that he turned into a streak of silver. Just when he reached the young man on the throne and was about to strike…

BOOM.

The entire hall shook. The group of intruders lost their balance. Fai quickly rearranged her footing and restored her balance and the old mage Solana quickly activated the earth essence in her body and also quickly stabilized herself. As for the priest, he could not react fast enough, so he fell on his butt and let out a pained cry. The group looked fearfully at the man on the throne. A terrified expression plastered their face. The knight was gone. They never believed the devil will let himself kill just like that, but for him to be so strong as to simply eradicate the knight completely was also something they didn’t believe. When the man on the throne saw their faces, he shook his head and pointed to the wall on the right.

“He ran against the wall” was the only thing he said.

The group looked at the direction he pointed at and opened their mouths in shock. The knight was on the floor right in front of a wall. His entire armor was destroyed due to the impact and big parts of his body were drenched in blood and his face was completely unrecognizable. He looked really pitiful. All of a sudden a laughter sounded through the hall. Everyone looked at the source of it, which was the young girl named Fai.

“Hahaha. He is in such a sorry state because he ran against the wall. Hahaha. Hey, how did you do that? The power of this attack is not to be underestimated. Actually, it’s impressive the wall did not break down.” Asked the girl.

The young man on the throne smiled as he understood the intention of the young girl. She pretended to be calm to get him into a conversation. She did this in order to give the priest time to heal the knight. The young man in the throne decided to play along and answered.

“I laid a teleportation trap in front of me before you arrived. When he stepped into it, he got teleported right in front of the wall, which is magically enchanted specifically for this trap. Since he could not stop his charge, he crashed right into it. I will not resist, but I need to say something before I die. Hey, your name is Ryner? You should heal him before he bleeds to death. I want as many people as possible to hear, what I’m about to say” said the young man.

Not leaving the young man on the throne out of their eyes, the priest and the mage went to the groaning knight to assist him. Fai on the other hand concentrated on their adversary. After mere moment she saw his lips moving.

“Not good. He is casting a spell!” she thought in a hurry. Before she could shout a warning to her comrades she heard the voice of a young man near her right ear.

“They are preoccupied, so I have a bit of time to ask. Just a little question. Are you perchance a fairy? If yes, then why is your aura so peculiar? As far as I know a fairy should possess the power of a specific element from birth. Even if you would be a rare space attributed fairy I would recognize that, but you… Wait, are you perchance a “Blessed by the Goddess”?” The face of the young man on the throne changed suddenly a few times. It went from surprise to thoughtfulness then pity and lastly to indifference like before.

Fai’s face on the other side changed into fear and stayed that way. The man on the throne could see the panic in her eyes. An understanding flashed through his eyes. Once again he started to whisper.

“Don’t worry. They will not find it out from my mouth. The last thing I want is to do the Church a favor. From what I can tell your initial element is fire, and the blessing of the goddess gave you the darkness element. After the two of them fused they should have become darkfire. All alone the fact, that you are here is showing, that the church does not know about you being a fairy blessed by the goddess. It’s a good thing for you, that fairies nearly never leave their homes. Since the most beloved activity of the church is the destruction of knowledge, nearly nobody knows that the blessed of the fairies are different from the ones of the other races. Due to the lack of contact with your race, nearly everybody forgot about this.”

Fai let out a sigh of relief and continued to listen to what the young man was saying.

“I suggest after this ordeal, you return to your home. Or you could stop developing your darkfire and stay in the in the world of humans. The church will most likely never find the truth, but if you develop your darkfire into the next step… Well, even those morons will figure out, that you are special. And as soon as they find out, you are a blessed… Well in the best case scenario, you will become the pet of one of the great cardinals. Of course, you will receive stupid titles like “Divine wife” or something like this, but let’s be honest: You will be nothing more than a pet. The worst situation you will be killed. If you manage to escape you will be proclaimed the devil. Hahaha. This is quite funny, you’re a beloved of the goddess, but the church will treat you like this. Or is it exactly because you are a beloved of the goddess? I mean, if they want to stay in power, they cannot allow someone to exist, who the people will be more willing to listen than them. Someone who is more favored by the goddess, than them. If they can control this person, everything will be fine, but if they can’t, then they will use any means necessary to destroy this person. But enough of this. Let’s end this.”

The young man raised his voice to address everyone.

“Forget about the lies, the church is spouting. I am not a devil. Quite the opposite. I am the chosen guardian of the goddess. My duty is it to seal a hole in the world. Once this seal will be destroyed things will start to emerge from the hole. Once this happens, the world will be in trouble. These things are called “Eater” and they do just exactly, what their name suggests. They eat. Everything.” He looked upon the faces of the group. The knight was already halfway healed and he looked at the young man on the throne in a little bit fearful, but mostly doubtful manner. This doubt was on the faces of the others as well. The young man sighed.

“You don’t need to believe me. Just let me finish my speech and you can kill me. My order has always renewed the seal, which is sealing the hole. This is also the reason, why I am not able to destroy the army of the church outside, which is bombarding this palace. The last days I was pouring all my power into the seal to give the world 50 years to prepare itself. After this time, the seal will vanish because there is nobody, who could renew it.”

The old woman frowned and said in a discontent voice.

“Surely, if enough mages come together, they can strengthen this so-called seal! How can you say nobody will be able to renew it?”

The young man on the throne laughed and said with a hate filled voice.

“Your church made sure nobody could do it. The seal is an ancient magic circle.”

He looked at the old mage “Besides my order who archived the knowledge about them, the rest of the world forgot about them. Still think a big enough number of mages will solve the problem?”

The old mage Solana was greatly shocked.

“You have an ancient magic circle? But that is impossible, how could…”

The young man didn’t wait for her to speak as he continued his story.

“Anyway, you will find it once you start plundering the place. I suggest you do not spend much energy on the looting. Everything of value has been transported to a safe place by me. I refuse to let the church have even the slightest benefit I can prevent from my death. I can see, you will not listen to me any longer, so you” he pointed at Fai ”end it.”

Fai drew closer to the throne. She had mixed feelings about the whole situation. She closed her eyes for a second and steeled herself. The next moment she erupted in a black flame. This flame was her greatest weapon and defense. She stepped in front of the man on the throne and asked him.

“What is your name?”

“Is it important? I am dead in a moment anyway.” He answered indifferently.

Fai nodded and stabbed at his heart. Everyone let out a surprising gasp when she met absolutely no resistance and pierced his heart in a swift motion. The man shook and slowly began to close his eyes. Fai couldn’t help but ask.

“If you are supposedly the guardian of the Goddess, why are you renowned as a devil?”

The man smiled and whispered with his last breath before he completely closed his eyes and died.

“Didn’t I tell it to you already?”

The second he died the entire world was shaking. Every living thing in the world could feel that the world has lost something very important. It was as if the world got a piece of it torn out. It enden as fast as it has begun. The old mage, the knight, and the priest were extremely shocked. As for Fai, she heard the voice of the young man in her head. The voice was repeating what he said to her mere moments before.

“I mean, if they want to stay in power, they cannot allow someone to exist, who the people will be more willing to listen than them. Someone who is more favored by the goddess, than them. If they can control this person, everything will be fine, but if they can’t, then they will use any means necessary to destroy this person.”

Fai looked at the smiling face of the dead young man. On her face slowly fear emerged.

“The guardian of the goddess… and the thing which happened a moment ago, when the world was shaking… What exactly have we done?”

An uneasy feeling gripped her heart.